Ryan. Were joined by senatorial franken who claims hes back to being funny in public again. And some are giving up and going home. Susan collins stays the course. Steve bannon takes center change declaring war on Mitch Mcconnell. Well hear from chris mcdaniel, a conservative state from mississippi who came this close to beating an incumbent republican in 2014. Will he try it again . We start with drama over the president s decision not to certify the iran deal. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson has reportedly developed a tense relationship with nikki haley, the ambassador to the united nations. A white house official described the spat as, quote, world war iii proportions. The speculation, haley wants tillersons job and has a better relationship with the president o. Meet the press haley didnt encourage the feud but he didnt exactly deny it either. That is just so much drama. I mean, its really its all this palace inteagrigue. I am glad to be living in new york. I dont want to be near the drama and i dont want to be near the gossip. Im going to continue to do a good job. Encouraging. Adding to tillersons troubles, senator bob corker has President Trump has undermined tillersons effectiveness especially with china and north korea. His choice of words left little to the imagination. Corker telling the washington post, you cannot publicly case trait your own secretary of state. Yes, you raise the tension and its very irresponsible. But its the when tillerson was asked about it this morning, well, he went there. You have a cattle ranch. You dont want to say anything about the senator calling suggesting youve been gelded before the world . Its not anything that bothers you . I checked. Im fully intact. And with that, joining me onset, Washington Bureau chief and political analyst, phillip rucker, coerror of po lit co playbook, yamish and jeremy bash. Hes a former chief of staff at the cia and the department of defense. So i dont really know exact lie what to do with tillersons remarks. Im going to start with you with a serious question. Were not going to have a play of words between antom mal and lets talk about what this means. This clearly was a situation where the reporting seems to suggest the president was in one place behind the scenes. He wants to scrap the whole deal. His team may have had some influence that says its a half mesh spur decertify it. The president had two choices. He could have withdrawn from the deal. By the rhetoric, the yardstick of his own rhetoric, he chickened out. He did not do that. He could do that at any moment. I feel like if he sees you saying he chickened out, we may not end up in the iran deal. The other choice was to basically say that iran is noncompliance and thats problematic because it was at odds with his own intelligence community, his own secretary of defense, his own chairman, so he went there and tossed the ball to congress. Whats your sense talking to these Players Behind the scenes of how this all went down and what it means . There was some disagreement within the administration, some of the president s Foreign Policy advisers including mattis, the defense secretary thought we should keep this deal going. Thought that was important for stability in the world and for our alliances in europe in particular. And when the president is just chasing at anything that obama created, we see him wanting to undo obamas health care log. We see him wanting to undo the paris climate accords and here we are with the iran deal. Get rid of it. Blow it up. Start over. Do you think thats what it is . Is it personal with president obama . I think that theres definitely a level of personal attack there. You remember that President Trump started his political career with questioning whether or not approximately obama was in fact someone who was wborn i this country. The idea of why we maybe even have President Trump. I think the reason why you saw President Trump kind of go after my colleague peter baker who wrote hes essentially going over obamas legacy is that you have President Trump essentially winning and you were out on the campaign trail. There were so many of his supporters that were really angry at president obama and voted for President Trump to take away that legacy. Hes finding he cant actually do that. I would say with this he chickened out in some ways. As much as he set his sights on them has not actually gotten rid of either. He took partial steps to undercut both initiatives and left it to congress to figure out what to do next. That prompted these tweets from the president. He wrote, quote, the failing in the not in a story should have mentioned the rapid termations by me of tpp and the Dakota Access pipelines. Also the reencent epa cancellations and our new Supreme Court justice. So the premise here essentially that the president speaks louder than he actually acts. Do you think thats the case . Yeah, it is. We should focus on one thing here. That tweet indicated that the president has not relied on congress for much and now hes relying on congress to alter some of the contours of the iran deal. Thats a dangerous gamit. If youve been watching congress you know that congress cant do anything and cant do anything easily. Hes turned to congress to rewrite or to potentially rewrite a Huge International agreement or sanctions against a country. Thats a huge deal and something that needs to get done with tax reform, government funding, the debt ceiling. So our holidays are toast . I just booked a flight and put insurance on it. That should tell you all need to know. Where are democrats on what jake was outlining. Congress has three options. They could reinstate those options and make the changes corker and cotton are talking about or do nothing and essentially are democrats going to make the bet that the president is not going to simply decide to go all the way n unravel the deal . Iran is doing a number of troubling things. Some of the things