reaming nal congressional party then they will block it. i don t disagree with you but you have to put urbina self in the mind of the members. you have the national party leader saying one thing and the congressional leaders saying another. if it wasn t for gay marriage this week, what happened in north dakota on abortion and i want to get all of your takes on this would have been, i think, the big social issue. north dakota s republican governor signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country six weeks to ban abortions. when he signed it he admitted legally it probably is not going to stand up to a legal challe e challenge. i want to show you there s been a lot of movement and they re all in red states on this issue of banning abortion at certain times, 20 weeks or less. that s the map we have on the board of all the states that have done 20 weeks or less, an abortion ban. every single one of them, by the way, states that were carried by mitt romney. peggy noon
i get that. we had mark pryor, we re not going it to let somebody from new york city mary landrieu, heidi heitkamp, democrats who don t seem to like the role. i think he s a good foil for them to certify their authenticity. their independence. in states like new jersey, pennsylvania, california, new york, there are members for whom i think this could be an issue especially if bloomberg turns up the heat in the upcoming campaign. you used to do his ysuburban district. that s the one you represented. there is a different type of voter there than in the majority. there aren t many districts like that that are still republican. there are some. they ll have a vulnerability and these republicans that are most likely to cross on background checks and i think the mayor and others add pressure on these members to vote that way. peggy, what did you hear on immigration between the two? chuck schumer, the deal is at hand. we re close. jeff flake, whoa, whoa, whoa. hold on a minute. w
he s had a lot of input into the bill. obviously his views are not the same as the other seven of us. every one of us has different views, but i expect that we re going to have agreement but you need it. if you don t have him, this bill is suddenly in jeopardy? i m not even going to speculate about that. i talked to marco yesterday. we had a great conversation and he is protecting some of the things that he thinks are very important in the bill, but i don t think that will stand in the way of any final agreement. i think we re all on track. you say this issue between business and labor was the last major hurdle, but is border security solved, this issue of metrics and border security solved? i want to play a little bit of what president obama said in an interview with telemundo on that issue. regardless of how much additional effort we put in on the borders, we don t want to make this earned pathway to citizenship a situation in which it s put off further and further into the
bit, you can see jeff flake was uncomfortable just talking about the issue. abortion and the life movement could be what motivates evangelicals again, could it t not? i don t know. actually that s not my question. here is the thing. this issue will not go away, abortion. it is a constant agitating of the american soul. you mentioned the legal move that was made in one of the states to cut off abortion after six weeks. the real story this week is the haunting and disturbing story of this doctor in philadelphia who is being tried this week. and if you wanted to watch the testimony, it was hard to find, but if you wanted to have a sense what was happening, you could find it on the internet or in the local papers. this was a man who had an abortion mill that was, in fact, a death mill for babies essentially born.
is that still your assessment? well, i wouldn t say the only piece of legislation, but i called it the sweet spot because it would do a whole lot of good and had a good chance of passing. i m working very hard with both democrats and republicans, pro-nra and anti-nra people, to come up with a background check bill that will be acceptable to 60 senators and be very strong and get the job done. it s very hard. we re working hard and i m very hopeful we can get this passed. it s a fragile coalition. new york city mayor michael bloomberg is running ads, not just against republicans on this issue, but against your fellow democrats in the u.s. senate including hieidi hide camp in north dakota and other red state democratic senators. is michael bloomberg being helpful to your cause as you try to put this this coalition together? i respect mayor bloomberg s passion on this and let s not forget the argument the ads and the sort of field organization has always been on the other side on