>> the fabulist joined us for an hour and we were better because of it, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me, i had a blast. >> guess what is next, "happening now" now. >> fox news alert as we are awaiting the daily white house press briefing that is set to start any minute. >> jenna: white house press secretary sean spicer will step to the podium less than 24 hours after president trump told republican lawmakers it is now or never when it comes to repealing and reprising obamacare. the stakes were high, we are covering the news "happening now." >> for seven and a half years, we have been promising the american people we will repeal and replace this broken law because it is collapsing on its failing families. >> jenna: republicans delivering on that promise, countdown for that vote today that could hurt or help the president's agenda. plus, london's top anti-terror

officer says there have been more significant arrests in the wake of that attack that has left the u.k. and the rest of europe on edge. it is all "happening now" ." but we begin with us fox news alert come over moments away from the white house press briefing as we await what looks to be a razor-thin vote on the g.o.p. bill to replete do not repeal and replace obamacare, welcome to an eventful second hour of "happening now," i am jenna lee. >> leland: it could be a long afternoon in washington, i am leland vittert in for jon scott. the stakes could not be any higher as we await the white house press briefing on screen right, we know speaker of the house paul ryan is at the white house white 8 right now. screen right is the debate raging right now on the house floor. this after president trump issued an ultimatum to his own party, telling them to get this bill across the finish line today.

according to the president, we are going to all have to live with obamacare. >> jenna: also at this moment we should point out that speaker paul ryan is at the white house. going to bring in our panel, jessica is a democratic strategist and john hart is the editor-in-chief and formic medications director for republican senator of oklahoma tom coburn. great to have you both. if sean spicer speaks to the microphone or we see paul ryan, we will bring our viewers they are. in the meantime, we want to talk about the stakes which are apparently very high which is where we begin our conversation. you say it is much bigger than healthcare, why is that? >> what is at stake is this is a once in a generation moment to get health reform right, does not happen once a year or once a congress, this is the date and the moment. if this bill fails, the house freedom caucus will be declaring war on conservatism. conservatism means constitutional conservatism that allows for compromise, free debate in a pluralistic society.

they cannot have disposition of my way or no way, that doesn't work in our system of government. that is confusing the principles of the american revolution with the french revolution. which was nihilistic. this is the only chance to get it right. >> jenna: you're getting deep here. i appreciate that. knowing the stakes, but as you seek to this point, what is the call for republicans? is it that they should get behind this belt or is it your opinion that they shouldn't, what do you think of the repercussions of that? >> they should absolutely vote for the bill because this is the best chance they have to repeal and replace obamacare period, it is that simple. it is not perfect but it is the first step in a process that is going to develop a new and increasingly strong and robust market system that will help patients across the board. voting no is a vote not just for obamacare come as a vote to continue taxpayer-funded abortion and it is a vote for obamacare to collapse on the very constituents that members were elected to represent her at the stakes could not be higher. >> jenna: politics at play,

content, jessica i am sure you see things differently. how would you sum up the stakes as you see it? not only politically but for the american people. >> i think the stakes are credibly high for the american people. it's really easy to cherry pick what could be wrong with the affordable care act. you can throw it abortion or anything you want but right now, the biggest conversation is what is best for the american people. what we know is that millions of people stand to lose their healthcare coverage, and that is unacceptable. the best thing this administration can do is to scrap this plan and start over. if anything, the stakes are credibly hyper president trump right now. he has to think this is his first big push in congress, and talk which is dominated by his party yet he is losing. that means he has a long four years ahead of him, not to mention that there are 23 members of congress right now who are republicans who represent districts that hillary clinton won in the last election cycle, if they support this legislation, they can count on significant challenges in 2018 and a lot of potential losses.

>> jenna: one of the things we hear from our great producer on capitol hill, you'll hear all of us mention his name, chad, to jessica's point, things are not necessarily going well. it's the perception based on his reporting on capitol hill, that is white speaker ryan is at the white house with president trump. we don't know that for a fact, but this is the reporting we are getting because no one quite frank lee knows what's going on inside the room. what about this self-imposed deadline that this has to happen today? you mentioned this is the only chance. is it really the only chance? why today, why not wait a little bit longer and get it right? >> first of all, republicans have been working on this for 20 years. when i worked for coburn, we did a bill called the patient's choice act that came out nine years ago with paul ryan so this is not something that just developed overnight, there are bills similar to what happened today. what president trump is doing wisely is forcing consensus, issuing an ultimatum to say this is the day.

i don't think he has bluffing, i think he's serious. if congress does not pass the bill come he will walk away. back on logistics points, obamacare has been devastating to families and republicans are doing this because they care about the people being heard by obamacare. president obama said costs would gulp down $2500 a person, they've gone up $3700, that is a $6200 -- >> jenna: let's ask jared dilley mike jessica, more people have healthcare but there is a question about whether or not te healthcare or if they like that health care system they are per dissipating in. would you absolutely before obamacare staying and that being the best thing for america as well as democrats right now? >> okay, let's back up really quick and talk about obamacare being devastating to americans? this new plan will absolutely be devastating. if obamacare was so devastating to the american people, then why did the republicans keep so much of it in their new plan? why did they create a program?

