electoral college in 2020, it's the latest season of chuck a very narrow battlefield. rosenburg's amazing podcast "the i think there are michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, oath" is out. he talks to one of the arizona, florida, and north carolina. prosecutors who helped convicted and what do five of the six have 9/11's ma soui. in common? black voters are a substantial thanks to everyone, and most of share of the vote and a key -- all, thank you for watching. that does it for us. keystone to any democratic path to taking those states back from "npt daily" with chuck todd starts now. trump. and so when i'm looking in 2020, i think who can play in small to midsized metro areas, but also which candidate can energize african-american voters. and some democrats think that trump can do that by himself. if it's wednesday, how the i'm not entirely convinced after republican win last night in north carolina could signal big 2016. >> i agree. trouble for the president and >> yeah. his party, particularly in an >> yeah. it can't just be about being important swing state. plus, as congress gets ready against trump. like the democratic nominee has for a major vote on impeachment, to be able to go and excite -- we'll speak with a democrat in >> what if -- all right. charge of getting more democrats there is something i want you to elected to the house. ponder. and what did the president what if electability doesn't noaa and when did he noaa it? inspire? just the person that can get a report draws a straight line more bodies to door knock isn't from trump to the weather

agency's condemn nation of the person that is seen as most likely -- to me one of the forecasters who contradicted him. interesting conundrums that getting perplexed looks. democrats face. one person would bring more you don't know the noaa pun? people to show up to door knock, come on, man. welcome to wednesday. the other person plays well in it's "meet the press daily." mecklenburg county. dave wasserman, man, we need good evening. sometimes some puns are better more special elections for you, read and some are better said. don't we? >> of course. >> we don't have enough this president trump is spiking the football today. cycle. but last night's special this calendar year. election in north carolina we need a few more before the arguably reinforces the dire talks -- >> careful what you wish for. political situation still facing always a pleasure. this president and the kind of reed, daniella, bill, stick brutalist campaign, if you will, around. coming up, my favorite question of the day -- what did the he needs to run again to pull off the inside straight to president noaa and when did he victory again. noaa it? there's a report that the white the republican candidate he house was behind noaa's defense endorsed barely averted disaster of the faults forecast. in a red district trump won in who could -- false forecast. who could have seen that coming? 2016 by double digits. dan bishop topped democrat dan mccready by 2% points in north someone high at the white house, super high, like owns a tower kind of high. carolina's ninth. first as we go to break, bishop credited the last-minute we'll share moments from today's campaign stop by trump for events marking 9/11. putting him over the edge. >> the president and the vice >> michael helmet howell. >> timothy aaron haviland. president stepping in and committing the way they did to this race was tremendous. >> donald g.havlish jr. and a lot of credit goes to the

>> at ground zero in lower president. >> pro-trump sentiment may be manhattan this morning, families of the victims gathered to the reason bishop pulled out. remember the attack 18 years ago but anti-trump sentiment might be the reason democrats got so today. think about that. 18 years ago today. close. a magic number. the republicans two-point people born that day are adults victory was ten points she was the margin president trump had today. in the ninth district in 2016. nearly 3,000 names read one by one. while president trump carried the only interruption, the sound the district's charlotte suburbs of a bell marking the exact when he was on the ballot, this moments of the attacks. republican lost them last night. [ bell ] folks, the path to a trump victory in just about every ♪ limu emu & doug state goes through a portion of these highly populated suburbs. he can't lose them. our friend and colleague, david and now for their service to the community, wasserman at the cook political report wrote, if trump himself we present limu emu & doug were to replicate the with this key to the city. [ applause ] republicans' perfecormance last it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance night all over the state next investigator, he would lose north carolina and its election so you only pay for what you need. troerl votes, and that's -- electoral votes, and that's and now we need to get back to work. critical to his path. if the trends from last night [ applause and band playing ] hold, it's bad news for team trump. and the really bad news for the trump campaign is that all of only pay for what you need. the trends from last night are trends we've been seeing now for ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

