hand we re worried he won t be an independent check against trump. they haven t coalesced around the same message because judge gorsuch is so qualified. democrats really believe that what happened here was a traf c tvavesty. the rule in which a person gets a hearing, et cetera. so i think the issue here is democrats are looking at this nominee and they want democrats to actually test this out. i think the interesting thing that happened this morning is mitch mcconnell saying he won t go nuclear. this is an important issue. i don t think he ruled it out. he didn t rule it out but he says he needs 60 votes, not 50. that s an indication he s not going to go the nuclear route. i think the challenge here is that everything donald trump does makes this more difficult, not easier and is actually in making more democrats stand up.
hill. repeal and replacing obamacare refers to be an impossible dream. some saying i m open to anything. and some saying i think of obamacare as a collapsing bridge in need of repair. phil mattingly has more. reporter: speaker ryan says miscommunication about the republican top line talking points when it comes to repeal and replacing the law. make no mistake, it s still the way to go in both chambers across the board. there s no questioning the fact that there s a lot of confusion about the path forward amongst rank and file republicans. that confusion leading to a lot of concern as well. there s obviously political damage they re very wary of, but very real marketplace damage, patient damage that could also occur if this is not done thoroughly. i want to give you background about how republicans expect this to happen going forward. again, it s a long process, they haven t coalesced around the
do you believe the establishment will rally around rubio? we are seeing momentum towards rubio right now. what is interesting in this election is that the outsiders seem to be rallying around donald trump and the establishment is tremendously splintered and we have seen the establishment rally and the outsiders splinter. it is definitely a different sort of year. we are showing live pictures of marco rubio. it is the next debate. there is a bunch of donors still on the sidelines. that s why they haven t coalesced. is this debate the next debate really rubio versus bush and the winner gets the donors? i think the donors are right to be undecided. rubio has been fine. agree. i think the donors are right. maybe wait until after iowa and new hampshire. ben carson and donald trump are
this stage of the game says republicans simply have not coalesced around anyone. for us that s great. that s a great story to follow. kelly ann, i want you to react to that. they haven t coalesced. which i think is wonderful for the republican party as well. traditionally, the republican party wants to know who can win, who s electable 18 months before the election. the only way you prove you re electable is to be elected. these folks who we ve been told you ve got to support them they can win, john mccain, mitt romney bob dole they end up losing. this time you have people up and down the ideological spectrum in the republican party saying let s not coalesce so early. this early on. and it is early. 18 months out. it s great to have a big field if you re going to have a big conversation on big ideas. and i would prefer the pro-competition republican party to have that free market competition in the race. but it s so fascinating to me that the republican and democratic parties have
obviously, holds a lot of sway. it happens to be the only issue that the party s actually united on right now. including dave camp s bold tax reform plan which was introduced to the news cycle yesterday with reviews of how earnest and practical it is and pro-growth it is with the, obviously, couched in language about its political prospects which are nil and how the leadership is rejecting any prospects for bringing it up this year. so that s not a good story are we runs for republicans. in the polls obamacare is not popular. it might be at some point be, but it s not now. it s fine for republicans to talk about that, but people think it s permanent, hay don t want to get rid they don t want to get rid of it, they want to get it fixed. the problem is they don t have one yet. they haven t coalesced around one plan they can go home every weekend and say obamacare is terrible, this is how we need to fix it. these are still parts of the