ron brownstein is back with us. the next mayor of los angeles is headed for a runoff, democratic congresswoman karen bass and billionaire rick caruso were the top two vote-getters. this is a sitting congresswoman against a political unknown. why was this race so close? >> partially it was close because rick caruso spent $40 million to introduce himself to voters of l.a. even with that money, many political analysts i spoke to said a few years ago it would have been inconceivable that someone with his profile, a former republican, white, developer, former member of the police commission, supported by the police unions, would have taken off. i think you saw in the l.a. mayoral race the same thing you saw in the san francisco d.a. recall, which is that voters, as you said, want more focus on basic functions of restoring order and safety. that doesn't mean they've abandoned interest in criminal justice reform or that they have lost concern about racial equity in the criminal justice system. but i think they are sending a

ron brownstein tells us why that is after this. you said you'd never get a dog. you said you'd never do a lot of things. but you never knew all the things a dog could do for you. and with resolve you never have to worry about the mess. love the love, resolve the mess. >>> americans looking to their leaders after the uvalde massacre to do something to stop the tide of mas shootings in america, but it is unclear if any deal is possible let alone whether it would pass congress. the former president barack obama saying in a statement and i quote here, "nearly ten years after sandy hook and ten days after buffalo our country is paralyzed not wii fear but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies. it's long pastime for action, any kind of action." so joining me now to discuss cnn's senior political analyst and senior editor at the atlantic, mr. ron brownstein. thank you for writing this very thoughtful article. we really appreciate it. so the former president barack obama shared your ar

ron brownstein. ron, good evening. so help us assess these things, analyze these things. you say california is about to experience a political earthquake right now. how so? >> narrow terms and broad terms. narrowly, as john was noting, concerns about crime and homelessness and encampments. you are going to have at the least a runoff between a former republican billionaire developer who would not have been a plausible candidate in other circumstances and karen bass for the mayoral race in l.a., and the overwhelming likelihood that boudin is recalled in san francisco. so on the one hand, it shows just how much even in democratic strongholds, there is broad concern now about public safety that extends across racial lines. this is evident in every community the city. but, more broadly i think, it shows the danger, the risk to democrats when people feel certainty is withdrawn from their life. when you are the party in power and people feel like they can't count on basic rules of kind of, you know, daily life from the price of gas to the ability to walk their kids to school wit

me now to talk about the january 6th hearings and gun control, cnn's senior political analyst ron brownstein. i want to start with this, the guard issue. chris jacobs, he's a republican representative from buffalo where that gunman massacred people at a super market. so he comes out after that and calls for an assault weapons ban and within days his re-election campaign is destroyed with a backlash from his own party. it really does say everything about the chances of gun law reform in washington, doesn't it? >> yeah, it says everything you need to know about the revolution of the republican party. you know when we passed the esalt weapon ban in the u.s. in 1994 when joe biden was still in the senate, 38 house republicans voted for it, ten senate republicans. when george w. bush ran for president in 2000 -- people forget this -- he promised to sign an extension if congress would pass one. of course the republican-controlled congress didn't and he allowed it to die. that's a reflection how much this issue has moved within the republican party. and it's not necessarily a shift of opinion withi

here with me now to discuss cnn senior political analyst and senior editor at "the atlantic" ron brownstein professor of history and public affairs at princeton university, julian se seltzer, good to see you both. many of these are outside of his control, he would say, even though that is generally correct, is that the right message to be sending to americans when so many are struggling with rising food costs, high prices at the pump, finding baby formula, i mean, they want answers. >> absolutely. look, when you are the president, especially when your party is in unified control of congress voters fairly or not plame you or credit you for what's going on in the country and right now we are seeing voters extremely dissatisfied with the direction of the country. i have written that for president biden, normalcy is sort of like the horizon. it recedes every time you get close to it. the country can't get back to anything that feels like normal life that existed before the pandemic and in many ways, fred, i thought that was the core underlying promise of his presidency, of his campaign that he

. >> senior political analyst ron brownstein joins us from los angeles. e. so start big picture here did the committee accomplish what they set out to do on day one, do you think? >> i think it was a day possibly unlike any other in american history. i don't know we've ever seen as comprehensive and damning an indictment of an american president as in effect the architect and orchestrator of what they called a seven-step plot to undermine american democracy. i was -- one thing that really struck me, particularly in liz cheney's almost prosecutorial presentation of the case against donald trump was how often she said that what he and others around him did was not only wrong or violating the constitution, but flat-out illegal. you know, the committee both seemed to me both paving a path for and pointing a finger at merrick garland by making a very clear case in their view the evidence shows that donald trump not only violated his oath of office in a broad sense, he violated the law in a very specific sense. so i think this is the beginning -- far from the en

