i think it s an open question whether the trump playbook he s using as his closing argument will actually work it when he s not on the ballot and there s a lot of independent women who had two years to get really angry about his rhetoric and when he doesn t have hillary as a foil. i think this argument based on immigration may help them keep a narrow set of seats but i it definitely hurts with the house. let s not forget, the task that are not polling very well. many people in states and districts the republicans need to keep some of the tax cuts aren t popular. the tariffs aren t popular. i don t know whether the closing argument trump is using will work. if it does, it will be in a narrow set of places i don t think it will keep the house for the republicans. i think will deliver the house to the democrats. chris: the first midterm after the election is historically tough for the party of the new president.
our national debt. 21 trillion is indefensible. so the republicans can t just stop at these tax cuts. we need to make sure we complete the job and that s going to require some hard conversations about spending. neil: all right. what kind of conversations though? i mean, a lot of people talk about trying to get a handle on it and no one does. well, because any solutions you re going to offer up are not politically popular. i do think that we need people with a little bit of backbone and say things that aren t popular. i ll give you one example. when social security was founded in this country, the life expectancy for an american man was 64 years old. i mean, neil, getting to 65 was a big deal back then. that s not the case anymore. i want to make it crystal clear, i m not talking about doing anything to people who are 70 or people who are 60, or even people who are 50, for them we need to make good on the commitments that we ve already made, but for people my age, 41,
two they re motivated now. you saw them raise their hands in general. i ve been following this a long time. we ll see. everybody should be open to change. every big change in the society has happened because of a populous movement of people deciding to take it. in terms of asking them what their solutions are, that s not as relevant as their seeking out people who will solve it, right? sure. if we say to voters, your vote is only worth as much as your solution. people vote for all kinds of that s what the nra and gun add kapts have over them. they vote on this and vote where it matters. national election maybe. you ve got to look election by election, and in places where some of these views aren t popular. will they galvanize there any way. some of these kids are from florida, arizona, places where guns are a big part of the
talking about mass shootings can act as contagion. we don t want to limit press freedom because it s contributed to the problem. you don t need to limit press freedom. you can have journalists and journalistic institutions take responsibility by not glorifying or glamorizing people committing these shootings. some of the coverage i ve seen borders on doing that. everybody laments what nikolas cruz did. but there s a sense of celebrity that is created around him that i think people who are watching this at home, young kids who might who aren t popular who might want to become popular or notorious look at that and say that is my answer. bret: every day we are learning something new. we told you about the officer outside with the gun. now it s being revealed in the news conference security footage at the school was on a 20 minute delay. the officers were looking at something that was 20 minutes
you think he is or, let s say, michael wolff thinks he is no, it s not my thoughts. i m just saying. i get that. but let me just back up a second. as someone who has supported the president for many years and got in line quickly when he decided to run for president, i ve always supported donald trump because he s a disrupter. and those of us who backed the president from the very beginning there wasn t a man or woman among us who thought that donald trump s approval ratings would be sky high in first year of his administration. he had a lot to get done and a lot had to do with taking apart the administrative state, the things that aren t popular, it would be great if the president s numbers would improve. but in 2018 we should be more focused on growth. if we get a 4 to 5% growth quarter on quarter in 2018 the president s numbers will turn around quite a bit and we might do pretty well as republicans in the midterms. michael caputo, appreciate