Smarter, faster on the topics that matter and would follow the same format with our event, bringing smart brevity to bring you into the worlds of business, tech, media politics. I would like to thank the bank of america for making these conversations possible. We appreciate it especially this great doubleheader we have had and what you think, axios colleagues who are here. We are honored to have this morning somebody who has been my governor and has been my senator here i have a constituent and we have this bring the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee, and senator from virginia, senator mark warner. Senator. [applause] thank you. We are down to smart and brevity. Im not sure i meet any of those categories. And you are a morning person, so thank you. Not the case. Not the case. Wear down to four days of christmas. This is not speedy my normal shtick in any event that account in december is that i am well known for leading groups in 12 days of christmas, but i guess thats not going to be on the agenda this morning. Senator, we have tax cut, the biggest since 1986. What business have lived with less . The corporate rates have been to 21 . We did it in possible to get business to support something less . This is by the most single most disappointing legislation i been involved in eight years ive been in the senate. And i have been desperate interested in doing appropriate tax reform. I was found of the socalled gang of six who said the simpsonbowles plan made some sense. At that moment the bid and ask about simpsonbowles was in that 27, 28 rate on the corporate rate. That wouldve been done in a fiscally responsible way. I think businesses wouldve been a static at a 25 rate. How much money would that assayed . That wouldve saved for every point you save about roughly 100 billion. The differential between 21, 25 is about 400 million savings. We take a minute if i can and say what my critiques of the tip of the maybe some of the other Traditional Democratic critiques of this bill beyond all the fact that this was done in the dark, that there was no bipartisan effort, that frankly tax reform is done best with transparency because if you dont have it, youre going to screw it up. And if we look back historically to the 86 act that ended up having 80 votes at the end of the time and stood the test of time for 30 plus years. This legislation absolutely will not. So wait, you think part of this will be undone . I think it would be, there are so many mistakes that have been made in the legislation, not consciously but because tax policy is in almost a complex the First Six Months of this coming year there would be a fixit bill that will come about. Let me go through what my critiques would be. One, we could of done this in a fiscally responsible way. The estimates are this will add 1 trillion to what i would argue is over 2. 2 trillion to the debt and we are already 23 23 trin in debt. That is not a good circumstance in terms of future investment. Thats because youre the existing debt hole which also have the additional interest off of that deficit, that debt. And, frankly, presumption many other personal tax cuts would be extended, point number one. Number two, our colleagues said this will be more simple. Our tax code will be exponentially more complicated, particularly around passthroughs. Third, clearly ive got concerns that disproportionate benefits went to the folks at the top. Fourth, this is one very think would be an area huge amount of focus Going Forward. I think they, while well intentioned, got lot of the International Tax component, just the setup of it, wrinkly, wrong and what may see the reverse of what is expected take place with this will actually and sent more and more businesses to move more jobs offshore because of, theyve got a minnow tax, the international average and they could still game where you put your factor versus where you put your intellectual in lecture property in a way that could be intrusive. So disturbing to me was an of lots of conversation with both businesses and republican colleagues about this, the said nice support, i support repatriation. They couldve said hey, we will allow you to this money back to a very favorable rate but why dont we have some level of exchange . Why dont you, basis, guarantee you put a meaningful try to program a play threat but that makes less and 80,000 a year . Or why not say not only for your business but your supply chain, if youve lost a lot of jobs and a con international, why dont you agree to bring some of those supply chain jobs and put those in communities that have been hurt by trade . There was a real willingness from the Business Community i felt to engage in a dialogue but this is done in such a rush to provide a tax cut, not reform, a tax cut by this arbitrary day of christmas that i think unfortunately this is a huge missed opportunity that will come back and bite my republican colleagues. When you look ahead to november do you think they will regret it politically . Absolutely. Absolutely. Show me a time in any western democracy where when have an economy thats running at relatively holstein and relatively well on point, that you do a massive tax cut thats not well targeted that is entirely borrowed money, you will not see the growth assumptions that are been built in and, frankly, to the republican plan, no economist has predicted, i think youll see actual job loss and i think particularly it the president and his allies move to what they people call welfare reform, which is just code are taken on medicare, medicaid and Social Security so they sank oh, my gosh we dont have enough money now we have to cut the social safety net. I think that will come back and do you think this bill will cost seven republicans the majority . I think there is a list of challenges, one being this focus on tax cuts. I dont see how what ive heard that could be a real effort to do meaningful infrastructure can pick what aspects that could have come out of a a taxable effort wouldve been using president s Economic Advisor gary cohn go ahead and finish. Theres that other looming problem out there about the Russian Investigations i think theres a variety of factors that at this moment in time dont bode well. We will turn to the Russian Investigation very shortly but excuse me for that i wanted to interject that yesterday on the stage the president Economic Advisor tolls on january 3 they are turning to infrastructure and what they call welfare reform. You called entitlement reform. What are the chances take them one