hello, i'm wolf blitzer, it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. the fate of the united states attorney general, the future of trance gender members in the u.s. military and the fate of health care here in the united states, we're following new developments on all those major stories, we're also waiting for the start of today's white house briefing, we'll have live pictures coming in from the briefing room. sarah huckabee sanders will go in front of the microphones at the top of the hour, we'll have live coverage of that, that's in

about an hour from now. and there's been no let up in the president's tirade against jeff sessions, he tweeted again just before sessions arrived at the white house. the president also tweeting he will reinstate a ban on transgender individuals serving in the united states military, and he cited medical costs and did ruppation. the natt meanwhile has delayed the next vote on a plan to repeal obamacare, scheduled for about 2 1/2 hours or so from now, we'll update the health care debate here in the united states in a live report, that's coming up this hour as well. but let's start with the u.s. attorney general jeff sessions who was there at the white house when the president launched his latest attack against him. and i'll quote, why didn't a.g. sessions replace acting fbi director andrew mccabe, a comey

friend who was in charge of the clinton investigation, but got big dollars, $700,000 for his wife's run against hillary clinton and the represents drain the swamp. she got $700,000 from the democratic governor, terry mcauliffe, who is a strong supporter of hillary clinton. let's go to our reporter over at the justice department. jeff zellen is over at the white house. laura, the attorney general is actually repaired to announce something the president has been demanding, first of all, tell us what that is and why now. >> reporter: ironically enough, wolf, we have been told that the justice department is actually expected to make an announcement, the attorney general will on stepping up it's efforts against leaks and leak investigations. of course this is something that the president said, he called on his attorney general yesterday in the rose garden to crack down on leaks coming from the intelligence community and he

plans to do just that. now of course a source cautions that this plan was in the works prior to the president's comments yesterday. it had been planned for quite some time and we expect to see it rolled out in the coming days and of course it's an open question on whether this question on senator jeff sessions behalf will be enough to stop the twitter tirades against his attorney general. >> do we know if attorney general jeff sessions actually met with the president while he was at the white house today? >> reporter: we are told that senator sessions did not meet with the president. he was having a principal's meeting with other members of the president's cabinet. it's pretty routine for members of the cabinet to be here in the west wing and he did not apparently meet with the president during this time, what is unusual, of course, is this ongoing feud between the white house and the justice department, so unusual, but we

are told the attorney general did not meet with the president. but, wolf, some of the attorney generals, or former republican senators on capitol hill have his back on this, in an extraordinary way, some of the senior republicans speaking to our mani raju earlier today. >> i don't fully understand why the president has, you know, said what he said. but i think jeff deserves you know better treatment. >> reporter: he may fire the attorney general and there's talk that he could reinstall him during the break in august? >> i don't think so. >> reporter: why is that? >> i think that senator sessions is doing well and that would make it harder for the president to accomplish his agenda.

>> reporter: the number two republican senator saying he says ez a recess appointment. that the president making an appointment that effectively happens without confirmation hearings while the senate is on recess, and that would where disruptive and again that republicans would not be in support of that. and that's what hangs over all of this. if the attorney general were to resign or if the president were to fire him, the climate here in washington would be exthe rec d extraordinarily difficult. that's why some are trying to get trump to tone down his rhetoric. >> when is the last time that the attorney general and the president actually sat down and had a face-to-face meeting and discussed what clearly is irritating the president about the attorney general? >> we don't know the exact date on that, but it's not been in the last week, and that's when this feud has been boiling over in the public eye, exactly a

week since the president went to the "new york times" last wednesday and fired this extraordinarily public critique of him. and the officials i have talked to said they don't know when they met before that. but it had been quite some time because this feud had been essentially percolating since march when the attorney general first recused himself, it's only gotten worse of course because the russian investigation has deepened. >> and shows no signs of letting up either. >> thanks to both of you, we'll get much more on this story coming up. but there's another story we're following right now, very important development in washington, there's been a lot of criticism leveled today after president trump announced plans to reinstate a ban on transgender people serving in the u.s. military in any capacity. he said after consultation with my generals and military

