it's just mitch mcconnell being mitch mcconnell.s is in the best interest of his party and his power base. and so, it's going to change. it may change, again, depending on circumstances. so i don't think anybody should be surprised, don, about what -- what mitch mcconnell said today. in fact, i think most people would have predicted that. it is -- it is vintage mitch mcconnell. and the one thing that i do think, though. i really believe, you know, in 2020, i think judicial selections and judges motivated democrats. and they've had motivation in the past. i don't think that's ever been a true-motivating factor for democrats. it was in 2020. so might have just litten a fire under democrat. >> so, scott, mcconnell wouldn't even commit when asked about a supreme-court opening at the end of 2023. is -- isn't it completely undermining democratic norms, when he is refusing to follow through on constitutional dutds? duties? >> well, i don't think it makes any-political sense for him to give anything to joe biden on a hypothetical question.

ever seen rand paul beat greyson in the primary and humiliated mitch mcconnell after mitch mcconnelll greyson, mitch mcconnell has stayed closely to whatever the the base wants. it's outrageous but it's also predictable. this is simply who he is as a politician. >> so where do you think we go from here? what are the biden agenda priorities to rack up another whim? what is the thing you see in their legislative agenda where they can actually get a win on something? >> i guess today they got a win on the extra money for basic research, basically kind of on china. they got a win on that. they'll get sort of minor victories around the edges. you know, just because i still kind of believe in logic even after the last five years, i think logic hasn't completely evaporated and logically there should be support for infrastructure bills because members of congress like those, they like to be able to give these to the folks back home, so there ought to be bits ask -- and chunks of that to get through, but i'm not sure. i'm not sure right now. it looks like they won't do anything and everything

it is just mitch mcconnell being mitch mcconnell.his party and his power base. so it will change, it may change against. i don't think anybody should be surprised about what mitch mcconnell said today. i think most people would have predicted that. it is vintage mitch mcconnell. and the one thing that i do think though, i really believe. in 2020, i think judicial selections and judges motivated democrats. they've had motivation in the past. i don't think that's ever been a there motoring factor for democrats. it was in 2020. so he may have just lit a fire under democrats. >> so scott, mcconnell wouldn't even commit when asked about a supreme court opening at the end of 2023. isn't it completing undermining democratic norms when he refuses to follow through on constitutional duties? >> well, i don't think it makes any political sense for him to give anything to joe biden on a hypothetical question regarding the senate in 2023 when we don't know who will be in control. we have a lot of runway between now and then. regarding 2024, he's

a lot of it has to do with mitch mcconnell. basically saying, i don't care what the constitution says, i don't care with the norms and rules and precedent of the senate says. i'm not going to allow this to happen because i am about power more than i am about upholding the constitution and rules of law. and this is a consistent pattern. this is, more than anything, this is why the senate is broken. this is the man who is saying, i'm 100 percent against biden's moving his agenda, and as someone from the obama world, i remember very clearly mitch mcconnell saying, my name one priority is making for -- the presidency. so, this is the threshold that democrats are trying to get over in a time where many democrats and many voters, brian, are wanting democrats to be bipartisan even in the face of mitch mcconnell and what he is doing in this to really tear bipartisanship apart. >> these two friends have agreed to stay with us, and it's a perfect time to work in a break. coming up, when we continue our conversation, any warning from vice

he was aiming that at mitch mcconnell. he knew it meant to mcconnell was doing. that was a violation of what he believed was the integrity, and the norms, and decency of the senate. he wouldn't be standing for this. i am 100% convinced. i am 1 00i can tell you in the 1990s, that senator bird and senator mcconnell had a perfectly cordial relationship at all times. one senator mcconnell was then considered one of the regional republicans in the senate. iraq, there's an important story if reconciliation rolls. one of his notions of reconciliation, was the you are not supposed to introduce new legislation, new programs in reconciliation. that's one of the pieces of it that he always tried to protect. in a chairman's meeting, the first in 1993 during the clinton presidency, chairman bird, announced to all of us that he personally would not allow the clinton health care bill to be done in reconciliation. so we instantly gave up. the majority leader didn't think let me talk him into this. everyone instantly gave up on reconciliation on that. then you cut to obamacare, g

ever since rand paul and the 2010 kentucky primary and humiliated mitch mcconnell, mitch mcconnell hasy to whatever the base was and today it was a great thing about that. that is what he does and it's an outrageous but it's also predictable. it's simply who he is as a politician. >> so where do we go from here? with you think are the priorities or it should be the biden agenda priorities to rack up another win? what is the thing that you see and their legislative agenda where they can actually get a win on something? >> well, you know, they just today they got a win on the extra money for basic research. basically an anti china legislation. they got a win on that. sort of minor victories around the edges. you know, just because i still kind of believe in logic even after the last five years i think logic has evaporated in logically there ought to be support for infrastructure bills because members of congress like those. they like to be able to give -- to the folks back home so they're all to be bits and pieces in chunks of that that you can get through. but again, i'm not sure. i'm n