by one, what are the chances of getting democratic votes on it infrastructure package . Mike, i think somebody who prides myself that every piece of legislation ive worked on ipad a republican partner. Ive been, this tax bill has left me and i think a number of others bitterly disappointed. Because i think we couldve added value to this process. As we moved to infrastructure, i dont know how theyre going to have a meaningful infrastructure plan when the president s own budget cuts funding to the highway trust fund. I mean, my fear is there going to come up with a plan that focuses on additional Tax Advantages, more equity without real money. All the Tax Advantages in the world and all the polling in the world doesnt pay back certain rural bridge repair anything still not pay for. Reading between the lines it sounds like if they played their cards right it would be possible. I think wouldve been a much greater chance if he had not approached the textile as they had. What i dont think is a chance come i dont think theres a chance, mike, is that a flurry of taxadvantaged financing, theres plenty of equity out there for infrastructure. There could be some additional debt. I have a bipartisan ten member, five days call the bridge act with roy blunt this as we ought to have a vehicle where the only International Country in the world that doesnt have a major Debt Financing tool but you only need on infrastructure new money. Im not sure where theyre going to get it. For those of you tweeting at hashtag axios 360, senator warner singer with with the tax bill is handled makes you less likely they can get democratic votes on infrastructure is the same true of welfare reform . I think it becomes virtually impossible to take on entitlement reform. They would need 60 votes . And back in the simpsonbowles days, we had a recognition that an aging population, there are ways that you can prove the longevity of medicare and Social Security. In ways that helps protect the most vulnerable and maybe make some would like me who has been successful pay a little more. But when we did that plan we started with those reforms were key as well to a trillion dollars increase in revenue, not what were looking at now, a 2 trillion decrease in revenues over the next decade. I i mentioned at the top amog the hat you were, your question of Senate Intelligence committee so youre helping run one of the key hill investigations in the russian editor yesterday on the senate floor you gave a redline speech we talked about your red lines warning the president not to fire the special counsel bob mueller, and not to pardon witnesses. Why did you feel the need to give this speech at this moment . Mike, i dont go down to the floor and give long speeches a lot of times. I know how much Additional Information that we are receiving on the intel in our investigation we have not reached any conclusions, but the importance of what we are doing, i study ago this is most important thing i will ever work on, i feel that more strongly today and even a year ago. And we dont even have near the tools that Robert Mueller has in his investigation where he has already had two indictments and to guilty pleas, and i believe more to come. So over the last number of months that started with some really fringe voices around the august recess saying, you know, maybe bob mueller, we got to indict molars integrity, question this. At that moment i was proud because at least in his Senate Democrats republicans alike all said no know no, no we need tot the special prosecutor remember how we end up with a special prosecutor because nobody ever wouldve presumed that the president would fire a city fbi director. And then go out and basically trash the fbi director in a white house meeting with the Russian Foreign minister. That took place. So there was chaos and Rod Rosenstein did the the right thing and picked the men with the right credentials. Those voices ever seen what was an effort to curtail that because democrats republicans alike said we need to protect the special prosecutor and allow him to finish his job. But if anything is happened as weve seen some of these plea bargains come forward. One news network, one of their commentators called this effort investigation a coup. Youve got a president ial spokesman who said quoteunquote the fix was always in on donald trump. You have i have seen no story yesterday but my understanding the president son having some new conspiracy theory. Then you have some comments to my mind seen beyond bizarre coming from certain members of the house. It appears that bob mueller gets closer, the coordinated drumbeat was increasing. And i felt with what i know and how i think this would put us into the realm of a a constitutional crisis should act and with congress potentially leading down for a few weeks, i wanted to go down and hopefully lay a marker down with the white house. But equally importantly, call on my colleagues that this is a moment, god forbid that what will happen, i want to take the president and his lawyers at his word that he has no intention of firing the prosecutor that i would also add hopefully not issuing pardons or get rid of Rod Rosenstein. But help this libya moment that would have to act upon but i think the real character of how this congress and the senate will be judged will be how we react if we work to take account of action. 2027488201 with music we have suddenly like dark rumbling music based on what you said just didnt get what you think will happen while congress is away for the holidays . I i hope that we have a Great Holiday season and nothing goes on. That would be but do you have intelligence otherwise or what do you fear or what are you trying to suggest . Im not suggesting anything other than the fact that the tone and tenor of the comments coming out of certain of the president allies, both elected and otherwise, should send a chill through all of us. That rule of law dont any individual, person, and our country. We have division of power. There is not executive action without restraint. And again, my hope is that come back from the recess and you can say well, you know, nothing happened. You talked about the growing, a growing seemingly coordinated effort to undermine the Mueller Investigation coordinated by whom . I think that is a fair question. I dont know who it is cord needed by but i would say this, that when yesterday morning the association of fbi agents, and if you ever to make a broad sweep of the symptoms of the fbi agents that i know, the vast majority of them