after. "happening now" starts in mere seconds. the day has just begun, you're so lucky. see you soon, good-bye. >> julie: a fox news alert, the white house press briefing scheduled to start in just less than 30 minutes from now. >> jon: sean spicer will stop to the podium. we are covering all of the news "happening now." all eyes on georgia today, the most expensive house race in american history. this political slugfest could be a barometer for the 2018 midterms. plus -- >> we are very pleased that the senate is moving forward on health care reform. >> jon: of oakwood, next week, but will the republicans have enough support to get their health care bill through the senate? and with the death of otto

warmbier blamed on north korea, how might american policy change to order the nuclear armed rogue nation? it's all happening now. we begin with a fox news alert, we are awaiting the white house press briefing scheduled to start just a few minutes from now. it comes during a big clash on capitol hill as democrats fight back against the republican plan to repeal and replace obamacare. i am jon scott. >> julie: and julie banderas, democrats holding a series of confrontations on the floor of the u.s. senate. g.o.p. senators put the final touches on the republican health care bill. democratic lawmakers are criticizing secret negotiations on the plan that was crafted behind closed doors. >> jon: both parties are eyeing two special elections today, including one that is now the most expensive house race in

history. we have fox news coverage on all of this today, live on capitol hill with more on the health care bill. first, you are out with kevin by the speaker of the house, paul ryan who is making remarks at a manufacturing summit. >> thank you. thank you very much. appreciate it. please. jay and i go back many years, thank you so much. i want to say what an honor it is to follow my dear friend, our vice president mike pence, isn't he doing a great job? [applause] together, we are working on a bolt agenda for the country. regulatory reform, health care reform, tax reform, rebuilding our military and after years of talking about these problems, we

are finally doing something about them. but i do not view this as a simple checklist for a government. we are turning the page on the policies of the recent past. this is much deeper than that, much deeper than that. it goes back to something i talked about right when i became speaker. it's something that is as relevant today as ever. it is about building a confident america. in america where people are confident that they can get a job that pays well in an economy that's growing. in america where people are confident that their children will grow up with real security and opportunities. we want an america where people are confident that they can withstand any challenge and emerge even stronger. this to me is the great path before us. i've got to tell you, these are anxious times. we all feel it.

it's not something we often think about in the rush of our daily lives, but we are being tested. our capacity to come together and always move forward for a better, stronger nation is being tested. that is what defines us as americans. it's not about our struggles, it is about how we overcome them, how we bounce back. this is what drives me every day as a policymaker. how do we build up our country's antibodies? you know what i mean when i say that is how do we fill up the well of resilience we can pull on when things get tough? i believe i have come to the exact right place to talk about how we get there. how many times in recent years has a so-called expert told us that american manufacturing is never coming back? that its best days were in the rearview mirror? but right now, there are nearly

a million more americans working in manufacturing them there were at the beginning of this decade. manufacturing is thriving across the country. you know as well as anyone how quickly things can change. and when they do, will we be able to say that we were ready? will our work is workers be reo take on the jobs that don't even exist yet? will our economy be ready to handle the disruptions that we can't even fathom yet? that is our test, and that is why working with president trum president trump, we are delivering on an agenda to create jobs and grow our econom economy. to begin fixing a regulatory system, we have repealed obama era red tape with a legislative

tool to solve the russian review act. at this tool had only been used successfully once before. once in the 20 years this tool has been on the books. you know what? since january, 14 congressional review acts have been signed into law. 14 times, we've rolled back oppressive regulations. it is estimated that these actions alone will save family businesses $36 million. to revitalize main street, earlier this month the house passed the financial choice act. you have seen as much as anyone the hit that community banks have taken from countless rules coming out of washington. of these banks are the very lifeblood of credit for small businesses across the country. our plan will give relief to those community banks and make it easier for small businesses to get the capital they need to hire. another thing we need to do is make our workforce more resilient in the thing we need to do that is to close the skill gap. how many times have you been talking about this with your member of congress, at your

rotary clubs, with your fellow workers. this is so vitally important. we need to get good at paying, in demand jobs. that is why this thursday the house will be taking action on legislation to encourage technical education. we need to get this to the president's desk fast. we continue to work to repeal and replace obamacare. in this law is clearly collapsing. americans nationwide are facing double-digit premium increases and coverage choices are disappearing by the day. and 30% of the counties throughout america, people have one are no plans to choose from. this month, anthem decided to quit the obamacare exchange in ohio, leaving 18 counties with zero coverage options next year.

