Manafort tried to monetize his relationship with the president. But no one in trump world should be shocked that manafort has landed them in hot water. This was just one headline all the way back in april 2016 when he first joined the Trump Campaign as a strategist. Trump just hired his next scandal. Manaforts ties to russian interests in ukraine were well known, well documented at the time. We didnt learn till yesterday that he may have tried to exploit those ties during the election as Campaign Chair to make a buck. The Washington Post reporting manafort offered private briefings on the campaign to a russian billionaire with kremlin connections. Recall how he responded at the time when asked about Russian Oligarchs. To be clear mr. Trump has no Financial Relationships with any Russian Oligarchs . Thats what he said, thats what i said, thats obviously what our position is. Obviously what our position is. According to the post, one email exchange between manafort and a ukrainian intermediary includes a reference to black caviar what investigators believe is a veiled reference to payments manafort hoped to receive from former clients. In another Exchange Just days after manafort was named to the campaign, he referred to his positive press and growing reputation and asked, how do we use to get whole . Political reports manafort used his Trump Campaign email account to send those messages. Manaforts spokesperson told the post the emails reflected a innocuous effort to collect money he was owed by past clients. Special counsel has been stepping up pressure, compelling testimony from his lawyer and other associates, searching his home, reportedly warning him to expect an indictment. Those are just the activities we know about. Now its not just the president s lawyer. Anonymous former Campaign Officials told the post they privately shared concerns about whether manafort was always putting the candidates interests first. Tuesday Corey Lewandowski who manafort replaced weighed in before an audience at George Washington university. Look, i think if anybody, and ive said this, paul manna port, roger stone, carter paige, or anybody else, attempted to influence the outcome of the u. S. Election, through any means thats inappropriate, through collusion, coordination, or cooperation, i hope they go to jail for the rest of their lives. Asked this morning mike pence who was picked for that job thanks largely to manaforts efforts downplayed the former Campaign Chairmans role. Paul manafort was your Campaign Chairman for both you and mr. Trump. And he was reportedly offering briefings to a top Russian Oligarch who has close ties with Vladimir Putin about what was going on. Was that appropriate . I you know, ive read those accounts in the newspaper. And, you know, Paul Manafort was on the campaign for at the same time i was, for about a month. And so, look, were just going to let this process go forward. Im joined by two journalists who have been following the story very closely, two that i read every day on this story. Natasha bertrand, Political Correspondent for business insider, betsy woodruff, the daily beast. Betsy, the sort of story taking shape, i thought it was so fascinating in the Washington Post article that Anonymous Sources were talking about hope hicks, whos very close to the president , loyal and trusted, was already a little worried about manafort back even when they were doing this. You can see them starting to prepare the story about how manafort was a rogue agent and they didnt know what he was up to. Right. There are clearly plenty of folks close to the president that are delighted to anonymously criticize manafort to reporters. The fact that manafort has taken so much heat at this particular moment is itself interesting. Clearly this criticism is important. Its significant. These stories are important. But behind the scenes, its also key to remember, there are a lot of other folks who also have major legal liabilitieser on the course of the mueller investigation. Particularly Jared Kushner. We dont hear as much about him because folks dont seem to be quite as chatty about his situation visavis the mueller investigation. But based on the conversations that i have been having over and over, what i hear is that the top concern for people in the white house and for the president s outside allies is what mueller is going to learn about jared. Everyone has kind of already assumed that manafort is going to take a significant beating from the mueller team. These new revelations are important. But that said, theyre kind of baked in. The big wild card is what, if anything, does mueller find about the role kushner played on the campaign transition in early days of the presidency, and thats something where silence itself is almost telling. That is a fascinating point. Because kushner obviously is still there, manafort they can try to cordon themselves off from. However, youve been writing about in sort of time line of when you lay out the timeline, i want to walk through it and natasha, maybe talk about what was going on. June 9th is the famous trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer. Manafort was taking notes on his iphone. Almost a month later carter page gives a speech in moscow, he gets a green light from the campaign to do. The same damon that fort is offering the private briefing to a Russian Oligarch. A few days later the crazy