James comey better hope there are no tapes of the conversations says there are no tapes of the conversations. In two tweets he said, quote, with all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts unmasking and illegal leaking of information, i have no idea whether there are tapes or records of my conversations with james comey. But i did not make and do not have such recordings. Here is how the white house reacted today in a briefing once again off camera. What can you tell the American People about why he zided to sort of make the inference at least at some point that maybe there would be tapes . Look i think the president s statement via twitter today is extremely clear. I dont have anything to add beyond the statement its soef. I get the tweet speaks for itself but im curious why it took so long for 41 days to be laid to rest. And whether the president is recording any oval conversations. He said he would have the answer by the end of the week which he did and beyond timing of that i cant speak further. Are there other oval office recording. Im not aware of anything i think the statement is pretty clear. Im asking generally. Again not that im aware of. Democrats involved in investigating in president and russia, were quick to react. President president s tweet today raises as many questions as gives answers. We still expect were getting a response from the white house. I would hope that white House Counsel has explained to the president the seriousness if he answers what the House Intelligence Committee has asked of the white house with anything but the truth. There are a couple of reasons why we will continue to look into whether there are tape recorded conversations between the president and james comey. First, because the president himself suggested that there were such tapes. Second, because the president now denial is not a complete denial. He is only saying he didnt record the conversations and he doesnt know whether there are recordings out there. So well explore this. But also because unfortunately the president has in the past tweeted things that simply werent true. If he does not have tapes, then it looks like he was trying to intimidate james comey by suggesting that the conversations may have been recorded and then perhaps hoping that comey wouldnt come forward. The problem here, chris is comey did come forward. That makes him all the more believable he testified unthe risk that anything he said to the president at the time could have been recorded and contradicted by what he was saying to congress. Now, to that point about the president and the truth, raised by congressman shift abthe latest balgz poll just 31 give the president good mornings on honest and trustworthy. 46 poor marks. Dan coats followed investigators behind closed doors, a u. S. Official tells nbc news coats said the president was obsessed over the russia probe, and that the president quote, repeatedly asked coats to say publicly there was no evidence of collusion. Also, tonight our Andrea Mitchell confirmed former Clinton Campaign chairman john podesta will speak with the House Intel Committee in an closed door session. The president did an interview with fox news that will air tomorrow. But the clip was just released to the president talking about bob mueller. He is very, very good friends with comey which is very bothersome. But he is also were going to have to see. Were going to have to see in terms look there has been no obstruction. There has been no collusion. There has been leaking by comey. But theres been no collusion, no obstruction. And virtually everybody agrees to that. So well have to see i is a o can say the people that have been hired are all Hillary Clinton supporters. Lets bring in our panel, jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the pink anden former chief counsel for the House Intel Committee. Michael crowley Senior Foreign Affairs committee. Mika and a former staffer for the House Intel Committee. Jeremy bash let me start with you because the original tweet was the tweet that launched the special counsel investigation that in president is now attacking. We should fact check a little bit. I dont think his smear on some of the lawyers that bob mueller hired is completely accurate. Regarding political are contributions what of the overt to put the tooth pace back in the tube. The tweet today was heavily lawyered. He said i did not make and do not have any such tapes or recordings. He left open the possibility that maybe others in the white house made such recordings and that they possess them. Thats why congressman schiff at ranking democrat on thes committee is smart to pursue this and really call the president as to whether or not there was any evidence created or later destroyed about what james comey said. And lets watch the comey testimony. Because he details exactly what he did in response to that original taunt from the president of the United States, the original threat, i guess you can say that he had recordings. Lets watch. Look, ive seen the teeth about tapes. Lordy, i hope there are tapes. The president tweeteden on friday after i got fired that i better hope there are not tapes i have woke up in the middle of night monday night because it didnt dawn won pay there might be corroboration for our conversation and my judgment was i needed that out in the Public Square so i squd a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didnt do it myself for a variety of reasons but i asked him to because i thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. Michael crowley, him trying to corroborate in the tapes in the end didnt exist. How do you stack up his credibility against the president who repeatedly lies about everything . Its not a fair fight when you put it that way. And in tweet is really one of the great failures of Donald Trumps adult life. I mean i think that as a businessman he was probably successful in bluffing people and making