thank you for watching this hour of "msnbc live." you can find me on twitter, facebook and instra gragram and snapchat. right now on msnbc "andrea mitchell reports." >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," take it or leave it. the white house calling house conserve i haves' bluff. it's now or nerve to vote on health care. >> it's time to put up. it's time to recognize that this is the beginning of the overall plan that will bring about that patient centered health care. this is the first step and they need to get on board. >> lawmakers have to be accountable why they didn't vote to get rid of obamacare when they had the chance and that chance is today. >> the holdouts, despite those sticks and some carrots, conservative republicans still hold the fate of the bill in their hands. with ohm a few hours to go, are any of the no's ready to flip? >> i am going to vote against it, though, because it is one of the worst bills i have seen. eight not a repeal. that is a marketing employ. >> it isn't going to work.

we're told the prices will probably go up 75% or so, but maybe in the third year they may come down. >> i am a no, because of the views of my constituents our mail and telephone calls in overwhelmingly opposition to this. >> pardon the interruption. the white house tries to shift the conversation away from the potential health care defeat and back to the economy. announcing it is reversing the obama white house decision and now approving that controversial keystone pipeline from canada to texas. >> today we take one more step in putting the jobs, wages and economic security of american citizens first, put america first. >> what will you do if your health care bill is repealed? >> we'll see what happens. >> another round of dueling. house intel press conferences publicly sparring over the fallout from the chair's bombshell incorrect claim about trump surveillance, without even

telling committee democrats. >> we're not going to get into a neomccarthyism era where we start bringing in americans because they were mentioned in a press story, and i am highly concerned about that. >> the event of this week are not encouraging. i think anyone watching them as very legitimate and profound concerns about whether this congress indeed can do a credible investigation. i think that one of the profound takeaways of the last couple days is it we really do need an independent commission here. >> good day, on a busy day in washington. i'm andrea mitchell. defining day in the first two months of the trump presidency and an inflection point in the president's relationship with the second most powerful man in washington, house speaker paul ry ryan. join me kristen welter, kelly o'donnell on capitol hill, all night, and "washington post" national political reporter

robert costa. first to you, kelly o., you've been watching the comings and goings, the mood swings from the speaker. where do we stand right now on the health care bill? >> reporter: well, my gut is telling me that they don't have the votes yet. they still have about a guesstimate of five hours is their goal amount of time to be finished with this today. some of the big questions, it passed the initial procedural vote getting us into the debate, part of the theater of this day and the chance for members to be on the record, but there are signs that i'm seeing that give me concern about the ability to close this deal. let's look at a couple of them. mike pence, the vice president, postponing his travel today, staying in washington, working the phones i'm told by sources, wanting to help the president get this done. he's a key figure in this and i would suggest maybe mike pence is the closer and not the president today, if he can be influential in the final hours. the freedom caucus that most

conservative groups had their own meeting today, i'm not getting any sense that there were many minds changed there, and then i was just noting that the house appropriations chairman, a long time republican, traditional republican, from a blue state like new jersey, but still that's an important position in the structure of gop leadership, rodney frailingheisen is a no. when i'm talking to individual members i'm not sensing they feel the momentum is toward passage. when the fwop majority leader kevin mccarthy spoke with reporters, he has got a cheerful disposition but he did not fully commit to putting this bill on the floor. i think under other circumstances they probably would not, if they don't have the vote, don't bring the bill to the floor for a formal vote. but the president laid down that law last night saying in his ultimatum, the first test, he wants a vote. that suggests that they will bring it to the floor, but this all will reflect on these members' relationship with the new president and with the speaker, and how they feel about

what has become a very controversial issue that should have been an easy one for republicans, who have campaigned for years on repealing obamacare. andrea? >> and thank you, kelly. kristen welker at the white house, you were in the pool area and the president's been tweeting away and he is not acknowledging any missteps on his part. he's supposedly the deal maker, the deal closer but as kelly points out, mike pence is actually a more important player here today than he, and the leadership is signaling it's every man for himself. >> reporter: that's right. i asked the president if he thought the vote was going to pass. interestingly, andrea, and notably he said i'm not sure. we will avery to see what happens. i asked what he would do and what he'll take up if it does in fact fail. he again sort of punted that and said let's just wait and see what happened. but when i asked him if he regretted putting this first, he said no, and he said he doesn't feel as though he's rushed this process. the president seemed

