mcdaniel? >> if the tea party candidate will not help you, why should you help him? just ask. this fight in mississippi of all places, this fight about whether or not the government should do stuff like help out after hurricane katrina, or help states build and maintain their roads, that is usually the kind of fight that happens between the democratic party and the republican party. but in mississippi right now, what they've got is a republican party. and the fight is happening inside the republican primary. and the jimmy carter side of the argument isn't a democrat in this fight. it's the old school incumbent republican. but in this fight, he has got the support of the state's republican governor. the state's republican lieutenant governor. the de facto head of the republican party in state, haley barbour. also haley barbour's whole family dynasty which controls the republican party in the state, plus the whole republican congressional delegation from the state, plus the national republican se

what's driving mcdaniel's vote and support? >> the campaign spent more money than the mcdaniel campaign. mcdaniel had a lot of support and money from outside groups. the difference you have seen over the last three weeks is how the cochrane campaign spending money. they are getting out the vote. what i have heard over the past couple of days from republicans is they are saying there are voters who didn't believe senator thad cochran could lose. that goes for republican voters, potentially for democrat voters. if they are going to change the game that's how they will do it, by turning those people out. they are optimistic so far that's what they are doing. >> you know, we are hearing that you've got in colorado liberal groups running tv ads against tom tancredo. that appears to make primary voters choose them as the no, ma'am fee for governor. watch this. >> even as it's starting to work, republican tom tancredo is one of the strongest opponents of bank. he called it crony capitalism on steroids and a monstrous government scam.

they outspent mcdaniel by 6-1.had the chamber of commerce, the republican establishment, and they got out there and they turned out the vote, which in this kind of a tight primary race is what victory is all about. and they formed a coalition that is kind of unheard of in politics these days, including african americans. go ahead, wolf. >> all right. we see charlie rangel. he's got a close contest in new york city. he wants to get reelected. he wants to win this democratic congressional primary. he is facing a significant challenge from adriano espaillat. let's listen to charlie rangel for a moment. >> i have the same anticipation about this race as all of you. and so we don't need a whole lot of numbers to tell you how good we feel, how proud we feel. we were able to bring together people and cultures. >> all right. so we don't have really great audio. charlie rangel speaking. alexandra field is on the scene for us right now. right now, alexandralexandra, w have 48% to 43%. not a huge turnout in that congressional

does it still look and smell -- does it smell like mcdaniel? legitimate reporter question. >> the tone has shifted are very dramatically i would say towards the docken ran campaign p. everybody on both sides acknowledges the race is close. neither side at this point is postured in a way that they seem to be sure of a victory. that's a remarkable switch from when we were here three weeks ago and the mcdaniel club thought they would have a straightforward time of pulling this off. the cochran campaign was saying three weeks ago they thought they were going to lose, that the run-off was the best case century owe they could have hoped for and the posture is different tonight. we'll see -- you can't make predictions until the voters have their say. at this point the ground has shifted some. >> what do you make of mccain coming down there? if you live in mississippi and you have an attitude about politics and you have been following it all your life, what do you care if john mccain -- >> at this point i don't think anybody will make up their mind. it

the mcdaniel campaign scandal spreads. had enough?senator thad cochran is ltd best of what makes mississippi great. navy veteran endorsed by nra, the governor, and national right to life and voted against obama care more than 100 times. >> got to get the 100th anti-obama vote, 99, you don't know if you are against us. walk us through how the ads are working and the idea that cochran despite his voting record was somehow beating back charges he was insufficiently conservative for this electorate. >> well, this was, less about -- mcdaniel's people have been trying to cast him as insufficiently conservative. cochran has been running on the idea. he brings back all the federal money to the state. obviously something that doesn't resonate with tea party voters around here. but, you know, at this point, those ads, you know late in the campaign. particularly the nursing home ad that you played a little bit of. it has clearly had an impact on mcdaniel. he was surging here. in the weeks before that ad went up on the air. the cochran campaign h

