Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / We will LOSE GOP senator on midterms, 47's texts & Jan. 6 Melber intv

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We will LOSE GOP senator on midterms, 47's texts & Jan. 6 Melber intv · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: His new book, How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: is out this week, going on sale.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: There's the provocative cover. It goes on sale tomorrow.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis has decided to come on
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the beat, and we appreciate it.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Welcome.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Pleasure to be here.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: On the texts, we have you saying, quote, I still
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: want to help as you address the president, but I
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: don't take this bull blank from anyone, including you, Mr.
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  Speaker 2: President.
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  Speaker 1: Save that blank for the cowards who don't care if
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: you fail. I care if you fail, and right now
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  Speaker 1: we are failing. This was anger. or a strategy to
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  Speaker 1: engage him? What were you doing with the president?
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  Speaker 3: It's always a strategy to engage him. You know, I
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  Speaker 3: don't act in anger. When I put something into writing,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: I think about it. And I was really just trying
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: to get the president's attention. I should note that he
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: and I have had good interchanges after those text messages.
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  Speaker 2: Does he swear back? We have private discussions.
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  Speaker 3: I decided to release those texts when I'd finally decided
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: that the president was mischaracterizing what happened last year. I
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: told the president... We had a disagreement. It was time
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: for him to find another candidate. It was after that
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  Speaker 3: that he threatened a primary. But that's after I told
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  Speaker 3: him you need to.
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  Speaker 2: Get to work. When you say find another candidate, what
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  Speaker 2: does that mean?
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  Speaker 3: When the president and I did the first time the
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  Speaker 3: president ever said something critical to me, it was back
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  Speaker 3: in May. Last June 29th, he said I was grandstanding.
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  Speaker 3: Grandstanding was enough for me to say I don't play
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  Speaker 3: those sort of games. I'm not going to let somebody
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  Speaker 3: abuse their position of power. I'm not going to play
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  Speaker 3: the game of trying to win a primary if the
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  Speaker 3: president wants to go after me.
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  Speaker 2: Why would I waste my time doing that?
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  Speaker 3: I'm supporting the president because he's the head of the party,
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  Speaker 3: not because he's Donald J. Trump, but because he is
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  Speaker 3: the face of our party. And I want my party
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: to be in the best position for elections. And we're
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: going to we're going to get a little bit of
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  Speaker 3: a hit this season and recover.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: How big of a hit? You think you're going to
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  Speaker 2: lose the House?
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  Speaker 3: I think the House is almost statistically impossible to win.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Lose the House, probably lose the Senate.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: No, I'm not in the probably yet. I think we'd
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  Speaker 3: pull it out. It will be a tight margin, but
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  Speaker 3: I still think we'd pull it out. Because we've got
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  Speaker 3: great candidates in Maine, Ohio, Arkansas, they've just got to
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: run hard and we've got to support them.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about two areas where you got results. This
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  Speaker 1: revenge probe against the Fed chair, right? You pushed back
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  Speaker 1: on that and it worked. And we showed briefly... The
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: payout pod for punks. The MAGA fund, the crime fund.
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  Speaker 1: What worked there... that other senators could do, and why
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  Speaker 1: don't more people do it? Because, for example, if we
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  Speaker 1: don't want our tax dollars being stolen and given to criminals,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: you use the leverage, and that's a word that comes
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  Speaker 1: up repeatedly in the book, at that moment.
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  Speaker 2: But most senators aren't doing that at all. Well, you've
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: got to be positioned for it. You know, it depends.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Every, you know, the organizing resolution gets established in the beginning.
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  Speaker 3: It's consensus between Democrats and Republicans. But then you've got
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: to know what the ratios are. If you're on a committee,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: if I'm not on a committee, I can't stop a nomination.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Then I've got to decide if I'm going to undermine
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  Speaker 3: my conference when I've got unanimous vote out of committee. Now,
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  Speaker 3: having said that, there have been ones in my committee
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  Speaker 3: of jurisdiction that I've halted. Ed Martin, back before I retired,
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  Speaker 3: just when he was coming in. The discussion with Todd
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  Speaker 3: Blanche ultimately supported him because he got rid of the
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  Speaker 3: payout pot for punks, the 1776 fund. He was absolutely
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  Speaker 3: the MVP in de-escalating the... the Jay Powell affair and
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  Speaker 3: I felt like those were good faith investments in a
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  Speaker 3: relationship that I stand by today.
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  Speaker 1: And so Donald Trump was wrong in your view to
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  Speaker 1: try to abuse the DOJ, to shake down the Fed.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I agree.
