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For our series Three Meals, Major Garrett traveled to three cities in Texas to talk to voters over breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In Texas, impeachment came up frequently; overall, most voters were fatigued by it all. But those paying close attention defied party stereotypes.

Garrett started in a diverse area outside of Houston with eggs, hash browns and pancakes at the Avalon Diner in Stafford.

"The economy is going really well," said dentist Scott Benoit. "I think overall we're safe as a country. Everything's going pretty well."

The "Now Hiring" sign outside backs that up; the Avalon's owner told us she's lost workers to better jobs elsewhere.

Benoit did not vote for Mr. Trump in 2016, but will this year. His wife Jeannine, a speech therapist, was with the president from the beginning. "I just have more conservative values, so I tend to go more with that person," she said.

Just across from Scott and Jeannine, Garrett met Bernard and Sharon Maynore. Both work in health care. Bernard said, "I feel mystified when I'm listening to what Donald Trump has to say."

Garrett asked, "How frequently now, or during the Trump presidency, have you found yourself shaking your head?"

"Every day," Sharon replied. " My co-workers said that we needed a change, they wanted to make America great again. I'm wondering, do those same people, do they think that he has made American great again?"

Then it was on to lunch in conservative Midland, a boom town in West Texas, where oil and natural gas production runs around the clock

At Mac's Bar-B-Q, a local favorite, the brisket is slow-cooked out back for 18 hours. Customers start arriving for lunch around 11.

Kyle Davis, his brother Jake, and their business partner Tom Hull run a construction and drilling company. Kyle and Jake support President Trump and expect him to be re-elected.

"I don't like all the nonsense that comes with him," Kyle said. "But yeah, his policy has been spot-on."

Jake added, "I really don't want another Obama. I kind of feel like he divided our country."

Garrett asked both about impeachment. Kyle's answer surprised him: "Was it an impeachable offense? Yeah, it sounds like it probably was," he said.

Jake took the long view: "I'm sure at some point every president could have been impeached."

Tom Hull calls himself a New England Republican and considers Mr. Trump a failure. "The economy's been propped up with record levels of deficit spending," he said. "And he picks fights that he doesn't know how to get out of."

Garrett also met Alison Loera, Laura Ortega and Jennifer Reyes. Loera works in insurance; Ortega and Reyes are data specialists for drilling companies.

They criticized the president for his comments about the Hispanic community. Loera said, "We feel targeted."

Garrett asked, "Do you feel lumped in or somehow demonized?"

"In a way, I guess," Loera replied.

Reyes said, "Comments like that shouldn't be made by someone with that much power and authority."

Dinner took Garrett to The Flying Saucer pub in Garland, a politically-moderate area northeast of Dallas.

"I voted for Trump," said Rita Dusek. "I did, because I thought we need somebody who's not a politician. But that didn't seem to work out," she laughed.

Garrett asked, "Will you vote for him again?"

"No," she said.

Her husband, Al, a registered Republican, said, "I did not vote for him. I don't like extremism on either side."

Just across the way Garrett met David Lindsay, who owns a construction firm. "The economy has probably been the best since I've owned the company," he said.

"Do you give anyone in the political world credit for that?" asked Garrett.

"I will solidly give the president credit for doing it," said Lindsey.

The president's volatile style was raised: "Do you ever wish he would tone it down?" asked Garrett.

"Oh, yeah, I think somebody should hide his cellphone on him," Lindsey said.

Blake Hammerton and Daniel Torres both opposed Mr. Trump in 2016, and will vote in the March 3 Texas Democratic primary.

"I have very, very strong feeling: the young vote will come out this year," Torres said.

Garrett asked, "When you think about the Democrats, what are your thoughts?"

"Stop making everything a battle to the end," Hammerton said. "The Democrats are exhausting themselves and exhausting the public."

Sounds like they're exhausting you? "Yes!" he said.

Garrett said of his excursion that, among Democrats, he did not find hard-core supporters of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden. "Flat line across the board, Texas Democrats are waiting for Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada to sort this out," he said. "Democrats said they were keeping an open mind for Texas' 'Super Tuesday' primary."

