bret stephens, columnist for the new york times. his book, entitled america in retreat. which now seems quite prophetic. he gave a speech in 2017 on the dying art of disagreement. it fits perfectly with our topic. let me ask directly and we will start with brett, how polarized are we and are we making the situation worse i think we are experiencing the most dire polarization since the civil war? >> i think the answer to the second question is yes. i do think we make matters worse with a lack of historical perspective. it doesn't help us. are we polarized compared to when exactly? february 19, 1968 and the battles over the vietnam war. as we as polarized as they were during the grant administration discussing the ku klux klan. nevermind the battles over kansas in the 1850s. compared to those episodes in american history, iwould say , the answer is not particularly. we are a country that is going through, let's put it this way. a difficult phase in its marriage. and that doesn't we shouldn't be concerned or should take steps to do something about this. but i don't think we

[inaudible conversations] >> please welcome james carville, senator jeff flick, karl rove, and bret stephens blocks are blog whether welcome again. all the way at the other end. far to my right which he isn't, is james carville. who led in the -- [applause] >> let the 1992 clinton campaign and the ragin camein was a powerful force. next is senator jeff flake, who -- [applause] -- who i feel i'm becoming best friends with, was the author of the conscience of a conservative, a rare that republican who dared to disaggrieve we trump then karl rove a strategy grim from the 2000 and 2004 bush campaign and a powerful voice in the republican gm and finally bret stephens, the "new york times" columnist who wrote an op-ed titled can anyone save the g.o.p. now, james has asked me if he can start this off by presenting a gift to karl. go ahead. >> so, karl writes a year-end column "wall street journal" making predictions for 2020 and his first prediction is james carville would be happy because lsu would win a national championship. so karl you won one on the year and i bought you a gift. you know who t

[inaudible conversations] >> please welcome james carville, senator jeff flick, karl rove, and bret stephens

aid to president obama and was on his campaign staff in the new hampshire primary in 2018 and bret stephensu must be thinking to your days in new hampshire. >> i am thinking back to there was a poll came out before the new hampshire primary in 2008 showed us up 13 points, we lost by 2.5 points to senator clinton. new hampshire has a lot of wild cards. there are more so this year because of the number of candidates as well as the fact two are from neighboring states. in new hampshire, you have to remember independents can vote, creates an interesting dynamic as well, then we have a couple of intervening events. the famous one in 2008 was the debate moment when barack obama said to hillary clinton you're likeable enough, hillary, which a lot of people think turned the tide. new hampshire likes underdogs, whether mccain or clinton in 2008 or back to eugene mccarthy in 1968. i'm not expecting great clarity out of next tuesday. >> here is what's strange. new hampshire likes underdogs, and the former vice president joe biden, least likely to be the underdog is going in exactly that. bret, i want

. >> bret: justice department officials say they are making an effort to coordinate its various investigations regarding ukraine, assistant attorney general stephenoyd tells jerry nadler in a letter that news reports and members of congress have significantly distorted the public's understanding of the situation. the letter reiterates the department's position that attorney general william barr has not discussed matters related to ukraine with presidential attorney rudy giuliani. there are questions tonight about whether a meeting between a democrat u.s. senator and iran's foreign minister may have broken the law or misrepresented american foreign policy. rich edson is here with details. >> president trump is among those asking whether senator chris murphy violated a rarely used 19th century federal law by meeting with irani foreign minister in germany, the logan act prohibits unauthorized americans from conducting diplomacy on behalf of the united states. >> senator murphy met with the irani ends is that a fact was mack i just saw that on the way over. is there anything i should no? that sounds like to be a violation of the logan act. >> mike po