mcconnell continues to ignore calls to end the senate s five-week long august renecessary order to hold a vote on a bill passed by the house that would expand background checks. despite this weekend s tragic mass shootings in el paso and dayton, it is unlikely he will bring back lawmakers. republicans on capitol hill have no reason to believe that mcconnell who is home resting from a fall would call the senate back into session. he has opposed legislation in the aftermath of every previous mass shooting. joining me now, hans nichols who is in louisville, kentucky, for us, mitch mcconnell s home state and platco seni politico seniod msnbc analyst. hans, do mcconnell s constituents want stronger gun measures? reporter: well, it s hard to say, right? it seems like attitudes are shifting ever so slightly, but there isn t a fundamental change in thinking here. we re here, as you mentioned,
that s part of, you know, a lot of people do this. i think i look at this from a religious standpoint as well. we can ask forgiveness all we want. in fact, the united states government has asked for forgiveness or at least apologized time and time again, but we have to also be willing to seek atonement, and sometimes seeking atonement means r reparating for the past. there have been politicians who have apologized but i don t think an official apology from the u.s. government has happened. van, do mcconnell s answers show a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to have white privilege, as robert says? i think so. i would look at white privilege institutions. how it s affected this government and how the inverse, not having privilege, being a target of the government, has affected black people. we actually have material
speaker boehner in his opening says every time he opens his mouth, his proposals become less possible. mitch mcconnell saying this is a butt-kicking for the president. if you look at the way the president reacted to what could only be described as a butt-kicking reaction, so i ve been perplexed by the reaction from the election as a in your face move to the left. mcconnell and boehner, their old dna loved to cut deals. is this proof they have the grass root conservatives, tea party and others looking over their shoulder? do mcconnell and boehner feel propelled to have this anti-obama bravado? as much as old passions from the tea party remain in the gop, there s a pragmatic strain we re seeing emerging. mcconnell, boehner, these are people who want to make deals. look for vice president biden to
in all of this and the role of ted cruz going forward. when you look at mitch mcconnell, the comments he made this week, or john boehner. they don t want to listen to him. in mcconnell s case, she a little more willing to speak out than before. when i listen to little baugh and mark levin, a conservative talk show last. they re still with ted cruz as much as ever. how much room do mcconnell and boehner have right now to stand up to cruz going forward? procedurally, tactically, the only way ted cruz can do is to cower and allow him. one thing mcconnell is doing is saying we will not do it. last time around he was saying there are a lot of views of how to proceed with the government. we will work those out amongst ourselves, that s where cruz was able to light a fire in the conservative movement in the republican party. this time he is not going to allow it. that means conservatives have to work with the government. they have to get rid of this
you there. i ve got my thick rubber soled shoes on. excellent. good to hear. thanks so much for your time. earlier today i spoke with chuck todd and i asked him what do you expect today as the senate considers harry reid s debt measure. there s sort of two paths here, he s going to get his 60 votes. i promise you that. there s already enough republicans who sort of are exhausted from this on the senate side. the question is does he just get barely enough where it s 60, 61 votes out of the senate and then we see this drama play out in the house and it is one vote at a time and it makes it very difficult to get out. or do mcconnell and reid strike the kind of deal today that could attract 25 republicans, 30 republicans. they send a strong bipartisan message, and it makes it that much harder for anybody in the house really, any credible member of the house to vote against it, because at this point we re too close to the debt limit. i wonder how you could put reid and mcconnell i