tournament. >> you're 15. >> all right. >> but i had arizona winning it all. >> congratulations to both of you. >> thank you very much. >> and congratulations to you. thank you, andy. your bracket is still intact. thank you so much for spending your time with us. >> "inside politics" with john king starts right now. >> a stunning republican failure. >> i will not sugar coat this. this is a disappointing day for us. >> the speaker mans up, but the president passes the buck and the blame. >> the losers are nancy pelosi and chuck schumer because now they own obamacare. they have own it. >> plus, more trouble with the truth and the fbi has a giant cloud. >> investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government. >> just ten weeks on the job and giant questions about the president's political sway and the gop's ability to govern. >> we all learned a lot.

we learned a lot about loyalty. >> "inside politics," biggest stories sourced by the best reporters now. >> welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thanks for sharing your sunday morning. if you're president trump and looking for a silver link you have to think that this week can't be worse than last week. >> with respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, i have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. >> and this was friday. >> i smoke to the president just a little while ago, and i told him that the best thing i think to do is to pull this bill and he agreed with that decision. >> trademark to say the least that after the new republican president failed at his first big legislative test a republican-only effort to repeal obamacare he blamed the democrats. >> i think the losers are nancy

pelosi and chuck schumer because now they own obamacare, they own it, 100% own it. >> with us this sunday to share their reporting and their inspigts margaret talbot, cnn's manu raju and cnn's jeff zenl any and jennifer jacobs of bloomberg politics. donald trump won the presidency with a crystal clear strength, winning and on friday he was too weak to sway fellow republicans. he lost. he could not close the deal he promised from day one of his campaign >> we have to repeal obamacare, and it can be -- and it can be replaced with something much better for everybody. let it be for everybody, but much better and much less expensive for people and for the government, and we can do it. so i've watched the politicians. i've dealt with them all my life. if you can't make a good deal

with a politician, then there's something wrong with you. you're certainly not very good. >> after a certainly not very good experience and week, the president wants to turn the page. >> certainly was an interesting period of time. we all learned a lot. we learned a lot about loyalty. we learned a lot about the vote-getting process. we learned a lot about some very arcane rules in obviously both the senate and in the house, so it's been certainly -- for me it's been a very interesting experience. >> so let's start there. what will did he learn? >> well, this is not the first time that president trump has been tripped up by the written or unwritten rules of politics. he lost the popular vote. his initial ban on travel from the muslim countries. he lost his choice for labor secretary, army secretary pick. this is definitely not his first loss, but he did learn a lot about, you know, loyalty and who he can trust. it's very true. >> john, it's hard to overstate

so significant of a loss this is. i mean, the republican base, the party has been clamoring for this for seven years. this has been their central campaign promise. the real ramifications, he's ready to move on. donald trump is ready to move on. the question is the republican base ready to move senator do they believe that it's time to give up on repealing and replacing obamacare less than three months into a new administration, and if they can't ever do anything in this congress, which they probably won't, what will that mean for 2018, keeping control of the house and now there are significant fears that keeping control of the senate because the base could be depressed and may not come out and support them if they can't deliver the central promise. >> and we know from the campaign and from the president, donald trump is a transactional person. that didn't works i'm not touching that again. let's move on and g.the question is what lesson did you learn? if you've blown the road full of potholes and there's no tires and there's a question of the engine you've got to change the

car first. >> and overhauling the tax system, any tax reform is so much more difficult and expensive. it's the whole shebang but i'm tloeld were meetings over the weekend to look at health reform. they know this is aable tros that hangs over the party. manu is right. republicans will demand they do something. mike pence was in vest wawa on saturday talking about reforming health care. >> the whole thing with donald trump was to fix this town. the own vice president saying the status quo wins. >> there's two lessons or concerns that emerge from this, one is credibility and the other is a power factor. president trump's credibility is seriously jeopardized by what happened and so perhaps is his ability to scare people in the future in doing what he want. >> in districts where he got 60% and 70% of the vote, those house members said mr. president,