years. trends which, as these new polls show, have the president's approval rating now dipping below 40%, trends which flipped i am royalty of racing, i am the twisting thundercloud. 40 seats for democrats in 2008, and trend which have democrats gaining ground in the suburbs raise your steins to the king of speed. but losing in rural america. here's the best news for republicans, it's that the public has faced tough trends and long odds before, and he's narrowly beat them. the bad news for him is it's now still his only path to a second chance at victory. joining me is david wasserman, he's the house editor at "the cook political report" and contributor. dad: oh, hey guys! reid wilson, correspondent at mom (on speakerphone): hi! "the hill," old pal of mine, son (on speakerphone): dad, i scored two goals today! dad: oh, that's great! vo: getting to a comfortable retirement daniella gibbs lashay, center doesn't have to be an uncomfortable thought. for american progress, co-host see how lincoln can help you retire on your terms of a new podcast launching at lincolnfinancial.com tomorrow called "the tent." and bill crystal, editor at lunch of "the bulwark." should always be working harder.oney welcome. mr. wasserman, provocative thing that's why, your cash automatically goes into a money market fund when you open a new account. to say about north carolina's ninth. it seems to me as if if the just another reminder of the value you'll find at fidelity. president can't carry the open an account today.

charlotte suburbs, how does he these days we're all stressed. win re-election? i hear you, sister. >> yeah. chuck, this is a five-alarm fire stress can affect our minds. i call this dish, "stress." for trump in the suburbs. stress can also affect our bodies. so, i'm partnering with cigna to remind you that your emotional he's basically self-destructed and physical health are more connected than you think. with college educated women and voters. if you look to the mecklenburg go in for your annual check-up. and be open with your doctor about anything you feel. district, in 2016 -- these are what i would call the whole food physically, and emotionally. suburbs of charlotte, pretty body and mind. upscale, he won that portion of cigna. together, all the way. the district by four points in 2016. dan mccready, the democrat last that's better. fall, won those same suburbs by nine points and won them yesterday by 12.5 points even though dan bishop, the republican, represents that area in the state senate. clearly trump's own popularity was driving the democratic performance there. and it were replicated statewide, he would be on track to lose. >> you know, in 2008 there was a lot of -- 2018 there was a lot of thought that that voter, dave, might be a trump-for-president voter, but they wanted a check on trump.

why do i find it harder to believe that that voter that voted mccready last night in those suburbs is suddenly 14 months later going to split their ticket? >> well, it's a great question. and look, the fact of the matter is democrats need to get out of their own way in order to let trump self-destruct. the question is will they in nominating a candidate for president. it's unlikely that they're going to nominate someone as moderate as dan mccready or someone who's as much of a blank slate like a marine corps veteran. the other question is will they be able to hold on to hillary clinton's performance in some of the rural areas. welcome back. the political storm over the robinson county, north carolina, home to the lumby tribe, was a president's false storm forecast is getting worse. today a house committee opened place where mccready did not do an investigation into the trump particularly well and ended up administration's actions after the president claimed that costing him an upset in this alabama was in dorian's path race. that's a county that's only 30% four days after the threat to alabama had officially ended. white. but actually voted for trump in don't worry, we've updated our collage of investigations and 2016 despite having a 60% to 13% calls for investigations from elected house democrats that, democratic registration yes, we now have dorian.

advantage. if democrats nominate a liberal you'll remember that on monday ivy league candidate, i suspect "the new york times" reported that commerce secretary wilbur ross threatened to fire top that they could underperform hillary clinton's share there. employees at noaa after the birmingham office of the >> two questions for you before national weather service contradicted the president on i open it up to the panel. one is, do you know -- do we twitter. the secretary denies that he threatened to fire anyone. know -- is there a way to see if doesn't deny that he tried to trump visiting the day before get it resolved, shall we say. and today "the new york times" because this is different, every is reporting that the white other one of these specials that house specifically acting chief he's lost he went in sometime of staff mick mulvaney was either friday, saturday, or involved. now the "washington post" is sunday before. this is -- i believe this is the reporting president trump first one he did the night himself may have been involved before. in pressuring staff to pressure did that matter? noaa into releasing a statement there's others that have argued in the past he has come to these that disavowed its own agency. areas too quickly, too soon, and let too much time lapse. this afternoon, president trump i'm curious of your thoughts on denied telling mulvaney to fix that. and second, should we also the issue. >> no, i never did that. remind democrats that they have never did that. a massive rural voter problem? that's a whole hoax by the fake >> yeah. and it's worth mentioning that news media when they talk about the hurricane and when they talk most of the wealthy suburban about florida and they talk democrats who voted for dan about alabama. that's just fake news. mccready in south charlotte never see or interact with a lot >> the more you hear fake news, of the trump democrats. the more reliable the story usually is these days. democrats who actually voted for so joining me is nbc's chief

