medical or dental procedures and before starting xarelto® about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. you've got to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from dvt and pe blood clots. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. thanks very much for joining us. >> we begin with breaking news. a north korean official told cnn his country is not interested in diplomacy with the united states. the comments come on this the same day the u.s. and south korea are scheduled to begin a 10-day naval drill in the region 24 hours after secretary of state rex tillerson said the u.s. will pursue diplomacy until the first bomb drops. let's go straight to tokyo with

the latest. you have been to north korea more than a dozen times in recent years. tell us about the latest statement you are getting from pyongyang. >> i spoke with a north korean official who reiterated statements that have been meade publicly that now is not the time for diplomacy. telling me that before we can engage in diplomacy, we want to send a clear message that north korea has a reliable and offensive capability to counter any aggression from the united states. he is talking about a nuclear deterrent that they have that can deliver a nuclear warhead that the official said would be needed to demonstrate to the trump administration. one would be to launch a long range icbm over the specific that a russian lawmaker had a couple of weeks ago that the

north korean officials told him they were going to do. they were showing him calculations and test a missile that could potentially hit the east coast of the united states. the second step would be to detonate a nuclear device above ground over the pacific. a threat that was first made at the united nations by the foreign minster after president trump made his speech threatening to destroy north korea. you have north korea saying before they could sit down with the united states, they want to show they have an icbm that could deliver a warhead to the mainland u.s. that includes the first above ground nuclear test since china conducted an above ground test in 1980. that would be highly provocative and come with a great deal of risk, but the messaging from north korea seems to be that that's what they feel they need to do to send a clear message to the trump administration that they can defend themselves

against what they view as provocative behavior. the timing for this could mean it coincides with the joint naval drills that expect it to last for 10 days between the u.s. and south korea. 40 naval ships and the uss ronald reagan and all engaging in what the united states said is defensive measures. north korea used it as a dress rehearsal and the u.s. is planning to conduct evacuation drills for the families of u.s. personnel based in south korea. these are drills they hold regularly and this takes new significance to evacuate the family members to the island of okinawa in southern japan. clearly, wolf, at this moment in this part of the world and around the world, people are holding their breath to see what north korea will do next. the other possibility is that they attempt to do one of these two provocative acts to coincide

with president trump's visit to asia early next month. >> lots going on and very sensitive and potentially dangerous developments. reporting for us from tokyo. thanks very much. we will stay on top of this. we have more breaking news coming in right now. from the president's cabinet room over at the white house. moments ago, president trump said he understands why steve bannon, his stormer top strategic analyst is declaring war on the republican establishment. >> steve was very commitmented. he's a friend of mine and committed to getting things passed. despite what the press writes, i have great relationships with many senators, but in particular with most republican senators. we are not getting the job done. i'm not going to blame myself. i will be honest. they are not getting the job done. there are republicans frankly that should be ashamed of themselves, but most of them i

tell you what, i know the republican senators. most of them are really, really great people. they want to work hard and do a great thing for the american pblg. a few people really disappointed us. they really, really disappointed us. i can understand fully how steve bannon feels. >> bannon spent seven months as the chief chstrategist and is taking direct aim at mitch mcconnell in particular. >> yeah, mitch, the donors are not happy. we cut your oxygen off, mitch. okay? there is a time and season for everything. right now it's a season of war against the gop establishment. >> by the way, the president is having lunch with mitch mcconnell right now. mike pence is expected to make a stimt statement and meet with the reporters after that lunch. we will have coverage of that and let's get perspective from

the panel. gloria borger is with us. henderson is a congressional reporter. rachel is here as well. what do you think of the president's reaction to steve bannon? >> i think in his heart of hearts, the president supports what steve bannon is doing. he was anti-establishment and ran against congress and doesn't like a lot of these people and thinks they didn't get anything done. he said he will never blame himself for anything that occurred. innocent he is having lunch with mitch mcconnell today. there were two people on the president's shoulders, right? he has to deal with mitch mcconnell who he tweeted about and said publicly he is disappointed in and who he needs right now to get something done. if steve bannon has his way, there are lots of republicans who are saying republicans could lose control of the senate, not to mention the house.