you're great. i'm not going to get the vote. >> the president would the ask them when they were inside the oval office, how much did i win your district by? how much did i win your district by and they were like let's talk about the bill, mr. president. he was not focused on the details here, but at end of the day the consequences of defying him in the short term appear to not be much but it's a long game other. >> it's a long game, but this is the point i'm trying to figure out what did he learn from this. you mentioned the meetings. one of the things we know from all the great reporting the president would tell the members of the freedom caucus, conservative members who don't believe in a big government, want to repeal obamacare and not interested a federal role. the president would say i don't want to focus on little stuff, 8:00 on a sunday. i don't want to focus on it. you cannot pass something as complicated as health care and something that divides your party as something like health care and tax reform is next and then trade without focusing on the little stuff. that's his job. >> and he never seemed personally invested in this bill, not really barnstorming the country as some thought he

would to draw public support for it and get behind this bill. he, of course, didn't want to call it trump care. this was a bill that was written by members of congress. this is much different than president obama who really was personally invested health care and did the joint address to congress in 2009, of course the famous one where the republican congressman joe wilson said you lie, and he owned it even though it was incredibly unpopular, obamacare was, at the time of passage. but donald trump never seemed fully to embrace this proposal even though he did support it and that made it really hard for a lot of members to get behind it, too, knowing that that was the case. >> he gave very slight applause for it at beginning. not until a couple of days that he gave a full-throated endorsement it. >> we know he likes wing and this is what's happening, yesterday morning in central pennsylvania. one of the places where donald trump surprised everybody. a blue state headline, the headline is pretty bad.

obamacare fails and health care will stay with trump. arizona, another red state. gop pulls its plan, first livent story in humiliating failure so back to the lessons. you heard at the beginning of the show. he said i learned a lot about the loyalty. right after at that very same event he said i like speaker ryan. speaker ryan is dealing very hard and has to deal with all the factions of the republican party and he said tune into fox at 9:00. does judge a janine have an exclusive on donald trump. >> paul ryan needs to step down as speaker of the house. the reason, he failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill. >> what? >> the president of the united states is giving a preview. obviously he knew what was going to be broadcast last evening. there's no question the

relationship between the president and the speaker was never very good and now it's fracture it had, but the resalt they have to work together, at least for the short term here but in terms of lessons learn. you don't learn lessons by assigning blame. even before this blame started on friday, starting thursday evening, the white house is saying it's paul ryan's fault, the speaker's fault. the blame game up and down pennsylvania avenue on friday was extraordinary, and that is not how you learn he is lessons to go forward here so i think unless there's any self-reflection, i'm not sure what you learned. >> out of white house we heard it's the speaker's fault. it's pelosi and schumer's fault straight from the president and then they started talking about why was jared kushner out of town, on spring break out skiing and blaming everybody except for looking in the mirror saying we didn't do this. the president didn't do this right. the question is where do we go from here because the president essentially said look, obamacare is going to explode. others use the word implore. he's the fire chief now. yes, obamacare was put in place

in the previous administration but you can't show up at a fire and say that one started out of the last guy and put it out or can he? >> he's got a few choices and this seems impossible given the rhetoric of the last couple of days but one is to actually pivot and attempt to work with democrats. i'm not sure why democrats would do that given his standing in the polls. >> they won't. >> and given the fact he says this is real schumer and pelosi are the losers but that could be an option, but to do that you'd have to decide you're actually going to save obamacare and re-brand it and call it something different or really mend fences with the republicans and try to take a leadership role in bringing that caucus together if you're playing the blame game. >> these are policy differents. he still thinks he's in the campaign from his perspective, you know, lyin' ted and little marco and rand paul didn't get a nickname, these guys say i don't pay attention to detail and don't know i know the policy but he won. he thinks this. the question is go forward. if you look halt what he wants

to do first 100 days, wanted to repeal obamacare, he failed. he did get executive action for approval of the keystone pipeline, the border wall, who knows. china trade, he said he would declare china a currency manipulator and could have a longer list of things in the first 100 days that have disappeared or nowhere near the finish line but on monday morning what does he think he has to do differently? >> the keystone pipeline permit was a promise kept. that's been a little bit lost this week in all of his failures because you cannot overstate how disastrous but the keystone pipeline was something and he'll move forward with energy and various things that are related to jobs. >> jobs, all 35 of them for the keystone pipeline. even if you talk to republicans from the states like nebraska and other places, the keystone pipe lines, yes, they won it but it's a relic of yesterday. it's not a forward looking agenda i'm. they rolled that out pretty

