Transcripts For CNNW Wolf 20170913 : vimarsana.com

Accusations that former Trump National security adviser Michael Flynn never disclosed another trip involving russia and a business deal. The evidence now in the hands of the special counsel Robert Mueller. This is cnn breaking news. We begin with breaking news from the aftermath of hurricane irma. There is a race to get victims the supplies they need, food, water, communications, and power and now is, police in hollywood, florida, are investigating the deaths of six Senior Citizens, possibly due to a lack of electricity in their nursing home. Rescuers evacuated 115 people from that facility this morning. Listen to officials only moments ago. At this time, were conducting a criminal investigation into the matter. We have the Attorney Generals Office from the state here for medicare fraud, assisting us in the investigation. And also, the agency for Occupational Health that governs these types of facilities, assisted living facilities here to determine the regulations or any other violations. Our National Correspondent Miguel Marquez is in hollywood, florida, for us. Miguel, they just wrapped up a news conference. They provided some pretty somber very sober details. Update us. Reporter yeah, the doctor who was working at Memorial Hospital about 50 yards away from the two facilities where these individuals died. Said when he walked in the building around 6 00 a. M. This morning, it was awful. It was horrible conditions. Very, very hot. These elderly people had been in there for possibly days, possibly much of the night. A little conflicting information from the police. The initial press conference they said that the first calls came in at 4 00 a. M. Now theyre saying their police did not arrive till 6 00 a. M. At this facility. The very first call was for somebody who had a heart attack. The others expired from different respiratory issues due to the heat. Three of them expired after leaving the hospital and trying to get karat Memorial Hospital just about 50 yards away. After they left the facility. Saying another 12 patients are in critical right now and the death toll from this could rise. They are in the emergency room attal hospital. I want to sort of point out to you, the building in front of me, its two different facilities. The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills and the Larkin Community hospital. Those are not related to Memorial Hospital which is is this is the thing thats shocking here. This hospital is 50 yards away, and no one raised the alarm. There must have been other staff in that hospital at the time and nobody raise the the alarm. So a very, very concerning situation here. Larkin, the company that runs these two facilities says that they suffered a failure of power after irma came through and an employee told us they had generators starting on sunday night. They are rented out other generators. And that the temperature when he left last night was fairly comfortable. It is not clear. There is a criminal investigation going on now with the hollywood police. They are also checking all the other care facilities across their own town and alerting cities across florida clearly this is a state that has lots of care falls like this. And it will strike fear in many people who have their elderly parents and loved ones staying in these facilities and they urge them today to check on them, make sure theyre home whether theyre at a facility or at home or anywhere else. This is pretty shocking. At least a dozen others now in Critical Condition rushed to emergency rooms, presumably at Memorial Hospital right across the street. One of the best hospitals down there. I want you to stand by. Elizabeth cohen is joining us from florida right now. Youve done a lot of reporting on these Nursing Homes around florida, around the state and indeed, around the country. This is what so many people had feared going into irma. Whats going to happen to these elderly folks who cant simply move. Reporter right, its such a huge concern in this state. Thats why they have very strict rules here about standards for structures and for various services. Its unclear what happened here, wolf. But there are inspections by the state agency for health care administrations, theres an om but theman suppos om buds man in charge. We did look up some of the state reports. There were deficiencies listed in reports in hrs years. Thats not unusual. That often happens. The ones we saw were you pretty quickly corrected. So the question here is, what happened at this nursing home and why didnt the state should the State Government have anticipated that something might happen. What kind of history did this facility have . Thats going to be looked at in the coming days and weeks and im sure fort near the future than that. Theyve got to learn lessons from this awful experience to make sure it doesnt happen again. Elizabeth, stand by. Were joined right now by the mayor of hollywood, florida, josh levy. Thanks so much for joining us and our condolences on this awful situation. I know youre just beginning the investigation together with law enforcement. But what can you tell us about this horrible incident . Thank you, wolf. So as youve heard in the press conference, were certainly all you know very disappointed something liking this could have taken place. I think there were many ways Emergency Service coz have been alerted to this circumstance. And unfortunately, Emergency Services were called obviously too late. This is an area, hollywood florida, its right between miami, miami beach, and Fort Lauderdale. This is a pretty sophisticated area. Its not remote by any