not as diverse, of course, as many candidates. >> getting on the debate stage, that's everything if you want longevity. 22 spots and 22 people in the race. this is going to get interesting. good to see you, man. thank you so much. >> thank you all so much for joining me. really appreciate it. "inside politics" with john king starts now. >> thank you, kate. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. cnn learning the attorney general getting some very high-powered help as he investigates the origins of the fbi's investigation of trump campaign contacts with russia. plus, a big smile from joe biden today as he delivers a blunt message to liberals questioning his commitment to fighting climate change. check the record the former vice president says this before adding this, calm down. but from the west a new entry into the crowded democratic presidential field. montana governor steve bullock says his story is unique among

the 20 plus 2020 hopefuls. >> as a democrat governor in a state trump won by 20 points i don't have the luxury of just talking to people who agree with me. i go all across our state's 147,000 square miles and look for common ground to get things done. >> we have a packed hour ahead, including a big test of whether the president can keep telling congress to take a hike when it demands information. the president's accounting firm in court right now trying to fend off a house subpoena for all the president's financial statements, but we begin with breaking news about the attorney general's investigation of the investigators. a new cnn reporting showing how big and broad the group is looking into whether the fbi acted with good cause when it started investigating ties between trump campaign aides and russia. the president just moments ago outside the white house said he did not ask for or order this big new probe, but he likes what he sees. >> no, i didn't him to do that. i didn't know it. i didn't know it, but i think it's a great thing that he did

it. i saw it last night, and they want to look at how that whole hoax got started. it was a hoax. i am so proud of our attorney general that he is looking into it. i think it's great. i did not know about it, no. >> let's get straight to laura jarrett at the justice department. we know a.g. william barr is in charge. who is he asking for help? >> well, john, we're learning that he's also working with the cia director gina haspel as well as the director of national intelligence dan coats and chris wray, someone the president attacked later on when speaking to reporters because wray tried to distance himself from the use of the term spying, something that the attorney general bill barr has to say and that's what he wants to look into whether the trump campaign was spied on, whether it was properly predicated and we want to know that the national intelligence agencies are all working together under barr as well as the u.s. attorney in connecticut john durhan.

he's leading that effort, john, and we wondered exactly what's the basis of barr's concern and we're still trying to do more reporting on that, but he's described that he thinks that the public perception of this has been a little bit anemic and maybe not quite the full story. he has talked about the fact that an informant was used as well as he's talked about that infamous dossier compiled on the president by christopher steele, the ex-british intelligence agent and he's looking at all of this, but there may be more to it, and he now has a group that's going to get to the bottom of it, john. >> laura jarrett at the justice department, appreciate that, and as the investigation plays out, one of the big questions about the attorney general's investigation and why it's happening in the like and will it reveal something we don't already know, with me in studio to share their reporting an insights, cnn's abby philip, michael shear and rachel baie with "the washington post." the president is happy. he said he did not ask for this.

not directly maybe, asked for it countless times in public. but somebody help me here in the sense that the attorney general with laura's reporting, the attorney general asking some of the highest ranking people in the government, the fbi director, the director of national intelligence to help him. did they do this right? did the fbi overstep? did they have good course and did they follow procedure, also asking the u.s. attorney to look into the very same question while the department of justice inspector general is looking into the very same question. too much? >> it just depends on how you view this had. i mean, there's a democratic lawmaker just a few hours ago speaking with jim sciutto who actually suggested that democrats shouldn't be pushing back on this quite as hard as maybe they might instinctively want to and the rationale being that if they do do a thorough investigation, and -- and the origins of this investigation were clean and perfectly justified, then they will turn up nothing, and it will only

