Transcripts For MSNBCW Deadline White House 20170717 20:00:00

Our shoppers and Shopping Centers. If you look at Shopping Centers and jobs in stores its been very, very tough for them. They have had a hard time closing at numbers and records that have never been seen before. So we have to stop that. The online predatory practices. Since the beginning of the year, we have already created over 50,000 brandnew manufacturing jobs. And were just getting started. We will lift our citizens from welfare to work. We will turn boarded up communities into new outposts of american commerce. And we will once again rediscover our heritage as a manufacturing nation. We used to be a manufacturing nation. Not so much anymore but i will tell you, you look at michigan, you look at some states that have really moved, you know, in pennsylvania, two weeks ago they opened a mine the first mine that was opened in decades. Industry and much of that comes at the border. George washington encouraged americans to produce their own goods so that our young nation could become truly independent. President James Garfield said of our nations manufacturers that to them the country owes the splendor of the position it holds before the world. Meaning, protect us. Theodore roosevelt declared in his first message to congress that reciprocity, my favorite word, reciprocity, because we have countries that charge us 100 tax on a product and when that product is sold by them to us we brilliantly charge them nothing. People say thats free trade. No, thats stupid trade. Thats really stupid trade. Incredible. That was the president trying to stay on message at the white house. That was a Made In America some mining jobs are back Shopping Centers are in trouble farms are losing their land event. By trumps standards on message but he started to tweet about his sons meeting with the russians guaranteeing that the perm acloud will hang over his presidency. Most politicians would have gone to the meeting like the one don jr. Attended in order to get info on the opponent. Thats politics. Heres sean spicer on the same topic. Look, you know im not going to get into the specifics of this. But its quite often given for people in the heat of the campaign to ask what that is. Thats what he did. The president s made it clear through his tweet and there was nothing as far as we know that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for a discussion about adoption of the Magnitsky Act. Except, sean, for the email from Rob Goldstone that i read on don jr. s twet feed, in their meeting they offered to provide information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia. This is very high level and Sensitive Information but its part of russia and its Government Support for mr. Trump. End quote. For you mr. President , that is not politics. In fact, it looks like an awful lot like collusion with a hostile foreign power. Something you repeatedly denied. Your news story thats just politics and that most politicians would have attended the meeting. Well, well dissect everything wrong with your tweets. But first, to the reporters. We have hans nichol at the white house, along with New York Times julie Herschel Davis and a former Chief Of Staff for the cia. Hans, that was the president trying to be on message at a Made In America event. But as the brilliant Frank Bringny said the teleprompter is his quiver and all the others are his tributaries. A great way to get into his mind. But what did you make of the days communications starting with the tweet about the meeting that his son took and book ended by this address at the white house . Well, the address to the white house he did take one detour from the Made In America event and that is to talk about health care. And he seemed to be expressing renewed optimism almost as if theres an urgency to this, it could get done quicker than many are expecting. From what i heard from the president , the news that he thinks the vote can done. He thinks they have the votes. They have to do a little horse trading. Our colleagues on capitol hill arent exactly reflecting that in their reporting. It seems to be a much more difficult swath. The president looked at mike pence, mike, its up to you, you have to get this across the line. We learned what his favorite word is, reciprocity. Good to know. Nicolle, something you can agree with, he referred to the senator current senator from arizona, john mccain, as a crusty voice. Youd agree with that, do you think thats accurate . Crusty voice . Its certainly better than the prior descriptions of john mccain so im sure that john mccain who has the thickest skin of anyone in politics will take it as a compliment. I suspect youre right on that. But he said he needed mccains vote and he wished him well and said he needs to get back soon and suggested that hes going to be coming back much more quickly than others expected. I didnt know if that was inside information that President Trump has, that mccains recovery is going at least as publicly reported. I think those are the two bits of news. The rest of the briefing earlier today was really focused on sean spicer reverting back to the earlier Trump Defense and the don jr. Defense. Why would he do that . I listened sean is one of the most