quickly friday morning because they knew that the vacuum was sort of consuming them here. >> veterans are another thing, too. i want to point out a lot of people pushing him right now to jump on something that's bipartisan and helping veterans and reforming the v.a. department is something he could seize on and they are definitely pressuring him to do that. >> what big legislative item? they want to move to tax reform next. that's incredibly difficult. there's a reason why tax reform has not been successful in the last 30 years. very difficult to get bipartisan support. he'll have to trust paul ryan to do it. will he trust paul ryan going forward? significant policy differences between house republicans and senate republicans and he'll have to referee that. >> that's where we're going to go next. if you're paul ryan do you think the president really has your back after what he did yesterday? i think not. up next, growing pains or irreconcilable differences. who knew the republican party is complicated. first though police say the darnedest things, supreme court confirmation edition. >> john hancock is now

synonymous with a signature. no one remembers who john hancock was but they know that that's a signature. because he wrote his name so bigley and boldly. >> you just said bigley. >> i did. >> and -- and i just won five bucks. >> you embarrassed me in front of my nephew, and he loves it. he's the one paying me the five bucks. be taken care of. to home, car, life insurance obviously, ohhh... but with added touches you can't get everywhere else, like claim free rewards... or safe driving bonus checks. oh yes.... even a claim satisfaction

guaranteeeeeeeeeee! in means protection plus unique extras only from an expert allstate agent. it's good to be in, good hands. the whole country booking on choice hotels.com. four words, badda book. badda boom... let it sink in. shouldn't we say we have the lowest price? nope, badda book. badda boom. have you ever stayed with choice hotels? like at a comfort inn? yep. free waffles, can't go wrong. i like it. promote that guy. get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed. when you book direct at choicehotels.com. book now. man: when i was a navy seal, i trained as hard as i could to stay alive. i have more than 30 pieces of shrapnel still in my leg. but i still push myself to the limit. if it weren't for my tempur-pedic, i wouldn't be able to sleep on my left side at all. my unit put in a special request to get one and realized that tempur-pedic was exponentially better than anything else.

it gave me a huge performance advantage. it still does. ( ♪ ) tempur-pedic. this sleep is power. hey allergy muddlers are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® zyrtec® starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec®. muddle no more®. try rhinocort® allergy spray for powerful nasal allergy relief. the unpredictability of a flaree may weigh on your mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go, and how to work around your uc. that's how i thought it had to be.

but then i talked to my doctor about humira, and learned humira can help get and keep uc under control... when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. raise your expectations and ask your gastroenterologist if humira may be right for you. with humira, control is possible. with e*trade you see things your way. ♪ ♪ you have access to the right information at the right moment. ♪ ♪ and when you filter out the noise, it's easy to turn your vision into action.

♪ ♪ it's your trade. e*trade. start trading today at etrade.com today, unlimited gets the network it deserves. verizon. (mic thuds) uh, sorry. it's unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. (thud) uh... sorry, last thing. it's just $45 per line. forty. five. (cheering and applause) and that is all the microphones that i have. (vo) switch to unlimited on verizon now and get our best android smartphones for as low as $15 a month.

welcome back. repealing obamacare has been issue one for republicans in the last four election cycles. in 2010 it helped them take back the house, in to 14 it was key to adding control of the senate, and back to work this year after the 2016 vote gave the white house the vote, too, well, speaker paul ryan was excited and emphatic. >> this is just not a matter of us keeping our promise to the american people. this is a rescue mission. we are on a rescue mission to prevent obamacare from making things even worse. >> on friday after a stunning setback that same paul ryan announced the republicans are cancelling their rescue mission and breaking their promise. >> i don't know what else to say is to say obamacare is the law of the land. didn't have quite the votes to replace this law. >> politically a huge embarrassment. republicans for seven years were tripping over each other to scream repeal obamacare and once given the responsibility to govern could not settle deep

