Is to not be afraid to take your issue seriously. For more information, go to our website, cam. Org. Republican National Committee chair Ronna Mcdaniel discusses the 2020 election and other political news of the day at the christians reince monitor. She talked about the impact the impeachment in her he is having on the rnc campaign effort. All right, everyone, good morning. I am the Washington Bureau chief at the Christian Science mounted her. Our guest today is Ronna Mcdaniel. Ats is her first appearance a monitor breakfast and we are especially pleased to have her as she represents the Third Generation of the family at our breakfast. Her late grandfather, michigan governor George Romney was our guest several times. He was the guest at the third monitor breakfast. In 1966. And her uncle, met romney, senator from utah has also appeared with us several times. This is a special welcome to you. Background. F she grew up in michigan and got her start in the Family Business early by helping her Mother Campaign for relatives. She went out west to byu for college but came back to work on her mothers 1994 senate campaign. After graduation, she worked to d. C. And worked for a Political Consulting firm. She eventually returned to michigan and got involved in the politics. In 2012. She helped her uncle, mitt romney, in his president ial campaign and that became the republican National Committee 2015, she014 and in was elected chair of the Michigan Republican party. She served as a delegate to the Republican National convention for donald trump. Soon after his victory, she was elected to succeed Reince Priebus as chair which brings us to todays breakfast. The ground rolls. We are on the record. Please no live blogging or tweeting. In short, no filing of any kind mother breakfast is underway. Once the session ends at 10 00, there is no embargo. From themail pictures breakfast to all the reporters here as soon as we wrap up. As you know, if you would like to ask a question, please send me a signal. If you would like to make some brief opening remarks, the floor is yours. Thank you for having me. I did not know that history. That is actually very special. Rnc perspective, we are already gearing up for 2020. I think a lot of people do not totally understand what a party does. It is something i run into a lot. We are here to elect republicans. A broad field for us in the 20 up. 20 senate seats we want to reelect president donald trump. The first thing we have to do is raise the funds to put a ground game and a get out the vote together program. The rnc has exceeded a lot of our past fundraising goals. 25ctober alone, we raised million. It has brought us to a total of 194 million for the year. That is a record. What we have been able to do with those funds is put ourselves in 18 states early. Building out a ground game. When we do that, we put a state director and a dated director on the ground and work with our volunteers. The whole focus of the rnc is the tactical nuts and bolts organization of how do we engage voters and change their mind . It takes a long time to build out a structure where you can train to william volunteers which is our goal for 2020. In 2016, we had 750,000. This is a passion of mine. I started as a precinct delegate. I take i took my kids to knock on doors. It builds character and it is a punishment for them and people are also nicer to you when you take your children. It is common sense. If you have volunteers knocking on doors i live down the street and our kids go to school together. Can i talk to you about what is happening in our community . Can i talk to about the candidates . It is more impactful. When you knock on that door multiple times before the election come you can have a dialogue that is more meaning all and that makes a difference in changing votes. Building that 2 million person volunteer base will be critical in our success in 2020 and turning out the voters. Voters are less inclined to watch tv or listen to radio, i dont mean to offend anybody. But one conversation can make a difference. Hat is a function of the rnc as you have seen, we have had a huge fundraising advantage over the dnc this year. Also have a Democrat Field aggressively fighting to win a nomination sucking those resources into their president ial campaigns which gives us a distinctive vantage to be on the ground early right now. That is our primary focus. 90 of my time is fundraising. I was in florida the other day. On theinute i have i am phone making calls fundraising to field the operation. And then going out to meet with our grassroots volunteers. Thank you. Thank you so much. With akick things off few questions of my own and then we will move to the reporters around the table. What is your take away from last nights debate . Did you see any candidates there that concern you at all in their ability to take on donald trump . I was surprised that more Pete Buttigieg the polls seem to be very gloves off on him. I did not have a lot of takeaways except i think the field continues to lurch further laughed. Elizabeth warren was supporting a tax. I think that would be incredibly catastrophic for our country. Will you create a new organization . Thatbooker pushed her on that nothing i saw last night concern to me. Concerned me. I thought joe biden struggled with some questions and continually fumbled. Ive got some of his answers were troublesome. Troublesome in the delivery or the content . In the delivery. He struggles to finish a response. Something hat is i imagine him next to the president if he ends up being the nominate and i think the president will come at him and biden does not seem to be very sitting were able to complete succinct or able to complete his answers. I want to ask you about the money thing. And super candidates pacs and our groups have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the data operation and flood swing states with antitrump