Assistant to george w. Bush. Scott, let me start with you, were there echos of the axis of evil speech that president bush spoke about before the war against Saddam Hussein in 2003 . This definitely had shades of that remark and im glad to see that because during the campaign, donald trump ran as something of an isolationist and if you watched todays speech, he took you on a World Tour Of American Priorities and american engagement. If you were expecting donald trump the isolationist you did not get that today. It was a firm and measured speech today, he spoke in clear terms. I was proud to see him call out the programs on petfar and malaria that the United States has invested in. I think he hit all the right notes for his american audience. I think his base will love it. I think a lot of americans agree with his message on reforming the u. N. And some gallup polling conducted earlier this year, only 37 of americans felt the u. N. Was doing a good job and
60 thought it was doing a bad job. His calls for reform at the u. N. I think fall on some welcoming ears in the United States. Brian fallon, im going to play the clip on iran, on the Iran Nuclear Deal, that the president just he spoke very bluntly about that, seeming to suggest theres going to be a new strategy as far as the u. S. Is concerned and as you know by october 15th the u. S. Must certify whether or not iran is in compliance with the Iran Nuclear Deal, which the Obama Administration certainly helped work out. Listen to this. The iran deal was one of the worst and most onesided transaction the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States and i dont think youve heard the last of it. Believe me. It is time for the entire world to join us in demanding that irans government end its
pursuit of death and destruction. All right. Certainly sounds like hes getting ready to walk away from that Iran Nuclear Deal. But what was your reaction . I thought that was one of many examples of how intellectually confused, if not outright incoherent, the speech was. In one breath he was urging the world to come together and collectively confront the threat of north korea and in the next breath he is chiding the world over the last time it came together and did rally as an International Community to stop a nuclear iran. Hes also withdrawn from the paris agreement. Hes gone around criticizing the United Nations as a body. This is a guy who goes around thumbing his nose at International Entities and international attempts to confront global challenges, and so what moral standing does he have to call on the world to act collectively against north korea . If you think about it, he gave a whole tribute In The Beginning of the speech to this idea of sovereignty, Basicallying May an Agnostic Valueless Vision for how nations should independently
decide their selfinterest and let that be the predetermining factor and in the next breath tries to cast the struggle against north korea in moral terms, good versus evil. I thought this was an intellectually confused speech, a strained attempt to square his America First doctrine from the campaign, with the reality of the global challenges that the United States faces. You cant decouple americas Leadership Role in the world from the Democratic Values that we stand for and that have sort of provided the undergirding for the postworld war ii era democratic era around the globe. I think it will prompt a bunch of eye rolling if not literally and metaphorically of other leaders of the allied nations that hes gone around criticizing during the campaign and since. I want to bring Christiane Amanpour in this conversation as well. You had a chance to sit down and interview the president of france, emmanuel macron. I wonder if you were watching the speech with him and got his reaction . You know, im sitting here at the French Mission to the United Nations. It is incredible that as i was speaking and wrapping up that interview and had already spoken and really sort of plumed the deaths of mr. Mack cons view on the iran deal we heard what President Trump said and i put it directly to president mack con, that this was the worst deal in history, an embarrassment and well see what will happen. Mr. Macron was very polite and very considered. But very clear in that he believes and so do all the other International Signatories to the Iran Nuclear Deal, that this is the best deal that can be accomplished right now. And getting rid of it, particularly in the context of the fact that north korea is actually now a Nuclear Power with the very imminent possibility of having Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles with Nuclear Warheads that could reach american territory and certainly many parts of the world, he said it is not time to ditch the Iran Nuclear Deal and he is going to try to convince President Trump when he sees him again, hes
already talked to him as he did last night, when he sees him again around the u. N. Right now and in the next couple days, not to ditch this deal because it is the best that they have right now. He agrees with President Trump on other issues regarding iran, that there must be more and better monitoring and bringing into line irans Ballistic Missile program, that there must be a concerted effort to stop or to put the brakes on irans what they call negative malign influence in the region whether its in syria or whether its in iraq or yemen whether its in that part of the world. On many things they agree but not on ditching this deal because he said it would make it worse. When i asked him about north korea and you heard what President Trump said about north korea, calling kim jongun rocket man, saying that he was on a suicide mission, he again said, we all condemn what kim jongun is doing. But a Military Solution is not the solution. He said just look at the map. There would be tens of thousands, hundreds of
