custody, and right now that airport police officers in critical condition, so far no word if this is terror related or not. we hope to learn that during the press conference coming up here. but we can tell you that city hall and other points of interest in flint, michigan, have added security just as a precaution while we wait to learn more information. >> blake, rewind for us just a moment, this is breaking news for us, exactly what do you know, what have you heard happen? what led to the stabbing, where was the officer, if you know? >> we know the officer was in the airport, but beyond that we don't know many details other than that they say that this officer was stabbed in the neck. we don't know if there was any sort of interaction with the officer before that happened, we just know he was stabbed in the neck and has been taken into custody. that officer is in critical condition, we're told again. there has been no formal press conference yet, so that's why information is very thin. we're waiting no ining for that

conference to happen. >> thank you very much. we'll continue to monitor this story, but for now, ali and i are signing off. thank you so much for watching this hour. >> we'll hand it over to andrea mitchell with "andrea mitchell reports". >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," hidden figures. with nine days until a vote, the costs and benefits of the republican health care bill remain washington's biggest mystery. even to frustrated members of the group in charge of writing it. >> i haven't seen the bill. and it has become increasingly apparent in the last few days that even though we thought we were going to be in charge of writing a bill, within this working group, it is not being written by us. so if you're frustrated by the lack of transparency in this process, i share your frustration. >> seeing red. homeland security officials reveal that 21 states were targets of cyberattacks in the 2016 election, leaving no doubt who was behind it. >> in 2016, the russian government at the direction of vladimir putin himself

orchestrated cyberattacks on our nation for the purpose of influencing our election. that is a fact, plain and simple. >> so does the president now concede that russia was behind the hacks? >> just very plainly, yes or no answer, does president trump believe that the russian government interfered in the 2016 elections? >> i think i have not sat down and talked to him about that specifically. >> and special sweep. republicans go four for four in congressional special elections since november as democrats point fingers over their fizzled trump resistance. the president's supporters take a victory lap. >> a special thanks to the president of the united states of america. >> and good day.

i'm andrea mitchell in washington with the republican effort to overhaul health care is in critical condition. more republican senators now speaking out expressing their frustration with their own party leaders' decision to cloak the health care bill in secrecy. as majority leader mitch mcconnell pushes for a vote before the july 4th recess, several republicans have been kept in the dark are asking basic questions like what is in the bill, who will be affected, at what cost. joining me now is nbc's kristen welker at the white house. and nbc's casey hunt on capitol hill. casey, let me go to you first. you've been tracking these senators in both parties trying to find out what is in it, mitch mcconnell now saying that a draft will be available for them to read tomorrow. what are you hearing? >> that's the plan right now, andrea. and the senators are going to be having their usual conference lunches today. so we're expecting that republican senators will get a rundown of the -- a broad outline of what this bill will look like at lunch today and that draft expected to be released on thursday.

now, the very ambitious timing plan that mitch mcconnell has laid out privately anyway would call for votes by the end of next week, typically the senate would be in session until thursday. friday session wouldn't be outside of the norm, so if that all holds, we're looking at about a week for people to kind of mull over this bill for the american people to read it, for republicans to decide whether or not they're going to get on board. now, mitch mcconnell has been very deliberate, of course, in this process. very tightly held. it's basically been his office, cadre of aides who have been writing this bill over the course of the last couple of weeks. you have mike lee, the conservative from utah who is supposed to be in that working group, he made a video to camera on facebook saying, hey, i was supposed to be writing this, i haven't even see it. there is supposed to be runways of discontent in republican circles. but right now, it does look like they are kind of on track to try to keep this very aggressive timeline. i think the big things that you

want to look for here are how do they balance medicaid cuts in particular. that's what pits those conservatives, mike lee, ted cruz, pat toomey of pennsylvania, against more moderate senators, they come from rural states, states in lower income, states that have expanded medicaid, susan collins, lisa murkowski, folks -- dean heller up for re-election, coming up in 2018, and they really are trying to get this balance of when do these cut s to the medicaid expansion come in to play, are they phased out over the course of two years, four years, six years, longer term horizon and a key issue to watch, might be a side issue, but it is becoming central to the negotiations and that's money to help people who are fighting opioid addiction. there are a lot of people on medicaid who get their treatment for opioid addiction that way. many of these states very, very hard hit, this is something senator portman of ohio talked a lot about. and it is something that could potentially derail these

