Of some of the parties most influential power brokers. I speak, of course, of conservative media celebrities. After donald trump won the endorsement of sarah palin, a longtime ally of ted cruz, who credits with helping him win his senate seat, today he announces that radio host glenn beck will join him on the campaign trail this saturday in iowa. Its a sign of where the gop center of gravity lies. That while the two leading candidates are competing over talk radio and reality stars, neither of them has a single endorsement from a sitting republican senator for governor. Not one. Beck has never been a big fan of Donald Trumps politics, and in a Facebook Post last night, he questioned palins motives for supporting trump. Quote, when sara and the tea party won a hardfought election and were under attack in 2010, donald trump was giving money to pelosi, reid. I couldnt disagree more. Perhaps she knows more than those of us still on the outside. Maybe the press was right about her. But for all the wrong reasons. Its not clear what exactly ben meant to imply about palins intentions but this was not the first time he has criticized her. I dont know who she is anymore. I dont know what she stands for. I saw a clip of her talking to donald trump. What the hell is that . I dont even know who she is any more. I dont know what she stands for. I dont know. Asked about palin on the today show this morning, trump said he would be open to giving her a job in his cabinet. I havent discussed anything with her about what she would do. But she is somebody i really like and i respect. And certainly she could play a position if she wanted to. And in an interview last september, palin made it clear, shes got a very specific post in mind. I think a lot about the department of energy, because energy is my baby. Oil and gas and minerals, those things that god has dumped on this part of the earth for mankinds use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations. Already there are signs trump and palin may not be entirely on the same page. While the press release for trumps rally in iowa advertise a palin appearance and tickets touted a special guest, the same language the campaign used to tease palins endorsement yesterday, trump arrived solo. The former Vice President ial nominee was a noshow. Palin posted a photo of herself on facebook boarding the trump plane with the accompanying caption, trading in the beautiful snow of iowa for the red dirt of oklahoma, as planned, despite what the media is trying to spin up. She was on hand for an afternoon rally in tulsa, where she made news for mentioning her son, track, who was arrested in alaska monday night on Domestic Violence charges for allegedly punching his girl friend and threatening to kill himself. We decided not to mention the arrest yesterday, because it didnt seem relevant to palins political activities. Today, however, palin herself brought it up, linking tracks behavior to ptsd and appearing to blame it on president obama. My son, like so many others, they come back a bit different. They come back hardened. They come back wondering if there is that respect for what it is that their fellow soldiers and airmen and every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to this country. It starts from the top. The question, though, that comes from our own president , where they have to look at him and wonder, do you know what we go through . It remains unclear how much palins support actually helps trump. Either in the short term or the long term. Like trump, shes an incredibly divisive figure. In a 2013 poll, republicans gave her a net favorability rating of 27 , while among independents, she was at negative 39 . Nevertheless, there are signs that faced with a riskier alternative, Establishment Republicans may be coming around to the idea of trump as a nominee. There has been recent reporting on the donor class making overtures to trump and today former senator and president ial candidate bob dole seemed to sum up their thinking, telling the New York Times that if ted cruz were the nominee, the parties losses would be, quote, cataclysmic. Steve king from iowa, who has endorsed ted cruz. Congressman, first, your reaction to sarah palins endorsement of donald trump. Are you is your heart broken . Well, i like sarah palin. And, you know, i appreciate her, and i would have liked it if she would have endorsed ted cruz. I guess i take the responsibility on myself. And that is, i had a chance when sarah was standing next to ted cruz, and im there in that little triangle planning a pheasant hunt the next day and i didnt close the sale. If i had done that, i think sarah would have endorsed ted cruz instead. I would just say this. That Phil Robertson did, and duck dynasty did, so i would say okay, donald trump, ill see well heres Phil Robertson, and youre going to match him with sarah palin. And then well raise you a glenn beck. If its going to be the endorsement game, this could go on until february 1st in iowa. Who else is on the table . Is there something with an hgtv show that would really put you guys sort of over the top . You know, i think it really is about iowans and what iowans have to say to iowans. I stood up in meeting after meeting and i said you know me. I have represented you in congress for 13 years, 6 years prior to that in the state senate. I am a full spectrum constitutional christian conservative. And i take the risk. And if there is anybody that fits that category, willing to step up and say that i have let them down, i dont think i ever have. And im willing to put all of that on the line, all that reputation on the line, in endorsing ted cruz, because he fits that model and that mold, and hes smart and his record proves it. He has been in the trenches fighting all along. And hes not switched on his positions in a lifetime. And yet we and we wonder, what is the compass that donald trump is guiding him . Whats navigating him . Nobody can predict where hes going to be tomorrow. Let me ask you this. I was pretty amazed