captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: it's sunday, april the 7th. i'm margaret brennan, and this is "face the nation." last streak marked the feisty first week of april for president trump. >> our country is full. you can't come in anymore. our country is full. i'm sorry. >> brennan: we'll get the latest from the chairman of the house judiciary committee jerry nadler and the president's attorney, rude riewsmed plus what's appropriate behavior and

what's not when it comes to politicians? as president trump tweets a mea culpa video about joe biden's history of touch, biden makes light of that controversy. >> by the way, he gave me permission to touch him. >> brennan: and tries to explain his style of personal politics. >> i'm sorry i didn't understand more. i'm not sorry for any of my intentions. >> brennan: we'll talk about the outlook for the u.s. economy with white house economic adviser larry kudlow and hear from the newest candidate in the 2020 democratic contest, ohio congressman tim ryan. >> i need your help. i need your support. i need your love. i need your voice. let's go take back the white house! >> brennan: plus we'll have analysis on all the news of the week just ahead on "face the nation." >> brennan: good morning and

welcome to "face the nation." as washington awaits attorney general william barr's release of a recontacted thed -- redacted version of the mueller, we begin with house judiciary committee chairman jerry nadler who joins us this morning from new york. congressman, do you expect to receive the report this week, and what happens once you do? >> well, i don't know when we're going to receive it. attorney general barr said by the middle of april. it could be the end of this week or beginning of next week, but the important thing is not do we get it this week or next week, the important thing is what do we get? we are demanding and we have a right to -- congress has a right to the entire report with no redactions whatsoever some we can see what's there. we're already hearing leaks from the mueller team that didn't leak at all for 22 months. they now seem to be very unhappy. we're hearing leaks that barr misrepresented in his so-called

summary letter what's in the report, that she sugar coated it, that he made it look more favorable for the president than it was. we're hearing -- nbc reported that some of the mueller people were saying that it depicted the russian -- i'm sorry, the trump campaign as having been thoroughly infiltrated by an intelligence operation of the russian government. we don't know. we're entitled to see it, because congress represents the nation, and congress has to take action on any of it. so we're entitled to see all of it. >> brennan: well, the attorney general said he will hand over almost 400 pages, but he'll redact classified information. >> no, he has said he will redact four classifications of information. >> brennan: >> right. >> our position is that he should redact none of it. congress, the judiciary committee, in every similar situation in the paths, whether with nixon or with clinton or with in other situation, the judiciary committee has gotten

all the information, all the underlying documents and evidence, and the judiciary committee has decided what of that cannot be released to the public. >> brennan: do you expect you would have to go to a court to force the release of the grand jury information? >> well, yes, we would have to go to a court to get the release of the grand jury information, but that has happened successfully in every previous situation. and it's not up to the attorney general to decide with respect to that or with respect to other material that he decides congress can't see. it's not up to him. remember, he is a biased person. he is someone who is an agent of the administration, is an appointee, a political appointee of the president, whose interests he may very well be protecting here. >> brennan: do you reject the entire summary? do you believe there is possible criminal collusion? >> well, the attorney general said there was no obstruction of justice. he decided that. mueller did not say that. >> brennan: you're dismissing

what he has said. >> i dismiss what he said. he's a biased defender of the administration, and he's entitled to be a defender of the administration, but he is not it intoled to withhold the evidence from congress. by the way, let me repeat one other thing. when you say there is no -- when he says there's no collusion, there may very well not have been evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, which is a very high judicial standard of criminal conspiracy with the russians, but there was if plain sight open collusion with the russians. when the president's son and campaign manager and son-in-law go to a meeting with the russians to receive "dirt on hillary" as part of the russian government's attempt to help the trump campaign, and that was in the e-mail inviting them to the meeting, they go to the meeting. they say, do you want that information? that is collusion, whether it's criminal conspiracy is another question. >> brennan: right. and it was on that question of criminality, whether it could be

prosecuted, that the report was turned in. those were the conclusions made. it sounds like when you were referencing what was the reporting from "the new york times" and the "washington post" about some of mueller's investigators feeling that their impressions and their conclusions were not accurately portrayed in the attorney general's summary, are you going to call those investigators before the committee? are you going to talk to any of them? >> after we read the information in the report, we'll make the decision as to whether that is necessary. after we read the information in the report, we'll probably want to call mueller to discuss it. we'll be having barr in front of the committee before that, but certainly reading the report and the underlying evidence will give us more information as to what questions we should ask mueller or any of the other people who work with him. >> brennan: is the bottom line you acknowledge what was put forward may not be indictable, but big picture, you're saying there are things in this report that could be impeachable, grounds for impeachment? >> well, who knows?

