senator mitch mcconnell said i had "excessive expectations," but i don't think so. after seven years of hearing repeal and replace, why not done? >> there's a lashing out when things don't go his way. john mccain was the deciding vote, and so, you know, it was hard to understand how mitch mcconnell would be the blame of it, but, you know, that's the president's nature, as we all know. >> can you believe that mitch mcconnell, who has screamed repeal and replace for seven years, couldn't get it done. >> trump was using the most powerful weapon he has, which is twitter, to humiliate him repeatedly, to rake him over the coals, to let his followers know, "this is mitch mcconnell's fault. he's failed you, not me." >> mitch, get back to work and put repeal and replace, tax reform and cuts, and a great infrastructure bill on my desk for signing. >> narrator: mitch mcconnell learned a lesson-- hhad to keep donald trump on his side. >> mitch mcconnell is a very smart politician. think he understood the trump base, perhaps better than most. and he understood that the trump him

so i think mitch mcconnell is just going to keep on keeping on. frankly, donald trump is one of the reasons arguably that he is not majority leader because of donald trump's role in the georgia senate races. >> and mcconnell wants to win pennsylvania this year, right, a republican held state now. that republican seat is retiring. he needs to win north carolina. he wants to hold ohio. he's hoping to flip arizona. he wants to get that georgia seat back. what mcconnell's calculation is we cannot keep talking about the big lie. we cannot keep talking about trump. he's picking this fight to try to end this fight, but this fight won't end. >> no, look, it's clear he feels as though those states are within reach and it's clear to me he is embarrassed by some of the theatrics going on within the republican party, but there is a limit to this rebuke. he is only going to go so far. i will say this, though, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell has been able to achieve something the former president hasn't and that's be re-elected. he has kept the republica

this does expose -- mitch mcconnell stepping up to the mike phone. kevin mccarthy running away. >> there is no greater, you know, illustration of the difference between the politics in the house and the politics in the senate. kevin somic kaerbgt is beholden to a republican conference in the house as far right as it's ever been. you have marjorie taylor greene, madison cawthorn and others who he is beholden to who don't want him to give any quarter to any of this talk of insurrection. on the other hand, mitch mcconnell is thinking about his senate majority, about the fact that his members have to run statewide in, you know, in some cases in purple states. they have very different political prerogatives. and that's why you are seeing what you saw on the hill yesterday. >> yeah. madison cawthorn, his defense in court is it wasn't an insurrection. real quick, jeffrey? >> reporter: just remember, mitch mcconnell, for all his criticism, he is the one who is stopping voting rights legislation that is the response to what has happened in the states after ja

it is not mitch mcconnell. it is right that president trump is taking him on this way, it is not about looking backwards, you can't have trust in future elections unless you know the state is not surveilling one side of the aisle based on cozy relationship inside of deep state of the media. we have to get to bottom of this. >> thank you, pete. thank you for your service. before you were on tv, and your service today. >> god bless. >> you thank you, mark. what an honor. mark: when we come back, john ratcliffe, former john ratcliffe, former director of meet a future mom, john ratcliffe, former director of a first-time mom and a seasoned pro. this mom's one step closer to their new mini-van! yeah, you'll get used to it. this mom's depositing money with tools on-hand. cha ching. and this mom, well, she's setting an appointment here, so her son can get set up there and start his own financial journey. that's because these moms all have chase. smart bankers. convenient tools. one bank with the power of both. chase. m

it is not mitch mcconnell. it is right that president trump is taking him on this way, it is not about looking backwards, you can't have trust in future elections unless you know the state is not surveilling one side of the aisle based on cozy relationship inside of deep state of the media. we have to get to bottom of this. >> thank you, pete. thank you for your service. before you were on tv, and your service today. >> god bless. >> you thank you, mark. what an honor. mark: when we come back, john ratcliffe, former director of national intelligence, we'll be right back. here, we know you have a few reasons to slow down. ♪ ♪ but we've got one more. safe drivers save 40% with drivewise. ♪ ♪ the safer you drive, the more you save. call a local agent or 1-888-allstate for a quote today. >> woman: what's my safelite story? i'm a photographer. and when i'm driving, i see inspiration right through my glass. so when my windshield cracked, it had to be fixed right. i scheduled with safelite autoglass. their exp