experts, we will not allow transgenders to serve in the military. let's go to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr, our cnn diplomatic analyst, and retired admiral john kirby is with us as well. barbara, what are you hearing at the pentagon? was this their recommendation, the top military brass to the president to go ahead and issue this ban? >> reporter: prior to the president's very sudden tweet this morning, non it wasn't. what was in the works that defense secretary james mattis announced last month that there would be a six month pause in this. the joint chiefs had some concerns about how it would all work and mattis said let's take a deep breath, look at this for the next six months, about the issues of recruiting, about

whether having transgender members of the military and about medical costs. nobody should assume what the outcome of the pentagon six-month review would be. there were no preconceived notions going in. the chiefs wanted more time. and mattis said let's take more time to look at the whole thing. we now have the president's very sudden tweet this morning that appears to reinstate the ban. the big question now, wolf, is you're not going to recruit more people into the military who are transgender persons. what happens to those already in the military? because they have been told it's fine, they are perhaps open, perhaps, with their friends and colleagues about all of this. there are military commanders. will they now be forced out of the u.s. military? that is a really big question and there is no answer to it because by all accounts, while

the president informed jim mattis of what he was going to do, there's no policy, there's no implementation right now, this is really a bolt from the white house, and now everybody has to figure out what happens next. >> you know, john kirby, the defense secretary, general mattis, he's a retired general, he said give me six months to come up with a strategy, this is only a month into that, why do you think the president all of a sudden decided to do this? >> i think this came as a surprise to everybody at the pentagon. i don't think anybody really understands what's behind this. and the extra review, the extra time that secretary mattis wanted was more time to think about recruiting transgenders. so give me more time to figure out how we better recruit them,

they're not just stopping recruitment, but a ban on all transgender people. >> you served in the military for how long? >> 30 years. >> will this be disruptive? it will result in enormous military costs? >> i think it's abominable. i fully supported president obama's move to lift the ban. i think anyone who's qualified and meets the requirements, sexual genders should not figure into that. rand did a study, the estimated medical costs, they estimated between 2 million to $8 mi$2 m n million, that most people would not avail themselves of that. there are upwards of 6,000 members who are transgender,

that's a lot of talent and skill that you would be denying yourself. >> is that a similar reaction that you're hearing at the pentagon? >> the u.s. military is a reflection of american society, it is full of people who come from all walks of life across this country, so certainly there are people who would be opposed to it. but on a policy level, which is what the joint chiefs deal with as secretary of defense, and the commander in chief. to make such military policy so instantaneously without the commanders really knowing, even today, ouhours later, what the president's intent, how he will implement all of this, what they are supposed to do about it. that right now is perhaps the disruptive part, to make military policy via twitter is something that can leave the door open to an awful lot of misinterpretation across military units.

so that might be the real thing that people are looking at right now, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but their own personal opinion. but when you were in the u.s. military, the u.s. military functioned by policy, rules and regulations. and right now, there is none. there is total confusion, about what is supposed to be happening, wolf. >> barbara starr at the pentagon. john kirby thanks to you as well. republican senator john mccain, a military veteran, a war hero. he said we should all be guided by the principle that any american who wants to serve our country and is able to mete the standards should have the opportunity to do so and should be treated as the patriots they are. congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us. >> you bet, glad to be here.

