Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20170628 : vi

Political web and the Clinton Campaign chairman weighs in on whether the Obama White House did enough to stop it. Look, i think the president and entire administration were dealing with unprecedent the incidents of weaponization of fruits of russian cyber activity, and i think they were trying to make the best judgments they could on behalf of the American People. And breaking point, the White House Press briefing boils over after Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders slams the Media Coverage what have she calls the russian trump hoax. Were going to ask you questions and youre here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say see, once again the president s right, and everybody else out here is fake media and everybody in this room is only trying to do their job. Z good day everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell. In aspen, colorado, live from the aspen ideas festival, were following the latest fallout in the health care battle, a stunning setback in republicans push to repeal obamacare. Mitch mcconnell forced to abruptly pull the bill delaying a vote until after senates returned from the july 4th break. But with growing opposition among both wings of the Republican Senate ranks, the question now, will Mitch Mcconnell open up the debate and start looking for a real compromise with democrats . If we do fail, if we cant get 50 votes for a republican only product, obamacare is truly collapsing and its never going to be fixed, theres an opportunity to work with some democrats to find an alternative, which is probably better for the nation, but well see. And the president just a few moments ago speaking about energy at another event was asked about the Health Care Bill. Lets join that. Access to the energy and wealth that they have on their own lands. Many of our states have been denied to abun dant resources on their lands that could bring greater wealth to the people and benefit to our whole nation. Were becoming more and more energy dominant. I dont want to be energy free. I want to be energy dominant. If my first day in office weve taken swift action to lift the crushing restrictions on american energy. Scott pruitt has done an amazing incredible job in a short period of time. Most people love him but there are a couple that dont but thats okay, right . Were also putting our people back to work by doing this. Todays conversation is a chance for these state, local and tribal leaders to discuss how we can cooperate and support them even more in unleashing these Domestic Energy reserves, theyre tremendous reserves that we never appreciated, we never understood but now we understand them very well. Im confident that working together we can usher in Energy Dominance and security benefits it brings to its citizens, not only the native americans but all over the country, and were seeing it more and more, and its happening and more. I also want to tell you yesterday we had a tremendous meeting, the republican senators met on health care and the meeting went really well, were talking about a great, great form of health kcare obamacare s essentially dead. If you dont give it the subsidy its dead in 24 hours. Its been a headache for everybody, a nightmare for many and we are looking at a health care that would be a fantastic tribute to our country, a health care that will take care of people finally for the right reasons and also at the right cost a tremendous reduction from obamacare. Yesterday in alaska, a great state, announced a 216 increase, so we have a plan if we get it approved, this is very tough, every state is different, every senators different, but i have to tell you, the republican senators had a really impressive meeting yesterday at the white house. We had 52, almost all of them, never easy but we had essentially 50 show up at the meeting and the other two are on our side. I think were going to get at least very close and i think were going to get it over the line. It was a great, great feeling in that room yesterday, and what also came out is the fact that this health care would be so good, would be far better than owe ka ma cair and much less expensive for the people and much less expensive for the country, so those are a lot of good factors so well see what happens. Were working very hard. Weve given ourselves a ail bit more time to make it perfect. Thats what we want to do. I think this has a chance to be a Great Health Care at a reasonable cost. People can save a lot of money. We get rid of the mandates, we get rid of so much, gotten rid of a lot of the taxes, all of the bad parts of obamacare are gone, its a repeal and replace and i look forward to working with the republican senators over a short period of time. I know rick is very excited about the health care were talking about. Actually, having these governors sitting around the table is a great example of it, and one of the things that i know kim and paul theyd like to put health care in a place that they helped write and their citizens helped write because i know these, i dont know bill that well, but my bet is hes the same. You give him the authority to take care of their citizens, they can have more people quite confident. There you heard President Trump, rick perry of course the Energy Secretary also there, the president s first reactions to the Health Care Defeat really, the fact that they had to pull the bill. Nbcs kasie hunt on capitol hill and dr. Zeke emmanuel, chairman of Health Policy at the university of pennsylvania. Kasie first to you. Lets