it is going to be mitch mcconnell. in fact, all of his votes have been by acclamation over all these years for both minority and majority leader. of course, this is a private conference only vote. it's not a floor vote where you need 51 senators out in the open. the reason mitch mcconnell has been secure in his leadership is, one, he does listen to his members and does make tweaks here and there when they start to signal to him they want him to either go in a particular direction or back off. the other reason is they just think he is very good at his job. they don't want to do it. he's good at it, from their point of view. and they are happy to let him play this inside game, even though the former president donald trump continues to bang the drum to try and get rid of him. >> willie, it's so interesting. we are seeing more and more republicans starting to speak out against donald trump in a way that we haven't seen since the summer of 2016. people can say, oh, well, you know, they're horrible human beings. they can say

is it mitch mcconnell or donald trump? >> well -- >> she talked about rational -- what percentage -- >> a large percentage of republicans unfortunately do believe the big lie, right? so i think it is fair to say that rational people don't believe that. but a lot of republican voters do believe that. so i would actually argue that donald trump probably speaks more for the voters. at least the base of the party. but mitch mcconnell also represents the republican party. he's the leader in the senate. and he clearly believes it is time to move past trump and he doesn't want to pick fights with him. what alice just said, the republican party should be focused on attacking joe biden. not attacking each other. >> a few weeks or months ago, marjorie taylor greene said to steve bannon that they represent the base of the republican party. that they're not fringe. they represent the base. republican party. here's congresswoman marjorie taylor greene talking, i think earlier today. >> not only do we have the d.c. jail, the d.c. ghoul

the president loves this story, versus mitch mcconnell over january 6th. totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. liz, you nerd, cough if you're in here! soshh! i took mucinex dm... for my phlegmy cough. what about rob's dry cough? works on that too, and lasts 12 hours. 12 hours?! who studies that long? mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs. ♪. howard: media are all over the rnc two dissident republicans liz cheney, adam kinzinger serving on january 6th committee that story got a huge boost when mitch mcconnell and other gop leaders slammed the latest from the capitol riots. >> we saw it happen. it was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power the issue whether or not the rnc should be singling out members of our party may have different views from the majority. that is not the job of the rnc. >> this whole condemnation of cheney and kinzinger, this orwellian exercise a cult-like cohesion a party committed to defending a lie. >> we warned na

that is not the job of the rnc. >> well, mitch mcconnell directly answered questions today about the republican party calling the attack on the capitol legitimate political discourse. over in the house of representatives, kevin mccarthy literally ran away from the question. >> can i ask you about the rnc? >> you know, make an appointment. it's not good to do it now. >> joining us now is steve schmidt, former republican presidential campaign strategist and cofounder of the lincoln project. steve, what explains the difference today on this question between mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy? >> well, this division between the two, lawrence, has been clear from the very beginning. though mitch mcconnell tried to distance this as much as he would or could after the january 6th incident, kevin mccarthy famously went down to mar-a-lago. in those early days what republicans were most worried about was the cash flow. the campaign cash. mitch mcconnell believed that the insurrection would obliterate republicans ability to raise money from corporate donors. kevin mccarthy took the opposite pat

mitch mcconnell. play it again, and listen, please. >> let me give you my view of what happened january the 6th. we all were here. we saw what happened. it was a violent insurrection. for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next. that's what it was. >> that's all republicans had to say from the very beginning, and they would have moved on from this debacle. because that's exactly what it was. it was a violent insurrection. a violent in sure section, and no amount of whining about legitimate political discourse will ever change that. meanwhile, there was a moment today that just shows you the level of disrespect in washington. so pay attention, please, the chair of the congressional black caucus, her name is joyce beatty, tweeting today, while heading to the house floor for votes, i respectfully asked my colleague representative hal rogers to put on a mask while boarding the train. he then poked my back,

mitch mcconnell just did. in doing so, ix issued an explicit rebuke of the rnc party leadership, a rebuke of house republican leadership, and an explicit rebuke of these certain cable performers. you know who noticed? at least one person named trump. donald trump jr. exclaiming with republicans like this, who needs democrats? well, it turns out there might be a growing number of republicans like this. if not always for the same reasons. republican senators who think the rnc censure and claims of legitimate discourse are just bad politics. >> people are willing to have a difference of opinions. but i think that we as a party need to recognize that people are worried about the economy, they're worried about the continuing struggles with covid, they're looking ahead. and that's what they want us to do. >> so that's one view, that fixating on january 6th is simply bad for the republican party with what members believe is a winning case in other issues. which is true for even the smaller number of republicans takin