white house correspondent hallie jackson and msnbc contributor obama twice in robeson county, and chief white house correspondent for "the new york the rural part of the district, times" peter baker. peter was the first to break the and fell out of the democratic coalition in 2016. story today about the white house's direct involvement in as far as his rally goes, i think the most curious -- the repudiating noaa for contradicting the president. most interesting part of it is not the timing but rather the peter, i'm doing something i don't normally do. i like to start with my team. location. the bulk of votes in north no offense, but you got this story here. carolina nine is in the you heard the president call it charlotte metro area. instead he went to fayetteville fake news. tell me about your story. which clearly was designed to >> well, look, you know, we saw gin up republican. that there as opposed to riling this rather extraordinary up the democratic vote in statement released by noaa last charlotte. what we learned yesterday -- friday. five days after the birmingham >> wow. trump was even strategic. weather forecasters said the president was wrong. that's rare on that stuff. the idea of the statement -- >> that's not rocket science, didn't seem like it could have chuck. but what we learned from 2018 is come out of nowhere. obviously it didn't. what happened was the president apparently was telling his staff that they needed to clarify his popularity with his own base is not necessarily transferrable this. that he was right in the end, to down-ballot republican and they needed to get fiscal cliffed with noaa. politicians like bishop. that's -- nalley valleyed with and that's part of the reason noaa. why bishop, who is, you know, a that's what led milk mulvaney to member of the republican call the -- milk mulvaney to political establishment that some of the trump base doesn't call noaa and the weather like, underperformed trump by ten points. service. the commercial secretary ross >> all right. calls neil jacobs, he's the head

let me open it up here. of noaa, and says, you know, you guys have got to fix this in reed, capitol hill today, i effect. and that's hours later comes wondered if a democratic victory this statement. this is, you know -- really would have created some -- new interesting moment, of course, panic among republicans. because what you're hearing it didn't happen, but how are critics say is it's the they really feeling this day? politicization of the weather in >> i feel like this is a relief order to justify a fake claim or a mistaken claim by the win for the republican side but president. it's a self-inflicted wound. a peric victory. they spent a lot of money. the president wouldn't have to make this such a big issue. because he can't let go, he nothing's really changed. can't admit that he's wrong, we remember the special elections in 2017 and 2018 in state like arizona, ohio, you know, the have two investigations. one by the house committee and democrat would get close in every single okds -- sim one by the inspector general of the department. >> hallie jackson, this is the most predictable trump story occasion and fall short. aha, proof the wave isn't coming. that could come down the pike. quietly everybody thought it was as soon as this happened, as soon as we saw that -- as soon coming -- >> over performed by 10 in that as we saw that unnamed statement one, 12 in that one -- from noaa, we knew the back >> again and again and won story would be coming back in connor lamm in pennsylvania. some form of the white house. the details we may not have this feels like the same thing. i talked to a pretty senior known until peter reported them in some ways. >> right. republican who said something >> in some ways this is the most like i've seen this movie before, we feel really good about the win the day after. obvious tick tock that -- the sugar high hits, then the because this is a pattern of

media narrative sets in, it was his. a close race, and then come the >> yeah. say something, say something retirement. that's what this race is about. that was misleading at the very whether or not we're going today least, say something that was ten retirements because of the inaccurate and refuse to election result or 20 if it acknowledge that that was in fact the case. this story in particular, though, chuck, and i think you're right about everything flipped the other way. >> danielle athe other thing you said, here's one thing that is different about this -- this that dawned on me after the has gotten under the president's skin in a deep and intense way. polls, this environment might be baked in. what has changed in a year? i mean, dorian has been gone now basically i would argue since for a week, and the president's about the start of a '18 to now, still -- >> do you know why -- >> go. he's somewhere in the low 40s, >> do you know why? i'm asking. high 30s on a good day. >> yeah, because he hates the coverage of it, chuck. the republicans are that is why. it's because when he first underperforming by about ten talked about the alabama points. i mean, we know what the floor potential threat, right, in the tweet and then in those and ceiling is. appearances that sunday when he went to fema after returning it didn't grow. hasn't gotten better for the from camp david ahead of dorian, republicans, hasn't gotten better for the democrats are. he talked about alabama, and the we in a baked in environment? this is a persuadable news reporters, as is our jobs environment? to do, reported out what the >> i don't think so. there are a group who are president said and fact checked moveable, persuadable. it and pointed out that, no, i do want to talk about the rural voter aspect, though, alabama, you're not at risk because i think it's important, because of dorian. remember what that moment was it's something you touched on like, chuck. about the demographics of that. this potentially ferocious >> are you worried about this, hurricane that was about to throttle the bahamas was heading

