problem solver, who will go to congress and protect abortion rights and our democracy because he sees a better future for all of us. i'm peter dickson, and i approve this message. >> jackie edwards opposition to affordable housing policies pushed local median rents to $2,400, and she voted to raise electricity rates 100% higher than the national average. can we afford jackie edwards in the state senate? >> watch abc seven news now streaming 24 seven. >> this week with george stephanopoulos starts right now. >> super tuesday showdown we've been launching like a rocket to the republican nomination. >> donald trump looks to lock it stage. battlemp looks to lock it takes center stage this is a jo. >> instead of telling members to block this legislation, join me. >> jonathan: and the former

president awaits multiple rulings that could delay his trials beyond election day. this morning, our exclusive with democratic senator chris murphy. plus legal analysis from sarah isgur and preet bharara. stepping aside. >> it's time for the next generation of leadership. >> reporter: mitch mcconnell plans to step down as senate republican leader as nearly two decades. >> the senate is broken, and not doing its job. >> it's been a long time since we have had a leadership race like this. >> jonathan: we'll talk about what's next for republicans with senator mike rounds and the powerhouse round table. desperate measures. >> aid flowing to gaza is nowhere nearly enough. >> jonathan: the u.s. drops food aid into gaza amid growing concerns of famine. we're live in the region and we'll speak with world central kitchen founder, jose andres.

>> jonathan: good morning. welcome to "this week." as we come on the air this morning, the u.s. military is air dropping desperately needed food to the people of gaza. later in this program, we'll be joined here in the studio by chef jose andres who has just returned from the region and is doing everything in his power to get food to people who are now facing the very real threat of starvation, but we begin on the home front. super tuesday just two days away. 15 states and one u.s. territory set to vote. in a normal presidential campaign, this would be peak primary season. heavy competition and upsets in the making. instead, it seems as if the battle is already over with biden and trump racing to lock things up, and setting up the rematch the overwhelming majority of americans say they just don't want. but then again, the overwhelming majority of americans have also consistently said they don't like partisan gridlock.

they want the parties to work together to tackle america's problems, and yet our politics remain hopelessly divided. consider the senate. only five states -- that's five out of 50 now have a split delegation with a senator on each side of the aisle. the lowest number since senators first started being elected by popular vote more than a century ago. and after the november election, it's possible that every single state in the entire country except one will be represented by two senators from the same party. as for biden and trump, despite the steady march to the primaries, there are general election warning signs for each candidate. for trump, it comes from the 40% or so of republican primary voters in the early states who backed another candidate. although truth be told, there's no real evidence in the polls to back up nikki haley's claim that trump can't win in november.

for bind, the warning shot came this week in michigan where more than 100,000 democrats voted uncommitted, a protest vote fueled by their anger over the president's handling of the war in gaza which has now taken more than 30,000 palestinian lives and the nearly 150 days since the conflict began, according to the hamas-run gaza health ministry. despite those warning signs, biden and trump have already turned to the general election, nowhere more clearly than on thursday when they both visited texas at the same time, each blaming the other for not dealing with the influx of migrants at the southern border. and that's where we begin this morning with senator chris murphy, one of the group of bipartisan senators who negotiated a border security deal that failed to get enough republican support to move forward. senator murphy, thank you for

being here. i want to start with the trip to the border by trump and biden. >> yep. >> jonathan: with congress deadlocked on the issue that you worked so hard on, we've heard that the president's considering executive action of some kind. can you give us a sense of what is under consideration and what he may do? >> well, first, i was very glad to see the president go to the border. i think the democrats need to go on the offense on this question of controlling the border. the fact of the matter is we did achieve a bipartisan promise that would give the president new powers to get the border under control, and donald trump killed it. donald trump and republicans decided that they want the border to be chaotic because it helps them politically, and polls show that if democrats just tell that story, if the president tells that story, republicans' political advantage on the border is erased. now the reality is president biden needs that legislation because it is just not true that he has the existing authority to issue executive actions that can get the border under control. >> jonathan: so we're not going to -- he did as we understand it, when the national governors' association was in town, he told

