tragedy. this has been completed unfounded. this is not what america deserves, and so i -- i grieve along with the rabbi. i grieve every single time something like this happens because i know what people feel and what they think, and i don't wish this on anyone. >> your son, jordan david, no one will forget his name. >> thank you. >> you'll always lift it up. >> thank you so much for your time. thanks for joining me. "inside politics" with john king starts now. thank you, kate, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. democrats scold an empty chair and warn of a constitutional crisis. attorney general william barr a no show on capitol hill today, and the house speaker says he lied to congress. it's a dramatic escalation of the trump white house war with house democrats and their aggressive oversight. plus new cnn polling shows a new

high for president trump when vote remembers asked to rate his handling of the economy. health care though, a very different story. the president gets weak grades and now the justice department is suing to invalidate obamacare, and michael bennett makes it 21. the colorado senator weeks removed from cancer treatment joins the quest for the 2020 democratic presidential nomination. >> my plan is to run for president. i called my mom, and i said to her somebody has to be 22, and that's why i'm running, and it turns out i'm not. i'm 21, so i've already made a little bit of progress. >> we begin though with high drama in washington. the attorney general's capitol hill snub, a contempt threat, and the constitutional collision course now set in motion. this haymaker last hour thrown by the speaker of the house. nancy pelosi telling reporters in the capitol she thinks the attorney general william barr is a criminal. >> what is deadly serious about it is that the attorney general of the united states of america

was not telling the truth to the congress of the united states. that's a crime. he lied to congress. he lied to congress. if anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. nobody is above the law. not the president of the united states and not the attorney general. >> that blistering statement from the speaker, a dramatic escalation, and it adds to a morning chorus of democrat after democrat accusing the nation's top lawyer of leading a cover-up for the president. the house judiciary committee committee chairman jerry nadler opened the morning by scolding the empty chair that was for the attorney general. nadler says he'll make one more what he calls a good faith attempt to get barr back before the committee, but if barr does not agree and if the justice department does not fold and allow committee tlurs ask questions, chairman nadler says he'll hold the attorney general of the united states in contempt. nadler framed today's stare-down and the trump white house's blanket defiance of congressional investigations in big constitutional terms. republicans say this morning

nothing more than a cha raid. >> we go back to a circus political stunt and say we want it the to look like an impeachment hearing because they won't bring impeachment proceedings. that's the reason. >> cnn's manu raju live on capitol hill tracking all of this drama. the speaker of the house saying the attorney general has committed a crime, wow. >> reporter: very significant escalation of words. the question is what do democrats do next? you mentioned one of the steps they plan to take, hold the attorney general in contempt. that in reference to the failure of the justice department to turn over the unredacted mueller report with the underlying evidence. the justice department so far only providing the full congress with a redacted version of the report allowing had a less redacted version to be viewed by 12 members of congress. that's not sufficient to democrats. also, they plan to issue a subpoena to force the attorney general to come to capitol hill,

but what we've seen from this administration is battling subpoenas. that's leaving some democrats to say what should we do next now that they are essentially ignoring to either compel testimony or records. some democrats told me that it's time to start talking about impeachment. >> if the trump administration wants impeachment, they are doing a good job of pushing the democrats there because we want to first gather facts to decide if we should impeach. if we can't gather facts then we'll launch an article iii impeachment what happened to nixon. that was obstructing congress. so if we can't gather facts that may be the only tool we have left and we'll use it if there's no other tools available. >> so i asked him whether or not he had gotten any assurances from jerry nadler or nancy pelosi about pursuing the impeachment route. he just said that this is his opinion, but he said it's, quote, unifying his caucus, and,

john, pelosi referenced the same fight about concerns about defying congressional subpoenas, but she also raised concerns again about impeachment dying at the senate's edge, so that tension bound to play out as the administration rejects democratic requests after request. >> tension and understatement. manu raju, thanks for the live reporting. here with me cnn's kaitlan collins, michael bend, paul cain with "the washington post" and robin lopez with politico. the question first with the speaker and democrats, to say that the attorney general of the united states committed a crime is only going to stoke the liberal faction of her base. congressman leu said if they are got going to give us documentation or subpoena or a witness why wait? how does she hold that balance together when we know her personal opinion is have weeks and weeks if not months of hearings and lay out the case. don't rush. >> this is the trick. i don't know. she's standing on a ledge. this is much further than she

