blankenship. they've spent $1.8 million on the primary alone. some of the money has gone for patrick morrisey. but a lot of negatives on evan jenkins. it's had an affect of perception on him. you're seeing the democrats, both washington, d.c. and this figure of booth goodwin, a former u.s. attorney, really getting themselves involves in the primaries. so we're still seeing how that's going to play out. >> before we let you go to your primary day stories, any other congressional primaries we should be watching here as we look in on west virginia? >> right, evan jenkins vacated the seat, so that's probably west virginia's most competitive seat. there are -- i have lost track of how many people are in the primary in both the republicans and democratic side. you have a lot of interesting names and dynamic downs there.

you have the leading democrat is a real populist. he voted for donald trump in 2016. he's caused a lot of polarization in the state. meanwhile, the three or four really well known political figures fighting on the republican side, we're seeing who is going to make their way out of there. >> we appreciate your time. thanks so much. >> thanks. >> crissy thompson joining us from the cincinnati inquirer, a politics reporter there. crissy thompson, good morning to you. take us first to the senate race in indiana. how vulnerable is joe donally considered this fall? >> i'm joining you from ohio. i'm a native hoosier so i can talk about joe donnelly. >> tell us about sharod brown.

>> he does have a relatively strong position in ohio, especially in what might be a blue wave year. he, in most polls we haven't seen a lot of polls but in most polls he is up at least a couple of percentage points, if not more on whatever republican challenger emerges from today. and so republicans are really hoping that they can say sherrod brown says he's a working class person and joins on president trump with trade but that's not who he is. they're hoping they can show his more liberal positions to turn people off to him here. >> who is he most likely going to be facing come this fall? talk about the republican primary. >> yeah, the most likely candidate is a congressman from

northeast ohio. he was one of president trump's earliest supporters and trump asked him to get into the senate race to take on sherrod brown. there's another person running against him -- a couple of people. but the other contender is mike gibbons. he's a cleveland businessman. the interesting thing about him is he always was an early supporter of president trump. he chaired his campaign here in ohio, made hundreds of calls. raised more than a million dollars for him and got into the race to help president trump. trump backed his opponent and it looks like gibbons is not going to prevail today. >> has governor kasich gotten involved in the contest at all? >> not really. some of kasich's campaign operatives are working for gibbons, but it's generally just because gibbons hired them.

they're independent consultants. there are some more moderate republicans or anti-trump republicans who are behind gibbons, but gibbons has not tried to distance himself from trump. >> today's primaries are being a test of president trump's influence. how popular is president trump in ohio? >> he's doing decently well here compared would some other states. he won by 8 percentage points here. there are a lot of working class democrats who are still saying, you know, give him a chance. a lot of republicans still like trump. in the primary here we've seen the republicans trying to be as close to trump as possible generally speaking. he's still relatively popular here. maybe not struggling as much as he is in some other states. >> what house races will you be focusing on today as -- all of today's washington

general at cspan.org. we're taking you live to capitol hill. republican leaders are coming out to speak to reporters. >> we're committed to lower taxes. fewer regulations. that's what we promised. that's what we're continuing to do. the national federation of independent business says that 50% of small businesses in this country are either hiring or planning to hire more workers. so the economy is growing. more people are being hired. and wages are going up at the same time. people are having more money in their pockets due to increased wages as well as less taxes being paid. it's because of the fact that we've cut taxes, cut regulations. people are seeing it. we are continuing in this america first economy of a strong healthy and growing economy due to opening up opportunities for more americans and more american small

businesses. >> regarding gina haspel, she's the most qualified person to ever be nominated to run the cia. she has the best background, the best preparation. i think she's exactly the right person at exactly the right time, which is why she has this broad base of bipartisan support from individuals who have dealt with the cia over the three decades she has been here. general hayden said she was exactly the person he would want in the room with the president when the facts had to be put on the table. she will be a master of those facts. she'll be an important part of protecting the country. and it will send a great signal to the people that defend us. the other announcement that the white house will make today -- i'm not sure what they're going to announce. but i'm sure the iran agreement cynically entered into without the congress and the senate approving it, entered into in a

