Meet The Democrat Challenging Lindsey Graham | Morning Joe | MSNBC

comics this is how I learned to read being born to a 16 year old mother and raised by my grandparents in Orangeburg we made you with the opportunities we created for ourselves because that's all we had my story is my story Lindsey Graham's story is just comic No He's not a nutcase, I think he's crazy, his policies are really bad for the country, he's not fit to be frozen out in America, he's a race-baiting, xenophobic religious fanatic, no, I don't think he's a fanatic xenophobic race-baiting religious, I like it. the president I'm like the happiest guy here's a guy who will say anything to stay in office Lindsey Graham can't lead us in any direction because she changed his moral compass for petty political gains.

Like, that was the video of Jamie Harrison officially announcing his run to run against Republican Senator Lindsey Graham for Senate in 2020 and Jamie joins us now, he's the former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party and currently the associate chair of the Democratic National Committee, also with us, former d-triple-c chief of staff and former strategic communications director for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, Adrienne Elrod, is an MSNBC contributor and author of How the article lost its mind. She is also a contributor to MSNBC. Charlie Sykes is with us. He's great that you know that. It's great to have everyone here and Jamie, you know.

I'm very serious, you could actually use all of Lindsey Graham's quotes about words related to not only attacking the president of the United States, but also Lindsey, because you say you're right, he said the president was unfit to be and that Duncan was not fit to be one. The president said that if the Republicans nominated him they would be destroyed and they deserved it. The media goes on and on. No one said harsher things about Donald Trump than Lindsey Graham, and Donald Trump said harsher things about Lindsey Graham. We posted a video last night because Lindsey and Donald continued their love fest in Orlando, where Donald Trump basically said that Lindsey Graham wasn't eligible to be the receiver, you know?

We remember that he gave his phone number. Yes, exactly. We're going to let Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham continue to have a conversation, he just goes on, goes on and I don't have to, yeah, I don't want you to know it's going to be fun. I want Lindsey Graham to debate Lindsey Graham 1.0, he to debate Lindsey Graham 2.0 and people will do it. Look at the hypocrisy, he personifies why people don't like politics anymore, Charlie. I mean, if there's a name on the face, a person who epitomizes the Republican Party's complete capitulation to Donald Trump would be Lindsey.

I mean, I've known Lindsey since '94. Like it personally, it's hard not to like Lindsey personally, but to hear what he said during the campaign and then watch him change his mind and then attack anyone who says anything bad about President America, who is rich even by Lindsey's standards, is Marco Rubio. By the way, he's giving it a chance here, but you know, we've talked a lot about capitulation and the cowardly Ness or you know, the lack of courage on the part of the Republicans, but that's not the case with Lindsey Graham. I'm convinced you know that ISM is an option.

He is someone who worked alongside John McCain, who understands who John McCain was and many of us thought he was going to go in that direction, but he chose to align himself with Donald Trump even. although apparently not, he apparently has no illusions about who Donald Trump is, so this is a choice he has made. Sycophant C is a choice and I think he really is. I mean, that will be Lindsey Graham's legacy. Adrienne, what do you think? Jamie's strategy when you sit next to her is even greater, so what Trump has done to the party, among many things, is make Republicans look like cartoon characters.

I mean, this feels more extreme in terms of the kinds of things that Republicans are capable of putting up with. in support of their president, well, look when you look at the surface of this and the way you're literally using Lindsey Graham, they were against him, it seems to make sense. I think I'm more interested in Jamie and I'm actually digging the numbers. Knowing that South Carolina tends to be a more Republican state, how are you going to register more voters? What is your royal path to victory? So you know that South Carolina is very similar to Georgia in this regard.

There are a large number of unregistered Africans. -American voters in the state are around 150,000 and a large number of Latino voters, around 50,000, there will be two point 1 million people who will vote in the next election, so only unregistered voters we have around 10% that could really change the electorate, so we're going to go in, we're going to register those voters, we're going to give them a reason to get out and vote and that's the real power, yeah, that's what Donald Trump was able to do, give the people a reason why he felt that they felt that. he was fighting for them, let's make sure the people of South Carolina understand that there is someone who wants to fight for them and that makes sense, but look at this president.

The start of Trump's re-election bid yesterday turned out to be a lucrative win for his campaign. according to the president of the Republican Party Rana Mcdaniel Trump raised almost 25 million dollars in less than 24 hours John Heilemann that is nothing that is nothing and the president will have all the advantages of being a sitting president while the Democrats spend months of beating each other each other to a sitting president who will conserve his resources and not have to respect all the Druce in Bill Weld, there will not be a significant primary challenge, so that's what any sitting president likes the idea of ​​wanting to talk . but I can see very quickly, you know, Jimmy, what's there, what's built into this system, into our political system that has allowed the last three presidents, all of whom have been quite divisive at times, to rent a divisive climate which allowed them to be re-elected.