policy differences over how to replace. >> moving from an opposition party to a governing party comes with growing pains and while we're feeling those growing pains today i will not sugar coat this, this is a digs appointing day for us. doing big things is hard. >> doing big things is hard. we started the last conversation what lesson does the president sfle learn? what lesson does the speaker learn? he was not surprised by the difficulty of this but surprise that had he couldn't resolve the difficulties. >> this is the first real legislative test for paul ryan. even though he's been the speaker since the fall of 2015. remember when john boehner left he quote, unquote, cleared the barn and got rid of all the things and got rid of big fiscal fights and 2016 was not a governing year on capitol hill. they put together their election yore pamphlet saying how they are going to run. it was the speaker owes so-called benter way agenda that

included some of the top line items on how to deal with health reform. this is the first test of trying to put together a coalition and a house that's been very difficult to govern and he failed at it, so the question is where does he go from here? one thing is that it's difficult to cut deals without significant buy-in from key factions within your caucus. he thought he did have much of his conference on board. that not the case and he wanted to move very quickly and it's very difficult to move very quickly on such a complicated issue. you really needed time to build consensus and that clearly didn't happen here. >> they thought clearly, the speaker did, and a lot of people around the president here, that the idea we have to govern now, we have a responsibility was enough of a motivating force to get people to say, all right, i'm going to vote for this bill even though it's got some things that i can't stomach in it. you mentioned the various people of the caucus. listen to speaker ryan as he says he's trying to -- the president we're told wanted an enemies list and have the vote or at least a list of the people who said they were going to vote

no so he could do trademark trump counterpunching. the speaker said, no. i need to work with these people going forward and the message after where the speaker said people, try to think about why this happened. >> all of us, myself included, we will need time to reflect hon how we got to this moment, what we could have done to do it bert but ultimately this all comes down to a choice r.all of us willing to give a little to get something sghon are we willing to say yes to the good, to the very good even if it's not the perfect because if we're willing to do that, we still have such an incredible opportunity in front of us. >> he's being optimistic there, but issue here is a moderate republican from new jersey and pennsylvania just has a fundamentally different view of the role of the federal government whether it's tax reform and health care than a freedom caucus member of north carolina or somewhere from the south. >> this might sound too obvious to even be a point but i think

one thing he's learned is that president trump is not his friend and he can't really completely trust the white house and that's important. just instructive to know going forward when you figure out how to play this. loyalty is the most important thing. i totally stand by paul ryan and everybody at the white house is saying we're going to throw paul ryan under the bus. paul ryan need to lead his caucus and try to figure out how to help president trump. the way to help president trump is how to help himself. he has to figure out what the levers are he has inside his own caucus and what his levers are with the white house and the president. >> the.outsourced wright the bill, tom price, the health and human services secretary, they outsourced at least the leadership to ryan writing the legislation and ryan outsourced back to the president the idea of rounding up the votes which is the speaker's job and his operation. the freedom caucus members here, sure the president is mad at them and the president is mad at them. they won. they aren't going to blink next time, are they? >> i think not, but if the house

had passed the ball they also would have won in a respect because it would have emboldened them because it was because of them. if you talk to some of them at the white house, they believe it was a good moment i guess for the freedom caucus but it did like splinter them. they couldn't deliver some things so they at some point need to find a win or find something or they will, you know,age they are president in a huge degree. all of them stood with the president. these are all from trump districts and now there's a test to see who people like more, the members of congress or the president and outside groups is something we haven't talked about, heritage group. >> said no to the new republican. >> it was very easy if you're mark meldos or someone in this vote to vote against you because you have the backing back home. the next thing to watch coming forward here is what the president does to them because he's furious at them. >> that's a key question, if at first you don't succeed try

again or listen to senator lindsey graham in his state yesterday saying maybe the president and maybe people in congress want to get things done should try something else. >> let me tell you about health care. i don't think one party is going to be able to fix this by themselves. so here's what i think should happen next. i think the president should reach out to democrats. i should reach out to democrats, and we should say let's take a shot hat doing this together because it ain't working doing it by ourselves. how about that, all right. >> how about that. i have some dusty books on a shelf somewhere that talk about a day and an age in washington when there was bipartisanship but they are kind of dusty. >> they are very dusty. one-party rule is very difficult in washington. i mean, when -- after the 2004 elections when republicans swept into power, they bungled their

opportunity at one-party rule and they lost the house and senate in 2006. in 2009 after the democrats had a 60-seat majority at one point in the senate before scott brown's win in 2010 they lost the house the next year because of the way they handled obamacare. they got a lot done because they had huge majorities but they were in a circular firing squad. it's so hard to keep one party united if you don't try to reach across the aisle. oftentimes divide government works better. >> the democrats are not going to go first. they see him at 40% and below that. it will have to be the president's initiativeterm the president has a simple answer when challenged on his facts. i'm president and you're not.

