Lets bring in our leadoff panel for this friday night. Franco ordonez, White House Correspondent for mcclatchy newspapers, covering immigration and foreign affairs. The New York Times katie benner, pulitzer prizewinning reporter who covers the Justice Department. And yamiche alcindor, White House Correspondent for news hour on pbs. Thanks to all of you for being with us. Katie, let me start with you. We have that reporting tonight about some movement on that issue of reunifying parents with children, at least some of them. You cover the Justice Department, the legal end of this. It sounded like there was still plenty of confusion when that Executive Order was issued the other day by the president about what that was actually going to allow in terms of reunification. How clear is that now . Absolutely. So as you say, this was another selfinflicted wound by the Trump Administration not thinking through clearly enough a directive before issuing it. So we saw a lot of confusion last night. There was a meeting at the white house where people argued back and forth for at least 90 minutes about what to do. Things do seem to have clarified somewhat. At the heart of this, the Justice Department helped draft the Executive Order, so they believe that their legal interpretation of this is correct, which is based around what they are calling a Zero Tolerance policy for people crossing the border illegally. Then other components including border patrol, dhs, has pushed back and said we just dont think we can do both. We cannot keep Families Together and continue to do Zero Tolerance. Today it seems like we got the components together and that they did come to somewhat more of a position where theyre all on the same page hewing more closely to Zero Tolerance. It seems the president on this, especially after issuing that Executive Order, trying to talk about other facets of the immigration issue, maybe change the subject, maybe throw more balls in the air. Lets look at those different components. Franco, to you, on the political component on capitol hill, where you had the president there a couple days ago talking to republicans carrying the message of, hey, im with you. Get some Immigration Reform. Lets get this done. Then today going on twitter and saying, you know what, democrats are just getting in the way. We cant do anything until after november anyway. Politically on capitol hill, what were the odds of some action taking place on immigration between now and the election, and what are the odds now after that tweet from donald trump . I mean the odds were pretty low before. It was a heavy lift from the start. Thats why the moderate proposal was punted supposedly to the next week in the first place. But then when trump issued that tweet, it really let the air out of any more energy. I thought of all the members that spoke in that clip that you shared, mark sanford, i thought, of South Carolina was the most honest in saying, look, its going to be really hard to do it now. Lets remember that paul ryan and other leaders at the beginning of this debate said they need trumps support. They need his backing. We dont want to bring anything to the floor unless we know for
with what his base is looking for . Well, his base is looking for exactly what the president did today. He took that message of America First and really made it something that was about whether or not you support these asking the question really, do you support migrant kids in cages, or do you support families whose loved ones have allegedly been killed by undocumented immigrants . He posed that question to his base. They chose they choose america. They choose this idea that you have to not look at these kids in cages and be appalled, that you have to instead pivot and look at these families. The fact that he continually said these are families that are permanently separated from their loved ones, making light of the fact that being separated from your child for a month or two months or even eight months in some cases, that thats not as hard as your child being gone forever. So theres this idea that he really wanted to get back to his roots because this week was really, really tough for the president. He does not step back. He does not take back his
actions. And this week he had to actually say, you know what . He had to admit on paper in an Executive Order that this was not something that could work out, that he had to actually undo a policy that he thought was going to deter undocumented immigrants. So i think that the president was feeling a little wounded, and as a result he did this. I talked to a white house official a couple hours ago who said that the president still supports both of the bills that are in the house, but that person is saying that on background, not wanting to put their name on the record. And the president is not tweeting that out. Hes not saying, hey, i still am excited about these two bills. I hope that they pass. Instead hes really saying youre wasting your time. Lets just make it a midterm issue. Thats the interesting thing, yamiche. I think it was ryan costello, republican congressman from pennsylvania actually hes not running again. He got a tough break there in the redistricting and said, thats it. Im not going again. Hes been a little more outspoken since then maybe. His reaction to what you just said from donald trump today was he said, hey, the calculation is clear here. The president just wants to be
