Obamacare. They released their new plan this week, but it still faces an uphill battle for passage. And joining me now are politics and government reporter larissa lagos, joe garafoli and car carla maranucci. Carla, another revelation today that a former soviet Intelligence Officer was at that meeting with donald junior, the russian lawyer, Jared Kushner, former campaign chair, paul manafort. The list goes on. Is that enough to prove collusion . You know, at this point, someone should remember that famous watergate phrase. Its not the crime, its the coverup. Collusion is not a legal term but certainly becoming a cultural term in this case. When you have this series of events in which the trumps have just not been clear with everyone. It was about adoption. Just two days ago, trump junior was on the hannity show saying there is nothing more. This is handing ammunition not only to robert mueller, but to the democrats out there. Like brad sherman here of california, who launched the first impeachment issue on obstruction of justice. How many ammunition is it, though . Because theres been suggestions this is a smoking gun, right . But there is still a lot we dont know. We dont know if this led to other meetings. We dont know if this actually led to real collaboration. Right, the analogy smoking gun but no dead body. I think the issue is credibility at this point. And does this lose his base . Does it make republicans peel off . Not quite yet. But the case keeps being built. To the point of lies and lies and on top of lies. Just within the day that the New York Times broke the story of the emails in which don junior put out his own, you know, version of them on twitter. Or not version, the same version. You see within that one New York Times story how much he lied to them in, like, within a threeday period. First it was about adoption, then nobody else was there, now we hear this. So i do think, especially for the special prosecutor, robert mueller, it just adds fuel to the fire for their investigation. And potentially the russian guy, actually a u. S. Citizen. He can subpoena him. So he can talk to him and possibly get him to flip on the trumps. Because right now its the people in the room are trump family members and the former campaign manager, manafort. And could be in more trouble legally. He might want to flip. So right now collusion, you dont have legally. But you have issues, perjury, campaign donations, obstruction of justice. All of this is becoming a perfect storm. And as said, now the issue is at what point do republicans say enough already and cut themselves loose from what going on. And in the broader context, trumps inner circle keeps on growing of people admitting to contacts with russian officials. We have Jared Kushner and attorney generals Jeff Sessions and former National Security adviser mike he wil feline. So what has been the reaction from republican officials here in california . Well, sprinting. Sprinting from questions and cameras. The people who are concerned here are the seven republicans, congressional members, who are in districts that will be targeted by the democrats. These guys are freaking out. They want nothing to do with trump. This is this is a stink that hurts, that bleeds on to them. With the exception of dana rorbach, who embraced russia and embraced the trump line. Hey, nothing to see here, this was Just Opposition Research they were looking at. And in california, thats even more important, right . Because you have the seven the reason these seven districts are being targeted by democrats is they all went blue in the president ial race. They voted for hillary, but still elected republicans to congress. In california, where republicans are such at deficit when it comes to registration numbers, and so many more independents, even in the safely red districts, i do think there is more of a danger of a base peeling off than maybe broadly nationally when you look at the sort of 37 that trump has managed to keep in his camp. And also making National Headlines this week, of course, the senate gop, revised health care bill. Carla, how would this how is this different from the original version . Well, i mean, at this point, some of the tax issues, remember, giving a tax break to the wealthy, thats been peeled off. The fact is, the Health Industry still gets tax breaks, medical device manufacturing gets tax breaks. Drug guys get tax breaks. And the fact is, it is still on the backs of the poor and older americans. And this is where republicans are going to have a tremendous problem when youre talking about the kind of cuts that theyre talking about to medicare. Yeah, i think the medicaid issue is really keen, especially here in california, where we have really embraced obamacare and expanded it to so many people. One in three americans is on our version of medicaid. So the deep cuts, while they have put in provisions and while California Law could sort of still protect people in terms of what plans could offer or not offer, cost is going to be the issue. And not just for the poor, but all of the people who have had to rely on the subsidies through the exchanges. I mean, if premium rates skyrocket and the spigot of federal money on health care is cut off, were going to be looking at very people in the middle class who are deeply hurt by this. So what are the chances of this actually passing, joe . Last month Mitch Mcconnell already abruptly cancelled the vote on the original bill. And already senators rand paul and Susan Collins are saying were not voting for this thing. There is no more room for error here. One, you could lose one more, and thats about it. And so there will be a vote, he hopes next week, if he has the votes. But they have to do something, as mcconnell says, as the republicans say. We promised this for seven years. So they have to deliver something. The something theyre delivering, though, looks less and less like something different. I mean, because when youre they gave back the taxes on the rich and, you know, thats a lot of those people are republican voters. They hated