oh we gosh we have to laugh at this sometimes. john, typically, republicans fall in line. they are all on the same page, right? and democrats are the ones beating each other up. instead, it seem likes the gop the divide is widening here with mcconnell and mccarthy s split on whether the g about this rnc censure. how does this play out? well, look. the reason that, you know, republicans usually fall in line, except when they are being asked to commit to a lie. and so, you re starting to see cracks in the cult. and that s healthy for democracy. i wouldn t overstate it. still, only got a handful of these folks but mitch mcconnell speaking out, mike pence speaking out, mitt romney speaking out, thom tillis, all of the sudden, that creates more cover for people to stand up and do the right thing. and what you need is for people to say they represent the reality-based republican party, and push back on on on the big-lie cultists. and like ted cruz, the fact that he came out and c
very big trouble. and here, you now have the commander in chief that may have been doing the same thing. of course, we know that he was cavalier with classified information bwith the russians. meetings with the russian foreign minister and so many other examples. just yet another one. so many republicans are on the trump train. even adam kinzinger is talking about the risk of civil war. what is going on now? well, what s going on is the republican party continues to grapple with its future. you have the mainstream of the republican party has really capitu capitulated to donald trump. and you have a few people with great courage, whom i disagree with on policy discussions but listen, i am willing to have a policy discussion any day of the week with people because we deal with hard issues. this is different. you have people that are just willing to do whatever donald trump says. a cult of personality. and that s what is happening and it s having that battle for its
fundamental evil that the republicans embraced for power. and you can t negotiate with evil. i mean, when john and i were republicans, this is one of the tenets republicans prided themselves on. don t negotiate with evil. it s situational ethics, all of those things. well, those values were right. it s just that republicans now have the opposite values. um, john, i want you to weigh in but stuart just said because corporate pressure. that s why mcconnell is doing. correct me if i am wrong, stuart. but is it becoming easier to speak out against trump? well, look, certainly, donations are one thing politicians respond to. also, the comfort of of other colleagues having your back. but of course, stuart is right. it should just come down to basic principle and he is also right about where the line is. it s would you vote for donald trump again just because he is a member of your party, which
mach members, and so many others are drastically increasing. so i am worried about this extremist movement deepening and changing in nature to become more violent than it has already shown itself to be on january 6th and other occasions. so, we should take that very seriously and that s another illustration why we need people of both sides of the aisle and, frankly, more republicans to stand up and show some courage. because folks they don t want to listen to me for obvious reasons. but they will listen to somebody maybe with a different letter behind their name and that s why dissent is so important by liz cheney, adam kinzinger and so many others. before we let you go, i want to ask you about ukraine. con depressman, you led a delegation there to coordinate weapons transfer. the white house approved a plan to evacuate u.s. sit incidence in ukraine if russia invades. what more can the u.s. do amid these rising tensions? should the u.s. be doing more?
nancy pelosi, slamming republicans and mccarthy. it s disturbing to see that the republican leader of the house ran actually, literally, refused to condemn that legitimate political discourse, he literally ran away from the press when he was asked about his position. republicans can run but they can not hide from what happened on january 6th. let s bring in now, cnn senior political analyst, mr. john avlon. his upcoming book, lincoln and the fight for peace. also, stuart stevens, former chief strategist for the romney presidential campaign. good evening to both of you. i mean, was there a treadmill? they he was moving.