means, not down in the southern part of florida, the keys. This is a highly developed area which raises all sorts of questions. We knew there was concern about the elderly. How could this happen . You know, i think were all dumbfounded how this could happen knowing that there are so many opportunities for medical care and no less realize this privately held facility is next door literally 30 feet away from a Regional Hospital with tra ma units and the most sophisticated medical care around. The city is 100,000 people, one of the largest cities in the state. Large city. And you know what . Were upset about this. Were disappointed. You never know what goes on in the assisted living facilities or nursing facilities relied upon for supervision by their management staff and by their ownership. State regulations sure. I think this begs the question as to what regulations are in place in terms of Power Outages at these types of facilities. Are they required by state law to have emergency generators kicked in . This opportunity like you said at the top of your comments begs the question of how are we preparing these types of fas for multiday power out ands in the heat of summer. Do we know for sure, mr. Mayor, that this facility lost power . Because i know a lot of hollywood did lose power. But did this facility as far as you know, lose power . I can tell you from what i know, from what ive heard is that they did have apparently a generator, but whatever was running by that generator apparently the main air conditioning units for this facility that would take care of also the second floor apparently were out of commission. I cant speak exactly. Im not going to speak to the criminal investigation. Im not with law enforcement. You can understand certainly if it was hot, the main air conditioning unit was not working. Very sad story indeed. The mayor, mr. Mayor, were going to stay in very close touch with you. I want to reiterate, lessons have to be learned down the road, unfortunately, there will be more hurricanes down the road. The elderly and there are so many in south florida as we all know, florida has a huge retirement community. You got to make sure that we take care of these folks. I was deeply concerned going into the hurricane about the elderly especially in areas around miami and hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and unfortunately, this is a very tragic situation. We will stay in close touch with you, mayor. Thank you, wolf. Please if you can, use your ability to communicate through the airwaves that no matter where we are, texas, florida, the caribbean, where there is no power, please take steps right away to check on elderly neighbors and conduct welfare checks at assisted living facilities and anywhere you know there are elderly. Neighbors go out and knock on the doors and see if your neighbors are okay. They might need water than those of us that are younger. Critically important advice from josh levy, the mayor of hollywood, florida. Thank you once again for joining us. Down the florida coast, residents of the keys are still trying to get home. For so many, its been an emotional roller coaster. Fear as they fled the storm, nerves and sometimes anger as they wait ford officials to finally open the road so they could return followed by either relief or devastation as they saw their homes. Things arent looking great right now. Were just trying to clean up. And to the best that we can. Oh, my god, the roof. Seeing the house, are you okay. Right now im okay. Right now, my familys okay. Im okay. For people who stayed put and tried to ride out the storm, the hardest part has been letting loved ones know theyre okay which made our Satellite Phone a hot commodity. Hey. Jess. Im alive. John, its dan. Okay. We have some pretty good damage to our house and a lot of other things are washed away here. But i talked to a nice gentleman here with the best news service and the guy with the cnn camera, and im calling you on their Satellite Phone. And when we get Cell Phone Service back, well call you and tell you we wanted to let you know were okay. Yep. Were okay. Except its hot here. Theres no electricity. I still got a lot of whiskey and beer left. Its just getting warm. Im fine. Everyone is good. Please get in contact with mom and the rest of the cousins and friends. I cant even the waters still in the house. I cant even get in there yet, get ready. We need tarps. Drywall, roof, everything. Okay. Generators. Thats right. I love you, dad. People are grateful to chris cuomo for making that Satellite Phone available. These are the people that our correspondents and crews have been running into in the keys. I want to bring in our correspondent bill weir joining us right now. Bill, youve made it all the way down to key west right now. The highway hasnt reopened down there. How did you and your crew first of all make that trek and get to key west . Reporter well, wolf, we came by boat. Which if anything taught me after katrina, the roads will be really sketch . If theres one road, even more so. We find a kind captain by happenstance interviewing people on your show and he brought us down. We visited marathon key along the way. We were off the torng keys and saw utter devastation from both the intracoastal and oceanside. Were expecting the worst. I got to tell you, we get better news the further south we come. Right now were where we started friday night, corner of green and duval. Heres hemingways old joint. Its mostly tree damage in the most populace part of the keys down here. I just ran into Charlie Johnson a pilot for the harbor, the city harbor. Hes the guy who goes out and xwids