ICYMI: Here's what you missed on Sunday's "Face the Nation", December 1, 2019
After the Thanksgiving break gave lawmakers a brief respite from partisan politics, Washington is now ready to tackle the impeachment probe and the 2020 race once again.
Here's the big takeaways from Sunday's episode of "Face the Nation" with Margaret Brennan
Sen. Cory Booker says he "needs help" in plea for donors for 2020 campaign
- Struggling to keep his presidential campaign afloat, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker continues to appeal for donations to ensure he can qualify for the next debate and continue his months-long pursuit of a spot in the top tier of the Democratic primary field.
What Booker said: "If you want me in this race, if you want my voice and message — which is resonating — then I need help," Booker said on "Face the Nation."
On his low polling numbers: Booker says that while favorability is "not translating into people choosing me in the polls" he says his campaign is pushing more energy into ads and online contributions.
Why this all matters: Booker, while trying to hark back to the days of the "Obama Coalition" with a hopeful message of "love" and "unity" as the ethos for his 2020 run, he might be one of the only candidates on trail right now that is looking at the road ahead with a realistic vision and not with a pair of rose-colored glasses. Booker doesn't shy away from making any campaign appearance -- TV or otherwise -- into an appeal for cash, a move that oftentimes pays off right before and after for the New Jersey native. The former mayor is tapping into his grassroots days by making every minute on the trail count -- proving there really is no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to making it onto the big stage in a pool of over 20.
Rubenstein on the hardest parts of being president, Trump's performance
- Billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, who sat down with "Face the Nation" for a wide-ranging interview on the state of American history and the nation's need for a proper lesson, weighed in on the most important parts of the job as the commander-in-chief in a bit of a throw-back to President Trump's "Art of the Deal" ethos.
- What Rubenstein said: "The most important thing is persuading people to do things that you think are the right things to do. And you have persuade people by being honest with them, being forthright with them, bringing them along in a way I think makes people feel they are getting something from them-- from the negotiation. A good negotiation is one where both sides feel they are getting something. They are not completely happy with it, but they are getting something out of it," he said.
- On Trump's performance in office: "It is very difficult to judge a president this early...I think most historians would say give me 40 years after the presidency to evaluate whether the person has done a good or bad job," Rubenstein added.
- On what he learned in the Carter White House: "I think in hindsight, we made some mistakes and I would take the blame for it as long as-- as well as other people who were involved in the system as well. But we did some very good things. We did say we're going to shake up Washington," the former policy adviser to Carter said.
- He added, "When we came to Washington, we probably didn't have as much breadth of knowledge of people who had served in Washington before. But in hindsight, President Carter was president for only four years and we did enormous number of things. And today, the amount of legislation we passed in that four-year period of time dwarfs what's getting done today."
- Why that matters: While his wallet is a bit of a departure from the average American's bank account, Rubenstein's outlook on the presidency and what it means to occupy the highest office in the land is a pretty fair and accurate representation of the values of the everyday voter. Rubenstein's focus on negotiation skills being a top priority for any president interestingly echoes the messaging from Trump's pre-White House days -- something the president still uses as major talking point in his trade and economic deals while in office.
Will impeachment make any waves in the 2020 election?
- While impeachment took a bit of a backseat during the Thanksgiving holiday, with now less than a year out until election day, "Face the Nation"'s esteemed political panel weighed in on the impact of the inquiry on American voters.
- What the panel said: "This will be the third time in history a president of the United States will be impeached and I will bet you it is not an issue at all in the 2020 election," Amy Walter, the National Editor of the Cook Political Report predicted.
- Walter added, "My guess is, by the time we are even in the spring or summer of 2020, we're not going to be talking about impeachment at all."
- The Republican argument: "I've heard from a lot of Republicans that say that they are uncomfortable with what the President did, but they don't believe that it rises to the level of impeachment," Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist assessed.
- Will Trump actually benefit from the probe? "If he comes out a winner, he comes out a winner. I mean, he says I defeated this attempt to remove me that your-- your tribune to the sixty million plus people who voted for him. There was a concerted attempt to remove me and I was not removed, therefore, I am stronger now than I was before," Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic argued.
- Why that matters: While Democrats belabor the point that the impeachment inquiry is to restore the rule of law back to the White House, voters may just not care enough about the overall probe to have a lasting impact at the ballot box. What right now is perceived to be a rallying cry for the Democratic caucus could very well translate into a win for Republicans in state, local and the general election.
