My attitude about all this at this point is trust. Trust, but verify. Trust but verify. Where have i heard that before . The importance of this treaty transcends numbers. Trust but verify. Threw have it the high watermark of our new era of bipartisanship is the Senate Majority leader implying he is to obama as reagan was to the leader of our totalitarian nemesis, the evil empire. [ laughter ] well my feeling of despair is
brought to me by historical context. [ laughter ] its why old people are sad. [ laughter ] it only gets better. Good morning, everybody, its friday, november 7th. Welcome to morning joe. With us on set we have washington anchor for bbc world news america, cat cat. Managing editor of Bloomberg News and steve rattner. On capitol hill host and managing editor of tv ones news one. And joe i feel everything will be better, right . Youre being sarcastic, mika. No. Im so hopeful. What do you think . I think im very hopeful too. I think everything is changing. And i think the most important thing is were finally going to have accountability. If republicans on the hill dont get things done they will pay
for it in two years. The electorate taught them that over the past four years. Same thing with the president. If the president and democrats dont do things they will get punished as well. People are getting so excited about barack obama, he came out and he didnt seem to get it and blah, blah, blah. Now its oh, john boehner, he was so mean. He talked about when you play with matches youre going to burn yourself. Guess what . These are opening arguments. As nicole said yesterday, barack obama was narrow casts only to his base when he went out and talked. He have the same thing with john boehner who has more republicans right now working alongside of him than any speaker since 1929. Hes playing to that base. I promise you, just like i said Immigration Reform would never ever happen a year and a half ago when everybody said oh, they got to pass Immigration Reform. Im telling you now well seeImmigration Reform pass, well see Energy Legislation pass. Peace may not break out but well get some things done. I hope youre right. I like your hopeful tone. Happy friday. It doesnt sound like it. President obama is set to meet with a group of bipartisan congressional leaders, its the First Time Since democrats lost control of the senate in the midterm elections. On wednesday presumptive Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell set a conciliatory tone. I cant say that because it didnt sound like that to me. It dont sound like it. Apparently he said a conciliatory tone for the two years ahead. Yesterday Speaker Boehner was more direct, warning against executive action on immigration. And even promising to try to repeal obamacare. Fining Common Grounds can be
hard work but even harder if the president isnt willing to work with us. Yesterday we heard him say that he may double down on his go it alone approach. I told the president before, he needs to put politics aside and rebuild trust. The president continues to act on his own hes going to poison the oil. When you play with matches you take the risk of burning yourself. Hes going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path. Not trying to be snarky, honestly. What is different than two years ago, one year ago, three years ago, four years ago. What sounded different there. I dont get it. Repealing obamacare. Again, youre talking about somebody thats giving their opening arguments but ironically these people are speaking to themselves and not the american people. In this cause its good. Its barack obama telling his base we got drubbed, im not going to panic, well try to
meet republicans halfway. You had Mitch Mcconnell as a lot of people said yesterday John Heileman, Mitch Mcconnell speech that wasnt to the president. That wasnt to the american people. That was to ted cruz. Then you had john boehner, his speech was to all of his hard core conservatives and telling them dont worry everybody is talking about peace breaking out. Were not going to forget what we stand for because we had a massive victory the other night. Everybody is talking at the end of the day you got three players who have everything telling them they need to make a deal ahead of 2016. Yeah. I totally agree with that. The interesting thing two interesting things. One is if you listen to talk radio and some of the rightwing, the far right quadrants of the Media Echo Chamber in the last few days they have been howling, not triumphant in victory but
howling at their leaders, howling at Mitch Mcconnell and john boehner telling them not to capitulate. John boehner is talking to his caucus and those parts of the Republican Base and part of the republican media sphere and saying im not going to capitulate. What was most interesting yesterday john boehner and Mitch Mcconnell are so much on the same page. So much message discipline between the two of them. They are working very much in tandem. In the long run that portends well that something will get done, legislation occurring. The final split in the senate has not decided as votes are still being counted in alaska. Democrats are pulling removing tv buy ads in louisiana where Mary Landrieu continues her runoff against bill cassidy. For democrats theres obvious frustration. Nancy pelosi will likely remain minority leader there are calls
