does your sleep aid leave you groggy? switch to drug-free midnite®. its specially formulated to work with the body's sleep mechanism to promote natural sleep. try midnite® tonight. devastation in puerto rico. and now a blame game. the president lashing out at san juan's mayor because of this. >> i know it is really a good news story. >> dam it, this is not a good news story. this is a people are dying story. >> plus, health secretary tom price is forced out for using tax dollars to travel by private jet. >> i think he's a very fine person. i certainly don't like the optics. i don't like seeing is anybody even have a question about, you know, flying. and after another obamacare

defeat, can the president sell his big tax cut? >> the era of economic surrender is over. and the rebirth of american industry is beginning. >> "inside politics," the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters, now. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. to our viewers in the united states and around the world, thank you for sharing your sunday. we now know president trump can't keep his promise to repeal obamacare this year. nor will the president get the massive infrastructure spending he promised. so it's on to tax reform. his last chance to keep a big first year legislative promise. >> this is a once in a generation opportunity. and i guess it's probably something i can say that i'm very good at. i've been waiting for this for a long time. >> plus, there's more turmoil on team trump this sunday. one cabinet member forced out after wasting tax dollars on

private jets. several others face questions about their high-flying ways. >> i would just like to address in the words of general scwartkof, a little bs. all of this travel was done after no commercial options existed. >> we begin this sunday with the pain and devastation facing american citizens in puerto rico. and the president's angry response to any suggestion he and his team were too slow to understand the urgency of hrk pl hurricane maria's impact. in a series of tweets on saturday, president trump attacked the san juan mayor for poor leadership, claiming that democrats were telling her to be, quote, nasty to trump. and he said the mayors and other leaders on the island, quote, want everything to be done for them. the mayor earned her place as the latest trump twitter target by taking issue, right here on cnn, with an upbeat assessment by the president's point person on disaster response.

>> it is really a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place in such a devastating hurricane. >> well, maybe from where she's standing it's a good news story. when you're drinking from a creek, it's not a good news story. when you don't have food for a baby, it's not a good news story. dammit, this is not a good news story. this is a people are dying story. >> with us to share their reporting and their insights, julie pace of the associated press, car i know demergen of "the washington post," perry bacon, and policewombloomberg's. first, the facts, how puerto rico is doing 11 days after maria made landfall. gas stations are on the mend. 60% now up skprand running. 49% of grocery stores now open. a little less than half the island has drinkable water. the electricity situation, even worse. only 5% of power has been

restored. nearly 10,000 federal aid workers on the ground in puerto rico. seven daily flights now bringing commodities and 11 regional staging areas set up around the island. officials say 843 people have been rescued and 11 highways cleared. cnn's brin grynn gingras is on ground. so you can get supplies there, but are they getting where they're needed. >> reporter: well, we are seeing, john, supplies are getting to these communities, especially outside of san juan. but here's the thing, john, it's always going to be a battle. that's exactly what we found out. we drove an hour and a half outside of san juan to a city in a very mountainous area. they have a river that runs through this city and that river flooded by more than 20 feet during the storm . it knocked out bridges and caused landslides in that area. so there are literally communities that are islands on an island. they are constantly going to need supplies and it's very difficult to get those to them.

so, these are people that are, you know, just doing what they can to help themselves. we saw people that were creating pulleys on their own, just to bring water from the -- the spring water from the mountains into their homes. we saw them making benches that they could send a runner across every day to get supplies for themselves. so they are really doing what they can. but yesterday, i do want to mention, we went around with a search and rescue task force group. now, these are the people that come in first, right, they respond to medical needs. they see if there are buildings that are collapsed that people need to be rescued inside. and their mission, a good number here, their mission is almost 100% done, finished. but we went around with people to this one community and i want you to see their reaction when they finally saw those supplies come to them. >> when i saw them come, the first time, i saw heaven. >> so, finally, we knew that they knew about our situation. >> what do you want to say to your daughter in texas.