was two weeks ago before the congressional recess, and -- and she has got these swing district democrats who spent two weeks at home, and they didn't hear anything about impeachment. they barely heard anything about bob mueller or the mueller report, but back here, her caucus is real pushing heard and heard on this. i don't know where this goes in the next few weeks. >> and let's have more of the speaker because you're right. she has moved. she called it a ledge. some people think that the white house is nudging them out on the ledge to want this fight and see if the democrats go for it. listen to the speaker who has said for weeks slow down. the votes aren't there in the senate anyway. it's not worth doing. just to have your hearing. doesn't like to talk about the details of impeachment. here today she talked about the details. >> when the articles of impeachment for president nixon, article iii was that he ignored the subpoenas. i think the statements being made by the president of the united states has given a

blanket statement that he's not going to honor any subpoenas is obstruction of justice. we are in a very, very, very challenging place, so that's why i say sometimes impeachment is the easy way out for some of these people because they know it will end at the senate's edge. >> how does she keep this together? >> i was just talking to a top house democrat who said that pelosi in their caucus meeting today, yes, she said that what barr did she considered a crime, but she also didn't lay out any specific actions that they should take. she pretty much said that her committee chairmen and women need to start helping to connect the dots for the american public so that means holding hearings, so they are going to push forward with these investigations, but that's different than starting the actual impeachment proceedings. and also this democrat john yarmouth of kentucky, he said that he doesn't think that there's a risk for democrats politically. in his district, it's bluer than

some of the more battleground ones but he hears why aren't you pushing harder against trump? and as paul said in the battleground districts, you go to them and you don't hear about mueller at all. the voters are concerned about health care, and they are concerned about other issues, so they may not be hearing what's going on. >> hand in this fight, calling the attorney general of the united states a liar, saying a criminal because he did it under oath before congress, the justice department spokeswoman saying this baseless attack on the attorney general is reckless, irresponsible and false, that from the justice department pushing back and let's get to the core here. the speaker of the house said the attorney general lied under oath, the nation's top attorney. this is the issue, the last time, not this time when the attorney general was before the senate. before that. this is back in april 9th. he was before the house and he was asked this question by democratic congressman charlie criss of florida. >> reports have emerged that members of the spoum's team are

frustrated with the limited information included in your march 24th letter, that it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the report's findings. do you know what they are referencing with that? >> no, i don't. >> he went on to say the attorney general did, that there was some frustration. he acknowledged some frustration. the question is that is april 9th. this is the march 27th letter from robert mueller, the special counsel, to the attorney general complaining saying, hey, what you put out does not accurately portray what my report says. so bill barr says he's not lying because he was asked about reports, and so he wasn't being fully honest. there's no question he was not being transparent. he didn't say, no, congressman, i don't know what the reports are about, bob mueller is mad at me, he sent me a letter. but is that personalry, or is it ju a fine tune spin? >> though pelosi made that statement it didn't sound like she was ready to take it steps

further because if it was anyone else who was doing this they would be facing the consequences essential life doing so. the white house officials who watched that moment yesterday when he was trying to explain that away, when he told the lawmaker, no, i did not or i don't know what they are talking about. they thought that was one of the weaker moments of bill barr's testimony yesterday because he did have such a struggle in explaining it. he was saying, well, i don't know any of the frustrations from his team but he heard not once but twice from the special counsel himself so that was not a great moment. what white house officials are counting on here is that democrats are going to get out ahead of their skis or try to get into this legal fight over subpoenas to get bill barr to come and be questioned by staff lawyers and it's going to be a legal fight that will drag out. >> to the staff lawyer question. that's why bill barr would not come today. he was willing to come and be questioned by the house members and the chairman on the democratic side wanted staff lawyers. they wanted trained prosecutors to follow up on questions like charlie crist, to try to get the attorney general in a trap, and

here's another example, kamala harris on the senate side yesterday where democrats say why can't the attorney general give a straight answer? >> has the president or anyone at the white house ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone. yes or no, please, sir. >> the president or anybody else. >> seems you would remember something like that and be able to tell us? >> yeah, but i'm trying to grapple with the word suggest. there have been discussions of matters out there that -- they have nod asked me to open an investigation. >> perhaps they have suggested? >> i won't suggest. >> hinted? >> i don't know. >> again, whether it's the oh, why didn't you mention bob mueller, why weren't you honest about this letter or to that. that's why the attorney general didn't want to be there today to be questioned not by a member of congress who may have been a courtroom lawyer 20 years ago but doesn't have the sharp -- maybe as sharp a skill set. is that why he doesn't want to

