to help turn your ambitions into action. what would you like the power to do? my thanks to joyce, emily, john, and donny, and to all of you for watching. thank you so much. that does it for this hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. with steve kornacki in for chuck. >> thanks. if it's friday, it's the politics of impeachment. ♪ good evening. i'm steve kornacki in for chuck todd here in new york. welcome to meet the press daily. democrats have subpoenaed the full, unredacted mueller report. the president is attacking the investigation with profane language, and it looks increasingly likely that robert mueller will testify before congress. we are going to get to all of

that in just a moment, but we begin tonight with perhaps the biggest question in american politics now amid the fallout from the mueller report. what do democrats do now? buckle up because it appears they are headed for one heck of a debate over the question of impeachment. just moments ago, senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts, of course she is running for president, she said the house should initiate impeachment proceedings against the president. her comments come just hours after fellow candidate pete buttigieg also prodded congress to act from the campaign trail. >> i'll leave that to congress. there's more evidence still coming in as these subpoenas work their way through. it's certainly the case that you can see lots of evidence that this president deserves to be impeached. but since i'm not in congress, i'm focused on replacing him the old-fashioned way. >> and the chairman of the house oversight committee sounds like he's anticipating some action soon as well. >> we've got to expose it.

a lot of people keep asking about the question of impeachment. we may very well come to that very soon. >> and then there are folks like the intelligence committee chair, adam schiff, who are trying to manage expectations. >> an impeachment proceeding cannot be successful if one party decides they're more loyal to their party or to the person of the president than they are to the constitution and the country, and that is a real structural problem right now. >> moments ago, house speaker nancy pelosi's office put out a statement on the issue of impeachment, specifically responding to warren's calls. it says, quote, as the speaker has said repeatedly, one step at a time. we're focused on getting the full, unredacted version of the report and its underlying documents as well as hearing from mueller. the report raises more questions and concerns that we believe the american people deserve answers to. so while there is of course a complicated legal debate involving the president and obstruction statutes, the determination by congress as to

whether the president should be removed from office is a political decision. so let's dive into the politics of this. michael schmidt is an msnbc national contributor. sa hill kapoor, beth fuey, and susan del percio. thanks to everybody for being with us. i'll start with you, beth. we say impeachment is ultimately a political question. we say that because high crimes and misdemeanors, this is an undefined term. theoretically congress could define jay walking as a high crime if it wanted to. so ultimately we could put all the lawyers we want in the world out here and say it meets obstruction because of this or it doesn't because of that. if democrats decide what they read in the mueller report equals a high crime, they could move forward in the house with impeachment, and now you have a presidential candidate telling them to do that. >> exactly. well, here's the problem, though, steve. as you know, nancy pelosi has

said repeatedly and forcefully she does not believe in impeachment. she does not think that is a remedy to anything we're seeing from the president. her terminology is he's not worth it. he's not worth putting the country through the divisiveness of this. now, granted the last time we heard that from her was before this redacted version of the report came out. perhaps she will rethink that, you know, very hard line sort of view she was taking beforehand. but just those quotes that you just played back, she's saying let's wait to hear from him. let's wait to see the unredacted version. she's always been, let's wait for the next step. >> she's buying time. >> except at the same time she has been quite desiegsive about saying she doesn't want impeachment. we are starting to hear other voices within the house saying, no, what we saw in this report yesterday is, in many ways, it must be addressed in some punitive fashion. whether it goes all the way to impeachment or not, and certainly there are those who think it should, people are saying if the house does not

take any step at this point, then we are normalizing behavior that we cannot possibly normalize. it's a very big dilemma. >> i'm thinking back to the impeachment of bill clinton in 1998. you had the republican base -- republicans controlled the house back then, and the republican base wanted it and made it clear to republican leaders it was a litmus test issue to them in a lot of ways. i look at the most recent poll of democratic base, of democratic voters. 68% of democratic voters in the poll a couple weeks ago say they want impeachment. so if the base, if two-thirds, the overwhelming majority of the democratic base is there, and if you get warren coming out and saying this, and if now other candidates -- let's see. but if other candidates now say, if she's there, i got to be there, and you get 13something like a stampede among presidential candidates and they're all calling for it, what latitude does pelosi, what latitude do they have to say no? >> that's precisely the line that democratic leaders are walking right now. elizabeth warren just lit the

