get the confidence that comes from a secure, qualified mortgage approval in minutes. lift the burden of getting a home loan with rocket mortgage by quicken loans. [whisper: rocket] you supported him through four years of undergrad... and medical school. it's no wonder he said, "you don't have to pick me up." at lincoln financial, we get there are some responsibilities of love you gotta do on your own. and some you shouldn't have to shoulder alone. like knowing you can maintain your lifestyle, no matter what comes your way. ask a financial advisor how lincoln can help secure your plans for retirement with lifetime income.

topping this hour of 360, the firing of bill o'reilly. for years he was the biggest brand on cable television. he was one of the loudest voices in conservative politics. he was also a sexual harasser who tried to coerce them into having sex with them or punish them for refusing. so important was bill o'reilly to fox's bottom line, they sacrifices the president before letting o'reilly go. we are talking about it tonight with a lot of people. starting with brian stelter.

what's the latest? >> reporter: he is flying home from italy tonight. the end to his vacation. also the end to his fox news career. a sudden and embarrassing end for o'reilly who thought he would be back on the anchor desk on monday, resuming his conservative talk show. he was viewed as invincible. the men who run 21st century fox, they are trying to send a message. they are dragging this channel, fox news, into the 21st century. trying to improve the culture at the conservative cable news channel. this is not over, not by a long shot. there are other lawsuits against others at fox pending, other women have accused others at fox of harassment and retaliation. not the end. we're in the middle of this. >> bill o'reilly's statement that he released, what did he say? >> he is continuing to deny the charges against him. here is part of the statement that he released as he was boarding his flight home. he said over the past 20 years at fox news, i've been proud to launch and lead one of the most successful news programs in history. he went on to say, it's

tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims. but that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today. he concluded by saying i will always look back on my time at fox with a great pride and the success we achieved with my deepest gratitude to all my dedicated viewers. we don't know how o'reilly's fans will react to this sudden split. whether the hot tempered o'reilly might set up shop somewhere else and compete against fox. >> brian, thanks. bill o'reilly, a long time friend of the president who tre tweeted in his defense. here to talk about is david ger gergen and carl bernstein. what do you think the impact will be? fox news was bill o'reilly. he and roger ailes were the architects of the conservative media movement. >> even more than that, bill o'reilly, roger ailes and rupert

murdoch changed american culture, changed our politics in the post-reagan era as probably no other individuals did. they had enormous power. now they no longer have the same place to exercise that power in the same way. we don't know where it's going to go. what we do know is that fox has seen that they had to make a very hard business decision about whether to keep him or whether to let him go. in the end, they saw they had to change their culture in such a way that this spokesperson for a point of view that had virtually nothing to do with real news and had to do with counter factual advocacy of a kind and significantly that donald trump also practices, they're both great showmen. let's not forget, o'reilly is a great tv performer. don't take that away from him any more than you would take away from donald trump what a great performer he is in terms

of bringing along an audience and getting that audience into believing in him and his belief system. >> david, bill o'reilly was sometimes unpredictable in what his opinion was going to be. he was obviously advancing a conservative agenda. it wasn't in the same way that sean hannity does. that's one of the things viewers like is that he could take counterintuitive positions sometimes. >> that's absolutely right, anderson. he is a very smart fellow. like roger ailes. both were canny people. they really understood television. bill o'reilly is a serious student of the past. he writes books that have done very, very well. i think that he sort of figured out as long as i am free to be unpredictable, i'm going -- i will have a better hold on my audience. people tune in for that. it earns his credibility. i have to tell you, i think fox

would have been a lot worse off had they kept him. i think that was the real issue, if they kept him. after the charges that have been made, he continues to say he didn't do it. why then $13 million in settlements? a lot of people say, if you have -- you pay $13 million, there must be something there. one more thing, anderson. his lawyers say this is all -- the left wing ganged up on him. they have evidence to prove there's been a conspiracy to bring him down. let's see the evidence. if he wants to believe that, let's see the evidence. >> gloria, it's interesting to see is how people view this, whether they just view it through the lens of politics. things are so polarized that when i read that lawyer's statement i thought, that's an appeal to viewers of bill o'reilly who are fans of bill o'reilly who can say, this is all just politics, this is a left wing agenda trying to bring this guy down. >> right. don't forget, while all of this was going on and the story in the "new york times" came out i believe april 1, bill o'reilly

