members and i met with two of them. one is in las vegas at 99 years old. i was sitting waiting for this 99-year-old woman to come and she walks down the stairs, she says, hello, mr. perry, i am lena. i was blown away. she told me all these incredible stories. she started talking about a young jewish boy she liked named abram and he was killed. after 80 years she still had emotion from that moment. >> that is it for us, thank you as always, we are back tomorrow for more morning joe weekend, until then, enjoy your day. ur good morning. it is saturday, december 21st. i am alicia menendez alongside

symone sanders-townsend and michael steele. today, shut down about it. the congress passed a stop gap measure last night. almost everybody got something for the deal except for donald trump. who is really in charge with elon musk at the center of the spending chaos? he is already earning the monica president musk. a very massive spending package. welcome to "the weekend". ♪ ♪ breaking this morning, president biden will sign the stopgap funding bill today.

yes, the cr, continuing ay. resolution, everyone's been talking about. i passed the measure just after midnight to keep the government funded until march 14. as for donald trump, this was not the art of the deal. trump and elon musk blew up the original bipartisan agreement with donald trump demanding that congress abolished the debt ceiling as part of the funding package. republicans eventually ignored his wishes. in fact, 170 house republicans voted to fund the government without touching the debt limit. it was the democrats in the end who acted responsibly, saving republicans from themselves and keeping the government running and checks coming for workers. not one democrat voted against the final spending bill. join yes now is political contributor and senior congressional reporter, melanie zanona. >> welcome to the table. happy holidays. it is festive here because the season is bright. 'twas the nightmare before christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except a musky little mouse. you know, this has been one of those, um, periods where you

sit there, you are covering this stuff, writing the stories, trying to tell the people out there what is happening. these folks have no clue what they are doing. how do you assess this event? our friend here at msnbc, a political analyst, had to say this about the situation thursday. it is not elon musk's fault. the dynamics that drove this week's debacle will continue next year. a tiny vote margin in the house, a 60 vote threshold in the senate that requires bipartisan support for passage of most bills. a president-elect, who, even as president, is only sporadic interest in the particulars of the legislative process. and so many members to reject legislative reality, insisting instead on and possible outcomes. i agree with all of that except the first sentence. they are not here, but for the fact that elon musk thought he

was the president-elect. he could get on twitter or x, whatever the hell he is calling it today and just tweet crao whatever he wants. i hear jd vance is still in politics i'm not sure. >> [ laughter ] >> what did you see on the hill in those moments? how did you understand the evolution of this? >> he was already in trouble, let's be clear about that. the bill was already in trouble as lawmakers, because what was in this really like spending package, it was supposed to be a small package but then musk came out on twitter and when he started attacking the bill, it was game over. i talked to lawmakers who said, did you see this tweet from elon musk. he is really running the show. they are really looking to him for him to be acting in congress, just like he used to

do with donald trump. i am told donald trump was not planning on weighing in on this spending bill initially. yes, he had been pushing behind the scenes to have the debt ceiling taking care of before he got into office, but he was fine with what was happening. it wasn't until musk got out ahead of him and started trashing it on x and then trump decided to come out. let's be clear, donald trump wanted to erase the bar here. one of the lessons going forward is that it is a lot easier to blow up a bill than it is to put one together. that is something that will be a huge challenge for republicans in the next two years, in the next few months, even, as i tried to do things like now raise the debt ceiling, getting large packages to cut taxes and the border wall funding. they need another bill for that and they have another government funding deadline and they can't do it with republicans in the driver seat. it will be huge challenge, like i said, for republicans, it was a constant theme. it is, in some ways, not surprising this was the ending to this congress.