that you guys are gone in rural -- no offices in south dakota, toward the u.s. coastline. by the way. there was i think an incentive >> no, and there should be. i'm not worried yet because it's to get out accurate information about who was in danger and who late, but it's still early is was not. if there is anything -- you know what i'm saying. but i do think that we need to this, that this president does not like, it is bad coverage. look at the demographics of it bothers him. rural america, and when we talk and this snowballed essentially about it, they're not just white from that first sort of burst of people living in rural america. there are people of color, there bad coverage, and the president talked about the bad coverage, are younger people, and so i then it created more bad coverage, and the president think democrats will do talked about that bad coverage. themselves a disservice if they here we are 12 days later still don't actually start paying having discussions. attention to that demographic by the way, it's not going and understand that it's not just white people that we're anywhere. talking about. other than the investigations >> what did you take away from peter mentioned, you also have it? >> i'm basically with you that internally one of the top noaa it's fairly baked in, it's 2018, scientists saying they want to look into how the weather it's a familiar result. service put out that statement the swing seems to be in the because they don't want to have eight to ten-point range. their staffers feel like they the one thing that isn't baked can't trust agency leaders. >> you know, peter, i've had a in is who the democrat is. i was teaching outside the trump supporter viewer say to district, davis is north of me, well, you guys knew it was charlotte and the district goes to the south of charlotte -- wrong. why did you report his wrong >> most people know davidson as stuff? why did you make it a big deal? the home plaintiff curoccur -- e why did you go -- why did you of mr. curry. report something that you >> yeah -- knowingly knew was wrong to fact >> steph curry -- >> i saw the ads, i was there check him? you want to embarrass the monday night when trump and president. pence came in. i was like, my explanation was,

i would say that the degree to look, he's the president. are we here to correct him, which dan mccready probably maybe he's got information we outperformed a likely democratic don't have. but how would you answer that presidential nominee, certainly a non-biden nominee, in the question? >> well, it's not a matter of south charlotte suburbs isn't embarrassing anybody. it's about reporting the truth. trivial. he is -- he graduated from duke, the president has 40 million-some, i don't know the he and his wife graduated, joins exact number, twitter followers. if he's putting something out on twitter, it's going to a lot of the marine corps, starts a people. a lot of people rely on us to business, has kids, goes to -- help sort through the he's not the profile of information, what's true, what's not, and help them understand elizabeth warren or something. what -- what does this mean, the so you know, where -- what the president's tweet says alabama true vote so to speak for trump could be at risk. versus a more liberal democratic in what way would it be at risk? you would naturally turn to nbc, presidential nominee would be is a question. could mccready voters go back and say, you know, i'm happy msnbc, maybe "the new york this is a democratic house, times" and say what is the risk. happy that -- happy to vote for it's our job to help people a democrat like mccready for the house. but at the national level maybe understand what's going on. >> his press office expects us i'll default to trump. not to report the dumb stuff, i think it's unlikely given the don't they? >> so i don't know that that would necessarily be how i'd numbers, given that the rever d phrase it, chuck, although that referenda on the incumbent, this may be fair. is i think a question for the i think it is an instance of democrats. >> this is a race where i think both sides understood their they feel like we reported on the dumb stuff too much if that weaknesses, and so they pursued makes sense, and not on the the strategies that would give stuff that they think is not

