if we don't cut taxes we're going to lose in 2018. >> republicans remain desperate for a legislative win. >> he is literally setting the entire health care system on fire just because congress won't pass a repeal deal. >> if they can't afford the

deductible then insurance is pretty much useless. >> do they understand the impact this has on families. >> he decided to decertify. >> that puts us in a weak situation. >> what saying is don't let it become the next north korea. >> it is made clear to me that diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops. >> good morning. welcome to your "new day". alyson is home. poppy harlow here. once again you have come and the news comes with you. big headline. in just hours, president trump is going to be meeting face-to-face with mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader, of course. now, he is the man that the president has attacked repeatedly, blaming mcconnell for the senate's failure to repeal obamacare. what a lunch this will be. and at the same time that mccouple is meeting with the president, he is getting beaten up by one of the president's pals, steve bannon. the alt-right supporter saying

he declares war on mcconnell and the gop establishment. the partisan battle over health care now raising the spectre. >> declaring the u.s. will continue diplomatic efforts with north korea "until the first bomb drops." those words in a new round of south korean military drills increasing tension with pyongyang. we have it all covered. let's go to the white house and continue there. good morning, joe. >> good morning, poppy. the significance of this is an attempt by the leaders to get on the same page. there's been a lot of public sniping between key members of the republican party on capitol hill, were in the senate, especially the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. the president and the leader talked on the phone this weekend. they're going to sit down for lunch today. the vice president is expected to be there.

tax reform hangs in the balance. if they're going the get that done, they need to try to move a budget by this week. >> president trump and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell meeting face-to-face today after months of growing tension. both leaders desperate for a legislative win, said to chart the path forward on key issues like health care and tax reform. >> we have to get tax reform done. >> yeah. if we don't, we're dead. >> reporter: and the president cozying up to two rivals, inviting rand paul and lindsey graham to play golf over the weekend. despite this, growing signs of deep divisions within the republican party. >> the donors are not happy. they have all left you. we have cut your oxygen off, mitch. >> reporter: former chief strategist steve bannon attacking mitch mcconnell by name this weekend and declaring war on the gop establishment. >> this is not my war. this is our war. the establishment started it.

but i will tell you one thing, you all are going to finish it. >> reporter: this as republican senator susan collins, a key no vote on health care criticized the president's move to kill subsidies benefiting poor americans. >> what the president is doing is affecting the ability of vulnerable people to receive health care right now. >> reporter: secretary of state rex tillerson addressing his own rocky relationship with the president on cnn's "state of the union." >> did you call hum a moron? >> as a indicated earlier, i was asked about that, i'm not going engage in that petty stuff and i'm not going to dignify the question. >> reporter: refused to answer when asked repeatedly if he called the president a moran

before pushing back comments from bob corker that they are trying to cast trait him. >> this is an unconventional techniques to motivate change. >> reporter: also defending the president's decision to decertify the iran deal and the administration's strategy toward north korea. >> the president has also made clear to me he wants to solved diplomatically. he is not seeking to go to war. the efforts will continue until the first bomb drops. >> reporter: the president is expected to meet with his cabinet today, the first time since they got together at camp david last month. then the president is expected to turn his attention to what could be another divided statewide race in a southern state. that would be south carolina. he's going to be attending a fund-raiser for the governor there who could face a challenge with two other republicans on the primary ticket. the president of course looking to right the problem he had with alabama where he picked the

wrong candidate. back to you. >> joe johns, thanks for getting us off to a good start this monday. let's discuss. cnn political analyst john avalon and karoun. let's tick through items we have here. deal-making time. can they get it done on health care? can they get it done on taxes? what happens at this lunch today with the president and the senate majority leader? could this be the beginning of a better tomorrow? >> the beginning of a better tomorrow. you like it. there's a lot of bad blood. this week matters. they need to get a budget through if there is tax reform. let's put aside health care. it is round 66 for repeal and replace. tax reform is what the republicans are pinning their hopes on for the midterm elections. to get to that, you have the

