big body corporate that's drowned out a lot of oil that's how it is in the culture in this country now that's where i come in. i met phil on r.t. america i'll make sure you don't get railroad you'll get the straight talk in the great. confusion bitterness and infighting within the g.o.p. and that's just this week alone d.c. seems messier than ever we're going to try to find out what's going on on this edition of. politicking on larry king quite a week in washington republican stalwarts bob corker and jeff flake u.s. senators from tennessee and arizona respectively have announced they were in time it's rather than go through with a ring primary battles back home both have exchanged shots with the president on

twitter and in interviews and their announcements this week leave their g.o.p. counterparts split over the ways in which donald trump has conducted himself since assuming office by the way all of this political drama plays out in a time when north korea stands on the brink of achieving nuclear weapons four americans are killed in ambush in nigeria and while former top adviser steve bannon promises more political casualties in his promised war against the g.o.p. so what's the latest what's likely to happen next let's talk about that with eleanor clift political commentator and author and columnist for the daily beast eleanor joins me from washington eleanor what. what do you make of the room for a flake out. well i think what i'm wondering is whether the comments by senators corker and flake will accelerate the disintegration of the republican party

and encourage more people to come out and speak against president trump the attacks against him this week were more about his character and the way handles the office senator corker said he's he will be remembered for d. basing the presidency it's not as much about policy differences senator flake did say that there's no room in the republican party for someone like him who believes in immigration and free trade so he brought an element of issue differences into his decision not to run again but he can't he can't win a primary and you now have the republican party looking at trying to remake itself in trump's image as though there are all these charismatic populists around the

country just waiting to be called into service they go for the candidates debate and has come up with are pretty sorry bunch that can't flixster still vote with the majority don't they they did yes yes and you note a tax cut is the only real policy proposal that's on the table and senator corker has said he wouldn't support something that blew up the deficit so he might not be a guaranteed yes about but i wouldn't be at all surprised if senator flake of voted for tat for tax cuts so yeah you look at their percentage of voting with the president and. they're well over ninety percent so it's not so much about issues it's about the i think the embarrassment caused by mr trump and the way he has gotten into arguments

with the gold star family and the way he's taunting the leader of north korea and i think there's genuine concern celestial larm that that doesn't make things better and as senator corker said some weeks ago could be putting us on the path to a third world war i won't call them flake both be replaced by people to the right of that. yes except if they if the people nominated in republican primaries are so far to the right that they can't win nationwide and you have the republican leader mcconnell reminding republicans that there were four senate seats they lost that they should've won in two thousand and ten when you had one candidate in missouri say there's such a thing is legitimate rape and if that happens the woman's body shuts down and

pregnancy doesn't occur and you had another candidate do it in a ads that started i am not a witch you had and those were those were seats there were four seats that. would have been in republican hands except the candidates chosen were deemed you know so far out of the mainstream that they couldn't win statewide why do you think . president trump gets into these muscles personality hassles with his own party members and. i some people think it's all part of a grand strategy to distract from the ongoing russian probe but i think he reacts emotionally. and the republican talking point is that he's a counter-puncher and when he's attacked he hits back but he spoils for these kind

of fights and. he has it in his head that americans dislike weakness they like strength and so he will never apologize he doubles down i mean the misunderstanding with the gold star mother could easily have been made better with a gracious phone call saying he didn't mean to offend her. he he like most people don't know what to say when they're confronted with such an enormous loss he could have made that better in an instant instead he with the with the help of his chief of staff on my day and instead chose to. do some character debasement of a democratic congresswoman and then in maintaining that the widow didn't really

give an honest recollection of the phone call or any that is such an unnecessary fire ice and the democrats had their own battle between the only sanders group if aggressives and the democratic mainstream. yes it has not burst out into the open with the same ferocity as it has on on the on the right but there's a very critical governor's race coming up in virginia an early december and bernie sanders has refused to endorse ralph northam who is a. physician pediatric neurosurgeon who currently attending governor who's who's running for governor against ed gillespie a former you probably remember him from time here no that's right and so. that that's a race that the democrats really should win but they're having trouble getting the

excitement among the base and getting people to turn out in bernie sanders could be a big help there if he chose to so far he's chosen not to we have a new text. i i don't think we should even dignify what the republicans are trying to do by calling it tax reform it's really basically just a tax cut that they're trying to cobble together and they want it so badly that they might get it but there are so many divisions already erupting. they don't know how to pay for it they were thinking of you know fiddling with the rules around for a when kazan president trump to his credit tweeted that don't worry you're for a one k.'s going to stay the same. that disrupted the republicans who need to get

