tv Up With David Gura MSNBC January 5, 2019 5:00am-6:00am PST
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former speaker of the house knows a growth industry when he sees one. that is our broadcast for this friday night and for this week. have a good weekend. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. good morning. welcome to "up." i'm joshua johnson host of the public radio program 1a sitting in for david gura. president trump may bypass congress and declare a national emergency to build the border wall, but could he really do that? >> have you considered using emergency powers to grant yourself authorities to build this wall without congressional approval? and second -- >> now the wall that prompted
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this two-week government shutdown has changed from this -- >> you don't have to go through a concrete wall when you can go over it or around it or under it. >> to this -- >> a see-through wall made out of steel is far stronger than a concrete wall. >> today is saturday january 5th and negotiations to end the shutdown continue today, but what will it take to fully reopen the government? >> we told the president we needed the government open. he resisted. in fact, he said he'd keep the government closed for a very long period of time. months or even years. >> i did say that. absolutely i said that. i don't think it will, but i am prepared. >> "up" with us this hour glen kirchner former federal prosecutor and msnbc analyst, and also from fordham university and matt welch from "reason" and a senior reporter for real
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vision and nbc's mike viqueira is standing by on capitol hill. we'll check in with him momentarily. let us begin with the shutdown and the showdown. it's day 15 of this partial shutdown. yesterday president trump and democratic leaders chuck schumer and nancy pelosi all met at the white house. that meeting did not seem to bring us much closer to a resolution. >> we had a very, very productive meeting, and i think we've come a long way. >> we just complete add lengthy and sometimes contentious conversation with the president. >> this is national security we're talking about. we're not talking about games. >> the democratic side that we really cannot resolve this until we open up government, and we made that very clear. >> we won't be opening until it's solved. we think this is a much bigger problem. the border is a much more dangerous problem, a much bigger problem. >> in fact, he said he's keep the government closed a very long period of time.
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months or even years. >> this really has a higher purpose than next week's pay. >> with the panel here, i wonder if the key to what drives this shutdown towards a conclusion is the way that the american people feel it. here is part of what the "washington post" has reported on the way that this is affecting everyday americans. the "post"reported food stamps for 38 million low-income americans would face severe reductions and more than $140 billion in tax refunds at risk of being froez frozen or delayed if the government shut down stretches into february. the trump administration had not anticipated a long-term shutdown realized the breadth of the impact, several key officials said. maybe that's the key. maybe not when congress deems it expedient but when everyday people say, no, this needs to stop. >> the president is entering into really dangerous waters and the problem, he has no empathy, we've seen time and time again and doesn't understand the
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extent to which the shutdown effects everyday americans in their pocketbooks. this is a man calling it a strike. a man who is performing for cameras because he wants a win, but he doesn't really fundamentally understand the institution of congress or the institution of the executive office, so he's just, digging in his heels. the problem is, when we've seen shutdowns in the past, they actually do affect the president and his party in adversarial ways. so even members of the republican party are saying we need to wrap this up, because this wall is, it's an idea. right? it goes to his racist ideology, talking about lots of immigrants coming in and his xenophobic nationalistic way of seeing the country but real implications for american who actually need an application of policy to move forward. >> any points legally by which the shutdown might have to end? clearly this is very much political. what is-of-dodoes the law say a this? >> may not be a legal remedy to
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force the parties to come together and fund the government, reopen the government, but it has so many tentacles out into our community our president is not thinking of obviously. one example. i was at my old office, the u.s. district attorneys office district of columbia. colleagues said our grand jurors are not paid their $40 stipend to come in, sit, hear eford and return indictments in cases. guess what? they're not showing up. we don't have a quorum. we can't ask for a timely indictment. let me play out what that means for our community in washington, d.c. if we can't get a timely indictment, there are defendants sitting at the d.c. jail pending indictment because a judge deemed they're a danger to the community. if we can't get the grand jury to return a timely indictment, they may be released back into the community. there are thousands of implications beyond what we have just been talking about regarding the shutdown. >> some of those implications may be on the agenda of members of congress meeting over the