be in the chair, they think at the white house if the attorney general is forced to answer? >> i think it's trying to goad the house democrats into getting out in front of their skis and taking an action that they regret later. you know, we can all sit around this that i believe and agree it's hard to ask questions. we talked about this before when the senate judiciary brought republicans, brought in an attorney to question dr. kristine ford over at the kavanaugh hearing. these lawmakers are elected to do their job. they should sit up there and do their job. i understand mr. barr is an attorney. they have questioned attorneys before. they should be able to ask the right questions here and feel competent in their own ability to do that. but, you know, inside the white house, they are saying that whatever president trump is out there saying, that they are not going to agree to any subpoenas, they are not going to turn over any records, inside the white house that discussion is a little more nuanced and that

they would be willing to have some negotiations if democrats narrowed down their -- their requests some. so far we don't see any -- you know, any give or either side of this. >> today does not indicate we're getting any kind of narrowing of the divide. >> if pelosi thinks she's getting lied to and her branch is under attack, you know, i think that goes pretty well to explaining her position today. >> the white house does have a point though it's pretty unusual to bring in a staff lawyer to question a cabinet member. there aren't a ton of instances to look back on and see that, and when republicans brought that lawyer in, that was an optics thing. otherwise it would be a committee full of men questioning a woman who is accusing the supreme court nominee of sexual misconduct and that's the big aspect of that. the white house thinking is this isn't normal. why would we put a cabinet official when an elected member of congress can do it. >> there is a bit of irony for the first time in two-plus years

the white house wants things in washington to be normal. >> the attorney general's testimony and the special counsel's report. we'll break down where these two friends contradict each other. one stitch. one load. one breakthrough at a time. everything that matters, made better. you know them by their work. they know us by ours. everything, built for those who are on to bigger things. well, here's to first dates! you look amazing. and you look amazingly comfortable. when your v-neck looks more like a u-neck... that's when you know, it's half-washed. try downy fabric conditioner. unlike detergent alone, downy helps prevent stretching

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just got something in my throat. yea... marvel studio's "avengers endgame." in theaters april 26. you proibl already know this. democrats are mad they did not get a chance to question the attorney general today in the house, but democrats say they heard more than enough heard from his testimony in the senate. william barr must go is the new democratic refrain. >> this is a person who should conduct himself with the highest level of integrity, but this is not how attorney general barr has conducted himself. he's clearly biased. he is clearly reluctant to share the truth with the united states congress, and clearly unable to perform his duties as the attorney general of the united states. >> he's acting as the president's personal defense lawyer, not as the people's lawyer, the attorney general of the united states. his credibility was shredded

yesterday. >> it's easy to take from the democrats, he works for president trump and he's in your tribal pit. we went through one example of was he fully honest about the reservations raised by the mueller staff. let's raise the question of others. don mcgahn, the white house counsel, very damning portrayal and william barr in his testimony saying the president never directed him to fire. there's a distinction, the attorney general said, between saying to remove someone, go fire, go get him and have him removed. barr is trying to say he didn't really say fire him. the special counsel report is quite clear, call mcgahn to have the special counsel terminated. why is the attorney general spinning? he's a lawyer, but that's political spin, trying to say, well, you know, there's six or eight ways to read this when democrats want them to tell us what the mueller report says. >> this is the question that a

lot of democrats, have and that's why they also now believe and they did a little bit when he was appointed that he was a political appointee to shield the president, to be there to protect him, and they don't think that that is what he should be doing. i mean, as we were sitting here freshmen democrat on judiciary issued a statement calling for him to resign so we're seeing a bit of snowball effect around the number of democrats that are asking him to step aside. also earlier there was a freshman democrat in a vulnerable district also willing to talk about this on cnn, and she was saying she didn't necessarily agree with pelosi that -- that barr committed a crime but that she wants more hearings to happen. >> if your boss called you and said go tell kaitlan that she's not wanted here anymore. >> that would never happen, sir. >> might happen the other way. >> if kaitlan came to you and said, hey, mr. zucker wants you gone, how would you take it, and that's -- there's just sort of it didn't pass the laugh test.

