the latest challenge is against thad cochran.nger has a running start and support from the club for growth which sponsored this ad which you'll notice includes the tea party symbol. the don't tread on me flag. >> washington's a mess. bailouts, record debts, government-run health care. career politicians bankrupting our country. had enough? chris mcdaniel has backbone. in the legislature he stood up to the big spenders in both parties. in court he represented mississippi against obama care. chris mcdaniel, the new, strong conservative leader mississippi needs. >> wow. me wave is spreading in the plains and southern states. here's where it stands right now. in wyoming, mike enzi faces a nasty challenge from liz cheney. in kansas, senior senator pat roberts also elected in '96 is being primaried by a tea party backed radiologist. in tennessee, facing a tea party backed opponent. in kentucky mitch mcconnell has to first tango with a republican opponent before taking on a democratic one who's up by two points. and in mississippi as i

thad cochran is worried about getting defeated.hutdown which means default. >> it kind of reminds me of "godfather iii" when he says every time i get out, they pull me back in. what's pulling them back in is the gravitational pull of the party. with those states that you went through but throughout the board. so while -- i saw jack lew the other day and i asked him if the budget agreement means that maybe there won't be a default fight. he says, well, i think it shows that they're learning. now, maybe john boehner and people in washington are learning, but nothing's changing that much at the grassroots yet. so there still is a lot of pull in these guys to disrupt, to force obama to his knees, to take hostages, and go through the same rigger morale. >> do republicans agree they screwed up with the shutdown? yes. right? >> well, most of them do. but not all of them. >> they all seem to have agreed they screwed up with bringing this country to fiscal default. that doesn't seem to scare them because they didn't actually do it. they act

and of course your colleague and someone i also consider a friend, thad cochran has an opponent on the far right. so you have all these republicans now pointing at senators, calling them rinos. republicans in name only. is it going too far? >> the people who say that about those three senators are -- yes, they're going too far. but i don't know that that means there's a civil war. you know, it's a free country, and it doesn't cost much to file for senator. so you can't blame somebody for giving it a shot. i think all three of those, cochran, mcconnell and graham will be renominated, and when they are, they'll be reelected. >> i still believe it's a civil war. you have the far right pointing fingers at the so-called conservatives. i never thought i would see this day. are you sure that your colleagues can beat back this challenge? >> wish on. let's go back to the poll on the front page of the washington post. this is shaping up to be a disastrous ten months coming up for the democratic party. and it may be partly six-year itch, which happens to presidential terms, but i think it comes b

there were also plenty of republicans, jesse helms, orrin hatch, thad cochran that wouldn't do it.ake us back and tell us what that was all about. >> well, i think there were two things at work. your guests talked about this being a vote and debate about foreign policy, about the anc being a proxy for the soviet union and certainly there was the element of communism involved and this was really a support for a communist group. but deeply underlying that was really the issue of racism and the evil of racism and the discussion about communism i think was just an overlay of that, that you look at our own history, how long it took us to try to eliminate the racism in our own society. i was watching the pictures you were showing. i was thinking of the same scene. it could be a scene in alabama with bull conner and lester maddox and george wallace. so the underlying issue of race was always involved in this and the notion that somehow the black majority was enferrior to the whites who were trying to bring civilization to that country and so that was part of the dewitt at least in my mind

obama care is the reason corn nine now joins senate minority leader mcconn l mcconnell, senator thad cochrannator mime cochran and senator enzi in a contest with the former vice president's daughter, senator lamar alexander on the lest of incumbent republicans with what could be a very tough primary battle. the question now is, could we see a repeat of 20 ten when two republican incumbents, senators robert bennett and lisa murkowski, joining us to assess all of this, doug schoen, judith miller, fox news legal analyst, great to have you all here. let me start with you, doug, this is, i mean, this looks like a real battleground shaping up for the republican party. >> it is, this is the best news other than the budget deal president obama had all day. bottom line, the tea party has a fervent group of activists who vote in primaries. even if this two, four, seven incumbents you have there are all leading, probably leading comfortably now. they all are worried because of the nature of the republican primaries. >> does this disquiet you? >> the squabbling has to be great for the democrats, right?