as sarah murray has written about in cnn. this is a president trying to threat the needle and put republicans on notice that they better get something done or they will lose their seats. it's a weird position for a president to be in. >> he went through a lot of issues in that 20 minute photo op. >> he did. it became like a mini press conference. he seemed to relish in the questioning and relish the fact that he could have that time to go through any number of issues. he is talking about health care and welfare reform and might turn to reforming welfare in the way that the congress and bill clinton did in the 90s. a very free wheeling press conference he had here. interesting to hear him talk about bannon. he was saying atta boy. there was never a sense that he would say cut it out.

it seems like he likes the chaos to be between mitch mcconnell and steve bannon. he is right. not only will he not blame himself, but it doesn't appear that voters are blaming him either. they seem much more prepared to look at the establishment like mitch mcconnell and paul ryan and especially say that it's them. they are part of the swamp and they need to be drained. bannon is on firm ground not only with trump with voters as well, but certainly the conservative chattering. >> the big issue for the president and the republican leadership are the tax cuts. in order to get the tax cuts, they have to pass a budget this week. how does that look? >> the timing of this gop fighting is about to enter a critical stretch and you mention tax reform with daca in march. they have a get shut down they have to avert and shut down over

the wall. the iran deal and a list of things congress is going to have to deal with and the president is putting himself behind steve bannon when it comes to pointing to congress and saying it's their fault. it's interesting, i sat down with a couple of my colleagues to talk about the agenda on friday. within a few minutes, he started blistering about the senate and the inability to get obamacare repealed and passed. the frustration about why are they in princess and the states and he was saying why aren't they here working on nominations? it's a lot of frustration building and it's going to continue to reach an ultimate climax right now. we are going to see a potential civil war in the party. >> you have seen it. >> take a listen to lindsay graham who played golf over the weekend. he had to say the republicans

failed to pass tax reform. >> if we don't, we are dead. if we don't cut taxes and repeal and replace obamacare, we will lose across the board in the house in 2018. all of my colleagues running the primaries in 2018 will probably get beat. it will be the end of mitch mcconnell as we know it? >> is he right? >> he has a good point. since he did play golf with the president, did he say you better talk to mitch mcconnell? you may not be able to keep control of the senate without him. this is the problem that the president has. he's an outsider and came to washington as an outsider. suddenly he needs the ultimate insider to help him out here. it's mitch mcconnell. he doesn't like it. he really sized with steve bannon to a great degree. on the other hand, he has to work with mitch mcconnell. it's a difficult position for

him to be in. i don't think he can figure out which side he is on. we will see it. he had lunch with mitch mcconnell. he has to make good and make nice with some of those republican senators. he said he is friends with most of them. i think he feuded with 1/5 of the republican senators. we will see if he is able to kiss and make up with mitch mcconnell at the lunch today. >> as an interim event, he would like to work out a temporary fix to obamacare with democrats. he said he will have the votes to repeal and replace in march or april. in the meantime he is waiting for the democrats to see if he can get a attempterary solution. >> he is attacking the democrats and saying they don't want to work on tax cuts.

the president said he wants to work with democrats on a host of issues. he does a little flirting with them and has them over to the white house for chinese food with chuck and nancy. then he blasts them on twitter. he is wanting to work with republicans and siding with bannon and wants to work with democrats and ataxes them. there is not a coherent strategy here. it's unclear what he is doing. a lot of colleagues on the hill are worried about this with tax reform. he won't have his eye on the ball in terms of getting things done with him to get this through. >> his strategy is he wants to be in no matter what. if he has to side with republicans on some things he will, democrats on other things, he well. it's just about donald trump being successful. >> we are waiting, what the president said he would make another statement. let's see if he does do that. the press secretary will have a briefing. we will have live coverage on

that as well. the president said he is looking forward to the next step on iran. last week he decertified the nuclear deal, but didn't ban it all together. total termination is still very much on the table. that's different than what we heard from rex tillerson. >> not long ago, cower counterpart was asking if he thought staying in was in the best interest of the united states. not whether or not he wanted to improve or add a secondary deal as you discussed, but stay in it or leave. he said staying in it was his course. sounds like you agree with that and you would not want to post sanctions that would end this deal. >> the president does as well. that's why he took the decision he took. let's see if we cannot address this by staying within the agreement and working with the european friends and allies.