last month, blue cross blue shield decided to quit the missouri exchange, leaving 25 counties with zero options. last month, medical signal that would quit the ohio exchange. this is a story across the country. higher premiums, little or no choice. death spiral. we are engaged and nothing short of a rescue mission. just in five months, and five months we have made real progress in getting government out of your way. your support has been a big reason why and i wanted to come and say thank you for that. [applause]

once in a generation, about once in a generation or so there is an opportunity to do something absolutely transformational. something that will have a truly lasting impact after you and i are gone. that moment is that here and we are going to meet that moment. ladies and gentlemen, we are going to fix this nation's tax code once and for all. [applause] this has got to get done. you may recall that the last time we did it was three decades ago, the same year i got my driver's license. [laughs] a lot has changed since then. our economy is more interconnected with the rest of the world than ever before. the internet has transformed the way we do business and go about our daily lives, but the world has changed and as it has

changed our tax code has remained stuck in neutral. it has ballooned to 70,000 pages of rules and regulations that few people today actually understand. there's this old line about the tax code. our tax code is about five times as long as the bible but with none of the good news. president trump recently introduced a set of principles for tax reform, and right now we, the house, the senate, the white house are working together to turn them into a transformational tax reform pla plan. chairman kevin brady and our committee members are holding open hearings and eating with stakeholders on this right now. i want to take a few minutes and walk you through what that kind of reform will look like. let's start with families and individuals. at some point along the way, our tax system started working for the tax collectors rather than working for the hard-working taxpayers.

look at what happens during tax season. i can describe the complexity of the code all day long, but what really defines our tax code is that sense of dread that you feel. you have to navigate long, complicated returns. you need to wade through a seemingly endless amount of deductions and after you tally up all those deductions, you are placed in up to seven different federal tax brackets based on your income level. and at the end of the day, you hope you do not owe a whole bunch this year. he hoped because you don't know ahead of time, how could you? this whole system is too confusing and too expensive. we have got to stop this madness, don't you agree? [applause] let's just start over.

first, we will eliminate harmful, burdensome taxes including the alternative minimum tax. [applause] next, we will clear out special interest carve outs an end focus on keeping those that make the most sense. home owners, charitable giving, retirement savings. we will consolidate the existing seven brackets into three, double the standard deduction and sympathize things to the point that you can do your own taxes on the size of a postcard. wouldn't that be nice? this is within our reach. [applause] and finally and most importantl importantly, you will use the savings. we are going to cut taxes.

[applause] you heard that right. not up, not down. but if we are going to truly fix our tax code, we've got to fix all of it. both for individuals and for businesses. do you know why we are going do that? is going to create jobs. that's what this is about, that's what this is all about. it's about jobs, jobs, jobs. good paying jobs. as a matter of fact, the nonpartisan tax foundation -- >> jon: the speaker of the house they're speaking in front of a manufacturers association, talking about some of the issues that really light his fire. he is trying to reduce regulation and also looking forward to reforming the tax code in this country. the speaker trying to talk about big issues while much of the rest of the press is consumed with russia and james comey and other issues like that.

we are still awaiting the white house briefing, we will be back with that and other news of the day on "happening now" in just a moment. ♪

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>> jon: a fox news alert and some lofty promises from the speaker of the house, his speech is still underway in front of the national association of manufacturers talking about the possibility of tax reform and even a tax form that will be submitted to the irs on a postcard. is it possible? let's talk about it with james freeman, the assistant editor of the editorial board at "the wall street journal" ," alo a fox news contributor. paul ryan is a guy who likes to dream big dreams, can any of this come to pass in this atmosphere in washington? >> it code about this year is slipping away here.

