hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 8:00 p.m. in moscow. 8:30 p.m. tuesday in pyongyang, north korea. wherever you're watching from around the world thanks very much for joining us. up next, west wing makeover. president trump's new white house chief of staff officially on the job today. the appointment of john kelly represent as reset for the trump administration. the president praised kelly for his work as homeland security secretary. >> we just swore in general kelly. he will do a spectacular job. i have no doubt, as chief of staff. what he's done in terms of homeland security is record shattering. you look at the border. you look at the tremendous results we've had. >> observers will be watching to see if kelly, a retired u.s. marine corps general can bring order and discipline to this white house, but this morning president trump downplayed the

dysfunction tweeting -- "highest stock market ever. best economic numbers in years. unemployment lowest in 17 years. wages rising. border secure. supreme court. no white house chaos." let's bring in our senior correspondent jim acosta. jim, the president says there is no chaos but does he see the appointment of general kelly as a chance to move beyond all the drama of the past week or so? >> reporter: well, general kelly or chief of staff kelly, whatever we're going to call him in the coming days certainly has his hands full, wolf, and you heard the president praise him early think morning. they feel very good about the job general kelly did over at the department of homeland security. he has has a tough task on his hands getting rival factions under control. not only the factions between the former trump campaign people who work here at the white house and the former rnc people reince priebus and sean spicer. they were fighting with each other inside this white house. also you have the rival factions

like steve bannon, and aides close to him and people close to jared kushner, for example. the president's son-in-law. those factions fought with one other from time to time inside the white house and that's essentially the task for general kelly. you see the president tweeting there's no white house chaos here, that is obviously very far from the truth. there's been almost nothing but chaos since he came into office, wolf. >> the president and the attorney general jeff sessions interestingly, they came face-to-face in today's cabinet meeting over at the white house in the wake of the president's public berating of 9 attorney general. what's the latest are between these two men? the prospect the president might replace sessions? >> reporter: i mean, from all appearances seems things settled down between the president and the attorney general. the president has not been tweeting at jeff sessions the last several days. more fakesated on his loss over health care reform and, of course, you saw the president tweeting about that earlier today. he's continuing with these

threats aimed at congressional republicans, even members of congress and their staff, whether or not they'll maintain federal subsidies to buy health care from those exchanges that are a part of obamacare. but at the same time, you saw in the cabinet meeting earlier today, the president did not direct any comments at the attorney general. and he was again praising general kelly as his new chief of staff. interesting to note, wolf, this is something you heard from the president all morning long. he feels as though the accomplishments of his administration have been overlooked. the stock market hitting record highs. unemployment being so low. the president taking dread it fit -- credit and heard the president say he inherited a lot of problems from the obama administration. the bad things they blames the obama administration but critics point out the economy humming alongality the rate it is on wall street, unemployment as load, the trend lines in place

before president trump came into office, wolf. >> jim acosta reporting from the white house. thanks very much. perspective on the kelly appointment, the west wing reset. bloomberg news, and james spider marks and senior political nia-malika henderson. the president has given kelly full authority to get the job done. do we know some white house officials will report through kelly to the president, or, for example, anthony scaramucci, the new white house communications director, when reince priebus was white house chief of staff, he said he was reporting directly to the president. is that still going to be the case? >> it's still an open question at this point. of course, this is john kelly's first day on the job. you imagine a lot of this is being sorted out as we speak. kellyanne conway, of course, counselor to the president, was asked this, and she doesn't really know yet.