didn't lose his audience. >> it grew. >> it grew. o'reilly still has his fans. i think that that's what made it so difficult for fox. as we were talking about in the last hour, anderson, you know, fox decided to do this because of business. it's a business decision for them. but they kept him because they needed him and they renewed him even though they knew this was going on and they knew the $13 million in settlements, because that was good for business, too. so this was really difficult for them. but also, i would add, that this is a publically traded company which is trying to make a purchase of the rest of sky tv in britain much and this kind of a cloud hanging over your head of sexual harassment at your company is not a good thing. >> there's another element of this. that is that o'reilly and fox

news has been about the demonization of liberalism and the so-called left. nobody has been more seminal in the cultural wars in doing that than bill o'reilly. he has done it with great success. as gloria said, we have to look at the size of his audience, foch fox's audience. it's the dominant cable news channel in terms of viewership because he and others at fox and murdoch and ailes' vision of an alternative universe that was previously not mainstream -- >> carl makes some interesting points here. there's a strong argument to be made that in the end the public -- the consumers brought him down. it's not unlike what has happened to trump in some ways. his base has been very strong. but his overall approval ratings have been falling. that's because there are -- i think there are a lot of people out there that fox knew were going to put pressure on the

advertisers. >> his advertisers pulled out a lot since that "new york times" article. it was an escalating -- a cascade -- >> when they pulled out, fox is in a situation where a lot of consumers will turn against the advertisers if they came back. that's why they in the end for a variety of reasons, but one was the business reasons that gloria cited. i think they felt the consumers -- even though they kept their base of viewers, that the tide was turning against him with advertisers and consumers pushing that. >> gloria, just in terms of internally -- i think david is right about the pressure that it was a money decision. but also just for the internal relationships, the culture within the company, and the parent company. what sort of a message would it have sent if bill o'reilly was allowed to stay and after all the payouts had been made? >> right. once the story became public, i

think there was -- they couldn't put the genie back in the bottle. i think that they would have been happy to let it continue and renew bill o'reilly and let it go on so long as nobody knew about those settlements to those women. once that became public and more women started coming forward, i think it became very difficult for them to control. no matter what the size of o'reilly's audience, because even though o'reilly makes so much money for them, there were larger corporate stakes here. as you point out, internally at the news organization -- i haven't done reporting inside fox news at all. but i would assume that this was an issue for women there and for men, quite honestly, that what kind of a working environment would it be if you are going to succeed? >> david, i cannot fathom what it was like to work in fox news with all -- with roger ailes, with the allegations against him and with the allegations against bill o'reilly.

i mean, i have never heard of a workplace like that except for -- >> it sounds like a lot of towel snapping, 19th hole locker room stuff. >> i wouldn't know. >> all of us are having a hard time relating to it. i think we can remember when we were young there might be environments like that. thankfully, a lot of it disappeared. for women though, there are a lot of women out there who feel like it hasn't disappeared as much as you think it has. it has a long way to go. >> o'reilly portrayed himself as a victim here. that's what is partly extraordinary -- >> continues to. >> which also is a little bit like listening to the president of the united states. there's a straight line here about victimization and yet these are enormously powerful people who somehow managed to see themselves as being had by others. >> it's about power. i listened to the story telling

you anderson just earlier on in the show about this sense that no matter who she went to about an affront, everybody said, it's just bill o'reilly. and he is so powerful. so this not only goes on in television, of course, it goes on in corporate america all the time. it's about power. you know, i can only imagine working in an environment where i couldn't walk into a colleague or a boss and close the door and say, look, i have a real problem and have some expectation that it would be taken seriously and not be dismissed. >> to me, it's the hypocrisy of -- in working in this business in which you are not only reporting facts but certainly bill o'reilly made a lot of moral judgments on television about other people to be making those moral judgments and then have these accusations against you. it does raise questions. thank you. we will bring you the story,

what gloria was referencing. we heard that for the first time just moments ago. bill o'reilly, more on his relationship with president trump a congresswoman who o'reilly tried to mock, that congresswoman joins us. an update on the trump and russia hearings and the witnesses the two parties intend to call. ectv now and at&t, get the ultimate in entertainment plus unlimited data. get directv now for $10 a month when you have the new at&t unlimited plus plan. ♪ ♪i'ma wade, i'ma wave through the waters♪ ♪tell the tide, "don't move" ♪freedom! freedom! i can't move ♪freedom, cut me loose! ♪freedom! freedom! where are you?♪ ♪cause i need freedom too! ♪freedom! freedom! freedom! freedom!♪ ♪what you want from me? ♪is it truth you seek? oh father can you hear meee...ooow?♪