it's significant that we see him saying he still wants this once in a generation transformative change, we've got this complicated tax code that he wants to make it easy. health care is taking longer than expected, i think there is an argument to do what you can but you've got to cut taxes now. it has to get done this year if you want to break out of this obama style slow growth. >> jon: the economy is not the stock market but the stock market is at record highs right now. is that because employers and manufacturers are looking for some kind of reform? >> the markets have gotten ahead of where the economy is performing. a lot of it is this expectation, it was called the trump bump initially, i think there is still optimism that we are going to get a big tax cut this year. paul ryan has sketched out a very ambitious vision for that

tax cut. i think whether he is able to go all the way towards that reform or he has to settle for a big tax cut without all the simplification he'd like to do, that is the important question he has to ask over the next few months. >> jon: press secretary sean spicer getting ready to take on a new role, but first he will take his usual place at the podium during today's white house press briefing. the white house says his move is a promotion, that he will now head of the communications office behind the scenes. he has had some memorable moments behind the podium as press secretary, here's a quick look back at some of them. >> reporter: are president trump's tweets considered official weight house statements? >> the president is the president of the united states, they are considered official statements by the president of the united states. i think i got this but thank you, may be.

this i have set it from the day i got here. if the president puts russian dressing on his salad tonight, that is somehow of russian connection. >> jon: this russia thing seems to have all of washington consumed. congress would like to get on to other business and i think a lot of the american people would, too. >> the best communication strategy is deliver some results and results and have a product to sell. i don't think that job has ever been tougher than it is right now. when you combine the fact of trump's unconventional style, you never know exactly where he is going to go and what the message is going to be on twitter with this unprecedented hostility from the press. they have largely a bandage, not

even pretending to be objective about the president. >> jon: are you saying they are more hostile towards this president than the previous president? >> no question. you go back to last year, candidate trump was running in "the new york times" analysis was basically saying the normal rules do not apply with this guy. the press feel like they need to be the adversaries. >> jon: james freeman from "the wall street journal," good to have you on. >> julie: we are awaiting paul ryan to come out and hold that press briefing any minute now. when that happens we will bring it to you. jon scott will not be holding up press briefing. we will bring that to you when it happens, will be right back.

>> we are very pleased that the senate is moving forward on health care reform, obamacare is in the middle of a tailspin, literally collapsing before our eyes. it is going to be a lengthy legislative process but i am excited the senate is taking it up. >> julie: that was speaker paul ryan on the health care plan that a small group of senators are drafting in secret. this comes as we await sean spicer at the podium who is to be coming up any minute now for a white house press briefing where we might hear more about the plan. senate republicans are hoping to bring the bill to a vote next week, then dive into the process of reconciling it with the house bill. i am joined now by isaac wright, former super pac director.

can you guys possibly have longer titles? brian, in light of republicans trying to get there secret health care bill through without any committee hearings or public debates, senate mack senate democrats are now saying that they are going to begin objecting today two hours aftere comes into session, do you have a problem with that? >> i think what this is is fundamentally a rescue mission that republicans are undertaking here. i don't think it works for democrats to complain about process after they imposed nationalized health care on 320 million people on christmas eve on a party line vote. republicans are on a rescue mission, i don't remember anybody in a sinking ship complaining that the coast guard got there too quickly. >> julie: the next two weeks are critical if there is going to be a senate vote on health care before the

fourth of july deadline which was set by mcconnell. the question is, is that enough time? >> leader mcconnell is saying that the vote will happen next week, that's what's being passed around. that means you have a week to look at the legislation unlike the months that you have to look at the aca. republicans are making a deliberate effort to do this in the dark and hide it from the american people and their constituents. it's going to cost 27 million americans there health care, it is going to give lifetime caps to 20 million americans who are at their sickest have paid in interest all their lives, and now the interest won't cover them anymore. you will see a 50% increase in children without access to health care. these are terrible consequences and lives on the line, there's a reason the republicans are doing it in secret. >> julie: pertaining to the secret meetings we are talking about, "as we have made clear to our republican colleagues, if