>> we're safe. >> reporter: you're surviving? >> we're okay, because -- we appreciate your help. >> reporter: i mean, can you imagine that, john, that man has not talked to his daughter for 11 days. he was grateful to have our cameras there to just be on-air, so maybe his daughter in texas sees that he is doing okay. that's a serious issue here. 11% of telecommunications is complete. that's not much. we drive down highways and there are cars lined up on the highway with their cell phone, pinned, you know, up against the windshield, hoping that they'll get even one par to call to their loved ones. so serious issues still here in puerto rico, especially in the outer cities that really need to be addressed, with john. >> brynn gingras on the ground for us in san juan. appreciate that very much. let's bring the conversation in the room. number one, we're standing by for the daily fema briefing. number two, the president goes

on tuesday. and it was remarkable yesterday, if we go back through the first nine days, the first nine days of maria, the president tweeted 14 times about puerto rico. yesterday, he tweeted 16 times about puerto rico. most of these tweets, attacks on the mayor. who came, you saw the emotional response. the acting homeland security scare, elaine duke, has said something that since was a lilt tone deaf and easy to take out of context. she meant it was a good news story that so many people are helping. neighbors are helping neighbors, strangers are helping strangers, but it sounded tone deaf to say this was a good news story in the middle of this devastation. why is the president picking this fight? >> because for the president, everything comes down to winning and losing. and he watches the coverage right now, he is seeing people, either officials or puerto ricans who are being critical of the federal response and he believes that that reflects poorly on him. so he wants to push back and make it sound like he is actually winning this. but in doing that, in framing it

in that context, he's really losing sight of what we're actually talking about. look, this is a difficult situation, as brynn was talking about, when you get outside of san juan, it is difficult to get supplies in. that could be what he could be talking about. he could be showing more empathy for the situation of people on the ground who haven't been able to communicate with their families. but he simply in these situations doesn't seem to be able to frame his response in that way. it is all about how a situation reflects on him and how he tends to be viewed >> he says, she has poor leadership, and then he expands the argument. he sees the mayor on television. you saw her emotional response on cnn. she's doing other interviews as well. then he goes on to say, though, not just her, other leaders on the island, quote, with want everything to be done for them. this is reminding me in the last several days of what happened in the days after katrina. when people started pointing fingers at mayor neighen, people started asking questions about governor blanco, people started

pointing fingers at washington. one thing president bush did not -- he did not, some of his people pushed back, but the president of the united states did not get involved in personal fights with people that he felt disappointed in, that he thought weren't doing everything they could do. what is about this president or he decides to make this personal. >> there's one thing we need to keep in mind here and this is important. the comments he made on the departure on friday, he made it clear he wants to save lives. he talked about that. but he also made it clear, he hasn't decided yet whether he wants to make puerto rico whole. as you know yet, he said something about, this is a territory, implying it's not a state. he said, these are great people, but this would be a massive investment to improve -- you know, this territory already had $74 billion in debt, even before maria struck 11 days ago. and he was saying, it would be a huge amount of money to reinvest in this power grid and to make it whole again. so that is what he's wrestling right now, is how much money he wants to invest in a territory.

>> and on the island, people take that as, you don't think of us as full citizens. you don't think of us as your brother and your sister, like you did for the people of texas, like you did for the people of florida. so the president has a logistical challenge and a response challenge, but does he have an empathy challenge here and an affinity challenge here. they're americans? >> i think very clearly he said -- he seems to be implying that people are not doing enough to help themselves. the people and the mayor, as well. it's not only the mayor he's criticizing. his tweets yesterday were pretty critical of the people, at least in my reading as well. and i think it goes to a question of, he seemed much more prepared for what happened in texas and florida. he seems to be beyond his sort of personal reaction yesterday. even before that, it seems like he's not been as engaged in the issue. "the post" had a good story, describing how the first five or six days, he just was not being briefed -- he was being briefed, he was just not as engaged in the situation and not focused on it. you showed his tweets were not about this. you could tell, in texas, he was very focused on it from the beginning. and that goes to the fact that

he doesn't think of puerto rico as part of the united states or just the part that he just wasn't paying attention here. he was focused on tax reform or the nfl. he just has not reacted the way you would hope he would in this situation. >> and he has a chance to -- every day is different. we know with this president, he has a chance on tuesday, but now he goes to puerto rico and the first question everyone is going to have is he going to have a public fight with the mayor? >> right, is he going to have a public fight. and also, this is donald trump. is he going to say, oh, my gosh, i was so wrong if he sees stuff that's way worse than he's been portraying it as. it was the third massive hurricane to hit the united states and the president does not have the longest attention span. the so to keep that up when other things are happening like nfl players taking a knee during the national anthem, that's a little bit difficult. he's thought about texas and florida in a campaign context and an electoral map context a lot more than puerto rico. and that is not enough of an excuse, it's not an excuse to ignore what's going on in puerto rico or take a less engaged

