Skip to main content

tv   New Day  CNN  March 21, 2017 3:00am-4:01am PDT

3:00 am
down on president trump's bogus claim that he was wiretapped by former president obama despite no evidence. >> so how will the fbi investigation and the blows to the white house's credibility affect its ability to sell the agenda? to lobby for supreme court nominee gorsuch in the senate, and persuade skeptical lawmakers today on changes to the gop's health care bill? all important and we have it all covered on day 61 of the trump presidency. let's begin with joe johns, live at the white house. joe. >> good morning, chris. after those big reveals from the fbi director that the president was wrong on his wiretapping claims and that his campaign activities are under investigation, it appeared the white house was going to mount a defense from the briefing room, but by the time the president stepped in front of the microphones in kentucky, he didn't have anything to say about it last night. president donald trump dodging the biggest challenge to rock
3:01 am
his administration at a campaign rally monday night. >> the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> reporter: fbi director james comey and nsa director mike rogers facing five hours of questioning before the house intelligence committee. >> president obama could not unilaterally order a wiretap of anyone. >> no president could. >> reporter: comey rejecting mr. trump's baseless claim that former president obama wiretapped his trump tower campaign headquarters. >> i have no information that supports those tweets. the answer is the same for the department of justice and all of its components. >> reporter: the white house
3:02 am
trying to dismiss much of comey's testimony. >> i think there's a lot of areas that still need to be covered. there's a lot of information that still needs to be discussed. >> reporter: continuing to deny any coordination. >> you can continue to look for something, but continuing to look for something that doesn't exist, doesn't matter. >> and incredibly, refusing to back off the president's bogus wiretapping claim. >> is the president prepared to withdraw that accusation and apologize to the president? >> no, we started a hearing. it's still ongoing. and as chairman nunes mentioned, this is one in a series of hearings that will be happening. >> reporter: president trump's official government twitter account, firing off defensive tweets in realtime, throughout the hearing. leading one lawmaker to press comey to clarify the record. >> is the tweet, as i read it to you, "the nsa and tell congress that fbi did not influence the electoral process," is that accurate? >> we've offered no opinion, have no view, have no information on potential impact, because it's never something
3:03 am
that we looked at. >> reporter: comey also revealing the intelligence community has come to at least one clear conclusion. russia's interference in the election was primarily driven by vladimir putin's disdain for hillary clinton. >> putin hated secretary clinton so much that the flip side of that coin was, he had a clear preference to the person running against the person he hated so much. >> reporter: meantime, republicans trying to deflect from the investigation. instead, focusing on leaks and who revealed former national security adviser michael flynn's identity. >> one thing you and i agree on is the felonious dissemination of classified material, most definitely, is a crime. >> reporter: with the president's government account even suggesting obama might have played a role in the leaks. tweeting, "fbi director comey refuses to deny he briefed president obama on calls made by michael flynn to russia." the president heads to capitol hill this morning with his campaign promise to repeal and
3:04 am
replace obamacare on the top of the agenda. back to you. >> all right, joe, thank you very much. a lot to get after, so let's do it. we have our panel right now, cnn political analyst, senior congressional correspondent for the "washington examiner," david drucker. cnn justice can want, evan perez. cnn senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin, and cnn contributor in washington, salena zito. good to have you all here. evan perez, from a reporting perspective, what were the big surprises and what were you surprised not to hear yesterday? >> well, the big surprise as we kind of laid out yesterday morning, chris, was the fact that the fbi director went as far in describing this investigation as he did. he not only said of the existence of this investigation, which of course we all knew, but he also said that they were looking at these contacts between people associated with the trump campaign, and he raised the prospect that there could be criminal charges.
