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we appreciate it. stick around. we ll talk to you again in a few minutes on morning joe. thanks to all of you for getting up way too early with us on this monday morning. morning joe starts right now. to do something with 50 votes is rough. to do small things with 50 votes is rough. to pass such a major piece of legislation with only 50 votes, republican minority, a caucus running from bernie sanders to joe manchin, wow. senate majority leader chuck schumer after the senate passed a sweeping climate health care and tax bill, putting democrats on the verge of another major win ahead of the midterms. republicans also scored a win for big pharma. we ll explain. donald trump s republican party gathered in dallas for cpac this weekend, where the big lie was on full display. along with an incredibly ridiculous guest and this is not the one i m talking about. good morning and welcome to morning joe. it is monday, august 8th. with joe and me, we have corre ....
But when did this really all begin? was it with trump? author dana mibank argues it wasn t donald trump or the january 6th insurrection. he argues the move to the extreme right can be traced back decades. joining us now, columnist for the washington post, dana milbank, author of destructionists: the 25-year crackup of the republican party. thank you for being on. thank you. it wasn t trump that got us here. many would argue it was an atmosphere that allowed trump to take advantage of the situation. can you describe where this all began? well, look, it ll be, to some extent, arbitrary, but i take it back to 1994, newt gingrich s revolution. you were talking about republicans standing against ....
It got worse in various iterations in the years since then. dana, what was fascinating to me, at least when i was there, there were people who believed in balancing the budget. what shocked me is when i went back five years ago, the guys that were fighting and politically willing to die for balanced budgets, for budget surplus i mean, when i left, we had $155 billion in budget surplus. then you go through the bush years, record deficits, record debt. you go through the trump years, record deficits, record debt. i mean, my god, there was always a hard sigh to the rhetoric, but some things actually got done. i mean, as far as, there were at least some people who believed in what they claim to believe. now, there s not even that. look at liz cheney. it is not about ideology. it is about being in cult. right. look at liz cheney and look a ....
Politicization of the iraq war, the lying about the intelligence in iraq. then we certainly saw it with the tea party and the birther movement. so trump against that backdrop was just really i mean, look, he was a pro-choice, for health care for all, he was all about tolerance and anti-racism. at one point, he was campaigning against pat buchanan. he just saw where the republican party was going, and he decided, i want to be the drum major. i m going to adopt the basket of issues to get out in front of this parade. walter isaacson, i know you have the next question for dana, but i wonder if the biden presidency has been at all stabilizing to this. a lot of people wondered, would he be a transitional figure? would he be able to do more? what do you think biden has done so far beyond beaten trumpism, or trump himself? has he been able to push back at trumpism, which really seems alive and well? yeah, i do think that he s ....
Because he said to the republican establishment, the chamber of commerce, the country club republicans, it s okay. you can donate money. you know, he brought the republican establishment on board. of course, it s been hijacked. he s popular inside of his caucus, but he is woefully unpopular outside of his caucus. you ve seen this over and over again, this sort of deal with the devil that establishment republicans made. now we re seeing in places like arizona last week, for example, there is no establishment. the crazies have actually become the establishment. dana, let me pick up right on that point. because i think in the and congratulations on the book. thanks. i think what gives me cause to pause is that the far right extremists that started maybe before gingrich but became ....