the anything but john cornyn movement won 40% of the vote. dewhurst was forced into a run jofr, and then he was defeated by conservative state senator dan patrick. as republican voters make it clear they were eager to embrace the shift to the right, particularly on immigration. check out congressman who became the first congressional -- senate republican leader mitch mcconnell beat back a challenge from -- not without spending more than $11 million and brandishing a rifle. even though he knew he had a fierce general election challenge ahead. mcconnell said he felt he needed spend his primary accusing conservatives. in mississippi six -- thad cochran -- mcconnell, by the way, headlines a fundraiser tomorrow. even in the races that the gop establishment has won in the south, the tea party has worked to push the party even further to the right. it was certainly on display at the texas republican convention over the weekend. more than 7,000 delegates gathered. does anyone think this is john conin's party in texas? rick perry's? not at all. it is

bob about that part and earlier this week president obama did an interview with msnbc, then with john cornyn stephanopoulos on air force one, plus he had the public events in minnesota that i think that was a smart tactic. i liked the day in a life thing they're trying to do. why do you think the president continues to do so many television interviews? >> i don't know and i wish he wouldn't. let me try to clarify some of this. the supreme court came down on one particular point because the senate was out for three days. it was not a blanket cutting of the executive powers. the other thing is when you talk about 86% or 79% -- >> 76%. >> 76% of the people think there was a scandal, now, i've sat at this table and listened to greg particularly dump on all the media for being quiet. now, with all due respect to the daily caller and fox and rush limbaugh, 80% of the american people did not learn about this because other media did not report on it. of course they did. and so they formed no opinion. so when we -- >> their opinion -- what i said was that the president is saying that it's phony, but

please welcome john cornyn of texas. [applause] good afternoon.t is great to be with all of you and ralph, thank you for inviting me and bringing this wonderful group of people together. we just had a texas state republican convention in fort worth. we had a little exercise on social media. we have a chalkboard. it says what does texas mean to me? i said faith, family, and freedom. those are the things that identify conservatives. we are not the party of government. we are the party of individual freedom and opportunity. we have the opportunity to follow faith and run life the way we see fit. that happens to be the system that helps grow opportunity and prosperity and jobs for other people. we have actually had an experiment. since the beginning of our country, we have had a philosophical debate about the size and role of the federal government. the last five years, we had an experiment. we know how the experiment has turned out. we have had the economy growing so slowly that unemployment remains high. many people have simply given up and quit loo

of the tea party's best chance to beat a senate incumbent, mitch mcconnell that doesn't happen, john cornynng time member of the appropriations committee, one time chairman, when we looked at this year at the beginning of the year, he looked like the most vulnerable incumbent. largely because chris mcdaniel had unified all of the tea party groups. you mentioned the scandal. i think the mcdaniel, wasn't an aide, someone supporting mcdaniel took footage of cochran's wife in a nursing room. that has changed the conversation in the race, no question and moved things more in cochran's favor. one thing to look at. there is a third republican in the race, it's important neither cochran nor mcdaniel get 50% and we go to a runoff in july. i don't know it will happen but it's a possibility. >> let's talk about iowa, where earnst has gotten a lot of support. she has the most unusual political ad of the season. let's play it. >> i'm joni earnst and grew up castrating hogs on a farm. when i get to washington, i'll know how to cut pork. my parents taught us to live within their means. it's time to force

john cornyn won his a few weeks ago with well over 55%, whatever it was.ut all in all, big picture-wise, the party is on the rise. we're doing great, picking up seats. that can't be denied. >> sean, earlier in the program i pointed out that lindsay graham and boehner are all doing well in their primaries, so we've made all of those points. i'm just saying, something happened last night. and people are taking notice. thank you very much for joining us. >> i agree with you. i agree with you. one district, yes. i think david brat ran a great campaign. he talks about the fact he's a proud republican. he campaigned on republican principles. i think your previous guest tom davis made a good point that being in the leadership sometimes is a balancing act, of trying to help grow the party and help elect other members, while at the same time trying to get back. i think sometimes that's a difficult balancing act. and so there's a great case to be made that david brat, which his campaign was largely a campaign on getting back to the base and saying, hey, we need a co

meanwhile, republicans like senator john cornyn of texas say the obama administration has enticed childrenmake the journey. last week, department of homeland security secretary jeh johnson testified before congress about the surge of child migrants. >> there is this perception that the executive branch of the federal government is not enforcing the law because of talks about easing deportations. >> i'm not sure i agree that that is the motivator for people coming in, for the children coming into south texas. i think it is primarily the conditions in the countries that they are leaving from. >> reporter: conservatives argue that white house policies, like deferred action for childhood arrivals, which allows some younger undocumented immigrants to stay in the country, have sent the message that now is the time to come to the u.s. illegally. mark krikorian is the executive director, of the center for immigration studies, which advocates for a tougher immigration policy. >> the administration doesn't really oppose illegal immigration. i mean, the people in charge of immigration policy-making i

