Values. We represent great people every day in this country. On both sides of the aisle. Dickerson and fury. I am sickened by this despicable act and let me be as clear as i can be, violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society. Dickerson the threat of a crippling inquiry into the heart of the presidency spark a new set of partisan reactions. As investigation into russian meddling, possible Trump Campaign staff collusion, and president ial obstruction of justice pick up speed. We will talk with florida senator marco rubio who sits on the intelligence committee, as well as vermonts bernie sanders, plus we will hear from jay sekulow a member of the president s legal team, we will have plenty of political analysis and finally a very different kind of tribute to the class of 27. 2017, it is all ahead on face the nation. Good morning and welcome to face the nation. I am john dickerson. The trump family is off for their first weekend at camp david after an emotional week here in washington. There is good news this morning as congressman Steve Scalises condition has been u upgraded fm critical to serious and she able to speak with his family. While the shooting dominated this weeks headlines, it wasnt the only news. The president himself appeared to confirm his being investigated by the special counsel for possible obstruction of justice in a tweet. I am being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director. Witchhunt. Attorney general Jeff Sessions testified before the Senate Intelligence committee and pushed back against the suggestion of any wrongdoing. That i participated in any collusion, that i was aware of any collusion with the russian government to hurt this country, which i have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process is an appalling and detestable lie. Dickerson Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein told congress he saw no reason to fire special Counsel Robert Mueller dierks spite a friend of mr. Trumps saying the president did. Rosenstein was also reported to have privately suggested he may have to recuse himself from the russia investigation as his boss sessions did in march. President trump traveled to miami to announce he was reversing pieces of president obamas cuba policy. We now hold the cards, the previous administrations, easing of restrictions on travel and trade does not help the cuban people. They only enrich the cuban regime. I am cancelling the last administrations completely onesided deal with cuba. Dickerson this morning there are also many questions about saturdays collision of a japanese container ship with the uss fitzgerald off the coast of japan. Several bodies were found in the fitzgeralds flooded compartments but the navy has not announced how many until their families have been notified. And we begin this morning with Florida Republican senator marco rubio, who joins us from miami. The president has called the investigations a witchhunt. What is your opinion of that . Well, i know he feels very strongly about it, my advice to the president is what i communicated publicly, i would say we have to try to communicate to ever on this issue and that is this. It is in the best interests of the president and the cup to have a full investigation. If i were the president i would be welcoming this investigation. I would ask that bit thorough and completed expeditiously and be very cooperative wit. Thats what ultimately i anticipate they will do. Thats in the best interests to president. I really believe that. I think it is in the best interests of our country that we have a fullscale investigation that looks at everything, so that we can move forward. Dickerson so regard loves what you may think about james comeys firing as fbi director you think it should be investigated . Well, i just think it is important to answer questions because otherwise, if people have any doubts, it undermines confidence in our system of government, in our elections and our leaders, as i said, the best thing that can happen for the president and for america is that we have a fullscale investigation that is credible, that reaches its conclusion one way or the other, so that we can move on, but at the same time, be knowledgeable. We have to know everything the russians did and how they did it so that we can prevent this from happening in the future. Dickerson let me ask you about what the russians did. You voted for the sanctions bill in the senate that would punish the russians for that meddling, do you think the president will sign that when it gets to him i hope, so it is important to send that message that this is, as i said, that this is not acceptable and i remember back in october when those leaks came out and i think i was one of the few republicans in to the country that wouldnt discuss wikileaks because i dont want that to be a part of our system here that we can simply not allow foreign governments to be meddling and interfering in our elections that way. But they are going to keep doing it and doing it now, they will keep doing it in the future, we need to know how they do it so that americans are more knowledgeable afout that and take that into account in making their decisions at the ballot box. When you were running, for the senate you talked about the senate being a check against the administration, whoever was going to be president. Do you see this russian sanctions bill in that form, in other words, the administration seems reluctant to punish russia for this, the senate is stepping in and saying well we are going to punish russia s that a check, essentially, on the administration . It is, but not perhaps for the reasons people think a lot of people nothing to do with the investigation, per se. It is more along the lines of the secretary of state believes that he wants to explore the opportunity to get russia to be more cooperative on a number of issues. The Foreign Policy view that they have, and so they think that these sanctions may undermine that effort. And while i respect that point of view and i have considered it, ultimately