The fbi is investigating the russian governments efforts to interfere in the 2016 president ial election. We tackle all the tough questions right now. From abc news, its this week. Here now, chief anchor george stephanopoulos. Good morning. And for all of you who had a rough week, just think about how President Trump must feel after the worst week of his young presidency. It began monday morning with a direct rebuke from the fbi director. By close of business friday, the body blow by his own party. In the face of certain defeat, the president chose to retreat. And in the oval office, a humble trump talked lessons learned. We all learned a lot. We learned a lot about loyalty. We learned a lot about the votegetting process. We learned a lot about some very arcane rules in obviously both the senate and in the house. But has President Trump learned the right lessons . Do he and his team have what it takes to turn things around . All president s lose fights in congress. Before this week, no president in our lifetimes has lost his first big one. A loss that comes after a series of missteps that raise serious questions about the president s competence and credibility. This week, were going to break down what it all means. Analyze the fallout. And whats next for President Trump and his agenda. The two men who led the fight against trumps bill, House Freedom caucus chair mark meadows and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer are standing by. Lets bring in our analysts first. Matthew dowd. How big a blow . Its huge. This was the piece in political jenga. If it was removed, Everything Else falls down. And everything related to that. I think this is the first time we have seen in this political 20 months, donald trump suffer a public humiliation by his own party. It was demonstrated for all the bravado that he has and for all the ways he pushes stuff, he can be beat. Once hes beat, thats a huge problem. Alex, you supported trump during the campaign. He said, were going to get sick of winning. How are we doing . You tell me. Not so well. Donald trump didnt recuse the Republican Party. He crushed the Republican Party. The Republican Party was so weak that an outsider came along and wiped it out. This is the Republican Party of a year ago. The one that says no to everything. The one that cant unite around anything. The one that cant inspire people to support anything positive. Cant articulate its ideas. It is still there under the trump white house. So, donald trump was the fireman. He couldnt rescue the people in the burning building. But the people in the burning building are the Republican Party and the republican leadership. Theyre in trouble. Maggie haberman, the New York Times and cnn, you talked to the president. Does he get what went wrong . He was keeping his focus on democrats. Blaming the democrats. Saying we needed democratic votes. We were losing republican votes. Its their fault. Theyll come back in a year, after obamacare implodes, explodes, he used both. This is an argument his own advisers told him was not sensible. You cant blame democrats when you hold both houses of congress. And have the majority. I think hes processing this. Were seeing it over the last 24 hours. He was uncharacteristically quite quiet for him. Until this morning. Until this morning. Hes coming back punching now. His aides would like to move on to the next thing. Not looking in the rearview mirror. I dont think he knows how to cope with defeat. He sounded exhausted when i spoke to him on friday. A very weary President Trump. Yes. Raising serious questions for the entire Republican Party. Republicans have a majority. They dont have a governing majority. This talk of now were going to go on to tax reform. Forget tax reform. How are they going to keep the government funded . In april, funding runs out. For the government. Right now, there is not a Republican Coalition to turn the lights on. To keep the lights on in the federal government. They, at this point, would need help from democrats to do that. This is a crisis. And the white house knows this is a crisis. This is far beyond losing on health care. Stand by. Were going to come back to you. But now, were going to go to the man, the chair of the House Freedom caucus, mark meadows. Thank you for joining us. As i just alluded to, President Trump sup and tweeting. Its about you. He said democrats are smiling in d. C. That the Freedom Caucus, with the help of club for growth and heritage, have saved planned parenthood and obamacare. Your response . Well, i mean, if theyre applauding, they shouldnt. Becauseky tell you that conversations over the last 48 hours are really about how we come together in the republican conference and try to get this over the finish line. The narrative that your panel is talking about, in terms of defeat, this was not a final passage. This was one bill that was going to go to the senate, get revised, and come back. If it was the final bill, that would be accurate. Were in the negotiation process. And really, george, what were looking at here is trying to do one thing. Get premiums down for all americans. And as we look at that, that remains our primary focus. Congressman, the president says hes moving on. Hes blaming you for saving planned parenthood. Saving obamacare. Well, at this particular point, i can tell you, no one has been more selfcritiquing than me. I can tell you as i have locked at all of this, i said, you know, could i have spent a little bit for time, should i have spent more time with the tuesday group . More time with democrats, define some consensus. And so as we look at this today, this is not the end of the debate. This is like, i had one of my friends call me the other day. He said its like saying tom brady lost at half time. Were not we may be in overtime. But i can tell you at the very end of the day, the most valuable player will be President Trump on this. Because he will deliver. Hes committed to the American People. And