hello. i'm wolf blitzer. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining pass. breaking news we're following, a tragic discovery. at least six people have died. dozens more evacuated. after irma knocks out power at a nursing home in florida. brand-new details just coming in. stand by. returning to ruin. families seeing what's left of their homes across the florida keys. as the situation gets more dire without power and water our crews are live in the keys. plus, new secret exposed.

accusations that former trump national security adviser michael flynn never disclosed another trip involving russia and a business deal. the evidence now in the hands of the special counsel robert mueller. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> we begin with breaking news from the aftermath of hurricane irma. there is a race to get victims the supplies they need, food, water, communications, and power and now is, police in hollywood, florida, are investigating the deaths of six senior citizens, possibly due to a lack of electricity in their nursing home. rescuers evacuated 115 people from that facility this morning. listen to officials only moments ago. >> at this time, we're conducting a criminal investigation into the matter. we have the attorney general's office from the state here for medicare fraud, assisting us in

the investigation. and also, the agency for occupational health that governs these types of facilities, assisted living facilities here to determine the regulations or any other violations. >> our national correspondent miguel marquez is in hollywood, florida, for us. miguel, they just wrapped up a news conference. they provided some pretty somber very sober details. update us. >> reporter: yeah, the doctor who was working at memorial hospital about 50 yards away from the two facilities where these individuals died. said when he walked in the building around 6:00 a.m. this morning, it was awful. it was horrible conditions. very, very hot. these elderly people had been in there for possibly days, possibly much of the night. a little conflicting information from the police. the initial press conference they said that the first calls came in at 4:00 a.m. now they're saying their police

did not arrive till 6:00 a.m. at this facility. the very first call was for somebody who had a heart attack. the others expired from different respiratory issues due to the heat. three of them expired after leaving the hospital and trying to get karat memorial hospital just about 50 yards away. after they left the facility. saying another 12 patients are in critical right now and the death toll from this could rise. they are in the emergency room attal hospital. i want to sort of point out to you, the building in front of me, it's two different facilities. the rehabilitation center at hollywood hills and the larkin community hospital. those are not related to memorial hospital which is is -- this is the thing that's shocking here. this hospital is 50 yards away, and no one raised the alarm. there must have been other staff in that hospital at the time and nobody raise the the alarm.

so a very, very concerning situation here. larkin, the company that runs these two facilities says that they suffered a failure of power after irma came through and an employee told us they had generators starting on sunday night. they are rented out other generators. and that the temperature when he left last night was fairly comfortable. it is not clear. there is a criminal investigation going on now with the hollywood police. they are also checking all the other care facilities across their own town and alerting cities across florida clearly this is a state that has lots of care falls like this. and it will strike fear in many people who have their elderly parents and loved ones staying in these facilities and they urge them today to check on them, make sure they're home whether they're at a facility or at home or anywhere else. >> this is pretty shocking. at least a dozen others now in critical condition rushed to emergency rooms, presumably at

memorial hospital right across the street. one of the best hospitals down there. i want you to stand by. elizabeth cohen is joining us from florida right now. you've done a lot of reporting on these nursing homes around florida, around the state and indeed, around the country. this is what so many people had feared going into irma. what's going to happen to these elderly folks who can't simply move. >> reporter: right, it's such a huge concern in this state. that's why they have very strict rules here about standards for structures and for various services. it's unclear what happened here, wolf. but there are inspections by the state agency for health care administrations, there's an om but theman suppos om buds man in charge. we did look up some of the state reports. there were deficiencies listed in reports in hrs years. that's not unusual. that often happens. the ones we saw were you pretty quickly corrected.

so the question here is, what happened at this nursing home and why didn't the state -- should the state government have anticipated that something might happen. what kind of history did this facility have? that's going to be looked at in the coming days and weeks and i'm sure fort near the future than that. >> they've got to learn lessons from this awful experience to make sure it doesn't happen again. elizabeth, stand by. we're joined right now by the mayor of hollywood, florida, josh levy. thanks so much for joining us and our condolences on this awful situation. i know you're just beginning the investigation together with law enforcement. but what can you tell us about this horrible incident? >> thank you, wolf. so as you've heard in the press conference, we're certainly all you know very disappointed something liking this could have taken place. i think there were many ways emergency service coz have been alerted to this circumstance. and unfortunately, emergency

