Transcripts For MSNBCW Up WSteve Kornacki 20150117 : vimarsa

Aircraft carrier. Romney spoke for 20 minutes. The speech ended with a standing ovation from the crowd. But lots of questions about how well he was being received behind the scenes. Romney said to be taken aback by the cold water that some leading republicans have been throwing on the idea this past week. He does seem to have his family onboard, a seeming reversal from a few months ago, when ann romney told the Los Angeles Times quote, not only mitt and i are done but the kids are done. Done, done done. Seemed definitive when she said that back then. Her change of heart is frontpage news in the New York Times this morning. You can see the story there. If theres one takeaway from romneys speech its this. This is not just a behind closed doors thing right now. Romney has publicly confirmed hes considering another run for the white house. No one has won a nomination for president and lost the general election and come back to win the presidency since Richard Nixon in 1978. Not many have tried since then either. Matt was at the speech last night. He joins us from san diego this morning. 5 00 a. M. This morning out there. Were going to have some sound in a minute to show everybody. Set the stage last night. Mitt romney shocks everybody with this news. Now, he makes public statements. What are people saying after that speech. Whats the reception like . This was a big moment for romney. It was a skeptical crowd. You know, the days leading up to it there were a lot of sort of negative comments about the potential romney campaign. People were appreciative respectful warm. It wasnt i wouldnt describe it as overly enthusiastic. Everyone was polite. People thought he did a good job for the most part. And he tried to address some of the issues that he sees as justification for getting back into another campaign. We have some we want to take everybody to that Aircraft Carrier last night. Lets play one clip. The world is not safer six years after barack obama has been in office. And the results of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Barack obama Foreign Policy have been devastating. Matt, i guess the other issue here, too, is how romney himself and the people around him have been interpreting the skepticism youre talking about of the last week. I hear reports theyre taken aback. Thats accurate. Eviscerating, an editorial in the wall street journal. You talk to romney people they never had a great relationship with the Editorial Board at the wall street journal. Stinging rhetoric for the former nominee of the party. Theyre surprised at the degree to which they were getting blowback for him considering running again. I think last night, they felt a need to go a little further and articulate a little bit of his rationale because, to date he hasnt done that really. Hes described to a Close Knit Group of donors what he wants to do. But he hasnt done that publicly. Last night we saw the first articulation of that. But hes got a lot of work to do within the party. Im just curious. Youve been covering this guy for so long. You probably never thought you would be covering mitt 2016. Where do you think this is going . Hes dipped his toe in the water publicly here. Is there a tremendous for a candidacy here . It was perfectly clear that hes thinking about getting in the race. But he kind of had some pregnant pauses about that. Joked about, you know im not going to run for u. S. Senate in massachusetts, he said at one point. Kind of making light of his potential decision. I think a couple days ago, people around him thought he was in. You know . It was just a question of when. I do think that the blowback has caused him to sort of and mitt romney himself, to reevaluate that and test whether this blowback is something that will subside over the next couple of days. If theres work they can to further make the case you know for his candidacy. Yeah. Of course, we should say, no senate races in massachusetts until 2018. Still time for him to reconsider that i guess. Thanks to matt viser getting up this morning. Our panel fortoday luke russert, capitol hill correspondent. Jessica tander. And crystal ball cohost of the cycle. We have more of the sound of the romney speech last night. Lets give you a taste of it right here. Theres some speculation on whether or not im about to embark on a political endeavor on which ive been previously unsuccessful. Let me state unequivocally that i have no intention for running for u. S. Senate of massachusetts. I should tell you that the last few days the most frequently asked question i get is what does ann think about all this . And she believes that people get better with experience. [ applause ] and heaven knows, i have experience running for president. Im giving some serious consideration to the future. Regardless of what happens in the primaries and the political process that goes on, ann romney and i are going to be fighting for our nominee. And make sure we win back the white house for the american people. Thats what mitt romney was saying in san diego. But what matt was saying struck me. He thought the tone might have been more restrained than romney had been planning on or had been saying privately in the last week. That maybe the blowback hes gotten from republicans here has had some effect on him. I think theyre a little surprise. I think maybe they thought he would come in and be the savior of the party again. Or people would be clamoring for him to run. Thats not what ive been hearing up on capitol hill. One of the biggest obstacles is he lucked out. You had Chris Christie Mike Huckabee jeb bush passing on running. Thats not the case this time. The big question is who isnt going to run, but who is going to run . Everyone is jumping in and seeing this. You saw walker this week making it very clear, rand paul never afraid to take a punch. Romney, you time is past