Intensifies his attacks on his attorney general Jeff Sessions. Pres. Trump i am disappointed in the attorney general. He should not have recused himself. Amy we will speak with joshua green about the latest news, plus his new book devils bargain steve bannon, donald trump, and the storming of the presidency. The book gives an insight into steve bannon and donald trump, who they can together to do, and really explains why things have gone off the rails in early months of the Trump Administration. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Senate republicans narrowly pushed through a procedural vote to open debate on plans to repeal and maybe replace the Affordable Care act tuesday, but then suffered a defeat only hours later when republicans failed to muster enough votes to pass their replacement bill. First on tuesday, the senate voted 50 to 50 to open the debate, with Vice President mike pence breaking the tie. Two republican senators, Susan Collins of maine and Lisa Murkowski of alaska, joined democrats in voting against the motion to proceed. Arizona senator john mccain dramatically returned to capitol hill to cast a decisive vote to open debate, only a week after being diagnosed with brain cancer. But once the debate began, divisions within the Republican Party over a replacement bill doomed their efforts to push through any legislation. Nine republicans joined democrats in rejecting the First Healthcare proposal, which would cause more than 20 Million People to lose their Health Insurance in the next 10 years. The republicans needed 60 votes to pass the bill, but ultimately received only 43. Throughout the day, republican lawmakers faced massive protests in the senate chamber, at offices across capitol hill, and even on the doorsteps of their own homes. Nearly 100 people were arrested throughout the day. This is one activist speaking during an Early Morning protest outside ohio senator rob portmans home. Her name is charley. She was born at 26 weeks. Weighed one pound, 12 ounces. The aca gave her a chance. Medicaid made this possible. A yes vote will steal her future. She is my daughter. I will fight until we win. Amy shes speaking as her daughter, charley, sits on her shoulders. Shes holding a sign reading her birth is a preexisting condition. Hours later, hundreds of activists with the Disability Rights Group adapt occupied the hart senate building, chanting, id rather go to jail than die without medicaid id rather go to jail than die without medicaid amy at least 64 activists with adapt were arrested, many of them in wheelchairs. Faith leaders also held rally and mock funeral march for the thousands who could die without insurance if republicans repeal the Affordable Care act. This is traci blackmon, executive minister of justice and witness ministries for the United Church of christ. Fromam coming here today the bedside of a dear friends sick daughter who would not likely still be amongs if it were not for the Affordable Care act. I am black and she is white, but that does not matter because the need for health care transcends skin tone. She is jewish and i am christian, but that doesnt matter because the need for health care transcends the just believe. I was able to be at her bedside because the aca guaranteed that needing a heart transplanted not maintain her from getting coverage because of lifetime limits. Amy then around 2 30 p. M. As Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell asked for a vote to proceed to a debate on the Health Care Bill on tuesday, 19 activists were arrested in the senate chamber, as they shouted kill the bill kill the bill kill these bill kill this bill restoreant of arms will order in the chamber. Shame shame amy reporters say they were ordered by Capitol Police to delete photos and videos of the arrests of the activists from their phones. Senate lawmakers will resume debate today. President trump is continuing to publicly humiliate his own attorney general Jeff Sessions, telling reporters tuesday he thinks its unfair sessions recused himself from the investigation into alleged russian meddling in the 2016 election. Pres. Trump i am disappointed in the attorney general. He should not have recused afterf almost immediately he took office. And if he was going trecuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office and i would have, quite simply, picked somebody else. So i think that is a bad thing, not for the president , but for the presidency. I think it is unfair to the presidency. That is the way i feel. Amy trumps comments tuesday are the latest in a string of intensifying attacks against sessions. The Washington Post has reported trump and his advisers are considering replacing sessions and that texas senator ted cruz and former new york mayor Rudolph Giuliani are among the candidates being considered as sessions replacement. Meanwhile, attorney general sessions has intensified his attack against sanctuary cities, saying tuesday the Justice Department will refuse to give cities hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants unless they agree to cooperate with the federal governments crackdown against undocumented immigrants, saying states must allow federal immigration authorities to operate inside state jails and alert ice agents when someone who is undocumented is set to be released cities want to