Here & Now

Who Will Emerge for 2020?

Frederica Freyberg:
From Wisconsin to Washington and the 2020 race for president. Ripples from the first debate among the Democrats are surfacing in new polls this week for the primary candidates. Also this week, incumbent President Donald Trump walked the line between campaigning and diplomacy during international trips as well as a splashy 4th of July event at the Lincoln Memorial. We turn now to two patriots with different perspectives, Republican panelist Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. Thanks for being here.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:
Thanks for having us.

Frederica Freyberg:
So jumping right into it, overall impression of the Democratic candidates in last week’s debates? I’ll go to the Democrat.

Scot Ross:
I think it was incredibly impressive. I think you saw exactly what’s going to win this election and defeat Donald Trump. You saw Democrats talking about economic issues that matter to Democratic voters. We are in a polarized time. I’m going to save the candidates a little bit of money cause I know they’re all watching. Don’t spend your money talking to D.C. consultants about that last 51% of the 3% of undecideds. Win by this. Talk to Democrats. Inspired Democrats. Motivate Democrats. You are going to elect Democrats.

Frederica Freyberg:
You think those debates inspired Democrats?

Bill McCoshen:
Probably so but they left the center wide open for Donald Trump. I think their entire message, both nights, was Democrat, Democrat, Democrat and specifically far left. They had 15 million viewers on the first night, 18 on the second night. That’s a pretty good thing for the Democrats. But there were some pretty big winners and some very big losers out of these debates.

Frederica Freyberg:
Speaking of which, what do you think of the ascension of Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren after those?

Scot Ross:
I think it’s fantastic for the Democratic Party to have women leaders. I mean we have not had a woman president despite the fact that the last woman candidate got 3 million votes more than the guy who’s in the White House right now. I mean, it is a testament to the diversity of the Democratic Party. It is also a testament to the white, male, homophobic way in which the Republican Party is operating right now. I think that’s a challenge. We are a different America.

Bill McCoshen:
She knocked two guys down several pegs. Joe Biden being at the top of the list lost ten points in most polls. She’s now in second. So the guy she replaced in second was Bernie Sanders. So she out-shined both of those two guys on night number two. She had the varsity debate. The JV was the first night. And Elizabeth Warren likely won that. The polls show she’s now in third place so Kamala Harris comes out of this in a very strong position.

Frederica Freyberg:
Meanwhile did the debates do any damage in your mind to Donald Trump?

Bill McCoshen:
I don’t think so. I think they helped him. Especially with the center. The people see that all 20 of these candidates want to give free health care to undocumented immigrants. All 20 of these candidates with one exception, Amy Klobuchar, I think she’s the only one, said they want to take away private health insurance for 180 million people. Those are far left, extreme positions. Those will not play with the center. So I think ultimately those helped Donald Trump.

Frederica Freyberg:
What about that, is there a fracture between the establishment more moderate Democrats and the more left-leaning?

Scot Ross:
No. I agree with a number of things that Bill said but I do not agree with the idea of the way he’s characterizing what the positions of the people in the debate were. I mean the fact is we have a president right now who has concentration camps in the United States of America who is genuflecting and cow-towing to dictators like Putin and Kim Jong-un. And we have a president who has been accused credibly by numerous women of sexual assault. We have a racist and a rapist in the White House. And that needs to be reminded to the people because we are better than this.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you think Donald Trump’s base likes it that he’s meeting with Kim Jong-un?

Bill McCoshen:
They do. He’s a strong man. They like a strong man. He went to Washington to shake things up. He shook things up from day one. His base loves it. His numbers with Republican voters are the highest they’ve ever been.

Scot Ross:
Yeah but there’s only 38% are Republicans. So that’s the problem he has.

Bill McCoshen:
There again I think the Democrats left the middle open for him to go after.

Scot Ross:
But Obama didn’t win by 440,000 votes in Wisconsin in 2008 because he was talking a centrist message. He inspired people to get to the polls. I think that’s what’s going to happen when they have that choice between the two.

Frederica Freyberg:
Is Donald Trump impervious to scandal?

Bill McCoshen:
I don’t know if anyone’s really impervious to scandal but people are willing to look beyond sort of small skirmishes and focus on the bigger picture, particularly within his base. In a lot of cases they’re willing to rally behind him when he’s attacked. In many ways it makes him stronger every time he’s attacked.

Scot Ross:
I think it’s a challenge because not talking about here, but our corporate media does rely on revenue ratings and he gets ratings. And so that was why we saw him omnipresent in 2016 and ’15 on cable news. I think that’s a real challenge here because it crosses that line as to what is being responsible and irresponsible.

Frederica Freyberg:
It also goes way beyond the usual kind of benefit of incumbency, right, for Donald Trump?

Bill McCoshen:
He knows how to use the incumbency, whether it’s meeting with Kim Jong-un in the DMZ last week and then crossing over to become the first United States president to be North Korea. That’s historic, right? He’s going to have this massive event on the 4th of July on the Library Mall in the Capitol. Those are historic things. So I think he’s redefining the presidency literally on every level.

Scot Ross:
Being a first-timer on things is not always necessarily a good thing. Here’s my question. When it comes to Kim, Bush W. ended the sanctions for a period of time. He relaxed sanctions. Clinton relaxed military exercises. Neither thing did anything to stop what Kim was doing. So my question is when Trump once again doesn’t get what he wants out of Kim is he going to have a tantrum? God help us Gen-Xers that a Boomer president and a millennial madman are going to bring us to the brink of nuclear war.

Bill McCoshen:
I’m willing to let the charm offensive take its course a little bit. It’s the third time they’ve met. I think it’s historic. So far they’re less of a threat than they were before. You know, as photo ops go, Barack Obama got the Nobel Prize literally for being elected. That was a photo op. Trump is trying to get stuff done.

Frederica Freyberg:
How about Trump’s relationship with Putin on display again?

Scot Ross:
Again, this is the guy who helped him get elected. Trump has continued to reach out and say, “Do it again, please.” Do whatever you can to subvert the elections, the will of the people and the elections in the United States of America. It’s pathetic and sad and the history books are going to be very unkind on that.

Bill McCoshen:
The Obama White House knew about the cyber attacks from the Russians during the campaign. Did nothing about it. The one who got Donald Trump elected was Hillary Clinton because she was such a flawed candidate.

Frederica Freyberg:
We have to leave it there. Thank you very much. Have a great holiday weekend.