guests can earn a how cafree night when theypring book direct on choicehotels.com and stay with us just two times? spring time. badda book. badda boom. or... badda bloom. seriously? book now at choicehotels.com

he's a nascar champion who's she's a world-class swimmer who's stared down the best in her sport. but for both of them, the most challenging opponent was... pe blood clots in my lung. it was really scary. a dvt in my leg. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. my doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®... to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner... ...that's proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. here's how xarelto works. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least six blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective... ...targeting just one critical factor, interacting

with less of your body's natural blood-clotting function. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor as this may increase risk of blood clots. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. if you've had spinal anesthesia, watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle-related signs or symptoms. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures and before starting xarelto® about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. you've got to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from dvt and pe blood clots. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know.

welcome back. the president did an interview with "time" magazine about truth-telling. the "washington post" fact checker says during that conversation again about truth telling the president said at least 14 things that were demonstrably false. when credibility questions were raised during the conversation the president played this card. quote. i can't be doing so badly because i'm president and you're not. he is president, but just 65 days into his presidency they can't be doing so badly part is a little bit more debatable. last week was a horrible week for the president and he began it in precarious political standing. take a look 37% of americans approved of the job he was doing at president heading into last week. 56% disapprove. that's the according to a quinnipiac university poll. i can't believe those numbers are any better entering this week if 37 was the beginning of

last week. i want to get to the credibility issue and moments ago we were having a conversation earlier about the lack of republican unity and the organizations that have spent the last eight years opposing president obama and the say no organizations. the president this morning tweeted 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 so you are noting during the break when we were reading this the other day he was careful not to criticize republicans. >> very much a shift before he went into the oval office to give us the remarks on friday about why this bill went down he was said focus on the democrats and do not attack fellow republicans and he spread the blame out to everybody when it came to democrats but applauded republicans, tom price and mike pence standing right behind him. help said i'm not going to recommend getting rid of paul ryan. told me that in the oval office and he's turning away from blaming -- keeping that blame on democrats and now he's starting to focus on republicans. >> things settle in with him and

processes what happens he changes. let's come back to the credibility question and can you raise it again in the context what have happened yesterday. in the morning he tweets watch judge janine saying i'm all with paul ryan. paul ryan has trouble to deal with. i like paul ryan and judge gentleman known comes on and says paul ryan must go. that's a credibility question for the president, too. look at his standing right now. 56% of americans disapprove of his job performance. 60% say he's not honest. 55% question his leadership skills. 66% say he's not level-headed. now he's a new president. 65 days in. i want to say repeatedly donald trump has defied every law of political gravity 1,000 times so don't put anything in cement, but 65 days in, those numbers are horrible. >> yeah, and there are completely obviously paths to climb out therefore, but the paths require decisions that we haven't seen him make so far. there's one path that would be controversial and perhaps jeopardize a whole series of republican leadership situations

but could cement president trump's popularity if he decided to reach across the aisle and look for commonalities with democrats. there's another area in which he stops personal attacks on people and brings people together, but if things go on the way that they have been going on, it's hard to see the path. >> one interesting nugget from that quinnipiac poll was on march 7th it was 55% of american voters say that they don't trust him. last week, and now it's up to 60. >> one second. one other things, when you raise the credibility question and you say why does the president say so many things that are demonstrably not true, a lot of trump supporters push back saying lots of presidents say things that aren't true and that's certainly true. >> we did not, repeat, did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages nor will we. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman, miss lewinsky. >> intelligence gathered by in and other governments leaves no

doubt that the iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. >> under the reform i've proposed if you like your doctor you keep your doctor. if you like your health care plan you keep your health care plan. these folks need to stop scaring everybody. >> i want to set bill clinton aside. that about a personal issue and that was a lie what he said in the roosevelt room that day back then, but i want to make this distinction and tell me if you agree. yes, president reagan was not telling the truth when he said we didn't trade arms for hostages and president bush was not telling the truth when he said saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction and president obama was not telling the truth when he said if you like your plan you can keep your plain and his aides insist at the time that is what was going to happen. there's a difference between saying ted cruz's father helped kill kennedy, right? >> right. >> and then crediting the "national enquirer." don't blame me. i read it in the known kwirer.