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. >> let's bring in cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein and paul begala. gentlemen, good evening. ron. >> hey, don. >> two liberal cities, san francisco, voted to recall district attorney, los angeles rick caruso ran on being tough on crime and he got enough support to force a runoff come november. so is the president right? >> by in large, i think he is. look, i don't think what we are hearing from the voters, particularly democratic voters and democratic leaning cities, it's not like they want to erase the summer of 2020. it's not as if most voters, most democrats don't acknowledge there is systematic inequities in the criminal justice system. i think what you're seeing is a clear signal of a need for a course correction. and a view on the voters that a reform in the system has to proceed with ensuring public safety. you can't elevate one goal over the other to the extent that you produce irrational policies. many people felt the d.a. here in l.a. facing similar criticism are taking these admirable goals to an extreme and as a result, public safety is ero

ron brownstein joins me now. ron, hello, sir. there is a lot of confusion. the supreme court's ruling is, you know, illustrating the deep cultural divide in our country and it is much bigger even than this huge decision. explain how that is. >> yeah. look, you know, if you look at the 20,000 foot level, the story of the middle decades. 20th century, broadly speaking, was of convergence between what we think of as the red states and blue states, both in terms of the outcomes, the economic opportunity, the people had living in them. more importantly, in harmonizing the rights that were available to people in every state. i mean, we saw beginning with brown versus board of he had kargs, the civil rights act, all of those landmark supreme court decisions, contraception, interracial marriage and one man one vote and of course abortion. basically, reduced the ability of states to restrict the rights available to their citizens and establish more of a common floor of rights that were available to everyone everywhere. we are clearly now moving into the opposite dire

joining us ron brownstein. sthr house republican feels indictments are likely, yet this law maker won't publicly say it on camera. what does that tell you? >> reporter: this is in stark contrast with the watergate era, people forget, richard nixon's approval rating fell 40 points to the point in august of '73 and a good target is there were republicans at every stage of the investigation who were willing to step in front of the camera and say this is significant, this is important. we have to pay attention to it. the contrast is overwhelming here. where you had voices like rubio, cruz, stefanic before the hearings began, preemptively dismiss them as garbage in rubio's words so few have been willing to step out and maic the case that, look, what with we are learning is deeply disturbing. >> they won't accept the facts in what is being revealed. they've made up their mind ahead of time. trump's response, he hardly knows cassie hutchinson, denies grabbing the wall, calling food, calls it fake. a big picture as a p

. >> ron brownstein, thank you both very much. >>> well, the house select committee investigating january6th, just unexpectedly added a hearing for tomorrow. what that means, next. >>> if russia makes significant advances in ukraine, the u.s. is set to pledge more military assistance for ukraine. - yeah let's go! on a trip. book with priceline. you save more, so you can “woooo” more. - wooo. - wooooo. wooooo!!!!! woohooooo!!!! w-o-o-o-o-o... yeah, feel the savings. pricelinine. every trip i is a big deal. are your hr processes weighing down your employees? on to quarterly projections! expense report! if yo're using multiple systems, re-entering data oveand over time she! using eml and spreadsheets to manage information and approvs, then your hrystems are a drag on productive time. with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in a single, easy-to-use software. visit paycom dot com and schedule your demo today. do they know this door is locked liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. [submarine rising out of water] minions are bitin' toda

here to discuss cnn political commentator charlie dent and cnn's senior political analyst ron brownsteinand annalist. i think we have it all covered here. hello, gents. ron, tom rice lost his job because he voted to impeach donald trump. what message does it send to other republicans like liz cheney facing trump-backed challengers for refusing to push the big lie? >> yeah. well, look, donald trump has not won all of his endorsements. no political figure ever does. but he's won a lot of them. and we have seen him being able to exact a cost on those that he has -- he has targeted. i think more important we said before who trump endorses is who endorses trump. i mean "the washington post" calculated this week if there are 108 separate republican nominees who have endorsed the big lie that trump did not lose the 2020 election, that biden was elected by fraud. and that includes, again, last night in nevada with the secretary of state candidate an extraordinary number of republicans who are running for control of election administration in the swing states that will decide 2024 are candidates

. >> earlier cnn spoke with senior political analyst ron brownstein, he said that the fact that both trump and eastman knew the i will lality of their actions yet proceeded anyway could prove important to the u.s. justice department. >> the lawyer for the vice president testified that at a meeting in the white house, john eastman admitted that his scheme was illegal, that it violated the erlector cal count act and yet donald trump continued to pressure the vice president to pursue the scheme. so this goes -- this reinforces the evidence from the first two hearings of bill barr and others telling him that he lost the election. and proceeding down this path anyway. both of them i think are critical from a criminal and legal point of view for the former president, establishing his state of mind that he knew what he was doing was not only wrong but illegal and he continued to do it anyway. seems like a very important threshold in terms of the justice department consideration whether to charge him with the various crimes that are out there. >> partner of a slain capitol police officer is

