republican tax reform bill scheduled to be released this week. and, the recent indictments in the brush up broke. select a service director shares his view about the mission of the select service and the pentagon recommendation to expand registration to include women. then, former obama administration official talks : aut his book "impeachment citizen's guide." we will hear from dnc chair tom price. he talks about the future of the democratic party and responds to the special counsel indictment of former trump campaign chair paul manafort. in a conversation with a christian science monitor, this runs about an hour. >> no.

oh, ok. ranks ok folks, here we go. our guest this morning is tom perez, chairman of the democratic national committee. this is his first appearance at one of our events, although we've been meeting with d.n.c. chairs since larry o'brien in 1968. we also appreciate having the d.n.c.'s chief technology officer with us today as well. thanks to both of you for being here. chairman perez is a native of buffalo, whose parents were immigrants from the dominican republic. he earned a bachelor's degree from brown university where he's now teaching, working at a variety of jobs, including most colorfully, working on the back of a garbage truck.

he went on to earn both a law degree and a master's in public policy from harvard. our guest began his career as a civil rights attorney at the justice department in the clinton administration, served as deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights. and later led the civil rights office for the health and human services department. he ran to be elected montgomery county councilmember and served as its president and then led the state of maryland's labor department. in the obama administration he was assistant attorney general for civil rights and later secretary of labor from 2013 until 2017. and thus ended the biographical portion of the program. we're on the record here. please no live blogging or tweeting. in short, no filing of any kind while the breakfast is under way, to give us time to actually listen to what our guest says. there is no embargo when this session ends promptly at 11:00. to help you are curb that relentless selfie urge, we'll email several pictures of the session to all of the reporters here as soon as the breakfast ends. as regular attendees know -- do you have a question? [inaudible] >> sure, sure. it's raffi -- let's see if i do it correctly.

raffi kirkorian. >> actually it's -- krikrion. david: all god's children need a proofreader. back we are to being on the record. no live blocking or tweeting. no filing until 11:00. sending out pictures tomb here of the session. and as regular attendees know, if you'd like to ask a question, please do the traditional thing and send me a settle nonthreatening signal. i'll happily call on those when the time is available. we'll offer the guests an opportunity to make opening comments, then we'll move from questions around the table. thank you for do doing this. >> thank you. it's an honor to be here with you. good to see everybody here. it's great to have my colleague it's great to have my colleague raffi, our chief technology

officer, one of the many reasons i'm very bullish about the hopes of the democratic party moving forward. because personnel is policy. when you have people like raffi onboard, capacity to move forward is limitless. i was going to jump right into what we're doing at the d.n.c., but i can't help but reflect for a moment as someone who spent 13 years of my life at the justice department, including time as a career prosecutor under both president bush one and president clinton, before i transitioned later on into a noncareer position, the seriousness of what we observed yesterday cannot be overstated. we know the facts at the d.n.c. the facts are the russians hacked us and they did so with the intent of trying to help donald trump get elected president. and what we saw yesterday was a guilty plea from a person who was referred to by donald trump as a great guy. mr. papadopoulos.

it's clear the russians were trying to traffic in the email and present them to the campaign, the trump campaign, so they could help donald trump get elected. and you see what the indictments of manafort and gates, that the rot went all the way to the top of the campaign. it's clear to me that the investigation will continue and this is not the end of the criminal charges moving forward. it's troubling to me to see such appalling silence from so many republican leaders. because the silence isn't simply deafening, it's appalling. because we are americans fist. and this was indeed an assault not simply on the d.n.c. but on our democracy. and i'm happy to answer any questions about that. i want to turn to the d.n.c., though.

