trying to buy elections. it s not clear stier will be at the debate at the end of this month, it is unlikely given the time crunch. it will certainly make a statement in this campaign. quite an email list he has put together too that will come in handy with millions of people there. after nbc news reported senate majority leader mitch mcconnell s great-great-grandfather own slaves mcconnell responded by trying a little parallel. i find myself once again in the same position as president obama. we both opposed reparations and we both are the defendants of slaveholders. reporter: baltimore sun reported that former president obama s great great great grandparents did own slaves. the house will friday on a case of steny hoyer. a major issue after emotional testimony on capitol hill in recent weeks, authorization for the victims compensation fund about to expire next year.
race, billionaire liberal activist tom steyer, what does this entry mean for the rest of the field? we will discuss with fox news contributor richard fowler and host of the revolution. welcome to you both. this is how a political reporter on nbc except that his entry the race. because of his massive email list i think he s a threat to the entire field and i think this changes things. people don t drop out of presidential campaigns because they don t have a chance to win, they drop out because they can t put gas in their tank. shannon: he s been pouring it into impeachment efforts but now he says he s got to step up into the job, what do you make of it? i think it s ridiculous analysis from that person there. i don t think he has any chance because he doesn t have a message that is compelling or a story that is compelling or any other compelling reason why the democrat primary should choose him. he didn t mention impeachment in his launch message, his
donald trump. you describe his mailing list as a political death star. how potent is a list like that for a candidate like tom steyer? we use that term in a piece we wrote early last year. and democratic strategists were already saying this is among the biggest email list that s been amassed in democratic politics. that s obviously tremendously powerful for fund-raising, small-dollar fund raising if he wants to make it on a debate stage. he doesn t need the money for the money. he needs the donors. you need something like 130,000 donors, even if it s 5 cents each, just to show up on that stage. he s been very adepts at building up a media platform. one of the democrats we talked to said he has been to trump in a sense what trump was to obama in the sense of channeling partisan opposition to one figure in particular in order to create a large base of support and he cornered that market of the impeachment guy. he s been the impeach guy for a
of years. and i like tom personally. but i do have to say, as somebody who in this campaign has received 2 million campaign contributions, averaging, i believe, $19 a person, i am a bit tired of seeing billionaires trying to buy political power. so i like tom. he is a good guy. he s a friend of mine, but i m not a great fan of billionaires getting involved in the political process. said like you d expect bernie sanders to say it there. who is tom steyer a threat to if there were to be one on the democratic side? because of his money and massive email list he s a threat to the entire field. and this changes things tremendously. people don t drop out of presidential campaigns because they don t have a chance to win. they drop out because they can t put gas in their tank. eric swalwell among them. just yesterday eric swalwell said he was specifically not running because of this. this is very much a reality. steyer is going to respond to that kind of attack.
the way i had the time to do that, is i haven t been doing fundraisers with millionaires. i haven t been going behind closed doors. and saying who knows what to people with money and power already. i have been investing in building a grass roots movement. asking people to pitch in $5. to volunteer an hour. to go online and sign up to get on the e-mail list. because we have this chance as democrats right now, this year. to build the kind of strong grassroots movement that will serve us come november 2020. help us win not just the white house. but help us win up and down the ticket. but more importantly, it will be building the momentum for real change come january 2021. look, i m not running for president so that i can talk about change come 2021. i m running for president