It is time to go in a new direction. [applause] it is time to turn this country around. [cheering aplause] plause] manu raju, when you interviewed Mitch Mcconnell, what was he like . It was the most complex rays of a 30 year career. He was attacked right off the bat he had his first primary challenge. He had democrats that made him the top target. He knew that going in. Mcconnell is a guy who looks around corners and he had planned for four years this campaign. In 2010, right after he so what happened at the republican primary at rand paul. Rand paul beat mcconnells handpicked guy in that primary. Mcconnell realized, i have to recalibrate everything i know about republican primary politics in my home state. Instarted to make changes hired key staff and started to build a very sophisticated infrastructure, knowing this would be the most difficult race in his campaign. He said to me, this is the most complex challenge of ever had to deal with. Won big. Big and he youre going to talk about Mitch Mcconnell for the hour and what he is like as a leader. When you see him up close, what is he like compared to what we see on a National Basis . He is very, very smart. Very intelligent. He knows what he is talking about in terms of policy, politics. He is exceptionally bright. He is a tactician, very sharp. You can never get him to say anything he doesnt want to say. I dont care how many ways you ask him. If he doesnt want to say it he is not going to say it. Is funnier than people think. He is more personable and charming. He is never going to be warm and friendly. Backslapper. That is not his style. He will tell you what he feels and what he thinks but he is going to do it on his terms about what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. Is a very precise man. He is a very precise man. This was a precision race that he ran. You guys wrote an article back in november. One of the things you have any is that he could have spent as much as 50 million . He was preparing for that and by the end of it, with the outside groups, and probably exceeded that on the republican side. There was a republican outside group, kentuckys for strong leadership kentuckians for strong leadership, which ended up pummeling the airwaves with attack ads against Alison Grimes. What that allowed mcconnell to a series ofry very focused ads that highlighted the Positive Side of Mitch Mcconnell. This is a guy who had a lousy Approval Rating back home, low 40s to high 30s for much of the campaign, and you realize you need to turn that around. These outside groups dumped millions on the air. It allowed him to spend a lot of his ads on promoting the good parts of Mitch Mcconnells career. Image ored improve his at least stabilize his image. Lessn grimes became popular than him by the end of the campaign, which was a stunning the. Stunning turnaround. Another thing about mcconnell he had a first draft of his Campaign Plan in 2010. They knew they were going to spend a lot of money in technology. They had watched the Obama Campaign in 2008 in 2012. They had watched here he read election in 2010. Electiond harry reids in 2010. He was going to have the latest technology. He said he was going to build the most 40 Senate Campaign ever. The most thorough Senate Campaign ever. He probably got there. He built a very Impressive Campaign operation. There was data mining, identifying target groups, they they had to know which voters they wanted to go after. Had a broken down by geography and region and everything. Caliber a president ial Campaign Running for a senate race. Here is an ad that was run by the Mcconnell Campaign against his opponent. The . Evan he was who was he . He was a businessman, very wealthy, he had a Delta Manufacturing business in connecticut. A built Manufacturing Business in connecticut. People werel looking for any possible primary opponent for months. They were going to keep party meetings. They were befriending a lot of be potential folks and convincing them to get out of the race before they ran. They started to hear about he was this guy . They did an extensive Opposition Research months before he got into the campaign. Months before he got into the campaign he was already a hit with negative there was already a hit with negative press accounts. They had already prepared an attack ad, which they showed it to bevans top consultants. They said, if you get in this race we are going to hit him. Business has not paid taxes, and his company was the number one tax delinquent. This company failed to pay taxes, then got a taxpayer bailout. Not a kentucky conservative. Bevin was dishonest about his resume, claiming to graduate from m. I. T. Not true. He never attended m. I. T. And m. I. T. Has no record of bevin. Not a kentucky conservative. By Mitch Mcconnell and i approve this message. It is hard, it is direct. You are going after bevins strings. He is claiming to be this conservative alternative to and you are raising doubts about his integrity. Had saidtory we bevin claimed he was against the wall street bailout but he was actually for it. They knew exactly what they were going to use against him and they did. They even told him, we are going to run these ads. I would add that what was remarkable about it is that it came up the day he announced he was going to run. There was a statewide ad going after bevin. No one had anything had even but theymatt bevin, were going after him monday one. How badly did he beat bevin . 