politics." i'm john king. a lot of breaking news here in washington. obamacare repeal is dead and the white house is in turmoil, but to those stories in a moment. we begin with major breaking international news. the pentagon now confirming to cnn north korea has launched yet another ballistic missile. it happened just over an hour ago. cnn pennell correspondent barbara starr has the latest. >> reporter: as you well know, john, it's often the case world threats intervene on washington politics. that may be what we're dealing with here today. the pentagon at this hour is

trying to determine exactly what type of ballistic missile north korea fired a short time ago off its eastern coast. the question at hand right now is, did north korea fire another intercontinental ballistic missile east towards japan? this is the big concern. an intercontinental ballistic missile, the first fired a few weeks ago on july 4th. if they've done another one this soon, that is a major new security calculation facing the president. of course, an icbm, an intercontinental ballistic missile, is the type that could some day be capable of striking the u.s. with what north korea wants, which is a nuclear warhead on top of that kind of missile. to be clear -- we don't know at this hour exactly what type of missile they fired. that is something that the pentagon, south korea, japan, determined by looking at satellite imagery. the heat signature that they can

determine through satellites and radars, how long the missile flew. how high it flew. how high did it go? where did it come down? the exact technical details of the trajectory that the missile flew. that will help them determine what kind of missile this was. but regardless, there is a good deal of concern that north korea is moving ahead with that long-range missile program. it was just recently that the u.s. intelligence community updated its own assessment by about two years, accelerating the time frame on which they thought north korea might have an intercontinental ballistic missile. in fact, capable of hitting the u.s. so we will find out in the next few hours. hopefully, what kind of missile. and then the white house will have to figure out what, if anything, they want to do about it, john. >> one of many big challenges facing president trump a little more than six months into his

office. raise your hand when you have more information we'll get back to you. other breaking news here in washington, the collapse of the obamacare repeal efforts in the united states senate. watch the show is what john mccain told reporters as he walked into the senate chamber and what a show it was. more moderate senators huddled to share their thoughts and vote counts. lisa murkowski, susan collins, firm nos. no room to spare. and the majority made his case for mccain's vote to keep it alive. president trump made a final pitch and just before 2:00 a.m. showtime. mccain flipped his thumb down and voted, no. his vote the other day allowed this debate to begin. his vote early this morning left a seven-year republican party promise in shambles, a stinging defeat for congressional leaders and for a president who promised dealmaking was his special gift and repeatedly said repealing obamacare would be easy.

here's senate majority leader chuck schumer last hour praising senator mccain. >> -- very same courage he showed as a naval aviator in vietnam, he showed last night, and has shown time and time again. >> so now what? will they try again? will they fix obamacare? will there be as mccain hopes some bipartisan health care conversation? cnn's phil mattingly still trying to sift through the ashes live up on capitol hill. phil what is next? >> reporter: yeah. a lot more questions than answers here. one thing we have an answer to. senate republicans we've seen repeatedly over the course of the last couple weeks are at this point incapable of getting 50 votes for any repeal or replace proposal. from the fullest to the most bare bones they are incapable of doing this. leaving credence to what senator mcconnell said on the floor after the vote failed. it's time to move on. i think he talked to a lot of rank and file republicans. don't like the process. don't like how it worked out but

recognize, john, they campaigned on this. for seven years. a primary reason they hold majorities in the house and senate, partially a reason why they currently control the white house and they haven't been able to figure it out. this morning, house republicans met at a conference meeting that aides said was to discussion the next steps forward on health care. supposed to vote on appointing conferees by this afternoon. the assumption the senate would get this done. instead, more of an airing of grievances, if you will. speaker paul ryan basically saying at one point i'med to, we're the only functioning chamber as it currently stands. a statement, i'm disappointed and frustrated. we should not give up. i encourage the senate to work towards a resolution that keeps our promise. we have much work still to do. top of list cutting taxes for middle-class families and fixing our broken tax code. telling the senate not to give up and talking about the next big issue everybody cares about that both the administration and republican leaders have been itching to get on to now for almost a couple of months.