bolster the belief that this investigation was properly originated. on the other hand, i mean, i think if you're bill barr, a, you know that president trump wants this investigation to happen in some way, shape or form and you could see these moves as an attempt by barr to create the most thorough environment that he can to investigate this choosing in durhan, for example, who has experience doing those kinds of investigations under the democrats and republicans and making sure they are part of the process and not being looked at from a suspicious perspective so you could view this. i think there is a way to view this move from barr as an effort by him to try to create a comprehensive an thorough investigation because he knows he has to do it. >> if they are transparent about it. if they are transparent about it. absolutely nothing wrong with looking back at how something big started and you say the democrats would say, well, a-ha, the fbi acted appropriately stop

the conspiracy theories and if they find misconduct those who had misconduct should be held accountable. how about one credible investigation? are we doing this all in the right place? >> that's an important question. is it too much, but if you step back one of the other things we have to look at the damage that the last two and a half years has done to the process, to the integrity of what has traditionally before this administration been a real red line between the politics of the white house and the justice department, where, you know, previous presidents have not -- have south to really stay hands off from the investigations so that you wouldn't have these questions that we all have now about, you know, is this a legitimate investigation? is this a legitimate attempt to look back and -- and >> is there political motivation? >> or is there political motivation? but is there -- is there a political votemation in the white house in the president

didn't have to order this? he's been saying it the last year. >> he didn't have to do this. moments ago outside the white house, the attorney general has used the term i think spying did occur. it's a loaded term in washington. he's appointed the u.s. attorney and bill barr comes to the question with an answer in his head, right, at least pubically that i think spying did occur. so he's got his thumb on the scale to start the investigation, not the way you're supposed to start. the fbi director then said, you know, what i don't see it that way. the fbi director saying he's seen no evidence and the boss of the organization in question here that they did anything wrong. the president takes issue. >> do you have confidence that christopher wray after he said he -- >> well, i didn't understand his answer because i thought the attorney general answered it perfectly so i didn't understand that answer. i thought it was a ridiculous answer. >> here we go again. >> in this case it's important to have the inspector general looking into it because here's a guy who is required to be impartial at least according to the terms of his office so in a sense it's good that we have two

different bodies looking at this the because we can't be entirely sure based on barr's influence that what durh ha n is going to do is free from influence. >> the general counsel for the fbi asked about this very question because it's been a constant recurring theme. the president said it was the dirty steele dossier paid for by the clinton campaign. he ignores it was originally funded by a conservative group in the beginning and the fbi general counsel is saying go ahead and look. we did this just right. >> there was a point in time relatively recently where i just became sick of all the bs that is said about the origins of the investigation, and i just got fed up with it. the papadopoulos information is what triggered us going down this path. look, the investigation was not predicated on the basis of the information that christopher steele gave to us in the form. does ier. i don't know how to say this. we're not stupid, right? the fbi. we're not stupid. >> i mean, it highlights the

struggle that you're seeing right now with a lot of people who are working in the fbi, you know, they see this as an attack on their own credibility and what they did. this whole situation was unprecedented, that you ever had these sort of allegations, you know, that a campaign compass somehow conspiring with russia, so, i mean, there wasn't a playbook that they could look to and we're just going to continue to see trump allies say that this is something the fbi had never done, they broke some sort of rules, but reality is this was the situation where nobody really knew what to do so maybe they could have done something better. we're just going to have to see if people find some sort of ill will or criminality, but, you know, it's an unprecedented situation. >> it is unprecedented. they see they got started for good reason. they saw people associated with the trump campaign having communications with russians and that freaked them out. there was some idiocy, the texts between lisa page and peter strzok. let's air it out. the ig is one place to do it.

on capitol hill, lindsey graham became chairman of the judiciary committee and wants to look into this and now he says never mind. >> i'm glad you have a prosecutor not a politician. i don't expect you to take my word about what happened with the fisa warrant. i'm a republican and i want the president to do well. i don't expect the republicans to take any word about the wrong dongs by trump, and we have somebody else out of politics. i want to give him the space toss do his job. i'm a republican committee chairman. i've got a prosecutor and i don't want to get in their way. i don't want to mess up his criminal investigation and i don't want to put people at risk so i will back off. >> do we take him at his word that oh, there's this credible guy looking at it and i'm just going to get out of way and keep politics out of it or is it great, this guy looking at this. now i don't need a forum where democrats get to ask question.

