Biden Campaign Officials told nbc news the former vp plans to take the fight directly to President Trump, but wont take any attacks on his record lying down. Well, today the former Vice President made clear one thing he plans to fight for tonight. He released an oped column going after his democratic rivals on the issue of health care. His campaign also released a video showing his opponents struggling to discuss their own health care plans. How much would medicare for all cost . A couple things. Just quickly so, people would know how much it would cost. But again the former Vice President will be flanked tonight at center stage by senators harris and cory booker, who has criticized biden in recent weeks over his role in crafting the 1994 crime bill. So were going back a quarter century tonight for this debate. Anyway, earlier this week, senator harris previewed her strategy for tonights debate. Lets watch. My mother raised me to be polite, and i intend to be polite. It is my intention to do as much as possible to use that time on the debate stage to talk with the American Public about the issues they care about and the issues that wake them up at 3 00 in the morning. Well, senator harris of course got a major boost after her confrontation with biden in the polls in last months debate over her his legislative work with segregationist senators and his record on courtmandated bussing. She hit him on those issues. But according to politico, the former vp is prepared this time for a pileon. He is expected to fire back both at booker for his time as newark, new jersey mayor when police were racially profiling citizens and senator harris who supported a controversial truancy law in 2010 when she was attorney general in california. For more, im joined by Adrienne Elrod, former Senior Adviser to the Hillary Clinton campaign, john heilemann, msnbc National Affairs analyst, and danielle moodiemills, siriusxm radio. Thank you all for joining us right now. I want to go through the list. John heilemann, tonight everybody is watching this fight. Yes, sir. Its like a heavyweight fight between the reigning heavyweight in the polls and someone who may well end up the nominee, but its moving up certainly. Yes. And, look, chris, you got joe biden who took those blows in the first debate. His numbers have bounced back to a large extent. But there is no one, including no one around joe biden in the Joe Biden Campaign who doesnt recognize the stakes here that the calling card for this candidacy is that he is the one best equipped to take on donald trump, and that two bad debate performances would put a huge dent in that aura. So there is expectation and a fair amount of nerves on the part of the people around biden about whether or not he is going to be able to bounce back in this debate and prove again that he is the guy to go after the president of the United States. Let me go to adrienne. It seems to me biden challenges biden. He is not being threatened in the numbers by cory booker, one or two percent at the most. He is not being threatened by kamala in the numbers. His challenge is to hold his numbers. Thats exactly right, chris. Hes got to rise to the occasion tonight and play more offense than defense. Hes got a record going back to when he was 29 years old when he was first elected to congress. He is now 76. If he allows every Single Person on that debate stage tonight to attack him on his record, he is not going to do very well. His team knows that. He knows that. Hes got some of the best Campaign Operatives in Democratic Politics today working on his campaign. Theyre fully aware of the stakes. I think hell rise to the occasion tonight. Danielle, give us a little preview of whats going after cory booker. Lets go after kamala. Theyre the ones who really have nothing to lose. Certainly booker has nothing to lose. He is about two points. Kamala is one of the two or three people, maybe four who could be the nominee right now, looking at the numbers. Yeah, absolutely. I think one, we saw Kamala Harris perform extraordinarily well in miami, and we know that she is going to come out strong. Look, biden has been running from his record, and thats what he showed muss the last debate. He needs to stand strong. He needs to show the American People that he is somebody that can play into days political game. Not bring us back to yesteryear and not give us promises of working across the aisle when we know republicans are not interested in doing that, but he is ready to play todays game. I think last night we saw the moderate versus liberal wing of the Democratic Party, and frankly, america doesnt want a moderate right now. They want somebody who can handle the big issues. So joe biden has a tall order tonight to be able to prove to the American Public that he is ready. Well, there is one thing missing in the conversation last night about legislation. Theyre all talking about legislation basically. Programs theyre going to push through. Medicare for all, the whole thing. And i kept thinking wait a minute, there is something missing here. You