mexico, they're bringing back at least 800 jobs, they're bringing it back and they actually never got to leave. i have no idea what they did with the plant in mexico but we'll have to ask them. because it was largely built. general motors is investing 1 billion in u.s. plants, adding or keeping 7,000 jobs and is going to be investing a lot more than that over the next fairly short period. lockheed martin has just announced 1,800 new jobs and u.s. plants are doing a great job and we started negotiating with them on the f-35. they cut their price a little bit. thank you very much. she's tough. but it worked out well. i think for everybody. i have to say this, marilyn, you're doing the right thing. we appreciate it. she cut her price over $700

million. do you think hillary would have asked for 700 million? oh, boy. i assume you wanted her to win. but you know what, you're going to do great and make more planes. it's going to work out the same or better. walmart announced plans to create 10,000 jobs and all of those jobs are going to be in the united states. sprint soft bank is putting in $50 billion because of our election. in the united states over the next four years to create 50,000 jobs. they've been terrific, by the way. and we have many of you in the room, we have many, many other companies and we're very happy. today we have 24 ceos from the largest manufacturing companies in the country and even in the they represent nearly 1 trillion in sales and 2 million employees, a large majority of

which are in the united states. they share our commitment to bring manufacturing back and to create jobs in this country, which has been the biggest part of my campaign i would say the border, big part. military strength big part and jobs big part. i don't want to say which is most important. i guess we always have to say defense is maybe the most important. but many of you take care of our defense. make great products. nobody makes the products that we do for military. nobody. and, in fact, a couple of countries who were not allowed to buy from us, i gave them -- hello, jeff -- i gave them authorization, you can only buy from us. i want them to buy from us. they were getting planes from other countries because our -- and their allies, but they're going to be buying from us from now on. >> and i just want to thank all of my people.

you all know dpary from goldman, gary cohen, and we're really happy. just paid $200 million in tax in order to take this job, by the way. which is very much unlike gary. but he's great. and he'll be criticized pi the media because he's getting paid $197,000, they'll say he really wanted that money, which he gave up. i think he gave up. did you give that up, gary? i think so. it was within of those things. but that's right. i want to thank wilbur has been so fantastic. i've never wilbur for so long. he's a great guy, great negotiators but a very fair negotiator and he's going to be doing things that the deals we have with other countries are unbelievably bad. we don't have any good deals in fact, i'm trying to find a country where we actually have a sur applause of trade. everything's a deficit. with mexico, we have 70 billion

in w trade deficits. it's unstainable. we're not going to let it happen. we're going to have a good relationship with mexico, i hope. and if we don't, we don't. $70 billion in trade deficits and that doesn't include the drugs that pour across the border, like water. so we can't let that happen. with china we have close to a $500 billion trade deficit. we have to do something. i spoke to the president, i spoke to many people. we're going to work on that very, very hard and do things that are the proper things to do. but i actually said to my people find a country where we actually do well. so far we haven't found that country. it's just losses with everybody. and we're going to turn that around. i want to thank jared kushner, who has been so involved in this and all of my guys. we have a great team. we have a team of all-stars.

and we've been really given credit for that. right now rex, who as you know he's in mexico. i said that's going to be a tough trip because we have to be treated fairly by mexico. that's going to be a tough trip. but he's over there with general kelly, who has been unbelievable at the border. you see what's happening at the border. all of a sudden for the first time we're getting gang members out, we're getting drug lords out, we're getting really bad dudes out of this country. and at a rate that nobody's ever seen before. and they're the bad ones. and it's a military operation because what has been allowed to come into our country. what you see gang violence that you've read about like never before, much of that is people who are here illegally. they're rough and they're tough but they're not tough like our people so we're getting them out. i thought maybe we'll start with ken on my left and we'll go around the room and introduce yourselves to the press. lots of media.