were committed to helping get there. I gotta say. I gotta say, congressman. It doesnt sound like you and the president are on the same page. Hes not saying that. Hes saying you saved obamacare. You saved planned parenthood. Hes ready to move on. Well, i know that hes hes moving on. As he looks at that, its incumbent upon us. I can tell you we had discussions with some of the more moderate members of our conference who were prepared to vote no. And, so, really, its incumbent upon those two groups, the conservatives and moderates to come together hopefully in the coming days to find consensus. Present something to the president that certainly not only gets him 216 votes, but hopefully 235 votes. As we look at this. You have a long history in the white house. You know how this works to put a stake in it today would not be accurate. Nor would it be the narrative that this is a great failure for the president. Hes done more in 65 days than any president in modern history. Let put it in real perspective where we are. Congressman, im not the one putting a stake in it. The president is. Hes saying he wants to move on. Move on to tax reform and other issues. I plan to and i plan to help him with tax reform. I can tell you that he has his team working on tax reform right now. And in terms of government funding, i heard your panelists talk about that. Theres not going to be an issue there. This is about one thing. Getting premiums and making sure people are covered. Making sure we fulfill our Campaign Promise and ultimately thats where well be. Lets talk about those issues right now. You said last month on tax reform that tax reform actually depended on repealing obamacare. You said i dont see how you can have one without the other. Do you have to repeal obamacare before you move on to tax reform, in your view . Well, you dont have to, but it certainly makes it easier. When we look at lowering the taxes. Part of the reason it was planned in this measure, it was looking at changing a baseline and assisting with the tax reform effort. But, i fully expect that what were going to see is not only real tax reform but other measures that come along. I still believe there is a good chance, if moderates and conservatives can come together, that we repeal and replace obamacare, bring premiums down, cover more people, and yet, here we are. Youre right. I have said that this does that make the tax more difficult . Without a doubt. You say real tax reform. Does that mean any tax cuts must be fully paid for . Youre not going to pass tax cuts that are not matched with other revenue increases or spending cuts . Youre asking a fiscal conservative. Youre asking the good questions. Thats where it comes down to. Does it have to be what they would say revenue neutral . Or do you have to have an offset . Like with the border adjustment tax. I think those will be the two questions. I think theres been a lot of flexibility in terms of some of my contacts and conservatives in terms of not making it totally offset. And thats a move that were trying to do to provide real relief and economic growth. When we start to grow the economy at 4 , 4. 1 , it actually not only increases wages. It puts more money in americans pockets each and every day. And so, tax reform and lowering taxes, you know, will create and generate more income. Were looking at those, where the fine balance is. Does it have to be fully offset . My personal response is no. Oh, that seems like a bit of a shift. How about the border adjustment tax that speaker ryan has talked about. Can you support it . You know, really, right now, we havent taken any official position on the border adjustment tax. Well be talking to the speaker on that. We have had a number of meetings with chairman brady and others. Well be talking to the administration, as well. On what they want to see. I know they have specific ideas. As we look to tax reform, and the big debate will be over the border adjustment tax. Were in the informationgathering mode right now. And i can tell you what most americans need and want. They need lower intrusion from the federal government in their lives. They need lower taxes so that they can take more of their paycheck home. And i know President Trump and those in the gop conference are committed to making sure that that happens. On the government funding, you said its not going to be a problem. Senator schumer is coming up next. He said if the president includes funding for the border wall, its a nonstarter with democrats in the senate. Also has talked about, now the possibility that you would try to defund planned parenthood in the government funding initiative. Do you need that in order to pass government funding in april . I think what we need from the senator schumer is really a willing partner. On this Obamacare Repeal and replacement, before he even saw a plan, he said he was against it. So what we need is some honest dialogue back and forth. Maybe he can comment on that. To come out and say he wasnt going to help before he even saw a replacement plan really sends the wrong narrative. Americans want to make sure we work. I reached out to five different democrats in terms of this repeal and replacement, said, what do you need for your district . Thats what we have to do. And when we look at a supplemental what the president is going to find is a great flexibility with regards to the conservative and moderate members of the conference to hopefully get us where we need to be there. And finally, yesterday morning, the president tweeted out, told people to watch judge Jeanine Pirro on fox. And on her program last night, that he told people to watch, heres what he said. Paul ryan needs to step down as speaker of the house. The reason . He failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill. The one trumpeted to repeal and replace obamacare. The one that he had seven years to work on. You heard it right there from Jeanine Pirro. Breitbart is sug suggesting that youre