eastland. he never called me 'boy.' he called me 'son'," biden said.amy: biden went on to say -- "a guy like herman talmadge, one of the meanest guys i ever knew, you go down the list of all these guys. well, guess what? at least there was some civility. we got things done." biden was widely criticized by other democratic presidential contenders. he was asksked on wednesday if he would apolologize.e. >> are you going to o apologiz, like cory booker has called for? >> apologizeze for what? >> cory booker has called for it. he's asking you to apologize. >> cory should apologize. he knows better. there's not a racist bone in my body. i've been involved in civil rights my whole career, period, period, peririod. nermeen: biden spoke after senator cory booker had issusued a statement readading -- "vice president t biden's relationships with proud segregationists are not the model for how we make america a safer and more inclusive place for black people, and for everyone. frankly, i'm disappointed that he hasn't issued an immediate apology for the pain his wo

as a mississippian, james eastland is a monster. he's a monster to my mind.way you can redeem him. fine appeal to him in a moment in which you had to deal with him. let's double down on his position of bussing which was more nuance and complicated. it was bad, i think. that's all he needed to do was say this two weeks ago, and we would be somewhere else. >> george he said it now. he said it over the weekend. does that mean joe biden can put the controversy behind him and move forward or will he be plagued by this idea his type of politics of can we all just get along ain't going to work in the future? >> well, once you embark on the full grovel tour of apologies, it's very hard to know where it will stop. he's now today a man with his ear firmly on the ground but as winston churchill said it's very difficult to look up to someone in that position. when he came to the congress of the united states, when he came to the senate, the senate was run by conservative southern democrats. mcclellan of arkansas, dennis of eastland mississippi, russell of georgia, et cet

it was i think important to address his comments from last month about working with eastland and talmadge like he did. but i think it was also important for him to recognize and to voters that this election is about the future. look, it's the oldest maximum in politics. keep it about the future. he has to make it about the future, not his past. it is important that he did that bit there about all of his opponents want to make it about his past. >> he also wants to make it about his past, too. that's the problem. >> not just his past in the senate but ignoring his time as vice president. it was important what he said yesterday, they want to focus my life before '08 because obviously that's not helpful for their campaigns. and i think the more he elevates his time as vice president, the more helpful it is in terms of connecting with democratic audiences. but he is never going to win this nomination. he's not talking about the future instead of the past. whether or not it's working for obama or working in the senate in the '70s. >> and you saw cory booker who had been critical of the vice pr

he goes out and says that on audiotape and video tape he likes working with jim eastland, herman talmagethe guy is totally clueless. he was for the hyde amendment before he was against it. he was against reparations before it was for it. he was against busing before he was far. he's a joke. you're right. >> tucker: you're right. that's about the crisp summation. what about beto o'rourke? for a moment to really did seem like beto was the guy. he was our bobby kennedy. now he's a joke. while? >> well, i think, they always talk about the glass ceiling for women in politics. i think there's also a glass ceiling for's. there's only so far you can rise. john kerry married two heiresses but he could never reach the heights. he married the only child of a guy worth $500 million. i think he's very soon going to go into his real in life which is son-in-law. >> tucker: [laughs] he's been a good son-in-law. what happened to kirsten gillibrand? >> here's another person, tucker. i'm always a little suspicious of someone who changes their name from when they were in high school or college to weather on

and nobody embodied it more than jim eastland did. >> do you think that it's that -- his ideas are tireddated by his time? >> joe biden thinks out loud. i've known him for 40 years. >> yes, yes. >> and a lot of those thoughts are terrific. and some of those thoughts you want to say, keep them to yourself. i think that's what we've been seeing. but i think we got to come back to this is a divided democratic party. the soul of the democratic party is up for grabs and we don't know where the hell it is going to go. >> but you keep having these head to heads. you got to factor the soul versus the head. >> you got to win -- >> and the democrat -- >> thread this together for me. all right. and i really don't get it. it's not conjecture for the sake of television. i really don't get it yet and seeing all the numbers and even the tabs underneath the polls, i still don't get it. new, new, new, new, new. all the new blood says, free this, free that. medicare for all, nothing else will work. then head to head matchups, biden best against trump. you talk about where the party is, 80% says center lef