there could be grounds for impeachment. there could be grounds for other action. there could be things the american people ought to know. you know, you can commit shameful acts. you can commit complete betrayals of the public interest without committing impeachable acts. if you did that, the public ought to know that, too. and the standard here is not an impeachment. the standard is what was... the standard is we have to protect the public from presidential misconduct, from anybody else's, and the public has know about it. and we have to get all the evidence so we can subject to protecting certain classified information that the judiciary committee has always made in the past and can make now. the public ought know all of it. >> brennan: as you know, republicans have challenged some of these disclosures on the legal basis, but also they point to some of the comments you have made in the past back during the impeachment proceedings for bill

clinton when you said grand jury material represents statements which may or may not be true and it would be unfair to release. so it seems like your view has changed. >> my view has not changed at all. >> brennan: why? >> my view has not changed at all, becauseñi they're comparing apples and oranges. in 1998, the judiciary committee was given all the information that we're seeking now. it was given all the information and all the underlying evidence, and the question was: should all that information be released to the public. and i said then that, no, some of that grand jury information should not be released to the public. now we are advocating that all of that information should be given to the committee. we are not advocating that all the grand jury information should go to the public. >> brennan: you believe that the committee would -- >> ken starr gave everything to the committee and had already had that. the committee already had all that information, including the grand jury information and -- >> brennan: it was an independent council which was

structured differently. >> that's irrelevant. that's irrelevant. >> brennan: are you arguing that the information if it's shared with the committee would not leak publicly? can you guarantee that? >> certainly. some of it would not leak publicly. some of it would be decided. some grand jury information would -- you know, first of all, some grand jury information would presumably be decided must be released by court order to the public because the public interest would outweigh the privacy interest. that's happened in the past. it might happen again in the future, but again, the committee has a very good record of protecting information which it decides to protect. no -- >> brennan: lastly -- >> the president's former personal attorney michael cohen has released a memo, or his lawyers did, saying that he has 14 million files that have damaging information about the president. he's asking for help in getting his sentence reduced or at least delayed in some way. do you want the information michael cohen has and will you offer him the help he's asking for? >> certainly we'd want the

information that michael cohen or anybody else has that's relevant to this question. whether we can give him that sort of help or not, i don't know. >> brennan: all right, congressman, thank you. we're going to turn now to president trump's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, who isr hereñi with me. would you like to respond to the congressman who says he has the right and the committee has the right for all of this information? do you agree that the public has the right? >> i would like him to get all the information. >> brennan: including the things -- >> everything. >> brennan: grand jury material? >> i can't control that. i can't change the law. and the attorney general has a difficult job. i didn't appreciate his suggestion that the attorney general would be biased. i know bill barr for many, many years. i think people in this town know him. he's man of the highest integrity. also, everything he's doing is also being run by rod rosenstein. that report was put out by barr and rosenstein. rosenstein started the investigation, supervised the investigation, allowed the special counsel to do things

that i thought were off base. he certainly gave them full scope to do their entire investigation. there would beçó noçó reason whd rosenstein would sign his name to something that says they found no evidence of collusion, no evidence of obstruction. they couldn't reach a conclusion on obstruction. >> brennan: right. >> so rosenstein and barr did, no obstruction. i guarantee you, except for l quibble, i'm not worried about the report at all. there is no way those two good lawyers would have written that kind of let ferres there is any issue. >> brennan: is the president waiving all executive privilege? he thinks this report should be made public? >> the president's cooperation was unprecedented. bill clinton fought every single subpoena. it was a knockdown, drag-out battle. >> brennan: but he ultimately sat down. >> that's why he had to. >> brennan: that's why the president didn't have to. >> they couldn't have won in court. they couldn't suggest a question they didn't have the answer to, because we supplied them with the answers to everything, and the president did answer

questions in writing. >> brennan: i want to ask you about, that but to be clear here, is the president waiving all executive privilege... >> as far as i know. he can't waive all executive privilege. other people have executive privilege. >> brennan: so there will be. >> withheld from this report? >> i don't know, margaret. the attorney general has said he's going to put out the maximum amount of information possible. the only thing that will stop him will be legal barriers. i hope there are few, because i don't like what jerry nadler just did, innuendo and there must be more. jerry nadler prejudged this case a year ago. he was talking about impeachment. he was overheard on amtrak talking about impeachment well before the report came out some when he talks about the attorney general being biased, my goodness, on this committee he's got some of the most rabid people that hate trump. we're not going before a court here, we're going before a political body. >> brennan: well do, you fear... >> that is highly partisan and has made up its mind.