way that president obama assumed every other president would have to stay in an agreement that has done none of the things you would hope to do. it guarantees a nuclear capable iran sometime in the next decade. it did nothing about the ballistic missile delivery system. and their terrorist activity has got waten worse not better sinc this agreement was supposed to put them on a whole new track. i don't know what the president will decide today, but i do know this agreement has not worked. it was not entered into the right way. and it doesn't solve the problems. we don't need another north korea to deal with a decade from now because we foolishly entered into an agreement that allowed that to happen. >> senator thune talked about the conditions for favorable economic growth and senator grassley talked about the fact that congress can make or break that growth. one of the things we know talking to businesses around the

country is certainty. they need certainty from congress and within the tax code to make the investments they know will grow their businesses and grow our economy. one of the best steps toward that certainties we provide is the tax cuts we passed. more businesses are providing investments into growth job opportunities and wages because of the tax cuts that we passed this last congress. today, nancy pelosi announced their plan for the next congress would be to increase taxes if they were to take the majority back. i think the american people need to know what's at stake. the chance to have a growing economy, more investments, or concerns about whether or not taxes would be increased on working families and businesses across the country. we know a recipe for economic success is less washington in their lives, a recipe for a disaster is more washington taking more dollars out of the taxpayer's pockets. that's what's at stake as we go forward in the next several months. [ inaudible question ]

>> first of all, i think we need to wait and see what the president likes to do -- >> [ inaudible question ] >> in terms of looking at the agreement it obviously was flawed from the beginning. almost none of the republicans voted for it. it was a terrible deal at senator blount pointed out, it didn't deal with ballistic missiles. it didn't deal with their extra curricular activities creating problems all across the middle east. we'll wait and see what the president announces. my own view is it's a flawed deal. we could do better. >> you didn't get an update from the vice president? >> the president's going to address the issue shortly. >> the president has addressed the issue. he says he's withdrawing and we'll be instituting the highest

amount of sanctions. are you comfortable doing that -- >> what he's going to be doing is laying out where we go from here. it obviously would involve our european allies as well. and maybe additional steps that we may need to take. some of which may require legislation. but clearly, there's a next step beyond this. we'll look forward to seeing what he rendcommends. to the extent we need to be involved in implementing it, we will. [ inaudible question ] >> my understanding of the rescission package is it does not breach the bipartisan agreement we reached in the caps deal. if the house is able to pass a rescission package, we'll take a look at it.

i believe that's what chairman shelby believes as well. we'll take a look at it and see. [ inaudible question ] >> i do not have any plans to endorse legalization of marijuana. maybe good to point out again, these are two entirely separate plans. i hope everybody now understands that. four years ago in the farm bill when i put in there the ability to have pilot projects, there was a lot of confusion about what hemp is. it's a different plant. it has an illicit cousin. but -- which i choose not to embrace. but hemp is an incredibly diversified crop. it could end up in your food. it could end up in your medicine, your dashboard of your car. and i think we're going to find that the vast majority of senators think it's time to move

on and to tulow farmers across america who are pretty excited about this possibility to grow the crop legally. >> are the ads that don blankenship is running in the west virginia race, racist? >> we'll find out what happens in west virginia tonight. i may have more to say about that tomorrow. [ inaudible question ] >> we'll wait and see who wins in west virginia and we have more to say tomorrow. thanks a lot. republican leaders answering

reporters' questions just ahead of the start of the senate session today, 2:30 eastern. they are starting a little later today to allow for services for an assistant parliamentarian who passed away last week. a couple members were asked about the president's decision today. in fact, he announced it moments ago at the white house that the u.s. will withdraw from the iran nuke deal. the president also saying in his comments that secretary of state mike mpompeo is oi en route to h korea. he's a short while away from that meeting with kim jong-un. his intended replacement at the cia, gina haspel, is up for her confirmation hearing. we'll take that to you live in a couple minutes before the senate intelligence community coming up

shortly here on cspan 3. probably things delayed a little bit -- sorry, that's coming up tomorrow. i want to let you know that's coming up tomorrow. getting ahead of hovourselves. today the home security secretary will be testifying at 2:30 eastern. the hearing for gina haspel is tomorrow morning. we'll stay out here live from the senate as we may hear from democratic senators after their weekly meeting. when the hearing for secretary nielsen gets underway we'll take you there live.