ads. How is your Party Planning to respond to this latest move in the digital arms race . I think it allows the candidates on the democrat side to be selfrighteous and say they dont want any corporate money or dark money when they know there are billionaires outside flooding hundreds of millions into those states. Elizabeth warren took money from lobbyists when she ran for senate and then transferred 10 million into her president ial campaign. I do think there is a lot of hypocrisy. From an rnc perspective, we cannot coordinate with any outside pak groups or outside money that raising the money we have raised it into Voter Registration we have are registered more than half of the 2016 cycleid in the and we did that in a three month period already. And the ability we have two legally courtney with state parties gives us a distinct advantage. It is a challenge that they have so much money flooding in and that is why the rnc has to be the best it has ever been and that is why we are raising record money. We had a breakfast with tom emmer in july. At that time, we asked him about the deficit of women in congress. Republican women. He insisted that the party was doing great with recruiting women. As of july, 40 of the recruits to run for the house as a female why are republican struggling so hard to get women elected to congress . What are you doing about it . The rnc does not recruit candidates. We have to stay neutral. We have seen the folly of putting our thumb on the scale with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Mccarthyas with the other day and they said they had recruited 160 women from across the country. I dealt with this a lot with the michigan chair. I did recruit a candidate to run for state house. I dont like to paint women with one broad rush. We are half of the electorate. We dont think alike. Some of the obstacles i ran into with women candidates as i was recruiting them was familylife balance, fundraising. As michigan chair, fundraising was a challenge from being a stayathome mom. To suddenly go into boardrooms and ask for a significant amount among the and often having the door shut and my face because i was not part of that community. I still had the passion and ability to do what i had to do. Getting the initial investment was incredibly difficult. Know what women candidates face because i had to deal with it. We have to do a better job finding funding for women candidates and people that will back them. There are groups like a least a phonic who are doing that a stepanik. Beyond that, we have to get more women in our party. I think the messenger matters. When i talk about education and my kids at school, and as a mother, that resonates. I am not in favor of electing someone just for their gender. You mentioned at least upon elise stepanik. She is a rockstar. She is incredibly prepared. She has dialed into some important moments with these witnesses. She asked if when there was a quid pro quo and they said no. I think she has been excellent on this committee and she drives adam schiff nuts. I forgot to turn on my tape recorder but luckily we have cspan here. Alanal start with abramson. [indiscernible] the reaction from small and large donors. When i am on the road, i am dealing more with major donors. From an Online Fundraising perspective, within the first 24 hours of the impeachment being launched or being announced, we raised 5 million online. On the first day of the hearings, we raised 3 million online. Has continued to have that energy since being elected. The impeachment has ramped that up. On the major donors side, we have seen that expand as well. Raising overall that has continued to increase. The largeibutes to fundraising numbers that we have posted. To have a 25 million october is unheard of at the rnc or even across any committee. Even in an off year. Isdo you feel this [indiscernible] with the kavanaugh confirmation, not only that but i started to see donors that had gone offline and had not contributed since 2012, 2014. They are suddenly calling and saying that they are back in and they are staying engaged. Magnificent from a chair perspective. We continue to see that. It has not pulled anyone away and we are watching that. We want to make sure across the whole ecosystem how this is playing. The investment has been as strong as ever which shows that this is partisan. If our donors were concerned, they would be pulling back. They dont agree with what nancy pelosi and the democrats are doing. Tamara keithth from npr. Is that related to the rebirth of the program under President Trump . How is bundling going . The bundling program is more of a campaign function. I know they have launched it. I think it is going well. And that is critical to getting the small dollar checks. It is not spilling over to you . The first 5,600 goes to the campaign. Our numbers are going to be anything beyond that. They have had exceptional fundraising as well. Across the rnc and the Trump Campaign last quarter, we had when hundred 56 million cash on hand. I had another question about impeachment. Affect you tracking the of it on your voters . We went into the field on day one to start getting a gauge and get it week by week. We are in the battleground states. We have seen this last week, the president s approval is at its highest. A dropoff of democrats. Democrats are saying they would like to have the election decide this. In theo independents battleground states are breaking our way as well. Other polls have backed this up. Independentswing by a 10 point margin are swinging toward us. You also have the gallup what we are seen in the public polls is backing up will what we have been seeing internally throughout this process. From the washington times. I want to check the number. You mentioned you have a goal of 2 million volunteers so where are you right now . I dont know exactly where we are right now. I think we are definitely