chris mcdaniel with 49%.nly about 6,269 votes you see right there separating these two, these two candidates. the tea party favorite chris mcdaniel. thad cochran, the long-term six-term republican senator from mississippi. let's bring in dana bash. she is in jackson, mississippi. this is very, very close, dana. everyone who is expecting a close race. it looks a bit closer than a lot of folks anticipate. >> that's right. the truth is nobody really knew what to expect, wolf, because this whole runoff, this primary in general has been so unusual. but particularly the runoff. but what we have been able to determine from some of the results that have been coming in are very interesting. some of the reports that i gave to you earlier today on the situation room and elsewhere, anecdotally about african-americans, democrats, traditional democrats coming out and voting for thad cochran appear to be bearing out in what we're seeing with these results. for example, heinz county, which is a very large african american co

they voted in the run-off for mcdaniel.didn't sit well with dock ran. >> there is something a bit strange, it there is something a bit unusual about a republican primary that's decided by liberal democrats. so much for bold colors. so much for principle. i guess they can take some consolation in the fact that they did something tonight. by once again compromising. by once again reaching across the aisle. by once again abandoning the conservative movement. now it is our job to make sure that sanctity of the vote is upheld. before this race ends we have to be absolutely certain that the republican primary was won by republican voters. >> today in a statement by mcdaniel. >> today in a statement mcdaniel said they are looking into irregularities. david corn, and eugene robertson, both are msnbc political analysts, david, unbecoming of the party of ronald reagan. same ronald reagan we name the reagan democrats after because he cultivated all that support when he ran for president. clearly mcdaniel got caught off guard by this.

at this hour mcdaniel still refuses to concede, as you heard. more on the mississippi mud fight in just a moment. but first another race that still hangs in the balance. new york congressman charlie rangel leads adriano esp achlai. there are 2,000 absentee ballots still outstanding, all of which need to be returned by next week. espaillat has not conceded and the associated press has yet to call this race but last night rangel was happy to declare himself the winner. >> we have reviewed the results as they continue to come in and we feel this race is too close to call. >> the chairman has won! the chairman has won! >> i want each one of you to go home and know that this was your victory. this is your congressman. and you can rest assured all i will be doing is thinking about you and bringing these resources home. thank you. [ speaking spanish ] >> there you go, charlie rangel talking to the more diverse district that he now represents. now he gets to go out on his terms. >>> from coast to coast, last night was a bad night for conservative insurg

earlier today chris smith mcdaniel mcdanis mcdaniel called out john mccain. these are some really strong pitch of language. we had a big story that they spent $17 million combined on this race just to, what? what's going to happen? it's still going to be a republican senator. republicans cannot be all that thrilled they spent all this money. >> this was such a bitterly contested race. you had four supporters arrested and charged with an alleged conspiracy to break into the nursing home of the ailing wife of thad cochran to take pictures of her for some as of yet complete unexplained dirty trick. cochran supporter arrested for tearing up signs. the mcdaniel campaign with reprisals. given the toxic nature of the race, will we see a confession given how tight it is? >> it has been one of the most personal, bitter, ugly races in the 2014-cycle. what he will see for mcdaniel tonight is a lot of disappointment. the tea party will left that he was there last place to get a moderate republican on the wall to claim victory. you are dealing it, chris. the controversies

that mcdaniel is ahead in most polls, right? >> mcdaniel has the edge and he is the favorite which is stunning. rarely do incumbent senators get defeated. mcdaniel has the momentum here. it is a tea party versus establishment race. in ken kep mitch mcconnell won and now the tea party is making a come back. eric cantor lost and tea party is emboldened and think that mcdaniel is going to pull it out. >> and in the advertising tha d mccochran is saying i have brought home the bacon. that is not the norm for a candidate. >> that used to be a winning argument whether your clout to bring it back to the state. and that is not popular now. and certainly among the republican base. and so this is a tough argument for him now. he is trying to get democrats out. it is difficult to predict how many people are going to be turning out. this is up in the air. but a lot of independent handicappers that thought he needed to win but mcdaniel edged him out. and now if mcdaniel wins can democrats steal the seat? >> what is the chance for that. repub

