Beat us out economically, and russia is running amok and chaos and the gap between the rich and the middle class gets bigger every day and robots may wipe out millions of jobs and the Digital Media is isolating us from each other and rather than educating us about each other. Sometimes i think in all of this we lose the big plot line. Who are we . What are we trying to do as americans . What is this all about . Want to take a big step back because usually when our country faces major challenge we unite to meet them together whether its to beat the great depreg depression and win the cold war. American democracy has proven itself capable of dealing with insanely tough problems over and over and over again. It should be no different for us in this century, but instead of turning to each other, were turning on each other. Why . Who is stoking these divisions . Who is benefiting from it the most . Its not just donald trump or nancy pelosi or any political party. Its vladimir putin. Putin is benefiting while were fighting, hes laughing. Russia intervened in our election to create this chaos because putin wants america dysfunctional, divided and discredited because if that happens were not able to solve our big problems and we cant stop him from dominating weaker nations. So america, lets keep our heads on straight. Dont let putin win. Hes got too many victories already. We left a big power vacuum in syria which is a big win for russia. We have to keep speaking up for American Allies like the kurds who trump just abandoned and we shouldnt get bogged down in crazy conspire see theories. Lets stand up for the people of ukraine, whose territory the russians have taken and when trump starts to undermine our allies and that strengthens putins hand in europe and the middle east. Weve got to stop that. We have to stand up against that and lets not strengthen putins hand right here in america because division and disfunction is what putin wants. So lets minimize the rancor and the name calling even in our toughest political fight. Because you know who suffers when america is divided . Poor struggling folks, nothing done in our country. No matter what party youre in dont let putin win. My next guest is a lead are. He sees the big picture. He believes in unity, common sense and common ground. Please welcome to the van jones show, alabama senator, doug jones. How are you doing . Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you very much. First, it is just so good to see another great jones. Absolutely. Theyre trying to keep up with us. But welcome, you know . I appreciate you and admire you so much. I was born and raised in tennessee and i know the challenges of that. You stood up on the senate floor and gave a beautiful speech about this whole impeachment drama and the divisions in the country. You said you were having sleepless nights. Yeah. Why are you having sleepless nights . This is not something that any american would want to go through. This is a really serious matter. Impeachment is something that our founders thought was a possibility, but i dont think they really believed that it would really ever happen and now were going to probably go through our fourth one. Its a really difficult time and it is going make the divisions in this country that you just talked about, i think, even worse because people are already going their partisan corners and thats the most troubling thing about this. One of the things you said in that speech is you said people should not circle their wagons around the president. Correct. People should not rush to judgment on impeachment. Dude, youre standing in the middle of a big food fight. Yeah. How do you think we can do what youre talking about . I dont know if we can do it at this point. Heres part of the problem, van. This man took office before he even took his hand off a bible. I had a congressman from alabama who was calling for Hillary Clintons impeachment a year before the election assuming she was going to win, so weve gotten to a point in this country that if you dont win the election maybe theres another way to get rid of somebody. So a lot of those calls early that really had no basis and no merit are really hurting now. It poisoned the well. Everything is seen through a partisan lens. I got asked yesterday, i can a callin. If the articles of impeachment came over today how would you vote . What articles . We dont know what charges and Everyone Needs to look at this factually, because there are serious allegations here and when they do i think theyll get out of their partners and corn e beers, but you need to floel facts. You have confidence in people and it seems people are putting faction over facts every day and were being trained in that. Youre a lawyer and youve done this before. What gives you confidence that even though once the facts are out there that well hold the country together . Im not sure that i have that confidence is not as great as i might portray sometimes because right now everything is going to be looked at as far as 2020. The minute this all happened we started getting asked this question. Doug, how will it affect this race and how will it affect the president ial . Its incumbent on leaders from all parties and all walks of life, and state, local as well as federal to say, dont look at it in political terms. We already have some facts, but what do you make of the facts so far . Are you seeing something thats troubling . Absolutely. There are lots of things that weve seen that are troubling. We saw yesterday Mick Mulvaney who came out and explicitly talked about a quid pro quo. Not that a quid pro quo is necessary in Something Like this. Everyone tries to make this out like a criminal case. Its not a criminal case. Its an impeachment case. The conversation that the president had with the president of ukraine was very troubling. Why . Whats wrong with it . He said it was perfect. Yeah. Okay. It was anything but perfect. It was anything but that. Why . This was the president of the United States who has by his statement to the president of ukraine, exercises a lot of power over