>> he shade i'm the republican chairman of the judiciary committee. he's basically saying i'm a republican. i need to back off of this issue because this is something that is like a third rail for the president and the levered my party. lindsey graham is operating in a very transparent way. he supports the president. he said so just a few minutes ago in that you just played and any action he takes is on that basis especially now that he's in a position of leadership and needs the president in order to avoid political trouble down the road. >> let me say he's on the battle in 2020. up next for us, domestic politics of a different sore. a big challenge for joe biden. how does he hand in incoming fire from the very vocal progressive left? introducing new lower prices on produce. atta boy with peak season berries, uniqcreamy avocado.

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here... or, here. kick your antacid habit with prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. hive pictures. you're watching right there. former vice president joe biden now democratic candidate for president and looks like a beautiful day in nashua, new hampshire. campaigning in nashua a little bit after mixing it up a bit with one of the democratic party's rising stars. congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez says there's no middle ground approach to fighting climate change. that's a shot at biden prompted by the media account that said the former vice president was preparing such a plan. in new hampshire today biden said not true and shrugged off the incoming. >> i've never been middle of the road on the environment, and i would tell her to check, you

know the statement that i made and look at my record and she will find that nobody has been more consistent about taking on the environment and the green revolution than i have. so, look, anyway. i can't -- i don't think she's talking about me. >> this idea that i haven't done anything, take a look at the record. that's what i would say. i'm sure she will get time to look at it. >> note the smile. how the former vice president handles these liberal attacks and criticisms is going to be a big test. here's the climate complaint from owe courts. >> i will be damned if the same politicians who refused to act then are going to try to come back today and say we need a middle of the road approach to save our lives. that is too much for me. cnn's jeff zeleny rejoins me. this is a specific here, and

this is going to a constant for joe biden. the more progressive base of the party including senator sanders, potentially senator warren, doing a little bit in the race and the outside groups will be coming her every day. how he handles it will be critical. >> and this is how these races sometimes become an intra-party fight and this is how candidates get drawn in. up until now the former vice president has been very consistent about not saying i'm not going to respond to bernie sanders. he answers that question for a reason, a question by arlette saenz up in new hampshire and he wants to mix it up a little bit. he reads the stories as well. is he too cautious and too protected? he wants to make the case that, yes, he has been doing climate change longer than she has been alive probably. that's essentially what he was saying, but he runs a bit of a risk of being a little bit dismissive towards the congresswoman who has a big following. so it's going to be fascinating to watch how joe biden chooses to engage and not to engage and today he chose to engage for a

reason. >> i want to listen to it a little bit more. the former vice president saying i understand. listen to his words. i'm not even going to finish it. just listen. >> there are very loud voices on the very new prodepressive side of the agenda, and i think it's useful. i think they are good and smart people and they should be able to make their case, but the idea that somehow the democratic party has gone so far to the left that it is not recognized by most democrats who consider themselves liberal is not factually what's happening. >> he's taking them on on the facts saying, you know, i'm fine. i'm a mainstream democrat. i'm an obama/biden democrat and he said everyone should calm down a little bit. the vocal progressive base of the party i don't think is going to like that part of the sentence very much. >> absolutely not, but this conflict stems to help joe

biden, keep in mind, because these are the same environmental activists who took on the obama climate agenda during obama's re-election fight in 2012 throughout his second term saying you need to do more, you didn't do enough and this benefits to him because he's speaking to the middle and swing voters who are not on twitter or not part of the millenial generation, and, yes, we could see a replay of the hillary versus bernie dynamic where the young people are not motivated to come out for biden. but this is a net good. >> biden is vocalizing a feeling with the folks on the far left that they are so vocal and people do want to calm them down because they think is undercuts keeping a majority in the house and biden trying to defend himself, he's one of the democrats actually pushing back, and i do think that there's an appetite for folks who do want to check the far left. if they want the balance they can't alienate the base >> walking up to the line of calm down, what's the next step,