This is the first time since what might be the 19th century and early 19th century that we have had three incumbents win re-election in a row, so what is it, since it becomes too difficult for a challenger to overcome the power of the government. I think look, the reality is that this speaks to something we talked about earlier on the show, this big trend toward polarization. By that I don't just mean division and slander, but the hardening of the tribalism of politics that you start that the center produces almost nothing the number of votes at stake is almost none people who are - or the ticket splitters They no longer exist Democratic Republican comes in with a high ceiling with high floors and low ceilings and you're competing for a very close vote and because an incumbent for the reasons we just talked about has some advantage, he doesn't have to go through a primary fight, he can conserve your resources, it can take months. and months and months of figuring out how to gather 270 electoral votes that, with the built-in base that they have and so few votes available to compete, give that power of incumbency, I think that in a very polarized environment for those reasons, I will say that a One of the things to go back to is another thing that you were talking about today is this big demographic shift that's happening in the country and yes, I want to talk to Jamie about it because I think you know we've seen it in these polls with Donald Trump. says suddenly what's at stake is Georgia, now you know it's a state that we've focused on a little bit as a potential battleground state in previous cycles.

Arizona, Georgia, are the targets, maybe Texas, South Carolina, people don't talk that way. but the same demographic changes that are happening in Atlanta and Georgia in general are also happening in Charleston and other places in South Carolina, so this is the moment when the demographic change, as much as the weakness of Lindsey Graham, but The demographic changes in your state have opened the door for someone like you, a door has been opened for you and it is the reason we want a congressional seat in South Carolina. We won the Sanford seat for the first time in 30 years.

A Democrat represents that seat and ran against a Trump siculus. the young woman who ran against him said she wanted to be the Kellyanne Conway of Congress, the right Donald Trump called South Carolina, he did all this and the Democrats won that seat because Charleston is changing, we have all these people moving to Carolina of the South who are thinking differently and then we have an opportunity here I know a lot of people said oh, it's South Carolina, well do you remember in 2008 Barack Obama lost Georgia by seven lost South Carolina by eight without doing anything in a Carolina North one week in Carolina and one Indiana, we are on the cusp of the birth of a new south, there is a renaissance taking place in the south and this race will be the tip of the spear.

These numbers in Virginia, I mean, are really the most Virginia they used to be. being a purple state now it's a blue state plus 17 in the latest polls that were right Joe Biden yeah for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. Charlie we've been talking this

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in the previous conversation with the great Ron Fournier from Michigan talking about Macomb County, why? Can't we get an idea of ​​you? If that's okay, tell us about Russia, tell us about Kenosha, you should tell us about other parts of Wisconsin, don't forget about Oshkosh, Josh, Josh, talk about the parts that are unstable parts of that state that we've seen. some polls showing Donald Trump getting beaten by double digits, do you believe that or do you think Donald Trump still has a good chance of winning Wisconsin again?

I think he has a good chance of winning Wisconsin again, it depends on what the Democrats do. You know, I mean everything that John said is absolutely true about the power of government and I think last night you saw a preview of what this campaign is going to be like, where Donald Trump is going to run based on what you know, security, security and the economy, but at the same time reverse. The side is that he will also run against those Democrats and those Democrats who hate America and want to destroy America. It was really surprising.

I think four years ago he ran as some kind of radio candidate, now he's running as an Internet troll, so here it is. the question is do the Democrats move hard and fast enough to the left if the Republicans can present them as scary for open borders, you don't know, rush with security aplomb to destroy the economy, you can have a lot of those undecided voters and places like Appleton and Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha, who might be fine, we are sick and tired of Donald Trump, but at least that's the evil we know, so I understand that Donald Trump doesn't need to win this election, he just needs that the Democrats are more. more toxic than he is and he has shown in the past that he can do it very quickly, Charlie, have you seen any anecdotal evidence of people breaking away from Donald Trump?

No, actually, yes, this is part of the dynamic and again John mentioned the incredible polarization and tribalization. and how much of our politics is this negative partisanship. I think with all the things we talk about and watch, we talk about the norms that are being torn apart by the outrages that have almost been built into the formula that people have accepted. They understand that the president is a liar They understand that he is a narcissist They understand that he is erratic but they imagine that at least he is You know it's not Bernie Sanders We don't bring social IDs Adrian I want to take a look before we go to the debate stage, let's see the first day.

My gut feeling is that Elizabeth Warren stands out big time and she's the one to watch. Claire McCaskill thought Amy could really stand out that night. What are you thinking on the first day? Yes, I agree with your assessment and Claire's Assessment I think Elizabeth Warren will rise to the occasion. I think this is the time for her to really talk about her politics in a way that millions and millions of people will see, as opposed to some of the lower ones. numbers and that in the forums yes, I think someone like Amy will stand out.

I think someone like better will stand out and I think actually Tim Ryan will come into the middle class, you know, sir, let's also see, yeah, let's see day two. and the one to watch, obviously, Joe Biden. I think it'll be interesting to see Buddha judge and Biden match me, eliminating the contrast between the next generation of our party and the previous generation, you know, I think in this first debate, Joe. Biden can overcome the fray. Can you imagine presenting yourself as the presidential candidate who has already clinched the nomination to a similar extent to what the Tachyons have been taking in some of these states, but I think after this debate you're going to have to be very careful. to not seem like the inevitable candidate, yes, because if you go to some of these early states and act like you already have this nomination secured, you can get into a lot of trouble.

Yes, Bernie's campaign is interesting. I'm going to ask you what's going on there. I speak with all the candidates. I text some of them or they are notpeople. Silence honey, yes, it was strange. Okay, I'm not going, yeah, no, well, I wouldn't say I don't know. I just died. I don't know Jamie what you think about Bernie's campaign, yeah okay Jamie, they're all in South Carolina and they're trying to help me send Lindsey home, so go with Jamie, sit with us, next thing we have . great show this

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