services were called obviously too late. >> this is an area, hollywood florida, it's right between miami, miami beach, and fort lauderdale. this is a pretty sophisticated area. it's not remote by any means, not down in the southern part of florida, the keys. this is a highly developed area which raises all sorts of questions. we knew there was concern about the elderly. how could this happen? >> you know, i think we're all dumbfounded how this could happen knowing that there are so many opportunities for medical care and no less realize this privately held facility is next door literally 30 feet away from a regional hospital with tra ma units and the most sophisticated medical care around. the city is 100,000 people, one of the largest cities in the state. large city. and you know what? we're upset about this. we're disappointed. you never know what goes on in the assisted living facilities or nursing facilities relied

upon for supervision by their management staff and by their ownership. state regulations sure. i think this begs the question as to what regulations are in place in terms of power outages at these types of facilities. are they required by state law to have emergency generators kicked in? this opportunity like you said at the top of your comments begs the question of how are we preparing these types of fas for multiday power out ands in the heat of summer. >> do we know for sure, mr. mayor, that this facility lost power? because i know a lot of hollywood did lose power. but did this facility as far as you know, lose power? >> i can tell you from what i know, from what i've heard is that they did have apparently a generator, but whatever was running by that generator apparently the main air conditioning units for this facility that would take care of also the second floor apparently were out of commission. i can't speak exactly. i'm not going to speak to the criminal investigation.

i'm not with law enforcement. you can understand certainly if it was hot, the main air conditioning unit was not working. > very sad story indeed. the mayor, mr. mayor, we're going to stay in very close touch with you. i want to reiterate, lessons have to be learned down the road, unfortunately, there will be more hurricanes down the road. the elderly and there are so many in south florida as we all know, florida has a huge retirement community. you got to make sure that we take care of these folks. i was deeply concerned going into the hurricane about the elderly especially in areas around miami and hollywood, fort lauderdale and unfortunately, this is a very tragic situation. we will stay in close touch with you, mayor. >> thank you, wolf. please if you can, use your ability to communicate through the airwaves that no matter where we are, texas, florida, the caribbean, where there is no power, please take steps right away to check on elderly neighbors and conduct welfare checks at assisted living facilities and anywhere you know

there are elderly. neighbors go out and knock on the doors and see if your neighbors are okay. they might need water than those of us that are younger. >> critically important advice from josh levy, the mayor of hollywood, florida. thank you once again for joining us. down the florida coast, residents of the keys are still trying to get home. for so many, it's been an emotional roller coaster. fear as they fled the storm, nerves and sometimes anger as they wait ford officials to finally open the road so they could return followed by either relief or devastation as they saw their homes. >> things aren't looking great right now. we're just trying to clean up. and to the best that we can. >> oh, my god, the roof. >> seeing the house, are you okay. >> right now i'm okay. right now, my family's okay. i'm okay. >> for people who stayed put and tried to ride out the storm, the

hardest part has been letting loved ones know they're okay which made our satellite phone a hot commodity. >> hey. jess. i'm alive. john, it's dan. okay. we have some pretty good damage to our house and a lot of other things are washed away here. but i talked to a nice gentleman here with the best news service and the guy with the cnn camera, and i'm calling you on their satellite phone. and when we get cell phone service back, we'll call you and tell you we wanted to let you know we're okay. yep. we're okay. except it's hot here. there's no electricity. i still got a lot of whiskey and beer left. it's just getting warm. >> i'm fine. everyone is good. please get in contact with mom and the rest of the cousins and

friends. >> i can't even -- the water's still in the house. i can't even get in there yet, get ready. we need tarps. drywall, roof, everything. okay. generators. >> that's right. i love you, dad. >> people are grateful to chris cuomo for making that satellite phone available. these are the people that our correspondents and crews have been running into in the keys. i want to bring in our correspondent bill weir joining us right now. bill, you've made it all the way down to key west right now. the highway hasn't reopened down there. how did you and your crew first of all make that trek and get to key west? >> reporter: well, wolf, we came by boat. which if anything taught me after katrina, the roads will be really sketch '. if there's one road, even more so. we find a kind captain by

happenstance interviewing people on your show and he brought us down. we visited marathon key along the way. we were off the torng keys and saw utter devastation from both the intracoastal and oceanside. we're expecting the worst. i got to tell you, we get better news the further south we come. right now we're where we started friday night, corner of green and duval. here's hemingway's old joint. it's mostly tree damage in the most populace part of the keys down here. i just ran into charlie johnson a pilot for the harbor, the city harbor. he's the guy who goes out and xwids big ships as they come to make port here. he had encouraging news. take a listen. >> pretty much surveyed the channel. it looks pretty good. we can bring ships in if they're ready to come in. the buoys are out of position. we're not 100% sure what the depths are. we've got to sound it so we know how deep it is, make sure there's no sunk boats out there.

