This Sunday, fall risks. House Republicans are threatening a government shutdown and an impeachment inquiry against President Biden. It is a natural step forward that you'd have to go to an impeachment inquiry. As the 2024 campaign heats up, some Republicans are looking to counter-program Donald Trump's legal drama playing out in the courtroom.
Will this Republican strategy work? Alas, Republican Governor Chris Sinon of New Hampshire. Plus, aging issues. The 81-year-old Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell freezes for the second time in front of reporters, raising questions about his fitness for office.
The Senate has become the most privileged nursing home in the country. Our America's aging leaders becoming a liability. I'll speak with Franklin Ford, the author of the last politician, a new book about President Biden with an inside account of how the oldest president in history operates. And by American, the U.S.
warns China that American businesses may stop investing. If conditions do not improve. Otherwise, they will deem it as just too risky. And as I said, uninvestable.
Have escalating tensions made the trade relationship with China far worse? I'll talk to Commerce Secretary Gina Romano. Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News Chief Washington correspondent, Andrea Mitchell. Jake Sherman, co-founder of Huntsville News.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Jay Johnson. And Republican strategist Sarah Fagan. Welcome to Sunday. It's Meet the Press.
From NBC News, Washington. The longest running show in television history. This is Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. Good Sunday morning and a happy Labor Day weekend.
Buckle up for a turbulent fall. Lawmakers will return to Washington this week to a political storm of their own making. With a Biden impeachment inquiry looking more likely and uncertain about whether the government can keep the lights on after this month. And there are televised pre-trial proceedings in Atlanta that are about to begin in the first of four criminal trials tied to Donald Trump.
It adds up to a series of critical tests for our democracy. And it's not clear our political leaders are equipped to meet this moment. Here in Washington, far from laying out a vision for the future of the country, Congress is focused on the bare minimum just passing a bill to fund the government. Some House conservatives are making it clear they're not going to vote for any short-term spending bill saying, quote, if a shutdown occurs then so be it.
And most of what we do up here is bad anyway. Most Americans won't even miss it. So some claim. Well, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to hold off a shutdown believing it's bad politics for the GOP.
And he's arguing it actually would stall any impeachment inquiry that some of those same House conservatives would like to start. It is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry. I would actually like to have a short-term CR only to make our argument stronger because Maria, if we shut down all government chances down, investigation and everything else, you heard McCarthy correctly. He is trying to leverage the impeachment carrot to persuade some House Republicans to keep the government open.
So far, many of those House conservatives aren't buying the deal. We are not going to be distracted by shiny objects. If you don't get this continued resolution passed, we won't be able to pursue the impeachment inquiry. That's nonsense.
The White House has stood up a war room of two dozen lawyers, by the way, legislative aides and communications staffers to lead an aggressive response to this expected Republican impeachment inquiry. Historically, it's been Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell who's been a shield against the sound and fury of House conservatives. It's one reason he is so unpopular with many of those House conservatives. In fact, he held a Wednesday press conference that was supposed to serve as a reality check because he announced that the Senate was going to pass a bipartisan bill to fund the government despite their complaints.
But at that same Wednesday event, McConnell appeared to freeze again. This time for about 30 seconds. McConnell's office said he felt lightheaded. It's the same reason they gave for a July episode when he was caught on camera unable to speak for 20 seconds at a press conference.
That was after a concussion from a serious fall in March. Now McConnell's ability to lead isn't serious now. There are questions even in this inner circle about how much longer that the longest serving party leader in the Senate can serve. Just half an hour after the Capitol physician released a church letter medically clearing McConnell to work.
The usually friendly national review to Senate Republicans called him McConnell to step aside and complaints are getting louder. Right now the Senate is the most privileged nursing home in the country. I think it'd be most prudent if he stepped aside. It's not at all unusual to have the response that sometimes happens to Mitch when you've had a severe concussion.
It's part of the recovery. And so I'm confident he's going to be packed with himself. That's right. President Biden was easily McConnell's loudest defender this week.
Of course, a spotlight on McConnell's Asian health is not right politically for President Biden. In fact, in a new AP, North Pole, more than three-quarters of Americans, including 69 percent of Democrats, say Biden is too old to effectively serve a second term. Meanwhile, a majority of the country, 53 percent, approve of the criminal charges that have been brought against Trump in the 2020 election cases. Just 29 percent disapprove of those moves.
Overall, just 24 percent believe Biden should run in 2024 and just 30 percent want to see Trump run. And yet, here we are. Well, join me now. It's Republican Governor.
