the dnc who today called for a recanvassing of the iowa caucuses is doing an exclusive interview with rachel maddow, of course he is, tonight. my thanks to basil, matt and rick for spending the hour with me. moech most of all, thanks to you for watching. "mtp daily" with chuck todd starts right now. welcome to thursday. it is "meet the press daily." good evening, i am chuck todd here in washington for a few days. if you thought the situation for democrats out of iowa couldn't get any more chaotic, you'd be wrong. after joe biden acknowledged iowa was a gut punch to his campaign, this afternoon the head of the democratic party called on them to begin recanvassing the results. a bit of a head-scratching

announcement this late because iowa democrats are doing exactly that, recanvassing the results. that's how they're getting the results. and the dnc is the one working with them on this project. more important than that, though, is the message this potentially sends. the head of the party is telling democrats with just five days to go before new hampshire, don't trust the results out of iowa, even the ones you're seeing right now. you can bet some sanders and buttigieg supporters will view this with a bit of suspicion. with nearly all of the results now in, buttigieg has the razor-thin lead over sanders in the state delegate equivalents. this afternoon, though, bernie sanders claimed victory based october ron the raw votes of who first came to the caucuses. >> so what i want to do today, three days late, is to thank the people of iowa for the very strong victory they gave us at the iowa caucuses on monday night. our campaign is winning the

popular initial vote by some 6,000 votes. in other words, some 6,000 more iowans came out on caucus night to support our candidacy than the candidacy of anyone else. a victory margin of some 6,000 votes is pretty decisive. >> and with the party still mired in iowa caucus chaos, we have new numbers out of new hampshire signaling more problems, by the way, for joe biden. according to a new monmouth poll out this afternoon, sanders is at the top of the pack, buttigieg is close behind, within the poll's four-point margin of error. bottom line, iowa is basically a tie. sanders is emerging as the top candidate in the progressive wing, pete buttigieg the leading candidate in the moderate wing of the party. joe biden looks to be fading as we approach new hampshire. so with the latest reporting on where this scrambled race is

going, joined by some of our nbc news road warriors already on the ground in new hampshire, we've got mike memoli, shaquille brewster and vaughn hillyard who is with buttigieg and also following the mess in iowa as well. mr. memoli, let me start with you. the -- i don't know what you want to call them, prebituaries at some points or this is getting in a really bad place, "new york times," "washington post," the amount of ajuta about team biden is potent. what's the word there? >> i'm having a lot of deja vu. the first new hampshire primary i covered was in 2008. when hillary clinton stumbled in iowa finishing third place, i remember even as late as primary day we were talking about the implosion of the clinton campaign, the inability to raise money, she was trailing in the polls to barack obama. well, today we're actually

hearing that put forward by the biden campaign explicitly. billy shaheen was standing here saying he was about to lose and ended up winning. so that's the best they can hope for is to lay the groundwork for a potential comeback here. what's interesting, though, is the biden campaign said they had their best fund-raising month in january. i think that is the biggest concern right now. how much has that fund-raising dried up. he hasnough money to fly back to delaware. i'm in manchester. he's 375 miles from here. after a good day yesterday where they thought they showed some fight back in the former vice president, talking about the gut punch, taking some shots at sanders and buttigieg, he had that good night too with the cnn debate. a moment people were comparing his talking about stuttering to hillary clinton's getting emotional in portsmouth that night but he's not here to capitalize on it. he's doing some debate prep getting ready for that debate

tomorrow night which is a big moment but there's a lot of people wondering why he couldn't stay here, duck out and do a little retail which he's so good at. >> i'm curious, what's the biden campaign think of tom perez's call to essentially re-examine the iowa numbers yet again? is that what they want? >> there was a moment a couple of days ago when the biden campaign was being beat up for challenging the integrity of looking like sore losers. i think they have been able to back off their own criticisms of that process. i think part because they don't see any real significant change in fortunes for them in fourth place but also the more the iowa result is just completely written off and which it seems to be even by those vying for one and two, that the less people maybe put stock in that and they can focus on their argument for super tuesday if they can get there. >> well, right. the problem for biden is if the placement is the same in new hampshire as iowa, then suddenly it makes iowa seem like it was more accurate. >> 18 days to south carolina is

