the strategy this morning had clearly been get the message out there about the cbo score, what it means to individuals, particularly those who are aging, those who are poor. there are at least three democratic press conferences that were scheduled today to hammer that message home. they have been out there on the airwaves. just got -- and, as a matter of fact, the bill isn't going to get more popular, says a senior aide to one. the more people hear about the thing, the harder it gets for the republicans to find support. democrats will spend every single day of this recess driving home just how bad this is. now, that's one look at it. but another democrat says maybe this isn't so good because quote, we were about to deliver the kill. mcconnell with time walking around, money to dole out, that is a dangerous thing, shows you just how much trouble they were in. next week becomes the most crucial recess of this presidency to date. if our folks bring the heat, we

will break the plans of the senate republicans. so it sounds to me whichever way you look at it, good news, bad news, the democrats see this as yet another opportunity to really go in, hone their message. they got a big boost from that cbo score and they are going to use it. >> chris jansing for us on the hill, thank you. my friend and colleague katy tur picks things up right now. >> wouldn't be tuesday afternoon if there wasn't a lot of breaking news on capitol hill. it is 2:00 p.m. in the east. just to go over what we know right now, we are hearing that senator mcconnell will be holding a press briefing in which he will confirm that there will be no vote on the senate health care bill this week before the july fourth recess. there will also be a 4:00 p.m. meeting, all gop senator meeting, at the white house called by the president. we do know there was supposed to be a white house press briefing, an on-camera one that started

right about now but sean spicer, reince priebus and vp pence are all on the hill as of now so unclear when that briefing is going to start. we have a team of reporters here to break this down. this breaking news as it happens. nbc's garrett haick, casey hunt on capitol hill along with chris jansing and kristen welker at the white house. the cbo score, how much does this have to do with mcconnell deciding there cannot be a vote this week? >> reporter: well, it certainly plays a major role. that's what led to this unraveling we have seen over the course of the last 24 hours. we had a sense of this going in on friday after they had first released the text of this bill, that there were potentially some problems, but people have largely held off over the weekend. the president made some phone calls. you did hear ron johnson, conservative on "meet the press" with chuck todd say this should be delayed, we shouldn't be voting on this this week. but it was still a relatively open question. then you had senator susan collins after that cbo score come out, say this was not

something she could get behind. that quite frankly boxed in mitch mcconnell and republican leaders in a way that was really difficult to negotiate. we have of course been talking about that dynamic all the way along, but until today, there was still some potential openings for more legislative wheeling and dealing, if you will. republicans, conservatives like ted cruz were saying look, we still want to be helpful and talk more about it. there was some thing that perhaps they just wanted a public victory, they wanted to be seen having a role in making this bill more conservative in a way that would then ease its passage through the house. but the reality was at this point, it does not seem that there was the support to move it this quickly. so they are going to take -- it's a risk, right? it's a risk for them to let these senators go home for the july fourth recess. they will take a lot of heat likely on this, one way or the other, then they have to come back and perhaps consider it again. it also drags out a process that's consumed the first six months of this republican

congress while they have had a republican sitting in the white house. they do not have a major legislative achievement at this point and that's what mcconnell was really going for. he does want to move on to other things, tax reform and of course, they are facing down major crises in the fall. government funding, the debt ceiling, on and on. he really wanted to move past this. now looks like we will get at least another couple weeks of it. >> here's what you are looking at. you are seeing casey hunt in the top right hand screen. below her, below me now, the press briefing room at the white house where sean spicer is expected to take the podium at some point. no doubt he will absolutely be addressing what is going on with health care. on the left-hand side, where you can see casey's back, that is where mitch mcconnell is expected to take the podium on capitol hill to confirm what we all know which is that there will be no senate health care vote. i want to talk about the money in the cbo score. the $300 billion that it would have cut from the deficit. there was a lot of talk that

mcconnell would be able to use that to potentially buy off, if you will, republican senators, moderate republican senators who may have needed more wiggle room in their own states, maybe more medicaid funding or some opioid funding they would need in order to convince their constituents that this bill was actually a good idea for them. so what happens with that money? was that not enough? >> reporter: well, the problem was that the other moderates and conservatives were talking and focused on structural realities in the bill. we didn't get as for as the rob portmans of the world because the people that were on the edges came out and said so many things are so deeply wrong with this bill that nothing around the edges will make a difference. i think for somebody like senator rob portman, probably wants to be with the leadership, wants to run on repealing obamacare but did want more money for opioids, he potentially would have been gettable and still maybe could be. we don't entirely know. but the reality was at this

point, his vote didn't matter because the other votes were unavailable. susan collins, her tweets were pretty strong yet, essentially saying look, medicaid covers one in five people in my state. this is going to decimate them. on the flipside, you have rand paul who is saying look, this doesn't repeal obamacare. those are two really polar opposite positions pretty difficult to reconcile even if you have an extra $321 billion lying around. >> will they be working with democrats now if this does not happen in this vote this week? does that mean they will try to be working with democrats as susan collins wants to do, which is to reform obamacare, not necessarily repeal it, but make fixes to it? >> reporter: it's a great question, question of the day. politico has a fun lead saying look, mcconnell has been warning that this is what's going to happen. they will have to work with chuck schumer. i do think there's an underlying reality. it's a mistake the democrats made when they passed obamacare. it's one republicans have been in some ways, some analysts and republicans have argued to me are making now, which is that