one thing, we have lots of media. how are you? that's one that treats me very nicely, one of the few. hi. and we'll just start around, go around the room and then we'll talk private live without the press and we're going to figure out how to bring many, many millions of jobs more back to the united states. okay? ken, go ahead. >> thank you, mr. president. it's good to be here. ken frazier. >> thank you, mr. president. mark field, ceo of ford. >> and president of cam bpbell soup. >> did you bring any more of those jobs back? you were given so much credit for that and i heard two days ago you're selling far more carrier air conditioners than

you thought just as a patriotic move. people are buying carrier just because of what you did, bringing jobs back to indiana. >> lee sticelinger with altechnical inning. >> david far with emerson, st. louis. >> doug overhoeven, executive of cat pilller. we have plenty of d-10s. >> i love those d-10s. i love the d-12. that i'm waiting for. that's going to be bigger than anything in history. >> there's nothing like what you do. the caterpillars are the best. when we raise the dollar and let other people manipulate their current scie currencies, it's the one thing that stops you. >> we'll take them on. >> but we have to give you a level playing field. we have to let other countries

give you a level playing field. what great country, i love caterpillar. >> come out and see one, we'll put you in one. >> i might do that soon. >> mario long with u.s. steel. >> you're going to be doing pipelines now. we put you heavy into the pipeline business. because we approved the keystone pipeline and dakota but they have to by steel made in this country and pipelines made in this country. >> 100%. when you come drive trucks, come up to minnesota and our mines, you'll see them running up there. >> i'll be up there. >> thank you, mr. president, marilyn houston, lockheed martin corporation. i wanted to thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today about generating jobs. we are very excited about the fact that this is one of the

first actions you want to take on. >> thank you and thank you for what we did. la-ten we call it, 90 planes out of 3,000 but it was not doing so well and now it's doing great. right? >> that's right, mr. president. we welcome you to fort worth to see the planes on the production line. >> look forward to being with you. >> jeff watched me make a hole in one. do you believe that? should you tell that story? >> we were trying to talk president trump into doing the apprentice, that was my assignment when we owned nbc. he went and said "you realize i'm the richest golfer in the world," then he gets up and makes a hole in one.

i have to say i've seen the magic before. >> i actually said i was the best golfer of all the rich people o to be exact and then i got a hole in one. so it was sort of cool. thank you. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. bill brown for harris corporation. and thank you for coming to our headquarter location in melbourne, florida twice. >> absolutely. >> wendell weeks, cody incorporated. >> thank you, new corp, corporation. >> donald taught. >> ceo of american paper. >> bob kraft is a big fan of yours. >> representing the serviceto industry. >> thank you for bringing the opportunity of bringing the

language of business back to the white house. i'm here to make chemistry sexy again. >> i want to thank up for your help. you've been great. thank you, andrew. nobody knows ivanka. >> say it again, please. >> great company. >> great to be back. it's michael dell with dell technologies. >> high, michael. >> good morning, phoebe of general dynamics. >> good morning, mr. president. >> great company. jared, maybe i'll let you take over for a little while and we'll then -- we're going to go through the room very carefully and find out how we bring more jobs back. thank you to the press and media, we really appreciate it and we'll see you later. thank you very much.

good morning. i'm ali develvelshi. many of them are people he met with about a month ago, he asked them to come back with some plans and wanted plans to creating manufacturing jobs. the irony is as you go around the table, these are many of the companies that have spent decades outsourcing jobs to lower wage countries, mexico, china, india and the like. the idea that they would be interested in bringing back high-wage jobs and cutting into their profitability is a little hard to believe. so it's too bad that they've

asked the press to leave that meeting because the most interesting part want all the ceos talking about how fantastic the president was, it's whether or not they have an answer to the president's question about bringing high-paying jobs back to the united states. nbc's kelly o'donnell is at the white house right now. kelly, manufacturing jobs was -- is supposed to be the priority of that meeting. this is a circle that is kind of impossible to square because the president -- there's no shortage of manufacturing in this country. we manufacture more than we did ten years ago. we do it with fewer people and that's something the president has promised to change. >> the age of automation and sort of the smart technology that's come to so much in manufacturing. this gathering is also supposed to look at regulations, taxation, ways that this community of business leaders could intersect with the white house on ideas. but we could also see there this is very much a comfortable environment for the president, where he was in a sense among

