Hill. We are going to begin with bret baier, anchor of special report. All right. This is keeping you a very busy man today again. Lets just start with the u. S. Joint chiefs of staff and their statement regarding the transgender ban in the military. Let me read it for you first. There will be no modifications to the current policy until the president s direction has been received by the secretary of defense and the secretary has issued implementation guidance. In the meantime we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect and remain focused on accomplishing our assigned mission. In other words, bret, the president s tweet yesterday morning saying that transgenders will be banned from the military is not official word. Exactly, julie, good afternoon, it means that the tweet didnt carry with it the directive. In other words, the president has not signed an executive order. He has not signed a piece of legislation. He has not empowered, given the word to his defense secretary just because the joint chiefs of staff is saying just because he tweets out what he wants the policy to be does not mean that that is the order that they are received to change the policy. So as of right now, transgenders can and will serve in the u. S. Military. And will continue to unless until that formal declaration, that formal order has been given. So its an interesting dynamic. As you deal with a president who does a lot of work and a lot of decisionmaking in 140 characters i or less. This is a specific statement by the pentagon saying they need the official way. Julie so the u. S. Joint chiefs were apparently blind sided by trumps transgender ban by twitter yesterday including dunford who wasnt aware that President Trump planned to tweet that ban on Transgender Service members. So why would the president do that . Do we know . There is a lot of speculation about why he would do it, about changing the topic, about, you know, changing the dynamics, changing the story line. But thats all speculation. He said, you know, you have to take the tweet for what it was and that he said that military members were looking at it and his generals were looking at it and said it would be detrimental to the u. S. Force going forward. The problem with that is that we havent found the back story from the pentagon. And as you point out, a lot of people inside the pentagon were taken aback by it and surprised. Were told the defense secretary was told ahead of time. At least thats what the white house said. But there was a review ongoing about this issue that had not been finished. Julie okay. And some are also saying that this perhaps was and you sort of alluded to it right now, maybe an effort to feed his base who are upset with him over his current feud with Jeff Sessions. But, you know, others argue that it is coming at the expense of the pentagon. They would have obviously preferred that this policy be unrolled in the right way in order to honorably discharge those Service Members so that they can continue to receive health benefits, et cetera. How do they now implement this . Where does it go next . Bret they have to wait according to the chairman of the joint chiefs for this directive. And from a way forward, presented by the defense secretary. And well see if that happens. You know, there are many people in this town who say that this may not end up changing, that this policy may not end up changing. We will see. As you know there are a lot of balls being juggled in the air here. The questions about Jeff Sessions, the attorney general. Well hear from him tonight, obviously, in that Tucker Carlson interview at 8 00 eastern. Then there are the questions about Reince Priebus, the white house chief of staff and his future. And the questions about healthcare. So we are trying to cover all kinds of fronts, but this transgender policy is not in order as of this. Julie we have to cover all fronts. Lets try to cover the next one because last night when Anthony Scaramucci lashed out against Reince Priebus he tagged him in a tweet about his financial disclosure. He called it a felony, is a quote. Its actually available though, Financial Disclosures to anyone in the public who actually requests it. Then this morning in an interview he said if reince wants to explain he is not the leaker, let him do that. Whats this all about . Clearly Reince Priebus is a target inside this white house. And whether that is being directed by President Trump, we dont know, but there is a rift here and there is a question about whether there is going to be another shakeup at the top. Its not just scaramucci who has said some things. There are other Senior Administration officials who are clearly pointing that Reince Priebus has lost favor inside that building. And well see if there is any push back on that front. I will point out that that tweet that you mentioned was deleted and pulled back after the revelation that those documents, the financial forms, were public at the time. And thats what politico says they got it from. Julie all right. Bret baier, thank you so much. We will see you two times today . Bret 6 00 we will be live, believe it or not at the white house on the north lawn and then 11 00 we will be live on capitol hill as the voteorama is underway for healthcare. Julie we will see you then. Busy day. Thank you, bret baier, we will be watching. Meantime very powerful friends standing up for attorney general Jeff Sessions defending him against attacks by President Trump. The head of the Senate JudiciaryCommittee Chuck grassley even warning there is no way the president will get a new