Policy team, Foreign Policy team and hes like, i like the look. The look works. During the transition at trump tower he would tell people around him the idea of wanting someone that came out of central casting. Great. Thats how Rex Tillerson got there. My god. Its just one secretary of state nominee or a possibility was too short. Hes going to go there. So he said he couldnt he told us he skoucouldnt select even though he was too short. And then of course he could never put bolton at the state department because he said he looked like captain kangaroo. He was upset with that mus tash. He goes, i dont get that mustache. Its 2017 or 16 it was. The crazy part about the first person youre referencing, not only one of those perspective Foreign Policy people but one of the most respected people in america but he was too short and slight for the president s taste. Yeah. On behalf of those who are short and slight i dont think it should be disqualifying. He had a problem with someone who worked out too much. Said they were spending their energy the wrong way. New details on the flood of white house departures. Stop. You always go too far. No, its true. We dont need to go into gross details of gross things that he says. Im not interested. As republicans try to brush off a significant loss in pennsylvania, you cant brush that off. You cant brush it off. So stop trying to brush it off because you look stupid. And the wall street journals front page has new reporting on the deepening story involving Stormy Daniels. Theres lots of stormny news. Its stormy, stormy stormy across all the cable networks. This thing is getting ugly. Its going right to the heart of things. When does Anderson Coopers 60 minutes thing go on . Its sunday. They try to stop it. When they do it they go big. Stormy daniels attorney was on Nicole Wallace yesterday. Theyre still doing some fact checking. It might be the following sunday. Thats going to be a big one. And anderson is building it up. Stormy, stormy. Led with stormy . Its just its so it sounds to me like we talked about yesterday from things ive heard and people ive talked to that she may provide more detail than weve previously heard. Or more detail than we actually want. That too. Physical evidence. We just dont. At the same time maybe some people need to understand, especially people in the evangelical community that have just gone blind to this president s decisions in life that he lies about. And so this will help show them the truth and they can maybe perhaps speak more clearly about their opinions. Just say, willie, that if theyre not blind yet. They will be blinded. They will be blinded. They cant unsee it. Theyre in with him. Most of us will be blind if we see that. I dont want to see that. Im not sure why that evidence exists. Who in the world would do that . Disgusting. Now we have former treasury shes not with us right now. But we have former treasury official and morning joe Stormy Daniels analyst, he handled all the things involving the Stormy Daniels situation in the obama administration. Hes got charts on Stormy Daniels. That is of course steve ratner. And Nbc News National Political reporter and well get right to the news then. Lets do it. Since we talk too much. Speaking to Campaign DonorsPresident Trump is claiming the democrat who flipped a republican seat in western pennsylvania as one of his own. An elite recording from a gop Fund Raising Dinner in missouri. First reported by the atlantic and confirmed by nbc news, trump claimed conor lamb supported his agenda. Heres part of the audio provided by a republican donor. A young man last night that ran, he said oh, im like trump. He said, i you know, Second Amendment, all everything. I love the tax cuts, everything. You wouldnt have known. I mean, its a pretty smart race actually. Last night the young man also ran on a Campaign Said very nice things about me. I kept saying is he republican . Sounded like a republican to me. You know, by the way, mika, a lot of people on on tv and conservative radio yesterday were claiming that conor lamb was a conservative who just basically followed in trumps direction. Thats actually this is going to shock you, but like the seth ridge story and so many others, thats just not true. Well, lamb called the republican tax bill a giveaway to the top 1 , supported extended background checks, supports roe versus wade and criticized attempts to repeal obamacare. Lambs opponents spared no expense in reminding voters where he stood. Republicans and conservative groups spent 13. 3 million on tuesdays special election. Outside groups behind the republican candidate vastly outspending the ones that backed lamb with ads that depicted lamb as a liberal and one of Nancy Pelosis sheep, but now that he has apparently won the race, Republican House members wait, so who thought like who is sitting there putting this commercial together going you know what . Thats going to get people in pennsylvania voting for rick saccone. First of all its treating people in pennsylvania like i mean, what are you telling people . Id just remind people yesterday on this show on our show, conor lamb called for pelosi to step aside in washington. So again its crazy. They go from saying hes a tool a liberal tool of nancy pelosi to saying that hes a republican. And why doesnt he just switch to the Republican Party the day after he wins. Its ridiculous and said they were with him the whole way. Mr. Lamb was brilliant. He ran as a republican. So it worked for him. He certainly didnt run as a democrat. Conor lamb ran as someone who would line up with President Trump. At the end of the day he ran as a republican. Conor lamb ran as a republican. He was a republican in name so he had a republican in name versus a republican in truth. They ran as conservatives, ran as pro gun, pro life, nancy pelosi conservatives and thats the takeaway we see here. If it is truly a wakeup call as we understand you told your members