a long death march, chuck. >> that's a long 18 days, mike memoli. let me go to shaquille brewster. shaq, bernie came out today to declare victory based on the popular vote even though he may not win delegates. it was the bernie sanders supporters who forced this change in the reporting result which some people indicate may be why iowa is struggling so much to report the results. but bernie got what he wants, a way to declare victory even if he didn't win the delegates. >> that's right, chuck, you heard that declaration of victory in that last-minute press conference announced earlier today. one thing that stuck out with me in that press conference is when he said iowa is finally behind us. the sanders campaign is accepting seressentially that w you look at delegates, it's going to be advertisement it's going to be super close and won't have a significant difference between mayor pete and senator sanders. he's highlighting the popular vote to say, hey, we have support but they're fine with everyone turning away from iowa

and looking at new hampshire where they feel they're on much stronger ground. senator sanders is a neighboring senator. he's coming from vermont. the average of polls show him ahead here. a poll out of monmouth showed him with a lead. they feel like this is a much stronger position for him. i spoke with his state director and they said they have a strong ground game. they're knocking on an average of one door a second. this is the place they want to compete and they're okay with ignoring iowa and moving on to the next contest. >> i'm curious, though, iowa shouldn't have been that close if you believe the sanders operation was as good as they thought it was. are they not admitting that, you know what, are they concerned at all that that's a yellow flag here a little bit? >> he was asked about that at that press conference because you'll remember, chuck, that part of that closing message senator sanders has is he beats trump because he can bring out the energy and excitement, there will be historic turnout. he said if there was historic

turnout he would win and if there was not, he would lose. there wasn't historic turnout and he was asked about that. he admitted, yes, he was disappointed in that but he blamed it for the complications of the iowa caucus, how complicated of a process it is. it is a warning flag, i think, the fact that he spent $10 million there. he had hundreds and hundreds of staff there, thousands of volunteers. they knocked on over a half million doors in the state of iowa alone. if that couldn't get a clear and decisive win for senator sanders in the state of iowa, it does call into question how much he can mobilize that base of support. >> we literally -- they are four state delegate as part, by the way, in iowa. i think it's fair to say they both won at this point. shaquille brewster with the sanders campaign, thank you. vaughn hillyard, first to the buttigieg side of your brain, and that is this. how do they feel about the dnc suddenly coming in today and calling into question their tie or their co-victory with sanders

here? >> well, how about this, chuck. i think as shaq just expressed, i think there's question marks from every campaign over this process. they're all watching it very closely still. their campaign operation in iowa. but there's this conversation over why did tom perez call for the recanvas. we should note and i think steve kornacki has been looking at this and i think will have more this evening in trying to understand on how some of these satellite caucuses were aproportioned. this is complicated math. they're just four state delegates apart from one another. there are some question marks out of allocations out of satellite caucuses where bernie sanders won huge. there's one satellite caucus that we are still awaiting results from and it could be that satellite caucus that has not reported yet that could ultimately put bernie sanders on top. i think that's part of the reason why every campaign is still watching these results come in closely. >> wow, that is interesting there. once again, it's because of all

the ridiculous things that the national party and others forced on iowa. now this is why we're here at this point. the iowa democrats, i guess, were afraid to say they couldn't do things. anyway, big thanks to our road warriors in new hampshire. go ahead, vaughn. >> i was just going to say i actually just got off the phone with a national democratic party official. you were mentioning this back and forth in the squabble here. the dnc has been on the ground this last week in the lead-up to the caucus, but this party official, this national official is pushing back and saying that they early on urged the iowa democratic party to not rely on technology and that they were simply helping oversee the cybersecurity concerns of this, not the coding, not the technology components that this particular app was behind. that's where i think that you're seeing some of the disgruj disgruntlement between the two sides and the blame between the

