that's why at comcast we're continuing to make4/7. our services more reliable than ever. like technology that can update itself. an advanced fiber-network infrustructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. welcome to "inside politics." i'm jake tapper. john king is on a well-deserved vacation. cue the elton john, because "sorry seems to be the hardest

word" in washington these days. the pret ramping up a public feud with senate majority leader mcconnell. >> mark: mostly over twitter, of course, as fears grow about the future of the republican agenda. >> and often asked what is being the majority leader of the senate like? a little bit like being a groundskeeper at a cemetery. everybody'seneder you, but nobody's listening. plus, he said, what? republicans react to the president's threat to shut down the government, if he does not get funding for the border wall. and, whiplash anyone? a different day, a different audience and the return of teleprompter trump reading lines within the bounds of normal president's displace. >> we are not defined by the color of our skin. the figure on our paycheck. or the party of our politics. we are defined by our shared humanity. by our citizenship in this

magnificent nation, and by the love that fills our hearts. >> with us to share reporting and insights, cnn sara murray, elizabeth knox, and laura meckler of the "wall street journal." start with not surprisingly a tweet from president trump. the only problem i have with mcconnell is that after hearing repeal and replace for seven years he failed. that should never -- capitalized -- have happened. the two haven't spoken for weeks after a phone call turned into a screaming match with president trump reportedly frustrated mcdonnell was not doing enough to protect the president in these various investigations into possible collusion. the president also angry about the russia sanctions bills, frustrations shared with bob corker, according to politico trying to convince the tennessee republican, the bill now law, sanctioning russia was not good policy and could damage his

presidency. also learning of a call with republican senator thom tillis of north carolina working on a bill to protect special counsel bob mueller from any attempt by trump to fire him. bring in senior congress many reporter for cnn manu raju. what are you learned about this call and the relationship between trump and mcconnell? >> reporter: well, jake, mitch mcconnell is doing everything he can to avoid a public back and forth with president trump, even as the president himself continues to go after the senate majority leader. remember the last time mcconnell has spoken publicly about trump was on august 9th when he made rather mild criticism against the president saying that he had excessive expectations coming in as president. perhaps didn't realize the art of legislating, and can't really set deadlines to get things done. we know now from sources that tell us that that really set off the president who went on a tirade against mitch mcconnell. really laid into him. more so about the issue of

russia than about health care, despite the president's own tweet this morning. now, we do know that both men, at least their staffs, want to move forward. mitch mcconnell realizes that they have a very ambitious agenda, things they absolutely have to get done to keep the government open, raise the national debt limit. other things part of the presidential agenda, like tax reform. they have to put the feud behind them and get on the same page politically. if the president continues to go after him, i'm told by other republican senators, it's going to be harder to get their party focused on one thing. they're constantly feuding. >> and also on twitter, the president talking about advice he gave republicans about raising the debt ceiling. what did he say and what's the truth behind it? >> reporter: right. in fact, the president making some surprising comments here on twitter saying that, i requested that mitch mcconnell and paul ryan tie the debt ceiling legislation boo the popular v.a. bill just passed for easy approval. they didn't do it. now we have a big deal with dems

holding them up, as usual, on debt ceiling approval. could have been done so easy. now a mess. now, the reality of the situation, jake is that the reason why they couldn't do a debt ceiling increase is part of the v.a. bim, that twhois have cause add major revolt among conservatives. particularly in the house, a number of republicans would just not, not go along with such an idea. which is why republicans didn't broach the notion of moving forward on a debt ceiling increase as part of a, a separate package. in fact, that's what a lot of people dislike about washington. sneaking in very controversial measures as part of a very popular bill. why the leadership didn't broach that subject. now, jake, a very different task ahead for the leadership to raise the national debt limit. as we know, the treasury secretary, stephen mnuchin doesn't want strings.

raise the debt limit without conditions. some republicans are open to that idea. democrats want to go that route but conservatives want reforms as well. very difficult issue ahead. perhaps the president now recognizing that and passing the blame on capitol hill, jake. >> all right. manu raju, thank you so much. talk about this with our panel. sara, start with you. you know, i can't recall any president feuding this much with a senate majority leader, even if they were of different parties? like this is -- forget the twitter part of it. the things he has said publicly, the president, about mcconnell, are astounding. >> it is astounding. and it's really confusing to people who are watching on the hill, and who know that obviously there is a very robust agenda and scratching their heads. doesn't he understand this isn't making things easier? attacking mcconnell, saying things about jeff flake. these kind of fights will not

