>> no, you look at lincoln chaffee and why is he here? none of these guys, they don't come with nicole ligss. if you looked at barack obama, he came with a coalition, african-americans, he came with young people. in that way he was able to run a very effective, obviously winning campaign against hillary clinton. none of these other people. people don't know who they are. it's one thing to tear down hillary clinton. it's another to introduce yourself effectively to voters who don't know how are. >> they're not transformational inspirational figures. >> the campaign has not started. >> i don't think there's no way. there's never no way. anybody can be beat especially in today's politics. look at what's happened over the last several years. the surprises we've had, mostly on the republican side. look at obama in 2008. the question is there's nobody anywhere close to her. the democratic party has made this investment. the question is she's her own biggest enemy. she's her own biggest opponent. you write a great story of the republicans prepar

just in the last i guess, 24 hours david, we've learned not only that lincoln chaffee, the former rhodevernor and senator is forming an exploratory committee to look at the democratic nomination and hillary clinton will announce sunday. where does this leave the democratic race? >> hillary, it will be fascinating. she'll do it very gradually and slowly, which is wise, but she's got a lot of interesting choices to make. the first choice is whether to be interesting at all. she wrote a book and just now released an afterward to the book which is not exactly that interesting. so is she willing to take a risk or is she going to coast? second, how she can deal with the splits in the party that emerged since her husband was in office. the party shifted more left more anti-wall street. how does she handle that? it seems from her perspective a small step to the white house. she has pretty open ground that i've watched so many politicians who seem to be front frontrunners just have a defensive strategy and not take risks and not really earn it and they've faltered and she's in the unfornlt posit

chaffee. well although i served under his father when his father was secretary of the navy in my last year in the marine corps. i just want to talk about the views that we bring to the table and the leadership experiences that we have and the issues that i focused on. if you look through many, many years, not just the time that i was in the senate i've talked about issues economic fairness social justice. we put criminal justice reform on the table. we brought it out of the shadows against the advice of a lot of democratic party operatives by the way who were saying i was committing political suicide by pulling that issue out. we focused on national security. not just the iraq war. i've been doing this all my life. i grew up in the military. i fought in a very difficult war. i've written about it. i was in beirut as a journalist when the marines were there. i was in afghanistan as an embedded journalist in '04. and i've spent time in foreign relations committee and armed services committee. so

debbie wasserman schultz welcomed lincoln chaffee's candidacy. are there any unexpected stars here? martin o'malley, anybody that she should be worried about? >> she should be worried about everybody because she wasn't worried about barack obama eight years ago and look what happened there. look, i think that that is kind of part of the mo of this campaign, not going in with the heir of inevitability even though it seems like a different field, no question about it. i think also what is most interesting, i'm going to be and i already am covering the republican candidates. she is already taking such a beating from them. they are hitting her as much -- actually more than they're hitting one another in this race. i think when it comes to her getting through the democratic primary process, that could help her. i interviewed rand paul whose interview is going to be on "state of the union" at the top of the hour, and he was so eager to talk about hillary clinton, about benghazi, that being her 3:00 a.m. phone call that already happened. so i actually think that in a weird, maybe even twis

. >> chaffee's spokesperson said despite what he said he has not formally declared his candidacy. he's in exploratory phase. he's expected to make some kind of announcement soon. >> chris christie swears he's not done yet. he was in new hampshire essentially campaigning for president, even though he, too, is not an official candidate. right now he's pretty far back in the pack, which is a far cry from when he was seen as a potential front-runner. the question is, is it over for him? to late to have a chance? he says no way. >> poll numbers go up and they go down based on your performance. i am far, far from finished with my career. so you know, you have a chance to go back up again. >> in a recent poll 6% -- 69% of people in new jersey say their governor would not make a good president. >> holocaust remembrance day to remember the jews that were killed. people pulled off the records, stepped out of their cars, pedestrians stopped in their tracks to bow their heads two minutes to remember those who perished in world war ii. the names of all killed will be read aloud at parliament.