friends or perhaps peers he might see it, people he's interacted with over time, sharing personal anecdotes. that's a different kind of politics for donald trump, where he's able to leverage the personal side, personal connections, some would argue the charm he has with some of these individuals for some big issues. he called out the ceo of lockheed, of making a deal there, of negotiating a better price on some aircraft for the department of defense. for the president, he likes for the cameras to be in a session like this. he likes to see that powerful, influential americans who are running companies that really shape many americans' lives are in the white house, we've seen a lot of these meetings in the time that the president has been in office. so in part it is about the photo opportunity, it is about the coming together and there will be some strategy going on.

but as you point out, the curve time taking jobs at a high wage out of the country, that has been going on for a very long time. so is it a taxation incentive that could perhaps bring some of these companies to invest in new ways in the country? are there other ideas that they can share today? but in part this is one of those ways where the president at a time when his administration is still new and is still trying to demonstrate that it is do willing something can bring these leaders together and showing it. that is part what we're seeing unfold here. >> they don't want him cancelling trade deals. they're worried about a strong dollar. but in fact the intractable problem is he practiced and won a lot of votes based on the idea that he's bringing manufacturing jobs back to canada. wilbur ross, he mentioned, i don't know if he saw wilbur ross in the room. wilbur ross has not been confirmed as the commerce secretary yet. >> that's right.

he is the secretary designate. and it would not be completely unusual to have him visiting because of his relationship with the president and the fact that he is in the pipeline to be confirmed, had his hearing and so forth. there have not been huge outstanding issues with respect to wilbur ross. but you're right, he has not yet been confirmed. also in the meeting, daughter ivanka trump is on the official list. her husband, jared kushner, was called out and praised for the role he's doing. he has an official role in the white house. on the list of participants, ivanka trump is also there. >> notable that the ceo of dow chemical thanked the president for bringing the language of business back, the head of ge talked about his golf outings with the president. the protests outside the white house late last night following the white house's latest move

reversing president obama's order that allow transgenders to use the bathrooms of their gender identity. president trump arguing that issues like this are better left to the states. >> reporter: the states rights issues often come up when we deal with things that come up under the heading of america's culture wars. it's a way for this white house to able to give a nod to the conservatives who are gathering in town for what is known as the cpac convention and more broadly to the conservative base that did help elect donald trump. this is an issue where they can take this action and there's not a real practical implication immediately. the reason for that is that president obama's action to make schools required to provide a neutral bathroom or the ability for a student to use the bathroom of their identity. and that has been held up in the courts. so the fact that president trump has rescinded that order with

his own order is sort of a neutral thing in it practical implications. this will go through the course. it will be determined there and then state by state is the expectation that they will decide and we've seen how, again, the sweep of blacksupppu support for issues like this, where the greatest public awareness of what it means to be transgender and the concern of really the safety and well being of students who are dealing with that issue. it's something that the white house can do that is certainly causing protest but they can try to argue that it will be resolved state by state. >> you make an interesting point that, the news on this is going to help to some degree transgendered students and their friends and families because everybody's going to be talking about it now and we'll get a little closer to an understanding of what the issue is. kelly, so much to talk to you about. i'm going to come back to you a little later because we have a lot of things that haven't been

covered. i'll just premiremind you, pres trump meeting with more than two dozen ceos at the moment to discuss manufacture ing. last we left, it was a bit of a love fest and then they asked the media to leave. more now on the trum of administration's reversal as we were talking about president obama's directive telling public schools really to let students use bathrooms that match their gender identity. the move could undercut the case of one particular student you're looking at here, gavin grimm. it's coming before the supreme court next month. grimm is a high school senior now but he sued a school board in virginia for the right to use the bathroom of his choice. james essex is a member of gavin grimm's leave team. he's also the director of the aclu's lgbt and hiv project. good to see you. thank you so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> tell me just on the technical side, first of all, the betsy devos, the education secretary,

