velshi, on snapchat. i'll hand it over to "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace which starts right now. hi, everyone. it's 4:00 and it's a big day on both ends of pennsylvania avenue today. john mccain is back in the senate, one week after sharing his cancer diagnosis with the world. galvanizing his colleagues on both sides of the aisle with a stark reminder of the constitutional mandate that binds them. >> let's trust each other. let's return to regular order. we've been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle. that's an approach that's been employed by both sides, mandating legislation from the top down, without any support from the other side, with all the parliamentary maneuvers that requires. we are getting nothing done, my friends, we are getting nothing done. this place is important.

the work we do is important. our strength rules and seemingly eccentric practices that slow our proceedings and insist on our cooperation are important. our founders envisioned the senate as the more deliberative, careful body that operates at a great distance than the other body from the public passions of the hour. we are an important check on the powers of the executive. our consent is necessary. for the president to appoint jurists and powerful government officials and in many respects to conduct foreign policy. whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the president's subordinates. we are his equal. >> that extraordinary speech written about i the president's long-time friend mark salter. also making an appearance on the hill, jared kushner, who took two hours of questions from members of the house intel committee and trump's former campaign manager paul manafort took questions from the staff on

the june 16 meeting arranged by don junior to get dirt on hillary clinton. president trump making plenty of headlines of his own this hour. largely over his ongoing duel with jeff sessions over his recusal from the russia investigation. here was the president on sessions a few moments ago. >> i am disappointed in the attorney general. he should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office. if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me prior to taking office and i would have picked somebody else. i think it's a bad thing not for the president but for the presidency. i think it's unfair to the presidency. and that's the way i feel. >> why should he remain as the attorney general? >> i want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before, at

a very important level. these are intelligence agencies. we cannot have that happen. you know many of my views in addition to that. i think that's one of the very important things they have to get on it. i told you before i am very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. time will tell, time will tell. >> the comments come on the heels of an early-morning tweet storm. quote, attorney general jeff sessions has taken a very weak position on hillary clinton crimes. where are e-mails and dnc server and intel leakers. let's get to our reporters. nbc chief white house correspondent, hallie jackson. kasie hunt on capitol hill and phillip rutger and jonathan lamere, white house reporter with the "associated press." hallie, what we just witnessed in the rose garden is not surprising on the heels of the sharp barbs aimed at jeff sessions.

but it's always startling to hear a sitting president attack a sitting member of his own cabinet. >> here is the thing. if jeff sessions was as one reporter put it in her question, twisting in the wind before this news conference, he is still there. the president did nothing to put to rest any of the questions about his confidence in the attorney general or his confidence in jeff sessions abilities. you played the crucial sound bite. time will tell. how long? how much time? is the president going to fire him? or is he putting pressure on sessions to resign. he clearly is doing the latter, it seems. the underlining point is why the president is doing this. you mentioned the tweets that he believes jeff sessions is weak, especially when it comes to looking into his former political rivals' dealings. that said, this is not something that the president is winning over a lot of support with. his conservative base, if you look at conservative media, is not down with president trump's attacks on jeff sessions, not right now. that's clearly made no difference for the president's calculus. because what you heard in the rose garden a few minutes ago

was him coming out and making explicit what he told the "new york times" last week. if i had known jeff sessions would recuse himself i wouldn't have put him in the position in the first place. it's not necessarily surprising given it was much of what we heard from donald trump in the newspapers, in the "wall street journal" and on twitter. it is surprising in that the sitting president is going after his own justice department and then not taking action to put any teeth behind it, nicolle. >> phillip rutger. i think it's more banging on a pinata than twisting in the wind. your paper last night. replacing sessions is seen by some trump socs as being part of a strategy to fire special counsel robert mueller. all quotes lead back to his unyou hu

unbridled rage over the russia investigation. firing the attorney general who is recused doesn't have the direct effect of removing mueller at all, does it? >> no. but he could fire jeff sessions and replace him with a new attorney general who would then not be recused from russia who could oversee the russia investigation? >> like who? i don't know who. there are a lot of people he's thinking about. but i don't know if the president has a plan "b" at this point. he has had the simmering rage that we've reported on for months now about the russia case which he views as a hoax. he views it as a witch hunt. he has made that plain. he is letting jeff sessions hang out there. there is no indication that sessions is prepared to resign or willing to resign. i think if trump doesn't want him as attorney general he wants trump to step forward and actually fire him. >> jonathan lemmere, you have a piece saying his fury has been fanned by several close confidants, including his son.