the governors he was considering executive action. so there's nothing he's going to do except talk about the bill that the republicans blocked? >> listen. i can't tell you whether president biden is going to move forward on executive action. what i can tell you is the bipartisan bill had $20 billion of new resources. he can't conjure that with executive order. that bill gave him the power to shut down the ports of entry. i don't think you can do that by executive action. >> jonathan: what about tightening the asylum laws? making it tougher. >> those are statutes, right? the president can't modify those statutes with executive order. the republicans know this. they blocked this bill knowing the legislation would be effective only in the border. they want the border to be out of control because it helps him political, and the president has limits on what he can do through executive order. >> jonathan: this is three years

in, and you spent several months negotiating this, but why did it take so long for the president to address this crisis at the border in terms of the flow of migrants? >> well, i don't know that that's fair. in the first week that the president was in office, he sent to congress, a comprehensive and border reform. >> jonathan: that was a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented citizens and residents in the country. it was not a border security bill. it was an immigration bill. >> it was also an asylum reform bill, and reforming the asylum system. >> jonathan: it didn't tighten that the way yours did, did it? >> and the president instituted a very tough, new regulation that does stop people at the border, does change the asylum calculation. it as expected, was blocked by the courts because he needs -- he needs legislative action and republicans have made it very clear that they have no interest in coming to the table on

immigration and border reform, and frankly, had we had this conversation a year ago, the calculation would have been no different. the republicans have made it crystal clear. they want the border to be a mess. donald trump has told them so. >> jonathan: but you know that -- you've seen poll after poll after poll, and i could cite the latest quinnipiac poll, but there has been poll after poll after poll, showing an overwhelming majority of americans disapproving of the way joe biden has handled the border and we've seen an increased flow under this president. >> what we also know is under donald trump's presidency, crossings at the border were at a ten-year high, and this is exactly why. i think the president and democrats should go on the offense because the vast majority of the country believes that we should have robust,

legal immigration, but they want tighter control of the border, and right now there's only one party that can deliver that, only the democrats support pathways to citizenship, support expanding legal pathways into the country, and a tough border law. republicans use the issue of immigration to try to divide us from each other and now are on the record opposing the toughest border reform bill, the toughest border security bill in decades. >> jonathan: we saw new york mayor adams call for drastic changes to new york city's sanctuary policies. as the whole sanctuary movement, did it go too far? have we seen a rollback of that? should there be a rollback of that? >> you know, we treat immigrants compassionately in connecticut as well, and listen. i think that speaks to the best of this country. ultimately, the solution has to be on the border, and in the countries that people are fleeing. i don't think it's in the best interest of this country to push immigrants into the shadows once they are here. so to me, the focus has to be on the border. >> jonathan: okay. i want to turn to what we saw in

michigan where over 100,000 democrats went to the polls and voted noncommitted. obviously a protest vote to the president's handling of the situation in gaza. how concerned as a political matter, should democrats be? >> i don't think we should be concerned about this as a political matter because this is such a critical issue relative to america's national security and the security of the middle east. i would hope that the president doesn't make decisions about what to do in gaza or the middle east based upon how the votes line up. listen. i think it is time for the president to use all the leverage that he has to get a long-term ceasefire. i think if that ceasefire doesn't come, it's in israel's interest for them to pause military activity to solve the humanitarian crisis, but to the extent the president is using additional leverage on israel, he should do that for national security reasons, not for political reasons.

these issues are too important to be dictated by the polls. >> jonathan: is he not doing enough to pressure israel on this? >> no. i think you see him stepping up and using more and more pressure, but i think this is a critical moment where social order is unraveling inside gaza, and i have both publicly and privately counselled the president to use whatever leverage he has to get this long-term ceasefire tomorrow. >> jonathan: i would like to ask you about this trip the vice president made to michigan. it was a closed event. "the new york times" described this as a political bubble wrap that the vice president and the president are trying to avoid, i guess, protesters on the gaza issue, but don't they need to be out there more? >> i think you will see the president out there, and you will see the vice president out there talking about choice, talking about border security, talking about a foreign policy frankly that has renewed the world's respect for the united states. listen. i think the president is an incredibly compelling figure,

