From the chaos in Iowa last night
to the triumphant tone from Trump tonight.
Our panel of political experts is watching.
David Frum, senior editor with the Atlantic is here with me in Washington.
Republican strategist Jai Chabria is in Columbus Ohio.
And Democratic strategist Tracy Sefl is joining us from Washington.
So everyone, thank you for joining us.
I just want to point out that as Trump speech was ending
Nancy Pelosi appeared to rip and then throw away a
copy of the speech if you haven't seen it you really should see this moment
let's have a look thank you god bless you and God bless america
thank you
alright David let's start with you any surprises that that you know the very
visual divisiveness there well given that this may be the longest speech
Donald Trump has yet given as precedent and perhaps one of the top three longest
speeches ever given by a president I think Nancy Pelosi just showed really
impressive forearm strength there was expecting Tracie what about you well
sitting behind the President as she did I don't think she needs the paper copy
to remember what just happened that was an extraordinary speech filled with
gameshow theatrics and some highly questionable assertions and I think
watching her face is a good barometer for how Democrats will be responding so
given given the week that this is you know the Democratic disaster that that
was Iowa arguably the Senate vote that's going to go Trump's way tomorrow Jay
let's start with you on this one is this the speech you thought it would be well
I don't know that you can ever expect a Donald Trump speech and be right on it
because there's always something different there were some things that
really surprised me he's always he's that reality talk show host he's that
that guy that that hosted that show that that hit show on NBC and tonight which
you saw was that he was able to tug at the heartstrings a lot of times when he
point to the gallery when he pointed to military families that had lost a loved
one but then he also brought back a military man to reunite his family on
live TV at a state of you know I don't know that I've ever seen something like
that and I'm sure that's gonna go over very well
so look he had lots of economic accomplishments he was touting he had
lots of partisanship bred me for his base and then he had these daytime top
coats theatrics which i think is gonna really
play well well certainly Donald Trump understands the power of the medium
David what about you is is this a speech you thought well he's got a strong story
to tell in the economy and that's where he focused he had some attempts at so to
some normal human moments the speech and the I think final third really did
follow it and this is the moment where the most partisan people are walking we
follow the line of his American Carney speech illegal aliens out there to kill
you endless wars that speech turned quite dark in the last third I think by
then he'd assumed that the regular viewers had stopped watching at the one
hour mark Tracy I'm curious about what it's like from your perspective because
this has not been a great week for Democrats you were in Iowa I imagine you
knew last night that Republicans would seize on what has happened there and and
and mock it now we didn't hear that in the speech tonight but but how how bad
is it right now for Democrats well if there's one thing about Democrats it's
that were used to the the foibles and the fumbles and last night was hugely
unfortunate there's no question now was it some sort of catastrophic event no it
wasn't and the results will be in I'm pretty sure the Constitution doesn't say
anything about providing immediate results to cable news hosts but you you
didn't quite know that watching coverage last night it was you know DEFCON
situation the results will come in the problems will get fixed it was human
error and its most unfortunate what I saw in Iowa was a really vibrant
Democratic caucus with hundreds of people at the various precincts excited
and energized and really appreciating their moment as Iowans to do that unique
and authentic caucusing so there's really two storylines what happened on
the ground and the hysteria with which people have responded there definitely
was a problem and a mistake and things will be fixed but life goes on Democrats
know what happened last night is not in any way in Dick
of our losing focus on November and the goal to replace Donald Trump with a
Democrat in the White House one of the things I would wet was go ahead J go
ahead yeah see and I appreciate Tracy spin on this but I don't know that
Democrats ever had focus on the White House I don't know they've actually
really focused on it they I think they've made tactical errors by going
after Donald Trump on impeachment which was appeasing to their base but not
really smart in terms of taking back to White House last night was an
opportunity to showcase their message and to start to winnow their field they
lost that opportunity and now they're in a new cycle where the president controls
it again with this speech which is largely pro America and now they're
gonna have to be seen as people that are cheering against American success I
think I don't know that the Democrats have ever had focus and and that's me
the problem for them in November that's I have to say one of the candidates
Bernie Sanders in this case who quite likely will emerge victorious out of
Iowa his signs I have to share this with your viewers it was really interesting
they simply had three words on them and it said Bernie beats Trump and that was
it that's all his sign said and I think that shows some focus right there and
certainly the these few days this week is an extraordinary conflation of or a
perfect storm of events if you will and I have no doubt that there will be you
know the sort of quirks that will come of this and people will all to happily
point to Iowa as somehow the crumbling of the Democratic Party and I can assure
your viewers that isn't the case unfortunate crazy timing everything
that's happening this week frankly is unprecedented and crazy in its
compression so I just want to say one thing
it is Washington it is incredibly loud there's always a sense
urgency heared people important people are always on the move but I do want to
get back to that State of the Union speech for a moment because you know the
president did not go there in the sense of mocking the Democrats or what
happened last night but but he certainly went there in terms of being
exceptionally boastful about what he has done and I think we have a clip of him
of him basically crowing about what he's accomplished we have a listen to that
jobs our booming incomes are soaring poverty is plummeting crime is falling
confidence is surging and our country is thriving and highly respected again
that that standard for the toolkit or is that unusual hyperbole it it's unusual
because it's so exaggerated because it is so weakly based in fact what I think
is really striking about the speech is how little it talked about the future
normally what you do instead of the Union address the president takes credit
where there's credit to be taken but a president also gives an affirmative
vision of what the presidents like to do when Donald Trump says things like the
best is yet to come what he's revealing is how vague he is this is actually in
terms of things he's got done that he personally did this is the thinnest
record of accomplishment of any first term president and he has even fewer
ideas for a second term on that point this is just the last question to
everyone here is there any reason to believe that we are not looking you
won't like this Tracy but that we are not looking at anything
having been a second a two-term president Tracy let's start with you
well certainly that is what Democrats hope does not happen I'm happy to give
Trump credit for his oversimplification and connecting with the audience by the
simple noun-verb construct that he used there I
appreciate that and I know that it resonates unfortunately it was full of
mistruths exaggerations and crazy over statements the Democrats it's incumbent
upon us to unpack that but to do so in a way that is speaking at that same level
trumps gift if you will is to speak at that very basic level Democrats know
that he was saying things that simply weren't true all you had to do was look
at speaker Pelosi's face and you could recognize every time he would strike a
chord that was completely dissonant she would react accordingly and so it's up
company pon the Democrats to make sense of that but to do it in a way that is
straightforward and convincing and frankly reinforces that Democrats will
not only be attentive to the growth in this economy but ensure the security for
working families this isn't about wall serenus isn't
about Pharma this is about work families I'm gonna have to jump in there
Tracy all of you I'm sorry enough to cut it off here tape it from J Shibuya Tracy
supple thank you very much for joining us