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“Getting tense out there!” · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Levitt.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Dan Pfeiffer joining us remotely from Philadelphia.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Home of the cursed Philadelphia 76ers.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Trust the process, Dan.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: On today's pod, we've got the results of the Nevada caucuses,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: which we managed to cover in person without rigging anything.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about Bernie Sanders' momentum heading into South Carolina
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: in Super Tuesday and what to expect from Tuesday's Democratic debate,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: which you can watch along with us at crooked.com slash
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: group thread. Before that, Lovett, how was the show this week?
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: We had an amazing A-plus, love it or leave it.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: A plus.
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: With Emily Heller, Sean Ramos-Varn from Vox, and Darcy Carden
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: came by to play a person who gave a toast
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: at Stephen Miller's wedding, which you.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Don't want to miss.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's exciting.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: It was delightful. It was a great episode. Check it out.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Also, a quick note from me, if you haven't listened
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to season two of The Wilderness yet, now is the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: perfect time to check it out, right as everyone's trying
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: to figure out what voters in swing states actually think
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: about politics, Trump, and the Democratic candidates. There's also some
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: really good advice in there from Lefty progressive candidates who
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: won big in some very tough states in 2018. So
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: check it out at thewildernesspodcast.com.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: All right, guys.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: We are back from Las Vegas where we covered the
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: caucus like the good journalists that we are. And with
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: 96% of precincts reporting, it was a blowout for Bernie
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Sanders who won with 47% of the vote. and will
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: get an estimated 24 of the state's 36 delegates. Joe Biden,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: who received 20% of the vote, and Pete Buttigieg, who
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: received 14% of the vote, are the only two other
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: candidates who will get any delegates at all from Nevada.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Biden probably gets nine. Pete probably gets three. Again, these
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: are estimates. After them came Elizabeth Warren at 10%, Tom
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Steyer at 5%, and Amy Klobuchar at 4%. So before
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: we dig into the results, Tommy and John, since you
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: guys were there, do you guys want to talk about
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: what we saw in Vegas over the last few days?
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: We went to a Warren event, went to a Sanders rally,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and then we saw one of the Culinary Workers Caucus
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: sites at the win.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we can just go chronologically, I guess.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, Warren's event was 300 people, 400 people. You know,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: it was not that big. It was a crowd that
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: kind of, you know, look, I'm clearly stereotyping here, but
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: it kind of looks like what you think a Warren
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: crowd would look like, according to exit polls. Then we
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: went to Bernie's event after. It was four or five
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: times bigger. It was a lot more diverse. It was
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: a lot younger people. Uh, it was, you know, there's
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: a lot of, um, work that went into making it
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: look big and cool and exciting. And it was very impressive.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: And then the caucus event we went to was weird.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: You know, we went to the, the Margo room in the, uh,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: the Wynn hotel. It was a big ballroom. What do
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: you guys think? Like 95 people were there, I think
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: they said.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: It's about right.
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: It was 95 caucus cars.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Took a couple hours. Everybody lined up in their corners. Uh,
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Tom Steyer was viable. Bernie Sanders was viable. Joe Biden
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: was viable.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Nobody else.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: And, you know, which meant there was four or five
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: minutes of jockeying to get six Warren supporters and two
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: uncommitted to to come to each corner and love it.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: I'll let you break the big news on how that went.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Four went to Bernie. Three went to Biden. One went
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: to Steyer.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: I think that's right.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean, I think. That was sort of
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: the big news, I will say. And Bernie won our location.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: And Bernie won our location handily.
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: You know, look, something I felt when we were at
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: the satellite caucus for Bernie in Iowa, that I felt
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: at the Bernie event, that I felt at the strip
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: caucus we went to, which was, by the way, not
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: a strip caucus is a bit disappointing compared to what
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: you'd expect in Vegas.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: No truth in advertising.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: It's like, there's no. There's nothing happening down under. I
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: think they got the joke.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Don't explain the joke.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: But the Bernie crowd wasn't just bigger. It was pumped.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was enthusiastic.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: And just the observers we were with, there were incredibly
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: excited Bernie organizers there as well. And you just feel
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: that at the Bernie event. You feel a group of
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: people who feel like they're on the precipice of being
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: behind the nominee and they're extremely excited, extremely hungry, and
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: you see that everywhere you go. I'll also say, just
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: shout out to Mike Bloomberg, the only person who can
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: help me out of the hole I got into in Vegas.
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: And that's all I have to say about that.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I'll also just add that, like the caucus site that
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: we went to in Iowa, there was so much more democratic,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: let's say, unity and goodwill than you would expect from
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the news and online. The woman who gave the speech
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: on behalf of Joe Biden supporters to try to get
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: people to come to the Biden side said, I love
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: all the candidates. And I just think that Joe Biden
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: would be better to beat Donald Trump. No offense to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the Sanders supporters. And, you know, the Sanders people were
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: cheering on the Biden people and the Warren people to
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: try to get them to come over. Like, it's just
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: it's just much different than you imagine.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: And despite the public fight between Bernie Sanders campaign and
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: the culinary workers leadership campaign, it was clear that there
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: were a lot of rank-and-file union members in the room
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: that caucused for Sanders, which is something we saw repeated
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: throughout the state.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and really split between Sanders and Biden, too, at
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: least in our caucus. I would have thought it was
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: some of the other candidates as well. And then the
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: woman who spoke for Bernie Sanders, we actually spoke to,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and we have a clip of that now.
• 5:42
  Speaker 7: My name's Lizette Ramirez, and I'm from born and raised
• 5:45
  Speaker 7: here in Las Vegas. I just feel like he has
• 5:47
  Speaker 7: the potential to beat Donald Trump, and that's why I
• 5:50
  Speaker 7: voted for Bernie Sanders. He's going to change And hopefully
• 5:53
  Speaker 7: if he does win, he'll make our generations for our
• 5:56
  Speaker 7: children way better than what it is now.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: You know, I hope so.
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: That's what Bernie Sanders is a strong candidate for me.
• 6:01
  Speaker 7: I think first I was going for Joe Biden. Then
• 6:05
  Speaker 7: I switched to, what was it? Tom and then Bernie Sanders. Finally,
• 6:10
  Speaker 7: he just got my heart for sure.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Are you a member of the culinary union?
• 6:14
  Speaker 7: Yes, I am. It stuck to me when Bernie Sanders,
• 6:17
  Speaker 7: when he had his, when he was talking the little debates,
• 6:20
  Speaker 7: he was talking about how Insurance should be for everybody,
• 6:23
  Speaker 7: not just for certain people. So insurance for all, that's
• 6:26
  Speaker 7: why Bernie Sanders to me sticks out.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: So Medicare for all is something that you're into and
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: something that you would.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Like to see?
• 6:32
  Speaker 7: Yeah, everybody deserves to have good health care. I just
• 6:35
  Speaker 7: feel like Bernie Sanders speaks to all ages, and the
• 6:38
  Speaker 7: younger generation sees that he has that new Green Deal
• 6:41
  Speaker 7: that they're going for, and that's definitely going to help
• 6:44
  Speaker 7: global warming and everything. I want my baby to have good, fresh,
• 6:47
  Speaker 7: clean air, and Bernie Sanders is the way to go.
• 6:49
  Speaker 7: He goes for the new Green Deal. So he endorsed it,
• 6:54
  Speaker 7: so I endorsed him as well. The most important issue
• 6:56
  Speaker 7: for me would be just for everybody to be together
• 7:00
  Speaker 7: as one and for all of us to come together.
• 7:02
  Speaker 7: That's what's important to me. We're divided right now, and
• 7:04
  Speaker 7: we all need to be united.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: So Democratic turnout has already beaten 2016 but probably won't
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: beat 2008. So, Dan, you've been sort of concerned about
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: turnout issues. How are you feeling on this now?
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: I think the turnout was pretty good. I think you
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: probably would have expected a little bit more given that
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: there was an early voting option this time that did
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: not exist in 2008. And I think it's even more
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: notable because there are a lot more registered Democrats in
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: Nevada now than there were in 2008. So like on
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: a per percentage basis, it's still down. But the fact
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: that it beat 16 is something I think we should
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: feel pretty good about. And I would say I think
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: you're suffering from the same problem in a caucus state
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: that I think we saw in Iowa, which is There
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: are a lot of undecided Democrats, and when you're undecided,
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: you're much less likely to go stand for two hours
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: in a casino ballroom or at a church or high
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: school than you would be to maybe just show up
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: at a polling location and vote.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: The party also registered 10,000 voters through early voting, which
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: is great for general election prospects.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, fantastic.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about Bernie's big victory. He won every
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: demographic except voters over 65 and black voters, where he
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: finished a pretty close second to Joe Biden. Bernie won
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: men and women, college and non-college educated voters, union and
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: non-union households, all voters under 65, very liberal voters, somewhat
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: liberal voters, tied Biden and Buttigieg among self-described moderate and
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: conservative voters. He won independents. He won first time caucus
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: goers who made up 50 percent of the turnouts. and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: he dominated among Latinos with 51% of the vote. Here's
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: a clip of Bernie's election night speech, which he actually
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: delivered in Texas.
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: Now Trump and his friends think they are going to
• 8:41
  Speaker 6: win this election. They think they're going to win this
• 8:49
  Speaker 6: election by dividing our people up based on the color
• 8:54
  Speaker 6: of their skin or where they were born or their religion.
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: or their sexual orientation. We are going to win because
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: we are doing exactly the opposite.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: We're bringing our people together.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: How significant do you guys think the coalition that Bernie
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: put together in Nevada is?
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: You know, I think Bernie's strength with Latinx voters could
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: be the most important thing we learn in this primary.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: It's truly impressive. They've been organizing early in Latino communities.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: They've been doing it in California as well. They've already
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: spent a million dollars in Spanish language ads in California alone.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: So that's something they've put time and effort into. I
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: think that he's trying to build a coalition that is
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: diverse and broad. I mean, the only place he's not
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: doing well so far is voters over 65, which still
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: seems to be Biden's wheelhouse.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And P2.
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: P2. So look, I mean, it's impressive.
