beyond whatever is afflicting president trump is that the republican party is going along with him. >> thanks for your time. that's going to wrap up this hour of msnbc live. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today." "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. >> i'm andrea mitchell in washington where we are moments away from an unprecedented victory lap from an impeached president. president trump will tout his acquittal from the white house east room telegraphing what we will see this hour with a stunning display at this morning's national prayer breakfast, gloating to the crowd while using his platform at the annual nonpartisan religious event to attack mitt romney and nancy pelosi, the speaker sitting just feet away from him at the head table. >> yesterday courageous republican politicians and leaders had the wisdom, the

fortitude and strength to do what everyone knows was right. i don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. nor do i like people who say i pray for you when they know that that's not so. >> speaker pelosi responding today with an attack against mr. trump's state of the union speech for false statements in which she viewed as political stunts. >> a president using the congress of the united states as a backdrop for a reality show. the whole state of the union was beneath the dignity of the white house. i have tried to be gracious with him. i'm always dignified. i thought that was a very dignified act compared to that. but we will not allow any

president to use that capital, that chamber of the house of representatives, the people's house, as a backdrop for him. not all presidents have guests, constant guests, that was not a state of the union. that was a state -- his state of mind. >> when the president commands the microphone at the white house momentarily, mr. trump is expected to resume his attacks against his political enemies not only pelosi but also mitt romney, the first senator from the president's own party to ever vote for conviction and removal from office. >> i have broad enough shoulders to be able to weather personal changes in my career, political or otherwise. but what i don't have is the capacity to ignore my conscious. i don't have the capacity to say that what was wrong was not wrong. what the president did was wrong. >> chris matthews is going to be

joining us throughout the hour. good morning, chris. first of all -- >> good morning. >> your reactions to the extraordinary developments today. there you are in new hampshire, has the primary start to elect the next president and what we've seen is the existing president at the national prayer breakfast attacking his perceived political enemies and pelosi striking back. >> well, when a prayer breakfast becomes the equivalent of high noon with that kind of -- well, political firepower being displayed in the morning at a religious event you know we're in trouble in terms of a divided government. there's no word for this kind of government. the fact is, the president is in a payback mode right now. we're seeing how he's acquitting himself now. and i think senator collins with her good will in covering her own vote not to vote to convict is looking for out of it right now. this president is not on a road to recovery or repeal or change,

he is going to get worse. it looks like in terms of payback. >> and when we think about how unprecedented this is, bill clinton in 1999 coming into the rose garden and apologizing for the behavior for which he was impeached, we're not expecting an apology. in fact we're expecting to hear that he's going to talk about payback against his enemies. >> you know, two things happened yesterday and one was very tragic and one was wonderful. we lost curt douglas. and the great thing is he made lonely are the behavior and he was courageous in his private life because he was the one who ended the blacklist in hollywood. and so this kind of courageous, for mitt romney to do what he did, i was glad he was praised today in the church of jesus

christ of latter day saints in newspaper, they praised his performance, his guts yesterday and i think that's powerful stuff. i think we're living in a time where we see cases of courageous and anybody who doubts the religions convictions of mitt romney is in trouble. it isn't some political adventure for him, it's who he is long before he ran in office. what he said about his dad, george romney, who we both covered and saw as a political leader. his father lives within him in terms of courageous and standing up for beliefs. i think it was a great day that a united states senator could show that kind of bravery. >> i know you're going to be with us for the whole hour, but joining us today as well, peter alexander, kristen welker at the white house as well, and we have "new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker. usa today washington bureau

chief susan page, and chief correspondent dan balz. peter, take us to the room right there in the east room where they have a formal setup and we're no told no questions anticipated from reporters. >> i think that's exactly right. it's a jovial mood in her. to me it feels as if the celebration that happened at trump tower or trump hotel we should say here in d.c. yesterday evening has moved over to the east room of the white house. and the front row, the president will be seeing the faces staring at him of some of his favorites in congress, mitch mcconnell, many members of the house as well. those fierce advocates who we've seen on television defending him and what he says i think will be striking. i anticipate this will be a rallying type atmosphere ahead of the 2020 election. it will be celebratory but also filled with spite based on what

