. today on "inside politics," epic failure. dysfunction, humiliation, and inability to govern. that's the most charitable way to describe congressional republicans right now. a stunning series of mind boggling defeats. and minutes from now, senate republicans will almost certainly torpedo the most conservative border bill before them in decades. plus a win for, quote, none of these candidates. nikki haley loses nevada's nonbinding primary even though she was the only candidate on the ballot. her campaign insists it's full steam ahead. and the trump campaign's moment, all eyes are on the supreme court preparing to hear arguments on whether donald trump can be disqualified under the constitution's insurrection ban. a sign of how serious the former president takes this, he's staying out of washington trying to avoid a political spectacle. i'm dana bash let's go behind the headlines and "inside politics." we start in the nation's capital where senate republicans are about to kill if border deal, the tough on immigration policy they themselves demanded. the reason is simple. it's what donald trump wants. he'd rather rant on the campaign trail about the surge of migrants than let his party rewrite antegiquated la ie hopes of solving the border crisis. there was the hyped vote to impeachment the homeland security secretary, it failed. minutes later a stand alone package for israel also failed. speaker johnson is new to the job and maybe didn't learn one of the cardinal rules of the house. don't put anything on the floor unless you have the votes. moments ago, johnson took questions from oreporters including our own manu raju. >> critics will say this shows your inexperience. and congressman massey said getting rid of kevin mccarthy was a disaster. >> it was a mess what happened here. massey is one of my dear friends and colleague. i don't think it's a reflection on the leader but the body itself and the place we've come in this country. >> manu, we've seen a lot in our time, especially me. can you please put this into context. starting with what we're about to see just looking ahead in the next hour of the senate. >> reporter: the last 24 hours tells the story of the 118th congress. which has been almost the inability to govern, driven in large part by republican divisions in the narrowly divided house. we saw it last night, the two failed votes but time and again, the basic essence of governing, whether it's keeping the government open that's difficult. we saw the first ouster of the cityin sitting speaker. the only real major accomplishment is avoid a debt default that this congress was able to accomplish. and now dealing with huge international and domestic crises and unable to deal with those as well. that has caused enormous frustration in the ranks. i spent the morning talking to a wide range of republicans, some of the most conservative ones and some in the swing districts and all say the same thing, they're frustrated about their own inability to govern. >> i had people reach out via text message and say what are you doing up there? our base is frustrated. we may have the gavel but we're not act ling like we're in the majority. >> curious how your constituents view congress and the house right now? >> we have work to do. it's frustrating for people like me i want to get things done, that's why i ran for congress. it's been a frustrating couple of days. >> the last comment coming from jen kig gins a member in a swing district in virginia. this comes as we are headed into another complicated episode for the new speaker, there's a vote to keep the government open by early march not to mention dealing with the crises in ukraine and israel and the border they have scuttled as the house senate republicans cut a deal with the white house. so many questions for this new speaker as they try to figure out a way forward but don't have a plan to do that. >> plans have not worked out so well so far. thank you so much for your excellent reporting. i want to bring in a panel here of excellent reporters, laura parome, eva mckend and carl hulse. i said a lot to manu i have seen a lot in congress. you and i have seen a lot in congress. we've covered for many years the halls of that building. i want you to put in context what we are seeing now versus before, because it's easy to say, oh, chaos in congress, understandable because that's not exactly a new label. this does feel different. >> yeah. yesterday it felt to me like the stock market crash of '29 but for the republicans the bottoms kept falling out of the market all day. every time you looked somewhere, something was happening. the dysfunction is really on one side. a lot of times in congress you go both sides are having problems. >> in one party, not one side of the gavel. >> right. but this is really republican dysfunction. and i saw one of the members said we're not acting like we have a majority. they don't have a majority. they have no functioning majority, that's what the problem is here. and that was a day like i have not seen on both sides. and, you know, being speaker is really hard. and it takes some experience. and the people who have done this before worked up through the ranks, had experience. he's coming at it and, you know, to miss a vote like that on such a huge issue -- >> the impeachment issue? >> right. flanked by the democrats and al green wasn't supposed to be there. >> so dramatic. wheeled in a wheelchair from the hospital. >> remember john mccain's thumbs down vote. >> i want to listen to more of what we heard from the speaker moments ago. this is the quote that we are going to be looking at and we are going to be picking apart the first thing