you're being hysterical? we'll see how this evolves. >> more importantly we'll see what he proposes the he says just wait. there was a reuters account that said it would be a middle ground approach so bernie sanders, congresswoman owe courts, said, wait a minute, we're past that. we need more than middle ground. the former vice president saying it's not true and he'll lay out the details soon. that will matter. >> but the truth is whatever it is, we know it's not going to be where the far left is, right, that's not what joe biden is. he's unapologetically embracing that middle ground that he didn't want to use that phrase because he was just attacked for it, but he is going to embrace, that and he's trying to lay the predicate that not -- not that the middle ground is something that you should be dismissive of, but rather that's where -- that's where the majority of not only democratic party but the country is. >> that's how you beat president trump. >> that's how you beat president trump and he's hoping that's how you beat the democratic field as well is that, you know, let the

left kind of nibble -- nibble, you know, at, you know, the constituency that they have, and he'll take the rest. he'll take everybody else. >> and he's betting that the democratic party that you see here on the internet is the different than the democratic party he'll see in new hampshire and iowa and south carolina and nevada, and if you're joe biden and the front-runner that's what about what you get, four states and then you better have proven it. >> these activists are betting they can push joe biden and if he squeezes more left it's a win for both sides. >> we'll watch it play out. this is going to be a recurring theme of how he handles the incoming, shall we say. >> president trump says the trade war with china nothing but a mere squabble. he says it's a lucrative squabble.

'is . president trump putting an upbeat optimistic veneer on the trade war between china and the united states. the president said the united states has the upper hand here, and he insists, follow histologic, we're making a lot of money in the meantime. >> we're having a little squabble with china. i think it's going to be -- i think it's going to turn out extremely well. we are, again in, a very, very strong position. they want to make a deal. it could absolutely happen, but in the meantime a lot of money is being made by the united states, and a lot of strength is

being shown. >> and a lot of economics professors are saying that's not the way it works, but we'll come back to that. the president tweeting about trade and tariffs over and over today. he's hinted he believes a resolution could come within a month. the president's optimism may be helping global financial markets. they are up today or at least static but it's not calming fears in the midwest where farmers are sharing their anxiety about what happens if no deal is reached soon. take a look at what's happening, from china, retaliatory tariffs leave iowa farmers and investors wary. from wisconsin, trade warnings causing concern for central wisconsin industries and most telling from illinois, farm bureau tries to destigmatize mental health and increase help for services. there's the challenge. the president has yet to provide any details. the president saying we're going to work this out, we immediate

this as learning, but when you go through the farm states, these stigmatizing mental health benefits because they worry about stress and suicides. people talking about how do i plant my next crops. he's got a political problem out there. >> yeah, and these retaliatory tariffs from china were designed to target president trump's voters and his supporters and so far many of these individuals while they have been hurting have been giving the president the benefit of the doubt but question for everyone at this point is how long is this going to last? and president trump might seem optimistic about where things are headed, but our sources say that the talks have stalled at this point. there's not much happening in the way of communication. there are some vague plans for negotiators to go to beijing to resume talks, but those haven't been hammered down. the president hasn't -- has only said that he'll meet face to face with president xi at the g-20 which is all the way at the end of june, so we have a long way to go before we even get the two principles back at the negotiating table and president

