Peter alexander and road warrior alley vitaly have made their way to miami. Ashley parker and white house nbc senior analysts joins me and so does edgdy. Mr. Alexander, ill start with you, sir. Set the scene for us. Well, well set the scene for one, its 102 degree heat index, so the heat index is on. Certainly heat is on for these candidates as they break into these two debate stages over the course of the next two nights. The bottom line is long winded this is obviously the tradition of politicians. Theyre going to have to be brief in their remarks when they get here. Obviously each answer just about 60 seconds, 30 seconds to follow up, two hours each night, five segments for commercial breaks so have to be pithny their comments. Right now they are converging on miami. Some of them behind closed doors prepping for this big debate. Among those is joe biden whos expected to come down here on thursday exchanging fire with the president of the United States where hes been trying to direct most of his attention. Bidens aids tell us that they anticipate other candidates will be looking for a breakout moment. They dont believe of that they need one, so hes going to try to stay above the fray to try to pivot focus on President Trump and try to deliver deliver a positive message here. Elizabeth warren, the front runner on the first night, she has an efent later today, a town hall here in miami. Shes not the only one out. Castro and delaney are here. Beto orourke today will be meeting with voters as well. All of them, craig, trying to get a head start to warm up for what for these candidates will be their first opportunity to speak to a National Audience on wednesday and thursday nights. All right. Ali, lets turn to you here and lets talk about the aforementioned senator Elizabeth Warren. Youre covering here and youve got this article thats up on nbc news com. And you talk about this new pole by the Progressive Group move on. It finds that the senator from massachusetts is the first choice of that groups members, 38 . Bernie sanders at 17 right now. Does that signal trouble for the Bernie Sanders camp . It can. I mean, weve been seeing a lot of these polls recently where Elizabeth Warren has been surging. In some cases above Bernie Sanders. But a few things stood out to me in that poll. They had done that straw poll in december of 2018 and Elizabeth Warren only got single digits. Since then in the last six months shes managed to coalesce more than 30 points of support in that poll now make her the leader. Bernie sanders is in second isnt necessarily all that surprising to me, but it is notable that this is a group that endorsed him in 2016 against hillary clinton. It is a big Progressive Group that is in theory part of his base of support and so it could show that Elizabeth Warren is beginning to inch into his territory and eventually these two, their policy minds are pretty similar. Theyre friends. At a certain point, despite the fact they dont want to contrast with each other, they goring to be on a crash course to paint the difference for voters. Professor, Elizabeth Warren has the buzz at the moment. Is it to her benefit that both Bernie Sanders and joe biden are on night two . In a certain way think, craig. Because i think she has an opportunity to set herself apart. She can lay out her clearly as she can her policy agenda and she can set the tone with a bold vision for the country and for the party. So i think she has an opportunity here because she doesnt have to compete with these other voices. Meanwhile, joe bind comes into this debate as the front runner in every major poll weve seen so far. When you are the front runner, you only have one way to go, down. The Vice President , when hes standing there flanked by nine other contenders, some of whom really dont have a whole lot to lose, i mean, when youre pulling in 1 or 2 you dont have a whole lot to lose. How does joe biden play this . Well, youre right about who he has to be worried about. I actually this week i went back and i talked to a number of senior strategists and republican candidates themselves from the 2016 primary debates. And one of the things people said was if you are the front runner or, you know, second or third in the top, what you need to be worried for are sort of those thirdtier people. The people who launch and maybe havent quite lived up to their expectations because theyre the ones who have nothing to lose. Theyre the ones who are looking for a viral moment and they are the ones who know that if they go after joe biden and have some sort of memorable exchange that gets a second life on youtube and cable news, that can help boost and propel their candidacy. And frankly, as you say, joe biden is the one who has the most to lose if something goes awry. He does not want a viral moment. He wants to keep his message positive, he wants to reintroduce himself to voters, he wants to position himself against trump, and everyone else wants to use him to launch their own campaigns. Eddy, Kamala Harris also on night two. Npr reporting that while harris had a strong roll joust hout of campaign, she hasnt taken off since. She made her mark last year while grilling Brett Kavanaugh during the confirmation hearings. That prosecutorial zeal zrr that hurt her at all with the more liberal wing the party . Well, yes in certain pays theres a sense in which her record as da and attorney general in california shell have to account for and explain it. But what i expect from Kamala Harris is an elegant toughness. We dont need the crudeness and crassness of donald trump, but we need someone whos tough enough to speak to the moment, to speak to our challenges, but that cant be crude. So im looking for her to be elegantly elegant in her toughness, to state specifically