Rich and exciting agenda this fall begin with todays discussion. Does for pulsing matter in the president ial year, or within the proximity whats going to happen in several hours to a debate . Should Foreign Policy matter . Will it matter . Are with this debate so unconventional, so we loaded with hot button issues from the Supreme Court to tax returns to pandemic that there will be little room for serious discussion either on Foreign Policy issues or domestication. That remains to be seen. Clearly back in the day Foreign Policy matters a lot more than it does now. The republican landslide in 1920 was a direct result of the uncertainties and challenges in the wake of the first world war. Fdr broke the twoterm president in 19401944, and gained legitimacy in response to impending war. In 1952 korea was the dominant issue. The stephenson i issue. Lbj was driven from the white house. As a consequence of it, although the humphreynixon election of vietnam did not play a singular role. And, of course, 1980 you have the iranian hostage crisis and afghanistan. Increasingly though after the war it seems Foreign Policy has more or less dropped out of the president ial electoral cycle in the debates. You have the iraq war and they figured prominently and 9 11. With an august 20 come just last month, a pupil on registered voters on 12 issues that americans said were very important to them, the economy pulled at 79 . . Healthcare, 60 , Supreme Court 64 , covid 62, Violent Crime 59, then Foreign Policy at 57 with climate and the abortion issue interestingly enough coming up at 42 and 40 respectively. And i would be remiss if i didnt point out that like so many other issues confronting the republic today, we are a divided nation. When we were not as much nearly so on Foreign Policy. So theres a lot to get through today, and we have a number of questions that i would like to pose before we start. Is Foreign Policy doomed to be a peripheral issue most of the time in shaping Voter Preferences . And is the lack of attention to Foreign Policy the result of a public that either is indifferent, not wellversed in National Security, or to quick tip oneill, simply flows from the fact that all politics are local . What would it take to get americans focus in an Election Year on events. The countries borders . And, of course, how will the issue of National Security and Foreign Policy plate in the debates and in this election . It is the specifically, in Chris Wallace agenda tonight although their record is on the agenda and it may well come up and finally might any Foreign Policy issue proof consequential as we move toward november 3 . Im glad itll have to answer any of these questions, but to answer, to unpack them we have an allstar panel. All of them are well known to you, abbreviated buyers should suffice. Amanda carpenter is a Political Columnist the bulwark, regular cnn contributor comment author of Gaslighting America why we love it when trump lies to us. Previously she served as a speechwriter to South Carolina senator jen demint attic indications directed at ted cruz. Charlie cook is the editor and publisher of the cook political report, and a political analyst for the National Journal group. Charlie is also a political analyst for nbc news. Jen psaki was the White House Communications director and former president Barack Obamas administration from 20152017 and spokesperson at the department of state under the of state under the secretary of state john kerry from 20132015. And above all, shes probably the most of two humans under the age of five, which i think is almost extraordinary identifications, ive heard come in a bio. Format, each will speak for roughly five minutes, moderated round with me the of annoying questions for about 20, and then q a with our twitter verse email and what else is listening. So jen, without further ado, let me turn it over to you. Well, thank you, aaron, and charlie and the men to come its going to joy for this post. Im sure i will lot from both of you. You had a lot of questions in their to unpack but maybe think about back in 2007 and 81 81 is what before then senator barack obama and as charlie and amanda and probably you to remember part of the reason why he became the nominee was because of his opposition to the iraq war. Very much a Foreign Policy issue the essential on that president ial race and was central in a different way in 2004 when i worked for john kerry. But as by the end of the campaign he won the election in part because of the financial crisis and because he presented an option to the American People of somebody who they felt would be fighting for them. And they use that example because it there are lines here in virginia almost every day where i live, but we have lifetime, even the people are voting and all sorts of things can happen. I say that because Foreign Policy as we all know is a fickle guy or gal, and events can happen that may impact how voters think. Later it is, the closer it is to november 3, many people have voted before then but its important to keep that in mind. I think some of the polling you added there is really important to touch on, and charlie follows this is very closely and im sure he will have some interesting ads to make your butt Foreign Policy something americans say they care about and i think they do care about. Its just where they care about in a rank order of things. Healthcare