we see fake news spread we are wondering are we more insular or less connected. it is why he makes this big announcement to try to give communities tools to organize. think about the women's march and how impactful that was. that was a movement that started on facebook. this is mark's way of saying i understand my power and with that comes a lot of responsibility. we have seen the good and the bad and trying to give communities those types of tools to be able to come together in a better way and more efficient way for a better dialogue. >> and in politics, too, going back to obama years. appreciate the conversation this morning. thanks to all of our international viewers for watching. you can watch cnn talk up next. for u.s. viewers new day continues right now. this is cnn breaking news. >> good morning. welcome to your new day. chris is off.

david gregory joins me. the "washington post" has an exclusive new report on russia's interference. the "washington post" reports sources deep within russia revealed the hacks were directed by russian president vladimir putin. >> worth underlying how important that is evidence tying putin to this at a time when president trump calls it a hoax. it comes as the obama white house wrestled with the response concerned about adding fuel to already volatile election. they didn't want to tilt the election. joining us now is "washington post" reporter who is breaking the story this morning. >> great to be here. >> tell us. >> the story is basically trying to reveal what happened behind the scenes when the obama administration was deciding what to do, what happened here is that this intelligence arrived by courier from the cia in the first week of august. it was provided to a small group

of the president's top advisers and to the president himself. once they finished reading intelligence they were told to give it back to the courier so the courier could bring it back to langley. inside the package was information from such an important source that it was almost as if they were seeing directly putin's instructions on what to carry out here. >> let's talk about what i think is really the big headline here. this is an account that there was definitive proof that this was an attempt to interfere in the u.s. election directed by president putin himself. how can you report this so definitively? what gives you and the post so much confidence? >> as we know there was classified annex, classified version of the intelligence report that was made public in early january. this is the document that was provided to the president. it was provided to then-president-elect trump.

what we have learned and what we are revealing in today's report is what was in that document that was presented to trump by brennan, clapper, comey, during that meeting at trump tower back in january. that information now we are with holding some details about the nature of that intelligence to protect sources and methods at the request of the u.s. government but otherwise we are basically explaining what was in that document that obviously convinced obama and appeared at least at the time to address some of trump's concerns. as we have seen in recent days and weeks and months he apparently remains skeptical. >> explain to us just as openly or clearly as you can what is the direct line to putin? what convinced people that putin directed this? >> basically, the u.s. government had a very trustworthy source of

information here. this is exactly the kind of stuff that they have asked us not to discuss because they obviously are trying to protect their ability to continue to get information from this source of information. so i really can't go further than that. but effectively what they had was putin giving the directon to his team, his intelligence officers on what exactly he wanted them to do which was to intervene in the election to try to help trump win. >> that is what i was wondering. >> the other big question, the administration gets this. your reporting indicates there was not immediate agreement within the intelligence community about who is behind it initially and there were also questions on the part of the president, president obama, about how to respond given his concerns about making it look like he was tilting the election in one way or the other. how did the president want to

deal with this information when it came out? >> you have to understand when the information comes in it is just coming from cia sources. it is effectively raw intelligence. it hasn't been properly and fully analyzed. the national security agency had yet to pull in comparable intelligence that would back up what the cia was reporting. the president directs the intelligence community to basically come up with what is known as high confidence assessment. that means he wants them from the fbi, cia, nsa and other agencies to kind of reach a consensus on this intelligence. when he gets that he is prepared to issue the public statement that takes place. it's not in his name because he is worried about it looking like a political action on the part of the white house. so he has the intelligence community issue that statement on october 7. that's the first time the u.s. government says anything that

attributes the hacking to wiki leaks. -- excuse me, to the russians through wiki leaks then there is a debate about whether or not there should be retaliation before the election or after the election. obama is very concerned that if he retaliates before the election then putin might decide to tamper with voter roles or voting machines on or before election day. >> worth following up on this point that when the president, president obama meets with putin overseas before the election he effectively says knock it off, stop it or else. and that wasn't enough. >> they believe it was enough to stop him from going to the next level. at that point the damage had been done in terms of e-mails being leaked to wiki leaks, at least that is what the americans believe. they believe that that warning and other warnings that were

