>> just another notion that's unworthy of the presidency of the united states. >> as more migrants flood the border. it's now a genuine crisis. as president trump demands extra legal actions resisted by his own administration. democrats condemn the moves. but can he come up with effective policies? that debate with white house press secretary sarah sanders and the house democrat in charge of homeland security, bennie thompson. and attorney general william

barr in the hot seat. after releasing his redacted version of the mueller report this week, is the attorney general set to investigate the investigation? will mueller's full report validate barr's findings? insight and analysis from our powerhouse roundtable with chris christie and rahm emanuel. plus, as the 2020 field continues to grow -- >> i'm running for president to bring this country back to together. >> can this moderate ohio democrat make his move? congressman tim ryan joins us live. we'll break down the politics. smoke out the spin. the facts that matter this week. >> announcer: here now, chief anchor george stephanopoulos. good morning. welcome to "this week." it was the defining issue of his first white house run. but as the president gears up for 2020, his promise to secure america's southern border is a promise unfulfilled. no wall paid for by mexico. no stemming the flow of migrants

to our border. the numbers are growing by the month. overwhelming the system. the president is responding to this political and humanitarian crisis with increasingly incendiary rhetoric and policies. threatening to close the board before backing off. and friday, contradicting his own white house by confirming his desire to bus migrants to sanctuary cities run by democrats. >> california's certainly always saying, we want more people. they want more people in their sanctuary cities. well, we'll give them more people. let's see if they're so happy. they say, we have open arms. let's see if they have open arms. >> only hours before, white house officials said the idea had been rejected. immigration experts noted it was impractical, costly, possibly illegal. democrats call it callous and cynical policy. as we come on air this morning, the president defiant. his staff refining the proposal and that's where we begin with white house press secretary sarah sanders.

thank you for joining us again. where does this idea stand right now? >> look, this is an option on the table. i mean, we talked about a number of different things over the last two years that we'd love to see happen. certainly, this would not be our first choice, ideally we wouldn't have been dealing with the massive influx illegal immigrants coming across the border. the crisis that we have both from a national security and humanitarian crisis if democrats would step up and help the president fix the laws. this could all go away. that would be the best thing for the country and the best way to solve this crisis. and fix this problem. >> but sarah -- >> the democrats continue to be unwilling to do that, then we'll look at all of our options. we don't want to put all of the burden on one or two border communities. and democrats have stated time and time again, they support open borders and sanctuaries.

let's put it in some other locations. >> but as you know, when this story broke on thursday, white house officials said flatly that the idea had been rejected. president trump called the former homeland security secretary nielsen and she told him that it's simply not legal. how can you continue to push this? >> look, we have -- that was brought up at a staff level. and it was determined at that time that logistically, there were a lot of challenges and and move forward -- >> not just logistically. legally. >> we're looking to see if there are options that make it possible. doing it in a full and thorough and extensive review. the president likes the idea and democrats have said they want these individuals in their communities. let's see if it works and everybody gets a win out of it. again, this is not the ideal situation. the ideal solution is real

simple -- it's for congress, particularly democrats in congress to sit down with the president, do their jobs and help us stop this awful crisis that's taking place at our border. it can't be denied or ignored anymore. democrats including obama's secretary from homeland security are now acknowledging that this is a crisis. they can either deal with it at the border and stop it from getting worse or they're going to have to take on some of that burden in that communities if that becomes an option. again, that's not our first choice, probably not even our second, third choice, we have to look at all options. >> i don't understand why the president's attracted to it at all. it actually could encourage more immigrants. it would be easy for these migrants to put down roots in the u.s. in sanctuary cities. it seems to run counter to his objective. >> again, this isn't the president's plan. his top priority is to stop the flow of illegal immigration coming into our country to begin with.