and the economy are consistently higher and has been the case for some time. It was sort of the case in 2018. Democrats won back the house and part of the check on trump but in part because people were afraid of having their healthcare taken away. It didnt mean the were not as we all know many, Many International and Foreign Policy events happening but its all about how it impacts come how you meet people where they are. And i think that is a lesson for a lot of people are trying to communicate about how important Foreign Policy issues are and the differences. How are these issues impacting peoples daily lives. I will take over. I dont know how long ive been talking so stop a minute or two. People dont think of covid as a foreign as a Foreign Policy issue. It is absolutely a Foreign Policy issue, and what it is done effectively when joe biden is president , i think i can be, you know, it will be very much coordinated between the domestic at a National Security teams. Thats how it should be. And helping solve this crisis in the United States requires a strong Foreign Policy and National Security approach. People dont always see it that way and we are sitting at home, when youre trying to do zoom school with your kids or try to figure out when life will go back to normal people dont think about it that way. But it should be talked about in that way. Climate change is a Foreign Policy issue, very much so. The United States needs to do a lot to get our house in order but needs to continue to lead on that front in order to address climate change. Its not just about whats happening in our states and cities are in the United States. Thats part of it but very much its an international issue. These are issues that impact people domestically and at home. The last thing i will say is just having served in a white house, what people dont always realize or digest is that Foreign Policy and National Security is one of the ways that any president can operate through their own vision of what leadership should be, and what their own vision of what policy should be in in a way that many times is unchecked by congress, by the public because theres so much power that every command in chief has. I think its become solely a National Security and terrorism issue in the minds of voters but that said, some of our most important political events during the Trump Presidency have been firmly in the foreignpolicy wheelhouse. Lets not forget he was impeached this year for inappropriate conversations with the ukraine. Theres a years long investigation led by Robert Mueller based on undisclosed acts with russia so those are major events in the Trump Presidency and i think we always and asking matter, will it move Republican Voters whats interesting from my Vantage Point as a never trump republican is the only times that his supporters on capitol hill are also responsive to constituents and voters, the only times theyve broken with him have been on foreignpolicy and election issues. I think people look past that because theres only one republican vote against impeachment but look at the times there have been sent resolutions led by Mitch Mcconnell to draw a line in the sand. They had a Senate Resolution eating out after that disastrous Helsinki Press Conference saying that no, we must refuse any suggestion that we will extradite us soldiers. They could have gone further, democrats pushed back butthat was a significant point where they said this is an intolerable and tolerable line. Opposes declaration of emergency to offer the sale of billions to saudiarabia. He later overrode that senate veto still was a significant point of foreignpolicy. The Senate Passed a resolution to get that whistleblower complaints in the fall 2019 from the Intelligence Community which did provide the basis for impeachment and after he issued the drone strike and in iran to kill the top military commander there was also legislation to limit his work hours. And then just this summer that republicans had spoken out pretty fleshly against him when he talked about possibly delaying the election and then once again, when he is talking aboutnot having a peaceful transition of power. For this discussion it doesnt matter to voters, i think the intersection of foreignpolicy and elections is incredibly important because remember for this to matter the only has to lose a small percentage of Republican Voters for this to be a landslide left interesting and is not only contained within voters and capitol hill, the most prominent members of his white house that spoke out against him represents foreignpolicy communities invoices like former defense secretary jim matus and john kelly, both retired fourstar generals. The list goes on, and so i do think that doeshave an effect. Even though it gets missed in this broader foreignpolicy discussion because we dont have the language to distill that but these are going to be voters issues for people on the fence thats an excellent point. It almost reaffirms something that ive felt very important for many years and that is that politics on many issues, critical issues, the image of the nation shouldnt stop at the waters edge and we point out that a fascinating construct. Its the kind of backdoor analysis of why foreignpolicy actually does matter and could in reshaping voter attitudes. Thats a fascinating point. Charlie, on to you. Thank you erin and i want to thank you and