>> don mcgahn is not some unserious figure. he knows what message the president was send when he called him multiple times at his house, and it wasn't just don mcgahn either. there were other people that the president made these comments, to comments about not only getting rid of the special counsel but limiting the investigation to where he even went outside of the white house to his former campaign manager to do that. so most people when they read this report for themselves, that baierl did release, can see what the president said and what he did. it painted a pretty damning picture so for bill barr to go out there and say it wasn't that black and white. to most people it did seem black and white. >> got the control room laughing by the way. they are in a good mood about kaitlan coming to give me a message from the boss. let's listen to some of the attorney general, too. i showed you some of what he said but this is the question democratic senator pat leahy trying to get to the idea, did the president fully cooperate? if you listen to the attorney general the president did everything. told everybody cooperate. was fully cooperate and patrick

leahy, the democratic senator, saying not so sure. >> mr. mueller found the written answers to be inadequate. is the that correct? >> i think he wanted additional, but he never sought it. >> and the president -- >> he never -- he never pushed it. >> all right. so, again, let's put this to the test here. he never sought, it right? he never sought it, the attorney general says. he never pushed it. this is what the mueller report says. and this is what the attorney general is allegedly testifying about, the actual mueller report. this office sought for more than a year tonight view the president on topics related to russian interference and obstruction of justice. recognizing that the president would not be interviewed voluntarily and we considered whether to have a subpoena. we weighed the cost of lengthy investigation and the delay of finishing our investigation against the benefits of finishing our reports. apples and oranges, a and z, and that's why democrats say you can't trust us. >> the question about why the

president didn't get interviewed is probably a better one for mueller than it is for barr, but we know -- >> sorry to make. you make a very important point there n that barr's testimony has increased not only democrats' desire but the public case for mueller to have to answer questions now. >> we know this debate played out for months practically in public the internal debate within the white house. the president kept saying he wanted to talk to mueller, was willing to talk to mueller and wanted to set him straight while all the attorneys cycling through this process for him was telling him that's absolutely not going to happen. >> we can hear from mueller relatively soon. democrats are hoping for mid-may muleler come before house judiciary and talk with him and still negotiating with doj about the terms that have. >> to that point. where do the negotiations go. bill barr saying i don't mind, fine by me but based on the escalating confrontation we'll see if the mood changes. bob mueller, still justice

department employed, this is the lefter where the special counsel, a career fbi/u.s. attorney before that put in writing his objections to what the attorney general did. the attorney general didn't quite like that. listen to him describing the letter at yesterday's testimony. >> the letter is a bit snitty and i think it was written probably by one of his staff. his work conclude when he sent the report to the attorney general. at that point it was my baby and my decision how and when to make it public, not bob mueller's. >> there's not just a very important constitutional power play at play here between the administration and the house democrats. there's a power play at play here between bill barr and bob mueller. bob mueller has the stature of being the fbi director, had his term extended and the fbi director on 9/11. bill barr saying this is my baby. bob mueller reports to me. >> this is the first time bob mueller has ever been called

snitty in his life, served in vietnam, career investigator and prosecutor. michael is right. the mueller hearing, it is going to come. he will be a private citizen soon. i think he's still democratically a doj employee, but the attorney general said his work is done at doj, so at some point private citizen muleler testify. >> and watching the barr/mueller relationship deteriorate in one of this way is the most notable aspects, they aren't two men who worked together. they have attended each other children's weddings and been to bible studies together and barr testified as much under oath about their personal relationship so to see him clearly showing disdain for certain ways that mueller handled this report is really, really striking. >> i think barr is placing a bet that that history plus mueller's history as an institutionalist will temper what mueller is going to say pubically. that may not be a safe bet. we shall see. up next, new poll numbers give

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title x for affordable natbirth control and reproductive health care. the trump administration just issued a nationwide gag rule. this would dismantle the title x ("ten") program. it means that physicians cannot tell a patient about their reproductive health choices. we have to be able to use our medical knowledge to give our patients the information that they need. the number one rule is do no harm, and this is harm. we must act now. learn more. text titlex to 22422 i can customize each line for each family member? yup. and since it comes with your internet, you can switch wireless carriers, and save hundreds of dollars a year. are you pullin' my leg? nope. you sure you're not pullin' my leg? i think it's your dog. oh it's him. good call.