the tax on the rich so thats so hes already kind of gone back on some of the promises they made. It is a very thin line right now. You know, a big thing you heard in, like, rural areas where they really did benefit from obamacare, but was this sort of anger at this idea of the mandate. That they were told by the government they had to buy insurance. And its interesting to see how republicans are trying to get at that. In practice, theyre going to repeal a mandate, but theyre also allowing insurers to publish people, who go off insurance rolls. Again, the money issue is there. It almost seems like theyre trying to do something that on its face looks like its repealing obamacare and offering something different. But its actually going to hurt people more. And so you have to wonder how does that play politically. Key is the timing. When is it going to hurt them . So if this doesnt go into play for a year, theyre safe for the midterm elections, but before that, less and less likely, they could be safe. The other concern, the cruz amendment, which allows for sort of sketchy budget priced plans skimpy plans, theyre being called. Yeah. Thats right. And which would create two different baskets of patients. The healthy, younger ones, and the older, sicker ones. And we know who is going to pay more under that plan, apparently. Right. So are californians still protected, given we have our own mandates on what insurers can offer and what they cant . I would say its not entirely clear, because health care is very complicated, as we all learned. But i think the issue is we may be on paper protected in terms of the plan allowed to be covered in this state. But what those plans cost is an open question. So even people on employersponsored plans arguably could be impacted by this. And also this issue of under this new plan how much sort of deference is given to the department of health care at the federal level to sort of give waivers to states and do other things. And a lot of that, you know, is going to potentially benefit red states at the expense of blue states. So i think that thats something thats going to raise questions, too. And so, jill, theres a tough dilemma here for republican lawmakers. One, you either defend, taking insurance away from millions of americans. If you pass this thing. Or you fail to pass it, and you have failed to repeal obamacare as you had promised the American People for the last seven years. So how is this dilemma affecting the republican partys ability to present itself as the governing party . Well, thats it. Theres no excuse for them not to do something. They have all of the lovers of power in washington. And youre going to see the screws really tighten on someone like dean heller in nevada, the senator there, where the state has a lot of people on medicaid. And a lot of people getting the benefits of this program. But hes up for reelection. And hes facing a stiff challenge. Which way is he going to vote . Is he going to vote with his party or the people of his state . Well, it was interesting that rand paul was the second republican who came out and said i dont even want to vote on this. Before all we heard about was Susan Collins of maine and also Lisa Murkowski from alaska. The list of people from both the moderate and conservative ranks of the party keeps growing, public about their concerns. It makes you wonder if theyll have the vote. And interesting when the party needed its headmost donald trump to bring people in and talk to them about it. In france this week celebrating bastille day out of pocket in washington. And thats got to hurt the republicans, as well. Well, that, but we also have so weve got a bunch of things happening right now. We have got the health care fight. Weve got the whole russia donald junior situation. And its consuming coverage coming out of washington. So how is this affecting the rest of trumps agenda . What agenda . Theres been no significant piece of legislation passed. Most of the action has been in the regulatory era. Particularly on the environmental front, various laws being tweaked, stuff that well see happen over time. But whats he had . Hes had nothing to present to the American People. And that keeps getting held up in court. Most of it controversial executive orders. A lot of issues around immigration and those sorts of Campaign Promises blocked by the courts. Even some of these environmental rollbacks being blocked by the courts, and other attempts at rolling back obama air regulations, like protecting people who go to forprofit colleges. There is a lawsuit over that now. So i do think that its not just politically but actually sort of practically their ability to institute any sort of agenda. One thing the republicans really wanted was tax reform. And we still have a tax reform plan thats, what, 127 words on two pages . Yeah. It hasnt been spelled out. Thats going to be the big fail for republicans. Easiest thing for them to pass, too. But they decided to go with health care first. Got sidetracked by a lot of other things. I wanted to also talk about whats happening within the California Democratic party, right . And i think a clear indication of whats happening could we could look at it through the lens of the cap and trade bill, which lawmakers are expected to vote on, on monday. Theres already a bunch of environmental groups lining up to oppose it. Whats going on there . Yeah, i mean, this is interesting. We have seen this sort of Climate Change debate really change focus in recent years as brown has continued to publish are push an agenda. A year or two ago, the oil industry trying to kill the bill. Now brown has made olive branches to them, included things aimed at protecting businesses. And now you have the Environmental Justice community, people on the left flank of the party really pushing back. He has tried to bring in a sort of companion bill that deals with air quality issues to address some of those concerns. But i do think, as you noted, this speaks of brooder issues within the democratic party. As the base has grown and power has