Chris Sonu of New Hampshire. Of course, thought about a run for President himself but decided against it. And in some ways, he's the Budsman for the Republican party these days. And so Governor Sonu know, get ready to play on Budsman here with us.
Welcome back to the press. Well, thanks for having me. Let me start with something that another governor said earlier today, earlier this week. It was Brian Kemp of Georgia pushing back at some Georgia Trump supporting state House conservatives who wanted to use the legislature to essentially defund Fannie Willis's case against Donald Trump.
Listen to what Governor Kemp said about that move. Up to this point, I have not seen any evidence that these actions or lack thereof warrant action by the prosecuting attorney oversight commission. The bottom line is that in the state of Georgia, as long as I'm governor, we're going to follow the law in a constitution regardless of who it helps or harms politically. I want to ask you this, Governor.
Senator, you and Governor Kemp share this ability to take on Donald Trump and not to get politically penalized for it in your party, in your home state. Why don't other presidential candidates not named Trump see the success you and Governor Kemp have had and fall suit? Well, again, first off, Governor Kemp has spun on. The guy's an Oak.
He's the Oak of Georgia and he's got some big shoulders and he handles it just incredibly every time. You know, you don't have to make it personal. I'm not saying other candidates do that. I mean, when you're running for president against the former president, it's a very odd dynamic to be sure.
The key to taking on, not just taking on Trump, but you just call the balls and strikes like you see him. You don't make things personal. You do things that are clearly in the best interest of the constituents you serve, regardless of party. Now, I'm a sound fiscal conservative and I want to support Republican ideals, but that doesn't mean we're going to bend and break rules because when you do that you set precedent for the other side.
Now, as are the candidates running for president, I think you're right. You know, Chris Christie kind of really goes nuclear on him. And God bless Chris. He does a great job with that.
He exposes a lot of that, which I think is important. But I think what we saw in that debate stage last week, I think there was a little, still too much couchowing to him. I mean, you had to make saying he was one of the greatest presidents, but he was going to be better than him. You know, he was still going to be running against him.
So it was an odd dynamic to be sure. There's still a lot of time here. A lot of time for this to play out. Are you sure?
I mean, let me show you this Wall Street Journal poll that came out. Yes, it's the national primary number. Yes, you got to take it with a little bit of a grain because we know. Yeah, I'm surprised by those numbers.
I am. Look, nationally, the polls are very different than what we're seeing where the conversation is really happening. I appreciate we've had one debate nationally. I think that's a very important step.
But look at Iowa. Look at New Hampshire, where the candidates are on the ground, making their cases strong as they can. Those poll numbers are very, very different, right? Trump is in life.
The 42 percent range. And Trump has a floor of maybe 35 percent. But he also has a ceiling. Ultimately, he probably has a ceiling.
But he's not going to do that. He's not going to do that. He's not going to do that. He's not going to do that.
He's not going to do that. He's not going to do that. He's not going to do that. He has a ceiling of somewhere in the high 40s.
Because over a third of his supporters have said they would happily go to another candidate. They just need more time to look at them. So that's where Trump's weakness really is. It's not a fate of complete.
I know a lot of you per se, but a lot in the media like, oh, this is over. This is over. It's really not. Remember this guy named Barack Obama who they said had no chance against Hillary Clinton and the Clinton machine and all of that back in the way?
In about six months, things got very, very different. So you have to let the process play out. And I think the key is windowing down that field. I talk about that a lot.
We have 13 candidates a month ago. We have eight or nine today. I think we'll have five or six by the time Iowa comes maybe three or four by New Hampshire And then when it's one-on-one trust and trouble and he knows that and so depending on who that one is and it still very much Remains to be seen that's where the Republicans have the opportunity to talk about healing America not just relitigating down Trump's drama Well, the person that's closest to Trump continues to be the governor of Florida. It's Ron DeSantis He chose not to meet with President Biden in Florida yesterday.
Let me play what President Biden said in response to what some believe was a snob Take a listen No, I'm not disappointed he may have had other reasons because but he did help us plan this He sat with FEMA and and decided where we should go where be the least disruption look Rick Scott a former governor and a Republican senator Who's up for reelection in 2024? Maybe once is worried about swing voters did show up and met with Biden What do you make of the governor's decision? You and I both know there's this pugelistic streak on the right there Some advisors believe hey never show like you can work with the other side. That's bad politics Well, look I understand the politics of the situation, but I think down in Florida I mean it didn't sound like there was a lot of animosity between the two I don't I didn't see the former the current president Biden, you know complaining in any great state So I want to comment on their schedules or whatever that might have been I think the key is you can't make politics out of a disaster like that I think governor's hand is actually handled both the previous and current very significant hurricanes very very well He's on the ground.