will do whatever the president says or john kelly says in terms of chain of command and who's reporting to whom. i talked to a source who says if you're a high-level white house staffer with walk-in privileges with this president since day one, it's very unlikely that you're going to go on the record saying you no longer have that direct access to the president. so we'll see what happens. i mean, there are so many power centers here. right? there's jared and ivanka. you can imagine they're still going to have those walk-in privileges and people like anthony scaramucci as well as kellyanne conway and steve bannon. but that is the challenge i think that kelsey going to have. really kind of leveling things out and figuring out what the chain of are command is after these six months when people have been used to this really kind of loosey-goosey atmosphere in the oval office. >> and very upbeat in describing the current situation. let me play another clip what he said earlier today. >> overall i think we're doing

incredibly well. the economy is doing incredibly well. and many other things. so we're starting from a really good base. i predict that general kelly will go down in terms of the position of chief of staff, one of the great ever, and we're going to have a good time, but much more importantly we're going to work hard and we're going to make america great again. >> clearly the president was impressed by general kelly's work as secretary of homeland security. >> and whether or not he can transfer that to what needs to be done in terns of the white house. not only just the org chart but how does it transfer into legislation and reviving health care? how does that translate into tax reform? into the border wall, into infrastructure. in terms of all of those things this president promised and yet to deliver on, how will he get some of those things going in the white house? that's the question. >> spider, you know general kelly, worked with him in the

u.s. military. retired four-star marine corps general. can he bring that military discipline that order to what is se ea essentially dealing with a lot of domestic political issues at the same time? >> certainly not able to boil the ocean nor will he. he'll come in with a very fixed focus. you lead noknown down but up. there are policies priorities that have to be addressed, and those have to galvanize together and you have to have an organization that ensures that all of the resources necessary to get the priorities moving, a large part of that communications policy movement on the hill have to be able to go through john kelly. he's got a synchronize all that. however, you will always have the one-offs. ivanka and jared kushner are not going to go through john kelly to talk to the president of the united states, but when they leave the oval office, their first stop is with john kelly. he needs to be able to sit there

say, great. i know you had personal, off the record, but there is no casual conversation with the president of the united states. you have to tell me what you're talking about, because when you want something done, when this gentleman who sits in the oval office wants something accomplished, i'm the guy who's got to get the engine of governance moving. john kelly is absolutely qualified to get that going. >> and when you worked with him, you were always impressed. >> very measured. very focused. no drama at all. completely dedicated to the mission requirements. i mean, there's no noise in john kelly's world. he will eliminate that and push it off to the side n. a piece for cnn politics, shannon, our editor at large chris cillizza wrote, the problem with all of the talk of reset in the white house led by kelsey that donald trump is still the president. and listen to cory lou lewendow on "meet the press" yesterday. listen to this. >> the thing that general kelly should do is not try to change donald trump.

chuck, as you know i've said you have to let trump be trump. that is what has made him successful the last 30 years, what the american people voted for and anybody who thinks they're going to change donald trump doesn't no donald trump. >> so let trump be trump. what do you think? >> i mean, i think that's the advice coming from a lot of people in the outer circle. can't change a person. only yourself. you can only change the system around him. i feel like trump has been being trump, though to a great extent. i don't think reince priebus was stopping trump from being trump. he was being who he was. to the extent of the orbit around him and bringing control that that chaos is something he could do. if it's a command and control mission. but the chief of staff's role should also be a broader political role. talking about comments earlier about the economy and the stock market. all of those things doing so well. that's because of hope about tax reform. that's because of the message on jobs that he had coming right out the door. if you don't get to that message and that political strategy under control, coming from the

chief of staff, then the good things you've accomplished. the stock market, the economy, the jobs. those are going to start to trickle away. so that chief of staff job needs to be a political job as well and that's going to be a new test for kelly. not that he hasn't dealt with politics before on the hill or in the pentagon, but that's going to be a big challenge he'll have to face. >> entering new territory for him as a retired four-star general. the relationship between the attorney general jeff sessions and the president. they were both in the cabinet meeting today. we didn't hear any effusive praise, didn't hear any praise from the president for sessions, although sessions is making it clear he's staying as far as he's concerned. >> yeah. that's been the story. so many conservatives basically come to his defense over these last many days. as you saw the president describing him as weak. as beleaguered. in tweets talking about, talking about hiss did appointment that attorney general jeff sessions recused himself from the russia investigation. so there he was, in the room there with donald trump. and, you know, in some ways

