anything about. an economic slowdown in china what are the implications for the u.s. economy and the green new deal is it a winning platform for democrats in two thousand and twenty president obama's former deputy secretary of labor joins us for a look on this edition of. welcome to politicking i mean homes in for larry king china is suffering an economic slowdown and its number two leader warns that the country faces a tough struggle so what are the implications for the u.s. economy and does this mean donald trump's china policies are winning and the green new deal there's been lots of talk about it and the g.o.p. is already using it to scare voters ahead of the two thousand and twenty election but what is it and can the democratic party win with it as

a platform we begin with these as i'm joined by chris lu former deputy secretary of labor during the obama administration he's now a senior fellow at the university of virginia miller center and he joins us in washington d.c. chris thank you so much for joining us my pleasure amy great so let's start with china and the chinese economy china is suffering an economic slowdown and its number two leader warns the country faces a tough struggle so chris i want to ask you what are the implications for the u.s. economy well look we live increasingly in a global economy right now and what happens in china and frankly what happens in europe affects what's happened united states we've seen a slowdown in the u.s. economy in the fourth quarter and many economists believe that all will continue slow in twenty nineteen so i think it certainly behooves both countries the united states and china to resolve their trade differences that's complicated though because they're based on so. serious issues regarding obviously the tariffs that

the president has imposed as walls of intellectual property rights opening up of markets and so i know that the economic slowdown will certainly probably hasten china looking for the deal but they're not going to do that unless it's in their own interest so you think that this slowdown does give president trump more leverage to get these concessions out of the chinese government well look i think on the domestic side as well you see increasingly farmer suffering losses here in the united states the trade deficit figures came out in the united states this week it's the highest on record which is notable since the president said this was an issue that he would solve if elected president so i think frankly both president xi and president trump both face domestic pressures to try to resolve these differences so chris are you optimistic about this summit the date that's being tossed around reported by the wall street journal is march twenty seventh just in

a couple of weeks that president xi will join president trump mara lago are you optimistic that they'll be able to come to a deal or may we see another repeat of north korea and things falling apart while i look i hopefully i hope it gets resolved i'm not incredibly optimistic these negotiations have gone in fits and starts and we've had many indications false indications that they were close to a deal so i think with any of these kinds of complicated trade deals really the devil is in the details and these are issues that really have vexed both countries for not for not just the last couple of years for really for decades certainly in particular when it comes to intellectual property and i want to turn it to domestic politics and the democratic side of the aisle and talk with you about the green new deal chris what exactly is it what's in it i mean it had kind of a rocky rollout we heard about wanting to stop cow. those from farting if i could

say that on television trying to get rid of fossil fuels in the next ten years trying to get rid of airplane travel what do you know about it look you know the green new deal is a label and it means different things to different people fundamentally it's about reducing carbon emissions and trying to clean create more jobs. out of clean energy really look at the messaging here is really what it's about this is something that's been demagogued by people in the republican party but it's really trying to move us to a carbon free future which is really no different than what mike bloomberg announced this week when he decided not to run for president and so and this idea of using clean energy green jobs as a stimulus the economy is frankly what president obama did in two thousand and nine when he passed the stimulus package and so yes there's a lot of packaging there's a lot of message there's a lot of noise on this as

a christian let me ask you let me ask about that is the messaging working for the democratic party i mean just as it was being rolled out nancy pelosi speaker of the house she seemed to be very dismissive of it and in the green new deal there were a lot of elements that seem to have a lot more to do with income redistribution and sort of a socialist wish list then it had to do with climate change or global warming what is the messaging on that algae to medicare for all when everyone sort of says you know we should expand health care we all support medicare for all but when it comes down to what exactly that means there's a lot of differences so the idea that the united states should be reducing its carbon emissions that we ought to be exploiting clean energy as a way to create jobs are things that people frankly and both sides of the aisle agree on i think like everything else in washington this is gotten wrapped into a broader discussion about. the extremes that might be in this position and how these things are characterized but i think those two fundamental points that we talked about reducing carbon emissions creating jobs are bipartisan they should be

bipartisan ideas. so chris you worked for president obama who campaigned i would say as a centrist as a moderate some people might not think that he actually conducted his presidency that way but he said there's no red state america there's no blue state america and gave that electric electrifying speech of the two thousand and four democratic national convention saying all those things but what we're saying seeing right now is the democratic party sort of lurching to the left so i want to ask you again about the green new deal as it's sort of understood by the average american is this something that's a winning agenda for the democratic party and candidates going into two thousand and twenty or is it just way to go too far to the left for a lot of american voters well i think they're certainly aspects of it and i think that all this if the idea is that we are going to suddenly shut down every coal plant next year i think we would all say that's probably extreme and it's probably not realistic because we can't generate enough clean energy that quickly but i