>> jenna: just to point out one of the reasons i'm asking this question is so many democrats lost seats in the last election so that might be the way the american people were expressing their discontent with some of the policies put forward by democrats. >> there is a strong case to be made further certain parts of the affordable care act that could be amended, but to scrap the entire plan, which by the way, the republicans are not doing, they are keeping a substantial amount of it, i think it is little bit foolish to not address the thing that hurts people the most and that is the rising cost of care. premiums will go up under this new plan, people will lose their care, you're not incentivizing healthy people to join the market come here actually incentivizing them to leave. >> jenna: premiums are going massively up which is part of the problem, isn't it? >> what is so weird about this entire conversation is that we keep talking about what happened under the obama administration, what we need to be talking about is what will happen under this new policy. it is undeniable that premiums

will go up. that is the conversation we need to be having because people can't wait on care. they cannot wait for the six years to pass for things to get better and more affordable for them. in the meantime, they are people who have significant health struggles, and they cannot wait on a plan that may or may not work out for them. >> jenna: the reason i'm talking about obamacare as i like to talk about reality. that is the reality of our world right now is that we all are living under the healthcare industry with some of the changes that were put in place. there obviously is a healthy debate about whether or not they are good changes are bad changes or whether we should keep them or not, that is where we are today. it is difficult and i appreciate both of you because politics is at play but real people are affected by this bill. and what could come come and republicans have argued that are proponents that this is a multistage effort, we are going to pass the first part that other parts to come but again getting back to reality, we have to deal with only the things that are in this part of the bill because we don't know what

is going to come if it passes, even though that is promised. is that actually fundamentally a problem with the way republicans are going about this right now because they are promising things to come but they cannot guarantee them. >> it's not a promise, just a limitation, there are only certain things you could do in the budget reconciliation process and that is a longer, comp heated conversation. in terms of the premiums, the cbo said premiums will go down on this plan, so that was just not true what jessica said earlier about premiums. >> it was true. >> fundamentally what the bill does is shifts authority from washington back to the individual. and to every other area of the economy whenever you give individuals freedom and you equip them with buying power, then you see competition and cost goes down inequality increases increases and access improves. that is with the republican vision for health reform is. it's about putting you in charge and by putting you in charge, that's a far better way to do me provide care for all. >> jenna: big question,

jessica, there seems to be, i'm talking about my viewers who like to communicate with the social media, the question about trust and like to trust politicians whether they are republicans or democrats with healthcare based on the track record we've seen in the last several decades? there's been trouble on all sides. is this an industry we need more government involvement in any way, is that what democrats are arguing for with the continuation of obamacare if this does not pass? what do you actually see when you look into the future about the government's role in this industry? >> i think people are incredibly exhausted with his healthcare debate because this is not an easy conversation to have appeared republicans and democrats know very well how complicated this is. i think what matters the most are the conversations about what will help drive down costs, but will expand care, quality, affordable care to people who needed them most. right now, we are not seeing that with this plan paid what we are seeing is a lot of fancy rhetoric that covers up how expensive this is going to become, how out of touch it is for people who need care the most.

right now, we are basing the financial assistance that will come with the new plan on people's age instead of their income, how can you possibly make that connection and say this is going to be better for people? >> jenna: that is one of the big complaints in central republicans to say further down the line that will be fixed, but there is a question about whether that is the case. republicans have those questions of other republicans as well. i appreciate both of you, complicated topic in important, we look forward to having you back, thank you. >> leland: fox news alert, it is now late friday afternoon in london, and police say they have now made two more significant arrests, and all now nine people after the terror attacks on wednesday, terrorist himself who drove the car is dead, benjamin hall live outside westminster in london. >> yes, more information coming out about the attacker all the time chemically massoud, he was born in the u.k. but he converted to islam, most tellind also travel to and lived

in saudi arabia and that is certainly one area of focus, he was also using a variety of aliases, just moments before he carried his attack, the man that isis are: one of their soldiers was messaging someone on an app, whatsapp and they are hunting for the sources including those he may have known during living in saudi arabia appeared he was born as adrian, lived a life of petty crime it is that he may have been medicalized in jail like so many other terrorists. today, more significant arrests made, meaning that he would back nine people now held under the terrorism act, 2700 items have also been taken including massive amounts of computer data and more about the american who died, kurt cochran, 54 from utah, his wife remains incredible getting a critical condition and today some friends of his spoke out. >> he was just one of those guys come you know he wanted to be a friend in 5 minutes. >> sadly yesterday, when other person passed away from the

wounds, 75-year-old man who was taken off life support, two police officers remained in serious condition as of the depth told me why rise again but at the moment, please desperately hunting for any associates here in london and around the u.k. >> leland: so many questions as to exactly who was behind this and if you had any help, benjamin hall live outside westminster, thank you. >> jenna: developing news from capitol hill, some headlines coming in right now about the future of the g.o.p. health care bill in it remains very much up in the air. our next guest republican congressman said will vote against the current proposal. he is going to joint as yet explain why. also, we are awaiting today's white house briefing that surely will be informative, one way or the other scheduled to begin just moments and from now. we will bring you back there lift when it gets underway. be right back after a quick break. plus you get a free carfax® report with every listing