fuse on what is guaranteed to be an explosive debate inside the democratic party over the next year and a half. now, most presidential contenders have not gone there. none of them in fact have gone there. elizabeth warren is the first 2020 democratic candidate to come out in favor of initiating impeachment against president trump. others like senator kamala harris suggested on this network that that's a conversation that could be had, but she wants to hear from bob mueller first. house democratic leaders have set a very high standard for impeachment, which is that not only should the president have committed impeachable offenses, not only should they rise to the level of necessitating removal, but there must be such compelling evidence to have bipartisan support for removal. and based on the republican reaction so far, there is nothing close to bipartisan support for removing the president from office. even if the house democrats can impeach the president on a partisan vote, which they can do, they're going to need a minimum of 20 senate republicans, and what democrats fear is that this issue if they pursue impeachment is going to overshadow the rest of their agenda, and they field tested

2018 by running on economic issues like health care and taxes and essentially ignoring president trump, and it worked well for them. >> in terms of that, susan, where does the white house fit into this? i remember last year in the midterms, trump, it seemed, was trying to bait democrats into talking about impeachment. he felt if democrats talk about this, 2 fires up the republican base, gives us a chance, he's thinking, gives republican a chance to equalize that energy and balance. didn't get them to do it in the midterm. how would he look at it right now. >> i actually think he wants to stay on this narrative because if the democrats change their narrative and do more looking at corruption and how the administration is functioning, do we have an apt administration? are they doing their jobs on oversight? i think that will get donald trump a lot more concerned. let's not forget in the summer of 2018, in the early part of the summer, the driving issue was competency and corruption of the trump administration. i think that you can use the hearing -- instead of doing impeachment hearings, you can do

oversight hearings and mueller hearings and have mueller come in but also have don mcgahn come in and say, what else were you told to lie about? so i think you can use that to slow-walk leading up to, quote, potential impeachment hearings without actually having to go there. >> michael, also just this afternoon we had mitt romney, republican senator from utah, who was a vociferous trump critic back in the 2016 campaign. he came out with a pretty blistering statement saying that he had read the full report. he considered its contents -- there it is. he said he's sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the president. i'm also appalled that among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for the president welcomed help from russia, including information that had been illegally obtained, yet none of them acted to inform american law enforcement and that the campaign chairman was actively promoting russian interests in ukraine. getting that statement again from mitt romney. in trump world, in the white

house, folks around the president, how do you sense they are perceiving the politics of the fallout from this? >> well, they have thought for about the past year that this is where the investigation was headed, that the only problem the president faced was a political problem. he didn't face a legal one. he wasn't going to get indicted. the only issue he would have is in the house on impeachment, and that's when rudy giuliani, who was hired at this time last year, came on and tried to do everything possible to throw everything at the wall to make this more confusing, to try and move public opinion in the president's favor or, at the very least, make it confusing and dense and hard for people to appreciate and understand. so this is somewhere where they thought they would be for a long time, and they were sort of right. the president was fine legally. he was cleared by the attorney general. he doesn't face an issue there,

but he does face this political problem. and, look, for some -- in some ways, this would play directly into the president's strength. he gets to continue the witch hunt narrative, says that, look, there was no collusion. he can use barr's statements, the attorney general, to back him up and say, look, why are they still coming after me after all of this stuff? and that may be a decent argument for him with at least some of his base. >> the other question, beth, is timing of how this will all play out. we can talk about the clinton example in '98 and '99. the actual impeachment was december 1988. it was a month after that midterm. then in early '99 was the acquittal in the senate. so you had almost two full years between that moment and then the presidential election of 2000. of course immediately coming off the acquittal, there were predictions the republicans were doomed in 2000 because their numbers were so low. and then bush, the republican, wins it in 2000. this one, though, if you started the clock ticking like right