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weekend including with vice president mike pence when we bring in nbc's mike viqueira from capitol hill. what's it look like now? is anybody actually working their way towards ideas that could resolve this shutdown? or does it still feel like gridlock? >> reporter: feels like where we when it started three, or two weeks ago, joshua. we're waiting to see what the fallout will be. where the political pressure points are going to emerge. obviously, the president is playing to his base. that is one thing that speaks to the intractability of this, because if the president loses his base then the president has no political base whatsoever, and that is why we're seeing this standoff at this point. you are absolutely correct. at this point there be congressional staff heading up to the old executive office building next to the white house to negotiate at 11:00 this morning at the staff level with white house officials. that does really not speak to any o optimism because it's all driven by the top and become a
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political escheher issue. you mentioned political expediency taking the place of real people's voices speaking out. more than overflowing trash cans at national parks, joshua. it's affecting people at a be n granular level. until people really start speaking out, until one side or the other sees very distinct and tangible political pain here, i'm afraid this is going to continue into the foreseeable future. >> what about that tangible pain? what do you think it is that pushes us forward? mike said, right now kind of delegated basically to staff. all the big play verse kind of gone home for the weekend. where does that push, that pain, start to make a difference? >> you already started to hear that, what? hundreds of tsa employees were calling in sick. there's going to be a breaking point somewhere. i'd love to know how it is that the government would stay shut down for years, the way that the president wants it to. if we're talking about the real
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world effects, what people feel about it, you also need to look at polling. if the wall is what's at the center of this entire debate, the majority of americans poll after poll show you they don't support the wall. there certainly is a divide among party lines, but it's just more proof that this has been a political stunt all along, and that this is something that the president uses as a political weapon, the same way he's used the troops who he sent down to the border. i feel like there has to be a breaking.somewhere but it's didn't very transparent all along. i don't know when the president actually gives in. >> the wall actually becomes less popular over time, as do all government shutdowns in modern history. at the end of ted cruz' you know temper tantrum in 2013, his position was not just worse from a negotiating point but the whole notion of republicans using and the house of representatives in particular using these deadlines and showdowns to force their hands to keep a cap on government spending, that was out the window by the end of that.
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no more of that afterwards. and i would as, my god, talking yesterday. the president of the united states was talking about using the military version of eminent domain. this is one of the reasons why there isn't a 2,000-mile wall right now, because something like two-thirds of the property along the border in text is in private hands. this would be one of the most single draconian acts of government coercion and force over what used to be a conservative principle. truly alarming in a way overflowing trash cans to me are not. >> with regards to people stating their opposition or support for the wall, here's a little more of what folks told us on 1a this week. >> i'm a furloughed employee between congress and the president doesn't seem like a big priority to get us back to work. i love my agency and i want to work. >> stress. not knowing where my next
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paycheck's going to be, when it's going to be. >> if i'm not able to get paid you certainly should not get paid because i do my job. you're not doing your job. >> if this did not affect my household directly i would tell him to stand tall, but since it does affect me and we're talking myself and my wife, are government employees. therefore, if this continues we will not have a paycheck. so therefore i would say there has to be some kind of an agreement. >> so some of the people speaking out both to us on 1a and also to nbc news this week. i hear you, glen, saying not much of a legal remedy to push this forward. there's also political hay to the made on both sides. let's be clear. both from democrats saying, see, this is president trump at his worst, and some republicans saying this is president trump standing his ground. the comment that the president made, christina, about this lasting potentially months, potentially years, sounds audacious until you hear the log jam. like i'm not sure what breaks this. >> i don't know. i mean, and i don't think the
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president knows because we've been on this roller coaster with him the past two years's literally, he hears something, he goes with it. ask him a question, you can literally see he hasn't thought tab and speaks extemporaneously, oh, yeah. maybe i should do that. the question is suddenly a suggestion. dangerous. the vast majority of americans are living paycheck to paycheck. i was in graduate school six years. i know what living paycheck to paycheck is. these are people with families, mortgage, kids that need supplies and christmas was here. right? the president does not care. so when he says, ah, could be weeks, months, years. i don't know. we'll see. i mean, you know -- then he -- like landlords, be easy on them. that is absolutely rittous. it is absolute theater. he wants to win something and cannot use eminent domain, we would hope, but he thinks he can. anyone from new york knows this