spo response when the situation is so dire, but that's what we're facing and it's raising all kinds -- the thing that the president is not quite seeing is that this is raising all kinds of backlash, not just if he thinks puerto ricans are american citizens, but certain parts of the country where they don't maybe look like what they do in middle america, coming off of the summer we had and everything else. this builds upon itself and builds upon itself and it's very hard to silo off puerto rico, which is what the president is trying to do in his dealings with it and accusing the local officials of not playing ball. >> let's listen to the mayor's response, because not only did the president attack her on twitter, there were some other administration officials saying, look, she should show up at more of the meetings, she should be in closer contact with us and she might understand a better or faster or more streamlined way to get what she needs. here's the mayor's response to anderson cooper. >> you woke up this morning to tweets from the president of the united states. what did you make of what he said? >> i smiled. i smiled really -- i have no

time for small politics or for comments that really don't add to the situation here. >> the president also said in a tweet earlier this morning that you had been nice to him early on, but that democrats told you you have to be nasty toward him. >> i don't -- i don't know, maybe he thinks women have to be told what to do. that's not who we are here in san juan. >> and so what you have in the middle of a devastating disaster and challenge for puerto rico, we've seen this same political argument play out here on other issues about policy. how does it impact -- whatever side you're on, if you're a trump supporter, you see the president. if you support that mayor, thinking the president is being mean and nasty and attacking her, there are people who need help. if you have this personal feud, does it affect the delivery of services and disaster relief? >> well, you hope it doesn't. that would be the worst youm ou

of this. you have this personal feud, a political feud, and it slows or stops some of the recovery efforts that could be happening. that could be the worst-case scenario. and the president, as we were saying earlier, does have a chance to turn the direction of this when he goes to san juan on tuesday. will he meet with the mayor? that could be a moment where he could bridge this divide and have a conversation with her, where she could air her grievances, he could air his. but as long as they're focused on the actual response, i think this could move in a different direction. but with trump, he tends to take these personal fights and let them just snowball and suddenly that becomes the biggest driver of the story, not what's actually happening on the ground. >> in terms of getting attention to what's happening in puerto rico, it's hard for me to say the mayor is doing the wrong thing. going on national television does bring attention to things. particularly a president who watches television a lot. so it's hard for me to say that what she's doing is taking away. you saw the tweets, 14 before, 16 yesterday. it seems to me she's drawing attention to the issue. and my guess is he will feel more need to do something about it now.

it's hard for me to say she has a bad strategy here. >> going to be fascinating to watch on tuesday as the president heads down there. up next, this seems an easy call. 50 bucks to gas up the suv or $25,000 to go buy a private jet. how tom price went from mr. secretary to unemployed. this time it's his turn. you have 4.3 minutes to yourself. this calls for a taste of cheesecake. new philadelphia cheesecake cups. rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries. find them with the refrigerated desserts. my hygi...a mouthwash.o try... so i tried crest. it does so much more than give me fresh breath. crest pro-health mouthwash provides all... ...of these benefits to help you get better dental check-ups. go pro with crest mouthwash. checkup? nailed it the morning walk until... it... wasn't. don't let type 2 diabetes get between you and your heart. even if you reach your a1c goal you are still at risk for heart attack or stroke.

talk to your health care provider today about diabetic heart disease. and find out more at heartoftype2.com. your heart and type 2 diabetes. make the connection.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

i'm not a customer, but i'm calling about that credit scorecard. give it. sure! it's free for everyone. oh! well that's nice! and checking your score won't hurt your credit. oh! i'm so proud of you. well thank you. free at at discover.com/creditscorecard, even if you're not a customer.

i want the entire corrupt washington establishment to hear the words we all, i'm your messenger, just a messenger, doing a good job, but just a messenger. we all are about to say. when we win on november 8th, we are going to drain the swamp.

