Transcripts For CNNW At This Hour With Kate Bolduan 20170330

Are you getting any reaction to the president s tweet and what it really could mean . Reporter yeah, so, that tweet wasnt subtle by any means, kate. No. Reporter but look, there was actually intent behind it and i think its worth walking through whats happened the last couple days to lead to this point. The basic rationale here is between house leadership, between house leaders that kind of watched the Health Care Bill just implode last week, and the white house who saw the same exact thing, theres a recognition, that basically, they need to figure out some way, somehow to get those Freedom Caucus members, those three dozen members who are kind of proudly intransigent on bills that they dont believe meet their conservative threshold to come into line. If you listen closely to Speaker Paul Ryan this morning on an interview with cbs, kind of said the same thing. Take a listen. That this Republican Congress allows the perfect to be the enemy of the good, i worry well push the president into working with democrats. Hes been suggesting that as much. I mean, have you reached out to the democrats yet to work on this bill, pelosi . No. Im trying to get this bill passed. Nancy and i see things very, very differently. I dont want the government Running Health care. Well, the president saying hes going to work with democrats on this. I dont want that, you know why . Because i want a patientcentered system. I dont want government Running Health care. Reporter slightly different tact from the speaker, but the message is the same, and that is that they need to unify their conference. Im told behind the scenes this is a deliberate campaign by both the speaker and the president to try to get everyone together. The speakers threat basically, look, we have a president right now whos not ideologically tied to conservatism. He certainly wasnt a republican his entire life. The ideology doesnt necessarily flow through him, so perhaps it is a real threat that if this continues, he will turn his back and start to work with democrats. For a speaker in a conference that is very conservative, that won elections on conservatism, on repealing and replacing obamacare, that would be seen as problematic. I guess the president takes his own hardedged way of maybe trying to interpret what that dual message is supposed to but i think its an important one. Its an effort right now to almost spook the Freedom Caucus back into line as they try and attack what is a very ambitious agenda Going Forward, kate. Phil, great reporting. Thank you so much. Lets get some reaction to this. Joining me now is Republican Congressman from virginia, dave brat, a member of the house Freedom Caucus. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me. You bet, kate. Great to be on. Thank you so much. Youve seen the tweet. You heard Phil Mattinglys reporting. Are you spooked by the president . No, i think whoevers advising him, has his ear right now we all ran in the Freedom Caucus on exactly what President Trump ran on, right . Cleaning the swamp, repealing obamacare. The bill in front of us doesnt fully repeal, so we can have that debate, but the polling for the bill right now is at 17 of the american people, right . We can do better than that, and we are all getting to yes for President Trump on this bill, but we have to make it better. You have to lower prices. Prices under our bill go up 15 to 20 through 2020. Thats not good for the forgotten man back home. And when you have the federal government in charge of onefifth of the economy, thats not draining the swamp. So, we all ran on exactly the themes the president ran on. Were with him, but someones gotten into his ear. And yesterday, right, two days ago, the senate also i cant believe this wasnt covered by the news Republican Leadership in the senate said theyre not going to repeal obamacare in this process. It was covered. It was covered. We covered it. I promise you we did. I know, but thats huge, right . Let me ask you this all of this is huge. You say youre with him, youre with the president. Yes. You read this tweet, congressman, it does not look like the president is with you. He says, the Freedom Caucus is going to hurt the entire republican agenda if they dont get on the team and fast. We must fight them and democrats in 2018. Do you take that as a threat . No, i dont take it as a threat. All the conservative commentators know this bill is polling at 17 . All of the Public Policy think tanks, et cetera. Right, but the president did not mince any words. He didnt say i get it, i get it. Hes not necessarily mentioning health care. Hes very specifically mentioning 2018. No, im getting with you. And Newt Gingrich a couple days ago, everybody is saying we saved the republican conference. When you put a bill on the floor thats at 17 favorable with the american people, we can do better than that, right . Wed better thats what will botch it for the Republican Party. Were trying to help the Republican Party and the president by getting it right. The process was artificially short, right . Three weeks to manage onefifth of the economy. Its too short. You say youre working with the president. What is he missing here . Because this does not look like a tweet written by anyone other than the president himself. Right. He is not being told that our group is working with all of the other groups who, by the way, was a jailbreak, right . Its all that we were against the bill. They were more moderates breaking from the bill than the house Freedom Caucus. None of thats been covered, right . The good reporting has those numbers out there. And so, what hes missing is, if we bring the price down by negotiating between our groups, we can get him a great bill, and i dont think hes being told thats the case. So, fellow member of the Freedom Caucus, justin amosh, he had something to say in direct response to the president this morning. I want to lead you the tweet he put out. He wrote this it didnt take long for the swamp to drain, donald trump. No shame, mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to d. C. Establishment. Do you agree with