"morning joe" starts right now. >> we're going to replace it with something far, far better than the failing obamacare. we're going to get that done. they're pushing very hard. the republican senators are great people but they have a lot of different states. some states need this, some states need that, but we're getting it together and it's going to happen. right, mike? >> yes. >> i think. and when it does happen, that will be a big day in america, a big day in america. >> well, it didn't. that was president trump yesterday afternoon and a few

hours later, a republican health care plan collapsed. a pair of republican senators pulled their support killing the republican plan to repeal and replace obamacare. now the republicans are just talking about repeal. good morning, welcome to "morning joe." we have columnist mike barnicle, economic analyst steve rattner, senior political analyst for nbc news, mark halperin and from the associated press, julie pace. >> the president said you're going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost and it's going to be so easy. that was october of 2016, joe.

>> and mark halperin has said all along the greatest risk to donald trump, the greatest risk to the republican majority may not be the russian scandals, it may not be the indiscriminate tweeting, the unpresidential behavior, it may not be the question of checks and balances and throwing aside every sacred tradition of the united states government over the past 240 years, it may be the inability to get things done because donald trump's chief promise above everything else was i can make washington work. it's broken, but don't worry, i'm a deal maker, this is easy. we're going to do so much and we're going to win so much that you're going to get tired of winning. what he's actually finding is, as somebody said earlier this morning, that it's much easier to stamp your name on buildings,

on steaks and on online university courses than it is to actually reason washington, d.c. and get significant legislation passed. and this was quite the failure, mika, after he continued to promise he was going to get it done. you remember the rose garden celebration a couple of months ago? the president forgot that you have to pass it through the house and the senate. so this is doubly humiliating for him this morning. >> and for everyone really. because i'm not sure if this president thought that throwing a party like that perhaps would attract senators to jump on board. it's just all kind of -- kind of saeps like child's play, like he thinks this is child's play and it's clearly failing at this point. here's what we've got so far. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is pulling the plug on

the republicans' current plan to repeal and replace obamacare. the news comes after senators mike lee and jerry rand pulled their support last night. republicans could only afford to lose two votes and senators rand paul and susan collins had already said they would not support the bill for separate reason. last night mcconnell said "regretfully it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of obamacare will not be successful. so in the coming days, the senate will vote to take up the house bill with the first amendment order being what a majority of the senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then president obama, a repeal of obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period. shortly before that statement came out, president trump

tweeted "republicans should just repeal failing obamacare now and work on a new health care plan that will start from a clean slate. dems will join in." >> president trump held a dinner with several lawmakers, described as a strategy session with senior members familiar with tough legislative battles. he said the party would look like "dopes" if they couldn't pass the health care bill after passing a repeal bill in 2015. after senators lee and moran announced their opposition, senator john mccain who is recovering from surgery released a statement calling for a bipartisan solution to health care. he said in part "congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties and heed the recommendations of our nation's governors so a we can produce a bill that finally

provide americans with access to quality and affordable health care." joe, this has been in the republicans' laps for a long time. they've been saying they wanted to do this for years and still nothing. >> one of the biggest problems for republicans is having a president that you just can't trust. chris christie made the news yesterday by talking about how the meeting with the russians probably was breaking the law. a lot of people said, well, that's revenge served up cold. actually, chris christie is a perfect example of how disloyal donald trump is. christie was the first to get out and support donald trump. he was used and then abused on the vice presidency, told he would get the position of attorney general and he didn't

get that. and he did the same thing to all republicans house members that he and steve bannon kept threatening saying you better do this or else. well, they pushed and got a house bill passed by the barest of margins in the u.s. health and a month later donald trump is calling it, quote, a mean bill. when he said republicans will look like dopes when they don't pass the legislation, that's what a lot of members are saying on capitol hill are saying this president looks like because he can't be trusted, he hasn't shown any guidance on health care reform and he's left them out there on their own. how bad of a day was it for donald trump yesterday when you had the health care legislation yanked and then he wakes up this morning to a wall street journal editorial that both he and his family faces certain destruction if they don't change their ways? >> the editorial is ominous and

in the absence of a robust legislative agenda, it's going to get more serious. there has never been a mismatch between the -- you think about what is normally required, if you're neither loved or feared by congress, you must barn storm and the gather your coalitions. the notion that the president will repeal an entitlement with the level of effort he invested in this, it was a huge mismatch between expectations and effort and it does leave him, as you said, in a position where if this doesn't get turned around and i don't see how it does now,

how does he pass anything this year. >> we heard the stories a couple weeks ago about how they were going to run attack ads against dean heller, a pro trump super pac. that enraged mcconnell and the republicans. now he's looking at funding a primary run for jeff frlake. he doesn't get involved that much, when he does it's usually negative and he enrages senators. they're not going to jump off the cliff for this guy. >> you, if they don't fear you and eethey don't love you, you're not going to pass anything. this bill didn't get close. the two defections last night

were just the two who decided to go first. but in the end they were going to lose up to 15, i think, republican senators. it leaves them in a horrible position in hour to deal with health care. again, how does tax reform push off of this failure, succeed with something more complicated and divisive in the party if you couldn't do something that every republican who has run for office in the past seven years mr. not following the laws of washington? the basic laws of how you get things passed. people can want an outsider, but he into what have we been saying on this show to years? that was in early 2009 when they thought they could do it their way. well, no. they realize there are customs

and there are ways to get things done in washington, d.c. that you can't ignore. let me read from "the wall street journal" editorial this morning. "trump believes his personality and social media following make him larger than the presidency. he is wrong. so says "the wall street journal" who is usually washington is rolling over him right now. >> in the past six months, especially with regard to health care, it's proven to be a blend of incompetence and cynicism. incompetence at the level of the white house in terms of the president pushing health care legislation and cynicism on the part of there are some really as

you particular amendment, you c c c can. >> them do you believe in effective, affordable health care coverage for every american, yes or no? >> they're basically saying yes now because the effort has been oot -- they've demonstrated democrats and republicans, dick any republicans care about what republican governors -- i think this whole act with trump is getting tired. we're going to have the greatest of this, theif we can't get this

passed, can we work together. and it was striking, elon musk laid out an imgraegs yaent and prnkt, what it manse for employment and economic growth. and he be and the kind of inowization that's that's happening in that space. this is unlike mcconnell. mcconnell is a legislature and he normally gets things done. this is a spectacular letdown for him. you almost think they must have another jand here. is this an effort to continue working with democrats? >> what is it that we wanted? >> i don't know what mcconnell's game plan is. i think there were a couple of problems here for sure. one, as we've talked many times, health care is a sixth economy, it's a big deal, and this bill

was very far reaching but secondly, i saw this happen when i worked in the white house in the obama administration. when you want something done, you put somebody on your point and say to berd taug it all worked itself out and that's just not how it happens up there. >> that's true. >> i think, harold, that's the graesest fine. donald trump thinks he can hold a ceremony in the woes garden.

truth be phone they had contempt for members of congress. and ignored -- there were stories -- there were actually story about how they ignored member on prrp white houses always come in -- they think that they've somehow cracked the code and everybody's going to blindly follow them. this white house is just the absolute worst in this prrn be rns. >> it's actually e, prks. >> we've been saying this for months, that the mr fufrmt --

you don't get susan collins and ted cruz in the same bill. the math never added up. they never had them at let me say it given be just like i told donald trump on this show repeatedly, don't pick fights on the intel community or go to war with the press. let me say it again, harold, and you can repeat it if you believe it. this health care bill has to be bipartisan. there are not i glif that what p png. there aren't enough republicans

to pass this thing. >> the point michael made and rattner as well but michael's point, what is it that we pant affordable and specific leaver is now they just can't seem to pull it all together. to get this done, it's been said here on the show many times, you've got to make it pliechlt they would find it if they would get serious workout place.

i heard sean spicer was block, which meal that this wasn't going well and that this is bad. you mean, what's the mindset? >> there tend to two two pap. in the health care debat you have twluchl himself ability to go after lawmakers on social media, the base that he has that remains loyal will be a powerful factor in moving some lawmakers, but you do have other folks in the white house who knew this was not looking good. they were up on the hill talking to senators and they just couldn't find a, as joe was saying, to put these pieces together if they were going to focus on a piece of legislation that was only going oo nchlts but i'm curious, we all saw this

going down in flame long it happened. who's talking to. nothing i right hand know what the left is doing at all? is will or even more stunningly put him in a room with a bunch of senator last night, senators who were already supportive of the bill and weren't going to be the news there prchl he will get up there and say something completely different, if he feels that way. and i think for him, fen, he. in or he was going to put on a happy face about it until the

very end. you saw last night and narnl at the beginning of the year, there were some lawmakers, republicans who thought that maybe a straight repeal package was where to go. part of the reason was that it was president-elect frum pnl and mark halperin, if has to ppgs that aren't going to be able to run for reelection, are the moderate republicans saying they slashed medicaid and 25 million people will be pushed off of heck whatever you talked to

someone unside the trum house. . no, no, wing o prn actually, i think the perfect summation of it would be prepare yuckes sunday morning performance when he called the john burer meteorologisting a nothing burger. they're always proven wrong, they were proven wrong on russia, they're proving wrong on health care. and the question is will they ever right the ship? or will they keep again, as "the wall street journal"" said this morning, keep playing to their base and stay at 36%?