and i would hope that the white house will send him out all over the country to just be who he is, right? he comes across as scranton joe biden when he's engaging with voters and i hope he does more of that. i think he will. >> jonathan: all right. senator chris murphy, thanks for joining us. >> thanks. >> jonathan: it's primary season, but yet another sign of how strange this presidential race is, there was more action on the legal front this week than on the campaign trail. the supreme court taking the issue of presidential immunity, drama in georgia surrounding the fulton county d.a., hunter biden testifying on capitol hill, and on friday, donald trump spent his day at a florida courthouse as lawyers argued over the next steps in the classified

documents case. to help us make sense of it all, we brought in some of our great legal minds, preet bharara, former u.s. attorney for the state of new york, and sarah isgur, a former attorney under the trump administration. i want to ask you, preet, something about the justice department's policy of not taking any major actions, no indictments, or new investigations within a 60-day window before a campaign. so how does that square with the idea that we may actually be seeing full-blown trials of a presidential candidate right in the middle of the fall campaign? >> yeah. so there is a general policy and norm if you will that the department with respect to investigative moves, things having to do with their -- that are under their control, they don't take those steps near an election within 60 days of an election. it's kind of ironic that the trump team is arguing in favor of norms given all the norm breaking that's gone on on their

side for a number of years now, but as jack smith's team argued in court on friday, that norm extends to things that are within the control of the justice department. they don't apply in their minds, and i think this is correct, to a trial happening after the indictment has already taken place, right? so a judge can decide in his or her discretion to proceed with a trial, notwithstanding that policy, and i would say separate and apart from the policy, it will be an interesting thing, and i think a judge will not lightly go to trial in october of an election year. >> jonathan: i mean, sir, it really raises just mind-blowing possibilities that a jury could be going in to deliberate just as voters are going out to vote. i mean, this is -- it's where we are, but it's an odd set of circumstances to say the least. >> and it's not unprecedented. remember when senator stevens was indicted by the department of justice. he actually demanded his speedy

trial rights and the jury came back to convict him just a week before election day in that year. you know, you talk to various people, senior former administration officials in the justice department, and they'll give you different reasons for this policy. one of the reasons for instance mentioned in loretta lynch's position of this, says it's about the appearance of the department of justice to look impartial heading into an election, but, you know, other department officials will tell you, actually. it's about giving the defendant and the candidate in this case an opportunity to respond, that if you suddenly take a public ininvestigate story step, and that's an opportunity to defend themselves. >> jonathan: the trump campaign is not surprisingly pushing in florida as they are in the other cases, saying that these trials should happen after the election, but they did put forth

a possible date for doing it before the election, august 12th. it seems reading the tea leaves here that there are two federal cases. there's the january 6th case and there's this documents case. it seems like they clearly, if one of them is going to happen before the election, they want it to be the documents case. >> yeah. you know, the government has suggested that those dates are being put out in bad faith. i don't know what game you want to analogize. backgammon, checkers, whatever it is. they want to clog up the docket so even though these other cases are winding their way through the supreme court like the january 6th case, and we'll hear what they say about the claim of absolute immunity, if you have another case scheduled, that doesn't allow one of the other four cases to go forward, or one of the other three cases to go forward, and they will come up with some excuse presumably as to why it can't go forward on that august date. i think there's a lot of gamesmanship going on here, and just further to what sarah said earlier, in your earlier

question, you know, the reason you don't take an investigatory step or another action, you don't want to unduly take the action. there's a lot of argument to suggest that being on trial and having these cases pending against him actually aids donald trump politically. we've seen that time and time again with the polls and it's possible that the argument is actually the inverse of what donald trump's folks are advocating. >> jonathan: i mean, he was there for six hours in fort pierce on friday. very quickly to both of you, hunter biden was on capitol hill testifying behind closed doors didn't take the fifth amendment even though he's facing multiple indictments. what's the bottom line on that case? seems like republicans are not

getting anywhere to say the least in their impeachment efforts. sarah? >> they have not found what they need here, you know, it's sort of like with the stormy daniels hush money payment. partisans on each side want everything they don't like to be illegal. here we do have evidence of influence peddling, but that's not a crime if joe biden wasn't president or wasn't vice president when it happened, and here you have hunter biden looking very confident that what he did might have been slimy, but it wasn't illegal, and it doesn't implicate his father. republicans have really yet to find what they need to move forward. >> jonathan: preet, quickly, your take? >> yeah. it's a sideshow. it doesn't matter. it's a spectacle, and i think we should move on. >> jonathan: all right. on that note, thank you both for joining us. coming up, mitch mcconnell plans to step down as the republican senate leader. what next for his party as trump marches to the nomination. we'll ask one of the few remaining republican senators who has not yet endorsed donald trump. we're back in two minutes.orsed

