repeal it and come up with something that's very narrow and will put a lot of money into the pockets of other people. >> thank you. "mtp daily" starts right now. if it's thursday, conservatives declare trumpcare is dead on arrival. tonight, fast times on capitol hill. can speaker ryan rally republicans on health care with his now-or-never strategy. >> the time is here, the time is now. this is the moment, and this is the closest this will ever happen. plus, wikileaks damage control. the administration hunts for answers on who exposed cia secrets. >> there is grave concern that the president has about the release of national security and classified information. >>another brick in the wall. how the white house is moving forward on its border barrier.

this is "mtp daily," and it starts right now. good evening. i am katy tur in new york, in for chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily" and welcome to march madness. congress has broken, wikileaks is targeting the cia, and the cloud of russia continues to darken over this white house. faith in these three american institutions -- congress, the cia, the white house -- may be a the a breaking point. at a moment when the country faces a daunting combination of domestic crises and foreign threats. we're going to spend most of the hour diving into these three major story lines, the escalating chaos surrounding congress' battle over health care, the crisis on russia and the cia's scramble to contain the damage from the latest wikileaks document dump. beginning with the mess in congression as the republican civil war rages over the current plan to repeal and replace

obamacare. a growing number of conservatives both in the house and senate, are hardening their resistance to the current white house-backed plan, calling it dead on arrival. this comes amid an outpouring of criticism against the plan from groups like the american medical association, the american hospital association, the american nurses association and the aarp. the white house is not giving in. president trump is holding a campaign rally next week to fire up the base in tennessee. vice president pence is going to deep-red kentucky to pitch the health care bill. republican leadership is not fwi giving in either. today paul ryan had a conservative message for critics who want to go back to the drawing board. >> this is the closest we will ever get to repealing and replacing obamacare. the time is here, the time is now. this is the moment, and this is the closest this will ever

happen. we told people in 2016 what it would look like when we had the chance to replace obamacare. that was our better-way plan. that's what this is. >> the last 24 hours we have seen supporters of the trump-backed plan change their pitch to wary conservatives. their argument is that this bill is just the beginning. in other words, support this bill now and we will fix it later. >> are you confident this can get through congress before april 7th when congress goes on recess? >> yes, very confident. remember, this is one of three phases to repeal and replace obamacare. >> there are three phases. th's how we'll move forward. what the thr phases do in their entirety is to incorporate all of the things -- >> we hve three-pronged approached to repealing and replacing obamacare. >> first of all, importantly, this bill is just the first part of a three-phased plan. >> i. joined by republican senator bill cassidy of louisiana, a

member of the finance committee. senator, thank you for joining me. let's start here. did republicans go about this all wrong? and the reason i ask this, i want to take your colleague's tweet from earlier today. senator tom cotton tweeting house health care bill can't pass senate without major changes. to my friends in the house, pause, start over, get it right, don't get it fast. do you believe that senator cotton is right or wrong? >> i don't know who senator cotton has spoken with, but there is obviously concern. it's gone through the house but there is not a score yet. folks from the senate want to see a score. that's important. i am a doctor. i like to have all the facts and then make a decision. sometimes you alter something before you, but you need the facts to make the alteration. i look forward to getting the score. >> are you prepared to take a position on this after the score comes out? >> absolutely. i want to see what amendments have been placed on committee. i haven't reviewed those yet.

what amendments come on the floor and then with reasonableness, what amendments will be allowed on the senate floor. that plus the score, that will all go into my decision. >> i want to play what susan collins of maine said earlier about the health care plan. take a listen. >> some initial analysis suggests that, as many as six to ten million people could lose their health insurance. >> so do you agree with senator rand paul that this house bill is d.o.a. but you believe it's d.o.a. for a different reason? >> yes. i do not think it would be well received in the senate. >> do you share any of senator collins' concerns, or are you of the mind that the cbo rating will ultimately come back a little bit better than what she is predicting? >> i don't make guesses about the cbo, but i will say my concerns are more about the working folks. if you take someone who is