big ships as they come to make port here. He had encouraging news. Take a listen. Pretty much surveyed the channel. It looks pretty good. We can bring ships in if theyre ready to come in. The buoys are out of position. Were not 100 sure what the depths are. Weve got to sound it so we know how deep it is, make sure theres no sunk boats out there. It looks pretty good. We talked with the coast guard. Have you heard of any fatalities of those who rode it out here . Absolutely none. Not a Single Person i know of has died. Reporter miraculous indeed. Whats the main you need . He said fuel. They need fuel to run generators to get restaurants and shops back open, get people back to life. Get lights going on. As far as the rest of the keys we just had a resupply convoy come down. According to them, these inflated these numbers of 90 of the homes in the keys being damaged is way over inflated 37 theyd put it roughly at 30 to 40 . If you lived in a mobile home, thats probably gone. If you lived in a house by the in the 60s, 70s, probably has damage but anything after andrew is holding up there. The power lines, the tie lines, extension cord that connects key west to the mainland sin tact visually it looks like like from the road. Most of the downed power lines are local. We saw rats nests of them out in the ocean coming in here. But that is a good sign, as well. At the northbound u. S. 1 line is damaged but is being repaired as we speak. They had road crews out there working on it. At mile marker 22, cudjoe key, the transmission lines are good despite that being near the fiercest part of the storm. Theres roof damage. As you come further south down, theres not even road debris in Sugarloaf Key theyre telling us. So the fickle fate of irma in some places complete devastation. Thats what we saw, the torch keys and cook island you can only access from the ocean completely obliterated but no loss of human life weve been able to confirm right now. Now its mostly discomfort as we wait to be resupplied as key west waits to get back in business. Wolf . They will eventually. But its going to take a long, long time. Bill weir who made it to key west. Well check back with you throughout the day. Thank you very, very much. Cnn is also live in the lower keys home to some of the worst destruction. Hear what john berman found when he joins us coming up live. Also, theres breaking news involving the russia investigation. Were getting word that the u. S. Justice department is blocking the u. S. Senate from interviewing fbi officials over the firing of the former fbi director james comey. Youre going to hear why. Also new democrats now some other democrats accusing former National Security adviser under President Trump Michael Flynn of breaking the law by not disclosing another trip and business deal involving russia. We have new information. Stay with us. People would ask me that we traveled,ntries what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. So when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. Im from all nations. 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Irma hit florida, the sheer scope of the damage is still being assessed. The Florida Governor rick scott took a boat tour of flooded areas. He said his main priority is getting the power back on. More than 4 Million People in the southeast still have no electricity. The vast majority are in florida including the hard hit lower keys. Fema estimated 90 of the homes in that region are either damages or destroyed. Authorities are telling people in the lower keys to simply stay away because theres still no power, no water. Our john berman is on big pine key for us. John, whats the situation where you are . Reporter i can tell you, we flew into Sugarloaf Key which is mile 21 ten miles south of here. Most of the buildings seemed intact and damaged but just ten miles to the north where i am, big pine key a much different story. Let me show you what i mean here. Im standing in the dining room of a shoreline house. The dining room looks okay, but lets pan out here so we can show you something. Thats the ocean. Right there. The ocean came through the entire wall of this house and just washed everything away. There is nothing left inside this house. This house utterly destroyed. And thats the case up and down this street that were on right now. So many of these houses uninhabitable. These people have to start again. I actually asked the own they are morning, i said what happened to everything inside. And he came to me and pointed in the different direction. He pointed over there and said, its all over there. Everything is over there, wolf. Big pine key hit very hard. The good news is that there are supplies that are arriving sort of to the center of town. People are driving in picking up food and water, bringing it back. The people decided to ride out the storm are beginning to get resupplied which is good news. The main problem for them is communication. They want to get a message out to the rest of the world, their loved ones that theyre okay. They want people to know theyre here and want to make sure that the help keeps coming, the power gets back on. And they can start rebuilding their lives. Wolf . All right. Lets hope they can. John berman on big pine key for us. Well stay in close touch with you. Well have much more on desperate race to restore power across florida, plus breaking just a little while ago, the u. S. Justice department blocking the u. S. Senate from interviewing roib officials involved in the firing of james comey. So what does that mean for the Robert Mueller investigation. Stay with us. Patrick woke up with back pain. But he has work to do. So he took aleve. So what does that mean for the Robert Mueller investigation. Stay with us. Comey. So what does that mean for the Robert Mueller investigation. Stay with us. To stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. W. I was always searching for ways to manage my symptoms. I thought i had it covered. 