tv Happening Now FOX News February 27, 2017 8:00am-9:01am PST
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>> bill: shall be go to washington? >> shannon: yes, we are going to go down. i will entertain you. we will see you there tomorrow. >> bill: you got it. >> shannon: poor faye dunaway! >> bill: it was not their fault. pray to see tomorrow! ♪ >> jenna: a busy week and getting underway in washington, requesting an increase in defense spending. be prepared to address the joint session of congress. hello, everybody could hope you are off to a great day so far. i am jenna lee. >> jon: that will be most watched tv, i am jon scott. expected to talk more about the agenda including overhauling obamacare and the tax code printed this morning the white house is holding a meeting with the nation's governors coming a day listening session with health insurance and victims. this all comes as we talk about how the white house is cracking
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down on staff who could be leaking information to the media. chief white house correspondent on more on that. >> the president's address to the joint sessions of congress tomorrow night is a big opportunity for him to move the ball forward. so far what has been coming out of the white house has been a lot of executive action, now the president is taking aim on the legislative side of things telling congress that he wants a chance to fill in a lot of the blanks from his and a girl out of the dress back on january the 20th, we are told that tomorrow night's address will really pursue two themes, one on public safety. the other is economic opportunity. here's what he told the governor's association just a few hours ago. >> this budget will be a national security budget. very much based on those two, barry many other things, it will be very strong. it include defense spending and filling the depleted military of the united states at a time when
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we most need it. you will be hearing about that tomorrow night in great detail. >> in terms of the budget increase for the military, the president is proposing to ask for an additional $54 billion in spending for the military. you might remember back in the 1980s, president reagan increased spending by $120 billion. that was over the course of six or seven years. of the president plans to increase it by half of that amount in just a single year. we'll also ask for cuts to other agencies to pay for it. he has pledged within the short term to leave for medicare and medicaid alone. he is going to focus on increased border security, taking care of veterans, items that he has acted on in his campaign. in terms of economic opportunity, focusing on tax reform tomorrow night. regulatory reform has already been acted on that. education, job creating and health care reform. he wants to get obamacare done quickly so that he can move on to tax reform.
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that is his signature a dry agenda item from the campaign. and from the president, talking about in infrastructure fund. you are looking at the shocked price. the reason is that the white house took dramatic action last week to try to plug slap the leaks that have been coming out of the administration. sean spicer was involved in a meeting of small assistance a little while ago. something leaked out from nouns. he called them back together again last tuesday, asked them to put their phones down on the table. and proceeded to tell them that some journalists had been informing him that people have been using apps that signal information back and forth to reporters. sean spicer reminded his staff that using apps like that run a foul of the federal records app, so he asked them to delete those. he also asked to see their phones and check a couple of numbers that he was looking forward to see if people had contacted certain numbers. i'm assuming they belong to certain journalists who have
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believed information. i am told in addition to the white house phones, he also asked to see the personal phones, but it was a request and then a demand. it did not run any privacy laws. but it shows you that the white house is ready to get to the bottom of some of the leaks that they believe have been plaguing their agenda. they are trying to keep them off balance a little bit. under siege, if you will. they are determined to try to put to the best of their ability stopping the leaks from coming out here. it will be difficult because there are an awful lot of people who are leaking. >> jon: a lot of fingers to put in to stop that. thank you very much, john roberts. >> jenna: those repeated leaks have been no major frustration for the trump administration, last tuesday that same day that sean spicer called that meeting that john roberts just reported on. i spoke that morning with deputy white house press secretary, sarah huckabee about why such a cause for concern, take a look. >> any closer to finding out who
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is behind those leaks? >> i do not know if there is a pinpointed person that we have identified. but i do know that something that the president and the white house takes extremely seriously. >> because there is such an emphasis coming in because they take it so seriously, have the white house or has the white house done anything proactively internally amongst your own team to make sure security is ready. is there any additional vetting? just to be sure that the white house is secure? >> i'm not going to go into the details of the policy on how that operates, but i do know that it is something that we take very seriously. we are monitoring, and taking every effort to make sure that it does not continue. >> jenna: joining me now, the deputy editor for "the wall street journal," we have a lot to talk about. but here we are talking about leaks. that conversation on tuesday morning with the white house, i do not know if it has anything to do with type pulling back what happened later that afternoon, i do not even know t,
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quite frankly. but it is one of those coincidences that happen, i guess. what do you make of the fact that the leaks continue to be one of the top news stories? >> well, i think it suggests that the white house understands that they do have a problem. the problem is internal. you have a lot of staffers in there now, a lot of people that are new to government. i have to tell you, jenna, it sounds like some of them have been watching too many segments of "house of cards." they think that is the reality of washington, it is not. the fact that they get into the white house and you immediately start to do cryptic emails with the outside with reporters, it can be destructive to the president's agenda. i think that sean spicer did the right thing to sit down with his staff and have a come to jesus meeting about the rules of the road. i know that's white house is extremely upset, and they have attacked the press, but we know that the reporters do not make the stories up out of air. they are talking to people who give them the information.