he set up a meeting with the russians to get dirt on hillary. how is that jeff sessions fault? >> it's not. but it's part of the bigger picture. for months the president has raged against the russia investigation believing it deje l -- delegitimizes his election. what he said publicly against the attorney general actually pales in comparison to what he's said privately. he has been musing about firing the attorney general. going farther than he did in the rose garden today. there are steps they could take to replace him. initially firing him would leave him with rod rosenstein, another person the president is very angry with. >> he fires sessions. presumably he fires rosenstein who is the only one with any authority over the investigation. then what happens? >> he has options. if he doesn't like those

choices, there is, by law, he could present a candidate who has already been confirmed by the senate. those are few and far between at this point. >> in a recess, appointment of an attorney general that's going to oversee an investigation into russia is political suicide. i can't believe they're even contemplating that. kasie hunt, from despair to inspiration. john mccain one of his most memorable speeches, written by my former colleague mark salter. talk about what he was doing other than what it was obvious he was doing casting the vote on health care? seems to me that he was painting a stark contrast to what's happening at the other end of pennsylvania avenue. >> i think he was giving voice to the frustration that has been simmering just beneath the surface here for the last six months of the trump administration. i think this is a situation where he is trying to be the

person that is taking the stand. obviously we don't know where his health issues will take him over the next few weeks, but this felt very much like he wanted to make sure that he seized the moment that he had in making this return. and there were several moments in the speech where he punctuated his thoughts with, you know, pretty strong words. he said in the context of the health care bill itself, i will not vote for this bill, being very emphatic. as it stands, being very emphatic in that. he also took the media to task and said that essentially what's going on on the incompetence of washington right now is giving cable news and pundits a lot of room to essentially criticize and that, you know, this is not an atmosphere that he feels is productive. so look, i think that this was

clearly a speech that was designed to go beyond just what we are talking about today. and i will say, you know, mccain has not been really praised this bill at all, this health care bill. he said he wants to make changes to it. there are, however, other things he really wants to do. he wants to work on the defense bill, for example. he said -- and i think perhaps the most important and overarching piece of the message that he had on the floor today was we are equals to the president, he said. calling his service in the senate the most important job that he has held in his life. and that's saying quite a bit considering where he has been. but i think he was expressing a sentiment, look, we try to talk about it every day almost on this show, and i think he was trying to get at what i am constantly trying to describe as the difference between how people here feel about the trump administration, they may be all members officially of the same party, but there are some pretty sharp differences. i think john mccain put some

underlines under that today. >> hallie, i want to bring you back into the conversation because you raised conservative media. kasie gave a great summary of what john mccain set out to do. he also called out talk radio. i want to do something i have never done before on this show and play rush limbaugh on jeff sessions. it seems like the president is playing with fire. it's a consequential agenda but jeff sessions is the one guy viewed by right-wing media as delivering on all the trump promises. let's listen. >> it's also kind of a little bit discomforting, unseemly for trump to go after such a loyal supporter this way. especially when sessions made it obvious he is not going to resign. he made it clear that he's not going to resign. after trump gave him the invitation to quit, sessions doubled down on how much he loves the job, how much he's going to continue to love the job, how he's going to keep

performing the job while appropriate. so trump is going to have to, i think, dismiss him. >> so hallie, in the normal white house there is someone whose job it is -- i always thought it to be steve bannon's job, to protect the president's promises to his voters. that person, if he had any strength, would be the one preventing him from firing jeff sessions who is actually delivering from the base. i understand there is no functioning chain of command on the white house staff. but whose responsibility should it be to get the president to stop bullying jeff sessions from his bully pulpit? >> typically, nicolle, you would know this too. wouldn't it be the chief of staff? in this administration that's not what we've seen. it's not just the viewers of your show who are listening to rush limbaugh and to conservative media right now. it's also attorney general jeff sessions. those close to him based on our reporting tells us the a.g. is taking note of what conservative members are saying and sees that

members of the president's conservative base are rallying to his side. so there is no incentive to go anywhere. why resign when you know the president's base is on your side. jeff sessions feels hurt, frankly, according to people we've talked to. he feels disappointed. it doesn't mean that he's going to be throwing in the towel anytime soon. you talk about -- you might hear the noise of the chopper behind me, nicolle. it looks like it's marine one landing on the south lawn to take the president away to a campaign-style rally in ohio in a few minutes. i am told that an old hand, corey lewandowski, will join the president on the trip. his former campaign manager. when you look at who inside the west wing is telling the president to stop, what you keep hearing is nobody tells the president to do anything. he dyswhoes what he wants to do. in this case, that's talk with jeff sessions. >> let me ask you about the sessions question. seems like jeff sessions has a lot of support on capitol hill. >> that's correct. >> can't believe it would be the