democrats and courts frankly keep tying the president's hands and stopping him from being able to do that. we have a massive number of people that are already here. we need to take away some of that burden on all of the communities that are along the board, like san diego and el paso, and look at other options. again, not our first choice. ideally, congress would fix the problem. they continue to kick the can down the road and not deal with the problem in front of him. they continue to attack the president on these baseless and taxpayer-funded investigations instead of doing what they were elected to do, and that's actually solve problems. we hope they'll find over the course of the next several days, weeks and months, to do their jobs and help the president solve real problems, whether it's this one, health care or whether it's the other a hundred things we're trying to work on they seem to want to continue to ignore. >> you know, cnn and "the new

york times" also reporting on his trip to the border last week, president trump urged the acting homeland security secretary to close the border and not let migrants in. according to cnn, the agents were told by their leaders they had to follow the law or they would be personal liable if they did what the president said. homeland security officials were pretty alarmed by what they heard at the border last week. >> homeland security pushed back on this. as has the president. they both pushed back. secretary nielsen as well as the president. i don't know about you, george, but cnn isn't usually my first stop for a good source particularly not when it comes to this president. the president is actually the president trying to enforce laws not go around them. we're a country of laws and we have a president who supports that. he's not asking anybody to do anything outside of those bounds. in fact, he's asking congress to step up and give greater legal standing so that they can do more to stop this crisis.

no one is trying to skirt the law and certainly not being encouraged by the president to do so. >> you took on cnn there. the president also took on the "the new york times" last night in this tweet about this story. they never even called to check for the truth. maggie has beenerman said they sent tweets that were acknowledged. who's telling the truth? >> look, the "the new york times" regularly steps out of bounds. even when we respond and tell them something is not true they still run with the story. i'm not sure the particular story that's in question on this front. but again, i'm going to take the word of the president versus cnn or "the new york times." >> but "the new york times" did call and check, correct? >> again, i'm not sure about this particular story. i'd have to look back to see what story they're talking about. we do talk to them regularly and a lot of times we push back on a story and that's simply not enough for it. they like to run with anonymous sources. on a regular basis about this

president. it's an unprecedented amount of negative coverage of not only them but a number of other outlets spend 90% of the coverage of this president is negative despite our country is doing extremely well. our economy is booming. isis has been defeated in syria. we have gotten rid of countless regulations that has made our energy-dominant country again. the country is doing extremely well. yet, if you looked at the media and the coverage, you would think the whole place is falling apart. i think that's a real problem and certainly the president is going to continue to call out. >> the question is, whether or not. >> you would know that, george. >> the question is, who's telling the truth about whether or not they were contacted? i want to move on right now, the president has been sending out those tweets about congresswoman ilhan omar.

attacking her for how she characterized the 9/11 attacks. included in that tweet the images of the towers burning. that has drawn a lot of criticism from democrats including nancy pelosi. and this from former congressman beto o'rourke. >> this is an incitement to violence. against congressman omar. against our fellow americans who happen to be muslim. >> she was subject to a death threat last week. >> certainly the president is wishing no ill will and certainly not violence towards anyone. but the president is absolutely and should be calling out the congresswoman for her not only one-time but history of anti-semitic comments. the bigger question is, why aren't democrats doing the same thing?

they look the other way. i find her comments to be absolutely disgraceful and unbefitting of a member of congress. i think it's a good thing that the president is calling her out for those comments and the big question is, why aren't democrats doing it as well? not just doing it but doing it by name. these do these pushbacks. >> sarah sanders, thanks for your time this morning. >> you bet. thanks so much, george. i appreciate it. democratic response now from chair of the house homeland security committee, bennie thompson. chairman thompson, thank you for joining us now. i want to get to imbrags, but let's begin where we just left off. democrats should be condemning the remarks of congresswoman omar. >> i saw the speech she gave, i saw nothing wrong with it. i saw the president's manufactured tweet where he put

pieces in there, but, george, we are a nation of laws, a democracy, free speech is here. and again, i saw nothing wrong with the congresswoman's speech. >> you say you saw nothing wrong with it. but she characterized the deadliest terror attack on u.s. soil a coldblooded mass murder that some people did something, that seems to down play 9/11. >> no question about it. we had over 3,000 people who got killed at that event. nothing to downplay on it. but, again, she spoke to it. i think the president is just seizing that moment, manufacturing what he said and then moving forward with a traditional speech. so, i think there are other issues we have to deal with in this country. >> right. just to be clear on that, you agree characterizing it as some