make your life easier, and we also know are that the president doesn't let jabs like this drop. when he saw mcconnell say, learning to govern, has outsized expectations, i don't think anyone who knows the president thought he would let that slide and not have feelings about that. it's fun toy watch their two staffs try to recalibrate. no, no. they'll meet after august. everything will be fine. i can't imagine all of a sudden they get together in a room and everything will proceed swimmingly. the president's brain doesn't work like that. he doesn't get over grudges like that. oh, by the way. russia. the other thing he talked to mitch mcconnell about. put out a tweet, all about health care. the only reason i'm upset with mcconnell. it's not. also the probes into russia we know the president can't get out of his brain. >> in fact, what manu's reporting suggests, actually animated trump. he was so angry about, in that phone call profanity filled by president trump. that mcconnell was not doing

enough, or anything, really, to protect the president in all of these probes. of course, it's not mcconnell's job to protect the president. >> and ironic given what we know about mcconnell's resistance making the case. aries to played a large role protecting donald trump from that situation last year. right. not his job. interesting uptick in the last couple months, republicans, the president, referring in them as "them" and "they." he ran against washington, now distancing himself from the defeats. from the problems in washington, again. because he's in campaign mode again. the really interesting thing to me is watching how this risks fracturing the republican base. when he says i support jeff flake's challenger and both mcconnell and cory gardner, colorado senator running to maintain majority, no, no. flake's our guy. i want to see how that plays out. in of the past, tea party

candidate, to hand a street a democrat. >> happened in missouri with todd akin. it that plays out, the democrats sent money to todd ache ton make him t -- aiken to make him the nominee. not the exact thing. some difference. and this idea on its face doesn't sound like a bad idea, what the president talked about. attach raising the debt ceiling to a very popular bill to reform the v.a. why that didn't work. >> this was publicly, mcconnell was talking about it, republican leaders talking about it, a couple of articles written about it. as manu says, the freedom caucus, the folks on the conservative side, debt hawks, said no way. make sense. they don't want to vote against veterans, if they don't want to raise the debt ceiling. so i'm struck by that, because that sort of makes logical sense, something that donald trump might be aware of. so this tells me that this is a continued attack that the president's making on republican leadership. this is -- he's mean to do this,

trying to drive a division between himself and the leadership of the republican party, because the truth is, as you say, the republican base doesn't like their leadership. dhoe they don't like the establishment. a weird situation. you have trump trying to essentially remake the infrastructure of the party, the rnc is looking much more trumpy than a year ago. while at the same time, a lot of the power brokers within the republican party are in senate and the house, and he's pushing them abap it's happening. >> who is the establishment and who is the elite now given the fact president trump ran as an outsider and is, was, an outsider, now, of course, is the president of the united states. he actually ruminated on this in his speech. take a listen. >> i always hear about the elite. you know, the elite. they're elite. i went to bed same beds and was

a better student than they were? live in a bigger and more beautiful apartment and i live in the white house, too, which is really great -- [ applause ] -- i think you know what? i think we're the elites. they're not the elites. >> interesting. >> you know, he's always had this, like, by foifurcated mes. you want to be rich like me, back me. be on my team. always tried to have it both ways in that respect and more of the same. the more he can -- the more he can distance himself from the, i think views the republican establishment much as the media. it's all -- it's him against the world, and come with me. be on my team. we will take them all. so the problem, of course, he runs into, he actually does need all of these institutions to actually get anything done. so -- >> we should also point out that

mcconnell wasn't the only one that the president attacked today. retweeted also an eclipse meme. put that up. there. the best eclipse ever, and it's president trump blocking president obama. also lashed out at the former director of national intelligence james clapper questioning his fitness for office saying "james clapper who famously got caught lying to congress is now an authority on donald trump. will he show you his beautiful letter to me?" so we had teleprompter trump in reno at the american legion convention. lovely remarks. honored a medal of honor winner in the crowd, et cetera, but now back on this front? >> pretty much how it goes with trump. i was in phoenix with him the day before the beautiful american legion speech. he was not teleprompter trump. there were teleprompters but notes in the president's pocket and he came ready to talk about something else. this is how it goes. he can deliver a speech off the

teleprompter. impressed upon him you're speaking at the american legion, speaking to veterans. got whatever you needed to get off your chest before, stick to the script and get through this and he's not appearing before cameras today. he knows he wants to say whatever he wants to say, best way to do it, on twitter. why it's so hard to work for this president. why aides don't want to predict what he's going to say in speeches because you don't know. you don't know if he'll tell you, i'm not going to pardon sheriff joe arpaio but hint it's coming later down the road. impossible position working in this white house and dealing with a man who still believes he is his own best communicator. that is not going to change. >> a quick break. are republicans willing to back up the president's tles of build the wall or face a government shutdown. stay with us. i wanted to be clear. i wanted it to last. so i kept on fighting. i found something that worked.