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: I'll just add to that, you know, it is true
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: that Biden, according to the entry and exit polls, won
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: among African-Americans. But Bernie also did really well among black voters.
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: And Amy Klobuchar and Mayor Pete did abysmally. And the
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: time has now run out for the two of them
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: to make the claim that those voters are going to
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: give them a chance, give them a look we're here.
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: South Carolina is this Saturday. Super Tuesday is the Tuesday
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: after that. You cannot be the Democratic nominee if you
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: are not exciting and turning out African-American voters. And as
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: of right now, it has really been those two candidates,
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: Bernie and Biden, who have so far been.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Able to do that. Dan, what did you think about
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Bernie's coalition? Obviously, you can't, or at least it's fraught
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: to draw parallels between coalitions that turn out in a
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: primary and the general election. But does it tell us
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: anything about sort of the coalition that Bernie can put together?
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: Well, it's also fraught to draw a huge conclusions from
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: entrance polls in a caucus with a sample size this small.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: I mean, the thing that's sort of stunning is Bernie
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: is going to win with nearly half the delegates by getting,
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: I think, when the votes are kind of less than 40,000
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: Nevadans to choose him. Now, this is not one of
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: the situations that you saw in 2016 where Bernie would
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: crush in the caucus and then if there was a
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: non-delegate awarding primary later, Hillary would win by like 15 points.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: I think Bernie would have won a Nevada primary as
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: well and maybe by.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: At least the margin he had in the first preference vote,
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: which was like, I think, 3018 or something over Biden,
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: or 3418 over Biden. I think the most significant thing
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: that we saw here is that Bernie won among voters
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: who prized electability most. And that is what I, in
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: that clip we just listened to, is the journey that
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: Bernie has gone through when he was at 16% in
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: the national polling in December to 29% in the national
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: polling average where he is today is He has convinced
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: a lot of Democrats that he can win. And the
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: other Democrats have not done a good job of convincing
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: voters that he can't win or that they would do
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: a better job of beating Trump than he would. And
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: so he has he's been able to bring all of
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: these groups together. And in terms of his general election coalition,
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: the real question, the real sign of hope is his
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: strength among Latino voters. And if he could replicate that
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: in Arizona, he has the potential to put that state
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: into play.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to echo that point about Latino voters, too.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: And the one piece of research I haven't seen, and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know if anyone has it yet, is did
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders in his campaign sort of register new Latino
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: voters who hadn't voted before? Are they expanding the electorate
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: among Latino voters, or are they just dominating within the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Latino voters who usually show up and vote in Democratic
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: primaries and caucuses? I think that remains to be seen. But,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: you know, the New York Times said many Latinos who
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: showed up at the caucuses wearing Sanders buttons and stickers
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: said his campaign was was the only one they had
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: ever heard from. Some of our friends at Equus Research,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: who do a lot of good polling in the Latino community,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: have a lot of research from the last week that
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: shows that Bernie now has the highest favorability among Latino
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: voters of any of the Democratic candidates, not just they
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: did some polling in Nevada, but also in Colorado and
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: some other states with heavy Latino population. I do think
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: that's something worth watching, not just for his strength in
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the primary, but looking for signs of potential strength in
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the general election. And to me, that hinges more on,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: you know, are they actually bringing in new Latinos into
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the electorate who tend to be sporadic voters and tend
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to be difficult to organize because Democrats haven't spent enough
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: time trying to organize them? So I do think that's
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: something to sort of watch as we go along. All right,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: let's talk about the other candidates. Joe Biden, who finished second,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: said in his caucus night speech, I feel really good.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: you put me in a position. We're coming back and
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: we're going to win. He also tried to contrast himself
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: with Bernie and Bloomberg saying, I ain't a socialist. I
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: ain't a plutocrat. I'm a Democrat. How good should the
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Biden folks feel about his performance in Nevada? And what
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: do you think about his message there?
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: I'll just say that I felt it was very unfortunate,
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: but I think memorable bit of timing that I watched NBC.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: And as Biden said, I'm alive.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: I'm back. And we have momentum.
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: It cut to them giving Bernie Sanders the victory. And
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: it was just sort of a brutal contrast. I mean, look,
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: we'll talk about all of them. But what we saw
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: is a bunch of candidates going to the podium. Tom
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: Steyer tried to do it, but Pete did it. Biden
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: do it, explaining why this puts them in a great
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: position heading into South Carolina. But of course, The truth is,
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: if they're all in a great position going into South
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: Carolina and all saying that they're going to stay in
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: through Super Tuesday, they're all putting themselves collectively in a
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: position to lose to Bernie Sanders.
• 14:30
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, look, it's hard to feel great when you
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: get doubled up by the person who won, you know,
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: and just being Bill Clinton famously pulled off the comeback
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: kid narrative in New Hampshire in 92. That was a
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: different time, a different era. There was a lot more
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: space between the primaries that allowed you to build momentum.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, look, South Carolina is has been
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: his firewall for a long time. And it's clear that
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: Bernie Sanders is now putting a whole bunch of chips
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: on the table in South Carolina, going in with ads.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: All the structural challenges, like the game theory problems that
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: the so-called moderates have in every other state still exist
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: in South Carolina. Nobody has dropped out. There's a chance
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: that they split a bunch of the vote. So I
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: would be pretty nervous. But look, Biden could win South Carolina.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: We'll find out soon. But, you know, it's hard to
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: tell how much of a bounce you'll get out of
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: winning the first state out of four that you were
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: expected to win the whole time.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Dan, what do you think?
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: Look, Biden needed to come in second here, and he did.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: It would have been better if the gap between Bernie
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: and Biden was closer, but he should feel very good
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: about the gap between himself and Buttigieg. And so he's
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: still in the game. I think if he had come
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: in third or fourth here, they might have been over
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: for him. You know, he obviously would have been on
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: the ballot in South Carolina, but He would have had
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: another week of stories about the faltering, failing Biden campaign.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: And so he makes it to the next round and
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: he has a chance to have an upside surprise and
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: get a little momentum going into Tuesday. So going to
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: Super Tuesday. So I think they should feel good about that,
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: given what the alternative was.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm trying to try to game out all the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: scenarios for the non-Bernie candidates here who are trying to
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: now fight to be the alternative to Bernie. You know,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: you can see from the Biden campaign perspective why they
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: might be feeling better than some of the other center
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: left candidates who are still out there because he gets
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: second in Nevada. He goes to South Carolina where he's
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: still the leader in polls right now, even though that
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: lead has narrowed dramatically with Bernie Sanders. And he's got
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Tom Steyer sort of nipping at his heels as well.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: But you could imagine a scenario where if Biden has
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: a good debate this week, he ekes out a win
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: in South Carolina. Now he was second in Nevada, wins
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: South Carolina, and now he's heading into Super Tuesday at
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: that point. He might benefit from the fact that, well,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: when's the last time Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg have
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: won anything? And now Joe Biden has been able to
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: do relatively well in some diverse states, and maybe he's
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the best alternative to Bernie, right? I mean, at least
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: on paper, that's what it could look like.
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but the problem is, right, it's each of the
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: candidates vying to be that other option. Each has a
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: weak case. And Biden coming in a distant second, yes,
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: outperforming Pete by a bunch, but still a distant second,
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: doesn't exactly make him the strong, obvious person for anyone
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: looking for a Bernie alternative to rally behind. Pete's speech
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: made the case that he's that alternative. Biden's trying to
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: make himself the alternative. Warren is now suggesting she's going
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: to be either the one or one of two people
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: to be the alternative after Super Tuesday. So they're all
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: out there with a case, none of which is strong
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: enough to cause anybody else to behave differently.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: I spent a lot of time this morning going through–
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: way too much time actually. I should have been doing
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: other things. But trying to figure out what the path
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: is for anyone other than Bernie. And I think Biden
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: and Warren have the best chance. And it is– don't
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: get me wrong. They are distant, distant, far behind Bernie
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: in terms of probability of being the nominee of how
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: this could play itself out. And maybe even Biden does
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: because he has the best chance of gaining some momentum
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: from South Carolina. If he were to do that, Bloomberg
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: would falter in this next debate. There are a bunch
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: of southern states that Biden could win on Super Tuesday.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: And so if he could win some states, net some
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: serious delegates there, and then have either himself or Warren
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: come close to Bernie in California and Texas, he would still,
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: I think, be significantly behind in the delegates, but would
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: have a claim to being the person to continue on
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: after this. I mean, I think a lot of things
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: have to break your way and you have to get
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: lucky and you need Michael Bloomberg to fall flat on
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: his face again, which may not require luck. But it
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: is there.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Warren- Just gravity.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Warren, similar situation. Challenge for Warren is she needs an
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: upside surprise in South Carolina. We have not seen data
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: yet that suggests that that is likely, although maybe her
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: numbers will rise in South Carolina like they rose nationally
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: after the last debate.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: And, you know, in terms of Biden's message that night,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you know, I ain't a socialist, I ain't a plutocrat,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I'm a Democrat. I think, you know, it's a decent start.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: But again, I haven't heard Biden sort of make a
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: real coherent, bigger case about why he should be the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: nominee and not Sanders or not Bloomberg or not anyone
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: else that doesn't rely solely on electability, which at this
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: point is a hard argument to make since he has
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: lost a bunch of states and since in the general
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: election matchup polls, which he and his campaign relied on
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: early in the game, do not now show a significant
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: advantage or any advantage for Biden vis-a-vis the other candidates running,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: particularly Bernie, which I think is a tough thing for him.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: And so, you know, and I don't actually have a
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: good answer for that. But if you're on the Biden campaign,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: I wonder how you solve that problem, what you make
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: your message in this next week as you head into
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: South Carolina.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: I was thinking about the same question. And Dan, it's fine.
