>> thanks for staying with us. i'll see you back here in one hour live in the cnn news room. "smerconish" starts right now. ♪ i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. we welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. the president up early this morning, a barrage of tweets blaming democrats for his problems and encouraging the gop to challenge the filibuster rules. meanwhile, the revolving doors in the white house keep turning. just one week after sean spicer resigned, reince priebus is out as chief of staff. >> i think he was right to hit the reset button. >> i think bring in fresh face. i think bring in fresh people is a good thing. >> he's gone, after just 189 days.

that's the shortest tenure for a chief of staff until modern history. his replacement, homeland security secretary john kelly. can the general impose discipline on the president? i'm going to talk to pat buchanan. and to me, john mccain's most important act this week was not casting the deciding vote on repealing obamacare. it was his plea for nonpartisan compromise. and i'll explain. and turns out there are good-paying jobs for blue collar workers in the rust belt. but there's a problem. i'll talk to one employer who says four out of every ten job applicants failed drug test. and president trump pledged to let obamacare implode. how do you run a health insurance company in that climate? i'll ask a ceo. and just how hazardous is playing professional football? in a new study, 111 brains of deceased nfl players analyzed.

and 110 of them had brain damage. but first, after a stormy, six-month tenure, president trump has pushed out his white house chief of staff reince priebus, replacing him with homeland security general john kelly. priebus tried but failed to impose order on an often chaotic infighting west wing. his ouster coming a day after a feud erupted were the new communications director, anthony scaramucci, who vowed publicly to oust priebus. general kelly will take over the west wing on monday. the president is said to have felt the need to put a general in charge, and kelly had become a favorite of the president. the president calling him, quote, one of our real stars. truly, one of our stars. well, now to my real star of the week, john mccain. wouldn't it be nice if the main story that ultimately comes out of the republicans' failure to repeal obamacare, is that leaders took the advice of an american hero who reminded our politicians that they need to

compromise, not polarize? on tuesday, mccain returned to washington after having undergone surgery to combat brain cancer. after reflecting on his 30 years in the senate, mccain saluted the statesmen with whom he's served and he noted that they come from both parties and various backgrounds and set aside disputes and ambition to work collectively to uphold their responsibilities. and then he lamented the partisan and tribal nature of today's senate and offered a prescription. >> stop listening to the bombastic loud mouths on the radio and television and the internet. to hell with them. [ applause ] they don't want anything done for the public good. our incapacity is their livelihood. >> what a great line. our incapacity is their

livelihood. of course, he's right. this week's dysfunction is directly tied to men with microphones and keyboard commandos. the following day, wednesday, i give a speech to social studies teachers from around the country here in philly, it was a conference sponsored by the rendell center a not for profit that promotes civic education and engagement found by former p.a. governor, ed midge. it occurred to me that teachers have a tough job today. imagine trying to educate about current events without antagonizing any of the polarized parents in the school community. of course, the primary responsibility for raising good citizens is with parents. we were together two days after president trump spoke at the national scout jamboree in west virginia. that was the event after promising not to talk politics, he did exactly that.

tra trashing his pred ses predecess predecessor, bragging about the 2016 election map. and treating the 40,000 as if they were a rally in the red state. some have defended the president by accurately noting that he was well received. i don't doubt that he received thunderous applause. but that's part of our problem, we need to stop rewarding forces of division. >> we ought to change it from the word "swamp" to the word "cesspool," or perhaps to the word, ""sewer." but it's not good. not good. >> i've got to tell you i find it hard to believe that 10-year-old boys were clearing at the mention of the electoral college or when told that hillary didn't work hard enough in michigan. my hunches it was their parent, probably their fathers at this gathering who led the cheers. well shame on them for encouraging the president in front of a nonpartisan, not for profit that has an oath that commits its members to, quote, do my duty for my country. the youngsters might not have known better. but surely, their parents did. shame on them. it's john mccain who set an example for all of us this week.