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>> the border wall goes up, or the government shuts down. that's president trump's message to congress, but let's go back. way back. all the way back, 2013 when republicans forced a 16-day government shut down in an effort to derail obamacare. house speaker paul ryan remembers it well calling it a suicide mission for republicans, and he does not want a repeat. >> i don't think anyone's interested in having a shutdown. i don't think it's in our interests to do so. >> white house counselor kill ann conway, however, says when it comes to the wall the president is not going to back down. >> he's telling congress, he's building the wall. he expects the funding, and it's up to them, up to them to work collaboratively and we hope they do. >> take a little step backwards to getting the flux capacitors going. 2013. here was the mood of republicans during the shutdown. >> now that we set ourselves on

fire and made the jump we have to, are now in the valley of death. we decided to go into the valley. we have to run together, stay together. >> we know how it's going to end. sooner or later the government will resume its functions. why don't we do this sooner rather than later? >> take a look at this poll from right after the 2013 shutdown and 53% of americans blamed republicans in congress. so this is interesting, because that was republicans led by ted cruz, forcing their leadership to take on president obama. it was a loser. but now -- we have president trump threatening the shutdown, and i suspect, laura, that ryan and mcconnell know they don't want this, they might get blamed for it? >> obviously, that's one of trump's signature moves. we've seen this. try to blame somebody else. tried to blame them for the failure of the health care bill and will try to blame them in this case, too.

i'm not shower there will be willing to go along with this and it's possible trump backs down end of the day. he made similar noises in april passing the cohn continual resolution for this year's government funding and wall funding wasn't included. democrats would like nothing more than to shut down the government over this project which is not popular broadly, although it is with core trump supporters. i think this is a political loser in a way that much more than it was last time even. the idea that -- and add to that the fact if the government does shut down, republicans as a whole will get the blame and then there will be fighting among themselves which part of the republican party gets the blame. i can't -- hard to see how that's good for anyone and i suspect cooler heads will prevail. >> i talked before the arizona rally. talked to somebody in the white house. september, how does this all work? and when it comes to the budget, we'll have a continuing resolution probably to or three months to get the house and

senate back in gear and thinking about this. maybe border security will be a part of this. then the president said what he said and blew things up. i wonder if that was fielding off the crowd's anything, maybe i'll do something crazy? that may be what the white house official told me, more of what's actually going to happen. particularly, john kilkilkill - kelly's white house. you can't protect that the president won't say something else and everybody in the white house has to shift what they were doing to fit what the president said. >> olivia, as unpopular as president trump is, and he's very unpopular, republican leaders in congress are even less popular. just a new quinnipiac poll broke this hour. here is disapproval how congress is handling its job. among americans, approve 10%. disapprove, 83%. among republicans approved 17%.

disapprove, 74%. among republicans. of a republican congress. >> yes. that second number is a lot more important. what we're all watching. 2018, turning out votes. that's really important. something laura said, struck important with me. which is democrats in january weren't sure which of the two opposition political strategies they would run. basically, doing too much or unable to do anything. right? i talked to a democratic strategist a couple days ago, turns out we don't have to choose. go with they can't gomp or look doing the muslim ban, transgender -- a menu of options. i don't know whether trump backs down. predicting what he does is a fool's error. right now, he's still breaking with the leadership. doing something popular with his base. i don't think we'll shut down in september. later on -- >> quickly. what are the odds of a shutdown? >> oh, geez louise.

>> come on. >> i'm still saying that the odds are low, because i think if he's that committed to wall funding, leadership will go to him ideally with another option. i think they know they can't afford a shutdown, but this is trump. by do we have to -- make me play these games, jake? hmm! >> i'm a bad person. take a quick break. are you getting whiplash watching the president lately? preaching unity one day, picking fights the next? abruptly changing tone. why it's a good thing. stay with us.