them the best shots. dumb. democrats -- and i think that that is how >> they avoided trying to fix they might draw that distinction there. problems. they just -- hey, send 'em to it bothers not just the president, but he sets the tone the rural part -- for everybody else. >> so the democrats did spend a so the fact that the president is so needled by what he lot of money. there are a huge number of rural perceives as negative coverage african-american trickles down to the staff here. >> look, i'm mindful of district. they spent a lot of money trying to turn the voters out. ridiculous it seems. and it's like, we're all they didn't show up at the level mindful, mr. president, how i think democrats wanted them to. ridiculous this all seems. not at the level -- right? it's what i think we're all >> they didn't send in a major african-american democrat. why not? it might scare other voters. screaming under our breaths. i wonder if that's a mistake. if barack obama had gone to that hallie jackson, peter bake county, which is the majori ear --t go ahead, peter. majority/minority county, >> it started off as minor, doesn't that get you a couple of trivial or easily correctible more -- >> how many times do you want to has spawned investigations into the politicization of, you know, use barack obama for -- >> i don't know -- >> if that's the calculus, are we going to turn out our base scientific agencies -- something small can snowball. voters at the expensive of scaring other people? and that's where we've got a like that's going to be a problem. situation that would have a >> let me get david wasserman. momentarily embarrassment for i want you to do something for the president is evolving into a serious political liability. >> yeah. that's for sure. me because it does seem as if the democrats really want to figure out what's the easiest hallie jackson and peter baker, way to beat trump, should the being the chief white house correspondent these days in this white house is quite the task. caucuses be in mecklenburg thank you both. up ahead, is it an

county? i'm half facetious. investigation? if you could pick a sort of is it an inquiry? suburban county in america, the is it a bird? is it a plane? democrats ought to figure out, i democrats are set to vote on the mean, you can't get much better rules of an impeachment probe tomorrow. than mecklenburg, could you? >> that's true. let's just say the message and look, a big problem for joe they're sending is getting mighty muddled. biden is that the first two first, the anniversary of states in this process are over 9/11 was marked at the pentagon 90% white,biden's this morning. the president and first lady took part in a wreath-laying relatively popul ceremony. he praised members of the military, calling them guardians of our country. >> today and every day we pledge to honor our history, to treasure our liberty, to uplift our communities, to live up to our values, to prove worthy of our heroes, and above all stronger than ever, to never, ever forget.

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about becoming an independent? >> i -- i probably think about it every morning when i wake up and figure out why -- why am i flying away from nebraska to go to d.c. this week are. we going to get stuff done? >> what a difference being up for re-election makes, especially when you have a primary challenge on your hands pran perhaps. sass has changed his tone big league. he will support the republican ticket in 2020. his prolific twitter account has been silent since may. and he does not speak out against the president on fox news or really anywhere for that matter. he's also voted in favor of diverting money from the military for the border wall. one of the president's biggest priorities. now lo and behold, the president is supporting sass' re-election tweeting, quote, senator ben sass has done a wonderful job representing the people of nebraska. ben has my complete and total endorsement. president carried nebraska by 25 points and is overwhelmingly popular among republican primary voters. sass' speakspl dspokes -- spoken

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welcome back. democrats in the judiciary committee are about to hold their first vote specifically on the issue of impeachment. stay with us here. tomorrow the committee will vote on a new set of procedures that chairman nadler says will help democrats in their investigations to determine if they're going to recommend articles of impeachment against the president. but as we pointed out painfully yesterday, there are a lot of mixed messages coming from both democratic leadership and the rank and file about what the heck they're doing. steny hoyer told reporter an impeachment inquiry was not, i repeat, not underway. later he put out a statement saying he misunderstood the reporter's question. and as "politico" found, if you ask three democrats about what they're doing, you'll get three

different answers from, yes, we are in the midst of an impeachment investigation, to no, we're not, to, i'm not quite sure. well, folks, in politics, messaging is everything. and after last night's special election in north carolina, democrats faced difficult questions heading into 2020 about the core of their message from impeachment to guns to health care, you name it. joining me is one of the democrats in charge of this messaging issue and one that's at the top of the campaign arm of the democratic -- the house democrats, sherry bustos, democrat from illinois, chair of the democratic national campaign committee, and joins me now. congresswoman, good to see you. >> good to see you, chuck. >> let me start with what tomorrow's news is going to be, and i know that you could say we've been pretty cynical about this, but i'm going to be cynical about this. i do not understand what -- what they're voting on tomorrow. and it is bizarre to me that they're voting on rules for something that they have yet to disguise if they're going to do -- to decide if they're going to do it. do you understand why people are confuse busy what they're doing tomorrow? >> well, i think what we all should be thinking about is

