Hours later, a Republican Health care plan collapsed. A pair of republican senators pulled their support killing the republican plan to repeal and replace obamacare. Now the republicans are just talking about repeal. Good morning, welcome to morning joe. We have columnist mike barnicle, economic analyst steve rattner, senior political analyst for nbc news, Mark Halperin and from the associated press, julie pace. The president said youre going to have such Great Health Care at a tiny fraction of the cost and its going to be so easy. That was october of 2016, joe. And Mark Halperin has said all along the greatest risk to donald trump, the greatest risk to the republican majority may not be the russian scandals, it may not be the indiscriminate tweeting, the unpresident ial behavior, it may not be the question of checks and balances and throwing aside every sacred tradition of the United States government over the past 240 years, it may be the inability to get things done because Donald Trumps chief promise above Everything Else was i can make washington work. Its broken, but dont worry, im a deal maker, this is easy. Were going to do so much and were going to win so much that youre going to get tired of winning. What hes actually finding is, as somebody said earlier this morning, that its much easier to stamp your name on buildings, on steaks and on Online University courses than it is to actually reason washington, d. C. And get significant legislation passed. And this was quite the failure, mika, after he continued to promise he was going to get it done. You remember the rose garden celebration a couple of months ago . The president forgot that you have to pass it through the house and the senate. So this is doubly humiliating for him this morning. And for everyone really. Because im not sure if this president thought that throwing a party like that perhaps would attract senators to jump on board. Its just all kind of kind of saeps like childs play, like he thinks this is childs play and its clearly failing at this point. Heres what weve got so far. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell is pulling the plug on the republicans current plan to repeal and replace obamacare. The news comes after senators mike lee and jerry rand pulled their support last night. Republicans could only afford to lose two votes and senators rand paul and Susan Collins had already said they would not support the bill for separate reason. Last night mcconnell said regretfully it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of obamacare will not be successful. So in the coming days, the senate will vote to take up the house bill with the First Amendment order being what a majority of the senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then president obama, a repeal of obamacare with a twoyear delay to provide for a stable transition period. Shortly before that statement came out, President Trump tweeted republicans should just repeal failing obamacare now and work on a new Health Care Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in. President trump held a dinner with several lawmakers, described as a strategy session with senior members familiar with tough legislative battles. He said the party would look like dopes if they couldnt pass the Health Care Bill after passing a repeal bill in 2015. After senators lee and moran announced their opposition, senator john mccain who is recovering from surgery released a statement calling for a bipartisan solution to health care. He said in Part Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties and heed the recommendations of our nations governors so a we can produce a bill that finally provide americans with access to quality and Affordable Health care. Joe, this has been in the republicans laps for a long time. Theyve been saying they wanted to do this for years and still nothing. One of the biggest problems for republicans is having a president that you just cant trust. Chris christie made the news yesterday by talking about how the meeting with the russians probably was breaking the law. A lot of people said, well, thats revenge served up cold. Actually, Chris Christie is a perfect example of how disloyal donald trump is. Christie was the first to get out and support donald trump. He was used and then abused on the vice presidency, told he would get the position of attorney general and he didnt get that. And he did the same thing to all republicans house members that he and steve bannon kept threatening saying you better do this or else. Well, they pushed and got a house bill passed by the barest of margins in the u. S. Health and a month later donald trump is calling it, quote, a mean bill. When he said republicans will look like dopes when they dont pass the legislation, thats what a lot of members are saying on capitol hill are saying this president looks like because he cant be trusted, he hasnt shown any guidance on Health Care Reform and hes left them out there on their own. How bad of a day was it for donald trump yesterday when you had the Health Care Legislation yanked and then he wakes up this morning to a wall street journal editorial that both he and his family faces certain destruction if they dont change their ways . The editorial is ominous and in the absence of a robust legislative agenda, its going to get more serious. There has never been a mismatch between the you think about what is normally required, if youre neither loved or feared by congress, you must barn storm