Chang. Theres so much happening on capitol hill, i havent mentioned the Health Care Vote or lack thereof. Will there ever be a Health Care Vote . Are they ever going to vote on this new bill . They say they will. Im increasingly skeptical. As i left the hill last night i was talking to my colleagues. We wrote theres a simple thing emerging. Some republicans dont want to repeal obamacare, and republicans were warning us about this back in 2010 and 2011 when democrats passed obamacare. They said, listen, this is a new benefit a lot of americans are getting. Its going to be tough to take it away. Listen, i think they could and might get enough stroets pass this next week, bup it aint easy. President trumps influence on the hill, he was pressing, personally pressing for a vote this week. His influence on the hill is not what he thought it was. Thats a big problem. Again no vote this week which means no victory the Trump White House was hoping for the 100day speech in pennsylvania at the rally. Back to the interview at reuters. President trump gave his assessment of north Korean Leader kim jong un speaking on how the democratic stater came to power. Trump said, hes 27 years old, his father dies, took over a regime. Say what you want, thats not easy. Especially at that age. Im not giving him credit or not giving him credit. Im saying thats a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not hes rational, i have no opinion on it. I hope hes rational. Trump said he would, quote, love to solve things in north korea diplomatically, but its very difficult. Theres a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with north korea, absolutely. In an enter knew with npr secretary of state Rex Tillerson says the United States still favors direct talks with north korea and told fox news yesterday of kim jong un, all indications are that he is not crazy. He may be ruthless, may be a murderer, maybe someone who in many respects we would say by our standards is irrational, but he is not insane. Katty kay, let me start with you, the with initial comment, President Trump talking about a potential of a major, major conflict. Big language coming directly from the white house on a potentially explosive conflict. He speaks in superlatives. It doesnt necessarily mean theyre taking or considering taking some kind of Massive Action militarily against north korea. Such a fascinating interview, alongside an interview in the Washington Post about nafta where we could see the president s learning curve in realtime. Also in that interview he talked about the fact that he had been approached on a call about taiwan from the taiwanese president. But because he has a Good Relationship with president xi, hed like to consult with china first. This is a president understanding the limits he has and understanding the need to work with other leaders. He realizes now he needs the chinese. He cant do anything that would possibly alienate them at the moment. This is one of those moments in this presidency where its very con serk. You have a president of the United States harold, youve been in washington and served in the house of representatives. When you have a president of the United States turning up the bunson burner on a situation saying theres a chance were going to have a major conflict with north korea, absolutely. Thats the president of the United States speaking. Words have meaning. I dont know. I just feel uncomfortable that a president would be saying this in a situation so fraught with danger. You almost hope he would take the same position he took after the test of that missile went awry and there was some suggestion that maybe america had a role in it. Heidttweet, didnt say a word. Two, its slightly encouraging to hear tillerson align ourselves with china and say our goal is denuclearization. Three, the thing that worries me most, this guy is irrational. Who, trump or . Kim jongun is irrational. For the president to take the position he is or is not rational, we almost have to get used to the way he talks. You cant invest totally in thinking that hes on the up and up when he talks. The problem with that, done any when katty said that, we all nodded. Thats the way donald trump speaks, in superlatives. Now hes the president of the United States and north korea is washing and listening. When he says that, they believe thats the posture of the United States government. Interesting enough ill defend trump which i rarely do. Whether it is a country, whether as an individual, a corporation, congress, we are learning, yes, he is president and he should not speak in those grandiose terms, but we are learning to decipher. If it was 99 days ago and he said that, we would all be going into our bomb shelters and whatnot. Basically what hes saying is, yeah, of course there could be a conflict. We all know that. Theres either this patience and somehow it works itself out or there will be a conflict. Like it or not, he does speak that way. Our job as both citizens and more importantly as the rest of the world is to kind of translate to what that means. Were learning to do that. Lonnie, what followed from that statement is trump did say we prefer diplomacy. He talks about the chinese, how impressed he was with president xi since their meeting at mara lago. The jumpout headline is major, major conflict and north korea is listening to that. Willie, the thing is, were used to talking about Foreign Policy in very moderated terms. You think about the last several administrations, this point that words matter, they do matter in the sense that administrations have conveyed Foreign Policy through nuance. Thats nou not how this president works. What President