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Now, the reason why is because the Senate Judiciary committee wanted to interview two senior fbi officials. Carl ghattas and james rybicki. Those two individuals could provide firsthanden information, firsthand accounts about exactly what happened surrounding the circumstances of comeys firing. But the Justice Department has sent a letter to the committee saying that they do not want these two men to testify because they are concerned about this ongoing special counsel investigation. And that it could reveal any sensitive or confidential information pertaining to that investigation. Now, in response the two leaders of that committee, kruk grassley and Dianne Feinstein said we dont want to talk about the investigation. We just want to know about exactly what happened with the firing of james comey. And in response, the Justice Department has not cooperated according to the Senate Judiciary committee saying that they are not going to move forward and allow these twos to come forward by the deadline they had set which was the first week of september. This is a sign, wolf, that these two committees, the committee and the special counsel are running in a collision course of sorts as the committee is trying to understand exactly if there was any fbi interference any interference with that ongoing criminal probe into russia and any association with the Trump Campaign and special counsels investigation which appears to be looking into the firing of james comey and the big question is whether or not there was any obstruction of justice which a lot of critics say may have happened here in the way the president handled the situation. Theres another significant development, new development in the russia investigation. Some House Democrats as you know, man knew, have sent a letter to Robert Mueller with new information about former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Reporter two House Democrats Elijah Cummings of maryland and eliot engel of new york received information from Michael Flynns former Business Partners that have confirmed that Michael Flynn was in the middle east in 2015 trying to pursue a major deal that would concentrate 16 Nuclear Reactors in saudi arabia and also would lead to the purchase of military hardware with russia. This 100 billion deal was being pursued by Michael Flynn and a consortium of companies here in the United States. What was significant when he returned back to the United States to fill out his security clearance form to renew his security clearance form as a retired army general, he did not disclose this foreign meeting. This note to knowingly falsify your security clearance forms is a violation of federal law. And this is another example of mr. Flynn not disclosing these meetings. And, of course, wolf, he is coming under investigation on a number of fronts including his conversations with the Russian Ambassador last year. Significant development. Manu raju, thanks very much. Here with us to assess all of this is our cnn legal analyst laura cotes and chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto. This potentially, the flynn failure to acknowledge he was involved in another meeting with the russians is potentially legally very significant. It was one thing to have the convenient amnesia he was initially saying he had. Now youre talking about Nuclear Reactors and 100 billion deals and somebody with his foot to the fire about being accused of having violated federal law for not putting things on the form for security clearance. He was fired for doing this very thing. This is another example of what we call the mens rea. What was your intent here . It sounds to me you have more of anni intentional act you committed a federal law. Forgetting about this meeting youve had and traveled to about Nuclear Reactors, forget it. Jim, this is a big deal right now as far as the overall russia investigation is concerned. And the problems that Michael Flynn has. You speak to people close to flynn who served with him. From their perspective, ive asked many of them this question. Why is this happening . Why this failure to disclose is one of the lee esh issues hes facing right now. Their senl sense will be that he wasnt a pro at this. Right . This kind of stuff was new to him. Hes coming out in the private sector. Hes getting business offers. A lot of folks leave the military and do the same thing. That it wasnt part of an intentional pattern to mislead. The trouble is from a legal perspective and you know this better than me, but you can tell by the interest of prosecutors, is that a significant, a sufficient explanation from their point of view and in light of the fact that you have more than one Hill Committee now investigating this as well as others in the Justice Department, it shows theyre not satisfied. Its not just a little deal. This was a major deal. The russians were going to build about a dozen Nuclear Reactors in saudi arabia. Billions and billions of dollars at stake. Thats right. Politico is reporting this is a deal that mike flynn pursued even during the transition. Its something that he continued after this meeting that was not disclosed was in 2015. The transition hes headed to a senior position in the white house something he didnt let go. In addition a story