money from somewhere they're also looking at the deductibility of state and local taxes which people on either coast both coast don't like in the handful of remaining republicans in the northeast are fighting that so they've got divisions within within their own ranks and they don't have any margin for error because whatever they do they're going to do without any democratic support turbulent times saying so is obama right thank you eleanor clift columnist for the daily beast earlier by the way i spoke with two veterans a political campaigns and the legislative process for their reaction to the latest tumult in d.c. nina turner is the former ohio state senator and president of our revolution described by the way is the next step for bernie sanders movement she joins me from cleveland. and lenny chen lan he was in san francisco that he's

a research fellow at stanford's hoover institution and a former staffer in the george w. bush administration he was also an advisor to marco rubio's twenty sixteen presidential campaign here's that conversation watch was still with you lanny arizona senator jeff flake announced that he will not seek reelection he said we must never adjust to the courses of our dialogue with the tone set at the top. of the breidbart people are already taking credit for this what do you make of it lanny well it's too bad you know jeff flake was one of those voices that i think was trying to get toward consensus always trying to figure out a way to find an answer but in this era of politics he's a little bit of an accurate as i'm larry quite frankly so i think it was probably the writing on the wall he probably figured there was no way that he was going to be able to beat kelly ward and other challengers who were going to be running

against him in the senate in arizona next year and so he stepped aside but it is unfortunate because i do think he's a good man i think he was quite a good senator. as in our he is an ardent conservative do you expect him to vote against many of the bush group of the proposals for the rest of his term. larry i don't know that he will i mean on tax reform for example a lot of the views that he has are reflected in the tax reform package that's being developed now between the president in the congress so i think on that count i see him being supportive of the president's agenda he was supportive on the repeal and replacement of obamacare effort i expect that that will not change i think really what jeff flake is speaking out against this is speaking out against the tone and the tenor and the way in which the message is conveyed as you said in his message the coarseness of our politics but from a policy perspective i think in many ways he will still be very much in lockstep with mitch mcconnell on the republican leadership on these issues are nina what are

your thoughts on all of this. lanny's point he brings up about the coarseness and what senator flake is saying i think he's dead on i mean but when you have a president that tweets all day long he goes after people personally you know this is not just about issue disputes which is that's what we are cussed accustomed to in the body politic your side believes one way our side believes another and then even within political parties themselves you have people a little more conservative and the people who are a little more liberal but to have a president that is constantly attacking people personally this has become problematic in our political debate and the fact that even though i probably would not agree with not even one thing with senator flake in terms of policy positions what he is talking about regarding the by your minute of politics and the fact that it has become so detrimental so deadly so vicious i think he's right this illusion

. the president truth. about bob corker colu competent a lightweight he couldn't get a lick to don't catcher in his home state could group use troops of debasing our nation. right and he and don't forget now senator corker support it now president trump and what a difference eight or eight or nine months make or he's going after this senator in such a way just because he is voicing his concern about the tenor and tone that the president has set even before he got elected so i want any everybody to be clear president trump was never of the republican party so people are saying that this is making it harder for tax reform or make it more course within the relationship between the republican party in the present he was never one of them i mean he was and he beat out sixteen other people to become president of the united states of america and he

didn't do that by being a quote unquote republican more with our political panel. right after this. about your sudden passing i've only just learnt you worry yourself and taken your last bang turn. up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry finally i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath. but then my feeling started to change you talked about more like it was again still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question our arc and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as winners in mind it's consumed with death this one quite different i speak to you now because there are no other takers. to claim that

mainstream media has met its maker. or. peers will people been saying about rejected a night with you i suspect it's full on also felt that the only show i go out of my way to launch really wanted was the really packs upon our leadership is the john oliver of our three americas good to see we are apparently better than blue nothing's better said i see people you've never heard of love redacted tonight not the president of the world bank so they're going to go write a seriously send us an email and i'll go. they. give me no must use to decide this i'm not a rug then she'll get the guy should do as he feel i know there's no shuttle career

. change. yeah he's on the shelf approach. for us health and the hell out of the bottom of the hour. she just put out she did it yet in addition of capital. killed animal until it is the food of this that will be the stuff but i mean. look. good to live it up with let's. go back to politicking before the break i was speaking it would mean the turner former ohio state senator and president of our revolution and former advisor to

marco rubio's twenty sixteen presidential campaign lenny chen who's also research fellow at the hoover at stanford's rabbit hoover institution and here's the rest of that conversation lenny. it's very interesting you worked for george w. bush last week he made an extraordinary speech he was talking about trump he didn't mention from but it was obvious where he was going what's going on in the party that you're a member of. well look i think parties have these really difficult divisions and it happens from time to time i think we've seen it in the republican party in the past we've seen it in the democratic party in the past as well one thing about george w. bush and it's funny larry how many of my friends who are progressive now are saying to me boy i really miss church w. bush that really says something about the politics of our time you know george w. bush i consider to be an extraordinary man i thought he was an extraordinary