>> brennan: you and the president have welcomed the four-page summary. do you think the 400-page report is going to be more damaging? >> no. i don't think so. >> brennan: so when you say -- >> i'll give you another reason i don't think so. >> brennan: you support this coming out? well the president tell the attorney general to -- >> the president has left it to the attorney general. the president can't make the decision. >> brennan: you butt you said he's not decided on executive privilege yet. >> the president has told the world, i am comfortable with everything being released. now, the president can't change the law. now the attorney general has to apply that. he wants to do maximum transparency. i'm sure we'll get just about all of it. i hop we get all of it. >> brennan: do you think the interview the president didn't sit for but provided written answers to, will you make those answers public? >> i'm not going to make anything public. the attorney general will make it public if he believes it should be made public. >> brennan: can't the president decide to make his own answers public? >> once it's all over, maybe. let's see what the attorney general does first. why not wait until the attorney general files the report, and then if we want to complain about it, we can complain about

it. >> brennan: are you confident there will be no evidence of obstruction of justice? >> i'm going to tell you why i'm confident there will be no evidence of anything really bad. because the leakers and nadler was wrong about that, too, the mueller group has been leaking all along. how does cnn end up at roger stone's raid. >> brennan: well, they have their own explanation for good report, but for 22 months, you have to acknowledge, the special counsel's office did not leak. >> hell no. hell. no i got plenty of, they're saying this, they're saying, that they knew all about our battle over questions. they knew about the positions we took. >> brennan: but you're impugning their credibility and their conduct, but you are actually accepting and supporting their -- >> yes. >> brennan: that's a bit contradictory. >> no, it's not, margaret. >> brennan: you're accusing them of bias, but you agree with their conclusion. >> that's because there is no evidence. if they could have found anything, if andrew weissman, who was crying at hillary clinton's losing party, couldn't find anything, if ms. reid, who

was counsel to the clinton foundation, couldn't find anything, believe me, there was nothing there. and they tried the make things up. they put so much pressure on people, keeping them in solitary confinements. >> brennan: the repubans shouldn't be pushing back on full disclosure of the report. >> no republican is pushing back on full disclosure. >> brennan: jerry nadler is making an argument. >> jerry nadler is making a phony argument. jerry nadler can't change the law. the law is the law. the attorney general has to apply the law. jerry nadler is a biased completely predetermined -- does he want us to believe that he's going to give us a fair hearing? some of his members have announced a year ago he should be impeached. >> brennan: you just said he wants to have some of the investigators come before his committee and answer questions. do you support that? >> what? for a political show? why? >> brennan: why not? they have oversight. >> mueller --

>> brennan: if some people in the justice department did think the president commited obstruction of justice, shouldn't they be heard out? and if there is nothing it to, why not allow it? >> can we listen to the report first? the leakers who leaked to the any ti has the there were problems in the report, notice they leak nod specifics. i can't imagine that the reporter didn't ask, give me an example. give me an example of something in the report that suggests that the president obstructed justice. >> brennan: some have argued it's almost forcing barr's hand to not keep that private. >> in other words, these people who hate him who were willing to commit a criminal act, if they have dynamite, they're not giving it to them. >> brennan: is the president considering a pardon for michael flynn? >> the president is not considering pardons at this time. >> brennan: ever? >> how old would i know. we decided the whole question of pardons would be put off. >> brennan: on michael cohen, we heard chairman nadler talk

about the offer made by cohen's attorneys to come in and provide. >> that's hilarious. >> brennan: they have text messages and recordings. what is on that? >> if jerry nadler wants to convince me he's introduced in the truth, he should recommend a prosecution of cohen for his last appearance before congress when he died about -- >> no, no, no, wait. >> brennan: are you confident that cohen doesn't have damaging information. >> margaret, margaret, he's going to jail, but after he got convicted of, that and after he promised to cooperate and tell the truth, he went before congress and made a fool out of the committee. he was asked, did you ever ask for a job. he said, new york i never asked for a job. yes, he asked for a job. he asked me to get him a job. he asked 100 other people to get him a job, and there is a contemporaneous tame with chris cuomo in which he says, i want to be chief of staff, and cuomo says, good luck, mike. i hope you get it. direct absolute perjury, trying to make himself look like he's not a disgruntled office seeker.