the firing of bill o'reilly came not after the first woman accusing him took action more

than a decade ago, nor the second nor the fifth. his departure is not ending the stories. in the last hour, she told me when she went through when i asked her to react to today's news. >> i think it's stunning because bill o'reilly was fox news. he had so much power there. it was sort of unthinkable that he would leave there except on his own terms. i did his show regularly for a long time. i was thinking about an incident that happened early on in my career there where i was on air cnn now.garet hoover who is on - we were on every monday. margaret said, get my name right. he said, i'm sorry, there's a lot of blondes in this operation. i can't keep you all straight. then at the end of the segment says, thank you for your blondeness to both of us. i went to his executive producer. i said, he needs to apologize and he needs to never do that

again or i'm not doing his show anymore. i was told basically, you know, bill, there's nothing we can do about it. he's an archie bunker. i said, if you mean he is a k e neanderth neanderthal, we are on the same page. i went to my -- i was called into my boss' office. i was told, what can we do, it's bill? there's nothing we can do. we're sorry this happened to you but there's nothing we can do. i complained to roger ailes. i was told the same thing, there's nothing we can do. it's bill. he's a jerk. nobody likes him. then roger said, he likes to put up dirty pictures and ask pretty girls to talk about them. the whole thing -- then he said, what am i going to do? i don't like him but he makes so much money. there's nothing i can do. >> who said that? >> roger ailes. so this was the culture which was bill was too big. so there was nothing you could do about it. i did quit his show. i didn't do it for two or three

years. it was an election year. it was the biggest show at fox. about three years later i went back and said, i'm willing to give this another try. he said sure. i came on the show. i never had another problem. we ended up having a good relationship. but it just spoke volumes that i had to completely handle it on my own. there was nobody that was willing to even say anything to him just to basically say you can't treat one of our political analysts this way. >> a look at the culture inside fox news at the time. maxine waters had a more recent brush with bill o'reilly. she joins us. thanks for being with us. do you think fox made the right decision to fire him today? >> absolutely. i'm very proud of what i understand took place, the sons of murdoch are the ones that i'm told insisted that he had to go. they're trying to take this station into a new era.

so i'm very pleased that they did that. i'm pleased with the advertisers who decided that they were going to pull their ads from his show. i'm so pleased with the women who came forward, who were victims and decided that they were going to expose what had happened to them. bill o'reilly is not going to be recorded favorably in history. unfortunately, he was a man who made tremendous sums of money, had a huge show and really there's something wrong with him psychologically. he obviously could not sustain relationships. the stories about him talking to women on the telephone with this kind of sex talk, it is really just unconscionable that he would allow himself to end up like this. it's all his fault. i hope he seeks help. and i hope that the women who have come forward feel good about the justice they are

receiving. this is an era of women who are fed up with being taken advantage of, particularly in the workplace. we have been hearing about this for years. remember the old stories about the casting couch? what women in the entertainment industry had to do. these stories are legendary. all over this country. perhaps all over this world. women have been taken advantage of. >> what does it say to you that this went on -- the first accusation that was made publically was back in 2004. apparently, it was settled for $9 million, according to "the new york times." over the years, these allegations, these accusations continued. it's only now that fox news took action. what does that say about the culture? >> well, i consider that it was a sexual harassment enterprise there at fox. the men there and roger ailes -- this was a way of life for them.

powerful men with a lot of money who would proposition women, take advantage of them. they thought that was normal. the way that life should be. it has only been in recent years that women have felt strong enough to come forward and to talk about what has happened to them. think how many women depended on their jobs and didn't want to lose their jobs and was afraid to say anything. but things have changed. life is changing for women. women are feeling stronger, coming forward, standing up for themselves. i know that it went on for a long time. but thank god it's stopped now with bill o'reilly at fox. >> you said before that you think o'reilly should go to jail. do you still believe that? the president says he doesn't believe o'reilly did anything wrong. >> well, i can't -- you can't pay any attention to what the president says. they are cut from the same cloth. they are two of a kind. for the president of the united states of america to stand up for a man who has spent $13