>> memorable line, but if you're keeping score at home, mark that drown as a broken promise, at least through these first eight months. remember candidate trump railing against hillary clinton's private e-mails, promising to restore honesty and integrity to washington? well, his chief of staff ordered an internal review after politico reported that at least a handful of senior administration officials are conducting government business using personal e-mail accounts. this despite not only the president's campaign words, but a warning from fbi officials that personal phones are easier to hack. now leaders are mad at jared kushner, because in his recent interview with staff, he did not disclose his use of personal e-mail. and one cabinet secretary forced out, several others under review, and a president described as furious about headlines about his team using taxpayer money to fly around on private jets. the health and human services secretary, tom price, forced to resign friday night because his

behavior was especially egregio egregious, not to mention hypocritical. as a member of congress, then congressman price preached penny pinching. he railed against democrats who flew private jets. but once in a seat of o powpowe repeated private jet travel to cost taxpayers in the ballpark of $1 million. one trip from washington to nearby philadelphia, enough to make your blood boil. it's about 125 miles, so 50 bucks round trip to drive. a train ticket can be had for $123. a commercial flight, from $450 to $725, depending on when you can become and cabinet secretaries can skip the tsa jet, but price chartered a jet, spending $25,000 of taxpayers' money. swamp not drained, president not happy. >> i felt very badly, because secretary price is a good man. i think he's a very fine person. i certainly don't like the optics. >> "i certainly don't like the optics." is he mad that it happened, that

a cabinet secretary was just blowing taxpayer dollars to fly around in a private jet. is he mad at that or mad that he got caught? the optics, the headlines? >> it was all of it. there were so many hints that he was going to push price out. the first hint we got was that the white house was just refusing to defend tom price, either in private conversations with us or publicly, you remember, sarah sanders at a briefing last week when she was asked about it said this was not white house approved travel. and the other big hint we got when tom price kept calling tom price a good man, to kind of soften the blow a little bit. we knew at that point that he was probably doomed. i was getting messages from white house staff saying, yeah, be watching for it. this is coming. because as you remember, when we were asking the president questions about is bannon in or out, he said, oh, but he's a good man, the media mistreats him. he said the same thing exactly about reince priebus, so we knew it was the kiss of death when he said, tom price is a good man. >> and at the top of the program, you had the interior secretary saying, some of this is bs. it may well be in the sense, i don't like the term, but some

cabinet secretaries do. sometimes you need to take a private jet, sometimes you are in a hurry, sometimes it's urgent, sometimes it's to a far-off, remote place and it's the best way to go. but when others are spending $25,000 to go to philadelphia, that's a bad thing. but in mr. zinke's indicate, he took a $12,000 charter flight on an oil executive's plane. if you're going to do this, why don't you just call up one of the private companies that do this for a living. why get on a flight so we can say, why? are they trying to curry favor with you? what decisions do you have in front of you that affect these people? shouldn't there be somebody -- some of is kind of obvious. >> it's really obvious! and what you're seeing right now is john kelly, the chief of staff, with stepping in and saying that he is going to have approve all cabinet travel, which is that an amazing thing a chief of staff would step in and have to do that. but that's how serious the white house is taking this right now. because it gets to the core promise that trump made. is that he was going to cut down on all of this.

all of these weird conflicts of interest, overspending on the taxpayer expense. that's what he was going to get rid of. and his voters, that promise means a lot to them. and he knows if he has these optics. and yes, some of this is optics, that some of his voters won't view that very kindly. but the price travel is really amazing, given the rhetoric from him when he was in congress. >> we could fill the hour with it. >> we could play clips for the whole hour of him talking about wasting taxpayer money. >> remember, trump wanted price to help with the obamacare repeal. and that didn't happen. >> so he had a scar anyway. >> he already had a mark against him. so there's definitely a void in leadership. so that will be part of the job description for replacing him now as health and human services director, who can help trump in the future to get obamacare repealed. >> and how aggressive is that person on record in the past about repeal. >> it is remarkable that the two people coming out of the power that seem to be abusing this are price and zinke, they were both members of congress. when you are in congress, you

are the guardians of the taxpayer dollars. the gop loves railing about this. yes, there's all that price tape. but it's -- the fact that these two would be the first is just kind of -- >> when you're a back bencher in congress, it's easy to give speeches railing against. this is a former ethics official, walter shaub, he's left the murnadministration. he says, why wouldn't tom price do this because of the signals that the president sends. >> when you have a president not only not divesting his private properties, but traveling to them frequently at great expense to the taxpayer. every one of these trips they take to one of his properties almost every weekend it seems is racking up an enormous bill from the taxpayers, so why would secretary price get any other message from the white house? >> we know the story that the treasury secretary inquired or thought about asking about a government plane to take him on his honeymoon.