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: You know, it seems like that's what the Warren message
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: coming out of Nevada seems to match what you're looking
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: at in terms of the delegates. I think that when
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: they say they believe they'll be one of two, I
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: think they mean Biden. And, you know, We have now
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: Mike Bloomberg today going really hard at Bernie. You had
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: Pete in his speech going pretty hard at Bernie. And
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: I just, I don't think you can attack your way
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: to being the alternative. And I just, I don't know
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: what these candidates should be doing, but I do wonder
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: if it's time for them to be extremely explicit, not
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: about some grand narrative of the race, but about where
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: the math is and the fact that one person has
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: to emerge or Bernie Sanders will be the nominee.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: The other thing that's just so hard, though, is like,
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: let's say Joe Biden gets 50% of the vote in
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: South Carolina. He then has like two or three days
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: to translate that momentum into something in, say, California, where
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: millions of people have probably early voted. People have been
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: on the air. You don't have time to fundraise and
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: place an ad buy. It's just all so squished together,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: this cycle, that it's structurally very difficult.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I guess the question, Dan, do you think... I guess
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: that can work both ways. On one hand, you're right,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: there's no time to actually build an organization and run
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: a bunch of ads between South Carolina and Super Tuesday.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: On the other hand... I wonder if the earned media
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: coverage in a couple days between South Carolina and Super
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Tuesday can be even more powerful momentum-wise than some of
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the organization and paid stuff just because of the nature
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: of what it looks like almost a national primary.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: But I don't know.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Dan, what do you think?
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: I think that's right. Nate Silver made this point the
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: other day on Twitter that three days is almost the
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: most amount of time you could possibly want between contests
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: if you were hoping to ride away from momentum. And
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: Super Tuesday is all about momentum. Bernie has run ads places.
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: He has organized places. And that is his advantage over
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: everyone else. Bloomberg has obviously run ads everywhere. But for
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: every candidate who's not Mike Bloomberg, the ads are a
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: drop in the bucket of what it costs to run
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: a national campaign, right? Like none of them– even if
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: they had Bernie-style money, they couldn't run enough ads in
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: a two-week period to really move the needle in California
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: because it's so big. And so it's all momentum. I
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: think Biden would need– a huge win, right? He would
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: need a win like Obama's in South Carolina in 2008.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: And I actually think we might have won California against
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: Hillary Clinton in 2008 if California had been the Tuesday
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: after the South Carolina primary. But instead, it was 10
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: days later. And over that period of time, the race
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: reverted to the mean and Hillary Clinton ended up winning
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: by seven or so points because it was a state
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: that more demographically favored her.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: But isn't that a lot harder when you have A
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: bunch of states like California, Massachusetts, Texas that have been
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: early voting for weeks now?
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: Oh, yes, 100%. Look, I don't think anyone other than
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: Bernie is winning California. It is a question of whether
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: some candidate who has banked some vote in early vote, right?
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: And I think Warren probably does well in there. I
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: think there's a lot of talk that Buttigieg has banked
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: some early vote here.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know about Biden.
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: Can you build on your early vote with late deciders
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: to get yourself into a position in second close enough?
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: to minimize the amount of delegates that Bernie nets on
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: that day.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And the state that people really aren't talking about as
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: much is Texas, too, which is the next biggest prize
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: after California, I believe.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Where Bernie went.
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, where Bernie went. And so the question,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I think, Dan, is if someone can bank early vote,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: keep it close with Bernie in California, and then win Texas,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: then does the race become competitive again?
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: But all of that is predicated on something coming out
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: of South Carolina that defies what we're seeing.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, Right.
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: Biden's challenges among many is the fact that there are
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: two billionaires dropping tens of millions of dollars in this
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: race that amounts to just a wealth tax on Biden.
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: Tom Steyer is what I've seen polls with 17 percent
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: of the vote.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, that is extraordinary.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: Those are people that Biden needs if he is going
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: to outperform Bernie Sanders, who is slowly closing and by
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: the way, spending in South Carolina like a billionaire.
• 23:44
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Like like maybe 20 million.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: By the time they vote.
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about Pete Buttigieg, who came in third.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: He used his speech to make the most direct contrast
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: with Bernie Sanders of any candidate, saying that Democrats should, quote,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: take a sober look at what's at stake before we
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: rush to nominate Senator Sanders, and that, quote, Senator Sanders
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: believes in an inflexible ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: not to mention most Americans. Got to imagine Pete really
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: wanted second here to keep up his momentum from Iowa
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: and New Hampshire and start consolidating the center-left before Super Tuesday.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: It does not seem like he did that. So... What
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: does Pete Buttigieg do from here? What is his path?
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: It's very hard. He really has to show that he
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: can do better with African-American voters in South Carolina or
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: some of the Super Tuesday states to have any chance
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: of winning the nomination.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it.
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: I mean, you know, again, like he can launch a
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: broadside against Bernie Sanders to try to pit himself as
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: the alternative.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: But that has not worked thus far.
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: And there are multiple alternatives that he would also need
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: to be making a case against at the same time,
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: which he has chosen so far to not really do.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Dan, what do you think? I agree.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: I think the only truly like realistic-ish path forward for
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: Pete Buttigieg requires a upside surprise in South Carolina where
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: he does much better with the African-American vote than he
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: has done in any poll to date or in any
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: race to date. And so if he were to– let's
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: say he came in a close third but he got
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: 20 percent of the African-American vote. I don't even know
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: if that math is possible. But like where he could
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: demonstrate a capacity to broaden his coalition– Super Tuesday is
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: actually a little bit better for Pete demographically than it
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: is for some other candidates if he can replicate some
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: of the strength he showed with Latino voters in Nevada.
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: I think he got 19 percent.
• 25:38
  Speaker 7: Is that right?
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: So if he could do that and show some strength
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: and then in some of those states like Colorado are
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: ones that Pete with momentum could do well in. Virginia
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: is one state with momentum. If he could do that,
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: then he– like he still would have to do better
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: with the African-American vote after that when you get into
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: a run of southern states later on in the calendar.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: But if he could get a little momentum, he's more
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: demographically– he's in a better position demographically with his voter
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: base than some of the other candidates are.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Dan, can I push on that?
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: Look, we're back into this thing where momentum is determined
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: by the timing of primaries rather than actual– changes in
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: the race. If Pete Buttigieg performs abysmally with African-American South Carolina,
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: even if there are some positive states, even if there
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: are some better states coming for him, doesn't that mean
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: he really doesn't have a path to nomination regardless of
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: the order of the states that fall?
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: Look, I think if he cannot demonstrate in South Carolina
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: a real capacity to grow his African-American voter base like
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: 15-fold than for what it has been in previous states,
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: You just simply cannot win the nomination without winning– really,
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: no one has ever won the nomination without winning the
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: African-American vote in the primaries. So simply doing fine is
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: not good enough, let alone doing mediocre, right? So he
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: would need to do much better than we've ever seen
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: him possibly do. And I want to say, just as
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: a caveat, all of these scenarios that we're talking about
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: here are incredibly low likelihood with all these candidates still
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: in the race.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: That's the other challenge that Pete has. The his lack
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: of support among African-American voters would be a problem regardless.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: But it's not as if he is dominating among college
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: educated white voters or non-college educated white voters. He's doing
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: well with both of those groups. But but he's not
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: dominating because the field is very crowded and other candidates
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: are doing well, too, which makes his challenge even tougher.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: And the other thing that Pete's facing is, you know,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you see Pete on stage at the debate, and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I think you could argue that he in many ways
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: has been a better candidate than Joe Biden. He has
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: a sharper message. He's very nimble. His campaign is very smart.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: You know, like I said, he's probably made the strongest
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: case most directly against Bernie Sanders in that last debate
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: and then again in his speech. But Joe Biden and
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders both have near universal name ID. People know them.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: right after them comes Elizabeth Warren, right? She doesn't have
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: universal ID like the other two, but she's up there
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: as well. Pete's still largely unknown to a lot of
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: voters in the country, even primary voters, when you look
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: at the polls. So he's got that challenge. He's got
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: a couple billionaires putting a lot of money in the
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: race when he is now sort of running out of money.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: And he doesn't have the grassroots fundraising base that either
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren does. So he's sort of
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: facing multiple challenges all at once just to get himself
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: known and to get his message out there to as
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: many voters as possible.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's just also worth noting that Pete's
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: campaign is contesting the results of the Nevada caucuses. They
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: said they've seen irregularities. And, you know, it doesn't surprise me.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, you had 75,000 people vote early, which is
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: crazy because then it just shouldn't be a caucus. It
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: should be a primary, but that's beside the point. But
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: those votes, you had to rank your top three priorities.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: And then those early votes got you know, sent off
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: to the precinct where you lived and then layered in
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: with the first choice, second choice, third choice viability. So
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: it was an incredibly complicated process. I think they're probably
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: right to make sure it was done precisely, but that
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: doesn't help you when you don't get a bounce out
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: of a second place finish that you thought you might get.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Which, again, by the way, that just brings me back
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: to Iowa and all the, you know, the conspiracies about
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: sort of Pete Reagan Iowa or whatever. Like, the fact
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: that the Iowa caucus was a debacle... hurt Pete so
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: badly now. It is clear because that week between Iowa
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: and New Hampshire, he did not get the bounce. He
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: probably would have got if the story out of Iowa
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: was just Pete Buttigieg wins Iowa or won the delegates. Um,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: and therefore he came in a close second and New
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Hampshire when who knows, possibly he could have came in
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: first if he had more of a media boost at
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: that point. So it is extraordinary.
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's also, you know, you look at Pete Buttigieg, uh,
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: made it this far. I mean, he is like, he's
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: the gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He's an extraordinary politician,
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: extraordinarily intelligent person who has built an incredible campaign that
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: took a lot of luck, but a lot of hard work.
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: And he hit some really bad luck, uh, between Iowa
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: and New Hampshire. Not to mention the fact that Amy
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: Klobuchar having the debate of her life, uh, meant that
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: it deprived him, uh, uh, possibly of winning.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Um, let's talk about the fourth place finisher, Elizabeth Warren. Um,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Were there any signs that Warren got a boost from her,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: as we all called it, stellar debate performance? And what
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: is her path from here?
