this flood of democratic retirements, 22 so far of house democratic incumbents, a sign that, number one, some of them think they ll have very tough re-election battles. that is true of stephanie murray who had trouble with redistricting in florida. others who are even from safe districts are saying, we are likely to lose the majority of next year s midterms. being in the minority in the house is no fun. it s been four years since they got out of that situation. you really don t have very much power when you re in the minority in the house. so this is a sign that democrats who are there are making this calculation. contrast that with republicans. i think we ve had about 11 republican house members say they re going to not run again. that s just half the number we ve seen of these democratic retirements. natasha, what is the impact of those democratic retirements on efforts to get anything done come the new year? well, think when you have all those retirements, you have to think abou
election. so, i think in some ways, these rocks are places where joe biden himself may feel more comfortable that be with what was put out initially. joe manchin is out front, taking the heat for a handful of other democrats who don t have as easy as a time doing this. as we ve talked about here, he s from west virginia. where all of this stuff is not a problem at all. there are other senators from places like virginia, arizona, georgia, where, you know, it s not quite as easy to be the one that s taking all the arrows on issues like this. but where they re still going to face tough re-election battles. so i think the question is, is mitch mcconnell and republicans serious about doing this work? so far, i haven t seen the evidence of that. shelly moore capito has been out there. we ll see if these infrastructure talks become a real thing this week. i think manchin puts a little bit more pressure on those talks to bare fruit. but mcconnell has blocked the january 6th commission
i think it would be extremely inappropriate to put a bullet in this thing immediately when it comes over. i think we ought to hear what the house impeachment managers have to say, give the president s attorneys an opportunity to make a defense and then make a decision about whether and to what extent it would go forward from there. i have clearly made up my mind. i m not trying to hide the fact that i have disdain for the accusations in the protcess, soi don t need any witnesses. there is no indication that pat toomey is going to break from the president. we should be fair, we should be thoughtful, we should listen this out. lindsey graham says, i m voting no and i don t care what anybody says. that s a reflection of the different composition of the senate where you have republican members who will be facing tough reelection battles, have trump at the top of the ticket, and they re in a tough spot. you have well over 90% of the republican party behind the president, but when yo
these numbers add up. it s really amazing, brian. donald trump promised to drain the swamp. i don t think he meant that 40% of the republican party was going to turn over in three years or less than three years. we re going to see that incredible draining of the republican side. but what i think you re seeing in the retirements right now is acknowledgment by senior republicans that they don t believe the republican party has a chance of taking over the house in the next elections because what it means is they don t believe it s worth fighting in their next election to try to win because they re not going to get those chairmanships next time around. they re going to have to wait more than one cycle, maybe two cycles. and in the case of these folks, will herd in texas and pete king in new york, those might even be difficult re-election battles. so, the judgment to make from all this is it s going to be an up hill fight for republicans, more up hill than folks might have thought in the
the house specifically because sooner or later you re at 101, these numbers add up. it s really amazing, brian. donald trump promised to drain the swamp. i don t think he meant that 40% of the republican party was going to turn over in three years or less than three years. we re going to see that incredible draining of the republican side. but what i think you re seeing in the retirements right now is acknowledgment by senior republicans that they don t believe the republican party has a chance of taking over the house in the next elections because what it means is they don t believe it s worth fighting in their next election to try to win because they re not going to get those chairmanships next time around. they re going to have to wait more than one cycle, maybe two cycles. and in the case of these folks, will herd in texas and pete king in new york, those might even be difficult re-election battles. so, the judgment to make from all this is it s going to be an up hill fight for r