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is a president who who's used to, loses, files for bankruptcy and goes home. >> theatrics may continue unless someone, democrats, republicans, can resolve this. makes me wonder, if you have a cot next to you where you're sitting on capitol hill, you could be there a really long time. is anybody on capitol hill foreseeing an expedient or reasonably ex-speed yapedient r? >> no one who negotiates for the president, much less these staffers negotiating today with their counterparts in congress. we saw that mike pence came at the outset of this shutdown, made a grand show of marching past the senate chamber, past a group of reporters into chuck schumer's office where was revealed later he put a $2.5 billion number on the table and the president pulled the rug out from under pence, really not a viable negotiation. so i think it's true of both
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democrats and republicans that they don't know what's going to happen at the other end of pennsylvania avenue. so they're certainly not going to go out on a limb. joshua? >> nbc's mike viqueira on capitol hill this morning. thanks very much. much more to come as we keep going up the delicate dance, what some democrats are doing, our next topic. what's appropriate and what crosses the line? >> when a bus boy said to me, when the president says to you that the mueller investigation is going along too long, just remind him, not as long as his audit of his tax return. ax retu. not cool. freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting? now that's cool! coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. and no surgery. results and patient experience may vary. some common side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort, and swelling. ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you.
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this is "up." i'm joshua johnson. the 116th congress is making history as the most diverse ever. nancy pelosi is back as speaker of the house after enduring a rebellion among democrats to reclaim the gavel. she is the only woman to serve as speaker and one of the few to serve twice. as the government shutdown grinds on, pelosi is not holding back. >> this is not a wall between mexico and the united states that the president is creating here. it's a wall between reality and his constituents. >> fiery rhetoric is nothing new in washington, but it's gotten unusually hot with some democrats. namely, freshman congresswoman
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rashida tlaib. >> when your son looks at you and says, mama look, you won. bullies don't win and i said, baby, they don't because we're going to go in there and impeach the mother [ bleep ]. >> and a sitdown with joy reid first day back as full speaker, commented on tlaib's statement and outlined her vision for the next two years. >> i don't, again, establish any language standards from my colleagues, but i don't think it's anything worse than the president has, what the president has said. >> if she were a man would they be making a case like this? >> impeachment is a very divisive approach to take and we shouldn't take this anything other than the facts and the law. one of the bus boys said to me, when the president says to you that the mueller investigation is going along too long, just remind him, not as long as his
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audit of his tax return. >> back again with my panel. let me throw this out about rashida tlaib. i'm wondering if -- to set the profanity aside, i wonder if maybe this moment is significant, because congresswoman tlaib acted as the id of the democratic party. what a number of people have been thinking she said out loud. i wonder if that may be the real concern, matt? nancy pelosi has been trying to control the id of the democratic party for some time and focus 0en a policy agenda which could be legitimatety be derailed even if it's legitimately what many democrats are thinking and feeling? >> i don't think anything will get derailed thinking about impeachment. it's easy to think about as impeachment. sit on your hands and wait for mueller to do what he's doing. he's basically delivered most of the time during this process and trump and his supporters
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underdelivered on the various theories what's happening with the deep state on the other side. sit and wait that out anytime anyone gets out from over their skis too much, that disrupts the message somewhat. all that said, the fact this is a controversy now is a little bit puzzling to me. what i would encourage everyone to do, democrats and republicans, independents like me, journalists especially, when you have a hierarchy what should be a controversy, to me somewhere down near the bottom of it is stuff that doesn't affect the wielding of government power. so the tone of the minority party that happens to hold the house, that affects no legislation, affects no wielding of presidential executive authority, no life or death issue, this is really near the bottom of that all and we should keep a sense of perspective about that. >> i wonder about that, though. willingness of the congresswoman to go all, like, samuel l. jackson on the president in that little taped moment has given voice to something that a lot of people feel. nancy pelosi obviously is still,
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you know, a major player in the party. is this much ado about nothing? does this have potential to fire people up in a more concrete way? >> words matter. they carry weight. can set the tone. especially if your words are damping to broad sets of people. they can show what your feeling is, like for the president, the way he speaks about women, the way he speaks about immigrants, but in this case it was a profane word. i don't think that profanity is something we need to be worried about in this case i find the president's actions much more morally rep prehence about what ywhat -- reprehensible. throwing children in cages, and okay with the murder of a journalist and stuck by the saudi government. i get particular yi frustrated and upset when i hear a lot of republicans, anyone else, taking a moralistic tone about language when there are other things if we really had a sense of morality we would be much more deeply upset by them. >> i think it qualifies as irony