blaming democrats rhetorically. Is there a strategy that you see between now and november thats not about policy, not about legislation, about the rhetoric of the campaign . I think so. I think this president wants to say if you want stronger immigration laws, if you want to actually get something done, that you need to have more republicans. The white house official today talked to me and said that republicans dont have enough of a majority. Theres this idea that everyone knows that republicans have control of both the presidency, the house, and the senate. But now theyre saying we dont have enough republicans to get things through and we need to get rid of some more of these democrats. I think thats really important because the president also sees that democrats were having a really tough time and are still having a really tough time getting a message together. But kids in cages really grabbed the attention of the whole nation, and even republicans who have never really criticized the president , came out and said this is wrong. Paul ryan, all these other
republicans on capitol hill, evangelicals that are backing the president because of his stance on abortion and neil gorsuch on the Supreme Court, they said we cannot have this. So the president needs to get this narrative back. The way he wants to do that is by making a midterm issue. Franco, what yamiche is describing does strike me when you look at the polling, the Public Opinion polling out there. You look at the question of Family Separation, kids being separated at the border, parents being held for some sort of court proceeding, even among republicans, trumps base, you see it split in half there. Then you see wide opposition outside of that. But then when the issue shifts back to this sort of underlying, socalled Zero Tolerance policy as the Trump Administration frames it, where, you know, its this question of anybody crossing the border illegally, should they be held . Should she be jailed awaiting some kind of trial, some kind of legal proceeding . Should the families be held
together in detention while that happens, there is in these polls a lot more support there. It seems the politics of this maybe get more complicated once you get away, if you get away from the Family Separation issue weve talked about this week. No doubt. I couldnt agree more with yamiche, who is about how the Trump Administration is trying to kind of rewrite the narrative this week. It was a really difficult week, and, you know, earlier in the week obviously some of his base was kind of being chipped away. You know, it was just a few days ago that the administration, steve miller, the allies were saying, were going to stick to our guns. Were going to keep doing this. You know, 24 hours after that, hes signing this Executive Order. Why . You know, he got so much of affront from members of his own party. I want to say particularly one of the more sensitive one was members of his loyal base. The christian, the religious community, folks like franklin graham, who stood out, who have usually been so loyal to this president , stepped out and talked about these issues and said this was not right. It was a really fascinating turn. You saw sessions going on Christian Broadcast Network saying, well, i didnt really mean that we wanted to separate the children and the parents. So it really was a fascinating turn of events for this administration. They backtracked completely. Now trump is obviously hitting back hard, blaming Illegal Immigrants for a lot of issues and saying theres a whole different world of separation of u. S. Citizens. So its quite interesting. Katie, it seems that maybe the next phase, if there is a next phase in this, could become a dispute over this question of, okay, if Going Forward youre not going to have this policy of holding the adults and then after, you know, 21 days releasing the kids, separating the kids from the adults, then a dispute over what do you do then where the trump side is saying, you detain the Families Together awaiting a court ruling. And ive seen democrats saying, Kamala Harris, the dnc put out a statement saying, no, no, no. You dont detain. You dont hold anyone. I think its been reduced to this catch and release term. From a legal standpoint, i know weve got this Consent Decree from a few years ago hanging over all this. But if the Trump Administration decided to go down that road of family detention, legally how much latitude do they have there . So let me unpack this in two parts. The Consent Decree that you mentioned, yes, the Justice Department has asked a judge in california to modify a Consent Decree temporarily. This is the decree that makes it very difficult to detain parents and children together. What they want the judge to allow is for children to allow to be detained in i. C. E. Facilities, which currently they are not. Only adults are. That would keep them together. Then theyre hoping congress does some sort of permanent fix. But obviously its clear that is not going to happen. So that is the Consent Decree portion. Then the other is and i think is one of Kamala Harris concerns, is that if we can pave a way legally for parents and children to be detained, its indefinite. Then what do we have at the border . What do we have all over the country . We would have Detention Centers where whole families are held but there is no 21day limit. We know the immigration courts, the prosecutions are backed up. Its going more slowly than people would like despite the prosecutors who have been moved to the border to take care of some of these criminal cases. I think the worry is we would be paving the way for indefinite detention of families, which is a very different issue and just as disturbing for a lot of democrats. When we talk about the complexity