million in settlement, even though he claims he hasn't done anything wrong, certainly he didn't spend all of that money and make these settlements because he was innocent. this president knew that. but this is the way the president himself has been accused of acting with women. i don't pay attention to that. let me just say this. the day will come when rich persons, rich men won't be able to buy their way out of this criminal activity. and they will go to jail and they should go to jail. >> congresswoman maxine waters, i appreciate your time tonight. thank you. >> thank you. we will talk about the long history to all this, including the case of andrea makaris who i spoke with in 2004. >> he tried and tried. i said, you are my boss, no. >> tried to talk to you in person on the phone? >> on the phone, in person, yes. we're out of ink! ink, not ink. printing doesn't have to be painful.

now, during "hp savings month" at staples, get up to $180 off hp printers. ♪ we are not here to sit idly by. we are here...to leave a mark. experience a shift in the natural order. experience amazing. atmore than one flavor, oruch texture, or color.ing. a good clean salad is so much more than green. and with panera catering, more for your event. panera. food as it should be. is to always keep track of your employees.r micromanage them. make sure they're producing. woo! employee of the month! you really shouldn't leave their side. vita coco coconut water, hydration comes naturally. the average family's new, but old, home: it stood up to 2 rookies, 3 terrible two's,

and a one-coat wonder named "grams". it survived multiple personalities, 3 staycations, and 1 tiny announcement. behr. number one rated interior paint, exterior paint and stain. protecting and perfecting since 1947. only at the home depot. they open on a game show set in the 70's, in my johnsonville commercial, today we have a new smoked sausage from johnsonville.

made with 100% premium pork. some brands mix meats and add fillers, but not johnsonville! contestant #1 bids the closet, so he wins a boat. and he says " i don't want that boat, i want the sausage." what if i told you that boat is filled with johnsonville smoked sausage? and that's a smoked sausage commercial made the johnsonville way.

multiple women have accused bill o'reilly of sexual harassment over the years. one was an associate producer at fox news. she sued him 13 years ago

reportedly that he said lewd things to her. >> he had tried to talk -- as it says in the complaint, he tried and tried. i said, you are any boss, no. >> to talk to you in person, on the phone? >> yes, both. at dinners and on the phone. i said, no, no, no. when we were discussing me coming back i said it on the phone and at a dinner, this will not happen. you will not have the saucy talk anymore. he said, right, right, i would be your employer. that would never happen. of course not. i took that as a promise. i took that as a boundary that was explicit. he immediately within three and a half weeks bulldozed that boundary. he didn't just overstep it. he continued that. he did it the night before he spoke to the first lady. he did it a night during the republican convention. the night before he spoke to president bush. >> on the telephone him calling you up? >> correct. >> were these prearranged phone

calls? >> no. >> joining me are jeffrey toobin and lisa bloom who represents some of o'reilly's more recent accusers. lisa, how are your clients reacting to today's news? are they satisfied that bill o'reilly will not be returning to fox? >> this is a day of victory for us. i told them weeks ago that if you come out and speak your truth, he is going to be gone. he is going to be fired. they didn't believe me. i said, we are not going to give up. we are going to keep this story in all of the headlines. we are going to give the evidence and the witnesses that we have collected, my law firm has been working on this a long time, to the fox news attorneys. we will call it in to the hotline. we did that and we brought him down. i knew this was going to happen. my clients didn't believe me. but they are happy today. >> last night you said there are other people out there, you believe there are other people out there. i understand you actually now say you have a third person that's called the hotline today? >> yes. i have that on my speed dial.

today my third accuser client called in with me and reported her claim of sex discrimination and retaliation against bill o'reilly. of course, we didn't know that today was going to be the day he would be terminated. we were intending to keep the pressure on. she made the decision to come out with her name and tell her story and she did that. >> is she somebody who -- who is new or -- >> yes. >> what is she alleging? >> she was a frequent unpaid contributor on mr. o'reilly's show from 2008 to 2011. there she is. she's feisty and she would get into debates with limb as people do on cable news. at one point in one of the pretaped interviews, he accused her of being hysterical. she said to him she thought that was a sexist comment to call a woman hysterical. she said, you have to understand gendered origins of that time. she's a professor. she explained it to him. that part of the segment was cut. she never appeared on the show

