Hear some of that. He did an interview with Time Magazine that was published today. One thing mcconnell did is laid out areas where he and the president could Work Together. He named two of them. He talked about International Trade agreements first. He talked about comprehensive tax reform second. He said he thought those issues could have bipartisan majorities in congress and be signed by the president over these next two years. At the same time, he also laid out an area i thought would be a confrontati confrontation. He talked repeatedly about trying to repeal the individual mandate. Thats the key part of the health care law. President obama will never agree to that. Thats an area where you can see a lot of fights in the budget bills over that. So, mcconnell has been both conciliatory and both very feisty. I think youll hear both sides of that when he speaks today. He decided to have the event today at Mcconnell Center in louisville. This is a bit of a victory lap. Hes at the Mcconnell Center in the auditorium. This is a big day for him. He dreamed of being majority leader his whole life and now he made it. Sounds like theyre going to a peace treaty meeting when theyre both bringing knives. His knife is going after obamacare, number one achievement of this president in the history books. This president is coming to the socalled peace meeting with doing major bill on immigration, which sir coupk circumvents co role on immigration. Reporter mcconnell said he wants to make deals. Before mcconnell spoke last night, rand paul spoke. His vision for the Majority Party is to send bill after bill to obama and dare him to veto them. You have to think about whatever mcconnell says is not the only word on how the republican majority works. In fact, it may not be the most important word. We have to hear what the ted cruzes and rand pauls want to do. Youre ruining my morning anyway. Perry bacon. Lets go to the white house, Kristin Welker. The president made a lot of calls last night. Is this a preview i was impressed by the president s ground game last night, calling all those people to thank. Even if it was just a minute or two. Theyll never forget he called when they won. I hope he called the losers, too. Did he . Reporter i think thats right. I dont know if he called the losers, chris well, theyre the ones he should call. Reporter he did make over 20 phone calls. So, it certainly is significant. Worth noting, he called mcconnell and left a message. I just checked a few minutes ago, still no word positive whether the two have actually connected. I dont know if well have a huge kumbiya moment. Theres a lot of pressure on both these leaders to get something done. Im told president obamas message is going to be exactly that, hes ready to get to work, ready to reach across the aisle. You heard perry talk about some areas of agreement. Ive been talking to sources at the white house here and on capitol hill who say they are identifying some of those areas, trade being one of them, as perry mentioned. Also infrastructure. Possibly the minimum wage. Its hard to see anything significant getting done on the minimum wage, but i know both sides are looking at that as a possible area of compromise. But sources on capitol hill, democratic sources, saying the president has to do more than just pick up the phone like he did last night. Certainly they are giving him credit for doing that. Of course, hes invited members from both sides of the aisle to the white house on friday. They say thats got to continue. That hes got to stay engaged. Theres also a fair amount of concern about executive actions. They say he cant issue a number of executive actions, particularly in the near term, because that would essentially create a huge standoff. You talk about Immigration Reform. If he does issue a huge sweeping executive order on Immigration Reform, that could be an incredibly pitched battle. I was told just this morning that he has no plans to change course on that. He is still planning to move fward with Immigration Reform. Having said that, hes likely going to get some questions about Immigration Reform when we hear him in just about 50 minutes from now. Chris . Do they know at the white house that the public basically turned the government over to the republicans last night . Reporter well, look, i think they were prepared to lose the senate. Dont think they were prepared for the loss to be this large. In fact, no one was prepared, chris. Either the white house or republicans, who i was speaking with. They thought republicans would possibly take the senate, but they didnt think the wins would be so great. I think theyre still absorbing the magnitude of the loss. Having said that, im also told the chief of staff, chief mcdonagh has been preparing for this. Hes been drawing up a strategy to deal with this exact scenario in which republicans would be thanks. Were going to senator mcconnell in louisville. I would like to introduce dr. Ramsey, whos the president of university, who is here. Jim, thank you for joining us today. And you may recognize these youngsters over here. Theyre in a Scholarship Program at i worked on at the University Together for the last 20 years. Good to see you. The best and Brightest Program for the students inside kentucky. Not nonresidents. Ten each year. Theyre here today to witness what we may talk about. So, let me just make a couple of observations. I think with the voters were saying yesterday was a couple of things. Number one, theyre obviously not satisfied with the direction of the administration. But at the same time i heard a lot of discussion about dysfunction in washington. I think there are a lot of people who believe that just because you have divide government, that doesnt mean you dont accomplish anything. Earlier today i got a call from the president , also from senator reid and the speaker, and ted cruz, too. Which i thought youd be interested in. All of them who have the few we ought to see what areas of agreement there are and see if we can make some progress for the country. I always like to remind people that divided governments not unusual in this country. Weve had it frequently. I think maybe even more often than not since world war ii, when the American People choose divided government, i dont think it means they dont want us to do anything. I think it means they want us to look for areas of agreement. Reagan never had the house in eight years. Clinton didnt