that she could pros kuts tecute case about the as she said, she knows a rap sheet when she sees it. Think what were going to see from her is a bold vision, elegant toughness and an attempt to be inspirational in the short period of time that she has. Meanwhile, Pete Buttigieg criticized in his hometown over the killing of a black man by a white police officer. We saw those fiery exchanges in that town hall meeting. Also still facing criticism over the way he handled the police department, the off thiusting o police chief when he was early his tenure of mayor. How much do we think mayor buttigiegs record will be brought up by his opponents thursday night . Im not sure. I dont know if they have the time to do it. I think what mayor pete is going to do, hes going to try to in some ways represent himself as a statesman in the midst of that crisis. Ive had a chance to talk about with some of the folks in the campaign. Theyre trying to address the situation in south bend in specific ways i think what well see from mayor pete is an attempt to put forward the vision, to put forth the vision in light of the challenges and then ground that vision in the concrete experience hes had. Hes going to have to try to do that, which is a very difficult thing to do, right, in a short period of time. So hes going to have to show that he can be a statesman in the midst of a crisis that he himself is experiencing right now in south bend. Peter, really quickly here, how concerned are Democratic Party officials about this idea that youre going to have 20 candidates on stage over a twonight span here. Is there any concern that this thing could devolve into some sort of horror show . I mean think there theres always that kpernt tconcern. The bottom line is theres only limited opportunities for any candidate to speak. There could be some of those back and forth exchanges. A lot of these democrats have said their issue is not with anybody else on their stage or the next or previous nights stage, its with the president. Think youll see a lot of that. Think this will be a lot about short stump speeches and see who can do the best job of sin that sizing their argument in the 60 seconds they get to do it, 30 seconds for the followup. The one who shows a command of these issues, a real presence on stage and maybe a little bit of personality as well as the candidate who likely leaves these next couple of nights feeling best about their performance. Beater alexander, ali vitaly, well let you get inside and cool off. Professor, always good to have you, soon. Ashley parker do stand by, i want to come back to you in just a moment. We are just over 33 hours away from the first democratic president ial debate. Two nights, one stage. The prime time event broadcast live across nbc, msnbc, and telemundo. It will of course be streamed on nbc news Digital Properties as well. We need to get to some breaking news right now. Tensions with iran escalating at this hour. President trump firing off a series of tweets just moments ago. A day after putting new sanctions on that country. Im joined now by nbcs hans nichols. Hes at the white house. Also joining me, former special assistant to the president during the Obama Administration, former spokesman for the National Security council, hes also an msnbc National Security analyst ned price. Hans, lets start with you. Whats the president saying now . Hes threatening military action against iran after the iranians have come out and questioned and called the white house mentally disabled. That was a few stloou came out from the foreign Ministries Office overnight. They were responding what the white house did yesterday was increase sanctions and specific live name the Supreme Leader of iran as well as other individuals is that were involved in this most recent and these two most recent military provocations think we should call them, both the tankers as well as the shooting down of the drone. Craig, whats interesting about what the president is saying and ned will appreciate this from his time in the Obama Administration, the president seems to be drawing a red line. Hes saying if the iranians do anything to anything american, that would merit a response by the United States. He is also talking about the devastation of the iranian ieds, emappropriate advised exclusive devices caused in the iraq war. Devices caused in the iraq war. Hes blaming them for 2,000 cancer is the ugliest disease mankind has ever faced. We got the idea that if we took two dimensional patient imaging and put it in holographic displays, we could dissect around the tumor so we can safely remove it. When we first started, we felt like this might just not be possible but verizon 5g ultra wideband will give us the ability to do this. With licensed agents available 24 7. Its not just easy. Its havingawalrusingoal easy roooaaaar its a walrus ridiculous yes nice save, big guy good job duncan way to go [chanting] its not just easy. Its geico easy. Oh, duncan. Stay up. No sleepies. President trump today in a new wideranging interview at the hill, some of which was conducted on camera, the president talked about congress, iran, the campaign. He also denied a new Sexual Assault allegation made against him. Ashley parker, Washington PostWhite House Reporter and msnbc senior political analyst is back with me now. I want to play a portion of the of the interview here. Well get to the Sexual Assault allegation in a moment. But this is a portion of the interview where he was asked about joe biden ashley. How he doesnt get president obama to endorse him, there has to somebody reason hes not endorsing him. He was the Vice President. They seem to have gotten along. Then goes and lies and says i asked the president not to endorse her. Give me a break. He said heed