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Dems Defy Veto Threat, Passing Plan to End Shutdown; Elizabeth Warren Heads to Iowa Today as She Explores 2020 Run. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 4, 2019 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We're trying to open up government. We're giving him a mature path to do so.

[05:59:30] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Without a wall you cannot have border security. It won't work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cory Gardner's already coming forward. There's other Republican senators in similar fashion. We're going to see pressure build.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Democrats, they are actually going to start digging in. He's not used to having any oversight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Democrats' agenda is to come after him, to destroy him and anyone around him. They want to score political points.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Friday, the first Friday in 2019, January 4, 6 a.m. here in New York.

So, welcome to day 14 of the government shutdown, but also welcome to the first signs that something is bubbling underneath the surface. Remember, 800,000 federal workers are not getting paid because Democrats is demanding $5 billion for a border wall, and Democrats are refusing to give it to him.

Here are the bubbles or tremors from overnight. Tremor No. 1, the new Democratic House voted to re-open the government. Five Republicans voted with them.

Tremor No. 2, two Republicans in the Senate broke from the president and said it's time to re-open the government, even without wall funding. This is big.

Also, tremor No. 3, the co-president of the United States of America floated the idea of a deal: wall funding in exchange for legal status for DREAMers. Now, we've been here before, but when the co-president says it, it matters. And by co-president, I mean Senate-confirmed Sean Hannity.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: What do these tremors suggest? Well, this morning President Trump will again meet with congressional leaders to try to break this impasse.

This comes as Vice President Mike Pence insists, no wall, to deal. And after reclaiming the speaker's gavel, Nancy Pelosi told reporters, quote, "We're not doing a wall," blasting it as a waste of money and an immorality.

So what happens with this game of chicken?

And a freshman Democratic congresswoman raising eyebrows this morning for a profane comment caught on camera about President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB (D), MICHIGAN: And when your son look at you and says, "Mama, look, you won. Bullies don't win," and I said, "Baby, they don't, because we're going to go in there and we're going to teach the mother-(EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Fair to say we have a lot to cover this morning.

BERMAN: Uncover the bleep.

CAMEROTA: Oh, no, we're keeping that covered.

Let's begin with CNN's Lauren Fox. She is live on Capitol Hill with all of the developments on the shutdown, whatever those may be -- Lauren.

LAUREN FOX, CNN POLITICS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

You know, this morning, congressional leaders are poised to meet with the president again to try to get out of the stalemate over the government shutdown. We hope that it would lead to more results than what we saw on Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOX (voice-over): Democrats wasting no time after taking control of the House for the first time in eight years, passing a series of bills aimed at ending the government shutdown without any money for the president's border wall.

PELOSI: What we're asking the president, the Republicans in the Senate to do is to take yes for an answer. We have sent, are sending them back exactly, word for word, what they have passed.

FOX: A handful of Republicans joining the Dems in support of the bills, which would reopen all of the federal agencies that has been closed for two weeks and fund the Department of Homeland Security for another month.

But even before the votes were cast, the White House vowing to veto the legislation, which Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will not bring for a vote in the Senate.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: The Senate will not take up any proposal that does not have a real chance of passing this chamber and getting a presidential signature.

FOX: As nearly 800,000 federal workers remain furloughed or working without pay, both sides digging in.

MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the president's made it very clear. No wall, no deal.

PELOSI: We're not doing a wall. Does anybody have any doubt that we're not doing a wall? So that's it.

FOX: But two Senate Republicans who are up for election next year in states where President Trump lost, breaking with the president and their party on their shutdown strategy.

SEN. CORY GARDNER (R), COLORADO: I don't think shutting down the government is the right way to do this, so let's fund the border. Let's fund border security.

FOX: Collins telling "The Washington Post," "I see no reason why the bills that are ready to go and on which we've achieved an agreement should be held hostage to this debate over border security."

Nevertheless, President Trump is not backing down, making a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room to make his case for the wall.

TRUMP: I have never had so much support as I have in the last week over my stance for border security, for border control and for, frankly, the wall or the barrier.