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>> jenna: now to the white house and sean spicer. >> press secretary spicer: laying in enormous investment and american energy independence, president trump is moving the project forward in just eight weeks. just as he promised an even better deal for the american people from then before he took office. this project will direct -- directly generate an extra 16,100 jobs according to the state department, all without spending a dime of taxpayer money. in many ways come this project represented everything that was wrong with the infrastructure permitting of the united states. transcanada spent an incredible amount of resources attempting to comply with government regulations only to be denied and delayed for political reasons. but the days of pointless government bureaucracy holding up progress and production have ended. by simply getting excessive duplicate of regulations out of the way, we can make infrastructure projects more attractive and more attractive prospect for private investors and encourage even more projects

like this one. immediately following the announcement by transcanada, the president announced that charter communications has committed to investing $25 billion here in the united states and hiring an additional 20,000 american workers over the next four years. charter communications is truly an example of how american leadership can turn a downward into an amazing success. five years ago, charter communications was a struggling company that had slowly emerged from bankruptcy. today, thanks to the hard work and great leadership of the chairman and ceo tom rutledge, it is the fastest growing television, internet and voice company in the nation. and most important way, as charter grew, americans jobs grew as they brought back many jobs that had previously been shipped overseas. today, charter is also committed to completely closing there offshore call centers replacing them with 100 in the

united states. together, this announcement demonstrates the new economic model of what the president calls "the american model" by slashing job killing regulations and reducing government burdens and lowering taxes, we will make it easier for all businesses to grow right here at home, generating jobs in boosting our economy by getting government out of the way. following these big announcements, the president had lunch with the secretary of the treasury steven mnuchin, he was joined by speaker paul ryan, will update you in a second on that. later in the afternoon, the present will host a greek independence day celebration and as i mentioned yesterday, at 4:00 him he will meet with about two dozen medal of honor recipients to honor medal of honor day which is technically . he is honored to be hosting these great men and women of the armed services, the greatest force for peace and justice the world has ever known. obviously, later today, the house will be voting on the american healthcare act. current vote is scheduled for 3:30, the president has been working the phones and having in-person meetings since the american healthcare act was introduced.

he has left everything on the field when it comes to this bill. the president and congressional republicans promised the american people they would repeal and replace this broken system. obamacare's washington driven one-size-fits-all plan has seven years to prove its case and look what it has left us with, skyrocketing premiums, on average premiums for obamacare benchmark increased to 25% in 2017. unaffordable deductibles, the most popular obamacare plans have deductibles equivalent to 10% and 6% of the median american income. with these high deductibles, people have technical insurance but nothing they can afford to use. fewer choices, one in five americans have only one insurer offering obamacare through exchanges. and of course, higher taxes. key conservative groups like the tea party express and american conservative movement have added themselves to a long list of organizations expressing their support for the american healthcare act because they know it is our chance to have after

the american people have spent years suffering to replace them repeal the nightmare of obamacare. the president looks forward to seeing the house republicans joined with these influential voices and vote in favor of the american healthcare act. the president, as i mentioned, had speaker ryan come up here in visit with him to update him on the bill. they are continuing to discuss the way forward on this. the speaker is updating him on these efforts as i mentioned too many of you, the president has been working throughout the week on this, calling early and starting early in the morning and working late into the night calling members, visiting members, by our own account, 120 members have had a call or visit at the white house in the past few days which is an extraordinary feat. the president and his team have committed everything they can to making this thing have been. the speakers going to continue to update him on the way forwar forward. finally, if you admit a sheet of notes at the end. yesterday come senior level

united states and israeli delegations concluded four days of intensive talks with a particular focus on concrete and near-term measures to improve the overall climate in order to advance the prospects of a genuine and lasting peace between israel and palestine. the united states delegation was led by jason greenblatt, special representative for international negotiation in included representatives from the nsc and department of state paired principal focus of the discussion wasn't specific measures to give a meaningful impact on the economic environment in the west bank and gaza allowing the palestinians to more fully right do not realize their economic potential. two delegations also discussed israeli settlement construction p of the fact that both governments dedicated to such senior delegation for so many days reflects the close cooperation between these countries and the importance that both assigned to this vital task. last night, the president announced his intention to nominate several key additional people to the administration including the deputy

administrator of the small business administration, william francis haggerty to be ambassador to japan, robert the third to be a member of the national transportation safety board, and also this morning of note, the united states district court for the eastern district of virginia upheld the president's revised executive order protecting the nation from foreign people who seek to do us harm into the united states. we are pleased with this really which found the plaintiffs had no likelihood of success on the merits of their claims. as the court correctly noted in its opinion, the president's order falls well within his legal authority to protect the nation's security. we are confident the president's fully lawful and necessary action will ultimately be allowed to move forward through the rest of the court systems. in terms of the schedule for this weekend, the president will spend a working weekend here in washington and will update you with further details regarding his schedule. with that, get to your question questions. >> reporter: it is our understanding you do not have the votes to pass the healthcare

legislation. is that the message that speaker ryan delivered today, and if so, what message do you draw from this process? >> press secretary spicer: i think the speakers currently have a conversation to talk about where the vote stands, he's working with the members as you know the president made a sell, the state group here, tuesday group, 16 members walked out with a "yes." we've had groups of members we have continued to have a conversation with and tried to -- frankly at this point, not a question of negotiating anymore, it's understanding the greater good that is at hand. the president understands this is it. we had this opportunity to change the trajectory of healthcare and to help improve and put a healthcare system in place, and the nightmare that republicans have campaigned on called obamacare. i noted yesterday it was the seventh anniversary of obamacare. we have an opportunity to make sure that was the last one and the question is do members realized this opportunity? there is no question in my mind