now, i don't think it could be resolved before the fall. >> no, and it is a slightly different situation. to clinton, in that clinton had already won re-election. he was a lame duck and was going to be handing over the campaign to another democrat in the next presidential election. this is a referendum on president trump's leadership. that's what this presidential election is going to be in addition to choosing a democratic candidate. the timing, as you say, it would be very difficult to get this going and have it resolved. and having been out on the campaign trail with a number of democrats, this is the last thing they want to have to deal with. you go out on the campaign trail. you listen to voters. voters are talking about health care, all the things that typically play into the playbook of democrats, health care, climate change, guns. there's a lot of conversation about that now. they feel like they have a real message around those issues with what voters are talking to them about. they're really not bringing up russia. so to have this sort of hovering in the background and to be getting asked about it all the time by reporters when they're not getting asked about it on voters, kinds of has a split

screen narrative that none of them wants right now. >> let's not forget the southern district of new york has a clock on it as well because the primary -- you know, the president could be facing a primary in january. so do they have to finish their -- get to their conclusion by, let's say, labor day and release their report? so we can have a whole other drop, if you will, resulting of the mueller investigation, but referred cases and potential indictments. >> sahil, is there a potential avenue here, i wonder, for democrats? again, i think back to the example in '98 when republicans were pushing to impeach clinton. the democratic response was, okay, he did something wrong. it's not impeachable. how about censure? scensure and move on. and the republicans said, no, we want full impeachment. but if democrats -- if nancy pelosi, say, is apprehensive about the politics of impeachment, could she offer censure? would democrats go for that, and would that potentially put pressure on somebody like romney

given what he just said to vote for it? >> steve, that's the kind of thing that democratic leaders might look at to potentially offer middle ground and placate the democrats that want to do impeachment, but that seems like a neither here nor there option, which would anger both sides and not really please anybody. the republicans for the most part are extremely dug in with the president thin that this report functionally clears him of legal wrongdoing. there's plenty in this report that would probably derail any ordinary presidenpresidency, bus not an ordinary presidency. the president has been the war path vigorously attacking this investigation and has convinced his political base, his political movement that this investigation was designed to undermine and was not above board. so as far as democrats go, there is not a clear front-runner in the democratic contest right now, which is a very important dynamic because if there was, that person would be essentially setting the party's agenda. that person -- if elizabeth warren was the obvious

front-runner and called for impeachment, it would be very difficult for speaker pelosi to refuse. but there's a massive field right now, so she's not really taking her marching orders from any one candidate. if it turns into a stampede, this could be very difficult for house democratic leaders to resist. >> yes. there's some news today that joe biden might be on the verge of getting in the race. i imagine that could be the first question that he's hit with if indeed that does happen. michael schmidt, thanks to you, sahil, beth, and susan aric itting around. coming up, some democrats are ready to hit the gas on impeachment as we've been saying, but others still in neutral. i'm going to talk to one outspoken democrat on the house judiciary committee. that's next. plus, as i said, we now know that joe biden appears set to make -- what he will apparently make official next week. we'll take a look at the biggest challenge he's facing in the democratic primary from the big board. that's ahead too. with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay? even when i was there,

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committee chairman jerry nadler today subpoenaed the attorney general demanding he turn over the complete and unredacted version of robert mueller's report along with all of its supporting documents. this comes as barr readies to appear before the committee in less than two weeks. public testimony from mueller could soon follow. i'm joined now by democratic congressman david cicilline of rhode island. he's a member of the house judiciary committee. he has been very critical of president trump's behavior as described in the mueller report. we mentioned that subpoena from your committee's chairman there. pbs, yamiche alcindor is reporting that the doj is going to respond to that subpoena, to that request, calling it premature and unnecessary. that request from your committee's chairman. what's your reaction to that? >> well, it's timely and necessary. look, the judiciary committee has responsibility to do

