control of the base, there is nothing they can do? >> yes you ve described the dynamic on capitol hill pretty well there. look, there is a lot of evidence that the more january six is talked about, the worse it is for donald trump and republicans electoral chances. specifically, in the general election. we saw that in the midterms. but what it doesn t seem to hurt him in is the primary. as long as those primary voters are locked in, so tightly, to donald trump and supporting him so much, you see that reflected with the republicans on capitol hill. the minute some of them start to break with trump or speak out against trump, they hear it from their voters at home, and
nothing they can do? >> yes you ve described the dynamic on capitol hill pretty well there. look, there is a lot of evidence that the more january six is talked about, the worse it is for donald trump and republicans electoral chances. specifically, in the general election. we saw that in the midterms. but what it doesn t seem to hurt him in is the primary. as long as those primary voters are locked in, so tightly, to donald trump and supporting him so much, you see that reflected with the republicans on capitol hill. the minute some of them start to break with trump or speak out against trump, they hear it from their voters at home, and those who have really broken up with trump have been ostracized from the party, almost completely. so, yes that is the dynamic, there s a lot of republicans who talked on the hill wish
broke the law, perhaps that could change the dynamic on capitol hill. it forces members to vote to expel him. there are two ways for santos to no longer be a congressman. one, resign. he made clear he s not resigning. the other is to force an expulsion vote, which would require the support of two-thirds of the full house. kevin mccarthy, is indicating he will let this process play out. he is not yet calling on him to resign as he says that santos has a right to try to clear his name in the court process. but in talking to a number of other republican senators and congressmen, they re making clear in their view it is time for santos to go. >> he should have resigned a long time ago. he s an embarrassment to our party. he s embarrassment to the united states congress. >> would it be better if he resigned? >> absolutely. it is a distraction. and it is a punch line for a lot of commentary regarding the republican party that we don t need.
that hardens positions, gets everybody further from the center, and is reciprocal as much on the right as on the left. >> in the last few days, phil, we ve seen the ohio congressman and presidential hopeful tim ryan say mitch mcconnell needs to get off his -- and do something but new reporting says mitch mcconnell is waiting for the president to say, what kind of gun bill he would sign before letting something come to the floor. is he just kicking the can here? what s going on? >> steph, the reality is the president has said he wants to do something here but he s not clear about what that something is. he has backed away it seems from universal background checks which is something he advocated in the immediate aftermath of the el paso and dayton shootings a few weeks ago and the political dynamic on capitol hill i m afraid to say is that anything. the republicans in the senate won t do anything until there is some presidential directive, leadership from trump to say here is what i want done, what i m willing to sign, what i m willing to provide political
me earlier, you can t negotiate with terrorists. they re not calling the president a terrorist, but they re making the point that negotiating on any level, giving any ground at all would incentivize the president to come back to this strategy later. you combine that with republicans who even though they are frustrated, even though they wish there was some pathway out of this, are not willing to leave the president behind. you have a clear stalemate. we have seen throughout the course of the week house democrats have passed individual funding bills to reopen the agencies that are currently shuttered. the dynamic on capitol hill remains the same. senate ma jurjority leader mitc mcconnell will put anything on the floor until the president signs off. the reason for that is twofold. first, mitch mcconnell thought he had an agreement with the white house before the shutdown started on a unanimous bill to reopen the government for a short period of time. se second, when i talked to aides, they say the conference is behind the president. there s no incentive to buck the president. here we are at an impasse about
let s get to manu raju on capitol hill with the latest. i m sure you heard the democrats whip in the house, james clapper said on new day that a deal is close with republicans. are you hearing that? >> no, not at all. in fact, people view it as completely opposite. things are dug in on both sides and the speech did very little to change the dynamic on capitol hill with democrat leaders are not going anywhere near the president s request for the border wall and the democrats in the house are starting to take action to reopen individual agencies of this government not tied to this border fight today. the house was going to pass a bill to reopen the treasury department along with the irs in an effort to try to pressure senate republicans to move forward on that as well but the majority leader in the senate is opposed and says we won t move forward on legislation that doesn t have president trump s support. however a number of republicans
trump. so a lot of this is rhetoric and personality here. steve: all right. real quickly, the republicans have a pretty sizeable margin in the house of representatives. but, when you look ahead, if they could gain 24 seats, they would have a 218 to 215 margin. is that possible? >> now, it still is an uphill climb but democrats are looking at districts held by republicans that districts that went for hillary clinton in the last election. and, also, i know we have a while to go, but keep your eye on retirements from republicans. because those seats open up and democrats really focus in there. the house is big to watch because if it flips control, that really changes the dynamic on capitol hill. steve: interesting stuff. thank you very much for breaking it down. >> thank you. good to see you guys. steve: meanwhile straight ahead the political left is accusing a pastor of one of the largest consciouses in the country of hating catholics. pastor robert jeffers is defending his faith this morning and he is coming up live.
through a cnn logo. thank you very much. great having you in our conversation. we ll be reading your piece entitled donald trump and the second southern redemption. thank you all. still ahead, when a retweet really isn t an endorsement. we ll try to figure out what s happening with the president s twitter account. and first, a number of republicans standing up to president trump. we ll talk to charlie dent about the changing dynamic on capitol hill. you re watching morning joe. we ll be right back. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that s heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time
be surfacing now after he s been fired. why wasn t he apprising anyone of this, what he had his supporters obviously see as an apparent obstruction of justice by the president. why wasn t he apprising any one of it s in a more timely way? >> bret: the calls on the hill for, if there are tapes, to hear them, see the transcripts. to have comey testify. they are going to increase. we have tried to make to get republicans to come out and talk to us. and there are not republicans willing to go on camera tonight as of yet and we will see if that changes. this story, before we confirm all of it, if it s confirmable, changes the dynamic on capitol hill. >> i think it does. james makes a good point. why didn t he inform chairman burr that this happens? you can use hopeful language.
less producer in his litive in n as a senator. we asked john to do this because it captures the dynamic on capitol hill right now. somebody went to washington thinking i m a moderate democrat, a swing vote. everyone has to deal with me to get something done. he discovers no one wants to get anything done so no one is dealing with him. if you ve been a governor in a position to be very effective to go to the senate and discover how little it is possible to do and what tiny things count as a victory really does encapsulate the further state of our democrats. >> joe manchin went to get stuff done. oh, well. the caption. give that headline writer a raise. >> he tells john how he wasn t keen on buying any real estate in washington so he lives on a house boat. he doesn t know how long he wants to be there. >> oh, my gosh! >> he is going back to west virginia. >> not surprise me to see the governor s mansion back -- >> the new cover of e time