of polling, the polling showed when you give voters a choice of how to handle families in these situations, crossing the border illegally, the idea of detaining the family together was runaway the first choice of democrats and republicans. It raises the question if you introduce that word indefinite in front of that, how does that scramble the way people think about it . A lot of layers to this here. Thank you all for joining us. This weekend, our colleague, jacob soboroff, hes been doing some incredible reporting, and he has a Dateline Special on the crisis at the border called the dividing line. Thats going to be sunday, 7 00 p. M. Eastern, 6 00 central on your local nbc station. Coming up, why this picture has everyone asking a lot of questions tonight. Later, President Trump says there will be a red wave. Democrats, of course, have been hoping for a blue one. Im going to head over to the big board, take a look at where things stand. Is there a wave forming . What color is it . A lot to get to. The 11th hour back after this. When we were dating, we used to get excited about things like Concert Tickets or a new snowboard. Matt whoo whoo jen but that all changed when we bought a house. Matt voila jen matt started turning into his dad. Matt mm. Thats some good mulch. Im awake. But it was pretty nifty when jen showed me how easy it was to protect our home and auto with progressive. [ Wrapper Crinkling ] get this butterscotch out of here. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents. Theres quite a bit of work, cause this was all this was all stapled. 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the crisis at the border, pressure on President Trumps former fixer has been mounting. This week, we saw reports that Michael Cohen is considering flipping, and we learned he wants the president to foot the bill for his legal fees. Cohen also quit the rnc and openly criticized trumps immigration policy. And now were learning new details about trumps cozy relationship with the national enquirer. The Washington Post reporting the tabloid sent stories about trump to cohen for approval before they went to print. Then this photo posted on twitter. Cohen seen smiling with trumps celebrity enemy, tom arnold, who is working on a new show focused on obtaining damaging trump tapes. Arnold further fueled speculation tonight that cohen may be working against his former boss. Im going to spend the weekend with Michael Cohen, and the president , donald trump,
ivanka trump, im spending the weekend hanging out with Michael Cohen. And theres a lot going on. Did Michael Cohen tell you specifically, yes or no, that he is cooperating with the authorities should charges be brought . Did he tell you . Do you not want to answer the question . No. You dont want to answer the question . Right. Cohen then downplayed the claims on twitter tonight, writing, this was a chance public encounter in the hotel lobby where he asked for a selfie. Not spending the weekend together. Did not discuss being on his show. Nor did we discuss potus. Done. Ridiculous. Just in the last hour on this network, tom arnold was back at it and discussing cohen and his alleged cooperation in an interview with Lawrence Odonnell on the last word. Michael cohen is cooperating on the right side of this right now. And the right side, does that include the fbi and the yes. Prosecutors . So hes cooperating with them already . Yes, 100 . And how do you know that . He told you that . He didnt say those words, but i know that. What were the words he said . I know people are to indicate that . Thats okay. I understand. Um, im with you. You know that. Cohen is under federal investigation in connection with 130,000 payment of hush money to porn star stormy daniels. Her attorney weighed in on this Network Earlier today. Perhaps this is a Flare Gunshot in the air for Michael Cohen, you know, a message to mr. Trump or others that there may be things coming down the pike. There is no doubt in my mind that Michael Cohen is going to be indicted and face some very, very serious charges. Theres no doubt in my mind that hes going to try to trade or flip on this. Here with us tonight, mimi rocah, former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, now a distinguished fellow in Criminal Justice at the Pace University school of law and msnbc legal analyst. And josh gerstein, senior White House Reporter for politico. Questions i didnt think id be asking on an 11 00 news show on msnbc a couple years ago, but lets talk about tom arnold. Lets. Hes hinting in an awful lot in an interview on this Network Earlier tonight, on cnn, hinting in that clip and other parts of that interview, his antics we played seemed erratic, the incentive he has to hype interest in this special hes got coming out seems obvious. Im a layman legally. Im curious watching that interview tonight, watching these interviews, what did you make of it . Look, its hard to know what he he didnt actually come out and say it, right . So even when he was asked, is he cooperating by lawrence, he said arnold said hes on the right side. But then when he asked about the exact words, the words were about im with you. Cohen saying to arnold im with you, which doesnt say anything about what hes doing with the government. But it doesnt answer the question that lawrence had asked, which is, is he cooperating with the government, right . So, you know, theres a lot of sort of its good tv. Theres a lot of Different Things that arnold has said. One thing i know for sure, and this is not the point of what hes saying. But i know for sure that cohens new lawyer, guy petrillo, and the prosecutors and the fbi do not want tom arnold out there doing what hes doing right now, okay . Because if Michael Cohen is headed in the direction of cooperating with them, they dont want tom arnold talking about what cohen is also telling