two sides is taking shape. >> in government, i think it's officially called cya. anyway, road warriors, thank you. let's dive into some of the latest numbers from the granite state with kornacki at the big board. we're starting to see new hampshire numbers. number one, new hampshire matters. we thought there was a time we thought new hampshire might not matter this cycle the way it's mattered in the past. and now it may be everything. we're starting to see some movement. this is a very fluid race. >> it's 1992 all over again. tom harken runs in iowa and suddenly new hampshire matters. a brand new monmouth poll out and sanders in the lead here, buttigieg in second. you see biden close to buttigieg there, warren a little further back. i think the question that emerges, take these in two different groups here. buttigieg and biden, are they ships passing in the night right now, buttigieg ascendant, biden declining?

sanders and warren, and there is more of a gap there, 24 and 13. are they also ships passing in the night? warren perhaps not near the top and sanders there. the reason i say that there's also, we can show this, a nightly tracking poll being conducted since monday. you can see the movement here. look at this, buttigieg up eight. this is the "boston globe" suffolk wbz poll. buttigieg up eight, biden down six, warren down two, sanders up one. and so obviously the question is raises there is we've always seen these new hampshire races, we've often seen them. the deck is reshuffled after iowa, after whatever comes out of that. is a sanders/buttigieg race, a sanders/buttigieg separation from the rest of the field taking shape here? we can show one more here in the monmouth poll. if you reduce it to four, just a sense whereof folks go, you start to see a little more separation. 28, 28, biden, warren, further

back. so it is a question there, is that what's to come. >> steve, contemplate this, because that is what fascinated me was the four-way. there's been a theory that klobuchar voters are there for the taking for biden if he figures out how to get them. what this showed me is klobuchar has former biden support. once you leave biden, you don't go back, you go forward and look for somebody else. that has to be a real dangerous sign for biden. >> i think so, yeah. and again, the result from iowa, whatever happens with buttigieg and sanders, the news that's come out about biden here, we've seen candidates get hit with that in the past. it rarely helps them in new hampshire. >> yeah. no, it's true. new hampshire always claims that iowa doesn't influence them. iowa has some influence. we know it does. yeah. they get the internets out there. steve kornacki, thank you, sir. up ahead, the black eye for the hawkeye state. who's going to clean up this mess heading into new hampshire.

later, the president's 63-minute impeachment victory speech. it was trumpian, defiant. he was furious. mitt romney has really gotten into his head, that's for sure. we'll be right back. s for sure we'll be right back. lve years, mr. michael bloomberg is here. vo: leadership in action. mayor bloomberg and president obama worked together in the fight for gun safety laws, to improve education, and to develop innovative ways to help teens gain the skills needed to find good jobs. obama: at a time when washington is divided in old ideological battles he shows us what can be achieved when we bring people together to seek pragmatic solutions. bloomberg: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. when 6,000 more people come out for you in an election than your nearest opponent, we here in northern new england call that a victory. >> we know by the time it's all said and done, iowa, you have shocked the nation. because by all indications, we are going on to new hampshire victorious. >> welcome back. in what's becoming now a tradition, literally third psych nell a row where two candidates can declare victory following the first in the nation caucus, remember, this happened in '12

with the republicans. democrats in '16 and now this time. the focus now is supposed to move to new hampshire where its primary system will hopefully yield more clarity as the progressive and establishment wings of the party duke it out. joining me now, howard dean, former vermont governor, dnc chair, david plouffe, former obama campaign manager and now an msnbc political analyst. governor dean, let me start with you. i'm going to save the iowa discussion for the second half here. we spent a lot of time on that. how important is it for the party to get clarity over the next couple of weeks? >> it's not critical. we've had races that -- the obama/clinton race in 2008 went right to the end, so it's -- sometimes it's better to have your nominee earlier. democrats are peculiar people. we'll get there and then we'll get cold feet an somebody else will jump in at the very ending so i'm very laid back about this process. i think the democrats are doing