circumspect, andrea, as he waits for what is going to be a critical first test of his very young administration, and at this very moment, i was just told by senior administration official here, he is expecting house speaker paul ryan to come to the white house to brief him at some point today on the development. so of course we'll have to back channel that with our team on the hill and kelly o'donnell. but again, this is a president who remains very much involved. he is a dealmaker who thinks his best play right now andrea is to say he's ready to walk away from the table. >> and at this point, robert costa, from your sources, is this show of perhaps solidarity with paul ryan that may take place to try to offset the reporting from last night that he was cutting ryan loose and blaming ryan for doing health care first, rather than tax reform, as though tax reform would be easy? first of all, tax reform is intricately tied to parts of health care repeal and replace that involve the tax package.

>> based on my reporting, those simmering frustrations were not coming from the president himself, but indeed from some of his allies, his friends inside and outside of the white house, who wish that the president may have moved on different issues first, but this is the issue he chose, alongside the speaker, and he is urging the speaker, i'm told, privately to try to have this vote today to make sure it happens today, to have some urgency to the process, even though house leadership is being candid behind the scenes, telling the white house and top officials that the votes may not be there yet. there are a lot of soft no's that could be won over in the coming hours, but no guarantees at this point. >> and a lot of them are asking themselves why should i take a vote when i know it's going to even be a tougher climb in the senate. we may have to face amendments from the senate floo are that come back on the very things that we are swallowing now and we're going to have to live with this with our constituents. >> we talk about the freedom

caucus, the hard line right wing group in the house. leonard lance of new jersey, the tuesday group moderates inside of the house who are skittish about the move to placate the freedom caucus getting rid of some of the essential health benefit requirements and insurance company rules by gutting that aspect of the law, moderates from places with medicaid states and those where the current law is pretty popular, they say no thanks. >> robert costa, kelly o'donnell and kristen welker, all on watch as this day evolves. and so is chuck todd, nbc news political director moderator of "meet the press" host of "mtp daily" every day 5:00 eastern. chuck let's take a deep breath and assess what we have today. we have the health care bill, a do or die showdown, the timing predicated by the white house, not by the speaker's preference. we have reporting last night from glenn thrush and maggie

hab haberman that the president or people close to him were cutting paul ryan loose and trying to blame him for what could be a defeat here. you have nancy pelosi the cheshire cat saying if you can't count the votes why do you go to the floor. >> sure. >> the very good vote counter she is. >> she is. >> despite being in the minority and at the same time you have open warfare between the chair and the vice chair of a bipartisan committee house intel. >> the house is a mess and it's funny you bring that up. speaker ryan has a crisis on his hands in the intel committee that right now is a backburner issue. he has to deal with it. i think it is, there is, two ways to look at the situation. unin one he's a man on an island. nobody is coming to his defense among house republicans. nobody rallied around him. >> he did something nobody does. >> correct and he's not gotten that -- usually your boss, if you're not going to, if your job is not in trouble might give you

a look, don't worry, that was a hiccup, don't do that again. you haven't gotten that from speaker ryan. it is at the end of the day up to him on the conduct of that. let's go what i think the most significant, we get paid to read tea leaves and sometimes you misread. the most important tea leaf reported in the last is kelly o'donnell with rodney frailingheisen. the way the house whip counting works if leadership wants something, committee chairs are there. it's a nonnegotiable. you're there at the discretion of the speaker of the house and leadership team. if frailingheusen is a no it means leadership says we are not twisting arms. you can do what you want. he would normally be an other committee chairman all be told you got to be on board. this is the leadership priority. the fact, and as a committee chair you're a member of the larger leadership team. that to me says they'd sent a signal this is not a not a must pass. that could be read -- if this

