Humiliate them in public, which is a sign of weakness. Hes a man of courage. Hes a man of purpose. And hes a man of substance. Hes a man of very high integrity. And he is an eagle scout. And reversing history. President trump announces on twitter he is canceling the Obama Administrations acceptance of transgender people into the military. Even as he now predicts i can be more president ial than any president thats ever held this office. That i can tell you. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington where Senate Republicans are still searching for enough votes to pass some form of health care. The latest test being a straight repeal of obamacare after repeal and replace with amendments from senators cruz and portman failed tuesday night. Is the most likely option a barebones skinny repeal . And what the heck is that . Joining me now to sort all this out and the unprecedented war between the president and his own attorney general, Nbcs Kristen Welker at the white house and nbcs kasey hunt on capitol hill. Kasey, first to you. What is skinny repeal . I think i know but why dont you go through it . If you can hear me. Reporter well, andrea, im not sure that yes, i can, and i apologize. Were outside waiting for senators to arrive here, and we have a little bit of a peanut gallery, as im sure youre familiar with. But look, we dont know yet what this, quote unquote, skinny repeal will contain. Right now the conversations are around potentially eliminating the mandates, the individual mandate, the employer mandate, and potentially eliminating the medical device tax. Thats something that has actually had support from people in both parties. Its something that they think they might be able to get momentum behind. But really theyre just trying to cobble something together right now that they could eventually have a final vote on to say that they can that they have passed it through the senate and to take a look at what they could do with the house. But this is far from certain, andrea. Nine republicans voted last night against that massive overhaul package that of course weve been talking so much about. Were anticipating that the straight repeal vote thats set to come up here any minute will also fail, and then they will have to essentially go back to the drawing board. Were trying to talk to republican senators to get kind of a sense of whether they think they could do Something Like that. Lamar alexander was quoted as telling reporters this kind of a package would not be a solution to fixing the problems with obamacare. But this would potentially let them at least move on to the next thing which theres quite a bit of political appetite to do right now. Everyones a little worn out with this. But of course we shouldnt lose sight of the fact that there are a lot of americans waiting to find out what republicans are going to do. There are significant uncertainties now in the Insurance Markets that is having a real impact on people relying on these obamacare plans. Sos athis drags out and delays and theres still a lot of up certainty there are still these real world impacts going on. Andrea . And in fact, skinny repeal, whatever they call it, that would get rid of the individual mandate, get rid of the medical tax to support medical devices. So it would be devastating to many people who rely on these plans. Its not just some reduced form of health care. It really cuts the guts out of obamacare and the whole financing of it like a house of cards. Lets talk about Lisa Murkowski. The president tweeting against her today. And shes now responded, kasie. She of course had voted against the president. The president had tweeted, senator Lisa Murkowski of the great state of alaska really let the republicans and our country down yesterday. Too bad hes going after his own party, those who are rebellious. She has now responded and i think in an interview with you, kasie. Let me play this sound. I am in a position where im not looking to a reelection until 2022. Thats a long time away. And quite honestly, i dont think its wise to be operating on a daily basis thinking about what a statement or a response that causes you to be fearful of your electoral prospects. Were here to govern. She and susan collins, of course, getting the ire of the white house. And then today kristen welker, on twitter the president reversing the Obama Administrations transgender decision on active duty military. Doing it on twitter. And now criticized by john mckean, the chairman of the Armed Services committee, whos commenting, putting out a statement against what President Trump did on this. The pentagon is saying that they will defer all comment to the white house. But it is a big switch, and it is the first real sense of this president getting into the social issues that have been so controversial. Reporter thats right. This is yet another major shift, reversal of an obamaera policy. Andrea, President Trump announcing, as you say, on twitter this morning that effectively Transgender Service members can no longer serve in the military. Thats going to impact those who are currently serving as well as potential recruits in terms of the numbers, the amount of people it could impact. Theres a range weve seen everywhere from several to as many as 11,000. You mentioned senator john mccain. Let me read you a little bit of what he had to say, andrea, in this statement, which was scathing. He says, the president thes tweet this morning regarding Transgender Americans in the military is jet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via twitter. The statement was unclear. The department of defense has already decided to allow currently serving transgender individuals to stay in the military and