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i know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time. i have many faults. this politics is not one of them. >> jonathan: mitch mcconnell will step down as the leader of the senate gop after 17 years as leader. i'm joined now by republican senator mike rounds of south dakota. senator, thank you for joining us. i want to start there with senator mcconnell. you know, the mcconnell-led senate was one of the last kind of bastions in the republican party of trump skeptical, you know, gop. what's your sense? what happens after he leaves? >> well, i think we'll have continued good leadership. john thune i think is kind of leading the race right now.

he's my stablemate out here also from south dakota. solid, and he understands politics as well. we also know that we need leadership changes in the white house. we're prepared for that. whoever the republican nominee is, we're going to get behind him and we're going to make sure this thing happens so we can get back to actually building this economy again and getting some of the folks in this part of the world that are just angry as all get out right now because of the cost of living and so forth, back feeling like we're trying to fix things. >> jonathan: so senator thune, you know, expected to be maybe the leading candidate, but as you know, he's clashed mightily with donald trump. trump tried to recruit somebody to run against him, failed in that effort, but tried to get somebody to run against him in the republican primary out there. he's called thune a rhino, mitch's boy, a few other things that i don't want to get into. how much of a role do you think trump is going to have in this selection of the republican leader? >> look. he's the republican

front-runner. he's going to have, you know, a voice in it. we recognize that, and i think as mitch says, you know, we understand politics, and that's a part of the political scene, but we also know that in the senate, we've got a lot of independent thinkers as well. the former president will have, you know, the opportunity to influence a number of my colleagues, but we also want to be able to have a good working relationship with him if he becomes the next president of the united states. we've got things we've got to get done, you know, you've already talked a little bit today about the border. it has to be fixed. we also know that, like, right here in south dakota and, you know, south dakota's right here in the middle of the entire country. most folks will tell you right

now that, you know, the cost of living has gone up about $10,000 a year since joe biden took office. they're feeling that. they want change when you talk about energy and what joe biden did on the very first day where he shut down a pipeline that was a $2 billion project. they're still remembering that, and when you think about afghanistan and the fact he pulled down on a date certain which was a terrible message to all of our allies, a lot of people in the united states were saying that was wrong as well. so for us in the senate, we're looking parted to a change in leadership. we're prepared to work with whoever the next president is, but i think you're going to find that a lot of folks in the senate will take their own time in terms of how they work through and, you know, the vote -- on a vote by vote basis, when they're going to support the president and when they're not. >> jonathan: i should point out the former president has had some choice words for you. as you no doubt know, i think he called you -- or questioned whether or not you were crazy or just stupid, a jerk, a rhino -- anyway. we could go on. how important is it for whoever the senate leader is to have some degree of independence from donald trump? i understand you say everybody needs to be on board in the general election, but how important is it to do what mcconnell did, which is be willing to stand up to trump?

>> well, that's what i'm looking for in a leader. i want someone who will work with a president, but also will stand his own ground. that's one of the reasons why i very publicly and openly supported john thune, and i supported mitch mcconnell. i think john thune will bring some, you know, a fresh breath. that always happens when you have a change in leadership, and once again, you know, we've got some other folks that are going to take a look at it. they are good people. it's not a matter of having a bad choice out there for those of us in the senate, but we've got some really good choices. i happen to think john thune is the right guy at the right time. great moral character. he's the right kind of a guy and i think he will be independent enough to look out also just like mitch did, for the institution of the senate itself. so i'm optimistic. it's the reason why i'm supporting him, but as a senate, our obligation is to look long-term.

