Reporter the white house defending the governments response. The federal response has been anything but slow. In fact, theres been an unprecedented push through of billions of dollars of federal assistance. Reporter but the president has spent the last three days tweeting repeatedly about nfl players who kneel during the national anthem. Mr. Trump, continuing to fan the flames on twitter monday night. Sources tell cnn that the president appears pleased with the firestorm he has created, telling a private dinner of conservative leaders its really caught on. I said what millions of americans were thinking. Administration officials tell cnn that Chief Of Staff john kelly is not happy with the public feud but the retired military general, who lost a son in the afghanistan war, agrees with the president on the substance of the debate. Meanwhile, nfl teams continue to show solidarity against President Trumps comments. The entire Dallas Cowboys team and team owner, jerry jones, taking a knee before the anthem at last nights game, then
voted for donald trump. Theres nothing been like puerto rico to the same degree. Partly because, unfortunately, these folks are not Trump Supporters and they are not top of mind. Im not talking about fema, just to be clear. Fema is on the ground there. He has to please his bosses as well. They are there in earnest. Its a very difficult situation. The president , im saying the president gave a speech to the u. N. Talking about sovereignty. These are americans on that island. They are without power almost a week. Combined damage total may be more than harvey and irma combined. Everybody is concerned but the president is tweeting more about nfl and Hillary Clinton than he is about the island and when he is, he seems to be dising the infrastructure. Is maria Donald Trumps katrina . Abby, when the president did finally tweet about puerto rico, he obviously focused more on their economic crisis, failing
infrastructure, which are true, but tone deaf. Wildly tone deaf while 3. 5 million americans are in dire straits down there. And wasnt that what john kelly was going to crack down on, making the message more pala palatab palatable . How do tweets like that, so roundly criticized as being insensitive, how do those sneak out . I think john kelly has not successfully cracked down on anything on the president s twitter account for over a week now. I guess you could argue over eight months now. The president is doing what he wants on social media and revealing his true feelings about the situation. I agree with john. Its really asounding that instead of a show of solidarity or sympathy for the people who are actually genuinely suffering right at this moment, the president sent 2 1 2 tweets
about the failures of the puerto rican government and the debt owed to wall street. Thats really not anywhere near what was happening at the federal level when it came to the other storms. Maybe the president has storm fatigue, but one of the challenges of leadership at this moment is that he has to kind of continue on. When there are all of these natural disasters happening at the same time, yeah, he has to focus on all of them with the same degree of intensity. It also doesnt help that, i think, over the weekend with all this focus on the nfl, you know, the president is feeling pretty combative right now, as you can see from his twitter feed and the comments he made at dinner last night with conservatives. Hes feel iing in a fighting mo. He has a great foe, chris, if
he wants to fight, right . Maria just about destroyed something that is under his responsibility as president of the United States. Yep. He could have thrown on his khakis, got on a military transport, jumped into puerto rico and ridden around like Teddy Roosevelt if he wanted to. He could own that situation. He could fight that need. He could fight that distress and show i am the builder. p. I will show you how its done in a time of need. And he seems to have all but ignored it. What was his twitter feed full of during hurricanes irma and harvey . Where did he go visit . He was quick to go to those places. He sent out lots and lots of tweets about those places. Thats the issue here. John makes this point. Theres clearly a difference in the way he approached those two storms. Which, by the way, in our polling he got very high marks for. Twothirds of people said he handled it quite well than the
way hes handling this. When abby was talking, the thing i remember when it comes to trump, the twitter feed is him. Right . Everything else that comes out of the white house is sort of the form Al Mechanisms of government. His people, his aides. Twitter feed is him. During hurricanes irma and harvey tons of tweets about those hurricanes, very focused on it clearly. It was taking up his mind space. Now nfl, Luther Strange, that vote being today in alabama. Nothing on the hurricane until last night. Lets be honest. Donald trump is a consumer of television. The criticism of him was starting to ramp up and so out came a tweet that was to counteract that. If you look at his tweets up until last night, there were 14 or so about the nfl and zero