intervention by the Trump Campaign to change a platform item in the rnc over armed aid to ukraine, sort of fighting the russians. Then of course the hack happened. So that was a very active period, it seems to me, natasha, that he was on that campaign. Right. And experts that ive been speaking to about this for the better part of a year have always wondered whether or not Paul Manafort himself was kind of a russian plant in the campaign from the very beginning. He was in debt to prorussian interests by as much as 17 million by the time he joined the Trump Campaign. And the first email that he wrote asking his longtime employee, this russian ukrainian operative who has ties to Russian Military intelligence, the first email he wrote to him was asking, how can i use my newfound role in the Trump Campaign to get whole . Which is a very common expression for, how can i clear my debt in the second email that was disclosed yesterday in the Washington Post was an email he sent offering these private briefings to a russian billionaire and close putin ally. What was really interesting about that to me was oleg and manafort had a fallingout in 2014 when oleg accused manafort of stealing, essentially, 19 million from him. So the idea that manafort is now offering to give him private briefings in 2016 about the campaign indicates that oleg was somehow, he had forgiven that debt or he was willing to hear him out in exchange for whatever information that manafort had. I want to be really clear to hang a light on something you said there. Because the manafort story is he was trying to collect debts owed to him. Your point is that the reporting indicates he himself owed lots of money, and that this oligarch had apparently initiated Legal Proceedings in the Cayman Islands that he stole 19 million from him. Its important folks keep the valance of that in their heads. It makes more sense if hes working off a debt rather than trying to collect it. The other thing i wanted to ask about the scope of these document asks that are coming from mueller, youve got manafort, but how worried are the folk in the white house about getting all of these documents together . And what they themselves might learn when they start going through them . One challenge, of course, is that manafort or mueller is asking for a significant number, a significant breadth of documents. It just takes time to find all those documents. And to make sure that youve gotten them all in one place and youve correctly delivered them. So thats a pretty thats something of a different for the white house. Remember, the president s legal team specifically working on this for the white house as a whole is not huge, right . Its just a couple of people compared to at least more than as do that are working on the mueller probe. So my understanding is that theyre hustling. Part of the issue though is its a big ask. And of course the content of those documents is clearly key are remains to i seen whats in them. Without a doubt its something folks have significant anxiety over. Natasha bertrand and betsy woodruff, thank you both. Joyce vance, former u. S. Attorney who retired just before the president took office. Nick ackerman, former watergate prosecutor. Nick, i want to ask about one detail here, how to think about manaforts relationship to this enterprise. So manafort worked for free for the campaign. Which is itself somewhat odd, particularly as he appears to have been his people say he was owed money or had financial straits he was trying to work his way out of. But he also continued to talk to donald trump as an adviser. And i wonder they kept talking to each other even though lawyers had to get them to stop. What kind of message do you think hes getting from the Trump White House as hes thinking about what hes going to do and whether hes going to talk to mueller. We have no idea what kind of message hes going to get. But certainly donald trump doesnt want him talking. I think that they realize that he is a key person in this entire enterprise. If you look at the context again, how did he get to be the Campaign Manager for donald trump . He was brought into the campaign by Donald Trumps own dirty trickster, roger stone. Thats the person who put him in place there. Roger stone has admitted having conversations with the russian hacker as well as with Julian Assange who wound up publishing all these emails that were stolen from the democratic headquarters. Youve got him dealing with people in that june 9th meeting. He knows what Jared Kushner knows. He knows what donald jr. Knows. Hes about as important as flynn is in terms of the kind of information that they could use against not only the president , but his entire family, including don jr. , kushner, ivanka. So he is somebody that they really want to keep on a short leash and keep in the ballpark if they can. Joyce, theres some more reporting tonight, id love you to walk us through this from a legal perspective if you can. About the nature of the surveillance Paul Manafort was under. We learned there was a fisa warrant, two fisa warrants, it lapsed, there was a new one. Today we got more information. I want to read this from the wall street journal and get your reaction to this information. The u. S. Monitored manafort after he left the Trump Campaign, the surveillance did not involve listening to phone communications in real tyke but investigators still could have