once the savior or the gop, >> for house speaker paul ryan, once the savior or the gop, today, he's forced to concede this. >> obamacare is the law of the land. day 64 of the trump add min straight brought defeat. it is hard to find a donald trump -- when the republican health care bill was pulled

today without a vote at all, donald trump and paul ryan inadd ver tently became the men who saved obamacare. hear now, the ovl office. >> we were very close and it was very, very tight margin. we had no democrat support. we had no votes from the democrats. they weren't going to give us a single vote. it was a difficult thing to do. i have been saying for the last year and a half that the best thing we can do politically speaking is let obamacare explode. it is exploding right now. it's many states have big problems, almost all states have big problems.

i think what will happen is obamacare, unfortunately, will explode. it's going to have a bad year. i think the losers are nancy pelosi and chuck schumer because now they own obamacare. they own it, 100% own it. we all learned a lot. we learned about loyalty and about the vote getting processed. for me, it's been an interesting experience. but, in the end, i think it's going to be an experience for a better health care plan. what president obama left, 17 knew he wasn't going to be here. '17 is going to be a very, very bad year for obamacare. very bad. you are going to have explosive premium increases and your deductibles are so high, people don't get to use it. i would like to see it do well. it's not a question of, gee, i hope it does well. i would love it to do well. i want great health care for the people.

whenever they're ready, we're ready. >> moments before the president's remarks from oval office, the other man at the center of all this, house speaker paul ryan, appeared before our cameras on the capital building. he accepted the obvious conclusion of the failure, obamacare will not be replaced or repealed. and is in fact here to stay. >> moving from an opposition party to a governoring party comes with growing pains. we're feeling those growing pains today. we came really close today but we came up short. i will not sugar coat this. this is a disappointing day for us. doing big things is hard. i'm proud of the bill that we produced. it would make a dramatic improvement in our health care system. and provide relief by people

hurting under obamacare. and what's probably most troubling is the worst is yet to come with obamacare. the president gave his all in this effort. did he everything he possibly could to help people see the opportunity we had with this bill. he's been fantastic. still, we've got to do better and we will. i believe that. this is a setback, no two ways about it, but it is not the end of the story. obamacare is the law of the land, will remain the law till it's replaced. we didn't have quite the votes to replace this law. yeah, we're going to be living with obamacare for the foreseeable future. i don't know how long it's going to take to us replace this law. >> chris jansing just back in new york after a long day at the white house. nbc's kelly o'donnell stationed on capitol hill all day and has made it as far as our nbc news washington bureau. and with us by phone, robert costa. national political reporter for the "washington post" who broke the story this afternoon.

after speaking by telephone with the president. robert, we'll begin with you. how did it happen that you got on the phone with the president and when in that conversation did you realize that you would be the conduit, the vehicle, the one breaking the larger story? >> well, i wasn't surprised. i was sitting in an office in arlington having a meeting. i thought it was maybe a reader who was complaining about an article because sometimes readers hide their numbers when had he call me and get my cell phone number. i said what the heck, i'll pick it up. it was trump, it was the president. i said he immediately starts talking. as a reporter i have my notebook and a recorder with batteries. i put it on speakerphone and started recording and tried to keep him on the phone for 15, 20 minutes talking through his whole decision.

he wanted to plunge right in. the first thing he said is hello bob, i've pulled the bill. i knew it was news, but the thing was, there were no terms. i didn't know the president was going to call me. i didn't ask for the interview. i started to tweet about it because that was my instinct to tweet the news. i just recorded it, wrote it up, that was that. >> imagine our surprise on this end watching your twitter feed realizing you were breaking a story to change the story line. your second paragraph in a piece you co-wrote with ashley parker and phil rucker at the "post" says over the next 1 days till the bill collapsed in the house friday afternoon, in a humiliating defeat, the sharpest rebuke yet of trump's young presidency and his negotiating skills. the question continued to nag at the president whether or not this was a good bill. robert, are you too close to this? is it too early to give us a damage assessment, in your view? >> oh, it's a major political defeat for the president. objectively speaking as a reporter, this was something he embraced.