each party set it up so they would own the health care issue entirely. that is a very difficult political place to be. so if they in fact fail at this, then maybe they can do what frankly everybody on both sides of the aisle agrees needs to be done. there needs to be some reforms particularly in the individual insurance market around obamacare. democrats will say that behind their hands, when no one is looking, and republicans quite frankly agree. maybe there will be bipartisan movement. we have to wait and see. >> kristen welker, you are in the white house press briefing that was supposed to start right now. no doubt this will be a difficult press briefing given that sean spicer will have to answer questions about why the republicans who have been running on repealing and replacing obamacare with the support of president trump can't go to a vote this week. >> reporter: that's right. a little bit of a mystery here at this hour, because press secretary sean spicer was spotted on capitol hill just moments ago. so either this briefing is going to be fairly delayed or someone

else will come out and brief us. look, this is a setback for this administration, for this president. there's no doubt about that. he has been working the phones quite vigorously over the past several days and frankly, expressing measured optimism that there would be a vote this week. but it's possible that he complicated this process, that his messaging on this complicated this process, because of course, as we have been reporting, he did refer to the house health care bill as mean. that became a weapon that was used by democrats. i think it may have complicated some of the negotiations that the republicans were having in the senate and in addition to that, of course, this is a key campaign promise for this president. i anticipate when he meets with senators later on this afternoon, his message is going to be robust on that point, that look, this is something republicans have been promising the american people for the past several years. they need to take this time, take their july fourth vacations and come back with resolve to try to get this thing passed.

of course, this all comes as we are tracking a major foreign policy story here at the white house, that remarkable statement overnight by press secretary sean spicer warning syria against another chemical weapons attack. the administration saying that it saw signs of preparations, that it was preparing to carry out another chemical weapons attack like the one we saw back on april fourth. of course, that prompted those air strikes. so a lot of tough questions for sean spicer when he does come to the podium here, if he is in fact the person who is still going to brief us today. >> no shortage of major breaking news. that's a good question. will it be sean spicer or will sarah huckabee sanders or somebody else come to the podium since sean spicer along with reince priebus were spotted accompanying mike pence on capitol hill. all senators, all gop senators will be going to the white house at 4:00 p.m. to speak with the president. we will find out if that changes any minds. but again, the president of the united states did run on repealing and replacing obamacare but he also ran on not

touching entitlements, not touching medicaid, making sure everybody had access to affordable and better coverage. the cbo score was very clear that this bill did cut entitlements, cut medicaid and did not give people access to better health care and in some cases, would drastically increase their premiums, those who could least afford it. they will have a lot of questions to answer in that white house press briefing. no doubt senator mcconnell will as well. he is going to be taking that podium at any moment. joining me is republican congressman chris stewart who represents the state of utah. congressman stewart voted for the house gop health care bill. he's also a member of the house appropriations committee. congressman, first off, your reaction about the delay mitch mcconnell will be announcing. >> yeah. i'm a little disappointed but not terribly surprised. as we have been saying, this is complicated piece of legislation. it may take a little time and if the senate can make it better, if we can bring on more support, i'm willing to wait another week

or two to do that. i think we are going to get to a vote. i just think every one of us feels so strongly you have to take a vote on this. i look forward to that. but again, i'm not terribly surprised. >> are you willing to stay through the recess? >> for sure. i would stay through the recess on any one of these issues. i think we owe that to the american people. again, i think the important part here is getting the best piece of legislation we can, getting as much support as we can. by the way, just to remind, we are trying to help the american people. as you were saying with your previous guest, there are meaningful changes that i think bipartisan agreement, we have to make changes to obamacare. there are things that are going to absolutely hurt people if we don't make those changes. let's try and do that. >> do you want to scrap everything that you guys have been working on so far in terms of the house health care bill and the gop health care bill, and decide to go to democrats in the house and democrats in the senate and say let's work together to fix what is already in place and make it better for the american people, instead of

scrapping it and repealing it as you had promised, maybe going back and trying to bolster what's already there? >> you know, a couple comments on that. one is we don't scrap everything. there's much of obamacare we feel is important. protecting people with pre-existing conditions, absolutely essential. helping families. i have six children, it's important to me to be able to keep my children on my health insurance until age 26. that's important. providing coverage for those with mental disabilities. again, we don't want to scrap obamacare and start all over. we don't want to scrap the republican plan that came out of the house and start all over. i think we are kind of at the point where we're not tinkering on the margins but we are making changes that perhaps are on the margins and then hopefully again, we can bring in enough support to get a bill through the senate, let us work together with the house after that. >> what do you want to see changed going forward? other than what you just mentioned. what about medicaid? do you think medicaid should get cuts? do you think there should be a tax cut to the wealthy and tax cut to health companies?

what number would you find acceptable for the number who would go without health care? is zero acceptable? is two million or 20 million okay as the cbo just scored this senate proposal? >> that's a tough question. the reality is every one of us would like the answer to that be zero. but the truth is, i don't agree with forcing people to buy health care if they don't choose to, especially if you are forcing them to buy health care that are very expensive options. you ask what would i like to see? really, the primary thing is let's drive down the cost. let's make health care more affordable for people. that was really the motive behind president obama's plan. it had some success but for many of us, it didn't get it nearly to where we want it to be. most of us are driven by that one thing, drive down the cost of health care so more and more people choose to have access to it or choose to ensure. >> congressman chris stewart of utah, thank you for your time. appreciate it. >> good to be with you.