>> brennan: so you don't think he has anything damaging to the president in all these recordings? >> i have no confidence that these people care about the truth. >> brennan: but as to what cohen has. >> please. chairman cummings told cohen, when he started his testimony very dramatically, if you lie, i don't know if he said, i'll hang do you a cross or throw the book at you. i haven't seen him throw anything at him. he lied about a job. he lied about a pardon. he lied about foreign representation. he lied about three other things. >> brennan: i'm still not getting an answer to the question whether you think cohen has damaging information. >> cohen has already spilled his guts. he has nothing at all incriminating on the president. here is the disappointing thing for jerry nadler and all the democrats, the president did nothing wrong. they are chasing him, harassing him. this is a total political endeavor now. if we put out that whole report or almost all of it and it clears the president, they should not be continuing this investigation. it's a political witch hunt. >> brennan: all right. mr. mayor, thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> brennan: we'll be back in a minute with the latest democrat to enter the presidential race, ohio congressman tim ryan. bioti. it hydrates and softens skin. so it looks like this... and you feel like this. aveeno® daily moisturizer get skin happy™ a lot will happen in your life. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week

to reveal younger looking skin. neutrogena® >> brennan: we're back with ohio congressman tim ryan who officially announced his presidential bid yesterday. he joins us this morning from pittsburgh. welcome to "face the nation." you promised to unify the country. you just heard the possibility of grounds for impeachment in this potential mueller report disclosure. would that hurt your attempts to unify country? >> well, it's never a pretty process. i hope we can get it behind us. i hope there is a good deal of transparency. i don't think that's too much to ask. i think as long as we refocus on the economic problems that are facing most people in the united states, that can be a unifying thing. we start listening to each other. we start respecting each other. that's going to be most important in unifying the country. >> brennan: you spoke about in your launch the closure of a g.m. plant inspiring your

decision to run. are you promising to bring manufacturing jobs back to the midwest? isn't the future more in a service-based economy? >> my focus is going to be on creating an industrial policy in the united states. we are getting our clocks cleaned by china right now when it comes to electric vehicles, when it comes to solar panel, when it comes to additive manufacturing. these are areas that are growing significantly, and for electric vehicles, there's two million electric vehicle cars now. there will be $30 million in 2030. who will make those cars? i want us to be making those cars in the industrial midwest. >> brennan: how do you do that, with government subsidies? >> well, it's public-private partnership. do you sit down with the private sector? do you work with the department of energy, the department of defense, the national science foundation. you sit down and you put a long-term strategy together, and then you work with the venture capital community so that the investments are driveen into distressed communities. the [ communeities, rubber and auto

communities that have lost jobs. there has been no plan to help those communities at all. that's going to be a priority for me and we'll get it done. >> brennan: so that's a yes to government subsidies? >> well, you tax incentives. you have the tax code. yeah. it's going to be a public-private partnership. it's not going to be all government, no centralized planning, and it's not going to be all free market can can it taxes for the top 1% inçó hopes some crumbs get sprinkled to the youngs town hoes of the world. it's going to be a complete comprehensive strategy on how we dominate these markets, not china. >> brennan: former president barack obama was speaking in germany recently over the weekend and said that he is concerned about rigidity. that was the word he used among liberal democrats who are kind of hurting the party arguing amongst themselves. do you agree with him? >> sometimes. i mean, sometimes that can happen, but as long as we're united on our values, we got to make progress. here's the key. progress. we're going backward. i'm an old quarterback. look, you got to get first downs, you got to move the ball

down the field if you're going to score, and we're going backward right now some we have to find issues we can unify around and pass 'em and move the ball down the field. >> brennan: what is that? >> well, single payer, for example, i've been a supporter of single payer. >> brennan: but you also afford the affordable care act. >> i did. that was moving the ball down the field. that was providing more health care for more people, making it more affordable. >> brennan: so you want both? >> i'm sorry? >> brennan: you want both options? how does that work? >> well, when you're sitting there and negotiating. i can't negotiateñi with you the house and the senate and the white house. i want more people to have more affordable coverage. i want there to be some kind of public option where middle-class people who work hard and play by the rules can get some help so they're not getting squeezed by the pharmaceutical companies and the health care companies. that's what i want. and so what does that look like after it goes through the process? it ended up with the affordable care act. so i voted for it. you know what? i also supported the public option in the affordable care act.

we couldn't get it con. i'm saying let's move the ball forward. president trump and the republicans right now want to kick people off of health care. that's going in the wrong direction. so progressives, independent, we need to unify around policies that move the ball down the field and start helping working-class people. >> brennan: all right. congressman tim ryan, we will watch your campaign in a crowded democratic field. >> thanks for having me. >> brennan: we will all be back with you in a moment. stay with us. ñi if these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees we could help lower emissions. carbon capture is important technology - and experts agree. that's why we're working on ways to improve it. so plants... can be a little more... like plants. ♪ drivwhat do you charge forer. online equity trades? um ah, i'll look into it. lisa jones!