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new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. snee. trigger warning for the president -- we're told that he probably will not like the entourage we're about to show you. the president over the past weeks sounding at times traditionally presidential and at times sounding like something else. >> we condemn in the strongest

possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. >> i think there's blame on both sides. >> george washington was a slave owner. was george washington a slave owner? so will george washington now lose his status? >> they wound inflicted upon a single member of our community is a wound inflicted upon us all. >> they show up in the helmets and the black masks, and they've got clubs and they've got everything. antifa! >> it is time to heal the wounds that divide us and seek a new unity based on the common values that unite us. >> the president apparently had time to watch cable news. around 9:00 a.m. tweeted the fake news is complaining about my different types of back-to-back speeches. well, there was afghanistan. somber. the big rally, enthusiastic and fun, and the american legion,

respectful and strong. too bad the demes have no one who can change tones. and i should note that the first versions of those tweets had some misspellings, but he did correct them. can we say once and for all, this is who president trump is? he just one day sounds this way and the other day sounds completely different? one day it's super ego. the next day it's this. >> and who is the intended audience. clearly how he thinks about it. he doesn't sort of think about sort of consistency and -- or really, i don't think he's necessarily tied to the words that he's saying. the tone is meant to win over the audience, or enrage the audience or whoever the intended people he wants to hear this. it's kind of a show rather than a presidential statement, a bunch of presidential statements. >> i mean, obviously, for those of us who like to look at the substance of what he's saying. we see contradictions and point

that out. that's our job. i think it's kind of important to note also that it is a strength for him politically. he is able to talk differently to different people and his comment how the democrats don't have anybody to change tones -- there's no-no mayor toit th mae >> there's another party? >> i think so. >> do they have leaders? i'm sorry. let's listen to what lindsey graham had to say this morning about some of these moments trump critics called unhinged. >> he's not the first president to use the bully pulpit to try to push the country in a particular direction, or to keep his base onboard. but there's nothing unhinged about it. it's a political strategy that i'm not so sure -- it's a very thought-out strategy. >> basically what mike was saying. do you agree? >> i don't know how much is really an incredible

entertainer's instinct. a lot of it is instinct. these things are not getting work shopped by 90 aides before they're pushed out to twitter. there's not, like, a multilayered, ar tiered fact checking before he puts out 140 characters. i think a lot is instinct and what he and other people inside the white house point out, wait a second. i'm president. i got here. i did -- i haven't changed since the campaign. it worked for me then. the question obviously everyone is asking, whether it is working for him now. >> listen to jeff flake, senator from arizona, republican. up for re-election next year. president trump actually meeting with potential flake primary opponents when in arizona earlier this week. take a listen to what he had to say. >> i think that certainly depends on him. i think he could govern in a way that he wouldn't, but i think that the way, the direction he's headed right now just drilling down on the base rather than trying to expand the base, you

know, i think he's inviting one. >> a republican senator, conservative saying the incumbent conservative president is inviting a republican challenge? >> things that work in a campaign and in a white house. in a campaign, you have lots of time to read teleprompter speeches, say something crazy, clean up the mess from saying the crazy thing. read another teleprompter speech, rinse, repeat, make everyone happy and move on. when in white house you have to do governing. have policies, push them. get congress to pass them and sell them to the american people. that's what jeff is talking about. one thing to have this stuff teleprompter versus rally trump playing out as they're moving forward with tax reform in congress, if they've dawn repeal and replace of obamacare. it's another thing when that's the only show. there's no any substance behind it. i think that's the risk

republicans, certain republicans running in 2018 what are we supposed to say we've accomplished? >> there's a poll donald trump's om pollster tony fabrizio tweeted yesterday showing 54% of definite republican primary voters were to vote today, only 54% would pick donald trump. now, he was trumpeting this as a good thing. >> incredible. ted cruz, leading his rival by more than 30 points in a tweet from his, president trump campaign pollster, but as you know, quite another way to look at this. >> the fact they're asking this question seven months in suggest they think it's likely he's going to get in and comports what jeff flake is saying. is his base with him? they are, if nobody else in the polls. what are republicans in washington thinking about? they're the ones thinking themselves about challenging the president or encouraging colleagues to challenge the president in a primary.