oversight. we need to see the full contents of the report. the best and most recent example was when ken starr completed his report, he turned over the report in its entirety to the judiciary committee. he sought permission from the court for the grand jury testimony without being asked by congress, and then delivered the report with 17 boxes of materials of supporting evidence. that's the practice we should be following. the judiciary committee has the right to see the full contents of the report. the staff that's classified, we can see in a skiff, in a classified setting. we do that all the time. but it's long past time for members of congress to see that full report. >> we've just confirmed, i mentioned that response calling the subpoena premature and unnecessary. let me ask you the question of the hour now within your party, certainly that question of impeachment. elizabeth warren, candidate for president, says it is time for the house, for democrats in the house to begin impeachment proceedings. do you agree with her? >> well, i'll tell you what,

chris. i reviewed the entire report. i spent five hours reading every single page of the report and the appendices. i encourage people to do that. it is breathtaking to hear and see in print the conduct of the trump campaign and the trump administration. there is no question that in volume 2, the special counsel sets out ten instances of obstruction of justice committed by the president and comes to the conclusion that because of the legal memorandum, he would not make a traditional analysis, that legal memorandum that says a sitting president can't be indicted. then he basically reminds congress that this is our responsibility in the closing paragraphs of that report. so we have additional work to do. we've now subpoenaed the full report. all of the supporting documents. we need to hear from mr. barr and mr. mueller. but this is very serious. you know what makes me sad is this discussion about democrats versus republicans and how we're viewing it. every american, whether you're republican, democrat, or independent, should be horrified that the russians interfered,

attacked our democracy. it was welcomed by a presidential campaign who benefited from it. then they lied about it in an attempt to cover it up. this strikes at the very heart of our makdemocracy. >> i hear you, so i'm asking, is part of that approach impeachment proceedings? elizabeth warren says now is the time to begin. yes or no, do you agree with that? >> i think there is no question that impeachment must be on the table. there's a process. you know, elizabeth warren, i respect her tremendously, but he's not on the house judiciary committee. we actually have to do the work. we are still in the evidence gathering phase. we want to make sure we have everything we need. but there is no question that this is very serious, and the prospect of impeachment has significantly increased based on the contents of the mueller report. we can only imagine what's in the unredacted portions of this report. we have to approach this soberly, but i think it is very important that the house recognize that this is a moment where not only the country is

watching, but the world is watching. we're seeing rule of law being undermined, free press being undermined, authoritarian governments rising. this is a moment where america has to show by our example that the constitution matters, the rule of law matters, and no one is above the law. and we need to move forward and finish the collection of our evidence and take whatever action is appropriate, including impeachment if it's compelled. my view is pretty clear. i think there is ample evidence in this to warrant removal of the president. it's not my judgment alone. there's a process and a committee and a set of hearings that will have to happen. but i think everyone should read that report. it is sobering and stunning and deeply disturbing. >> i want to follow that because of what you said at the end. you said you think there's ample evidence for the removal of the president. >> well, we know for sure -- >> we know that impeachment proceedings, you would have hearings. would you have an investigation. you'd have hearings. so it sounds like you are calling for that process, are you not? >> no. look, we have -- look, we know

for a fact obstruction of justice is an impeachable offense. there's no question about that. that is what's set forth in the special counsel's report. we have additional evidence to collect, but i think it is quite clear that the president committed offenses which constitute impeachable offenses and there is a process to follow to finish the collection of evidence, conduct hearings, and make sure that everyone considers that the right judgment. my own view of it, having read the entire report, is that there is sufficient evidence in that to constitute impeachable offenses, and that option remains on the table. but it's important that we do our work. i know people are anxious for us to move quickly. we just got this report. it's invited lots more questions. we need to collect the balance of the evidence to make sure that we're doing this properly. the country has to have confidence that this is not being done for political reasons. it's very important for people to understand we should never do impeachment for a political reason alone, and we should never refuse to do impeachment

if the facts warrant it for a political reason. i think we have to be carefully that we make that clear as we do our work in the congress. >> has the temperature changed not just with you, but with democratic leaders? i just saw yesterday steny hoyer, number two democrat in the house, as the mueller report is coming out in the middle of the day, he said it was not the time to do impeachment. and two hours later, a new statement that was a lot more ambivalent on the question, it seemed. >> well, i think, you know, anyone who has read the mueller report and is fair-minded and does it with kind of an open mind has to conclude at the conclusion of their reading that this is very serious, that there is evidence of impeachable offenses. we know obstruction of justice is an impeachable offense, and so i think after reading that, everyone would have to recognize that impeachment remains on the table. and although there's a process the committee needs to follow to conclude, you know, our own fact gathering, evidence gathering so