okay, folks. all right. first i want to thank my colleagues for joining us here. over the coming days, weeks and months, health insurance companies are going to begin requesting rate increases in states across the country. we already have seen the beginning of this with both virginia and maryland requesting huge rate increases that are going to empty out the wallet of far too many working families. if these early states are any indication, health insurance companies are going to ask for huge hikes in the wake of president trump and congressional republicans' repeat efforts to sabotage our healthcare system. we democrats are going to be relentless in making sure the

american people understand exactly who is to blame for the rates. republicans control the presidency, the house and the senate. the rate increases would be on their backs normally. they're supposed to be in charge. moreso because they have acively done things to increase rates in families. since president trump took office republicans have worked day in and day out to systematically dismantle our healthcare system. despite promises the president made on the campaign trail. here's what president trump said when he was running, quote, it's going to take care of everybody. quote, deliver healthcare that is far less expensive and far better. clearly their efforts were all a ruse to put the insurance companies back in charge and force americans to pay more for less when it comes to healthcare. once again, keeping -- in

keeping with the theme of putting corporation and special interests before the well being of the american people, the republicans have tried to sabotage the system. let me be clear. the increase in healthcare costs for families in maryland, virginia, and throughout the nation symptom of republican sabotage. don't just take it from me. take it from former hhs secretary tom price, an artect of much of the sabotage who just like, like marco rubio who laid out naked truth about the republican tax scam for the rich. here's what secretary price said. quote, he believes that repealing the individual mandate will actually harm the pool in the exchange market and consequently that drives up the cost for other folks.

this is not a democrat. this is secretary price. the republican appointed hhs secretary who is in charge saying republican acts in congress and in the white house are causing premiums to go up. i'll close with this. president trump and the republicans promised america a better cheaper healthcare system. instead of work ing with democrats to achieve more affordable healthcare for americans, they took the partisan route and made things worse. simply put, president trump has dropped the ball on healthcare and the american people know it. senator murphy? >> thank you, senator schumer. it's not rocket science to try to figure out why this has happened. i want to take a few minutes to walk through this very deliberate campaign of sabotage. since the day trump took office,

he's had one goal, which is to weaken the american healthcare system as a punishment to president obama for his work on the affordable care act. within days of coming into office, president trump signed an executive order instructing all of his agencies to start to undermine the american healthcare system. he then reduced enrollment outreach funding to try to assure that less americans would know about the affordable options that are available to them. he then shortened the enrollment period so that less americans would have the chance to sign up even if they managed to find out about it. he canceled cost sharing reduction payments, which the insurance companies have attributed to a sizable portion of the rate increases they're filing. long with congress he and the republicans here repealed the individual mandate, which keeps these insurance pools evened out between costs for sick and well.

and now they are trying to push forward a new rule that will allow for junk plans which will further compromise the health of the existing small group and individual plans raising rates to even high higher catastrophic levels. the commonwealth fund releases a report show ing that since president trump took office, four million americans have lost their health insurance. those numbers will continue to spiral upwards if the campaign of sabotage continues. we're just beginning these rate filings. all throughout the summer insurance companies will be filing rate increases. we're seeing some plans requesting rate increases of almost 90%. senate democrats will be on the floor of the united states senate every week talking to the american public about the rate

increases and making sure they know this campaign of sabotage began in the first week of the trump presidency is to be held solely possible for these gigantic increases. >> thank you, i'm going to add a couple of points to those of my colleagues. the first is that rising healthcare costs are at the top of the list of concerns of people throughout the country. our senators from every state are finding that as they go to town hall meetings and talk to folks in urban areas, rural areas, and suburban areas. it's very personal to people. this is pocketbook issue. that anecdotal evidence that our members are getting on the field, in the field are backed up by the polling data. every national poll i've seen recently shows that healthcare costs are at the top of the