at least that the president and the team have left everything on the field, we called every member who had a question or concern, tried to the extent possible take into consideration ideas that would strengthen the bill, and it is now going to be up to the members of the house to decide whether or not they want to follow through on the promise of that. we are going to commute to the met continue to work with the speaker and leadership there toe the votes are, we are getting closer and closer, but you need to get to 216. they've started four hours of debate, i suspect a vote somewhere around 3:30 or the 4:00 hour, see where we go. >> reporter: thank you. we are hearing that paul ryan and mitch mcconnell wanted to do a clean repeal and then replace over time. in retrospect, what that have been a better approach? in in general, do you think paul ryan has handled this well? >> press secretary spicer: i don't know that's entirely the case. i know this was a joint effort, and this is something that the

house determined in terms of the three prong approach that had. i don't know i necessarily agree with the assessment of how that happened. >> reporter: in general, is the white house happy with paul ryan? >> press secretary spicer: i think the speaker has done everything he can and has worked really closely with the president. i think at the end of the day, i said this yesterday paid you cannot force people to vote. but i think we have given them every single reason to fulfill every pledge that they have made, and i think this is the right thing to do. i don't want you to live tweet this. >> reporter: what is the white house view if this is not past, what does it say going forward for the president's agenda? >> press secretary spicer: i have said it before, i do not think you can tie any of these together. i think there is not -- there is a huge appetite for tax return -- tax reform. i'm not trying to juxtapose

anything to do with today's vote or not. i think it would be great to see it put forward. the president has put a lot of time and effort into this and has made a strong case. as to why this has to happen, i think we work for the house. regardless of what happens today, and i still feel optimistic that the speaker in the president and vice president you got a team up on the help most of the day and will tried to continue to get every vote they can, but that does not mean whether it is immigration or tax reform, there still a huge appetite out there. >> reporter: if this fails today, is the president done? >> press secretary spicer: so negative. that is what you are hearing? i haven't heard that yet. why don't we continue with a very positive, optimistic friday. the sun is coming out. i feel really good.

we are going to continue to work as late as we can to get the votes. as i said, the upside is we continue to pick up votes. people continue to say they want to do it, in the question is can we get two to 16? make no mistake about it, the president made it clear last night, this is it. you have an opportunity to do what you told the american people, the commitment we as a party have made. this is your chance to do what we have done. we have listened, incorporated, updated in every way possible. when you look at ledger state of efforts, i think the president has given it his all. i think attract a lot of people frankly how very, very detail oriented, how personal it was for him, calling members as early as 6:00 in the morning and going until 11:00 at night the last several nights, sitting down, meeting after meeting with them, coming back and revising it, having the team back and forth, everything is out there. i think each of these members

needs to make the decision whether or not they believe -- at some point, you can only do so much as what i would honestly tell you. i think everything that we could possibly do to listen to members and get their concerns in this piece of legislation and make it as strong as possible for the american people has been done. >> reporter: is a countable with obamacare continuing? >> press secretary spicer: no, he is not! of course he is not. i'm not even sure where to start with that, he is not which is why he has literally put as much effort as he has into repealing this. and so -- but he has made it clear this is our moment, our opportunity to do it, but it is now up to members to make the decision whether or not they want to be part of this effort to repeal obamacare. if they don't, and i think for a lot of us, you saw the president's tweet, a lot of the members whose life is an important issue as well pay this is an opportunity. it is ultimately them that have to go down to the floor and cast

the vote, and i think we have been able to cast a bunch of votes over the past couple years when you knew the president would not sign it, you now have a president that is going to sign the bill if you passed it. now is that time. >> reporter: president said -- throughout the entire campaign, his vote in message to the american people was he knows how to get deals done and breaks the gray like in washington and he is the closer is what you said. if this vote does go down, what does it say about that president, is the present humbled by the process, and will he reach -- >> press secretary spicer: as i said, i am still optimistic. i feel like we are continuing to work hard. but at the end of the day, you cannot force somebody to do something. i think there is nobody that objectively can look at this effort and say the president did not do every single thing he possibly could with his team to

get every vote possible. i think that is why i still feel good about this. we are what we are. members have to make that decision for themselves. this is the final hour to make that decision. >> reporter: is there any considered consideration to pull the bell? >> jenna: >> press secretary spu guys are so negative. the president and speaker are talking now, the leader and the web are doing their vote counts, the debate is ongoing. we are going to continue in our proceeding with the 3:30 vote as scheduled. >> reporter: if you don't mind, take me to the thinking yesterday when the bill was pulled and then the president made the decision or his team went to the hilt to say there was going to be a vote today. at what point did he make that calculation, why did he, can you bring us through some of that? >> press secretary spicer: a couple things, one, we wanted to be as open as possible with the vote, having it on the current trajectory it was going into the wee hours of the morning, and i

think for all that we have talked about, that was not the appropriate way to vote, i think we decided to work with the house and ask that they postpone and make sure it was done in the light of day. but i think he has had enough discussions. it is not about improving the deal anymore. i think he has taken into consideration every members thoughts and concerns and relayed those to the house. i think to the extent that this balance of trying to get to 216 in this case is such that there are some people that come in with ideas to say if we do that to get your vote, we give up 26 or get these three, i'm giving up 12. i think we have struck the right balance now and incorporated it as the strong as possible bill. but he's going to continue to work as hard as he can until the very end. >> reporter: how important is the vote to the president and white house, wanting to see who is on his side?