thousands, if not millions of casualties should some kind of war break out in the ejohn and elsewhere. Region and elsewhere. Macron wants to try to work with President Trump and the rest of the World Leaders here to enforce the sanctions, to be as tough as possible on north korea, but this must be a diplomatic and economic pressure, he said, and not a Military Solution, not at all. Christian is going to have more on her interview with president macron coming up later on his program on cnn international. Christian, stand by. Jeff zeleny, youre over at the United Nations. The speech, i sense and you may have a better appreciation of this than i did, got sort of polite applause from the international delegations, but certainly not enthusiastic applause. Wolf, certainly that is true. Polite applause in a couple areas, but not much applause throughout the course of the 41minute speech. Perhaps not surprisingly, its
difficult to align that parts of the world are going to hell. This was a very somber speech if you will, and i remember thinking back to the first appearance that president obama made here in 2009, as president , of course a far different reception. Of course he had a booming enthusiastic applause. The world views these two leaders differently, no question, but as we sort of process and tick through other elements of the speech, i do think one headline as well is refugees. He talked about that and said the cost of resettling one refugee in the u. S. We can assist more than ten in their home region. Again that is his view. The nationalist view of the trump side of the white house there, really speaking out against what many in his base, many evangelical support refugee resettlement. That is another issue we would be talking about a lot more if not for north korea and iran. On iran we are expecting this administration to reveal
something about their strategy in october. They have to, of course. They have one more deadline. Wolf, i think its important to put in perspective. We heard candidate trump talk again and again about ripping up the iran nuclear agreement. He has found that its much more difficult in office as he suggested on the campaign trail, so despite his tough rhetoric here and, indeed, there was tough rhetoric he suggested now might be the time to pull out of what he called a onesided agreement. We still have to wait and see if he actually goes through with that and does that, wolf. Yeah. He also really went after iran for supporting what he called Radical Islamic Terror organizations. He specifically cited isis, al qaeda, hezbollah, the taliban, among others. Theres a lot more to unpack, a lot more to assess. Were going to take a quick break. Kate bolduan is standing by and shes going to resume our special coverage right after this. When i look
in the mirror everyday. When i look in the mirror everyday. Everyday, i think how fortunate i am. I think is today going to be the day, that we find a cure . I think how much i can do to help change peoples lives. I may not benefit from those breakthroughs, but im sure going to. Im bringing forward a treatment for alzheimers disease, yes, in my lifetime, i will make sure. For tech advice. Dell Small Business advisor with one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. Hes on his way to work in alaska. This is john. Hes on his way to work in new mexico. Willie and john both work for us,
a business that employs over 90,000 people in the u. S. Alone. We are the cocacola company, and we make much more than our name suggests. Were an organic tea company. A premium juice company. Weve got drinks for long days. For birthdays. For turning over new leaves. And all of our products rely on the same thing we all do. Clean water. Which is why we have john leading our efforts to replenish every drop of water we use. We believe our business thrives when our communities thrive. Which is just one of the reasons we help make college a reality for thousands of students. Today, Companies Need to do more. So john and willie are trying to do just that. Thank you for listening. Were listening too. Sfx tmobile mnemonic sfx tmobile mnemonic sfx tmobile mnemonic tmobiles unlimited now includes netflix on us. Thats right, netflix on us. Get four unlimited lines for just forty bucks each. Taxes and fees included. And now, netflix included. So go ahead, binge on us. Another reason why tmobile is americas best unlimited network. Sfx tmobile mnemonic have you any wool . Eep, no sir, no sir, some nincompoop stole all my wool sweaters, smart tv and gaming system. Luckily, the Geico Insurance agency recently helped baa baa with renters insurance. Everything stolen was replaced. And the hooligan who lives down the lane was caught selling the stolen goods online. Visit geico. Com and see how easy it is to switch
and save on renters insurance. Hello, everyone. Im kate bolduan. We are following Breaking News on the monster Storm Barreling through the caribbean and headed right for puerto rico. Hurricane maria. The storm that has already delivered a direct hit on the Island Of Dominica as a category 5. Now a brand new update has been put out by the National Hurricane center and what it means for u. S. Territories. Cnn meteorologist chad myers with the new forecast. What are we seeing right now . The Hurricane Center just put out the 11 00 advisory, just minutes ago, and we are still at 160 Miles Per Hour and the storm is still moving towards st. Croix and puerto rico. The u. S. Virgin islands and the British Virgin islands still in the cone, so is puerto rico. The entire country, the entire territory, absolutely under the control of this category 4,
