tv New Day CNN July 17, 2017 4:00am-5:00am PDT
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approaching six months in office, the president has the worst job approval rating since modern polling began. >> the president wasn't aware of the meeting and did not attend. >> i'm not sure why we take anybody at the senior level of the trump administration at their word. >> they can call it a fishing expedition, a witch hunt. nonetheless, real evidence is coming forward that can't be ignored. >> we will see the beginning of the end of the nightmare of obamacare. >> republican health care bill in the senate is a piece of junk. >> this is a system that is crying out for reform and revision, and that's what we're trying to do. >> the longer is bill is out there, the more conservative republicans are going to discover that it's not repeal. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning, welcome to your "new day." chris is off this morning.
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john berman joins me. great to have you here. >> happy to be here. >> a new poll shows president trump's approval rating sliding the a record low. the abc news "washington post" poll finds 36% of americans approve of the job mr. trump is doing, the lowest of any president in seven decades. mr. trump unleashing a flurry of tweets defending his son's meeting with the russian attorney and once again attacking the media and hillary clinton. >> this as one of the president's biggest campaign promises, to repeal and replace obamacare, faces a new setback. the senate delayed the vote as senator john mccain recovering from blood clot surgery. let's begin with cnn's joe johns live at the white house. good morning, joe. >> good morning, john. president trump is back in washington, d.c. frankly hoping to turn the page after a week of revelations regarding donald trump jr.'s meeting with the russian lawyer. it does appear that the swirl of
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contingency is continuing to affect the president's approval ratings. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> reporter: after nearly six months in office, president donald trump facing the lowest approval rating in recent history, just 36% approve of the president's performance in a new abc news/"washington post" pole. the president attempting to spin these results, claiming almost 40% is not bad and asserting that the poll was inaccurate during the election. the poll also showing that 63% of americans think the meeting between trump junior, paul manafort and jared kushner and a russian lawyer to get dirt on hillary clinton was inappropriate. >> most people would have taken that meeting. it's called opposition research. >> reporter: the president once again focusing on his former rival in a sunday morning tweet while defending his son, amid
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the latest revelations that at least eight people attended the meeting including a russian american lobbyist who served in the soviet military, this inspite trump junior's insistence that everything about the meeting has been disclosed. >> i don't think there's anything else. we scoured it thoroughly. >> he first said the meeting never happened, then said it was about adoptions, then admitted the meeting was about getting information on hillary clinton. then he wasn't forthcoming about who was in the meeting. we can't accept anything don junior says. >> one of the president's personal lawyers also coming to trump junior's defense during a pr blitz on the sunday shows. >> donald trump jr. himself said things should have been done differently. having said that, none of that is violation of the law. that's more process. >> reporter: while raising a possible defense of the meeting. >> if this was nefarious, why did the secret service allow these people in? >> reporter: the secret service pushing back that donald trump jr. was not a protectee of the usss in june 2016, thus we would
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not have screened anyone he was meeting with at the time. not to be overlooked this morning, the senate delaying its highly anticipated vote to repeal and replace the obama health care plan because senator john mccain is recovering from surgery. also delayed, the release of the cbo score or the financial estimate, if you will, of the health care plan now on capitol hill. john and alisyn, back to you. >> we will have dr. sanjay gupta on our show later in the program to help us understand what senator mccain is going through and what the prognosis is. let's bring in our panel to discuss all this. we have cnn political analyst john avlon, realclearpolitics' amy stoddard and "the washington post's" car reason demirjian.