trump seems to think that in the meantime, tariffs are great, a, and, b, that he with just resolve the problem with farmers by redistributing wealth essentially, by moving $15 billion to farmers, but that's obviously not what the industry wants. they want a permanent solution to this problem and president trump doesn't give people the thought that this is the direct he's running in. >> if you run a farm, especially a family farm, you have to think two years, five year, ten years into the future just to make ends meet and to figure out export markets and how many crops to plant and to think do i need to diversify or change the crops and voices saying, mr. president, we need to know. >> is our fourth generation farm still going to be feasible two years from now, five years from now if the president doesn't wrap up these trade wars with a win, and so there's all these pressures weighing in on us. >> farmers are his base, you know, was his base, you know. they helped elect this president and make him president of the

united states, and now he's turning his backs on america's farmers when we need him the most. >> to be clear, you also find a lot of farmers who say that the president is right, that this is a fight that need to be fought, that china has been cheating and game being the system for many, many years. they just want to know what and when and how they are going to come out of this. >> well, look, the truth is that a lot of times these international negotiations are uncertain. you don't know where it's going to come out, and i think that one of the biggest concerns for farmers and for people generally is this sense that the president isn't being straight with them about the potential pain, short term and then potentially long term, right? if the president came out and said, look, tariffs are painful and nobody wins and nobody makes a lot of money and there will be short-term pain and we'll do what we can to ameliorate it, great, there would be a sense among farmers, and i think, especially since a lot of farmers are a part of his base, i think they are willing to give him some string. >> farmers understand how this

works, they understand unlike what the president says. you can say this is a worthy fight and the president is right that there are issues with trade. >> he's either being duplicitous or doesn't understand and the farmers think does he think we can let this situation go forever, and they know this is not true? >> "the wall street journal" editorial board says americans have been giving mr. trump the benefit of the doubt that his tariff strategy sin tended as leverage to negotiate a better, fairer trading machine and he seems to think the tariffs are a net economic benefit. tariffs are paid to importers who decide to eat the costs and leave the sneakers or electronics at the same price or raise the price and then you the taxpayer pays, there's no money going into the united states treasury because of tariffs. >> we're seeing "the wall street journal," they are the voice of the republicans right now. a lot of republicans have

stopped pushing back on trump when it comes to tariffs. they have also given him the benefit of the doubt that if he talks tough and threatens these things that maybe china will back off and in the end run it will be a good thing for the united states, but "the wall street journal," again, reminding folks this is not -- tir i was are not part of the republican party platform. this is not a principle that they typically hold up and one thing in the editorial is that they point out that the stock market right now is totally plummeting, and trump usually points to the stock market saying we're doing great things for the country. severing hunky dory and they are hoping he's watching the stock market and taking a message. >> how low is the question and you're right the case closed on the mueller report, trade policy. this is trump's republican party, period. up next, president trump disputes a report that the united states is now considering sendi sending 120,000 troops to the middle east. rs and blah blah blah. look. sprint's going to do things differently.

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topping our political radar today. president trump downplaying a "new york times" report that he was given an updated military plan for responding to potential iranian aggression. the plan reportedly envisions sending as many as 120,000 u.s. troops to the middle east. here's the president reacting last hour. >> i think it's fake news, okay? now, would i do that? absolutely, but we have not planned for that. hopefully we're not going to have to plan for that, and if we did that, we'd send a hell of a lot more troops than that. >> u.s. officials in recent days have been warning against what they see as an increased threat from iran and iranianbacked forces against u.s. forces in the middle east, including iraq and syria, but a british major

general disputing that saying there's no increased threat right now. meanwhile the secretary of state mike pompeo is in moscow today. whether to hear secretary pompeo and president putin and foreign minister lavrov have reached any accommodations. >> well, just giving a joint press conference. of course, the meeting between mr. pompeo and vladimir putin of russia was meant to happen an hour and a half ago but it didn't because vladimir putin was elsewhere inspecting russia's high-tech weaponry, as a matter of fact, and he hasn't made the appointment that they had. that will hep happen later on this evening local time. that remains to be seen, as it were. it was a press conversation that jointly they said or sergei laugheroofs, the russian foreign minister said that the talks were useful and frank. the secretary pompeo said he wanted an improved relationship, the trump administration wanted an improved relationship with russia and it was a step in that direction, but when they listed all of the areas that they

