Your book is called the long game and thats what this victory was, it was the long game. Sen. Mcconnell it has been 31 years. You cannot rush these things. What was the turning point . Sen. Mcconnell i think there were a number of turning points. I think in the end, senator mccains decision to support us early was an important signal that we werent going to have the same kind of coalition that ended up being troublesome on health care. Host i take it you had a hand in that. How did you convince them . How did you get that advance assurance . Sen. Mcconnell he believes in a robust america. Everybody believes that is on the hands side, but he also believes should be dominant marshall he, too dominant commercially, too. Everybody understands our business tax code has been a disaster. Even democrats were saying that before donald trump became president. Having a Strong America commercially is important, too, and i think this bill helps do that. I think that was a big factor for him. Sen. Mcconnell i think you had another big turning point after senator mccain. Sen. Mcconnell there have been a number of turning points, but that was a signal to everybody, that this was not going to end the way the other episode ended. This tax you see that code is less popular than tarp, less popular than some tax increases under clinton and bush. How do you turn that around . Sen. Mcconnell let me tell you how you turn that around. I brought a couple of points when you ask the inevitable question. Lets assume you are honey im a heidi highcroft person in a typical family of aur making 73,000 is getting 2000 tax cut. For you inside the beltway people may think that 2000 is not that much money, but for that family of four is a larger amount. Lets say you are a single parent making 41,000 a year, you get 1300 more and a lot of people in the Greater Washington area, that doesnt in like much, one trip to costco. That is a 73 reduction for that single mother making 41,000 a year. We are prepared to make this argument to the american people. It is a significant middleclass tax cut, but it is also important to get the country growing again. We were underperforming. Chance to begin to live up to americas potential, which means more jobs and more opportunity. Both sides see it differently, there wasnt a single democrat in the house that voted to it, so we will take it to the american people. Host it sounds like we can expect to see a commercial like that . Sen. Mcconnell if i ran the campaign, thats what i would take. Is not a saying 1300 lot to you, but its a lot to me. We will have that argument in the fall. Host do you have a worry that parts of this will have to be undone . In haste, thate it will have to be done next year . Sen. Mcconnell i think there is always a minimum technical , butction after tax bills i think core of the bill is intact and we wanted to make america more competitive. I think we are one do that. Was also pleased to see the corporate reaction to this. At t decided to give christmas bonuses to over 2000 employees. Democratsrgument from that it will somehow not benefit workers, but it will benefit it workers. Thise prepared to make argument to american people. We think it is an important step to get america growing again. Senator mcconnell, you had a lot of meetings with individual members, Small Group Meetings to hash out what concerns were, as the leader you work this will a little bit the way a Committee Chairman would work it. Sen. Mcconnell we are fortunate in the Senate Republican conference. We have three lunches per week that almost everybody attends. I say to paul ryan i dont know how you communicate with 200 some odd members. It is pretty easy for us to talk to each other. In this instance i designated watcher of people i thought were particularly persuasive. With those in four on the committee four or five of our members at a time that were not on the committee and read them into the process along the way. By the time the bill came out of the finance committee it brought comfort with it. You always have people who would like to adjust this or adjust that. It is a statement of the obvious that they would end up in a 52 5248que situation situation. In retrospect, i think it improved the bill in several ways. I think there were 46 members pretty satisfied with the product coming out and arrest needed to set his eye and the rest we needed to satisfy in one way or another. Jump balld on the control of the senate that senator warner was talking about, do you think you are better off with all republicans . Sen. Mcconnell i got a letter from all but three of the Senate Democrats outlined a outlining what type of tax reform they would support, but frankly, it was nothing in our view that we thought needed be done to get the country growing again. The message was this is not 1986. Pretty broads a partisan effort. Party seemscratic largely driven by the rhetoric of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and i think a lot of the members that might be inclined to be more centrist are intimidated i that. Intimidated by that. Host looking ahead to next november, there are plenty of you. E who want to unseat do you think that you will keep senate in spite of the tax cut or because of the tax cut . Sen. Mcconnell i think we will keep the senate as to what will be the central issue a year from now is hard to predict. Every election cycle is different, the personalities are different, the math is different. We are not all up. The one cycle you have to look at where the races are. 25 of our democratic friends up and only eight of us, but they map good map the last cycle. Was so sure he was going to have my job, he was having interviews with reporters to discuss his agenda. He called me today for what he hopes is a high level of cooperation, i called him back after the election and that i hope so. The math doesnt guarantee the outcome, but we do have a good map. Host i think a wise man once said the role in love with your map. Sen. Mcconnell i was the wise man. Get michigan, wisconsin, you not getting the recruits you wanted. Why is recruiting hard for you this year . Sen. Mcconnell i dont know that recruiting is over yet. It is an ongoing process and we expected to be very competitive in a number of places that are very red. We are hoping Governor Scott is going to run in florida who has very Good Standing after the way handled the hurricanes, particularly. The recruiting season is not over. Host im going to talk for a second