It's when you have situations like that as a governor It is 24 seven it really is he was there with the head of FEMA and and you know Work walking the site talking individuals working with insurance companies bringing in the machinery So it is really a 24 seven job And I don't think we can look too much into the politics of that situation I think a lot of people hope that is the explanation there because none of us want to see that stuff get tied to politics Let me ask you about this 14th Amendment debate and the only reason I'm asking it was it actually could there seems to be somebody I want to bring this case to the New Hampshire ballot So this could have an impact about whether Donald Trump's on the ballot or not Let me ask you if you expect I have to see this litigated before Donald Trump's on the New Hampshire ballot No, no, no Donald Trump's gonna be I mean if Donald Trump follows the rules like everybody else and is on them And you know signs up like everybody else. That's the beauty of the New Hampshire first in the nation primary process It's a very open very easy process for a lot of folks to partake in and so I see no reason why he wouldn't be on that ballot I suppose if someone wants to try to litigate it, it's not really a new Hampshire issue They're litigating it against their 14th amendment of the US Constitution and therefore would be applicable to all 50 states So no, I fully expect the former president to be on our ballot Let me ask you about this third-party movement if that if Donald Trump is the nominee Joe Biden is the nominee We know that no labels wants to come up with their own candidate. You supportive of that idea still Well, look according to the polls you just showed about 70% of America is supportive of that idea to not see Trump and Biden on that ticket I you know I heard someone put it once 70% of America if it's a Trump Biden ticket will be politically homeless And I think that's a very good way to put it They won't have any in-sensection They won't feel very confident about going forward are you gonna feel politically home? No, look if it's Trump or smile because they're not gonna be on the top of that ticket It's not gonna be that way look I think there's a good shot that neither of them are actually on that ballot I think Trump can very much lose if they went it down to one on one I think there's a lot of issues that are gonna come to bear with president Biden over the next year and a lot of Opportunity for the Democrats to find another candidate, but to the no labels point There's there's an opportunity there like never before it would have to be the right candidate I have to be somebody very energizing to be open to it transparent someone with a good record No, nothing.
I'm looking at now. Nothing. I'm looking at look I'm still working 24-7 to make sure the Republican Party is the best version of itself and that that is it with yesterday's news of Donald Trump and a conservative that can fulfill on all the policies that Trump brought forward that we agreed with But he just couldn't get done. He didn't get the border done.
He didn't get fiscal discipline done He did during the swamp. Those were great ideas. Let's get a conservative in that can actually do it So and there's no circumstance you would be a no label standard if Donald Trump's on the ballot No, no, nothing. I'm looking at what what concerns you more four more years of Biden or four more years of Trump To be honest what concerns me more is that if we just fall into to having both of them back on the ticket I mean, I think you bring up the exact right point This is not what America wants It doesn't mean our primary system is broken It means more of us have to be engaged in the system to make sure that our voices heard as that 70% of Americans who always want to look forward We with Biden and Trump your consent All you're doing is looking backwards and relitigating a lot of drama Nobody wants that everybody wants to move forward in a positive way have a transparent government have government institutions They can trust we got amazing institutions in this country But there's a lack of trust there So it happens by bringing transparency removing politics and just getting back to getting stuff done and impeachment of Joe Biden healthy for the country Good idea by House Republicans Impeachment of any president is an unhealthy thing for the country and that would be a terrible terrible situation now You have to figure out what happened there.
I mean, there's there's no doubt that there's a lot of unanswered questions with the Hunter Biden issue But no, let's let's be clear impeachment is a terrible thing for America It brings everybody down it rocks the system if you will doesn't bring it to its foundations But it does rock it and we should we need to be more positive going forward giving all the economic crises that not just that We have today, but as bad as it is going to come believe me This economy is getting a lot worse before it's getting better. It's gonna get very hard I'm curious this political environment, you know, I've looked at all these special elections this year There've been some other analysis Democrats are over performing anywhere You've seen in your home state where some Democrats have won special elections that normally Republicans win is this due to abortion? Is this due to Trump? What do you think it's about?