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so if the white house wants to conduct an internal review or even an internal investigation, that is their business. but we get into these areas where you are investigating both the leakers internally and then the reporters, there is a very fine line that can get covered. we have been through this with the obama administration which conducted investigations from this network and the associated press. i do not think that the presidency wants to get into those waters. >> jenna: that is very interesting that you point that out. the reason that i was asking the question last week was because we have the news of the new national security advisor, somebody new in that position, my question was about the security or the conversations. topped by a top secret conversations that have to happen. you asked an interesting question as we look at this topic as well. it is in your column at "the wall street journal" over the last couple of days coming and you ask why is the mayhem happening? you are talking about the relationship between the white house and the press, what answer did you come up with
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about why there is mayhem or the appearance of it? >> i think part of it is the excitement of a presidential campaign. a lot of these people in the white house worked on the presidential campaign. we all understand that the excitement, the drama of the campaign is almost a national narcotic. it is hard to let it go. but there is a big difference between the excitement of a campaign, all of the entry, so forth into the actual act of governing, being president of the united states. the presidency is an institution inside the larger structure of government. it is not just one person running for the presidency. i think that a lot of people who are around mr. trump, and perhaps trump himself have to make that transition from the excitement of an extraordinary campaign to the idea that it is now time to govern. and i suspect that that that is what we are going to see you tomorrow night in this speech to the joint session of congress. >> jenna: i want to ask you more in a moment, but critics
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say that the obama administration called obama commander-in-chief. it is interesting to hear what is happening with the trump campaign now, the presidency. do you see any sort of crossover, although very different when it comes to politics and policies, simply with the way that the white house is functioning? >> well, the permanent campaign was a phrase coined many years ago. and it was an idea that you cannot become president, but that the politics of the campaign had two improved on the presidency. there is no question that barack obama did that. he was the first president who did not to disband his campaign operation. it was kept up and running all through his term. there was a lot of social media involved there. the president speeches were intended to animate the base. and i think that to a certain expect, you cannot get away from that page donald trump is a master at doing that thing. but it is very telling that in the recent "wall street journal" poll, you have 40% of the
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country saying that they disapprove of mr. trump himself come about 55% of the people who voted for trump either because they did not want hillary clinton in, they want his policies to succeed. that is the distinction. we are no longer in a mode where it is a personality driven campaign. most americans have goodwill for the president i think. they will begin to prosecute the substance of their agenda. >> jenna: and a reminder of the patriotism out there when we are reminded about how divided we all are. if there are among us. that's kind of emphasizes wide tomorrow night is so important. here we have had the first 40 or so days of the trump presidency, there is going to be a big address, some would suggest that this is where there is a little bit of a reset. the president has less stage if you will, and we can set the agenda for the next 40 days, the next four years. how crucial is tomorrow night?