one of the people at the theyre looking to replace senator ryan. Does he have your support . This is not me. There is no conversations going on right now with regards to replacing the speaker. Its all hands on deck with regards to obamacare, tax reform. The border wall. As we start to look at that, george. Heres the other interesting thing. As we start to look at this, the focus can be on this leadership or whatever. I can tell you that when this bill was rolled out, it had less than 20 support among americans. The president took it from having probably 80 to 100 undecided or no votes and got it this close to making sure that it got across the finish line. No one worked harder than the speaker and the president and those in our conference with different views to get it across. This is were not at the end of the game. Were there, literally, perhaps, again, in overtime, but were there to get this across the finish line. So were committed to work with the president , the speaker, the current speaker, and make sure that what we do is get some consensus. Congressman, thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you, george. And im joined by the democratic leader in the senate, Chuck Schumer. Senator schumer, thank you for coming. I want to get to a lot of things. Happy greek independence day. I wore my greek colors. The parade in new york. Right across the park right now. Thank you. Lets talk about the president first. He said youre the big loser. Well, you know, look. The bottom line is very simple. And that is president never called us once about this. They came on board with repeal, which hay knew every democrat would oppose. We democrats provided our republican colleagues, drop replace and stop undermining the aca are willing to work. With our republican friends. Right now . As long as they say, no more repeal. Thats a loser. 17 of americans liked trump care. Thats it. They didnt want it. And stop undermining aca. And well work with them. We have ideas. They have ideas. To try to improve obamacare. We never said it was perfect. We always said we would work with them to improve it. We said repeal was off the table. Can i just make one other point on this, george . For the president to say that hell destroy it, or undermine it, thats not president ial. Thats petulance. Being petulant, not a president. Its not going to work. The job of the president is to make americans lives better. If he, out of anger, vengeance, whatever, starts undermining aca, its going to backfire on him. Because hes the president and the American People know hes in charge and they want him to make things better. Congressman meadows says the repeal effort is not dead. Well, it wont succeed. And theres one point were missing here. The American People hated trump care. The more they learned about it, the more they didnt like. And you know, not only did we have a totally unified Democratic Caucus from Bernie Sanders to joe manchin, i want to salute all the people out there. The average people, who called, wrote, picketed, protested, if they keep on this repeal path, theyll get nowhere. If they want to do what mr. Meadows does, then all the moderates will jump off. Its they have seven kids in the bed. They have enough covers for five. They ought to get rid of repeal. Drop it. Its been a flop for them because of the substance of repeal. And work with us to improve it. One of the things that unites republicans is tax cuts. I think we heard big news. From chairman meadows saying, tax reform doesnt mean you have to pay for all of your tax cuts. If you analyze what went wrong with aca, the president exhibited two traits not very helpful. If he repeats them in tax reform, theyll get nowhere. The first is basic lack of competence. You cannot run the presidency like you run a real estate deal. You cant tweet your way through it. You cant threaten and intimidate and say ill walk away. Its more complicated. But even more to the point. The president campaigned as a populist against the democratic and republican establishments. Hes been captured by the hard right wealthy special interests. Thats who loved his proposal on the trump care. Because it gave huge tax cuts to the rich. If they do the same thing on tax reform and the overwhelming majority of the cuts go to the very wealthy, special interests, Corporate America and the middle class and poor people are left out, theyll lose again. Youre not working with the president on tax reform. America is not where the hard right is. If he aims a proposal aimed at the middle class, the poor people, doesnt give breaks to the rich. Theyre doing great. God bless them. They dont need another tax break. Theyre headed in that direction. Theyre going the repeat the same mistake on trump care and tax reform. The hard right is great at opposition. Now theyre in charge. America is not where the hard right is. I was struck by something former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich said. The president should put off tax reform and work right away, particularly with democrats, on a major infrastructure bill. Would you be open to that . Its a question of values. Infrastructure is something that we democrats have put in a proposal. 1 trillion of infrastructure. It creates 15 million new, goodpaying jobs. We like it. Heres where the president seems to be headed again. Special interests. Wealthy special interests. Lets do it by tax breaks. The tax breaks hes proposing, 82 cents on the dollar goes to the financiers. Thats one problem. So youre not getting bang for the buck. Two, in the places where those tax breaks will work, youre getting huge tolls. The American People dont want tolls on every highway. And third, it will build nothing in Rural America and large parts of urban america because it just cant pay those tolls. If they want to spend some money, meadows would be vehemently opposed. He would have to break with the hard right and his caucus, well talk to him for sure. The president is going to