What did you learn from those by the way that enabled you to? Be where you are today.

I sat and watched John Doc Davidson, the Republican state senator.

I thought to myself, I can beat this guy.

So I end up announcing I'm going to be a Democratic candidate.

And I'm this young whippersnapper who's got the world by the tail.

John Davidson was the most relentless full-time campaigner I ever ran into.

He was the kind of guy who would knock on the door of a house that had my sign on the yard and say, what do you got against me? Can you take that sign down? I mean, the kind of thing I thought...

How important is this breakfast? Because a lot of people give you a lot of credit to achieving the status it has today.

I- it seems to me that the White House could easily get Cornyn and Tillis's votes if they just put in writing that they're not gonna bring back this anti- so-called anti-weaponization fund of the $1.776 billion for the people who beat up cops on January 6th and the like, and yet the White House doesn't seem to be willing to do that.

And I don't understand that at all.

I mean, that is not an unusual or a complicated request.

What John Cornyn is asking for is the p- White House to put in writing what Blanche has already told us.

And t- to think that they're holding back on this reminds me when they went through this, uh, e- escapade where they wouldn't meet with the survivors of, uh, Jeffrey Epstein.

Wouldn't meet with the survivors.

Tillis finally said to him, "Then you don't get my vote if you won't meet them." So they had a cursory meeting, uh, that was not a serious undertaking.

Go ahead

Uh, how did we get here? Does it matter? And w- where do you see the peace deal going?

Well, the Republicans have felt, uh, uh, the word that came out of their luncheon today in the Senate, uh, with the president was they're gonna try to get a get well vote even as early as this evening so that they can say to the president, "No, we didn't disapprove of your war." But I think the American people see through that.

Two out of three American people think it was a mistake for this president to attack Iran, and what has happened afterwards is, uh, no victory whatsoever as far as they're concerned.

And now this notion that even when both the House and the Senate, uh, reject the president's, uh, in- initiation of a war, they're gonna somehow get well politically, I don't buy it.

Uh, is it a mystery? Is it incompetence? Uh, and what has it been like for you trying to govern, uh, with someone who even when you get a bipartisan bill, the president sort of isn't, isn't there on the other side of the table?

Well, I can tell you this, housing is a problem for families across America.

The fact that the average, uh, buyer of a home has to be over the age of 40 now to afford, uh, the cost of these homes is a clear indicator that a lot of families are struggling to make ends meet.

They're struggling with rent payments, with mortgage payments.

predictionsAre these high gas prices a product of the Trump economy and the, the decision to go to war?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And, and the bottom line is, uh, when, when the Republicans are confronted with this, they won't accept the reality.

That war in Iran was initiated by this president several months ago without clearly thinking about a stretch of, uh, water called the Straits of Hormuz.

1,500 oil tankers and other chemical tankers lined up trying to get through this area.

I thought the president said we'd obliterated, uh, the, the power of the Iranians to threaten us, and you look at it, they've found a way now, through the Straits of Hormuz, to put pressure directly on the consumers of America.

Uh, w- what are you, uh, advocating here in this piece?

Your view of the president's attack on Iran?

Ari, let me tell you, if the American people are bewildered as to what this is all about, they're in good company.

It started off by saying we're gonna stop Iran from, uh, obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Well, I agreed with that years ago and still think that is proper.

And then came the second explanation.

No, it isn't about that.

It's about ballistic missiles.

What do you say to that?

Do you have any indications that Senate Majority Leader John Thune will even consider putting this on the Senate floor if and when it gets through the House?

I don't know the answer to that because I've not spoken to him or heard what he said, but I do know this.

We had a meeting earlier this week, a few days ago, a bipartisan meeting of senators.

There were at least a dozen Republican senators who were trying to find a way to stop this dramatic increase in health insurance premiums across America.

So I know the political sentiment goes beyond the four who actually voted with us to bring these premiums down.

We have others who are trying to find a way to do it in the Senate.

The four in the House, the four Republicans who stepped up and are calling for the discharge of this petition, I think indication there may be even more.

What do you make of that assessment?

Have you been through a moment where there's a bipartisan concern that potential war crimes are being committed and there's no transparency?

No, I haven't.

I haven't seen that, uh, in my time.

You have to go back in history, My Lai and other situations in previous wars, uh, where these questions were raised.

Uh, and, and in this situation, we are clearly preparing to invade Venezuela.Most Americans don't know where Venezuela is or why we would do this.

The reason is to stop the drug cartels, certainly a good reason.

But the i- object is to use warlike, uh, approaches and procedures to accomplish this end without the approval of the American people or congress.

... surprised that he's going along with this so far?

I mean, how would you know if a pardon wasn't already promised to Maxwell if no transcripts are released from the Blanche Maxwell meetings?

Do you remember a time when a, a presidential pardon was an issue that showed up in the last few days of a presidency and that very few people talked about it in advance? Not with this president.

Pardon is a part of his, uh, daily breakfast.

He gets up in the morning and I'm sure looks at a pardon list, and I don't exaggerate too much.

Uh, I think he's gone too far with this.

When he, uh, released the January 6th rioters and insurrectionists, gave them a full, unconditional pardon, I wasn't a bit surprised that Ms. Maxwell was brought into this pardon conversation as part of this unprecedented visit by the Department of Justice to her cell.

Um, what is your reaction to the ongoing assault on the rule of law from this administration?

We can't be surprised that they are threatening federal judges who rule against him.

Is that true?

true?Well, John, there were five of us from the Senate and about 15 or 20 from the House w- with the official delegation at Pope, uh, Francis', uh, funeral in Vatican Square.

And, uh, I will tell you, I was there, it, it must have been almost 20 years ago with John Paul II, uh, and it's something that you, you never forget, having seen it.

Having been raised Catholic, uh, you know, there are parts of it that, uh, take me back to my childhood.

Uh, honest to God, I still remember a whole lot of Latin and a lot of Gregorian chant, uh, and it's the...

I heard these rusty hinges creaking in my head, opening up the door to all that childhood e- education and information, uh, and it was a wonderful time.

You know what was interesting about it, John? You'd, you'd appreciate this.

When- when you first got there and how things worked and how it was like a finely-oiled Singer sewing machine.

W- why do you feel so strongly about that? What can you explain to our viewers about the seriousness of this issue that you've, that you've now come across in these confirmation hearings?

Rachel, you and I have heard many people use the phrase constitutional crisis and try to define exactly when it reaches the point, a breaking point with our Constitution.

And it seems to me that the final question is the one I raised with these witnesses.

If you're given a court order that says to, uh, this president or any president for that matter, uh, that there are certain actions that they cannot take or should not take or, uh, have to take, uh, are you gonna follow that order? And it turned out to be a debating topic.

I thought the answer was a clear yes and let's move on, but they wanted to debate it.

You heard one of them qualify it and say, "Well, generally, yes." And we had these equivocal answers.

The most definitive answer came from John Kennedy, as you noted, a Republican of Louisiana, who made it clear what I think the law is.

Um, I, I have to ask you, because I think you do very clearly see the seriousness of this, what sort of contingency plans, um, elected Democrats have, um, for further sounding the alarm and for trying to correct course and pull that roadrunner [laughs] back onto the cliff, um, if, um, if, if they go as far as they're signaling they might?