Health care is personal to me. Obamacare is personal to me. When i see the president try to tear it down and others propose to replace it and start over, thats personal to me too. Weve got to build on what we did because every american he deserves Affordable Health care. Paul lets bring in kim strassel, kate odell and jason riley. So kate, what do you make of the biden ads . Smart politics . I think it is smart politics because, look, hes trying to differentiate himself from the rest of the field and show hes not as radical as bernie or some of the other candidates who want to basically overhaul private insurance overnight and eliminate it. Now, the policies are smart. The details are less stark than they may appear at first. He is proposing a public option which would be a major expansion of Government Health care and probably a weigh station to single payer. Paul its a question of doing it in stages to get to a government run program or incrementally which is what biden wants or do it in one giant leap, thats the difference . Right. I mean, bernies plan is a four year transition which would be theres no precedent for attempting a massive government expansion on that level in four years. Paul that public option that biden supports, that didnt pass in 2010. Obama tried to get it through. It couldnt even pass a democratic congress. Its a testament to how far the politics have shifted over the past 10 years which is an indictment of obamacare, if you think about it, that it didnt solve the problems that it purported to solve in coverage and acassess to care. Paul what does this tell us about the state of the democratic race . Its pretty early for biden. Its not even labor day, the causcaucuses in iowa are four, e months away. Is it too early for biden to be out there . I dont think so. The game has sort of changed, when people started paying attention to this race a lot earlier than they did four years ago when we had the 2016 race. So people are more engaged now. I think that ii think that has e front load the calendar in terms of when they decide to engage. Biden has been leading the race since he got in. I think this is a real lead that he has including in some of the early voting states. I think it was a very smart ad and i saw the screen shots of obama in there. [ laughter ] paul how many times, like every shot. I think joe biden realizes that has a lot to do with why he is leading this race. His attachment to obama is still a very popular figure among democrats and him saying to people, wait, these guys want to attack obamacare, they want to attack obamacare. Do you want to attack obamacare . And i see where hes going with that. I think its effective. Paul kim, you wrote a couple weeks ago about Elizabeth Warren on health care. She has endorsed the Bernie Sanders medicare for all bill in congress, she said shes for medicare for all. You said if you look at her specifics, she is very fuzzy on the math and the details. Explain. Well, yes, she doesnt have anything. I mean, this is remember, her whole catch phrase is shes got a plan for that. But you go to her website, there is no official plan for health care. She has gone out there and said that shes with bernie on this but there are no specifics. And as we all know, health care is quite complicated. There are many different ways you can get to medicare for all and she has said that before. What shes clearly doing is trying for as long as she can to leave it open as to how long it might take to get there or whether or not this was something that happened over a period of decades. She doesnt want to commit herself until the field clears a little bit and she knows what the sense of this is better because were seeing lots of democrats shifting their positions here as they realize that medicare for all is a little dicey out there in terms of the sell with the public. Paul it gets rid of private hell insurance. Exactly. I think the cautionary tale might be Kamala Harris. It hasnt worked out for her. I think that probably spooked Elizabeth Warren a little more. It comes down to private insurance. Everyone likes medicare for all, single payer, until you tell them you might lose private insurance and then they go whoa. Thats what the democrats are dealing with here. Paul Elizabeth Warren may be caught here a little bit between bernie who is the real deal on medicare for all and has all the he details, bells and whistles and the threat to eliminate private insurance. When is bernie going to smoke Elizabeth Warren out here . Thats a good question. I think thats one thing to watch in the debate, why havent those two turned on each other sooner is an open question. I think jasons theory on Kamala Harris is really right. Kamala tried to say ill leave some token role for private insurers in my system and made herself vulnerable to criticism on all sides. I dont think its going to be easy for warren to get out of medicare for all now, given as you said, she cosponsored a bill in congress and said she favored eliminating private insurance. So i think shes kind of stuck with what shes supported here. I dont know if shell be able to walk it back. Paul coming up next, a brandnew round of polls show joe biden maintaining his lead over his democratic rivals and defeating President Trump in a general election matchup. But despite those numbers, well talk to a strategist who warns that the former Vice President is the democratic version of mitt romney in 2012 and that mitt romney in 2012 and that hes decembe 2,000 fence posts. 900 acres. 48 bales. All before lunch, which we caught last saturday. We earn our scars. We wear our work ethic. We work until the works done. And when it is, a few hours of shuteye to rest up for tomorrow, the day well finally get something done. tyou wouldnt accepty from any one else. E. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. Flonase. Paul despite a recent poll showing joe bidens support falling somewhat, the former Vice President still appears to be leading the democratic pack with the real clear politics average putting him almost a dozen points ahead of his closest competitor. And showing him in the strongest position to beat donald trump in the general election. But my next guest says democrats should be weary of the elect electability argument and says joe biden is shaping up to be the mitt romney of the 2020 race. John, welcome and how in the world is joe biden like mitt romney . Well, look, romney never really quite fit republican primary voters that gravitate pretty far to the right but they heard over and over again hes our best chance to beat president obama at the time and that was the biggest goal among republicans. I would argue that probably democrats, many of them, the biggest goal is to beat President Trump but joe biden no longer, at least joe biden 2. 0 certainly doesnt fit the democrat primary and i think thats becoming increasingly clear. The second problem biden has, though, is hes making a lot of mistakes. And hes looking weak in a lot of the base, low energy. I would argue, the reason theyre going up on tv is because they can control that message, film it, put it up there. They know what its going to look like. Even this week, again, the Washington Post pointed out that biden was caught on the campaign trail taking multiple stories, putting them together and it turned out to be a total fixal x fictional account of something that biden remembered. This is starting to make democrats question is he the best opponent to donald trump. Paul he got in in april or something, hes been the frontrunner since april. There have been reports about his gaffes, his slipups, his memory mistakes and so on and people, the media have focused on those relentlessly. Here biden is and hes at the top of the polls. Doesnt that suggest staying power . I think that will happen for a little bit. Lets look at one other thing. We have new rounds of debates. Mostly the centrists are out out because they couldnt get support among the democrat primaries. Its the leftleaning that met all the criteria. At some point, those candidates are also going to be leaving the campaign and those votes are going to start going to other leftleaning candidates. So i think biden is pretty stable where he is and he might drop a little bit but at some point theres going to be a biden versus somebody and when that happens, i think the somebodys in a better position than biden in a democrat primary. Paul from 2012, it was ultimately romney versus santorum and romney won. The biden in that race won. He lost the general election but he won the primary. Why couldnt biden do the same thing near. Theres a little bit of a difference. The wild card is does the left come together and rally behind a single candidate. If you have four or five left candidates and biden is the only one there, its very possible joe biden will be the nominee. The second big difference is how money is raised. Mitt romney had big super pacs, big donors. The other candidates had small dollar donors. Small dollars has become the most important way to raise money. Biden is not a particularly good small dollar donor. Elizabeth warren, Bernie Sanders, theyre much better. As time goes on, i think they might have a financial advantage over biden. Paul on the point about electability, though, let me push back again because you have electability in the polling that ive seen, the democratic primary voters say that is their number one concern and, why, because they really, really, really dont like donald trump. So could that issue this time be the dominant issue and even though theres this energy on the left you talk about, maybe work in bidens favor . Well, its certainly working in his favor right now. Hes a name. He has a known entity. And people think well, i think he could win. But the problem is, hes already starting to move left on some issues, like the hyde amendment, which a lot of pro choice people dont like their tax dollars going to pay for abortions. People in rust belt states, for example, blue collar conservatives, who are often democrats who always have liked biden see now that hes shifting to the left. Not only is he not looking like as strong candidate when it comes to his own personality, hes starting to feel like in the democrat primary he has to move to the left and the more he moves to the left, it makes it harder for him to be competitive effectively in the general election. Paul if youre sitting in the Trump Campaign and wondering who youre running against, who would do you really fear . If you dont fear biden, who do you worry about . In fairness, what i learned with trump and his campaign, they dont think that way and fear anybody. If i look at the field right now, i think probably the most likely democrat to end up being their candidate is Elizabeth Warren. But i also think she comes with a whole host of problems. When we get to the general election and were talking about medicare for all, were talking about green new deal, all these things that are going to cost hard working americans jobs and taxes and take away health care bebenefits they have now, i thik that works to the president s favor. Paul thanks for coming in. Thats going to be fascinating to watch. Looking forward to it. Paul when we come back, james comey claims vindication after the Justice Department declines to prosecute the former fbi director for his handling of memos that detailed his conversations with President Trump. What the Inspector Generals report really says, next. Oh, wow. You two are going to have such a great trip. Yeah, have fun thanks to you, we will. Aw, stop. This is why voya helps reach todays goals. All while helping you to and through retirement. Um, you guys are just going for a week, right . Yeah thats right. Can you help with these . Oh. Um, were more of the plan, invest and protect kind of help. Sorry, little paws, so. But have fun send a postcard voya. Helping you to and through