discussed, whether it's iran or venezuela or syria or ukraine there were still fundamental differences between the two. they didn't find any common ground on any of those issues and on the issues of ground control which is one of the areas that seems to be the least contested areas between these two country, and so, you know, it's going to be very hard. if this was a step in the direction of building a closer relationship with russia, then that's a step along a very long path to go. take a listen. >> sorry, apologies to matthew chance. actor tim conway has died. mr. conway passed away this morning in los angeles at age of 85. conway, you may recall, played a central role in one of the greatest tv come difficulties all time, "the carol burnett show." cnn's richard roth has a look back at a remarkable career. ♪

>> reporter: here's how comedian tim conway once summed up his whole life. i was born and then i did "the carol burnett show" for 11 years. what else is there to know? >> what are you doing? >> gets me back into that wall there. >> reporter: it was marvelous. i had -- i admired her from afar, from the other side of the television set for a long time. ♪ >> reporter: conway started outside of cleveland, galloping horses for his father, the horse trainer. >> first of all, i wanted to be a jockey, but at this weight. >> reporter: he was spotted on a local tv show the recommending him to network tv star steve allen. his feet now wet in hollywood, conway was hired as the bumbling ensign in "mchale's navy." >> you sure have a delicate touch. i didn't feel it yet. >> i haven't done it yet, ensign.

>> thank you. >> reporter: i'll just do what i think is amusing. i did, it worked. >> all i can do is just whether and go -- >> reporter: conway was again a second ban mah on "the carol burnett show" but comedy fruit ripened thanks to the host. >> tim conway was so brilliant on "the carol burnett show" and the main reason he was is because carol burnett gave him so much space and so much latitude. >> reporter: ad-libbing as seen in the old man skits. >> don't try to catch me. >> i never did that old man until we were actually taping. it was a seven-minute sketch that went 23 minutes because i was mess around. >> reporter: conway described himself acts instigator, usually cracking up fellow cast member harvey korman. in one of the show's most memorable sketches korman is the patient of a very inexperience

the dentist. >> take a firm hold of the hypodermic needle. >> right. >> reporter: conway told conan o'brien this actually happened to him. >> in the army, yeah. a guy said we're going to pull this tooth and so he took my lip like this and he stuck the needle in and it went through my cheek and into his thumb. >> i'll just give you a little shot here. >> poor harvey, he had not seen the novocaine bit until we were doing it. >> reporter: tim conway won six emmys in his career, four for his work on "the carol burnett show." >> you've got five minutes to live and you can tell one joke again before you peg, it what would it be? >> i would go hold up a bank. i've always wanted to do that. and take as much cash as i could and run out and once my five minutes is up, bang.

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we need to defeat donald trump in 2020.

we need to finally make good on the promise of fair shot for everyone. this is the fight of our time. it's been the fight of my career. i'm steve bull works aock, and running for president. >> that's steve bullock, governor of montana, the 22nd democrat joining the presidential race, making campaign finance reform the number one issue out of the gate. kicking off his campaign with a string of interviews before heading off to iowa. why steve bullock instead of bernie and biden and the rest? he pointed out he won deep red montana by four points at the same time donald trump was carrying that state by 20 points. he tells cnn that shows he can win over republican voters and he believes help democrats regain lost ground in places like montana and the midwest. if we don't win back some of the places we lost in 2016, it will be a tough sled, don't get yourselves to think we'll win in 2020. i have a proven ability to do that.

