News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. Well hear less from him on tax cuts and republican policies that might refer it makes a difference depending on the brand of republican running, especially if they are an incumbent. Desantis has been pro actsive aligning himself with trump. To put it mildly. So of course hes going to do that. On fox every night talking about it. Hes going to be somebody that thinks this is a great, great boost. There are a lot of republicans that are squeamish about the thing the president says that dont line up what they are doing and saying. Florida is a good experiment for this. I was covering the governors race. This is a great experiment. Look, i think in the general election, trump is more of a negative than he is a positive. I think he motivates democrats in a way they have not been motivated since barack obama came onto the National Scene in 2008. But, in the primary, he can
deliver nominations now as weve seen. Desantis aligning himself with the president. Hes on fox almost every night defending trump on the mueller investigation. What has that done for him . Got trumps attention and trump endorsed him for governor and essentially end of the race and ron desantis has no real grounding in Florida State politics at all and running get putnam well versed as any candidate in decades. None of that matters in the gop primary. In the primary Context Trump is a huge asset. If you get on fox an carry his water, thats going to pay off in a nomination. The real test in a purple state like florida, what does that mean in the general election . If you tie yourself to trump that much like he has, what do you do . For the general election. When voters who arent that psyched about trump are looking at you and your entire brand is based on going on sean hannity and talking about
almost at that hurdle but not completely. In the primary campaign after labor day, its going to be both sides using donald trump and for democrats this resistance movement, hes going to be a powerful force. The other issue for democrats though is for all of the oxygen that this presidency consumes, one thing we dont often discuss as much as as whats happening on the democratic side in terms of Identity Crisis. Elizabeth warren, Bernie Sanders, yes probably at this point but there are plenty of issues on the democratic side lingering for 2020. For now at least, one thing we have our eye on, how Many Democrats running talking about i am peext and other things. Tom steyer spending millions talking about it. But that is hanging over this entire conversation, impeachment and investigations. And its one of the reasons that the president is worried about the Midterm Election, boy, his life changes immensely quickly, john. If you look at the schumer and pelosi Talking Point and messaging, you would think its the year 2006 and 2008. Its like were fighting to Lower Health Care costs for right. Americans. Its like the pretrump era material. Its like your base is on fire and they are ready to impeach the guy yesterday. But they know that that is a dangerous tact to take right now. It is fascinating seeing some of their Talking Points to apply to a world that isnt there right now. One of the thing that emerges, the fight between lebron james and donald trump, the most fascinating thing being Melania Trump inserting herself into this in a way she didnt necessarily have to. Her spokeswoman said looks like lebron james is working to do good things on behalf of our next generation and just as she always has, first lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today. The most fascinating part of this, she would be open to
visiting the i Promise School in akron, volunteering herself for an invitation to the school. This Isnt The First Time weve seen Melania Trump take a big step away from her husband. She gave a statement on Family Separations that was noted at the time as in critical of the policies. It is interesting, she has really tried to set herself aside in some ways from the party line here. And i dont know where that goes. Are we going to see her do more of this . Does she go to this school in akron, ohio . It really is fascinating. She could have offered fired by new school for at risk kids. They want to have it become the center piece of the latest trump on trump dispute. Really fascinating to watch. Well see where that goes. A director or a suggestion . First, politicians tend to say the darndest, things, rod
rosenstein with reference to Robert Jackson reflects on the particular and peculiar challenges of his job in washington. Jackson is widely regarded as one of the greatest Attorney General although he served only 19 months and his tenure was repleat with challenges. One the difficulties jackson faced was what he called the unpleasant duty of responding to congressional inquires. Im afraid the Deputy Attorney general has a few things to go back to washington and tend to. Please, can i stay . Sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. Stadium pa all military members stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off
