i have known jeff flake for a long time and i know him to be a good man. as a matter of fact, what's funny about that is when jeff flake was in the house and the senate, he was the most fiscally-conservative member. but he did not want to fight against that juggernaut and i don't blame people for not wanting to get involved in the ugly battle and i don't know about that representative. i don't know him at all. i have never met him but there comes a point when you say i don't want to -- i don't want to press wrestle -- the old saying is when you don't want to wrestle in the mud with a pig because sooner or later, you figure out the pig enjoys it. >> is the truth that for now at least, your party is the party of trump? and, you know, the guys who went after him once will not go after him now because they don't want to be punished by him and that base? >> i don't know that our party is the party of trump. um, i will tell you that there have been a lot of candidates that the former president has supported that have not been successful. there is an element of -

there with folks from home giving that to her and i round the corner and who should be there, but jeff flake and his wife giving a tour as well and so i don't think he has ever lost an election, but if you have, they treat you like you now have rigor mortis or a terminal illness or someone close in the family died and everyone that day was really solicitous like i'm so sorry and so jeff and his wife grabbed me and pulled me aside i'm so sorry whatever and we got into a conversation ended they are like really wanted to have another term in the senate but we saw the handwriting on the wall based on what happened to you and others and we didn't want that and so we are getting out. tell me more and i said it's really weird one because people would come up and say are you for or against trump and i would say i'm neither for nor against that i'm for these ideas and they kept pivoting back to one question, which was are you for or against the trump and jeff says he goes that's so weird because thousands of miles away in arizona that was the one question people asked him, argue for or against trump

i rounded the corner and who should be there but jeff flake and his wife giving a dome tour as well. so i don't think you've ever lost an election but if you have, they treat you like you have now rigor mortis or you have a terminal illness or somebody close inthe family . everybody that day was solicitous like i'm so sorry. so jeff and his wife pulled me aside, i'm so sorry and we got into a conversation there like we really want to have another term in the senate but we saw the handwriting on the wall based on what happened to you and others and we didn't want that. so we're getting out but telling more about their lives and i said it was a weird one because people would come up and say are you for or against and i'd say i'm neither for nor against him, i'm or different ideas and they kept getting back to one question which was are you for or against trump. and jeff says he goes that's so weird because thousands of miles away there in arizona that was the one question asked me, argue for or against trump and it became a litmus test for our establishments or not part of the system?

jeff flake, bob corker. they're gone. they left. paul ryan left washington. and i don't think many of them -- i think a lot of them thought the system would hold. then they watched what happened at the capitol on january 6th. that's, of course, when it changed for cheney in particular. she'd been relatively supportive of the president and makes a distinction between saying, i voted for him in november but after i saw what happened at the capitol, under no circumstances could i support him. the thing is, and what kagan was warning in that column and what we've been talking about here, there are no signs any of those dynamics are changing and yet, still, most republicans are silent in the face of it. >> you don't hear kevin mccarthy say, oh, no, i would never overturn a presidential el election. he doesn't say anything like that. then we heard about this former department of homeland security official who was told that trump's allies at dhs and at the white house told him to cover up, manipulate his intelligence on russian election interference and white suprem

trump administration step up in the middle and rtry to criticiz him, and they fell one by one, jeff flake, bob corker, the list goes on, and we're left here. and i think, too, for me watching all of this, oh, our system is going to hold, it's going to be fine. we're listening to this entertainer who's out there essentially entertaining america, and i was at the capitol january 6th and it became extraordinarily real, and the more we learned about that, it could have been so much worse than it was, and we're facing another potential incident like this on saturday as a man is arrested with white supremacist symbols and weapons in a truck outside the democratic national committee down the street from the capitol. when you line all of those facts up, it's astonishing that this is america today. >> trump rewrote the game. >> it's not history. it's now. it's today with the california recall. it's happening before our eyes. >> it's 2022. it's 2024. it's very difficult to see how we get out of this and navigate successfully. >> on a debate stage, if anyone decides to challenge president trump who

former president trump was in office, and you think about former senator bob corker, former senator jeff flake, a number of moderate house republicans who were prominent critics of trump and simply no longer saw a place for themselves in the party, and it's because this didn't happen overnight. it's the culmination of six years in which republicans tried to have it both ways and pretend that the incendiary rhetoric around immigration and issues of race, that the culture wars, the conspiracy theories, that that was integral for support within the base. they sort tried to dismiss this about being taxes and the judiciary, not recognizing, that's not what is animating the republican base that. maybe the rationale that a lot of republicans are providing for ultimately standing by tramp, but it's never been about conservative policies or priorities and that's why you're seeing trumpian candidates emerge now, and they can't put the worms back in the can. i think that this is something that they are dealing with, not just in these mid-term elections but perhaps for several more elections to come. >> l

look at jeff flake. you could argue bob corker also made a similar decision there.iz cheney is actually really the only one right now who is saying you know what, forget it. bring it on. i'm going to fight this fight. you know, there are some critics of republicans who were willing to vote for impeachment or willing to say something and then say, you know what, i'm not going to say anything else because i'm concerned about my family. hey, this is why you got into this. you have to be willing to take this criticism. we have to look inside ourselves as americans and say, what kind of country is it where if you speak out politically and oppose someone that your family has to then be met by law enforcement officers to physically protect them from harm. i mean, that's the opposite of what the first amendment and the way our constitution was supposed to work. >> you know, clearly the former president is stirring the pot here. so let's talk about what the conditions in the pot are. you have dhs warning of violence today and tomorrow. not just tomorrow also today. capitol h

