BROOKE BALDWIN (HOST): We were talking earlier in my office watching all of this. Jeff Zeleny called it a victory lap. You were saying this is the happiest we will have seen President Trump since he became president.
DAVID CHALIAN: I've got to believe so. I don't think we can overstate what a big, short-term, immediate win this is for the president. It is -- you have to remember, the entire administration has been clogged, if you will, in terms of getting a legislative agenda through, because of health care. Because it failed six weeks ago. So, this completely does two things: It unclogs that and allows tax reform to start going, talk about infrastructure, the other big legislative priorities that he has. But also, you saw those poll numbers last month, Brooke. We talked about it. People were starting to decline in their belief that he is keeping his promises. People were starting to decline in his belief to get things done. This is a huge moment of competence, of doing something, of action. And that is no small thing for this president.
BALDWIN: Not just a promise from the president but what has this been? Like seven, eight years from Republicans.
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CHALIAN: This was a huge organizing principle for the Republican Party for the last eight years. This was the driving force through four election cycles. So to finally have this moment of going to their voters and saying, we told you we were going to do this, and we did it. They thought, absent that, they thought it would be far more politically perilous for them to not have that moment than to pass a bill that maybe is not the most popular bill with the American public.