One person they were keeping in mind, because he's on TV so frequently in Texas, is Mike Bloomberg, he added, noting the billionaire's strategy of creating an impression with voters via paid ads while his opponents fighting it out in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere have yet to make an impression in the Lone Star State.

Garrett asked everyone if they had seen or remembered a Bloomberg TV ad. All but two had. Trump supporters said they thought Bloomberg might give the president the toughest challenge.

"One other thing: when we asked people what they thought about the November election, they said two words: anticipation, and dread."

Other entries in our "Three Meals" series:

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Democrats and Republicans across the Lone Star State defy party stereotypes, as they talk about a stronger economy, and a president's divisive...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers wont be in his office on Tuesday when Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to give a speech just a few feet away in the rotunda of the state Capitol, possibly the first visit by a sitting vice president or president in the buildings 103-year history.

Pence is scheduled to give a speech at an event celebrating Wisconsins school choice program. It is on the same floor and just around the corner from Evers office. The governor said he welcomes Pence to the state but that he wont be around to personally greet him. Evers did not say where he would be and his spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email asking about his schedule.

When asked about the event Monday, Evers said he hoped someone would ask Pence if he agrees with Sonny Perdue, Trumps agriculture secretary, who suggested during a visit to Madison in October that Wisconsins small dairy farms need to get bigger in order to survive. Democrats have latched onto the comments in an attempt to portray Trump as being out of touch and uncaring about the plight of Wisconsins struggling dairy industry.

Wisconsin is a key swing state in the presidential race this year. President Donald Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016, becoming the first Republican since 1984 to carry the state. Trump came to Milwaukee two weeks ago for a rally, just a couple blocks away from where Democrats will hold their national convention in July, and now Pence is coming to Madison.

The Capitol in Madison, perched on a hill with its granite dome just three feet and one-half inch shorter than the nations Capitol in Washington D.C., is frequently used as the backdrop for political rallies both large and small. But it appears no president or vice president has ever gone inside, at least officially.

Capitol Police and the Wisconsin Historical Society said they have no records indicating any prior visits by a sitting president or vice president. The Historical Societys photo library has an image from when then-Vice President Richard Nixon spoke on the lawn of the Capitol in 1958, an event that appeared to have attracted about 3,000 people. It had no images of visits inside the building by Nixon or any other past presidents or vice presidents.

Madison, also home to the University of Wisconsins main campus, is a reliably liberal city that more often plays host to Democratic candidates looking to show the strength of their support. For example, then-President Barack Obama came to the shadow of the Capitol for a rally with Bruce Springsteen the night before the election in 2012, an event that drew nearly 20,000 people.

Pences visit is an official event, not a campaign rally. School Choice Wisconsin, which is organizing the event, expects at least 1,000 people to attend, many of them school children. Building capacity for the Capitol is 4,000. While public access will be restricted, the Capitol will not be shut down on Tuesday.

Even though concealed weapons arent permitted in the Capitol, no one will be allowed in on Tuesday with a concealed weapon. Capitol Police notified building employees that if they typically store a weapon in their office or work space, they cant bring them out on Tuesday until after the end of the Pence event.

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Democratic Gov. Evers won't be in Capitol for Pence visit - WSAW

The following is satirical.

President Trump sent out a tweet today wishing America a Good Morning.

At CNN, Brian Stelter led a panel discussion on the fascist undertones of the tweet. Addressing the CNN audience as the audience ran to catch his flight to Duluth, Stelter said, Trump is clearly blowing a dog whistle to the white supremacists at Fox News who deceptively allow openly conservative hosts to express openly conservative opinions unlike our fair-minded journalists who spread left-wing propaganda we call news.

Stelters guest, unindicted co-conspirator John Brennan, spoke from the shadows with a disguised voice, saying, Its egregiously insidious at this nefarious confluence of flagrantly imperious disputacious peregrinations to expostulate duplicitous expressions of benevolent ante meridianism. Brennan then slipped off into the darkness to avoid arrest.

