. >>> joining me now is cnn senior political analyst and senior editor at the the atlantic ron brownsteinve you with us. so, ron, you wrote about donald trump being down but not out in this presidential race despite the pandemic, revelations in bob woodward's book about what he knew about the virus and when, racism in this country and a whole other negative issues. how is point with all of this that he's not trailing far behind his democratic rival joe biden. >> he's clearly down. he's down six, seven, eight points but because, rosemary, the stakes that are at the tipping point of the election are all more republican in the country overall by wisconsin, pennsylvania, michigan, north carolina and florida he wouldn't need that much more recovery in order to be within range of another electoral college victory even if he loses the popular vote again and that, many experts i talked, to its remarkable. almost 200,000 americans dead. you had all the revelations in the woodward book. progression of people that worked in the same room with him that have come out from his administration and said t

let's discuss with ron brownstein. a senior editor at the atlantic.ent equated lying to the american people about the danger of coronavirus, with the leadership of wing ston churchill during world war ii, what was your reaction? >> it was among -- in the catalog of offensive comments from donald trump, it was at the furthest end of that. what he did was the opposite of winston churchill. he said, i have nothing to offer you but blood sweat and tears, he told the public they had to gerd for a tough struggle and deal with adversity. donald trump did the opposite. he lied to the country knowing how bad this was, told them the opposite, it was no worse than the flu, we would be down to zero cases in a couple days. he in essence, told americans not to take it seriously, not to come together. and from the beginning, his desire and going on to this day, pressuring the big 10 to reopen football. his desire has been to project normalcy as quickly as possible. whatever the public health costs, because that's what benefits him the most politically. it could not

how significant is that, ron brownstein? >> yeah, two important points here, don. first, it is really hard to shift the focus toward something that people are experience on tv, which is protests in urban centers, from what they're experiencing in their daily life, which is the pandemic. and the cnn poll, like the other polling that's out today is very clear that the concern about the enormous impact of the pandemic on disrupting daily life in so many ways is a far more immediate and pressing worry for americans than the president's attempt to kind of gin up his enormous concern about violent crime, which is much lower than it was a generation ago. another key point, you look at the cnn poll and other polls, you know, even if trump succeeds in convincing americans to focus more on violent crime, it's not a guarantee that they believe he is the answer to the problem. i mean, one of the polls out today in the quinnipiac university poll by a 50 to 35% margin, americans said they feel less safe rather than more safe as trump, and the reality is for many of the suburban

disperse the protesters and when not failed they started to make arrests our senior correspondent ron brownstein is in minsk and breaks down the developments. to compromise here there is very little give it neither side presidents you can be determined to hold on to power to preserve the state and the system that he has built over the many long years of his rule the protesters undaunted seemingly by the increasingly heavy hand of the lord as an example there's a spontaneous protest not 10 minutes away from us we set out to meet it he by the time we got that there wasn't a side that there had been just minutes before a violent confrontation so i'd mock that and scary big bloody intimidating men in a mux uniforms without any visible identification fullface mosques shoot up they see these didn't tied up everyone that looks suspicious and it was over in media minutes it seems that the better russian government recognizing the futility of trying to end these protests is now trying to contain them trying to restrict them to the weekends and that is when we will undoubtedly see tens of thousands of peo

i want to bring in now cnn's senior political analyst ron brownstein and dr. jonathan reiner, the director of the cardiac catheterization program at george washington university hospital. good evening, gentlemen. thank you so much. ron, i'm going to start with you. nearly 200,000 americans have died from this virus. 200,000. but you've just heard the president. you just heard him. he still says that you know, it was an a-plus, we're rounding the corner. he seems to not grasp the magnitude of how horrific this moment is for our country. >> his denial of the magnitude of this from the very beginning is one of the key reasons why we are in this unimaginable situation. i think history will have no doubt. i think history will brand this as the single greatest failure of the federal government in its history. more than the intelligence failures before pearl harbor. more than the intelligence failures before 9/11. on february 26th the president said we're down to 15 cases and in a few weeks it will be down to zero, that's a pretty good job we have done. his goal from

here to discuss his piece, cnn political analyst ron brownstein. ron, i highlighted that.t takeaway was mind-boggling. offer me your thoughts. >> well, i think -- first of all, ruth bader ginsburg passing obviously is an enormous moment in history. a figure of the law and the way supreme court justices have been, but i don't think it's going to change the presidential race very much. not only because the race has been kind of immune to significant alteration and people have zdug into donald trump but because it tends to reaffirm that stability. since politics since 2012, i've been arguing, the fundamental dividing line, the fundamental fault line is between what i call the democratic coalition welcomes the way the country is changing be demographically and culturally, people of color, college educated, secular mostly located. and the restoration of those centered on blue collar, evangelical, and other white christians, outside of urban areas. the fight over replacing a supreme court nominee, goes right to the heart of that divide. and i think is more likely to reconfirm, t

let's begin with ron brownstein, also with us our senior legal analyst. good to see you this evening. following today's announcement, this is all we've been hearing from democrats, they're really zeroed in on health care and the future of obamacare, why do you think that's their strategy. >> there is a national majority that is in favor of legal abortions. even a state like pennsylvania despite all the cheers, there's a 56% majority in favor of legal abortion. that's not as consistent across the battleground states. a pro choice majority as is support for the affordable care act. that is an issue on which democrats hold the high ground in every state. in a state like north carolina or georgia is much more closely balanced. i think the statement from biden like the statement from harris, and like many of the others we heard. democrats are going to focus on the threat that barrett poses the fact that a case is coming to the court a week after the election, to the aca, and as a reminder, that was the point of the speer. the single most powerful issue for dem