thad cochran defeated mcdaniel, who won the initial primary but not by enough to avoid a run-off.beat him? >> cochran relied on black democrats to put him over the top. >> jon: that's right. thad cochran won the mississippi republican primary because of the support of black democrats. before you jump to the conclusion that black democrats think very highly of thad cochran, rent -- let me give you just a taste of his opponent, mcdaniel. >> chris mcdaniel apparently said there's no place for federal funding of schools here in mississippi. >> if they pass reparations and my taxes go up, i ain't paying taxes. >> mcdaniel has already keynoted a neo-confederate event. he's retweeted white supremacists. >> jon: well, now, in mcdaniel's defense, the white supremacist's twitter account had some extremely cute cat videos. ah. hey, everybody, look. everybody, it's kitler. you know, you'll always be meow fuhrer. clearly mcdaniel's candidacy caused a great deal of concern in mississippi's african american community. is there any way mcdaniel could begin his concession speech that could in ever

mcdaniels is behaving confidently. the controversies may not matter as much as we thought because mcdaniel may get a convincing victory tomorrow. >> in terms of the ongoing hostilities in the party, it has been remarkable to see, i mean, just the boldfaced names. mississippi doesn't have all that many people who are nationally known in terms of their politics, but everybody in the state who's nationally known in terms of their politics is on one side or the other of this fight between the two camps and does not seem to be any love lost between them. if mcdaniel does win tomorrow, i think you're right that he is expected to win tomorrow, what's going to happen to the republican establishment there? are they going to be able to get behind him or is mcdaniel going to be essentially governing from hostile territory for any time that he sits there on top? >> you're right, rachel. very striking that he had an event today, cochran did, all three congressmen there. lieutenant governor there. the governor there. john mccain the

thad cochran is talking about cutting spending, as is mcdaniel. the republicans agree across the board on a lot of those issues. but there is a major difference in terms of style, in their approach to it. and chris mcdaniel represents a wing of the party that wants to be more confrontational, less willing to compromise, more basic convictions, defending the constitution, and the hailey barbours of the world and presumably the cochrans of the world are sometimes you do have to compromise, that governing requires compromise and you have to be able to do that. >> and this is their last best shot for the tea party. we shall see. >>> live pictures of warsaw, poland, where the president is heading to a meeting with european leaders. the president is being dogged by questions surrounding the release of p.o.w. bowe bergdahl. you can see those remarks from the president right here on msnbc. later today, chicago mayor rahm emanuel will be on "the tonight show" with jimmy fallon. back in three minutes with more tdr. ♪ ♪ yeah ♪ don't stop now, come on mony ♪

. >> cruz, lee, paul, and maybe mcdaniel. >> we are going live now to chris mcdaniel's headquarters in hattiesburg, mississippi. casey hunt joins us. what is the latest there? >> reporter: hey, lawrence. the mood here is excited, but at turns nervous. they're watching the spread sheet with these returns coming in, county by county. this is just as tight as it was thee weeks ago, although at this point, it's looking like senator cochran is keeping something of a lead there. and that is something that a lot of people here didn't expect. the cochran campaign has very much shifted its tone over the course of the last three weeks from when i was here back when they had the original primary. at that point, they probably expected senator cochran to lose. over the last three weeks, they've poured million suppose the ground game here. they've made an effort to appeal to democratic voters, but also to bring out those republican voters who didn't show up last time. and republican sources have been telling me that they think there are a lot of republicans who are out there who didn't think it was

