He spends his weekend obsessing over great men because he knows it, and i know it and all of you know it, he will never be a great man. What was your instinctive reaction when you heard that . Repulsive. Repulsive. This is the moral vandalism that we see of the president that you speak kind of the dead and the guy who sacrificed for his country. More of cory booker with hardballs Chris Matthews coming up and threat assessment. Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is on damage control after the president said White Nationalism is not a growing concern in the wake of the new zealand mosque massacre. The president is not a white supremacist. Im not sure how many times we have to say that. And good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington where President Trump is slamming one of his most prominent potential 2020 rivals. Pouncing on joe bidens saturday slip by calling the former Vice President another low i. Q. Individual in a tweet this morning. While the president shifts his focus to biden, beto orourkes Campaign Continues in the rust belt today. Already through three stops in michigan and heading to ohio this afternoon with some serious financial tailwinds. The Orourke Campaign announcing 61 million in fundraising during the first 24 hours after declaring his candidacy and thats more than Bernie Sanders impressive 5. 9 million haul announcing key details including average contributions and donors. Orourke spoke with msnbc about the first event and the overwhelming show of support. I say thank you to everyone who is helping to build the largest Grassroots Campaign this country has ever seen funded completely by powered completely by people, not pacs, not lobbyist, not corporations and special interests. What message do you hope that sends to your opponents and supporters . I hope to send the message to everyone who is out there who is looking for a different way to run a national race. Joining me now is msnbcs garrett haik where he just finished an event and msnbc political analyst phil rutger, White House Bureau chief at the Washington Post and a. B. Stoddard, associate editor of real clear politics. Clear, indeed, and South Carolina state senator, former state Democratic Party chairman. Thanks all. Garrett, first to you. You are right there where beto just did the event and you were with him in iowa, as well and lets talk about what hes talking about today and the reactions to him and a lot of criticism, frankly, that he was more celebrity in buzz and substance with the vanity fair cover and all the rest. The vanity fair story. Well, andrea, i have to tell you the vanity fair story and the more controversial parts of it is frankly not something that has come up in iowa or in michigan beyond the reporters that have asked him. Its not something that voters are asking him about. I will mention the money briefly. Thats not come up on the stump, but it is interesting. Orourke had to prove to a certain degree raised in texas million in the senate race was not just because he was running against ted cruz, that it was for beto orourke and by coming up with the 6. 1 Million Dollar and more than Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris and more than the people hes running against now. The Orourke Campaign has checked that box and the excitement around him is real and as for the issues hes been talking about in michigan, i have to tell you, this most recent event is probably the most single interesting event of his that ive covered in part because its one of the few that has a large percentage of africanamericans here asking questions about their community to orourke who is someone who has asked and answered questions from reporters about the idea that he is about as privileged as he could be as a white man in this country, a man that comes from wealth asking questions about how can you understand our community if youre not a part of it . What are you doing to educate yourself about it . Why are there no africanamerican staff at this event . Really being pushed on these issues and i cant summarize his answers netly here because hes one of those candidates that takes a good bit of time to answer them. Its been fascinating to watch him develop this in real time and come out and say, look, i dont have all these answers. I recognize my privilege and im trying to address them and i am here. I will tell you from the crowd in this room, a lot of folks are giving him credit as being essentially the first of these major candidates to come to detroit and to talk to these audiences. That is a luxury that orourke has in part because of that money and in part because he doesnt have a day job. He doesnt have to be on capitol hill or running a state right now. He can be grinding it out in these states. Michigan doesnt vote for a year and having three stops here today is laying down a marker to these other candidates about where he wants to compete and how he wants to do it, andrea. Garrett hague with beto orourke, thank you so much. I know you have to keep hitting the trail to catch up with the next stop, as well. Mike, lets talk about joe biden and theres a lot of talk that joe biden is about to get into the race. We both were out there watching him here in d. C. Last week and it is clear he will go and lets talk about the slip of the tongue and also the president s response to him. Its interesting. This is why we cover these, vents, right . We knew that the plan was not necessarily for the Vice President to announce his candidacy last week, but speaking to such friendly audiences and audiences that he has deep relationships with, the Firefighters Union and the home state and