we've seen him say. the white house press secretary this morning on fox news saying, quote, that democrats should be held accountable. it is likely that the president, as we witnessed this morning at the prayer, that shattered the bipartisanship that we see here, will not just celebrate this moment, but will lash out at his political opponents. it starts moments from now and i anticipate this is going to be a pretty lively room. >> and kristen welker, you've been reporting on the president throughout this impeachment saga nonstop. he feels vindicated but he's also taking it very personally, the romney attacks against romney in particular. >> he's taking it very personally, andrea and you see it in the fact that donald trump jr. is calling for romney to essentially be kicked out of the republican party, not realistic, but it shows you the level of ire within the president's inner

circle. i was here, andrea, just to take you back to that moment, when mitt romney was on the senate floor announcing that he was in fact going to vote to convict on one count and you could feel the disappoi disappointment seep in here in the west wing, officials glued to the tv as they watched mitt romney make that very emotional announcement. a number of officials said we're not entirely surprised but the fact that you have romney breaking with president trump, the fact that you have every single democrat voting in lock step means this was not the win that the president was hoping for. he wanted to be able to claim this as a bipartisan victory. he was prepared to do that if he had won over at least one democrat. they were looking at joe manchin and ultimately joe manchin voted in lock step with the other democrats to convict. so this is going to be a victory lap. there's no doubt about that. it's not going to be the type of victory lap that president trump was hoping to take. and as peter notes, there will

be some spite in it as well. i think you will see him try to turn the page because he's gearing up for the battle ahead, his re-election campaign, and he knows in order to do that, he has to focus on the future and not dwell on these simmering frustrations he has with mitt romney, the democrats and other rivals. >> and on capitol hill, susan page is joining us and was at nancy pelosi's comments today. forgive me if i interrupt you and the president walks in, but we want to talk about pelosi and her explanation for why she tore up -- famously tore up her copy of the state of the union speech the other night and why she had been so aggressive in challenging the president. >> if anyone expected nancy pelosi to back off from tearing up the script to the state of the union address, they were disappointed today. she came out firing. she said it was entirely appropriate. she was it was more courteous

than what else she might have done with that script. she was critical of the president for the nature of his state of the union address. she was it was like reality tv and she said it was at odds with the facts on any number of fronts, for instance, when the president asserted and got applause for promising to protect people who have pre-existing health conditions. she pointed out that the administration has been trying to undercut the affordable care act which provides that kind of protection. speaker pelosi was nearly apologizic or expressing regrets. if you thought impeachment was over, i don't think it's over yet. >> and i wanted to play a bit of what nancy pelosi also said very starkly about the threats that have been coming at her because she says of some of the comments coming from the white house and from the president's supporters. let's watch that. >> i do think they should reign in their comments. they're going to be pay back to

us for upholding the constitution of the united states for a democracy, a republic if we can keep it, for something our men and women in uniform fight to protect, our freedom, our constitution and the aspirations of the children who depend on living in a democracy that is unquestioned in terms of that, where we have freedom of the press to be guardians of that democracy. so, you know, i'm not very fond on commenting on anything they say. if it's threatening, it's wrong. >> and peter baker from the "new york times," you've literally written the book on impeachment. how different is this from what we all witnessed in 1999? >> i think susan is right, impeachment is not over. the vote has been taken, the articles of impeachment are a dead letter. but the battle is still to go. the difference from 1999 and we were there, we saw it not only did president clinton come out

and try to offer regret for his own actions and then forgiveness for his enemies, he was asked that by a reporter, those who asked for forgiveness ought to be able to offer it. both of them felt like the impeachment had been a sour moment in the american life, the president wanted to move on from scandal, the republicans felt they had suffered at the ballot boxes as a result. they lost two speakers in the process. everybody at that point wanted to move on. i think that's the exact opposite here. both sides are ready for battle. we're heading into an election year in which this will be resolved. >> dan balz, let's talk about the impact on 2020 and on the democratic party. so fractured by the delayed iowa results and by the way new hampshire is even shaping up. >> well, i think the democrats

are at a low point right now and understandably so. the president has emerged from this. he did not get the bipartisan acquittal that he hoped for. he got a poke from mitt romney, but the democrats came out of iowa without a sense of what they were going to be able to do going forward. the kind of fiasco on election night which cost everybody something makes it difficult for people to regroup. i think that after the impeachment process there are a lot of rank-and-file democrats who are demoralized about this. i think there is a fear in the democratic party that they are headed for a potentially long and difficult nomination battle. they see what the president was able to do by turning the state of the union address into a political rally on his own behalf. they recognize the organization that the trump re-elect committee is building in the battleground states and so they are looking around and wondering what are we going to do?