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we heard reported that when trump was meeting with speaker pelosi and others recently, i think yesterday, he started out with, you know, the trump profanity jamboree and yet now we've got to pull out the swooning couch because he's so upset by what representative tlaib said. i don't think profanity has a place in our public discourse, personally. when i was in the army, profanity or two may have slipped out of my mouth, but i think what we saw from representative tlaib was a constitutional exuberance because we have been without checks and balances, been without oversight and even for people who have not lived the political life, we're excited that we now have some sort of constitutional santy in balance, sort of emerging courtesy of the democratic house. >> may i throw in a cut from the netanyahu, christina, about the way that pelosi made her way into beak speaker this time. what the "times" reported. many newly elected members campaigned calling for change in
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washington and for a new generation of leadership for their party and had promised not to vote for ms. pelosi as part of a final deal to shore up support ms. pelosi agreed to limit her speakership to four years. already a kind of generational shift happening. nancy pelosi still the speaker of the house. how do we see that playing out going forward for this second time around at speaker? >> listen, i don't agree with everything nancy pelosi does but i have the utmost respect for nancy who knows local politics and got her start in baltimore. right? her full name. >> you must be a fan. >> i am. she understands and respects the government and the institutions therein. so i think it's a -- it's great. right? we saw unfortunately, you know when barbara lee did not win and hakeem jeffries elevated, back channels, clearly a generational divide, but nancy pelosi created a spot for barbara lee to have leadership. right? she understands many of the
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moving parts. she understands that a lot of these young freshmen are coming in with a lot of energy and exuberance and don't even know how to turn the lights on. she's saying, listen, let's work together. right? i respect the fact you want to change things. the difference is, the framers actually don't make it easy for us to change things for a reason. they don't want us to be exuberance and turn the "titanic" and the bathtub. she's ecenteressentially sayinge help you learn the ropes and then come in with new and fresh ideas. we have to walk and chew gum same time especially talking policy and impeachment. >> a lot of this is forced on nancy pelosi. because they're exuberant, outspoken and challenged her. it's good. she's scared and knows she has to play to both sides. >> unlike some of the male leadership seen in the past, she's smart enough to realize to
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compromise and play both sides. >> one place we're seeing a lot of xrub exuberance. >> just cleaned this place up. >> that makes me want a doughnut. >> i'm starting to get me some chocolate on that note. >> still to come, the 2020 presidential hopefuls descending upon iowa. a break too. you may know their names but do you know their credentials? test your memory. first, barack obama appeared in an unlikely place. on the billboard charts, and, no, it was not for this. ♪ i -- am so in love with you >> obama teamed up with lin-manuel miranda nix up the song "one last time" from "hamilton. track 22 on the current bill
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is shaping up with big developments this week. senator elizabeth warren headed to iowa after announcing her presidential exploratory committee. she spoke last night to a room overflowing with fans. >> this is the fight of my life. i didn't pick this because it poll tested. i picked it, because it picked me. >> also former maryland governor martin o'malley threw his support behind beta o'rourke and cale senate dianne feinstein said she would back joe biden. sparking comparisons about age, race, gender, personality. things you don't always find on a resume, but if you stripped those away and just looked at credentials, who would you find? see if you can recognize these potential candidates just by their achievements. which one served as california's
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attorney general? who raised the most money ever in a u.s. senate race? who taught as a professor at harvard law? and which one served as secretary of housing and urban development? the answers -- kamala harris, california's ag, beto o'rourke set fund-raising record for senate race, castro hud secretary and elizabeth warren taught at harvard law. a few of the at least two dozen democrats who might run or are running for president. the panel is back with us, and as if we didn't have enough to think about right now, 450,000 people running for the democratic nomination. how does this -- now, i don't even know where this begins to shake out. >> i'm interested in the way elizabeth warren is making a play to a trump electorate. interesting overlaps to donald trump, talks about the people left behind by policy, how the regular guys gotten screwed over