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what are you going to be watching for? >> i'm going to be watching for the policy speech. we are finally getting to the point is i was suggesting, not the meal are dealing with the institution, but the institution of the congress. and that means legislation. first off it is going to be the obamacare repeal and replace, then the tax bill, we are getting an infrastructure bill tomorrow. all of those issues are going to go into congress, into the separate committees. he will have the chairman's, and obviously we will have some intense politicking going on over the obamacare repeal and replace details. and that is the way that it should be in washington. that is real politics. of the white house will engage with the congress. the congress will be talking to the white house all the time. there will be a lot of orchestrating going on. but this is a more normalized atmosphere since we expect to see it in washington. and my guess would be that the president is going to try to
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sort of lay his cards on the table with the congress, both sides of the aisle. it was be interesting to see a few tries to reach out, democrats seem to be in a mode where they are in total resistance. i don't think chuck schumer wants to remain throughout this year. that is the sort of thing that i would be looking for. how much detail on the legislation? how much politics is the president going to submit himself to? >> jenna: we will also be watching for the other things, how many applause there are, who greets the president. all of the sideshow. but it is normal. i think that you need air quotes. it is great to have you on the program as always. >> thank you, jenna. >> jon: politics playing out in washington, d.c., but also in hollywood on its biggest night at the oscars. live in los angeles with more on that. jonathan. >> hey, pretty much everybody expected politics to be center stage at the oscars, nobody expected the disastrous best picture award moment that the
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ceremony would actually be best remembered for. more on that in a moment, but first the politics, host jimmy kimmel sets the tone with may be a relatively good-natured swipe at president. mocking the tweets several weeks ago about meryl streep being overrated. >> stand up if you would come everybody please join me and giving meryl streep an undeserved round of applause, will you? the highly overrated meryl streep, everyone. nice dress, by the way. is that an ivanka? >> he also trolled donald trump from the stage, mr. trump did not respond. the iranian director of the "salesman" did not travel to the oscars as a protest against the immigration policies. and a couple of other celebrities noted the contribution of immigrants to
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hollywood. politics was swept aside by the disastrous announcement of the best picture winner that was not the winner. warren beatty and faye dunaway made the announcement that nato had one man, but they were given the wrong card. as the producers gave their acceptance speeches, chaos unfolded. >> i'm sorry. there is a mistake. "moonlight," you have won best picture. this is not a joke. i'm afraid that they read the wrong thing. this is not a joke! "moonlight" has won best picture! >> the accounting company that is in custody of the envelopes, they admitted the mistake was theirs. they handed the wrong envelope to warren beatty, they are investigating. >> jon: jimmy kimmel do not do anything without. thank you. >> jenna: some new developments in the trump administration and strained relationship with the press, the
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>> jon: a lot of calls on capitol hill to investigate russia and leeks, the intel committee chairman of the house, devin nunes is holding a news conference right now. we will listen in. >> it appeared in a new story somewhere. >> you are still investigating then? munication's between trump campaign advisors and russian known u.s. intelligence, perhap perhaps? >> i would not to limit it to trump only or trump officials come i would say that it would be also any contact with any political candidates at any level including in the the dash united states or any other form country. >> are you saying that there were clinton advisors that were
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speaking? >> no, let's not. there would be no evidence of that nor is there any evidence that i have been given about trump advisor speaking to russians. we do know for a long time that the russians have been very interested in manipulating elections, manipulating the press. they are very good at propagand propaganda. that is what caused me a year ago to come out and criticized the intelligence agencies for the largest intelligence failure since 9/11, because of the lack of good intelligence that we were getting on putin's plans and intentions. so, that is why i really appreciate the amount of press that showed up here today. because we do need to have some scrutiny put onto the russian government. and we do need to know if there are any americans that are talking to russians. and anybody connected to the russian government or russian agents, but at this time i want to be very careful that we cannot just go on a witch hunt
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against americans because they appear on new story somewhere. >> by americans, do you mean -- >> any americans. i think specifically there was a more important question on that, there were three americans of which the only name that i know -- >> jon: chairman of the house committee talking about his investigation in russian meddling in the u.s. elections. in the meantime, president trump is leading a listening session with health insurance ceos, listen in. >> we are going to straighten it out. we have a plan that is going to be fantastic. it will be released fairly soon. we will be talking about it tomorrow night during the speech. i think it is going to be something special. we will talk about it right now. i think that we will get you on coming on will like you are going to hear. thank you for being here. i want to thank tom price who is with us, and he is doing a
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phenomenal job on a very complex subject. the subject of health care. he is an advocate for the patients. he is all about the patients. that is what he wants. he wants to have a great health care system. obamacare has been a disaster. it is only getting worse. last year alone, obamacare premiums increased by double digits. since, it has gone into effect premiums are up by almost 100% in many areas. and i think that this year it is going to be really the year that i have always been predicting, 17 is going to be a catastrophic year for obamacare payments coming in to take a look at what is happening in various states like arizona, i believe it was up 116%, it will be worse this year. it forces providers to limit the plan options that they give to patients and causes them to drive prices way up. now a third of the united states counties are down to one insure insurer. and it ensures of flame, you
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people know that better than anybody. since obamacare went into effect nearly half of the insurers have stopped and have stopped from participating in the obamacare exchanges. it has gotten so bad that nearly 20 million americans have chosen to pay the penalty or receive an exemption rather than by insurance. that is something that nobody has ever heard of or thought could happen. and today are actually doing that rather than enforcing to buy insurance. we must work together to save americans from obamacare. everybody knows that at this point. we need to create more competition and bring down the prices substantially. the chaos that obamacare has created, and which were congressional democrats are alone and responsible for requires swift action. i actually told the republicans that if we did nothing, just do nothing for a two year period, let obamacare completely implode, and that is what is happening, that would be the best thing that we could do.