and good that the leader of the boy scouts apologized for that speech, albeit two days later. what a poor example we're setting for our kids. let's have mccain's legacy being that he brought that compromise in service to make this country better. not just to appeal to the loudest voices within our own echo chambers. joining me now, senior adviser to three american presidents, pat buchanan. his latest thought, nixon's white house wars. patrick, i made a list. here's what the last week has looked like for the white house. spicer, out. attorney general, beleaguered. the transgender ban announced by tweet. scaramucci goes "goodfellas." health care failed. here's what it brings to mind. you're doing a good job, heck of a job, brownie. was getting rid of priebus the right move in the face of all of that? i knew that would get a laugh out of you, pat. thank you for that.

>> i think priebus went out in class and i do agree it was time to remove him. let me disagree sharply with your dissertation there, michael. >> please. >> what john mccain did this week was to deliver a historic and hue mail -- humiliating blow to the republican president and party and conservative movement. he himself committed himself to repeal of obamacare. he came up there and voted the other way. and now, he's left his party high and dry and inflicted defeat upon it. he's getting the applause from the michael smerconish in the world, and all of the folks in this city who agree flat republican party is wrong, the president is wrong on obamacare and all the rest of it. i don't think it was an act of statesmanship at all. you mentioned bipartisanship. dwight eisenhower told a friend of mine bryce working in the nixon white house. you know, bryce. sometimes the truth is out here, and sometimes it's out here, but

all these guys in this city all too often and in congress, they come here, and that's not where the truth lies. look, either going into iraq was the right move or the wrong move. even if you're in the minority as i was, i think you stand up for what is right and you fight for it. and you don't say let's compromise on principle. >> look at what intransigents have gotten this president in the first six months. patrick, i want to put up a tweet because he's been active this morning. this came from the president this morning where he says republicans in the senate will never, all caps win, if they don't go to a 51 vote majority now. they look like fools and just wasting times. i'll put it in terms you can understand. where is the personal responsibility? democrats didn't defeat the repeal effort this week. he lost mccain, he lost collins, he lost murkowski. it's the republicans who can't manage their own houses, even though they control both of them. >> yes, that's right. john mccain defeated the republican party as i said.

he voted and voted basically with all of the democrats. he did it. i don't blame mitch mcconnell. he can't control john mccain. but, you know, all of this talk of bipartisanship. look, the american people didn't vote in november of last year for bipartisanship. they said they don't like free trade and what it has done to manufacturering. we don't like what all of the middle east wars we have been gotten into by almost unanimous votes on capitol hill. we want our border control. we don't want open borders. i think general kelly -- the one concern about general kelly coming to the white house, is that he's done a magnificent job taking on that assignment over there. and i think, frankly, it's going to be quite a day at the white house when he arrives. >> i respect john mccain for not going along with the others who said, we're all voting for something that we know and, in fact, don't even want to become the law of the land, the so-called skinny repeal. >> cut it out, michael. mccain knew very well it was going to go over to the house.

and the house agreed they weren't just going to rubber stamp the skinny repeal. they were going to keep the issue alive. look. the entire republican party running nationally said, we're going to repeal and replace it. i agree, the republican party has failed. it didn't do what it told congress it was going to do and told the american people it was going to do. at least, i think ryan, and mitch mcconnell, thing they tried, and they no longer have a chance now, and if they don't, it's because john mccain is being applauded all over the city. >> i am applauding him on the merits for what he did. but i'm going to add something else to the mix. revenge is a dish best served cold. >> i don't believe -- >> listen, we're talking about a guy who served this country, was a prisoner of war and this president said, i respect those who didn't get captured. i have to believe maybe that factored in along the way, and who could blame them if it did?

