without other stores. you can't swim alone. so, what's next? all right, thanks for getting up with us this morning. we have a lot to talk about at the end of a week that brought us a seat change of power in the senate. more details emerging this morning on what each party intends to do and whether they'll be able to accomplish it. president obama is on his way to asia at this hour. he arrives today on a tour that will take him to three countries on a nine-day trip. also this morning, a diplomatic win for the administration. two americans released from captivity in north korea are now back in the united states. we'll have more on that in just a minute.

but, first this hour, recriminations for both parties in the wake of the midterm elections this week. incoming majority leader and senate leader mitch mcconnell has said all the right thing about working with democrats without getting things done across the aisle with a new session. right on cue signs that his own party might not let him. >> the american people have changed the senate. so, i think we have an obligation to change the behavior of the senate and to begin to function, again. >> that was mitch mcconnell on wen, but "new york times" reports that tea party conservatives were baffled by those remarks. they fear mcconnell is playing it too safe and too nice with the white house. they want to use the threat of a government shutdown as the ultimate leverage and want to dismantle the affordable care act. the stress is also showing for the democrats with the announcements yesterday that the party is planning an extensive review of what went wrong in the last two mid-term elections.

they are calling it a top to bottom assessment and self-autopsy that famously commissioned for his party after mitt romney's 2012 defeat. we have with us our panel this morning, ed rendell and formama turkal. so, this "times" story that we're talking about the tea party reaction to how mitch mcconnell reacted to the election is interesting to me. the republican leadership for mcconnell now seems to be sending this signal, hey, we might have a revote on obama care repeal. we don't actually think that is going to happen and we want it move on to other stuff pretty quickly and now hearing the sounds from the tea party. wait, no, we have this power and we want to use it for an all-out war on obama care. who wins that fight? >> i think, like you said, sort of right on cue that they

started objecting immediately and a peace in the "daily collar" was sort of an interesting note about this. boehner and mcconnell announced their agenda behind the pay wall of "wall street journal" which angered a lot of activists. what mcconnell was announcing. let's move forward on trade. these are things the business community wants. i think boehner and mcconnell will push forward so they can show they will govern and not simply hold up everything. at the same time, a lot of criticism from their base and a lot of pushback. >> the base of the republican party, katie, is that if you just talk to the base and say, what is the number one thing you would like them to do. forget about what's possible, it is repeal obama care. >> certainly, it's something that they heard a lot on the campaign trail from supporters. mitch mcconnell and a lot of the other folks you are hearing from, he was on the campaign trail this fall and he heard

from voters and beyond what the base wants. we want washington to function. we want the parties to come together. the tone that president obama struck right after the election which was defiant and indicated he planned to go it alone is in contrast with what voters are looking for. mitch mcconnell is trying to communicate that we as americans are not striking this tone. we want to govern and move america forward. >> governor, that's the sort of mixed signaling here that confuses me. i hear the republican argument that the president, especially when it comes to immigration and we can talk about immigration later, but the idea, oh, if the president goes ahead and acts alone on this, it's against the spirit of the election. if they come out of the gate with obama gate repeal, again. that's the same thing, isn't it? >> little bit of a case of be careful what you wish for. now that they got control of both houses of congress, i think mitch mcconnell is right. they have to show the american

people they can do something. they can't send the president pieces of legislation that they know. they can't send him unreasonable legislation. people may not like the affordable care act, but they don't want it repealed. they want it changed and they want it modified and every poll shows that. if you can repeal it, the president will veto it, but 9.5 million people who have health care will lose health care. do you want those 9.5 people furious, adamant about going to the polls november 2016. i don't think so. so, the question is, is there a republican party that wants to govern that wants to do some good for the country. heaven forbid we focus on what's good for the country. put itself in a position for 2016 or a republican party that's going to fall on the sword to ideological warfare and turn off the american people? now, mcconnell has it a little easier than boehner. boehner has, for the most part,

held to the hasert rule. prevent passage of reasonable legislation. you could fashion an immigration bill, not as, i don't think the senate bill was all that liberal, but not as liberal as the senate bill. but a bill that most democrats could vote for. could you get it to the floor because the tea party in the house has more than half of the caucus and they could stop it from going to the poll. >> that's the question we could talk about immigration a little bit because that is the immediate question now in washington post-election is the president has basically said, look, the current congress. the sort of the lame duck congress and you have until the end of the year to ablth act o bill to pass the senate and, otherwise, i will. is there, i mean, katie, looking at, this is a bill that passed with significant republican support in the senate. if everybody tells me if it was on the floor in the house a number of republicans would vote yes to pass it.

any way you can see as a republican this bill, this senate bill getting through the house in this lame duck session? >> probably not. >> so what is the -- >> sort of a false offer the president is making. take a bill you don't like or i'm going to do something you don't like. whichever you do, you end up with something that -- >> i guess the thing that i hear is that there are a number of republicans who do like it, who do want to vote for it and get it passed, but it can't get to the floor and can't get for a vote. if this thing is actually on the floor. it's not a party line vote and it goes down. basically every democrat votes for it and half the republicans vote for it, too. >> that's the way the process works. they have to win over the hearts and minds of people who have been elected to represent constituents and that's the way the process works. but as a president, you can't just decide that you're going to ignore a whole branch of congress. that's the way our constitution set our government up and you just can't ignore that. you have to work with the process that you've got and if changes need to be made, changes need to be made. but that's the reality.

>> i think republicans will have a tough time getting anything through if they sort of stick to that rule, because they're still not going to have the 60 votes in the senate. in order to get things through the senate, they'll have to find some democrats. some of the more moderate democrats like mark pryor and we don't know about mary landrieu now. you're having a more conservative caucus and a more progressive caucus. if republicans want to get things even to proesident obamas desk, they have to find cooperation. >> an issue like immigration. the bill that passed the senate is ridiculously tough on border security. a lot of border security built into there. >> tough on the road to citizenship. >> it is a 13-year path with fines and checkpoints built in. if that right now cannot get through, do you see a compromise that would get through to immigration. >> it wouldn't pass the house, but there was a bill right

before the children smuggling in june. a bill that boehner thought he had the votes for. that bill was crafted by republicans in the house. it's probably a bill that democrats in the house and the senate could support. that's the bill they should send to the senate and send to the president. i think the president would sign it. it wouldn't get 100% of the democrat votes, but get a number of democrat votes. look, immigration reform, this is something i know about because eight years as governor. both sides will never get 100% of what they want. so, democrats are not going to get the best and fastest road to citizenship. republicans are, you have to concede there is going to have to be some avenue. maybe in two steps where people can get a road to citizenship. the other issues, the issues about high-tech workers and agricultural workers, those are relatively easy. border security, e-verify relatively easy to do. both sides have got to swallow a

little bit. the question is, can the tea party do that or more importantly, will boehner just put it on the floor for a vote? >> and risk -- >> now, the president has been criticized for saying, i'll sign it, but, guys, it's only an executive order and superseded by legislation. the senate bill went over 1.5 years ago and house hasn't acted. so, for him to do what he's doing and say, send me a bill in march, if it's a good bill, i'll sign it. the executive order goes away. it shouldn't produce all that gut wrenching on the republican side. >> yet, i have a feeling it will. we'll be back after this break. another aspect of the midterms in a little bit. first, learning more about the two americans released from captivity in north korea. they landed at an air force base in washington state late last night. a secret mission undertaken by james miller. they were serving hard labor sentences in north korea.

bae was arrested for leading a tour group in the north korea economic zone and miller was convicted on an espionage charge. nbc's perry bacon jr. joins us now from the north lawn from the white house. what can you tell us about this, sort of a surprising, but good development overnight, obviously. >> it was. this was an unusual trip, steve. the u.s. sent people abroad to north korea to get americans back and get them released. but in the past, usually former presidents like former president carter or former president clinton. this trip was nuls because you had the acting director of intelligence go over and do that. he came with a message, a letter from the president, you know, the president asking to have these two people released. what the government has emphasized is nothing has changed between these two countries. the u.s. is still concerned with the nuclear program with north korea, this is not a quid pro quo. but obama approved this mission personally last week and some.