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just let it implode, then people will come begging. the democrats will come begging to do something to help them out of a jam. once we start doing it, we inherit the problem. we take over the problem. it is ours. but it is the right thing to do for the american people. i think allowing this to go on is a mistake. so i am asking second price to work with you and stabilize the insurance markets. and to ensure a smooth transition to the new plan. it will be aimed a great plan for the patients coming in for people. hopefully for the company is. it is going to be a very competitive plan. and costs will come down. i think that health care will go up very, very substantially. i think that people will like it. we are taking the best of everything we can take. it is our hope that democrats will stop the obstruction and resistance. that is what they have. in fact they have a sign, resist, resist. they want to resist everything. including cabinet members.
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i remember he many members that have not been approved yet. all of whom are going to be approved, but they take forever. it is called obstruct and resist. i hope that i did not give them a new phrase, because the real phrase is resist. i am good at branding. i should not have done that. we'll see them now come out, obstruct and resist. at least i can take credit for it. and they work for us. we are hopefully going to work with the democrats, because ultimately we are all people that's love this country, and we want to do the right thing, including reforms like expanded health care, savings account, and the ability to purchase across state lines. they are so important for competition. everybody has wanted to do it for years. what's not to do, so that is going to be very important. i want to thank you all for being here, i want you to know that it is an honor to do business with you. it is a great honor to have you in the white house.
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and we look forward to providing health care that is extraordinary. better than any other country anywhere in the world. and we can do that. we have the talent, we have the capacity. and we have the people. we are working on that together. we can may be before the press leaves just introduce yourself and your company. and the public will get to see what you are about to. and if things are not working out, i'm blaming you anyway. we will start with brad. >> thank you mr. president. i appreciate the opportunity to be here. i am the president and ceo of blue cross blue shield of north carolina. pleased to represent our 3 million customers here today. >> chairman and ceo -- >> matt iles, we represent all health insurance plans in washington, d.c., including a plan to cover medicaid managed care. >> burris, ceo. >> i am the ceo of the blue
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shield plan in florida. >> i am from the unitedhealth group. we are a diversified health care company. about 230,000 employees. we serve about 120 million americans. and we are contributing to new jobs. we have 35,000 jobs in the last ten years. and 5000 in the coming year. we are an admission of enterprise. we help to make the system work for everyone. >> thank you very much. >> i am from sigma corporation, we are global health service company. >> i'm from blue cross blue shield association. >> 108 million, that is a pretty big group, right? >> good morning, mr. president. i am joe swedish with anthem, we are in 40 states, representing 40% of the american public. 40 million members, we are involved in the individual spoke for about seven decades.
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and deeply embedded in the affordable care act situation that has evolved over the last three years. i do not want to miss the opportunity for the swift and decisive action that occurred most recently regarding some adjustments that have never been around. thank you very much. >> it is going to be an implosion, we had to step in. >> i am bernard tyson, ceo of the foundation health care for the military. we cover 11.7 million americans. we also are integrated delivery system, so we provide coverage and the care. and we have permanent medical groups that contract associate lee with health care planning. we are proud to care for 11.7 million people. >> i am dan hilferty, i am based in philadelphia. we are in 32 states and the district of columbia, a large medicaid care population. we do, we are the only player on
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the exchange in the philadelphia area. and i would like to echo jo's point, we are thrilled with the initial steps to stabilize the market. we look forward to working with you, vice president. and we want to work with second price and make sure that we have a sustainable program for years to come. >> thank you very much coming into the market as we know, when we talk about the market, it is disastrous. it is going to absolutely implode. that is why we are meeting today. we are going to come up with something where not only will the market be ready, but people will be taking care of. i think quite easily, thank you very much. thank you, everybody. >> thank you, let's go this way. >> do you support the prosecution in russia? >> thank you. thank you. take care. good-bye.