gets really, really bad, not quite there yet, but gets really, really bad, they might be emboldened to do so. >> it's likely he will have a primary challenger. >> a serious presidential challenger? >> it's not unprecedent. >> sure. >> george h.w. bush had a primary challenger in pat buchanan. this happens. bernie sanders encouraging someone to primary president obama, incredible popular inside the party. there is discontent in parties and people challenge the inco incumbent and lose. >> often lose and often weaken the incumbent. however, given how much division there is in the republican party today, and i think it's fair to say an enormous amount of division. wouldn't it be surprising if the whole party basically said, yes, this is our guy. let's keep going? i mean, i think it's -- i can't tell the future anymore than sara can but it's not unlikely. >> generally they've been supportive or trying to be

supportive. house speaker paul ryan, a town hall with him earlier in the week. had know town hall i think today, and he was asked about how he can influence president trump. take a live. a listen. >> it's a day-by-day deal. i'm kind of joking. first, control your own accesses and lead by example. if you saw what i was saying in racine and saying pretty much every day since, what i think needs to be said over and over again about repulsive bigotry and racism in the country how we can never get normal with this. we must always, every single time, stand up and repudiate it and condemn it, unequivocally. >> that's paul ryan, but obviously, he said this to me in racine at that town hall meeting, he does not feel president trump did that, and, of course, factually he's right. >> doing what he did in 2016. exactly. responding to president trump

the way he did trump candidate. putting distance between him and offering a policy, alternative, to the daily noise coming from the trump campaign. right now he's been tweeting and putting out statements and campaigning on the idea of tax reform. this really looks, i can't distinguish 2017, paul ryan from 2016 paul ryan. >> yeah. that's pretty much right. look, republicans have found this way of branching out, being critical of trump when they feel they need to the moment is egregious, and pretty much everyone agreed the charlottesville issue was so egregious. but then they elected him. told their voters to vote for him. they vote for his policies for the most part, and i think that's pretty much what we're going to see when they get back in town. obviously this puts people in a side show, meaning senators are pissed, get to town spend half their time responding what the president tweeted. that's very aggravating. but the tax reform bill, probably come up for a vote. probably. and most republicans won't vote

for that. >> i love the sound, republican lawmakers annoyed reporters ask them to talk about something that the president of the united states has done, as if we're talking about kim kardashian. anyway, coming up next, will donald trump finally be the president to get middle east piece? talking with leaders on both sides. both sides.

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president trump's son-in-law and senior advise, jared kushner set to meet this our with palestinian leader mahmoud abbas. earlier held talks with benjamin "bibi" netanyahu, the two voicing optimism about restarting israeli/palestinian peace talks. >> i'm happy to see you and the effort that you are leading on bachlg behalf of the president. >> we're appreciative of the efforts made. the president is very committed to achieving a solution here to will be able to bring prosperity and peace to all people in this area.

>> despite the talk of peace and prosperity, the trump administration still has no clear framework for any peace negotiation. joining us from jerusalem, this is jared kushner's third trip to the region since tanked with brokering peace. hearing of any breakthroughs at all? >> reporter: breakthroughs now is much too strong a word. both sides, israelis and palestinians, very much tempering expectation what's might come out of this and a sense there in the statements from kushner and netanyahu from earlier today. nothing concrete, timeline or immediate statement of let's get back into negotiations. part why no one is expecting anything coming out of the these meeting kushner will have problem with both sides. in response to negotiations he's shifted sharply to the right attacking the left and the media, leaving little

flexibility and wiggle room making concessions or go to negotiations. he's also attacked previous israeli/palestinian accords. all making it different for him to engage on a peace process. as for a palestinian president mahmoud abbas, dealing with his own political in-fighting making it hard for him to make concessions and the entire palestinian leadership is waiting for trump to openly dmoit a two-state solution. that's the consensus on what should happen here in the state of israel next to a state of palestine. the fact it hasn't happened yet is very much beginning to worry the palestinians. before coming here, kushner made a round through the region visiting some gulf leaders. an important and smart move. pushing a regional peace initiative and get everyone onboard instead of just israelis and palestinians. smart. until there is something definitive and a next step, all a nebulous stage and that shelf life, the ability to do something there, may run out

quickly. jake, one more point worth making. you said, this is kushner's third visit here. an indication trump is still limited. to some extent, if trump tells both leaders come to the negotiating table now, they both would likely say, yes. >> thank you so much. from israel. and physical instinct, why are you sending this kid here? doesn't know anything about it, no diplomatic experience. the same token, people with a lot of diplomatic experience has been trying to do this literally for decades. i mean, why not? >> well, right. why not? jared kushner made it clear early on this was something he wanted involved in, and in a sense that we continue to find administration officials who say things that the president then contradicts, jared kushner might actually be sort of a more reliable funnel to the president's mind and ear. that might be the kind of thing that gives people a little more

reassurance who are involved in that process. obviously, we heard from orin, the frustrations, the administration doesn't have a framework and indicating behind the scenes, sure go along way two-state solution to one side of the negotiations that would approve of that, but not saying anything publicly. seems like a mess still. as you said, nobody else figured it out yet. >> and my view on this has always been that what the united states does is a lot less important than what the parties themselves do. they have to decide they want to do it. both sides have to decide they're willing to make hard choices to come to solution. no indication from either side they're willing to do that. feels like going in an opposite direction. yeah. i mean, i don't necessarily think jared kushner is going to crack this nut. but give it a try and again, it's up to the people that live there to make these decisions. >> one quick point. the palestinian demand, that the trump administration commits to a tuesday solution.