it looks pretty good. we talked with the coast guard. >> have you heard of any fatalities of those who rode it out here? >> absolutely none. not a single person i know of has died. >> reporter: miraculous indeed. what's the main you need? he said fuel. they need fuel to run generators to get restaurants and shops back open, get people back to life. get lights going on. as far as the rest of the keys we just had a resupply convoy come down. according to them, these inflated -- these numbers of 90% of the homes in the keys being damaged is way over inflated 37 they'd put it roughly at 30% to 40%. if you lived in a mobile home, that's probably gone. if you lived in a house by the in the '60s, '70s, probably has damage but anything after andrew is holding up there. the power lines, the tie lines, extension cord that connects key

west to the mainland sin tact visually it looks like like from the road. most of the downed power lines are local. we saw rats nests of them out in the ocean coming in here. but that is a good sign, as well. at the northbound u.s. 1 line is damaged but is being repaired as we speak. they had road crews out there working on it. at mile marker 22, cudjoe key, the transmission lines are good despite that being near the fiercest part of the storm. there's roof damage. as you come further south down, there's not even road debris in sugarloaf key they're telling us. so the fickle fate of irma in some places complete devastation. that's what we saw, the torch keys and cook island you can only access from the ocean completely obliterated but no loss of human life we've been able to confirm right now. now it's mostly discomfort as we wait to be resupplied as key west waits to get back in

business. wolf? >> they will eventually. but it's going to take a long, long time. bill weir who made it to key west. we'll check back with you throughout the day. thank you very, very much. cnn is also live in the lower keys home to some of the worst destruction. hear what john berman found when he joins us coming up live. also, there's breaking news involving the russia investigation. we're getting word that the u.s. justice department is blocking the u.s. senate from interviewing fbi officials over the firing of the former fbi director james comey. you're going to hear why. also new democrats now some other democrats accusing former national security adviser under president trump michael flynn of breaking the law by not disclosing another trip and business deal involving russia. we have new information. stay with us. people would ask me that we traveled,ntries what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dna results

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irma hit florida, the sheer

scope of the damage is still being assessed. the florida governor rick scott took a boat tour of flooded areas. he said his main priority is getting the power back on. more than 4 million people in the southeast still have no electricity. the vast majority are in florida including the hard hit lower keys. fema estimated 90% of the homes in that region are either damages or destroyed. authorities are telling people in the lower keys to simply stay away because there's still no power, no water. our john berman is on big pine key for us. john, what's the situation where you are? >> reporter: i can tell you, we flew into sugarloaf key which is mile 21 ten miles south of here. most of the buildings seemed intact and damaged but just ten miles to the north where i am, big pine key a much different story. let me show you what i mean here. i'm standing in the dining room of a shoreline house. the dining room looks okay, but let's pan out here so we can show you something. that's the ocean.

right there. the ocean came through the entire wall of this house and just washed everything away. there is nothing left inside this house. this house utterly destroyed. and that's the case up and down this street that we're on right now. so many of these houses uninhabitable. these people have to start again. i actually asked the own they are morning, i said what happened to everything inside. and he came to me and pointed in the different direction. he pointed over there and said, it's all over there. everything is over there, wolf. big pine key hit very hard. the good news is that there are supplies that are arriving sort of to the center of town. people are driving in picking up food and water, bringing it back. the people decided to ride out the storm are beginning to get resupplied which is good news. the main problem for them is communication. they want to get a message out to the rest of the world, their loved ones that they're okay. they want people to know they're here and want to make sure that

the help keeps coming, the power gets back on. and they can start rebuilding their lives. wolf? >> all right. let's hope they can. john berman on big pine key for us. we'll stay in close touch with you. we'll have much more on desperate race to restore power across florida, plus breaking just a little while ago, the u.s. justice department blocking the u.s. senate from interviewing roib officials involved in the firing of james comey. so what does that mean for the robert mueller investigation. >> stay with us. patrick woke up with back pain. but he has work to do. so he took aleve. so what does that mean for the robert mueller investigation. >> stay with us. comey. so what does that mean for the robert mueller investigation. >> stay with us. to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve. all day strong. w...i was always searching for ways to manage my symptoms. i thought i had it covered. then i realized managing was all i was doing. when i finally told my doctor,