>> i hope that john mccain did not act out of revenge. and i don't believe he did. that was the wrong thing to say. mccain served his country honorably and well as five years as a p.o.w. and he ran for a barry goldwater seat and won it. do you think that barry goldwater would have broken with his party and voted with the party basically of chuck schumer to defeat the republican cause? the cause on which they had run, michael? for heaven's sakes. i don't blame john mccain's heroism. i hope he survives this thing he is fighting, and i congratulate him for the guts coming back. he did something and he stuck it to his party and i don't know why he did it. other than the fact i think he's liberated. he's a free man, and he's going to tell us who he is i think we saw who he was on the floor of the house. that's his legacy, that's what he wants and that's what he will have. >> patrick, you worked in three white houses, as i mentioned during the course of the

introduction. >> that's right. >> do you think that steve bannon is long for this political world in this house? how in the face of what scaramucci told ryan lizza could steve bannon continue to maintain face, and continue to serve this president? >> my question is how the mooch going to survive, when he says i have the ability to kill everybody virtually in the west wing. when the general who has been raised on order, who's been raised on discipline, and who has been raised on a chain of command in the white house, he's going to call scaramucci in and going to say, you don't fire anybody without my permission in this white house. you're going to get control your communications shelf. you're not going to be first surrogate. you're not going to have wide open access to the oval office without me knowing what is going on in there. i think he's the one that's going to get his wings clipped. as for bannon, everything i have seen of steve bannon so far, he has kept his head down.

advised sometimes the way the president went sometimes the way he didn't. if you're looking at casualties here i would take a good look at the mooch. >> but the mooch, wasn't even, as far as we know, reprimanded for having told a reporter that bannon provides fellatio on himself. >> that's because the oval office responsible for the oval office approves of it. do you think general kelly is going to approve of this, and let this sort of thing go? i think we're going to have a touch of parris island in the west wing. >> aren't we overlooking and i'm limited on time, the biggest issue which is out there which is the continuing mueller investigation? here's my final questions for patrick buchanan. are we headed for a constitutional crisis? >> i think we're headed for a crisis and a collision between mr. mueller, who sees himself having a very broad franchise, who is moving beyond the russian

hacking, into the finances of donald trump. and the president of the united states is going to have to ask himself whether we can survive a ier year-end long type investigation. look, i've never known one of niece special prosecutors offices which are like comanches, i never knew a comanche raiding party that didn't go home without scalps at night, michael. >> and you think mueller isn't going quietly into the night without something to show for it? >> i think the special prosecutor's office has got an investigation which is part counterespionage, part counterintelligence, and another part which is the criminal investigation where they're going to try to get, capture people and making false statements. and not filling outside the correct forms. and they're going after these folks. and my guess is, that the president is not going to sit still for it. he's going to try to force events and i think mueller's going after one subpoena after another one and another one. i've been there, michael, it's called the saturday night massacre. >> now, i have to ask, do you think he's emasculating jeff

sessions because he wants him out, and is prepared, if need be, to fire him, make a recess appointment, and get somewhere, who could therefore rein in mueller? >> problem with that, jeff sessions is a good man. honorable man. he's doing a great job and he shouldn't be removed. if you do remove him and try a reappointment, that would be blocked by congress. then if you have a recess appointment and you fired mueller, the way we fired archibald cox, you find there's a structure growing inside the administration. and that's still go to be there. is the president going to order the acting attorney general to smash the whole thing and bring it back into the justice department and have the fbi do it? i think then you are talking the same kinds of problems we faced in october of 1973. >> you're doing a heck of a job, buchanan. i stumbled on my line the first time around.

i had to come back to it. >> did do a wonderful job. >> thank you, patrick. >> take it easy. all right. what are your thoughts? tweet me @smerconish. or go to my facebook page and i will read some responses throughout the course of the program. what do you got, kathryn? do you think that scaramucci is some kind of genius with a distraction strategy? many of my radio listers at sirius xm said exactly that. my god, it's distraction after distraction. if that's the case. i think the president put as his communications director, someone in his direct image. spicer wasn't in his image. priebus wasn't in his image. i think it's a win for, how about this, the new york inteligencia. one more, kelly won't be able to herd the cats because trump is a lion who won't be trained. i think you make a good

observation that the president is changing all these parts that frankly, are not the core of the problem, right? responsibility begins at home in his case. up ahead, there are jobs going unfilled in the rest belt. why so many perspective blue-collar workers are blocked due of the drug epidemic? i'm going to talk to one factory owner who says 4 in 10 applicants fail the drug test. airline credit card. ll so she only earns double miles on purchases she makes from that airline. what'd you earn double miles on, please? ugh. that's unfortunate. there's a better option. the capital one venture card. with venture, you earn unlimited double miles on every purchase, everywhere, every day. not just airline purchases. seems like a no-brainer. what's in your wallet?