are republicans. But the Fbi Agents Association came out with a harsh comment directed at the white house and the president saying, you know, he does not serve Law Enforcement writ large well when his comments undermined basically not only mueller but in effect the whole integrity of the fbi. And i would say i would be astounded at this, but for the fact that early on in his tenure, this same president refused to accept the unanimous conclusions of our whole Intelligence Community in terms of russian active measures and inventions in our elections. So when a president or allies go out and undermine Law Enforcement or undermine the Intelligence Community, the damage that that is done, the damage thats done longerterm to kind of our institutions validity, lord knows we know what he says about you folks in the press, but usually doesnt matter democrats or republicans, things like the integrity of the Intelligence Community and a Law Enforcement in this country have generally been kind of question. I think were getting into again uncharted territory. Senator, if you look at your tv interviews, you been pretty candid about what you have done it in your investigation what you dont know and no. The review of how much is a bear has waxed and waned over the years. Where are you at the moment . We continue to both that interviews and we continue to receive more documents and information. I will repeat what i said earlier. A year ago this investigation was the most important item i will work on my public life, i feel that more strongly today that i did a year ago. I feel it is absolutely critical that full truth come out. Now, i also want to take a moment and step back and say im really proud of our committee. Ive got a great working relationship with richard burr. Archimedes maintain bipartisan approach. Weve had some bumps that we are proceeding at. Revenue group witnesses scheduled for january. I would say, not shy, but we will put some points on the board already. One, there is complete conclusion from everyone in government, the judge with the exception of the president , that russians massively interfered in our elections in a coordinated way that was unprecedented. And that conclusion has frankly helped now as weve seen the french are much more attuned to some of this then we were. Britain has gone back and reexamine brexit. From an International Stamp with that announcement is a point from a study point. Secondly, the russians attempted to tap into not change notes but tap into 21 states electoral systems. At first dhs was very slow at acknowledging that foretelling the state election officials. They had this answer that we couldnt of the states to get his estate cleared. Chairman and i and other said no, thats ludicrous. Youve got to tell the folks. There is a much better working relationship between dhs and the state electoral boards. Theres a Bipartisan Group out of harvard working on electoral security. In our state in virginia, i pushed the state board i would change us some of our Voting Machines that were potentially vulnerable. Most important, the most important piece is, is, where i think we made the most progress, and that is exposing the underbelly of social media. I have been the in tech busines longer than ive been a politics. Facebook and twitter and others are quite iconic American Companies but these companies basically blew off my concerns and others concerned to hear go. Over the last few months that is just. Will come back on the investigation. Based on your comments about your documents of witnesses it sounds like you are in a wax phase. I wouldnt say this child was most important challenge i will take on if i didnt believe it was serious that would allow this investigation to finish, and obviously mr. Moores investigation was much more extensive powers than ours does to run its course as well. Does your investigation of weeks to go or months to go . I will say what chairman burr said. Our investigation will take as long as it takes to talk to all the appropriate people. You mentioned witness it. Jared kushner is, and talk to step what you call it back . I think we have different processes than house and the others. Its the chairman skull and the right one, first for the most part the first round of the interviews would be done by our staff investigatory team. It was a very good team. It wouldnt be one politician trying to outdo the other. That was done with the presumption that some of the key witnesses would need to come back. Debate whether they the come bn public or private. I would lean more towards public. And i think most members, democrat and republican, it will be hard for them to reach any final conclusions without being able to see some of the principles and obviously mr. Kushner would fall into that category. You would expect Jared Kushner to be called back . I dont know how we reach conclusions without the principles involved in some of these activities that individual senators having the chance to question. You said that should be public. Do you think it will be public . Again i would rather work through that with richard burr. Is donald trump, jr. Also in that category . Absolutely. You mentioned the social platforms blow you off, and since then you have learned a lot from them. Have you learned more from the social platforms since that public hearing . Take this in the kind of two or three stages. From our initial concerns raised november, december of 2016 through about may we basically got the brushoff. From facebook and twitter. Starting in may i think, so with facebook, where a lot of the focus has been, i think they recognize there was an issue. I dont think they put appropriate assets behind foldey investigating. I still dont believe that theyve exposed all of the russian activity. They expose activity from one troll farm in st. Petersburg. I think there are more activities than one entity in russia. That activity picked up and they proactively made a lot of steps. They, twitter, google, youtube, in advance of the hearing. Weve held the hearing and there are then a few announcements after that. There will be more that we want in terms of transparency. What else would you ask for . Im very interested in making sure that individuals who had received russianbased russiand propaganda, not so much the ads are the tide is component. It more the fake pages, i see theres a box that push traffic to those pages. Someone is reading a page that might be on football might be on some social vegetarianism, and all of a sudden youre reading about why Vladimir