they continue to insist on ramming through a secret health care bill without debate, they should not expect business as usual in the senate before passing a bill that will affect the lives of every single american. there ought to be a rigorous and robust debate in committee and on the floor." if you look back to when democrats pass the affordable care act, i remember republicans not being allowed into those meetings, how is this any different? >> democrats impose this bill on the country in a way that the country rejected and for successive elections. the public has asked republicans to do that about that, republicans are now acting with haste to protect the public from this bill that they told us they don't want. it doesn't work for chuck schumer who spearheaded that effort seven years ago to complain that the process is somehow not fair. >> let's set the record straight, that vote was after 25

days of debate. after months of having it posted online. the vote we are talking about happening next week will be limited to 20 hours of debate after the aca had 25 days of debate in the u.s. senate. i am just a simple country boy, maybe my clock is a different than ones in washington but my clock says 25 days is different than 20 hours. >> brian, he makes a point. the one thing's democrat wants is a public debate. is there any chance that these secret meetings will be open to debate? >> i would just point out that the handful of issues that are under discussion right now are very widely known and everyone understands with a handful of issues that republicans are trying to work out our. once they work them out and they

are in a lunch right now or i think they are probably discussing them, those issues will hopefully be resolved. and everyone will have ample opportunity to discuss them and see them and see what brow applicants have come up with. >> ample time? leader mcconnell yesterday were not guarantee to at least ten hours for a vote. ten hours is not ample time compared to the 25 days that took place previously. >> julie: we've got to call it there, thank you both are talking to us. >> jon: as we promised, the white house news briefing set to start any minute now. we will take you live when sean spicer steps up to the podium. will the u.s. retaliate for the death of otto warmbier, who spent 17 months in north korean prison? >> it's a total disgrace what

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>> julie: of fox news alerts, we are awaiting a white house press briefing, any minute now held by sean spicer, we should get more reaction to the death of american colleges student otto warmbier. his family announcing his death just days after north korea sent him home to ohio in a coma after

a year and a half in prison there. plenty of questions remain including how the u.s. may retaliate against north korea for the death of a young american held captive. >> i think we need to stop china in its tracks and say listen, you are complicit in this kind of activity. this is a small crisis within a much larger crisis, and while we work on ballistic missile defense and our own military contingency options, you have a moral obligation and this is what the trump foreign policy is about, setting a new moral tone and creating international accountability. you have a moral obligation to stop this regime from potentially spinning out of control which is what it did when it murdered an american. >> julie: i am joined now by rick grenell, former advisor to the ambassador of the u.n. and

contributor. the question is, what will the consequences be? >> i agree with the previous speaker and the assistant secretary, that china has to do more. a moral argument to china is not going to cut it, that has been the problem. channel does a $2.5 billion in trade with the north koreans. that is 90% of the north koreans economy. this is a serious situation, we need to do what the top two diplomatic maneuvers are, which are sanctioned -- either oil or banking sanctions. banking sanctions will get china's attention immediately. we don't need to make a moral argument, we need to tell china that if they don't start changing the behavior inside north korea, we are going to implement banking sanctions, that will get their attention pretty fast.

the other thing we can do is make sure that all u.s. tax dollars that are being spent on a foreign aid like two african countries and to other countries, you cannot accept foreign aid from the united states and do business with north korea. that should come down as a hammer pretty fast. >> julie: that used to come down immediately and i am surprised and disappointed it hasn't earlier. given otto warmbier's condition, he had been in a coma for one year and it took months since president trump took office to get him back to his family but by then it was too late. it speaks volumes about the brutal regime there and the mere fact that the united states has improperly dealt with north korea. the question now moving forward, how do we do it? >> our hearts are extremely heavy, he and his family are now credited with focusing the united states government and americans like never before.