tragic figures in american political history, but why would he trot out the adoption story today . Its mid july and youre asking me why questions about the Trump Administration . I cant answer why questions. What happened i can do and how they might plan to do something but the why is beyond my far power of words to describe. Thats what thats what the kind of line was from sean today. And that the trump tweet speaks for itself, which is a circular response we get. Any reasonable observer would look at that meeting he had with the russian lawyer and say it was about the Magnitsky Act which cant be true as you pointed out because the pretext for the meeting was on something other than the Magnitsky Act. It was sharing information that could be helpful to Donald Trumps president ial aspirations. Again, the why, im going im going to kick that over to jeremy bash. He used to be in the cia, maybe he has some intel. Jeremy, take your cue from hans there and tell me why the white house spokesperson would use the podium to revert back to a nine day old i was on vacation but i kept track with the story of the day. And that it was a meeting about adoption was the story nine days ago. Because heres the deal, nicolle. I believe the president s favorite word is reciprocity. Because that meeting in june was about reciprocity. If russia and the Government Of Russia came forward with incriminating information on Hillary Clinton then the reciprocity would be support for relieving the Magnitsky Act. In fact, theyre very consistent and they tell exactly the story of what happened that i believe at that meeting. What do you think happened at this meeting . Well, i believe that the russian government dangled that lawyer, natalia veselnitskaya, into that meeting. Shes too well connected to have done this as a freelancer. She was there accompanied by a former soviet officer, who has strong connections to the kremlin and to the russian government. They went in there to test the waters to see whether or not in offering support by the russian government the Trump Campaign would bite. Of course don jr. s response i love it. And the response in meeting were interested in this. He didnt shoo them away and thats taken as a greenlight by the russian intelligence. If youre pitched by the russian intelligence, you dont alert the authorities, youre willing to play and it seems they were willing to play. The excuse is now not that collusion is illegal. Not that the russians were anyone other than just a Friend Offering helpful oppo. But that it didnt work out. That it was bungled collusion. But bungled Collusion Is Still collusion, isnt it . Well, yes. I mean, far be it for me to try to get inside of sean spicers head but it seemed like what he was saying today was trying to somehow assert that the meeting didnt there was no discussion in that meeting of the reason for which it was billed and if the damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Instead, they just talked about the Magnitsky Act. Even if that were the case, the fact that donald trump jr. Accepted the meeting as jeremy said its sort of the nut of the problem here for them. Even if it never did come up in the meeting and of course we dont know what happened and its difficult to take their word on anything that happened during that meeting given the changing and evolving story line they have given us for whether it even happened. If theres no promised dirt during that meeting at trump tower the fact the meeting was accept and that don jr. Was willing to have that conversation and willing to not alert authorities and then it wasnt disclosed by him or by anyone in the Campaign Including Jared Kushner being one of those, makes this an issue thats not going to go away. So julie, i talked to west wing folks today and outside advisers to donald trump and the defender of this meeting could not be found. They thought it was a stupid meeting to take and they all thought that had read through the email from goldstone would have seen it was a clear quid pro quo and i really have a hard time imagining how theyre going to continue to deal with the president tweeting about a meeting that no one will privately defend, a spokesperson telling a different story than jay sekulow and the president. Its like three people juggling knives and someone is going to get hurt pretty soon. Well, thats true. I mean, the president s tweet this morning was inexplicable for that reason. The fact he brought the conversation back to the meeting cant be really defended and his own fbi Candidate Director last week said it was problematic and lawyers should have been consulted and the fbi should have been called in. Its clearly just a bad set of facts for them. Don jr. Himself in his interview about this last week actually admitted that. He said in retrospect i would have done it differently. Theres no good way to explain it away. The best thing they can hope for which seems unlikely is that people will forget about it, not focus on it. I think bob mueller is very focused on it. And there are hopes that the public might forget about it is being crushed daily by the president himself who continues to tweet about it and to talk about it in that context. Jeremy bash, what does mueller make of the president s