together. >> garth brooks is automatic. he's a great individual. >> he really is. big, big heart that man. so glad that you joined us. make great memories today. >> "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thanks for being with us. voters give republicans full control of congress, sent prsident obama a blunt message. >> to everyone who voted i want to you know i hear you. >> the talk of getting along is immediately tested by white house plans to take sweeping executive action on immigration. >> you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself. >> it's like raving a red flag in front of a bull. >> after six years of distrust is there any hope for deal making. >> we're going to make him squeal. >> as the 2014 republican wave mean a thing as we shift immediately to the 2016

presidential race? >> frankly, i any yesterday was a repudiation of hillary clinton. >> truth or just wishful thinking? "inside politics," the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters now. welcome to "inside politics" i'm john king. thanks for sharing your surprised morning. with us to share their reporting and insight, julie pace, jonathan martin. the optics as the political consultants like to say were about perfect. president obama and bipartisan leadership "around the table" for a white house lunch on friday complete with the conciliatory words from the host. >> i'm not going judge ideas based on whether they are democratic or republican i'll judge them on whether or not they work. >> looks good. sounds about right. but, pay little or no attention. it is when it comes to the big issues, sadly a charade.

why? because the president is days away from sweeping executive action on immigration despite warnings from john boehner and mitch mcconnell. immigration is likely to become health care. the president came out of the box in 2009. a lot of people said don't do health care first. he did health care first he poisoned the well. democrats are saying that's not fair. that's how republicans took it. when he does this on immigration they have to know that they are going fire up the republican base and make compromise from that point out harder. >> the great irony is the white house chose this timing. they had plans to do this before the election. they decided not to in part because democratic senators asked them not to. they chose to stick this right after the election when they knew there was a good chance republicans would win. there's some merit to what republicans are saying. but they won this election.

and they have to have an opportunity to push forward their agenda and if the president does this you can see everything that they are talking about compromise on other issues completely collapsing. >> they have to know that the white house is part of the calculation to stoke the republicans, to see what happens. the one way the president gets his momentum back is if the republicans overread and overstep. if they start running around impeach him he just did this executive action. >> there are a lot of folks in the republican caucus who do not want this happen and it may start going off in a way that could be helpful to democrats. so there's that as well. that's part of the obama conscience. obama played this before with republicans, wait and see and gave them a chance to do something and they didn't so in some ways he doesn't have a lot of, you know, why would he believe him this time. >> to that point does he have no choice in the sense that the

speakers made clear he's not ready to do this and the senate bill expires at the end of the year and everybody at this table knows this that the latino community is beyond disappointed they are furious at the president. he put it out there and pulled it back time and time again. >> hard to see any bill moving out of the house on immigration given how the house has gotten more conservative, by the way, sort of not wildly told stories of this election but a lot of the new folks coming to the house are pretty hard line, john. the president knows what he's doing on this. this is a long term plight for his legacy with hispanics and immigration but a long term play a lot of folks believe for the party because this is going to lock in the hispanic loyalty to the democratic party, something that this election wasn't terribly important but presidential election hugely important. >> speaking of the party you do start to hear from some democrats over the last day or two people saying, you know

what? let's go back to john boehner and say hey john why don't you have an up or down vote. make that gesture and let john boehner one more time say no i'm not going to vote on immigration. >> the challenge will be the timing of this because the continuing resolution, the government funding expires on december 13th and if the white house moves on something before then it could give republicans more push, more momentum behind putting a rider in that bill and try to block that action and lead to a big confrontation that could once again provoke fears of a government shutdown. >> there wasn't much goodwill in the well to begin with. i assume they will agree at some point maybe next year on infrastructure because of 31 republican governors they love that money. republicans maybe can do business on trade because the republicans are more with it than democrats. on the big stuff we just talked about the immigration issue. if the republicans come to the table they will have a vote on repealing obamacare.

they promised it in the campaign. if they come back later and say let's fix it and change things any goodwill to do that? >> i doubt it. not so much of the senate it's because of the house. look, i think that you could have seen legislation move in the past few years if we had a legislature with just the senate. the fact is we have a house which is a much more conservative body and harder to get much out of there with the exception of some of the -- >> the president doesn't have a good relationship with mitch mcconnell. you had an article about that. can he go to boehner. can he go to boehner -- we failed on repealing let's pass these changes. i can get enough 2016 democrats to come around for these six or eight or four or five. >> if the white house to were get something in exchange for say a medical device tax repeal, something that does have bipartisan support maybe then the white house could get something in exchange, could go

along with it or sign it or where do republicans put it, what kind after bill do they put it in to get something like that done. is it a must pass bill that the about has to sign to keep the government funded. >> what about the dna of the principles here. you have the president, leader mcconnell, speaker boehner. mcconnell and boehner used to be deal makers. do they have a long enough lease given their own caucuses and the president has never liked this kind of thing. any reason to believe the next two years i want to be lbj. >> not only does he not like it he's not very good at it. i think one of the questions will be who he surrounds himself with. the staff looks pretty similar. how much does he bring biden into this. biden could actually be a major player in this. he has a relationship with mcconnell, he has a relationship with boehner and he gets the art of deal making. it's important to remember this is a president that has two years left. he has an eye firmly on his