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by sort of crony capitalists. a skeptic on trade deals and use of american troops in abroad in wars i find congenial. her biggest difference in him, opposite of where donald trump is, also probably the most consistent advocate for the regulatory states whereas donald trump has been a big derag later or slow downer of regulation. >> a slower downer. >> but it is interesting that this is, we're seeing a version of kind of left populism in response to trump being right populism, and i wonder if that is going to be the ultimate identity of the democratic party going forward jie think it's going forward? i think it's a contested issue. >> and elizabeth warren populism fighting back against crony capitalism. bernie sanders populism. there's donald trump populism. there was barack obama populism. yes, we can, was a populist message. i wonder if this is kind of the rinse and repeat of washington
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politics? like the same playbook in different people's hands which maybe makes it harder for the field to shake out, because everybody knows how the playbook works. >> none of these candidates invented populism, for sure. i think overall the fact we have a million potential candidates right now is great. i think that's the best thing that could happen for the democratic party, because one of the biggest mistakes last time around that i think really rubbed so many people the wrong way was this kind of feeling of expectation, this feeling that hillary clinton was just deemed to be the candidate at the very beginning and there would be no other competition there. i really hope we don't fall into that same boat now with elizabeth warren, but if there is true, healthy competition within the democratic party that forces the public to get to know some of these people better, that forces these potential candidates to take positions, make statements on policy, like elizabeth warren, for example, with the green new deal. like elizabeth warren being more active and more vocal when it
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comes to foreign policy. something she always shied away from in the past, that's great. we need to that she out. >> and the question on syria earlier this week. >> we must make sure we have a campaign and not a coronation. they did that in 2016 coronated hillary clinton after the american democrats in 2008 let some 44-year-old black man whose name was hussein knock off the most expected to win. it's going to be painful because democrats are now in some would argue a civil war, some disagree with that, but what direction are we going in as the democratic party? are we going to be leftists, sort of hard core democrats where we believe in progressive ideas? or are the democrats going to sort of stay centrist and try and capture some of the disaffected republicans who don't want to be seen as xenophobic, anti-semitism semitic, racist or allied with trump. >> also, glen, i wonder how we
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view the presidential role in all this? a tweet from the president referring to 2020 where he writes, the shutdown is only because of the 2020 presidential election. the democrats know they can't win based on all of the achievements of trump, so -- in quotes -- go all-in on the desperately wall and border security and presidential harassment. for them, strictly politics. >> exclamation point. >> how does president trump factor into all of this? there are certain candidates i think he would love to face in 2020 because he knows how to make political hay of them a. combination of bob mueller and the new congress is going to take care of president trump. so i don't they he's going to be a force in the upcoming 2020 elections. i do hope, we broke through one enormous barrier that i don't know we ever thought we would break through which barack obama was elected. that breathed life into the saying, anybody can be president, and he opened up a whole new window for the community. i'm hoping, maybe selfishly
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because i've raised five daughters, i'm hoping we can now say moving forward to women, anybody can be president and it will ring true, it will resonate with the young women coming up in this country. >> isn't that part of the risk with hillary clinton hardest, highest glass ceiling? a number who now say we're not that crazy about a woman president. there are a lot of great candidates. no one best candidate. ends up being a woman, breaking through another important barrier. >> a little more to say in a moment about another possibly potential maybe 2020 candidate. someone who blasted the president as a phony and a fraud. the president called him a total failure. where mr. trump and his latest gop critic differ. and where they agree. next. i can't tell you who i am or what i witnessed,
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here's what i know. donald trump is a phony. a fraud. his promises are as worthless as degree from trump university. >> and i said, mitt cannot run. he choked like a dog. >> the bullying. the greed. the showing off. the misogyny. >> i don't think i would point to the president as role model for my grandkids. >> look, mitt is a failed candidate. he failed. he failed horribly. >> a few of the jabs between mitt romney and donald trump over the last few years. the newly sworn in senator romney re-ignited his public
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criticism of mr. trump in a new year's day op-ed in the "washington post." that raised questions about whether he will vocally oppose the white house. add that to the speculation that romney might challenge the president in 2020. but the gallup poll shows president trump's approval rating among republicans stands at 88%. the second highest in recent history for a president at the middle of his term. back again with the panel, let me grab a quote from the romney op-ed in the "washington post." here's part of what now senator romney wrote. "to a great degree a presidency shapes the public character of the nation. a president should unite us and inspire us to follow our better angels." he goes on to write, with a nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential qualities are indispensable and in this prau province where the incumbent's shortfall is most glaring.
