words of hatred continue to come out of the president s mouth? usually at rallies or on twitter and they lead many people believe because the manifestos line up with what he s been saying to the death of over 20 people in el paso. well, you bring up a good point. you mentioned the folks in swing states and who are up for re-election. and they operate out of fear. they re afraid of trump, they re afraid of the primary. that s not an excuse. i think it s just a stark reality. as far as i think what s even worse, the folks who aren t up for mitt romney who has over 5 1/2 years left on his term who is afraid to speak up. that s what angers me and donald trump will be gone and the republican party will have to figure out what it is. i for one i m a current republican, i will be there to hold those people accountable and make sure that they no longer represent the republican party. because we do need a two-party
semiveiled swipe at president trump writing in part, we should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds the climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments. i don t think this is really veiled. leaders who demonize those who don t look like us or suggest that other people including immigrants threaten our way of life or refer to other people as sub human or imply that america belongs to just one certain type of people such language isn t new. it s been at the root of most human tragedy throughout history here in america and around the world. it is at the root of slavery and jim crow, the holocaust, the genocide in rwanda and ethnic cleansing in the balkans. it has no place in our politics and our public life. and it s time for the overwhelming majority of
system. there are republicans who do believe in doing the right thing. if you re an elected official and not doing it, you should be out of there. we do need a center right party but i don t think it s the republicans anymore. the republican party now that s correct. i think susan s point about fear is really important. it s a party that is completely caged by its own fear of everything. not just of its own voters but a fear that the weakness of its own ideas. the republican party i joined in my youth 35 years ago, 40 years ago, was a confident, optimistic forward looking party that believed in america, believed in immigration and in national unity. this is a party that s afraid of everything that it s afraid of its own voters, doesn t have confidence in its own ideas and it s mortgaged everything it s believed in to be a cult of personality for a very weak and insecure man. there s no center to the republican party. it has been hollowed out by this
dangerous thing in this country and no one is speaking up about it. because they re paralyzed by fear. i ll just add one more thing. the republicans really have become the party that fears facts and science, that they don t want to let the kind of studies go forward because they re not confident in their own position. they know that they re their own electeds are far away from where their own people are on this. so we really have to break that logjam somehow. but as long as there s the united front from the white house to the corporate world i don t think that s going to happen. alicia menendez, we have heard it for a generation after the shootings and there s a frustration that nothing tends to come from them. i have heard just anecdotically in the last few days they thought sandy hook was the moment, when first graders were slaughtered in the classrooms that the country would come to terms with the massive problem in front of it. do you believe that something is different this ti
washington, d.c. that worked for the d.c. arm of the nra. three very corrupt people who i don t know if they re going to go to jail or not. but i find it hard to believe that the nra people are going to nra members are going to allow them to stay in office. but this is what fear gets you. it gets you voted out of your office and you have to live with the votes for the rest of your life. not worth it. i was there, it s not worth it. vote your conscience and vote with 95% of americans who want expanded background checks. jim vandehei, thank you very much. coming up, mayor pete buttigieg joins the conversation. he has a plan to counter the gun lobby and shares that with us, straight ahead. plus, former president obama speaks out. we ll read his statement about the mass shootings, gripping the nation. you re watching morning joe. we ll be right back. you re watching morning joe. we ll be right back.