so you can enjoys them water there. In a few minutes, leader mcconnell has agreed to a year radition. Ar end t as you pitch to people who you really want to run, history does president a first in any circumstance, what is your pitch to someone you really want . Sen. Mcconnell we have a unique opportunity here with a republican president , republican house, republican senate, we can move america to the right of center. Look at the Supreme Court. For a generation now it is pretty likely to be right of center. We have confirmed Circuit Court judges this year. I always say we are in the personnel business. There were 1200 executive branch appointments that come to us for confirmation. The 12 circuit judges we did this year the circuit inrt system was created 1871, this is the most that have in confirmed have in confirmed under one president since it was set up. This is having a huge impact on the court system in this country for a generation. And these people being confirmed our relatively young. When you use the word conservative when it applies judges, we are not talking about political conservatives. Gorsuch down in september. Here is what he described, we dont wear red, we dont wear blue, we wear black. Justice scalia put it this way, if you are a judge and not occasionally uncomfortable with the outcome you reach, you are not a very good judge. I think for potential candidates who want to have an impact on the country, it is a pretty good selling point. Not to mention, a selling point america aek is making different place than it was under barack obama is an appealing argument particularly in a lot of the red states that we have opportunities in, in 2018. Host and you are talking about the impact of the court decisions, odds are you will have a Supreme Court decision that insulin becomes the domestic story of the year . Sen. Mcconnell we dont know whether there will be a retirement, but when there is a retirement the Supreme Court is a big deal in this country. Somebody asked me yesterday was the tax till the highlight of my year, and i said actually it was a close second. I think the most important was the gorsuch nomination. I was involved in filling that during the campaign. I think the president did an excellent job of not blowing the opportunity. He picked an excellent nominee. Host leader mcconnell, your comments from these health lawn yesterday, your quotation of the day in the New York Times about what a great achievement this was, we saw the clips to you start to take some of the president got to be a little over the top . Sen. Mcconnell you know im not going to answer a question like that. Host what is your working relationship with the president at the moment . Sen. Mcconnell it is good. You know, he likes to talk. He is talk to members all of the time. I talk all of the time. You get phone calls at the its not justbut me. He calls a lot of people. There is a lot of interaction. Theres a lot of back and forth and i think he is doing a good job. He knows im not a huge fan of tweets, although, i like the tweet he sent out about me yesterday, so there are exceptions. Host some of the tweets about you by him must have been hard to overlook, but you plainly have. How . Sen. Mcconnell im sorry . They werent my favorite, no. And hes gotten better. Host in what sense . [laughter] sen. Mcconnell we are doing just fine. Schumerat has senator and like compared to his predecessor, harry reid . Sen. Mcconnell i like chuck. We get along very well. He is just fine. Yesterday economics advisor gary cohn was talking about working on welfare reform at the same time. Can get democrats on entitlement reform. Mark warner says he doesnt that happening, what do you see where are they on your to do list for next year . Sen. Mcconnell i think the democrats are not going to be interested in entitlement reform, so i would not expect to see that on the agenda. And what democrats are willing to do is important, because we have to have democratic involvement. Things like infrastructure, which the secretary of transportation has a good deal of interest in to do something in that area are going to have to have democratic participation. It has been a pretty partisan year. A good example of that is how difficult it has been to get confirmations. I confirmed the general counsel yesterday with a voice vote. I would like to see that stopped, because there is no purpose served by that level of obstruction. I can understand judges with lifetime appointments. I dont blame them. It is a contentious thing, but honestly secretary of this or that shouldnt be that difficult. We ought to be confirming those evil on a voice vote those people on a voice vote. Im not opposed to obstruction if you have a point. If it is something important and deeply felt, i understand it. But im not sure most people know who secretary of this or that is. Just as we look ahead, you said well to welfare entitlement reform is not on the table, because you need 60 votes. Do you think there is a good chance . Sen. Mcconnell i hope we can go forward on an structure, but the nature of the senate is such that we can do these things without democratic involvement, so we will have to work together. Hopefully more than we have been able to do in 2017. Host what is the recipe for that or how could that happen . Sen. Mcconnell i think there is a lot of interest in infrastructure. Host the Senate Banking chairman of idaho has put or a. Ipartisan banking reform bill 65 senators have said they are for it. Will that come up and use that as a sign of some bipartisan work . Sen. Mcconnell it will. It will be on my agenda. Your previous guest is one of the democrats supporting it. I think it is an important degree visitation of dodd frank for smaller institutions. It had nothing to do with the meltdown in 2008. Host so you are optimistic about it . Sen. Mcconnell yet. I think it is a candidate for early consideration. Host what is your optimism about it passing, what is its importance to you personally . Sen. Mcconnell i think it would be an important thing to do and i think with that Many Democrats understood the consequences it is sort of the collateral inmage of dodd frank smaller institutions across the country and i think they have that in the attention of members of the committee, obviously both democrats and republicans. Host steve van and is not steve bannon is not elected to anything, but some people inc. He is a power broker, but he thinks you need to spend more time with your family. How