talk about the president s take and a reality check on that, compared to what really happened on the hill. It was an incredible setback for Mitch Mcconnell. Kasie let me interrupt you for a moment. We want to play a little bit more of President Trump. I always say it. Mr. President , yesterday said it was a hoax thank you all. Thank you. Thank you, please. Thank you, please. He was asked a question about health care. Kasie you pick it up there in terms of what happened with Mitch Mcconnell and what happened when the senators went to see the president , because from all reports he didnt know the details of this plan. Andrea, what i learned from that spray that you just played right now of the president he filled in some of the blanks of what the issues are, that is more texture than i have heard him articulate previously about the contours of this bill, and of the negotiation thats currently going on among republican senators. What i can tell you here on capitol hill, the sense is, it became very clear in the lunch behind closed doors they werent just a handful of votes short on the Health Care Bill, they were dozens of potential votes short, a lot of problems and Mitch Mcconnell decided to make the bet that he would try to take a little bit longer to negotiate within his own conference, and the warning has essentially been, look, if we dont get this done right now, we are going to have to turn to democrats to get something done, and youre starting to hear moderate republicans saying things that are more along those lines. There seems to be pressure coming from those moderates on leadership to work with democrats. If you think about it, in a slightly different set of terms, if they were to try to do a bipartisan bill, there are moderate republicans who would rather sign onto a bill thats palatable to eight or nine moderate democrats then on to one thats palatable to rand paul, ted cruz, the right wing of that republican caucus. Now, of course, broad picture, all kinds of issues with a bill like that Going Forward but that would potentially be a completely different calculus and senator graham said if we dont come to an agreement by the end of this week were looking at a situation we probably have to do this in a bipartisan way. Little bit of a threat coming from leadership but i also think you heard the president there leaving the door open to potentially a variety of ways of solving this problem. Well see if he stays engaged. He tried to give himself room from what i could hear to say this bill republicans in the senate have come up with would accomplish the things he called for on the campaign trail but there seems to be room for maneuvering as well. Kasie, its been such an extraordinary defeat for Mitch Mcconnell, such a misjudgment of where the Congressional Budget Office would end up and how that would impact his own caucus. Unusual, hes been the mastest strategi strategist. Zeke emmanuel, author of we scription for the future. You went through the rigors of obamacare and perhaps what weve learned from this is that no single party, not the democrats, who passed it over, you know, after lengthy hearings, and argument and debate. Right. But not the democrats nor the republicans can fashion something this complex without compromise, without engaging both parties. Mike khouw connell has 52 votes, he can only afford to lose three. He tried to do that, and i think as i say often, there is a lot of overlap between conservative Health Policy experts and liberal Health Policy experts on what we need to do to solve this problem. You could reach across the aisles. Now, after not reaching across the aisles, after disgracing and basically not dealing with the democrats, they say were going to come back and do it in a bipartisan manner, that seems a little false. It doesnt sound like will the democrats be receptive or would they rather see the republicans fail . Part of the problem is the politics here, that the democrats and the republicans, well really the republicans tried to do all these things without the democrats. They did not join in on the Affordable Care act even though the democrats reach out to them, they did not reach out to the democrats here, and i think if republicans go to their home districts and hold town meetings, theres going to be a lot of heat on them, and i think we dont know how thats going to play out. Time is not going to make 22 Million People suddenly get insurance on the republican bill. They have to change it fundamentally to change that number. Whether Mitch Mcconnell has the stomach to fundamentally change it who knows. Kasie you weigh in on this here, are the politics better to not have a bill for the republicans, because then people are left with essentially obamacare light, obamacare sabotaged if you will, the Insurance Companies pulling out, the uncertainty affecting the markets. So it reverts back to blaming president obama through, you know, social media and advertising, whatever the president can say, and they dont have to own it. Thats a counter argument. It is, and look, i do think that theres a sense from republicans that being seen failing to follow through on a Major Campaign promise would potentially be damaging but i also think the polling is changing relatively rapidly. I think when i talk to sources about that, theres some sense perhaps people were taking their feelings about president obama out on the Health Care Law that bore his name, and now theyre thinking about potentially losing what they have, the popularity numbers for that law have gone way up, and democrats will say well, they managed