Trump was expressing is not a significant deviation with u. S. Policy. Weve always maintained that a military option would be on the table. What unusual, of course, is the tone and tenor hes taken in discussing the potential for that military action. Its important for us to separate out the tone from the policy. Admittedly that may be difficult with this administration. Lets recognize, not a huge change in u. S. Policy, but a huge change in the way we talk about it. In the same interview with reuters, the president addressed the cost of American Military protection for its ally, south korea. He said seoul should pay for a u. S. Anti Missile System that he prized at a billion dollars. He insisted on changes to a 2011 u. S. Korea trade agreement. Its unacceptable. A horrible deal made by hillary, a horrible deal. Were going to renegotiate that deal or terminate it. When . Very soon. Im announcing it now. The president s comments sent stocks tumbling in south korean Financial Markets which had improved with an increase demand in cars and electronics. On issues like free trade, the president told the wall street journal last night, quote, im a nationalist and a globalist. Im both and im the only one that headaches the decision, believe me. Katty, back to north korea, talking about defense there and also the trade deal that exists between the United States and south korea. What are the implications of the president of the United States saying that especially against the backdrop of this potential conflict with north korea . At the moment, the United States needs china, but it also needs to make sure it doesnt alienate its allies in south korea which is going through a very difficult political transition of its own at the moment. This is the kind of thing i think where the president is saying im announcing now im renegotiating an important american trade deal a little bit in the way he said or floated the white house floated the idea it was thinking of pulling out of nafta a couple days ago. These things could have material consequences as we found out when the mexican peso and kh Canadian Dollar both fell. The president has to be careful not to be rash in the way he announces things. It is this weird, slightly offthecuff, im going to announce the policy right now in an interview in a way that didnt seem planned orr thought through or the economic implications of that thought through. That has consequences for americas allies. To kattys point, i dont necessarily disagree with done any. I wasnt trying to be too critical of him. He did recognize in the first part of his comments that north korea is a family business. And if weve ever had a president that understands a family business, President Trump represents that. Two, to lonnies point, this president has a cabinet around him and leaders around him that people respect. You have tillerson in the last day or two saying we dont want regime change in north korea which is a positive. The thing thats confusing, the last part that willie said, ill take it to lanhee and get his reaction. When they talk about denuclearization of the peninsula and other aspirations and goals, they want us out of south korea. When you think about President Trump, he thinks in terms of tweets. The presidt of china thinks in terms of centuries. As you think about south korea in the last comment, how do you put that in the context of your answer to what we should think about trump and his nuances and language. I think thats an excellent point you make. The chinese view is the long view, no question about it. The interesting thing about the xitrump relationship is how much thats evolved already. You went from a campaign where the president was talking about how china was taking the u. S. To the cleaners to a situation where you have the two leaders very much looking at a relationship based on pragmatism. Thats what im watching for now. As these two leaders grow their relationship Going Forward, were not just talking about the relationship between trump and xi, were talking about the two most significant powers on the global stage today. That is certainly a big factor here. South korea is a factor in that as well clearly because one of the big issues you look at when you look at the asiapacific are the Economic Issues. Really trade is first and foremost. The u. S. Pulling out of tpp, the u. S. Korea deal becomes that much more important to the koreans. I want to pick up on that nuance and something that feels very relieving. When i listen to the interview about north korea, notice when hes speaking now, hes speaking in much more hushed tones. Its a nuance, but theres not the volume to the voice and the words himself, even the way he describes the north korean lead are, im not saying this, not saying this, presenting facts. There seems to be a more nuanced, rational restrained yes theres still political turrets. If you just landed from mars in the last two weeks and listened to this president in tone and content, you would say maybe theres a little bit more normalcy going on. That was an oval office interview. So you might expect that. Tomorrow he has a rally in pennsylvania before youll see trump from the campaign. You might see more nuanced, the volume will go up. Whatever it is, the meds have changed, whatever it is, something has turned. No meds. No meds involved. Thats kib bets. Well have more on that. Lets move to congressional politics. Leaders say legislators preventing a Government Shutdown before tonights dead light. The senate will pass a shortterm funding bil so a Funding Agreement can be drafted d shared with meers before consideration next week. The stopgap funding bill hit a roadblock