we're a long way from november. we know how divided the country is over this presidency. and so, you know, we shouldn't leap to any particular conclusions. but you would have to say the democrats are in a tough spot. >> and joining us now, jeff merkley. senator, thank you very much. the president may interrupt by walking in at any moment. quick reaction to the state of the democratic party with no clear front-runner with a battle now between buttigieg and bernie sanders, two very different types of candidates in new hampshire, and the former vice president really falling far behind? >> well, i feel very good about the state of the democratic party. you had so many different candidates who were bringing thoughts to bear on the fundamentals for families to thrive on health care, education, living wage jobs, and the fact that they are presenting competitive visions,

i think it's in the end going to bring everyone together because however much they might agree on some details, there's 90% on the same wavelength and we know it's a very different lane than the lane that president trump is playing in. >> chris matthews is with us in new hampshire as well. chris, you have a question for the senator? >> senator, it seems to me the democrats are still in the playoffs. they're not in the super bowl yet. we don't know whether it's going to be biden or it's buttigieg or bloomberg, going to win that side, that lane, and we don't know yet until bernie wins up here whether he or elizabeth warren are going to be the leader on the providigressive s. how do you see the race right now going into new hampshire? >> new hampshire has a big role in helping to define who occupies those parts of the competition going forward. but i must say that i think that

the fact there is this competition means that there's that much more energy focused on these individuals and we will start seeing candidates say i'm in on whoever gets the nomination, we are so far off track with president trump doing so much damage to working america and increasing wealth inequality and undermining health care and not pursuing an infrastructure plan and not taking on the drug companies. there's going to be a lot to work with in determining we can do far better. >> senator merkley, what about the relatively flat turnout -- i know that a lot of democrats were hoping for a big turnout mimicking what happened in 2018 in the midterms. i didn't happen in iowa. it was the same as 2016. don't you need to show more enthusiasm for this crowd of candidates? >> yes, actually that was a disappointment. it's going to be interesting to

see if that is something that characterizes the other states. on the first level we didn't have the high level of turnout that we hoped for. i'm hoping we see that becomes a characteristic of the iowa caucuses not of the national sense of it as we go through the next 49 laps. >> thank you so much, senator jeff merkley. kristen welker, let's talk where the white house turns next. how does the president turn the page from impeachment? >> reporter: well i think he looks to his re-election campaign, andrea, and we've seen his campaign weighing in on the acquittal yesterday saying acquitted forever essentially. he heads to north carolina tomorrow and then on monday he heads to new hampshire. he's going to be there a day before the primary, just as he was in iowa the night before the caucuses there. he is very much in this fight even though he's not a part of the democratic primary and he's already taking aim at his challengers. we saw that during the state of the union address when he called out socialism.

it was a swipe at bernie sanders who is of course a self-described democratic socialist. we see him take aim at senator elizabeth, mocking pete buttigieg and of course joe biden as well. so he is very engaged and this is the way that i think he's going to try to look forward to try to turn the page and frankly to try to capitalize on this, andrea. he sees this as a moment to energize his base, why he's staking aim at his detractors. does it win over any new voters? does it help him keep some of the swing states that he was able to carry in 2016? that remains to be seen, but you can bet he's watching everything very closely in the democratic primary, andrea. >> indeed. and peter alexander, we expect any moment the president will be coming in. this political campaign, he's got the money, he's got the organization, the democrats seem to be all over the place, the

biden team trying to regroup. in fact we're reading that there were when they realized how badly they were doing in iowa before the votes were counted and the final votes not even in on iowa. you were there all week. >> as you hear that applause behind me, pat cipollone, jay sekulow and other members of the president's legal team have arrived in the room. and they're receiving a standing ovation from the crowd arriving here. you're going to see the president thanking his team and allies. this is a packed house. i've covered a lot of big events, but this is a packed room. the media is pushed in the back. and it's flooded with some of the president's biggest allies including names who were concluded in the documentation of the handling of the president's handling of ukraine. we received what they call a three-minute warning.

i'm not sure what that means. they normally give us a two-minute one. as soon as they get started, andrea, obviously, we will see them do this. certainly this white house, the president's aides and allies feel like the wind is at their back. we're hearing the introductions, so we'll toss it back to you. >> now we have the ruffles and flourishes, "hail to the chief." here comes the president. ♪ ♪ [ applause ] >> well, thank you very much.