>> perry bacon jr., i think making his debut from the white house lawn this morning. he will be back for an encore next hour. thanks for the information, perry. be right back with another important aspect of the midterms to talk about. that is the gender gap. maybe did it go off the table this election and out of the playbook? it was a factor in a way in tuesday's results. we'll tell you about it. (receptionist) gunderman group. gunderman group is growing. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups. they got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies. like smart pick ups. they'll only show up when you print a label and it's automatic. we save time and money. time? money? time and money. awesome. awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! (all) awesome! i love logistics.

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there's a profile in "l.a. times" looking at how jodi ernst basically rewrote the playbook for women running for office as a republican this year. she didn't run on her gender but very successfully pivoted to

things that made her seem tough and independent. soldier, motorcycle rider and you're familiar with the list at this point. the success of so many other republicans this week does praise the question. what happened to the war on women? in colorado, mark udall's ad saying that cory gardner would take women backwards and seem to fall flat. in arkansas, mark pryor ended up getting crushed by cotton. the reverse gender gap seems to be coming into focus a little bit showing republicans with a huge lead, even bigger than usual among women voters but women split between the parties. not as much of a gap there certainly as democrats were hoping for. is the war on women that was so successful for democrats as a strategy in 2012 not quite the automatic winner that they thought it was. i was one example of this, but colorado is the one that jumps out at me so much because you had that debate where the

moderator asked mark udall and "denver post" refused to endorse him that he ran a an obnoxious campaign. it is going to happen again in 2014 and didn't materialize this time. >> i think it was a cautionary tale for democrats moving forward. they had run successfully on that messaging and, really, doubled and tripled down on that messaging in most of their competitive races. and i think what you saw in colorado, for example, was a place where they were solely focused on women's reproductive issues and trying to paint cory gardner as this caveman republican. when voters saw cory, that's not what they saw. at odds on what they were seeing for themselves and not only did it not work with women but we saw independent men rejecting this and a time that we're confronted with really significant security issues are the only things we're going to hear about this campaign are

birth control and abortion and, so, you did see a huge gender gap with men and you didn't see women sort of getting revved up on the issue. >> two pieces there. amanda, on one of them, i wonder, the point katie is making there and i heard others say this more explicitly. the difference between cory gardner winning in colorado and somebody like ken buck or tod aiken is on paper, just in terms of their positions, you're not going to find a lot of daylight there. cory gardner didn't say anything way out there about rape and make far out there easy to characterize and attack comments. is that the difference between the women war on strategy working and not working? >> i think it's a part of it. republicans are a lot smarter and they went up and questioned their candidates and how are you going to respond about rape when someone asks. you they are more prepared for that. they didn't go out there and proactively talk about these issues which meant there were fewer gaps. a person who had measures who were on the ballot were rejected and then the candidates that democrats were trying to defeat

ended up, ended up making it through. but, you know, i don't think this issue is something that necessarily should be dropped altogether. mitch mcconnell said he is open to bringing up the 20-week abortion ban pretty soon after he takes over as majority leader. this will come up, but should not have been the only yish. mark udall is on social intelligen intelligence. >> he could have distanced himself from president obama. an issue that he's a leader on in congress and i don't think that was a smart strategy. >> governor rendell, it really is striking when you look at this. democrats were so focused on the big margins they got with women, particularly single women in 2012 and trying to replicate that in 2014. as katie is saying, on the flip side of it, they lost a lot of ground among men in this election. >> number one, not wacko candidates out there. we need wacko candidates badly. that's number one.

number two, the women issue is not just about reproductive rights, it's about equal pay and education and childhood. those are things we should have focused on. second, women are not single issue voters any more than gun owners are single issue voters. you have to appeal on a far broader and we just ran a lousy campaign, we didn't nationalize it and sorry, steve, your question was -- >> in terms of it, it seems like it triggered a backlash among men. not just the failure to get women out in those numbers but also losing ground among men. >> the great irony, we got clobbered among white working class men. blue collar men. many of whom are laid off, unemployment has run out. we want to extend their unemployment and the republican party generally is against it. we want to raise the minimum wage, which would have an effect of raising wages up the ladder and republican party is against it. we're for worker safety. the irony is on issue after issue and you made a great

point, a person who got voted down. minimum wage got voted up. candidates who were against minimum wage got elected. so, obviously, our problem is not the things that we stand for, the american people on every exit poll agree with us more more than they do with the republicans. but it's the way we message this campaign and the republicans did a great job. an excellent job. but the way we message. you have to give the voters, you can't insult their intelligence. you can't run on a single issue. >> if you're in colorado and you were sitting and watching tv throughout the day and you were a working class voter, the only thing you heard from mark udall is reproductive issues. you can't blame them for rejecting that at the end of the day. >> if you looked at udall's record, six years in the senate is kind of baffling. in a year you want to distance yourself from obama, he could have done that in compelling ways. one of the cases it seems to me

almost like the consultant class in politics being too smart for themselves. they saw some that worked in 2012 and they just got addicted to it. now there was a lesson in colorado in 2010. >> if you're a candidate, you have the last day. i rejected a lot of ads that my consultants wanted to run. >> you're right -- >> he's a great guy. >> certainly has responsibility, as well. the bluest of blue states. the big blue wall, they call it the reddest of red state the not quite big red wall. we're going over to the big board to show you, that's next. you know how fast you were going? about 55. where you headed at such an appropriate speed? across the country to enhance the nation's most reliable 4g lte network. how's it working for ya? better than ever. how'd you do it? added cell sites. increased capacity. and your point is... so you can download music, games, and directions for the road when you need them. who's this guy? oh that's charlie. you ever put pepper spray on your burrito?