>> press secretary spicer: we have seen the whip counts, mr. squeeze has done a phenomenal job with leader mccarthy. we know where the vote count stands, and so we -- we don't need a lifeboat to tell us where the votes are, people have been pretty straightforward with where they are in what their outstanding issues are. >> reporter: the president and speaker meeting right now, can you tell us anything about the character of that meeting or what exactly they are looking at going forward? >> press secretary spicer: they are discussing. they are not looking. they are sitting down and talking about where it stands, some of the outstanding issues, whether they are one or two or five, what are the concerns, outstanding issues of some of the blocks in individualized and having a discussion on that. there somebody that is going to ask when it passes.

you got me, score one for you. >> reporter: if the bill does not pass, does the president still have confidence -- >> press secretary spicer: i think we answer the question earlier. reporter mike do you think he should step down as speaker? >> press secretary spicer: he answer the question earlier. >> reporter: specifically today after the vote whatever happens, how will we get a response from the oval office? >> press secretary spicer: electronically or verbally, one of the two. >> reporter: this is the president's first for a way into the let's say sausage making process so to speak. has even affected at all on the experience, does he feel different like from negotiating a real estate or business deal come as a mark obligated or what are his feelings? >> press secretary spicer: i think we will have to give time to reflect on it after we do this. i will leave it at that for now. >> reporter: without prejudging the outcome -- >> press secretary spicer: thank you. >> reporter: is the president

and any weight regret pursuing health care given how it is? how complicated it is? >> press secretary spicer: when he legislatively -- and i know for most people, does not make a ton of sense, but that savings you receive through the healthcare budget in the 2016 and 2017 process allows us to utilize the savings in that process to maximize additional tax reform measures that will start in the 2018, fy 2018 reconciliation process. while that sounds like a ton of inside baseball gobbledygook, the reality is that in order to maximize tax reform both on the corporate side to make our businesses more competitive and to give individuals especially middle-class americans for tax relief, doing this in that way maximizes the amount of savings that you can use for the second reconciliation package which would be tax reform. doing it the first way, you can

do, but again, you're not going to achieve the full potential that you could if you did it the way that this is happening now. that being said, it is not a question -- we all knew how big this was, it's one fit of the economy, what it took. the issue is the disparate interests that are there and some of the process explaining, if you will. understanding the way this is happening, and i think legislatively it is complicated. for a lot of folks, they just understand why can't you do it all in one fell swoop, what is the bread roll, what is reconciliation, why do you have to do it in three phases, i think for people it is comp located to understand, and is not just a question of understanding, i think one of the other things that the president and the team have found is there are a lot of issues where people are wondering if i vote for this, how can i guarantee i get nothing in phase two which is the administration of, initiated peace that tom price

put into it in these legislative things that will take 60 votes to complete the overall package, so how do i -- there is a lot of -- the comprehensive nature of this makes it very complicated. i think that is a lot different. normally you have one bill that sales through that deals with all these things in you can roll it all in with an amendment, and in this process, we have all these random one-off discussions about weld the senate except as if they put it in or if they put it in while they not only accepted but will the byrd rule things out, that is comp getting this more like than anything else. >> reporter: just to put a fine point, was this his initial asked to do healthcare first or did speaker paul ryan say so? >> press secretary spicer: this is something we worked out in coordination with the house with what should go first and why, it's not just a question of which goes first, it's a question that if you do not do it first, do you lose potential and savings you could achieve

through the reconciliation? >> reporter: would it have been wiser to work with freedom caucus on infrastructure reform to build up the good well and that caucus? >> press secretary spicer: we have talked about this since 2010, every republican with the exception of a handful has campaigned from dogcatcher on up that they would do everything they could to repeal and replace obamacare. i think to get into say you should have done something else would not be fair to the american people who have said, i will vote for you, but i want you to fulfill that pledge. >> reporter: finally, does the buck stopped with him on this? >> press secretary spicer: like i said earlier, you cannot force someone to vote a certain way. i think in the sense has he done every single thing, pulled out every stop, called every member, tweaked every two weeks, done everything he can possibly and used every minute of every y as possible to get this thing through, then the answer is yes. has the team put everything out there, have we left everything on the field?

absolutely. but at the end of the day, this is not a dictatorship. we have to expect members to ultimately vote how they will according to what they think. i think the president made clear they are the ones that have to go back in answer to their constituents why they did not fulfill a pledge that they made. >> reporter: not healthcare question for you. regarding the documents that devin nunes said show incidental intelligence collection of identifying information about people associated with trump, can you categorically rule out that chairman nunes received or was alerted to these documents from someone at the white house? >> press secretary spicer: i'm not aware where he got the documents from. i don't know. i can't -- i don't know where he got them from pure he did not state it, so i don't have anything for you on that, and so i cannot say anything more than i don't know at this point. >> reporter: so if the president has done everything he can possibly do and the speaker has done everything he can

possibly do, the team put everything on the table, who is to blame right now for the hold up? >> press secretary spicer: lets wait to see how -- i am not assigning blame. >> reporter: you wanted a vote last night or this morning so there is a stall, so from last night -- >> press secretary spicer: we did want the vote but like i said as we got into the evening hours, the idea was not to bury this at 12:00 or 1:00 in the morning. >> reporter: initially you said there was a vote yesterday. there was a statement -- >> press secretary spicer: i'm not backing away from it. we wanted a vote yesterday. what happened is as the process went on, we realized that vote would occur and probably actually into today in terms of calendarwise, and then doing it at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 in the morning was not setting that would be in keeping with what we promise. >> reporter: so who is to blame for the stall, the freedom caucus? >> press secretary spicer: it is not a blame, it is a question of getting all the members together. you have seen the activity, members going back and forth. right now, we are still in the

