politics." i'm john king. thanks for sharing your day with us. a few days from the six-month mark and president trump is historically unpopular. a week-long focus on made is america help him improve lousy poll numbers? plus this was to be the big week in the health care vote. republicans post pain as senator mccain recovers from surgery. at debate is as great as every p fresh evidence. ed the president's attention is on the russia investigations. extra personal. the president discertified most politician wos have going to the meeting like the one don junior attended to get information on

an opponent. that's politics. with us this day to share reporting and insights, julie herb feldt davis of the "new york times." npr steve inkky, jackie collins of the "los angeles times" and cnn's manu raju. the tweet i referenced references the june 2016 meeting organized by donald trump jr. and attended by son-in-law and adviser jared kushner and the trump campaign chairman paul manafort. among those across the table at trump tower, a kremlin-linked hoyer and russian-american lobbyist. a former intelligence operator for the russians. this set up an donald trump was told they wanted to share damaging information about hillary clinton. there are many, many, many layers to this including the president's mounting frustration, and this rather basic question -- should we believe anything team trump says about these meetings since for months they denied there were any such meetings? >> did anyone involved in the trump campaign have any contact with russians trying to meddle with the election?

>> absolutely not. and i discussed that with the president-elect just last night. those conversations never happened. i hear people saying it like it's a fact on television. that is just not only inaccurate and false but dangerous. >> and we start there. i was off last week as all this started to break. listen to this and back to those statements, kellyanne conway, then candidate trump said the same thing. not to pick on her. people saying 0 on tell vis, it's true. the president's son, donald trump jr. not an unimportant person in trump land told coming into the meeting it is russians who want to meet with you talk about information damaging to hillary clinton. now you could say, if it was just donald trump jr., he's the president's son. he's involved in the campaign not official, but jared kushner is there. has to amend his security clearance form because he didn't disclose the meeting as he should have. paul manafort, campaign chairman is there. after months and months of their

were no such meetings, again, probably more important questions to get to, but basic terms of credibility, why do we listen now when they tell us, now they tell us nothing bad happened at these meetings? >> also doesn't help the first response we got from the administration on this was actually not a complete version of what happened. they said the meeting was just about russian adoptions. then, okay, maybe it was about more than that. then a whole question whether the president knew this was going on and these discussions happening. it puts the burden of credibility so much more squarely in the white house where they have had trouble responding to these questions from day one, and if they keep changing their story, that just -- that hole gets deeper. they find themselves in a situation now where they probably need credibility more than any white house has ever needed near the six-month mark and have very little to go on. >> and the president's tweet, john, shows another line of defense. effectively acknowledging the meeting happened it was what it was then saying all politics is dirty. most politicians would have done

this. there are a lot of politicians who have on the record disagreed with that, and cases where there have been briefing books stolen and actually turned over to the fbi. i'm not sure it's true, but it is something i think that resonates with some trump voters who shrug off allegations of corruption or misbehavior by the president because they just say all politicians are like that. >> all politicians like that, but, if you're a trump voter at home, been conditioned by this president and supporters to not believe anything you hear here, use your own search engine. pick one. go to any search engine, type in the names, forget what's in the news. back to the summer 2016. works for the kremlin, closely associated. not a republican from idaho saying i have a file from hillary clinton. people with ties to the kremlin. would anyone have taken the meeting? to steve's point, a lot of people say not if i googled these names and found out who they were. >> right. the fact that the president said that in a tweet today. this is days after his nominee

for the fbi testified before congress that if this had happened, that if anyone in a campaign had a contact like this, in e should call the fbi immediately. he's rebutting, refuting his own fbi nominee. >> and the shifting explanations, too, are only going to add fodder to these investigations that are happening. >> right. >> not just on capitol hill but bob mueller's investigation almost certainly will look into this. you can't necessarily trust what the white house is saying publicly because the information that keeps coming out changed repeatedly. i was talking to adam schiff, top democrat at the white house on friday. he was not aware of all the people in the meeting or if this russian-american lobbyist who allegedly has ties to russian intelligence, whether or not he does, in fact, have ties to russian intelligence. those are questions now that congressional investigators will dig on and almost certainly bob mueller will as well. >> i sat in the seat over the past several months and several times said be the democrats out too far over their skis saying