negotiations. but that i think is a piece to really pay attention to here, andrea. >> and mitch mcconnell and you -- mitch mcconnell was trying to say they are being open about all this. i want to play a little bit of your exchange with him, casey. >> how long will the american public have to read this bill? how many days? >> plenty of time, yeah. plenty of time. we have been discussing all the elements of this, endlessly, for seven years. everybody pretty well understands it. everybody will have an adequate time to take a look at it. i think this will be about as transparent as it could be. no transparency would have been added by having hearings in which democrats offered analysts single payer system amendment. >> so speaking of transparency, as casey has been tracking all of this on the hill, how much, kristen, has the president been briefed on this?

does he know what's in this bill? >> we learned a short time ago, andrea, that the president was briefed by his legislative team earlier today. but when asked if the president has seen the latest version of the bill, press secretary sean spicer couldn't answer that question yesterday. so he'll undoubtedly get pressed on that again today. there is going to be a gaggle aboard air force one as president trump heads out to iowa a little bit later on this afternoon. based on my conversations with my sources here, the president has been in contact with mitch mcconnell and, of course, vice president mike pence continues to be deeply engaged in this process. but complicating the entire effort, some of what the president has said behind closed doors which has subsequently leaked out, namely that he wants this bill to have heart, several weeks ago we learned that he said that the house bill, which he touted, which he celebrated in the rose garden, was mean. that's giving democrats a lot of fodder. even sending out fund-raising

e-mails about that. and that potentially complicating the efforts to get something through the senate that will have the support of those moderate and conservative republicans as casey was just mapping out. that's going to be the real challenge moving forward, andrea. >> and we just want to also give you the latest from steve scalise, this is good news. we're happy to report that medstar is reporting that he's been upgraded from serious to fair condition, which is improvement and we just, of course, heard yesterday paul ryan saying that he was grabbing phones and techt and was visited by paul ryan and by steny hoyer, so he's talking and talking to family members and this sounds like at least good progress on the recovery. we know he has a series of surgeries and will continue an extended period of healing and rehabilitation. so good news on that. on all fronts. thank you so much, kristen welker, casey hunt. joining me now is brian shotts,

who took part in that scavenger hunt that casey was on yesterday, tracking the senators as they tried to find the elusive republican health care bill. took you a couple of blocks away to the congressional budget office. what did you find? >> the cbo is the referee. sometimes you like the score that they give one of your bills, sometimes you don't. but they're nonpartisan, professionals, a lot of them are ph.d. economists and their job is to determine what is -- not just the budgetary impact but the actual impact on american lives. and that's why the first round with the trump care bill, the house bill died because people figured out that more than 20 million people were going to lose their health care. now, leader mcconnell is sandbagging this bill for a number of reasons, but among them he wants that cbo score to come out as late as possible. so that's why senators murphy and booker and myself took a cab, went to cbo, talked to the director and deputy director, they have confidentiality limitations so they couldn't tell us what was happening. but we wanted to illustrate how

much of a lack of transparency there is here. there has never been a bill this important that hasn't had one legislative hearing. we had hearings this year about hot tub safety, about the maritime administration, about shipping issues and those are all issues that are worthy of a hearing but nobody can tell me that those are more important than one sixth of the american economy. it is legislative shame that we don't get to see what's in the bill. but more importantly that this will not be subject to any real scrutiny through the hearing process. >> now, one of the things that mitch mcconnell said yesterday is there has been seven years of debate over this issue. is that the same as debate over exactly how this bill will be written, how it will affect people on medicaid expansion, how many people will lose their insurance, 23 million was the number on the house side. >> right, it is seven years worth of them lambasting the affordable care act without any specific proposal. what is different now is they have a specific proposal.