think as an aspirational goal like with medicare for all the concept that everyone should have health care i think those are things that are fairly universal that many people the vast majority of people in this country would agree with and i think the messaging challenge that you've highlighted is an important one because it's always easy to mischaracterize. certain parts of a big proposal like this the truth is this won't become law any time soon but i think the fundamental tenets of it as i said reducing carbon emissions creating clean energy jobs are things that ought to be put into effect kristie mention medicare for all and i want to come back to that the new chairwoman of the triple c. that's the democratic congressional campaign committee cheri boost the democrat from illinois she says that medicare for all sounds scary she said it's hard quote hard to conceal care from work into this medicare for all so again i want to ask you is

there this tension within the democratic party that some of the slogans are. out of step with the average voter sentiment well i actually the irony is i think when you poll the concept of medicare for all it actually polls quite well but the challenge is to ask people what that really means is that simply taking the existing affordable care act and adding a public option which is something that was considered but there weren't enough votes for that back in two thousand and ten is that medicare for all or is it as some people suggested that we should basically remove this concept of employer based health insurance which is in a completely different concept i think what democrats should do and i think what the chairman of the triple c. is doing is to focus on those key issues that have much broader appeal for instance house democrats won back their majority based on the concept that they were going to protect preexisting conditions that's an easy step it's one that has wide appeal and that's what they ought to be focusing on. and she also points out the twenty

six democrats that one election they won with less than five points or less and thirty one democrats one in trump districts so anyway chris it's always great to talk with you thank you so much for sharing your time today thank you the former spokesperson for the california republican party jen welcome thank you so much thank you so you just heard what chris lewis had to say about the green new deal what's your reaction well you know it's interesting that the person behind the green new deal the brain child of all this is alexandria ocasio cortez and you heard her say last week that you know in in twelve years it's possible that the world is going to end and in fact she even questioned whether or not the rest of us ought to have children in this world and that's going to end in the next twelve years but you look at her personal habits both on the personal side and on the

campaign trail the new york post actually did a great investigative piece really was a gas guzzler and i thought it was quite interesting on her campaign to get elected alexandria ocasio cortez had actually taken and her staff had taken about twenty thousand dollars worth of trips in ride services like lyft juneau and the like despite the fact that she lived about one hundred and thirty nine steps from the sun so you're calling hypocrisy on a.s.d. when conserving fossil fuel there's the larger issue though of the green new deal and the agenda that it set out for trying to address climate change many people of course believe that this is should be a top priority do you think it's a good way for democrats to be organizing their message. well there's no doubt about it that the green new deal does appeal to a large amount of millennial voters and there's no doubt about it the democrat side does appear to be the only group actually pushing new ideas you look at the

republican side there are relatively few new ideas coming out of the g.o.p. caucus and that's always one of my critiques of my own party is that were not the party of new fresh ideas but just because you have an idea doesn't mean it's a good one and you look at ocasio cortez against somebody who instead of taking the amtrak train chose to take an airplane sixty six times instead of taking the more fossil fuel friendly amtrak a look she sets a precedent here that very similar to what area on the huffington dead at the huffington post many years ago when she said oh well the plane was going there anyway yeah we you know do as i say not as i do that actually does not appeal to voters and over time and as fifteen years doing a g.o.p. strategy i can tell you that the hypocrisy issue does matter to voters and it will impact how voters will support it if you're not walking the walk and you're just

talking the talk it becomes a big problem with voters stay right there we will talk more after the break you're watching politic. there are. russian and. you know world of course. lawyers and conspiracy it's time to wait to dig deeper to hit the stories that make history media refuses to tell. more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bad shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now we're

watching closely watching the hawks. aeroflot russian and i see. the results they all. tell. yes this is how the booth.

