[Jones:] Welcome back to THE VAN JONES SHOW. You've been hearing from pundits like me and politicians all week about how President Trump's recent attacks have just been awful but how is this actually impacting voters? So I traveled to North Hampton county in Pennsylvania. It's as purple as they come, that county went from Obama Blue twice to Trump red in 2016. It's also the home of a lot of blue collar, steel workers, supposedly Trump's base. But voters there switched back to the Democrats in the 2018 midterm election. So all eyes are on places like this heading into 2020. I sat down with a group of five voters from across the political spectrum to find out how the most recent political controversies and candidates and debates are landing there. Take a look. So the first question I got to ask, show your hands, who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, raise your hands. Two, are you planning to vote for Donald Trump in 2020?
[Kurt Zuhike, Obama-trump Voter:] Well, I haven't made up my mind yet whether to vote for him or not. I am leaning more towards him than I am the other candidates right now. The economic situation for me and my business is going very well. So that you know, economics is a big important issue here.
[Jones:] Yes, and what about you?
[Kevin Martin, Voted For Trump:] Yes, I am. For me, all this kind of this far left talk is kind of scaring me when it comes to the border, decriminalizing illegal immigration.
[Jones:] So let's just adjust to open in a room. You're like a young black dude with tattoos and stuff. Why do you support Donald Trump given some of his racially inflammatory rhetoric?
[Martin:] Yes, well, I think so look, I mean, I was raised in a conservative family and I'm in business, business is great. Like gentleman here said, I don't want to lose that, and I know that you know a lot of the rhetoric that comes out of White House off Twitter is concerning but putting personal feeling aside, I think that we're having a great economic boom.
[Jones:] How do you size up this whole thing where President Trump comes out and says to these women, go back to whatever country came from?
[Frank Behum, Democratic Voter:] It's a man in desperation. He's desperate.
[Jones:] Desperate for what?
[Behum:] To be President. The only person he cares about is himself. Donald Trump has been exposed from his own mouth. He did everything to put out the image and he caters to people who are how would you put it, not quite right it seems. You know, they think it's OK, right? To cause all kinds of problems with the white nationalist problem and things of that nature. They think this is the way it should be in this country.
[Vanessa Williams, Democratic Voter:] Almost everyone has a story of being told go back to your country. And I think that it's kind of like one of the oldest you know, tricks in the book, if you when it comes to phraseology, maybe outside of the N word, that that comes to mind when you're talking about racist language.
[Zuhike:] I've had people tell me want to go back to when you come from. I've had people when I moved to Pennsylvania said you're a New Yorker, why don't you go back to New York where you belong? Well, you know, those are just human emotion remarks that people are frustrated. And they are frustrated. He's frustrated from the very beginning. They have attacked him, his family, his wife, his kids, it's disgusting, it really is.
[Phylis Alexander, Democratic Voter:] Let us go back to values. I value treating people with dignity. I value creating climates and opportunities that allow people and encourage people to reach their fullest capacity. And if there's anything that is incongruent with those values then I'm not for that and so I'm not going to put profit over my values.
[Jones:] Are you putting your profit over your values?
[Alexander:] That would be a yes. That would be a yes.
[Martin:] Look, I think that this go back comment hit a lot of us that support him. It hit a lot of us in the gut and I think that the President is putting a lot of us in a very precarious situation. People that would have supported him. I think the President has a base and he has a far right wing base and there's a lot of white nationalists, a lot of racists, a lot of anti-Semites in that base so what I'm going to do is I'm going to have a PR strategy that is going to rile up the base and so I feel like a lot of us feel like wow, like where do we fit in you know, anymore? Do we are we still welcome in this movement, are we are people of color still welcome. And I'll tell you a lot of my friends that are black conservatives, a lot of them have jumped off the Trump train. They've gone over to Kamala Harris's side. They've got involved in her campaign and also Joe Biden's. And so I think it's up to the President, it's up to the President. Do you really want to have an inclusive campaign? Do you want to have an increasing run? Do you want to have an inclusive administration or don't you?
[Jones:] That's from a Republican. Any of the Democrats running for President that you like it
[Zuhike:] Well, I did like Biden a little bit but then you know, I remember you know when he was in office and hey, you know, he's a nice guy but he really didn't do as much.
[Martin:] And I talk to a lot of my Republican friends and they're just like we like Joe Biden. We like Kamala Harris.
[Jones:] Did that make you happy or sad to hear the joke that Republicans
[Williams:] It doesn't surprise me.
[Jones:] Why not?
[Williams:] It doesn't surprise me. We're in Pennsylvania, right? So we're in Joe Biden country and I think it's because they look there of an era and look like what people think of politician. You know, a certain generational white man.
[Jones:] Who do you like?
[Williams:] I like Kamala Harris. I think you know, you have people like Joe Biden who frankly are bringing in toxic masculinity every every other word when you're talking about talked about hitting him in the mouth and a couple days ago, he said something about doing a push up with contest with them. I'm like who wants to see him doing push ups, I'm sorry, I don't.
[Jones:] Who do you like?
[Alexander:] Elizabeth Warren.
[Jones:] Why Warren?
[Alexander:] I like that she understands finances, money, big banks, big business. I like that she thinks well, has a plan.
[Jones:] So we have Democrats fighting each other in the primary. You got Democrats fighting each other in the House. What do you think about the AOC versus Pelosi dynamic? How do you read that? How do you see that?
[Alexander:] I said go girl. You know let me
[Jones:] To who?
[Alexander:] To AOC. I mean, like absolutely bring it.
[Williams:] I agree with her that she should not have to adapt to a broken system.
[Alexander:] Shake it up. Make it right. They could be bolder. They could be more courageous. They could be more of unapologetic. You know, this is the time where incremental change is not going to get us where we need to be. So folks need
[Jones:] Is she singing your song?
[Behum:] She is singing my song and those four women are the best thing ever to happen to the Democratic party. I don't care what anybody says. They have to put the rest of the people, their feet in the fire.
[Alexander:] The status quo will get us nowhere.
[Behum:] Get with the program.
[Alexander:] It will continue to benefit who's benefiting and it will continue to marginalized, who's marginalized.
[Jones:] Are you are you happy to hear the Democrats going this far left?
[Alexander:] I'm not going left.
[Zuhike:] That's why I think Trump will win.
[Alexander:] No, I'm not going left. I'm not talking left.
[Zuhike:] Well, that is left, that's socialism.
[Jones:] Why you say it's socialist?
[Zuhike:] Because that's all they want to do is they want to be the provider to everybody. They want to tell you what to do, what to eat, when to eat, how to eat. They just want to build more rules and regulations.
[Williams:] So I think one of the things that they they really figured out how to command media attention, how to do talking points, how to rally the beast and I think you know, kind of channeling into the real anger and honestly that's out there. The Democratic Party is this big giant tent with dysfunctional family and it's always been that way. You know so obviously there's going to be natural clashes in that but that's government, that's how it works.
[Jones:] You know it's always great to have discussion with real voters. Up next, we're going to get more insight from Governors of two swing states. The Democrats in states that Trump actually won. What do the 2020 need to do to turn their states blue. We're going to talk to them about that when we get back.