this is just a taste of what is in store for the next four years. >> part of that dysfunction is the fact they have an incoming president and party leader who is constantly threatening them, threatening them with a primary if they don't go along with his bidding. i want to redo this from our colleague. trump's demand that congress extend or abolish the debt ceiling to take it off his plate next year failed dramatically. on wednesday, he threatened electoral primary challenges against any republican who voted to fund the government without dealing with the debt limit. on friday, 170 house republicans defied him and did just that. why did the threat not work this time? >> you know, i think there is strength in numbers for that aspect to this. you can't primary 170

republicans, it is just not feasible. some of these guys, too, they have strong brand and name i.d. and recognition, they feel comfortable, i talked to one lawmaker, thomas massey, who is leading the charge against some of the stuff. he has gone up against a primary jelly before and won. he says he has the antibody. trump can come after me, he can come after trip -- chip roy but once you win, you are on solid footing here. [ laughter ] i do think these republicans, believe it or not, they do have redlines. they want to make clear with those were heading into the next two years. i don't think there will be a lot of instances where we see republicans defying trump of the next two years, but there are going to be some clashes. there will be some internal disagreements. i think most of the disagreement, frankly, will come internally between the moderate wing and the conservative wing, the fiscal conservative hawks. there are going to be a lot of questions about how they deliver on taxes and government funding. again, this was supposed to be just a stopgap spending bill

and they couldn't even get this over the finish line quickly and painlessly. just imagine what will happen with actually need to do a massive funding package and when republicans are completely in control. remember, democrats have really carried every single significant piece of legislation, not to mention saving speaker mike johnson earlier this year. they have really been controlling things, even though they are in the minority. that is a big question about how they will handle the next few years, as well. >> what is your reporting telling you about that? democrats, even, not even in the midterm elections, but every piece of legislation that has passed in congress that was central to the functioning of the government, democrats did cross the aisle to do what needed to be done. democratic folks delivered these pieces of legislation, the same thing that happened last night in the house. however, it did not look like democrats would do well in the midterms. in my talking to democratic lawmakers, that is something they recognize. they still have to govern. they still have to do their

jobs. what is your reporting telling you about what the posture will be. i mean hat tip to leader hakeem jeffries. democrats were in array. >> they were. that is something that democrats are wrestling with with what you are talking about. i think this episode this week was demonstrative of how they will act. there in a bailout. they had this deal with johnson, he backed out. they said they would not bail you out. they got something out of it. they wanted to fight the debt ceiling and they wanted leverage for next year, they did want to get that out. they were embarrassed by johnson and ultimately, yesterday, the caucus listened and say, okay, we will support this and help it get over the finish line. if it had not been for democrats, would not have happened last night as quickly as it did. going forward in the debate about the democratic party, do we just sit back and say, you guys have unified control now, you guys need to figure it out on your own, or do we use this opportunity to try to work with

them and pick our spots and get some wins out of it. yes, there is dysfunction but the republicans could be successful without them, theoretically. that is something they are wrestling with. you know? there is a question about how much they will go after trump, how much resistance will be there , can they govern and work with them? i don't think we know those answers yet to those questions, but it will deathly be a major storyline going forward. >> just a quick point before we let you john, senator ting kane -- tim kane resurrected the pediatric care provision, stripped out of the bill. what was your reporting on that, in terms of the concern around town, even amongst republicans, about, if not the look, the actual impact of stripping pediatric care research dollars out of it. tim kane brought it back to the senate. it did survive. >> it is easy to talk about this fight in terms of politics and dysfunction. you have to remember, they are really attached to what they

are doing in washington. is easy for elon musk, a billionaire, to sit up there and trash the deal. there were real impacts and real stakes here. after they removed the provision from that initial bill, they were able to kind of go around that in the senate because it had already passed as a stand-alone bill in the house. they also took up bills to enable the stadium to be built. >> yay! >> i do think, yeah, the distance between the senate and the house, there will be tension there, as well. the house, the bills were stripped out and they said, you know what, we will go around you and pass them anyway? >> i love that. >> melanie zanona, thank you very much, your first time at the table. up next, speaker mike johnson's uncertain future and former governor martin o'malley is running to lead the dnc. he will share his plans for democrats for the next four years. first, breaking news from germany where a car plowed her

christmas market yesterday. the death toll is now five. 200 more are injured. a doctor from saudi arabia lives in germany is accused. they believe he acted alone. police say there is no ongoing threat to the public. we will follow the story and bring you updates throughout the day. we will be right back. rig. and my friends are nearby. i can do it with the help of a barber, personal shopper and exercise buddy. someone who can help me live right at home. life's good. when you have a plan. ♪ ♪ i won't let my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis symptoms define me... emerge as you, with clearer skin. with tremfya®, most people saw 100% clear skin... ...that stayed clear, even at 5 years. serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections may occur. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection,

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president-elect trump will likely inherit a chaotic situation in the middle east.