again. she was completely frozen out. that's consistent with dr. wendy wal walsh's claim that once somebody really rebuffs o'reilly or stands up to o'reilly, that's it. it's over for them. >> this isn't a claim of sexual harassment? this is just of -- >> gender discrimination and retaliation. >> bill o'reilly is gone. it doesn't mean the women who have come forward or others can't still sue fox news, correct? >> it depends on mostly it seems on the statute of limitations. the statute of limitations bars older claims. the precise years vary depending on what you are alleging. it's in the range of five years. many of these goes back well beyond five years. you can be sure that one of the issues that was dealt with in the severance between bill o'reilly and fox news was that fox news would continue to indemnify, continue to pay any further damage judgments that

might come down the pike. >> lisa, you said two of your clients are not looking for damages. is that -- has anything on that changed now that fox has decided to get rid of bill o'reilly? >> none of my clients are seeking a penny. all of the work has been at no charge to them. i knew andrea back in 2004. i know that it was alleged that she had tapes of mr. o'reilly calling her while he was masturbating. another one of his accusers similarly has tapes like that according to the "new york times." this is a disgusting human being. anderson, these women not only stood up for their rights not to be sexually harassed, but they were driven out of fox news and driven out of the television industry entirely. none of them are currently working in the television industry. that's what really gets me. this is about women's rights to keep our jobs, not to be propositioned, not to have the threat of a job hanging over us

in that situation. >> if i could just make one point about that. the andrea case was 2004. from your interview. if fox news had done the right thing then, which was fire him, how many women would not have been sexually harassed in the subsequent decade and decade plus? it's not just that they didn't fire him. they effectively sentenced other women to suffer this kind of discrimination because o'reilly knew fox would write a check, it would go away, and he could continue doing it. and that i think is -- before anyone gives fox new credit for finally firing bill o'reilly, they ought to remember all the women who suffered because they didn't fire him whether they already knew how he behaved. >> lisa, what message do you think today sends? not only to your clients but just in general? >> yeah. i spent a lot of the last couple of weeks behind the scenes

talking to women like my anonymous client who is a clerical worker who was terrified to come out. ultimately, she did. i held her hand. she cried on my shoulder. there were a lot of hugs. i told her her we would protect her as best we could. you could not imagine the fear of somebody like that going up against bill o'reilly. the message this sends to women is, be bold. be brave. stand up for your rights. we can do this. get another strong woman to stand with you. do not allow people to trample on your rights. it's so important to report sexual harassment. my anonymous accuser from yesterday is now texting me, i wish i had done this years ago. i wish that women would do that. i think it's terribly important. >> jeff, lisa, thank you. just ahead, ties between trump associates and russia are the focus of multiple investigations. i will talk to the ranking member on the house intelligence committee about the latest.

of your allergy season for continuous relief. claritin provides powerful, non-drowsy, 24-hour relief. for fewer interruptions from the amazing things you do every day. live claritin clear. every day.

and these kids are having a bake sale for their soccer team so i need some cash. can i give you my mother's maiden name or my first concert or - [team member] oh, well, now you can just use your phone. [customer] my phone? [team member] yeah, just open the wells fargo mobile app and request a one-time access code. [customer] that's way better. all set. thanks. they have snickerdoodles! [team member whispers] i love snickerdoodles. [customer] thanks! if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression.

tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask your dermatologist about otezla today. otezla. show more of you.

as the trump presidency nears day 100, its ties to russia remain the focus of multiple investigations.

the fbi used a dossier of allegations as part of the justification to get approval to secretly monitor carter page. that's according to officials briefed on the probe. james comey has cited the dossier in some of his briefings as some of the sources of information bureau used. joining me is adam schiff. i appreciate you being with us. you probably can't comment on it but i have to ask. the reporting that we have that the fbi relied in part on the dossier to secure a fisa warrant and that director comey cited it, can you confirm any of that? >> no. you are right at the outset, i can't comment on this. i can tell you in terms of an update on our investigation that on a very positive note, i think the new republican lead is very serious about undertaking a

thorough and non-partisan investigation. we had a number of good conversations. i think we're close to agreement on our initial witness list and the process going forward. happily, i think the house investigation is back on track. >> can you say at this point -- talking about your witness list. republicans have been working on putting that together. obviously, democrats as well. have you finalized the list yet? can you tell us who is on it? >> we certainly haven't finalized the length and breadth of the witnesses we will want to hear from. they fall roughly into three categories. you have the analyst that produced the raw intelligence or the raw analysis of the intelligence that went into the unclassified assessment that the public read about the russian interference in our election. we want to make sure that the conclusions that the analysts reach are supported by that raw data. we also have witnesses that we would consider witnesses that