by those comments by bob dole. And i had seen a bit of this. And i have to ask you this. I mean, people that have known ted cruz that have worked with him, a lot of people genuinely dont like the guy. I mean, they seem to bear him genuine animus. Ive never met the guy. I dont know. Maybe hes a super awesome guy and everybody is wrong. But is it shocking to you that so many people who have worked with him are the not endorsing him, and, in fact, seem to be rooting for him to lose to someone like donald trump, who as you correctly state, doesnt seem to have great conservative bona fides . Well, not only that. If you sit down with people in new york who know donald trump, youll hear the same things. So i dont put a lot of credence in that, and people that say that. I dont expect Mitch Mcconnell to come out in that fashion, because ted cruz has gone directly against the establishment within the party. This is an establishment blowback effort. If we cant figure out how to beat ted cruz in iowa, maybe we have to join donald trump to get that done. I think were seeing that happen also. And by the way, its the establishment that always starts the fight. They always drive the wedge. And i say to them, i give you everything you want. Actually, ted cruz gives them everything they want. If they want low taxes, low regulation and a Strong National defense and a chance to buy, sell, trade and make gain in a Free Enterprise economy, all of that is there in ted cruz. He gives them more than they want with innocent unborn life, and marriage constitutions and principles that restore. He has a line in his speech which says on the first day he will direct department of justice to investigate planned parenthood. That strikes me as egregious violation of the kind of separation between the criminal investigations of the eog and the president. Its the sort of thing that nixon was impeached over. I imagine any president that did that is an impeachable offense. Does that strike you as worrisome . Where is the outrage over barack obama then if thats the case . Ive asked the last two attorneys general under oath im sorry, i understand. And i get that and i know everything about the irs. But youre the candidate that you endorsed is now saying publicly on the stump that the first day he will direct department of justice to investigate criminally, presumably, an enterprise that would break with very longstanding tradition that puts that outside the purview of the white house. Doesnt that trouble you, as someone who wants limited government . We might be able to choose a different way to say that. But we all know that the policies of the president echo into the leadership within each of the departments. And even though the previous attorneys generals have said theyre not influenced politically, they have also said that when the president says there is not a scintilla i think thats what he said, a scintilla no, a smidgen of evidence that lois lerner had any bias built within their operation in the irs, we know thats not true. There is no way we can get this administration to enforce a law. Ted cruz says i will enforce a law and there wont be an investigation whether they enforce a law or not. I dont think theres anything wrong with him taking that position. Congressman steve king, thank you very much. Thank you. Im joined by the Political Writer for buzz feed and author of the new campaign book, the wilderness. Michelle goldberg, slate. Com. Mark levin went on a long rant against donald trump backing ted cruz. Limbaugh sort of came to his defense. And this is where it all matters. These are the only people who have any credibility with the folks who decide this race. Not one senator or governor. Youve got some elected officials. Its kind of an amazing situation. What i think is interesting about this is that the conservative talk radio world and a lot of the conservative media have used this same sort of identity politics and kind of attitude and all, you know, performance, that trump is seizing on. But for years and years. But they have used it generally in pursuit of a a genuinely conservative ideology or agenda, right . And where i think that theyre now seeing this blow up in their faces that trump has taken that element of it, and palin did it as well, right . She was trump 1. 0. And you saw it so much. And they have done but it was never about ideology. It was never about pure ideology. It was about attitude and performance. And thats whats dismaying people like glenn beck, right . Thats why hes so freaked out, because now its not using that performance to pursue. What is Donald Trumps, like, ideology . Can you come can you actually put together any kind of political ideology . Him chanting into that microphone usa, usa, usa. Thats his platform. I think thats true. Nationalism is an ideology. But its not the entire ideology that the glenn becks of the world and the mark levins of the world were so motivated by for years and years. The other thing that i think is going on is that, you know, for a long, long time, the center of populist right wing populist authoritarianism has been with the religious right. And glenn beck comes out of the religious right, a lot of the thinking and ideology of the republican party, you know, even about kind of low taxes and things that arent actually about religion tend to come out of the religious right. And for a long time, the power of the religious right and the influence of christianity in the United States more generally has been on the decline. And people like me have celebrated the growing secularism of the United States. But i think what were seeing here is sort of a be careful what you wish for. Right . Because were seeing what happens when the religious part of religious authoritarianism drops out. You know . And what youre left with. This is an interesting idea. We were sort of atomized. David brooks wrote a column saying this about ted cruz. He was saying there is no grace, there is no mercy. But the difference is that ted cruz has a very coherent