>> when president bush was saying those words i was actually in the same room. he was -- it was the beginning of the iraq war. he believed what he was saying at the time. he got faulty intelligence as we learned later. the "new york times" endorsed that and agreed with that. this is entirely different than what the president is doing right now. the whole idea of truth is simply out window. we saw it with the british, suggesting that the british spy agencies were somehow involved in this surveillance game. >> judge napolitano said they were. >> judge napolitano said they were and he's not been on the air since. >> how many times did trump think -- he was believing himself when he said obamacare repeal and replace is the first thing i'm going to do. >> and he also said he didn't know it would be this sglard is there there a price to pay. he did this in the campaign and won. now that we're in the governing mode, he said we'd be tired of winning, not tired of winning yet because we haven't had any

big wins. does this get connected at some point? >> because, one, you lose political capital in trying to sell your agenda. how much political capital does he have right now on the hill? look, this is a president that has not been tested by any significant real outside event that has shifted his presidency in his first two months in office. what happens when there's a real crisis, domestically or internationally in, which he has to make some very decisions. how does he sell the american public and the international public to get behind america's direction, and if he -- his credibility continues to fall, that's going to be much, much harder to sell the public on something like that. it's a significant ramification. >> the credibility question was never like part and parcel of his popularity and his rise. it was his ability to connect emotionally with people and tap into the feelings and frustration he has having with the status quo. people weren't rallying around

him that you can take everything he says to the bank. that was baked into the campaign. the difference is when you're governing instead of campaigning there's a different broad expecks agent. does it change his numbers significantly below 37 but does it impede his ability to get above 50% again? >> maybe. >> but he's president and you're not. >> sit tight. the "new york times" calls him a lap dag and nancy pelosi prefers to call him a stooge and he says his priorities are to protect the president and not investigate russia's election meddling.

health care debate was hardly the only high drama in washington this past week. >> i've been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that 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. >> the fbi director's rare public confirmation of a major version let alone one that casts over the president sat big deal. also important and troubling, the open partisan sniping between democrats and republicans involved in the house intelligence committee investigation into russia's election meddling. republican chairman devin nuance says the top democrat keeps exaggerating evidence of collusion and adam schiff in turn says the chairman's decision to run to the white house last week to brief the president on a news discovery proves his gop loyalty trumps his commitment to a thorough investigation. >> i think what at this point would give the public more confidence than anything else is if we didn't stop what we're doing but we established a truly independent body, quite separate and apart from the congress, just as we did after 9/11, that

the public can say, okay, at least there we can be confident someone is doing an investigation unhampered by political pressures. >> too late perhaps, but i suggested the other day and i know my fellow reporters won't like me but both the chairman and the ranking member shut up and go in the private room and do their work so that when they come out and say something whether they say we found something or found nothing as opposed to this has become a partisan spectacle. >> nunes will come out and what's been surprise begun what he's said is he's taken steps without informing democrats on the committee and giving them an opportunity to turn around and criticize them. one, being a surprising revelation last week that some intelligence reports that he's seen showed some communications

with trump officials appearing in intelligence reports and briefing the president of the united states and then on friday cancelling the tuesday hearing on russia without getting the backing of his own committee, making it look like he's doing this to help protect the white house at the same time they are investigating the white house in the russian links. that is only going to sow public doubt about whether or not this panel can come to some sort of bipartisan assessment. >> the plan was to get testimony from john clapper and john brennan and sally yates, the most senior obama administration left and he fired her after she refused toismman the travel ban. we were going to have public testimony and clearly this was not going to be a good day for the president because any public testimony talking about this investigation is not. is that what devin nunes did, i'm going to cancel this to protect the president? >> the reality is i can't recall a pack and for the with democrat and republican on the intel committee. intel committee is supposed to