but mitch mcconnell is careful, calculated. he may be calculating donald trump is crazy, the refusal to back away from the most extreme demands of the big lie on the republican party, may be a net political negative. so you are seeing other senators step away. bill cassidy of louisiana. mitt romney is a given. but you have a half dozen senators speaking out, denouncing the rnc for this dumb decision and distancing themselves from donald trump. >> he is doing this because he has reason to believe this is true, what avalon is saying, elie. because he has evidence. he is not just surmising they're going the wrong direction with all of this. >> are yeah. kind of hard to see the evidence we have been seeing coming out almost daily from the january 6th committee. you have to draw a line somewhere, right? when you are saying this is legitimate political discourse, you lose all credibility. i suspect what mitch mcconnell is trying to do to do here, is give as much ground as he has to but no more than that. >> the specific language, an

today, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell publicly rejected the republican na

but mitch mcconnell did it on two fronts. first, he made it clear that he did not agree with their language that anything that took place on january 6th was legitimate discourse. he said he was here. emeveryone he was talking to was here and this was a violent insurrection. it was not any form of legitimate political discourse. and he took it even a step further and said he strongly disagreed with the rnc's decision to censure two of its members, that being liz cheney and adam kinzinger, saying this is not the posture the rnc should have. they should be about bringing the party together and not trying on separate them and that's what that kregsure did. he said that was not the rnc's job. while mcconnell was pretty vocal in his condemnation of the rnc actions, there were nam of republicans defending them. among them, the conference chair, and the minority leader, kevin mccarthy who argued when they were talking about legitimate political discourse, they were not talking about the violence and chaos that took place here on capi

. >> a reminder, mitch mcconnell never says anything by accident. every syllable is carefully chosen. his use of the words violent insurrection is significant and carries with it potential legal implications because obviously it's against the law, but it's significant for other reasons too. there are anchors on other cable networks who launch into soliloquies asserting you can't call january 6 an insurrection. welt, mitch mcconnell just did, and in doing so issued an explicit rebuke of the rnc party leadership, an explicit rebuke of house republican leadership, and an explicit rebuke of at least certain cable performers. you know who noticed? at least one person named trump. donald trump jr. exclaiming with republicans like this, who needs democrats? well, it turns out there might be a growing number of republicans like this. if not always for the same reasons. republican senators who think the rnc censure and claims of legitimate discourse are just bad politics. >> people are willing to have a difference of opinions. but i think that we as a party

and mitch mcconnell is caught in the middle there. this is one of his members who is not exactly coming to his defense but he didn't really care either way. he is just happy to let trump be mad and have tim scott say what he needs to say. >> mitch mcconnell will let tim scott do what he needs to do. i think the power struggle between trump and mitch mcconnell will be one of the most important story lines heading into the midterms because it's not only going to determine who controls the senate but whether the senate gop conference is trumpy next year. i mean, as was pointed out, trying to let -- mcconnell is trying to win back the majority. sometimes those align but sometimes it creates a conflict of interest. >> in addition to what you heard there, i want to pull up this maggie haberman tweet. trump has been talking up tim scott and rubio in some conversations as vip candidates. here's tim scott when asked would he consider being on the ticket? >> well, i think everybody wants to be on president trump's bandwagon, without any questio

mcconnell, asking for money saying, let's try to get rid of mitch mcconnell. not chuck schumer. mitch mcconnell. >> in a midterm election year where republicans, knowing the wind is at their back, settle our family feuds quietly. but this is what j. mart writes. in conversations with would-be senators, mitch mcconnell is blunt about the knowledge he believes trump has done. he has said he won't unelectable goofballs win republican primaries. this is one of the reasons he wants governor deucy to run in arizona. in '22, it could be what missouri was in 2014 where you get a candidate in a 50/50 state. missouri is no longer 50/50. starting to trend away. but a candidate in a state where there are enough democrats if the independents break. that's mcconnell's worry as he pursues power. deucy is one of the guys trump has gone after hard. do you want to -- do you personally want to deal with that? >> to some degree, perhaps i think republicans might want to see that actually play out. they want to test that case. they want to see because, and j. mart hits at this in

