it donald trump may be an opa culture war president. >> let me give charlie sikes a quick last word. if you're doing what you need to do to save your seat in a political climate that's so toxic because of trump, but to what end? >> to what end? and the deep moral and intellectual corruption of the republican party and the republican electorate i think is on display here, the pettiness of the president's failure to -- all of that has been rationalized and enabled and empowered by republican elected officials who are saying what has happened to the conservative base and the conservative electorate and that's all playing out here. >> we're going to sneak in a quick break here. i want to let you know, don't go anywhere, pop some popcorn because jeff flake will be on with chuck todd in the next hour with "mtp daily" and we'll be right back after this break. >> we must argue our positions fervently and never compromise, we must always look for the good. until that day comes we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it. because it does. thank you so much. th

joining me tonight is charlie sikes, the talk radio host and author of how the right lost its mind. at the president hit on today, stopping what he called the tax on ju dayo christian values, returning more clarity to our view of the world. whether or not you believer that the president is actually doing that, are these the kind of topics that are going to help him keep the support of his base? >> well, obviously so far it has. i mean, the christian right which allid around donald trump seems to be among the strongest support for him. you know, despite his personal conduct and character, et cetera. so i think he does understand what he needs to say on those particular issues. so, yes. >> and scott, i mean, the president when he spoke at the value voters summit back in 2015, he got booed at one point when he made fun of mark row rubio. today he got multiple standing ovations. has there been a dramatic change in how he's being perceived, do you think, or is it that he's the president and its his agenda and that's what they're standing for? >> well, i think that politics is comparative,

normal american charlie sikes is if author of how the right lost its mind. has the nra turned itself into a far right wing media country? >> first of all good morning. yeah. i think this is one of the key things is that the nra is no longer strictly about guns and gun control and they turned it whether this regulation or that regulation. they have really made themselves central to the culture war and triable identity on the right. i think this is an important thing to understand. it is why they are injecting themselves because this has now become a key issue of cultural identity. it is one of the reasons they are not going to break with the nra any time soon. >> what about the idea that you present this idea that increasingly there's a lot of folks between the conservative movement who are immune? is that effecting the this week? >> yeah. we have segregated ourselves into these. they are the silos which i know you have talked about before. i think it's getting worse. all of the trajectory of the media is for us to be more divided, to pull back into our corne