because we walked into a d.n.c. that absolutely needed to up our game. there's no doubt about it. i've said that many times. we fell short on many levels. and being the sports fan that i am, when you play a football game or coach a football team or a basketball team, and you don't do well, you watch game film, you learn from your mistakes, and you build a better mousetrap, a better game plan. that's exactly what we have done at the d.n.c. we didn't just look at what happened last year in 2016. we looked at what happened over the last eight years that resulted in the loss of over 1,000 seats in state legislatures. we went from 60 seats in the senate to 48. we went from 30 governorships when barack obama took office into the teens. and we lost a number of critical seats in state attorneys general, secretaries of state. so we took a very broad look at what went wrong and what we have to do. number one, is we have to change our mission statement. we've done that at the d.n.c. democratic national committee is not simply the party that helps elect the president every four years.

we are the party that helps elect people -- democrats up and down the ticket from the school board to the oval office. when you are focused on every democrat, and when you do that by design, we do so by making sure we build strong state party apparatus uses and strong partnerships with our friends in the labor movement, with our friends in planned parenthood, with emerging organizations in the democratic ecosystem. that's how we succeed. and that's exactly what we are doing. we learned that we weren't organizing everywhere. and we have to be present and competing in every state and every zip code. and our new partnership with the 50 states we call it every zip code counts. because we have to make sure we're competing everywhere. we have to organize, organize, organize. not simply mobilize in the three months up to an election. we need to organize 12 months a year. we've taken the term off year out of the lexicon of the democratic party. because we win in 2018 by organizing in 2017. and we win by making sure we have a technology infrastructure that's second to none. with the addition of raffi, we're well poised to do just that. we win by making sure we're investing in other forms of infrastructure. our millennial engagement infrastructure, our voter protection and empowerment

infrastructure. i met with the lawyers counsel yesterday. we're building a 50-state voter protection operation that understands that voter suppression is a staple in the republican playbook. it's been that staple for a while. and we have to understand that. by building that infrastructure that's a 50-state infrastructure. and we also have to make sure that we're connecting with people. that we communicate and live our values day in and day out. we've been doing that in special elections across the country this year. in oklahoma there were three special elections in state legislatures where donald trump had done overwhelmingly well in the 2016 cycle. we won all three elections. new hampshire by way of example. there was a state senate seat that has been republican since 1984.

we won that election. florida most recently, another special election for a state senate seat that republicans won by double-digit margins last year and we won that seat. what was the key to success in these areas? what was the key to success in iowa where we won the special election there as well? the key to success was the same. organizing, boots on the ground. making sure we have good candidates delivering a good message and we were able to win. and win in trump country. because, again, the new democratic party is competing everywhere. we're leaving no zip code behind. and that is what we're doing. we're invested right now very heavily in virginia and in new jersey. because virginia and new jersey are the two biggest prizes of 2017. 2017 to me is shaping up a lot like 2005. in 2005 you had a very unpopular republican president, as we have

now. engulfed in a culture of corruption. as we see right now. governing with a very unpopular republican majority in both houses. and imagine what would have happened if social security had been privatized right before the great recession. that would have been absolutely calamitous for the american people. in 2005, that was the last year that the democratic party, the democratic candidate, won the race in both new jersey and in virginia. and we are investing in new jersey, we're investing in virginia. and by way of example, 0% of our investments in virginia are on television. 100% of our investment is in building, organizing capacity. we've doubled the number of organizers on the ground shortly after the primary ended. we've located them in areas where we're not only helping ralph northam and others, we're helping candidates for the house of delegates because we need to take 17 seats in virginia to turn over the house of delegates.

ordinarily there's only about 40 or 50 democrats running for those house seats in at least the last 10 years or so. this year there's 88 candidates running in the house of delegates. we are strategically situated so that we can help them as well. that's the new d.n.c. working from the school board to the senate and in the case of virginia, helping to make sure that we're helping people at the house of delegates level. because we can do work there, we can make real progress and we communicate our values. one of the big values in virginia is people care about health care. whether you live down in roanoke or whether you live in northern virginia. people care about health care. they understand that ralph northam is fighting to make sure that people have access to health care.