♪♪ speaker mike johnson only passed the short-term spending bill because of democrats yet again. 38 house republicans defied both johnson and trump, refusing to pass their version of the deal that would have also raised the debt limit. when the next congress is sworn in, johnson must be reelected as speaker. it won't be easy. already two republicans, paul kosar and thomas massey to say they won't back him. another, marjorie taylor greene loaded the idea of picking met the new leader. a suggestion? elon musk. [ laughter ] joining us now is

democratic congresswoman from illinois, sean kasten. good to see you, sir. >> good to see you. >> i am wondering, you all had a congress meeting, a caucus meeting yesterday, i was going into the hit, and calling all these democratic members of congress and they were all like, we are going into our caucus meeting now to decide what we are to do about this bill, but i also have to imagine you discussed speaker johnson, as well. democratic leader hakeem jeffries said this week that democrats will not vote to bail out johnson in the speaker battle. is that something you all discussed and is that posture you believe, going to hold in this, coming out of christmas break next year? >> so, we definitely did not discuss that last night. bear in mind, we have had maybe 10 minutes before we went into that meeting, we were trying to understand what was in the bill's text. it was very much a substantive

policy meeting and figuring out what to do next. as for johnson, you know, it is tragically appropriate his term is ended with the same dysfunction republican started it. we started the term with mccarty, de smet mccarthy, santos, matt gaetz, we ended the term without any of them. a republican party that is at war with itself, it is pretty clear, based on last night's vote, there is a significant block of republicans who don't like johnson. i think johnson has stepped into the same mistake mccarthy made. yes, we are partisans. we have different policy agendas, but, as was pointed out, you know, trust is your currency. when johnson agreed to a deal with democrats and then walked away from it, it reminded us, i think of a lot of us and when mccarthy said he wouldn't limit the debt ceiling and spent the weekend bashing us all on television. that did not help for

democratic support when the motion came the next day. >> the minority leader was out yesterday, sort of framing democrats' thinking about this talking about the billionaire boys club the democrats are up against. take a listen to what he had to say. >> house democrats have successfully stopped extreme maga republicans from shutting down the government. crashing the economy and hurting working-class americans all across the land. house democrats have successfully stopped the billionaire boys club, which wanted a $4 trillion blank check , by suspending the debt ceiling. >> two questions for you, congressman, juan, how were democrats, to borrow a phrase from symone, a state in array, and what about the stakes for

this spending bill? >> democrats did what we did all term. name a bill, i think melanie referred to this in the last segment, name a bill that passed this term and got to the president's desk. it did not pass with overwhelming republican support. we are here to do the work, not just win elections. we win election so we can do the work. i think we will continue to do that. you know, as it goes for, if this bill had been the first offer and the only offer we had been happy with it. we got the farm bill president biden asked for, we continue to fund government and democrats in the last congress and slightly modified by president biden but we never had a bill this cycle that was not dominated by democratic votes. um, i want to say speaker jeffries, leader jeffries, who we are referring to me , that what allowed him to spend massive tax cuts. i have been very outspoken.

this is a silly artifact. we can't give them that kind of blank check. we did succeed in taking that away. the one concern i think a lot of us still have is that trump didn't get what he wanted but musk got what he wanted. the first version of this bill we had a provision, republican led provision to put limitations on outbound investment in china. musk pushed really hard and the republicans took that out. look, if you are with $4 billion, you probably have contacts and interests all over the place but musk has a lot of money flowing into china. i don't want this to be partisan, but i don't think we should be voting for to prop up billionaire so we can send potentially, you know, military and technological secrets out to our adversaries. yet, the republican caucus caved to trump and musk on that issue . even though they did