It's about the former president more than anything and I can tell you I've had school board members that could Republican school board members that have lost their seats because they felt like they had to Consulate answer for being a Trump Republican and all of that. It's a it's a negative brand. It puts a lot of hesitation So it isn't just the federal seats. It's the governorships the school boards the congressional seats all of them Especially here in a place like New Hampshire where you know, we can kind of go back and forth.
We're very independent mind That the Trump brand just doesn't work It really doesn't and so to kind of clear that off the table once and for all it's a huge opportunity for Republicans to get back elected officials Where their policy matters most and that's at the local level. Governor Chris and him Republican from New Hampshire I always enjoy going back and forth with you. Appreciate you coming up and sharing your perspective with us. Thank you buddy When we come back with tensions rising between the United States and China and the world's two biggest economy stay in business With each other the commerce secretary general money Welcome back as many of you know the United States China relationship has had its lowest level in decades with mounting sides Both nations may be preparing for a future conflict from spy balloons to other forms of espionage and hacking to deepening military alliances on both sides Now could a tiny microchips spark world war three nowhere our tensions were apparent then in the fight over these tiny little chips semiconductors Microchips of power everything from microwaves to cars to weapons systems or the 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors are made in Taiwan If China invades Taiwan the US could have trouble meeting its own demands for microchips Beijing wants to boost It's semiconductor capacity to become more economically resilient and possibly to prepare its own military for an invasion of Taiwan And joining me now just back from a trip to China is the Secretary of Commerce, General Gromondo, Secretary Romondo.
Welcome back to me Thank you. Good morning. Let me start with the fact that this is the fourth trip that a major administration official has made Basically since the summer began with Secretary Blinken, Secretary Yellen went over there, former Senator Kerry on climate talks And over there and now you and it feels as if it's sort of in a relationship here We're doing all of making all the effort. We're trying to reach out to them as we try to, you know, turn down the temperature We've yet to see reciprocation from that.
At what point do we stop asking? Yeah First let me say that my counterpart the Chinese Minister of Commerce Minister Wang did come to see me in the spring and invited me to China Which is you know, I accepted his invitation. So, you know, it's not entirely true He came here and was good visit, but you know, you make a good point and the kind of the theme of my trip was we need dialogue We need a contact and communication, but we also need action You know in my trip even the most senior Chinese officials said all of the right things said that they wanted to have a robust commercial relationship And treat American businesses fairly on the ground in China and my message was actions speak louder than words So I think you make a fair point and we're looking to see whether China does do a better job at treating us businesses fairly and workers, you know, leveling the playing field for our workers But you know insult to injury was they hacked your email right before you went I mean it was almost like that's a thumbing that it almost feels like they were thumbing their nose at us Okay, yeah, you can come visit we're gonna do our best to find out everything you already know anyway I mean and I know you you confronted them with this I saw that report But it does send a message of we're not that interested in engaging You know look this they did hack me which was unappreciated to say the least I brought it up clearly put it right on the table I by the way, I brought up all of many of our grievances on behalf of our national security concerns our concerns of U.S. Labor concerns of U.S.
Business didn't pull any punches Still though this complicated relationship. There's no doubt about it They we are in a fierce competition with China at every level and anyone who tells you differently is naive The all of that being said we have to manage this competition conflict is in no one's interest We need to manage the competition responsibly. That's good for America That's good for the world and in that respect I think our commercial relationship Which is very large and growing and underpins hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs Our commercial relationship is stable can be kind of a ballast for the entire relationship and anything we do that can create stability Is in fact good for the American people?
When I look at their economy and I look at our economy we know I know how the American public views our economy right now But when you compare the two economies we're in a lot better shape post-COVID than Chinese China is domestically on that front Is that our real goal here? Do we think that maybe they'll essentially cry uncle and they'll realize we got to stop this antagonistic relationship with the U.S. Because we need to improve our domestic economy. Is that what is that our ultimate negotiating leverage?
Well, look I'll say this it's clearly true the facts speak for themselves on this one that when China was more market oriented and Reform minded their economy, you know, they lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty I was in Shanghai. It's it's quite stunning to see that the progress Shanghai's made in the past 20 years and that So it's clearly true that when they were more market focused and reform oriented Chinese economy was stronger And so that's my point. It's not so much leverage It's that it does seem to be true that it's in their self-interest to be less antagonistic to U.S. Business are we gonna be allowing American companies are we gonna be exporting superconductor chips to China in a in a way that China doesn't feel like we're trying to Shoke their military technology and other things like that Well, we are trying to choke their military capacity So if they feel that that means our strategy is working We are not going to certainly on my watch we are not going to sell the most sophisticated American chips to China that they want For their military capacity and we're gonna prevent any company from doing that You can't do business with the United States in this industry if you want to sell those chips to China, correct?