lists of concerns of the american public. second, the american people are onto the fact that these rising costs are a result of republican policies. trump administration policies and policies of republicans and congress. march, cnn had a poll showing that by 56-36, that is a big margin, 56-36 the public trusts democrats more on the issue of may recolle healthcare. we just passed the one year anniversary of the republican effort to totally blow up the affordable care act. and the reality is that when rural hospitals and the american cancer society and the american diabetes association, when americans rose up -- not on partisan grounds, but on healthcare grounds to stop that, the trump administration, the republicans decided to try to

kill it by a thousand cuts. including the poison pill they put in the tax measure that recently passed. you're seeing rapidly increasing costs, including a plan in maryland calling for a 91% increase. i want to read a quote from the head of care first, who minced no words as to the cause here. and i quote, this is from care first, quote, continuing actions on the part of the administration to systematically undermine the market and make it almost impossible to carry out the mission. that's why healthcare costs are going up. the american people are onto it. and i can assure you that our colleagues are going to continue to do everything we can to bring those costs down. but we're fighting an administration and a republican congress that's determined to take us in another direction. the last thing i'll say is you

look at the republican budget. they call for cutting medicare by $473 billion. they call for cutting medicaid by a trillion dollars. that is what was part of the budget, tax cuts for the, you know, big corporations, increase in healthcare costs for everybody else. now i'm very pleased to hand it over to my colleague from new hampshire who has been a tenacious fighter on this. >> thanks, chris. and thank you to senator schumer and murphy as well. when congressional republicans try to repeal the affordable care act last year, the american people made their voices heard. and they defeated those attempts. i am always struck by the number of people who came from all around the country. sometimes at great hardship, especially for families with young children who were medically compromised. but made their way to the

nation's capital to let their elected representatives know what healthcare meant to them and what a repeal of the affordable care act would mean to them. i watch parents talk about this as they tended to children with tracheotomies or oxygen tanks. healthcare matters to the american people and they made that clear last year. as a result, we were able to defeat the outright repeal attempt. but unfortunately, the trump administration and congressional republicans are sabotaging the healthcare system in other ways. including as you heard from my colleagues expanding these junk insurance plans that discriminate against people with preexisting conditions. i think it's important for the american people to understand that these sup plans aren't goio

cover what you need them to cover when you actually get sick. but that hasn't stopped the administration from expanding those plans. allowing those plans to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions. the administration also -- and the republicans in congress made sure that the affordable care act's coverage requirement was repealed in their tax bill. the individual mandate is gone. as we now know, that raises healthcare costs for millions of americans making it harder for millions of americans to get the healthcare they need. all to give a massive tax break to corporate special interests and the ultrawealthy. as senator schumer pointed out, even former secretary tom price, a republican, said that repealing the coverage requirement harms the pool in the exchange market and consequently that drives up the cost for other folks in the

market. i don't often agree with former secretary price, but he made clear what we all know to be true. sabotage from congressional republicans and the administration is raising premiums and it is hurting hard working americans. i hope that the premium increases we are seeing serve as a wakeup call to my republican colleagues. it's long past time to drop partisan efforts to undermine our healthcare system. i hope very much that my colleagues will come instead to the table and work with us to make healthcare more affordable. because we need to take real action to lower healthcare costs. including addressing the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs. i stand ready to work with anybody who is serious about doing that. the american people consistently and repeatedly ask us to do

that. they solve problems every day at home, the least they can expect of all us here is to do it in washington. thank you. >> thank you to my three colleagues for their great remarks. questions. [ inaudible question ] >> no, there are no reports that iran has violated the agreement. to me, the greatest worries from iran are not right now the nuclear side. but rather what they're doing in syria, what they're doing with hezbollah and rockets. with an agreement on those issues. it's not been violated in any way.

you're making it harder to go after hezbollah. yo you're making it harder to come to a north ckorea deal [ inaudible question ] >> when i read what was happened

i was aghast. i was glad he quickly stepped down. [ inaudible question ] >> come on, mitch. [ inaudible question ] >> 62% of all americans are for legalization of marijuana. we just called for decriminalization and let each state decide. don't have federal enforcement in the states. so i think this is something >> i'm not going to speculate until we see the results. [ inaudible question ] >> the story came out at 7:00, he stepped down at 10:00. he did the right thing. and i'm glad he did. [ inaudible question ]