robert gibbs, i'm going to start with you as you're watching this. someone who's been around politics in the highest levels of politics for a very long time. what do you see as you watch this? something that's not happened against a cabinet secretary in something like 200 years? >> there's a couple of different things. obviously this is the picture republicans in congress in particular and probably president trump wants a lot of people to see. i can't help but think this is the sort of the end of the real accomplishment of this entire proceeding because it's not a matter of if secretary mayorkas is acquitted. it's just a matter of how quickly it will happen. the second thing is as we've talked about the sub text of all of this, there are high crimes and misdemeanors. this is a policy disagreement with which one house has impeached a member of the cabinet. you were to play this out in the future, an already slow government process in congress would come to a virtual standstill because you'd spend most of your time in these types of proceedings trying

joining me now are robert gibbs, former obama white house press secretary and now an msnbc political analyst, and matthew dowd, chief strategist for the 2004 bush/cheney campaign and now an msnbc senior contributor and analyst. robert, how do democrats walk the fine line by condemning anti-semitism while also respecting demonstrator's rights to express themselves peacefully and maybe even sympathize with their quest about stopping what's going on in gaza? >> yeah, reverend, it's a great question. and look, i think you see this, as you said, playing out on college campuses throughout the country right now. look, i think democrats have to be protective of and will be protective of people's right to speak out and to speak up. that should be an american value, not one party's value, but i think we as a party also have to protect those in and around those campuses. if they hear the rhetoric that you just talked about that's shouted at them or shouted at a rally and makes others feel unsafe, takes away from what the university is trying to do in terms of providing education and learning, th

chuck todd is chief nbc analyst, and robert gibbs, an msnbc political analyst.k, you and i have spoken about whether we'll ever see these two candidates on a debate stage together, but should the biden campaign worry that trump clearly is not going to let this go? >> i don't know if they should worry about it. this is awfully early, and usually the guy calling for the debates, there's a reason he's doing it, and the snarky retort from the biden campaign kind of gets at it. they hint at the reason why he's doing it, which is, hey, he needs an event that's paid for by somebody else. he needs more free events, more free media, even the trump campaign has admitted, his rallies are very expensive, and he does have cash issues right now. but, look, i have been a skeptic that we'll have any debates, but i do think that biden is somebody who does believe in, quote, institutions. and if the commission on presidential debates puts out a schedule and trump agrees to it, i don't know how the biden campaign says no to it. now, i'm not convinced that trump will say yes to wha

politico's" white house correspondent, co-author of playbook and an msnbc political contributor, and robert gibbs served as white house press secretary for president obama and is an msnbc political analyst. yamiche, explain what the court is trying to decide and what we heard in arguments today. >> chris, as you said, this is significant abortion case. a federal law that talks about emergency care and the fact that if you come into an emergency room, doctors have to stabilize you if you have an emergency health condition, whether or not that supersedes idaho's law, which says that you are not allowed to have an abortion unless the woman's life is in danger and unless she is basically dying in this case is what the federal -- federal government is saying here. this was a very interesting case to listen to because on the federal government side, you had them essentially saying that idaho's law makes it necessary for a woman to be on death's door in order to get an abortion. that is wrong, that it really should be about her health, and it should not take all the way until she gets so sick that there

. >>> we will bring in brendan buck and robert gibbs. robert, i will start with you. biden campaign jumped on this ruling. they say florida is winnable. there are no democrats in statewide elected roles in florida. the state hasn't sent a democrat to the white house or senate in more than a decade. is this fool's gold? >> it's probably a little too early to say that it's fool's gold. as you mentioned, where this issue has been on the ballot in ohio, in kansas, in other places, they have won every single time. whether or not there's enough to bring out enough democrats to win in a presidential year, i think it's too early to tell. it makes florida extraordinarily interesting. you mentioned also that arizona is likely now to have a ballot measure. we know how close a swing state that is. we also know very clearly from what's happened in 2022 and 2023 and now into 2024, this is an amazingly potent issue for democrats. they will use it throughout this election campaign. >> i am skeptical whether there's enough time left -- if it's not too late, if there's enough time left

i want to bring into the conversation here robert gibbs. administration aide as well as matthew dowd who is with us right now as well. robert gibbs, is former press secretary in the white house and matthew dowd worked in the bush/cheney administration. matthew, let me start with you. take us back to 2016. that is what the prosecutor is doing right now before the jurors, and just the setting of what they're calling this conspiracy to conceal, this information from the voters, what do you think this -- this was -- what was happening inside the trump campaign at the time that all of this was reportedly going on behind the scenes? >> well, i can't speak from experience of having gone through a candidate with this, and i don't think robert can either, having this sort of negative associated with a candidate. we had other things we had to deal with, never something like this and never catch and kill and all those other things that are associated with this. my guess is -- this is a guess, by i think it's pretty informed -- is there was so much inc

. >> thanks so much to robert gibbs, tim miller, peter baker wrapping it all up.ber, katy tur coming up at 2:00 of course with the coverage of the eclipse. and chris jansing reports starts right after this quick break. ins right after this quick break