Going on for the last two and a half years. Charles all this as former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort is sentenced to just 47 months in prison on tax and bank fraud charges, far shorter than what was recommended by the special counsels office. Lets bring in the wall street journals deputy editor, Dan Henninger. Kim strassel and bill mcgurn with us as well. It just never stops, but going into the weekend, everyones still kind of reeling from the manafort sentencing. Yeah, the 47 months instead of the 21 years that they expected him to get. I think in many ways, charles, this is a preview of the mueller anticlimax to come. Because the manafort was being concentrated on here because he had been Donald Trumps campaign manager. His case was handed off from the Justice Department to muellers investigation in the expectation he would give them information about trump and collusion. Muellers lawyer said at the sentencing hearing he gave us nothing and maybe because he had nothing. And so he ends up with 47 months, and i think that it sort of suggests he did commit a crime. He lied, he hid the tax returns, but this suggests that this is what is going to come from the Mueller Report. And after the president was saying two years and all this investigation, were coming up with less than we expected. Charles and, kim, on that note, this is perhaps why the democrats are really getting ready, i guess, for the ultimate. Theyre digging into every crevice of President Trumps life, and who knows how far theyre prepared to go, but maybe mueller has come up with a dry hole which would be very embarrassing for them. Yeah, its a huge admission, because we are moving on to stage two. And now suddenly, charles, your not hearing any of these names that weve heard so much over the last years, manafort, cohen, papadopoulos, the steele dossier. They dont want to talk about any of that anymore. They want to move on to a whole new field. In particular you see in the house the campaign the Committee Chairman focusing on, for instance, whether or not donald trump committed any collusion with regard to his financial dealings in russia, which ises a whole new field and area. But i think the problem that they face, the risk here is that they do look like its a fishing expedition and that comes out a, indeed, it says that there is nothing there and they continue this, i think they risk a backlash with some of the public wondering if we have now verged beyond investigation into harassment. Charles bill, of course, maybe we wont be able to measure that depending how much of the Mueller Report is released to the public, if and i know theres a lot of political calculus here, but if its not released to the public, then the democrats will be able to, perhaps, leak certain parts of it and to speculate on things that would probably justify in their minds additional investigations. Yeah, look, i mean in general, i think if you remember one of the reasons james comey was sacked was that when he announced that thered be no charges against Hillary Clinton, which was not in his purview, he also then went on to say she did all these bad things, which is not what you do in a prosecution. If you dont indict, you dont say bad things about them. That should be the precedent. That said, i think that if they dont release this after two years, the countrys just going to be further roiled, and the democrats would get the best of both worlds. Theyre keeping it secret because theyre hiding this. Charles right. Democrats clearly are admitting with all that that mr. Muellers not going to give them what they want, and i say this at least for jerry nadler, the investigation is now where it should be. If you want to remove a president , you dont have the fbi have an investigation or a special counsel. It should be a political decision in the House Judiciary Committee where kim was mentioning a backlash, where you have political consequences for your choices. So while i think that Jerry Nadlers on this big expedition and not likely to find something, thats at least the venue where we have some accountability. To me, its far more sinister that Andrew Mccabe launched this investigation unaccountable, that we have a special counsel going off and, you know, for all these months not finding anything. Charles so, dan, right now just written requests. And you have to wonder, you know, when everyone says, no thank you, or how many of these actually become subpoenas, because then well get an idea of just the kind of grand scope they have in mind. And i think, to bills point, this could actually further the anxieties, even frustrations among the public that its unfair, that theyre going down avenues that have zero to do with russian collusion. Yeah. Lets add to Jerry Nadlers investigation the one thats probably coming in the house ways and means committee. Chairman richard neal is probably going to try to get held of President Trumps tax returns from the treasury department. And pretty clearly the strategy here is political and is, again, to make the argument, make the case, suggest to the American People that we have an unacceptable president in donald trump. Theyre going to try and dig up all this dirt. But, charles, this is so far from the original charge which was collusion with the russians. Charles right. So ultimately, it looks completely political. And as bills suggesting, the American People are going to have to make a decision whether that is an acceptable way to run the house of representatives. Charles and, kim, re democrats, rather, are being very careful not to throw out the iword, impeachment, just yet also. Well, very interesting listening, mr. Nadler let the cat out of the bag. He said, look, the president has already obstructed justice. But in his mind thats the case, and he said really were kind of going through the motions here because we need to convince more americans were not trying to reverse or steal the last election. And so, you know, yes, impeachment is on their minds, but theyre wary that there could be a problem if they go down that road. Charles absolutely. Thank you all very much. When we come back, the 2020 democratic field continues to grow, but the biggest news of the week could be whos not running and whos still on the fence. When you retire will you or will you just be you, without the constraints of a full time job . You can grow your Retirement Savings with pacific life and create the future thats most meaningful to you. Which means you can retire, without retiring from life. Having the flexibility to retire on your terms. Thats the power of pacific. Ask your financial professional about pacific life today. 