have the house or senate for six of his eight years. I can think of at least four fairly significant things done. Reagan and tip oneill saved Social Security for a generation. Did the last comprehensive tax reform. We need to do that again. Bill clinton and the republicans did well for reform. And actually balanced the budget for three years in a row. So, i think we ought to start with the view that maybe there were some things we can agree on to make progress for the country. From an institutional point of view, the senate needs to be fixed. I made a speech back in january, not widely covered. Probably shouldnt have been widely covered, but a lot of people inside the senate paid a lot of attention to it. The senate in the last few years basically doesnt do anything. We dont even vote. Senator begich, who may have been defeated yesterday, had the handicap of trying to explain to the people of alaska why in six years he hasnt had a roll call vote on the floor on an amendment. The first thing i need to do is to get the senate back to normal. That means working more. I dont think weve had any votes on friday, in anybodys memory. It means opening the senate up so that amendments are permitted on both sides. And it means occasionally burning the midnight oil in order to reach a conclusion. I can remember the way we used to get bills finished was for the majority leader to announce on monday we were taking up a particular bill and you were going to finish it. Finish it thursday night, friday morning or saturday, but you have to mean it. And its amazing what happened around midnight on thursday. People who were very aggressive on Tuesday Morning were awfully anxious to leave friday morning. And amendments would go away and bills would pass. Another thing, sounds astonishing to all of you, the committees need to be relevant again. If a bill comes out of committee on a bipartisan basis, that means youve got both democrats and republicans, who are interested in seeing it pass. So, theres a bipartisan st constituency for moving forward. Now, having said that, there are differences. And we will certainly be voting on things as well that we think the administration is not fond of. They seem to have had no interest, for example in doing anything serious on the energy front. We havent had an energy bill in seven years. When you say energy these day, people think of the Keystone Pipeline, but thats only part of it. We need to embrace the Energy Revolution thats going on in our country, promote it. Its hugely advantageous to america. Not only in the area of energy independence, but employment. I moo i mean, the employment figures connected with keystone are stunning, if wekd we would just get going. Certainly there are going to be areas of disagreement, but thats not unusual going back to the founding of the country. With that, let me just throw it open. Reporter senator mcconnell, can you tell us based on what the message of the voters was, many say they. To see gridlock end. What can you do . And can you assure the American People that gridlock can end under your leadership . Well, the senate was the problem. Not the house. The house passed over 300 pieces of legislation. Many of them on a bipartisan basis and nothing was done with them in the senate. The American People have changed the senate. So, i think we have an obligation to change the behavior of the senate and to begin to function again. That doesnt garn tooen tee the president is going to agree with everything we do but were going back to work and pass legislation. Ive been called by three promise nept democr prominent democrats since last night. Prominent democrats. Theyre anxious to be relevant again. You know, theyre anxious for Committee Work to be respected. Theyre anxious to be able to offer amendments on the floor of the senate and actually get votes. So, yeah, thats the way you get rid of gridlock. Doesnt guarantee you have a president ial signature on absolutely everything. President s do have a right to veto, something the president hasnt had to do. I think hes vetoed two little bills in six years. The first two years he loved everything he got. The last four years the current majority made sure he didnt get anything he didnt like. Thats how you cure gridlock. Jeff . Reporter after all this gridlock, how can the American People believe you, believe well, we have to demonstrate it. Im sorry. Reporter what are a couple specific examples of things you think you can work with this president on . Trade agreements. The president and i were just talking about that right before i came over here. Most of his party is unenthusiastic about International Trade. We think its good for america. And, so ive got a lot of members who believe that International Trade agreements are a winner for america. And the president and i discussed that right before i came over here. And i think hes interested in moving forward. I said, send us trade agreements. Were anxious to take a look at them. The president s indicated hes interested in doing tax reform. We all know, having the highest korment tax rate in the industrialized world is a job exporter. All this job about job exportation. Whats exporting jobs is having the highest Corporate Tax rate in the industrialized world. Hes interested in that yash is and we are, too. Those are two significant areas of potential agreement. Reporter he wants to work with you or do you believe that he will be pulled by his own party to look, theres only one democrat who counts, the president. Let me illustrate the point. When joe biden and i negotiated the fiscal cliff deal at the end of 2012, the thing i wanted the most, that i thought would be the most important for kentucky, was a 5 million per person estate tax exemption. A lot of people who have family farms and Small Businesses look like theyre worth a lot of money, but they really arent. And if youre lucky enough to have children who want to continue the farm or continue the small business, you cant get it down to them, you could not in the past because of the estate tax exemption. A 5 million exemption index or inflation permanent law would save 99 of the Small Businesses and farms in my state have having to be sold. The leader of the democrats in the house made it quite clear to me that if that was in the final deal, House Democrats wouldnt vote for it. I thanked her. It was in the final deal and only 15 House Democrats voted against it and only 3 