>> let's go to garrett haick, who is also on capitol hill. i'm hearing you have news for us. >> reporter: we are starting to catch some of the republican senators as they are leaving this closed door meeting they had with mitch mcconnell. one of them was lamar alexander from tennessee, who was involved in the health care working group. one of the reporters walking with him as he came out asked this question of can you work with democrats now. his answer was democrats have said they will not work with us unless we take repeal off the table. we feel like we can't really help people unless we repeal at least parts of obamacare. to your question from earlier in the hour, republicans and democrats are very much still talking past each other on this issue. if they are eventually going to work together there's probably at least one more sort of intermediate step before that has to happen. >> in your experience, from your conversations, what do you think needs to happen for democrats to decide to work with republicans? are republicans going to maybe change the language, maybe just make it an issue of semantics, don't call it a repeal, call it a fix?

>> reporter: right. you have to work backwards here on that. i think for republicans, i think there probably are fix elements they could potentially get most of their caucus to agree on. remember, almost all of these republican senators and then remember also, republican house members who just got re-elected have been running on repeal and replace obamacare. so to drop that language and to say we just decided we would go ahead and fix this program that we have been telling you for six or seven years is an unmitigated disaster, is politically extremely perilous. democrats i think smell blood in the water now. just before this lunch started with mitch mcconnell, you had democrats out here on the steps of the capitol behind me holding up pictures of people in their home states and home districts who they said might be affected by this. democrats i think see weakness here, they know republicans are going to go home to their districts and as lindsey graham said two days ago, this bill is not like fine wine. it does not get better over time. it just gives people more time to chip away at the weaknesses they see. >> yeah.

if we can, if the control room can throw up a graphic we had prepared about the cbo score -- >> reporter: i'm going to walk here. >> go ahead. we are going to show you a graphic about what a 64-year-old, typical 64-year-old with an annual income of $26,500, in 2026 for a mid-level silver plan under the current law, they would average a $6500 or $1700 premium. under the new law, the senate bill, it would be a $6500 premium. that is a substantial rise in premium for somebody who would be typically, a typical 64-year-old. that's part of the problem that the republicans are facing with this bill. not to mention 22 million more people would be uninsured by it. chris jansing is also on capitol hill. chris, mitch mcconnell is notorious for his ability to make a deal, to whip his senators, to get things done. what does it say to you that he's going to have to delay

this? >> reporter: you know, it's interesting. i just got a text from a democratic senior aide for a democratic senator who said do not underestimate the power of the phone call. that's interesting, because this morning, i was talking to a number of democrats about what was coming into their office. now, maybe not surprisingly, some of them were talking about 20 to 1 margins, getting thousands of phone calls from constituents overwhelmingly against these changes, but then, i ran into a member of the senate leadership, jon thune, and i asked him what kind of calls are you getting. he acknowledged to me that actually, he's been getting a ton of calls, too, but hey ener left. he suggested he was getting more calls from people opposed to it. it's a very different situation when you are from south dakota, when you win some of the tough races that are going to be coming up for some of the other senators, and who are going to be facing constituents when they go back. this sets up something

fascinating looking ahead to that recess. these folks, some of whom have not had any kind of town halls, have not been widely accessible to their constituents, going to be facing a lot of questions. will they be pushed to that. the democrats, who are now indicating to me they believe they have been given more time to really push their message about what they believe would be the devastating impact of this, and just one final note. i was talking to the democratic senator bob casey from pennsylvania. as you well know, pat toomey, the republican from pennsylvania, has been one of the biggest supporters of this. i said do you think if this doesn't happen today or in the next couple of days, that what it really actually happens is there's a chance for bipartisanship, have you been talking to republican counterpart. he said idealogically we are so far apart, there is no middle ground. that may not be the case for everyone. a lot of democrats acknowledge there need to be changes and

this obviously is an opportunity for some more negotiation. but you realize the two sides are very far apart and they are going into this recess in very different positions. the democrats with a strategy to fight this to the death and the republicans, many of them who are in districts where they do not -- they are not secure, in states where they are not secure, who are going to be facing in some case the wrath of their constituents who have been looking at the local newspapers, hearing the local coverage that talks about that cbo score. >> i want to interrupt you. we will go to garrett haick who is talking to senator bernie sanders. >> reporter: senator, your reaction to republicans waiting at least until next week to vote on this health care bill? >> i think clearly, at this point, they don't have the votes for this disastrous piece of legislation. the american people from coast to coast have said that it is absolutely unacceptable that you would throw 22 million people off of health insurance, that

you would de-fund planned parenthood, raise premiums for older workers, all to give $500 billion in tax breaks to the top 2% and large multi national corporations. the american people are saying no. they got that message. but we know that they have hundreds of billions of dollars in that bill to buy votes and we know that during the next week and a half, that's what they are going to be trying to do. we know they have billionaires like the koch brothers and everybody else who will be putting all kinds of money on advertising trying to influence republican senators. >> reporter: how do you and democrats exploit that delay, then? >> it's not a question of exploiting. what we do is what we continue to do. this bill, this disastrous bill, has the support of 16% of the american people. very few people. i would wager with you there's not one state in the country where people think we should throw people off of health insurance to give tax breaks to billionaires. but 60% of the american people don't know it's in the bill. we use this next week and a half