significant that he was in the room, still there, hanging on, seems to be and really have the backing of the conservative wing of this party and trump doesn't want to lose that. >> one bit of strength general kelly has. he knows the national security issues and right now with north korea, with the middle east, with syria, with a lot of other national security issues right now. this is a big advantage that he has. he can help bring discipline in that area. >> he's intimate with all of those prabs and also intimate with the team that's charged to get their arms around it when you look at h.r. mcmaster, national security adviser, jim mattis, secretary of defense. absolutely onboard and able to build a relationship with secretary tillerson over the covers of the last six months. a very knowledgeable individual who will step into this role. i'm optimistic there will be adjusteds and you're exactly right. you have to lead up. president trump will remain president trump but there are waying to use that to your advantage. >> and the no doubt, trump will still be trump and maybe nuances

here and there, but he's still going to be the same guy he has always been. guys, thanks very, very much. spider marks and shannon, appreciate it. up next, the kremlin slashing the number of u.s. personnel in russia by hurnndre. where does that leave u.s./russia relations now? we'll have the very latest. and plus president trump calling on congress to vote again on health care but republican senators say they have another idea we'll have the details. all of that coming up. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me,

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what? albreakthrough withyou back. non-drowsy allegra® for fast 5-in-1 multi-symptom relief. breakthrough allergies with allegra®. russia moving ahead with diplomatic retaliation against the united states ordering the exit of 755 staff members from u.s. diplomatic missions in russia. the deadline, september 1st. the decision was met with this from the vice president mike pence who's traveling in the baltics today. >> to be clear, we hope for better days, for better relations with russia. but recent diplomatic action taken by moscow will not deter the commitment of the united states of america to our security, the security of our allies, and the security of

freedom-loving neighborses around the world. >> let's go to senior nart correspondent matthew chance joins us live from moscow. mostly in retaliation for moves by the obama administration in its final days when the u.s. seized two russian compounds out in long island and maryland, expelled 35 russian diplomats. why retaliate now? >> reporter: well, because i think that's just part of the timing. the reason for the timing of this retaliation. the other part is decision by the congress to pass that new u.s. sanctions bill so overwhelmingly. the russians calculated that, you know, the situation was just not going to improve. the domestic opposition to improvements in the relationship between russia and moscow is so great in the united states, they decided to strike now. they did it just after that congressional vote and before president trump had the chance to sign it into law, and so they

could sortit on the congress as well. it signifies the fact the russians moved on from this idea that the trump administration would be able to deliver significant improvement in the relationship between moscow and washington. this is a sign and the scale of this retaliation is dramatic. 755 people. the number of people that the u.s. mission here in russia, the embassy and the three consulates have to be reduced by. it signifies they have no faith that president trump would be able to do what he said he'd do. turn that relationship with moscow around, wolf. >> the 755 people includes u.s. diplomats and also includes russians, local hires working for the u.s. embassy and the u.s. consulate. is that -- is this it as far as russia's retaliation for what the obama administration did in its final days and for this latest sanctions legislation that the president is about to sign? or are further moves on the horizon?

>> reporter: well, i think we definitely have to be sort of mindful of the fact that there could be further moves, particular will if there's a response in the united states to this kind of huge slash in the number of personnel at the u.s. mission. in fact, the kremlin have said they have other measures they could have introduced. vladimir putin said this when he announced the 755 figure and made the point that, but he's not in favor of introducing those measures now because it could hurt russia as much as the united states. one example is cooperation in the space industry. astronauts from nasa currently use russian rockets to get to the international space station. they could cut off that kind of cooperation, but it would cost the russian treasury billions of dollars, that the united states currently pays for that facility. so there are other measure to be taken. at the moment, russia is saying this is it for the moment. >> for the moment. key words. thank you matthew chance in moscow. joining us to discuss all of

