Question because in the spirit of these people that have worked so hard and so long like tom and like brock and so many others, did the United States, did our government, when we came in, did we do a great job . Military . First responders . Fema. Did we do a great job . You responded immediately, sir, and you did so, tom and brock, they have been on the phone with me essentially every day since the disaster. We recognize there are some logistical limitations. We didnt have the airports working in full capacity until about a day or two e ago. So that was always a very limiting step, but if you consider weve gone even with those obstacles, weve gone b about 15,000 personnel in puerto rico, about 2,000 fema personnel. Hhs and others. The response is there. But we need to do a lot more . Of course. And i think everybody here recognizes theres a lot of work to be done in puerto rico, but with your leadership sir and everybody here, were committed to achieve thag in the long run. In the last 50 days though to put this in the context for america, from the Virgin Islands to california, weve been working in 20 different states, disasters in 20 different states. In the last 50 days under the president s administration, weve registered close to 4 million americans for individual stance. Thats more than katrina, rita, wilma and sandy combined. Its been a tremendous effort. Mr. President , is this bigger than anything weve seen and yet i think our response was better than anyone has ever seen. Again, we were given an a plus by the man who did this. Did what you were doing for the clinton administration. And while i dont know him, i would like to thank him for what he said. Yes. Government loans to build the power plant . Not grant sns. Were talking about possibly combinations. Congress is working right now with the people and representivities of puerto rico and were talk about possiblily cpossibly combinations. Any thoughts on president bushs speech . I didnt see it. I didnt see it. Talked about the Alexander Murray plan, health care plan, as a good and shortterm solution then in the speech to the foundation and press secretary said yesterday that you no, i like people working on plans that are i think ultimately, block grants is the way to go where we block out the money to the states. You get Better Health care, get it for less money. It will be more specific. A state is a Smaller Government and it can better care of its people. Especially where you have wellrun states, where you have governor that is do a great job and states that do a good job. If you look at florida, maiainm. Maine was very much anxious to do that. Various states. Kentucky. Various states really wanted that block grant money and for the most part, i think we have the vote for that. There will be a transition period, so anything theyre working on will be shortterm, absolutely shortterm because ultimately, it will be, its going to be repeal and replace. So i have Great Respect as you know for both of the senators. You mentioned. And if they can come up with a shortterm solution, what i did say though is i dont want to Insurance Companies making anymore more money because than they have to because you holookt the stock prices of the Insurance Company frs the creation of obamacare with 300 around 400 and even more than that. Increases in their stock. They made a fortune off obamacare. The people that need obamacare are decimated. Premiums are up 40, 50, 60 . In some cases, over 100 . In lalaska, premiums are up ove 200 . So anything theyre working on is very shortterm. One year to two years max. Because i think we have the votes or were within one vote. Senator cochran is an example. Hes not feeling great. I can tell you that. He got on a plan to go vote. I have Great Respect for that man. Votes are very fragile. Ive learn ed that. I thought we had it the last time and somebody came out of the blue and vote ed gens it. So now, we start the pros all over again. But the block grant, the concept of blocking it out, block dwrants to the states, thats what people want. Thats what the states want. Especially what the wellrun states want because they will have health care thats so o good, far better than anybody has even thought. So again, i respect very much the i want them to be careful with respect to Insurance Companies. Theyre extremely good at making money. It doesnt kick in the following day. Theres a transition period. But i dont want it to be at the expense of the people. Toipt take care of our people. I dont want to take care of the Insurance Companies. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Theres the president of the United States. President trump and the visiting governor of puerto rico. They spent about a half an hour there. Lets listen in. 20 of uranium. For whatever reason and a lot of people understand what those reasons may be. I think thats your real russia story. Not a story where they talk about collusion and there was none. It was a hoax. Your real russia story is uranium. And how they got all of that urani uranium. Vast percentage of what we have, that is to me, one of the big stories of the decade. Not just now. Of the decade. The problem b is that the Mainstream Media does not want to cover that story. Because that affects people that they protect. So they dont like covering ta sto that story, but the big story is uranium and how russia got 20 of it and frankly, its a disgrace. Its a disgrace. And its a disgrace that the fake news wont cover it. Its so sad. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. That was the last question. The reporters now being escorted out of the oval office. Once again, the president spending about a half an our hour there on camera with the visiting governor of puerto rico. Going through several issues, first and foremost, the crisis in puerto rico. Right now. The effort to get tax reform, tax cuts another issue on the agenda. Health care and foonlly, you just heard pr wha the president had to say about russia, that the whole russia collusion story once again, he says is a hoax. The big story is the uranium that was purchased, that was obtained by the russians during the obama administration. He says thats one of the big story, the worst stories of the past decade. Lots to discuss. First, i want to bring in our senior white house correspond t correspondent. Jeff, this was the president speaking out forcefully on several important issues. Start with puerto rico. He gives himself a ten. An excellent job in puerto rico. He did, wolf. That was perhaps not that surprising because we know the president likes to grade himself and we know that he and his administration have been talking about the good work theyve been doing in puerto rico, but the reality on the ground is our team of correspondents and producers have seen and reports on the ground have not necessarily reflected the optimism from the administration, but he said he would give the federal response a ten out of ten. An interesting moment and play there from the governor of puerto rico who is in washington asking for more aid and federal assistance. I was struck by one thing though. The president for the first time said this is worse than katrina. In fact, when he was visiting puerto rico a couple of weeks ago, he said that katrina was a real catastrophe. That the hurricane in puerto rico was not. So for the first time, hes saying this is worse than katrina. Of course in the number of deaths and other things, it does not compare, but that was striking. Giving it a ten out of ten is something that you know, will certainly be the suggest of much debate because many would disagree. Yeah, he says worst katrina as you correctly point out, i think nearly 2 thourk americ,00 died during katrina. About 50. The latest number of deaths reporteded as a result of Hurricane Maria in puerto rico. He also continues to cite the former clinton fema director as saying he gets an a plus because of what he has done in puerto rico. James lee whit says he gets an a plus on what fema and everyone else has done in fecske texas and florida. He says its too early to grade the administration on puerto rico. But he did get strong words of support from the visiting governor. He did, of course, wolf. And the governor was here to thank the president and he was on capitol hill earlier. He was also here to ask for money and the reality is puerto rico had a massive financial crisis before that and they certainly do now. So this is something thats ongoing. The president also did something we dont see him do often. He declined to answer a question on something. He punt ued on the question of state hood. For puerto rico. He said i do not want to get in trouble answering that question. I wont go there right now. I think the other headlines, of course he predicted that the is that the would pass the budget this evening. He predicted a success on tax reform and on health care, again called for a shortterm solution, one that doesnt benefit Insurance Companies. Sounded like he muddied the waters again on health care and what his hope is is on this bipartisan bill thats still going through the senate. He seems to once again suggest maybe for the next year or two, he would go along with this bipartisan compromise being worked out in the u. S. Senate although yesterday, he made it clear opposeded it. Now, hes a bit unclear. He says he would like a shortterm solution. I assume hes refer iring to wh senator alexander and senator murray, a republican and democrat, are working on now. But hopefully, well get more clarification in the course of the day. Gloria borger is here with our panel. Lets start off with puerto rico right now. The president patting hy intintn the back saying the federal government has come through. When he asked the governor, didnt we do a great job, the governor did not give him a great. The governor said you responded immediately, sir. And you know, theres a, theres a great difference of opinion in puerto rico. You have the mayor of san juan who has been a nemesis to this president and there are rumors of course the politics chris and i have been b talking about this, that there are politics going on in puerto rico, shock, and that she may actually challenge this governor in the next election and so trump is embracing this republican here and but yet, he declined to give him a ten. Yeah. David druecker is with us, cnn political analyst, congressal correspondent for the washington exami examiner. It was like a tale of two avo va avail, if you will. Most was trump being measureded and giving a lot of time and allowing the press a lot of access to see a very warm exchange with puerto ricos governor, which i think is a recognition that a lot of the clapping that he was doing in selfcongratulating he was doipg on twitter about how great everything was going and all the jab he was doing at san juans mayor was a little bit dicesy and probably needed to be dialed back. And i think whether or not the president was thinking about this, its important for his open political calculus. If you have a mass exodus of Puerto Ricans from the island because they do not get this thing under control and rebuild, a lot are going to go to florida and most of o the Puerto Ricans that have gone to florida tend to vote for democrats and that could upend some of floridas politics and also, wolf, the president has to be careful how he handles this. Theyre going to nodeeed a lot private sector money. Theyre on hook for a lot of puerto rico debt. Theres been talk about bankruptcies and if you want to get them to reinvest and upgrade the infrastructure, theyre going to need to manage that and its delicate. I want to go to palo sandovoa. The people still have power now, very small percentage still have it. But whats the general reaction there to this very warm welcome that the puerto rico governor is getting from the president of the United States . These comments will certainly