Gallup puts the president rating at 38 , and the Washington Post, abc news poll finds 36 of americans approve of the job trump is doing. 58 disapprove. Now 48 saying they disapprove strongly, a level never reached by former president s bill clinton and barack obama, and reached only in the second term of george w. Bush in this poll. The partisan breakdown of the Washington Post poll shows 82 of republicans approve, down just slightly from april, while the president dropped six points to 32 among independents and is at just 11 with democrats. New nbc news wall street journal poll of counties of his victory and of the ones he flipped from obama in 2010 12 his approval rests at 44 and health care the Washington Post abc poll shows half of all americans prefer the Current Health care law, about onequarter want the republican option being pushed right now. 17 would prefer Something Else all together. Joe . Yeah, bob costa, let me bring you in there. So much to unpack. I want to get to health care in a second, thats what republicans waking up in the senate have to be most concerned about but first lets talk about everything that has happened this weekend. The president awakens to 36 Approval Rating, hes forced to say well, abc is a fake poll and actually around 40 is pretty good. Its historically low actually. What is the state of the white house this weekend after being pounded by another flurry of allegations about that don jr. Meeting, and having a lot of conservative commentators come out saying wait a second, theres something there. Inside the white house, joe, my sources tell me that they never thought they had a honeymoon in terms of the national poll, in terms of most americans. They knew they were going to run a basecentric presidency, but they did believe they had a honeymoon with that Republican Trump base and theyre starting to see some of that erode, in part its because of this russia delude continues over the administration, in part because of the promises that remain unchecked, like repealing and replacing the Affordable Care act and the don jr. Story hovers. They dont see it as something thats alarming the base, but its a distraction to every other agenda item. Theyre trying to push, they think could maybe rouse their own base like trade, like immigration. But lets talk about the issue right now that obviously Senate Republicans are the most concerned about, that has to do with health care. These numbers from the Washington Post abc news poll unbelievable, 50 of americans when it comes to health care prefer obamacare. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder. Thats the highest Approval Rating obamacare has ever had. Only 24 support the republican plan. Theres no way republican senators in ohio, pennsylvania, wisconsin, and maine arent looking at those numbers and asking themselves, do i really want to jump off that cliff . How much trouble is the Republican Health care reform plan in . Its in deep trouble right now, and if you think back to the primary race in 2016, joe, governor huckabee, then candidate donald trump they both ran different kinds of republicans in this way, they did not want to tackle meld i care and Social Security and medicaid in the way most republicans like House Speaker paul ryan have traditionally gone after those kind of federal programs. Now trump is in the position with an ideological Republican Congress trying to go after something that in the view of Many Americans if you look at these polls is settle law, an uncomfortable position for this white house to be in. They know they made this promiless to the base, but they also know politically the base and most americans dont want to get rid of benefits, including medicaid funding, thats already been put in place. Thats just not smart politics. They know it. They still want to get this promise through. Nick, you look at the numbers from all of these polls and yes, eight out of ten republicans still sticking with the president , but independents have completely fallen off a cliff. You look at the people that swung from barack obama to donald trump. Theyre starting to bleed off that support, and it can all be summed up in this don jr. Story you cant call it fake news. All the emails, all the lies came from don jr. And the white house, all the leaks are coming from inside the white house. You even have conservative commentators saying that, and writing about that, and you have a white house that as you so eloquently put in your 140 characters or less i think on friday, they changed the story every day, and its incredible. The most hard core Trump Supporters may believe they can shout out fake news, but these are the president s own men and women who are leaking and its don jr. s own words, and it looks like a lot of americans just arent buying their old story anymore. Well joe, i think seeing it in black and white, seeing it in donald jr. s emails is a huge difference, to see him write that, to see potential evidence of collusion right there in front of you in his words, its hard to brush that away. You can spin it but you can even see the white house moving to a new line which is to say it wasnt illegal, that laws were not broken, there are no laws against this kind of thing. So im not a lawyer. Im just going to point out that if youre moving towards whats legal as opposed to whats right or proper youre backing yourself into a bit of a corner. I think who were seeing lost for trump, joe and mika, are the trump curious supporters. The core trump voter is always core trump voter, hes delivering what they asked for, to break up washington and go to war in washington. But the trump curious voter was curious to see