The biden American Rescue plan. The next will be recovery. We call it reconciliation. Theres nothing in reconciliation that precludes republicans from voting for it. Good morn, everybody. Im tiffany cross, and we have a lot of news to get to this morning on Cross Connection, so strap in. President bidens 1. 9 trillion rescue plan is on a fast track to approval after the house and Senate Passed a Budge Bill Yesterday and democrats pretty much tossed the deuces to the republicans warning they maybepass them altogether. Its good news for struggling americans who cant even afford to put gas in the car or go to a job they no longer have. Meanwhile capitol hill is preparing for Donald Trumps second Impeachment Trial to kick off on tuesday. And at least as of this morning, it looks unlikely that a minimum of 17 republicans will vote with the dems to convict trump. Now, the irony doesnt even seem lost on them that as they make these bow was calls for unity, theyre increasingly unwilling to hold their own accountable. Only 11 republicans in the house voted to strip Marjorie Taylor greene of her committee assignments. This is despite seeing her on cam rarks stalk School Shooting survivors, insinuate against her colleagues. Let me focus on this. Shes the symptom of something much bigger just as trump was. The conspiracies, the misinformation, the lies, the racism, theyre driving wedges between all of us, and personally im not interested in unifying with crazy or finding the humanity in those who deny mine even exists. We can only move forward when were honest about whats right and whats wrong. So lets have some real talk. Thats where the Cross Connection begins. I want to welcome my fellow panel. Host of on one with angela rye. Fernand omandy and msnbc political analyst and my friend former rnc chairman and Msnbc Michael Steele who i also love to spar with. So happy to have all three of you on my show with many this morning. Angela, im so happy to have you on, so i have to kick it off with you. Let me ask you. Is there risk in focusing too much attention on Marjorie Taylor greene given the wide breadth of problems weve seen republicans introduce to sew side in recent years especially . Tiff, thats a strong question and i would say, yeah, were focusing a lot of time on this woman that you say is emblematic of crazy. The larger argument is we have a foundational issue in this country and it expands far beyond party. It pervades every corporation. It is in every system of government from local to state to federal. The reality of it is there is no unity without first being honest, and we cant be honest because half of the country is up describes to Donald Trumps rhetoric around this 1776 commission, which, as you know, was dropped on Martin Luther king day. So when you have people who will deny history as it was, the ugly trooct, the past of america, the present of america, and what will become the future of america if were not very, very clear about all that it is, if i hear one more person say this is not who we are, it is exactly who half of us are. And before we can really move forward, we have to acknowledge the fact and be honest about the fact that that is, indeed, the truth. I completely agree. A lot of this stuff is as american as apple pie and as old as jamestown. Michael, i want to turn to you. Its not the party. Its the policies. Since the republicans have had control, theyve introduced policy after policy thats damaging to people who look like you and me. I have asked you before. How do we unify. How do we meet a bigot in the middle . As they continue to perpetuate things and give a tickytock march to people, how are we supposed to move forward as a country with those people still having significant power at State Legislatures and even in the federal government . The last part of your question is your answer. They still hold significant power in wide swaths of the country, theres no doubt about that. Look. This is a battle. It is a battle over ideas. Whiets angela say, denying the history of this country, creating an america that never existed quite honestly. It was never about white picket fences. These are the people who ignore the white poor in their own midst, so there is a sense of an america they have idealized. How do you deal with it . You deal with it the way were starting to deal with it. You have to confront it head on. I agree weve wasted a lot of anything on taylor greene. You have to stop it cold in its tracks or it will continue to permeate and it will only expand. What you saw in georgia was not an accident. It was deliberate, right snit was born out of efforts to oppose it. Stacy agram said, no, that aint happening and she pushed against it and defeated it. Thats the course. Its part of our own history. Weve watched the marches, and weve heard the speeches, but at some point it requires the level of action and engagement we saw that turned a state blue that i can tell you very frankly the republicans never saw coming. That was not on their reality scope. We need to change the reality. I say that as someone whos tried to do it inside the party, now doing it inside and outside the party. It has to be done. Not every republican is like that qanon nut, right . Trust me. We have to get folks to join us in this effort because right now theyre overwhelming inside the party. That sounds crazy, but we see how and why thats happened and how 74 million americans have bought into something they know now was a bad bill of goods. Let me give a little pushback on that. You say republicans didnt see georgia coming. I