budget first. there may be bad blood, but they have to find a way to get along. >> they do have to find a waugh to get along. because of necessity has not resulted so far in this on actuality playing out, getting it done for the american people. what is your over/under today? >> look, there is a numbers game that has to be played you to get the entire gop on board with anything to have any shot of getting the budget through they need as a first step. of course there's the question of, you know, is trump going to be consistent in whatever he and mcconnell agree on. this is a relationship that cannot seep to be reset because it keeps resetting when they get frustrated with somebody who is in whatever corner of the gop coalition he is. he lashes out on twitter. sometimes it's mcconnell. sometimes another key player. for him to be able to keep the numbers, he has to be able to control the atmosphere and the

environment. we know he cannot because the president chooses to do what he chooses to do. an agreement today may not be an agreement a week from now. >> i have to follow up with you. that is an interesting set of optics you're giving us. what we off hear is they dismiss the president's style or lack thereof and they stick with their own agenda. you say it is a challenge for mcconnell his own numbers, here the attacks, here's whatever it is is that comes on his twitter feed. it is impacting their numbers? >> well, it could, right? think about bob corker, for example, the big story last week when he made comments about trump. >> right. >> will it necessarily affect his plans to carry through this legislative package on iran? not necessarily. >> right. >> might it affect how willing he is to play ball on tax reform. he is already sitting on on the fence about that one. we don't know. for a lot of lawmakers, is it going to make them completely change whatever their intention and conviction was?

no. but health care tax reform is not a cut and dry thing. there are elements that people do not like even when they decide to take one for the team. it takes a little bit of the loyalty factor away from some of these members. it is just a much more -- they have a decision to make. it may not have been such an open decision for a lot of the members. it depends. if trump is able to sit on his hands to get some of these things through, it is is more advantageous to make sure to count the votes he's got without having to worry about the sand under his feet changing. >> i'm picturing the president sitting on his hands and not tweeting. that he wants not going to happen. john avalon, who is not going to be at this lunch, steve bannon. given so many things about what he said about mitch mcconnell over the weekend, we know he's been talking to the president. he said this is war on mitch mcconnell here. so how much do you think that

narrative is influencing the president coming in today? >> if donald trump is taking a side shot before he goes into this meeting, this meeting is not going terribly well. bannon is a colorful character outside as well as within. the speech he gave this weekend, he literally declares war. the word establishment is meaningless. let's talk about the governing class of the republican party as opposed to those who want to burn it all down and maybe build something new. that is directly contrary to what the president needs to do this week. we talked about the importance of consistency. this is not a quality associated with president trump. definitely not one associated with steve bannon. they are deeply divided within themselves. >> right. >> this gop civil war is hitting

advanced stage when the chief strategist is declaring war. >> also, let's not forget bannon is just noise playing to alt-right enthusiasts. he was saying i'm not so sure he's not playing ball with the president. i'm not sure. because i don't know it. i don't have in that strong a way. it is some cause for speculation. rex tillerson goes out on the show. he does not like to do this. he is being put out to defend. he will not answer the question about whether or not he called the president an effing moron. he said he will not deal with the pettiness. he said he has not been made a gelding as jake put it mildly for him. let's play that piece of sound. >> you have a cattle ranch.

you don't want to say anything about the senator calling -- suggesting you have been gelded before the world and it's not anything that bothers you? >> i checked. i'm fully intact. >> karoun, for me, that answer works. what do you think the optics are? he's only out there because he's told to be out there and told to be showing an unified property. >> this is a little bit odd. >> i feel for you, karoun. it is tough material. >> he is trying to put a lid on everything. they are trying to show some unity here. of course tillerson doesn't want to out and out lie. people have reported what he said. so he is not denying it. he is deflecting attention. everything he is saying about diplomacy until the first bomb

drops, a lot of members were not happy with the idea -- not fully comfortable with the decertification decision. it is showing a good face. the message is not the same message the president is projecting. he is talking about fire and fury, only being military options. he threatened to rip up the deal himself if congress doesn't do what he wants. it is a message but the message itself is -- the waugh it is being delivered is trying to show unity. >> she is she sees more daylight than the president and tillerson. on all the sunday shows, mcmaster, haley, hill rbg, till maybe a secondary deal. maybe something to make it a little stronger. they were shown the daylight, were they not? >> of course they were. this is the constant theme of containing the president as we see.

