 So, as many of you know, we ended 2019 on a very positive note with Bernie Sanders surging in the polls, having a phenomenal debate performance, and going into 2020, we are already seeing even more encouraging news with regard to Bernie Sanders' position in the polls. Now, I want to talk about a new poll from CBS and YouGov, but before we do that, part of the reason why Bernie Sanders currently is doing so well is because he is able to generate headlines based off of his fundraising, because as many of you know, we haven't talked about this yet, in the fourth quarter of 2019, Bernie Sanders blew everyone else out of the water. He raised a total of $34.5 million, just $11.5 million less than Donald Trump, who is the incumbent president who doesn't have to split donations with other candidates. And this all came from individual small grassroots donors, of course, as you all know, and Buttigieg, Biden, and Warren raised $24.7, $22.7, and $21 million, respectively. And this is all with the help of billionaire donors, or if you're Joe Biden, you know, with the help of a super PAC, and yes, even Elizabeth Warren has billionaire donors. I believe she has six currently. And on top of that, Bernie Sanders hit another milestone. He got all of his donations from 5 million individual donors. No other candidate is anywhere near reaching 5 million individual donors. That is absolutely astonishing. So before we even look at the polls, I want to tell you why this is so important, because Bernie Sanders, by raising all this money, especially through grassroots donors, it gives him staying power that no other candidate has. And even MSNBC of all places acknowledges that this is going to make him a force. Well, Joe, what it means is that Bernie Sanders has absolute staying power in this primary. He will be able to stay in this race as long as he wants to, because this campaign is fueled by those small grassroots donations. That is what any candidate strives for is to have a campaign that is not built on large, significant donors who are maxing out. But on those small $15 to $20 contributions, Bernie Sanders has that. He will be able to stay in the race until the last primary votes, if he wants to, until the last date votes. 5 million unique donations. That is nothing insignificant, especially when you have such a crowded primary. So hats off to Bernie Sanders. I think some big pivotal moments that really worked in his favor were number one, Elizabeth Warren slipping a little bit in the polls around Medicare for All. And then, of course, AOC's endorsement was significant. He solidified his place as the far progressive candidate on the left who can sort of cultivate that large base. He can also bring in some of those younger millennial voters that other candidates have had a difficult time to attract. And I'll tell you, Joe, I've said this many times on this show. I'll say it again. As somebody who worked on Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016, never underestimate Bernie Sanders. He has staying power. He has such a devoted base. And again, you're going to see this guy, I think, continue to do very well as we go through the early states and through Super Tuesday. Now, I am genuinely shocked that they're even giving him credit. But I predicted that there would be a point where he would rise so much that they wouldn't be able to actually not represent the situation correctly. You have to acknowledge if somebody is doing well, especially if they're doing that. Well, like at the beginning of this race, Bernie Sanders was surging and there were few pundits that actually acknowledged him as the front runner prior to when Joe Biden entered the race. But now they're starting to realize that this close to Iowa and New Hampshire, you have to acknowledge that Bernie Sanders is, in fact, a force to be reckoned with. Now, the reason why irrespective of polling, it matters that the media tells people that Bernie Sanders is doing good is because oftentimes in politics, there's this thing known as the bandwagon effect, where if you're a voter who you don't really follow politics very closely and you just kind of make your decision based on whichever way the political winds are blowing, I know people like this. Then oftentimes, if you see that someone is likely to win or gaining, you might just want to support them because everyone else is doing it. Hence why it's called the bandwagon effect. So if people actually see that Bernie Sanders has a chance, then they may just jump on board with Bernie Sanders because they view him as someone who was likely to win. So that's why even if you don't take into account polls, media coverage matters. Acknowledging that Bernie Sanders has raised $34.5 million, that really, really does matter. Now, getting to the poll that is phenomenal, this poll by CBS News and YouGov demonstrates that he is the strongest he's been since Joe Biden entered the race when it comes to early primary states because he is now tied for first place in Iowa with Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg all at 23% each. But we'll get to average polls in a moment because it's even better when you look at his average position. And in New Hampshire, he is now officially in first place at 27%. Now Joe Biden