Glass sealing right now. [cheers and applause] thanks to you, weve reached a milestone. The first time the first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major party nominee. [cheers and applause] Bernie Sanders, however, has now bowed down yet. He will meet with president o bottoma tomorrow. Donald trump who sealed his nomination a month ago, won all five republican primaries last night. Were only Getting Started and its going to be beautiful. Remember that. Tonight, we close one chapter in history and we begin another. Youve given me the honor to lead the Republican Party to victory this fall. Trump also got in hot water this week over his denunciation of a federal judge overseing a fraud case against trump university. Trump said the judge was biased because of his mexican heritage. The judge was born and raised in indiana. How Speaker Paul Ryan called trumps remarks racist. We are joined by two of the smartest political strategists parsons but not a part of the campaign. Anita was in Barack Obama Campaign and then in the white house. Shes been a leading strategist in democratic campaigns dating back to bill bradley. Bill weber a former congressman in arizona was cochair of the mitt romney president ial campaigns. This year he was a top advisor to jeb bush. Welcome to you both. Let me start off. This is the beginning of the general election, the d. C. Primary next week. But we really its in the full circle now. What are the odds going in, anita . Anita well, think demographicly Hillary Clinton has always had an edge in this race in the general election, the last two elections showed us that the Republican Party needs to broaden its coalition. They picked the worst possible candidate for doing what they need to do. But its going to be a close race because this is a very closely divided country. I dont think the Clinton Campaign was under any illusion that it was going to be easy. Its going to be very tough. And theyre running against a candidate who doesnt play by conventional rules. Ben . Ben i would agree with anita. Thats what gives the democrats an edge. The republican argument which is not the same as the trump argument are that theyre disinclined to have a candidate three times in a row. Although the president s Approval Rating has been rising which helps it a little bit theres a predisposition to switch horses or switch parties. So you weigh those two things and i think at the end of the day anitas argument holds because the republicans have nominated a candidate who cannot begin to erode that democratic advantage with asians and hispanics. One more question. Did you take any solace from his speech last night where he read from a teleprompter and he didnt sell anybody, at least he didnt sell any republicans. Vin no for this reason. If he can be compelling and read it from a teleprompter, theres a new model. He was not compelling. It was to use a trumpian phrase, low energy. He gets that better than anybody. Hes going to quickly return to the high energy thing that has worked for him and thats when the risks return. Put on a republican hat. Well let you take it off. What would you advise him right now . Anita people dont change. Donald trumps not going to change hefment just won this nomination by ignoring all the political experts, right . And by doing it his way writings and rules and not backing down when he goes out there. So something totally outrageous. Its been a pattern of his. He doesnt back down. After four or five days he might go to another topic. But hes not backing down. Ive worked for a lot of insurgents in my life. It is really hard when you actually win to sit around and say ok, well, we were smarter than all you guys. We just won. We just beat you and now were supposed to listen to your advice and let you basically run our campaign. Thats a very difficult thing. But if i were advising donald trump what i would say is a general election is a totally different proposition from a primary. And you ran a great primary campaign in the sense that you won. Because general election is very different. Youve got to ask yourself, do you want to win . And that would be the beginning of the conversation. He says he can change the electoral map. He even mentioned california which i dont think anyone beliefs but he said places like pennsylvania and wisconsin, and michigan. Hes going put those in play because of his unique appeal. Does that worry you . Anita as i recall both of the republican nominees from 2012 said something similar at the beginning of their general elections. Pennsylvania is the great republican you know, its kind of that white whale,. Its just not going to happen. You know, but i do think that trumps challenge and its a huge challenge is to basically get voters who normally dont participate to turnout, ok, because the sort of universe working class voters. Anita people who support donald trump. The likely voters are a pretty set universe. And she leads him. Trying to change the electoral map is trying to get people to participate who havent participated in the past. Thats a difficult thing to do. The he didnt do it in primary, contrary to the story they put out. Its not new voters flocking to the Republican Party. They were largely general election voters who usually didnt vote in primaries but this time give trump credit. They did get motivated enough to turn out in the primaries but theyre not new voters that wouldnt have showed up on general election day anyway. They werent young people, minorities or voters that they were struggling to improve with. They are typical republican voters. Al some said hes got to get the reagan democrats. The reagan democrats have become republicans. Anita thank you, ronald reagan. Al how about his running mate . Or would you say donald trump is such a unique figure, he doesnt listen to people. Its not going to matter. I dont think