first, but this might be a tipping point. if people have to choose between their long-time colleague jeff sessions, who was sort of keeping the faith with the trump base, and donald trump, who is obviously going rogue based on hallie's reporting and others, it might be an occasion where they side with the trump base and jeff sessions over the president. >> that's a great point. i talked to sources today about this who said sessions has been in touch with a number of his friends and former colleagues in the senate who gave him encouragement and say they're standing behind him and supporting him. and sessions said to them he has no plans to resign. which is what he's said publicly. hallie's point about the media is important. if you look at breitbart news, very prominent in trump-space. used to be run by steve bannon, now the white house chief strategist. they've started siding with sessions. the main headlines today on their website have been

anti-trump. >> thank you for spending time with us on this very busy day. matt miller. former chief spokesman and now an nbc analyst. what is jeff sessions to do? now that he has been publicly undermined by the president. if he survives it seems like he is a super virus. like he's almost immune from further attacks. >> there is an opportunity for jeff sessions here. whether you agree with his policies or not, and i disagree with most of them -- one thing he preached as a member of the senate judiciary committee for years is that senior justice department officials needed to be independent from the president. honestly he kind of failed that test for himself when he signed off on the comey firing. now, with the pressure trump is putting on him, he could come out, make a public statement and say, mr. president, i am sorry you're disappointed in me. but i swore an oath to the constitution. i promised to uphold the rule of law. doj rules required me to recuse

myself. that's why i did it. furthermore, doj decides alone free from political interference who we investigate, prosecute and who we don't investigate. as long as i'm attorney general, that's the precedent that we'll follow. if he did that, the president would continue to be mad at him, i am sure, but his anger doesn't seem to be going away otherwise. he would have stood up for what's right and won support among the law enforcement community and make him, i think, somewhat bulletproof. >> he also took a stand not for some obscure political opponent of the president, but he was trying to following the law, which is what, again, in normal times you want from an attorney general even when the decision, you know, maybe annoys you in private. it's remarkable to see this play out in public. what would the consequences be of him following through on his sort of menacing threats to fire the attorney general? >> well, i think you would see great concern at doj. you would see an obvious -- you know, it would send a chill through the department when you have a president who -- it's the

reason why he is firing him. the fact he wanted sessions to ignore the rules. look, the only reason he can care about this recusal is because he obviously wanted sessions to inappropriately influence, maybe even quash the russia investigation. i think you would see a great chill. then the bigger question is, what would happen afterwards. what would the next a.g. nominee look like and would that person try to fire bob mueller. that's when it would get they damaging potentially. >> stay with us. when we come back it's subpoena time for paul manafort. the senate judiciary committee issuing its first subpoena for the president's former campaign chairman. also, the first message debacle. letting it rip on his former opponent and his glorious electoral victory in front of tens of thousands of boy scouts. caught on a hot mike. two respected u.s. senators and a democrat and republican say what many people fear. you won't want to miss this, believe me.

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we want manafort to come like we want trump junior to come and other people that we're going to call in. if he feels he can come and he's willing to negotiate in good faith, there are other accommodations that can be made for it. >> you're subpoenaing paul manafort to appear tomorrow? >> we have done that, yes. >> that's iowa nice for the senate judiciary committee is not letting paul manafort off easy. they're compelling the former

trump campaign manager to testify before their committee as part of the trump russia investigation. manafort fielded questions from senate intel committee staffers about the meeting last year. let's bring in the rest of our panel, joining jonathan at the table former democratic congressman, now with the university of michigan's ford school of public policy. harold ford, jr. former rnc political director and former senior adviser to chris christie, mike duhame and reporter shelby holliday. i want to get you on the record on the new developments. it seems like the investigation has had whatever summer break it's taking and is now full steam ahead. the judiciary committees, intel committees in the house and senate getting a lot of work done this week. >> their focus, it seems mueller's focused. if barack obama had tweeted that he had said to loretta lynch, i am disappointed that you