FOX: But the president and his press secretary quickly leaving without taking questions. The standoff continuing as a new reality begins in Washington for President Trump.

House Democrats, now in the majority and armed with subpoena power, pledging oversight of the Trump administration, vowing to investigate everything from alleged connections between the Trump Organization and Russia to the president's personal finances.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOX: And Democrats, this morning, unveiling their first major piece of legislation, the For the People's [SIC] Act, which makes broad campaign finance changes, as well as requires the president and future presidential candidates to release ten years of tax returns.

[06:05:00] Back to you, Alisyn and John.

BERMAN: All right. Lauren Fox for us on Capitol Hill. Lauren, thank you very much.

Let's talk about where we are this morning in these developments overnight. Joining us, CNN political analyst David Gregory; CNN national political correspondent M.J. Lee; and national political correspondent for "The New York Times," Alex Burns.

Alex, I want to start with you, because these developments from Susan Collins and Corey Gardner overnight, two Republican senators, albeit Republican senators in Democratic states, and they're up for re- election, broke from the president overnight. They both say they want the government funded and now, even without money for the wall. What do you see there?

ALEX BURNS, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a big deal. We have seen no cracks of serious opposition to the president's position in the Senate so far.

You've had Mitch McConnell, the Senate leader, essentially silent on the subject. He's told Republicans, "Look, until the president makes clear what his actual negotiating positions are, I'm not going to go out there and negotiate for him. And so the fact that you have two Republicans who reflect the really different pressures on the Republican and Senate map this cycle, coming out and saying this is not acceptable. I don't know that it gets you to reopening the government. But it does get you to a position where there's a different kind of stress on the president and on his supporters on the Hill.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that, M.J. How does it move the needle? How does these two coming out -- now granted, it's funny, Cory Gardner was talking to a local media outlet in Colorado. So he's signaling to his constituents at home, "I've had enough. Let's move on."

Obviously, he's heard from his constituents. How does that change what's happening today?

M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The reality and the big picture is that the longer the shutdown drags on, the weaker the president's political hand becomes, right? And especially today, compared to yesterday, it is a whole different ball game because presidents get to wake up and they get to tell the country, "You know what? We have already taken action and have passed a number of bills to try to open the government." And the only thing that is standing in the way between now and the government being opened is the president and his insistence on border funding money.

And I think they also get to make the point, by the way, that whatever they have already passed maintains a certain amount of border security funding, so a lot of these arguments that they get to make while the president is still insisting on doing this, on your point, though, about the president seeing some of his Republican colleagues on the Hill, feeling the heat, this is not a president who in the past has shown a demonstration of understanding sort of the political importance of some of his own decisions on his very own colleagues. So I'm not really sure that today's going to necessarily be the day where he sees Cory Gardner or even a Susan Collins saying something like this and then deciding, "You know what? Maybe I do need to do something about this."

BERMAN: So -- which is why I thought it was so important when we heard overnight from the co-president of the United States --

CAMEROTA: Hannity.

BERMAN: -- Sean Hannity, who I don't believe says things accidentally, particularly not in the open of his broadcast, David Gregory. Let me play you what Hannity said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS CHANNEL'S "HANNITY": This is now day one of the Pelosi shutdown. She obviously doesn't care about DACA, because the president is willing to negotiate DACA. He's willing to talk about DREAMers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Leave aside for a second they can't decide whose shutdown it is. The president told us it was his.

CAMEROTA: I don't know if that rebranding has stuck.

BERMAN: No, and then the president said it was the Schumer shutdown. Now Hannity, the co-president, says the Pelosi's shutdown. They've got to get on the same page there.

But Hannity says a deal on DACA. The president is willing to deal on DACA and DREAMers, David. Is that daylight?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it is daylight. The president signaled that he's willing to do this, too, and I agree with you that to have Sean Hannity signal, as well, I go back to the end of the Bush administration, when there was talk about reviving a more comprehensive immigration bill, and it died because a lot of conservative activists and FOX media folks were panning it on television as a reflection of the conservative base.