justin amash . I never get into the personal stuff. I just stick to policy. We can make the policy better here. It is true that it is very hard to drain the swamp, and when you start managing onefifth of the economy and all that goes with it up here, right, its very hard to drain the swamp when you take on onefifth of the economy. And were all okay, right, preexisting conditions, the safety net piece, the 100 billion for high risk pools back home. The house Freedom Caucus is fine. Theres been misinformation on that that i dont think has reached the president s ear. Okay. Were being constructive, but the one thing we have to have is free markets in the insurance space, or you end up like with the financial crisis ten years ago. We let the federal government run housing. That resulted in a financial crisis, and were still dealing with the repercussions. So, congressman, paul ryan said in an interview, which is pretty linked to what the president s tweeting, that hes worried if you guys dont get on board, that the president is just going to strike a deal with democrats to change obamacare. Are you afraid of that . No, im not afraid of that. Pauls got it right, but he can get us on board like this, right . We were within two points on insurance regs. If the speaker says yes to those couple things, were a yes, right . But you have to have look, if you were that close, congressman, what happened friday never would have happened. Lets be honest. Say that again. If you were that close to striking a deal, what happened friday when you guys had been running on repealing and replacing obamacare for seven years, letting it fail like that as it did friday, if it was as close as youre saying right now, that never would have happened. Lets be honest. Logically speaking, you would be correct, but that is what happened. We were that close on the insurance regs. A few things tied together will lower prices. That was an offer of goodwill that was made in good faith to get to a yes. That package was not accepted because moderates were peeling off in the droves, right . And that is the underreported part of the story here. Its always the mainstream media, et cetera, likes to hit conservatives. Im i promise you with James Madison and i promise you, im talking to moderates as well. Ive got to run, and i know you do, too. No, thank you, kate. How does it feel and i know you said youre not going to get into the personal, but lets talk personal, congressman. How does it feel to be lumped in with the democrats in an attack coming directly from a republican president of the United States . I dont care who im lumped in with. I love everybody, Everybody Knows that. We get along, its just a matter of getting good policy. So, the personal stuff just confuses and gets in the way of good policy, which is what weve got to get to. Congressman, thank you so much for your time. You bet. I love the dave brat perspective. Everything is great up here. We are all getting along. I want to know what it looks like when youre not getting along if thats what it looks like, congressman. Right, right. Thanks for your time. I appreciate it. You bet. Thanks, kate. All righty. Also breaking news, cnn now learning that President Trump is losing hope of striking a deal with russia as questions mount, of course, over the president s and his campaigns ties to moscow. Russian president Vladimir Putin is weighing in, was weighing in just a short time ago, calling the u. S. Meddling allegations lies. I just want to be very clear about this. You and the russian government did never try to influence the outcome of the u. S. President ial election, and there will be no evidence found. Translator Ronald Reagan once, debating about taxes and addressing americans, said watch my lips, he said no. Watch my lips, no. Of course, just a fact check of Vladimir Putin. Of course, it was not Ronald Reagan it was president george h. W. Bush who said, read my lips, no new taxes, and then he did raise taxes, but i digress. White house correspondent sara murray has some important, new information on why, whats behind the president s kind of fading hopes of restarting this relationship with putin. Whats going on . Reporter thats right, kate. We know President Trump as a candidate had a rosy view of russia. Right. Reporter he wanted a better relationship with russia. Now were told by Administration Officials that those hopes are beginning to fade. They were initially hoping for some kind of grand bargain to deal with ukraine, to deal with syria, to deal with combating isis, but now the president is sort of feeling a little bit more glum about the opportunity to do that. Its not necessarily because his view of Vladimir Putin has changed, but because he just feels that the climate is not favorable to actually accomplishing a good deal. He files like there is too much media scrutiny surrounding russia right now, combined with the house probe, the senate probe, the fbi looking into russias meddling in the election, and also the Trump Campaign contacts with suspected russian officials. And so, that sort of takes them back to the drawing board. It doesnt mean its off the table, that there wont ever be any kind of negotiations with russia, but were told thats kind of on the back burner for now. Its also worth noting the president has not yet met facetoface with Vladimir Putin. Putin said today that he hoped maybe they could do that on the sidelines of the arctic conference coming up later this summer, but a Senior Administration official says they havent even determined whether the president will attend that. And as of right now, there are no firm plans for when the two World Leaders will be meeting facetoface. Hmm. Arctic may be a fitting word for right now. Great to see you, sara. Thank you so much. Under way right now, the first public hearing by the Senate Intelligence committee on the investigation into just this topic, russias meddling into the election. And moments ago, a witness just told senator marco rubio he was a victim of russian hacking during the election. See how the senator responded. Two become one. Then youre a couple. Think of all youll share. Like snoring. Does your bed do that . The dual adjustability of a sleep number bed allows you each to choose the firmness and comfort you want. So every couple can get the best sleep ever. 