passed through other channels convinced putin not to go to the next level of actually trying to medal in the actual election itself, vote tallies, that kind of thing. they believe this. they don't know this. this is just something they believe. in fact, on election day as trump points out and others, there is no indication of any messing with voter turnout, the roles, the machines and so on. so it appears that putin did the damage that he wanted to do and basically at that point had pulled back. >> so as you know president trump has been very reluctant to say that he believes that russia officially medalled. he said maybe they did. maybe it was china. how did your reporting today move the needle to something more conclusive? >> well, you know, i think for a

lot of us who are trying to follow this story and it is a very complicated story. we have these developments that we report on but we don't know how they all connect together. we thought it would be important for us to kind of go back in time and try to re-create the moments, the tough decisions that were being made last summer and during the transition to piece that together. this is a look backwards to try to explain why did the obama administration not respond more forcefully at all? why didn't they respond before the election? and i think there is a revelation in the story which we haven't discussed which probably has not happened yet which is that obama signs at the end of his administration a covert finding which authorizes the cia, nsa and cyber command to start deploying what is known as cyber implants. these are basically equivalent of cyber time bombs, if you

will, in russian electronic infrastructure which could be used down the road in the future if there is a determination that there russians are, again, acting in ways that require a response. >> one final point which is you know the criticism that will come from president trump that these are government officials who are divulging either classified information or information about classified materials. are they doing it out of frustration that president trump refuses to acknowledge, embrace and react to the fact that this was an attack on america by russia's president? >> i don't want to get into motivations of the people who are talking to us. i think they are interested in basically an accurate history, early draft, if you will, of what occurred, being told at length and in substance so that people who read the story and

people out there and understand why the tough decisions were made that were made or maybe why actions that people thought should have been taken were not taken because of how complicated this was. >> this is three dozen current and former officials that you spoke to to get a full picture of how the obama administration first dealt with the revelations. >> thank you very much for breaking this news on our program. we have more questions for you. we want to bring in our cnn political analyst. i know you have been listening in to all of this. what are your thoughts listening to adam's reporting? >> my thoughts is that it is excellent reporting and it is another extremely detailed presentation of what was known in real time during the election, what led to certain decisions, why it is that there are so many democrats that are frustrated with what president obama did or didn't do.

i read the story which includes former ambassador in russia described it as essentially not doing enough in response to what he learned. but it is also interesting because you still have the current president, president trump, who has shown tremendous difficulty distinguishing between what is personal about him and what is institutional about the country, refusing to say whether he believes that this was russia behind this. in fact, he appeared to suggest exactly otherwise yesterday. i think this adds another layer and another very specific point to the current administration to be pressed on about why it is they refuse to accept the findings. >> because the president sees these questions as a way to question his legitimacy as president which these are not, it's not about that. he was elected as president of the united states. it is the question of what has

this administration done to make sure there is not a similar attempt or a more detailed attempt to interfere with what is happening in our electoral process. >> they are not doing anything about this. it was really so telling and quite stunning to hear from the attorney general jeff sessions in his testimony to the senate intelligence committee last week where he admitted he has not had a briefing on russian interference in our election. that is pretty stunning. what they are doing is allowing this to be conflated with the question of russian collusion to which trump and his allies continue to say no evidence turned up on that. we don't know what evidence has turned up on anything. this is a grave responsibility of the executive. he might be sore about the fact