senator thad cochran isn't stepping down from the tea party.e's designed to run for re-election next year which means facing a challenger on his right flank. cochran who served six terms in the u.s. senate has become a target of the tea party for his vote to end the government shutdown and avoid default. chris mcdaniel announced his candidacy the day after that vote and will likely be well funded by national tea party types across the country. we'll be right back. ed more pow. give me more power! [ mainframe ] located. ge deep-sea fuel technology. a 50,000-pound, ingeniously wired machine that optimizes raw data to help safely discover and maximize resources in extreme conditions. our current situation seems rather extreme. why can't we maximize our... ready. ♪ brilliant. let's get out of here. warp speed. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. i

you've got thad cochran down in mississippi. and the republican senatorial committee is getting heavily involved spending money to fight off these guys. so they're really suffering as a result of this. but i think the incumbent lawmakers have begun to realize the chamber of commerce folks have begun to realize that this is hurting them in the long run. they're going to have to draw that line in the stand. maybe they can do that in 2014. every time you say the tea party is done with, they come back and surprise you. i don't think stockman's the guy, but the tea party is far from dead. >> well, we will wait and see, because i promise you we'll be watching. victoria soto and dana milbank, thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks, reverend. >>> up next, a bombshell surprise from george zimmerman's girlfriend. what it means for the assault case against him. >>> plus an update on the police officer who fired at a minivan filled with children. stay with us. [ male announcer ] for every late night, every weekend worked, every idea sol

look to the mcconnell primary, may 20th, look at thad cochran's primary in mississippi on june 3rd. big posts to see who is going to win what you rightly point out is a real fight within the party. >> i was going to bring up leader mcconnell. we anticipate he is not going to support this piece of legislation. does he need to do that politically? he's obviously facing a tough challenge from tea partiers, this is what's necessary for 2014 and looking further ahead to 2016. >> mitch mcconnell has done a couple of things. mitch mcconnell cut the deal to reopen the government after it was shut down. john boehner making it clear that was not his preferred strategy, shutting down the government was not the preferred strategy. i think mitch mcconnell has said a few things to say he's not all that worried about matt bevin, wealthy businessman that's challenging him. that said, i don't know if he puts a finger directly in the eye of the tea party. remember the thing about primaries and everywhere else a small electorate in which a very passionate group can have influence. the taert remains no

but you also see it in places like kentucky with mitch mcconnell, with thad cochran in mississippi oram in south carolina. you have 12 republican seats up, and people like those around cornyn and the republican establishment see that there is a wave out there and they don't want to take the challenge for granted. so they want to do everything they can to reassure enough voters john cornyn is conservative, our guy has done well for the con stitch win sis and for the issues that you care about. >> all right. just want to show everybody, though, senator cornyn is up by 44 points on congressman stockman right now, at least in gop polling numbers that have gone out that was obtained by politico. we have three months to go until the primary. wayne slater, the dallas morning news, thank you, sir. tomorrow, a look at the kentucky senate race that wayne brought up there. we've got senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. could face a strong democratic challenger in secretary of state allison grimes. [ male announce] the new new york is open. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold id

thad cochran, it will be interesting to see how aggressive he goes after chris mcdaniel. >> susan, irt of your theory on this is, i agree with you, as manu was saying, a lot of these seats are going to stay red. right? it's just a matter of the primary which is going to provide a lot of fun -- sorry -- for those of us in cable television. but it also, as we were talking about, i mean, the broader point here is it distracts from talking about obamacare which i know is something republicans want to be talking about. or frankly other things that they want to be talking about in erm thes of a positive agenda instead on defense. >> right. i think you're going to see more of a split between some of these conservative groups and the business community like we did in the alabama 1st special election last month where business got behind a candidate who was responsible, who believed in responsible leader leadership. you're going to see a much bigger shift. i think that's why frankly speaker boehner was able to s k speak this the past few days with a little more conviction knowing he had that b

then there's mississippi's thad cochran who faces a tea party challenge from chris mcdaniel. he's not coming out for or against the agreement but has signaled he may use the military pension cuts in deal as a reason to pose it. he said there is no justification in first turning to those who have served or are serving in the military and asking them to make new sacrifices. today the other senators co-sponsoring a republican amendment to restore the pension cuts, kelly ayotte, lindsey graham, and roger wicker, will bring military families to the senate to protest the cut. tennessee's lamar alexander told "business week" he is reviewing the bill. hasn't made a decision yet. when the senate closes the books on the budge net the next 36 hours it still has a raft of confirmation votes before christmas including the vote on janet yellin to be the next head of the federal reserve. last night the senate confirmed jeh johnson, the former general counsel for the pentagon. he's now going to be the next secretary of homeland security. overwhelming support, by the way. 78-16. but the senat