goes down it's not going to go down by two or three vote. it's going to go down by 50 and that's why i still think there is a chance that the smartest play here, sometimes in football the smartest play is to punt. there's still a chance here this could get yanked and punted. >> yanked and not even voted on. >> not voted on this week. you can make a larger argument that says we've got a lot more work to do, health care is complicated. we need to bring the senate in. it's not fair for house members to walk a plank on a bill they have no idea whether it's going to be -- >> that could be why paul ryan is going to the white house. >> could be, and maybe the president -- look, at the end of the day, he's clearly comfortable with losing. it's an important place to be. he is basically prepared to lose. now he still may win and of course -- >> because he's not ideological. that's the interesting thing. >> i think that's been the problem that the house freedom caucus and the president, they've been talking past each other. he's opinion trying to make a political deal with them. they've been trying to make a policy deal. >> with them it's an article of faith.

>> that's right. >> and he has gone back on so many campaign promises. he doesn't seem to mind being contradicted by his own video. >> this is about the moderates, not the freedom caw kacaucus. the they have no democrats to work for, because they blew the sequencing. you can say maybe democrats never were going to cooperate but what if you had started with infrastructure and passed a big bipartisan deal early, would you at least have an open relationship with some democrats? some of the more, the handful of conservative house democrats that maybe would vote with you? you might. right now they're not interested. >> all about doing dessert before you do spinach which i always enjoyed dessert first. >> by the way, president obama wrote stimulus checks first before he did health care. president george w. bush literally sent checks to every american. yes, sometimes do you candy first. >> and speaking of that candy first, this is certainly not candy. this is a total mess on the

house intelligence committee. it's not just the leadership question. what happened just now is that they are cancel a scheduled open hearing with clapper, brennan and sally yates on tuesday, also announcing that paul manafort volunteered to come in and talk. they've got so many balls in the air. adam schiff having said, and now backed up by another of his members, first said it with you that there is, first he said there is circumstantial evidence, then he said there is more than circumstantial evidence, that is after being briefed with the gang of eight. devin nunes does not have credibility with the leadership, he went to the president and public and the news conference before sharing anything with his democrats. >> there is another aspect of this that i think we have to realize we've learned here, the trump white house is more engaged on russia than before. for the longest time they've hoped to go away, shine a metal object, change the focus. it is clear now they are, you

know, they've got an ally in devin nunes and saying no more public hearings, fine, no more public hearings. they're saying you've got, let's slow walk this investigation, so what has he done. slow walked the investigation. it means trump white house is more engaged than ever in this, more concerned about this than ever, but i think it must mean that this is a recipe for partisanship. for basically, this is an investigation that is not going to be trusted, left or right, no matter what comes. because you can't even get them to agree on when witnesses should come testify, how are they going to agree on a conclusion? i do think while the white house is smart to get their arms around this politically, this devin nunes may have committed a fatal error as far as the white house is concerned because it may drive republicans on capitol hill to say get this out of our hands and go to a special committee. >> that's what senator mccain is saying. can the senate proceed if the

house committee has blown up? >> there's no doubt, and i think richard burr is a veteran and been around. if if you noticed he didn't help back up devin nunes and it's interesting, the white house didn't go to him to try to give him, whoever it is -- >> they went to him once. >> and it didn't go well and he sort of, he learned his lesson. nunes apparently didn't. look, he is, they are about to throw away a bipartisan tradition in the intel committee on the house side. i assume this is not going to set well to speaker ryan. >> and there are so many other developments in moscow, the mysterious hardly coincidental deaths of key witnesses. there's just too much smoke out there regarding other -- >> if this were a movie oh this is cleaning up any loose ends, if you were writing a movie plot. this is not a movie plot. this is real life and there are people who are essentially being