it carry you. I think that it does bear on the judgment of the candidate. I think people who are trying to assess donald trump will factor that in. If you pick something that you respect you say he made it an important decision. Al who would you say would deliver that for donald trump . He talked about bob corker. Hes highly regarded. Hes a strong Foreign Policy leader as senate of the Foreign Relations committee. He would probably do that well. John kasich would be an ideal candidate. I dont know that jo kasich is going to endorse donald trump. Some of the people wont likely serve him. Al i know what you want. You want a trumpgingrich. I have all the respect in the gingrich. To the extent there are voters throughout who are saying i dont want to give the democrats another turn because this country likes to change after eight years. Im not that wild about hillary and clinton but im super nervous about donald trump. I would like to see who he surrounds with him. It was the same thing with w. Lets see if he puts good people. That person know what is hes talking about. I think this decision for trump is a huge one. Its much more important for him and for Hillary Clinton. Nobody questions her knowledge, her experience or her readyness to be president. Al lets turn to hillary and the libertarian candidates. One more question on trump. Do you expect to see other prominent politicians follow mark kirk, lindsay gloom said hes not going to vote for him and lindsay collins, would we see more of that . Vin i would guess you will. I think that trump has gotten a sort of an article boost by ending the republican nominating process earlier than we expected. The party uniting behind him in many cases without great enthusiasm but it gave him a little bit of a boost. Hes reroaded that through the last couple of weeks. And hillary has won the nomination quite convincingly after strong performances on her own part including her acceptance speech last night. So my guess is the gap between trump and hillary widens a little bit. And as that starts to happen a lot more republicans are going to start feeling nervous the way mark kirk clearly felt nervous. So i think thats a real if i were if this were a conventional candidate and he had a conventional approach, his manager would be saying, weve got to start reashuring all those republicans to keep them from jumping ship. I dont think theyll do that. I dont think thats trumps approach. But i think thats a thet to him. Anita he makes a good point with hillarys speech. He hasnt been a great candidate. Shes ban lousy candidate up until the last week or two. She also has real problems not so much with the bernie people but the young people that we talked about earlier. Her poll numbers are 20 points above obamas. What did she do . What are her challenges now . And what would you advise her . Its interesting. Shes had the lower poll numbers when theyve had a choice. Where theres been a democratic primary contest. But that contest, you know, is basically over now. Berpie may nod concede until the convention. Gary hart and Jesse Jackson didnt concede until the convention. This race is over. They start looking at this race differently because its no longer between bernie and Hillary Clinton. Its now donald trump and Hillary Clinton of its going to take some time. Vin Bernie Sanders can be important for Hillary Clinton. If they ask him to do the right thing. The right thing in my view is not to beg him and say wonderful things about hillary which will only convince a lot of centrists republicans that maybe she is more liberal than i thought. But boy he can attack donald trump particularly with the young voters. We kind of count on the Vice President to be that negative surrogate. Bernie sanders not being the Vice President ial choice can be a negative surrogate against donald trump. Al let me ask you about, does this really hurt the down ballot candidates . There have been times, clinton and reagan won reelection and didnt carry anyone with them, the old talk, you know before you were born about the eisenhower jacket and he wins and no one had any coattails. Other times there have been landslide election. Should democrats say boy, were in great shape for the senate vin the Democrats Campaign as they have a great opportunity and the republicans run scared. First of all, we do have donald trump who is more removed from the Republican Party than any nominee certainly in my lifetime. Second of all the seats that are up in the senate particularly that are competitive, we have really good candidates. Normally where you see a warnout of incumbents you have people in were elected and were weak from the getgo. Thats not true of senator ayotte. These are really high equal people, john mccain. I think republicans have to run squared. But i think we have a chance to hold on to the senate even given what i think is likely to be a substantial drag from the top of the ticket. Al ait ina. I think thats a place where were going disagree. Vin why did i guess that . Anita the place of split ckets in 1984 and 1988 where al gore could win an open seat and those days are behind us right now. The congress in the senate tends to followle the president ial performance much more than it used to. Particularly the states where those republican incumbents are cutting across the midwest are very prom matic even though theyre stronger. Al so you think the republicans are going to keep the house. You think the democrats will have a shot at the house . No i i think well gain ground in the house. Its early to say we have a shot. But we will certainly gain ground. Al is this one of those seminole elections that will change american politics or is this one of those quirks that happens and we get over it . I think theres a lot of o things that tell us this is a unique election. I think the discrediting of the two parties