that in his view this delegitimizes somehow the discussion about his victory if we keep talking about the russians intending to help him. we are sitting by wasting time while the russians continue to perfect their active measures. we already know there was a "time" magazine report out that they stole a bunch of voter information and successful attacks into voter databases. next time it will be messing with the numbers of the ballot box. they are certainly working on that now. if the congress doesn't step up and stop this i am happy to say there is a bill out called fight russian corruption act and has republican co-sponsors working with congressman meeks because it goes beyond just the meddling. it is a vast crime network they are using for their advantage. this is something that if we

just sit around and fight about russian collusion we are wasting time mitigating this threat which is being perfected with each passing week. >> for people just joining us, give us the headlines again. is it that your new reporting is, to your mind, the most deeply sourced reporting that you have done thus far on the connection between putin directing this interference into the u.s. election that he directly wanted the dnc computers hacked and fixed? >> this story does not address the question of collusion or so-called collusion. this is basically the story of how the intelligence community discovered and how the obama administration reacted to that intelligence that putin personally made this call to his intelligence services to carry out this operation. basically, then takes you in the

situation room with the principals as they wrestled with whether or not to respond. you can definitely, depending on where you sit on this, you can definitely judge them harshly for the way they handled it or as you can see in the story you can see how complicated this was for them to deal with. >> to what extent was the trump campaign aware during the campaign that as the headline of your story asserts that the cia was picking up directly that putin wanted to help trump and hurt clinton in the election? to what extent were they aware of that and put on notice about it? >> he definitely was not put on notice at least not officially. this was so closely held at first that number of cabinet level officers that were allowed to notice information was -- the

defense secretary and the secretary of state, for example, were not informed until early september of this -- were not brought into this discussion within the white house until early september. it is kept so close within the situation room. in fact, they turned off the internal cameras in the situation room so that people at their desks at certain offices in the national security council wouldn't be able to see who is in the situation room because they really wanted nobody to know that these meetings and this intelligence existed. it was because of the sensitivity in sources and methods. they went to lengths that they haven't taken since the bin laden raid and the run up to the bin laden raid where it was so sensitive that there might be a leak that they kept it so close they kept john kerry and ash

carter, defense secretary out of these meetings until september which is just extraordinary. >> that is fascinating background. maggie, here we are today. from that moment that putin gave this directive it has mushroomed obviously to all of the chaos that has been sewn during the election. we are still dealing with it now. and president trump is still trying to get his arms around and compartmentalize what is what and what his campaign did and did not do. he gave an interview to fox in which he touched on this. let me play this for you. >> i don't have tape. when he found out that there may be tapes out there whether it is governmental tapes or anything else and who knows, i think his story may have changed. you will have to take a look at that. because then he has to tell what took place at the events.

my story didn't change. my story was always a straight story. my story was always the truth. you will have to determine for yourself whether or not his story changed. >> he is talking about james comey. >> lots of ways we can clear this up. i think it is interesting that the president says whether there are governmental tapes. what is that? they were meeting at the white house. what does that mean? >> i put those into two buckets. one is that this president has conducted a pretty extraordinary public campaign against the nation's intelligence agencies. i don't think we have ever seen anything like this. so that is one bucket. the other is the legal bucket for himself where suggesting that he was talking who knows? i wasn't taping. anybody could have been taping those. who knows. it wasn't me is a way to move it away as i said earlier from any suggestion that he was trying to

put pressure on comey before his testimony with that statement. that was a very, very heavily legal tweet lawyered by white house counsel put out yesterday. his answer with fox news was pretty similar. i am a little lost in the hedge maze of what he was saying. i think what he was talking about is the story that didn't change by him is that comey told him he wasn't under investigation. that was the case. but comey also made clear that if that changed he didn't want to have to go public and say that again. >> i think the president would argue and his defenders would argue however inappropriate he may have been he was so frustrated by the fact he is being told you not under investigation. he is like can't you just say that. that is a more charitable way to look at that. i think that is the argument he would make. >> i agree with that totally. we will have more on all of

this as we continue. we will talk with kellyanne conway in our next hour for all of these breaking developments. we are going to have more on the "washington post" reporting about russian interference in the u.s. election and will talk about the battle over the senate health care bill that is only just beginning. will democrats work to hammer out a compromise? what is their plan? oregon senator jeff murphy will join us next. you do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance.