collusion. we've heard smoke, talk, meetings. jeff sessions met with the ambassador. jared kushner met with the ambassador is that collusion? to democrats who may have been over think xeer over think xeer s over think xeerkis, we'll find . could be a knucklehead meeting. but democrats see an opening. >> there seems to be a convenient pattern where all of the senior officials of the trump campaign forget about their meetings with russians. don't put it on their forms. and until evidence comes out and then they have to amend. >> they can call it a fishing expedition, a witch-hunt, all in a lined message with the white house, nonetheless, real evidence is coming forward that just can't be ignored. >> this investigation, his, you know, the continuum of saying, no russia no collusion, to where we are today saying, essentially, so what? this is opposition research. the distraction affected our ability to work for those people and especially his ability to deliver on the promises he made.

>> i can't count how many times i've asked this question. had these meetings, not transparent, not going to tell you these things. once they realized this was a big deal impacting the president of the united states. forget us. impacts the president of the united states ability to get things done, why didn't they call everybody in the room, get a list of meetings do the traditional washington thing and during transition or early on put out a file. here are all the meetings? all the meetings. sorry we didn't disclose them. did nothing wrong. shouldn't have taken this one, that one, but here you go. >> also specifically on jared kushner himself having to first he sent his security clearance form with no meetings listed of foreign contacts, it says explicitly, you have to list any foreign contacts. required by federal law. he didn't do that initially. said it was a premature submission of the form. having to amend it on multiple occasions to now include this meeting raises is a positions even if they say there's nothing there. >> listen to jay sekulow, one of the president's private attorneys out yesterday making

clear he does not represent donald trump jr. but talking about this meeting how could it have happened in trump tower, middle of the campaign, he says this -- . well, i've wondered why the secret service, if this was nefarious, why did the secret service allow these people in? the president had secret service protection at that point. that raised a question with me. >> lem raise this question back. the united states secret service says donald trump jr. was not a protectee of the united states secret service in june 2016. thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time. jay sekulow knows that, or if he's a good attorney, as he claims to be, should know that before had e goes on television. part of their strategy. throw stuff up they know or should know is not true to try to get the people, if the secret service let them in, it's fine. >> they throw things up they know aren't true, more than that and are prove bluntrue. he should know the secret service will come back and

refute him or asked and when asked, is going to refute him. it happens time after time. >> let's remember what's distracted from here. one thing, anyway. we spoke this morning with will herd a republican on the house intelligence committee, one of the committees looking into this. he's concerned about the next election. many people are. russian meddling in 2018. 2020. and he's concerned that a message is not being sent strongly enough that russia should not meddle, and remember, from what's reported of president trump's meeting with vladimir putin, he asked the question, were you involved with meddling? said putin was strong denying it and asked him a second time and let it go. we don't have an indication that russia was warned at the very top there would be consequences if they were to continue to meddle in u.s. elections and it's not entirely clear that message is being sent. when i asked herd directly, is the president sending that message at all? he said, well, the u.s. government more broadly is sending that message. >> more broadly. other issues about to hit the six-month mark. the question beginning of the year when would this be resolved we learn new things every week

telling you the house intelligence investigation, senate committee investigation, special council investigation, forget 2017. they're carrying over to 2018 and beyond. >> the president just now named someone for inside the white house, ty cobb, to handle inquiries to work with his private outside counsel to address the questions. that should have happened months ago as you suggest. they should have realized they need add more fulsome response, someone inside the white house being able to field these questions and actually forthcoming about them instead of constantly changing their story and then throwing out all of these red herrings. the president did it himself in paris last week when he talked about how loretta lynch was the one who let this russian kremlin tied attorney into the united states. it's everybody's fault but theitheir s. that's not how you deal with a crisis like this one. >> ty cobb is a pro. what else do we know? get it over with. sit tight. up next, one senator's absence forces a delay in the