Putin is a greatest guy in the world. You said that you thought this happened just now in the Alabama Senate election. Tell me we have heard that there were, that some of the democrats were setting up sites that mightve been at first, you know, encouraging people to be supporters of alabama football which is an easy thing to do in alabama, and after you pick up enough followers around alabama football you could then filter in as well, its about the upcoming election. I think what you see, and if you take the russian active measures on the internet, if you take just what we know, and one of the things i hope as well is outside researchers could get a better look at some of the data for an even more independent analysis, but a small amount of paid advertising, give me 30 or 40 great hackers with the ability to create fake pages and then let me read enough bots to push traffic so those pages get some additional interest and generate a buzz on their own, and youve got a model where we can take any story no matter how out there and get onto virtual all of your newsfeeds. To the point, i mentioned this backstage, that ive been told about companies and individuals in the valley were basically going to copy the russian playbook which also by the way can be used by china, other adversaries, copy the russian playbook and are going to start creating americanbased firms for corporate warfare using these exact tools that we are saying i think the beginnings, one of the concerns i have writ Large National security as i think conflict in a 21st century while less of the about tanks, guns and even rockets, and much more about Cyber Attacks and misinformation and disinformation. What you mean by corporate warfare . Where company a decide to take on somebody be that putting out fake pages and starting to run got another corporate profits. I for a long time have felt that a lot of the underpinnings in our corporate, it are clicked the advertising model is already manipulated by bots and people that might be rated on an individual basis from Foreign Countries to spend all day clicking on a certain site. They have really done the investigation of all possible russian sites activated out side of russia but still controlled. Has that occurred . To i believe more work to be done. Let me give facebook credit. They have moved dramatically. I think you will see more movement shortly but this is an area we celebrated, this fundamentally transformed our world but there was an underbelly. If you think about, if you believe that information is the new oil, these are the only kind of enterprises. We look at our phones on average about 150 times a day, a lot of that due to your this is only kind of enterprise, every time we interact with that phone, my background is a cell phone guy, im partially responsible as well, we add more power to that enterprise because we give them more information about them and as we get into the world of ai the changes youve seen in the last three years will pale compared to the changes the next five years. Senator warner you made some news there. Sounds like one of the additional transparency measures youre calling for and there are several of them, you want independent researchers to have access to what . I would like them to have access to overall, for example, we have hundreds of thousands of page views, accounts and facebook came later, said it was only xnumber of accounts that they thought were russianbased. Then they came up with literally tens of thousands of instagram posts at the very end. The capacity of the Intelligence Community to sort through all that, i think kind of an independent third party, almost academic analysis how we make sure on a Going Forward basis, i just believe americans ought to have the right to know if theyre reading a story or political commentary ought to know whether that is generated by a real human being and. I think those ought to be basic components. That is big news. It shows there will be a lot more drama between Silicon Valley and d. C. Im a tech guy. I think these are great, iconic success stories, but in any new revolution we saw the upside but havent seen the downside. I know were about out of time, would i take this as well, add another item. As we look, i doubt if maybe this audience could, but there are a dozen tech firms in china all with, with valuations, many of them north of 10 billion, and growing exponentially. Theyre about to come sweeping through the american marketplace. I think we have to be concerned whether the rules that these firms operate under in china, where Chinese Government has a lot more access to data and information, whether that kind of backdoors could end up infiltrating our american system. Weve seen that already with can percentry lab, russianbased Software Firm this is new way of conflict, there is no democrat or republican solution here. This ought to be a place where we could work colab atively. Rapid round, cell phones turned out to be a pretty good investment . Eked out a living. What will be the tech story of the year in 2018 . I think the tech story of the year in 2018 will be the fact that the United States of america does not have, and i talked to the admin vision about this, i think theyre getting better, not just a critique of the administration, go back to obama and bush 43 the fact that america has no articulated cyber stock trin how we push back against other nation states like russia and china, who mess with our elections, steal our intellectual property, invade and perpetrate many of our Defense Systems that will be the tech story. On Senate Majority control, you think its a jump ball. I think its a jump ball but youre going to win. I think democrats will jump a little higher. Senator warner, youre guilty, we always end with one fun thing. Your guilty pressural pleasure is the apstore. What do you i end up, just got the knew 10, and actually take possession of it tomorrow. And see if it, i hope it has a few either my last version had a few more bugs than apples previous volumes did or those russians are penetrating everywhere. Senator warner. Thank you very much. Merry christmas. Thanks so much for coming in. [applause] thank you, senator warner for that great conversation. Well hear a quick message from bank of america. It includes a infographic. Were back in two seconds. As a Global Community were facing so many challenges. We need to bring innovative ideas to life as fast as possible to address them. We can connect money and capital to innovative ideas. One way to do it for a bank who lends