Biden, plus bennett and mcauliffe equals 24. They hope it produces the best nominee to defeat donald trump, but my fear is like many buffets, more isnt actually better, and it could actually produce the worst. Anyone of age can run for president. Have at it. But sometimes moore is ju mor just more. That could impede the path to the white house. You might have heard of analysis paralysis, the tierney of small decisions describe having too many choices doesnt ultimately result in satisfaction, lowers overall enthusiasm and can often produce an outcome that isnt optimum. If you ever hit a wall scrolling through netflix, you know exactly what im talking. As politico puts it, we saw a demonstration of this serial effect in the chicago mayor al race where a crowded diverse and qualified field of 14 candidates without pro h prohibitive frontrunners coincided with almost the lowest turnout in city history at 33. 4 . Joe lockhart was the White House Press secretary under president clinton and republican strategist kevin maddon was the spokesman for mitt romneys campaigns. Joe, we have a map of candidates with events today, mostly in early voting states. I know that the boiler plate line from democrats is the more the merrier, this is all good for the party. But level with me, are you concerned that having too many candidates with weaken the field . I dont think it will weaken the field in the context of the chicago example you used because i think democrats are engaged as much as ive ever seen them because of their hostility. Democratic voters. Democratic voters, because of their hostility to trump. I think theres going to be a very quick and kindnowing proce. Thats one of the reasons the debates start so early. There are going to be some people who dont get into the debates. That means theyre dead. The debates will be a way to show the one or two dark horse candidates as a way of emerging, the way mayor pete did in his cnn town hall. So you wont have 25 going into the iowa caucuses. And then iowa and New Hampshire happen very quickly together. Youll see a much smaller field. The other thing id say is, you know, youre right when you say having 25 doesnt make it a rational process. This isnt a rational process. It has never been a rational process. There sure is nothing rational about it. Its just a different kind of crazy. Republicans are all too familiar with this. Trump was able to win the primary with a small plurality. He went on to win because Hillary Clinton was so bad as a foe. If the democratic nominee wins 25 of a vote going into the general, isnt that coming in in a weak position . Yeah but we dont know its going to work out like that. One of the problems with a big are field is its harder for one of the new candidates to break out. You look at the older candidates, the ones with more of a national profile, like biden, like Bernie Sanders, they actually are able to really hold their position right now because theyre more well known, theyve got an established fundraising network, theyve got the National Name i. D. Its harder for these newer folks to come in and build their profile when you have such a big field like that. But joes right. I think the one thing that i wouldnt worry about if i were a democrat is the level of enthusiasm that they have right now. They have a lot of enthusiasm and they like the fact that they have a very big, diverse field. In that sense its not really working on the voters. Its working against you if youre one of the new, upstart campaigns. Speaking of upstart campaigns, i know tim ryan. I think hes a really great candidate. I like his message, i think hes good at that and i think actually he might represent a majority of democrats in a way that maybe Elizabeth Warren, who has bigger name i. D. Doesnt. How does someone like that who might have a more winning message sort of push through without the name i. D. . Listen, you can make that analysis about a number of candidates, either in the middle or to the left of the party where if the, you know, a dozen candidates split up the progressive vote, someone in the middle is going to help with biden, or the opposite. If a dozen candidates in the middle split the vote, you may help Bernie Sanders, who has an established group of people. I think biden will be in, you only have two people who have an established connection to Traditional Democratic activists. It seems like theyre running away from the middle. With joe biden saying i was never a moderate, i was always a progressive. Im confused. But i think thats a defensive thing. I think what biden was trying to do is to say, hey, the media doesnt get to decide who i am. Ive been a liberal my whole life. Maybe im not a liberal when you compare me to Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders as long as he doesnt officially get in, the media is defining him. If you want to get in, do it already. Hes going through all the riggers without the benefit, without the donors, without the positive spotlight. Hes overvalued the idea that getting in last is going to make the big final splash. You think so . Yeah. Because hes holding back, his profile and candidacy and whatever he wants to run on is all being defined by his critics or a bunch of folks like us talking about it nonstop. Joe and kevin, stay right there. When we come back, were going to talk about the 2020 incumbent. Hes had a frustrating week of president ing. And ill talk to 2020 candidates who think they might just appeal to the largest and most overlooked demographic in the race, the middle. 