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ready to of your back pain? new icyhot lidocaine patch. desensitizes aggravated nerves with the max strength lidocaine available. new icyhot lidocaine patch. welcome back. what was supposed to be a big week in the republican parties repeal obamacare mission is instead another week of giant uncertainty and much more than health care caught up in the chaos. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell planned to push for a vote this week but is now deferring that plan because in part senator john mccain cannot be in washington this week. mccain had surgery friday and out for at least a week. will that time help our hurt as mcconnell tries to bridge giant policy differences in his search for 50 votes. >> you can't take more than 700 billion dollars out of the

medicaid program and not think that it's going to have some kind of effect. >> i think the longer the bill's out there the more conservative republicans will discover it's not repeal, and the more that everybody's going to discover that it keeps the fundamental flaw of obamacare. >> cnn's phil mattingly live on capitol hill. when you listen to a key moderate and key conservative in this debate, sounds as if they are nowhere near a deal? >> yeah. we have work to do is the message i got from one senior gop aide this morning. a recognition they aren't there yet and granted they knew rand paul and susan collins were likely to be no. publicly stated they would likely be no, at least on the procedural vote and weren't exactly targets, but the recognition they can only lose one more even when senator john mccain comes back is real. the interesting element. i'm told by at least two gop aides now it's not just the usual suspects, the usual holdouts that are problems. it is deeper than that. there are eight to ten senators with very real problems with the bill now. while they aren't publicly

announcing opposition or publicly listing concerns could be problematic for leaders going forward. now with that in mind, what i'm told, those individuals are being told now by senate leaders. keep your powder dry. come to them behind the scenes with your concerns. if nothing else, this kind of delay will give them a period of time to try and address those concerns. that might me changes to the bill. don't come out publicly in opposition, one aide told me. every day without that third no vote is a good day. so low bar, but that's what they're working with now. >> every day without that third no vote is a good day. bumper stickers printed right now. phil mattingly on capitol hill. thanks. and again to that reporting, to that -- get to that level of detail, if you're mcconnell and everyone says, if anyone can pull the rabbit out of the hat it's mcconnell. this mess, it's a -- it's not a mess -- i often refer to congress sometimes as a day-care center. sometimes it is, but this is -- in part because you have legitimate philosophical policy differences an government spending role of government how

much should the government be involved. but the question many republicans have, okay. seven years. promised seven years we would do this. why is it so hard? >> going to be even -- they go behind the scenes to get changes to the bill, they're going to be tweaks. this isn't going to be -- aren't major wholesale changes. one reason, big reason by the delay hurts them is that senator mcconnell added a provision to this bill drafted by senator ted cruz that essentially allows insurers to provide coverage outside of the rules of the affordable care act such as covers pre-existing conditions. that cruz provision was not scored by the congressional budget office in time for when the, initially, planned to vote on this procedural measure. that was supposed to be a tuesday vote. now with the delay that score could come back, be very negative. expected to be. especially in light of insurers blasting that as an unworkable amendment. and that could presumably hurt them with votes on the floor. so you talk to republicans. they don't like the delay

because it -- going to make it much harder to get their caucus onboard. >> susan collins hit something quite important there also when she said there is a $700 billion cut in medicaid. something that does not change in the senate bill compared to previous bills, and when the congressional budget office scored that they found $14 milli -- -14 million, 15 million people lose insurance. many millions will lose insurance. that's very bad for republicans prospects every time the cbo come back with that finding. >> we saw an extraordinary op-ed over the weekend, white house officials, top white house officials, mark shore, head of legislative affairs brian blaze, nec handled health care decrying the cbo score as fake news. extraordinary thing to see. they realize they have to prebutt this, a huge detriment to them being able to round up votes. phil described there is a group of eight to ten senators now

behind the scenes raising concerns. that's the reason this delay is a problem for them. the more time for that, the more people will read the fine print and think, gosh, this isn't what i want. i think no republican feels like this is a bill they would have written. it's more time for them to raise those concerns and try to get something more into the bill. >> this is not a cbo congressional budget office. watch out in america, who understands washington speak, this is not a nancy pelosi holdover. a cbo office, the, paul ryan, speaker of the house appointed leader of the cpo. this is not a democrat hiding behind the curtain up in congressing cooing these books. go ahead. >> in consultation with former congressman tom price of georgia, at the time house budget committee chairman and now donald trump's secretary of health and human services. >> the politics of this, policy differences are real, huge, significant and most important to people how it affects their health care. it's crazy. the political report, tracks political advertising spending.