is in a close second with 25%. This is within the margin of error. Elizabeth Warren trails now with 18%. Pete Buttigieg slipped to 13% overall. But I do want to point out something, even though Bernie Sanders is in first and this is really good news, we should celebrate this. We were wrong. Political commentators and indie media were absolutely dead wrong about Joe Biden. Myself included we underestimated his performance. Now, we were absolutely correct about the frequency of gaffes and him making a fool of himself. But what we didn't take into account was whether or not the media would actually hit him for this. And they're kind of giving him a pass. So there's this type of Trumpian effect where Joe Biden will say something stupid, sometimes offensive. He'll call someone fat. He'll say things that are racially insensitive. He'll say things that are just flat out incorrect. And he kind of gets away with it like Donald Trump. So that's one thing that I didn't necessarily predict. So Joe Biden, like it or not, he is a force to be polling that high this late in the game. We can't not take him seriously. We would be fools to downplay the possibility of Joe Biden winning. But with that being said, I don't want to rain on this parade because Bernie Sanders is doing phenomenal. And one really crucial thing to acknowledge is that at this point in time, Bernie Sanders is doing better than he was in 2016. So long story short, we were right about the gaffes, but we were wrong about the impact that they'd have on Joe Biden's campaign. He is in fact a threat. But there's a bit more information that I want to share with you from this poll. So even though Joe Biden is a threat, he has the least enthusiastic base of support in comparison with other front runners. So Bernie Sanders does have the most enthusiastic base of support in Iowa, with 67% of voters enthusiastic about their choice. And the only candidate that even comes close to Bernie Sanders in terms of enthusiasm is Elizabeth Warren with 61%. Now, this is really bad news for Joe Biden, especially in states with caucuses, because enthusiasm is really going to be a key factor in their success here. But he does have electability still going for him. So in the state of Iowa, 38% of voters think that Joe Biden would win against Donald Trump to Sanders 29%. And in the state of New Hampshire, 36% of voters think that he'd win against Trump to Sanders 33%. So there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that voters still I think incorrectly believe that Joe Biden is the most electable. But the good news is that Bernie Sanders is starting to gain here. So based on this information that we have from this poll, we have to hammer away at this electability argument, we have to diminish this I think myth that Joe Biden is the most electable because I think he actually is incredibly vulnerable. I think he's more electable than someone like Pete Buttigieg, but he still would most likely lose to Donald Trump. So progressives and the Bernie Sanders campaign have really got to start to hammer this message home. And I think that we're starting to see that strategy play out because you have the Guardian publish a piece by Nathan J. Robinson, which is phenomenal titled Stop saying Biden is the most electable Trump will run rings around him. Did we learn nothing from 2016 Trump is savagely effective at destroying establishment politicians and Biden would lose. And also in an interview with Los Angeles Times, Bernie Sanders even stressed this as well saying quote, if you are if you're Donald Trump and you got Biden having voted for the war in Iraq, Biden having voted for these terrible in my view trade agreements, Biden having voted for the bankruptcy bill, Trump will eat his lunch. So that is a really important message now to hammer home disputing his electability should be I think our number one priority because if we can dispute this notion that Joe Biden is the most electable, then when you take into account the bandwagon effect that's currently possible, we have the potential to convince Joe Biden supporters why basically clinging to him because they believe he's the most electable to jump ship and go to Bernie Sanders. That's assuming that they don't prioritize policy over everything else. But if they truly believe that Joe Biden is the person they should vote for because he's the most electable, we have an opportunity to win them over. And we're starting to kind of gain some traction with regard to electability and Bernie Sanders chances. We just have to continue to hammer that point home. But at this point in time, we would downplay Joe Biden's chances at our own peril. He is a threat. At this point in time, if you are, you know, a month away from Iowa and New Hampshire, and you're still a front runner, we would be idiotic to not take Joe Biden seriously. So we can't downplay him. However, with that being said, there's still more good news that I want to share with you. So at this point in time, it's January 6th. Bernie Sanders is doing better than he was doing in 2016. And Joe Biden isn't as strong as Hillary Clinton was at this point in time. He is strong, but not as strong as Hillary Clinton. And we almost beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. So