people did something is not the way to characterize 9/11? >> no question about it. but, again, if i look at what the president says on a daily basis, we could criticize him almost by the hour. so, for him to take the congresswoman on is just another one of his, what i think, real simplistic attacks. >> let's move on to this proposal that the president is perhaps thinking about moving migrants to sanctuary cities. do you see any way to do that legally? >> no, i don't. more importantly, this is his manufactured chaos that he's created over the last two years at the border. meet in mexico. the zero tolerance put in by the attorney general. all those things have just created this crisis. before donald trump took office, we had a situation that was manageable. we had spikes, but it also went down. but what we have now is a

constant pushing of the system, so that it doesn't work. this notion that you take foreign aid away from the northern triangle countries, clearly that was an investment that had proven to work. so, now, you take that investment away, and obviously those people in those countries have to leave because of the crime and other things that's occurring. so, the president has to step up and provide real leadership which he has failed to do on immigration. >> he says he needs democrats as partners. the numbers are really climbing, more than 100,000 apprehensions last week. almost a million asylum cases right now. what can be done to get this under control? >> well, first of all, everybody talks about democrats, republicans getting together. we are absolutely, as democrats, ready to sit down and talk. but we won't be lectured to by the president. let's sit down and talk.

i chair the homeland security committee, i'm prepared to sit with the white house. if we can get somebody in if we can get somebody in the leadership at dhs so that we can sit and talk. right now, we have eight senior vacancies at the department, so we're kind of in a ruggedless situation. we're supposed to meet the secretary on may 1 at the committee. we're not certain now with the acting person whether we'll be able to do that. individuals tasked with the administraton's responsibility, they're not soundly in place for this occur. >> we're seeing this series of reports coming out of homeland security, they've been pushed by the white house, by the president, by white house staffers, including, according

to some reports, by stephen miller to put in place policies that bend the law if not break the law, are you developing information that backs up those contentions? >> we don't see stephen miller as an expert. he's a young man who has some novel ideas that most democrats disagree with. but the point that i'd like to make, george, is democrats are prepared to address this situation. every financial resource that has been brought forward democrats have supported it. we supported adding more men and women to the border patrol. we have made sure technology was available. but the challenge is, when you interpret existing law or when a judge rules against you, the president talks about how bad the judge is, as a nation of laws, co-equal branches of government, the judiciary has a role. so, if the president would like to work this on,

aisle saying this on your show this morning, we're absolutely ready as democrats but he can't decide i'm not going to talk to speaker pelosi or chairman nadler or bennie thompson, i'm going to go talk to somebody else. that's not how it plays. democrats elected us as leaders. we're the ones that are expected to go forward with this. >> final question, do you believe his upholding his oath to faithfully execute the rules of law of the united states? >> i think it's real challenge at this point. when i've seen him talk about women, when i've seen him do a number of things that belittle the office of the presidency, i'm real concerned. i have a grandson. i almost have to send him out the room when the president comes on tv because i don't know what's going to come out of his mouth. >> congressman, thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you. coming up, how congressman tim ryan, one of the newest

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said, you got to do something. and i said, i'm going to do something. and i'm going to run for the president of the united states and we're going to make sure it doesn't happen again. >> he's running now. congressman tim ryan from ohio. thank you for joining us this morning. let's pick up where you left off on "the view." long-term trends in the global economy. president trump made those same kind of promises. what can you do? >> we need an industrial policy in the united states. we need to sit down with the business community. we need to sit down with the educational community and use the tax code and figure out how we rebuild the industrial base in the united states. there's plenty of opportunities out there. take electric vehicles for example. we have made 1 million to 2 million electric vehicles today. there's going to be 30 million made by 2030. who's going to make them? i want those made in the united states.

i want the batteries made in the united states, i want the charging stations made in the united states. it's the president of the united states who needs to convene, sit down with the big three, sit down with the department of energy, put a big plan together and then cut the workers in on the deal so they can actually make a middle class wage. china, today, dominates the electric vehicle market. they control 40% of it. we have work to do. >> that's one sector of the economy. when you look at the overall economy right now -- several months of straight -- years of job growth, lowest unemployment we have seen in a generation. a new poll shows that majority of the country believe the economy is doing well and giving president trump some credit. is this the best ground to challenge him on? >> well, it's not doing well where i come from and a lot of places around the country. we talk about increasing the minimum wage, george, people used to make 30, 40 bucks an hour, yeah, the unemployment