conducted clandestine surveillance of mr. Manafort, possibly by obtaining copies of his emails and other electronically stored communications or having agents follow him or conduct physical searches of his property. Whats that what do you think that says . So we know that manafort at different points in time had been subjected to surveillance, both under a fisa warrant as youve indicated, part of a National Securitytype process for investigating people who are suspected of being foreign agents and having ties to Foreign Governments. We also know, though that manafort was under criminal investigation, at least by mueller. That there was a search warrant obtained using an article 3 judge, a federal trial judge, who authorized that process. This reporting sounds a lot more like what you would expect to see if there was fisa coverage of mr. Manafort. It sounds like they were perhaps obtaining stored electronic communications. And that wine date that there were ongoing concerns that he was playing a role involving a Foreign Government that was adverse to the interests of the United States. And thats even i mean, whats sort of remarkable here, this is after the election, right . So the and i want to ask you as someone who worked for the Justice Department, and that is an institution thats always fascinating to me. Just what is your sense i mean, can you imagine the conversations that were had and the application that was put together when people inside the Justice Department are considering a fisa warrant on a man whos advising the person who is now the incoming president of the United States. So no fisa applications are routine. But in a typical fisa case, theres still a very intense level of scrutiny of these papers. They take, you know, weeks, not days, to compile absent an emergency situation. Prosecutors and the u. S. Attorneys office work with their counterparts in the National Security division in washington, d. C. The fbi engages in highlevel conversations. The whole goal here is never to take an application to a judge on the fisa court that they reject. The Justice Department works really hard to ensure the integrity of these proceedings. Really, i dont think you can overstate the scrutiny that would have occurred for a files sa request of this nature. It would have certainly gone to the highest levels at both the Justice Department and the fbi. Nick, given your experience in watergate, does it surprise you at all or is it what you would expect to hear from manaforts spokesperson that theyre alleging this was essentially a political witch hunt . They say its essentially a political witch hunt. Manafort himself made a statement about the fact that there had been a public listy over these fisa warrants. But interestingly enough what he didnt say and what he didnt deny was that he was told by muellers team that he is a target of the Justice Departments investigation. That means, under the Justice Department rules, that they have enough evidence to indict him, such that he is a putative defendant. Right now, as best i can tell on all these public announcements and even the little bits of pieces that we get here and there, what theyre doing now is buttoning down their case. Theyre making sure that the case is solid. And theyre making sure that it will be easy to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt. Joyce vance and nick ackerman, thanks for your time tonight. Coming up, an update on the private jet travel of President Trumps. Hs secretary. The tab for tom prices private planes is ten times larger than we first knew. That story ahead. Next, why sean spicer is getting very testy about what secrets may lie in the many notes he took in the white house. After this twominute break. Who knew that phones would start doing everything . Entertaining us, getting us back on track, and finding us dates. Phones really have changed. So why hasnt the way we pay for them . Introducing xfinity mobile. You only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit or go to xfinitymobile. Com. This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe. These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong. That was former White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer back in january. Remember that . Claiming that Donald Trumps inauguration had the largest audience ever. Which, as was very evident, painfully, crushingly evident from the photos that anyone could see, was clearly not true. But in an interview that aired today, spicer told abc news he never knowingly told a lie. Have you ever lied to the American People . I dont think so. You dont think so . Nope. I dont cheat on my taxes. Unequivocally you can say no . Look, again, you want to find i have not knowingly done anything to do that, no. What sean spicer did knowingly do, according to axios, is take extensive notes, reportedly filling notebook after notebook in meetings with both donald trump before and after the 2016 election, and these notebooks could be of interest to special counsel mueller who according to the Washington Post has alerted the white house his team will probably seek to interview the former press secretary. There seems to be some consternation about the existence of these notes. And that they are distinct among the folks that worked in that white house. Right, sean spicer was present at almost every meeting for the first six, seven months of the