to get the word out. tell people what's in the bill. >> reporter: have you had that conversation with any of your republican colleagues? susan collins essentially next door in maine, is that somebody you can reach out to about this? >> susan collins had the courage to do the right thing on this, to understand that devastating cuts in medicaid would be a disaster for maine, disaster for vermont and new hampshire, disaster for this country. but our job is to have the congress do what the american people want. what the american people want, by the way, is that every american should have health care as a right, that we should not have high deductibles and high co-payments. that's the legislation we have to all work together to bring about. so good news is, they didn't have the votes to pass it today. the bad news, they are going to be trying hard with all kinds of money to pass it in the next couple weeks. >> reporter: would it be smart for democrats to offer their own alternatives, their own fixes -- >> that's a very good point. that's a very good point. that is some of the ideas we have been talking about. for example, i personally, speaking only for myself, think

that for a start, while we move to pass a medicare for all single payer program, but short-term, we should lower the age of medicare from 65 down to 55. second of all, i think we need a public option. that means in every state in this country if you don't like what the private insurance companies are offering, then you have a public option that will be reasonably priced with decent benefits. thirdly, we have got to deal with the disaster of prescription drug costs in this country. we pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. if you want to save money on health care, you lower the cost of prescription drugs. thank you. >> reporter: thank you, senator. >> garrett haick talking to senator bernie sanders, saying the democrats are going to try and come up with solutions of their own. we will find out if there is any sort of appetite for bipartisan solution going forward or if we are just going to see each camp dig in their heels and behave the way they have so far. kristen welker is in the white

house press briefing room. what could possibly change now that senators will be going to the white house at 4:00? >> reporter: well, it's hard to see that anything will change this week. given that leader mcconnell has decided there's not going to be a vote before the fourth of july recess. but i think that you are going to have the president delivering a fairly strong message to the senators who come here later on this afternoon, which is going to be that the gop has campaigned on a promise to repeal and replace obamacare for the past seven years. they are about to head home to their districts and they will likely hear from angry constituents who want to see some action on this. the president as you have been talking about has yet to have a really big legislative achievement and this is something he wants to get done not only for the politics, not only to fulfill a key campaign promise, but also because he wants to move on to other agenda items, specifically tax reform. one of the reasons why they

wanted to do health care ifirst was to get some of those tax breaks from obamacare and apply that to their big tax reform package. so the president has his eye on the future, on getting something done on taxes. he wants it to be big and bold. then of course, infrastructure. that's an area where potentially democrats and republicans can find some common ground. but the thinking is that health care has to at least try to happen first before they can move on to taxes. i think the president is going to deliver a fairly robust message later on today. we are still waiting for press secretary sean spicer. again, last spotted on capitol hill. we have been working our sources trying to determine the exact timing of when we might see him or if deputy press secretary sarah huckabee sanders might come out. so far, no response to that. we are still awaiting sean spicer where he will talk about this and of course, that stern warning that the white house issued to syria overnight, warning against another chemical weapons attack. >> we can't say enough, going home and talking to your constituents, how might that

affect the future of this bill, if there is a future of this bill. it's part of the reason senator mitch mcconnell wanted to have a vote before the july fourth recess, because they were very aware that their members would be going back, facing town halls with angry constituents like the house members saw a few months ago when they were trying to pass the house health care bill, in which their constituents say do not touch this. we have seen some really gut-wrenching moments with constituents going up to their lawmakers showing them photos of their loved ones and begging them not to vote on this bill. we have chris jansing, who is also on capitol hill. she has been following that. before we get to you, i want to play a moment in west virginia with senator shelley capeito an a constituent. take a listen. >> i want you to see a picture of somebody, a face that goes along with this. that's my daughter. >> okay.

beautiful. >> she is beautiful. now i want you to see her in treatment. >> oh, my gosh. how old is she? >> she's 41 years old. she's been fighting this cancer. amy elizabeth stills. she's been fighting this cancer for four years very diligently. she maintained her job, has promotions, has led teams, as sick as she has been. she would not be alive today if it wasn't for the aca. but these are real people. my daughter. so i just want you to have that in your brain when you look at this. i understand pressure. i understand -- no, i don't. i read about what's going on. i can only imagine. but west virginia needs you so desperately to stand up against this immoralal bi. >> we need you so desperately to stand up against this immoral

bill. her daughter wouldn't be alive today without the aca. chris, hold on a second. garrett now has senator murkowski outside of the capitol. >> there's a lot about health care that is just emotional and personal and i understand and respect that. but i also know that i need to look realistically at the cost implications, i need to understand really what we are talking about with some of the conclusions that we saw yesterday with the cbo score. >> reporter: how big of a factor is the planned parenthood cuts that are in this bill for you? is there a remedy for that? >> people support greater access to health care. planned parenthood provides for that. provides for greater access, particularly to lower income women, for purposes of screening services that i think are important. when we are talking about health

care reform, shouldn't it be about increasing access? as i'm talking to alaska, that's what they are telling me is important. >> reporter: how do your colleagues in the leadership take those points? do you think your colleagues in the leadership are hearing that message from you and from the others who maybe had concerns about this bill? >> i think that leadership has evaluated a great deal of what i have had to say and other members have had to say. you know, they have acknowledged that there's more that needs to be worked out. we will see how that unfolds in the days ahead. when you trying to address the concerns that we are facing as a nation with an individual market that's just not working under the aca, as you are trying to