this and more retired rear admiral john kirby, cnn military and diplomatic analyst and former spokesman for the pentagon and state department, also with us fareed zakaria, the host of "fareed zacaria gps" gps. were you surprised by the scope and extent of what the russians have now done? >> i am. and i think it represents a realization in russia that this, the administration, the trump administration, has not worked out as they anticipated. they were clearly ecstatic about trump's victory. you remember the scenes of moscow legislators celebrating, breaking out the champagne. putin giving a, comments on saying nobody in the world expected this, except we did. we predicted it, we expected it. he talked about how patriotic russians might have taken part in this because they might have seen it would be good for their country, well, because trump has

sort of boxed himself in on russia, essentially what is happening is, he has no room to maneuver to seem more cooperative, because it would appear she a pawn of the kremlin and has to go along with congressional hawks who have been stressing a harder and harder line. so u.s. policy is essentially paralyzed, out of the control of the administration, and i think russia has realized that. so they are now in many ways responding not so much to the trump administration brut to congrebut to congressional hawks who are really running the show. >> i suspect largely the result of the legislation passed overwhelmingly, 419-3 in the house of representatives. 98-2 in the u.s. senate. now the president really has no choice. he's got to sign it. otherwise, if he vetoed it, it would be overridden by two-thirds majorities in both chambers. you know, john, it's not just the u.s. embassy in moscow but it's consulates that the u.s. operates elsewhere as well.

you worked at the state department. practically speaking, 755 fewer people, americans and russians, working for the u.s. diplomatic experience there. how big of a deal is this? >> could be. three other consulates in addition to the embassy in moscow and they're working -- i talked to the state department today. they're working how to make decisions because they have to keep vital session s counselor affairs, but it will have impact. wolf, about 800 of all of our em pleas in russia are local nationals. they're russians. that has never sat well with putin. he's never liked that and under constant pressure by the russian government to do more spying on us. to be -- not so -- not to be so helpful to us. some of this is designed against, to get at that very bur in his saddle, if you will,

obviously not proportional. 35 versus 755. >> i was surprised back at the tail end of the obama administration when the u.s. expelled 35 russian diplomats accusing them of espionage, shut down two russian compounds in suburban maryland outside of washington as well as in long island, that they didn't retaliate right way. sergey lavrov said they would right away and president putin overruled him and said not so fast and now are retaliatinreta. what was the delay? normally one state does this, the other state responds immediately. >> if you remember, not only did putin overrule his foreign minister and say, no. this time we're not going to provoke the americans. donald trump then tweeted, congratulating putin saying, i always knew he was a smart guy. in effect signaling, don't, you know, don't rise to the bait on this one. i'm going to be a guy you can work with. i'm going to be cooperative. so it's absolutely clear from

both sides. trump expected he was going to have warm, friendly and cooperative relations with russia. putin expected exactly the same thing. i do think what you're seeing now is the delayed reaction and -- also this realization that they're in for a much tougher russia policy than they thought, because donald trump is not controlling russia policy. >> congress clearly has a say, as it obviously should. let's talk about north korea. john, the president saying he's going to deal with this and deal effectively with this. listen to what he said earlier today. >> we'll handle north korea. we're going to be able to handle them. there will be -- it will be handled. we handle everything. >> do you have a good understanding of what he's about to do as far as stopping north korea from moving ahead with its intercontinental ballistic missile testing and miniaturizing a nuclear warhead? >> no, i don't. it's hard to discern that from

we handle everything. what does he mean by that? i hope by "we" he means the international community. and exert multilateral pressure on china to use on north korea and pyongyang. i hope he hasn't foreclosed diplomacy. once you start saying, as ambassador nikki haley said, we're not talking about north korea anylong. you're left with few options. detainment or military options which obviously nobody wants to do. it's unclear. i have given and kornted to give the trump administration high marks for thinking through north korea. they've taken a very deliberate approach. the shaming aspect for beijing is not working. they need to find other avenues for diplomatic answers with beijing. that's the key. >> fareed, i'm really looking forward tore your documentary premiering later tonight here on cnn about the 2016 presidential election. it's entitled "why trump won."