ask the president because hes embarrassed by the fact that obamas not endorsing him. So he goes out and says i asked him not to endorse me. He was trying to get the endorsement so it could be something that president obama knows. But there is something going on in that brain of his. I had never heard that theory. Had you heard that before the president said that . Is that a working theory that ive missed . The theory that president obama knows something is amiss and therefore has not endorsed Vice President biden, no, i have not heard that specific theory. I will say, though, that this is sort of what President Trump has a knack for, which is he sort of has a bully sense of a sensitive area or the jugular. Vice president biden, one thing that the post has reported on and others is that a number of people who worked in the Obama Administration have not overwhelmingly come on board to support joe bidens candidacy. That is an area of a little bit of sensitivity. And so the president sort of in his own way, in a way that is full of conspiracy theorize and mistruths is able to get at a central fact, which is that joe biden does not have president obamas endorse meant and does he not have all of those obama people onboard. Theres many reasonable explanations for that but what President Trump is doing is ejecting it into the either and his hope is that democratic voters will say i wonder what i he doesnt have the president s endorse meant and can he get that in the bloodstream and that becomes another media narrative that benefits him. And all of the sudden youve got everyone talking about it on cable news, tweeting about it, and the president has manufactured a whole new controversy. Lets talk about the Rape Allegation now that was made by e. Jean carroll. She says that President Trump sexually assaulted her in a Department Store changing room back the mid1990s. The president denied the accusation telling the hill, quote, ill say it with great respect. Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened if the never happened, okay. The president has been accused bisexual misconduct by well over a dozen times now. Is there a certain insensitivity in that response that shes not even my type, is that how the administration wants to deny a Sexual Assault allegation . Yeah, i dont think there is a respectful way to say that. And this is part of a pattern by this president that oftentimes when he is accused of Sexual Assault, sexual misconduct, in this case rape, even though she herself doesnt use that word, one of the things he does first in addition to denying it is he demeans the looks of the accuser. This is a classic playbook for the president and its deeply problematic and i think a number of people in the white house dont think that is the best way to sort of attack an accuser based on their physical appearance. But theres also an understanding if you looked at that statement that the president put out, that was clearly a statement that the president put out. It was his words, it was his language, it was his anger and he is the one who is going to speak for himself on these issues and thats how the white house generally handles it. Even if they dont always like what he says. Ashley, an article thats getting a lot of attention today is out of axios. Im sure youve seen this. This trump slump has its been dubbed hitting the Media Digital and cable specifically, evidence that trumps social media star power was also beginning to wear off surface last money when axios reported that his tweets were receiving less than half the engagement that they got when he first took office. If thats true, ashley parker, first of all one would imagine that this president would soon become apa plek tick. But if does it diminish his ability to reach his base . First of all, it was a great story. And this is something that the president im sure read it, consumed it, seen it on cable news. He has a visceral and a gut sense of when hes losing his power and his appeal and his magnetism. And thats something you see at rallies even. You can see not all of his rallies are as captivating. Not all rallies are created equal. But when the president is standing up there and he realizes hes talking about a policy issue and hes losing the crowd and theyre not cheering as much and maybe some people are trickling out the back to beat traffic going home because theyve driven several hours to get there, he will change the topic and talk about something that he knows an mates his base. He will talk about building the wall with mexico and throw out red meat. He sort of does that on a gut inticketui instinctual moment. But if he believes hes losing his mega phone and star power, your will see him coops compensate and say outlandish things to get that back. That might be way why were seeing and hearing from this president over the past week so much. A number of interviews hes done. Ashley parker, thank you, ashley. A live look here, ladies and gentlemen, at the debate stage in miami, florida, literally the final touches being put on the stage. And a few others. I know those guys. They used to work here in new york city. For so many candidates taking the stage tomorrow and thursday, could be a make or break night for their campaign. So, who have been in their exact position . Some of those folks will share the insight about the dos and donts about debate night. The criticism will be different. The questions will be different. The expectations will be different. You cant get rattled by that. Before you go on the stage, take a deep braeeath and do not get flustered no matter what happens. T flustered no matter wt happens. I dont keep track of regrets. And i dont add up the years. But what i do count on. 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