close. welcome back to politicking everybody i'm amy holmes sitting in for larry king and i'm talking with jen kearns she's a g.o.p. strategist and former spokesperson for the california rip. can party and she joins us here in new york all right jed so the issue of security clearances in the white house this continues to plague donald trump in his administration the new york times is reporting that the president ordered former chief of staff john kelly and

white house counsel don begetter evocate and son in law jared which the president had previously denied doing ok so house oversight committee chairman alija cummings he's a democrat from maryland he's asking for all documents pertaining to the security clearance process and the white house they're saying no they're rejecting this your thoughts on this issue particularly because it seems to have caught donald trump in a lie. well this critiquing the situation when jerry question or himself i don't want to have security clearance well look i do think he's trustworthy he's loyal to the president he's loyal to the president's agenda to make america great and he's doing great work on the economy and middle east peace process and one where your reservations you said you had reservations well they weren't my reservations the reservations within the white house were that he had too many business deals where he might be put in a position where he could be compromised i do not think your question or would

allow himself to be compromised but i do understand the concerns of those within the security community but look at the end of the district he says hey i've been friends with fred since i was six years old he's been a great lifetime adviser of mine and i would like for him to have a security clearance he can certainly do that. so it would be obvious and it's you know he didn't stretch it here but it's fair and let me do i think i'm going to their president trump is fine on this right but let me stop you right there it's true that the president could give security clearance to his barber if he wants but donald trump said that he did not intervene in getting that security clearance for his son in law and that looks like he did that he put real pressure on there so why did he lie why lie about something that he has every right to do well could be the president trying doesn't remember having that conversation and you know there are thousands of conversation of staff and white house counsel those are pretty memorable conversations because he would have been told that your questioner was

denied clearance and then weighed in its id with the voting public just one more thing to maybe not take his word for it. well again we don't know that he lied that is the assertion i don't know and i have not spoke with the president about whether or not he remembers this conversation it's quite possible that in the course of the conversations he's had with his legal counsel and his chief of staff i mean look look at the investigations he's under the white house has provided over a million pages of documents as had thousands of conversations with his legal counsel and with his chief of staff so would not surprise me if the president does not remember a conversation he had three years ago i don't remember some of the conversations i had three years ago so it's possible that the president either doesn't remember or it didn't happen well we'll see if he takes the bait and goes to twitter jen thank you so much for joining us we really appreciate you taking your time today thanks

amy. in new york i'm now joined by david mori a democratic strategist and former adviser to barack obama's two thousand and eight and two thousand and twelve winning presidential campaigns david thank you so much for joining us good to be with you amy great to have you say you heard the news hellery clinton and michael bloomberg now have both announced that they will not run for president in two thousand and twenty although hillary says she's want to completely close the door it's pretty close what's your reaction david well i think it's a sign that joe biden is going to get in this race it's a sign that joe biden will be the favorite in this race and it's a sign that that's the opening in some ways donald trump has left the center open in american history so there's an open center for someone to take it and that's the argument for biden potentially winning the next election david are you hearing any rumblings from the biden camp or people around biden that he's taking this very seriously about jumping in you know i'm hearing he's going to get in and the argument for biden creds now i think i mean is what happened to the in the u.k.

when you're one they had to progressive nominees that were sort of took a hard left kinnock and foot same thing when reagan won two democratic nominees pretty much hard left respectively mondale to caucus so in some ways the way the democrats can lose the election is to go hard left and do nothing but go hard left biden really sort of allows the democratic party to get up in the air and transcend in some kind of center left position that's what's attractive here my prediction he's going to get in this race and he will be the front runner when he does it and he's the one democrat i think that can beat trump without a lot of argument we can go through the numbers something about it we have david i can see that what you're saying about joe biden candidacy for the general but what about for this primary i mean we're seeing the democratic contenders moving way to the left i mean we even saw a senator come all heart harris talk about reparations for african-americans this is a position that no presidential candidate has taken so far as i can remember yet and

i think that they're moving. for the two left and their voters it is true amy is going to have a challenge getting through the primary as an older white male starting there not that that's the way we should look at this but i think he's going to have he'll have issues on the crime bill the need to hill hearings there are ways he's going to get i think attacked politically but look at this we need to think hard and on that to get any credit from democratic grassroots voters and some of these progressive voters for having been president obama's vice president is there any you know reflected glory there for joe biden there is and i think there's a big gigantic center lane in the democratic party with bloomberg out of this race from the do so remember he's the guy that pulled president obama further along an elegy bt rights and all of that so you know joe is a guy in politics you look and you come from politics anyone who can get up above the center you know can transcend as we say has a tremendous advantage joe has the ability to transcend and quickly point to