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cnn has learned that the u.s. justice department is standing in the way of senate investigators by not allowing two top fbi officials to speak with the senate judiciary committee. the committee wants to know more about the firing of the former fbi director james comey. cnn's manu raju joins us live

from capitol hill. is this a new turf war? what does it tell us about the investigation by the special counsel? >> reporter: it looks like this is a sign, wolf, that the special counsel is looking into the circumstances around the firing of james comey. now, the reason why is because the senate judiciary committee wanted to interview two senior fbi officials. carl ghattas and james rybicki. those two individuals could provide firsthanden information, firsthand accounts about exactly what happened surrounding the circumstances of comey's firing. but the justice department has sent a letter to the committee saying that they do not want these two men to testify because they are concerned about this ongoing special counsel investigation. and that it could reveal any sensitive or confidential information pertaining to that investigation. now, in response the two leaders of that committee, kruk grassley and dianne feinstein said we don't want to talk about the investigation. we just want to know about exactly what happened with the firing of james comey. and in response, the justice

department has not cooperated according to the senate judiciary committee saying that they are not going to move forward and allow these twos to come forward by the deadline they had set which was the first week of september. this is a sign, wolf, that these two committees, the committee and the special counsel are running in a collision course of sorts as the committee is trying to understand exactly if there was any fbi interference any interference with that ongoing criminal probe into russia and any association with the trump campaign and special counsel's investigation which appears to be looking into the firing of james comey and the big question is whether or not there was any obstruction of justice which a lot of critics say may have happened here in the way the president handled the situation. >> there's another significant development, new development in the russia investigation. some house democrats as you know, man knew, have sent a letter to robert mueller with new information about former

national security adviser michael flynn. >> reporter: two house democrats elijah cummings of maryland and eliot engel of new york received information from michael flynn's former business partners that have confirmed that michael flynn was in the middle east in 2015 trying to pursue a major deal that would concentrate 16 nuclear reactors in saudi arabia and also would lead to the purchase of military hardware with russia. this $100 billion deal was being pursued by michael flynn and a consortium of companies here in the united states. what was significant when he returned back to the united states to fill out his security clearance form to renew his security clearance form as a retired army general, he did not disclose this foreign meeting. this note to knowingly falsify your security clearance forms is a violation of federal law. and this is another example of mr. flynn not disclosing these meetings. and, of course, wolf, he is coming under investigation on a

number of fronts including his conversations with the russian ambassador last year. >> significant development. manu raju, thanks very much. here with us to assess all of this is our cnn legal analyst laura cotes and chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. this potentially, the flynn failure to acknowledge he was involved in another meeting with the russians is potentially legally very significant. >> it was one thing to have the convenient amnesia he was initially saying he had. now you're talking about nuclear reactors and $100 billion deals and somebody with his foot to the fire about being accused of having violated federal law for not putting things on the form for security clearance. he was fired for doing this very thing. this is another example of what we call the mens rea. what was your intent here? it sounds to me you have more of anni intentional act you committed a

federal law. forgetting about this meeting you've had and traveled to about nuclear reactors, forget it. >> jim, this is a big deal right now as far as the overall russia investigation is concerned. and the problems that michael flynn has. >> you speak to people close to flynn who served with him. from their perspective, i've asked many of them this question. why is this happening? why this failure to disclose is one of the lee esh issues he's facing right now. their senl sense will be that he wasn't a pro at this. right? this kind of stuff was new to him. he's coming out in the private sector. he's getting business offers. a lot of folks leave the military and do the same thing. that it wasn't part of an intentional pattern to mislead. the trouble is from a legal perspective and you know this better than me, but you can tell by the interest of prosecutors, is that a significant, a sufficient explanation from their point of view and in light of the fact that you have more