trying to send him this signal. And he could be an elder statesman in the party and take that role. But if he guess forward and tries to do this and really emparseem embarrassing himself, it further tarnishing his legacy. He survived the juggernaut of rick sanatorium and herman cane. They think about their legacy. Politics is all timing. President obama can tell you that. He came in at the right time for his brand. The right time for mitt romneys brand was 2012. And that brand got destroyed. Mitt romney did not just barely lose. He got destroyed in the Electoral College. He lost every swing state with the exception of north carolina. When you talk to members, like i did in hershey, p. A. Nine out of ten go this is lunacy. This is absurd. This is not what he should be doing. This is going to take away donors from early on for jeb bush. And that could create problems in the establishment wings. He wants to do a push on poverty. He talks about his time as a poster in the Mormon Church how he catered to the sick and the poor. Mitt 3. 0, its difficult to rebrand yourself after 47 and after the way you were a venture capitalist and so many people lost their jobs. You can say thats the way business rolls. But it just doesnt work. And when i was talking to republicans, these are not just rank and file. Highlevel republicans that people would know with name i. D. They throw their arms up going, this guy is out of his mind to do this. And nobody thought the thing about romney he was supposedly from the same reasonable logical hes the calculating business man. Thats the image of him. You would think i dont know can you make the case this can work somehow . Anybody making that case . Im fascinated. He has to be looking at the poll numbers. Im leading in iowa i have a shot here. Thats what hes thinking. In a way, his data and the numbers are doing him a disservice right now. Someone with human common sense would go this is insane. On a personal level, why would you want to do this again . You have a great family. A great life. You have all of the money you could possibly need. Theres so many things to do in the world. Why put yourself through this . Is part of it we talk with the midterm elections, the president elections. But is part of it you run in 2012, youre mitt romney. Yeah, the Electoral College wasnt too close. But a fourpoint race basically. And you look at obama over the next four years. The Approval Ratings drop. The republicans have is a huge win in the midterms. Do you say the countrys changed a little bit . Democrats arent his problem. Republicans are his problem. He was flawed. The winds are in his favor. The reason why he lost is his inability to sell himself, which came across as awkward and not able to relate. And on top of that he started off first with the speech last night. Foreign policy saying the Obama Hillary clinton Foreign Policy. He didnt mention afghanistan in his rnc speech in tampa. We were all shocked by it. How do you recreate yourself as the Foreign Policy and the poverty hawk. What rebranding number are we on now . He was the, you know the social liberal running against i remember that. Left on gay marriage. Then, the social conservative trying to win iowa against Mike Huckabee. Then, the severe conservative. Theres been so many rebrandings, i dont know how many time swres to be subjected to this idea that if we only knew the real mitt romney we would clamor for him. What happens now . Jeb bush is making an aggressive play right now. Is this a thing . Does this encourage donors to go to jeb bush to send mitt romney a message . Does this create an opening for somebody to stand up . The joe mccarthy moment . Weve seen several donors that have solidified their support for jeb. Mitt romneys own florida chair in 2012 says hes behind jeb if he runs. And thinks too, a lot of people wanted jeb to run last time. He passed. I think that if if some of his big donors and his big bender wills may be there. But with the field the way it is, i think eventually, like you said, he is a calculating businessman. Eventually, he looks at this. I feel like someones got to sit him down and say, look mitt. Its like emblematic with everything thats wrong with the system. The media hears about this and we feed on it. We cant believe this is going to happen. Then all of the people around him, all of his operatives, they want to go on for another round. Why not . They want to get rich out of it. He has plenty of money. Hes listening to the donors. Who are the donors . Guys just like him. Why did he lose . Because he was out of touch with the rest of america. Youre listening to the guys who are just like you, talk like you, have the same amount of money in their bank statements. Youre taking their advice to take over a country thats diverse with 300 million people. What you said he probably looks at the polls where weve seen. All of the talk about jeb bush every time they put me against jeb bush ive been winning. You see on the screen. Psychological, that does. He wanted to be president. Hes looking at the polls. Hes saying maybe i still have a shot. And im sure he misses being the center of attention. There was this little mitt romney boom like how much on the republican side how much Better Things would have been if mitt had won. That did not equate to therefore we want you to run again. That was the sentiment i dont think he understood that distinction. Raise some money for me. But go on your way, thank you. We have to end it here. I have a feeling well be talking about mitt in the next few days. Thanks. Well see you throughout the show. Still ahead this morning, Elizabeth Warren scores a big win against the white house. Well have the postgame. And what began in paris as a french problem is turning into a worldwide problem. The latest on the terror raids and the violent protests overnight on the other side of this break. Stay with us. Callahans . Ehh, i mean get away. Like away away. Road trip . Double wings, extra ranch. It feels good to mix it up. The allnew, fuelefficient Volkswagen Golf tdi clean diesel. Up to 594 miles of adventure in every tank. Introducing the allnew Volkswagen Golf family. 