receive the federal grants. In more news from capitol hill, President Trumps former Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort will not testify today before the Senate Judiciary committee after the panel dropped the subpoena. This comes after manafort and met with Senate Investigators tuesday to answer questions about their meeting last summer, along with donald trump son donald trump, jr. Kushner also testified during a closeddoor session with the House Intelligence Committee for about three hours on tuesday. Meanwhile in a direct challenge to President Trump, the house of representatives voted 4193 tuesday to give progress the power to block any effort by the white house to weaken u. S. Actions against russia. This is congressman david sizzling. Cannot allowply any foreign power to interfere in our electoral process given our residents complete unwillingness to hold russia, but for their attack, lets not mistake it for anything else, it has become necessary for commerce to assert itself in this area and ensure russia will be held accountable. Amy President Trump intense but his threats during a rendering a speech in youngstown, ohio, on tuesday. Pres. Trump the aranda, which may be the single worst deal i have ever seen drawn by any body conformat deal does not to what it is supposed to conform to, there is going to be big, big problems for them. That i can tell you. Amy these threats come despite the fact that the Trump Administration begrudgingly certified that iran has complied with its obligations under the obamabrokered Nuclear Agreement last week. The state department has also announced new sanctions against iran over alleged support for terrorism and irans Ballistic Missile program. During trumps same speech tuesday in youngstown, ohio, he also repeated his frequent attacks on the news media and claimed he can be more president ial than any other u. S. President and history, except abraham lincoln. Pres. Trump and i said, with the exception of the late, great, abraham lincoln, i can be more president ial than any president that has ever held this office. Amy republican senator Susan Collins of maine and democratic senator jack reed of rhode island were caught on a hot mic expressing concern that President Trump is crazy at the end of a Senate Subcommittee hearing on tuesday. This is senator reed. I dont say that lightly amy and that was senator collins saying shes worried. Earlier this month, more than 20 democratic lawmakers expressed support for a bill introduced by Maryland Congress member jamie raskin that would create a commission to determine if the president is mentally or physically unfit for office. Palestinians have vowed to continue protesting the new Israeli Security measures being imposed at the holy alaqsa mosque in jerusalem, saying the new proposal to install surveillance cameras is just as bad as the metal detectors israel installed earlier this month, sparking massive protests. Palestinian activist mohammad abu alhommos said above all else, this is an issue of control and power. I want to go in and out of alaqsa as i please who are they to surveil me . Israel was forced to remove the metal detectors after widespread protests and violence, which killed seven people four palestinians and three israelis. Israeli troops have also injured more than 1000 palestinians protesters by shooting them with live fire, rubbercoated steel bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades. Amnesty International Says heavily armed israeli troops also raided a palestinian hospital twice during the protests on july 17 and july 21, harassing the staff and chasing wounded protesters who were trying to receive treatment after being attacked by the soldiers. The hospitals head of reception, talal alsayed, said they invaded the entire hospital. They even entered the neonatal unit. What do they want in there . It was pure terrorization of the patients. In afghanistan, at least 26 Afghan Soldiers have been killed in a Taliban Attack on a military base in kandahar province tuesday. The Defense Ministry says 13 more soldiers were wounded and at least people were kidnapped seven in the attack. Meanwhile, the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee says at least 10 journalists have been killed in afghanistan so far this year. The group says the taliban and isis militants are responsible for the majority of the attacks against media workers in afghanistan. In syria, u. S. Led Coalition Airstrikes and shelling by u. S. Backed troops reportedly killed at least 18 civilians in the city of raqqa on tuesday. Thats according to the local journalistic group raqqa is being slaughtered silently, which says the u. S. Led coalition launched more than 40 airstrikes over the last two days as part of the Ongoing Campaign to seize control of the raqqa from isis. The philippine president has sparked alarm among human Rights Groups after he threatened to bomb tribal schools, accusing them of teaching students to become communist rebels. In a speech on monday, duterte said i will use the armed forces. I will have those bombed because your operating illegally teaching the children to rebel against government. And in chile, hundreds of people took to the streets tuesday to demand abortion be legalized, only days a bill to increase Abortion Access failed to pass by only one vote. The bill would have allowed abortion in the case of rape, if the mothers life is at risk, or if the fetus has a deadly birth defect. More than 70 of chileans supported the legislation and some support legalizing abortion in all cases. This is one of the protesters tuesday. And abortion were everybody has the right to an abortion and not obligatory brotherhood. We want an infant number of this infinite number. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Tuesday was another dramatic day in washington. On capitol hill, Senate Republicans voted by the narrowest of margins to open debate on repealing obamacare. Vice president mike pence broke a 5050 tie in the senate. Two republican senators, Susan Collins of maine and Lisa Murkowski of alaska, joined democrats in voting against the motion to proceed. Republican senator john mccain cast a decisive vote to open debate after flying in from arizona where he is being treated for brain cancer. But hours later, the effort to repeal or replace obamacare faced another setback when nine republicans joined democrats in rejecting the First Healthcare proposal. Meanwhile, President Trump continue to publicly humiliate his own attorney general Jeff Sessions, who was the first senator to endorse trump during the 2016 race. On twitter, trump has described sessions as beleaguered and very weak. Then in a News Conference in the rose garden, trump told reporters sessions should not have recused himself from the probe into alleged russian meddling in the 2016 election. Pres. Trump i am disappointed in the attorney general. He should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office. And if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office and i pickedave, quite simply, somebody else. So i think that is a bad thing, not for the president , but for the presidency. I think it is unfair to the presidency. That is the way i feel. Thank you. Amy to talk about these latest developments, we are joined by joshua green, Senior National correspondent for bloomberg businessweek. He is author of the new book , which were going to spend the hour talking about today, devils bargain steve bannon, donald trump, and the storming of the presidency. Welcome to democracy now it is great to have you with us. A lot happened yesterday on a number of fronts. Yes, President Trump continue to his attack on his attorney general Jeff Sessions and in the narrowest of votes, the senate voted to move ahead in repealing and, i dont know, possibly replacing obamacare. 5050, two senators, both women, joining republican senators, joining the democrats voting , butst opening debate ultimately, Vice President pence broke the tie and they are moving forward today. The significance of all of this . It is significant they moved forward and commerce, and is called a motion to proceed. This is just to begin the debate. There was real fear in the white house and among republicans they would not get that far. This is the states that health care might die on. Came saw, john mccain provided the 50th vote. Vice president pence was the tiebreaking vote. Then they couldnt afford. I think the real signal yesterday about how things are going came when they voted on this deeply unpopular Republican Senate bill and had nine defections. That is a very bad sign for republicans who support repeal and sometimes replacement. It does that get any easier going forward. There is going to be debate, what is called a votearama were Different Things are voted on. The last gasp hope for republicans is they might be able to pass a scaledback version of repeal known as a skinny bill, that only takes away some of these benefits, but less than what they would like to take away. Amy many commenting on social media. Here was john mccain coming back, very moving as he hugged democrat and republican colleagues. But then ultimately, voting to open the debate not that he necessarily said he was going to support what would be presented next, but coming back from his own surgery, what most people in america could not have afforded if they did not have health care. Theres something striking about this. I was in washington supporting writing during obamacare fight when taken in the, who at the same brain cancer that john mccain has now, flew back in, cast theweekend, to deciding vote to give People Health care. And here is john mccain who gives this dramatic speech about how republicans need to return to regular order, which they have ignored throughout this process, and cast the deciding vote to go ahead and take Health Care Away from people. It was a dramatic bookend. I think it just shows how extreme even republicans like john mccain, who has always been considered kind of a popular maverick, so into florida with becoming a democrat some who flirted with becoming a democrat. Amy and how interesting it is when people ask what difference it would make if the women had parity in the senate. Senators, two women republican, who joined with the democrats. There are all sorts of things in the bill i know Susan Collins of maine, one of the women senators, had said she objects to the fact the bill would defund planned parenthood, and that was it deal killer for her. There are not any men among the Republican Senate caucus that feel the same way. So it is so important individual politics of the senators, but you can s