We're gonna we're gonna stick to that Absolutely. Yes, but I do want to be clear We will also still continue to sell billions of dollars of chips a year or two China Because the vast majority of chips that are made are are not you know the leading edge cutting edge that I'm talking about and that is hard That's hard for people to accept. It's a kind of a nuanced complex message and policy reality But it is the reality because you know the export controls are about national security not an economic advantage So we're gonna be as strict as strict can be and as hardline as possible denying China the most sophisticated chips But we're also gonna sell you know like I said billions of dollars of less sophisticated chips Which by the way chalk is good for America praise revenue for American companies Which they can plow back into research and development which allows us to lead the world in innovation Two quick questions one having to do with the largest agency inside of commerce Which most of our viewers may not realize is no up, but that comes under your purview There was a disturbing Report earlier this week that the hurricane hunter planes were essentially out of commission to or under repair A third one was in use to to track a dahlia, but then it went under repairs What's the situation do we have out of date equipment? Is this a funding issue or was just bad luck?
So first of all I want to be clear they did complete their mission the hurricane hunters did complete their mission In fact, they're not allowed to continue to fly once the hurricane hits land. It's too dangerous So, you know, we got the job done The the rest of it was routine maintenance one of these planes had been had been flying nonstop for 12 days And so had to go down for maintenance all of that being said We do need more resources and Congress has just given us more resources These planes are really expensive as you might imagine and we will continue to work with Congress We plan to ask for even more resources because we need to get the job done So if you're busy hurricane season, are these planes going to be able to do their job for the next 60 days? Which is the heat of the height of hurricane season? Yes, we will make sure that happens And finally your interactions with president Biden are you confident he's got the ability to serve a full second term?
100% I talked to him right before I left for china He gave me the best advice of about 200 people that I spoke with I talked to business leaders other folks in the administration He was sharp. He was clear. He's got a ton of energy And I'm so excited to be on his team Secretary jina from under over over by the way for one to turn sir. Thanks for coming on sharing your perspective Thank you.
Thank you When we come back new questions this week about senator Mitchell McConnell's health are making it harder for republicans The point fingers that president Biden about Welcome back panelists here and be seeing his chief washington correspondent and the chief one of theirs was my International picture co-founder punchable for homeland security secretary johnson and long-time republican strategist Sarah fagan welcome to all of you All right, um, let me play a little bit of what happened in Mitchell Collins That would go on for another about 15 seconds jake Sherman just after that moment national review came out called for him to step down Everybody comes back this week. I imagine this senate republican lunch is going to be the most important McConnell side in a while I think that's right. Uh, listen McConnell world is very locked down even in best of time So we don't really have a good idea. I'm not a doctor.
We're not physicians But it's a few things are clear number one senate republicans are worried I mean, this is all the talk of senate republican leadership and rank and file right now Um, they wonder whether he'll last the year in the senate I think that that's something I've heard incessantly over the last couple days He can't really afford to have another one of these episodes in public But listen, I talked to people who were with him the night this you know after this happened and they said he was fine He was energized. He was on point. He was really sharp sir fagan his This feels like you know house conservatives don't like him, right? He has this unique thing that he makes both the left and the right map on this front Does that add to some political pressure on him?
Well, I think I think certainly makes him a little bit more of a target You know, I mean, I appreciate the comment that he can't afford one more of these episodes in public But we have a president who's had also had episodes where he's gotten confused on stage and nobody is saying he The president can't afford one more of these episodes We have to be careful not to conflate age with a recovery And yes, Mitch McConnell is older but he had a concussion and the medical community appears to be saying that this can be a natural You know issue when somebody's recovering from the concussion So nobody cares about the senate more than Mitch McConnell. I'm confident if he's able to serve he'll be serving I think the only person more concerned about his future is Joe Biden because the future of a government potential shutdown of any kind of agreement It's Mitch McConnell who has been saying openly to the house that he didn't agree to their spending levels that they had Changed from the previous budget agreement So Mitch McConnell is the key to any kind of bipartisan action up there But I think in fairness, I don't think it's age or the concussion in reading what the neurologist are saying and they haven't examined him But from a lot of symptoms that they see in his eyes and in a way he responded He needs he doesn't need medical help because we're current if it's a seizure or a small stroke of TIA You need to help in order to there's medication, but this kind of high pressure job is not the place. Okay, not the way though 1998 my first Senate confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee was chaired by 96 year old strong firmman Who worked he worked entirely off of index cards and when he wandered off the index card everybody to the room would hold their breath And the reality was he was carried by his staff and by his senate colleagues in a different time and place now In the senate in the White House, they're just far too many cameras are far too many iPhones And it's difficult to hide your in every time that the McConnell issue comes up We'll talk about Biden's age in the same story in that. Oh every McConnell moment is terrible politics for by One thing I have a lot of interactions with Mitch McConnell.