the president laid out are true. They are sponsoring terrorism and conducting Ballistic Missile tests. Thats precisely the reason we dont want them to go nuclear. Iran does not have a Nuclear Weapon now and the deal has been holding. Even skeptics at the time. I was one of them concerned about wasnt tough enough. We have to acknowledge theyve been in compliance and to do anything now could cause them to restart their nuclear program. So whats the psychology behind the president reading peters story in the morning at the white house and deciding thats what he absolutely needs to tweet about . He reads the New York Times every morning. Thats a good sign. Including the washington post. Hes probably watching this show right now and he reacts to the media in realtime. He was really taken aback by that story in part because it showed him to be not living up to his words and rhetoric. Theres a broader pattern here. Not Just Health Care and the iran deal. Look at opioids. He declared them to be a National Emergency but it was all rhetoric. No action. He hasnt done the paperwork to make that declaration. The perception from democrats is that this president is doing irreparable damage to the country. Can those two things be true at the same time . Can he be hurting the country and not following through what what he claims . He did pull out of the paris agreement. He is in some ways dismantling the epa. He is going after, at least in some part, hes going after obamacare and making it harder for that law to function. I think there is this idea that he is doing damage. If you ask democrats. At the same time hes not doing the damage hes supposed to be doing. Hes not building up the country and doing the and keeping the promises. And when i read peter bakers story, the most important thing was that obama fell into the trap. He was going to close guantanamo. Pass immigration reform. He said some of the things that essentially democrats really got excited about. When he didnt follow tlourks he got a whole Bernie Sanders wing of the party, all those days on the bus. People that would remind us why they didnt like obama. He was going to do this and didnt. If donald trump cannot stand president obama, if hes now in some ways falling into the same things and his legacy may be tied to him in this not so good way, that scares the president and thats why you see him lashing out at peter. I will say one thing. Obama had a republican congress. Almost his entire term which is a different dynamic. Donald trump has an allrepublican washington and cannot get anything done. So, i mean, i dont want to overstate this. And obama had an actual legacy legislation. Like obamacare. 60 democrats in the senate. But if they would work with this party. When he essentially left office, he could point to that and say, i changed americans lives in this way. President trump as of now cannot come close to saying that and has not made any friends in a Congress Congress that can say i trust this president to put my neck throughout to do things he tells me to do. If trump was as transformational of a figure as he thinks he is, hed be able to get democrats to do things and maybe more than that. Number two, the reason you dont see a legacy piece of legislation or even the seeds of it, as you remember, romney was planning his legislative assault during the campaign. Had real plans to get things done. Trump had none of that. And relationships. And understood that getting to know john boehner and had that whole team with mike levitt set up ready to go. Trump has a real rebellion hoshands. John mccain voting no on health care and bob corker calling him out on diplomacy. The problem isnt that somebody called him a moron. The problem is the president is a moron, comma, according to people who have watched him inside the tank, inside the situation room. Thats the first look that weve gotten from people who have watched him up close. All of us have just watched him from the outside. I want to switch gears a little to pick up on and for context, we covered Brnie Sanders campaign together. A lot of hours flying around corners of america. That was a lesson in how a party can split. And thats happening on the republican side, too, now. There was a time not so long ago when steve bannon was avoiding the spotlight during his seven months at the president s chief strategist. He mostly kept a low profile. They told politico, bannon is more comfortable operating in the shadows between government, big money and rightwing media. But that is no more. Bannon is now front and center and hes leading a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. On saturday, he launched a blistering attack on the republican establishment at the values voters summit in washington directing much of his firepower at Mitch Mcconnell. Mitch, i dont know if youre watching today. If i can take a little rift on plutarc and shakespeare. Its like before the ides of march. Theyre just looking to find out who is going to be brutus to your julius caesar. Yeah, mitch, the donors are not happy. Theyve all left you. Weve cut your oxygen off, mitch. Okay . But theres a time and season for everything. And right now, its a season of war against a gop establishment. Jake, im not going to quote what youre saying off the air because its a family program. But whats your take . Theres no truth to the fact that Mitch Mcconnell is not going to be able to raise money anymore. Thats a fallacy. He raises millions of dollars every quarter. Its still a very sought after person on the campaign trail. Listen, two quick thoughts on this. Mitch mcconnell is steve bannon is now supporting michael grim, an excon in long island, or staten island, one of the most liberal members of the litigation. He supported eric prince to run in wyoming. He doesnt live in wyoming. Im confused about really where his political acumen comes from. I dont know his theory of the case. It will be interesting to see how these unfold. How is