he says. listen. >> democracy is messy we live if a time of divided government. we have a razor thin margin here and every vote counts. sometimes it's messy. you're seeing the messy sausage making the process of democracy play out. it's not always clean, pretty, but the job will be done at the end of the day. >> mitch mcconnell said earlier, i think it was yesterday, he said, look, we don't have the majority in the senate. it's divided government, which is what speaker johnson just acknowledged there. and yet with divided government that means you don't get everything you want. in the senate border deal, which is a compromise, that's probably the closest that republicans are going to get to something they want. and then when it comes to the impeachment vote and the failure of the israel funding vote. things like that, you two covered the hill longer than i did, but when i was there, that didn't have. you have entire operations, the house speaker, majority whip, the job is to know how many votes there are or aren't and weather they should bring something to the floor and typically you wouldn't bring it to the floor if you didn't have the votes. >> this may sound like process to some people but it's not. it's about governing. about people putting their elected representatives in place and hoping they know how to govern. and the series of events yesterday frankly what we'll see in an hour in the senate, i'm sure puts that into question. you're out on the campaign trail talking to voters all the time. >> they have egg on their face. it doesn't inspire confidence and calls into question what have house republicans done since they regained their majority. they have to make this case to voters that they should have -- expand their power in congress and yet this is what they have been able to achieve. not much. >> carl, i want to show our viewers what you wrote in part today. first of all, the headline says it all. on the border republicans set a trap, then fell into it. their idea was to tie approval of military assistance to ukraine to tough border security demands that democrats would never accept but democrats tripped them up offering almost unheard of concessions. democrats in tough races in the house and senate will be willing to say they're able to accept stringent new border controls but the republicans were not part of it. this is part of the mess here we cannot forget politically. >> the democrats kept saying yes. they kept saying yes. whether this was a calculated effort to draw them into the trap republicans had set, people say different things. but has laura knows better than i i think, this, the concessions they were making on immigration were considerable. republicans would never get another bill like this. >> the democrats got another. >> all they did was give, they got nothing. and within seconds of the bill sunday night, republicans thumbs down. this is what happens when donald trump gets involved in policy. >> that's a very good segue to what we're about to do. which is go to kristen holmes because donald trump is flexing his muscle this week. without a doubt he's why the border bill failed. and he wants to shake up the rnc. so give us the latest. let's start on the mcdaniel of it all and more broadly about sort of the strings he's already pulling in a big way that have to do with legislating and politics. >> when we're talking about rana mcdaniel, it's donald trump with friends like these. mcdaniel was a huge ally of donald trump, helped him win michigan in 2016, she was appointed to the rnc by him in 2016 and as head of the rnc helped pay for his legal bills until he announced a third bid for the white house. but in recent years he turned on her. started in 2020, when he didn't think the rnc or rona mcdaniel had the safeguards in place to help him challenge the election in 2020. complained that she held debates when he didn't want there to be debates. complained she didn't pay enough of his legal bills. and more recently they were complaining about the lack of fund-raising the rnc had. releasing dismal numbers in the last week. so as you have said, ronna mcdaniels telling donald trump he will step down if and when he is the nominee. but the big picture here is clear. donald trump didn't like ronna mcdaniel anymore she's stepping down. donald trump doesn't want a border deal, there's likely not a border deal. everything that donald trump is trying to get right now from republicans he is getting. he's taking full control of the party, feels like it did in 2016 as he inched towards the nomination there. it should be clear, republicans, even though who were not fans of donald trump all seem to be falling in line. >> such an important big picture statement. based on and baked in reporting that you've been doing. thank you for that, kristen. let's touch on ronna mcdaniel because this is fascinating. her fund-raising numbers weren't great. talked to people at the rnc, they argue, mooilgt might not be wrong, when there is an active primary going on, donors give to the campaigns not the party. okay. fine. but more importantly it's just -- it's amazing that she hasn't gone sideways with donald trump so far. she's i believe the longest serving rnc chair, he picked her, she was chair of the state party in michigan. he wanted her in there, she got in there. she's tried to do as much as she can for him. but at a certain point everybody goes sideways with donald trump because it's impossible to live up to the things he wants. he's saying do not have debates when there was a field of a dozen people, because i should be the nominee is that realistic? >> it just under scores, am amplifies no matter what you do