Nbc news and host of case ki d. C. , thank you, now. Nice work, guys. Especially today. Case ki hunt. Along with joe, will lid and me. What a day yesterday. What a day in every way. You had so many things going on the president going to capitol hill. We actually should probably start with casey, because, what a day, it will be for a capitol hill reporter, kasie, you have a day where the president is coming up on the hill, bob corke as willie and mike and i were saying yesterday, bob came in hot yesterday. Reporter thats an understatement. And then jeff flake delivered a speech on the senate floor that you said and many others said people would be remembering years from now. Reporter i think thats right, joe. I mean, look, this was this was a day, my head was spinning by the end of the day, because where we started all the way through to bob corker the president had just left capitol hill and suddenly i was listening in my ear to you know what we had playing and the words that jeff flake had for the president were incredibly serious, incredibly an attempt to put this in Historical Perspective and give sois to his frustration and, you know what he was seeing around and this was a guy who was incredibly well liked, well respected, incredibly conservative, with the most conservative voting records, but who owned the respect from his colleagues the game of eight, took political risks. I think the senators in both parties i talked to yesterday came away with a real sense of loss around this retirement. Far beyond a rebuke. Far beyond a rebuke this shows the insanity that has overtaken the Republican Party. I always the white house. Joke with people that come sand a, you are liberal. I sed say i am a 95 rating, jeff flake supposed to be a liberal, some goons at fox news, i wont mention his names are attacking, jeff flake has a 96 lifetime conservative rating. He is the conservatives conservative. He is the champion and has been his entire life of small government, of free trade. I mean, so, when jeff flake becomes too liberal for your party, your party is headed towards the tar pits. Exactly whats happening here, we havent even talked about bob corker. You know, joe, its hard to measure promote e moments like this in terms of history, history is a long hall. Its not hard to measure this moment in terms of what is going on right now within the Republican Party. This the a slow slide of principle conservatism among republicans that has been an honorable part of your party for many, many years a. Slow slide of that principle conservatism into something that resembles a dumpster fire. I mean, with people like bannon are doing within the Republican Party, the lack of cohesion, the lack of a voice within the Republican Party, other than people like jeff flake and bob corker. Its truly an astounding moment politically. To your point, joe, have you protrump conservatives, conservatives defending new york democrat donald trump, against a 96 Approval Rating against jeff flake. Its turned upsidedown. Hes been a conservative, be i the way, his whole life there not trump we are talking about. When donald trump was giving money to Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi and giving over 100,000 a year to the dnc and supporting pro choice candidates and pro gun control candidates, jeff flake, bob corker, theyve all been consistent. This is the end of eight or nine days. We are live income extraordinary times, we know that. The last eight or nine days, if you start with john mccains speech in philadelphia and go forward, im only talking about republican, this doesnt include barack obama and joe biden. President bushs speech. From john mccain, george w. Bush, jeff flake yesterday, these are republicans who felt the need and come occupant and reaffirm, not just conservative values, american values, what is happening right now not who we are. I dont know, have we seen anything like there . Nine months, ten months into a presidency where members of his own party are coming out lining up to criticize him this way. You havent. Lets make no mistake of it. What we are seeing here is the political suicide. Its the coming in of the Republican Party where you are losing guys who are temperamentally moderate . Right. Who have 96 conservative ratings and can when states in arizona which are shifting and it can be replaced by conspiracy theorists getting plane away at the polls. You have steve bannon getting people that have been convicted of crimes, served time in jail as his alternative. It is this is an act of nilism. What happens to the republicans who remain there . Do they give donald trump a stand ogvation yesterday after saying he was a threat to the constitution every day behind the scenes . As jeff flake said yesterday, the poll line yesterday, which were going to play a lot of it, this is not normal. Well, and thats the point i wanted to make, exactly that. You talk about the threat to conservatism the threat to the Republican Party and what damage republicans are doing to themselves, what jeff flake is talking about, what hes pointing to is a bigger problem that these are truly dangerous times and that were living in anably right now where things are beginning to slip away if we dont stand up for what is right. Are bob corker and jeff flake, are they the San Andreas Fault line the Fourth Quarter of a Political Party, a Major Political party, a historic moment r. They the fault line . Are there going to be more senator toss come as jeff flake said yesterday on the floor of the senate, you know, who else is there . Why didnt you say, do something . Why