>> this week on "q&a," john bresnahan and manu raju share stories about mitch mcconnell, at the first one a republican primary and then won the general election. >> this experiment of government has lasted long enough. [applause] it is time to go in a new direction. [applause] it is time to turn this country around. [cheering & applause] >> manu raju, when you interviewed mitch mcconnell, what was he like? >> it was the most complex race of a 30 year career. he was attacked -- right off the bat, he had his first primary challenge. he had democrats that made him the top target. he knew that going in. mcconnell is a guy who looks around corners, and he had planned for four years this campaign. that started in 2010, right after he saw what happened at the republican primary at rand paul. rand paul beat mcconnell's handpicked guy in that primary. mcconnell realized, i have to recalibrate everything i know about republican primary politics in my home state. he started to make changes and hired key staff and started to build a very sophisticated infrastructure, knowing this would be the mos

. >> john bresnahan, we're going to talk about mitch mcconnell for the hour and how he won this campaign and what's he like as a leader. but when you see him up close, what's he like up-close compared to what we see on a national basis? >> he is, well first of all he's a very, very smart man. he's very intelligent. he really knows what he's talking about in terms of policy, politics. he is a very, exceptionally bright man. >> tactician. >> tactician, he's very sharp. i think that you can never get him to say anything he doesn't want to say. if you -- i don't care how many ways you ask him. manu and i will ask him 57 different ways on something, and if he doesn't want to say it he's not going to say it. he's funnier than people think. he's more personable and charming. he's never going to be, you know, warm and friendly. he's never going to be, you know, a -- >> back slapper. >> no, that's not his style. but he's direct, and he will tell you what he feels and what he thinks, but you know he's going to do it on his terms. it's about what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. and it's

john bresnahan from politico. you don't care a lot for bres ma han and tell us why. >> at that time, he spent to my press contact, brian walsh an email. email brought the email in and it clearly said in this bad language of what he was going to do to mr. ney and when i said to brian, i said, i want that email because i wanted it. it was one those emails you don't want have into the hands of other people but brian gave me the email. and i had been told by some of abramoff's people that john breshnahan was getting information from jack abramoff for stories as this whole thing was going down because jack was quite secluded from the press as you can imagine after "the washington post" and the "new york times" and everybody under the sun was going after him, and breshnahan was doing stories but at that point in time i was told also point blank by jack abramoff's people that jack was angry at me. i had used the word that he duped me, and tom delay was still standing up for him. as a result, breshnahan was helping to do

. >> this week on "q&a," john bresnahan and manu raju share stories about mitch mcconnell, at the first one a republican primary and then won the general election. >> this experiment of government has lasted long enough. [applause] it is time to go in a new direction. [applause] it is time to turn this country around. [cheering & applause]

john bresnahan writing in preparing about, this the whomee quietly spent two to three days per week in washington since obama nominated her in november. attending issue briefings and murder boards with justice department and white house officials to prepare for her hearings. let's go to jan who is in california. republican line. caller: thank you very much. there is a lot of emphasis on loretta lynn who would be the first black woman as attorney general. i think that's wonderful. that does not bother me. but she states, quote, gtmo is illegal. which worries me very much because it is exactly the president's stance on gtmo. and i worry that she will just become another puppet of president obama. thank you. host: thanks for your call. more of your calls coming up. wanted to show you some of the comments, the back and forth with senator jeff sessions of alabama who asked about illegal immigrants undocumented immigrants coming to the united states. here's a look at that. >> do you believe that a person who enters the country unlawfully that is perhaps used false documents or otherwise ente