Report accusing congress of disarming the dea and helping to fuel the Opioid Epidemic in the country. Did the president s nominee for drug czar help push through that law . Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. The Republican Party has never been more unified, President Trump said today, except for a few hours earlier maybe when the president was blaming Senate Republicans for, quote, not getting the job done legislatively. He was backing former white house chief strategist steve bannon who declared a, quote, bloody civil war against republican members of congress up for reelection next year. Bannon blamed them for stalling the president s agenda and President Trump said today, quote, i can understand fully how steve bannon feels. Which is a funny way to express unity and support for congressional republicans. Cnns senior White House Correspondent jeff zeleny starts us off today from greenville, South Carolina, where President Trump will be this evening to fundraise for the incumbent republican governor. My relationship with this gentleman is outstanding. Has been outstanding. Reporter President Trump breaking the ice today with Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell. Its too soon to know if theyve buried the hatchet. Were fighting for the same thing. Were fighting for lower taxes, big tax cuts. The biggest tax cuts in the history of our nation. Were fighting for tax reform as part of that. Reporter with their vastly different styles on full display, two men stood sidebyside in the rose garden trying to make nice and hoping to smooth over the insults and infighting flying between them for weeks. Contrary to what some of you may have reported, we are together totally on this agenda. Reporter the republican tax cut plan is a critical test for whether the white house and congress can actually govern. Its an incentive for trump and mcconnell to come together, despite a civil war raging inside the gop. The president s embrace of mcconnell stood in contrast to weeks of blaming and shaming him for failing to repeal obamacare. We should have had health care approved. He should have known that he had a couple of votes that turned on him. Reporter and today, mcconnell did not question mr. Trumps grasp of the presidency. As he did this summer. Our new president has, of course, not been in this line of work before. And i think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen. In the democratic process. Reporter after a private lunch today, the president took questions for nearly 45 minutes. As mcconnell watched and occasionally joined in. It was an unusual sign of unity, considering trump loyalists like steve bannon had declared war on mcconnell and the republican establishment. Yeah, mitch, the donors are not happy. Theyve all left you. Weve cut your oxygen off, mitch, okay . Reporter but the show of solidarity at the white house today sent a clear signal the president is far less interested in tearing down the Republican Party than bannon, his former chief strategist, is. Steve is doing what steve thinks is the right thing. Some of the people he may be looking at im going to see if we talk them out of that, because, frankly, theyre good people. Reporter mcconnell did not mention bannon by name but he warned against to mount primary efforts against republican senators. You have to nominate people who can win because winners make policy and losers go home. Reporter his impromptu freewheeling News Conference to an end. Taking questions on one topic after another. He each look ahead to his next election, raising an improbable scenario. I hope hillary runs. Hillary, please run again. Reporter jake, of course, Hillary Clinton has said she will not run for president again, but President Trump is flying down to South Carolina to campaign for someone here who helped him out in his own president ial campaign, thats the governor of South Carolina. Jake, but the president s not doing any Public Events at all. Hes not selling or pushing his tax cut plan. And it is the future of that plan which will help indicate the future of the republican majority in congress and, in fact, his legislative agenda. All of which seemed overwhelmed a bit by that spectacle at the white house. All right. Jeff zeleny, thanks so much. Appreciate it. I want to bring in my Political Panel now. Scott jennings, hes a former special assistant to president george w. Bush. Senior political reporter niamalika henderson and cnn political commentator van jones, author of a brand new book called the messy truth. So lets dive right into it. This morning, the president says he understands why steve bannon declared war on the republican establishment. Scott, mcconnells pushback, we need people who can win elections in 2010, think it was. We nominated a whole bunch of tea partiers for want of a better term. And they lost all of their elections. We need people who can win. Thats his agenda. And obviously steve bannon has a completely opposite point of view. Well, first of all, the president is correct, i think, to channel and feel the frustrations of republicans who want to see things happen. Thats not an incorrect emotional impulse. Thats whats makes his political instincts so good, being able to channel those kinds kinds of feelings. However, his anger has been channelled at the wrong people. According to the 3538 website of 94 . What good is it to go to the senate and vote for all of trumps stuff if youre going to get a primary out there . I was pleased to see the president say he was going to talk to bannon about not recruiting primaries against the people actually on the trump team. Although i have to say, van, he didnt criticize bannon at all. He said he was going to talk to him. It was all very positive. This is a president who has been known to throw a punch or two. Yeah, one of the things thats very interesting is his whole brand is how authentic he is. He gets up there, transparently lies about how much he loves mcconnell and how much they get along, meanwhile, his best buddy is like sharpening the knives and getting ready to take the guy out. Maybe not as authentic today as he might pretend to be. Niamalika, how serious a threat is this bannon campaign . Bannon is talking about serious challenges to a whole bunch of, frankly, as scott points out, very conservative republicans. They happen to be establishment republicans, but they are very conservative. Barrasso wicker. Wicker. These are not these are not moderates. These are very conservative senators. Yeah, i mean, its serious because its bannon. Because bannon has a platform at breitbart. He also has money, right . Hes got this family who is backing this effort. His notion is that 2010 and 2014 were different and that now sort of this will be a perfect storm because i think he also understands that voters seem to think that he is with trump, right . And that he is fighting for trumps agenda. That he is ultimately sort of the outsider. Bannon is. Y trump is as well. With that kind of organizations, perhaps its something you have to take more seriously. I mean, think the issue comes with what kind of candidates theyre going to be able to recruit and will they be candidates that are able to be vetted and can really withstand not only a primary, make it through the primary, but then to a general election . Thats something thats hard to do. The deeper problem here is just the poison from a bannon. You get to put out there the idea that even if you support trump, you still have to move further right. Thats not how youre going to get your constituency any real help. You still are going to have democrats there. At some