College student in an emotional service. Those stories plus a cosby juror speaks out. Johnny depp under fire. And a golden rule of golf broken. You wont believe who is behind the wheel today, friday, june 23rd, 2017. From nbc news, this is today, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on this friday morning. We thank you for joining us. As a golfer, im gasping over the last story. But ill save my outrage for later. President trump is probably thinking, its my golf course, ill drive if i want to. Lets start with the battle over the Health Care Bill from Senate Republicans. It keeps the basic structure of the Affordable Care act, obamacare, that republicans have railed against, but there are sweeping changes. Including the elimination of the mandate that required people to buy insurance. It deepens the cuts to medicaid and it defunds planned parenthood. Whats ahead . A vote could come as early as next week but republicans leaders have work to do. President trump is voicing his support, several gop senators say they will oppose the bill as it stands. Top medical groups are weighing in, finding fault with the plan. The American Academy of pediatrics claims certain cuts will hurt children. And the aarp is telling every senator to vote no. Our Political Team ready to break it down. Well also talk with senator rand paul, one of the republicans thats come out against the bill. Lets begin with our national correspondent, peter alexander. Reporter good morning. The senate Health Care Bill is out, but many arent buying it, jeopardizing what leaders hoped would be a quick pass of it. A little negotiate is needed but blasting obamacare as a, quote, disaster. Hosting a picnic for members of congress, President Trump giving a grilling. Really great people, i have to say, mostly. Mostly. Couple of bad ones. But thats okay. Reporter days after calling the white house Health Care Bill mean, tweeting im very supportive of the senate version. After legislative surgery, Senate Republicans longawaited obamacare replacement, flat lining. The current bill looks like were keeping large parts of obamaca obamacare. Reporter four gop senators saying as is, it comes short. Mr. Trump telling fox news he hopes theyll come around. Theyll probably get there. We have to see. Health care is a very difficult situation. Reporter but the president s party can only afford to lose two votes or it fails. I cannot support a bill in a is going to result in tens of millions of people losing their health insurance. Reporter so, whats in the bill . While it keeps key republican promises, like ending a mandate to buy insurance and defunding planned parenthood, the senate plan slashes subsidies for low and middleincome americans, turning that into tax cuts for high incomes. As for giving states money to end medicaid, that would begin in 2020 and the cuts would be deeper than the house plan. And opioid addiction, 2 million. Just a fraction of what some republicans wanted to cover a growing national crisis. The senates bill does include protections for those with preexisting conditions. But no longer mandates states to cover maternity care,mental held and e. R. Visits. Earlier on capitol hill no tax. Reporter more than 40 people, some in wheelchairs, arrested and dragged from outside of the office of the republican leader. Democrats, defiant. These cuts are blood money. People will die. Reporter the senate plan even drawing a fierce rebuke from president obama. The senate bill unveiled today is not a Health Care Bill, he wrote on facebook. Its a massive transfer of wealth from middleclass and poor families to the richest people in america. Simply put, if theres a chance you might get sick, get old or start a family, this bill will do you harm. To be clear, supporters argue this bill will help fix a Failing Health care system while lowering insurance and premiums on the market for many americ americans. Despite the president s praise, it does not line up with one of candidate trumps promises that he would not cut medicaid. The Senate Majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell, looking for a vote on this bill next week. Lets turn to rand paul who is with us now from washington. Senator, good morning to you. Good morning. As we mentioned, you are one of four republicans who oppose this bill because you think its obamacarelight, its not going far enough. Let me quote the Rolling Stones for you. You cant always get what you want. If it comes down to this bill or no bill at all, would you rather doing in . I dont think the choices are binary. I think the choices are, do they want our votes or dont want our votes . They need two of the four of us, which means the bill has to get better. The current bill keeps the flaw of obamacare. If you can get insurance after you get sick, you will. And without the mandate, that adverse selection, the death spiral, the elevated premiums, all thats going on gets worse under this bill. What this bill does is it dumps a bunch of taxpayer money into a Stabilization Fund and says well have cheaper insurance if we subsidize it. You could have cheaper cars if you have a Stabilization Fund for cars or iphones or stabilizati stabilization. Thats not been a republican idea to empty the treasury to lower prices because we have a 500 million deficit already this year. The reality is, if you and your conservative colleagues get what you want in this bill, moderates pr n s are not going what they want. How is Mitch Mcconnell supposed to navigate that catch22 in seven days . We need to evaluate what weve been before. For six years we have run on repealing obamacare. Right now, as the bill stands, the