elites getting everything they ask for and want for in washington. it will be a fight, a fight worth having. there are a lot of eyes on senator manchin and sinema. have you spoke with either of them, what do they need in order to get on board? i guess i do agree with senator manchin when he says we should not be guided by arbitrary number. this package should be 3.5 or $6 trillion. let s decide what the american people need in order to survive. we can find consensus if we build the agenda from the bottom up. we can find consensus on universal pre-k and benefits for seniors. i think we can get this.
sticking to his narrow interpretation of what will serve president trump and republican senate and sort of ignoring the country. i think it s a fight worth having. to your point, the opening bid for how to do this was done in the clinton case in a private setting between the senators, kind of a seriousness about the process that led to the unanimous agreement, as you mentioned. the opening bid here was made on fox news on sean hannity, and then the schumer office was then saying okay, i guess we re going to do this in public. they released their letter. briefly, because then i want to bring in paul, what does that tell you about the different dynamics we re in right now? you re addressing that to me? yes. first of all, it s the introduction of fox news, which was, you know, a minor well, it wasn t even around. you have a much more bifurcated media. you have two parallel tracks,
kind of governor of better judgment than he has within the white house. he s able to do what he wants, announce what he wants, and everybody carries that out. even if they think it s misguided. here in the case of doral, it was universally condemned. having the g7 meeting there. and the president is doing what he does. which is to watch tv to see how bad the blood letting is. and then realizing that at a time when he does need to make friends and keep friends on capitol hill, republicans are saying, look. this is just too much to defend hear all the time. this is not a fight worth having. and he back tracks. but again, i think the bigger point is there s just nobody around the president that can act as a governor of him right now. abby called it the absence of a strategy. the other problem here might be the presence of facts. and bad facts for this administration. bill taylor, the acting ambassador to ukraine testifies tomorrow behind closed doors.
into the white house. not to sound like a politician but there are kitchen table issues that so many more americans want to read about. i m going to sound like an nbc employee, stop going to cnn.com and stave yourseave you time. for trump, this is a fight worth having. it pits the media as opposition al. the washington post is echoing what dillon is saying. does the president like this? it says to america the media is just fixated on kicking some head in over nonsense issues. ignore them. just listen to me. i think there s a couple factors there. one, it is certainly true that he likes to criticize the media and he likes making the media be the opposition party. he does that in his rallies. he does it in his tweets.
what could take away is if he has a shaky base performance. if the former vice president has another tough time at the debate they will take a lot of that away from him. it is representative of black america. joel, let me get your thoughts on this one. they all come out a little bit bruised. is this a fight worth having? who needs this fight more than the other? these are distinctions worth drawing. they all have a stake in this. you need to show you are a main stage player. you can be viable in this race. that s why you see him drawing