PBS NEWSHOUR: New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart join Geoff Bennett to discuss the week in politics, including the clash between President Trump and Elon Musk, Trump’s latest comments about Putin’s war in Ukraine and the Democrats’ big problem and how to fix it.

GEOFF BENNETT, PBS NEWSHOUR: As we wind up our conversation, I want to talk, David, about your column this week, because you write about the Democrats’ big problem, as you see it, you say they don’t understand that the Trump revolution has upended the whole political order and that Democrats need to rethink their entire world view. How existential an issue is this for the Democrats as you see it? DAVID BROOKS, NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, I have just – all my Democratic friends are mad at the party leadership. We need a message. We need a policy. But, to me, that’s too small. Sometimes, historical epochs change. And parties have to change to deal with it. In 1932, when FDR started the New Deal, that changed the historical epoch. And the Republican Party spent 20 years ignoring that fact and losing, until Dwight Eisenhower came along and said, I accept the New Deal, we’re going to move on. And, to me, we’re in that kind of historical pivot. It started sometime in the 2010s. Global populism was on the rise. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say, we’re in decline. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say, elites don’t get us. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say, experts don’t care about people like me. This is a populist epoch. And there’s a left-wing version and a right-wing version. But if the Democrats continue along the Clinton-Obama-Biden road, that’s just not up to the moment. And so I think it takes a big rethinking, a new identity, a new grand narrative, a new definition of what the biggest problem in the world right now is. And those are all beyond the scope of working politicians who are trying to fund-raise. BENNETT: A big rethinking. I mean, meantime, Democrats have launched a $ 20 million initiative to figure out – as you put your head down lamenting – $ 20 million to figure out how to talk to young men, the kinds of young men who broke for Donald Trump in the last election. Is that money well spent? JONATHAN CAPEHART, WASHINGTON POST: No, it is not money well spent. [LAUGHTER] You don’t need a think tank to figure out how to talk to young men. Just go talk to young men. I look at – before I get into that, one, I stand by what I have said on the show many times. The Democrats don’t have a message problem. The Democrats don’t have a narrative problem. The Democrats don’t have a policy problem. I think what the problem that they have is what David pointed out in your column. They haven’t quite figured out how to turn all of that and have it meet the moment that we’re in. Democrats are still looking for a savior. They’re looking for that one person to bring them back to the promised land, instead of focusing on where we are right now and making sure that these constituencies understand that Democrats get what they want to do. And I keep thinking about the candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Iowa. His name is Nathan Sage. When you look at his launch video, you would swear, you look at the guy, he must be MAGA. You listen to his tone, it’s aggressive, it’s focused, it’s clear. He must be MAGA, but he’s not. He is a Democrat with a capital D and he’s talking like a real person. If – the people who are putting that $ 20 million into this dumb think tank, how about taking a look at people like Nathan Sage and other Democrats around the country who have gotten the message that they need to talk like real people about real issues and talk about what they’re going to do about it? That’s already in the Democratic playbook. That’s what they need to be doing.

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