Own new program which will air 6 00 p. M. Weekdays. Well announce the start date eventually. But you can mark your calendar in a rough way if you want. A big breaking news night. So im happy to hear what Rachel Maddow has in store for us. Youre giving us a calendar alert that could exist in the age of digital calendars. Youre telling us to pencil this in in general but i cant give you a start date. Write a macro so at some point that stakicks in and it starts. Thats all i was allowed to say. A very Laurie Approawyerly a tonight i had an a block all set and ready to go. We worked on it this weekend. All this Breaking News Stuff this evening and then this happened this evening and we had all of this crazy stuff happening with the legal teams that are trying to defend or
senator rand paul from kentucky said he wouldnt vote for it because Repealing Obamacare was still too much like obamacare. Whatever. For whatever reasons the two of them said they wouldnt vote it. So we were heading into this week thinking. Because we knew the next things that were going to happen in the Health Care Bill that might affect those numbers, either collins and paul changing their mind and additional senators joining with them and saying no, which would of course end their chances of repealing obama cair. We knew some of those things were going to fall into line. We knew heading into this past weekend that today, monday, or maybe tomorrow, tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office was going to give us a new score of the republicans bill which tells you not just how much its going to cost but how many millions of americans its going to cost their Health Insurance. We knew it was going to happen
today or tomorrow. We knew from senator mcconnells vote that he wanted a vote by thursday. An impending vote can be something that presses the point, makes people decide what theyre going to do. So we knew those triggers were coming. But then this weekend senator john mccain was admitted for Emergency Surgery or admitted for surgery to repair a blood clot. Were told that was serious surgery, the reaction in political terms from republicans was that they wanted to delay their vote until Senate Mccain was recovered and back in washington. Obviously everybody wishes senator mccain the best. It was a little jarring to see the political response immediately from his party that the way theyre responding was by holding off this vote. Thats what they said. Then we learned that the cess n Congressional Budget Office wouldnt be putting out their score today or tomorrow. All that meant is the triggers that were going to happen this
week were gone. They were their bill was perched and paused and finally balanced on the edge of failure. Would anybody else come out against the bill . Would that Congressional Budget Office be terrible and cause more republican to say no . Would the impending vote on thursday be enough to nudge individual senators one way or the other . Those were supposed to be the trigger points. When both of those triggers fell away and neither were going to happen this week, we assumed that we just have another week of stasis. Theyre right on the edge of failure. Two votes and they cant lose another. Tonight it has fallen apart. We got the first inklings this evening from senator ron johnson of wisconsin suggesting that maybe he would vote no, that he was offended about the way Mitch Mcconnell has been talking about the obamacare repeal. I dont know if thats what opened The Flood Gates. Right after that, then a half
our hour ago senator mike lee of utah tweeted my colleague jerry moran and i will not support the motion to proceed on this bill. And it was lining ke we th all week long we would be standing at two. Now all of the sudden they went from two votes they could barely afford to four votes. How did that happen . Is this some sort of disturbance in the force for this evening and theyre going back to a safer position tomorrow and in the days ahead for this week or did this thing really just completely fall apart tonight. Millions of Peoples Health insurance is at stake if. Joining us on the phone is frank tharp who has been following these events. Thanks for taking our call. Thanks for having me. When i described about the
timi timing, it was me observing this out of washington in terms of what i expected. Did people expect that tonight would be the night we would get a whole bunch more republican senators saying no . There wasnt the expectation that this is going to happen tonight. I think that there was an expectation that most of these republican senators who were on the fence were waiting on the cbo score and now that had been delayed we were expecting the announcements to happen once that came out. But there was also an expectation that folks, they didnt want to be the one senator one the one that doomed the bill. So the idea that senators lee and moran came out together and did this together, it makes it a lot of sense. It allows them to be able to do it together, now its four, not three. Neither one of them is the one senator that decided to be the nail in the coffin for this current version of the bill. But, you know, notably, you know, somebody like jerry moran,