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>> give us perspective, john, on the abc poll that finds president trump at 36% approval. >> it is an unprecedented low in the history of polling. no president has been this low. people closest are people like gerald ford. major reason for that is he pardons richard nixon. that's the kinds of contemporary political baggage we're dealing with. bill clinton, also, this may be the most instructive parallel, really gets creamed in the public poll numbers, particularly low at the five-month mark. he brings in david goering ginn, fellow cnn analyst, a member of the reagan administration, nixon administration to try to steady the ship. he eventually subs out his chief of staff in favor of leon panetta. that makes all the difference. he took the poll numbers in rough shape because of a series of small scandals and redid the way his white house operated. >> no sign that the trump white house has changed at all. they face continuing disapproval
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over the russia drip, drip, drip, things that keep coming out, a.b., 60% of the polling say the meeting with donald trump jr. and the russians was inappropriate. another number, a.b., really remarkable, the poll of those who voted for obama in 2012 and then flipped. in those counties, 44% approval, 51% disapproval. under water. looking at key trump voters, voters he really needs and they may be starting to turn on him, a.b. >> right. you see republicans clinging to the republican support percentages in these polls for donald trump and thinking they have more time because if their party turns on him, they'll be forced to. as we know, stutrump has about
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36% that will stick with him no matter what. they want to be looking at republican support. they'd prefer the high 80s, now getting into the low 80s, not seeing the republicans overall breaking away from him, the loss of support among independents in those soft trump voters, the ones who voted for obama and thought, well, it's a risk, but this guy really sounds like he has a great plan, he's going to get to d.c. and knock heads, been a successful businessman desperate for change, hillary clinton is the epitome of the incumbent of establishment and the status quo. we have to move on here. those are the ones where he's going to bleed support. remember, his numbers on election day in exit polls were pretty bad. he had very strong disapproval. there was a strong majority the entire time in polling among voters, even who supported him on election day who said he did not have the qualifications for the office and to serve as commander-in-chief.
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as we look to the midterms, republicans will be looking at the first number i mentioned, republican support. but then they're going to be looking at the loss of independence. where does that battle for the house next year, that 23-4 seat battle for republicans to cling to the majority, where does it take place? in the districts that hillary won or trump won by 5% or less, not the strong districts where trump is loved. it's the ones that are on the margins. those are the ones they're worried about. >> karoun, it's hard to think all these different russia developments are impacting the president's approval rating as well as the idea that because of those he's not able to get to the agenda items he promised. this weekend there were more developments, and president trump's personal attorney, jay sekulow, did the rounds on the sunday morning shows and he basically said, if everybody was going b to be so bothered by these russians or russian americans who met with don junior, why didn't the secret
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service flag it? they could have flagged it. they could have said that he shouldn't be meeting with these people. secret service has come out now in a highly unusual statement. they rarely talk. they said, no, we didn't know. donald trump jr. was not a protectee of the secret service in june of 2016, they say. thus we would not have skreends anyone he was meeting with at that time. your thoughts. >> right, if we are to take what the president's lawyer said in the most generous light, you could say, well, because the meeting was in trump tower, if trump was in trump tower at the time, there may have been some sort of guarding mechanism that the secret service is participating in, the idea that they shut down the whole building, that seems to be further than they were going at the time because people were coming in for other reasons than to meet with the president. maybe in that situation the secret service might have had some sense. it's raising the question of, okay, if he's raising the secret service has a defense mechanism,
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does that mean it got closer to trump, does that mean he was involved in neating or knew of the meeting, where the secret service would have been involved in some way? is it something he let slip because it's a good sounding thing to say, it makes it seems like the whole building was under secret service security lockdown because the president was there and nobody would get in or out without the secret service approving that or is there an indication that maybe there was something else that we don't know about? this has been a very big thing, the president saying he only found out about it a few days before it was public information, that this meeting took place. if that's not the case, that means there's more obfuscation and it raises larger questions because, again, this has become a really central piece of the case that many people were trying to make that there was coordination between trump's team and russian operatives. if that goes up to the president, that's a very, very different matter than the president's son. >> the only thing sekulow was trying to do was distract there
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and throw smoke. what was remarkable is the secret service wasn't having any of it. they said, huh-uh, this is not our issue, there's no protection implications here. john avlon, something else remarkable happened. senate republicans delayed the vote on health care. why? because john mccain had surgery and is in arizona recovering. we send the best to john mccain and his family. no question he's going to come out of this okay. the fact that one guy can't vote the way that mitch mcconnell wants him to vote this week means that this vote can't happen at all. it just shows how close things are. >> that's exactly right. don't buy any spin that says it's a sign of strengths and the bill will get stronger over time. that's never the case. if they had the votes, they would be pushing forward. we do wish john mccain all the best in this. it's not just the margins are bad. it's that they're under water. susan collins said there are even more senators that have more trouble. there are republican governors coming out against the bill.