than one hill committee now investigating this as well as others in the justice department, it shows they're not satisfied. >> it's not just a little deal. this was a major deal. the russians were going to build about a dozen nuclear reactors in saudi arabia. billions and billions of dollars at stake. >> that's right. politico is reporting this is a deal that mike flynn pursued even during the transition. it's something that he continued after this meeting that was not disclosed was in 2015. the transition he's headed to a senior position in the white house something he didn't let go. in addition a story out last night that michael flynn refused again a request to appear before the senate intelligence committee. the senate intelligence committee one of several committees on the hill very interested in sitting down with him. he's provided some documents but they want to question him face-to-face. he said no for a second time. >> laura, the notion of the justice department, the u.s. justice department not allowing fbi agents to testify before the

senate judiciary committee, you heard man knew's report on that. they say could complicate the overall mueller investigation. what's your reaction? >> it's kind of tit meeting tat at this point. one is trying to say we have certain subpoena authority and until you share things with us, we're not going to share with you. for example, the donald trump jr. rip the they didn't want to the provide to mark mueller. what you're seeing here is a turf war. because one of the objectives of the congressional probe is to figure out how to legislate a change. but mueller has the upper hand. his probe could ultimately result if they find anything in criminal charges and perhaps convictions. in that respect, people are looking at mueller's investigation differently and being a lot more reluctant to cooperate and trying to make sure they have the subpoena. you're seeing a battling out and this was already anticipated by congressional members before mueller was even taken into his office because they anticipated this conflict of the uber

secretive process of robert mueller. remember, we didn't know for weeks they even executed a warrant on manafort's home. whereas congress had to be much more public in virtual realtime. this play out further and it will be a continuing conflict till we have a resolution where one decides to take the back seat. it won't be mueller. >> quickly at issue is whether or not there was obstruction of justice when the president fired comey. >> exactly. and this revelation makes it clear this is a line of inquiry of the special counsel. and that's significant. it's one of several. you got the financial track, the collusion track and the obstruction track. >> thanks very much laura coates and jim sciutto. developing now, the president once again rubbing elbows with some top democrats in congress inviting chuck schumer and nancy pelosi to dinner tonight. you'll hear what's on the agenda. plus, after hosting thousands of people during hurricane irma, some shelters in florida are in such disarray right now, they need hazmat crews to actually

come in. we're live on the scene.

following irma's wrath, one of the tasksners necessary to get life back to normal in florida, making sure schools in affected areas are ready to open. many cases they were used as shelters. ryan young is joining us right now. ryan, you're in the town of land o'lakes. you say cleaning up the schools is one more headache for administrators trying to get ready for the students' return. update us on late breaking developments. >> reporter: yeah, well they rush on monday. this is the pascal county school district, wesley chapel high school. you can see the school behind me. this operation is ongoing.

you can see the work that the workers are doing right now. they are addressed in hazmat suits and cleaning every inch of the school to make sure when teachers and students return on monday morning, that this will be ready pore them to be able to be safe and to be able to be have a clean space and environment. you work with pasco county high schools. let me know why did you feel you had to go to this length to clean up the schools? >> we had approximately 1500 shelter residents and 300 pets. we want to make sure our schools are safe and secure for the students to return on monday. >> reporter: the schools provided a great resource. there was some 20,000. tell me that number again. >> we had approximately 22,000 residents in 22 shelter schools and approximately 1800 pets at all of our shelters across the district. >> reporter: we'll talk to you about pets. this picture they shared. look what somebody brought here to the school. this was an amazing resource. they didn't want anyone choose

between leaving a pet behind or coming to a shelter. this was a pig brought to one of the schools. you talk about being a resource for the community. how has this is worked out and how was this is received as all your workers were here? >> i can't tell you how proud i am to be in pasco county today. we had an amazing response from our administrators, maintenance crew, food service crew, transportation. also from the keep the. we had emergency management all came together to be our community. we were able too take in 22,000 people who might not have otherwise been able to have refuge in a storm. >> reporter: this effort continues. school opens again on monday. wolf? >> ryan, thank you. ryan young reporting for us. coming up, dining with democrats. the president invites chuck schumer and nancy pelosi to the white house once again after striking a deal that shocked members of his own party. so what do republicans think of this latest outreach? i'll ask one of them. plus, we're moments away from the white house press briefing. amid new developments involving

james comey and michael flynn. stand by for that.