out last night that Michael Flynn refused again a request to appear before the Senate Intelligence committee. The Senate Intelligence committee one of several committees on the hill very interested in sitting down with him. Hes provided some documents but they want to question him facetoface. He said no for a second time. Laura, the notion of the Justice Department, the u. S. Justice department not allowing fbi agents to testify before the Senate Judiciary committee, you heard man knews report on that. They say could complicate the overall mueller investigation. Whats your reaction . Its kind of tit meeting tat at this point. One is trying to say we have certain subpoena authority and until you share things with us, were not going to share with you. For example, the donald trump jr. Rip the they didnt want to the provide to mark mueller. What youre seeing here is a turf war. Because one of the objectives of the congressional probe is to figure out how to legislate a change. But mueller has the upper hand. His probe could ultimately result if they find anything in criminal charges and perhaps convictions. In that respect, people are looking at muellers investigation differently and being a lot more reluctant to cooperate and trying to make sure they have the subpoena. Youre seeing a battling out and this was already anticipated by congressional members before mueller was even taken into his office because they anticipated this conflict of the uber secretive process of Robert Mueller. Remember, we didnt know for weeks they even executed a warrant on manaforts home. Whereas congress had to be much more public in virtual realtime. This play out further and it will be a continuing conflict till we have a resolution where one decides to take the back seat. It wont be mueller. Quickly at issue is whether or not there was obstruction of justice when the president fired comey. Exactly. And this revelation makes it clear this is a line of inquiry of the special counsel. And thats significant. Its one of several. You got the financial track, the collusion track and the obstruction track. Thanks very much laura coates and jim sciutto. Developing now, the president once again rubbing elbows with some Top Democrats in congress inviting Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi to dinner tonight. Youll hear whats on the agenda. Plus, after hosting thousands of people during hurricane irma, some shelters in florida are in such disarray right now, they need hazmat crews to actually come in. Were live on the scene. Following irmas wrath, one of the tasksners necessary to get life back to normal in florida, making sure schools in affected areas are ready to open. Many cases they were used as shelters. Ryan young is joining us right now. Ryan, youre in the town of land olakes. You say cleaning up the schools is one more headache for administrators trying to get ready for the students return. Update us on late breaking developments. Reporter yeah, well they rush on monday. This is the pascal County School district, Wesley Chapel high school. You can see the school behind me. This operation is ongoing. You can see the work that the workers are doing right now. They are addressed in hazmat suits and cleaning every inch of the school to make sure when teachers and students return on monday morning, that this will be ready pore them to be able to be safe and to be able to be have a clean space and environment. You work with pasco county high schools. Let me know why did you feel you had to go to this length to clean up the schools . We had approximately 1500 shelter residents and 300 pets. We want to make sure our schools are safe and secure for the students to return on monday. Reporter the schools provided a great resource. There was some 20,000. Tell me that number again. We had approximately 22,000 residents in 22 shelter schools and approximately 1800 pets at all of our shelters across the district. Reporter well talk to you about pets. This picture they shared. Look what somebody brought here to the school. This was an amazing resource. They didnt want anyone choose between leaving a pet behind or coming to a shelter. This was a pig brought to one of the schools. You talk about being a resource for the community. How has this is worked out and how was this is received as all your workers were here . I cant tell you how proud i am to be in pasco county today. We had an amazing response from our administrators, maintenance crew, food service crew, transportation. Also from the keep the. We had Emergency Management all came together to be our community. We were able too take in 22,000 people who might not have otherwise been able to have refuge in a storm. Reporter this effort continues. School opens again on monday. Wolf . Ryan, thank you. Ryan young reporting for us. Coming up, dining with democrats. The president invites Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi to the white house once again after striking a deal that shocked members of his own party. So what do republicans think of this latest outreach . Ill ask one of them. Plus, were moments away from the White House Press briefing. Amid new developments involving james comey and Michael Flynn. Stand by for that. con artists. theyll try anything to get your Medicare Card number. So they can steal your identity, commit medicare fraud. What can you do . Guard your card . Guard your card . Just like your credit card. Nobody gets my number, unless i know they should have it. To protect your identity, new Medicare Cards without Social Security numbers will be mailed next year. Visit medicare. Gov fraud stay sharp people we believe in food