maybe category 5 storm. Heres puerto rico. 3. 5 million americans live here. Here it comes right along the shore. Making landfall if the center of the cone is correct because the cone is getting smaller now, near palmos delmar. The area that will see the hardest wind damage, across the area as well, there is a National Forest there. It is a rain forest. That will be damaged, but certainly not going to hit the populated area, lets say, if san juan was on the southeast coast. San juan is on the north coast. San juan is still going to have wind of 130 to 140 Miles Per Hour. There will be weeks without power and may be weeks without water. This area, this territory, is certainly very much in danger of a lifethreatening storm surge, a storm wind, and, of course, flooding with it. 15 inches of rainfall possible across parts of puerto rico will make mudslides and really more Flash Flooding because it is a very wellforested area. So this island is so forested
were not going to see the potential mudslides like we see in haiti where the deforestation has taken over so many of the land areas that mud comes down rather than water coming down. There is the storm right now. 160 Miles Per Hour. We still have gusts to around 190. Hurricane hunters are in the plane, are in the storm right now in their plane and they just found a 188mileperhour wind gust about 700 feet off the ground. Not the surface but 800 feet, 700 feet and that certainly some spots in the caribbean are well above that. There are spots in the d. R. That are, you know, 12,000, 10,000 feet high. The higher you go in a hurricane, Mort The Wind is, and there are plenty of spots there that are higher than sea level. Kate . When it comes to places like puerto rico, i mean, you know, of course everyone is looking back in their hurricane history, but its been Something Like more than over 80 years since a cat 4 or cat 5 has hit puerto rico. We dont know what could happen. No. 1932 was the last cat 4, 1928 the last cat 5. So much has happened from where there were 1. 4 Million People, now above 3. 5 Million People. The infrastructure and wires put up, the homes built, People Living along the shore, a beautiful coast, why would you not want to live along the coast, thats the issue were having now, where do we put these people, how do they get out of the way, but so many of these coastal homes and communities are not safe at this point. If youre talking about a ten foot storm surge, it is very, very important before nightfall to get into a safe place. No way to move tomorrow morning. Category 5 is the latest update from the National Hurricane center. Chad myers is tracking all of it minute by minute. Thank you so much. With puerto ricos 3. 5 Million People now in the cross hairs of Hurricane Maria the governor declared a State Of Emergency but is worried people arent listening to the warnings. Listen here. Complacency worries me the
most. Some people might think might not really understand the magnitude of this hurricane or might think that it wont hit us as hard and all indications are that this is going to be devastating and catastrophic. This is going to be a very dangerous time and we want to make sure right now is recognize that infrastructure is going to be broken, but we need to focus on saving lives. Absolutely right. Lets go there right now as maria is heading that direction. Nick valencia is in san juan with much more. What are you hearing from folks there . Frantic lastminute preps are under way as people prepare for the worst of the storm to come. Theres a lot of anxiety here, kate, among the residents, emotionally theyve been through so much. You see some of the sandbags at the hotel here has put up. Check out how dark the clouds are now starting to get out there. It was about two hours ago we saw a Rain Wall Form out there in the ocean. Things have been slowly increasing, though. That wind has been sustained. Ill show you around the hotel
where were at. Weve been kicked off the beach because people are preparing for the worst. The governor giving a dire lastminute warning saying its time to act right now. If you can get out, if you can evacuate, the time to act is now. The lastminute flights are under way. Airports here close at 6 00 p. M. And 7 00 p. M. Respectively so if you can afford it there is still time to catch lastminute flights. I mentioned the anxiety among residents. You have a territory here that still people here have no power. Its still noticeably damaged. You see roofs that are still damaged. You see people that are still struggling with the cleanup efforts. Here we are about a week later after Hurricane Irma came through here and didnt give a direct hit to this Island Territory and now residents in this Island Territory are staring down at something that is expected to be much, much worse. Kate . Yeah. It must be exhausting the warnings coming out. No direct hit the last time, but this one is much more serious it
seems for puerto rico. Nick there is. Thank you so much for following this throughout the day. We have a cnn exclusive we will bring in a moment. Cnn has learned that u. S. Government wiretapped President Trumps former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. This is before and after the 2016 election. What does this mean for the russia investigation, what does this mean for Paul Manafort and what does this mean for the president . That exclusive is ahead. Plus, a hail mary of all hail marys we will call it when it comes to health care with the lastditch effort, will the lastditch effort to overhaul uber get through or will it hit the very same wall all of the other past efforts have . Where are the votes right now. Thats coming up. You do all this research