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election getting this information that putin had directed this interference. what do you make of this new reporting? >> up until now we assumed putin was very involved, nothing like the extensive hacking effort could occur without his involvement. now we actually know, yes. putin directed it. he had a specific goal to defeat hillary clinton and explains the huge coordinated effort. >> it also reports that president obama didn't want to do something terribly aggressive. he didn't want to be perceived as given that putin was trying to manipulate this he didn't want to be perceived as throwing the election for hillary clinton instead of donald trump. he wanted to walk lightly into this. in retrospect does it seem that president obama did not act aggressively enough?

>> it is a dilemma. it would have been seized upon as an attempt to bias the election. there was enormous bias in the election because of the russians. how do you balance that out without further damaging? it is an extremely difficult problem. americans have to understand the extensive methods that the russians used to intervene. it involved 1,000 trolz, fake news, hacking, bot nets to generate fake messages on social media. it was massive. >> what should president trump be doing? >> you need to have a cyber command that works with the other democrat republics in the world. russia didn't want to just undermine hillary clinton but wanted to undermine legitimacy of elections in the western world. our system of government is at stake. we have to be prepared to expose

every piece of their involvement as it happens and to fend it off and retaliate and hopefully deter it. >> connected, of course, is the whole charade about the tapes whether or not there were audio tapes. were you surprised yesterday to learn president trump does not have audio tapes? >> he said i didn't record it and i don't have any tapes which leaves questions about whether here worded that specifically because there is more information to obtain. there is nothing quite frankly that i can trust about what this president says because he bends the truth or just breaks it outright time after time. >> health care. so the republicans revealed their health care plan. i know that you say that it is a mean plan. cbo hasn't scored it yet. >> like the previous house plan it proceeds to demolish expansion of medicaid.

in my state 400,000 people would lose health care. one out of three people on oregon health plan. then creates inflation index 2.5% in 2016. that is where the meaner part comes in. this is "dumb and dumber." this is mean and meaner but a tragedy or horror show. >> meaning there will be less money allocated to the poor. what they say is we will let states decide how to handle their own poor and their own needy and their own medicare. how can the federal government know what oregon needs? >> having 50 different health care systems makes no sense. for a fundamental right this is like you have transportation. you have education. you have health care. these are the fundamentals.

it's not just that this strips health care for millions of people. it transfers the wealth. the 400 richest americans would get $33 billion out of this bill over ten years. that's equivalent to stripping health care from 700,000 americans. >> what are you going to do about it? >> we are going to defeat it. this will be a black mark on america. people will die. >> i hear your passion but you don't have the numbers. >> we hope that there are people of character in the republican party who will join us. they will have multiple opportunities. the first opportunity is to not vote to get on to the bill because there has been no public process for a bill with devastating consequences. this is a zero committee meetings and we had over 100 committee meetings, walk throughs eight years ago. this is zero amendments in committee and we have over 400

amendments considered and 100 republican amendments adopted eight years ago. this is zero months to consult with constituents. for that reason alone my republican colleagues, this is not a dictatorship. this is a democracy. >> thank you very much. great to have you here with us. let's go back to david. so much news to cover today. remember president trump threatened there may be tapes with fbi director james comey. did the president further damage his credibility with his bluff? we will ask a republican lawmaker coming up next. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced. our senses awake. our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say...if you love something set it free.