would testify about different issues in terms of what the russians did with the dnc or whether there was any coordination with the u.s. persons. we have agency heads and others as other kind of witnesses. obviously, we need to sequence this so we get the documents from people first, we interview certain witnesses that will lead us to other witnesses. in terms of the first group of witnesses, we're largely in agreement on those. we're also i think largely in agreement on the logistics of getting the information we need prior to their testimony. >> in the open hearing that you had the first hearing where director comey testified, obviously, there clearly was a division between the focus the republicans on your committee who are focused on leaks, which is something the trump white house wants and democrats and your focus in the witness list, are you still seeing those divisions? are the people -- the republicans want a list focussed on leaks and democrats on

russia's involvement? >> you know, i think that we all want to hear from the witnesses that both sides are selecting and i don't want to go into characterizing who is on what list. the most important point is that we're in agreement at least on the initial witnesses we want to bring in. you certainly saw a different focus in the first open hearing. one of the things that i said at the outset, the reason we chose to focus in the first hearing on that issue of collusion or coordination, it's among the least understood at that point by the public. we didn't know that during the course of the hearing that director comey was going to disclose the fbi was doing its own investigation. i thought it was important that the public understand why we were concerned about the issue. obviously, a lot of my republican colleagues thought it was important for the public to understand why they were concerned about the issue of leaks. but i think it's safe to say that we want to cover all of this ground. we want to cover whether the intelligence community got their assessment right. we want to cover how the u.s. government responded to this,

what accounted for what looks like a very lethargic reaction. the issue of collusion, the issue of leaks. all of these things we intend to explore. >> congressman schiff, i appreciate your time. >> thanks. >> an exclusive interview with health and human services secretary tom price. dr. sanjay gupta asked him what he thought when his boss said this about health care. >> i have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject. nobody knew health care could be so complicated. ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected. that's the power of and.

...that had the power to whawaken something old...... ...or painfully dated... ...or something you simply thought was lost forever... ...because it could form a strong bond, regardless of age... if a paint could give any time-worn surface stunning new life... ...you have to wonder... is it still paint? regal select exterior from benjamin moore®. only available at independently owned paint and hardware stores.

just me...your me and my four daughters.. there's a lot of dancing and pageants that go on in our kitchens and living rooms and things like that. i've had to learn to accept certain things like the fact that my toe nails and finger nails are going to be painted constantly. but it's really awesome to watch them at their own things. they're great kids. all of them. whatever home means to you, we'll help you find it.

zillow. day 100 of the trump presidency is ten days away. the white house is sending signals that is may take one more swing at repealing obamacare. vice-president pence talked about it. >> the president said the administration is going to have a big win soon on health care. you have been working it, even though you are thousands of miles away to try to take health care reform, obamacare repeal over the finish line. how is it going? >> president trump made it clear that the first priority of this

congress should be to repeal and replace obamacare. while it was clear that a little more than a month ago congress wasn't ready to do it, we have never relented in our commitment to keep that promise to the american people. i'm very confident that in the days ahead we're going to see congress come together. we're going to take that person first step to repeal and replace obamacare with the kind of health care reform that president trump envisioned. we're very encouraged at the discussions that are taking place among members of congress. and the president remains personally and directly engaged in these discussions. >> mr. pence did not say how many votes they have locked down. last month, the house health care bill was pulled before a final vote for lack of support. t >> real change begins immediately with the repealing and replacing of the disaster known as obamacare.

get rid of obamacare. it's going to be gone. it's going to be terminated. obamacare is a disaster. repeal it >> repeal and replace. >> repeal and replace. obamacare. we're going to get something going. repeal it, replace it. get something great. >> we're going to repeal and replace the horror that's known as obamacare. it is a horror. >> i will repeal and replace obamacare which is a catastrophe. we're going to kill it. let it die. let it die. and we're going to come up with something much, much better. you're going to have such great health care and at a tiny fraction of the cost and it's going to be so easy. >> tom price has had a key role in the efforts to replace obamacare. our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta talked to him in an exclusive interview. >> now, i have to tell you, it's