3:05 am
this is a counterintelligence investigation. they're extremely difficult to prosecute, because a lot of the evidence is gotten from classified methods, that the government doesn't want to reveal. it's going to be very interesting. i think it raises, perhaps, some expectations by people who are opponents of president trump, that maybe the fbi is not going to be able to get to. that said, you never know what the fbi is going to find. you never know how people react, you never know when people might lie under oath. we'll see what happens. david drucker, that was one big revelation yesterday. the other big revelation from director comey is that there was no evidence the that he nor the department of justice could find to support president trump's claim that he was wiretapped by president obama. nothing, zilch, nada, nothing. so where does that leave congress and their investigation? is this over? >> well, no, it's not over. look, i feel like the revelation that the president didn't have a leg to stand on here. it's like when we headline shock poll, everyone likes aice cream. we knew for two weeks that the
3:06 am
president didn't have a leg to stand on. it's interesting that comey said so and makes a good headline for the democrats. but it's hard to undercut credibility that doesn't exist on this shall. i don't think it affects the senate investigations. the senate investigation with their intelligence committee and with nunes and adam schiff are doing will continue in pace. >> wait a minute? they'll continue to investigate nonexistent wiretapping? >> they are interested that wiretapping we know happened under a fisa warrant of foreign nationals and did they sweep up americans and particularly with evan nunes and the republicans on the committee, was the information about michael flynn illegally leaked? everybody got a taste of that yesterday. i've been talking to nunes and a lot of us on the hill have for weeks and he's been discussing that. so this is something they've been after. and i have to say, i understand what democrats were doing yesterday in terms of their strategy of trying to connect the dots and show that president trump is tied in with the russians, but it sounded like so many conspiracy theories of,
3:07 am
this guy knew that guy in this country and once made a phone call to the other guy, that it was a lot less effective than saying that fisa was abused as a national security tool and we need to get to the bottom of it. >> selena, what was probably more to the advantage to the democrats is what happened after the hearing in sean spicer's spin, saying that paul manafort wasn't a significant member of the campaign, saying that mike flynn was just a is volunteer, and making the admission that it was good to hear that there was no proof of collusion from these major factors of our government yesterday. just take a listen to this. >> general flynn was a volunteer of the campaign. and then, obviously, there's been discussion of paul manafort, who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time. just so we're clear, i'm not dismissing paul manafort as a hanger-on. i was noting some other folks, as jonathan pointed out. with respect to paul, though, and look, i'm not looking to
3:08 am
relitigar relitigate the election, but i think paul was brought on in june and by the middle of august, he was no longer with the campaign. meaning for the entire final stretch of the general election, he was not involved. >> this is like a kick in the groin to their credibility. the dates are wrong, the kbl implications are wrong, and the intent is obvious. what was the play there, selena? and nobody at that hearing yesterday said there's no proof of collusion. he wouldn't talk about it, comey. so what was spicer trying to do he here? >> well, i think we can all agree, he's not in a very good position right now, right? he has to defend a comment and a tweet made by the president, in front of a whole house committee and in front of millions of people, that were discredited. so he's trying to sort of protect the president, which is his job, and to deflect the questions away from, you know, the issue at hand. you know, sometimes he does it incredibly effectively.
3:09 am
sometimes it's just incredibly uncomfortable. and -- >> uncomfortable? incredible! he got the date wrong, he called the campaign chairman that they brought in to save them, heading into the -- they called carter page a hanger-on. he is a little bit of a mystery man, fine. but to call flynn a volunteer, as you know from your reporting, i'm sure, they begged him to take a job in this administration. flynn wasn't looking for a job. what a credibility fumble. >> let's get to jeffrey. jeffrey, where does this leave -- what jumps out at you from all of this? >> the president is under investigation by the fbi. i mean, that's a big deal. i mean, ask bill clinton what it was like to be under investigation from kenneth star. ask george w. bush -- h.w. bush, what it was like to be investigated in the iran contra case. it can take over an administration. now, will it lead to any criminal charges against anyone? will anyone have to testify
3:10 am
before a grand jury? i don't know. but this administration is 50 days old and it is now in the middle of an fbi investigation. that's a very big deal. i'm sorry, chris? >> were you surprised that the democrats didn't jump on comey when he gave them the timing of having started this in last july, which is about the same time that he started talking about the hillary clinton e-mail investigation? he could have revealed this back then. and what effect would that have had? >> remember, we had two campaigns under fbi investigation last summer. the public only knew about one of them. and one of the candidates' rallies, they were chanting, "lock her up, lock her up," and the other, there was no hint of it. it's unbelievable. >> evan, james comey addressed that. he said, i spoke about an investigation once it was closed, once i believe that case was closed, i came out and said what our findings were in the hillary clinton case, and the trump investigation, or into his possible ties with russia, not
3:11 am
