and by the way, anderson, in a way you can argue that the president actually did republicans a favor here by doing this. because republicans, establishment republicans have been torturing themselves about how to handle this issue. you know, they've been saying we take the president at his word or they've been backing away and they haven't been attacking donald trump. well, now a bunch of republicans, including the house speaker came out today and said, okay, this is a done deal. settled business. and now the republicans can get back to the business of talking about jobs, the economy, gas prices, the things they ought to be talking about. >> john king, do you think it took an issue away that was working for the democrats of making some republicans look fringe? >> reporter: i think certainly that has been an argument the white house has made. it's an argument that many democrats make. they say mr. trum. in particular does not look like a serious candidate for president when this is what he wants to talk about, anderson. but obviously the white house felt the need to deal with this,