he may not be an ideological paul ryan style republican. but he went along with the agenda from congressional republicans. and as i spoke to the president, it was clear he thought he could adapt his deal making skills from the real estate world to the political world. but what he recognized and he reveal this had over the course of the conversation, that the political world is far less transactional and it's very different. you have purists here, ideologues, skittish moderates, all these different factions. the president said i didn't realize, he told me, there is all this anger and factional politics within the house gop that had little to do with trump and more to do with the freedom caucus, the conservative wing battling with speaker ryan and all these dramas he had waded into that had been simmering for mons if not years. >> but parts of his personality on full display today. the quote you just mentioned later in the oval office, he talked about the two leading facts in the gop but caught

himself and said both sides like trump. and in your interview, such an interesting quote, he says we were a little bit shy. very little. but it was still a little bit shy. so we pulled it. it's not a tough walk here to see him himself editing himself, came close to admitting deficiency, something he doesn't do. he said very little bit shy. in the end who knows what the numbers would have been. >> well, our web county think it was similar to nbc's was about three dozen republicans. maybe a little less were firmly as opposed to the bill as a vote approached. and the president says that the speaker did come in and was very frank and candid. i said are you frustrated with ryan as a whip as someone trying to put together the package? he just kept saying i don't blame paul. i tried to get something out of him. so unexpected i said, you're 60 days in, mr. president.

what did you learn from all this? reflective person not wistful about a major political crisis. he flatly joked in a way, another day in paradise. i tried to draw him out more and he said take care. >> you just became the first person to put donald trump and wistful into the same sentence. stand by, kelly o'donnell, chris jansing, kelly, watching you last night and others and reading everything i could, it looked like when they appealed to party and patriotism and emotion, that this thing may have been headed to the upside. but then watching you all day in a way, it got worse. was that because the bill became more onerous, more of a christmas tree? >> i think there was just a sense that there would not be satisfaction among those especially in the freedom caucus but also some moderates who were concerned about their constituents who wanted more of the obamacare pieces to remain. so on both ends, there was a dissatisfaction.

it was almost as if that was getting stale through the day. instead of sort of a team spirit, we can get this passed and then make additional changes and try and move the ball forward it, just started seeing out. it was great to hear bob's discussion about how the president played this out because i was also struck by the fact that paul ryan told us that he said to the president we should pull it, and the way that bob just described it, the president took ownership for that deal. i'm not sure which one is quite right. i also will always now answer phones that have the caller blocked. >> yeah, we're all. >> that is the lesson from this. >> we're all making a note of that including anything that comes in from the broadcast. chris jansing, at the other end of the street, the other end of washington at the trump white house, the president's comments from the oval office today, if you look at them in the rearview mirror left us thinking, well, we're left with a disastrous health care system for the

citizens of the united states. after all, that was the effort to try to fix this. truth squad this a little bit. how bad is it. >> well, i mean, let's just say i think that the reports of obamacare's demise may be greatly exaggerated. there's no problems. you have a system where you've brought in. now have you more than 90% of the people with health care. you think that's good news. a lot of people coming into it are people who never could get get health care before, people with pre-existing conditions, people who are older. 31 states who have the medicaid expansion, republican governors were fighting for this when you had 17% of the american people saying yeah, let's change obamacare, we like what they're doing, you know that there is something that's working right. there are going to have to be changes. there are going to have to be adjustments that are made. this was not it. and the dooms sayers, i think just as are pretty much in the same category as people who say

this is the end of the trump presidency which is also not true. it was a very, very bad day. >> when when look forward, they've got infrastructure, terrible name for new airports, new roads, new train tracks, new stuff around america and a huge jobs program. they have tax reform. president keeps talking about the border wall. >> and part of the problem with this is it just got a lot more complicated. this is a president who said so many times on the campaign trail to great applause, winning is everything. >> i'm going to win so much. >> not just that i'm going to make a deal, i'm going to make beautiful deals. in fact, the finger pointing is exhausting. i can hardly explain to you the intensity of what was going on inside that white house this afternoon. you have obviously the president saying it's the democrats' fault. you have republicans now who are tweeting and blaming their fellow republicans, members of the freedom caucus. and then you have other members of the president's staff telling