64 years old, the $4,000 credit is probably not generous enough. that may have been bumped up but it's not bumped up the last time i looked at it. we want to make sure that person actually has access to care. as a physician i know having first-dollar coverage to pay for the management of things like high blood pressure and diabetes can make all the difference in the world. that's our criticism of obamacare. it had $6,000 deductibles. folks could not afford that. we have to make sure that they also don't do something that they can't afford the care they need. >> i get the impression you're saying this is a negotiation, that there will be amendments as you mentioned before, but that's not exactly the position that speaker paul ryan is making. he earlier today said this is our chance. we have to take it right now and this is the bill. >> i am not sure the speaker meant everything is frozen in amber. we've been told there would be amendments allowed on the house and senate floor. senator price mentioned it's a

work in progress. senator cotton, collins and others are concerned which means there probably should be some evolution. >> do you think the freedom caucus will support the changes you want to make? >> you're asking me to guess what is on others' minds. i can't do that. hopefully we're working to a process of coming to common grou. want to repeal and replace obamacare. this bill gets rid of the individual mandate and the employer mandate and gets rid of the mandate forcing a woman who is 60 with a hysterectomy to purchase obstetrical services. women hate that. we need to address the fact that folks need coverage. the 64-year-old man or woman needs to be able to purchase the chronic care management that he or she needs to stay healthy. >> what's your bottom line for the bill? what's essentially your test for the bill? if it doesn't cover as many people would that mean you do not support it? if it does not lower premiums, does that mean you would not

support it if that's what is found out when the cbo comes back? >> you're asking me to describe a context and within the context what decision will i make. >> i'm asking you to describe a baseline of where your support lies. i think that's a question that you can answer. >> i want to make sure that someone who is vulnerable, tom price calls them the vulnerables, the folks who are above the medicaid expansion population but don't reasonably earn enough to pay for insurance out of pocket. that their needs are cared for. the tax credits are a good start. they need to be generous enough for people to get the care they need. we can assume the cost of care will decrease somewhat. we can assume credible coverage, perhaps a health savings account and high deductible health plan can meet the need. it's better understood when it's before you rather than

hypotheticals. i am not meaning to duck your question. >> my question is also about president trump. he has said repeatedly on the campaign trail and even said recently that he believes in universal health care. he wants everybody to be covered. he doe't want people dying on the street so if this is a plan that doesn't align with that, doesn't actually cover everybody, is there a concern that the congress, the gop congress, is not on the same page as the republican president? >> let me say something that i think is plausible. a plausible reading of the house plan, that in the state grants they would give the opportunity for a state to do what the cassidy collins patient freedom act does. a state could say all who are eligible are enrolled in the private insurance plan unless they choose not to be. the state innovation grant gives them money to pay -- sufficiently to pay for a year's worth of premiums. by doing so you bring the young

immortals back within the pool. i think that's within the house plan. we haven't determined yet. it was very much a part of the cassidy collins patient freedom act. that's the way to get a broader coverage without mandates. the next question is, is there sufficient money to pay for the annual premium for a young immortal who is inexpensive to insure. you need them in the pool to level off the cost. despite our digging, this is complicated and we haven't come to a conclusion yet. those are the conclusions i am looking for. >> is this -- >> if a state can do that, it would meet trump's test of making sure all who wish to be covered would be. >> is this a plan that would allow for people to stay on obamacare if they choose to do so? >> i don't believe it allows the state to elect to stay within the status quo. i am pretty sure it does not do that. the state could use the grants

to provide the extra coverage for that to occur. let me praise it. i have reservations about the bill. there are some good things to say about it. maine has done what's called an invisible high-risk pool. those who have higher costs get supplements payments from the insurance company. though i have some concerns about the bill, i also have to credit it because i think it allows states to do that sort of innovative thing. >> seems like you're saying, yes, if the state decided so, they could stay on obamacare. >> a state would have to be able to come up with the funds. it would have to reimpose individual mandates and penalties and probably enough taxes to pay for the difference between the two. we don't have a score. so i can't tell you how much is being provided to the states through this mechanism. some of this is in the context which is not completely known yet. >> senator cassidy, thank you for joining us this thursday. appreciate it. let's bring in the panel.

