Embarrassing transcripts of telephone conversations between the president and World Leaders made it in to the washington post. There will be consequences said the attorney general. I have this warning for wouldbe leakers, dont do it. Congress is also gone for the month of august back home in wisconsin, paul ryan said the house isnt getting any credit for what they have done. Its about what the president tweeted. Productivity was also on the president s mind as he fired a parting shot at congress in the form of, yes, a tweet. Our relationship with russia is at an alltime very dangerous low. You can thank congress the same people that cant even give us health care. One person in washington who is not going anywhere this summer, special counsel robert mueller, hes convened a grand jury in his investigation into possible Trump Campaign collusion with russia, an investigation that is gathering steam but still mocked by the president , this time on the campaign trail in West Virginia. Have you seen any russians in West Virginia . Or ohio . Or pennsylvania . Are there any russians here tonight, any russians . Dickerson no one raised their hand in West Virginia but we did hear from russian president Vladimir Putin who reported in from his vacation in siberia. Well talk with Senate IntelligenceCommittee Republican tom cotton. Then well ask former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson about the administrations effort to stop the russians from tampering with the election. Plus two governors working together, colorado Democrat John hickenlooper and Ohio Republican john kasich, they will tell us about their efforts on health care with washington frozen in dysfunction is it up to them to fix the countrys problems. Analysis on all the nice and thoughts on what congress could actually do while theyre on vacation. Its all ahead on face the nation. Good morning, well can come to face the nation we begin with arkansas senator tom cotton he joins us from minneapolis. Senator, welcome. I want to start with something that people are watching now, what you on the Intelligence Committee have been investigating, potential russian efforts influence american actions. Whats happened is the National Security advisor h. R. Mcmaster has been under an assault in the digital space. New york times reports that on friday, on social media, 600 twitter accounts linked to russian influence operations at one point had hash tag, fire mcmaster. What do you make of all that have . Does it look like what youve been investigating during the election . John, good morning. First off i think h. R. Mcmaster is a great american. There are not many generals highly decorated in two different wars and phds about Civil Military relations. I was happy to bring him to the president s attention in february. Pleased that he chose him. Glad to know that theyre working very well together. I dont want to comment on specific report from the New York Times but i will say that russia has a long history of using disinformation, deception, subterfuge and espionage to influence western democracy that happened in our election, when russian intelligence hacked into the emails and released them. Happened in 1983 when russia Intelligent Service were behind the protest against deployment of Nuclear Force to western europe. No surprise that russia continues its efforts to manipulate western democracy in way of discord and disagreements between our countries in nato and within the United States or any other western european countries. Something that we must be on guard against. Dickerson do you think the russians are involved in what is obviously some kind of operation to hurt h. R. Mcmaster as National Security and push him out. It shouldnt surprise any american to know that russia use its money and its Intelligence Service to fred disinformation, to try to divide political opinion within the United States, any western european country. Thats one of the techniques that russia has used for decades, during the cold war. Dickerson given that rush is ongoing threat, you signed on to legislation to sanction russia, is there more that the administration should do . Well, russia remains an adverb terry of the United States. We have some overlapping interests, it would be better if our relationship was better but relationship is not good because of Vladimir Putin. There are steps that we should be taking that we took under obama administration. For instance, providing defensive weaponry to ukraine. I encourage president and administration to take a look at those steps. I know they are doing so through deliberate careful National Security meetings. Dickerson you support decision on that with respect to arming the ukrainians . I hope so, john. I hope theres other steps that we can take to try to strengthen natos defenses against rush a. For instance, russia is conducting a Major Military exercise on their western border on natos eastern border. Ive supported the efforts to send more of our troops to Eastern Europe to try to increase the permanent presence there to make it clear that russia that well stand by all of our nato allies and they cant take steps that will intimidate orw3 interfere with natos member countries. Dickerson another thing administration is looking into is the situation in afghanistan. I want to ask you couple of questions that the president appears to be asking. Whichs first of all after 16 years why is it still in the u. S. National interests to be involved in afghanistan, where you served and fought . John, everything is the place where which we were attacked 