tweet this morning and the continued inability to come clean about a meeting that now the whole world knows about, thanks to don jr. Tweeting out the email chain himself. Well, every week explanation looks like an effort to cover this up. If youre the Special Prosecutor charged with investigating this matter youre looking very carefully not just at this meeting but also about conversations that happened inside the Trump Campaign around this meeting. In the runup to the meeting what were those three individuals representing the Trump Campaign discussing among themselves. When they walked out what did they discuss, are there emails about that . Who else did they talk to . I think bob mueller wants to interview every Single Person who parent participated in the meeting an find out what the followup was. Thank you for spending a little bit of time for us. Jeremy is sticking around for the hour. Real Life Campaign operatives on what real life opposition looks like and when you should call the fbi instead of the ad makers. And the russia cloud is having an impact on Donald Trumps agenda and his Approval Ratings. Hes the most unpopular president in the history of polling. Well look closely at the most troubling numbers in all the data. Ahh. Where are mom and dad . saved money on Motorcycle Insurance with geico goin up the country. Love mom and dad im takin a nap. Dude, you just woke up im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. Going somewhere . Whoooo. 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Joining me is frank bruni, a fellow at harvard shoren stein center. Joel beninton, a Senior Adviser to the Clinton Campaign and joining me by phone is msnbc contributor, Steve Schmidt and jeremy bash is still with us. Steve, let me get you to weigh in on two things since youre on the phone. First, the president s tweet this morning saying that anyone with a would have taken the meeting that don jr. Took. Well, you and i wouldnt. Neither would have joel bennett or any other loyal american with a sense of rectitude. This was an attempt at conspiracy, a part of a hostile foreign power. The most senior level of a political campaign. This has nothing to do with opposition research. This was an intrusion by the russian government, by its Intelligence Services to the highest levels of the republican nominee, and i think one of the things that would be interesting that we dont have a good answer for is why is it that the only sweat equity at the republican platform, that the Trump Campaign put forward was on the issue of arm sales to the Ukrainian Government which the russians wither on the opposite side of . There are so many unanswered questions, but chiefly the notion that anybody would do this is just could not be more wrong. Most everybody on the campaign, democrat and republican, in fact, would not do it. They would go to the fbi. Joel, does this strike you i mean, i think we had this conversation during the campaign on television together. The asymmetry of the way donald trump ran against you and secretary clinton was almost in hindsight unbeatable. I mean, there was no moral compass. There was no adherence to norms. There was no i mean, ill let jeremy weigh in on saying i love it to a foreign adversity is illegal. Jeremy, quickly, is that illegal to say i love it to a foreign adversary promising dirt on Hillary Clinton . Depends on the context. Go back to joel and ill give you a more complete idea on this. In hindsight, how could you have adjusted to his to have defeated someone like this . I think you have to go back to the premise and recognize he was an unconventional candidate from the beginning. He went further than a lot of people thought even in the republican primary, took a long time for that to sink in. And then you have to still try to run your campaign. You cant get caught up but the question but the question gets confused, to you, to jen palmieri, how did you lose to this guy . I think that when we see the sort of lengths that i went to, how could you beat someone who was willing to accept help from a foreign adversary . Look, if 40,000 voted differently we would have beat him fair and square. Do you think thats a lot has unfolded and we thought that russian was meddling in the summer of last year. We thought all the evidence pointed to it. Hillary clinton brought it up in the e debate. Whether it got enough attention remains to be seen. Its tarnishing his presidency. It is tarnishing his Approval Ratings. You have 23 of republican, 19 who say he acted unethically and another 4 who say it legally those are not good numbers. If i was a Republican Congress id start paying attention to how bad his numbers are really below the surface with republicans. To piggyback on who youre saying its well, at the time it wasnt the Trump Administration, but what donald jr. Did and what the Trump Campaign did, theres the this ecosystem of fake news which includes all of this russian meddling. There was a new report that came out called the fake news machine. Whether things were true or false we have to remember that the russians were constantly inserting anticlinton messaging into the election. Now there are the new reports that south carolinas voting machines had over 100,000 attempted hacks. Theres the