it is different than what the president says and tweets. only square it by saying it is mad man theory and how they are leveraging the president's comments. there is an administration line. we have never seen a division like that. we have never seen a secretary of state calling the president a moron. diplomacy will continue until the bombs drop is the most sane thing said by the leadership of a state department and diplomacy? we're in real strange times, folks. >> topic for your next book. thank you both very much. we have a lot head. the u.s. and south korea are conducting joint military exercises. pyongyang calls it rehearsals. what's your read, will? >> reporter: hi there, poppy. well, we know joint military exercises happen regularly

between the u.s. and south korea. we know they always infuriate the north korean regime. what is different as of now is that tensions have never been hire. there has never been this bellicose rhetoric between the u.s. and north korea. president trump saying everything from threaten to go totally destroy the country to making up a demeaning nickname for kim jong-un calling him little rock et man. all of that has pushed the north koreans to a level of anger that we haven't seen in quite some time. the foreign minister calling the president mentally deranged and threaten to go detonate a bomb over the pacific, a nuclear bomb. so now we are here where we have joint military exertions that kicked off today. they will last 10 days. 40 naval ships involved. uss ronald reagan involved, along with fighter jets. previous joint drills have resulted in north korea app nuclear tests and missile launchesing including a missile

tpaoeurld over japgentlem fired over japan. where will the missile go? last week they revived a threat to point toward the u.s. territory of guam. amid gts all of this, practice is under way to evacuate u.s. service members to okinawa, japan. you are absolutely right. everything has to be looked at through the window of this current conflict. will ripley, thank you, as always. so this partisan battle over the aca is looming very large right now because we have to figure out whether or not there hrrb a budget deal in d.c. democrats are saying this could be the battle line. will they shut down the government over a health care battle? we have a democratic senator. their take next. th carbsteady... ...to help minimize blood sugar spikes... ...you can really feel it.

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welcome back to "new day". the partisan fight over obamacare, will it lead to a government shutdown? that is a real question we are asking this morning.

democrats accuse the president of trying to sabotage the health care system by ending subis siddy payments, $7 billion worth of payments that help poor americans afford insurance. joining me now is senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. thank you for being with us. let's move on to puerto rico. you're taking action on that right now as well. you are supportive of and involved in the bipartisan effort between senator alabama ex senator alexander and murray. where does this go? are you willing to risk a government shutdown over this? >> the president is playing a very dangerous game of brinksmanship and tossing a bomb to congress that we have to handle. and congress now must rescue the health care program of the united states. i think the alexander murray talks are very promising. and i think we can avoid a

government shutdown. >> but it is a federal judge in district of d.c. who ruled months and months ago these payments were illegal. congress had not appropriated the money. this is something that could have been tackled a long time ago. would you admit that? >> it could have been tackled a long time ago. and the talks began a long time ago. bipartisan lines were sabotaged basically by the president when he pressed for repeal and replace not once but twice. so the talks were suspended. i think we need a bipartisan solution. i think one is within reach not only to make sure that those subsidies are legal, that funds are appropriate but states have some degree of flexibility. there are ways to build on the affordable care act, not tear it down and destroy. >> you're hopeful. let's talk about the state of connecticut specifically.