killed. >> at the same time we have the state department on orders of the president cracking down on visas, extreme vetting is being put in play. we have a lot of other developments around the world all of which -- >> but thanks to you we heard the sound of rex tillerson's voice in a press briefing. >> he speaks. >> not even that we'll see if we get a press briefings. >> certainly not access on the road but that's another story to be -- >> at least the doors are still open at foggy bottom, right? >> semi open. let's also just briefly say the story that would have been dominating the week, a supreme court nominee on his way towards confirmation, perhaps misguided filibuster attempt. they could result in a nuclear option? >> look i am curious to see does chuck schumer have the votes? he made a threat on the floor of the senate, does he have the votes? where is jon tester, heidi hidecamp, knjoe manchin, joe

donnelly. they're from red states, there are ten of them, ten red state democratic senators. if you're a red state democrat and looking for just something to show that will you vote on the other side of the aisle the easiest thing to do and explain is gorsuch. i'm curious to see, does schumer have the votes to force the filibuster? he may not, but maybe that's the play. he get to say i want a filibuster but at the end of the day he doesn't twist arms in the senate conference, and essentially says look, whichever eight of you think you need to do this, go ahead and if ten of you want to do it, go ahead. we're not going to publicly call you out. >> what we don't know yet, i'll be interested to see what you assess on sunday on "meet the press" is if health care goes down, does this show a weakened president? does he have feet of clay politically? 37% approval rating in the quinnipiac. do people on the hill start

saying i'm going to take care of myself. i have to run in two years. >> to me this is the conundrum that i think everybody's in, inside that house republican conference right now. i think there is a chance voting against him is a fatal blow. there is a chance that pushing this bill through is a fatal blow in a different way. this is pick your political poison. what is going to be harder to explain to your constituents. charlie dent's answer, a moderate from pennsylvania, may be different than mark meadows answer, a conservative from north carolina, and that's what i do think we may see, even with this vote if it does go through, which is every member has to do what's in their own best interests for their constituents, and guess what? that may be different. >> if you're in the freedom caucus how do you ignore the cbo's score, shows this would save half as much money in deficit reduction. . >> the new change they made -- >> worse. >> -- it it wipes out any

deficit. we won't see the cbo probably before the vote today but they had about $150 billion over ten years, doing what they are saying they wanted to add a few more dollars in there, at the last minute, the last change they made probably wipes out any deficit reduction this bill originally had. >> chuck, i just want to say of all the things that have come up in the debate in the last 24, 48 hours, the thing that really strikes me is these male members of congress saying well why do i have to pay for maternity leave, and my answer would be, why do you, why do i have to pay for prostate cancer checkups? if you start picking and choosing from a menu of what disease you might get down the road? the insurance doesn't work that way. >> this is what political advisers are saying to many of these members. you're going to have, you think you have a gender gap problem now? you haven't seen anything yet. and you know, optic wise, the meeting this week when the president met with the freedom caucus in the roosevelt room and

they're surrounded by his aides, and kellyanne conway wasn't in there. if she was, she'd have been the only woman in the picture and it was not a good moment that, at a moment when they're making the decision, there's that photo, making the decision to basically say no, we're not going to have gender neutrality when it comes to health insurance basics here, that picture is not going to sit well with many women in this country. >> where is k.t. mcfarland and kellyanne conway when you need them? thank you very much. >> see you sunday. busy day. >> busy day. >> we're going to need two or three hours. >> tune in of course for chuck todd today at 5:00 on "mtp daily" and if it's sunday "meet the press." stay with us. we're continuing to follow all the breaking developments on capitol hill as the debate continues on the floor. up next, tom cole on why he's a yes vote on health care. his message to his party's holdouts. you're watching "andrea mitchell

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it's all hands on deck. mike pence is postponing i had planned trip to memphis for the ncaa sweet 16 match between butler and unc to stay behind in d.c. and lobby the freedom caucus budget hawks. republican congressman tom cole supports the health care bill and joins me now. thanks for your patience for waiting. so much happening this morning.

