senator portman. mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: first of all, it's always great to be on the floor with my friend jeanne shaheen and talk about something positive. we've been at this over a deck cade which is to encourage more energy efficiency. this is the ability of us to save energy by not using it. it's therefore sort of energy found. it's also an ability to improve the economy because it creates more jobs and makes us more competitive globally by having lower energy costs. think about the businesses in your state. the competitive nature of business today is that you really are competing with the europeans and the japanese and the chinese and so on. if you have higher energy costs and you're not energy efficient, you're not going to be competitive. but if you're competitive, it adds jobs, makes the economy stronger. so the way i look at it, if you're interested in lower emissions and a better environment and at the same time you're interested in a better economy and creating jobs, then energy efficiency is the low-hang

chairman. >> thank you, ranking member portman. it's the practice this have commit to swear in witnesses so to each of our witnesses will stand, including our witnesses that are joining us via zoom, would rise and raise your right hands. do you swear that the testimony that you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing, but the truth so help you god? you may be seated. our first nominee is eric hooks, nominated to be deputy administrator of fema. mr. hooks has more than 30 years of public safety experience, including serving as secretary of public safety and homeland security advisor for the state of north carolina. as second, mr. hooks led north carolina's largest department which includes the management agency, office of recovery and resill generals and the north carolina national guard and several law enforcement agencies. prior his tenure as secretary he served for 28 years in the state bureau of investigation where he held several leadership roles including assistant director of the profess

senator portman mentioned the missionaries that were objected, 15 are still being held.is your proposal of what the united states can and should be doing right now with respect to the situation and 80. >> thank you for that question is very important as you noted i was there two weeks ago. i had a chance in an opportunity to meet with the prime minister. the acting minister of justice and the new director general of the police. we have also sent advisors down to assess the situation and made long-term actions that we can take in terms of advising that will directly go after gang leaders for prosecution. either in haiti or the united states. as you know much work obligated than that. there are political parties, their political and economic elites that support the gangs, we know this. we are trying to track the money and we are going to use every putative major that we have two go after the elites that are supporting the gangs and to go after the money of these gangs. >> that raises the question as you point out a lot of elites are supporting the gangs. is there a risk of

the scene working hard and the volunteers who come from all over one of whom is my colleague rob portman who put a friend in the car and drove down to bowling green with a chainsaw and volunteered his help and that sort of thing was going on not only inside thestate but from other states .one person from tennessee brought a whole lot of food and started feeding people. so the way. rally together is truly heartening and we're all very grateful for their response. >> i think everybody here, all our colleagues fully supportive of senator mcconnell and his team. the people of kentucky, people of arkansas who been so impacted by this horrible disaster. and we will support them in every way possible that we can. let me just if i might talk for a moment about what's happening here . with respect to the democrats massive reckless tax and spending spree. we got some information just in the last few days into last week that shed some light on kind of where we are in terms of the economy and the economic news with respect to inflation showed inflation is at its highest level in 339 years. almost 40

chairman. >> senator portman.his is a deadly serious moment in the history of ukraine and the history of the region. thank you for your time and effort —-dash spending some time with us last night as well. i know president biden spoke on the subject. we sent a letter last week to the president urging him to show absolute support for ukraine. and to let him know there would be consequences and to reject the unreasonableg kremlin demands. i write that letter to be included in the record. >> without objection. >> i visited in 2014. they were still smoldering and the revolution of dignity changed everything. they decided to turn to us and to the west end freedom and democracy. it was a momentous decision. they chose to stand with us and now it's our turn to stand with them and we've done that over the years if you look at what happened with regards to the ukraine security assistance initiative, which i co-authored over the past six years the united states transferred with ukrainian military. we've been very engaged. i

rob portman has more on that.nk of what senator elizabeth warren said, it's about not taxing the rich much the? >> what is fascinating about that, last quarter looks like our revenues were at a record level. so it's not that we're not taxing enough. we're taxing a lot. a lot of uncertainty. the more you tax the economy, the more you'll hurt working families, all the things in this build back better tax and spend extravaganza to hurt working families so the real issue is spending. spending has increased dramatically. 1.9 trillion in martha was already spent is part of the problem. now they want to make it worse by once again overheating the economy with more stimulus spending that will result in higher inflation. the american people get that because they're going to the store, they're going to the gas pumps trying to buy clothes and everything is going up. you just had a great report from susan li saying it's not only about the consumer prices going up but now as of the new numbers that we just got, it's about the