president in a lot of ways for him to make those comments which look i don't think anybody can doubt that they were directed in part at least at at the current president for george w. bush to make those statements really kind of demonstrates how far down the rat hole we've gotten in terms of the political dialogue and really an effort to elevate it back to hopefully an area where we can have civil disputes because that's not where we're at right now do you think we're going to reform the tax code. i certainly don't agree with the way that the republicans are doing it i mean to give the one percent and even less than the one percent more tax cuts meanwhile the majority of the people especially the working poor and middle class bear the burden of that to starve government in that way and not use the people's money for the benefit of the people i don't necessarily think that that is the way to go at all so i'm not sure and the republicans are really looking for a win you know i don't support their win but they're looking for one legislative when they have not had any but this president certainly does it doesn't make it

easy for republicans and what he's proposing does not make it easy for many of the democrats to support i believe that the democrats put out a letter to the president august the first if my memory serves me correctly in terms of the things that they want to see in the tax reform plan let me do that do we know what's in the plan. we don't know exactly larry there's been a lot of discussion about different kinds of provisions you know we had this idea a couple days ago floated that they might try to curb benefits to four hundred one k. plans which of course are personal retirement plans that employer sponsored i think that would be an unfortunate idea i think the president very i think correctly said that would not be a good way forward but what we do know larry is that overall they're trying to see rate reduction on both the corporate side and the individual side they're trying to figure out a way to get all this money that's parked overseas to bring that back home and they're trying to figure out a way to raise wages for the average american worker by cutting the tax burden so

we'll have to see what actually happens but you know larry we've seen these fights before the devil is always in the details. nina trump has said that if they don't pass some tax reform they'll be dire consequences for the republican party do you agree do you think they have to pass something. they need some type of legislative victory dire consequences i mean the president is he threaten the party even before he became president even before he ran as their nominee and so i'm not surprised that he is threatening them now i mean he his approval rating is at an all time low but within the faithful faithful part of his base they still believe in what he's doing so you know this dowsing back and forth with the president about who will have a consequence and who will not we will see we we know that he is he's a fighter in that way and so when he makes that kind of threat he'll be out there doing in between him and bad in who knows what's going to happen to the republican party let me ask you you ben is he a plus or

a minus shows you shoot all right now i think he's he's disruptive he's talking about potentially taking on some of the incumbent republican senators i recognize what he's trying to do is to channel some of this populist energy but it's not helpful right now when we've got a number of speaking on behalf of republicans we've got a number of republicans who are up for reelection in very difficult states we've got opportunities in other states to potentially pick up additional seats in a republican majority and to create a centrally intra party fights to create fights between republicans in states like indiana or missouri or west virginia where there are potential opportunities for republicans i think is problematic but we'll have to see you know i mean bannana still trying to decide which candidates he's supporting where he's going to play i think it's too early to tell but so far at least the signs don't seem particularly positive to me switching subjects a little mean a double from sun

a personal check twenty five thousand dollars to the father of corporal dillon baldrige the u.s. soldier killed in afghanistan in june and you make of that is it appropriate. i'm not so sure so he picks this in and condolences to the family and for all of our men and women who are out there on the front line for us but is this family today with family will be tomorrow when you do that kind of thing you make it hard because how how will he decide not to do that again for some of the family so i'm not so sure that it is appropriate because if he's not going to do it for all you know why would you do it for one lenny what do you think yeah look i mean i think this whole discussion you know over the last couple of weeks particularly around the operation and me share and what happened there i mean there's a lot of big question marks about exactly what went wrong but clearly something went wrong we have the last tragically of these brave men who served in our

military and in this particular situation like i think of the president decided he wanted to help out he's certainly entitled to do that i don't see a problem with that i think the question becomes going forward how do we prevent this from happening again how do we make sure that our brave men and women who are put in harm's way are are well equipped and they're ready to go and don't face a situation like this one where apparently they were ambushed i think that's the question we all need to be focusing on not whether the president cut a check to some guy or not what do you make of the fact that so many in congress didn't know about a thousand members of the u.s. military in nigeria. they should know and so hopefully they're going to have the hearings to really get to the bottom of this there's no way that that should be going on in any country in the world and the congress not know about it. and the american people need to know about what happened there in a deeper way let me john mccain who is to lose a troop legally is calling for a war powers debate in the aftermath of nigeria you think you get that. i don't