get the data options you need and still save hundreds of dollars... do you guys sell other dogs? now that's simple, easy, awesome. customize each line by paying for data by the gig or get unlimited. and now get $100 back when you buy a new lg. click, call, or visit a store today. a new high mark for president trump in our new cnn polling and one az hope he studies as we move forward. just look at this number right here. the president's overall job approval, 44% approve and 53% disapprove. that's not so good, but for this president, that's not a bad poll

number. here's where the president has very encouraging news heading into 2020. rook at the economy. 56% approve of his performance and 41% disapprove of his performance, a big number for the president as the economy improves. look at independents. key in any close presidential election. overall independents are split evenly, 46-46, approve and disapprove of the president's overall job approval and look at the economy, more than six in ten independents approve of the president's handling of the economy, an area the president can focus on heading into 2020. let look at the issue scorecard. off the charts, the president doing very well on the economy. a majority think he's kept his promises. here's where the president is under water, immigration, foreign affairs, race relations and health care, not president's strengths. this is which is why aides wish the president would talk more and more like this. >> we have a very low unemployment rate. we have the lowest rate we've had in 51 years. we're going to soon set the record, and all of that is good, but we do have to be able to,

you know, power up these companies that are coming in. they are not going to be able to come in if they are not going to be able to get people. we just did 3.2, and frankly if we would have had the obama interest rate, you know, where they kept them very low which is not necessarily good, but if we would have had those low interest rates quo have been much higher than that. >> talking about the economy, but some breaking news just in from the president's twitter account. steve moore, someone the president wanted to appoint to the federal reserve board, now president tweeting that steve moore, a great pro-growth economist and truly fine person has decided to withdraw from the fed process. steve won the battle of ideas including tax cuts and deregulation which have produced non-inflationary prosperity for all americans. a long tweet from the president there. feels like it might have been written by somebody. that's not his language. but this is significant in the sense that the president had two picks for the fed, herman cain pulled out because he was -- it was clear he would not get

senate confirmation and now steve moore pulling out because it's also clear he was not going to get senate confirmation. remember, the senate controlled by republicans. the senate republicans in recent days have sent words because of things steve moore has written over the year about women, don't even try this, mr. president, and clearly at the white house they listened. >> that's what republican lawmakers have been saying, that the white house should do a better job vetting these people before the president floats their names because these people are out there. they haven't even been formally nominated for these guys and criticize for things they have said and done in the past and then they get left out to dry. it's happened to some of the people the president has picked before, and republicans are complaining that before they have to go through this and answer all these questions about someone who hasn't been formally nominated the white house should do a better job vetting. >> steve moore complained about a smear campaign. there were 25 years of write national which he criticized women athletes, women had no place doing this. a saw a slip the other day where

he said the biggest problem in the economy is declining male wages. >> he has said a lot of this was in gest. what we've been hearing from the senate they don't think it's very funny, and like you said. there's -- this is now the second pick in a row that -- that has walked away from a very high-profile nomination and a very important job, particularly in this administration, particularly heading into this election, and and it raises a couple of thing. it raises new questions i think about the -- about the process inside the white house. there have been questions all along the way, but trump has lost a lot of people. i mean, these are the kind of nominations that john kelly would have said, well, wait a second. here -- here's the paperwork. here's what the senate is going to see. do you really want to do this? there are not that many figures like that left in the white house, not just john kelly but others who have left post mid terms, and, you know, herman cain said this was about, you know, the pay, and he just

realized he wasn't -- he was going to get paid a lot less than he thought he was. maybe he told moore what that salary was, and this is all -- >> this is also to the investigate point, people in the white house who understand institutional history here in washington. steve more had another problem. the reason that mitch mcconnell and members of the leadership told the white house we cannot get lowe is a murkowski, joanie ernst, susan collins on the ballot next year in maine, we won't get their votes given all that he's written about, but this is inside inside politics. steve moore the club for growth, a conservative group that runs ads against establishment republican candidates that are mitch mcconnell's friends. there's no goodwill for him to go to steve moore and say i need you to take one for the team. >> for people like joanie ernst

who are constantly getting questioned back home by liberal activists, why don't you stand up to trump for what he's done or said he's done towards women, this is their chance to do that. it's a smaller version of it, but it's their chance to sort of stand up, particularly on this issue, and it makes it an easy no vote. >> we should note really quickly senator mike lee of utah invited steve moore to come to the republican lunch on capitol hill and wanted him to defend the people from people who said do not nominate this guy because we won't be able to back him and we don't want to answer the questions about him and when the white house heard that they scuttled the invitation and told him not to go up there and they were advising him to keep a low profile instead of coming out and commenting and he was doing the opposite and did two interviews today with outlets. >> stephen moore out and now the president has two picks. i suspect we'll wait a little bit and they will do better vetting this time at the white