question of what happened in terms of the Trump Administration actually accepting, you know, possible information and collusion. Theres the fake News Ecosystem which we know about. I Wouldnt Rule Out that there was some vote tampering. We dont know for sure. But we need to keep following that too. Frank, what is the gut check . To me its that we have i always wake up in middle of the night, we have been asking the wrong question. I think on this question of you know how why Couldnt Hillary beat this guy . How could you win against someone this is what we know about because don jr. Apparently got backed into the corner by a reporter from your paper. But how do you and this to me is the asymmetry of our last conversation was about a news organization, cnn firing investigative journalists. What do you do about the unethical nature of this president . Youre talking about the past. I think at this point what you do is what you see the media doing. What were doing at this table. You demand and search answers. The story is not going away because when you peel everything back, the Central Question is did we actually have a Fair Election that was fairly fought in which we got a result that truly reflect what is a majority thinks should happen for the country. Thats an enormous question. I dont recall that question existing in this form in any election in any lifetime. Quite to this extent. And because thats such a big question and because everything you get from trump world is quarter truths or outright lies, emissions, evasions, every day a new piece of information comes out we cant trust what we have heard to date. Well be back here in a year and having a similar conversation. Jeremy bash, i want to have you weigh in on the legal side of this. What does bob mueller do with the team that struggled so openly and really in a scary way with the truth . Well, bob mueller i think is going to focus on a couple of important federal criminal statutes and hes going to look at the facts and apply them to the statutes. First is whether or not they crossed any legal line with respect to federal election act which prohibits possessing of value from a Foreign National let alone a foreign government. In all the individuals let me stop you right there because i want to bring in Steve Schmidt. I dont know if you watched jay sekulow make the rounds yesterday, but he was asked about whether this was something of value. The russians promising to help Hillary Clinton was or to help hurt Hillary Clinton to advantage donald trump was that a violation . He had a technical answer. Steve, i wonder if you think that a Campaign Violation may have been committed by this meeting with don jr. . Well, its certainly possible. One thing i know for sure, nicolle, is that the arbiter of whats legal or not legal in this matter is not jay sekulow. Ultimately the Justice Department will make a determination if theres enough evidence there for there to be a criminal indictment. And so the one thing we know for sure is that at every instance as this story has unfolded, and really six hour one of the administration we have never seen an administration be more untruthful. Lie after lie after Lie Compounding on each other. This story evolving and changing really almost on a quarter hour basis. So is it possible that when they were scheming with what they thought were russian government officials that a legal line was crossed . Its highly possible. The Special Counsel will make the determination on that. But we do know enough to know that it was certainly dishonorable. It was unethical. And it is abhorrent behavior thats never been seen in any campaign for the president , republican or democrat, in the modern era. All right. Were hitting pause. No one is going anywhere. Well be back with this discussion on the other side of a break. To stay in control. So i asked about tresiba®. Tresiba® ready tresiba® is a oncedaily, longacting insulin that lasts even longer than 24 hours. I need to cut my a1c. Tresiba® ready tresiba® works like my bodys insulin. Releases slow and steady. Providing powerful a1c reduction. My week . Hectic. My weekends . My time. Tresiba® ready i can take tresiba® any time of day. So if i sleep in, and delay my dose, i take it as soon as i can, as long as theres at least 8 hours between doses. Once in use, tresiba® lasts 8 weeks, with or without refrigeration, twice as long as the lantus® pen. announcer tresiba® is used to control High Blood Sugar in adults with diabetes. 