he came out saying he wants to basically start this process over. Notably, jerry moran was one of the republican senators to actually have town halls during the 4th of july recess. I dont think there was an expectation that this was going to happen so early. But i also think that it did it needed to be at least two senators to come out to get this number to over the two that would actually kill the bill. Frank, thats a good point about how Senator Moran has been approaching this. Ive been trying to keep an eye, and my staff, weve been trying to keep an eye on whats happening in the states, whats happening in these senators home offices, whats happening when theyre facing their constituents about this. And kansas is one of the states that is a conservative state. A lot of Red State Voters with the red state mindset. But there are been tons and tons of demonstrations and town
halls, a lot of Home State Pressure on a nart like jerry moran to vote no on this. And if youre looking at it from a national perspective, you wouldnt expect. But that has got to be part of whats in his mind and hes approaching this. Do you know if senator Mitch Mcconnell has a plan around the Traffic Cones that have been put in his way . Is there a temporary problem, something he anticipated or is this really potentially the end . It could be. But i mean were waiting to hear back from mcconnells office own what they plan to do. Its likely senator republicans will meet. They always meet on tuesday. They have their lunch and mcconnell has his press conference, where he and leadership, they speak to the reporters on capitol hill and tell them what theyre going to do, the next steps. Thats where well end up hearing what they want to do here. The thing is, you know, if Senators Moran and susan
collins wanted to scrap the entire bill and start over again. Wanted hearing, one with more time. And theres a real question about whether or not they have more time. Whether or not they can do that, even with the two extra weeks theyve given themselves during the august recess. And between now and lunchtime tomorrow, whether or not theres doing to be moderate republicans who are expecting to come out against the bill, whether they will start to trickle out now that they know that this bill is or at least this current version is not going anymore. Fascinating stuff. Frank thorpe, thank you very much. I know youre in the middle of reporting this out tonight. That last point that frank was making there, for the people on my staff who have been watching this more closely and for steve b bennon, once you get past the hurdle, once you get past the two votes that they can endure
and still pass this thing, what we have been expecting is that that would sort of Open The Flood Gates and you would get, in all likelihood, you will get a whole bunch more senator saying no once some people have sort of broken the ice there. So what frank was saying about expecting the moderate senators to sort of all pour out now saying were all no votes on this as well. I will tell you from perspective of my staff f staand steves ex which i trust a lot, this that is what a lot of people 0 expecting. This year weve learned to expect the unexpected. We tend to look at news from congress as to what happens there is driven by forces that are prurly inside washington, d. C. Youre covering stuff in washington and so you look around in washington to see what explains what just happened. I continue to believe, though, that if you really want to understand why republicans are failing again to pass their health bill, right, why
republicans with republican control of the house, republican control of the senate and a republican in the white house who would likely sign anything labeled health care, why these folks cannot pass the one thing they all agreed on and campaigned on, Repealing Obamacare, why cant they do it . I dont think it can be explained in washington. I think in order to understand that you might also look around at what is happening right where you live. For example, take the ninth district in virginia, represented by this guy, congressman morgan griffith. A Republican Congress from virginia. He voted to repeal obamacare. His constituents say if the republican bill becomes low law, 62,000 people in his trikt will lose their Health Insurance. To help drive that point home, they made him a visual aid. This weekend the constituents spent their sunday stapling
62,000 pieces of paper in a paper chain. Every link represents an individual person in that district who would lose all Health Insurance under the Republican Health care plan to repeal obamacare. 62,000. They pieced out together, laid it out flat across a football field. The whole thing clocked in around 3 miles long. Then they stuffed all 15,000plus feet of it into crash bags and delivered this chain to their congressman, morgan griffith. Grass roots efforts did not take the weekend off, leading into this dramatic develops tonight. Tucson, arizona, you know how hot it is in mid july, protesters braved brutal heat outside senator john mccains office. Few people brought umbrellas with them to stay cool. Over in north carolina, Patrick Mchenrys constituents prusedsp up his sign with tombstones reminding him of people who could die because of the bill. Here in california a good size group of people turned up to talk to paul cook. When they founld out the office was closed, they stood downstairs chanting, well be back. When the senate got to work today in washington, d. C. , they would barely make it through the door. Protests started in the Senate Atrium in washington, d. C. People chanting their stories about how obamacare helped save their lives. Capitol police gave their first warning to clear the area. Protesters sat down on the ground. Police started rounding them up, folded up their banners and made