we have had ten missile tests in 2017 by the north koreans alone. that hasn't shaken the american people like his death has. what we have to be able to do is take this outrage that we have inputted into a diplomatic maneuver, let's have diplomacy. we can't always do everything militarily but we certainly have a lot of tools in order to about that are effective like sanctions. that should happen very quickly. the other thing, india, the philippines also do trade with the north koreans. so to france and germany on a very small scale. about still, i think there is a long list of countries we should make perfectly clear, it is either us or the north koreans and that should start immediately. >> julie: thank you, hopefully we will hear more about this from sean spicer who will be holding a press briefing any minute now. thank you. ♪

>> the national polls aren't important at this time. what is important now is the state polls. and there, two points behind, the campaign is on. we like the fact that it is change versus establishment. hillary clinton cannot be changed, she is the establishment. >> jon: former trump campaign consultant speaking on "happening now" in august. he and his wife are the subject of a subpoena from a virginia grand jury. what does it mean to the ongoing russia investigation? let's bring in our legal panel. no insults to you prosecutors,

but i served on a federal grand jury for three years and we never failed to hand up an indictment. everything the prosecutor brought to us we returned the true bill. it is pretty easy to get an indictment. >> a couple of things here, what does this mean in terms of what the processes? so far this is optics, not topics. or they are going to have to decide what these men talked about, or their colleagues or co-conspirators. the fact that they had a meeting, as easy as it is to get an indictment, that is smoke not fire. they are going to have to move past to cover up and find evidence of a crime. in doing that, remember that this meeting was not cloak and dagger. they had dinner at a popular new york hot spot in full view of everything. that kind of context give the jury some indication of what the content was, probably not anything confidential. >> jon: if you are serving as the campaign chairman for a guy who may become president of the united states, you want to stay

informed and to be in touch with what is going on around the world, don't you? >> shore, plus he had some business dealings of the time with the ukraine, at least that is what has been reported. it wouldn't be a natural for him to have a conversation with this person. in a social setting, we don't even know what they spoke about. it wouldn't be unusual for the two of them that already had prior dealings, nothing to do with the campaign, at that point he had nothing to do with president trump. it wouldn't be unusual for the two of them to have this type of interaction and casual conversation in a restaurant. >> jon: what if there is money involved? we know that paul manafort had business dealings in russia, if there was money changing hands around that time, is that necessarily going to result in some kind of criminal problem for him? >> not necessarily, it is something they are going to be talking about because that is definitely relevant given his

business dealings and there are already allegations out there to that effect. here's how it may affect the investigation on a larger scale. it is another forgotten, undisclosed meeting. when prosecutors are looking at evidence, they are going to ask what else has been forgotten and is it important. while it may be absolutely innocent, in context it is beginning to look like part of a larger picture. at least that is the prosecutor argument. >> jon: if manafort is the focus of the investigation, that doesn't necessarily mean that then candidate trump or the trump campaign is necessarily even involved. he had his own business dealings with russia and the ukrainians at separate from the campaign. >> it's amazing how day by day what we see are the tentacles of this investigation getting broader and broader and stretching beyond what is really reasonable. that is what is happening here. frankly, it can't be faulted

because of ever there is a criticism about being myopic in your investigation, keeping it broad is what they are doing. it is not unusual for prosecutors to have no -- don't give the benefit of the doubt to anyone. time and time again, they are not going to give manafort the benefit of the doubt, they are not going to say "you had dealings with this person before, you have businesses in the ukraine, you had some political contacts and you are talking about politics" it is not going to be viewed that way. anyone who has worked in a prosecution office, you're going to have that. >> jon: wish we could continue, thank you very much. >> julie: we are awaiting a white house press briefing, it will begin any minute now. sean spicer will be addressing the death of otto warmbier, the historic congressional race in georgia and the senate keying up a vote on health care. we will bring it to you as soon