make changes that are good for the country as a whole, recognizing that in places like my state, you have got some facts on the ground that are just very unique to us. how do you make this work for everybody. so taking the time to get it right is where we should be. >> reporter: you still have folks in your caucus who want to repeal obamacare root and branch. you have other folks who say maybe there's ways to work with democrats on this. would you be a proponent of trying to work across the aisle to make some of those fixes as opposed to saying we got to start over? >> absolutely. the congress of the united states, whether you are a republican or democrat, in the house or in the senate, shouldn't we all be working together on the problems that are part and parcel of who we are as americans? this is -- this is not -- this is not for republicans to fix or

democrats to fix. this is for us as americans to fix. so when did we get to the point where we said no, we're not going to talk to democrats about a fix. we should be working with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. we should be working with our colleagues in the other chamber. >> reporter: senator, we are out of sidewalk. that's a good place to leave it. >> i didn't want you to go into the streets. this guy has hazardous duty. >> reporter: thank you very much, senator. take care. >> senator murkowski right there. let's listen in to the left-hand side of the screen, where marco rubio is being surrounded by quite a scrum of reporters. take a listen. >> the individual market is the one that we need more certainty on. it begins by getting an accurate baseline of where we are today, not the numbers from a year and a half ago which is what they are going off of which are obsolete at this point. their baseline is there's only going to be a 20% increase in

premiums in the individual market. we know in some places it's as high as 70. they are way off. this needs to be adjusted. hopefully they will get to that. >> reporter: can this still be done by the august recess at this point? >> maybe. certainly that would certainly be a goal. >> reporter: what do you expect out of the white house? >> i don't know. obviously we will talk about health care. we will see, i imagine they are probably hopefully in listening mode. they will want to kind of hear some of the different constituencies and concerns about different parts of the reform. >> reporter: you think the president can make a difference? >> of course. presidents can make a big difference. all right. i really have to go, guys. >> marco rubio right there saying he doesn't know what to expect at this 4:00 p.m. meeting at the white house but he does hope that the president is going to be in listening mode. the white house press briefing has started. rick perry is talking. we will listen in and if any news is made, we will bring it

to you live. once the questions start, we will definitely bring it to you live. we will stay on health care a little bit longer here. chris jansing still on capitol hill. chris, listening to senator murkows murkowski, i was struck. she's a moderate from alaska. she was talking about how planned parenthood is important. she was talking about access to health care being important. it is also important to note that this health care bill was crafted behind closed doors by 13 men, three johns, two mikes, no women in that room. what does it say that senator murkowski is a woman, obviously, doesn't want to sign on to this bill and now she's saying that the members in congress have to learn to work with the other side? >> reporter: i thought it was fascinating that you had that interview with her back-to-back with shelley moore capito who also comes from a state, west virginia, that is heavily rural. they happen to be from the two

states that have the highest number of rural medicaid recipients. in west virginia, 51% of rural residents are on medicaid. in alaska, it's 47%. we know from that cbo score that it's the rural poor who are going to get hit the most. we have also seen the effect, the intended effect on some of the programs that would particularly affect women. so that's what these senators are facing as they are talking about going home and then again, on the democratic side, i have been trying to track some of the numbers of the phone calls that they are getting. just for example, one office has gotten 4,000 phone calls against 154. now, this is obviously a democratic senator. both senators from delaware are indeed democrats. but it gives you an idea of how energized people are to make these phone calls. we are hearing from people on

both sides that that's exactly what's happening and again, a lot of the people who you know better than anybody voted for donald trump, people who felt they were struggling in rural areas. one of the things we heard from democrats is that this health care bill might be the thing that would turn some of those trump voters against him. when you look at those rural numbers, there's going to be another new study that's going to be coming out in the next couple of days about the impact on rural hospitals, you will see the potential there for these republicans to really be facing the ire of some of those trump voters when they get back into their states. >> you know, we can't stress this enough. the president did run on repealing and replacing obamacare but he also ran on not touching entitlements. i'm going to be the first one to tell you that i won't touch entitlements is what he said on the campaign trail. he wasn't going to touch medicaid. he wasn't going to touch medicare. he was not going to touch social security. he was going to make sure

people's deductibles went down and they had better access to health care. >> reporter: the house bill was mean, right? the house bill was mean. this one needs to have heart. >> this gop bill did not fulfill any of the promises that president trump made on the campaign trail. this is an administration that is now campaigning for 2020 saying promises made, promises kept. this seemed to be the one that he was willing to break and fall in line with the gop on while others, he is still certainly pushing forward like the travel ban. so it was definitely a major disconnect. why was the president so willing to say one thing on the campaign trail and then just abandon it when he got into office, then again, going out and supporting the house health care bill, turning his back a few weeks later and calling it mean. senator lindsay graham saying today that if you are thinking the white house has your back, think again, they do not have your back. the president does not have your back. senator lindsay graham, a republican, saying to other senators this is going to affect