you were trying to resolve the north koreans in the a diplomatic way. >> he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with little rocket man and sent a second saying save your energy, rex. we will do what has to be done. he is not seeking to go to war. >> he doesn't think it's a waste of time? >> he will continue my diplomatic efforts. those efforts will continue until the first bomb drops. he is joining us right now with israeli leader meetings going on. the north koreans say forget

about diplomacy until they are sure they have an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the united states. what's your reaction to what we are hearing? >> wolf, first of all, thanks for having me on. you know that the north koreans have been practicing a brinksmanship for a long time. they have considered what's happened in past negotiations with bill clinton and barack obama and each time they push beyond, they ended up gaping great compensation. they have now watched the last administration make a deal with iran that was extremely lucrative to iran. i think they understand the danger of any sort of real conflict with the united states. i think it's going to take a lot of courage and clarity and i would suggest to you that donald trump has played this very well. he made it clear to the north

koreans that there is a different guy in the white house now. he said things that i think caused them to back up a little bit and say we need to reassess. we may be in a dangerous circumstance here. >> i know you see a connection with the point between the north korean nuclear program and they may have 60 or 80 nuclear bombs with the capability of miniaturizing thes and putting them on long range missiles and intermediate missiles and eventually interconnental ballistic missiles. why do you see that connected to the president's decision on the iran nuclear deal which he announced on friday? >> i think iran is watchi iningy closely. there is no question that the connection is real. the past connection has been very clear. i would suggest to you, wolf, that when we talk about keeping, ran at a year break out, with

the additional cash ininstitution iran had, they could easily if north korea would be aminable, purchase or buy nuclear war sides from north korea and they could break out in a week. the reality here is that that we have a danger outs situation on our hands and this president needs to continue i believe on the track he is on. for him to take council doesn't make a lot of sense to me. >> iran said they won't support changes to the deal that was working not just with the united states, but the other affi affirmative members of the council and germany. it's in the hands of congress. what do you want congress to do? >> i hope they can make changes and i advocated and i was against the iran deal.

that puts the trajectory to not only gaping capability, but doing it under legal protocol. we need to inspect anywhere in iran and have clarity that they have dismantled and out of the agreement. iran remains the world's largest promoter of terrorism in the world. if that turns to nuclear terrorism, i can't imagine that i'm the father of 9-year-old twins. >> there is an ominous development happening in iraq where there seems to be a military confrontation between kurdish forces and the northern part of iraq and the iraqi military at least some of the militias that seem to be backed by the iranians. the u.s. has a close relationship with the kurds and also a close relationship with the iraqi government.

what should the u.s. do? >> first of all, the u.s. has to end its studied indifference towards our ally, the kurds. the kurds have shown great courage to stand up against isis when no one else stood with them. they have shown pluralism that is important and believe it's important to do everything they can to make it clear that we are on their side. we haven't seen that. i am concerned about that. last week our office issued a press release that said that we saw these forces amassing and this was in fact something that made us call about the prime minister to keep his promise. he promised there would be no confrontation or military moves and the fact as you said, iran has insinuated itself into the iraqi government to the extend on the military side. we don't know who is doing what

here right now. iraq has to back away from iran. if they are a puppet of iran, we need to back away and back the kurds and do what we can to have a salvation of the system. >> we support curd stan and they voted a non-biping referendum in favor of curd stan. >> i have to be direct. i would. i want to make sure because it's a dell skate situation, but the united states of america wanted to be a people that considered our own lot in this world and we should be the first to stand up for the group that shows they stand up to evil in iraq and i would back their independence and i hope we can somehow do it in a way that is at the right

time and the kurds make sure the defense forces in the plane have their own type of ability to defend themselves as well. we will see the whole christian presence excised from iraq. >> congressman, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. wolf, i had to say. i heard children down the stairs here singing israeli songs. that's despite the fact that israel has 100,000 missiles aimed at them. there is always hope here in jerusalem. i thank god for that and thank god for israel. >> thanks so much for joining us. we will see you back here in washington. safe travels. a member of the armed services committee in arizona. on the day that the former prisoner pleads guilt tow desertion, he responds to

