The total count. Unsurprisingly, the memes out of iowa abounded. It was called the iowa carcass. It was likened to a dumpster fire. Bring in the count, they joked. Or maybe rock, paper scissors would have netted better results. How could this have happened . Sharpies, coin tosses, tech nick lal glitches and reporting inconsistencies resulted in one of the most chaotic and confounding caucus night, but then i repeat myself in modern history. Adding to the confusion, Trump Supporters reportedly encouraged prank calls into the iowa caucus hotline. Hilarious, guys. But look, this is no laughing matter. Were busy people. If youre like me, you multitask like a pro. Right now as i do this live show im also texting with a source, ordering dinner with my family, dming a sweater and knitting a sweater under the desk. Modern technology has simplified even the most complicated of decisions and tanks including voting or so we thought. For all those reasons its easy to forget that what we are doing right now, casting our first ballots for the next president of the United States, was envisioned by the Founding Fathers as one of our most singularly important duties and rights. The founders knew that everything in an experimental wouldbe democracy would hinge on this very thing. The ability of its citizens to determine their own fates through the radical act of voting. Samuel adams, yes, he of the great boston lager said in 1781 said that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual or at least that he ought not so to do, but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in Human Society for which he is accountable to god and his country. And alexander hamilton, yes, he of the awardwinning Broadway Musical wrote just a few years later in 1784, a share in the sovereignty of the state which is exercised by the citizens at large and voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject and in a republic, ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law. And nearly a hundred years later james garfield, him not of the jim davis comic strip, wrote now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. Indeed. So here we are. Trying to make one of the most important decisions a citizenry can make, and were being asked to do so in the midst of an absolute cacophony of crazy, and its not just the failures in iowa putting undue pressure in all of us and the process. Every election usually has a surprise, maybe two, that throws a wrench into the system. This ones already had the mother lode. Think about it. During this election cycle, the sitting president of the United States was impeached and acquitted. We came to the brink of war with a run just a month ago. The dow has hit record highs, unemployment record lows. A total of 29 candidates entered the democratic primary including to who got in just over two months ago and 11 are still in it. Weve already had an Election Integrity scandal in the first contest. Likewise, we know that at least three separate Foreign Countries are trying to influence the 2020 elections and thats according to our own intelligence officials. In short, were a gary hart monkey business, a bushgore hanging chad, a george w. Bush dui and a Mccain Campaign suspension all at the same time and its only february. How can you be expected to make a decision about who should run the country with all of this detroitus flying around in the air . So heres the deal, how are you doing . Are you hanging in there, america . Because this is not normal. In fact, i think its really unfair. Its unfair to you that the president of the United States has tried multiple times to interfere with your electoral process and may do so again. I think it is unfair to you that republicans in congress are totally unconcerned by this that they decided that keeping their jobs was more important than doing their jobs. I think its unfa irir to you t the Democratic NationalCommittee Said trust us as we figure out in real time how to count votes in a primary and its unfair to you that this nonsense is your government at work. I believe that the president has learned from this case. I tore up a manifesto of mistruths. We first went through russia, russia, russia. It was all bull [ expletive ]. This is a day of celebration because we went through hell and then you had some that used religion as a crutch. They never used it before. Power of mitch mcconnell, i would expel mitt romney from the republican caucus. Part of me thinks, garfield is right, weve got the government we deserve and its broken, but another part of me Still Believes we deserve better, a lot better. So lets demand it. Back in a minute. Dishwasher dot dishes completely dry. Try finish jetdry. It dries 100 better than detergent alone even plastics. Get dishes drier than you ever thought possible. Try finish jetdry. woman no matter what business you are in, Digital Transformation never stops. Verizon keeps business ready for whats next. man we weave security into their business. second man virtualize their operations. third man and could even build ai into their customer experiences. We