if you look at pat roberts in kansas or thad cochran, they have legitimate races. in certainly hard-red areas can and hard-red states, the tea party is still very much alive. in other parts of the country, it seems their ability to influence republicans at the state level, statewide level at least, is diminished significantly. >> i mean, look how well cuccinelli did in the state of virginia. >> the fact that mcconnell is leaning toward voting no on this deal is extraordinary. but the way in which these outside groups were quick to throw paul ryan under the bus was very similar to the way marco rubio was thrown under the bus for immigration reform. if you want to be a 2016 nominee and you're coming from washington, d.c., the impetus on you is to not do anything. sort of sit back and tow the conservative line, is it not? >> or you learn thele lesson fr paul ryan. rubio backed down. we've seen his stock with conservatives fall after that. whereas ryan has not at least at this point. you don't see him losing traction. he's in the apologizing. it's the mary landrieu way

thad cochran, one of the first races are i covered in mississippi.ippi. are these really big threats, ddo you think? >> there are 12 incumbent senators up for re-election next year. some of them have tea party challengers in their primaries. this is really bad news. you mentioned bob bennett. he lost his senate seat. richard luger, last time around, faced a tea party challenger. the tea party challenger lost in the general election. a lot of concern among establishment republican that this war between the establishment and tea party forces is going to cost them their best chance for some time to come to win back the senate next year. >> if not for this, they would be pretty well set to win back the senate, given the red state challenges and the increased numbers of democratic open seats. >> well, some republican strategists say there are five democrats in the senate now who wouldn't be there if it had not been for tea party challengers who either won the nomination or beat up the republican candidate so much that the republicans -- those democrats we

on your calendar this might be the single best chance for the right to take out an incumbent, thad cochrannd neck in polk t. south carolina on june 10th, senator lindsey graham will be facing multiple challengers. nobody gets over 50% in that initial round, this will be a runoff. that same day in maine, a challenger to maine's republican senator susan collins announced his candidacy earlier this month, erick bennett says it isn't so much about him but about a desire to force a conversation among republicans about senator collins' voting record. with 44% of republican primary voters telling ppp last month they would support a more conservative alternative next year. go to kansas on august 5th of next year the senate conservatives fund, jim demint started a up canle years ago, that i are throwing their weight behind the challenger to republican senator pat roberts. his name is dr. milton wolf. he served in the senate since 1996. he votes in this party 90% of the time. again, in the gop, there has been no such thing as too conservative. two days after that, lamar alexander will face state rep

>> i think they do, but there's one more big retirement we're looking at, thad cochran from mississippiemocrats that just don't like it in the senate? you always hear mark warner doesn't like it. there's no sign he's going to retire. does lindsey graham get all these challenges from the right? that is the decision we're trying to find out. the big takeaway, no matter what happens in 2014, the senate is getting more conservative, period. >> we'll get into a discussion on foreign policy, starting with this afghanistan deadline. >> karzai won't sign this deal. susan rice went over to save it and she couldn't save it with the president. they're saying, what's going on? i thought you agreed to this whole deal. does the president himself have to get this done? they can't seem it get this done by the end of the year. >> here and reporting over the weekend, president rouhani in iran saying, we're going to enrich uranium. is there any reason to think that iran gives up its nuclear option? >> no. iran is now cementing that. rouhani went on an interview with the sentinel times, and this is creatin

>> my best is for thad cochran, turns 76 today and he's running for a seventh term.say it, sonny obama, bad dog, jumped on a toddler at the white house and created the worst christmas card of all time. >> i know. but that toddler was so cute. got right back up. she was amazing, right? morris, what's your best and worst? >> my best is my wife's birthday this weekend, so i have to give her the best week. but looking at globally, it's the best and the worst with losing nelson mandela who was a great leader. we're losing him and losing a real superstar. my heart goes out to the mandela family and the rest of the world for losing him. >> susan, best and worst? >> best goes to bill bratton who proves you can go back home again. he's going to be the police commissioner of new york city under mayor elect bill de blasio. and the worst week goes to charlie crist who shows sometimes you can't go home again and his campaign manager, bill aires, just quit after less than a month. >> guys, thanks so much. happy to have you all. that's a wrap-up of "weekends with alex witt." see yo