steve schmidt, former republican strategist. let's listen back to the president a moment. >> they look at the indiana model and it's been a very great success. it's been a tremendous model in terms of health care. this is really an offshoot of that. so this isn't a czar -- i don't view mike as a czar. mike is part of the administration. i'm having them report to mike. mike will report to me. they'll also be reporting in some cases to both. i'll be going to meetings quite a bit depending on what they want to do and what message we want to get out. but we've done an extraordinary job. when you look at a country this size with so many people pouring in, we're the number one in the world with people coming into a country by far, and we have a total of 15 cases, many of which, within a day i will tell you most of whom are fully recovered, i think that's really a pretty impressive mark. now, we did take in 40 people that were americans and they're also recovering but we brought that in so i have a different group. but we felt we had a

steve schmidt. what is it about the republican party and the house that they feel this way, that they have to operate like robots for the president? >> well, it's a party that's intellectually and morally corrupted beyond my ability to describe it in the english language. we saw during the impeachment dozens and dozens of republicans echoing propaganda from moscow no different than if they were the kose of russia today. they are serving the role that was called useful idiots. hostile power's prop aganda against the united states so it is a sad, sad time for the republican party as it has capitulated fully to donald trump. it's become a cult or personality. we've watched over three years the subordination of truth itself. what is true now for these members of congress is what the leader tells them is true, not what is plainly true before their eyes. so you have a republican member of congress there living in an utter fantasy land ignoring the counsel of the intelligence community about what's clearly

with us now, steve schmidt, a veteran former republican strategist who has since left the republican party, but he's here with us tonight. that's all we care about. let's take them one at a time. let's start with the republicans. start with senator scott's point. the biggest risk to donald trump is donald trump because we just had shannon pettypiece with a straight face, as a reporter, say it's another one of these crises -- coronavirus -- that trump didn't start himself. >> well, look, tim scott is correct. i mean the person that has always created the most peril for donald trump politically is donald trump. but since his acquittal by the senate, as he's purging the government of anybody he thinks is disloyal, as he is taking his revenge, as he is eviscerating the rule of law in unprecedented fashion, interfering in criminal cases at the department of justice, his poll numbers are going up. and so he is consolidating power at an alarming rate and doing so illiberally. >> let's talk about the democrats and as we do, i want to play the clip. bernie sanders' campaign manager came on wi

britney cunningham, a group aimed at reducing violence in the united states, steve schmidt, former republican strategist, former adviser to president george w. bush, and senator john mccain. and eddie, professor from princeton. candidates are preparing to hit senator sanders. how come it doesn't seem to land, and even when they try, he moves on. >> nobody has tried yet. he was completely outside the attack sphere of the first debate, he is a run away freight train at this point or about to be for the democratic nomination. so it is really the last hour for these candidates to layout a contrasting message and to make the argument that they all believe. joe biden was asked 24 hours ago, asked directly do you think senator sanders can beat donald trump in a general election, and he hemmed and hawed for 45 seconds before he gave a highly equivocal answer saying yeah, i don't think he can beat donald trump. they have to make a ferocious argument this morning about what's at stake for the country, what's at stake for the democratic party as they get on the debate stage tonight. if they don't do it,

they're not a co-equal branch of government anymore. >> anyway, thank you, steve schmidt.y johnson. we're out of town. i said we're out of town, we're out of time. peggy noonan. thank you. i'm going to let my powder no longer dry after i get to say what i have to say about the speech tonight and what he is as a president. my thoughts on the other side and how he's failing our country next. you're watching "hardball." lingy next you're watching "hardball. i thought i had my moderate to severe ulcerative colitis under control. turns out, it was controlling me. seemed like my symptoms were taking over our time together. i knew i needed to talk to my doctor. think he'll make it? that's when i learned humira can help get and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous

professor at princeton university, jeremy peters, politics reporter from "new york times," and steve schmidt, former republican strategist, former adviser to president george w. bush. steve, to you first. what do you think of this? >> i think the race is becoming a two person race between bernie sanders and michael bloomberg and the dominant feature of the race is electability. who can beat donald trump. i think democrats, james cargill articulated this clearly. 78-year-old socialist from vermont, wants to take health insurance away from 150 million people, who has a program to give free stuff to everybody, with a dishonest explanation about the cost of it all, i think my personal view is i think that donald trump will walk away with the presidency. he'll win the election decisively, which is why you see such enthusiasm on the part of trump voters in states like south carolina to participate in the first democratic primary to vote for bernie sanders, who they look at as the meadow lashing lem ons against the globetrotters for the general election. >> i love steve, but he's so wrong in so man