for trump it's never going to be enough. and eventually there's an expiration date on every relationship. really, you know, in this campaign he has everything to lose. it's all on the line. the stakes could not be higher for the former president. and that is why he is trying to line things up with -- at every corner for every pocket for there to be just fierce unquestioning allies. >> go back to a story in your paper back in 2018, the headline was "romney who is u.n. failing loyal to trump". and this said as for her own surname she insisted the president had never asked her to drop it, he raised the issue only light heartedly in front of her husband she said she liked her name. and my husband and the president joked about it. not said here is that mitt romney is not exactly the top of the donald trump fan club, her uncle. >> he's not the top of the fan club. he voted to convict and someone who believes that the continued lies about the 2020 election is not something that the party should be behind. yet we're hearing that someone being considered to replace ronna mcdaniel is an election denier. so to me that speaks to the fact that's the ultimate litmus test for whether or not you're a trump republican or a r.h.i.n.o. according to trump. >> i have to ask about mitch mcconnell. he falls into the category of -- donald trump doesn't like mitch mcconnell he really really doesn't like mitch mcconnell. therefore, much of the republican base no longer likes mitch mcconnell. you have covered him for a long time. you know him really better than most reporters. and i want you to listen to what several of the rank and file republican senators said about mitch mcconnell yesterday. >> the instructions of my conference who were insisting we tackle this in october. >> things have changed over the last four months. and it's been made perfectly clear by the speaker that he wouldn't take it up even if we sent it to him. so i think that's probably why most of our members think we ought to have opposition tomorrow. >> that was obviously mitch mcconnell himself. but he makes the second point that i was going to make, carl. which is to hear mitch mcconnell saying i followed the instructions of my conference is something that i'm not used to hearing him say. he is a firm leader historically. now let's listen to what some of his rank and file members have said. >> everyone here supported a leadership challenge to mitch mcconnell in november. i think a republican leadership should actually lead this conference and should advance the priorities of republicans. >> it's failure of leadership that we've gotten to this point. i think they're out of touch on that issue. >> so this blew up in leader mcconnell's face. >> the problem for mitch mcconnell here is that he's more intune on this issue with chuck schumer than the far right of his own conference. you hear this, there's really no way for them to knock him off. it's a reflection of his weakened position they stand there and do that. they would never do that in the past. >> he has been routinely underestimated. senator hawley, many have been running their mouths for years and failed to pick him off in a leadership challenge. so i would be surprised if that ch changed. everybody stand by. up next, first on cnn, senior biden administration officials are head today a must win state to calm a certain voting block. we'll give you new reporting on that next. white house officials are zeroing in on a group of voters critical to winning michigan. arab americans and muslim americans. many of them are unhappy with president biden's support for israel and its war against hamas inside gaza. a war prompted by hamas' bar baric terror attack on october 7th. arlette saenz is her with her reporting. this is ms. na fascinating to m because i spoke to the mayor of dearborn, michigan, a critical area where a lot of muslim voters are, they said we don't want to hear from campaign officials we want to hear from biden policy officials. sounds like that's what the white house is answering. >> yes. that's what the leaders will experience tomorrow as senior administration officials are set to meet with them in a series of meetings in michigan. it comes as there's been some growing discontent within president biden's party over the handling of the conflict between israel and hamas. tomorrow there will be several officials headed to michigan for the meetings that includes the deputy national security adviser as well as the u.s. aid administrator samantha power and others as well. and it really comes, it's important to note where this meeting is happening. it's happening in the battleground state of michigan. a state biden narrowly won in 2020 and one where the muslim american vote could be incredibly influential in this year's election. if you look at analysis from a group that is trying to mobilize muslim american voters in the election they know there are 200,000 muslim american voters registered back in 2020 and 146,000 of them have voted. if you look at how much biden won by, only 154,000 votes so trying to get the community on board will be critical. the meeting comes a few weeks after biden's campaign manager went into the community and a meeting was called off at the last minute after several attendees declined to attend. one thing i heard at the time from some of the leaders who did not want to sit down with the campaign, they wanted to hear directly from administration officials, people talking about the policy here at the white house. this is an issue that president biden is aware could have implications headed into 2024, and these are some of the steps his team is taking. >> so interesting, thank you