rate is low, people are working, one, two, three jobs to make ends meet. the average family, 40%, 50% of families in the united states can't afford a $400 emergency. my campaign and my behavior as president is going to be to rebuild the middle class in the united states. people are tired of just getting by, they want to thrive. they want their kids to thrive. we got to stop talking about the minimums, we got to figure out how we create an economy in health care, in energy, within manufacturing, where people can make 30, 40, 50 bucks an hour, that's the america dream. we got to rebuild it. yes, the unemployment rate is low. did stock market is high. but the national anxiety level is about as high as it's ever been. >> you support the green new deal. you support medicare for all. we heard the senate republican leader this week mitch mcconnell said they're going to make the election a referendum on

socialism. are you worried about policies will make democrats vulnerable? >> not at all. look, we need a public option for people to be able to get health care in the united states. so, we've got to fix that. when you talk about green new deal, i support a green new deal, which means, we got to reverse what's happening with our climate and that could mean jobs in places like youngstown, ohio, and the industrial midwest, because there's so much that needs to be manufactured. again electric vehicle, solar, wind. that's manufacturing jobs and an agenda that can reverse global warming and climate change and create manufacturing jobs is something that i'm going to support. making sure people have access to affordable health care is something i'm for, too. this health care discussion is actually the wrong discussion. 75% of health care costs today come from chronic diseases that are actually preventable.

so, we need to completely transform our health care system where we're incentivizing patients and doctors to keep people healthy. we want a health care system that actually keeps people healthy and that's the transformational approach i'm going to take. and i would just say, if people are supportive of this, go to timryan -- we're going to build a new agenda for this country and rebuild the middle class. >> you got the plug in there. you failed in your bid to take on nancy pelosi as democratic leader after the 2016 election, initially opposed her bid for speaker as well. was that a mistake? what did you learn from it? >> no, i don't think it was a mistake. let me say, nancy pelosi is a historic figure. i think she's running circles around donald trump right now, and not just protecting the interests of the people of the country.

she's making sure that the power remains in that chamber, which i think is really important. my pitch two years ago and again this year was that the democrats, we need a new generation of leadership. we need new people to come in and be leaders in our party and i will say that we have had a lot of success over the last two years. we now have jeffries in house leadership, great young leader, we've got a variety of young leaders who have emerged -- it was a family discussion. i got the utmost respect for nancy pelosi and now we have new leaders in place. we're ready to turn the page and move on. >> congressman ryan, thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you for having me, george. roundtable is up next. we'll be right back. up next. we'll be right back. ♪ that's some great paint.

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i think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. it's a big deal. >> so you're not suggesting, though, that spying occurred? >> i don't -- well, i guess you could -- i think spying did occur. yes, i think spying did occur. >> and boy, that got some attention this week. attorney general william barr testifying before the senate judiciary committee. as he prepares the redacted version of the mueller report. that's expected to come this week. let's talk about it with our roundtable. joined by chris christie, rahm emanuel, alice stewart, stefanie brown james, and our chief white house correspondent jonathan karl. jon, let me begin with you. the white house liked what they heard from barr in that exchange right there.

it also appears, he wouldn't comment on it, that the white house has been briefed on the overall mueller report. what do they know? how worried are they? >> george, they have been briefed in broad brush strokes. the white house counsel office has been briefed on the logistics, the timing of the release. they have been briefed enough that the white house will not invoke executive privilege to get further redactions. but there's significant concern on the president's team what will be in this report and unredacted. >> even stuff that will be unredacted. >> yes, yes. the good news is already out there, broad conclusion of conspiracy between the campaign and the russians on the hack. or interfering in the elections. but, there's significant concerns about what will be in here, new information on the obstruction of justice question. on what the president was doing regarding some of the big questions, was he trying -- how

far did he go down the line to fire mueller? the situations surrounding the comey firing. what worries them most is what don mcgahn told the special counsel. former white house con sell mcgahn. it was reported earlier that he spent 30 hours before the special counsel. i'm told significantly more than 30 hours. here's the astounding thing, after all that time before the special counsel, nobody on the president's team debriefed mcgahn what he was asked. or was told by the special counsel. the bottom line is, they really don't know. >> chris christie, is how mueller characterized that one sentence. he doesn't exonerate the president. what did he intend? did he intend it to go to congress? >> well, my guess is that he didn't care that, you know, he was not going to take a position on that. for him to take a position is contrary to what prosecutors do.