senator portman? >> thank you, mr. chairman. we live in dangerous times, don't we? and this is a deadly serious moment in the history of ukraine and in the history of the region. i thank you, ambassador nuland, for your time and effort and spending some time with us last night as well. i know president biden spoke with president putin on this subject today and i look forward to getting the read out from that. i know we all do. senator risch and i sent a letter last week to the president urging him to show absolute support for ukraine and to let president putin know in no uncertain terms there would be serious consequences and also to reject the unreasonable kremlin demands. i'd like that letter without objection to be included in the record. >> without objection. >> i visited in 2014. the tires were still smoldering and that revolution of dignity changed everything. ukraine decided to turn to us and the west and freedom and democracy. it was a momentous decision. they chose to stand with us. now it is our turn to stand with them. we've done that over the years. if y

senator portman mentioned 17 u.s. and canadian missionaries affected, 15th are still being held. what is your proposal for the united states can and should be doing right now in respect to the situation in haiti? >> thank you for that question, very important. i was v there two weeks ago i think, i had an opportunity to meet with the prime minister, the acting f minister of justice and new j director general of police. we've also sent advisors down to assess the situation and look mid to long-term actions we can take in terms of advising setting up a new slot unit that will directly go after gang leaders for prosecution either in haiti or the united states. but as you know, it's much more complicated than that. there are political parties, their political economic elites that support these gangs. we know this, we are tracking, trying to track the money and we are going to every major we have to go after the elites supporting these gains and go after the money of these gangs. >> that raises a question as you pointed out, a lot of the elites are supporting the gangs. is there a cou

rob portman, republican senator of ohio, former budget director under bush, really good guy, was on the super committee. i was with him back then. really good friend. he helped negotiate that. and they went through a long senate discussion adding to cracking a variety of different amendments. and at the end of the day, of course, in august they passed it 69-30. i've gotten some death threats. more than a handful. but one of the worst ones that came in was a gentleman, i can't say gentleman, guy from south carolina, and my immediate response was, you know, his senator, president trump's best friend in the senate, lindsey graham, lindsey voted for the bill when it passed 69-30. had we taken it up then in august, most observers think we would have had 40 to 60 republicans that would have voted for the bill. trump was against t he said he had a better bill. his bill was more expensive, no pay-fors and got people to get off the wagon to get this bill done. it was held hostage then by the progressives in the congress. they tried to get the build back better plan attached to this. ultimately f

rob portman, republican senator of ohio, former budget director under bush, good guy, really good friend, he helped negotiate that. and they went through a long, long senate discussion crafting a variety of amendments. and in august, it was past 69-30. now, i have gotten some death threats. more than a handful. but one of the worst was a guy from south carolina. my sponsor was, his senator, president trump's best friend in the senate, lindsey graham, lindsay voted for the bill when it passed 69-30. had we taken it up then, in august, most observers think we would have had 40-60 republicans who voted for the bill. trump was against it, said he had a better bill, this bill was too expensive, and that got people off the wagon to get this bill done. but it was held hostage by progressives in the congress. they tried to get the build back better than attached to this and failed, which is why they voted against the bipartisan bill. but for us, people that helped write it, the actual blueprint, particularly the problem solvers caucus, we were not going to back off for a need we knew had passed.

improvements that must be made, changes that must be made, and we joined forces with senator peters and portman so that we had a more comprehensive look at the security failures on january 6th which, of course, included mistakes at the top of the capitol police, mistakes of leadership within this building and then mistakes on the side of the defense department and other agencies. and so we are greatly appreciative of what mr. michael bolton, the inspector general for the capitol police, has done. i want to thank you for being here, inspector bolton, welcome your wife who's also with us today. we will try not to ask her questions if you can't answer them. and i think you know the significance of this moment. we are here just over 11 months after the violent insurrection at the capitol. why? because this committee has responsibility of oversight of the police. as we approach this year's end, we will hear more today about the measures taffe already been taken -- that have already been taken to improve preparedness and operations as well as the work that still needs to be done. you, inspector gener