[ applause ] >> thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. [ applause ] [ applause ] >> well, thank you very much, everybody. wow. we've all been through a lot together and we probably deserve that hand for all of us because it's been a very unfair

situation. i invited some of our very good friends and we have limited room, but everybody wanted to come. we kept it down to a minimum and believe it or not, this is a minimum. but a tremendous thing was done over the last number of months but really if you go back to it, over the last number of years. we had the witch-hunt. it started from the day we came down the elevator, myself and our future first lady who is with us right now. thank you, melania. [ applause ] >> and it never really stopped. we've been going through this now for over three years. it was evil. it was corrupt. it was dirty cops.

it was leakers and liars. and this should never ever happen to another president, ever. i don't know that other presidents would have been able to take it. some people said, no, they wouldn't have. but i can tell you at a minimum, you have to focus on this because it can get away very quickly no matter who you have with you. it can get away very quickly. it was a disgrace. had i not fired james comey who was a disaster, by the way, it's possible i wouldn't even be standing here right now. we caught him in the act. dirty cops. bad people. if this happened to president obama, a lot of people would have been in jail for a long time already, many, many years. i want to start by thanking some of -- and i call them friends because, you know, you develop friendships and relationships when you're in battle and war

much more than so, gee, let's have a normal situation. with all that we've gone through, we've done more than any president and administration and really i say for the most part republican congressmen, congresswomen and republican senators, we've done more than any administration in the first few years. you look at all of the things we've done. i watched this morning as they tried to take credit for the stock market from -- think of that -- let me tell you, if we didn't win, the stock market would have crashed and the market was going up a lot before the election because it was looking like we had a good chance to win and then it went up tremendously from the time we won the election until the time we took office. which was november 8th to january 20th. that's our credit. that's all our credit. and leading up to that point was

our credit because there was hope and one of the reasons the stock market has gone up so much in the last few days is because people think we're doing so well. they liked the state of the union speech. [ applause ] >> it really is, it's a true honor to give it. making the state of the union speech, i was with some people who have been around, they've been all over the world, and one of them said no matter where you go in the world, it doesn't make any difference, there is nothing like what i witnessed tonight, the beauty, the majesty of the chamber, the power of the united states, the power of the people in this room. really an amazing -- i don't think there is anything like that anywhere in the world.

you can go to any other country, any other location, any other place, it's the beauty of everything. it's what it represents and how it represents our country. i want to start by introducing some of the people that are here. i know some are going to be left out. they work so hard and this is really not a news conference, it's not a speech. it's not anything. it's we're sort of -- it's a celebration because we have something that just worked out. it worked out. we went through hell, unfairly, did nothing wrong, did nothing wrong. i've done things wrong in my life, i will admit. not purposely, but i've done things wrong. but this is what the end result is. [ applause ]

[ applause ] >> you can take that home, honey. maybe we'll frame it. it's the only good headline i've ever had in "the washington post." every paper is the same. does anybody have those papers? because they're really like that. so i appreciate that. but some of the people here have been incredible warriors. they're warriors. and there's nothing from a legal standpoint, this is a political thing. and every time i say this is unfair, let's go to court, they say, sir, you can't go to court, this is politics. and we were treated unbelievably unfairly and you have to understand, we first went

through russia, russia, russia. it was all bull shit. we then went through the mueller report and they should have come back one day later. they didn't. they came back two years later, after lives were ruined, after people went bankrupt, after people lost all of their money. people came to washington to help other people, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. one or two or three people in particular. but many people, we had a rough campaign, it was nasty. they say andrew jackson was always the nastiest campaign. they actually said we topped it. both in the primaries and in the election, but you see we thought after the election it would stop. but i didn't stop. it just started. and tremendous corruption.