i think it is incredibly important for us to make clear there are consequences for doing what they did during 2016 elections and thats why i supported these sanctions. Dickerson may ski you about cuba and speaking of consequences . There are new provisions the president has put in place to put pressure on cuba for its human rights record. But when the president over go ahead. I wouldnt view it just as putting pressure, i really dont, i think this is an effort to strengthen individual cubans, what this basically does is say american travelers to you barks they will continue to fly on commercial airlines and get there on a cruise but when they get there they have to spend their money primarily with individual cubans who own private businesses which is what everybody who supported the obama opening was bragging about, they were saying there were all of these new Small Businesses we want to put them in a privileged position so american travelers to cuba will have to spend their money with them instead of the cuban military. That was goal of this is to empower individual cubans to be economically independent of the castro military and of the castro regime. Dickerson but when the president gave his speech he said that we will not lift sanction tons cuban regime until all Political Prisoners are free. He talked about freedom of assembly. He talked about all Political Parties being legalized. So i guess what i was interested in is that when he weaponed to saudi arabia, he said he is not going to lecture saudi arabia about its considerable human rights challenges, and what is happening in yemen that saudi arabia is funding and i wondered if you could square for us in the one hand a very public lecturing of the cubans and no lecturing of countries like saudi arabia, egypt, turkey and how you see that. Well, a couple of points, first of all when you talked about, not lifting sanctions until they have elections that is actually the law. Thats the law of the United States, it is codified under helms burton and it says that. The embargo goes away when they meet those conditions and you out lined them and the president outlined them. As far as squaring the two obviously the administration will have do that because i criticize saudi arabia as well, in fact i would i take a backseat to no one on criticizing them or anybody the world when it comes to human rights and the violations or lack of democracy. I will say this, however. There is in our region, this is 90 miles from our shores, the western hemisphere 35 years ago was largely controlled by dictators that basically every nation in in region has had a free and Fair Election at some point over the last 20 or 15 years except for one, and that is island of cuba. So in our region, in our own backyard, we are not going to allow tyranny and dictatorship to grow and to surge we want the people of cuba to have the same opportunities the people in the Dominican Republic have had, the people in haiti have had, the people of colombia a have and that a is to vote for their leaders. Domestically the issue of healthcare your republican colleague ron johnson said i want to know exactly what is in the senate bill. It is not a good process. What is your assessment of the process of evaluating healthcare . It is always tough because it is difficult to put Something Like this together. You know, in front of every camera in the world, but ultimately, every camera in the world is going to have to see what is in it and have plenty of time to debate it. So i have no problem with a group of people meeting to conduct a proposal, but ultimately that proposal cannot be rushed to the floor, and i dont think the senate rules would permit it. So it is fine if they are working on the starting point but ultimately we are all going to see what i is is in it, and e rest of us will have an opportunity to make changes to it, as a condition of our vote, and so that is the way i view this. This is not the senate is not a place where you can just cook up something behind closed doors and rush it through a vote on the floor. There is just especially on an issue like this. So they the first step in this may be crafted among a small group of people, but then ever is going to get to it at the end and it is going to take a long it is going to take days and weeks to work through that in the senate. Dickerson finally in the shooting this weekend in washington, what do you think is the lesson in the aftermath of that . Well, i mean, the only person to blame for that a shooting is that person who did it, who obviously had big problems both mentally and behaviorally and that said i do think it is an important moment for us to understand that violence is the opposite of dialogue, and we in this nation have first amendment, and the law continues to protect the first amendment. I think we have to ask ourselves whether we are culturally cracking down on free speech, have we reached the point now where we are blocking people from speaking because we disagree with them . You know, it is funny on the one hand to hear people say we should be engaging in dialogue with raul castro and mainstream politicians in the United States being boycotted at graduation speeches across america. We cannot have a whole generation of Young Americans growing up to believe that if you disagree with someones points of view the way to do it is try to shut them down. I am not saying that i is the means f the shooting we have to be a nation capable of debating issues on the merits of the issues without dehumanizing or demonizing the person on the other side. You and i can disagree on the right approach to cuba, taxings or healthcare, i dont have to go around telling you, you are an evil human being for what you believe in because once you convince someone that the other side is evil, that, i think, in the minds of a deranged individual is an invitation to commit a violent act against them, i am not blaming the shooting on any democrats or the lerveghts i am just telling you, both sides need to think about that as we move forward. Dickerson all