if his style would make a difference, if it changed how washington worked for the best if it would be a new way of doing things fort the better and i think what were seeing here is some loss of faith and perhaps a kind of throwing in of the towel and saying oh, its the usual thing in washington, trump is no different from the other guys. Yes, and mika, obviously, you have all the lies that are being told, but you look at the policies, and the medicaid cuts will of course ravage the poor. Yes. But will also ravage working class americans in Rural Communities that went for donald trump. I talked to one hospital consultant this past weekend, it was a big trump supporter who actually said that communities across Middle America that went for trump will see the economies damaged. These massive cuts to medicaid will actually hit the Top Employers in their communities the biggest, and thats the rural hospitals. Thats when theyll really feel it. Alyse jordan, i wonder on the face of it, for the core trump supporter if theyre watching trump or don jr. For example on Sean Hannitys show, which is arguably a host to his in the tank for President Trump arguably, i would say he probably is completely but thats just my opinion. When they see him saying point blank thats all there is, it was just me, jared, Paul Manafort, which you would think is bad enough, with this russian lawyer, and then you find out theres another person and you find out theres six people and you might find out theres eight people. I mean, how are you not at that point wavering on whether or not this presidency is telling america the truth . Well i think the problem with having donald trump jr. As your front man is that he doesnt exactly bring confidence of his basic competency, given how this whole email scenario and what he actually did, these unsavory meetings with russia affiliated individuals. That isnt confidence building. And you look at the policies that donald trump is trying to enact and you look at the members of the cabinet that hes brought in, and how dominated it is by crony capitalism essentially and donald trump was brought in to destroy special interests. He was brought in to disrupt the system, and you just see more of the same old same old. So i wonder how long its going to take, without any traction on any actual policy for some of donald trump, for Donald Trumps numbers among his hard core supporters to drop, but i do think that its almost psychological at this point, if you supported trump, you do want to dig in to your support just because for so long, everyone in the media was telling you that it was a terrible decision, and there was, this was a lot, with a lot of the polling that we did, they, the support for trump wasnt necessarily reflected in polls. So ill be interested to see how that resolves. And there are a lot of people that did digwere told they were foolish for voting for trump out of the media and elites out of washington, d. C. , and theyll be more reluctant to admit to a pollster theyre no longer supporting this guy that they stuck with for a year and a half. David ignatius i want to talk about alyse was talking about more of the same. There is one thing that donald trump is saying that is more of the same, and that his lawyers are saying and that the administrations now saying. Now that theyve just been busted lying time and time and time again about meeting with the russians about this specific meeting, donald trump, the president of the United States saying hey, theres nothing new about Opposition Research. Us meeting with the former kgb agent, us meeting with a series of russians, us lying about the people who were in attendance there, us lying about manafort and Jared Kushner being notified by it. Jared kushner not putting even more people this is just more of the same. Everybody engages in Opposition Research. Everybody does this. David, i know ive talked to republican and democratic consultants who have worked on hundreds of campaigns. Ive yet to meet one that would talk to the russians for Opposition Research, or iran or other people who were hostile to the United States of america. What about you . Have you found anyone telling you that this is just more of the same, or is this as serious as it seems . Joe i think you put your f g finger on the common sense heart of this. You get an email in which a meet something proposed with someone prescribed as a representative of the russian government which wants to give you information thats going to help your campaign and hurt your opponent, and i think the natural response of a lawabiding citizen in a situation where russia is regarded as an adversary is you pick up the phone and you call the fbi and say the russians are trying to set up a meeting with me. What should i do . Whats appropriate here . David, this isnt even a close call, is it . I cant imagine somebody coming to my office when i was in congress saying hey, we have Opposition Research on the democrat. Its from the russian government. Would you like to take the meeting . I id say go to hell, youre fired and go to the person over my shoulder and say get me the fbi. This is not a close call. This is not a close call for anyone i know and talked to who serves in government and deals with sensitive issues. Its astonishing that Jared Kushner still has his security clearances when he has disclosed that contrary to initial disclosure forms, he had meetings like this. The president has the authority to decide who gets these clearances and who doesnt, but joe, im struck as i watch this unfold its a little bit like an army retreating. Theres a strong position thats set, and then its overrun, and then you