>> so you tweeted today. let me read your tweet, quote, pleased to hear that donald trump shares my readiness and cost concerns and will be changing this costly and damaging policy, #readiness. why do you disagree with the chairman of the senate armed services committee john mccain? >> i have looked at this issue very, very closely and this policy is going to cost $1.35 billion over the next ten years alone just for the sex reassignment surgeries for the members of our service. that equals 13 f-18 aircraft. i am very dissatisfied with the defense cuts that we have had over the last three years and we need every dollar to build up the military. >> where did you get those

numbers? >> that's how many transgender that the navy says are currently serving and then the transgender advocacy groups who said that 33% of transgender individuals go through the surgery. and that's where we get those dollars. but it could be as high as $3.7 billion. >> there's a rand study that is the very opposite, it would just be a few million dollars a year to allow transgendered people to serve in the military. so i'm asking you specifically where is that study. >> we have real concerns with the rand study, it's very flawed. >> congresswoman, with all due respect, the name of the study you're referring to. >> our own office did that analysis and we feel very confident in it there's one that's done by the family recourse committee. the question is should we be

spending any tax dollars to do gender reassignment surgery when we don't have weapons or bullets. >> the "washington post" just posted an article noting that another study which says, and i'll put it up on the screen that 18 countries allow transgender personnel to serve openly in the military including australia, britain, sweden and canada. none of those countries, "the washington post" reports, are experiencing ill effects for opening up their armed services to the transgender individuals. australia and the uk doesn't have a problem, why should we have a problem? >> we need to spend every defense dollar where we need to. and this has been a real concern, not only for morale and

for retention and for a lot of different areas. i applaud the president for making these very decisive, bold steps and saying we're going to pri prior -- prioritize our spending. >> you have members of your family in the military service? >> my dad served and i'm very proud of him as well as all those in my district that i represent. >> which have spoken to active military, military personnel, they heard the same arguments about allowing gay individuals to serve openly in the military, as you know, that is now allowed and there are very few problems at all. what do you say to that? >> it's a very different policy change here, these are individuals that have medical diagnosis of gender transfera. i had a friend that was denied serving in the military because

she had a bunion on her foot and the reason giving was that she might have to have surgery. so we don't allow individuals with asthma or flat feet. although they're very patriotic and they have a desire to serve, they have medical problems that could be very costly. >> the secretary of defense, general mattis, retired general mattis, he said he wanted six months to study it and it's only been one month. all of a sudden, the president issues this new announcement this morning, don't you think the president should have at least given the defense department, the secretary of defense general mattis an opportunity to complete his study before the president acted? >> no, because right now is when individuals serving in the military from last year's policy are starting to go through the hormone treatment process and the surgeries and they're going to be very, very costly.

now we're doing our defense spending and we have to make that decision now. >> congresswoman, those service members who are transgender service members serving actively in the u.s. military right now, should they be kicked out? >> i think the details will need to be worked out but we need to where certainly focused our military on those who are able to fight tonight. when you have this surgery you can't be deployed for almost 300 days and somebody else has to go in your place. so there are a lot of valid reasons to keep the policies from the past, to make sure every soldier is deployable and to make sure that every dollar goes to meet the threat. >> there are a lot of transgenders who have desk jobs and they do a good job there as well? >> absolutely, but this is the right policy and i applaud the president for being as decidive as commander and chief. up next, we're going to get

a very different perspective from a democratic congressman who's already moved to block the president's transgender bran. we'll have details of that. take a look at this, we have some live pictures coming in from the white house briefing room. the white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders, she'll be defending presumably the president's decision on this and other actions including his latest tweets criticizing the attorney general of the united states. we'll have live coverage of that. also lots of news coming up. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me,

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welcome back, president trump announced today he's restoring the ban on transgender individuals serves in the united states military. let's get a different perspective from congressman scott peters who serves on the -- it's expensive, it would be disruptive, the president is absolutely right in reinstating this ban, your reaction? >> i can't think of anything more backward than telling young

american men and women who want to serve in our all-voluntary army that they can't help defend our country because of their gender identity. i just think it's wrong. i think this week in particular we need to be focused on building a defense budget that protects our men and women serving us abroad. >> do you have a good decision of what this decision by the president announced today on twitter means for maybe the 6,000 or 7,000, or 8,000 milita military members who are transgender right now? >> the 5,000 or 6,000 people serving in the military today will get to continue to serve. and the tweet, you know, by its nature, 140 characters is fairly ambiguous on that, i think we want to clear that up. but we also want to let the department of defense finish its