At The New York Times, a former newspaper, a front page analysis denounced Trumps Good Morning Tweet, asking, Is it really a good morning for black and brown people? Or is that just the self-satisfied voice of whiteness speaking in recognizably male tones meant to send a chill of fear into the heart of every non-binary person trying to establish his-slash-her identity in a nation founded on the flagrant oppression of gender expression, unlike the peaceful tribes of Futa Jaloo where any man can declare himself a female in a moving ceremony of acceptance just before shes sacrificed to Baal.

On reading Trumps Good Morning Tweet, Democrats in the House opened a new impeachment investigation with Nancy Pelosi wearing a military dress uniform with enormous epaulets while declaiming the Pledge of Allegiance until her personal assistant dropped the cue cards and she couldnt remember the rest of it. In a 17-hour speech in the capitol Mens Room, Adam Schiff declared that if the president is allowed to wish people good morning without an intra-agency consensus, he is no better than a king.

NBCs Chuck Todd was so moved by the speech he shook Schiffs hand and then later remarked, Hey. Wheres my watch?

Related:Trump Unloads On Bolton Over New Ukraine Claims

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Democrats Call For New Investigation After Trump Tweets 'Good Morning.' [Satire] - The Daily Wire

President Donald Trump looks on during a campaign rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, December 18, 2019.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Now that we're just a few weeks away from the Iowa caucuses and the real start to the 2020 voting process, there are still three basic facts the Democrats need to accept if they hope to have any chance to win the White House.

If you are a Democrat reading this, I warn you that this isn't going to be easy. But no pain, no gain. So here goes:

Let's start with what is still the toughest pill to swallow for Democrats: Trump won the White House fair and square.

The two-plus years of laser focus and high hopes connected to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation were the clearest examples that all too many Democrats believe the only reason Donald Trump is president is because the Russians somehow helped him cheat. Even the release of the Mueller Report showing no direct evidence of that hasn't stopped this narrative from continuing to be promoted regularly.

But let's face it, this is a very good way for the Democrats to lose to Trump again in 2020. Just like in sports, the worst way to overcome a loss in politics is to go around believing you didn't "really" lose and no real improvements or changes need to be made by your team to win next time.

Now just imagine if the Democrats spent as much time and effort on winning back the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin as they have been in pursuing the Russia collusion obsession and the impeachment process. If the latest polls in those states tell us anything, those other efforts have only made things worse for the anti-Trump forces. It's time to cut bait on the stolen election illusion.

Whether they deserve it or not, Democrats have consistently been viewed by most American voters as the party that is more concerned with the poor and lower middle-income earners in this country. In many ways, that's been a golden ticket to victory for Democrats in almost every major election. They only seem to mess it up when a Democratic administration presides over a worsening economy, (like under Jimmy Carter in 1980), or when Democratic candidates latch on to non-economic themes like social issues or foreign policy.

The problem for Democrats now is not only the fact that the overall economy and Wall Street are strong, but even Americans further down the income scale are now experiencing record wage gains. In fact, new data shows that the labor market has become so tight that rank-and-file workers are now getting bigger percentage raises than the bosses and top management.

But all is not lost for Democrats when it comes to economics, thanks to the sticky issue of health care. As health care insurance costs continue to rise, voters from both parties are still ranking health care very high on their list of top concerns going into 2020.

Some of the Democratic presidential candidates have made 'Medicare for All' a key part of their campaign promises. But compare that to the way then-candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton actively paraded their health coverage plans around in 2008, and you can see how no Democrat has really mined this issue properly this time around.

This issue is simply not going away, and any Democrat willing to offer an attention-grabbing new idea on lowering insurance costs stands to gain substantially in the polls. Of course, that opportunity is also still available for President Trump. So the Democrats don't have any time to waste.

Even mediocre students of American history should know that politics in this country have always been nasty. If you don't believe that, do a little reading about the election of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

But the nastiness has really only been effective when it's directed at opposing candidates or parties. One of the rules just about every major American politician has followed is to never actually go after the opposing candidate's or party's voters. It's an important distinction.

