When it comes to messaging and Democrats who are on the campaign trail as we

speak with a Congress that is not in Washington.

Is this an ad that's already been written for you by the president?

Well, certainly. I mean, of course, we've already started

playing it. We've already been pushing it out all

throughout the country, because what a remarkable statement from a president of

the United States to suggest that the only thing the federal government should

be focused in on is, of course, fighting wars of choice around the world at an

enormous expense, at the expense of hardworking Americans right now who are

who are really struggling based on this disastrous economic policy that Donald

Trump has pushed over the course of the last year, which is making it harder for

people to already afford their lives in this war.

Now, of course, making it even more difficult.

Look, the reality is, is he's made it very clear what his values are.

And these are choices, of course, And he's decided to pick fights around the

world and again, to make it clear that people

who, you know, need childcare in this country, people who are concerned about

the rising costs of groceries and the lack of affordable housing and the fact

that they can barely afford their utility costs are are fill up their gas.

You know, the reality is, is right now people are struggling and Donald Trump

is ignoring their cries for help. But when it comes to the midterms, what

is the priority for Democrats? Are you going to try to wrap this all

into one? I mean, the president ran on

affordability. Gas prices are going up.

How are Democrats planning to capitalize on message on that?

Because sometimes the messaging is is not your party's forte, but there is a

lot there to do. How are you?

How are you going to make this happen for your party?

Well, listen, I would say if you look at the last year, we have had tremendous

success. We've won over 90% of the elections on

the ballot, historic over overperformance, which is about 14

percentage points on average, which is an all time high.

And the through line is on that is that all of our candidates focused almost

exclusively on affordability, making sure that we address the anxiety of this

nation right now, which is really around the economy.

Many Americans are falling behind and no one feels like this economy is working

for them right now. And so as we go into these last 214 days

left until the midterm election, we're going to focus on three really important

things. One is, of course, affordability.

How do we make sure that you can afford to get to work?

How how how do we make sure that you actually have a job to go to?

How do we make sure that you can afford your rent or your mortgage or putting

groceries on the table, as I mentioned earlier?

Second, we're going to focus on the emergent health care crisis in this

country based on the big, ugly bill and the fact that they're going to take away

so much revenue from health care systems in this country.

300 hospitals, hospitals are going to close.

A quarter of nursing homes are going to close.

Health care premiums are rising on almost every American right now.

Health care is an emergent crisis in this country.

And the last thing we're going to focus on is fixing this corrupt and rigged

system that only benefits the wealthy, the well-connected and the powerful at

the expense of everyone else in this country.

And so that's what Democrats are focused on.

We're going to focus on delivering real solutions to what's

vexing the American people right now and not focus just on fighting wars of

choice around the world that are costing them.

The average American household is paying $400 more a month to litigate this war

in Iran, and it's $400 a month. They don't have, based on this

disastrous economy that Donald Trump has pushed with a gallon of gas at $4.10

today, on average, according to triple A can.

We want to talk to you about resources. We had a conversation just last week on

Bloomberg with Congresswoman Susan DelBene, who chairs the D, triple C.

They're targeting Trump plus 11 plus 13 seats in some districts, making this a

much wider effort. I realize you have history on your side.

You might even have the message on your side.

But how about money? The RNC has a nearly 7 to 1 money

advantage over the DNC right now. You pulled in 10.3 million in February,

the RNC, 18 and a half million. Do you have the money, the resources to

pursue that many seats? Well, absolutely.

And in combination with the policy, the DNC and our other partners, of course we

do. And look, you know, we don't need to

outraise the Republicans. We just need to raise enough money to be

in the ring so we can compete and fight. And I'll give you an example on that.

In Texas, we flipped a state Senate seat there.

It was a plus 17% Trump district. Our candidate won by 14 percentage

points, meaning it was a 31 point swing. And the Republican opponent there raised

two and a half million dollars to our candidates, $380,000.

Again, we don't need to outraise the Republicans.

We just need to have enough money to compete.

And look, last year, we raised a record amount of money for a first year chair

of the Democratic National Committee. We raised a record amount of money and

what was fueling. That was the grassroots dollars, you

know, the small donors averaging $51. You know, that was what was fueling our

effort. And we raised a record amount which

allowed us to win a record amount of races.

Of course, we've got wind at our back, we've got momentum.

And as you mentioned, we've got a message that's resonated and we'll have

the resources to make sure that we can compete.

And as you mentioned, because of this historic overperformance, we've been

able to expand out the map. We can now any Republican who sits in a

14% or less district in this country is now targeted by the Democratic Party

because they are vulnerable. And that's 50 Republicans who sit in

those seats are now on our target list. We've got a great path to the US House,

and as crazy as it sounds, there's an equal chance of us winning the US Senate

back as well. And almost every time I have a Democrat

on or talk to a Democrat, I asked them two questions Who is the leader of the

Democratic Party? And if you actually take back the House

and or the Senate, is there anything you can actually do to stop the legislative

agenda of a president who seems not to care whether he has congressional

approval for most of the things he does? Well, let me answer the first thing You

know. Look, there's many leaders of the

Democratic Party. I happen to be one of them.