tell viewers here in the united states and around the world the focus of your documentary, the message? >> well, we really tried to ask, wolf, not even why he won but why he even came close, because everybody has their own pet theories. whether hillary was a weak candidate. the comey letter, russia. the biggest question, the most unorthodox presidential candidate, really. why did he even win the nomination against 16 very talented politicians? why did he come close when he made so many statements, gaffes, mistakes that would have blown up the candidacy of anybody? there must have been something there that was deeper. we tried to get at that deeper issue, which is really a portrait of america. a ind coup of cultural and class portrait of ap america that feels deeply resentful about the direction the country is going in. and the people who run the country. people, you know, who are professionals, urban, educated.

this is in a sense an act of class rebellion. an act of cultural rebellion and donald trump is their guy. you can ask, we tried to explain why he became their guy, but he is their guy, and you know, my sense has always been, they have latched on to him the way you latch on to a sports team. the fact that the sports team is not doing well does not mean you will give up support. people keach watching saying, well, trump is not really a conservative. ideology doesn't matter. well not accomplishing much. competence doesn't matter. this is some kind of tribal identity and they're sticking with him. >> certainly are. that base clearly at least most of that base is very much with him right now. fareed zakaria, john kirby, thanks very much. to all our viewers don't miss fareed's special later tonight. "why trump won" airs at 10:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. must-watch tv. and the future up in the

air, the president and congress can't seem to agree on the next step. health care. going live to capitol hill, stay with us. when you have something you love,

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comprehensive well. we need to go back to committee, to the health committee and the finance committee, identify the problems. carefully evaluate possible solutions through hearings, and then produce a series of bills to correct these problems. >> there are only so many things can you do, just as one party. we're arriving there a little quicker than we thought. i'm glad to see that now we're talking about sitting down with our colleagues. going back to committee, back to what we call regular order and letting the committees and the experts deal with it and bringing the public in more than we have before. >> i want to bring in our senior washington correspondent brianna keilar on capitol hill. who's laying the groundwork for a new bill, or a set of bills? the next step? >> reporter: you're hearing some from senators colin, senator flake on the republican side. we've heard from the democratic leader in the senate chuck schumer.

a desire, perhaps to doing in some a bipartisan way. house democrats looking at this. the question after a stunning defeat for republicans in the senate friday, where does mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate, stand on this? where does president trump stand on this desire to work across the aisle? we're hoping to find out more when, and get a better sense where mitch mcconnell is on that today when the senate comes in to session this afternoon. and also really the -- the lengths to which president trump would be willing to go to push this. we're also going to get a better idea tomorrow when we hear senators getting together, discussing during their lunch. really a post mortem of what happened on friday. but you see that tweet coming from president trump where he said, why shouldn't the health insurance companies hurt? there is something before the trump administration this week that could be very huge. that is a decision about whether to essentially subsidize

insurance companies as part of obamacare. part, really, a key part of the whole program is payments made by the government to insurers. you can imagine if those bills were not paid. that will really upset the applecart here, and this is something republicans in both chambers actually going through this process of attempting to repeal and replace, they wanted those payments made. to not pay them would destabilize the situation. so that is going to be a big question mark they were hoping to have answered. what is the president going to decide on that, wolf? >> brianna keilar, lots of questions on capitol hill. brianna reporting for us. thank you. my next guest says we repeal and replace voted down for now a different idea about health care. adam kinzinger will discuss that. all after a quick break.

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president trump is trying to keep the repeal of obamacare still alive. warning congress that health care needs to be solved now. let's bring in congressman adam kinzinger, republican from illinois, a member of the house foreign affairs committee. congressman, thanks for joining us. >> you bet. thanks for having me. >> the president says unless republican senators are quitters, his words, obamacare repeal and replace is not dead, but is that really realistic given the numbers in the u.s. senate? or should republicans now look ahead to either tax reform, infrastructure development, other issues, or maybe start working with democrats to see if there's bipartisan cooperation to fix the affordable care act? >> i guess i can kind of say yes to all of it. keep in mind the pass obamacare