into a cdf5. A Community Development financial institution. The way it does the banks lend to cdfis at below market rate. They can then lend toe the individual or Small Business at lower rates they can get using the credit card or online lending. Other work with the tory Birch Foundation is terrific example of working with cdfis, deploying capital to Small Businesses particularly women. They provide mentorship, and to provide capital to get more money into the system for businesses when they start businesses so they can get a jump on the economy and help local communities. We have put into more than 250 cdfis allowed to us deploy capital into a community and Small Businesses at much earlier stage and make a huge difference in local economies. Thank you very much for bank of america for that message. Now my honor to welcome to the axios stage, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell of kentucky. [applause] that so much for coming. Your book is called the long game. Thats what getting this tax victory was. You played the long game. Only 31 years. You cant rush these things. What was the turning point . Well i think there were a number of turning points. If i had to pick out the sort of the highlights, i think toward the end senator mccains decision to support us early was very important signal that we were not going to have the same kind of coalition that ended up being troublesome on health care the excuse me, i take it you had a hand in that. How did you convince him . How did you get that advance assurance . I think john felt, he believes in a robust america and everybody assumes that is just on the defense side but he also believes very strongly that we ought to be dominant commercially too and everybody understands that our business tax code has been a disaster, even a lot of democrats were saying that until donald trump became president and having a Strong America commercially is important too and this bill clearly help does that i think that was a big factor for him. You said another turning point after senator mccain. All along the way there were a number of points but i think that was a signal, you know, to everybody to folks like you and others this was not likely to end the way the last episode ended. Youve seen this tax cut as less popular than tarp, the bank bailout, a 38. Actually discovered it is less popular than under clinton and bush 41, some tax increases. How do you turn that around . Well, let me just tell you how you turn it around. I brought a couple of points that might work. When you asked the inevitable question. Lets assume youre joe manchin or heidi heitkamp. Two democrats who should have voted for this. Joe donnelly. Looking at commercial in fall of 2018 featuring a person in typical family of four making 73,000 is getting a 2,000 tax cut. Now all of you inside the beltway people might not think 2,000 is is that not that much money. That is previous reintroduction of the taxes previous year, 58 . Assume single parent one child making 41,000 a year, single parent, one child, making 41,000 a year. You get 1300 more. A lot of people in the Greater Washington area doesnt seem like much. One trip to costco. That is 73 reduction for that single mother making 41,000 a year. So were prepared to make this argument to the American People this was a significant middle class tax cut. But also, that it was important to get the country growing again. I think everybody sensed not having a single year of 3 growth during the obama years, that we were underperforming and we were underperforming. This gives you a chance to begin to live up to americas potential. Which means more jock and more opportunities. This is debate were anxious to have, there is no question. Both sides see it differently, not a single democrat in the house and senate voted for it. Well take the argument to the American People. Sounds like we can expect to see commercial very much like that . If i were running the campaign i would be running. You do have influence. I would have that single woman saying senator manchin maybe 1300 is not much to but it is a lot to me. Well have that argument in the fall. Do you have any worry that parts of this will have to be undone . Senator warner told us because it was done in haste that there might have to be a fix next year. What is the chance there will be some tax cut fix next year . I think there are always, at a minimum technical corrections after tax bills, whether theyre big tax bills or small tax bills. I wouldnt be surprised if that happens. I think the core of the bill is intact and we wanted to make america more competitive. I think were going to do that. I also was pleased to see a lot of corporate reaction yesterday to this. At t decided to give 1000 christmas bonus to 200,000 employees. Other corporations are stepping up. Obviously rebutting the argument that the democrats were making this wasnt going to somehow benefit workers. It will benefit workers. It is nonsense to suggest that it will not benefit workers. So you get the drift, mike. Were prepared to make this argument with the American People. We think it is an important step in the direction getting america growing again. Senator mcconnell, leader mcconnell you really worked this. You had a lot of meetings with individual members, small group meetings, to hash out like what they really needed, what their concerns were, as the leader, you worked this bill a little bit the way a Committee Chairman usually works. A little bit what . The way a Committee Chairman would work. Well, were fortunate in the Senate Republican conference we have three lunches he have week, almost everybody attends. I always say to paul ryan i dont know how you guys communicate with 200, some odd members. It is pretty easy for us to talk to each other. In this particular instance i designated four people on the finance committee who i thought were particularly persuasive, tim scott, rob portman, pat toomey and john thune. We brought into my office with those four who were on the committee, four or five of our members at a time who were not on the committee and read them into the process all along the way. So i bet time the bill came out of the finance committee, it was a broad comfort with it. Now you always have people who would like to adjust this or adjust that. It is a statement of the obvious in a 5248 situation everybody has a lot of leverage. And, some members, you know, use their leverage. I think in retrospect actually improved the bill a number of different ways. So sort of one by one, you line