call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. You dont let anything lkeep you sidelined. Come on thats why you drink ensure. With 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals. For the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. Ensure, always be you. At holiday inn express, we cant guarantee that youll be able to contain yourself at our breakfast bar. Morning, egg white omelet. Sup lady bacon fruit, there it is but we can guarantee that youll get the best price when you book with us. Holiday inn express. Be the readiest. Hes on his way to work in alaska. This is john. Hes on his way to work in new mexico. Willie and john both work for us, a business that employs over 90,000 people in the u. S. Alone. We are the cocacola company, and we make much more than our name suggests. Were an organic tea company. A premium juice company. Weve got drinks for long days. For birthdays. For turning over new leaves. And all of our products rely on the same thing we all do. Clean water. Which is why we have john leading our efforts to replenish every drop of water we use. We believe our business thrives when our communities thrive. Which is just one of the reasons we help make college a reality for thousands of students. Today, Companies Need to do more. So john and willie are trying to do just that. Thank you for listening. Were listening too. Allergytry new xyzal®. Ou have symptoms like these for relief is as effective at hour 24 as hour one. So be wise all take new xyzal®. Now a cnn exclusive the u. S. Government wiretapped the former trump Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. Sources are telling cnn. That surveillance according to sources took place before and after the election, as manafort
emerged as a central figure in the russian medal election meddling investigation. To shimon and evan perez and pamela brown. Lay it out for us. What have you learned . Sources tell us, kate, that the fbi got permission from the Surveillance Court to monitor Paul Manafort before and after the election. This is an extraordinary step for the fbi to do such surveillance of a Highranking Campaign official and, of course, manafort is now at the center of the russian meddling probe. Were told there are intercepted communications that raise concerns about whether manafort was encouraging russians to help the campaign. Other sources have told us that this intelligence was not conclusive. As you know special counsel bob mueller whos looking into this has been provided all these communications. What exactly do we mean by encouraging . Were told that fbi has communications, right, that these are talks between suspected russian operatives,
relaying what they claimed were discussions with manafort, as well as communications involving manafort himself. None of this has amounted to what people consider a smoking gun in this investigation. Theres still more work being done to determine whether theres a criminal violation here. Manafort has previously denied he ever knowingly communicated with russian intelligence during the election, and hes also denied helping russiaens undermine u. S. Interests. From your reporting we know he was under surveillance and then a period he was not and then under surveillance. Do we know whether or not President Trump spoke to manafort while he was under surveillance . What weve been told by sources the time period under which manafort was under surveillance were still talking early this year well after the campaign, and weve learned from sources that manafort was talking to the president , that he and the president were communicating during that time. So it is possible that those
conversations were collected. The New York Times, shimon, flushes out some other details on the search and kind of what is followed. Tell us about that. Yeah. The New York Times yesterday afternoon in its report said gave some interesting details about how the raid, the search took place inside manaforts home in virginia, which happened over the summer. You know, they describe how fbi agents who entered the home, picked the lock, in some raids sometimes they bust through the door, in this situation they picked the lock, they went through the house, manafort was sleeping, he was woken up, they searched him, and then they searched his home. They took photos of various suits, expensive suits is what the times says, they then took some materials in binder and copied some information on his computer, and most interestingly, probably, is that, you know, the times says that bob muellers team, the
special counsels team, told him that he should be expected he should expect an indictment. All right. Sh shimon a lot in there, thank you so much. So joining me now, Jeffrey Toobin is here, the former federal prosecutor and cnn senior legal analyst. So jeffrey, its not every day, i think its important to point out with all the details we have here, not every day that the former Campaign Chairman of a president is under federal surveillance and federal investigation. Its the only one i can think of was John Mitchell who was president nixons Campaign Manager who ultimately went to prison in watergate. So he was he was being wiretapped. He was being listened to. He was under surveillance for a period of time that was before and after the election. How serious is this . Its really serious and its worth remembering, the fbi cant just wiretap anyone they want. They have to go to a judge and they have to present evidence that this person is a there
