Judy: Lawmakers are back in the
nation's capital after the
holiday weekend and have a long
list of issues they need to
tackle before the end of the
year which includes key votes on
new party leadership and as well
as top priority such as funding
the government.
We dive into the politics of all
of this and am joined by Amy
Walter of the cook political
report with Amy Walter and
Tamera Keith of NPR.
And it is so good to see both of
you on this Monday.
Welcome.
But I do want to start frankly
with the conversation we just
heard between Lara and our
guests.
You heard what they are saying,
that Republicans not denouncing
former president trump are
trying to appeal to the base.
What does this get them?
>> And I will say that as
members of congress have
returned to capitol hill and
particular senators, they are
being asked about it and many of
them said, I would not have had
dinner with those people and
Donald Trump should not have had
dinner with those people but
Donald Trump himself has not
disavowed the dinner or his
guests saying he did not know
somebody which is different from
saying, I cannot believe I had
dinner with an anti-semite, am
so sorry and that should not
have happened.
He has not disavowed the
ideology of the people that came
to dinner at his resort and had
a private dinner with him.
And part of the reason for that
is they support him and they
support some of these conspiracy
theories that he has been
promoting.
Increasingly, he has been
forwarding on memes that appeal
to the qanon conspiracy theory
and at its root is a lot of
anti-semitism.
Judy: What does this get the
Republicans who are not
denouncing former president
trump?
Amy: The big question is not so
much when will Republican
leaders come out and say no
more, we will have no more of
this with Donald Trump, it is
when will Republican party
voters say that?
And right now, if you look at
the polling and the data, you
still have a majority of
Republicans out there saying
they would support Donald Trump
for a 2024 bid.
There is a growing group of
voters saying they are else but
the only way that this goes --
that the message gets to
Republicans in congress and
Republican leaders is if there
voters are saying, I do not want
to support this person anymore.
Judy: Is there any even -- is
there any evidence this might
happen based on past history?
>> You would think given all of
the handwringing after the past
election there would be more
frustration bubbling up among
the rank and file.
We are seeing reports and
stories from state parties where
internally the state party chair
and others who were big Donald
Trump supporters are getting
serious challenges but it is
less about the belief system and
the ideology of Donald Trump or
who he is having dinner with and
consorting with and the fact
that Donald Trump is no longer
the winner but he was in 2016.
>> And up -- and as I was
talking to voters before the
midterms, many express
reservations about Donald
Trump's baggage and his losing
and he had not even lost the
midterms yet with his candidates
losing.
There is an unease but in 2015i
talked to a lot of voters who
said, I wish he would not tweet
so much.
And now it is, I wish he would
not hang out with conspiracy
theorists.
It is not clear yet and we won't
know it until we see it whether
this is just too much baggage.
Judy: It is important to point
it out and talk about it and
then people can decide.
Amy, congress is back or some of
it is back.
They have only a few weeks or
less to get a lot of work done
including keeping the government
funded.
How much of this are they likely
to get done?
>> There is a theory in doubt
legislating -- there is a theory
in lame-duck.
Periods.
Not only is there a little time
but there is not the coordinated
support for a sum of the pieces
of legislation that say
Democrats would like to put
forward.
Like finally dealing with
immigration and ca.
The one thing that seems to have
bipartisan support aside from
keeping the government open and
the defense authorization
legislation is gay marriage.
Basically repealing the defense
of marriage act and ensuring
federal protection for same-sex
marriage across the country.
That is probably, when I talked
to folks today who watch this,
that was their sense that it was
the one thing most likely to
make it through.
>> It is also possible the
electoral count act could make
it through because there is
bipartisan support in both the
house and the senate.
They need to reconcile the
measures and if it is going to
happen it will have to happen in
the lame-duck.
When Republicans take over the
house, all of these measures
that are passing on a bipartisan
basis with a few Republicans and
a lot of Democrats, Democrats
control the floor right now.
If they don't and Republicans do
it does not matter that 10
Republican support a bill, they
won't bring it to the floor.
Judy: Speaking of the new
congress, we are thinking about
the idea that Emma Kratz are
turning over to a new
generation.
>> On Wednesday Democrats will
have a new leader for their
party and it is most likely to
be hakeem Jeffries.
He would be the first black
leader of any party for the
house or the senate.
Interestingly, I was looking
through this today before I came
in because that is the door
khayyam, when Nancy Pelosi was
elected in 2001, Democrats had
the same number of seats in
congress.
The makeup of congress was so
different.
They had members from Arkansas,
North Dakota and Mississippi.
Now, the caucus is more diverse.
There are more women, more
people of color.
But ideologically,
geographically much less diverse
than it was when Nancy Pelosi
took over.
In some ways the job for
Jeffries will be challenging.
They kind of all come from the
same place which is very
different than trying to get
people that are from New York
City and southern Mississippi on
the same page.
Judy: The moderates have sunk
into the background.
New congress.
A change for the Democrats and
for the Republicans as they have
a lot of figuring out to do.
>> They have close to 20
Republicans that won in Biden
districts or blue-purple
districts.
These are Republicans that might
not be so excited about passing
a partisan messaging bill or
launching or approving a
subpoena for a white house
official or doing some of these
more showy things that other
Republicans, more hard-core
Republicans, that many in
leadership ran on.
So, it will be an interesting
balance seeing whether these
moderates have to go along or
whether they end up causing
problems for their leadership
that are different problems than
the problems the leadership is
worried about now which is there
more conservative members trying
to extract concessions before
Kevin Mccarthy or whoever it is
is elected speaker.
Judy: Is all of this a recipe
for what?
>> We have a big generational
change and on the democratic
side as well.
And other members of the
democratic leadership are much
younger than the current members
of leadership.
The thing that will be the most
interesting is a rift between
their freedom caucus and the
more moderate or traditional
conservatives and what will
happen with the debt ceiling.
That is one where few votes, you
have to get the senate,
Macconnell has to get his team
on board, and there are more
trump-y senators then there were
years ago.
Judy: A lot is at stake.
Tamra Keith and Amy Walter,
thank you to both.
♪♪