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Thats great, im so relieved i thought this was going to go on forever. Wouldnt it be great if everyone said what they meant . The citi® double cash card does. Earn 1 cash back when you buy and 1 as you pay. Double means double. Should we watch it again . One more time. One more time. Please. There we go. Well, i wondered why the Secret Service if this was nefarious, why did the Secret Service allow these people in . The president had secret Service Protection at that point. That raised a question with me. Well, i wonder why its raining sundays and sunny on other days. I mean, a lot of jay sekulow, the rest of his story was that the president wasnt there. He was in wisconsin. What does the Secret Service they have nothing these are things made up on the fly. They have nothing to with anything. Its like running out the clock and throwing the ball over there. But the Secret Service is sort of i guess i was going to see like the pope. But they attacked them too. But the Secret Service lashes back. I mean, they protect you. Theyre not even vetting these theyre not like saying if i say this, whats going to happen five minutes later . Remember the old episodes of get smart. Would you believe this, thats what this Damage Control from the Trump Administration is. Theres at layer to it that the blurred lines between the Trump Administration and the trump family and their political and financial interests are part of the big picture. Because don jr. Was not under secret Service Protection, but was he acting on behalf of the campaign . I would say so. But theyre paying all his legal bills. But the fact theres a mushy set of influences where its like, well, im not part of the administration, but i am in the white house doing this. I mean, the whole trump family is sort of pinchhitting and that makes it very complicated to even track. And a white house official today told me there are some good things about having a family thats never been involved in politics before and some very bad things, put that in that category. And jay sekulow said this bringing in of the Secret Service made me wonder about this. Do you know for sure everyone who was at this meeting with donald trump jr. . No, i dont represent donald trump jr. And i do not know everyone for sure that was at that meeting. And the president was not at the meeting. I can tell you who was not there, the president was not aware of the meeting and he did not attend it. He was not at the meeting, therefore the Secret Service wasnt there. What do you think happened at the meeting . I doubt the president was there. Why . I think it would have leaked out by somebody. Because Everything Else is leaking out of that white house. I think that this is anything that would rise to the candidate in any campaign, that you said its theres asymmetry there. I cant imagine anybody putting a candidate in the room even if youre a novice. Probably tweeting elevated this is Crisis Mismanagement by the day. Every day they dig a hole deeper. What sekulow said about the Secret Service it creates another problem. Were talking about this every single day because they cant get out of their own way. And i would just add though, its important to understand that a lot of trump voters are really frustrated by conversations like the ones were having and we need to be having this conversation because it all does blur together. I would say thats actually not just sort of mismanagement, but possibly a tactic. If you cant understand anything, you cant believe anything. Thats classic soviet disinformation tactic. Im not saying theyre not digging themselves a hole but i think also when you throw a lot of confetti in the air, people look around. For voters this can seem like confetti. It can, but if you look at trumps Approval Ratings with the independents its disastrous. To give you a compare on the george w. Bush who also won by losing the popular vote at this point in his presidency, he was about 20 points above water on his Approval Rating. Donald trump is 20 points under. With independents, he has a majority of independents who disapprove of him. You cant get things done in washington and get any of this stuff theyre talking about on track if you cant demonstrate youre winning a sizable chunk of the middle. They have been losing the middle and squandering it day after day. Maybe its creating a lot of confusion and distraction but theyre not getting any legislation moved forward. At some point, voters are going to say, what happened during this trump presidency, has anything changed to give me hope for the future . Is my life better in any way . And his voters will give him time. Thats what confounds the media. But theyre not going to give him a free pass on that agenda. All right, frank, are you leaving me . No. Youre staying here. Frank, steve and jeremy are all staying here. It says youre leaving. The president is hitting a new record level for the president. While the downward trend is necessarily new but it should concern him when it comes to his core base. Youre leaving but youre coming back. I dont believe the polls anymore. I dont believe them. I dont believe them. Ditching the coverup for good . Thats cool. Showing off my arms . Thats cool. Being comfortable without a shirt . Thats cool. Getting the body you want without surgery, needles, or downtime . Thats coolsculpting. Coolsculpting is the only fdacleared noninvasive treatment that targets and freezes away stubborn fat cells. Visit coolsculpting. Com today and register for a chance to win a free treatment. Its witnessed 2 diy duos,s 31 crashes, 4 food fights, and the flood of 09. Its your paradise perfected with behr premium plus paint. The best you can buy starting under 25. Only at the home depot. Thats the power of and. And a new poll showing President Trump hitting historic low job Approval Ratings, not climbing above 40 . Gallup put his Approval Rating at 39 . Beneath the six month benchmark of recent president s including president clintons tumult jous