nominate a black woman and we just heard from mitch mcconnell. what did he sna. >> a flavor of how republicans plan to go after this nomination. he said he's fine with a black supreme court justice nominee but not indicating he supports this current nominee. in this statement, he makes very clear the kcriticism coming her way, i understand judge jackson was a favorite choice of far left dark money groups that have spent years attacking the structure of the court itself. goes on to say they will conduct an exhaustive or thorough review and treat fairly unlike past nominations. that's how they plan to go after her. don't expect many republican votes. mitch mcconnell doesn't seem like he'll support this nomination but that's how they plan to go after the nominee, contend she was pushed. >> and john -- >> seeking to overhaul the court. >> john harwood, can you respond to that? on the one hand, maybe not surprising to hear from mitch mcconnell some criticism in describing her as an extremist, but that having been said, she was on the short list and to

. >> what's your reaction to january 6th and what mitch mcconnell had to say? >> caller: mitch is trying to hang on to his job. by going along with the democrats. it was not an insurrection. trump asked for 20 to 30 troops to be there to protect the capitol for the 5th and the 6th. nancy pelosi said it's not necessary. it's not needed. so where's the insurrection coming in at? those pictures that you showed. you see the hard hats, the people in the hard hats that are

mitch mcconnell criticize meant intern donald trump supporters rounded on mitch mcconnell pertinent front and the republicans of the work of the find a way to move on closer michael tasker panel, josh kraushaar lists are with you. we talked earlier in the show about inflation, but covid, the opportunity here for republicans but donald trump does seem to want to continue to relitigate the 2020 election. and this idea what happened on generally the six with legitimate political discourse whether it's a valid it doesn't sound right certainly this is not wise in politics for them is it? >> i think holding the republican party back for success in this midterm at their own divisions of the republican national committee claim the generally six the rabble-rousers were engaging in legitimate political discourse is not only looking back but it is sending a message that alienates the winnable voters the republicans have been doing well with. mitch mcconnell is the voice of political wisdom and the republican party these days. challenging and these primaries the mccall canada and beating from the whi

first, candidates matter, mitch mcconnell knows that and does this every election cycle, who are the people most likely to win? why he's going after mary hogan in maryland, i'm from georgia, and it seems we're likely going to have walker, former football player as a candidate and sort of went along with that grudgingly so mitch mcconnell trying to make sure he has the best field of candidates but as the article notes, who's senate is in? how long will the tail of trumpism last? if we elect trump supporters, populists, trumpists to the senate, it may last a long time and mitch mcconnell is trying to root that out now. >> but it's going to take republicans, brendan, to step out on the former president, even if that means him coming after them. the question s will they? >> well, it's going to take nominating candidates who are more of the mold of traditional republicans and i think that's what mitch mcconnell is trying do. you don't need to fight with donald trump to allow this era to go by and i think that's what mitch mcconnell, at least what mitch mcconnell was hoping, that we can tu

mitch mcconnell just rejected a description of january 6th as legitimate political discourse while kevin mccarthy is defending it. >>> also, a key u.s. diplomat warns russia had its guns quote, locked and loaded, this diplomat says, for a potential invasion of ukraine. >>> and as more states are preparing to lift their mask mand mandates, the biden administration is facing new pressure to update its guidance and clear up the confusion. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." we begin with a growing disarray among congressional republicans over the rnc's resolution calling the capitol insurrection, quote, legitimate political discourse. our congressional correspondent reports the division is clearly on display at the gop's highest levels. >> senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, pushing back tonight on the committee's commission censuring liz cheney and adam kinzinger. and describing the events of january 6th as quote, legitimate political discourse. >> we're here. we saw it happen. it was a vio

trump is slamming mcconnell tonight saying, in part, quote, mitch mcconnell does not speak for the republican party and represent the views of the vast voters. he did nothing to fight for his constituents and stop the most fraudulent election in history. the democrats would have the

your point dually noted on mitch mcconnell specifically. the republican party in general, is that a fair assessment written by the harvard professor? >> definitely. the fact that so many republicans are either embracing donald trump's lies and specifically the big lie, or staying silent, which is almost as bad, is totally unacceptable and dangerous. we only have two political parties in this country. we had ten, and one was embracing dishonest, then that would probably be easier to handle. but there are only two, and by the way, this is a party that's poised if history is a good indicator, and today's polls are an indicator, poised to return to power on capitol hill, so it's even more worrisome that there are so many people in the party that are willing to go along with this lie, but i still have some hope that people like mitch mcconnell, mike pence, and others can start turning the tide and at least helping people understand that, you know, one thing is policy differences, the other thing is to embrace a lie. >> let me ask you, adrian, ab

