you're saying we have to get things done, how are you going to get things done? >> i think we are in a crisis of division. i mean, that's the main reason why i'm running is throughout my whole life i've been able to bring people together and -- >> and you think mitch mcconnell is going to play ball with you? >> no, probably not, i accept that, but you have to talk to him just so his followers who probably aren't as mono maniacal as he is about getting his own way and getting every political victory, but you have to align people's self-interests and it starts with listening to them and making sure they feel heard. mitch mcconnell, i've given up, i don't think he's going to change, but i do think that many of the people that have looked towards him for direction are frustrated and they're ready to listen to a different story and open their minds a little bit to a compromise. >> how does that work for you? you have been able to do that. you had garnered votes from people who were not typically democrats. but in your state colorado in 2016 president trump did flip a number of blue counties to red. what is the thing about you? i know as governors you have to generally speaking be more bipartisan to get things done, but when you go to washington some of these differences are deep-seated. what is it about john hickenlooper that's going to get people to say i can be a reasonable human and compromise. >> when i ran for mayor in 2003 and i had never been in politics and the city of denver was at war with all the suburbs and i went around to the suburban mayors offices and let them yell at me. and i took it. i wasn't the big poobah, i didn't want all this special treatment or respect. i let them listen -- i listened as they yelled and it took a while, but people are people and, you know, in the restaurant business you learn to repeat back the same words that someone is saying if they're really angry and they feel validated when they hear their own words. it sounds stupid. would never work, and maybe with mitch mcconnell it wouldn't, but with most people you can build a relationship. once you listen and they feel validated they begin to have a little best of trust. once you get to trust you can collaborate. we collaborate at the speed of trust. >> we collaborate at the speed of trust. >> i like it. >> repeating your food sucks might be the path to success. >> no, you say the soup was so hot? and he didn't even look where he was going? he dumped it in your lap? this is human nature ever to be repeated, the same now as it ever was. >> the thing that's going to be interesting when governor hickenlooper is on the stage he has a whole bunch of these experiences. you were a geologist, you were a brewer, you were a mayor, i wonder whether americans are going to say i want a guy who has done all these different things. >> somebody gave me a bumper sticker that says put a brewer in the white house, hickenlooper for 2020. >> to ali's point, those counties that flipped, those were blue counties that voted obama, obama, and they flipped for trump over the economy. they say the economy isn't working for me. he won on that message. we now see from axios reporting this week he is not delivering to those counties. how are you going to speak to those people and get them to believe you? >> sure. what we did when i ran -- and i got elected in 2010, 2014 two of the worst years for democrats. colorado was a purple state back then and i ran by saying we are going to lift up the economy for the whole state. colorado for the last three years is the number one economy in the country. our rural economy is one of the top economies as well. we made sure we will be the first state that has broadband in every single city and town by the end of next year. every single town. the first state in the country. we have provided tax incentives -- it's not that expensive to encourage entrepreneurs to put businesses into the small rural towns that are -- have been shrinking in america. again, if you are a town of 2,000 people, 20 people, 20 new jobs isn't going to change the world but it makes people optimistic. they realize instead of going one way maybe things will look better. that's what the national government should be doing for rural america. we are only as strong as our weakest link. >> elizabeth warren has plans that she thinks could change the world. do you think she can pay for them? >> well, i think what i've tried to work on, we do know that the national debt has grown exorbitantly -- >> do voters actually care about that? ali and i have this debate all the time. >> i think they care zero about it. >> i think they care less than zero. >> they don't care a lot about t but it doesn't mean we shouldn't care. >> if you want to get elected you're going to need to care about things that they care about. >> and i do care about that. we've expanded community colleges, created an apprenticeship program in colorado that's being modeled and copied in 22 states that allows kids to work two days the first year but then the next year work three days, the three year they work fives days. they get paid over the three years of apprenticeship they get paid $30,000, they get their high school degree. if they choose to go to college they will have a year's worth of college credit with no debt. i mean, those kinds of programs allow the 66% of our kids who are never going to get a four-year degree to create their own future, get their own shot at the american dream. >> governor, you've got a lot of interesting ideas. one criticism people have of you is you don't seem to be channeling a lot of the frustration that many democratic voters have right now. you've said don't be reactive, don't lurch to the left. you've talked about socialism creeping in and possibly damaging the democratic party. how do you channel to voters that your reasonable moderate approach makes sense, but that you feel their frustration and their anger. >> sure. >> moderation isn't exciting. >> no i understand. i'm learning that for sure. you know, and i do have anger. you know, i was raised to try