Journalists, senator corker and me to have a good Early Morning conversation with you. Would you briefly introduce senator corker in . The chairman of the Senate Foreign relations committee. One of the truly distinguished positions in our country congress. He was the mayor of chattanooga if im not mistaken. He has been on key legislative issues, someone who is read into the details and played a very influential role in the final Senate Consideration of the iran sanctions bill two years ago. We are going to talk about that but senator firstcome its good to have you here. Good to be here, thank you. Coming early in the morning and we promise next year we wont ask you for 6 00 in the morning. I was in the Construction Business so this is not early. These days it seems like its either fox and friends or mika and joe, that so people are starting their day in the world. So let me ask you, the issue that is immediately on your legislative calendar and that is the russian sanctions bill which you have already passed one version of it in his comeback from a house. Let me ask you first about go shooting this with the white house that did not want his hands tied in terms of its ability to take sanctions off and wanted to have that freedom as president s traditionally have had. Thats the normal part of the negotiations. In this case, tell us why and tell us about how the negotiation when. Increasingly ive been chairman of the Foreign Relations committee for a few years and my goal was to bring back to the senate and to congress more of the power and control of the foreignpolicy that for years as you know, decades, generations really has been easing the way to the executive branch. It really has just been to make the overall goal to establish more of an equal relationship. We understand the executive branch has powers that we did not have. This has been going on for some time. We did it under president obama. There were concerns in the beginning that possibly polk some kind of cheap deal would be made with russia over syria. As you know there were some executive sanctions that have been put in place so the idea of codifying those and then an addition pushing back against the cyber activities that have been taking place relative to the elections but in many other areas, pushing back against some of those people that have been involved both in the defense and intelligence arena, adding sanctions for nefarious activities that have been taking place the supply of arms to assad in syria so theres a whole host of reasons is that congress wished to push back on. At the right time if you remember and conversations with secretary tillerson who wish to have a period of time first to spend with lavrov and others to see if they could change the trajectory of our relationship. It wasnt a threat. It was a statement of fact. We were going to do it, but you know in the event there was a breakthrough with russia, obviously that was altered so much what we did so i told him during to work. Ago that we would not take it up. I met with ben and others and said look lets give them a chance to move this relationship along. The first day of the period, the last work period i had a classified call with secretary tillerson. He was somewhere in the atlantic and i told him we were going to be moving ahead if we put the other one up. Really proud of it, its a great piece of legislation from my perspective. Importantly this is something more that we are going to be doing, something called congressional review, which says that in the event the second brands chooses to lift sanctions if congress believes that is not a wise step that somehow or another this is changing our directory foreignpolicy wise in a manner that is not healthy we have the ability to try to overturn that. Thats a tough step. The president can veto that and then it takes twothirds of each body but i think its an important aspect that should be a part of all that we do in the future. Anyway, we didnt really negotiate so we put a bill together and the Banking Committee with nepal. People works closely with crapo and brown. We got a nice piece of legislation. There were some technical issues that went over to the house. We worked very well with house members Kevin Mccarthy in particular to fix those. It was not a watering down in any stretch of the imagination. Some of our european allies had a couple of concerns. Not a watering down but a statement of us working with them on a couple of issues but it came back overwhelmingly with three defending votes yesterday and to the question of negotiating with the white house , we didnt. I mean this was done totally within the senate 100 . I am in no way trying to be audacious in my statement. We didnt get negotiate with the white house or the state department. Just so we understand the Practical Impact of this, there were sanctions that were announced. Its just water. Its a shock. Senator we are struggling. If anybody has any coffee, i will take it. Just bring some coffee back. This business doesnt think that coffee is a good thing in the morning. Just so we understand on december 29 last year, president obama announced a series of sanctions the expulsion of 35 people, two Diplomatic Properties the russians have been holding, various other particular sanctions. One thing that this bill does if i understand it is make those moves taken by executive authority in december passed legislation as well that cant be undone without this process. Am i right in describing that . The process will have to be invoked. So there is a process that can be invoked. In other words if a move is made that seems to be unwise and seems to be taking us in a direction thats inappropriate inappropriate. Given the tela then propose we think it makes sense. Its been explained in congress is aware and obviously this is advancing our foreignpolicy interests. One question obviously in the statements describing the taking of these two properties as theft , one question is how are they going to react to the passage of this bill and im sure youve had some conversations with people in the administrations the worst being that and you have your on sources. What do you think the russians would do once this is passed into law . I have no idea. Obviously there will be some