own study of what would happen to allow now enlistees to come in who are transgender. i think we're going to find the same thing that the department found in a study in 2016, that found there's no impact on morale or cohesion or costs. >> the president actually used three tweets to announce this change in policy, 9:04 a.m., 9:08 a.m. so announced it in three tweets so he had more than 133 characters available for this announce. is there anything you or other members of congress can dot be it this? >> i filed an amendment that the rules committee will consider at 3:00 to prevent this kind of action, we actually had an amendment on the floor when we approved the ndaa, the defense budget authorization, we are

going to defeat that with b bipartisan support, it's the same policy and i want to defeat it with the same -- i expect those same 24 republicans will be with us, because they know this is a distraction, we have got real issues. my district has seven military bases including marine corps air station meira mar who are literally cannibalizing planes, we need to find the right material, the right acquisition, the right readiness for our troops. that's the discussion we should be having this week, not this side show that's discriminatory and wrong. >> democratic senator scott peterson from california, thank you for joining us. we have some live pictures coming in from the u.s. senate floor, where in a few hours lawmakers will vote on another piece of the health care

election, this time a plan to repeal obamacare, but not an offer of replacement as of yet, we'll have all the day's news right after this. no, please, please, oh! ♪ (shrieks in terror) (heavy breathing and snorting) no, no. the running of the bulldogs? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money aleia saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. finding the best hotel price is now a safe bet. because tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites - so you save up to 30% on the hotel you want. lock it in. tripadvisor.

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next. >> reporter: yeah, wolf right here in the senate debate. we're seeing republicans and democrats jockeying back and forth about what will happen next. they are scheduled to have a vote on the repeal only bill, one that they expect will actually go down, won't have the votes to move forward, but they made promises to their members about why they will have that vote. in order for amendments to only have a simple majority threshold, they need to comply with budget rules and those rules are pretty strict, and one issue that has continue walally popped up on this has been efforts to defund planned parenthood for a year. what's happened right now, why the delay has occurred is arguments going back and forth between republicans and democrats are the senate parliamentarian as to whether or not the current language passes muster, can be moved through with just a simple majority. republicans say they think

they'll be fine, that vote will occur at 3:30, we're waiting to see how that turns out, but avenue that, the amendment process just keeps moving along. >> the senate republicans are trying to get any bill that can get at least the 50 votes that they need, the vice president can then break the tie. walk us through the bills that they'll be voting on. >> the repeal plan, that ends individual and employ year mandates and keeps medicaid until 2020. lawmakers need time to come up with a replacement bill. but this plan, according to cbo would actually cause 32 million more people to be uninsured. by 2026, premiums would double and three quarters of the

country would live in places that have no insurance company in the market. and then there's the skinny repeal, you may have heard a lot about that in the last couple of days that would actually end the individual and employer mandates now and would probably end the tax on medical devices. the cbo looked at this earlier a couple of years ago and it would probably cause 15 million more people to be uninsured and would cause a 20% spike in premiums. the last thing that will probably rear its head again, is actually the senate repeal and replace bill that everyone's been working on for months now, that actually ends the individual and employer mandates but keeps a form of the obamacare subsidies. it eliminates enhanced funding for medicaid expansion and curtails funding for medicaid overall. that's been a very controversial bill, that's what they haven't been able to agree on. that bill, according to cbo would or a version of that bill

would leave 22 million more people uninsured by 2026, it would cause premiums to drop, but it would cause a lot of problems in the market as well. >> you know, phil, the senate republican leadership, they want something to pass, so at least they can go back to the house, have a house senate conference committee and then continue to work on this so there wouldn't be complete failure. what do you preface that with? >> things can change, but the kind of plans that tammy laid out, the skinny or scaled back repeal appears where things are headed out. basically having a vehicle to just keep this process moving, get it to conference committee, start to try to hammer out details with the house, there is still work going on behind is scenes to try and find a way to lock in a repeal and replace, a more fuller conclusion here, but as we see now and over the last couple of weeks, this continues to come up short. that would not be the final

policy, but it would at least move it forward and have a victory on the senate floor and then go back and hammer things out on the house floor. >> phil mattingly, thanks very much. tammy, tharpnks to you as well. attorney general jeff sessions was at the white house today as president trump was continuing to criticize him directly on twitter. so how long can all of this go on? how long can the attorney general hold on? we'll discuss that and more with our panel right after this.