for a broader coalition and new blood. In her review yesterday, pelosi called it a per bill year but argued depressed turn out not the message was at the root of the problem. On the republican side top operatives mocked democratic turn out operations and its ground game. The senates Republican Campaign committee suggested democrats shouldnt have sidelined president obama as much as they did because he could have helped turn out the base in key battleground states. Does that make any sense . Republicans didnt win, the democrats lost this election. You know, you can make the argument that if some democrats had made a more forceful effort to run on the positive things that have come out of the last six years, on the record of some of the health care reform, the fact we didnt go over the financial cliff on the unemployment numbers coming down, the energy boom. Steve knows there are plenty of numbers you can point to to show
america is moving in the right direction. By running so far from president obamas record, that they skittered away from the positive thing. Could that have helped them. President obama could have made the case himself more forcefully in some areas. Steve rattner, i want to ask you as a businessman that spends your days making deals and you spent decades making deals and been successful in most of them, whats your take on the Opening Statements of all of these players . Are they just beginning their negotiations . Is this just part of sort of a tans that ends up with deal making down the road . Whats your gut . I think your calculus is right. I think all sides should want to make a deal. The republicans should want to go into 2016 showing theyve done something so they have some credibility for the next president ial election. Hard to imagine president obama doesnt want to leave without getting something done so he doesnt go down as a completely failed second term president. But i think both the technical and philosophical obstacles are great. If you take immigration the house pass ad bill with 68 votes on immigration the last time. The house decline to consider it in large part over this question about path to citizenship. I dont know how this gets easy they are time around. If the two houses get together and pass a bill without a path to citizenship, theres a high probability the president will veto it. You take immigration as a microcosm of the kinds of issues they are facing it looks tough. You face the fact as in the senate you need 60 votes to pass most things. They can do stuff through reconciliation if its a money matter with only 51 votes. But they face the president and his veto pen. I dont think the mere change in these two bodies is going to create deals. The only thing that will create deals is if the two sides realize they have a vested interest compromising by a much more significant degree than theyve compromised before. Ive done a lot of deals. Some get done, some dont. It depends on the goodwill and the selfinterest of the parties. Roland, a lot of people asking about the president s press conference, the fact that he may not have seem to get it. I hear nancy pelosi saying yesterday our biggest problem wasnt our message it was our turnout. Wrong. They left the guy that masterminded the greatest turnout of democratic voters in 2008 and 2012 on the sidelines. The president has got to be sitting there going you got to be kidding myself my fellow democrats. Maybe thats why he wasnt so upset the other day in his press conference because democrats said they didnt want him around. Democrats and also he failed
there. Look heres the real deal. I remember when atlas fought holyfield. Do you want to fight . They did. I interviewed the first lady she was talking about the economy and jobs coming back. Remember when he came into the office losing 500,000 jobs a month. Ivy sue allized that chris terrify commercial saying detroit is back. Ivy sue allized Black And White video of losing jobs, homes being foreclosed on and then color video of jobs coming back, Gas Production up and im saying wait a minute why did i not see that commercial. Why did i not see that. Why didnt you create the narrative. The president has to own up to the fact that he created this competing infrastructure, organizing for america and the Democrat National committee. The democrats problem is they dont have a 50 state strategy. They have no infrastructure in a lot of those states for 2012 and they didnt create it in the
last two years. This is a party who had no clue when it came to message and didnt fight. The president you should be going to those Poor Health Care states and talking to those largely white voters and saying you know what . I passed the Affordable Health care act for you because the health care in mississippi and alabama and tennessee and arkansas is horrible. So people you keep supporting they say they are against me on this. When this deal is for you. I said to senior white house officials and to the president i dont understand why hes unwilling to throw the punches. Guess what mr. President you got two years left. You want a legacy . Fight. So, first of all, i think the president and his wife could have had an impact there. Joe, i guess this will sound incredibly naive. You call it opening arguments. I dont understand why Mitch Mcconnell and john boehner couldnt wipe the slate clean. I dont know why the base needs to hear what they heard yesterday in terms of playing
with matches youll get burned, were going to repeal obamacare. Its been a rough ride. Were in power now. And, you know, quite frankly we want to make it work. There are some things we want to get done, there are some things the president wants to get done. We commit to working together with the president were going to reach out and going to try to make this work and get washington working again. Why couldnt that have been the opening argument . I dont understand why there has to be this jerk tone. They all sound like jerks. Am i wrong . Yeah. You are. Why . It hurts me to say that. First of all amen to everything roland said. The message is very simple. Unemployment is down below 6 . Gas prices are down to the lowest level in years. Health Care Insurance or health care costing us less than it has in half a century. A lot of great things to say. To your point, there are a lot of times, mika, where you would go into court and youll hear