the Democratic Party we thought the moment would capture him and veer off even accidentally and thats what we saw. What was interesting is the larger point biden was making when he made that, talking about the new left. A little bit of edge to that when he referred to that because he understands the criticism he is getting from the left. He said i stack my progressive credentials up against anybody, but the larger point is we need to be able to work together. I get criticized for saying nice things about mike pence, we remember, but we need to get things done and the other part of the speech that hasnt gotten as much attention and he was very stark in terms of the stakes of this election. He talked about the threat that donald trump poses to our own democracy. He said if you had told me two years ago that our democracy in this country would be in jeopardy i would have laughed at you. So the argument for joe biden as his Campaign Team sees it, if we can call it his Campaign Team just yet, is that he is the best candidate to take on donald trump and the hire the stakes the more likely democratic voters are to gravitate to him. Just to go back, phil, to the 2016 campaign. I know we dont want to, but Hillary Clintons whole argument, essential argument against donald trump was hes just not electable. There was the speech out in california where she sort of absolutely eviscerated his Foreign Policy credentials and that was the premise of her campaign. How do you defeat donald trump if hes the nominee by saying that hes not electable when people have elected him and when people really dont want to respond to that . Well, the problem for Hillary Clinton is elections are choices and voters have a choice between her and donald trump and they chose donald trump and thats going to be the same dynamic. I just want to interrupt because in that cafe, garrett, i ng you have beto orourke. I think it begins with treating everyone with respect. Listening to everyone. Not taking anyone or any vote for granted and not writing anybody off, and the only way to demonstrate that is to show up, and to be here. To be here today in detroit, but also yesterday in milwaukee. Knocking on doors, meeting people who dont come out to an event, who may not know that im a candidate and that may not matter to me and making sure that i understand things from their perspective is essential to solve the challenges in front of us. You were more direct about the president s rhetoric than i think ive seen you in some of these other stops. You saw the tweets over the weekend and attacking john mccain who has been dead for seven months now. What are you seeing about the way the president talks and how much do you feel you do have to engage with that. I know you dont want to run against him, at least not at this phase, but how do you engage with the way hes talking to country . Hes trying to divide us, whether hes calling mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, calling neonazis very fine people and attacking muslim and at a time when we need Greater Union and power and having higherpaying jobs and a Better Living wage, we cant succumb to that. Lets not play his game. Lets keep our eyes on the prize, our ambitions, the goals by which i hope well be defined. Health care for every single american. Every job pays a living wage. World class Public School because we pay our Public School educators a living wage and squarely facing the challenge of chime at change and in order to achieve those things all of us will have to come together. Republican, democrat, independent, rural, urban, black, white, folks from every tradition of faith and of every status of immigration. All of us need to be on the same page and do this big work and thats what ill stay focused on as a candidate. Thank you. Thank you. With beto orourke speaking to Garrett Hague in detroit in that cafe. Phil rutger, we were talking about exactly that issue, to campaign against donald trump or do you campaign on Something Else or do you do both . He seemed to be combining those. Trying to, and what weve heard from orourke so far including in the interview with garrett is a very aspirational message that will appeal to the democratic voters and at the end of the day this will be a brutal, grisly campaign against President Trump and the democrats will have to get in the mud with him in order to defeat him likely and so i think a lot of democrats will look to see beto orourke and the other candidates evolve their messaging to take on the president directly. One of the things that has been critical of him, a. B. , is that he has not been specific enough about policies. Von hilliard caught up with him in iowa this weekend and questioned him about that and whether he has to be more specific. A lot of folks we talk to, theyre looking to you to provide more policy. When can they expect that . Well, continue to come to these meetings and listen to me answer the questions that are posed to me. If you have all of the answers, why show up . If youre not ready to listen and to learn then whats the use of camp calling. You said in the past that you want to give americans the health care they need. Its one of the ways to guarantee High Quality Health Care for every single american. Im no longer sure that thats the fastest way for us to get there. A. B. , hes been behind the curve on specifics and maybe because of his rollout with vanity fair with the video was so buzzy and, you know, glossy, if you will, annie liebowitzs picture, as well and maybe that takes away from whatever substance he already had. Your take on that . His launch was wobbly, no question. Hes had to apologize several times