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>> jon: one of the highlights of that bit of video tape came right there at the end when nbc news asked the president about any connection he has had with russia, you might have just caught it at the end, we heard the president say as the camera was pending up, he said, i have not called russia in ten years. just ahead of that was a press availability with evan nunez, the house intelligence committee chair who is investigating. his midi is investigating russian meddling in the u.s. elections. and you heard of it at that. that was from chairman nunes. meeting with the top insurance companies, he is promising to repeal and replace obamacare. that's press availability is still going on right now on capitol hill, this is life, let's take you back there now. >> the community beginning, presenting evidence to you.
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is that being turned over to the committee or housed in the intelligence committee? that is one of the contentious issues right now. but it's where the information is housed. we will probably have some here, some may remain at the agencies. >> do you have any evidence at all about anybody in the white house directly discussing the issue, any issues with the russian ambassador, anybody in the white house doing that? >> no, i think the whole issue with general flynn, he is an american war hero, one of the dutch putting together one of the greatest military machines in our history. if providing intelligence to get al qaeda away from iraq, and he was a national security advisor designee. he was taking multiple calls a day from ambassadors, from foreign leaders. and look, i know this because the foreign leaders were contacting me trying to get in touch with the transition team and folks that wanted to meet
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with president trump or president-elect trump, and vice president elect pence. >> did he tell them anything? >> i find that hard to believe because they were so busy. i know these conversations are short. >> did you finalize any of the scope of investigation or do you plan to coordinate with the senate side? >> we are separate bodies, but we will, we will have a scoping document that we will approve, i think it has been finished now. and probably just have some brief outlines of what we will be looking at. look, you all know what we are going to be looking at. it is not rocket science. >> you will not to look up the record? >> i would not rule it out. i would not pull it out. we will try to work with the senate where possible. i view that as two separate branches of the legislative branch of government, yes.
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>> is there a difference between the white house asking you to call a reporter is asking the fbi to knock down particular things? >> i do not think, first of all the white house talking to, having a reporter asked the white house, hey, can you get a hold of whatever member of congress. i do not think there is any issue there. i do not know what the story is about. as it relates to the fbi. i believe what happened as i understand it in my limited conversations that i have had is that i just think it was an obvious question if there is no evidence here, can you talk about it? and the fbi normally does not talk about leaks and whether or not they are investigating on it or any issues of who is under investigation. i think it is pretty standard for the fbi not to comment on it. it is pretty unusual if they do comment on it. and so, obviously -- i do not
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even know how true that story is. i would go to the white house and ask, what's conversations actually occurred. i do not think that there are many. i think that they are pretty simple. >> what do you think about starting the investigation? >> so just to make sure that you understand what caused me to go out to a year ago and say that the biggest intelligence failures since 9/11 was our failure to understand putin's plans and intentions, what's because that was that we were constantly investigating the russia problems. so all we are doing is adding additional things that we are looking at. >> jon: that is chairman of the house committee devin nunes, talking about his investigation of russian meddling into the elections. and whether or not that took place. how serious the issue is. we have heard of course that it is an issue that is rolling around in washington right now with trump and his team. they are saying the bigger issue is the leaks about it and that
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the fbi has basically said that the russian meddling is much ado about nothing. we will continue to monitor what the governor says and if he breaks anymore news, we will bring it to live. ♪ >> i want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. it is fake, phony, fake! a few days ago i called the fake news the enemy of the people, and today our! they are the enemy of the people! i am against the people that make up stories and makeup sources. they should not be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name! let their name be put out there. let their name be put out. >> jon: that is president trump blessing the media again as he announced his decision to skip a very big annual event involving the press in washington. over the weekend he tweeted that