is probable cause to believe that this person is involved somehow in counter intelligence, in aiding Foreign Intelligence Services. That doesnt prove that they are, but it certainly suggests that the fbi had more than a hunch and they did it twice. So on two occasions they had enough evidence to persuade a judge to approve this kind of wiretap. As you heard, i was asking shimon about some of the reporting, some of the intelligence suggested that it appeared that manafort was encouraging russians to get involved, but its unclear exactly what that means. What is the universal possibility when you hear that . Its very hard to delineate the entire universe of possibilities but remember, we do know that all the Intelligence Agencies agree that russia tried to help Hillary Clinton lose this election and donald trump win this election. Whether it was efforts on facebook, whether it was wikileaks. The question at the heart of
this investigation is, did anyone affiliated with the Trump Campaign encourage russia, participate with russia, in those efforts to help trump . That presumably is at the heart of what mueller is looking at. One of the many things that he is looking at at this very moment. Stick with me. Were going to bring in to join the conversation a cnn legal analyst who conducted classified investigations of suspected foreign agents to the point that jeffrey was getting at, ash shah, to Wiretap Manafort investigators had to get a fisa warrant of course. What did they need to do, what did they need to show, what exactly did they need to say in order to convince a judge to go along . Yeah. So i got fisa warrants when i was in the fbi and i can assure you its very difficult. You just dont walk into a court and order a fisa. Its not a starbucks. So you have to actually have conducted an investigation for
usually a period of many months, where youre getting whether its intelligence from our agencies, maybe youre digging through their trash or conducting physical surveillance, youre gathering a lot of information in order to show a court that theres probable cause to believe that as jeffrey said, this person is knowingly acting on behalf of a foreign power and engaging in clandestine intelligence activity. So they are they are looking like they are spying on behalf of this foreign government. And what your intent is, what youre trying to convince the court is, that if you commence this electronic surveillance, again you are already using other techniques, we need to use the other technique because we believe that in these communications, were going to get more foreign intelligence about what this Foreign Intelligence Service is up to and how this person may be participating in it and potentially other people who are involved. Because, you know, Intelligence Agencies are human source based
services, just like our cia. Theyre recruiting people on the ground. You want to know who theyre working with. Also, human who are doing these investigations. I bring that up because youre back in your old post you were not blind to the world going on around you. Would there be an extra level of scrutiny that would be offered or demanded for a fisa warrant for someone who is so closely linked to the President Elect or the president of the United States . Absolutely. So in the fisa statute itself first of all, there is a broad provision that people, especially u. S. Persons, Cannot Be Surveilled based on solely First Amendment activity and political activity is given some of the biggest protection under our First Amendment. This is going to be something that is going to be looked at generally, anything associated with a political campaign, very carefully. Then on top of that, you have an
active, ongoing election. Now look, the fbi has a very checkered past okay in the 70s they were doing some incredibly sketchy stuff involving political figures. They dont want to touch this with a Ten Foot Pole if theres any doubt, especially when it goes to a court. There has to be that additional level. Then they get to a court and the judge looking at this, now this judge has no skin in the game, this is an article 3 federal judge with life tenure whos going to be looking at this, that judge will give it an extra level of scrutiny of to make sure that, you know, this is the check on the Executive Branch on the fbi to say i want to make sure youre not up to something, you know, that youre not supposed to be doing. So i think at every level, particularly given the target, particularly given that, you know, there was an election that was under way, careful scrutiny. Jeffrey, of course when you hear the word wiretap if you follow the news or the election or the president at all you know where everyones mind goes, to the tweet that he put out in march that created such a problem for him and created so
much confusion. Does anything in this that you see coming out in this report, does anything that weve learned now overnight and today, does anything contradict what the fbi and the Justice Department put out in their statements in response to the president s tweets, essentially saying they have no information that supports those tweets . Right. The most important tweet that youre talking about is the one where he said, president obama had my wires tapped in trump tower. There is nothing in this report that suggests president obama had his wires tapped in trump tower. The only possibility it seems is that trumps voice was picked up on a wiretap of Paul Manaforts phone, somewhere, whether in trump tower thats something we dont know, right. On his cell phones or most taps are on cell phones, not land lines. So no, it is it does not vindicate this trump, this