administration. And was known to take copious notes. And, you know, bob mueller, special counsel, has already made it clear that he wants to interview mr. Spicer and he wants all documentary evident of 13 or so disparate places. In many of those places sean spicer was there and likely had notes or was privy to the conversations of the meetings. So its kind of understood that all of his notes, all of his emails, all the things would be of interest to the special counsel. Whats your reaction to him saying he never knowingly lied . Oh, i dont know. I think all press secretaries have a very difficult job. I think sean said some things that clearly were not true or did not square with what the Public Record eventually showed. I think its hard to know if someone knowingly lied or not. I cant speak to his soul. I do know there were a number of statements that mr. Spicer made that did not prove to be true. Theres the sort of Bizarre Exchange with mike allen that he had. So allen is texting spicer for comment on his notetaking practices. He replied, mike, please stop texting emailing me unsolicited anymore. When mike followed up, from a legal standpoint, i want to be clear, do not email me or text me again, should you do again i will report to the appropriate authorities. Does that sound like the person that you interacted with . Sean could be combative at times. Sean is in a lot of ways mercurial. Ive had sean be very pleasant. He often actually was more pleasant than the cameras showed. But at times he could be very 18. I mean volcanic and angry. And that note was not entirely surprising to me. Its interesting because mike and sean have known each other for more than a decade as mike pointed out today. And i think it would maybe, you know took him very much by surprise to get a note like that back, when he simply asked for comment on a question. But ive certainly had sean and i think other reporters in town have too, get really frustrated on a story or a line of inquiry. All right, josh tossy, thanks for making time. Why over 3 million americans could be without power for months in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Later could senator cassidy and fellow republicans have ulterior motives pushing their wildly Unpopular Health care. He proposed a bill to allow all the states he said he would not let them do. Which means he either doesnt understand his own bill or he lied to me, its as simple as that. The horrific aftermath of a devastating earthquake in mexico unfolded today as search and rescue efforts continued, including at a collapsed school in the capital where 19 children, six adults, had already been confirmed dead. But with 11 other children rescued and being treated in local hospitals. Hours of reporting centered on another child supposedly still in that rubble. Later today mexican officials said all children had been accounted for at that collapsed school. But they were still picking up signs of life. So the search continued. Then theres the disaster, were getting our first look today in puerto rico. Hurricane marias impact is expected to leave the islands over 3 million u. S. Citizens without power for months. Well explain why that is, and its a crucial story, next. Today puerto rico faces a long, slow recovery after Hurricane Maria. People are returning to homes without power and officials are saying it could be months before power is returned. Nbc news Gadi Schwartz is there. Reporter dog days in puerto rico expected to last months after Hurricane Maria ripped apart the islands entire power grid. Nearly all its 3. 5 million residents without electricity tonight. Cell phone service so unreliable that people like angelica havent heard from their family. Oh, were desperate. I have lived here 35 years. And this is too much to handle. Reporter shes desperate for any news of her mother. I havent talked to my mom either. Im trying to go to my moms house. Its its its hard. Reporter the streets are littered with downed power lines. The storm cracking concrete in half. Damaging an infrastructure that was already crumbling. Officials say help is on the way but full recovery could take half a year. Which is going to be worse, the storm or work after the storm . Aiv the storm. Reporter terrifying for those standing in line for hours to get gas to power their generator. Shes scared of what the next six months are going to bring, shes a single mother, shes got to take care of her daughter and she doesnt know whats going to happen. Reporter families across the island trying to prepare for the humid darkness of life off the grid. Gadi schwartz reporting. Puerto rico faces a particularly brutal challenge. Even before Hurricane Maria hit as a powerful category 4 storm, puerto ricos Power Company was bankrupt. 