closed. >> that's right, and i think it also, what the fbi director did not say during that hearing is that, frankly, the trump campaign investigation, frankly, was on simmer. it didn't really go very far for the first few months. and i think everybody, including people at the fbi did not expect donald trump to win. and they certainly did not expect to see what they saw in the closing months with the russian campaign. so i think all of that goes into the decision that the fbi has made, to look more deeply into exactly what was going on here. i think, you're right. i mean, perhaps that information could have been publicly released by the fbi, but i don't think that it was a fully baked investigation, then. and certainly, we reported that manafort was under investigation. we said that some of these other characters were under investigation, we reported that. that was, i think, widely known. it just wasn't officially acknowledged by the fbi. david, it's interesting. manafort put a statement out, by the way, which is consistent with what he said all along,
3:12 am
which is, i never talked to any russian about anything to do with any interference. he's been very strong about that, openly, in public, and in private. but, this pattern. trump is all about loyalty. that will always be the starting point. and then we see no witness to that, at all. flynn, thrown under the bus when it got uncomfortable, yet once again. we don't see any reason for them to have -- for him to motivate that recessiosignation. now with manafort, under the bus. >> with kellyanne conway still there, sean spicer still there. >> right, but kellyanne conway -- >> made mistakes. >> corey lewandowski -- >> she hasn't created any new incident. >> partner with somebody else -- >> he was out, too. >> chris, can i just add one point? >> sure. >> that statement that paul manafort issued jyesterday, rea it very carefully. he said, i have no contact with any russian government official. the whole issue with paul manafort is his contact with the russian oligarchs, the business people who are -- he didn't say
3:13 am
i didn't have any contact with russian business people. >> he was just talking about the hacking. there is a pre-existing investigation into the contacts you're talking about right now. but that's a separate -- that's a separate matter, though, in terms of the investigations. >> i don't know how separate it is. >> i think the thing to remember with trump is that he's always talking to a particular audience, and it's the people in the arena in louisville last night. so when we look at sean spicer, i think this is important to understand, saying that paul manafort was a hanger-on who volunteered for a day and a half and then took off, what they're trying to do, and they've been very successful at it, the president has, is maintain his connection to his base, as long as they doubt what we're reporting, then none of this bad stuff can be true and they stick with him. that is a staple of trump's political strategy, and so far, it's worked very well. >> panel, thank you. stick around. we have many more questions for you. >> he was the campaign chairman. so now that we know that the fbi is investigating trump's campaign, some of the aides for possible collusion with russia, trying to make sense of these connections. what is going to be the impact
3:14 am
on the presidency and his agenda? remember, it's not just the investigation, it's the shadow. our panel discusses, next. for unlimited data... e othe t-mobile one save you hundreds a year. right now get two lines of data for $100 dollars. with taxes and fees included. that's right 2 unlimited lines for just $100 bucks. all in. and right now, pair up those two lines with two free samsung galaxy s7 when you switch. yup! free. so switch and save hundreds when you go all unlimited with t-mobile.
3:15 am
3:16 am
with sleep number, there's an adjustment for that. tilt your tormentor and put those snores to sleep. does your bed do that? come into a sleep number store where mattresses start at $899. it's a no brainer.
3:17 am
the first hundred days.
3:18 am
imagine having to be subjected, as president of the united states, to the head of the fbi saying, you're under investigation for any potential connections to what happened with russian interference. and then just to hear the thing you said, that you were wiretapped by the president, is untrue, from the head of the nsa and the director of the fbi. >> it was a big day. >> that is a tough day. what's it going to mean? let's bring back our panel, evan perez, jeffrey toobin, salena zito, and joining us, presidential historian douglas brinkley. doug, we need you, because we haven't really seen anything like this before. you're just a couple of months in, and you have the sitting president, a congressional hearing, the director of the fbi saying, yeah, we've been looking at him since july for this russia stuff. and then the head of the nsa says admiral rogers, yeah, the wiretapping stuff he's talking about, we have no proof of that. the stuff he said about british intelligence, that's laughable. how big a deal is this? >> it's a very large deal. our country has a crisis in confidence going on.
3:19 am
and people we don't have confidence in is the trump white house. the very fact of the matter is yesterday, the fbi and doj have said donald trump lied to the american people about barack obama wiretapping. and not only did he call -- said obama wiretapped, he called president obama bad or sick. he made an ad hominem personal attack on the former president, which hasn't been helpful. barack obama, incidentally, left office with about a 95% approval rating with african-americans. he's an icon in that community and trump going to belittle him in such way, how does that help bring the country together? and the fact of the matter is that there is a dark cloud hanging over donald trump, over the russian connections, that's not going to go away. this whole spring, it might go there this summer, so there was no trump honeymoon, in fact, it's the opposite. he has an administration that seems to be shrinking almost
3:20 am
daily. he was at 37 to 9% in the polls previous to the hearings, and i suppose now he'll be logging in at around 33%. that means about two-thirds of the country doesn't think you're doing a good job. >> jeffrey toobin, you agreed that yesterday had some bombshell revelations. how do you see moving forward from yesterday? >> you know, there's a word for donald trump. and that word is "president." and when you're president, you still have a lot of power. yesterday, he had a supreme court nominee cruise through a first day of testimony. neil gorsuch is probably going to be on the supreme court in 2040. he's got a health care bill that may yet pass the house of representatives on thursday. so, you know, i think this is a bad -- it was a very bad day. this is a very perilous situation for him. but we have a system where the president is powerful and the republican party is still completely lined up behind him.