to pull off something we could never do. They could never make Obamacare Popular but thats what has happened and that kind of makes for a very difficult political situation for republicans to the point that the emerging conventional wisdom seems to be whoever owns health care is going to be saddled with electoral losses and a lot of political problems. So perhaps we should all just take a little bit of the blame, spread it around and change kind of this fundamental dynamic. So i think first of all, it is true as kasie says, that the popularity of the Affordable Care act has gone way up and the republican bill is very unpopular, and the second thing is that i dont think you can blame president obama anymore. The republicans have done a lot of things to increase the uncertainty, and thats whats driving premiums up. President trump and the republicans are going to own every change and every problem here. They can no longer blame an Administration Six months ago, and so its going to be their problem and theyre going to be punished in 2018 because the public realizes this is actually a good thing. Throwing 22 Million People off insurance is not progress in this country. Im just saying that it depends on how the debate is played, with that said do we have to reach a point where we get to a bigger argument over what kind of sacrifices have to be made and andrea were at a turning point in this country where a large part of the Health Care System is improving. What we need is for the government to help that improvement, and i think if we brought bipartisan policy people together to write a bill, could you get a consensus. Thats a big step for politicians to take, to say look, we are going to do this in a bipartisan manner. Im not sure you can do that because im not sure theres enough trust in washington now before the 2018 election to do that but that would be the way to go. Thanks so much. And my colleague Peter Alexander in washington with more news from the white house. Peter . Andrea, thanks to you. During yesterdays white house News Press Briefing things got a little bit heated. People still talking about. It was an exchange between Sarah Huckabee sanders and a reporter. Heres part of what you missed. You mentioned the story where they had to have reporters resign come on youre enflaming everybody right here right now those words. This administration has done that as well. Why in the name of heaven any one of us right, are replaceable and any one of us if we dont get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us. I think you have been elected to serve for four years at least. Theres no option other than that. I think were here to ask you questions. Youre here to provide the answers and what you just did is enflamtory to people all over the country see once again the president s right and everybody else out here is faking it and everybody in this room is only trying to do their job. Well, i disagree completely. Nbcs Kristen Welker joins me from the white house. We were both in the Briefing Room for this moment. There have been some frustrations on both sides, but it seemed like they hit a breaking point yesterday, as we sort of witnessed this Combative Exchange play out. Reporter thats right. First the backdrop, peter. Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressing frustration within this administration about some of the mistakes that have been made but over the russia probe and the administration has consistently referred to it as a hoax, and so Sarah Huckabee sanders venting the frustration of the administration about that particularly in the wake of a story that was walked back by another network. But you saw of course that reporter there, brian karem, lash out as well and i this i that underscores the extent to which, look, the media also increatesingly under a microscope and also clashing with this administration for more access as these offcamera press briefings become increasingly more frequent, and karem has done a couple interviews in the wake of that to explain why he larshed out i that way at that very moment. He said effectively that he didnt want to be on the other side of this bullying by the white house. So thats what hes saying today, peter. Were going to have another one of those offcamera briefings with press Secretary Sean Spicer later on this afternoon. Coming in an hour and a half. Thats it from washington for the moment. We want to get back to Andrea Mitchell now in aspen. Thank you. More from washington now john podesta, one of the chief victims of russian hacking. Pressed on why the Obama White House did not do more to expose the kremlin before the election. I think they were, the president and the entire administration were dealing with an unprecedented incidence of the weaponization of, fruits of russian cyber activity, and i think they were trying to make the best judgments they could on behalf of the American People. Podesta testified before the House Intelligence Committee yesterday, and joining me now is from washington, california congressman adam schiff. Thank you for being with us. First of all he wills talk about John Podestas testimony. What have you learned so far . Well i cant go into the particulars. I think it was valuable for him to come and testify before our committee. Were looking at a number of things obviously were looking at the issue most people are focused on in terms of whether there was any coordination between the Trump Campaign and the russians, but were also looking at issues about u. S. Government response, how did the fbi and the dhs respond when they knew that