changed any minds either those the most important ones those sitting on the day us today or frankly those watching the hearings. zach johnson julie republicans alone which we wouldn't. show many times so you can't judge you presume with struction until the courts to wade in on the subpoena disputes you agree with that. and i don't i do actually respect and agree a lot with what alex said though and i'll say that i think that if this information had been presented say 20 or 30 years ago and larry you've covered a lot of presidents a lot of presidencies i think there would be actually unanimity both on the diocese and within the american public that what happened wasn't ph a bull but things have changed and sort of the sense of what a fact is and this ability to obfuscate this ability to have ecosystems within the media sphere of really changed a lot of that and so i don't actually believe that the country would be divided on

what actually happened if we were just able to take a couple steps back in time where we are now i think it's very difficult so i completely agree with alex that i don't think that anybody's minds were changed this week during the hearing but i also believe that it doesn't change the underlying fact that what the president has done since the beginning of his presidency is tear at the fabric of the presidency and all norms and really walk up to the boundaries of the law he's been challenge repeatedly in the courts and is lost on a lot of his in his administration's actions and i think the democrats are going to move forward with an impeachment that will ultimately die in the senate i think is the is one strum said to me of thing even. ones and that is that he was trying to think the elections in america and no i don't think that's obvious for a couple of reasons number one and this is one that was acknowledged not only today by some of the experts but is been widely discussed the president's all presidents not just president trump not just repub. presidents all presidents have incredibly

wide latitude in how they conduct their interactions with foreign leaders it's why generally speaking we don't have a lot of examples of those conversations that take place between world leaders. look certainly the president's intent matters how it was received the matters all of those things matters of those are factual questions that can be debated but ultimately have to be voted on in this case by people in the house and the senate this is not as obvious as everyone in america watch something happen and said yep he punched him in the face and we'll go from there there is debate as there often is not just i think driven by partisan grounds but on a genuinely factual basis i also think the idea and this came up earlier in response about whether or not the president should be charge of the direction of

congress. whether he can before courts rule look the president has a right both in this process and other processes to defend himself to exert various privileges if the courts do rule that either the administration has to produce witnesses or testimony and the president refuses then we have a genuine constitutional crisis in congress could could come forward at that to argue that he can be impeached now for asserting those privileges seems unrealistic an unfair zagg general for the. impeachment is whatever the house says it is do you agree with that. well i think the constitution gives a significant amount of latitude to the house for exactly this and doesn't really specify what meets that that threshold and i think that historically the reason we've only had 3 presidents come this far is shows that they've been very judicious and i think of the house as by. judicious they have

a constitutional oversight role they're actually conducting that role that's appropriate and if nothing else i think that there should be agreement across the country that they should not just have that role but that this also ensures that future presidents that maybe act in a certain way this helps set a standard of what that constitutional oversight role should be but it is true at the end of the day it doesn't really prescribe what those elements are and this in my respects in many respects it's almost like probable cause on the actual beyond a reasonable doubt is what would happen in the senate so i think has he met that standard that's worthwhile of sending this to a full trial i think the answer that is is clearly yes i think in the trial component of the senate though some of the points that alex was bringing up while i don't necessarily agree with them i think that those are the points that will be made up by the republican side to justify an acquittal will the thought of including the malo report in this. well there's a political angle to that answer and then there's a process answer obviously any of the information that was contained in the

miller report in the associated testimony from director mueller and others can certainly be used in that process. again the normal rules of evidence do not apply this is a. traditional courtroom under the federal rules of civil procedure so absolutely some of those could come up the challenge politically speaking is again i don't think that's going to move a lot of hearts and minds or votes which is ultimately the goal here number one number 2 i think the general public reaction to most of that information was not as impactful as many who were in support of mr miller's testimony in that hearing were so i think there's a that's a tough political call and at the end of the day this is a political process. for the 218 people who will have to vote to move forward