came out and said there's no net effect because there were court challenges to the directive so nobody is getting affected by this. let not talk on the social and cultural side but legally is there a change? >> there's a chang in terms of the message that this administration is sending to transgender kid and their parents -- >> i understand that. i will get to that in a moment. >> i want to make sure people understand the revocation of this guidance, while it's enormously important and send a terrible message, it doesn't change what the law is because the education doesn't get to decide what the law is but the courts decide the law. >> this was an interpretation of title 9 funding by the schools. >> many courts across the country have said things very clearly for the last 15 years, a, that transgender students are

protected by the nation's civil rights laws, including students -- >> that's not a states rights issue. >> and that's not a states rights issue. it's a civil rights issue. and more recently they clarified students get to use facilities based on their transgender right. and the u.s. supreme court in gavin grimm's case will have an opportunity to decide that issue and oral arguments are at the end of march. >> a recent study that came out from the journal of medical association indicated in states where same-sex marriage had been approved, a study over the last 16 years indicates teen super sides among lgbt students had

dropped significantly. in other words, the social message of gay marriage led a lot of gay kids, for instance, to think there's hope for them in the future. so there's a parallel here. >> i think you're absolutely right. the evidence shows increasing acceptance of lesbian, gay and bisexual people has accepted in greater adjustment and lesser anxiety among children. the same is true among transgender youth. >> i would almost think it may be more difficult for them because there's yet another layer of confusion as they're growing up. >> indeed. the evidence shows that transgender students face greater degrees of discrimination and harassment and variety lens in their schools, both by other students and by teachers and staff than nontransgender students. >> and let's not let it be lost on us, these are bathrooms, a place where violence occurs and in many cases where students were bullied. >> it can indeed. for this administration to say

to those transgender students and their parents, we are going to turn our backs on you, we declare that the federal civil rights laws in our view don't cover you is outrageous. they want to gang up on kids. that's astounding. >> i was talking to jornggeorgey earlier. is there something to be said that many americans do not have the same experience with transgender students or transgender people that they do with gay students? >> the country was on a discovery of learning of gay and bisexual people and they are now

on discovery of learning about transgender people. and they're learning they're just like anybody else. >> i'm not looking to make excuses of anyone but would you agree with the observation that people haven't gone down that road, their first instinct may be i can't empathize. i don't know what it's like for a transgender young person to deav decide which bathroom to go to. >> i think people should learn more about gavin's case. there are videos online they can check out to learn more about him. i feel like, look, everybody needs to use the rest room. everybody just wants to use a rest room that is safe and comfortable for them. look at gavin grimm. gavin can't use the girl's room. it doesn't make any sense. girl don't want him there. he couldn't possibly go there. that is not a solution. we just have to recognize the reality that transgender children exist, they are in our

schools all across the country and the schools tell us, the administrators in the schools who have been dealing with and helping transgender students for years tell us that, look, we, too, thought this was complicated, we, too, thought this was kind of scary maybe but then their reality, their experience is actually it's fine. the kid are all fine with it, the parents get to be fine with it and there are no problems. >> james, thanks very much for your time, james esseks, a member of gavin grimm's legal team and director of the aclu transgender team. and coming up at noon eastern we'll have a live report on the reaction of president trump's decision. and that's dale bellis, the executive director of liberty health share speaking to the audience. joining me now is mat schlapp,

chairman of the conservative union. he's the host. i don't see you yet but are you there? matt schlapp? >> i'm with you. >> how are you, matt? it's always good to see you. nice to see you, my old friend. >> good to see you. >> there are a number of members of the trump administration speaking this year. last year then candidate trump abru abruptly cancelled an appearance at cpac and senator cruz said this. let's listen. >> so donald trump is skipping cpac. [ crowd boos ] >> i think somebody told him megyn kelly was going to be here. or even worse, he was told there were conservatives that were going to be here.