handing the keys to the castle to mitch mcconnell, mitch mcconnell has told us he's going to oppose biden agenda the same way he opposed the obama agenda and i take him at his word on that. i don't think he should be allowed to do it. that's basically my other concern. and look, anyone who has legislated -- you've done a lot of it, finance and environment -- legislating is bone-crushingly difficult. but the key to it is people coming forward and engaging in good faith to try to work on the problem. you got to be good faith political players. and we don't have that in mitch mcconnell. we may have that in some group of republicans, seven or eight or nine. that remains to be seen. and this legislation isn't done yet. so we may see this process play out. but what i would argue is it's hard enough to pass important legislation with the president, the house and the senate with 50 or 51 votes. 60-vote supermajority is an unacceptable burden, we shouldn't live with it. >> we're going to have to break there. ira and norm, friends of robert byrd, the united states senate and democracy. thank you ve

and the big question is what does mcconnell really want? does mitch mcconnell really want this bipartisan infrastructure bill to pass so that he can get that bridge that he doesn't have to vote for, connecting kentucky to ohio, very important bridge over the ohio river, does he want that to happen or does he want, as he always does with everything else to derail joe biden? that's the decision for mcconnell. >> yes and i think that's why want to be. clear i'm not skeptical johnson 's point. i'm trying to look down the road and see where the point of vulnerability is. we know who that is. we know who the sharpshooter is here. we know mcconnell is going to try to make some kind of move and the fact this might not get voted on for some number of weeks, potentially not all the way into the fall when this thing gets to final passage, it means a lot of time. a lot of yardage out there. i think your question, lawrence, is the right question. i think that it not only is the right question about the answer to, it depends on in that period of time wha

here is mitch mcconnell in comments this afternoon. we'll discuss on the other side. >> attorney general barr served our nation with honor and with integrity. these latest attempts to tarnish his name bear the telltale signs of a witch hunt in the making. i'm confident that the existing inquiry will uncover the truth. there is no need for a partisan circus here in the congress. >> of course, phil, when you think of barr, you think of honor and integrity. here's the question, though. knowing how mcconnell is going to be on this, what's the chance the democrats play this aspect of the investigation wrong while, as we said, so much of their agenda is stalled in that very chamber where mcconnell spoke? >> you know, brian, there is certainly a chance of that. we've seen democratic leaders with the senate and the house be quite exercised the last few days given the revelations about what was going on, the surveillance going on at the justice department, and it's personal for them. some of them, chairman adam schiff, for example, were the one

but mcconnell put out a statement yesterday insisting those two pieces of legislation be separated.ir threats then president biden's walk back of his veto threat would be a hollow gesture. he argued the president cannot let congressional democrats hold a separate bill hostage over a separate and bipartisan process. >> i appreciate the president saying that he's willing to deal with infrastructure separately. but he doesn't control the congress. and the speaker and the majority leader of the senate will determine the order. and so, what i did this morning is to call on the president to ask the majority leader and the speaker to deal with these issues separately. >> okay. meanwhile, president biden is hitting the road today to promote the bipartisan infrastructure package. he will be in wisconsin to tout the economic benefits of the plan, stressing the $973 billion package would include the largest investment in transportation in a century and create millions of jobs. >>> coming up on "morning joe," pete buttigieg joins mika and joe and willie to weigh in on the plan. >>> joining us i

the real question is what does mitch mcconnell really want? does he want this bipartisan infrastructure bill to pass so he can get that bridge that he doesn't have to vote for connecting kentucky to ohio very important bridge over the ohio river. does he want this to happen? or does he want as he does with everything else to derail joe biden? that's the decision for mcconnell >> yes, and i think, i want to be clear, i'm not skeptical, to jonathan's point, i'm just trying to look down the road and see where the point of maximum vulnerability is. we obviously know who the point is. we know who the sharp-shooter is here. we know mcconnell is going to try to make some kind of move and the fact that this might not get voted on for some number of weeks potentially not all the way to the fall when this thing finally gets to final passage, it means there's a lot of time, there's a lot yardage out there, right? so your question is the right question, not only the right question but the answer to it depends on in that period of time what happens to the