about puerto rico. That tells you what you need to know. There was also criticism on twitter. People reacting to his tone deaf tweets. Marc anthony, famous singer, j. Los ex. Mr. President shut the blank up about nfl. Do something about the people in need in puerto rico. And then hey President Trump you cant wait that long. There will be a lot of american deaths if you wait that long. He was talking about the presidency measure, that it might not happen until october. 10,000 federal fema employees helping out. There are 3. 5 Million People without power who need help. Right. Still without power. An airport is basically shut down with people trying to get out. Massive devastation at a scale greater than harvey and irma. Its this problem that it doesnt seem real to folks. And it does require theres the opportunity for leadership, as chris expressed. Be the builder. This is a new yorker, who should understand instinctively that Pewter Reekians are fellow americans. Its great that the federal government is there. More needs to be done. He has been distracted by these other things speaks, as chris said, where his head is at. And, abby, he has a great year for cultural divide. Whey wooi do you think he dived is it dove or dived . Dove. Dove into the situation . The lack of understanding as to why he did this. This is a no brainer. He loves the culture war. He always has. Of course hes going to look at this nfl and say this is easy, especially with the Luther Strange situation going on. I will take care of that right now with the nfl. It has to be working for him. I was in the crowd in alabama friday when the president gave that speech and he was right. They really ate it up. They loved it. It tells you everything you need to know about why the president did it. He was in a mostly white crowd acres state that has a long history of racial tensions where he knew that a message like this would resonate and would resonate loudly. It all teed up to this moment in which he went really farther than he has ever gone before with the rhetoric on this issue. The president is in situation
where he needs to shore up his base. He talked about this as a candidate. He talked about Colin Kaepernick needs to find a new country if he doesnt want to stand for the national anthem. He has talked about all of this stuff. Cultural wars were part of this campaign. He was delivering on that promise friday night and at a time when health care is stalling, when he the wall is not built. There was a build the wall chant at that rally in alabama. Frankly, it was kind of awkward, because the wall is not built. And the president needs to deliver for his base in one way or another. And this is a really easy way for him to do it and do it quite effectively. Go ahead, john. Look, the president has an instinct politically for the divisive, for the culturewar theme. He knows it. He goes after t the execution, the followthrough almost always
theres major blowback. This will blow back in ways he hasnt expected with the base and with other folks. This was a fairly isolated protest that didnt have an enormous amount of sympathy. Lets be honest with that. With the president weighing in, attacking individuals and statements of conscience all of a sudden you have a Broad Coalition of players, owners and people who care about the nfl that say theyre identifying with the kneel and elevating this issue. The blowback will be something he doesnt expect. I also think very quickly, to add to johns point, look, abby is completely right about the point scoring. He looks at the nfl and sees things. Rich, in his mind, entitled, and mostly black. So, in the culture wars, thats a Hanging Curveball to hit. The problem is, if, as president , you are primarily focused on dividing the country
via issues yes, you can do it. Yes, it will work for some people. It will be motivational for a group of people. The problem is, youre the president of the United States. Your job is not to find ways in which to divide the country. It is, theoretically, to find ways in which to unite the country. Sara sanders, the head shaking moment for her yesterday was this is not about what hes against. This is about what hes for. Straight faced when she said it. I dont know how a reasonable mind can come to that conclusion. Im not saying hes not right on the issue. When the polls come out, when you ask the American People thats not the point. But thats all hes thinking about, chris. Of course. Thats where his head is. People will say, yeah, you should stand and thats good enough for him. Its been very telling that the white house has not been able to find any nuance whatsoever in the protests at the nfl, whereas there was all the nuance to be found after
charlottesville. Stick around till 7 30 eastern time, everybody. You will hear our latest Trump Voter Panel weighin on all of these things. They all voted for President Trump and, to a person, they are upset with him talking about this with the nfl. So youll hear their rationale. I was surprised by that. I thought we would see camerota take off the heels and be chased around. Its just a question. But its a little counterintuitive today. Worth the watch. Big day this was supposed to be do you know what this week was supposed to be about, right . Health care. Remember, the window is closing for the republicans to get through a bill with just a simple majority, but nothing is simple now. Is it dead, this Health Care Bill . If so, will the battle go somewhere from here . We have answers, ahead. When i look
in the mirror everyday. When i look in the mirror everyday. Everyday, i think how fortunate i am. I think is today going to be the day, that we find a cure . I think how much i can do to help change peoples lives. I may not benefit from those breakthroughs, but im sure going to. Im bringing forward a treatment for alzheimers disease, yes, in my lifetime, i will make sure. Can i get some help. Watch his head. Im so happy. Whatever they went through, they went through together. Welcome guys. Life well planned. See what a Raymond JamesFinancial Advisor can do for you. About to see progressives new home quote explorer. Where you can compare multiple Quote Options online and choose whats right for you. Woah. Flo and jamie here to see hqx. Flo and jamie request entry. Slovakia. Triceratops. Tapioca. Racquetball. Staccato. Me llamo jamie. Pumpernickel. Pudding. Employee hey, guys home quote explorer. Its Home Insurance made easy. Password was hey guys. For it. Do you know what the most Popular HealthInsurance Program in