Beto O'Rourke Running for President
BALDWIN: With exactly 600 days until the 2020 election, former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke is announcing his bid for the presidency. And he is already campaign in the first state to hold a presidential nomination contest, that, of course, being Iowa. He is also receiving and responding to some criticism already from President Trump.</s>QUESTION: Your reaction to Beto O'Rourke's announcement today, Mr. President?</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think he's got a lot of hand movement. I have never seen so much hand movement. I said, is he crazy, or is that just the way he acts?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: President Trump made fun of your hands today.</s>O'ROURKE: Oh, did he?</s>ZELENY: What do you have to say to that? Did you see that?</s>O'ROURKE: I have nothing to say to that. I think people want us to rise above the pettiness, the smallness. They want us to be big, bold, ambitious for this country, and that's what I'm focused on. That's what I see here today in Burlington.</s>BALDWIN: All right, we're going to move away from the hand jokes. With me now, Harry Enten, senior writer and analyst for CNN Politics. And so, all right, so he's finally in, right?</s>HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICAL SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: He's finally in. He's in. He's in.</s>BALDWIN: He's in. He's in. Where -- but he's already been part of so much polling previous to today. Where does he stand?</s>ENTEN: Yes. So if we look at our latest Iowa caucus poll that was conducted by the Selzer group, we see he's all the way down at 5 percent. He obviously has four people ahead of him. And that's a big difference from where we were just a few months ago, when he was actually in third place in double digits. So he's dropped down as the other candidates have gotten -- kind of gotten in. And I think the real question, Brooke, is whether or not he's able to recover once he gets in the race.</s>BALDWIN: So now that he is, we will watch and see if his numbers improve. Where do the other candidates stand?</s>ENTEN: Yes. So, I mean, if the other candidates right now, Sanders and Biden are ahead. And I think one of the questions is how accurate or how predictive is the polling right now, right?</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>ENTEN: Is it going to be the case that Biden's lead will actually hold? And if we look back over time, with 600 days to go, look, there are a lot of losers on this list, people who didn't actually win the nomination. Giuliani was up at this point. Clinton was up in this point in 2008. Scott Walker and Jeb Bush were both tied at this point in 2016. So I think that's a real indication that we still have a lot of time. But one thing I will point out is ,if we look back over a longer kind of span, right?</s>BALDWIN: To Iowa.</s>ENTEN: If you look back at these Iowa polls, right, you see that about half the people who were leading at this point since 1980 won the nomination, about half lost. And you might say, OK, a 50/50 split, that's not really good. But keep in mind, we have like 12 people running. So if I could tell you with 50 percent certainty who might actually win, that's not actually a bad thing.</s>BALDWIN: Just the fact that Joe Biden was on the top of your list a second ago, and we still don't even know if he's getting in the race, I'm -- it's still just so stunning to me.</s>ENTEN: To me, Joe Biden has still a very high favorite rating with Democrats because they remember his time with Barack Obama. I think it's a real question once he gets in whether or not he's able to maintain that momentum. Can he take a punch? We will have to wait and see.</s>BALDWIN: OK, Harry, thank you.</s>ENTEN: Thank you days.</s>BALDWIN: Six hundred days and counting. Moments ago, CNN's Poppy Harlow asked Senator Amy Klobuchar what she thought of Beto O'Rourke's addition to an already crowded field of Democrats. And here's what the senator had to say.</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Beto O'Rourke has joined the race.</s>SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, welcome.</s>HARLOW: He just announced his candidacy. Did your lane just get a little more narrow?</s>KLOBUCHAR: Well, I think that competition is good in our party. I believe Barack Obama has been saying this to people.</s>HARLOW: He said that to you, right?</s>KLOBUCHAR: Having a number of strong -- he said it to me. He said it to others. Having a number of strong candidates in an election and in a race is important. And then the voters are going to be able to evaluate it. And, of course, he's someone that comes, like I do, from the center of the country. I think it's important to have people that are running that are from different parts of the country.</s>BALDWIN: O'Rourke just finished the second of three stops today in Iowa. He is telling "Vanity Fair" that he was -- quote -- "born to do this." Annie Leibovitz snapping this very all-American photo. So with me to talk all things Beto O'Rourke is Bakari Sellers, CNN commentator, former state representative for South Carolina. Bakari, it is good to see you.</s>BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you, Border Patrol</s>BALDWIN: You saw the "Vanity Fair" spread. What did you make of this, this rollout, shall we call it?