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>> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation." we're join now by larry kudlow, the director of the president's national economic council. larry, good to have you here. i want to ask you, the president tweeted saturday night about what's happening at ports of entry along the southern border, saying that traffic is going to be snarled and that there could be commercial delays. that's almost $2 billion in commerce that cross this border every day. how much of an impact is this going to have? >> well, i don't know. i mean, i don't think we're going to have an official shutdown. i think president's been quite clear on that. he has seen some things on the mexican side, guarding their border in the south that he likes some we seem to have some

cooperation, things may be improving slightly. it's an impossible situation. all these people coming across, 100,000 people now, illegals in the last month or some it's got to be dealt with, the drug traffic, the humanitarian problems, the economic problems among other things. so we looked at this with great care. my colleagues and i, and there are ways to protect the economics and commerce if we went into that mode, which we're not... >> brennan: but a complete shutdown is not happening. >> which i think is not happening. we want to protect truck and freight lanes if we could, but again, based on the president's few, we're not going to go there whole hog. >> brennan: but for the congestion that the president said is happening, you know, driving up prices of avocado, certain consumer goods, do you see an economic impact to any of this? >> nothing significant at the moment. nothing significant. the worst-case scenarios are off

the table for the moment. but i will say,ly add, people should take his -- this is a key issue for him, border security, the wall and so forth, immigration reform, and when he talks about getting tough, if he has to -- >> brennan: those 25% tariffs on mexican-produced autos. >> we're not there, but people should take it quite seriously. mexico should take it quite seriously. this is a major issue. this is drug trafficking and humanitarian. this is an economic issue, as you hinted at, and this is a national security issue some they should take the president quite seriously. >> brennan: but on that threat of potentially putting tariffs on autos, doesn't this hurt the new nafta, the u.s. m.c.a. that hasn't even passed yet and you're leveraging threats against mexico. >> at the moment, the president has said national security, border security is a major priority. the united states cannot continue the way it's within. >> brennan: even if it comes down to compromising passage of the u.s.m.c.a.

canada and mexico have to move it too,. >> i think in the fullness of time, this will all be worked out and it will not interfere with u.s.m.c.a. that's our hope in any event. but you do have to set priorities. sometimes you have to make tough short-term trade-offs. i'm not expecting interference. we have somewhat optimistic about a u.s.m.c.a. vote. it's a very important trade deal, pro growth in the united states, autos, domestic content, new economy stuff is very important. i.p. rights and patents and so forth, financial services. our ambassador has done a fabulous job. it's great for blue collar workers and farm ers. we broke through on dairy. we'd really love to see a vote, because we think we can win, that but i'm just saying, u.s.m.c.a. is a very important priority. >> brennan: can you get the u.s.m.c.a. passed a crassic-controlled house and into law before 2020? >> look, i'm going to... >> brennan: it's more difficult. >> i'm going to play that from

the optimistic side. speaker pelosi is very good, very fair. in fact, bob addressed the democratic conference, the speaker let him do that. that was a terrific gesture. he's been meeting with individual groups. we believeñi we will get a vote. if we get a vote, we will win. i don't want to put timing on it. it's completely up to her, but she's been quite cooperative so far, so i'm going to play the optimistic side. >> brennan: on china the president says we're four weeks out from a possible epic trade deal with them. what's actually been agreed upon? >> well, you know, all these negotiations we just get closer and closer. it's really interesting. we made good headway last week when the vice premier was here. this coming week there will be a lot of teleconferencing among the top tier people to continue the discussions. we're closer than we ever have been before. a lot of very difficult topics. for the first time on the table and being resolved, i think that's terribly important, the