msnbc joy reid, john potterits. columnist with the new york post and nick confessori with the "new york times." let's react to what senator cassidy said. he was talking about high-risk pools. invisible high-risk pools. nick, parse it for us. >> it doesn't matter that much. health care is complicated but also very simple. if you want to expand coverage, you have to pay for it. somebody has to pay for it. you can pay for it with your taxes or make people who don't have insurance currently buy insurance and cross-subsidize other people. that's it. you can squeeze money out with efficiencies and the state lines things. you can't deliver a huge tax cut to people paying those taxes and keep the expanded coverage in the same place. it's impossible. it's math. >> he also seemed to be saying

young people will want to be a part of it even if they're healthy because that is just the -- i don't know. i guess a -- >> i am no the sure -- >> best case scenario? >> i am not entirely sure that's what he said. the central feature of all insurance is that you have to have a broad span of people, people who don't get sick, whose payments help defray the cost of people who do, whose payments don't cover the entirety of their coverage. if you were in a position where young people don't get insurance and you insist on having as broad a national market as possible with everybody in it, it can't work. so the whole question is, do you force young people to buy insurance? do you bribe young people to get insurance? do you tempt them to get insurance? philosophically, where -- what's interesting about what everybody is talking about here is that the conservative position on health care is that obamacare

was a problem, a philosophical problem, because, in a society of liberty, adults should be free to make their own choices and take their own risks. if you don't want to buy an insurance policy because the $4,000 you would spend you want to do -- >> you want to buy an iphone. >> or you want to start a business. okay? you are, as a free person in a free society, a self-governing citizen, you have the right to take that risk, and then if you get hit by a car and have to go to an emergency room, you pay the bill. obamacare said, no. obamacare said, you have to be -- everybody has to have insurance or pay a fine, be punished if you don't gonto the pool. that was the philosophical objection to obamacare, that it was an assertion of the right of government to force americans to do something that they might or might not want to do. no republican from trump to ryan to cassidy to anybody, is taking

that line or making that argument that -- the fact that they are not gives a sense that a rubicon has been crossed here where republicans are essentially signing on to the primary philosophical idea of obamacare, which is that we should have national health insurance. >> now they're trying to figure out -- >> that is a huge, huge shift on the right. huge. >> joy -- >> and bad in my view. >> except that not everyone has made that choice. that's also the philosophical objection to seat belt laws and auto insurance. >> it's not. >> it is. >> it's not. >> no, it is. as a free person -- i remember these arguments even in high school. as a free person, if you don't want to wear a helmet when you are riding on your motorcycle, the government shouldn't be able to force you to put one on. or if you buy a car, you have to have auto insurance. >> you don't have a right to drive a motorcycle. no. that's the mistake here.

auto insurance, car insurance, is about you don't have -- there is no -- the government doesn't have to give you a driver's license. it can mandate a series of responsibilities for you to drive a car. however, insurance is you. you can't smash up somebody else. >> if you're in that car, you're an unininsured motorist and you're hit by a bus or hit a bus, you go into the emergency room, and you still end up having your health care paid for by the community because the emergency room is going to treat you. >> no. you should pay for it yourself. >>before -- before the phosophical argument on where the republicans stand, let's go to the politics. the republicans are taking out ads against republicans who are not on board with this bill. 30 separate senators and congressman are targeted. are they at risk of eating their own on this issue? >> you have essentially two sets of republicans arguing about the

bill. some believe it's too cruel to allow them to be reelected because their own constituents will lose their insurance. or you have the freedom caucus side, the side we're hearing here. this isn't cruel enough. we need to tell people, if you can't afford insurance, too bad. figure it out. if you run into trouble throw yourself at the mercy of the churn. -- church. >> i am not going to be accused of cruelty. >> you said if you cannot afford health insurance figure it out and pay for it yourself. >> last word and then we have to leave it here. four seconds. >> that's not what i said. that's my last word. >> we'll continue this conversation. don't you worry. a little bit later in the hour. so stay with us, guys. coming up, a major claim by wikileaks founder julian assange. he says the cia has lost control of its cyber arsenal. plus, what do we know about what

