constituents. they need to be here on behalf of their constituents, not the special interest here in washington. to play devil s advocate for a second. you are a progressive from a safe district in wisconsin. joe manchin and kyrsten sinema are moderates from states where a republican is just as likely to be elected as a democrat. more so in west virginia for manchin. and they just don t share the same views of this budget bill that you do and that progressives do. from their point of view, you re forcing them to do something that they don t think is right for the country and you are holding a hostage in something the you know, that has bipartisan support. actually, i would say that the president s proposal is exactly what their districts need. i don t think there s anyone in arizona or west virginia that doesn t need child care to be possible. that doesn t need a tax break for average working people who have children.
conference. it puts republicans, i think, in a mind. so, i would think are the a democratic perspective it would be tactically useful. let me play devil s advocate for a second. the argument goes if you bring rudy giuliani he s going to also want to then have to discuss or want to discuss hunter biden, bre burisma and try to make that center stage. that s what he s out there investigating, the various conspiracy theories out there. do you open a bit of a pandora s box, by bringing in rudy giuliani you re also going to have to touch those things that have those individuals hauled up in front of the senate. possibly. bear in mind that a trial is overseen by the chief justice of the united states, so he would make rulings on relevance and other evidentiary issues including attorney/client privilege. so, there s a bit of a gamble. it seems to me that mr. giuliani is really in the pivot of
separation of challenge arguments in both states that are going to end up in court. i think the legislature has to get it, and they clearly don t. citizens don t want this. in michigan, another quick example, 400,000 citizens signed a petition to raise the minimum wage. 400,000. the legislature is going behind them trying to undo that. that is a complete violation of what citizens demanded. those same people are going to organize and put it on the ballot. that s the backlash, legislative backlash citizen backlash against these legislative moves. i don t like some of the policies, you know, that voters push through. it s not up to me. it s up to them. just to play devil s advocate for a second, though, what would you say to someone who said this is within their legislative authority. they were elected to and they had the right to protect their legacy policies? i would say, first of all,
withdraw from eastern ukraine and crimea. he couldn t do any of that and today the country is stunned and the world is stunned and america is a whole lot weaker than we were going into today. president trump says that he s doing this because he wants the united states and russia to have a stronger relationship. take a listen to him talking about why that s important. nothing would be easier politically than to refuse to meet, to refuse to engage but that would not accomplish anything. as president, i cannot make decisions on foreign policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics or the media or democrats who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct. so, let me play devil s advocate for a second, senator. he has a point, president trump, in that there is consensus view that russia is a geopolitical foe of the united states. and that there is a lot of good to be done in his view if russia
in a separated fashion so they kept the russia investigation clean. manafort and gates play devil s advocate for a second. manafort and gates are charged with crimes regarding laalleged money laundering that s their elections, not ours. but it has to do with ties and back door it has nothing to do with the 2016 election. i don t think we know that. i think all we ve seen is comments like, sure, we ll talk to marketing. continuing their marketing into that part of the world, talking to people they ve had ten-year relationships with and who the news plays up as, oh, my gosh, this ex-military guy from the soviet union, now russia, they ve been working with him for ten years. ties to the russians. any tie to russia qualifies?