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: Well, she raised $ 21 million so far this month. So
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: that's a hell of a fundraising total. I think if
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: the Nevada debate performance was a couple weeks earlier, you
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: might have seen her do better because it seems clear.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: that she did better with Nevada participants who showed up
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: in caucus on caucus day and did poorly in the
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: early vote. I don't think the delta was that big
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: between the two, but it might have been something. But
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: she did get a bump in the latest national CBS
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: YouGov poll that has her up at 19%. So, I mean,
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: that's a hell of a bounce out of a debate.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like she has spikes in favorability since
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the debate in national polls, the poll you just mentioned.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: The other stat you mentioned. So in Nevada of the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: late breaking voters, people who decided at the end, 19
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: percent chose Warren, while 12 percent of earlier voters did.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: And that seven point jump is the largest of any
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: of the five front runners. Although it's worth noting that
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Warren did not come in first or second with either group,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: late deciders or early voters, which is tough. Dan, what
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: do you think her path from here is?
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: Well, I think Tommy's hit the most important point, which
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: is her campaign would have been out of money had
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: she not had that debate.
• 31:42
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: So that that changed everything. It would be interesting to
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: see whether this national poll that was released on Sunday
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: is a leading indicator of a surge around the country.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: You know, just we'll have to see. It's unfortunate. She
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: has had a run, I think, of bad luck in
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: terms of when her good moments come because now we're
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: running into another state that's challenging for her. Like actually
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: if Super Tuesday was next, I think she would be
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: in a better place because there are a number of
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: states she can win on Super Tuesday if she comes
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: in with some strength. Like obviously Massachusetts is there, Oklahoma
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: where she's from originally. Virginia is a place where Warren
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: also potentially would have some strength. Tennessee, I would expect
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: Bernie to be favored in Colorado, but that's another place
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: where Warren could have some strength. So if she can
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: come out, if she can have another great debate and
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: then come out of South Carolina with some momentum, which
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: I think is very challenging given where she has been
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: in the polls to date, she's got a shot. I
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: think we can have a conversation about how Super Tuesday
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: plays itself out at some point, but there's going to
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: be this battle between who wins delegates and who wins states?
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: And if you win some states, that can be your
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: rationale to continue. And she has at least a chance
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: to win some states.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar, who barely
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: registered at 4.7% and 3.9%. Klobuchar said in a speech
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: that she had, quote, exceeded expectations and bragged to the
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: audience that Donald Trump mentioned her in one of his
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: rally speeches for the first time. So that's cool. At
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: this point, does a candidate like Tom Steyer or a
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: candidate like Amy Klobuchar have any path to the nomination
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: at all?
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: I do believe Klobuchar got a raw deal at the
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: most recent debate. I don't think she did particularly well,
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: but I also think that just she got some, she
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: got some sort of relentless questioning from the moderators and
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: from her fellow candidates. And I don't think her ongoing
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: romance with Pete Buttigieg has helped her in the, on
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: that stage.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: So, you know, look, her, her, her rise.
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: In New Hampshire was born of an extraordinary debate performance.
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: And I think that that has now settled out. you know,
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: 4% is not good. Uh, it's not momentum. It's not, uh,
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: on the rise.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: It's very low.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: And, uh, exceeding expectations is putting it charitably.
• 33:51
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: I mean, you know, soft bigotry of low expectations for
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: Amy Klobuchar for herself. Uh, but, uh, yeah, uh, you know, I,
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: I have actually just, I feel like there's a little
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: bit of a swan song element as we go through
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: these various candidates, the super Tuesday approaches, but I will
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: just say, I have been surprised by how effective a
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: candidate Amy Klobuchar has been not in terms of her
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: as a person, but her as an avatar for pragmatism.
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: I think that she can, I think, fairly claim to
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: make the best argument for pragmatic consensus-building center-left governing of
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: any candidate I think I've ever seen. That's why I
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: think she's still on this stage after a lot of
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: bigger names and people that had higher expectations dropped out earlier,
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: people like Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Beto O'Rourke, and others.
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: But she has been a victim of what we've talked
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: about a million times, whether it's Biden's name ID or
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: the crowded field and what have you.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: And money.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: And now I think it's looking pretty rough.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: On Klobuchar, like when I was doing this exercise this morning,
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: like the Super Tuesday states, I really could not even,
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: I couldn't construct a path. I just could not figure
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: out how she could head into Super Tuesday with momentum
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: and then pick up a bunch of delegates to find
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: herself as the alternative. It just, I mean, maybe someone
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: smarter than me can figure it out. But I was
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: able to at least like stretch the realms of reality
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: to do it for the other candidates and I could
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: not do it for her. And the answer is, does
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: Tom Steyer have a path after South Carolina? The answer
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: is no.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: The Steyer thing is a real head-scratcher because he, you know,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: someone has the amount of money he spent in Nevada.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: It was a shitload. That's my scientific calculation. And getting
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: what he did with that much money, 4% or whatever,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: in Nevada is not very promising. He, you know, in fairness,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: has been doing a lot better in South Carolina. I
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: think he was like third in the poll that came
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: out there over the weekend. And, you know, he spent
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of time not just on the air but
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: on the ground there. really meeting voters, organizing in the
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: African-American community. But I just don't think when you look
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: ahead to the Super Tuesday states, you know, there's any
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: there's any real path there, even if he because I
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: guess what he can hopefully I guess he's hoping to
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: place third in South Carolina or maybe second. Like, does
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: he maybe think he could go Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: if like Biden collapses?
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: But even then, does Steyer become the alternative? I just
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: don't think he has quite the he definitely has the money,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: but I don't know.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: I mean, look, it's a strange reality, but we have
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: been given a pretty good political science experiment as to
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: what people are looking for in a billionaire and what
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: you get for that money. And the fact that Tom
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: Steyer has not just been outperformed by other candidates with
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: far fewer resources, the fact that in a lot of
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: polls he is now underperforming the other billionaire tells you
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: that there is zero path for him given.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Who is still in this race.
• 36:38
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, I guess he's back in the next debate.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: So he'll be on the stage tomorrow. And that's something,
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: you know, he spent a lot of money in South Carolina.
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: It's clearly helped him get some support. There's actually some
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: reporting questioning that spending and whether it was, you know,
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: not illegal, not even unethical, but, you know, tasteful, essentially.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: The New York Times had a piece on it today.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: You know, look.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: Anyone who thinks that there's some monolithic Democratic establishment that
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: pulls strings back in D.C., just look at this clown
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: car of candidates who are all losing their fucking minds
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: about Bernie Sanders winning, and not one of them can
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: get it together to say, hey, you, you, and you
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: drop out so that these other people can become an
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: alternative and actually take Bernie Sanders on. They are setting
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: it up perfectly to ensure that Bernie Sanders gets the nomination.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: So maybe.
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: We stop pulling back the curtain and looking for the
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: Wizard of Oz and instead realize that.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: It's just a bunch of people.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: Goobers.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: A bunch of people with different ideas.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: There we are. And some pretty big egos.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: So after the first three primary contests, it seems pretty
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: clear that Bernie Sanders is not just the frontrunner, but
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: the prohibited favorite for the Democratic nomination. Dan, can you
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: talk a little bit about why that is? I know
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: we've done this before, but I saw a lot of
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: people over the weekend say, look at the calendar. Only
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: three States have voted. Only a tiny percentage of delegates
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: have been awarded. This thing is just getting started, which
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: is technically true. But can you tell us about why, um,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: you know, uh, in reality that Bernie has such a
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: commanding leader?
• 38:08
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: A lot of people have been tweeting out this historical
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: fact that Bill Clinton lost every single contest up until
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: the Georgia primary on, I think March 3rd or something
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: like that. Uh, And that is all true, but a
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: couple of important points. The calendar is much more compressed
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: than it was before. That was this unique election where
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: Iowa didn't count because Tom Harkin was running. Bill Clinton
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: was actually the winner of the New Hampshire primary, but
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: then he came in second because Paul Songras from the
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: neighboring state of Massachusetts was running, so it was presumed
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: he would win. The next contest was the South Dakota primary.
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: That one did not count because Bob Kerry was running
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: from neighboring Nebraska. And so when the But they were
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: also– as Tommy pointed out, they were spread out far
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: enough that there was time for candidates to build momentum
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: between them. And so Bill Clinton did win later. But
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: now the campaign is pulled completely forward. Forty percent of
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: the delegates will be off the table after Super Tuesday.
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: But two of the biggest states, which also happen to
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: be states that Sanders has demonstrated true strength in, California
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: and Texas, are on the calendar on that day. And
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: so it is very possible that Sanders will– amass enough delegates,
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: particularly by winning California by eight, nine, 10 points, that
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: it will be virtually impossible for a any candidate to
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: catch up to him after that. And so everything is
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: as much more move forward and Sanders has momentum and
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: he's heading into a very favorable Super Tuesday. There's another
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: big difference this year from previous Super Tuesdays, which is
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: because Texas has moved forward in California, which was on
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: Super Tuesday in 2008, moved in 2016, has moved back
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: to Super Tuesday, it is now incredibly Latinx-heavy group of
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: states and very much diminishing the role of African-American voters
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: on Super Tuesday. And so that also benefits Sanders, who's
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: winning that group of people. So this is a huge
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: opportunity for his campaign that is looming there to potentially
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: put the race away.
• 40:11
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, look, in 1992, they were faxing press releases, everybody. So,
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm all for, like, learning history, but let's
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: not delude ourselves here with... the order of events.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: And again, you know, we just talked about how challenging
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: it is for any of these other candidates to surpass Bernie. But,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: you know, it is at least possible unless the field
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: looks like it does right now. I mean, I think
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: the split field is one of the biggest advantages that
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Bernie has going for him in Super Tuesday. And Dan,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I know you said this on Meet the Press over
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: the weekend, but like if the field looks like it
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: does now on Super Tuesday, I don't see any way
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: that someone could overtake Bernie.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, anyway.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Like, I think in order for there to be some
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: chance and, you know, we're about to talk about sort
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: of the the freak out over Bernie as a potential nominee.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: But I see a lot of people freaking out about
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of things, but not a lot of people
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: talking about that. The probably the first best way to
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: stop Bernie would be to figure out who's the one
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: candidate or two candidates that are going to stay in
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: the race to challenge him on Super Tuesday. Because, you know,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: like you said, Amy Klobuchar said, it's crazy for me
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: to drop out. I'm not doing it. Tom Steyer is
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: still spending money. He's in there too. So I don't,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't.