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quote/unquote. that part of the op-ed. i'm wondering, jeff flake saysed same thing. wrote a book named after the book by barry goldwater. bob corker, exact same things. said a lot, didn't do a lot and now neither is in congress, nope. >> when i say do a lot. as you said, words matter. what i mean is, in terms of concretery ly opposing the president's political agenda, not much. >> because what the trump presidency has exposed in so many ways is that most of the policies, most of the things trump pushed forward has been dreams of the republican party for a very long time. he's gone about them by maybe approaching it in a more crass way, saying things that the republican party normally wouldn't say, but in many respects, when it comes to immigration, when it comes to social programs, the republican party has wanted what trump has been putting into place and that's why they've been, some have been outspoken.
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the majority silent, and they've been okay with everything. so, yeah. for mitt romney, the rest of that op-ed talked about places where he agreed with donald trump and did well when it cams to economic policy when it came to taxes and so i just think we all have to remember that and trump is right. mitt romney maybe like hillary clinton, if you've been rejected a couple of times by your party, may be remembered. >> i'm glad you brought that up. a list of areas president trump and senator romney agree and disagree. look at this. things they agree on. both support a border wall. romney supports the president's u.s. corporate tax rates. now senator romney approved of decision to crack down on china's trade practices and agreeded with position of conservative judges. agreements, shift to disagreement including the president's response to the attack in charlottesville. sound like, also the president's support for roy moore senate's campaign. romney disagreed on that and that the president attacks the media too much and disagreed
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with his decision to pull troops out of syria also precipitating the resignation of defense secretary jim mattis. i wonder, christina, if mitt rom na, lack of a better term can have it both ways? he's too harsh. shouldn't be attacking the immediate jahr, crass rhetoric. we must return to more decency and get all the policy aims and benefit from both halves, a critic and supporter at the same time? >> that scenario could work. i agree completely. romney is essentially a dignified trump. in many ways they want the same things and these republicans have been champing at the bit for this to happen. we saw the way they behaved under eight years of obama and now you have trump, they don't necessarily like the message but the package has been delivering. no, he hasn't been incredibly successful under unified government when he had it for two years but look at supreme court and see there are two conservative jumps under trump. right? look at tax plans that are going
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to devastate 90% of americans. we can see that. many republicans are just fine with that. environmental rollbacks that benefit them in many ways. end of the day, republicans in office will make some money as will their associates and they're fine with that and don't like the fact trump is a brute and he is misogynistic and all the other adjectives we can use but end of the day, they're getting what they wanted for at least, like, 30 years. >> so matt welsh, romney 2020? >> i don't think he will run. i think he's paving the way for someone else to run. he could, though. unlike jeff flake and bob corker he's as safe a republican senator as can be. no way he's going to lose a re-election in the state of utah. jeff flake and a lot of people early opponents of donald trump, are mormons. a mormon rejection of donald trump based on something you might call mormon decency. some is springing from all of
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that. that said, mitt romney's opponent, if he's being serious about his job is mitch mcconnell. it's not donald trump. because mitch mcconnell is the one who blocks amendments a revote on the 100-0 vote, you know, continuing the government into february, which nancy pelosi put right back on his desk. if the senate majority leader is terrified of the president and doesn't allow people to debate or put forth bills or amendments that is the problem and if you're just going to give speeches based and rhetoric, you're going to frustrate people quickly with your impotence. >> as an interviewer, i have much more fun not asking people, so are you going to run in 2020? i have more fun saying i don't think you're running. prove me wrong. well, i might actually. i'm just thinking -- when you're ready to run say so. say so today? okay. you ain't running. to me, much more fun. coming up, probably why it gets me a lot. coming up, one gop strategist says a new composition of the
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new house should send a shiver through anyone who cares about the future of the republican party. we'll show you why, just ahead. stay close. s been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪ get your usaa auto insurance quote today.