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  Speaker 3: The 1776 fund and anything related to equivocating on January 6th, look,
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  Speaker 3: the 1776 fund would have literally allowed somebody who pled
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: guilty to beating a police officer to get restitution. There's
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  Speaker 3: nobody in America except for that thug who beat a
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  Speaker 3: police officer that thinks that that's a good idea.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's one I was also trying to understand,
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  Speaker 1: which is why I'm glad to have you here. On
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  Speaker 1: the one hand, you did more to stop that fund
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  Speaker 1: than most members of your party.
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  Speaker 2: Fair.
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  Speaker 1: On the other hand, we do remember you didn't vote
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  Speaker 1: to hold the president accountable at the time of the
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  Speaker 1: Senate trial.
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  Speaker 2: And he at the time. That's correct. The impeachment Senate trial. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I want to play a little bit of just because
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: people a lot of this.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Gets memory hold.
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  Speaker 1: And I think you would agree the president and others
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  Speaker 1: and Fox News have been caught lying about the crimes
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of that day. I want to play a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of that. Then we'll talk about it from Jan 6th.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Go home. We love you. You're very special. Like all Americans,
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  Speaker 2: I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem.
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  Speaker 3: To those who engage in the acts of violence and destruction,
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  Speaker 3: you do not represent our country.
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  Speaker 2: And to those who broke the law, you will pay.
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  Speaker 2: He said they would pay. He lied.
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  Speaker 1: As you know, he freed every last one of them,
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  Speaker 1: the seditionists, the ones who attacked police, the worst of
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  Speaker 1: the worst. Knowing that now, should the Senate have held
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: him accountable through the trial where you voted to acquit?
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  Speaker 2: What trial was there? I mean, there was no counsel.
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  Speaker 2: There were no witnesses. It was a vote of no confidence.
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  Speaker 3: If they had gone and spent the time that historically
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  Speaker 3: you spend... with something as weighty as impeaching the president
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  Speaker 3: of the United States, maybe they could have convinced me.
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  Speaker 3: But that was, it was a snap impeachment. Go back
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  Speaker 3: and look at the course of history. You've never seen
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  Speaker 3: a president dealt with that way. And if you do
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  Speaker 3: it with him, why on earth does anybody think when
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  Speaker 3: Republicans could impeach a Democratic president without any witness, without
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  Speaker 3: any opportunity to actually rebut the allegations against them?
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  Speaker 2: That was what that was. Let's talk about it. There's
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  Speaker 2: an argument against that.
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  Speaker 3: Which is- Once you do it that way, the whole
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  Speaker 3: premise of my book is until both parties recognize that
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  Speaker 3: they are responsible for this escalation beginning with Obama up
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  Speaker 3: to Trump too, then you're only going to find elections
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  Speaker 3: taking one party out of power, putting another one in,
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  Speaker 3: and they will justify their abhorrent behavior based upon the
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  Speaker 3: behavior of the prior administration.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And so on and so forth.
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  Speaker 3: Liberals conveniently forget about Crossfire Hurricane, Lois Lerner, the Steele dossier, right?
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  Speaker 3: And they only think the Republicans are the purview of
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  Speaker 3: vindictive prosecutions. I'm one of the few people who have
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  Speaker 3: consistently called them both out. How many Democrats have come
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  Speaker 3: on here and talked about the atrocity of Lois Lerner
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  Speaker 3: or of Crossfire Hurricane or of Biden's prospective pardons.
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  Speaker 2: For God's sake? We're giving you the time. I'm going
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: to jump in. We gave you the time. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: The counterargument to what you say, though, is if a
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  Speaker 1: future president of either party is involved in an insurrection, then, yes,
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  Speaker 1: they could face a fast impeachment.
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  Speaker 2: And knowing what we know now, as a country— and.
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  Speaker 1: I know you care about it, and we— on 60 Minutes,
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  Speaker 1: we're talking about you caring about it and you spoke
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  Speaker 1: out against the violence. But knowing what we know now,
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  Speaker 1: that he freed every last one of them, that he
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  Speaker 1: is an anti-police, pro-violence, pro-sedition-type president, that's what he did
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  Speaker 1: with his power.
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  Speaker 2: Knowing that now, would you say, gosh, we should have
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  Speaker 2: held him accountable then? Not unless you went through the right.
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  Speaker 2: I am big on process.
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  Speaker 3: And when you start short circuiting process, you can guarantee
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  Speaker 3: the next party will use that as a basis for
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: diminishing it, diminishing it even more. Sooner or later, we've
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  Speaker 3: got to get back to an institutional integrity.