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that red state/blue state map we know so well. any big changes as we head into the next big election in 2016. we wanted to look closer at the longer term implications of what happened on tuesday. we will do that with our friend here, the big board. what we'll start with here, the democrats blue wall. what you're seeing here is a total of 18 states plus the district of columbia. every single one of these states have voted for democratic presidential candidates for six stralt straight elections. takes you back to 1992. every one of the states has gone blue in each of the elections. the good news for democrats. if you look at the senate races, all the gains the republicans made in the senate, didn't come in the blue wall state the only thing susan collins, republican from maine, she got re-elected and that was no surprise. blue state nationally beyond that. the rest of the states, democratic senators were up and democratic senators survived. the warning sign is that at the

gubernatorial level, that is not the button i was meaning to press there. you would have thought i would know this thing. scott walker held on in wisconsin and schneider held on in michigan. in maryland, a republican governor got re-elected. so, when it comes to governors, republicans did very well in the blue wall states. the question is, does that translate into an advantage, a new advantage for republicans or a new opportunity for republicans when it comes to the presidential race? the good news for democrats there, we haven't seen much evidence yet that when you win a governorship it necessarily translates into a state changing at the national level. a governor's race and a race for president and a race for senate. that kind of thing. let's move on and i gave you a sneak preview a second ago. the democrats have the big blue wall, the republicans have their own red wall. now, it's only worth 102

electoral votes. it's smaller to start with. these are states that republicans have carried presidential going back to 1992. not a lot of activity in these states this week in terms of senate elections. alaska where the republican are going to a long count out there, but the republican now leading in that race. otherwise, no big surprises here. if you put these two together and you do that by pressing this button. if you do that and look ahead to 2016. this is interesting. we put now, unfortunately, red becomes pink and pretend this is red and blue states. heading into 2016, if you just look at those states gives the democrats a pretty good advantage. so, republicans would need to start making some end roads maybe into some of those states they won governor races in. another development this week to tell you aand that is bad news for democrats. a lot of southern and appalachian states where democrats thought they could still be competitive under the right circumstances alike. mike pryor a well-known name

running in arkansas. hey, arkansas is one of the states that clinton carried through the '90s and still win it under the right circumstances. pryor lost by almost 20 points. kentucky, mitch mcconnell. he ended up winning that thing by 16 point. a lot of those counties there, alison grimes didn't do better. same thing in west virginia, a democratic congressman there who had been in office for 40 years. nick rahal spent millions of dollars to hang on and just couldn't hang on any more. mary landrieu in louisiana in grave danger. a lot of southern appalachian states that voted for clinton in the '90s. put tennessee in that. you see the republican share of this starting to grow and then you start to see a battleground take shape for 2016 and that's the best news of tuesday for republicans. you'd have to say if you look at

these battleground states, the ones that are yellow on here. republicans won a senate race in north carolina, a contested state in 2016. republicans won a senate race in iowa, a state they did get in 2016 and republicans won a senate race in colorado. again, another quintessential battleground state. georgia, democrats are talking about getting because of demographic changes and democrats thought this is the year we show the numbers have changed there. michelle nunn ran at the same level as president obama. that's one republicans are feel good. virginia a state president obama carried twice and nobody thought the senate race would be close there that year and we turned on our tvs on election night and werner won that and made a competitive race out of virginia. when you look at the competitive states, that's the best news coming out of tuesday. they show in federal elections and in races for the senate,

they could win or be very competitive in these states. the only one that got bad news is new hampshire. in this wave, if they wouldn't win that senate race in new hampshire, you start to say that maybe new hampshire is becoming more and more part of that blue wall. we can put it it there now. new hampshire state democrats can feel a little bit better about. that's a quick look ahead to 2016, based on what happened this week. we'll be going back to this map once or twice more. we hope we look at it. hopefully get the right colors next time, too. speaking of scott brown, the one republican who didn't catch that wave on tuesday was scott brown. why did it miss him? we'll ask that question next.

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["mony mony" by billy idole she cokicks in on car stereo]y". ♪don't stop now come on mony♪ ♪come on yeah ♪i say yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪'cause you make me feel like a pony♪ ♪so good ♪like your pony ♪so good ♪ride the pony the sentra, with bose audio and nissanconnect technology. spread your joy. nissan. innovation that excites. [singing] ♪mony mony the republican wave that washed out one senate democrat after another on tuesday seemed to skip one major race. we just talked about it, but in new hampshire, former massachusetts senator scott brown came up just short against jean sheheen.

one gop candidate after another to a surprising win on tuesday, but not in new hampshire. brown trailed slightly in the polls against shaheen for the whole race and this happening even as new hampshire republicans succeeded in ousting one of the state's two democratic congresswoman and even as republicans took control of the state legislature with a 60-seat swing. so, republican wave did hit new hampshire on tuesday. scott brown wasn't riding it. why was that? drew klein joins us from manchester. drew, thanks for joining us. just the basic question. when you look at what happened in your state and when you look at what happened nationally. we said early on on election night the two early tests of this republican wave are north carolina and new hampshire and now we're into the returns and we're saying republicans will get north carolina, my gosh, they might even get virginia but scott brown lose in virginia. why with all these succeeding

did brown come up short in your state? >> a point to point out, like you just did, the republican wave did, in fact, hit new hampshire. you saw porter go down in the first. but with brown, i think what you saw is a couple of things. the main one being, he got beat by a much better candidate in a year where the democratic party, once again, in new hampshire did a master piece of a job turning out their vote and getting people to the polls. and just running that sort of ground game that new hampshire republicans still haven't caught up with. so, if you want to start by addressing the main thing that people nationally talk about with the brown shaheen races. that did hurt him. 52% and the exit polls say he hadn't lived in new hampshire long enough to run the state, clearly, it hurt him. that didn't kill him in new

hampshire. i think you look at the numbers and you can see that it wasn't just the claim. he did very well in the southern part of the state where it's very republican and there's a lot of massachusetts ex--pats. interestingly, he didn't do as well as he should have. he didn't win rockingham county by the kind of margin you would expect a republican candidate to win by. he, in fact, only did statewide about 5,000 votes better than the gubernatorial nominee who knowen with had heard of six months ago. so, why would that be? partly carpet bagger and he got outcampaigned by a shaheen operation that was amazing. when you talk about the republican gains in the state house, here's something that is important to remember, they went big in 2010 and they won by a smaller margin. carol shea porter lost even though she got more votes this

year than she did in 2010. custer got 25,000 more votes this year than she got in 2010. and these are both gigantic republican wave years. if 2010 is the gigantic republican wave, how did carol shea porter end up getting more votes in 2014 than they got that year and it turns out republicans won a lot of races here. you can look at the turnout. just as an example of what kind of operation they have, they had 20 field offices in new hampshire compared to seven for the republican party. they had, they had so many outside groups with unions and climate change and a bunch of other left to center groups getting out the vote and targeting their voters and been doing this since late winter, early spring. republicans adjust weren't able to compete with that.

>> quick question, do you think scott brown was the best candidate new hampshire republicans could have put up this year or somebody else that could have won? >> that's an impossible question to answer. the three who decided to run, he was the best candidate. the other two guys would have performed worse. i don't think anybody thinks otherwise maybe other than him. there has always been this problem finding the republican candidates who will take that national race. that big statewide race. republicans got really lucky in 2010 with an absolutely fabulous candidate. so, it's hard to tell. we'll see if they come out in '16. >> thanks to drew cline for getting up early this morning. appreciate that. person politico called america's craziest governor won re-election this week. one of his opponents will be here to talk about it. that's next. bles and tender whit chicken.

