Culprit. We have to get our drug industry coming back, our drug industry has been disastrous. Theyre leaving left and right. The other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry because theyre getting away with murder. Pharma, pharma has a lot of lobbies, a lot of lobbyists, a lot of power. The thing is, the rest of washington is only talking about one drug company, novartis. A company that paid the president s personal attorney 1. 2 million. A senior official at novartis telling nbc that cohen promised access to the administration. Also today, news that the million plus amount is almost four times what the company paid any outside lobbyist at the time. Well, a novartis spokesperson telling the Health Care News site stat, quote, mr. Cohen was hired as a consultant and not as a lobbyist, the consulting fees were in line with market terms for consultancy and advisory. Quick math, thats 100 grand a month he was being paid. Were also hearing from another company that enlisted cohens help after the campaign. Today, in a letter all employees, the head of at t called hiring cohen a big mistake and serious misjudgment. He also announced its top lobbyist who hired cohen is retiring. At t signed a 600,000 deal with the president s personal attorney, one that said cohen would provide advice on at ts 85 billion merger with time warner. According to the Washington Post. Now, heres a question, was it worth it . The companies let him go, but not before cohen took in millions. At least 4. 4 million. So our big question is this, where did the money go . And what was it spent on . We asked this question since we first learned about the payments, but were going to keep asking it since except for 130 grand to Stormy Daniels there is still no answer. So far no comment from President Trump himself, someone who repeatedly vowed to drain the swamp, echoed by reporters as recently as last night. Drain the swamp. Drain the swamp. Drain the swamp. Drain the swamp. That was last night when the president starts speaking today, we will have that for you live, but before he begins, lets get to our team of reporters. Kelly odonnell at the white house, also joining me heidi prisbala, susan glaser who writes a weekly column on life in trumps washington, works for the new yorker. Kelly, in the rose garden, what do you think the chances are the president mentions cohen or novartis maybe more appropriately at this event . Well, as you well know, chris, the white house has an ability to have two different tracks. This will be focused on the president s plan to try to lower drug costs. Well be hearing from the secretary of health and Human Services. We have other members of the administration of congress in the rose garden, a brilliant day. The expectation he would mix this event with some of the outside forces that are bringing some heat to the white house is unlikely. Even though there is a bit of overlap in the company that you reference. But this isnt the kind of place we have been out here so many times, whether it is the rose garden, east room, where the outside forces that create problems for this administration and there are questions that need to be answered, these are not the settings where the president chooses to engage. Makes it difficult for us to ask questions from this location as well because of the simple distance there are guests invited to the white house who are in the seats behind me. Creating a bit of a barrier to that. But we will be covering this to hear the president s plans to try to lower Prescription Drug prices, different ideas he would like to see happen in the private sector as well as changes that could be made with buying power for the government and so forth. So this is where theyre able to keep their lanes pretty separate, chris. Lets go back to the other lane, all about what happened with this deal these deals that Michael Cohen made, the Washington Post added more deta detail. It wasnt just for insight, but specifically to provide advice on the merger. You do wonder exactly what those words mean and i guess there is a big question also does it change things for cohen or this white house . Well, if hes providing advice, we have two options here. One, hes an expert at antitrust law or, two, hes an expert in trump. Number one, okay. Right, hes an expert in trump. So that means he was hired specifically for his access to trump. We dont have any recordings at this time or transcripts of what may have transpired between the president and Michael Cohen, but that is the whole premise for this relationship. What were his services . Under u. S. Ethics laws, you dont actually have to register as a lobbyist unless you have lobbied two or more government officials. That does not make it ethical. If Michael Cohen was lobbying for at t, on behalf of at t to President Trump, of course, we dont have evidence of that at this time, but he got a big payday in exchange for his services here and like i said, we all know hes not an expert in antitrust law. Well, it is interesting, susan, you wrote what i thought was just an absolutely fascin e fascinating article this week, essentially about exactly that. Who are the people to get inside trumps brain . The decoders you call them, the trumpologists. If you look at that hierarchy, where does Michael Cohen fit in . Well, you know, it is interesti interesting. First of all, this is not the first time we had access or influence peddling scandal in washington. There is a long history of it. It is why trump is so successful at saying drain the swamp. The swamp isnt being drained. It is opening itself up for another group of people. The problem with the Trump Presidency rate is that because the president has blown up most normal processes and his white house runs in such an irregular way, and he himself has made it clear that hes the decider and often the only decider, it means in a way that were