eye popping fundraising halls, pete buttigieg is on the top of the democratic field, bringing in $24.8 million. joe biden following second with 21.5 million. bernie sanders with 8. those numbers nowhere near the president s fundraising haul, pulling in a whopping $105 million last quarter. senior aide to hillary clinton s campaign. conservative strategist, lauren zelt. amy holmes former speech writer for bill frist. $105 million in the second quarter. what kind of an advantage does that kind of cash haul give the trump campaign over democrats and how much does it matter at this stage of the race. let s start with money, if money wins campaign, hillary clinton would be facing jeb bush in 2016. he raised $100 million to get 3% of the republican primary vote,
case. what about the washington post headline, shermichael, that says the drawing has been lopsided. do you see it that way? isn t it possible someone on night one can benefit not sharing the stage with the front runners? i think so. but to put most of the well-known individuals on night two does a disservice to some of the candidates who are lesser known candidates. i do think, however, it will be a great night for elizabeth warren because it will given her an opportunity, i would argue, to really sort of get into some of the nuances of many of the policy proposals she s put forward, i think translating tonight too, joe biden needs to be steady and firm and show why he is the front runner. i also expect to see kamala harris and mayor pete do very, very well, which could benefit their numbers. what about the republican undercard debate which i m sure you remember, lauren. in 2015, serve kaenven candidat, main debate had ten. what are the lessons from those packed debates?
pete buttigieg, kamala harris and bernie sanders. joining me peter emerson, who s worked in three democratic administrations, republican consultant shermichael singleton, host of consider it and conservative strategist lauren zelt. always good to have you. who do you think will be the winners and losers of these sze baits? i have done a lot of these over the decades and the winners are those with authenticity, sense of humor and most importantly given the number of people on stage. both of those two debate nights is someone who has a very memorable, highly rememberable phrase to shot out much the way water mondale did with gary hart, where s the beef? politically correct it will be where s the protein? those who are inauthentic, humorless and thick that somehow substance given the very short period of time each candidate will have will win the night. that i don t think will be the
democrats of the house oversight committee is very important here. i think that s going to be the committee to watch in terms of what we ll be seeing in the new congress. i think republicans should comply to the best of their ability. i always go back and say if you have nothing to hide then you should be able to comply. i don t understand why that s so difficult for some on both sides of the aisle. if matt whittaker is subpoenaed that she should go and answer questions. americans want the mueller investigation do concludes. we want to know what happened. our elections need to be protected to the extent that we can do so. we need the mueller investigation to conclude and have it not be interfered with. do democrats need to take a recording of republican lauren right there. do they need to sell investigation sbos into this president. they have no choice. it s their responsibility.
strategist lauren zelt. jonathan, you re the only guy so i ll let you go first. on what investigation do you think democrats should go after first? well, the very first thing they need to do in tandem with introducing a legislative program responding to the results of the election on strengthening the affordable care act, drug pricing and infrastructure. on a separate track that involves oversight, which is the other critical function of the house, i think the first thing they need to do is get matt whitaker on capitol hill to answer a whole boatload of questions about why he is not recusing himself from this investigation. because by any legal standard it might not be illegal for him not to recuse himself, but by any traditional legal standard of recusal, he should do so. so that will be the very first thing they ll look at.