assertions to kind of psych people out. Playing games of chicken and getting the other person to back down. And in this case it just spald spectacularly. He dropped a banana peel in front of his own feet. That tweet led to the appointment of bob mueller whose investigation now will broaden into all kind of things, including allegedly Money Laundering by Trump Associates and possibly touching trump businesses. As you note, again, james comey has a lot of credibility. I mean, trump is trying to describe him as a leaker and conflate the fact that he put his account with interactions of trump out into the press. He is trying to conflate that with leaks of classified Sensitive Information from intelligence agencies. Theyre completely different. But i think to most americans they see comey an incredibly straightforward and straight shooter as far as credible. Its not a fair fighting when you match them zblup mika i want to give you something that caught my eye. She writes this highlights a new reality for all of washington. Which must bring into action to bolusers president ial with decubitus origin. Its has the opposite effect of what the president intended feeding into doubts about credibility deepening legal whoas and jerns unflattering accounts for that dominate the news for weeks at a timepy wonder on the question of deepening legal woes. Do you think jeremy described the tweet saying he did not have recordings as laurd up. Do you think he helped himself fl a legal perspective with the tweet today. I think from the tweet today he is trying to say there is nothing there. Do you think he helped himself fl a legal perspective with the tweet today. I think from the tweet today he is trying to say there is nothing there. Fwu actually makes the earlier tweet all the more suspect, the fact he tried to intimidate comey by suggesting that there were tapes then this goes to the question of what was his intent . Was he trying to get comey to shut up . Is that part of the pattern of trying to obstruct the investigation itself. Mick aire is kind of enough to talk about this in terms of i understand. Is he trying to get comey to shut up that tampering with a witness. If you look at the statute on obstruction of justice it says who ever makes a threatening communication to in effect disrupt a federal investigation is guilty of an offense. In this case the threatening communication there were several one obviously bringing comey to oval office and saying you got to audition for your job again even though statutorily you can fbi director for a daerkd. There were several other times he reached out to him ultimately putting the arm on him about mike flynn and threatening him in public with in effect a witness tampering evidence saying im calling you out for being a liar when in fact it was the president who was coming forward with misstatements. Yes i think there are critical elements of the obstruction statute in play here. Michael crowley, i want you to i want your thoughts on the same question. But i also want to ask you back to abbeys piece about how this altered the way everything happens in washington. You cover washington youve done so a long time and youre as well sourced as anyone i know. How do people even respond to the latest take on a trump truth . And i guess by that you know it was true for a while that he had recordings. Then he was keeping us all in spuns in very much the same way he did with his birther campaign. He was going to let us know if he still held his early believes or had a version. Then the big reveal was there were no recordings. Talk about both whether or not he did something to make his own legal woes more dire, and the effect on all of washington of a day like today. Well i do agree that it only stands to reason that you have to ask what was the motive for the initial tweet . If you didnt have tapes why would you suggest you might . And i think that the possibility of trying to influence a witness is the obvious one. With the by the way its kind of bizarre when the president of the United States is leaving opening the possibility he is being recorded without his knowledge. But thats a separate question. On the question of the tweets, its totally unprecedented. If you think about how closely controlled president ial communications have been for as long as weve lived, the amount of scripting that goes into every utterance of a president , all the staff work involved. Now you have not only the city of washington but the federal government and the white house staff itself scrambling to try to understand what did the president just say, what did he mean . Is it even true . And how do we talk about it in a way that increasingly i think white house staffers are saying how do we talk about his communications in a way that protects us. We might be in legal jeopardiy. You notice from the Sarah Huckabee sanders clip she keeps on caveating everything many not that im aware of we keep hearing sean spicer saying i havent talked to the president. He. Did the russians interfere in the election i havent asked the president about this. Theyre distancing themselves from their own boss like nothing weve seen before. Mika i want to ask you about the effect of that around the world. I guess we have in three separate sort of proof points we have sean spicers revelation that michael just alluded to that he hes never had a conversation with about with the president about russias role in the election. We have the attorney general who testified last week that he had never been briefed on russian efforts to russian hacking efforts. Which multiple Law Enforcement folks have testified to being true. And we have james comey saying the seven or eight interactions he had with the president in not one did the president ask him the status of the russia probe. I wonder what that looks like around the world. What that looks like around the world to all the allies who are suffering with the same russian