that we can see all the contents of the report and all the supporting materials, but no one who has read this report from cover to cover would leave that reading and not think that this is a very serious body of work that raises questions about obstruction of justice, you know, the convergence of a russian adversary and a presidential campaign, kind of convergence of interests, that there was significant help from the russians to elect donald trump as president, that the president tried to impede this investigation by firing people, encouraging people to lie, lying himself. those are very, very serious offenses, and many of them we know are impeachable offenses. so we're going to go through the work we need to do to continue to gather information, and i expect when that evidence gathering is complete, we'll make a judgment on how to proceed. i know my own view and my colleagues will have an opportunity to weigh in as well. >> very quickly, that evidence gathering, roughly how long do you think? what's the timetable for that? >> it depends. it would be very helpful if the

attorney general cooperated. we could move through this very quickly with the cooperation of the administration and the attorney general, and i hope he understands the urgency, that congress understands the urgency of moving forward. it really will be determined in large part on how quickly mr. barr complies with our requests. >> congressman david cicilline from rhode island, thank you for joining us. take away the no collusion, no obstruction talk on the impeachment debate, there is still one indisputable takeaway from the mueller report. a foreign government attacked the u.s. election in 2016. who's to say that russians or others aren't going to try to do it all over again in 2020? that's next. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice! but uh, what's up with your partner? oh! we just spend all day telling everyone how we customize car insurance because no two people are alike, so... limu gets a little confused when he sees another bird that looks exactly like him.

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all right. welcome back. with the mueller report now out, let's take a look at one of the most important and perhaps overlooked aspects of the political fallout facing the president right now. it's the question of expectations for trump's presidency and how that forms a backdrop for major seismic events like this. so take a look here. what you've got is basically a graph of the president's approval rating, his average approval rating in all the different polls out there throughout his presidency. where does it sit right now? it sits just a tick under 44%. 43.9%. really, again, the story of this presidency in one way when it comes to public opinion is the remarkably narrow range that opinion of donald trump has lived in. his absolute high point as president, 47%. call that his honeymoon, about

two weeks into his presidency. that was the high point. the low point, though, 37%. his approval rating has lived within that range for all of the controversy, for all of the chaos, the swirling headlines, the volume of the debate, all of that at unprecedented levels for his entire presidency. his approval rating has lived within a very narrow range, and really you look at this. it was the same story in the campaign. his support level against hillary clinton lived in a very similar range. and of course on election day, he did get in there by the narrowest of margin and under very unusual circumstances. on election day, only 35% of the country said that donald trump had the temperament to be president. only 38% said he was qualified to be president. 60% said they had a negative opinion of donald trump, and yet he got elected. it's an interesting backdrop for his presidency because when you look at that sort of steady -- it's not a great range to be in, but the bottom has never fallen out for him. it might be one of the reasons

for that politically might be that we never had a president who got elected where expectations even from his own voters in many cases were as low as they were for donald trump. so you take a look at that poll, and you say, it looks a lot like the campaign. has anybody changed their mind about donald trump at all since 2016? we'll be back with more "mtp daily" right after this. every day, visionaries are creating the future. so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work.

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welcome back. robert mueller uncovered what he called a sweeping and systematic attack by russia on our democracy, yet president trump has been silent on that issue although he did seem to blame the obama administration for anything that happened during the 2016 election. secretary of state mike pompeo was asked today if he will take any actions against moscow. >> we will talk about the steady fast requirement that russia not engage in activity that impacts

the -- we will make clear to them this is unacceptable behavior. as you've seen from this administration, we will take tough actions which raise the cost for russian malign activity, and we'll continue to do that. >> with me now, ambassador michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia, and msnbc international affairs analyst. and robert anderson, former executive assistant director for the fbi. thank you both for being with us. ambassador, let me start with you. i guess i'm just curious. first of all, what do you think over in moscow right now putin, leaders in the russian government just watching -- it's the middle of april of 2019, and here's the united states, the entire political system right now is consumed by dissecting the mueller report about what russia, at its heart, about what russia's role in our 2016 campaign. what is the reaction to that? how is that received and regard regarded, do you think among putin and his inner circle? >> well, a couple years ago,