>> so, matt, just for our viewers who don't follow the storied history of the acu and cpac very carefully, as i see it, there are about four constituencies there. wi there's a libertarian group, ideological conservatives, regular people, there are establishment republicans who some conservatives doesn't even think are all that conservative and this be there's the trump group. populists who also have some -- people have doubts about their conservative, you know tendencies. how does that all come together? >> that's very interesting. i think you've done a good job of describing the dynamics of a political coalition, which is it's not monolithic. people come to the conservative movement from different paths. now you have donald trump, who is now the titular head of the

republican party and some of the conservatives are so pleased what they've seen in the first 30 days and he's brought new people. to win in a big country like america, you have to patch together enough to get to 50% and that means sometimes we don't agree on everything. when we don't agree at cpac at lease, my job is to put the consistents on the stage so attendees can decide where they come in -- >> i'm making a note, this is the first time you told me i was right about something. >> it's not the first time, it's not the first time. >> earlier there was a speech called "the alt-right ain't right." however in a couple hours you'll be on the stage having a conversation with steve bannon, who wildly associated with the alt-right. tell me about that. >> yeah. so basically this term alt-right

for a lot of us was like a lightning bolt out of the sky. i had never heard what the term was until actually hillary clinton talked about it in a speech during the campaign. of corurse i know what racism i, what intolerance and the kkk is but this is a new term. there are people who have this title, who have intolerant, racist, horrible, immoral views, they have no role in the movement, i don't think they're grounded in anything conservatives are philosophically grounded in. steve bannon and others have used this term before it has been so associated with these racist element and today he would repudiate what these people stand for. i know steve bannon personally. people can disagree with him politically, they can think he pushes too much change and disorder, but i will tell you that he's a good man and he's a tolerant man and he's hired a muslim when he was at breitbart to run his london office, he's

hired jews to work for him. he's not an intolerant sky. >> you can state fairly clearly, it's a big tent, a political coalition but you're not interested in racist. can you say the same thing for ho homophobes, misogynists and racists? >> yes. sometimes it gets down to a definition. many times i'm told by people i'm a hater, i'm an intolerant because of political or moral views i have. that is inappropriate. especially within a lpolitical context. we have to let people talk and ebb press their views. it happens on campus and institutions too often, they are made to feel bad for their viewpoints even when their viewpoints are rooted in moral,

open, tolerant policy views. >> matt, always a pleasure to talk to you. thank you for being with us. i've known you for a long time. i don't think you peddle hate at all. thank you for taking the time to be with us. we'll continue to follow cpac very closely. matt schlapp, head of the american conservative union. >> cnbc's elan wei is here to talk about president trump's meeting with manufacturing ceos. >> you heard him highlight several of the investments the ceos, he pointed to the number of air conditioners that carrier is selling, lockheed added 1,800 to its workforce and a billion dollar investment by gm, again highlighting the role of manufacturers and putting america first.

he also talked about how he felt america's trade deals were all unbelievably bad. you can look on action at renegotiating those trade deals. in the future, he again has a call with canadian prime minister justin trudeau later on today as well. what you didn't hear the president talk about, though, was tax reform and that is certainly a big issue for a lot of these ceos. there's a big debate here in washington over the border, adjustment tax, whether or not congress will pass something that reduces the cost of exports, even though it might increase the cost of imports. you have not seen the president weigh in on that, even though a phenomenal tax cut is supposed to be coming. >> steven mnuchin said he want to get something done before the august recess. we heard it's going to be within two or three weeks and i'm thinking it's going to be a while before we hear about taxes. >> you might see the trump team submit a proposal in just a few

weeks, even though something is not passed until near the august recess. but even that is a pretty aggressive time frame and what we've been hearing is that house republicans are not expecting a whole lot of guidance from the white house. remember there's still a division within the trump administration over whether or not to support this border adjustment tax. they may let congress duke this one out. >> it's worth noting that the president keeps talking about bringing manufacturing jobs back to america and he is surrounded by two dozen ceos of many of the companies that for decades have outsourced those jobs to lower wage countries and don't have any particular interest to bringing them back to high wage america. >> there's a lot of questions about why manufacturing jobs have declined so much in this country. is it because of trade deals or is it because of things like automation? is it because robots are taking or jobs, not necessarily china

or mexico? this is a very complicated issue and one that president trump has said he's going to try to solve through trade policy -- >> except if anybody uses an iphone, foxcon that manufactures them is firing regular pieces and using robots. when the chinese find labor too ex expensive, i'm not sure what that means in america. the photospray is of no use to us. >> thanks, ali. >> the conservative agenda under fire. gop town halls drawing heated crowds and protests across the country. how the facetime could change republican policies. we're live outside an event in arkansas. italian. he was 34% eastern european. so i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors we thought was italian