them out on television, and they dont want cohen then, you know, on twitter saying, no, thats not true, and arnold saying, no, what youre saying isnt true. You know, its hurting it could potentially hurt the credibility of what may be a very important witness if you start getting into this twitterfest about what someone did or didnt say and what someone is or isnt doing. Cooperation is meant to be a confidential process. Even if someone isnt cooperating proactively. So i know at least, you know, cohens attorney is probably counseling cohen to not do this, especially given the attorney that he now has, guy petrillo, former prosecutor. I know him. You know, a very honorable, good lawyer, upstanding person, well thought of, well respected. He would not, i dont think, be in favor of this. So, you know, its hard to know what to make of arnold saying all of this. I think all that said, though, cohen has a lot of incentive to cooperate. So i dont think its beyond the realm at all that he is at least headed in that direction. Cooperation right now wouldnt mean obviously that hes going in Court Tomorrow or anytime soon and pleading guilty. It may mean that hes already possibly i dont know this started talking, you know, with them informally or formally or it may just mean thats where hes headed. You know, thats the direction hes going in. And that makes sense because, remember, the judge has basically adopted the special masters findings, you know, which say that almost nothing is privileged. So all of that evidence that was seized is coming in. And so, you know against cohen. So that evidence, and were just starting to hear about more and more crimes that theyre obviously looking at, and im sure there is more to come. So hes under a lot of pressure to cooperate. And, josh, i mean im just curious. Somebody who knows what youre talking about when it comes to this story and watched what tom
arnold had to say, where does your interpretation fall on that scale of, you know, kind of hype or something erratic on one side versus Something Real on the other side . Where is the balance for you . Well, i do think that what tom arnold was saying in these several interviews has to be taken with more than a grain of salt, probably with at least a full tablespoon or more. But there is this element here where you do get the sense that Michael Cohen is sometimes trolling President Trump, you know, that he could have taken the opportunity not to have a selfie taken with arnold, but he went ahead and did it. And in some of these comments and interactions seems kind of playful. It does seem like a degree of attentionseeking with respect to the president , like theres some kind of deepseated psychological grievance or neediness there. Whether thats part of a legal strategy or some other kind of psychological issue is hard to say. The last time i checked in with people close to cohen, the word was that he was not cooperating with federal prosecutors, that
he was open to talking with them about it, but that those discussions had not progressed to the point that anybody could describe as actively cooperating. And i think there was one point in that interview tonight when arnold said something to the effect, paraphrasing here, of, hey, im overselling this interaction with cohen a little bit, but hes underselling it. Hes very much underselling it. Cohen is very much underselling it. So i think arnold had said something to that effect at one point. Josh, related to the issue of Michael Cohen, then, and the legal situation he finds himself in, there were also some court filings, or there was a court filing today that shed a little bit more light on the documents the government now has in its possession. What can you tell us about that . I think mimi was alluding to it just a moment ago. It talked about the judge and the special masters decision on how many information is privileged here. What was fascinating in this order that judge wood put out was that even among the relatively small universe of information they decided was privileged, the vast majority of
it seemed to have nothing to do with either President Trump or the Trump Organization or any other clients like folks like sean hannity, for example. The stuff that was deemed privileged seems to be legal advice that Michael Cohen was getting from other lawyers about Michael Cohens personal exposure or other legal matters and very, very little of it has to do with any clients. So the total amount thats going to be withheld from prosecutors that could potentially be relevant to President Trump is an infinitesimal fraction, probably on the order of a tenth of 1 or a hundredth of 1 of the material thats been processed so far. Any sense on the timetable on this . All the speculation is there going to be some kind of deal, some kind of cooperation, some kind of flipping . Is that we find out when we find out, or are there any clues we can kind of discern here when we get an answer to that . Well, we find out when they want us to find out. I mean, even once he goes down that road if he goes down the road of cooperation, we may not know it. Now, Michael Cohen is unusual because he does like the attention and wants to talk. They wont want him to confirm to anyone if he is cooperating, they being the government, and his lawyer im sure would try to tell him not to. But i dont know if he can help himself. The truth is a sign might be i expect Michael Cohen to get charged now that this Discovery Process is coming to an end. One would think the next step would be him getting charged. If for some reason charges arent filed, that would be a sign to me that there are discussions going on. Now, it doesnt have to be cooperation. They could be discussions about a plea without cooperating, right . Like he hired guy petrillo. You know, hiring an alum from the office is someone who can help him navigate the office. Whether you go down the cooperation road, meaning giving information in exchange for something, you know, which you get from the government its