need 60 votes in the u. S. Senate. That means you need a big majority, a super majority for any of these programs. You can maybe play around with the tax system, but you cant do anything in terms of programs without 60 senators. John, you start here. What world are they talking about in 2021 when we have 47 Democratic Senators now with an unlikely ability to even get 50, let alone 60 . Yeah, chris, i think theyre talking a little along the lines of what governor bullock said last night from the stage there is a little bit of a wish list quality to some of the democratic proposals. It is the case that there are a lot of democrats that think the more cautious, more pragmatic style of politics that Hillary Clinton practiced in 2016 did not work against donald trump. And so now the argument goes you need to add a fullthroated progressive point of view that will enliven the base and drive turnout if youre going to try to beat donald trump. I dont think that has very much to do in this conversation has very much to do with governing. People will say well worry about governing later. We have to worry about how we go about beating donald trump. And to come back to joe biden, its one of the things a little bit of a conundrum with biden. He is seen as the one who is most likely or best equipped by a lot of democrats to take on donald trump. At the same time, he also has this vision of the Republican Party, which is a vision that is kind of outdated. I think we can somehow figure out how to do business of the Republican Party. And that is another problem that he has with this electorate. Most democrats look at that and say dude, the Democratic Party cannot do business with republicans. You cant pretend like that old vision of the Republican Party still obtains and is going to face challenges on that front too Going Forward probably tonight on this debate stage and as this campaign progresses. Danielle, your thoughts about this, just in terms of promises to the voters. I mean people have been promising voter stuff for the whole history of this country they cant deliver. But what i listened to last night, i kept thinking how does this happen . How does this happen in a Political Division we have in our country now which is roughly 5050 . How do we make good on these comment s made last night . Donald trump hasnt made good on one thing he put forward. I think right now what were looking for is visionary leadership. To johns point, the fact of the matter is donald trump has been lying to the people for so long. And the idea that the Republican Party has totally backed him, and then you have joe biden coming out and giving us this kind of nostalgic idea of the Republican Party and working across the aisle. I think, yes, we have to find a way to work out these big ideas in a senate that if Mitch Mcconnell is still in control of it, were going to be in a loft trouble. But the idea is here, we need somebody that has big ideas, big vision to be able to solve some of our big problems. Maybe if a democrat gets into office, thats going to be done through executive orders if Mitch Mcconnell is still going to be playing the grim reaper role. You can actually do this through executive order, creating a medicare for all program . I dont understand how you do that. We will have to find ways in which to work around the senate if in fact, if in fact Mitch Mcconnell is still the leader of the senate at that time. They will have to work around and theyll have to find the maneuvers and the political strategies in order to be able to do that, because working with the senate, if Mitch Mcconnell is in power is not going to be an option. So democrats are going to have to get creative. Republicans have not been playing by the rules this entire time. Do you have any thoughts about this . I do, chris. How do you work around the u. S. Senate. I think its a great idea. I think you can do some things by executive order. But these major visionary proposals are going to take the approval of the u. S. Congress, and usually 60 votes in the u. S. Senate. Thats just the fact. Youre not going to be age to pass some medicare for all plan by executive order. Democrats cannot pass that plan with a Senate Majority that is ruled by Mitch Mcconnell, that is ruled by republicans. And i think thats what joe biden is planning on here. Thats one of his tack. He is saying look, i was part of the team that passed obamacare. I know there are some things that need to be fixed, but i also dont think we need to overhaul the entire health care system. A lot of americans feel that way, and a lot of americans remember how hard it was to pass obamacare in 2009. I was working on the hill at the time, chris, and it was a very difficult, very carefully crafted plan to pass, but it passed. And you head ted kennedy. And you had ted kennedy. Right now its nearly impossible. You a great proposal. I wish i could get up tomorrow morning and figure out a way to deal with Mitch Mcconnell because he has been awful. John heilemann, maybe youve got the plan, because i think it takes a visionary