abdicated your decision-making to james comey. you should act differently. it's likely many would have called for some sort of impeachment proceedings against him or called for her to resign. two, this president is a coward. he doesn't want jeff sessions to resign. he wants bob mueller. sessions is a way to get to him. to go on and on about sessions. if you don't want him, just fire him. sessions, i think, should resign for a whole range of reasons. this president has made clear, this is about russia for him. he threw in the leak stuff about, i want to find out where the leaks are coming from. he could appoint a czar in the white house to figure that out. for him this is about russia. i would respect him more if he weren't such a coward. if you don't want him, let him go. the president may be justified

in believing mueller has maybe moved outside the scope of the investigation by asking for business records of his. if he does, he should take steps and deal with the ramifications of it as opposed to taking on the attorney general as he is and lacking the backbone to fire him. >> i thought the way you do a few days ago. this is a disgrace. sessions should walk away. now you see democrats coming out and defending him. he may be all that stands between us and trump having someone he thinks can run rough shod over mueller. >> our system is big enough to withstand this. if sessions is removed or leaves or whatever the case, the congress can renew the independent counsel act. appoint an independent counsel or take steps to initiate impeachment if they want. it's a political decision on the part of congress. as much as the senators are rumbling about we hant manafort.

this is a president who openly said the attorney general of the united states should not have recused himself. he did exactly the right thing. trump didn't make the statements before. this has all come about because i think this is my speculation, it's gotten closer and some others as well -- it's gotten closer to home for him. >> literally. >> if he feels this thing has gotten out of control, then have the intestinal fortitude to fire mueller and sessions and say, we're going to start over, american people, i don't think they're doing the right thing. they're looking at the wrong thing. >> you're absolutely right. this is getting closer. sessions recused himself months ago. why is it now a huge problem for the president. you do have the risk of angering a lot of senators and congressman who are close to senate sessions. that wouldn't be good for the president. >> he has done that already. >> he made it very clear this is about russia. if you fire your a.g., does it raise more obstruction of

justice inferences. >> he has his former campaign chairman, his son-in-law. harold has hit on the nerve here. this is at home. this is in his home. his son-in-law is on capitol hill for the second day in a row answering questions. hours and hours of questions. whether he does a great or terrible job, at the end of the day he is answering questions from committees questioning ties to russia. >> it's all consuming for people involved in an investigation like this. even people who did nothing wrong. it becomes all consuming, scary, financial crippling. reputation damaging. it's all consuming to him. i think the president was enraged on day one when sessions recused himself. he didn't see it coming. i don't think sessions is beloved in the senate. he was never beloved. >> let me bring in -- add to the conversation nbc news intelligence and national

security reporter. you said jared kushner did a great job fielding questions. he had plenty of time to prep for it. on a substance level, where does the subpoena for paul manafort come from? what do they think manafort knows? what information do they think he's sitting on that they want to compel him to speak before the judiciary committee? >> i think manafort found himself in a turf battle. the other witnesses were able to make a deal with the judiciary committee. he said he just wanted to talk to the intelligence committee. senator grassley is offended by that and now we have a subpoena. i wouldn't be shocked if they didn't reach a deal. it's hard to imagine paul manafort wants the spectacle of having to go to the hill and plead the fifth amendment. it's hard to imagine his lawyers want him to testify in public. i think today was a pretty good day for donald trump on the

substance of this investigation, which makes his other behavior all the more inexplicable. as you said, i did speak to somebody who is in the room for that jared kushner under-oath interview in the house intelligence committee, and this person said jared did very well, he acted like a person with nothing to hide. he flatly denied under oath any collusion, including over the digital campaign stuff, the cambridge stuff that's gotten some attention. it's hard to imagine an experienced white-collar criminal lawyer allowing his client to go up on the tihill a testify under oath if he thought there was danger there. if it looks like a good day for jared kushner, why is the president lighting a bonfire with jeff sessions. it does raise questions about where else they're going with this investigation. are they looking at donald trump's personal business practices. are there things he is very worried about that is leading him in the direction of attempting to fire the attorney

general. >> matt miller, i heard jared kushner described as someone who has ice in his veins, it's not surprising he didn't wither under intense questioning. but square that assessment with the fact that donald trump is jumping up and down like a man with his house on fire over the possibility that bob mueller may look at -- may try to follow the money, which is frankly, where all investigations go. >> i think that's the thing he is upset about. there is one other thing. don't lose sight of the fact that when donald trump first started leveling these attacks against jeff sessions it was the day after it was reported that bob mueller was looking at the meeting his son don junior held. as the investigation gets close to his family and close to his personal finances which he has said is a red line that might lead him to trying to remove mueller, i think that's where we'll see him lash out. every step of the investigation so far, going back months, every time a new step -- every time there has been a new step in the