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we are following breaking news that the cia captured russian president vladimir putin that he ordered the hacks on the u.s. election and how president obama struggled to respond to punish the kremlin. joining me now is congressman kingsinger. so what is striking about this reporting this morning is it says putin directly wanted to hurt clintb and help trump.

that's the post reporting. what else we know is that there is no doubt about the fact that russia from the intelligence community assessment wanted to influence the 2016 election. and finally we know that president trump still doesn't believe this as definitive. based on this reporting, what should happen now? >> well, this is zero percent surprise to me. we have seen this not just in the united states. we have seen it in the cold war and now through this election and in all of our allies in europe. putin is attempting to undermine democracy everywhere. i argue to an extent he has been successful where people question the results of an outcome. i think president trump was legitimately elected by people who voted for him. but, this is a very serious issue about defending democracy and our country and integrity of the election system so we have

to go back to countering russia dismfrgz. congress has to work with the white house to give them tools to pushback. this is a very serious issue. >> don't you need to take on the leader of the republican party of your party for failing to call this what it is and failing to respond? he has never inquired in all conversations with comey and all the rest didn't want to know about the underlying offense. does that offend you? >> it bothers me because what it comes down to is that he is worrying that it is delegitimizing his presidency. i don't think vladimir putin elected donald trump. but i think we also have to recognize the fact that this happened and know as -- let's say i am just concerned about this as a partisan republican only. the reality is in two or four years it will serve vladimir putin's interest to take down

the republican party. if we weren't upset about it we have no right to complain in the future. this is about defending the democracy and the institution of election which is essential to people having faith in institution of government. i wish president trump would admit it. his administration has. i guess that is a first step. >> except that he is the commander in chief. leadership has to come from the top. in that vein as i ask you whether this president is soft on russia, i will ask you also to say are you disappointed that the obama administration did not more forcefully respond when it got this information as some in the obama administration were advocating? >> here is the quandary in what is happening between the last president and this president. this president doesn't talk very strong on russia but acts very strong on russia. the bombing on the air field in syria, hitting various forces aligned with assad, weapons to

ukraine. his policies have been good and words haven't necessarily. the last president, president obama, i have great respect for him as man. he said tough things about russia in the last few years of his presidency but didn't do anything tough. to hear that the election was attempting to be influenced or ordered to be influenced by vladimir putin and that president obama struggled with something to do is also of zero surprise for me because he did that all through syria, eastern europe and kraen and ukraine. >> in terms of countering with -- >> but let's be clear. you say that president trump has actually done tough things against russia. you mentioned a couple of them. he has not done anything to prevent russia from doing this and this being to -- he has done nothing to stop them from

attempting to interfere in a u.s. election in the future. look what he has done in ukraine attacking energy. he hasn't done anything. his administration has done nothing to counter that. >> the administration, i had a great meeting with general mcmaster. they understand there are plans and more things i can't talk about in open source. i think the president lending his voice to the issue is extremely essential. i think if i was advising the white house i would say let's get very focussed on our message of what you want to-do as a republican party and what we want to do internationally. admit that russia is a real problem. admit that interfering in our election on or against you it doesn't matter. the fact is it under mines our foundation of democracy. today's thing that may benefit your party or may benefit you is we can't have any of it.

admitting it is the first step to defeating it. >> i think it is very important to do what you have done which is to say this was an attack on america. doesn't mean that donald trump was not legitimately elected. there is investigation as to whether the president illegally interfered or if there is collusion. we know the president did threaten the former fbi director with tapes that no longer exist. we know he is going out of his way to say bob mueller is an unfair guy, the special counsel. >> i don't like public character assassination. i was confused when people said bob mueller is a great guy which i believe and started to pivot. it is natural that bob mueller and comey would be friends because they are both fbi directors. i also said let's get to the bottom of it and answers. so this kind of public character

assassination is not it for me. >> do you think the president is trying to interfere with the progress of the investigation? >> no. i don't. but i also think that's not my place. that's where the independent counsel will have that. people want answers today right now. the problem is this will take a while. i think the president needs to say let the investigation happen. this is what bill clinton did very well. my focus is on what we need to do for the american people. >> thanks for your time. always appreciate it. >> another story. v.a. is touting major strides in addressing egregious wait times uncovered by a cnn investigation. so today are veterans getting better care? we take a closer look.

