i mean, do you think republicans are behind closed doors saying, where s this guy going? and concerned about that? well, i think republicans feel like there are a number of folks in the administration who are playing very important roles. i think rex tillerson s one of them, jim mattis is another, certainly john kelly. the question becomes if those individuals end up leaving the administration for some reason, then what? i think there is certainly concern about the future of those individuals because i think a lot of folks feel like they re the people who are there promoting in some ways i guess more traditional conservative viewpoints on a lot of these issues. without them the question is, what comes next? there s more uncertainty ask, that worries people. ben howe and lonny chen, thank you both. tonight, fed up with congress, the president signs an executive order as part of a continued and sustained effort to dismantle obamacare. what his latest effort actually accomplishes
spent probably 1,000 times as much air time talking about this legislation than the president of the united states did. so, i mean, that was part of it as well. lonny chen, thanks for being here. thanks, chris. a politics reporter for the daily beast, he s got a new report that jimmy kimmel got a hand from chuck schumer in his fight against obamacare repeal. aswin, tell me about this, tell me about the back and forth between kimmel and schumer. sure. well, ever since jimmy kimmel came out against republican obamacare repeal efforts months ago, democrats on capitol hill, not just chuck schumer s office, identified him as a sea media ally, or potential key media ally, in the fights to come over health care in this country. and as the graham-cassidy fight heated up, schumer s office saw this as an opportunity to reach back out to jimmy kimmel and his team on the west coast. having said that, sources close
the last 48 hours. last night, medicaid directors from every single state, all 50 states, red and blue, the very people who would be charged with implementing this bill, put out a unanimous statement arguing the legislation would weaken state programs. the most outspoken crusader against the bill was arguably late night host jimmy kimmel who used his national platform four nights in a row this week to slam republican efforts. lindsey graham, the senator who cowrote the bill, says donald trump is focused like a laser on health care. and i m guessing he means he s focused in the same way that cats on youtube are focused on lasers. i guarantee he doesn t know anything about this graham-cassidy bill. he doesn t know the difference between medicare and medicaid. i barely knows the difference between melania and ivanka. today kimmel had a message for john mccain. thank you, senator john mccain, for being a hero again and again and now again. lonny chen was the policy director for mitt ro
presidential campaign and wrote an op ed for the wall street journal this week arguing graham-cassidy is republicans last chance on obama care reform. lonny? what do you think? well, yeah, it was the last chance. and it looks like that last chance has gone away. i have a very difficult time seeing where the votes are on this. i mean, obviously there are still two sort of outstanding questions around lisa murkowski and susan collins. but i don t see either of those individuals voting for the bill. so i think this opportunity has passed for republicans. i mean, what is your diagnosis of why this keeps happening? well, i think there s a couple things, chris. i think people don t realize that republicans disagree a lot more on health care policy than people really understand. i think that drove the failure of the first effort back in june. you know, you talk about the medicaid expansion as a perfect example. you ve got some republicans like susan colins that come from states where
the legislation would weaken state programs. the most outspoken crusader against the bill was arguably late night host jimmy kimmel who used his national platform four nights in a row this week to slam republican efforts. lindsey graham, the senator who cowrote the bill, says donald trump is focused like a laser on health care. and i m guessing he means he s focused in the same way that cats on youtube are focused on lasers. i guarantee he doesn t know anything about this graham-cassidy bill. he doesn t know the difference between medicare and medicaid. i barely knows the difference between melania and ivanka. today kimmel had a message for john mccain. thank you, senator john mccain, for being a hero again and again and now again. lonny chen was the policy director for mitt romney s 2012 presidential campaign and wrote an op ed for the wall street journal this week arguing graham-cassidy is republicans last chance on obama care reform. lonny? what do you think? well, yeah, it