talks have been productive. i think the president here too expressed that i was in the room, whatever thursday, guarded optimism. maybe more than guarded optimism. so we're gaining on that. >> brennan: you say there is an i.p. agreement, is there? >> i can't go into details on this, but we made great progress on the i.p. theft. we've made good progress on the forced transfer of technology, on the ownership. there are issues outstanding, not least of which are going to be enforcement-related issues, but in each and every place, a, they have acknowledged their problems. that was a very big hurdle. and b, what was not on the table is on the table, and c, we're getting closer and closer. >> brennan: larry, the fed, as you know, is supposed to be apolitical. herman cain, former presidential candidate, the president says he wants to appoint him to the federal reserve board. how is he qualified for that job? >> well, you know, besides being a successful businessman, which

is very important, you know, there was a time in the fed, i started my career a long time ago at the new york fed. in those days, you had farmers on the board, business men and women on the board, small bankers. it wasn't all economists. okay. so that's one point. second point, specifically, herman ca n for many years was on the board of the kansas city federal reserve bank. >> brennan: in more of a civic role. and sairnlgt allegations derailed his presidential campaign. >> he was chairman of the kansas city fed. he is there for intimately acquainted with fed operations and awant to make this generic point, people say this is political. i don't think it's political. there may be a boll si difference. we believe, the president believes, you can have low unemployment and a strong economy as we are having. the numbers came out great on friday, without inflation,

without inflation. >> brennan: is he going the pass as background check? >> look, he's being vettedñnp @. he'll be going through the hearings in the senate banking committee. i'm not hear to comment or litigate any of that. there are allegations out there, but there are lots of allegations in washington that don't pan out. >> brennan: they derailed his presidential bid. >> my principle bid is he is qualified. he was the chairman of the kansas city fed. he knows a lot about the subject. >> brennan: all right. larry kudlow, always good to have you here. >> thank you, margaret. >> brennan: we'll be right back with our panel. ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> brennan: we're back. ben domenech is the founder and publisher of "the federalist." amy walter is the national editor of "the cook political report." david nakamura covers the white house for "washington post" and molly ball is national political correspondent for "time" magazine. good to have you all here. amy, we spoke just now to one of the 2020 candidates, the latest to jump into this race, tim ryan. were there more democrats needed in the candidacy? it's a pretty crowded field? >> we need an even number maybe of 20 or maybe we can get to 30. we are not done yet. we have a couple people to go. obviously the biggest name being joe biden, waiting for his announcement. i think each one of these candidates believes that there is an opportunity to fill this vacuum right now that is out

there. there are some front-runners, but they have a pretty high floor and a low ceiling at this moment. so everyone is waiting to see if they're going to wear well over the course of the campaign. those two front-runners being joe biden and bernie sanders. is the party really looking for two 70-plus-year-old white men to lead the party, or is there room for someone else from a different generation, a different background, et cetera, to fill that? i think fundamentally what's fascinating in watching where the two front-runners are at this moment is how the different strains of the democratic party, the two strains of the democratic party they represent. with bernie sanders, the democratic party wants a revolution, and biden saying, a restoration of the way things were pretrump. >> brennan: molly, we heard the former vice president try to quiet the controversy this week, and he seem to start a whole new news cycle by making light of

some of these allegations of making women uncomfortable in how he dealt with their space or touched them. has he derailed his own candidacy before he's even announced it? >> yes, obviously. this is not what he would have preferred to have as the back drop to his eventual announcement, if that's coming in a couple of weeks. that being said, i don't think we know yet how this plays. what i hear from the majority of sort of rank and file democrats, there is a lot of affection for joe biden and, you know, as speaker pelosi said this week, most people don't see this as disqualifying in and of itself, but they want to talk about him and they want to hear him talk about it and they want a satisfactory answer from him and he hasn't necessarily provided that so far. he hasn't necessarily given people a way to think about this that satisfies the concerns, number one, the concern about whether he understands where these women are coming from, whether he really understands what women face, because that's such an issue in modern culture

and because women are the majority of democratic voters. and then the second is how it affects his potential electability. if he's going to want to be the nominee against donald trump, can he make an argument against trump on these same issues where trump has been accused of all kinds of unwanted touching of women, and can he make that argument or will that be nullified if he has similar issues? >> what struck me, too, was that biden has put off making an official decision about entering this race for a number of months now. there was some sense he would dó it earlier this year. now they're saying by the spring, maybe now after easter. so his campaign or campaign in waiting would have had a chance to maybe think about some of these issues and think these kind of things could potentially derail them, so not only has he allowed this issue to become a bigger issue than it might if he had been sort of more proactive in trying the address it. but they didn't seem to there v a thoughtful way to respond.