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>> i think biden would be easier from the standpoint that you will have so many dissension in the party because it will make four years ago look like baby stuff because, you know, they are looking to see what they want to do is they want to see if we -- you know, they want to get in. they want the radical left. they want the left movement, and he probably isn't there, and i think you're going to have to have tremendous dissension like hillary did with the bernie

people. a lot of the bernie people, you know, trish, voted for me. >> that's the noted political analyst president donald trump talking on fox business channel about the 2020 race and joe biden and a lot of the president's aides are not happy he's been constantly tweeting about joe biden. they think he's elevating joe biden. some interesting numbers, and let me say this clearly. it is may 2019. do not run off to vegas with these poll numbers, but they do give a baseline for what the race looks like and they show us some of the president's problems and some other things. let's look at these polls. trump versus 2020 candidates. beto o'rouke beats the president by ten points, 52-42. jid ren 51-45, bernie sanders, 50-44. flip over to the other graphic, kamala harris beats the president in this poll a little bit, pete buttigieg and only against elizabeth warren does the president win there, statistical tie 48% to 47. 42%, 45%, 44%. switch over here, 45%, 44%, 48%.

it is likely at this point, and the president has to prepare, for a campaign, another campaign in which he loses the popular vote. the question is can he pull off the electoral college again? you don't approach a normal presidential race thinking i'm going to lose the popular vote. how do i get the electoral college. that's what happened last time, and if you look at the numbers, that's the big takeaway is they have to plan a strategy where he's likely to lose the popular vote. >> he has to run the same inside straight he basically ran in 2016. he has to go through wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania, and that's why he and some of his advisers are looking at biden because biden would be his toughest matchup in those three straights. >> one other thing i'm going to show you and come back to this graphic and bring it up. circle this, 48-47. elizabeth warren is the one candidate the president statistically tied but is ahead of. stop attacking biden. you elevate him. you're the president.

united states. you think, huh, all the pocahontas stuff worked. who fares weakest against me in this poll? elizabeth warren. so you tell the president. he's going to look at that number and say what i'm doing is working. thanks again, smart people, and he's going to keep doing it his way, right? >> and he'll -- and doing it his way has worked for so long when people have criticized whatever. he said in the fox interview when he said all the bernie sanders voters supported for the president, because they didn't want to vote for fill hillary clinton. hillary clinton is not running in this election so that will make it very difficult if it's trump versus bernie sanders. the sanders supporters would not likely support the president again based on what they said before. that's the get here. obviously the president is the sweating jo biden. can you see it from his twitter feed, from what he's been saying saying don't attack him has much us a are because you're elevating him. the president doesn't see it that way, and instead he's going after him because he does feel sensitive about joe biden because he knows they have the same appeal in similar states.

>> it will be interesting to watch again. these are early numbers, but they tell you a little bit about where they start. why is the president thinking about joe biden a lot, fascinating race. still early. stay with us. we'll be right back. uh-oh, looks like someone's still nervous about buying a new house. is it that obvious? yes it is. you know, maybe you'd worry less if you got geico to help with your homeowners insurance. i didn't know geico could helps with homeowners insurance. yep, they've been doing it for years. fascinating race. big steve? thanks, man. there he is. get to know geico and see how much you could save on homeowners and renters insurance. introducing zero account fees for brokerage accounts. and zero minimums to open an account. at fidelity, those zeros really add up. ♪ maybe i'll win, saved by zero ♪ for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease,

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we're getting our first glimpse of how the trump administration falloon make its case in court to end obamacare. last night the department of justice officially escalating its fight against the healthcare law, now arguing for it to be struck down entirely according to new court files. the move comes ahead of argument to be heard in july before the fifth circuit court of appeals that could potentially lead to another supreme court showdown next term raising the 2020 stakes even higher for republicans and democrats alike. our supreme court reporter joins the conversation. take us through the arguments the trump administration deciding to go forward for the full-throttled repeal.