More and more these days, that rule is being broken and it's mostly being broken by Democrats. The most egregious example from 2016 was Hillary Clinton's description of Trump voters as a "basket of deplorables," a term those Trump supporters have since taken on as a badge of honor.

But in another example of not learning from 2016's mistakes, we're still seeing 2020 Democrats and their supporters following this line. That includes the Democrat with perhaps the best "nice guy" persona, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who recently said Trump voters are "at best, looking the other way on racism"when asked by a cable news host if casting a vote for Trump could be considered a "racist act."

So far, Buttigieg's comments are the most egregious slam on Trump voters from an actual candidate. But prominent liberals and Never Trumpers are increasing their attacks lately. Filmmaker Michael Moore said this week that since two out of three white men voted for Trump in 2016, that means two out of three white men in America are "not good people," and "you should be afraid of them." Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather said last month that Trump voters are part of a "cult," a comment that major news media outlets including CNN echoed days later. Never Trumper Republican Jennifer Rubin has recently been pushing the line that Trump voters are poorly educated.

If the DNC has any power to put a lid on these kinds of comments from Democratic candidates and their supporters, it needs to exert that power right now. The "we think you're stupid and we hate and fear you now vote for us" line has never worked because there's no way it can.

The above three points may seem very simple and logical, but anyone who has been watching the Democrats since 2016 knows that this is kind of like an intervention for a stubborn drug addict. Each of the above truths is something many Democrats have been fiercely fighting against for some time.

The irony is, they need to give up that fight to win the contest that should be much more important to them overall.

Jake Novak is a political and economic analyst at Jake Novak News and former CNBC TV producer. You can follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

Excerpt from:
Democrats need to accept these 3 truths to beat Trump in 2020 - CNBC

U.S. President Barack Obama signs the Affordable Health Care for America Act during a ceremony with fellow Democrats in the East Room of the White House March 23, 2010 in Washington, DC.

Win McNamee | Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lost her gavel and regained it in this decade. Obamacare played a major role each time.

In 2010, a voter rebellion against the health-care law helped Republicans wallop Democrats and gain House control. Eight years later, Democrats made GOP efforts to scrap Obamacare the centerpiece of their campaigns and then won back the chamber.

"I'll just tell you that the lesson from all of this is that health-care policy is treacherous politics," said Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican congressman. He won Florida's swing 26th District in 2014 after a campaign in which he promised to repeal Obamacare, then lost his seat to Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in 2018 following a vote to scrap the law.

In the nearly 10 years since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became law in March 2010, it has gone from political anchor to tailwind for Democrats. President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement became one of the defining issues of the decade and shaped recent elections more than just about any other policy issue.

"Backlash to the ruling party's actions on health care were a significant part of both the 2010 and 2018 waves," said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of election forecasting site Sabato's Crystal Ball. He added that resistance to the law also probably helped the GOP in the 2014 midterms, especially after a messy rollout of the insurance exchange website in 2013.

Obamacare sentiment reflects broader trends in American political opinion, Kondik said. Voters often buck the party in power, so the Affordable Care Act was less popular under Obama but gained traction once President Donald Trump took office. Both Democrats and independents started to feel better about Obamacare after Trump entered the White House, driving the increase in popularity, according to monthly Kaiser Family Foundation tracking polls.

Democratic calls to maintain the law particularly its provisions protecting Americans with preexisting medical conditions appeared to resonate with voters when Republicans got a real chance to replace the health system.

"Health care was on the ballot, and health care won," Pelosi told reporters in November 2018 after Democrats flipped House control.

The landmark law better known as Obamacare offered new subsidies for buying plans, barred insurers from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions, allowed states to expand the joint federal and state Medicaid program for low-income Americans and let children stay on their parents' plans until age 26, among other provisions. Last year, 8.5% of the U.S. population was uninsured, down from 13.3% in 2013, before Obamacare fully took effect.