let's just seek out the truth and be happy with seeking out the truth. people can all this will whatever they want to call it. i was investigative reporter, i worked in your line of work as a reporter for almost 20 years of my life. and you know, the -- chuck, in the end, the goal is to get to the truth. and i think we ought to just be happy with those who are seeking the truth, and i'm happy with just saying we are seeking -- we are truth-seekers. >> you want semantics? you think it's politically easier to have all sorts of semantics so that way you could technically say you never started impeachment, but for those of you that want it, you could say, but we're kind of doing impeachment? i mean it does feel like semantics i guess is an ally. >> we have 43 5 members of congress. we are all independent practitioners. we all come from different plagsz places and have different views. there's no reason to get hung up on whatever anybody chooses to call this. you've got jerry nadler who

heads the judiciary committee, who's a good and honorable and smart man. >> yeah. >> and he wants to seek the truth. and i -- i can live with that. i can live with the nuances all around that. >> all right. let me get you to respond to not just me, i want you to listen to president obama's chief speechwriter, somebody that some would say knows something about messaging, john favreau. this is what he tweeted, "the communications staffers and consultants who have signed off on this absurd and intentionally confused message strategy around impeachment should resign forever. either support impeachment or oppose it. you can't fool people into thinking you're doing both. stop treating voters like they're stupid. >> well, in addition to the judiciary committee, there's the oversight committee, there's the intelligence committee, there's financial services, there's -- we've got several committees that are seeking the truth on this. look, it's easy to sit on the sideline and say that somebody ought to do this or do that. but you know, we're -- we're in the heat of it. and i can live -- again, i'm a

member of congress from downstate illinois, and -- and i can live with seeking the truth, showing the american public that we are doing what we can to get to the truth. and -- and i hope that we are okay with that. and if you want to look long term, too, i would ask the question is all of this call for impeachment or impeachment inquiry or whatever anybody wants to call it, is that uniting our country. i have a big desire in my day-to-day life whether i am home or out here to try to bring people together instead of constantly look for ways to divide our country, divide people among, you know, the democrats and the republicans. i think we've got to look for ways to seek the truth and not be so divisive. and again, i can be happy with that. >> let me talk about last night. what did you learn from north carolina nine? >> well, i learned that we improved our performance, that

trump won the district by ten points. and we've got 35 republicans all over this country who are in districts that are easier for democrats to win than what happened last night. so i think this shows that every republican who won by five points or fewer, who are in these districts that makes them vulnerable, were -- were going to play in those districts, we're going to be aggressive in those districts. and i think this is a pretty bad sign for them. to have a ten-point improvement in less than, you know, three years that president trump has been in office, i think that's a pretty darn good performance. >> if a presidential campaign called and said, hey, i'm the nominee, what do i need to know about carrying an area like this, what should i learn from this district that will help win a general election, what would you tell that presidential candidate? >> to have ideas, to show they care, to show they understand. to show that they're going to do something about bringing down the cost of health care, improve

our kids' education. actually -- >> mccready didn't run against trump, did he. he didn't run against trump. >> did not. >> he didn't run on impeachment. he didn't run on some of the larger, the big progressive ideas either. what should -- should presidential campaigns be listening to that? >> yeah. dan mccready in a trump-plus-12 district only lost by two points. so dan mccready did a lot right, and he showed up in rural towns, he showed up in the bigger towns. he campaigned for the last 27 months. and i know -- i can't even imagine going through that. it's -- it's tough. but he showed up, and he had a ten-point improvement over the president's performance in 2016. so i think there's a lot we can take from what dan mccready did, and while i always want to get that "w," that win, we weren't able to get, you know, just over the finish line. but he did very well. >> let's talk about rural america.

one of the reasons you're there, you made -- you made a passionate case to reporters like myself, to your colleagues, you know -- you know trump country. you're comfortable in it, you're talking to trump voters. you can win over a trump voter. the rural america issue seems to be worse for democrats today than it even was before. is this just something that you're not going to break through with -- in the era of trump? >> well, i would absolutely refuse to say that we couldn't break through in the era of trump. i come from a trump district. i live along the mississippi river in downstate illinois, moline. 5% of the town's in my congress -- 85% of the towns in the congressional district are 5,000 or fewer. other than a few towns in my congressional district, it is rural midwest. i won in a trump district by 24 points. so no, i do not take that premise that democrats cannot perform well in a rural district. we can do it, and dan mccready is proof that you can come