$5.8 million spent on television ads by those who oppose repeal of obamacare or oppose the republican appeal plan. $354,000. like going into a fight with both hands tied beyond your back and already bleeding start of the fight. never mind the merits of the argument. how do you win when you're getting pummeled like that? >> so different than 2009, 2010 when the, the white house aggressively was pushing this. obama was out there on, giving events. spoke to a joint session of congress. there was -- support from even the big drug companies, cut a deal with the president on obamacare. advertising in support of this. there is nothing on the outside giving republicans political cover, and it's hurt -- >> because they don't like the plan. not like they're sitting on a stack of money. hospitals don't like it, insurers, conservative groups, tea party doesn't like it. >> and the white house isn't pushing the message either dealing with the russia controversy and everything else. >> they are for fixing obamacare. not for this new plan. it's very different from go back

to 1994. defeated clinton care. >> harry louise. >> and who paid for those? insurance industry. they're behind obamacare just need it fixed. >> a lot of republicans don't like the bill. made difficult promises. repeal and replace. not just replace, replace with something better and a group of republicans philosophically don't believe in getting that involved with the insurance group to begin with. and a former colleague, julie rodner has for many years points out, there are republicans who just do not want repeal at all, of course, something they haven't actually publicly said or been able to say for years. >> because it's been republican bible for seven years now we will repeal. to your point about fixes going to break. the poll number. which do you prefer? abc "washington post" poll just out. current law, obamacare 50%. republican plan 24%. neither, 13%. obamacare, controversial since the day it was passed. even dooring the debate about

it. at the moment outweighs what the republicans are trying to do in its place. ahead, the president hits the six-month mark this week and numbers are pleek. next, dr. sanjay gupta joins us with a closer look at senator mccain's surprise surgery.

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welcome back. senator john mccain's office says the arizona republican will be back to work as soon as possible after it describes a minimally invasive craniotomy at the may oh clinic hospital in phoenix on friday. the procedure the senator's office says was performed following a routine annual checkup. more on that the proposal entails and the average riv v recovery time from cnn medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. >> sanjay, how se how serious f anybody and more so because we're talking about an 80-year-old man. >> more serious because of his age and more serious than the original descriptions the procedure would have you believe. they made it sound like a little

incision and a blood clot removed. feel your own eyebrow, this bone. this receipt here. rear moved that portion of bone called a craniotomy to gain access to the brain. you can see that, that area of bone removed there just above his left eye and on this brain model, it was basically to gain access to this part of the brain. it's a -- as far as brain surgery goes, may be more minimally invasive but still exposing the brain, under general an these hsez answer th anesthesia from this to here end of the ruler to my finger is basically the size of what this was as well. five centimeters about to inches. not a small abnormality either. calling it a blood clot. we don't know what it is for sure, john. >> how do you get there? the say he was going in for

routine screenings. you don't, forgive me, drill a hole into somebody's skull. had to be looking for something? >> no question. why get a scan in the first place? this really has to do with something you and i talked about over the years. he has a strong history of melon gnome melanoma, invasive in his left temple region back i think around 2000. when somebody has an invasive melanoma, be diligent checking. involves scans of the brain. has this moved in some way? the big concern. again, john, no one is saying that now. no one says, this could be a blood clot. may have hit hit head, done something in the past developed blood collection. that's good news. take out the blood clot, the end of the story. right now the pathologists are looking at this to see. are there any melanomas cells? is there something else we should be concerned about? and how is that going to affect his recovery, his follow-up, and

any treatment he might need in the future. >> and when you mention that, obviously the health of senator mccain is priority one, two, three, four and five. in washington the conversation is, when can he come back for the health care debate. what is reasonable to expect somebody who has this procedure, somebody his age, who has this procedure? how long till up on they are feet and come back to a grueling senate schedule? >> there's no hard and fast answer to that. i will tell you being up on your feet, obviously, was able to go home. could be up on his feet. i think recovering from this, simply recovering, a., from the operation itself, and b., having had an pran on the brain, follow-ups visits with the docs, follow-up scan and maybe other things. i say typically a couple of weeks, and i know he's tough. but he is 80 years old. this is an, a serious operation for anybody. pretty standard. what you're hearing is about a week, and that may just be aggressive. he may be able to be back on his feet doing things within a week. back to 11-80100% as you say, a

least a couple weeks. >> dr. sanjay gupta, thank you. and senator mccain's role in the senator. not center in health care negotiations but vote because of simple math. 52-48 street majority leadership can only afford to lose two votes and want senior members onboard with the plan. mccain's influence much more sooner on national security issues. recently returned from a trip to afghanistan. remember, the 2008 republican presidential nominee with had history of poking his own party's leadership including president trump's late in the issue of russian election interference. >> there's a lot of aspects of this whole relationship with russia and vladimir putin that requires further scrutiny and so far i don't think the american people have gotten all the answers. in fact, i think there's a lot more shoes to drop from this centipede. >>s going to be part of this centipede that the shoes copt to drop.