tweet by trump, earlier this year, and it is worth pointing out that then director comey, the Department Of Justice more recently, have all said there was no the Department Of Justice under Jeff Sessions says they do not. I think the statement was we confirm that there are no records related to wiretaps as described by the march 4th, 2017, tweets. Which seems pretty categorical to me. Give me your final thoughts. Well, i think that there are tapes and so to the extent that there are associates of the Trump Campaign who have been captured in some of these communications we know that they are going in to some of these committees to talk and those committees those statements that they made can be prosecuted if theyre false and they may be called to testify in front of a grand jury or become targets of muellers investigation. So i think this changes the game a little bit in terms of both
putting pressure on people who may have something to add and definitely on manafort. Absolutely. Because, you know and i think that he probably has way more information to give and the criminal angle that mueller is pursuing is i think intended to pressure him into providing more information on the intelligence front. Yeah. All right. Asha, jeffrey, great to have you. Thanks very much. A lot more to come in this for sure. Coming up for us a new health care push, but will republicans face the very same problem how the gops lastditch effort to overhaul obamacare could come down to, say it with me now, just one republican senator vote against. Well be right back. Tmobile mnemonic sfx sfx tmobile mnemonic tmobiles unlimited now includes netflix on us. Thats right, netflix on us. Get four unlimited lines for just forty bucks each. Taxes and fees included. And now, netflix included. So go ahead, binge on us. Another reason why tmobile is americas best unlimited network. Sfx tmobile mnemonic parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what . You could apply for a Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan whenever you want. No enrollment window. No waiting to apply. That means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Medicare doesnt cover everything. And like all standardized Medicare SupplementInsurance Plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay. So dont wait. Call now to request your free decision guide. It could help you find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan that works for you. These types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Rates are competitive, and theyre the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. Remember these plans let you apply all year round. So call today. Because nows the perfect time to learn more. Go long. Tech when you schedule with safelite autoglass, you get a text when were on our way. You can see exactly when well arrive. Im micah with safelite. Customer thanks for coming, its right over here. Tech giving you a few more minutes for what matters most. Take care. Kids singing safelite® repair, safelite® replace. [l vwho can turn the Worldan Jeton with her smile . S who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile . Well its you girl, and you should know it. With each glance and every Little Movement you show it. Youre gonna make it after all. It takes a long time to get to the top. Youre gonna make it after all. But with americas best youre gonna make it after all. Bumpertobumper limited youre gonna make it after all. Warranty, the allnew Volkswagen Tiguan will be there every step ow of the way. At the top of the hour, Senate Republicans will be meeting Behind Closed Doors for their weekly lunch. The lunch not a surprise. I dont know the menu. I cant tell you. The topic is a lastditch effort to pass an overhaul of obamacare called the Graham Cassidy bill, graham and cassidy came on this show to unveil their plans here just over the summer. But since then, the effort didnt really go anywhere or did it . Speaker paul ryan is calling it the best last chance for republicans to fulfill their sevenyear Campaign Promise to repeal obamacare. But the clock, it always is on capitol hill, is ticking on this one in a big way. Cnns brian nobles is on capitol hill watching all the movement here. Ryan, what are you hearing right now . Are the votes there . Kate, if this seems like a report we did for you about a
month ago, thats because its exactly the case. In fact, you could probably you find one of those and hit play and we would be in the same spot. Were in a razor thin margin so fun for you to do it again. Exactly. Were essentially at a razor thin margin here of republicans trying to push through another Health Care Reform bill. This one slightly different than the one that they presented about two months ago, but again, essentially its the same group of players that were keeping an eye on. Right now, our whip count is pretty fluid. A whole bunch of senators who remain in the undecided camp. Only one senator, senator rand paul of kentucky, is an outright no, but the other senators that voted no in the past, senator john mccain, senator Susan Collins, they are definitely in the leaning no camp right now trying to be won over by the supporters of this bill, Lindsey Graham and bill cassidy. Others like Lisa Murkowski of alaska is cautious in her approach, wants to see the bill play out before making a definitive decision. The big difference here is we may not get a full score from the Congressional Budget Office for several weeks, until after the September 30th Deadline which is crucial to the passage of this bill which means a lot of sthors will be flying senators will be flying blind as far as the impact of this bill long term but they are trying to convince them they