you got to wonder when mitch mcconnell thinks it broke.ch mcconnell to come out yesterday and say, well, you see, it's already illegal to discriminate on the basis of race for voting and not be the source of just universal ridicule and condemnation, speaks to just how absent the historical context of race and democracy is in all of our discussions today. mitch mcconnell says it's already against the law to discriminate from voting on the basis of race. so he thinks a law policing that right is unnecessary. now, there is a very obvious problem here. those who studied the history of voting rights in america and thwarted efforts to achieve a multiracial democracy in this country. no. it has been against the law to discriminate on the basis of race in voting since 1870, when the 15th amendment was ratified saying, quote, the right of citizens of the united states to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the united states or by any state on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. it says it right there in black and white in

but do not worry, mitch mcconnell will kill it for us. what we are trying to deal with, is we have to have greater transparency. if billionaires, if billion-dollar corporations are seeking to buy our elections, or buy our politicians, and they own some light mitch mcconnell, we should know. it should be easy. host: ben jealous is with us until the bottom of the hour at 9:30 a.m. eastern, taking our phone calls as we talk about the issue of voting rights legislation, the path forward and what has happened at week on that front. 202-748-8001 for republicans. democrats at 202-748-8000. independents at 202-748-8002. robert is in pennsylvania, an independent. caller: good morning. thank you. this is a terrific program, fair for both sides. let me ask one question first. you are so critical to identify the coke brothers -- koch brothers. maybe you are right, may be wrong. what about the other billionaires? i do not see you being critical about them. doesn't this country and almost everything we do, don't we have to identify ourselves that we ar

mitch mcconnell voted for it. here is a changed universe in the senate where something about the senate has to change if there's going to be any progress. >> right. and i actually think senator manchin did the whole process, actually, a favor by unexpectedly putting out his compromise. and i'm going to disagree a little bit with norm here. it wasn't just democratic priorities that were in that bill. there were republican priorities in that bill. ie voter i.d. these folks have spent decades saying we must have voter i.d., so manchin says, okay, here it is, and they vote unanimously against it today. and so what manchin has done is put them in a box. he has revealed the lie that they even want to do anything in a bipartisan nature. today's vote shows that they absolutely do not, and it is all about power. >> thank you both for joining our discussion tonight, and be sure to watch pride of the white house, jonathan cape hart's conversation with lgbtq members of the biden white house, including transportation secretary

mitch mcconnell certainly is a place where good ideas go to die.can senators when he got criticize and say now some of our colleagues were there with them on policing reforms. some of them were there on infrastructure. so there's something in it for them as well and so i'd be surprised on infrastructure if mcconnell gets them all the way that you can see the argument where they can say on everything else you know there's too much tax raising and too much granting of health care and too much voting reform. we're not gonna do any of that but we're replacing reform an infrastructure which would be a good thing but i think you have to look at this entire act and understand that's what they're up to. again i'd be surprised that mcconnell gives them that long of a latch but i can see a scenario when -- >> let me go back to what concerns democrats should have in the senate in the white house now about voter frustration because they're watching these things happen and they're watching structure make that same speech over and over again that we will not all

mcconnell has pledged they won't. as for that bipartisan infrastructure deal, biden said today he expects to see a plan emerge on monday. a comes as we're getting yet another rather astonishing picture of the former president. this comes from wall street journal reporter michael bender. author of the forthcoming book, frankly, we did win this election. the inside story of how trump lost. in a piece for politico based on his new book, vendor describes how crump trump claims he quote " made juneteenth very famous after he was. -- is the book also notes trump told advisers he wished he'd get a more aggressive response to the protests after george floyd's murder. and that he regretted supported his son-in-law jared kushner's push for criminal justice reform. bender writes that trump told one confidant quote, " i've done all this stuff for the blacks. it's always jared telling me to do this. and they all blank. hate me and none of them are going to vote for me ". tonight we have yet more images of what happened during the

mcconnell urged him to speak out as if mcconnell himself forgot that that was also an option for him during all four years of our constitution getting sidetracked to the trump administration. what else did you learn that? front >> particularly, the period after the election. by all accounts, i've been told this brine i'm sure you're the same thing, mcconnell didn't buy into any of these allegations of fraud that donald trump was raising. publicly, he was saying nothing, nothing except to go out and say that donald trump had the right to pursue all legal challenges and let him do. it and you know, on, and on. he never criticized it when trump went out and when rudy giuliani had the press conference. it's talked about how they voting machines have been hacked by the venezuelans with some scheme. possibly hashed by job as we've been dead for years. so, now, when i was astounded to find out that while mcconnell was saying nothing publicly, he was calling bill barr, and he was asking bill barr, will you come out? will you shoot this stuff down? this is dangerous, it is bad for the country