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Breathe better starting within 5 minutes. Get symbicort free for up to one year. Visit saveonsymbicort. Com today to learn more. Now, a moment of truth. House Intelligence Committee chairman devin nunes and the top democrat on the committee, adam schiff, they will be soon sitting together, sitting down together for the First Time Since the committee effectively broke down last week. Can they resolve their trust issues and more over the trump russia investigation and get the money back on track . While thats happening, a very different scene is playing out on the other side of the capitol. The heads of the Senate Intelligence committee the Senate Intelligence committee are standing side by side and vowing to work hand in hand as the committee today holds the first of its public hearings into russias meddling into the election and any possible ties to the Trump Campaign. Let me bring in right now, cnn senior congressional reporter manu raju for more on this. Manu, its been interesting already this morning and an interesting moment just moments ago involving senator marco rubio. Reporter yes, indeed. I mean, these witnesses have actually been saying, going into length about how russia has tried to foment unrest within the democratic process here in the United States, including potentially even impacting marco rubio, of course, who ran for president unsuccessfully, losing that republican primary against now President Trump. Now, one of the witnesses suggesting that perhaps marco rubio may have suffered anecdotally or as a result of what russia was trying do. That a listen. Through the end of 2015 and start of 2016, the russianinfluenced system began pushing themes and messages seeking to influence the outcome of the u. S. President ial election. Russias overt Media Outlets and covert trolls sought to sideline opponents on both sides of the political spekt rum with adversarial views towards the kremlin. They were in full swing during both the republican and democratic primary season and may have helped sink the hopes of candidates more hostile to russian interests long before the field narrowed. Senator rubio, in my opinion, you anecdotally suffered from these efforts. Now, that same witness, kate, also discussed how paul ryan may have actually suffered as well, saying that, perhaps that there was some russian activity to go after the Health Care Legislation that failed, saying this past week we observed social media campaigns targeting paul ryan, helping to foment further unrest among the house. So, you know, this effort, kate, here in the Senate Intelligence committee to try to show theyre trying to build a case, build the evidence on a bipartisan manner looking into how russia has impacted the elections. One thing is that there are flashpoints bound to come up in this investigation as they try to look into any of those alleged ties that could occur between the Trump Campaign and russian officials. Take a listen to dianne feinstein, the democratic senator from california who sits on the committee, saying one thing they do need to look into those ties are Donald Trumps tax returns. How important is it to get Donald Trumps tax returns at this point . Well, i think they actually become more and more relevant as you look for connections. Im not going to use the word collusion, but its really regretful that he didnt seek his way clear to put them out there so they could be explained before we got to this point. And now were at this point, and i believe at some point its going to be important to ask for those tax returns, and if we dont get an answer, subpoena them. Reporter so, the issue about subpoenas on this committee, actually, the Minority Party does have the power to subpoena those tax returns, but of course, that could create a partisan fight, and thats one thing actually john cornyn, the number two republican who sits on the committee, told me later, he said look, we dont want to go down this partisan road. Lets keep on this bipartisan investigation. But as we know, as we start getting into some of the nature of these alleged contacts that occurred, we can perhaps see this partisan fight break out, and well see if it ever gets to the point where the house investigation right now is, where its at a standstill, kate. I was going to say, they dont need to look very far to see if partisan politics bleed into their investigation, where it might lead them. All very interesting, though, and an important hearing is still under way. More to come. Manu, great to see you. Thanks so much. So, fbi director james comey doesnt care about political backlash, answering questions at a National Security dinner last night. Comey defended his agencys work taking on tough investigations like possible trump russia ties and also, of course, Hillary Clintons emails. Comey insists his agency is aa political. Listen. Were not on anybodys side ever. Were not considering whose ox will be gored by this action or that action, whose fortunes will be helped by this or that. We just dont care, and we cant care. We only ask, so, what are the facts, whats the law, whats the right thing to do here . Now, were not fools. I know that when i make a hard decision, a storms going to follow, but honestly, i dont care. Joining me right now, ryan lizza, cnn contributor and washington correspondent for the new yorker. Great to see you, ryan. Good to see you, kate. You have had important reporting this week that points to some evidence of coordination between the house intelligence chairman, devin nunes and the white house. Can you tell me what you learned . The piece i wrote at newyorker. Com, i think the news a lot of people seized on, is that on the morning of last mondays hearing, that was the hearing where comey made the bombshell announcement that the Trump Campaign and its associates were under investigation by the fbi. He confirmed that. We sort of knew it and had been since last july that i was talking to a