Purchase it. Of course youre going to want to purchase it for yourself, your relatives, your neighbors and friends because theres a lot riding on what he says. So please go ahead and purchase pauls book and help support this discourse that hes, hes lending to all of us in the next few months and beyond. I just want to say that any night of the week wed be thrilled to have either one of our guests for a p and p event, but getting them together is kind of like a hallelujah moment for us at p and p. I dont know how many of you are counting or have that thing that shows the days, minutes and seconds until the election, but if youre not counting, there are 88 days remaining. Personally, i kind of wish the election was today, but were to wait 88 days. And given whats riding on the outcome, its such an to introduce my old friend and former colleague paul begala. He is going to tell us how democrats could win in america. That would, of course, rid america at least one of the two plagues current lu ravaging our nation. [laughter] paul will be explaining all this by talking about his new book, or its called youre toured toured fired the perfect guiled to beating donald trump. In keeping on the concerns of societiers and not getting voters and not gotting sidetrackedded. So why should we listen to paul . Paul is one of the most respected Political Consultants and commentators on the planet. He was one of the main architects for the successful Clinton Campaign in 1992. He then served as counselor to the president in the white house, thats where i had the wonderful good forchub of being able to work with him. He helped run the super pac that was instrumental in reelecting barack obama in 2012. This new book is his sixth book. Hes a commentator, youve probably seen him on cnn, and he also teaches Public Policy at georgetown. And most importantly, somehow he has made it through decades in the hardboiled world of politics with a sense of humor, his optimistic and cheerful spirit and, most importantly, his personal integrity fully intact, and that is no small feat. Thank you, paul, for reminding us that it is still possible to be the person that you are in the political world. You know, thank you. Now, if you look at the back of the cover of pauls book once you get it, or maybe you already have it, you will see forwards. Heres the front. You can see it behind paul. And youll see blurbs from bill clinton, nancy pelosi, james car absolutely, even Willie Nelson. But the most flattering blurb comes from someone else, and here is what donald trump says about paul. Paul begala, the dopey cnn flunk key has knowingly commuted fraud in his first ad against maine paul, clearly you are getting under the mans skin, well done. May all Democratic Candidates and voters and other republicans who are never trumpers read your book and heed your wise counsel in the next 88 days. Pauls conversation partner tonight the incredible donna brazile, currently a Fox News Contributor and foreman interim chair of former interlimb chair of interim chair of the Democratic National committee. She ran former Vice President al gores campaign in 2000. Shes the author of some really great books and bestsellers, most recently of a wonderful, terrific book for colored girls who consider politics. That book won the 2019 naacp image award in the nonfiction category. Like paul, donna is widely respected for her political acumen as a strategist, commune caughter and comment tauters. We are just so darn lucky to have both of them with us tonight. Thank you, paul, thank you, donna, for being with us. The floor is yours. Well, thank you, and let me say thank you to politics prose, my favorite neighborhood bookstore, and i look forward to browsing in the store and getting a cup of coffee as soon as possible. Paul, hey, how are you, few friend . Im great. I miss ya i bush i could see you in person. I bush you could see you in person. I wish i could see you in person. Paul, i read a lot of books, but the thing that grabbed me about this book and the reason why i say people should read it is you not only tell us the problems, but you also tell us how democrats should run in 2020. Met me start by asking you one question. What went wrong in 2016 . Wow. Well, first, like you, hillary got more votes than the other guy which, you know, in a real democracy would matter, right . Its only happened, like, four or five times in the previous 20 years, and its 200 years, and its happened twice in the last 20 where Vice President gore won the election fair and square. It was almost a black swan. You had, for example, the left in our party was so convinced she was going to win, i think they felt comfortable casting a protest vote, so dr. Jill stein and governor gary johnson did better than usually third parties do. Second, you had an unprecedented invasion, a foreign unvegas. Foreign intelligence. Like i need to tell you, they were running the party. They hacked us, they manipulated us, and the media went for it, the press covered hillarys emails more than every other story about trump combined. So that was the second thing. Third, you had this really obscene act by the thenfbi director whos supposed to be nonpartisan weighing in, personally attacking the democratic candidate for president first in july when he clear her of wrongdoing, he attacked her anyway, and then 11 days before the election. Now thats all true, i could have done more and i could have done better. As lissa said, i was helping the prohillary super pac. We had all the money in the world, and we were running against just a really awful person, right . He says racist things, misogynystic things, islamophobic things, insulted a mans disability, the reporter from the new york times. I got distracted by that. I focused on husband character which is abysmal. I dont excuse it, but it was sort of necessary but not sufficient. You know, the presidency is still just a job interview, and somebodys e a horrible person, but