conservatives made it clear. try to figure out a path forward on repeal. very unlikely at this point. moderates say, have a bipartisan negotiation. there is bipartisan agreement that at least short-term market stabilization in the individual markets a package for that is necessary and also possible. the issue, john. you know this well. the senate floor is not a fast place. look at what's stacked up next. you have the nbaa. nomen, as, budget, spending bills, debt ceiling and then tax reform. all things that take a lot of time. the idea even a bipartisan proposal would ever reach the floor, that conservatives would fight that tooth and nail, allow that to happen? by all accounts, they have to move on from health care at least when it comes to a big leadership push. whether or not they can successfully achieve other major agenda items? you can't help but note it's an open question at this moment based on what we've seen over the course of the last seven months. >> remarkable day after. phil, thanks very much.

brick the conversation into the room with us to share reporting and insights. sara murray, and the rest of our panel. hard sometimes to step back and think about how stunning this is when you look back at seven years of republican promises. drnt sa donald trump was the dealmaker to come to washington. said it would ebe easy, later said, who knew health care would be complicated? these hours after, how does the republican party put the pieces back together? this was their signature promise to the american people in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and now it is kaboom? >> think about what that promise really was. right? i mean, as somebody there covering in 2009 and 2010 when debating this, never a clash of ideas where president obama had one idea for health care and the republicans had another kind of well-developed plan for how they thought it should go. it was always an anti-obama

promise. right? we're going to stop it, because it's -- president obama. they is vague idea it was government controlled health care but never really put 230erd ov forward over all those years alternative, this is what i want to do and part of why their struggling. >> and a different republican party because of who came to office. two big tea parties wins in 2010 and 2014, which you have to say obamacare running on repealing obamacare was a big part of the republican message. especially in the house it's a much more conservative group who don't want to do what senator mccain wants to do. don't want to pass a bill like senator collins wants to do. can they pick up the pieces or are they done? >> hard to see how they move forward. what senator mccain called for, start over from the beginning and do it right. it was to go through the committees, at hearings, a public debate in front of the american people. there are various conservative wonks who came up with alternative plans to obamacare over the last seven years and

won't involved in this either. they didn't say come in, bring your ideas, ideas from the heritage foundation and have a big, intellectual discussion. to michael's point, they've been promising just to get rid of this thing everybody hated and even the bill that failed last night wasn't repeal and replace. didn't even come close to an actual repeal. they promised to get rid of the whole thing. that was never even on the table. >> the president weighs in to this last night and this morning on twitter. three republicans 48 democrats let the american people down. as i said from the beginning, let obamacare implode and then deal with it. watch. go to a 51-vote majority not a senseless 60. that's factually not in context. only needed 51. he corrected himself. parts of health care could pass at 51, good needs 60.

so these tweets, like throughout the process, the president is confusing things, as opposed to making things more clear. the politics of this could be delicious. it is a defeat for the president. it is more of a defeat for republican leadership for years before president trump was even on the scene politically said they would do this. try one second to talk to the people out there? watching in america? if you live in one of those counties that only has one insurer in your exchange because the others pulled out, if you're thinking about changing your job, afraid to do so because you don't know what the health care marketplace will look like in three to six months, do we have any idea what comes next? the administration, will they keep funding obamacare insurance subsidies? will senator mcconnell promised, republicans can't figure it out we have to work with democrats on fixes. will they do that or will this become a political standoff and they go off into their corners? >> baaick to what you mentioned

before. what are the pieces? have a party victory can not now and splintering off on herb ire y -- issues after this. there's not a lot of confidence in leadership in the gop. if the pieces are that you can actually start to work across the aisle, then the president's going to have to be willing to step off to the side and not keep stirring a pot so they can actually do that. a very, very tall order in this environment to have mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer shake hands so they can afford to lose the more fringe parts of their parties and pull together a majority-proof middle. that's something that they can't do if the president continues to be involved in questioning the -- validity of this. >> involved as he has been. inconsistent. sometimes the president the same day says just repeal. then says repeal and replace. but what about from here forward? could it be the trumpian moment, come down to blair house, a bipartisan health care and fix

this? trump voters relied to a degree on obamacare. might not like it. if you take it away, better fix it. >> i woulds surprised the white house decides to suddenly wrap their arms around this tighter and own it. there was a real lesson in this. you cannot treat health care like it's a political football. too intimate to people's day-to-day lives, to family histories and stories. we saw a political document. no one in the room thought that was good legislation, thought it was good health care, thought it was good for the people at home, and that is why it ultimately didn't make it through. so, yeah. i think you could get at a point later down the road, seeing democrats and republicans at the same time. it's not coming soon, and i don't think if sitting in the white house you can sit there and say we'll just watch insurers drop out of the markets, watch premiums go up, stop making payments and not own that. like, you are the president of the united states now. you answer to these people. you promised to fix this. you got your shot to do it your way with republicans and failed.