originally took quite a bit of time. so if senators want to work on repeal and replace and somehow think they can find a sweet spot, haven't yet, i'm okay with that. at the same time i think it's time to release principles out of the group, no labels to begin to figure out where is it republicans and democrat can work together and is there common ground? is there a way to be able to do this? because i'm not in the -- not a fan of the idea of let's watch this fail, and then we jump in. because it's -- it's real people's lives at stake. when you talk about the fact that the aca is imploding and appears to be with skyrocketing premiums and deductible it's we need to do the best to fix people's lives. we can kind of do all of it at the same time. i think the bulk of the effort needs to move to tax reform, infrastructure, those issues. so i guess the answer to your question is, almost yes for all of it, but we need to begin explore where we have common ground on the issue of health care. >> talking no labels.

coalition, moderate democrats and moderate republicans in the house. you came together at least, what? about 40 now saying let's work together? tell us about that. >> yeah. it's basically taking principles we all can agree on and frankly there are far left democrats in a and pretty far right republicans, too. but it's of this idea assuming republicans can't get their way of repeal and replace and so far haven't been table to pull it off. what do we do to actually fix the system and principles and areas and stabilizing the market and ultimately the redriver of health care court, truth in billing in the health care market, increased competition to make sure it drives the costs down and gives people better access. let's try to figure where those areas of common ground exist. we haven't had this conversation in, frankly, since the begins of the debate on aca. now is the time do it and maybe come to a magical decision,

maybe we don't, but the country deserves us at least to explore. >> talk about the russians who ordered hundreds of workers out of the embassy and in talliat n retaliation for the new sanctions. the u.s. going back to the old days of duelling diplomatic xpugs expulsions? >> we've been there for a while, to be honest. the re-birth of the cold war, seen them buzzing or ships, and invading neighbors. this is vladimir putin the way he knows, everything exists. everything to him is a zero sum game. some gains it means he loses and vice versa. it's not surprising's noteworthy in all of this, though, it's not the russians retaliating economically, because they have an economy that doesn't have the ability to retaliate economically. they basically exist solely on energy, energy prices are down.

our economy is 18 times the size of russia. so while this is concerning to see 755 people expelled, and i think not necessarily great, of course, they are not reacting economically because, frankly, the united states and western coalition has the ability to do that and russia simply doesn't. >> you've been very vocal about russia. you've warned of the threat it poses to the u.s. to u.s. allies. particularly its real in the middle east right now. so here's the question. these new sanctions that the president is about to sign into law. are they enough? >> i don't know if they're enough. probably not. it's a good start. well, it's a good furtherance of sanctions we put in place, i guess. ultimately vladimir putin needs to feel a very strong hit on his economy, because he's diverti i a lot of resources away from his people who are starving and desperate and putting them into recapitalizing his military and military actions in syria to frankly destabilize that area

simply to say that russia is back. we need to continually assess. i don't want this perpetual, in essence, cold war feeling or perpetual retaliation, if there are areas we can work together, great. a couple red lines have to be set. number one, quit killing incident quills bombing hospitals and emboldening a very bad dictator, bashar al assad, and quit trying to undermine our oh lection system. the belief you can vote and have your voice heard. when an outside group like russia tries to interfere, it's underlines that. those are areas to put down and if we can work in other areas like china and syria, then great. and a memmer on president trump's fweet the other day banning transgender americans from serving in the u.s. military. you've had a disdistinguished career in the air force, still in the air national guard. are you concerned about the way

the president is making these kinds of policy decisions, tweeting about it, without formally consulting with the joint chiefs of staff? >> it is a concern. the pentagon was undergoing, or i guess still is undergoing, a pretty extensive study in terms of what are the concerns with transgender americans serving? are there any issues? going through that lengthy process. there's nobody that can understand that, frankly, than folks in the military. i have opposed public funding, government funding for the actual surgeries during, but tell you, to look at this now and put something out on a tweet without allowing the study to come out. i think is frankly not the way to do policy. and i hope that despite that, the president waits for the pentagon recommendation and then takes it, whatever that is. >> do you believe that transgender americans should be allowed to serve in the u.s. military? >> well, i believe that the pentagon should undergo this. like i said, i've opposed the idea of government funding during not just because of the cost but because it takes people out of service during that