family lines to all military. Jimmys gotten used to his whole yup, hes gone noseblind. Odors. He thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this. Luckily for all your hardtowash fabrics. Theres febreze fabric refresher. Febreze doesnt just mask, it eliminates odors youve. Gone noseblind to. And try Febreze Unstopables for fabric. With up to twice the fresh scent power, youll want to try it. Again and again and maybe just one more time. Indulge in irresistible freshness. Febreze unstopables. Breathe happy. Attorney general or frustrated trump blowing off steam . The president s team says hes just venting. Hes fighting back, stating his opinion and stating it clearly. Theres a reason that the president is angry and frafrpgly most of america is angry as well. No reason he shouldnt be able to voice that opinion. What we said, its an opinion. He used a medium he uses for opinions. He expresses his opinion on twitter. He used the word should, didnt use the word must. And there was no president ial directive to follow it. So giuliani making the argument there. Whats the definition of should. Should is different than must. In the key question here, is trump actually trying to obstruct justice . Yeah, okay, if i guess the distinction between should and must matters if youre trying to figure this out in a legal context. If your boss says you should be doing this and youre like, yeah, forget it im not going to. Thats not probably going to
rule out result you staying employed unless its your job to cross your boss all the time. The environment has to be taken into consideration when you take the president s words into account and parsing them out and what do they mean. In this situation, sessions serves at the pleasure of the president , saying he Shouldnt Doing be doing this. Thats a strong opinion. Doesnt mean sessions is going to do it based on Everything Else that rts stakes and fact recused himself and with the political fallout of what that action would be. But excessive tweets rising to this level where hes actually said it this strongly, even if he said he must, it Doesnt Mean Sessions will do. Its a pretty strong position, laid it out there. Some of the background on this or context, cnn colleagues are reporting that donald trump is increasingly concerned about the ways his son might be entangled in the Mueller Probe and this is some of the reporting here. Trump has been concerned that the Mueller Probe could reach
his family and potential his soninlaw jared kushner, but it turned to his name sake in recent weeks. This is one of several reasons trump has upped his public attacks on mueller because he doesnt want him touching his family, the person adds, giuliani responded to this basically saying this isnt so after over a year of more or investigating, no evidence of wrong doing on his part and nothing has changed. What can you tell us about this dynamic. Its about that meeting in 2016 in june of 2016 at a trump tower, don jr. Was at. Its about did he tell the full story to the Hill Committee . He appeared before the senate and House Company and did the president know about this in advance. Michael cohen said the president knew about the meeting in advance. Don jr. Said he did not. We do hear the president is
increasingly worried about the legal exposure his son may have in this. Its one of the reasons hes been increasingly agitated, i guess we should say, friendly. But look, i mean, the the issue here is the president has always believed his Family Members would be kind of a red line to cross here or Family Finances but it seems its already in that territory. And well see sort of where this goes. But it is one of the reasons that is fueled his anger. Well see what he tweets this week we have not heard from don jr. One of the tweets we heard him from this week, this whole idea of collusion not being a crime, something we heard from rudy giuliani, heres a democrat essentially responding to that saying the president is Playing Semantics. Once again Playing Semantics and trying to use word games. If there is an illegal agreement, whether it is by the center or one of the spokes on
the wheel, no defendant has to know all of the purpose of the conspiracy or all of the actors in the conspiracy. The president is part of a president , hes violated the law. And yeah, the they seem to be focusing on this collusion, not technically a crime idea. Sure, my understanding from our point is, technically collusion is not a precise legal term. But it can be used as a shorthand for any number of things. Conspiracy being one of them. Exactly. What were seeing here is the increased anxiety about the probe and also the Paul Manafort trial beginning. President is watching this closely and keeping close tabs on this and this is all kind of coming closer and they are getting more and more worried. And also this idea of wlrnt the president is ever going to sit down with mueller. Thats also in the background. Yeah, he wants to and nobody around him wants him to, which like a lot of things this adds mrgs come to think of it. But i think President Trumpconsuming a lot of cable news and then venting about what hes saying is occurring in this administration, yeah. We also know hes upset about hes upset about Media Coverage of his travels to singapore, helsinki. He feels like hes not getting credit hes due. All of these things are feeding his frustration. Well, coming up, democrats name drop the president , the strategy behind those mentions and whether its enough to help them win this fall. Hopes you drive safely. But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. With feedback to help you drive safer. Giving you the power to actually lower your cost. Unfortunately, it cant do anything about that. Now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Blue wave this fall and their hopes for taking back the house may come down to the man in the white house. Historically its been a referendum on the president. 2018 may be no different. Speaking to progressives democrats especially thoet seen as possible 2020 contenders took on trump. The rich and powerful prophet, when government doesnt work for working people and they have learned that the best way to stop us from changing the system is to set working people against each other. So they have become the experts at the politics of division. Frankly, it might be the one thing that donald trump is really good at. That and kissing up to two bit dictators. President trump already has nicknamed her potential challenger saying hes ready to