be slightly above that. it's not and it's in the mud hand may have given the president a short-term lifeline but a long-term one i'm not sure because they basically have added more sort of weight to the argument there should be an independent investigation. republicans probably won't call for one, but the credibility of this committee now is in serious question because of chairman nunes. >> and three trump associate, not all are very close to the president but three have agreed to come in and give testimony, i don't know if they will officially take oates, but paul manafort, the former campaign chairman and manager, roger stone a trump associate and a dirty trickster going back for a very long time and carter page, a foreign policy adviser who did not have a significant role, they are all coming in. they all have in manafort's case worked with people close to the kremlin, carter page a couple of trips to russia and roger stone told us weeks in event wait for joan podesta's e-mails coming out and listen to adam schiff

saying why he thinks this is so important. >> it was in july that paul manafort was trump campaign manager. the trump foreign policy adviser carter page traveled to moscow, that the trump campaign intervened to defeat a provision in the republican party platform hostile to russian interests in ukraine and most significant it was july when russia began weaponizing the information it had stolen in an effort to attack hillary clinton. >> this is the circumstantial case the democrats are trying to put together saying that, you know, all of this happened around the same time. monday and friday happen to be in the same weeks sometimes, it's just a coincidence. again, we don't know that. should he be out talking publicly about this or should they do their work? >> the fbi is actually also investigating all of this, and by coming out and saying what he said in his public testimony jim comey has very much preserved his right, his ability to independently go ahead and carry

forward that independent investigation so to me there's a question about what power do the intelligence committees have to investigate something that the fbi isn't already investigating anyway and then there's the second point that you alluded to which is that you can be interviewed by a committee behind closed doors, under oath, by staff, with staff. those can be the most valuable work that committee can do. not the theater that you see in public but the behind-the-scenes interviewing going on. >> it's a real risk for democrats to continue to dangle the collusion thing out there if the three associates come forward and testify and doesn't appear to the public that there was much there. how much do democrats invest in this idea of collusion that didn't actually happen and it's a risk for schiff to continue to dangle that out there. >> quickly on ties. you were talking about how closely the president is associated with some of these people p.i know trump has told people he hasn't talked to roger stone in more than half had a year. paul manafort he has spoken. >> because of his role in the campaign and past consulting

work. our reporters share the notebook including the preview of an upcoming and controversial trump executive order. right now, get two lines of unlimited data for a hundred bucks. taxes and fees included! two lines, a hundred dollars, all in, all unlimited. switch today. like finding new ways to be taken care of. home, car, life insurance obviously, ohhh... but with added touches you can't get everywhere else,

like claim free rewards... or safe driving bonus checks. oh yes.... even a claim satisfaction guaranteeeeeeeeeee! in means protection plus unique extras only from an expert allstate agent. it's good to be in, good hands. michelle: when i got into my accident, i broke almost every bone in both my legs. when i came home from the hospital, i needed to be able to recover. tempur-pedic allowed me to do just that. because i don't have the average body type anymore, i feel like my tempur-pedic really conforms to my body shape. power is not giving up. it's choosing to thrive. tempur-pedic. this sleep is power. tempur-pedic. announcer: get on your feet for the nastiest bull

in the state of texas. ♪ ♪ fixodent plus adhesives. there's a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening. just one application gives you superior hold even at the end of the day fixodent. strong more like natural teeth.

let's close as we always do by asking our great reporters to share a little something from the notebooks to help you get out ahead of the big political news around the corner. jeff zeleny. >> two big words at the white house being talked about inside the west wing, political capital. how can the president restore, replace rebuild his political capital? all hands on deck yesterday at the white house in the west wing. all advisers were present or most were present to talk about what they can do to give this president a win or something that is heading trd a win after this huge defeat. a couple of ideas are, of course, tax reform, infrastructure, but those are down the road. they are looking for something shorter term so look for the president once again to travel this week, probably mid-week some place to try to rebuild the political capital. the question is will he be trying to reach out to people

who might not agree with him as opposed to all these rallies that we've seen of true believers. they are with him in the end. the others are not. >> interesting to see. is he going out for a crowd or going out for a reason? margaret? >> one name to watch, mike pence. there's going to be a lot of palace infwreeg whether reince is down and steve bannon is up and what's going to happen to gary cohen and mike pence is one tool in the toolbox that president trump has to use if he wants to get serious about figuring out how to actually make deals, and i don't mean between democrats, i mean, like between the conservatives and moderates in the connection and mike pens knows how to do this from connection and in theory knows how to work with democrats from his executive experience. we saw him over the weekend in west virginia kind of working that rally and message, but to the extent that they want to follow that biden/obama model of having experienced lawmakers get stuff done, pence is a tool they can make, if they choose. >> if they choose, interesting point. jennifer? >> i'll give you a quick preview