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you're left to vice president pence saying, i believe this bill won't hurt people on medicare and medicaid. other republicans are calling bs on that. this is a bill in real trouble. there's little history of bills getting stronger over the august restaurant. >> a.b., when you poke around on capitol hill, what's the thought? is something going to be voted on next week? >> there's a lot of concern obviously about the fact that you already have collins and rand paul -- susan collins and rand paul coming out against the bill. that leaves you right at the margin with vice president pence being the 51st tie breaking vote. as john was saying, with senator collins raising the specter of another seven people having concerns, most particularly senator heller in nevada with his governor, he's made comments that the bill is not good enough, bearing down on him. of course, governor kasich in ohio bearing down on senator portman. there's a bunch of people we can see voting against this bill.
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they always think it's doomed until they hoped mitch mcconnell pulls that rabbit out of the hat. >> for whatever reason, cbo says it's not going to give the score today which may have been more tough news trying to push this through. nothing is happening right now. stick around. other news we want to tell you about. search operations resume in central arizona for a missing 27-year-old man swept away in this weekend's flash flooding. at least nine people were killed, including six children. it's believed they were all taking part in a family outing in a switching hole 90 miles north of phoenix on saturday. heavy rain triggered a mudslide. four family members were rescued. more than 7 million people cast their ballots in venezuela in a symbolic rejection of president nicolas maduro's plan to rewrite the constitution. that nation hit with months of violent anti-government protests. meanwhile one woman died as she waited to vote in the unofficial referendum on sunday. men on motor bikes fired at a
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group of people killing her and injuring at least three others. the driver of an suv is in critical condition this morning after crashing onto the roof of a st. louis home. look at that! >> how did that happen? >> i will tell you. witnesses say the driver was speeding as he approached the intersection in front of the house. the suv went up an embankment and apparently went airborne. it took more than an hour for the fire department to rescue the man from the suv. fortunately no one was home in the house at the time of the crash. >> how fast do you have to be going to make your suv airborne? >> that's crazy. that's just crazy. does it make it a three-car garage now? that's crazy. glad he was okay. >> me, too. meanwhile, he testified behind closed doors. now a former trump campaign adviser is talking to usment what he told the house intel committee about the trump campaign and russia next. (avo) come with us...
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president trump defended his son as new details surface about that meeting at trump tower with a russian lawyer and her associates. one former trump campaign official, michael caputo testified about what he knows. the president praised him saying thank you to former campaign adviser michael caputo for saying there was no russian collusion in our winning campaign. michael caputo joins us now. good morning, michael. >> good morning. how are you? >> i'm doing well. you testified for four hours behind closed doors. can you tell us what they wanted to know and what you told them? >> well, it would seem to me in a lot of ways, and i think the attorney who is a veteran prosecutor, that this is a fishing expedition to some
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degree. there were some very well directed, well researched questions and they asked me a lot about individuals going after name after name after name. they asked about the six or seven years i lived in russia in the 1990s which was rather a historical discussion and had nothing to do with donald trump. i think they were looking for the context i brought to the campaign. i was hoping i was successful in clearing up the matter. >> i think you were successful certainly in gripping and holding their attention because congressman danny heck said of your appearance, i will tell you that's probably the most fascinating three hours of time i have spent in my five years in the united states house of representatives. what was he referring to? >> well, i'm also fun to go have a beer with, but at the same time there is no russian collusion. i think it's a delusion. i think while we had a nice discussion -- by the way, this is an intimidating thing. i spent my time in the house of representatives coordinating television clove raj of
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committee hearings. i've been to and coordinated coverage of more than 100 of them. you still don't know what you're going to get into when you get behind closed doors with the house intelligence committee. it seemed like a pretty partisan operation before i walked in there. every single member who was present, including minority leader adam schiff were very polite to me, very direct and very forthright with their questions. but i didn't have any notice that it was highly partisan. >> that's nice. you came away believing it was fair. that's very good for us to know. you resigned 11 days after what we now know took place there with this don junior, paul manafort, jared kushner meeting with this russian attorney and her associates. did you know about that meeting? >> no, i did not. after i left the campaign headquarters to go to work at the convention on or about like june 1st, i went into a silo and into a command structure and i
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reported to the campaign through the director of caucus operations at the convention. it wouldn't be unusual for me not to hear about this kind of a meeting. >> had you ever heard of natalia veselnitskaya? >> no. i've talked to people i know trying to figure out who she is. none of them heard of her. i don't think she's a creme live operative like they're saying. she's someone who i never heard of until she was revealed in the media. >> if, when you worked at the campaign, don junior had come to you, knowing your work in russia, and said, hey, i just got this e-mail from a pal who says this comes from the highest levels of the russian government and that they have some dirt on hillary clinton that they'd like to give us. what would you have told him to do? >> i would have said kick it up stairs, kick it to the attorneys, kick it to the operation research department to see if this an appropriate or
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even worthwhile meeting. you don't want those meetings to even come anywhere close to the president or to the president's family. i mean any operation research meetings, whether they come -- no matter where they come from. as an experienced campaign operative, i might have seen a red flag, but at the same time you have to understand that the members of the family -- this is the first time president trump ever ran for office. his kids were unfamiliar with it, and i can see how don junior might make a mistake. i appreciated his candor after this stuff broke and then broke again and broke again in a tv interview where he said it's something, if he could do it over again, he would do it differently. i respect that. >> i hear you, that don junior and his family are political neophytes, but paul manafort isn't. why was paul manafort in that meeting? >> i tell you, i've known paul for 30 years. i know at that time he was getting upwards of 500 e-mail messages a day.
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paul probably did not read all the way down several inches into the string of the e-mail. he received a meeting request from the president's son, and his job at that moment was to say yes and to go. the meeting didn't last long. i think people attending the meeting realized the context of the meeting and ended it pretty quickly. >> do you know the lobbyist who was in that meeting, do you know the name -- i think this is the right name rinat akhmetshin? >> i don't know him. i have not heard of him, but there are a lot of russians, russian americans who work in washington, some with the highest levels of security clearance and also lobbyists who work on the margins of the government. it's not unusual to me that someone like him would have been in the washington orbit. it seems a little odd he'd be in that meeting, but ms. veselnitskaya was looking for a friend to take and i guess she
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took him i understand from some of the meeting reports that he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. i don't think he was expecting to be there either. >> from your experience, working in russia for as many years as you did and even coming into contact with vladimir putin, is it now your impression that vladimir putin was looking to somehow compromise or co-opt or play the trump campaign? >> i think the russian government looks to get involved in elections for every single one of the countries in the united nations security council at least and probably many, many more. our country does the same. it's important to note in 1994, my government, the clinton administration, sent me to russia to get involved in their elections. we do the same thing. >> i hear this from a lot of people. you think the u.s. is the same as russia, you put those on an even par in terms of election meddling. >> i don't know it's an even par
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because i'm not quite sure of what we do. i don't know if we hack or phish e-mails. i'm not quite sure we do. i know the direct involvement, sending advisers to go in and work on partisan elections all around the world. we saw president obama send a team over to the israeli election to tip that in favor of his favorite candidate. so it may be different. i'm not sure we're on par. we both get involved in foreign elections in our own way to try to tilt them in our favor. to sit there as the democrats and the committees wagging their finger as if this is something only done by the russians, that just -- it's a dubious claim. >> do you consider russia a hostile foreign power? >> of course not. when i heard that on the show this morning, it raised an eyebrow. unless i woke up and didn't hear the news, we or not at war with russia. i can remember when george w. bush was trying to make things
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better in our relations. i remember hillary clinton giving a misspelled restart button to the foreign minister of the russian federation wanting to gain better relations. i think donald trump wants to have better relations with every country. i think we have an opening to have stronger relations, more peaceful relations, more productive relations, looking at things like isis and other important things with russia. >> why was it bad when hillary clinton -- this is the part that confuses me from the trump campaign. why was it so bad if hillary clinton wanted a reset, but donald trump wants a reset and you guys approve of it? >> i didn't think it was bad that hillary clinton wanted to reset it. i was hopeful when she came with that red button. unfortunately it devolved like it did under george w. the idea they want to have better relationships than the previous administration is not unusual. we have a unique opportunity here to have better relations with russia and many other
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nations. but this investigation in particular is souring that opportunity. i'd like to see them get to the bottom of these things as soon as possible. >> very quickly, when republicans in congress, lindsey graham, john mccain, say russia is an adversary, you think they're wrong? >> absolutely. i'm on the other side of lindsey graham and john mccain -- best wishes to him in the hospital this week -- on many issues of foreign policy. these are knneocons as we know. i spent many years -- i see a unique opportunity here to work with russia, not against russia. we often are looking at different priorities as nations, but we have a lot in common, especially the people of the united states and the people of russia. let's not squander this
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opportunity. >> michael caputo, we appreciate you being on "new day" and sharing your take on all this. thanks. >> thank you. the president's approval rating hitting a record low, but his base seems to be standing behind him. swing voters, not so much. we'll dig deeper next. whoa! you're not taking these. hey, hey, hey! you're not taking those. whoa, whoa! you're not taking that. come with me. you're not taking that. you're not taking that.
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president trump's approval rating at a record low for a leader six months into his administration, the russia investigation making new twists and turns. we just heard from someone who worked inside the trump campaign and testified before the house intelligence committee. joining us now, cnn political commentator michael smerconish. thank you for being with us. alisyn, my colleague, had a fascinating discussion with michael caputo who was working inside the trump campaign when that meeting between don junior and the number of russians took place. he said, you know what, don junior didn't know any better. he admits now he makes a mistake, he didn't know there was anything sketchy going on there, and he appreciates his
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transparency now. is that a fair assessment of that meeting from more than a year ago? >> no. what i found significant about that line of questioning and i'm so glad you're giving me the chance to say this is the response he offered relative to paul manafort's participation was to say, well, paul was then receiving 500 e-mails a day. i was sitting here watching it and i was saying to myself, all the more reason why if it were really about adoption, it didn't warrant his attention. it didn't warrant his time. it always struck me as not passing the smell test, that you would have the try um very rant of trump junior, manafort and kushner all there if it really were to talk about adoption. >> michael, remember, what they were offered was dirt. so they thought they were going to get dirt on hillary clinton. the adoption thing only came up
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when don junior tried to in public justify what that meeting was about. >> alisyn, i have the e-mails right here. i know exactly of what you're speaking. they were offered high-level and sensitive information that would incriminate hillary and came with the support of the rush government. i'm just trying to say there was no credibility to the defense that was initially offered. paul manafort was there because they were promised dirt, not because they were there to talk about adoption. >> if he's getting 500 e-mails a day, why does he show up to this meeting unless he thinks -- >> because he thinks it's something juicy. >> exactly. >> michael, one more thing, this comes keeps coming up in the voter panels. i keep hearing what michael caputo says, you know what, the u.s. meddles all the time in other countries' elections to. there's no difference between what russia tried to do and what the u.s. does. what's your thinking on that? >> i happened to have a guest on
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my program saturday, an academic name dav lemon from carneg carnegie-mellon who documented on 61 occasions in 80 different nations from the post world war ii era through 2000, we have been involved, not in computer hacking, but in trying to determine the outcome of elections. is there a moral equivalent between us supporting a pro democracy force when the opposition was communism, that's subject to debate. i think it's a fair point that we don't entirely have clean hands. >> it also doesn't mean you want to invite other countries into your election. this is not a one-sided thing. >> of course not. >> michael, a new poll out moments ago from abc news has new numbers that i think you'll find particularly interesting. 67% of those polled in the abc news poll, 67% say they disapprove of the president's use of twitter. 65% of those polled when asked