type of pushback. Think its not going to affect us in any way relative to secretary tillerson or mattis in the bill dealing with syria absolutely not. My guess it will be something thats an irritating thing but do i think there is going to be some massive pushback . I dont think so. This bill gives the executive branch the ability to maneuver. Its not like it ties their hands. Give them the ability but it makes congress an equal partner, not an equal partner but more of a partner than otherwise would be the case. Again i think it sends a strong signal too that the things that happened in crimea matter to us a great deal. We do not want some cheap overarching agreement be reached that does away with the sanctions that were put in place again, i talked to secretary tillerson last night in the president called me yesterday or the day before. They are very aware of all that is happening and very aware that this is going to be lost and very very soon. We have got a little work to do. I want to ask you about the tidying up of the legislation. As this was originally proposed as i am sure many and our audience know that also included sanctions on north korea and iranian behavior and they were wrapped together with sanctions on russia. Senator you suggested that maybe change now in the final version. Maybe you can explain the decision. Yeah, russia they went over the russia iran package and it sat in the house for period of time. And then we began discussions about some of the issues that needed to be resolved. They were small but they mattered and we had a really good negotiation with them. At the end of the day, they decided to send over north korea bill. Its something that we have never sat down and worked through language on like we did with them on the other pieces that came through so we have people in our body that wanted to weigh in on those issues. We have a couple of existing north korea bill center ready to be held in committees both banking impossibly Foreign Relations. So its going to be difficult with the timeframe we have to deal with that. What likely will happen today, something could change. I had a conversation on the senate floor last night at what likely will happen is we will strip out the north korea peace and send it back to them so that the two pieces we have negotiated together will remain intact. Thats the likely scenario today at 8 45. So the bill will have russian sanctions and additional iran sanctions. If i was the reuters or ap guy and was going to write this up and explain why he took north korea out, what is the answer to that . We can keep the legislation as it is and begin negotiations with the house on north korea. There are huge changes but there are some changes that people would like to put them and likely have congressional review which it now does not have. The timeframe for the house leaving on friday instead of we were to do that it would likely go beyond the time we are here and i think those people want to get this bill enacted into law. Its just a timing issue. Before we leave let me be the contrarian for a moment. These days in washington if you Say Something antirussian antiputin there are great cheers that the day ask you, we have a relationship with russia now that is as bad as it feels brittle. I was just in moscow hearing some things from russians there that surprised me to be honest. At a time like this where secretary tillerson, the president are trying to open up channels for construct discussion of issues, why is the congress turning the screws again . Does that really make sense in a world as dangerous as this . I think it makes a lot of sense and you have to remember we have fragile allies that arguing are doing with what russia is doing within their own country every day. There has been no response whatsoever to the aggression that has taken place against the country during the election. You know, to have no response to that, i mean here we are constantly dealing with countries that are on the periphery of russia what is happening these countries makes what happened here appeared to be elementary and to have no response to that and just to continue on is not appropriate to have many other activities that have been taking place without pushback. Again, i talked to secretary tillerson last night and after realizing there were three dissenting votes in the house, this is going to happen. This is not tying their hands and by the way none of the sanctions are mandatory but many of the sanctions relative to energy and projects that would be done in coordination with europe, those are permissive sanctions. The administration has the ability to do those any time they wish even without legislation. To me its very important piece of legislation that im very proud of. Obviously your congressional action and messaging through this legislation is important but the most important voice in our country is the president and the president continues to say about this behavior that you just described essentially as an attack on us similar to attacks on other countries, he describes it as a hoax, a witch hunt. They goes from daytoday. Sometimes he thinks its real and sometimes the thing it isnt honestly senator, isnt that the core of the problem here, that we dont get a clear statement from the president on our election system was assaulted by a foreign nation last year . If you really, i mean in some ways the lack of recognition of what has occurred has helped drive this legislation. The Senate Intelligence committee today are handling themselves in a very good way. I saw mark warner and i talked him and mark burr on a continual basis. They are doing a job of focusing on what russia did. I dont think anybody has ever said that shouldnt be taking place. I think what the president has said about the other piece is investigating him is a hoax. I dont think that he has ever said that there shouldnt be an investigation into what russia did but theres no question what also has not been said is that russia no doubt was trying to affect, influence the outcome of the elections. It hasnt occurred. Might take away from that is in the way our president doesnt like the legislation being passed today he has nobody to blame but himself since a stronger statement by him may have reduced