that's really where owe you start seei change in kyrsten sinema, and in 2018, she won the seat by jeff flakeands of democrats, but there is definitely a much more centrist approach here that is frustrating a lot of progressives here in arizona. >> so what are you hearing, ed from actual voters on the ground there in arizona? >> reporter: well, you know, there is a great deal of anger brewing, and it's not just with what we're seeing happening this week. this has been going on for several months. back in march, senator sinema voted against the bill that would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, so there are a number of issues that have been kind of beginning to rise to the surface. so much so that you are now seeing a number of progressive groups here in arizona openly looking for a challenger to go up against her in the democratic primary, when she's up for re-election in 2024. of course three years in politics is a long time, but the other flip side of this is we've had a chance over the last couple of days and speaking with voters here in arizona, we've spoken with a lot of

that the kind of fecklessness of people like paul ryan and jeff flake who instead of taking a stand against what is clearly a dangerous and incompetent in person, they just stood aside and let him ascend to power. i have left the rest of us to deal with the quite serious fallout. >> it seems that paul ryan's personal strategy in all of this, once he saw how impossible was to deal with this mad man in the white house, was to basically track his own personal exit strategy, not just from the speaker shipment, not just from the house representative, but from politics entirely. and landed softly and as ritually as he could on corporate words. like fox news. that was apparently his route of moral responsibility that he found for himself. >> yes i guess he found a just too difficult to stay in the fight, and tried to save his party from its worst instincts. which obviously were championed by donald. the problem is potentially monitoring influences, and i'm not suggesting that he ultimately would have been, but at the time the belief was that people like paul ryan would be some kind of moderating i

it's a sort of long-term play where one by one the jeff flakes, the bob corkers, the anthony gonzalez'step down. and by the way, it's widely assumed in the capitol that he will not be the last of the 10 who voted to impeach president trump to step down. keep in mind, some of these folks will have very different looking seats next year because of reapportionment. >> so that's the question, who is next when it comes to someone besides anthony gonzalez and also considering there is this rally tomorrow and we're not seeing gop members taking part and they're not condoning it and you have a couple republican candidates who are going to attend the rally. >> yeah. >> what does that tell you that you could have members of congress sitting next to someone who celebrated the insurrectionists. what does that tell you about the makeup of congress coming up? >> yeah. look, especially in the house there is a wing that is sort of openly pro-january 6th. you've seen them obviously go to the d.c. lockup to offer their encouragement of people who were arrested and are facing charges january 6th. so that

independent and then left the party during the trump years, and then people like bob corker and jeff flakee they no longer had a place in the republican party. >> thank you, leigh ann caldwell. >>> tomorrow, the four-member crew is expected to splash down in the waters off florida after three days in orbit. in the time of space, they have been conducting medical experiments, and made one very special long distance phone call to the kids at st. jude's hospital. part of the mission is to raise money for the kids there at the hospital. but they made time for fun, too, and billionaire jared issacson also made history by placing a sports bet from space. he put $4,000 on the philadelphia eagles to win the super bowl, and we just learned they will share a live update from space at 5:00 p.m. eastern, and that is about, what is that -- 5:00 p.m. their time in orbit, so if you want to tune in and find out why he chose the eagles. and now, high demand and why a shortage of everything from toys to turkeys could upend your holiday shopping. michael: my great-great- grandfather, rachmaiel. gigi: pinky a

think, testament to how we got where we are, the kind of fecklessness of people like paul ryan and jeff flake, who instead of taking a stand against what was clearly a dangerous and incompetent person, they just stood aside and let him ascend to power and then have left the rest of us to deal with the quite serious fallout. >> it seems that paul ryan's personal strategy in all of this, once he saw how impossible it was to deal with this madman in the white house was to basically track his own personal exit strategy not just from the speakership, not just from the house of representatives, but from politics entirely and land as softly and as richly as he could on corporate boards like fox news. now, that was apparently his -- his route of moral responsibility that he found for himself. >> yeah. i guess he just found it too difficult to stay in the fight and try to save his party from its worst instincts, which obviously were championed by donald. so the problem is because potentially moderating influences -- and i'm not suggesting that he ultimately would have been, but at the time, the belief

what we saw in the last cycle as bob corker and jeff flake leave the senate because they calculated they party? it means it becomes much more homogeneous, it becomes much more trumpy. there aren't going to be voices of dissent the next time around when you have big issues and potentially trump running again, that could be hugely consequential. i agree with what you said, willie, this is going to create a republican party that's more trumpy in the future. >> and liz cheney obviously has a primary challenger as well, donald trump supporting the effort to get rid of liz cheney who's already been effectively tossed out of the party by leadership. nancy pelosi was in the united kingdom yesterday having a conversation there, and she was asked about the state of american politics and particularly about the republican party. here's what she said. >> i'd say to my republican friends and i do have some, take back your party. you're the grand old party of america. you've done wonderful things for our country. you now have been hijacked by a cult that is not good for our country. take back your part