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this is a live look at a town hall with chuck grassley of iowa. let listen in. >> the only thing i can think about are what nasty things my 4-year-old daughter and i were breathing in and all the people that have died of toxic, noxious. when did we become a toxic country and getting sick from

poo-poo sprayed over our fields literally? meanwhile the nitrogen is flowing into our rivers, lakes and streams and private wells. are you comfortable with iowa being sacrificed for industrial agriculture? the world residents of mrk demand and deserve clean water, clean air, quality of life, sustainable food sources, sustainable practices of agriculture and a future. i'm done! >> let her speak. >> thank you. >> i have a question to ask, number one, she wants to know when we're going to start listening to people. i hope that this is pretty good evidence that i want to listen to people. and, thirdly, she wanted to know about the definition of a family farm. a family farm as opposed to a

corporate farm is where the family does most of the labor. they might hire some help but they do most of the labor. they control of capital and they make all the management decisions, whereas a corporate farm is somebody maybe in chicago -- >> iowa senator chuck grassley taking questions at one of the many town halls that are going on today. nbc's vaughn hilliard was at a raucous town hall last night. tell us what it was like in the auditorium last night. >> reporter: ali, 2,200 constituents came utiliout here. to tom cotton's credit, he agreed to have this town hall, teamed up with the northwest arkansas indivisible group, they picked this theater location, overwhelmingly democrats, independence, president trump cams them liberal agitators.

they put it on tom cotton, said shame on you, do your job. as we were hearing from chuck grassley's town hall, the conversation was directed by epa, scott pruitt. it's a referendum on them to what extent that they are standing behind donald trump, his cabinet picks, scott pruitt at the e.p.a., betsy devos, secretary of education. last night senator cotton was peppered over donald trump's tax returns, offer the border wall, over the extent in which he supports investigation into russian interference in last year's election. it feels a lot of what we heard back into october and november in the election. a lot of these trump voters have passed aside the distractions, internal white house drama, concerns over russia. if you talk to these voters here that were there last night, we're up in iowa who i was with in the first two chuck grassley town halls, a lot of these

concerns come down to donald trump and to what extents they are willing to stand by the president of the united states. >> how do you feel he handled it? did tom cotton do a pretty good job with that big crowd that was sometimes hostile toward him? >> he stayed poised. he stood there for two hours. not many senators can say they've done that, bill cassidy in louisiana. yesterday in tampa bay there was what they called an empty chair town hall that the indivisible group put together because marco rubio has yet to put together a town hall in this state. but tom cotton said they wanted to hear the concerns the voters. tom cotton said from the stage there's 2,000 of you here but there's 3 million in the state and that essentially elections have consequences. which you have seen in the video, it wasn't warmly

received. to his credit the voters said he did stay there and they respected him and appreciated him saying that. >> you're seeing this movement coming up. it's reminisce nt of the tea party movement. it's got a similar flavor to it. thanks for your reporting out there, vaughn. we'll go back to the cpac meetings here. the agenda is packed with trump administration player. coming up next, i'll talk with the former national spokesperson for evan mcmullen for president. if you have medicare

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let's go back to cpac. ted cruz is speaking now. last year he was critical that donald trump didn't even show up. now he's launching a defense of donald trump. >> the cabinet is still not confirmed. it's the longest we been since george washington without a cabinet. we voted a couple weeks ago on eye proving the journal. i'm going to confess, i have no idea what the hell that is. i voted yes. i hope yes is the right vote. approving the journal is the most mundane, procedure step. it is always done by unanimous consent.