many are serving honorably today. So there is some confusion about what specifically this means. Were going to have a briefing with Sarah Huckabee sanders. But theres also a backlash, andrea, who say this move is backwardslooking. I just spoke with someone who served in the military, who was openly transgender, who said look, these are people who are fighting and dying for their country and this is a rebuke by the commander in chief. It will not make our country stronger or safer. It will do the exact opposite. Now, in terms of what weve heard from then candidate trump on the campaign trail, he vowed to be someone who supported the lgbtq community. His daughter ivanka trump has been vocal, has tweeted about the importance of lgbtq rights, but this will be seen by that community as well as a number of civil Rights Groups like the aclu as the exact opposite, as discrimination against that group of people, andrea. And kristen, i just wanted to get a reality check on the Jeff Sessions, this unprecedented situation between the president and his attorney general. The whole independence of the Justice Department is on the line here. The president again tweeting today, why didnt a. G. Sessions replace acting fbi director andrew mccabe, a comey friend who was in charge of clinton investigation but got big dollars, 700,000, for his wifes political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives drain the swamp. We have to unpack and fact check all of that. Its quite confusing. But the bottom line is on twitter hes going after sessions. Sessions was seen i think at the white house, but he is telling Close Associates at the Justice Department he is not quitting. So hes carrying on. Ironically, a lot of the president s agenda. His very conservative agenda on Voting Rights and other such issues at the Justice Department. Hes been one of the more effective cabinet secretaries. And the recusal is mandated under the legal procedures governing conflict of interest for lawyers, judges, and of course for the a. G. His decision to recuse himself, andrea, has been praised by democrats, by republicans, by legal experts who say look, he served on the campaign and so it would have been a conflict of interest. So it was the right move for him to recuse himself. And yet the president continues to step up his attacks on a daily basis. He was asked yesterday over and over again why doesnt he just fire his attorney general if he no longer has confidence in him. He disputed that he was allowing him to twist in the wind. He said look, im just disappointed in his skiegs to recuse himself, i want him to get tougher on the leaks. I thought that was an interesting comment. Is he hanging that over his head and saying look, if you take this action on leaks, if you get tougher on leakers i will pull back some of my criticism of you . That remains to be seen whether that will actually happen. But it is our understanding that Jeff Sessions has no intention of going anywhere. Yes, the president s attacks are getting to him at this same time he and his supporters stress he has a lot of conservatives who are urging him to stay in that role. But it does raise questions about the independence of the judiciary and concerns, andrea, that the president s broader goal is to have a new a. G. In place who will remove the special counsel and ultimately get rid of the russia investigation. So a lot of concerns particularly on capitol hill about what the president is really up to here. Kristen welker, kasie hunt, thanks so much to both of you for starting us off. And joining me now is mike levitt, former utah governor and health and Human Services secretary to george w. Bush. And msnbc analyst eugene robinson, of course a columnist, pulitzer prizewinning columnist at the Washington Post. Governor, let me just start with eugene here on the Jeff Sessions issue because this is so unprecedented to both of you really, to have the president not just in open dispute with any old cabinet secretary. This is the attorney general of the United States. Theres supposed to be an independent judiciary. How have we come to pass to this situation . Well, donald trump was elected president. Thats how we came to pass. Weve never seen anything like this. You and i have been around here for a long time. Even in the days when bill clinton clearly was not thrilled with janet reno as attorney general and there was some conflict, there was nothing like this. He wasnt public about it. He complained privately, some of it leaked out. Exactly. It never goes public. And its not just before because there was no twitter then. Donald trump is going out, standing in front of microphones and lets watch this from his News Conference yesterday with the Prime Minister of lebanon. If he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office and i would have quite simply picked somebody else. I told you before, im very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell. Governor levitt, youve been in the cabinet, youve been in the cabinet with a lot of internal disputes, but this is pretty remarkable. And on top of which Jeff Sessions as a senator was the very first senator, very first person from the senate to endorse donald trump. Hes now saying that thats because he felt that he had such big crowds that Jeff Sessions was just going along to ride his coattails if you will. But how does he continue this way . What is his strategy here in this public war of words with his own attorney general . I have to confess that like many others this is not a reality i recognize. Ive been in a cabinet in two different roles, and there are times when a president disagrees with something that a cabinet member has done and has every right to have a