Page 896 - Midterm News Today

Because this is beneath the dignity of the president of the united states, or at least it should be, and its a distraction. >> distraction from their agenda, which also should be the presidents agenda. take a look. these are some of the items that he ran on. as you can see from top to bottom, theres a lot either unaccomplished or incomplete, and other than justice gorsuch and minor legislation, no major legislative accomplishments other than that. back with the panel now. scott, obviously somebo...

Effort stalls, president trump potentially doesnt have this sort of hanging around his neck. look, theres two sometimes discore dent means. one is the commitment to repeal obamacare, the second thing is taking care of voters in west virginia, ohio, places where theres high medicaid numbers, opioid addiction. this really is very important both to the presidents personal pledge as well as to the republicans midterm calculations. i would say this, if you look at the calendar ahead, a week from now ...

Even as these investigations about possible collusion between his aides and the russians continue to move ahead. and so i think theyre going to keep it on syria, north korea, ukraine, other type issues that are important. >> ands in recent days, complained president obama didnt do enough telling the russians to stop it when he knew what was going on as far as last summer is concerned. it he doesnt do it this time hell be bitterly criticized. >> i agree. elise is think is right. he wont bring thi...

Want to have town halls. a alice, you said what he cares about was winning. i agree with that, but he seems to care about winning for trump. he seems to be in it still for himself and brand winning, that sort of thing. so perhaps this weekend he plans to read the bill. but what he cares about is, are we going to have something i can brag about, that i know i helped get done. how is this going to affect the people of this country whether they voted for me or not. so, lfr, notherefore, none of t m...

A little bit longer. >> julie: so you think they should taper it and move on? >> think about this. when can we get it right, not fast, but right, the move on to tax reform. everyone across the board, whether you are a democrat, independent, republican, you want sort of tax reform. it is better for the economy. get those under your belt and then tackle health care later. it took obama years to do it. the g.o.p. is trying to do it in five years. >> julie: this could bite them where it hurts if the...

Reincarnation of lsh j. >> lbj. >> masterful in denying when republicans in the minority, harry reid, keeping republicans disciplined to block things. >> right. >> to keep obama for his agenda. we havent seen the republicans able to pass a big signature republican initiative thats controversial. a different challenge. >> and timing is an issue. politically you want it done quickly. deliver something to the american people and prove it works. not something before the midterm thats a huge question...

Its going to cost a lot of money to a lot of americans, and so because theres no good answer, theyre hiding out on the process heading into a midterm election year where when you look at all of these special elections, i think the conventional wisdom that says, hey, republicans have been on a streak misses the point. the republicans have been underperforming very badly. their historical vote returns in these special election districts. so republicans should tread very carefully here on something...

So because theres no good answer, theyre hiding out on the process heading into a midterm election year where when you look at all of these special elections, i think the conventional wisdom that says, hey, republicans have been on a streak misses the point. the republicans have been underperforming very badly. their historical vote returns in these special election districts. so republicans should tread very carefully here on something so unpopular affecting so many people heading into the midt...

Were writing this bill, they were quietly having parts of it scored so they could test things and see how it came out. if there was a piece they didnt like, didnt like the score, they tweaked it and made some changes. theyre not going to be completely surprised by the cbo score the way house republicans were. having said that, theyre not expecting to get a score that makes it looks all rosie and wonderful and gets the votes. what theyre looking to do is make changes via amendments or other writt...

And that is really what we are seeing in that area. israel is very much maintaining a presence along the border and coordinating with rebels along that area. they are by no means staying completely out of the fighting. >> jon: hoping this thing doesnt spread even more. thank you. >> heather: back here at home, wealthy donors warning the g.o.p. that the window to pass major legislation is drinking. what they believe congress should accomplish before the midterm. our panel debates. what in the wor...