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people. this week, the house made history by reflecting more of this nation than it ever has. and the pictures speak for themselves. here is how it looked 30 years ago. and here is how it looks today. the house now has more than a hundred women. the old record was 84 women. most of them are democrats. the republicans have 13 female house members, the same number they had back in 1989. the house has 512 black members, 39 hispanic members and 20 asian american members. we now have the first two muslim women in congress and the first two native american women. the panel is back with me. and it's hard to look at some of the images, glenn, this week from the swearings in without being a little bit moved. this was one of those rare weeks or at least it's been rare over the last few years where people inside the beltway, you could
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tell they were viscerally proud to be in washington, to be on capitol hill. the it was effusive. >> when you say that picture of people in the house today, it's like, welcome to america. we're all immigrants unless we're native americans. and there is a constitutional exuberance. >> you can see how very different it looks then to now. >> yeah. and we're reinstalling i think what the constitution contemplates, checks and balances, oversight, that's good for the country. >> i think, you know, what i'm excited about is not just the dedescriptive representation, but the substantive representation that will come through the doors with basically a lot of these women that are
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coming in. all issues affect women. >> and women's issues affect everybody. >> they affect the entire country, right? so i'm really excited to see not just the fervor of these newly elected members of congress, but their ideas. and many of them won despite the democratic party in their various primaries. they have these insurgent candidacies where they door knocked and they got people excited about the possibility of them and their policy suggestions. so i know there will be a tension, new versus old, the direction of the party, but i think the substantive representation of this collective america is going to be much better. >> matt, what about that concern we mentioned earlier from the gop strategist about this being a wake-up call for the republican party? i feel like part of the conversation along that line, the subtext of that is if the republicans don't shape up,
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they're going to be extinct in a few years. there won't be a republican party or at least it won't exist anything like its current incarnation. what do you make of that? >> the subtext is we're going to become california, what happened to the california gop after pete wilson made a nativive turn in the 1990s and we are going to be a place where there's no republican statewide official. orange county doesn't have any republican members of congress. >> which is a big shift. >> part of the reason of that i think is the way republicans turn to a more restrictionist pose there. you hear these coming as they look around to what happens. >> what is the strategy here for the gop? do they want to reflect more of what the democrats are reflecting? >> supposedly.
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they did an youautopsy the last time, too. hr1 vastly changed voting rights and maybe the congress would have looked like this a long time ago. >> that i think all for spending this hour with us. i'm going to get into this in just a minute. but coming up next hour, president trump says he would let the shutdown continue for months, maybe years to get the border wall built. but impeachment is all some can talk about. plus, senator elizabeth warren is barn storming the hawkeye state as we speak. we'll take you there at warren pitches iowa for the first time. pitches iowa for the first time. to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back.
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congress and she made waves for saying this. >> when your son looks at you and says, mommy, i love you won. bullies don't win. 1k3 i said no, they don't. because with we're going to go in there and beat back those mother -- >> i know and have heard many -- from many of my residents who are keep up the fight, rashida. they love that i'm real and that i am very much focused on getting the government back up and running, but also making sure that holds the president of the united states accountable. i very much hold dearly that i want to impeach this president. >>
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