to hold my anger and not express it quite so freely. maybe i need to do that a little more. but i go out and especially when i'm in iowa or new hampshire or south carolina last weekend, i'm describing what i've done. i'm the only person of the 24 people running that actually has a long consistent record of accomplishment. we got the big progressive things done that people said couldn't be done and we didn't turn to big government, we didn't need massive government expansions. socialism is not the solution. i keep saying that and if we don't clearly define that we are not socialists, republicans are going to spend the next two years saying the exact opposite, that we are socialists. >> but you're not saying the answer is the current system? >> right. of course not. the current system is a train wreck. what i'm saying is -- and i think colorado in almost every case was created a platform by which there are programs that would work nationally. so community colleges and apprenticeships as a way to make sure that everybody gets a shot at the american dream. we get to near universal healthcare. we don't need to take, you know, the private insurance away from 180 million people to get to university healthcare, right, we can do public option, as it grows it gets lower in price, it scales, improves in quality, scales more, price comes down again. eventually we might end up in 10 or 15 years with a single-pair solution but it will be evolution and not revolution. >> governor john hickenlooper thank you for joining us, we look forward to seeing you on stage tomorrow. >> i think at the end of every interview i'm going to ask you what your take away is. >> we are out of time. >> mine is the current system is a train wreck but don't go ride the bus. >> elizabeth warren on the stage doing her walk through. she of course is going to be the highest polling candidate on the stage tonight. that has governed the candidate's position so she will be very close to the center of the stage and it will be an interesting dynamic for her for two reasons, one, ali vitali pointed out elizabeth warren comes with a lot of detailed policy and has run on that. she has t-shirts that says i have a plan for that but tonight's alleys will be relatively short. ali says she has been articulating how she communicates her policies in short order. we are now seven hours away from the democratic presidential debate this evening. ten candidates, elizabeth warren will be taking the stage, five moderators, one stage and an entire nation watching. what happens during these debates could help determine who will be the next leader of the free world. stay with msnbc for special debate coverage all day long. kasie hunt picks up coverage in a moment, she will be speaking with presidential contender bernie sanders. easpking with presidential contender bernie sanders staining be done... and stay done through every season. behr semi-transparent stain, overall #1 rated. stay done for years to come. find it exclusively at the home depot. iand i don't add up the years. but what i do count on... is staying happy and healthy. so, i add protein, vitamins and minerals to my diet with boost®. boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals your body needs. all with guaranteed great taste. and now try new boost® peaches and creme natural flavor. with 27 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. boost®. be up for life™. that i won the "best of" i casweepstakes it. and i get to be in this geico commercial? 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[ slap ] your nails! xfinity home... cameras. xfinity home... disarm the system. door's open. morning... welcome to the neighborhood. do you like my work? secure your home with x1 voice control. and rest easy knowing you have professional monitoring backing you up. awarded "top pick" by cnet. demo at an xfinity store, call or go online today. xfinity home. simple. easy. awesome. good afternoon, i am kasie hunt in miami where we are now about seven hours out from the first democratic debate of the 2020 campaign. we are looking live at the stage in knight's hall where we will see 10 of the 20 democratic contenders tonight. among them elizabeth warren who just did her walk through on stage along with beto o'rourke, amy klobuchar and cory booker. up front and center will be the senator who has a plan for, well, just about everything. warren has been riding a wave of momentum. how will she handle being this evening's front runner? is she going to draw a contrast between herself and other democrats? perhaps most notably somebody that we won't see until tomorrow, senator bernie sanders. he is joining me live on set in just a moment. if you are o'rourke, klobuchar or booker, how do you break through? do you focus on your vision or try to land a punch? no matter name, polling or stage position each candidate will have roughly eight minutes to make their pitch to voters. eight crucial potentially pivotal minutes. so our big question today is who, if anyone, will have a breakout moment in tonight's debate in we are going to begin today with a candidate who will be on stage tomorrow night, joining me here in miami 2020 presidential candidate -- contender, vermont senator bernie sanders. senator, it's great to see you again. >> good to be with you, kasie. >> we spent a lot of time together on the 2016 presidential campaign, i remember your primary campaign well. i think, you know, going into this evening you are obviously on stage tomorrow night, all eyes on elizabeth warren who has cast herself as a progressive and who has, you know, frankly espoused ideas that are in many way similar to yours, but there are some critical differences. let's start with your education plan. you would be willing to cancel debt for basically for everyone including for rich people. her campaign says that's not right. what's your argument? >> well, look, overwhelming majority of the people who would benefit from what we are doing in terms of making public colleges and universities tuition-free and in terms of ending student debt