we haven't seen it yet, but you have to understand that whatever changes they make, structurally this is going to be the same. it will be roughly an $800 billion or more cut in medicaid. and in exchange for an $800 billion tax cut for the wealthiest among us. whether they turn that into a $1 trillion cut in medicaid or $650 billion cut in medicaid, that means people who depend on medicaid for nursing home care, for opioid treatment, and for other things that make their lives better, they're going to be harmed. and one thing i wanted to add about this opioid issue, the idea that you're going to massively slash medicaid, maybe a trillion dollars less in medicaid spending, the primary payer when it comes to opioid treatment, and i guarantee you they'll set aside $9.5 billion, something, you know, 5% of what we really need for opioid treatment. this is really a sham, both legislatively and in terms of what it will do to people across the country. >> at this stage, there is a lot of pushback, of course, from

sean spicer, mitch mcconnell. give you a taste of that. >> look at what senator schumer said both in february, to a move on.org call, where he said that, you know, no one is going to be -- no democrat will go near this. what he said in the letter in may 9th, he said no democrats would be part of an effort that would repeal obamacare. so they have chosen to take themselves not -- to not make themselves part of this process. >> we know they don't want to participate in what we're trying to achieve, which is to change obamacare and make it better. >> so the whole argument is that you guys don't want to play. >> this is not true. we actually wrote a letter to leader mcconnell, leader shurmur, and, you know, we had a couple of meetings in the old senate chamber in my five years in the united states senate. and it is what we call it a family meeting, it is when things get really tough, no cameras, the old senate chamber is where the great debates in american history have occurred.

so there is something about that room that actually brings out the best in us. usually when you ask for that family meeting, it is agreed to. whatever the political circumstances. and we asked for a meeting where we can just talk about how to improve health care for the united states of america. we understand aca is not perfect. and we stand ready to collaborate. if you have lamar alexander and patty murray, myself, bill cassidy, we could get a good bipartisan group that could actually improve health care for the majority of americans. but what they want to do is fulfill a campaign promise and they are afraid of people figuring out what that will mean. barack obama is not president anymore. and so calling it obamacare and then ripping health care away from millions of americans is not going to cut it. they're trying to do this as quickly and as secretively as they can, because they know this bill is terribly unpopular and is about to get more unpopular once we find out exactly what is

in it and exactly what the cbo says about it. >> the president is tweeting about this, this morning, tweeting, democrats would do much better as a party if they got together with republicans on health care, tax cuts, security, obstruction doesn't work. this -- the back story here also, of course, is the fact that they're bragging on their victory in the georgia 6th and is that a bellwether of what will happen in 2018? >> i'm not going to spin the georgia 6th for you. we should be disappointed. a loss is a loss. there are no moral victories. horseshoes and hand grenades. we should be disappointed in that result. the other way to look at this is, look, candidates matter. you had a very young candidate, a charismatic one, but he didn't have the longest resume, he didn't live in the district, so that was a challenge. and i can say that, look, i admire jon ossoff. i ran at 34 years old with maybe not a strong enough resume to be in the united states house of representatives. and i didn't win. i came back much later in my

life, much later, but i came back later and the voters decided to embrace me. i think candidates matter. we need to do better in recruitment. the other thing to remember is there are 70 to 80 districts that are actually more democratic than the georgia 6th. so we feel strongly we'll be competitive. i have gotten out of the prediction business after 2016. but, you know, last night was bad news for us and we just lick our wounds and get back on the horse. >> that was an expensive one. >> it was definitely an expensive one. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. and coming up, spy ware. if there was no question that russia was behind election hacking in 2016, why did it take so long to go public? the answer is coming up on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. you focus on today's headwinds? or plan for tomorrow? at kpmg, we believe success requires both. with our broad range of services and industry expertise,

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the statement didn't come until october. why did we wait from july to october to make that statement? >> well, congressman, i'm going to disagree with your premise that there was some type of delay. this was a big decision and there were a lot of considerations that went into it. this was an unprecedented step. first, as you know well, we have to carefully consider whether declassifying the information compromises sources and methods. second, there was an ongoing election and many would criticize us for perhaps taking sides in the election.

so that had to be carefully considered. one of the candidates, as you recall, was predicting that the election was going to be rigged in some way. >> congressman schiff pressing jeh johnson on why the administration took so long for the intelligence community to say anything about the russian hacking. joining me now is clint watts, on the joint terrorism task force, an nbc national security analyst, happily for us. thank you for being with us. in tracking this hearing today, there was a lot of back and forth about why they didn't say something sooner. and there seems to be some suggestion by some, even some democrats, that it was because frankly the white house thought that hillary clinton was going to win and didn't want to take on all the conspiracy theories that were spinning out of the -- out of the republican candidate donald trump and the republican campaign. >> right. if they had gone forward and brought this out to the public