He is as I don't see any slippage mentally for Mitch McConnell I mean, he's so these are clearly incidents. These are moments in time His leader hit the staff around him says that you know that he is as sharp as he was his schedule in August was the same as it was last year But I'm curious if you think there's gonna be political pressure that hey, we want to make this an issue with Biden so we can't Let McConnell be there. I think they're gonna make an issue with Biden in any case They have no reluctance to remember sure but I sort of I sort of compared equivalent to like when Why did Al Franken get thrown into the bus when he got thrown into the bus because of the special election timing political timing sometimes I think that's a good point by some conservatives who have no love lost for Mitch McConnell, right? That it becomes a convenient argument, but it doesn't make it right the more it comes from Marjorie Taylor Green the better it is for him in the senate because There's so much resentment in the senate.
I agree with that any House of course. Listen, McConnell has an unusually strong grip on the senate republican conference He survived a very lame. I would say a challenge from Rick Scott 16 people voted against him. He has the supporters people All right, let's talk about this idea can speaker McCarthy effectively use impeachment to keep the government open, Sarah I feel like he's gotten caught doing this now and it's like it's kind of an open secret that that's what he's trying to pull off here Is that possible?
Well, I think he has been incredibly effective You know, you just think back to his election and all but he is surpassing all the difficult circumstances You know in the course of his speakership where he has figured out how to move the caucus forward and how to move the country forward And so I have a lot of confidence. He will figure that out. Look, I think there is growing concern Legitimate concern around what happened in hunter Biden's business dealings and what connection did it have to the current president And now there's you know a big trove of emails released that you know appear to be you know by pseudonym like An impeachment investigation doesn't necessarily necessarily mean an impeachment, but because there are so many unanswered questions It's a reasonable step to take. I'm sorry.
That's an impeachment inquiry in search of a crime That's not what impeachment is for Nixon was Watergate Clinton was Monica Lewinsky Trump was Ukraine then January 6th If we're moving to a world where we conduct impeachment inquiries simply to find a crime That's a poor place to be I don't disagree with you But we have a problem at the justice department where it doesn't appear to be Independent and you kind of look at the fact pattern of you know the plea deal that fell apart And you start to you know have whistleblowers inside the government who are raising questions about You know justice officials. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and so what is the house Republican Congress supposed to do? Garland is very independent.
So Jake where does it? How does this? Things number one the government's gonna shut down at some point between now and the end of the year I think that's a near certainty number two If they open an impeachment inquiry, which I believe they will they will impeach Biden They're not gonna open an inquiry and then it's weirdly enough once they go down this road to be worse politics for them at the base They never do without a vote. They always vote when there's a vote Well, he has said there's gonna be a vote.
So Don Bacon's got a vote, right? I mean, I don't think they have the votes for an impeachment inquiry right now I don't and number three just really quickly if the government shuts down they could still impeach him I think that it's a false equivalency McCarthy. You're here And I want to take advantage of the fact that we had some headlines over the weekend. I think migrant At the border there might have been a surge a lot of families crossing with kids It's tripled and what it was it was sort of like because the first two weeks went well Yeah, they thought they were in the clear right not so much Yes, we got break in May But the surge that we see now was bound to happen You I'm sure heard me say dozens of times now that illegal immigration on our southern border We act sharply and quickly to proceed changes in on enforcement policy But as long as the underlying pushbackers persist the numbers are always going to revert back to their longer-term trend lines Here we are and we'll become a political football as well.