while ed gillaspie and donald trump are fighting to take away people's health care. those are the issues that people resonate with. this job is fundamentally at the d.n.c., it's an infrastructure building job, and it's a messaging job. in virginia and new jersey, with the candidates at the top, up and down the ticket, and in these special elections that i mentioned, we're playing hard in washington state, 45. because if we take over that senate seat we flip the senate and the old d.n.c. probably wouldn't have been active in that race. the new d.n.c. is all in. the effort in nevada to recall three democratic senators who were elected last year, actually two are democrats, one is independent, who caucuses with the democrats. they won last year fair and square. what are the republicans trying to do? they're trying to recall them. even though they've done nothing wrong. where we've made a six-figure investment in a race as well. because the new d.n.c. is active everywhere. and when we elect democrats up and down the ticket, that is how we prevail and when we are invested in this infrastructure and leading with our values, that is how we succeed.

look forward to your questions and thank you for your time. >> thank you. my one is just this. do you expect the two indictments and the one guilty plea yesterday to have any major effect on your ability to regain control of congress? or are local issues going to predominate and the investigations not so much? tom: i think yesterday was a somber day for america. because we now have pretty clear evidence that there was an undeniable attack on our democracy. what we also see that yesterday was the beginning. when you look at the history of watergate, it took way too long for all too many republicans to recognize that they need to put country over party.

you look at the deafening silence from leader mcconnell and speaker ryan and that is unfortunate. i spent the majority of my career at the department of justice. i have great respect for the institution. and i have respect for director mueller and the work he is doing. so my number one goal is to make sure this never happens again. because this was an assault on our democracy. you read the revelations today about the volume of propaganda that was put in on facebook. you couple that with the clear evidence that the trump campaign and the russians were colluding to affect the results of the election. and if the tables were turned and that had been president hillary clinton aided and abetted by the russians, you'd have articles of impeachment filed probably before the inauguration by the republicans. so i'm concerned about our democracy.

i hope that republicans and democrats alike, and there have been a few republicans who have courageously spoken about it, but i hope more do so. because this is serious business. >> we're going to go to chuck from the st. louis post. reporter: thank you for doing. this senator mccaskill was on the "meet the press" on sunday and was asked about the democratic party and leadership in the party and she said, quote, i'm one of the few senators that's left that's not afraid to call myself a moderate. and then she was asked, well, why is the democratic land so toxic in missouri? she talked about president trump being able to connect on social issues in ways that democrats haven't done in many years. chris matthews made sort of the same point today, hawking his book "bobby kennedy" and inferred that bobby kennedy wouldn't be welcome in today's democratic party of the because of the stress on social issues

over economic issues. can you address that point? is that a fair criticism? tom: i'm reading chris' book right now. it's on my bed stand. i think bobby kennedy and all of these remarkable democrats would be very welcome. because bobby kennedy's book is about moral leadership. moral leadership means that there are no such things as alternative facts. moral leadership means you're the president of the entire united states. you're supposed to be out there trying to help everyone. and so the moral leadership of bobby kennedy, i think, is absolutely the heart and soul what have the democratic party is. i'm a huge fan of claire mccaskill's and we're going to make sure she gets re-elected. what she has been doing is something that the democratic party needs to do more of.

she has been all over the state, in every zip code. we didn't pay enough attention to certain parts of all too many states. and we have to do that. and again, by way of example, in virginia, we have a presence everywhere. we are out there talking to people because, frankly, the message that health care is a right for all and not a privilege for a few, it resonates in roanoke and it resonates up in fairfax. it resonates in rural missouri and it resonates in st. louis and kansas city. people want to make sure that they have retirement security.