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>> quite frankly it is hard to tell if things have improved. the v.a. says things have improved. they rely on feeding us data to show us things have improved. as we have said from the very beginning the data is simply not to be believed. the scandal erupted when whistleblowers proved the v.a. was lying about how long patients were waiting and in some cases dying while waiting for care. major shake ups. billions spent. and now much improved wait times reported by the v.a. that sounds good, but deborah draper with the u.s. government's own accountability office has heard it all before. >> the numbers have been reporting based on their work are not reliable numbers. >> reporter: draper is the director of health care investigations for the gao which has labelled v.a.'s health care high risk in terms of government

management. it has done so since 2015. draper says even today the v.a.'s wait time data is simply not to be believed. >> they are longer. >> and almost every case we find actual wait times are longer than what the v.a. is reporting. >> reporter: it has been nearly four years since cnn began exposing the secret wait list, delays in care in the patients who died waiting for that care. it's been three years since congress approved $16 billion in additional funding so the v.a. could fix those problems. since 2009 the v.a.'s budget has nearly doubled and yet the problems and some would say the lies at the v.a. persist. >> still happening. >> reporter: the former lead investigator for the house veterans affairs committee, the congressional committee that led a years long investigation into veterans dying while waiting for care. yes, he says, then as now the

v.a. is not telling the truth about wait times. >> none of it. the office of inspector general says the same thing. it was that way in 2014 when reported on the wait time scandal. it is that way in 2017. cannot trust the v.a.'s information. >> just this march a damming v.a. inspector general report on seven medical centers found patients waited an average of 61 days for specialty care. two months and the report found many patients in specialty care services experienced long wait times which were not accurately calculated. the wait times were being manipulated, in other words. one of multiple examples, a mental health patient seeking care. the electronic scheduling system showed a zero day wait time when the veteran actually waited 120

days. the v.a. inspector general determined staff inappropriately discontinued or cancelled an estimated 4,600 appointments. what is it like to make a medical appointment at the v.a.? >> i need to make appointments? >> reporter: tracy rodriguez invited us to find out. her husband served three tours in iraq and afghanistan and relies on v.a. for health care. april 24 she sat at a kitchen table and let us listen while she tried to make three medical appointments. >> i think they had one person answering the phone. >> reporter: the phone call itself took more than half an hour. >> he needs to see euroology. a sooner than july or june. >> reporter: wait forrurology two months. when she tries to get an appointment for eye doctor,

doctor -- three months. >> one out of three is not bad. >> reporter: it's so frustrating for these people. the v.a. not respond about reliability of their data. telling us 22% of veterans are seen on a same-day basis, they said, but they acknowledge the wait times are a continuing problem. >> we see the frustration in the faces. thank you for your reporting and being on the front line of all of this. meanwhile, you all know about the criticism of obamacare, but it's also been a big success story in some states. the former governor of kentucky will be here to give us his take on the new gop health care plan and what it means for kentucky. [vo] what made secretariat the greatest racehorse who ever lived? of course he was strong... ...intelligent. ...explosive. but the true secret to his perfection... was a heart, twice the size of an average horse.

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ask a financial advisor how life insurance from lincoln can help start protecting your family's financial future now. four gop senators say they do not yet support the health care bill as it is currently written. a main area of concern, cuts to medicaid and the impact on poorer americans. >> great guest joining us, steve beshear, former democratic governor of kentucky. he's an author, and in kentucky, medicaid was very successful. ky is fascinating. a lot of family which the governor knows, also mitch mcconnell, rand paul. based on your experience in the state of kentucky, what specific

harm do you feel the repeal and replace plan by republicans would do if it ultimately comes to fruition? >> david, mitch mcconnell and his buddies ought to be ashamed of themselves for playing these partisan political games with the lives of about 24 million americans. they talk about these 24 million people like they're aliens from some distant planet, but, you know, these are folks we sit in the bleachers with and watch the ball game on friday night. we shop in the grocery with them on saturday. we pray in church with them on sunday. it's the mother who called me up the other day, who has a son with hemophilia and is so worried and frightened she's going to lose her coverage and not have her son have the medications he needs to survive. it's the guy in the bowling alley where i took my two grandchildren the other day, who walked up to me and said, after he confirmed i'd been governor, he says, my whole family has health coverage because of you.