yes, what mitch mcconnell said today indicates he is worried about this. but let's not go too far back in the time machine to the second impeachment when mcconnell got up there and said trump's responsible. this is dereliction of duty. he is morally responsible. you can't send people into a frenzy and then not take responsibility. literally less than two weeks after that, he said he would absolutely support donald trump if he was the nominee in 2024. so now he is no nikki haley, but he certainly could get bronze in the gymnastics competition, even though it's winter olympics time in terms of flipping back and forth. so today you're right, charley. he calculated that he needed to come out there and try to turn this thing off in some way and push back. but he -- has he come out and denounced trump, who always denounces him and said he should not be the nominee? i will fight against him? >> no. >> who was derelict of duty when the capitol was being attacked? should still be commander in chief again some day? no. he hasn't said that because it hasn't been in h

senate minority leader mitch mcconnell tearing in to attempts to revive any piece of that

congressman, we want to start with where we left off this morning and did you see what mitch mcconnell had to say yesterday about january 6? guest: i did. host: what is your reaction as a democrat? guest: i did indeed and it is a welcome response to have republican leadership repudiating this effort of denial. he was forthright. it is consistent with the concerns he had after the insurrection but i was pleased he came forward. two courageous republicans should not be penalized for telling the truth and standing up for the constitution and their principles. host: where were you january 6,

you tell me when mitch mcconnell is willing to impose any political consequences on donald trump for the insurrection and then i might be willing to change my mind. but so far he has been unwilling to support impeachment, he's not supported the january 6th committee and he still says he supports donald trump potentially as a 2024 nominee, even as he promises pardons to the people who participated in the insurrection. so, there's no difference here. they're on the same page when it comes to no consequences for anyone. and that is why the rnc feels so emboldened to do this. there have been no consequences and they want to keep it that way, right. the whole goal of this platform is to whitewash anyone who participated on any level in the insurrection of any kind of political responsibility because it was, quote, legitimate political discourse. >> berman, you mentioned kevin mccarthy who it turns out is, i mean, he's quite the power walker. really, really good at power walking if we can watch this video. that is abc's congressional correspondent asking him about january 6th and he says i

yesterday, mitch mcconnell took the rnc the task for issuing that resolution. today, house republican leader kevin mccarthy, again defended the rnc. >> the rnc's job is to help the republican party continue to grow, but the rnc has, they also have a responsibility to say their own opinion of others. i think a lot of republicans out there look at some of the actions of adam and liz, and have real problems with it. >> meanwhile, a bitter political battle north of the border could be headed south. nbc news house confirmed the department of homeland security has issued an alert about a potential trucker protest, similar to the one now taking place in canada's capital. truck drivers and their supporters are into a 13th day of a blockade in ottawa. protesting mandatory vaccinations for truckers crossing the border. dhs says it's tracking reports of a potential convoy that may be planning to travel to several u. s. cities, as early as this weekend, potentially impacting sunday's super bowl. the bulletin describes the plan as aspirational. where states in this country

and you can be as partisan and cynical as mitch mcconnell and still feel that way. so that's a pretty strong benchmark. >> we kind of are in a process of discovering where the lines are. i thought that giuliani saying you can't send in the military while trump sort of ided-ing on it is an interesting example of finding where peoples lines are. one of the channels through which they pursued this was in the courts where they had zero success. and i think that's -- you know, that's a point in favor -- >> not zero success. they had clyde burn laughed out of court and in some cases lost law license isn't were sanctioned for their behavior. so it's as bad as it gets. >> of course, there is a pending -- there will be a pending vacancy in the judiciary committee. the president is now considering of various nominees. what is your expectation about this process? >> it's interesting, so far in all of the contested supreme court proceedings, mitch is going to the mattresses to make sure that the federalists i. d. s was able to pick out the judges and they got through come hell