nbc news, by the way, the president never really wanted to make this the first thing ever. that was something that reince priebus and paul ryan and the vice president mike pence wanted to do. so you have all of this blame game going on. and the fact of the matter is, politics is about momentum. he lost big today. his approval ratings are at record lows. his travel bans had been blocked by the courts. general flynn had to go away. there's still an active investigation about russian influence on the election. how does he move to something like tax reform? and even senior staffers before i left the white house this afternoon, brian, said to me, because of the financial impact the failure will have, this makes the tax reform much more difficult. >> kelly o'donnell, is paul ryan in trouble as speaker? >> i don't get that sense at all tonight. i did feel like i was watching a movie that was recast sitting in that same seat a few years ago when john boehner was hobbled by this conservative faction within the house conference known as the freedom party, formerly the

tea party. there's a lot of principled people in that group. enough of them bond together and say they just won't compromise. and the art of compromising is part of what legislating is. that's where paul ryan, a coded message in what he said, opposition to governing. that was a message aimed right at them. so he tried to be very careful to not lay blame at their feet but there's a lot of frustration among republicans who believe that that group who would not move really cost john boehner his speakership, lifted up paul ryan and now today hobbled paul ryan's ability to deliver. this should have been easy for republicans with a little room to spare to do it on their own. i was struck today by the president being able to deflect, the art of deflection perhaps. lightner his tone at times. yes, he blame add the democrats but also talked about how great a bipartisan bill would be. he moved on immediately talking about trade and other things he wants to do.

a moment or two of acknowledging that he learned some lessons and that was humbling. but also no rancor toward his fellow republicans. i think given the candidate we saw who would spare no wrath against fellow republicans, note how calm he was against his fellows republicans today. i think he was kind of taking some lessons in and breathing a bit. >> and robert costa, before we let you put your phone away at long last, one more quick question. i saw the president said to a journalist today, enough already. it's been authorized he didn't own this. it's been reported he wasn't as angry about this as he was the sessions recusal, as he was his inaugural crowds, as he was the handling of the travel ban. >> that's a great point, brian. i mean, i was struck immediately when i id spoke to him that his tone was pretty even.

his words were his whole phrasing was pretty muted. i said do you regret not start with taxes and infrastructure. he said no. then he said which is revealing, he never had the passion for health care that he does for hard line immigration policies, for trade, for national security issues. and this is a president who's in a sense being dragged along by a more ideological party and congressional gop that's not trump in style. it doesn't have the nationalism, the populism, the temperament that the president has. so he wasn't furious why is. people hope have covered trump for a long time know he can get furious in public and behind the scenes. today a more muted moment. disappointment but he seems to be okay with moving forward on different fronts. >> robert costa, "washington post." better than average, more exciting day for you as it was our whole panel. >> thank you to all.

coming up of our first break, the new president, his signature legislation defeated and a complete about face today straight from the oval office. this is "the eleventh hour."

on my first day, on my first day. >> on my first day, i'm going to ask congress to send me a bill to immediately repeal and replace disastrous obamacare. what's the first thing you're going to do? well, we're going to work immediately on repealing obamacare. >> on my first day in office, i am going to ask congress to send me a bill to immediately repeal and replace, i just said it, obamacare.

>> my first day in office, i'm going to ask congress to put a bill on my deck, getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability, you're going to have such great health karat a tiny fraction of the cost. and it's going to be so easy. >> candidate trump said over and over again, repealing and replacing obamacare would be something for day one of his presidency. keep that, what you just saw in mind as you listen to what the president said today. >> and i never said i guess i'm here what, 64 days. i never said repeal and replace obama care. you've all heard my speeches. i never said repeal it and replace it within 64 days. i have a long time. >> still with us, chris jansing here in our studios in new york. also joining us charlie sykes, host of the public road program

indivisible and msnbc contributor. also a political analyst, michael steele. michael, i'm coming for you because. >> don't do it. don't do it. >> here's why. you did used to run this party. you're also a student of history and you're a patriot. so i was looking at some of the quotes i made contemporarily today while the president was speaking from the only office. it's not going to be pretty. it's getting much worse. this year should be much worse. when it explodes, which it will soon. this is a room and that is a desk, michael, where presidents have exhorted us. they have gotten us back on our feet after terrorist attacks. they have sent us off to war. they have confessed some things. they have comforted us and got us through crises. today, i've never heard quite the message we did today. >> i would agree with that, brian.