for 45 million people overwhelming majority of those people are working class people and middle class people. most billionaires do not have their kids having student debt. second of all, and this is what i believe is most important as a nation, we have got to understand, kasie, that for the last 45 years the middle class of this country has been decimated. decimated. and that means the average worker today, despite huge increases in technology and productivity is making exactly the same amount of money and real inflation as he or she did 45 years ago. meanwhile, in the last 30 years the top 1% have seen a $21 trillion increase in their wealth while the bottom half have seen a decline we have to help the middle class and working class. >> who is going to pay for canceling that debt? people who haven't gone to college? >> no, how we will pay for it will be clear. it will be a tax on wall street. ten years ago we bailed out wall street whose recklessness and illegal behavior caused the worst economic downturn in the modern history of this country and they received trillions of dollars of help from the taxpayers of this country. i think now it is wall street's turn to help the middle class and working families of america by ending student debt for our people. and that is just an incredible burden. you cannot believe the number of people i talked to and saying, bernie, i paid off, you know, thousands of dollars a year. i can't afford to get married, i can't have a kid, i can't have a house because for paying out this outrageous level of student debt. this younger generation, kasie, for the first time in the modern history of america will have a lower standard of living than their parents. and i want to end that. so the people who are going to pay for this, this is a tax on wall street speculation. the average american is not going to pay a nickel for this. >> let's move on to the differences in your healthcare plans. you are supporting a medicare for all plan. >> yes. >> that would essentially eliminate private health insurance except in cases of plastic surgery. elizabeth warren has signed on to the bill, but doesn't talk about it like this on the trail. she instead doesn't emphasize ending private insurance. why is ending private insurance necessary to cover everybody? >> wrong question. it's not a question of ending private insurance. >> but your plan would do that. >> yeah, it would. it is a question of doing what every other major country on earth is doing. >> but a lot of them still have private insurance options. >> but that's not really the major issue. the major issue is do we believe that healthcare is a human right or not? some people do, some people don't. i do. so i think whether you are poor or working class or rich, you are entitled to all the healthcare what you need because you are an american. that's what i believe. right now you have tens of millions of people, it's not just 34 million who have zero health insurance, you have got far more than that who are underinsured. they can't go to the doctor even if they have insurance because their deductibles and copayments are so high. meanwhile, we end up spending twice as much per person on healthcare as the people of any other country. this is a dysfunctional system. our healthcare outcomes are not as good as people in other countries. we have got to have a healthcare system not to make the insurance companies rich, not to make the drug companies rich, but to guarantee healthcare to all people in a cost effective way, that's medicare for all. >> your idea of medicare for all is popular when you ask people about it, but you do get into trouble when you say you can't actually have a private insurance. remember obama, if you have a doctor and a plan, you can keep that. >> let's deal with that. i understand that. but do you also tell people, guess what, you're not going to be paying any more premiums, you're not going to be -- >> but they are going to have to pay a lot more in taxes. >> they're going to have to pay more -- some people will pay more, some people will not pay more. we will be funding it in a progressive way. but right now if you are a family of four, self-employed, do you know how much you're spending a year on healthcare out of your own pocket? $28,000 a year. that family will be a lot better off under our plan. furthermore, for seniors we are going to expand benefits to include dental care which are not included in medicare right now, hearing aids and eyeglasses as well. bottom line is we spend much more than any other country, we get much less. now, i understand that republicans will attack me every day. they're going -- >> it's not just republicans. some of your democratic colleagues are not with you on this. >> and the pharmaceutical industry will. but we have got to ask ourselves in terms of our healthcare system do we think it's appropriate for one guy who makes a deal, the guy who is head of aetna to get $500 million as a bonus for putting together a merger between aetna and cvs? that's what this healthcare system is about, huge profits for the insurance and drug companies. no other country tolerates. that. we shouldn't as well. >> medicare for all is something that helps people remember that you identify as a democratic socialist, you gave an entire speech on this, but that is a point of division between you and many others in the field, including governor hickenlooper who was just sitting here with my colleagues, but who also said this at the california state convention. take a look. >> if we want to beat donald trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer. i was reelected -- >> so how do you respond to governor hickenlooper? you have given an impassioned defense of this, but the republican party will paint you as an extremist and unelectable. >> but all of the ideas that we talk about are ideas that are supported by the majority of the american people. i have helped lead the effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour because i believe -- >> but isn't the label scary? isn't that a risk? >> i will take