they were disappointed that president trump didn't engage with them on concessions, things he had talked about during the 2016 presidential election that they thought were coming after he would win. and on the top of that list was sanctions relief. but over time, they're content to watch this. they of course denied. they had nothing to do with it. the president of the united states has never criticized them, and it's great that the secretary of state does. but when the president of the united states chooses not to do so, that's a signal to moscow. and more generally, they like the fact that we're polarized, divided, fighting amongst ourselves, and not engaging in the world. that's a win for putin. >> so, michael, in terms of the preparation for 2020 in this country to prevent russia from doing anything like it did in 2016, where does that stand right now? >> well, that was to me, right? i would say a couple of things. one is i want to emphasize the

mueller report is not like the 911 commission that we had after september 11th. its scope was more limited, and there are many other -- some aspects of the campaign that russia did against us that are not even treated there. say what russia today did, what sputnik did. we still know very little about what they did on our electoral infrastructure. i think there's only two paragraphs in there. and i still want to know more about the money. we still know very little about that. number two, they didn't scrutinize what the obama administration did and did not do. i think that would -- that's what we did after september 11th. we haven't done that. and as you said, there's no prescriptions in the report at all, and that i think we now need to pivot hard to that. what do we need to do in 2020? to me, there are three big buckets. one, how do we deal with the media part? social media as well as broadcast media from russia. two, enhanced cybersecurity. and then, three, just norms, if they're not laws, about transparency about contacts with

foreign governments, including business relationships that presidential candidates might have with foreign governments. i think the american people should have the knowledge that these things are happening during the campaign, not just after it. >> yeah. and, bob, i guess it raises the question too how policeable is some of this? the idea there, the question of social media. we've looked at all these things that landed on facebook or somehow got -- you know, got through on the internet. you know, we kind of live in a world where at a certain level, some of that can't be stopped, can it? >> well, it's tough. i think it's a great question, but i think there needs to be a better private sector/government sector bonding when it comes to national security of the united states. you both hit on really good points, and i can tell you russia is like the angry kid on a playground. they're not going to stop doing what they're doing without severe repercussions from the united states. the gru, and their military

intelligence, i can guarantee you are already making plans to target our political infrastructure again in 2020. i think as the ambassador brought up a little earlier, i really think we need to be focusing on that, and not just the people that are in power but anybody that's going to currently be running for the president of the united states. >> in terms of relations going forward, ambassador, this administration and russia, you mentioned this too, the idea that -- i think you had used the term a bit of a paradox between some of the official administration actions the last couple years and certainly the public posture of this president towards putin. where does it go from here? >> i hope it doesn't go anywhere. i think the trump administration has a pretty sound policy towards russia. i think there's a lot of continuity, in fact, with the obama administration, and they don't like it when i say that, and obama folks don't like when i say that. but pushing back on russia, sanctioning russia, building up nato and supporting ukraine,

those are the three pillars as you move forward. the problem of course is there's one person in the trump administration that doesn't always agree with that policy, and he happens to be the president. and what i don't know is now that this investigation is done, will that somehow embolden president trump to say, i got this now. i'm going to reach out to do what i've always wanted to do with vladimir putin, and that's what they've been hoping for. in the kremlin, if you look at the press, they've been hoping for this moment to try one more time to bond with the president, and that's why they want -- they don't want him with his advisers, right? they don't want notetakers because they think they can pull him in their direction. i hope it doesn't happen, but we should watch to see if they try to do so. >> yeah, and, bob, just in terms of you mentioned all the candidates running. you know, we've got, what, 28 of them on the democratic side right now. what would you like to see their campaigns doing? >> well, i think one of the things -- i mean it doesn't surprise me or anybody that's worked in the united states