not caved to trump on the debt ceiling question. we won the battle and there are many more head. >> i get use to, you know, the whole musk influence on the house of representatives. i want to play for you the response of the speaker, when asked whether or not he wanted to be speaker again. >> reporter: you still want to be speaker in this experience? >> looked. being speaker the house is a challenge and it is a modern era, but is a challenge we accept. it is a great honor to serve in the position. i would not say it is the most fun job in the world all the time but it is an important one. >> it is a challenge. >> [ laughter ] >> it is a challenge in the modern era. nancy pelosi navigated it pretty easily, much easier than, you know, the republican speakers have. my question

isn't so much about that but i just wanted to set that as a framing for the question. that is, how do democrats decide their political moves here? in terms of when to lean in and help and when not to? it is a fine line, i would think, given how disarrayed and disorganized the house leadership is. the control that musk will have over both the leadership and the members. donald trump winging in and out . um, a speaker, clearly, if he holds on, will be even weaker than he is now, not stronger, believe it or not. so how do you, as democrats, look at this opposition? and figure how you either support them or just let them dry rot in the sun? in the heat of politics. >> you know, obviously, it will depend on the situation, but i think one of the challenges

that republicans have that the democrats don't is that republicans disagree on their goals. the democrats, with our caucus, we sometimes disagree on the path, but the policy goals that we are pushing for, as democrats, the democratic government to work for all people, we should have robust growing of the middle class, we should live up to our foundation of promises of equal treatment under the law. we don't think people accused of rape and felony should be in positions of power. we have differences of opinion on how to make that happen, but there is a shared set of values. whether it is speaker pelosi your leader jeffries, they have been very good at consistently reminding us we can disagree on the path while never losing our side on the goal. i think republicans have a separate challenge. they have a very sizable break in their party that is opposed

to the idea of governance. they don't want government to work. they say a shutdown would be good. they have been completely corrupted with the line you want to shrink government efficiency and drowned in a bathtub. that is with the old, you know, george hw bush, mitt romney, ronald reagan republicans. certainly culturally conservative, but government should do things. those two factions, between them, i think, the two parties will caucus together but they really don't like each other. we have had two fistfights in the house this time and they both involved republicans. >> well, well, well, well. >> as they say, congressman would like you to stick around with us because after the break, we want to talk about the house ethics committee

voting to release its report on matt gaetz, yes, the matt gaetz report is coming out. you are watching to report. ♪ ♪ report. ♪ ♪ once-daily trelegy also improves lung function, so he can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ♪♪ ♪what a wonderful world♪ ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd because breathing should be beautiful, all day and night. this holiday, verizon will turn your old because breathing or broken phone into a gift. trade in any phone, in any condition and get samsung galaxy s24+ with circle to search, and watch and tab. all three on us. survive the holidays with samsung, powered by verizon.

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they voted early this month to make public the report when the house finished its business for the year. the committee had been investigating for years over sexual allegation misconduct and drug use allegations. gaetz repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. trump picked gaetz to be a nominee and he even resigned from congress in anticipation. this jeopardizes his chances for any nomination. congressman sean casten voted to release the report and joins us now. >> congressman, i want to play a replay of gaetz's response released on wednesday, noting, i was charged with nothing, fully exonerated, not even a campaign-finance violation. and the people investigating me hated me. my 30s were an era of working very hard and play hard, too.

it is embarrassing, though not criminal, that i probably partied, woman eyes, drank and smoked more than i should have earlier in life. i have a different life now. some of that, apparently, was during his time in congress. the justice department declined to press charges. of course, that is different from being fully exonerated. that being said, clearly, this report had a damning impact on his chances to become the next attorney general. what do you expect to see in that report? and what does the timeline of its release look like? >> the ethics committee, probally, plays their cards very close to the vest. all i know is what i have read online. i have friends on the ethics committee and they don't share things with me. it is a really good friendship. i am glad that they are releasing the report. as i mentioned, you know, in the speech i gave in the resolution we introduce, there

have been four times over the last four decades that members have resigned under ethics investigations. in all cases the committee continue their work and in all cases they released it. it was all republicans. the reason to release it is not to prosecute someone, they don't have that authority. it is to remind the american people that we hold ourselves to a higher standard. if you elect us into this job, you should expect us to comport ourselves under a higher ethical standard. i frankly find it offensive that gaetz would say, because i was single and in my 30s, i conducted myself in ways and befitting of a member of the united states house of representatives. nobody else gets a pass and nobody else asks for that pass. as you noted, my decision not to prosecute is not, does not say he is innocent. >> yeah. we know from good reporting