in a more robust way, they fear that they would likely be confirming the narrative of those being put out by two entities, russia was promoting this theme, the meddling and the voter roles was to create the impression that the election might be rigged, that there could be voter fraud. that's why they targeted that rather than voting machines primarily. the second part is you did have candidate trump at the time, repeating that narrative as well, so you could feed more conspiracy into that narrative if you went along with it. >> what is your take away from these hearings so far and this is jeh johnson being very granular about what they saw 21 different cities with their election machines, not that the voting tally was tampered with, but that there was hacking going on. how serious was this? >> i think it is quite serious. it wasn't just about changing votes, it was about, you know, it wasn't just hacking votes, it was hacking minds, creating the

perception you cannot trust democratic processes, institutions and the officials that are elected. that your vote doesn't really count. and from the russian perspective, if you can erode that and a program they call active measures, if you can erode that trust in the system, you can destroy democracy from the inside out. if americans don't believe their vote counted or that the election was rigged, then why support any other democratic processes or why show up for jury duty or obey laws? it is not really representative. it is very sophisticated, more deeper attack at the american psyche than it was actually putting one candidate in office versus another. and this still goes on today. russian active measures, i observe and many others do, are still working to cede, you know, doubt, disunity in the american union. you see that across the united states and europe. >> really hits home when you hear all of this evidence being testified to. in a bipartisan way, in terms of

the questioning as well, is how is it possible that at the briefing yesterday, sean spicer was asked if the president now believes that russia was behind the hacking and he said, well, i haven't had time to ask him about that, which would seem to be a dodge, but how is it possible all these months into the new administration that they haven't even discussed that issue? it clearly has been briefed to the president. >> exactly. it is obviously on his mind. we know that from his tweets and concerns regarding comey and many of the other top intel officials. how this is not brought up in the white house is really dereliction of duty. and it is shocking that we would let another country do such a deliberate and brazen attack on our electoral process. and then, you know, even talk about working with them as an ally or trying to partner with them in some way, whether cyber or on the battlefield in syria is lunacy. what we should be doing right now is, one, reinforcing and protecting our systems, two, coming out with a very clear

u.s. policy about russia, and, three, trying to tamp down active measures. right now, active measures, their next target, the russian target will be the german elections coming up this fall. and so that we're not moving to help support our allies and european union and nato, in such a way to prevent this from happening again, the destruction of democracy and those processes. it is quite shocking that u.s. president would basically ignore this, or succumb to it. >> trey gowdy was asking jeh johnson today about why they didn't do more and sooner and why they didn't get the dnc to acknowledge the problem sooner. let's watch. >> what more could we have done, should we have done before the election? >> well, hindsight is brilliant. hindsight is 20/20. i'll preface my answer by saying i think it was unprecedented this scale and the scope of what we saw them doing. in retrospect, it would be easy

for me to say that i should have bought a sleeping bag and camped out in front of the dnc in late summer with the benefit of hindsight. >> that sort of puts it right out there, doesn't it? >> yeah. i think what we're missing is it was a two-pronged intelligence failure. the first one is we should recognize as a country this was a pattern of the russians in other countries. we had seen it in ukraine, czech republic, they were there during the brexit vote as well. and the other one that we should anticipate was why were the russians doing this hacking? i think in the u.s. we were very obsessed with why are people breaking in and stealing secrets, but what we should have been asking is what would you use these secrets for? with criminals it is easy, they take money or with hackers that are part of a collective oftentimes it is for notoriety or political cause. but what was very clear probably from the pattern, the dnc,

former u.s. government officials that were being targeted, the idea was let's take those secrets and release them in a very strategic and manipulated way to influence a narrative around the election. and they did that to great effect. it is something we hadn't seen in the united states, i think we were caught flat footed. >> clint watts, thank you very much. and coming up, flip-flop. democrats try and fail yet again to turn a red seat blue, even with president trump's approval rating below 40. the fallout next. oh, hello! lucky for me, there's some great golf here in the carolinas. whether you golf or not, geico could help score you some great savings on car insurance. maybe even hundreds of dollars.