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: It's pretty, it's, and it's, I have to say, it
• 41:23
  Speaker 5: was very fresh. It's been, people are losing their fucking
• 41:25
  Speaker 5: minds on Twitter.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: We'll get to it.
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: But, but man, it seems like there are a lot
• 41:28
  Speaker 5: of people who think it's free to talk about how
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: dangerous Bernie Sanders is the nominee while not saying why
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: they believe one of the alternatives must be the alternatives.
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: There are a lot of people who want to be
• 41:38
  Speaker 5: very critical of Bernie Sanders without telling Amy P.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Biden, Steyer, Bloomberg, any of them to drop out.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, or just saying which one they favor.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: Or saying which one they like.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you'd think if people were scared about Bernie, then
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: today we'd see a lot of I love Joe Biden
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: or I love Pete Buttiger. I love Elizabeth Warren. But
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: it's a lot more just because.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: They can't because they don't know. Well, they don't they
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: But also, I think there's no one alternative that's obviously
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: more electable than Bernie Sanders.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: They all have liability.
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: So it's easier to attack Bernie Sanders and explain why
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: worried they are about how worried they are about Bernie
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: Sanders than it is to explain why their personal choice
• 42:15
  Speaker 5: of candidate is a better bet.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: I think that's just much harder to do.
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: I think there's one person who should drop out.
• 42:20
  Speaker 8: Who's that?
• 42:21
  Speaker 6: Bloomberg.
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: I mean, he is the biggest problem in this. You know,
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: he is getting 13 to 15 to 18 percent in
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: some of these polls. If even half of that support
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: allocated to one other candidate, it would dramatically narrow the gap.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: He didn't compete in the first four. And as the
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: Republican mayor, former Republican mayor of New York with the
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: lowest approval rating of anyone running. And so he's just
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: causing a giant mess and not being a solution to it.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: And I mean, I think it's pretty clear that he's
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: going to head into this debate. And we'll talk about
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: that in a little bit, too, in South Carolina. Just,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: you know, guns blazing against Bernie Sanders, too, which I
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: don't know. You know, maybe that helps one of the
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: other non-Bernie candidates. I don't know if it helps him
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: too much, because like you said, his approval rating, his
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: favorability among Democrats and among the general electorate really is
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: maybe now the lowest of any of the candidates in
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: some polls, at least. I've seen over the for the
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: first time in head to head matchups against Trump. Now,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg can't really say he's doing better than the other candidates.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think he's doing a little poorly compared
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: to Bernie and Biden. And so that's tough for him.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: So he's sort of losing whatever advantages he had besides
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: money when he jumped into the race in the first place. Hey, everyone.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America and Love It or Leave It are
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: going on tour for 2020.
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: Between the news, this primary, and the general election.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: We're going to have a lot to talk about. So
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: come see us live when we're in your town.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Get those tickets at crooked.com slash events and come hang out.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: That's crooked.com slash event. So, you know, quite a growing
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: number of establishment Democrats, centrist Democrats, never Trump Republicans, MSNBC
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: media personalities, and other blue checkmark pundits are To put
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: it mildly, freaking the fuck out over the prospect of
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: a Bernie Sanders nomination, mainly for two reasons. One, he's
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: a self-described democratic socialist who they believe is too ideologically
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: extreme to win a general election. And two, they're worried
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: he'll also cost Democrats the House, the Senate, and other
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: down-ballot races. Matt Bennett of the centrist democratic group The
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: Third Way told Politico, quote, in 30-plus years of politics,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: I've never seen this level of doom. And just to
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: give you an example of how some folks are reacting
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: to this, we have two MSNBC clips from Saturday night with...
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: One from Democratic strategist James Carville and one from Hardball
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: host Chris Matthews.
• 44:51
  Speaker 8: The happiest person right now, it's about 1.15 Moscow time.
• 44:56
  Speaker 8: This thing is going very well for Vladimir Putin. I
• 44:58
  Speaker 8: promise you. He's probably staying up watching us right now.
• 45:01
  Speaker 8: How you doing, Vlad?
• 45:03
  Speaker 10: That's absolutely right. And there's reporting that that's exactly what
• 45:08
  Speaker 10: the intelligence agencies think is going on. I mean, the
• 45:10
  Speaker 10: Sanders campaign was briefed that Putin is helping him and
• 45:14
  Speaker 10: plans to help him in the primary.
• 45:15
  Speaker 7: Amazing.
• 45:16
  Speaker 8: And I don't think Sanders wants Putin to help. The
• 45:19
  Speaker 8: only reason think why would Vladimir Putin be helping Bernie Sanders?
• 45:24
  Speaker 8: Of course, because he wants Donald Trump to win. I mean,
• 45:27
  Speaker 8: it's a straight line. And I don't think that the
• 45:30
  Speaker 8: Sanders campaign in any way is collusion or collaboration. I
• 45:35
  Speaker 8: think they don't like this story. But the story is
• 45:37
  Speaker 8: a fact. And the reason that the story is a
• 45:40
  Speaker 8: fact is Putin is doing everything that he can to
• 45:43
  Speaker 8: help Trump, including trying to get Bernie Sanders the Democratic nomination.
• 45:47
  Speaker 8: If you remember when Bernie ran in 2016, his chief
• 45:51
  Speaker 8: strategist was Paul Manafort's sidekick in the Ukraine. I mean,
• 45:57
  Speaker 8: this thing just didn't start right now. And it's something
• 46:03
  Speaker 8: that people need to know about. They need to be
• 46:05
  Speaker 8: made aware of it. The candidates on the debate stage
• 46:08
  Speaker 8: in South Carolina on Monday night need to quit attacking
• 46:12
  Speaker 8: each other and start talking about where this country is.
• 46:17
  Speaker 8: And how do you push it forward under some some
• 46:20
  Speaker 8: real choices that Democrats have to make?
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: And let's let's hear Chris Matthews.
• 46:25
  Speaker 9: Bernie, on the other hand, did his job. He got
• 46:27
  Speaker 9: more than a majority, more than a majority of that
• 46:30
  Speaker 9: 67 percent. That is the name of the game. It
• 46:33
  Speaker 9: is pretty much over unless that changes. I was reading
• 46:36
  Speaker 9: last night, Brian, I know you're a history guy, too.
• 46:39
  Speaker 6: I'm reading last.
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: Night about the fall of France in.
• 46:41
  Speaker 9: The summer of 1940. And the general, Renaud, calls up
• 46:44
  Speaker 9: Churchill and says, it's over. And Schultz said, how can
• 46:48
  Speaker 9: it be? You've got the greatest army in Europe.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: How can it be over?
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: He said, it's over.
• 46:53
  Speaker 9: So I had that suppressed feeling. I can't be as
• 46:56
  Speaker 9: wild as Carville, but he is damn smart.
• 46:59
  Speaker 8: Wow.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Honestly, guys, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: Because this morning, it's really everyone's gone into full freakout mode. Which,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: you know, confused me for two reasons. We can talk
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: about whether the concern is warranted or not. And I
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: think there's a good debate about that. I'm more surprised
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: that it took everyone this long. Like, we have people...
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: We've been saying here, at least for the last month,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: that Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner for the nomination. It
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: doesn't seem like a lot of people actually believe that
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: was true until now.
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: I guess Chris Matthews comparing a Jewish American to Hitler
• 47:31
  Speaker 5: is a lagging indicator.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: So let's start with, I mean, forget about the sort
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: of the craziest freakouts. I mean, what do you guys
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: think about the worry that Bernie is... a democratic socialist
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: who's too ideologically extreme to win? Like, is there something
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: to those concerns?
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, I'm worried about it. I remain worried about it.
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: I've been worried about it. And I think it's a
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: challenge that he's going to have to face. It's worth
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: noting that last week, Quinnipiac had a poll that showed
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: Bernie beating Trump in Michigan and Pennsylvania. And I think
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: that same poll corrected a Wisconsin result that freaked out
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: a lot of people and showed that actually Wisconsin is
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: tracking a lot closer to those other states. Now, Bernie
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: has not faced a deluge of RNC and Trump campaign
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: attack ads that will be as brutal and vicious as possible,
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: but every campaign will face that. So I think we
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: need to be honest that this is a challenging general
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: election matchup. But, you know, look, I'd love to address
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: the Putin thing at the right time, because I think
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: that's crazy. I also think Chris's history is insane. So
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: we could talk about that, too. But I do think
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: like the pundit class meltdown is so absurd in part
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: because they never, like you said, love it, present an alternative.
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: And like seemingly the like the Morning Joe set alternative
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: favorite is Mike Bloomberg, who, if you look at the polling,
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: actually shows like he might be the weakest general election candidate.
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: There's also something else going on, too, which has been
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: is it long precedes Bernie. And it in part is
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: a result of the the shift of of Republicans to
• 49:02
  Speaker 5: this more radical extreme direction, which is cable news generally.
• 49:07
  Speaker 5: is much more comfortable and accustomed to the sound of
• 49:11
  Speaker 5: vicious right-wing revanchist extremist radical policies and people than it
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: is to even moderate democratic leftists who outside of the
• 49:26
  Speaker 5: United States in places like Europe are part of the mainstream.
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: The narrow band of what is mainstream, to exclude a
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: lot of people who have Bernie Sanders views, has made it,
• 49:36
  Speaker 5: I think, more comfortable for people on television to freak
• 49:40
  Speaker 5: the fuck out over Bernie Sanders because it just seems
• 49:43
  Speaker 5: so crazy to them. And that's just a small part
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: of it that was bugging me.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: Dan, what are your concerns? What's your level of concern?
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Let's do that.
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's high, but I think if one of
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: our other candidates was right now in this poll position
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: where they were potentially about to become the nominee, I'd
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: probably have an equally large set of concerns. I think
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: it is very clear that Bernie Sanders can win this election.