start. And even before the emails one in five republicans were saying that donald trump had done anything illegal or up ethical as joel pointed out. Joining us is a former Senior Adviser to marco rubio and Nbc News National Political correspondent, steve kornacki. I know we talked all the time and we talked about it on your appearances here about the durability of his pace. But the softest part of the kohl russian looking for results and may coalition are looking for results and they may see the endlessly bad news cycle. They may and im not sure we can articulate fully what it is his base wants. We can ask is it this issue or that issue, but watching the poll numbers tell me i dont know we can answer that. Today is july 17, 2017. Go back to july 17, 2016 we had a brandnew poll. He had historically low numbers. No candidate has been less popular on this day a year ago, his favorable rating was 27 . So you cant win with that. The Republican Party as a whole was running 22 points behind the Democratic Party on the image. On the question of Donald Trumps Views Mainstream . 60 said no. His Approval Ratings thats roughly the same range his support fell in last year. We looked at it, republicans said, you know what, not only is it a bad campaign but a losing campaign. Hell lose a big chunk of republicans. He got 90 of republicans and he won the election. I dont know that anything has changed. Alex, do you think lets bring alex into the conversation. Do you think that republicans in congress are as immune to historically low poll numbers as donald trump is . Theyre not. Especially when you get closer to the midterms. Congressional republicans support President Trump as long as hes going to sign their legislation into law. The problem is theyre not passing much legislation. And if they fail to Pass Health Care reform, if they fail to pass Corporate Tax reform, comprehensive tax reform, then they start asking themselves whats the point of tank all of this flak for supporting a president if we cant get legislation to him to sign . What are you hearing from republicans on the hill about whether or not hes undermined or done enough or done too much or needs to do more when it comes to health care, calling the house bill mean, saying the republican bill needed more heart. Whats the State Of Mind if Health Care Reform fails its President Trumps fault. Big things happen when you have president ial leadership and we havent seen much from this president. He has yet to give a Press Conference about it. His tweets are all over the map. Theyre celebrating things like Made In America week when they should be talking about Health Care Reform. This is the most unpopular piece of legislation we have seen in a generation and theyre doing nothing to do sell it. Would your analysis be because that he doesnt need to. The base is with him well, my analysis on that would be that think of the psychology of the average republican member of congress, think of how they reacted to everything i is a sid a about the Campaign Last year. They thought he was a loser. A lot of them didnt endorse them. A lot of republicans said ill check his name off because hes the republican but im not campaigning for him. Paul ryan cut him loose three weeks before election day. He put all the republican members of congress on a call and said you know what, if you off to disown this guy, disown him. They thought he was a dead candidate walking because everything he was saying was inflammatory. He wasnt talking about the issues. He wasnt putting coherent proposals out there. He had all of this personal scandals the Access Hollywood thing. They thought he was a loser to drag them down. Not only did he win, that was critical in and of itself, heres a key if youre a republican member of the congress. He won 90 of republican voters. The polls all last year not only was he going to lose, but he was shedding republican support. He wasnt a true conservative. I think that well, Joe Scarborough has an oped out there. Hes getting 90 of a shrinking party we called it a shrinking party last year. Theres fewer registered republicans the reason were here in the middle of july with revelations coming last week, You Couldnt Imagine revelations but hes hes driving people out of the Republican Party. The message that the average member of congress took, and like democratic members of congress they worry more about primaries in this age that we live in than general elections. He understands the base of the party better than i do. He has a stronger bond and you know what . I dont know i understand what that bond is. Thats a scary thing for politicians. The economic anxiety. But when you look at a bunch of longitudinal studies its like a culture war like brexit. Than any specific policy. You cant win a culture win with facts. You have to go in and say what is it that really makes people affiliate themselves with this idea of making America Great again and then you can start drilling down. But first of all, rational arguments are not really the motivation for a lot of people. And what i would say is that donald trump in counties that he won is still pulling about a 50 Approval Rating, which is about 15 higher than the national average. So people have not abandoned him in the places