tremendous corruption. so we had a campaign, little did we know we were running against some very, very bad and evil people with fake dossiers with all of these horrible, dirty cops that took these dossiers and did bad things. they knew all about it. the fisa courts should be ashamed of themselves. it's a very tough thing. and then we ended up winning on russia, russia, russia, should have taken one day as they said, and it took years. and then bob mueller testified. that didn't work out so well for the other side. but they should have said that first week because it came out, is that right, jim jordan. they knew in the first two days, actually, devin, is that right? two days, they knew we were innocent, but they kept it going, mark, they kept it going

forever. because they wanted to inflict political pain on somebody that had just won an election that to a lot of people were surprised. we had polls that said we were going to win. we had "the los angeles times" and a few papers actually said it was -- we were going to win. but it was going to be close. and we did win. it was one of the greatest wins of all time and they said, okay, he won. and, you know, i wrote this down because that was where a thing called the insurance policy to me, when i saw the insurance policy, and that was done long before the election. that was done when they thought that hillary clinton was going to win. and, by the way, hillary clinton and the dnc paid for millions of dollars, the fake dossier, and now christopher steele admits

that it's a fake because he got sued by rich people, i should have sued him too. but when you're president, people don't like suing. i want to thank my legal team, by the way. not for that legal advice, but for other advice. [ applause ] >> pat, jay, pat. you guys, stand up. [ applause ] >> great job. [ applause ] >> right at the beginning, they said, sir, you have nothing to worry about. all of the facts are on your side. i said, you don't understand. that doesn't matter. that doesn't matter and that was really true. they made up facts. a corrupt politician named adam schiff made up my statement to

the president zelensky. they say he's a failed screen writer. unfortunately he went into politics after that. remember, he said the statement which is a mob statement. don't call me, i'll call you. i didn't say that. fortunately for all of us here today and for our country, we had transcripts, we had transcribers. and then they said maybe the transcription is not correct, but lieutenant colonel vindman and his twin brother, right, we had some people that really amazing, but we did everything. we said what's wrong with it. i said add it. they're probably wrong, but add it. now everyone agrees that they were perfectly accurate. when you read those transcripts, tim scott, i don't know if tim is here, he said, sir, he was the first one to call me, sir, i read the transcript.

you did nothing wrong. and he stayed there right from the begin. and mitch mcconnell, i want to tell you, you did a fantastic job. [ applause ] >> somebody said, you know, mitch is quiet. i said, he's not quiet. he's not quiet. he doesn't want people to know him. and they said, is mitch smart? i said, let's put it this way, for many, many years, a lot of very smart, bad in many cases, sometimes good, people have been

trying to take his place and to the best of my knowledge, i've never even heard the subject come up because they've been wiped out so fast. this guy is great and i appreciate it, mitch. and he's also given us 191 now, 191 federal judges, two supreme court judges, right? up to 191. [ applause ] great guy. he's a tough guy to read. my wife would say, how did you do with mitch? i would say, i don't know. [ laughter ] >> that's what makes him good when you can read somebody. fantastic job. and he understood rightfully, this was crooked politics. how about all these people, they're running for office, they're saying the worst things

about me like eight senators on the democrats side, most of them got wiped out, they got their 1% or less. they decided to go home. let's go back to california. let's go back to wherever they came from. let's go back to new york. how about that one. our new york senator, gillibrand, let's go back to new york, after they get nothing. and then they take an oath that they will be fair, that will be -- all of the different things. they're not fair. here's the beauty, so we have four left. they're saying the most horrendous things. it's okay, it's politics. and then they're supposed to vote on me. they're trying to replace me and then they're supposed to be voting. i think it's incredible. but so, mitch, i want to thank you so much. you have some of your folks here. they're incredible people. right from the beginning. and, again, you're out of

session unfortunately. we did a prayer breakfast this morning and i thought that was really good. in fact that was so good it might wipe this out. by the time we finish, this will wipe that one out, those statements. i had nancy pelosi sitting four seats away and i'm saying things that a lot of people wouldn't have said. but i meant everything. i meant every word of it. but we have some of the folks that are going to be leaving right after this and they work hard, and they did work hard. bill cassidy, senator, stand up, bill, what a guy. [ applause ] >> when i need to know about health insurance and pre-existing conditions and individual mandates, i call bill. they know more than anybody. a man who had just became a senator -- he's a little bit

like me. we have a couple of them. very successful guy in business and he said, what the hell, i'll run for the senate for indiana. and i saw him on television destroying his opponent in a debate, i said, you know, this guy could win and i got behind him. and mike braun you have done a great job. thank you very much. tough, tough. [ applause ] >> a man who got james comey to choke, he's the roughest man, he's an un -- i appreciate the letter you sent me today. i just got it. but he's got this voice that scares people. you know, people from iowa can be very tough. we're doing very well in iowa. but i'll tell you, chuck grassley, he's looking at comey, you tell me what did you say.