legacy. >> i would add mcconnell really feels emboldened by his victory. he took tringt. he beat them. he feels very good right now. we'll have 54 senators in his caucus that gives him wiggle room. people like ted cruz want to create problems okay create problems but then can get democratic support as he moves more towards the middle. he seems confident in taking on the right for right now. that could change. >> we have two sets of dynamics. how do republicans deal with their internal politics and the president. >> that's the big problem. one, the president we've seen him go on these charm offenses before and they didn't work. then you have a rauc omous cauc. >> let's say the president tries to cut a deal on entitlements with republicans, thinking about his legacy, then i can see

elizabeth warren as the new ted cruz coming to the floor saying over my dead body. >> not justin senate but house democrats saying the same thing. they would say mr. president you're leaving in 2016. we want to win the house back at some point. if you deny us what will we run on. that's democrats braend butter politically and i think they would be very concerned about losing that issue especially in the house where they want to get the majority back or start building back the majority. >> that's why you haven't heard entitlement reform being mentioned by the white house. >> if we learned anything from this election there's a lot of tension between obama and congressional democrats. there's not a reservoir of good feeling with his own party. >> he's still the de facto leader of the democratic party. loyalty -- remember what happened to george w. bush. let's sit tight. much more to talk about. huge wins but red flags for republicans hoping to take the white house back. should hillary clinton being

happy or worried. politicians say the darnest things. the president, senator and the drink they can't schedule. >> actually, i would enjoy having some kentucky bourbon with mitch mcconnell. i don't know what his preferred drink is. >> will mcconnell grab that drink with the president? he tweeted this picture slash invitation over a year and a half ago. he's still waiting for the president to fill that bar stool.

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. welcome back. no question republicans are celebrating and for good reason. let's look at the map. 31 republican governors now. look at all that red. let's look at senate races. they started the night at 45, now they have 53 if they pick up la in a runoff they will go from 45 to 54 in the senate. the house. look at this. bigger republican majority in the house and a reminder it was a lot more blue when president obama took office. of course republicans are in a greet mood, 2014 was awesome.

that means it will carry over to 2016, right? not so fast. let's take a peek at exit polls. first remember this. mid-term electorate was more white, fewer african-americans and latinos. these numbers likely to go up in a presidential year. also, 51% of women, 49% of men in the mid-term electorate. in a presidential year this number goes up to 53. that helps the democrats. also we had older electorate. this percentage likely shrink in a presidential year. 18 to 29 those voters tend to vote democratic. we'll see what 2016 looks like. even as voters gave republicans all these jobs, look 53% of the voters on tuesday have an unfavorable opinion of the republican party. this was not a love letter. look at these presidential contenders. chris christie he would make a good president. 64% of the voters on tuesday said no. how about rand paul? 60% said no. they don't think rand paul would make a good president.

certainly somebody would get better marks. not rick perry. jeb bush, 59% said no to jeb bush. republicans will like this number. 53% of the voters on this big day said hillary clinton in their view would not make a good president. rand paul he says forget president obama, the election results were a repudiation of her. >> she said to be the front-runner for the nomination of their party so really elections are about who the leadership is in a party and it's about either acsepgt or rejecting those leaders and frankly i think yesterday was a repudiation of hillary clinton. >> jonathan martin, rand paul just tried to throw another punch at hillary clinton. any truth to that? >> he's been doing this for some time now trying to focus attention on hillary clinton. it's less about hillary clinton than it is about his own primary, i think. he's trying to sort of make himself into somebody that cab

real leader and take to it the assumed democratic standard democratic bearer. he'll have some challenges in his own primary. what he's doing here is move the attention from that and say i'll be the first guy out of the gate going after hillary. it's not going to stop a lot of folks on the right. >> nobody has stepped forward to say, okay, this is a repudiation of hillary clinton. on the democratic side to say here's elizabeth warren, okay now i will run or somebody else. even if she has to study these exit polls and learn voters are unhappy with everybody. she has to learn because she's part of the past and she wants to be candidate of the future. it bad for her, good for her, indifferent for her? >> it's not great for her because it shows the party that she, the president who she served, repudiation of his policies and she has to figure out a message she can carry forward in 2016 and that democrats can run on. i think that's what we saw on tuesday that democrats will have a message in this election year. they ran on -- they tried to

make it state by state race and contrast between each of these candidates. they railed against the koch brothers. they talked about the minimum wage. what was the overarching theme. hillary has to worry about that come 2016, what is she running on. >> i do think it makes it very easy for her to come out of the gate and quickly separate herself from president obama. she's not going to get a lot of questions from democrats why she's doing that. this election shows he's unpopular and if a democrat wants to win in 2016 they have to have a different message and act differently than he has. >> i think that's true. also one of the takeaways the old clinton haggic doesn't sure. she can expand the map perhaps she can do well with southern white working voters if you look at the way the democratic brand did in these states among white voters, just completely wiped out among white voters. so can she still make that