and the gather your coalitions. The notion that the president will repeal an entitlement with the level of effort he invested in this, it was a huge mismatch between expectations and effort and it does leave him, as you said, in a position where if this doesnt get turned around and i dont see how it does now, how does he pass anything this year. We heard the stories a couple weeks ago about how they were going to run attack ads against dean heller, a pro trump super pac. That enraged mcconnell and the republicans. Now hes looking at funding a primary run for jeff frlake. He doesnt get involved that much, when he does its usually negative and he enrages senators. Theyre not going to jump off the cliff for this guy. You, if they dont fear you and eethey dont love you, youre not going to pass anything. This bill didnt get close. The two defections last night were just the two who decided to go first. But in the end they were going to lose up to 15, i think, republican senators. It leaves them in a horrible position in hour to deal with health care. Again, how does tax reform push off of this failure, succeed with something more complicated and divisive in the party if you couldnt do something that every republican who has run for office in the past seven years mr. Not following the laws of washington . The basic laws of how you get things passed. People can want an outsider, but he into what have we been saying on this show to years . That was in early 2009 when they thought they could do it their way. Well, no. They realize there are customs and there are ways to get things done in washington, d. C. That you cant ignore. Let me read from the wall street journal editorial this morning. Trump believes his personality and social media following make him larger than the presidency. He is wrong. So says the wall street journal who is usually washington is rolling over him right now. In the past six months, especially with regard to health care, its proven to be a blend of incompetence and cynicism. Incompetence at the level of the white house in terms of the president pushing Health Care Legislation and cynicism on the part of there are some really as you particular amendment, you c c c can. Them do you believe in effective, Affordable HealthCare Coverage for every american, yes or no . Theyre basically saying yes now because the effort has been oot theyve demonstrated democrats and republicans, dick any republicans care about what republican governors i think this whole act with trump is getting tired. Were going to have the greatest of this, theif we cant get this passed, can we Work Together. And it was striking, elon musk laid out an imgraegs yaent and prnkt, what it manse for employment and Economic Growth. And he be and the kind of inowization thats thats happening in that space. This is unlike mcconnell. Mcconnell is a legislature and he normally gets things done. This is a spectacular letdown for him. You almost think they must have another jand here. Is this an effort to continue working with democrats . What is it that we wanted . I dont know what mcconnells game plan is. I think there were a couple of problems here for sure. One, as weve talked many times, health care is a sixth economy, its a big deal, and this bill was very far reaching but secondly, i saw this happen when i worked in the white house in the obama administration. When you want something done, you put somebody on your point and say to berd taug it all worked itself out and thats just not how it happens up there. Thats true. I think, harold, thats the graesest fine. Donald trump thinks he can hold a ceremony in the woes garden. Truth be phone they had contempt for members of congress. And ignored there were stories there were actually story about how they ignored member on prrp white houses always come in they think that theyve somehow cracked the code and everybodys going to blindly follow them. This white house is just the absolute worst in this prrn be rns. Its actually e, prks. Weve been saying this for months, that the mr fufrmt you dont get Susan Collins and ted cruz in the same bill. The math never added up. They never had them at let me say it given be just like i told donald trump on this show repeatedly, dont pick fights on the Intel Community or go to war with the press. Let me say it again, harold, and you can repeat it if you believe it. This Health Care Bill has to be bipartisan. There are not i glif that what p png. There arent enough republicans to pass this thing. The point michael made and rattner as well but michaels point, what is it that we pant affordable and specific leaver is now they just cant seem to pull it all together. To get this done, its been said here on the show many times, youve got to make it pliechlt they would find it if they would get serious workout place. I heard sean spicer was block, which meal that this wasnt going well and that this is bad. You mean, whats the mindset . There tend to two two pap. In the health care debat you have twluchl himself ability to go after lawmakers on social media, the base that he has that remains loyal will be a powerful factor in moving some lawmakers, but you do have other folks in the white house who knew this was not looking good. They were up on the hill talking to senators and they just couldnt find a, as joe was saying, to put these pieces together if they were going to focus on a piece of legislation that was only going oo nchlts but im curious, we all saw this going down in flame long it happened. Whos