they want to make sure they have a good job that pays a decent wage. they want to make sure that the democratic party and their leaders have their back. and that's why claire mccaskill continues to get elected and that's what we have to do as a democratic party. demonstrating through our actions that we have people's backs. reporter: along those same lines, there are even other democrats that worry that the party will become the mirror image of the republicans, just as extreme and intolerant of internal dissent. where do you stand on welcoming democratic candidates who might not be for abortion rights? like in that mayoral race in omaha. it seemed like you were using a litmus test. tom: when i think of a litmus test right now, i think of the republican party. jeff flake voted with donald trump 91% of the time and that apparently wasn't enough. the democratic party, i mean, the best example i can think of to illustrate what i see as an emerging unity in the party is what happened in virginia. when tom perriello got in the race, frankly the media with hindsight wrote the exact wrong story. they wrote the story of the bernie sanders-hillary clinton redux and if you look at the arc of all the stories leading up to that primary election, because senator sanders and senator warren had endorsed tom, and tim kaine and mark warner and others had endorsed ralph northam, that was, again, another example of how the democratic party forms a circular firing squad. we know what happened. you have two really qualified

candidates who agree on just about everything. their emphasis might be different. they ran a spirited, high rod campaign. when tom didn't make it over the top he immediately pivoted and endorsed ralph wholeheartedly. i've campaigned with tom perriello and ralph northam. and they came out of their campaign united as opposed to the republican primary where they came out of that campaign divided. unity doesn't mean unanimity. it doesn't mean we agree on

every issue as a party. unity doesn't mean that you have to be a rubber stamp for the party. and we have areas where people may not agree. but at the same time what unites us far exceeds what our differences are. and that is buy i think the democratic party is well poised moving ahead to win both next week in the races i've described, and to win moving forward. because -- reporter: just a quick follow-up. is it smart for democrats to focus on impeachment? tom: again, we're focused on making sure that robert mueller can do the job he needs to do to figure out if there was an attack on our democracy. we know that we were hacked by the russians at d.n.c. we now know from yesterday that the trump campaign and the russians were in regular contact. they weren't getting together to trade vodka recipes. they were getting together to affect the outcome of the race in 2016. and so our focus is on this attack on our democracy and making sure we hold accountable who was involved and then equally importantly making sure we never let it happen again.

>> richard from the daily caller. reporter: thank you for joining us. you've now had a week to investigate the d.n.c.'s relationship with fusion g.p.s. and i would like to know, first of all, if you would confirm how much money the d.n.c. paid the law firm to pay fusion g.p.s. second, who authorized it within the d.n.c.? and third, who were the people within the d.n.c. who actually got the information and interacted with fusion g.p.s.? tom: as you know, i wasn't working at the d.n.c. at the time of this contract. when you do opposition research on another candidate in a presidential cycle, i would assert especially in the context of what we know now, that opposition research is not simply something that ought to be done. it would be malpractice not to do it. especially when you have a

presidential candidate who blew convention out of the window. he didn't disclose his tax returns. first time that's happened in decades. didn't -- he has a very shady relationship with russian authorities. so absolutely. the research that was done, opposition research, initiated, as i understand it, by a conservative organization, and then when their work was done, it was given to -- then it was continued by the democrats. what we know from the research is that donald trump or the trump campaign and the russians were talking to each other. and their conversations, again, as we know from yesterday, were about serious things. interfering with our democracy. it was done by the law firm that was hired by the campaign. i don't know how much of the opposition research was the fusion opposition research. i have not disaggregated that amount. but what i do know is the issue at hand is whether the trump

administration, trump campaign, and the russians were conspiring to affect this election. and certainly mr. papadopoulos' guilty plea yesterday and the indictments that came down yesterday is serious stuff as it relates to collusion. >> it as you now know, the dnc them.end money with

have you done a investigation with the role the dnc platelet fusion gps? >> i was unaware until about 48 hours or so before it was released. my number one concern is what happened in the election. trumpe russians and the administration collude? that is the issue at hand. >> we will go to john at the star ledger. >> next tuesday we have one of the executives from new jersey. why is he ahead by so much? >> i am confident. i campaigned with bill murphy and i campaigned with what i