the president managing his relationship with steve bannon now . They talk frequently on the phone and, frankly, they have a personal relationship still. Bannon still calls the president and gives him advice, but i think bannon is very much becoming this revolutionary figure in his own right. And in some ways, eclipses trump in terms of thinking about this politics beyond one election, beyond one politician. He is trying to create a movement here. He wants to be an historic figure and is trying to build that. To jakes point, not a lot of evidence its built yet but hes out there. And the president seemed to feel really burned by what happened in alabama as well. And haunted by it. Hes been thinking about this loss for a few weeks. Its been very embarrassing to this white house. One reason you see the president turning to his bairx gain and again on these issues on the fight with the nfl and the pledge of allegiance and flag is to keep his base intact because he was so scarred by that alabama experience. Do democrats would they rather see Mitch Mcconnell stay in than have steve bannon wreak this havoc with the hope of getting something done or its hard to know. Some democrats say the only good in this that can come out is the Republican Party will realize they have a major problem on their hands with the steve bannon wing and their party will split apart and there will be a realignment in american politics. Im not sure well see that but im sure thats some peoples fervent hope and prayer. Jeremy bash, thanks for taking the time to be with us. Still to come, al franken and Susan Collins. First, steve bannon is lurking around those congressional races across the country. Well talk about that with House Speaker paul ryan and about where his true priorities lie when it comes to tax reform and his beloved green bay packers. Whats more likely february 2018, your packers win the super bowl or youve passed tax reform . You have to ask me to choose between the two of those . Im sorry. Tax reform only because were a little beat up right now. Weve had a lot of injuries. Youve had a rough start. Weve had a rough start. Only one loss but weve had a rough start. But ill say tax reform. T savedy on my Car Insurance by switching to geico. I should take a closer look at geico. You know, geico can help you save money on your Homeowners Insurance too . Great geico can help insure our mountain chalet how long have we been sawing this log . Um, one hundred and fourteen years. Man i thought my arm would be a lot more jacked by now. Im not even sure this is real wood. Theres no butter in this churn. Do my tris look okay . Take a closer look at geico. Great savings. And a whole lot more. Sometthats when he needs the way ovicks vaporub. s sleep. Proven cough medicine. With 8 hours of vapors. So he can sleep. Vicks vaporub. Goodnight coughs. A farmers market. Ve whats in this kiester. A fire truck. Even a marching band. And if i can get comfortable talking about this kiester, then you can get comfortable using preparation h. For any sort of discomfort in yours. Preparation h. Get comfortable with it. Our recent online sales success seems a little. Strange . Nk na. Ever since we switched to fedex ground business has been great. Theyre affordable and fast. Maybe too affordable and fast. What if. People arent buying these books online, but they are buying them to protect their secrets . . hi bill. If that is your real name. Its william actually. Hmph affordable, fast fedex ground. In the trump era, things have not gone according to plan. At least not for congressional republicans. Health care reform has sputtered. The president is breaking deals, but with democrats. Still, House Speaker paul ryan is holding out hope that he can deliver on the opportunity of his lifetime. The first significant tax reform since 1986. The year he got his drivers license. I spoke with him in his Capitol Hill Office about whether it will happen this year or at all. You have spent so much time focusing on your tax reform plan. The details are still coming out here. But its clear that wealthy americans are going to get a hefty chunk of the benefits out of this bill. Are you open to shifting that through the course of negotiations . Are you open to giving more of that to the middle class . Thats the entire discussion about fourth bracket on highincome earning so they dont get a big rate cut, that that goes to middle class taxpayers. The question is how to set the numbers. Were waiting to see what the budget resolution looks like. So that is the key. And the president made it really clear to us. He said to us, i dont want healthy income earners to get a big tax cut. That should go to middle income earners. On the flip side, businesses, and remember, people own businesses. Its really important that we drop tax rates on businesses because businesses in america are being taxed at much, much higher tax rates compared to their foreign competitors and were losing them to foreign competition as a result of that. Youre assuming quite a bit of groilt if growth. Youve always been previously a deficit neutral guy. Im going to im a supply side believer. Im a believer in broadening the base and lowering the rates and that will give us faster Economic Growth. If you ask me that all tax cuts pay for themselves . No, thats not the case. Some do. Basically depends on how high the tax is, and what kind of tax youre talking about. When we lower tax rates, that helps Economic Growth and especially in the international area, where businesses are taxed on average of 22. 5 and we are taxing american businesses, big and small, between 35 and 40 . They pay lower than that efec efectively. I was just with u. P. S. Bir big, huge company. They compete against dhl, 24 . I was talking to harleydavidson. A big milwaukee company. Their effective tax rate is in the mid30s. They are competing against companies taxed at like 20 . So we are putting our forms at a competitive disadvantage. Wh