on track to reach that number. We just had our get out the bow and our National Week of action a year before the election. We are actually testing in real time our election operation and we did contact a million voters and we have something called the Trump VictoryLeadership Initiative where we train and train the super volunteers. They go through a six week course on our technology and doorknocking. With 5000 of2016 the tbli fellows and now we are at 30000 so we are on track to meet the metrics but i dont know specifically where we are. Impeachment question, how should voters, Republican Voters how shoulddents, they consider Rudy Giulianis role in what we are hearing now . People elect the president and he has his and ministry should and his cabinet and running things but he is on his own and is there enough accountability there . You saw the congressional members give their customers yesterday and they said the president has the right to enact his Foreign Policy through the channels he deems appropriate. President has the right to enact his Foreign Policy through the channels he deems appropriate. Im not well versed on exactly what Rudy Giulianis role was and that is not my role as rnc chair but obviously the state department and the president and has the right to decide what role they will place individuals increasing Foreign Policy and representing the president. Chris chariton. Can i ask you a foreignpolicy question . Is not really my lane but ill do my best. It came up at the debate and will be a campaign issue. Last night Bernie Sanders and im sure youve heard of him. [laughter] he got a lot of applause for saying this line we are sick im sorry, we must treat the Palestinian People with respect and dignity that they deserve and its got applause from a democratic audience. Does the rnc have a position in the future of palestine or palestinian rights . That is something for the president to determine trade we dont determine foreignpolicy. But its obvious the president has been a great ally to israel with the city of jerusalem and recognizing the golan and strengthening that alliance and partnership. Certainly is party chair in michigan with a big Arab Community you wouldve doubt that in terms of one thing about party chair we are here to elect republicans and we dont create policy process not what i was elected to do. Obviously michigan had a very diverse population so we deal with a lot of different constituents but to say im a policymaker would be inaccurate. Catherine from the wall street journal. Could he talk about the most recent run of elections particularly pennsylvania where resource strong results democrats and want to take from that and does that give you pause about the president s chances there next year . Pennsylvania is a key state so couplings from pennsylvania you saw the southern suburb go more democrats. [inaudible] state acing county and i think the democrats won by 500 votes. Its always a swing county in pennsylvania so that will maintain that role in the western part of pennsylvania. We picked up seats state wide we did win a Supreme Court seat. It split there was a democrat who want antirepublican so i think what we are seen in the democrat areas are getting more democrat and republican are getting more republican. [inaudible question] and we pick out votes and other areas we want a statewide seat for republicans it shows its delay battleground state. We all reckon eyes that pennsylvania will be key. We are on the ground in pennsylvania and doing i spoke at a lincoln day dinner and we will be building up that program and contacting our voters early. Also identifying who are those swing voters. It doesnt make sense and thats part of our data program which is so integral to the rnc and the investment we made with hundreds of millions of dollars into our data to create our compass as to which voters to target because i dont want to spend dollar time or resources sending someone to go knock on the door of someone who will never vote republican. If i see someone knock on my door was a democrat i say come in, lets have lunch, stay here all day because i can provide them for knocking on ten other doors and i know their data completely is false so right now and penciling and we will be identifying that swath of swing voters where they how we will message them and that is where our data will be critical. How will you message them because its a frustration with the president s rhetoric and style. We dont have a democrat candidate. As we go in the suburb and we talk about socials and versus capitalism especially with the Bourbon College educated women. That resonates. They dont want to see a government eliminate the private healthcare plan. Ive been with the same pediatrician with my kids for since i moved back to michigan and my daughter has been 12. I dont want the government coming in and saying i cant keep that doctor and i will lose my private plan and not be able to have the insurance that i have used and that i like to take care of my family. When you talk about those issues in a personal way with those suburban voters you can change the dialogue grid that is why that chilean volunteer base of actively knocking on doors in the neighborhood you live in it makes a difference. We have seen that those conversations can move votes. I want to jump in and ask you about the republican losses in the governors race in kentucky and louisiana. The democrats got reelected. I would not say that a lot. [laughter] although donald trump made three visits on the eve and put himself out there on that but kentucky in particular does that give you cause for concern and its a sign that some grouts are energized . I think everyone is energized. We saw that from that mid terms. Democrats are energized and rebellions are energized. The differences we are organized right now going into 2020 and when you one state at the time we can all be equally org