60 30 . They claim this was a good margin because bevin spent 5 million on this campaign, and he was supported by outside groups. In your article, you say that Mitch Mcconnell spent 2 million of his own money. You say you came here as an intern in college and worked for senator and then went back and did the same thing. Where does he get his money . He has made some money over the years but also his wife came from a wealthy family. And inheritor. Inheritor. A bigher father is shipping executives her father is a big shipping executive. A very wealthy man. That was one of the attacks that grimes launched against mcconnell and it really got under his skin. He hated that attack. Unfair, soit was so much so that they did a focus group to push back on it. One of them was showing him shopping at krogers, driving around in his mercury. To show that hey, i am just a regular guy. But he decided not to do this because the focus group couldnt believe it. Here is a mcconnell add and obama ad. Lets talk about how he used the president. The president of the united states. Dont tell me words dont matter. The president ostroff is to unite the country, to bridge differences, not aggravate them. To encourage success, not condemn it. The president seems to have forgotten that he was elected to lead all of america, at a moment when the National Debt makes us look more like a third world country. I think our highest elected official should be looking for solutions and service it goes solutions instead of scapegoats. Americans expect their president to forge ahead and take responsibility for the policies in place. John bresnahan, all kinds of Little Things popping out. I like that mohammed ali was in there. But call a fascinating relationship with the president. Mcconnell has a fascinating relationship with the president. He respect him, but he has told him before, once in a private 104 out that obama lost of 120 counties in kentucky. Sorry, 116 out of 120. He is not popular in kentucky. He was he ran against, going to tie obama to it. He did a very good job of tying obama to Alison Grimes. Toward the end she exacerbated all her comments on whether she voted for obama. But he did a very good job he made obama and obamacare, which has been a success in kentucky, he made them key issues in the race. 72 andtor mcconnell is Alison Grimes was 35. It, mitcherstating mcconnell is not a matinee idol. Is a smart, attractive what does it say in the age of television that he not only be turbot beat her badly . She was never able to define herself. People who are watching this race it was not exactly clear what she stood for, what she believed. She didnt come across as an authentic candidate. She was very cautious, very disciplined, and tried hard to distance yourself from the president and make the race all about attacking mcconnell. Everything was about mcconnell being in washington for too long, the guardian of gridlock, all the things mcconnell didnt like about mcconnell she was going far on that. But if you do that, you can probably get 40 40 5 but how do you get that last 6 to push you over the top . She was never able to say that i am not Mitch Mcconnell. There is a second half of the equation. You can run against somebody, and mitt romney suffered the same problem with obama. I am not obama, but you have to answer the second part. Voters are not stupid. They understand you are not Mitch Mcconnell who are you and what are you going to do . How long have you two been with politico . I joined in 2008. Just over six years. I am an original. December, 2006. Was there when political started in 2007. Somebody far away from washington, d. C. Can get politico where . Online. We have a newspaper that is circulated but mostly that is washington. He was a tv executive. His father owned some tv companies and stations. They have sold that now, so he owns politico. York. Capital new europe. Pening politico back to Alison Grimes. In your article that you wrote, you talk about the familys relationship to the clintons. Who is she, by the way . Do you know where she went to school . American University Law school. Her father was a longtime state a member of the state assembly from lexington. They have longstanding roots in Kentucky Democratic politics. That is how he got close to bill clinton. When he was governor in arkansas they came up with a friendship. With bill clinton ran for president , he was very helpful in those two campaigns for president , and he also ran Hillary Clintons kentucky campaign. This is a longstanding relationship, and they lean on the clintons hard. They played a large, outside role in Alison Grimess campaign. He helped and a lot of the key decisionmaking. Staffing. He was involved in almost every single decision. What about the backtalk on the difference she seems to be in touch with harry reid. The political operatives here in town explain how that works. There were a lot of questions about whether who was going to be the opponent for mcconnell. Themselves, did not have her initially on the upper tier. They respected her but she was not an issue. They had other opponents. When she was going to get in, she was recruited heavily by democrats. Ther hard. Ecruited her jeffrey katzenberg. Jeffreyfor a second katzenbergs name has popped up all the time. He is not a political guy. He is a rich donor. He starts your fundraising she and her father met with katzenberg. He works for dreamworks. He is the founder of that. A very wealthy movie mogul worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Katzenbergalk that was going to release 20 million to counter any republicans. Beforet with katzenberg she became a candidate. She wasnt a candidate and they had to have a discussion. Katzenberg and the folks who ted to shake mcconnell liberal democrats hate Mitch Mcconnell, no question, they were going to get him. Very these outside groups would get her money. Before she got in there was a very aggressive push by both her fundraisers line up and make sure the majority pack would not leave her hanging, they wanted to make that clear. It shows just how cautious of a candidate she was. Super cautious on the campaign trail and before. She did not want to take the risk if there was a chance the democrats would abandon her. Reid i amitially told not running. So they panic. Phone ander on the she goes into a meeting with her supporters and comes back out and she is running. Sheas this disconnect