Up for the people of this country. What would be tougher than fire and fury . Well, youll see. Youll see. Mr. President , do you have any response to the russian president expelling 755 workers from our embassies . No, i want to thank him. Because were trying to cut down on payroll. As far as im concerned, im very thankful that he let go of a large number of people. Because now we have a smaller payroll. How would you categorize your relationship with attorney general sessions . Have you spoken about some of the differences in the past . Its fine. It is what it is. Everybody else theres no collusion, you look at the councils, we have a senate hearing, we have judiciary, we have intelligence, and we have a house hearing. And everybody walks out, even the enemies well, there is no collusion, there is no collusion. So theyre investigating something that never happened. Mr. President , have you thought about or considered leading this special counsel . Is there anything that would send you in that direction . I havent given it any thought. Ive been reading about it from you people. Im not dismissing anybody. I want them to get on with the task. Mitch, get to work and lets get it done. They should have had this last one done. They lost by one vote for a thing like that to happen is a disgrace, and frankly it shouldnt have happened. That i can tell you. Now as majority leader . Well, i tell you what, if he doesnt get repeal and replace done, and he doesnt get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, if he doesnt get infrastructure done, then you can ask me that question. Reporter do you have full confident in your National Security adviser . Yes, i do. General mcmaster . Absolutely. Hes our friend. Hes my friend, hes talented, i like him and are the him. Ive always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man. And he is like a lot of other people. Probably makes consultant fees from all over the place. Who knows. I dont know. But i thought that was a very that was pretty tough stuff. Why did you decide to announce the transgender ban reversal a couple of weeks ago . I think i have great support or ive had great support from that community. I got a lot of votes. But the transgender, the military is working on it now. Theyre doing the work. Its been a very difficult situation, and i think im doing a lot of people a favor by coming out and just saying it. Lets see what he does with guam. He does something in guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before, what will happen in north korea. And when you say that, what do you mean . Youll see. Youll see, and hell see. So with that on the table, lets dig in. Joining us is jeff toobin and cornell, William Brooks and ana navarro. Theres so much to talk about, what what he said, just in mcconnell, what he said about north korea, the expulsions. This is probably the most weve heard from President Trump certainly since the solo press conference he gave early on in his administration. And not surprising reporters were itching to ask him so many questioning. I cover russia and i completely forgot about putin expelling the diplomats because there is so much going on. This was smart of the president could come out and address so many of these issues, not just doubling down on north korea. I think a lot of people were expecting him to at least calm some nerves. He didnt do that. He said if anything i should have been tougher. And you heard my defense secretary, and he even spoke harsher than i did. In another sense, i think youre reminded of how much chaos is constantly going on surrounding this administration and washington, that its hard to focus on one issue, even if were talking about potential nuclear war. Senator huckabee held up a question and he blew through that. Its chaos or lack of discipline. The fact that we have a president who tweets by the moment, who opines on every issue from the top of his head is not a reassuring idea. Particularly with the country. Literally quite anxious about going into a nuclear war. And where you have a president literally has a message thats all over the place with respect to the russians, with respect to the russians, with respect to the North Koreans, with respect to his cabinet secretaries. This is alarming. It is a reflection of a fundamental lack of discipline that starts at the top. For all the talk we heard from tillerson about diplomat diplomacy and well talk more about north korea later, but the president did essentially highlight a confrontation, a looming confrontation on august 15th over guam, basically going head to head against north korea. And somebodys got blink. He is still in a different place than his defense secretary. What he said is that if there are continuing threats. The words he used was if there are more threats, there would be fire and fury. Mattis said if theres action, there will be a military response. Whats the american policy . I dont know. Those two things are different. There have been more threats since the president made that statement, and we havent done anything. So was that an empty threat on the part of the president . I dont know. But its quite clear there is not a clear position of the administration on that issue. Rex tillerson is in charge of our state department and in Rex Tillerson is a man of extraordinary probity. And the president has confidence in secretary tillerson. Does he . Because there have been a lot of reports that tillerson is kind of on the outs and not in the inner circle. I have a feeling that if the president lacked confidence in secretary tillerson, we ewould have have heard or seen something more about that today. The fact or to date, lets say. The fact that the president put general kelly