obamacare subsidies that everybody saying that were going to die. We have equal subsidies or exceeding obamacare subsidies. It looks like theyre keeping it. We have more government subsidies in our bill than ob a obamacare has. Our bill may cost more in the first two years than obamacare cost. Thats not repeal. Under this plan that coverage for existing conditions stays. But states have the right to waive many of the essential benefits mandated by the aca, preventative care, maternity care, Mental Health treatment. You look at that list, isnt that the essence of Health Care Coverage . Well, heres the problem. And i think president obama had a big heart. And Many Democrats want to help people. But when you add mandates to insurance, you make it more expensive. Lets say i make 30,000 a year. And you add 12 mandates. My insurance has to include 12 things that are good for me. But what if my insurance costs 10,000 and i cant afford 10,000. I only make 30,000. I just drop out. Also because you tell me, if you get leukemia, you can buy in later. Its this perverse incentives. We have mandates that elevate the costs that people wont buy it and young people wont buy it. But we tell everyone, you can get it after youre sick. Thats a terrible situation. Thats what is destroying the insurance market. You talked about that. You said this republican plan keeps all those subsidies, continues to pour government money into health care. And you have President Trump who has promised insurance for everybody. He promised on the campaign, everyone will be beautifully covered. That is a quote. I dont disagree with the president. Im for insurance for everyone. My goal is the least expensive insurance for the most people. You know what does that better than any government program, when supply and demand meet, you get the most goods distributed to the most amount of people. Thats when you have freedom in the marketplace to let prices go up and down. You let the consumer choose based on price. Ill give you an example of where it works, lasik surgery. Thats a surgery i did, to help people get rid of their glasses. The price has gone down 75 over 15 years because consumers paid for it and they shop according to price. Makes sense. Preobamacare didnt we have a market system . Not really. We didnt have insurance for everybody. This is the misunderstanding. A lot of people we blamed everything on obamacare. But the system was failing before obamacare. Obamacare didnt make it better. I think it got worse. Were keeping mond ining fundam problems. We had a fork in the road. Before obamacare, the system was failing. Insurance rates were going through the roof. Under obamacare, it continued. You want the consumer to be connected to the product. When the consumer cares about the price, theres competition, the price comes down. If we have a sufficient belief in the market system, that has made all you know, has given america her greatness, we can make Health Care Great in this country. But you have to embrace freedom and capitalism. Is this going to pass . The bill has a chance. But it has to go in the direction of free markets and choice. And you have to get rid of the regulations that are causing the prices go up. Thank you. Appreciate it. Lets bring in chuck todd. Good morning to you. Good morning. You heard senator pauls reservations. How is this going to play out over the next seven days . Look, you have moderates that are not happy with it. You had Susan Collins there, a moderate for maine. Upset about some of that coverage. You have the conservative angst here. I think rand paul has set a high bar for his support. And i think Mitch Mcconnell, the Senate Majority leader is trying to find a path to enough votes without rand paul. I dont think this ball is going to get more conservative. If anything, i think its possible this bill gets more generous on the medicaid front. Youre going to have a couple of key governors, ohio, nevada, republican governors who have expanded medicaid, who have republican senators in their states who are on the fence on this. I think thats the path that happens here. But i tell you this Mitch Mcconnell, hes doing this in a week on purpose. Its shock and awe. You get it done in a week or it goes away in a week. A lot to watch over the next seven days. Chuck, appreciate it. Hes going to have much more on the new health care fight this sunday on meet the press. Theres new developments in the russia investigation this morning. The president making some controversial claims in a new interview. This after he acknowledged, no, he did not make secret records of his meetings with the former fbi director, james comey. Nbcs chief white house correspondent, hallie jackson. Good morning. Reporter President Trump appears to be questioning the credibility of special Counsel Robert Mueller, accusing him of being too cozy with fired fbi director james comey. Thats after Republican Leaders like paul ryan, say mueller could be allowed to do his job. And all it comes as the president facing a deadline today, is finally putting to rest a tapes mystery more than a month in the making. New this morning President Trump raising doubts about special Counsel Robert Mueller in an interview with fox news. Hes very, very good friends with comey, which is very bothersome. Reporter a former intelligence official tells nbc news, mueller is investigating the president or possible obstruction of justice. Theres been no collusion. No obstruction. And virtually everybody agrees to that. Reporter the comments coming after a 41day drama. The president putting an end to a mystery he created when he implied there may have been tapes of