fine and i'm not even close to panic. >> david plouffe, it does feel as if there's panic, there's some panic maybe in the acela corridor over biden. there's panic over uncertainty of -- if it's buttigieg, then what? then it's bloomberg. that's the anxiety i'm sensing right now. it's less that there's indecision about the pragmatists, it's more fear that either bloomberg or buttigieg can't do this. >> well, chuck, i think there is. but listen all the folks in the acela corridor, i'm out in california today, they have a vote. that's their control over this. so the voters will take this where they take it. you know, i think this race still has a lot of twists and turns in it. so new hampshire, i've been the victim of a surprise in new hampshire before so we'll see what happens. i agree with you, it's going to be more critical than we might have thought. i don't know whether it's neatly going to fall into two lanes or -- and of course you have bloomberg looming out there. but at the end of the day what

i'm going to be watching carefully is are we able to increase turnout. we weren't able to do that in iowa. can we do it in primary states. are we building the kind of coalition you need to beat trump. at the end of the day, you can wring your hands all you want. you've got to vote. and by the way, if the establishment were to come in, whatever the establishment is these days, and say you know what, it's anybody but bernie sanders, that's the way to make him the nominee. it's not going to work. he would be able to pivot off that so easily. >> david plouffe, let me start with you on this question. the head-scratching thing for me on tom perez's decision to call for a recanvas, why bring the attention back since there was a recanvas happening. we know what happened. we've got two winners out of iowa, which is exactly what bernie sanders was hoping the rules changes would get him in case he didn't win the delegates. >> you saw "the new york times" and some others were going through the math that was

released, the numbers. they were, you know, finding some discrepancies in the state delegate equivalent. governor dean is a former chair so he can speak to this more authoritatively. you know, at the end of the day the thing that concerns me, i don't think the iowa party and democratic party are on the same page, and we just can't have that. >> david, it does seem as if right now most people think they should be coordinating. they don't look like they are. >> they may not be. look, the reasons you have to do the recount is at some point there are going to be delegates at the convention and you do not want people fighting about this at the convention. so i think the only thing that really matters now is not the focus of the nation, which is consumed by all, this it's the focus of the voters in new hampshire. i guarantee you in new hampshire they're not discussing who won and who didn't in iowa, they're discussing who they're going to vote for and that's the next big stepping stone. our primaries always work like this. i don't want to beat up on iowa. was this a screw-up? yes. we frankly need to do something

different in terms of the first two primaries. new hampshire has a voter suppression bill for college students. why they're there, i don't know. we need democracy, which means primaries only, and we need diversity in our early primaries and we need to go further. >> joe biden, how badly does he need a top two finish in new hampshire? >> it would be good but it's probably not fatal if he doesn't get there. he still has south carolina and nevada to go. if he doesn't do anything between now and then, i think this is over. but he's got plenty of time to come back. >> david plouffe, can he make it to south carolina with back-to-back fourth place finishes? >> chuck, that's always a question for me, what would it take for biden to not win south carolina or win it so narrowly it doesn't get the momentum and he may test that. he goes four in iowa, four in new hampshire, then i think he would have to come in top two in nevada. then is the question of resources. based on the polling, but it looks like this is not about him

getting in the top two, it's about him trying to finish ahead of warren. so i think that they're kind of in a defcon 1 or 2 situation at least politically. and if i told you pete buttigieg was the nominee, does that tell you he probably won new hampshire? if you went into a coma -- >> i think so. >> i was just going to say, david, you went into a coma and i woke you up and said buttigieg is the nominee, you would have assumed he pulled off an upset in new hampshire? >> i would for this reason, chuck. he's such a distinct underdog. started obviously nowhere. sanders obviously -- and biden both, they have more strength. this is the tragedy of him mnot getting the full effect of his iowa performance. he's got to pull off basically an inside straight here. win new hampshire, go top two new hampshire, somehow get two or three in south carolina to raise the money, the resources. i'm here in california, chuck. people are going to start voting very, very soon out here. and so, yeah, i think he does.