tom price may have been the most egregious, but we know there are other allegations or examples of this. jennifer is really right. the point is that tom price did something bad and failed at his score job. if you look at the stories we wrote in november. we said, tom price is here, he knows health care, he's a doctor, he will help get obamacare repealed. and he wasn't even involved in the process at the end. you know, tom, if owe don't do this obamacare repeal, you'll be fired. he meant what he said. republicans come up short again in their efforts to repeal obamacare. so it's on to tax cuts, and who knew, it's complicated. we come into this world needing others. then we are told it's braver to go it alone. ♪ that independence is the way to accomplish. ♪

but there is another way to live. ♪ a way that sees the only path to fulfillment- is through others. ♪ that our time here can be deep beyond measure. ♪ no one who chose interdependence ever found despair. ♪ because what the world taught as weakness, is in fact our greatest virtue. ♪

anyone who calls it a hobby doesn't understand. we know that a person's passion is what drives them. [ clapping ] and that's why every memorial we create is a true reflection of the individual. only a dignity memorial professional can celebrate a life like no other. find out how at sanfranciscodignity.com.

welcome back. we know the president fashions himself as a gifted salesman. >> at the very center of that plan is a giant, beautiful, massive, the biggest ever in our country, tax cut. >> as you see there, he likes big, dramatic words. >> democrats and republicans in congress should come together, finally, to deliver this giant win for the american people and begin middle class miracle. it's called a middle class miracle. >> those speeches from the president just the beginning of a white house and a republican party effort to sell and to pass

tax reform. >> if i could say it as simple as possible, i would say that this tax reform conversation is about hashtag keep yo money. >> but it isn't so simple. number one, there are big pieces of the tax policy framework that are tough to sell in congress. number two, the political stakes are enormous. remember, the president and the republican congress began this year with two big shared goals. repealing obamacare and reforming taxes. the president promised one more first-year big-ticket item. massive infrastructure spending. obamacare repeal is now dead for the year. it won't happen in 2017. infrastructure was never really alive. so as the conservative weekly standard put it regarding the gop's last 2017 hope, tax reform, quote, if the party of free enterprise and low taxes can't pass it, it's not clear what they're there for. that is the stake for the republican party are right annoy, in the sense that you're not going to repeal obamacare

this year. some people say they'll come back to it next year. we might get to that in a minute or two. the company's infrastructure plan. he promised that to voters in year one. it's not happening. this is it, right? this is it. why are they here if they can't cut taxes? >> and this is the thing they're supposed to be the best at. the president has said they're excited about this coming. they've been talking about tax reform in details for many, many years in a way that they were not with health care, even though they were saying repeal obamacare, there was not an alternate plan there that people were kind of champing at the bit to be able to roll out. so this really is, kind of, if you've got anything there, show it to us right now. and the problem is, tax reform, as we all like to say about everything, it's complicated. it's not going to be that simple to do. you do not have cohesive agreement even in the gop about what you should actually do. and if you do not manage to come up with a plan that does not add to the deficit more than ten years out, you can't do budget reconciliation, meaning you need 5 60 votes, not 50 votes, and you

have a whole new can of worms. so it's going to be an interesting competition. you've seen in many different policy fights, there's been both the nuts and bolts debate that happens in congress, but the pitching debate that happens publ publicly. and because taxes are so complicated and so because so many people hand off their tax questions to somebody else to figure out because they're complicated, this might be an opportunity for if the president can build enough people around the message to get it through. but if enough people aren't signing on to the message, because the nuts and bolts are unsatisfactory, they may not do that. >> listen to the chief economic adviser, this is not a big republican tax cut for the rich, this is a tax cut for the middle class, this probably doesn't help. >> in i'm hearing you correctly, you can't guarantee that no middle class family will get a tax increase. there will be middle class families who get a tax increase under your plan, correct? >> george, there's an exception to every rule. >> so that's a yes. >> look, i can't guarantee anything. you can always find a unique