16 years ago next month. Its the one place where we successfully ejected al qaeda from. Today, though, its still see resurgent threat from the taliban and al qaeda but also Islamic State as well. We dont want to see what happened in mosul in 2014 when Islamic State took over that city, happened in kandahar and let that space become an area from which terrorist extremist can plot and launch attacks. Dickerson do you agree with the president who reportedly said he believes that the u. S. Is losing in afghanistan . Well, making enough progress in military terms youre not winning sometimes you are losi losing. Weve seen talibannd and associated terrorist organizations make gains in recent years. Its time to stop those gains and roll them back. Theres a lot of different techniques to do so but we cannot allow afghanistan to once again become an ungoverned country from which terrorist organization can launch attacks against United States and our citizens. Dickerson you and i during the campaign talked about Congress Role in overseeing the president. I wanted to get your thoughts about three things that congress been before left town. Vote on sanctions which the president did not like also in the senate took measures to make sure no rees appointments. Finally couple of bipartisan efforts to make sure that the president cant fire the special counsel. What do you mike of all of those actions with respect to seems to be congress is trying to constrain the president. Those are all very different kind of actions. On the sanctions legislation, i supported that legislation because russia and china are adversaries and north korea is racing towards having a Nuclear Armed missile that can strike the United States. The recess issue goes back to the obama administration, i can tell that you junior senator i signed a roster earlier this year that was choosing when i was going to be in washington, d. C. During a recess to preside over a short session of the senate to ensure that there wasnt a recess appointment. That simply Congress Taking responsibility seriously. We did it under the obama administration, its its happening under the Trump Administration as well. Finally on the two pieces of legislation, i dont see them going very far. The independent counsel statute 1970s is a disfaster we have executive ranch which the power of all the Agency Reports to the single elected. Those are all very different kind of actions. But congress is a branch of government, in my opinion for decades congratulations guess has ceded too much authority. We should exercise our Constitutional Responsibilities seriously. Dickerson all right, senator, well have to leave it l. Thanks for being with us. Now that congress and the president are taking some time off we thought wed take the opportunity to get outside of washington and see what some governors are doing to find solutions to the many challenges facing the country. Joining us now are colorado John Hickenlooper and Ohio Republican john kasich. Governor, i want to start with you, the two of you have joined together in an effort to try to fix the Health Care Problem that in washington so far congress has not been able to fix. There are lot of plans for fixing health care is this a problem of people not finding the right plans or political problem . I think its more a political problem. The key here what governor kasich and i have been talking about get a Bipartisan Group of people together, include some governors, the people who have to implement these plans and look at how do we stabilize private markets. How do we deal with these, look what they have been doing but theres some basic remedial steps that can improve our Health Care Without throwing everything out the window. Dickerson governor kasich, one of the ways that you build a bipartisan agreement is one side gives up a little, the other side gives up a little. Weve seen in washington both sides say they dont want to give up much of anything. Give me your sense of what republicans should back down on and what democrats should back down on just as a preliminary good faith effort to show that people are on the health care question, committed to work can together. John, look, before we get to specifics, i love working with John Hickenlooper, its terrif terrific. I work with ron delams on the b2 bomber. I was able to work with tim petty migrate friend from and what John Hickenlooper and i are doing at the present hes going to have his staff and my staff, weve had preliminary conversations, because john and i are becoming friends. Theyre going to sit down and look at the difference and one of the problems is that there are some in the Democratic Party that think the whole system needs to be changed at once. There are some in the Republican Party that say, look, lets let the market work, drive down Health Care Cost but were going to have to make a commitment, serious, significant commitment to those people who are left behind. So i think democrats are going to have to get to the point where they say let the market work, bring down the cost of Health Insurance and republicans are going to have to admit theres going to be a group of people out there who are going to need help. These are some philosophical differences between the parties, but if you have a good spirit and you understand that the system is beginning to meltdowns on the exchange side jeopardizing health care for many americans, im hopeful we can get there. John and i are going to start with our stap before we build it out. They may have to have couple of meetings in chicago, john and i may