cruz, lee, paul and maybe mcdaniel.s is a depressing state of affairs for people who once thought of the u.s. senate as a place where things got done. >> right, a sad state of affairs for the republican party, for the senate and ultimately for the country. ted cruz is the guy who convinced people in the senate and house that they could repeal the affordable care act and convince them to shut down the government. mike lee was one of the people who was seen at that rally during the budget shutdown with the veterans -- the concerned veterans who swarmed washington and protested. well, i have a picture on my piece up this afternoon of sarah palin, senator lee and larry clayman, all together at that really. larry is the guy who said in his speech that the president should quote, put down the koran and get up off his knees and come out with his hands up from the white house. these are the kinds of people who chris mcdaniel says he wants to be in league with. the senate should be concerned the republican party should be concer

a lot more than mcdaniel probably would.a life preserver now? do they head to the polls and vote for him because the alternative of actually having mcdaniel in the senate is just too unacceptable to them? or we ask this, do they get mischiefous? travis childers, within the past two weeks private democratic polling show that the party's norm nominee former representative travis childers would start statistically tied with mcdaniel. a race against cochran who is well liked would be difficult to the point of futility. instead of helping cochran, should democrats show up at the polls and vote pr mcdaniel to give their party a chance of winning in the fall? there's a real argument about whether the strongest democrat candidate could beat mcdaniel where the electorate is more polari polarized. there's an argument there aren't enough real swing voters for any democrat to win a race. so what are democrats thinking as they watch thad cochran try to fight off the tea party? let's ask the chairman, ricky co cole. you heard henry barber

cast as an extremist by his supporters and mcdaniel is an extremist.lk radio host with all the baggage that comes with that. but at the same time, this is a case study in why the republican establishment has problems in these races, because thad cochran is, i'm sure, a very nice guy, but also kind of a time server. and he clearly, in certain ways, doesn't want to actually be out on the trail for this race. he is 106 years old. he is in his early 80s, and there is -- you can understand why he would be having trouble winning an election. >> and larry, we were having trouble with your signal. you're politics director at the university of virginia. larry, we talked about, you know, federal dollars pouring into mississippi and voters not so much concerned about that in this primary race, except for african american voters who are actively campaigning for cochran because they benefit from the jobs created from these federal dollars. so, it's just kind of strange that they're actively campaigning for thad cochran and they're going to vote for him. >> well, it

the latest poll conducted by a democratic firm has mcdaniel up over cochran. and now the mcdaniel camp is preparing to send in poll watchers, a tact republicans used to intimidate black voters in the south for decades. the justice department will be monitoring the situation. >>> the united states has reached a key legal agreement with iraq to protect the 300 special operations forces currently deployed there. the pentagon announced monday that the military advisers would not be prosecuted under iraqi law. as part of the deal, the advisers would be protected by diplomatic immunity, similar to what embassy staff are entitled to. as the crisis escalates, here at home, there seems to be growing opposition to america's involvement in the conflict. according to the latest poll, more than half of those surveyed don't support president obama's handling of the crisis. three-quarters of those surveyed believe the iraq war did not justify the high number of casualties. and president obama's foreign policy has come under fire with nearly 60% saying they don't support his

they were smarter than mcdaniel. as laura ingram said, mcdaniel ran a tea party race in an open primary. that's stupid. if you are too stupid to win an election don't whine and say the other side cheated. >> i want to get back to the point about the future for the tea party movement in mississippi and a candidate like mcdaniel. you are saying you would rather have a democrat win this thing in the fall than have your candidate. you are talking about the republican process or if you are a democrat, the sanctity is you give it your best shot. play by the rules. if you win, congratulations. the other guy supports you. if you lose, you support the other guy. >> normally we vote conservative in the primary and republican in the general election. in this case the democratic-opponent was opposed to obamacare. he's anti-gun law and may be more conservative than thad cochran who has a history of big spending and for this guy with the republican establishment guy to talk about how the republicans and giving obama a blank check