that the justice department has also been very close lipped about their investigation, is that some of the hesitation is from reporting, some of the hesitation from the justice department stems from the kinds of witnesses they could have available to them and, you know, the kind of people that matt gaetz was mixed up with. my bigger concern here is, um, that, the report, this investigation, all of it, it didn't seem like it was going to be a big thing. if matt gaetz, if donald trump had said, plow through matt gaetz, go for it, i don't think we would be looking at pam bondi. i think it is a bigger conversation about just the state of the republican party and this is not, this is not business as usual. this is not where everyone is playing by the same set of rules that we are reading all from the same rulebook. and, um, i think people outside of washington, d.c. look at the matt gaetz debacle and the debacle of the last week and they say, this is why we don't

want congress everybody together when it is not congress. it is some specific republicans in congress. >> yeah, you're absolutely right, symone. one of the reasons why we, you know, led the effort to make this public is, i came into congress in 2018, you know, in the part of the wave of women who were disgusted by the access hollywood tape and trump's behavior. we can't allow ourselves to normalize the kind of behavior that donald trump, pete hegseth, matt gaetz, or rfk jr., in some cases, have been convicted of participating in. it does scare me if we get to a point where we say, you know, the announcement that trump is nominated, someone with a criminal history of sexual assault, and that doesn't even shock us anymore. right? we have to keep, we have to remind people that is

unacceptable behavior because, the majority of the american people don't believe that is acceptable behavior. and we can't have a double standard, where if it is a republican who does it, it is horrible. someone on the financial services committee, we had hearings about the culture of, you know, sexual and destructions going on at the fdic, not that the head of it participated, but turned a blind eye. we raised those questions. right? it is disgusting. we need to call it out as disgusting behavior. elijah cummings knows we are better than this so we should act like it. >> i will ask and just note all of the conduct on top of these people just aren't even qualified. i don't know. congressman sean casten of illinois, we hope you will come back with us but if you don't see us before christmas, happy holidays and have a good new

year. next, the dnc folks have some tough choices to make in the new year. it will start with the new chair. martin o'malley wants the job and he joins us at the table after the break. you are watching "the weekend". ♪ ♪ weekend". ♪ ♪ o can diagnose pd and build a treatment plan with you. visit makeapdplan.com today. the promise of america is freedom, equality, but right now, those pillars of our democracy are fragile and our rights are under attack. reproductive rights, voting rights, the right to make your own choices and to have your voice heard. we must act now to restore and protect these freedoms for us and for the future, and we can't do it without you. we are the american civil liberties union. will you join us? call or go online to my aclu.org

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it's an idea whose time has come. ♪♪ six weeks from now, the democratic national committee will make a crucial choice about his future when the members of that committee elect a new chair that will help guide the party through the 2026 midterms and the next presidential election. so far, four candidates have thrown their hats in their ring. martin o'malley, ken martin, ben whitner and james socialist. the four learn my former maryland governor and one-time presidential candidate has served as the commissioner of the social security administration next year and martin o'malley joins us now. >> good to see you. got the maryland feeling going

this holiday weekend. appreciate you, bro. >> merry christmas, lieutenant governor michael steele, good to see you. >> you want to be chair. i love it. i love it. in light of all of the crazy noise in the last few days in response to the role of donald trump and elon musk in this government shutdown, you tweeted, quote, to the democrats on capitol hill standing strong against donald trump, the president must now know that we stand with you in defending our republic. let's reject their extremism together. if you are elected, chairman, how do you see your role as one of the leaders of the loyal opposition in addition to the minority leader and in the senate and certainly the minority leader in the house? how do you see moving the democratic party to stand in opposition and to began to dissect for the country exactly what this administration is doing and how democrats can be a better choice in the upcoming

midterm elections? >> sure. i see my role as in not only someone who, as a leader of the party bringing us back to our core message, which is the economic security of every man, woman and child in the nation, but also as a person who convenes, if you will, the larger team of democrat leaders who were offering themselves in service as candidates or who are now serving and certainly, in the house and senate, michael, we have an enormous strength in our party embedded in our governors. there are 39 governors races up