i went back to mcconnell. mcconnell does not dispute any of this. he acknowledges it. mcconnell eventually came out and said that joe biden was the legitimate president-elect, but it wasn't for another couple of weeks. mcconnell stood on the sideline throughout the month of november and didn't come out until december 15th after the electoral college results were certified. he was privately pleading with barr to come out and do it. >> in the exchange barr says will he do it at the appropriate time but one of the reasons he wants to tell his version of the story, he has been widely seen as a trump lackey who politicized the doj, saying it was advantageous to one particular party. that may be one reason why. i also want to talk to you about there are a number of moments that the fact that they were talking about the clown show of the attorneys who were running point for this for donald trump acre clown show? >> i extensively reported this, what happened around this event where barr came out which r really, as you recall, this was an explosive event when barr came out and

they have never done that under mitch mcconnell. host: mentioned mitch mcconnell. he is mentioned in this headline on the front page of the washington times. democrats woo and boo joe manchin, dubbed the new mcconnell for blocking the democratic agenda. mitch mcconnell was on the senate floor to note the discord on the democratic agenda. this was mitch mcconnell from yesterday. >> after a spring in which the senate has repeatedly passed mainstream legislation by wide margins, democrats have decided that now is the time to argue the legislative process is somehow broken. let's not forget the democrats poster child to allow the senate to change its rule is a bill that would change the rules for elections in every state in america. let me say that again. the democrats poster child to allow the senate to change its rule is a bill that would forcibly change the rules for elections in every state in america. the question is not whether it could earn bipartisan support, the question is how wide the bipartisan opposition will be. this is the bill the democratic leader has

>> the big story here is mcconnell. mcconnell stiffed him on the january 6th commission. then he tells all republicans to throw love bombs at manchin. manchin barely finishes his sentence about his compromise proposal and mcconnell swats it away. i think he keeps pushing manchin into the democratic fold. >> can he push him far enough? >> mcconnell is not listening to mcconnell's advice. he's flipped on it. i'll make this prediction. i think you'll see manchin do something and offer an idea, a compromise on filibuster -- >> do you agree with that? >> a work around for a civil rights bill? >> i'm not going to predict what it will be. i think it will go down to 40. >> 40 to continue the debate? >> i think what this will do is push him -- i think this deals with infrastructure. there's three negotiations going on simultaneously. there's a democrat/republican negotiation and democrat/democrat negotiation. he's going to be part of the reconciliation because mcconnell keeps stiffing him. >> what rahm was talking about, the bipartisan bill, the progressive democrats want $6 trill

he was being repeatedly asked by mitch mcconnell to come out and say something that mitch mcconnell athe time was unwilling to say. >> you said in the previous segment this, in barr's view, isn't about bill barr. i would counter that there is a chance it's for his grandchildren. there is a chance that realizing the soil that got splashed onto the family name, what he did to the family name by soiling the doj, that maybe this is a construction project to help before he leaves this good earth. and i say the following affectionately as someone with drag marks to show it. i'm sure you're going to get dragged for playing a role in the bill barr reconstruction infrastructure project of 2021. what say you on that front? >> well, you know, first of all, i should say i said he was 81 before. he's actually 71, so i aged him by a decade. i think this was very important to get him on the record about what was going on during this extraordinary period. for whatever you think about what bill barr did during the previous two years of his tenure as donald trump's attorney general, whatever you think o

a fact check on republican lies. >>> but first, how to take on mcconnell.onds. b. ♪ i want to feel you be proud ♪ ♪ i want to hear your beating heart ♪ ♪ live out loud ♪ ♪ you can do it on your own ♪ ♪ stand up now ♪ ♪ be proud, yeah ♪ ♪ stand up now ♪ ♪ live out loud, oh ♪♪ >>> we've been talking about mitch mcconnell tonight. progressives say they have president biden's back to go big and go it alone with this talk of a $6 trillion jobs plan if they can ram it through. and that brings us to someone who has been pushing a lot of these ideas for many years. you may recall the name dennis kucinich, and many of the things he's advocated for were at one time dismissed as fringe. but today, see how they sound. >> up with the rights of workers, up with wages, up for health care for all, up with education for all! >> you are very liberal. >> wow. >> i'm shocked. >> i'm the voice for getting out of iraq, for universal health care, for getting out of nafta. >> isn't marriage inherently a man and a woman? inherently? >> no. >> wake up, america! wake up, america! wak