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politico magazine has called america's governor. whatever is on his mind is no filter and that led to controversy and so have the deeply policies and add to that that maine is a blue state and voted for president obama by large margins twice. the fact that lepage won was a fluke. put all of that together and put lepage near the top list of governors. but they didn't. when the votes were counted, paul lepage was elected to a second term on tuesday. how did he do it? elliot cutler ran again even as democrats begged and pleaded for him to step aside and finished with 8% while lepage got 48% the

democratic candidate got 43%. did that make the difference? is elliot cutler the reason he is getting four more years or more complicated than that? he's here and we'll ask him about it next and something paul lepage said about him in his victory speech that raised some eyebrows. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups. they got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies. like smart pick ups. they'll only show up when you print a label and it's automatic. we save time and money. time? money? time and money. awesome. awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! (all) awesome! i love logistics. so ally bank really has no hidden fethat's right. accounts? it's just that i'm worried about you know "hidden things..." ok, why's that?

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all right, maine governor paul lepage won a second term on tuesday. one of his opponents, two-time independent for governor and we'll get to that part in a minute. but eliot cutler joins us right now. thank you for joining us right now. a lot of peep were trying to ask you questions after this election. let me ask you the bottom line question. we had you on the show back in june or back in july and you said then the good news then paul lepage is not going to win a second term. you think he will finish in the

30s. we put the numbers up there, what happened? >> there was a layer of fear over the election that was remarkable. i mean, democrats were afraid that if they voted for me, they'd like paul lepage. republicans were afraid they would like mike michaud and i couldn't break through that fear. the problem number two was money. we were outspent two to one by the two parties and their affiliates. >> when you were telling us in june or july, it is either going to be me or mike michaud but not lepage. put that worry out of your mind. >> i underestimated paul lepage's strength and underestimated the potential for a democratic candidate for michaud. i wasn't michaud's problem, mike michaud was his problem. the republicans ran a great campaign. the democrats spent an enormous

amount of money on negative stuff. maine voters said, wait a minute, enough of this. the interesting thing we found out in our polls was even though people didn't like paul lepage's tem rument, they agreed with him on most issues. they were tired of democrats in maine. democrats in maine since 1990 have won two statewide races. >> this is a new england thing. it actually is very tough for democrats to win gubernatorial elections. when you look at that number, in 2010 when you ran, you came in second and you nearly beat lepage that year. this time the numbers are different. we put them up there, lepage beats michaud. when you see that final result, do you say if lepage hadn't been in this race -- >> half my votes, maybe more would have gone to lepage. i was at 21 in our poll and independent poll about three weeks before the election. but then an anorm enormous amou

money stoking the fear. i went down to about 13 or 15 and at that point i said to my supporters, hey, either if your fears motivate you to vote for someone else, go ahead and do it. if your conscious motivates you to vote for me, do so. that's so i basically, some people have said, half-conceded. >> that was the week before the election and i think that, a lot of people looking at that weren't sure what message use were sending with that. what was the messnj. >> the message was that there were an awful lot of people in the state of maine, including me who did not want to vote for either michaud oh lepaor lepage. he was running on a platform saying i am not lepage. >> do you think he would be a better governor for the state of maine? >> i didn't think so -- >> do you think lepage is a better governor than mike michaud.

>> they're both bad governors for a state that is in trouble. maine's economy for 11 straight years. neither one of these guys have a plan or has a plan to do much about it. >> do you think, another way of looking at your impact on this race. i agree, we did an exit poll up there and said if cutler wasn't in the race, who is your vote? you can see. according to the exit poll, it doesn't make a difference. the other way of looking at this is the fact that you were there for the entire race. it made it impossible for democrats. it made it impossible for people who wanted paul lepage out as governor to focus on that message and allow him to skate away while you fought with michaud. >> that's the whole fear point, steve. i don't think maine voters wanted to vote for fear, they wanted to vote positively. those who were supporting me. the 21% supporting me in early october saying this is the better way. when you pour millions.

this is small state, 1.3 million people. when you pour $20 million into the race instoking fear and negative stuff, you'll get an awful lot of voting who says i don't want this guy and i don't want that guy. >> is it true after 2010 and you lost by about two points in 2010 and i believe you made comments in the campaign trail this year that democrats told you they would clear the field and make you their nominee in 2014, is that true? >> yes. >> why didn't you do that? >> i didn't want to govern as a democrat for the same reasons that unions and everybody, all the affiliated groups were piling into this campaign. when you take their money, and i wouldn't take any pack money from anybody. when you won't take their money, they don't want to be for you. if you do take your money, i think that's part of the biggest problem we have in maine politics right now. >> what are the next four years in maine going to be like? between paul lepage and a

republican and democratic governor would be participation in the affordable care act in terms of expanding medicaid in the state and a lot of poor people in the state giving insurance to poor people. they won't have that with four more years with lepage. >> fixing our health care system and persuading the governor to do something about it. but, you know -- >> is he persuadable? >> i think he is. most governors when they come into the last term and not going to run again for anything are more persuadable. i hope they are. i'm going to work on it. the other thing i'm working on is right choice voting. we had a petition out there in the polls and we got tens of thousands of signatures and we're going to get right choice voting from maine on the ballot in the next year. >> one other thing, at the end of the campaign, ebola became an issue. obviously, nationally, maine was the state where you had this nurse who was -- >> who is now leaving me. >> right. the governor was trying to do

the in-home quarantine. in maine, did that have an impact on the race? >> people like to talk about it. reporters like to talk about it, i think it had zero impact on the race. >> paul lepage in his victory speech. he mentioned you and let me play the speech and we'll ask you about this. >> i will tell you, seriously, i gained a tremendous amount of respect for one man in this campaign. eliot cutler helped me understand where he's from. and i've grown from that relationship. in fact, i told him tonight, you should be the attorney general of the state of maine. >> was that an offer? >> i don't know whether it was an offer. you know, the legislature is now split almost even between democrats -- >> the legislature picks the attorney general. >> one of our problems in maine is the legislature picks the

attorney general, secretary of state and the state treasurer. first of all, i have no interest of it and i'm not an active member of the bar any more. nice thing for him to say. i do want to be active in maine and help maine pull out of this 11-year nose dive. i don't think that's the way to do it. >> when democrats heard that, i know it drove them wild because a moment in one of the debates this year where you actually said, i don't have a bromance with paul lepage. democrats listening to this, this looks like, these guys were kind of buddies. >> people try to fit what they see into what they think. i mean, that's how it works. i wasn't buddy, i was probably, not probably, i was more critical of paul lepage in really pointed ways throughout the course of the campaign than mike michuad was. he is up there saying i'm not paul lepage. very critical of the governor and i had a lot of things to say about his failure to borrow and about his health care policies

and on and on and on. there's no bromance but what lepage was saying is that at least i came to the table with some ideas. >> would you run for office, again? >> i doubt it very, very much. >> elion cutler, thank you very much. another full hour of news and politics straight ahead. stay with us.

