Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. If there were any lingering doubts today, the Republican Party officially became the party of roy moore. Party elites rallied around the antigay birther after he handily beat their preferred candidate in alabamas gop primary this week. Today from the podium the White House Press secretary declined to condemn some of moores inflammatory views. Judge moore says homosexuality should be illegal, he said sandy hook was some sort of divine retribution, he said Keith Ellison should not be permitted to serve in congress because hes a muslim. So without asking about the specifics of the race, does President Trump share any of those views that i just mentioned . And if not, why does he think this person is fit to be a u. S. Senator . Not that im aware of. I have not, uh, taken a deep dive on every comment that the senator or the Senate Nominee has made. But i certainly know where the president stand on this those issues and wouldnt see any parallel between the two of them on that front. Following moores victory on tuesday, defeating the candidate backed by the president , Vice President , and Senate Majority leader, the president s Political Capital is now arguably at its lowest point to date. He was defied by his own base voters in alabama. His poll numbers are back down again after he picked a fight with the nfl and his partys latest attempt to repeal obamacare just crashed and burned. Things may be however even worse for that man, mitch mcconnell, who is now facing a wholesale rebellion from the gops grassroots. According to mcconnells own super pac, the one he pays for, raises money for, Senate Leadership fund, the Republican Congress has replaced president obama as the bogeyman for conservative gop primary voters. Just look at, yeah, that chart, Mcconnells Net Approval among 2016 trump voters which peaked at more than plus 30 points in
they would rally to his cause so quickly. How do you feel about that comment particularly, as someone who cares deeply about the folks there and who represents the state of connecticut . It brings tears to my eyes. I mean, the idea that the Republican Party is wrapping their arms around someone who got up in front of a large audience and said, as people can watch, its on video, that the people of sandy hook, because they stopped following god, prompted a divine intervention which led to the murder of 20 kids, is abhorrent. The idea that he is being brought into the Mainstream Infrastructure of the Republican Party, when that is just one of a myriad of outrageous things he said, it is its really bonechilling to those of us who come from sandy hook. I want to pivot to Something Else just because i have you here and the story is breaking, which is tom price. And from multiple angles. Were going to cover a little bit what was hes been doing on the travel front with his itinerary now going up to 1
statebased efforts to try to tell people what obamacare is, you are hurting americans. And so this is i think as troubling as it gets. But as you know, its part of a pattern here. They pulled out 90 of the advertising money. They wont pay the insurers more than a month ahead of time. Theyve told the irs to stop enforcing the individual mandate. They are intentionally sabotaging in every way, way, shape and form the Affordable Care act, hurting americans. Republicans better put a stop to this, because ultimately even if they dont care about the policy here, the politics will haunt them. People know what trump is doing and they are going to hold republicans accountable. Thats an open question, i guess. It seems to the extent theres a strategic imperative here, and i guess if you give him the most good faith interpretation, they think the law is harmful so theyre not enforcing it to stop that harm. Strategically the idea they can cause collapse and that will force in a crisis moment their ability to repeal obamacare. Yeah, and weve told them from the beginning that that wont be the case, that you are not going to essentially put a gun to the heads of our constituents and congress and force us to act. And i hope that better angels are going to prevail. We are very close to a deal in the senate to try to keep the parts of the hak that are working and stabilize the parts that arent. And my hope is some of these actions by the Trump Administration push republicans in the senate to work with democrats to stabilize these markets. All right, senator chris murphy, thank you as always. Thanks. For more on republicans faustian bargain, maddie dupler, a conservative lobbying group. And host of The Majority Report podcast. Maddie, let me start with you. I know youre a tax person and work the on tax issues. I guess the question that i have for conservatives is, what is it worth, tax reform, to you . Is roy moore worth it,
basically . All right, as you said, ive been neckdeep in the Tax Framework since its release yesterday, so i havent been following every senators response you and senators who havent read the roy moore clip. I will dispute republicans are giving some warm bear hug to the senator, that the entire establishment opposed in his primary. Its been 48 hours since he has become the republican nominee for that race. So i would say theres been tepid maybe discussion about him, but this notion that he is somehow the crown prince for the Republican Party is just simply laughable. Well, i mean, just as point of fact, he was embraced by ted cruz, who welcomed him. Vice president mike pence had gushing words about him. The president called him a great guy, called him to congratulate him, also put him on twitter. Corey gardner who runs the Republican SenatorialCampaign Said hes happy to have him to