the whims of mitch mcconnell and ted cruz to do the right thing. there are senators like them, of that ilkn congress who didn't do the right thing. these senators have already told us they're not going to do the right thing. mitch mcconnell already said he doesn't want joe biden to accomplish anything. this isn't about joe biden. this is about the american people. they didn't do the right thing on the commission. why in hell do they think they're going to do the right thing of voting rights of the people when it stands in the way of them getting power? that's what it's all about. >> let me play devil's advocate. senator manchin is being viewed as standing in the way, but can you picture a time when democrats could thank joe manchin, too, for more years -- >> oh, yes. >> if republicans take back control of congress and, thereby, they would have use of the filibuster and the like. >> well, listen, joe manchin was a crucial part in terms of saving obamacare, the affordable care act. you know, had he not supported that effort, that -- that would not be

he was asked about mitch mcconnell. he sort of chuckled and said, well, you know, mitch always says no. and you know, i don't think biden and his team are under any illusions here. i mean, math is math. i'm not that good at math but a 50/50 senate was never likely to produce transformative results in terms of legislation. it is just not how the numbers add up. i do think that john is right. that biden may have come to enjoy his europe trip a lot more than his return home. he even got the leaders of the eu and g7 on board with his build back better slogan. he gets to enjoy his time on the world stage, as much as we are saying that vladimir putin enjoys the pageantry of international summitry and being recognized as a world leader, i think american presidents also enjoy this period far, far away from congress. and biden is going to have to make some decisions. i think he's been really good trying to buy space and time for those decisions. but there will be a point sometime very soon, possibly in the next week or so, when

with mitch mcconnell, what he is saying is yes.mitch mcconnell will want to block any supreme court nominee that i offer. the question is, is mitch mcconnell going to have the throw weight within the republican caucus to make that stick? he could with obama if 2016. could he do it against joe biden? who has been consistently popular? maybe. maybe he can, maybe he can't. and one of the things we've seen on infrastructure. we saw a deal today where 11 republicans said they were going to sign on to this bipartisan deal. if that sticks, i believe biden will semiand it then go for the follow-on reconciliation bill with democrats only. why are there 11 republicans willing to sign on to that deal? in fact, infrastructure is pretty popular. and biden has purposefully set the most popular parts of his agenda first. covid relief, now infrastructure. that doesn't guarantee that you can get the votes. but it maximizes your chance of getting the votes. and similarly, i think he will try to put pressure on mcconnell if it comes to that by both h

that was all senator mcconnell needed to hear. the president, former president demanded that republicans reject the commission and added, quote, mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy, i hope you're listening. well, it turns out they were. the next day after 35 house republicans joined democrats to create this january 6 commission, senator mcconnell announced he was going to filibuster it and oppose it. he asked members of his caucus as a personal favor to support his filibuster of the january 6 commission. this is where the abuse of the filibuster has brought us. we aren't able to break through the partisan gridlock, even to investigate the worst attack on the capitol of the united states of america in more than 200 years. how can anyone believe after that shameful vote that protecting the filibuster as it is currently misused is protecting our democracy? cynical, overuse of the filibuster imperils our democracy. there's got to be a better way. contrary to senate myth, the filibuster is not in our constitution. just the opposite. the

there's no price for what mcconnell did in suspending the filibuster. i hope that figures into all your calculations. senator jeff merkley has been out front on all these issues. thank you for spending some time with us today. the i mean, are we about to enter into a debate in this country about minority rule, about obstruction, about what is the filibuster? >> we're going to enter into that debate and enter into what is american democracy and who should have access to it? this will fundamentally be a debate in talking to white house officials, this is going to be a debate about whether or not we want america to be the place that the founders -- the founders wanted it to be, which is a place where people could vote and people could have access to who were the elected officials. when i talk to activists and civil rights leaders, they tell me that not only, of course, are they going to continue to put pressure on lawmakers to put in bills and try to push back on this filibuster issue and try to get the for the people act passed. i've been talking to offic

i know senator mcconnell.umerous occasions how proud he is of his record on civil rights. he just threw that away with his announcement yesterday. i think the american people need to be clear, he's smart enough to know that these voter suppression laws are discriminatory, they're intentionally discriminatory. they're designed to suppress the votes of black and brown people. and he set himself up as an obstacle, as a stone wall to what the majority of the american people want. so with senator manchin, we agreed to meet again. it was a starting point because from a civil rights leadership perspective, from a national urban league perspective, from my point of view, we are not going to give up. we're not going to give in fighting to pass these bills. this is a tough climb. we know it's a hard climb. but it is something that has to be done. it's so crucial when you look. i looked this morning again at what is happening at the state level. if you look at these bills, willie, they sound like something out of soviet