for that. back here around the table. i'm sure you're hearing the same thing, laura, that arlette was talking about, these are heavy hitters from inside the biden administration on these issues going up on michigan. >> they are, that's because the administration, as well as biden campaign knows that michigan is a problem for him. muslim and arab communities are not happy with him, young voters are not happy with his policy position on israel and gaza. they want to see a change. that's why so many of them, i also spoke to the dearborn mayor they want to talk to administration officials not campaign officials. i thought it was striking that the news comes out the same day the mayor said he's actually pledging to make an uncommitted -- he's not committed to voting for biden in the presidential democratic primary that's upcoming at the end of the month. >> i didn't see that. that's really interesting. >> yes. it's interesting that he along with a number of other michigan officials are saying they're not going to be casting that ballot. >> let's shift this conversation. and pose the question about whether or not they're going to be able to leverage the mess that we see inside the gop. let's listen to what the president said yesterday about the republicans particularly on the issue of immigration. >> every day between now and november the american people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is donald trump and his maga republican friends. it's time for republicans in the congress to show a little courage. to show a little spine. to make it clear to the american people that you work for them and not for anyone else. >> and carl, senator chris coons who, of course, is a democrat from delaware has a national campaign chair i think the title inside the campaign he said the following. the president should go to the border stand there and say we have a crisis i can't fix by executive order order you have to give me authority here's the bill. stand there and say there's a way to fix it and it's on the senate floor because republicans don't want to fix the problems. >> what a turn of events. a few weeks ago biden is getting killed on the issue. now weather they can sell it is a different thing. they have to emphasize it. republicans are going to continue to attack biden and the democrats on the border. but now they have a push back. they don't have to say we couldn't get anything through the white house. now they say hey we had a bill. you can see what we were palestinia palesp planning to do. i think it's going to be effective, probably more effective if they get legislation through. >> i think the border deal collapsing is the best case scenario for this president. i was speaking to an immigrant organizer in georgia and he said he felt his communities are often the punching bag. why is this legislation tied with foreign aid and that seldom happens for any other issue. and i believe if it were to pass it's not like republicans would be lining up to pat president biden on the back to say good job. >> you're saying it's one more thing that progressives would be upset at the president about. >> exactly. so he emerges from this as cleanly as possible. >> it's always that balance, do i do something to govern, do something to compromise or will i anger the base of my party? that's true for this president and obviously we've seen it historically for republicans. >> that is but we have seen president biden time and time again show that he wants to get the bipartisan deal. had this reached his desk he would have signed it, even if it had angered progressives. i think the bigger picture here, one thing you see president biden hammer time and time again i try to make a deal on immigration and the border. other republicans are saying this deal is needed to have control over the border. if the president could have shutdown the border by executive order why didn't the former do that? and there's the ukraine issue, republicans have abandoned ukraine because of trump and action on the border because of trump. >> these progressive organizers are saying we need to vote for the democrats we don't like as a measure of harm reduction. if that bill would have passed that argument would have been harder to make. >> they don't have that much options. >> doesn't seem like a lot of people have a lot of options right now. donald trump changes his mind and will not be in washington for tomorrow's big supreme court arguments on whether he could stay on the ballot. is this one example of political and legal strategy actually merging? we're going to explain next. so, you've got the power of xfinity at home. now take it outside with xfinity mobile. like speed? it's the fastest mobile service around... and right now, you can get a free line of our most popular unlimited plan. all on the most reliable 5g network nationwide. ditch the other guys and you'll save hundreds. get a free line of unlimited intro for 1 year when you buy one unlimited line. and for a limited time, get the new samsung galaxy s24 on us. this time tomorrow the supreme court will be hearing arguments on whether donald trump can stay on the ballot. that after the colorado supreme court ruled that he is ineligible because of his conduct related to january 6th. now under a part of the constitution that bans insurrectionists from running for federal office that is what's at stake here and what we're talking about the basis for this challenge, which is really remarkable. i want to bring in my legal panelists, paula reid and ellie honig. i want to start with you on your reporting along with kristen holmes and kristin polantz about the fact that the former president plans