make america great. So im not making this up. Maybe you think theyre not being truthful. And i guess the question for you, sam, is, are they basically faking it . It doesnt matter. Right. Look, this is the same story with donald trump too. We saw the exact same story. The establishment had big problems with donald trump until they thought, this is going to be our way to appeal the Affordable Care act, this is going to be our way to get a conservative supreme court, this is going to be our way to finally get some type of Tax Reform Overhaul thats going to last more than ten years, permanent like they did during the reagan administration. I would add just to the list you made, mike pence works with roy moore over ten years ago on the constitution restoration act, which said that judges, Congress Should Fire judges that dont admit that our law is based on the word of god. So mike pence might have a little sense of a background of roy moore, didnt have to go back and check his quotes that hes had over those years. Heres my other question, maddie. I get the sense, all the
republicans ive talked to, its like this is it at the end of the rainbow. They want tax this tax bill so badly. Ive been hearing about it since the president was elected. The president went into a restaurant the night after he was elected and said, im going to cut your taxes, at an expensive new york restaurant. How badly do republicans want this . If youve only been hearing this since january you havent been listening to me for years, which is tax reform is the biggest priority for people who believe in from enterprise and progrowth economics. Its not a radical departure for republicans. No, not at all. To get tax reform done. And i think that with the framework that was released yesterday, youre going to start to see a lot of pressure on democrats, in particular the three that did not sign the Senate Democrats letter saying they Wouldnt Support Tax Reform that didnt raise taxes on the rich. Theres going to be a lot of difficult decisions for democrats and republicans i think are in a good space to move forward on the framework they released yesterday. That i think is a question. Its an open question. One thing on the other side is, if we dont have all the details, but its going to raise some peoples taxes. Its about going to raise peoples taxes who are some at the bottom of the scale, some in the upper middle class, some between the upper middle class and middle class . Two instructions struck me. Mnuchin and gary kohn both said on national television, well, we never promised taxes Wouldnt Go Up On admit class people. But this is going to be one of those situations where the details of the tax plan are fairly easy to understand. 1. 5 trillion worth of tax cuts that are going mostly to wealthy people. And theres another story here. And it starts and ends in kansas. They have taken Sam Brownback and theyve jettisoned him into the ether in some type of ambassador to religion i think at this point. For the Trump Administration. But the fact of the matter is, everything theyre doing in washington, everything theyre proposing right now, was done. There was a fiveyear experiment in kansas. It destroyed the kansas economy. It destroyed their educational system. This story is going to get out. So if they dont do this super quick, theyre going to have a similar problem they had with the Affordable Care act. The problem, maddie, do you think that the republicans are in a situation similar to the aca . It struck me in the aca, republicans were trying to sell repeal and replace sort of on rib lals terms, right . So they were saying, lower premium, more coverage. Even though the bill wasnt going to do that. Here you have republicans saying, as opposed to making a Supply Side Argument about why you have to cut taxes on capital and why people at the top of the Income Distribution need to pay less in taxes, theyre making an argument fundamentally saying, this is populist, this is not going to help people at the top, this is going to help people in the middle class. When the numbers arent going to bear that out. So i think its interesting that both you and sam somehow have been able to score a framework that none of the Bean Counters here in washington have been able to do, because theres not enough details. I dont think its clear at all
that this is not going to be a framework that doesnt deliver relief for the middle class and lower income earners. I do think in the framework it was interesting that it said the plan will be at least as progressive as the current tax code. That certainly is a departure from what weve seen in years past. I do think that it also shows a Learning Curve for republicans. It shows conservatives looking at the tax code and looking at what they want to accomplish and asking themselves, how do we communicate what these values are and how they impact real americans . I think were with the framework, with the idea that this will actually deliver for average income earners. Were starting to learn that. Right, so in terms of the scoring, people are taking a bunch of rough estimates because some of the details havent been filled in. Well have you back on the program when the actual datas there and the numbers. Im confident rich people will get a big tax cut. Id be willing to bet. We could make a donation to charity over it or something. Which youre still going to be able to itemize, i hear. Im repeating what mnuchin and kohn said on national television. The bottom line is, we know what