attorney general confirmed this year. North carolina senator thom tillis is a republican on the judiciary committee. Thank you so much for talking to us. My plesh. Julie so hint hint, dont fire sessions because we are not going to appoint a new one . Look, we have judicial nominations, we have an fbi director. We have a full plate as it is. We also have judiciary members who have the full faith and confidence in Jeff Sessions to do a great, independent job. This is about using our capacity wisely so that we can get on to filling vacant court positions and other key roles. Julie a secret White House Administration official has gone on the record and i want you to react to this. One of the worst things you can do to President Trump is show insecurity. Sessions has showed that reince has showed that. But so far scaramucci, i think you could agree in his first five days on the job so far has not shown that. Is President Trump somehow positioning scaramucci for his next chief of staff . Im not really sure. Reince priebus is a friend of mine. Somebody i have worked with for several years. I will leave it to the president to make decisions he wants to about positions that are not subject to confirmation. Witthose that do come to the senate, particularly those in judiciary where i serve, we want to make sure we keep good people like Jeff Sessions in place. Julie yeah. And thats kind of the issue here is that, you know, a lot of people have come in defense of Jeff Sessions. Its surprising though because those same people that are coming in his defense are a lot of democrats which, lets just remind our viewers how against they were of this guy being nominated attorney general. He was called everything from a racist to a hypocrite to every name in the book. And now all of the sudden they are coming to his defense. Smart and respected man, nonetheless, from both sides of the aisle, clearly. The only thing they have been consistent with is being inconsistent. It was the same scenario with james comey. I do think on this one they are right. Jeff sessions is a great, independent force restoring confidence in the department of justice. And with the confirmation of the fbi director, i think we get on good footing there as well. Julie all right, lets talk the health skinny bill. We expect the voteorama to start later this afternoon. Schumer had said no amendments will happen until they actually see the bill. Can and should the senate pass a skinny repeal . We need to pass a measure that can go to conference that we can build on. We all need to recognize this isnt the end of healthcare. This is the beginning. Negotiating from a position that republicans believe can be the foundation for a sustainable fiscally sound healthcare policy. Obamacare is none of that. Julie okay. So lets talk obamacare because obamacare, one of the biggest problems and what most americans hate most about it is that obamacare promised to be affordable. It was the Affordable Care act. There is nothing affordable about it the skinny bill basically is it going to slash these premiums . Because that is what is killing americans right now. Some people in certain states, North Carolina, for example, are paying over 1,000 a month. Those prices and those premiums are going to skyrocket come january. They need to get this done. Well, we could. An we do. When we get in conference we will take up the proposed measures that didnt get a majority on the floor this week. But the cruzportman measures that can bend the curve on premiums going forward. There are a number of things we can do once we get into conference if we keep this process going. Thats why motion to proceed. Thats why im supportive of whatever outcome we can get to get to conference and work with the house to get something to the president s desk and then go about implementing a number of other measures under regular order requiring democrat support to round it out. Julie okay. The skinny bill option basically looks like this. The key proposed provisions are to end obamacares individual mandate, number one. End obamacares employer mandate and end the tax on devices and cut the prevention and Public Health fund. When you end obamas individual mandate, you are essentially telling people you will the no be penalized. You are not being forced. Therefore, do you believe people will be dropping off of insurance because of that and does that then sort of make up for the millions of people that the cbo report on the house bill have said would end up losing their insurance . Theres a good number of people who will decide not to get healthcare because of a choice that they make. And, of course, we are going to have a safety net. Even though that may not be a wise choice, its the freedom they get to have to choose that understand if they come up with a chronic medical condition, we have an obligation to serve the community. They will get care. So, i think you are right. I think probably a good numbers of the people who are not going to have insurance is because they chose under their freedom to choose not to get it. Julie okay. So then i want to talk about preexisting conditions. That is one of the amendments that, you know, in fact ted cruz had put forth. Ted cruzs amendment did not pass. He, and mike lee both, had sort of pushed for specific provisions to be put in a bill so that if you are sick and you are currently insured and there is no laps in your insurance, that you are not going to get slammed with higher premiums. What happens to those people who are sick who are, a, not currently insured and, b, go to enroll once this thing actually