senate democrats. The point im making is the democrat who counts is the president United States perform democrats in congress will agree to that was a perfect example of exactly what im talking about. So, and, you know, we were very much inclined to support president obama as well. This is not unusual. When you have the white house, the most important member of your party is the person in the white house. So, well see whether we can work with the president. I hope so. Thats what he says. And well find out. Reporter thank you. Senator mcconnell, except for the few deals you worked out, mainly with Vice President biden, Congressional Republicans dont have a good track record of working things out. Can you explain how you think a United Congress will [ inaudible ] im not sure hes going to sign everything, but were going to function. We are. Were going to pass legislation, some of it he may not like, but were going to function. This gridlock and dysfunction can be ended. It can be ended by having a senate that actually excuse me, that actually works. Reporter might be fruitful as opposed to the way its been so far . Well, i mean, the veto pen is a pretty big thing. You know, the president of the United States can deliver the members of his party to vote for a deal that he makes or he can veto legislation. Hes a player. Thats the way our system works. Reporter yesterday you were talking before you came out on the stage for your victory speech, senator paul said they would send bill after bill to the president until hes weary. What other powers of the tools can you use to reform or reduce or slow down well, its no secret that every one of my members thinks that obamacare was a huge legislative mistake. It has fouled up the Health Insurance market. Put states in deep hole in terms of the medicaid expansion. If i had the ability, karl, obviously, id get rid of it. Obviously, its also true hes still there. So, well be discussing how to go forward on this issue when we get back. I will say this for sure, there are pieces of it that are deeply, deeply unpopular with the American People. The medical device tax, which is exported enormous number of jobs, the loss of the 40hour work week, big, big mistake. That ought to be restored. The individual mandate. People hate it. So, i think we will be addressing that issue in a variety of different ways. Reporter senator mcconnell, regardless of what happens in the last few races, youll still be short 60 votes in the senate. You have a pretty ideological diverse conference including a number of blue state republicans up for reelection in 2016. How realistic reality check for your base, how far you can go in pushing a conservative agenda . Well, well find out. I mean, what you state is a statement of the obvious, that it takes 60 votes to do a lot of things in the senate but there are a lot of things we can do with 51 votes. A budget is an extremely important thing. The president does not sign the budget. That determines how much were going to spend. I think its within our ability, within our power to pass more appropriation bills to fund the government. Theres no secret that i and most of my members think that the bureaucratic strangulation of our economy is a real is a huge factor in the slow growth that weve experienced after the deep recession of 2008. So, i think its reasonable to assume that we will use the power of the purse to try to push back against this overactive bureaucracy. Of course, we have a huge example of that here in this state with the war on coal. Not authorized by congress. Cap and trade couldnt get the votes to pass when our friends on the other side own the place. When they had huge majorities in the house and senate, they couldnt pass cap and trade. The president tried to do it anyway. I think theres widespread opposition to that. You could look for us to go after those kind of things through the through the spending prolcess, which i thin is our best tool in our governmental system. Reporter due process, too . Well see how we do. Paul . Reporter in the debt ceiling fight afterwards, you told me it was a hostage not worth shooting but it was a hostage Worth Holding for some ransom. The debt ceiling is coming up some time this spring, this summer. Are we going to have another brinkmanship moment there or are those sorts of crises going to end . Let me make it clear. There will be no government shutdowns and no default on the national debt. Reporter as part of the debt ceiling reporter one of the issues you mentioned in terms of working with the president on, we expect he will move forward with some sort of action on executive action. What will the republican response be and would you [ inaudible ] let me say, i think the president choosing to do a lot of things unilaterally on immigration would be a big mistake. Its an issue that most of my members want to address. Legislatively. And its like waving a red flag in front of a bull to say, if you guys dont do what i want, im going to do it on my own. And the president s done that on obamacare. Hes done it on immigration and threatening to do it again. I hope he wont do that because i do think it poisons the well. For the opportunity to address a very important domestic issue. [ inaudible ] i wouldnt do that to you. Reporter you obviously have worked with the president for a number of years now. Youve had communication with him, sometimes cordial, sometimes not so cordial. What do you sense having talked to him today about his what hes going to do . Everyone talks about you mentioning tip oneill and reagan. That was sort of a wonderful camelot moment, i guess, in this country with bipartisanship. Can that be achieved with you, the republicans and president . The relationship between myself and the president have always been cordial. Theres not a personality problem here or anything like that. I think my attitude at this point is trust but verify. Lets see. The American People have spoken. Theyve given us divided government. The question for both the president and for the speaker and myself and our members is, what are you going to do with it . And ive already said, i want to first look for areas of that we can agree on. There probably are some. Thats what were going to be talking about in the next in the next few weeks. Reporter senator, you said did you basically say you promise there wont be a government shutdown. Yeah, were not going to be shutting down the government