process, but in terms of those in, there are very heroic americans who serve in the military that are transgender, and probably very here ro heroi who want to do it as well. i'll leave that up to the pentagon and determine after that. >> adam kinzinger, thanks very much for joining us. >> you bet. any time. a mixup and shake-up in defeating obamacare. the president says there's no chaos in the white house. the democratic national committee chairman standing by to join us live. we'll talk about that, what members of the democratic party are planning to do to move forward. we'll be right back.

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the fate of health care very much still up in the air. president trump telling republicans to keep working while one republican says the best path forward is bipartisan negotiations and some compromises. here with us is -- is there realistically a channels they can work together to fix the problems and move on?

>> i would love to see it. we have helped millions get access to health care but there are things that ought to be able to get done. we ought to be able to take on the pharmaceutical industry, for instance and lower of cost of prescription drugs. there's a reinsurance that could help stabilize is the markets, and most importantly donald trump could say i'm not going to continue to destabilize markets. i talked to companies who say uncertainty is a real problem. when you create uncertainty, we have to raise premiums or get out of the market people's are going up. he tweeted this -- don't give up. the world is watching. repeal and replace, and go to 51 votes, nuke option. get cross state lines and more. i want your reaction to that. >> there goes extra can'ting

donald again. the filibuster had absolutely nothing to do with the failures last week. donald trump and the rpgs in the house and senate are solely responsible for them. >> but i think what he was referring the cross state lines means insurance companies can work nationally just not work in states. that might make it cheaper for people all over the country. you can't do that, though. without 60 votes right now, the filibusterproof number when they won't get. >> you know, there's so many fixes i think could command bipartisan support. the prescription drug fix, why does the pharmaceutical industry have a stranglehold on washington? that's not good for consumers. why you can't we come together around this reinsurance proposal. what we do, which we did in the first three years of the affordable care act, we provide assistance to stabilize the markets. there's a lot we can do together. >> you think that insurance

companies should be able to sell across state lines or only be bound by the states? >> there's going to be a lot of issues. the key is, wolf, you have to have everyone around the table to understand the consequences. so far there's been 13 men who got together behind closed doors in the senate to craft a bill that was lousy. it hurt people. what it was was a tax cut bill. what we have to do is get back to the regular order. that's what john mccain said. that's what ted kennedy would have said, my former boss, and that's what we ought to do. >> you're the new chairman of the democratic party. what do you need to do? you lost the white house, the senate, the house. you have an enormous challenge. do you need new blood? >> you know what we need to do? we need to organize in every state. we return to what howard dean talked about. a 50-state strategy. lead with our values. we believe everybody is entitled

to punch their ticket to the middle class, health care is a right for all. we believe that in this dynamic economy, we always need to equip people with the skills to compete for the jobs of today and the -- >> you need new blood, new energy? what do you need? >> we need to win elections. what we are doing to win elections is in places like virginia, we're out there organizing. in places like new jersey, these are the two elections coming up. i think we're well positioned to take both those seats. those governships are 13-year election, i say, because they will control redistricting. we have to get to the american people and tell them what we stand for. we stats for prosperity for everyone, not just a few at the top. we want to make sure we're lifting your wages, not depressing your wages. we fought to lift overtime wages. we fought to enhance retirement security, they fought against us. we're fighting for the things

that people care about. >> a huge challenge ahead of you. thanks for coming in, and go -- >> go bills. >> we're both from buffalo. >> thank you, tom perez. >> great to be can you. that's it for me, i east bed back 5:00 p.m. eastern. the news continues right after a quick break. ng keep you sidelined. that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you.

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here we go. you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. a new week, new faces, and only time will tell, to borrow a phrase, if it would be a new-and-improved way of doing business at the white house. john kelly is approaching his sixth hour as white house chief of staff, as questions surround him. can the