</s>SELLERS: I mean, I think that the rollout does leave some things to be desired. Beto O'Rourke is a personality that is well known. His race, along with Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams, IT set the country on fire. I just think that I'm born to do this is a pretty weird tag line and slogan. I know that he has more depth than that. But one of the things that Beto is going to have to do as he runs, this isn't a city council race in El Paso. This isn't even running for the United States Senate against probably the most disliked United States senator in the history of the country in Ted Cruz, but he's going to have to prove that he can be presidential. He can't be someone else. This whole ploy to attempt to make Beto O'Rourke the next coming of Barack Obama is going to fall flat on its face. And so people need to be able to learn who Beto is. And the next messiah, the next Barack Obama is not going to be the case. He's going to have to demonstrate some depth. He is a robust challenger. And I'm excited that he's in the field. I look forward to the excitement he brings to the race. But I hope that excitement also has some policy depth.</s>BALDWIN: Before we get to that, I just want to follow up to your point about how he saying I was born to do this. And when you talk to critics or even some just not quite sure about what they think of Beto O'Rourke so far, they would say, gosh, to say that, it just sort of drips of white male privilege. And to think if, say, a Kamala Harris, for example, were to say, I was born to do this, what do you think the reaction would be?</s>SELLERS: Well, I mean, I do think that there's certain elements that we have to look at, and this just isn't a Democratic flaw, but this is a flaw we have in the United States of America. I think that Beto O'Rourke has some privilege that allows him to do things, and I think that many of the media are glowing and gloating in a way and urging him to run for president in a way that, say, Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum have not been goaded to run. I think that the things he said in his rollout are not things that could be said by Amy Klobuchar, by Elizabeth Warren, by Tulsi Gabbard, by Kamala Harris. And the list goes on and on and on, and Kirsten Gillibrand. And so I do think that all of us have to take a moment and check our privilege. With that being said, there is some element of Beto being a quintessential millennial. He is someone who represents a new generation.</s>BALDWIN: Gen X, technically, but yes.</s>SELLERS: I mean, we will take him, OK?</s>BALDWIN: As I think we're all Gen X'es. Are we all Gen X'es here? I think we're all Gen X'es.</s>SELLERS: I'm not. I'm a millennial guy.</s>BALDWIN: Oh, are you?</s>SELLERS: I am a millennial, I think, yes.</s>BALDWIN: OK.</s>SELLERS: So I thought he was one of us, but maybe he's not.</s>BALDWIN: Yes. Yes.</s>SELLERS: Regardless, he does represent a fresh face in politics.</s>BALDWIN: So to the point, though, I just want to say, in his favor, when he was interviewed by "Vanity Fair," he did say this, talking about his vulnerabilities running as a white man. He said: "The government at all levels is overly represented by white men. That's part of the problem. And I'm a white man. I think it's just so important that those who would compromise my team look like this country. If I were to win, my administration looks like this country. It is the only way I know to meet the challenge." So that at least sounds like, sounds like a solid start.</s>SELLERS: No, that's a bold, bold pronouncement. In fact, if you juxtapose that against Bernie Sanders, it's drastic. It's night and day from some of the things that Senator Sanders has said. I do believe that we have the most diverse field that we have had in the history of politics on either side. You have Julian Castro, you have Kamala Harris, you have Kirsten Gillibrand, you have the most women, the most minorities. You have Cory Booker. You have Beto O'Rourke. I do believe the Democratic Party will have a diverse ticket. I think that means for all of those people who were having some Beto-Biden dreams, that may not be the case.</s>BALDWIN: Yet. We will see. Bakari Sellers, 600 days to go. Anything is possible. Thank you.</s>SELLERS: It's only 600 days, Brooke, only 600 days.</s>BALDWIN: Only 600, not that anyone's counting right here. Bakari, thank you.</s>SELLERS: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Right now, the flight data recorders from the deadly Ethiopian Air crash are in France for analysis, this as all of the Boeing MAX 8 and MAX 9 jets remain grounded. I will get reaction from the head of a pilots union about whether that was done quickly enough. And we reported the Senate blocked the president's emergency declaration just a bit ago, with those 12 Republican senators voting against him. Well, his first response is one single, solitary word. Have ever seen this from the president? One word, veto, via tweet, of course. It would be the first veto of his presidency. Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro, who authored the resolution to terminate the declaration, is urging the House to hold a vote to override the aforementioned veto -- more on that ahead.