an unbelievably complex subject. nobody knew that health care could be so complicated. >> i just have to know, what did you think when you heard that in this is the president of the united states. it's the biggest initiative he wants to get done in 100 days. who knew it could be so complicated. >> this is challenging stuff, there's no doubt about it. >> he also says we're going to have insurance for everyone. he was asked if that's universal health care and when asked who is going to pay, he said the government is going to pay. you can't strip away $1 trillion and say that the government is providing health ker providing health care. >> we have a medicaid system where one out of three doctors say no. >> that means two out of three still see medicaid doctors. dr. price was one of those

doctors. where i perform operations every week. grady takes care of the neediest patients in the city which represent the 24 million that would lose their insurance under the republican-led bill. numbers that tom price disagrees with. >> they have medicaid and they are the ones most worried. what gives? what's going to happen to those patients? >> i would ask them what gives with the current system? what gives with the current system. >> well, there's more people insured than before. >> the concerns that they express about what's coming are appropriate and understandable because it's new. it's something different. >> you've been at this for a long time but also releasing your own version of the plan. there were differences in terms of what you talk about in empowering patients and the american health care act. did you agree with that bill? >> the bill that was discussed and put before congress is a significantly better program

than the one that we currently have. >> why would you settle for significantly better? >> the process that we have is not what secretary price thinks it ought to be, the legislation. it's what 535 individuals in the congress, the united states and the president believes is the most appropriate thing and best thing moving forward. >> one of the more contentious parts of the health debate revolves around insurance plans that lacked essential health benefits, skinny plans. as a doctor, even as a former congressman or secretary, what do you think of those so-called skinny plans? some don't offer in-patient care, for example. i find that extraordinary. if you're a young person and immortal in your own mind but suddenly diagnosed with a disease or get in a traumatic accident, you're going to need in-patient care. you bought the skinny plan.

you don't know what you're going to need until you need it. >> and you have 20 million people in this country who have said nonsense, i'm not going to be forced to do what you want me to do because i don't believe it's necessary. >> people who get in an accident, you and i and everyone else in this room picks up the bill. >> that's right. so shouldn't we allow them to have a plan that they want and make certain nobody falls through the cracks? >> i don't know what that means: in an effort to get them covered, what you may offer are plans that are cheap but useless. that's the concern. and people would go to the hospital and find out they didn't have things covered and it's part of the reason that health care costs is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the united states. >> so wouldn't we, as a compassionate society, step back and say, okay, that's a real problem and we need to address it. that's what we're trying to do. >> is there a plan b? >> there's plan a and plan a. we're going to get this done.

>> there's always a plan b. you just need to make sure you not only have a plan b but also a c and d and f as well. you've got to be able to pivot. >> you believe everyone should have health care insurance? >> absolutely. >> sanjay, he seemed unwilling or unable to answer your very fair question, which is, we're all going to end up paying for somebody who doesn't want to get insurance. >> that's sort of one of the big stumbling blocks of this last bill, was essential health benefits. if you don't have a health plan that covers the things that you need, you go up to the hospital, you're still going to get care. the difference is that the cost is going to be transmitted to everybody and i think it's a very basic question and i don't know how he or that bill specifically will plan on dealing with it. you can buy a health care plan. yeah, it's cheap. if it's not doing what you hope it would do, those costs are going to get defrayed to

everyone else. >> we said on the way to your piece, the white house is indicating they will take another shot very soon. after talking to the secretary, do you get a sense what that take two actually might look like? >> i think there's a few things. first of all, this idea that they could take away some of these essential health benefits, it's something that people should understand because you have a certain guarantee of what your health plan covers now. that may not exist. and that's something that's within his purview as hhs secretary. also rolling back the mandates, so people would not have this mandate to buy health care insurance. that's something he's very much against. so they say this bill in many ways was being attacked from the left and the right. based on my conversation with secretary price, where they are pivoting, i think, seems more to the right, not to the left in order to try and get something else done. but he absolutely said this was just the beginning of the phase. he thinks they're going to get it done. he thinks it's still within this phase and that could happen within the next period of time. >> we'll be watching.

sanjay, thanks very much. we'll be right back. [ex student] daddy's here. [wife] hi [dad] hey buddy [son] hey dad [wife] i think we can do this. [chancellor] adam baily. [chancellor] adam baily.

more news ahead. don lemon joins us now. "cnn tonight" starts right now. >> talk about your no spin zone, bill o'reilly dumped by fox news. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. the end of o'reilly