Subject: RE: CBS Face the Nation
From: "Crystal, Andy" <[email-masked]>
To: Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 May 2016 09:51:00 -0700

Panel 3: Jennifer Rubin, Russel Moore, Leslie Sanchez, Matt Schlapp

Jennifer, you wrote that this week was the "worst week in the GOP's existence." Why?

Rubin: The GOP is about to come apart and the lines aren't necessarily ideological. Fundamentally, the problem with Trump is not ideological. It is fundamentally an issue of character. They see how he treats women, foreigners, his meanness, his lack of personal self control.

Schlapp: The HRC brigade is going to run on morality and character, which is an awfully tough lane for them. Is he better or worse philosophically than HRC? Trump is clearly, for conservatives, the better choice.

Rubin: He is unfit for the office. He believes we should sprinkle nukes around Europe and the far east. He believes we don't have to stand by the sovereign debt of the US.

Why isn't it fine for Trump to tell Paul Ryan that he got more votes than anyone and now you have to deal with it?

Sanchez: To some extend that is a fair point. Trump's campaign doesn't communicate with the party and doesn't have a real infrastructure.

Where do you think Trump fits in to the culture?

Moore: One of the key aspects of conservatism is to say that character and virtue matters. But now we have a Republican Party that seems ready to surrender the culture wars. You now have conservatives that used to say character matters but now are not willing to say anything when we have this reality TV, moral sewage coming through all over our culture.

Schlapp: there are a lot of Republicans that have grown discouraged on the Republican strategy over those cultural issues. But the fact is there are voters yelling at Washington that they are fed up with them and we need a new direction.

On the Supreme Court -

Rubin: We don't have any idea what kind of justice Trump would support - look at the people he surrounds himself with. He is completely unreliable and unpredictable. It is not simply one seat, there may be others, and do you really trust this man to chose anything? I think it is a completely pipe dream to think he is going to chose conservatives to the Court.

________________________________
From: Crystal, Andy
Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2016 12:27 PM
To: Comm_D
Subject: RE: CBS Face the Nation

Panel 2: Ruth Marcus, Ben Domenech, Amy Walter, and Jonathan Martin

Are we going to have unity by the end of the week after Ryan meets with Trump?

Martin: It's possible but Trump is making it harder on Ryan. Trump is proving he is unable to make the pivot that some of his staff said would happen for the general. He will not change his agenda to satisfy Paul Ryan - the voters said they wanted Trump and their agendas are completely different.

What does the map look like in a general election? Does Trump put new states in play?

Walter: Cook Political has HRC starting with 304 electoral votes. She will be able to cement diversifying states like Virginia, North Carolina, and she can hold on to the rustbelt states. There are not enough white working class voters to win the presidency for Trump.

What do you think about a third party run? Is there anything in that?

Marcus: No, I don't think so. It's good therapy for people in the Republican Party but the practical realities of getting on the ballot just don't make sense. A third party run would also help HRC.

If I am a Republican running in a purple state that Obama won, what am I going to do?

Domenech: they have not really figured out the answer yet. Might argue that they have to be elected as a check to whatever Trump or HRC would do.

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From: Crystal, Andy
Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2016 12:15 PM
To: Comm_D
Subject: CBS Face the Nation

Panel 1: Ruth Marcus, Ben Domenech, Amy Walter, and Jonathan Martin

Where are we this week?

Martin: unless something really crazy happens at the convention, this is now Trump's party.

Paul Ryan is not ready to embrace the nominee of the party but Reince is urging everyone to come together. Is there a genuine break in this party?

Walter: There is a genuine break in this party and it won't look the same in 2017 as it does today. Break in ideology, tone, style that has been brewing for a long time. Trump did not invent it but he walked into a room full of gasoline and threw a match on it.

Marcus: This was an extraordinary week for the Republican Party. Republicans are watching three out of the last four guys they voted for for president saying they cannot support Trump and the fourth looked not too happy saying he would be for the nominee.

Martin: Republicans that have already endorsed Trump have to be feeling a little uneasy about it after the week that Trump just had - with so many Republicans coming out against him.

[shows clip of Trump saying HRC is playing the women card, the women get it better than men do] HRC says she is not going to run a negative campaign against Trump, but he is certainly running one against her.

Walter: She doesn't have to run a negative campaign, she is going to have a lot of people doing it for her.

Marcus: Trump is making his standing with women worse by the day. Crooked Hillary might work but saying she is not qualified and only there because she is a woman is insulting not just to HRC but to woman in general.

Domenech: the real question is whether Trump is even interested in unifying the party.