or defaulting on the national debt. Reporter has the president invited you to come to the white house . Were going to a lunch friday, that i think youre already aware of. You areh a question . Reporter do you have any concern about those members of your conference who might want to run for president , like to step outside your leadership, how will you handle them . Look, i know a lot of people who want to run for president. What i tell them all is, the best day youll have will be the day before you announce. It is short of being in combat and being shot at with real bullets. There isnt anything harder than running for president , unless its running for reelection if youre one of the leaders of one of the parties of the senate. Look, i have no problems with peoples ambitions. I serve in a body with a bunch of class president s. Theyre all ambitious or they wouldnt be where they are. A lot of folks with sharp elbows and big egos. Look, i i am not troubled by ambition. And i think we can accommodate that and still make progress for the country. Reporter even if it thwarts your own goals . Youre asking me a whole lot of hypotheticals that im not willing to indulge in. Reporter i wanted to ask, its been suggested that Republican Senate would bring the nomination process to a grinding halt. One, will it . How do you expect to handle the president s nominations . Many important ones still lingering . Two, what are your thoughts of rolling back the Nuclear Option . Well address the second issue. Ive said to my members employing back to 2013 when the trigger was pulled and rules of the senate was broken, thats something well address if were given the majority, and we have been given the majority and we will address it. [ inaudible ] no, im going to discuss that with our colleagues. Its i a big issue. Largely lost on the general public, but the most significant thing about what the majority leader decided to do was to break the rules of the senate, which requires 67 votes to change the rules of the senate, by over ruling the parliamentary and said, you cannot do that with 51. It was a huge, huge mistake, in my view. It is hard to unring a bell. You know, theyve now established a precedent. Its a big issue and a big discussion that were going to have in the coming months. Jeff . Reporter how was your call with senator cruz . He just called to congratulate me, was impressed by the margin. I was pretty happy about it myself. We had a good, friendly conversation. Yeah . Im sorry . Reporter do you believe that he will be, and some of the other republicans who running for president , will make it more difficult for you to have a responsible governing majority thaw mentioned . Weve got all kinds of people in a 50 a hope, 54member senate. Well see where we are at the end of the voting. Reporter we have different you can talk to him. It was a very cordial conversation. I appreciated the call. [ inaudible ] he called to congratulate me on my election. No, ive not talked to him about that. Hes a pretty independent guy. I think hell probably announce today what hes going to do. Reporter you said the dpovt would not default. Would you insist on cuts to correspond with any debt ceiling increase that john boehner has in the past . We have the opportunity now to pass the budget, which has to do with how much youre going to spend. I think we have other mechanic niches that were unavailable to us. With the previous configuration of the government. And i think thats a pretty important tool. Paul . Reporter you talked about your phone call with harry reid. You havent had the most acrimoak r acrimonious relationship. Youve had the most weve had spirited debates on the floor of the senate about the way the place is being run. But we dont have an acrimonious relationship permanently. Now, whats your question . He called to obviously having been a leader in a tough race himself, he called actually to compliment me on what a skillful campaign we ran. He obviously paid very close attention to it. And as many of us have discussed before, thats been the new paradigm since daschle was defeated. Harry said, you know, he had followed it very closely. And complimented me on a campaign well run. Reporter will you return the favor to him in 2016 . [ laughter ] look, im not i didnt get involved the last time he was up and i dont intend to be involved this time. Reporter Foreign Policy, can you can you talk a little about Foreign Policy and what your objectives will be as Senate Majority leader . Well, i think the immediate concern in the health area is obviously the ebola kritsz. And what, if anything, the administration feels they need further on the financial side. With regard to the authorization to help the syrian rebels, as you know, we insisted on that terminating at the end of this year so we could have a new discussion with the administration about sort of where the administration sees the battle against isis. And so i think thats one of the things the president mentioned today is going to be on his agenda at our luncheon friday, sort of where we are and what recommendations he may have to make about the way forward. [ inaudible ] oh, you can bet on that. Yeah. Reporter can you talk about how much of a window you see yourself having to pass big legislation next year . How willing are you to use the reconciliation tool david, i think thats weve got to finish this years session first. By the way, harry reid is still the majority leader. And i think the immediate discussion were going to be having is what should we try to wrap up during the lame duck . I mean, there are a number of thi things that have been sort of put off [ inaudible ] reporter handled as far as the senate . Say that again. Reporter expires in december. Weve been talking about whether to do a cr, well be talking about whether to do the tax extender package. There are a number of things that have sort of stacked up. I mean, i i think ive said it before, ill say it again. The senate hasnt been doing anything. So, theres a whole lot of unfinished business. Sitting there, some of which it might be advantageous to get out of the way. The democrats may want to do it and we may want to do it in order to clear off some of the necessary work thats just simply been undone in the dysfunctional senate. Reporter do you foresee any attempts to roll back those reforms . What . [ inaudible ] the Banking Committee is certainly going to be taking a look at dodd