take them on in 2020. Lets say im running against pocohontas or crazy bernie. I have to hand it to bernie. I saw him up there the other day, had hairs getting whiter and whiter and getting crazier and craze zier well stop donal trump. I looked at my wife, youve got to hand it to that guy, he doesnt quit. So there was its basically like political standup, right . Warren is wrong, hes pretty good at the political standup routine too. Thats a real skill he has up there. And he does get at the sort of colonel of something, the fact that democrats do not have an obvious frontrunner and this is a primary movement we havent seen in a long time. Theres no hillarylike establishment force. Theres no obvious fenom on the
horizon like with barack obama in 2008. It looks to be kind of a big unwieldy messy field, idea logically, Generationally Gender race, all over the map. Yeah and heres Kamala Harris along with a few others, heres what she had to say about how democrats should sort of brand themselves. Were talking about those issues and we wont be shut up. And we wont be silenced. We wont be silent about immigrant rights. We wont be silent about a womans right to control her own body. We will not be silent about equal opportunity and equal justice under the law. These issues that they are trying to diminish and demean, are the very issues that will define our identity as americans. Leaning into to what a lot of people call identity politics
and a lot of people say that was too much on the front burner for democrats in 2016, there is kamala saying bring it on. Bring, theres a division in the Democratic Party as to whether they think this is the smart politics or not and a division in the Democratic Party as to whether people really want to lean into issues that are becoming clearly partisan based on the debates happening in washington, versus that you can find some middle ground or still win over some Republican Voters or independents who might lean republican. She has made her brand known since she got to d. C. And definitely kind of saying that shes not switching. And the truth is shes managed to pull a lot of people over to her position. When you see the transition Dianne Feinstein not running for president but you see people like that, Kamala Harris is a standard setter for what more liberal california thought is and shes been a visible figure who has had a lot of success in the party thus far and pretty quickly made it to the lives
frontrunners of 2020. Clearly what shes saying, having some success. Its for the party. Its where the party is today and basically saying, we cant be afraid of leaning into the issues that we think are actually winners for our base. Trump is playing his base and harris is saying we should be playing on it. Heres alexandria ocasiocortez, her take on what democrats are about. Weve lost the house, the senate and presidency. Thats all right because its always darkest before dawn. The plight of Working Class Americans is the same everywhere and we know that. We know that the future of this party, if we are to win again is to rediscover our soul, to come home and to realize that we can fight for social, economic and Racial Justice for Working Class Americans. There is no district too red for us to flip. Yeah, and shes really exciting a lot of people in the party right now and staking out that far left position. But i think one of the things for democrats when we look this year and also to 20 is that you can tailer the message when youre running in these different house districts. And when you run for president the message will bring a big tent message to appeal to a lot of different types of democrats and thats i think the debate they are having right now and they havent really landed on sort of what thats going to look like. Just real fast, that Kamala Harris sound bite you played is the sound bite her folks wanted out there. They blasted that out. They are laying down a marker shes going to run unapologetically on that. A kux things on that note, it talks about the republicans and its actually about democrats. What shes saying there to the more class economic focused people in the primary, i. E. Bernie sanders, bring it on. Im going to run unapologetically as someone talking about these issues of race and gender. And she said that saying the
word is perjuryive, number one. Thats a direct rebuke to the clinton style of politics, bill clinton style of politics. Bill clinton won the presidency in 92 and the nomination first after democrats had lost three in a row by rejecting precisely what she wants to make central in her campaign for president , when is we are not a collection of different people and identities, we are a one people, one party dedicated to uplift. And now she is saying in a very different country demographically its just the opposite. Its going to be fascinating to see how the old guard element fascinating to see how smub like Elizabeth Warren, in some ways has Bernie SandersType Problems in terms of attracting africanamerican voters and more diverse voters, she was there giving out signs persist meeting with africanamericans as well. You know, someone is going to win the primary of 2018 and 2019 but that person is not likely going to be the nominee. I think democrats again are
going through this conversationist