was a very wellrespected executive director. It is the republicans have their own version. When we see the president allow for fundraisers, does he raise money houseraises money for the and Senate Democrats who have their own campaign committees. House republicans have their own, senate republicans. How much can they contribute to any campaign . Much theys only so can spend in a coordinated manner but they can spend on their own, an independent expenditure effort. They cannot coordinate. They cant say we are running this ad here, you run that at. Clip. s look at this isthe first question to you why are you reluctant to give an answer on whether or not you voted for president obama . There is no reluctantly. This is a matter of principle. Our constitution grants the constitutional right for privacy at the ballot box. You have that right, i have that right, every kentuckian as that right. I am tasked with overseeing and making sure we are enforcing all of our election laws. I have worked very closely with members of our military to ensure the privacy at the ballot box. So your reluctance is a matter of principle . I am not going to compromise a constitutional right provided toe in kentucky in order show myself on one side. I will protect that right for every kentuckian. Who do you think advised her to do that . After the election, we were trying to figure that out. There were fingers pointed at who said what. Everybody denied it was them. I assume she did discuss this with her pollster and father. A curious decision because, of course she voted for obama, she was a delegate for him. Convention. He she could have come up with a better answer. I interviewed her in january and asked her a similar question would you vote for barack obama again . Time, youo me at the are factually mistaken and launch and do some speech about something else. Mean . Said, what do you for months, she was not saying who she voted for. At that critical juncture in october, she became part of a national punchline. The thing is i have had democrats on the hill say to me they were flabbergasted that she would Say Something like this, because of course she voted for obama. Going to be hit with obama no matter if you are a democrat. She could have voted for mccain or romney she said she voted for hillary clinton. She supported bill clinton on the campaign trail. She doesnt want to talk about it but it another way she does it didnt make any sense. You could have come up with any answer better than that one. It was a gift for mcconnell. He didnt start laughing in the middle that debate. It was a gift. You are making yourself the issue. I have talked to some africanamerican workers who are flabbergasted why when you say you voted for obama . A were really upset with her. I voted for obama but, you know this is not the barack obama i voted for, she could have done a lot with it. Mitch mcconnell had 70 different hats. Ads. He tried to be hyper local. A lot of these were targeted to individual media markets. Eastern kentucky on the coal issue, western kentucky on rural issues. Helping workers involved with radiation this was a very, highly sophisticated effort. One of the reasons he did this the era of your marks are gone. Mitch mcconnell used to run a point barrel project. Now those are gone. Those are really gone . They are gone on capitol hill. You cant claim credit for his spending your marks. Ned it. Blicans band mcconnell was smart enough to look down the road and see this is how you win election. He helped deliver kentucky. He did a News Conference the day after the election and he was standing in the mcconnell center. Porate donors there was some initial money but it was mainly in corporate donors. Lets bring this back to what people see on our network. Here is harry reid and Mitch Mcconnell. Debate, a chat on the floor of the senate. I want you to tell me the difference. Delay,blicans stall, obstruct, and then we have a vote here. Delayonly purpose for the is for delay purposes. They are obstructing this as they have obstructed everything the last five years. Leader the majority doesnt like the way it is working i would recommend he change his behavior. We dont have a rules problem, we had a behavior problem. We have had a couple of examples of trying to get back to normal where we brought up the bill that was open for amendments. Amendments were processed. But it seems of late we are back into the old senate. Scoringre about is partisan points and denying members the opportunity to offer amendments. I am a patient man. I try to be. My friend, to come here and have the audacity to talk about my grace in my word, the trouble with that statement as we have the whole senate to see what happened. I think i can safely say that most of the people dont get it. Say, theythis and i are with each other every day. Explain it. There is a certain amount of the ettrick that goes into being the majority and minority leaders. Is, the morehumb combat of the language, the closer they are to a deal. Case, they are a lot alike. They are around the same age, reid came from very humble origins, a very troubled background, very poor. Mcconnell suffered from polio and overcame that. He was ill often. They worked their way up, they both were state officials first. They were both extraordinarily proud of their state. That is where they cut their teeth. They were both very good at doing the dirty jobs in the senate in order to gain leadership. Let me have seen in this past year is that their relationship has soured. We made mcconnell a top target. They made in the number one race. And spent millions, mcconnell knew all this, and that really hurt the relationship on the floor. He thinks mcconnell has really prevented him from doing anything on the senate floor. That was what that argument was. Things got so bad they needed an intermediary to talk to one another. Things were getting pretty tense during the election season. That is goin