didnt you speak up . Why . So here is some of republican senator jeff flake of arizonas speech open the senate floor yesterday, after he announced he will retire rather than seek reelection. I rise today with no small measure of regret, regret because of the state of our disunion, regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics, regret because of the indecency of our discourse, regret because of the courseness of our leadership. We must never adjust to to the present courseness of our national die lock with the tone set at the top. The personal attacks the threats against principles, freedoms and institution, the flagrant disregard for truth and decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have been elected to serve. None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that that is just the way things are now. It is also clear to me for the moment that we have given in or given up on the Core Principles in favor of a more viscerally satisfying anger and receptment to be clear, the anger and resentment that the people feel at the royal mess that weve created are justified, but anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy. Without fear of the consequences, and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal. Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused and count ten nance as telling it leak it is, when it is actually just reckless outrageous and undignified. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. It is dangerous to a democracy. I am aware that there is a segment of my party that believes that anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to a president who belongs to my party is unacceptable and suspect. If i have been critical, it is not because i relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If i have been critical, it is because i believe it is my obligation to do so. And senator flake will be joining us later on in the show. You know, jeff flake talking about again this lifetime conservative whose dedicated his adult life to conservatism. Conservatism the way Ronald Reagan saw it. Conservatism the way Barry Goldwater saw it, the way russell kirk saw it a. Conservatives conservatives by any stretch of the imagination, a guy, willie, who was seen by some as being a troublemaker because he was too conservative. He was too unyielding, when it came to cutting spending. I remember he was he sort of had a reputation in the house as being too far out there, too right wing. Wow. And hes having to explain to his constituents that when he goes against donald trump, its for, you know, reasons that have to do with protecting his beliefs, his conservative beliefs that hes held his entire lifetime that donald trump hasnt held even in the five years hes ban republican, but this personality cult is, you can really see it in this story with jeff flake. Here you have a guy that people knew. They knew him forever. They knew he was conservative. Hes got a 96 lifetime conservative rating, but donald trump as we have been saying around the table for two years, since he went down the escalators, hes not a conservative and yet there is this personality cult that trump is trying to inspire and that he does in part by lying every day and convincing people that lies are the truth and we just showed some of it yesterday. We can, i can pick up five things he said yesterday. You stopped the show yesterday and said this is just a lie. When he tweeted. There is a fever in the Republican Party that has nothing to do with conservatism. It has nothing to do with idea ochlth it has nothing to do with good policy. It has absolutely nothing to do with the constitution of the United States and it is bringing this party to its knees and will cause its destruction soon. We have over and over again for what, exactly . Why . Whats the cost of doing what jeff flake did yesterday . We saw the cult personality almost after yesterdays speech, conservative republicans saying its easy for this guy to do this he had an 18 Approval Rating at home. He was going to lose liss race, he saw the writing on the wall, he said,ly get out now before i have to lose a race, now i will find courage. Thats not fair. He wrote an entire book going after trump. But there the a reflex among high republicans, because they still believe they need to work with donald trump to get tax reform. If they want to get an agenda through, they believe they need the president. Why cant you work with someone but stick to whats right and sometimes tell them what they feel is wrong . When did a relationship become a oneway street . Why is working with President Trump having to declare some sort of loyalty oath and literally throw your entire selfrespect down the toilet in order to work with him . Ive never seen a relationship like that, that seems healthy. Ive never seen such cowardice, actually, among the leaders of the Republican Party. It is cowardice, they believe if they cross donald trump he may tweet something bad, hold on. Lets see. You have the most powerful people in america afraid to stand up to the obscene behavior of donald trump, his threats, full frontal threats against the constitution of the United States because they are afraid. Afraid. Of a tweet and what they would find and he would respect them more and they can get a better negotiation. But theyre cowards. You know, is it al opundit tweeted yesterday in a postapocalyptic walk, spooe Speaker Paul Ryan could be seen wandering around amid the ashes saying, staying focused on tax reform. Staying focused on tax reform. Oh god. Mitch mcconnell, after up with of the most