hope will be lieutenant governor where we made some history in new jersey and i have campaigned for people up and down the ticket. i was in district nine campaigning for a remarkable senate candidate who is running a spirited campaign because again, the new dnc is all about electing democrats up and down the ticket. i believe the murphy over to get us going to win and the northam fairfax ticket is going to win. and so great candidate murphy, talking about damien and a out his is going to have your back. he has a remarkable presence. a remarkable vision. into christie has led them a ditch. he has i think the most

unpopular governor right now in the united states and i may have that slightly off will stop you a be second or third most he has done, what chris christie has been all about chris christie. similarly in virginia, i feel want toic as the voters see progress. they want to see someone fighting for them. northam has a lifetime of fighting for others as opposed to an gillespie who is in what i phase ofdog whistle the virginia campaign. he is talking about immigrants, putting those dark commercials in place. exactly the donald trump playbook. virginians don't want donald richmond. they have had enough of donald trump and washington. >> newsmax. thank you. good morning. i wanted to ask you, obviously you are aware of steve bannon

trying to recruit candidates to run from the right against sitting republican senators. what is your opinion of some of talkedtested primaries about. nevada, wyoming, possibly mississippi do you see that as a possible democrats winning control of the senate and 2018? >> they were fighting for the senate, five for the house. in 2016 in nevada, catherine cortez masto one because she was a great candidate and we had a great campaign in the organizers were on the ground and 2015. exactly what i said before. the motto was tech no and that is how they -- and the motto was heck no.

i don't for the life of me understand why jean heller voted affordable care act. he was a republican governor, implored them not to. live a remarkable candidate and i was with our recently when we before las vegas weekend last. similarly in arizona i think we and obviouslyot we have braces elsewhere. tennessee, alabama. all of opportunities in these races. you mentioned missouri. more races defending in the senate fisher but what every single one of those races has in common is we have really candidates dividing those seats, they got elected because they are really good. i was there last week. joe is a regular joe. people know who he is. so these attacks by the koch brothers on the airwaves trying

donnelly.e joe just like claire mccaskill fighting and every zip code. if steve bannon wants to facilitate circular firing squad of the republicans, i am certainly not going to stand in the way of that. sure weocused on making are helping democrats up and down the ticket by investing in infrastructure and i.t.. making sure we are communicating that message that the democratic party has your back. christ you mentioned tennessee. and what about mississippi? >> in tennessee, there already is a candidate in the race. the governor is considering whether or not to get in. i don't know whether he will. i think we can compete everywhere. we have won a number of special elections in mississippi.

you look at mississippi, it is a good example of what democrats can do if we implement our game plan of organizing. if you look statewide at elections, elections for state candidates not federal candidates, the most recent election of memory serves me, the biggest vote getter in the statewide election was jim himes who is the attorney general. i've known jim because i did work in the civil rights division down and mississippi. jim is a very popular leader because he is a great leader. hillary clinton that something or 45% of the vote of mississippi and there was no ground operation at all. do ifgine what you can you are actually out there talking to people. i think democrats can win in mississippi, tennessee, just about anywhere if we are investing in this infrastructure and recruiting the candidates

like the quality candidates we have defending our seats in the u.s. senate right now. >> to take you back to the governor's race, why do you think this is a close? i know votes are all over the place but this is not like running in montana or georgia. this is a state that has elected a democratic president. why is it closer than say, new jersey? and could you talk a little bit about what you think is at stake for the party as a whole and winning this. because some democrats are worried. if you don't, it is just like a gut punch to the row. >> terry mcauliffe one by 1.5 points four years ago. mark warner, and 2014, one by a similar margin. where you were always going to have close

statewide elections. and, this is no different. optimism is that democrats are investing all over the state. in roanoke, virginia, for instance, there is a remarkable candidate for the house of delegates. you may recall his fiancee was a television journalist who was murdered on the air by a disgruntled former employee. a tragic incident. chris has stepped up. he is running a spectacular campaign. dnc. an example of the new there are 88 people running in house of delegates races. obviously we're not going to win 88 seats but we are competing everywhere. that is something we have not done before. i think that is something that is really important. we need to filled candidates everywhere.