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clinton positioned coming out of the midterms and today time to tackthal gop. we want to begin this hour with the weekend's biggest news. president obama's new nominee for attorney general. yesterday he officially tapped loretta lynch and perry bacon jr. joins us live from the north lawn of the white house. perry, we know the pick now. any word on what the confirmation process and time table is going to look like for this? >> two things on the timetable, steve. first from talking to white house officials the last couple days is what they told me, they will not demand that congress take up this nomination immediately. in other words, the republicans have said they want to wait until they have the majority in january and the white house has said they're not going to push that and annoy the republicans. they're going to be okay with waiting in this process. the second thing is ted cruz and mike lee, two of the most conservative members of the senate put a letter yesterday and they said part of the

confirmation process for them is demanding that lynch say does she support or oppose or what exactly are her views on whatever executive action the president takes on immigration. so, that's a clue that the conperimatico confirmation hearings for lynch are about her nominations, which people agree are pretty strong and maybe her views on immigration and executive authority and how the president can use it. >> perry bacon jr. live at the white house, thanks a lot. back here now at the big board, actually. we want to illustrate something that we talk about what a big day tuesday was, obviously, for republicans, but in an election like that there was actually some good news for democrats. it takes a little bit to find it. but we want to take a look at the map. this is a map, this is not the senate. what we're looking at is the governor's races and the governorships. what you see here not surprisingly after tuesday, a map that is a wash in red and you look at all the targets that democrats had on tuesday. they thought they could flip blue and take out rick scott in

florida and couldn't do it there and this is the big prize they wanted and couldn't get scott walker in wisconsin. we talked about maine, paul lepage got elected there. a lot of missed opportunities here for democrats and even a state like illinois, barack obama home state and pat quinn, democratic governor not able to win an re-election there. if you look closely, a couple interesting stories. one of them was in the state of colorado. you can look here, john hicken looper the democratic incumbent. on the same day with the same ballot throwing mark udall throwing the democrat out of office. he pursued gun control two years ago. a lot of talk that would cost him his job and he gets re-elected and you can look at a state like alaska. kind of a crazy race taking shape there. an independent who teamed up with a democrat who is running as his lieutenant governor, they look, they're leading and still votes to be counted and leading the republican incumbent and you

can find a bit of a bright spot there for democrats. but the most interesting bright spot for democrats on this board is right here, the state of connecticut. go to southern new england and you take a look, dan malloy. now a couple interesting things. first of all, this was a rematch. in 2010 these two candidates squared off and dan malloy barely won. the margin less than 7,000 votes in 2010. this looks very close and was very close but he expanded his margin. this was a rematch. he did much better this time around. dan malloy had an activist agenda. one of the issues he tackled was gun control. you know, connecticut was the site of the horrific sandy hook massacre in late 2012. dan malloy sign under to law a ban on assault weapons in the state and really attracted the gun industry and there is a firearms industry in connecticut and one of the reasons he was in

such danger in this election. and not only did he win. i want to show you the most interesting result from within the state of connecticut on tuesday and that is the town of newtown. let's take a look. this is where sandy hook is. this is a republican town. this is a small republican town. you can see in 2010, dan malloy got crushed here 60 to 39 and he lost to tom foley. look at what happened in 2014. came candidates after newtown and gun control, basically an even race. no city or town in connecticut that swung as dramatically to dan malloy than newtown. hard to believe that the issue of guns didn't have an awful lot to do with that. dan malloy who passed gun control in the wake of sandy hook wins re-election this week. a very bright spot for democrats and a lot to talk about what he's done and how this happened and joining us from connecticut, there he is the governor, thank

you for taking a few minutes this morning. if you could just start on that issue, it really jumps out on me and that's why i flagged it for our viewers. in newtown, you had dramatic improvement from 2010. and i look at that and i say that has everything to do with how you responded to sandy hook. >> i think it has a lot to do with it. it was not just newtown but the surrounding towns, as well, including danberry and an appreciation that we stepped forward and we did the right thing and weren't afraid to do the right thing when it comes to guns. some surveys having been published about who voted and why and what caused them to vote. quite clearly support of the gun legislation was a contributing factor, particularly amongst women. women was a group, a demographic that we went after. we talked not only about guns, but paid sick days and we talked about raising the minimum wage and we talked about our success and raising obama care and all of those things led to a very

large gap with respect to our ability to attract women's votes and the republicans' ability to attract male votes. i think in part the republicans went after the male vote using guns and we went after the women's vote using guns. >> the other interesting thing in connecticut when we think of gun control and we think of blue states and we think of red states and we say maybe not so much. something that people don't realize about connecticut necessarily is that there is a pretty active firearms industry in the state of connecticut. in fact, when you push some of these reforms through, one of the things that you had to be balancing and one of the things you had to be thinking about was the threats from some of these companies to leave the state. one is ptr industries a maker of assault rifles did leave the state for south carolina. can you talk about that in terms of how that weighed your decision and what the economic impact for connecticut has been of gun control? >> i made it clear that we were going to take appropriate steps to limit the carnage in our

state and let me point out using base year 11 to 2013, we've seen a 32% drop in murdarers in our state. in '14 we're seeing an even further drop of murders in our state. i said to the industry, listen, you're here. as long as you're producing a product that can be legally sold in america, then we want you to stay. we want your jobs. you know, we're not making you leave the state. there are some folks who take this issue to a different level and they say, well, if you're going to do universal background checks, we're going to leave. i don't want people to leave. but i do want to keep babies in schools safe and teachers in schools safe and i want to keep the streets of bridgeport safe. so there is always a compromise that has to be made. but when that compromise has to be made, you go with safety over anything else. >> the other issue on guns is, you know, we looked at the

background checks and it was a little over a year ago in the senate where that could not get through the senate and no exp expectation given nationally what happened on tuesday that anything with gun control is going to get through the congress any time soon. it comes to the state house and comes to places like connecticut where if there are going to be changes, it will happen there. the flip side is one state may have tough gun laws and the bordering state may not. so, how big of a concern of that to you when we leave this to the state-by-state level and you don't have a national standard? >> generally speaking, but not universally, those states with the toughest laws have lower murder rates. that's a reality. it would be a lot better if we had universal background checks and a lot better if you couldn't go to a gun show and buy a gun or try a gun. the story over the summer of a child killing the instructor by misusing the gun. but, you know, i think the states have to have the ability to do what they need to do and that's what we've done in

connecticut and certainly that's what has been done else where. new york and maryland and else where. but, you know, congress is dysfunctional and i think congress is going to continue to be dysfunctional. it's up to us in the states to do the right thing. whether it's on gun or minimum wage or paid sick days or rebuilding the economy. i think that a lot more of this discussion in positive terms is going to be taking place in state houses and state capitals than it is in washington. >> you know, one thing i want to ask you, this strikes me when i look at the results from new england. you're the first democrat to get elected there since 1986. you've won twice now. hasn't been since 1986 in massachusetts we're seeing the fifth republican governor in the last seven times. we just talked about in maine where it's a blue state otherwise, but they re-elected a republican governor. what is it about the blue states, we think of it as blue america where it's so tough for democrats to win governorships? >> you know, i think part of

