message which is won t be too difficult to do compared to trump because he s always so negative. just be positive and bring this country together again. thank you very much. i should tell you, talking with some other people, immigration, health care, education, foreign policy, all issues people here inr are saying they hope the president will touch on tonight. if you care about income inequality, you ve got to care about education. i want to get my panel in. it is an excellent one. msnbc contributor and washington post opinion writer jonathan kaypart. democratic congresswoman mikey sheryl from my home state of new jersey. and msnbc con trub biter, former director of strategic communications, of hillary for america, adrian aron. and a.b. stoddard. you leave us and get on a train to d.c. for tonight s state of the union. what do you expect? what do you want to hear? i really want to hear a
she will probably not be standing up very often because i think she will disagree with the words that come out of the president s mouth. jonathan made a good point. more democrats for the first time in that chamber than republicans. i think you ll see a lot of people bending over backwards. especially the conservative republicans who still stand with trump, bending over backward tossing drown out any sort of boos or lack of applause that come from the democrats. are they bending over backwards for what trump has done or what mitch mcconnell has done right? the mitch mcconnell school of the republican party have gotten lots of things they want done. they re sticking tight on here s what you want to do in syria, i don t think so. money for the wall, no. do they stand with president trump or, behind closed doors, do they stand with mitch mcconnell s agenda? several things have happened to sort of shift the tide on the republican side.
now and will not shut down the government and that s what we re urging you to do. not threaten to shut down the government. you don t want to shut down the government. the last time you shut it down, you got killed. let me say something, mr. president. you just say my way or we ll shut down the government. joining me now is susan paige, usa today washington bureau chief, nbc contributor jonathan kaypart. and nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. watching what happened in the oval office, pretty stunning. what a remarkable exchange, andrea. i think everyone was just gob-smacked watching this unfold. it really underscores the extent to which these two sides remain so far apart on this critical ask by president trump. he wants to fund his border wall. schumer, pelosi, not having it. of course pelosi now heading into the new year, has a lot more leverage with democrats poised to take over the house.
about mark meadows, they say he would be someone who would be well positioned to deal with any political onslaught from the democrats in the house. so they think he could certainly be effective in that role. david bosse is another name. he of course is someone who knows how to be a political operative. he was the former deputy campaign manager for a period of time. so those are two of the names that are certainly getting a lot of play. you also have some outliers like steve mnuchin. chris christie. but i think that it s worth taking the mark meadows name seriously. he himself out yesterday, talking to reporters about this, saying he d be honored to take it. that might be the best qualification. somebody who s willing to work as chief of staff as president of the united states. never would have imagined any of this happening. susan page, jonathan kaypart and kristen welker. thank so much. that does it for this edition of
jonathan kaypart is with the washington post. matt walsh, with a monthly magazine. this morn, saying there was no collision, no obstruction. is he right, is that what the memos show? i think that s a question bob mueller ultimately is going to answer, well, try to answer, and then that s for a jury to decide. it s not for donald trump or the republicans on capitol hill who i think got a little bit more than they bargained for with the release of these memos. it was the republicans who asked for them. now that they re out, they really peel back the layers of what anybody who s known trump or interacted with trump for a long time can tell you. that he often makes people very uncomfortable. will often make very bizarre statements, statements that he thinks are funny. statements that he thinks are somehow relatable, like that comment about vladimir putin and the hookers, and it just leaves people on the other end of the