to stay away from the arguments, which is different than any other argument so far. >> we've seen the last few weeks he's brought chaos and disruption to hearings in several of his cases and internal conversations within trump world are revealing maybe that didn't have the benefits they anticipated which is part of why you're seeing a more traditional approach to tomorrow's oral argument p that includes he's not expected to attend. there's no upside and even trump understands how high the stakes are. they believe this can be a win for them they don't want to distract for that. look at the caliber of lawyers he has. this is his sixth time arguing before the justices. yesterday and today the entire trump legal team has been doing mock arguments, moot court, something i did in law school. but as we know the trump team not conventional always but taking a more traditional prepared approach to tomorrow's argument. >> let's see what happens on truth social after it's all said and done. let's look at the heart of what they're going to be hearing in the first place, elie. this is specifically a question that has come up through the state of colorado. and, as i said at the beginning, the colorado supreme court said they don't think he's eligible to be on colorado's ballot because of actions related to january 6th. this is not the way most states have looked at their ballots. i think that's important to point out. >> colorado is a distinct outlier in the world of 14th amendment challenges. there have been something in the order of two to three dozen of these challenges around the country. part of the problem with the 14th amendment is we don't really know exactly how it works. as a result of that, you can see it playing out, if you go across the map. some states have had secretary of states rejecting it, others had trial court judges to reject it, others federal judges who rejected this. we're all over the map. but it's important to keep perspective here. of all the challenges only one and a half, maine being the half because they're still in process. have said yes, donald trump is off the ballot on the under 14th amendment. but colorado is an outlier here and that's on the justices' minds tomorrow. >> the other question is people listening to tomorrow, once the supreme court makes the decision, will that apply, that decision apply to all states and district of columbia, et cetera, where people are voting or will it be narrowly about colorado? >> this is a great question. probably the question i've been asked most commonly hanging around the building. it depends how they rule. if they rule for colorado, inherently they're saying states you do have the authority to remove someone from the ballot. you have to abide by your own procedures. if that's the ruling they have to deal with other rulings. maine, illinois said we'll wait. there will be a state by state review. if they rule for trump in a certain way, rule that the president does not count under the 14th amendment, rule it's not up to the states, then it's a silver bullet and all the reporting is done. coming up nikki haley lost another republican primary last night to none of the above. she's brushing it off but the question is how much longer will she go without a w on the board. we'll talk about that next. a tough night for nikki haley who lost the nevada primary to none of the above. stay with me here because it's complicated. technically the primary was meaningless the delegates will be awarded based on the results of the gop caucuses those are tomorrow night. donald trump is competing in that contest but not the primary. so nikki haley was the only one on the primary ballot that she lost to last night and she lost to none of these candidates by a 2 to 1 margin. the haley campaign is dismissing the results saying it didn't devote any resources to the state and, quote, we're full steam ahead in south carolina and beyond. john king joins us now. >> should we be worried about who none of the above is going to pick? she's right she didn't spend any money to campaign, didn't put any ads on the air. but what they were hoping for -- trump is getting the delegates on thursday night. what they were hoping for is other voters would come out and they could claim a victory, instead they lost to none of the above. it doesn't mean anything in terms of the math of the race but she's desperate for momentum. didn't even get a bounce out of nevada. so it comes literally -- she says she's in through super tuesday but i don't think she can be on four. >> what did you find in her home state? >> she was last on the ballot 10 years ago, 2014 she won her second term as governor. since then donald trump won the 2016 primary, election and the 2020 election. her state just watch this. it's his party. south carolina shoreline is spectacular. island treats ice cream shop a popular stop. >> one scoop, that's good. >> joy cashed in her 401(k) eight years ago to buy the place. leaving pennsylvania behind. >> god brought me here. i tell everybody he brought me here. >> she served her first scoop in 2016. nikki haley was governor then and she was impressed. >> she's a very good governor. >> but then and now, donald trump is her vote for president. >> i believe that god has assigned him to this position. that is my true belief. >> assigned him to be the president of the united states. >> yes, he'll be president again. i've been saying that for a long time. >> what happened in 2020 then? >> that was a mess. that was some illegal, some improper cheating happening there. >> no judge in any state, federal judge, found any evidence. >> and i think so many people hate trump that -- >> even judges