i think he's got to win new hampshire. he'll be able to go on, but again this isn't about like, hey, you did well. you got a silver medal. if you want to be the nominee if you're pete buttigieg, you have to win new hampshire in my view. >> governor, you know bernie sanders well. on one hand he's in for the long haul, but it's hard for him to imagine getting this nomination if he lost new hampshire. >> no. look, somebody is going to win new hampshire. and if it's warren, she's back in the race. >> i agree. >> i don't think that knocks out buttigieg and bernie. i really -- we do too much of this. this is a long haul and it'sment to be a long haul. >> donors can make the long haul impossible to make. >> i finished third in iowa and was supposed to finish first. i didn't drop out until wiscons wisconsin. >> but you had resources. >> i did have resources. most of these folks -- bernie has resources, buttigieg has resources. i don't know what elizabeth's situation is. and you're going to get

resources if you win new hampshire. so i have -- this is too early to have this kind of talk, even though i know you have to do the show. >> well, but i will say this, chuck. i appreciate that, governor, but there's one thing about can you stay in. there's another question of can you win and be the nominee. so i think can you win? >> what if your staying in puts the party in the wrong direction? >> what's the wrong direction? >> well, if you think it's going to help some -- some people think sanders can't win a g general and more people stay in, it makes it more easy for sanders to win the nomination. >> i have to think a little about that. you mean if bernie is not going to be the nominee but he stays in anyway? >> yeah. >> it gets people out to vote. at the end of the day i think bernie will do the right thing if he doesn't win. bernie sanders' political career is about helping people. you don't help people if your people won't go all the way to

the end no matter who wins. >> here's what we do know, new hampshire matters. thank you both. all of those questions about what happened in iowa, what happens now. dnc chair tom perez will be answering them. he sits down exclusively with rachel tonight. we'll be right back. back. it took plenty of work to get here. but it's still important to be prepared for what's next. at fidelity, we can help you build a clear plan for retirement without the unnecessary fees you might expect from so many financial firms. we'll make sure you can cover the essentials, as well as all the things you want to do. because when you have a retirement partner who gives you clarity at every step, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. ♪ here's wishing you the bluest sky ♪

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was there a big difference between second and fourth place, what is that? >> no, what i mean is, look,

let's say everybody comes out of here with 19, 20, 21 and 22%. well, it's essentially a tie. and so everybody goes to the next stop. if you come out here, somebody is 25 and you're at 12, you know, well then you're done, you know, in terms of iowa. >> welcome back. that was joe biden a few weeks ago with an ironic warning about what it would mean to finish fourth in iowa. there's a close fourth and then there's a less close fourth. joining me now betsy woodruff swan, bill kristol, former democratic congresswoman from maryland, donna edwards. biden's campaign. he is the sole reason why there's no kamala harris, there's no beto o'rourke, there's no cory booker. his apparent resiliency in the national polls kept all of those folks from getting traction and by the time the campaigning got

here, it turned out he didn't have what we thought he had. >> it surprised him and surprised all the rest of us. i do think going into new hampshire, his campaign operation has to tighten up on the ground and he's just got a couple of days to come -- i said win, place or show. he's got to place. >> betsy, the hard part is every question he gets is about what's happening, what's going on. now they're bringing john kerry back to new hampshire and you're like, okay, the last time john kerry hung out with you, there was rumors about him jumping in. >> john kerry has not exactly covered himself in glory as far as surrogates go and he's been around long enough to know that having a loud conversation in a hotel full of reporters is perhaps not a strategic move. and yeah, i think the challenge for the biden campaign is that there's almost a sense of a death rattle. and whether or not that's fair, that's what they're getting asked about. that's the conversation that's dominating it. we've seen him going from being the totally comfortable front-runner for most of this campaign cycle to just kind of