Here, I think there is room for those negotiations. I think if you're following this, you're not following it very closely. You know there's a shutdown. You know the president said that he would own the shutdown, and he wants to force a fight over the border wall, which is unpopular but certainly important to him and to his most stalwart supporters. It was a core campaign promise.

So I think the -- the track that has the most benefit here is to do something short-term and then get into a bigger negotiation that is that a bigger immigration fix. More border funding, something for the DREAMers. I think that allows both sides to get something they want, but I think Democrats are pretty insistent right now in saying, "We're not going to link these two things at the moment officially in terms of getting the government back open."

CAMEROTA: Alex, we've been talking all week about how far the president himself has moved off of his initial 1,000-mile 32-foot high cement wall. Yesterday, he wasn't even calling it a wall anymore. Let me play for you what he said in the briefing room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The wall, you can call it a barrier. You can it whatever you want, but essentially, we need protection in our country. I have never had so much support as I have in the last week over my stance for border security, for border control and for, frankly, the wall or the barrier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:10:18] CAMEROTA: Now it is called border security. He's rebranding it as border security. I think we're done here. I think we're done. If he stops calling it a wall, Nancy Pelosi says no wall. If he says, "OK, give me a couple billion dollars for border security, we're done."

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, and let's just start by being clear. That last thing the president said that he's never had more support than he has right now, is totally false. Right.

That the wall is actually not a popular proposal. It's popular with his base. It's not popular with Americans at large, and the president has been telling people, you know, not publicly, not saying this sort of in his outdoor voice, but that he has been telling people for a little while now the wall needs a brand. That's why you heard steel slats. It's why you're hearing barrier, why you hear border security.

But you know, he still says the word "wall," but like, literally seems to have given up on the actual physical wall.

CAMEROTA: Oh, he says -- well, then he says all these other words around him: border control, border security slats.

BURNS: So the question is, what is he going to take and call a win on border security? And that's where people on the Hill, on both sides of the aisle, really don't know. Right?

Is he -- is it going to take $2.5 billion for border security but not the wall? Would he -- would he take that? Because the fear on the Republican side is that he will do what he has done a number of times before, and verbally say, "Sounds good." And then they all walk out on a limb for him, and then he says, "That's absolutely unacceptable. I need a 1,000-foot steel barrier," right?

GREGORY: I also think it's important to define the terms, as Alisyn is saying. I mean, to purely educate people, I mean, it seems so basic. But President Trump doesn't want to seem to do this, because you have this vision of, you know, some wall ringing America or even the security barrier that Israel has. And that's not what he's talking about.

So take Americans to school about what the needs are, what it would look like, where it would look like that, and how that squares with border crossings being down from where they were in years past. You know, give some of even your supporters some ammunition other than saying we've got to have a wall.

BERMAN: It's not what he's talking about now, which is his problem, because he campaigned on the 32-foot wall that Mexico was going to pay for.

Now he's come off of that in a pretty major way, a pretty significant way. Though there are times when he doesn't want to admit that.

As for public opinion, Alex, as you said, the polls are clearly against them. And if the president's claim he's getting more --

CAMEROTA: Support.

BERMAN: -- verbal support--

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: -- there are those who have noted that the White House switchboard is down during the shutdown.

CAMEROTA: Shut down because of the government shutdown. But David, he means that he's getting more support. He means the people who call him directly, his cell phone. He means Sean Hannity.

BERMAN: Sean Hannity's calling more?

CAMEROTA: I mean, Sean Hannity, yes. Sean Hannity or -- or Ann Coulter or whomever. That's where he -- that's his pulse of the people.

BERMAN: They've never called him more than they're calling now. Your friend Alex Burns notes that Republicans are telling him that they don't believe the president is going to win this fight ultimately. Are you hearing the same thing behind the scenes? Do Republicans who tell you their innermost feelings, tell you they think this is going to end well?

LEE: Look, I thought that the White House press briefing stunt that the president pulled yesterday was actually quite telling of exactly how he operates in a situation like this.