>> brennan: it was red meat for president trump who tweeted that video. >> yes, that sort of mocking video. i think molly completely is correct we don't know how this is going the play yet. and this was always going to be something that was a challenge for someone who had this in such a public way. but the thing is, biden is also viewed as being someone who is fundamentally a decent man, and he's respected by a lot of his colleagues and people he's worked with over the years. so it's difficult to put him in the same category as some of these other people who have engaged in bad behavior toward women. the other thing that i think we have to keep in mind in laying the different strains of the democratic party that amy pointed out is that biden is by every measure the most popular candidate or would-be candidate among african american voters. a lot of that is due to how well he worked with president obama, but it's also due to fai and trust they place in him. i think one of the big challenges in figuring out what the democratic party wants for

2020 is how those voters come to grips with a strain of the party that wants far more radical perspective, far more progressive policies at the center of their agenda, and those different things that are both key parts of the democratic coalition, suburban white voters who want to go in a more progressive direction, african american voters who maybe want something that's more of a restorational approach, as amy said. that's going to decide who ends up being their choice. >> brennan: amy, what is there to what former president barack obama said about the rigidity within the democratic party? he's kind of saying there is a narrow-mindedness and the liberalism of some of the candidates these days. >> well, and you saw the "washington post" had a great interview with nancy pelosi this week, as well, who had been making the case that the democratic party is just as dynamic as any other party. there is one piece of the party that gets a whole lot of

attention, alexandria ocasio-cortez has gotten more attention, certainly than any freshman i've ever seen. bernie sanders gets a lotçó of attention. but democrats won control of congress in 2018 because of moderates or middle-of-the-road voters who appealed to suburban voters in what were republican-leaning districts. that's the argument, that's where the core of the party is. and that is a very good point. the core of the democratic electorate is women, as molly said, african-americans, and voters of color, about 40%, but they're also older. it's painful saying older, meaning older than 45, apparently that's old now, but that's where these voters are. so older voters have gone, if you're over the age of 45, you have gone on this same path that joe biden has, of what the democratic party has been. what was okay in 1998 isn't okay now. what was okay in 2000, not okay now. and he represents the ways in which so many democrats have

come to that point and we're going to see, are they comfortable with that being their image. >> brennan: david, there is also another argument within democratic party circles right now and this is what do we do with the mueller report? how do we approach the possibility of the "i" word, impeachment. you heard congressman nadler there acknowledge that that's not the entire motivation, but impeachment could be a possibility in terms of what is looked at in these 400 pages if they are indeed turned over to congress as expected. >> yeah, so i think, you know what, we saw from your interview, made clear that i think there are some democratic leaders realize the initial framing by the attorney general was sort of aimed to sort of tamp down the idea that democrats will continue with thestiinvestigations, but i think some of the public polling has shown very clearly that much of the country, i think a cnn poll, over 50%, believe the report did not exonerate the president. so i think democrats are

encouraged by that to maybe move forward more aggressively, and i think president trump's early suggestion that he's okay with the full report coming out now, the president himself is walking some of that back. >> brennan: and you heard some of that from his attorney rudy giuliani, who said, well, it could be public, but i don't have control of that. >> right. exactly. so i think their message is that the president goes to the campaign rally. i was with him just last week when he was talking about complete exoneration. i think there is a sense that, what else is out there? certainly there's concern among his team that as this comes out it could be worse for him. >> brennan: but when it comes to impeachment, the argument you heard from rudy giuliani today and that you hear from the president and many of his defend verse that the democrats are dying to peach -- impeachment the president and they are looking for any pretext they can get to go down that route. my impression from my reporting on the democratic leadership in the house in particular is exactly the opposite. they would prefer not to go down that road because they don't see it a as a political winner.

they see it asdy vice i. they're dying to find an excuse not to, however, they feel they are being led in that direction by their investigations, but the things that they have found, by the things that we already know about the president, and so if the democrats through their investigations and through the evidence come to believe that, you know, that the president -- many of them already feel that the president has abused his power, violated the constitution, and whatever different ways. not saying that that's correct, but since they believe that, if they do truly believe that, they are going to be led down this path. they're going to at least have to answer the question, if the president has done these things, why aren't you impeaching? >> impeachment is a political decision. it's in the a legal one. politically molly is completely correct. the leadership of the democratic party does not want to go down that road. they took these lessons away from the clinton experience in the '90s. they don't want to go in that