active discussion phase where we are trying to figure out who we can get on board and whether or not we can move forward. we are not there yet. >> reporter: is the president right now still confident that he can see this bill through? >> press secretary spicer: the president is confident we have done every single thing possible, made the case, updated it, added and done everything to listen to the concerns and to do everything that fulfills the promises that we and members have made with the american people. >> reporter: thank you. without prejudging the outcome of the vote today, but focusing on your comments and the president saying this would be a vote against life if people vote against it. several republican members said they did not want the vote on planned parenthood in this particular bill. congressman john facile of new york was particularly outspoken. did anything come up in the

negotiation from the white house saying that they guarantee a separate vote on planned parenthood and leave it out of the bill? >> press secretary spicer: i'm not aware of that. i'm not aware that happened. >> reporter: the white house, the president wanted the planned parenthood vote in? >> press secretary spicer: i have to go back and look. a lot of discussions go on, i cannot remember how or when that came up. >> reporter: the other thing i wanted to ask is the last two members who announced they were no, republicans from new jersey both decided that the number of medicaid recipients in their district because that was their premier reason, the congressman said in three counties, 30% of his constituents were on medicaid and he wanted no damage. was there anything discussed on medicaid, was it on the table and negotiations? >> press secretary spicer: i know there was a discussion about the expansion of medicaid. some of the work requirements

with respect to able-bodied americans, but i would say this. one of the things not member specific to either of the members from new jersey is that members have to understand that the current system is unsustainable. if you vote no today, than what is your alternative? what do you want? because right now, there are a lot of folks that have said they are going to vote no, which is their prerogative, but at the end of the day, the current obamacare system will collapse on its own. so the question they have to ask themselves or that they will be asked by their constituents is then what is your alternative? because right now, this is the choice that will save the system. the other choice is to do nothing, and that is going to collapse the system. >> reporter: the stock market has been largely looking at this as a proxy for how you're going to do on your tax reform. can you say what the lessons

learned here are at with how this was handled? >> press secretary spicer: i discussed this earlier. i'm not going to start doing lessons learned in the middle of the debate of a current bill. we will have plenty of time if you want to stop by over the weekend, we can talk about it. i would be glad to sit down with you on that. again, right now we are focused on getting the votes. the house has a vote scheduled. that is what our focus is, not to figure out -- we will have plenty of time for that. >> reporter: is the president simply going to wash his hands of this today? >> press secretary spicer: the president could wash his hands several times, but i don't know. >> reporter: central campaign promise from the president of the united states. >> press secretary spicer: i understand that. i get it. slow down, turn on c-span and watch it together then we can discuss what happens. >> reporter: secretary steve nguyen was talking this morning about the tax reform by the august reset. do you think that is a reasonable timeline, and why the rush, are there any lessons

learned from this healthcare debate? >> press secretary spicer: again, i think tax reform is something that we have talked about, there is pentium time, i think it is a goal, ambitious one and one that we are going to try to stick to. let's get by today and then we will lay it out. tax reform is something the president is very committed to you as you have seen him very publicly in the last couple open events talk about how excited he is to move on once this is done to tax reform because he understands both sides of this period that the business piece of this, we are so uncompetitive when it comes to our otherworldly competitors in terms of our tax rate. and that when we have this discussion about keeping companies from either shipping jobs overseas or growing, bringing back jobs to america, the two things that come up over and over are ever tax rate and regulatory system. i think he understands that on the tax front, we can be a lot more competitive with the rest

of the world and growing american jobs here at home and frankly expanding manufacturing if we lower that, but also that the american middle class desperately needs and wants a tax break. the more we can do with that, so this is something that i think we are going to be continuing to work on and will have more on that later. reporter my how much credit will the president take with the outcome of the healthcare bill? >> press secretary spicer: i'm going to refer you to the last eight people. let's see where we go from here. >> reporter: follow-up, is the white house still as confident as they were earlier in the week, and is the president as confident as he was earlier in the week that this healthcare bill will pass? >> press secretary spicer: i would suggest that my answer i said to kristin's that we are confident that we have done everything. it is now up to voters. the reason the president called for a vote respectfully

obviously but the reason he asked speaker ryan and leader mccarthy to call for the vote is we have done everything. we've done every single thing, every meeting, every call, every discussion, every idea has been out there, adjudicated, listened to, and i think now is the time for the vote. we are a couple hours away, let's see where we go. >> reporter: while the confidence to remain? >> press secretary spicer: in the sense of what we did, yes. >> reporter: the president can order every surveillance transcript that mentions himself or his associates in regards to russia for the investigation that he called to be brought to his desk at any time. has he done that? >> press secretary spicer: no. >> reporter: yesterday you asked specifically that concerns should be less about the process and more about the substance, i asked if that was one way to get directly to the substance, on the substance, devin nunes said initially that there was evidence that clearly showed the president-elect and his team were at least monitored, then today he said that trump's

associates, he said they did not know until they receive all the documentation for the president said he somewhat indicated. given the fact devin nunes does not actually know of the president was monitored or even mention, what is he vindicated by? >> press secretary spicer: there has been an acknowledgment that there are documents out there showing that people were surveilled or monitored to some degree. >> reporter: they could have excessively been foreigners devin nunes said. >> press secretary spicer: he also made clear he was having a hearing later next week with several members of the intelligence committee and calling others back, so let's wait and see. >> reporter: so what is the president vindicated by? >> press secretary spicer: he felt somewhat vindicated because there is an acknowledgment that as we proceed down this discussion, it continues to show that there was something there and that despite the constant discussion about the process -- hold on, peter. i understand.