I think Alex is absolutely right that he's not somebody who is necessarily set on the actual results that he could get legislatively. What he wants is to put on a show and let it be known to his supporters and who he believes actually are listening to him, whether it's Sean Hannity or his supporters, and making a point to them. "Here I am standing on day whatever of the government shutdown" with the people standing behind me who believe that border security is important.

Here I am making the point that this is a fight that I've been fighting for a long time and that I am still committed to. I think that, in the end, whatever ends up happening, the president is going to be more focused on how he is going to sort of spin the results to make sure that he is able to say, "I did get something," even if it's not ultimately what he was actually asking for. CAMEROTA: And that's the rub. David Gregory, that's -- therein lies

the rub. Because Ann Coulter, the last time that he tried to switch from wall to barriers or border security or slats, Ann Coulter wasn't having it. And then he pivoted to, "No, no, no, I mean a wall."

So here we are again, where the rubber meets the road. If his supporters and base are willing to accept that it's not really a wall; it's border security.

GREGORY: Yes, this is the critical thing. And you know, you had to give the president his due. Whatever anyone thinks about the wall, whatever the opinion polls are about it, this is a core campaign promise, as a literal wall or a metaphor for more border security for which there is a lot of support. I think he needs to define what that actually means if he wants to garner more support.

And isn't it ironic that, if we ultimately get to a deal on this, that maybe there's a broader deal outside of the reopening of the government, that will deal with DACA, might get him more border security money, that would still fall short of the deal he had last year, that his own hardline advisers forced him not to take over the issue of family migration.

[06:15:16] He had a deal. He had Democrats giving a lot of money, including money for the wall, and he chose to say no.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Alanis Morissette, it is ironic.

GREGORY: And you know what?

BERMAN: From Canada. From Canada. Nobody is talking about closing that border. Now don't close that border.

GREGORY: That's my favorite reference.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much, panel.

Ahead on NEW DAY we will discuss all of this with Congresswoman Cheri Bustos; Congressman Jerry Nadler, the new chair of the House Judiciary Committee; and newly sworn-in Congressman Ben McAdams of Utah.

BERMAN: And we're feverishly trying to book Alanis Morissette for the end of the show to comment on David Gregory.

A freshman member of Congress under fire on day one for her language, calling for the president to be impeached. You're going to have to hear this. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Newly sworn-in Democratic congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, under fire this morning for comments that she made, calling for President Trump to be impeached. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TLAIB: And when your son looks at you and says, "Mama, look, you won.

Bullies don't win," and I said, "Baby, they don't, because we're going to go in there and we're going to impeach the mother-(EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. We're back with David Gregory, M.J. Lee and Alex Burns.

[06:20:02] M.J., she knows that people are holding cameras up like this. They're taping it, so she's not -- she -- like, this wasn't like a hot-mic moment.

LEE: Right.

CAMEROTA: This was a message, and I think that you can hear already that a lot of the freshman class is filled with vim and vigor, as my euphemism for something else. And so will we see some flame throwing? I mean, is this a style that they're coming to Washington with that they think would be effective?

LEE: I mean, probably. And you know, particularly on the impeachment issue, yes, this is not the kind of language that we're used to hearing from sworn-in members on Capitol Hill.

However, we do know that the issue of impeachment is one that people around the country think about and obviously, especially for the critics and people who are not supporters of the president, they do get worked up about this issue.

And Democratic members who are running for office or are already in politics, they know that this is an important way to sort of rally the base and is a way to get supporters excited. And I think it's not a mistake that a new member of Congress, on the very first day on the job, would talk about this issue. I don't know that using that kind of language is necessarily advisable.

But, yes, expect members of Congress to be talking about impeachment sort of nonstop for the next year.

BERMAN: Alisyn knows I have no problem with swear words. I like to use them at the appropriate times.

CAMEROTA: Oh, you should hear it every morning here. But David Gregory, you know, we could play the "what if" game. What if this had happened under Obama. A freshman Republican member of Congress on the first day on the job had called Barack Obama a mother "F"-er, you know, it would be a big deal. I mean, it is -- it is something worth pointing out.