extraordinary days, in senate, recent senate history, mike, said theres a lot of talk. Lets just stay focused on tax reform. They are. Tuque to Mitch Mcconnell. His uncle mitch. They are joking. Thank you, mike. Bob corker, george bush, at what point do you have an obviously giex as a leader of this party to weigh in on these very serious criticisms of the president . What i have an obligation to do is to try to achieve the greatest cohesion i can among 52 republican toss try to achieve for the American People the agenda we set out to achieve and tax reform is what we are about. Were going to concentrate on what our agenda is and not any of these other distractions that you all may be interested in. All of this stuff you see on a daily basis on twitter this, twitter. That forget about it. Lets focus on helping people, improving peoples lives, doing the things that we said we would do that accomplishes that. Are you going to ask about this . Mike, its not twitter. What is wrong with them . They are voices. You are stalk u talking about a United States senator that they know, that paul ryan worked with, that was a fellow traveler, going on the senate floor and saying that the president of the United States was a threat to not only societal norms, but constitutional norms. And paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell said, oh, you guys get distracted by twitter. This has nothing to do with twitter this has to do with a United States senator delivering one of the most significant speeches on the senate floor in decades, perhaps . Decades . Not that it matters that paul ryan was talking about corker. If i am wrong, if i am being melodramatic here. You are not. Maybe a more Important Senate speech in the last decade, because this was the end of a movie. This was our mr. Smith goes to washington, where you had a senator saying on the floor the president of the United States in his party was a threat to constitutional norms, societal norms, and our children. Yeah. While were at a point and you spoke earlier to this, where one Major Political party is fractureing right in front of under the circumstances. Were at a moment when cowardice on the floor of trumps conscience, where truth seems to be less powerful than the fear of a tweet from the white house and kasie, i would ask you, ive herd rumblings over the last 12 almost 24 hours now about resentment towards jeff flakes speech on the floor of the senate from other members of the senate, because they fear it could interfere with tax cuts. What do you hear . I think that, yes, there is potential resentment and issues around the agenda, this idea, but i honestly, i think what joe was pointing to and mike what you said about the very the splirnting of this party before our very eyes, these leaders, Mitch Mcconnell, paul ryan, they made a bet they could outlast donald trump and what is happening is that the people who would consider themselves to be a part of the governing, we may jeff flake i think we call it the human decency wing of the Republican Party are fought going to have a home at this rate any more in this Republican Party. Its because of where their voters are, thats driving frustration among the rank and file in the senate, theyre having been led by Mitch Mcconnell. They go home, their voters say, why are you standing up more for President Trump. Paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnells Approval Ratings are sink. They are becoming less popular, a huge problem the president is taking over the party. That is going to leave so many people with no place to go. As you said, jeff flake is not a democrat. So where do people like that no in our politics . Its increasingly clear that they are homeless and we may be witnessing, jeff flake said on the store today or yesterday, excuse me, i think this was a moment, well get over it. Im not so sure we arent seeing a fundamental restructuring. As you look at the splintering, make no mistake, this is a win steve bannon for him and his movement. Breitbart was a victory, they believe they have claimed a scout. Jeff bannon was the top of the hit list. They believe this clears the way tore kelly ward the person they want to become the senator from arizona, they think this is the first sign that their vision of the Republican Party, their vision of conservatism is winning. Its insanity is what it is, its insanity and steve bannon doesnt want to grill the Republican Party. He said as much. He wants to destroy the party. He declared himself as elittleinist. He wants to tear things down. I have to say, hes not doing it. A segment of the Republican Party is doing it a. Large segment is doing it. And they have, they have fallen in line. This is a personality kuchlt our constitution right now, constitutional norms are being threatened every day and challenged every day, people from the podium are lying every single day. Every single day they lie from the white house podium. Every single day. And republicans know with their children watching that they are lying. My friends know. I that you can to them. How do they do that . I talk to them. They say, whatever were embarrassed, but hes better than Hillary Clinton. Hes not running against harrisburg hearing, hes running the country. Let my say that one more time, donald trump is not running against Hillary Clinton anymore. Hes running your country and my country, your childrens country. Right. So stop the linear thinking. This is not 2016. Were deep into 2017, were in trouble weve had less job growth over the past six months than in years. North korea and the United States could be