called a 5k letter or just negotiating a Plea Agreement thats favorable to him so that he can, you know, try to spend less time in jail than he otherwise would if he went to trial. So he has the same options available to him that any defendant has once hes charged. And even if hes not charged, you can start that negotiation process. So if those charges arent filed relatively soon, that would be a sign that hes trying to negotiate something. Again, i think we have to be careful about, you know, assuming we know what that something is yet. But if we dont hear anything, we can suspect something, perhaps. Mimi rocah, josh gerstein, thank you both for being with us. Up next, President Trump is talking about a red wave in november. Do the numbers say one could be forming . Going to head over to the big board and find some answers there when The 11th Hour comes right back. Oh, you brought butch. Yeah butch growls at man hes looking at me right now, isnt he . Yup. butch barks at man butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. laughs vo you can never have too many faithful companions. Thats why i got a subaru crosstrek. Love is out there. Find it in a subaru crosstrek. The Blade Quality youd expect from gillette. At a price you wouldnt. The new gillette3 gillette5. Available now for 7. 99 gillette. The best a man can get. You finished preparing overhim for college. Rs, in 24 hours, youll send him off thinking youve done everything for his wellbeing. But meningitis b progresses quickly and can be fatal, sometimes within 24 hours. While meningitis b is uncommon, about 1 in 10 infected will die. Like millions of others, your teen may not be vaccinated against meningitis b. Meningitis b strikes quickly. Be quick to talk to your teens doctor about a meningitis b vaccine. And were committed to improving every ride. T to you starting with features designed to make it easy for your driver to find you. Taking the stress out of pickups. And were putting safety at the heart of everything we do. With a single tap, were giving you new ways to let loved ones know youre on your way. Uber has new leadership, a new vision and is moving in a new direction. Forward. And now for the rings. Im a fouryearold ring bearer with a bad habit of swallowing stuff. Still wont eat my broccoli, though. And if you dont have the right overage, you could be paying for that pricey love band yourself. So get an allstate agent, and be better protected from mayhem. Like me. Can a ring bearer get a snack around here . Thats usually the question. Trump suggesting something else. So lets see a red wave. The possibility. Well, one thing trump talks about is he says republicans need 60 votes in the senate because of the filibuster. Hes always reminding audiences. He did this the other night at his rally. He said we republicans, we only have 51. We really need 60. Well, look, on paper heres the thing in the senate this year. There are ten democratic seats up that are in states that donald trump won, that he carried in 2016. Trump state democrats. You can do the math. You win ten of those, you win nine of those, you got your 60, you got your 61. So what kind of gains . Are there actual gains that republicans are poised to get in these seats . Well, guess what . In the last week we have got a deluge of polling in these trump states that are held by democrats. Lets show you what were seeing. First one is best news for republicans i think on the senate front. North dakota. A state that donald trump won by 36 points in 2016. There you go, kevin cramer, the congressman from that state, he leads heidi heitkamp, the trump state democrat, in this new poll by four points. So if that is what the election looked like, thats a republican pickup. West virginia, trump won this state by 42 points in 2016. Republicans say, my god, he won it by 42. We got to be able to take out joe manchin, the democratic incumbent. Yet first poll after the republican primary, patrick morrisey, republican nominee, nine points behind manchin. This name, don blankenship, he said hes going to run third party. After losing the republican primary, he may have to go to court to do that. With him or without him in this poll, manchin was up there by a high single digit margin. That one is good news for democrats. This one, very good news for democrats. Weve seen other polls that are much different than this. But heres bill nelson, the democratic incumbent, leading governor rick scott by ten in florida. This is one if this is the start of a trend, thats the thing we want to see. Are there going to be more polls in florida that look like this, or is the next poll going to look more like the others weve