interference trying to break down democracy sees or trying to make people distrust the truth it loolkts donald trump isnt isnt secured about the threat. And all the systems around the world. Never once has he said we we heard in front of the Intelligence Committees what about the russians. What can we do to protect election sns its all about him. Its all about him. Perfect last words. Thank you jeremy bash wab Michael Crowley and mika. Reaction to all this fl a member of the Foreign Relations committee. Next. Later the Republican Health care bill is out and there is enough resistance to kill it from republicans. The 11th hour is back after this. Hey youve gotta see this. Cmon. No. Alright, see you down there. Mmm, fine. Okay, what do we got . Okay, watch this. Do the thing we talked about. What do we say . Its going to be great. Watch. Remember what we were just saying . Go irish see that . Yes im gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. Hour. Tonight were watching two big stories in washington. At the white house President Trump admitted that he was bluffing. He has no tapes of comey. And at the Capitol Senate republicans finally unveiled the secret Health Care Plan on such a busy day in the capitol we are happy to have u. S. Senator jeff merkley at any time tonight a democrat representing oregon appear sits on the budget committee. I want to get to health care because youve been a prolific twirter. What are whatever the verb is. But first the revelation from the president , the big reveal i guess in reality tv terms, that there are no tapes of jim comey. Do you agree with your colleague in the house adam schiff who thinks the original tweet may constitute something more serious that more than a bruf an effort to silence a witness. It looks like attempted intimidation. Thats wasnt the only time he he has done that. He pressured him in the office. So and he has pressured other individuals. And certainly dan coats, and so forth. And so we see case after case after case of president obsessed with russia and wanting to suppress the conversation. That makes it certainly very suspicious. Not just suppress it but seems to want to use the heads of intelligence agencies to rapidly respond to press accounts of them. Are you interested in hearing more from director of National Intelligence coats and admiral rogers. Absolutely. I know at the moment most of the really interesting testimony will be in private with the senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee. But the American People have a right to know whats going on with the things that are unclassified, that are about real conversations in the white house over these issues. We need to hear whats going on. Do you think the original tweet constituted obstruction of justice. It constituted pressure. Ill leave it to the lawyers to say if its obstruction of justice. But he has now many times attempted to slow down and block and discount this investigation. And it adds up to pretty strong case of somebody in did im not a lawyer from a nonlawyer point of view. We are hopeless. S in absolutely a president trying to derail an investigation. I want to make a turn to health care. Because youve been a prolific anticipate onnen twirt today and you loet it rip in terms of how you feel about the senate bill. In your own words what do you think of it. Youre familiar with the movie dumb and dumber. This is the republican horror show mean and m. O. A. B. Meaner. The house bill was bad and this is worse. Not only does it. I have not heard i have not heard a democrat you thirpg this bill is worse than the house plan. Yes let me explain why. Because the house bills proceeds to wipe out Medicaid Expansion but this bill not only does that but then compresses standard medicaid faster and harder than the house does. And that will save a massive amounts of ebb money for the federal treasury which the bill gives away to the insurance industry, the drug industry, and to the richest americans. Are you able to succeed, though because i know even president obama during the transition had spoke privately with the president was able to acknowledge there were room for some tweaks. Do you think there is a missed opportunity on the table in washington for democrats and republicans to have made some iks fixes things to have made obamacare more sustainable would you have been open to changes or improvements in obamacare. Absolutely. For example for an Insurance Company going to a new market it has to have reinsurance and the republicans dismantled that. The reason you have to be reinsured you may have a disproproergs knit share of really sick people if that happens you go bankrupt. Thats where the reinsurance comes in. Republicans took it away. We need to put it back. Cost sharing needs to be locked down as absolute responsibility of the administration to do cost sharing. Because the president is not willing to commit to doing it we have. How about obama i mean are you are you saying that obamacare in its current form was perfect and there no room for kbroochlt. No realize the exchange was the republican plan. I would prefer to have a single payer med kir for all. You didnt think ork dent with went far enough. It needed a public option oh so you had true competition. We added a public option to the worker workers a compensation in plan in oregon. Cutting the cost in half machine rhode island copied oregon cut the cost in rhode island in half. We should have had a public option tleefrt. But i think the complexity of the health care stp it creates so much stress. Is it medicaid, medicare wsh off exchange on exchange workers comp so forth. The people that need it most understand it the least pch i want to ask the politics about this. Are you privately routing for Mitch Mcconnells bill to pass and be able to run against republicans for being part of that who are hoping it fails. It must not pass np in oregon this is 400,000 who will lose medicaid with