>> thank you, andrea. >> is there any chance the speaker would recommend to the president pulling this? >> i would hope not. i think it's still, it's very close. it's still winnable, could go either way. i think pulling it would be a mistake. >> what do you say to the freedom caucus members the budget hawks who say you'll not get any budget savings. we don't have a cbo support but de minimus savings for this and you're taking heat from angry constituents, maybe not in your district but in districts all over the country. >> well, i think you continue to work the process. look, there's no final thing here, unless you actually stop the legislation, and there's a lot of good things in here that conservatives like, getting rid of the mandates, making sure most of these decisions on the kind of plans you get are made at the state level, frankly, providing individual tax credits so people can purchase the plan that suits them the best. those things are very popular, so i think the essentials are

there, but you'll continue to work it through the process. if you kill it today the odds of coming back and getting something better i think are remote. >> congressman, you're on appropriations, and congressman frailingheusen your chair posted he's a no, his staff is saying he's leaning no. but that's a real signal from a chairman to say at this point in the vote, arm twisting that it's okay to vote no? does that indicate a leadership decision to cut and run? >> no, i don't think so. i've haven't had a chance to talk with the chairman so it's hard for me to speculate about that. but look i think we got a good conference last night. we made a lot of progress. lot of people who are moving toward the bill. you have to keep working these things to the end. >> what does it signal about the president at this stage, if this does go down? does it indicate as nancy pelosi said a rookie mistake going to the floor, pushing the speaker to go to the floor before you knew how it was going to come

out? >> no, i don't think so. look, i think the president's been all-in here and if we're not able to make it, this is something where the conference needs to look inward. this is not a problem of our leadership who i think has been very responsive to the members and frankly, the president has. he's negotiated in good faith openly, made concessions across the political spectrum. i don't think he has anything to be ashamed of in his effort nor does speaker ryan. individual members just have to understand the process, and frankly stand and deliver. so it's really now down to individuals making very important personal and political decisions. >> what's the net effect on the people out there across america who either love or hate or have mixed views about the obamacare, what's the bottom line, if this does not pass? does it live and see another day? >> well, i think there will be an effort then to probably go at this more incrementally, and

make what changes where you can, but this is a real opportunity to make fundamental change, in a conservative direction. so if you miss it, it's not likely to come again. >> congressman tom cole, we will always be watching. thank you so much, sir. >> thank you. and coming up, another big story we're covering on capitol hill, members of the house intelligence committee historically bipartisan now airing their grievances again in public today. more on that coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. knowing where you stand. it's never been easier. except when it comes to your retirement plan. but at fidelity, we're making retirement planning clearer. and it all starts with getting your fidelity retirement score. in 60 seconds, you'll know where you stand. and together, we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. ♪ time to think of your future it's your retirement. know where you stand.

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and there's action on the hill today, not just on health care. there's now open warfare in the house intelligence committee and another round of dueling press conferences today, the committee chair and its top democrat publicly feuding over the fallout from that chairman's bombshell claims about trump's surveillance, which turned out not to be correct which he shared with the president before his own committee members we're told. >> i have been clear on this for many, many weeks now. there was no wiretapping of trump tower, that didn't happen. there's some information in those documents that concern me in the reports that i read that i don't think belong there.

it would make me uncomfortable and that's why i wanted to inform the president of it. >> the fact that the chairman's press conference was at the white house is not only symbolically important, it's important in terms of understanding what's really going on here so that effort to defend the imdefensible has led us down this rabbit hole and threatens the integrity of the only investigation authorized in the house. >> joining me is ned pricer, former cia analyst and former spokesman for the national security council in the obama white house. thank you for being with us. >> good to be with you. >> this committee is traditionally bipartisan and now has gone in a completely different reaction. have they poisoned any outcome? >> it seems to be an all-out partisan warfare but let's remember how this all started. what this boils down to is a ham-handed attempt by chairman nunes to provide a lifeline to the white house in its effort to

defend president trump's baseless tweets. the white house actually clinged onto, embraced the claims from chairman nunes that members of the administration or close associates were under investigation from a matter separate from what everyone is talking about. you think what the white house sem bracing and how embattled it is. >> the republican campaign committees fund-raising off of it and still fund-raising off of it and the president claiming he's been vindicated. >> despite the fact nothing chairman nunes changes the fundamental truth that president trump's tweet was baseless. chairman nunes again today saying that nothing he has seen, nothing he claims to have uncovered changes that fundamental fact. we've heard it from the fbi director, we've heard it from the department of justice, we've heard it from everyone in the know including chairman nunes himself. >> at the same time announcing unilaterally he's canceling the public hearing scheduled for tuesday, with the former dni