fbi director james comey told democrat and republican senators today? stay tuned. and once we do, we see wonder waiting. every step you take, narrows the influence of narrow minds. bridges continents and brings this world one step closer. so, the question you asked me. what is the key? it's you. everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. dearthere's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced. our senses awake. our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say...if you love something set it free. see you around, giulia

the cia is scrambling to discover how the hacking secrets were released to the public. this week the organization wikileaks posted thousands of documents that include suggestions about the tools the agency uses to gather information. a senior intelligence official tells nbc news that the trove includes authentic, top-secret material. investigators are rushing to figure out how this happened, whether it could come from a mole inside the cia, a related contractor, hackers in russia or even a combination of all of these. and today wikileaks founder julian assange made the explosive claim that the cia has lost control of its cyber weapons arsenal. white house spokesman sean spicer this afternoon would not

confirm nor deny it. >> there is grave concern that the president has about the release of national security and classified information that threatens and undermines our nation's security. obviously he believes that the systems at the cia are outdated and need to be updated. >> coming up we'll dig into all of this including who could have been behind the release and how concerning this bombshell really is. and democratic senator chris coons joins us right after the break. tech: this mom didn't have to worry about a cracked windshield. so she scheduled at safelite.com and with safelite's exclusive "on my way text" she knew exactly when i'd be there, so she didn't miss a single shot. i replaced her windshield giving her more time for what matters most. tech: how'd ya do? player: we won! tech: nice! that's another safelite advantage. mom: thank you so much! (team sing) safelite repair, safelite replace. usaa gives me the and the security just like the marines did. the process through usaa is so effortless,

that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children. we're the williams family, and we're aa members r life. welcome back to "mtp daily." fbi director james comey was on capitol hill today meeting with members of the senate's gang of eight, the bipartisan group of eight members of the leadership who receive the highest level of intelligence. a congressional source familiar with the ongoing russian investigation -- investigation into russian meddling into the election told nbc news he was there to discuss matters related to trump tower. of course, comey's appearance on the hill comes amid a week of

fallout from president trump's incendiary saturday morning tweets accusing former president obama of weiretapping his phone. mitch mcconnell today was asked if he has seen any evidence behind that claim, and he said he had not. meantime, a bipartisan pair of senators, republican lindsey graham and democratic sheldon whitehouse, sent a letter to the fbi and justice department yesterday requesting information on a possible wiretap of president trump, the trump campaign or trump tower. and white house press secretary sean spicer said again today in the press briefing that the administration is not aware of any intelligence probe into president trump. but as we said at the top of the hour, the cloud of russia has not lifted from the white house and with the newest wikileaks dump, some democrats are again pointing to the kremlin skeptical of the timing and still blaming leaked e-mails, at least in part, for hillary clinton's loss. joining meow democratic senator chris coons of delaware, he hits on the judiciary and

foreign relations committees. senator, thank you for joining us. i am sure you saw james clapper on "meet the press" the other day saying he hasn't seen evidence of collusion up until january 20th. you say you haven't seen hard evidence. without anyone having seen hard evidence, should there still be an investigation? >> i think this is a critical investigation for the defense of our democracy. i am encouraged that the senate intelligence committee members this week have begun to get access to the intercepts at langley headquarters that will begin to provide insight into whether there is a fire here. there is a lot of smoke. there are a lot of concerning allegations of or evidence of some ties between the trump campaign team and russia, but there is no hard evidence or proof yet. that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. and in order for us to get to the bottom of this, in order for us to resolve this cloud that's

