about spending. so, i think maneuvering behind the scenes will remedy this problem. here s the thing, though, support for the wall among the american people has dropped dramatically, right? this used to be something every republican would agree with, at least those running for office. here are the numbers. 52% supported a wall in september of twflt. today it s 38%. that s a pretty significant drop and it could affect republican opposition, right? is this going to make it easier for them to go against trump on this issue? will more of them join john mccain? i think so, and we re seeing some of that already. it s really hard to find a border state republicans who are out really trumpeting this idea of building a border, a state wall. and in many ways, it is deja vu all over again. this is the problem that the initial fence that was bush s idea, this is the problem that it had. this is why it s still incomplete, because they couldn t come up with the money to fund it. i mean, these
office that he really cape out front of the cameras on a national issue, urging his party to move and giving them the language that this is the sign of a healthy strong confident nation, that it embraces the energy, the power and the talents immigrants. it was as though he s trying to write a script for them they could embrace. and of course, you know, the impact is very likely to be little. it s interesting, i always felt border state republicans in general, particularly governors, they have a different mind-set on this. we saw rick perry. nobody would mistake him for a moderate republican. he s a tea party guy on a lot of things. on immigration, we saw where he was. i want to go to what president, what you think he should do now going forward. he took chuck s advice. help sa barely did any events on immigration. the advice he was give be, and they sort of internalized, if this becomes obama s immigration bill, forget it, republicans won t sign on. he said, okay, let it be
el paso and go left for another 800 miles to tijuana is just not reality. perry has now taken his place in line to be possibly the third republican nominee for president in a row with a much more liberal position on immigration and border issues than his party. the question facing perry and his campaign strategists now is will he stick to his guns on immigration own border security in the face of his party s opposition just the way former texas governor george w. bush did? or will he try the kind of flip-flopping that john mccain did to win the republican nomination last time? joining me now, melissa harris-perry, msnbc contributor. professor of political science at tulane university. and columnist for the nation. thanks for joining me tonight, melissa. absolutely. good to be here. melissa, what s with these border state republicans? starting with, let s not forget, ronald reagan. governor of california.