but if they believe that they need that information to effectively present their case against the president i think they can do so still get to the underlying question it's one thing to use information from the reported to another to try and use and make public some of the underlying grand jury information which would normally be protected zax was you gives you for a minute i know you knew you know come out. pretty well what do you make of her leaving the race. i mean i think it's unfortunate i think that here we are now the democratic race in many respects right in many respects actually been shaped and i can't see another candidate actually breaking through in the top 4 so i think marabou to judge and vice president biden and senator sanders and warren really are the 4 that will end up moving forward as it goes i think that she is both a star for the democratic party moving forward she's obviously very popular within our my home state you're of california i do think though that her campaign

struggled to articulate exactly what it was her positions were and i think that authenticity component of say even senator sanders whether you agree with him or don't know i think that most of the country actually wouldn't actually gruesome his positions you know people that's what people wanted to see and she had some inconsistent positions on health care and some other elements that i think really didn't help her when she got out of the gate because she started with great fanfare i think that that fanfare will stick with her as she moves for the democratic party but i think so unfortunate losing her voice in this primary challenge the public the democratic candidates do you see of the most well here's how i look at this process at the end of the day if you are running against an incumbent president in order to beat them you're going to have to the fundamental game here is not convincing a bunch of republicans to suddenly vote for the democrat you really competing over some independents and swing voters who last time switched over and voted with president trump so the question to me is which of these candidates for the

democrats can most effectively speak to them based on a whole lot of factors if i was a democrat activist looking at this field i would probably lean towards joe biden obviously proven well known record if you like joe biden you know everything about him if you don't the same thing i do think that the resolution that has to take place this is fundamental challenge and republicans have seen this is well we saw this when. reagan 1st ran when conservatives were pushing back against a more water moderate wing of the party and you see that here and at the end of the day the question is whether or not they want the candidate that has the chance to most effectively appeal to some of these voters in places like wisconsin and pennsylvania i think scranton joe would certainly argue that's him i think he certainly has a better chance of doing that then bernie sanders and elizabeth warren and mayor

pete was certainly an interesting candidate there were some issues there the fact that you can fit the entire population of this town into a moderately sized football stadium maybe convince some people that maybe he's not quite ready to be president so we'll see zach who do you save. i think that some points that alex raise are spot on this entire election will be decided by just a couple percentage points of people in about 6 states in the country and you'll see a couple $1000000000.00 spent to convince them to vote the same way they did in 2012 in 2008 if you're on my side of the same way they did in 16 if you're on the republican side i think that vice president biden and mayor but a judge have that ability the one point that i raise about marabou to judge is i heard almost verbatim argument made against barack obama in 2008 just a couple years out of the illinois state senate didn't have any foreign policy experience was too inexperienced to lead all of those things didn't end up panning out in that election as he won overwhelmingly so i wouldn't write off marabou to

judge i think he's got a better shot than some of the republicans are giving him alexakis things you just today it was great talking with you both thanks larry thank you learn as well the more politicking when they have to this. 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 made history media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bats 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 we're watching closely watching the hawks. aeroflot russian and lights. my feeling with this world is right now as we're so confused and fearful and

there's a certain generation that's controlling all the politics around the world still when that generation dies off and children are brought off the snooze ready our nest materialistic don't really care about these things will be even more automobiles want to leave right this time job want to ride a bicycle this movement is global it's going the world is going to cost to go in this direction and it's going to change. one of the back politicking we now welcome to the program old friend bill press progressive political commentator host of the podcast the bill press and he joins us from washington d.c.

we'll talk about nato in a moment but what do you make of what happened at the committee hearings. when they seemed to question the whole constitutionality of and teaching you know larry hi it's good to see you again i this got to say i was a little annoyed because so many people were complaining that this hearing today was a hearing in the judiciary committee the 1st one with the ford lawyers was boring well you know this this is not like we get out the popcorn for a great big action movie right i mean this is serious stuff this is. only the 4th time in our history out of $45.00 presidents that a history of the president has faced impeachment it's the 3rd only the 3rd to go all the way to impeachment hearings we're talking about the constitution we're talking about the letter of the law it's like sitting in a court room right it's not an action movie it's a serious procedure and i so i thought that. that these lawyer the 4 of them i