clapper, former dci brennan, with sally yates, the former acting attorney general, so a public exposure that would have ratified and confirmed what jim comey said, now going into closed session. >> this investigation is fundamental to our democracy, to the character of the republic and i think we need more transparency, more daylight rather than not in all of this. look of course there are going to be sensitive sources and methods and classified information discussed when it comes to these quite sensitive topics and director comey was clear that the fbi investigation would take place behind closed doors but when it comes to the congressional inquiry, the public has a right to know exactly what happened leading up to the november elections. >> there's also a lot of confusion on the time line, where chairman nunes was rushing to the white house to brief the president. the president at the same time even before nunes arrived was telling "time" magazine's michael scherer in a telephone interview he didn't have time to watch nunes but knew what nunes

would tell him which raises the question no one has really answered, spicer it he nid deni the intel agencies or administration or someone from the executive branch was the original source of the confused information to nunes, which supposedly vindicated the president but didn't really. >> that's something that chairman nunes would not dispel. he did not dispute the possibility that this came from the white house. let's look at the time line. chairman nunes had a press conference, then he ran to the white house to brief president trump, then he had another press conference and that first press conference perhaps just coincidentally but it started right before sean spicer's white house press briefing and of course sean spicer on wednesday clinged onto what dhchairman nus presented on a silver platter almost as if this were orchestrated. >> almost indeed. >> almost. >> rex tillerson, sending out cables to all the embassies and consulates to do basically what is extreme vetting, to take more time on visa applications which a lot of people say great,

that's what was promised but the budget cuts, how are they going to do this? it takes now 120 days or so to handle maybe i have the numbers incorrectly fixed in my head. >> every administration has a responsibility to take prudent and appropriate measures to protect the american people but what has been described at least in news accounts to date strikes me as the possibility of a muslim ban by a thousand cuts. this is the muslim ban turned down by two courts in two different iterations and we need to be concerned by the possibility that this administration is grasping at straws trying to make it as hard as it can for immigrants from muslim majority countries to come to the united states and of course it's compounded by the budget cuts this administration has proposed for the state department. as it is today, there are consular officers in this part of the world that conduct more than 100 interviews, about 120 interviews a day, five minutes apiece, for each visa applicant. how is it these consular officials could be even more

stringent, even more try dent in their vetting if the state department is not adding more consular officers, giving them more resources, but actually taking away funding. it doesn't make sense and it makes us less safe as a country. >> and this still would exclude the visa waiver countries in europe? where many could travel and try to get in automatically. >> and that's why it raises the question, is it just targeted at these countries that would have been targeted under the immigration ban, but there's also a fundamental issue here, andrea, that is that terrorist attacks on this country, since 9/11, have not been perpetrated by operatives deployed by al qaeda or any other terrorist group. they have perpetrated by and large by americans or legal permanent residents that is to say people who have been here, people who have become radicalized in this country. in order to protect this country it's not about closing borders. it's not about building walls. it's ensuring that we have, we remain vigilant at home with appropriate measures. >> do you think they have any intelligence that backs up the

demand for this? >> i couldn't say what intelligence they might have, but i would say that even after the horrible attack in london this week, we heard calls from some in the administration this is exactly why we need this ban and when you look at what happened in london, that was perpetrated by a british citizen, by someone who lived in the uk. so clearly they are grasping at straws for anything they can find to validate a policy they have presented that really may not be rooted in fact. >> ned price, thank you so very much. coming up, the speaker of the house, paul ryan has just arrived at the white house as kelly o. told us he would. more ahead on this very big day in washington. we have it all here right here on "andrea mitchell reports," on msnbc. let's party! [kids cheering] [kids screaming] call the clown! parents aren't perfect but then they make us kraft mac & cheese and everything's good again.