family somewhere. >> that's, um, again, he's telling the truth, but that doesn't help the political messaging. >> and what you'll hear trump say over and over again is two words. tax cut. he had a dinner at the white house this week with some conservative grassroots leaders and one thing he said to them privately was, listen, let's quit calling this tax reform. let's boil it down and call it a tax cut. that's the message we'll get across to americans. don't call it perform, people will think that's too vague and their taxes might go up, let's call it a tax cut. but there is something a little bit for everybody in -- and will this reform package increase taxes? not sure, but it definitely will cut taxes for the rich. that's definite. >> we should get into this tax policy center study about this. this is the issue. as trump said throughout the campaign, middle class taxes are going to be cut, and he was pretty strong at times saying, i'm not cutting taxes on the rich. this report came out, huge number of tax cuts for the rich. you know, $100,000 may have

their taxes go up even. there are people that may have their taxes go up. which i didn't expect. the details of the policy are going to be really hard to sell and probably need to change. >> there are about 35 votes in the house from these high-state states. take away the state and local income tax deduction, that's a hard sale. >> well over 10,000 for the average middle class, even single filers, if not families, even more egregious. but the point is, this is not the detailed tax plan. this is a framework. this is a white paper about what they would like to put in the tax plan. the actual tax reform bill will look probably very little like what we've seen this week. >> and very few details in how it would be paid for. and that is what was amazing to me about the rollout this week, that republicans, who always go to that point, how will this be paid for, what will the impact on the deficit be? they were almost silent on that point. but as this moves forward, will they start to feel more pressure on that front? i think if you're going to roll out a big tax cut, you should be able to answer to the public, how is it going to be paid for.

>> and this is just a framework. they've put out a framework that if they agree on, they'll write the bills. but if you're lower income and make up to $25,000 a year, you'll save about 0.5%, meaning you gain about 60 bucks in a year. in that middle income group, $50,000 to $90,000, you save 1.2% on your taxes, somewhere in the ballpark of $700. again, for higher-income people, republicans will say, of course, rich people pay more, therefore when you cut taxes, they're get more. but that's a hard sell when you're calling this a middle class tax cut. the middle class family gets around $700, and the upper income family gets at least $8,000 or more depending on your income. you can make the case, of course, rich people pay more, they should get more. >> and he's not been selling it that way. he's been saying something different. i wonder if he'll change his messages effort. gary cohn went on tv and said, this is not a tax cut for the rich. mnuchin said, this is going to reduce the deficit. comments like that plagued the

health care process. you know, three either have to change the message here or change the policy. because having a fight we are constantly trying to mislead the public is not -- was not effective in obamacare and probably will not be effect i have her ha havei ha haveive here. >> the republican leadership will say, at key moments they felt undermined by either the president or his team. up next, alabama sends a message to the republican establishment and to the presidents of the united states.

take you straight now live to san juan. the governor of puerto rico there at the morning fema briefing in san juan. >> -- to make sure that food, water, and other supplies gets delivered to the people of puerto rico. that we can have an effect i have rotation to have hospitals working, so that they can give proper service to our most vulnerable, to make sure we

establish communications and telecommunications, as quickly and effectively as we can. to distribute and to provide energy to major, important areas, such as hospitals and water supplies. and air traffic control, as well as maintenance and accounting of the acids that are coming into puerto rico. i want to remind you that if you want to help puerto rico, in any way, we have several vehicles to do so. unitedforpuerto rico.com provides a platform for anyone who wants to donate as well as our 800 number, it's 202-800-3134. we want to report that in terms of the personnel, we have increased -- the dod has increased -- >> you can see we're having some

