they ve had their own hides to watch for a while. right. but even more so, the the burning desire and desperation really to get things like tax reform done, which they re going to do in the next stage in the senate tonight, is even more critical according to i talked to one republican senator tonight, because they even more so have to prove that they can get things done. even more so have to have a legislative accomplishment, given the political firestorm going on the russia side of this. jim, flynn s guilty plea is the first charge against a person inside the trump administration, and now cnn is learning that jared kushner was very senior transition member, the one who directed flynn to contact the russian ambassador. what do we know about that? listen, the white house has tried to portray flynn, in these conversations with the russian ambassador during the transition, first they tried to portray them as innocent conversations, you had sean
through the house enter the senate finance committee, well on its way to passing in the senate going to conference. when that happens in people of more money in their pockets, they are going to look at congress and president trump and see them together as an unstoppable force. you look at the democratic party, the party of negativity and corruption, negativity and corruption does not win collections. melissa: you said that essential thing, they have to get tax reform done, we saw they got swept in this month s elections, when you are looking at virginia or looking at new jersey, they are likely at this point to possibly give away that seat in alabama, maybe for other reasons. but it certainly looks like there are a few challenges in the future. those states that you reference, new jersey and virginia are blue states. it s understandable that democrats are going to win solid blue states. look at the other side of the coin, republicans won back in missouri and kansas and south caroli
dana: is that a place where there could be bipartisan support? yes. yes, but i think we re seeing another example of the harm of the do nothing congress. this is an area that congress should legislate. alex worked on this to great effect in the senate. again, i ll commend him for that. the fact that congress has failed to legislate in so many different areas means that by default, who ever is president is going to try to do as much as they can through the regulatory apparatus. that s not a way to make policy. congress should act and has failed to act. it s been almost a year now in this new presidency without any piece of major legislation passing. i d love to see immigration reform on a bipartisan basis. that would be a first act of a major act of congress. as long as congress fails, it will be left to the president, whether it s president obama or president trump. that s not the way to create national policy. dana: alex, i ll give you the final word on this. if congress gets ta
he s going through he has to get tax reform done, he s off message again. it s taking him off the russian story line on to sexual assault story line, something he is desperately to avoid. i spoke to a couple of republicans who say it s obvious what he s trying to do. he doesn t want to have to face talk about himself and what he s gone through. this is a problem for him. abbey, how much does mitch mcconnell and other republican leaders who out on a limb here with the party, how much do they want the president involved here? would they like to see him make a stand? i think they would. they very much want trump to show the way here. just like trump didn t endorse roy moore in the primaries, trump s voters are behind roy moore. steve bannon non is a driving force in that company and i
in congress far more than they blame the president for not getting stuff done. no doubt if they re unable to get tax reform done, i agree with j.d. you ll see that exacerbated. yeah. and listen, the president stopped mid speech, not once, but twice for a very critical moment. thousand jobs thank you. they don t have water? that s okay. japanese manufacturers, toyota and mazda announced that they will be opening a new man so i was listening at the gym and i thought my headphones cut out. what just happened? i ran over to the screens and i saw it. i mean, look, we all keep water. we keep it at the desk. we need that. listen, the president, he campaigned on america first.