care of the label. >> how? >> i will tell you how. i will take care of the label first by telling the american people what i believe. if you work 40 hours a week you shouldn't live in poverty. i have helped lead the effort to minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, house of representatives will pass that bill i think in a couple weeks. >> you don't think these ideas function in a capitalist system. >> wait a second. the second point that i would make is a lot of people have a lot of good ideas, i'm fond of my democratic opponents, they're friends of mine, but here is the point that i hope everybody thinks about, we've heard a lot of great speeches over the years, we've had a lot of great ideas. how does it happen that for the last almost 50 years the middle class has been in decline despite all those great speeches? how does it happen that the very, very wealthy are becoming phenomenally wealthier. we have three people who own more wealth than the bottom half of the american people. so to me what democratic socialism is about is saying healthcare is a human right, if you work 40 hours a week you should earn a living wage, education is a living -- is a human right. by the way, we're going to have a tax system that is fair, not one that allows amazon owned by the wealthiest guy in america to make $11 billion in profits and not pay a nickel in federal taxes. not just amazon. we have a tax bill passed by trump that gives 83% of its benefits over a ten-year period to the top 1%. so to me it means we are going to ask the wealthy and large corporations to finally start paying their fair share of taxes. >> i think that we are having a sound test here on our stage so i do apologize for you being interrupted by that. i have one final political question before -- for you before i let you go. if it's clear that you are not going to be the democratic nominee, will you leave the race before the convention? >> i intend to be the democratic nominee. >> but if you are not. you stayed in last time and not people say that you hurt hillary clinton's candidacy. >> no, some people say that if maybe that system was not rigged against me i would have won the nomination and defeated donald trump. that's what some people say. so i think we're going to play it out, i think i am -- >> so you would take the risk that you might give donald trump an advantage? >> are you asking that of every candidate. >> if it's clear that you are not going to win the nomination will you concede. >> right now we are planning to win the democratic nomination. i'm proud of the campaigns in iowa and new hampshire and our grassroots support and the fact that we have a million volunteers. our goal right now is to win it. by the way, as you you might know, poll after poll shows me beating trump by 8, 9 or 10 points. we're going to beat trump and win the democratic nomination. >> are you a democrat? >> of course i'm a democrat. this is a democratth democratic national convention -- a democratic primary here. >> that's an easier answer to that question than i feel like we got in 2016. thank you very much for being here today. joining me now ali vitali. i think we also have former senior advisor to hillary clinton's campaign, adrian ellrod and from washington former senior advisor to jeb bush, michael steele. ali, let's talk about a little bit of what we heard from senator bernie sanders, and forgive me, again, we are still getting sound tests here where this debate stage is unfolding behind us. he was pretty clear in saying that he was a democrat, which, you know, feels a little new to my ears, but he also wouldn't say that he would get out of the race before the convention if it's clear he's not going to be the nominee. >> kasie, that exchange really struck knee, too. you have the sound check, we have the heat out here. on that exchange i was really struck by when he was saying that he wouldn't necessarily drop out. i get it, it's early in this race and you don't want to basically concede defeat if you are in it to win it, which obviously bernie sanders s but you're definitely right that that was a moment that really made my ears perk up in that strong exchange that you just have with him. there was also one other thing that he said where you basically asked him about the rest of the field and he effectively made an argument about how he would differentiate himself, he said all of these ideas have been good as they've been in the democratic ether for the past few years but the middle class is still on the decline. he's making that middle class economic argument and that's not in you for him but it's also not something that's only specific to him. elizabeth warren makes a similar argument, in fact, with a lot of the same policies that bernie sanders often espouses, joe biden makes a very middle class economic-centric argument with a little bit of a different policy metric than elizabeth warren and bernie sanders espouse. so there are policy differences but i thought it was really striking that that's the way that he would choose to differentiate himself from the democratic field by going after an economic message that several of his competitors share. >> i think that's a really good point there, ali. i want to bring in adrian who is a former adviser to hillary clinton to get your response to this question because frankly this is a question i've been asking myself the entirety of this primary is what would happen with bernie sanders if he indeed -- if his supporters stick with him, if he polls more than 15% during this prime err a and doesn't get out. he insisted or seems to blow past the idea that he had hurt hillary clinton by staying in until the convention. how messy does this potentially get if you have multiple candidates heading into a convention when you're trying to beat an incumbent president. >> it's gets very messy and that's exactly why, number one, the democratic primary calendar is front loaded to essentially prohibit something like that from happening. we have to unite this party going into 2020, we have to make sure that we have