seen which have shown a much closer race. Democrats look at that and say, you hope its the start of something. You look at pennsylvania. Trump won this thing by a very small margin in 2016. Bob casey, the democrat is looking in very good position in pennsylvania. In montana, jon tester, democratic incumbent. This is trump by 20 in this state. Tester, high single digit lead. That would be encouraging for democrats. Ohio, very encouraging for democrats. Jared brown comfortably ahead. We dont have the numbers for it, but wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin running again. Trump won by a very narrow margin. Republicans havent had their primary yet, but the polling matched up baldwin against both possible republicans, they led by around 10 points in each. That encouraging for democrats too. Basically go back to that map. Remember, republicans wanted to get a bunch of these because theyre trump states. Whats taking shape right now in the early polling . North dakota, that as ripe a target as it looked at the start of the cycle for republicans. We dont have the new numbers
but missouri is still looking like a top target. Indiana is looking like a top target. Not so much pennsylvania. Not so much ohio. Not so much wisconsin. Havent had a new one in michigan, but if these really close states from 16 are solid democratic leads now, michigan probably not likely. Democrats surprisingly strong in West Virginia but still republicans would like to make ball games out of these, and florida kind of a wild card. So the possibility here for, you know, a couple republican pickups, not a wave of republican pickups, nothing like 60. Maybe enough to keep the senate, but you know its funny. You talk about midterm elections always going against the party thats in power. The republicans playing defense because theyre the party in power in the white house. If Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, every single one of these democratic incumbents would be in danger right now. Its the nature of midterms. And the idea of republicans getting near that 60seat mark probably would be real. Now, though, with trump, trump midterm, republicans will be very happy if they could pick up, you know, two seats, one
seat even i think they would take at this point. Anyway, more coming up on what these numbers mean for the president and why one longtime conservative has this message for voters. Vote against the gop. The 11th hour back after this. Our dad was in the hospital. Because of smoking. But we still had to have a cigarette. Had to. But then, we were like. What are we doing . The nicodermcq patch helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. Nicodermcq. You know why, we know how. Is not a marathon. Its a series of smart choices. And when you replace one meal or snack a day with glucerna made with carbsteady to help minimize blood sugar spikes you can really feel it. Glucerna. Everyday progress. Im still giving it my best even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin, im up for that. Eliquis. Eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. Plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. So whats next . Seeing these guys. Dont Stop Taking Eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an Artificial Heart Valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis, the number one cardiologistprescribed blood thinner. Ask your doctor if eliquis is whats next for you. Cardiologistprescribed blood thinner. Your insurance so small you could fix it with a pen. How about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. Hello. The new united Explorer Card hooks me up. Getting more for getting away. Rewarded going new places and tasting new flavors. Rewarded traveling lighter. Rewarded haha getting settled. Rewarded learn more at theexplorercard. Com and get. Rewarded as we were just showing you, President Trump started today suggesting on twitter that republicans could be in for a red wave in novembers midterms. But hes already seeing pushback from within his own party. Republican congressman mark sanford, who lost his primary last week after trump endorsed his challenger at the literal last minute, told Msnbc Today The President s tweet will not help Immigration Reform and warned of november consequences. I think that it probably kills off the possibility of immigration moving forward, but you never say never. The longer this issue festers, i think it will have the reverse effect. Rather than create a red wave, it may very well be part of what creates a blue wave. Another prominent conservative is openly advocating for the gops defeat
this november. Columnist george will left the Republican Party as donald trump won the nomination of the gop in 2016. He writes today in a piece titled vote against the gop this november, quote, the familyshredding policy along the southern border, the most telegenic recent example of misrule, clarified something. Occurring less than 140 days before elections that can reshape congress, the policy has given independents and temperate republicans fresh if redundant evidence for the principle by which they should vote. The principle the Congressional Republican caucuses must be substantially reduced. Joining me now is toluse olorunnipa, White Correspondent for bloomberg. Thank you for joining us. Lets start on this george will column because he is a longtime trump critic, and im wondering if the reaction hes having to this weeks events and the way he phrased it today, if it reflects changes yet to come in the Republican Party. More disaffection from people like george will yet to reveal