hanging over the trump administration, i think it is important that it be fully, fairly and promptly investigated. if there is no proof, we move on. if there is proof, we move forward with taking the next steps. >> senator, is that not the same argument you and democrats are making against donald trump when he comes out and says president obama was wiretapping me without offering any evidence? >> there is a lot of circumstan circumstantial evidence. when the "access hollywood" tape came out, it was devastating in the campaign of donald trump. it was within hours, i believe, the john podesta e-mail dump happened through wikileaks. very disconcerting timing. there are other things that have happened such as the national security adviser being forced to resign, being fired, for lying about his contacts with the

russian ambassador to the vice president. just today there was even more alarming developments about the national security adviser not having been truthful about being a foreign agent on behalf of turkey. he made a filing today to the justice department that he had done half a million dollars worth of lobbying on behalf of turkey. there are other complicating relationships and meetings between senior trump campaign officials and russian officials that i think deserve to be investigated because there is indisputable proof, a conclusion by the intelligence committee, that russia was trying to interfere in our election and that russia had concluded that trump was their preferred winner in our presidential election. there is no comparable circumstantial evidence to provide any sort of buttress for president trump's saturday morning tweet. let me also remind you how unusual, how bizarre it is, to have the sitting president of the united states make such a remarkable claim, that his predecessor had him wiretapped,

not in a republican presidential candidates -- not in a press conference, but to do it by a tweet early in the morning on a saturday. >> i will say this. my colleague, hallie jackson, asked the white house the other day if donald trump has the evidence, since i said so definitively, why would he not pass that evidence along to congress instead of asking them to investigate to find the evidence. the white house -- their answer to that was they didn't want to violate any separations of powers. but moving on, though. if it turns out -- you saythere is a lot of smoke here. you say there are a lot of unswered questions, and it is inarguable that the trump campaign and trump administration has not been entirely clear about conversations folks have had with the russian ambassador and there are all sorts of other questions out there. if it turns out that there is no there there as they suggest, do the democrats -- are they concerned about losing their

credibility on this issue and losing their credibility with the american public and only seeming like they are battling trump just for the sake of battling trump? >> that depends on what sourcou of actions we take. i'll remind you that the republicans in the house held more than a dozen hearings about benghazi over the years. they refused to let it go even when it was clear they had investigated it absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt as thoroughly as humanly possible. if we're still doing investigations into allegations of some tie between the trump campaign and russia three or four years from now without a shrs shshred of compelling evidence i think the american people would get tired of it. donald trump hasn't even been president two months at this point and the shocking allegations that led to his attorney general recusing himself and the national security adviser being fired happened a matter of days ago,

and the senate intelligence committee has just gotten access to the underlying intelligence this week. >> senator, you told wh h(y) radio that democrats don't want to shut down the government but they might if they have to. what circumstances would democrats consider shutting down the government for? would it be to save obamacare? would it be to force an outside investation into russia? would it be to prevent the confirmation of neil gorsuch? >> let's put it into context. on that interview, i was being pressed for, do you have any leverage at all, given that democrats are in the minority in both the house and the senate. the interviewer was saying, well, how can you possibly stop the repeal of the affordable care act, how can you possibly compel an investigation if republicans refuse to cooperate and you become more convinced that there is evidence that justifies really pushing it to the outer limit? and recognizing that at the end of the day the leverage that was used by republicans in the

previous administration was to compel shutting down the government. i simply recognized that that's a tool that's been used over a number of years in order to force some resolution. that. it was in the course of an interview where i was being pressed about do you have any tools at all in the minority that i made the point. it's an extreme tool that's been recently used by the other party and that i truly hope we don't consider using. >> thank you very much, sir.

startling things we learned today about wikileaks and the cia from someone who should know. wikileaks founder julian assange. stay tuned. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that dn'tex. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪ here's to the wildcats this i gotta try .. bendy... spendy weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders. [and her new business: i do, to jeanetgo. jeanette was excellent at marrying people.

