rick santorum and ben gellis. appreciate you being on the show. >>> mr. trump says inflammatory, and some ha-- why are the criti to loud? chris cillizza raised his hand. he'll be here next. i recently discovered that pistachios are a good source of protein. that's why they're my go-to snack while i get back in shape. that one's broken. don't wait until february. walk into a jackson hewitt, day or night, and you could get up to $3200. so why wait? you could get up to $3200 with a no-fee refund advance. go to jackson hewitt today. with a no-fee refund advance. that $100k is not exactly a fortune. well, a 103 how long did it take you two to save that? a long time. then it's a fortune. i told you we had a fortune. get closer to your investment goals with a conversation. when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com. you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. and got them back on tr

ben gellis and form er republican senator, rick santorum a cnn senior political commentator. gentlemen, thank you for being with us. rick, let me start with you. do you understand the criticism of what the president said most recently with respect to countries and the people who come from there to here? >> sure. i think the criticism is, for the most part, appropriate. the president shouldn't be talking like this. i know it was a private conversation and there's some question as to what he said and whether he said it. i mean, the president denies saying it, but if, in fact, he did say that, those are comments that are beneath the presidency and very troublesome. look, you heard me talk many times. i think the president's doing a good job on a lot of policy things, but just gets in his own way by making these types of comments that hurt him and his agenda and i think hurt the american people. i wish he would stop doing it. >> ben, do you think there's a chance he didn't say it? and if he did say it, what does it mean to you? >> there's zero chance he didn't say it. we saw the

and former senator from pennsylvania, rick santorum, republican, of course. have you both with us. thank you for joining us on this first night. so rick, we'll start with you. here's the proposition. if you care about the d.r.e.a.m.ers, do daca in a clean bill. defend against. >> well, first defend against it, first, i don't support doing daca, period. so i would say that the concern that republicans have with doing daca is that in a few years we'll end up having to do another daca and then a few years, another daca. if we don't have some sort of enforcement at the border, some sort of laws in place to make sure that we aren't going to have this immigration problem again, then there is's no point in creating any kind of amnesty or relief for people who are here now. that's what republicans have been saying. that's what donald trump has been saying for quite some time. so the idea of doing a clean daca bill is an absolute nonstarter. i don't think a single republican, because we're just creating another problem down the road. >> jennifer granholm but the repub

with me is rick santorum. good to see you. hap happy new year. and rick nelson. nice to have you.come. >> thanks. >>> so, let's see here, rick wilson, to you first. just getting your advisreaction this. thoughts? >> brooke,this proves my theory of everything trump touches will die. he eventually will turn on everything. he and steve bannon is perfectly matched pair both of whom are driven by their own ambitions and egos. and bannon had a constituency of one after he left the white house. only way nationalist populus movement was going to take off if he had donald trump as avatar as the leader of that movement. now steve bannon is going to have no audience. shrink dramatically. >> i hear you. senator santorum to you here, the president also said in the statement, now that he is on his own, steve bannon, steve is learning that winning isn't as easy as i make it look. steve had very little to do with our historic victory was delivered by the forgotten m enand women of this country but had everything to do with the loss of senate seat in alabama held for more than 30 years by republic

higher, former communications director for the republican national committee with us, along with rick santorumlitical commentator and former republican senator from pennsylvania, angela rye joining us, political commentator and former director of the congressional black caucus. senator, this idea of executive time that hours of time could be carved out for the president so that he can do something which i mean we knew he did -- we knew he was obsessing over television and he does a lot of tweeting, but what does that tell you? that he's getting this time blocked out. >> every president has time, down time, or time just for him to be able to, as was mentioned by abby, talk to people, i know talking to several members of congress he does stay in frequent -- more than i've ever heard of a president in talking to members of congress, developing relationships there, so to suggest that's all just tv time i think is probably overstating the case. yeah, clearly the president watches television. i don't think there's any question about that. >> this is different. this is -- i mean you can see that this

santorum and boxer are here. rick, why does this matter?matters because it's not as you much of a nothing bigger as you were suggesting. you have flynn, talking to the special counsel, he cut a deal. we have manafort, you don't know yet. we have papadopoulos, he's talking to the special counsel. they have things on flynn and papadopoulos specifically lying about contacts with russians. we don't have nothing, now we have gates maybe bringing in a lawyer that shows he may want to work with a special counsel. why would they offer deals because there is nothing there? smr in the case of gates, it may be an issue quite unrelated to the russian collusion in the election. i mean, you know, suggested collusion in the election. maybe activities before they worked with the trump campaign. i think that's most of the speculation is around manafort and gates. it has little to do with trump, it has things to do with outside the trump campaign. look, i'm not suggesting there aren't things to be investigated. there are things to be investigated. but i am n

rick santorum, a republican of course. former democratic senator from california, barbara boxer. it's going to have you both. so let's start with the headline. the president having spoken to comey, to sessions, to hope hicks, now certainly over a dozen of people. now he wants to speak to the president. barbara boxer, what does this mean to you in terms of where this investigation is headed? >> well, the scandal is moving directly to donald trump. and, you know, there's so much back and forth, but we have to just take a deep breath. what happened is we all know that russia interfered in the election. we all know they favored donald ump, and the question is what did the trump team do about it? did they work with them? and is there a cover-up? and, you know, i have no idea what mueller has, but there's many people speaking to him. but i do know what we, the public -- what we know. you've laid that out with a lot of your guests tonight. and we certainly know that comey was fired to, quote, take the pressure off trump. how do w