wisconsin ohio michigan pennsylvania especially pennsylvania whoever wins those states becomes president and probably whoever wins pennsylvania becomes president joe biden comes from scranton you know he can talk to those forgotten voters in a way that they have forgotten people that's affected her and in fact why he was put on in part barack obama's ticket in the first race was his appeal to those constituencies we have new have lines according to politico that kemal harris senator cory booker care scintilla brand and joe biden all received donations from none other than donald trump at the top of family in the past do you think that this is going to kind of leave a bad taste in some progressive voters mouth to find out well it's going to be a very broad bad place because donald trump gave money to every democrat that ever walked by trump towers i think dumb should be used to be a democrat up until like four and a half years ago you know depending on how you look at it so i don't think that's going to be an issue because. trump is giving money to everyone. no i think that

look i think the voters in the democratic primary side you're right they're going to be looking for someone exciting and someone progressive but on the other hand they want to win more than they want someone who agrees with their views and that poll at one point a week and a half ago that was a twenty three percent difference now it's a little smaller so they're going to be looking to beat donald trump that's going to be the imperative and trump is still i think a favorite because he's got the advantages of the incumbency and he's got a base of below forty percent that ain't going anywhere right so let me ask you this it sounds like you pegged joe biden as the best chance of meeting donald trump and i are sorry beating john trump am i correct that i do i think he'll have to fight assuming he did it who it becomes his vice presidential nominee will be a generational insinuation almost a handoff because joe will be in his late seventies by the time he wins the nomination if he does so and this will have to get fought out obviously on the in the grassroots streets of the various early primaries but look i think biden is

very very strong now in terms of raising money in terms of controlling the dollars and being in some ways almost the only candidate in the center of an enormously crowded primary field right and what could end up happening potentially is all of those progressive candidates splitting the progressive vote and leaving joe biden to kind of run down the middle but i want to ask you about donald trump of the g.o.p. working so hard to stick the socialist label on democrats i mean alexandria because of cortez a self described democratic socialist we have bernie sanders who's leapt into the race also self described socialist and you have the rollout of the green new deal that let's say was bumpy and a lot of democrats were dismissing it is this socialist bend and certainly the g.o.p. trying to you know take advantage of it is this representing a problem for democrats heading into two thousand and twenty potentially i mean the democrats have the disadvantage in the advantage of having a bigger house with more rooms than the republican party it's

a. more complicated for activists party by definition just goes back way back in history and so they're going to have to in some ways figure out how to pull all this together i go back to biden who's a candidate who could rise above this as did obama we talked about the two thousand and four speech the purple speech that obama gave and rose up above politics to help him secure the nomination two thousand and eight they're going to be looking for someone who can do that donald trump just doesn't do that as president i mean that's the one thing i'm sometimes wondering why he doesn't do it move to the center rise up piii and get stuff done but he wants to rather energize his base for whatever reasons and so i think by i mean i would argue that its base is not as ideological and that's part of how he was able to win the republican nomination with his base and it was pulled was actually further to the left than the republican party but in terms of the democratic party moving further to the left than the american people at rendell i'm sure you know him well the former pennsylvania governor and former chairman of the d.n.c.

he's saying that the more his party has presidential candidates or newly elected members of congress like alexandria kazuo cortez talking about this green new deal or medicare for all the more this plays into the truck campaign's hands he's worried and it's a good friend and it is he's always right on politics and he's one hundred percent right here they're going to have to do something different than this just lurching left on progressive policies will lose the next election instead they're going to have to stand for public private partnerships scaling to markets bringing in innovation and forming coalitions bigger than the liberals themselves i mean government alone can't get anything done and the liberal coalition alone can't get anything done so again i think biden is in a position to kind of rise above the arguments within the house within the many rooms of the democratic party but ed is right and you're writing me if the democrats allow themselves to be labeled the trotsky stalin i you know communist left wing party they're going to be in big trouble against donald trump. will

exploited weakness and he'll claim the center whoever gets to the center first wins in this election i think in two thousand and one well david mori hopefully some democratic candidates are listening to you since you know how to get people elected obama twice thanks amy good to be with you david thanks so much for your time today and thank you for joining me on this edition of politicking also thanks to larry king for letting me sit in this chair today it's an honor remember we love hearing from you join the conversation on larry's facebook page and as always you can share your thoughts on twitter by tweeting at king's things and using the politicking hash tag i also invite you to join me on twitter at real amy m. holmes that's all for this edition of politicking.

aeroflot russian and lights. you know world of big partisan movie lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks.

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