argument that she can win in a place like kentucky. >> on the republican side who was helped the most or hurt the most. let's go back to rand paul. he likes to attack hillary clinton. he made some friends the biggest question about him heading into this cycle was the blushment. is he too isolationist like his dad. he cut some ads for the chamber commerce. he helped his senior senator mitch mcconnell win what turned out to be an easy re-election. mcconnell said if rand runs with him big winner? >> a pretty big winner. he helped himself certainly especially mitch mcconnell has a huge fundraising network and that's very important for ran paul and also there are those folks, those hawkish donors in the republican party who are skeptical about his foreign policy views and if somebody like mcconnell can open the door to those people who will open their check books to him can help. >> the question is how strong of an endorsement is it for rand

paul. paper endorsement or calling up donors. >> it's not like mcconnell has a lot of sway with the grassroots. >> the money guys. >> rand paul loves that endorsement with the money guys in private. how about chris christie. listen to him on the radio. some people say he's a bully. he says no, i'm new jersey, i call them like i see them. if people hit me enough i'll hit back. >> you have to listen but you don't have an obligation to be a heavy bag, you know. you got arms and if people want to keep punching you eventually you have to punch back. >> i want to see this in iowa. i just want to see it. >> just regular america outside of new jersey, this sort of blustering yelling at folks who heckle him, just doesn't work. doesn't look very presidential. it doesn't look very statesman like. >> does look authentic. >> the thing about chris christie and scott walker is

both of them through their own campaigns and with christie helping others get elected can really point to electoral success and if you are a republican who has suffered in a blue state, you have suffered through these losses in presidential years you want somebody who shows how to win. >> about success in new jersey. they haven't had a very easy time with credit downgrades. so it's a problem. >> the fact being governor. john kasich, governor of ohio. sit tight. up next our great reporters share some nuggets including ted cruz plan to hone his watchdog skills in 2015.

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let's take a trip around "inside politics" table. julie pace. >> presidents late in the second term immerse themselves in foreign policy and president obama is no exsession. less than a week after the mid-terms he's headed to asia which is the first test whether he's weakened overseas by this election. officials are now increasingly nervous about tremendous sepgs he'll get in champion. there's a newspaper in china that's connected to the government that wrote a story before he left saying that the american public had downgraded the president and was tired of his banality. not exactly the warm welcome they were hoping for. >> just proves the old axiom all politics is global.

>> we just finished 2014 but we'll look at 2016 and the retirement watch and this will have a huge impact on senator mcconnell's ability to keep a republican majority. there are a number of resenators that we'll be looking at very closely on whether or not they decide to run again, people like richard burr of north carolina, dan coates in indiana, there are several others, chuck grassley in iowa, do they run for re-election. if those open seats are there then, of course, democrats have a chance of taking those back. on the democratic side harry reid, 2016, everyone will be waiting for him to make his decision. >> they are all getting memos if you're planning to run go home once in a while and live there. >> what are you saying? >> while john boehner and mitch mcconnell are having lunch with president obama on top of this new era of good feeling ted cruz is still out there and very much going to be sort of accountability enforcer for the base in the senate. i talked to him late election

night on phone and i asked him about whether or not the party should try to back off the repeal of the affordable care act or compromise on immigration. he said emphatically not. he said the only way to keep faith with folks that elected them was to stand by tissues that had done so and he said the biggest two issues for his party this cycle were aren't, repealing obamacare and b, stopping the president's illegal executive action as he called it on immigration. >> the question though is how much time will he be in the senate and how much time will he be in iowa. mitch mcconnell is hoping more of the latter. >> great question. >> a lot of questions about what happens next in terms much democrats and democratic leadership. people focus in some ways on wasserman-schultz. does she stay on? she leads the democratic national convention, committee. it hasn't always been an easy time for her. she has said she wants to serve out her term, it ends in january

of 2017. some ways whether she's close enough to hillary clinton, whether she wants her to stay on. be interesting to see whether or not she's able to stick it out or move on. >> i think not. >> all right. >> there's a lot of heat on her and a lot of people in the party. i'll close with this. put one in the i'll call it take nothing for granted file. republicans have one more race they need to win, that's louisiana. december 6th. bill cassidy is the republican. exit polls shows he's a huge favorite over mary landrieu. the republican national committee is sending 350 staffers to louisiana to help with field operation to get out the vote. that's 350 staffers. all finished with the other campaigns why not. send them down louisiana. food is good. democrats say they will beef up their ground game but we've seen some indications democrats will pull their money out of that race. landrieu's only chance of

winning is ginning up big african-american turn out. will she invite the president down? don't bet on it. thank you for sharing your sunday with us. "state of the union" with candy crowley starts right now. two americans home from north korea. president obama heads to asia. a whole bunch of republicans are coming to the nation's capital. today, riding the ship of state or rearranging the deck chairs. from across the senate aisle republican john thune and democrats tell what it means. >> now it's up to people like me to regain the trust and confidence of the american people. >> three first generation americans, two veterans of the iraq war one the son of a janitor and crossing guard the other only jewish republican