yeah. at some point she to do something. >> how much of the president had his team go after lisa murkowski? his team called to alaska, we'll essentially punish you. stood firm. voted no. the president has a lousy relationship and kept coming back, john, we really need you and know the history. he said way, way, back early in the campaign. i prefer those who don't get captured. and shouldn't be about them, mccain said, about all p.o.w.s. how much did we learn about the personal relationships which when at 52-48 in the senate and need every vote, just about every vote to get something done, that matters. >> you learn about certain people. learned lisa murkowski maybe should have known. a write-in candidate and gotten back into the senate. she has not just said i'm voting no on the health care bill but you want interior nominees? not getting them anytime soon. >> she's not afraid of the

president. >> is he a maverick or partisan? the question of the pulling back and forth and at this point has nothing to lose. the guy just got diagnosed with brain cancer. he can take a moral position and not suffer the blowback. seems like a callous way of putting it but that's the case. >> and mccain gave cover. several others i'm concerned to vote no, and not have conservatives come in their face. >> majority of republicans still are very afraid of the president but i think we saw a real breaking point this week. more with the sanctions bill actually. than with the health care bill. both were instances of congress turning to the white house and saying, we don't owe you anything. and you know, the president's consistent participation in the health care process was mostly standing on the sidelines throwing tomatoes over the fence. that was not particular l appreciated. at the end, over for lunch, made phone calls but there wasn't a get down to brass tacks and talk

how to achieve actual substantive goals, and so i think we really saw congress turn on the president this week. i think it's only going to get worse. they are starting to gain the confidence to stand up to his threats. because they realize, they're pretty much -- >> they think -- >> it's not all about policy and some was the president going after jeff sessions, has friends in congress. don't mess with your friends and the transgender group. a lot of people with military backgrounds saying that's not okay. >> more on that as we go through the program and health care. close with this, president obama's spokesman, the affordable care act made americans stronger and healthier. there's always more work to do. build on this law as members of both parties work together to improve social security, medicaid and medicare, keep delivering on the promise of affordable health insurance for every american. weighing in on the sideline. next, a white house in

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stand up to chronic migraine. talk to a headache specialist today. welcome back. anthony scaramucci title is white house communications director means he speaks for the president. what scaramucci told the "new yorker" about the white house chief of staff and warning first, this gets vulgar and offensive. reince priebus, if you want to leak something he'll be asked to resign shortly. that was the nice part. reince is a bleeping paranoiac. then turned the wrath on the white house chief strategist steve bannon. i won't read the first part out

loud. no way. there it is on the screen. the repulsive language used to describe a colleague paid by your tax dollars. went on to say i'm not trying to build my brand off the bleeping strength of the president. now those words are vulgar, offensive. maybe you like them, make you don't. the important part, it became public hours and hours ago and the president of the united states has been silent. we a assume anthony scaramucci still speaks for the president, because that is what he was hired to do this week, and the president has done nothing to suggest he disagrees here. the word "chaos" does nothing to convey the mood inside the trump white house. this week seems to make "game of thrones" seem like a tea party. sara murray, you cover the building every day. brought in with the president's blessing. says things i'm doing this with the president's blessing. i assume reince priebus and

steve bannon of having an interesting day at the white house? >> we've seen the president doesn't like to do his own dirty work. saw it with jeff sessions. happy to shoot off his mouth on twitter, doesn't want to confront the guy. and asked the same with reince priebus. sarah huckabee sanders said if he wanted him gone he would fire him. constantly frustrated, sick of batting back at stories they're about to get fired and a president perfectly happy and thinks people work better when views are challenged and don't know if their job is safe day to day. no surprise, difficult to replace reince priebus in that role. one of the big things holding them back from pulling the trigger and replacing the chief of staff outright. people aren't exactly competing to get the job in washington. this, this level of vulgarity -- i think it's pretty stunning