in the end, we don't exonerate people when we're prosecutors. >> that's in criminal law. it's different when you're dealing with the president, isn't it? >> i don't think so. what bob mueller was was a special prosecutor for the justice department conducting himself as any assistant united states attorney would conduct themselves. remember, he didn't have any special responsibility to congress. so, this is totally different. he reports to the attorney general. he sends the report to the attorney general. then in the end, the attorney general's the one who has to advise congress that he's received the report. this is very different than what we have experienced in the past. mueller took the position, we don't exonerate people. we investigate. if we have charges, we charge. if we don't, we say nothing. this is contrary to james comey's conduct in 2016. it's the norm and what's accepted by prosecutors. >> what do democrats do now? >> two things.

the white house will rue the day it's only a four-page memo. everything's going to be measured out of against that four-page memo. everything else is going to be a problem for them. everybody drew one conclusion, that four pages isn't a summary. the thing that democrats should have done a long ago, every section has a summary. while you're redacting we want all those sum mares out. they could have gotten those summaries. because of what was just said by the attorney general, there was a counterintelligence investigation, it was approved by the courts. there was no spying. >> rahm, that is spying. >> that's not spying. >> wait, george. >> let me say this, having sat through the situation room, this was a loaded term used for loaded impact. this is not. this is all approved by the courts. the supreme court makes that

appointment. they're going to rue the day -- i would as democrats, continstay in the tone, has got to be we're just looking at and see where the facts take us. the bigger worry for the white house isn't the mueller report it's going to be what's going on in new york. >> there's legal spying and illegal spying. >> spying generally has a -- >> electronic surveillance that the person who's being surveilled doesn't know that they're being surveilled. what do you call that? that's another adjective. if it's illegal spying he would have been out of line. >> i think the democrats are so busy being word police on this, they're losing sight of the fact of what the governor said. there's illegal and ilegal type of spying. look, we can all agree attorney general barr has a tremendous reputation, a tremendous history

of his work in the law, he is not going to jeopardize his legacy by mischaracterizing the mueller report. surely, i think this four-page summary may have been glossed over a little bit. he's not going to jeopardize his legacy and mischaracterize information that the american people want to know. i think he's right to redact the information that needs to be redacted. it will never be enough for the democrats. he's doing this the right way. we don't need to prejudge the mueller report. let's see what comes out. >> you're right about barr's legacy. a number of civil rights groups and progressive groups didn't want him in office because he has a legacy of not being fair to a number of communities on a number of issues. and so, one thing that i'm excited about is that this is actually an issue that most americans can agree on, we want to see the report. democrats and republicans say, we want to see the report. now, i think we'll get a lot of information that's going to perhaps give us a glimpse into the future. are there more -- is there more information out there that shows that russia still has an

influence over the president? i don't know. i think we'll find out soon. i'm just looking forward to that report coming out this week. meantime, lot of focus on the border this week. jon, you addressed this with the president on this whole family separation policy. >> you wouldn't start separating the children again, would you, mr. president? >> would you consider doing it again? >> i'm the one who stopped it. president obama had child separation. i'll tell you something, once you don't have it that's why you see many more people coming, they're coming like it's a picnic. let's go disneyland. president obama separated children. they had child separation. i was the one who changed it. >> factually that's not true. but the president does seem to be getting more and more frustrated by what he's seeing on the border.

you just saw from sarah sanders, he's going to look at this idea of sending migrants to sanctuary cities. >> here's the bottom line is, george, they're on track to see 150,000 migrants cross the border a month illegally in the month of april. the detention facilities are full on the border. so, what is happening right now on the border, president won't say this, but this is what i'm told this is happening on the border is, the policy he always derided, catch and release. they can't detain anybody they're releasing or they're turning themselves in across the border. that's why you see the president, you know, going about with so many different ideas. back to child separations. closing the border down entirely. now, this idea of shipping the migrants off to sanctuary cities. none of those ideas are going to fly. they don't have a solution to this right now. they are releasing migrants across illegally right now. >> chicago is a sanctuary city?