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(singsong) budget meeting. sweet. if you compare last quarter... it's no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with no artificial preservatives, flavours or dyes. welcome back. we're still following that breaking news here in washington, all the news you're looking live at the white house briefing room. the top of the hour, press secretary sean spicer will hold his daily briefing. i think we're going to see the briefing room in a moment. you see the white house behind there, and the big question for spicer when he does hold the briefing, will the health care bill pass? voting starts in only a few hours unless they pull it. joining me now msnbc contributor yamish al sindor, national reporter for the "new york times" and sam stein on the white house lawn. >> reporter: yep. >> also an msnbc contributor. first of all, i wanted to clean something up because it's hard to see the women in this white house sometimes, but let's show

the picture of the freedom caucus meeting. if you follow me here, look to the window on the right of your screen near the flag, and i can't see it, but i'm told that kellyanneconway is there, so it's the second window, the middle window there, kellyanne conway sort of to the right and behind or to the left on your screen and behind donald trump. so kellyanne conway is in that picture contrary to what chuck todd and i were discussing earlier. hard to spot but there is a woman in that shot in the white house. and yamesh al sindor and sam stein, what do we think of all the comings and goings right now? paul ryan is at the white house. could this be that he's going to say mr. president we either have to pull this or face defeat. sam stein? >> yes, that is the scuttlebutt right now, where paul ryan coming here obviously to talk to the president about the state of the health care bill.

sources on the hill say they're getting further away from the necessary votes for passage, not closer, at which point paul ryan has a question, do you make your vulnerable members take a vote that isn't in their comfort zone? this bill obviously the polling speaks for itself, quinnipiac poll 17%. it's not a vote you want to take back to your district so if you're paul ryan and looking at this, what is the upside of forcing a vote when that vote will likely fail? is it just to show that you tried? i'm not sure that's a price you want to pay and soim fame for d trump. do you want to go down with a no vote on your first major legislative gambit or get it off the table. either way it's a bad situation for them. one of the situations doesn't involve having a vote hang over your head. >> and yamish, glenn rush your colleagues and maggie haberman last night from the "new york times" got a lot of us talking around 10:00 or 10:to when they

posted people close to the president seeming to want to run away from this and blame paul ryan for bringing it to the floor and doing health care before doing tax reform and other things that the president seems to think would be a lot easier. is he trying to cut paul ryan loose and avoid the blame? >> i mean i think it's very clear, given the reporting that came out last night and the branding of this health care bill going forward that the white house does not want to be tied to something that fails that president trump is someone who wants to win, is someone who promised this to his supporters and now, this looks like it's not something that will go in his direction. he doesn't want to be the person who owns it. i think one of the things that the president might be wanting in asking for a vote or pushing congress to have a vote is because he wants to be able to say i tried but congress, i couldn't work with this congress. i was an outsider and i'm pushing back against the establishment and they refused to go with me. that is the branding that will

go here. i was talking to a senior, a republican source who saidle really the president is one, frustrated with this but two wants to get other things passed, he wants to look at infrastructure, tax reform, all the other things he wants to do. if this is a sinking ship he wants to walk away from this. >> we have an apology of sorts from senator, kansas senator pat roberts will comments that he made in the hallway about mammograms and this gets to something i was referring to earlier to both of you, comments about whether he supported the essential health benefits and mammogram coverage, and he said i wouldn't want to lose my ma m mammograms he snarked, apologizing, i deeply regret my comments on a very important topic. mammograms are essential to women's health and i never intended to indicate otherwise. this is the whole argument from some republican members that why should health care costs be raised, why do i as a man have to pay for mammograms and maternity benefits, which

certainly struck at least 50% of the population as being insensitive and stupid. >> yes. well can i just, to start out can i just apologize on behalf of my gender. those were highly insensitive regards. >> sam you're not responsible foreyour gender. >> reporter: i feel some responsibility here, for starters, men do get mammograms. men do suffer from breast cancer. >> thank you. >> you have screenings that you have, and it might be breaking news to some, but we're all products of women, and women's health matters not just to women, but to men, and so there is a logical rationale for requiring insurance companies to cover things like mammograms and maternity care, and of course, there's an insurance rationale, which is if you don't force health insurers to cover these things, they end up raising the prices of premiums for people who do need them. so there's a whole bit here, and obviously senator roberts had to backtrack on that for obvious reasons, politically a dumb thing to say but also it shows a