all trump ologists. Michael cohen is appears to be monetizing his trumpology and, you know he does seem to be somebody who outside the family actually was very close to this president. Understood in the business realm before he ran for president how he operated, right . Well, thats exactly right. These corporations are paying for somebody who is extremely close to donald trump. I consulted with a number of my favorite goto white house reporters and analysts of President Trump and one of the very of them told me they considered Michael Cohen along with sam nunberg and actually roger stone to be the people who understood donald trump and were decoding him the very best. And, you know, maybe thats a d damning statement about who trumps friends are but it is revealing, this guy had insights into the president s mind at a time when the regular order of our government had basically been blown up. So these corporations were paying for somebody who generally had knowledge that the rest of us didnt. Interesting this morning, Donny Deutsch who has known Michael Cohen for a long time, on morning joe, he just talked to Michael Cohen who told him all these companies came to him. And novartis has suggested in writing otherwise. As we watch the president walk out along with the hhs secretary. Well listen to the president when he begins to speak. My understanding, though, is that mr. Azar will speak first. Well keep our eye on that. But as far as cohen goes, what is his strategy at this point, do you suppose . Lets listen. Sorry, lets listen. I want to thank secretary azar, secretary mnuchin, secretary ross, ambassador lite heiser, commissioner gottlieb, Scott Gottlieb has done a fantastic job. Where is scott . Stand up, scott. Right to try is happening, right . We have that happening. Right to try, so important. Administrator werner, director mulvaney for being here, with us today. The beautiful rose garden at the white house. Were also honored to be joined by senator bill cassidy. Senator. Where is senator cassidy . Please. Please. One of my great friends, senator orrin hatch. Thank you, orrin. Thank you. Congressman michael burgess, michael, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, michael. Congressman buddy carter. Congressman greg gianforte. Hi, greg. And numerous state officials from all over the country. Today my administration is launching the most sweeping action in history to lower the price of Prescription Drugs for the American People. We have wanted to be doing this, we have been working on it right from day one. It has been a complicated process but not too complicated. And today it is happening. We will have tougher negotiation, more competition, and much lower prices at the pharmacy counter and it will start to take effect very soon. My administration has already taken significant steps to get drug prices under control. We reformed the Drug Discount Program for safety net hospitals, to save Senior Citizens hundreds of millions of dollars on drugs this year alone. Were also increasing competition and reducing regulatory burdens so drugs can be gotten to the market quicker and cheaper. Were very much eliminating the middle men, the middle men became very, very rich. All right. Whoever those middle men were, a lot of people never even figured it out. Theyre rich. They wont be so rich anymore. Last year the fda approved more than 1,000 low cost generics, the most in history, which has already saved the American People nearly 9 billion. Thank you, scott. Next were going to take on one of the biggest obstacles to affordable medicine, the tangled web of special interests. Not too many are sitting here today, but they used to be here all the time. The drug lobby is making an absolute fortune at the expense of american consumers. No industry spends more money on lobbying than the pharmaceutical Health Products industry. Last year, these companies spent nearly 280 million on lobbyists. Thats more than tobacco, oil, and defense contractors combined. Health Insurance Companies and other providers spent another 200 million to protect the status quo and to keep prices artificially high. And they have been very successful doing it for many, many years. Everyone involved in the broken system, the drugmakers, Insurance Companies, distributors, pharmacy benefit managers and many others contribute to the problem. Government has also been part of the problem because previous leaders turned a blind eye to this incredible abuse. But under this administration were putting american patients first. Thank you. Ive instructed secretary azar to begin moving forward on reforms that will bring soaring drug prices back down to earth. Our plan takes steps to derail the gravy train for special interests by ending obamacares twisted incentist isis isives y encourage higher drug prices. It also gives Medicare Part d plans new tools to negotiate lower prices for more drugs and make sure that Medicare Part d incentives encourage Drug Companies to keep prices low. It is a big incentive to do that. We are not going to reward companies that constantly raise prices, which in the past has been most companies. Frankly, alex used to run one of them. So no one knows the system better than alex. Thats why we need it. And very successful one. Our plan will end the dishonest double dealing that allows the middle man to pocket rebates and discounts that should be passed on to consumers and patients. Our plan bans the pharmacist gag rule which punishes pharmacists for telling patients how to save money. This is a total rip off. And we are ending it. We are getting tough on the drugmakers that exploit our patent laws to choke out competition. Our patent system will reward innovation. But it will not be used as a shield to protect unfair monopolies. The fda will also speed up the approval process for over the counter medicines, so that patients can get more medicines