come frg the oval office is going to generate here in puerto rico. This island as you say continues to continues on the long and difficult path to recovery. Theyre addressing those challenges, but we have seen on this island, particularly my colleagues, whosk speaking to people in the more rural part of the island and many saying that while supplies make it on to the island, getting into those isolated po ed proktockets, tha the real challenge. That was an interesting moment that came out of the white house. We were watching there as puerto ricos governor was essentially addressing a fe from the press about corruption and certain level heers and essentially hampering the efforts. The has been inrupting for the governor. That was an interesting moment and followed by the selfassessment, the ten out of ten that as weve just discussed, into all this tale of two puerto ricos. The administration looking at the situation here on the ground in a different way perhaps than the local people here especially in some of the more rural parts of the island the assessment will be people and i can tell you, having seen these pictures and conversations that have been happening, there will be some disagreement as well. Were going to get back to you. Very significant speech today. I want to shift gears and discuss former president bush. He delivered a very soeb berring view of the state of america and a not so veiled takedown of President Trump ice politics at a National Forum in new york city, president bush went off on partisan shshi partisanship, bigotry. In revecent days, Public Confidence has declined. Our governing class has often been paralyzed in the face of obvious and pressing needs. The American Dream of upward mobility seems out of reach for some who feel left behind. In a changing economy. Discontent deepen and sharpened. Partisan conflicts. Bigotry seems em boldened. Politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theorys and outright fabrication. Our identity as a nation unlike many other nations, is not determined by geography or ethnicity. By soil or blood. Being an american involves the embrace of high ideals and civic responsibility. We become the ears of Thomas Jefferson by accepting the ideal of Human Dignity found in the deck ra la ration of independence. We become heirs of James Madison by understanding the genius and falls values of the u. S. Consti. We become the heirs of martin loouther king jr. By recognizes one another not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. This means that people of every race, religion, ethnicity, can be fully and equally american. It means that bigotry or White Supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the american creed. Bullying sets a national tone. Provid provides per mig for cruelty and bigotty and compromises the moral education of children. The only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them. Very strong words from the former president george w. Bush. He clearly did not mention President Trump by name, but a lot of his words are now being seen as a direct, direct assault on some of the policy, statements, positions of the trump administration. I want to bring in chris cillizza, our cnn politics reporter. What did you make of the speech . Pretty stinging rebuke and ill sad the second from a former president or former president ial nominee. Lets not forget john mccains speech winning the Liberty Medal earlier in the week, which echoed much of what george w. Bush said in the speech. On one level, its not that surprising. George w. Bush is the brother of jeb bush. He is a figure of the republican establishment. Jeb bush is someone donald trump went after viciously during the campaign. On the other hand, there have only been 44 president s of the United States. This is one who happens to be in the same part as the guy currently in the white house, who he doesnt say his name, but man, are you, its pretty clear what hes talking about. Conspiracy theorys, total fabrication. Repeatedly talking about bigotry and White Supremacy. There was a specific reference to charlottesville when he spoke about soil and blood. You heard them uttering blood and soil, nazi formula. And mccain used that same formulation. I think he said this is not just a country of blood and soil. Its a country of ideals and bush said something very similar. Look, there is a part of the Republican Party, i think its about a third at this point if you judge by polls, that is in somewhere between semi and fully open revolt against the world view. Both domestically and Foreign Policy of donald trump. The problem for those folks is its onethird of the Republican Party. Its not twothirds. Yes, bob cork er. Yes, john mccain. But know the vast majority of others including the leadership of the party. I think its important the fact you have a former republican president of the United States speaking out in such clear terms condemning the trumpism broadly writ matters. I think we would ignore whats come before it in the recent past if we said this is going to lead to an avalanche of other republicans coming out. This is a part of the ongoing idea logical civil war and the siren song of nationalism, which has always sort of existed in the underbelly of republican politics for years is lately ascended because you have a president that flirts with it and you have his allies, which are very open about it. You neek here that george bush does not speak out that often. Even in subtle ways. And also, what you see is the old guard of the reagan wing of the party trying to do their best to hold back the barricade of, the crowd of where they fear the party is going and the thing is, we dont know if theyre going to be successful. I think what you have is a former president coming out and speaking to americans, not just the Republican Party. But speaking to all americans and somehow, its easier when youre a former president. People tend to listen to you. No matter what