goes through . I think when we implement and the states have the freedom to implement these policies themselves. I certainly dont believe that North Carolina will be a state that designs a system that doesnt have children 26 and younger on their Parents Health plans that allow for preexisting conditions. We put the resources down to the states so that they can sort that out in a way that makes most sense for the state. I talked to my colleagues down in the state legislator that i served with 8 years. Four years in the majority as speaker. I will have full confidence they will address this and full confidence the other states will as well. Julie lets hope so. Senator thom tillis, we appreciate you coming on. Thank you very much. Thank you. Julie a biz were daa busy du and the senate. Sarah sanders going to be busy. She is going to address the media. We await the white house reaction on healthcare reform, the leaks, the military and more. Stay tuned. Backpack, check. 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Julie as we await the White House Press briefing which will begin in just a minute or so from now, the senate to vote on several healthcare amendments. Peter doocy is live on capitol hill to explain. Peter, do we know if senator Lisa Murkowski is definitely going to vote no on her leaders latest plan . She just told me, julie, that she is still undecided, even though the interior secretary, ryan zinke called her yesterday to make sure she knows how upset President Trump is that she didnt even want to vote to begin debate on a healthcare bill, an obamacare fix. So i asked her if there is any amount of pressure that the white house or g. O. P. Leaders could put on her to get her on board. Here is how she answered. What im going to do right now is go over to our weekly meeting, find out if there is something that has been agreed to with this socalled skinny plan. We will look at those details. And i will make my decision accordingly. I think i have got a pretty good track record of being an independent thinker and making sure that my states interests are represented and im going to do just that. Reporter a lot of talk about that skinny repeal, even though nobody knows whats actually in it except that theoretically it would get rid of obamacares mandate and obamacare tax, julie. Julie what kind of support does the skinny repeal measure have so far . Reporter senator roy blunt just told us in the hallway he thinks its going to have more than enough support today or tomorrow. Limiting those mandates would be a significant step. There may be 50 republicans or 52 republicans prepared to do that. Reporter and one of those republican senators, john kennedy, had the line of the day when talking about how excited he is to vote on an obamacare fix. I told my people that first chance i get im going to vote for repeal. And if what is proposed to me is put in its place is an improvement over the Affordable Care act, even though its not perfect, im going to vote for it i will be on it like a hobo on a ham sandwich. Reporter nobody knows exactly when the final vote is going to be really late tonight, very early tomorrow. Every senator walking by me and my photographer and kristin said its going to be a long day. Julie. Julie a long day, another one. Peter doocy, thank you. Lets bring in guy benson, he is a Political Editor at town hall. Com and Fox News Contributor and Bernard Whitman is a former pollster for bill clinton thank you both for talking to us. We want to make note, this press conference is supposed to happen any minute now. Stay tuned for that first, guy, can i go to you . I want to ask you both of you, what do you make first of all of anthony basically deleting his tweet from last night because that has caused such a stir . I wonder who told him to do that or if that was his own personal decision . Well, its tough to know exactly, but what it appears happened was he jumped to a conclusion about a leak that he thought had occurred about his personal information. He seemed to intimate that Reince Priebus, the white house chief of staff was responsible, and then it came to his attention that the socalled leaked information wasnt leaked. It was publicly available based on disclosure forms that he, himself, had filled out and submitted more than a month ago. And so perhaps, at that point, he decided oh, oops. Maybe i should delete that tweet and try to scramble and start with a new story. Thats what it looks like to the untrained eye from outside. And it looks like a selfinflicted wound, another one, by the white house senior staff. Julie okay, bernard, this morning scaramucci did an interview and basically in some words said if reince wants to explain he is not the leaker, let him. You know, julie, this is more chaos and recklessness from chaotic and reckless white house. People say they love scaramucci because is he confident. Thats not why he loves him. He loves him because he lives and breathes chaos like his boss. Old saying a fish rots from the head down. This white house is in complete chaos and its a mess. Trump has no capacity to actually govern and scaramucci seems to be trumps sidekick because he loves throwing fire bombs and spreading disinformation and misinformation. And i mean it really calls into question the chief executives ability to govern if scaramucci now currently Communications Director likely will become the chief of staff, i would say, in the next few weeks. If i were one of trumps voters, i would be furious. As a result of all this chaos bread by trump and fueled additionally by scaramucci, nothing is getting d