some benefits, but for right now, as we saw last night pretty clearly with that exchange, the president goaded the republicans into in the capital it s a safe program at the moment. the president is making a lot of political hay out of the possibility of it not being saved. but, you know, the overall public opinion and support for social security and medicare and the power of older voters in america as a voting bloc is going to help safeguard those programs for a long time is the general way that political analysts would look at this. jim put social security aside, last night president biden made a lot of proposals sort of meat and potato type of things that impact all sorts of people and their wallets, he didn t seem at all to be bothered by the fact that the gop controls the house. what do you see him actually pushing for getting done? well what the president did last night was very rare in recent history of democrats who suffer lofts in midterm elections when president
going to be able to confront kevin mccarthy with what happened in that room last night. yeah, and if you notice from that video, when kamala harris stands up to applaud that line, kevin mccarthy initially does nothing. and then he ends up applauding, but sitting down. so, maybe that s half a commitment. [laughter] i don t know. but we got him on video applauding the line, we re not going to touch medicare and social security. and so, i think that s going to be an awfully hard one for him to back away from. plus his own words, saying that in his meeting with president biden at the white house, they agreed, or he agreed, medicare and social security are off the table in terms of negotiations with respect to the debt ceiling extension. so, i agree with you. i think president biden was
social security and medicare and he called out those gop lawmakers who half of them last night after he accurately accused some of them who are looking to cut those programs. some republicans want medicare and social security sunset, i m not saying it s a majority. here is what was amazing, see that right there? that is senator mike lee, hugh peered visibly outraged even offended as he listened to president biden, this morning senator rick scott s said this quote, joe biden is either typical washington liar, or he is just confused. well, the president took absolutely no time to respond to those gentleman in saying this. you seem shocked when i raised the plans of some of the members and their caucus to cut social security. and marjorie taylor greene said
history, keep bringing the receipts. so let s get smarter with the lead off panel this evening, nbc correspondent and moderator of washington week on pbs, jim tanker white house correspondent and abc stutter veteran washington journalist an associate journalist and columnist for real clear politics. i ll send or help me understand this, what do you make of the republican response today saying we never wanted to touch social security, what is he talking about? we just laid it out right there and it didn t take long for us to find that video. stephanie, i think it really shows that this is the republican party that knows talking about cutting social security and medicare makes them very vulnerable to more losses like the loss they took in the midterms that they took in the 2020 election, this is why you re seeing republicans saying i ve never said that even though clearly you have mike lee on tape saying just exactly what president biden
said. i think it also shows that former president trump has told his party a little bit to the left when it comes to specifically what they called entitlement programs because it was president trump who was saying very clearly, even back in 2016 when he was running talking about things social security and medicare and how important they are, and you already had the former president and president trump used up a lot of issues in a lot of challenges, one thing is that you should not under any circumstances to republicans cut social security and medicare this was really former president trump in leaning in on this but also i think it s interesting that president biden, it s all like he baited republicans into denying this. he knew that this was going to get them riled up and then you saw him really be agile in the state of the union and say you really want to do this? that s all pledge to protect social security and medicare so not in front of millions of people, the republican party an