you badly in your state, do not vote for it. this is a republican senator giving the advice to his republican colleagues in the senate. let's go back to -- sorry about that, chris. we are still awaiting mitch mcconnell. any idea when he's coming out? >> reporter: we have been told any minute now. >> which could be next hour, i guess. >> reporter: look, he's normally out here by 2:15 or so in the afternoon. this is his regular tuesday policy lunch stake-out. we are running 20, 25 minutes later than normal which seems par for the course for a bill of this size and considering the magnitude of what we are learning about the fate of this health care bill. clearly, a lot of regrouping going on. senators who have come out of this meeting with mixed messages. you heard senator rubio i think a few minutes ago saying he hopes the president is in listening mode here to try to go back to the drawing board on some of this. lisa murkowski telling garrett

she wants to see work with democrats on potential fixes for health care. i think from a long-term perspective, that's what to watch on the health care policy front, is this enough to get republicans and democrats to start to try to work together, or at least to see the republicans here in the senate try to put together something that can garner some support from, we haven't talked a lot about them lately but there are some moderate democrats in the senate that might be willing to work with republicans to get things done. sno senator joe manchin's name was floated by the white house. manchin very quickly said there was no way he was going to help on this bill. but he's something they could potentially work with in the long run. the big question pushing forward for mitch mcconnell when he comes here and for the president later on today is what does the strategy going forward look like. are they going to make a wholesale change of course and try and do this in a bipartisan way under different rules in the senate perhaps, or are they

simply going to continue to try to twist arms and to use the tactic they have been using all the way along which is to argue to republicans look, you promised you were going to do this, you better deliver or it's going to be a huge problem for you. i think you laid out pretty well the problems here is that the president made certain promises about the entitlement programs that are quite frankly at odds with what republicans in washington have been wanting to do for a really long time. in many ways, you have heard critics of this bill say this is just a medicaid reform bill. reforming entitlements and slowing the cost curve on government spending, those are long decades-old priorities for mitch mcconnell here in the senate. they are at odds with what president trump said on the campaign trail. have you g you have gotten those things all tied up together because of course the president did run in theory on repealing and replacing obamacare. he has been repeatedly saying obamacare is dead. what i think the president has his finger on there is there is

bipartisan agreement the obamacare exchanges have major problems and need to be adjusted. it's just that neither side has been politically able to be seen working with the other. >> part of the reason for that, isn't that because the president has deregulated a number of aspects of it? they have destabilized it by deregulating. >> reporter: there's an argument to be made that basically the uncertainty in the white house and the congress have helped accelerate the challenges the exchanges are facing, prompting insurers to say forget it, we don't know the details of this, we can't reliably plan for next year, so we are just pulling out of these exchanges entirely. there are some critics who would say republicans in congress and in the white house have accelerated that. but the reality is there were a lot of challenges around it anyway and there are some fixes that democratic policy makers will privately tell you need to be made in order to try and fix the markets. now, i'm getting a heads-up here so i think we will see mitch mcconnell come around this corner right here any second.

>> all right, kasie. there he is. there's senator mcconnell. let's take a listen and see what he has to say. >> well, good afternoon, everyone. as i think you may have already heard, we are going to continue the discussions within our conference on the differences that we have that we will continue to try to litigate. consequently, we will not be on the bill this week but we are still working toward getting at least 50 people in a comfortable place. we are going down to the white house at 4:00. the president invited us to come down. the white house has been very much involved in these discussions. they are very anxious to help and we appreciate the invitation and i hope all of our members will head down. i think that will likely be the case. >> the schedule may have changed a little bit but one thing that hasn't changed, that is obamacare is collapsing. it is a failed system that needs

to be replaced and we believe that the legislation that we are trying to get up on the senate floor and consider there will take america in a better direction. it will help bring stability to the marketplace, it will bring affordability to people across this country who are suffering under the curse of high premiums and high deductibles and high out of pocket costs, so much so that since 2013 in the individual market, premiums across the country have literally more than doubled. that has to be addressed. we want to make sure we are preserving the access that people have to coverage for pre-existing conditions and also, we want to make sure medicaid is sustainedablable not for today but for the future as well, and we give states more flexibility to design programs that make sense for their populations. seen many experiments and examples that work around the country where they are working in a more cost-efficient and he

spec 5 w effective way. those are our objectives. those continue to be our objectives. as i said, while the schedule may have slipped a little bit, we are intent on rescuing americans from a failed system that has driven up their costs and made it more difficult for them to find coverage. >> the pain of obamacare continues to get worse around the country. i was in wyoming this past weekend visiting a hospital, talking to doctors and nurses and patients. so many of them impacted in a bad way by the obamacare health care law. i had a woman in the office this morning from a small community in wyoming, lost her insurance when obamacare came into play because it was good enough for her and her family but apparently it wasn't good enough for the democrats. she now, she and her husband have a policy, it's expensive, it doubled in cost, her deductible is $6500 for her as well as $6500 for her husband. he says he will not go to a doctor.

he is counted as somebody insured under obamacare but according to them, he doesn't have usable insurance. the republican proposal, there are a number of key points to it. we eliminate the dreaded mandates that people across the country hate that you have to buy a government approved product. we eliminate all the taxes. and we return a lot of authority to individuals and states getting things out of washington and i will tell you when i was in the state senate, we always felt we could do a much better job with the same amount of money helping more people, more patients, more families with health care. we just had washington not telling us how to do it because we knew better at home than people did in washington and that's how we feel it's very important in terms of putting medicaid on a sustainable path for the future. the states need the authority to do it in the right way. medicaid was initially set up to help poor women, children and the disabled and it is taken in a direction way different than that with bonus payments to sign

people up for obamacare who are able-bodied working aged individuals. finally, our proposal really focuses on this incredible high cost of insurance that people are faced with, doubling rates of obamacare. what we do looking at these rates and the cbo has scored it, this actually lowers the rates for insurance 30% a couple years from now. that's what people are screaming about at home, the increasing rates and the projections for next year are even higher under obamacare. so obamacare is a bust. it's going off a cliff. the democrats are saying stay on board. we are trying to rescue the american people from this. >> reporter: is your effort to repeal obamacare dead? >> no. we are continuing to talk about it. it's a very complicated subject. i remember how challenging it was for the democrats when they were enacting this back in 2009 and 2010. it's a big complicated subject.