when you think about the job these people were hired to do, and the office they're representing. >> i think -- i don't find it totally shocking that people talk this way. people in politics do talk kniss way. usually don't do so on the record and this was an on the record interview but certainly the way anthony scaramucci talks and people have known him a long time. but i think to the point about reince priebus, he hasn't effectively been chief of staff a while. so busy trying to keep himself safe and get into the president's good graces. the president has never trusted him because he sees the rnc as having tried to get in his way from the beginning. and reince is constantly insecure about this position in the hierarchy. never real sort of executive authority. never behaved like a chief of staff in that he runs the staff. so these scaramucci moments undercut him more and ensure he has no power over anybody, even if he stays. >> do anyone of them realize

it's not about reince priebus, steve bannon, anthony scaramucci? there's a country out there? w we'd like a decision on china trade and obamacare finish line, policy debates? can we get to those, but silly me. we do no, talked to a number of people this morning, late last night, reporting in the "new york times" and elsewhere, people at this table reported the president is openly talking about a new chief of staff. to sara's point, having a hard time finding somebody. it happen add couple months ago. went back to what we have, whatever you want to call it, couldn't find anybody. the president's top economic adviser, "new york times" says he wants a general, talked john kelly, homeland security secretary. told david urban, former campaign adviser cnn contributor came up, his name, in the conversation. and in line for a big ambassadorship, doesn't want to come inside, no part of that. dina powell, deputy national security adviser works closely with cohen, he name came up as a

fallback candidate. conservatives are pushing back hard. talked favorably raising carbon taxes in in favor legalizing undocumented and don't want him chief of staff. what does the president do? let this keep twisting in the wind? >> it's possible, we've seen it before. this could sort of be another moment where we all think this is going to happen and it doesn't. it does feel like this is a little different, but the problem is, as you pointed out, the language isn't really the problem. i mean, senator mccain has salty language. a lot of politicians we've covered talk that way. certainly had that in background conversations. the problem is the actual dysfunction. this white house doesn't run the processes that have to run to get stuff done. whether national security process, to respond to north korea. whether it's domestic -- a domestic, you know, step by step organizing your white house to get something done. and sort of the language that

you've seen is evidence that those things aren't happening because everybody's at war with -- >> sara mentioned the attorney general hanging in the wind. he's out of the country now doing a trip out of the country but did do an interview with tucker carlson on fox. listen to him describe, remember, the president made clear i have no confidence in my attorney general. pushback, don't you fire your attorney general. listen to jeff sessions. remember, the first united states senator to endorse candidate trump. >> it's kind of hurtful, but the president of the united states is a strong leader. i serve at the pleasure of the president. >> yes. >> if he's -- he wants to make a change he can certainly do so, and i would be glad to yield in that circumstance. no doubt about it. >> glad to yield in that circumstance knop doubt about it. calling the president a strong leader. a lot of blowback from the president, open from republicans, the president is actually a weak leader, if you don't have the courage to fire people or just, shut up yourself and make sure anthony scaramucci shuts up and stops undermining.

i get your point about the language, but i'm sorry. i don't think it would be tolerated at this company. did the people at apple talk that way about tim cook? or tim cook has deputies talk about senior people in this circle? pig big major corporations in america. is that tolerated? >> the reason he made the call, trying to find out the source of a leak, and so -- seems like what he's really brought in to do, be the enforcer. the one who stops the leaking which is really just people talking crap about their boss. that seems to be what trump is most preoccupied with. seeing that as the biggest problem. all of these people are talking about him behind his bite. >> and he want add street fighter and is getting one in a way. >> and didn't like sean spicer, did like scaramucci as a person, come in and doing this. might be shocking to everybody else. the question, if it's okay with the president and the other people were not okay with the president, it's a forgivable sin. same time, you have jeff sessions in a position saying what everybody says in a

situation they don't want to provoke more of the president's ire. trying to keep their jobs and hold to -- >> and irony is, i wasn't trying to minimize the language. it's horrible. in any other setting, big corporate setting, the person who uttered the language, the person who got caught uttering that language would be the one on the way out. in this case, the person about whom the language is describes seems to be the person who's about to depart. >> the only thing i would add, it's disheartening day in and day out to have to constantly go to people and say, is this person staying? is this person going? what is your future holding? that's because the president is constantly calling people saying maybe today's the day i'm going to fire this person, that person. this persons is doing a terrible job. i can't imagine, a white house employee taking a job with much lower pay and jeff sessions give

