Ariz. Sen. Flake Shoots Down Leaving the GOP: “I’m a proud Republican”
Calif. Gov. Brown: “Pelosi is a pillar of the Democratic Party, and the answer is not to try to replace her”
ALSO: Brown endorses California “sanctuary cities” lawsuit against Trump administration
AUGUST 6, 2017 — “You have to have a party that rises above the more particular issues to the generic,” California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) told moderator Chuck Todd this morning on a special edition of “Meet the Press: Our Broken Politics.” When asked whether abortion should be a litmus test for Democrats, Brown said, “The litmus test should be intelligence, caring about … the common man.”
On party leadership, Brown says that “if you added up pluses and minuses, I think Nancy Pelosi is a major pillar of the Democratic Party. And the answer is not to try to replace her with somebody, but to make sure the candidates represent and can empathize and be a part of the district they’re running in.”
Brown also supported the idea of a lawsuit over President Trump’s latest attempt to punish so-called “sanctuary cities.” Watch the full interview.
Todd exclusively spoke with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), calling the senator’s new book, “Conscience of a Conservative” “as much of an indictment on the Republican leadership of the last 15 years as it is on Donald Trump.” Despite this, Flake says he didn’t think about leaving the party: “Not at all. I’m a proud Republican. Lifelong Republican. And I’m from Arizona. Arizona tends to elect independent-minded people and people who stand on principle, so I’m doing what I think my voters expect of me.”
Flake shared that he wishes the party would stand up more to “staff that is demonstrably false,” including birtherism: “I wish that we, as a party, would have stood up, for example, when the birtherism thing was going along. A lot of people did stand up but not enough.” Watch the full interview.
On this special broadcast exploring the country’s fractured politics, Todd took a look at the disappearing center over the years.
Dan Balz of The Washington Post, David French of National Review, Democratic strategist Heather McGhee and Andrea Mitchell of NBC News joined this morning’s roundtable for insight and analysis on the polarization between the two parties.
Read the full transcript of this morning’s “Meet the Press” on MeetThePress.com.
For more from moderator Chuck Todd throughout the week, sign up for the “First Read” newsletter, and subscribe to the “1947: The Meet The Press Podcast” for on-demand interviews.
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NBC NEWS’ “MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD”
“Meet the Press with Chuck Todd” is where newsmakers come to make news — setting the political agenda and spotlighting the impact Washington decision-making has on people across the country. “Meet the Press” reaches more than three million people every Sunday through its broadcasts and millions more through NBCNews.com, OTT platforms and social media. “Meet the Press” brings its authority and influencer interviews to MSNBC with “MTP Daily” weekdays at 5 p.m. ET and to the “1947: The Meet the Press Podcast”. Chuck Todd is the political director of NBC News and the moderator of “Meet the Press”; John Reiss is the executive producer.
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