religion ideology. And hes being backed by whats left of the theocratic right. And for all we know, they still have quite a bit of power. This hasnt been decided yet. But in the past, there wouldnt have been another very strong populist conservative to somebody that the entire who is so obviously manifestly secular as donald trump is, despite his long his protestations. I wrote about in this week. I think its interesting how trump has used a religion and we talked about this on the show before. What he says about cruz and there arent a lot of evangelicals coming out of cuba. What hes doing is his whole world view is very retro when it comes to religion and its not about theology at all. Its actually about identity politics circa 1950s, 60s america and the protestant monopoly. And you look at the people who support donald trump, there are a lot of christians, but people who dont report going to church ever are much bigger supporters of trump than the weekly or monthly churchgoers. There is a reason for that. There is a religious element of American Life to make his point. Another thing is that for a long time evangelicalism, theres the number of people who identify as evangelicals, there are people who have very, very strong religious commitments. And then there are people who identify as evangelicals as a way of identifying with the right wing populus. Theyre two groups of people. That call themselves that. Its still remarkable to me, here we are how many days out from the caucuses. Cruz is getting hammered by rubio, has him in canadian maple leaf flag. And it purports to say its not about the birther issue but his valueadded tax comes from canada. Youve got rubio and christie just beating the stuffing out of each other in New Hampshire, both in their advertisement. Youve got a new ad coming out thats going to hit the radio airwaves in iowa. Basically accusing him of being a phony christian. Bringing up the tithing issue, he doesnt give that much to charity. This is unknown exactly. Its a new outside group, unknown who is funding it. Which is the story of politics right now. Ill have a story later tonight about this actually, this tithing issue is becoming something for ted cruz. A lot of his critics in iowa are bringing this up. And think about this. Think of what i just rubio is getting hit and jeb bush has run ads. Who is not right. And then trump floating above negative ad dollars. No negative ad dollars. There are New Hampshire the jeb bush people corrected me when i said it was they said we have a negative ad up against him with real dollars behind it in New Hampshire. But in iowa, as far as i can tell, as of this late date still, not a single cent being spent on going after donald trump. Its what is the republican establishment quote, unquote, or the money class . What are they for if not to take down a donald trump like candidate. Thank you both for being here. Still ahead, ill talk with writer Tanehisi Coates about what he says is a inconsistency on a take of reparations. And a new rallying cry against sanders. Does it pack the same punch it used to . And later is statistician nate silver rethinking . What a path to victory would look like on those stories and more, ahead. Today Senate Democrats successfully blocked a gop sponsor bill that would have made it more difficult for refugees from syria and iraq to be resettled here in america. The bill, which was passed by the house last november, six days after the terror attacks in paris, would require the Homeland Security secretary, the fbi director, and National Intelligence director to personally confirm to congress that every refugee from syria or iraq poses no security threat. Never stood a chance at becoming law. The white house called it untenable and vowed to veto it. Todays vote included a bit of trolling by democrats. Minority leader harry reid said dems would help to advance the refugee bill if republicans agreed to vote on a set of amendments, one of which officially denounced Donald Trumps proposed muslim ban. As a front runner of the republican nomination, donald trump and his proposal is leading the public debate in our country. Republicans who support these illogical plans should be prepared for the next logical step. Voting on his vision of america. What is your view of the effective way to stop Bernie Sanders momentum. What message should the clinton operation use now to stop his momentum . Bernie sanders isnt electable. I dont believe hes electable in the Democratic Party and hes not electable in the general election. And thats because of the elephant in the room. Hes a socialist. Hes not a democrat. Hes had a 30year history of affiliation with a lot of whackadoodle ideas and parties. Think about what the republicans will do with the fact that hes a socialist in the fall. Hillary clinton supporters like david brock seen there appear to have a new strategy for going after Bernie Sanders, using the s word. The founder of pro Clinton Super pac made the announcement yesterday. This morning, the New York Times ran an article titled alarmed clinton supporters begin focusing on sanders social edge, backers questioning whether sanders would win a general election. Missouri governor, jay nixon, said here in the heartland, we like our politicians in the mainstream. He is not. He is a socialist. Senator Claire Mccaskill said it makes it impossible for democrats in a state like missouri. Continued with that line of criticism in an interview. Do you believe a socialist could win the presidency of the United States . I can only speak for my state. I think it would be absolutely impossible for a selfdeclared socialist to win in a state like missouri. And youve got to win states like missouri if youre going to win the presidency. States like indiana, states like ohio, states like pennsylvania. It is very hard, i think, for most americans to see how socialism would cure the problems that we are facing right now. I should note that barack obama, who won a lot of states people thought were impossible for a dem