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  Speaker 2: Both parties are responsible for the state that we're in today.
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  Speaker 1: You basically think we are in normal times and you
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  Speaker 1: can compare it to like what Democrats do. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: that's I hear you because we could point out flip
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  Speaker 1: flopping in primaries and rhetoric, of course.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. But in normal times, we don't have.
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  Speaker 1: A president taking a billion dollars on the side for
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  Speaker 1: their family. We don't have a problem with that. And
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  Speaker 1: we don't have a president. overseeing the killing of Americans,
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  Speaker 1: which we showed you.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, they didn't have a problem with Hunter Biden
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  Speaker 3: monetizing his relationship with his dad. He obviously made money.
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  Speaker 3: These are all about degree at the end of the day.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, the lawyer in me would say, is
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  Speaker 1: it degree or is it defendant? Because Hunter Biden was
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  Speaker 1: never president. So if we have to go and if
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  Speaker 1: the best counterexample is a rando and not a president, I'm.
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  Speaker 2: With you on that.
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  Speaker 3: It's absolutely one of the reasons why my office led
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: the effort to get the ethics language in the crypto bill.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: It's been held, but it was precisely for that. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: there are people advising the president. I was a partner
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  Speaker 3: of PW. And one thing I learned very early at
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Pricewaterhouse is you figure out where the line is and
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  Speaker 3: you step back. There are people wading into the gray here.
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  Speaker 3: And it's at a minimum unseemly. But but it could
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  Speaker 3: be illegal and people better be prepared to withstand the
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: test of time. I'm sure questions will come up. Should
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: the chambers change gavels next year?
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's helping me understand where you're at, which, again,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: is why I like having the time.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, in the book, you make these arguments.
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  Speaker 1: But you're saying today, yes, you can find hypocrisy, surely
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  Speaker 1: in both parties.
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  Speaker 2: But no, we're not in hypocrisy. normal times and we
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: need to stand up to them. Last year, absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: You have a president whose net worth goes up by
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  Speaker 3: a billion dollars. That's worth looking at. I mean, it obviously,
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  Speaker 3: it may not be illegal, probably isn't illegal. I think
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  Speaker 3: he's got good attorneys, but it's really bad for him.
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  Speaker 3: It's particularly bad for him when the Democrats are winning
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  Speaker 3: on the affordability message. And we've got somebody whose net
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  Speaker 3: worth has gone up a billion dollars when those folks
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  Speaker 3: in the trailer park that I went and visited last
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: week back in Tennessee where I grew up, they're not
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: feeling like they made a billion dollars last year. And
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: we're losing on that argument. We've got to get better
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: at it. We've got a good answer. We've just got
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: to focus on it.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you mentioned, because at times you said you guys
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: would own, rent, and sometimes you were living out of
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Trailer Park, and you say that's part of your upbringing.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Beyond red and blue, do you see this widening wealth
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  Speaker 1: inequality and the tech money and the moment we're in,
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  Speaker 1: do you see this as something that Washington has really
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  Speaker 1: failed to confront compared to how people are struggling?
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: No, I think so.
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  Speaker 3: You know, there's always an affordability problem that the problem
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: I had when particularly the president said it's a hoax.
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  Speaker 2: There's always an affordability problem. Always lived it. I've been
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: on the economic bubble.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Those folks that I visited last Friday are living on
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: the economic bubble. And I also don't buy this concept
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: that now we're blaming Biden. Biden left us with a
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: bad economy. He left us with an open border. Trump
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: fixed the border and then completely lost the issue with
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: the mismanagement by Noman. And we should be owning the
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: issue of border and on immigration reform.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: We've lost that issue. I hope we get it back.
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  Speaker 3: But we've also lost the opportunity to say we've got
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: work to do. Some of the decisions that we're making
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: are causing the economy to provide us with headwinds. But
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: to ignore it, we do it at our own peril.
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  Speaker 3: The American people are pretty smart people. Most of the time,
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: they vote their pocketbook. This year, they're going to vote
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: their pocketbook. All these other things that people are talking
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: about on all these TV shows, I find funny.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Because the reality is... What do you think is the
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: biggest distraction? It's the economy. It's always the economy. But
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: what do you say? The other stuff is what? What
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: are we wasting?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, we just got all kinds of things that are
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: important to the bubble of politics that people just don't
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: care about.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Hey, it's Rachel.
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: I am so glad to see you at the end
• 11:28
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• 11:29
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• 11:51
  Speaker 3: Thanks.