he wasn't being rough, that was just the way he talked. and that was when comey, i think, that was when comey announced that he was leaking, lying and everything else, right. he choked because he never heard anybody talk like that. you should have gone -- i wish you got angry. you could have gotten the whole ball game. he would have said, i give up. chuck grassley is an incredible guy. [ applause ] >> a man -- he was running against a tough, smart campaigner. we learned how good she was, right? by the end of the campaign, she was actually -- i thought he was more for me than you were, josh. she was saying the greatest things about me, and, you know, who i'm talking about, and i

went to a great place, missouri, and i said who do you have to beat her? and they said, well, we have four people, i said, let me see them. i'm interviewing people for the united states senate. this is what i do. where have i gone? but i love it. i love it because we're getting great people. the first one i met was josh hawley. after about ten minutes i said to the people, don't show me anybody else. this is the guy. he was the attorney general, did a phenomenal job in the state. highly respected. and claire mccaskill. so the theory was, you couldn't beat her, great campaigner. remember the last campaign, she was -- she was always going to be taken out and she wins and people say, how did that happen? she got so friendly towards me,

one of the ads, she tried to convince people that we were best friends. but josh ended up winning by five or six points. you were unbelievable, you were tough and you are something. and one of the greatest supports on the impeachment hoax, he was incensed at what they were doing and what they were saying and those were the ones. i had some who said, i wish you didn't make the call. that's okay. it's incorrect. it's totally incorrect. then you have some who used religion as a crutch. they never used it before. an article written today, never heard him use it before. but today, you know, it's one of those things. but it's a failed presidential candidate, so things can happen when you fail so badly running for president. but, josh hawley, you were right from the beginning.

man, did i make a good choice. thank you, jeff. tremendous future. a man who is brilliant and who was deceived to an extent comes from a great state, utah, where my poll numbers have gone through the roof. one of the senators poll numbers went down big. you saw that. you saw that, mike. mike lee is a brilliant guy. he's difficult. whenever -- my son says we sign a lot of legislation that's big and powerful but it's -- everybody has to approve it. and i see 99-1, 99-1. i say, don't tell me who's the one. is it mike? yes. and he always has a good reason

for it too, by the way. he's incredible. and right at the beginning, he knew we were right, mike. i appreciate it very much. fantastic. say hello to the people of utah and tell them i'm sorry about mitt romney. i'm sorry. okay? [ applause ] >> we can say that mike lee is by far the most popular senator from the state. you've done a fantastic job, mike, in many ways, in many ways. a young woman who i didn't know at all, but she's been so supportive and i've had great support from other people in that state and she's been so supportive and she's been downright nasty and mean about the unfairness to the president. and kelly loeffler, i appreciate very much. thank you. she saw it very early on. and we have -- i don't know if we have other senators here.

we have an hell of a lot of congressmen. it helped when we won 197-0. that's got to be a first, kevin, right? is that a first? the republicans have this image -- i say democrats are lousy politicians because they have lousy policy. open borders, sanctuary cities. they have horrible policy. their new policy is to race taxes. they want to raise taxes. all of my life, i would say if you're a politician, you want to say we're going to lower taxes. they want to raise taxes. they have open borders, sanctuary cities. raise everybody's taxes. get rid of everybody's health care, 180 million people in the united states and they're really health care, and we're going to give you health care that will cost a lot of money.

i've always said they're lousy politicians. but they do two things, they're vicious and mean, vicious. these people are vicious. adam schiff is a vicious, horrible person. nancy pelosi is a horrible person and she wanted to impeach a long time ago. when she said i pray for the president, i pray for the president, she may pray, but she prays for the opposite. i doubt she prays at all. and these are vicious people. but they do two things, they stick together. historically, i'm not talking now, they stick together like glue. that's how they impeached because they had whatever the numbers, 220 people. so they don't lose anybody, they'll be able to impeach anybody, you could be george washington, you could have just won the war and they say let's get him out of office. and they stuck together and they're vicious as hell and

they'll probably come back for more, but maybe not because the republican party's poll numbers, mitch, have now gone up more than anymore since i think 2004, 2005, and you know what happened then? but in normal times, decades you would call it, that was a little unusual time. it was for a very short period. the republican party's poll numbers and donald trump's poll numbers are the highest i've ever had. [ applause ] >> it's no way to get your poll numbers. from my family's standpoint, it's been very unfair for my family. it's been unfair to the country. think of it, a phone call, a very good phone call. i know bad phone calls. this is a phone call where many people, i think mike pompeo was probably on the call, where is mike?