america is . Its not the private insurance industry. It is medicare. Medicare, yeah. My good friend, bernie, obamacare is a place holder for bernie care. Bernie care is socialism full born. He is a nice man. If you want medicare for all, youre going to wind up with medicare for nobody. Youll have a card without a real choice. A lot to discuss. Lets bring in our Political Panel back. Chris cillizza, abby and john avla. I could watch them debate all night long. It was nice to see people with very different ideas, they do not agree fundamentally. I got that. But how they disagreed is how democracy thats how it should work. Theres no youre crazy. Get out of my face. Youre crazy but i kind of like you. It was about ideas and let people digest it with their own argument. It was refreshing. It really was. Thats not the way the washington, d. C. Has been working. That was a good moment. Deeply disagree on the issues. Nobody called an s. O. B. Who would have thunk it . Will there be a vote on gr Graham Cassidy . Im not sure that Mitch Mcconnell will want to put something up for a vote that doesnt have the support. Based on the folks who are a no and the options that are available to them to mullify both sides. If they do anything to Target Collins and murkowski at this point, rand paul will be even more staunchly a no. Then you might lose folks like ted cruz and mike lee. I dont think the cards are
there. Frankly, you know, President Trump has been, for two days now basically, been saying ive moved on. Lets get on to tax reform. One more beat on how they disagreed last night, how they voiced descent. John mccain has, once again he has been a big nail in the balloon for this, okay . And this was very tough for Lindsey Graham to take. Listen to how Lindsey Graham discussed john mccains descent on this bill. Dear friend. He is one of my dearest friends in the world and john mccain can do whatever damn he wants to. He has earned that right. [ applause ] john, if youre listening, if we fall short well try to have a better process. Nobody respects you more than i do. So to any american who has a problem with john mccains vote, all i can tell you is that john mccain was willing to die for this country and he can vote any way he wants to. And it Doesnt Matter to me. [ applause ] thats touching. Yes. Look, it was real. It was human. And also, cillizza, please, tell me if im wrong. Who would come out and bash mccain for his vote . Right. The president of the United States is going to come out and bash him for his vote. It does seem were in a weird space where people dont want to take trump on directly. They dont want to take the beating and the backlash. Trump is an active enemy. It was a huge and stark contrast we saw from the men and women on that stage versus what were seeing out of the white house. But this, again, goes to sort of the one way he has one speed. He just does. His speed is full forward and attack, whether its the nfl, whether its crooked hillary, whether its john mccain, jeff flake. We only have show is only three hours long so im not going to list everybody. But that is what he does. Its what he feels most comfortable doing. And he doesnt seem to grasp the
difference. Again, i feel like we could talk about this every day. Theres a difference between being a candidate for president and being president. We saw that very clearly in charlottesville, that it was, well, on many sides and then unwillingness to admit that he was wrong. We see it again, in my opinion, with the nfl versus the puerto rico disaster. He is focused on something he believes can score him political points. What will he focus on tomorrow if his chosen candidate doesnt win . He will almost in alabama . He will almost certainly attack Mitch Mcconnell and Senate Republicans because also, by the way, they are not going to get health care done. Abby was nice about it. Ill be less nice. It seems i would be stunned if somehow 50 votes came out of this thing, that these people are against it and theyre going to stay against it. Theyre already sharpening the knives to go after mcconnell inside the white house. Yep. And lets be real about this, though. The president rails against people when health care fails. When its a critical period hes off talking about anything else. This is someone who makes Richard Nixon look like a uniter not a divider. Lindsey graham, ability to disagree. That is lacking. The white house is without moral leadership and the president doesnt seem interested to try to play in that space. Last point . The president also seems to keep attacking people that he needs to vote for his policy, attacking john mccain, susan collins, lisa murkowski, rand paul, whoever it is, is not going to work. Frankly, thats the one thing that he keeps doing that is very counterproductive in this process. Lets talk about something astonishing. You were just going to spit it out there. You realized how much trouble
that would have given us. It needs a qualifier. Six white house advisers to the president , some before the president got into the white house, some current, have been using private email accounts to do government business. They include ivanka trump, steve bannon, reince priebus, gary cohn. And jared kushner. Here is the pushback. Well jump to the chase. Sure. No server. To give it more context, Hillary Clinton, obviously, was the poster child for this issue of what was disclosed and not disclosed. She spoke about this, right . Do we have sound from her on this . Here it is. And the hypocrisy of this administration, who knew there was no real scandal, who knew that there was no, you know, basis for all their hyperventilating. And now were finding, as with
the latest revelations, that they didnt mean any of it. Right. Its just the height of hypocrisy. First, admit, you were about to huff and puff on me about the ser