face planting in iowa. it's hard to take that kind of finish and turn it into a persuasive argument to new hampshire voters who care so much about picking winners. >> bill, to hear mike memoli say they're starting to talk about the hillary clinton '08 new hampshire campaign, she finished third. in the 20th century it used to be harry truman and now in the 21st century it's remember hillary and new hampshire in '08. okay, maybe. >> and she didn't run fourth in iowa. i just think the gap between sanders, buttigieg and biden is what's so devastating. biden was right, 22, 21, 19, 18, it just looks different. you can't be the front-runner and get 14% of the vote and then get 14% again in new hampshire. in retrospect, i was always a biden skeptic, for a front-runner he didn't have the support a front-runner should have. he was the vice president for eight years to a guy, i believe,

named barack obama. where has barack obama been? he hasn't been out there saying -- joe biden, what a fantastic job he did. he served in the senate for how many years? >> max baucus in iowa. >> how many senators, major figures said i served with joe biden, he's the guy. so i do think biden was a weak front-runner and it just got exposed. >> well, don't write him off yet. don't write him off yet because i do think that this idea of the primary in new hampshire and a caucus in iowa, it really is not representative of the demographic of the democratic party. i think that, you know, if he pulls off sort of win, place show in new hampshire and goes to south carolina and nevada and wins there that he can continue this thing. >> okay. i hear you. but, betsy, when i look at -- i understand his power with the african-american vote or the

perceived power. i don't know if it really will be there when all is said and done. but there's another part of iowa and of new hampshire that scranton joe is supposed to connect with, the blue collar manchester, the dubuque catholics. it didn't happen. >> that's a problem for him. >> the electability guy, that's what that was about. >> that's the problem, because the best argument that biden's folks have been able to make for him being someone who can beat trump is that he'll be able to rally those specific voters, that he'll be able to pick up pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan. if he can't even get those voters within the democratic primary, that's just a problem. that's just -- it's hard -- >> and he's short of money it sounds like. if you're a democratic donor, two, three months ago you were moderate, you might have gone with biden. then why didn't you? i think bloomberg had a big effect in seizing moderates from going. >> bill, what's your sense of this independent voter this year in new hampshire? the hardest part of following the polls in new hampshire, and

i will tell people, is, first, look very closely what the independent number is and then still ignore the poll. i say this. follow the trend line, because what the independent number is, we don't know. and that's going to be a fascinating thing. how many crossovers are there going to be? >> right. the independents in new hampshire are sort of sanders-like independents, i would say. rebellious against the system. he's the most, he's an outsider. i would say they're buttigieg-like independents. moderate, maybe suburban, southern new hampshire, don't want sanders, can't win. elizabeth warren i thought could appeal to them and i don't rule her out. >> she could be the shock, right? if she comes out and then all of a sudden we're back to the real model. >> if you listen to her messaging right now, it's going right at them. >> she is trying to be that. the question is did pete suck that up. she's competing with pete there. donna, bill and betsy, stick around. up ahead, the free-wheeling

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welcome back. president trump took a victory lap today after the senate voted to acquit him railing for more than an hour against democrats who tried to impeach him, democrats no longer in power, went after jim comey. also attacked the one run senator who voted to impeach him yesterday, mitt romney. >> say hello to the people of utah and tell them i'm sorry about mitt romney. i'm sorry, okay? and the only one that voted against was a guy that can't stand the fact that he ran one of the worst campaigns in the history of the presidency. >> with me now is lanhee chen, a former policy advisor for mitt

romney during that 2012 campaign that mr. trump was trying to reference. now a research fellow at the research institution at stanford. mr. chen, good to see you. >> hi, chuck. >> so, lahnee, what do you make of the fact it's clear the president -- it's under his skin that senator romney voted against him? >> yeah, i mean i think a few times today the president referenced him, once opaquely at the prayer breakfast of all places and subsequently in his remarks. at the end of the day mitt romney was perfectly comfortable with where he ended up on this. it was not a function of having lost the presidency, it was not a function of having to fake anything at all. it was simply where senator romney's conscience brought him. and, you know, the reality is the reaction of people to the president in that room, the way in which they laughed when he