every other day. >> everybody knows that and i predicted it, too, weeks ago. i said there would be more shoes to drop from this centipede and more shoes to drop. >> if you're observered senator mccain over the years, when he likes a line he sticks with it and likes his own sense of humor, but i don't want to over elevate and don't want it to sound like an obituary. he'll be back soon enough but has a unique role in the senate because of his history. he likes the term maverick. leadership uses a different name. probably not family-friendly at all times. critical on the russia meddling and has a unique role in the senate. >> a giant of the senate. he is someone when he speaks people listen. he can drive conversation. he forces people to respond. chairman of the chairman armed senate committee, a very influrpt committee and not central in the health care negotiations but has in a lot of ways been driving the conversation about the pessimism about the debate saying he

thinks it could be dead. on the vote itself, he signaled he would vote yes to proceed to debate. which, of course, a first critical vote but not sold on the actual policy. he wanted significant changes to the bill on the floor to be in line with the governor from his state. no guarantee that would happen. no guarantee vote. one thing about john mccain. you never can count on him if you're a leader from that party, and state's junior senator, jeff flake, considered a vulnerable. trump people looking to find a republican opponent. jeff flake you want john mccain's cover voting yes, at least have your senior be on the same page there. the signal he would send to younger members, if he said, look, get onboard with leadership, it's important. >> and the trump, president trump's efforts to find an opponent for jeff flake is not going to sit well with john mccain at all. and could actually push him, if he needed a little push, given the pressures in arizona to oppose this. it wouldn't take much to push him over.

what they need him for, this first procedural vote get to do the senate floor and debate but no assurance he'll vote for the bill in the end. >> what you said is, if we don't reach con sensens, time to return to regular order, hold hearings talk to democrats and find something everybody can agree on. in a way, poking his party again. >> think globally. if you've covered senate mccain, he doesn't forget things, he has a memory. he is incredibly proud of his service and life defined by a horrible chapter as a prisoner of war in vietnam. early in the campaign, remember, then candidate trump mocking john mccain to a degree insisting that it's not what he meant saying john mccain is not a war hero. >> he hit me -- he's not -- a war hero? >> he's a war hero. 5 1/2 years. >> he's a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. okay? i hate to tell you. >> john mccain remembers such things. that's a fair statement. >> well, and -- not only can he give cover to fellow

republicans, if he's on the president's side, and they're thinking of doing the same, but he also gives cover to republicans who are willing to be critical of the president. him and lindsey graham, two of the most outspoken republicans criticizing the president on the russia issue and also in terms of policy and the fact that the white house has not gotten its act together to really drive an agenda on capitol hill and so if they see him drifting, and if there's an indication he's going to part ways with the administration, good cover for them as well. >> and the president spent little time trying to court john mccain. didn't really apologize for his remarks about p.o.w.s. i asked about that. he said he shouldn't apologize to me. apologize to the rest of the p.o.w.s. you haven't heard that from the president. the president hits the six-month mark this week. the president is attacking numbers, they show a historically unpopular start. ie. to knowing they are.

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president trump hits the six-month market friday and half way through his first year, the polls are bleak. here's his take on one new set of troubling numbers. the abc news/"washington post" poll, even those 40 percent is not bad at this time, just about the most inaccurate poll around election true. that's not true and not true. look what the president was talking about. one, the poll numbers. the new "washington post" abc poll the president's approval rating 36% approaching the six-month approval. nearly 6 in 10 americans. new bloomberg poll out with similar numbers. four in ten approve. almost six in ten disaprewhere the president is right now. is that not bad at this time at the president said in his tweet. not really. look at historical averages here. presidents at or near the six-month mark. now president ford, six months after president nixon resigned. president clinton, remember, he won the election in 1992.