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moments from now, president trump meets with several house democrats to talk about tax reform and efforts to save daca. it's the second meeting with democrats in two days for the president. the bigger get together though may come later tonight when top democrats, the senate and house minority leaders senator chuck schumer, nancy pelosi they come to the white house for dinner. here with us is senior political reporter nia-malika henderson. the president reached an agreement with the leaders. he calls them chuck and nancy last week. now another dinner going forward

to the deep irritation, the agreement they reached last week of several, a lot of republicans. >> that's right. this was very much unexpected. you saw mitch mcconnell's face there in the oval office after that deal was struck. was very much struck by surprise by what the president did there. this comes really i think after the president has had really one of his lowest moments last month around charlottesville around pardoning sheriff joe arpaio. he's reaching across the aisle, striking a deal. we'll see what comes out of the meetings. republicans very much worried. threw in the dark about some of these meetings growing out what has been lingering tension between donald trump, paul ryan as well as mish mcconnell. i reached out to a conservative radio host to get a sense how folks he's hearing from are looking at this new kind of phase of donald trump's presidency. he said that almost you know all of the callers he's hearing from are liking this new phase of the donald trump presidency. they essentially think this is

what they voted for. they want him to in some way stick it to other republican leadership. i think the question is, does this last. is this a one-off or really a new phase in this white house. >> clearly the president seems to be pleased that he's talking to chuck and nancy as he calls them. he's working on some deals with them. he had promised during the campaign he would try to achieve bipartisan agreement. he seems to be doing that right now. >> he seems to also enjoy the company of particularly chuck schumer. they go back all the way to new york and early on after he was elected and certainly around the inauguration, there was hope among some that maybe he could work across the aisle with chuck schumer in particular. and i think what happened is that chuck schumer himself got a lot of blowback from progressives. we'll see where that goes, too. certainly there will be blow back from the republican leadership. we'll see what it is from republicans and democrat who's don't necessarily want to see any deals being made with the

president. >> he's meeting with some congressional democrats, the problem solvers caucus, as well. >> that's about 40 folks in the house, 20 republicans, 20 democrats. does the balance of power shift in the house? typically you see paul ryan sort of going to the house freedom caucus on more conservative group as they try to deal with legislation. is this a new kind of shift in terms of how this white house is going to operate and approach legislation. >> thank you very much. coming up, a potential new chapter in the debate over health care here in the united states as senator bernie sanders prepares to introduce a version of his medicare for all legislation. is it a long shot or can he get some support? the support he needs? hi...so i e phone with our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight- four weeks without the car. okay, yup. good night. with accident forgiveness your rates won't go up just because of an accident. switching to allstate is worth it.

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what should i watch? show me sports. it's so fluffy! look at that fluffy unicorn! he's so fluffy i'm gonna die! your voice is awesome. the x1 voice remote. xfinity. the future of awesome. bernie sanders will unveil his plan that would expand medicare into a universal health

insurance program for all americans. writing an op-ed in "the new york times" today, this is a pivotal moment in american history. do we as a nation join the rest of the industrial iced world and guarantee competencesive health care to every person as a human right or do we maintain a system that is enormously expensive, wasteful and bureaucratic ask is designed to maximize profits for big insurance companies, the foorm suit cal industry, wall street and medical equipment suppliers. meanwhile, republican senators have unveiled their own plan to partially replace the affordable care act. listen to this. >> there are three choices. cough up obamacare, bernie care or our bill. that's where we're at. count me out for propping up

obamacare. hell no to an yid that gives a patient a voice they would never have. count me in for people in my state making decisions about health care versus some burk accurate in washington. >> joining us now republican senator john ver as sew of wyoming. he's a physician. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. >> are you with senator graham and senator -- >> i am. i want to get the decisions out of washington and back to the states to let people decide what insurance works best for them. give them more control over their health care because what bernie sanders is explaining there, that's obamacare. it's infirnt i, all of those problems relate to obamacare. >> let's get back to what they're proposing. does that have to be passed by the end of this month? do you need 60.