that is that new england doesn't have this divide that exists in places like kansas. you know, we don't hunt democrats, right? and we don't hunt republicans. we actually try to get along and work things out. minimum wage had to do without republican support. paid sick days had to do without republican support. but go back to the guns issue, that was a bipartisan, ultimately, a bipartisan coalition made up of republicans and democrats that allow that to happen. the guy i was running against said, the two people i was running against said they were going to repeal it. they made a mistake in taking that tact. but on a lot of issues, we can actually work together and i'm happy with that. i referenced that earlier, but we had the best implementation of the 50 states in the nation. you referenced the supreme court challenge. that won't apply to us. we have our own exchange. we're doing something right

here. sometimes we can have bipartisan support on those things and i'm happy to do that and sometimes we can't. on social issues and budgetary issues it is harder on broader policy issues that might be easier here in new england. >> all right, dan malloy the re-elected governor of connecticut. thank you for joining us. if there hadn't been an election this week, the story hitting right now like a bombshell. the supreme court is getting another shot at dismantling the affordable care act. why that is happening and what might happen, that's next. their customer experience is virtually paperless, which saves paper, which saves money. they have smart online tools, so you only pay for what's right for you, which saves money. they settle claims quickly, which saves time, which saves money. they drive an all-hybrid claims fleet, which saves gas, which saves money. they were born online, and built to save money, which means when they save, you save. because that's how it should work in the modern world. esurance. backed by allstate. click or call.

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so you might feel this week like you're stuck in some sort of time warp and you traveled back to the year 2010. the republicans ran the table in the mid-term elections and court rulings are now threatening the viability of the affordable care act. on friday, the supreme court said that it will hear a lawsuit

that's aimed at crippling president obama's signature health law. the court challenged credits that make the wall viable. the argument being made rests on something of a technicality. because the wall, as written, only specifically allows for the tax credits to be used in states that set up their own health exchanges. the opponents claim that they are there for illegal in the three dozen states that are relying on the federal government exchanges instead of setting up their own. the successful challenge would mean people receiving subsidies in those states would no longer get them, that would be a potentially devastating blow to what has been president obama's number one achievement as president. according to numbers from the kaiser family foundation, as many as 4.7 million people would lose subsidies right away, that's money that makes it possible for them to buy insurance they might not otherwise be able to afford. for more about the lawsuit, its implications, whether this is going to be the death nail to

obama care that republicans keep hoping for. sarah cliff is an expert on all of this. thank you for joining us. let me just start with that. we know it takes four supreme court justices to agree to take a case and it would take five to go along with this and deal with this blow to obama care. reached a serious threshold just in hearing it. >> the court granting this case was not for certain. it's possible there are situations where they could have looked at this and said it's not an issue that we're going to weigh it on. it will let the lower court ruling stand. the fact about the timing and get in to or not get into and it might get technical. it is definitely bad news for the affordable care act that the supreme court has decided to hear this case and there means there are four justices, if not more, who think it's worth digging into this issue and reevaluating the subsidies should go to 4.6 million people who are currently getting them. >> and i know the technical

details can glaze everybody's eyes over, but what this comes down to, basically, is the law creates this, maybe a technicality but a distinction between states that set up their own exchanges and marketplaces where people can go and buy health care. the intent that every state would do on its own and an option to have the federal government do it for you and basically this challenge is saying the subsidies should not apply to states where the federal government is doing it. >> right. that's pretty much it. no one really in a lot of ways expected to be in this situation when the affordable care act was being written. an expectation that all the states would essentially set up exchanges and maybe one or two wouldn't get their act together. no one anticipated that the states would turn this over to the federal government because they figured states would launch control over this. it was really underestimated how many states would be using healthcare.gov and that sets up a situation where this challenge is incredibly important.

you have most of the states on healthcare.gov and most people who are getting subsidies are in one of these states that are affected by the challenge and it really is a fight over the drafting of the affordable care act and the plaintiffs, the folks who have brought this case have said, it doesn't matter what the intent of congress was, you did not otherwise in this law for subsidies to be given out on healthcare.gov. where a lot of the congressional staff who i have talked to said, of course, that's what we meant, it was sloppy drafting. and you can't decide sloppy drafting after the fact, you have to stick with the law that you wrote and you're not allowed to get subsidies through healthcare.gov. >> if the court goes along with it, can obama care, as we know it, continue to exist? >> i think it can can where governor malloy was mentioning things in connecticut wouldn't change that much.

it throws the whole law into disarray. the subsidies are just so critical to the structure of the law. again, a lot of the congressional staffers i talked to said, of course, we met for the subsidies to be in saerve state requiring a situation where people buy insurance but didn't make it affordable. that is not a world we would want to set up through legislation. so, it really, it could be that we talked a lot about a death spiral during open enrollment last year. if not enough healthy people sign up that rates will really spike. we didn't see that happen last year, but if you take out the subsidies. that creates a real risk of a death spiral in these markets. and it really would be, i don't think it's hyperbole to say disastrous for this to succeed. >> speaking of that time warp that day in june in 2012, waiting for the ruling. another one coming up on the calendar. sarah, thank you for joining us. the only presumed frontrunner in the race for

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service. security. savings. synchrony bank engage with us. mitch mcconnell may be on the brink of becoming the next senate majority leader, but kentucky other republican senator rand paul made out in this election, too, and he wasn't even running. in return for supporting mcconnell re-election campaign and campaigning in a state for him, he endorsed paul should paul decide to run for president. he will be able to count on me if paul runs for president. as for other gop contenders post-midterm election, chris christie's prospects might have improved this past week. as head of the republican governor's association he gets to bask in helping to secure nearly twice as many governorships for republicans nationwide than there will be democratic governors. >> i want to thank governor

christie for bringing the from new jersey. >> ted cruz and marco rubio, this year's gop victories could give them a chance to boost their own resumes but better served by helping to pass legislation or undermine the leadership from the far right as "newsweek" put it this week, how they handled their majority will prove crucial over the next two years. no frontrunner among republicans at the moment. the positioning if not the actual campaigning begins right now. our panel is back to talk about it. we have ed rendell and katie gauge and amanda terkel. the question of ted cruz comes up. what about ted cruz. this is where it comes up to me. if ted cruz is running for president. the ted cruz posture on everything is one of purity. he always wants to be the voice of conservative purity, which almost always by definition means the republican leaders in

washington are doing something wrong to sell you the base, the grasroots out. such a headache for mitch mcconnell. i see rand paul has an incentive to move more towards the middle and towards the establishment because he sees a path there and ted cruz sees a path out. i look ahead to the presidential election and say it's going to bleed over into governing because they are campaigning by governing or not governing. >> ted cruz doesn't have a brand unless it's purity and pushing back on the establish lt. rand paul has been saying that republicans need to do a better job, for example, reaching out to african-americans and been going to urban areas and howard university and done things like criminal justice reform which is very bipartisan. that is not ted cruz's brand and he has the more establishment republicans sort of more tea party, grassroots type but also these people running for president and have their own calculations.