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a guilty plea for bowe bergdahl after walking away from his remote military post in afghanistan in 2009. he was later captured by the taliban and five years later, he was released in exchange for five taliban prisoners at the u.s. naval base in cuba. in a recently uncovered interview, he said a fair trial for him would be impossible under a trump administration. >> i may as well go back to kangaroo cowers and lynch mobs. they got what they wanted. the people who said just shoot

him. you can never convince those people to change their minds. it does hurt. >> they suggested he should face the ultimate consequences. >> so we get a traitor named bergdahl, a dirty rotten traitor. in the old days, when we were strong. when we were strong. >> lawyers for both sides said there was no pretrial agreement reached before the guilty plea. he could face life in prison. i want to bring in the congressman who is a democrat from pennsylvania whose district includes parts of philadelphia and a member of the house foreign affairs committee. let me get your reaction to what we just heard from bowe bergdahl. do you think he has a valid concern that he wouldn't be able to get a fair trial because of what president trump said about

him? >> thanks for having me on. as you know i'm no fan of this administration, but with that said, i have a tremendous amount of faith in our military and the justice system. i wouldn't agree that somehow bowe bergdahl wouldn't get a fair trial within the military system of justice. >> we heard from the secretary of state rex tillerson saying the white house will pursue diplomacy until the first bomb drops. the u.s. is currently conducting military exercises as you know with south korea, something the north korean regime paints. we reported this that north korea is not really interested in diplomacy until they have that intercontinental ballistic missile capability to reach the united states. where does this go? >> first, i would say with respect to the secretary of state's comments, the point of diplomacy is to prevent the

bombs from dropping in the first place. unfortunately president trump only or 10 months in has shown a real inability when it am cans to dealing on the international stage and that includes north korea. it's unhelpful to take this go it alone approach. what we need to do is to work with allies and japan, south korea and especially china and ensure that we bring as much pressure as we can on the kim regime possible to abandon these sorts of suicidal thoughts that kim is continuing to pursue. unfortunately i think the trump approach had the opposite effect and in many ways accelerated the north korean regime's desire to be a nuclear power. >> you think that diplomacy still has a chance. the u.s. has been trying diplomacy for north korea and has not succeeded.

>> in one sense, it hasn't succeeded, but in another sense it delayed us from reaching this point. in the early 1990s, north korea was on the path. they were not this far along. they were on this path until they were brought to the table. there was a deal not to solve the problem for all time. but at least delayed and bought us about 25 years. i still think we have to give diplomacy a chance. otherwise the only other alternative is a preemptive strike and we know the consequences that would have especially for south korea. >> a lot of the critics point out that over the last 25 year, the north koreans worked very successfully and have an arsenal of nuclear bombs, maybe 60 or 80 potentially. they can miniaturize them and put them on intercontinental ballistic missiles and reach the

united states. they have that capability that they didn't have 5 or 10 or 20 years ago. it certainly hasn't worked out well yet. >> no. it clearly hasn't solved the problem, wolf. like i said really we only have two alternatives at this point. first, to continue pursuing the diplomatic approach. i think there is far more the chinese could be doing and if we work closely with them, given the fact that about 40% of north korea's gdp is dependent on china. that is something we have yet to exploit. if diplomacy fails, i don't think we can live with a situation in which north korea has the capability to launch a nuclear weapon that reaches the united states. i don't think we can live with that as a possibility. let's try to prevent it diplomatically. >> if the chinese come through

and oppose much stricter sanctions, that's what everyone in washington seems to be hoping for. we will see what the chinese do on that. let's get the quick reactions for sarah murray reporting that there is deep republican in the republican party that any fighting among the republicans could cost up the house majority in next year's mid-term elections and if the democrats are leading to impeachment against the president. where would you stand on that? >> i think you talk about impeachment is premature until we see what the mueller investigation finds out. my position is really to suspend making any conclusions until we see the full evidence. i strongly believe that the democrats should take back the house because we would be a check on this administration not just in the matter with respect

to russian interference in the election, but also on all the other issues whether it's health care or tax reform or environmental policy. right now the only thing stopping the republicans and the trump administration from effecting public policy has been the complete inability internally to get on the same page. otherwise they would have been able to do far more destruction than they had been in health care. we were one vote away from 29.7 million people losing their health insurance. if democrats take back the house, that's no longer at work. >> thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> coming up, few fierce of potential civil war breaking out in iraq. tensions escalate between two american allies over oil in the northern part of iraq. there is a serious standoff under way right now.