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president trump is keeping up the pressure on the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions. once again today the president issued an official white house

statement in his chosen form, that would be twitter. quote, why didn't ag sessions replace acting fbi director andrew mccabe a comey friend who got $700,000's for his wife's political run for hillary clinton and her representatives, drain the swamp, close quote. and here to discuss it is our panel. gloria, that tweet from the president attacking sessions and the acting fbi director mccabe, he got $700,000 from the democratic governor, his wife did, from the democratic governor terry mcauliffe, not the democratic governor, but his wife. why all this going after of jeff

sessions? >> he's clearly like a dog with a bone and he's clearly not going to let go of this, and what he's trying to do with these tweets are saying to members of congress, leave the guy alone, he cares about your agenda, he's doing what you want on your agenda, he's trying to make the case that there are true conflicts here, and donald trump is not taking care of it. whether it's mccabe or leak investigations, he's using twitter to make his case to conservatives and to republicans, whether with that will matter remains to be seen. but the question that i have is, look, if you're going to fire him, do it. why are you continuing to tweet about it like this? >> and you heard lindsay graham today essentially saying this is weak sauce from the president. him not firing lindsay graham and having him twist in the wind and basically sort of mouth off on twitter, if he wanted to fire the guy, he should fire him,

rather than just sort of trash talk him in the press. i think the question is, what sort of -- i mean we have seen this backlash, obviously from conservatives, you see trump trying to rebrand sessions as something sort of other than conservative, and somebody who's not cracking down on leaks, somebody who's going on easy on hillary clinton, i think the problem is conservatives know sessions, they know sessions more than they know donald trump. >> he's a very conservative attorney general, and when he was a senator from alabama, from, very, very concern, his fellow alabama senator richard sherman defending him, very, very strongly. listen to. >> he's a strong guy, a man with integrity and purpose, and i told him to hang in there, she will i hope, he deserves better than this, he's not the president's personal lawyer, he's an attorney general of the

united states. he took an oath to the constitution, not to the president and i think the president needs to realize that, that he is not his lawyer. he's had a lot of experience in law enforcement, he's on the judiciary committee, former united states attorney for a long time. he's a man with a lot of friends and a lot of respect. >> it's not just senator shelby, it's a lot of conservative republicans making the same points. >> and centrist republicans as well who have made a point to acknowledge that they don't always agree with jeff sessions on immigration or right of center issues that he's proposing. but he's a man of integrity, and served for 22 years in the united states senate. so they know jeff sessions, richard shelby really made the best argument there. jeff sessions is not the lawyer for the president of the united states. he did not take a loyalty oath to the president of the united states. he took a loyalty oath to the constitution of the united states. and i still think after these six or so months of being in

office, the president still doesn't understand that. >> do you think he's going to reconsider, sit down with the attorney general and work this out? >> i think -- normally i would say no, but i think with trump, he loves two things. we loves one thing that can go two ways, he loves sort of drama, particularly when it's televised, particularly when it's about him. so i think he could come to a meeting in which he comes out and says, you know what? i told attorney general sessions he wasn't doing the job he needed to do when i fired him. i think it's also possible because there's nothing tv likes than the unexpected twist that he meets with attorney general sessions and says, we worked it out, we had a good conversation, he kind of likes that, remember ben carson who said we kind of have a pathology who was similar to a child molester, lying ted,