Thank you guys. Appreciate this when we come back The US population keeps growing but the number of seats in the House of Representatives hasn't changed since William Howard Taft was president Is Congress too small? We are back data download time as the population of our country has grown the size of the House of Representatives has not But why not it's leading to questions about how representative about people's house really is doesn't have to be this way because it wasn't always the case Believe it or not It's only been over the last hundred years that we haven't expanded the house to refresh We're at 435 house members and it comes out to 1 per 765,000 Americans that ratio is actually quite big In the Taft administration when we were still expanding the house every 10 years or so We were at 1 per 210,000 But we stopped expanding the house a little over a hundred years ago and we have ballooned to where we are today And it actually puts us outside the norm in western democracies when you compare our lower Chamber in the legislative branch to other lower chambers the ones most connected to the population were 1 per 750 essentially Japan is 1 per 272, Mexico 1 for 250,000 You see your South Korea, Australia all much lower ratios than are leading folks to say maybe this ought to change In fact, Democratic congressman from Oregon or Luma now has introduced a bill that would expand the House of Representatives by 150 seats For the 2030 census to get our ratio down to about 1 per 500,000 residents Having a little more of a closer get a member of Congress a little more of a of a tighter community They might be the more representative of the people on the ground So what would this do to congressional delegations across the country? Well Delaware and the two Dakotas might actually double in size go from one member of Congress to two Wasco Vermont and Wyoming who are all still one seat would probably still only have one But take a look at this This is how the delegations would change to the big states, California would go from 52 congressional seats to 70, Texas 38 to 51 Florida, New York, both would expand by 10 congressional seats Pennsylvania by six So it would be quite the change to our electoral college But guess what?
It might make members of Congress in Washington a little more connected to the people on the ground When we come back he's consistently underestimated and he blames the media for his poor approval ratings President Biden's first two years in office of the subject of a new book by journalist and author Franklin Ford He joins me next but before we go to break former Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico died on Friday at his home in Chatham, Massachusetts Richardson's career in public life span more than four decades He served as energy secretary and ambassador in the United Nations for 14 years He was a member of Congress and for two terms the governor of New Mexico In 2007 he launched a short live presidential campaign and he ended up dropping out an endorsed Barack Obama But in recent years, Richardson was best known as a savvy international negotiator who secured the release of hostages and political prisoners from North Korea and Myanmar to Russia where he worked for months to get WNBA star Brittany Griner home Richardson appeared on this show 23 times Here he was in 2007, pitching this presidential candidate Look, I'm an insurgent candidate You've got to do things dirty I'm also positive You know politicians take themselves too seriously I am trying to get over the fact that this should be an election Not necessarily based on celebrity Not necessarily based on who has the most money which I don't But I am competitive, I'll have enough to get my message over But that the American people need somebody that can bring this country together My interactions with him, he truly practiced the joy of politics Bill Richardson was 75 Welcome back, Franklin Fours deeply reported a count of President Biden's first two years in office paints the portrait of a 20th century politician figuring out how to govern in the post-Trump era at a time when crisis follows crisis and democracy appears to be in peril In one anecdote, four distracting aftermath of this striking Biden-adlet in Warsaw last year where he seemed to call for regime change in Russia For God's sake, this man cannot remain well Four rights, he knew that he had erred But then resented his age for creating the impression that they had cleaned up his mess Rather than owning his failure, he fumed to his friends about how he was treated like a toddler Was John Kennedy ever babied like that? And Franklin Fours the author of The Last Politician, Inside Joe Biden's Winehouse And the struggle for America's future joined by now Thank you for welcoming me, all right? Thanks so much for having me Good to see you So let's just start with the point you're trying to make When calling him The Last Politician Right, so Donald Trump in certain ways broke our nationals like you when it came to thinking about politics And Joe Biden has become a very distant figure to a lot of the public And some of it has to do with his age But a lot of it has to do with comparison to The Last Guy in Office Biden doesn't suggest people ingest bleach He doesn't flush documents down the toilet But he's a fascinating character And I wanted to capture a lot of that He's somebody who's always been underestimated And that's been the diesel that's propelled his career He's somebody who thinks of himself as a stubborn contrarian Indeed, when there are moments like Afghanistan He's managed to resist all the pressure that's piled up on him And he is somebody who's been around politics forever He's studied politics And he has a lot of interesting very singular Very quirky techniques that he uses to get things done At least politics is personal At the end of the day, it's relationships Whether you're dealing with China or you're dealing with Joe Manchin Yeah, it's emotional intelligence, essentially It's an EQ guy and an IQ guy Exactly, and his strength as a politician is his ability to sit across from somebody And to think about them, to understand their psychological makeup To understand what their self-interest are And what the things they're going to be most vain about And what will be their touch points that will trip them off And so he takes that into account in his calculus Let's talk about this issue of is he over handled Is it because of his age that anecdote about the Warsaw speech was interesting And then you wrote this pretty late in your book You said, and his advanced years were hindrance Depriving him of the energy to cast a robust public presence Or the ability to easily conjure a name It was striking that he took so few morning meetings Or presided over so few public events before 10 a.m. His public persona reflected physical decline And times dulling of mental faculties That no poll or exercise regimen can resist In private, he would even occasionally admit to friends that he felt tired How much does this impact?