that requires donald trump to reverse himself. february 15th with benjamin netanyahu at his side at the white house. the president effectively downgraded the two-state solution to one of many options. you find national security experts on both sides of the aisle who say that's the right call. the situation changed since george w. bush made that formal american policy. the palestinian government is less reliable, especially on a security front. settlements have grown up to a certain point. the region feels differently about it. but if palestinians be saying we can't do negotiations until donald trump commits to the way forward good luck. that requires the president 0 back away from his backing away. >> kushner gets attacked internally at the white house and among the breitbart nationalistic crowd and being too far on the left. interesting. a., he's an orthodox jew and the kushner family gays funding to

the palestinian settlements. >> yes. and constant refrain on jared kushner himself is that, yeah, but what has he accomplished? i don't know if that's going to change on this particular topic, but he does have a sort of more filled out team. victoria coates, on the national security council, now working, as i understand it, full time on this effort. she bring as more traditional approach from a conservative foreign policy perspective to the effort. so we'll see. >> and best of luck. before we go to break, i want to give you an update on the devastation the collision twun the u.s. destroyer and oil tanker in the pacific. the navily sadly suspended search and rescue operations for the nine missing sailors. the crash happened earlier this week east of singapore. dives sdvered remains of one missing service member, a 22-year-old. and released names of nine others missing at sea. the search suspended after an

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indiana senator joe donelly a democrat running for re-election got quite the welcome to one of his campaign events this week. donelly is running for re-election in the traditionally red hoosier state. in an attempt to essentially troll him, this was done. ♪ >> that's a mariachi-style band. mariachi-style. greeting him in indiana monday. calming him mexican joe because

of reports that his family business outsourced labor to mexico. donelly says he sold his company stock. there you see a handful of protestors accompanying the music with signs like "made in mexico" and "outsource donelly out of d.c." capturing attention of democrats. the media strategist telling the hill newspaper the band was a publicity stunt to distract from donelly's record. weird tactic, i guess, kind of? >> actually kind of typical these days. you have, people dressed up as chickens showing up at people's even events. fake newspapers sent. all sorts of stuff done to try to get attention. i think one thing it highlights, we talked today, a lot of talk about a couple vulnerable republicans running for re-election. in fact, democrats have a much bigger challenge ahead. >> sure. >> next year. a lot of -- many more democrats incumbent democratic senators up for re-election than republicans

and some in tough states. the only reason donelly was electeded in the first place because dick lugar was beat by a tea party candidate and toned out to be not very electable in the general election, and that's how he ended up getting in. i think that democrats certainly have their hands full. >> donelly vulnerable? >> yes. i think so. he woucould be more vulnerable the president tried to drive a wedge between red state democrats and the left of the party. struck by just watching this. seems quaint. like this is the most ridiculous political story? we used -- right. the chickens, that stuff, used to the be the things we laughed at. >> nice back then. we now call people a flip-flopper. >> exactly. >> but an excellent point. president trump could be using his skills and talents and leadership to really try to make the red state democrats more vulnerable, but, in fact, he's

only unified the democratic party on the hill. >> and donelly's bigger problem isn't donald trump but how mitch mcconnell uses the massive war chest amassed. much more important. and donelly's rivals can count on those. we've seen from donald trump, flirtations with health care. floated, you want to keep your job? he's obviously come out in favor of -- one of the challengers to jeff flake. what we haven't seen yet, a sustained campaign in any one state where he throws the full weight of his presidential clout behind a candidate. haven't seen that tested yet. so tbd. >> thanks for joining us on "inside politics." see you at 4:00 for "the lead." my colleague wolf blitzer is up next. thanks for watching. you do all this research

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hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's noon in houston, texas. 1:00 p.m. here in washington decease. 8:00 p.m. in tel aviv, israel. from wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. and many issues dear to the president, he went to twitter once again to air grievances earlier today tweeting this -- i requested that mitch m. and paul r., mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, tie the debt ceiling legislation into the popular v.a., veterans affairs bill which just passed for easy approval. they didn't do it. now a big deal with dems holding them up as usual