lack of understanding about the actual policy here. >> and also goes to the heart of the issue -- >> go ahead, sorry. >> i think it goes to the heart of the issue that people really understand how personal health care is. when you look at the list of essential benefits and people now think about this and think about do people, should we cover maternity care, should hospitalization be covered, prescription drugs, things that are easy for the american public to understand, so i think that when you go to the comments about why should i have to pay for a mammogram, women and i would say men, too, obviously the products of this, they sit back is this really what we want? >> yamihe alcindor and sam, and again sam, i do not hold you responsible. >> reporter: it's okay if you don't but i felt the need to apologize. i wanted to get it out there. >> something tells me that mama stein may have called. >> reporter: she may have called, yes. >> she may have called. and coming up, the final countdown, with just a few hours left before the health care vote in the house, we'll ta you can to one republican who was a

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reince priebus and hhs secretary price have just arrived at the capitol hill club to meet with the freedom caucus as the health care vote nears. one republican who will not support the bill is dan donovan from staten island. thank you for being with us. >> hau fthank you for having me. >> why are you opposed? >> the president and speaker ryan look to see if it helps 330 million across america. i have to look at it through the lenses does it help the 725,000, 740,000 people that i represent in brooklyn and staten island. the people of new york are not going to be able to use the health care tax credits because of the rules in new york that insurance companies must cover adorations and the law prohibits the tax credits to be used for policies that cover abortions. we're not going to be, we're going to be burdened with more taxes to pay for the subsidies, the medicaid payments that the upstate counties have been relieved from. i have a senior population, a

great senior population that the insurance companies can charge three times as much as a healthy person. and my four biggest employers are my hospital systems, two in brooklyn, two in staten islands, all four concerned about their ability to cover people with health care access if this provision of the bill go through. >> that makes it pretty clear. let me ask you very quickly something that i've learned from a single source. you're a lawyer. >> yes. >> i'm told there are a lot of former transition team members in and outside of the white house now purging their private phones, afraid they're going to get subpoenaed by these various investigators. what is their legal risk for purging their phones of any transition comments? >> i'm not sure. if you've been subpoenaed to preserve those messages, then you'd be violating the law. so i'm not sure, i'm not privy to -- what if you've gotten a

letter from the white house counsel or someone else. >> that told to you preserve? there might be legal ramifications. >> thank you. thanks for putting up with -- i misspoke earlier in talking about the benefits, we were talking about maternity care, not maternity leave, and that has been one of the issues. busy day, thanks very much. stay with us right here on msnbc as we await the start of the white house briefing, and of course, all of the coverage. we'll be right back. (singsong) . sweet. if you compare last quarter... it's no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with no artificial preservatives, flavours or dyes. mai knit's t need to no arttalk about this. preservatives, it is a big decision for us... let's take the $1000 in cash back. great! yeah, i want to get one of those gaming chairs with the speakers. oh, you do? that's a surprise... the volkswagen 3 and easy event, where you can choose one of three easy ways to get a $1000 offer.

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that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us on facebook and twitter. katie tur one of "elle" magazine's power women of washington is up next. >> you're going to make me blush, andrea, thank you. good afternoon, i am katy tur in for craig melvin. it is a huge day in washington and happening right now. any moment sean spicer will take the podium as the health care replace and repeal bill hangs in the balance. paul ryan is at the white house meeting with the. right now. vice president pence arriving at the capitol hill club meeting with the freedom caucus, part of a desperate last-minute attempt to get the votes to pass the legislation. after the president issued an ultimatum. do it now or move on. our nbc news tally has 32 republicans voting no, or leaning no, but remember, that could change at any moment. so let's get right to our reporters and analysts covering the story.