it up. There were probably 46 members pretty satisfied with the product coming out. And the rest we needed to satisfy in one way or another. By the end of the evident we had everybody. Could you a played your cards difficultly to get a few democrats, or based on the jump ball for control of the senate next november that senator warner was talking about do you think youre better off with all republicans . I would have love to have democrats but it was pretty clear, you might not remember this, mike, it happened before the august recess, i got a letter from all but three Senate Democrats outlining what kind of tax reform they might support. Frankly it was nothing that, in our view was even close to what we thought needed to be done to get the country growing again. So the message was, this is not 1986. In 1986, it was a pretty broad bipartisan effort. Ed liberals like Dick Gephardt and bill bradley thought it was important to do it. Todays Democratic Party is driven by rhetoric of Bernie Sanders and elizabeth warren. A lot of members who are inclined to be more centrist are entame dated by that. This was the only clear chance to get the outcome. Looking november, plenty of people want to unseat you. One republican first used interim leader. Do you think you will keep the senate in spite of the tax cut or because of the tax cut . I think well keep the senate. As what will be the principle issue a year from now is hard to predict, it really is hard to predict. Every election cycle is different. The personalities are different. The map is different. Unlike the house it is important to remember were not all up. Only 1 3 of the senate is up every two years. In any one so i kel you have to look where the races are. We have pretty good map. 25 of our democratic friend are up and only eight of us. But they had a good map last cycle, 24 of us, only 10 of them. In fact senator schumer was so confident he would have my job the last week before the election i noticed he was having interviews with different reporters to discuss his agenda, and he called my the day before the election said hoped we would have a high level of cooperation. I called him back the day after the election. I said i hope so. My point is the map alone doesnt guarranty the out come but we do have a good map. I think wise man once side dont fall in love with your map. I said that, absolutely. That was a wise man. Senator, if you look at north dakota, you look at north dakota, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, youre not getting the recruits that you wanted. Why is recruiting so hard for you this year . I dont know that recruit something over yet. It is an ongoing process, and, we expect to be very competitive in a number of places that are pretty red, missouri, north dakota, indiana, west virginia. Were hoping Governor Scott will run in florida, who has very good standings, particularly after the way he handled the hurricanes. So recruiting season is not over. I will talk for a second that you can enjoy some water there. In a few minutes leader mcconnell has a great yearend tradition. He pauses at the end of the year and reflects on the year, writes that down, something we all should do, formed the basis of the book, the long game, well come back to that shortly. Leader mcconnell, as you pitch to people you really want to run. Its a tough environment. History doesnt favor a firstyear president under any circumstances. What is your pitch to someone you really want in one of these crucial states . Well, we have a unique opportunity here, with a republican president , a republican house, a republican senate, to move america right of center and i think we can demonstrate we already had significant progress. Look at the Supreme Court. For a generation now i think it is pretty likely to be right of center. Weve confirmed 12 Circuit Court judge this is year. I always say in selling potential candidates of the senate, were in the personnel business, the house of representative not in the personnel business. There were 1200 executive branch appointments that come to us for confirmation. The 12 circuit judges that we did this year, the Circuit Court system was set up in 1891, created in the 1891, one step below the Supreme Court this is the most circuit judges ever confirmed in the first year of a president since the Circuit Court system was set up so this administration, with the involvement of the senate, is having a huge impact on the court system in this country for a generation. These people who are being confirmed are relatively young and when you use the word conservative as applied to judges, were not talking about political conservatives so much as were talking about what is the role of a judge . I had Justice Gorsuch down in my state in september. I appreciated him coming. Here was the way he described the role of a judge. We dont wear red and we dont wear blue. We wear black. Justice scalia put it this way. He said if youre a judge and youre not occasionally uncomfortable with the out come you reach, youre not a good judge. I think for potential candidates who want to have impact on the country, that is a pretty good selling point. Not to mention the accomplishment of this week. Come be a part of trying to make america a very different place than it was for eight years under barack obama is a pretty appealing argument, particularly in a lot of the red states that we have opportunities in 2018. Leader mcconnell, youre talking about the impact of these court decisions. Odds are that you will have a Supreme Court nomination next year that would tilt the balance like that instantly becomes the domestic story of the year, right . Well, we dont know whether there will be a retirement but always, when there is a retirement, Supreme Court vacancy is a big deal in this country. Somebody asked me yesterday, was the tax bill the highlight of my year . Actually it was the close second. My, i think the most important accomplishment was the Gorsuch Nomination because i had been involved, obviously not filling that vacancy during the campaign and i thought the president did an excellent job of not blowing the opportunity. He picked a really great nominee and so taxes are close but i would put slightly behind gorsuch. Leader mcconnell, your comments from the south lawn yesterday, quotation of the day in the New York Times about what a great achievement this was for the trump administration. As we saw clips from the south lawn, did you start to think that some of the tribute to the president got to be a little over the