amanda, if mcdaniel comets through. next time ted cruz stands on the -- next time mike lee stands on the floor, next time rand paul stands on the floor to fight for you, a son of mississippi will stand next to them. if he's planning to be a republican in the mold of ted cruz. what does it mean for what gets done in the senate? >> well, it could be a problem. even if republicans say they do win back the senate. it could be a problem for mitch mcconnell as he tries to govern. you've heard it a lot about republicans already in the house. they're so fractured it's not clear what they want. john boehner has a tough time of getting his caucus together and governing and putting forward legislation they agree on. mitch mcconnell shoucould have same problem. you'll have people like christ mcdaniel who feels like he came to washington with a mandate to sort of oppose the establishment. so it could be very tough and voters may not like that. they may tell republicans next time you had your chance to govern, you blew it. you're goi

scott brewster a paid staffer of the mcdaniel campaign.t 11:16 tuesday night while returns were still coming in, brewster said going to come down to hines county. mcdaniel campaign argues this is all perfectly innocent. they released a statement, last night with a close election our campaign sent people to the hinds courthouse to obtain the outstanding numbers and observe the count. in doing so they entered the courthouse and were locked inside the building. elections officials said they left long before janis lane called for help. there's no way they had help from uniform personnel. to say a uniformed officer let them into that building at that time of night is a total fabrication of the truth. and here's the thing. this is not the most bizarre shenanigans to happen during this mississippi republican primary fight. you may recall that four mcdaniel supporters including yet another tea party official were arrested for a conspiracy to break into the nursing home where thad cochran's wife is bedridden with dementia to photograph her for an a

it backfired on mcdaniel. and mcdaniel had some momentum. and he's stalled because of this. >> do you think he's part of it? >> i think that he -- when he got asked the morning of the arrest -- or the morning after the arrest, i think he knew about it and he said well, i wasn't fully briefed even though when he was first asked, he acted like he didn't know anything about the arrest. his campaign has made conflicting comments about it that make them look like they knew something. >> any evidence that he had part in this? >> no, but these are his supporters. no evidence the campaign was directly involved. but this is going to haunt him now and in the future. >> they will openly say they're for mcdaniel? >> they're all his facebook page. they're friends, they're associates. >> i love when politics get screwed up by terrible events. i love it because history is unpredictable. and this is a watergate feel to it. anyway, thank you. we'll be right back after this. to help people clean better, and that he travels the world inventing amazing new clea

i'll go this w this mooed earn democrat this time because mcdaniel is too far right.ow do you see the race going? i know you have to predict in the next hour is tough, four guys going in and taking a picture of a woman who has dementia is pretty sleazy. >> it is. >> and to any extent that it happened, it did happen, it does somehow paint a picture of mcdaniel as part of that attitude of it's worth doing that kind of thing. >> what's interesting about this whole situation of mcdaniel and the picture is that it's not been as much of a drag on his campaign as cochrane's team thought it would be. and even some of the washington types thought it would be. but he's been able to weather this storm. >> you think he's got a good shot? >> the latest polls going in were tied. >> is he too far right for mississippi or is there such a thing? >> i don't see a democrat even in the best scenarios taking a seat in november, even with mcdaniels at the top of the list. >> two step, the way i've heard it is 50-50 chance for the primary tonight between thad cochran, the 36-year incumbent

mcdaniel supporters have to be very careful here. are there really going to be people singling out african-american voters as they go to the polls in mississippi? with mississippi's history, it will not look good. the way mcdaniel supporters behave today will mean a lot in the general election. >>> meanwhile, charlie rangel has been in washington nearly 16,000 days, first elected to congress eight years before cochran in 1970. will he be able to survive his last campaign? with state senator adriano espaillat. probably the last african-american that will represent this district. question is, is that this year or next term? ranghe felt l got into trouble, after charging espaillat's only credential was his ethnicity. rangel called it a subjective question. then he said this. >> most of the states that they represent were confederate states that fought the union? were they slave-holding states? and when they come to washington you see more confederate flags than american flags. >> well, okay then. we'll get to the rangel fight in a minut