today's school board candidates can be tomorrow's mayor. state senator who in 2004 became president of the united states. is one race we are focused on, it is not to raise we're focused on and we plan to win everywhere. we are invested to win. the key to virginia is we have built a really good field infrastructure. folksam has been helping so that we are helping our partners in the ecosystem. that is the new dnc and that is why i feel optimistic moving forward we do not put our hopes on anyone state at any one time. we are investing everywhere, whether it is washington state, new jersey, virginia, or elsewhere. keep fighting. >> we have 20 minutes to go.

>> abc news. two problems on virginia. first, the importance for more you sent. is there something special about this race for your donor class or figuring out what tools work? i was wondering if you could talk specifically about what you're trying to do in virginia that is different than what the old dnc would've done beyond spending a lot of money. what exactly is getting done. >> in new jersey and virginia, the races are important because this is a 13-year election cycle, right? same thing with next year. the governor of virginia is going to preside over redistricting. we have lived with the consequences for the last 10 years of bob donnell winning in 2009. hyper-gerrymander in

virginia is not reflective of what virginia really is. that, for me, is one of the the new dncs why and what we are doing and what we are investing is so critically important. to raff to talkeabout our tech investments that we can learn a lot from these' in new jersey and west virginia and that is what we are doing with some of the experiments. raffe: some of the things we're trying in virginia is what way we can gauge with voters. specifically, we're balancing of we can leverage a male contact lists as a way to have a one-to-one way to communicate. we have been looking at lookrent ways for when you

at the facebook page, to try to recruit you to go to a voluntary event for example. we are trying to figure out what are the different tools and harness the echo system, the progressive tech ecosystem. there are hundreds of engineers that want to work on this problem and try to harness folks and enable them to help candidates on the ground. >> hello. national journal. i am wondering what specifically the new dnc has been doing to reach out to and target women in the past year, the first year of the administration. >> sure. we just had an event, we had a meeting of our dance the in las vegas. -- of the dnc in las vegas. one of the things we did a general session, and we chose las vegas in no small measure because nevada is a perfect it right. how to do and 2014, they lost a number of

elections. "neverto in 2015 was again." a remarkable cadre of women were recruited in nevada. members of congress. one of whom is now the candidate for senate against dean heller. ist we have been able to do activate our women's leadership forms. work with our partners in the ecosystem. so emerge, for instance, is an organization that has some remarkable work recruiting new ceoes, women, our came from emily's list where she was the executive director. i hired her in no small measure because we need to make sure we are firing on all cylinders as it relates to reaching out to women.

we have been doing a engagement of african-american women because african-american women are both loyal constituencies. we need to make sure that we are engaged aggressively with that constituency because they have always been there for the democratic party and we have to make sure we are there with them. we have, again, the new dnc with our investments i have outlined, you look at virginia and there are some remarkable candidates for the house of delegates. women that we are actively supporting with our organizing and our digital investments because we think they can win. is an example of a statewide effort that was very, very successful that we want to emulate elsewhere. we cannot do it alone. we have to do with our partners and that is a big part of the new dnc, is fortifying our

relationships with our colleagues in the ecosystem, whether it is again, emily's list, whether it has emerged. planned parenthood, other locally merging organizations. -- pantsuit nation and the like. >> two questions. alabamat is about the senate race. i was at the meeting in vegas and you seem to be very passionate about your relationship and being driven by the civil rights mission. there has already been a fair amount of debate about how much, ds, and othershe should be there and how public they should be about whatever they choose to do there. what is your thinking at this

point about that. i guess some of it will be a re-off of what happens next week thee but where do you see dnc role there? and my second question is just about, some of the dynamics of what happened at the meeting in vegas -- around sort of the rumor and the stuff about the at-large members and, you know, the anger coming from i think this group of very involved african-american women about this whisper campaign that they should be ousted. are you concerned that for all throughfforts i unity the unity commission, through trying to bring people together, that there is still this undercurrent of frustration that whatever some of