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what's the biggest hidden impediment to getting unemployed laborers back in the workforce? could it be the drug epidemic? the president addressed blue collar workers in ohio this week, returning to his campaign theme of getting folks like them back to work. but it turns out even when the economy actually needs skilled workers, many good-paying job are going unfilled because

applicants who are otherwise qualified can't pass a drug test. which is required by insurers for liability reasons. some people aren't even applying for fear of this issue coming up. in this piece in "the new york times" by nelson schwartz this week, one employer said 4 out of 10 of her applicants failed the test. she joins me now, regina mitchell it at machining in hubbard, ohio. regi regina, i understand that for 48 of the 50 years your company was around, there was no issue. it's in the last two this has come up. what has changed? >> that's right, it's our 50th year in business. it hasn't been until the last two years that we needed to have a policy, a corporate policy in place, that protects us from employees coming into work impaired. and it's this opioid epidemic that we're experiencing both in ohio, but in our mahoning valley, which it seems it's

worse in other places all over the country. i have a responsibility to build a quality product. i need employees who are engaged in their work while here. of sound mind and, you know, doing the best possible job that they can and keeping their fellow co-workers safe at all times, so it's been a really big challenge for us. >> what's the typical scenario of a job applicant who comes in? who is he? who is she? and what's their station in life? >> right. well, we have a variety of different skilled labor that work for us. so, we have just general laborers. we have welders. machinists. assemblists. crane operators. and we build very heavy specialized steel-fabricated components. so we have a 150-ton crane in our machine shop. we're moving 300,000 pounds of steel around in that building on

a regular basis, so i cannot take up the chance to have anyone impaired running that crane or working 40 feet in the air. we do a lot of processes all day long, and it's my responsibility to make sure my employees are protected. >> i understand that you mentioned opioids, marijuana also is, i know, a problem that you're facing. and the testing can't determine within the last 30 days whether it was yesterday or whether it was three weeks ago. i have to believe that as the legalization trend continues across the country, that will pose an even greater burden for employers like you. >> right. yeah, medical marijuana law just passed in the state of ohio. so, as employers, we now have another hurdle to overcome. and we're working with legislators to make sure there are protections in place, some regulations in place that protect employers from irresponsible employees. as an employer, we deal with thousands of regulations that protect employees from

irresponsible employers, and i don't think it's unfair that people in our position have the same -- our businesses have the same protections from employs who show up impaired. the difficult part about where marijuana is, we don't have an affordable test that tells me if they smoked it over the weekend or smoked it in the morning before he came to work, and i just can't take the chance. and i just can't take the chance of having an impaired worker running a crane carrying a 300,000-pound steel encasement. >> as i mentioned in the setup, the ramifications of this are probably greater than the 4 in 10, meaning who knows how many are staying away from applying for your jobs because they know they would have an issue? >> well, the problems that we're facing that's a drug issue, just, you know, complicating even more, we have less of a skilled workforce to begin with anyway. we dropped shop class outside of the high school classroom. so, i'm having to spend extra time training people.