many people were on the call. i know that many people. they have apprentices, they have people on these calls. and i know there are -- when i speak to the head of a nation. you think -- in the case of ukraine, he's a new president. it seems like a very nice person, by the way. his whole thing was corruption. he's going to stop corruption. we even have a treaty, 2001, 1999, it's a treaty that we will work together to root out corruption in ukraine. i probably have a legal obligation to report corruption. but they don't think it's corrupt when a son that made no money, that got thrown out of the military, that had no money at all is working for $3 million up front, 83,000 a month, and that's only ukraine. then goes to china, picks up 1

1/2 million dollars. then goes to romania i hear and many other countries. they think that's okay. because if it is, is ivanka in the audience? my kids could make a fortune. it's corrupt. but it's not even that, it's just general corruption. and the other thing that's mentioned in the call, something i told mike pence, i would tell him all the time and i told him when he went on the trip. he was over there. he never mentioned anything about this when you had your meeting. it's a terrible thing. but i tell, mike, i said, mike, we're giving them money and, you know, you're always torn about that because we have our country to build, we have our cities to build and our roads to fix. but we're giving them money. tell me, why isn't germany paying money? why isn't france? why isn't the united kingdom paying money? why are we paying the money? is that a correct statement,

mike? i say find out what the hell is going on. and i told that to all of my people, omb, i asked that question. how much is germany paying? why isn't germany paying? why is the united states always the sucker because we're a bunch of suckers. but that's turning around fast. it makes it harder when stuff like this happens because you want to focus and you want to focus perfectly. think what we could have done if the same energy was put into infrastructure, prescription drug prices, think of what we could have done. and i'm now talking both sides. think of all we could have done if we had the same genius -- it's genius. i will say, it's genius on the other side. maybe even more so. because they took nothing and brought me to a final vote of impeachment. that's a very ugly word to me.

it's a very dark word. very ugly. they took nothing. they took a phone call that was a totally appropriate call. i call it a perfect call because it was. and they brought me to the final stages of impeachment. but now we have that gorgeous word, i never thought a word would sound so good, it's called total acquittal. [ applause ] >> total acquittal. [ applause ] >> so i want to -- if i could real fast, just introduce a few of the people. i have to start with -- i have to start with kevin. man, did you do a job. lucky you're there. because it wouldn't have worked out. if you don't have the right people, i tell you, kevin mccarthy has done an incredible job. [ applause ]

>> and he loves his job and he loves his country. tell you what, mitch and kevin, they love what they do. mitch wouldn't even tell you he. say mitch, do you like it, i don't know. he's the greatest poker player, right? kevin was i love it. i will say you're going to be speaker of the house because of this impeachment hoax. i am going to work hard on it. i'm going to try to get out to those trump areas that we won by a lot, and you know, in '18, we didn't win. we just won two seats in north carolina, two wonderful seats in north carolina that were not supposed to be won, but i went and i made speeches and we had rallies, and we did a great job. we won, we took two seats, nobody writes about that.

if i lost them, it would have been the biggest story of the year. but we're going to go, do a job, win a lot of seats. people are very angry that nancy pelosi and all of these guys, i mean, nadler, i know him much of my life. he has fought me in new york for 25 years. i always beat him. and i had to beat him another time. and i'll probably have to beat him again because if they find that i happen to walk across the street and maybe go against a light or something, let's impeach him. so we'll probably have to do it again because these people have gone stone cold crazy. but i've beaten them all my life and i'll beat them again if i have to. but what they're doing is very unfair, very unfair. so kevin mccarthy has been great. so a few names. you forget, you can raise them, i will say great, love to have

you, wonderful, but we're going to do the best we can. i have my cabinet but my cabinet is different i i appoint them. they're running various bureaucracies. no. my cabinet is great and they're all here. but today is the day to celebrate these great warriors, these are great warriors, they fought hard for us. i will start, kelly armstrong, north dakota. thank you. great job. great job. jim banks of indiana. jim, thank you. andy biggs. where is andy. boy oh boy, andy. there's a guy, he's tough. i think we have to make sure,

mar martha, we have some seats, arizona has been great, we're stopping up illegal aliens. new mexico is totally in play. right? nevada, really looking good. we're doing well. we're doing well. there's more spirit. i will say this. there's more spirit now for the republican party by far than the democrats, you know, mike pence just got back from a place, a beautiful place that chuck grassley knows well, iowa. and he was talking about the fiasco, the democrats, they can't count simple votes, yet they want to take over your health care system. no, think of that. we also had an election out there and we got 98% of the vote. we have two people running, you know, and i guess they consider them nonpeople. but they are running. one was a governor, one was a