GREGORY: Absolutely. I mean, it's stupid. It's wrong. It creates all kinds of problems for Democrats, for people who go after the crudeness and crassness of President Trump.

And unfortunately, those adjectives are -- are warranted, given the way he's expressed himself. It certainly doesn't excuse it on the other side.

And this is -- this is an indication of the problem that Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders have, both stylistically but also substantively, because there is a lot of energy. To come in, you've been elected. Let's overturn what's going on. Let's impeach the president. You don't know if there's any grounds for that.

And until Robert Mueller finishes his work, no one is going to know. And Democratic leaders are cautious, even in anticipation of that. They want to investigate all kinds of areas of Trump administration policy, how they want to try to hold him accountable and how erratic he's been. And if the evidence warrants it, they will go deep on this and pursue impeachment.

But they want to do it carefully, and the simple reason is politics. They know that overreach is perhaps the biggest danger that Democrats face now in charge in the House.

CAMEROTA: Alex, this is such a good point that David makes, which is that Nancy Pelosi is going to have to wrangle this new class and this new style of some freshmen flamethrowers. And they're in there. And you know, that's not her style. And so there -- this already shows, I think, the fissure in the Democratic Party that she'll have to deal with.

BURNS: And I don't know that it's a fissure that she can deal with or that any party leader would be able to deal with in this position, because it's fundamentally -- there are ideological differences. There are policy differences, but so much of it is cultural and generational. Right?

That when you see some of these new members using that kind of language, doing it in these really unfiltered settings, as you say, there are smart phones everywhere. It's not like this was sort of a gaffe on the air, right?

This is just how a different cohort of Democrats expresses themselves right. And it is part of why the older guard members of the House Caucus really felt like they need Pelosi in that top job, because if you had somebody who was less formidable, then who knows what kind of pressures would just sort of run wild over the party's agenda.

BERMAN: So the new House, we're day two of the 116th Congress. So so much was made yesterday of this mosaic of people now in the House of Representatives. The pictures from the swearing in were remarkable. Hopefully, we can put some up just to remind people of just the vast diversity that was at display inside the well yesterday, inside the House of Representatives. You know, all kinds.

CAMEROTA: And as you point out, so young now.

BERMAN: So young. Yes, exactly. Exactly.

I thought the age limit was 25. Someone's got to tell that guy on the left. People brought their families. You know, racially diverse, gender diversity of all kinds. Also, so many veterans. There's a picture we don't want to let slide

here. Congressman Brian Mast of Florida, who lost his legs, I should note, in Afghanistan, he put out this tweet with two new members, Jim Baird and Dan Crenshaw, whom we know on the show. It says, "Five eyes, five arms, four legs, all American. Welcome to Congress, Jim Baird and Dan Crenshaw."

Jim Baird, a Vietnam veteran, lost his arm there. Dan Crenshaw, of course, wears an eye patch, lost his eye in Afghanistan. And Brian Mast lost his legs there.

There's a huge veteran presence on both sides of the aisle in Congress, M.J. There are some days when we interview three members, and each will have been a veteran, here on this show.

LEE: Yes, and it is very significant, and you know, especially when you look at the members of the House more so than the Senate, because you know that the Senate does not necessarily represent the country as a whole as well as the House of Representatives does.

[06:25:04] But I think this is also a good reminder for the president, if he's willing to see it as a reminder that there are fractions of the country, parts of the country that he doesn't necessarily think about as his supporters.

But you look at the new members and the new House of Representatives, and those are the people that more and better reflect what the rest of the country looks like. And that's probably something for the president to consider.

CAMEROTA: David, I want to get back to that caption on the -- of the veterans.

GREGORY: Yes.

CAMEROTA: How inspiring is that caption? If you think you have challenges --

GREGORY: Right.

CAMEROTA: -- in your life, if we all do, this is what these guys have achieved. They've served their country. They've paid a huge sacrifice, and here they are, members of Congress. I mean, it just -- it gives you goose bumps.