investigation, whether it be sally yates hearing which led to the firing of james comey or the new steps of leading him to lash out against the special counsel bob mueller. trump always reacts. he is hostile to this investigation. he seems worried about it. and i just think we don't know the answer yet. is he worried because he thinks it's unfair, that is drags his name through the mud or is there an underlying problem with either him or his children. that's what investigators have to get to the bottom up. >> thank you. up next, stunning comments from two u.s. senators that appear to be about the president. was their private moment something others are whispering about too. this as the president scorches more political norms. >> by the way, just a question. did president obama ever come to a jamboree? and we'll be back. we'll be back. the answer is no, and -- but we'll be back.

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this is a long time ago. sold his company for a tremendous amount of money. and he went out and bought a big yacht. and he had a very interesting life. i won't go any more than that because you're boy scouts, so i'm not going to tell you what he did. should i tell you? should i tell you? oh, you're boy scouts, but you know life, you know life. in the end, he failed, and he failed badly. lost all of his money. he went personally bankrupt. and he was now much older. and i saw him at a cocktail party. and it was very sad because the hottest people in new york were at this party. >> hottest people in new york. yep! that was the president of the united states to the boy scouts of america. here are my questions for the

white house staff and cabinet members who stood behind him while the president broke with 80 years of tradition by delivering the worst version of a campaign rally speech. this was a victory lap from a sore, bitter winner of an election that was had almost nine months ago. speaking to young boys who are being taught the boy scout values which include the duty to self, a call to be, quote, morally straight, live your life with honesty, to be clean in speech and actions and to be a person of strong character. donald trump clearly not a boy scout, mike duhaime. >> how come i get this stuff and not the attorney general stuff? >> you didn't want to work for him. not a boy scout. >> these are things that make a lot of people uncomfortable and make it very difficult for the people inside trying to impact public policy to get things done. it sucks all the energy out of the room. if you're trying to get the health care bill passed. tax reform done, this dominates the news, you can't get anything done. the people who work for him want to help the country and move things in the right direction.

this undermines that. in terms of being a big distraction. >> let me play for you, in case anyone forgot what happened in the election. >> do you remember that famous night on television when they said there is no way to victory, there is no way to 270. i went to maine four times because it's one vote, and we won. but -- we won. one vote. i went there because i kept hearing we're at 269. but then wisconsin came in. many, many years. michigan came in. so -- we worked hard there. you know. my opponent didn't work hard there. >> jonathan, he is a man -- trapped in a moment. >> i think the president -- >> is that a song? what's wrong with him? >> i think the president would get the boy scout merit badge for telling the same story over

and over again. >> there is no badge for that. these are children. >> this is the story he tells everywhere. >> heidi prezbra, help me. how do we normalize this guy by moving past this. these are children. there was a speech in the teleprompter. he is off the rails like he hasn't been in a long time. >> waiting for someone to say, nicolle, he has never been an eagle scout, so how could he know to behave differently. i think what you said at the beginning is right. he sees no difference. every stage to him is a campaign stage. there are no norms is the answer. there are no traditions or even any pretense that he is a president in a traditional sense who represents all americans. there are certain stages where you are supposed to be non-partisan. you are supposed to be the leader of the free world, the president, and represent all americans. in this case i think actually one of the worst things that

happened there was egging on little boy scouts to boo hillary clinton. yes, she is your vafrnquished challenger from the election. she also has her place in history as the first female to lead a major political party and here they were booing her. i think max boot moved an opinion editorial on "usa today" that said this is one of the teachable moments for the country to learn that he is actually unteachable. >> heidi przybyla, msnbc contributor and senior politics reporter at "usa today" doing her work for "usa today." finish your point, jonathan. >> everything from this president is about the election. that's part of the reason why the russia stuff infuriates him and why he thinks about it all the time. he feels like it cheapens that win. he'll i'm sure deliver a similar speech tonight in ohio in front of the rally crowd. >> he had this rally planned. why didn't he save it for that. we heard him say what many think