all hands on deck and we are unified to beat donald trump. if we have a protracted primary that isn't going to the convention floor and having a big fight in front of millions of americans in july that is not a good place to be. i hope any candidate who clearly gets to a point where there is no path for them to win i hope they do the right thing and drop out of the race. >> do we have michael steele from d.c.? michael, i'd like to get you to weigh in on this because we're about to see obviously one of these very crowded debate stages of which you and your republican colleagues are very familiar and bernie sanders of course is not going to be on stage with elizabeth warren tonight, she's going to be front and center here as the highest polling person right in the center of the stage, we're going to get that bernie/biden potential showdown coming up tomorrow. if you're elizabeth warren and are thinking about this rise in the polls, theres a sense that perhaps people who would be willing to support bernie sanders are coming towards her. what are you looking to accomplish tonight and how do you do it from a mechanical perspective if you have eight minutes? >> yeah, i mean, i think the big test right now for senator warren tonight is to be the biggest kid at the kids table. i think that because she doesn't have one of the other big three rivals there she has got to totally dominate that debate stage tonight and she's got to do it by drawing direct contrast with donald trump's policies and the plans that she has laid out to show the viewers that she is the best contender to take on donald trump in the fall of 2020. i think that's the -- the question for her is can she go toe to toe with donald trump and she's got to totally blow away the other nine candidates on this stage tonight to make that argument. >> we have one interesting debate moment from elizabeth warren's past that we wanted to show you. this was her debating scott brown, potentially give you a flavor of certainly what her campaign has been thinking about in terms of past debate performances. i guess we will see if it's prologue. take a look. >> throughout the routine that processor warren has been saying travelers insurance company is not going to pay a quarter of a million dollars to professor warren to be a hired gun to work for the victims. that's a lot different than what professor warren -- there's absolutely no evidence that professor warren would be voting and working across the aisle. >> excuse me. i'm not a student in your classroom. please let me respond, okay? professor warren would have actually voted against it because we had a compromise that the president put forth and she said she would not have supported that compromise. >> so that attack, adrian, this sort of professor -- the way in which he went after her, there is a lot of undertones and undercurrents and we have talked about some of them openly and others kind of run underneath this primary. >> sure. >> what do you take away from how she handled that moment with scott brown? >> i think she handled it very well. i think you will see her tonight have a similar type of, you know -- the way that she handles herself on a debate stage, i think you will see something like that similar tonight. to the point that michael just made, she is head and shoulders above everybody else that's going to be on that stage in terms of polling. it worked out randomly that way because when you took the totality of the polling from january up until about two weeks ago when the polling ended a lot of the other candidates were doing better, but now elizabeth warren is the one who is far and above exceeding expectations and doing better than everybody else. so i think you are going to see a command performance. i do think that for her she's going to make sure she goes out there, articulates her viewpoints which she certainly has not had issues with in the past doing, but also make sure that she has this presidential look where she is not necessarily -- >> rise above a little bit. >> rise above. she's not necessarily gets into the mix with some of the other candidates but is using the moment to articulate her policies and how she's going to pay for them. >> thank you both and our thanks to ali vitali as well. as the first round of 2020 candidates get ready for tonight, the crisis at the southern border is still dominating the headlines, especially after one extraordinarily haunting photo emerged overnight. we're going to warn you, it is very graphic. a father and his daughter found drowned on the banks of the rio grande. her arm still wrapped around him after they attempted to cross into the u.s. the little girl was just under two years old and that image has been seared into the american conscience in just the short amount of time that we have all seen it and the president just addressed it. >> i hate it and i know it could stop immediately if the democrats change the law. they have to change the laws and then that father, who probably was this wonderful guy, with his daughter, things like that wouldn't happen because that journey across that river -- that journey across that river is a very dangerous journey. >> there is no doubt the other presidential candidates are going to address that photo tonight, too, along with the conditions of the migrant children being kept at u.s. detention facilities. one of which has become a stop for the presidential contenders. joining me now msnbc correspondent jacob soboroff and nbc news correspondent cal perry. jacob, i just want to stop and take a minute to focus on the father and the daughter because i think anyone who, you know, is a parent or a human but especially it's hard not to see your own child when you look at that photo and think about what that would mean. you know, this is something that is really crystallized, i think, a story that you've been covering for months that has really come to a point where something has to be done. >> it's also a story that's played out -- i mean, i keep saying it all day long, it's horrific, it's sickening and honestly it's