know their numbers are strong, this is a viable alternative, it will be better for their individual states because of the flexibility this is going to allow states in terms of block grants and they believe that they can evenly push this over the finish line. Like it was two months ago, it is going to be very close. It is going to be very close and its going to be very close because not only the timeline but what is in the bill. It is similar, but it is not the same from the bills that have been proposed and pushed and failed in the past. Lay it out. Whats in this bill and whats different this time and very much the same . Lets talk about whats the same and one of the reasons they will have hard time pushing it through because it is pretty much a wholesale repeal of obamacare. It will get rid of things like the individual mandate which is a core tenant of obamacare. Its going to keep in place some of the tax credits that made obamacare what it is. Now what it does do, which is slightly different, is takes the bulk of this funding and wraps it up into individualized block grants issued to the states and that will give the governors some level of control as to how they will issue their medicare payments. Now the reason theyre making this pitch to these individual governors because they feel that theres a Funding Imbalance right now in terms of medicare, especially through obamacare, where theres a small group of states, highly populated states, that are getting the bulk of the funding. The pitch theyre making to a senator like dean heller who is, of course was on the fence and a no vote at one point that nevada would do better under this plan and the thought being
if you put it in the hands of the governors they will be able to make easier decisions for their individual citizens. Of course, the problem is, kate, there are still medicare cuts in this bill. Thats one of the reasons that Susan Collins of maine has been reluctant to get behind in and democrats still feel these core tenants of the bill that rip away the things that they feel were important in obamacare are now gone and thats one of the reasons that if this is going to get done, its going to be done with all republican support. Keep in mind, kate, even if we get it through the senate, even if it passes through the senate of 50 votes, it then has to go to the house and will likely not be able to be changed so the members of the house will have to vote on it as is if they want to pass it and right now we have no idea what rank and file members of the house feel about this bill as it currently stands. We have no idea on a whole lot of front os fronts and not a lot of time. Thank you so much. All right. Lets talk about it. Joining me cnn commentators and analysts former republican senator and president ial candidate Rick Santorum here, doug high the former deputy chief of staff, ryan fowler a former spokesman for Hillary Clintons campaign and Kirsten Powers is here. Senator, i must start with you because you were very much involved in the conception of this Health Care Plan. No matter how great the policy is, in your mind, there is a very important thing that is missing as ryan pointed out. The official score from the official score keeper of legislation, the cbo. Why are you okay with them moving ahead with a vote without knowing the full impact. First off, cbo has communicated to the republican sponsors of the bill they will have a score in time for there to be a score before the final vote. So i think were pretty confident that will be the case. Lets just be honest, theres really two chunks to this bill. One as mentioned before, is the
per capita cap on medicaid scored by cbo and there really arent any substantive changes to it and that score is known and out there and been there for months. The other part is a block grant that takes the money from all the obamacare taxes, the only taxes that are repealed under this are the taxes on employers and individuals because of the individual and employee employer mandate and the medical device tax. Its about 250 billion in taxes. Its not small, but its all related to the employer and employee mandate. The rest is block grants to the state. Lets be honest, how difficult it is to score a block grant that says this is the money every state is going to get. So there really isnt a whole lot of question here about how much money this will cost. Its pretty laid out in the bill and thats why were fairly confident cbo will get a score. Kirsten, something similar was said by senator ron johnson,
one of the now sponsors of the bill. He said it this morning for our viewers, listen to this. Cbo takes so long, this is actually pretty simple. Were taking 1. 2 trillion of obamacare funding and were pretty well attaching to the Senate Health care bill which has already been scored and doesnt take a Rocket Scientist to kind of add those two figures up and give us the score we need to actually vote on this, but cbo is cbo and theyre saying they need weeks. I reject that notion and think we can decide based on the information we already have. Do you think thats going to be good enough for skeptical republicans . Well, i think Susan Collins is going to be the main one who has been concerned about the cbo score, right. So i mean were only talking about a few people here basically rand paul, john mccain, susan and Lisa Murkowski. These are people who have been skeptical. Mccain seems to be moving in the direction of the bill because his governor of arizona has endorsed it. You still have, you know, rand