>> you need 50 until the end of the month when reconciliation issue passes on, but otherwise you can do it with 60 votes. i think it's a good idea to get the money and the decisions back to patients, out of washington and let people decide -- >> and do you think there are democrats who are going to join you in supporting what some are calling a hail mary? >> i'm not expecting any democrats if any to joins us. >> so realistically it's not going to go anywhere. >> we're continuing to work. we probably have 45, 46 senators. >> that's not enough, though. >> we need to get to 50 s. we're continuing to work on it through the end of the month. >> what's wrong with senator bernie sanders' proposal to hol you the united states to have a health insurance system along the lines of every other industrial iced country, whether canada or britain, all the countries in europe, other countries around the world? there's comprehensive health insurance guaranteed for all

citizens. >> well, first of all, this is truly the litmus test for the liberal left with all of the democrats who are looking to run for president in 2020 signing onto it. the issue is the bumper sticker is pretty good, but when you get into the specifics, the details, the nuts and the bolts, what does this actually take from someone, not what does it give them, what does it take from them in terms of the money. they've tried to do this other places and have tried in the state of california, even in bernie sanders' home state of vermont -- >> but it works well in the uk or france or canada or other countries. you get sick, you don't have to worry about health insurance. you go to the doctor, you if to the doctor of your choice and you get treated. if it works well in all these other major industrial iced countries, why wouldn't it work well here? >> it depends what you describe as work well. if you're a patient in england right now realizing that the numbers are so bad for the amount of time people have to

wait for an appointment, emergency room waits spiked longer than a 12-hour delay. if you have a chronic condition, 18 weeks before you get to see the doctor. in canada where we talk about the free care, as a surgeon in wyoming, i have operated on people from canada who can't afford to wait the time for a free operation. there's articles written leaving canada for health care, and many are coming to the united states, even though it's free, because in canada the waits are so long. and once they spend a certain amount of money, cat racket surgery, total joint replacement, for the year, they cut it off. and usually that's around halloween. it's why they call canadian medicine trick or treat medicine. >> let's say suf medicare for all, for everyone, no one is going to go without health insurance and medical treatment but at the same time you have private insurance at the same time and perhaps you can get some better treatment. once wrong with a double tear

system nor that? >> for senior citizens right now on medicare, under this under mienls their ability to get care. >> they're happy right now who are on medicare -- it's a system that works for people in the united states who are 65 and older. >> it does work -- >> why not expand it for those who are 55 and older? >> because fewer and fewer doctors want to take care of medicare patients because the reimbursement is so low. i talk to hospital administrators and we lose money. you look at more hospitals consolidating or closing and you'd under miep, i believe, the integrity of medicare for our seniors and that's who it was designed for. my mom is in her 90s now. the year she was born life expectancy for a woman in this country was 56. now it's 81. so when you go back to the old speeches of lyndon johnson and why they wanted to do medicare, it was for the widows, because most of the guys by 65 were going to be dead when they set

that age at 65. so i want to make sure that medicare, which is currently being stressed financially, is there for our seniors. and i think what bernie is proposing is going to undercut the integrity of the program. >> it sounds like we should have a debate between you and senator bernie sanders on this issue of medicare for awful. it could be an important discussion. what do you think? >> we could do it at a university, have an audience there. we could do it on cnn live. >> you could do it on my show. we could invite senator sanders. your office and his office not too far away -- it might be a good opportunity and educate the public on your position and very important differences between what he is proposing and he's going into great length. he's getting a lot of democrats who are on board. >> any democrat want to go run for president in 2020 better sign on with bernie because that's where the liberal left is going. >> we'll have a good conversation. you've accepted the idea. woel ask senator sanders as

well. >> good. >> that's it. very important programming note for our viewers. hillary clinton will sit down with our own anderson cooper later tonight to talk about what went wrong in the 2016 race as far as she's concerned. plus her revealing new book on the campaign and her own marriage. tune in tonight 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. our coverage continues right now. thank you so much for being with me. you're watching cnn. just a heads up on a couple of eepts we're watching in the next couple of hours. any moment now the white house press briefing is set to begin amid new developments involving former fbi director james comey and former national security adviser michael flynn. this happening just as president trump makes dinner plans with democratic leadership. that's on tap tonight. meantime, ooefr on capitol hill bernie sappeders is about to announce his medicare for