maybe they can do a really good job. I didnt connect it up to the retiree e in pennsylvania, the Office Worker in michigan or the farmer in wisconsin and tell them how their life would be worse. And i tell the story in the book, absolutely true, about three weeks after the election and im not kidding, this was probably like, it was the hardest election and postelection ive ever gone through. And lissas right, im generally a happy person. I was miss rabble. My joke was id sleep like a baby, i woke up every two hours crying and pissed the bed. I told my wife, i figured it out. When you ran these ads in wisconsin about how trump talks about women and people of color and they saw that, and that life ethel turned to harold and said, you know, harold, we cant vote for a man like that because theyre a decent, mud western, allamerican family. And he said, youre right, we cant. But about three days before the election he saws, you know, ethel, hes not going to grab you by the privates, but he says theyre going to open up that factory where they laid off our son harvey. So i didnt connect it up to harveys life, to ethels life, to harolds life. I simply left it at hes a horrible person, which he is. So i dont want democrats to do that again. Not to excuse his awe business mall, appalling, sewerlevel character, but to make it about voters, not about trump. See, this is the trump trap that lissa referred to. Every narcissist wants the conversation tonight to be about themself, and to be about themself, and what i falled to do is turn the camera away from trump and back to that farm family. The reason willie wrote in it is i wrote a whole chapter about Rural America, and he loved it. And that meant a lot to me. Weve got to reconnect with folks. I think now after four years people know trumps a big. Right. But how does it affect me. So, look, 88 days, and you write in the book that trump would like to make this about him, but we need to make it about the voters. The trump trap, as you just mentioned. With covid a still major issue, can the democrats learn anything from 2016 and really focus on those issues that matter and not continue to focus on donald trump . I hope. I hope. Youre right, covid changes everything. I think this is the First Political strategy since covid, you know . I did two things. I grew a beard and i wrote a book. Donna, you know me i had it all over. We go back 43 years weve been friends. 33 years. So i wrote it during covid. And its more important now, you know . It is, as Stacey Abrams has said, vote as if your life depends on it because it does. It really does. You know, politics is not any longer what i said when i called it show business for ugly people. Its a real thing. Its your life. And today theres a good example. Today. Donald trump goes out and says, hey, maybe ill give my Convention Speech from the white house, right . And we all get our panties in a wad, no, its a violation of the hatch act. It is. Its criminal. Its appalling, but it has no effect on harold and ethels life back in wisconsin. So i think the democrats ought to say, no, he shouldnt give it at the white house. He should give it at a covid wing, a morgue, a cemetery, because that really embodies his presidency. Its hard to do because he distracts us. All good people are raised when they hear something thats misogynystic or racist to saw, whoa, cut that out. But i think he uses that division as diversion to take it off the fact that people are dying before their time on his watch. In the book you say its trumps superpower. Whats our kryptonite . Its well, god help us, covid makes it a lot less effective. But its also turning the camera back. And i love them anyway, but i went and really studied barack obama and bill clinton, both of whom were subjected to terrible personal attacksings. And in each case, they refused to rise to the bait. Barack obama, it took him months, year before he released his birth not because he wasnt birth certificate not because he wasnt born in honolulu, but because he knew it was a trap. They were simply trying to steal the election away from health care and jobs and the issues he was running on. And he explained that very well. You hold up that attack and saw, now why is trump saying this . In joes case, hes going to come after husband son, we know that. Why is he attacking my family . Because he hasnt done anything for your family. And believe me, win or lose, my familys going to be just fine. If he allows you to be diverted thinking about my son whos a fine man, dont fall for it. Keep the focus on your son, your daughter, your granddaughter. I think thats the i way to do this. And, again, only because i failed to do it last time, and president clinton was nice enough to read the book, and he did, he remindedded me that was his first law of politics. Politics is a always about people, not about us. In 2018 you write a book that the democrats were able to flip 41 house seats that trump won in 2016. How did democrats do that . If theres a hero of the book, if theres a g. O. A. T. , its me in terms of screwing up, if theres a hero, its nancy pelosi. Oh, my god, i love that woman. She led us out of the wilderness. And what she did was so smart. She began with recruitment, and her recruitment began with diversity. Our rightwing friends, and we both have a lot of them and i think its a blessing, they think our commitment to diversity is about touchyfeely weakness. Its not. Its about bringing in the best team. When you expand the talent pool, you get more talent. Right. Nancy knew that from the jump. She recruited more women and people of color and recruited people with National Security backgrounds, intelligence backgrounds, defense backgrounds, really cool, interesting, diverse backgrounds as well as diverse genders and race. So that was the first thing is recruit diverse. She also, you know, Barbara Mikulski used to say this, she was a social worker before she was a senator, meet people