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we have jennifer granholm and rick santorum. one specific issue. here it is, jennifer.he shutdown politics, sit worth it to democrats to vote to shut down the government by ignoring the continuing resolution to hold out for daca reform? >> yes. and let me tell you quickly why. there were two polls out within the past four days. both of them said, number one, overwhelmingly end ends, by 77% to 80%, support making a daca fix as part of this. overwhelmingly democrats -- >> nobody said as part of this. they said they want it. >> but wait -- >> they said they want it. they didn't say shut down the government for it. >> no, they did. here's the other poll that came out today, chris. said that by 11 points, people will blame republicans if there's a shutdown, because they see this as doable. i don't think this is over yet. i think that a crisis will exist up until the last minute. but for republican's sake, as well as democratic sake, but really for the sake of those 800,000 people, this should be done this week. >> rick? >> it wouldn't be done this week. they should pass a cl

>> i just want to go back to rick santorum here for a minute on this immigration part of the speech because something you said struck me, which is leadership of the president. now, we've heard what the president said tonight. we heard what he said a couple of weeks ago in that open meeting, that extraordinary open meeting where he said i'll take the heat, meaning i'll get it from my base. >> and he is. >> well, but he added in the -- ending the visa lottery and -- >> he's always said four things. >> mccarthy -- congressman mccarthy had to remind him of that at the meeting if i recall. but where is he going to lead on this? if he really wants a deal and conservatives are upset and democrats are upset about this, where does the president step in and say and maybe at some point in order to get over 39% popularity he's going to have to take on his base a little bit. >> he is taking on his base. >> and maybe he can't afford to do that even a little bit more to give the democrats a little bit more what they want is what i'm -- >> but close to 2 million, a path to citizenship for close to 2 millio

let's discuss cnn political commentator ana navarro and rick santorum. rick, are you concerned when you read this that the president ordered don mcgann, white house counsel, to go to jeff sessions to say do not recuse, even though you're involved in the russia investigation, do not recuse. that is not piece of the puzzle in terms of whether that's obstruction. what do you think? >> i think jeff sessions shouldn't have recused himself and the president has every right to tell his attorney general to stay on the case. that was a judgment call. i think it was a bad judgment call. i think the president has every right to try to influence that decision. >> how do you see it, ana? >> none of this is surprising. how many times have we heard about donald trump telling comey, lay off michael flynn. and we've seen donald trump for months treat jeff sessions like a human pinata. whack him, whack him, and do it publicly. none of this should be surprising. the only surprising part to me is where you have white house deputy counsel keeping facts from donald trump becau

you have the surprising success of rick santorum in 2012. what they had all in common was a populist economic message that broke with republican orthodoxy on trade, on a number of other issues related to that, on unions, but what distracted us about them, of course, is that they were all bible-believing christians, catholics, evangelicals. so the questions they got asked on the trail typically turned very quickly to abortion, birth control, all these other sort of cultural issues. but i think what we did was we underestimated the power and the appeal of their protectionist, pro-union, anti-free trade message within this republican (crosstalk). - that was really the gas in the engine. - exactly. - it turns out. - what trump did was basically he embraced that message because it's not really all that different from- - did he do that consciously? i mean honestly, i'm hearing you say this and i'm thinking that's pretty smart. it's pretty canny and pretty savvy in a way that he's not been given adequate credit for. - i will just say, that is proba

. >> if i were a strategist, i would say why is this delta and has to do with what rick santorum has the tweets the jibes. this setting to look like what he hasn't been able to look like in so many other settings, presidential. >> i want to point out that president trump about to drive to capitol hill. first lady melania already at capitol hill. she left earlier. >> there is a sense there is positive vibe about the economy at the top. but honestly, if he doesn't acknowledge that half of america doesn't invest a dime in the stock market, all of that euphoria doesn't affect them. half or 60% of america doesn't even have $500 in their bank account. there a lot of angst and anxious out there. when 83% of the tax dollars go to the top 10% and 5% of the earners, that is not what they are feeling. so one of the reasons why i think the president is not doing better is that perhaps people feel like he is riding a wave that was handed to him by obama but has not come through at the promises. rick, you can laugh, you can smile. more outsourcing of these jobs than there was than the prior one. >

