lot of people aren t really talking about the involvement of mitch mcconnell from the get-go here opposing mo brooks who would have won easily. furthesupporting luther strange and the amount of money they poured in to also going hard after roy moore prior to these allegations? bret: you are right. and the establishment line in alabama plays really against the g.o.p. establishment in washington. mcconnell was not an asset there. the money was, of course. but, when the president decided to support luther strange, it seemed like that possibly could turn the tide but it didn t. because the overpowering message was, you know, shake things up. the g.o.p. establishment is not getting it done. you need somebody closer aligned to donald trump. and roy moore made that case better. he also had a high name recognition, sean, as you know from the 10 commandments fight and his time, a number of different elements and issues in alabama. he had high name recognition, whether or not steve bannon was
jared kushner, and by the way, never get into a fight with the president s son-in-law. but he s decided that jared kushner and some of the other people in the white house are peddling a much more establishment line are the people who he ll go with now. and bannon didn t get the health care bill through congress. there is a substantive problem for trump that goes to part of what did draw some of the support to him if states like pennsylvania and michigan. he ran as an economic populist, and what i think a lot of his voters could start hearing, and they ve already started hearing, is he s totally abandoned his hard line on china. that was central to his campaign. even the way he pronounced the word china sent a message about how he felt. now he s let that go. he used to attack nafta over and over again. the proposal they re making to rewrite it is really not radical
really important discrepancies between donald trump and his nominees. when we look at his team, are they in lockstep with the president-elect or are they at this point we can see we don t know for sure, but it was clear, as you said, you look at the nomination hearings of rex tillerson, for example, and general mattis, and pompeo, there were clear differences between what donald trump said during the election on issues like torture, and issues on national security, and things like nato, u.s. alliances around the world, and what his nominees actually said. they pursued a far more central establishment line on issues of foreign policy than donald trump adopted during the campaign. the question is as we go into the second week of hearings, for example, the hearings with the
cruz did something to brilliant at the beginning when he saw the trump die many naic developing, is create an alliance with donald trump. but ultimately they are competitors. you re right, when push comes to shove they have to go after each other because they both want the same job. the thing that s odd about trump s criticism of cruz, it wasn t even an attack, it was the establishment line that cruz doesn t play well with others. he ll hit him as a political insider. that doesn t work. that s not true. he s not an insider. he worked with the bush campaign. everybody in washington hates ted. don t get in the senate by accident. you only get there if you re extremely politically ambitious. you think about the race he ran in texas, two interesting observations. not friends of mine. alan dershowitz, austan goolsbee is. austan goolsbee was the national debate champion one year and ted cruz the next. he s told me personally ted cruz is the smartest guy he s ever
cruz did something so brilliant at the beginning when he saw trump dynamic developing is create an alliance with donald trump. but ultimately they are competitors. you re right, when push comes to shove they have to go after each other because they both want the same job. the thing that s odd about trump s criticism of cruz, it wasn t even an attack, it was the establishment line that cruz doesn t play well with others. that s a huge advantage here. trump will hit him as a political insider. that s not true. he s not an insider. he worked with the bush campaign. everybody in washington hates ted. you daytona get in the senate by accident. you only get there if you re extremely politically ambitious. you think about the race he ran in texas, two interesting observations. not friends of mine. alan dershowitz, austan goolsbee is. austan goolsbee was the national debate champion one year and ted cruz the next. he s told me personally ted cruz is the smartest guy he s ever d