ross perot involved. clinton won. poll numbers started low. compared to clinton and ford, trump's in the ballpark. look at president nixon, president bush, ronald reagan. president obama. nearly six in ten approved of h them at this point. the other point made, the "washington post" abc news poll was so inaccurate around the election. look at the last abc news/"washington post" tracking poll. 47-43. clinton. trump, 43%. last preelection poll. look what happened election day. 48.5, hillary clinton. 46.4 donald trump. off a little but if you think about the stickle margins of error in pollen, it's actually pretty close. so the president's attacking these poll numbers, however, they're bleak, and they're scientifically okay. >> and one number that was particularly, should be concerning to the white house is there's a 48% of voters

disapprove strongly of the president. that is higher -- both president obama and president clinton did not reach that level. president bush, george w. bush didn't reach that level until -- late in the second term. it shows the intensity of the opposition towards him is much more firm than the previous presidents, and it makes it much harder to win over some of those more persuadable voters who may not have their opinions firmly locked in yet. showing a lot of people are firm at this point. some ways to go to change that opinion and also could hurt his ability to sell his agenda with members of congress who do look at those numbers. even as the white house says. >> can it be changed? you talk to people within the white house or political circle outside the white house seemed convinced they can't be changed much and why they have the strategy. why doesn't he reach out to democrats? they this this is what it is, a 40% president and they need to keep -- main priority to keep what they got not lose anybody. >> sort of a self-fulfilling

prophecy. done nothing since the day elected and transition period to expand his base. playing to the base for the entire time on every issue, and so if, you know, the worrisome thing about the polling you showed is that the independents are right where those numbers you showeded were, six out of ten are opposed -- are disapproving of his job and which just shows how he's done -- it's worse than election day. so he's done nothing. he's deteriorated. >> although it's worth pointing out he won one with approve ratings. it's clearly on his mind. the margin of error in that 2016 poll is actually less than the margin for error in the president's own tweet. he said he was almost 40%. 36 is not almost 40%. you're off by four points. that's a big margin of error.

>> the new math. >> thank very much. >> this underscores had e never had a honeymoon period at all. no window of opportunity to push his agenda and really sort of build up that level of support he didn't have when he came in. so now he's in a situation because there's been so much sort of crisis around the white house, where every time the white house wants to sort of get back on balance, they pivot to something that appeals to the base. something hard-line on immigration. something hard-line on trade. something like that. that instead of expanding the universe of people who support him, as you said, solidifying this 40%. the would us does realize that he can't lose. >> and to that point, this will be made in america week. now they've had infrastructure weeks. other weeks consumed by other news. most of it the russia investigation, but say this will be made in america week, which should be especially thinking about donald trump flip michigan, flip wisconsin, flip pennsylvania. talk about manufacturing states call the rust belt states, trump voters, be smart. bring that out?

stunned. tells you about the white house political operation. why not monday morning summertime congress can't vote on health care, come out do a presidential event today? try to drive this topic. started the program with something the president was talking about. to your point about the base versus how do you win? steve make as critical point. winning presidency is not easy. he won. roll your eyes, trump in aberration, he won the president. the president of the united states, isn't easy. in the counties he flipped, that he flipped, obama counties in 2012, became trump, republican counties in 2016. nbc news/"wall street journal" numbers, disapproval. 51%. the key counties when we get, e we don't know who democrats will nominate, independent kacandida no idea. look back and say here's how he changed america and stunned us all. what's the state of play? six months in, not good for the president. >> no, it's not. and i think you make a key point, too, about where has the president been in driving a message before his trip to

france last week? we didn't see the president in a public -- at all, between his other international trip and this one. and -- this is supposed to be the made in america week and what's the president not doing this morning? he's tweeting about his son. that puts the story back in the news. every time they try to get back on message maybe turn around those poll numbers, they're dealing with issues oftentimes of the president's own making. >> and while steve points out that the president was able to win the election with this narrow coalition, members of congress who are looking nervously towards 2018 realize that that may not be the case for them. they are not donald trump and have to deal with politics in these places where he has fallen down in the estimation of voters and wondering what is the republican congress delivered for us? a problem the president has yet yet to internalize and do something about for republicans who need to win. >> and look at polling. you'll see a lot. president hitting six months. a lot of people poll, test these things. i like to look at national poll