West Wing operations Well it doesn't take Bob Woodward to understand that Joe Biden is old And I'm not a gerontologist and I can't predict how the next couple years will age Joe Biden I think what my book does is shows that he is somebody who For whom he's buried in details He's somebody who is very technocratically obsessed with the intricacies of policy He's a very activist president in that he micromanages a lot of the dealings in the White House When it comes to something like talking- But you don't see that You don't see that You're describing as much different than his public persona Yeah, well I think one of the things that's so interesting about Joe Biden Is that he has these insecurities that govern a lot of the ways in which he moves through the world And so one of his primary insecurities is that he doesn't want to be perceived as stupid Because he had this plagiarism scandal back in the 1980s And so when he walks into an interview or he walks into a press conference He wants to he wants to have mastery of what he's discussing And so his prep sessions can go on for a long time Let me ask you this way Uh, if at the end of this calendar year Joe Biden announces that he's not gonna seek a second term Based on all your reporting, how much of a surprise will that be to you? I would say it would it would be a small it would be a surprise to me I mean, but it wouldn't be a total surprise It wouldn't be a total shock It wouldn't be a total shock When he talks about his his life, he uses this word fake constantly Joe Biden is a very religious guy and fate is a word loaded with religious meaning And he always talks about he can't say where fate goes And so I always when I hear that to me, it's the ellipses in the sentence When he's talking about his own future that I account for and thinking about his calculus Joe Biden's role here is it as involved as a Nancy Reagan that we've learned on time Was very involved in the Reagan administration and to protect Reagan Yeah, well one of the things I should say about Joe Biden is that she is she's Probably is closest advisor at the end of the day They have these sweet moments in the morning where she'll tape things up onto the mirror in order to give him encouraging words And when it comes to certain policies like education She's way deep into the weeds and she has a lot of a lot of sway on those issues And also she's a proxy for Biden because Biden doesn't go out on the road as much And the thing about her as opposed to Nancy Reagan is that nobody hates Joe Biden So she's able to to go out there in a way which most first ladies aren't able to Look, he's had ever since the Afghanistan withdrawals pulls a pin upside down Yes And you talk about the frustration I think Biden himself has You write Biden considered his poor approval rating a failure of the media Which someone neglected to note all the ways in which his administration was superior to Trump's It was also a failure of his own White House to effectively communicate He complained that there weren't enough surrogate on television defending him I'm shocked to find out that a White House believes they have a communications problem not a substance problem Right, so I think that Biden has Of course every president who suffers an upside down approval rating is going to moan about the media And I think that there is some truth to it in his case Where Trump caused the media to go so to become so emotional To get so engaged in covering all the high drama And I think with the Biden administration there's been this desire on the part of the press to reassert In standards of objectivity So I think on certain measures he's probably right He has been covered probably tougher than he deserves but also I think There's no curve, there's no, he's not being rated on a curve No, he's not being rated on a curve No, no, no One last question, the relationship with Kamala Harris As you write at the beginning, Biden said they would have weekly lunches But those began to fall off his schedule What is the relationship? Right, well the vice presidency is a premise for a comic show on HBO And it's hard for anybody to be vice president And I think it's especially hard to be a former vice president, vice president Obama and Biden had a very- It's kind of pathetic to her, it does feel like he is extremely helpful He's extremely empathetic to her But Obama used to talk about my vice president Which is a phrase that got under Joe Biden's skin And so he's very respectful of her He calls her the vice president, that's very significant for him But the difference is that Obama had holes in his resume that he wanted Biden to fill And Biden doesn't see the holes in his own resume because he's been around forever And it leaves her stranded Franklin Ford, it was a terrific read And definitely worth your time That's a lot of people's talk, congratulations Thank you so much That's all we have for today We're gonna miss you, Jimmy All of us pair of hats Thanks for watching We'll be back next week Because if it's not enough, it's me House The Ford is a big deal event Visit your Ontario Ford store or Ford.ca