Republicans and steve bannon. I can understand where steve bannon is coming from. Really . After months of buildup, President Trump lowering expectations around tax reform. It took years for the Reagan Administration to get taxes done. Ive been here for nine months, a little more than nine months. Trump walking us back, walking us back. Finally with some hard numbers at the white house, it becomes clear that the president may be downplaying the big plan. Were going to begin this morning with the breaking news, congressman tom marino, the president s next pick to be the drug czar has officially withdrawn his name for consideration. I have the best team to break it down, starting with Kristen Welker at the white house. Kristen, what do we know about this marino story . Reporter this is a big development, steph. Let me read you the tweet and we can do some analysis on the other side. President trump tweeting just moments ago representative tom marino has informed me he is withdrawing his name from consideration as drug czar. Tom is a fine man and a great congressman. Now, this comes after 60 minutes Washington Post report that found that congressman marino founded a piece of legislation that sailed through congress and was signed by former president obama that effectively stripped the dea of its authority to crack down on suspicious packages. This came during the Opioid Crisis. I actually asked the president about that at the impromptu News Conference at the rose garden. He said he was very concerned about the developments. So all signs were pointing in this direction. Clearly this was a swift resolution to those revelations that we saw earlier this week. Two more potential developments that were tracking, steph. Senator Clair Mccaskill saying shes going to move to repeal that legislation that was backed by marino, and President Trump saying next week he plans to declare the Opioid Crisis a national emergency. That would allow more federal funds to go toward fighting that problem. Its something that he said he was going to do over the summer. It hasnt happened yet so well be tracking very closely to see if that comes to pass next week, steph. I think a lot of people have been tracking it for months and the president has yet to actually do something. I want to bring my panel in, Brett Stevens and msnbc contributor and oped columnist for the new york times. And a democrat from my home state of new jersey and cochair of the problem solvers caucus. Shannon, im going to start with you. Does this marino news surprise you . It doesnt. This Opioid Crisis is something the white house knows is so important to their base and their supporters in these swing states like ohio that delivered this president his victory. They understand how important this is, they understand how important it is to the economy. They have not taken much taacti on this yet. I think this was an easy way to show people were taking this seriously and were trying to do something about this. The national Opioid Crisis will be another one and hopefully the administration will take some action on this. As kristen had mentioned, its been out there a while. Did the white house have a choice here . Was marino pushed . Did he jump . The optics were terrible. You dont want a congressman who is accused of removing dea authorities from being the man who is going to be your next drug czar. Really . They dont mind having scott pruitt run the epa. It is a priority for the president to address the Opioid Crisis, and the Opioid Crisis is, to a very large extent, a legal drug crisis. Its not simply a matter of illegal drugs. So to the extent that pharmaceutical companies are responsible for promoting opioids which are the source of the conflict, this was not going to work for the president. I dont think in the scale of trumps scandals this is a fivealarm fire. This is actually one of the smaller, more normal ones that every single president has to deal with when suddenly a candidate proves to be unsuitable. Thats fair. Congressman, democrats were at the forefront of calling for this nomination to be scrapped. Clearly the president didnt do it to please you. What can democrats do now, if anything, to work towards a better candidate . Well, i think the key step here is finding someone who obviously is committed to fighting the Opioid Crisis. I like the idea this is putting opioids back on the forefront to deal with. Its one of these issues thats there. Its in every one of our districts. I dont care how rich or poor your district is, this is something everyone is dealing with. Its horrific, its destroying people, and now that the president is putting this on the front burner is a good thing. Think about the president s relationship with the press. All of this was revealed by 60 minutes and one of his favorites, the Washington Post, sunday night. Does this not embarrass the president . This helps the president. This is a reminder george w. Bush in an interview with matt lawy lauer talked about how the president needs the press. Better this happen now than six months into his tenure. This is one of those instances where even a donald trump ought to be grateful sure. Youre talking theoretical. And george w. Bush said i didnt like the press, i need them. Do you really think President Trump will have that awareness youre asking a great deal. But the truth is this is one of those few issues today that is a general bipartisan issue. I dont think there is a trumpian divide or antitrumpian divide dealing with the Opioid Crisis. You dont want a controversial drug czar. You want a uniting figure. Marino clearly wasnt going to be that man. Lets talk