where hes run. And they may eventually, but really the math is for congressional republicans, they have to figure out how to try anger late between the sen trisz in their base and then donald trump has shown that hes willing to pill other republicans who dont hugh to him and right now hes still too dangerous to divide. Thanks for breaking it down. Up next, on top of the low Approval Rating and the russia investigation dominating the news cycle, the president is still hoping to get a bill passed to repeal and replace obamacare. Will he make any progress on his agenda . How to win at business. Step one. Point decisively with your glasses. Abracadabra the stage is yours. Step two. Choose laquinta. Where youll feel like the king of the road. Check out our summer rates now at lq. Com. Where certain fungal infections are common and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Talk to your doctor and visit humira. Com this is humira at work. Discussions. Pgs press Secretary Sean Spicer says President Trump. But the white house may alsoing going by any means necessary. The white house has reached out to respective primary senators for arizona senator jeff flake. Erica, what is going on Behind Closed Doors on capitol hill . I mean, jeff flake is as conservative as sort of as an oldfashioned conservative can get . Well, as you know, jeff flake was probably the most outspoken senator during the campaign against President Trump, and the white house seems to want to settle scores. But i dont know why they would pick now to do it when they need senator flakes vote on health care and theres not a single vote to spare. As you know, the vote this week that was planned has been put off due to senator mccains absence following surgery. I dont think anyone knows whether that really twhartd Senator Mcconnells plans. However, every day that bill is not dead, its alive, and thats where it is right now. And thats good news for Senator Mcconnell and the president. Erica, do Senate Republicans look more wear ill at the white house or Senate Democrats . I guess dean heller was attacked by the trump super pack for, as you said, not falling into line on health care. Jeff flake is now going to get primaried by a reported trump ally. I mean, are Senate Republicans Walking Around more sort of skeptical and anxious about what the white house is going to do or are they watching their flank from the democrats . Well, i think as some of your earlier guests srp talking about, any republican in the current political environment is probably more worried about a primary from their right than about their general election. That said, as you know, there really are only two Senate Republicans in this midterm cycle who have anything to worry about in either regard, and those are Senator Heller and senator flake, both of whom are he merging as key votes onel health care. Senator heller in particular were all dying to know what he thinks. He has yet to he merge today. Were all going to be looking for him later today when the senators return for votes. But i dont know that the white house gets very far by poking these senators when they need them this legislation. Steve smith, way in on the practice of Poking Members of your own party on twitter and in the press as opposed to picking up the phone and trying to woou them. Typically it doesnt work. Look, politics is a transactional business and the Trump Administration is ultimately going to need their votes on tangs reform and other initiatives. And ultimately the last thing in the world the Trump Administration wants is to see a Democratic House or a Democratic Senate with subpoena power. So you talk about a selfdefeating strategy, unbelievable. Jeremy bash, weigh in on the pearls for the republicans on the intel kmelz of getting too mired in the politics of the trump white house. Yeah. They have to strike this very independent r cord, here s nichole. They have to show that they are willing to pursue this investigation and the facts wherever it leads. So there is some peril if they line up too closely on the russia investigation or other matters. Alex, does marco rubio like mr. Trump. Personally, they get along fine. They obviously have some big policy disagreements. On what . On i mean, the whole president ial primary dpan, you know, they were arguing over healthcare reform. I remember, but sometimes Immigration Reform is a classic example. Free trade is a clask example. Human rights where marco but what fight has he picked with him since hes been president. Human rights. Hes fought the white house and criticized them when they had, for instance, warmer relations with ejust a minute. Marco is a strong supporter of free trade and has been critical of this administration when they have been trying to withdraw from the world. Joe scarborough left are the Republican Party. We were talking about polling, a shrinking number of people identifying themselves as republican. What do you think at this moment the state of the Republican Party is . I think its if a bit of disarray and i think its in danger. Joe scarborough left for a reason. Were talking about this for a reason. Right now donald trump is behaving in ways that many voters disapprove of. Hes behaving in ways that violate republican ort doeks all