{"id":2884,"date":"2019-03-10T12:53:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T16:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/press.nbcnews.com\/?p=2884"},"modified":"2019-03-10T12:53:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T16:53:44","slug":"mtp-exclusive-sen-sherrod-brown-joe-biden-had-zero-impact-on-2020-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nbcuniversalnewsgroup.com\/nbcnews\/2019\/03\/10\/mtp-exclusive-sen-sherrod-brown-joe-biden-had-zero-impact-on-2020-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"MTP EXCLUSIVE \u2013 SEN. SHERROD BROWN: JOE BIDEN HAD \u201cZERO\u201d IMPACT ON 2020 DECISION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ALSO \u2013 EXCLUSIVE WITH REP. LIZ CHENEY: HOUSE\nDEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO \u201cPROTECT\u201d CONGRESSWOMAN ILHAN OMAR, \u201cENABLING\u201d\nANTI-SEMITISM<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PLUS \u2013 REP. ADAM SCHIFF EXCLUSIVE: “BEST\nWAY TO GET THE TRUTH WOULD BE TO PUT THE PRESIDENT UNDER OATH\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MARCH 10, 2019<\/strong> \u2013 Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)<\/strong> said today on Meet the Press <\/em>that former Vice President Joe Biden had \u201czero\u201d\nimpact on his decision not to run for president in 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\nthe exclusive interview, his first since announcing he would not seek the\npresidency, Sen. Brown told moderator Chuck Todd that he has not spoken to Biden\nsince October. \u201cI like Joe Biden. I just haven’t talked to him. And people ask\nme in almost every one of these states \u2018Is Joe Biden getting in having any\nimpact on your decision?\u2019 And my answer was always zero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can run three different ways. You can run as Eeyore, where\nyou get up every day and, \u2018Oh, my God. I gotta to do this.\u2019 And I didn’t want\nto be that. You can run as the angry candidate. I didn’t want to be that. Or\nyou can run as the sort of optimist, joyful candidate, the way I try to do my\njob in the Senate. I think I can do that better in the Senate, in continuing to\ninform this presidential race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nasked if the Democratic Party is moving too far to the left, Sen. Brown said, \u201cI\nthink the more important story is how Republicans continue to move to the right\n\u2026 They’ve all followed [President Trump\u2019s] racist actions and betrayal of\nworkers. They followed it like lemmings off a cliff. That’s the story not some\ndegrees of differences between and among Democrats. That’s the real story.\u201d Watch the full\ninterview<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Liz\nCheney (R-Wyo.), <\/strong>chair of the House\nRepublican Conference, also joined the program for an exclusive interview and\ntold Chuck Todd that the House resolution condemning anti-Semitism was \u201cclearly\nan effort to actually protect [Congresswoman] Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)\u201d and accused\nHouse Democrats of trying to \u201ccover up her bigotry and anti-Semitism by\nrefusing to name her.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Cheney went on to say that Democrats have \u201cbecome the party\nof anti-Semitism, the party of infanticide, the party of socialism,\u201d but when\nasked if President Trump has done enough to tamp down right-wing fringe\nanti-Semitism, Rep. Cheney said, \u201cI don’t believe this is right or left. I\nthink that this is an issue on which all of us should come together,\nparticularly elected officials, the president, the vice president, members of\nthe Senate and the House no matter what your party is.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Cheney also said she would not support President Trump\u2019s\nreported plan that he may charge U.S. allies hosting American troops the full\nprice of deployments on their soil, plus 50 percent or more. \u201cI think it would\nbe absolutely devastating \u2026 The notion that we are somehow now going to charge\nthem cost plus fifty, is really — it’s wrongheaded and it would be devastating\nto the security of the nation and our allies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about President Trump walking away from a deal with North\nKorea, Rep. Cheney said, \u201cI think the fact that the president walked away from\nthe summit in Vietnam is a very positive thing. I think that that was the right\nthing to do. We don’t want a bad deal that makes us less safe.\u201d Watch the <\/strong>full\ninterview<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Adam\nSchiff (D-Calif.),<\/strong> chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said that former\nBlackwater chairman Erik Prince was \u201cnot telling the truth\u201d during a recent Al Jazeera<\/em> interview in which he acknowledged an August 2016 Trump\nTower meeting on Iran for the first time. \u201cHe did not disclose\nthat meeting to our committee,\u201d Rep. Schiff told Chuck Todd. \u201cHis interview\ncertainly looks inconsistent with his testimony. Bob Mueller has that testimony\nalready. And Bob Mueller will have to make the decision about whether that\nrises to a level of deliberate falsehood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nasked if Michael Cohen can be taken at his word on anything, Rep. Schiff said, \u201cI\ndon’t think in terms of making the case to the public, and here we’re not\nmaking the case to a jury, about what took place that we can rely solely on the\ntestimony of Michael Cohen. We’re going to need corroboration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Schiff also said that Special Counsel Robert Muller should\nnot rely on written answers from President Trump. \u201cThe best way to get the\ntruth would be to put the president under oath. Because as he’s made plain in\nthe past, he feels it’s perfectly fine to lie to the public. After all he has\nsaid, \u2018It\u2019s not like I’m talking before a magistrate.\u2019 Well, maybe he should\ntalk before a magistrate.\u201d Watch the <\/strong>full\ninterview<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington\nPost<\/em> National Political Reporter, NBC News Political Analyst and Moderator\nof PBS\u2019 Washington Week <\/em>Robert Costa<\/strong>, NBC News Capitol Hill\nCorrespondent and Host of MSNBC\u2019s Kasie DC<\/em> Kasie Hunt<\/strong>, President\nof Voto Latino and NBC News Contributor Mar\u00eda Teresa Kumar, <\/strong>and former Gov. Pat McCrory<\/strong> (R-N.C.)\njoined the broadcast\u2019s roundtable for insight and analysis on the week in\npolitics. Watch the <\/strong>full\npanel<\/a><\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read\nthe full transcrip<\/a>t of Meet\nthe Press<\/em> this morning and follow the show on Twitter<\/a> and on Facebook<\/a> for\nthe latest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PLEASE CREDIT: NBC NEWS\u2019 MEET\nTHE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n