in charge in the white house as chief of staff indicates i think that he understands that there has to be i mean, he is a message communicator. Thats obvious. He should be taken seriously, not always literally as weve discussed many times. What does that mean . So north korea should not take him literally in what he says . No, we there is rhetoric that occurs at the political level from every nation, every participants, including north korea. What the president is expressing is that hes resolute in ensuring that the United States, the people of the United States will not be put will not be compromised by north korea. And we have the power to defend ourselves. Is a verbal threat something that hes drawn a red line on, or is it actually a military launch . Well, we have examples of in fact, just from the past administration of president s who drew red lines and then proceeded to ignore them when push came to threats. A red line about threats and im trying to understand, is it literal. The president has expressed rhetorically great resolve to ensure that we will not be put at risk nor compromised by north korea. I think thats what every american wants to hear, and then im going to need asterisk from the Trump Supporters who let me know when i should say take stuff literally, when i should interpret it like abstract art, when i should take it figuratively, when i should take it as a joke, when i should take it not seriously, when its not english, when its madeup words. You are make absolutely no sense. Thats not true. How do normal people seeing him on a daily basis. What do you not understand about what the president said . I dont understand where the coherence is what hes saying and what tillerson is saying, i dont understand where it leads. I dont understand what general mattis said is an attack on allies or the u. S. What the president says are threats. Theyve been making all these threats and they cant make any more. I think we can draw a rhetorical continuum among all these things. A rhetorical continuum. Am i the only one that finds that really funny . Apparently. There is nothing incoherent about what is being presented by the United States government, and the state department, Heather Nauert said it yesterday, they stand as one. So more power than the world has ever seen. What does that mean to you . The United States has more, possesses more power than the world has ever seen. The most power the world has ever seen is nagasaki and hiroshima. It goes beyond that. We obviously have the greater military in the world. So any more threats from north korea, they are going to see more power than the world has ever seen . North koreas military power is dwarfed by that of the United States. I think thats fairly obvious. And i think thats what the president is expressing. And he is expressing that but he is expressing it in different words. Just as kim jong un is speaking to the north korean people, President Trump is also speaking to the American People. My god, i would hope the American People hold the president of the United States to a higher standard than a dictator in north korea. How does the president sound like a dictator . Where is that . The North Koreans have announced that kim jong un has golfed a perfect golf game. He was born on a mountaintop. What im saying is that leaders of nations and kim jong un is a dictator. He is a horrible dictator. But he communicates to his people just like the president communicates. Every leader. The only accurate thing tonight. Theresa may communicates with great britain. Not in the way that north korea does. But theresa may has never shot an 18 holes in one. Im a golfer. Thats a very good score. Dont you think the president missed an opportunity to actually out the something that we saw 15 doesnt countries all voted unanimously. Yes, hes been saying that. He said today we shouldnt pay too much attention to that. Instead of talking about teaming up with our allies around the world against north korea, hes seemingly put us in a position where anything god forbid happens, we could be accused of provoking a situation. It seems like tuesday right now is a confrontation between the north korea and u. S. Over guam. Thats what the president was saying today. He was saying if theres a launch against guam, were going to see what it is what the president has also said is that he is and look, the position we had toward north korea in presidencies past, including in the last administration, most conspicuously was one of socalled, you know, strategic patience, which essentially meant passive complacency. If anything, enriched the North Koreans via iran, which has had a distinct axis of commerce with north korea. President trump is now determined to express the fact that we will no longer enrich north korea. Well will no longer tolerate north korean aggression. And he stands with the state department and the department of defense who are prepared to marshall whatever strategic patience people are going to need to survive the trump presidency. Got us to where we are today. Lets be clear about this. This is the difference between strategic patience which the president is frustrated by and the lack of rhetorical patience. That is the time it takes for something to come into his mind and pop out of his mouth. The fact of the matter is, this is a very serious and dangerous moment. When which we think about president kennedy doing the cuban missile crisis and his insistence that the state department and the white house be on the same page with respect to the message. And they are. Which presumes that there is a message. It just seems they had to come come out quickly and give a message than what the president said yesterday. Well drill down deeper on this a little later. Another jab at the man who is supposed to be his leading ally. Another slap at Mitch Mcconnell today. And whether as biana said, his language is actually limiting the room for his anticipation of war. music stops bell rings [man lets go ] man 2 were not coming out man 1 [ sighs ] flo [ amplified ] i got this. Guys, i know being a firsttime homeowner is scary, but you dont have to do this. Man 2 what if a tree falls on our garage . Woman what if a tornado rips off our roof . Flo youre covered. And youve bundled your home and auto insurance, so youre saving a ton. Come on. You dont want to start your new life in a dirty old truck. Man 3 hey. Man 1 whoa, whoa. Flo sorry. Woman oh. Flo youre safe. Youre safe now. Woman i think im gonna pass out. Can you stop using the bullhorn . 