>> governor rendell, probably be for hillary in 2016, who do you look at the republican side and say who do you think you want to face and who will face? >> i'm for ted cruz. >> you're who you want to face. >> by the way, ted cruz in a crowded field is not to be discounted because in a crowded field you can win primaries with 23%, 24% of the vote. that's where that purity comes in. the toughest candidate and the best candidate they would field both from a standpoint is jeb bush. no question. i think the country would be well served jeb bush versus hillary clinton. can jeb bush run given his position on common core, which he started and we as governors thought was a great idea. i was head of the nga. but it's a crowded field and anything can happen. ted cruz can be undermined by rick santorum if he runs, again. it's a wide-open race. there's no way to foretell it.

but ted cruz sees that path getting 23%, 24% and widdling the field down to two and then winning that which is what santorum did. >> and that's the limit for somebody like a ted cruz. they can only ever get to second place. because, you know, once you get down to a head-to-head matchup, the money will flow to a candidate that can actually win in a general election and the voters feel that way. republican voters, even tea party voters within the republican party want to win general elections. they understand that their agenda goes no where if democrats are governing. >> santorum came awfully close. just a few thousand votes in michigan. >> pulled off one of those, but tell me, when you look at the idea of the establishment, you know, whoever emerges as the establishment candidate versus ted cruz or whoever it happens to be. >> i don't want to call it the establishment candidate. the candidate that has a shot of winning a general election. >> fewer syllables.

but it's always clear, it always has been clear in the past who that is going to be. you knew it was going to be mccain in '08 and maybe giuliani and you knew dole back in the '90s and you look at this republican field. i'm not even sure, i'm not sure how much jeb bush wants to run. that's one of my concerns when i look at him. if you go beyond jeb bush, who is it? christie has damaged good issues and scott walker. i can't see who, you know, who are you looking at? >> i think that you're going to see this of more of a bracket type of situation where you have candidates like ted cruz and mike huckabee and rick santorum that are sort of running for a certain piece of the pie. you have rand paul that probably has a bye for several states in sort of his unique bracket and then candidates that are, you know, like the ones you're talking about. i think by the time voters start casting ballots, i think christie is going to be in a very, very strong situation. you know, if jeb bush decides to

run of course, he immediately becomes a significant frontrunner. you know, i think a lot of these governors will start looking at this because it's a very wide open field. >> do you think there's an appetite among the republican base for jeb bush? the donor class is excited about him. he hasn't run for office in more than ten years. >> i think people get excited when campaigns begin and right now it's all just talk and mostly in studios like this where this is happening and once campaigns begin in earnest that's when you'll hear enthusiasm. when candidates hear from a jeb bush, there will be enthusiasm. he still charges up a room and that's going to be very helpful to him in places like iowa and new hampshire. >> we'll see when he starts yelling at everyone. what that idea of jeb bush as the strongest possible republican. do you agree with that? >> i think jeb bush is a strong candidate, especially in a general election. i think scott walker, he has also now survived three elections in four years.

his race against mary berke was not as close. he has support from the tea party and grassroots and he also when you talk to him and you see him speak, he doesn't come off extreme. he has that midwestern niceness and that could play better across the country than chris christie yelling at somebody at a town hall. >> kasich who won by 20 points in ohio which is the pivotal state. he has congression aal experien. >> it helped that his opponent had some issues. >> still. by the way, steve, i hate to correct you, but you talk about democratic spots, you forgot pennsylvania. >> of course. you know what, absolutely. >> tom wolf for governor and tom wolf is someone who should be, not watched for national office, but watched as an opinionmaker. he is a businessmaker and a moderate and a great governor and won by ten points.

>> it was such a foregone conclusion from the beginning. there i am in alaska saying, yes, look, a bright spot. it was such, it was one of those, all the races we never paid attention to pennsylvania. that was the single biggest pickup for democrats. thank you for destroying my last segment. thanks to amanda, governor ed rendell and katie we'll talk to you in just a little bit. ultimatum to congress. that's ahead. take a closer look at charmin ultra soft and you'll love what you see. not only can you use less, but you can actually see the softness in our comfort cushions. we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft?

["mony mony" by billy idole she cokicks in on car stereo]y". ♪don't stop now come on mony♪ ♪come on yeah ♪i say yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪'cause you make me feel like a pony♪ ♪so good ♪like your pony ♪so good ♪ride the pony the sentra, with bose audio and nissanconnect technology. spread your joy. nissan. innovation that excites. [singing] ♪mony mony on wednesday, president obama set the clock ticking. a dramatic countdown to the president taking executive action on one of the biggest remaining priorities of his president da presidency. >> before the end of the year, we're going to take whatever lawful actions that i can take that i believe will improve the functioning of our immigration system. and at the same time i'll be

reaching out to both mitch mcconnell, john boehner and other republicans as well as democratic leaders to find out how it is that they want to proceed and if they want to get a bill done, whether it's during the lame duck or next year, i am eager to see what they have to offer. what i'm not going to do is just wait. >> republican leadership didn't take kindly to president obama's plan. a plan that could offer safe harbor to a few million undocumented immigrants. >> i think that the president choosing to do a lot of things unilaterally on immigration would be a big mistake. it's an issue that most of my members want to address. legislatively. >> i made clear to the president that if he acts unilaterally on his own outside of his authority, he will poison the well and there will be no chance for immigration reform moving in this congress. >> and by friday, the president and congressional republicans were exchanging ultimatums fac -

to face. republicans digging in on their position that executive action on immigration would torpedo any prospect of working with the president, not just on immigration reform, but on anything. >> we also express to him if more executive actions are taken, that would make it difficult for us to always work together. >> so, is there any way that the two parties can come to the table and make some kind of a deal before the end of the year? and what does this current battle say about the longer term prospects about immigration reform? >> we have gabriella, former director of hispanic press for the obama 2012 campaign. and still with us, katie packer gauge. so, gabby, let me start with you because i think we all have a sense of what's going to play out here for the next month or so and that is as the end of the year draws near, let's assume nothing happens in the house on the legislation that is already there. we get closer to the deadline

and the republicans ratchet up and editorial boards weighing in saying that obama should delay it as a sign of good faith and we've been down this road before where he said at the start of this summer by the end of the summer he'll act. he delayed that. when you look at this right now, how confident are you that when we get to the end of the year, if that's what's going on, he will, indeed, issue an executive order? >> i'm taking the president on his third promise, which he is going to act before the end of the year. what i find most baffling about this, steve, all of a sudden after this election people are acting as if there is a different reality in congress. congress and the republican house has had six years to work with the president on this. the president has done everything in his power to reach out to republicans. all the groups on the right that need to be at the table to give republicans political cover for this are at the table. but then all of a sudden it's as if it's a surprise that the president was going to act. we knew he was going to act in march. he said he was going to act in march by the end of the summer.