beg to differ. This is why brian kemp kept introducing Voter Suppression bills across the south, the bible belt of the country. Youre also saying with e have to provide an offramp. Im not saying thats not going to happen. Thats not my ministry. Thats not your ministry, tiffany, but youre not the only minister. You are as a minister i think youre affiliated with the Lincoln Project, and so for folks like that, and i wouldnt apply this for you. Butve for the Lincoln Project people, i appreciate the effort that theyre making, but im also reminded the great ads theyre cutting now cut against him in 2008 2009. Forgive me for wanting to friend folks who were once my enemy. As a conservative as a sensible conservative, what do you say to folks like me who are sideeyeing some of these efforts and some of these 11thhour al lies . You can sideeye them all you want. Youre talking about old political battles. Thats not about whether or not the constitution should still stand. These about whether or not we have obamacare. I was on the other side of that debate, and i said to my democratic friends and progrisivs like you and angela and others, i look forward to getting back in the ring and have these public debates. But thats not where we are. Were about the Deacon Construction of our country, all right . This is not about any color on the screen. This is about all of us, not a particular policy. So the fact that some of the folks on my side were running ads against obama in 2008 and theyre aligned with you now, ask why. Michael, you know you and i are going to argue more on your podcast. I would love do more but ill have to thumb tack it. I want to bring in my friend fernand. Youre a researcher. As you see people trying to go down this bipartisan vote, im curious what this looks like to voters particularly as we start to shift our focus to midterms as people get increasingly frightened of the party. And the gop party is desperate, clinging on to these Conspiracy Theories. What impact might that have on midterms . Tiffany, there are two ways of answering the question the first and let me say from a personal perspective. I think its critically important that we unite with the Republican Party because america has thrived and American Democracy Tlieshs with a bipartisan system. Weve seen the greatest economic expansion in history. The problem with that idea is that the Republican Party of our friend Michael Steele and others is dead. And the fact that we should partner with them, its not only a dangerous idea and concept, its a National Security risk to do so. And to your original question, i ask myself constantly, lets look at the numbers and flip the prem premise. 61 give biden a, something donald trump dreamed of. Seven out of eight polls for president have been one decisively by the Democratic Party including the last four in a row. Rather thon discussing why we should be uniting, why arent others talking about united with the Democratic Party, which is the party of democracy and freedom . I have to agree with you. I bring it back to you, angela. We have a great reporter, blayne alexander, who talked to some of her constituents. They were not saying that. Im sorry. How can you side with this guy . When youre on the other side of this divide, thats your crew. They say, we need to provide an offramp. What is your thought . My thought is these folks were never on the ramp, right . I think the reality ask we have people who are friends of ours in the halls of congress and theyre not knowing if this person is crazy enough to harm them, their lives, their stache. We are a few weeks away from a capitol hill terrorist attack. I love you to death, Michael Steele, but i cant tell you one of my closest friends, we could not find for four hours. I dont think theyre talking about that. We really need to be talking about where we went wrong. And again i go back to where we started. Its at the foundation. So we can keep parting it at the feet of Marjorie Taylor greene. We can keep putting it at the fee of donald trump. But where we have to put it at the feet of is the founders staff. We have those who owned people who looked like folks on this panel. Thats what we have to wrestle with. We cant wrestle with any other things until we get to the heat of the matter. We keep trying to prevent the systems. But, yes, the same point to your thought, the same people who cut the obama ads, that they questioned his citizenship and where he was born but certainly subjectively Jaime Harrison unfairly so. At least we have her as the chair, but it has a long way go. I agree. This con vaergs has a long way to go. But well leave it there. I would politely ask that you not make a lot of plans saturday because id love to have you back. Sunny hostin had a great conversation yesterday. Fernand, i love you. Thank you for being on the show. Michael steal. Be sure to include me in your podcast. Thank you very much. After this short break, well take a look at this new plan trump used in reuniting children with their families who were ripped away. Well be right back. O were ripped away. Well be right back. This could be hi. You just moved in, right . I would love to tell you about all the great savings you can get for bundling your renters and Car Insurance with progressive. Oh, i was just oh, tammy. I found your retainer in the dryer. Your Grooming Business is booming. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base. Claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com groomer when our daughter and her kids moved in with us. Kids, bedtime . She was worried we wouldnt be able to keep up. Course we can. What couldnt keep up was our bargain detergent. Turns out its mostly water, and that doesnt work as well on stains. So, we switched back to tide. One wash, stains are gone. Kind of like our quiet time. [daughter slurping] what are you doing . Dont pay for water. Tide is concentrated with three times the active cleaning ingredients. If its got to be clean, its got to be tide. Obsession has many names. This is ours. The new lexus is. All in on the sports sedan. Lease the 2021 is 300 for 359 a month for thirty nine months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Youve been asking me to come on your show, but it was lacked. Come on your show, but it was lacked are you hoping to get anything for your birth day . Yeah. What are you going to get or you do think youre going to get . My dad. You want to get your dad for your birthday. That would be a nice present, huh, bud . Yeah. That heartbreaking wish comes courtesy of one of 600 children still separated from their parents after President Trumps policy rips literally families away at the border. One biden official called it the moral failing of trumps Zero Tolerance policy. One Executive Order Calls for the cree yaks of a task force to reunite these broken families, and on thursday the president announced the reversal of yet another terrible trump policy. Today im approving an Executive Order to begin the hard work of restoring our Refugee Admissions Program to help meet the unprecedent global need. Its going to take time to rebuild what has been so badly damaged. But thats precisely what were going to do. This Executive Order will position us to be able to raise the Refugee Admissions back up to 125,000 persons for the first full fiscal year of the biden harris administration. Joining mu know, say brie na rodriguez, political correspondent. Im so happy. re making your Cross Connection debut. Thank you for being here. Let me ask you. We have not seem Immigration Reform pass in 30 years. Do you think its going happen today, and if, so what is it going to take to push through congress . Tiffany, what youre saying is very true. Its been a challenge all these years, and i am highly skeptical that its going to happen in the immediate term. You know, some of the positive signs weve seen is that, you know, President Biden on day one put forth his plan for a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. Thats something that former president barack obama got a lot of criticism for, the idea he took too long to push it forward at which Point Congress wasnt going to do anything about it. So right now it seems like biden is sending all the right signals. Theres conversation pushing it forward. So its kind of tbd if were going to see a lot of energy from the white house. But on the hill there are people in the house, people in the senate that are trying to usher this through. And i guess were going to have to see after, you know, covid relief, you know, gets done. We know congresss track record of, you know, handling big packages, so you bring up president obama. I think one of the challenges he had, he was never able to push past republicans enthusiasm that the democrats control the house and the senate, is there any chance biden can have more luck . We should point out there are a lot of people highly critical of obamas policies. Some dubbed him deporter in chief. And it was not mentioned in a couple of addresses that he had. Now this the landscape has changed, republicans have entered into increasingly rhetoric. What do you think can happen . Immigrant applicants have changed their approach from under the Obama Administration where it was a big focus on this Big Comprehensive Bill whereas now they want to see wins wherever possible. If we can get something in a covid Relief Package that will legalize and give a pathway to citizenship in some way, that would be great or get the dream act, that would take the win. Immigrant applicants, and the applicants well have to take the phrase too. Theyre looking for these possibilities. Just last week senators introduced the dream act for which there is bipartisan support. Thank you so much, sabrina, for this context. I want to bring in now congresswoman escobar. Im so happy to have you here. Ive wanted you on the show for a long time. Thankdy thank you. I wanted to get right to it. You and Congressman Trahan from massachusetts launched the moms task force with separation hoping to help with the rue unification efforts. Looking at that child, im heartbroken. What happens if you cant find the parents, some of who may have already been deported. Its so wonderful to have me on the show. Youre right. There were so many violations that occurred along the u. S. mexico border. El paso was ground zero for many of these horrific, abhorrent, nightmarish policies that were created by the Trump Administration. We have to make sure by dont treft until every single child is reunited with a family member. That is not going to happen right away from some of these families because unfortunately the Gross Negligence and competence of the Trump Administration did not leave us with a whole lot of information and answers on some of these families. But i am very heartened that President Biden hayes made a commitment. Im very heartened that the first lady is going to per it is pate in congress. We need to make sure we provide the resources necessary to find every single one of those families that was separated. We also have the obligation to provide for Mental Health care for those families. The a