intelligence community against our adversaries when it comes to counterintelligence, espionage, or political influence like russia has tried to do. one of the things is education. people need to understand -- and i think there is a lull in this in the trump administration, at least when he was running and then when he first got into office -- that a lot of the stuff that we're talking about is real. and the techniques that russia, china, and other nation states are going to use to try to acquire information against our political candidates is very sophisticated. and i think they need to be educated about how they're going to attack them because i guarantee you they will. look, the russian intelligence services, it's number one, number two, and number three priority is the united states. and i don't think that anybody can say it any better than that. and i think we need to look at making sure our candidates in the offices of people now are secure the best way we can. >> thank you both for joining us. up next, joe biden. we mentioned this earlier. he is set to announce his candidacy for president next week. we're going to take a deep dive

into maybe what is the biggest challenge facing his candidacy. my insurance rates are probably gonna double. but dad, you've got allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. are you in good hands? you might or joints.hing for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory.

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democratic woke up and, you know, everybody asked, you know, what kind of democrat -- i'm an obama/biden democrat, man, and i'm proud of it. >> welcome back. tonight in 20/20 vision, we now know former vice president joe biden is set to announce his candidacy for president next week. the atlantic says it will be wednesday. as you heard there, he believes the democratic is still the obama-biden, and therein lies his challenge that he can be the future at age 78 in 2020 of that party. that challenge for biden, you hear in that clip a little bit of the bet he apparently is getting ready to make. you hear people saying, look, the democratic party has changed. it's more liberal now. things like that. take a look at some of the numbers about where the democratic party is right now. number one, this is galgallup. they track the basic ideology of democratic voters over time. go back to 2006 when they asked folks, are you a moderate,

liberal, conservative. a big plurality says moderate. went from 32% to 46%, a 14-point jump. now it's a plurality of democrats who call themselves liberals, followed by moderate, followed way back by conservatives. that's the democratic party that joe biden is going to try to capture in 2020. here's the interesting thing, though. the folks who call themselves liberals now, you got a lot of folks who are older, a lot of folks who are younger. there's not a huge age divide. i think the term liberal may mean different things depending on what age you are. you might have a different definition of it. so check this out. if you take a poll right now of democratic voters, those who are 50 and older, joe biden is running away with this thing. look, the other pretty old candidate, bernie sanders, he only has 12%. biden, 37%. take a look now at those who are under 50, and look what happens. that biden support, it falls

almost in half from 37% to 22%. he's not even in first place, folks under 50. bernie sanders vaults into first place. here's beto o'rourke at 15%. it may be older voters in the democratic party, joe biden is there idea of a liberal. maybe young voters, a different idea. the other question, though, is this. you heard him say the term obama-biden democrat. here was a poll. it gave a bunch of choices to democrats. it said pick a couple labels. what are you? socialist, 2% of democratic voters chose that. democratic socialist, 4% chose that. clinton democrat, 5% chose that. liberal democrat, progressive, 6%, 15%. the number one option the democrats took was obama democrat. a lot of good will, a lot of positive memories among democrats. that brand, that name, obama democrat. so no coincidence joe biden looks like he wants to run on that. maybe one of the questions is going to be what does the former president -- what does his former boss say about him when he gets in this race? that could be a key question.

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when it's made real. lfrlt let's talk joe biden. the panel is back. i'll start with you. i've heard theories joe biden, he's in first place right now. about 30% but i've heard this is a wide open race for him. i've heard theories this could be the dumbest political move. >> i don't know that i have any theories but we can take an objective look. he is getting in very late in the game. famously he has been talking openly about how difficult a decision this has been about whether or not to put his family through this. he has all sorts of reservations. he wanted to wait for the first quarter fundraising to be done and then after easter. talk with drag you are your

feet. it doesn't feel like he's getting in with the enthusiasm you would think someone who is the presumed front-runner would be getting in with. so that's a little alarming, to be so reluctant to commit this long. we know he is very, very popular among democrats. he does rank number one in most polling. he's not in yet but he is seeing that. he is seeing there is a clamor to have somebody like him have him in the race. the question is, once he's in, it is a whole different story. then he's up against 18, 19, 20 other people. many of whom have raised tons of money. they've already grabbed the staff and he'll have to play catch-up. even though he is a very experienced political operative in his own right. >> if he does get in, one of the first tests will be the debates. i'm thinking back to the last time he ran. 2007, 2008 on the democratic side. all the oxygen was being sucked