they had more time to consider something and, again, if they want to do something, they can do their jobs. but in the meantime, it's a system that both parties agree need fixing. we have a bipartisan legislation in the senate that speaker boehner can just allow a vote on and this needs to be done. >> so, katie, what happens if that scenario we just laid out comes to be and no action in congress in the next two months and at the end of the year the president issues this executive and issues something along the lines of what has been talked about so far. bigger republican majority in the house and what does that mean going forward for congress? >> i take the republican leadership at their word that this would poise on the well. if president obama wanted to act and own this, he could have done something prior to the elections. issued an order prior to the elections. he chose not to do that because he was incredibly unpopular and didn't want this to be a referendum on another policy position of his. but i don't know that i've never

seen a president that took such a shellacking on election day and then 24 hours later basically thumbed his nose at the people that are part of the system of checks and balances in our constitution. the congress. which was elected resoundingly by the people on tuesday and largely rejecting this president and his policies and me basically just said i don't care, i'm going to go my own way. i think it's important for the white house to strike a different tone to be conciliatory and work with the leaders that have been elected and look for areas where they can find common ground. and i think that's going to be really important over the next couple of months. >> gabby, it is, politically speaking for the president just in terms of dealing with the next congress, he is in a jam here because he made a commitment and he made a promise to people like you who are calling for this and made the commitment and he has the republicans, like it or not, he will have to deal with basically saying, look, you go and do this and not getting compromise on

anything. any way around this you can see? >> when have they compromised on anything? i mean, the senate bill is the perfect example. it's a bipartisan bill that passed with 68 votes. speaker boehner could very well say republicans are also for this because they are. so, again, where is this cooperation coming from out of thin air? republicans keep on moving the targt and using the latino community as this volleyball, which, they're sick of. one of the things that i thought was really interesting from election day which republicans have to think of is considering the presidential election is that the number one latino voter priority now is immigration. that wasn't the case in 2012. so, they can't just live in a vacuum where all of their previous poisoning of the well on the republican side, even though the president has made every single, doesn't exist. it's not a blank slate here. >> the other thing, looking at these election results and one

thing we were talking about were swing districts in the house. many don't have heavy latino population and tough to draw any conclusions. some interesting exit poll results. this is in georgia a growing latino and the race for governor and the republican who won with just over 50% of the vote and the exit polls got 47% of hispanic vote in the senate race there in georgia. this is michelle nunn, david purdue. gets 42% of the hispanic vote. gabby y looked at similar numbers from colorado where cory gardner was running, did this surprise you? >> it was really depressing. florida, the i-4 corridor went to the republican candidate. in colorado, as you said, it was 20 of the 21 districts with the most latino votes went to the republicans. it's not only did this affect the latino vote, but instead of

being the 11% of the vote that we should be, we were 8%. so, this is, this is no longer an issue that either party can say, oh, it's not the top priority for latino voters. so, the president has to keep his promise. i do think he will. but republicans, if they don't get this off the table and finally provide a solution to fix our broken immigration system, there is no level playing field for them to try to convi convince hispanic voters that they need for the presidency that they are worth even looking at. >> thank you for joining us this morning. appreciate that. be right back with some news. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child

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caught up with pham and asked how she felt. >> overwhelmed by the outpouring and love and i just love my hornfrog family so much. >> how have you adjusted being back in a normal routine? >> it's an everyday process. but i have everyone's support and that just means the world to me. >> most people are wondering, how are you feeling? >> i'm feeling good right now, yeah, thank you. >> tcu won that game, by the way, a crushing result for kansas state wildcat fans like me. meanwhile, we now know what nurse kaci hickox incubation expires. keep her in mandatory quarantines and all tests have come back negative so far. 21 days is up next week and she plans to leave maine, moving from her home state as soon as possible. we'll be right back with more on the week in politics. i make a lot of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return

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a working lunch at the white house reportedly turned combative on friday over the issue of immigration. something we discussed just a few minutes ago with top republicans immigration. something we just discussed moments ago. republicans telling president obama if he issues an executive order they should not count on his cooperation for anything. they spent much of the week emphasizing their plans to work with the president. how's speaker john boehner and mitch mcconnell penned about op-ed in the "wall street journal" about their planning. they tried to head off any talk of another government shut down. >> i want to first look for areas that we can agree on. >> more details on the g.o.p.'s coming agenda including an apparent plan to continue

pressing for obama care repeal but, quote, in the background. the goal unifying republicans, picking up support from democratic lawmakers, and putting pressure on president obama to risk compromise. if they work, can they keep their own party together, is there any prospect there will be any more cooperation in the next three years than we have seen in the last four, that is to say, none. lori, you did good reporting this week on what republicans would like to do now they they will have the senate and a bigger majority in the house. when you look at the end they're talking about, do you see any potential common ground in terms of what president obama would be willing to sign? >> that's kind of what we don't know yet. right now the concept of compromise really means looking reasonable for republicans, not

shooting ourselves in the foot, and passing some things they they know that democrats will support like repealing the medical device tax, the keystone pipeline approval. those are not necessarily things the white house wants to sign, but they're at least reasonable things to send the white house that will look bipartisan. a bigger question is over the long run. the president says he wants corporate tax reform. is there a magic system that republicans could deliver that, we don't really know that yet. >> there is indications, the word is compromise, but there are things that might ultimately be acceptable to the white house. are there things that the republicans have been against that don't rise to that level? that this is just a crime against conservativism.

is there indications of things that can be traded for from the white house's side? >> i think we'll know more about that when we get back next week. the election was last week, they will be here on wednesday. they will start to meet, they will elect leaders in the house. the new chairman will take their place in the senate, figure out how they will staff up, and we'll start to get a sense of where people want to go in the lame duck, and then in january, i think, you'll really start to see mitch mcconnell, in particular, begin to lay out the agenda and where they want to go. a huge question is, does mcconnell really want to do tax reform. he says he does, the white house says they do, but we really don't know how strongly anyone feels about that. >> on this issue of obama care repeal, you are reporting this week it is something they will continue to pursue, but in the background. i take that to mean there is an

obligatory vote. and they kind of leave it alone. that's what the leadership would like to do, is that something that the rank and file will go for? >> you know, there are two different republican parties and we're going to see which one comes out on top, the leadership wants to be more reasonable. they know they have to vote to repeal the affordable care act, but there are other lesser issues they can work on like changing the definition of a full-time worker from 30 hours to 40 hours for the purposes of the employer mandate for providing insurance coverage that make more sense. you can get votes for that type of thing. you can challenge the white house, but for repeal, their argument is rational. they don't have the votes to override a veto on repeal of obama care.

i think they would like to make their statement vote and move on to more reasonable things. i think in the senate there will be support for that. you have to remember that 24 republicans are up in 2016. >> yeah, a lot of republicans in blue states, before it was democrats in red states what about this directive that they're putting out there saying if you do this order, if he goes ahead and does that compromise is off the table on everything. how real is that threat? >> that is also a good question. i do think it would damage whatever remaining shred of good feeling there is between congress and the white house. you know, i think it would be very difficult to negotiate, for example, a tax deal if he proceeds with the immigration executive order. on the other hand, you know,

there are those saying we should not pass a budget in the lame duck through the end of next year because we should threaten to shut down the government if the president does an executive order and nobody wants to do that. i think everybody has to feel out where their majorities really are and figure out, you know, this is a game of tactics. at this point, you know we have just seen the election end, people have to get back to washington and tart charting their moves. >> it is going to be we, we have republicans on capitol hill. there is a chance that things will get to his desk and he will tra to make some decisions. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you for all of you joining us. we'll be back next weekend as always, saturday and sunday at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. if you want to play along with

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go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. this morning, my question, why is china scrubbing it's air? and the man at the center of pointer gate. indicators are up, but what matters most is what's in your pocket. good morning, we have a lot to get to this morning. we begin with the breaking news overnight. two americans released from north korea are back on u.s. soil this morning. a plane car