but we will see. >> nothing but no, and here's what mitch mcconnell said today after joe manchin said he wasn't surge of republicans. here is what mitch mcconnell said about how many republicans will support joe manchin's version of the bill. >> all republicans, i think, will oppose that. >> and so, when joe manchin is on the senate floor next week for that vote, watching every single republican oppose him, will he then be ready to change the senate rules on the 60 vote threshold, as he recently said in a private discussion with non partisan group? he is willing to do under certain circumstances. leading off our discussion tonight, is democratic congressman colin allred of texas, he worked as a voting rights attorney before going to congress. also with us, congressional historian norman ornstein, he's an emeritus scholar and coauthor of it's even worse than it looks. how the american constitutional system collided with new politics of extremism. congressman, let me begin with you. the question of the day for democrats, do you agree with stacey abrams? can you support joe manchin's com

hopefully mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy are listening.nnell came out against it, and senate republicans blocked the creation of a commission. now, house speaker nancy pelosi has taken matters into her own hands. >> this morning, with great solemnity and sadness, i'm announcing that the house will be establishing a select committee on the january 6th insurrection. again, january 6th was one of the darkest days in our nation's history. i have said it now three times. it is imperative we establish the truth of that day and insure that an attack of that kind cannot happen, and that we root out the causes of it all. >> so what exactly does this mean, who will be in charge of this thing, and what role with republicans play, if any? adam schiff, democrat from california, is chair of the house intelligence committee. he joins me now. congressman, what's your understanding of what today's announcement means in real terms? >> real terms, it means we're not going to be deterred by the hypocrisy by the republicans. we negotiated with them in good fai

of course mcconnell says the bill won't have his vote. but listen to why. >> what they're trying to do directly through hr 1, they would try to achieve indirectly through this rewrite of the voting rights act. it's against the law to discriminate in voting on the basis of race already. and so i think it's unnecessary. >> he thinks it's unnecessary because he wants those elections to come and go to generate the lawsuits to take the time to fight the laws in every state while allowing the party to benefit from it. that's what he wants. and the nonchalance, the pretending that it doesn't matter, is so similar to what we heard from supporters of jim crow like segregationist senator james eastland from mississippi in 1957. listen to him. >> we have no voting qualifications based on race. >> under those circumstances -- >> not at all. and anybody who is qualified can vote. i would like to see if just what we have, that everyone who is qualified should vote. >> qualified by reason of? >> our qualifications that are written in the law that apply

mcconnell and barr were working in tandem for a while.two georgia runups for good reason and he was worried about the impact trump was saying would have on those seats. critics would point to the fact that mcconnell could have spoken out and also said something before december 14th and made the case that the former president was pushing at the time was just simply not true. mcconnell saw that as potentially dangerous to his own caucus and i think you saw him make decisions that way accordingly. i think that's typically how mitch mcconnell led his caucus and it's not surprise but it is interesting to look at what alliance government officials were going on and what strategic decisions they were making about who could be effective being forward leaning with the former president. remember, mcconnell and trump were barely speaking at that point. >> also fascinating, too, and real quickly because we have another topic, elie. he had told jonathan karl one reason he was doing this interview is he felt he was painted as politicizing the doj. if y

from mitch mcconnell to senator sanders.reement around infrastructure is really a test whether bipartisan remains a part of the relevant vernacular or current vernacular. holpp it does. we don't have the luxury, leaders in washington don't have the luxury in a deeply, deeply divided country and a country where people have lost trust and confidence in government to always say no. i think when you find conservatives and liberals though the on the each side and party finding issue or difference with a compromise or some sort of bipartisan compromise, that's when americans are going to dig down and listen and hope that the congress can move forward. democrats are not going to be happy with all of this, republicans are clearly not. the country needs to redo and strengthen our infrastructure. and this gives us a huge down basement to do that over the next several years. >> mike: i asked membership mcconnell about infrastructure. let's take a listen. >> it can best be described as a tale of two press conferences after the first one

but mcconnell says nothing is broken. nothing is broken when it comes to the american democratic system. >> there is nothing broken around the country. >> you know, it's actually also news what he said if you believe him. to many members of his own party who echo trump's belief the election was rigged and believe trump should be reinstated. republicans in fact passing laws to fix what they say is a broken system. according to the brennan center 14 states already passed laws making it harder for americans to vote and there are 61 more bills now moving through state legislatures. all right. moments ago senator chuck schumer using incredibly strong language to call out mcconnell. >> if senator 60 years ago held that the federal government should never intervene to protect voting rights, this body would have never protected or passed the voting rights act. the republican leader uses the language and the logic of the southern senators in the '60s who defended states' rights and it is an indefenseble for any senator, any senato