we have a lot of discussions going on. we are still optimistic we will get there. >> reporter: will your ongoing discussions involve democrats? >> they're not interested in participating in this. >> reporter: can you address for a minute, the legislative process, you have to go back and recalibrate the bills here. you spent a lot of time in private writing this bill, isn't that an indictment what you put forth at this stage that it wasn't ready to go? >> no. >> reporter: why not? >> no. 's t it's an ongoing discussion. members want -- several of them want more time. we have a number of different discussions going on, they have been going on for six weeks now and they continue. this is a big complicated subject. if none of you ever covered a big complicated bill, they are hard to pull together and hard to pass. >> reporter: you did a great job holding together your caucus but never yourself had to steer one

of these big pieces of legislation. what have you learned about the process, about being [ inaudible ] so far? secondly, what should the president be doing at this point to get this bill passed? >> the president has been very involved over the last week, talking to members individually. he wanted to talk to all of us together today. i think that's helpful. and look, legislation of this complexity almost always takes longer than anybody else would hope but we are going to press on. we think the status quo is unsustainable for all the obvious reasons we discussed over and over and over again. and we are optimistic we will get to a result that's better than the status quo. >> reporter: the president had referred to you largely on this

legislation. now that you have not accomplished it on your preferred time frame, is it going to be the president that takes it over the finish line? is that his goal? >> we always anticipated the president would be very important in getting us to a conclusion. after all, under our system, he's the man with the signature. in the early stages, candidly it would have been kind of a waste of his time, in material stagth stages. we needed to get this far enough down the path to where there were a few issues extant that needed to be closed. we are delaying the process until we can close those remaining issues. he's fully engaged and being helpful in every way he can including in a meeting this afternoon. thanks a lot. >> that was senator mcconnell. it was senator jon thune and senator barrasso coming to the mics talking about how the senate health care bill is not dead. also, talking about how obamacare is failing and that it needs to be repealed and when

asked whether or not mitch mcconnell would be willing to work with the democrats to propose something different, he said basically no, the democrats are not interested. kasie hunt, we are hearing something different from senate leadership than we are hearing from rank and file. specifically senator murkowski who says we need bipartisanship. >> reporter: sounds like from what mitch mcconnell just said here, what they are going to try to do is stay on the same path but spend a little more time trying to do it. i asked him whether or not this meant that this effort was finished and done, and he seemed to say no, this is something we are going to continue to try to push forward with. that of course expected. but the line he delivered about potential bipartisan negotiations is what we have been hearing from him so far which is that democrats have declared they have not interested in working with republicans. we will see if that dynamic changes at all. senator schumer of course had that posture from early on in this year saying look, if you

are talking about repealing brabra obamacare, we are not interested in that. we would be willing to work with you on some of the smaller fixes or changes to the bill. right now it sounds like both sides still kind of entrenched where they are. we will see where the president comes down on this as this negotiation evolves today. i do think there are some, we were talking about this earlier, some conflicts between what the conservatives want to do and what the moderates are arguing and the president in his at least private rhetoric calling for a bill with more heart, saying the house bill was too mean, would seem to come down on the side of the moderates but at the same time, he has of course been focused it seems on negotiating with conservatives, including phone calls to cruz and lee, a meeting today with rand paul, et cetera. i think it will be very telling to hear what the senators come out of that white house meeting saying as far as the overall continuing direction here. it looks like at this point they are going to get out of here pretty soon.

>> the buses are already lining up. outside of the capitol. we will find out if this is going to be a listening session from the white house or something else. we are still watching the white house again rk we are still watching the white house briefing. we're going to bring you to the briefing once the questions start. let's break down again what was in this senate health care bill and why it is being postponed. the bit of food news that the republicans had was that $300 billion would be cut from the deficit in this buy 2020. which in effect, would give senator mitch mcconnell some wiggle room to try to negotiate with moderate senators, but the bad news is that 22 million more americans would lose coverage. we're also seeing democratic leadership come podium, senator schumer is going to be talking right now and i think we should probably take a listen to see what he has to say, so, let's go into this room.