including mitch mcconnell. if you want to have a broader tent than just not trump supporters because he's not going to win the majority in the senate, or return to the majority, if that is the only people running and voting. >> anna, give us a sense of state of play on the hill right now. we have a government shootdown looming. give us an update on that. and we've heard there are pieces of the biden agenda that could be revived but it seems pretty stalled at the moment. yeah? >> yeah, everything is the moment of the day on capitol hill. certainly, it appears we're not going to move toward that stop gam for a month as they continue to hash out of top line numbers. there does seem to be movement, although slow coming together on some russian sanction package that members in the senate have been working on for the last couple of days. we're going to be reporting to you this morning about kind of an effort in the house that's really going fast here in terms of trying to actually ban members of congress from what we

he did that to jeff sessions, mike pence, mitch mcconnell. he'll do it to lindsey graham again and again. it also, i think, has a terribly damaging effect on the long-term prospects of the republican party especially in places like america's suburbs. my home state of texas is a great example of that. because of this kind of behavior, these purity tests for the maga movement, they've lost a lot of the suburbs of dallas and houston and austin and other places, and they accelerated the turning over of texas from a red state to now a competitive state. >> libby, i think about the fact that you have mitch mcconnell going out there and saying midterms are going to be policy-free. we're not going to put forward any policies. this is just going to be about looking at what democrats are and are not doing. it does seem they haven't figured out exactly how they want to characterize this report. nbc reporting during the day the republican flash committee sends press releases slamming president joe biden's weakness. at night tucker carlson tells his milli

trump is slamming mcconnell tonight saying, in part, quote, mitch mcconnell does not speak for the republican party and represent the views of the vast voters. he did nothing to fight for his constituents and stop the most fraudulent election in history. the democrats would have the same position, we would not be discussing any of today and our country would be strong and proud instead of weak and embarrassed. long-time gop donor, dan, i appreciate your time. let's start with where we are here. i know who you want to be speaking for the republican party. but if your true heart of hearts when you look at it, who do you believe is actually speaking for the republican party right now? senator mcconnell or donald trump? >> well, in a lot of ways, i think donald trump is speaking for the republican party. i think maybe mitch mcconnell should be given trump's quote there. look. the point is we want to win elections in the primary. we want to win elections in the general and i think you know this continued focus on looking in the rear view mirror and in the past is not where we are going. i think mi

we're tracking mitch mcconnell breaking with the rnc. that's an unusual headline. it's also coming up. >>> and a deep dive later on what courage actually means. >>> first we begin with a top story, an economic boom. >> we're seeing the beginnings of an american manufacturing comeback, this is not hyperbole, this is real. the bottom line is the united states is in a position to out outcompete the world once again. >> president biden touting those record-breaking numbers, and record-breaking is not a term of hyperbole. it's the highest job point of any president ever. the job growth actually triples those of the most recent president, if you remember that one. it is growing by measures and some of that is a result of the pandemic, which there is an argument that any president right now would inherit it. but then there is the rest of the picture. biden's aides have said quite convincingly that the basic way that we're seeing omicron and delta recede is partly by policies, including policies on covid that took bites. more democrats are shifting from the strict covid me

i think that's what mitch mcconnell -- at least that's what mitch mcconnell was hoping. he's hoping we can turn the page by electing or nominating larry hogans and governor ducies, people who demonstrated they support republican ideas and have moral integrity, and that's been lacking. i think he's hoping if we can stack the senate with people with morals and integrity, we can move into a new era of the republican party. i don't know it's that easy but i think that's what's mcconnell is trying to do. >> if republicans are talking about how much they should focus on trump, how much power they should give him, right, democrats then need to be discussing how much they should be focusing on donald trump in their campaigns. and we know former president barack obama speaking with democrats last week essentially said stop your whining, focus on the positive. he said, and i quote, democrats have a tendency to complain about what we didn't get done rather than talk about what we did get done. talk about what we are getting done. how do they make that calculation? >> well, you know