also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. Like 5g. woman where machines could talk to each other and expertise could go anywhere. woman when it comes to Digital Transformation, verizon keeps business ready. With your dna results from ancestry®. I was able to discover one cousin, reached out to him, visited ireland, met another 20 cousins. They took me to the cliffs of moher, the ancestral home, the family bar. It really gives you a sense of connection to. Something thats bigger than yourself. Greater details. Richer stories. And now with health insights. Get your dna kit at ancestry. Com. Thats what happens in golf nothiand in life. Ily. Im very fortunate i can lean on people, and that for me is what teamwork is all about. You cant do everything yourself. You need someone to guide you and help you make those tough decisions, thats Morgan Stanley. Theyre industry leaders, but the most important thing is they want to do it the right way. Im really excited to be part of the Morgan Stanley team. Im justin rose. We are Morgan Stanley. Man, im thinking tacos. Hey hey you guys look like foodies. Would you like to try our trashy back ribs . Oh, that sounds great. Everything is locally harvested, farm to dumpster to table. Uhhh, what do you. What else do you got . stammering wwe have a melon rind stew. Comes with a pork and bean reduction. Yeah, were going to just do a lap and well come back. Okay. Well, well be here. Man why isnt this working . My mouth is watering. I think thats just your rabies flaring up. With geico, the savings keep on going. Just like this sequel. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. We got gristle pot pies after the mess that was the iowa caucus, kdemocrats were let scrambling to New Hampshire without a clear winner. The idea was to reset, build momentum and get a couple of last licks in before the next primary, but instead for some reason unknown to me they treated tepid talking points and milked Campaign Slogans when they werent gushing over each other. Senator klobuchar, you served with senator sanders in the senate. Is he going to be able to get the support . Not if you like it, but is he going to get the support that he needs from republicans . [ applause ] okay. I like bernie just fine. And this is what passed for taking each other on last on. Mayor buttigieg is a great guy and a real patriot. Hes the mayor of a small city who has done some good things, but has not demonstrated he has the ability to and well soon find out, to get a broad scope of support across the spectrum including africanamericans and latinos. We need a perspective right now that will allow us to leave the politics of the past in the past, turn the page and bring change to washington before its too late. We have a newcomer in the white house and look where it got us. I think having some experience is a good thing. Ooh sick burn, guys. You guys do know this is a competition, right . And theres one winner. In the immortal words of the rell world its time to stop being polite and start getting real. So how does iowa in this lukewarm debate preview what could happen in New Hampshire on tuesday . Joining me to figure it out is former press secretary for the Kamala Harris campaign ian sands and executive director ian beck. Last nights debate for me was not full contact. It was powder puff and it had me longing for Kamala Harris and her stealth moves. In that debate moment where she sparred with joe biden, she looked like she wanted to win and i didnt see anyone last night that looked like they wanted to win. What did you think . You and me both. You and me both. I wish she was still in this race and was still competing, as well, but look, the nature of these campaigns is theyre long and challenging and what we saw last night the reason people are playing relatively nice for one another is that this field is broadly united on the fact that when we have a nominee, we need to come together behind them and not risk any interparty mess hurting our ability to defeat donald trump in november and in the sense for the candidates to go fullthroatedly at each other because of a fear that maybe it could affect our general election prospects in damaging them too much. Theyre playing nice while trying to distinguish themselves positively. Isnt the goal to make distinctions for voters and they were all saying how much they liked each other and you had tom steyer putting a button on it by saying we all agree on everything. How does that help voters . Yeah. I completely agree with you. I think this has been a relatively tame primary with not a lot of contrast and distinction. You saw last night was one memorable moment for me is Vice President biden did take on sanders with his weak history y see it happen in the debate and why have they not engaged each other more directly, and i do think theres fear and concern about alienating each others supporters, but as this race gets tighter and tighter you will see more and more direct conflict. Just today Vice President biden has gone after mayor buttigieg with the digital ad. As things get hotter and more contests get under