. >> ron brownstein, really interesting, thank you so much for helping preview all of this. >>> houseemocrats want to know if expensive gifts from foreign leaders, thousands of items are either missing or were not tracked properly. that s story is next. , scroll through thousands of cars. then, tap to buy. that's it. no o sales speak. no wasted time. just, straight up great cars. right from your phone to your driveway. go to vroom.com and pick your favorite. wooo. oh yeah, she digs it. buy your car on vroom.com vroom. get in. with best western rewards you get rewarded when you stay on the road and on the go. find your rewards so you can reconnect, disconnect, hold on tight and let go! stay two nights and gea free night. book now at bestwestern.com. i had been giving koli kibble. it never looked like real food. with the farmer's dog you can see the pieces of turkey. it smells like actual food. as he's aged, he's still quite energetic and youthful. i really attribute that to diet. get started at longlivedogs.com we need to reduce plastic waste in the environment. that's why at america's

. >>> earlier we heard from cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein who weighed in on why even incremental measures on gun safety as seen are so significant. >> it is a measure of how great an obstacle the senate has presented to executing the will of the people on gun control. you look at the polling, not only in the aftermath of terrible tragedies like the ones we've had in the last month, but pretty consistently over the last few years, there is a majority of the country that wants to go much further than this deal, you know, envisions on a whole variety of issues. and yet because of the senate, disproportionate influence of small rural states where gun culture is most powerful and magnified by the filibuster, that is all off the table. so this is progress, this would be the first bill that does anything to advance gun control since the assault weapon ban in 1994. but it is pretty meager on that front compared to what there is broad public support to do. >> thanks to ronspective there. >>> for those in uvalde, texas where 21 people lost their lives in the mass shooting, doubt persists t

. >>> i want to bring in ron brownstein and van jones to talk about how these hearings played out and get some reaction from them, as well. gentlemen, you heard michael fanone just now. we have been watching him. we saw what happened on that day. there are others -- many others -- who we watched in horror as to how they valiantly tried to fend off this crowd of people. when you hear him wondering about whether it is gaei going o translate and definitively saying he doesn't think it will overcome the entrenchment. i wonder from your perspective, ron -- i will go to you first -- do you think he is right? >> well first of all, i think that the -- the committee, to a degree that i don't think has been fully appreciated today, is reframing the whole question, laura. i mean, what we have been debating mostly for the 18 months is what role did donald trump's words on that day and his tweets play in summoning the mob and directing them toward the capitol and the attack on the capitol itself has been the -- the central issue. the committee reframed the question that americans have to be asking

what does it mean on the cnn legal analyst carrie cordero, ron brownstein. carrie, first to you. does their apparent knowledge they didn't have the evidence to back the plan and some admission or concern that the plan might be illegal, does that amount to or give evidence of intent by those involved to commit a crime? >> good morning, jim. i think it gives evidence of intent and it speaks to the potential fraud. if there is a theory in this case there was a fraud that was won conducted against the united states, against the american people to try to steal the election from them through this scheme, the fact that individuals involved in the planning of it, and coordination of it knew that what they were doing was not correct, knew what they were doing had no evidence, i think that is potential evidence of it. one of the most striking things that rusty bowers, i thought, said in his testimony, the arizona official, is he said as people -- as people close to the former president kept coming to him and multiple phone calls, he determined that there was, quote, no legal pathway. and i

. >> joining me now is our cnn senior analyst ron brownstein.rals on the issue of crime. it's bigger than that? isn't it liberals, progressives who believe in government saying our government is not working? >> absolutely. if you look at the immediate circle or the last radius from last night's results, it clearly is about crime. more than crime it's order as reflected in the pervasive homelessness and large encampments particularly in l.a. and both cities. voters saying we need more focus on order. it doesn't mean democrats will cause police reform. it means in the case of officials prioritize reform over safety, who seem more worried about the small number of people that commit crimes and the criminal justice system, keeping them safe. i think that will see rebalancing. it is broader than that a reminder when voters feel that certainty is being removed from their life and government is failing to provide basic order, it is a real threat to the party in power. it helps inflation, gas prices and the continuing covid epidemic. that is a bracing m