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tonight, i stand before you, extraordinarily humbled and honored at the tremendous privilege and high responsibility that you and the people across the 6th district have given to me. >> we showed them what courage and kindness and humility are capable of. rather than demonizing each other, we find common ground to move forward. and that's the only way this country will move forward. >> well, it was the most expensive house election in u.s. history. republican karen handel defeating democrat jon ossoff in

georgia by 4 points, giving republicans plenty to brag about including president trump who tweeted, well, special elections are over and those that want to make america great again are 5-0. all the fake news, all the money spent, equals zero. joining me now is ben weber, former congressman from minnesota, policy adviser for the romney campaign. this may not have been the best place to stake their $40 million on an untested candidate who did not live in the district. >> it may not have been the best place. they had a number of opportunities no in different regions of the country and not been able to pull it off anywhere. i think republicans still are and ought to be concerned about the midterm elections. but, you know, the normal loss of seats is 30 seats anyway. republicans had been thinking about, my gosh, is this going to be something much, much worse than a normal midterm election which is tough enough. i think what we have learned is republicans faced the normal midterm problem of a party that holds the white house. >> unless things precede and get

out of hand with the white house and there is more fallout. but that said, this -- basically said among other messages that people in georgia, republicans in georgia, turned out, turned out big time on election day and the democrats did not do as much in early voting as they had hoped for to pocket a good margin. and republicans cared more about their basic issues, tax cuts, obamacare, than about who is in the white house? >> exactly right. it was a strong message to republicans that they need to move on the agenda. they need to get -- regardless of what you think of the merits of the issues, they got to do something, pass something on health care, taxes. that's what the base wants to see. the base in georgia was willing to say, we still want to see that happen and we're willing to give you more time, but their patience may be running thin. that was the -- that was the story line going up into the election when republicans were worried about losing, the base was going to be discouraged because we had not yet enacted

any of these things. well, they gave us a second chance to actually get things done, and i think really increased the pressure on republicans in many ways, but increases the likelihood of republicans to act on health care and taxes and speaker ryan says before the end of the year. >> but even if it is acting on something that this health care bill as we think it is being shaped in the senate is not going to be popular. you're taking things away from people. >> it is not -- it is not going to be popular, but i would argue even more broadly. the particulars matter because this is people's health. i understand that. but ownership of the health care issue itself is never a positive, almost regardless of the particulars of the bill. the democrats found that out under clinton and they found it out under obama, no easy way. and people are always frustrated with something in the health care system, once they figure out which party to blame, that party loses. so what the republicans need to do is get this out of the way and on to other things that can be more popular. >> you said that the average is

30 seats lost by a party in power. 30 seats lost would mean -- >> lost with the house. >> that would mean speaker pelosi. >> i understand that. and that little message right there at the end seems to continue to resonate in republicans' favor. i like nancy as a person, but she's the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to republicans. >> tip o'neil used to be also in the midterms. certain progressive/liberal democrats as speakers who, you know -- >> if you're from the northeast or san francisco, that's good news for the republicans. but you're right. the normal loss would result in a democratic house. and i think that that reality is what is going to be motivating republicans to act on the agenda, and motivating republican donors and activists to get out and work in the midterm elections because it is not going to be easy. >> never is. >> no never is. >> aren't you glad you're not in congress anymore? >> i won't answer that question.

>> we know that answer. thank you. >> good to be with you. coming up, journeys with jared. jared kushner arriving in israel with the help of starting or restarting middle east peace talks after years of stalemate. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. what's that? p3 planters nuts, jerky and seeds. i like a variety in my protein. totally, that's why i have this uh trail mix. wow minty. p3 snacks. the more interesting way to get your protein.

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[vo] what made secretariat the grwho ever lived?e of course he was strong... ...intelligent. ...explosive. but the true secret to his perfection... was a heart, twice the size of an average horse. how are you? >> thank you for having us. >> it is a pleasure.

this is an opportunity to pursue our common goals of security, prosperity and peace. and jared, i welcome you here in that spirit. i know of your efforts, the president's efforts, i look forward with working with you to achieve the common goals. >> the president spends his best regards and it is an honor to be here with you. >> we just had an historic trip. the president was greeted here with fantastic warmth, made an indelible impression on the people of israel and it is good to see you again. please send us your warmest regards. >> i definitely will. >> senior adviser and son-in-law jared kushner meeting in jerusalem today. no news cameras were permitted. later kushner will meet with palestinian president mahmoud abbas as part of an effort to kick start middle east peace talks. let's got the inside scoop. i can't think of better friends

here and colleagues, washington post correspondent erin gearen and nick confis ori. there is so much happening in that place we cover, the state department. this is middle east diplomacy taken out of the state department. and it is being run really out of the oval office. >> yeah. >> out of the family. >> right, exactly. you don't get more inner circle than the president's son-in-law. there is precedent for that, though. certainly, i mean, many previous u.s. presidents who have tried their hand at middle east peace making, few of them successfully, have come in -- swooped in at certain points. they usually leave the beginning part to the state department, and then come in with the president and close white house advisers at strategic points. they're turning that around this time, it is not to say that it is a bad approach, certainly the last efforts that did it the other way didn't work.