frank. Ive called it frequently obamacare for banks. The big guys are doing just fine under dodd frank. The Community Bankers are struggling. I do think the Banking Committee will want to take a look at how much damage its done to the little guys who had nothing whatsoever to do with the meltdown in 2008. Id be surprised that the Banking Committee isnt going to look at it. They may send something our way. Reporter senator, you said you were surprised that president obama did not shift more towards center. Does he have a responsibility after last night to do that now . Did you communicate that with him on the phone call . I hope thats what he does because you cant do anything without a president ial signature. Several of you have mentioned it. I mean, the veto pen is a pretty powerful tool. And i think both reagan and clinton are good examples of accepting the government you have rather than fantasizing about the government you wish you had. In other words, they dealt with what they had. Reagan never had the house. Clinton didnt have the house or senate for six of the eight years. So, you know, the president s really got a choice. I think because of the strength of the veto pen, he could probably stay on the current course hes on. You know, just vetoing any effort we made to push back against what hes doing and having the people who work for him do his bidding. Or he could say, lets see if theres some areas of agreement. And i mentioned a couple that i think are pretty big and important issues that i think we have potential areas of agreeme agreement. Trade and tax reform. So, well see. Reporter youre asking the president to move towards the middle. Are you ready to meet him there . If so, how do you prevent conservative members from yanking you back . Im pretty familiar with our conference, including the new members coming in. The vast majority of them dont feel they were sent to washington to just fight all the time. And as ive said repeatedly here, divide government is not the reason to do nothing. In fact, divided government frequently has been pretty productive. And i think the vast majority of my members would rather make progress on things that they think the country needs to be dealt with than not. But in our system, the president is the most important player because of all the the obvious constitutional advantage he has. And so it would require his complicity to do that. And hes been protected from having to do that the last four years by the dysfunctional senate, which doesnt pass anything, doesnt send him anything that he doesnt like. Now hes going to have a congress thats going to be more challenging for him. But the choice is really his. And im hoping that he will decide to move to the center. Reporter senator rand paul reporter last night ted cruz declined to say if he would support you for majority leader. I wondered if he spoke to you let me make a prediction for you. In a week ill be elected as Senate Majority leader. We have usa todays susan paige and twotime governor ed rendell from pennsylvania, nbc political analyst, jonathan capehart, also an msnbc contributor and president ial historian douglas brinkley, also Michael Steele sitting here. I cant ignore you. Lets go to governor rendell whos been in politics. If you take on tax reform, one side says nine, the other side says seven, you agree on eight. Its not impossible to deal if you want to deal why wouldnt the president want to lower rates by plugging loopholes on both the corporate side and individual . Reagan and tip got it down to 28 . The big question is which loopholes . Can you fend off lobbyists . It will take a united front to fend off lobbyists. Thirdly, do you reduce the rate and plug loopholes in a neutral sense, which republicans want, or do you take some of that money and either invest it in growth or invest it in reducing the debt . Can you throw the republicans that one and say or, actually, take from them that extra revenue and use it for infrastructure and then throw in some free trade for the republicans who want the free trade . I mean, theres a lot of things to trade with here. Absolutely. Theres no question theres maneuverability and this is the time to do it. I mean, youre right. There are so many things seven and nine, decide on eight. Energy bill, well do the Keystone Pipeline and also make the production tax credit extend for six or seven years for extended renewables. Theres room to go. Lets ask susan. Who will win here, worker bees who want to get something done or the whacko birds, to use a phrase of john mccain . Those who want to be joe mccarthy or worse cant get worst bring their shotguns to the senate floor, wave it around, and go back and run for president , or do you want to be people it sounds like Mitch Mcconnell having won a tough election knows hes in his 70s. My experience is when guys women will be there soon once you hit your 70s, theres no b. S. Youre in your final act. I have never seen Mitch Mcconnell so relaxed, so in command, so at ease, so willing to talk to reporters. Hes not been a guy known to be accessible to reporters. This is ms. Moment. Hes not in the whacko bird category. He wants to legislate to get things done where deals can be cut. Hes giving president obama an opening. Its no accident that his News Conference comes 50 minutes before president obama is scheduled to do his own News Conference. Will president obama pick up on the themes that Mitch Mcconnell laid out . Mitch mcconnell didnt say they were going to roll over. Theyll take votes on appealing the individual mandate for Affordable Care act. Thats something president obama will definitely veto. He said theres things we can get done. Lets do that. It seems theres a mixed bag of lets see and no deal. I mean, lets deal obviously, they can deal on things involving taxes and trade. Theyre negotiable. Its not negotiable to kick the hell out the foundation of obamacare out from under the president. You cant do medical device tax removal. You cant do getting rid of the individual mandate. That destroys the guys lone legacy. Right. Talk about poisoning the well. But what i took from snore mcconnells press conference there was, he was very magazine nan mou magnanamous. This is the loosest ive ever seen him. I found it interesting several times during the press conference he lauded the president. The president is the most important player in our democracy. He used that structure, that phrase, that