denigrated senator romney is very telling of where the republican party is now. >> and the other -- there is this -- there are these calls, some of them are -- you're going to have censure resolutions in utah. i think there's some utah lawmakers trying to do that. you have other state parties trying to take this action. it did seem to me today that what the president, if he was doing one thing today, he was trying to send a message to elected republicans, cross me at your own peril. >> yeah. and look, this was something, chuck, that mitt romney mentioned in his speech yesterday. he knew there would be recriminal natiorekri recriminations and he knew there would be blowback and he would take heat for it. the problem is this is donald trump's republican party now, whether you like it or not. for some members of congress, that is a big point. that is a big issue. now, those who are in electorally difficult states made the decision, look, we're better off with donald trump

than against him. but he's made very clear there is no middle ground here. >> what does this do to the party, though? if you can't feel like you can't criticize the president, i mean i don't know how cory gardner, susan collins and martha mcsally walk this line in the states they represent. >> well, the answer is they don't walk the line. the conclusion must be that they are better off having the full-throated support of president trump and the republican base in their elections than having a tepid republican base with the potential to get votes from independents. i think they made the decision, look, we are much better off and apparently the polling showed this. we are much better off having the support of president trump than trying to count on support that may never materialize. >> well, i get that they made that and i've heard this case, i've had a consultant friend of mine show me the numbers, make the case, and i get it. i guess it means in a few states, it means you have to basically pick your poison. do you want to die this way or

do you want to die that way. it may be unwinnable or in certain situations. i'm thinking colorado. like there's no way for him to win it without a good republican turnout, and yet the stronger he revs up that turnout, the harder it will be to win the denver suburbs. >> yeah, and i suppose the issue is if you look at someone like senator gardner, for example, who's been supportive of the republican agenda, been supportive of the president in other cases, the thought process is, look, he's going to have to own that anyway, so what is one more factor, having to own one more factor. it's a big factor, don't get me wrong. impeachment is a big factor. but simply put, you've got to own that other stuff anyway, you might as well have the support of the base. >> can you try to put it -- i've tried to put it in terms. i cannot think of a tougher vote anybody in elected office has made politically in my lifetime like this, where you know the retribution, you know the attacks are coming, you know your family is going to get

harassed. this is a pretty -- i think we're going to see harassment at a level we've never seen before for somebody in this same party. >> yeah, and that's why the notion that he did it because of sour grapes or he did it because of the politics doesn't make any sense to me. no one -- i mean i wouldn't sign up for that. so it's obviously a vote of conscience. but there will be blowback. >> and is this something that could actually hurt the president with swing voters? i don't think this is his best look. >> you know, maybe not. but this is the look that people have come to sort of deal with and expect. you know, the more i think the president can reflect the kind of guy we saw in the state of the union address, the better off he'll be in this election cycle. but that may be assuming that a level of discipline that we haven't seen yet. so we'll see how this works out over the next couple of months. but what is clear is that this

is something that he's going to continue to return to when i think a lot of his advisers would prefer that he just stay clear of it. >> i think you are right there. lanhee chen as always with some cold, sober analysis for us from our -- from out west. thank you, sir. up next, the day the caucuses died. at outback, steak & lobster is back. oh no! it's gone! phew! it's back, with lobster mac & cheese. it's gone again! it's back, with shrimp now! steak & lobster starting at only $16.99.

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tonight i'm obsessed with february 3rd. it's a day that will now live in iowa infamy again. some might remember february 3rd, 1959. 61 years ago this week in clear lake, iowa, when a plane crash killed american rock legends buddy holly, ritchie valens and the big bopper. that became known as the day the music died, forever memorialized by the legendary song "american pie." february 3rd has come back to haunt iowa again, politically speaking, that is, because it seems pretty clear to me that february 3rd is also the day the caucus died. let's face it, the iowa caucus failed and failed spectacularly. and its spectacular failure very possibly means it's over. i mean a long, long time ago, i can still remember how those realignments made me smile. and i knew when we put on our coats that somebody would tabulate our votes. and one candidate would be happy for a while.

