House democratic leader nancy pelosi. And the chair of the dnc, tom perez. Here now, chief anchor george stephanopoulos. Good morning, can you believe its been just 38 days . 38 days packed with the shock of the new. A shock thats energized trump supporters, terrified his critics, mystified many around the world. As we come on the air this week, what have we learn sod far about President Trump . Number one, hes not going to change. Donald trump intends to be president the way he became president. With tweets. Tough talk so often at odds with the facts. And direct attacks on the press he calls the opposition. I want you all to know that were fighting the fake news. Its fake. Tony. Fake. [ cheers and applause ] a few days ago, i called the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are. They are the enemy of the people. Number two, he meant what he said about cracking down on illegal immigration. The deportation directives from Homeland Security this week drove that point home. White house officials promise that his new executive order suspending travel from majority muslim countries will be as tough as the original ban blocked by the courts. All that is aimed at securing his most loyal followers. This weeks directive reversing president obamas policy on how schools should handle transgender youth. That levers two big Unanswered Questions as the president prepares to address congress for the first time in two days. Can he make good on the promises that require a partner in congress . Gop members got an earful on that across the country this week. Resist, persist. And what happens next with the president and russia . The white house hit by late this week for enlisting the fbi and intelligence officials to counter damaging stories and appears to interfere with investigations. As a Veterans Group prepares to release this ad. President trump, the fbi and cia say that russia interveered. So, sir, were putting you on notice. Were demanding speaker ryan and senator mcconnell appoint an independent commission to get the answers. Because defending america means finding the truth. Lets get answers from the white house. Sarah Huckabee Sanders joins us now. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Good morning, george. We heard from a key republican member of congress this week, darrell issa who says Jeff Sessions must recuse himself. You cannot have somebody, a friend of mine, Jeff Sessions who was on the the campaign, and who is an appoint tooe. Youre going to need to use the special office to take not just to recuse, thats you cant just give to it your deputy. Thats another political appointerk e. What is your response . I think the real easy answer here is that the fbi has already said this store i have b. S. Those are their words. Aapologize to my mom. Literally, those are the words of the fbi. That the story was b. S. They came to us. They approached us. Were putting that story out there. I think the American People deserve to know the truth. That theres nothing here. Just because reporters Say Something over and over and over again doesnt start to makt true. At some point, we get to a place where we have to move on and focus on the things that the American People care about. I dont think this is it. Asked and answered. Lets move forward. Lets Start Talking about the economy. Lets talk about education. Lets talk about border security. Lets talk about national security. Thats whats keeping most americans up at night. Thats what they want us focused on. Thats what this administration is doing day in and day out. First of all, the fbi has made officially no comment. James comey has no comment. Youre saying the fbi told you it was b. S. The fbi hasnt said that at all. I was asking a different question. The fbi investigation is continuing. The Intelligence Committees are continuing their investigations right now. The question at hand is, sit appropriate for the attorney general to oversee that investigation . Here are the Justice Department guidelines. No doj employee may participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with any person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation. How can it be appropriate for a key member of the Trump Campaign to oversee an investigation of the Trump Campaign . George, were confident that whatever review Congress Wants to do, i think that is the first there with two committees currently doing that. Were confident that theyre all going to come to the same conclusion. That we had no involvement many this. If democrats want to continue to relive their loss every day by doing investigations or review after review, thats fine by us. We know why we won the race. We had the better candidate with the better message. They didnt campaign in the right places. They didnt have the right candidate. That wasnt a democrat. That was a republican member of congress. Ill take your answer to say you dont believe that the attorney general needs to recuse right now. On the investigations. I dont think were there yet. Let me finish the question right there. Yes, sir. You heard republican members of congress saying this week that President Trump should release his tax returns. If Congress Requests the tax returns as part of the investigation, will thats a question you would have to ask the president. What i do know is that, again, we have answered this question. I guess i dont know how many times you have to answer the same question. And people start to expect a different answer. Again, i wasnt saying that he shouldnt recuse himself or that he should. My point is i dont think were there yet. Lets work through the process. You want to jump to the end of the line. Thats not how this works. Typically, you go through a congressional review. Lets let this play out the way it should. Again, i go back to, if you want to continue to relive this loss, then lets do that. But, at the same time, while the