As both parties split even further apart in congress how do we unite us again . Ill speak to two people known for their independent streaks and reaching across the aisle. Whats broken and what can be fixed . A rare interview with senator joe manchin and senator Lisa Murkowski. As the u. S. Braces for a potential war with russia, and they battle with racist atrocities, are they going to speak out . Plus legitimate political discourse. The Republican Party officially embraces the january 6 insurrection and censors two of its own for telling the truth. Does truth telling President Trump is wrong. Mean political exile from todays gop . Hello. Im jack tapper in washington where the state of our union is wondering if were about to emerge from a rough couple years. President biden is enjoying a week of positive headlines for the first time in quite some time. A january jobs report that far surpassed expectations, good news in the pandemic as covid cases and hospitalizations plummet. But the president s agenda is still mired in washington, d. C. Dysfunction. The president has had trouble getting all 50 democrats in the senate to support his plans, and support from republicans has been rare as the gop remains completely cowed in many instances by the shadow of former President Trump. On friday, the Republican National committee declared the events on january 6th, 2021 legitimate political discourse and censored the only two democrats against it, liz cheney and adam kinzinger. Just the day before, President Biden returned to one of the major themes of his campaign and his career, bringing americans together at the National Prayer breakfast, calling Republican Senate leader Mish Mcconnell a friend and calling for americans to put aside their differences. How do we unite us again . Unity is illusive, but its really actually necessary. Unity doesnt mean we have to agree on everything, but unity is where enough of us, enough of us believe in a core of basic things. Theres so much at stake. The division has become so palpable. Not everyone agrees its possible or even desirable to try to heal those divisions. Yet in a 50 50 senate in a bitterly divided country, bipartisanship is necessary for the nation to move forward, in the past several weeks weve featured bipartisan conversations on the show. This morning well take on the very idea of unity in an exclusive interview with two of the most powerful senators in washington, republican senator Lisa Murkowski from alaska, here for her first sunday show in five years, has bucked her party on issues such as health care and the Supreme Court, and joe manchin is with us, both here today for a substantive conversation on bipartisanship and whether that idea, which is both revered and reviled in politics is still possible. Senators murkowski and manchin, thanks for being with us. Great to be back, five years, wow. Senator murkowski, we have a lot to talk about. Lets start with the major bipartisan achievement of perhaps the last decade, and that is the infrastructure bill, the infrastructure law. How did that plan succeed where so many other previous attempts at bipartisanship have failed . And how is that a blueprint possibly for moving forward . It really came about because you had a small group of people something done rather than just send a message from our respective parties. We do that a lot around here, but a commitment to a solution, a commitment to getting to yes, and i think thats what we had with that small working group. It was four and four, expanded a little bit. But there was a goodfaith effort to work through the hard things. I think sometimes when the going gets tough, we just say thats too hard and we retrt the party messages. I think there was a recognition that the country needed something, the country needed a step towards healing. As the president just said in that leadin, how do we get to unity . Part of the problem we have, were not going to agree on things were a big country. So theres plenty of room for disagreement, but weve got to get to the place where we understand one another, and you cant get to understanding without listening, and i think what happened with that Bipartisan Group is we were listening to one another. You think about Infrastructure Needs for the country. I come from a state we dont have mass transit. I looked at the proposals we dont need to spend that much money on mass transit, but then i had to explain to them why, instead of surface transportation, i needed support in alaska for things like a marine Highway System when you have 80 of your communities that arent connected by road. I had to listen to people like mark warner and mark warner had to listen to people like me explain what goes on in our part of the country. We listened to one another, gained an understanding and said the country needs this. The country needs to know that we can get something done for the good of everybody, not for the good of our respective parties, but for the good of the country. So thats what we did. Youre working right now, both of you, on election reform. The previous efforts didnt get you didnt support changing the rules, the filibuster rules, although you supported the two election reform bills. Right now the electoral count act of 1887, theres ambiguity, its written in such a way what sticking points are left . Where is that going . As lisa had said, first of all, youve got people who got together who understand each other, know each other and like each other, democrats and republicans. Thats how we came together on the other one. As youll recall, leadership broke down for five months. We had unemployment that was going to expire, we werent sure about the covid vaccine. All that was in doubt when we did the december bill, the bipartisan 908 bill. We did that because we said something has to be done. All we did was take the practical approach with friends who can talk to each other and look at exactly what the country needed, our states and the country, but the country first. We worked at it, broke down our groups, took what we had interest and expertise in and brought it all together. They took it from there, put it up and we voted for it. Jake, on what youre talking about right now, what really caused the insurrection . They thought there was an ambiguity, if you will, and there was an avenue they could go through and maybe overturn election, because there was. It was not clear when one congressman and one senator can bring a states authentic count to a halt, its wrong. Basically not protecting electors and you can change electors before you send them here after the election, all these things. This is what were going to fix. We have a group thats continuing to grow. Were 15 to 20 people that want to be part of it now. So do you think its going to pass . I think absolutely it will pass. There will be some people saying its not enough. There will be other people saying its more than what we should do or we dont need it. Well try to bring them all together and say this is what we should do because its what caused the problem and lets do that. If i can just interject here, to joes point, some are going to criticize it for not being enough. Others will say its too much. I kind of have said, were going to take the goldilocks approach here. Were going to try to find whats just right. Its not going to be just right for everybody, but will it be a step ahead . Will it be important for the country . Yeah. It will solve the problem that caused the problem. So Vice President pence on friday former Vice President pence addressed this talking about how he didnt have the ability to change the election despite some bad faith reading of the electoral count act. Take a listen. President trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. Frankly, there is no idea more unamerican than the notion that any one person could choose the americ president. So i know you agree with that. And thats what youre looking to clear up and make sure theres no discrepancies. Is there anything else that youre willing to do in terms of preserving the right to vote in this country along with clearing up the electoral count act . This is where this group and as joe says, a growing group, is looking to explore. I think we have identified clearly some things within the eca, the electoral count act that needs to be addressed, the ambiguities that need to be addressed. But is there more we can do . This is where were seeking to find the common ground. I know for one, we want to make sure, if youre going to be an election worker, if youre going to be there at the polling booth, you dont feel intimidated or threatened or harassed. Protections for that, what are we doing to ensure that states have the ability to provide security for their elections. So were looking at application of the hava, the help americans vote act, which has been in place for a while now. Working with the Electoral Commission act to determine, all right, what more can we do in terms of safeguards safeguards to voting, ensuring theres an appropriate chain of custody once ballots are cast. So we are sitting down i think again as members in good faith to ensure that Election Integrity across all 50 states moves forward in a positive way. What weve seen basically, the courts have overturned some of the redistricting. That means the voters rights act of 1965, there are still parts that are very protective and good. What were looking at is how do we protect what happened in the insurrection that will never happen again, that people think they can overturn it, but on the other hand, how do we protect election workers with federal crimes in someone threatens them, intimidates them or e interferes with the election . What about attempts to make it tougher to vote . We want to keep this alive and talk. Every american has absolutely the right to vote and it should be protected by law, but its not written. This is what were looking at, if we can do that without infringing. Thats pretty common sense. The thing weve been talking about and i came up threw an idea out, and this is how we kind of discuss things. I said, since we dont want anybody telling alaska what your election law should be or West Virginia, the tenth amendment of the constitution, states rights, these are not federal elections. Dont you think the last election we might have had that wasnt in conflict would be 2018. If we said, okay, that will be the baseline for every state, whatever your elections laws were in 2018, that will be your base. Is that something you could go along with . This goes back to what i said earlier, lets listen to one another. I have shared some things about issues related to chain of custody when youre in a state like alaska where, again, how you move those ballots from a tiny Little Village that may be shut down by weather. The only way to move them is by small airplane and there isnt one coming for four days. What do you do . Until she tells us that, what is she talking about . Lets listen to what you might be able to come up with. You might notice that joe and i were two that were working on the john lewis Voting Rights act to see if we couldnt get you were the only republican that was willing to listen. Weve got to be able to count around here, too count to ensure that we can do more than just come together in good faith and good will and get some good ideas on paper and say we like this, but if we dont have the votes to make it happen, it doesnt happen. Need to get to 60. How were going to do that is working together. Youre guilt by association before, now youre guilt by conversation. Were not worried about that. Were still talking, still trying to throw ideas off of each other. We have a lot of republicans that like some of the things were talking about. That might have some concerns they bring up. We have to understand their concerns. They have to respond to their constituency. We respect each other. You have to work at this. This is not easy because basically everything is pulling you apart. Were fighting against everybody pulling us apart to bring us back together. I want to ask you one nonbipartisanrelated question before we take a break which is build back better, is it dead . Is there any opportunity for it to come back with your support . The build back better has been presented over, what, the last seven, eight, nine months. That bill no longer will exist. Should there be parts of it, you want to talk about different things, i think the president said there might be certain parts and this and that. My biggest concern and my biggest opposition, it did not go through the process. Whether or not lisa votes for it being a republican, she should have an opportunity to have input. It should have gone through the committee. These are major changes. Those changes should be a hearing, there should be a markup and then youll have a better product whether your Friends On The Other Side vote for it or not, but they have to have input. We could work on energy and climate if we went through the committee. You were on the committee together. I want to talk about that in one second. Stick around. 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Were back with republican Lisa Murkowski of alaska and senator joe manchin of West Virginia. Senator manchin, you did something very unusual in 2020, you crossed party lines and endorsed republican senator Susan Collins of maine for reelection. I cant help but notice im endorsing my dear friend Lisa Murkowski. Alaska could only be so lucky to have her continue to serve them. Thank you. She knows i feel that way, too, very strongly. Its hypocritical to work with a person day in and day out and when theyre in cycle, youre supposed to be against them because they have an r or d by their name. If these are good people ive worked with and weve accomplished a lot, why in the world would i not want to continue to work with them . Theyve been my dear friends. We get a lot accomplished and i think the country has fared better working together than not. Stevens and inouye, would go and campaign in stevens from alaska and inouye from hawaii would campaign for each other. Yeah. Its a weird time for partisan politics. I dare say its a little weirder for republicans. The rnc on friday censured cheney and kinzinger because theyre participating in the investigation into january 6th. In fact, they accused kinzinger and cheney of engaging in the persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse. You tweeted yesterday that description is just plain wrong, we cant allow a false narrative to be created. It must be uncomfortable to be a nonrigidly partisan person during this period. During this period, yes. But it can be uncomfortable it can be uncomfortable when you say im not going to align myself neatly with what the party is saying just because the party is saying. Youve got to be comfor