about a different controversy. The breaking news comes as president President Trump is trying,ish, to keep the president ial cabinet from falling apart. Kristen, how on earth is this going to work . How can President Trump possibly not the president. How can Mitch Mcconnell stand with President Trump knowing the attack that trump has made towards him that steve bannon has . Right, and i think what youre seeing is the president and leader mcconnell trying to walk a very fine line here. They need each other in order to advance the gop agenda. President trump also needs steve bannon to get reelected because hes the voice of his base in many ways. You really saw the president trying to walk that fine line yesterday, in some instances saying, look, the Republican Party has never been more unifi unified, and in other instances saying, hey, he understands steve bannon who just declared war on the gop establishment. Take a look at the mixed messaging from the rose garden News Conference and also during a Cabinet Meeting the president had. Were not getting the job done. And im not going to blame myself, ill be honest. They are not getting the the jo done. Im not happy about it. A lot of people arent happy about it. If you read the papers, its like theyre on one island and im on another. Thats not the way it is. Just so you understand, the Republican Party is very, very unified. Reporter steph, the bottom line is the president does need leader mcconnell in order to get tax reform done. That is at the top of his agenda list. He didnt get health care done so its all hands on deck for tax reform and the other parts of the gop agenda. But all you need to do is look what happened in philadelphia last night. Senator john mccain taking a not so veiled swipe at President Trump to know this is a party that still has deep divisions. Take a listen. To refuse the obligations of International Leadership and our duty to remain the last best hope of earth for the sake of some halfbaked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather have scapegoats than solve problems is an attachment of any other dogma that americans can sign to the ash heap of history. Reporter steph, a lot of people heard that spurious nationalism line as a direct hit on President Trump. He will have a chance to weigh in on all of this when he has a News Conference with the Prime Minister of greece later on today, steph. Walk me through this. In a kind way were saying the president is trying to thread the needle, please his base and Mitch Mcconnell. If youre Mitch Mcconnell, thats a needle in his eye. The good things, like the stock market, thats all me. And this head spinning on capitol hill about who the president s friends are. Is it Mitch Mcconnell, is it steve bannon, is it chuck and nancy . You cant have it both ways or all ways. I think when i talk to people close to the president , hes trying to figure this out himself, too. Hes trying to figure out who are his real allies . Is Mitch Mcconnell going to help him, steve bannon . He doesnt know himself yet. He doesnt have long preexisting relationships with these people. He doesnt know how washington works. Hes had nine months to figure it out and he still hasnt figured it out yet. Hes testing his alliance in these waters. He wants to have a lot of things both ways and he just wants to figure this out, i think. Im not buying that he doesnt know how washington works. Does he know how humans work . Walk me through Mitch Mcconnells calculus. This weekend steve bannon said mcconnell is like Julius Caesar just before he was assassinated. Then trump said bannon a good guy and mcconnell stands next to trump. Mitch mcconnell may want to get tax reform done, but he doesnt need to stand there for this. Mitch mcconnell is like making friends with dr. Jekyl. It also reminds me of a wonderful line from winston churchill. He said appeasement is feeding the crocodile in the hopes that he eats you last. This is the way of the Republican Party today. They keep feeding the crocodile which is President Trumps vanity, ego and position, thinking at some point were going to be spared his wrath. But that never actually happens. Eventually trump always turns his guns on his fellow republicans. Why . I dont know. Because its like geico. Its what you do. Its what he does. Three metaphors there. Congressman, youve gone to the white house. You understand you have to do business with the other side in order to get things done, but donald trump isnt the other side. He and Mitch Mcconnell are theoretically on the same team. Well, the president has made pretty clear that he wants to get a deal done. Obviously hes changing every single day who that party is going to be that he gets that deal done with. Weve made it clear as problem solvers, the caucus that i cochair, weve come together and said, okay, lets sit at the table. There are things like tax reform and health care where we can find an agreement. It really isnt showing up anywhere. Look at health care reform. We proposed the only bipartisan solution part of health care, and he called over the weekend and said, okay, im ready to talk about what you propose. What they propose is what we think you need to do to move forward. Thats great, but what the president did on friday in terms of signing an executive order gutted obamacare and will hurt so many states. I called immediately and said, what youre trying to do and Gut Health Care and raise premiums on people . Thats not okay. He would claim, i bet, its just a foreseeing method to get us to the table. I dont know who he wants to sit at the table with. If he wants to fix the ship, were ready and