so from the israeli perspective, they welcome it, they see kushner's involvement and that of other close trump advisers from his new york days as a good sign that he's serious, and that they actually really -- that trump really does not only want to deal, but understands the israeli perspective on a deal very carefully. >> there are a number of instances on different issues, nick and ann, where the president will tweet one thing or say one thing, and the state department will say another. and, again, it happened yesterday on china where the president tweeted, well, you know, too bad that china has not helped me on north korea. but they tried. president xi tried. this as the state department said they're meeting today, at this hour, meeting since earlier this morning with a top chinese official and the whole delegation as part of an effort to get china to do more on north korea, on missiles, on the

nuclear thing and on the back of the tragic loss of an american student otto warmbier who died shortly after being brought back in a coma from pyongyang. >> that's correct. but i think the mistake here is to think of the president's twitter account as akin to an official statement that has gone through the bureaucracy. president's twitter account is the president's mind. it is his brain in action, at any given moment. the bureaucracy does its own thing sometimes. and proceeds on a different course. >> isn't it a complete reflection, a mirror in real time of the president's thinking on something. that's more important than the bureaucracy argument. >> it is. >> this is the same thing with qatar and saudi arabia, he was siding with saudi arabia and tillerson is trying to get saudi arabia to lift the embargo in qatar, within an hour of each other. >> it is true. i think that what we're seeing here is something unprecedented where the president and his own administration are not -- are not often on the same page. on the other hand, you know, could be at the president is

signaling a change in strategy on north korea, perhaps an elevated sanctions on their way, perhaps more pressure in other areas. so could be that the president is sending one signal, while the state department tries to make things work on the ground. >> and couple of other things, russia, right now, russia has canceled mr. ribikoff announced canceling a meeting with the state department. they have told us not to fly, you know, east of the euphrates, saying there is a no fly zone new over syria. >> yeah. the purpose of this meeting was as tillerson laid out in considerable detail last week on the hill to kind of go after some of the -- what he called irritants, smaller issues on a very, very long list of problems between the united states and russia. and see if by going at some of the smaller efforts they could,

you know, build the capacity to go after larger ones. and for russia to say on the heels of new sanctions passed yesterday, and the issue over the no fly zone and shooting down a plane in syria, that they're not going to hold that meeting, i mean, we keep saying the u.s./russia relationship is at its worst point and it keeps getting worse. >> just one quick footnote here, more than a footnote, it could be the most important thing that happened overnight, the saudis for the first time in 80 years since they became a modern country, or semimodern country, the saudi king has shaken the succession and plucked his very active 31-year-old son, his youngest son, out of the lineup and made him the crown prince, firing the crown prince. his nephew. nick, this is really an earth

shaking development in the persian gulf. >> absolutely. and it comes on the heels of the arms deal, the trump administration wants to accomplish with saudi arabia following initial tests by the obama administration. a lot is happening there right now. there were signs for saudi watchers that this might happen, that there might be this shift in favor of the king's son and we have been with the crown prince's position. it is going to reverberate through washington and around the gulf as people try to understand what this heralds in terms of policy for the country, and for policy in the region. >> praise by some for what they called economic reform, trying to diversify the oil economy, but also criticized very privately by neighbors in the gulf for the yemen strategy, which has been a disastrous entry into a civil war. to be continued. nick and erin, thank you both so much. coming up, secret, secrets, more on that senate health care bill being drafted behind closed doors. when will senators and the rest of us finally see it?