i didn't know we did that until they objected to it and said, no, you got to have a full senate vote, everybody come down to approve the journal. what that means if this continues and from the left their base, there's a technical term for their base -- moscow. i was going a different direction, which was bat crap crazy. right now democratic senators are more scared of their base than they the voters. democrat -- a liberal democrat told me a couple weeks ago said, listen, we're afraid of being primaried. the democrats took the lesson of this election that hillary was too moderate. and so their lesson is they need more bernie sanders, more elizabeth warren. that's where senate democrats are. what that means -- >> they're throwing some good

red meat, really good red meat out to a conservative audience at cpac. interesting he's taking aim at filibusters noted he one of the most noted filibusters in history. those of will you remember him reading green eggs and ham all night. that's sort of a bit of the flavor of cpac. what's notable is last year there wasn't a donald trump there. he cancelled late in the game and ted cruz took aim at donald trump for doing so. donald trump will address cpac a little leader. "trump takes over cpac but will he own the conservative movement, too?" this year, donald trump's populist stand is dominating the conference. mark, cpac is always

interesting. donald trump got flak last year for skipping out on the conference. this year kellyanne conway trump. is he going to win over -- there are movement conservatives in that room, lib bettertarians, conservetives, establish republicans in that room. many of whom don't share donald trump's views on things. >> that is a very good point although i do think by the time we get to 2020 or even beyond it is possibly more than possible a lot of those different kind of conservatives get on the trump band wagon. that is the effect that a president ends up having on his or her own party. but you just playing that ted cruz sound right now is a fascinating juxtaposition because it just was a year ago where ted cruz was really the darling for the conservative movement for his social conservative views. donald trump skipped it, there

were some boos in donald trump's direction but now he and his administration are taking over c pac. >> i'm sorry, i didn't know -- there we go. >> these candidates i just talked about is not tea party at all. i know donald trump says that he loves the tea party. but that's not what it takes to be tea party. if you want to be tea party -- if you want to be tea party you have to love your country, and you have to love our constitution. and you have to be willing to fight for them above your own interests. >> yeah, that sound was from jenny beth martin of the tea party patriots giving a very anti-trump speech at c pac a year ago. now everyone is kind of falling in line. and there are so many officials from the trump administration who are going to be dressing c pac over the next three days. >> let's talk about that. is that typical, you have got creek, you have got steven bannon, you have got reince

priebus. these are white house staffers. in fact, there are a bunch of them. there's scott pruitt, the epa secretary as i mentioned earlier, not a big fan of the epa, mcfar land, devos, education seth. but this white house staffers business, that seems to be new. >> back in his refrom 2001 you had two george w. bush staffers addressing c pac, vice president dick chaney and carl roe. two versus the eight. in 1980, ron reagan, he spoke, and a third of his cabinet addressed the group. you can see donald trump is going after a more ronald reagan model then the george w. bush model. >> the dnc members are vogt kpoeted to vote on a new chair person.

i guess the vote is tomorrow? >> saturday. >> saturday. it's thursday now. tell me what you are expecting to see out of that. >> yeah. exactly. it is really right now a two-person race. the front run remembers keith ellison, the democratic congressman from minnesota and tom perez, the former labor secretary in the obama administration. either of them is seen to be the front-runner, but it is possible that a third person could end up possibly he emerging, including the mayor of south ben, indiana. in some ways this race has been looked like almost as a proxy fight between the bernie sanders faction supporting ellison and the obama wing supporting tom per perez. in my reporting that divide among the people who are going to cast a vote is less than what it is on the outside where the people on the outside are the ones fighting the proxy battle. but the peep on the inside would be happy with either. >> let's go back to c pac and

listen in. >> where we have the ability to get back and restore our basic constitutional protections. and to give an indication of just how much impact common sense policies can have, let me shift for a second as we wrap up from the constitution to a basic priority enforcing the border. this week i was down at border, down in mccallan, joined the bar der patrol, did a air patrol up in the planes, rode in a gun boat up the rio grande joined them on a midnight ride i long as they was enforcing the border. let me break a little bit of news here. do you know what the border patrol told me in the rio grande sector? since inauguration day illegal crossings have drop 50%. [ cheers and applause ]