And that is at the heart of the problem. They have know, look, this is always a

problem for either party when they're out of power.

Right. The reality is, is that, you know, the

president and the party in power has a much bigger megaphone, and that's just

always the case. And so we've got great governors out

there. We've got great mayors out there.

We've got wonderful members of Congress. So there are many leaders.

And of course, we're a big tent party. That means we've got lots of different

ideas out there. Right.

And as we come into this presidential race in 28 and we get a nominee, of

course, then, you know, we'll start to come into focus with the leader of the

Democratic Party is. But until that time.

Right. We have many leaders who are delivering

for the American people who are actually standing up.

I've been very proud of watching what our governors have done during this last

year to actually deliver and promises that they've made to the American

people. I've been proud of watching our mayors

use the power they have to protect communities in this country from this

administration. I've been really proud of our members of

Congress using their platforms to actually speak out and hold this

president accountable. And so, look, there are a lot of leaders

of the Democratic Party. And, you know, look, I get that question

a lot. I'm very proud of the fact that we have

so many great leaders in this party who are standing up delivering on the

promises they made to the American people and actually fighting to make a

difference in their lives. And on the second piece, you know, look,

I think when we win back control of the Congress and hopefully the Senate, our

job is to pass legislation to actually stand up and do what we said we were

going to do and, you know, put it on Donald Trump's desk and, you know, make

him make a choice if he's going to actually sign legislation that's going

to bring down the costs for American people and actually help create jobs and

actually restore health care access in this country and help, you know,

families that are struggling with childcare and and finding jobs.

At the end of the day, if we do those things and the president still refuses

to sign them, the Republicans will have no chance of winning in 2028.

So what we're going to do is we're going to focus on doing our jobs and

delivering on the promises that we made to the American people.

It will be up to the president to decide whether or not he wants to join

Democrats at that point, when we consider what primary voters are looking

for here in this midterm cycle. There was fascinating research out

recently from the group Third Way, of course, famously moderate, according to

some dangerously moderate, depending on the progressive you might be speaking

with. They talked about what primary voters

lives are like, what primary voters are looking for.

And it came down to basically a question or an argument of pragmatism versus

progressivism. 75% of Democratic self-identified

Democratic primary voters said they prefer pragmatism to 25% progressivism.

Is that going to be an important theme to follow in this campaign cycle?

Well, look, I mean, I don't like to put a label on any of this.

I do agree that what Americans want right now is results.

They're sick and tired of watching parties.

Politicians from both parties say one thing and then get into office and do

another. They want people to stand up and fight

for them and deliver. And, you know, it's one of the

challenges both for the Republican Party and it has been for the Democratic

Party. But what I think you're seeing right

now, which is why Donald Trump's numbers are so low and the Republican Party is

in jeopardy right now, losing both chambers of Congress and has been losing

throughout the country right now is you have one party that's actually

delivering. Look at what Abigail Spanberger and

Mikie Sherrill did on day one after they were elected governor.

Look at what other Democratic elected officials are doing throughout the

country to stand up and deliver on those promises.

And the Republicans continue to ignore the pleas of this country to focus on

the issues that matter most to the Americans.

And so, look, I think at the end of the day, you know, you can.

Call it pragmatism, or you can just call it delivering on your promises.

You know, one of my first bosses said that you should never separate the life

you lead from the words you speak. And it's critical right now because most

Americans are just sick and tired of politics as usual.

They want someone who's going to stand up, be their champion and help them

actually get ahead, not just get by. All right.

On that note, Americans are sick and tired of politics.

They are frustrated with Congress members in both parties and they have a

new accountability body making its presence known.

And that is TMZ, the site we usually think of as gossip.

We spoke to Harvey Levin and that site about why they are now going after

members of Congress who are seen on vacation while the government is shut

down. We're gonna play some sound for you.

When you look at what we're doing with these photographs and videos, it's

really the big thing we're doing, because what we're doing is we're

showing how the public feels about them. And I think they've lost that big view

of it and started looking at it. You know, the blame game that the

Republicans didn't vote on this or the Democrats didn't do that, and they're

not stepping back and looking at Congress as a whole.

We only got about 30 seconds here, but I'm curious what your reaction to this

is, because it does tap into a broader spectrum of the American public, really

annoyed that Congress is not doing what they sent them there to do.

Yeah, I've always said sunlight is the best disinfectant.

You know, it's important for folks to hold elected officials and leaders in

Congress and throughout the country accountable.

And, you know, during a time when government shut down and you see, you

know, politicians taking vacations, politicians, you know, not doing their

job well, people are suffering. And of course, people are going to be

frustrated. And so, again, this should be a wake up

call to every politician and each party to make sure that in times of crisis

like this in this country, it requires people to stand up, do their job and

deliver for the American people. And again, Democrats are doing that.

Republicans are sitting on their asses while people are suffering in this

country.