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The ongoing feud between President Trump and Mitch Mcconnell, although it seems one way at this point continued today with a new threat about whether the senator should keep his job. It came about after the senator blamed the senates failure to repeal and replace obamacare. Here is part of the president s remarks. I said mitch, get to work and lets get it done. They should have had this last one done. They lost by one vote. For a thing like that to happen is a disgrace. And frankly, it shouldnt have happened. That i can tell you. It shouldnt have happened. Consider step do you think. Some conservative analysts say its time for him to retire. I tell you what, if he doesnt get repeal and replace done, and if he doesnt get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, and if he doesnt get a very easy one to get done, infrastructure, if he doesnt get them done, then you can ask me that question. What is that . You can ask me that means ask me that question. Lets hope he gets it done. Well, this most recent round ramped up again when senator mcconnell said the president had, quote, excessive expectations of how Fast Congress can move on repealing and replacing obamacare because he didnt have enough experience. Back now with the panel. Ana, have you seen a situation like this where the president is going after a member of his own party . Yes, two weeks ago when he was using Jeff Sessions as his republican pinata. And a week after that when he was going after lisa murkowski. So this is something he does traditionally. Frankly i think Mitch Mcconnell needs to step up and push back. He is the majority leader. Right now he looks like a submissive wimp. If he doesnt want to get pushed around by the president of the United States, he needs to remind of president that the congress is a coequal branch and he needs to push back and show a spine. But for the president s base, for who distrusts congress, who distrusts washington, this probably works for the president to suddenly be saying im the guy on the sidelines, you know, as angry as you are all about whats going on in the senate. Except were seeing that his bases patience is going down as well and wear thing. You have to wonder, aside from just the fact this is a president who cannot speak ill of Vladimir Putin, but can go after members of his own cabinet and his own party, what is the logic . What is the end game here . You dont have health care. You have a budget battle that youre facing within weeks. And by the way, if this Russian Investigation does heat up, youre going need this republicans support. And the more he publicly fights within his own party the end game is taking claim of the victories, but not owns the defeats. And what are the victories . In fairness to the press, what the president was saying, the congress is less popular than he is. So beating up on congress is not necessarily a bad political move. And hes also not wrong about their failure to repeal and replace obamacare. Theyve been talking about that for seven years. Thats right. But the problem is ultimately the buck stops with the president. But i dont think attacking congress and you remember bill clinton did what was called the triangulation in those days when he positioned him will have between the democrats and republican, and alienated some people within his own party. Hes not the first president to tangle with members of his own party and congress, who ultimately he does need. But by personalizing his animus with congress, treating Mitch Mcconnell like a candidate on the apprentice, demeaning the majority leader, this does not advance a legislative agenda. While congress may not be popular relative to President Trump, six months, a year from now when the president hasnt gotten anything done, hell be less popular than they are. Hes got to get something accomplished and you dont get anything accomplished by picking fights with everyone, every day. Youre a member of congress. Does it hurt your feelings . How does he do it . Herein lies the key to success for the congress, for the president , for the nation. Its the filibuster in the senate on legislation. They broke the filibuster, they busted the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees to eleva Supreme Court gorsuch. They need to do that now on legislation. What is holding us back i understand the president is angry and expressing the anger of the American People. And as as a republican am angry. Go nuclear on congress . No, i didnt realize you were so warlike. But no, in terms of the senate, what were talking about is a pe pequisite, basically, a prerogative of senators only in the u. S. Senate is a majority 60. Thats an outrage. Thats what is holding us back. And it is a false because they couldnt get 60 for health care. But heres why. When you try to craft a bill under the terms of reconciliation, the path is so na