thought did a very very good job of presenting their case i was particularly struck by the. law professor from north carolina who said that 2 things one if this isn't an impeachable offense what is and 2 he said that donald trump's actions are worse than any other president including the 3 presidents that did face an impeachment inquiry. so i thought that was pretty serious stuff i thought they made a pretty strong case that it was fascinating to hear them talk about alexander hamilton and madison and warm are as. well but they even went back to england to the origins of the impeachment law and some of the early cases that were brought. and i thought they they really laid it out that this is a long established process that yes we elect their leader but that doesn't mean the

leader can do anything he or she wants while they're in office there is some you know release valve if you will where the people can stand up and say no you went too far in this case you're out. ok trump left nato. reports that in the close those at the summit he did not threaten the nations about to test summits only this is grievances about the fence mending that left germany wanted to make of that whole nato thing you know 1st of all i must say. my maybe my own conspiracy theory is that the president who is not a big fan of nato as we know i think they scheduled this trip because they wanted to split screen effect of donald trump in london while the democrats were during the impeachment hearing i think that was that was that was the whole purpose behind it but i was actually you know it typical disruptive style over there some of the

things he said calling justin trudeau 2 faced and kind of suggesting that. welcome isis fighters to france you know he likes to stir it up but he did this time show more support for nato i thought than he's done before yeah he was pushing people to pay more but by the way he should right they all should pay their fair share. but he recognized the importance of nato which i got to say as a democrat is a hell of a lot better than the way he started remember when he questioned whether we should even can continue nato warningly he's moved beyond that in a video those caught on tape yeah trumpeters trudeau is fairly critical of trump well you know yeah he was. he was sort of making fun of the fact i think that trump shows up late for meetings sometimes and he showed up particularly late for this one meeting because he held one of his impromptu news conferences before he went to

this meeting with whomever he was me i think my craw. i don't think that was really an anti trump i mean look we all do that kind of stuff larry i remember being at a. bill clinton event when bill clinton showed up an hour and a half late for his nose as he was always late you know that he was playing golf that day and he came in like he just walked off or go off course but you know. frankly put bill is trump still the leader of the free world and the american presidency is what is trump i do not think so i think the leader of the free world today is still. with her fading and soon out of office that manu micro is stepping into that role and i think it's i think it's something all americans ought to be concerned about republican or democrat i think

we want to be seen rightfully so as a leader of the free world and you know george w. bush was bill clinton was barack obama was a people don't have that respect for donald trump he's just too erratic and his foreign policy and he's turned against some of our best allies and embraced some of our biggest enemies how the heck did we get in trouble with canada yeah of all people right. you noticed he started out with a sort of a bromance right with justin trudeau just like he started out with a bromance with emanuel marc wrong larry i was at the white house when we're crossing came for that 1st visit with trump and i'm telling you the 2 of them it was like they didn't get a hotel room right. and yet now both of them they have that both of them are at odds he said i was with both of them i don't get a cat like canada should be our strong ally it is our strong ally and i think it's

just silly to pick a fight with canada things political what did you make is come out spilling out. i was sorry to see her go tell the truth you know as a fellow californian. she was our candidate in the race but you know i think i don't think she has anything to be ashamed of i think she she didn't do or self any harm i think she did herself a lot of good she made a good impression around the country you know she ran a fairly good campaign not strong enough obviously but i think she established most of all i think she established herself as a real force in the democratic party look i think the future for camel iris she could be the vice presidential nominee she could be the next attorney general of the united states she could be not this time around but the next time around the democratic nominee for president she is a real force i think she established herself as a real force how did she drop so fast. i think 2 things one.