really, really close, that republicans all over america, if you won by five points or fewer, beware. we've got great democrats who are going to be running, leading into november of 2020. and our goal is to hang on to the tough seats that we do have that we were age to pick up in 2018, and pick up a few more along the way. >> presidential candidates including elizabeth warren are endorsing in primaries that challenge incumbent house democrats. you comfortable with that, or do you wish the presidential candidates would stay out? >> i don't think any of the presidential candidates are going to listen to me if i ask them to endorse somebody or not endorse somebody. that's up to them. it's not what -- what i would prefer. you know, i'm not somebody who works against incumbent democrats. i work for them. i think we've got a great freshman class, we have great members who have been here for many years, and together we make up a robust caucus that is fighting every single day for

hard-working people. i think we've got a great caucus. but i'm not -- i'm not going to be able to tell the presidential candidates what to do. >> still supports congressman quayar and lipinski? >> absolutely. >> congresswoman, thanks for sharing your views. appreciate it. up ahead, we're a little over 24 hours away from the next democratic debate. what to expect on stage this time. timeant you to meet someone. this is jamie. you're going to be seeing a lot more of him now. -i'm not calling him "dad." -oh, n-no. -look, [sighs] i get it. some new guy comes in helping your mom bundle and save with progressive, but hey, we're all in this together. right, champ? -i'm getting more nuggets. -how about some carrots? you don't want to ruin your dinner. -you're not my dad! -that's fair. overstepped. -that's fair. yesss, i'm doing it all. the water. the exercise. the fiber.

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welcome back. most of the 2020 candidates are spending the day off the campaign trail. most are prepping for tomorrow's big democratic debate. ten candidates will be on the stage in houston. and the first one-night-only debate of the cycle, the first that we see joe biden and elizabeth warren on stage together. we have more on the 2020 trail and we're live from houston ahead of the debate. reed, daniella, and mark are back. let's start, we know everybody's in debate prep which i find to be interesting. there is more down debate prep time for these candidates that i've seen for this debate than the previous two. you get the sense they're taking it more seriously. >> well, chuck, we've passed that sort of magical pretend starting line for when regular folks start to pay attention in election debates. we're past labor day weekend now, kids are back at school, summer vacation is over, the campaigns feel like they're shifting into a different gear

as we get to primetime. they feel they've got it narrowed down to one night. the ten candidates on the stage, while they may not be the only ten to debate going forward, at least feel like they're in an opportunity now to catch an outside share of attention from the folks who are paying attention because you're not worried that you're going to get stepped on that second night or that something else might happen to eliminate any bounce you might get out of night one. yes, you've got one night, ten candidates, and everybody's i think gotten an opportunity to shake the rust off a little bit. everybody's in fighting form, and they know people will be paying attention. that raises the stakes. >> let me ask about this -- there was a couple of reports that indicated biden, and i was -- is ready to go after warren for all her plans. and the first thing i thought o he is, that's fine, why telegraph it, but they seem to be comfortable going public with this. >> well, and it's possible they

go public with it as an opportunity to warn her or anyone else from going after biden. the biden campaign was stung by kamala harris's attack in the first debate, you did see biden advisers talking to colleagues, saying look, he's going to be ready for anything that comes at him. plans are one thing, but success and actually getting things done is something else all together. whether that sort of gives the farm away remains to be seen but i think it's worth pointing out, it's never been warren's mo either to go after joe biden directly or anyone else. she has been extremely disciplined on the stump, in gaggles, in interviews, not taking the debate at going after her democratic rivals. you can make an argument that's part of the success in building support. it's not rocket science that when you attack democrats, you risk looking negative. they have tried to stay off track of going negative at

fellow democrats so far. >> daniela, i'm not convinced these debates have had an impact yet. what if they haven't and there's plenty of evidence to support the idea that they haven't and it means the debate really is about making sure you don't lose it. there really is nothing to gain with these debates, there's only loss. >> i don't know if that's true. i mean, maybe the gains that we see are temporary and they can be, you know, whittled away, they disappear. >> kamala harris went up and then down. >> that's our news cycle, that's our political cycle. everything moves so quickly, things can change. i do think there's importance on seeing them on the debate stage, i think is going to be important. mostly so people can say we haven't seen them all. >> biden and warren together is a moment. we haven't seen that yet. they are the front runners and, also just how they interact. >> that physical, i know that that's, you know, i am curious to see, is it comfortable, is it