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: And anyone who says he can't, both slept through 2016
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: and has looked at none of the limited data that
• 50:15
  Speaker 4: is available, so he absolutely can win it. But anyone
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: who tells you that Bernie Sanders labeled himself a democratic
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: socialist with the positions that he has does not make
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: him a vulnerable democratic nominee is also, I think, being
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: naive about this. So he can win. He is going
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: to have to run an incredible campaign, which the primaries
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: indicated he is most certainly capable of, to navigate this
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: fundamental question about socialism. And I think it's very important
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: to understand how it's going to play itself out in
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: the election, which is you see a lot from some
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: of the DSA people on Twitter or some of the
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: other lefties who are behind Bernie saying, well, look at
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: Bernie's policies. His policies are popular. If we test Medicare
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: for all, we can get it to generically very popular
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: With some details, we can get it to even. We
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: can survive that. Free college is popular. Bernie's positions are popular.
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: But socialism is not about ideology.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: It's about identity.
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: And what they're going to try to do is make
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: Bernie Sanders seem scary and un-American. It's the exact play
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: they tried to run against Obama in 08 and in 12.
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: It is what Madrasas is about. It's about what Reverend
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: Wright was about.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Bill Ayers.
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: Bill Ayers, not putting your hand on your heart, no
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: flag pin. That's what they're going to do to Bernie.
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: And I think Bernie could learn some lessons from how
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: Obama was able to blunt that. And I think Bernie
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: did the 60 Minutes interview last night where he was–
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: I thought he did very well in a lot of
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: ways despite, as you've pointed out, a complete freakout about
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: some of the things he said. He had a hesitancy
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: to tell his own story. And I think the Obama
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: lesson is the best way to combat Republican attack ads
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: who try to make you scary. is to be able
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: to tell your story in a way that firmly roots
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: it in the American tradition, which I think Bernie Sanders'
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: story is, if he is willing to tell that story
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: both on the stump and in ads.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I agree with that. I mean, look, I
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: think there is plenty of political science research data that
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: shows ideologically candidates that are further to the ideological right
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: and left have a harder time winning elections. People say, well,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: we have Donald Trump as president. you know, you look
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: at polls, you look at data after 2016, and a
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: lot of voters did not see him as ideologically extreme
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: on a number of issues, partly because he lied to
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: us about Medicare, Social Security. He lied to us about
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: how he was going to raise taxes on hedge fund managers,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff. So he lied to make
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: himself appear more ideologically inconsistent than maybe your typical Republican.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: And I think if you look back at 2018, the
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: candidates who were further to the left, a lot of
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: the Justice Democrats backed candidates did not succeed in the
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: midterm elections in red and purple states. That is just
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: a fact. But then, but the reason that I, and
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: so I have all those concerns as well. If Bernie
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: Sanders wins, and I agree with Dan that he can win,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: it will be because he has somehow separated. So he
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't seem like your typical leftist candidate. And then, so
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: then you look at some candidates who are more progressive
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: that did win in 2018, right? Like Tammy Baldwin, Medicare
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: for all supporter, first lesbian member of the Senate, um,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: runs in Wisconsin, wins by 11 points in a really
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: tough state that Donald Trump won where Tony Evers, the
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: democratic governor only won by a point. Um, so learn
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: lessons from Tammy Baldwin. How did she do that? Sherrod Brown,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: Ohio was slipping away from the Democrats and Sherrod Brown
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: still crushed that state. Learn from Sherrod Brown, Katie Porter
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: in orange County. She's a Medicare for all supporter, Elizabeth
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: Warren protege. She wins in a very red County and
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: she's a progressive. And, When you talk to these candidates,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: and again, I did on The Wilderness and you can listen,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons that they won despite their policy
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: positions is they presented themselves as tough economic populists who
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: didn't talk a lot about some of the more social
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: and cultural positions that they've taken on the left, even
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: though they still held those positions. And, you know, they organized,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: they introduced themselves to voters. Like you said, Dan, they
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: told their personal story. Like, there are a lot of
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: things you can do to present yourself as an acceptable choice.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: Like my whole mantra for this whole thing is like
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders should become Sherrod Brown if he runs in
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: the general election and he should run as an economic
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: populist and also take care to make sure that the
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: election is about economic populism and, you know, being an
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: outsider and being independent and that the election is not
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: about democratic socialism, which is what the Republicans want it
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: to be about.
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: One more thing about Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders can win,
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: but he will not win If the Democratic Party does
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: not develop an inner fucking monologue like I.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Mean, there's no shit.
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: There is a self-perpetuating nature of having this public panic
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: right now. And look, we should have a debate on
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: Bernie Sanders electability. He is not the nominee.
• 55:03
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: Like that is that is a fair question for the
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: other campaigns to raise about Bernie Sanders because it is
• 55:09
  Speaker 4: the elephant in the room. But if he becomes our nominee,
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: we are either going to hang together. We're all going
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: to hang separately, like potentially literally. And so we like
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: we think so, like we're only going to win this united.
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: And so people, I think, have to even if he's
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: not your chosen candidate, we've got to get on board.
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: The really other smart conventional wisdom thing people are saying
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: now is, oh, Democrats are going to lose the House
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: if Bernie Sanders is the nominee. And like, yes, if
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: someone does poorly, the top of the ticket, it can
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: be a drag. But Chris Matthews decided to go back
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: to France for his history lesson. Like, I'd like to
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: point to 1972. which was the worst electoral defeat in
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: history of the country. Richard Nixon won 49 states with
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: 61% of the popular vote, but Republicans lost two seats
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: in the Senate and they gained a dozen seats in
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: the House, but the Dem majority was like 243 to 192.
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: So my point is just different time, different era, but
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: this is complicated.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: It's hard to predict.
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: Voters can split tickets. So just Everyone stop predicting the
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: biggest doom and gloom you can possibly think of.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, we don't have a ton of data,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: but we have some limited data that I think we
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: can learn from. There's already some evidence that people don't
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: necessarily see Bernie as your typical left-wing candidate, right? So
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: you go to polls and you ask people, would you
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: vote for a socialist? Is that a problem? And the
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: vast majority of Americans say, no, they don't want to
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: vote for a socialist. That would really worry them. And yet,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders has the highest favorability ratings ever. of anyone
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: in the Democratic field right now. And he has some
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: of the highest favorability ratings among the general electorate than
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: any of the other Democrats right now. I think he's
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: close to Joe Biden in many polls. He's doing better
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: than Joe Biden on favorability in the general electorate. And again,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: nearly 100 percent of voters know who Bernie Sanders is.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: He ran for president before. So he is not some
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: left wing candidate who just came out of the blue
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: and started running for president. And you can define him
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: like he has defined himself to an extent. And again,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: if you look at the RealClearPolitics averages of all the
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: candidates against Trump right now, Bernie is 4.4 points ahead
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: of Trump. Biden is 4.3. Bloomberg is 3.3. Pete's 1.8.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: Warren's 1.8. Klobuchar's 1.7. Again, general election matchup polls aren't
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: super predictive when you have a candidate who's not as well-known,
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: like a Pete, a Warren, a Klobuchar, people like that.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: But Bernie and Biden both have near 100% name ID,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: and Bernie is still close in that, and in some
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: of the swing states as well.
• 57:32
  Speaker 5: I think part of this freak out is we don't
• 57:35
  Speaker 5: get to run an experiment where we see what happens
• 57:38
  Speaker 5: after a billion dollars is dumped on the heads of
• 57:41
  Speaker 5: our nominee.
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: We don't get to see it.
• 57:42
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 57:42
  Speaker 5: We have to pick and go in with the person
• 57:45
  Speaker 5: we think is best able to win. And I think
• 57:47
  Speaker 5: there are people, right, I think undergirding a lot of
• 57:48
  Speaker 5: what we're hearing and whether it's James Carville saying basically
• 57:54
  Speaker 5: take Putin. I agree with Putin, right, that you don't
• 57:55
  Speaker 5: say that part of it, but that's what he means.
• 57:57
  Speaker 5: He thinks Putin's right about Bernie. It's not that he
• 57:59
  Speaker 5: cares that Putin has this opinion. It's that he thinks
• 58:01
  Speaker 5: he's right. is this assumption that the attacks– that billion
• 58:05
  Speaker 5: dollars spent is going to hurt Bernie more than it
• 58:07
  Speaker 5: would Joe Biden or some of the other candidates. And
• 58:11
  Speaker 5: I just don't know that to be true and nobody does.
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: The point– like all the data points you offer about
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: Bernie Sanders' popularity are very valid and Democrats should feel
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: good about that. It does speak to the very important
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: and large task before the Sanders campaign to feast the nominee.
• 58:29
  Speaker 4: is that large swaths of voters don't know that Bernie
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: Sanders is a socialist. According to some polling, 40% of
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: Democratic voters don't know that. And so when you get
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: to the voters who are going to decide this election
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: in general, it's not like they know Bernie Sanders identifies
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: as a Democratic socialist, but like him anyway. There are
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: a lot of who like him but don't know that fact,
• 58:45
  Speaker 4: and so you have to get ahead of that with
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: aggressive messaging.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the big challenge. But you're right. Look,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: the Republican campaign against the Democratic nominee is going to
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: look completely different depending on who it is, but you
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: can go through all of these and talk about the
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: scary scenario of what the ads will target. And right,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: for Joe Biden or Pete Buttigieg, it's probably not, or
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: Mike Bloomberg, it's not going to be ideology. It's not
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: going to be your too far left wing, or at
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: least that's not going to work as well because voters
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: don't see them as super left wing like they do Bernie.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: You know, a campaign against Warren would probably be similar
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: to Bernie, though she doesn't call herself a democratic socialist,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: which is a big difference, but she's taken a lot
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: of the same positions as Bernie Sanders as well. So,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: you know, it depends on the candidate, but like, you know,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden's the nominee. We're going to hear more about
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: Hunter and more about all this stuff and more about
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: the Ukraine fucking bullshit. And not if it's going to
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: be fair, not if it's going to be true, but
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: like that's going to be Biden's thing. There'll be a
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of things for Pete. So like you said,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: you just don't know what's going to work better on
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: different candidates.
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: Well, here's what we do know.
