president highlighted three additional
issues of national significance which he
would like to see
congress tackle together this week the
senate will begin a process to bring
these three priorities
into focus the solution is a simple one
put both bills up for a simple up or
down vote
and then let the chips fall where they
may i believe both measures will pass
as they should but leader mcconnell must
allow the senate to vote on both pieces
of legislation
the defense bill and the two thousand
dollar checks
before we go home is there objection to
the modification
object objection is heard
well the senate majority leader mitch
mcconnell uh today saying he's going to
wrap things together the president's
priorities here and
what do we mean that in that way
remember the two thousand dollar
check there's already a six hundred
dollar stimulus that's going out and
this treasury secretary says it could
hit bank accounts tonight
uh definitely within this week to make
that two thousand dollars then to put in
section 230 protection and that is uh
dealing with the tech companies and
protecting
them and election integrity uh also part
of this election
piece of legislation that would look at
election fraud and concerns the
president has
now it seems highly unlikely that that's
all going to come together
in the senate and you heard the
objection there
uh to just voting on the two thousand
dollars let's bring in our panel we'll
straighten it all out tom bevin
real clear politics co-founder and
president molly hemingway senior editor
at the federalist
and steve hayes editor of the dispatch
steve this is one way the senate
majority leader could say
i'm going to put it all out there but
i'm going to wrap these things together
not likely the democrats are going to go
for that
no i think that's right i mean you have
it's a complicated matter because you
have republicans supporting some of it
you have democrats supporting
other parts of it if you look at what
mitch mcconnell is doing
he's sort of cleverly adding poison
pills to
this legislation that track exactly with
what
president trump said that he wanted uh
when he decided to sign the big
relief package and an omnibus i think
what's important here is the context
i mean this is not really a policy fight
this is much more about
republicans having to respond to a
temper tantrum from the president who's
trying to steal an election basically
if you look at what president trump is
saying this is about donald trump this
is not about the future of the country
this is not about the future of the
republican party it's not even really
about covet
relief if relief were so urgent one
suspects that the president would have
made this happen months and months ago
it's important to remember that his
treasury secretary steve mnuchin
was at the center of these negotiations
he was on
the phone calls with members of the
house of representatives
republicans urging them to vote for the
600 relief
a week ago and now the president is
calling for
this two thousand dollars relief which
complicates virtually everything
republicans in the senate want to do
and certainly complicates the the
georgia specials yeah
molly i think these are actually policy
issues in play
senator mcconnell has grouped them
together he claimed that
trump uh grouped them together but of
course trump had tied the
defense authorization with section 230
repeal
that's the issue where big tech is
afforded
all sorts of regulatory protection even
as they
engage in sort of tyrannical behavior
against online speech and censoring
you know open free and fair discussion
of important election issues
these are actually important policy
issues whether big tech is allowed to
completely behave this way against
conservative speech
is a policy issue whether you believe in
this sort of conservative populism where
after the government has shuttered all
these businesses and destroyed
uh you know a chance for family to make
any money this year whether they should
get a two thousand dollar compensation
is a policy issue whether you care about
election integrity
is a policy issue and so even though
mitch mcconnell seems to be doing this
to sort of kill
the the chance of any of these things
actually being actually happening
he it also provides a chance for a
marker to be laid down where people can
say where
they stand on these issues as well as on
that defense authorization
which is you know one of the big
sticking points there is whether
presidents can
at any point end some of these wars that
were started by previous administrations
or whether
that never-ending war will have to just
continue into perpetuity that's a big
important policy issue as well
it seems like that veto will be
overturned we'll see what that vote
comes down but when you talk about
politics and the georgia
senate races now just a week away uh
the two thousand dollar stimulus check
take a look and there are the races
take a listen to uh senators lefleur and
perdue on this issue
i'm delighted to support the president
in this 2000 it's really a 1400
increment over what we've already done
it's the right thing to do for people in
georgia i've stood by the president a
hundred percent of the time i'm proud to
do that
and i've said absolutely we need to get
relief to americans
now tom they were quick to point that
out today
yeah i mean look uh purdue and lefleur
you know
they're reading the tea leaves and
they're going to stand with donald trump
they need to stand with donald trump
because they need his voters to turn out
for them on january
5th and and you know he's going to go
down there uh
you know january 4th and and make the
case for not only for the two thousand
dollars but but also for these two
senate candidates and so they were quick
to jump on board with his proposal
because
it's obviously it's in their best
interest yeah
and speaking of the ndaa the national
defense authorization act uh here's
senators cornyn and markey on this
we will address them and we have an
opportunity to do that
but we should not try to do that on this
bill
and risk the loss of this important
piece of legislation now in its 60th
year
of adoption my republican colleagues
seem more interested in funding defense
than in funding
the defenseless in this moment of
national crisis
we are able to afford spending
three-quarters of a trillion dollars on
a bloated defense budget
but we can't give hungry and suffering
americans
two thousand dollars
so steve the politics of this are are
tough in georgia too
on the veto overrun yeah they sure are i
mean i think tom
is right it's definitely the case that
david perdue and kelly leflar don't want
to be seen as contradicting
the president they're the ones who have
their political fates potentially tied
to him in just
a matter of a few days i think what
you've seen from other republicans
though is an increasing willingness to
distance themselves from donald trump
as it becomes clear and clear that he's
not going to be the one who's
controlling the future of their their
immediate future their immediate
political future
i think we'll see some last gasps of
those who are clinging to the president
on january 6 the day after
these uh special elections in georgia
but you know you've seen with the
willingness of republicans to break with
the president on the override of
the ndaa and i think on the the checks
that
he he's not in control of the party the
way that he's certainly the way that he
was before november 3rd
but i would say molly the senate
majority leader is acting
like he's at least listening to the
president whether he brings that forward
to success or not what about the
politics in georgia when it comes to the
president he is going to dalton
where republicans have not seen the
early vote total they expected
in that specific area
yeah it is true that many republican
voters
very much like president trump and they
were excited to vote for him you know
they got 74
million votes nationwide and without him
being on the ballot it's very important
that he be able to
get those people who were inclined to
vote for him to vote
for these uh for these republicans who
are up
it's going to be a close race though
it's it's it was already close when it
was done in november
and so i you know i expect it to be
close you know when it happens in a few
days when the vote happens
but those trump voters who might not be
particularly fond of a republican party
that seems to care about you know things
differently than what donald trump has
brought into the party
that will be the challenge and that's
why it's so important that he go down
there and also why those republican
voters
see that the future of this conservative
populism is through
a republican senate so if democrats
control all uh
both chambers and the presidency that
that makes it very difficult to advance
this popular conservatism let's let's
dig