arrests. Some people made it upstairs, 15 activists crowded into the office, wrote him a song to hes a jolly good fellow expect they changed the word to you should vote no on health care. Protesters were less jolly here, yelling, your job is on the line. Eventually they were kicked out of that office. They parked themselves on the floor right outside the Senator Office door. Police made more arrests there. Include this woman in a wheelchair who kept chanting. More than 30 people were arrested at the capitol today. While they were going on, a group stopped a bunch of senators at their d. C. Offices. They call thoechlss the little
lobbyists. Carrying around a binder of kids who have stayed alive because of obamacare. Nobody was senator elhers staff were able to meet with them but think did give the kids ice cream. Which was awesome. After enduring this facetoface pressure, this kind of intense pressure from their constituents for weeks and weeks, both at home, in their home states and home districts and also at their offices in washington, d. C. , The Flood Gates really did open tonight. They had two no votes before tonight. Thats all they could spare. Now were up to four. Four members of the senate who shay theyre firmly against the bill. That means that Mitch Mcconnell is not going to pass this thing. Not unless he changes two of their minds and doesnt lose anybody else. So what happens now really is anyones guess. This is really big news tonight. But i got to tell you one
constant throughout this entire process from the very start has been how the majority of this country really strongly does not want the republicans to do this. And these protests have been relentless. Theyre still planned, more are still planned at the capital and all over the country throughout this week. But theyve had a huge victory tonight. Joining us tonight is ezra eleven, a cofound are of indivisible, helping folks to organize all across the country. Theyve taken point in as best they can when it comes to the Health Care Bill. Mr. Levin, appreciate you taking the call. Thanks for calling me. Pardon me take on why this is big news toe night and where i think this comes from. As somebody who has been really involved as these indivisible groups across the country have mobilized so aggressively on this. Are you seeing this tonight as a
victory . Are you cautious in viewing whats happening here . Do you think youve won . So this is absolutely a win. I think the way you framed it was absolutely right. Change is coming to washington. It is not starting in washington. We are, as of thursday, six months into the trump presidency. Theres a unified conservative government the likes of which we have not seen in over a decade and yet they have yet to pass a single significant piece of legislation. That hes not because they dont have control of the government. They do. Its because the people are against the agenda theyre pushing. It is amazing to see. Tonight is a big win. Its not a final victory but it is a huge one win and one that groups across the country have been working towards and will continue to work towards. Really all across the country. Thats inspiring to see, people standing up on their home turf making their voices heard. That is the core behind the
indivisible movement. Wherever you live you should be contacting your own officials. Thats why there have been so many calls across the country for town halls and me other meeting, any other forum where representatives have to look their own constituents in the eye. Given that has been your focus on the indivisible side of things, what do you make about the Direct Action Tactics that were showing on the screen here, people doing sitins, people protesting, getting arrested. How does that integrate with the kind of work that indivisible has been doing . I have a huge amount of respect for the groups on the ground. Theyve been indivisible members, Planned Parenthood and move on and others. This is a direct part of this strategy, which is shining a light on exactly what congress is doing. I think one of the interesting things weve seen over the last
several months is republicans arent holding town halls. Theyre not facing their constituents. Very few are. What were seeing in response to that is if youre not going to come to me, im going to come to you. Theyre going to the district offices and other Public Events and its working. Senator moran ought to get a lot of credit. He was within of a couple of republican senators who held a town hall over the july 4th recess. Held it in a very tiny town in kansas with population 277. 150 people showed up at that town hall, including kansas city indivisible and others who made the trek out there to talk to their senator. That works. Showing up and doing sitins works. Its about putting pressure on. Hey were watching you. I love seeing that. Ezra levin, thanks for talking to us tonight. Its a big busy night with the
breaking news. Tomorrow is a big busy day, a national day of action. Keep this pressure on and well kill this bill. Magain the republican effort to repeal obamacare appears to have fallen apart. As you heard ezra levin say, a cofounder of a group nationwide organizing efforts thats really been trying to stop the republican effort to repeal obamacare. You heard him say this is not over. Kraushsly optimistic. But four republican senators saying theyll vote no is enough to kill it. I for one was not expecting this development tonight. Well talk the one of the Democratic Senators on the democrat side of the bill to get his perspective on how final this victory is. Senator chris murphy from connecticut is going to join us
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