sentence, several times during his 20plus or so minute press conference. So, youre not its sort of remember when, i think it was after the republicans took the house, president clinton said, im still relevant. President obama doesnt have to do that because the incoming Senate Majority leader already says hes relevant. So, hes signaling, i think, a willingness to work with the president , but also sending a signal to his caucus, both in the senate but also in the house, that hes going to hold firm on those things that they care about and try to see what, if anything, he can do to get those things done with this president. I think everybody most people in journalism who cover this, who watch it from the good seats, which were lucky to have, would like to see action taken. They know the country is totally spinning around. Almost scared. Almost scared of the inactivity. By the way, last night it would have been nice if Alison Lundergan grimes had congratulated Mitch Mcconnell for having beaten her. I do respect maturity in politics. Have i to say this, Mitch Mcconnell ran a tough campaign. He said very good things about her last night. He did. And he was very i mean, to start at that magnanamous moment and hes continued it into this press conference. What struck me was at the beginning when he was going to who hes talked to and who he called him, who was noticeably present in that list, ted cruz. He also recognizes he has to deal with his right flank because that right flank has become reinforced in the senate. Not the house. This is going to be an interesting what pacifier can he jam in their mouth . You have to shut up ted cruz. Hes out for blood. Thats going to be an interesting challenge because of the litany of things susan and jonathan have talked about as comprisable points he doesnt want to do that. Hes not down for that so this is where mcconnell starts off, you know, we can do that, but then it becomes very gritty in the middle. You know, Doug Brinkley, my friend, you remember the period not as a person but as an history historian, when eisenhower had to deal with joe mccarthy, very much a predecessor of this guy, ted cruz, he was sort of able to beat him out because of indirection. The hidden hand president. At some point doesnt mcconnell have to say, you know what, buddy, ted cruz, you really dont belong here, like they did to ackerman, you dont belong here, buddy. When is that moment going to come . It may have just happened. He signaled out cruz and talked about big ego. Mcconnell made a good point, no government shutdowns under my watch. Which was really a jab at ted cruz. I think you might have seen that happening already. Mitch mcconnell coming on very strong and coming on in claiming control over a party, you know, herdi ining all of the cats. Eisenhower in 1958, that midterm, ike lost the republicans lost a net 48 people to congress and 13 senators. In many ways this midterm reminds me of 58 the question is what can the president get done with congress . After that it will be all 2016 president ial politics. That was in the middle of a bad recession. This time people just werent happy generally. Well be back with the panel. Everybody stay with us. A few minutes from now the president is expected. This is going to be a big one. They got it all dressed up for his News Conference in the east room where we have the big events. He has to talk about the wave last night. He may have to talk about the fact hes no longer calling the shots. Hard it can be. How. To breathe with copd . It can feel like this. Copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Spiriva is a oncedaily inhaled. Copd maintenance treatment. That helps open my airways for a full 24 hours. You know, spiriva helps me breathe easier. Spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms. Tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. These may worsen with spiriva. Discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. Stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells,. You can get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. Other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. Nothing can reverse copd. Spiriva helps me breathe better. Sfx blowing sound. Does breathing with copd. Weigh you down . Dont wait ask your doctor about spiriva handihaler. Welcome back. In just a few minutes, president obama is going to address the country and address the results of last nights 2014 midterms which have given the Republican Party real control. Not just of the senate, which was expected but over whelg control of the house of representatives which we all know controls spending, controls taxes, controls trade. The house ways and Means Committee is everything. We expect to hear from the president how he plans to move forward on his goals that hes been laying out over the last two years. Lets go to lets go to Kristin Welker at the white house. Is this going to be a proffer from the president to Mitch Mcconnell, the new Senate Leader to deal . Is he going to lay out ideas or just jemgenerally . Reporter i think so. I think hell hear like mcconnell striking a conciliatory deal. Finding Common Ground on Corporate Tax deals and trade. Thats been a part of the conversation from behind the scenes for the past several days, chris. The largest questions revolve around the president S Health Care law. Im being told thats absolutely a nogood. Any changes to hiS Health Care law on any level hes prepared to veto. As we continue to discuss, Immigration Reform, if the president continues to move forward with an executive action on Immigration Reform, thats essentially going to be a declaration of war. One republican lawmaker telling me, look, what we want to do is pass some measures in a piecemeal fashion, so i think youll see republicans revive that effort. Youll recall, chris, thats something the house wanted to do after the Senate Passed that bibipartisan Immigration Reform. Will they revive an effort to get something done in a piecemeal fashion . Thats a big question. Also the question of strategy. Is the president going to be want issue shawler executive actions . Youll recall that was a big part of the maneuvering here over the past several months. Lawmakers, democrats say that that would not be the right way to move forward, that that would essentially only create more gridlock. Theres going to be a lot of pressure on both sides, chris, to have something to show for this