problem with our signal out of puerto rico. that's the governor of puerto rico, governor rossello, giving an update along with fema officials. you heard him speaking about ways you can help the people of puerto rico. you can go to our cnn website as well as we try to help puerto rico. as we try to reestablish that signal and track that event for breaking news, the president of the united states is also up early this sunday morning and he is tweeting again about the situation in puerto rico. let's look at what the president is i is a isaying. yesterday, he attacked the mayor of san juan saying she was wrong in criticizing the administration. here what he is saying today. "we have done a great job with the almost impossible situation in puerto rico. outside of the fake news or politically motivated ingrates, people are now starting to recognize the amazing work that has been done by fema and our great military. all buildings now inspected for safety. thank you to the governor of puerto rico and to all of those who are working so closely with our first responders. fantastic job." a couple of things to unpack there in the president's tweets. i'm going to start with the "outside of the fake news or politically motivated ingrates." i'm assuming he means the mayor of san juan there, because she

has raised some questions. she was not directly critical of the president. she's actually said some things complimentary of the president. what she was critical of is when elaine duke, the acting homeland of national security has said, this was a good news story. and elaine duke herself has said, that wasn't the best way to say what she was trying to say. but the president is clearly, you mentioned earlier, he doesn't like to lose. we've done a great job, fantastic job. people are now starting to recognize the amazing work that has been done by fema. he is defending his response, but then "outside of the fake news or politically motivated ingrates." i'll just make one more quick point and yield to the table. our reporters on the ground are showing you what's happening. there's no fake news, those are real people or real pictures. sometimes when they complain or voice frustration, they may misdirect it, they've lost their homes, their lives, their towns.

those are human stories. but, "politically motivated ingrates," when you're trying to turn the page. one would hope the goal is to turn the page, get everybody back on the same paymege and fo on the paeople of puerto rico. >> the word "ingrates" is the most difficult to swallow, because you had people just ravaged by a really severe storm. you should not expect them to say, oh, thank you, thank you so much for that bottle of water. they lost everything. in a moment of less panic, in retrospect, say, we're so grateful there was help. but right now in the thick of the panic, do you expect them to be saying, thank you very, very nicely because you're giving them a fraction of what they need to survive when they lost everything else. that's not a very understanding position. >> and i don't think we should skip past what the president has said in the last few days about the media. what he's trying to do is basically saying, don't believe what you see. when you see those photos or that video from the ground in puerto rico and see the devastation and people

complaining about the response, don't believe it. it's fake. that is really dangerous. there are journalists on the ground there to bear witness, they're to be the eyes and ears for people who are not there. that is a public service. we should applaud journalists who are down there doing that, who are trying to bring attention to the situation on the ground. this is something we've seen consistently from this president, through his campaign and presidency. i really think that that is a dangerous message for him to be sending. >> and some of the criticism is not fair. it is a hard logistical challenge. it may be something that you are yelling at the president or fema about and it is your governor or mayor's responsibility and they're trying to get their act. but you would think the president's goal is to lead people through that. by saying, "politically motivated ingrates," he's escalating the situation, not looking for an on-ramp. >> a friend of mine who was on the way to a synagogue said yesterday was a day of atonement for president trump's jewish daughter and his son-in-law, jared kushner, and what was

president trump doing but bashing the leadership of a very bruised island. and yeah, we made the point earlier that there's a lot for the president to deal with right now with hurricane harvey and irma and maria, but it's up to the president to show that his administration is not overwhelmed by this. >> but when you goes to bedminster and wakes up in the morning and starts tweeting, this is what you get. still ahead, it's your choice whether to stand or take a knee. yes, it's nfl sunday. new philadelphia cheesecake cups. rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries. find them with the refrigerated desserts.

...better than a manual, and my hygienist says it does. but... ...they're not all the same. turns out, they're really... ...different. who knew? i had no idea. so, she said look for... ...one that's shaped like a dental tool with a round... ...brush head. go pro with oral-b. oral-b's rounded brush head surrounds each tooth to... ...gently remove more plaque and... ...oral-b crossaction is clinically proven to... ...remove more plaque than sonicare diamondclean. my mouth feels so clean. i'll only use an oral-b! the #1 brand used by dentists worldwide. oral-b. brush like a pro. i'm all about my bed. this mattress is dangerously comfortable. when i get in, i literally say "ahhh." america loves the leesa mattress. we have more 5 star customer reviews than any other mattress of its kind. this bed hugs my

body. i'm now a morning person. hello, bed of my dreams. discover how leesa's innovative design provides an extraordinary sleep experience. then place your order. we'll ship your leesa mattress right to your door, so you can enjoy a risk free trial at home. i love my leesa. today is gunna be great. sleep on it for up to 100 nights and love it, or you'll get a full refund. returns are free and easy. now you can experience the leesa difference before you buy at any west elm. or go to buyleesa.com and get $100 off. and free shipping too. you need this bed.