>> well, and they didn't even energize the base very much to try to pass health care. you can imagine them putting pressure on a senator from kansas, a senator from utah but energizing the base and saying this must pass. if you add up the liabilities now and things they have going for them, they're not in a great place with their investigation. they have to raise the debt ceiling, they have to pass a budget. those things are going to take up a lot of space. they're looking at a limited legislative calendar with congress, whether they stay in for august or not. how are they going to pass any bill in the first year without big changes and i don't see any indication of big changes because, as you suggested, they think they're right and they believe their own talk things are going great. last night was an ominous sign and it leaves them with no path forward to achieve something big

this year. >> whoo, what's it like in there this morning? coming up on "morning joe" we hadn't seen sean spicer in weeks at the white house. maybe that's why he was giving old briefs at the white house, really hold ones. you couldn't see his face but we'll bring it to you. >> coming up, senator joe manchin and congressman jim himes. >> my administration is removing the burdens and regulations on your company so can you compete, thrive and grow. how many of you have noticed this so far because it's a big, big difference, right? that's a big, big difference. the people are coming up to me they can't even believe it. we took the farmers' land away and home builders' land away.

they have their land back now and it's a beautiful thing to see and they're so thankful. >> made in america week continues and the president tries to tout his progress while trying out an american-made fire truck. steve rattner on the economy ahead. ♪ i'm a lonely boy, i'm a lonely boy ♪ oh, millies. trick or treat! we're so glad to have you here. ♪ what if we treated great female scientists like they were stars? ♪ yasss queen! what if millie dresselhaus, the first woman to win the national medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity? [millie dresselhaus was seen having lunch today...] ♪

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really? and these kids. and these guys. him. ah. oh hello- that lady. these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh. sure. still yes! you can get it too. welcome to the party. introducing gig-speed internet from xfinity. finally, gig for your neighborhood too. what you need to get to is ultimately what was discussed. my understanding of all this is that there's concern by some people of collusion. even from what we've heard so far, i don't see any evidence of that. >> is it inappropriate to get opposition research from a foreign government? >> yeah, i think it would be. i don't think there's any evidence that they did, but i do think it would be, sure. and i think quite frankly, that's probably against the law, michael, in addition to being

inappropriate. >> all right. chris christie there. president trump began the week by tweeting in defense of his son for hosting that meeting of tom campaign aides with a lawyer from moscow in june of 2016. the get together came with a promise of official documents and information from the russian government that would incriminate hillary clinton. and trump tweeted "most politicians would have gone like the one don jr. attended in order to get information on an opponent. that's politics. >> any threat or effort to interfere with our election from any nation state or non-state actor is the kind of thing the fbi would want to know. >> at yesterday's off-camera white house press briefing, sean

spicer would not say who was right and reverted to the administration's original defense of the meeting. >> i'm not going to get into the specifics of this, but i will say that it is quite often for people who are given information during the heat of a campaign to ask what that is. that's what simply he did. the president has made this clear through his tweet and there was nothing as far as we know that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for discussion for adoption of the magnitsky act. >> first of all, the meeting was not about adoption. and the magnitsky act blocked a

small number of businessmen from entering the united states, froze their assets and banned them from the united states. >> julie pace, were you in there? what was the reaction -- i can't even -- what's he talking about? >> it's pretty amazing because, as you said, we actually know that the meeting was presented to don junior in a completely different way, it was to get information about hillary clinton and, two, it was presented to him by an effort to help his father. the idea that don junior and jared kushner attended the meeting just to talk about

adoptions -- no, this is a russian lawyer who is prominent, who has worked on issues favorable to the russian government, who was going there to roll back sanctions. the magnitsky act has been frustrating for the russian government, they want this overturned. that's what this is about. she wanted to get support for rolling back sanctions. >> steve rattner, i mean, i'm glad the topic's to russia because it actually remind eknee, sean spicer yesterday and i know you'll remember, what we used to hear from the old soviet union spokespeoplethey would come out and say things that had already been disproven, that the whole world knew had been disproven and when sean spicer comes out yesterday and says it's just about adoptions, that,

i mean that, lie which the president signed off on on air force one was proven to be a falsehood over a week ago and everyone in washington and everyone in america knows it. and yet like an old soviet propagandist, you have white house people going out and actually quoting something that was prove i don't know to be a -- proven to be a falsehood eight, nine, ten days ago. >> sure. this is hardly the unique circumstance of them doing that. they stuff all the time that was either disproven by later events or disproven by facts or whatever. we obviously know the story has moved away from this question of simply talking about adoption and now there's a question of this other person in the meeting, who is an expert on hacking. we don't know if that part of it

is as de minimis as the trump administration plays. the connection between the magnitsky act and adoption, once the magnitsky act was passed, the russians retaliated by banning adoptions so there is some connection to those two issues. >> they changed their minds so many times in the don junior meetings, we played a clip where he talked about this made in america week and this anti-regulatory push and he said there are farmers who have had their farms taken away. we have gotten their farms back. now they are farming again. there are small business owners who have had their small business taken away. we have given them their small businesses back. no, there's absolutely no evidence of that either.

again, the truths are becoming so -- the lies are becoming so obvious, i wonder whether he boils that 36% approval rating down even lower. at some point i can't believe that some you know, what's kind of interesting is you pick up the fielding out in the ordinary america where most americans do, in fact, live, work, breathe and hope for a better life, you get the feeling that the only people paying attention to donald trump and sean spicer are lawyers and members of the media. other than that, i mean, people are going through their lives each and every day. and you referred to "the wall street journal" lead editorial today. if they were really smart, they would listen to the president's new lawyer -- and just assemble

everything that they can think of as just get it out there, just dump it on saturday afternoon, get it all out there and see what happens. i don't know what you think about that. >> it's all been said. the president now you would imagine his team would step back and do an assessment of where they are and where they want to go. that is correct was trying to get something different done. obviously the who is has released, unbailed their budget. i think that's all good. i'm probably going to disagree but i'm glad they're moving forward. but the question is can you put together a coalition to get things passed? and i still think it comes back to what's been said here many times, which is it has to be

bipartisan if you want to do something significant, be it the budget, be it taxes, infrastructure. obviously be it health care. and it doesn't seem like they're learning that lesson. they continue to be caught in their own web of narratives, stories,in, over the next several weeks. i thought mcconnell probably was keepings they men and women in in august, not because he thought health care would get done but i think he was trying to, the damage here to be. >> all right. and by the way, mike barnicle, there is actual relations

between the two ty kobs. they are related. >> coming up, gene robinson argues that america deserves much better than prz straight ahead on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ tech: when you schedule with safelite autoglass, you get time for more life. this family wanted to keep the game going. son: hey mom, one more game? tech: with safelite, you get a text when we're on our way. you can see exactly when we'll arrive. mom: sure. bring it! tech: i'm micah with safelite. mom: thanks for coming, it's right over here. tech: giving you a few more minutes for what matters most. take care! family: bye! kids singing: safelite® repair, safelite® replace.

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41 past the hour. joining us now, eugene robinson. you write that this country deserves much better than trump. you say "we have a president, a commander in chief of the armed forces, youostensibly whose eve word is suspect. we have a president whose north star is naked self-interest, not the good of the country. we have a president whose eldest son, son-in-law and others who met with emissaries purportedly

sent by the russian government to deliver dirt on trump's opponent, hillary clinton. we have a president who has declared this to be "made in america" week, despite the fact that so many of their retail products that bear his name or that of his daughter ivanka are made in mexico, china, indonesia and bangladesh." it is getting to the point where talking about farmer -- it is getting to the point where every word is suspect and every tweet as well. >> you simply cannot believe what comes out of the president's mouth. we've had presidents that lied before for specific reasons, lyndon johnson lied about vietnam, nixon lied about water, bill clinton lied about monica lewinsky, that situational li a.

we've never had anything where if donald trump says the sky is blue, you really have to step outside and check. but today was kind of a step back and just look at where we are, look at wlab -- look at what we got and it rye thinking americans want to do something about this abhorrent presidency that is doing no good for the country, they're going to have to work and organize and show their feelings at the ballot box in 2018. what happened last night, i think the first line of my column refers to gross incompetence and look at how incompetently the president orchestrated this attempt to

repeal and replace obamacare. and, you know, the predictable result. >> now, gene, you know, your column brings up a good point about the democrats needing to have an alternative message. >> yes, yes. >> you can organize all the mafes you want to organize, hold all the rallies you want to have, you can talk about russia all day and night we have a new message about how to get americans back to work. i haven't heard anything that's going to inveet those those together and say, wait a second,

bass there has to be a message. there has to be a reason for people to rally to the democratic side and it can't be just that, you know, donald trump is awful. i mean, you could say that and say that until you're blue in the face, but that doesn't i think get you over the hump. you need a positive and, frankly, we have not heard that yet from the democratic party. >> anger is not a unifier. not even close weeks before

that. we'll break down the timeline straight ahead. ♪ ♪

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. because we have countries that charge us 100% tax on a product. and when that product is sold to them by us, it's 0%. people say that's free trade. no, that's free trade. that's really stupid trade. it's incredible. you'll have people no, we can't do that. that's free trade. that's so incredible. oh, what happens in washington, you wouldn't believe the things. >> president trump has been touting the economic growth

under his presidency thus far, often tweeting about the historically high stock market gains and jobs numbers. steve rattner has charts on the economic reality. steve, is what he says true? >> well, the stock market is at a record high. there's reasons for us we can talk about, but that benefits a small segment of the population. beyond that jobs growth and the economy are performing essentially at the level they were performing under president obama. but what is a little concerning is that the so-called trump bump seems to be ebbing. look at the first chart, it looks at consumer confidence or sentiment, expectations, you can see at the time of the election, it was at about an 85% level. there was a trump bump, but since then and in the last few weeks it's plummeted back down to where it was, in some cases lower than where it was before the election.

so consumers are getting nervous about the trump presidency, and you can see in the nextchart, in fact, some tangible evidence. this is retail sales growth. the percent by which retail sales increase. if you go back to the 2016 period, we were in 4 % plus or minus. an election around 3 .7 %, a trump bump, and then down to 2.6. that's the low point of any recent period of time. it's caused economists to revise down their estimates for second quarter gdp. nowhere near mr. trump's 3%, closer to the 2 % level. lastly, if you take a look at what professional economists think, at the time of the election, about 40 to 43% of them were more pessimistic than optimistic. they thought there would be a greater chance to downgrade the.