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So i can rent fast without getting a hair out of place. Heeeeey. Hey ah, control. vo go national. Go like a pro. With the Mueller Report concluded and the president feeling exonerated, youd think hed be able to attack some policy issues with clear eyes. It turns out without an adversary to focus his energies ons are trump seems a bit lost. First surprising his own party with a plan to take on the hot button issue of health care in the mid of a reelection, and he walked it back. And then the mexican border, he gave mexico a year. Here whats he said in a speech to the Jewish Coalition in laz vegagu las vegas. A lot of fakers out there, they say he will never stop them at the border. Im okay with it. I dont want to do it but im okay with it. Amidst of border confusion, the president abruptly withdrew his own i. C. E. Nominee to go with someone tougher to the surprise of his Homeland Security secretary. And then there was the 999 prophet herman cain added to the fed. And his statement that noise from Wind Turbines cause cancer, that his father was born in germany and, well, this. I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges the oranges of the investigation, the beginnings of that investigation. The Mueller Report i wish covered the orages, how it started. Needless to say, republicans are concerned. Senator Chuck Grassley called the president s wind turbine comment idiotic. Is this what the next year will like li look like . Joe madden and Kevin Lockhart the answer is yes. Trump is not so good at being president. Hes back to mueller, tweeting about it more than once today, including just one before the show. What do republicans do with this . Well, i mean, thats one of the challenges that i think everybody on capitol hill is now coming to terms with. You have this bumper car agenda coming out of the white house, they dont know what it is, what hes crashing into. Going out there and setting their own terms of the debate and taking on as much as they can the contrast of this democratic investigation infrastructure on one side, which the president will be happy to join with them on a fight with and then on the other side of it, its this agenda that Mitch Mcconnell and Kevin Mccarthy and others feel is a radical agenda thats out of step with most mainstream americans and run against that. Because theyre so and then theyre going to try and bait the president into joining him in that. Which im sure hell take it. Theres no Real Advantage to republicans just going out and advancing an agenda of their own because they dont know what trump will support and where hell shake out on this. So eight perilous cliff. It a party thats more comfortable defining itself by what its against. You could make the same argument, joe, that the democrats had mueller to focus on for so long. Now theyre on to tax returns. Half of the democrats in the United States congress are running for president. Will anyone do the job that they were elected to do . Yeah, i think that i agree with kevin, the republicans right now, it hasnt always been the case but right now are the party of being against things. The reason that the democrats won the midterms in 2018 was not because of bob mueller. No, it was health care. It was because of health care. It was not because of russia. If you look at just the ads that were run, they were primarily about health care and economic security. So i think the democrats have a challenge to not do the easy stuff of just investigations, just oversight and just running for president. But this where i think nancy pelosi comes in, who is about as good as there is in politics right now of making sure that they focus on at least putting things on the table that theyre for, whether it be for voting rights, whether it be for health care. And if republicans want to stop it, theyll stop it. I think the message out of 2018 was the public wants some results. Sure. This is to both of you because its a twosided problem, weve got some really good employment numbers this week. This is a problem for democrats because they want to be out campaigning, telling voters their lives are terrible. On the other hand, republicans dont seem to be able to take a gift and just run with it. They always find a way to sort of sabotage or even just ignore it. So what do we do about a really good economy on both sides . I think the republicans should focus more on that. Well, of course the message is being defined often times by the president and the white house, and his is more of like what happened in the last 30 minutes. So, therefore, hes more focused on criticizing and running against running as a contrast message against democrats. Thats one of the big challenges theyre going to continue to face throughout the year. Yeah. I think the democrats have the ability to go in and dig in a little bit on income and equality and the fact that people are underemployed. I dont think the numbers are going to change radically. But their biggest advantage here is donald trump, who cant take something that should be a positive because his entire message is the country is falling apart. Well, the country isnt falling apart and as soon as he acknowledges that, then his National Emergencies all of a sudden with these employment numbers, a lot of voters doesnt feel like the country is falling apart. They feel like were doing pretty well. Joe was mentioning nancy pelosi being one of the best at what she does. She is. I would agree with that but she is increasingly losing control over what the democrats are doing, to people like alexandria ocasiocortez, people with three months of experience are shaping events like green deal for all. Its not what they want to be running on. Coming up, the list of challengers to donald trump may keep getting longer. Up next, democrats kicked oversight into overdrive this