this morning, isnt it also a wakeup call for the role the president should play from your opinion in the upcoming midterm. Look, i think the president helped close this race. You saw the public polling. The public polling helped close this race to where it got right now within a few hundred votes. So jonathan, unless i dont really im not keeping up with what paul ryan and all those Republican House members and everybody else that was talking there, unless im not keeping up with where they are idee logically, if conor lamb now shares their views and Donald Trumps views, then they now are pro choice, they now support row v wade, paul ryan and all those republicans are now against a 20week ban on adorg aborti abortion. Theyre all against the trump tax cuts, and paul ryan and all those republicans and laura ingram, i saw her yesterday saying the same thing and donald trump all believe that the tax cuts are giveaways for the rich. Paul ryan and laura ingram and donald trump and all those republicans now actually support obamacare, and are against the giveaways to obamacare. I mean, i could go on. Also paul ryan and donald trump and all those other republicans now actually support the aflcios position on unions and trade. It seems like theyve thrown away generations of republican orthodo orthodoxy. And it took 24 hours for republicans if you believe republicans now, they could be lying through their teeth and if theyre lying through their teeth then they arent pro choice and they arent against the 20week abortion ban and they arent for obamacare and they arent against the tax cuts, but i mean, theyre either lying through their teeth or they have changed all their positions in 24 hours. They certainly were very well rehearsed on the spin in that video clip. Theres no question, this is a loss for the republicans. The spin that we heard there frankly is almost as laughable as the one were hearing from the white house where they the white house spokesman said yesterday and the president kind of hinted at the audio we heard from that fund raiser saying that the republican candidate in pennsylvania was down five or more points before trump showed up for that rally saturday night and brought it into a virtual dead heat and suggesting that that is sort of a moral victory, but of course moral victories does not change the fact that that seat is in democrat control and there are real questions about what President Trumps impact will be as we head toward the midterms. Lets remember, this is a district that he won by more than 20 points in 2016. And you know, my wifes family is out from west moreland county. That is trump country. And the fact that there is now a loss here, even a narrow one is worrisome to the white house. And silly to spin. And white House Republicans had their talking point. We laid it out and they almost said the same thing. We heard the talking point two nights ago before the election returns were in. It was President Trump to close the gap despite the fact that it had been tightened perhaps of what he did in office for 14 months. The fact of the matter, people i talked to yesterday, theres panic in the Republican Party over what happened in pennsylvania and what might happen this fall. And thats why you see them spinning this as to try and stop some of these republicans from in other races saying hey, maybe its time to head for the exits. Weve already got a Record Number of retirements, guys, i looked into this, the most in about 90 years in the republican par before a midterm election. And here we are, weve got several republicans now who thought they were in safe seats, who like murphy, the guy who occupied the seat before him didnt even have a democratic challenger now looking around. About a month ago i met with some representatives from mike pences pack and they were already starting to devise a strategy to calm some of the concerns among these republicans who have frankly never faced a competitive election about how to handle this environment because of the fact of the matter is were looking at these numbers about 11 million, 10 million sunk in by these outside groups, there is just not the budget for them to go into all of these races that are in the past not even considered competitive. And again, joe, this isnt one of districts that republicans were most worried about heading into the fall. It wasnt in the top 100. No, and they shouldnt spin it. They look obviously like theyre all lying. Its silly. Come on. And think about the impact. There are 118 seats that are republican held, that are less friendly to republicans than pennsylvania 18. 18 seats with no incumbents. Expect that bottom number to continue to rise because thats actually what happened in 1994, its what happened in 2006. When incumbents that have been around a while see the wave coming they get out of the way and yesterday, boy, ive got to tell you, this is and youre exactly right, jonathan, this is the worst Case Scenario for republicans. Youve got a district thats been just as red and rock ribbed conservative as could be since 2000 along with the union households, the old post industrial areas. I mean, mika, this this is this sort of district that was made for donald trump. And this reality that is happening to the Republican Party right now and this response to this election, Republican Party is going to become the party of dishonesty and it already is, but theyre going into the midterms and theyre going to be the party that lies. Because theyre not theyre behind this president who lies and they cant even take a loss and look at realistically and perhaps rebuild. A lot of people were tweeting this out, heidi, im sure youll tell me im wrong, but boy, i would really hope that some republicans at least would look at the results from pennsylvania 18, look at the results from alabama, look at the results from virginia and say, you know what . Were conservative, and well support donald trump when he is