23% in march thought the risks were greater on the downside than the up side. but now you have 57% of economists saying the risks are greater on the up side than the downside. even the professional economists surveyed by "the wall street journal" are more worried. and there are more signs of the economy slowing. >> what's moving it to 57% from 27% in two months? >> what's moving it are two things. one, what we've been talking about for the last half hour, the inability of washington to make any meaningful progress on reforms to help the economy, and secondly that the economy is simply slowing down, and people are spending less and they're getting more concerned about their debt levels and things like that. >> think it's 2008 and 2009 all over again? >> i don't think so -- >> but people might think that. >> we have a gone a long time since the e session. we're doing nothing to create a

growth environment and so people think there's a good chance the economy will get worse, not better. >> a column and conversation in the last segment speculated about democrats not having a message or growth plan to counter. what would you say in light of the numbers and the analysis you applied, what would be the smartest core of a growth plan or economic plan? what should that plan look like? in the washington post poll on sunday, i think something like 62% of people say the democrats have more anti-trump than having any ideas of their own. >>. i agree. >> there was a profile where jake said he wished he was harder on hillary. he said it's about showing these people some leadership and showing them you have an idea for how to solve the country. it's a question of a leader pulling it together. what trump did, in fairness. >> what's the one piece of that core?

should it be a tax cut? more spending in a certain area? >> the one issue is solving the middle class wage problem. that consists of a budge nch of things. >> replace goes down in flame, but repeal is talked about. we'll here from kristen welker and kasie hunt and former special assistant to president obama, ned price. "morning joe" is back in a moment.

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we're going to be submitting as soon as our secretary is approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan. it will be repeal and replace. it will be essentially simultaneously. it will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or week, but probably the same day, could be the same hour. repeal and replace, very complicated stuff, and we're going to get a health bill passed. we're going to get health care taken care of in this country. >> that was president trump back in january. as of today, tuesday, july 18th, that plan is essentially dead. on the show today we have mike

barnicle, harold ford junior, steve rattner, mark hallpran, julie pace, and josh green. josh green has a new book, "devil's bargain". great title. we'll get to that in a moment, josh. joe, it's really hard to put into words the events of the past 24 hours from the press briefing room to the president's podium. >> yep. and what underlines all of this is the ineffectiveness of the president. he has 36% of americans still with him. seem to be staying with him no matter what he does. but they expect to get results. and that's just not happening.

it's almost talking about a devil's bargain, a lot of people that i've spoken with, that still support donald trump say i know he lies all the time. i know he's unpresidential. i know that his tweets are outrageous. but we're going to get some supreme court justices. we're going to end obama care and get tax reform, and that's just not happening. and the greater danger to donald trump, you've been saying, and the trump white house comes not from the form of the sandals or the lies or the unpresidential undignified behavior, it comes from continuing to fail to get anything done in washington d.c., and last night if that's the case, was a very bad day for donald trump. his white house, and the republicans in washington. >> on one hand a lot of effort went into trying to pass health care.

on another level there was nothing like the effort when obama passed the affordable care act. look at the calendar. look at how much russia is going to take up. look at how much room raising the debt ceiling and passing a bungt is going to take up. because this is falling action now to do something in the senate to get it off their plate, how are they going to suddenly rally behind a economic team to pass tax reform? that's the next big project, without rethinking the staffing, the structure and the use of the president? if he analyzes what he did topaz health care and compared it to other past presidents, it's not close. >> here's what happened over the past 24 hours. apparently to the president's surprise, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is pulling the plug on the republican's current plan to repeal and replace obama care. the news comes after senators

mike lee and jerry moran both announced their opposition last night. with a 52-seat majority, republicans could only afford to lose two votes and rand paul and susan collins already said they wouldn't support the bill for separate reasons. last night mcconnell released a statement that said the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of balm care will not be successful. so in the coming days the senate will vote to take up the house bill being what the majority of the senate has supported in 2017 and that was ve toed by president obama. a repeal. might remind folks there's an election. shortly before that president trump tweeted republicans should just repeal failing obama care now and work on a new health

care plan will start from a clean slate. dems will join in. earlier in the evening, president trump held a dinner with several republican lawmakers, officials described it as a collaborative strategy session with senior members familiar with tough legislative battles. according to politico, president trump told republicans at the dinner the party would look like, quote, dopes, if they couldn't pass the health care bill after passing a repeal bill in 2015. is that -- i don't know. it just seems like there might be a better way to work with his own party. if the president wanted to get something done, joe. >> well, i think -- actually, there are a couple of big problems. the first was the miscalculation, thinking you could pass it with republicans. the more you slash with medicaid, the more conservative moderate members you lose. the more you put into medicaid

or the more you preserve it, the more conservative members you lose. we were saying it several months ago when the house was trying to pass the bill. there was no way this was ever going to work in the united states senate and that was proven last night. but harold ford, donald trump took a bad situation and made it much, much worse. we've talked about it before. like lindsey graham said if you think the president is ever going to have your back, you're mistaken. this is a guy who tweeted and told senators the house republican bill was a mean bill after threatening them if they didn't pass it. then he went after dean heller, his super pac, actually started running ads against the nevada senator, and then we started hearing news stories about how he was going after jeff flake, the arizona senator. i mean, harold, can you explain? i don't know how much it happened in the democratic caucus, but i can tell you one

time newt gingrich kicked a freshman member off the appropriations committee because he actually dared to vote against a bill. and we all shut down the house until he got put back into the house. when you have donald trump attacking senators, talk about what that does to the caucus, and how that always backfires on a president. >> you never know if when things get challenged and tough if the president is going to stand with the party or even you as an individual. better yet, over phenomenon you support the president, will he turn on you? you laid out the facets of that. to add to your point about health care. one of the things that republicans and this president fail to recognize is we've had a few years of obama care several years of it interacting with the marketplace. we've had several years of understanding the good parts of it and all governors from both parties being able to take medicaid dollars, even when they indicated they might not have

wanted the expansion but have made health care more available. there's no doubt there's shortcomings to this health care plan. even president obama acknowledged it. one would think a businessman like donald trump would have said let me look at this and figure out how to go forward. but the fundamental problem is there's some republicans who simply don't want the government to play any role in trying to make health care more affordable and more available. they believe the government should not be in the business and markets can handle it. i'm not clear where president trump stands on that. some days he calls it mean, other days he doesn't. yesterday he seemed to call for now repeal of it and then we take some time to fix it. if the bill was that bad, we wouldn't need a transition period. republicans have to deal with that, and democrats as well on other issues. there's certain tax cuts and aspects of infrastructure reform and certain spending cuts that need to be seriously contemplated to make the government function better. it goes both ways.

unfortunately for republicans the ball is in their court, and they have the owness of managing government on their shoulders. >> yeah. >> the ball is in their court like the ball was in the democrat's court in 2009 when they tackled health care. we remember the town hall meetings and how badly that went. that really created the rise of the tea party. helped the tea party take over washington in 2010. i remember back in 1993 when hillary clinton tried to tackle health care reform. it was devastating for the clinton white house in '93 and '94. that's part of what led to republicans taking over the house in 1994. now we find ourselves in 2017, it's republicans that are trying to wrap their arms around health care, and this idea that they're going to be able to repeal obama care and get people like sizen collins to come on board, dean heller to get on board, rob

portman to get on board, when doing that -- well, and how about west virginia, there's not a state more again end on medicaid and some of these subsidies than the people of west virginia. i don't see how this is a solution. does the white house really believe -- does mitch mcconnell believer, do you believe, they're going to be able to get the 50 votes they need to repeal obama care? >> well, this is basically a last chance gamble. the idea being that you would put so much pressure on republicans to lay down a marker and say yes, we at least repealed obama care and they're fearful of going back to their states and saying they voted against a repeal. that's the strategy. this idea that you draw a comparison between voting for a repeal in 2015 and voting for one now, it's silly. that was a completely different set of circumstances. that was a safe vote, because republicans knew that barack

obama was going to veto it. >> that was a statement. >> it was a statement. >> they were making a statement. >> it was a political statement. now you're talking about a situation where you would be repealing the law and putting nothing in place. and that's a huge risk, because you're basically saying to the american people, trust us. we're going to have something better in two years and there's nothing about this process over the last six months that i think would give a lot of americans confidence that that's possible right now. >> i mean, imagine just -- this is actually the worst of both worlds, because if you repeal obama care and say we're going to implement something else in two years, every republican that has a primary opponent is going to be running against somebody who is pointing to the republican office holder and say obama care is still the law of the land. this person has been promising you for seven years that they were going to repeal obama care.