the last thing i want to do is train somebody who isn't going to come to work. be late, has tardiness issues or calling off all the time. i'm actually very happy to take people who want to be involved in the process. want to come to work every day. show up on time. and we're doing a lot of training in-house now. because there's almost 12,000 open skilled labor jobs in our mahoning county. and having applicants come in, 40% are failing drug tests with preemployment. our labor pool is just shrinking. and you know, there are good paying jobs. and the opportunities for people in our area. we just can't find people to show up who can pass a drug test. >> and with full benefits. regina, thank you for sharing that story. we appreciate it. >> thank you, michael. thanks for having me. may i mention that regina mitchell's company is in that part of ohio where cnn recently

spent several weeks reporting how donald trump won that area and many areas in the midwest. come monday, 10:00 p.m. eastern you can see the results in a cnn special report called "why trump won" reported by cnn's fareed zakaria. 10:00 p.m. monday night. what do you got, kathryn? two of them? put them up. let's see. drug testing for weed is absurd. you know, brian, i'm sympathetic to what she just said, though. i mean, if someone god forbid were injured on the floor of her shop and the person responsible was smoking marijuana, she's opening herself up to lienlt issue that is she can't shoulder. i'd like to see improvement in testing so you know did somebody smoke three weeks ago or this morning? one more, if we have time. employers have the right to a sober day's work from their employees. i think they should also drug test for unemployment benefits edward, time does not permit me to get into that whole issue. the bottom line is 4 in 10 can't

pass a test. we've got an opioid epidemic in that country that needs fixing. still to come, up able to repeal or replace obamacare, president trump is pledging to let it implode. well, how are health insurance companies functioning in a climate of such uncertainty. about to ask a ceo. plus, a new study of deceased nfl football players' brains found by family members suffered degenerative brain disease. can anything be done to protect them? these days families want to be connected 24/7.

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democrats let the american people down. as i said from the beginning, let obamacare implode then deal. watch! now, imagine that you run a large health insurance company in the midst of this chaotic climate. more than 105 million americans carry a blue card. and my next guest runs one of the largest blue cross companies independence blue cross which is based in my hometown of philadelphia. dan hilferty is ceo and president of independence health group, one of the loading health insurance in 24 states and washington, d.c. he was chosen by his blue cross ceo peers to lead the entire association at this critical juncture. and in that role has met in the white house with the president. he's also had conversations with senate leaders including mitch mcconnell. dan, how critical for you, in this context, given all the uncertainty, to run your business? >> well, michael, let's take a step back.

>> go ahead, dan. >> i apologize. let's take a step back and look at the system. when you think of our membership, we have approximately 85% of our members come through the traditional employer-based system and through medicare and medicaid. we're talking about 6% of the population comes through the state exchanges or the federal exchange or comes through -- or are still uninsured. let's talk about the first three, commercial market place, medicaid and medicare. they're functioning extremely well. 85% of our business. can they be improved? absolutely. we can continue to drive down cost, we can continue to drive up quality. but they're working. the job now is to fix the 6% and hopefully growing of folks to care over the past three years. >> can you stay in the exchanges?

can health insurers -- i'll broaden it just beyond blue cross, stay in the exchanges if there is no individual mandate? isn't the whole premise if everybody gets in the pool then you can afford to take care of those with pre-existing conditions. but if everybody's not jumping in the pool, do you still have sustainability? >> well -- i would say, michael, that the truth of the matter is, we can stay in the exchanges, if in fact, government is true to continuing to pay for what are called the csrs, the subsidies. number one. number two, if there some type of mandate. i have to tell you leader mcconnell did an extremely effective job, i believe, as they looked towards the first bill in front of the senate, making sure that the exchanges were stood up, as we moved towards a new environment, whether it be from some type of

subsidies, to attacks in senate programs. so, we look at it and we say if the subsidies are continued to be paid, if the mandate is in place in some way, shape or form as we move towards a tax credit, we would like to stay in the exchanges. we cover 200,000 people in the marketplace in the county of philadelphia, and another 100,000 in new jersey. >> but, dan if there is no individual mandate, will you stay in the exchanges? >> i think the key point there is we probably will look seriously for the first time, after potentially not continuing the exchanges. this year, the average increase is 8%. 8.5% for all of the metallic products in the exchange, going into 2018. that's what we file. we have to think about if there's no mandate, for mandate