>>> all right, we have some breaking political news, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell offering his first comments about the rnc resolution that censured lawmakers adam kinzinger and liz cheney and that resolution that called january 6th, legitimate political discourse. here it is. >> that the rnc should be in the business of picking and choosing republicans who ought to be supported. traditionally, the view of the national party committees is that we support all members of our party, regardless of their positions on some issues. >> do you have confidence in her, the chairwoman of the committee? >> i do, but the issue is whether or not the rnc should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. that's not the job of the rnc. >> leader mcconnell -- >> okay, so, that resolution is now sparking growing frustration, as you can see, for gop lawmakers and some backlash. house minority leader kevin mccarthy, though, defended it. he claims the resolution was not referring to anybody who broke in and caused damage. hard to know, since they

then mitch mcconnell yelled at the rnc. molly fast said, this week has been an exercise in performative trumpism. which i think is exactly what's happening here. it's not a real rift. it's more like, be a little quieter about it. we still all support trump and the big lie, but don't go out here censuring people and saying that the insurrection, which there is video of, was a legitimate political debate. so is it a real rift? do you think they're really in a fight, or do you think it's just about how they're performing their loyalty to donald trump? >> well, what the rnc did in censuing liz cheney and adam kinzinger and using that, you know, there was just a typical day of public discourse at the capitol on january 6th, is completely absurd, wrong, and we know that wasn't true. but what mitch mcconnell did, you know, a lot of people are saying, oh, he stood up. he's fighting against trump. i don't think that's the case, zerlina. what i know about mitch mcconnell is he likes to win. his focus is on winning. he knows he is not

but as we mentioned, the leader of the senate, mitch mcconnell, today, denounced the move. with us tonight, a former minnesota democratic senator al franklin who hosts of the podcast bearing his name, and mark mckinnon. he's also among the co-hosts of the circus. good to see you guys. senator franklin, what do you make of this split in the republican party? you worked with mitch mcconnell, do you have the sense that he is sincere or sincerely worried at least? >> if i were him, i would've been the with the republican national committee. they basically announce that they are kind of crazy. no one can look at that and go, that was legitimate political discourse. gouging out the eyes of police which capitol police say they did. police lost the fingers, they had dramatic brain damage, they have broken vertebrae's. people went in there, smeared feces on the walls. american people saw that. i believe the republican national committee voted that unanimously. i think they are showing with the republican party which is in the thrall with donald trump. and that maybe the vast majorit

tonight, the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, sand what he said about that, making it clear it was not legitimate. rachel scott on the divisions in the republican party. >>> the major new development in the deadly police shooting of amir locke, after that no-knock warrant. tonight, news of an arrest. >>> the car allegedly on autopilot. the tesla and the dash cam video, smashing into a sheriff's car. that car then smashing into a trooper's vehicle. the tesla driver reportedly watching a movie. >>> and tonight here, the oscar nominations and already some history made. >>> good evening and it's great to have you with us here on a very busy tuesday night. and we begin tonight on the pandemic. news from the cdc director, weighing in on masks in schools, saying now is not the time to remove the masks, as many health authorities urge caution, saying we are almost there, but not there yet. but a growing number of states and governors have announced they will soon roll back mask mandates in schools in the coming weeks, leaving it up to the schools to decide. new cases now avera

if mitch mcconnell is trying to -- tell me if he's not -- trying to right the ship here. it's pushing against the majority in congress at large, right? i'm wondering is he seeing something that shows it is possible, that mitch mcconnell can right the ship on truth and fact and we have eyes? >> i think the case for many republicans right now is they win on bread and butter issues. they win on the economy, they win on crime, they win on, you know, getting back to normal. they don't win on this. they don't win on trump. it's different, though, when you're talking about a house of representatives that is extremely polarized. the right wing of the house is so much further right than the right wing of the senate, because these are individuals running in tiny districts that are deep, deep red, and they are only concerned about one thing, and that is whether or not donald trump is happy with them or not. so, you know, i think for mcconnell, he understands that the broader context for republicans going forward just strictly politically, putting aside what we've all been talking ab

and mitch mcconnell, say what you will about him, he likes to win. he likes to wield power. he can't do that from a minority leader's spot as effectively. this is about winning. trump talks about winning. i have said many times, 2020 was a very good -- very good year for republicans, not named donald trump. they did extremely well. and they -- and it's astounding to me so many republicans who feel they must embrace the former president because they live in districts where the general elections are really simply a formality, they don't matter, it's all about a primary and this is where trump is dangerous, even though he is a diminished figure >> this is our new cnn poll. 50% of republican voters want trump to run in 2024. 19% want another specific person. 29% say that they just don't want him to be the nominee. what does that say about the direction of the gop? >> well, it indicates that the party is very divided. that half still want him and half don't want anything to do with him. they realize that he is a liability, a boat anchor around the necks of the party and many of t