• 59:45
  Speaker 5: We do know which candidates have run great campaigns and
• 59:49
  Speaker 5: which can't and which which candidates. have shown themselves live
• 59:52
  Speaker 5: and able to adjust based on what's happening in the race, right?
• 59:55
  Speaker 5: And I do think we undercount just how good a
• 59:58
  Speaker 5: politician Bernie Sanders is sometimes and just how effective he is.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 5: And by the way, just how much stronger a candidate
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 5: he's become in the four years since he ran in 2016.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 5: I think you can look at Mayor Pete and look
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 5: at somebody who, love him or hate him, has shown
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 5: an ability to adjust and pivot to try to stay
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 5: in this race, which is incredibly impressive. And then you
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 5: have Elizabeth Warren's campaign that has proven to be an
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 5: incredible machine. So not just in terms of policy, but
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 5: in terms of organization. And so I You know, I
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 5: guess it just no one knows what the future holds,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 5: but it is amazing how many people have taken the
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 5: last 48 hours to confirm every bias they had long
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 5: before Bernie Sanders even announced he was running for president.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: So, you know, I do think the one fair criticism
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: of Bernie is he hasn't taken as much incoming as
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: some of the other Democratic candidates in this campaign. And
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: that's now changing as a result of this freak out.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: There's been quite a few attempts to finally go after
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders. It started on Friday with a leak to
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: the Washington Post, probably from the White House, that Bernie
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: received a classified briefing last month that Russia may be
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: trying to help his campaign. Then in a 60 Minutes interview,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: he talked about Fidel Castro's literacy program as an example
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: of why more Cubans didn't help the U.S. overthrow the
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: dictator decades ago. Mike Bloomberg is out with an ad
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: this morning about Bernie's gun record. He's being challenged on
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: the cost of his plans, his proposed ban on fracking,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: which could hurt in Pennsylvania. So, all of these attacks feel,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: it feels very kitchen sink right now. Um, but what
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: do you guys think, which of these attacks should sort
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: of worry the Sanders campaign the most?
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: I just want to start by talking about the stupid
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: Putin thing. Everyone needs to stop invoking Vladimir Putin and
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: crediting him with everything. First of all, you just sound
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: stupid and conspiratorial and it's, you know, like don't, don't
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: give him more credibility than he deserves. Um, So we
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: don't really know what this intelligence says. The reports are
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: sort of all over the place. I think we know
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 3: that the Russians like having Trump in office because he
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: undercuts NATO and their global alliances. But the idea that
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 3: Putin wants Bernie in office is laughable, I think. I
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: don't think they want someone who has pledged to fight
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: authoritarianism and kleptocracy as the next president of the United States.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: That's probably an agenda that Putin would find threatening. Maybe
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: people think that Putin thinks Trump can beat Bernie, therefore
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: he would intervene in support of Bernie as, you know,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: three-dimensional chess to get a weaker opponent up there. But
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: that means that Putin is just another dumb pundit, right?
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: And that's the thing that everyone needs to chill the
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: fuck out about. They don't have some special vault of
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: secret genius information. He can't predict the future. He doesn't
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: understand US politics better than like 538 does, right? So like, Sure,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: maybe Vlad can guess that Bernie would be weaker in
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: a general election matchup against Trump and therefore will, you know,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: so chaos and intervene again. But that doesn't mean he's
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: on Bernie's side. It doesn't mean it's effective. Just shut
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 3: up with the Putin's nonsense.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: Bring me the latest Quinnipiac poll.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: One caveat.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 5: We never know when the next scandal will break out
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 5: that Don Jr. emailed him all of Trump's internal numbers.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but even though, like, look, there's like tons of
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: polling out.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: They're just so stupid.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: He has no special information.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 4: Can I clarify the Meet the Press thing?
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: I saw you had a good time online there.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a fun Sunday on Twitter. But so
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 4: the clip went around a shortened version of an answer
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 4: I gave that maybe probably wasn't even as articulate as
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 4: I wanted it to be from when I was on
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 4: Meet the Press yesterday that was interpreted by many to
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 4: suggest that I was saying that Bernie Sanders was an
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 4: agent of the Kremlin. What I was trying to say,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 4: and I think the longer answer would indicate this, was
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 4: I was responding to a comment from Mark Short, who
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 4: is Mike Pence's chief of staff, who had been on
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 4: Meet the Press immediately prior to this segment, who said
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 4: that Putin wanted Bernie to be president. Putin supported Bernie
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 4: because Bernie honeymooned in the Soviet Union. I was trying
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 4: to make the point that Tommy just made, which is
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 4: Putin does not want Bernie to be president. And we
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: know that from the statement that Bernie put out. So
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 4: I just wanted to clarify that. I'm sure everyone will
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: acknowledge it and we will move on.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: So what about some of the other attacks, the Castro thing?
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: What are the attacks that you think, Dan, that should
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: concern the Sanders campaign the most? Or do you think
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: they should be concerned about everything? Electability.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 4: That's the conversation. And all these other candidates.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: Primary general.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: You're talking general, right?
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking also as they go to the general and
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: they're trying to build a larger coalition.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: Oh, I thought you meant in terms of the attacks
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 4: on debates tonight.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, I guess... I guess both because
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: electability is obviously what Democrats are concerned about now to
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: win the primary, but then electability becomes a real thing
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: when you're actually trying to persuade voters in the middle
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: or on the sidelines for the general election.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, in terms of what these candidates could potentially say,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 4: either on the debate stage tomorrow night or at some
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 4: point in this primary before Bernie Sanders arrives on the
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 4: convention stage as the nominee, that could potentially change the
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 4: trajectory of the race. The only thing that I can
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 4: think of, because Bernie Sanders is policies are popular within
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 4: the Democratic Party, as they should be, is to surf
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 4: the panic that is currently happening in Washington, D.C. Because
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 4: you hear all the time, we have frequently on the
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 4: show pointed out that it's odd these candidates never draw
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: contrast with the person who's winning the election. They always
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 4: fight with the person they're battling for second or third with.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 4: And then some people will say, well, Bernie's people are
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 4: locked in. And that is not true. Like, The evidence
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 4: is very clear. He has doubled his support in two months.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 4: Those 15% of people or so that he has added
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 4: since December are people who either were undecided two months
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 4: ago or supported someone else two months ago. So the
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 4: race can move if you can make a compelling case
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 4: on the most valuable and most important question people are asking,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 4: can you beat Trump? Now, the challenge for all of
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 4: them is it's hard to say you're better at winning
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 4: elections when Bernie keeps beating you in elections.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: So on the debate stage, what's your strategy if you're Biden, Pete, Warren,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: or Bloomberg, which are basically the people who possibly could
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: have a path, I think?
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, Mayor Pete just tweeted out some criticism
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 3: in a clip of Bernie Sanders talking about Cuba. So
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 3: it does seem like he views this as a potential
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 3: path to attack Bernie going forward, maybe at the debate.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: It's worth pointing out that the Trump administration has made
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: a concerted effort to reach out to Cubans and Venezuelans
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: in Florida. I think it's probably one of the savvier
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: political things they've done over the past three years, and
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 3: it's created challenges for Democrats there. That said, you can
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: be critical of Fidel Castro and the Cuban regime and
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: their human rights violations and everything else, and then also
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: point out that they've been able to educate young people
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 3: and develop a great medical care community and lots of
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: doctors without becoming a communist, right? There's this unhinged absurdity
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 3: where the American exceptionalism dictates that we can only viciously
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 3: attack any other country that disagrees with us, when the
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 3: reality is Barack Obama said very similar things when he
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 3: visited Cuba during the rapprochement at the end of the
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 3: second term.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 5: So first of all, we can't have a politics in
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 5: which you can't note that one of the dangers of
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 5: authoritarianism is that it offers things to people, which sometimes
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 5: entrenches its power. You need to be able to have
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 5: an honest conversation about how these regimes take hold. And
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 5: I would also point out that a lot of the
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 5: people being very critical of Bernie have said wonderful things
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 5: about Saudi Arabia or said wonderful things about China or
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 5: Bloomberg has denied that China is a dictatorship. You know,
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 5: there is a long list of hypocritical remarks by a
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 5: ton of people currently criticizing Bernie for this. Look, this
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 5: is a danger area for Bernie Sanders. Anytime he's going
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 5: to be asked about socialist or especially communist regimes that
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 5: have been immiserating and cruel to their people. He is
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 5: going to have to be very careful in how he
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 5: answers that question. That said, we do not need to
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 5: play the game of what Republicans will surely do. People
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 5: like Marco Rubio already filming a little fucking TikTok in
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 5: his car to criticize Bernie Sanders because it's an easy
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 5: punch for him to throw.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: So that's all I have to say about that.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, it's definitely a challenge for him and it's
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: especially a challenge for him in Florida. The focus group
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: I did there in Miami- I was surprised how many
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: voters said that socialism was such a big problem. It
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: was such a concern for them. Latino voters said this
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: to me. They said it about Bernie Sanders. You know,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: and so he's got a lot of work to do
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: there to fix that. But I think on this specific comment,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: you can definitely over-torque stuff, right? And a lot of people,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: and people have. You can say that, because, you know,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of people pointed out that Barack Obama said
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: something similar, and then everyone's like, well, he said that
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: in his last year. He didn't say that when he
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: was trying to run for office. But also, like, He
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: did run for office in 2008 talking about an opening
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: with Cuba, which was not super popular with some of
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: these same people at the time.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 3: Also, can you guys just clarify your jingoism? Is it
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 3: because it's bad policy to be nice to communists or
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: is it an electability question?
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: We're all over the map.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 3: Where are we coming from here?
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 5: Hey.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: When you do a bad faith attack on Bernie Sanders,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 2: you do me a favor. Keep it consistent.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 10: Clarify.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: Just keep that bad faith message limited and focused.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: But to Dan's point, like having a couple of members
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: of Congress in Florida and immediately jump on the story,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: retweet what Bernie said, along with stupid cat gifs and
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 3: or criticism of Bernie. It's like, you know, you don't
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: have to lead with your chin here, guys. You can
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 3: not tweet.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 3: That might work.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Dan, what do you think?