white house official that morning and that white house official was giving me guidance about what to watch for at that hearing. And he essentially previewed nuness strategy of i would put it changing the subject from what comey was going to talk about to the subject that the white house and republicans sort of blew up over the course of last week, which was this idea of incidental election, which is what has now been used as a fig leaf to justify trumps tweet that he was wiretapped by obama. So, i was told to watch the predicate that nunes sets. That was the language. And after watching last weeks events, i think my interpretation is that this was clear evidence that nunes and the white house had a somewhat coordinated strategy on the events of last week, and that all helped blow up the house investigation that culminated in canceling the public hearings this week. So, thats the piece. And i lay all that out in an article at newyorker. Com. I wonder what the white house, if you got any response from sean spicer, anyone from the white house on that. But also, ryan, weave it into this. Because with that in mind, you have important reporting from sara murray that hopes are fading in the white house of the president being able to do what he had promised and hoped in terms of improving relations with russia. Some of what shes pointing to, though, is continued scrutiny in the media. Yeah, look, i think that the climate i was actually talking to an ambassador from western ambassador, i guess is the closest i could describe him as, who was arguing to me and this is an ambassador who was very worried about trumps reaching out to russia and he was arguing that he thinks because the climate in washington right now has become, frankly, so hostile towards russia, right, and theres so much intrigue about russian connections with the Trump White House, that that has pushed the Trump White House away from whatever their initial raproche ma strategy was going to be and may have the opposite effect. So, saras reporting is confirmation that the white house is maybe starting to give up on any kind of reset with russia, and i think thats partly because of these investigations, because of all the inquiries from the press, and that they can no longer be seen as being overly friendly with russia, given all of the scrutiny. Yeah, yeah. And you know, i was going to say, the danger, of course, could be going too far in the other direction, right . You know, there are some voices, you know, that there are some voices that want to go to war with russia over things like crimea or eastern ukraine. So you know, theres a balance here. I think the danger is going too far. Yeah, and where really is the balance, the White House Position not entirely clear, but were getting some great, new insight from you as well as from sara. Great to see you, ryan. Thanks. Thank you, kate. Coming up for us, is the white house breaking antinepotism laws by officially having ivanka trump join the team . Her new announcement and concerns about what shell be doing. Well discuss. Plus, im old enough to remember, friends when paul ryan said we can trust President Trump to push a conservative agenda, but now he says trump could turn to the democrats. Well hear from speaker ryan live in a moment. Sfx engine revving silence are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. [vo] quickbooks introduces and her mobile wedding business. She travels far and wide to officiate i dos. And quickbooks automatically tracks those miles. She categorizes with a swipe and is ready for tax time. Find more than 4000 in tax savings. Visit quickbooksdotcom. Its official, ivanka trump will be joining the white house. Her title, assistant to the president. She will be an unpaid federal employee, so what does this change, and does this satisfy the ongoing criticism that the president has made the white house a Family Affair and that they are going against conflict of interests and Good Governance laws . Let me bring in larry noble, a cnn contributor, general counsel at the Campaign Legal center and former general counsel at the federal elections commission, and also kate bennett, cnns white house reporter. Great to see you both. So, larry, ivanka trump is now an official Government Employee. What does this change . Well, it may not change a lot. I mean, what it does do is it makes her legally restricted by the government ethics laws, where before she said that she was just going to voluntarily comply with the government ethics laws. So, this does put some legal weight behind it. However, it doesnt address directly the conflicts of interest that she may still have. Im not quite sure what laws she thinks she is going to be covered by, because the laws do vary depending on what level you are in the government. Ill give her the fit of the doubt and say shes going to be governed by the highest level of conflict of interest laws, which would involve public Financial Disclosure statements, and i think that is an important step in the right direction. But really, we started it at a major step backwards, where she wasnt even acknowledging the white house wasnt even acknowledging that she was working for the government. Now weve moved into a situation where, okay, now that we know shes working for the government, what rules is she going to be complying with and what conflicts does she have . And larry touches on an important point. It was not so long ago, kate that ivanka trump said she would not be part of the administration. Here she is from just after the election in november. Listen. People think that youre going to be part of the administration, ivanka. I am no, im going to be a daughter, but i have said throughout the campaign that i am very passionate about certain issues and that i want to fight for them. So you know, there are a lot of things that i feel deeply strongly about, but not in a formal administrative capacity. Whats changed from then to now, kate . Now she feels really strongly about certain things, and there are a lot of things. I mean, i think many you know, getting inside the west wing, understanding her dads administration. Shes always been that person for