willing. This is not a president who i think sees his legacy as a legislative legacy in the way that a Ronald Reagan did or a bill clinton did. This is a president who sees himself as the head of a movement. And the way you lead a movement is you continue to provide fuel for its anger. Part of that fuel is pointing at the enemies in washington and saying, theyre dysfunctional, the problem is them, not us, as you heard him say but at some point you will be held accountable. And that was reached when . This is a great point. When is that going to happen . President trump, if we dont have any legislative wins, President Trump will successfully say, see, it was Mitch Mcconnell and those guys. Lets let the right weigh in, vote for the republicans and steve bannon is standing right next to him. If the republicans dont want to do anything and they control everybody and dont make progress for the country, the country loses. I think the voters will punish him for that. There are those of us who are trying to govern and actually bring people together and move forward, and were sitting there waiting. He keeps talking about this grand deal he wants to do, i just dont know who hes willing to do it with. Obviously its not the republicans. It was so sobering to watch john mccain deliver that speech to know that optimism and bipartisanship is also the voice of the past and not the future. Thats a fright thing thougenin. Does it actually hurt trump to repeal and replace . If tax reform goes through that truly helps the rich and doesnt help the middle class, wont america have to say, well, this is what trump delivered to us and were worse off. If trump has no legislative wins, he can continue to blame Mitch Mcconnell and say, give me another four years. I believe that. What youre talking about is if they jam through legislation not in a bipartisan way where theyve failed so far, if that happens, yeah, that is a huge disaster for them. Thats why some of us who believe you have to do tax reform, but the right way, you cant just load it up with a state Tax Deduction and killing certain states like mine, that to me is not a good solution or throw people off health care who need it . Not a good solution. The question is when is he actually ready to do something and govern rather than pick somebody each day to blame. Its never a good day to hurt the nj. The socalled capital of isis, syria, raqqa are pushing isis out. What can you tell us . Its 90 clear that the city of raqqa has not been completely cleared. Yesterday it was 85 , so theres no doubt that the sdf is making a great deal of progress in the fall of raqqa. Throughout the pentagon its almost a foregone conclusion. You see what happens in the middle east when isis leads in this conflict between the kurds and the iraqis. You have russia forces, you have sds, and in that case the u. S. Allies there. Just because raqqa has fallen, and it will fall, and just because isis is losing territory doesnt necessarily make isis less lethal. Yemen for the first time took strikes against isis in yemen. Then two weeks ago you had that event in ojer. Those are isis fighters. They continually fight against isis. Steph . Im going to take a quick break. President trump stirs up major controversy when he says fallen soldie soldiers. And a criticism of nfl players for kneeling at the National Anthem. Owners and Union Leaders are meeting today on the issue. Can they reach some sort of agreement . Havent heard of researchers of technologies that one day, you will. Some call them the best of the best. Some call them veterans. We call them our team. Im stephanie ruhle. This is msnbc. The white house was forced to clarify some of the president s remarks when he falsely claimed that his predecessors had failed to reach out to families of Fallen Soldiers. When pressed for proof, heres what he said. Earlier you said president obama never called the families of Fallen Soldiers. How can you make that claim . I dont know if he did. I was told that he didnt. A lot of president s dont, they write letters. I do a combination of both. Sometimes its a very difficult thing to do, but i do a combination of both. President obama, i think, probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didnt, i dont know. Why . Why . Why . This comes as trump himself has faced major criticism for not reaching out to the families of four u. S. Soldiers killed in niger. Trump says he expects letters to go out this week and he says hes going to call them as well. I want to bring back Brett Stevens and congressman guthimer. Why is President Trump even getting into this . By the way, hes played golf at least four times since these young men were killed and hasnt found the time you know he loves pens. He loves signing those executive orders. He couldnt have written those letters and seen those people . Why create all this nonsense over something that really should be so simple . Because stuff just emerges from his mouth. Thats largely a part of it. Look, you know, people theyre critics of president bush, but as the war progressed in iraq, president bush gave up golf. He understood the optics were just wrong. There is a beautiful piece by dana perino in her book where she describes a visit by the president to a soldier where the mother of an injured soldier just unleashes on the president , and the president just stood there and took it and understood that she needed to get that out of her system. It was an extraordinarily moving moment, and i have a hard time imagining that trump could sustain that kind of attack as well. It goes to the point of how important character and temperament is to the office of