up by obama and clinton. but there was biden and he kept in the eyes of a lot of the press, winning the debates. he didn't get any votes but he did get out of that, the vp spot. i'm wondering, is there a chance as he little underrated in that you get him on the stage. maybe he looks a lot better to democrats. than you're looking at right now. >> that's the single most important question. he is the front-runner in most polls, joe biden is, and he is benefitting from a number of things. perfect name recognition. with obama among democrats, which he is very eager to play up, and there are a lot of moderate democrats still there. he has run for president twice, in 1988 and 2008. it didn't work out either time. the party has moved away from him since then. if he does run, there is a trove of material, four decades with, speeches, votes, gaffes, even some handsiness, videos of him

being handsy with women that could come out and that could cast him in a very different light. so it remains to be seen whether he can sustain it. this is the peak of biden before he comes under the microscope. >> i think maybe it is an implicit mention. look at that electoral map. pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. i think the video was shot in scranton. i'm the guy who can win back those states. how does that match-up look? biden on stage with trump. is that a compelling message for democrats? is that a saleable message? >> there are a lot of republican who's don't support the president who could support someone like biden. no doubt about it. he will appeal to those voters. and in those states. he can make great strides. he has to get through the primary. and i think one of the things that i felt he almost won it in 2016 and he wants it today, he'll be the savior of the party. he's the only one who can do it

and he wants people asking him, please run, joe, please run, joe. and he doesn't have that. i wonder where his base of energy will come from among 20 different candidates. also, he was vice president. a u.s. senator. he hasn't been challenged that much. now he will have 19, 20 people coming at him. that's for sure. >> he is going to be 78 years old at the end of 2020. he has wanted his entire political career to be president. the stars never aligned for him. he probably figured after 2016, that it won't happen for me. he has this chance he almost never expected to have so why not? >> that gets back to my point about yet he is still agonizing so much. this sort of public agony about it. and bernie sanders is a year older than joe biden. he jumped in. i'm all in. let's go. he never looked back. he is out there campaigning. very, very aggressively. he has a very young base of supporters. it's funny, the two being

similar age, biden had grab the older democrats. bernie has this younger crowd. you don't think of bernie has this quality. he does seem to have the youthful energy now. he is an older man. so one does have to take that into consideration but he doesn't present as an older established figure the way biden does. >> he also has new ideas. he represents change and going 30th. biden is oh, i was part of that. >> that is the most fascinating thing. he will be 78 gets the older votes. the guy older gets the younger voters. at least to start. >> thank you for being with us. and also some good news as we head to the break. colorado senator michael bennett who was strongly eyeing a presidential run has just been given a clean bill of health after undergoing prostate surgery.

it was a completely clean bill of health. he talked about what it would mean for 2020. >> you get cancer-free, you're 100% in. no ambiguity. >> no. this is something i really want to do. i think i have something to contribute. we need to focus on what the country needs us to focus on. >> our best wishes obviously to the senator. we'll be right back. the senator. we'll be right back. to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it's best to make you everybody else... ♪ ♪ means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. does this sound dismal? it isn't. ♪ ♪ it's the most wonderful life on earth. ♪ ♪ before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice.

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"meet the press daily." president trump's personal attorney, rudolph giuliani, will join chuck. plus, jerry nadler on your local nbc station. "the beat" starts right now. >> good evening. thank you very much. welcome to you at home to a special edition on "the beat." the first full day since the redacted mueller report came out. what's next in the battle? a top democrat joins me on why they are subpoenaing the entire report today. that's big news. also, a headline that would scare any white house. 14 new investigations that mueller handed off. many of them unknown. we'll get into them. and later, you know we cover all the evidence on "the beat." we begin with the truly damning evidence of obstruction against trump in this report. at the end of this hour, we will turn to a witness who faced off against the mueller probe and came out in the clear. carter page, one of the trump