it's still the law of the land. so they get hammered there. then they get hammered on the other side from their democratic opponents who are saying they've said they're going to repeal obama care and in so doing, the cbo says that 25 million less americans are going to have health care insurance. they're going to get it from the right. they're going to get it from the left. it is a genuinely bad idea. but that's what the republicans have been doing since being given power. a monopoly of power in washington d.c., and the architect of this, president steve bannon. josh, let's bring you in. you've written, wow, what a book, on president steve bannon, or mr. 36% as i like to call him. pretty shocking details. look at the health care debate to see, in my opinion, how little steve bannon knows about

washington d.c. coming up to the hill, and actually threatening house members if they didn't vote for the house bill. he's -- where does he come from, first of all? what is the genesis of his philosophical belief and how much does he really know about making washington d.c. run? >> well, i think as i say in the book, bannon is good at a couple of things, messaging, campaigning, and good at helping trump connect to the anxieties of american voters. we saw it in the primaries. we saw it in the general electorate. the one problem, the fundamental problem that steve bannon, jared kushner, that they all have is they have absolutely no experience in washington. they think it's about dominance, that you can intimidate people into passing bills. you saw that with trump's approach to the house bill. in this case mitch mcconnell

said, hang back, i don't want you involved. now that hasn't worked out either. the problem is there isn't anybody up there with legislative experience that knows how to pass a bill, and as i say in the book, trump ran on a message that was in direct opposition to what people like mitch mcconnell and paul rieb wanted to do. he ran on a populist economic message that addressed the needs of working class people. passing this health care bill would take away medicaid for all sorts of working poor. it doesn't jibe with trump's message as a candidate. we're seeing how it's going to fall apart. >> that's what i don't understand, and i didn't understand it in january when he started announcing all his cabinet members. he had steve bannon that had this populist message that has been successful in electing conservative republicans in democratic-leaning districts and democratic-leaning states. but you start looking at the

people that he put at hhs. look at the people that he put at the epa, and look at the people that he put across government at commerce. i mean, he put hard right conservative small government -- almost rigid ideologically rigid people there that would never win a race in wisconsin, would never win a race in pennsylvania, ohio, or michigan. there's such a disconnect between what steve bannon promised and what donald trump is delivering, that even that part of the equation is not working out. >> no. i think that's right. so there are two problems here. one, trump at heart is not a nationalist. he's an opportunist. he wants to do whatever is going to make him look good on cable tv in the moment. if that's nationalism, as it was in the campaign, that's what he'll do, but we got into

office, filled his staff with folks from goldman sachs. no offense, steve rattner. >> i never worked at goldman sachs? >> didn't you? >> no. >> my bad. that creates a problem when you run against these kind of what bannon call globalist entities. the other problem was for all the president bannon talk, bannon either didn't have or was afraid to leverage the influence over trump to say don't go down this path. don't pass paul ryan's health care bill. it takes away pbenefits from yor base. let's do something else. for whatever reason, he couldn't make that happen and now the administration is in real froubfroub trouble. >> josh, this is the most extensive portrait of steve bannon, your book, "devil's bargain". given his background, what he's

done with his life, he's had a lot of success, a lot of opportunity, and yet, everything he seems to speak to, or about, or try to influence people with, is resentment. where does this resentment come from in? >> talking to people all the way back in high school, bannon has been a guy with a chip on his shoulder. he was a brawler. very much in the mold of kind of a donald trump as a candidate. that's just who he's been. and even though he went to harvard business school and went to goldman sachs and wound up in hollywood, that's what he was all about, and beneath the surface, he had this kind of angry hard right conservatism that came out once he moved into the world of conservative movie making, breitbart news, of the tea party. it's a message that had a lot of power. it got donald trump elected. >> but do we know anything more about the basis of the resentment? did he get kicked off a little league team? did a girl say no?

someone steal his lunch? >> this is always who the guy has been. he was born angry. he was born fighting, and so maybe it's not a coincidence that he wound up in politics. >> josh, you've alluded several times to the disconnect between bannon's ideology and some of the policies being pursued. i could make the argument there's nothing donald trump has proposed that would make the 36% better off and a lot that would make them worse off, whether it's the tax cuts or the health care. the question is how does the movie end? does the 36% at some point wake up and say what are these guys doing to me, or does bannon somehow get policies to help the people suffering? >> i don't know that they do. in the one case the nationalists in the white house would make that they have delivered is they are deporting immigrants. they are shutting down immigration. they are trying to keep out the influx of low-wage workers. they claim a tighter wage market

will benefit the workers. it's not a lot to build a reelection campaign on. the other question i have, i'd expected them to abandon him quickly when it was clear he wasn't delivering. for the most part, they haven't. we saw a washington post poll yesterday that said only 9% of republican voters are bothered. for better or worse, trump has had a cult leader effect on the base. they are not sitting there and sifting whether or not they're getting tangible benefits. they're going with trump maybe because they dislike people in washington. for whatever reason, the support structure hasn't broken. >> josh, why didn't that base march on washington and demand that the senate pass repeal and replace, the affordable care act? >> because i think that was mitch mcconnell and paul ryan and the gop establishment's fixation. it is not the fixation of ordinary working class voters

throughout the country. trump's genius as a candidate was to recognize, i think, and to carry out a kind of political arbitrage between what the republican leaders stood for, hawkish foreign policy and free trade, and the kinds of policies that would benefit the actual base of the republican party. elderly folks, rural folks, working class folks, trump from the campaign and in the book says look, i am not going to cut your benefits. he tells paul ryan, i think you're stupid to promise to cut social security when the democrats are saying not only will we not cut social security. we're going to give you more. on some level trump recognized the problem with the republican message, but he's not been able to deliver anything to satisfy the voters. >> josh, let me go back to the issue that really does seem to unite the 36%, or the 40%, wherever donald trump supporters are, and you mentioned it.

it is at the end of the day, it's immigration. it's the wall. i'm going to build that wall was the big applause line. it was that he was going to do something that democrats have tailed miserably in doing, and that is keeping out a low wage illegal immigrants that actually drove down the paid for working class americans. that's the promise at the end of the day that donald trump made. it wasn't really primarily about health care. it wasn't about tax cuts. i've always got the feeling their attitude was yeah, give the rich whatever you want to give the rich. we just want our jobs back, and to get our jobs back, you need to build the wall. how much of that went into steve bannon's calculus in putting this campaign together and this campaign message together. >> bannon wasn't the originator of the wall, but i think he was the guy that really injected the idea in trump's mind that

illegal immigration can be a powerful political force in the conservative grass roots. we forget this now, but trump as an entertainer in the mid 2000s was actually more popular with hispanic and black voters than he was with white voters. he could have run a different kind of big tent gop autopsy presidential campaign. that was the most fascinating part of my research was seeing the profile trump had. then he connects with people like david bossy, dave bannon, steven miller in the white house and suddenly becomes radicalized on the issue of illegal immigration. that more than any other issue i think is what carried into nomination. >> yeah. i think it carried him to the nomination. i think it's what continues to carry him toward and why he still has support from a lot of people. thank you so much, josh. "devil's bargain" looked like a great book. steve rattner, willie and i have been trying to get jobs at

goldman sachs for a long time. can you give us a good word? >> i know some people there. i'll give you a helping hand. >> what are you kind of thinking you'd want to do? >> i don't care. i'm kind of open. whatever they need. default swaps. >> still ahead on "morning joe," after putting iran on notice, the trump administration once again certifies that tehran is living up to their end of the nuclear deal. we'll talk about that. first, we'll get reports from kristen welker at the white house and kasie hunt on capitol hill. kasie is resting her arm after throwing out the first pitch at last night's oriole's game. the good news is she did better than rapper $0.50. "morning joe" will be right back. it's not a quick fix.

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my first hope is that john is going to be okay and will have a good recovery and be back with us soon, but i don't want him to come back in a way that would jeopardize his health. he's tough. he'll make it through this. >> we hope john mccain gets better very soon, because we miss him. he's a crusty voice in washington. plus we need his vote. and he'll be back. he'll be back sooner than somebody else would be back. he'll be back soon. >> it turns out they needed more than just john mccain's vote. joining us now, kristen welker and kasie hunt. we'll start with kristen welker. who what is the white house saying in the wake of the stalemate over health care, and was the president prepared by anybody for this?

>> reporter: i don't think so. i think the white house was caught by surprise. officials here still reeling. i can tell you the if i canner point -- finger pointing has begun. one official saying it falls squarely on the shoulders of mitch mcconnell saying that effectively, mitch mcconnell dropped the ball. just a scene setter here. last night president trump was hosting a dinner with seven senators. people who were described as seasoned lawmakers who were familiar with the tough battle. senators like roy blunt, lamar alexander, the president thought that these senators were going to really help him gird for a battle and get this bill over the finish line. that's why he invited people who were yes votes to the white house. they thought they could get this done. just as the dinner was wrapping up, that's when you had the tweets coming out from the two other lawmakers, mike lee, jerry moran saying they couldn't get behind the bill, effectively

sinking it. the plan b being voted to repeal now and replace much later is being driven by the white house, and my sense is the white house leaders on capitol hill aren't necessarily on the same page. i think there's a lot of skepticism on capitol hill about whether or not this repeal vote can actually get passed. there's a lot of concern that republicans are going to pay for this in the midterms. the finger pointing has begun and the shock is starting to set in. >> kristen welker, thank you. what we want to do is go to kasie hunt and talk about what's going on on capitol hill. on the senate side, but also, kasie if they get to just repeal and they get the two-year window, doesn't that doom them with the midterm election? >> reporter: i think as is always the case with mitch mcconnell, there's a strategy. one challenge for him in trying

to figure out what to do is he has to deal with a white house and a president that they think don't -- doesn't fully understand the landscape on capitol hill. so if they're under -- think about it. they're under incredible pressure from the white house to do something, anything, the white house is saying repeal only. so how does mcconnell show the white house that that won't work? he has to push ahead with the strategy. the reality is there aren't 50 votes to repeal only. that's why we're here and they decided to write a massive repeal and replace health care to begin with and why they've spent weeks and weeks negotiating and voting on it. you have to remember the strategy mcconnell laid out last night would require opening debate on the house bill. that would if they got there, that's the motion to proceed we've been talking about with the other senate version of the bill. that underlying house bill was unpalatable because it didn't

have ironclad coverage for people with preexisting conditions. there's a lunch today on capitol hill where i'm sure he'll fill republicans in, but it's different to see where they go from here. >> kasie, you're right. mitch mcconnell is one of the few people i've met in washington who he's always three steps ahead. before he made the statement last night, you know he had a plan down the road. and he was even telegraphing this last week when he was in kentucky. which, his home state has six or seven of the poorest counties in the united states of america. they are extraordinarily dependent on medicaid, and health care from the federal government. but he said, hey, we may have to work with democrats to get this done if we can't pass it through there. isn't that really at the end of the day, where mitch mcconnell and other republicans understand

this is going to have to end up? they're not going to have the 50 votes to repeal. they're going to have to figure out how to sit down with moderate democrats and get something done. >> i think that's right, joe. you've obviously been through this over and over again when you were on capitol hill. very often these arguments become, okay, neither side can agree on a big thing, so take the most obvious thing to fix and everybody can get on the same page for that smaller fix. i think that's where we're headed. i think the challenge for mcconnell and his members is there's been this ongoing argument about is it politically better for them to pass this bill and potentially own the health care issue and have to answer for their votes, or is it better for or worse for them to allow it to fail and be seen not following through on the major campaign promise? that is a legitimate issue. i think a lot of people have been trying to figure out where mcconnell falls on that spectrum. i think his posture in that statement last night is a lot

about the white house. think about remember when paul ryan had to go down to the white house to basically plead with the president, hey, don't make me put this bill on the floor. don't make my members take this vote the first time because he knew it was going to fail. i think now you're seeing a similar dynamic. clearly the white house is saying something to mitch mcconnell behind closed doors and mcconnell is trying to prove that he know better than them about how it's going to go. >> wow, kasie hunt, thank you. coming up, we'll talk about white house security clearances. jared kushner still has his, despite amending his form twice. ned price calls that a slap in the face. he joins us along with john hiems next on "morning joe." choicehotels.com. badda book. badda boom.

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>> i got to go to the berth day girl, kayla. oh, i'm sorry, sara. >> oh, thanks. it's not my birthday, but --

>> i don't want to get into it. it's kayla's birthday. she's not here. i saw amen, i thought cnbc. >> a nice light hearted moment at yesterday's press briefing. sean spicer's first since late june. we would love to show you video of the moment, but the white house won't allow it. they won't show faces. joining us from capitol hill, member of the select committee on intelligence, democratic congressman jim himes of connecticut. he's pushing legislation that would mandate two televised briefings by the white house per week. also former spokesperson and senior director for the national security counscil, ned price. we heard sean spicer on the audio talking act the don junior meeting being about adoption when it's been revealed since

then many times over that there were many more people in the room than first revealed. and that the content of the meeting was that exchanging information with the russian government on hillary clinton, first of all, what do you make of that, and what are you hoping to find out? what are you doing to be looking for? >> mika, i honestly don't get it. again, by don junior's owned a mig in t admission, it was clear that he was excited. he used the phrase i love it because he was going to be offered incriminating information that originated with the russian government by russian people. he was so excited that he didn't just invite co-workers. he invited the head of the campaign, paul manafort and jared kushner. when sean spicer comes on and contradicts what everyone knows to be true, it was like when he pounded out and said this was the biggest inauguration crowd

ever. there seems to be a belief in this white house that if you just say something enough times or with enough vigor, people will believe it. either that or the white house is very exclusively speaking to the 20 or 25% of americans who are going to stand by this president no matter what the facts are and no matter what happens. >> ned price, you've written that jared kushner is still having a security clearance is a slap in the face to professionals in the national security profession. tell us why you feel that way. >> well, joe, it is a slap in the face to our national security professionals. these often faceless and nameless men and women who toil day in, day out, with the upmost standards of character, judgment, and integrity, always close by, and then you have mr. kushner on the other hand, who has very rarely, if ever in his national security interactions had judgment in the episodes we know about acknowledging there

could be additional shoes to drop. reviewing the past few months, it was the same jared kushner who failed to disclose his discussions with natalia veselnitskaya and the head of the sanctioned russian bank with close ties to russian intelligence. the same jared kushner who proposed a covert communications channel with moscow in an apparent effort to evade u.s. sanctions. jared kushner who advocated the firing of director comey, and to go to this most recent episode, jared kushner who took part in this meeting having been forwarded the entire chain with the subject line, clinton/russia, sensitive and confidential and made liars out of all of his colleagues for months, failing to correct the record when everyone from the president an down went out publicly and said no, there were no meetings with russian officials during the campaign. that's just fake news. jared kushner knew all along

that was completely false. >> mark, this is like deja vu all over again. we spent all last year talking act how hillary clinton lived by a different standard than other people that had access to classified material, and other people who revealed classified material. and there were always examples that we were bringing up of people that had treated classified material in the way hillary clinton did, and they ended up in jail. or ended up in court. but hillary clinton didn't. we talked about a different standard in the rich and the powerful. well, here we are a year later. i can't believe it. a year later the fact patterns changed just a little bit. but here again, we find a rich and powerful person that if they were just starting out in national security or even a mid level or possibly even a general, if they had acted this way, if they had lied on their

disclosure form as many times, they would never have a security clearance under these circumstances. >> well, and the other big difference is they're now facing bob mueller an all star team of lawyers who can look at all of this. it's a very tough situation, and tougher than what hillary clinton faced in terms of legal fire power and independence up against her. so that is a tough situation. congressman, i want to ask you about your support for televised briefings. explain to people why is that in the public interest as opposed to off camera briefs? >> fundamentally the american people have a right to know what their elected fishes believe. me, the president, senators, governors, it is an obligation of our job to go back to the people who elected us, to tell them what they're doing and yes, to take tough questions from the press. and the reason it needs to be on camera, i'm no psychologist or anything, but psychologists will tell you when humans communicate, half or so of the

communication is actually in the nonverbal cues. am i rolling my eyes? do i have a smile on my face? do i look angry? maybe it's not a big thing. maybe transcripts get you 70% of the way there to satisfying what we need to have a robust democracy. but the reality is look, if you're not willing to subject yourself to the scrutiny of your constituents before town hall meetings, if you can't stand up and defend yourself by facts and persuasion, maybe you need to find another line of work. that's not a hit on people who won't do those things. it's essential to our system. the media, as annoying as they may be, but sometimes it's really important that the media hold people like me and the president accountable and they ask us tough questions. >> speaking of the president, ned, and this is not a tough question. it's a simple question off of the jared kushner flap.

could the president of the united states issue a security clearance for me individually? is it up to him alone? >> well, typically that's not the way it's worked. the way it's worked in the past and previous administrations is that professionals whose responsibility is based on information from law enforcement and intelligence to make an assessment on any individuals' merit and deserving of a security clearance. the politicians and senior policy makers certainly in the white house do not and should not weigh in on that process. when it comes to jared kushner, because he is a white house employee, it should be up to the office of personnel management to undertake a review to determine whether these allegations are sufficient grounds for the deprivation of his security clearances. i certainly think they are. when the comes to anyone else, the president can say i want this person on my staff, but it should be left up to the people

of opm, to the intelligence community, and law enforcement, to say yes or no, whether this person it you or anyone else gets a security clearance. i'd vouch for you. >> thank you. the rule of law prevails and hopefully mr. mueller, and your committee will get to the issue and get it resolved. i have a separate question that's come up. the need for a democratic message around the economy and growth. and obviously it's centered around whether we have an answer to the challenges of the affordable care act. as much as it's working, there are parts that aren't. what would be the number one thing you could support in terms of reform to the affordable care act to make it stronger, and two, what should be the core for

democrats going into the elections? >> first, i chair the new democrat coalition. this is a group of 61 moderate pragmatic democrats who last week put forward five or six ideas on things we think, first of all, are critical to the repair. you're right. obama care, the affordable care act for all the good it did for many people with preexisting conditions has problems. and so those suggestions which were about making sure that the individual markets stabilizes out there. that's been the core problem of the affordable care act to date. those are out there. we're just standing by and last night we took a big step in the right direction, standing by for the republicans to get over this almost religious obsession with the concept of repeal. which they have come to understand would be catastrophic despite promising it, to meet us on that ground and start working toward the repair. your larger question is really critical. it's obviously something that we got wrong in the runup to

november of the 2016 election. i would tell you if you look at the places where we lost, we lost families that are hanging on by their fingernails economically. and they worry about if they'll be able to educate their kids and retire. that was not true of their parent's generation. shame on us as democrats. we drifted away from a message which was about how they educate their kids, about how their wages can rise over time, about how they can retrain. that's a word that doesn't excite anything, but it's about where we're going to be in the next generation. making sure when the industry you've been in for 20 years goes away, you're ready for the next thing. we have to have that at the core of what we do. and by the way, not an easy task. we're competing with a message which is dishonest. it's that we're bringing tobacco coal miners. the president is not going to do that. we're going to bring that can 1950s manufacturing. that's a lie.

manufacturing today does not use a lot of human beings. we need to compete with attractive fantasies with a message that hopefully is going to be about people's economic well

hey you've gotta see this. c'mon. no. alright, see you down there. mmm, fine. okay, what do we got? okay, watch this. do the thing we talked about. what do we say? it's going to be great. watch. remember what we were just saying? go irish! see that? yes! i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. despite constant criticism from both candidate and president trump, the trump administration has recertified to congress that iran is meeting the requirements of the iran nuclear deal. it is the second time the administration has done so, which is required every 90 days, and approval was reportedly only given by the president

begrudgingly after arguing with his national security advisors. steve ratner to round out the hour here, you look at all that's going on with health care and obama care. it seems like dismantling the obama legacy might be a little harder than trump thought it was. >> i think what trump is finding, like many candidates, is that you run for election on a set of views that either may not be fully informed or may be politically popular, and then you get there, and you find out that the job is harder than you think, and the issues are harder than you think, and, in fact, a little bit like obama care, the iran deal is actually working. they are complying. there's been no evidence of cheating. i'm certainly not here to defend the iranians. it is following the playbook, and so his state department officials did what they were supposed to do, which was to recertify it and he is going to go along with it because it is the only right thing to do at this point. >> some polls showing that

americans don't really want to lose their health care. we have much more ahead on the big news on health care. after seven years of trying, majority leader mitch mcconnell has been forced to cut bait. with the president doing little to sell the plan to the country, could all of this have ended differently? and if he had tried, could he have won over democrats like joe manchin? we'll ask the senator when he joins us live in our next hour. >> there comes a time when you have to fish or cut bait, and that's where we are. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

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>> we do have to repeal obama care, and we will end up replacing it with something that is going to be outstanding. far, far better than failing obama care. we're going to get that done, and i think we're going to surprise a lot of people, but they're pushing very hard. the republican senators are great people, but they have a lot of different states. some states need this. some states need that. but we're getting it together, and it's going to happen. right, mike? >> i think. [ applause ] when it does happen, that will be a big day in america, believe me. big day in america. >> well, it didn't. that was president trump yesterday afternoon, and a few hours later the republican health care plan collapsed.

a pair of conservative senators pulled their support crushing one of the president's key campaign promises to repeal and replace obama care. now republicans are just talking about repeal. good morning, everyone. it's tuesday, july 18th. welcome to "morning joe." with us we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnacle. professor at the university of michigan school of public policy, former democratic congressman harold ford jr. >> good morning. >> former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve ratner, senior political analyst for nbc news and msnbc mark halperin, and washington bureau chief for the associated press, julie pace. before we begin the news, joe, the president, well, this is a president who said, and i'll quote his words here, you are going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost, and it's going to be so easy. that was october of 2016. joe.

>> well, you know, mark halperin has said all along the greatest risk to donald trump, the graerts risk greatest risk to the republican majority may not be the russian scandal, may not be the indiscriminate at tweegt, it may not be the questioning of checks and balances, it may not be actually throwing aside every sacred tradition in the united states government over the past 240 years. that may be the inability to get things done because donald trump's chief promise above everything else was i can make washington work. it's broken. don't worry. i'm a deal maker. this is easy. we're going to do so much, and we're going to win so much that you are going to get tired of winning. what is actually fighting is, as somebody said earlier this morning, that it's much easier to stamp your name on buildings, on stakes and on on-line

university courses than it is to actually run washington d.c. and get significant legislation passed. this was quite the failure. after he continued to promise he was going to get it done, and you'll remember, the rose garden celebration a couple of months ago. the president forgot that you have to pass it through the house and the senate. this is doubly humiliating for him this morning. >> and for everyone really because i'm not sure if this president thought that throwing a party like that perhaps would attract senators to jump on board. it's just all kind of -- kind of seems like child's play. like he thinks this is child's play, and it's clearly failing at this point. here's what we've got so far. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is pulling the plug on the republicans' current plan to

repeal and replace obama care. the news comes after senators mike lee and jerry moran both announced their opposition to the legislation last night. with a 52-seat majority, republicans could only afford to lose two votes and senators rand paul and susan collins had already said they would not support the bill for separate reasons. last night mcconnell released a statement saying, in part, "regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of obama care will not be successful, so in the coming days the senate will vote to take up the house bill with the first amendment order being what a majority of the senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then president obama. a repeal of obama care with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period. shortly before that statement came out, president trump

tweeted republicans should just repeal failing obama care now and work on a new health care plan that will start from a clean slate. dems will join in. earlier in the evening president trump held a dinner with several republican lawmakers. officials described it as a collaborative strategy session with senior members familiar with tough legislative battles. according to politico, president trump told republicans at the dinner the party would look like "dopes" if they couldn't pass the health care bill after passing a repeal bill in 2015. after senators lee and moran announced their opposition. senator john mccain, who is recovering from surgery, released a statement calling for a bipartisan solution to health care. he said, in part, "congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nation's governors so that we can produce a bill that finally provides americans with

access to quality and affordable health care. joe, this has been in the republicans' laps for a long time. they've been saying they want to do this for years, and still nothing. >> well, still nothing. one of the biggest problems, actually, for the republicans is having a president that you just can't trust. you know, chris christie made the news yesterday by talking about how the meeting with the russians probably was breaking the law. a lot of people said, well, that's revenge served up cold. actually, chris christie is a perfect example of how disloyal donald trump is. christie was the first to get out, support donald trump. he was used and then abused on the vice presidency. strung out. told he would get the position of attorney general. he didn't get that.

those in the senate are doing the exact same thing that he and steve bannon kept threatening and said you better do this or else. well, they pushed and got a house bill passed by the barest of margins in the u.s. house, and a month or two later donald trump is calling it a "mean bill." when he says republicans will look like "dopes" if they don't pass the legislation, that's what a lot of members, as you know, on capitol hill are saying this president looks like because he can't be trusted. he hasn't shown any guidance on health care reform. he has left them out there on their own. how bad of a day was it for donald trump yesterday when you have the health care legislation yanked and then he wakes up this morning to a wall street journal editorial that says that both he and his family faces certain destruction if they don't change their ways? >> well, the editorial is ominous, and obviously in the

absence of a robust lelks laiv agenda, all the controversy will get more attention. there are a lot of forward-looking questions about what happens with health care now. the backward looking questions i think revolveds around this. there's never been as big a mismatch between the size of a legislative ambition and a small amount of effort the president put in. i'm sure the president thinks he worked really hard to pass it, but you think about what is normally required. if you are neither loved nor feared by members of congress, you must energize your base, and in an overwhelming way, through repeated public events, barn storming the country, building coalitions. the president did a handful of events and gave almost no speeches, almost never tweeted about it, and the notion that he was going to do something that's very difficult to do repeal an entitlement with the level of effort he invested in this, it was a huge mismatch between expectations and effort, and it does leave him, as you said at the top, in a position where if this somehow does not get turned around, and i don't see how it does now, how does he pass anything this year? >> well, mark, you know, when he got involved, it seemed to be

negative. we heard the stories a couple of weeks ago about how they were going to run attack ads against dean heller, a pro-trump super pact. that enraged mcconnell and all of the senators. now we're hearing he is possibly looking at funding a primary challenger for jeff flake. he doesn't get involved that much. when he does, it's usually negative, and he just enrages senators who, again, are thinking what lindsey graham said, which is if you think this president has your back, you're sadly mistaken. they're not going to jump off the cliff for this guy. >> you can rewrite as an outsider governors that have shown this. you can rewrite some of the books of the capital, but you cannot repeal the laws of political physics, one of which is if you are trying to pass a bill with only republican votes and you alienate the republican party, if they don't fear you and don't love you, you're not going to pass anything. this bill didn't get close. we had two defections last night where the two who decided to go

first. in the end they were going to lose up to 15, i think, republican senators. it leaves them in a horrible position in terms of how to deal with health care, but, again, how does tax reform push off of this failure? how do you succeed in something in many ways more complicated, more targeted of lobbyists, more divisive within the party, if you couldn't do something that every republican who has run for office in the last seven years pledged to do? >> he is not playing by the rules of washington, mike barnacle. he is not playing by the laws of -- not following the laws of washington. the basic laws of how you get things passed. people can want an outsider. ronald reagan was an outsider. he brought in people who knew how to get things done. what have we been saying for years? washington always wins. it's a message we took to our friends in the obama white house in early 2009 when they thought they could do it their way. well, no. they realized that there are customs and there are ways to

get things done in washington d.c. that you can't ignore. let me read from the "wall street journal" editorial again from this morning. trump believes that his outsized personality and social media following make him larger than the presidency. he is wrong. so says the "wall street journal" who usually is supportive of mr. trump, but certainly has turned the corner in this editorial. mike, donald trump thought he could rewrite the laws of washington. washington is rolling over him right now. >> yeah, joe. and the past six months especially with regard to health care has proven to be i think a blend of incompetent and cynicism. incompenicillin in terms of the -- and cynicism on the part of mitch mcconnell who continually comes up with ways that he thinks will gather enough votes. 50, 51 votes in the senate to pass this, including some really toxic amendments. you get to the point where you wish that we in the media and the united states senators all

100 of them ought to be forced to answer the simple question, do you believe an effective and affordable health insurance for every american? yes or no? i think they ought to answer that now. >> they are answering in one way. i think it's a good question because they're basically saying, yes now. the effort then put forward by the house and now the president pushing in whatever kind of compromises they tried to reach in the senate have demonstrated that democrats and republicans, but particularly republicans care about what republican governors are believing. i think this whole act with president trump is getting tired. i mean, all of us, it's easy. we're going to have the greatest of this. we're going to have the most tremendous of that. the credibility is being strained on every level. mccain's statement, and it's been said and echoed on this panel, this many, many times before, the first thing this president should do now on health care is turn to the governors.

it would be smart for him to present it to that group. if we can't get it passed, we can work together. it was strike, elan musk came before the governors while they were there and laid out an innovative agenda and pointed to the shortcome willings and concerns around this growth in artificial intelligence, what it means. we've talked about what it means for employment, what it means for economic growth, and he talked about the regulatory envelope that needs to be put around this keep of a growth and invasion that's happening.

this bill was very far-reaching and radical. i think they just tried to get to a bridge too far, but secondly, visa vi the president, it's typical, and i saw this happen when i worked in the white house in the obama administration, when you want something done, yes, it's up to congress, but you set up a war room in the white house. you put somebody on point. you say your job is to bird dog every single member and figure out what they need and how to get this done, and work it. i watched rahm emanuel do that on obama care in 2009. these guys just sat there and said, well, you know, they'll figure it out or i'll play golf with rand paul or i'll have dinner with a few of these guys one night, and it will all work itself out, and that's not how it happens up there. >> still ahead on "morning joe" we've known for over a week that donald trump jr.'s original explanation of his meeting with the russians was not backed by fact. for some reason sean spicer is still citing it. we'll cut through the disconnect

straight ahead on "morning joe," but, first, bill karins thats ai check on the forecast. >> a little bit of everything today. we're going to have more thunderstorms. flash flooding. also the epic heat wave is about to begin. let me show you the pictures from yesterday. baltimore county and maryland. slow-moving thunderstorms produce a lot of rain in a short period of time. some areas have about three inches. that's exactly whether you don't want to do. they're lucky their cars didn't get stranded. let's get to the heat that's going to be building in the middle of the country. this is what we call a heat dome that goes from coast to coast practically. this is the peak of our summer heat. you expect heat waves like this. 13 million people under a heat watch or warning. over the next four to five days. into the numbers today. stluts, already almost in the lead. 103 with the heat index. dallas at 104. everybody else getting up into the mid 0s. then it gets worse. the peak of the heat wave should be thursday or friday. notice st. louis, 102. that's the actual temperature on friday. some of that sneaks to the east. atlanta going into the mid 90s. d.c., r9 8 degrees. when we factor in the heat index, it will feel like 106 in

the nation's capital wrrks and one of the worst spots will be st. louis thursday where it feels like 108 degrees. there is nice weather to be found. the northwest isn't too bad. we're also nice in the northeast. new york city, looking at 85 degrees. we're well on our way to that. top of the rock, new york city, sun and cloud mix. beautiful start to our summer day. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. "how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours.

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michael, in addition to being inappropriate. >> all right. chris christiey there. president trump began the week by tweeting in defense of his son for hosting that meeting of top campaign aides with a lawyer from moscow in june of 2016. as we've reported, the get-together came with the promise of official documents and information from the russian government that will would incriminate hillary clinton. that's politics. that tweet is in direct contrast with what his nominee for fbi director christopher ray said last week. >> any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state or any nonstate actor is the kind of thing the fbi would want to k w

know. >> at yesterday's off camera white house press briefing, sean spicer would not say who was right and reverted to the administration's original defense of the meeting. >> i'm not going to get into the physics of this, but i will say that it is quite often for people who are given information during the heat of a campaign to ask what that is. that's what simply he did. the president has made it clear through his tweet, and there was nothing as far as we know that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for a discussion about adoption. >> first off, we do know the meeting was not about adoption thanks to don jr.'s e-mail chain that he released. second, the magnitski act itself is not about adoption. the act signed by president obama in december of 2012 after passing the senate with 92 votes blocked a small number of russian government officials and businessmen from entering the

united states. it froze their american held assets and banned them from using u.s. banks. vladimir putin ban the adoption of russian children by american parents. what was the reaction? i can't even -- what's he talking about? >> it's pretty amazing because, as you said, we actually know that the meeting was presented to don jr. in a completely different way, number one. it was presented to him as a meeting to get damaging information about hillary clinton and, two, most importantly, it was presented to him as part of an effort by the russian government to help his father. that is there in black and white in e-mails that were released by don jr. the idea that don jr. and jared kushner and paul manafort walked into a meeting because they thought it was about russian adoptions, it doesn't hold water because of what the president's own son put out. i'm glad you made that point, though, about the adoptions. this has become a talking point

by don jr., by others who said, look, at the end of the day we just talked about adoptions. no, this was a rurkan lawyer who is pretty prominent, who has worked on issues that are favorable to the russian government, who was going there to lobby essentially to roll back sanctions. this is the magnitski act that has really been frustrating for the putin government. they want this overturned. that's what this is about when she turned to this issue and moved away from the hirlg hillary rodham clinton information that was promised. she wanted try to get support for rolling back sanctions. zplierchlt coming up, democrats have plenty to say about donald trump. the washington post gene robinson is writing about that, and he joins us next on "morning joe."

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>> joining us from washington pulitzer prize winning columnist and soeshlt editor of the washington post and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. gene, you write in your piece in the washington post that this country deserves much better than trump, and in part, you say this. we have a president, a commander in chief of the armed forces, the leader of the free world,

whose every word is suspect. we have a president whose north star is naked self interest. not the good of the country. we have a president whose he wouldest son, son-in-law, and campaign chairman met with emissaries reportedly sent by the russian government to deliver dirt on trump's opponent, hillary clinton. we have a president who has declared this to be made in america week despite the fact that so many of the retail products that bear his name or that of his daughter, ivanka, are made in mexico, china, indonesia, and bangladesh. the democratic party needs a plan, a message and a sense of urgency. trump hopes to bully critics into submission, but the country is bigger than this one president and much better. it is getting to the point, gene, just listening to talk about the farmers that lost their -- it is getting to the

point where every word is suspect and every tweet as well. lyndon johnson lied about vietnam. richard nixon lied about watergate. bill clinton lied about monica lewinsky. you know, that's situational lie. we've never had anything like this where, you know, if donald trump says the sky is blue, you really have to step outside and check because you can't take it and take anything at face value. today's column was basically just kind of a step back and just look at where we are. look at what we got. if, you know, right thinking americans and patriotic americans want to do something about this presidency that is

doing no good for the country, they're going to have to work and organize and show their feelings in 2018. you know, what happened last night, i think the first line in my column refers to gross incompeten incompetence, and look how incompetently he orchestrated this attempt to repeal and replace obama care. ate predictable result. >> now, gene, you know, your column brings up a good point about the democrats needing to have an alternative message. >> yeah. yes. >> you can organize all the marches you want to organize. you can hold all the rallies you want to have. that's not going to move voters. the democrats need to unify and have a strong, powerful message about how they're going to get

america back to work. even though we have democrats come on the show, they say, hey, we have a new message about how to get americans back to work. i haven't heard anything. i haven't heard anything that's going to unite voters together and make independents and sh moderate republicans go, hey, wait a second. i think i want to follow the democratic party. where is that leadership coming from? how will democrats be able to take over congress if they still haven't really found their own north star? >> you know, i haven't heard it yet, joe. i hope we do start hearing it. i have a feeling that i'll be writing about this very question in the future because there has to be a message. there has to be a reason for people to rally to the democratic side, and it can't be just that, you know, donald trump is awful. i mean, you can say that until you are blue in the face, but

that doesn't i think get you over the hump. you need a positive message. it has to be simple, and it has to be brief, and it has to connect with people. and frankly, we have not heard that yet from the democratic party. >> coming up on "morning joe" member of the intel committee senator joe manchin is standing by. the west virginia democrat weighs in on the russia investigation and the failed republican effort to repeal and replace obama care. morning joe is coming right back.

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>> let's look at health care. you know what president, no speech about the bill. he has not done that. how about doing a rally in west virginia snl that might put a little pressure on -- he has not done the things that you do to get a bill passed. >> a president usually gets a list of people in his party whose districts he needs to visit and sell on a particular key matter. that's not happening.

>> always be closing. always be closing. >> but the white house and specifically the president couldn't close the deal, and late last night senate majority leader mitch mcconnell announced that the party is now focused on the repeal part of their repeal and replace promise. this morning it is president is tweeting. he says we were let down by all of the democrats, and a few republicans. most republicans were loyal. terrific. and worked really hard. we will return. and he said as i have always said, let obama care fail, and then come together and do a great health care plan.

stay tuned. joining us now from capitol hill, democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia. mike barnacle, mark halperin are still with joe and me as well, joe scarborough of -- what's going on? >> well, you know, you just look at that tweet this morning, and it shows how little the president of the united states understands washington, understands congress and understands how democracy worked. for the president to say somebody is being disloyal because they can't support a bill that would ravage people in their own state is just complete ignorance of the process. just because somebody from maine has different concerns from somebody from alabama doesn't mean the person from alabama is more loyal to the cause. i guess in this case, joe manchin, donald trump is just

talking about loyalty to himself, and that's where he misses it again. what happens to the good people of west virginia if they decide to repeal the affordable care act and have nothing to replace it with? >> that would be zas russ. every demographic gets hit from the old to the young to the poor to the people with preexisting conditions, opiate addiction. it goes on and on. hospitals start tumbling. community health cares are in serious financial troubles whether they stay open or not. the only thing i would like to say to president trump is that in west virginia he won overwhelmingly, and that was not republicans. that was independents. that were people that were upset with the system thinking the previous administration left them behind.

maybe it's time to get us former governors who have had to work across aisles to come together. there's 11 of us. about evenly split between democrats and republicans. we can sit down. we understand the challenges of compromise. we understand the challenges of the states are having, joe. i think we could find a pathway forward if there is one. >> what did the president do to help his case to pass a health care bill? >> what he did he do? >> the president is an ultimate salesman. you keep saying, well, how he says this and then he doesn't realize that that didn't work. well, a good salesperson never thinks they lose a sale. they think people make bad decisions, but they still have the best product, and they always have confidence they're going to make that sale sooner or later. that's -- you think sometimes i

didn't represent my product the way it should have been. i go back to show you the value for the better product i have. that hasn't been done. just saying he is going to give up, i don't think so. i think they're still going down this path. i would encourage all of my colleagues, democrats and republicans, let's come together sooner or later. we've got to work together. we were sent here as a member of a united states senate rrk the greatest body in the world to work through these problems, but if you don't even bring us into the conversation, not into the foray, we're not going to be able to help you solve it. >> okay. senator, one of the colleagues, john mccain, beloved by many people, is ill. he is in the hospital. the vote was delayed because of his hospitalization. another one of your colleagues on the house side, congressman steve scalise specifically because he was a republican is

suffering now from a series of operations because of infections, which are critically and perhaps sometimes really lethally dangerous in terms of gunshot victims. everyone hopes that both these men succeed, gain great health, and prosper. you know what people are thinking. you are on the ground more than most united states senators. you do think most of the people in west virginia would go for a health insurance policy similar to the one that senator mccain and congressman scalise have? why not put that together? >> well, we have. i think we're going to have a bill coming up. if you are any place in america and the exchanges aren't working, you can't get on the exchange, you should be able to get the same thing that we're on.

anyone should be able to get on the exchange that i have, that senator mccain has and congressman scalise. again, mike, you're correct. all of our prayers go out for these two great guys. they're really good people. we enjoy working with them. i wish them a speedy recovery, but it also, mike, speaks to the -- if everything hinges on just the one vote, doesn't it say that maybe you have problems with what you are presenting if it all depends on whether this person is here and can catch cast that vote or not? i would say that it kind of speaks volumes to don't you think everything that we should set together just come to me. i speak to susan collins quite frequently. i'm willing to work with all my colleagues. i think they all know that. very moderate conservative democrats, and they're pretty grounded, and they want something done. they don't want it taken away. they don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water,

mike, and that's exactly what would happen. if you think you can convince them to go ahead and repeal now and you are going to come back and fix it in two years, we just went through an exercise in excruciating exercise. they couldn't even get to 50 votes that were needed. how are we going to come reconciliation. it will take 60 votes to repair anything. >> tell us about the good people of west virginia. you obviously rent 24e78 in the senate. you represented them as a governor. they obviously, i would guess, a majority of west virginians still support donald trump. what do you hear from them when you go home? why does -- do you think a majority of your own state -- why do you think they still support donald trump, and what are they telling you with that support? >> well, joe, let's just take yesterday. the made in america revisiting the free trade nafta trade

agreement. west virginiaans believe that it really harmed our state. we lost our steel making, our foundries for aluminum. we lost our glass making, pottery. we lost all the heavy lifting, the chemicals. they believe that the overreach from previous administrations have harmed them and lost them their jobs. they believe in the restructuring, if you will, or right-sizing back to more competitive situation to where we can compete and we still need to make things. if nothing more than just a national security, but the good jobs that came with it. that's what west virginia lost and got left behind. then the social issues. they know right from wrong. these are the best people in the world. the hardest working people. the west virginia people will give anything they have. they'll help anybody that's down and out. they expect basically government to be their partner. doesn't have to be their provider. just be my good partner. that's what we're looking for, and they don't think the government was their good partner before. they turn to someone who is unconventional, totally

different than anything they've ever seen, and said why not try? the other hasn't worked for us. now, health care, you can't talk about i'm going to help you, i'm on your side. for the first time you've gotten health care. well, if you have any empathy or sympathy for me, i never had health care. i've been using the emergency room. can't you at least work with me and educate me and help me at how i can use it to live a better quality life and be more cost effective for the government and people that are giving me this opportunity? that's what i would like to see done. that's what i'm willing to sit down and work on, joe, but west virginiaans really felt like they were left behind. >> all right. senator joe manchin, thank you very much for being on the show. >> thanks. nice to be here. >> thanks, joe. >> dom, what are the stories you're looking at this morning? >> well, we have netflix stock that's going to open at a record high today. that's after the on-line streaming company said it added 5.2 million new subscribers last quarter, which totally blew away

all wall street expectations. now, chaets interesting about the mix of new subscribers is that it was mostly, vastly from international markets. now, that's been the case for a while, but growth outside the u.s. is now the driving force behind net flex subscriber editions, original content a big part of that story. competition is getting even fiercer with the likes of, of course, amazon and, of course, even apple in original content these days. also, general motors is taking another step towards self-driving cars. the auto giant's autonomous unit cruise will launch an app that will let them hail rides from a self-driving car. that's what cruise's chief told attendees of the brainstorm conference in aspen. for now that limited just san francisco and cars are going to have human backup drivers. gm, like many other carmakers, getting more and more into that self-driving car technology. they have a stake in lyt as well. peeking of technology, guys, if you have kids, and those kids have toys connected to the internet, the fbi has a big warning for you. beware of the privacy and safety

risks. the federal government's top law enforcement arm issued an advisory on its website. it cautioned parents that these kinds of toys with cameras, microphones, ps, and data storage could disclose personal info. all of us connected devices, voice interaction, home assistance. all people have to be a little bit more vigilant about these kinds of things. back to you. >> wow. all right. cnbc's dominik chu, thank you very much. up next, we unveil a new segment we're calling things president trump doesn't like. we'll explain that when "morning joe" comes right back. d 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.

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liberty mutual insurance. right now, i don't like critics. i don't like using the h-word, the place that's down there. i don't like assad at all. i don't like people leaving a speech early, crying. i don't like when i see people burning our flag. i don't like the way that looks. look, i don't like tweeting. i don't like talking about how i feel about people. i don't lick the or with adjustment. oi don't like that. you don't like that. i don't like losing. i don't like pinocchios. >> pinocchios added to the list of things president trump doesn't like. the last one came yesterday after he again claimed he signed more bills than any other

president. take a look. >> what we've done over a short period of time and what we're going to be doing over the next six months will be incredible. we've signed more bills and i'm talking about through the legislature, than any president ever. for a while harry truman had us, and now i think we have everybody, mike. i better say "think," otherwise they'll give me a pinocchio. i don't like pinocchios. >> he may not like pinocchios but according to "the new york times," trump's pace is behind the last six presidents who on average signed 43 bills in their first six months in office. in fact, both roosevelt and truman signed more bills within their first 100 days than trump did in nearly twice that time. they also note that nearly half the bills trump has signed into law are ceremonial or routine, such as renaming a federal courthouse. typically, those kinds of bills

are not included when tallying legislative achievements, of which he has had let's see if we can get that number for you -- joining us now, "the washington post" white house bureau chief phillip ricker and reporter for "the new york times,"i "the new york times," yaneesh. where to we go legislatively from here after the fail for the health care bill? >> where we do go from here is another big fight, the house budget committee just unveiled a blueprint and republicans are now going to have to deal with how they're going to pass this bill and also some of the same problems that happened with health care, how do you appease conservatives who are concerned about spending too much money and how do you deal with moderates concerned about the cuts to social safety net issues. in terms of legislative achievements, it's hard to say what he's done because a lot of the things he's touting as successes are not things that

are going to change the lives of people that put him in office. i mean changing health care, changing jobs, making something big. i think obviously he pulled out of the paris accord but that won't happen down the line, so maybe they can help us out and say what this white house is saying about specifically what they've done legislatively. >> phillip rucker, let's talk about where we're going in the future. obviously, mitch mcconnell is now saying we're just going to do a straight-out vote to repeal obamacare. that may be just as difficult as what they've been trying to do over the past six mos. what are you hearing from the white house? what are you hearing on the hill? what is the next step to kick-start this agenda? >> yeah, well, i think that's going to be difficult. it seems like mcconnell wants to call that vote to really pressure these senators to basically come forward and say whether they want the full repeal or not. the white house aides i talked to say, look, you know, there are enough votes if you look at all the republican senators who have voted in the past for a repeal bill, but it had never

been sort of something that they knew would become law. it's a different dynamic here. generally speaking the president was blind-sided by this news last night. just yesterday he was touting this big health care bill would be passed. he even turned around and looked at vice president peps at that event for some reassurance and of course a few hours later the whole thing was killed. back to his legislative achievements, there's one the white house would point to and i think it's fair and it's the supreme court confirmation of justice neil gorsuch in the senate. they consider that a legislative achievement from the first 100 days. >> yamiche, what do you think mitch mcconnell thinks of the current state of affairs? is he unhappy? does he care that health care doesn't appear to be moving forward? >> i think he's very unhappy. i think that he is very unhappy mainly because the president is now looking that the as loyalty and looking that the in terms of who can he trust in the senate. the white house is already

looking at people m, senator jeff blake. the idea is the white house is trying to use a stick rather than a carrot to force senators to do things and i think mitch mcconnell is now put in a place he's having to be in the middle of senators who are wary of president trump, who really don't trust him and don't think he has much political capital to force them to do anything and a president who now is very frustrated and is looking at people thinking they're the reason why he's not going to have this big legislative achievement. then of course mitch mcconnell is looking down the line and thinking how are they going to pass tax reform if they are already having problems with health care? he's looking down the line and realizing that he's going to have to try to get a lot of stuff done and he has -- there's little trust there to get people to work together in a way that's meaningful. >> this might seem like an odd question to you, but it's occurred to me several times recently because of the lack of press briefings, no press briefings. do we really know what the president of the united states does all day every day? >> that's a great question and the answer is no.

you know, last week there were three straight days where he really had nothing on his public schedule save for a meeting here or there. he did not appear in public. this was before he left for paris. and it was unclear to me frankly how many hours of that day he was actually spending in the oval office conducting work. you know, he had just returned from germany. he might have been exhausted and getting some sleep or something like that, but the answer is no. we just don't have a complete picture of how he occupies his time. >> all alcindor. thank you both. >> thank you. >> joe, final thoughts today. >> i want to go back to something that phillip said and earlier something that josh green said. you know, inside washington, in new york, we're looking at health care reform, we're looking at russia, we're looking at all of these other issues. but phillip rucker just underlined something that matters to the conservative base more than anything else.

that is the supreme court. and they will look at the first six months and say we've got a conservative supreme court justice. check. we'll take that over everything else that you can give us. and then the steve bannon populist wing of the party, they're looking at immigration and illegal immigration and what's donald trump doing to stem the flow of illegal immigration. and they're hearing stories that he actually is in some ways really stemming that tide. so you take those two achievements in and of themselves, they look at that and they think not a bad start, while the rest of us look at this presidency and wonder how it can get much worse. >> yeah. all right. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks, mika and joe. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle. joom testimony deal is dead. two more senators jump