thank you. you know, these are the people that are being affected. >> right, but, governor, there's another side to this, too. >> this is unconscionable what they're doing. >> you've had services in kentucky, undeniably. but you don't have healthy people in the obama health care system and it's had an impact on the overall health care. we can appreciate the anecdotes and people getting insures but there is a need for obamacare to be addressed, right? >> exactly right, david. what do you do? address the needs. don't throw the baby out with the bath water. you don't throw 24 million people out of coverage. you fix what's wrong. and that needs to be done in washington. that system is so dysfunctional up there it's amazing. you mentioned my book, "people over politics" what they ought to be doing. putting people first, politics second, but they keep playing these games. won't sit down and work with each other and work through the issues that the affordable care

act does have, and solve those issues so we have better coverage. >> why were you able to -- excuse me -- implement it, make work so well in kentucky, whereas other states felt it didn't work for them? >> we went out and sold it for what it was. i want the people of kentucky, most of whom didn't vote for president obama, and i said, look, you don't have to like the president and you don't even have to like me, because this is not about him or me. it's about you. it's about your family. it's about your kids. so just do me a favor and go online and take a look at what you might get, and i'll guarantee you, you'll like what you see. well, they took me at my word, and they liked what they saw, and all at once 500,000 kentuckians in 18 months had signed up on obamacare. and our uninsured rate dropped from 20% to 7% during that 18 months and they are taking advantage of this health care coverage. the screenings for everything

from cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure. you name it, they're getting screenings for it, catching chronic conditions early. we're teaching them how to manage those chronic conditions, and so they're going to have longer lives. they're going to have better quality lives. you know, this is what america should be all about. it's about us giving quality health care to our people. let's fix what's wrong, but all of these political games of just -- being against what we've got simply because president obama got it passed. >> well, but, governor, to be fair, there's a lot of conservatives in your state who don't believe it is the federal government's job, or appropriate role, to be subsidizing insurance all across the land. to tense of million tens of mi even if they need it. and obamacare has not always delivered in terms of the regulations that come with it and prices of premiums. what i'm getting to is, what

about the current bill that's being debated that could be improved that it would at least address some of your concerns? which are fundamental. which is, don't throw those people off of insurance. i get it. how could you make what they're debating now better? >> well, if you look at what they're debating right now, it's going to throw those people out. it's going to limit the medicaid expansion. it's going to do away with the expansion eventually and then start shrinking the medicaid program itself. you know, when you go to this block grant stuff, all the governors, when they hear flexibility, that sounds good. you know what the only flexibility governors will have when they limit the amount of money that comes in for medicaid? the flexibility to decide who to throw off the program, or what benefits to do away with. there's nothing about this bill that is good for folks. if they want to have something that will expand coverage and make it more cost-effective, then let's take what we've got. work on the kinks in it.

work out the kinks. give center to the insurance companies who need it. that's why they're sitting on the sidelines right now, because of all of this uncertainty that the republicans created about what's coming next. >> right. >> create that certainty and we can move on with this. >> governor steve beshear, thank you very much for giving us your take on this new health care bill. great to see you. >> you're welcome. following a lot of news, including a live interview with president trump's counselor kellyanne conway. so let's get right to it. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news -- good morning, everyone. welcome to your chris is off this friday. david gregory is with us. busy friday. >> very busy friday. >> a baombshell report in "the washington post" that vladimir putin ordered the hacks on the u.s. election. the cia captures putin's instructions to hurt hillary clinton and try