the prosecutor say in front of the jury, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the defendant is a murderer. Behindthescenes five minutes before he said okay ill tell you what my evidence is kind of sketchy. Ill give him five years probation. Thats the way it works. It hasnt worked. Mika, let me finish. In this case you have the president of the United States saying hey you know what . I dont care whether the republicans like it or not i will with a stroke of the pen ignore them and legalize the status of millions of illegal immigrants. You got john boehner talking about dont play with matches, you got Mitch Mcconnell talking about waving the bloody shirt. I think with the president and the speaker especially they are playing to their base. Youre being unfair to Mitch Mcconnell. Mitch mcconnell did give us a tone and i think John Heileman you may agree with me we saw a tone in michigan mcconnell we havent seen in quite some time. These are opening arguments. People said to me, john, washington is a hard place to figure. No its not. Look around. I said everybody in this House Chamber has one thing they really want. You know what their leverage is, you know what they are driven by. Thats what you work. It was so easy to figure out. Its the same thing here. These three guys they all want something completely different. Mitch mcconnell knox he has an uphill battle. In 2016 hell be fighting in blue states. Barack obama, hes got two years until hes giving speeches and making lots of money. But right now hes fighting for a legacy. John boehner, john boehner wants to be seen as more than a guy that can corral the most extreme people in his chamber. They all know, republicans all know they have to do something
on immigration to make sure that they get at least 35, 38, 40 among hispanic voters in 2016 or else they lose the white house again. And they cant put up with eight years of Hillary Clinton. Am i too optimistic here . I think im not being optimistic, i think im being cynical, john. I agree with most of what you just said not exactly all of it. I think in the case of Mitch Mcconnell he has a relatively manageable caucus so he can afford to say things like poke ted cruz and say were not going shut down the government or 0 go for a full repeal of obamacare. Hes got to put ted cruz in his place. John boehner has a less manageable caucus and he needs to hold a harder line and show a larger number of his more unruly members he is not going to be a
push over. I get where mika is coming from. You got to listen to Rush Limbaugh for just one day right now. The last three days Rush Limbaugh is saying you were not elected to make deals with obama, you were elected to stop obama. Thats still a big the question is whether somebody like boehner, i think joe is right boehner is trying to deal with a very fractured caucus. The immigration thing. You said all republicans know we must pass Immigration Reform in order to win the president ial election in 2016. All the established republicans know we need to pass immigration with a path of citizenship. I dont think all republicans know that. Theres stale large chunk. This is why the immigration thing may be the hardest of all these deals to get done. If it was up to john boehner, Mitch Mcconnell and president obama thats not the case. Its not the case for the past six years and wont be the case
for the next two years. Hundred members of the house who dont want to do Immigration Reform bill but the tone that john boehner and Mitch Mcconnell have been using on immigration, if i was sitting in the white house they goaded us further into doing it. How could he not do it now . You have a basic conflict between the fact that logic tells you they should do immigration. Then you have ideology and specifics. When the ideology and specifics collide, i would not be overly optimistic about immigration getting done. Guys, the votes are there for immigration. The votes are there. I have talked to republicans. The problem is the republicans do not want to bring a bill up unless they have all the votes in their caucus. The votes are actually there. The pressure should be on boehner to say bring the bill up and put it up for a vote is there. Roland is exactly right. The votes are there. John boehner is more secure than hes ever been. So if he has 50, 75 republicans saying were going to raise hell and youll pay for it, john boehner is in a position to say go for it cowboy. Lets see if you can take me out. John boehner can go before his caucus today and say, you know what . You guys need to follow me since i have been speaker of the house, we have built our majority and we have the biggest republican majority since 1929. Heres the question that you people need to listen to. And answer it for me. Heres a question you need to answer. Do you want to be a house that sends bills to harry reid in two years . To have them vetoed by Hillary Clinton in two years or do you actually want to get something done. If you dont want to get something done, you scream and yell and maybe you can have your own talk show in two years, i dont know, i dont give a damn,
im going to get stuff done and you can follow me. If you dont like it sit on the back row. Listen, i personally on immigration, i only want to go as far as legalization. Myself personally. Im not one of these people who say oh, we have to look at the last Election Results and be scared to death well lose every hispanic vote. Im not saying they should capitulate. They have every reason to work with the president and meet in the middle. I keep hearing Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh. Rush limbaugh feels