do you think chris mcdaniel is the next dave bratt? >> reporter: well, everybody saw chris mcdaniel coming and it is different in that regard. this is a nasty, really hard-fought primary for months before we even got to this point and when i was here three weeks ago the sense on the ground was that, frankly, the run-off maybe better than team cochran privately expected. they probably thought he was more likely to lose and instead we've seen this sort of three-week extension and the race stayed pretty nasty. i'll say there's something of a marked shift on the ground here. you know, cochran's team has very clearly stepped up the grassroots organizing. they're saying at the moment the turnout is strong. that would seem to bode well for them. absentee ballots are way up and indicate they organized successfully and something while they might have energy in the tea party, they don't have the practice with that political machinery if that makes sense. >> you mentioned how ugly the race has gotten and there's an incident of supporters arrested

it's likely that a runoff does face mcdaniel. if he ultimately wins here, the democrats are looking to the fall of something that might actually be a fall in mississippi. all signs say the national democrats will go all in for him, if in fact mcdaniel pulls this out. >> at an uphill climb in mississippi for a democrat. jim, let me go to you, the other side of this, for thad cochran, do they go after him when he could end up being the you nominee. they worked hard to tear him down. >> they're in a heck of a jam, casey's right. if you look at the how the runoffs work and who has the most energy, things look bleak for thad cochran. you've got the republicans who think they'll lose in this case. so you can't have the establishment going in there and clobbering the nominee who might be there three weeks from now. especially aligned with the tea party that has seen so many setbacks. they're going to put all their energy into a runoff for a candidate for them. >> other races to get to. >>> still ahead on "morning joe," after seattle pas

mcdaniel took 1,000 of those. that is a majority democratic county, but i think the -- the increase is probably pretty evenly split between the republican or whiter boxes and more diverse and minority democratic boxes so that's going to be the big thing. they flipped a lot of other counties in rural and along the coast, but that big win there in heinz is what buffered him against mcdaniel and secured his win. >> john avalon, and margaret, cochran's win is described as pitching a perfect political game in how he pulled this off and turned around his campaign in three weeks. what did he do so perfectly? what changed from june 3rd? >> first of all, intense focus on the part of his campaign to get out the vote. what's different is that the cochran campaign expanded the map to look like a general election, look like a general election as opposed to typically a runoff where turnout is down after a primary. they brought it up. promised to have a diverse coalition and the african-american turnout which obviously is not tr

it was brought up with chris mcdaniel. here's what he said. >> i'm not concerned about him being african-american but liberal. that's always been my concern. if senator cochran is going to court liberal democrats to save his seat, it is a clear indication that he has abandoned conservatives in the state of mississippi. >> so is mcdaniel walking a line fine leer? >> not walking it very well. i mean, what he didn't say in the story is why are a lot of people very concerned about this race that didn't vote three weeks ago? because mcdaniel said federal funding of education is unconstitutional. he said the word education doesn't appear in the constitution. well, there are a lot of people that didn't vote three weeks ago because they didn't know he had said this. that are now up in arms. our state gets over ball and a half dollars in federal funding for education. chris mcdaniel says it's unconstituti unconstitutional. some of the people are african-american and democrats but tens of thousands of people concerned about mississi

and "the national review" says this about chris mcdaniel.egists worry that he is apt to stumble verbally the way candidates such as todd akin did." are republicans setting themselves up for more candidates like this one, listen to this. >> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. none of us are perfect, but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us. >> i mean, are they setting themselves up for some more candidates like that? >> oh, those were good times. i think they are in danger of that. if you look at mississippi in particular, it looks like a democrat travis childress, former congressman, may even end up having a shot against mcdaniel because the numbers there could end up being so narrow that mcdaniel scares away even some moderates who might be thinking about who would normally vote for a republican. if that happens, that would be an earthquake. we haven't had a democrat elected in the senate in mississippi since 1982, so this could be a phenomenal thing. and if you look at iowa, for as conservative as they are

