carolina which like florida has a diverse voting population in a primary and the general part of the state. take a look. we defeat trump by running a campaign of energy and enthusiasm that substantially grows voter turn-out. does that mean he wants to take us back before the civil rights act was enacted, before roe v. wade? because we re not going back. donald trump started the riot and lindsey graham and mitch mcconnell are the looters. beating donald trump is the floor. it s not the ceiling. beating donald trump gets us out of the valley, but it does not get us to the mountain top. so they re all striking the same note in saying they want energy. but what i m seeing right now is it is too much about donald trump. a lot of these voters will say, how are you going to make my life different. when i go on the ground and start talking to different individuals trying to figure out what is it about the democratic
ever stepping in something like this. right. joe biden always steps in it, though. this is like it is like when he called barack obama clean and articulate. the challenges he feels entitled and dismissive. he s not on pitch and on tone for this moment. people feel very on edge about the political atmosphere that donald trump has ushered in where we re seeing levels of racism we haven t seen in our lifetime and in 40 years of democratic politics. and, so, biden really has to be very clear about what side he stands on and right now with him being dismissive, that makes people of color, who are feeling especially vulnerable feel like can you really hear our concerns? and the democratic party is the party of the people of color in this moment. that s going to be his core constituency. if he can t appeal to our real feelings about racism, then he s not going to be the candidate. take a listen to some of the other candidates in south
and dropped to the bottom. or rudy giuliani. in the last two gop primaries, all the candidates you see on the screen led the polls at one point in time. for democrats hillary clinton was leading at this point in 2007. so was joe leeberman in 2003. ask president giuliani or president liebermann. say polling shifts rapidly or even gets it wrong. another way to think about it is these were pre-debate polls. the polls after the debates tend to be shaped by how the candidates perform in these debates. joining me now is the man of the hour, tom perez, chairman of the democratic national committee, the organizer of these debates. thanks so much for being a part of this special. oh, it s great to be with you and all your viewers, ari. fantastic. we are talking to all sorts of different folks. what is your goal? what does success look like for the democratic party this week?
take a look. he s the only democrat for president who won a trump state. but you won t see steve bullock on the debate. they re staying steve bullock doesn t qualify for the debate. that s [ bleep ]. first of all, i am a big fan of governor bullock. i had the privilege of working with him when i was labor secretary. he s done a great job. we set forth these rules months ago, back in february. we told everyone involved here is how they apply. here is the polling. in governor bullock s race, there was a poll that wasn t really a poll. it was a survey, an open ended survey that said how many who do you think should be the democratic standard bearer in the upcoming election. and it gave you the suopportuni to put anybody in. the person that came in fourth in that poll, ari, was donald
i like that. let me press you on that a little. we re partnering with you on the debates. the democratic party, which you are in charge of, as well as the members of the democratic national committee set these rules and you re saying they re fair. you have critics out there. you know that, right? when you are the referee, you are always going to have some folks who have questions, concerns, injections, and i understand that. i want to play one of them for you. i will say from observing this process, i m familiar with what it s like, how much you are balancing and all these different candidates. but also candidates who are upset with you. you may be feeling a little bt like method man. you know method man, the rapper? he says forget a rap critic. they talk about it while i live it. i know you have been living it and living the fights. let me play your response. a governor who is outrunning ads basically at you. this is criticizing you and the party and the way he says you kicked him