increases our rates by 19% to 20%. that is a significant increase. and we have to ask ourselves, is that something that we would like to put in front of the individual market? >> right. and you will be then, further perceived, the insurance companies as the villains of all of this. what i hear you say, you correct me if i'm wrong, if people aren't forced to have health insurance, you're going to be in the untenable position to having to provide coverage for folks with pre-existing conditions, but you won't have the young invincibles to offset the costs. the rates are going to go sky high because there is no individual mandate? >> that is correct. what we're saying now is, look, we've got to come together now. it is time for a bipartisanship approach to this. in the interim, let's fund the csrs, the subsidies. let's keep the mandate in place so the risk pool is manageable.

and we can have the young healthy folks in the pool, as well as those who are sicker and have dual-disease states and need additional care. so woor just asking for a transitional period of time. in pennsylvania, michael, we have two u.s. senators, one a republican, one a democrat, these are two fine servants in bob casey and pat toomey. they both want if same thing. they want more people to be enrolled. i think from a democratic perspective, it's all about accessibility, getting folks enrolled. from the republican respect as well, pat toomey wants it to be sustainable. we have to get a meeting of the minds. i believe the same thing for leader mcconnell, leader schumer. get the people in the house committee, senator lamar alexander beginning to have concrete conversations about how this marketplace should go forward, how we can insure more people, but make it sustainable for generations to come. and in the interim to your

point, let's make sure we fund the subsidies. let's make sure we mandate that folks stay in the market place so the risk pool is a risk pool that's workable. >> dan hilferty, thank you, i appreciate it. >> thank you, michael. >> i know there's a lot of feedback on twitter and my facebook page. let's see what we got. smerconish, let's ask ourselves if a tax hike to pay for single payer health care would be more than our current insurance premiums. i sure hope that people were paying attention to what health care ceo, elected by his peers, to handle the situation with white house and congress just said. i mean, the individual mandate, the requirement that everybody has insurance which was derided as, you know, big brother telling us what we need to do. if you don't have it and you're requiring insurance companies to pay for those with pre-existing conditions, rates are going to go awfully high. they need for sustainability, everybody to jump into the pool. which makes sense. up next, after examining brains of 202 deceased football

players, a neuropathologist found so many had brain damage that she concluded, quote, it's no longer debatable whether or not there is a problem in football. there is a problem. is america's fall pastime now in jeopardy? >> no question there is. don't laugh. leave well aenough alone. they are creating in the minds of an ongoing number of fans and increasing number of fans that the game is not safe. i need myd sugar to stay in control. i need to cut my a1c. weekends are my time. i need an insulin that fits my schedule. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. check your blood sugar. low blood sugar can be serious and may be life-threatening.

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how dangerous is professional football to a player's brain? a new study published by the journal of the american medical association studied the brains of 202 deceased football players. these were brains donated to them by concerned family members. of those, 111 had played for the nfl. and of the 111, 110 were found to have signs of neurodegenerative disease, cte short for chronic traumatic

encephalopathy. symptoms, memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, aggression, depression, anxiety, impulse control and sometimes suicidal behavior. might findings like this jeopardize the future of the sport? joining me now is chris nowinski, a harvard football player turned professional wrestler. the founding ceo of the concussion legacy foundation. he has learned a p.h.d. in behavioral neuroscience. doctor, i should say this was not a random sample, there was some selection bias here, because these were donated by concerned family members. but still, a pretty stunning finding. >> there's no question about it. i mean, this is the largest case series ever of football players' brains. and even if it's biased, the idea that family members who might have thought their loved one had cte were accurate 99% of the time. it's striking to me as a former football player. and if you look at not only the nfl brains but the ones that played in college and high