GREGORY: I think it's great to lift it up for a couple of reasons, you know, after World War II, and you had those who served in the military ultimately getting into politics, same with the Vietnam War. Those were conflicts that, I think, had so much more emotional investment on the part of the American people.

We've been in Afghanistan since 9/11. Far fewer troops, of course, in Iraq now, but still, a sustained commitment without the emotional investment of the country. But these are veterans who are going to be leaders in our political life and our private lives. I mean, I see it throughout industry through -- in corporate America and in the legal world, where you've got veterans and combat veterans, who are making incredible contributions and are highly valued in all of these organizations because of what the military teaches and the leadership.

So to see these new and up-and-coming leaders in Congress is really important, because they're going to ultimately be shaping military policy. They're going to be influential voices as they continue to get more experience in government.

BERMAN: Since we're talking about the future, let's talk 2020.

CAMEROTA: That's my favorite subject.

BERMAN: Which is actually now --

CAMEROTA: Now it's for real. Now I'm now all in.

BERMAN: Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts is going to Iowa. I think we have a map, or at least a list of where she's going. Council Bluffs, Iowa. Organizing events in Sioux City and Des Moines, a round table at Storm Lake. And conversations with women leaders in Ankeny. She's doing the Iowa thing for real.

M.J. Lee is following her to Iowa, Alex Burns covering 2020 already. You wrote, like, six articles in the last two weeks on people getting in the race.

Alex, what do we expect to see over the next few days?

BURNS: Well, for Warren, this is a real test of her message in a state that, on paper, actually looks like pretty good theater for her, right? That she's a populist. This is a populist state.

She has hired some really formidable talent on the ground. And you talk to Democrats in Iowa who have hosted her there in the past. It's been years since she campaigned there, but she has campaigned there in the past.

And they say that the last time she was in Iowa she had people eating out of her hand. So this is a test of how she actually -- a road test as a candidate.

In terms of the rest of the field, I think you are going to have people like Cory Booker, like Kamala Harris, like Kirsten Gillibrand who are already planning to announce in the pretty near future, looking at this event, looking at Harris' book tour next week, as well, which is sort of a follow-up on -- in a different theater of the campaign and sort of gut-checking for themselves, "How much longer can I wait to get in and compete?"

BERMAN: Not much.

BURNS: Well, the election is only nearly two years away. So --

CAMEROTA: Here's our list, M.J., of people who could make their presidential announcements in early 2019. Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Michael Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julian Castro. He's already announced his exploratory committee, as has Elizabeth Warren. And I'm sure there's many more.

Yes, and look, when I am in Iowa this weekend with Elizabeth Warren, I'm obviously going to be sort of feeling the crowd and see how she works the crowd.

BERMAN: For her, not for you. You're not running. Because the list is getting big.

LEE: That's -- I am not running. No news to make on that front. No. But in terms of her political talent, it's actually because, as Alex mentioned, she hasn't been to Iowa campaigning in a while.

But also, I think it's an important indicator is going to be how the crowd just generally feels about the Democratic primary starting now. Right? Are they really hungry for this now? Are they thirsty to see these candidates come to their state? Are they ready for this fight to begin now, which might send a very strong message to some of these other candidates, potential candidates who are weighing their timeline and trying to figure out is the time now, or do they have a little bit more room to wait this one out?

BERMAN: Hey, David Gregory, Dianne Feinstein and Andrew Cuomo over the last few days have said very positive things about Joe Biden, almost pseudo endorsements. What's going on there?

GREGORY: Well, I think there's an establishment lane in the Democratic Party that says here's a guy who can win in a general election.

But what M.J. is talking about is really important, is all the activism on the left. It's the same activism that has come into the House. It's the same activism that, you know, has new members saying, you know, "We're going to impeach this guy," using that language.

So there is -- there is a lot of anger. There's activism. People are in a hurry and quite eager to remove President Trump from office at the ballot box or in some other way.

I think other Democrats are sitting back, going, "Who can actually beat this guy?" and that's what gets you to looking at Biden as kind of a, you know --