your of dealing with it. I think putins actions initially drove it and i think the fact that there began to be, there was just a feeling that possibly many of the sanctions that have been put in place would be washed away and maybe the issue of ukraine and crimea would be cast aside. At the end of the day congress wanted to make sure that foreignpolicy, the fact that europe has been the whole. Democratic has set policy for 70 years and thats when the United States policy toward europe and they think Congress Wants to make sure that is the policy going forward. At the moderator could put in here, does seem to me at a significant opponent when the Republican Senate and house in effect insists on what they think of as appropriate foreignpolicy sanctions against russia initially despite insistence on that from the white house. I would say for the entire time ive been the republican leader of the committee whether in the minority or the majority we have been able to work with the other side of the aisle. I wouldnt call this republicanled. What i would say is we have worked in a bipartisan way the entire time i have led the republican side of the committee to establish the fact that when they go beyond our shores we do everything in a bipartisan way and in a bipartisan way with this piece of legislation we are laying out foreignpolicy issues we believe that are important to our country. I would not claim this as a rebuke which i know some editorial pages have been the last couple of days. Thats not what this is. This is the laying out of what congress believes to be important to this nation. Pushing back against the country which is acting in nefarious ways, challenging democracy, doing things that are destabilizing the world and we are pushing back in an appropriate way. Its a good thing for legislation. We have had the administration i hope will embrace it. I know anytime you have congressional review, we did this with obama. This is not something against this president. We did the same thing with president obama and i led that effort. We werent successful in being able to stop the iran deal. We had 58 votes to our 60. We would never gotten the two vote majority but we were able to question. These 90day increments that take place now where the president has to certify, that was the result of that legislation where congress is staying involved. There are reports that have to be given to us that otherwise would not have been in place. This is a bipartisan effort to make sure that congress is joined in this administration as they move ahead. Turning to another frontier, partisanship and maybe in the future bipartisanship, we will see and thats the health care bill. You had a big vote yesterday in the senate which you managed to get 50, vote on the floor which today you amended. There is some confusion as to where this process is headed and you made some news a few weeks ago by embracing the repeal and delay to get obamacare out, which there is a requirement. Its nothing new. Tell us where you think this is headed and given the very short clock is it really realistic to get legislation this time around or are we simply beginning the process down the road for legislation . Well, we will see. Obviously we got on the bill yesterday. Its a reconciliation bill. When obamacare was put in place baca was put in place, it was done 100 democratic votes. At the time they had 60 votes in the beginning and scott brown won the election and so there were elements of it. Its done in regular order for 60 votes in the beginning and then there were components. There were some components that needed to be fixed and that was done under the same process we are doing right now, reconciliation. The whole bill certainly was not written in that fashion. It was just a supermajority if you will that happens from time to time but then reconciliation was used to fix fix it. No reconciliation was a part of what happened but it was 100 democratic votes taking place. Think all of us know that whenever Something Like that happens the other side immediately takes issue. Take social policy. It should take place as senator mccain said yesterday, should take place in a bipartisan manner. So now all the cards are stacked on the democratic side. All these policies are in place. Is there any way that there is going to be any real negotiations to bring that back to the middle of the road . Likely not, likely not. So we are going to this process which again has the same laws as the democratic side. This is now being done with 100 republican votes and so thereve been difficulties. We have a few senators on our side of the aisle representing parts of the country that are different and so we ended up getting on the bill last night. There was a vote on a bill that has been put together. As i said before it felt like a bizarre. Ive been to most every meeting, 50 billion here and 100 billion here, what about you . It fell to a degree not particularly coherent, okay . As i have watched this i began to wonder what it not make sense to pass a piece of legislation that forces people to sit down together and do it, and so scared that the jesus out of a lot of people i understand based on the way congress has conducted itself that ive come to the College Illusion that the only way for that to happen possibly is to repeal it years out, 2020. I dont know how much more instability have been where we are today and people are concerned about that but we will see what happens. Thats not going to pass either today so the real process thats occurring here is that there was a vote that the republicans put together on the bill last night which by the way it might be really good. I mean it might be really good but who knows, okay . This is like a real piece of legislation. Seriously, it could be just the Silver Lining in all of this but who knows and the bill was produced at 6 00 yesterday, under 78 pages. Its got the freedom amendment in. Ted cruz has worked on it and by the way hes worked in good faith on these issues. He really has. Hes tried really hard. Hes been flexible. Down the other side of that theres the amendment which you know has been drafted and he is dealt in good faith and then theres most of the pieces were added on so after 178 days of bills introduced