of an executive order that trump will be signing in the coming days, as possibly as early as tuesday. it has to do with the clean power plan and regulations regarding coal development. we know that trump wants to roll back those obama-era regulations. this one has to do with addressing measures that dealt with climate change, so obama banned new coal mining rights on federal land, and he slashed emissions from greenhouse gases from power plants. trump, of course, wants to address those. the latest draft of the executive order goes after boast those even though president trump wasn't able to undo observe m he's health care legacy this, clean power plan was the cornerstone of the obama climate legacy and he's going after that. >> democrats won't like that. manu? >> john, there's no path right now for neil gorsuch to get the 60 votes he needs to overcome a democratic filibuster in the senate. i've talked to many democratic members and aides. those eight votes that they need

for democrats to join republicans to get to 60 are not there, so the next step is going to be the nuclear option. much mcconnell, the senate majority leader, other top republicans, they are prepared to go this route to change the rules, to ensure that a filibuster for supreme court nominees can be overcome by a simple majority, something they can do with their 52 rope can seats. this will have huge ramifications for future presidents, for the court, for future presidents when they have their senate in their own party. they will be able to get whatever nominee they want through without bipartisan support so watch for that to come to a head next week. the nuclear option probably will be pulled. >> spent last week explaining reconciliation and the byrd rule and now we'll talk more about the nuclear option. i communicated with nearly two dozen veterans of past republican administrations this weekend. every one of them, every one views the white house trump and

political communications shop as amateur built to keep the president happy and seemingly blind to using his power and he has a lot of power as a communicator to strategically target travel and events like jeff was speaking about. not much more faith in organizations tied to congressional leaders, one of which was highly embarrassed after it ran tv ads congratulating house republicans for passing the repeal bit. even in at least one district where the gop member had declared she would have voted no had there been a vote but the major concern is the white house, and its hand-picked team at the republican national equipment. as one reagan administration veteran put it i hope they now understand the campaign is over and a president can't win at governing by saying i'm going to win. a lot of discontent out there among republicans. that's it for "inside politics. request the "catch us weekdays as well. noon eastern we'll be here. up next, "state of the union." (mic thuds) uh, sorry.

it's unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. (thud) uh... sorry, last thing. it's just $45 per line. forty. five. (cheering and applause) and that is all the microphones that i have. (vo) switch to unlimited on verizon now and get our best android smartphones for as low as $15 a month. guests can earn a how cafree night when theypring book direct on choicehotels.com and stay with us just two times? spring time. badda book. badda boom. or... badda bloom. seriously? book now at choicehotels.com this is pete's yard. and it's been withered by winter. but all pete needs is scotts turf builder lawn food.

it's the fast and easy way to a thick, green, resilient lawn, with two simple feedings. one now, and one later this spring. it takes grass from hungry - to healthy. pete may not be an expert, but look at that grass. this is a scotts yard. for a quick and easy lawn care plan, download the my lawn app. for a quick and easy lawn care plan, he's a nascar champion who's she's a world-class swimmer who's stared down the best in her sport. but for both of them, the most challenging opponent was... pe blood clots in my lung. it was really scary. a dvt in my leg. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. my doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®... to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner... ...that's proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. here's how xarelto works.

xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least six blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective... ...targeting just one critical factor, interacting with less of your body's natural blood-clotting function. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor as this may increase risk of blood clots. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. if you've had spinal anesthesia, watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle-related signs or symptoms. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures and before starting xarelto® about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. you've got to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from dvt and pe blood clots. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know.

health care fail. >> yeah, i don't know what else to say other than obamacare is the law of the land. >> in a major defeat by his own party, president trump agrees to pull his first major bill in congress, and blames democrats. >> we have no democrat support. we have no votes from the democrats. >> but how will the president respond to members of his own party who turned on him? >> we all learned a lot. we learned a lot about loyalty. >> plus, democrats take a victory lap. >> it's pretty exciting for us. >> energized by keeping obamacare on the books. are