thats anaturally beautiful, fresh and nutritious. So there are no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, no artificial preservatives in any of the food we sell. We believe in real food. Whole foods market. Moments from now, President Trump meets with several House Democrats to talk about tax reform and efforts to save daca. Its the second meeting with democrats in two days for the president. The bigger get together though may come later tonight when Top Democrats, the senate and House Minority leaders senator Chuck Schumer, nancy pelosi they come to the white house for dinner. Here with us is senior political reporter niamalika henderson. The president reached an agreement with the leaders. He calls them chuck and nancy last week. Now another dinner Going Forward to the deep irritation, the agreement they reached last week of several, a lot of republicans. Thats right. This was very much unexpected. You saw Mitch Mcconnells face there in the oval office after that deal was struck. Was very much struck by surprise by what the president did there. This comes really i think after the president has had really one of his lowest moments last month around charlottesville around pardoning sheriff joe arpaio. Hes reaching across the aisle, striking a deal. Well see what comes out of the meetings. Republicans very much worried. Threw in the dark about some of these meetings growing out what has been lingering tension between donald trump, paul ryan as well as mish mcconnell. I reached out to a conservative radio host to get a sense how folks hes hearing from are looking at this new kind of phase of Donald Trumps presidency. He said that almost you know all of the callers hes hearing from are liking this new phase of the donald trump presidency. They essentially think this is what they voted for. They want him to in some way stick it to other republican leadership. I think the question is, does this last. Is this a oneoff or really a new phase in this white house. Clearly the president seems to be pleased that hes talking to chuck and nancy as he calls them. Hes working on some deals with them. He had promised during the campaign he would try to achieve bipartisan agreement. He seems to be doing that right now. He seems to also enjoy the company of particularly Chuck Schumer. They go back all the way to new york and early on after he was elected and certainly around the inauguration, there was hope among some that maybe he could work across the aisle with Chuck Schumer in particular. And i think what happened is that Chuck Schumer himself got a lot of blowback from progressives. Well see where that goes, too. Certainly there will be blow back from the republican leadership. Well see what it is from republicans and democrat whos dont necessarily want to see any deals being made with the president. Hes meeting with some congressional democrats, the problem solvers caucus, as well. Thats about 40 folks in the house, 20 republicans, 20 democrats. Does the balance of power shift in the house . Typically you see paul ryan sort of going to the House Freedom caucus on more conservative group as they try to deal with legislation. Is this a new kind of shift in terms of how this white house is going to operate and approach legislation. Thank you very much. Coming up, a potential new chapter in the debate over health care here in the United States as senator Bernie Sanders prepares to introduce a version of his medicare for all legislation. Is it a long shot or can he get some support . The support he needs . Hi. So i e phone with our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. So the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With accident forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. Whether its connecting one of or bringing wifi to 65,000 fans. Campuses. Businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink. What should i watch . Show me sports. Its so fluffy look at that fluffy unicorn hes so fluffy im gonna die your voice is awesome. The x1 voice remote. Xfinity. The future of awesome. Bernie sanders will unveil his plan that would expand medicare into a universal Health Insurance program for all americans. Writing an oped in the New York Times today, this is a Pivotal Moment in american history. Do we as a nation join the rest of the industrial iced world and guarantee competencesive health care to every person as a human right or do we maintain a system that is enormously expensive, wasteful and bureaucratic ask is designed to maximize profits for big insurance companies, the foorm suit cal industry, wall street and medical equipment suppliers. Meanwhile, republican senators have unveiled their own plan to partially replace the Affordable Care act. Listen to this. There are three choices. Cough up obamacare, bernie care or our bill. Thats where were at. Count me out for propping up obamacare. Hell no to an yid that gives a patient a voice they would never have. Count me in for people in my state making decisions about health care versus some burk accurate in washington. Joining us now republican senator john ver as sew of wyoming. Hes a physician. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, wolf. Are you with senator graham and senator i am. I want to get the decisions out of washington and back to the states to let people decide what insurance works best for them. Give them more control over their health care because what Bernie Sanders is explaining there, thats obamacare. Its infirnt i, all of those problems relate to obamacare. Lets get back to what theyre proposing. Does that have to be passed by the end of this month . Do you need 60. You need 50 until the end of the month when reconciliation issue passes on, but otherwise you can do it with 60 votes. I think its a good idea to get the money and the decisions back to patients, out of washington and let people decide and do you think there are democrats who are going to join you in supporting what some are calling a hail mary . Im not expecting any democrats if any to joins us. So realistically its not going to go anywhere. Were continuing to work. We probably have 45, 46 senators. Thats not enough, though. We need to get to 50 s. Were continuing to work on it through the end of the month. Whats wrong with senator Bernie Sanders proposal to hol you the United States to have a Health Insurance system along the lines of every other industrial iced country, whether canada or britain, all the countries in europe, other countries around the world . Theres comprehensive Health Insurance guaranteed for all citizens. Well, first of all, this is truly the litmus test for the liberal left with all of the democrats who are looking to run for president in 2020 signing onto it. The issue is the Bumper Sticker is pretty good, but when you get into the specifics, the details, the nuts and the bolts, what does this actually take from someone, not what does it give them, what does it take from them in terms of the money. Theyve tried to do this other places and have tried in the state of california, even in Bernie Sanders home state of vermont but it works well in the uk or france or canada or other countries. You get sick, you dont have to worry about Health Insurance. You go to the doctor, you if to the doctor of your choice and you get treated. If it works well in all these other Major Industrial iced countries, why wouldnt it work well here . It depends what you describe as work well. If youre a patient in england right now realizing that the numbers are so bad for the amount of time people have to wait for an appointment, emergency room waits spiked longer than a 12hour delay. If you have a chronic condition, 18 weeks before you get to see the doctor. In canada where we talk about the free care, as a surgeon in wyoming, i have operated on people from canada who cant afford to wait the time for a free operation. Theres articles written leaving canada for health care, and many are coming to the United States, even though its free, because in canada the waits are so long. And once they spend a certain amount of money, cat racket surgery, total joint replacement, for the year, they cut it off. And usually thats around halloween. Its why they call canadian medicine trick or treat medicine. Lets say suf medicare for all, for everyone, no one is going to go without Health Insurance and medical treatment but at the same time you have private insurance at the same time and perhaps you can get some better treatment. Once wrong with a double tear system nor that . For Senior Citizens right now on medicare, under this under mienls their ability to get care. Theyre happy right now who are on medicare its a system that works for people in the United States who are 65 and older. It does work why not expand it for those who are 55 and older . Because fewer and fewer doctors want to take care of medicare patients because the reimbursement is so low. I talk to hospital administrators and we lose money. You look at more hospitals consolidating or closing and youd under miep, i believe, the integrity of medicare for our seniors and thats who it was designed for. My mom is in her 90s now. The year she was born Life Expectancy for a woman in this country was 56. Now its 81. So when you go back to the old speeches of Lyndon Johnson and why they wanted to do medicare, it was for the widows, because most of the guys by 65 were going to be dead when they set that age at 65. So i want to make sure that medicare, which is currently being stressed financially, is there for our seniors. And i think what bernie is proposing is going to undercut the integrity of the program. It sounds like we should have a debate between you and senator Bernie Sanders on this issue of medicare for awful. It could be an important discussion. What do you think . We could do it at a university, have an audience there. We could do it on cnn live. You could do it on my show. We could invite senator sanders. Your office and his office not too far away it might be a Good Opportunity and educate the public on your position and very important differences between what he is proposing and hes going into great length. Hes getting a lot of democrats who are on board. Any democrat want to go run for president in 2020 better sign on with bernie because thats where the liberal left is going. Well have a good conversation. Youve accepted the idea. Woel ask senator sanders as well. Good. Thats it. Very important programming note for our viewers. Hillary clinton will sit down with our own Anderson Cooper later tonight to talk about what went wrong in the 2016 race as far as shes concerned. Plus her revealing new book on the campaign and her own marriage. Tune in tonight 8 00 p. M. Eastern right here on cnn. Our coverage continues right now. Thank you so much for being with me. Youre watching cnn. Just a heads up on a couple of eepts were watching in the next couple of hours. Any moment now the White House Press briefing is set to begin amid new developments involving former fbi director james comey and former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. This happening just as President Trump makes dinner plans with democratic leadership. Thats on tap tonight. Meantime, ooefr on capitol hill bernie sappeders is about to announce his medicare for