plus, we are only moments away from the white house briefing as former white house strategic adviser steve bannon declares war on the republican party establishment and the president is having lunch with mitch mcconnell. that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise

we have been told president trump will make a statement in the rose garden momentarily following his lunch with mitch mcconnell. once the president is in the rose garden, we will see if he takes questions from reporters as well. they suggested earlier in the day with the meeting with his cabinet he would answer questions following his meeting with mitch mcconnell. potentially very, very significant. a very important week coming up for the president on several

issues. including the desire for significant tax cuts. tax reforms. stand by for that. other breaking news we are following. cnn learned iraqi federal forces are in control of the oil rich city of kirkuk that pitted two u.s. allies against one another. they battled isis with tensions that have been escalating in recent weeks and months. let's discuss the situation. this is the former iraqi ambassador to the united states. thank you so much for joining us. closely aligned with the united states and the military closely aligned with the united states. coming on the heels of this referendum in curd stan for

independence. non-binding. how do you see it unfold? >> thank you for having me. i see it as the next chapter only to count his remaining isis in control. now that the government is trying to project his power across the country, they are taking place that meant the acceleration had to take place. on the other side, you have these fighters together. >> with the iraqi military? >> they are in the town together. now that we have issues within the kurdish communities and issues of how does the government try to have control. >> mo is more responsible with mosul and elsewhere. the kurdish or the iraqi

military? >> we have the corporation and others work together. the majority of the fighting was done in the central government. you have other provinces as well. certainly it's not one as well as others as well. it's not only one. >> in 2014 when isis took over mosul in iraq, the military ran away and left behind the american supply armored personnel carriers. the kurds stayed behind and fought isis. >> it's not even that clear. the kurds fighting and the army came back again and they incorporate and we need the next chapter. they have to go politically and make sure there is no blood on the street and make sure they are not detected by it. >> a lot of these forces fighting the kurds are supported by iran, the iranian group

revolutionary guard that they have forces there. that is of deep concern. >> the u.s. has concern, but this is more domestic with iraq. >> does iran play a role in iraq right now? >> it does. everyone else as well. they are not giving them what they are asking for. this is not because of the referendum. there is time from the government on the referendum and unfortunately we have to come to this stage. the prime minister has to project power. at the end of the day, he is governing the country and has to project within the constitution. >> do you think the kurds will support this? >> i think they will. there is a split within the kurds and that's why there was no blood on the street and the clean cut operation of the government. >> this is a really dangerous situation. i think you will agree.

>> the husband is watching this very, very closely because between the kurds and the iraqi shia and sunni and iranians involved. this could explode. >> the husband has to have this situation. better on the ground. you don't have to deal with the issues. you have to have a better reading and addressing of the issues. this is more on negotiations. welcome back to washington. thank you very much for joining us. president trump will speak from the white house rose garden and we will go there after this.

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does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. we go to sarah murray, the white house correspondent. she is over in the rose garden and the president of the united states will be walking in making a statement following his luncheon with mitch mcconnell. do we know if he is going to show up? we are expecting that, but mow firm word. they are huddled inside as well as mike pence. they will be very interesting if they give remarks together. the president is walking out with the majority leader. i will let them take it from here. >> here comes the president and mitch mcconnell. let's see what the president says.

>> thank you very much. i just want to say that we just spent quite a bit of time inside with the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell who has been a friend of mine for a long time. long before the world of politics. early into his world of politics. we have been friends for a long time and probably now despite what we read, we are probably now i think as least as far as i'm concerned closer than ever before. the relationship is very good. we are fighting for the same thing. we are fighting for lower taxes, big tax cuts, the biggest tax cuts in the history of our nation. we are fighting for tax reform as part of that. we are getting close to health care. we will come up in the early to mid-part of next year and we will have a vote. we feel confident we have the votes and we know what the plan is. i believe republicans and democrats are working together