john cornyn down in texas, he didn't even crack 60%.f you have 40%, nearly half opposing a sitting republican, jamie, what does that mean? >> well i think a lot of people are opportunistically using eric cantor's loss to push their own agenda. i think it is far from clear immigration was the primary issue that forced eric cantor out of his seat. in fact there are polls in the district where 70% of the republicans support type of immigration reform in the senate and pushed to some degree in the house. so i'm not so sure that that was the case of the tea party having a tremendous success. after all, tea party groups put zero dollars in that race. they put zero dollars behind brat. only they are now coming out saying he is our man. look what they did. but they didn't do anything there. as you mentioned you looked at lindsey graham on the same day he got 50 something percent. he is known as a big proponent what some refer to as amnesty. they call it gram-nesty and got 50 some percent in conservative south carolina. i think immigration refor

senator john cornyn of texas comparing this to closing the door of the barn after the horse has left.d me they would like to know a lot more about the administration's justification for going forward with this release and prisoner swap without the law, as it stood, 30 days quocongress was supposed t get some type of prewarning, wolf. >> they didn't get that. a lot of republicans are deeply complaining even the chair of the senate intelligence, dianne feinstein says she deeply reg t regrets the president did not notify her and the ranking members of the various committees. all right, joe, thanks very much. >>> let's dig a little deeper. joining us, john bellinger, former state department and official over at the george w. bush administration. you were the legal adviser. john, thanks very much for coming in. during the bush administration at the state department. you caused an uproar, i guess, a buzz out there. you're saying this is not necessarily a bad deal. >> well, it seems to me, wolf, that it's defensible. this is one of those tough national security choices that presidents have t

john cornyn and john mccain joined democratic senator dick durbin on the senate floor this past week to talk about immigration and unaccompanied children entering the u.s. mccain and durbin were among the group of eight who worked on immigration legislation last year that passed in the senate but was never taken up by the house. this is about an hour. >> thank you, madam president. i want to spend a few moments this morning talking about realistic solutions to the ongoing crisis along america's southern border. where we have 1,200 miles of common border with the nation of mexico, which of course has been the gateway now to this humanitarian wave of children, unaccompanied children coming from central america into the united states. i'll talk more about that in detail, but i first want to comment on something that the majority leader said this morning in his opening remarks. with his what has now become trademark high pesh olie -- high pesh olie and disregard for facts the majority leader suggested that the republican platform was deport first, find solutions later, or never. i find t

durbin: just a few minutes ago when my friend from texas, senator john cornyn came to the floor and spoke about immigration and the situation on our border and it was a very moving statement that he's made before and needs to make again. he did it today and identified a serious issue that we are facing, not just one but several serious issues. and they're dramatized by the fact that we are seeing hundreds, hundreds of children who are being turned loose on america's border with mexico, crossing the border, being apprehended and being placed in a humane situation in america. children. some as early in age as 5, 6, and 7 years of age. not accompanied by adults. and you think to yourself, what is going on here? senator cornyn, of course, representing the state of texas knows this better than most because they're watching these children. 80% of these children come from three countries, mr. president. honduras, el salvador and guatemala. and in these countries there is a state of lawlessness at this point that is so desperate, so desperate that a family would turn over a child to someone who s

had senate minority leader, soon too be senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, we had senator john cornyn, and that was just the first day. and we are going to have an incredible lineup over the next two days. we'll equip you, empower you, we're going to encourage you and then we're going to send you back to your respective states, to build the organization that will turn out a record number of evangelical and faithful catholic voters, and come november, harry reid will be retired as the majority leader of the u.s. senate. [applause] and frankly it can't come soon enough. i want us to take stock this morning of the state of our country and look out upon the fiscal, the cultural, and the foreign policy chaos that is america as we gather this morning. we are a nation that is $17 trillion in debt. which is equal to the entire u.s. economy. which is viewed by most economists as a red warning light that goes off on the dashboard and tells you, your engine is about to shut down. when your debt equals the size of your economy, that's never been true in the history of our country, even during wor

corey booker and mitch mcconnell and john cornyn who is one of the top fundraisers in texas with $9.1 also one of the things that's been different this cycle is that republicans in particular, where they were challenged by surprise in some ways in 2010, 2011. primary and nusual professionals in the party felt like they weren't getting the best nominees for the general election. so they have been much more aggressive in terms of spending money and paying attention to races early on so they could get the kind of nominees that they thought would be the most viable in the fall. groups like chamber of commerce for example have been very involved in spending money. certainly pro business candidates, but not necessarily the tea party kind of very ideological candidates that you see sometimes succeed. >> host: the top spender, the speaker of the house, john boehner happens to list with $11.6 million and then the second lieutenant eric cantor, the majority leader from virginia at $5 million and then democrat one, the from new jersey at $3.2 million. guest: they will raise money early, because

california -- and outgoing congressman, a republican from texas, lost his primary bid to unseat senator john cornynn that republican primary, tweeted out -- we see 5000 from eric cantor's leadership act fund for his bid. steve from texas. wayne in west jefferson carolina --, north carolina. >> the american people will figure it out on immigration reform to come out with a bill and call it immigration reform when it is not. they have figured it out and are opposed to it. two that's. -- steps. if you have a president and i am a democrat who will not enforce the law, he will not enforce the law and the border. he is not right now. blade of immigrants coming across as we speak here i am very frustrated because i amke many democrats, tired of lobbyists and the political elite tell me what i have to do. the american people are tired of it. democrats voted for this guy who won last night. it is not just republicans and it is not weirdo wackos or anything like that. washingtond of controlling us. >> independent color. -- caller. glad c-span is available to american people. we need to have impact on the lyr