retreat to another position, and then you are asserting Something Different and then that one gets overrun and you pull back a little further and i think thats part of the trump teams problem is that they just dont have firm lines that they can hold as each new revelation comes, theres a scramble. Theyd love to have something hard to give back to their base. I think thats why health care is so important. They have to deliver something that shows were governoring. Its not just this cloud of phony scandal, were governoring, and they dont have that yet. I dont get that. When they show theyre governing theyre going to give their base something that hurts them but whatever. So we originally thought there were four people in that june 2016 meeting at trump tower. That number grew to six by the time morning joe signed off on friday and then continued to metasthetize to seven. Along with trump jr. , paul man afford an Jared Kushner, there was the russian lawyer, british columnist Rob Goldstone who told the ap he was present, a translator, there is also Rinat Akhmetshin who lobbied on issues important to the kremlin and a possible eighth person attended as well. The New York Times wrote this weekend about akhmetshin, a soviet vettian who also told the app that veselnitskaya brought with her a plastic folder with printedout documents that detailed what she believed was the flow of illicit russian funds to the democrats. According to akhmetshin, veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump Associates and suggested that making the information public could help the campaign. Also this weekend, veselnitskaya told the wall street journal that she had spoken with the office of russias top prosecutor and was in regular contact with russian authorities about her u. S. Lobbying efforts but jay sekulow, a member of President Trumps legal team insists absolutely Nothing Happened. Do you know for sure everyone who was at that meeting with donald trump jr. . No, i dont represent donald trump jr. And i do not know everyone for sure that was at that meeting and the president was not there. The president wasnt aware of the meeting and did not attend it. Doesnt it show intent and willingness on the part of don jr. And jared and Paul Manafort to collude with the russians and veselnitskaya was not just some russian off the street. She had close ties to people in the kremlin. Number one, if there was, the discussion was going to be about, if it was going to be about russian Opposition Research that a russian lawyer had, the fact is, those go on, you know that goes on in campaigns all the time. Opposition research is a big part of campaigning. It doesnt go on with the russians all the time, jay. But look, heres what happened. First of all Nothing Happened. Isnt it also important whether or not its legal, whether or not its wrong, whether or not its ethical . Youre conflating, jake, three perspectives here. The legality, was the meeting and what took place legal or not. We of course, and as almost every legal expert said its not illegal and then youre trying to put a moral ethical aspect to it, and its easy to do that in 20 20 hindsight but not when youre in the middle of a campaign. Thats just not true. Its hard to really, ive known jay for a long time and liked jay for a long time but there are so many false statements there, talk about conflating things, its staggering, and jeremy peters, if you look at what jake sekuen low was forced to go out and say last weekend on the sunday shows, if you look at the statement that the president of the United States signed off on with all the president s men around him on air force one, coming back from europe, lying, lying to the New York Times, lying to the American People, saying this meeting was just about adoption, and then the next day lying about the people that were in it. Then going on a tv show that basically a staterun television and being asked at the end of that tv show, is there anything else that we dont know about . And don jr. Saying thats it. And the next day we find out another person attended the meeting and the next day we find out that somebody connected with the kgb that basically was an intel officer at the meeting and the next day finding out there are two other people at the meeting. These people keep getting caught in their lies, day after day after day, and jay sekuen low and the president of the United States keep saying nothing to see here, move along, move along. Its like actually a character out of the simpsons. There is something to see here, and even their own base know that. Thats right, and i think, joe, as you said over the weekend, thats why you start to hear more and more republicans saying okay, this just doesnt pass the sniff test. Yes, Opposition Research is a fundamental part of any campaign, but not from a russian operative, not from a hostile foreign power, and the lack of acknowledgment by trump or any of the people around trump that maybe this was not the best decision, that maybe this didnt show the best judgment, this total lack of any ability to have introspection and contrition on this is consistent with a pattern of what weve seen from donald trump and his people for a long time. Its always someone elses fault. Its the fault of the Fake News Media for not explaining this properly, for conflating a bunch of things as jake sekulow tried to say yesterday. Its Loretta Lynchs fault, its the dncs fault. If donald trump is on the outs and down and something bad is happening to him, its always because someone else is cheating or lying and they have never ever been able to accept responsibility and say maybe we shouldnt have handled things this