up a senate seat to serve your country in a different way and this is how your boss treats you. no apology from anthony scaramucci or particular president trump to jeff sessions and i don't expect one on either front. >> put so many on edge. people expect to treat underlings, even if not so nice. to go after sessions, who has been so loyal, no amount of loyalty is ever enough for donald trump. >> get rid of sessions, get rid of others who stand between you and mueller? talking about the whole russia probe -- >> a great drama. >> exactly. >> a government would be nice. up next, candidate trump said governing would be so easy. he's finding out it's harder than he thought, especially when parts of your own party turn against you. 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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hey you've gotta see this. cno.n. alright, see you down there. mmm, fine. okay, what do we got? okay, watch this. do the thing we talked about. what do we say? it's going to be great. watch. remember what we were just saying? go irish! see that? yes! i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. welcome back. it's friday. many 6 us stake stock of the work 3 week headed into the weekend. some highlights of president trump looking back at this monday through friday. head of the boy scouts apologized to scouts and parents because of salty language the president used and talking

politics. asked the president to "please cut it out" meaning respect the rule of law and stop attacking the attorney general. on capitol hill, republican after republican also staged an intervention of sorts. warning it's president he was wrong if he believes he can easily replace his attorney general. >> if you're thinking of making a recess appointment to push out the attorney general, forget about it. the presidency isn't a bull and this country isn't a china shop. >> interesting choice of words there. the pentagon pushed back also against the president's twitter announcement banning transgender individuals from serving in the military and today in the "wall street journal" this from peggy noonan. whiney, and self-pitying. more of her take in a moment. summing up the week, you mentioned, mentioned by several earlier. this was an interesting week. may look back at this week in terms of republicans being more open in criticism, john cornyn said the president should get

together with jeff sessions and work it out like men. you can imply what they meant there. and lendsy graham going public saying the president is weak. what do we make of this week and is it just a little of little interesting pieces of drama, or does it mean something? >> it's concentrated. that's the thing. take each one, okay, the thing that happened this week, get past it. the fact it's -- it struck a nerve both political, policy related, personal for a lot of these republicans and happened within a few days of each other means you're seeing a break. and the fact that it happened the same week where the health care policy bill falls apart. not a good bet anymore as it seemed to a lot of members in the gop. >> i think -- i think the question is, is it kind of an ultimate break or does -- >> right. >> ---the ideological for various groups who still wan things from this president, does it paper over it?

i spoke with people this morning who want tax reform. in-line with the president on immigration policies. high want infrastructure. and, yeah, they worry that this week is an indication that the chaos inside the white house is going to kind of hamper their agenda items but also, there's strong reason for them to try to continue to push both on capitol hill and among republicans and with this white house to try to get their agenda done. >> the other thing that happened this week was that, you know, the president spoke at the boy scout thing and the next day a campaign rally in ohio. just announced doing another one next week. so i think there's a sense that he's sort of checking out. a sense that he's going and doing the one thing that brings him joy. be in a big crowd of people who love him, and the rest of the republican party is sort of realizing it's time to go if alone. time to just try to just shut out the noise. pretend he's not there. let him do this thing, travel around the country. saying stuff. and when it comes to something like tax reform or all the other things on the agenda, they have

to do it themselves. >> i think other things, keep in mind, though, you have to take -- are we talking about republicans as a body in congress or as the party? are we talking about the margins? one lesson of this week, it doesn't matter where the body of republicans are if you have enough of people on the margins that won't play ball. lesson of health care in the senate. you have people like susan collins, lisa murkowski, a few others who lost patient as this point, doesn't matter where the rest of the party is. they can jam everything else up. >> and seeing how big that group is. ben sasse, love him. big quotes, lindsey graham, but voted with the president on his priorities and not shown indication they're going to split with with the president wants, despite a tongue lashing now and again. maybe that will be different when we see how the president deals with the russia sanctions bill and when we get to tax reform. as of right now, john mccain was out there alone. no one else was -- knew collins, murkowski weren't getting

onboard but no show ofs for alongside john mccain. one man decided to take the political bullet on that i'm still not convinced the base, that 30-whatever percent, that even a week like this does -- >> yes. they love him, but interesting. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff sent a memo, president goes on twitter, banning transgender individuals from serving in the military. the pentagon has no idea what he means. no specifics what he means because he blindsided them. you have the top general in the united states military sending a memo saying, no modifications to the current policy until the president's grekz direction is received by the secretary of defense. meantime, treat up a military personnel with respect. >> a stunning realization of -- we have no idea what he means. so stand by. stand down. >> keep everything normal.