in between that you know she was great at the debates in between in between the debates when she went out on the campaign trail you know she didn't really have a really solid message about here's what i will do here's why i'm for like elizabeth warren for example right you may not agree with her on everything but you know what she's for she for that wealth actually is getting rid of all student debt issue breaking up the big banks right i mean she's out there you know what she's for you know bernie is for you never really sure what kind of a horse was for number one number 2 it came down to the money i mean it it's getting to the point right now closer to iowa where you need a real lot of money for those ground operation in iowa new hampshire and south carolina and she didn't have it i'd say i give her credit for knowing when it was time to to pull the plug too often candidates don't recognize reality and they drag things on like better or work did to the point where i was embarrassing she knew

she didn't have it she made the decision she got out is still biden's to lose. i think so and. i think the fact that she is one more of in the middle lane that dropped out that if anybody benefits from this i believe it's it's joe biden just pure arithmetic the fewer people who are competing for that center lane the better off it is for for a job by. those who say tearing they have peter brock obama not much time in his office young not well known but coming up on. i think the a stronger comparison was to camelot harris and barack obama right because she was . well mixed race african-american and jamaican but like barack obama had only been in the senate a couple of years in the senate like barack obama. and i think that's what was her

thinking that she could recreate that barack obama marriage. magic i'm sorry i don't like people to judge i think he's a strong candidate but i don't think he's an expert rock obama and by the way you know if the one the one weakness and put a judge his campaign is that he's not connecting with african-american voters he's trying. hasn't worked and joe biden has because of his past history in delaware and also with barack obama will emerge well america like to gave president. i would hope so. i and i you know let me honest i honestly think so today larry i've been surprised pleasantly surprised that i haven't heard anybody anybody in the democrat or republican go after people to judge because he's gay i don't even hear it talked

about and i think that's very healthy i think that shows america's grown up a lot and i hope it means that people would not vote against him because he happens to be a gay man in the national elections what we're down to is 5 or 6 states will decide it right i think so yeah up bright. and so you've got the key states look it's california it's new york it's texas obviously but then you've got across the midwest across the rust the so-called rust belt it's going to be wisconsin pennsylvania michigan illinois at those 4 so maybe we're up to 5 or 6 . but those are the key states those are the states where hillary lost by a total of only $77000.00 votes but she lost those dates which democrats need to win and i think the key for democrats is which democratic nominee which of these candidates can go in with

a good strong brute collar populist message to get working class democrats back to the democratic party those working class democrats who left the party to go to vote for donald trump who can get them back in michigan illinois wisconsin and pennsylvania before you is president donald trump told me use and save a popular vote. are you in favor of a popular vote you mean getting rid of the electoral college yeah absolutely i think it's such a belongs in the smithsonian museum look if there's anything sacred it seems to me that we could all should all be able to agree on is that whoever gets the most votes wins the election that should have that should be the case. and i think it's appalling that in this young century we've already had 2 presidents elected or you know who ended up being president because without winning the popular vote

that the american people did not choose to be the president of the united states george w. bush and donald trump they both happen to republicans i don't care was republican or democrat my position has always been the electoral college. is an anachronism and we have to get and we have to get rid of it just simply one man one person one vote and whoever gets the most votes wins the election bill thanks is always great to see you spending time we covered a lot of time a lot of territory there larry good service and thank you audience for joining me on this edition of politicking remember you can join the conversation on my facebook page or tweet me at kings things and don't forget to use the politicking hash tag that's all for this edition of politicking.

aeroflot russian and lights. in a world of big partisan movies 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 bats 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.

aeroflot russian and lights. and then us own mr johnson. and i just got out of prison for. 41 years. i'm 73 years old now i got arrested for too many for something

to. throw you know like just everything was taken out of. my work in the hospital i think it was. meant to snowman that looks a little bit like me. about high. homicide. now. we're tough in the unit so you're going. to go.

do know i'm afraid of trying to frighten if you give. us no good something i didn't do. in this community there are people who believe that it's ok if you don't like it it's really hard there are no jobs and you see that i've got kids that ask and as a parent. i can come up with lots of arguments and there's a lot of conflict in the game between the 2 most of the conflict i would say revolves around money and most of them money is made. close one on each of those he knows each other is good business the state of california alone makes $6000000000.00 a year of prison complex just to get some point in your life where. you don't care about your so you don't care might anything.

if you. feel the saudi air force member opens fire at a u.s. naval base in florida killing 3 the f.b.i. has reportedly opened a terror related investigation. the number of the populace alternative for germany party says extremists on threatens to assassinate her painting even the left across with the predicted time of her death written on it. also a little larger as a character in a new disney series is proving more popular than any of us in 2020 democratic hopefuls trending online.