. >> few people are better read in american history and steve schmidt said that on this network just tonight. here's what george washington had to say back in 1796, and we quote. the spirit of party opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. he goes on to warn, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government. our next guest has been digging deep into the founders fears of decaying democracy. a alexis coe, you never forget the biography of george washington. it is a great pleasure to have you. there is a military industrial complex in the business of history making that sprung up around george washington, of which you are not a part. >> huh-uh. >> tell the good people watching how you differ, and go ahead and warn them what they're going to learn about g.w., the man, not the bridge, when they buy your book. >> i didn't set out to write a biography on george washington. i'm a political historian.

clip from msnbc, where the contributor, he called out former republican known as never-trumper steve schmidt would not vote for bernie sanders. take a quick listen. >> if donald trump is the emergency that you say he is, if he is that emergency, and the democratic, democratic party puts forward bernie sanders and you tell me that you can't vote for him, seems it me that donald trump isn't the emergency that you say he is? charles: here's the thing, anna, seems like democrats are saying unifying message isn't policy, not ideas, it is one thing, hatred for donald trump. on one hand republican voters love president trump. people vote for something, not against something. can hatred really win the white house? >> i don't think hatred will win the white house. president trump proved he is able to unite people of all color and creed. i think with the democrat party, what they're running on is anti-trump stance. keep them doing i because we're going to win in 2020. charles: anna, thank you very much. thank you for your service. >> thank you. charles: right now oracle ceo larry ellison is hosting a

and former republican strategist, steve schmidt. night and this is when the country's attention i think shifts. shifts more dramatically to what's ahead than what we're living through. >> i think that is true in part. but i also know that democrats are not going to leave this behind because in fact, the president, by his own admission, is meddling -- has people meddling in this election. so, i think for democrats it's about how you frame what has happened to tell voters what you will do for the future. one, so that we don't have a future president who runs over top of the kaungs tulgz. and what it is we want to do for the country. and i think it's an important moment for democrats to reframe what's ahead in november. >> do you think it's been a struggle or help them run state races, which sometimes is to a candidate's advantage, to have the impeachment trial hang over the whole month of january? >> i think people have been paying attention to impeachment. but on the ground in the states, it's health care, education, their children's

and during today's broadcast, she had frequent guest steve schmidt on who said something on the topicident versus bernie sanders, and what steve said stopped a lot of people in their tracks. >> whether democrats in iowa believe that socialism is better than capitalism or not, the country we live in, the united states of america, my view would be that the sociopath beats the socialist every day of the week and twice on tuesdays in november. >> you heard me groan? i groan again this evening. it makes me break into a sweat, this idea that as beautiful as this exercise in democracy is, the early reports is there is much enthusiasm about bernie sanders and your assessment is quite possibly spot on. >> look, i think that the democratic party, we live in a country with two political parties. and my sense is that one of them, the republican party, our party, our former party, has been badly corrupted in this age of trump. and we see that play out every day of the week. and so the democratic party is called again, as it has been in the past, to be a sentinel of our democracy, to stand for the

joining us now, msnbc political analyst and former republican strategist steve schmidt.an party nicholas sarwork and brittany patnet focusing on the link between politics and activism. first person to tell me. giving the american people a choice between the socialist and social yo pa sociopath, they will take the sociopath every time. wondering what your thoughts are on joe biden, possibility a new pull out up by 20 points in south carolina. bernie sanders leaving the state friday and saturday to try to finish off elizabeth warren in massachusetts campaigning there instead. what's biden's chance of becoming in 2020 what john mccain became in 2008? and that was a comeback candidate who was a front-runner, thought i'll go away and then fought his way back? >> joe, reasonable. right? always four currents in his democratic primary. there's been a desire in the electorate for someone young and new. seen mayor pete ascend in that. an identity politics current shaped by black lives matter and the #metoo movement. we've seen a progressive current, where bernie sanders is ascende

. >> steve schmidt, point of clarification. steve kornacki. i could no sooner operate that board as i could fly to the moon. i am reminded of two things. number one, bernie's victory was so big last time, we called it at polls closed, 8:00. and i don't know whether anyone will have that commanding alead tonig tonight. second data point, it's never good when ko are. nacki has to scroll up to find you parked next to tulsi gabbard. that's where joe biden is right now. >> and the first thing mike bloomberg has to have happen to move forward in this race is for joe biden's argument around electability to completely collapse. and we're there. there's four currents that have defined this primary. there's a progressive current. bernie sanders is the ascending candidate there. elizabeth warren has fallen away. there's a desire for someone young and new. mayor pete has been the ascending candidate there. amy klobuchar is also new. there's an identity politics current shaped by black lives matter, by the me too movement that has shaped th