i get this. i understand, he also said he's going to have a hearing and call the people back and is waiting for the documents. let's wait and let the process evolve. >> reporter: a couple questions, first the keystone. what changed? it seems like it took forever for the obama admitted patient to get this over the finish line, it never did and relatively quickly, less than 65 days and come it finally made its way over the finish line. what changed especially with respect to the state department's view of the keystone xl pipeline? and is it your opinion that it will be good to hear from the president when win lose or draw it we learned today vis-a-vis healthcare reform? >> press secretary spicer: sibley put on keystone, it was a priority. the president signed an executive order on it, he had talked about it during the campaign, and he made it a priority, made it a priority for his team here at the white house to get it done. not only the jobs but incorporating u.s. steel, he a

lot of things, but i do not think it's any simpler than he made it a priority for him, his team, this administration, department of department of state and others, and that is it. he recognizes the importance of that to both energy and jobs in our economy. i will leave it up to the president once we go forward to see how it goes. >> reporter: as a dealmaker, why does the president field is take it or leave it approach is the right one on healthcare? >> press secretary spicer: because i think he has done -- at some point you have listened to everybody. you've gotten all other ideas. you have gone back and forth, incorporated them, assuaged them in some way, shape, or form, updated the bill and a lot of times, it is the same people coming back over and over again. you go okay, i've listen to you and take in your ideas come at some point we have a deal or we do not. that is when the president finally drew the line to say we've had the discussion, we had the meetings, and we have done

everything possible to address the concerns and ideas and opinions that people have brought up. i don't think you can say it any simpler. i think he has done every single thing possible, and you end up at some point finding yourself going around and around and saying, hey, let's call the vote. >> reporter: isn't there a political cost to a collapse potentially? >> press secretary spicer: at some point there is a political cost to dragging this out as well and saying to let it keep going. i think that is where we came to a decision that it had gotten as far as it could go. >> reporter: isn't there a cost that the president will at some point have to pay for if it is -- -- >> press secretary spicer: in terms of what? >> reporter: the collapse. >> press secretary spicer: this is -- >> reporter: aside from the upcoming election in 2018, i'm talking about economic impact, the impact on the states if it is wrong. >> press secretary spicer: we

will have to look at the landscape. at some point, i think right now democrats made a decision during the debate that they wanted to stick by obamacare. i think at some point the president talked about this, that this is going to collapse. let's see where this thing heads, but right now we have a plan on the table that allows for a solution that will address all of the concerns that frankly were initially brought up as far as what the affordable care act was supposed to do. >> reporter: if you know what the vote counts are right now, no discussion of pulling the healthcare bill, it gets closer to 3:30 come you still don't have the votes, why vote? >> press secretary spicer: i'm not going to discuss our strategy. >> reporter: you know the votes and you don't have the votes for it to pass, why vote? >> press secretary spicer: i understand your question. i'm just not going to comment on the strategy. ind speaker are going to have a discussion about where those votes are in what some of the

members needs are. we will take it from there. reporter mike talk about all the work that the president has put into this, early morning calls, late calls, the other day, one of the members of congs who appeared to meet with the president, congressman mchenry called to say we are bringing him as the closer, he embraced that nickname from the podium. whatever happens today, do you still fold comfortable calling the president of the closer when it comes to dealmaking? >> press secretary spicer: i think i said it to kristen and a couple others, he has done everything possible. there is no one on capitol hill or honest observer that does not recognize the extraordinary feat, but at some point, as i have mentioned, this is not a one on one negotiation. you have to get to 216. i think part of the question is to go to some of those people saying no and ask what is the reason, what would you do? the problem as i mentioned before, there is a balancing act where to get these two members,

you give up 14. but we are doing everything possible to get to that 216. that -- i think -- i think when you look at the objective effort undertaken that there is no question every single thing that has been done has been done to maximize the vote count on this. >> reporter: this has been addressed a few times but i want to be clear on the answer. you talk about how this is the chance, the opportunity for republicans to make good on campaign promises. i asked the president couple days ago with keeping pushing if it fails today, he said we will see what happens. are you saying right now that there will be no future attempt to comply with that campaign promise if today's attempt fails? >> press secretary spicer: i cannot say it will never be -- i'm not going to be fatalistic with a vote at 3:30. the president has made clear that this is the effort and the train leaving the station, he expects everyone, this is our

opportunity. he has a lot left on the agenda he wants to get done whether it is immigration, taxes, the border wall, so many other things that he wants to get done that we are not going to sit around and figure out this is the opportunity, this is the time, this is the opportunity for every member who has said they want to repeal and replace obamacare to put their vote in the yes column. >> reporter: last one, if it does pass today, we've been talking about it being done in three phases, today's phase i, phase ii and phase three, one of the problems is this is not information that is in scorebook form, steps second tom price might take and what would end up in the final bill. >> press secretary spicer: at some point, maybe it can. >> reporter: attempting to be done, right now -- >> press secretary spicer: we are focused on the boat right now but we will have the cbo and others look at not just the other elements but can you look at it in its totality.