in only a few days for things. He does appear to be a little bit spastic and jumping around on tables and you can make fun of this guy, no question, but i think there are two things at play. What he knows and hes a very substantive guy and ive been in private settings and he doesnt speak like a constitutional law professor to the voters the way president obama sometimes did, but he can behind closed doors. Phil made a very important point. This can be a referendum on trump or it can be a choice. Certainly hes beatable. I think orourke is seeing two things at play and one is an aspirational message that tells the voters hes trying to divide us. Hes weaponizing division and we want to come together to solve problems, too. The democratic primary electorate doesnt know what its doing yet and what its for. We have a long way to go. He is very astute to not take cemented positions this early when none of them, klobuchar and jill brand dont know where the voters will go. Is it elect ability and now no one is talking about it. They dont know what they want yet and he made a good point. If you know the answer, why are you here to listen. He wants the hunger and earnestness to hear them. People do that the weekend before the election and hes doing it on week one instead of just being at rallies. I think its very smart to hold your fire and you can take those positions later and be firmly tied to them and now its way too early. Of course, in vanity fair, Amy Klobuchar was asked about that in iowa with chuck todd this weekend on meet the pre press. You said you feel born to do this. Thats the beto line. I have a lot of respect for beto and its great to have some texas in this race, but no, i wasnt born to run for office just because growing up in the 70s in the middle of the country, i dont think many people thought a girl could be president. I wasnt born to run, but i am running. Dick in South Carolina, what do voters there want to hear . Who is going to appeal to the South Carolina primary voter because we dont know yet who all is going to be in. Well, as you know, andrea, i just finished a race for state senate in a district that donald trump carried against Hillary Clinton, i won as a democrat and i went door to door and i talked to many, many voters unlike many of the other folks you have on today, i went door to door, and i won a district donald trump won in 2016. What i can tell you is there are a huge numbers of democrats that are more pragmatic about this race than any race ive ever seen. They want somebody who can beat donald trump and a number of the independent folks out there that voted for donald trump or didnt vote at all, that was more a referendum on Hillary Clinton. She was imminently unlikable. Joe biden is the only guy and the only person in this race that can take the fight to donald trump and be ready on day one to assume the office. Now, were going to talk about issues, but as i talk to my cohort, the democratic members, virtually every one of them is going to be behind joe biden. And i know you and joe biden have had a long relationship in democratic politics. Here is biden who was attacked by President Trump today for being low i. Q. This was biden in 1988 when he was running for president briefly and responding to that very question. I think i have a much higher i. Q. Than you do, i suspect. I went to law school on a full academic scholarship, the only one in my class that had a full academic scholarship. I graduated with three degrees from undergraduate schools and 165 credits and only needed 123 credits and i would be delighted to sit down and compare my i. Q. To yours. Mike, youre a biden watcher. You flagged that for us. 1988, i covered that campaign. I didnt remember that, but i wasnt covering that campaign. I know you werent. We think hell announce in april after this quarter is over, but hes going up against 6 million man beto orourke, 5. 9 million man Bernie Sanders. Theres the age issue. Theres, you know, the white man issue, diversity. I think when we talk about whether hes made a decision there are some people close to biden who tell me were long past the point where a decision has been made. Its easier to say i havent made a decision than i dont want to announce this quickly, but there are other decisions being made in the next few week, critical decisions because they not he doesnt have the same fundraising apparatus that there might be other aspects of his campaign that they want to do unconventionally because he does have so much baggage and so much of a record to go through thats a strength and a weakness and part of what his team will be doing is coming to some final decisions about the nuts and bolts about how theyre going to run this campaign and they do recognize that fundraising ability and that small dollar donation which is now a real litmus test in the Democratic Party is something they have to work on. Mike, dick, thank you very much for being with us from South Carolina. Of course, Garrett Hague, the amazing Garrett Hague who is all over the midwest with the candidate, phil rutger and a. B. Stoddard, thanks to you. The first democratic candidate to jump into the 2020 race, former congressman tom delaney will join me later in the show. Up next, controlling the gun, the new zealand Prime Minister promising stricter gun laws after a mosque shooting in christchurch right here on Andrea Mitchell reports stay with us. Right here on Andrea Mitchell reports stay with us. You quit. With chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, youll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix. You may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinkin