it was not a bipartisan solution. we should fix this. we can do it. >> come back and we'll talk more about this, representative harris of maryland. i'll see you back here at 11:00 a.m. with stephanie ruhle and 3:00 p.m. eastern. "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. hi, everyone. it's 4:00. blame game. republicans are pointing fingers at each other in the wake of yesterday's collapse of the senate health care bill. in news accounts today that amount to the political autopsy, we learn that mitch mcconnell complained to the white house chief of staff that it was quote, beyond stupid to target one of their most vulnerable members, dean heller, with attack ads and they're second-guessing the strategy of drafting the bill behind closed doors and without any women involved. and a bipartisan group of governors is attacking the entire effort from the sidelines. but first to the president who's reportedly kept at arm's length by mcconnell and at event over an hour ago, he promised a big

surprise on health care. >> health care is working along very well. we could have a big surprise, with a great health care package. so now they're happy. >> what's the big surprise? >> a great, great surprise. >> hallie jackson joins us from the white house and david nakamura from "the washington post" is with us. what is he talking about? >> reporter: optimism, when it heads to health care i guess the big surprise is a surprise to us too. we're working ofinding out more on what that means. but i will tell you that the president has -- despite what you called political autopsy to a bill that as senator republicans say it's not dead yet, just delayed, the president wants to be moving forward here. the real question i think, nicolle, so what he's doing to do about it? who he is bringing on board on the democrat inside of the aisle, right? because there's an increasingly loud conversation coming from capitol hill about working with democrats potentially that that may be the only way that republicans can get this done.

despite them having the numbers advantage. now, mitch mcconnell doesn't want that to happen. he has been clear about that. he was clear on the white house driveway around this time, nicolle, when we talked with him. the president called chuck schumer essentially not a serious person which doesn't frankly sound like the overture you make to bring somebody to the table. >> let me ask you about this, this seems like the thing of -- like the kind of thing to cause an outburst. the president does not have a grasp of the basic elements of the senate plan and seemed confused when a moderate republican complained that it would cast it as a massive tax break for the wealthy. mr. trump said he planned to tackle tax reform later, and does the president know what's in the senate health care bill? >> so look at what the president has said on twitter first of all, he says i'm engaged in it. he's clearly -- he's read the same article that you're reading

this morning and he was pushing back on that. sarah huckabee sanders was asked about that. she said, reason, the president is engaged. he talked about different elements of the bill, et cetera. i will say that she was asked about deal breakers. what specifically is not in that bill or is in that bill that the president would rule out all together. she said they haven't sat down and made a list so there's not apparently some sort of tick by tick list, mentally or written down or wherever of what the president does consider a deal breaker. that's something that the white house is working on. >> kasie hunt joins us from capitol hill. i wonder if you can add to some of this picture that hallie is painting of a president who views this effort as ongoing and viable. and who plans a big surprise when it comes to health care legislation. are they ready for that surprise on capitol hill? >> well, look, nicolle, i guess with this president you always have to be ready for a surprise but from what i can tell there doesn't seem to be at least at this point a major surprise brewing from the perspective of

the republican senators who have been in the talks around all of this. you have had several who have said, you know, that the attempt here is going to renegotiate this deal by friday so they can get something over to the congressional budget office and vote again when they come back. there's been some skepticism i would say that that time line is realistic. john mccain said they'd have a deal on friday, and pigs could fly were his words. so, you know, i don't get the sense there's a brewing kind of grand bargain that the president is working on that these senators are not aware of. i think in fact senator marco rubio told my colleague today, look, i think he's giving the senate space to do their work. i think there is a real sense here that that's what needs to happen. that the republican leaders have a better grasp on where the conference is and where the policy questions at hand than maybe the president does.

they have more faith than mike pence on this. i'm not sure the president getting involved works in their favor. he could help them sell it. the president's ratings in the polling on health care are higher than the ratings for this bill. i mean, the polling out on this bill is absolutely terrible for republicans. 16% of americans according to quinnipiac, i mean, that's a number that republicans are -- up here will pay attention to. the president's rating is slightly higher, 29% of how he's handling health care. >> david, i want to bring you into the conversation because your paper has a piece with the star power bylines here of your colleagues. and they report in private conversations on capitol hill, trump is often not taken seriously. some republican lawmakers consider some of his promises such as making mexico pay for a new border wall fantastical and they have come to regard his threats as empty, concluding that crossing the president poses little danger.

how does the president knit himself back into the republican policy making process after calling the house bill mean, after saying the senate bill needs more heart and after being described by moderates who are at this meeting yesterday of not understanding that sort of at the crux of this was a tax cut. >> yeah, i mean, look, this is a president who said a lot of things on the campaign trail, had a lot of threats about leaving nato, about the border wall as you mentioned. calling china, you know, a currency manipulator. so they say what is the risk do i have to stand against a bill that's polling so poorly as kasie mentioned. if pigs flew on friday that would be a big surprise, but otherwise i think this president is trying to head -- probably heading on the part to sort of reinvent and resell whatever compromise they can come with up. maybe sell it as a brand-new start here if they get a new cbo score. i covered obama, he'd be

criticized for not getting out and selling some of the legislation around the country. certainly did a lot on health care. it was a long process. this is a short process. but the question is is this president getting out to sell it? the president had a couple of rallies. he did something in ohio where he stopped in the tarmac. he said a few words about health care and then went on to talk about infrastructure. another rally in iowa he only said a handful of words. 300 words if i remember counting some of that up in a really long speech and president obama said on facebook with a 900 word sort of essay about why health care bill was so bad. so the president if he's a salesman, sell it to the public. even if he doesn't want to get down to the policy details would be something that the republicans would appreciate. >> go ahead, hallie. >> i was going to say, nicolle, one of the things that struck me today was sarah sanders talking about the president taking his message directly to the people. she was talking -- >> which message is it though? because i'm hearing that they're glad that the less he says the

better. he's called it mean and heartless. which message will he take on the road? >> presumably if he does take this message on the road it would be one that touts more broadly the repeal and replace. oobamacare which is what he campaigned on. not necessarily touting this house bill that as you rightly note he himself acknowledges he called mean. here's the other point. remember back in 2009, president obama took questions to sell this bill. there are no plans right now for president trump to do that. he has said he would hold a news conference on isis. that was supposed to happen by monday and that did not happen. there's not a sales 3i67 on any of it. even on the idea of trying to fix and repeal and replace obamacare despite the poll numbers that both david and kasie point out. >> does anything scare mitch mcconnell more than the idea of donald trump holding a primetime news conference on health care policy? >> well, the last time that the president held a riveting news conference impromptu, i ran into mitch mcconnell. all of the rest of us had been

riveted and many republicans were sending me text messages filled with four letter words and mcconnell claimed he had not seen it, the press conference. yes, i think you hit on something critical there and i think, you know, this is not -- these two people are a little bit like oil and water. you know, mitch mcconnell and trump. are there two people less alike, i'm not sure. but on the point with trying to sell this bill the one thing that the president has shown that he understands, engages with and embraces is the idea of cracking a deal and then going out and proclaiming victory. i think that is what the perception here is, that the president is looking for. that's why i think when you heard him call the bill mean or saying he wanted more heart that was a little bit of what he was hearing from what senators were telling him they needed in order to get him a deal. so i think the perception here is that the policy specifics don't matter as long as they can get to the win. it's possible that the best way

for president trump to start winning is to start embracing democrats if he can figure out how to get them to come over a little bit. whether congressional republicans will go for that is i think a bigger question. >> david, let me give you the last word on that point. we have been talking about flying pigs, any chance that trump will get a deal with the democrats? >> not going to happen by friday. to the point that kasie was making if the president is going out -- his whole strategy is go out and sell, that highlights what the big problem here is. he doesn't have an ideological underpinning to what does the white house and the president want to see in a new health care bill? he promised one thing on the campaign trail about greater levels of coverage. that's not what they're delivering in the bill and yet he's all over the map, it's a good bill. we'll have a rose garden ceremony with house republicans and it's mean and we want to win. his strength of selling that victory is also undermining the details here they need to get there. >> all right.

hallie jackson, kasie hunt, david knack what murrah thank you. joining me today is brett stevens, msnbc contributor. >> congratulations. >> so lucky to have you. >> elise jordan. and princeton university professor, just as happy to have you. joining me from washington, my friend, chief national correspondent for "the new york times" mark liebovitz. you have to join us at the table next time. >> i probably will. >> we'll call you and book you a flight as soon as this show ends. >> i'm ready. >> what do you do with the president who does not understand the conservative policy making impulses of a republican president when it comes to crafting legislation? i mean, what is mitch mcconnell supposed to do now? >> i think if i were in his shoes, i'd want the president to

go away. talk about infrastructure. >> go where? >> anything else. golf. tweet. whatever. just stay away from health care. and i actually would want this bill to fail. i think whoever owns health care as a party is going to suffer for it. and people forget yes, obama was re-elected after passing obamacare. the democratic party suffered six straight years of electoral reversals because it owned obamacare. as a political matter, putting the policy question aside, why do republicans want to grab that ball and run with it? americans are ambivalent about health care. they're not going to be able to resolve this ambivalence and republicans don't want to own this as their first order of business in congress. >> how about republicans messing with obamacare is actually the thing that sort of rescued obamacare from what bret described it was political baggage. he did it because it was the right thing to do, not because

it was politically popular. whether you agree with it or not, to his credit you have to assume that was the case because it wasn't -- it was political baggage and became a burden in the midterms. what about the fact that republicans have now made it feel like a precious entitlement they'll never let go as john boehner says? >> it's -- >> now obamacare an entitlement. >> well, the fundamental problem with this bill was you've got a huge tax cut for the wealthy alongside you're going to cut medicaid. so donald trump campaigned with a lot of populister have for he has a bill that they're gunning for and they're the only bill that this seems to be popular with. looking forward trump does not believe in conservative free market principles when it comes to health care. he's repeatedly discussed his desire for single payer which is why some conservatives are petrified they're throwing -- you know, him into the arms of democrats. i don't think democrats will do that.

because what do they have to work with donald trump, but it's a huge problem if we want real policy because this process has just been a goat rodeo to use one of your favorites -- >> i have to go to mark and goat rodeo. what do you make of the week that we have seen so far watching republicans sort of turn on each over and it's only wednesday. >> well, i mean, i would say, just for sort of fairly recent historical context there were a lot of autopsies after the house pulled the bill also. you know, i think you can say them getting a bill through albeit very narrowly was a surprise at the time and it enable the president to have his rose garden ceremony and that was cool for him. so i wouldn't count this out or for this matter mitch mcconnell out entirely. the numbers here are not -- they don't look good now, but we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. they don't need that many. there could be paths to victory that are not clear right now. i think the last 24 hours

especially the reports about laid bear the president's lack of engagement. his lack of -- his alleged lack of engagement, but the lack of mastery of the details are all, i mean, the senate is a lot less starstruck of him than house republicans are. you could see in the facial expressions at the white house yesterday. i mean, the lisa murkowski, the susan collinss, the dean hellers, they looked terribly confused not glad to be there compared to the house counterparts. >> you referenced susan. let my play what she had to say right to your point. let me play what susan had to say. >> this president is the first president in our history who has had neither political nor military experience. and that's -- it has been a challenge to him to learn how to interact with congress.

and how to push his agenda forward. >> that was senator collins, my mistake in referring to her by her first name. how about senator collins said what mark liebovitz in polite words, he doesn't know what he's doing. is that an opportunity for democrats? >> i think so. as a closer who can close the deal that's fallen through the floor. the idea he can push and convince people to do things to be the bully that doesn't seem to be working now. he doesn't have the acumen to put it nicely to grab ahold -- >> but he might be a democrat on health care. >> this is the interesting thing. democrats need to be careful here. so folks are talking about bipartisanship here. but there's a divide within the party. if democrats kind of move over and embrace donald trump with regards to health care, they're going to in some ways inflame those folks who support bernie sanders. >> to bret's point. >> so the divide within the democratic party will be

exasperated through this process. >> all right, coming up next, america's most powerful news addict doubles down, but might he have missed an opportunity to take a victory lap? testimony from someone who has testify served as one of e the -- served as one of the top diplomats. he describes trump not accepting russian interference as quote a dereliction of duty. n different countries that we traveled, what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. i'm everything. i'm from all nations. i would look at forms now and wonder what do i mark? because i'm everything. and i marked other. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. when a fire destroyedwith us everything in our living room. we replaced it all

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if i can ask you about yesterday you had a day to sort of look back. did you go to the gym and hit the heavy bag? did you laugh it off as many of us who have covered multiple administrations -- you hear worse, you have seen worse. i was wondering what you were thinking and feeling a day later? >> i think the white house had a great day yesterday. >> that was sarah huckabee sanders. we talk about the president attacking his opponents in the media, his own party and his own administration and sees his poll numbers hold steady and another where reporters and members of both political parties scratch their heads and try to adjust. yesterday one man stood in both worlds calling out the first and reminding the second of who they serve. i rather inappropriately announced that i was in love with him which i am not, but i'm happy to have him join us today. brian karem is with us, the

executive editor of the sentinel newspapers. you had a moment out of the aaron sorkin movie and tell us what made the lid blow when huckabee sanders started berating the press corps. >> i think the reference to the goat -- at the goat rodeo. >> oh, no. what have i started? >> i have been to three county fairs and goat rodeo and i have never been to anything like this white house. >> nothing like it. >> it's true. i guess for me what prompted it was we waited a long time yesterday. there's been an increasing amount of tension in that room. the day before, jim acosta from cnn had a brief run-in with sean spicer. he hasn't been called on in a couple of weeks. we had a decrease in the number of on camera briefings and then yesterday after a week of not having an on camera briefing, the first thing they did in the on camera briefing was berate the press. specifically cnn all of us

seated and then sarah urged us to look at a video she didn't know if it was vetted. she's accusing us of having false and fake media and she's asking us to look at video that hasn't been vetted and then referring to the russian hoax and i at that point in time it's like wait a minute. i'm -- you know, through the looking glass here folks, let's address reality. >> i think the president has since retweeted the videos. so what was going on yesterday is a sort of thing -- i heard this from a conservative republican who called me this morning and said, you know, i heard what you said about brian. he might get a restraining order against you. but i know what you were getting at. they said that the. >> no worries. >> i'm happily married trust me. >> me too. >> the real missed opportunity for the white house they had an example of what they have been calling for now since election die. kellyanne conway has done dozens of interviews where she said i

wish someone would be held accountable for getting the election wrong. a big and respected news organization held a unit responsible and accountable for a mistake. that has never happened in the trump white house. so this republican who backs the president, who backs the white house thought that instead of saying, that a new standard has been set for the media, now everyone that makes a mistake has to -- instead of making this news organization an example and saying a new standard has been set, they just attacked the room. it was so politically tone deaf. it had the effect of getting everyone to rally around the media which is their favorite boogie man. what do you think of this moment in the white house media relations? >> it's a low point in the white house media relations. let me be perfectly honest, i have said this all along. i have a healthy respect for sarah and for sean spicer. they have done some things that are very good for the press. continued briefings, background briefings with cabinet members. they have instituted a skype

portion of their briefings when we're on camera we have people from outside the beltway who are there. but at the same time, you have got the president of the united states tweeting out that we're the enemy of the people. that we are, you know, fake media, false media. so what part of the growling dog do you believe? do you believe the end wagging its tail or the end that's barking at you? i respect the teeth. i don't think he has respect for the press. i did not know yesterday -- i knew how we all felt in that room. and i feel for the reporters who have spent years and years there, i know how they felt but i was surprised at the depth -- at the nerve i struck with what i said. with the people who have come out and -- you know, sent me -- i got a present today from someone. >> it wasn't me. >> wanted to have my baby. >> please stay with us. do you mind, i'm going to bring more people into the conversation. mark i want you to weigh in as a student and an observer of

washington. about what you saw yesterday. and where you see this relationship going. mine, i don't know -- i mean, i don't know how much lower it can go, but i guess there's something more bleak than what we're watching. >> i think, look, i have a horse in this because i'm a member of the media and i work for the failing "new york times" that the president tweeted about this morning. it's -- look, i mean, i think what would be nice before is some answers and truthfulness. i think the podium job which is very, very respected and bipartisanally respected people and that whole exchange has been cheapened to the point it's become even more of a circus than it is on the worst days or had been on the worst days. >> amen. >> and yeah -- it's -- i mean, that's sort of where we are now. i don't think what we saw yesterday was anything new. i mean, maybe the level of it was new. i think brian's speech was terrific and i think it's part of a much, much bigger gap of distrust and a big chasm between

what the so-called mainstream media reports and the job we do every day and what a lot of certainly the republican base and a lot of donald trump supporters think of us. so i don't think a lot of minds were changed yesterday but i do think it was the expression of the tenor we run into. >> i'm going to bring your colleague in from the failing "new york times," bret stephens who wrote a piece so r-rated i can't read so much without blushing. but it's about how twitter porn if ied politics. i'll keep my handle and hopefully my followers but an editorial assistant will write from now on. then you say it's bad for the soul and as donald trump proves daily bad for the country. >> yeah, well, look, i mean, my point is that twitter is political pornography. pornography is naked grunting bodies and twitter is naked

grunting brains. am i allowed to say that? >> first day as a contributor, you're testing the boundaries. >> look, twitter has degraded our political discourse in a bad way and nowhere more than in the presidency of the united states. i said it's perfectly suited for donald trump because it's a reptilian medium for a reptilian brain. a way to get your thoughts out in sharp, crisp bursts but without any sort of elevation, without any argument. so i have -- >> -- context. >> i had five twitter free days. >> are you happier? >> i haven't been happy in years. >> i think it's important to note that this is a criticism of democracy. that a criticism of democracy that goes away -- way back. what mine by that, there's always this worry of the leveling impulse of democracy.

the threat of the mass. this goes back to edmund burke, but a sense we can think about twitter where everyday ordinary people can make their voices heard. although it has the dangers. it's not wholly entirely pornography. >> it makes the -- >> brian, get the last word. >> the problem with twitter it's not a complete thought and there's no context. and when you tweet out that we're the fake media, there are people that have died serving this country as members of the press. they have been injured, they have been threatened. i was jailed, there's 12 of us who have gone to jail to support the first amendment that are around today still trying to apply our trade. i'm sorry when you condemn all of us, that really is a condemnation of the first amendment and it undermines or republic. >> i hope you come back soon.

up next, more strong testimony on the hill today as the senate intel committee's russia investigation rolls on. >> do you have any doubt that it's driven by putin himself? start with you, ambassador. >> no doubt about it. >> ambassador? >> the same answer. no doubt. >> no doubt. >> none. for your heart... your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember.

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i don't believe any previous american president would argue that your own hearing ins the senate are a waste of time. or in the word of president trump a witch-hunt. they're not. you're doing your duty that the people elected you to do. it is his duty, president trump's, to be skeptical of russia. it's his duty to investigate. and defend our country against a

cyber offensive because russia's our most dangerous adversary in the world today. if he continues to refuse to act it's dereliction of the basic duty to defend the country. >> that was ambassador nick burns former u.s. ambassador to nato under george w. bush condemning trump's failure to take seriously the threat of u.s. meddling in u.s. elections. not the first time we've heard this warning but it's striking to the warnings we have heard from so many national security veterans, those who served in democratic and republican administrations. all of them sounding alarm bells about acknowledging russia's role in our 2016 election. this comes as we learn about the people under scrutiny in fbi probe. i'm glad to welcome a chief international affairs columnist from politico and ken dilanian, journalist for the network and all of us. i want to ask you about this russia hangover, that the

president can't get out from under, because he can't give a straight answer about why he doesn't see russia as the threat that everybody else with eyes and ears sees them as. >> well, look, this is the issue that won't go away and now it overshadows his legislative agenda, by out accounts the inside reports in white house he's obsessed with the unfolding investigation. every single day we have heard new jaw dropping claims from the president on this twitter feed. sean spicer once again said it was russia or other countries that were involved. so i'm glad you started with ambassador burns. this nobody's definition of a flame throwing pundit and the thing that i have been struck by as a former moscow bureau chief for "the washington post" in moscow when putin became president is that it's the people who know russia best and who followed it the most closely who have been really sounding the alarm bells if you will for a long time about an escalating pattern of conduct.

they were the ones i think who tried behind the scenes in the obama administration to do what they could to get more serious attention paid to it as this hacking unfolding now. and what's interesting president trump seems to be conflating the entire issue of russia and our policy with his whole campaign team. nobody knows what is our policy toward russia? the u.s. government if you asked anybody whose job it nominally is to pay attention to it, they wouldn't be able to tell you. >> ken dilanian this comes against the back drop of some significant developments on the investigation. politico is now reporting that the senate intel committee will get all of the comey memos or at least some of them according to that report. and paul manafort who is under fbi scrutiny and of interest to everyone looking into what susan referenced, this examination of potential ties and connections between president trump's campaign orbit and people around

him and people around vladimir putin is also now registered as an agent for pro russian political groups in the ukraine. the kind of work that most people i know wouldn't take. so tell me what to make of both these developments on the investigation side. >> well, nicolle, we knew that manafort had done this work, of course, during the campaign. and trump hired him any way. we didn't know how many millions he had made and now it appears his firm is declaring $17 million in income and an enormous sum of money for two years of work for this pro russian party in ukraine. it raises a question of whether manafort was so compromised when he went into the campaign that the russians saw a way in. saw a way to influence the trump campaign through manafort. and there are questions being asked about how that plank in the republican party platform about the aid to ukraine.

taking a step back, we did a deep dive trying to answer the question what is president trump doing to prevent the next russian attack that his team tells him will come in 2018. and we couldn't come up with anything. nobody inside the administration or out can point to a plan or a coherent set of steps that the trump administration is taking to protect the election system, to deter russian behavior, go after fake news, any of that stuff, nicolle. they're just awol. >> and ken, what do you hear about the pace of the investigation, both the senate intel committee and the house intel committee's work and the mueller investigation? >> well, you know, i think it may have settled into one of the phases. special counsel investigations have taken on average two years. so we're at the very beginning of this and there's a blizzard of news with comey and sessions testifying. we may be entering into the period where there's less news on the surface that we are seeing but a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes in terms of

information gathering and fact gathering. it may take some time to come to fruition, nicolle. >> i'm sure that's by design. we know bob mueller runs a tight ship. i know that from my days of working with him in the bush administration. a democratic member of the judiciary committee will join me to discuss the latest in their investigation into russia, and plus the health care fight. does she think trumpcare is dead? ♪ your body was made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz is right for you.

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there's some discussion on the hill there that needs to be a bipartisan solution with health care. so given those comments about senator schumer and presumably would have to come to the table is the president abandoning democratic cooperation? >> i think democrats abandoned the ability when they said that they were unwilling to come to the table and have frankly refused to be part of the conversation from the beginning. and i think they set that tone and certainly set that standard by not participating, but not wanting to be part of the process. >> that was white house

spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders. i'm joined by democratic senator from minnesota, amy klobuchar. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> do you want to respond to the white house spokeswoman that the democrats refewed to come to the table -- refused to come to the table? >> that's certainly not true. we have been interested in talking about improvements to the affordable care act but this was started off in a process of reconciliation which means a budget reconciliation. they were looking at it as a process of doing it with 51 votes and now it's a new day. the bill has fallen while they say they want to continue this bill. you're starting to see a number of republican, senator mccain said he thought this bill would pass when pigs would fly. and senator graham and collins have said if they don't get a new bill by friday that they should sit down with us and by

the way, there are joint bills in congress. a lot of joint interest in doing something with the exchanges, with reinsurance and cost sharing. the bills to bring down the cost of prescription drugs. i have one with senator mccain and one with senator grassley. i think those are areas that we need to improve the affordable care act. for her to say that ask really -- it flies in the face of what we need to do and the common sense where most americans the vast majority of the americans said make it better and bring our costs down. that's what we should be doing. >> you have a record of reaching across the aisle as do two of your republican colleagues and we heard from them yesterday, senator murkowski of alaska and senator collins who both talked about their desire, their appetite for something bipartisan. but i wonder if you could give me an honest read of where the rest of your caucus is on working with this white house and working with republicans on health care. >> well, i think that we have

made it clear, we don't think we should be making changes on the backs of the most vulnerable with medicaid cuts. we also believe this shouldn't involve a huge transfer of wealth to the richest americans. but instead, we need to make changes to make it more affordable, health care more affordable for everyone. i personally have been so frustrated that we still have that ban in place that says that 41 million seniors can't use their market power to negotiate less expensive prices for prescription drugs. that's my bill that i'm leading to allow them to do that. so i actually believe and i think senator collins and murkowski are great examples of that. there are great people that would like to come together to work on changes and there's certainly an appetite for that in our caucus. but all we have been hearing as you know, you have heard people say this, is repeal, repeal, repeal. and then they give us a bill that throws 22 million people off insurance which is actually a bigger number than those that

were added through the affordable care act. so -- >> let me ask you to do something outside the box. can you help me make up a gang of eight that could fix health care? i'm going to put you on the list and lisa murkowski on the list. i'm putting senator collins on the list. can you name -- it's make believe, they don't have to go to any meetings but who would be the gang of eight on health care in the senate? >> there's so many people. >> i only need three. >> well, you know obviously you want to have senator murray and senator alexander involved because they're the heads of the committee. >> okay. >> or perhaps they'd be running a different process. people that have traditionally been involved in these kinds of issues senator shaheen is a personal favorite of mine and then there's some great people who are -- who understand this issue like senator mccain. we have got, you know, claire mccaskill. >> i only needed eight.

>> i can give you many. >> but do you know how many americans would root for you if eight senators from both parties -- the kinds of people you're talking about, people with a record of bipartisanship and a whole lot of women by the way were on that list, i think women may have been behind averting the last shutdown if i remember. >> that is correct. senator collins led that effort and i was the first democrat to sign up. that is correct. >> i think we're on the cusp of a break through. can you please put eight women in the room to solve this? i'll root for you, i'll send money. >> you can't send money. >> i'm kidding about that. i don't have any to send. we want you to come back and keep us posted. you know, on is a serious note i wonder if you think it's come down to that people have to roll up their sleeves and break through all of the noise. >> i think it has come down to

bipartisan work. but right now we still have the majority leader mcconnell who's been saying he wants to bring back a bill and with the president saying i think i can pass it. >> i think the president's more open to democratic ideas than you might think but we can have that debate on another day. >> i hope that's true because he certainly spoke about the ideas of bringing prescription costs down. we're ready, but we haven't seen the open door policy yet. >> senator amy klobuchar thank you so much. when we come back, my panel will bring me back down to earth. we'll get back to russia and twitter and porn, don't miss it. ♪

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and we're back. before we went to the senator, we were talking about paul manafort and the kinds of people he represented. talk about his work. >> his background is representing ferdinand marcos, the deposed dictator of the philippines, the rebel leader in a angola, mr. yanokovich in ukraine. >> what does it tell us about the investigation that obviously the intersection of paul manafort and the kinds of people he represented and the intersense with the investigation that's under way, the lunacy of the russia story and the white house attacking the media, never in the history of time had so many people had

so much contact with so many russians that they lied about, left off their forms or forgot about. i met one russian and i never forgot it. >> i think this is why trump is so worried about the investigation. i'm saying this as an instinct. i would be shocked in there was collusion between a campaign as sham bollic as trump's was, even though they thought they had agents of influence present. i think when trump is worried is when an investigation is brought, you find stuff out. we know that the trump organization had financial tries to russia and those ties right now are on skrubscure. if he were confident he had nothing to hide, he'd be almost welcoming the investigation because it would show up his liberal critics pursuing what he calls this giant nothing burger.

>> you were talking about how easy it is to make things seem more on the up and up. on the trip you have the president fighting for a bilat with putin. do you have an update on where those conversations stand? >> there is this investigation and then there's the bigger question of what is our policy toward russia? it's very significant that president trump has never backed away from his own personal desire to reset relations with russia and, in fact, just a little bit more than a week to from now he's set to go to europe and he's go to go to poland and europe and he's going to meet vladimir putin for the first time. there's the russia policy that people appointed want to have -- >> more in line with the bipartisan senate, tougher sanctions for russia, holding them account. >> that sanctions bill has mysteriously more or less been

put on hold, after passing with only two people dissenting from the bill in the senate. it's an overwhelming consensus in the senate. the white house has clearly worked with republican leaders in the house to sort of put that bill on hold. you have now john mccain saying please, please, bring this up for a vote. why do they not like it? any president wants to have as few constraints as possible on his or someday her ability to act. so they don't want to have congress saying when we should have sanctions. they want the ability to do it themselves. but it's clear that donald trump has a russia policy and has a desire to still sit down and do business with vladimir putin, notwithstanding this investigation, isn't it extraordinary that he's never backed away from it? >> you make a really important point and the distinction between the bipartisan foreign policy consensus on russia and the trusted hands that president trump has put, for example, fiona hill at the national security council. people who are not known to be

soft on russia and then what donald trump actually believes. and then recent reporting just about how so many decisions are made at the end of the day by jared kushner and donald trump, separate of everyone else who, you know, the grownups at the table who are supposed to be reassuring us that the foreign policy is being taken care of. >> 8:00, it's the last word if we're done making him choke with all this conversation about russia. then it hit me... ...managing was all i was doing. when i told my doctor,... ...i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease... ...even after trying other medications. in clinical studies,... the majority of people on humira... saw significant symptom relief... ...and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability... ...to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened;... ...as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure.

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(vo) living with ammonia odor? not a pretty picture. (vo) luckily, tidy cats lightweight with new ammonia blocker tackles tough odor, even ammonia. so long stankface! (vo) ammonia like that? there's a tidy cats for that. he's so upset about trump and russia, he started coughing and couldn't stop. >> we've been making the distinction that you have to

distinguish between russia's involvement in our election system and collusion. they are not identical. we can address the former while investigate the latter. >> flynn, kushner, stone, go all the way down. it seems it moves from suspicion to conclusion. something is going on. they're covering up something. >> that final last word. >> thanks to our guests. i'm nicole wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> hi, nicole. >> it's wednesday. >> i thought it was thursday. >> tomorrow is not friday. >> if it's wednesday, when did bipartisanship become such a dirty word? tonight the