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to associate it with a certain word believe -- well, 68% say inappropriate, 65% say it's insulting. 52% say it's dangerous. the people in this abc news poll don't like what the president is doing with social media, michael. >> john, i might be in the majority of odeach of those thr statistics, but the fact is if you look at "the washington post"/abc survey, it's effective. he's successful. if you want to know why the base is hanging with him, the base is not budges -- independents are, but the base is hard core. it's because they're being fed on those twitter lines. a majority of americans might find them offensive, might find them unpresidential, might wish he could stop, but so long as he continues to reach the now 36% that are supporting him, that's his lifeline to them. by the way, every time he bashes fake news, mainstream media, cnn, et cetera, et cetera,
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that's what those folks want to hear, as distressing as that might be. >> well, michael, stick around. coming up i have another one of the trump voter panels and they echo exactly what you just said. they love his twitter feed and they will explain why they have such a passion for it. michael, thank you very much. great to get your take on this. >> see you guys. >> the fate of health care in washington rests on the health of veteran senator john mccain who is recovering from surgery this morning. what is his condition? what do we expect for his recovery? dr. sanjay gupta tells us next. choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for $299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. your only worry...ty customer first guarantee... will be navigating the local traffic. get help with hotels, free twenty-four-hour flight changes, and our price match guarantee.
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the republican push to repeal and replace obamacare is on hold as senator john mccain who expressed reservations about the bill, he's recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot above his eye. >> he's been ordered to stay home for a week. could his condition be more serious than we know? cnn medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joins us now. it's an eyebrow decision, it sound small. is that the case? >> it was initially sounding small, the eyebrow incision to take out a blood clot. what the hospital released, to give more definition to what happened here, it was an eyebrow decision which typically is done to try to hide the scar. after that, the skin was open and actually the bone underneath there, you can feel the bone underneath your eyebrow was
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opened. that's called a crane ot maiotoe is a model of the skull. it was over the left eye. this bone was removed to get access to the brain. you can see, this is the frontal lobe of the brain. it would be in this area right along here that they'd be able to gain access. it's a significant operation. any time you're basically opening the bone to gain access to the brain. it's a significant operation, requires general anesthesia. there was obviously an abnormality there that was concerning enough for him to go through this, for the doctors to recommend that. we don't know for sure. i'm not sure the final results have come back yet. but not an insignificant operation by any means. >> sanjay, how do you think they figured out he had a blood clot behind his eye? i want to remind people, remember there was that moment during the comey hearing where senator mccain seemed to be sort of way off message and confused. let's remind people of this
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moment. >> that investigation was going on, this investigation is going on. you received separate conclusions. >> that one was done. >> you're going to have to help me out here. we're complete, the investigation of anything that former secretary clinton had to do with the campaign is over and we don't have to worry about it anymore? >> with respect to -- i'm a little confused, senator. >> is there some sort of connection that you as a doctor would draw between his condition and that moment? >> it's tough to draw a cause and effect there. when someone has a pressure on the frontal lobe of the brain, there can be all sorts of things. typically people may have headache. sometimes they can develop some weakness on the other side. it can affect your judgment, but that's just -- it's hard to say. i will tell you that they say the abnormality -- i'm going to call it an abnormality versus a blood clot because we still don't know what this is.
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it was about five centimeters in size which, again, is pretty sizable. if you think about the brain -- this is obviously not an exact replica. it's a pretty significant size of compression on that part of the brain. what is concern iing is he has pretty significant history of mel nome la, including in his left temple, this area right here that was invasive, that was back in 2000. as a result of that you usually have frequent screenings to see if there's any evidence of spread, any area of concern here. what the hospital said is this was found on a routine scan. it didn't sound like he went in for a particular reason, but it was a planned routine scan for followup. most likely because of the melanoma. >> they said one week to recover. does that sound right to you? >> it sounds short. i wouldn't minimize this operation. people can recover quickly.