3:21 am
you saw that in the house hearing yesterday. so, yeah, it's definitely bad. this is not something anyone president would want. but i think, you know, the obituaries for the trump presidency should not be written yet, by any means. >> and those same polls, salena, show he couldn't have much better support among republicans. he's at 80-some presideercent, base is dug in. but you have to look at what he cares about right now. what he cares about right now are motivating his agenda. so how much do you think these attacks on his credibility and the stain of the investigation, do you think there's a legit concern that it could make him toxic to his own in the government? >> well, i mean, yes. i agree with jeffrey, it was a very bad day yesterday. i also agree that he has a lot of platitudes to still to work with. politics is all about geography.
3:22 am
while he has a 35% i approval rating nationwide, if you look at numbers in that poll, it shows rural and exurb areas, his approval rating is at 55 and 59 percentage points. he still has a lot of political capital to work with. and i think that what you're going to see this week is going to be a very busy week, with gorsuch, with the health care, and i expect to see him talk a lot, very strongly about north korea and just sort of plow forward. and hopefully lead this segment, at least for the present time, behind him. >> and you have so many contacts in the intel community. what happens now with president trump's relationship with the intel community and particularly director of the fbi, comey, now that comey came out yesterday and said that the president is making these false allegations? >> well, you know, this is one of the fascinating parts of this story, is actually the fact that
3:23 am
the beginning of the trump presidency, there was a lot of focus as to whether or not jim comey was going to keep his job. and i can guarantee you that after yesterday, he gets to keep his job. he's going to see this investigation through. and it is probably unfortunate for the trump administration, not something that's going to be hurried up. it doesn't have a timeline. there's no election approaching immediately sp immediately, so the fbi will work through this methodically. the intelligence community will do the same. it's going to be an irritant, a constant irritant for the president. now, as part of this, i think one of the most important parts for the white house and this president to do is to fill their administration. they have so many jobs that they have not filled, that could help the president manage all of this. they could get more competent people in places, including messaging. you know, there's a lot more that they can do to try to handle this situation. >> so, douglas, in terms of like historical perspective here, in terms of how he's doing in these fooi
3:24 am
first couple of months here, we call it the first hundred days, but he's only 60 days into it. where does this stack up for you? >> bottom of the barrel. he's having a very hard time getting out of the gate. ronald reagan used to say, you always want to rule at about 50% or more in the box office, meaning polls do matter. you have to show ways that you're leading the american people. donald trump can't get away from this base that he has at 37%. meanwhile, he's getting boos and hisses from all over the world. and it's not just our adversaries, but our closest allies of germany, great britain, and on and on, countries, canada are just feuding with him, and he's only a few monthses in office. i think something's got to happen here. either donald trump has to change his behavior, avoid twitter, take it down a number of notches, or we need a select committee that has subpoena power and a mandate to produce a comprehensive report on what's happened between trump campaign
3:25 am
and russia. but it's just hard to govern when people are looking at you and thinking, you may be toxic, that i might need you now, if you're a republican, get gorsuch through. and we're going to do all of that this spring, but i'm not sure i want to be in all the photo ops with donald trump, because he may be a president that's not around a year or two from now. >> on that note, panel, thank you, very much, for all of the insight and reporting. so, the house will vote on the republican bill to repeal and replace obamacare. gop leaders making last-minute changes to try to secure votes. will those changes be enough to try to get the bill passed. what are those changes? we'll explore that next. i don't want to pry... dad. but have you made a decision? i'm going with the $1000 in cash back. my son... ...a cash man. dad, are you crying? nah, just something in my eye. the volkswagen 3 and easy event... ...where you can choose one of three easy ways to get a $1000 offer.
3:26 am
hurry in to your volkswagen dealer now and you can get $1000 as an apr bonus, a lease bonus, or cash back. except when it comes to retirement. at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. to keep you on track. for millions of baby boomers there's a virus out there. a virus that's serious, like hiv, but it hasn't been talked about much. a virus that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. one in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most don't even know it. that's because hep c can hide in your body silently for years, even decades, without symptoms and it's not tested for in routine blood work. if left untreated, hep c can cause liver damage, even liver cancer.
3:27 am
but there's important information for us: the cdc recommends all baby boomers get tested for hep c. all it takes is a simple one-time blood test. and if you have hep c, it can be cured. be sure to ask your doctor to get tested for hep c. for us it's time to get tested. it's the only way to know for sure. in my johnsonville commercial we open up in the forest. hi. i'm jeff. i'm eating my breakfast and all of a sudden a raccoon come up and ask me, "what are you eating?" i told him "johnsonville breakfast sausage, fully cooked." porcupine comes in and he says, "does that come in patties?" i said "yup" wolf comes in and says, "how'd you learn to talk to animals?" and i said "books" and we had a good laugh about that. [laughter] that's a commercial made the johnsonville way.