>> yes. i'd just say, america was always a sanctuary country, before chicago became a sanctuary city. that's exactly what's at the bottom of the statue of liberty. you can see it from new jersey. >> it's in new jersey. >> you can read the base of it. >> we'll welcome you any time. we'll show it to you. >> the fact is, everything he's ever built has been built by undocumented people. includes his golf facility in new jersey. third, here's what he's trying to do, george, he introduced a budget which had the largest cut in medicare and medicaid and he's trying to hide that because seniors are his most loyal voters. he's trying to stop -- there's no reporting, we're not going to bring up medicare. his budget has the largest cut in medicare and medicaid. of any presidential budget. he's trying to make sure that the seniors don't know.

if i was the speaker or chuck schumer, i'd pull that out of the budget -- >> the key with this is, this is his effort to really try and make some impact and inroads on his signature campaign issue which is immigration and securing the border. he's addressed the flores amendment, which is a big problem with illegals coming into this country and having a limited amount of time to process them. he's made it clear that he wants to look at catch and release the problems with catch and release. he wants to look at the ending of chain migration. the idea of sending them to sanctuary cities was floated and rejected. that's not going to happen. but here's the question -- >> wait a minute. >> that's the problem right there. >> we can't afford it. >> white house officials said thursday night the president contradicted it on friday morning. >> my question is, why are

democrats -- mayor with all due respect, you proudly say you welcome them with open arms -- >> i would welcome them. >> it's a comprehensive immigration reform which we don't have. do you remember a few months ago, when the government shut down over this issue. that still has not been resolved. like this president has this stall and scare tactic. we don't have any real sense of us moving forward to a real solution. this is a schizophrenic process. to where this day this may work and this day this may work. i tink the democrats need to be more vocal on what their plan is as well. americans are getting tired of not having any real movement. >> and chris, i wonder if this proposal -- i mean, these ideas have the same power, same political power they had back in 2016 now that he's responsible for the border. >> i think what he's doing here

is to try and show that he can't do it by himself and he floats these ideas out that he can do by himself that most people think aren't legal and aren't able to do. without congress being willing to step in and work with him he can't be held responsible for it. i think that's part of why he's doing it. here's the thing, he's doing what democrats should be doing. which is, he's pivoting off the immigration issue. we need to stay on it. let's get to medicare and medicaid. because what he e knows, traditionally for democrats, that's a winning issue for them. it's a winning issue. >> thank you. >> the problem is, that no other democrats that are in leadership or who are running for president are nearly as smart as he is.

>> can you call my mother? >> the point is, politically that's what democrats should be doing. but instead, they're continuing because they hate trump so much -- >> this is the one thing. donald trump wants to talk about trump. democrats want to talk about trump. somebody is going to win when they start talking about the american people. you want to talk medicare for all, we'll talk about $8 billion cut in medicare. let's put it up for a vote. we'll take a break and come back and talk about that 2020 campaign. we'll be right back. come back and talk about that 2020 campaign. we'll be right back.

critics are going to tell you, and tell all of us, that a campaign powered by grace and love and a deep faith in each other can beat that. but i say, it's the only way we win. >> there's cory booker in newark yesterday.

second launch of his campaign. mayor pete is getting in officially today. stefanie brown james, the 2020 constellation of issues right now. one thing we have seen out there from democrats on the trail, they haven't been talking all that much about president trump. >> well, and they actually also haven't been talking enough about specific policies they want to see move forward as candidates. it's funny a few months ago, we all thought that, you know, this was this white guy who was very relatable. he had a four-letter first name. we all thought it was going to be beto, really kind of spurt forward. but we see mayor pete who has focused on policies that people can get behind, how he's the antithesis of trump. be able to have movement in the polls. he's doing a great balance of being both a person who's relatable but can also give some suggestions on how he wants to move the country forward. >> and he's doing well.