our -- one of our political gurus, ron brownstein, basically says it could be a referendum on democrats for all of the people who don't like the policies that they're seeing in even liberal cities like san francisco, los angeles, when it comes to crime and homelessness. he writes, the outcome will again underscore how much danger a party in power can face when voters feel that certainty has been stripped from their lives, a dynamic that extends beyond crime and homelessness to inflation, soaring gas prices, continued disruption from covid. do you think this is going to be a referendum for democrats? >> look, i think that remains to be seen. let's see what the outcomes are of today's primary elections in california, and then the november general election and see who california voters put in charge to lead at the federal, state, and at the local level. i agree with you, with all these issues, whether it's rising prices, housing and homelessness, still covid concerns, and so much more, but i do think democrats have the solutions. i know in congress, we've been putting forward a lot of idea

ron brownstein wrote, quote, it's a sentiment similar to the anxiety over urban disarray that inspiredid the escalating violence of the crack epidemic in the early 1990s. is this enough, do you think, for rick caruso, the real estate developer, former republican, to win? >> that and $40 million. i think kyung's reporting is likely, it will lead to a runoff. the democrat has been a democrat for 15 minutes, but he's running on public safety. personal safety. that used to be a democratic issue. i mean, president clinton when i worked for him used to say it's our people. jeff bezos has never been mugged. elon musk is not going to be carjacked. democrats are often the victims of the crime and democrats who ought to take the lead. karen bass is being unfairly targeted as part of the problem. she's been quite moderate and good on these things, trying to reform the cops without defunding the police, and by the way, she hasn't been mayor of l.a. she's been a congresswoman in d.c., but all that gets washed away in the campaign. >> if caruso were to win, not necessarily today, but in the election

so let's talk more about it with cnn's senior political analyst ron brownstein, republican strategistthese threats, these ads, what do you think is causing it? what is at the core of this? >> i think there's a complex relationship here between the internet, which lowers the cost of making threats, you know, anyone sitting with their phone or in front of a desk top can simply dash off the most angry thing that flashes through their mind in a matter of seconds. i think that is part of it. i also think two other really disturbing things are happening. one is that there are people in positions of leadership like donald trump and others who have normalized this and made this kind of call to violence seem like a normal part of american life. you know, in an earlier time, this -- people calling for this kind of violence, doing these stupid ads like very menacing imagery, that would have been, would have generated a lot of public disapproval even within their own parties. >> right. they would be ashamed out of it. >> yeah. i mean shame, you know, serves a function in public life. and now we h

. >> ron brownstein, thanks so much. >> thank you. >>> new in morning russia has admitted another onethe donbas region of eastern ukraine. this as fighting escalates for control of that key city and, boy, is it bloody on the eastern front. the ukrainian president did visit his sholders on the front lines to thank them in-person despite the danger. live in eastern ukraine coming up. . moving his money into his investment account in real titime anand that's... how you collect coins. your money never stotops workig for you with merrill, a bank of america company. we need to reduce plastic waste inhe environment. that's why at america's beverage companies, our bottles are made to be re-made. not all plastic is the same. we're carefully designing our bottles to be 100% recyclable, including the caps. they're collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. that completes the circle and reduces plastic waste. please help us get every bottle back. i grew up an athlete, i rode horses... i really do take care of myself. i tr

people like our colleague ron brownstein described the last 50 years as the rights revolution, people have garnered rights through the courts in part that they have come to live with. civil rights, you know, human rights, women's rights, those are being rolled back in a certain way. and your point about what the states are doing is really well put because this is the next frontier. it is like a burgeoning cold war between the states. states are already talking, red states are talking about how they restrict travel. how they make it illegal to receive abortion pills in the mail. what else they can do. the states that have 12 week bans or 15 week bans. this is going to be only the beginning of the next phase. >> i want to point out that already in -- across much of the country there are many states, there were before friday, many states where abortion access was extremely restricted. states like missouri, down to one clinic and performing a handful of procedures a month for the last couple of years. so already patients were traveling and this disproportionately affects lower income wome

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. >> next hearing tomorrow, ron brown brownstein, harry, thank you. >>> today until uvalde, law enforcement the massacre are facing questions. we'll l get into that, next. hmm... back to the miro board. dave says “fefeed it?” and dave feeds it. just then our hero has a breakthrough. "shoot it, camera, shoot a movie!" and so our humble team saves the day by working together. on miro. think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no, he's seizing the moment with merrill. thimoving his money into all thahis investment accounte? in real time and that's... how you collect coins. youroney never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. it's started. somewhere between a cuddle and a struggle, it's...the side hug. tween milestones like this may start at age 9. hpv vaccination - a type of cancer prevention against certain hpv-related cancers, can start then too. for most, hpv clears on its own. but for others, it can cause certain cancers later in life. you're welcome! now, as the "dad cab", it's my cue to help protect them. embrace this phase. help protect them in th