our belt you will see more distinction. So, neil, you were at the debate and in the room. People say that Amy Klobuchar had a good night and she raised 2 million overnight. Did it feel like her night inside the room where you were . Definitely. I think that she got pretty good ratings out of what happened last night, but youre right. The gloves really didnt come off. I would say if anyone did go on attack or go on contrast it was Amy Klobuchar and there seems to be with all of these debates, there seems to be that theyre not too interested in taking each other on thinking that at some point in time theyll need some persons support and their supporters. The thing is weve hosted these debates for a long time. Four years ago we hosted a debate with donald trump on the stage with 13 republicans and if any of these democrats believe that theyre going to be able to have that same approach on a stage next fall theyre wrong. This is a this is a fight that they need to show and they need to show it to democratic voters. Just as an asterisk, i have been saying for months i dont think donald trump will show up to debate anyone, but i take your point. This has not been a preparation for facing off with donald trump, and the biden camp is now sort of downplaying the significance of New Hampshire and biden himself basically conceded defeat last night already. Take a listen. I took a hit in iowa and ill probably take it here. Traditionally bernie won by 20 points last time and usually its the neighboring senators that do well. Ill probably take a hit here. Neil, thats a strategy, i guess. That was the most amazing moment in the debate. Here you have the former Vice President of the United States and hes lagging in the polls. He didnt get a trophy out of iowa, and now hes already, before the so the voting has started conceding to the fact that hes going to lose and he gives it away to the fact that bernie lives in a neighboring state which is a maying to me. Its almost as if he wasnt Vice President for eight years getting all of that earned media and all of that focus on him. So i think that thats just an amazing thing, and if you add that to the point that he had this big change up in his own Campaign Management at the same time, he changed what he was doing now with New Hampshire. Hes gone on an attack with Pete Buttigieg. It is a very strange situation. Ian, todays just to add to what he said. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. I just want to say one thing about this, the Biden Campaign is trying to reframe everyones thinking into iowa and New Hampshire doesnt really matter too much for them and their strategy is always focused on South Carolina and super tuesday. Theyre kind of going above and beyond to really emphasize that they expect to do badly here, and i dont im not sure that thats the wisest tact. Today i was at a forum put on by demand justice in concord, New Hampshire, and all of the top candidates were there besides joe biden and he was doing an otr stop, an unscheduled stop in the community and it doesnt seem a good signal if youre not present and fighting with all youve got between now and tuesday. I dont think New Hampshire will be central to their strategy and start thinking about nevada, South Carolina and super tuesday. Yeah. I heard one of bidens Campaign People the other day say we really look at the first four contests as a package, and i thought what . What does that even mean . You have to spin it in your favor New Hampshire voters, i grew up in neighboring massachusetts and i am a mass hole and massachusetts voters are very different from New Hampshire voters and vermont voters are very different, but for warren and for bernie, how do each of you expect them to do in New Hampshire, real quick . Neil, well start with you. I disagree with the idea that someones from a neighboring state and therefore theyll do well. Yeah. I think democrats are focused on beating donald trump and theyll pick the best candidate and buttigieg is evidence to that. To add on to what neil said, you look at the numbers over the last week and we had the daily tracking polls coming out of New Hampshire and its Pete Buttigieg who is rising and at this point in his trajectory, hell win on tuesday and the Bernie Sanders does have an advantage in this state and having won it so significantly, and i know i was in hillarys campaign and we lost big here, and i think he had an advantage coming in, but Pete Buttigieg has erased it and theres palpable excitement around Pete Buttigiegs candacy and well find out tuesday if hes able to pull a big surprise and it will mess up the way we look at bigger states and we thought there was no way mayor pete would be successful in a state like nevada and super tuesday. If he can win states they might start changing their mind and giving him a third look. Ian neil, thank you so much if the Granite State tonight for your insight. I appreciate it. Okay. 11 democrats are left standing and i want to focus one in particular next. The one with the best chance of winning the nomination and that according to the latest polling and the