9 billion in debt. The territory has been in the throes of extended financial crisis. Now it will almost certainly need lots of resources and aid from an American Congress where it has no voting members. For more on why this crisis is magnitude by troubles that predated the storm, im joined by Jillian White whos reported extensively at puerto ricos financial crisis, Senior Editor at the atlantic. Tell me the Financial Condition of puerto rico before the storm hit. If you remember around this time the conversation we were having was about promessa. That was an attempt to have the government on the mainland deal with the massive fiscal crisis that puerto rico was facing, about 70 billion of debt they cannot repay. Because puerto rico is a territory, they do not have the right to file bankruptcy the way a place like detroit might. So they were kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place where you have all these debtors who want their money back on their investments, and a commonwealth that had absolutely no way to repay them. Among those, among some of the utilities that were stuck between a rock and a hard place, were as you said preppa, their electric utility. So the electric utility, youve got a situation essentially theres in this unelected board that is sort of overseeing an austerity regime where they make decisions about where the money flows. And now youre just going to need a lot more money and its going to i cant imagine them saying bondholders have to get paid off rather than the lights coming back on in san juan. Am i wrong that thats the choice thats going to be before them . So the choice is one that truly i dont think weve seen before. So you have bondholders who still want their money. Preppa filed for bankruptcy. That negotiation didnt go particularly well. But now you are starting at this space where the electric grid and even kind of the nonfunctioning utility that they had is now essentially gone. As was mentioned in the clip before, the electric grid there has been wiped out. There is no power. There isnt just a case of trying to rebuild slowly. Its a case having to completely build everything from scratch. It seems inevitable to me that there is going to have to be significant federal aid from the United States congress appropriated to aid puerto rico. I mean, weve seen it with harvey, well see it with irma. Is that your anticipation as well . And what do you think the politics of that will be like . Yeah, absolutely. So as of Late Wednesday night, early thursday morning, President Trump had signed an executive order saying that all of puerto rico was an emergency disaster zone. Which means that fema can give aid. As you mentioned, there are already two other big storms before maria, so fema is stretched pretty thin. When it comes to disaster relief, a lot of people think that you see the devastation on television and its a foregone conclusion that congress will pony up as much money as they can to get things done. But even when it came to the big relief package for harvey, there were still House Republicans who dissented, who didnt want to give, or didnt want to give as much. Its still a political calculation. When you think about the fact that there was so much strife when it came to passing and figuring out how to help puerto rico in the first place, their debt struggles have been very, very longterm and it took a long time to push that through. Its unclear how much aid theyll actually get, especially given that what theyll need to do is so much more vast than what needs to happen in texas or florida. They dont have any home state senators that can push it at all. Jillian white, thanks for your time tonight. Thanks for having me. Why are republicans so eager to pass a Health Care Bill that would hurt their own constituents . The dark money at work behind the scenes coming up. Hey girlfriend, hows your cafe au lait . Oh, its actually. Sfx short balloon squeal its ver. Sfx balloon squeals ok can we. Sfx balloon squeals im being so serious right now. I really want to know how your coffee is. Its. Sfx balloon squeals hahahaha, i had a 2nd balloon goodbye oof, that milk in your coffee was messing with you, wasnt it . Yeah. Happens to more people than you think. Try lactaid, its real milk, without that annoying lactose. Mmm. Good right . Yeah. Lactaid. Its the milk that doesnt mess with you. Thing 1 tonight. We brought you the story about hhs secretary tom prices private jet problem last night. Politico reporting last night that price spent 60,000 on charter jets in just three days last week. Including having this 30seat plane ferry him and Kellyanne Conway 130 miles between d. C. And philadelphia at a cost of 25,000. Now politicos report also had a really interesting nugget, a bread crumb trail that i noticed. It quoted current and former staffers that said, speaking on condition of anonymity say price has been taking private jets to travel domestically for months. So if tom price spent 60,000 of taxpayer dollars on private planes in three days whats the price tag for the last several months . We have an answer to that. Thats thing 2 in 60 seconds. When youre close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment . If you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. Taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. With taltz, up to 90 of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. In fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. Do not use if you are allergic to taltz. Before starting you should be checked for tuberculosis. Taltz may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Tell your doctor if you are being treated for an infection or have symptoms. Or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. Inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz. Including worsening of symptoms. Serious allergic reactions can occur. Nows your chance at completely clear skin. Just ask your doctor about taltz. So hhs secretary tom price reportedly spent 60 grand on private jets in three days last week. But how frequent is that habit . Tonight politico following up with another blockbuster peat of reporter that says prices travel by private plane at least 24 times since may. Since may. The cost of the trips identify politico exceeds 300,000, according to review of federal contracts and similar trip itineraries. 