former white house communications director for president obama, jen psaki and rick santorum. >> they're get to the bill. they'll have to move to proceed, which usually the republicans, whether you're for or against what the house passed, republicans will line up and support the leader's ability to bring up what have bill he wants, that should not be a big deal. and then it's just a matter of whether they can twist enough arms and get enough republicans. the whole idea is for republicans to show solidarity and get as many people, if they get to 50 or 51 would be great. if they can get to a number, then they can point the finger pretty clearly at the democrats and say look, we put up all the votes we could to make this thing work and the other side isn't helping us. but if they come up short, five, six, seven, ten republicans vote no, it's a little harder to make the case that they're responsibly governing. >> jen, were you part of the obama administration during the shutdown in 2013. does a shutdown really work out well for anybody? i'm guessing both sides are hoping the other side gets

robby mook, rick santorum and anna navarro. did this shutdown accomplish anything in your view?ink it brought the dreamer issue to the forefront. i think it highlighted the urgency of the d.r.e.a.m.er issue. it has for the last week, the last ten days, shown us the faces and the stories of d.r.e.a.m.ers. we have seen the stories of people that are getting deported, how they are getting separated from their children, what it's doing to american families and to the american way of life. i think it's highlighted what is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed. it has also shown the horrible dysfunction that is washington, that is our government. they keep kicking the cans down the road without really solving the national crisis. it showed that chuck schumer could take a position and it showed that chuck schumer could hold it for two days. he couldn't hold the position. so you know, i think it's shown us a lot of things but we don't know what the end game is going to be yet. >> was it a mistake for democrats to go along with this? >> look, i'm as frustrated as anybody out there.

former white house communications director for president obama, jen psaki and former senator rick santorumtor santorum, the house has voted, so, now all eyes turn to the senate. walk us through what's likely going on behind the scenes right now. >> well, i mean, they're obviously trying to get to the bill. they'll have to move to proceed, which usually the republicans, whether you are for or against what the house passed, the republicans will line up and will support the leader's ability to bring up whatever bill he wants, so, that should not be a big deal. and then it's just a matter of whether they can twist enough arms and get enough republicans to show some unity. the whole idea is for republicans to show solidarity and try to get as many people, if you get to 50 or 51 would be great. if they can get to a number, then they can point the finger pretty clearly at the democrats and say, look. we president ut up all the voted to make this thing work and the other side isn't helping us. but if they come up short, five, six, seven, ten republicans vote no, it's a little harder to make the ca

it was a freedom summit in iowa featuring two past winners of the caucus, rick santorum and mike huckabeethat day's breakout speaker, the beginning of the scott walker bubble. and there was also one other person there, too. you say you are considering running for president again. what is your favorite county in iowa? >> well, my favorite county in iowa, and i'm not going to get into this because this is not a history class, but one of my favorite places is iowa itself. and iowa is great because the people are great. the people are workers. they are wonderful people. and they like me and i like them. >> reporter: there are 99 counties in iowa, you can't give one? >> i can name many more than one. >> reporter: such as -- >> i'm not doing, who is the president of a certain country. we don't do that. >> so that was nearly five months before donald trump entered the race and people were rolling their eyes at the mere mention of him potentially running for president. that day he also gave what we would probably now consider a classic 2016 trump stump speech on everything from the border wall to

ainsley: here to weigh in on this is refreelance writer, rick santorum lawrence apell. you going to buy a ticket for this. $47 to go down to town hall to hang out with celebrities and hear them talk about how they think the president is reckless, negative and hopeless. >> no, i am not. this is classic trump derangement syndrome. they still cannot get passed the fact that they lost an election that happened over a year ago. what i would like to know is what are reresisting now? are reresisting the elimination of isis? are we resisting this booming trump economy where unemployment rate for women is now at 18 year low? where the unemployment rate for african-americans is lowest that it's ever been documented? are we resisting that 270 companies have now announced that they are going to give back to their employees raises and bonuses and put more money in their 401(k)s since the trump tax cuts are taken effect? what are reresisting? steve: good question. let me ask you this though, lauren is, being anti-trump a good business model for somebody who is in the business of sell

democratic strategist christie spencer and freelance writer and former press assistant senator rick santorum with you. this is an administration that no one can argue that it's the women at the top echelon of this administration and this administration and yet we received these really gross attacks. i'm especially troubled by the attack on nikki haley can view an ambassador of having an affair with the president with no basis. this seems like a war on conservative women and yet we hear not aimed from the left on these attacks of powerful women. what do you make of that? >> yeah, the first thing to understand is who is making these attacks? chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, anyone in elected office? no, they are not. these are not democratic attacks. that's the first thing to understand. the second thing is it is unfortunate and i agree with nikki haley, disgusting. the truth is that i'm sure you know this as well, and he wanted to put themselves out there in the spotlight whether democrat or republican or something in between are entirely different gets unfair attacks on their appearance, on the