we're elected from every single stay, and we want to take care of our individual states, but we've also got the bigger picture of constitutionally what is right, and also in terms of national defense, we've always got to be looking at national defense as our primary responsibility. so, you know, now we've got some other alternatives, but it's very similar to what a president should have. >> jonathan: so i want to ask you about donald trump has been claiming in court. the supreme court is going to take up this issue, but do you agree with this notion that a president has absolute immunity for actions taken while he or she is president? effectively above the law? >> i do not, and, in fact, i was of the same opinion that senator mcconnell expressed, which was an impeachment process is designed as a civil action, not as a criminal action, and that if a person is no longer in office, that an impeachment would be inappropriate. in the impeachment process that had occurred, i voted not to impeach, and there was a couple of different items that had to be considered. one of which and the first to be considered is whether or not it was appropriate to impeach a

former president. >> jonathan: yep. >> once we start going down that path, there is no end, and that means that every single new group will be coming in, and every single house will come in and look at previous presidents, previous individuals in office and so forth, and that was one thing our founding fathers made clear they did not want that to happen. >> jonathan: senator rounds, thank you for joining us on "this week." up next, jose andres is back from the middle east. he joins us with an update on his efforts to feed the hungry in gaza as the humanitarian crisis there nears a tipping point. we'll be right back. the humani crisis there nears a tipping point. we'll be right back.

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in afghanistan, he cared about two things: completing the mission, and making sure his marines came home. and we all did. pete's always fought for what he believes in, and i know he'll do the same in congress for affordable housing, the rights of women, and the democracy he swore to protect. because helping people who need it has always been pete's mission. and i know he'll get it done. next generation veteran fund is responsible for the content of this ad. >> jonathan: be sure to tune in for coverage of super tuesday starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern on abc newslive and at 10:00 p.m. eastern on abc with david muir. meanwhile, jose andres joins us here in the studio next. we're back in two minutes. i have relapsing ms, but i still want to spend my time my way.

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it penetrates deep into the tooth to actively repair acid weakened enamel. i recommend pronamel repair. with new pronamel repair mouthwash you can enhance that repair beyond brushing. they work great together. we have been the leaders pushing for the government to do air drops. i was at the white house not too long ago, and specifically i was talking, and i'm very happy that the u.s. government is joining the initiative of king abdullah, and doing one massive air drop in the north, but continuous massive air drops in the north. >> jonathan: that was chef jose andres discussing the white house's decision to air drop humanitarian aid into gaza this weekend for the first time since the war began. andres and his world central kitchen have been at the forefront of delivering humanitarian aid to the conflict

zones around the world including ukraine and gaza. we'll speak to him in just a moment, but first, abc's tom soufi burridge reports from israel on the dire humanitarian situation in gaza. >> reporter: for the first time the u.s. air dropping food aid into gaza. palettes containing 38,000 ready-to-eat meals to try and alleviate the increasingly dire situation for nearly 2 million people on the ground. half a million gazans on the bring of famine, says the u.s., with many children suffering from acute malnutrition and some starving to death. president biden saying he was compelled to act. >> some lives are on the line, and children's lives are on the line. >> reporter: the president announcing the air drop just 24 hours after a deadly crush of people in northern gaza ahead israeli military gunfire. this idf video showing a surge of people surrounding the aid trucks as more than 100 were killed reported by the hamas

health ministry. israel says they only opened fire on a ground when they got too close to one of their tanks. a dozen people were crushed in the chaos. some recounting the horror. i went to get a sack of flour for my parents, this man says, and they shot at us. this scene yesterday showing how hungry people in gaza are. this is one of the main crossing points for those aid trucks from egypt over there to israel here, and then on to gaza, but as you can see, this route is completely blocked off by these protesters. they say they're doing it to prevent any of that aid getting into the hands of hamas. >> reporter: israel facing mounting pressure to address a looming catastrophe on the ground. people in gaza right now are starving to death and you're not letting enough aid trucks reach those people in need. >> first of all, people are not starving to death in gaza right now. >> reporter: the u.n. says they are.

>> at any rate, israel is giving thousands of trucks -- tens of thousands of humanitarian trucks. >> reporter: and jon, that top israeli official saying hamas' demands for negotiations for a ceasefire, are still, quote, delusional, so no sign of a breakthrough. a former opponent of benjamin netanyahu, now a part of his war cabinet is set to meet vice president kamala harris in washington tomorrow. the israeli government rejecting the notion that the u.s. has lost confidence in israel to deliver more aid to people in need, saying the air drops were fully coordinated with israel. >> jonathan: i'm joined with jose andres who returned from a trip to jordan, israel, and cypress. he has served more than 30 million meals in gaza and just carried out the first food air