next year. we have enormous strength in the numbers of people that are county executives and mayors. but, in the past, we have tended to regard the dnc as a washington sort of based organization that is entirely focused on just the white house and congress. they are very important. i think hakeem jeffries showed himself to have a very disciplined caucus. he is certainly on that economic message and pushing back against the billionaire boys club. my job would be to support all of those entities, as they look forward to the elections coming up in the next two years. the key in all of this is, come back to what people are concerned about the most. that is around families, they are struggling to make it with inflation and the high cost of living. >> trying to create that sense in a time where there is more chaos than ever. >> chaos. >> chaos is the word of the week. >> i think it is the word of the next four years in response to the role of trump and musk are playing. for the near government shutdown, you tweeted this, democrats on capitol hill are standing strong against donald trump and president musk. we are standing strong for our

republic . let's reject their extremism together. they tried to paint themselves as populists but they are little kratz. >> inasmuch as it is gonna be about a democratic message, they also want it to be about defining it. how do you do that? >> i think this is how we do it. we were in the white house, our job was to connect the jobs back to hard-working people. they understand bringing inflation, giving their kids better opportunities, making the economy better. for number of reasons, we failed to do that as a party. now, in opposition, we have to make sure we pick our fights, always on two things. one is the economy. when they make decisions, when president musk and donald trump make decisions that hurt our economy, the tariffs that

bring up the price of food and wipeout farm communities, we need to connect those dots right back to every family's kitchen table. second, there will be things that they do that undermined the very foundations of what it means to have a republic. a piece of the world of -- rule of law, looking away at conflicts of interest, wrecking institutions so that they can make money as vulture capitalists, taking over the republic of the united states. so those are the two areas, the principles of the republic and the damage they are about to do to hard-working people all across the country. >> you know, governor o'malley, i have been talking to a lot of dnc members because -- >> me, too. [ laughter ] >> you and the members say, well there are people that have not, mr. chairman, there are people who have not been talking to the members, but governor o'malley has been picking up that phone and calling the caucuses and the

caucus chairs. people say there are, i have heard from a number of democratic dnc members that they are also impressed with your team. some members are saying they are looking for diversity within the team. they're looking for a chair that has gravitas and a chair that would understand the role of the chair. they got a raise money, raising money. but also, building out and supporting a strategy. we have talked about this strategy. we think, i think the chairman would note he infused a lot of money into democratic parties around the country and employed and picked up that strategy, as well. what is your pitch specifically for that and on the vendors. the other thing i am hearing is that they are concerned. they want to know what is the new party chair, what would it look like, in terms of vendors and who is doing business with the democratic party apparatus

and he was getting paid? >> there is a lot to impact there. there is widespread belief among members of congress, the caucus, governors across america, i have talked to a lot of governors, there is widespread belief we have been poorly served by the traditional small clique of consultants we rely on as the democrat party. if there are two things that most everybody agrees on, it is that. no one in the campaign seems to listen. i have a platform that calls for greater diversity all across the country, in terms of consultants, in terms of vendors. lieutenant governor michael still can tell you as a mayor and a governor fighting for minority business participation and in our state, in our city but what i have been saying to members of the dnc is that i am alone among the candidates

running for the chair that has actually chaired a national committee, raised substantial amounts of money nationally. i was chair of the dga for three years, not the normal one year limitation. we expanded our map to montana and kentucky, which we still hold. we hold other places. we did it on an economic message. we could fight under it in every single state, jobs opportunity now. secondly, i am probably and certainly the best operational turnaround leader in the field. once again, when president biden asked me to go to social security and keep that storied agency from collapsing into a customer service meltdown, congress has reduced the staff on social security to a 50 year low, symone. the numbers of their customers were raised to an all-time high. the fact that i have served on a national committee and letter national committee, raised the money, we all believe in a 57

straight and territory stretch and we know that the core of our party is connectivity to communities all across the united states and it depends on making all of our parties stronger, not just those in seven states and the swing areas, all 50 states and the territories. but to do that, we are going to have to do an honest, dispassionate, deep dive on where we fell short and why so that we can restore credibility and raise the amount of money, which will not be easy, without the white house, raise the amount of money we need so hakeem jeffries, with a very disciplined caucus that he has now, can take back the house and we can win those 39 governors' seats up all across america. >> real quick, before we let you go, governor, two things.

