joining me now are e.j. dionne and jason johnson. thank you both for being here. >> glad to be here rev. >> e.j. before we get to the silence of republicans, i mean what's going on with rudy giuliani? what do you make of these comments? >> i mean these were appalling comments. i have to say i was surprised. i thought we might be done with this. the president's not on a ballot any more. there's absolutely no reason to say it. the thing he said that really bothered me and the way even more than he does a lot of america, which is absurd on its face is he wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and i was brought up. what in the world does that mean? what kind of code is there as if he lived in indonesia? is it a comment on who his mother was? what does that mean? i was just astonished by it. >> jason, i see you shaking your head. what is it a code for, using e.j.'s term? >> he's that black guy in the white house that i never liked. that's the code speech. and really i think what giuliani should recognize from his ridiculous statemen

joining me now from the conference is msnbc's political correspondent casey hunt and e.j. dionneton post." thank you both for being here. >> good to be with you, reverend. >> nice to be here reverend. >> casey, jeb bush didn't exactly get a rock star reception, but did he get credit for just showing up? >> reverend, i think that he did. i think that he absolutely passed the test that was set up for him here today. he started off a little bit tentative. he almost seemed nervous like he was a little bit punchy but he relaxed into it. and while there were some tense moments with sean hannity, who you saw there interviewing him, he really by tend of it had gotten into this comfortable sparring rhythm. honestly he gave the kind of performance that would make you think he would be pretty formidable on a debate stage, whether in the republican primary or against hillary clinton and his staff also did a good job of making sure that the room was filled with his supporters. so while he did get something of a mixed reception, it was clear there were a lot of people in room that were specifi

i'm e.j. dionne, senior fellow at brookings, and as you know, brookings likes to be in the middle of the great debates in our country and this is going to be a year i think the really fundamental debates about the future, about what happens to growth and isn't shared? you might have to get around to argument about what should our government spend money on an outward going to pay for it? we have had crises rather than having real arguments about that the last few years. and it's a real honor for me to introduce -- stomach join us today, she has proudly represented california's 12th district for the past 27 years. i will continue with the introduction i just want to say a couple of things. first of all, please silence your cell phones. tweet up a storm if you want but silence your cell phones. it's hashtag pelosi at brookings. and also we'll be circulating hard with were to ask your you questions and going to try to ask as many of them as i can of the leader. i want to thank the folks at brookings have

i e.j. dionne purpose i'm a senior fellow here at brookings, and it's a great honor to welcome senator bernie sanders as part of our ongoing conversation on the future of our economy and it should economic growth. for those of you out there who want to comment on twitter the hashtag is #sandersatbrookings. i want to say at the outset before i do the formal part of the introduction that it is a pleasure to welcome a self-described, proud democratic socialist here to brookings. you know these days the word socialist is thrown around as an epitaph the socialist i know are insulted when president obama is called a socialist because they argue he is too moderate to be democrats which was. but the thing we forget is the vibrancy of the democratic socialist tradition in the united states. and bear in mind we're talking democratic, small d socialists i.e. scandinavia, not the old soviet union. and that in the american tradition we are talking about people from eugene debs to norman thomas to michael harrin