there's a nice article in "the new york times" that outlines his strategy. a good strategy with not a lot of money and name i.d., telling his personal story first and then policy later. if you really look at the large field of democrat candidates, they're similar on policy -- green new deal, college tuition, so i think buttigieg is doing well, he's letting people get to know who he is, where he stands on the issues, is really taking a backseat at this point. really the democrat field in my view is very similar. at this point, they're unfortunately moving so far to the left, they're going to be broken by the time they get to the general election. but at this stage, they're very strong on the issues. very similar. but in my view, moving too far to the left? >> how big a danger is that, moving too far to the left? >> big. here's the lay of land, the president's issue, trying to drive a wedge between urban and

suburban voters for democrats. our strategy is keep suburban and urban together and drive a wedge between suburban and rural voters. that's basically the paradigm we're in. everything he's bringing up, to strive divisions. i think that in this case, going too far to the left on a number of issues takes our suburban majority that created congressional majority. breaks it up. i think we should all caution, this is a marathon not a sprint. we're measuring everything every 100 yards. let's be honest, we're all sick. we need help here. okay, i'm in line, blue cross blue shield will take it. the fact is, this is marathon. every part of president clinton's and president obama's journey, and you can go back, is a personal story first and then you build on it.

when people get to know you, you have to represent somebody's views. a chief executive has to something about their character and that revelation of your background is more important. >> in a field this big is real challenge to get your personal story out. >> sure. you have to be relentless about it. i was in a big field like that three years ago. and you just have to be relentless about it. the good thing about iowa and new hampshire, the good thing is, you can go and sell your personal story in a retail way. i think in new hampshire, we certainly did that and went from 3% to 19% by the time we got to january 1st without a lot of money, you can do that. but like rahm said, we're sitting here in april of 2019, so no one has enough time yet to do that. and by the way, the voters aren't nearly as focused.

>> in the meantime, this ilhan omar tweet that he sent out this week. it's clear the president and the democrats, leading the party, have a strategy. >> this is going to be the referendum on socialism. you'll see that over and over again from the president. mitch mcconnell will help with what he's doing with the agenda in the senate. but they'll try to portray this as a far left field. the president is good at labeling and attacking. he's good at labeling. and there's a lot of material to work with. >> if the democrats were organized the presidential candidates will go out and define themselves. the speaker and the senate minority leader need to define the president and we have to have division of labor strategically, that's why i would say medicare cuts and a series of things that he's done domestically on education, lack of a transportation bill. and environmental --

>> except, george -- it's great theory, rahm. it would work. it would work. that's not what nancy pelosi is permitting to happen. alexandria ocasio-cortez and representative ilhan omar are the voices of the democratic party on the hill. >> i don't know if that's true. >> nancy pelosi is scared to discipline these people. >> i don't think -- i think she's trying to govern while try to manage -- >> they're not doing anything. >> i think it's distracting for the democrats. there's so much that can happen and that needs to get talked about. yet, we continue to go back to comments, tweets that were made, i'm sorry the president was dead wrong when he put up the image of congressman omar and an image of the powers behind her. that's inciting violence. and i think the democrats continue to fall in the trap to where they are not able to both say, yes, this was wrong, but

yet, we still stand behind our colleague quick enough to people understand that the democrats still are a unified front. >> hate is always bad. hate is always bad. and hate of trump is bad it's making the democrats make mistakes. >> don't swing at every pitch. every tweet is a pitch. you don't swing at every pitch. what he's doing -- >> the outrage by the democrats over president trump's response to that is really disturbing. they should be more disturbed at what the congresswoman said. something that someone did, when 3,000 people died in a terror attack. >> listen. >> they should be outraged by her attacking -- >> i would agree. >> they should be outraged by that. >> what she said -- what she said was definitely was something that could be seen as downplaying a very serious episode. this woman currently facing death threats.

a president who also has a problem attacking black woman consistently. to use that by inciting violence with these images behind her, her face is not a good stance for the president to take. >> but look at what the president has managed to do, though. he's managed to put the democrats in the position of being seen as defending she said of 9/11. >> ocasio-cortez tried to bring president bush into it. think president bush was downplaying 9/11. george w. bush, i remember in the 2004 campaign, joe biden said, a noun, a verb, a 9/11. but that's what she's doing. it's stupid politics, george. we're out of time. i'm sorry, guys. we're completely out of time. good morning. thank you for sharing part of your sunday with us. "world news tonight." see you tomorrow on "gma." your sunday with us. "world news tonight." see you tomorrow on "gma."

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