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adam schiff is a vicious, horrible person. nancy pelosi is a horrible person. nadler, i know him much of my life. he's fought me in new york for 25 years. i always beat him. if i didn't fire james comey, we would have never found this stuff. when i fired that sleaze bag, all hell broke out. these the crookedest, most dishonest people i've ever seen. >> welcome back. that was just a portion of president trump's post acquittal. i guess would you call it a victory lamb, a grievance lap. >> white house, cabinet members, members of congress, some other fairly well known americans, clapping, laughing, it sounded like from the sound track, applauding, as i said.

just having a good time. the president behaves really disgracefully and attacks people they know personally and they've worked over the years and decades. >> by the way, that speech began with him walking down the same corridor. barack obama walked down saying that osama bin laden had been killed. hail to the chief was played in a very clear symbolic way. >> did one of those people, did one of them come back and say, i voted for acquittal but i don't approve of what the president said about mitt romney and casting aspersions on his faith. did anyone say that? yeah. the colleague from utah. romney sxrom the common faith. >> let's be clear. half of america was like, go get them. and half of america said, where are we living? >> and you watch, if a family

member did that for an hour plus, you would have them examined. it was outrageous. the attacks on all of our political leadership. the attacks on individual civil servants. the expense there would be retribution. >> in particular, some of the most demeaning, humiliating, i don't know why they haven't sued him, to be quite honest. >> and to continue to send his attorney general on them. >> who was there? applauding and laughing. >> what was interesting to me is, the president had an agenda. he was sending a message. this is my party. nobody else's. are you with me or you're out. >> it is really similar, the

rambling, hitting on all of his favorite topics. >> he had some alphabetical list. >> talking about page and news very graphic detail that you would have made family members uncomfortable. it was a show of political dominance saying, i won, has the success for me. i'm tracking this impeachment process as a win. >> when i pick these candidates, i can't believe i interviewed, no, i don't. i thought voters did that. no, no. not in trump's party. he picks the nominees. that's stunning. >> and he punishes you if you cross him and he threatens you prospectively. didn't republicans get all upset when adam shift dared to, quote,

apparently a there, not off the record. by the white house official? that if you cross for witnesses, not acquittal, you will see your head on a pike. terrible. how could adam schiff say such a thing? look at donald trump today. >> he said that romney should be ousted from the party. that i believe is a synonym for head on a pike. >> it does. and it is really indicative of this move forward this kind of authoritarian feel. >> it is the personality. >> and nobody feels that they have the ability to cross him if any way. and i think it will be interesting to see, i think mitch mcconnell was trying to put the brakes on that saying he needs mitt romney. >> i love what he said. there is always the next vote which was a very mitch mcconnell

thing to say. >> it was. but there he was on the front row applauding the president. so there is no daylight between mitch mcconnell and donald trump. because donald trump won't allow the daylight. >> one thing on remember about this moment in trump's presidency, he has never felt more emboldened than he does at this particular second. the people in his administration, who pushed back against him and questioned his gut and suggested that his impulses might not always be correct. they're pretty much either gone or keeping silent. the folks around him are saying, all your bets have been right. everything your guts have told you has been right. what we saw today it was apex. >> how do they win under these circumstances, having to defend that? >> i don't know and i can't say i much care. it is one thing if they voted, the evidence waunld quite right.

where is the statement defending mitt romney? >> i think you'll be waiting a while. that's all we have tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." >> good evening. thank you very much and thank you at hole for joining us on this big night. the political world is shifting right now. can you feel it? as we cover this 2020 race on "the beat," tonight from our newsroom, tomorrow from new hampshire. i'll tell you we will try to stay focused on substance, on evidence, truth in these times and yes, policy. we're going to try to stay focused on how this very high stakes race to replace president donald trump matters to everyday americans. tonight there's new evidence signaling how long this race could last. we have that story later. behind the scenes, a new policy that could impact the race or shield donald trump. it is coming from none other than bill barr. also, we will go right to the source. the campaign manager for a contender joins me live