school, what we seem to be seeing is a doze response relationship, not unlike smoking and lung cancer that each of those thousands of hits that players take might be acting like cigarettes leading to lung cancer. >> in other words, you suspect it's not the big hit, but it's the repetition over time? >> that's one of the big messages that this work is showing. is that it's probably not those handful of hits to the head that caused symptoms that's causing the brain to essentially begin to rot over the rest of your life. it's the combination of thousands and thousands of hits and we're seeing in other studies, very clear trends between the thousands of hits you take with the number of years you play and your risk to adopting cte. >> is there any rule change that you could conceive of that would address this issue and put aside the concern you have today? >> so, the changes that we need to see in football in my belief are not the ones that we're talking about. we're not going to create a

helmet that's going to solve this problem. the number one way that we can reduce cte in both future nfl players and throughout all football players in the whole ecosystem would be to reduce the number of years that they play. and that means i think we should get rid of youth tackle football. i don't think athletes should not be playing tackle football. children should not be subject to 500 hits to the head every fall until at least high school, until their brain has a chance to mature. if we did that, simply looking at the math on it, i think we would reduce most cases of cte, not only in players who play in high school but the nfl players but also if we don't make that change, every other change that we're making isn't going to make nearly the same difference. >> we had a graphic from "the new york times" that showed a proportion based on position. linemen were the most represented. here they are, 44 of those just studied. although i guess i should say linemen represent half of those

on the field at any one time. question for you -- is it just like that chart displays are linemen at greatest risk? >> we aren't yet seeing that in the data. we aren't actually seeing any position having dramatically more risk than any of the others. i think you pointed out with 9 out of 22 people on the field, with at the time being linemen, that's where we see the most of it. people didn't think linemen were protected because they didn't see the big hits in the middle of the field. that's partially why we don't think concussions have a strong relationship to cte has repetitive hits to the head. >> finally, it's not just football. i know from our prior conversations and from reading your book, right? this transcends just the gridiron. >> you're absolutely right. while football, there's concerns in that community that we have hundreds of cases now. now, we've also identified cte in people whose primary exposure

is ice hockey, soccer, rug bi, baseball players. and do not forget the veterans, the second group in the brain bank at the va, that second biggest group is military veterans. >> your book is called "head games." doctor, thank you for your work. >> thank you. still to come, your best and worst tweets and facebook posts. what do we have? how about we just stop playing football, #cte. i don't believe it will ever come to that, i do not believe, wole, there's some liberal cabal against the gridiron. i think there's data, and there's science, and it's tragic. what these head injuries have done to so, so many as dr. no win ski points out in his work. we're back in a sec. performancesing at the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for $299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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time on cnn go on line. and remember to follow me on twitter and facebook. here is some more of what has come in during the program. do you hear yourself when you are speaking? your excuses for the gop are absolutely maddening. their behavior is not okay? whoisbop. did you miss the opening commentary of the program where i saluted john mccain for showing independence and standing up in the face of polarization? honestly people pick and choose and hear what they want to hear. listen to the totality of the program and you'll find that i'm not hear to carry anybody's water. give me another one. mccain did it for country, not party. well, i think so. i mean, i wish there were more actions like that of mccain before it comes to a final vote on health care. but the showing of some independence?

i think it's a good thing. it is what more of them need to do. and that line? what did he stay, our incapacity, meaning the senate, is their livelihood, meaning the loud mouths. truer words have never been spoken in the well of the u.s. senate. one more if we have time for. what i want to know is how with regoing to explain mooch to our kids? >> let me ask you a question. in your workplace or any other that you can identify, where would someone not be fired for saying to anybody else, in this case a reporter, the sort of things that he said? and it's really stunning, isn't it? if any of the rest of us in our corporate environment has expressed sentiments about coworkers the way in which he did, the boss, and you know who that is in this case, would have thrown ourselves out on our butts.

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you by icy hot lidocaine. hello on this saturday. you are live in the cnn news room. always good to have you with us. we begin tonight with the question of the center of what has become the biggest reality show on tv. is trump cabinet about to get another shake up? here's what we know. general kelly is leaving his post at secretary of homeland security to take over for reince priebus who resigned as chief of staff. that leaves kelly's old gig to feel and people are wondering if trump could elect jeff sessions to this post.