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he would not be visiting the association dinner this year. please wish everybody well and have a great evening. joining us now, jeff mason, he is the president of the white house correspondents association. he is also white house correspondent. it is my understanding that you had no clue that the boycotts of your big events was coming. >> we did not have a warning, no. it came out of the blue on saturday nights. and that is fine. it is the president's decision whether or not he wants to attend. he is invited to come. and if he continues -- just decides to stick with that decision, than it does not have an impact on our dinner. as long as we are still having that dinner, we will be celebrating the first amendment on april 29th. we will be talking about the good work that our members have done over the last year. and we will be celebrating the next generation of our administration by giving scholarships out to terrific journalism students. >> jon: but you would prefer to have the president they are,
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wanted to you? >> the president is invited to come. the presidents have been coming for decades. the last president not to come was president reagan when he was recovering from being shot. >> jon: curious me, because it is said that one of the drivers of now president trump's decision to run for the presidency came when he attended the white house correspondents dinner back in 2011, and then president obama gave him a pretty hard time from the podium. that has been much shown. those images of now president trump sitting there in the audience and taking sort of a ribbing from the president. it seems like he would want to attend your event. >> i've certainly heard that as well. that that was one of the origins for him running for president. i cannot confirm that. we do take some joking around at
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that dinner, both sides. the president in the past usually makes sort of a funny speech, and then we have an entertainer who make some jokes as well. i think that it is okay to be able to poke fun at each other on a few things once in a while. the overall theme of the dinner is a serious one. it is one that celebrates journalism. we like to have presidents come to that. but if this president decides not to, then we will still be upholding the traditions in the principles. >> jon: let's talk about the relationship between this white house and the press that is covering it. i imagine that you have been a busy guy, not only filing reports, but just trying to manage the mail that is swarming around you right now. >> yes, it has been busy. we work hard to make a constructive relationship with this white house. both sides have been working on that. we have been largely successful in many ways. it is worth noting that we have had daily briefings by sean spicer. that was in the press briefing room almost every day since i have come into office.
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there was a gaggle on floor a where many news organizations were not included. that was not something that we were happy about. but the broader aspect of him doing daily briefings has been positive. we continue to ask questions of the president. that is set against a background of a very negative tone against the media that president trump has set. those are some of the things that he has said about the media being the enemy of the american people, obviously positions that we reject. the media is a critical part of american democracy. we uphold that by coming to work every day. >> jon: what if that is contention, the unidentified sources that should not be permitted in stories coming out of his white house? >> i think that journalists always prefer to have named sources in their stories. that is something that i certainly prefer to have in my story as well. but that has to be a two way street. sources have to agree to go on the record. if president trump instructs all
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of his staff to speak on the record, then i think that we would welcome putting names in our stories. but that is not a practice that a lot of white house officials follow. and the truth is that a lot of sources are not able to share information on the record. enter information information is still very important to get into the story. >> jon: sean spicer, the secretary's hair is pretty short, but he is pulling a lot out over leaks. is it you're feeling that there are more leaks in this white house than there were in the obama white house? >> i have no way of gauging that. that is not something that i would be able to comment on. but i do know that reporters work hard to get information to put in their stories and break news. sometimes leaks are a part of that. >> jon: and what about the president's contention that the press is the enemy of the american people. we just touch on that, but expand. >> it is simply not the case. the press has a long history by the first amendment of the u.s. constitution to be a force in the united states.
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and to be a positive force for reporting the truth and for being really part of a checks and balances of the system. that is what we are doing. that is what we do by showing up to work every day. that is what journalists do who do not cover the white house, but other agencies in washington, other places and issues around the country and around the world. i would include my colleagues who cover war zones answer that. it is important work what journalists do. and naturally not every president is going to like the coverage that he gets. that is not a new phenomenon under president trump, but it is our job to keep telling ghost stories. we would encourage the administration to respect that just as we respect the work that they are doing and their work with us. >> jon: i am sure that you have some stories to tell today, so we will get back to it. jeff mason from the white house association. thank you. speak to a shortage of firefighters becoming a crisis, what is behind it and what can be done to turn things around?
