moderate republicans. then when you get the pressure in this case, people like the nra saying you ll lose your base if you do this, we re not with you, he often retreats back into where he s more comfortable, hard right, nativist, conservative place. we saw that on immigration. either ready to make a deal. the hard-liners come out and he moves back to where he was. if this follows a similar pattern, he s more likely to take the advice and pressure from the nra than anybody else. this is a moment he feels something different. there s a lot of competing voices. it will be fascinating to see what he actually does, especially in an election year. all right. ashley parker, thank you very much. aaron, we ll see you back here later on this hour. 2020 candidate tim ryan is taking the fight for tougher gun laws to mitch mcconnell s home state of kentucky writing ryan is leading a caravan have you his state of ohio and the caravan is going to make its way to louisville at a moms demand action
with new democrats endorsing impeachment tonight, the figure has jumped for the first time to 49%. or 114 democrats. what you re looking at may be a new center of gravity for a caucus that has largely stopped short of advocating impeaching trump. the house shift is part of the context for new pressure on the top republican in the senate right now, mitch mcconnell blocking a series of election security bills despite warningsings from u.s. intelligence that russia is still at it. some dubbed him moscow mitch running bill boards in his home state of kentucky, plus images this one going viral on social media imagining him in a russian military uniform. mcconnell has taken to the floor to protest that kind of politicking stretching his past opposition to putin and arguing this is red scare tactics against him. meanwhile, there s reporting he
chao, who allegedly helped usher through at least $78 million in grant funds for his home state of kentucky. take a listen. leader mcconnell, did you receive any special treatment or consideration as your office applied for transportation grants because you re married to secretary chao. you know, i was complaining to her just last night. 169 projects, and kentucky got only five. i hope we ll do a lot better next year. susan page? well, it is not clear that anything illegal happened here. of course, there are often political considerations to the granting of for federal grants. it looks pretty swampy. for the administration who promised to drain the swamp, it has an appearance of kind of the favoritism that makes americans not think very highly of washington. no, it doesn t.
in so he makes up a nk in, there was never a secret agreement. so faux he s moving back to fighting china. well, people are going to catch on. and when suddenly your four years can be reduced to 30-second ads, those 30-second ads are going to be devastating against donald trump and he s not going to be able to tweet his way out of that corner. still ahead on morning joe, as even the trump cabinet secretary happens to be married to mitch mcconnell, whose home state of kentucky is reaping some pb go to bill karins for a check on the forecast. heavy rain just moved to new
but the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell made sure that measure met a swift death on his side of the capitol. and so the trump administration was allowed to, in fact, lift those sanctions on oleg deripaska s aluminum company earlier this year. kaching. first oleg deripaska s company announced last month they have made a surprise decision to spend $200 million opening a new plant in mitch mcconnell s home state of kentucky. it s a project they ll say will bring billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to mitch mcconnell s state. secondly, just before that deal, that present to mitch mcconnell was publicly announced one of his lobbyists was dispatched to give mitch mcconnell a heads up about this big present he was getting from oleg. this heads up they d be building a brand spanking new plant in his state after all the good