it was just really first off, i thought it was interesting to have that staged in the only office. that's something you do in the press briefing room. it's something you may do at some other location because that oval office is reserved for those big moments. for donald trump, i don't think he invested in this as a big moment. i think it has been reported and confirmed by various sources that he really wasn't all that in to the health care piece. his instincts had him leading with tax reform. he got talked out of that. his heart was never in this. and so to have that type of an exortation from him to go charging up the hill on health care was something that i never thought would really be a part of his m.o. because it just wasn't there from the begin. his frustration though despite the kind word to paul ryan is with the house. and the house leadership because his attitude is likely, i let

you lead with this. why count get it done. that is the consummate ceo perspective. you went out on point. you didn't deliver. now, i'm moving on. but again, to teenage that in the oval office to me was kind of a stunning different take on this whole thing because it elevated it in a way that i don't think it was required to be elevated to. >> charlie sykes, the "associated press" lead which will be the most roundly distributed and repeated piece of journalism from today times i don't know how many papers and websites around the world is one sentence. just two months in, donald trump's presidency is perilously adrift. you don't read ha kind of writing often from the a.p. even ryan said this makes tax reform tougher. where do you see the agenda now, charlie? >> it is in jeopardy. that's why a couple nights ago i supered they were going to be able to pass this because the consequences to trump's presidency are so grave. look, when harry truman sat at

that deck, he said the bucks stops here. i didn't see a president who said the buck stops there. i was struck about two things about that performance. number one is, donald trump looked relieved. he did not look angry. i think that's a tell he's saying maybe this is the best thing that would happen. the other extraordinary thing and i think you pointed this out, that after seven years of railing and campaigning against obamacare and saying what a disaster it would be, how quickly the republicans and president trump just folded on this. it's like, okay, never mind. this is a republican house that voted more than 60 times to repeal obamacare. they couldn't bring themselves to vote once on trumpcare. and they're basically saying never mind. we're going to move on, which is extraordinary. do you wonder whether or not he did have his heart in this despite what he told the voters over and over again that he did not have passion for this he clearly did not have knowledge

of this. and his admission to bob costa hey, who knew that politics was different than real estate deals. really? who knew. >> all the while as many have pointed out using the language of victimization, even though when you look at his comments the victims are ultimately the taxpayers, the american people. chris jansing, i want to talk about the learning curve between campaigning and president. and let's remember what the president said just a month ago. >> now, i have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject. nobody knew that health care could be so complicated. >> actually, as has been pointed out a lot of people knew that health care could be so complicated. >> and i asked actually a senior staff member what did he learn? because when the president said today, i thought it was a remarkable admission he had learned some things he said he learned a lot about loyalty and for some people nothing was ever going to be enough. i think yes, his heart was maybe never in it but it got less and less as it went along because he

was having to give up things to the conservative members of the republican caucus that would directly go against all the things that he not only promised but i think also believed in. and look, it wasn't as if he didn't at least put on a show, right? he was wining and dining people, taking them on air force one, bringing them to mar-a-lago. even mark meadows said he's a charming guy and if this was about being charming or likable, he would have won this easily. the problem is this is about policy. the criticism you heard when i was in congress this week was that he never did a deep dive. he never was really into the details of it. and he so he never really found his way. the interesting thing, i'll pick up on what charlie sykes said, not only did the president seem relieved but a number of staff members i talked to told me essentially we're moving on and there was not the kind of feeling that i got in the obama white house when something went bad that they really felt it

deeply. in fact, one senior staff member when i said so what do you do next meaning is it taxes? how do you recover from this? the answer was, i'm going to go home and spend a weekend with my kids. it's sort of a different feeling in that white house. >> i've also heard them speculating if the boss will exhibit phone control over this coming weekend. we shall see. chris jansing, thank you for joining our conversation. another break. our conversation continues as we look at this blame game. a fractured party and two leaders unable to deliver the votes. finger pointing as chris was saying going on tonight in washington when "the eleventh hour" continues. we are back with our

♪ ♪ it's spring, and we can't wait to open our sheds and get working on our yards. scotts and miracle-gro are here to help. we make it easy to grow thick, healthy lawns, spectacular plants, and bountiful flowers. because when spring starts right, the months that follow stay perfect. load up your shed with scotts and miracle-gro. it's time to get outside. ♪ ♪

we are back with our continuing coverage. charlie sykes and michael steele remain with us. michael, mr. chairman, do you fear for the immediate future of this republican party, and second part, would you recognize your republican party if you ran into it in a dark alley? >> i'd start with the second part first. no, i would not. i don't recognize it. it copies to baffle me the capitulation, backing away from core principles for what purpose i have yet to discover. so the party needs to get its act together on that front, particularly the leadership. as to the first part, the advice would be focus the mission. this don't rush. part of the problem here was taking this health care into the rush mode created more problems than it was worth in the end.