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he's 80 years old. if he were my patient, i would say at least a couple weeks before you'd have the person back to their regular activities of daily living. >> sanjay, thank you very much for explaining all this. obviously we're thinking of senator mccain and wishing him the best right now. president trump's approval rating hits a record low in this new poll. are his supporters standing by his side? we'll speak to one of our panel of trump voters. they're have all over the country and have a lot to say about him next. when heartburn hits fight back fast with new tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum new tums chewy bites.
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so we have some new polling to show you this morning. more than half of the americans in the washington post/abc news poll say that democrats only stand for being against president trump. the president, meanwhile, continues to spend his time slamming the russia investigation and taking on his critics so we sat down with a group of trump voters from florida, ohio, iowa and south carolina to find out how they feel, six months in. they had a lot to tell us, particularly about the treatment they've gotten on social media and from friends since admitting they voted for donald trump. listen to this. how many of you were strong donald trump supporters on election day and still are? three of you. how many voted for donald trump,
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were supporters of his on election day and are now having second thoughts? what's going on with you? >> i voted for him and if now having second thoughts but would say i was never a supporter of donald trump. i voted against hillary basically. >> has your feeling since donald trump changed since election day? >> yes. i had problems with his talk, his rough talk, his grabbing them by the pussy all this stuff. i thought that's just talk and talk isn't action but now i feel like his words have a lot of power, cause a lot of ripple effect with our relations with the rest of the world and his words are actually kind of -- they become actions. >> it's interesting she's next to you. i can't help but see your t-shirt that you're wearing. >> thank you. >> that's you hugging donald trump. >> yes. >> what's the story behind this?
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>> february 18th at the melbourne rally. he called me up on the stage. i had to jump the fence, break through secret service, ran up and gave our president a man hug this is what it turned into. i was able to speak in front of the millions of people. president trump changed my life. the promises he has made, he's doing them. >> such as? >> just think about -- let's think about with, you know -- >> what promises has he made to you that he has kept? >> let's think about it. >> tpp. >> thank you for that. you know, the paris agreement. you know, he got out of that. he wants to repeal and replace obamacare. that's in the works. >> i had hoped that he would grow into the position, surround himself with people who understood how politics works, but he's his own worst enemy. you know, sometimes just -- you have to have that 30-second filter. just because you think it doesn't mean you have to say it or tweet it.
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>> talking about the tweeting, our president told us he's the modern day president there. you go. to me, i love his tweets. i think he can tweet every morning. i can't wait to wake up in the morning to see them. >> what do you love about them? >> he's talking to us, we the people. >> do you think he ever crosses the line? >> no, at all. i don't think he does. >> you are still a strong supporter of donald trump. what is it specifically that you like? >> i'm a veteran. i was in the united states navy for four years and i feel that i do like that he's a businessman and not a politician. >> what has he done for the military? >> i am part of the va. i can go in and just get whatever i need and walk right back out. >> how has president trump affected the wait time? >> he has just cared about our military and our veterans and he has went right in and said he was going to make a change and it already shows to me, as a veteran. >> colleen, when you hear the die-hard trump supporters who still believe in him, what do you mean? >> i don't mean to be offensive
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or disrespect anyone. i just think they're wearing rose colored glasses. >> what was it that flipped the switch for you? >> a travel ban on the chris he finds to be unsavory. >> what didn't you like about his travel ban? >> i saw it in person. i saw it on the tv, all the immigrants trying to get into the u.s. just standing there. and the look in their eyes was just like, what's going on? where is my family? am i going to get in? i just thought that's really cruel. >> and you came to regret your vote? >> yes, i did. in fact, i started a group on facebook called i regret voting for trump. >> what's been the response to that group? >> it's funny. i expected other people that were of my like mind who regretted voting for trump to sign up and come along with me but i got hillary voters who came on instead, congratulating me for changing my mind. >> i received a lot of hatred for people i loved and respected
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who were hillary supporterors -- i didn't realize how much our relationship hinged on politics until admitting that i voted for trump. i mean, i'm kind of callous to it now but -- >> what do they say to you? >> jackie, what's wrong with you? are you okay? are you crazy? you know, have you thought about this at all? why would you do this? how could you do this to us? >> can we get back to hate on the internet? >> yes, quickly. >> i come from a community that time-outs we are so inclusive, so embracive. all we ask for is tolerance and equality i make a living as a female impersonator in the state of florida. i hosted all the major events, white party for 19, years. when i came out as a supporter of trump, i was blackballed instantly. online campaigns to have me thrown off of the committee. i couldn't be the emcee anymore i got death threats.
