Dems vs. GOP messaging: Sunday political panel digs into partisanship ahead of midterms

[0:00] we're getting right into our political panel joining us now is matthew bartlett ms now political [0:04] analyst and republican strategist and basil smichel ms now political analyst and columbia [0:10] university professor long time no see fellows thanks for coming back i want to play this new [0:19] interview clip from todd blanche that eugene had referenced a few minutes ago during an interview [0:24] on meet the press just moments ago this morning and for anyone who was wondering whether or not [0:29] todd blanche may or may not decide to circumvent the now defunct weaponization fund let's listen to him [0:38] can you pledge that the justice department will always act independently of the white house [0:43] well what that's there's a big difference between saying we will be we will always do our job and [0:48] and investigate any case and act independently of the white house no i'm not going to pledge that [0:53] and no attorney general should ever pledge that the president i mean if i were to pledge i will [0:57] be independent of the white house what that means is that if president trump says i want the [1:03] department of justice to go after every violent criminal in this country which is what he has [1:07] said what you're saying to me is i just say no sir i'm not going to do it that's not true at all basil [1:14] is there a difference there and is there a distinction that todd blanche just made todd blanche has repeatedly [1:20] said that he is the president's attorney and that means something he's signaling to everyone exactly what [1:27] he's about to do he is about to exact any kind of retribution that the president wants and bless [1:32] anyone that the president wants that to me is very clear so and and i have a i think about the long [1:38] history of the doj when ronald reagan made a decision that he wanted to make sure that kids in schools [1:47] played by the rules he got the doj involved and to me that was the beginning of the sort of school to [1:53] prison pipeline when you have the department of justice involved in kids in classrooms and school [1:59] conduct so to me the doj has extraordinary powers at the will of the president united states and who's [2:07] running that the president's own attorney i mean everyone knows that no one when when people say we [2:14] want the doj to do what has always been done and and be independent from the white house no one is [2:20] saying that if trump says go get the bad guys that the that the the attorneys are like no no bad guys [2:25] no that's actually your job to go get the bad guys it's literally your job description matthew i'm gonna [2:31] move on for that because i mean i'm gonna lower my blood pressure i'm gonna lower my blood pressure [2:35] let's go to um this waffle story um exclusive trump it's an exclusive trump administration is set to spend [2:42] at least 900 million dollars on the white house construction quote the trump administration plans to [2:47] spend at least 900 million dollars for construction projects on the white house grounds the significantly [2:53] larger price tag that has been previously reported and one that would be primarily covered covered [2:59] primarily by taxpayers according to records reviewed by the washington post um i am not i'm not sure [3:07] how salient for voters donald trump is building things is but when voters hear that their taxpayer dollars are [3:14] going to it when voters hear that the president is running around gluing gold applique around the [3:21] oval office and they are watching as money is just leaving their pockets willy-nilly like that [3:27] well in congress didn't authorize exactly anyway and then they did to say but that money isn't being [3:34] executed i not to interrupt you no yeah yeah but it's in the same vein as like there is saliency there [3:40] because voters are losing access to things i mean voters i mean so what is it this is i haven't read [3:46] it an exclusive he's going to spend 900 million dollars in the midterms to push an agenda for the [3:51] american people because he feels your pain and republicans are going to work hard to fix it oh no [3:56] this is again to build a ballroom or is it the arch um or is it the fountains this is preposterous you [4:03] don't have to be a political scientist to get this voters are mad this economy is a mess by the way [4:10] we're in a war um and it is absolutely astounding that the president and his team continue to focus [4:16] on this why he's obsessed with it it's all he can do there is no vision um it's only visibility what [4:23] he sees um and again republicans i'm talking to ain't too happy that this is our midterm message oh by [4:29] the way we're going to have a a texas uh midterm thing he's going to go to ireland um he's going to [4:35] host g at the white house no this is not the right message but why are these republicans that ain't [4:40] too happy as you put it um ain't too happy behind closed doors because this is the thing that i have [4:46] always found confusing during the trump era is all the talk behind closed doors democrats when biden was [4:52] in office democrats were very publicly angry with him congress members of congress were no members of [4:58] congress would literally during the whole time especially on policy it would joe hello joe mansion [5:03] kristin cinema like they would constantly talk about him and i guess i'm just curious why do you [5:08] think matthew bartlett that they are still not um they haven't found the spine to actually say something [5:17] behind closed doors even though they're talking to you they're talking to us listen i wish we could [5:21] say um that you know uh uh uh our we can overcome partisanship we can split the atom we cannot split [5:29] the partisan bonds that exist in our country in fact they're even deeper but this is worse on the [5:33] republican party side this isn't a two sides issue i'm not sure the biden years hey everything you know [5:38] everything passed i think there was some questions bipartisanship was passed there was questions about [5:43] whether or not he should have even been president i think uh democrats continued didn't come out [5:49] against joe manchin or cinema and