so settle down. work with the white house. develop a strategy on the key issues and policy you want to hit out of the park first and go there. play to strength, not to weakness. >> charlie sykes, the president full-on blamed the democrats. the truth is they didn't need one democratic vote to pass this. do you fear for your friend and fellow wisconsinite speaker paul ryan? >> well, of course, i do. this is a huge blow for him and when you think about the faustian bargain that ryan and other congressional republicans have made with donald trump, think about what they have been willing to ignore or enable or empower. hoping that they would get, well, the legislation that would be voted on today. so you know, i am concerned because you know, all of this was based on the expectation that if they just towed the line they would get this legislation signed. and now, i think paul ryan has to go back to the drawing board.

he's got to maybe go for smaller easier lower hanging fruit but also realize that donald trump is not the great negotiator. he is not the closer. and he will not always have your back whether he says he has your back. >> and charlie, in 15 seconds or less, do you buy into this legitimacy argument some people are talking about these investigations perhaps going to the heart of this administration? do you have any fears under those lines? >> look, i think it's important to draw the line that whatever you think about donald trump's politics or policy, he is the legitimately elected president of the united states. and until the evidence is overwhelming, it's dangerous to engage in rhetoric that suggests that he is not legitimate. >> michael steele, do you think the investigations speak to something perhaps existential? >> we don't yet. i think that's part of the problem. let's everybody go to separate corners. i think a third party looking at

this will help clarify a lot of this quicker than having it in the political realm where it is right now. >> gentlemen, you've always helped us clarify things. thank you both very much. charlie sykes, michael steele. another break for us. coming up, what's next? president trump signals this move toward tax reform but can the republican majority find common ground on this when it couldn't unite on repeal and replace? this is "the eleventh hour."

>> probably be going right now for tax reform. which we could have done earlier but this really would have worked out better if we could have had some democrat support. remember this, we had no democrat support. now we're going to go for tax reform which i've always liked. >> president trump turning his attention to taxes this afternoon after the obamacare repeal and replace collapsed in the house. trump's treasury secretary said today a tax overhaul will be an easier lift for congress. and that a plan will be released by the administration very soon.

with us here tonight, caitlin huey-burns of real clear politics and our own ali velshi about whom i have to say you came here from tonight's showing of "hamilton." so officially you have seen is the heights of democracy and welcome to the depths of democracy. >> we've seen it all. >> give us a preview because while it is not a catch fire topic, tax reform. >> yeah. >> is about to enter our vocabulary and about to be sold to the kind folks watching tonight. >> it's really hard. it's great that steve mnuchin says it will be an easier lift. yes says that, there's some parts of reform that have bipartisan support. it tends to be that to do with corporatetachs. you'll hear it said america has the highest corporate taxes in the developed world. it's not true because of all the loopholes we're not that high. they want to get it lower to 15 to 20%. it's the only area where they might get some democratic

support. problem is, when it comes to personal taxes, there's no agreement on whether they should be lower or higher. and how that affects the deficit. it may not be comprehensive tax reform. but there may be small incremental wins you can have. this is hard. it doesn't happen that often. >> caitlin, we will talk to actual americans in the days and weeks and months to come. the president right now stands at 37%. we don't know if that move, if that's going to migrate north or south as a result of this. do you think his base has no base as to their willingness to forgive and get on with things and do you think this will be the next agenda, tax reform, infrastructure, the southern border wall, and -- >> well, the biggest question is when do his supporters start to leave him. they've been very loyal

throughout this process. extremely loyal. he also promised a lot of deliver bes. a lot of the support i think hinges upon him being able to actually get something through. he's done a lot through executive order as we've seen rubber meets the road when it comes to working with congress. the biggest problem i have moving on tax reform hasn't been done in 30 years is for a reason is whether he learns to build coalitions instead of just going to the republican party for this. those freedom caucus members are never going to support much of this stuff. in fact, i think they're emboldened by what we saw today and think that they can resist a lot of the things that they want to resist. does he kind of cut them loose, focus on the moderates, build a coalition with democrats, try to get things done? >> although there's not a lot of will among democrats to work with this president especially given what we saw today. >> if he were to do that and get some wins under his belt, we haven't seen bipartisanship in this congress for a long time. today may end up being an interesting pivot point to him