what they are dealing with with obamacare before these were stopped is two providers on the individual market pulled out. and the other two big providers saw premiums go up between 31% and 27%. now, even with the subsidy payments intact, the premiums still would have gone up somewhere between 16% and 24%. the question is what are you willing to give? >> what the president has done essentially is to sow chaos and take steps that led to the premium increases. >> but they were going to increase anyway. with 16% to 24% is what the premiums were going to increase without the subsidy payments being stopped. that is just a function of issues that fellow democrats knitted have to be fixed. no? >> what has to be done is bring down the cost of medical care. we have higher health care costs per capita with no really better

results and particularly the pharmaceutical drug costs need to be diminished. you are right that the premiums might have increased by that amount. and i actually opposed those increases in letters that i wrote. state regulatory systems over health care costs need to be strengthened. and perhaps the federal government ought to be taking over that kind of oversight and supervisory role. those premiums have been raised even more because of the president's chaotic policies. >> the death toll has triple said since the president visited a few weeks ago. these are american citizens drinking out of contaminated water sites. american citizens. can you imagine if that were happening in any other state what the reaction would be? you have called for an investigation into the trump

administration's response. now, what do you say to skeptics who say, senator, how is that productive? how is that not just partisan? how does that help in the immediate state of puerto rico. >> i called for an investigation because of the faltering and failing relief efforts there and for a disaster relief czar who can offer better management and leadership. today i'm writing to the center for disease control control about exactly that problem that cnn so well reported earlier about people drinking from hazardous waste sites and mosquito-borne disease. i saw them when i visited about a week ago. i saw it in the devastation, whole towns destroyed. >> it is the epa that put out that warning at the end of last week saying, do not drink out of

these wells at the super fund sites. what do you think needs to be investigated? >> what needs to be investigated is whether there are enough people on the ground, whether resources are being well directed. in management there is a lack of leadership. they are saying mission abandoned, not mission accomplished. >> i hear you with that tweet on thursday. he revised it on friday, saying we will always be with you. you don't buy it? >> the stark, staggering fact is that fellow americans are facing devastation and death in puerto rico. the c cdc needs to give us an accurate account. mosquito-born diseases, zika, chikungunya, dengue present real and imminent threats. one of the reasons people are

leaving puerto rico and taking the talent, skills, energy to rebuild is the fear of a public health collapse. and that's what the cdc and the department of health and human services need to forestall. that's why i am asking for an immediate plan to avoid this public health collapse. >> we are out of time. you are accepteding a alert to all the chairman to call out the president and ensure first amendment rights when it comes to any threatening of television lines. will people can look online for more on that. senator, we appreciate you for being here. >> thank you. the president moving aggressively to dismantle key parts of obamacare and arguably destabilizing the health care market. so are the republicans on guard with the president? request they make a deal on taxes? do they think the government will shut down? we have a republican senator with their take next.

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all right. a lot of work to do in d.c. the senate is set to tackle president trump's tax reform proposal this week. can they make it or anything else happen?

let's discuss with senator john kennedy of louisiana. always a pleasure to have you on the show. we were reporting on that oil rig fire that's going on and the search efforts in lake pontchartrain. so our best to the communities that are dealing with this. >> thank you, chris. >> all right. so when we're talking about washington, d.c., what is your take on the possibility for progress on any of these hot issues? >> i'm an optimist i think on tax reform. i would give us a 55% to 60% chance right now. i would like to think we'll get some democratic support. and we might if we get the 50 votes. i don't think any democrats will provide the 50th vote. i regret that but that is just political reality. >> you think this happens this year. we have been saying fax reform. but this is about tax cuts. it will seem like semantical

interest. these aren't long term policies. they are probably shorter term cuts. do you think it can get done this year? >> well, it better, chris. it better for two reasons. number one, our economy needs it. number two, the people in charge here in washington, my party, we need it. it doesn't mean we need to just pass anything. we need to do it right. but i believe if we reduce everyone's taxes, including and especially ordinary americans. but not just them, businesses as well, then i think you'll see the economy grow. it is not going to bust through the ceiling. but i think you can see a half to a point of gdp growth. it will get us back to average, which is supposed to be about 3%. we're at about 1.9% now. that's why we don't have the jobs we should have.