president. I agree with danielle. Somebody could go and shout from the rooftops. This guy is an obstructionist. He is closing down everything we are trying to do. We cant get anything past this guy. This is not democratic. This is just obstructionism. And how do you beat him so that republicans are finally embarrassed by this guy and people like mitt romney break loose or Susan Collins or somebody . Is there any way to beat Mitch Mcconnell, honestly . John heilemann . Well, chris, i think you know the only way to beat Mitch Mcconnell is with actual raw political power, and that power is going to come from the ballot box. So a situation in which donald trump suffered a devastating large landslide loss in 2020 and democrats either retook control of the United States senate or came close, i would say actually probably they would need to take control of the United States senate. That scenario that takes mcconnell out of the majority leaders job and that makes the Republican Party recognize that they are paying a giant political price for having gone into bed and fully into bed with donald trump might change the dynamics on the senate side. But i dont think there is some clever procedural way around this. I dont think there is a clever there is a consume buy yay consume by yaw. You have to beat the Senate Republicans to give you power and leverage to be able to change the game. Well, tonights debate comes against the backdrop of President Trumps ongoing attacks targeting members of congress of color. Here is how some of the candidates at last nights debate confronted the president s embrace of Racial Division. What trump is doing through his racism and his xenophobia is demonizing a group of people. And as president , he will end that demonization. Well call his racism out for what it is and also talk about its consequences. We live in a country now where the president is advancing environmental racism, economic racism, criminal justice racism, health care racism. There are people that voted for donald trump before that arent racist. They just wanted a better shake in the economy. So i would appeal to them. But i dont think anyone can justify what this president is doing. Let me go back to danielle. I want to ask you a tough question. Im not sure what your answer is, so this is wide open from my end. Do you have a sense that traditionally, and tradition is not so great if youre a person of color in this country, traditionally, the candidates, they run white people, except for obama, its been white people running for president and Vice President. Do you think this is one time where the ticket has to reflect our diversity . I think just in general, we need a ticket that is going to be reflective of somebody that can beat donald trump. And if that happens to be a Kamala Harris and a warren ticket or whoever is winning at this time, then thats who we need to go with. But the fact of the matter is yes, donald trump is a racist, but he is using racism as a distraction from the fact that the impeachment walls are closing in on him. And that needs to be uplifted as well. Its not diversity for diversitys sake. We need somebody who is going the beat donald trump, beat him on policy, beat him on measure, and restore some type of sanctity, some type of decency to american politics right now which is completely absent under his rule. Did it bother you that ten democrats were on the stage last time before National Television audiences in so Many Networks and none of them raised the issue of impeaching donald trump . Danielle . Yeah, i think that its we need to be talking about impeaching donald trump on a daytoday basis, and we need to be talking about it not because we dont like him, because shea republican, but because he is a National Security threat to the United States. And that every day he is doing something that puts the American People in danger. And that his racism is in fact a distraction, and that we need to be talking about it and calling it out because he is using his base as a way to move them on their racism and to divide us. And its something that we cannot stand for. But at the same time, he is doing it because he is running scared. He is scared of the big i, which is impeachment, that i believe is coming for him. Okay, thank you so much, danielle moodiemills. Thank you, Adrienne Elrod right here, and john heilemann, thank you. Coming up tonight on hardball, more on tonights big rematch tonight between joe biden and Kamala Harris. Everyone is going to be watching center stage tonight. Will biden show more passion and spontaneity that he lacked last time . Im going to talk to surrogates for the biden and harris campaigns on their debate strategies for tonight. And for years Mitch Mcconnell has worn his hyper partisanship and obstructionism as a badge of honor. But now the nickname moscow mitch has hurt his feelings. Joe scarborough, who coined that wonderful phrase, joins me tonight on hardball. Much more tonight in this hour. Stick with us. Hour stick with us. 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