point, youve got to have people who can work together. You have bannon now who is going to make people terrified to actually make the government function, and thats win or lose, we all lose on that. Scott, at some point, the president s going to have to choose between steve bannon and mitch mcconnell. These primary fights are going to be very difficult. You cant straddle them. At some point, bannons candidates are going to be challenging mcconnells guys like wicker. Yeah, it would be i think catastrophic for the president to choose against people who are voting with him on almost every single vote. That would send a terrible signal for future legislative exchanges. So im hopeful that the president has a continued dialogue with senator mcconnell about what it means to understand that politics is a team sport. Everyone, stick around. Lots more to talk about after the break, including the president s thoughts on who he would like to see run against him in 2020. Stay with us. And now, i help people find discounts, like paperless, multicar, and safe driver, that help them save on their car insurance. Any questions . Yeah. How do you go to the bathroom . Great. Any insurancerelated questions . Mmhmm. Do you have a girlfriend . Uh, im actually focusing on my career right now, saving people nearly 600 when they switch, so. Wheres your belly button . [ sighs ] ive got to start booking better gigs. [ sighs ] if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,. Isnt it time to let the real you shine through . Maybe its time for Otezla Apremilast . Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. 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Scott jennings, former special assistant to president george w. Bush. Senior police reporter, niamalika henderson, and van jones, who is the author of a brandnew book beyond the messy truth. Available on amazon today. President trump today weighing in on Hillary Clinton and more it take a listen. I hope hillary runs. Is she going to run . I hope. Hillary, please run again. When you take a knee thats why she lost the election. I mean, honestly, its that thinking that is the reason she lost the election. Interestingly, niamalika, you said, explain. I said hes essentially saying she was on the wrong side of the culture war and its something that youve heard bannon talk about, this idea if you give democrats talking about race and racism, that republicans have an answer for that. And donald trump does have an answer for that. He very much revels in the culture wars. Its something i think that unifies his base, which is largely white. Which really straddles all economic classes as well as largely evangelical christian as well. So he knows hes on firm ground. I thought that was an apt diagnosis in many ways in one of the reasons that contributed to Hillary Clintons loss. Its one of the things weve heard when democrats criticize Hillary Clintons campaign is that there was too much about bathrooms and not enough about jobs. Its true. I mean, i think at the end of the day, shes not president and he is. Weve now had two president s in a row that didnt like kaepernicks protests, but look at the way obama handled it. Obama said, you know what, there are probably better ways to deal with it. I want kaepernick to listen to the people he may be offending and i want those people to listen to him. He used it as a moment to get some understanding and dialogue going and not to actually throw n more gasoline on the fire. Thats part of the problem we have. Its why i wrote the book i wrote. I went around the country. It seems like there is a lot of common pain out there but no common purpose. Increasingly politicians are using the division in the country for their end but not for the countrys gains. What do you think, scott . I think donald trump is right. After eight years of obama, a lot of people, particularly in the middle of the country, felt we had been dragged very far to the left. Almost to make the country unrecognizable in their view were reacting to that. Think thats why she lost the election in the states she did. For donald trump on the nfl issue, he doesnt care what people think in the urban centers, making sure people in michigan, pennsylvania and ohio are still with him emotionally. But isnt that awful . That he doesnt care. Heres the deal, the conservative movement doesnt rationally have to go around antagonizing urban folks. Conservatives could say, hey, you guys are complaining about lack of opportunity, lack of justice. Were conservatives. We care about that and we can help you. I dont like your symbols, but the sums of your complaint, i care about that. Im going to call you in and talk to you. Theyre not doing that. Doesnt that long term hurt the country . I think there are some republicans who heard what you have had to say about criminal Justice Reform and have acted on it. Think in the case of the pft, in the case of any firstterm president. Theyre looking at the connectivity they have to have with the people to win reelection. 80,000 votes in the middle of the country made donald trump president. If he loses those people, hes a oneterm president. He can keep all of those people and show he cares about folks in urban america. Here is the problem. Weve now gotten to a point where its a 12month fouryear campaign and we dmenever get ard to governing for all the people. Thats whats wrong. I dont think the Republican Party you can win with this stuff for a little while, long term, we cant fight about everything and still have a country. Hes not done one thing yet to reach out to the people that those guys are out there taking a knee for. Thats wrong. Every now and then we hear Something Like for instance when President Trump was talking about working with pelosi and schumer on the d. R. E. A. M. Ers, although that seems to be kind of off the table now, but every now and then there does seem to be i think, oh, he does realize he needs do do better than 45 . He could actually win reelection easily if he tried to expand his base instead of only focus on his base. It doesnt happen very often. Its sort of he changes his mind. It seems to be of the moment, the daca thing, where he seemed to suggest they had reached some sort of a deal. Chuck and nancy came out and said as much. Then he, again, had to talk about the wall and make that a part of whatever deal there is. That is him obviously trying to deliver on what his base wants. All right. Van jones, scott jennings, niamalika henderson, thanks one and all. Van jones, congratulations on the book. Thank you. A shocking condition from the north korea. The regime says it will not consider diplomacy until it has a missile that can reach the east coast of the United States. Tech so you think this chip is nothing to worry about . Well at safelite, we know sooner or later every chip will crack. These friends were on a trip when their windshield got chipped. So they scheduled at safelite. Com. They didnt have to change their plans or worry about a thing. Ill see you all in a little bit. And i fixed it right away with a strong repair they can trust. Plus, with most insurance a safelite repair is no cost to you. Customer really . tech being there whenever you need us thats another safelite advantage. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Wont replace the full value of your totaled new car. 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This response came just hours after secretary of state tillerson told me that the president does not think diplomacy with north korea is a waste of time, as he once tweeted. Cnns will ripley, who has been to north korea more tha