paul seems pretty entrenched and that leaves collins and murkowski and collins has been very clear. The rest of the people dont seem to care that much about the cbo scores because they got bad scores and they seemed okay. I call them bad in the sense that people will lose their health insurance. For republicans thats not the concern. The concern is not about universal coverage. Its about sending it back to the states and letting the states decide what they want to do. What are they going to do with the block grants and what that means in terms of people being covered by health insurance. The voices in my head say you are shaking your head. I cant believe that are republicans are considering going ahead with this. You dont make a sequel to a movie that bombed at the box office. It had a 17 Approval Rating and
this is worse than the original. The cbo said they might be able to examine some of the impacts, but they are unlikely to publish a number of how many people will lose coverage under this new proposal. That is the critical number. This bill is not following regular order. If john mccain is going to be consistent for why he voted against the bill last time, he should be voting no. They are doubling down on cuts to medicate. People like Lisa Murcowski and susan colins and states that expanded medicate populations will see deeper cuts and those states that have done the right thing by accepting federal funds to cover low income populations. I didnt think it was popular to have a bill that was less popular than that over the summer. They are making it here. With all due respect, brian, as
someone who drafted the bill and can tell you the details, you are wrong. Its not rocket science. Can you tell us as you are sitting here today how many peel will lose coverage . Is it 22 million like the bast bill . Brian, other than the money that is taken out because of the employer mandate, all the other money is going out to the states. If the states want to put an employer mandate and the state of california wants to do an employer and individual mandate, they can. What does it mean . California would get a lot of their money back. They dont have to put up a 10 match. You didnt mention that. Our bill doesnt require them to put up a 10 match to get their funds. If you allow me to finish. Secondly, we also allow for 15 and up to 2915 and 20 of the Second Block Grant that was obamacare spending to be used to
help the basic medicaid program. States will have a flexibility if there is a shortfall, they can use money from the other block grant that doesnt require a match. Medicate does require it to be able to help out. They will have flexibility to be able to deal with both of the populations. There is less money, yes. Some states like massachusetts and california and oregon, about five or six straights that are very high cost and expensive medicaid states will get less money under the bill. Almost every other state will do better . They run more efficient programs. What are about louisiana . Louisiana will be fine. Hold on a second. Let me bring in doug on this. One of the things that we heard from senator who is havent been able to say where they land is that they need to learn more. They need to learn more about the bill. They need to know more about the bill. I do wonder, is there some benefit to the fact that the country has not been talking
about this Health Care Plan and been very focused. The news cycle and the elected officials, the white house, everyone has been distracted, if you will, and focused elsewhere, but not on health care. North korea, hurricanes. Is there a benefit that the eyes of the country may not be on this debate to getting this through . I think the eyes of the country have been on the Health Care Debate for seven years now. We have been heard that republicans have been unable to do anything. They are right. I think this is an Elvis Presley moment for republicans right now. It is now or never. We have a September 30th Deadline and we tried to do things in the past and failed. In 2014 when i worked on repeal and replace. Its now or never on a 50 vote. Its not now or never on getting something done. You need to deal with the regular order which is a 60 vote threshold. I dont have high hopes on
anything bipartisan, but we can talk about the hillary 2008 campaign was a terrible movie. We had grown ups and grown ups two. This happens in politics all the time. If you are republicans and have been campaigning on this for seven years, this is the time to act. If you are a republican senator and didnt like the things in this bill and previous renditions and you will be expected to vote for it in this bill, that can be a tough pill to swallow. What do you say to rand paul who said this is obamacare that redistributes the money. I have something momentarily that responds to rand paul in great detail. Give us a preview. The preview is that rand paul said this doesnt repeal obamacare. What doesnt it repeal . They are right. The Medicaid Expansion goes away. We repeal Medicaid Expansion at the end of 2019. The tax credits and the cost Share Reduction Payments to Insurance Companies go away. The mandate to buy insurance goes away. The mandate for employers goes away. All of these things, everything that obamacare is goes away and is repeal and replaced by a system that says we are going to equally apportion money based on 50 to 138 of Pof Effort Tow every state. Californias poor people will get the same amount of money as new hampshire. Thats a fair system and not what obamacare is today. Still are the votes there . No one has the answer to that. Thank you very much. Coming up for us, all eyes on Hurricane Maria after the storm devastated islands already in its path in the hard hit caribbean. Where is maria headed next. It is a category five still. Patrick woke up with back pain