drops. thank you so much for joining us. you saw that report, that catastrophic scene with 100 people killed. i mean, accounts differ as to what actually happened, but there's no disputing that this situation is out of control. >> this is the perfect example that shows you that really people are in need of food and water. they are desperate. mothers, fathers, they want to feed their children. so what you say there is exactly the example of the desperation. that's why the solution is fairly simple. let's open more places around palestine that we can access with tracks and very quickly we can stop that famine, immediately in two, three days, but it has to be daily, constant, and massive. >> jonathan: world central kitchen is providing more food aid than any government organization. how are you operating under those conditions? how do you ensure the safety of

your people? >> the men and women of world central kitchen, they don't follow a plan. they always adapt. we are doing a times more than 350,000 hot meals a day. we had more than 62, 63 kitchens functioning every day. each one, it's a victory making bread from scratch. we have been able to bring thousands of kitchens that allow us to cook without cutting trees. it's simple logistics. we have an area where we are able to keep sending 40 trucks every single day. north, it takes almost two weeks to get any of those trucks to reach inside gaza, and then we need to get to our warehouses. the 61 kitchens, and food from the warehouses to those kitchens and right now we have hundreds, if not thousands of people, of volunteers, that help us. not only the infrastructure of

bringing the food into gaza, but the cooking of the food and the deliver person to person, ten to ten, so everybody who comes is able to receive food. >> jonathan: you have been on the ground in gaza. just like you have been on the ground multiple times in ukraine, but i saw you say this is the most difficult situation of any you've faced and you have been to a lot of tough places. >> well, it's a difficult situation because the people of palestine are surrounded by the sea and by three big walls. they have nowhere to go. there are bombs falling down, can be shootings happening anywhere. people -- this makes the delivery of food complicated. that's why we do free delivery. meaning sometimes if our trucks are stopped, we don't fight it. we don't try to press the, you know, the guys. we stop. we put a smile and we start delivering right there.

we are working all over the communities in every route. so the same communities are the same ones that protect us so we can reach the north in places, hospitals and other -- they are in desperate need. the north is where the main thing is right now. >> jonathan: i want to ask you about the air drops because there's been some in the humanitarian aid community and oxfam put out a statement saying just recently, oxfam does not support air drops to gaza, which would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of u.s. officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and famine in gaza. >> this is probably written by somebody who has a lot of time on his hands. listen. we need to bring food into gaza anyway we can. the king of jordan has brought some of those drops. they're doing it for their hospitals.

they're massive and the u.s. follows suit. we should be bring it by the sea. we should be putting boats in front of gaza. i hope it's going to happen soon, where we can be bringing hundreds of thousands, if not, millions of meals. why are we doing the air? why are we thinking about people coming by the sea? because the political situation is not allowing to bring safely enough of that. we need to be bold. if anything, we should be applauding any initiative that brings food into gaza. >> jonathan: all right. chef jose andres, thank you very much for joining us, and thank you for the work you do. up next, trump and biden both at the border as the president prepares for his state of the union address. powerhouse round table addresses itll when we come back. of the union address. powerhouse round table addresses it all when we come back. get r? no...it's comfortable.

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former dnc chair donna brazile, former rnc chair and trump white house chief of staff, reince priebus. senior political correspondent jonathan martin, and "washington post" live coanchor, leigh ann caldwell. we've got to start with a trip to the border. biden and trump there at the same time. did biden do anything with this trip to neutralize what is an issue that has been killing him? >> in the short-term, no, but she's checked off something he probably should have done six to eight months ago. look. this has been an obvious challenge for him and for his party for some time now. i think biden was slow to realize that. to his credit, they tried to address this. obviously in the congress, before donald trump killed the compromise bill in the senate, but i think biden's paying a

price because he was too slow on the issue. look. he was warned by his pollster in the first year of his white house that inflation, immigration, and crime were rising issues with the voters. >> jonathan: yeah. >> they were slow on all three, but immigration has been the most damaging i think in the last couple of months. >> jonathan: leigh ann, there's been reporting that the white house is considering executive actions, but you heard senator murphy. is anything coming? are they going to do something? >> we'll see. they say they're considering it, but they haven't done anything yet, and what republicans will say is that biden has had a chance to do executive orders for the entire time that he's been a president and that's why they say that legislation is not necessary. now of course, legislation does make it more, you know, more impactful, but the writing has been baked, and so president biden is going to have to do a lot to turn around those poll numbers, that for the first time voters say that immigration is one of their top priorities, and it's also for the first time that voters want to build the wall. >> jonathan: reince? >> joe biden owns this problem.