appointed by trump? even trump supreme court that rejected him? three of his justices there. >> i know there was a lot of cheating. >> if it was god's plan for trump to be president, why would he let it be president? >> right now the time happened -- o okay. what happened is what happened, but -- and i believe trump's coming again. >> reporter: such trump is best no matter what sentiment is easy to find in south carolina. a big reason the former president is heavily favored in haley's home state. >> he's even more ready now. >> reporter: mark sanford is out of politics because he hasn't a different take on trump. sanford was the republican governor before haley then he won his house seat back in 2013 but he lost the republican primary in 2018 because he criticized trump's spending and sometimes his tone. >> i would say i'm for trump in this area and against in these areas. people didn't want nuanced, are you for or against? he's in agreement, when haley criticizes trump for the chaos and spending, but he expects a trump win here. >> that which traditionally worked in gop politics isn't working these days. >> i've seen this erosion, you have too. you go from tea party, sort of perot movement to tea party to trump. it's metastasized in ever aggressive forms in what started out as well meaning americans saying we have to have do something about politicians doing what they said they were going to do into something much more strident as their religion. i don't know how else to explain it. >> hartsville is two hours from the coast. billy pierce here for 70 years except a stint in the navy is another piece of the trump comeback puzzle. >> the four years he was president how was your life? >> better. we didn't have the high inflation, interest rates. >> not an election denier not a fan of the toxic tone. >> if he had shut up and got off twitter he would have been a great president. >> his votes track that of the vote for ross perot. >> i wanted him to run this place like a company, a ceo. >> pierce calls himself trump in the primary. the border the top issue. >> shut it down. >> he's going in to fix the things i need him to fix. i have no problem with putting up two roads and mining the other. if they come in, tell them it's mined, you put signs out, it's mined. >> like many voters, craig thomas wanted to send washington a message. >> all right. this is good, let's blow some things up. >> now he's voting for haley to send his children a message. >> i don't think there's any sort of crazy conspiracy between the nfl and taylor swift and everything else showing up for a biden coronation. >> to end he hopes awkward conversations after his teenage daughter gets home from the stables. >> how i look at my daughter who's a huge taylor swift fan and this guy is taking her because she's going to support another candidate, right. and other things like that. so having those conversations with them, it does matter. and it does matter with who you support. >> reporter: charleston is rich with revolutionary and civil war history, more affluent, more educated, less trump than most state. >> there is talk of trump here. >> reporter: that's a bad sign for thomas who wants to give haley a win and give the republican race a new beginning. >> that's what's so striking. i've been at this a long time. ronald reagan was president the first time i went to south carolina for a primary. it was lower taxes, less government, strong military. that party doesn't exist anymore. now most republicans say, where are you on trump? that is the defining question. that makes it hard for former governor haley. >> to hear those voters each give their arguments for the way that they're going to vote, it's so fascinating because they really do encapsulate the different tugs, thedo encapsulate the different polls inside the gop. thank you. great piece as always. thanks, john. donald trump offers an olive branch to anheuser-busch after a simmering feud. why now? that's next. xfinity rewards presents: '1st and 10gs.' xfinity is giving away ten grand to a new lucky winner for every first and ten during the big game. enter daily through february 9th for a chance to win 10gs. with the ultimate speed, power, and reliability the xfinity 10g network is made for streaming live sports. because it's only live once. join xfinity rewards on the xfinity app or go to xfinity1stand10gs.com for your chance to win. donald trump says anheuser- busch deserves a second chance . the company became a conservative punchingbag after a bud light marketing push involving transgender influencer dylan mulvaney. sales plunged as republican lawmakers and anti-trans activists cause -- called for boycotts than yesterday seemingly out of nowhere, trump wrote on truth social, the bud light add was a mistake of epic proportions and for that, a very big price was paid. anheuser-busch is not a woke company. here is maybe a bit of context. jeff miller announced he is hosting a fundraiser for trump. he is also a lobbyist for anheuser-busch. tickets are going for $10,000 each. thank you for joining inside politics, cnn news central, starts after the break. two leading candidates for senate. two very different visions for california. steve garvey, the leading republican, is too conservative for california. he voted for trump twice and supported republicans for years, including far right conservatives. adam schiff, the leading democrat, defended democracy against trump and the insurrectionists. he helped build affordable housing, lower drug costs, and bring good jobs back home. the choice is clear. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. i'm lauren fox on capitol hill and this is cnn.