what's their legal case in. >> we saw ittier. what they did is they said, look, we think the whole -- not just the individual mandate, but these provisions that go past, it medicare, medicaid, even that provision that lets you put your kid on your insurance program. they that whole thing should fall, and they had a big reversal. hey, remember, that this law was upheld twice at the supreme court. john roberts said that the individual mandate, it's okay under the taxing power. well, flash to 2017. congress got rid of it. they brought that down to zero. so texas and a bunch of these states went right to court and said, look, individual mandate is the no longer constitutional. the whole thing should fall, and at that time jeff sessions, he didn't agree that the whole law should fall, individual man day, the key provisions and then the federal district court judge in november said nope, that whole thing. that caused the department of justice to rethink its strategy. they came back and they said yes, we think he's right.

last night in the 50-tage filing they said courts can't pick and choose if parts are cut down. we feel like congress should act which is ironic because congress hasn't acted. >> and the current congress is not likely to act on healthcare. if you agree or disagree with the decision it's a bold decision by the president and his justice department knowing what just happened n.2018 the democrats took back the house by running back healthcare and saying president trump is a threat to obamacare. we will fix it and fortify it. now president trump is saying get rid of the whole thing, so in an odd way we always say he's not ideological. it's all about him. this is a risky stand. >> yeah. absolutely. maybe he was right that 2020 campaign is after all going to be about healthcare if this sort of -- if the administration is going to have success with this argument, but as soon as he started talking about that a few weeks ago all of his political advisers to a person said what are you talking about?

we don't want this to be about biden. we don't want this to be about healthcare, and here we are. >> to this point this is rona mcdaniel, the republican committee chier woman, the president saying republicans have a healthcare plan and everyone will show it. neil cavuto pressing the republican national committee chairman, where is it? >> do the republicans have a healthcare plan yet? >> republicans are putting forward a hekmatyarary plan. the president is talking about this. >> when is that going to happen? >> i'm not a policy-maker but i will say this. we want to make sure that the doctor/patient relationship is restored. we don't want bureaucrats in washington making medical decisions. >> if you're going to criticize your predecessor -- >> we've put plans out. >> you don't have a plan to substitute it the. >> we had graham/cassidy. >> we did. >> kudos to neil cavuto for

asking the right questions. what republicans are putting forward is a new version and depends on your definition of is. can they be in court with the goal being throw it out without having a political alternative. we want to throw it out because we'll give you this. they have nothing right now, right? >> not even a few pieces of paper to put forward and rona mcdaniel says she's not a policy-maker but even the policy-makers don't know where they are going and back when they decided to do so many people were advising the president against to do it and alex acosta, one of his reason was we don't have anyone else -- he said we don't have any backup plan if this succeeds so what are we doing there and even the attorney general bill barr wasn't sure if it would be successful. that makes it interesting and all that have talk of him being on capitol hill. he's actually playing a pretty big role in their decision to move it forward. >> lay out the timetable. >> goes to the fifth circuit in

early july and we think it probably will go to the supreme court, back in front of chief justice john roberts maybe next term, and guess what, an opinion would be rendered by the end of the spring, right in the heart of this presidential campaign. >> right in the heart. >> once more. >> of debate season. >> okay. before we go. colorado senator michael bennett made it official becoming the 21st democrat to run for president. bennett was diagnosed with prostate cancer just in march but says he's been given a clean bill of health and is all in and making his pitch to voters. >> i think this country faces two enormous challenges, among others. one is a lack of economic mobility and opportunity for most americans, and the other is the need to restore integrity to our government. i think we need to do boast those things, but if we keep going down this road, we're going to be the first generation of americans to leave less opportunity, not more, to the next generation, and i -- i just

need to do everything i can do to make sure that we don't do that. >> bennett joins six other senators in the race. you see them there alongside governors, mayors, members of congress and candidates without any political background. a fascinating race. busy news day. don't go anywhere. brianna keilar will be with you after a quick break. have a good afternoon. through the at&t network, edge-to-edge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. from using feedback to innovate... to introducing products faster... to managing website inventory... and network bandwidth. giving you a nice big edge over your competition. that's the power of edge-to-edge intelligence.

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i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. we begin with new cnn reporting on a letter from the white house to attorney general bill barr after the release of the mueller report. i want to go live to cnn's senior white house correspondent pamela brown with this new reporting. tell us about it, pamela. >> reporter: well, brianna, this five-page letter obtained by cnn was sent by white house special counsel emmitt flood to attorney general barr the day after mueller's report was released pubically. this letter was to, quote, memorialize concerns about the special counsel team, and in the report, in the format of the report it lays out why the white house believes the special counsel acted politically, veering ridely from its stated mission rathe