which preceeds the campaign almost is its a very big deal and that brings in to question the whole twoparty system. Within the Republican Party quite beyond the offensiveness of donald trump, the shift on immigration and maybe more importantly trade indicates youve got a different kind of republican electorate than you had before. Bernies not going to win the nomination. But hes changed the constituency on the Democratic Party which changes the Democratic Party. I think those things plus the fact that trump has shown that you dont need to run a conventional campaign if you know how to communicate in this environment says that politics could change. I couldnt agree with that more. I dont see this as a fluke or an anomaly. It is certainly the last president ial campaign where both of the candidates might be baby boomers. So it might be the last baby boomer president ial campaign. But i also think that the both of the Political Parties will emerge within their Political Parties very different than the ones that entered the cycle. Al one of my colleagues said this election might be fun to cover but the post election is really going to be great. Anita dunn and vin weber, thank you so much for joining us. And well be right back. Al 114th congress doesnt have many legislative days left in this session. They leave in a couple of weeks for the Party Convention and august recess. Then they come back for a short september. They also have few accomplishments. Major issue loss the pacific trade packet, criminal justice reform. The nomination of Merrick Garland and a major Cancer Initiative in honor of Vice President s biden late son will be unresolved when lawmakers ayour honor this fall. Norman is a scholar at the American Enterprise institute. He coauthored a book with tom mann on congress titled its even worse than it looks. They updated to its even worse than it was. Norman, its good have you here. Always a pleasure. Al you write about a dysfunctional congress. But the country is deeply divided as we see in polls. Doesnt congressman fest that . To a degree but its more than that because there are issues where you dont have a lot of those deep divisions. You mentioned some of them. Criminal justice has broad support. Dealing with the zika virus, the opioid, the puerto rican debt crisis which is under american egus to go through great trauma and Congress Still cant act. Its one thing where you haveish have issues where you are a partisan divide and you have congress not able to move and with fewer days in session than i can ever remember, although they may come back after the election and still no excuse. Some of these are urgent. I dont know how you can use a term other than dysfunctional unless you want to make it worse. Al will this years elections make it better or worse . I think were headed for continuing rocky times and thats true even if we somehow see a sweeping victory for one party that gives them complete control would happen far more likely with democrats but its not likely. Were likely to have divided government for a significant period of time to come. And the parties each have their struggles. But the divisions across those lines are deep. And let me, you know, just suggest one thing else, just imagine if we get the most likely outcome even if there are no sure things, Hillary Clinton wins. Theres a narrow democrat majority. Republicans keep the house. Youre going to have a Republican Party going through a deep existential crisis. Within a few months and i think maybe the window of doing anything will be shorter than it usually is. Less than 100 days. Within a few months republicans will say how do we recapture our mojos . We have a tried and true formula. We used it in 2010. We used it with Great Success in 2014. We delegitimized the president , government and the process, we block everything as much as we can from happening and we make victories look ugly and we go out to country and say anything would be better than this. Thats not good. Al that brings us what i guess we should call a spirited disagreement with senator Mitch Mcconnell. He told charlie recently that the quoted attributed to him that his goal was a oneterm obama presidency. He said that everybody got that wrong except bob woodward. He said that but then he went on to say we still can get things done. Did mitch get a bum wrap . No, he did not get a bum wrap. I looked again just to be sure. Another quote from him after the 2010 mid terms in which mcconnell said reflecting on obamas agenda, well, of course, we werent going to support it because they then the accomplishments would have looked partisan and if people think theyre partisan and they like them, thats not going to be good. In effect that will damage the republican brand so we oppose. We know there was basically conscious opposition to whatever o bottoma was for. Al what Mitch Mcconnell says that obama was so far to the left that unlike he says bill clinton and joe biden he wouldnt move to the center and deal. If you go back to the stimulus package. One thing we know, the economy was struggling very deeply. Dave obie a thencongressman of wisconsin called in his republican counterpart jerry lewis of california. He said jerry, were going to do a stimulus. Ive got the charge of trying to put the package together. The economy is flat on its back. We want to work with you. Tell us the absolute nonstarters. Go back to your rank in file and leaders and well go back and pull it out. Ive got orders that were not going to orppede, he said. You go to the healthcare negotiations. Of the es, the chairman finance committee joins with his deer friend and counterpart chuck grassley. They create a gang of six. They start with the principles and the plans that grassley had put forward when bill clinton was president. All of those ideas came out of republican quarters. So the idea that thi