because he's handled his nose makes this is nicholas, which we got a lovely picture of him, gulliver, portman pinch. charles, i'm not sure, but so basically, you know, he says will propose this outline. i went a personal part hello mrs. goggins, which i just called the future king, mrs. goggins enough or somebody i was going to say, you know, when they do that thing, when you me, a royal or your royal highness is great. my uncle harry years ago when my sorry to drop names, but my cousin is paul mccartney when he's on the beatles had the hard days, night premier. and they're all on the wheels lined up. my uncle harris on to make his way to the bar in his inter princess mother and i was sorry, crane for this will be her trade and you know or hand, or i'm sorry, create a maybe answer loose go nowhere. because coming up after the break, we're going to continue our discussion, but he's amazing, amazing people and look at the biggest political event of the year. was it really caught 26 and glasgow will see them sh. ah, technology is a very big industry and there's a lot of opportunities for hackers

police department, but getting answers to other issues in our report along with senators peters and portman, with regard to other agencies and how they work with the capitol police. thank you very much, mr. bolton, and we look forward to hearing your interview. i will turn it over to my colleague, senator blunt. very much mr. bolton and we look forward to hearing from you. i'll turn it over the my friend and colleague, senator blunt. >> thank you, snorbg. and thank youenator klobuchar. and thank you also for your focus on these issues. as we look at the ig recommendations and i know new recommendations we're going to hear about today. this is the fourth hearing this committee's had regarding the january 6 attack on the capitol and second time we've had a chance to have the u.s. capitol police inspector general come and be here with us today. appreciate the opportunity to talk to him as he concludes what is his 11-month investigation. it began also immediately. there were recommendations made immediately and others to be made today. glad to have mr. bolton's wife bridget here with us today.

so is rob portman. so are many republicans. so this is a bipartisan sort of insanity. the questions can joe biden stand up to it. the answer is come on, biden has always been more lobbiest than leader. once it was the credit cards in delaware that wrote his scripts. now it's the neocons at the state department. biden spoke with vladimir putin by video call. according to the white house, he informed the russian leader that the united states plans to control the ukraine no matter what. tony blinken threatened to send troops there. here's his spokesman. >> the russia chooses to move forward with any plans, it may have developed to continue with military aggression or to agress on ukraine, to violate their sovereignty, territorial integrity, we and our allies would be prepared to act, be prepared to act resolutely. >> ukraine's territorial integrity. that's what this is really about they're telling us. because if there's one thing that the biden white house cares about is secure borders. at least in eastern europe where borders are not racist. ukraine's borders must be def

. >> rob portman released a statement saying i strongly urge the biden administration to begin to increaseng lethal assistance to our allies. russia must know that any offensive military actions it takes against europe will be at a high price. is ramping up military assistance the right path forward? >> well, it's a tricky issue. the white house has been struggling with that. we do have anti-tank missiles on the ground right now in ukraine, and presumably they are going forward. i think the concern in the white house is could we, by doing that, bring on precisely the crisis that we are trying to diffuse, do something the russians would treat as a pretext, see, we told you the west was threatening us and here's the new weapons, and use that as an excuse for going over the border. i think one significant thing with the white house, what it said in the last week, you know, backgrounding reporters, essentially, if russia does not invade, the united states is considering whether and how to aid an insurgency that would resist the russians inside ukraine, and that's a significant step, i think. >

portman: i appreciate the comments of my colleague from indiana. one of the things he didn't have in that christmas stocking was a lump of coal. there is a lot of stuff in there that is really bad for our economy right now, bad for our families, bad for our workers, and when you think about it, right now we're at a time of high inflation, supply chain difficulties, record levels of debt and deficit, and an uncertain economy due largely to the uncertainty regarding covid, particularly this new variant, the omicron. so this is not a time for us to be putting forth a massive new spending bill and a massive new tax increase on the american economy. it's a time for us to retrench a little bit and try to help to get back to where we were before covid-19. remember, that was a time when after the 2017 tax reforms we had a great economy, by any measure, and it was an opportunity economy. the lowest poverty rate since we started keeping track in the 1950's. after february, after going into the covid-19 period, february 2020, we had 19 straight months of wage

rob portman from ohio, pat toomey in pennsylvania, richard shelby is considered a deal maker, roy blountmost boisterous member but to some degree richard burr, ally of mcconnell's as well. this doesn't mean mcconnell is in any danger in leadership position, if you want to go after him, pack a lunch in that regard. in terms of individuals in the conference, what it means for the conference going forward politically but perhaps more importantly from a policy perspective. i don't think people necessarily appreciate that as much as they will in 2023 and obviously waiting to hear from senator john thune is going to be, another big loss for mcconnell and the republican infrastructure. >> and the last congress, too, lamar alexander stepped aside, key ally to mitch mcconnell, pat roberts, another establishment type is gone. great point, phil. i was going to joke and say gaslight you all say joe manchin is the least covered story this year. instead, i will dig into something that amy does better than pretty much anybody, coverage of redistricting, the process that happens every ten years to redra