explosion over it came from kamala harris and cory booker's issue with what he had said about jim eastland. and i forget the name of the second senator that he had mentioned in there. so i don't think it's something -- my point is i don't think segregation is a more conversation about it something that is coming back in vogue. these four congress women are doing a very specific thing. when you look at who was elected in 2018, there are plenty of millennial rock stars like laura underwood, katie hill, who are right on the middle of those blue dog democrats. they are the bread and butter. >> harris: you will have a tough time. >> david: she is fanning the flames. >> harris: what is susceptible going forward in the democratic party? how will that cloud the 2020 -- >> david: a litmus test not only on race but on socialism. >> melissa: we will see. president trump expected to make a big announcement of the rose garden today on the census citizenship question. see, i told you. i need another word! >> harris: you did a! >> melissa: [laughs] the action he's expected to take in the fall out. plus,

at the time james eastland who no one has talk about for years except for joe biden talking bit him. he becomes chairman of the judicial area committee, ends forces the practice where lease not going to move any judges unless the senator from the home state sign off on this blue slip of paper. and that lets the dixiecrats -- they want to control who is in the federal judiciary in their states would that is who is imposing new rules. so that's goes on, some flexibility and joe biden ignored blue ships from some democratic senators but not republican senators so stayness and this allows the republican, even when harry reid got rid of the filibuster on nominations to block a bunch of judges and there's a thing where trump talks about this all the time. when he is talking about judges and says, obama left us this gift,hundred judges. why didn't he fill them? what's lazy? they didn't fill those judgeships because the republicans blocked them with blue slips. so once the get any asked mitchell mitchell for a podcast. what but the blue ship? that's grassily others issue but i tell him my pe

he wrote a letter to senator james eastland basically thanking him for his support of his anti-busing bill. this is not something that's debatable. nobody wants to talk about what happened in 1970, but it does have some impact on what's happening on 2020 if the candidate who has that record doesn't at least acknowledge, it apologize for it and move forward. >> this is interesting. i want to put these polls up. south carolina, a new fox news poll, among black voters who make up the majority of likely democratic voters, 41% biden and 15% sanders and 12% harris, 4% booker, 2% warren. new poll out tonight from cnn. there's a new poll out from cnn, biden 25, and then there's a tight race for second. harris at 16 -- i'm sorry, say again. >> don, i think -- >> that's a cnn poll of polls, excuse me. >> and then we have harris at 16, sanders at 15 and warren at 15, so those are the numbers. they are pretty close. there was a big bump after the debate, but it looks like it's leveling back out again. >> don, i think the key is watching these individual states. biden is still doing well in iowa,

that was the date of this fundraiser where joe biden talked about james eastland, talked about hermanalmudge. and i don't think i need to remind you there was pretty instent blowback. you had cory booker saying biden owed folks an apology. >> had all sorts of people criticizing him. and he didn't offer an apology for several weeks and only this weekend decided to. why that delay? >> i think there were two takeaways from this weekend. one is that he's somebody who listens and hears. and when he felt like an apology was owed, he had no problem making one. and so he went to south carolina to make that case directly. but then secondly, you know, you also heard him make the strong case that he's not going to take attacks and mischaracterizations and distortions of his record laying down. you know, you heard him make a forceful case for the fact that, look, he has been in public life for many years. and you know what? he's been at the forefront of change. he's been at the forefront of making change in this country. and you're going to hear him talk about that. but he's also for not going to

. >> this entire argument is like the kibosh is put to it by this eastland case the supreme court cameown with in 1975 saying that the debate and speech clause of the congress, which is in the u.s. constitution trumps any idea that you can question the motive of congress, as long as it's for a legislative purpose. and clearly, we've got the president of the united states where it's shown he has a long history of his family trying to avoid taxes, not to pay his taxes, being constantly audited. there is an absolute legislative purpose in trying to get to the bottom of this to determine whether there should be legislation requiring any candidate for president to turn over his returns. >> that's the federal case. i'm saying on the stateside, where you're saying you're discriminating against my protected speech rights. >> the courts have no business even being involved in that. >> right. >> that's what the supreme court has said. >> i see. i see what you're saying. >> so there are three different ways they're trying to get them. one of the things i sort of wonder about is there was a gap be

one part of it was also the statements that biden had made about working with people like jim eastlandanybody who was in congress at that time had to work with people like jim eastland because he was chairman of the judiciary committee. if segregationists are in power in congress and you're in congress, you have to work with them. but the more significant issue, i think, where biden looked bad in the debate and still has not sounded quite up to 2019 is in the question of whether or not you can revive the days that he was talking about, the days of civility. can you really make deals with republicans the way he boasted that he has in the course of the campaign. he has not looked as if he is quite in tune with the political zeitgeist of 2019 in terms of the relationship of the parties. that may be he's not projecting because voters want to hear somebody that's going to wribri two sides together. certainly throughout the obama administration that joe biden served in, there's not a lot of evidence that you can in fact through persuasion and the fact that you're good friends with republican