top . [laughter] you know im not going to answer a question like that. What is your working relationship with the president at the moment . It is good, it is good. He likes to talk. He is talking to members all the time. I talk to them all the time. He, you know, you get phone calls at oddest hours but it is not just me. He calls a lot of people. A lost interaction. A lot of back and forth. I think hes, i think he is doing a good job. He knows im not a huge fan of tweets, although i like to tweet. He sent one about me yesterday, so there are exceptions but i think he is doing the right thing for the country. Some of those tweets about you by him must have been hard to overlook but you plainly have. How . Im sorry . Some of his tweets about you must have been hard to overlook. They werent my favorite, no. He has gotten better. In what sense . [laughter]. Were doing just fine. What has senator schumer been like to work with compared to his predecessor as democratic leader, harry reid . I wouldnt compare them but i like chuck. Weve known each other a long time. He is a straightshooter. We get along just well, just fine. Yesterdays, the president s Economic Advisor gary cohn was on the stage, he said on january 3rd, they will start working on infrastructure and welfare reform, entitledment reform at same time. He thinks you need to , can get democrats certainly on entitlement reform. Mark warner said, senator warner says he doesnt see that happening. What is your, how far, where are they on your sort of todo list for next year . I think the democrats will not be interested in entitlement reform. So i would not expect to see that on the agenda. And what the democrats are willing to do is important because in the senate with rare exceptions like the tax bill, we have to have democratic involvement. So things like infrastructure, which secretary of transportation obviously has a good deal of interest in. Family matters. To do something in that area well have to have democratic participation and i hope, it has been a pretty partisan year. A good example of that, how difficult it has been to get assistant secretaries are of confirmed. I had to confirm general counsel of one of the departments yesterday with a voice vote. I mean i would like to see that stopped. There is really no purpose served by that level of obstruction. I can understand judges, lifetime appointments. I dont blame them. I would do the same thing, it has been a very important and contentious thing but honestly assistant secretary of this or that shouldnt be that difficult. We ought to be confirming those people on a voice vote. I hope that gets better because thats really pointless obstruction. Im not opposed to obstruction if you have a point. If it is important and it is something deeply felt, i understand it but im not sure most people know who the assistant secretary of this or that is and it has inhibited the administration getting up and getting running. As we look ahead to the agenda, you just made it plain welfare reform, entitlement reform will not be on the agenda, you would need 60 votes, you dont see any chance of getting democratic votes. On infrastructure reform you need democratic votes. Do you think a chance, good chance, some chance . I hope we can go forward on infrastructure but my only point was the nature of the senate is such we can not do these things without democratic involvement. Right. So well have to work together. Hopefully more than weve been able to do in in 2017. And what is your recipe for that or how could that happen . I think there is a lot of interest in infrastructure. Yes. I think it is pretty popular with democrats and republicans both. Youre an optimist on that. Senate banking chairman, mike crapo of idaho, has put forth bipartisan banking reform bill. 65 senators have said that theyre for it. Will that come up and do you see that as being a sign of possibility of some bipartisan work . It will. It will be on my agenda and your previous guests for example, is one of the democrats supporting it. I think it is an important revisitation if you will of doddfrank, to bring some relief to smaller institutions that had got swept up in all of that had nothing so ever to do with the meltdown in 2008. That will happen early and youre optimistic about that . Yeah. I think the fact that chairman crapo has lined up number of democrats for it makes it a candidate for early consideration. What is your optimism about it passing . What is your sort of, what does it say to importance personally . I think it would be an important thing to do in the fact that Many Democrats are willing to sort of a understood the consequences of these unintended, sort of Collateral Damage of doddfrank occurred among the smaller institutions across the country and i think they have gotten the attention of members of the committee, obviously both democrats and republicans. Steve bannon is not elected to anything yet some people think he is a power broker. He wants to have you spend more time with your family. How do you manage or control someone like steve bannon . I dont have anything to say about him at all. He is out trying to be an outside force in the senate races. That complicate what is youre trying to do. I dont have any observations about him at all. [laughter]. It is the rare person that you have no observations about. No there are others there are others i have no observations about. Like who. I wouldnt mention them. [laughter]. Why no observations . What it is not a factor in my life. You know, it has no impact on our ability to function in the senate, nor will it have any impact on the campaigns. Look, i mean the key thing if you want to win a campaign you have to have a candidate who can win. It is not complicated. The kind of people youre talking about, that element, just managed to blow a senate race in the reddest state in america. That is not a formula for victory. So to the extent that there are people running in primaries around the country who have no chance of winning the election we will oppose them. We did that successfully in 14. Took the senate. Did it successfully in 16 and took the senate. Were more passive about primaries in 2010 and 2012 and threw away races in delaware, nevada, missouri, indian narcs were not doing that anymore. So the idea is to try to win in november because unless you win the election, you cant make policy. Always remind people it is statement of the obvious, winners make policy and losers go home and go into another line of work. So youre going to put a stop to