Transcript: Trump Hit by Brutal Poll as Panicked GOPers Nix Town Halls

If you look at USAID, that helps China. That hurts our economy and it helps China because we are locked in a global competition with China to see who can get better access, better economic relationships with just about every other country out there. USAID is one of the main ways that we counter their Belt and Road Initiative. And there are ways when that comes up that we can make clear for people that that actually hurts your interests, but what we have to lead with is, I know that you’re feeling these costs, I am too. We were all promised that they would fall on day one, but what are they doing instead? They are using full control of Washington to raise your costs, to take your health care—all so Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their rich friends can see a tax windfall. And that opens the door.

Sargent: I think there’s no question that people really don’t remember how important the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which were an enormous giveaway to corporations and the rich, were in the midterms. Can you just get at that a little bit? People usually seem to think that it was just anti-Trump energy. And by the way, it really was. There was a lot of anti Trump organizing on the ground, and there was a lot of angst about the Muslim ban, about immigration and that sort of thing. But the tax cut was a big part of the 2018 House Democratic win, wasn’t it?

Bates: Yes, it was central to it. And what we have to remember is energy, if it’s channeled correctly, can be very powerful; but if energy is not informed by strategy, it is not going to bear fruit. So we have to make sure that we’re using our energy in a constructive way. That means talking to the folks who might be skeptical now, but who, as they feel this economic pain that’s being inflicted on them, as Republicans force onto the country this radical redistribution of wealth from hardworking people to billionaires, to big corporations, that is eye opening, can see you in a new light.