call for them to be ousted and recruit and support a primary [5:55] challenger and launch tirades against them on his social media conversations it said when will democrats [6:00] speak out against a president that should not be in that office and it took a debate and there were [6:06] questions before this is about this is about policy and midterms the age thing donald trump is just as [6:13] old i i i think we're in the age of like you don't go against your party you want to do that you get [6:17] out of politics i think it's awful i think it's shameful i think more people should just be honest [6:21] with the american public i think the public will reward that but i just don't agree with your we [6:26] yeah i think i think it's i think it's probably the democrat though but they still need party money [6:31] for their campaigns the ones that are up for real x they still want to get all the money coming [6:36] through they don't want trump trashing them and further depressing any republican turnout this [6:40] year because trump's not on the ballot so are those trump voters going to come out this is are [6:45] we looking at another 2018 cycle where you just don't have the same volume of republican voters and [6:52] that's what why texas like take the texas senate race if republicans who are fed up with all the data [6:59] centers coming in and they vote they might have voted for cornyn and they aren't that high on paxton if [7:04] they don't turn out that's how tala rico wins there's a huge uh enthusiasm asymmetry there's no [7:11] question about it democrats have consistently outperformed and they i might believe is that [7:14] they will continue to do that the vote who's about to vote the numbers are higher no that's that's [7:19] exactly right and we're even seeing uh significant uh a significant different difference in the [7:26] districts that have been changed by republicans to include more rural voters where you see a lot of [7:32] african-american uh members uh in jeopardy so you're seeing over performance there the reality [7:38] is that when donald trump keeps talking about voter suppression voters are like oh yeah um we know [7:43] we we we're you're doing that so we're going to come out and find a way to counter that and the [7:47] republicans are not fun are not countering that measure they haven't found the the sort of center [7:54] of gravity for uh for any of the policies that trump is promoting because he's not really promoting any [7:59] all he's talking about is save america yeah but i will say in defense in defense of democrats during [8:08] the biden era and i look i was here on this set or or a set like it um every day wondering why is it [8:17] that our party is pushing their sitting president off the off off the reelect um and that angered me a [8:25] lot because i didn't like that part that intra-party fighting because we were doing some good things [8:30] that infrastructure bill was a strong bipartisan bill and if you go watch any of the construction [8:36] projects that are going on now big old sign bipartisan bill and republicans were out there going to the [8:41] wearing hard hats and with shovels and taking no and i don't mean to keep pointing at you [8:45] what would angered me is that democrats were buying into republican talking points about joe biden [8:57] and i think the american public could see what they saw but the problem is a really bad and fundamental [9:05] error to tell people that they did not see with their eyes what they saw but my issue but my issue [9:12] do you think joe biden should have been president right now i didn't want him to run in the first [9:15] place but that was too late but that but that but but at the point when we are four months we don't [9:21] need to relitigate yeah but at the point that we are four months away well you know you did this [9:26] no but no i'm sitting from the omal office every day now maybe that's not a healthy thing maybe we [9:31] can move on to uh you know a more a younger president i'm not sure the last two have been the best [9:37] this panel is evolving let's back up a little bit because for me on the biden thing it was [9:44] in the same thing with trump with presidents there's two questions it is can they run a campaign [9:51] right and more importantly can they govern and how that how do they do it donald trump does not pass [9:56] bills it doesn't really matter how he much how how well he campaigns joe biden passed a lot of bills [10:02] there were trillions of dollars we wrote it when i was at playbook when we started looking at how much [10:06] money was being spent and thrown out trillions of dollars in different types of investment [10:11] including lots of bipartisan bills so that's the like the biden and trump of it all but at the end [10:15] of the day matthew the the when voters are looking at the president to do things in their lives [10:22] joe biden did things in their lives maybe they didn't like his age too bad he was old they elected [10:26] him donald trump is not doing anything it seems to make their lives better anything that anything that [10:34] experts would say would make their lives better yeah yeah yeah listen you know um affordability [10:40] is the biggest issue oh what was the issue that brought us back to power in 2024 affordability [10:44] everything has changed in the world um it is now 2026 except for the economy um and that's why voters [10:51] continue to be so upset um to to live breathe eat work uh gas groceries housing health care and what is my [10:59] party's answer nothing well expect to be punished at the ballot box if that's a top priority and you [11:05] have no agenda on it listen i'm not sure democrats have the answers but they ain't in power right now [11:09] um so when one party controls town um you know expect the voters to speak out i will say democrats [11:14] do have answers that's why you're seeing people come out and vote and we're talking about affordability [11:19] affordability is the thing that is cutting across race and ethnicity and even geography yeah the whole [11:26] issue of data centers is on the on the point of affordability utility costs water electricity there's [11:32] a lot of different things matthew bartlett battles michael we're going to continue this hustle in the break