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up next, julian assange talks about the cia's shortcomings. first here is deirdre bosa with the market wrap. >> today washe eighth anniversary of the bull market. stocks didn't celebrate much. the major indexes ending the day

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welcome back. we could be looking at one of the most serious intelligence breaches in modern times. as we mentioned earlier, counter intelligence investigators are working to find out how thousands of purported classified documents, including suggestions about how the cia gathers information, ended up in the hands of wikileaks.

just today wikileaks founder julian assange accused the cia of, quote, devastating incompetence claiming they lost control of their cyber weapons arsenal. it's an explosive charge. the cia released a statement saying julian assange is not exactly a bastion of truth and integrity. despite their efforts the cia continues to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas to protect america from terrorists, hostile nation-states and other adversaries. so how concerning is all of this. bringing in michael allen, managing director of beacon global strategies, a firm that advises and defends cyber intelligence and homeland security. michael, you are the perfect person to talk to today. and my first question to you is, if you were looking for how this happened and who compromised the cia, where would you be looking? >> well, i mean, i would consider two things up front. one, i would consider what we call here an insider threat.

someone inside the government who has access to this documentation and for whatever reason was either sloppy with it or intentionally made it available to wikileaks. i mean, the second possibility that i don't think we can discount just yet is that perhaps russia is behind the interception or the exploitation of these documents and may well have shared them with wikileaks for the purposes of, you know -- for their own purposes of causing confusion here in the united states about what the intelligence mission of the cia is and perhaps even to advance their own interests and sow discord among the united states and its allies. >> talk to me about what intelligence was compromised and why it could be so potentially significant. >> let's take a step back and talk about the purpose of intelligence. this is the way i think about

it. it's, one, to provide early warning to the united states so we don't have another 9/11. it's for our policy-makers to be able to make better decisions, and it's to be able to protect our troops in the field. that's why we spend, in many cases, up to $80 billion of money each other to get and receive and analyze intelligence, because it's the life-blood of our national security decision-making process. so, to the degree that the central intelligence agencies' efforts overseas have been compromised be it by the russians or an american who did this of his own accord, that's dangerous because it prevents the ability of the cia to do the job that the american people are demanding of it. >> does it put anyone in harm's way? >> potentially it puts people in harm's way. i think, in this case, it's probably -- ruins our ability in

dozens of instances to be able to get the same kind of access that we have had overseas on foreign intelligence targets so that the united states can make better decisions as it hunts al qaeda or isis or tries to figure out what putin is up to, as he expands his activities into eastern ukraine. it potentially does. the more you degradate the intelligence capabilities of the united states the more likely as we saw in the 1990s and in 2001 with september 11th, the more likely it is a catastrophic attack could occur in the united states. >> how does the cia recover? >> i think, look, any computer -- any kind of programming device that enables us to eavesdrop on does have some shelf life. in the digital age things are developing quickly. so we are always developing new tools. this sets us back.

it will cause a huge triage effort that might be going on right now across the river here in langley, virginia. i think, over time, just like with the ed snowden disaster, it will take long time for the united states to, one, assess the damage that'seen done and, two, rebuild the capabilities that the citizens have asked the government to take on on their behalf, which is to give them protection here in the united states. >> a lot of folks out there don't really see the edward snowden situation as a disaster. many folks call him a patriot. is there an argument to be made that releasing this sort of information is something the public needs to know, needs to know what the cia is capable of, if it potentially -- they are able to listen in on devices or through your television or any of the other allegations that were made in that document? >> look, i think -- look, i understand americans have got different views about this. it's about where we put our priorities, where i put the priority is keeping the country safe. and to do that, to prevent

future 9/11s, we need great intelligence to give us early warning of such attacks. that's where i would put the emphasis on. i think there were other ways for edward snowden and wikileaks, if they had sort of an honest disagreement with what the united states is doing, they could have done this in a less harmful manner. but instead, in both cases, it ended up on the internet for our adversaries to see. and we're not even sure yet, i believe, how much damage edward snowden did because all of those documents are presumably in the hands of at least the chinese and the russians. >> thank you, mike allen. appreciate your time. >> hey, thanks a lot. is big data destroying the u.s. political system? it's a topic chuck will explore next tuesday at south by southwest in austin, texas. i'll be there on thursday discussing the war between the president and the mainstream media. check out south by southwest's website to get all the details. up next, the new epa

administrator feeling the heat after his latest climate change comments. stay tuned. when you have something you love, you want to protect it. at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. legal help is here.

welcome back. science and environmental groups oppose scott pruitt's nomination for head of the environmental protection agency for among other things his reputation as a tic of human caused ime change. and this morning he had -- he said something on cnbc that has some of the groups calling now for his dismissal.