numbers. same as in presidential, keep states. des moines register iowa poll this weekend. president's approval rating in iowa, state kind to him, 43% approve. 52% disapprove. even in places back at the map of 2016, how the president got here, it's clear that six months in even among places where he has a base, people have doubts. >> right. right. and you know, this is really as good as it gets. as julie alluded to. he has lost his -- honeymoon period, and the om way to get it back is to, through presidential, through achieving things, and on every frofront -- there's nothing. >> how does he do that when the congress, six months in, you can kick -- ask trump voters, they blame congress. why haven't we repealed obamacare, moved on tax reform? improved infrastructure. 2340 end to health care debate in sight and a we werther or not you can get to infrastructure,

tax reform, hard if not harder than health care? >> really hard. getting those two main items, health care, tax reform done incredibly difficult to get that done. infrastructure, where is that now? another big campaign promise. closer to midterm elections, harder to get. you never know what happens in the world outside events can certainly change things. how does the president respond in key moments? let me go over everything, the investigations, struggling to respond that. continually taking them off message making it harder to sell their agenda. >> again, end on this point that i said earlier. stunned on a monday in the summertime, had the stage all to himself, he's tweeting about the russia invoeft gatien not tries to drive the story another way. up next, another weekend to a property bearing his name. this time for a big golf tournament. 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

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obama, it was reported today, played 250 rounds of golf. >> everything's executive order. because he doesn't have enough time, because he's playing so much golf. >> i'm gaoing to be working for you. i don't have time. >> i'm not going to be playing much golf. believe me. >> welcome back. candidate trump you see loved to talk about hour president obama played golf and how little he would play. this weekend president trump didn't play, watched others tee it up. spent a good portion of his weekend watching the u.s. open, women's u.s. open. did have good reason to be here. the event held ap one of his namesakes, but his attendance underlines how much time president trump spends at trump properties. since inauguration the president spent about as much club at a golf club as some pros. a total of 40 days. 40 days. 21 of 26 weekends of his

presidency. he has been at a property that bears his name. now, critics, ethics watchdogs light up, spin lie tke tops. people around the president say the american people knew what they were getting. he's a president of companies, why wouldn't he go there? >> did the american people know he would allegedly take advantage of his position to promote those properties? this president build his brand in violating ae ining rules and transgressions. explicitly going against his own rule. bad if you're playing golf. except he's president. he's doing what he wantsan. >> and the president came into office with the standard, impossible for a president to have a conflict. you're the president. you can't have a conflict. the fact is every time he goes to one of these properties it's advertising for the trump organization. you see the sign on the golf course. you see the sign on the

glassed-in enclosure. in a public domain at a trump property. shots of what that looks like and that accrues to the benefit of his company and no transparency to regard to the visits. make a joke going to march lorg lorg -- mar-a-lago, press pool outside a trump property. knew it was a golf course but couldn't get the white house to confirm he was golfing. won't say what he's doing or who he's doing it with and this is pattern. >> much different than the obama years. acknowledging he was golfing and president obama played a lot of golf. nothing wrong playing golf as a president. admit to it and criticized obama for it. >> a stressful job and technology is available. a president should be able to take time off, george w. bush went to crawford. democrats screamed, let the president do what he wants to do. a grew sued for access, granted access to the logs of mar-a-lago. we expect to see that sometime

in september. results who the president is seeing when there. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." black to be back after a week off. wolf blitzer back in the chair after a quick break. right befoa performance especially. only aleve has the strength to stop minor arthritis pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. this is my pain. but i am stronger. aleve. all day strong.

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hello. i'm wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. in washington. 8:00 p.m. in raqqa, syria. 2:00 a.m. in seoul, south korea. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we start with a new push from the white house calling it made in america week. like past theme week, the white house looking to change the narrative from the multiple russia story angles to more controllable demoefk and foreign policy issues, but president trump still took time out at least this morning to start tweeting once again. this is what he tweeted. "most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one don junior attended in order to get info on an opponent. that's politics." go to our senior washington were correspondent joe johns over at the white house right now. joe, do we know anything more about when the president's son may actually speak with congressional investigators? >> reporter: wolf, at the moment sounds like a holding pattern from what we've been able to gather.