Before the shift, the Affordable Care Act appeared to hurt Democrats politically at the outset as Republicans billed it as a government takeover of health care.

While a plurality of voters approved of the law a month after its passage, sentiment changed before the 2010 midterm elections, according to Kaiser surveys. In October 2010, 44% had an unfavorable view of the law, while 42% saw it favorably.

In the 2010 elections, Democrats lost 63 House seats. Republicans flipped the chamber and kept control until this year. The GOP also gained six Senate seats.

The incumbent president's party almost always loses seats in midterm elections. Even so, Obamacare appeared to propel the Democratic drubbing.

Nearly half or 45% of voters said their 2010 vote was a message of opposition to Obamacare, according to exit polling cited by NBC News in 2014. Only 28% responded that their vote was a message of support for the law.

After Republicans took over the House in 2011, then the Senate in 2015, they tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act dozens of times. The party made opposition to the law a central part of its political messaging for years though Obamacare remained safe as long as its namesake president sat in the Oval Office.

The GOP gained another 13 House and nine Senate seats in the 2014 midterms. Following the election, then-House Speaker John Boehner said resistance to the health-care law drove the results.

"The American people have made it clear: They're not for Obamacare. Ask all those Democrats who lost their elections Tuesday night. A lot of them voted for Obamacare," he said in November 2014.

Exit surveys cited by NBC News suggest the health-care law had a smaller effect in 2014 than it did in 2010. Only 28% of voters said they wanted to express opposition to Obamacare, while 12 percent said they aimed to show support for the law.

When Trump won the White House and the GOP held control of Congress in 2016, Republicans finally got their chance to dismantle Obamacare. While the House passed a repeal bill in 2017, the Senate never could. The GOP fell one vote short in a dramatic late-night vote on a bill to roll back major parts of the ACA.

The Trump administration has managed to dismantle pieces of Obamacare, both through administrative and legislative action. The GOP tax law passed in 2017 to end the individual mandate, a divisive provision that required most Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty.

Public opinion around the law started to shift after Republicans gained control of the White House and Congress and started to propose their own alternatives to Obamacare. For nearly all of the stretch from February 2013 to February 2017, monthly Kaiser polls found a larger share of adults had a favorable view of the law than unfavorable.

But in every month since May 2017, Kaiser has found more adults like the ACA than dislike it. In November, 52% of adults surveyed by Kaiser had a favorable view of Obamacare, versus 41% who had an unfavorable opinion.

Curbelo said opposition to Trump, and his most prominent policy push in trying to unravel Obamacare, helped to drive a rough 2018 election for the GOP.

"A large part of the debacle that was that election, certainly in the House, can be attributed to health care," he said.

The former congressman said he does not regret his vote to pass the American Health Care Act, the House Republican ACA overhaul, even now knowing he lost his seat. Curbelo said the vote "was about keeping [his] word" to repeal and replace Obamacare, which he had promised to do since he first ran for Congress.

At the same time, the top Democrats running for the party's presidential nomination all support Obamacare. They only disagree on how best to improve the system.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., want a "Medicare for All" system to move quickly to insure every American. Former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg want Americans to have the option to buy into public insurance while keeping the private system.

"There is a significant segment on the left who appears to believe the ACA was insufficient, and even the candidates who are more moderate on health care, like Biden and Buttigieg, who want to do more on health care than the ACA did," Kondik said. "So at the very least, there seems to be some broad consensus that a future Democratic president/congressional majority should build on the ACA."

As the popularity of Obamacare and the former president himself have grown, Democrats have become more comfortable tying themselves to the ACA and Obama. In a presidential debate in September, Biden pointed to the fact that Warren said she was with Sanders on health care.

"Well I'm for Barack. I think Obamacare worked," he said.

In releasing his health plan in July, Biden also defended the law passed when he was vice president.

"I understand the appeal of Medicare for All," he said. "But folks supporting it should be clear that it means getting rid of Obamacare, and I'm not for that."

Graphics by CNBC's Nate Rattner

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A decade of Obamacare: How health care went from wrecking to boosting Democrats - CNBC