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And ohio senator Sherrod Brown announcing hes also going to sit this out. Hillary clinton says shes not runed but, reportedly, isnt ready to close the door entirely. All of this, of course, as the waiting game continues with former Vice President joe biden reportedly in the final stages of preparing for a 2020 run. Were back with Dan Henninger and gillian melcher. Im losing track, kim, of 40s in and whos not whos in and whos not. And i think whos not speaks pretty loudly about issues within the party particularly within the moderates. Yeah. I think there are two main issues that are guiding the decisions for those who are not in. One just has to do with how crowded the field is. You know, its one thing when you have 14 candidates out there and no one knows who they are, but youve got a couple of big name stauers out there stars out there, so that makes it harder Sherrod Brown or jeff networkly who both inside merkley who both decided not to do it. A lot of the operatives have been sucked up by other campaigns. But the other one is what you get to, which is we have an ascendant wing of the Democratic Party thats highly progressoff, very, very progressive, very, very intolerant of those in the middle, and i think some of these candidates like Michael Bloomberg understood that their views on wall street, on the idea that capitalism is a good thing, on the idea that maybe you cant have medicare for all, its too expensive, those are just not very popular and would make a run very hard right now. Charles and, of of course, gillian, with the brown, senator brown not getting in, folks are wondering who could win back the blue collar vote, because that was his angle, right . The ohio game, he went to iowa recently. Is there someone like that that you think right now in the current in the current lineup . Charles yeah. I mean, i think they really do have a problem here because youved had new green deal democrats, and there are a lot of ways that those interests are pitted against each other. Maybe joe biden would be able to appeal to them. I think thats kind of the best bet candidate for recapturing some of those voters, the blue collar guys that were lifelong democrats but went to trump. But, yeah, i do think were seeing the demographics of both parties fundamentally changing, and candidates are still the feeling out how to gram with. That. Charles speaking of demographics, in that party theres a youth movement. Its an Ideological Movement and an actual movement, and theres a lot of talk about not having the same old people run or control things. Nancy pelosi already has her hands full just trying to control those folks who have been elected, and it seems like that might be playing a role with respect to biden waiting. Oh, its playing a big role, the demographics, the idea that the millennials are going to define the Democratic Party. And this sort of gets the role of social media, because the millennials seem to have this big presence in politics whereas the people who got trump elected i mean, the conventional wisdom after the election was pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, blue collar voters had been overlooked. Theyre not on social media all the time. And to me, the most interesting dropout here is, indeed, Sherrod Brown who was supposed to be running in that lower middle class, blue collar lane. And we also talked about Hillary Clinton not running. Big question, where do her voters go . Look, Hillary Clinton had real support. I remember back in 2012 going out and spending a day with her in ohio in one auditorium after another. You know what the auditorium was filled with, charles . Blue collar women. They really liked Hillary Clinton. And the question is, where are they going to go now . Are they going to join up with a lot of these leftwing candidates or wait for somebody like joe biden. Its not just the millennials in the Democratic Party who are going to determine who gets that nomination. Charles spa, kim and, kim, we havent mentioned Bernie Sanders yet. The change also in i californias up first or in the beginning someone like a Kamala Harris could gain the sort of momentum, maybe go for those votes that dan just talked about, the women hillary voters. Yeah, but how to do you actually do that, thats the question that i dont really understand. You know, this was encapsulated very well this week in this fight that were seeing going on between wisconsin democrats who want democrats to hold their convention in wisconsin in 2020 and miami democrats. And this is the fundamental choice facing the apparently which is do you go after these multicultural minority, coastal state voters, or do you go after these blue collar voters who for a while democrats were convinced this was their problem, its why they lost in 2016, trump got those voters, they need to get them back. But the poll and i think the problem is can you have a candidate that actually a appeals to both ends of those . How do you have a candidate that wants the Green New Deal and to get rid of all coal manufacturing jobs, for instance, and then also appeal to blue collar coal workers . It does not seem like its possible. So, you know, a lot of people are waiting to see if biden comes out and thread that needle, but i think theres a good question whether anyone can they had that needle. Charles certainly looking like the gordian knot, thats for sure. Much more when come back. 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Charles well, as the 2020 president ial field continues to grow, my next guest says its shaping up to be, quote, the democratic primary from hell, end quote. Karl rove is a wall street journal columnist and former Senior Adviser to president george w. Bush. Carl, you also karl, you also say pass the popcorn. [laughter] yeah, its going to be a heck of a great theater for us. The democrats have changed the rules on the calendar in four very profound ways. Theyre going to start earlier. The first Republican Debate in 2015 was in august, the first democratic debate will be in june. And theyre going to have a dozen of them before voters go to the polls in february of the next year. Theyre also frontloading the delegates. By march 3rd of 2016, under a quarter of the democratic elected delegates had been selected in caucuses and primaries. In 2020, by march 3rd nearly half of the delegates, and by april fools, 70 of the delegates to the National Democratic convention will be selected. And theyre going to be proportional. So were frontloading, and their rules say if you get 15 of the vote, you get delegates. Theyre very proportional. So were going to have three or four or five candidates who are going to be competing in various states, and three or four of them are going to end up being above 15 in each of those states, and were going to have a lot of people, fractured convention, and may not have a majority on the first ballot as a result of it. And finally, superdelegates. Theyre calling them, incidentally, now the automatic dell the gates. Theyre hide delegates. Theyre hiding the name. Superdelegates are not allowed to vote on the fist ballot ott to, but if theres not a winner, they get to vote. Imagine if 765 sort of senior states people of the Democratic Party come roaring onto the field to decide who the democratic nominee is. Charles so bidens looking at all of the math and all of these changes that you just laid out along with some of the other political calculus out there, and everyones sort of waiting, waiting, waiting. Ultimately, the Democratic Party now hes seen maybe as a savior for a party that feels like its a rudderless ship. Well, i think thats what hes hoping. Im not certain thats necessarily what its going to be. Weve got two people sitting here having not entered the contest who are likely to be major players. One of them is biden who has the highest name id of any of the candidates and consistently leads the national polls. Now, he can build on that name id and that strength, or more likely, he can see it diminish as these other candidates get better known. He doesnt need to enter the contest early, which is why hes not in today, but hes got a very tough row to hoe, because once he gets