it's owned it from day one. secretary mayorkas has been on tv talking about the fact that they undid -- bragging, 80-plus of trump's policies through executive order on day one, and on the border visit, you look at donald trump. what did he talk about? he talked about the young girl who was murdered in georgia by a person who crossed the border in 2002 after joe biden rescinded the remain in mexico policy which would have required that person to sit across the border until his asylum case was decided, and what did joe biden talk about? he talked about climate change. he started going on a four-minute rant about climate change while he was sitting there -- >> jonathan: he did talk about -- >> -- at the border in mexico. >> jonathan: he did talk about the border. >> he did, but it was wildly bizarre that he would talk about climate change and not the border, which is why he was there. >> sometimes you can listen to half the speech and only cherry

pick what you like. the fact is that joe biden's first piece of legislation he sent up to congress, after he was elected president was on immigration. we need comprehensive immigration reform. it went nowhere. it went nowhere, but the fact is the republicans want to weaponize this issue. they want an issue because they don't have a platform. they don't have a conversation, and they want to weaponize it. we need to fix what's at the border. the bipartisan package that was put together, i think, in a very fair way, that package should be on the table. speaker mike johnson, my fellow lsu graduate although i'm a little older, speaker johnson should bring that bill up and let the congress decide. it's time to fix our border. it's time to get an increase in border patrol. immigration officers, asylum folks so, that we can solve the problem. the republicans want a problem and democrats want a solution.

>> jonathan: is he going to do something on executive action. >> >> what can you do that will not be overturned by the court? >> i can come up with some. >> or, or -- congress needs to change some of the policies by statute. the president can do as much as possible, but where is he going to get $25 billion? congress needs to do something. >> on day one, joe biden signed nine executive orders. six were on the border. one of the executive orders on immigration was an executive order that joe biden signed that ended the policy that if you commit a felony in the united states, that you don't get deported. why would someone want to keep an illegal immigrant in this country that commits a felony here? what is the rationale for that policy? joe biden did it with his pen on a piece of paper. >> i think, john, the short answer is he's almost certainly going to move on an exec ti tive order if he keeps bleeding on the issue, and there's no action in congress and those are both very much possible at this point. >> jonathan: the primary isn't over yet, and we're talking about trump and biden, but there

is super tuesday. i want to read something frank bruni wrote. in her unbroken string of republican primary losses, she may be creating a win-win. it's biden-trump in november, and biden beats trump, haley gets to say to republicans, i told you so. if trump wins, moves back into the white house and sucks us into a nonstop democracy imperiling quasi-autocratic melodrama, and haley also gets to say, i told you so. >> they're quite divided. nikki haley in michigan still got 27% of the vote despite spending hardly any money there, and not really campaigning there, and it's showing that donald trump just like president biden, has problems with -- with voters, with voters republican and biden democratic voters. >> but he really doesn't because if you look at the polling that's come out the last couple of days, the enthusiasm level for donald trump is very high, as opposed to where joe biden is.

as far as nikki haley's concerned, she's also getting democrat votes and independent votes in open primaries that don't include just republicans. as far as the -- >> they can vote in the fall, reince. they can vote in the fall. >> just like they always have, but i don't know what the play is here for nikki haley. >> it's quite irrelevant. >> they aren't going to vote for a person where the campaign is to trash the front-runner. i don't see where this is going other than thinking about a no labels contest. >> the play is to stockpile money, create her own brand, and see what happens in 2028 or 2032. she can say i told you so all she wants if trump loses, but here's the problem with that, jon. the party doesn't want to hear that, except for the 30% of the party that likes her. the rest of the party does not want the reformation that she is

calling for. they don't want to go back to what they were. they're happy with what they've become, and that is not going to change if trump loses. that's her larger challenge going forward is, how does she increase her market share beyond 30%, 35% that she has right now? does trump lose a little bit? at the margins, but the broader share of the party is not going back to the bush era. >> jonathan: what about the more than 100,000 democrats that went to vote in michigan for uncommitted? >> what about the uncommitted voters in michigan in 2008 and 2012? you know, michigan has a reputation of sending their own message and i believe your vote is your voice. one thing the biden campaign did to your credit, they didn't go in there and trash and say, i