the president who has been his eyes and ears. I think she wants to see that role more formal. He wants to see it more formal. I mean, she also said her main priority was moving to washington and getting her kids settled in schools and then thinking about work. Maybe shes achieved that goal and now shes going back to work full time. But she does have you know, weve seen her with justin trudeau, with angela merkel. Shes announced her First International trip next month. I mean, these are things that clearly show that ivankas direction has changed. Shes still an insider. Now she just has the formal stamp of approval. And larry, you clearly still got questions out there of exactly what role, what level of oversight, you know, and what level of disclosure her new role will require, but should this satisfy some of the criticism coming at her . Should this be applauded . Well, it satisfies the criticism we and others asked that they recognize that shes a Government Employee and this kind of halfway space didnt really make any sense. But again, you know, we are stuck in a situation where the whole dynamics of the ethics rules have changed. And so, we are where you should be when somebody enters the government. What are the ethics rules to apply, what are the conflicts of interest . You know, the antinepotism rules. How is all this going to play out . And i hope what doesnt get lost in this discussion, when we do acknowledge that she has heard us, as she said, shes heard the concerns that have been expressed, but we dont lose the idea that, okay, now we have to make sure that she doesnt have conflicts and she follows those rules. Yeah. Its an unusual arrangement in and of itself, but what does it mean Going Forward . I know, larry, youre going to be having your eye on that. Kate, great to see you. Thank you very much. I want to take us back over to capitol hill right now. House Speaker Paul Ryan speaking with reporters, his weekly press conference. Lots of questions coming at him. Onethird of the jobs in coal country alone. Combine our actions with the steps that the president has taken to jump start pipelines and reverse president obamas assault on affordable energy. These things will help get people back to work. And after years of sluggish growth, give a real boost to our economy. But with all of these measures, we are doing something very, very fundamental, and thats the point i think is really worth seeing here. For too long, we have had unaelected bureaucrats writing our laws. We had been having unelected bureaucrats dictating the rules that we have to live under, and the rest of government just goes along with it. But now we are turning power from washington back to states and communities and to the elected branch of government. We are giving people more control and more of a say in the decisions that are made in their classrooms, at their businesses, on their lands. This is Good Progress and were going to make more in weeks to come. Phil. Not responding to all the president s tweets conference saying of the Freedom Caucus, we must fight them in 2018. Sounds like hes calling for primaries or fights. Do you agree that you need to fight the Freedom Caucus to move his agenda . I understand the president s frustration. I share frustration. About 90 of our conference is for this bill to repeal and replace obamacare, and about 10 are not. And thats not enough to pass a bill. Were close. What i am encouraging our members to do is keep talking with each other until we can get the consensus to pass this bill. But its very understandable that the president is frustrated that we havent gotten to where we need to go, because this is something we all said we would do. And so, he is just expressing his frustration. You all know that he does that in various forms, including twitter, and i understand his frustration. Nau [ inaudible ] the Russian Investigation exposing the danger to americas democracy. They seem to be focusing more on the from president s tweets. Is the House Committee missing the Bigger Picture . I want the House Committee to have a full and thorough bipartisan investigation, get everything out there, follow the facts wherever they go, and get to the truth. Thats going to take some time, and im confident theyre going to do that. I think youre right, this has gotten a little political. Lets take a pause and lets just get all the evidence, all the documents, and find out what happened. And what im worried about with russia is, youve got elections coming online in europe, you know, this year. And so, the russians clearly are trying to meddle in other countries elections. We have to help our allies prevent that from happening and uncover it. We have to find out what they tried to do here. Weve got to make sure we get to the bottom of that, and wherever the facts go. But then we also, in my opinion, need to do more to help our allies guard against this invasion into their democracy from russia. A number of republicans i spoke to this week said you need the 880 billion from medicaid savings from the Health Care Bill in order to lower the revenue baseline and achieve significant tax no, its the other way around. Its not medicaid, its the revenue. You know how this works, wong. Youre a budget guy. Do you agree that there is a direct correlation between the medicaid and no, there is not a direct correlation. Thats not correct. So, if somebodys misunderstanding how baselines work around here. The medicaid savings, the spending based on it has nothing to do with tax reform. Its the revenue base line. Its the obamacare taxes that themselves affect tax reform. Heres the way that the math works. If we repeal the obamacare taxes, then that is a revenue base line that we dont have to put into tax reform. If we dont repeal the obamacare taxes, it is my position that were just going to have to leave those taxes over there with obamacare and reform the rest of the irs tax code. But it does make tax reform harder. Its all about the revenue base line, has nothing to do with the spending base line. Explain this idea of not wanting the president to work with democrats. Oh, yeah, sure. On the health care, but also