3:28 am
3:29 am
president trump touting trumpcare at a campaign rally in kentucky last night. as you know, speaker ryan and the white house, they tried to force the original bill. it didn't work. so, they're making party changes now to try to get the gop onboard, and it's going to have a big moment today when the president goes to the hill to sell it. cnn's suzanne malveaux is right there on capitol hill. that's the place to be.
3:30 am
big day. >> it is a big day, chris. and we are expecting president trump to be here on capitol hill in just a couple of hours. he's going to be meeting behind closed doors with house republicans to try to convince them to sign on to their own plan to replace, to repeal and replace obamacare. this, chris, after several amendments went through late last night to sweeten the pot for conservatives. >> we're going to negotiate and it's going to go to the senate and back and forth. the end result is going to be wonderful and it's going to work. >> president trump putting pressure on house republicans ahead of thursday's vote on the american health care act. >> thursday is our chance to end obamacare and the obamacare catastrophe. >> reporter: the gop revealing last-minute tweaks to the bill overnight, hoping to opeappease
3:31 am
conservative and moderate republicans on the fence, to get the 216 votes needed for the bill to pass. >> every change we make conforms to the senate rules we have to conform by. >> reporter: now the bill allows states the option of receiving federal medicare funding as a block grant instead of a set amount per enrollee, something conservatives have been asking for. it also allows states to require able-bodied medicaid recipients to work for their insurance. and aims to repeal obamacare tax increases this year instead of 2018. the house also sets aside $75 billion in tax credits, to help seniors buy their own policies, after analysts predicted big cost increases for older americans, under the initial bill. they are leaving the details to the senate. >> all these changes that have been added, we're doing to make sure they're done in such a way they can't get filibustered. >> reporter: it's still unclear whether the revisions to the bill will sway enough republicans to ensure it will pass on thursday. during monday's closed-door
3:32 am
meeting, the white house arguing to conservative lawmakers that the time for negotiation on the bill is over. >> one of those people who was in that closed-door meeting, republican senator mike lee emerged, saying he was terribly frustrated. clearly, there is more fight in them. at the same time, the house caucus freedom, the conservative group, the chair of that organization still believes they have enough votes to block this legislation, even if its amended form, but the chairman also recognizing the politics of this, encouraging his colleagues to vote their constituency. allis alisyn? >> still very complicated. thank you, suzanne, for all of that reporting. so there was this rare twitter rant by a powerful republican senator, chuck grassley, blasting fbi director comey for what he did not say at monday's house hearing. senator grassley joins us next. ♪ hey, bud. you need some help?
3:33 am
no, i'm good. come on, moe. i have to go. (vo) we always trusted our subaru impreza would be there for him someday. ok. that's it. (vo) we just didn't think someday would come so fast. see ya later, moe. (vo) introducing the all-new subaru impreza. the longest-lasting vehicle in its class. more than a car, it's a subaru. i love how usaa gives me the and the security just like the marines did. at one point, i did change to a different company with car insurance, and i was not happy with the customer service. we have switched back over and we feel like we're back home now. the process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life. call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs. bp developed new, industry-leading software to monitor drilling operations in real-time, so our engineers can solve problems
3:34 am
with the most precise data at their fingertips. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. at where instead of payinging a befor middlemen,em. we work directly with family farms to deliver higher quality ingredients for less than you pay at the store. get $30 off at blueapron.com/cook
3:35 am
3:36 am
all right. another very big deal going on in just a few hours. we're going to have the man who could be our next supreme court justice, nominee neil gorsuch.