. >> seen your political analyst, ron brownstein, always good to see you, ron. >> thanks for having me. >>> coming up on the program. the promise of a deal that could keep tiktok available in u.s. app stores. but would this deal allay any of the national security concerns that president trump says he's worried about? we'll discuss. struggle. turns out, my body wash was the problem. until i tried olay body. which improves skin 3 times better than the leading body wash. better skin from a body wash? you better believe it. with olay body. it's kind of my quiet, alone time. audible is a routine for me. it's like a fun night school for adults. i could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. i never was interested in historical fiction before, but i'm obsessed with it now. there are a lot of like, classic and big titles that i feel like i missed out since i don't have time to read, mean i might as well listen. if i want to catch up on the news or history or learn what's going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. because i

senior editor at the atlantic, ron brownstein, and amanda carpenter, former communications director for senator ted cruz. hello, one and all. john, you're up, first. let's talk -- talk about dr. fauci's warning that we may not get back to our pre-coronavirus lives, for another year. president, though, pretending that the pandemic is, you know, already over. what is the electorate think? >> well, the electorate, plainly, does not buy it. some people do. if you saw the people that jim acosta interviewed at the president's rally last night, some of them were saying, yeah, it's a hoax and nothing to be afraid of. but significant majority of americans disapprove of the president's handling of the coronavirus. 40,000 cases a day, still. a thousand deaths a day. and to put that in perspective, as we commemorate 9/11. a thousand deaths a day means that every week, we lose twice as many people to covid as we lost on 9/11. this week was the 25th straight week where new unemployment claims exceeded the previous record from before the pandemic. people understand that the virus is out there. the eco

for more let's discuss this with cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein joining me from los angeleswanted to pick your brains, politically when it comes to the election itself whose base is likely to be most energized to vote because of this issue? republicans hoped the kavanaugh hearings would energize their base in 2018, and there was a blue wave. >> historically as you know republican voters have been more energized and motivated by the supreme court than democratic voters. that's not true. i think this is likely to further the cultural separation of the parties we've been living through over the last couple of decades but enormously accelerated under trump. i think this is going to further hurt republicans in white collar suburbs, so in states where there are a large number of those voters i think this is clear headwind for republican senate and house candidates as well as for trump himself. and on the other hand in places where there are a lot of conservative christians, particularly evangelical christians, it's going to motivate them. most americans believe abortion should rem

the professor as i call him, ron brownstein. good to see you, it's been a minute. i've been watching your stuff, first on the micro. mcconnell may not have an easy a play as it would seem, how, i don't see it. >> he's won so often people assume he'll win all the time, there are not a lot of days left between now and the election for the senate, it's a month and a half to voting day, the senate is scheduled to meet for 12 more days before it adjourns. maybe mcconnell has in mind that he can start the process now, and complete it after the election before the inauguration. we're heading to an election which may be 145 million americans will vote. if the polls are right, president trump will lose by a margin of 10 million votes. the idea things just go ahead around what if the republicans have lost the senate? things just go ahead? you could -- >> david froze, let's bounce that -- >> that would make it harder. >> is he back? i lost you for a second, david. finish your point quickly. >> you can say yes he'll just go ahead, in the reality of what the world will look lik

ron brownstein and john avlon. gentlemen, good evening.ant you, john, or both of you, to listen to what the president said at his rally tonight. apparently, before knowing about the death of rbg. >> i am putting ted cruz as one of the people for the supreme court. right? and you know why i did it? you know why i did it? because i wanted to make sure that i had somebody on the list -- we have about 45 unbelievable people. un -- the smartest. the best. the absolute creme de la creme, right? the best minds in the country. conservative. they believe in the constitution. okay? you know, little things. little things like that. but i said, you know, i have to have somebody that we're going to make sure we get approved. and the only one i could think of is ted. >> so, you know, he didn't jkno, john, about her death apparently. but he knows nothing fires up his voters like his record on judges. >> yeah. and look. trump's record on judges has been the rationalization that conservatives have used when they've been offended by how donald trump undercu

. >> ron brownstein, white house tell-alls and white house disgruntled employees, ex-employees, it's not new. i can't recall in american history such a long list of officials from mattis, kelly, miles material, now olivia troy. is this without precedent? >> i think so. it makes it doubly unique. i wrote a few weeks ago, if you look at the broader degree of crossover support biden is getting from former officials in the party, it's clearly the most of any presidential nominee since nixon and democrats for nixon in 1972 run by john connally. we've seen dozens of former house members, governors, we've seen hundreds of executive branch officials in republican administrations, particularly national security officials who endorsed biden and top officials to each of the past three republican nominees, romney, mccain and w. bush endorse biden. somebody said a parallel to '72. in '72 you did not have this procession of former people inside the room at the very top of the government watching the president coming out saying he's not fit. i don't think there's been anything like this. does it mo