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agreement. if it fails to solve the problem, then it is not going to pass. >> ted cruz moments ago on the hallway on the health health ca legislation text which mitch mcconnell says will be released tomorrow. joining me now is senator. have you seen the bill? >> no, i have not the seen the bill. have you seen the bill? >> i have not seen the bill. neither have your colleagues or some of the republicans. you saw mike lee's facebook post. >> neither has a single person in the state of colorado or any other states that would be affected by this legislation seen the bill. >> do they have the votes to push this through? >> i don't think they have the votes today to push it through. i think it's imperative for the american people to let their members of congress know, first of all, that they don't support

a secret process like this. and second, that they're skeptical that the bill being generated by the republicans is actually going to solve any of the problems that the country faces. in fact, i would say about the house bill, if i set out to write a bill less responsive to the critics of obamacare in colorado, to say nothing to the supporter, the critics of obamacare, i couldn't write a bill less responsive than the house bill and i imagine that's going to be the case for the senate bill as well. >> the other issue here is what is happening to obamacare and whether the white house is trying to sabotage obamacare by missing deadlines where insurance companies have to decide whether to re-up. what are you hearing around the country? >> it's very clear that's what is happening. this is not a strategy that started with this president. the republicans in congress defunded risk corridors.

and that resulted in a nonprofit co-op in colorado going bankrupt and then what happened is the republicans said, see, obamacare has failed. but it was the critics of obamacare that had screwed it up and that's what is happening now with the insurance markets as well. you're hearing the insurers say that with this level of uncertainty about what we're going to be doing going forward, that they can't participate in these markets. >> what are you hearing from within the party about -- i know it's on the house side, not the senate side, but the forebodings, that now 4-4 the republicans have won these special elections and the expense of what of democrats spent, what both parties spent but in particular with what the democrats spent with nothing to show for it in georgia is pretty astounding. >> i'm not sure what our party is saying about it. i will say that the election of

donald trump itself should have been enough to kick the democratic party into gear and say we need to do a profound reexamination of what our offer is to the american people. we've been without an economic message that resonates certainly in the rocky mountain states for a long time and i think we saw that in the election of donald trump. maybe we've seen that in these off-year elections. i think it's harder to make -- i think you could make too much out of the off-year elections but i do think we shouldn't be going through the ritualistic motions that i feel we're going through in the wake of donald trump being elected president. >> so who is going to shake this up? if it's not coming from the dnc, where's it going to come? >> from a combination of the grassroots in the democratic party and leader ship that's actually responsive. when you read an article like we saw last week that says that if

you make the minimum wage in america, there is literally not a county in the country where you can afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment or if you ask about a one-bedroom apartment, only 12 counties in america can you rent a better apartment. we have a serious problem as a country in terms of whether the economy is working for everybody and i think we need to focus on that. and for too long, washington has been distracted by a set of priorities not consistent with the american people's priorities. i never would have imagined nor would i ever have suggested and certainly never would have endorsed donald trump as the remedy for that or the election of donald trump as the remedy for that. but i understand it. and we've got to find a way to come to grips with it. >> senator, thank you. an update now on flint, michigan, where an officer has been shot and taken to the

hospital. it actually was a stabbing and could be terrorism-related. assailant yelled "allahbakh. peal be right back. [ tires screech ] any airline. any hotel. any time. go where you want, when you want with no blackout dates. [ muffled music coming from club. "blue monday" by new order. cheers. ] ♪ how does it feel the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. it's travel, better connected. the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. we're not professional athletes. but that doesn't mean we're giving up. i'm in this for me. for me. along with diet and exercise, farxiga helps lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. lowering a1c by up to 1.2 points.

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well, tonight, another tradition on a capitol hill baseball field.

the ninth annual congressional women's softball game featuring a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both houses facing off against women of the d.c. press corps. yes, all to benefit research and treatment for the young survivors network women with breast cancer. you can still by tickets online at conwomensoftball doll organize. dana bash and i will once again be doing the play-by-play. follow the show online and on twitter. play ball. craig melvin is up next right here on msnbc. hey, craig. >> andrea, thank you. good luck to you. we start with breaking news. a police officer in flint, michigan, has been wounded in a stabbing at that city's airport. sources tell nbc news that this

could be -- could be terror. michigan state police say the officer is in critical condition. the fbi is leading the investigation at this point. nbc's blake mccoy and our national security reporter ken is standing by. what do we know at this point? >> the fbi is investigating this matter as a possible incident of terrorism that the attacker, a canadian-born suspect allegedly shouted, allah bakr before stabbing the officer. his condition has been upgraded from critical to stable. he was bleeding at the scene, on his knees. >> anything else said at the time other