president s direct appeal to africanamerican vote se ers is laughable to some, but should democrats be concerned . Lysol kills over 100 illness causing germs and viruses. Even those that may cause runny noses. Lysol, what it takes to protect. sensei a live bookkeeper quickbooks for me. Tomize live bookkeeper okay, youre all set up. sensei thanks that was my business gi, this ones casual. vo get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. Mucinex cold flu allinone. Fights. Oh no. Nonono. Did you really need the caps lock . Mucinex cold and flu allinone. The tweet was straightforward and concise. We are the strongest campaign to defeat donald trump. That was the bold declaration from Bernie Sanders yesterday making the case for his lktability lk electability, a clear second place finish in iowa beating trump in headtohead general matchups and perhaps most convincingly, money. Lots of it. Sanders raised a whopping 25 million in january, more than his fundraising numbers in the first and second quarters of 2019 combined. Contrast that to joe biden who is hemorrhaging money or Elizabeth Warren who is hemorrhaging staff in key states like nevada. Sanders is in an enviable position and he has the resources to go as long as he want, but can he still win it all . With me is matt bennett, the cofounder of third way, a think tank promoting sent rift ideas along with host of the resistance abroad nayra hoch. It seems like sanders has sort of cleared the progressive lane for himself. Is warren still a threat to him . We tend to forget that warren actually came in third when she was true. Ahead of biden. It doesnt seem to be part of the conversation were having heading into employ nah, but what i find fascinating about the Bernie Coalition is that it has lasted since 2015. He is the only one in this entire race who has seen something through to the convention and hes maintained his organizing power and were seeing results of it. She doesnt have that. Due to bernie that someone like Pete Buttigieg who says hes the compromise solution and hes fundamentally changed the conversation. Elizabeth warren comes in with a bit of a different coalition, right . She polls from the hillary voters and the pragmatists because she has plans. If you say so. She has plans. A lot of them and she goes into South Carolina potentially as the only person who can pull with block voters. Shes done a longterm effort of recruiting and reaching out to black women who are the base of the democratic party. Ayana presley and broke with bernie. And there is hope for the progressive coalition. They cant both win so ones going to have to sort of get a decisive lead over the other at some point. Only he can mobile ieize the enthusiasm to beat trump to bring voters to the polls. That was not the case in iowa. It was not. Turnout was comparable to 2016 and below 2018. That is that a red flag for him . Oh, yeah. The entire premise of his case is im going to excite the base and excite these low propensity and new voters so much that theyll flock to the polls for me. Where were they . In 2008 the turnout was 30 higher than we saw last monday. So we see zero evidence. It is true as nayera said those people are unshakeable and they yell at me on twitter a lot. Me, too. Thats not enough and if we are to beat trump we have to do better than that. No one should argue he cant win a primary, and he can. What are the deficiencies. He is a selfdescribed socialist. He can put a label before it however he want, but he has said many times on television in his 50 years in public lives i am a socialist. He has said on cnn, i think americans would be delighted to pay more in taxes. Not this american. You dont have to be like an Opposition Research genius to figure out what to do with that and trump will have half a billi billion dollars that hammer a nominee. Theyll call whoever it is a socialist, but if the person says hes a socialist it will stick. Sanders took on bloomberg this week and has money is bloomberg a threat not just to sanders. The foil of the actual successful billionaire who is truly self made and ran the entire city. I think hes a threat to mayor pete in particular because being mayor of new york is different than being mayor of south bend even though there are challenges with communities of color. I think for many people heading into this, if they dont get their progressive or their ideal visionary candidate, bloomberg does come across like the ultimate, fine, well put up a foil to trump who can out money, out fund him. For sure. Its super tuesday, right . We dont see him in iowa and New Hampshire. We see him playing a game and a couple of weeks down the road and why even bother to have iowa and New Hampshire to begin with . Why do those go first . Matt, i havent seen anyone in the democratic primary take on bernie. I doesnt see it last night. Joe biden tried a little bit on the gun record, but i would think that would be a huge vulnerability for Bernie Sanders in the democratic primary and the gloves have mostly been on when it comes to bernie. Two questions. Does that change soon and does that