more importantly, that's why you haven't seen wages going up. that and the fact that businesses have had to spend so much on health care they vice president had a pay raise. >> lindsey graham upped the urgency, especially for the gop and getting something done on taxes. here's what he said. >> are you going to get tax reform stkphupb. >> if we don't, we're done. if we don't cut taxes and we don't repeal and replace obamacare, we're going to lose across the board in the house in 2018. all my colleagues running in primaries in 2018 probably get beat. it will be the end of mitch mcconnell as we know it. >> do you think the states are as dire as the senator lays it out? >> i wouldn't have put it exactly like lindsey put it. it is urgent. here's why. forget the politics. too many people in america aren't sharing in the great

wealth of this country. they are ordinary people. i look around. i see too many undeserving people at the top getting bailouts. and i see too many undeserving people at the bottom getting handouts. i'm stuck in the middle. i can't pay if i remember because my health insurance is going up, taxes have gone up. but i'll tell you what hasn't gone up, my income. and they're angry. and they're on both sides of the aisle. they're bernie sanders supporters and donald trump supporters. we need to help the americans believe in the american dream again. that's what tax reform is about. >> how do you look the people in the eye, the trump base part of them, when the proposal he just put out, state taxes, helping out those at the top, get big businesses getting cuts the little businesses are not getting, payroll not touched. that's how you help working

class americans. i don't need to tell you this. you've been working on it for decades. that is what the president is putting out. that is not designed to-the working class. the estate tax doesn't help the working class. >> well, a couple of points. number one, the president put out an outline. the bill is is being drafted right now. number two, you have heard me talk about it. the quickest way to help the middle class, double the standard deduction. for a couple making $70,000 a year, that will give a couple thousand extra. >> that will help. but he put it out saying this helps the middleclass. how? it's not doing the things you're talking about. >> the outline is not the law yet. we're drafting the bill. >> but if i present it and say this is for the middle class and most of it is helping the upper tier, it will be hard for you to take my intentions. >> let me hit your point head on on, chris.

10% of all taxpayers pay 71% of taxes. many are small business owners. it's impossible to do meaningful tax reform or whatever you want to call it without helping the so-called wealthy. but among wealthy are heads of large c corp. i want to help the s corp. >> how is this targeted? that was the president. the president said you're in his party. this is his outline. it is is not set up to focus on the people you are saying it is set up to focus on. where is the disconnect? >> we're talking about lowering the tax for a ccorp somewhere in

the neighborhood of 20% to 25%. and the same for small business people in s corporations. if you're the president of a small subs corporation right now you have 10 people working for you. you make 150,000 a year. you are paying 43% in taxes. i want to help both of them. >> senator, i totally hear you. we will see how you bang out the details. the outline does not give equal treatment. >> valid point. >> senator, you are always welcome here to argue the case. >> thanks, chris. >> be well. >> thank you both. desperation he leading some americans, american citizens in puerto rico to drink water from a hazardous waste site. alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving.

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crisis in puerto rico. that's just the fact. people are in dire need of electricity, food, and clean water. we are a month after hurricane maria. we're now learning that some puerto ricans are drinking water from a federally designated hazardous waste site. not because they want to but it is their only option. cnn's ed lavandara is live from

san juan with more. tell us the story. >> reporter: hi, chris. this has to do with a super fund site. it is a designation from the environmental protection agency that said this is on a list of one of the most contaminated waste sites in the country. the last several weeks we have come across people who have been using this as a source of drinking water. nearly a month after hurricane maria hit, residents around the town of dorado are tapping into this water faucet behind a chain linked fence with a sign that says danger, do not enter. despite hearing from a police officer, they come to fill containers of water. but few of them know this well sits in an area designated by the environmental protection agency as a super fund site where the ground is known to contain dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals. it's located on the northern edge of the island, west of san juan. in the dorado super fund site,

there are six wells that residents have tapped into for water. one of the wells is accessed in a shopping center parking lot. there have been long lines of residents wait to fill up what they can. the governor of puerto rico insists that the water is safe. he said the territory's department of health has tested it. >> if it is nondrinking water, we're not going to be serving it. but if it complies with the clean water act, then it is going to happen. >> reporter: it is not clear if the other wells are safe. the environmental protection agency team spent the weekend gathering water samples for further testing. >> we're not saying someone is in immediate danger by drinking this water. we are considering it a long-term risk. >> reporter: gary lipsom is the epa innocent commander in puerto rico says they are looking for signs of industrial toxins often linked to serious health problems, including cancer. and epa documents show as late as last year, dangerous levels of those industrial toxins were found in the ground. how concerned are you about what