2015 motor trend car of the year. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ mom ] with life insurance, were not just insuring our lives. Were helping protect his. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. Transamerica. Transform tomorrow. Can this decadent, fruit topped pastry. With indulgent streusel crumble, be from. Fiber one. Fiber one streusel. My name is tony sartorio. Im a lineman for pg e out of the Concord Service center. I have lived here pretty much my whole life. I have been married for twelve years. I have 3 kids. I love living here and i love working in my hometown. At pg e we are always working to upgrade reliability to meet the demands of the customers. Im there to do the safest job possible not only for them, but everybody, myself included that lives in the community. Im very proud to do the work that i do and say that i am a lineman for pg e because its my hometown. Its a rewarding feeling. These are some of the headlines were waking up to this morning. At the end of a truly remarkable week. Dozens held across europe islamic suspect sweeps. Europe on alert. U. K. Police on highest ever terror alert after belgian arrests. The anger that began in paris, directed at a magazine, Charlie Hebdo is spreading far, far beyond. A muslim backlash is building. In algeria, police struggled to contain huge crowds, angry that the french magazine has once again published a cartoon of the prophet muhammad. In jordan, demonstrators carried pictures of the killers. And police fired tear gas in karachi. There were protests in iran turkey and elsewhere. Muslims are rallying. And europe is rattled. Thats nbcs bill nealy reporting. Here to talk about this michael kay, a former british senior officer and Foreign Affairs correspondent. The response weve seen in europe this week the raids, the preemptive strategy right now, what do you make of this strategically . There was so much criticism after paris, these guys had been under surveillance before. Does this change the equation this strategy very proactive. I think there has been a paradigm shift, when it comes to the posturing of the Intelligence Community and the Security Forces. What we saw postCharlie Hebdo, in terms of the brothers going on the run. The hostage crisis. And then in the city center that puts the Intelligence Community and the Security Forces and the police, it put them on the back foot. It was a reactive posture in terms of how they had to deal with the outcome of that. Whats happened now, is europe has gone and has changed. Its gone to a proactive shift. Weve seen that by the decision to put police on the streets, for example, 10,000 troops on the streets of france and paris. There has been this rally around antiterrorism, in belgium at the moment. Its trying to make it easier to deploy troops on its home soil. Trying to make it easier to strip suspects coming back from syria, for their citizenship. You cant do that under international law. And france amended a law on hate speech. If someone is charged for the spoken word they can get potentially convicted up to five years in prison. On the internet 7 years and 120,000 fine. Theres reactive posturing from what we saw in Charlie Hebdo. What we see from bill nealys reporting, there are muslims reacting to the Charlie Hebdo covers. But we mustnt mistake a protest against what a muslim finds offensive to becoming a radical. And that is not one in the same. So there is a broad range here. Thats what the intelligence communities will be struggling with at the moment. It does feel like the heat is getting turned up on all sides here. The crackdowns this week. The aggressive crackdowns by authorities. The laws youre telling me about being passed. And certainly, theres probably most if not all, the people we just showed there, theyre protesting something they find offensive. But obviously, it was Charlie Hebdos work that created didnt create it but fed into the violence. Where does it go from here . Its a very fine line. Weve been talking about and debating and struggling with the balance of tolerance of religion, versus charging people for inciting hatred extremism or violence. And the u. K. Has been prominent in that. Hyde park, one of the biggest parks in london. You have one of the speakers corners in hyde park. The people can come and talk freely about whatever they want. And that includes people who want to talk about extreme versions of islam. Theyve been allowed to do that. But theres a contemporary debate about what is the balance . What is the line . One thing we were talking about before we came on is terrorism looks different in the context of globalization. Thats something we also have to struggle with. We knew there were insurgencies in vietnam. Now, theres insurgencies in syria. And its easier to jump on an airplane at jfk, and fly to europe and travel all the way through europe into turkey and into syria. The access is easier. Getting passports is easier. The ability to spread rhetoric over special media is easier. And i think all of these things are convoluting and making it more complicated for the Intelligence Services to counter the threats. A couple of months ago, six months, a year ago, there was a debate about the nsa and the nsas ability to troll email accounts and look for that needle in the haystack. The Intelligence Community has a really difficult job. Damned if they do damned if they dont. But the effects of people coming back from syria, the Intelligence Community has a difficult role. They do a job behind the scenes that no one knows about. And we only hear about it when a, they get it wrong. Which isnt very often. And when the raids start occurring. The