you interviewed the governor. he's late to the race, dan. explain how he sees a path? >> reporter: number 22, you're right, have a full football team, you're right. he sees a path. why did you get in so late and when there's so many other people in the race at this point? he has a job to do. the montana legislature meets once every two years in the capital behind me and the governor said frankly i had to do things for the state. that's what i was elected to do. that creates some complications. obviously, he's in a very crowded field at this point and now he has to hire up to get his message and name out there. he's largely unknown to most voters, so what he's doing, he's going to head to iowa in a couple of days and basically camp out there for the next few months as the debates start to approach. that's going to be his strategy. he sees iowa, a state you mentioned the fact that he won here the same year that donald trump won here by 20 points. donald trump also won iowa and the bullock campaign sees iowa

as the path to victory for the governor. they think he can reach out to voters there and can sell them on his vision, progressive vision from a red state, similar to the politics in iowa in some cases, and that's how they see his path to victory. >> in the short term, tell him joe biden called him a good man at an event in new hampshire. they are off to a congenial start. to the less congenial part, what does governor bullock and other as say about the debates coming up in six weeks? will he make the debate stage, or is he already factoring in he might have to wait a bit? >> there's a number of high-profile candidates who have struggled to meet the 65,000 donor base, kirsten gillibrand. someone who has yet to make that donor threshold. the governor, i asked him about it yesterday. he said, look, i qualified in two polls. they believe he will qualify in another poll in the next month as he gets his message out there, but ability to fund raise on line is going to be something

that he'll have to get better at and he'll have to push because that is what is going to set him apart from those candidates who have qualified with the polls but not with donors. what you'll see is him pushing his record on taking on and expanding medicare here in the state as well as taking on dark money. >> welcome to the race, governor bullock. interesting to watch. find a way to stay a day or two there. enjoy the reporting. governors used to be the strength of the republican field. we have governor hickenlooper and now governor bullock. nobody what's what's going to happen, especially with 22 candidates in the race. a path for everybody and with biden so dominant at the top and senator sanders below him with a builtb network from 2016, can a guy from the west getting in late who is barely known? >> to me the bigger issue, you know, the governor versus senator question is really the

crowd middle lane right now. you've got biden and buttigieg and even corer booker who is positioning himself as the moderate libel choice and bullock and a couple of other guys who we haven't mentioned who are competing for the non-bernie base and non-progressive slice. there's a lot. >> and can he capitalize i won a state that trump won by 20. democratic voters first and foremost want to beat president trump. does that at least get him a peek? >> the idea that he was able to win a state by four points in a state the president won by a landslide. that creates his own lane. there's no other person in the race right now who can really say that, and so if he can really use that as leverage in a democratic primary, he could gain traction, but it's just not clear whether he's going to get the oxygen and the field is so crowded just in general that i think just getting a second look from voters is the most difficult thing right now. a lot of candidates in the race are having the very same problem. >> one of those candidates having a a big change

in his strategy. the 2020 democratic strategy going local, driving across the country and today a little national television. he hopes, hopes to reintroduce him level. >> so focusing on people where they are is critically important, but i can't tell you how many times i was asked to find a way to get on "the view" at one of those town hall meetings, because there are people who are unable to come on those town halls or stays that we've not yet visited, and i want to make sure that i have a chance to answer your questions here today, so -- so they can see who i am. >> today's appearance an acknowledgement that what he was doing wasn't work and o'rourke with a reminder and a plea, you might say, plenty of time left. >> last week there was a poll released on cnn, and it had every single democratic contender in a head-to-head matchup with donald trump. my margin of victory was 10% in that poll, greater than any

other candidate running, so i just come back to there's a lot of time. those polls will change. there are ups. there are going to be downs. and -- and there are a lot of people to meet who should have the opportunity to ask questions of me, just as you are doing today. >> he's right. there's a lot of time. he also has the problem that governor bullock has and that senator gillibrand has and even senator harris who is doing better and senator warren doing better is you have a guy at the top, let's look at the iowa caucus-goers, a guy at top with 27% and bernie sanders tends to poll in the 15 and 16 range, and if you're beto o'rouke you're down here. is the key here to stay part of the conversation and get to the debates? what is it, if he uses the term reboot which makes me roll my eyes, but if he needs to do something different, what is it? >> i'm somewhat sympathetic in that if it had gone the other way if he had only done national