might happen to them? >> we're concerned because it's not absolutely clean, you know, pure water. there are some contaminants. >> reporter: right after the epa team left and locked the site, juan carlos and his brother showed up, peeled back the fence, and filled up dozens of containers with water. are you going to drink this water? >> yeah. >> reporter: you're going to drink it? >> yeah. >> reporter: you're willing to take the chance? so this is it. there's no other water. you'll take the chance. if i don't drink water, i'm going to die. juan carlos brought us to his home where he lives with his family. the top floor destroyed by the hurricane. his mother said they only

received two packages of water since the storm. she's been drinking the water from the potentially contaminated well for two weeks and says he some now has stomach pains. she said the stomach pains started two weeks ago. she is trying to ignore them. do you think it has something to do with the water? she doesn't know for sure but she thinks it might have something to do with the water she has been drinking. it's impossible to know for sure if the stomach pains are related, but in desperate times, with every drop of water, many puerto ricans could be flirting with another disaster. epa officials are urging residents to avoid the water wells in question. many say they had no idea these wells sat on this contaminated site. about 70% of the island we're told by government officials here had their water restored. 85% of the island is still without electrical power. and since donald trump visited a few weeks ago, the death toll

here has tripled. poppy. >> thank you very much for that. it should make everyone think about how lucky we are to turn on the faucet with clean water. new al allegations against disgraced movie mogul as accusers come forward from london. he has been dismissed from the motion picture academy. the scandal inspiring awe rallying cry on social media. the latest led by actress aliysa mila milano, urging those who have been affected to tweet the words, me too. star quarterback aaron rodgers will be really sore for a long time. he has an injury that will take him out for the rest of the season. coy wire has more in the bleacher report. i would love to say that's not true. i've had this injury. you're not going anywhere any time soon. >> this is not fun.

it is very painful. it is his throwing shoulder. we have to add it to the growing list of high-profile players that are missing significant time due to injury. odell beckham. the former league mvp aaron rodgers. you see him driven into the turf by anthony barr in the packers loss yesterday. that is his throwing shoulder. reports are that he will miss the rest of the season. who was replacing him? brett hunley, the backup quarterback. he came in and threw three interceptions looking like he stepped off the "game of thrones", justin turner drove in all four runs, three with this walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. dodgers get a 4-1 win, hold on to a 2-0 series lead. the scene shifts to wrigley field for game three tomorrow on our sister channel tbs.

tonight the yankees and the astros. >> chris is dying over the "game of thrones". >> he does look like the guy who is the head of the north. coy, you have the eye for it. that was spot on. >> made my friend's morning. a russian hacker who said he was part of the effort to disrupt the 2016 election said netflix ""house of cards" was required viewing to figure out how to do this most effectively. the reporter who broke the story will tell us next. ♪ when heartburn hits fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum tums chewy bites.

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a new report says that russian trolls studied the popular netflix show, "house of cards." why? to understand american politics.

>> keeping that ship yard open is what got me elected. those people are my friends. >> i'm not here to debate this, peter. the base will close. the only question is, will you make it a swift death or a painful one? >> no way. i won't sit on my hands. >> i sympathize this is going to be difficult for you. and i don't know how yet, but i will make it up to you, peter. i'm a powerful friend to have right now. perhaps your only friend. so don't defy me. >> i don't know if you watch, but let me tell you, that's not the kind of friend you wind up wanting in washington. frank wound up doing that guy dirty. so a former member of the russian operation tasked with meddling in the 2016 election says that he and other internet trolls were forced to watch the show to learn about america's problems and use that knowledge to turn americans against each other. chief investigative correspondent for yahoo! news, michael isikoff, broke the