happens when you get rid of the estate tax. Maybe theyre not doing it. We know what happens when you cut taxes on highincome earners. It doesnt spur the Economic Growth that weve been sold. We dont hear much of the Laugher Curve that much unless youre on fox News Business channel because this has all been debunked. So they have a problem. Theyre trying to make it about an easy form fitted on a postcard. But look, thats not really that much of an issue. Three levels of taxation versus seven. Its not that big of a deal. All right, Maddie Depler and sam see are, thank you both. The tom price jet scandal exploded again. International flights, the total spent for his private travel topping 1 million from taxpayers. Most familiar compani, but we make more than our name suggests. Were an organic tea company. A premium juice company. A Coconut Water company. Weve got drinks for long days. For birthdays. For turning over new leaves. And we make them for every moment in every corner of the country. We are the cocacola company, and were proud to offer so much more. This. Are you going to be fired . I think weve still got the confidence of the president , and we continue to work on important issues like flu vaccines. Its been a painful day for health and Human Services secretary tom price after getting a flu shot to try to promote vaccinations besieged with questions following weeks of revelations about his use of private Charter Flight on this the taxpayers dime and the white house refused to defend him. Look, as the president said yesterday, hes not thrilled, certainly not happy. Does Secretary Price expect to keep his job in this administration . I think the president s addressed this yesterday. Were going through this process. Were going to conduct a full review. And well see what happens. Late this afternoon, tom price finally made a qualified apology after the hhs insisted for a week everything was aboveboard. In part, i regret the concerns this has raised regarding the use of taxpayer dollars, i will take no more private Charter Flights as secretary of hls, no
exceptions. I will write a personal check to the u. S. Treasury for the expenses of my travel on private charter planes. The taxpayers wont pay a dime for my seat on those planes. My seat. Turns out that, yes, price plans to just pay for his lone seat of his chartered flights, not the entire bill. Hhs says he will write a check for 51,887, out of the reported 400,000 Charter Flight bill. Thats just oneeighth the cost of 26 Charter Flights he kept taking even after politico started reporting on his private jet expenses. And tonight things just got even worse for Secretary Price. Politico reporting that the white house approved the use of Military Aircraft for multinational trips by price to africa and europe this spring, to asia in the numb summer, costing over 500,000 to taxpayers. The trips bring the total cost to taxpayers of prices travels of over 1 million since may, according to political review. Dan diamond coauthored that
incredible piece of reporting. He joins me now. 1 million sounds like a lot of money. Is it a lot of money in context and in comparison . Thats the sort of whats the apples to apples here . Its a lot of money in comparison to what other Cabinet Secretaries have spent or at least has been reported. I think tom price is well out this front when it comes to his frequent flier travel. Weve over the past week, ive talked about it with you, youve covered it quite well. First a report of more than 50,000 up and down the east coast ballooned to 300,000, then 400,000, now were over 1 million. In terms of his travel in just four months. And this is a guy who as a congressman railed for years about government waste. But now is using the government for what many would say is wasteful spending. I want to break this down into two parts. Lets talk about his apology today. Given that youve been reporting and going back and forth with hhs, theyve been insisting hes busy, this is all aboveboard, its war rarpted and justified,
what did you make of prices apology today . Well, i would say that it caught us a little by surprise, chris. My partner Raja Praud Dan and i have been talking to hhs about this specific story. The International Travel piece is more nuanced than Domestic Travel, the white house signed off on it, its a little more clear maybe a Cabinet Secretary needs a plane to get to africa in a way that they dont need a private jet to get to nashville. But hhs knew the number was going to be big. They went very quiet on us. We heard about the apology at the same time as everyone else. We havent gotten the confirmation from them that price is going to pay 52,000. They seem to have told every other news outlet in town except for politico. Sending you a message, do you think . Okay, ill just interpret that. Heres my question for you. It also was a little misleading i thought when he said taxpayers wont pay a dime for my seat. Just to be clear here, those flight that is youve reported
on, They Werent Chartered for someone else and tom price was like, hey, can i get a ride . They were chartered, the whole plane, so that tom price could go to a place. Right . They werent chartered for his 25yearold Press Secretary or body man. Those planes wouldnt have taken off if not for tom price and hhs saying he needed them. And all week, even this morning, chris, i was being told by hhs these were necessary, these were defensible,