>> okay. well, what happened in the last few hours is a metaphor for what is going on here about health care. democrats held pictures of work k families who would be hurt by trump care. republicans were in their lunch with steve wynn, a multibill nar who would havbenefitted with a kaczmarek cut. average american working people. talking about multibillionaires. that is why they're in such trouble because their bill is aimed at helping the the very wealthy. where as we are trying to to help american families. we know the fight is not over. that is for sure. we're not resting on any laurels. nor do we feel any sense yet of

accomplishment. other than we are making progress because the american people are listening to our arguments. over the next couple of week, we know that leader mcconnell will try to use a slush fund to buy off republicans, cut back room deals to try and get this thing done. so, we're going to watch this bill. and all the machinations, closed door, behind closed doors as they might be like a hawk. but the truth is as c brkb made clear yesterday, the the republicans cannot excise the rotten core at the center of their health care bill. no matter who tweaks they may add in the next week and a half. no matter how the bill changes around the edges. it is fundamentally flawed at the center. the american people don't want medicaid slashed. they don't want help. they don't want the help they

need to fight opioid addiction, to help their parents in nursing homes, so help those with preexisting conditions and just to help the average person who needs good health care, the american people don't want all that changed and eliminated. the republican bill is rotten at the the core. the american people are not for big tax breaks to the wealthiest of americans, nor are they for dramatically cut iting their health care. that's why the bill has about 17% popularity in america and even trump voters don't like it. that is not going to change with any little tweak that wins over this senator or that. no matter what last minute amendments are offered, the bill will force more americans to spend more of their paychecks on health care so that the

wealthiest americans pay less in taxes. until republicans abandon that core, that core, that rotten core, they're ngoing to succeed in wining the american people over and it makes it much less likely they'll succeed in getting a bill done a week from now rk a p month from now, a year from now. the ultimate reason this bill fail ed because the american people just didn't like it. it's not what america stands for. now, you say will you work with your republican colleagues? we want to and we have two suggestions. first, abandon tax breaks for the wealthy. abandon cuts to medicaid. abandon repeal. and we can sit down and talk b about improving health care. we think the aca has done good. we're the the first to say it needs further improvement. but we're not going to be in a

position where we say rk okay rk only 15 million people will be uncovered we'll support that bill. bill nars will only get a $40,000 tax break instead of a $57,000 tax break. that's not the kind of compromise we're talking about. we have a second suggestion for our republican colleagues to work with us. abandon the closed doors secret process they have used. go to regular order. have committee hearings. allow amendments. and go back to the idea that you need 60 votes, a bipartisan majority to pass a bill and we can start over again and work together and try to get some improvements in our health care system. but if our republican colleagues stick to this base bill, which so hurts working families, which so benefits multimillionaires and them almost alone, we're

going to fight the bill tooth and nail. and we have a darn good chance of o defeating it a weiek from now, a month from now, a year from now. senator durbin. >> for the last several months with the new republican majority in the senate and house, we have seen a national debate on health care. i think it was long overdue. today rk more americans support the affordable care act than at the beginning of the debate. as we set out to achieve, they realized how positive it was for them and their families. to get rid of problems of preexisting conditions, to make sure that everybody had access to quality insurance. to provide medicaid for -- >> you just heard senator schumer talk about the conditions democrats would need in order to work with republicans. we're going to go through those in a moment, but first, to garrett who is talking to white house press secretary sean

spicer. >> would you say the president is yup set at the delay? yup set it's taking so long? >> hem wants to get it done and get it done right. >> did you hustle with him? >> garrett, we only caught the tail end of that. >> sorry about that. we're doing a little -- well rk i ha , i have more sympathy for you and our white house colleagues trying to track down sean spicer to get him to talk about what he was doing here on the capitol. he was not particularly helpful about the purpose of him being on the capitol. >> evasive? >> that might be the word to use. talking to senators, deferring everything back to mitch mcconnell saying that mcconnell would be the one doing the readout on this. he said the senators were welcome at the white house tonight. the president wants their input. he wants to listen. but the bottom line from spicer was the president wants to get this done right, he says. he's interested in the timeline.

but again rk the white house press secretary visiting capitol hill rk not a particularly common occurrence. had little to say about it. >> garrett, a valiant effort to get some answers. chris is still on capitol hill. we heard a few conditions from senator schumer. he would need them to abandon repeal. need them to abandon cuts to the wealthy. cuts to medicaid and abandon the closed process. >> well, that tells you everything you need to know about the the possibility for some sort of compromise here. somebody like rand paul, who was the one person who went over to me personally with the president today and his message was about this big is not a true repeal and his conditions were the exact opposite as we heard from chuck schumer. we're hearing in the rhetoric this is war. i don't think that's an over statement of how these two sides feel at this point. there is a lot of frustration.

we know that the president has not been patient with this process. he wasn't when it happens on the house side. can we remember a few months ago when he was going to abandon everything. all of these calls are coming in from the constituents. i just got an e-mail from the communications director for bob casey of pennsylvania. he said as of yesterday, they had 6500 calls in opposition. 10,000 e-mails. the calls are running 90-10 xwens. i asked a republican senator about that. he said well, you know, the people against something always call more, but clearly, this is all playing into it and you've got a huge divide here, katie. >> thank you. this is a very, very big deal. republicans have been running on repealing o bamcare and their ability to get that done for many years now and this isn't the senate's first chance on

this and so far, it is a whiff. mitch mcconnell saying though it is not over. i will offer this warning. we did see the same thing with the house bill. we were told there was going to be a vote then it was delayed then reupped after a meeting at the white house. that is what is happening right now. and all of gop senator meeting with the white house at 4:00 today. my colleague ali picks things up now. >> could you have left it a little buzzier? >> i could try. >> thanks. we are following the breaking news from capitol hill, where senate majority leader mitch mcconnell announced no vote on the senate health care bill this week. >> i think you may have already heard, we're dwoigoing to conti discussions within our conference on the differences we have that we're continuing to try to litigate. consequently, we will not be on th