300,000. Far more than Prices Annual salary, spent on private jets in just four months. Put it in perspective just how abnormal this is, kathleen sa bib yus, who served as hhs secretary under obama, told politico she took a charter flight only to reach remote areas in alaska that were otherwise inaccessible. Tom price it appears to have defaulted to private planes instead of commercial flights at similar times such as a june 6 trip from d. C. To nashville. According to politico, sample round trip fares for those flights were as low as 202. Prices charter according to hhs contract with classic air charter cost 17,760. Hhs would not say how many charter trips price has taken but cited the recent hurricanes as justification. Price has used charter aircraft for official business to accommodate his demanding schedule, the week of september 13th was one of those times the secretary was directing the recovery effort for irma, simultaneously directing the ongoing recovery for hurricane harvey. Politico found 17 charter flights price took before the first storm hit in late august, including june, a lear jet 60 from san diego to the aspen ideas festival, a glamorous conference at the colorado resort town that arrived at 3 33 p. M. On saturday afternoon, june 14th, nearly 19 hours before his scheduled panel. That flight likely cost more than 7,100. As republican senators huddle in backroom negotiations and prepare to vote next week on their lastditch attempt to repeal obamacare, the list of groups who oppose the bill keeps getting longer. Among the groups that have rejected it are the american medical association, the aarp, the American Hospital association, and a whole host of others. And now the Health Insurance industry itself has come out forcefully against it. Saying the bill would increase costs, destabilize the market, and undermine safeguards for people with preexisting conditions. Keep in mind the American People, including much of the gop base as far as we can tell, are not fans of the gop repeal and replace effort either. Every bill republicans have put forth has polled abysmally, even among republican voters. Last month the majority of the public, 60 , said it was a good thing the senate did not pass the gop Health Care Bill last time around. All of which raises the question, why are republican lawmakers trying so hard to pass this thing . We got a clue a few months ago when Associated Press reported a gop donor at a Koch Brothers retreat republican lawmakers that his Dallas Piggy Bank was closed until obamacare was repealed and he got his tax cut. June Nevada Republican dean heller denounced a gop Health Care Bill and then faced serious immediate blowback from gop mega donor Sheldon Adelson and fellow billionaire casino magnate steve winn. These are the people republican lawmakers are probably at this point most worried about, wealthy donors who hate obamacare and who fund their reelection campaigns. The gop base has rejected the repeal and replace bills, yet republican senator pat roberts, if we do nothing i think it has a tremendous impact on the 2018 elections. And whether or not republicans still maintain control and we have the gavel. Chuck grassley told reporters, they just have to pass something. I can maybe give you 10 reasons why this bill shouldnt be considerate. But republicans campaigned on this so often that you have a responsibility to carry out what you said in the campaign, thats pretty much as much of a reason as the substance of the bill. We come back, im going to ask a republican lawmaker why his party is so eager to foist this on the American People, and whether he is willing to vote for a bill that would cut more than 2,000 per person in Health Care Funding for his own state. Thats next. My advice for looking younger, longer . Get your beauty sleep. And use aveeno® absolutely ageless® night cream with active naturals® blackberry complex. Younger looking skin can start today. Absolutely ageless® from aveeno®. When youre clocking out. Sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. There. I can also help with this. Does your bed do that . Oh. I dont actually talk. Though im smart enough to. Im the new sleep number 360 smart bed. Lets meet at a sleep number store. One of the most remarkable aspects of the senate gops Health Care Bill is it cuts billions of funding in the mostly blue states that expanded medicaid under obamacare and gives money to the states that refused to do so. The biggest cuts per person according to the new york states are in oregon, vermont, massachusetts, new york, delaware. The biggest gains to mississippi, alabama, kansas, south dakota, texas. Six blue states are poised to see funding cuts of over 2,000 per person, among them the state of new york. Im joined by republican lawmaker from the state of new york, representative tom reid. Representative reid, i wanted to show you what Chris Christie and your regional neighbor and republican and ally to the president had to say about this bill, take a listen. I opposed the bill for the significant reason that its bad for my state. Im the governor of