realizing the hard right of the republican party is not going to be satisfied with concessions. moderates might team up with republicans and maybe we'll get some business done. >> did you hear him self-editing today? anytime he fears he's left himself open, he goes back. he said we thought we could get this done earlier. had we been able to get it done. he also said these factions predated his arrival in washington. >> right, no the my problem. i didn't start this. >> both sides like trump. he's going to have to test that. >> there's an interesting point he made when you said that comment. he had really liked tax reform more than health care. but health care takes so much off the deficit that it would have gotten them a kick start to tax reform. now they've got to cut more taxes or cut more spending in

order to achieve what he wanted to achieve. so there was actually a strategic reason to want health care first. without that, it takes tax reform a heavier lift than it would have been. >> caitlin, dealing with all this as a breaking story today, have you had time to count up the tally what this means? i should say the toll what this has done to the celebration today? >> i think it is a major blow. there's no way else to describe it. trump campaigned as the master negotiator that could go in there and get things done. he said that he left everything on the field on the table. but you know, he didn't really sell the merits of this law. he campaigned or sold it, pitched it in political terms. saying vote for this or else. you campaigned on repealing and replacing obamacare. it is it. didn't really convey 0 people why they should support what was in the law, the substance of the bill. and it was very unpopular. health care as we were talking about before is a very personal issue for people. people understand the basic nature of it. >> customers. >> exactly. tax reform is a little bit different. there's a reason that tax reform is not really a bumper sticker kind of thing in campaigns.

obamacare repeal and replace was. i think this is going to be hard for trump in some ways. i think he might be more inclined to things like tax reform, but the marketing side of this is going to be a heavier lift, getting people to really care especially when it comes to the corporate side which is what the markets and trump want to see. >> health care is emotional. taxes are something corporate america wants to deal with, not that emotion. >> remember you said that when we ask you to explain taxes again. ali velshi who was tonight to quote a great broadway show in the room where it happens. caitlin huey-burns was, as well. thank you for doing so at the end of a momentous week and momentous friday. coming up, the members of congress who have such a high stakes job and who they want to talk to next, provided they are still talking to each other, when "the 11th hour" continues.

>> the committee will ask director comey and admiral rogers to appear in closed session and will postpone the march 28th hearing in order to make time for director comey and admiral rogers. >> we welcome at any time bringing them back. we don't welcome the cutoff of public information when we have witnesses as three very important witnesses are willing and scheduled to testify in house session. >> the lead democrat adam schiff reacting to today's decision by the committee chairman devin nunes to cancel a public hearing next week. nunes says the committee has more questions for the fbi director, the head of the nsa that can only be answered in closed session. schiff is suggesting the open hearing which was supposed to include officials from the obama administration was canceled after pressure from the white house. also today, we learned former trump associate paul manafort and roger stone and carter page

have all volunteered to be interviewed by the committee. but whether those interviews would be open or close to the public is still tba. joining us tonight former chief of staff at both the cia and the pentagon, also former counsel to the house intelligence committee, jeremy bash. you're our guy on this especially on days when our attention is pulled somewhere else. how big a development was today? how big a deal does this investigation continue to be? >> good evening, brian. well, i go back to devin nunes' comment that was his duty to run to the white house and inform the president of what he was learning. in effect, tipping off the target, if you will, the at this time to you lar target of the entire investigation. and remember, nunes has really two roles here. he's not only leading one important investigation. he's also one of the few select members of congress who are being briefed in realtime by the fbi director about their

investigation. so he has as much information as anybody does on the planet about this investigation. and he goes to the white house and tells the president everything he knows. and if you look at the statute that governs what is the role of the house intelligence committee, it's to be currently and fully informed of intelligence activities, to authorize those activities and to conduct oversight over those activities. it's not to be a shill or a shield for the president and so nunes really compromised the integrity of the entire effort this week. and today's hearing cancellation i think only added to that. >> on that front, we had the senate minority leader chuck schumer in this very room tonight talking to rachel maddow and part of his comments here got our attention. >> nunes is way out of line and seems to be much more of an advocate for the administration and this troubles me. we have had a bipartisan tradition on the intelligence committees more than any other committees you know, where you leave your politics at the door