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>> jon: press secretary sean spicer taking steps to stop the leaks coming out of this white house. reportedly even surprising staffers with random phone checks. it comes as president trump's plans to the media and to sizing anonymous sources in stories. former president george w. bush defending the free press in an interview just this morning. >> i consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. we need an independent media to hold people like me to accounts. i mean, power can be very addictive. it can be corrosive. >> jon: we are going to talk about all of that with christopher bransford, christopher, with apologies, i want to listen to governor scott walker in wisconsin right now. he has been meeting with the president along with other governors. we were listening for just a
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moment. >> we know from the questions that we hear today, if we do nothing, and it was noted politically, for republicans maybe it would be great if we did nothing. over the next two years, people would lose coverage because obamacare is falling apart and because insurers are pulling out and giving up. that is why we see rates like we saw in my neighboring state in minnesota, going up 67%. losing active coverage because people are coming out of the markets because of the failure of obamacare. one of the things that you all in the media need to do better on is it that pointing out if nothing happens, problems happen per people in this country and in our states. so we are here to partner with the president, the vice president of the administration and the congress, because we do not want to do what may be politically better for that, to prove it by letting things sit and stalling with the failure of obamacare. instead as governors, we are glad to hear a president who is
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ready to fix it despite whether it would be politically advantageous or not to do so. but what we were place is really about replacing things in a way that ensure that we have access to affordable health care options for all of our citizens in our states across the country. and that along with it, we actually reformed things. we have the ability, many other states have stepped up to put out reform. and places in america that i do not just talk about access to affordable health care, but go even further when it comes to things like medicaid, and that is empowering the states to help people transition from government dependence to true independence for the dignity that comes from work. and as governors, we are committed to doing that. we are so happy to have a president and a vice president that are willing to collaborate with us, partner with us. and to most importantly will start laying out how he
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understands, as we do, that many people are scared because of what is happening with obamacar obamacare. they need our compassion no more than ever to recognize that we hear their concerns. we are going to fix the problems of obamacare. we are going to lay out a path going forward that ensures that people will have the choice is that they want. not that the government wants when it comes to health care. and so, we are pleased to be with the president today. we will defer to his state of the union later in the week. we will be laying out some of the things that we hope that it will have. but we differ to the president of the united states. want to give him a chance to lay out the details. and then later this week we will be laying out some of the specifics that we have been talking with him and his administration's about. jump right in. >> i want to address, as governor of kentucky, you have often heard our state used as an example to counter the statement that was just made as to the
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abject failure of obamacare? and it has been a failure, not just an average, not just in a broad strike. it has been individually state-by-state a failure. in kentucky, long been flaunted as an example of the opposites, i am telling you as a matter fact that it has been an unmitigated disaster. the whole point of health care coverage is of no value if you do not create better health outcomes. and i think that's the point that was just noted should not get lost in the course of this entire dialogue. it will be a repeal. there will be a replacement. it is not lost on those governors here are our president, our vice president, and not on the administration and secretary price, or an any other governor that i'm aware of. you cannot replace something without thinking about what will come in the place. and in an order it -- an amount
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of discussion going on about that. we want better health outcomes, simply providing coverage. that is something that i would challenge all of you to realize. it is not purely about coverage, but it is about access to and the receiving of health care so that both have better health outcomes. >> jon: that's kentucky governor talking about the meeting that they just had. the nation's governors just had with president trump and his vice president as well. obviously health care and obamacare, one of the top issues on the agenda. 46 of the nation's governors get together in washington, d.c., this week to meet with the president and try to hash out some policies that work. so, we were about to introduce christopher bedford about the leaks coming out of the white house. he mentioned that sean spicer
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actually got so frustrated with the fact that he had a meeting about leaks, and leaks coming out of the white house, and then details of that meeting were leaked. so we called all of the staff and, he had them throw their phones on the table. and he examined them to see whether or not they might be the source of all of this. let's talk about it now with christopher bedford, editor and chief of "the daily caller news foundation." how frustrated is he right now? >> he must be losing his mind. and i'm torn. because on the one half, reporters, we got a lot of stuff off of people leaking and talking to us. but as an editor-in-chief, i have to manage people. if i had a meeting with my reporters and said, hey, stop doing something. and then moments later it was printed. they did exactly that. i would be losing my mind. this white house has more leaks than the iraqi navy, and causing soap opera drama for the first month or so. >> jon: you can see the frustration on the part of the president as well. he is calling journalists the
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enemies of the american people. what do you make of that? >> i kind of like the one move by donald trump to say that i will not attend your little party which is filled with a bunch of celebrities, want to be celebrities. and i would think that most people that are watching right now, but he does go too far when he calls them the enemy of the people. it puts the press in a difficult situation. a lot of it is detractors and media that call out everything he does. but when he uses a soviet term like enemy other people, nobody is listening anymore. it is like the boy who cried wolf. i would like them to snub them a little bit more, i'm not coming to your party. but enemy other people to describe the media, that goes a little too far. >> jon: he suggests that the leaking of information is the bigger issue rather than some of the contents of the information, especially on issues like russia and whether russia meddled in the u.s. elections but how do you see that?