let's head one more time around the "inside politics" table and ask our great reporters to share a little something from their notebooks to help get you out ahead of the

big political news around the corner. >> there's been a lot of great reporting on these really mysterious health attacks on u.s. diplomats in cuba. and on friday, we saw the trump administration announcing a travel warning to americans and a drawdown of u.s. embassy staff. but it's notable that the trump administration actually hasn't blamed the cuban government or anyone, really, for being behind these attacks. and when you talk to those supportive of the obama administration's detente with cuba, there's a fear that what the white house is doing is using these attacks as a cover to roll back some of that detente that trump wants to do anyway. so you'll see a real push from the hill to get some answers as to who's behind one of the biggest mysteries in diplomat i circles right there. >> amazing spy story. karoun? >> you saw twitter come to capitol hill last week. that did not go so well. a lot of lawmakers are really upset with them. you have twitter, facebook, and google executives who have been

invited back to appear in public in the next few weeks. this is a crunch time to see what they're going to say and do. not so much for the question of, is there collusion between the trump team and russian officials? but if the government is going to be able to do something about preventing this situation from happening again. you have fake accounts and manipulating public opinion and perception of what reality is, they need the cooperation. nobody is at the point yet where they could even politically say, we're going to re-regulate how these social media companies can work. but there has to be some sort of meeting of the minds. otherwise, there's going to be a real breakdown in the next few weeks and we'll see as a response to how last week didn't go well what they step up and try to do. >> fascinating. these companies are not known for their public transparency. nice to see them in a public hearing. >> the obamacare appeal, again, did not pass. so donald trump says he's going to do some kind of captured on obamacare, likely this week. the question will be, if this is an executive order that's kind of like a press release and like toothless like a lot of his orders have been this year, or

if this is a real executive order that really changes the policy in some meaningful way. we don't know yet. i think it will be a big question to tell us the future of obamacare, what's in this order and what does. >> keep an eye on that in the week ahead and what kind of health he gets without a health and human services secretary. jennifer? >> the white house is bracing for more reporting that proves wasteful spending on travel expenses. some of the departments that haven't been under the spotlight yet are trying to figure out how to deal with this. the white house did put out some instructions on what to say and what not to say. pretty strict instructions. but they know more news is coming and they're trying to get a handle on it before this scandal metastasizes further. >> interesting to watch that in the week ahead. i'll close with this, another sunday of nfl games, we'll of course be watching to see level of protests against president trump this sunday. nfl owners, so far, siding with their players for their right to free speech. but they're also keeping close tabs on the financial impact and the public relations impact of this confrontation. i'm told the owners have research clearly showing the

president is right when he says the anthem protests are one factor in a tv ratings drop. and since the president weighed in, the owners are now dealing with a surge in ticket holder requests for refunds. other sports leagues are watching this quite closely. the nba season kicks off in a little more than two weeks. and the nba headquarters this week reminded teams and players of the league's long-standing policy requiring players to stand during the national anthem. there are, however, some ongoing conversations about alternative ways for the players to show their displeasure with the president. we'll keep an eye on all of that. kickoff just a few hours away. that's "inside politics." hope to see you weekdays here, as well. we're here at noon eastern. up next, "state of the union with jake tapper." hey, man. oh!

nice man cave! nacho? [ train whistle blows ] what?! -stop it! -mm-hmm. we've been saving a lot of money ever since we switched to progressive. this bar is legit. and now we get an even bigger discount from bundling home and auto. i can get used to this. it might take a minute. -swing and a miss! -slam dunk! touchdown! together: sports!

touchdown! briathe customer app willw if be live monday. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes.

tipping point. president trump unleashes on a puerto ricoen mayor who called him out. >> we are dying and you are killing us with the inefficiency. >> and as the crisis worsens, the president is applauding the government response. >> it's amazing the job we have done in puerto rico. >> will he change his tune after a visit there this week? plus, tax plan revealed. >> tax reform will protect low-income and middle-income households, not the wealthy. >> but a new analysis shows the biggest winners could be the rich. the white house budget director is