talking to. Nothing i right hand know what the left is doing at all . Is will or even more stunningly put him in a room with a bunch of senator last night, senators who were already supportive of the bill and werent going to be the news there prchl he will get up there and Say Something completely different, if he feels that way. And i think for him, fen, he. In or he was going to put on a happy face about it until the very end. You saw last night and narnl at the beginning of the year, there were some lawmakers, republicans who thought that maybe a straight repeal package was where to go. Part of the reason was that it was president elect frum pnl and Mark Halperin, if has to ppgs that arent going to be able to run for reelection, are the moderate republicans saying they slashed medicaid and 25 Million People will be pushed off of heck whatever you talked to someone unside the trum house. No, no, wing o prn actually, i think the perfect summation of it would be prepare yuckes sunday morning performance when he called the john burer meteorologisting a nothing burger. Theyre always proven wrong, they were proven wrong on russia, theyre proving wrong on health care. And the question is will they ever right the ship . Or will they keep again, as the wall street journal said this morning, keep playing to their base and stay at 36 . Well, and they didnt even energize the base very much to try to pass health care. You can imagine them putting pressure on a senator from kansas, a senator from utah but energizing the base and saying this must pass. If you add up the liabilities now and things they have going for them, theyre not in a great place with their investigation. They have to raise the debt ceiling, they have to pass a budget. Those things are going to take up a lot of space. Theyre looking at a limited legislative calendar with congress, whether they stay in for august or not. How are they going to pass any bill in the first year without big changes and i dont see any indication of big changes because, as you suggested, they think theyre right and they believe their own talk things are going great. Last night was an ominous sign and it leaves them with no path forward to achieve Something Big this year. Whoo, whats it like in there this morning . Coming up on morning joe we hadnt seen sean spicer in weeks at the white house. Maybe thats why he was giving old briefs at the white house, really hold ones. You couldnt see his face but well bring it to you. Coming up, senator joe manchin and congressman jim himes. My administration is removing the burdens and regulations on your company so can you compete, thrive and grow. How many of you have noticed this so far because its a big, big difference, right . Thats a big, big difference. The people are coming up to me they cant even believe it. We took the farmers land away and Home Builders land away. They have their land back now and its a beautiful thing to see and theyre so thankful. Made in america week continues and the president tries to tout his progress while trying out an americanmade fire truck. Steve rattner on the economy ahead. Im a lonely boy, im a lonely boy oh, millies. Trick or treat were so glad to have you here. What if we treated great female scientists like they were stars . Yasss queen what if millie dresselhaus, the first woman to win the National Medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity . [millie dresselhaus was seen having lunch today. ] [. 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Finally, gig for your neighborhood too. What you need to get to is ultimately what was discussed. My understanding of all this is that theres concern by some people of collusion. Even from what weve heard so far, i dont see any evidence of that. Is it inappropriate to get Opposition Research from a Foreign Government . Yeah, i think it would be. I dont think theres any evidence that they did, but i do think it would be, sure. And i think quite frankly, thats probably against the law, michael, in addition to being inappropriate. All right. Chris christie there. President trump began the week by tweeting in defense of his son for hosting that meeting of tom Campaign Aides with a lawyer from moscow in june of 2016. The get together came with a promise of official documents and information from the russian government that would incriminate Hillary Clinton. And trump tweeted most politicians would have gone like the one don jr. Attended in order to get information on an opponent. Thats politics. Any threat or effort to interfere with our election from any nation state or nonstate actor is the kind of thing the fbi would want to know. At yesterdays offcamera White House Press briefing, sean spicer would not say who was right and reverted to the administrations original defense of the meeting. Im not going to get into the specifics of this, but i will say that it is quite often for people who are given information during the heat of a campaign to ask what that is. Thats what simply he did. The president has made this clear through his tweet and there was nothing as far as we know that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for discussion for adoption of the magnitsky act. First of all, the meeting was not about adoption. And the magnitsky act blocked a small number of businessmen from entering the United States, froze their assets and banned them from the United States. Julie pace, were you in there . What was the reaction i cant even whats he talking about . Its