one, i appreciate you saying 57 because that is the number. if you are wearing you are running for chairman, it is not 57, including those territories. that is how i became chairman of the rnc. the subtext on that, the vendor question, the consultant class within the democratic party, that will be the redline. trust me. when you start slashing, burning and cleaning up, they will come, just letting you know. they did for me three weeks into the job. that was the first time i said, we need to fire his behind. the second point is, funding moderate democrats in primary those in deep blue parts of the country. i find trump has an interesting strategy. what you think of that idea that you will have these folks that will try to weigh in and shape a democratic primary in some key areas that, you know,

where maybe only a democrat could win. >> yes, it is one more sign of how big money and the concentration of money has also led to the concentration of power in some very, you know, in very few hands. that will make our challenge even more expensive for us. the goal, i would think, i understand what he is trying to say. he wants to weaken those democrats, make them spend money on primaries so they will be weaker in the general. we, when i say we, we, the people, the republic of the united states, has become a new plaything for this boy elon musk. [ laughter ] >> he is going to break a lot of things as he plays with his new toy. he is going to undermine norms. this man himself, he came here, you know, from south africa and demeans, you know, so-called

illegal immigrants. he is going to break a lot of things. it is a new plaything, we are his new toy. we need to be able to stand up to that and also stand up to the corruption of our democratic process, the corruption of our republic and our elections by big money. a guy that has seen his wealth double ever since he helped his little buddy, donald trump, get elected. he will have the money. he will break a lot of things. he will throw his money around. this will be a real challenge for us, as a people, to hang onto our government. >> governor martin o'malley running for dnc chair, it sounds to me like you are ready to take that plaything away from that little boy. thank you. thank you so much, sir, for joining us. appreciate you being part of "the weekend". next hour, we will continue talking about the future of the democratic party with the

president of a super pac helping elect democrats to congress. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ back. ♪ ♪ ♪♪ over 600,000 usps employees working in sync to ensure everything sent on its holiday ride ends with a moment of joy. ♪♪ the united states postal service. nice to meet ya. my name is david. i've been a pharmacist for 44 years and i'm from flowery branch, georgia. when i have customers come in i recommend prevagen. number one, because it's effective. does not require a prescription. and i've been taking it quite a while myself and i know it works. and i love it when the customers come back in and tell me,

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okay and j.d. vance decided to show up. we are right back where we started. the storyline here for me, is how so much of this could have been avoided but for one man. >> yeah. >> and the republicans aren't, i mean, there is not a lot of reputation of this co- presidency with elon musk i am hearing, so does >> look, i mean, a lot of republican members privately were apparently telling their colleagues that they love donald trump and elon musk. they wish that he understood the roles. i believe there is a lot of room out there for a consultant that will sign up as elon musk's political advisor. elon musk needs to hire a senior advisor that has actually worked in congress and that person is gonna make a lot of money, but elon musk was very clear he does not understand the roles. just how congress works. how a bill becomes a law, honey. i'm just a bill. we need to play the video.

[ laughter ] >> elon musk has not been elected by anybody so he can hire all the people he wants to advise him. he is an unelected individual who has asserted himself into the workings of our federal government. he has given a fake, lonely role to serve some d.o.g.e. thing, that, whether he understands or not, will be the problem. >> tears to social security, okay? the senate passed social security benefits increase for some workers. cheers to social security. these are things that happen when elected officials go to work. cheers to them getting the land. the land. >> and the treatment for kids. >> refill your mug. we have another jampacked hour of "the weekend". that includes our guests julie tsirkin, k conger, representative joyce beatty and mike smith. that is all coming up on "the weekend". ♪ ♪ weekend". ♪ ♪ oral-b's dentist inspired round brush head hugs em, cleans em, and gets in between em, for 100% cleaner teeth.

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