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>> i think the most disturbing story that we have seen has not been fighting, brawling, phone calls to ambassadors, but phone calls between michael flynn and the russian ambassador leaked by the united states intelligence. recordings of the phone calls. the u.s. deep state, the agency, somebody in them sending information out to a democratically elected president's advisors. to undermine them, they'll most frightening thing that i've seen in the last year. >> jon: christopher bedford, editor of the daily news foundation. thank you for hanging in with us. we had a little bit of a -- >> news! >> jon: thank you. >> thank you. >> jon: some alarming new details in "the wall street journal" reports, fire departments around the country are facing a shortage of young, able volunteers. the reports has a number of volunteers has fallen 10% from 1984, while a call volume has tripled a pit one fire chief says that the problem is
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reaching crisis proportions. new york city firefighter and chief kevin quinn, chairman of the national volunteer fire council. give us a sense, chief, up the scope of the problem. 70% of the firefighters or firefighting companies in the nation are volunteers? >> yes, sir. 70% of all firefighters are volunteers. there is a shortage. it is not so much the shortage of personnel, it is the shortage of the aging of our population. it is critical that we look at the next generation of firefighters to fill in to take my place when i am out of the business in a few years. >> jon: why are they younger people not signing up? >> well, first of all i believe that it is a public image that we have to kind of person who and make sure that the residents in the towns that have a volunteer fire departments are
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aware that there is indeed of volunteer fire department thing and that they are seeking quality candidates. we have to do a better job of promoting ourselves as a volunteer fire department in our own community. so part of the problem lies within our roles as fire leaders. we have to make sure that we are looking for a few good men and women. >> jon: you are a paid firefighter, but you are also a volunteer firefighter before that, right? so how do you see the questions in attracting volunteer firefighters? >> it is more and more difficult. at the training requirements have increased tremendously. the families are getting squeezed because both parents are working a full-time job. so things have to fall off of that table. unfortunately volunteering is one of them. my kind of solution to it is that we have a whole community, over 22 million military veterans who are younger, well,
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a lot of them are younger. they are in good shape. they use the military structure and command, and that is the perfect environment for them to recruits. >> jon: has anybody reached out? are you aware of an effort to strike up interest in recently retired members of the armed services? >> i am with the petty brown program also, and we are working with the veterans to get them into paid first responder jobs. but now that the problem has been brought to our attention. we are happy to help with the national volunteer fire council and the d.a., put these two groups together. >> jon: kevin, give us your best sales pitch. why should a young man or woman, maybe even middle-age, why should they consider becoming a volunteer firefighter? >> tim just had coming and tim, thank you for your service. we are marketing. we are marketing the veterans for sure, because they are but
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they have the stamina. volunteers and fire service itself is entirely military, so veterans, they are a key to what we have. so we are looking to mirror our communities, and reaching out to the female population as volunteers. much of our incidents are medical versus fires. so the female population is a crocs. looking out the demographic of the community and mirroring that is critical and being inclusionary and diversified is what we are looking to do. international volunteers -- >> jon: go ahead. >> international volunteer fire council, we have a portal with which we call make me a firefighter.org. that the solution based to getting people through the doors. so working with the va, working with tim brown and your organization would help us promote the make me a firefighter campaign.
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>> we will see you back here in an hour, "outnumbered" starts right now. >> we begin with a fox news alert, breaking developments on capitol hill. some of the governors are speaking after a meeting with the president. if they discussed the looming issue of repealing and replacing obamacare. this is "the wall street journal," g.o.p. leaders could set a villains home motion to repeal the health care law as early as this week. this is "outnumbered," i am harris faulkner, meghan mccain, host of kennedy kennedy, kennedy, also dagen mcdowell, and #oneluckyguy, judge andrew napolitano.
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