>> do you believe that it's been proven that co 2 is the primary control knob for climate? do you believe that? >> no. i -- no. i think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there is tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. so no, i would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see. but we don't know that yet as far as -- we need to continue to the review and analysis. >> we need to continue to debate. nasa, and the epa's own website all point to human activities as the most likely cause for climate change. the epa's own ability to carry out the research may be limited. according to science magazine the trump administration wants to cut the epa's office of research and development by more than 40%.

coming up, the panel is back for the lid. stay with us. .. this i gotta try bendy... spendy weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders. dearthere's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced. our senses awake. our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say...if you love something set it free. see you around, giulia

it's time for the lid. let's bring back so let's bring back our panel. joy, nick, and john. we're going to leave healthcare to the side we're not going to eat up the entire pnel. let's talk about about the former nsa michael flynn for lobbying for turkey during the campaign. donald trump said over again that part of the draining the swamp, when you leave you cannot

register what does it mean for his national security adviser to be registering as foreign agent? >> it means his top security adviser was working for an autocrat. we don't know who else was this guy working for. so he admitted yes, i was working for a group that could be construed as part of a foreign region. who else is on that list, we don't know. >> joy. >> it's not unusual for michael flynn to take checks where he can get them. when he was pushed out of his previous job in government because his management style did not work, when he was dni. he went out and took a healthy check from rt which is viewed by

propaganda -- this is someone who now we know famously sat at vladimir putin, great affinity for russia, have questionable choices he ma so he is somebody who i thi has been problematic for the trump team because he is the embodiment of their weird fixation into russia. this could be serious. there's someone who, the leader in turkey wants extradited who he claims try to perform a cou against him, so have him lobbying is concerning if he could impact an extradition that

could wind up with somebody in prison or killed. >> you have to look at this and see what an outsider -- what kind of outsider trump was that flynn got into in major position. trump did not have contacts or connections too or interest of being connected to foreign policy establishment. he didn't like them. he didn't like them. he attacked -- flynn was an obama administration appointee to high office because of his views of islam terror were -- to the administration. flynn's personal failure -- for trump flynn was as good as he

was going to get. >> after he was collected he is the president of the united states, i understand -- by doing so they ailated and locked out some top talent and it comes -- >> it doesn't matter, trump is a person who believes in loyal. flynn and sessions and a couple of others went with him when others did not, and he rewarded them. >> people who would align themselves with him now would be having lip ups in memories. >> if a person was with him from the beginning, except for kris

chrissy, that person got -- he is tied to his people. i do think that the connections when undisclosed issues not brought up in vetting because of, are going to be an open sore for months and months. >> whether or not he would have stayed in that position is an open question. we have leave there here. thank you for a spirited conversation. joy, john, and nick. after the break, the war continues. stay tuned.

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and in case you missed it will president trump is committed to his plan of building the wall. homeland security is accepting bids on pro type walt walls. how will government pay for it. members of the party doesn't see that as likely. here is mitch mcconnell's take on. >> i think the president picked an outstanding person to be in charge of homeland security and my suspicious is we will take his advice. >> do you believe mexico will pay for it. >> no.

>> no incase you misunderstood that. the white house tsa to pay for the wall. congressman to block federal funding. another issue where president trump may get push back from congress. that's all for tonight. "for the record" with greta starts now. is president trump under investigation or not? what are the facts? the white house says no he is not. the justice will not say yes or no and where was the fbi director today on capitol hill. meanwhile the russia story getting hotter and hotter. plus one of the country's legal minds is here. what if it congress subpoenas fbi records. r