direction in this context, flu are a lot of new members who weren't around in the '90s and don't necessarily feel that way. they tend to be the ones who have an outside voice within the party at the moment. they speak for a lot of democratic voters who, you know, frankly the polling tells us they were in favor of impeachment before the president was even sworn into office. so i think that the problem there is just the loud nature of the wing of this democratic coalition that does want impeachment is not going to be tamped down on at all by what comes out of any of these investigations. >> brennan: yet voters also don't seem to be suede by anything, anything that will come out that has thus far come out from the mueller report, anything that is likely to come out from the mueller report. this president has had the narrowest trading range in terms of the highest highs and the lowest lows. it's only ten points. we've never seen a president with that narrow of a difference between his highs and his lows. that's not going to change to

me. i don't know if there is anything that will get the president's approval rating much higher than 45% or much lower than 35%. so the question in 2020 is where is he in that range going into the election? is he closer to the 45%? that's good for the president. is he closer to the 35%? that's a lot better for the democrats. >> brennan: so standing in the middle of fifth avenue was it still stands. david, we did see the president hit the campaign trail himself in the past few days. he went out to the boarder in california. he went to nevada to, las vegas, to this gathering of jewish republican gathering. what is he trying to do here? he keeps characterizing the democratic party as anti-jewish. >> well, i think the president is... whether it's that issue or others, he's trying the galvanize this space. the was an event in las vegas with jewish coalition, and the president talked quite a bit about his policy with israel. he had benjamin netanyahu at the

white house. he supported israeli involvety of the golan heights. trump himself has been really messageing to that base of support. so he combined an issue with the border where obviously he believes that's going to be a key issue here, as well. so he's really playing to the group of 40% that he believes really will carry him through this cycle. >> brennan: what is the status of jared kushner's middle east peace plan, because the president has endorsed some pretty hardline viewpoints, though they were very popular in israel. >> this is a long-standing peace plan that's been worked on for a long time. the granddaddy of deals. but it seems like it's somewhat being considered dead on arrival at this point. the president, you know, you hear reaction from the arab states that say, if this is a kind of rollout of peace plan where the president is endorsing very closely the israeli point

of view already, they don't see a lot of potential successors. >> brennan: or at least native american's point of view. benjamin netanyahu said he would annex the west bank if he's reelected, which is administration has not commented on. amy, did you want to comment on that? >> i wanted to go into the point about the 40% where the president is choosing to lean in. the one place where the president does have high approval ratings, it's not on foreign affairs. it's not on immigration or immigration policy. it's the economy, where his approval ratings have consistently been nine, ten points higher than his overall approval rating, yet he seems to just be unable or unwilling to lean in into that and spend... most presidents would spend 99. of their time doing nothing but that. he is doing everything but talk about that. >> if anything he shut down the government for 35 days. >> talking about shutting down the border. >> saying he didn't know what would happen or find lanes that would stay open in a border shut down to keep the economy going.

the president tents to be his own worst enemy in that regard. >> brennan: why is the president messaging on immigration this week and messaging on, well, i guess health care was on and then it was off in terms of before or after 2020. >> he talks about whatever he wants to talk about. edoesn't listen to anybody who wants him to talk about the economy or something like that. of course to amy's point, any other republican administration would be hammering away on this, instead he just sees something and he goes after it. it's -- he's never going to stop. so we shouldn't expect him to. >> brennan: get ready for the reelection campaign. >> it's what he loves. >> brennan: thanks to all of you. we're going to be right back in a moment. it's not a space. it's an incubator of achievement.

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>> brennan: we turn now to the big story on the home front here at "face the nation," the final four, when the moderator, executive producer and the former moderator of college basketball makes it to the ncaa finals, it's big news. last night in minneapolis, with the cavaliers down two points against auburn, u.v.a.'s kyle guy was fouled with six tenths of a second on the clock, and he sank all three of his foul

shots, virginia to the final round of the tournament. >> virginia is headed to its first ever national championship game appearance. >> brennan: cbs sports will air that game monday night. coverage starts at 8:30 p.m. eastern as virginia takes on our cbs colleague, scott pelley's alma mater texas tech.

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>> brennan: that's it for us today. thank you all for watching. until next week, for "face the nation," i'm margaret brennan. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org at redfin, we charge you a 1% listing fee.

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than the one next door. kel: hey, i'm kel mitchell, and you're about to meet some amazing animals who make the world a better place. this is "tails of valor." today, we meet one golden retriever who played matchmaker for her handler, kim? david: everything has been opened right up. these animals are a godsend. they really are. kel: plus, a mini horse changes life for her handler in a big way. jessica: she is just the greatest. kel: animals give us love, loyalty, and devotion, but sometimes they're asked to go above and beyond the call of duty when their people need help.