3:37 am
he's going to be back in the senate on the hot seat, day two of his confirmation hearings. iowa senator chuck grassley chairs the judiciary committee. he joins us now. senator grassley, it's good to have you. you were two-timing yesterday. you were at the gorsuch hearing, but you were tweeting about what was going on with comey and the hearing there with the house intel committee. you seem to have a bone to pick with the fbi director. tell us about it. >> well, i think it's a case of just being more transparent. i think that there's more could be told without violating national security or going into the adudetails of an investigat. and there's so many accusations out there that the more that can be said, the better. and it will bring some confidence. so basically calling for more transparency. and basically, calling for particularly, it seems to me, that we ought to be talking more about what's being done on the people who committed the crime
3:38 am
of letting out to the public this national security information that was supposed to not be put out. because that's a violation of law, and we ought to have an equal time and an update on that. >> well, let's talk about the idea of leaking and why it isn't just a distraction, a tactic right now. because i have to tell you, there are plenty of leaks during the campaign, some of them expected to come out of the fbi, some of them may be could have only come out of some of the intel agencies and maybe even the white house itself. didn't see this interest from you, or the republicans, about leaks about the clinton e-mail investigation, about the blumenthal e-mails, about speculation, about indictments, and things that turned out to be not true. where was your interest in leaks then? >> i think you -- i think you got that mixed up. because there was a time when in july, we felt comey was maybe being applauded, but then -- or that we didn't like what he did
3:39 am
in july, and then in october, we did. so maybe that's just a characteristic of what you consider to be the most political value. and i don't know whether you ought to take into consideration what goes on in a campaign, that seems to have equal amount of criticism from both the republican and democrat side and equate that with what we're doing now. because right now, it's settled to a more limited issue, and we ought to be talking about those two issues. what was the influence of russia during the campaign. and secondly, what are you going to do about the people that are leaking and the crime that it is. >> right, but i'm saying there was leaking going on about clinton and there wasn't a call out to find what the leaks were and to silence them. and we now know from the fbi director, when he was talking about the clinton investigation and congress, and we know the effect that had on the campaign, he could have also said, we're also investigating trump for any
3:40 am
connections two russian interference in the election. who knows what impact that would have had on the campaigns. it just seems to be a little bit selecti selective outrage. >> it could be selective outrage, but don't forget, the last item you're talking about there is that it involves trump, that came out as a result of fisa court order, that came out in october, so i don't know whether you can equate that with what went on the previous eight months of last year. >> also, let me ask you, on the wiretapping, you know what came out or what didn't come out yesterday. do you believe that the president should say, i was wrong about accusing president obama of wiretapping me, calling him bad and sick. do you think he should apologize or not apologize? let's not get too far. do you think he should own it was a mistake? >> your question is based on what i heard yesterday. that's where you started your question. i can't answer your question, because i didn't have one eye on the television set all day
3:41 am
yesterday in regard to the comey investigation, so i can't go into any anything about that, that you're asking me about. >> but you know there's absolutely no proof of the president's allegation, right? >> and i know that there's no proof yet that the -- that that administration was talking to the russians, as well. >> but what does one have to do with the other? one was made by the president, and i'm asking you whether or not he should own the falsity of that accusation? >> and you're putting them together and i'm saying you're wrong for putting them together. >> i'm not putting them together, you're putting them together, senator. i'm saying, he made the accusation about wiretapping. i'm saying, should he have not have said that? >> let me sum this up for you, i thought you wanted to talk about the gorsuch nomination. i'm prepared to talk about that, i'm not prepared to talk about what you want to talk about, because that's not what you told me you want to talk about. >> then let's talk about gorsuch. you're right, you're chairing
3:42 am
that committee, how do you think the first day went? how do you think today will go? >> i'm only worried about people staying within their 30 minutes so we can get our ten hours of questioning done. i'm the referee to make sure it gets done. and tomorrow people will have another full day with him with 20 minutes each and i hope we get every issue covered and i hope that he shows he's going to be a judge and not a legislator. he made it very clear yesterday that he's got a very independent mind, that a role of a judge is to look at the law, looks at the facts of the case, and be dispassionately your own personal views out, leave the legislative writing to the legislature branch and let a referee or the let the judges be a referee over whether or not the constitution is being followed. >> what do you think will come up today? what's your suspicion? >> my suspicion is that there will be a lot of issues raised by the democrats that somehow
3:43 am
this judge is a big friend of big business and all that sort of stuff. and if you go through the 154 decisions he wrote and another 65 that he was a co-author of, i think you're going to find out that he is sometimes for business and sometimes for the little guy. and is pretty equal. and he approaches it for being an independent person, looking at the law, looking at the facts of the cases. and he calls the shots the way he sees them. and in the final analysis, is very much an independent arbitrator and he does it, it's unpredictable where he goes. only he goes where the facts and the law take him. >> appreciate your time here this morning. and you know i'm asking you about news of day, because all these different stories matter. you were tweeting about them yesterday during your own hearing. so that's why we were asking. >> no, you're wrong, i was tweeting about them on sunday, not on monday.
3:44 am
>> i take your point. senator, thank you very much. we always talk about what matters here. good luck today. we'll see how it turns out. al alisyn? >> chris, our long national nightmare is over. tom brady's missing super bowl jersey has been found, thank goodness. where was it? that's next in the bleacher report.
3:45 am
( ♪ ) upstate new york is a good place to pursue your dreams. at vicarious visions, i get to be creative, work with awesome people, and we get to make great games. ( ♪ ) what i like about the area, feels like everybody knows each other. and i can go to my local coffee shop and they know who i am. it's really cool. new york state is filled with bright minds like lisa's. to find the companies and talent of tomorrow, search for our page, jobsinnewyorkstate on linkedin. what's wrong? ready or you're not. search for our page, i got ten new guys starting tomorrow. ten? paul, pauline... is pauline a guy? sorry. mike, mike, mike and mike. michelle. okay, you need uniforms, work gloves, goggles, hard hats, all the safety gear. i'm on it. well that's good, 'cuz i got 15 more new guys starting tuesday. i'm ready. you're ready? ♪ oh, i'm ready... am i ready? what? am i ready? you're ready. i'm ready! cintas. ready for the workday.
