Video: Is the GOP ready to compromise?
>>> congressman paul ryan is back on capitol hill and talking for the first time about losing his bid for vice presidency . "losing never feels good."
>> we were surprised at the outcome. e we knew this was going to be a close race. we thought we had a good chance of winning. it just wasn't enough at the end of the day . i respect the process is done and i congratulate the president on the race. we now have divided government like we did before. the divided government didn't work. we're going to have to make this divided government work.
>> and there are new signs that the word compromise may not be such a dirty word in washington. rand paul says he's ready to work with democrats on immigration reform . and a big concession when it comes to taxes. kent conrad says democrats are throwing around mitt romney 's idea to raise taxes on the rich by capping deductions. the chairman of the house republican conference says the willingness to all of a sudden work together boils down to timing. according to congressman deb hesterly, compromise works best after an election. ladies, thank you for joining me. you heard the comment there that bipartisanship works best after elections. i don't know if that's full proof because you have paul ryan saying that the american people voted for a divided government . seeing power in the house and a democrat in the white house .
>> we have to make this work now and a few years ago, you would have heard them saying, no, we can't compromise. we're going to have to stick to our guns. i think this was a real shellacking for the republicans. now you're hearing all of 2016 people walking it back. all of the tea party types saying not all of them, but some of them who want to run for president saying i think we need to scale this back. we can't dumb it down. e we can't be assertive with the american people . they don't want to hear all this. so it's not just elections. it's elections that you have lost big time .
>> to your point, tea party favorite rand paul making some concessions or saying he's willing to on immigration. even reaching out to minorities to come into the fold of the party. let me read when he had to say. "i want to show what conservatives would or can accept if we assimilate those are here however, they got here. don't make it an easy path, but if they are willing to pay taxes, we need to normalize those who are here." that's a quote from politico. what do we a make of senator rand paul ? does she have enough influence when you counter mitch mcconnell and others? does he have enough influence to bring in others in the party who agree?
>> yes. i definitely think he does. he's considered a player. he brings to the table a very, very big demographic, which is his father's list. and that's a pretty powerful thing. and what you're going to have to watch for here is the mitch mcconnells of the world, he's somebody who is going to want to may play a little bit on immigration. he faces a primary challenge. so what you're going to see is some of these guys who maybe want to soften on immigration, getting some cover from some of the other guys who will get out there in front to try to protect them so they can win their next electio elections.
>> you wrote about rank and file immigration reform yesterday. it caught my eye. it is interesting from the leaders of the party who are on the radio and television meaning like a sean hannity to actual elected officials within the gop who seem they want to speed up the process in hopes of two years from now having latino voters come to their side if immigration is what's holding them back.
>> you have to look at the people who have come forward in the last week or so have been people like lindsey graham , john mccain , rand paul now, and we haven't heard much from the rank and file in the house. and when you have a group of people that are safely ensconced in gerrymandered districts, there's not much motivation to come out in favor in something like immigration reform . so the senate might be talking about it, but people that matter like lamar smith who was the chair of the judiciary committee , hasn't made a statement. he's bringing back the word amnesty real quick.
>> words that matter, you have bobby jindal , the governor of louisiana , i feel like we should get a plug every time we say politico, but he says governor jindal says we must not be the party that protects the rich so they get to teep their toys. we also had enough of this dumb-down conservatism. we need to thrust the intelligence of the american people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of voters. so i mean he didn't say amnesty but we saw the heated rhetoric to insight fear and get people fired up and ready to be against any kind of program for the 12 to 14 million people in this country right now who obviously will not all be sent back to their home countries.
>> i think that's right. they have painted themselves in sb into a corner in this respect. the republican base is not in favor of a pathway to citizenship. when people talk about comprehensive immigration reform , that's what they are talking about. now it's up to republicans across the country really to start changing their tune. the question is how fast can they do that? will it be a time to make a difference for the next election?
>> and will they try to insert the president? it's high on his agenda as well. but lois, i want to play another clip from congressman paul ryan and his first public reaction on camera to the loss for he and governor romney. let me play it.
>> mitt didn't pick me for wisconsin or a certain state. e he picked me for issues, for taking on the debt crisis. we had hoped to win wisconsin . he fought very hard for wisconsin . we cut president obama 's lead in half, but nevertheless, it wasn't enough. what it became clear to us as things went on, when virginia and ohio weren't coming together, it looked to me some time early in the evening that it just wasn't going to happen.
>> that's his reflection. but moving ahead, speaker boehner was asked whether paul ryan would be the leader of the party. he referred to him as the wonky guy. what are we to make of paul ryan ?
>> he is the wonky guy. that was a dismissive comment that the speaker made. what he was trying to say is that he's coming back here, the same guy, as when he left. he's going to be a voice on certain issues, but he's not going to be a leader in the party.
>> thank you very much. a pleasure having both of you
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/49809245/
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