when some of us just talked to chris collins, you know, a big trump ally, and he says, you know, the next time that the Freedom Caucus calls the tuesday group, we should hang up the phone. He says were not going to hit health care again until 2019. You say youre close. Why should anyone believe that . Well, because about 90 of our congress is there and 10 are not. [ inaudible ] thats exactly right, but 95 does. Thats why i say were close, because we are. Heres the point im making here. Democrats arent for repealing obamacare. We are. We work with democrats all the time. Look, patty murray and i did a big budget agreement. So, we have long histories of working with democrats, but i dont think its a stretch of the mind to suggest that the democrats disagree with us on repealing obamacare. Theyre not going to help us repeal obamacare. Thats my point. And so, if were going to do what we said we would do, which is repeal and replace obamacare and save the American Health care system, something tells me the democrats arent going to help us repeal obamacare. Theyre the ones who created it in the first place. Yeah. A bill that goes to the house, will it fund the wall and will it contain the bill hasnt been completed yet. The appropriators are still negotiating, so its premature to get into the contents of the bill. Weve already done dods, so theres 11 other bills that we would pass. The question is, is it one bill, two bills . I think thats one for the senate to decide how theyre going to package the bill. Its really about kind of their calendar and how they work, but our goal is to work on the rest of the bills, and thats what our appropriators are negotiating. Those negotiations arent done, so it would be premature to get into the contents of those bills. Think that youre going to send them a spending yeah, i think thats right. Weve already sent them dod and i anticipate well send them the rest. [ inaudible question ] would taking their costsharing reductions away destabilize the markets . Well, yes, and are you all right over there, dan . That didnt sound too good. Is he okay . Yes. I think the answers yes on your last part. But the lawsuits going to take some time. This is a separation of powers issue, and i dont know when the loss is going to get wrapped up. I think it goes into may. If we end up going to court, that could take us months. So, its just a continue its currently an unresolved issue. [ inaudible question ] while the lawsuit is being litigated, then the Administration Funds these benefits. Thats how theyve been doing it, and i dont see any change in that. Yeah. You just said that [ inaudible ] why not drop the lawsuit . Why well, we dont want to drop the lawsuit because we believe in the separation of powers. We believe in congress retaining its lawmaking power. But this lawsuit has not seen hasnt run its full course. While this lawsuit is running its course, the administration is exercising their discretion with respect to csrs. Our plan a here is to repeal and replace obamacare and have that transition occur where these markets are stabilized. And thats what we hope to achieve. Yeah. So, your health bill seems to be a little bit in [ inaudible ] will you commit that there will be another vote on this bill or a similar bill . Im not going to commit to when and what the votes going to look like because its my job to help make sure that House Republicans can coalesce and come together and draw a consensus. What im encouraging our members to do is figure out what solutions get us to a bill that everybody can vote for and pass. Thats the kind of conversations that are occurring. This is too big of an issue to not get right. And so, im not going to put some sort of artificial deadline on saving the American Health care system from an ongoing collapse. I just think its too important. Lets forget about all of the beltway talk here and think about, there are families that are hurting, there are families that arent getting the kind of health care they need. Premiums are going up double digits. Plans are pulling out of marketplaces. No one has a choice in a third of american counties. This is a problem. And the actuaries of the Insurance Companies are telling us its just going to get worse. So, its really important that we do something to fix this problem, and thats going to take us to continue to work to get consensus. And im not going to put a timeline on it because i just want to make sure we get this done right. Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it. All right, youre listening right there to house Speaker Paul Ryan and his weekly press conference. I understand the president s frustration. Thats one headline from this. Lets discuss right now what we heard from house Speaker Paul Ryan and what it means with my panel. Political commentator jen stocky, former Communications Director under president obama, cnn commentator and republican strategist doug high is here and political reporter niamalika henderson. So, nia, just to refresh for our viewers, this is what the president tweeted and this is what paul ryan is being asked about right now. Heres what the president tweeted this morning Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire republican agenda if they dont get on the team and fast. We must fight them and democrats in 2018. Asked to respond to it, paul ryan says its very understandable that the president is frustrated. He didnt really speak about the primary challenge element of it, but he did not contradict the president. Nia, your take . Yeah, i mean, this is where we are now. The president has moved from blaming democrats, calling Chuck Schumer losers. At some point, he also said he wanted to reach out to democrats. So here he is now fighting with his own party, especially saying that come 2018, some of the house Freedom Caucus folks can expect a primary challenge. I think the problem here is a lot of these sort of energy, conservative ideas about health care, money now, if you think about the Koch Brothers wanting to support a lot of these folks who stood up against this bill, i dont know how trump takes them on and also tries to get to a situation where they