coming from the primary luster, some of it coming from other things that has all field very much there in the party and bringing attention and making it harder for you to do your job and ultimately for democrats to win. >> sure. let me take your questions. i have known that john's for a while because i worked in the clinton justice department when doug was the united states attorney and i have great respect for him. he is undeniably the underdog and that race. he is fighting hard because he is always been a fighter. something we haven't every zip code strategy. be providingll assistance to doug jones. alabamathe voters of will have to make that judgment.

i spent a lot of time down there and i course of my career hope the underdog can pull it off, the issue of unity is something we have to work and strive for everyday. i am not oblivious to the fact that i walked into a dnc where we had work to do on the unity front. again, i think virginia is a efforts wele is the have not one vote to spare. democrats0% united as to ensure that people struggling with opioid abuse can continue to get access to treatment.

biggest nightmare is donald trump. that is why they tried to sow the seeds of discontent at every peoplem working with weoss to make sure what we have in common for exceeds our differences. i think there is a very real understanding that this is the most dangerous president in american history. while we may have a disagreement on issues, this existential threat to our democracy and bloodied and the trump administration is where we need to train our focus. everys why we need it single day to build that unity. i see it and washington i see it

in nevada i see it an hour work campaign.all we've seen it and places like oklahoma, where we have already one in areas where donald trump one by double-digit margins. >> dallas morning news. i had to related trump questions. all, and texas, is dreadfullyas this low rating nationwide, is he a to whitneyof a trust senate from cruise or any other yearside office in 23, 24 ? ,elated question, is george w all of them blistered trump and the last few weeks. what kind of credit to republicans get, in your mind, should they get for resisting trumps politics.

>> let me take your questions in order. there is a spirited campaign being run texas. what i love about what he is doing among other things as he is going to places in texas democrats should've been going to but had not been going to when they were running statewide. he is down in midland. he is down in rural pockets of the state where democrats had not been seen. he understands if you going to win that election he has got to be competitive. democrats do quite well in democratic areas whether it is used in, dallas, san antonio, el paso. there are too many spots in the state where we're not competitive so he is running that campaign. running it in exactly the spirited fashion and if you look at the number of people donating to his campaign versus ted cruz and it is

significantly more. because he is captured i think we can be competitive in many places where we have not historically been competitive but only if we have good candidates like 800 narcan doug in nevadajacky rosen and then we have to build that infrastructure i mentioned. if you don't have long-term organizing presence if you are not there building relationships with people, joe biden taught me how politics is not simply local, it is personal. in order to do that we have to build those personal relationships and communities and that means being there, fighting for the issues they care about whether it is health care, good schools, good jobs, retirement security. those issues are all about making sure kids have a better life than they do that there is

constantly that movement forward. question albatross question apparently, >> no, i think donald trump, i mean if you look at his popularity of virginia or texas or his popularity in many corners of the country, it is taking. especially with independent voters and that is because he talks about joining the swamp. i mean, look at the puerto rico contract that is now apparently under review or investigation by the fbi. i mean, i flew coach class when i was labor secretary. his coach class seats are plenty comfortable. you don't need to be flying in a at taxpayerlane expense. that is not draining the swamp, that is at the same time you are telling meals on wheels, we don't have enough money to find your program. >> my question had to do with those republicans who are

resisting trump. have respect mr. perez: i have respect for jeff flake. i think he is a person of integrity, including jeff corker. the issue i have with them is not whether they are people of integrity, they absolutely are. i am confident it is not easy for them doing what they are doing. it is a heck of a lot harder that person struggling with opioid addiction not having health care. jeff flake was with donald trump 91% of the time, including the bill to repeal the affordable care act. john mccain showed courage in that vote. jeff flake went with the rest of the ground. while i appreciate the predicament we are in, it is a real illustration, the notion you can support the president