grown, business interests have put a lot more money into electing moderate democrats. And they have a lot more power in sacramento. So what you see is this sort of more liberal, progressive democrats, not just on cap and trade, but on other issues like around single payer which i want to talk about. Really sort of pushing back and saying this is not what democrats stand for. And you are not really a democrat if youre reporting this. Why nancy pelosi is now trying to lay down the agenda for what democrats stand for. And i know you spoke with nancy pelosi earlier this week. And she is working on a plan on how to present democrats in the trump era. What is her plan . Well, were waiting to see what the plan is. And she got a bit ticked off at me a couple weeks ago, saying, democrats dont have a plan. And how she is responsible for some of the problems democrats have. Not all of them. And she said, well, were coming out with one. And she likened it to this era to when george bush was president and started his second term. Highlevel popularity. Both houses of congress. But the democrats went and she asked steve jobs and other people how do we rebrand ourselves . You have to know who you are. So democrats then sort of researched and came up with some ideas. Thats the process theyre in now. Theyre going to start rolling out some stuff soon. Did she give a sense of who theyre talking to . Rural voters . Theyre talking to rural voters, people who have left the party. They need to bring black voters in. Black voters did not vote for Hillary Clinton in the same numbers they voted for president obama. They need to sort of keep the Latino Coalition going. But they they dont know who they are yet. They said, heres our platform. And its a sprawling platform. But thats you need a bumper sticker. They dont have a bumper sticker. And you both have been talking about nancy pelosi. That is one thing shes republicans will try and hang her around the neck of any democrat who runs against them. Here leadership, and where the party goes in the future. And as you said here in california, we were talking about gas tax. When the democrats own the super majorities in both houses of legislation and every statewide office, then theyve got to deal with a party thats basically splitting apart over, you know, who is the businessfriendly democrat and who is the progressive democrat. Gas tax, health care, singlepayer, you know. And infrastructure. Other issues that are out there. And real quickly, what are some of the other issues dividing California Democrats . I would say singer payer. The bill that got through the senate was sort of a shell of a bill, they didnt have a funding mechanism for a 400 billion plan. And essentially, after the Assembly Speaker killed that, he has gotten death threats. There has been a lot of consternation on the left that sort of democrats are abandoning their base. And i think this is an issue that will keep going, especially if Health Care Gets through the senate. Okay. So much to discuss. And clearly, not enough time for the three of you. Carla with politico. And joe garea foli with the chronicle. Medical cannabis has been legal for use in california for 20 years. Last november, voters approved it for recreational use. State officials have less than six months to finalize the rules for medical and recreational pot and begin issuing licenses for growing to distributing it. I spoke last month to lori ajacks with the effort to regulate marijuana. Thank you for speaking with us. Thank you for having me. Prior to your current job, you were responsible for regulating alcohol. How is this, regulating cannabis, different from regulating alcohol . A big difference is that alcohol is federally legal, which cannabis is not. So testing standards and labeling, the state is doing that itself for cannabis regulation. You brought up the fact that cannabis is still illegal at the federal level. Do you worry about a possible crackdown . Attorney general Jeff Sessions has already said hes opposed to any attempts to legalize cannabis, even for medical use. Do you worry about a crackdown at the federal level, and how would that affect california . So we worry about a lot of this stuff. But we feel pretty confident that as long as were making sure were keeping it out of the hands of minors, that we have public safety, consumer safety as the forefront of our regulations, and making sure that were keeping making sure that things arent going outside of the state, i think were pretty confident that as long as were keeping in line with that, that we wont have any federal intervention. But, of course, its something that is out of the control of the bureau. So we focus on the things that we can control, which is putting together a model regulatory system for california. Have you been looking at other states that have legalized recreational cannabis, looked at how they handled it, and applying some of the Lessons Learned there to california . Yeah, we have been talking to a lot of the states that currently have either adult use or medical regulation legalized in their state, and trying to look at what they did and their states and make sure we dont make the same mistakes in california. Colorado and washington, oregon, they were the first pioneers to do this. But i think we can learn from, you know, a strong regulations around manufactured goods, such as edibles and whatnot. And also what oregon has been going through with the testing labs and making sure we have enough testing labs in place to make sure that theres cannabis will be tested and we know the product is going to be safe. So were looking at all of those things. And i think we just have to be ready that once we get our regulations in place, theyre finalized, we start issuing licenses. If things arent working, then weve got to look, is there a better way to do things and a more efficient way to do things. So we want to keep bringing people in the regulated market and keep them here. Because the industry is largely cashbased, what kinds of challenges does that propose for you in trying to