i think it went up today to 43 in the exits. from seoul, south korea, the president urged his supporters, from south korea, tweeting afl northam will allow crime to be rampant and he is weak on our vets and anti-second amendment and horrible in the virginia economy. vote ed dplespy from seoul, south korea, courtesy of the president. he kept him at arm s length, however, on the issues, will it be enough to win the governor s seat? for more i am joined by michael steele and msnbc political analyst. if donald trump is such a great president, why won t ed dplespy mention him, michael? you chuck him. look, it is a problem. if you loo tick buy the so much, you think he ought to get re-elected. renominated. that seems to be the impulse, why not show up with him? that s not necessarily reflected among candidates rung around the country or running in various races, they will be
become the to be stuck with the trump stigma early indications may be pointing in that direction. so he s getting what, gillespie is getting the trump vote? no, gillespie is getting the stigma in more than virginia. because he ran as that sort of bush-style republican in 2014. you couldn t win northern virginia. but he could keep the losses in check. getting the trump vote is not a food thing in virginia, anyway. that understand so much, i m joined by a democratic strategist, author of foxs in the hen house, how the republicans stole the south and the heartland and what the democrats must do to run them out and also a democratic strategist. gentleman, let me get your two schools of thought on this, i was amazed over the last couple weeks, steve, that the dplespy who is all wrong for virginia, he s from catholic u up in washington. he grew up in new jersey, he s establishment.
webb do well in southwest, the democrats have evened the score there a bit. gillespie s strategy is make myself look safe to enough voters and then rely on the base of the command without having to do too much to keep him? and he s made eight close race. well, let me ask the first question, steve, first to you, northam the democrating nominee and the democratic governor, was he woo iz to say, tear down the confederate statues? was he smart to do that politically? steve? i guess we ll find out shortly, right, chris. i think the polls in virginia, at least the ones i seen, most virginians say done tear them down. we have an exit poll, probably based on early voting today, the states say leave him alone, corn em, what is your thinking about this, politically? was eight smart move to challenge the old order that much? well, my thinking is, look,
choice and they re sensitive about it. you have african-americans voting in big numbers now. is that still a state that you guys own? well, virginia is a purple state. no doubt about it. that s why this election will be close. virginia is and 66 republicans in the house of delegates. we re changing that, that was a hyper jerry mannederer. one thing mr. sha pier rocks i will call you mr. matthews tonight. please. one thing that is so important about this is i think those down ballot races, i spoke to so you buy this as a leading indicator of what your party can do next november few pick up ten seats or so in the assembly there and the house of delegates in that s a good sign? i think it s a good sign. we ll see what happens tonight. i met with most if not all of the challengers, in the last three or four cycles, chris, democrats only contested 45 or so seats. so we see the other 50, 55.
the truth of the matter is, even most african voters when we did polling in virginia, they don t see us as the top issue concern for them, right? much more concern. i m nailing you here, i want an answer, where do you stand? absolutely. let me be perfectly clear, i think they were traders to the united states of america, ha should come down. i think you are not running for office. when you run for office, let me know. that has a lot of nerve behind it keep the statues up or take them down? i respect the side that says that s a part of our history, i get it. we have history in museums. you can honor our history and still fought disparage what the south tried to do. the south tried to smr it the union. so i think the bigger issue, honestly, chris, is, democrats very often let these single polarizing issues define them. this race is not about that. republicans were voting against health care, against food stamps, voting against programs