he also during this process called me repeatedly and asked me to continue working with senator rob portmanisan agreement. and showed a real commitment to wanting this bipartisan achievement, which we have accomplished. i think the big challenge in front of us is for us to all work together in an accountable and transparent way to actually implement this law. >> reporter: schumer has said he wants to vote on build back better the broader social safety net bill before christmas break. are you prepared to vote yes when that comes to the floor? >> i don't set the schedule for the senate floor. i am always prepared to vote. and to vote for what is right for the interests of arizona. i personally believe that the best way to create legislation is to be thoughtful and careful so we're crafting legislation that truly represents the interests we want to achieve and creates a benefit and helps people all across arizona and the country. that is what i'm working on right now. >> it doesn't sound like you are quite a yes yet on the version that just passed the house of representatives. what changes do

senator rob portman cosponsored the bill. do you have the votes to pass it? >> i think we do.ocial media platforms are diametrically opposed. parents want their kids doing homework, if they're going to look at tv or any content, they want them protected from bad stuff. that's not happening right now. and what we've seen with the platforms and this is what we asked the ceo of instagram is that they're putting more money into wooing teens to keep them on the site because it's a feeder group that gets addicted to their product. they see more ads and can sell more advertising. it's obvious and this includes facebo facebook, tiktok and m meta facebook owns instagram. we want to protect kids on the internet and do something about our competition policy and algorithms so we know exactly what's going on and we can have alternatives for families. >> something that happened friday that i wanted to ask you about if we can bring up the picture. you were at the funeral for former senator bob dole and you were seated, there you are, next to republican senator ted cruz, who as everybody can

like primarily who these guys are replacing, they are replacing conservatives like toomey and rob portmanlections and what it means if josh mandell or dr. oz or the theme are replacing them. >> that's right, and i think it's important, phil, to remember that this is, yes, about trump and the grip that he has over the party, but it extends far before trump ever came on the scene. this is significantly about within the republican party, a group of too many, principally white evangelical christians, who think the country, once respected aspect of their culture is slipping away from them, economically, cult rath rally. we're on the way to becoming a majority minority country and the fear and desperation of those white conservatives, most notably evangelical christians, is fueling the celebration with the party. fouling the mago movement. he rode that into power and he's promised to roll back the changes and make america great again, and that's significantly what we're talking about here. >> and we'll watch it play out in the republican primaries in particular throughout the next couple of mon

he also during this process called me repeatedly and asked me to continue working with senator rob portmann agreement and showed a real commitment to wanting this bipartisan achievement, which we've accomplished. and i think the big challenge in front of us is for us to all work together in an accountable and transparent way to implement this law. >> schumer has said he wants to vote on build back better before christmas break. are you prepared to vote yes when that comes to the floor? >> well, i don't set the schedule for the senate floor and i'm always prepared to vote, and to vote for what's right for the interests of arizona. i personally believe that the best way to create legislation is to be thoughtful and careful so that we're crafting legislation that truly represents the interests that we want to achieve and that creates a benefit and helps people all across arizona and the country. so that's what i'm working on right now. >> so it doesn't sound like you're quite a yes yet on the version that just passed the house of representatives. what changes do you want to make? >> well, fol

senator richard shelby of alabama, rob portman of ohio plus richard burr and pat to me in the swing states and pennsylvania are leaving already and of course you. have you had any conversations with senator thune and second are you concerned any hopes of future i parse in moments in the u.s. senate will leave with you all? >> well, i think the country is resilient and strong and understands the importance of finding solutions. senator thune and i came to congress 25 years ago. we are close friends and we worked together in senate leadership certainly, the country will benefit if he decides to stay. this is just a decision that he has to make. certainly, in my case it seemed to me that time to bring this chapter to a close and i'm looking forward to what we are going to be doing next year. then cardin and i are working on a couple major issues, mental health issue i mentioned earlier what we could do to put more health research and what did we learn from covid, what do we need to do to enhance testing. i think it's going to be a great opportunity for the congress, certainly i hope senator t