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it's awesome. safe driving bonus checks, only from allstate. sometimes i leave the seat up on purpose. switching to allstate is worth it. >> jon: here is one of the overriding questions as we get ready for today's white house press briefing. how many more of these will actually be delivered by sean spicer, the white house spokesman? the understanding is he is about to get a promotion at the white house, he is going to be taking over the entire communications effort. in that position he will not be delivering the daily briefing anymore. there has also been criticism of the white house because they have been cutting back on daily briefings altogether. whether or not sean spicer will be seen too many more times is -- we make it the answer to that today. there are also some deadly serious issues that the white house is considering right now, one of them what to do

about the death of otto warmbier, the 22-year-old college student from the university of virginia who was essentially taken hostage by the north koreans. the fact that he came home in a coma had to do with the case of botulism, according to them. the result of him taking a sleeping pill while he was in there custody. pretty clear that that is a very shaded a version the truth. otto warmbier died yesterday, his parents and family announced. >> julie: the doctors at the cleveland hospital where he was being treated said that there was no sign of botulism in his system. if you are suffering from botulism and given a sleeping pill, you cannot survive. that is something where your heart would typically go into cardiac arrest. once you are brain is deprived

of oxygen, it puts you in that sort of, that he has been and in the last year. if you don't wake up after three months, you will never wake up again. and sadly he had to be seen by his family right before his very final moments. >> jon: we expect sean spicer will be out there momentarily. in the meantime, let's talk about tensions with russia. there was an armed russian jet buzzing u.s. u.s. military plar the baltic sea. it comes on the heels of a threat by russia after the u.s. shot down a syrian jet. jennifer griffin live from the pentagon with the latest. >> just one day after u.s. navy f-18 is shot down and just a day after russia issued a stark warning to u.s. warplanes flying east of the euphrates river in syria. a fighter jet armed with missiles through within 5 feet of a u.s. air force plane on

monday. the russian fighter jets wings were dirty, meaning that they had missiles under them. the russian pilot had poor control and was coming in at a high rate of speed. in recent weeks, the u.s. military has participated in a large military training exercise in the baltic region. let me throw it back to you. >> jon: the briefing getting underweight now. thank you. >> i wanted to shine a spotlight on two of the president's biggest legislative priorities right now, tax form and the repeal and replace of obamacare. at the end of the day but the vice president and the speaker of the house will both have delivered remarks at the national association of manufacturers about why it is so critical that we come together and quickly to deliver significant tax reform to the american people.

simple flying and updating our overly complicated tax system is one of the most impactful ways that we can create jobs and strengthen our economy and i think that is something that everyone in this town can agree upon. there is also major agreements between the trump administration and republicans in congress on what any significant tax reform package must include. some of the democrats earlier today, some of them and share those general philosophies as well. we want to make it easier for companies to sell american goods abroad as well as at home. we want to recognize what a i think every american also agrees with, we need to simply by our tax code. taxpayers and businesses anywhere between six and 9 billion hours complying with the irs requirements. of those are billions of hours that they are not building things, growing businesses, buying goods and services, spending time with their families, pursuing a personal hobby and we must reduce that unnecessary burden in terms of both the burden on the time. perhaps most importantly we also agree that we need to get this

done sooner rather than later. working hand-in-hand with health and senate leadership and hosting listening sessions without outside of stakeholders like the one that is currently being conducted in the roosevelt room of the white house. to iron out details and get their input on what needs to happen. we are also committed to seeing the repeal and replace of obamacare through congress, obviously the senate is where the action is right now. this week is the deadline for insurers to commit to selling plans on the obamacare exchange during the upcoming enrollment. we are continuing to see signs of its complete failure in data at the back for more states. one of only five remaining of the 23 co-ops nationwide that was created by obamacare proposed hiking its race by nearly 80%. just today in iowa where the president will be traveling tomorrow, the only insurer left in the obamacare exchange

proposed a 40% rate hike next year. the american people can't afford to front of the for this failed law a single day longer. it is time to repeal and replace obamacare as republicans have promised for a while. looking ahead this week, continuing to follow a very productive set of meetings and working groups with some of the country's biggest ceos yesterday. the president will visit cedar rapids, iowa, tomorrow where he will see first-hand the transformative power of technological innovations in agriculture at kirkwood community college. kirkwood's agriculture science program is national leader and recognized as a center for innovation in the sector. the president will see demonstrations of how these technologies will contribute to the 21st century economy and how the government can ensure that

there options lead to the best possible outcome for the american worker and businesses. with that, some questions. >> reporter: my first question is, does the administration have anything to say about the death of otto warmbier? >> i think the president has spoken very clearly about how he, the first lady and our country feels about the loss of this american. obviously, when you look at how he has handled this, something we will continue to apply and continue to work with our allies. we have had positive movement on china over the past five months with this administration. we will continue to work with them and others to put the appropriate pressure on north korea and to change this behavior in this regime.