pathetic that in the united states of america over the course of the last 20 years, i was saying 30 in the last hour but i looked again, 20 years, over 7,000 people have died trying to cross to get into this country just like that father and his daughter died last week. it's all about deterrents-based immigration and when the president comes out there today again reacting to this picture saying we need to have stronger laws, close the loopholes, those are euphemisms for deporting people immediately back to their home one trees when we get here and are young and unaccompanied and putting families in detention to scare people away. we know that trying to scare people away from entering this country doesn't work. donald trump has been trying to do it his entire administration and look at what happened to that family and to all of the other people that are dying crossing into this country. >> can i ask you to just respond to what the president had to say there. i think there are quite a few people who blame the president for this. >> i think completely disingenuous. the president constantly blaming democrats for not passing a piece of legislation is wrong. it's wrong and it's wrong because what he wants to do is not going to help the problem, it's going to make the problem worse by doubling down on a deterrent strategy that's not just failed during his administration, it failed under bill clinton, under george bush, under barack obama. people keep coming and people keep dying. what the president wants to do is not going to kofl that. >> cal perry, you have been reporting from this facility in homestead, this privately-run facility that many democratic candidates have been visiting over the course of today, several are planning visits on friday. what have you seen over the course of the day? >> reporter: senator amy klobuchar is here now, we can show a live picture of her as not only these candidates but the media that follows these candidates has descended on this facility, as you said, private facility, one of its kind here in florida, the largest of its kind, somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 kids are inside this facility, we are talking about kids aged between 13 and 17. when you talk about a privately-run facility, a facility run for profit, it raises the question why are these kids not getting out to their points of contact around the u.s. more quickly. in an expedited fashion. that is what candidates here are saying. and as you sort of know everybody is gearing up for this debate tonight, we heard from elizabeth warren, she was here earlier dealing with the scrum of media, here is how she described the conditions that she saw looking out over the camp. >> this president has put us into this situation with an inhumane policy, starting with the separation of parents and kids at the border, of course, there was so much push back on that that they reversed that position, but we still have kids that we don't know where they are and we still haven't gotten accurate numbers and we think there is some separation going on. [ inaudible ]. >> these children pose no threat to people here in the united states of america and yet they are locked up for weeks, for months because our government is following a policy of inflicting maximum pain on families that flee here. >> so i think that was -- that's elizabeth warren there in the orange hat down at the bottom of your screen, it's a little bit hard to hear her. and that of course was amy klobuchar as well talking about her experience touring the facility and of course we have been talking here about that incredibly gut wrenching photo that i think has really brought this back again home for all of us. cal perry and jacob soboroff, thank you both so much. >> thanks. coming up next, an exclusive look inside the gop's war room where the party will respond to tonight's debate. and i'm going to speak with rnc chairwoman ronna mcdaniel about that and more when we return live from miami. t that and more when we return live from miami. ♪ we're carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old, we want to buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate, answer a few questions, and our techno-wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot, and pick up your car. that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way-- at carvana. hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. miami. in all six women candidates will be on the debate stage tonight and tomorrow, that is the most women candidates who ever fight for the nominations of either party. while democratic presidential hopefuls take the stage for today's debate, their republican opponents will have one goal in mind, spin, spin, spin. they even built a war room. joining me nbc news political reporter monica alba who got an exclusive look inside the republican national committee's war room. monica, what is the strategy coming out of there for tonight? >> reporter: that's right, we got a special look inside the building behind me where we have a few dozen staffers who have basically been here since the early hours of the morning and will be here well past midnight monitoring every word that is going to come out of the democrats' mouths. that's, of course, building on research packets that they have worked on for months and months that include hundreds of hours of video of the contenders as well as thousands of pages of public record requests, but it's really an unprecedented task. they have never had to deal with so many democratic candidates in one field let alone on stage together, ten each night. take a look to what one rnc official had to say about how they have to factor that into their strategy and i appropriate. >> certainly the challenge is that some you know better than others, some have been around longer than others so you naturally have more information. so that's why they've been going through two organize it to figure out, again, what is the theme. what we've seen i think joe biden said it himself, bernie sanders socialist platform works for all of them. we