a voice there is mitch mcconnell. this is what hehad to say on tuesday . >> would you consider supporting the john lewis voting rights bill that made it as an alternative to that solution. >> the voting rights bill is intact, the law extends well into the preterm. what this rewrite does is grant to the justice department almost total ability to determine the voting system of every state in america with their trying to do directly through hr one. they would try to achieve indirectly through this rewrite of the voting rights act. the supreme court did not strike down the voting rights act. it's still the law. what they struck down was the preclearance part of it that applied only to the southern part of the united states caused the supreme court concluded the conditions that existed in five no longer exist today . so there's no threat to the voting rights law. it's against the law to discriminate in voting on the base of race already. so i think it's unnecessary. >> host: mitch mcconnell this week. on those comments and

now, mitch mcconnell is trying to derail it.nell admits he wants to stop anything that democrats does, 100% focus for biden and just like obama. >> look, we have a debt the size of our economy. i don't know how many times i have to repeat this. we are playing russian roulette with our economy. >> there are real policies at stake here. mcconnell is trying to strip this proposed deal in care for children and elderly. mcconnell brought the republican party around his view uniting them to oppose everything just about. for all the talk about a 50/50 senate or the segment you see with joe manchin and the democrats trying to hold every last member of their team together, can i ask you a question tonight? we don't hear much of the same dynamic from mcconnell. why is that? we don't hear about him trying to bargain a republican version of joe manchin. this matters because it was not always this way. on close votes, the gop senate used to -- >> the overwhelming body of scientific opinion in america and the world believes that human activit

mitch mcconnell said a clever thing that was true. >> what? >> it is against the law to discriminate in voting on the basis of color. absolutely true. >> and that's what gerrymandering does. >> gerrymandering is an end around, but it is not inherently about color. and these state laws are not inherently about color. here's his play. he happens to be right. so what happens? now we have election cycles. now people predominantly poor, peo minorities don't get to vote. they sue, they're found to have standing, the court says its right. they go through the system. what happened? you got one for free. at least. and you'll have to do that state by state. >> guess what, in this environment, what's happening in the country, what's happening in the local legislatures, you only need one. because one and the country changes forever. >> that's right. >> these people are in place, the judges, on and on and on. >> and then you got a judiciary that's changing. >> there you go. >> mcconnell has been flooding the courts have a very specific type of jurist. who

mcconnell has pledged they won't. as for that bipartisan infrastructure deal, biden says today he expects to see a plan emerge on monday. it comes as we're getting yet another rather astonishing picture of the former president. this comes from wall street journal reporter michael bender, author of the forthcoming book, likely we did win this election, the inside story of how trump lost. bender describes how trump, quote, made juneteenth very famous after he was told his administration put out statements after each of the first years in office commemorating the day. the book also notes trump told advisers he wish he'd get a more aggressive response to the protests after george floyd's murder and he regretted supporting his son-in-law's request for reform. it's always jared telling me to do this and they all, blank, hate me and none of them are going to vote for me. tonight we have yet more images, what happened during the 1/6 insurrection, riot, desecration at our capitol. the justice department today released more vid

when i asked him, he said, look w what mitch mcconnell did last week. what makes you think you can work with republicans to get 60 votes on major legislation. he seemed to think there was still an opportunity to get that commission enacted. >> everything they asked for was totally bipartisan. what nancy pelosi offered was gracious. chuck schumer said, okay, i'll do the same. they came to a disagreement. they had the same staffing levels. everything was done in the most bipartisan way. >> because of the filibuster. >> one person blocked it on that. the bottom line is we have seven people. six voted. we have three more. let's give it another shot. >> reporter: so remember earlier this week joe biden essentially called out joe manchin and said republicans -- he votes more with republicans than democrats. i asked him about that swipe from the president. he said it was taken totally out of context. he spoke to the white house but didn't want to elaborate on that point. >> very interesting. manu raju, great interview. thank you for joining us with the sound o

that is what mitch mcconnell is doing right now. he's bludgeoning the majority, not because chuck schumer is not working as hard as he can, but because he has the power to do so. let's get rid of his power. what americans want, frankly, is not to see us at odds. they want the american jobs plan passed and the infrastructure bill. they want the american family plan passed. i know that. i see them no matter what their political persuasion, i see them. texas is not a liberal state. we need to make sure we're not bludgeoned. i live that every day. i don't have a district that's been drawn by the regular order, if you will, by the legislature. they have never drawn our district because they didn't want this majority/minority district, which is the story of most southern minority democrats. it's a majority/minority district, and they want to get rid of it. because of growth in texas, latinx, and african-americans, we got to protect the voting rights. >> congresswoman, ironically while we're talking about voting rights and access to free a