know if he'll get it but i but i think senator mccain's absolutely right we have to take a careful look and this is not just by the way a trump thing this is something over the last several administrations where you have arguably president sending men and women into harm's way without proper authorization i do think this is something that the congress needs to take a serious look at they need to figure out where do their powers an authorization stop and word of the president's begin and i think it's an appropriate discussion to have but larry again is one of those things a substantive argument which i don't think we're going to get to because we're too busy arguing about the other stuff the stuff that arguably doesn't matter nearly as much as the bigger questions around the scope of power and military deployments and who ought to be doing what how do you think nina he will do on the twelve day trip to asia. only god knows i mean the president certainly has not invoked confidence or any of our war world leaders whether they be in europe africa or asia

one can hope that it goes well but with mr cuomo you never know. lanny all five living presidents recently gathered in texas raising money for hurricane victims. did a special tape for it to the new have times published an interview with jimmy carter who said he's willing to go back diplomatically the north korea why not take that shot. well look i enjoy jimmy carter you know as somebody who served in a number of different roles sometimes well sometimes not as well i think if there's an opportunity the president should absolutely take him up on it i don't see any reason why we wouldn't want to deploy people regardless of their political party regardless of their persuasion in solving difficult problems i think the challenge with north korea is that we've got to wonder if jimmy carter's got the right point of view on this and i think that's something that the president's going to have to determine but i appreciate that the former president wants to get involved and i

don't see any reason why you've got good people you wouldn't want to want to send him out to do things to improve our likelihood of having for example a diplomatic resolution with north korea or in other cases around the world do you think nina oh absolutely at some point this is really about america and it's about humanity all across the world so if president carter wants to do that and president trump sees that as useful he should definitely take him up on that and i do commend president jimmy carter for being willing to be part of the solution here because that is rare especially in this politically charged environment where people are just trying to get one up on each other instead of trying to find a solution so i applaud president jimmy carter not i do hope that president trump will take him up on that let these see the republicans passing some major legislation in the months. well they're going to have to larry before december eighth deal again with the debt ceiling and the financing of government so that's one thing i do think that there is momentum there for tax reform or tax cuts

wherever they end up because they realize that unless they get something done to the question you asked earlier there will be some significant electoral results and electoral issues that will be raised if they can't get something done between now and next year so i do tend to think that there will be some activity exactly what remains to be seen but i do think there are opportunities that they're going to need to seize on if they want to have a good twenty eight hundred term cycle meaning as a major supporter bernie sanders where you see you party going in the twenty eighteen elections. well hopefully progressive i mean senator sanders is still right now the most popular active politician in the country across all groups whether it's people color african-americans hispanics women overwhelmingly democrats overwhelmingly by eighty percent and so we're seeing lots of progressive movement especially on the local levels we just won a big victory in the south larry in birmingham alabama what randall would run in as

a progressive a young african-american millennial running as a progressive and we're seeing that kind of stuff happen all over the country on the local level and hopefully we can take that to the state level and federal level and beyond me god knows the democrats have their share of problems right now but i am hoping that we will continue to push a more progressive agenda to lift the women men and children of this country when you really expect in twenty eighteen. i think it's going to be a very competitive election cycle i think both parties have some internal issues that they're working through now i think a lot of this though frankly larry it is going to come down to the public's perception of the president and i think if president try if the economy and president trump if the perception there continues to be that there are problems i think that will trickle down to the republican candidates for congress i think if there's a perception that things are going better that i think things will be better for them but i do think that in midterm elections particular that first midterm election of a president's new term which is what we're coming into now a lot of it is

a referendum on the president and what the president has or has not been doing you know lanny thank you both so much for your time today thank you thank you thanks for joining me on this edition of politicking remember you can join the conversation on my facebook page treat me as good as they exude over the get use the politics. and that's all for this edition of politic. about your sudden passing i phone lee just learned you worry yourself and taken your last turn. to us we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry. so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each pair. but then my feeling started to change you talked about more like it was again still some more fun to feel those that didn't like to question our arc and i secretly

promised to never be like it's one does not leave a funeral in the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with this one to. speak to us there are no other takers. claimed that mainstream media has met its make. i'm a trial lawyer i've spent countless hours poring through documents that tell the story about the ugly side of the world from the. corporate media everything uses to talk about the car. i'm going to pick clear picture about how disturbing council for conduct is be a model these are stories that you know no exception to my pepto your host of american. question.

mark twain said it's easier to fool people than to convince them they've been for that could be why america is so divided because people have been fed fake news paid for by corporate interests they beat you down until you believe their fairy tales well here's a story for you it's called the big and it's full of facts not fiction let's just. look good zack to be like hey i'm late.