really help prepare him for a general election . God, i hope so, and no, it does not. He has been in public life for 50 years. Yes. He has been a mayor, a senator and member of congress, no one has gone after him and hillary didnt go after him in 2016 and she needed his supporters in the general. That didnt work out, 25 who voted for bernie didnt vote. So why hasnt anyone gone after him yet . It is a mystery to me and to your point, if they dont start to expose things in the winter and the spring, its going to come out in the fall and thats going to be much worse. Heres what bernie can do. He has his followers and others and even who dont agree is hes someone who has been consistent and he knows how to actually fight. He and his people do not worry about getting scrappy and into it. So i would be inkreeged about what he taking the fight to donald trump would look like. If youre a bern fan you would hope he gets that far. 80 to 90 of everyone who support the field, even James Carville who has tons of criticism about what the conversation of socialism has done said i will support Bernie Sanders until the end. Negative partisanship that republican and trump have gone off the end will be a huge voter turnout motivator regardless of who the nominee is. To your point that will be a big driver in the three states that matter, michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. Those voters can be driven by negative partisanship on the other side and could be afraid of voting for a socialist after an unbelievable onslaught from trump saying this guy is dangerous. It is all very interesting. Well have to see how bernie does on tuesday. It will be a potentially a big night for him. So good to have you both. Appreciate it. The president s pitch to black voters this week has not been subtle. To some its been laughable, but should the conversation be less about what hes doing to appeal to this important voting bloc and more about what democrats are doing to keep it. Do you have concerns about mild memory loss related to aging . Prevagen is the number one pharmacistrecommended memory support brand. 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Slow heart rhythm has been reported. Tell your doctor about bleeding new or unexpected shortness of breath any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. If you recently had a heart attack, ask your doctor if brilinta is right for you. My heart is worth brilinta. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. [ fastpaced drumming ] in the red file tonight, a crucial democratic voting bloc. Africanamericans. Is it up for grabs . President Trumps Campaign advisers seem to think so. They ran a Super Bowl Ad touting his criminal Justice Reform featuring Alice Johnson to whom trump granted clemency in 2018. I am free to start over. This is the greatest day of my life. My heart is just bursting with gratitude. I want to thank president donald john trump. His state of the union speech was also full of explicit appeals to africanamerican voters. Everybody said that criminal Justice Reform couldnt be done, but i got it done and the people in this room got it done. Charles is one of the last surviving tuskegee airmen, the first black Fighter Pilots and he also happens to be ians greatgrandfather. To e paexpand equal opportunity am glad he achieved record and historic funding for historic lie black colleges and universities. Hes been good for africanamericans and whether he can earn enough of their votes remains to be seen. At least one person, the president s soninlaw Jared Kushner believes trump needs to peel away just a small fraction of black voter support from democrats to successfully win reelection. With me now is cnn political commentator van jones to help pass the first step act. Simple question can trump win enough black voters . Well, thats a complicated question. The vast majority of africanamericans in 2016 and the vast majority will vote against him again. 96 thats close to unanimous and 88 of black men. Can he win the black vote, no, he cannot. However, this is where it gets complicated. In michigan, which matters, in pennsylvania, which matter, in wisconsin, which matters, can he shave off enough black votes to possibly put him in the winners column . That is conceivable because when you have 96 of the vote theres only one way to go, which is down, and so if you see any reduction at all in the plaque vote it makes it tougher for democrats. I arc mraud him making overtures, you know, to black voters, but i just wonder if the appeals to white nationalists which is overt and the appeal to black voters, dont those things cancel each other out . Ordinary this is Peanut Butter and ketchup. You cant put them on the same sandwich . Thats ordinarily what youre dealing with. Theres Something Interesting about the Trump Coalition which is that it is so consolidated around him that no matter what he does that core nativist base is not going to leave him. Ironically by being so strong in his appeal to the nativists he can reach out to others and not pay a cost. Do you think its inauthentic . Do you think this