also, where mcdaniel needed to outperform. the national conservative groups that have been pouring money into mississippi, what's surprising is, that in a runoff, where normally you would see the electric shrink, the electric's growing across the state. people are engaged, and you saw the way that people turned out. so it's a jump ball right now, but cochran has to like a larger electora electorate. simply put, the bigger turnout tonight, the better for the incumbent. >> i want to tell the viewers, more conservatives, sort of tea party groups have poll watchers at these elections, to make sure that democrats who voted in the first primary -- they want to protect their guy, they assume the democrats are going to vote for thad cochran. thad has his poll watchers, a lot of his poll watchers are democrats, that has the tea party folks saying see, we told you, he's not a real republican. it's getting sort of sloppy down there. guys, back to you, when it's time for cleanup. >>> while senator cochran has been reaching out to voters a

phasing out the debt and deficit spending slowly so there's not as much pain. >> reporter: chris mcdaniel is hoping eric cantor's stunning loss in virginia will have coattails that will reach all the way to mississippi.

mcdaniel said he was a little angry. we just elected some liberal loving guy who is going to be compromising. isn't that what we elect people to do is to find common ground and find ways to solve problems versus all of a sudden it's back bad to work with the other side u? >> both of you at the table, democrats at the table, are talking about the guy that lost. he lost the election. he's not going to the senate. doesn't it worry you that the candidates that you guys label as extreme, they have lost their elections. >> not all of them. >> first of all, i'm very glad you have a lot of democrats saying, we should have stayed back and let mcdaniel become the nominee so we could beat him up more. i don't think we should play that kind of games. when you have somebody that extreme. >> they feel their goal for was campaign was to have extreme republican candidates to tie to a national republican brand. that's not happening. >> the brand is what you have made of it. you have allowed the most extreme voices to be the face of the p

this caused fury at mcdaniel's rally. when i spoke to members of the mississippi state government, when he spoke to members of the naacp, they didn't hear a lot of irregularities. they thought this was a tea party's last best hope this year to get a major victory, and they walked away today with their hands on their heads. >> this is one more vote. will this cause problems, though, in the republican party for cochran? >> well, no. cochran has a lot of friends within the senate republican establishment, you know, the national republican senatorial committee went to bat for him. he's considered friendly, they like him. i'm not sure that they would go to bat for someone they didn't like as much personally as they like him. and this is somebody who's been around for a long time. i will point out for a lot of the complaints that the mcdaniel supporters are launching, this is all within mississippi laws. they have an open primary system where you can show up. you don't necessarily have to be registered in that party. if the rep

mississippi senator thad cochran holding off chris mcdaniel.ea party challenger for the republican nomination. and mcdaniel wasn't happy about it. in fact, we've got a clip from his speech last night. woops, that wasn't chris mcdaniels. here is how he actually reacted. >> are you crying? >> no. >> are you crying? are you crying! there's no crying. there's no crying in baseball! >> there's no crying in politics either. but last night, chris mcdaniel came pretty darn close. >> there is something a bit strange. there is something a bit unusual. about a republican primary that's decided by liberal democrats. >> this is not the party of regan. but we're not done fighting. and when we're done, it will be. >> we'll keep fighting? usually after you lose, you start moving on. he's upset because senator cochran reached out to democrats and particularly african-american voters to win the primary. and it really did help him win. the ten counties where the incumbent senator improved most were those where african-americans make up 69% or more of the populati

mcdaniel.oining me now is former rnc chairman, michael steele and contributor to the daily beast, patricia murphy. chairman steele there is a lot of finger pointing at thad cochran. shouldn't there be a self-reflection among the chris mcdaniel campaign? >> god forbid we should do that and try to figure out exactly what happened. the what happened was that thad cochran went back to a space where he should have started and been comfortable with all along, that's with the voters. this is a man who has had a long career, built a relationship with the african-american community. surprising he's a guy who's out there talking about and fighting for hcbus in the state of mississippi and talking about the poor and forgotten in terms of how we make federal dollars that come back into the state work best for them. now, for a lot of conservatives today, that's an enaj ma but it wasn't in the bygone era of the early 1980s and early 1990s. he remembered that. and he went to that well and guess what, the blac