Character Election News Today

joining us now, nbc news chief political analyst, chuck todd, the man behind the article and nbc news correspondent, vaughn hillyard. chuck, when you go back and look at 2020, and why donald trump lost, is there a definitive answer for why he lost? >> i think if you surveyed political strategists and political scientists, you wouldnt get a definitive answer. i think he lost simply because of covid. theres a lot of people because of what happened after the election with january 6th, the...

It didnt work then, but, you know, i have talked to democrats this year who say this is different. weve had three years of trump in the white house. its no longer a hypothetical issue. theyve seen him on the job they want to get him out. so that biden ad is very reminiscent of hillary clintons 2016 message. its all about his erraticness, his bullying. she used those exact same words in 2016. maybe it works now, but in a way it didnt work then. >> bill kristol, you thought character was going to ...

Like a great new deal or the wealth tax or putting 40% of the corporate board. >> i think it is smart for her, too, when you are electing party and rejecting the incumbent, to be the policy nerd export in contrast of donald trump, not a bad position >> is she right though theyre going to have four years of donald trump who did not get any policy who proposed tax plans that were not popular. a complete opposite of trump >> thats the case it is going to be a character election which is what kamala...

They say they dont like it. >> kennedy: i will answer. paul ryan, whom i dont necessarily agree with, he is the one single book that we have to talk about the economy. this is something that resonates with those critical independent and suburban voters." republicans have not done a great job messaging the economy. its a great thing to cut taxes and give economic -- >> harris: what is the irony of paul ryan, then, looking to the president and saying "you need to talk about the economy more?" i ma...

But going back to a point that doug made, she decided early on to make this a character campaign. that is all of her tv ads were challenging donald trumps character, saying he didnt have the integrity to be president of the united states. apparently, she didnt have people around her that pointed out she had character problems of hes. and when you -- of herself. and when you make this a character election and you have big character problems especially in the final two weeks of the election, that ...

Immigration and hes crushing everybody else on those two issues. >> remember, mitt romney was judged in exit polls to be number one on the economy. it doesnt mean people will vote for you. every election is a trust election. every election is a character election. remember this, the base of the republican party is very conservative and the base of the republican party in iowa is very, very, very conservative. and this is a place where somebody like trump whos more liberal probably doesnt work as...

Whoever the non-establishment candidate is going to be pretty well needs to win iowa. maybe you could do it with south carolina but you need to win iowa. >> looking at the numbers, women from this poll back carson over trump 33-13. white evangelicals, carson over trump, 19 points. tea party votes, 12 points. that will do it, i guess. yet im confused because it says 41% of iowa gop voters say trump can best handle the economy and immigration and hes crushing everybody else on those two issues. >>...

Everybody else on those two issues. >> remember, mitt romney was judged in exit polls to be number one on the economy. it doesnt mean people will vote for you. every election is a trust election. every election is a character election. remember this, the base of the republican party is very conservative and the base of the republican party in iowa is very, very, very conservative. and this is a place where somebody like trump whos more liberal probably doesnt work as well as he might in other st...

Its the opposite the absolute opposite of what her campaign said, and what most of the establishment press told us was happening when this whole e-mail thing started to go kablooey. >> nobody cares. move sglalg how dare you even ask these questions. the voters dont care. i believe there was a "new york times" story within the first two days of this stuff breaking that said voters wont care. voters dont much care about this. well how would you possibly know? remember, the first rule of politics, ...

Its complicated. hes frustrated, et cetera, et cetera. lets never lose sight of this. for this administration, they will never lose sight of this which is its always a t matter of trust. its always a hattmatter of tru. everything is too complicated for regular folks raising families, trying to work, tying to live to track all of the gobbledegook that the government does. okay, fine. every election is a character election. the president deceived people and told them something he knew wasnt true. ...