retirement. Paul the Justice Departments Inspector General releasing a report this week that says form other fbi director james comey violated fbi policies in his handling of memos documenting private conversations he had with President Trump. The doj watchdog says comey broke fbi rules when he gave a memo containing unclassified information to a friend with instructions to share the contents with a reporter. The ig says comey failed to notify the fbi after he had been fired that he had retained some of the memos in a safe at home. The Justice Department has said it wont prosecute him for the violations and on thursday comey took to twitter to claim vindication saying, quote, doj ig found no evidence that comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media. I dont need a public apology from those who defamed me but a quick message with a sorry we lied about you would be nice. Were back with kim strassel, jason riley and wall street Journal Editorial Board member allysia findley. What do you think about comeys claims of vindication . I think hes going to be waiting a long time for an apology from most of america. Only jim comey could turn a report that was this devastating into some sort of vindication. I think the ig did two important things here. One, he skewered this absurd claim that comey made that memos he took of official moments with the president were personal and therefore his to keep and leak. Obviously, in doing so he did break any number of rules and regulations in his own employment agreement. The other important thing that the ig did was skewer this notion that comey was justified in doing this. Pointing out that we have rules for a reason. You do not get to run the fbi on the basis of personal conviction and that even jim comey has to be expected to follow all those regulations. Paul kim, he said that the igs report said the motivation that comey had here was selfserving. He wanted to get donald trump. He wanted to get an appointment of a special counsel. So that was for his own and yet comey couched it in a sort of grander vision of oh, i care deeply about the fbi, i care deeply about the country. But he was also he was really looking out for number one. Yeah. And that was the other really great thing to see in this report. It was very welldone in that its very neutrally written, straightforward, but it simply calls out comey on this fiction, he sort of pedaled to the nation for two years now that hes was operating in everyones best behalf. He was actually operating to get his own, as the ig pointed out, his own ambitions achieved and has also pointing out how much this has hurt and undermines the fbi as well. Paul called it a the ig called it a dangerous example for 35,000 other employees. If you can say youre the director, look, i did this because i have a higher duty, boy, and i can break the rules, thats dangerous, this is an Enforcement Agency with enormous police power. Now we know where the behavior of people like peter strzok and andrew mccabe, the rock started at the very top under jim comey. I think the vindication here belongs to the president for firing jim comey, clearly the right thing to do. I wish he had done it earlier. You dont want an fbi director with jim comeys situational ethics. Who saw his job as to undermine the presidency which is what he was trying to do. I wish we could bill comey for the mueller report. Paul what about the argument from some of the right which is saying bill barr blew it because he didnt prosecute comey here, he decided not to prosecute him and, therefore, he abdi kateed and we cant hold comey accountable. Do you agree with that . I think its a close call. There isnt any clear evidence that he violated the law. He violated fbi agency rules. I think if he were to prosecute the case, i think that would have probably been more divisive, underminor trust in the fbi and the government. Paul hes lucky he didnt have jim comey as his prosecutor, jim comey. What are we going to do next here . What are we looking for next . From the ig. This is definitely a sign that the ig is wrapping things up. I think it was really notable that he took the time to actually issue a report as long as this on just one aspect of comeys behavior. I think that suggests to us that when he does release his report, which im hearing is going to be in the next couple of weeks, his bigger reports looking at the fbis broader Counter Intelligence investigation and the fisa process, that it is going to be very comprehensive and that we can expect that nobody just because they have a title or held an important rank or position is going to be spared from a lot of scrutiny. Paul this will involve looking into the fisa court, the warrants against the Trump Campaign ad vicar, ca carter pa. Tensions in the middle east escalate as the israel, iran shadow war breaks out into the open. Latest updates on hurricane dorian. Paul middle east tensions ratcheting up with israel carrying out a series of strikes against irans proxies in iraq, syria and lebanon in just one 18hour period last weekend. An israeli airstrike killed two iraniantrained fighters in syria, a drone set off a blast near a hezbollah office in the suburbs of beirut, and an airstrike near the Syrian Border in iraq killed a commander of an iranbacked militia. The attacks mark an escalation in the shadow war between iran and israel with israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu tweeting, quote iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces operate in every sector against the iranian aggression. If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first. Jonathan spire is a journalist and middle east analyst. He directs the middle east center for reporting and analysis. Welcome, mr. Spire. Good to have you here. So you wrote this week that the israel iran war is already underway. Whats happening on the ground . Well, as you were describing a moment ago, whats happening on the ground is an ongoi