democrats and even maybe some of the republicans as you mentioned, want to talk about that, what were focused on in this administration is what we campaigned on. And achooeing those goals. And making sure that america is moving forward. Again, i was asking about the fbi and the Justice Department investigation. The union. One of the big questions. I guess its not a state of the union. The address to congress on tuesday will be what to do with obamacare. And what the president will say should be done. During the campaign, he said everyone has to be covered. January 15th, he told the Washington Post were going to have insurance for everybody. Theres a brandnew analysis out just today about the republican plans about to be presented. They were presented to the governors yesterday. It says millions may lose coverage in obamacare repeal. Governors told. Policies supported by republican congressional leaders to replace obamacare could lead millions of people to lose their health care coverage. According to a presentation on saturday. It estimates the number of people covered by obamacare could be slashed by as much as 51 in states that chose not to expand medicaid coverage. So can the president that no one who has coverage right now will lose it under his plan . Look, what i know that the president can promise is what hes been saying. That this is not just a repeal program that we absolutely have to repeal it. But replace it with something thats better. George, even democrats will admit that owe what kair is simply not sustainable. Its collapsing under itself. It cannot maintain the track were on. We have to make big changes. I think republicans and democrats agree with that. This was a program that was shoved through with so many problems. Were still every day finding out new problems to the program. We know we cant just repeal it and not do anything else. We have to repeal it and replace it with something better. Thats what i want to ask you about. You say replace it with something better. So does that mean that no one ho has coverage now with lose it . I know that the goal is that we make sure that people dont lose their coverage. We have to on people that need it most. We have to lower the costs. We have to make sure the people that need it the most are covered. We cannot survive under the current system. We have to make a massive overall. It is not sustainable. Everybody agrees with that. There is nobody that argues that were on track that we can maintain. Were looking at every possible way to do exactly that. Repeal a treshl, failed system and replace wit something better. Again, so ill have to ask one more time. You say replace it with something better. So will the president guarantee he wont sign a plan that will cause people that have coverage now not to lose it . Hes made it a high priority. We want to make sure that people that have insurance continue to visit. He promised he wont touch medicare, Social Security, or medicaid. Can he stand by that . The president is committed to doing that. So far, as you have noticed over the last 30 days, hes done exactly what he said he is going to do. I dont see any reason to start thinking differently. I want to bring up another topic right now. Just yesterday, the miami herald the father of the navy s. E. A. L. Killed in yemen has spoken out about the raid. He did not want to meet with President Trump. He said, dont hide behind my sons death to prevent an investigation. I want an invegs gags. The government owes my son an investigation. Will he get it . I cant speak to the military. But i can say that as a parent, i cant imagine the loss that he has sufficieered. I think every american owes his son a great deal of gratitude. He paid the ultimate sacrifice when he went on that mission. And i know that the mission has a lot of different critics. Amount of very important intel and resources that helped save american lives and other lives. And, as much as again, i cant imagine what this father is going through, i think hes a his son is a true american hero. We should forever been in his sons debt. Does the president want an investigation . I havent had the chance to speak with him directly about that. But i would imagine that he would be supportive of that. Final question, we heard yesterday in the president s tweet, hes not going to the white house correspondents dinner. Why . George, think its safe to say i think we all spend enough time around each other as it is. This wasnt a president that was e leblgted to spend his time with reporters and celebrities. This is a president who campaigned on speaking directly to americans. And thats what hes going to spend his time doing. I think its kind of naive of us to think we can all walk into a room for calm of hours and tension isnt there. You know, one of the things we say in the house is a girl scout egged your house, would you buy cookies from her . I think this is a similar scenario. Theres no reason for him to dp in and sit and pretend like this is going to be just another saturday night. Think hes very focused on protecting our Borders National security, growing our economy. Instead of spending a night doing that, hell spend the night focused on what he can do to defend america. Pretty straight answer. I think a lot would say the eggs have gone both ways. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, thank you very much. Nancy pelosi, thank you for joining us today. You heard Sarah Sanders talk about the committee looking into the russia ties with the Trump Campaign. Also, pretty much saying there will not be a recusal from now for if attorney general. Your response . As you read the law and saw the law, the attorney general must recuse himself. Step. You have seen a flurry of activities that are completely inappropriate, encouraging lawmakers, encouraging foishls Say Something is one way or another. Lets have the investigation and find out the truth. And we have been called, we have 100 now plus one republican on erics bill for an outside, independent commission to study the personal, political, and financial relationship between President Trump and the russians. So far, the efforts have been quashed by the Republican Leadership in the house. Youre getting pressure from democrats to go farther. Michael moore put out a 2w50e9 this week, tell your senator and house members now, you want them to cease all business until they appoint a special committee on trump tapped rush xwrans he gave the phone number there as well. Are you ready to go that far . Let me just say, there is no business. Lets put this in time. You did at the beginning show. In a couple of days, it will be 40 days, 40 hours, 40 years in the desert. 40 is fraught with meaning and symbolism. When president obama was sworn in on the steps of capital, he asked for swift, bold action now for jobs and education for the 251st century. One week and one day from that swearing in, the house passed the american recovery and reinvestment act. One week later, the Senate Passed it. Four weeks from his inauguration, he signed a bill which saved or created 4 million jobs. He had already signed, Lily Leadbetter signed it. Schip, the Childrens Health insurance program. By the time he had his first address to the join session, the first speech, he could say this is what i asked for. This is what we have done in the first four weeks. What has the Trump Administration done from their inaugural address, where they talked about decay and wall street first. Make america sick again. And instill fear in our immigrant population in our country. And make sure russia maintains itself grip, its grip on our foreign policy. You saw Sarah Sanders say, talk about obamacare on tuesday. Would not say it will guarantee. It cant guarantee. N the republicans have been baying at the moon for seven years that they have a better idea. Theyve come up with nothing. They say repeal and replace. That has alliteration. Thats all it has going for it. They dont have a replacement. What they have put forth and outlined will cost more to consumers. Lit cover fewer people. It will give tax breaks to the wealthiest people. The president wants to do, the 400 wealthiest families in america will get a 7 million a year. But if they do follow through and repeal obamacare. They wont be able to do it. They cant . They have alliteration. Not votes. If they do, wont democrats have a duty to go in and help repair it so the people that will lose coverage, according to your analysis, dont lose it . If everyone loved their care, if everyone loved it, which they didnt, and their insurance policy, we would still have had to do it because the escalating costs of health care in our country were unsustainable to individuals, families, small business, corporate america, and to the public sector. The costs were just soaring. We do the care. And had three goals. One, two lower costs. Other two expand benefits. And the third to improve, increase access. Have health care who didnt have it before. This is the important part. 155 Million People who get their Health Insurance through their workplace have now had expanded benefits. Stop the rate of increase of costs. But, no longer will you have preexisting condition prevent you from getting care. I understand that. No, i understand that. Dont you have an obligation to protect those who will lose coverage . St you have to have the full package. If they come up with something that lowers the costs, expands the koechblg, increases benefit, then well have something to talk about. We havent seen anything to talk to them about. When he makes his arouddress one 40 things that hes done many the 40 days, all fear of the greed on wall street. What kind of reception is the president going to get on tuesday . Some democrats are thinking of bringing guests they believe have been impacted by the president s policies. Well, that would be a normal thing to do. I, myself, would bring a guest who is a dreerm. A guest who has lost her son through gun violence. Ill bring a guest who is a symbol of the freedom of the press, which the president , in his authoritarian manner, is attacking. And i think thats really our biggest guardian of democracy is the First Amendment. The freedom of the press. Are there any issues where you feel you can still work with the president . Back in november, you talked about infrastructure. We dont know if hell propose a plan on tuesday. Is that something the democrats can get behind . Lets talk about that. I call him the deflector in chief. He has no jobs bill. I talked about president obama in the first four weeks,4 million jobs. So hes got to talk about the press. He has no jobs bill. So he has to talk about kids transgender kids in school. He has no jobs bill, so he has to talk about immigrants and have a ban on muslims coming to to country. All of this is a deflection from the fact that he has done nothing. We havent seen a jobs bill. We havent seen do you have an open mind on it . If he has, as i have said to him and said publicly, if he has an instfrainfrastructure bill t helps to address the deficit we have in our country, lets talk about. But if it is yet again, another tax break for his rich friends, disguised as an infrastructure bill, were not going there. Nancy pelosi, thank you for joining us this morning. My pleasure. Lets turn to congressman jim jordan. One of many people that faced tough questions this week. Hang on, hang on. I want to answer the question. Hang on. Hang on. [ crowd chanting ] all give us more insurance. Thank you for coming in. Good cleanup crew today first on the issue on investigation. Is recusal necessary . Lets let the process work. Some have skauled for a select committee. Some a special prosecutor. Lets let the committees work. Im on the oversight committee. Im not shy on going int