91% of the time and it is not enough. >> on the uranium 1 issue, is that going to have legs and to what extent is the dnc preparing for that? what do you make of the president and others calling the party the democrat party instead of the democratic party? do you care, and does it matter? mr. perez: on uranium 1, that is distracting donald once again. yesterday, sarah huckabee sanders says it had nothing to

do with anything in the campaign. then't know -- i looked at papadopoulos materials. look someone in the eye with a straight face on the sayum where she stood and pleaopoulos, his guilty has nothing to do with the campaign? that is beyond the laugh test. folksonfident that some who want to be part of the distracting donald movement will thatnue to try and go down rabbit hole. that was the steve bannon rabbit hole. if you want to distract from the task at hand, you do that rabbit hole. that was the steve that. distracting donald -- that is his currency, is distract, especially when the heat gets white-hot.

the heat is very white-hot right now. we are the democratic party. the democratic party is about fighting for everyone. it is about making sure everyone has a fair shake, not just a few at the top. washington examiner. >> your other question. like i said, the democratic party is the party that has been fighting for opportunity, fighting for the notion that we all succeed only when we all succeed, and we care about -- >> it is about the word choice. mr. perez: we are the democratic party. >> [inaudible] mr. perez: i am focused on getting people good jobs. i am focused on making sure they have access to a sound retirement. those are the things they want

us to focus on. that is what the democratic party has been focused on. i use the term democratic party because we embodied democratic principles of inclusion and opportunity for everyone. >> another thing that came out of vegas was how much of the dnc is struggling to raise money at a time when individual candidates are doing fairly well. why is it so difficult for the dnc to get donors? mr. perez: i am happy to share this information with you or anyone else -- if you look at the fundraising going back to in these off your cycles, we have been where we have been in just about every cycle. to put it differently, the republican national committee routinely out raises these off r thees, we have

democratic national committee. in 2006 we were outspent 2 to 1 by the rnc. pieces now,hose when you look at it in the historical context of where we've been, they have more wealthy donors than we do. the first three months of the theyear, we were just getting started. dnc that had all these room for improvement. room forvious improvement. even though we got a late start, we have already been able to basically match the past year cycles. among other thingsl we have been able to significantly step up small dollar fundraising. the first quarter, we raised a little over $500 million in increments of $21. 70% of money we raised has been

small dollars fundraising. we will continue our efforts there while we pursue others. >> one of your party chairs said small donors are over the party. mr. perez: i don't agree with that assessment. what we know is when you have strong partnerships, you win elections. when you allow the in for structure of the party to fray, you don't do so hot. we have not done so hot in elections up and down the ticket. the reason iran for this is i -- i aran or this is when you fortify your values, that is how you succeed. >> what role should we play in crafting a message for democrats up and down the ballot? i think you also alluded to in message.

what you think that message should be? we are involved in the message development issue. we do that in concert with a number of folks in the democratic ecosystem. i am a democrat because my parents taught me the democratic party always had people's backs. we had people's backs in the 1930's when we were fighting for wage fairness. we had their backs in the 1960's when we fought for medicare and medicaid. backs when lbjs fa courageously said liberty and justice for all means for all. we have had people in the obama era where we fought and passed the affordable care act. through our actions we have to

show we have people's backs. phil murray is winning in new jersey because he is telling people, i will have your back. look at his campaign literature. undeniably there are some who were asking that question, whether we had their back. they voted for donald trump because they wanted change. i think they want to change that would improve their lives. they are not getting it. the reason why we are able to win elections in oklahoma and elsewhere -- in oklahoma, the issue is education. threethey voted for donald distd trump won by double-digit margins voted for democrats. they saw republicans engaged in radical social engineering that was making it very difficult to get access to quality education. since all democrats fighting to have their backs. saw democrats fighting

to have their backs. >> i apologize we have run out of time. hope you come back, sir. >> thank you for your time.

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