when you enter that briefing room where no penetration we call it a skiff, you know, no one can listen in. i think nunes is ruining that. and i hope, i've said this. i hope speaker ryan maybe appoints somebody es. he has so jaundiced his impartial. he would have to do a lot to recover given how he's behaved. >> jeremy, i must say those are some of the same findings that you called out in realtime the other day. but secondly, is there a chance that they will change horses in mid stream that nunes is just going to be in an unpretexted position. >> no, i think the speakler stick with him. but to go back, brian, to this point about the hearing that he cancelled. they were supposed to have a hearing next week with john bren be, the former ci a director, and sally yates. yates is the person who went to the white house counsel done mcgann and said we've got a problem with mike flynn. he's not telling the truth to

the president. he said he did not discuss sanctions with the russians. he did. and we now know from what we've understood here that mcgann told the president about this. and so yates would have testified next week in effect i gave the president through his counsel a heads-up about mike flynn and that would have put nunes and the white house and their allies in a very uncomfortable position next week. that's i think why they canceled the hearing. > you feel no one's going to inadvertently blurt out secrets that shouldn't be bes in closed session. you feel generally sunshine and fresh air are best for an investigation. this elemental to a new administration and this vast. >> yeah, these are professional people who have testified many times on classified and unclassified topics. they're well trained. you need both. you probably need much of it done in an unclassified format and some of it done in a classified format.

it should probably be that those weighting, if you will. but you got to have both but something of this magnitude, the public needs to understand what the committee is doing. the committee is the eyes and ears of the american public. if they don't do it, no one else will. >> there's a note to end our discussion on jeremy bash. thank you so much for staying up with us on a friday night. so ably covering this part of today's news which is very, very important, jeremy, thanks. coming up off our next break, we'll look back at just where we've been over the seeming eternity of this past week when "the eleventh hour" continues.

we had to democrat support. we will no votes from the democrats. they weren't going to give us a sickal vote. so it's a very difficult thing to do. i think the losers are nancy pelosi and chuck schumer because now they own obamacare. they own it. >> i will not sugar coat this.

this is a disappointing day for us. doing big things is hard. all of us. all of us, myself included, we will need time to reflect how we got to this moment. what we could have done to do it better >> and to think that was just today, the last thing before we go tonight is a reminder of where we've been. no one around here remembers news moving anything close to this speed. let's begin by thinking all the way back to monday. we were on the air live when the director of the fbi told a congressional hearing that members of the trump political team were the subject of an active and open investigation into ties to russia. in the old days, a story that big would have lasted us a couple of weeks but not in 2017 because then comes tuesday, the president went to capitol hill, told republicans on health care, "a loss is not acceptable." on tuesday, we were on the air all day for the confirmation hearings of the man who barring

political disaster, will be soon known as justice gorsuch and at the age of 49, could thus impact american life and law for a half century or more. on wednesday, the chairman of the house intelligence committee decided on his own to head down to the white house to share intelligence with the subject of the investigation he's supposed to be heading. the ranking democrat followed that by saying the evidence showing russia ties is now more than circumstantial in his view. just last night, we came on the air to report republicans had pulled the vote for a day on health care. on orders from the white house to stop negotiating and get on with it. it was never voted on it turns out. it would have failed. it was only a week and we start another one of those come monday. that is our broadcast for this friday night and for this week. thank you for being here with us. enjoy your weekend.

if you are one of the millions of americans who called your >> there will be no deal. >> the president called me and said "look, i'm pulling the bill." >> president trump dealt a stunning rebuke on his first major initiative. >> i worked as a team player and would have loved to have seen it pass. >> the blame game begins. >> we learned a lot about loyalty. we learned a lot about the vote-getting process. >> republicans are left reeling. >> i won't sugar coat this, this is a disappointing day for us. >> democrats are declaring victory. >> today is a great day for our country. it's a victory. >> tonight, senator bernie sanders on how it fell apart after seven years of promising repeal. >> real change begins with immediately repealing and replacing the disaster known as obamacare.