Good afternoon from New York. I'm Chuck Todd and this is the Chuck Todd cast.

Today the Senate continues its impeachment hearings. We're going to have opening statements

finally getting underway to House impeachment managers essentially with about seven

eight hours per day for the next three days telling their story of what they believe the

president did illegally and why they believe he should be ousted from office. But in the

business what I'm calling this podcast is what we call a little bit of counter programming.

You might remember there's this thing called the Iowa caucuses. They are less than two weeks

away. So we're going all in on Iowa. If you want impeachment news, that's my buddy Kornaki.

He's got a wonderful article to podcast. Go listen to it. If you want Iowa, listen to

this one. My guest Jeff Link. He's doing something unusual this year. He's not working

for a presidential candidate. He's a long time-term democratic strategist in Iowa. And he is

actually fronting a non-profit group that is trying to bring attention to rural America.

It's called focus on rural America. They did some polling. It's the most recent poll that

is out there. Jeff Link knows a lot about first and second choice while that matters.

He believes his poll later in the show. Be joined by Phil Rucker and Carolinick. They're

the authors of the new book that's gotten the president's attention. It's called a very

stable genius. Virtually reported well-sourced book with a lot of new detail about the

president's behavior in office and what those around him did or did not do. But first,

Jeff Link, I think he's a little hesitant probably being so public on here. I think he

thinks his poll is slightly better than Anne Cellsers, but we'll find out. We're going

to find out. Well, Anne gets high grades. There's no doubt about it. That's right. You're

a new student. Good luck. Excellent. Well, Chuck, thanks. It's really good to be with you.

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