yesterday after democrats threatened to vote know after republicans brought up a bill to review the Affordable Care act. Despite that, gop leaders delayed the Health Care Vote. In the absence of a funding bill, the president fired off tweets blasting democrats and accusing them of trying to force a shutdown. He wrote, i promised to rebuild our security and secure our border. Democrats want to shut down the government. Politics. He also wrote, whats more important, rebuilding the military or bailing out Insurance Companies. A hit back said the shutdown tweets are desperate, unhinged and showing a startling lack of awareness for where the negotiations actually are. On capitol hill there was plenty of finger pointing on who is responsible for delaying the funding bill. The reason this government funding bill is not ready is because democrats have been dragging their feet. Im confident well be able to pass a shortterm extension. Id be shocked the democrats would want to create a Government Shutdown because they had been dragging their feet. We dont want to shut the government down. We dont have the power. They have the majority, they have the president , they have the senate, they have the house. Any shutting down of government, the ball is in their court. We have not done that. Jake sherman, put this in plain english. A shortterm funding bill that will be passed, thats just kicking the can down the road. I actually agree with nancy pelosi i think, because republicans do control the house, the senate and the white house. Its incumbent upon them to keep government open. Theyre going to ps a shortterm bill which funds the government until next week, and then these negotiations over a longerterm Funding Agreement, probably anywhere from a couple months until october will take place next week. Donald trumps tweets in that house, Chuck Schumers spokesman is right, thats not where the negotiations are or anywhere close. Thats based laming democrats b on a couple peripheral issues. Theres not going to be a Government Shutdown. Its going to pass, famous last words, but i do believe that to be true. There shouldnt be as much drama as there is. Kicking this into next weaken sures these two weeks, these two weeks will be squarely focused on housekeeping, no proactive legislating for donald trump, no achievements besides keeping the lights on. We were talking about tax reform, talking about repealing obamacare and having an entirely new health bill. At the end of the week what were left with is just this shortterm funding bill. Tax reform is a longterm project thats going to go on through the year if it gets completed. What about the Health Care Bill . Do we ever come back to it . How do you cobble together the tuesday group and the Freedom Caucus and all these pieces who havent been able to find Common Ground . Very, very difficult. Members of congress, as harold knows well, do not want to walk a plank for a bill thats going to have no chance of being signed into law. If you look forward to november 2018, if you vote to repeal the Health Care Law and the senate does nothing, you dont have any of the political upside and you only have political downside. I think members of congress im talking to every day are looking at that dynamic and saying, look, we could do fixes to the Health Care Law, do things on a bipartisan basis to fix some of the shortcomings or holes in the bill, but why would we vote to repeal the thing when the senate is not going to pass it . I think thats the overwhelming dynamic right now. Jake is right. You had this under president obama. The house voted on a big energy bill back early in his term as president. It then got to the sate and it died. All the house members are on record voting to do something damaging to raise energy prices. The same is true with health care. Theres not a moderate republican with a good head on his or her shoulders who is going to vote for the amendment that the house Freedom Caucus wants, fully aware that theres absolutely no way, if a bill comes back to the house, that any of them would be a part of it. Its worse in a lot of ways than the kind of political suicide you normally see in politics because republicans essentially might be giving up their seat for a republican primary and certainly would disadvantage themselves against democrats in hard right districts, hard red districts in the country if they do Something Like this. The thing ill watch over the next few weeks, are there town Hall Meetings in these republican districts and democrat districts saying you might not like everything hes done on taxes but we want a tax bill. If you see that energy come in the form of town Hall Meetings, im not saying what they put out a day or two ago. I watched gary and the treasury secretary and i felt bad for them because they couldnt answer questions. It was all on that document. In their hand. If you see voters say we want a tax bill, we want tax cuts, you could see the beginning of a coalition beginning to develop. If you ever hear Chuck Schumer say i think we can and then the sentence continues, you get a sense that maybe they can find something. Were ways from that. Disappointed meacham is not here. I spent about seven hours going through that tax bill. I need a president historian to depfeiffer a lot of layers. Perfectly fits, one page. Seven hours. Lanhee, going back briefly to health care, this was part of the rationale for Donald Trumps election, was that obamacare was going to be gone, he was going to rip it up and repeal it and the Freedom Caucus said the same thing. We want full repeal. Are they ever going to get to a place where they can agree within their own caucus to do someth