where they love. She met people where they live. Aoc ran in aocs district. She didnt run in colins district. Hes an africanamerican man who represents george w. Bushs rich white thats terrific. So he didnt campaign on mueller and impeachment, he campaigned on health care and prescription drugs. And so diversity first. Matching the districts. Moderates ran in moderate districts, progressives ran in progressive districts. She funded them and did all the nuts and bolts right too. And that, to me, was all the most it became a tidal wave. But she didnt make it about trump. You know, in 2010 they all ran ads attacking president obama, and republicans took the house. Democrats didnt do that. They ran ads about you. They ran ads about health care, about prescription drugs, and even though trump was not popular, they actually got elected because of a mandate for change. I just think shes a genius. One thing, paul, you and i both know this, that we constantly argue about targeting the White Working Class versus mobilizeing the base. In the book you address both of these issues, and you also talk about the rise of the american electorate. Why is it so important that we get it right this time . Because as you did as party chair and campaign manager, you have to do both. You have to do both. I think, donna, the reverend jackson about how a plane has to have a left wing or a right wing, or it wont flew. And hes inarguably correct about that. Thats what our party needs. You know, these primaries this week were these dynamic, impressive this corey bush, i didnt know anything about her, and i watched her, gosh, she is amazing. And my view is the party needs new blood. I dont really care if it comes from the left ventricle or the right ventricle, we get new, fresh blood. But we have to do both. We have to energize people of color, young people, women especially unmarried women. Thats the rising american electorate. But we also need to reach out to people who are in pain and turn to turned to donald trump because they wanted a wrecking ball. We just have to lose a little less, you know . If we can get back to the White Working Class vote levels that we had with barack obama not even bill clinton, just do as well as obama did joe will win big. And its because the truth is, i looked this up, we lost 71,000 people to Drug Overdose. Now, some of them in the cities, some are in the suburbs, some are around the country. This is not a thing to discriminate by ideology or race. Weve lost 38,000 people last year, the death by Drug Overdose is the highest ever, i think. Certainly highest in years. Death by handgun violence, 38,000. Some in cities, some in suburbs, some on the farms. The pain is the same. And its our job to stitch that back together, turn that pain into purpose whether its a farmer, god forbid, whose kid is adducted to opioids, or its a mom in the inner city. Its the same pain. Im looking for ways to stitch them back together. I dont think we should be at war. Lets talk about Rural America. You mentioned early that Willie Nelson enjoyed that chapter. Ial enjoyed that chapter. I learned a few things. Why is it important that we reach out to Rural America . Well, first, its intrinsicically important p. Were democrats. We love and we care. Thats number one. Number two, i do think their pain and their problems are very, very similar s and we can not all of them, but we can get some of them to look past their divisions and to find common cause with us. Third, theres just a practical Political Science matter which is the senate is rigged. The United States senate, with or without the filibuster, is rigged against big states. That was the compromise they a made to create our country. But when they made it, virginia had the most people, delaware had the least. The difference was 12, 12 and a half times, virginia was 12 and a half times the population of delaware. You know what the gap is between california and wyoming . 64. Theres only 600,000 people in the whole state of wyoming, and they get two senators. Theres 600,000 people right now stuck in traffic on the 405. So the senate is rugged, its rigged, but it means we have to win in places like west virginia. Both president obama and president clintons two most important domestic e accomplishments were put over the top by Democratic Senators from nebraska. We have to win a plus like that if we want to run the country. I agree with you. Lets discuss the issues that might defive feet donald trump in 2020 defeet donald trump in 2020. Defeat. We fell into the trap. Medicare, medicaid, Social Security are always essential n. A pandemic theyre existential. We take that away from people, and they will die. And it turns out medicare, medicaid and Social Security are disproportionately helping trump voters. I think its great. [laughter] i want trump voters to be able to have health care. But trump has proposed a 2 trillion cut in Social Security, medicare and medicaid. His last two budgets. Excuse me. Two, his last two budgets dud that. And democrats havent broken through with that, i think because of this diversion that weve talked about. If you just tell people, even trump voters, trumps proposed twice in a row cutting 2 trillion from medicare, med e decade and Social Security which is the same amount that he took from us to give to corporate america, hes paying for his corporate cut by cutting grandma s cut. He accused hillary of Cutting Health care. He went to davos, witterland, told switzerland, told all the billionaires that he would cut that. He went on fox news and said he would cut medicare, medicaid and Social Security. And its in his budget. I think we ought to just hang that around his neck. I say in the book people should set their watch for every ten minutes and say, you know, boy, its terrible do those cheated in the world series, and medicare, medicaid and Social Security, trumps trying to cut them. Or youd be surprised because they found lizzo. Ive got young kids.