new jersey. This bill will cut 4 billion in medicaid funding to the people of my state. I cant be in favor of that. And heres what your colleague in new york, peter king, said. Right now, i dont see how i could vote for it, its extremely damaging to new york. How would you be able to vote for it if that math pertains . Well, obviously i share that concern by governor christie and pete king. But at the end of the day, when we look at the issue of obamacare and the premiums going up, deductibles going up, people are suffering. What im hoping we can do is maybe, if this doesnt go forward which i dont think it will in the senate, we can maybe take a bipartisan, work across the aisle in sin certificate faith, to get to the issue of Health Care Costs in america. Thats where id like to see this debate go. So i just want to be clear. I mean, if this were to happen, and i just want to make it clear this isnt some sort of panic among the media class. Lindsey graham said into a microphone, paul ryan told me we pass it if the Senate Passes it, the house will pass it. You may have to vote for this in a few days. Sure. You know, obviously i dont take a position till ive actually had a chance to read the final bill. I think thats very important when you legislate. But at the end of the day, i dont think thats going to happen. I think what were seeing here is a lot of politics. Im about trying to get to solutions for the people back home. When i talk to people, and theyre losing health care, theyre losing access to care under obamacare, we cant do nothing. If this fails, if and when it fails, which i think it will be now theres the opportunity to say, lets put politics aside and start solving problems for the American People. But heres the problem. There was the senate had started this bipartisan undertaking. Theyve restored regular order and you had Lamar Alexander and patty murray, together in their committee having witnesses come forward to talk about the things youre talking about. How can we attach fixes to the insurance marketplace to keep premiums down, et cetera. Lamar alexander unilaterally pulled the plug on that process as a means of forcing republicans to vote on cassidy graham. Should he have not done that . I think what he did, and you know, we in the problem solvers caucus, bipartisan group, i cochair on the republican side, we put together a proposal we united as 43 members that said we would support these proposals to stagize the individual marketplace. We talked to senator alexander personally, multiple times. I appreciate the work he was doing. And i think what hes doing is clearing the deck saying, look it, we have until september 30th on this part san approach our leadership wants to go, when that fails, i dont think a senator like senator alexander, senator murray, are going to just allow people to suffer. And thats my hope is the outcome of this ultimately will come down. We can focus on the people back home rather than the politics that have gotten us into this partisan divide we see today. Can you explain to me why you seem so i feel like you have information i dont have. Youre an actual republican member of congress. This is obviously this is your work and this is very important. Its important to you and constituents. You seem far more confident this will fail in the senate than the people ive been talking to. Why do you have that confidence . Ive been in Congress Since 2010 and seen this partisan path before just blow up. And it doesnt work. You look at the Affordable Care act itself and the flaws that the partisan bill it was created to the American People. When you do things on a partisan basis, thats not the best way to approach this and thats why i look forward to working with good faith legislators and given where we are right now and where the Health Care Debacle was a few months ago, i dont see the votes being there to have this go forward and get signed into law. But correct me if im wrong, you did vote yes on the ahca, which was an entirely partisan vote, right . I did. That moved the ball for the people back home in the bill i supported in the house, we were going to alleviate 70 of the local peoples tax bills they by every day. Were a struggling district congressman have that type of tax relief is significant on top of the other reforms we were advocating for. That was my favorite feature of the socalled buffalo buyout in which medicaid payments were shifted to new york city. Away from districts like your own which good for you you delivered for your people but isnt that now happening to you on the wrong end with this . Were seeing is something that looks like that but instead of being on the right end, fighting for the people in your district to make sure they are paying less for the property taxes, what youre looking at is a net out flow of money from the people you represent to people that live in texas and alabama. Well, absolutely. Thats a significant concern and thats why i share that concern like governor christie and peter king do how that will impact our people statewide and in our district. Im very concerned about that. We got to look at the final bill because youll have all these amendments. Right now we wont have to face that in the house. Well see. Representative tom reid thanks for making time tonight. I really appreciate it. I appreciate being on, chris. With me one of the leading voices against the gop Health