now, oddly enough, you and i have not seen that on the 6:00 news. somehow, reporters are not reporting it. i asked them, i said look why is that? border patrol agents said they didn't know. but they assumed it was because with the new administration they understood we would have an administration that would finally, finally, finally enforce the laws. [ applause ] and i want to commend the men and women at c pac as activists fighting for liberty, fight forth the constitution, you all are incredibly important. you are incredibly important, number one, in shocking and terrifying the mainstream media. [ applause ] which really should be done on a daily basis. but also on holding us accountable. we have the opportunity for this to be an historic congress, the

most productive congress in decades. this year, in 2017, we should repeal obamacare -- [ applause ] >> all right. that's ted cruz continuing his conversation at c pac. joining me now from c pac is rena shaw, a republican strategist and former communications director for evan mcmullen's presidential campaign. she is at c pac now. good to see you. you were a delegate to the republican convention during the campaign but you were stripped of your credentials because you publicly declared back in april that you would reporter vote for hillary clinton than donald trump. you are kind of persona non-grata in some conservative circles. why are you there? >> point of clarification. it was a moment where i was on fox news and i was asked what would you do if donald trump got the nomination? i said i would have to consider the other side.

i never made a declaration. never supported a democrat. i am here because still in the republican party, a live long republican and conservative, unlike president trump, so i'm here. >> did you get stripped of your credentials? >> i did. it was stacked by trump supporters. but i was vindicated at the rnc committee on contest. it was a tremendous battle i had to undertake. i didn't think it was necessary. truly what happened was the breitbart news came at me, and it was fake news that i was a victim of before it became a sensation. >> before it was all over the place. tell me what your aim is there. evan mcmullen does not share a lot of views with the president or a lot of the views that sometimes muddy the waters and complicate things at c pac when they get into the misogynist racist homophobic thing. we spoke with the director, who says it's not what they want but

it sometimes seeps its way in. >> never trumpers like me we had to make a decision on election day, what are we going to do, leave the party, advocate forring some else, anotherert pa, an independent movement so to speak. i decided i have to stay in the party and remain a change agent. i still believe in a big republican party i despite president trump being my party present bearer. no doubt. there is a lot of work that we can do now that we have control of the congress and the executive branch. it is a matter how we do it. i'm up with of those who believe if we repeal obamacare we must have a replacement. we need to be a solutions party. we were known as the party of no. it's time to be solutions party. i'm here because i have been coming to c pac for many years and i believe it is a home to grow the conservative minds. >> are there a lot of young conservatives like you who believe that the republican party shouldn't be the party of no and should have a replace as well as a repeal and all of these things that you are talking about?

>> indeed there are. you just don't hear from them very much. unfortunately sometimes they felt they had to be quiet. in many times like the experience i went through last year we felt like we were push to the periphery of the party to the point where we felt there was no place for us. again we are still here, still talking about solutions, i believe there are people who believe in same sex marriage, there is a group that i'm pro-life for myself, but pro choice for other women. millennial republicans get it. the winds are changing and there are solutions we can get with on the other side. >> rena, good to talk with you. former spokesperson for evan mcmullen, presidential campaign joining us from c pac. i think we are out of time. thank you for watching this hour of msnbc. you can find me on twitter, facebook, instagram, at snap chat. right now on msnbc, peter alexander hosts "andrea mitchell

reports." right now on "andrea mitchell reports" more than a moment of anger boiling over at congressional town halls across the country. is this an election hangover, the start of a movement or as the white house describes it manufactured outrage? >> i'm mary story from fayetteville. and i am not a paid protester. >> some people are clearly upset. but there is a bit of professional protester manufactured base in there. >> i don't really care if anybody here is paid or not, you are all from kansas and i'm glad to hear from you. >> when you look at some of these districts and some of these things, it is not a representation of a members district. >> you want to stand there with him and expect us to be calm, cool, and collected? wow. what kind of insurance do you have? >> it's just, i think that's -- that necessarily -- just because