let's look at aggregate polling data. So currently, according to real clear politics polling averages, Bernie Sanders is about 10 points behind Joe Biden. But he is currently on the rise. Now at this point in 2016, Hillary Clinton had a 20 point lead on Bernie Sanders. On January 6th, 2016, Hillary Clinton had 20 points on him. That's not the case with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders this time around. Now Bernie Sanders has also taken the lead in Iowa, according to aggregate polling data, although, you know, he is technically in a statistical tie overall with Pete Buttigieg. But at this point in time in 2016, Hillary Clinton had a 12.5 point lead over Bernie Sanders, and she ended up winning in Iowa by only 0.2%, which is technically a statistical tie. In New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders is now officially in the lead and has a four point advantage over Joe Biden, who was in second place. Now at this point in time in 2016, Bernie Sanders only had a 2.5 lead over Hillary Clinton, but ultimately ended up winning that state with 22 points. So there is real potential here. Now some bad news. Biden is currently in the lead in the state of Nevada, and he has a nine point advantage in South Carolina. Biden has an 18.7% advantage, although in California, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are currently in a statistical tie. But in Texas, Joe Biden has a 12 point advantage over Bernie Sanders. And in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren is the one with the advantage she is currently pulling ahead with about six points. So the overall takeaway is that Bernie Sanders is currently surging, and he's doing better now at this point in time in the race than he was doing back in 2016. However, I don't want us to get overly cocky and arrogant. I don't want us to downplay Joe Biden's chances because there is a possibility that he could still become the nominee, which I think would be devastating because I do believe Joe Biden ultimately would lose to Donald Trump because those same people who will come out to vote for Joe Biden, they come out to vote for Bernie Sanders. But the goal and the way that we beat Donald Trump is we get disaffected voters to turn out people who have never voted before young people. We get them to turn out and then we can actually beat Donald Trump. I think that the Democrat, no matter who it is, is probably going to win the popular vote, most likely, right, based on polling now. However, what we need to do is win the Electoral College. That's how we win, and we need someone who can win the Rust Belt. Joe Biden can't do that, having supported the trade deals that Trump will inevitably hammer him for. So I want us to be confident, but cautiously optimistic. And the overall takeaway that I want you to have from this is, okay, we're surging. Let's not just throw our hands up in the air and take a break. No, now is the time to really put your feet on the pedal and go 100% all in for Bernie Sanders because we have to defend what we've managed to achieve. And on top of that, we have to grow our lead still because it's not just good enough to lead and take first place. That's not good enough because understand that pledge delegates are awarded proportionally. So even if Bernie Sanders comes in first place with 27%, well, that Joe Biden really does come in second place in New Hampshire with 25%, they're not that far off in the grand scheme of things. So we have to play a really smart long game and acknowledge that this is a marathon. It's not a sprint. So we have to pace ourselves and acknowledge that these polling numbers are incredibly volatile. So we have to defend what we've managed to accomplish and continue to push harder and harder and make sure that our relatives know that Joe Biden is not the safe bet. He's the gamble. Bernie Sanders is the safe bet. Polling tells us that people in New Hampshire and Iowa still incorrectly believe that Joe Biden is the most electable and safest bet. We have to dispute that notion and we have to do it in a very fierce and passionate way. Otherwise, we may not be able to convince Joe Biden supporters to jump ship and they need to, if they actually do want to be Donald Trump. So overall, this is really great news, but whenever I share this great news with you, I don't want you to become complacent. I want you to be more encouraged to fight even harder because that's the political reality. The establishment isn't just going to let Bernie Sanders win easily. They're going to pull out tricks, possibly they're going to bring out people in the media to smear him and try to stop him. You know, I believe that establishment figures like Obama will try to stop Bernie Sanders. He's hinted that this would be the case. Even though there's been articles saying, no, he'd support whoever's the nominee. Right. But we have to win first and I don't believe they're just going to let him win easily. So this surge, even though it's good news, it does make Bernie Sanders susceptible to attacks from elites, not just from the Democratic Party establishment, but pundits as well. And we have to defend what we've managed to achieve and push harder to grow that lead. And I'll leave that there. Great news.