. >> lincoln chaffee didn't. about two dozen democrats didn't. >> yes. but just about almost everybody in the democratic party did. and to go back and relitigate something like that is silly. this campaign is about income inequality which you've talked about and it is about income inequality and with hillary clinton, who can handle the challenges abroad and i don't think there is anybody like her that can handle that. >> and you mention income inequality and he is on in the show later in the hour so he can speak about that and governor o'malley also out in iowa talking about the economic issues. and you obviously have your excellented candidate -- your selected candidate, governor but is it good to have the other challengers to your preferred candidate. >> as i always said. of course you have the primary. this is the most important office in the world. i happen to across the aisle think chafee did a wonderful job and i would support him, because of his stance on gay rights which is courageous for a governor to do and i think martin o'malley is a great hu

it's lincoln chaffee. thank you for joining me.ave an unusual history when it comes to party affiliation. you were appointed to the senate to replace your father. you lost to a democrat. you are now a democrat considering a run for president. why? >> first of all, this is senator clinton's big day and i congratulate her on her entrance into the race. voters should have choices in races so it's going to be a great debate i hope in the democratic primaries. as far as my evolution, certainly the republican party changed and i never changed. as i became an independent my values never changed whether it's on fiscal responsibility environment or using the government tools to help the less fortunate, keeping us out of the kwaugquagmires, i've never changed. >> you said you challenged hillary clinton primarily because of her vote for the iraq war. you were the only republican to vote against the iraq war in 2002. do you think there's enough anger left this is a long time ago, to propel your candidacy based on that? >> well i enjoyed workin

look at vice president biden, they are unsure whether he will throw his hat into the ring sanders, chaffee, jim webb. the interesting thing about these democrats they aren't taking sharp aim at hillary clinton. that's when something tells you they are in it to take on a front-runner and we haven't seen that yet. >> we do see with the clinton campaign emerging campaign a lot of press aides, a lot of people reporters know well. this is a sign of homefully stropg strong with the press corps and not nastiness in the past. >> i didn't cover hillary clinton in 2008 but when you talk to reporters that did, they are down right traumatized about the relationship they went through, relationship between clinton campaign and reporters, you could say, was com bassive. that might be an understatement. there was a feeling on part of the clinton campaign there was favoritism with then senator obama. what you're seeing this time is a clear of the to be less combative. you've got communications director a number of senior communications aides, the traveling press secretary. these are all people who have mor

lincoln chaffee is somebody who says that he's more than likely to go et in and run against her. i talked to him this morning. is it worth it? do these guys have a chance? should they even bother? >> oh i think anyone that has in their heart the desire to run for president should do it. but what i'm saying is as a party we've never been as unified around a candidate. and the reason is hillary is so ready for this. you know, any had that pac, ready for hillary. i am so over ready. i cannot wait to see this announcement this afternoon. i worked with her very, very closely when she was first lady whether she was in the united states senate and i'll tell you, the respect that she had across party -- the party aisle. now they forget about it. they loved hillary. lindsey graham loved hillary. john mccain loved hillary. they worked with her. she was front and center with chuck schumer after 9/11 and she restored hope to that great state and also to our great nation. she fought for those first responders. and they all helped her and they all, as i remember voted for her for secretary of

lincoln chaffee might one. they don't want to have the impression they're taking anything for granted. >> honestly they can't. those primary states were all her dominance. they're small and unpredictable. it's not out of the realm of possibility that something someone else could win one of those states. you just never know with these things. democrats in hollywood are yearning for elizabeth warren i think in particular. i think that that impulse, especially that populist impulse is going to have to play out somehow in the democratic primary. i think for hillary clinton, at this point the question is what policies is she going to roll out that is going to talk to that particular segment of the party? i think that's where the rubber will meet the road. if progressives start to see we're having an impact. hillary clinton is doing some of the things we think elizabeth warren would do. she could help herself with that particular segment of the party. >> we'll see how available she is to the press, everything that ha

former democratic governor of rhode island lincoln chaffee, who served as a u.s. senate.e first question is your candidacy definite? >> well the process is under the law, you're allowed to have an exploratory committee. that gives you some exabilityflexibility. we're going that step first. then we'll see down the road about making it official. >> all right. how would you differentiate yourself from hillary clinton? and do you take issue with a coronation of sorts? >> well first of all, congratulations when she makes her announcement. of course, there's going to be a lot of agreements on domestic issues, on the environment, on civil liberties, on a number of domestic issues, but the biggest difference is going to be on international issues. particularly the vote to authorize the war in iraq back in 2002. and all the ramifications we deal with today, not only in the middle east and the chaos that's there, but also across north africa and libya and down into nigeria. even ukraine. it's a result of that bad decision, that lapse of judgment back in 2002. >> well of course on y