Care Bill. Chris murphy of connecticut. He seemed to think this thing is not happening. Youre in the senate, what do you think . This bill is failing but thats not reality. The reality is is that this bill is one vote away from passing and the folks who voted against it last time have not come out in opposition like Susan Collins and republicans are working really hard to arrange things so that they change their votes and i dont know, tom reid says hes a problem solver. The problem is is that this bill is days away from passing and you solve that problem as a socalled moderate republican by coming out and speaking loudly against a bill that is going to uninsured 32 million americans and transfer vast amounts of money from states like connecticut and new york to states that didnt engage in medicaid expansion. There is a problem. The only way to solve it if youre in his position is to actually come out and speak against it. One of the things that the happening right now and i just think this is remarkable from a dramatic irony standpoint. A holdout, alaska has particular challenges as a very high cost state. They are trying to get her to support the bill by essentially letting alaska keep the care. It shows in 2026 his Health Care Proposal would award each state precisely 4400 in federal subsidy for each eligible beneficiary except alaska which would receive 6500 or 48 more than everybody else. What do you think of that . Well, listen, i think there is an easy way to solve the problem. Just give every state the deal that alaska may be getting, the ability to keep obamacare and this is an open and shut case. Yeah, i mean, listen, this is going to be i hope an easy call for senator. She said on the record very clearly back in the spring that she was not going to be bought off by an alaska specific provision. She said listen, you give us shortterm relief but set up an Overall Health care system doomed for failure and thats what the gram cassidy bill would do by cutting funds so badly for states getting rid of the individual mandate cratering protections for people with preexisting conditions and ultimately would land in alaskas lap, as well. Ill hold her to what she said in the spring and i expect shell oppose this legislation, too. You raised a point under noticed and mario senator had a good piece, lets say this passes. All of a sudden you got 50 states that have to erect from scratch in two years of Health Care System with less funding than now. This is the Mississippi StateInsurance Commission there said he was wary about the change. Which evil do you like better, the one you know or dont know. There are better ways to do this. That the someone in the heart mississippi would benefit as much as anyone. Hes a republican sounds pretty nervous about what would happen if they actually make this law. So i think this is a really important point. Lost in this is the fact this bill would end the exchanges set up under the Affordable Care act. Now, in connecticut, we have our own state based exchange. Now, we couldnt make it work with the amount of money that we would get. It would fall apart but at least if we wanted to, we could put state dollars behind our existing exchange. In states that didnt set up a statebased exchange that rely on the federal exchange. If they want to continue subsidizing through the individual market, they would have to set up an exchange and simply could not do it because the only way we did it in connecticut was we were funded by the federal government in the first couple years to get it up and running. States that dont have those, largely red states couldnt do it on their own. So these subsides that people are getting in the red states would absolutely disappear. They are not coming back. And i think we have to be very clear about what that means in those states. Just want to be clear so people track this. The subsides that exist in obamacare, they you only get them if you purchase on the exchange but if this were to happen, the laws of the state you live in not having exchange no subsides is high meaning the money goes away. Doesnt happen. Right. Doesnt happen. What cassidy says they will package all that money and hand it to the states. Over time that money gets less and less but the mechanism by which you got the money, the federal exchange and a credit on your federal income tax, disappears and so the statebased flexibility they talk about is achieved by robbing money that currently goes to individuals and handing it at a lesser amount to statebased politicians. Thats not a good deal for people in the red states. Senator chris murphy, thank you for your time tonight. Thanks. That is is all in for this evening. Tonight the trump team and russia, new wall street journal reporting on after he left the campaign. An update tonight on the mueller investigation. Also tonight, on the same day trump orders new sanctions on north korea, kim jongun calls him mentally deranged and vows the u. S. President will face results beyond his expectation. And the one positive thing seven in ten americans have been able to agree upon where it comes to donald trump. That and more as the 11th hour gets under way on a thursday night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 245 of the Trump Administration and we have a new look tonight at the sheer amount of information that Robert Mueller is said to be gathering about former Trump Campaign