3:46 am
3:47 am
and i make dog chow in denver, (vcolorado.e's nick one of my fondest memories of khloe is the day we got her. i knew right there she was gonna be a great dog. khloe's a big influence on the family. she loved lincoln from the start. she's his little protector. i trust dog chow to keep khloe healthy because i see the high quality ingredients that go into it.
3:48 am
the standards that we follow are top notch. i trust dog chow enough to feed it to my dog every single day. well, spring is here, supposedly, but another cold snap is on the way. cnn meteorologist chad myers, it's true, has your forecast. what are you seeing, chad? >> i am seeing some severe weather on this summer day, almost springtime day, because we've just changed seasons altogether. this weather is brought to you by purina, your pet, our passion. here's how we get to severe weather today. just like illinois and indiana, illinois had tennis ball-sized hail yesterday, by morning, by 11:00, we start to see the storms build up over missouri. then over tennessee, and by later on this afternoon, we could see big size hail over parts of nashville, maybe chattanooga, and even into charlotte, north carolina.
3:49 am
200 million people today, way above normal, even in atlanta, 81 degrees. and for you in new york city, you're going to walk outside and say, hey, what happened to winter? it is warm and it is going to be nice today, a high of 57. enjoy, guys. >> we will. we will enjoy it today. thank you, chad. >> what she said. mystery solved! not one, but two of tom brady's super bowl jerseys headed back to new england after being found in mexico by the fbi. coy wire has more in the bleacher report. it is so funny, but it's true. >> it is funny and it's true. and it's a big deal. one jersey, the nfl confirmed, first of all, that this year's jersey went missing from his locker in houston had been valued at $500,000 and the one he wore in super bowl rxlix yeas ago found in the possession of a credentialed media. the nfl say this video was instrumental in the investigation. identifying mauriceio ortega who
3:50 am
happened to resign for personal reasons just two days after the fbi and mexico tea's federal po conducted a raid of his home. houston authorities say an informant led them to the jerseys and they are expected to file charges against ortega. interesting note, the nfl will return to mexico city for a game this season. the oakland raiders hosting the new england patriots. kevin durant still out with injury. his warriors visiting his former team in oklahoma city and the o.k.c. crowd trolled their former sweetheart hard. a cupcake on crutches, wearing durant's jersey number. oh, it was on. second quarter, steph curry and kristen get is into a scuffle. four technical fouls assessed, but the game would go on and steph curry said, well, watch this. i'll put the icing on that cupcake. a buzzer beating, three pointer ending the half, money. then he runs straight to the locker room, i'm done here.
3:51 am
warriors would crush okc, 111-95. >> fascinating! >> you said coy stole the jersey. >> coy, you've been exonerated, obviously, with the jersey. >> i knew it wasn't you, coy, too small. >> or we would have to pix late his face. meanwhile, house republican leaders making last-minute changes to the health care bill to win over any holdouts. what changes did they make? one of the architects of obamacare tells us what he sees, next. we kwaxed and shined.to be treated like a trophy. we have seen the glory come, go, and come again.
3:52 am
but a cadillac is no trophy. what you see is our future and it will inspire every car that follows. ♪ ♪ we have large quantities of excitement. goodbye.
3:53 am
♪ thrivent mutual funds. managed by humans, not robots. before investing, carefully read and consider fund objectives, risks, charges and expenses in the prospectus at thriventfunds.com. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah. that's why i use excedrin.n hold because of a headache. it has two pain fighters plus a booster and for some, headache relief starts in just 15 minutes. now moments lost to headaches are moments gained with excedrin. [heartbeat] in my johnsonville commercial we open up in the forest. hi. i'm jeff. i'm eating my breakfast
3:54 am
and all of a sudden a raccoon come up and ask me, "what are you eating?" i told him "johnsonville breakfast sausage, fully cooked." porcupine comes in and he says, "does that come in patties?" i said "yup" wolf comes in and says, "how'd you learn to talk to animals?" and i said "books" and we had a good laugh about that. [laughter] that's a commercial made the johnsonville way. dale! oh, hey, rob. what's with the minivan? it's not mine. i don't -- dale, honey, is your tummy still hurting, or are you feeling better to ride in the front seat? oh! is this one of your motorcycling friends? hey, chin up there, dale. lots of bikers also drive cars. in fact, you can save big if you bundle them both with progressive. i'd like that. great. whoo. you've got soft hands. he uses my moisturizer. see you, dale. bye, rob. why are you checking your credit score? you don't want to drive old blue forever, do you? [brakes squeak]
3:55 am
credit karma, huh? yep, it's free. credit karma. give yourself some credit. thursday is our chance to end obamacare and the obamacare catastrophe and begin delivering the reforms our people deserve. >> okay, that was president trump, touting the gop health care bill at a campaign rally in louisville. this morning, he takes his me message directly to capitol hill. the president is hoping a series of amendments to the house bill released last night will lock in some skeptical lawmakers. let's discuss with mit professor jonathan gruber, one of the art te tects of obamacare. let's pull up for everyone these changes made last night by republicans to try to make it more palatable to some holdouts on the republican side. i'll go through them and you can tell me what you see.