i don't know, that is a good question i can have the omb folks addressed potentially with the cbo folks. thank you, guys. i am sure we will have some additional updates today. thank you. >> jenna: press secretary sean spicer doing his best to answer questions about the current state of the healthcare bill that is being debated as you can see by the small box on your screen there on capitol hill. while the press secretary was speaking, speaker ryan left the white house. as the project are jerry told us, he was updating the president on the current state of the bill and what is happening. also at the same time as the press secretary is speaking, vice president mike pence leads the capitol hill club. he was there apparently trying to help the bill along. here's where we are at 1:54 eastern time. we are not sure which way it goes. there seems to be some indication that perhaps the bill is hitting some speed bumps, but we don't really know quite frankly. and it is still a waiting game. as we wait for the key vote, we wanted to dig a little deeper into what isn't the g.o.p.

health care plan, talking a lot about politics and procedures and the process, but what is in this? this was inspired by a tweet we got yesterday from a viewer brian, by the way, thank you, who was worried that we were overly focused on winners and losers in the politics and not focused on the bill which was a great point. how does this new bill potentially help americans? does it hurt americans? we are going to talk about this. former acting administrator for the centers for medicare and medicaid services under president obama currently part of a bipartisan think tank as well, dr. marc siegel a professor of medicine at nyu medical center. i know it is difficult to avoid the politics of their spirit i appreciate both of you coming on. if we can just speak for a moment about what this bill aims to do, limited as it is, what would you say to our viewers, what is the one thing this bill would do when it comes to healthcare and the current state of health care in our country? >> i would say two things, first it gets rid of the individual mandate or business mandate where you come to the doctor's

office and you are stuck with one or two choices, prefixed a meal if you will, you have in insurance policy that has essential benefits and it, very high premium, very high deductible, it's got a narrow network of choices, and it is dysfunctional, you cannot always use a peer we are in a country where 5% of americans are paying for 15% of the healthcare, so you can imagine there is a counter argument that says policy should not be loaded up with everything, that it should not be cost-sharing spread across the entire population. what we are seeing in the american healthcare act now in its final form through the house is that the essential benefits have been stripped out and shipped and shifted to the states with the federal government giving $15 billion to the states and grants. i predicted that might bring down premiums because now there is an opportunity for catastrophic policies. >> jenna: can i stop you there for one second? why should -- should the government be determining whether essential benefits, what they are or the market allowing

people to shop for health care, should that provide the option? >> that is a fantastic question, here is my answer, yes, everyone should have emergency services. all epidemics should be covered like an opioid epidemic, vaccinations should be covered for the whole country. i do not think the government has a role making sure everyone's co-pay is covered for a colonoscopy or a mammogram. maternity services, everyone should have that but the government does not necessarily have a role of spreading that across the whole population. >> jenna: what do you think about that in general, the role of government and what this bill would do as far as changing our relationship with healthcare as we see it? >> i think the first thing the bill does is in each congressional district, take coverage away from about 55,000 people over the course of the next few years, and it drives prices up. i recognize the individual mandate is not very popular, neither are vegetables for my kids, but sometimes you have to find something to keep this thing healthy. if you want to cover all america, if you want to cover

pre-existing conditions, you have to find a way to keep people in the pool, so what happens when you take the mandate out, recognize people don't love it, but it does bring rates up another 15-20%. i think the debate about what is in coverage and what is not in coverage, i think we have demonstrated over time that if you stop covering things, give people junk policies that do not know what they are getting, they have to read the fine print, they it up spending more, more bad debt at hospitals, that translates to uncompensated care, jacks of everyone's premiums. then you cannot compare benefits but having a comparable set of benefits is what you need. >> jenna: it is complicated, we all know that peer and i'm glad you brought up vegetables, great point here and i'm not sure all of us like eating vegetables. when we go to the grocery store, we see the prices of vegetables and doctor, that is something with healthcare. if you asked me what a broken arm cost, i don't know. if you ask what a colonoscopy really because, i don't know. i think sometimes the doctors are charging rates just because they think insurance is going to cover part of it. isn't that fundamentally a problem with healthcare is the

consumer does not know what anything costs. >> that is so true, insurance is also hiding it from your peer they are negotiating prices on your behalf come you don't know the bottom line unless you look at the expiration of benefits which most people don't. you might do a better job negotiating on your own with a health savings account. by the way, i don't think it is junk policies as andy said, i think they can have catastrophic policies. did you know 45% of the people who are taking the penalty, the tax penalty, are actually young people, 35 or under? they are not buying into this scheme. they don't think they are getting what they need. >> jenna: i only have 30 seconds, are you able to respon respond? >> before the aca, half the states in the country you could not get mental health benefits, could not get maternity coverage because what happens is if you don't require the coverage, know what insurance company wants to be the one company to cover it. so you have raced to the bottom. it's not junk policies because you intend them to become drunk, but that is where you end up. that is where we were prior to

the aca. >> jenna: really interesting, i apologize to shortchange you but we look forward to having about back maybe next week to take some questions on this. we really appreciate it. thank you. thank you to our viewers as well for joining us on this busy day. it our best, mr begin years "america news hq" starts now. >> dana: we are just over an hour away from the big health care vote on the house floor. sean spicing up wrapping up the white house briefing saying we left everything on the field. hello, everyone. lawmakers are debating right now with a big question looming. can a bitterly divided republican party pull off what it's promised voters for the last seven years? president trump making a demand that lawmakers voted on the plan now that's on the table. at this point the outcome is anybody's guess. white house correspondent kevin cork begins our coverage. kevin, you were there in the briefing room. i thought sean spicer, he answered as many questions as he could with actually knowing