wa awkward. >> we have been talking about joe biden as the fragile front runner for a long time, and the fact that he would tell congratulate an attack on elizabeth warren tells you who he sees as his number one rival, it's not bernie sanders and kamala harris who will be on the stage tomorrow night it's elizabeth warren, the only candidate who has shown that consistent growth over the nine months since she got in the race. >> and i want to discuss sanders separately in a second. if you're not warren or biden, what is your best strategy at this point? >> probably to go after one of those. >> basically the only incentive you have if you're not warren or biden is to go after warren or biden. >> i think so. there are a lot of risks attached with that . >> i don't know, i watched the debate in grinell, iowa, when harris went, the only time that night that everybody was silent and you could hear a pin drop in

the bar was pete buttigieg's answer on the religious left. it was not the attack between the two. it was buttigieg. i feel like he is one of the few candidates who has grown as a candidate so much, i mean, the first time on the national stage, he is sort of captured that moment, and he is the candidate so far who's best been able to capture that viral moment, that cnn town hall and made it last for the longest of any other candidates. >> yet he's polling at 4%. >> garrett, what have you heard about the candidates not named, biden and warren. >> i have spent a lot of time on the road with beto o'rourke since he got in the race in march, i'm curious to see how he does tomorrow night. >> the new version of beto. >> since he's been back from el paso, he has been singularly focused on this gun violence issue. there's a morning console, democrats view that as the most important issue. he'll have a home state advantage, sleep in his own bed

and fly out here. if he can't bring that together and have a moment tonight, it's tough to see how he'll succeed in that format, at least, the table is set for him to potentially have a moment in that way, and then what's happening with cory booker, this is something who has again and again had good moments on big stages but is yet to be able to string enough together to get much momentum. he tried to once again have a big moement. he had the most talking time in the first night of the first debate and what happened, not much. >> i'm convinced we need to stop, we in the press have thought cory booker has done well. it's possible the voters haven't, like maybe, i'm with you, i have been surprised, bernie sanders, bernie sanders is the forgotten front runner and you know, a month ago it did look like he was in deep trouble. he righted his ship, and they actively righted their ship. they are in much better shape today. this is a three way race for the front runnership, and yet, how does he stop being the forgotten runner. >> i agree. it looked a month ago that

warren surpassed him. he's hung in there, and he's a good candidate. he knows what he wants to say, and it appeals to a chunk of the democratic party. i agree about buttigieg. i would watch him. he has a narrative that the others, booker and harris, they can attack on an individual issue, why should anyone pick them, honestly, rather than warren. buttigieg has a generational narrative, and if you look at the three 70 plus year olds in the center of the stage, i think there's some part of the democratic electorate, we're going to put someone over 70 years old against trump. >> there's also the simple fact that this is a race that remains fluid, the front runners are fragile, but bernie sanders is also the candidate of yesterday. i mean, he's already run, so joe biden has already run, with the exception of hillary clinton, the democratic party doesn't have a long record of nominating people who have already run. >> and they have never had to nominate somebody against donald trump. >> that's true.

>> which of course means every one of those rules may not matter. garrett haake, enjoy spending a night in your home state of texas, reed, daniela and bill, thank you, and we'll be right back. and bill, thank you, and we'll be right back we'll inform them that liberty mutual customizes home insurance, so they'll only pay for what they need. your turn to keep watch, limu. wake me up if you see anything. [ snoring ] [ loud squawking and siren blaring ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ that's why with dell small business technology advisors. you'll get tailored product solutions, expert tech advice and one-on-one partnership. call an advisor today at 877-buy-dell. get up to 45% off on select computers. ♪

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that's all for tonight, we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily", we have a new chuck todd podcast coming up. ari melber coming right up. >> we have a lot tonight, democrats prepping for a formal vote on the impeachment probe as

trump faces new pressures on corruption. outrage in north carolina, republicans blasted for a quote shameless theft of democracy for allegedly exploiting a 9/11 memorial because of course yes, it's 9/11, to engineer a political maneuver. it is quite a story. t obviously brand new. we'll bring that to you tonight, and also something i want to tell you about, right here on "the beat" tonight, we are launching a brand new series. it's called back story. toghs