3:56 am
those block grants for medicaid, now optional by state. imposing medicaid work requirement, now optional, by state. preventing the medicaid expansion. here's an interesting one, reserving $75 billion worth of tax credit funds for older americans, because as you'll recall, they were seen as being hit hard by the first version of this bill. repealing obamacare taxes this year. and then adding this new york medicaid provision. professor, what do you see here? >> well, there's a lot of stuff here. why don't we start with the money for the elderly. so one of the striking points in the cbo report was that the cost for older americans who are low-income would go up almost tenfold under the republican alternative. they're going to throw a small amount of money at this. remember, $75 billion is over ten years, okay? this does very little to address that problem. it doesn't solve the problem. moreover, the cbo report said, for example, 40-year-olds costs would double. there's nothing in there for
3:57 am
them. they're just trying to put their finger in the dike as various leaks are being sprung, but the bottom line is, this doesn't do anything for the fundamental flaw that the tax credits they proposed make insurance unaffordable for low-income americans. >> so to be clear, one of the big sticking points for older americans, as you were saying, their premiums would shoot up. that $75 billion, you don't think solves that problem? >> their premiums would shoot up, but let's remember, also, alisyn, their out-of-pocket costs would go up. that's the other thing we've got to focus on in that cbo report. in addition to premiums, they would pay three times as much out of pocket. higher deductibles, higher co-payments, et cetera. add all of that up, their health care costs are going up almost tenfold. $75 billion over a decade does not solve that problem. it's a token gesture to try to solve the most glaring number in the cbo report. >> just to stick on this one more point, that's not going to win over those republicans who are on the fence. as we know, many of their
3:58 am
constituents are that age. so you're saying it should have gone farther if they wanted to get this passed? >> what i'm saying is, their fundamental structure doesn't work. under obamacare, we have an income-based system, which insurers that low-income americans are protected and don't have to pay more than a certain percentage of their income. the flat age--basbased tax creds always going to leave some low-income groups paying more. >> i want to ask you about the last provision we had there. add new york medicaid provision. this is an interesting one. as we know from some of the haggling, this is to win over senator -- congressman chris collins says this is to win over some of the new york delegation that felt that they basically wanted some special treatment, and as we recall, from the passing of obamacare, there was h hew and cry over the corn huhus
3:59 am
kickback or anything that was seen as a special carrot to some states. >> on the one hand, this always happens when you pass a law. there's always side deals and special ways to make it work to get votes. on the other hand, you're absolutely right. this was an enormous hew and cry. indeed, the special election of scott brown and the senate here in massachusetts, the corn husker kickback was listed as one of the number one issues for electing a republican senator. it's really, incredibly ironic after they did that with obamacare, they'll come back and do the same thing to get their bill passed. >> what do they do for coverage? this is the big conversation. the cbo says millions of people will lose coverage under this gop plan. do you see anything this these amendments that helps fix that? >> no, actually, it goes the other way. let's look at one of the most pernicious parts of these new amendments, the work requirement for medicaid. if you look at medicaid, remember, 85% of people on this program are elderly, disabled, or children. there's only 15% that are
4:00 am
working age adults who are capable of working, and most of them already work. the requirement does almost nothing, except cause confusion, which is going to cost some people who can't work to actually drop off the program, because they don't understand it, and they're afraid of what could happen. so if anything, i think these amendments lower the coverage impact of the law. >> at last count, there were 27 house republicans that were leaning "no" or were an outright "no" on voting for this. but that was before these amendments. so is there anything that you'll see hear that will make it more palatable to holdouts? >> i think the sort of mean-spirited gestures like a work requirement in a program where almost no one can work and those who can already are working, may appeal to some, maybe some of that appeals to those on the right, throwing a small amount of money at a large problem may provide cover for those older constituents. but anyone who's thinking seriously about this who opposed it beforehand

108 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on