conservative, but were going to speak out and were going to go after him when he says things that are disrespectful to americans. But theyre not. Were in march. There are a lot of republicans that could still save themselves and i am hopeful that theyll start telling the truth and stop repeating the lies that donald trump is spinning out of the white house. I dont know that its it may be too late for that, joe. Theres been so many incidences. I take you back to charlottesville and that was really considered a crucial moment for choosing in the Republican Party and you had so many who chose to say nothing because what happened was they made a bargain. They made a bargain that they needed to get this tax cut bill done, that this was the end all and be all to save this party in the midterm elections and now as youre seeing with this pennsylvania race as a first test case, they themselves acknowledge by pulling back in the advertising that it was not going to save them, that this was not a winning message with those middle class voters. So yes, you may see some republicans continue to be critical and maybe amp up their criticism, folks like ben sass but i dont know how many new defectors youre going to see because they cut that deal a while ago. Right. When President Trump visited the pennsylvania 18 district on saturday night, he talked at length about the tariffs that he had just imposed on steel, but he barely mentioned his signature tax cut legislation. Steve ratner says that was likely by design and you have charts to explain why. So heidi gave me a great lead in. Lets take a look at whats happened. If you look at the ads that were being run by saccone and his various affiliated groups, you can see that when you go into mid february, early february, really, about 67 of all the ads that ran in that district mentioned the tax cuts as a reason to vote for the republican. And then that went off a cliff and by the time you got to last week there were actually zero mentions of the tax cut. Can you believe that . So again, for people that have never been in the political campaigns before, you save your best for last. Its like its like a case in the courtroom. You save your best for your Closing Argument and that last week is your Closing Argument, and steve, i mean, its really its got to be demoralizing for paul ryan and the rest of congress and donald trump and everybody who thought that these tax cuts were going to be their their salvation, political salvation that they didnt even mention it. And for good reason. It wasnt working and part of how you can see that is in the public polling where the tax cuts were hugely unpopular when they were passed and gradually got more and more popular. They never received a majority of popularity. But right as these ads started to run it turned the other way. There was a poll, i think 50 unpopular. So if you think republicans think that is their best calling card theyre in for an awakening. Its interesting on that as were looking at these numbers. Its interesting that democrats were concerned when nancy pelosi talked about the tax cuts just giving crumbs to the other 99 and then a poll came out from a Pro Trump Group that actually showed that a plurality of americans agreed with nancy pelosi. That these tax cuts were and it certainly how much money did warren buffet say these tax cuts made for him . I mean, just billions. Billions of dollars. Oh, for his company it was half of his profits last year. One of the richest men in the world, donald trump goes down to florida and said i just made you guys a lot of money. And americans obviously agree with that. The fact data is starting to come out that confirms that point of view. The treasury claimed that 70 of the benefit from the tax cuts were going to go through average americans. The business tax cuts would filter through to workers and now youre seeing day that that shows thats not true. So this is a research study. 43 of the business tax cuts are going back to share buybacks and dividends, not to workers. We all said that around this table that most of the money is going to go to stock buybacks. 8 to pay down debt and wage increases over here 13. 2 compared to the 70 the treasury was claiming and then to your point about nancy pelosi, about crumbs being left over, lets take a look at whats left over for the average american. Those business tax cuts i was just talking about, 31 , people making more than 75,000 a year, 54 , and so for the average american, 16 and so for someone making a typical wage of object 58 or 60,000 a year, thats what theyre getting out of this 1. 2 trillion tax bill. Is it fair to say though that its too early to know what the outcome of the tax cut will be . They were just imz plemented recently. Could those opinion polls start to change when they see whats coming in. I think people are seeing the benefit in their weekly with holding. That may account for the polls going the other way. I think the best hope for the tax cuts is that they have get the economy to continue to do well. We had a very good jobs number on friday and people stay optimistic about the republicans. Thats the best hope i think for the republicans out of these tax cuts. I dont think theyre going to sell them as a great middle class tax cut the way they claim they were during the campaign. Jonathan, during the campaign they didnt talk about the tax cuts. But donald trump did talk about tariffs and last night in last night were going to be playing the audio tape from the fund raiser he had last night where hes going full on protectionist. He brags about making up facts with the Prime Minister of canada, and the facts that he made up actually the way he told the story last night was he said that he ended up being direct. No, he did not. He ended up i mean, but this president , again, i maybe paul ryan and everybody else talking about conor lamb maybe theyre talking about donald trump, the protectionist. Right. I mean if t