have to get together, may we can get there, maybe we cant but were friends. As a result that have im optimistic that we will get somewhere on this whole thing. Dickerson governor hickenlooper pick up on that with you. Governor kasich says youre friends. In washington they may not have the same kind of friend relationship so it comes down to policy. One thing democrats have protected is . Idea of the individual mandate, in other words, people have to buy insurance even if theyre healthy because it spreads out the risk, that in theory democrats believe will keep prices down. That is something democrats say its got to be in there, republicans in washington say, got to come out. If people arent already chums how do you fix that problem . Well, regardless whether theyre friends, i do appreciate governor kasich all the work hes done. He has he knows the federal budget better than probably any governor in america and really does understand some of the finances. Theres always a way to find a different approach. So in terms of a mandate, the key here is to recognize when you let Healthy People not be part of the pool youre going to concentrate people with Serious Health issues. Much more expensive insurance risks into the market. Thats of course going to raise the cost for everyone. However we deal with that, whether its a mandate or reinsurance type pool thats where we can sit down and o as governor kasich said, there are different philosophical approaches but no reason why we cant bring them together and find compromises. John, here is the thing to remember its not just friends but when people understand one another, when they respect one another, as john sus said theres a way to define these things and way that doesnt mean you have a winner or a loser. And im reminded of that sign that Ronald Reagan had on his desk which the congress ought to think about. He said, if you dont worry about what gets the credit its amazing how much can be accomplished. I think thats whats missing in washington right now. John and i are not hung up about who wins, who loses, who gets credit, who doesnt because as governor you cant spend a lot of time doing. That although we have governors that get very partisan as well. Built at the end, American People want things to function, they can function if you dont worry about which party gets the credit or which politician gets the credit, it can work. Now, i cant guarantee you that hickenlooper and i are going to agree but im hopeful. Well do our very best to come up with something to spread it out wider, it is a final thing. You want to solve problems whether its immigration or whether its issue of health care. You got to grow your majority from the middle out. You got to exclude those who are on the edges, because theyre disruptors not in a positive way in many cases. You got to grow hit way and that is how you get things done. Dickerson well take a short break here, well be back in one minute with more of our conversation with governors kasich and hickenlooper. Stay with us. [burke] frightning bolt. Seen it. Covered it. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum per roll bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50 longer than the leading ordinary brand. So you get more life per roll. Bounty the quicker picker upper. You are loved dickerson were back with our governors. Governor hickenlooper let me start with you picking up on what governor kasich was saying. Talk about how the politics of this will work. Your staffs are going to get together but then walk me through how the politics of this are going to work that its going to change the situation in washington where, again, everybody who started from the friendship that the two of you have built. Well, i think the plan is that we begin to look at how do we get to that those solutions. Really, stabilize the private market, how are we going to get to the reinsurance or high cost. As we do that well try to include more governors, republicans and democrats make sure were balanced, at some point obviously we need to work with the senators. People like alexander who is talking about looking at a bipartisan solution, i think well be surprised at the number of senators that are willing to step back, all right, lets roll up our sleeves and work on a bipartisan base. Dickerson governor kasich, you are a member of congress, when you were in congress and governor came in with a bunch of great ideas, would you have listened, are they likely to take what youre saying and we did listen to them. When we were balancing the federal budget in 97 we had a lot of advice from Tommy Thompson the great governor of wisconsin. John engler the great governor from the state of michigan. We did listen to them. It was important. My sense on this, john just mentioned Lamar Alexander, what he wants to do, patty murray will help on that the democrat senator. Tom carper from delaware has been unbelievable in terms of his looking trying to solve this problem. Dick durbin and i, democrat leader and i have talked theres a lot of politics but im worried about people. I think there is a hunger in the congress, at least in the senate to try to do what they went to do, which is solve problems. You cant solve immense difficult problems without both side. We couldnt have balanced the budget in 97 had not Clinton Administration and republicans agreed to make some compromise. We never would have reformed the military like we g goldwater, a democrat to give power to commanders in the field. These are major deals, john. Since republicans are in the majority they get