very hard right now to do an intermediate short-term plan because obamacare is a disaster. the premiums have gone up and the deductibles have gone throughout roof. it's terrible. you look at the deductibles and unless you really have a problem, you won't be able to use them. we have been working together long and hard. we think we are in good shape for the budget and we hope to be in good shape again. the largest tax cuts ever passed in this country. it's going to spur business. you look at other countries what they have done and we are competing with them. china is 15% and when i hear that ireland will be reducing their corporate rates down to 8% from 12%. other countries reducing. we can't be at 35% and think we will remain competitive with companies and jobs. we worked on that. i was honored to see a man i had

a lot of respect for, james lee whit of the clinton administration, the head of fema, he gave us an a plus. it just came out. i always had respect for him. he gave us -- he's the fema director of the clinton administration. he gave us an a plus for how we responded to the hurricane aftermath. all of the hurricanes. that includes puerto rico. i want to thank mr. whit wherever you may be now. wherever you may be listening. i much appreciate it. that took it out of politics. out of the world of politics in that he was with the clinton administration. i'm sure remains loyal to the clinton administration. i hope he does. just to finish off, my relationship with this gentlemen is out standing and has been outstanding. we are working very hard to get the tax cuts. we will continue to work hard to

get the health care completed. i'm going to be surprising some people with an economic development bill late or and i haven't told mitch because i want to focus on tax cuts and other things right now. one of the unspoken elements that we discussed at lunch and it just is not one of the unspoken elements that we discussed at lunch and is not talked about, yes, we got a great justice, justice gorsuch into the u.s. supreme court. he will be outstanding, hopefully, for many, many years, but something people aren't talking about is how many judges we've had approved, whether it be the court of appeal, circuit judges, whether it be district judges. we have tremendous, right now, under review. the democrats are holding them up beyond anything -- beyond comprehension they're holding them up. frankly, they have terrible, terrible policy -- terrible policy, and perhaps they're not

even good politicians, but they are good at obstruction. i looked at these numbers, between it is judges, and i want to say that we will set records in terms of the number of judges and if you read "the wall street journal" i have to give them a little bit of a person -- a writer, i won't mention name, but you can listen to who has been a really fair person wrote an article and wrote an editorial in a sense saying how well we're doing with judges and appointments. i think it's one of the big unsung things of this administration in addition to the fact that we have had i lot of legislation passed on the va and lots of other thing, but the judge story is an untold story. nobody wants to talk about it, but when you think about it, mitch and i were saying, mittha has consequences 40 years out, depending on the age of the judge, numerous have been approved and many, many are in

the pipeline. the level of quality is extraordinary, and i just wanted to say that we're working very closely on that also and getting really great reviews from those people and in many cases, some scholars that have been studying it. there has never been anything like what we've been able to do together with judges. so with that, i would like to have mitch say a few words, and if you want to do a little question and answer we can do that also. thank you very much. thank you. >> well, thank you very much, mr. president. i want to underscore what the president said. we have the same agenda. we've been friends and acquaintances for a long time. we talk frequently. we don't give you a readout every time we have a conversation, but frequently we talk on the weekends about the issues that are before us. obviously, passing the budget which enables tax reform and tax reduction comes next and then the supplemental to take adequate care of those who have

been harmed by the natural disasters we've been afflicted with lately, and of course, the senate's unique role. it seems to me a lot of people forget we're in the personnel business. there are 1200 of the president's nomination subject to confirmation in the senate. the house is not in the personnel business. we are. the single most significant thing this president has done to change america is the appointment of neil gorsuch to the supreme court, but it's not just the supreme court. there are a lot of vacancies that both the circuit court and district court level as the president's indicated, young, conservative and when we say conservative about a judge and what we're talking about is the kind of people the president is appointing to the courts believe that the role of a judge is to try to rule based upon what the law says, not what they hoped the outcome would be.

justice scalia used to say if the judge is not occasionally unhappy with the conclusion they reach he's not a very good judge. or as justice gorsuch put it down in my state a couple of weeks ago, judges don't wear red. they don't wear blue. they wear black and those are the kind of people the brz is sending up to the senate to be confirmed. many of them, as he pointed out, are younger who will be on the bench for a long time and have a great deal to do with what kind of country we're going to have far into the future. legislatively, obviously, the top priority is tax reduction, and i think what the president and i would both like to say to you today contrary to what some of you may have reported, we are together totally on this agenda to move america forward. >> john?