want you guys to vote uncommitted. they wanted to send a message and they sent a message. can they pick up uncommitted in other places? perhaps not. can they get write-ins? perhaps. we will see what happens in minnesota and places like washington state. donald trump is underperforming. you can see that. they said he was going to win by, you know, a blowout in south carolina. you know, nikki -- >> jonathan: it was a blowout, but it wasn't as big a -- >> it wasn't as big a blowout, and we're talking about how black folks are not supporting joe biden and i have to say this because today is bloody sunday and the 59th anniversary of the famous march across the edmund pettus bridge, john lewis' bridge. black voters are turning out for joe biden. the enthusiasm gap is real. i want to give you that little bit of love today, but you know what? >> it is real. >> biden is going to close it. biden has been underestimated time after time after time, and at the end of the day, he alms comes back and he comes back with a punch. >> jonathan: before we get to mitch mcconnell stepping down, leigh ann, what is your sense? you heard me talk to senator rounds about this. is the senate republican leadership going to be the

unsubsidiary-like, the house will depend on trump? >> it will depend on who wins in november. if donald trump wins in november, yes, it will be donald trump's party, and only a leader close to trump will be able to win that race. if donald trump loses in november, it's not going to matter as much. >> jonathan: what about john thune? trump wanted to beat the guy in the republican primary in south dakota. >> well, i don't know where it's going to go. i talked to a good friend the other day, a senator from wisconsin that we all know, and i think that they are going to go through a deliberative process, but john thune is a packers fan. so i'm all for -- i'm all for a fellow packers fan. >> i don't know how deliberative it's going to be. i think it'll be entirely tied to the results of the election like leigh ann says. i think if donald trump loses the election, john thune is in pole position. if he wins, i think thune has a chance because there are your enough republican senators, but trump will have more to say and could shape who wins, and i

think you have to watch steve danes who's the current nrs seat chair, because if he wins 45 seats, trump's pushing him to run for leader. does that give him an opening to run? >> mitch mcconnell's legacy is the court. mitch mcconnell's legacy is destroying voting rights and i can say that on bloody sunday. mitch mcconnell's legacy is overturning roe v. wade because when he did not allow a sitting president to put his nominee forward, give merrick garland a hearing, that's mitch mcconnell's legacy, and we will never forget it. >> it's secret ballots behind closed doors who people vote for, but the elections do matter. >> this will be on the back burner i think for at least a few more months. >> have some fun, reince. come on. there's a primary left. >> let's talk about biden some

more. >> jonathan: when we come up -- when we come up, a note on this week's defiant memorial service for russian opposition leader, alexei navalny. defiant memoria for alexei navalny. let's go win this thing! then we hit the road and never stopped. you shared with me your frustration at working harder to barely get by and afford a place to live. your fears for our democracy and freedoms and your dreams for yourself, your family, and the future.

it is not too late to realize those dreams. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message because together we can still get big things done. >> jonathan: before we go, a note on the powerful display of dissent and courage that we've seen over the past 48 hours in moscow, where tens of thousands of russians have come out to honor the memory and the mission of russian opposition leader alexei navalny. navalny was buried friday, exactly two weeks after his

sudden death at a remote arctic penal colony. the people you see here, turned out despite the menacing security and despite the threat of arrest. at one point, the line to his grave stretched over a mile long. [ chanting ] navalny's mother and father were there. his wife and two children who live abroad couldn't go. it's just not safe for them to enter russia. navalny's funeral comes less than three weeks before putin is set to win yet another six-year term in an election that is anything but free and fair. navalny represented a hope for a brighter, freer future for his country. i hope those honoring him this week and in moscow have not given up on him. as we bid farewell this sunday, we do remember alexei navalny and all he represented. sunday,

we do remember alexei navalny and all he represented. rallying against the war in the middle east. the next steps for the u.s. as cease fire talks continue, and a live look outside from our south beach camera. >> this picture is kind of pretty, but we have a level one system with scattered showers throughout the day. today the snow continues to pile up in the sierra nevada. i have it all for you. coming up next on abc seven mornings

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