that country. This is a country who needs the United States. Russia has already been messing with them internally, externally. This is a country who needs our Defense Systems and needs our military support. It said specifically in there you need us. Germany, other european countries. Theyre not doing anything for you. Were doing it and the president talks then about, let me ask you something and let me tell you what you need first, you need a favor and ill tell you the second thing and from a perspective of both Foreign Policy and a legal perspective. What bothered smee when he invoked the name . I want my personal lawyer to talk about this. Hes already had one lawyer, a personal lawyer go to prison any you in hes putting his other personal lawyer in the fact that he included the attorney general, whether or not he was involved or not and the fact that he would invoke the name of the attorney general is really, really troubling. Listen, when you go home and youre in alabama and youre talking to people you are in a tough spot because on the one hand you are in the reddest of red state america, but you were brought to office and powered by the passion of black women. You are stuck between maga hats and black mamas. How do you deal with that . Thats a tough road to ride. Van, its not. Its only a tough road to ride if you look at it in political terms. Youre a politician. I understand that, but you know what . That oath and what my job is means more than being a politician, and i really mean that. When i first got elected to the senate, even during the campaign, i made sure that they knew that we werent following polls and we werent putting our finger to the wind to see which way the wind was blowing and my staff knows they werent supposed to argue with me about taking a particular position based on what they think the good politics are. I think we need more people that would follow their conscience and i just consider it doug my duty and doing what i took an oath to do, and i really mean that. I think its extraordinary that youve done that and you took a tough vote against cav thaw and a lot of them would go the other way. Lets talk about the situation in syria and i was appalled and sickened to see the kurds. I think its a tragedy. I think its a disaster for the United States and the Foreign Policy and the world stage. We have lost the moral high ground around the world these days. America used to have that moral standing where we after world war ii, we rebuilt our enemies as well as our friends. Yeah. And we dont have that now. And remember, this just didnt happen with a phone call with erdogan a week or so ago. This started back in december of last year with a phone call to erdogan and there was an announcement and that gave turkey the green light to Start Building up to do exactly what they want to do, and to just kick our allies to the to the side and do it in such a flippant manner that the president s done on his press conference. Its appalling, and i think youre seeing now a real huge bipartisan rising up. Look what the house did just the other day. 300someodd to 60 rebuking the United States and if it comes to the senate it will be overwhelming numbers like that, as well. Im just glad we have them like you. I want to keep you here. When we come back, last weeks democratic debate was a return to the moderates and the sent rifts came back fighting with progressive ideas and policies. Coming up i want the senators take on all of that and how will this impact his own reelection when we get back. Is that net carbs or total . Eh, not enough fiber. Chocolate would be good. Snacking should be sweet and simple. The delicious taste of glucerna gives you the sweetness you crave while helping you manage your blood sugar. Glucerna. Everyday progress. I cantwhat . Ve it. That our new house is haunted by casper the friendly ghost . Hey jill hey kurt movies . Ill get snacks no, i cant believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on our Car Insurance with geico. I got snacks ohhh, i got popcorn, i got caramel corn, i got kettle corn. Am i chewing too loud . Believe it geico could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. Full of flavor. Color. Full of. Woo full of good. So you can be too. Try our new warm grain bowls today. Order now on grubhub. Try our new warm grain bowls today. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. Fit me foundation from mayfits skin tonerk and texture. Blurs pores. Stops shine. 97 of women found their fit. Fit me matte poreless only from Maybelline New York im back with democratic senator doug jones from the great state of alabama. Listen, that last democratic debate that you saw klobuchar come out strong. You saw andrew yang come out strong. You saw mayor pete come out strong challenging Elizabeth Warren challenging the agenda. Did that make you happy . I think you see the voice being built over the last couple of debates and they got drowned out early on. Full disclosure, you know ive endorsed my friend joe biden. I think he had it very strong and i think the whole challenging and what is perceived to be all of the momentum and the Democratic Party being from the left, i think you saw the other day that thats not the case. What worries you about the progressive momentum and the progressive ideas . Just for instance, a lot of poor folks in alabama, tennessee, where im from, whats wrong with saying we want to have medicare for all and free college. Why wouldnt that progressive, economic populism appeal in the same way that trumps populism and appeal. It does appeal to a point, though, but i think theres also an appeal that folks dont want to be told what to do and they dont want to be told they have to get this health care. They like the health care that they have if they have it, but it does appeal to them to a point, but i think once you cross a line and you get into it to something where the government is making you do x, y, z. Thats the tipping point. Thats why when mayor pete says medicare for all who want it, hes trying to pull thats basically the biden plan. Its a public option. I