house minority leader kevin mccarthy was quick to endorse trump s behavior this morning. were the president s tweets that said go back racist? yes, or no. no. i believe this is about ideology. this is about socialism versus freedom. likewise, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell defended the president and said both sides are to blame. i think everybody ought to tone down their rhetoric. we have examples of that across the ideological spectrum in the country, all across it, everyone ought to tone down their rhetoric and we ought to move back to talking about the issues. but you ve stopped short of calling his comments racist? well, the president is not a racist. the president is not a racist. and i think the tone of all of this is not good for the country. i m joined now by two democratic congressmen, david cicilline of rhode island.
torn down. you see time after time patriotism being attacked in this country, the sign of americanism being attacked. and he s going to talk about those things and bring up a long record of people like aoc saying america s garbage and capitalism is irredeemable. he s willing to talk about those things. i guess my question is does that make it okay for the president of the lawmakers to go back to the places from which they came. that seems to be the stem of the criticism about these are racist tweets. bret: the republicans have weighed in. eight of them in the senate, 24 of them in the house have come out condemning the president s remarks. also commenting on the democrats remarks. here s the senate majority leader and other republicans as well today. the president is not a racist, and i think the tone of all of this is not good for the country. but it s coming from all different ideological points of view. i believe this is about ideology. if this is about socialism versus free
were fthe president s tweet that said go back racist? no. i don t believe the house was with racist last week when those individual on the aisle claim she was racist. i believe this is about ideology and socialism versus freedom. trying to rebrand it as a fight against socialism. only a few republicans did stand up and criticize mr. trump. the president has a unique and noble calling to unite all americans, regardless of our creeds or our race or the place of our national origin and i think in that case the president fell far short with his comments yesterday. i think those are racist and
it is a sentiment the president reaffirmed just last hour. the way they re treating israel is a disgrace. but not only israel, it s what they say about our country. it s my opinion they hate our country. and that s not good. it s not acceptable. house minority leader kevin mccarthy seemed to be on the same page this morning, argue the president s comments weren t racist. they were just politics. i believe this is about ideology. this is about socialism versus freedom. let s not be false about what is happening here today. this is all about politics and beliefs of ideologies of what individuals have. mccarthy s response is emblem attic of the position that many republican officials have had on the president s comments. they ve been softly critiquing the president s language if at all. excusing his instinct to lash out at the women and insisting that the president is just
either. i do not believe that. i believe this is about idolology, socialism versus freedom. it s very clear in the debate what s happening. they talked more about impeachment than anything else. and, wolf, the republican leadership efforts particularly in the house to counter the attacks on the president or the effort to call out the president for those comments have extended beyond just their public statements. behind the scenes over the course of the day, they ve been making clear to the rank-and-file members they want to vote on a resolution condemning the president s tweets and i ve been told to this point they ve been very effective. they do not expect to lose many republicans at all, a handful. the reality is everybody s gone to their respective corners, despite what the president says or tweets or what it all means, the republicans are in trump s party and the republicans at least for this moment are staying behind trump. wolf?