conversation about the cabinet members performance. But generally and i think properly those are conversations that take place eye to eye, knee to knee, inside the oval office. And believe me, when that happens, cabinet members listen. But to do it in a public way is well, lets just say its a different management style than i think were accustomed to. And one of the things youve noticed as we have noticed is there are a number of republican senators who are former colleagues of Jeff Sessions, a number of conservatives rallying not only in the senate but in the media as well, rallying to Jeff Sessions defense. Im not sure how smart politically this is for the president. What does it project in terms of what kind of loyalty that he would give to his own people . Well, presumably donald trump recognized the quality of Jeff Sessions when he chose him as attorney general. Hes a fine man. Hes a dignified man. Hes a great public servant. And again, i think this is just a style of interaction were unaccustomed to and in my judgment not a productive one. Speaking of things that are productive and not productive, were going to have a series of votes now. Were expecting one very shortly. Weve already seen a defeat for the senate leadership. I want to ask both of you about this process that john mccain so strongly criticized on the floor. And theres some controversy over his own voting last night. But he says he will not vote for the substantive goals to become. The process is absurd. Were talking about between 1 6 and 1 5 of the economy and at the moment republicans in the senate are trying to reform and transform between 1 5 and 1 6 of the economy on the backs of envelopes, essentially making it it up as they go along, for strictly political reasons. This is no longer about helping the American People. Its no longer about shoring up Insurance Markets or making sure that medical care is more widely available or whatever your goal is. Theres no societal goal here. Theres a political goal. Its to fulfill a promise that was made. And the argument, the whole argument is that we have to do this because we made the promise no matter what it is we do. And governor levitt, as a former health and Human Services secretary, to be voting on legislation one after another, not only is it not read, theres no Congressional Budget Office score, we dont know whos helped, whos hurt, how many millions would be knocked off the rolls. How can the Republican Party defend this in the midterms and thereafter . First, can i say, andrea, i thought that john mccains statement yesterday was historically important. It was dramatic. It was wise. It was eloquent. And what he said about the history and the customs of the senate were words that every senator now and in the future should adhere to and listen. I do think theres some value in at least understanding the legislative strategy that Mitch Mcconnell is using. Hes essentially framing the issue so that he knows where the base votes are, and hes got 100 amendments now that hell start looking for ways in which he can piece this together. Whether thats the right legislative strategy from a policy standpoint i think is a separate question, but it is important to recognize that there is a strategy playing out here, and i think john mccain is right. If this doesnt work, then the senate owes it i think to the American People to go back to what he referred to as regular order. I thought it was very telling that he said to the applause of the democrats we need to get back to regular order. And then he said to the applause of the republicans, because the democrats didnt do it either. It was a kind of awkward humor that erupted inside the Senate Chamber at least as i heard it. It was telling and an important observation. And weve just heard that the votes that were supposed to be done one after another this morning are now delayed until 3 00. My suspicion is they dont have enough republican votes. And for many of these votes theyve been told by the parliamentarian they need 60 under reconciliation, whats called the budget process, not just the 50 that got it to the floor. And 60 is just not going to be possible according to any of the calculations that we have made. But is there anything that has been yet proposed that you think would improve obamacare and be a way of expanding healthcare or making it more viable economically . Both parties, andrea, acknowledge that there are things in the current law that need to be changed. I think the problem i think senator mccain hit the nail on the head when he said sometimes i and other senators have its been more important for us to win than it is to get it right. And his call was lets get it right. There are things on which this legislative body could agree if they could get down to the business of fixing health care. Well, we have to leave it there. But thank you so much, mike levitt. Thanks for being with us from utah and of course our friend here at the table, eugene robinson. And we have some breaking news. And it is good news. Its good to have some good news. Great news here in washington. Louisiana congressman steve scalise, majority whip, has been discharged from medstar hospital after spending more than a month recuperating from being critically injured in that june shooting at the alexandria, Virginia Baseball field practicing for their congressional baseball game. Hospital Officials Say the House Majority whip has made excellent progress, has had a number of surgeries. He will now begin a period of intensive inpatient rehabilitation. We continue to send our thoughts and prayers to the scalise family and hope progress continues and hes back on capitol hill soon. And well be right back. Tresi announcer tresiba® is