>> mr. president, the timetable for tax reform. the speaker said he wants to get it done by the end of this year. will you get it done? would you be okay if tax reform were not passed until next year as opposed to this year? >> well, i would like to see it be done this year, john. i would like to see it be done this year. if we get it done that's a great achievement, but don't forget, it took years for the reagan administration to get taxes done. i've been here nine month, a little more than nine months. i can say the same thing for healthcare. if you look at obama. first of all, you look at clinton, they weren't able to get it done. you look at other administrations, they weren't able to get it done, president trump after a long period of time was able to finally push it through and pushed through something that's now failed and we're failing badly and we're meeting -- democrat and republican are meeting right now

and right now they're, workingn something very special and i do believe we have a good chance and i feel that mitch feels the same way of getting the taxes done hopefully fairly long before the end of the year and that's what we'd like to see. >> let me just add to what the president said. the goal to get it done this calendar year, but it is important to remember that obama signed obamacare in march of year two. obama signed dodd-frank in july of year two. we're going to get this job done and the goal is to get it done by the end of the year. >> just to finish up for mitch and we're in nine months, right? so we could have a long way to go, but that's okay. yes? >>. >> thank you very much. two questions. one, do you still have someone to be the drug czar. the only problem i have with mitch mcconnell was after hearing repeal and replace for

seven years he failed and that should never have happened. >> let's go to the second part of your question with mitch. again, we've been doing healthcare for really, seven months and probably six months if you think about it because we started in probably a total of six months and others were two and a half years and much more than that. others were eight years and they didn't get it passed. this man is going to get it done, and i think get it done long before anybody else and i think it will be a great health care. as far as tom marino, he was a very early supporter of mine from the great state of pennsylvania. he's a great guy. i'll look at the report and take it very seriously because we will have a major announcement probably next week on the drug crisis and on the opioid massive problem and i want to get that absolutely right. this country, and frankly the world, has a drug problem. the world has a drug problem and we have it and we'll do something about it and i'll have a major announcement on the drug

problem next week. we'll be looking into tom. >> thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask you, do you support the plan by people who previously serve in your administration such as steve bannon for primary republican candidates who do not support your agenda. >> i have a very good relationship with steve bannon, steve has been a friend of mine for a long time. i like steve a lot. steve is doing what steve thinks is the right thing. some of the people he may be looking at, i'm going to see if we talk him out of that because frankly, they're great people. what mitch will tell you is maybe with the exception of a few, and that is a very small few, i have a fantastic relationship with the people in the senate and with the people in congress. i mean, i have -- our house of representatives. i have a great relationship with political people. if you read the papers you'd think i'm on one island and they're on the other. well, it's not the way it is. we have a fantastic relationship. i'm friends with most of them.

i can say and i don't think anybody can have much of a higher percentage, but i'm friends with most of them. i like and respect most of them and i think they like and respect me. just so you understand, the republican party is very, very unified. when we get things approved we have to go through hell because we have no democrat support. we have nobody. we don't have a vote from the democrats, as an example, massive tax cuts and we may not get any democrat votes and we may also get three or four. for massive tax cuts with the highest tax country in the world and yet we may get no democrat support and that's because they're obstructionists and they just basically want us to do badly, but that's not going to happen. yes, go ahead. >> on the opioid crisis. i listened to you on the campaign trail talk about that repeatedly. you said you watched the "60 minutes" report last night. >> yes. >> number one, do you want to reverse the law that congressman

marino helped pass that the dea whistle-blowers say has contributed to the expansion of the opioid crisis? >> we'll look at that very closely. >> does his sponsorship of the law in any way undermine. >> he's a good man, and i have not spoken to him and i'll make that determination, and if i think it's 1% negative to doing what we want to do i will make a change. yes. >> on national emergency -- >> what about declaring a written national emergency for this crisis? you talked about it, but -- >> we're going to be doing that next week. . by the way, that's a big step. by the way, people have no understanding of what you just said. that is a very, very big statement. it's a very important step, and to get to that step a lot of work has to be done and it's time consuming work. we're going to be doing it next week, okay?