korea. i think we have seen this president just getting played by kim jong-un throughout this whole process, and, you know, kim jong-un figured out trump pretty quickly. you be nice to him. you throw him a nice warm welcome, and you become his friend, and then you neuter him, and that s basically what happened here in the sense that he no longer he s not pushing north korea to do much of anything right now, because that s his buddy. and i think that type of relationship we re seeing with trump across the globe in terms of having our enemies figure trump out, and he has been played in so many different countries, and he has made our country less safe. president trump, nick, would argue, look, talking is better than not talking. at least there is a chance for some type of a broader deal here. what other course of action could he be taking? he d be saying well, bolton was
okay? it tells us that within 90 minutes of the president asking for investigations of biden s son, that that hold, which they had been discussing previously, was formalized. it was formalized until the e-mail from duffy to the pentagon. and then 24 hours after that, kristen, what did we see? we saw gordon sondland confirming with the president, loudly, over a cell phone, that they had pressured president zelensky into acquiescing to those investigations. so all of this is very important. it underscores that these omb officials, who have more information, are refusing to testify. we know from mark sandy, who was the one omb official who testified behind closed doors, that at least two omb staffers quit. one of them, because they were concerned that there was a violation of the law that the president was withholding aid that was congressionally-appropriated. and they weren t being given
and that is that the witnesses in 1999 had already provided provided grand jury testimony. we knew what they were going to say. bill clinton had provided a blood sample. in this case, all of the key witnesses are refusing to testify. and, hallie, you ve talked about the fact that, yes, the president is there in florida. but his team is pretty busy at work on this, right? oh, yeah. and i ve talked to sources in and around the white house, kristen. who point out that, listen, you have to remember the president has his top aides and advisors who flew down with him here to south florida. there will be sort of a shift change, if you will, for mar-a-lago duty at some point over the holidays with other aides and advisors coming in. i ve been told they are meeting to work on this plan for the senate impeachment trial. whenever that may end up beginning. what you are hearing from top administration officials is a publicly-projected confidence that there will be a deal, right? you and heid
well, and taking a step back, that is the question. how long of a memory do voters have in some of these swing districts? or are they ultimately going to care more about issues like healthcare and the economy, education, for example, dave? well, it goes back to what won democrats the 2018 mid-terms and that was tying president trump and congressional republicans to that unpopular healthcare bill. to a tax cut that they, effectively sold middle income districts as a giveaway to the rich. and in wealthy districts adversely affecting homeowners. so, you know, democrats have to get back to those pocketbook issues if they are going to both capitalize on that anger at trump that s driving high democratic base turnout. but also, reach across and win those persuadable voters that matter the most in those six battleground states that are really going to decide whether trump remains in office beyond 2020. and one thing that we do know is that president trump is likely going to go after tho
from the party, you know, unless you re the one democrat in a district that voted for 30 points for donald trump, which is colin peterson in minnesota. but those are really increasingly hard to come by in this very polarized era. dave, bottom line and very quickly, is the middle just shrinking? is that what we re witnessing? yeah. we measured there were 164 swing districts in 1998. today, there are 72. so we have seen a 56% decline in competitive districts. we also have a highly-polarized electorate right now. where, essentially, you ve got razor-thin margins deciding american elections. much as, you know, profit margins between two warring, you know, major companies in a certain economic sector are very thin. fascinating conversation. dave wasserman. thank you and happy holidays to you. really appreciate it. happy holidays. ahead, the latest on north korea s, quote, christmas gift for the u.s. plus, why john bolton is slamming the white house over how it s handling the