beyond just trade and Corporate Tax reform. I think that the message from Americans Last night is that they are fed up with the gridlock. They want to see real things get done here in washington. So, theres going to be a lot of pressure to go beyond these two things that youre hearing both sides float today. Thanks. Lets go to susan on that. Do you think the president realizes what the other side is ready to do, if he goes ahead with an eo, executive order, on immigration . Millions of people giving them basically green cards. I think the president is in a real box on that one. I think the white house is fully aware thats going to be, as kristin said, a declaration of war. I dont think theres any way he can avoid doing it. Hes already put it off. He made a commitment to doing it. Hes drawn a line in the sand and promised to issue the executive order. A lot of hispanics across the country are counting on it. Thats going to be, i think, the first big test if we, in fact, have a moment where the two sides are willing to Work Together or two more years of the grinding gridlock that has become so familiar over the last four years. I want to bring somebody else in here to talk about this. Let me bring in governor rendell. It seems if all you do is give basic amnesty to people here illegally, or without documents, if you want to put it that way, youre not dealing with the longterm problem of people coming here without permission, basically, from our government. Youre not fixing the problem at all. Youre saying, well have the problem of illegal immigration. As a bandaid, ill help the people here. It doesnt seem like a solution, mob of a problem. Politically, you may have to do it. I think he has to do it. If i was the president , i would do it and i would say, im instituting this policy by executive order, but the executive orders going to sunset on august 31st of 2015. Its my hope the congress will act and send me a comprehensive bill that will allow me to let this executive order go out of operation. But if they dont, i reserve the right to extend it. I think thats the right tone. Jonathan, what do you think of that . You have his job basically putting together all these policy implications and consequences. They all affect each other. Uhhuh. And if he does if he goes one way and says, im the lone ranger, im going to do the right thing, hell or high water, thats the message to editorial writers and everyone else, this guy isnt ready to do business. No matter what the president does, hes going to enrage people on the other side who hate what hes done. If he signs the executive order, republicans will be enraged. If he doesnt sign the executive order, immigration activists in the Democratic Party base will be enraged. And a piece i just wrote i said, if hes going to make folks mad, he might as well do it in the service of helping people. You know, one thing to add onto what governor rendell said, i would say i agree with what the governor said, i wouldnt say there is a sunset. I would tell the president to sign it and remind congress his executive order is temporary. The next president can come in and wipe that executive order out of the way. What Congress Needs to do is pass an immigration a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. Its not like they havent done it. The senate did so on an overwhelming bipartisan basis last year and it went to the house where it died. If congress doesnt want president obama to sign an executive order or if congress doesnt like president obama signing an executive order, it has the power in its hands to do something legislatively that would make the president s executive order moot. Michael, why doesnt the Republican Party support this senate bill . Its a tough bill. It doesnt just give amnesty away. Sure, it has a path to citizenship but a rigorous one, an onerous one. It says you have to have the i. D. Card, everify system. No more jobs in this country if youre here illegally. After listening to this conversation, my sweet spot is the senate bill. And i think what youll see in that meeting on friday, on this subject of immigration, the president and Mitch Mcconnell will look at that bill as the starting spot, because for both of those gentlemen, that executive order route is no good. It does not work. It creates you talk about empowering a ted cruz when youre trying to get him back inside the tent. You talk about enraging the base of the Democratic Party after a drubbing like they took last night. This piece of legislation has to start with whats already on the table. And you get that, and as you noted, it didnt fly because the house didnt play. This is an opportunity for Speaker Boehner and majority leader mcconnell to get the house in order and bring them to that conversation, otherwise its armageddon. Let me talk to Doug Brinkley about it. Is the president better of having a legacy having gotten through a real immigration bill that has teeth, that stays on the law books, thats real, enforced, proudly enforced because its a fair bill or is he better being the Abraham Lincoln have basically signing an emancipation proclamation . What do you think his instincts are to do . Good question. I think instinct is if he can get a deal with congress, it get it. It will only be about three months and well know. If not, he signed that executive order and be known as the one person willing to do some kind of Immigration Reform of this era. I think youre going to see barack obama as the executive power president. Youll see a lot of veto going on. And i think hell sign all sorts of executive orders on things Like National monuments and the environment. Bill clinton and babbitt did one assist the clock winds down. Meaning, the idea that youre going to have this new president obama Mitch Mcconnell dance where its a new mini Great Society coming our way in the next few months, just doesnt seem very likely. Theres a quick window to do that Corporate Tax reform and a few other pieces and then that window will dry up. Susan, last question before we have the president. Do you think hes going to do something to restructure the white house . Watching chief mcdonagh, chief of staff, theyre walking in. Is that going to be the leadership team, president s command team, for the rest of the duration here . Is that it . No. I think the white house does intend to bring in new advisers, fresh faces. That doesnt necessarily mean he dumps the people around him who