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree with anything you guys said. I think
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 4: that the reaction to this was totally over-twerked. And this
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 4: is the environment in which people are going to have
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 4: to make the argument against Bernie. And the argument I
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 4: think really boils down to is, And I'm not saying
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 4: that this argument is correct.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: It might be.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 4: It might not be. No one knows. But it's that
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 4: Bernie is the riskiest choice. And are you willing to
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 4: go with the riskiest choice in the most important election
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 4: in the history of the planet?
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 4: And that's the case that Biden and Buttigieg and Warren
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: and Klobuchar and Bloomberg and everyone else are going to
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: have to make if they want to have any success.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: And what do you think is Bernie's smartest strategy in
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: this debate? Because, you know, there's also a history of
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: people who are the frontrunners sort of resting on their
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: laurels and then getting caught. And like, what if you do,
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: what are you, what are you trying to do if
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: you're Bernie Sanders at this debate?
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 4: Survive. I think that, I think what he hopes to
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 4: do is demonstrate to voters who like Bernie Sanders, because
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 4: he is the most popular Democrat on that stage in many,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 4: in much, much of the polling, demonstrate that he can,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 4: he can handle the incoming, which he has not had
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 4: to do in any sustained way in any debate yet,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 4: which is, sort of mind boggling because he's been winning
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 4: for the last six debates. But if he looks like
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 4: he can handle those attacks and brush them off and
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 4: gives voters the opportunity to imagine him doing that with Trump,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 4: he will come out of the debate in the same
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 4: position he went in, which is a prohibitive front runner
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 4: for the Democratic nomination.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 5: I will say though, Dan, I think that's right. I
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 5: think that he has probably faced a disproportionate lack of
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 5: of attacks at these debates, but that doesn't mean he
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 5: hasn't faced hits. Pete has taken shots at him. Warren
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 5: has taken shots at him. Bloomberg, certainly the last debate tried.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 5: And I do think it is Bernie's strengths as a candidate,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 5: how easily he moves from those attacks into a broader,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 5: bigger message about what he's for. And he does that
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 5: really successfully. And I think of all the candidates who
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 5: have a job to do at debate, I do think
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 5: his is the easiest. He needs to make a big
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 5: appealing case. He needs to seem like the front runner.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 5: What he did at that, at the, during the, uh,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 5: the Bloomberg debate, I thought was incredibly effective. The debate
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 5: before that, uh, he took a question about, uh, his
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 5: liabilities and turned into a big case for, uh, for
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 5: his movement, uh, you know, multi-generational, multi-ethnic movement of, of Americans,
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 5: of working people. And so every time he does that,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 5: I think he makes his case stronger.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 3: So, you know, I think he's just going to say, Amy,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 3: I disagree with what Pete was saying about you earlier,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 3: and then just kind of drift away.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 5: Also, by the way, if Bloomberg comes to this debate
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 5: loaded for bear to take on Bernie Sanders, I mean, man,
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 5: could Bernie Sanders have picked a better enemy? I mean,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 5: that's what happened with Warren last time. I don't think
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 5: it's a bad thing if Bloomberg has a bunch of
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 5: fucking can lines in his rucksack that he pulls out
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 5: and throws at Bernie Sanders.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: I don't think that hurts Bernie Sanders.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: I think it does only if the other candidates on
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: stage decide to piggyback on Bloomberg, they let Bloomberg take
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: the lead. And then they say, well, I agree with
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: the mayor on this one, you know, uh, that which
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: you could, you could, you could see happening. Look, I
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: think that Bernie, I think the best thing for him
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: to do with this debate is start pivoting to look
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: like and present himself as a general election candidate. Um,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, in one of these stories about
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: sort of the democratic freak out in the Washington post, um,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: they talked to Ro Khanna, Congressman from California was on
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: positive the world before. And, um, you know, he was
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: one of Bernie's earliest congressional endorsers. And he was talking
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: about sort of the down ballot challenge. Everyone's worried that
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: Bernie's going to sort of drag down the rest of
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: the ticket if he's the nominee. And and kind of
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: said he's going to build a coalition through persuasion and
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: a grassroots movement. And he's going to give people the
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: ability to depart on issues if they are representing their districts.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: He's a person who recognizes the value of intellectual dissent,
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: which Bernie Sanders coming off like that is great. That's
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: one of the ways to sort of give some people
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: who are on the edges of this coalition, some comfort.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: And then, uh, kind of was also saying about some
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: of his, his platform as well. He goes, you know,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: you can talk about these issues in a way that
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: is pro economic growth. You can talk about these policies
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: in a way that is pro business. Now there's a
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: lot of Bernie Sanders supporters online who would not like
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: hearing something like that. But, um, I think Bernie gets that.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: I think his campaign gets that. I think a and
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: I think he should take Ro Khanna's advice on both.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: Of those things.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 5: I'd also just, you know, look, I think there's going
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 5: to be a lot of fear mongering about Bernie Sanders.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 5: You know, there weren't executions at the town square in Burlington, Vermont.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Like, like he's a practical person.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: He's a low bar there.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 6: Love it.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: No, no, I'm saying that that was a liability. I
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 2: think there probably should have been.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 5: But, you know, the other thing he's done in these debates,
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 5: which I think has also made, you know, honestly, it's ingratiated.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 2: I've appreciated personally.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 5: I do think it's the right thing to do is
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 5: he's always talked about the importance of coming together at
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 5: a party and how we will unite behind a nominee,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 5: no matter who that is.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: It makes him seem bigger. It makes him seem like
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: the leader of the party and which as of right
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: now he is.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, being anti-establishment is a powerful force in any election.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 3: It worked for us in 2008. It's worked for Howard
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 3: Dean for a while in 2004. It's been working for
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 3: Bernie Sanders. When we were at his rally in Vegas,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: when he said, I've got news for the Democratic establishment,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 3: they can't stop us. That was his biggest applause line.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 3: And then when he tweeted it, there was a meltdown
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: in upper income parts of Washington, D.C., like nothing I've
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 3: ever seen before. And like, look, I do think in
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 3: the next days, weeks, maybe Bernie should transition away from
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 3: that kind of rhetoric and just try to be more inclusive,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 3: because ultimately this is about building a bigger coalition. I
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 3: tweeted a mild critique of Bernie's speech after Nevada caucus
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 3: night and just got hammered by, you know, DSA based
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: blue check marks for tone policing him. But like, you know,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 3: at some point I do think we have to reach
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 3: out to some of these disaffected voters who went Trump.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 3: We cannot win without them. And so thinking through all
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 3: the best ways to reach them is important. And I
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 3: don't have those answers.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: You know, I think he made a good start at
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: that in his in his speech in Nevada. Look, we
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: have seen that when you ask people what they want,
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: a presidential candidate in the Democratic electorate, like number one
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: in a lot of these polls is bringing the country together.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: And people who want the want a president who can
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: sort of bring the country together. A lot of them
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: are Bernie Sanders supporters. You heard the woman who was
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: the precinct captain for Bernie at the Nevada caucus. We
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: played the clip earlier and she said, I just we're
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: so divided right now. And sure enough, you know, Bernie
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: in that speech, and we played the clip earlier, said,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: you know, Donald Trump and the Republican Party are going
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: to try to divide us, race, class, gender. They pit
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: us against each other. Our movement is about bringing people together.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: That is a very powerful message. It is not some
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: kind of centrist, mushy message. It is about working class solidarity,
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: which is what Bernie's movement is about. And I think
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: if he starts speaking that message and really getting it
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: out there, I do think it will start helping to
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: bring people together. and give some people some comfort.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 5: And I do think it's about defining solidarity, not just
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 5: against Trump. And it's something that Bernie does really well.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 5: It's actually, if you want to see the most, I think,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 5: moving and uniting message Bernie Sanders offers, I think it's
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 5: both a part of his speech that he often gives,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 5: but also in his ads. There are these incredibly moving,
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 5: multiracial ads about coming together and the power of the moment.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 5: And when Bernie says, you know, look at the person
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 5: next to you, think of the stranger. Are you willing
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 5: to fight for them as hard as you're willing to
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 5: fight for yourself?
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: Very powerful.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: I think sometimes we.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 5: Get into the politics, we get into the electability argument,
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 5: and then you look at all these millions of young
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 5: people who have come behind Bernie Sanders and believe in
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 5: Bernie Sanders.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 2: And I think.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 5: It's important to see that positive vision of what he's
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 5: offering and how exciting it is to people and how
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 5: motivating it is for millions of people who see hope
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 5: in Bernie Sanders. And I think if he can show
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 5: other people who aren't yet on board why so many
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 5: young people feel that hope, I think that he'll be president.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: But again, it is on the Bernie Sanders campaign to
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: do that. It is on his supporters to do that.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: Running a campaign, like he has a lot of vulnerabilities
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: and it takes incredible discipline to run a campaign in
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: any environment, let alone this environment. And there is very
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: little room for error. And so that is, you know,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: and that is partially the source of some of the
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: freak out here. But and I think we have all
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: said that the freak out is way too much. But
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: on the other side of this, let's not minimize the
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: challenge here. I do think the person who gets that
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: better than anyone is Bernie Sanders. He's a smart, savvy
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: politician that won repeatedly in a state that leans culturally
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: conservative in a lot of ways. He's talked to these
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: people before.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: He'll figure it out.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: OK, that's all we got for today, guys. I don't
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: think we have a guest today, right?
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 8: No, we don't.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: Here is Mike Bloomberg. So I think Bloomberg's here.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 5: There's a bunch of rose petals leading a path, and
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 5: I think that that must be that he's coming.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: All right. So we have a debate Tuesday night in
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: South Carolina, and we will be doing a post-debate pod
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday. So we'll talk to you then, guys.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: Woo. Bye.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: Bye, everyone. Pod Save America is a product of Cricket Media.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our assistant producer is
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: Jordan Waller. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: Seglin is our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Katie Long,
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: Roman Papadimitriou, Caroline Reston, and Elisa Gutierrez for production support.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Nar Melkonian, Yale Freed,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: and Milo Kim, who film and upload these episodes as
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: videos every week.