throwing away races by nominating candidates who cant win . We did that in 14 and 16 and had great success. Well do that in 18. People see themselves as saviors. That is good thing to avoid. Something else you said in the book, very often, as reporters set up their stories and sort of narrative arcs, very often you play the villain. Im just a really nice guy. I dont know how i end up being a villain. It just amazes me. Sounds like you dont mind playing the villain . Look, you cant be in this line of work to make everybody happy. The question is, i get asked all the time, how do you deal with all the criticism . And i said, well, for one thing, higher up you go the more criticism you get. Number two you have to decide whose opinion you care about. Whose opinion do you care about . I care, for example, what people like Charles Krauthamer and george will think about my. I care what the wall street journal editorial page thinks about me. I care not a wit what the New York Times editorial page thinks about me. So that is how i deal with the inevitable criticism that comes along with doing a job like this. Whose opinion do you value . And sometimes you deal with the criticism with humor. In your Kentucky Senate office you have a wall that is filled in an unusual way. A lot of cartoons, all of them skewering me. I recently asked my staff to count up all the cartoons over the years. I think were at about 600 and none of them are nice, but if you have got a food sense of humor you enjoy them. You have 600 in favorable cartoons . None of them are favorable. Not a one. You seem to actually enjoy that . I do. As i said, im used to being criticized. Seems to me you need to find out whats important to yourself, keep your eye on the goal, and when opportunities come along, to achieve what you think is important for the country. That happened after 2016. All of a sudden we had a president who is likely to sign bills that we thought were good for the country. When the stars are aligned, maximize your opportunities. And dont waste anytime if you can avoid it. The stars are aligned right now, and were going to take maximum opportunity to have an impact on the country excuse me, penultimate question, is there any danger that the government will shut down . No. What gives you that confidence . No one wants to do it. That hasnt stopped it before. No. Occasionally some foolish people have wanted to do it. No one wants to do it. Leader mcconnell, i mentioned your yearend tradition reflecting on the year. I think that is something that would serve our audience very much. How did that tradition start and what is your tradition . Well, like a lot of americans i, toward the end of the year i use it as a time to look back. A lot of americans say they have new years resolutions about all the things they might do better the next year. I tend to use it as a time to look back over the last 12 months, and, write about things that are important not only in my family but in my career. And, i think oral histories are important. I also do that from time to time. Ive done it for 25 years. I would say for people in the audience, its a good thing to do for your family, particularly for elderly people before theyre gone. Get their reflections. And, in my case, nike mike, it became helpful. You mentioned my memoir, the long game. If i had not sat down and done the oral histories last 25 years, no way could have done the book in yearandahalf. No way. In my particular instance it ended up being useful to do a publication, regardless whether youre planning to write a book, im a big fan of families keeping oral histories, passing them down from generation to generation. Talk into a phone, talk into a recorder, for how long . I sit down with my wife and i have a archives at the university of louisville. We have a fulltime archive it. It works better with me to sit down with someone, so i usually sit down with the curator and we talk about it. What will be top pick a this year . Well, on the business side, on the professional side it will be the things that weve been talking about, the Supreme Court, the Circuit Courts, the tax bill. Ill probably be a little more candid about my own reflections about the president than i would be with you. [laughter]. Because remember oral history is your property. I think its a good thing to do. This is a good time of the year for all of us to be doing it. How long will you spend on this project . Oh, in my case, several hours, yeah. Actually it is better to do it more often, but i just dont find the time to do it as often as i would like. Leader mcconnell, as we say goodbye, before Football Games you have a secret passion. Well it is not secret. Tail getting is not a secret. We have i buy a bunch of season tickets every year to louisville football. We have a group of people ive known since college. We make a day of it. We go out, couple hours before the game. Then go to the game. A couple of hours after the game. And, it is pretty sober crowd. Everybody is still actually on their feet after all of that. It is a lot of fun. And one of the joys of it is nonwork people, right . No. These are friends some people involved in politics but friend of many years. And, whats the leading activity here . Wings, what do you do . Well it is a lot of eating. And a lot of believe it or not, were real fans. Talking about the players. For example, louisville had Heisman Trophy winner last year, guy named lamar jackson. Pretty exciting to watch a guy like that. Like to thank cspan for joining us. We thank our cspan audience. Thank the bank of america making these news shaper conversations possible. Thank you for the great year. Thank the amazing axios event team. Not just the chocolate bar but the 31 events in year one. This is baskinrobbins event number 31. Thank all my axios colleagues that made this great year one of axios possible. Thank you for coming this morning. Leader mcconnell, thank you for a fascinating illuminating conversation. Thank you very much. [applause] cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979 cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Republican senator James Lankford has proposed procedural rules changes would limit debate on executive and judicial nominations. He was the sole witness at a Senate Rules Committee hearing on his proposal. This is an hour and 20 minutes. Hearing will come to order. Today the committee on rules and administration will receive testimony on Senate Resolution 355, improving procedures f
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