itself, or if this is something at this point thats already baked in. The folks that were going to say, hey, donald trump, what hes offering, what hes selling, thats not real conservatism, that kind of argument. If they were going to be off the ship by 2016, and if theyre not off by now, theyre not going to get off. Well, we have seen the president really double down on his base, those core supporters who are going to be with him no matter what. We have not seen him actually try to expand that base. And to win elections and to win midterms, you do need to expand that base. And when youre losing people, longtime conservatives like george will. We saw steve schmidt, the Campaign Manager in 2008 on the republican side, decide hes leaving the party and encouraging republicans to vote for democrats. Were hearing from mark sanford and even senators like bob corker saying that the Republican Leadership in congress has become sort of a cult of trump. Thats a sign that the president is not adding the support that he needs to his base in order to win in the midterms, that hes really doubling down as we saw
during the event today with the immigrant families on divisive policies, divisive issues that appeal to a very small minority within his base but do not expand the majority hes going to need to hold congress, to hold the house. Thats very clear that the president s really looking to continue to double down, continue to focus on divisive policies when people in his party would rather have him focus on the fact that this is a sixmonth anniversary of the tax cut bill. There was no, you know, celebration at the white house about cutting taxes, something that could appeal to the suburban voters that hes going to need this november. Instead hes turning off a lot of suburban voters with his divisive rhetoric. I take your point, and its clearly very basecentric and not at all what we would traditionally say. This is a president reaching out to the quoteunquote middle. At the same time i was struck when you talk about going after that base. His Approval Rating when you looked at inside the numbers from gallup and compare him to all modern president s, with his own party, no president except
bush a few months after 9 11 has been stronger with his own party in an Approval Rating at this point in his presidency than trump is right now. I do wonder if theres a possibility that that in some way makes up for maybe not completely, but makes up politically in some way for not reaching out traditionally to the middle. That that level of intraparty support could pad what might otherwise be very, very severe losses in november. See, thats a good point. Thats part of the reason the president was able to get elected, because he was able to bring home republicans. He was able to bring home a number of people within his party who werent necessarily happy with the way he expresses himself or with his approach to politics, a sort of hardedged approach to taking on his opponents. But they decided to hold their nose and vote for him. What we have seen is republicans have been happy with a lot of policies hes passed whether its tax cuts or deregulation. But he needs not only those republicans, he needs to build on that coalition by adding independents. What weve seen in some of the midterms and as youve pointed out, time and time again during some of these special elections is that suburban voters, independents are being turned off by the president. Toluse olorunnipa, thank you for the time. Appreciate it. Thanks. Coming up, what the Supreme Court did today that affects something almost each and every one of us has nearby at this very moment when The 11th Hour continues. When we were dating, we used to get excited about things like Concert Tickets or a new snowboard. Matt whoo whoo jen but that all changed when we bought a house. Matt voila jen matt started turning into his dad. Matt mm. Thats some good mulch. Im awake. But it was pretty nifty when jen showed me how easy it was to protect our home and auto with progressive. [ Wrapper Crinkling ] get this butterscotch out of here. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents. Theres quite a bit of work, cause this was all this was all stapled. But we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. But we can protect your home and auto if his denture can cope with. A steak. Luckily for him, he uses super poligrip. It helps give him 65 more chewing power. Leaving brad to dig in and enjoy. Super poligrip. The only eye drop. Approved for the signs. And symptoms of dry eye. Because dry eye can mean. More than. Just dryness. Xiidra may provide lasting relief. Starting in two weeks. One drop in each eye, twice a day. Dont use if you are allergic to xiidra. Common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. Dont touch container tip to your eye. Or any surface. After using xiidra, wait 15 minutes. Before reinserting contacts. Chat with your eye doctor. About xiidra. Which is why i use armor tall ultra shine wash wipes. Y. They effectively remove dirt, dust and grime with no water. That car is in tip top shape we are both in tip top shape armor all, its easy to look good. Mismust get a Search Warrant for where we have been. Every phone leaves a record, a digital trail in cities full of cell fotowers. Police seek that Data Tens Of Thousands of times a year, but the Supreme Court said it is such a detailed record of our movements it turns our phone into an ankle monitor. We expect it to be private and the police will usually need a court order tore get it. Judging recognize these devices really can be a threat to our privacy and theyre going to hold the government to account. They can still get it with a Search Warrant if they are threatened with harm or a suspect is getting away, but they hope it will lead to Privacy Guaranties for all kinds
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