ran on the public option in 2017 when repeal and replace and thats what was going on in the senate. When we say public option. If you want to be on the Government Program you can. And its going to be paid for. Know youve known joe biden and youve worked with him close up and i got to work with him in the obama white house, and love him to death. I feel some disquiet. I feel like hes lost his step and the air is coming out of the tires and are you worried about the missteps and the fumbles and the Senior Moments . A lot of people are talking about that behind closed doors. Those moments are not Senior Moments and theyre joe moments and its what makes joe. I really think, van, to some extent people want authenticity. True. There is no one on the stage thats more authentic than joe and im being honest about that, and the age fact o i think we had a wonderful answer the other day because were seeing a situation right now where experience and wisdom and getting to know leaders have around the world would be making a huge difference if he was sitting in that oval office today. I think people would have confidence in him and certainly dealing on the world stage. In 2020 you are on the ballot. Are you concerned that if we have the wrong person at the top of the ballot that it would hurt you and other red state democrats . It can always make it for a challenge, absolutely. What were trying to do in my race and what ive done as u. S. Senator is make sure that the people of alabama understand that what im doing for them. Ive got their back and it doesnt matter who at the top of the ticket is. If you like either one of those, thats fine, but know that ive got your back whether its health care, jobs and the economy. I think thats the real key is to making sure that people look at that and understand what theyre not going to agree with me on everything and theyre not going to agree with me on a lot of things and if they know that im listening and ive got their back, that is the most important part of any election and so thats where were going to set ourselves apart from what i think whoever my opponent will be at the end of the day. Youre trying to pull people together, not just for your election, but for the country. What do you think can. Youre close to people in the heart of this country. What issues unite people these days . I think there are issues that unite us is that political leaders dont let them unite us and i think gun violence can unite us if we meet in the middle and not let political leaders on extremes of either side keep us apart. I think health care can unite us and maybe want extreme medicare for all and not going pure, private anymore and trying to work with what weve got. Lets talk about the gun violence thing, though. You have beto and hes out there saying listen, if you are out there with ak47. And im tired of the message. There are too many people in states like mine who go back and remember, what i said about medicare for all and you dont want the government telling you, youve got to get this health care and you dont want the government coming in and telling them, well take your gun, no matter what kind of gun it is. I dont agree with that. I think that thats wrong. Folks talk about guns in the context of hunting and thats not right. People have guns for protection. People have guns because they like to shoot them. Thats the way i grew up, but i do think this. I think overwhelmingly and they want to close the loophole and the charleston loophole and they want the cdc funded to lessstudied gun violence and this is not a gun problem and thats a Mental Health problem. Look at it. Those are issues if we can pull the extremes off the side and pull in and we get something done. Speaking of extremes. One of the reasons i love you so much because you jumped into a situation, 1963, was there a horrific bombing, murder of four little girls. That case was unsolved for decades and you decided to and we had extremism of the kind that killed those little girls growing in america today. Are you worried about that White Nationalism . . Ive been worried about that for some time. In fact, when we were trying to finish that book, we were talking about and the end of that book was initially warnings about what we saw coming up, the rise of the rhetoric and we had warnings that we had and all of a sudden they became true. We had dylan roof kill nine people in a church in charleston and all of these things came true and words matter and words have consequences and i believe they still do. Listen, the people in alabama are lucky to have someone with so much integrity and such a long track record of doing the right thing even when its hard. Give this brothers a round of applause. . Thank you. Listen, coming up, this week we saw President Trump and Speaker Pelosi accusing each other of having meltdowns and pointing fingers and all kinds of names and sadly, their respective supporters are doing the same thing. Is it possible to depolarize america . One group is doing an interesting survey to see if they can get conservatives and liberals together. Ill have that when we come back. Sport drumming starts [ referee whistle sounds ] [ cheering ] when you need the fuel to be your nephews number one fan. Holiday inn express. Were there. So you can be too. Tmobiles newest signal reaches farther than ever before. With more engineers. More towers. More coverage its a network that gives you freedom from big cities, to small towns, were with you. Because life can take you almost anywhere, tmobile is with you. No signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected. Is eh, not enough fiber. Al . Chocolate would be good. Snacking should be sweet and simple. The delicious taste of glucerna gives you the sweetness you crave while helping you manage your blood sugar. Glucerna. Everyday progress. [phone ringing] how are we doing . Fabulous. I wonder how the firms doing without its fearless leader. You sure you want to leave that all behind . Yeah. Stay restless, with the icon that does the same. The new rx crafted by lexus. Lease the 2020 rx 350 all wheel