there is a part of that that likes that, we got together, we hated each other, but now we like each other. so everything he said would lead me to believe the of sit of that, but i also know that the guy has a flare for sort of the dramatic, particularly as it's televised and maybe that's what he does. >> but there are people inside the white house who are clearly trying to talk him out of this, the firing because they understand that it could start a whole kind of domino effect that could be very detrimental to the president. but he still tweeted this morning. >> he tweeted this morning, going after sessions and the acting fbi director, while sessions was over at the white house meeting with other officials, not with the president. >> right, right, right. i mean going again to, i mean this guy who sort of frames himself as a tough guy, but doesn't really like to fire people, doesn't really like confrontation, which he would

like to have if he ended up firing jeff sessions so he's basically trash talking sand trying to get him to leave. i think one thing you see him do today with this transgender ban and him announcing that, you have seen conservatives hammering donald trump on twitter, on air, rush limbaugh for going after sessions and now he's essentially saying to conservatives that he's one of them, that donald trump is one of them and you see conservatives now basically praising this decision around the transgender ban in the military. so i think it was strategic. >> do you think he was just trying to change the subject? >> if you look at republican senators who were hammering him now are saying this was the right thing to do. and senator jeff sessions came out and said he wasn't going to protect transgender students in public schools.

>> is problem they -- they saw him as a vessel to get their agenda through, that they couldn't get through in the obama, and george w. bush was considered a compassion nalt conservative, wasn't always on board with what the social conservatives were trying to do. not only did he attack jeff sessions today, he attacked lisa murkowski, and it gets very lonely in the oval office when you have no allies. >> lisa murkowski, of the great state of alaska really let the republicans and our country down yesterday, too bad she was one of two republicans, with susan collins to vote against opening up the debate. >> it shouldn't be any surprise to him, i always love in these meetings that the president has in the roosevelt room. he always puts susan collins on one side and lisa murkowski on the other, but it didn't do any good, they both voted against him. to take on a republican senator

and to basically say she doesn't have the interests of her constituents at heart is kind of unseemly, when you're a member of the senate, and you're looking to see if the president has your back on this issue, he won't. >> remember, lisa muir cease mu murkowski's father served the alaska senate for a very long time. >> we're only moments away from the white house briefing, all these issues about to be raised with the white house press secreta secretary sarah huckabee sanders. the soft-bristle brush separates every lash it's america's #1 mascara for a reason the one and only voluminous original mascara from l'oréal paris

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some world leaders are voicing their disapproval over a u.s. plan to impose new sanctions against russia, iran, and north korea. the measure passed the house of representatives yesterday overwhelmingly, now heads back to the senate where an earlier passed a slightly different version, again, overwhelmingly. gives congress the power to block the white house from weakening sanctions on moscow. north korea doesn't seem too

bothered by the new sanctions, but pyongyang is irate over comments made by the cia direct director. cnn's will ripley is in seoul for us. >> reporter: north korean officials as recently as last month did not same fazed at all. they are used to being sanctioned. north korea's economy is one of the most heavily sanctioned on earth and yet according to south korean kmestimates it grow last year largely because of north korea's relationship with china and those sanctions are have done little to slow the pace, the frantic pace of missile testing that we've seen, including that icbm launch on the fourth of july. north korea has also conducted five nuclear tests, and what really provokes their anger, the reason why we're seeing these threats from pyongyang, not so much the sanctions, but the rhetoric from the cia director mike pompeo who said the u.s. would like to see kim jong un

separated from his country's rapidly growing nuclear missile arsenal. also implying the north korean people themselves would like to see their leader ousted from power. that predictably drew a furious response, a threat of annihilation by north korea launching a missile which experts say they're getting closer every day to attaining, an icbm that could carry a nuclear warhead to the mainland u.s. there's equipment rolling into a site that could be used to launch a ballistic missile really in the coming hours as north korea prepares to celebrate the 7/27 armistice signing. they may try to send a defiant, angry message to the united states. >> will ripley reporting from seoul, south korea. will has been to north korea about a dozen times over the past few years. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." coming up right at the top of the hour, we'll have live

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