right, senator marco rubio thanks so much. Thank you, john. Dickerson joining us now is vermont senator bernie sanders. He is in burlington. Senator sanders i want to start with this weeks shooting and talking to senator rubio he said obviously this was the man who did the shooting is responsible for his own actions, be new the wake of that, in this conversation about what leads to the heated political atmosphere, senator rubio pointed out, he said when people try to stop frefree speech, stop people from talking it creates pressure in the system that might cause people to act out. What do you think of that theory . I think he is right. Look, freedom of speech, the right to dissent, the right to protest, that is what america is about, and politically, every leader in this country, every american has got to stand up against any form of violence. That is unacceptable and i certainly hope and pray that representative scalise has a full recovery from the tragedy that took place. This week. Dickerson there has been a lot of protests on campuses when people come to speak, they have been people of, have protested and said they shouldnt be allowed to speak, where do you come down on that in the context of this pressure on free speech . I think people have a right to speak, and you have a right, if you are on a College Campus not to attend, you have a right to ask hard questions about the speaker if you disagree with him or her. But why should we be afraid of somebody coming on a campus or anyplace else and speak something you have a right to protest, but i dont quite understand why anybody thinks it is a good idea to deny somebody else the right to express his or her point of view. I think, john, what is very clear is we are at a contentious and difficult political moment in our countrys history. I have very grave concerns about the trump agenda, right now, we will we are looking, w we are not looking there is a healthcare proposal in the senate which nobody has seen yet, but the proposal that passed the house as you know, it threw 23 Million People off Health Insurance, to me that is just incredible. It would raise premiums very significantly for older workers, it would defend planned parenthood and deny two and a half million women the right to get their healthcare that they want, cut medicaid by over 800 billion. You know, we i would say the vast majority of the American People have strong disagreements with that approach. But you dont have to be violent about it. Lets disagree openly and honestly but violence not acceptable. Dickerson i want to get to the details of the Healthcare Plan in a moment, for details you dont know at the moment. But let me just stay on this question here. Is anything going to change in the wake of this in washington, at least in the way lawmakers deal with each other . And is there something that should change . I think, you know, and again, where this is such a strange moment is we are looking at a lot of dishops news that comes across, where people are lying outrageously about other people, and i hope that folks on all sides can say, look, i disagree with him or her but that is an outrageous lie. But let us, on the other hand, be frank. Is there a real differences of opinions that exist in congress . It is not like, you know, you mentioned marco rubio. I like marco rubio. But w we disagree on issues and people should understand, it is not that there is all kinds of hatred. In the congress, there is a fundamental disagreement. President trump made a, brought forth a budget which will go nowhere, but this is a budget that over a ten year period would give 3 trillion in tax breaks to the top one percent, the very wealthiest analysis america, while making massive cuts in education, into healthcare, in nutrition programs, really devastate working class of this country. I disagree with that. But obviously that debate has got to be played out based on the facts and lets debate it. Dickerson let me move here now to healthcare. You mentioned some of the policy differences, but there is a procedural debate going on about how this is being handled in the senate. Some democratics are suggesting because the because you dont know what is in the bill and the bill is being worked on in secret, to just stop all senate business, to just shut the place down as a way to kind of force play. Are you on board with that . John, here is the situation. We know the legislation that passed the house. It was the worst piece of legislation, frankly, against working class people that i can remember in my political life in the congress. Throwing 23 Million People off of Health Insurance is beyond believe. Now, in the senate, what you have is you have, i believe it is 10 republicans working behind closed doors to address onesixth of the American Economy. That is what healthcare is. Republicans, the affirm republican doesnt even know what is in that legislation. My understanding is that it will be brought forth just immediately before we have to vote on it. This is completely unacceptable. I mean, nobody can defend a process which will impact 10s of millions of americans and nobody even knows what is in the legislation and, john, the important point here is the reason they dont want to bring it public is because it is a disastrous bill, i suspect similar to what passed in the house. Who is going to defend cutting medicaid by 800 billion at the same time as you give massive tax breaks to the wealthiest two percent . So they want to keep it secret. They dont want the media involved. They dont want members of congress involved and at the last minute they present it, they push it through, and that is onesixth of the American Economy and millions of people thrown off the Health Insurance that is unacceptable, i believe democrats should do everything they can to oppose that legislation in any way that we can. Dickerson all right, senator sanders, we are at our last minute so thanks so much for being with us and we will be back in wasnt minute. So we need tablets installed. With the menu app ready to roll. In 12 weeks. Yeah