>> that's nuts. >> says it publicly. there might be times in the past when generals and ped president will to go back and forth privately. but to do it publicly -- >> there's not communication taking place behind the scenes in a deliberative process. so many agencies don't even have staff to run the building and finding out about policy on tweets. >> and the president's on his way to long island for an event where anthony scaramucci is from. a picture i believe we have it, anthony scaramucci on the plane with reporters. reince priebus also on that plane. wish i was. that would be an interesting place to be, a fly on the wall, in disguise as an air force steward making your way back and forth through the cabin. peggy noonan, not a fan of the president. somewhat complementary after a speech in poland. >> whining, weeping, self-pitying, throws himself on the body of politics.

he's a drama queen. shrill little cries usually just after dawn. meanwhile the whole world is watching that contains predators. how could they not see the weakness, confusion and chaos and think it's a good time to cause some trouble? that in the "wall street journal" this morning. again, it's one editorial voice. a constant critic of the president but that traditionally is a friendly place for a republican president. the pages of the "wall street journal." >> i think she gave him a lot more of a chance than other establishment conservatives. not out with george will and krauthammer say by not means accept this person. she's been quite open to the one version of trump, the populist version of trump and the idea of that. she's finding and a lot of people who wanted to believe in that fantasy version of trump are finding that the reality doesn't live up to that. >> it's amazing. sit tight, everybody. next, the moment republican lawmakers waited for seven years and they, well, think they blew it. look back at how we got to this point in the health care debate. and what might happen next. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?

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more now on the collapse of the republican obamacare repeal effort and what it means. or at least what it appears to mean this morning after. senator john mccain's vote was the last straw sending a republican-only plan to defeat early this morning. he says republicans should work with democrats and not have a one-party vote to such a huge issue. at least senator mccain can claim he's consistent. >> you will have ran through a "reform" in a strictly partisan basis without the participation of the, of the other party, over the objections of a ma jofrjori the american people, done in negotiations the meanamerican pe don't like it. >> he didn't like it when they passed obamacare with all democrats and doesn't like it

now. and unable to pass because of senator mccain's vote. who carry, the day? what happens now? and part of it is what happens in washington. do they try to fix obamacare? mart of my question, what happens in the republican party with conservatives groups saying people like senator mccain failed the party? when you have -- talking about potential primary challenges in 2018 and beyond? how does this play out? >> we don't know. i mean, what i hear from republicans on the hill, they're sort of in shock. there hasn't been a lot of plans because this was their last shot and now don't have a plan b. there is regrouping. we've heard some members talking how they want to try to start over, but there really isn't a plan yet from leadership and i think leadership is severely bruised by what happened. a lot of republicans severely disillusioned with mitch mcconnell in particular who they really trusted to be a sort of wizard. thought he was a brilliant legislative tactician who would make it work somehow, and he

tried over and observver again brought something to the floor he didn't have votes for. a really hard thing to do as a leader. it means if this turns out to be a bad vote politically for people he made a bunch of members take a very bad vote and they'll remember that. >> to your point. i talked to conservative this morning before coming on the show who was bitterly complaining about that vote and said what senator mccain's vote shows is that there's too many democrats that are in the republican party. too many republicans who are really democrats. and you know, a party that is that way with such pressure from folks the phi s i talked to -- >> southern democrats more conservative and fight with the liberals all the time. and -- now those southern democrats are all republicans. so this is the price of victory for republicans, if you will. a bigger thanksgiving dinner because you're winning races but have to sit susan collins down