do you sen. Mcconnell i dont have anything to say about him at all. Host he thinks you should be sen. Mcconnell i dont have any obscuration about him at all. Host hes the rare person you have no observation about . Sen. Mcconnell no. Others. Esen. Mcconnell host like to . Sen. Mcconnell i wouldnt know. It has no impact on our ability to function in the senate, nor will it have any impact on the campaign. The key thing, its you want to win a campaign, you have to have a candidate that can win. It is not complicated. The kind of people you are talking about, that element, just managed to blow the senate race in the brightest state in america. That is not a formula for victory. To the extent there are people running in primaries from the country who have no chance of winning an election, we will oppose them. We did it successfully in 2014, did it successfully in 2016, took the senate. Andere more passive in 2010 2012. We are not doing that anymore. To win inea is to try november, because unless you win the election, you cannot make policy. Make policy and losers go home and go into another line of work. Host so, youre going to put a byp to throwing away races endorsing candidates that cant when . Sen. Mcconnell yeah. Host the book available on amazon, you say parties on both elves too often see thems as saviors . Sen. Mcconnell i think people have an exaggerated sense of their own importance sometimes and its a good thing to avoid. Host Something Else you said in the book is that area often, as reporters set up their stories arcs, very often you play the villain. Sen. Mcconnell im just a really nice guy. I dont know how i end up being a arcs villain. It just amazes me. Host sounds like you dont mind laying the villain . Sen. Mcconnell you cant be in and mind of work people disliking you. Youher up you go, the have to decide whos opinion you care about. Whose opinion do you care about . I care, for example, what some people think about me. I care about what wall street journal editorialpage angst of me. I care not a whit what the New York Times editorialpage angst about me. Thats what it comes down to. Whos opinion do you value . Host and sometimes do you withwith the criticism humor . You have a wall in kentucky dealing with that in an unusual way. Sen. Mcconnell we have a wall of cartoons skewering me. I think we have about 600, and none of them are nice. Mcconnell 6000 . Ou are rep. Ryan sen. Mcconnell none of them sen. Mcconnell none of them are favorable. Im used to being criticized. You have to find out what is in to yourself, keep your eye on the goal and when opportunities come along for what you think is thinkn to the country is important to the country in thats what happened in 2016. When the stars are aligned, maximize your opportunities and dont waste any time if you can avoid it. The stars are aligned rightdonw and we are going to take maximum opportunity. Host penultimate question, is there any danger that the government will shut down . Sen. Mcconnell no. Host what gives you that confidence . Sen. Mcconnell no one wants to do it. Host that didnt stop it before. Sen. Mcconnell know, some people have wanted to do it. Year,reflecting on the what is your tradition . Sen. Mcconnell like a lot of americans, towards the end of the year i use it as a time to look back. A lot of americans they they have new years resolutions about all of the things they intend to do that are. I tend to look over the last 12 write about things that are important, not only in my family, but in my career. I think oral histories are important. I also do that from time to time. I have done it for 25 years and i would a to the audience, it is a good to do for your family. Particularly for elderly people from time to time, if there were get their reflections. You mentioned my book. If i didnt sit down and give my oral history, theres no way i could of done that book. Beingcase it ended up useful to do a publication. But regardless if you are wanting to write a book, i am a big fan of doing oral histories. Host do you talk into a phone, or to a recorder . Sen. Mcconnell my wife and i have archives. I am fortunate. It works better for me to sit down and work with someone, so i sit down with the curator and we talk about it. Host what is going to be topic letter a this year . Sen. Mcconnell on the business side, the professional side, it will be the things that we have talked about, the circuit work, the Supreme Court, the tax bill. I will probably the little more candid about my own reef actions reflections my own about the president then i would be with you. Because remember oil histories oral histories are your property. Host how long do you spend on this project . Sen. Mcconnell in my case it is several hours. Its actually better to do it more often. I dont find time to do it as often as i would like. Host before Football Games you have a secret passion . Sen. Mcconnell it is not a secret. Tailgating is not a secret. I buy season tickets every year to louisville football and we make a day of it. We go out a couple of hours before the game, then go to the game, a couple of hours after the game. And it is a pretty sober crowd. Everybody is actually still on the eve after all of that and it is a lot of fun. S of itne of the joy is it is not work people, right . Sen. Mcconnell no. This is friends, some people in politics, but friends of many years. Host whats the leading activity . Sen. Mcconnell it is a lot of eating. And believe it or not, we are real fans. Thanki would like to cspan for joining us. Thanks to bank of america for making these conversations possible. S think the amazing axio event team. This is the baskinrobbins event number 31. Hank all of my colleague and all of you who made this possible. Leader mcconnell, thank you for a fascinating conversation. Happy new year. [applause] coming up, we will speak with lee edwards, about his 60 year involvement in the conservative movement. I met Bill Mccarthy through his father. He liked to party, drink have a drink or two. He was also someone who could take advice very well. He said and did things that hurt of communism for some time. Q and a sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Senate democrats held a News Conference and criticized President Trump and Congressional Republicans on the 2017 legislative agenda, the tax reform bill. They also talked about the lack of education on issues including infrastructure, and the opioid crisis. Chuck schumer open the 25 minute briefing