but it's interesting, mcconnell knew that the big lie was a lie.he georgia election runoffs were over for fear of losing them. >> yeah. all of georgia was the worst of all possible worlds for republicans. trump didn't blow up, but he also cost republicans those two elections. look at the turnout there between the georgia runoffs and election day. that was republicans not voting for the georgia senate candidates, not wanting to support donald trump. the fact that republicans in the suburbs are sort of leaving the republican party has been backed up in a couple of special elections. the new mexico congressional one being the most recent. >> always good to see you. thanks for joining us. >> thanks, jake. >>> moments ago, president biden defending his decision to launch airstrikes, which may have now led to retaliatory rocket attacks against the u.s. military in the region. stay with us. ♪ sometimes you wanna go ♪ ♪ where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ ♪ and they're always glad you came ♪ welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you. ♪ every bubble

senator mcconnell knew the separate reconciliation bill was coming.emocrats to send that bill to pass that. what mcconnell is trying to do is capitalize on president biden's miss step. trying to get him to extend that remark that he made to demand that they do that as well. that appears highly unlikely. democrats don't seem to have the votes unless they give ironclad assureses that it won't get in the way here. it is not necessarily the case that they need his vote to pass this. there is a road to republicans, if he tells his members i'm not going to vote for this, but you vote how you please, then there is a path to ten but you and i know a few things about congressmen. he doesn't like to give victories to democratic presidents. that is really where they need to get mcconnell here to a place where he doesn't staunchly oppose this view. and he has some interparty politics of his own to think about. they want to do things and not just block things and that's the negotiabling group. grur is ground zero. it is a low salience issue, and it's not likely to

mitch mcconnell called it a personal favor. they asked, why on earth would he do that? u.s.im to do that. the next step is that they will not allow a commission. we will not certain turn our way from this terrible tragedy. so we have established a select committee to find out what's the why -- didn't we see the insurrection coming? was it shared? why were we so ill prepared on that day? and most importantly, how do we protect ourselves from something like this in the future? >> this is almost even all point, but i think it's worth mentioning because i don't know if people know this. the two options on the table, the bipartisan commission, the math of it was five and five, equal numbers, and that was the 9/11 commission, and what is significant about that is that the majority holds a majority, they can sort of do what they want as long as they had to hold a caucus on -- in a bipartisan commission you must find consensus. you have to have everyone get together. and that was the model. one offered the republicans was shared power as equals, and they said no. so now they're gonn

but scott, at the same time, what is the feeling from mcconnell? we know where mitch mcconnell stands, but it's joe manchin -- the last time when biden came with this covid relief bill, it was the democrats went with my way or the highway and they passed it and they got what they wanted. but now you have joe manchin as the one who has forced joe biden to cut the price tag in half. that's stunning. does mitch mcconnell on any level sit back and go wow, this guy is doing all my dirty work? >> i think he sits back and he's glad that joe manchin is trying to stand up for the senate and for the place of the senate in our legislative functioning here. joe manchin is standing up for the filibuster, what's best for his constituents. he's participating in what used to be called the world's deliberative body. so when mitch mcconnell sees there are rational democrats like joe manchin who are trying to drag this into something many republicans could support, he's happy about this. it's the only way to do it, because i just think there are so many democrats tha

doesn't accomplish his major goal so that mitch mcconnell can take back the senate.ve him when he says that and so while we can get bipartisan support some discreet bills such as the covid-19 hate crimes bill that we passed in a bipartisan way some of the big agenda items, i believe mitch when he says that he's not going to participate. at the same time, if mitch mcconnell were to say tomorrow we'll work with democrats to get the infa strurastructure bill t, we can get it done but he won't go there and therefore i think we should move to reconciliation to get these kinds of agenda items through. the people of our country need it, want it, are hoping for it. >> senator, thank you for joining us. >> aloha. >>> breaking news next, after getting dnefensive this morning about visiting the southern border, what the vice president just said on the subject tonight. this past year has felt like a long, long norwegian winter. but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded peop

this is 25 minutes. >> it is great to have leader mcconnell with us. i would take this opportunity with his long history of public service to talk to him today about leadership. he recently wrote a book called the long game. i know having served in the senate that for many senators, the long game is running for president. did you ever think about running for president? what is your long game? >> i didn't, unlike most senators. i did not look in the mirror and see a future president. but i did want to have a long career in the senate. john mccain enjoyed the story i frequently told about when i first got here. we were called to do a lot of things on a seniority basis, including the location of our desk on the senate floor. i got the last desk in the quarter. -- corner. i remember the first time we were all sitting where we were supposed to, which did not happen often, but i remember looking around the room and thinking to myself, none of these people are ever going to die. but i noticed bob dole had the best seat on the republican side and i thought may