with ted cruz and that's hard. >> democrats had the problem with 60 votes and spent a year and a half negotiating with joe lieberman on the right and liberals on the left to come up with something everybody would vote for before they brought it to the floor. >> and i was going to say going back generations of these splits happening with parties, hasn't been as much to pretend you'll talk to the other side before you start the conversation. there was no, no pretense in this. >> republicans trying to figure it out. what's a better mechanism, vehicle? these are legitimate issues. not personalities, philosophical differences about the role of government. part of it. risen to the chairman of the house committee not inmittly involved in health care but how do they figure out the hard part, which is governing. >> our problem is for seven years we've been telling folk what's we're against and opposed to, and then had seven months to

govern. and the best we can come up with is a skinny plan on 24 hours' notice? we got to get better at telling people what we believe, why we believe it and persuading them it's right for country. we've had plenty of time to do it. we set unrealistic expectations and never meet them. >> honest assessment whether  you're a democrat or republican, conservative or liberal. pretty honest assessment. one of the defining questions. won the election in november. knew they had a republican president and knew they would have to meet this test because they promised to do it and whether it was legislative leaders not working from transition. the president not starting from transition going to the tough districts and saying i need your vote. when she votes with me and you're mad at her blame me, not her. none of that was done. why? >> first of all, they only had about two months, really, to get ready for this moment, three i guess. most of january. they didn't actually think trump would win. have a complete road ahead to do all of these things. then a question of, okay. everybody had said for so long that they were in favor of doing

obamacare. figured take a quick political vote and get this off to the side and not the way it happened and the other thing keep in mind. yes, mr. mcconnell is a master tactician. yes, really, really good at this job but never had to grapple with anything this big, this many moving parts and his first test and couldn't pull it across the finish line. the first question to look at, does the gop keep confidence in him? if they do, he can probably use that to do other things going forward. probably wishes he didn't extend the session two weeks in august now. >> supposed to be gone today. going to stick around and work. >> yeah. taxes are just at complicated for different reasons. the same factional, regional philosophical disputes as you do. hang tight. we'll be right back. moving from the back to the front burner? what next? what will the president want congress to do next? what will the congress want to do next? we'll be right back. i've tried enough laxatives

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as we know, the president of the united states this hour on his way to long island for an event focusing on cracking down on gangs. reince priebus on the plane. also on the plane, new communications director anthony scaramucci who says reince

priebus is the problem. help me understand. one of the things scaramucci said in addition to vulgar attacks against reince priebus and steve bannon, he said i'm grog it fire every one of them. the entire place will be fired over the next two weeks. believing the entire white house staff especially communications staff leaking all the time. help me. >> talked a lot about the leadership skills of reince peebous and mitch mcconnell and the leadership skills of the president are the reason we have chaos and a chaotic process on the agenda, too. on a small plane. this is the small air force one with these two guys. could sit down and say, look, reince, sorry but this hasn't been working out. brought you in to get stuff done on the hill. not going to happen anymore. or he could say, scaramucci, we're good friends. have a good relationship. you cannot run around talking about people like this. you are no longer just my friend.

you are my communications director and have to work alongside these people. haven't heard him do that. people elected him, fantasy trump, thought he was a prag in a tifrt apragmatist. this is what i want to do. whether on capitol hill on in this area, we haven't seen him do this as president. >> and scaramucci, he's hasn't issued a statement saying i told anthony to shut up, back down or anything. to me it's a bigger story than what scaramucci said it's the fact the president apparently likes it. >> that he's going around firing people? the quote you read, he's the communications director. it would be remarkable for the chief of staff to mouth off like that because it's ultimately the president who decides who works for him. >> and the justice department, they're going to be investigated. >> absolutely. at some point feels the president needs to get at least

control of the chaos and say something. >> leave it there. it is friday. sometimes friday afternoon is great drama in washington. thanks for joining us ot "inside politics." see you monday. if you're up early sunday morning, see you then. wolf blitzer after a quick break. as a micro-biologist i ensure that dog chow leads with high quality ingredients.

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hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 8:00 p.m. in moscow, 1:30 a.m. in pyongyang, north korea. wherever you're watch aring from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we start with breaking news. out of north korea. the pentagon here now says north korea fired another ballistic missile. it's another troubling move by north korea as they move ahead with the development of the missile program. also comes as fears are growing about the country's progress with weaponizing their nuclear program. the last missile launch was back on the fourth of july, independence day here in the united states. this one comes just one day after both north and south korea mark the 64th anniversary