is an appeal for white suburban women to say im not all bad. Im going to make you feel good. Im doing something that youve criticized me for not doing . You know, its very hard to know why politicians do what they do. Theres always a mix of motives and always a mix of pulls and pushes. What i do know is this, democrats have as our core vote the africanamerican vote. Thats the cornerstone of our party and in some ways theres a feeling that maybe weve taken that vote for granted for too long and thats why you see democrats doing things now that you never saw them doing before from criminal Justice Reform to reparations and theres suddenly a view, if this constituency starts slipping away from us, we could be in real trouble, and i think that there is a sense inside the blue bubbles if youre in new york or l. A. , hell never get a single black vote. Hold on a second, he will say the whole nation and the central park five, and you know what . For a lot of people thats enough of a disqualifier, but you have other people who say hes doing something for plaque colleges and ill give him a listen. Do not take the black vote for granted in this election and dont pick somebody who will not a appeal to black people because youll be hurting the cause. He has held a lion share of africanamerican vote going into the election. Its conceivable he doesnt end up getting the nomination. Who gets his votes . Think Elizabeth Warren has real appeal and shes working really hard to get the black female vote. Black women outvote everybody. On a per capita basis that is the best possible group and shes going after that, but its really hard to know. People think that bloomberg might be disqualified because of stop and frisk. I dont think necessarily so. For young voters, sure. For older voters who are looking for some place to go. Theyve seen wall to wall, blanket coverage and he can make the case on other issues. He may have a pathway to the black vote. If biden collapses bloomberg might be collective and with more reliable, older black voters. I think the democrats spent a lot of time last night deservedly talking about race at the debate and heres some of what they said. Weve got to stop taking the black community for granted. Thats the starting place. Year after year after year, election after election after election, democrats go to the people of the black community and say we really care about the issues and racism is terrible, and we all want to do something and then somehow the problem just seems to keep getting worse. Is this a little late . It might be a little bit late, but ill tell you what, its good to hear some acknowledgement of that and if youre an africanamerican voter, you understand. Ill get it and im supposed to stand in a fivehour long line in the freezing cold in michigan so the democrats can win and never speak to me again for four years. Right. And its gotten old and tired. So the other thing that happens with . Our party is well spend a billion dollars on an election and 97 of the Campaign Dollars go to white maleowned firms. So you know, again, what is it that were getting out of this relationship . I think that it can strengthen the Africanamerican Community overall having the competition between the two parties. For a long time, the black vote was taken for granted by democrats and written off by republicans. Thats not happening this year. I wonder if you think democrats have left themselves a little vulnerable by focusing so much on impeachment and investigations. Huh . Not unimportant things, but right. I wonder there might be some important issues to black voters. I would accuse my party at this point of having engaged in three years of fantasy football politics where we said, okay, dont worry. Trump is never going to be seated because the Electoral College wont seat him. Remember that . Oh, do i. Bob mueller will take him out of that white house in handcuffs. Remember that . I do. Dont worry. Hell be impeached and removed. After three years of all of that fantasy football, guess what we have . Trump is still in the white house. Yeah. We still dont have a candidate. And the way weve developed our issues may or may not even serve us. Had we spent past three years accepting reality that a bunch of people who voted for obama twice voted for trump and hard to call them nazis and listen to them in addition to our own constituencies and figure out what they needed we might be in a position to have trump on the run and the blood, sweat and tears over impeachment and it has not done anything dent trump and we still dont have a candidate. Yeah. Good to see you. Thanks for coming by. Im sure well have more on this decision. On that cheery note. Really took the wind out of my sails. All right. One man did a remarkable thing this week. His job. Thats next. Liz, you nerd, cough if youre in here shhhh. I took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. What about robs dry cough . Works on that too. And last 12 hours. 