hes trusted and relied on. I think were looking to see some changes in the white house staff and possibly on the National Security area. And thats, of course, reflects the fact there have been some stumbles there. Also just the gruelling nature of these jobs. Not surprising that you might want to have some fresh people come in for the final two years. Arent you amazed at some i will use the word advisely twerp can make fun of the secretary of state and compare him to sandra bullocks character in gravity and being unconnected to the white house . The worst thing you can say about a secretary of state is he or she doesnt represent the president 100 . Somebody had the audacity to put out that statement. What is going on where these kids in the white house think they can talk like that and they do get away with it . What side is the president on, the secretary of state or, again, a twerp on the nsc staff . Who, by the way, is speaking anonymously but they know where theyre talking from. They say white house staff. Its on background but tied to the institution. Thats what i cant understand. I agree. I do think there could be there ought to be more respect. Yeah. Just generally. I mean, within the administration, between republicans and democrats. We would all be served well if we treated each other and they treated each other with a little more respect. Governor rendell, what do you make of do you sense there is a chain of command in this white house that is a grownup president ial chain of command where people are accountable and respectful up to the top . Yeah, i think so. I think the president s got to set a tone starting with him, starting with his press conference today, but hes got to make sure it permeates down. Chris, you are so right about disrespecting john kerry. John kerry is a great american. He ran for president. Hes busting his hump as secretary of state. I dont believe thats true. Why do they do that . Youre a republican, take your shots because theyre deserved here. Why does this white house act like its the kiddy i think there is no reinforcing measurement inside the organization. It is insular up to the president. And Everything Else is kind of freeflowing. So when this frustration builds up because they didnt get their way on something, they go in in and talk. Why are they made at the secretary of state who has to go headtohead with the toughest guy in the world, netanyahu, its a tough fight. We dont have the same interests all the time. Thats someones agenda. Whether internally inside the west wing or the state department or outside of it. Thats what thats all about. And it should stop because its undermining lets come back to structure. Two white house methods of getting things done, eisenhower chain of command, sherman adams, nixon used that and spokes of the wheel. A very bright president like kennedy or johnson who could reach out at all middle levels and talk to everybody. A very vibrant executive. Whats the role model this president follows, if any . I just dont think any. Hes a bit of a lone operator. I think the president makes up his own mind and hes very unflappable, very stubborn. Thats why on Something Like the obamacare, you know, reform now with some doing that wont happen. The idea hes going to suddenly throw the environmentalists away to cut a deal on the Keystone Pipeline isnt going to happen. This is a fire wall president whos kind of dug in but hes never developed a staff in the white house he works with great fluidness with. I think john podesta has done a good job but hes going off with Hillary Clinton soon. But he created a czar one day and he sort of he sort of knocked him off the next day. Heres the president of the United States to give us the real news. Good after, everybody. Have a seat. Today i had a chance to speak with john boehner and congratulated Mitch Mcconnell on becoming the next Senate Majority leader. I told them both i look forward to finishing up this congresss agenda and working together to advance americas business. I appreciated leader mcconnells words last night about the prospect of working together to deliver for the American People. On friday i look forward to hosting the entire republican and democratic leadership at the white house to chart a new course forward. Obviously, republicans had a good night. And they deserve credit for running good campaigns. Beyond, that ill leave it to all of you and the professional pundits to pick through yesterdays results. What stands out to me, though, is that the American People sent a message. One that theyve sent for several elections now. They expect the people they elect to work as hard as they do. They expect us to focus on their ambitions and not ours. They want us to get the job done. All of us in both parties have a responsibility to address that sentiment. Still, as president , i have a unique responsibility to try and make this town work. So, to everyone who voted, i want you to know i hear you. To the twothirds of voters who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, i hear you, too. All of us have to give more americans a reason to feel like the ground is stable beneath their feet, that the future is secure, that theres a path for young people to succeed, and that folks here in washington are concerned about them. So, i plan on spending every moment of the next twoplus years doing my job the best i can. To keep this country safe and make sure more americans share in its prosperity. This countrys made Real Progress since the crisis six years ago. The fact is more americans are working. Unemployment has come down. More americans have Health Insurance, manufacturing has grown. Our deficits have shrunk. Our dependence on foreign oil is down, as are gas prices. Our Graduation Rates are up. Our businesses arent just creating jobs at the fastest pace since the 1990s, our economy is outpacing most of the world. But we just got to keep at it until every american feels the gains of a growing economy where it matters most, and thats in their own lives. Obviously, much of that will take action from congress. Im eager to work with the next congress to make the next two years as productive as possible. Im committed to making sure that i measure ideas, not by whether they are from democrats or republicans, but whether they work for the American People. Thats not to say that we wont disagree over some issues were
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