congressman, they're running. we have 98% of the vote. and everybody from maybe were saying who are the crowds over there, expected to be the competitive, everybody is running because they want to win, they want to win. it was trump. it was trump. this is a trump crowd. a lot of -- actually a lot of my guys went to iowa, a lot of friends went there. they say the spirit, the spirit for the republican party right now is stronger i think than it has ever been in the history of our country. i think it is stronger than it's ever been. [ applause ] and that includes honest abe lincoln. a lot of people forget, abe lincoln, i wish he were here, i would give him one hell of an introduction, but he was a republican. abe lincoln. honest abe. bradley byrne, alabama.

what a great place. thank you, bradley. a man that's been an unbelievable friend of mine and spokesman and somebody that i really like, and i know, kelly, you're going to end up liking him a lot. something's going to happen that will be very good, i don't know, i haven't figured it out yet, but doug collins, where is he. he has been so great. thank you very much. thank you very much. thank you. really amazing job. a young man who is born with a great gene because i know his father, how great a politician he was, but he's from florida. sometimes controversial, but actually he is not controversial, he is solid as a rock, a friend of mine, matt gates. thank you, matt. great job. all right. this guy.

so he's the ncaa meeting a couple years ago in college wrestling champion. ncaa, that means in all of college you're the champ. his record was ridiculous. nobody could beat him. and i see it, every time i see it, when i first got to know him, jim jordan, when i first got to know jim i said huh, never wears a jacket. what the hell is going on. he's obviously very proud of his body. and they say where he works out, you know, where they work out, they say when jim works out, even though he's not as young as he was, he works out, the machine starts burning. he was just a different form of a workout than us, right, sonny? here he is. look at that guy. one day i'm looking and he looks

tough. i'm looking at those ears. i say those ears have something going on there. i said did you ever wrestle. yeah, i did. he doesn't talk, but i chat. this guy was a champion top wrestler. and when i had the top, i had all of the teams, and by the way, your super bowl champions are coming i think next week or soon, very soon. every one of them want to be here. and the coach loves us. the coach is great, andy reid. and every one of them want to be here. we have people love it. we had all of the ncaa championship teams here, the golf, the basketball, they had every team here. and one of the teams was wrestling, the wrestling team. was that penn state? and penn state won the title, they have a great team. and i walked up with jim and it is like i didn't exist. those wrestlers, they grabbed him, they love jim jordan, and

we love you too. because you are some warrior. a woman who became -- we have a couple of women that became stars, you too. and i always like the name, lesco. i like it. that's how i picked it. i like the name, that face, they gave me cards, had like seven opponents, right? and you have no idea how much the public appreciates how smart, how sharp you are. this i can't tell. i can't tell. they just said you know, she's really good, she's really talented. i said let's go, we worked with her. she won her race, tough race. it is no longer tough because what she does out there is incredible. arizona loves her. but you were so incredible,

representing -- representing the country and getting us out of the impeachment hoax, what you did was incredible. debbie, please stand up. debbie lesco. man who i became friendly with, i don't know why, you ever have where i'll ask the media, certain people call you, take their calls, other people call, if they don't have information, they won't take anybody's call, but other people call and you know this is a guy, he just is a very special guy. his wife i actually like better than him to be honest because he doesn't know that i know that he didn't actually support me right from the beginning, but she did. and on my worst day, right, on my worst day, my worst, i won't tell you why it was my worst, but it was not one of those good days, she got on a bus, got on

many other buses, and women all over north carolina, they toured north carolina. well, mark was back sort of semi supporting another candidate which he ended up leaving quickly, i don't think you had a choice because of your wife, but thank her, and mark meadows. he is an extraordinary guy. the only problem is i guess he's announcing, he would only win by 40 points, but he's announcing he'll be not running this time. do you have somebody good to run? somebody going to win your district by at least 20 points, please, okay? but he is a tremendously talented man, not just as a politician, as a human being, he is incredible. during these horrible times, the way he worked and jim and all you guys, the way they worked was so -- it was like their life was at stake. so many. ron desantis is another one. he worked so hard. he called me, he said sir, i would like to run for governor. i said