This is the story. Today were live in our nations capitol ahead of tonights consequential state of the Union Address. Youre going to see a very energized president says his chief of staff. Still some democrats said to be nervous about the stakes for this evening. The Washington Post put it this way. The goal is not to give up old man vibes. It could be the last time that he in front of such a big tv audience until at least the convention. Voters will no doubt be weighing whether or not hes held up to this promise from the beginning of its presidency. Watch this. Im a man of my word. America is back. I speak to you today as president of the United States at the very start of my administration and im sending a clear message to the world. America is back. Martha a lot has happened since then. The chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan. Attacks on our troops in the middle east, the explosion of the border crisis, which is a huge issue to name a few. We kick things off with bret baier in d. C.
Gave the republican party equal seats on all committees and the ability to delay key votes. joining me now, steve kornacki at the big board, vaughan hillyard and here with me in washington, kristin welker. and mark murray. steve, take us through what we should be watching for tonight and what the runoff electorate in georgia may be telling us about what to expect today. the backdrop for tonight, here is the general election result back in november. warnock did finish a point ahead of herschel walker. warnock was about a little more than 20,000 more votes, if he picked up a little bit more than 20,000 more, we wouldn t be in the runoff. he would have cleared 50%. from that, what warnock comes into today with a bit of an advantage and democrats have felt very good about what they have seen in terms of the early vote, in terms of demographics
Anderson. she s a gop pollster and strategist, now also cnn political commentator, and she s here with me in washington. good to see you. good to see you, brian. i have been wanting to talk to you about a while about these focus groups. every time you speak to voters, i learn more. what you have learned so far about the disconnects between the public and the press, media and the public. i learned a lot of americans are really focused on the challenges they re facing in their own lives and that s not always exactly what they re seeing covered in the media. for instance, the very first focus group we did for the new york times, i was talking to republican voters about january 6th. in those focus groups we found for many of those republicans, they were horrified by what they had seen on the television but at the same time had been following beat by beat who texted whom and which congressman from where were sending texts from mark meadows.
About medicare for all or a public option but many voters say that the thing that they are most interested in is ways to bring health care costs down, by reducing prescription drug costs and reducing premiums. well, our road warriors have been crisscrossing the country as well with the candidates for months. ally, in florida, and mike in des moines and monica alba here with me in washington. so mike, let me start with you. on health care. it does seem as if in the last three months, the moderates or the pragmatists are suddenly winning the fight over the progress eves. six months ago, the progress ives were winning, and medicare for all looks like it was on, now it does look like suddenly the biden side of the argument is winning the day. oh, chuck, in philadelphia, they re smiling very broadly right now because this is really the fundamental bet that the biden campaign has been premised
They knew what was coming. so we shouldn t just think of it a as a 48 hour window. rosenstein and then barr would have known the evidence or lack thereof that robert mueller had collected on the obstruction question. so it is not just 48 hours. that s their argument. but i think we ll hear from more people in the coming days especially as congress weighs in on this. did they move in a direction that maybe wasn t explicitly laid out from the special counsel? i for one yes, i m surprised that mueller himself didn t weigh in on that. but it seemed it was a jump ball. we ll come back to you all evening. so thank you for your coverage right now. ken dilanian is joining me and natasha bertrand here with me in washington. ken, your view? ari, look, i think after covering this investigation for two years, we have to just take note of the fact that this