12 hours . Who studies that long . mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs for 12 hours with 2 medicines in 1 pill. Wherever we want to go, we just have to start. Autosave your way there with chase. Chase. Make more of whats yours. If it wasnt clear from president trumps nonstop airing of grievances and revenge fantasies, he actually had a great week. Impeachment acquittal, strong numbers, made for tv state of the union, all good for him. The one dark spot for the president may serve as this countrys bright spot, senator mitt romney. The utah senator solidified his place in history as the only member of the senate to cast a vote to convict an impeached president from his own party, not just now, i mean ever. Heres how he explained his vote. Im a man of faith. I believe when i swear an oath to god i have a responsibility to be exactly truthful and i did what i believe to be right for our country and hope that Going Forward people will say well, whether i agree or disagree with him, at least he did what he thought was right. Not surprisingly, trump and the white house are taking this personally not just against mitt romney, against anyone he perceives as having been against him. Gordon sondland was recalled from his post. That will have a Chilling Effect as intended but whether senator mitt romney can weather the storm may determine what kind of Republican Party and republic we have once we no longer have a president trump. With me now is former romney president ial adviser. I just want to ask what was your reaction to romneys vote and speech on the senate floor . I was surprised that he cast that vote, but i wasnt shocked. I think we all thought that he may. He says he voted his conscience and i think we take him at his word for doing that. And, you know, this is not a popular position. We live in the Republican Party. Hes the only one of those senators, they all faced the same vote and he came to a different decision than they did. That said, i dont see him being completely ostracized from the party as some have said or vengeance is going to be taken against him. I think life will move on. I think well get some mean tweets from the president and probably some lines at his rallies, but ultimately i think people will move on to the next thing. Its going to be okay. Democrats are lauding romneys courage, deservedly, but i know you remember 2008 and 2012, i do too. They tried to tell us he was a monster, a racist, sexist monster. Do you think the democrats regret that now or should they . Well, its not lost on anybody who watched the 2012 campaign or worked on it like i did. Its gauing to hear people to now say what a man of principle he is when they were trashing him for everybody under the sun in 2012 and really smearing a good man. This is who he is. He voted his conscience and i think we should take him for his word on that. Hes going to have to face his voters and explain the vote to them. Im sure this will not be a super popular thing within his party, a little more in utah than other places, but joe manchin has to go back to West Virginia and explain his vote too. Thats very unpopular in West Virginia as well. Youve got a couple of cases where it was a tough vote. And well see how they make their explanations. Some will say some are saying that romney could afford to make this vote because hes not up for reelection until 2024. But you know him. Do you think if he had been up for reelection this year in 2020, do you think he would have made the same vote . I can only guess. I really dont know. I havent talked to his team about it extensively. But i think its likely at this stage of his career that he probably feels a lot more liberated to do what he sees as his conscience as what he wants to do. Hes already hes lost a president ial race and thats the toughest thing you can do. I think hes going to follow his own path and let the chips fall where they may. Do you expect him to talk more about this vote and his decision over the next few days, weeks, months, or do you expect him to kind of put it behind him . Well, he did a pretty extensive round of interviews and hes made his position pretty clear. So, i dont know how long this story really has to last. I mean, in our news cycles weve got hundreds of things going on between now and the election and i think were probably going to get right into another controversy that hell have to weigh in on then. Yeah, well, i mean, knowing trump, you know, this story will not go away if trump keeps tweeting about it and trump keeps bringing it up at rallies. I wonder if mitt romney feels like hes going to have to be defending this for the next four years potentially . Yeah, or, you know, when impeachment 2 comes along and see how he votes then because the democrats are not going to let this go away. Theyre going to find something else. Thats a mouthful there. Kevin sheridan, strong beard. Thank for coming on. I knew you would like it. Quick programming note. Get ready for the story of the worlds most famous royal family. Cnn presents the windsors inside the royal dynasty. Ana cabrera is back with the headlines in the newsroom, next. Is mealtime a struggle . Introducing oreida potato pay. 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