without prescription. Finally, as we demand fairness for american patients, at home we will also demand fairness overseas. When foreign governments extort unreasonably low prices from u. S. Drugmakers, americans have to pay more to subsidize the enormous cost of research and development. In some cases medicine that cost a few dollars in a foreign country costs hundreds of dollars in america for the same pill, with the same ingredients, in the same package, made in the same plant, and that is unacceptable. You can look at some of the countries, their medicine is a tiny fraction what the medicine costs in the usa. It is unfair. And it is ridiculous, and it is not going to happen any longer. It is time to end the global freeloading once and for all. I have directed u. S. Trade representative bob liteheiser to make fixing this injustice a top priority with every trading partner. And we have great power over the trading partners. Youre seeing that already. America will not be cheated any longer. And especially will not be cheated by foreign countries. The American People deserve a Health Care System that takes care of them, not one that taxes and takes advantage of our patience and our consumers and our citizens. These reforms are just the beginning. In the coming weeks we will work with congress to pass legislation that will save americans even more money at the pharmacy. For that, we need the help of congress and we think it will be forth coming. We will work every day to ensure all americans have access to the quality affordable medication they need and they deserve. And we will not rest until this job of unfair pricing is a total victory for the usa. It will happen and it is going to happen quickly. So thank you, again, everybody in the audience, thank you secretary azar. And id like to ask the secretary a very talented man to come up and do a little explanation because were going to see the prices go down. It will be a beautiful thing to watch. Thank you. Mr. Secretary . Thank you very much, mr. President , for that powerful call to action and for your leadership on this issue. I can tell you i interact with the president about every three days by phone or in person and there has not been one discussion with the president in any circumstance where drug pricing and bringing down drug prices has not been the first and last thing that he has mentioned to me. You have made it clear how important it is to bring down Health Care Costs for the American People and get better deals on drug pricing in particular. Thats why you made history today. By laying out the most comprehensive action plan for drug affordability of any president in our history. The problem of high Prescription Drug costs is something that has been talked about in washington for a long time. But thats all its been, talk, talk, talk. Were privileged to have a president finally taking action by laying out a blueprint for solving these problems using private sector competition and private sector negotiation. Were not going to propose cheap political gimmicks. The president s blueprint is a sophisticated approach to reforming and improving this unbelievably complex system. Everybody at hhs is rolling up their sleeves to get to work on this. Let me just give a couple of examples. Think about all the time that everybody spends watching drug company ads on tv. And how much Information Companies are required to put in them. If we want to have a real market for drugs, why not have them disclose their prices in the ads too . Consumers would have much more balanced information and companies would have a very different set of incentives for setting their prices. Were immediately going to look into having the fda require this. President trump has called for tougher negotiation and better deals, so were going to deliver on that too. Our blueprint brings the latest negotiation tools to our government programs. It also expands private sector negotiation to parts of medicare where right now hhs just gets the bill and we pay it. These are just some of the more than 50 actions that hhs has planned or has under consideration in the blueprint for action released today. This is not a one and done deal. It is a comprehensive process and as the president said, it will take time to reorder a system of our economy. Were going to drive real change in this system while continuing to lead the world in innovation and Patient Access to medicine. So thank you, again, mr. President , for your vision, your leadership, were eager to get to work. With real competition, and with the right incentives, your blueprint is going to finally put american patients first. And at this point, i will be joining Sarah Huckabee sanders for the press briefing this afternoon, able to take questions to provide more detailed information of all of the elements of the president s plan. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Alex azar, short on specifics about exactly what the details of this plan are. Big on praise for this president who said america will not be cheated. It is the kind of thing we heard on the campaign trail. What we are getting here is what he promised on the campaign trail, which was that there would be now negotiating for medicare drug prices, something that republicans have long opposed, but american patients first is the big message here. Joining me now, anchor of 11 00 a. M. And 3 00 p. M. Hours here on msnbc, ali velshi. Let me run down some of the things the president said was going to happen. Hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be saved this year alone, the system will be quicker and cheaper, and they are going to eliminate the middle man. Give us a little reality check here, based on what we know about this. If you eliminate the middle man, ill grow a full head of hair. Thats the single biggest problem with our system. We have these pharmacy benefit pharmacy pbm, pharma