at the time, mitch mcconnell and rob portman and other senate republicans said we're separating the sugare democrats something to deliver, something they want and something they think is good for the country. that took the form of the infrastructure bill. had they not done that at the time, i believe manchin would have wound up having to vote for a much larger bill now for the purpose of getting the infrastructure piece. manchin always said he thought the infrastructure, the hard infrastructure part of all this spending that biden wanted was good for the country. he was less certain the rest of it was good for the country. so yes, he did vote for that, but by allowing that bill to pass and republicans helping the white house do this, they gave joe manchin all the reasons he needed to kill this part of it, because he'd already been able to vote for something he thinks he can sell back home in west virginia. >> so now what? we hear the strategy being floated that this massive bill which started at 6 trillion now down to 1.75, should be broken up. piecemeal into smaller pieces and that way y

we don't have enough competitive pressure from the portman of defense right now for our major weapons more consolidation, in my judgment, particularly for going to consolidate and basically reduces innovation, that would not be a good thing. so when i think though is some of the ceos have had recent things in the think tank and have spoken about how to change the format going forward and everybody is very forward leaning. we need to innovate, not just in the defense industrial base, we need these innovations of 5g, micro electronics, quantum, biotechnology, we need to basically secure our supply chain where 40% of our pharmaceuticals don't come from china where china does not have all the minerals that we need in our high technology, so there's a lot that has to happen here, but greater consolidation in things that would reduce competitive pressure in the department or reduce innovation in our small businesses will not be a good outcome. >> okay, i'm going to read out some of the questions from the audience and i'm going to take the liberty of combining two related questions for our f

senators richard shelby of alabama, rob portman of ohio, plus richard burr and pat toomey in the swingpennsylvania are leaving already and of course you. first, have you had knee conversations with the senator, and second, are you concerned that any hopes of future bipartisan moments in the u.s. senate will leave with you all? >> senator blunt: i think the country is resilient and strong and understands the importance of finding solutions. senator food and i came to the congress only 5 years ago, we are close friends, we work together in senate leadership. certainly the country will benefit if he decides to stay in the senate, and this is just a decision that he has to make. certainly in my case, it seems to me that it's the time to bring this chapter to a close, and i'm looking forward to what we are going to be doing next year. ben cardin and i are working on a couple of major issues, mental health issue that i mentioned earlier. what we could do with more health research, what did we learn from covid, what do we need to do to enhance testing. if i think this is going to be a great o

yeah, it's -- and a debate that i watched from a couple weeks ago, another big one was slamming rob portmanmargin. it is really the degree to which ohio republican politics has gone 180 just in the last few years is remarkable. >> we see it other places, too. this is stacey abrams, is getting into the race in georgia and brian kemp of course the incumbent governor who narrowly defeatd her in 2018. here is trump yesterday on that. >> i beat her single handedly, which is not true. it wasn't him. without much of a candidate in 2018. i'll beat her again but it'll be hard to do with brian kemp because the maga base will just not vote for him after what he did with respect to election integrity and two horribly run elections for president and then two senate seats but some good republican will run and some good republican will get my endorsement and will win. here there is not even an active primary. he is declaring there should be one because brian kemp was insufficiently motivated to pull off the coup. >> exactly. i think that gets to something that's bizarre about all of this is that georgia i

we just heard from rob portman, talking about the inflation rate. there is a story in politico that talks about how republicans land to use the high inflation rate to help defeat democrats in the midterm elections. that comes from politico. republicans are spending millions of dollars to hit senate democrats on inflation. we want to know how this high inflation rate is affecting you. let's start with and calling from north carolina on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. my experience here in north carolina, my trump landlord raised the landlord. he raised us each $100. i'm the only liberal. he raised the rent on people that voted for trump $100. i would describe that is price gouging. there is no rent protection in 35 states. i find it ironic that i can't be the only person who has a trump loving landlord that this happened two. it's ironic. the other six tenants voted for trump. one more comment. mitch mcconnell is worth $39 million. he's got one of the poorest states in the country. thanks a lot for your help. host: tony is c

we just heard from rob portman, talking about the inflation rate. there is a story in politico that talks about how republicans land to use the high inflation rate to help defeat democrats in the midterm elections. that comes from politico. republicans are spending millions of dollars to hit senate democrats on inflation. we want to know how this high inflation rate is affecting you. let's start with and calling from north carolina on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. my experience here in north carolina, my trump landlord raised the landlord. he raised us each $100. i'm the only liberal. he raised the rent on people that voted for trump $100. i would describe that is price gouging. there is no rent protection in 35 states. i find it ironic that i can't be the only person who has a trump loving landlord that this happened two. it's ironic. the other six tenants voted for trump. one more comment. mitch mcconnell is worth $39 million. he's got one of the poorest states in the country. thanks a lot for your help. host: tony is c