story. he joins us now. i've got a smile on my face when i'm saying, this but maybe it's because i'm a little punch drunk. i can't believe this. take us through your sourcing on this and the man, maxim, that you interview. and what this means to you. >> first of all, actually, it was a russian -- independent russian tv station that tracked this guy down. >> right. >> and he laid out this story. the -- what's interesting about him is, he was part of the english language department of the internet research agency. now, that's the same st. petersburg troll farm that has been suspected or believed to have placed those facebook ads, the 3,000 ads, $100,000, that facebook just recently disclosed that it discovered was on its platform. and the english language department was the sort of elite section of the internet research agency. they were more polished, more

studied. they spent -- what really leaps out is how meticulous their operations were. maxim talks about how they -- you know, every comma was reviewed by his bosses to make sure it was in the right place, so it sounded like an american posting by americans. primarily what he was doing was placing comments on the websites of major news organizations. the "washington post," the "new york times." and others. >> right. >> now, look, i don't know how many people actually read the comments on articles. you know, it may be they had an exaggerated view of what impact they would have. but it is interesting the lengths to which they went to try to post these comments, disguising themselves as americans. they were not allowed -- they were chastised if they were ever found to have used a russian ip address in placing the comments.

it has to be done through vpns, virtual private networks, to conceal where these were coming from. but certainly the most interesting -- i'm sorry, go ahead. >> no, michael, this is all fascinating. i'm taking you deeper down into the rabbit hole with this question. >> sure. >> so what was their motivation, and why "house of cards"? >> all right. first of all, much of what he is saying is totally consistent with what the u.s. intelligence community has said was the purpose of the russian meddling campaign, to denigrate hillary clinton. he talks here about how -- to place comments along the lines of, aren't you tired of the clintons, haven't we had enough of them, talk about the clintons' wealth, talk about her private e-mail server. all the criticisms that hillary clinton was getting during the last election. but "the house of cards" element is new. we hadn't heard that before. >> right. >> and, you know, in some ways,

the vision of american politics on "house of cards" probably more closely resembles russian politics than american politics. >> right. >> we don't have evidence of major american politicians ordering the assassinations of political foes or journalists, which we do have in russia. so, you know, that part of it -- you know, the russians may have -- you know, may have been a sort of weird projecting on their part. but also, many other elements of "house of cards," although it's a caricature, does ring true to american audience. that's why it was so popular for many years. >> true. i don't watch it the same way i used to, because i believe the reality of what you and i are covering every day has kind of eclipsed that need for this absurdity. the caricature nature of what "house of cards" does. it's not all that far-fetched any more in terms of rancor and deceit. let me ask you something, though, mike. michael, you look at this stuff

so closely. you're such a trusted source. when you read through this reporting and you developed this story, what does it do in terms of putting meat on the bones for you of the suggestion that this was, yes, in the state of play where the united states does spying, russia does spying, there is always meddling, how different do you believe these efforts were during this campaign? >> well, they do seem -- you know, in some respects, you know, more sophisticated than we might have imagined. you know, the meticulous nature of the way max i am, the troll, describes what he was instructed to do, how he was instructed to do it. you know, does -- you know, does seem pretty elaborate. on the other hand, you do have to take a step back and say, you know, what -- you know, we still don't know what impact all of this had. like i said, look, i don't know about you, but, you know, i tell my colleagues, especially younger ones, not to bother

reading comments on the web. they're often inane. they go off in wild directions and frankly it's a waste of time. so one can say a lot of what these trolls were doing was going off into empty cyberspace without much impact at all. so, you know, there's still a lot of questions, how much influence this really had at the end of the day. >> michael isikoff, thank you very much for this important and interesting reporting. it's good to have you on, as always. there is a lot of news this morning. what do you say? it's monday, but let's get after it. right now, it's a season of war against a gop establishment. >> if we're successful, mitch mcconnell is fine. if we're not, we're all in trouble. >> trump and mcconnell said to me today as the budget deadline and the possibility of a government shutdown looms. >> don't subsidize something that's never going to work. >> what he's doing is hurting the american people.