House. House democratic leader nancy pelosi. House Freedom Caucus founder jim jordan. 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 learned to 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. Phony. 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 that pose a Terror Threat will be as tough as the original ban blocked by the courts. All that is aimed at securing his most loyal followers. Delivering for them with a Supreme Court nominee. Executive orders. This weeks directive reversing president obamas policy on how schools should handle transgender youth. That leaves at least two big Unanswered Questions as the president prepares his first address to congress in two days. Can he make good on the promises that require a partner in congress . Especially repealing and replacing obamacare. 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 headlines late this week for enlisting the fbi and intelligence officials to counter damaging stories and appearing to interfere with independent investigations. As a Veterans Group prepares to launch this new ad. President trump, the fbi and cia say that russia interfered. With our election to help you. And we now know your campaign was in contact with them when it happened. 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 now from the white house. Sarah Huckabee Sanders joins us now. Sarah, thank you for joining u this you just saw that ad. Thanks for having me. Good morning, george. We heard from a key republican member of congress this week, darrell issa who says the attorney general Jeff Sessions must recuse himself from this russia investigation. Lets listen. You cannot have somebody, a friend of mine, Jeff Sessions who was on the campaign, and who is an appointee. Youre going to need to use the special prosecutors statute and office to take not just to recuse, thats you cant just give to it your deputy. Thats another political appointee. Sthat a senior republican congressman. 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. I apologize 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. And thats exactly what it is. That theres nothing here. Just because reporters Say Something over and over and over again doesnt start to make it true. At some point, we get to a place where we have to move on and start focusing on the things that the American People care about. I dont think this is it. Weve talked about it time and time and time again. 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. A couple of things there. Made officially no comment. James comey has no comment. Youre saying the fbi told you that it was b. S. Estion. Hasnt said that at all. The fbi investigation is continuing right now. The intelligence committees are continuing their investigations right now. And the question at hand is, is it 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 into the Trump Campaign . George, were confident that whatever review Congress Wants to do, i think that is the first step. If they want to take that on, which there are two committees that are currently doing that. L going to come to the same conclusion. That we had no involvement in 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. Its because we had the better candidate with the better message. They didnt campaign in the right places. They didnt have a good candidate. If they want to continue to relive that loss every day, then we welcome that. 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, though, you also saw 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. Senator collins said it may come to subpoenaing these tax returns. If Congress Requests the tax returns as part of the investigation, will President Trump provide them . 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 guys want to jump to the very end of the line. Thats not how this works. Typically, you go through a congressional oversight, review, were doing that. Lets not go to the very end of the extreme. Lets let this play out the way it should. Again, i go ba t 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 achieving those goals. And making sure that americavinf again, i s asking about the fbi and the justice depame not the congressional. Lets move on to the state of the union. Stions. At the state of the uniog up. I guess its not a state of the union. The address to congress on esday will be what to do with obamacare. And what the president will say should be done. During t ev. As recently as 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 to state governors meeting in washington. It estimates the number of people covacare through the individual Insurance Market could be slashed by as much as 51 in states that chose not to expand medicaid coverage. And by 30 intes that diexpand program r the poor. So can the president guarantee that righose it under his pl 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 obamacarebl its collapsing de wek republicans and democrats agree with that. This was a program that was shoved through with so many 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 this president is committed to doing. Thats what i want to ask yo who has coverage now will lose it . I know that the goal is that we make sure that people dont lose their coverage. We have to put a high priority on people that need it most. We have to lower the costs. We have to make sure the people that need insurance the very most are covered. But at the same time, george, we cannot survive under the curren system in amica. A massive overh it is not sustainable. Everybody agrees with that. There is nobody that argues that were on a track that we can maintain. Were looking at every possible way to do exactly that. More tim. 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 the lose it . Im not going speak specifically for the president on that topic. But what i can say is hes made it a high priority. And a number one focus that we make sure that people that have insurance continue their insurance, particularly those in the highest need. 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 that raid in yemen, ryan owens, has spoked 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 investigation. 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 suffered. I think every american owes his son a great deal of gratitude. Were forever in his sons debt. I know that he paid the ultimate sacrifice when he went on that mission. And i know that the mission has a lot of different critics. But it did yield a substantial 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, i think its pretty safe to say i think we all spend enough time around each other as it is. This wasnt a president that was elected 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 a couple of hours and pretend that some of that tension isnt there. You know, one of the things we say in the south, if 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 go in and sit and pretend like this is going to be just another saturday night. I 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. Lets bring in the democratic leader in the house. Nancy pelosi, thank you for joining us today. My pleasure. 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 for now from the attorney general. Your response . As you read the law and saw the law, the attorney general must recuse himself. But lets just take it back a step. You have seen a flurry of activities that are completely inappropriate, encouraging lawmakers, encouraging officials to Say Something is one way or another. Lets have the investigation and find out the truth. And we have been calling. We have 100, plus now one republican, on eric smallwells 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 tweet this week. He said tell your senators and house members now, you want them to cease all business until they appoint a special committee on trump and the russians. He gave the phone number there, as well. Are you ready to go that far . Let me just say, there is no business. Let me just lets put this in time. You did at the beginning of the show. In a couple of days, it will be 40 days. 40 days. 40 hours, 40 days, 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 21st century. And lists an agenda. 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. On february 17th, four weeks from his inauguration, he signed a bill which saved or created 4 million jobs. He had already signed, Lily Leadbetter signed 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 carnage . Theyve done nothing, except put wall street first. Make america sick again. Instill fear in our immigrant population in our country. And make sure russia maintains its grip, its grip on our foreign policy. You saw Sarah Sanders say, theyre going to talk about obamacare on tuesday night. Would not say the president will guarantee. It cant guarantee. 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. It will cover fewer people. It will give tax breaks to the wealthiest people. Imagine what the president wants to do, the 400 wealthiest families in america will get a tax break of 7 million a year. But if they do follow through and repeal obamacare. They wont be able to do it. Theyre not going to be able to do it . They dont have the votes. They have alliteration. Not votes. Humor me for a second. 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 . Heres the thing. When we did the Affordable Care act, 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. So we do the care. And it had three goals. One, to lower coasts. The other, to expand benefits. And the third to improve, increase access. 20 million, 400,000 people now 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. Stopped 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 . Well, it isnt a question of that. You have to have the full package. If they come up with something that lowers the costs, expands the coverage, increases benefit, then well have something to talk about. We havent seen anything to talk to them about. In any category. Theyve put forth nothing. When he makes his address on the 40 days that hes been president , he has nothing to show for it but fear. In every way to people who are sick, fear. To people who are immigrants, fear. Fear of the greed on wall street taking america back to where we were. What kind of reception is the president going to get on tuesday . Aye read that 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 dreamer. A guest who