>> reporter: this meeting with the ukrainian president, with the president like to see russia get out of eastern ukraine and it does he see russia as the aggressor in the conflict? >> yes, obviously that is part of the reason there are sanctions because until they are out of eastern ukraine, we are going to continue to have sanctions on russia and we believe that that is part of ukraine. until those sanctions will remain, obviously something that came up in the session with the president today, it will continue. >> reporter: is the president enforcing senate sanctions? >> i think we are going to wait until we see what happens in the house before we weigh in on that package. there are some other areas of that package that we need to work with to have the house and senate on it, depending on how it is handled in the house. as is usually the case, we will

not have a statement of administrative policy until an advancement happens. >> reporter: can you talk about what the u.s. is willing to do in retaliation for otto warmbier's death? and secondly with the u.s.-china security and defense dialogue beginning tomorrow, it has already been stated that the north korea issue is at the top of the agenda, do you anticipate walking away from tomorrow's dialogue with results on north korea? >> we have been very forceful in our political and economic pressure that has been applied in north korea. i think we will continue to apply that as i mentioned earlier. obviously, china continues to play a greater role in helping to resolve the situation. and we will continue to hopefully build on the relationship and the dialogue we have had with china. i think there have been some positive steps that they have taken, both with the u.n. and economically to help strengthen the case against north korea. but i'm not going to get ahead

of where we may or may not go and obviously we hope the discussions with china are productive and continue to move forward. >> reporter: there were some reports that president trump told members of the meeting yesterday that the senate health care bill needed more, can you show shed some light on what he is not pleased with and can you also tell us why he would feel that way after holding a press conference in the rose garden? >> the president clearly wants the bill to have heart in it. he believes that health care is something that is near and dear to so many families and individuals, he made it clear from the beginning that that was one of his priorities. as the senate works its way through this bill as the house stated, any ideas are welcome to strengthen it and make it more affordable and accessible and deliver the care that it needs. this is an area that the president believes passionately about, he understands the role

that health care plays so many people's lives and he wants to do everything we can to present the best option for them. >> reporter: part of this bill is that the senate -- >> this is an ongoing discussion with senate leaders and individual senators. we brought a lot of those individuals to the white house and the staff meetings as well. i am not going to get into the private discussions that have occurred. but i will just say that the more that we can do to produce a bill as it works its way through the process, that is something we can all agree on. >> reporter: the special election occurring today in georgia, is this election from the white house's point of view a referendum on the president in any way? >> looks, i have said before i am not going to comment on the political nature of an ongoing race. if you look historically,

special elections generally don't foretell the outcome of races multiple years down the road. this is a race that the district and the president won by one point. obviously it is going to be competitive. porta mack on north korea, the president once said he would be open to meeting with kim jong-un. given what has happened with otto warmbier over the course of the 24 hours, is he still open to that? >> i believe the context in which he said that was if the conditions presented themselves, clearly we are moving further away, not closer to those conditions being intact. i would not suggest that we are moving any closer to -- and obviously this is an issue that the president commented earlier, it troubles him deeply. and he believes that if we had -- we are pleased obviously

to get him back to the united states to be with his family but if we had been able to get secure that earlier, there could have potentially been medical help rendered earlier. i think the president worked really hard to do what he could to secure the release of him. it's a shame that it happened, i think he was very clear about that when he spoke to members of the media earlier today. >> reporter: also on otto warmbier, he says he thinks it is terrible what >> i do not we would not shed this point. >> reporter: second question. the reports they are role is changing here at the white house. join address those that they are true or not? >> i am right here. you can keep taking yourself and cover it. [laughter]