do have those natural themes that are emerging and want to make sure people see that. our biggest challenge is making sure people are getting the information and that's why they've been working, yes, over a year plus, but also in the last several weeks to figure out the best ways to disseminate it as quickly as possible. >> reporter: so, kasie, that's really a look at the kind of digital spin room. of course, you will have the physical spin room down there in miami, but the republicans really hoping to capitalize in this infinite sphere where they can take a viral moment, a tweetable moment, highlight it, blast it out to all of their major lists and they will hope to fund raise off of it and capitalize in that way as well. not just democrats watching tonight, certainly the republicans will be keeping an eye on everything. kasie? >> and, monica, what do we know about what the president himself is going to be doing tonight? >> reporter: right. so the president is actually currently on air force one on his way to the g20 conference in osaka, japan. he has said that he, quote/unquote, has to watch the debate because that is his job and that is what he's dealing with. he said he was going to kind of be a reluctant viewer, but if the past is any indication i think it's safe to say there may be some tweets. we certainly know he has access to satellite television and wifi aboard air force one, so i think his reaction is absolutely something that people will be looking to and the rnc has said that's something we can't prepare for, we don't know what he's going to say, but they will certainly follow his lead and take that as the main message that they will be building off of, but he's got a lot of hours of travel ahead of him, i think it's about 13 or 14 hours until he's on the ground, so that will be something to watch tonight for sure, kasie. >> and we know that idle thumbs yield unpredictable evenings for all of us. monica alba, thank you very much for that reporting. joining me now the chairwoman of the republican national committee ronna romney mcdaniel. madam chairwoman, thank you so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. it's hot here in miami. >> indeed it is. and you earlier today were speaking with reporters talking about what you called the dangers of socialism. now, i was just speaking with bernie sanders who, of course, is unabashed in his embrace of that label and he says, you know, so i think that everyone should have healthcare, i think that everybody should be paid a living wage. what exactly is wrong with that in your view? >> well, saying everybody should have healthcare and then saying we're going to do medicare for all and take away your private healthcare plans is saying you are not going to have a choice in your healthcare, we're going to dictate from the government what the healthcare is going to be and costs are going to skyrocket because bernie sanders doesn't even know how he would pay for that. so i think it's great to put those ideas out, but you have to have a structure as to how you're going to pay for it and have to make sure that the quality of healthcare is maintained and that that doctor/patient relationship is maintained. >> he has knowledge -- >> huge increases in taxes, yeah, and taking away people's private healthcare. i want to be able to pick what my healthcare should be, i want to be able to pick who my doctor is. i want to be able to have that choice. that's fundamental to our healthcare system. saying we're going to strip hundreds of millions of healthcare plans away is not okay and it's a total government takeover. >> is there any one of these 20 contenders on stage tonight that you would say is not a socialist? >> you know, i don't know. we're going to see tonight. we will see if they differentiate. certainly seems like everybody is lurching to the left. joe biden has said i'm more progressive than any other candidate -- >> do you think it equals socialist. >> i think he means socialist. the one thing i agree with wasserman schultz wholeheartedly is his ideas that are fringe years ago with mainstream in the democratic party. i think it is a lurch towards government takeover of everything and that's not what the american dream is about. i was in a cuban restaurant today, those people were saying we don't want another cuba, we don't want the government dictating to us how we live our lives, we don't want redistribution. this will be a policy debate between socialism and capitalism. >> while i have you here, i have actually been to that cafe in the course of campaigning, it's a familiar place for republicans campaigning on the trail, one thing, though, that is not happening here in florida but that has really captured the attention of the nation is the photograph of his father and daughter drowned in the rio grande. i'm not sure if you can see this where you're standing -- >> i have seen the image, yes. yes. >> who is to blame? >> well, i'm just going to say as a mother and i think, kasie, you can agree with this, it's a heartbreaking image. it's nothing we want to see. the president has been trying to solve this issue since he has gotten into office. he has said immigration is a crisis. nancy pelosi in january walked out of a meeting with homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen at the time and said i don't believe in your statistics and this is a manufactured crisis. i think today every american is recognizing this is not a manufactured crisis. we have a huge problem at our border and it's time for everyone to step up and work together. i think the president has said the right thing. congress, i'm giving you two weeks to fix this. let's come together on a bipartisan way, fix the humanitarian crisis and also let's fix our borders, make sure that we have security. let's fix our asylum laws so we don't have this inundation of people coming in and having at harm's way so we don't have this tragic ending like we've seen today. >> i have heard many democrats acknowledge that there is a humanitarian crisis at the border and i think we have all