against the former president, mcconnell, lindsey graham, for goodness sakes was saying he would have enough. that seemed to have been the moment when a difference could have been made, i mean if he had chosen to stick with that opposition to try to rid the republican party of the former president, would he be in this position today? >> he would be in a better position. mitch mcconnell has stiff-armed trump. mccarthy chose the other route which was to embrace trump. you know, look, mccarthy probably would still have had problems had he stiff-armed trump with some of his members but i'd rather be on the right side of history than the wrong side in this case so i think he made the wrong choice with that. >> it's a morality tale about ambition. i mean, he has yearned for this for years and years and years. he was denied this by the freedom caucus back in 2015 and his answer was to be as solicitous as possible and gotten every concession you could think, basically handing