conversations with the fbi he fired. He says, i did not make or have any recordings. Im curious why this took so long. You requested for an answer. He gave you one. Reporter the senate gave until today for the president to talk about recordings of james comey. If the president didnt make tapes, why did he hang the idea of tapes over james comeys head . Reporter the original tweet, may 12th. James comey better hope theres no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. Comey says when he saw that, he gave his memos, documenting conversations with the president , to a friend, to share publicly. I thought, that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. For now, a he said he said battle, that tapes could have settled. I have seen the tweet about tapes. I hope theres tapes. Reporter and new concerns about what President Trump talked about with his director of national intelligence. According to an official familiar with the conversation, dan coates, said that he was asked to say there was no evidence of collusion. And this morning, were also taking a look at our latest nbc news poll. Giving a snapshot into how americans view President Trump. Just 31 of people polled gave him high marks for being honest and trustworthy. Matt . Savannah . Back to you. Hallie, thank you. North korea has carried out another rocket engine test, apparently within the last 24 hours. This is the latest in a series of engine and missile trials by this regime this year. U. S. Officials say this type of engine could be used for a space launch. But they fear it might actually be part of north koreas program to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile. An american test of a Defense System failed this week, when it was unable to shoot down a target missile over the pacific ocean. Tens of millions across the eastern half of the country is facing a day of heavy rain, as the remnants of Tropical Storm cindy is pushing inland. The massive system has caused problems in the south, widespread flooding. Were going to get als forecast in just a moment. Lets start with Reynolds Wolf in fairfield, alabama, this morning. We can see the destruction behind you. Reporter as you can see from above, the randomness of the damage. Some places is obliterated. In other places, theres bottles in this liquor score. Theyre in perfect formation. 11,000 people call this Community Home. It is amazing with this coming through, with the confirmed ef2 winds, there was no loss of life but four injuries. All this spawned from a tropical system that made landfall hundreds of miles from this spot. This morning, the fastmoving form, whats left of Tropical Storm cindy is slamming the south. And packing a very dangerous punch. Through the night, tornado watchings and warnings keeping residents in the atlanta area onedge. Just west of birmingham, illinois, an ef2 tornado, collapsing walls and blowing away roofs. Looking 120 miles per hour, ef2. Pretty considerable damage. The winds get stronger. Reporter residents shaken by close calls. I looked up and it was a stock of wood had gone through my windshield of this car. Im blessed to tell this story. Reporter this liquor store was leveled. But the bottles untouched. It left the liquor bottles up. Standing up, thats amazing to me. Reporter thousands without power but no serious injuries. Cindy unleashing torrential rains, the heartiest beach i goers. The people that call this Community Home and many others across the south, we have a round for parts of tennessee and back here in the great city of alabama. Back to you. Reynolds, thank you very much. Mr. Roker, whats left of cindy . Where is she headed . Shes heading east. Thats going to interact with another system and thats going to cause the problems. We have remnants of cindy smackdab in the center of arkansas. Awelcomlexandria into missouri. We are looking from tupelo to charleston. 11 Million People at risk. Isolated tornadoes, damaging wind. The remnants of cindy push in strong storms, especially by later this evening, on into parts of pennsylvania, all the way down into atlanta, through saturday. The showers and thunderstorms will linger through the coast. We have flash flood threats from warnings to watches to 800 miles for 30 Million People. And the rainfall amounts through sunday, especially up as you get into the northeast, were looking at five to seven inches of rain through the mississippi, ohio and Tennessee River valleys, as well. That may be causing more flooding as we head into sunday. Flooding as we head into sunday. Wer rge good morning. Meteorologist bill henley. Grab your umbrella today. Chance of thunderstorms this afternoon and evening and into tomorrow too. Through it all, steamy conditions. Get breaks of sunshine after morning rain this afternoon. That will warm us up to 88 degrees. Be in the upper 80s. Feel like its in the 90s. Cooler at the shore. See rain this morning. Chance of afternoon showers. Storms continue on saturday and sunday. Have a great day. Guys . All right, al. Thank you. Coming up, a startling claim from north korea overnight. Why they the regime is now sayi is the biggest victim in Otto Warmbiers death. And why johnny depps is in hot water for what he just said about the president. First, on a friday morning, this is today on nbc. Health, is having the freedom to do what you want to do with your life, every single day. So at aetna, we promise to keep finding new ways to join you so nothing gets in your way. Because no matter where it is youre going, or whatever stage of life youre in. We believe that when it comes to health. You dont join us. 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