been reminded of that with that very emotional photograph, but do you not believe that this president bears responsibility for the suffering of so many children? he implemented this no tolerance separation policy at the border, we have had reports in the last week of hundreds of children living in deplorable conditions, no the being able to shower, you know, for weeks at a time, teenage mothers with, you know, excrement in some cases. the picture that this paints is extraordinarily bleak and frankly this was not the scenario that we were dealing with under the bush or obama administrations. i mean, there seems to be a clear link between the president's policies and what's happening at the border. >> well, kasie, we've never seen this type of influx into our country before. we are on track to have a million illegal people apprehended this year at the border. we have never seen this. i mean, it's just unprecedented. for a lot of reasons, one, the economy is so strong people are coming here to get jobs. the presidents had a policy in place that was adopted under president obama which was the separation policy. president trump put an end to that. we want to make sure that we have good conditions at our border but democrats -- nancy pelosi has been in congress, she's been the speaker since january, why hasn't she stepped up to try to fix this? when the government shutdown took place she said open the government, mr. president and then we can negotiate and she's done nothing. so it's sad that it's taken this to get the democrats to act, but we all need to come together right now to fix our border and this is something the president has been talking about for years. >> all right. chairwoman -- rnc chairwoman ronna mcdaniel, thank you very much for your time today. it's great to talk to you. >> thanks for having me. we are going to be back to our 2020 debate coverage in just a bit, but we are also following big news on capitol hill where robert mueller has been subpoenaed to testify before congress. here is how the president reacted this past hour. >> the mueller thing never stops. there was no collusion, there was no obstruction, there was no nothing. how many times do we have to hear it? it never ends, it just keeps going on and on. >> the joint subpoena was sent by the democratic chairs of the house judiciary and intelligence committees who wrote to mueller, quote, the american public deserves to hear directly from you. the subpoena sets the stage for what is sure to be a dramatic joint hearing with members of both committees on july 17th, but it remains to be seen what mueller will offer, particularly given these comments about possible testimony that he made just weeks ago. >> any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. it contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. we chose those the decisions we made. we chose the words carefully and the work speaks for itself. the report is my testimony. i would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. >> joining me is jackie speir. thank you for being here today. >> great to be with you today. >> you are on the intelligence committee. you have been in these closed door sessions with trump aide, family members. robert mueller said his testimony is going to be the report and nothing more than the report. what makes you think you can get more from him than simply what we have already learned? >> first of all, it's 400 pages long and i don't think most americans have read it. they will listen to the gravitas of bob mueller even if he's reading from the excerpts. one of the things he said in the press conference is his statement in which he said russia has attack our country and they will do it again. i think he needs to expand on that. i think we need to hear more about the more than 200 contacts that the trump campaign had with russians and the more than 30 meetings that took place between donald trump's campaign and russian operatives. >> what will be your first question for robert mueller once you have the opportunity? >> my first question would be about those various contacts. about the fact that russia's attack was so extensive and if you look at the report, it goes into great deal with how extensive and how effective russia was in knowing granularly what was going on in trump campaign and what would help him win. >> congresswoman, is there anything at this point that the white house can do to interfere with or try to disrupt robert mueller's testimony from your understanding of how these negotiations went? we know the subpoena was not describe -- his appearance was not described as voluntary. he is complying with a issue kne -- subpoena. the administration is stepped in of trying to prevent you from learning new information. is there anything that can prevent you? >> i don't think there is. he's no longer a federal employee and not part of the department of justice. the president has shown such a lawlessness in not allowing many people to testify. we had to issue a subpoena today for kellyanne conway to womanco and testify. she doesn't have any position where there's an attorney-client relationship and she thumbed her nose at the system even after it was determined she slighviolate hatch act. she's violating the subpoena and the law but not complying with the hatch act. >> do you believe that there should -- i know you've said there will be impeachment proceedings, do you think robert mueller will be enough to convince the speaker that that's the path that you should take? >> i think time will tell. i don't know if his testimony alone but maybe listening to some of the chief deputies that worked with him on the investigation will provide us more of an understanding of all that went on. it's very hard after two years of doing this investigation to reduce toyo reduce it to 400 pages and have it be the ebe all end all. >> we'll be back with more debate coverage up after a quick break. debate coverage up after a quick break. woman: (on phone) discover. hi. do you have a travel card? 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