bill burns for the invitation to be on such a Prestigious Panel with these other folks that know so much more about this stuff than i do. I just a political hack but let me put up a slightly different construct. Its not disagreeing at all with anything that and i said but to me when youve got two people running for president and neither one is an incumbent thats a choice election and partisanship and other things come into play, thats a choice but when you have an incumbent president running its a referendum. You want to extend this president s contract for another four years old at the fundamental question and then you say what feeds into that . Sadly foreignpolicy at least directly because you guys have brought up waste their drug policy and immigration and these other things but foreignpolicy perse , i wish americans thought more about it. I wish every american read the economist cover tocover every week. And reads foreignpolicy and Foreign Affairs and goes to watch carnegie but thats not where were living. Thats not what, thats not a major ingredient when they decide who they want to extend thispresident s contract or not. And so i dont think to the extent that it convinces people that this person is not cut out to be president for this is someone there proud of her that they would like to continue with. Thats where it comes into play. Thinking about in terms of foreignpolicy, in some ways it comes down to the question of are there americans killed or maimed or not . Thats the big thing. And the threshold for other things influencing Public Opinion in a president ial election is pretty limited and its a pretty Esoteric Group but in an election where weve got, its very stable and there are few undecided voters and this is an election like it always is. Do you want to renew President Trumps contract another four years, yes, sir no and its always like that with an incumbent but with someone whos aspolarizing as he is with 75 percent of americans either strongly approving or strongly disapproving him , and that was pretty much truebefore he took the oath of office. Theres just been very little change so the odds of something tonight or the next debates related to foreignpolicy moving people because they agree or disagree withsomething said , i think thats pretty unlikely. But does this lead into, is this one of those three or four or five percent, thats all were looking at here that would peel some of them towards, that would resonate withthem in a special way. And im count me as pretty skeptical that thats going to happen. So im a little, im embarrassed when i meet with people from foreign governments, or in ministries, that sort of thing. I always have an apologetic thing and this seed President Trump. Americans, it is like we are an island in the middle of an ocean with nothing else for 10,000 miles away. And i know for people in europe that border lots of countries, they just find this absolutely bizarre. Mindboggling. But only having two borders with canada and mexico and not being an island and but being so much larger than our two neighbors in terms of population, its a little inevitable but we are pretty self focused as a country so im a little skeptical about how much it would affect unless it just said this person is who i want to lead us for this person is unfit for the job and anything outside of thatparadigm , in these debates or anything else, i dont think the New York Times story will affect. I mean, trump space is 42 percent and i dont know which is harder or granite but those people are not going anywhere. And the 45, 50 percent, theyre not going anywhere. And the people that are actually in the playing field, i wonder whether they are going to vote anyway as i dont know how you cant have an opinion on this. One way or the other. So ill be the stump at the picnic so to speak of saying it probably wont but undecided voters, they dont watch debates, are you kidding . If they paid attention to stuff they would have made an opinion one way or the other by now. There might be other skeptics. I think your point isgrim but let me push all three of you on a point. The organizing principle of any nations foreignpolicy and primary responsibility of a president is to protect the American People and guarantee our security and prosperity. What if, and this is picking up on point that jen made, if i ask this question to you. Youve got the most serious threat to Public Health since the great influenza of 1917, 1918 killed 675,000 americans. You have floods, you have wires that are affecting the daily lives of americans. In fact in theory this crisis, thepandemic on paper , its if not in practice theoretically threatens the health and wellbeing of every single one of us, all 330 million. So its a backdoor approach to the importance of foreignpolicy and employment. Its not as american, obviously its a pandemic but would that not have an impact on reshaping Voter Perception . In this election or isnt the way, or people dont seeit that way . Climate was literally 40 percent. The last issue on the 12th. So what you think . You raise that issue because i think itscompelling. It looks forward to be sure. My view on that is it can impact some pockets but its not as many of us who support joe biden think it should be area its just like tax story and theres not a lot of discussion about that im not a believer thats going to move the public even though w