week. Can they balance that with actual governing . Ill talk to one freshman lawmaker trying to do just that. Stay with me. Unstopables inwash scent booster downy unstopables and back pain made it hard to sleep and get up on time. Then i found aleve pm. The only one to combine a safe sleep aid, plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. Im back. Aleve pm for a better am. Silicon alley . First amazon leaves new york high and dry and now buzzfeed gets into a twitter war with the citys mayor. It all started on monday when the Buzzfeed News union complained over twitter that management stood them up at a meeting about recognizing them, and eventually posted this buzz feed management is engaging in clear union busting. Because the scuttle meeting was in new york, mayor de blasio had to chime in. He said memo to buzzfeednews, new york is a union torm. You didnt just snub unions yesterday, you insulted working new yorkers. And then buzzfeed says this process is not going to benefit from the involvement of a deeply unpopular mayor who has expressed an open disdain for journalists during his time in office. Theyre not wrong. I dont think they like him much in city hall. Well be back in two minutes. No matter where you are in life or what your dreams entail, a cfp professional is trained, knowledgeable, and committed to Financial Planning in your best interest. Find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan. Org. Find your certified financial planner™ professional hi dad. No. Edont try to get up. Hi, im julie, a right at home caregiver. And if id been caring for toms dad, i would have noticed some dizziness that could lead to balance issues. Thats because im trained to report any changes in behavior, no matter how small, so tom could have peace of mind. Well be right there. We have to go. Hey, tom. You should try right at home. Theyre great for us. The right care. Right at home. In the red file tonight, the integrity of american elections. No small thing. The intelligence continues to warn foreign entities will target the 2020 elections, and its not just russia thats a threat. There is the shocking revelation this week that a Chinese National allegedly entered maralago illegally with malware. In congress, democrats are hoping to pull off a balancing act, ramping up oversight of the exit have branch and legislation including the paid ad act, which claims to add restrict foreign influence in election ads. It says were going to close a loophole so foreign actors, organizations, cannot buy ads in our political system, for or against a candidate or on big issues in our elections. On social media social media, tv, the whole thing. There are these big loopholes that were never closed, our system has evolved, we havent evolved with it. Michigan was particularly targeted by these ads. They are horrible and divisive and were closing that loophole. You know this issue well. You worked at cia, at dni and the pentagon. Your bill addresses the social media aspect, but what about the hacks . Are we doing enough to prevent more attacks on our elections . I think in a normal situation, if after 2016 all 17 intelligence agencies had said that the russians attempted to meddle in our elections, in a normal situation democrat or republicans president , we would have had our election systems, everything from the ads to the actual election booths to look at the systems. We havent had that so were putting to the a patchwork now of what we can do but it is certainly not at the level of attention it should be. The Mueller Report, and i only bring this up to get around it. It aimed to get to the bottom of these attempts to thwart our election integrity. But it became a proxy for beau side both sides. This week democrats served subpoenas over security clearances and tax returns. What do voters really care about . Congress has to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Walking is doing the oversight role and making sure jerry nadler and others are doing what they have to do for check and balance but then we have to do the other side, pass affirmative legislation. If youre only doing one, youre only doing half the job. Do you worry that democrats in congress and democrats on the campaign trail are doing enough that can change peoples lives . There are 40 of us that flipped seats that flipped to donald trump and all of us have a fire under us to work on legislation. Now maybe the media focuses on the Mueller Report or a few members of our caucus but were moving things forward and its just not as sexy to be working on legislation. Im glad youre here to talk about legislation. Democrats largely won the house because of moderates like you. Do you think that 2020 candidates are kind of forgetting that . I just think that if you really understand the electorate, the electorate is focused on the democratic side on making sure we have a new president in 2020 and beating trump is the primary criteria. And i think this idea that somehow you have to go further and further left in order to win peoples votes in the primary, i just dont think it was born out in 2018 and i just dont think thats where the electorate is now. But again, this sort of overblown focus on the left, i think, leaves out the wide swath of people in the middle who just want the government to function. They just want it to run. So i think theyre missing it. Thank you, congresswoman elissa slotkin, i appreciate you joining me tonight. Remember the middle of voters that are neither far right or far left . Ill talk to potential 2020 candidates that say most certainly do. Stick around. If you compare last quarter to this quarter. Various mmm. 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