have enough votes to make this work in the house. Its not only the Freedom Caucus, its also moderate republicans. Its also that that bill had a 17 approval rating. So, again, i mean, i think were seeing this sort of hardball, dealmaking sort of strategy, but it seems like a lot of it is just, you know, kind of spinning their wheels and its not sure theres going to really be any movement, more just like motion. Yeah. I mean, doug, part of it we can talk about the math, but i also want to talk about so, i asked one of the members of the Freedom Caucus about this tweet, if he sees it i mean, i dont know of another way to read it, other than it is a threat. But according to dave brat of virginia, he does not see what the president is saying as a primary threat in any way. What is the play here . Is the Freedom Caucus respond well to threats . If you look at any recent history . Yeah, ive heard of dave brett. I worked to eric cantor, so dave brat is somebody im familiar with. We didnt need to go there, doug, but i did want to come to you with that question. The Freedom Caucus typically never responds well to threats, but those threats have usually come from congressional leadership. And we see outrage du jour created by Freedom Caucus members who say you cant threaten us, you cant take away our Committee Chairmanships or any of the mechanisms that congressional leadership has. Whats new is that this is coming from President Trump. And well see if primaries come from this. Well see what happens with the bill. But donald trump is such a new dynamic in republican politics, and especially on capitol hill, that this kind of criticism coming from the president is whats really new to the Freedom Caucus, and its why their response has been by and large pretty muted. If john boehner or eric cantor had made this, or paul ryan had made this kind of criticism, we would have seen the Freedom Caucus calling them rhinos. We would have seen outside groups sending out fundraising emails, because theres a lot of profit in that. But the donald trump dynamic being so new, i think a lot of members are worried about how popular he is in their republican districts. They might actually be really worried about that threat. Jen, i want your take on a different slice of this from the sweep this morning. The white houses response, when asked to clarify what the president s meaning is, the white houses response is the president s tweet speaks for itself. This has become this has become the singular response from the white house when asked to clarify or give any background to any of the president s tweets. What does that actually mean, the president s tweet speaks for itself . Well, i think President Trump has been using twitter as a means of sending messages and indicating his views on things. Sometimes its completely inaccurate, and sometimes its an indication of where hes sitting politically. This may not have been a threat this morning. This may have been him sending a message listen, preeFreedom Caucus, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Ill work with the moderates and work with them. Ive been hearing from 2018 candidates who are up for election, from people who are worried about putting poison pills and riders on different bills, and im going to start to work with moderates. So, it could be as simple as that. Dubs sound so simple, though, when you really try to look at how this is all going down. Dave brat also said they were so close, they were like two bits away from getting a Health Care Bill to the floor on friday. I found that kind of difficult to believe, but thats how it works. Great to see you guys. Thank you so much. A lot more to come. Thank you. Coming up for us, republicans threatening right now to go nuclear to confirm Supreme Court nominee neil gorsuch, but will they need to go that route . Where do things stand right now . That is coming up. Nally found or big idaho potato truck. Its been touring the country telling folks about our heart healthy idaho potatoes, americas favorite potatoes, and donating to local charities along the way. But now its finally back home where it belongs. Aw man. Hey, wait up. Where you goin . Here we go again. Itbut one i think with quesa simple answer. We have this need to peek over our neighbors fence. And once we do, we see wonder waiting. Every step you take, narrows the influence of narrow minds. Bridges continents and brings this world one step closer. So, the question you asked me. What is the key . Its you. Everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. On a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. And if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24 7. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Another big battle brewing on capitol hill. President trump Supreme Court nomin nominee. It could be a Nuclear Battle over judge gorsuch. Threatening to change the rules in order to get him confirmed t. Sounds inside baseball, but it is a big deal. The fallout over this battle could last for years. Where does this stand . Tom, what are you seeing . Kate, this is a battle royal. If you ask the republicans, particularly if you ask Mitch Mcconnell whos leading the respects is neil gorsuch going to be confirmed and the vote happens in eight days, he says absolutely one way or the other and democrats need to know that you should change your mind if youre going to oppose him and join us in confirming. Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer leading the democrats, hes saying hold o democrats, everybody stick together because yeah, if you have the vote right now and it breaks down on pure party lines, the republicans would win. 52freig 5248, he would be confirmed. Theyre saying we want to push the republicans to produce 60 votes to get the vote to the floor over gorsuch. A procedural thing. If they get a filibuster started, that means the republicans have to pig up eight democrats to stop the filibuster. Eight democrats. Its not clear where they would get those people. All of these people weve highlighted have already spoken up and said they will vote against gorsuch. So what are the republicans doing . Theyre targeting all the other ones here, particularly those that are in states that donald trump handily won for president. Their idea is to say in effect you can stick with this filibuster if you want, but you may not be a senator very long because the people in your state may not appreciate it. Chuck schumer meanwhile is saying no, no, no. Hang in there. Make them change the candidate. In the end you mentioned the Nuclear Option. That may not be the result. Mcconnell has suggested if he has to go with the Nuclear Option which is basically a rules change which the republicans could approve if they all stick together, then you go right back to where you were in the beginning and they dont need 60 votes. They can get past it and go directly to the vote itself. If thats the case, all they have to have the Party Advantage to do this. The democrats did this back in 2013 under harry reed. Republicans were hugely critical of him then and the democrats have suffered for that rules change. But this time the republicans may do the same thing. Thats why Mitch Mcconnell is saying confidently that gorsuch will be confirmed and theyre under the hope that somehow they can force a change to a candidate they can like a little bit more. Right now unclear entirely exactly how this is going to end up going down. Great to see you, tom, thank you. President trump today laying down a new threat. Threatening democrats and some republicans who dont get on if they dont get on board with the obama replacement plan. Well, then hes going to come after you in the primary in 2018. Lets talk more about this with democratic congresswoman barbara lee of california. Thanks so much for joining me. My pleasure. The president said friday after the Health Care Bill effort failure that he wanted to work with democrats to get it done. He even said so at the dinner with senates. Today hes now threatening you all. What is your response . Well, thats why, you know, the president really is continuing i think his campaign in terms of just plain old bullying. The president hates dissent. We saw this when he was a businessman. We saw this as a candidate and now we see this as president. Its outrageous. We dont know what he wants to do, but i know what the public wants and that is no repeal of the Affordable Care act because its working and were not going to allow him whatever threats he makes to take away health care from 24 million people. So additionally, speaker ryan says in an interview that hes worried if you dont get oh faux republicans dont get their act together that this may then push the president to work with democrats to fix obamacare. What do you say what do you say to the speaker on that one . Do you think there is any chance that you will work with the president to fix obamacare . Well, what i would say to the president and the speaker is listen to your constituents. Listen to what the public said. They spoke very loud last week. They spoke clearly. No repeal. We do not want them to sabotage or undermine the accordable care act. To the speaker needs to understand that before we go any further, we have to come to agree that they will not repeal the Affordable Care act because the public knows the republicans want to take away their health care. Thats a fact. Congresswoman, i do remember you boycotted President Trumps inauguration. It would not say that you have anything close to a Good Relationship with this president. Do you think there is a chance that you would work with him to change obamacare . Let me just say first of all, i have not heard the president say that he was solid with regard to not repealing the Affordable Care act. I did boycott the inauguration because i could not celebrate the inauguration of a president who denigrated women, who talked about muslims in terms of a muslim ban, who wants to build a wall, who really asked the Africanamerican Community what do you have to loss . Well, we have a heck of a lot to lose. So i could not celebrate, while i respect the power of the office and the office of the presidency, there is no way that im going to celebrate this. I think we see this agenda evolving and minimally on the Affordable Care act, hes got to come forward and say as well as the House Republicans and say we do not want to take away health care from 24 million people. Ill take that as a soft no in your working with the president on health care. You are on the appropriations and budget committee. I want to get your take. If you had to place a wager today, what are the chances that congress is going to be able to avoid a government shut down when funding runs out one month from today . Of course no one wants a government shutdown. And i know democrats are very are working extremely hard to avoid that. Yesterday on the Appropriations Committee secretary price came to the Sub Committee that Funds Health Care and in fact we saw during this hearing the fact that they are trying actually to undermine health care through their budget cuts through what theyre presenting as part of this what we call skinny budget. So in no way do we want a shutdown, but in no way are we going to let them sabotage and undermine the Affordable Care act. Congresswoman barbara lee, thanks for your time. The Senate Intelligence committee is hearing their first hearing on russia meddling. Senator marco rubio got a bit of a surprise. Details on that next. Think of all youll share. Like snoring. Does your bed do that . The dual adjustability of a sleep number bed allows you each to choose the firmness and comfort you want. So every couple can get the best sleep ever. Does your bed do that . Only at a sleep number store, right now save 400 on our most popular mattresses. Ends saturday d committ. Welcome to inside politics im john king. On capitol hill a hearing on russias meddling election and a promise to be bipartisan those democrats to make clear. I will not prejudge the outcome of our investigation. We are seeking to determine if there is an actual fire, but there is clearly a lot of smoke. The fbi wants to answer that collusion question too and the director promises the unvarnished truth. Were not considering whos ox will be gored by this action