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it's horrible. >> john, tell us your experience. >> i'm on the fence because, you know, i think the presidency is an office of stature around the world. when president trump sent out the infamous wrestling gif, i sent a tweet to him and said at some point i'm starting to believe that i made a poor decision voting with you or something along that line. and my phone starts blowing up with these just horrible responses. and they were responses were from liberal voters. >> why were liberals mad at you for questioning -- >> i say something like, you're figuring this out now, blankety blank? we told you hillary, blah, blah, blah. i understand their frustration. they quite frankly never thought they were going to lose. i'm the voter who elected him. i'm the swing voter in the swing state that elected him. if i'm having second thoughts you should be saying great, can
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you tell other people? here is why. it's like, your parents should have aborted you at birth. just horrible things. >> when we get into a discussion with anybody, a family or a stranger on social media, we need to remember we are all americans first and this is a great country. we're all proud to be americans. so, just put that first in your mind and then try to see the other person's side and see what you have in common more than -- >> agree to disagree. >> it's not just a platitude. united we stand, divided we fall. we treat each other so nasty, we're going to fall. >> just more examples of how overheated the climate is right now and how people are punished, certainly on social media, for their political choice. >> it's not a useful discussion for either side. no one is going to get what they want if that's the tenor of the discussion and the pushback there. it's interesting how this panel splits in a way that we're seeing in the new polling right now. >> it reflects the new polling
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out this morning. >> firm trump supporters are sticking with him. some of the swing voters in swing counties have started to have doubts, that could be hugely significant going forward. following a lot of news, including that new polling. let's get right to it. >> it's a very difficult poll number force the president, putting his approval rating at 36%. >> everybody looking backwards and say would've, should've, could've, i don't think that's fair to donald trump jr. >> this about as clear evidence as you could find of intent to collude with the russians. >> senator john mccain's health scare delaying the health care vote. >> president trump and i believe the senate health care bill strengthens and secures medicaid. >> this bill would impose fundamental, sweeping changes in the medicaid program. >> i never underestimate senator mcconnell's expertise in getting the votes.
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>> announcer: this is "new day" with chris cuomo and allison camarota. >> chris is off this morning. john berman joins me. we have a busy hour ahead. >> great day for everything but the president's poll numbers. >> there you go. the president is lashing out after a new poll shows his approval rating hitting a record low. abc news/washington post poll finds just 36% of americans approve of the job he's doing, the lowest six-month approval rating of any president in seven decades. unleashing a flurry of tweets, defending his son's russian meeting. >> repeal and replace obamacare has suffered a new setback. the senate is delaying a vote on the latest version of the plan as senator john mccain recovers from blood clot surgery. a big week ahead. joe johns is live at the white house. good morning, joe. >> good morning, john. president trump trying to get a
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restart after those revelations regarding his son, donald trump jr. and his meeting with a russian lawyer. also very clear the president's poll numbers continue to be in the tank. apparently due to the russia investigation as well as the stalled agenda on capitol hill. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> after nearly six months in office, president donald trump facing the lowest approval rating. just 36% approve of his performance, a 6% drop since the 100-day mark in april. the president attempting to spin these results, claiming almost 40% is not bad and asserting that the poll was inaccurate during the election. the poll also showing that 63% of americans think that the
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