press, everybody would be on him for going national and not like staying true to his roots, so in some ways you try something, and if it doesn't seem to work you try the other thing but i think -- you know, i think abe is right. the issue is going is going to be, can he continue to capture some of the attention of conversations like this and of the sort of national media, and if he starts getting crowded out and, you know, on that list that you put up, dropping off the bottom of the list because he doesn't -- he doesn't rank high enough to sort of even merit part of the conversation, then it's a self-fulfilling prophecy and you can't get any better, and until the debates start and we start all getting a different view of these things, that's the problem. >> yeah. he seemed to be downplaying in his interviews. it's early, you know, these polls will change, but clearly he's worried enough that he's totally changing up his strategy doing more national tv, so, you know, that definitely signifies some worry. >> part of it was if you're the candidate and end up on the

cover of "vanity fair" you think he's have had a going day and he talked about how great it was to be photographed by annie liebwicz and he said on the cover they had "i was born to do this" and a lot of people thought a tad pretentious, a newcomer to the national stage and he talked about that last hour. >> yes, we have our work cut out for us, and i need to be a better person and ensure that i'm more mindful to the experiences that others have had, different than the experiences. >> what about the "vanity fair" cover, would you say that's a mistake being on the cover? that it looks elitist? >> yeah, yeah, i think it reinforced that perception of privilege and that headline that said i was born to be in this, in the article attempting to say that i felt that my calling was in public service. no one is born to be president of the united states of america, least of all me. >> one of the tests for any candidate is do you learn as you go? >> right. it's also important to remember

that beto o'rouke lost a senate race. he came very close, closer than anyone probably could have come against ted cruz, but he's not as much of a new xhomdity commoe was to the democratic base. he fell short in 2018 and that shows here. >> what the "vanity fair" thing showed is he hadn't figured out to people why he was running for president and the idea that he kind of gave this line oh, i feel like i was born to do this, it seemed to reinforce this idea that he felt that there was an inevitability there and that might have rubbed voters the wrong way or at least rubbed the press the wrong way so he's trying to recalibrate by basically trying to figure out what his core message to voters are and trying to get that out as widely as possible. he can't just ride on the idea that he almost beat ted cruz. that is not going to cut it if he's trying to win a race for president. >> though he did in that campaign build an impressive fund-raising list. the question is can they sustain

himself to get through the debates and they will all get scarred up a bit. the question is do they learn and grow? >> not going to be the last re-calibration. this is early, and there's 22 democrats in this field. >> all of whom will recalibrate and recalibrate. >> multiple teams. >> the former congressman beto o'rouke will join dana bash up close and personal in des moines to talk to iowa voters about his 2020 run for the presidential nomination. that's 10:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn on tuesday night and before we say good-bye, a light hearted moment from the campaign trail, mayor peete buttigieg embraced being the butt of the jack on the late negotiate circuit. >> buttigieg bus is all around the country, then i guess that means -- ♪ butty butty rocky everywhere >> rocking everywhere. >> there you go.

there you go. thanks for joining us for "inside politics." do try to have fun here. see you back here tomorrow. brianna keilar starts right now. have a great day. ♪ >> i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. under way right now, just in. the first big test in the standoff between the president and congress. a security weighs in on the fate of his financial reports. as tensions royse with iran, why the u.s. is reviewing a plan to send a massive army to the middle east. plus beyond freaked says one business owner as the trade war between the u.s. and china shows no signs of winding down. and the freshman democrat who republicans love to talk about is teaming up with bernie sanders too ta take on joe bide. now the front-runner is hitting back. president trump denying he asked attorney general bill barr to investigate the origins of the russ