, along with armed services committee ranking member inhofe, and homeland security ranking member portman, sent a letter to the inspectors general of state, d.o.d., d.h.s., and usaid requesting a joint audit on the botched evacuation and the failure to deliver on the special immigrant visa program. as i mentioned, at secretary blinken's hearing, the secretary of defense has a lot to answer for on s.i.v.'s and more. -- as well. the bungled afghanistan evacuation was a failure not only of the interagency but also at leadership at the top. we will not accept separate audits from each agency just pointing fingers at the others. we've seen a dramatic uptick in terrorist activity in afghanistan. it demonstrates the taliban lacks the will and capability to prevent terrorists from using afghanistan as a safe haven or governing in the most basic sense. coordination with afghanistan's neighbors to address terror threats is critical, and i look forward to hearing an update from you today. i'm not surprised, but i'm disappointed to hear that the taliban is blocking women and girls from the workplace

portman: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: first i want to offer my congratulations to bryn stewart, and that was a beautiful speech about the public service he was contributed to wyoming and to the united states senate. i thank my colleague from wyoming for that. i also want to say that over the weekend, i had the opportunity to travel to kentucky. i live in ohio, so kentucky's our neighboring state and went down to help some of our neighbors get back on their feet after these devastating tornadoes and it was very emotional, partly, obviously seeing people's lives just be devastated. so houses ruined and family her air looms -- herlooms lost and another emotion, which is gratitude for the people who came forward to help, neighbor helping neighbor, as always happens when you have one of these natural disasters, the only silver lining is people do come together and providing water and food and help getting people out of their homes through urban search and rescue teams like ohio task force 1, who went down to kentucky,

rob portman behind him. josh holmes is with us now. good morning to you. dole a few weeks ago, i believe. how did that go? >> bill, it was incredible. we were lucky enough to have an interview with senator dole a few weeks ago for a veterans day episode we were doing on the ruthless variety program. he chose to do it. we knew he was feeling ill and not up to his usual snuff but i have to tell you, we went in there and asked him a few questions and as sharp as he ever was. body was clearly failing but he had a few messages he wanted to get to the american people at the end. we are very fortunate to be the conduit for that. >> dana: one of those messages is that he felt optimistic for the future of the country. can you tell us more on that? >> yeah, dana. the thing about bob dole, everything that he has gone through, the grievous war wounds, the entire career, disappointments and ups and downs and being able to have a good sense of humor through it all got the sense he is an optimist and represented the best of a generation. he thinks our greatest days are b

portman: i'm here on the senate floor again this evening to talk about the so-called build back betterlegislation. this is legislation that democrats are trying to push through the process here on a purely partisan basis under what's called the reconciliation process. i believe this massive tax-and-spend bill is irresponsible at a time when we see an uncertain economy, thanks in large measure to all of the challenges we are now finding with regard to covid and omicron in particular, at a time of really high inflation that's hurgts my constituents and everybody's constituents in this chamber, and at a time of record levels of debt. certainly this is not a time for us to put out another piece of legislation that spends dramatically more money and also has big tax increases on the economy. this is the tenth consecutive week while congress has been in session that i've come to the floor to talk about reasons why i believe this legislation is bad for america. as we've talked about before, this massive new spending bill represents the largest amount of spending of any legislation ever passed

these people in a way that we don't necessarily see them just on camera, do you think folks like portman and richard burr and mit romney have remorse of igniting the monster of trumpism and having it turn to frankenstein and the situation now where up and coming republicans have to pledge their loyalty not to the constitution, to the dense of united states of america, not to, republicans used to be helping the most vulnerable, evangelical republicans were interested in climate change before democrats were, interested in the economy, and military, do you think now this is it, it's all a bunch of bs, about aligning themselves with what's not true, election fraud in 2020? >> i think one of the most important things to note is during the trump era, a lot of those mainstream republicans decided that they weren't going to, you know, face another primary challenge on the right, look at the senators in the republican party who are retiring this year, somebody who wanted to work across the aisle on gun legislation, republicans already, have to reflect their own personal politics, and you look at