ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp on Fox News: 3/26/2017

Former CIA official Gary Bernson is still on deck this half hour to talk about the president's wiretapping claims of me, plus street justice. But now, time for the panel. Joining me now here in Washington is CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp and Democratic Strategist Richard Fowler. Hi, Richard. Hi, Judge. How are you? All right. So, what do you want to say about health care? Go ahead. Hit it. No, there's not much to say. I think the vote speaks for – well, the vote-slash-non-vote speaks for itself, Your Honor. Say it. I'm going to give you – I'm going to give you 10 seconds. Hit it. I mean, it was an utter failure. If you want to have the Freedom Caucus run the party, which is what we saw take place this week – and they believe that toasters fly, so, you know, hey, this is what happens. Yep. But do you think – I mean, where do we go from here? Does that impact, you know, whether it's infrastructure or tax cuts? It absolutely does. Because here's the problem that Donald Trump now faces, right? So, he has a divided caucus in the House. And the reason why they put health care first is because they wanted to find a way to decrease the budget. Now, with health care not being on the table, the taxes and the infrastructure bill are going to cost big bucks. I have no problem with deficit spending. The Freedom Caucus does. Sure. Matt? Yeah, he makes a good point on the numbers. But the problem in all this health care and all this legislative language we talk about, what was really telegraphed, I think, to the American people, somehow the Republicans didn't have their act together. So, my advice to my own party – To me, the operative word in that sentence is somehow. Yes. Somehow the Republicans didn't have their act together. Yeah, that's right. I don't want to do my opening from last night again, but it makes me crazy. Yeah. Why, Matt? Because they fail to realize that the heart and soul of the Republican Party are conservative activists across this country. And when their representatives, despite what Richard says about the Freedom Caucus – I like the Freedom Caucus – when people feel cut out of the legislative process, guess what, Judge? They don't feel like they have skin in the game to be there the whole time. We're going to succeed on taxes if we work as a team. If we don't work as a team, guess what? We're going to do a lot more losing. You know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of a wedding, where everybody in the family hates each other. That's right. And then they make the bride and groom miserable. That's right. You know, they like defeat the whole point of the wedding. That's right. You know, it's like we shouldn't have invited you anyway. Let's have a good wedding, okay? Well, I think, Matt, you speak to part of the problem, right? So you look at those, like the Barbara Comstocks, right? These people who are in moderate districts. For them, they have 30 to 40 percent of their district on Medicaid expansion. So taking away Medicaid expansion, what the Freedom Caucus wants to do, hurts people in their district. So either you say, I'm going to vote with my party, or I'm going to vote for my constituents. And that is a hard line. We can do this. We've done this on lots of big questions. Donald Trump, it's a time for leadership for him. The party is concerned. We're at each other's throats. It's a time for the president to step forward. The president gave him a chance. He did. And that's what I said tonight. He did a great job. He gave him a chance. So what does he do now? You go back to those people who stood by you. There was a lot of people in the Freedom Caucus and a lot of other conservatives who had the president's back. Bring them in immediately, thank them, and start building the coalition for taxes. Don't start with punishment. Start with appreciation and thanks. It goes a long way. I disagree. So if the president wants to get something done, right? He needs a big win in his first 100 days. Here's what he does. He puts infrastructure on the floor. He talks to vulnerable Democrats, or he gets 20 Democrats to make up for the fact the Freedom Caucus voted against it. He gets infrastructure done. That's a win for him in his first 100 days. And he can with Democrats and the infrastructure. He can do that. He's got a chance there. The other biggest win will be if Neil Gorsuch gets confirmed. That's the big win. What's with this filibuster I'm hearing? I'm one of those people that believe that I don't think of filibusters. I think Neil Gorsuch will go to the Supreme Court. That's point blank. Well, he will. There's no question, but what is the trail? Is it bumpy or is it smooth? Oh, it's going to be very bumpy. And here's why. I think this health care vote this week showed that Republicans are weak in the Senate and in the House. So Democrats and Chuck Schumer are saying, well, hell, we know they're weak. We're going to go for the filibuster. So we'll delay this. We'll slow it down. Did you watch the hearing? He was great in the hearing. I thought he was great in the hearing. I was mesmerized by the man. But, Judge, this is not Gorsuch's fault. This is House and Senate Republicans' fault as to why they're going for the filibuster. Stop, stop, stop. This is a Democratic fault. No, it's not. If you guys are strong enough to pass the health care bill, you win the filibuster. Look, we had to screw up on health care. I'll give you all that. We're going to dust it off. We're going to get our act together. Neil Gorsuch is going to get confirmed. And the fact is this. Democrats are making a big mistake when they look too political when it comes to these Supreme Court openings. He's clearly the man for the job and they ought to simply be fair. Here's the thing. Both parties play politics in the Supreme Court. We don't do a very good job of it if we do. When's the last person we knocked back? Name the name. When's the last Democrat we knocked back? The one before Merrick Garland? Oh, yeah. You guys don't even give him a hearing. Give me a real person. He wouldn't even get a hearing. He was a nominee for almost 200 days and did not get a hearing. This is why you guys are going to lose on this. He was good or bad, so let's get past him. We didn't take him so to my ear. We were like, go right ahead. All of them. They did not give Merrick Garland a chance. We gave Gorsuch a chance. We didn't boycott the hearing. We asked sensible questions. No gotchas. Now it's going to come down to can Mitch McConnell keep his caucus together? Or is he going to go for nuclear option and change Senate rules? We all agree Neil Gorsuch gets on the Supreme Court. And the question is this. We have a lot of 4-4 decisions on the docket. And we also have a lot of administrative actions. How soon does Gorsuch get on? I think quickly. I'd say 30 days. I would say 40 days. You just don't want to agree with him. That's all it is. You don't want to agree. Let me tell you what I think is going to be one of the successes of the president in maybe not 100 days, but very close. He's going to finish ISIS. He's going to do exactly what he said with Mattis and the rest of that gang. He's squashing them. We're well past 10,000 on the ground in Iraq and Syria. We're going to finish that crowd. Here's the problem. When we go after ISIS. This is the same problem we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we go after ISIS, we put our men and women, brave, very brave, on the ground. And the moment that our men and women start taking. The vacuum one? The moment our men and women start taking losses. And they start coming back to Dover Air Force Base. This is forever. That fight is forever.