are inappropriate comments before service men the other night. anything is a campaign stage. but how many lost moments has he had not promoting his agenda, not talking about health care reform. tax reform. >> no attempt to reach across the aisle. >> he is standing in the rose garden, looked like, the senate just passed the health care bill, or at least the procedural vote -- >> he mentioned it at the top. >> why don't you talk about that the entire time. if you want to harangue someone, harangue republican senators to stand with you to deliver on the pledge they've made for seven or eight years. the remainder of today and perhaps tomorrow since i doubt he'll stop it, is going to be what he said about sessions, whether sessions is fired, what this means about mueller and this investigation. not health care, not taxes. it's really a phenomenal thing. i feel -- anthony scaramucci is a friend. maybe this is what they want. i can't imagine this is the

plan. >> he has a very important job at the white house. i hope he is successful for the country's sake because a lot of people are worried. >> likewise. >> watch the hot mike moment from two very respected u.s. senators. >> i think he's crazy. >> i'm worried. >> i mean, i don't say that lightly, and as kind of a goofy guy. >> you know -- >> he can't -- >> this thing, he -- if we don't get a budget deal -- >> i know. >> -- we're going to be paralyzed. >> dod. >> i know. >> paralyzed. >> i don't even think he knows that there is a bca or anything. >> no. >> that was senators susan collins and senator reid caught on a hot mike. senator reed says i think he's crazy. senator collins said, i'm worried. they both put out statements. senate collins saying she is worried about the budget and

senator reed saying he was letting senate collins know he is in her corner. he said publicly and privately the trump administration is behaving erratically and irresponsibly. when do the republicans stand up and say that and say we're going to exercise our authority. demand accountability. we're going to haul up his cabinet officials every week to find out how it's going. because they are acting erratically. >> i think they need to speak up on comey and sessions in a way they haven't and stand with folks like susan collins. i think ultimately it will become an electoral issue. if you want to have the majority in the u.s. senate, in the u.s. house, at some point you have to stand with folks who are more moderate and who are willing to stand up to the president. there will be more people standing up for the president next year this time. >> when do they start standing up to the president?

>> i'm surprised you haven't seen more of it already, especially from folks in difficult districts that maybe hillary clinton or president obama won before that. i think you'll see it more next calendar here. >> heidi, do you sense that anyone is going to start standing up to the president? >> i just got off the phone with a republican leader, i said, for instance is this sessions bashing the red line? he said i don't think, unless they feel political consequences that we'll see the republicans make their own trail here and stand up to the president. and possibly to even work with democrats. i do think what it might take is the utter failure of this repeal and replace effort. we don't know where that's going. they have just had a procedural success here. this begins the hard work of trying to come up with what the heck is the replacement that they can come together on. i think it's much more dicey that they're going to get that done. if it results in total failure, i think they'll be left with no

choice but to work with democrats to shore up the markets. >> more republicans feel scared of president trump hurting them in a primary than they fear losing a general election from the middle. >> you see it in the polls. the floor is not falling in his base of support. back to the boy scout rally. his base loves that. he continues to deliver. >> there have been a lot of parents in had his base -- my parents famous trump supporters. they're done. >> they're trump voters. >> there are trump voters who are done. but the trump base -- >> they would not be -- >> not every -- >> any parent -- no parent wants to see the most powerful reason -- >> it does rile up the core base of supporters that republicans are scared of. paul ryan at the podium, not distancing himself from the jeff sessions comments. you have republicans who are not speaking up about anything. that's who will be, you know, on the political -- >> the difference between the

trump voters and voters who voted for trump because he was the better alternative. they couldn't take hillary clinton. they didn't want a democrat as president. those are the folks he has to be worried about. the trump base voters are never leaving. it's the voters who voted for trump begrudgingly. he needs to win them over to have a chance for reelection. >> they may chide against his tweets from time to time. if they think he can get health care or tax reform done they'll put up with it. they put their agenda before their personal feelings. >> hit pause. coming up, less than a week on the job. are we starting to see the effect of the president's new communications director? >> i love the president. the president is a very, very effective communicator. he will use social media. i think he's got -- if i get this wrong, i'll hear it from him. i hope i don't get it wrong. 113 million. 114 million.

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office depot / office max. this week, these composition books are just 25 cents each. ♪ taking care of business here is what i tell you about the president. he is the most competitive person i have ever met. i have seen this guy throw a dead spiral through a tire. i have seen him at madison square garden with a topcoat on, standing in the key, hitting foul shots, swishing them, okay. he sinks three-foot putts. i was in the oval office with him earlier today, we were talking about letting him be himself. expressing his full identity. i think he has some of the best political instincts in the world. >> that was anthony scaramucci on friday laying out his strategy at the newly minted white house communications director. since then the president has issued 50 tweets, some of the most alarming of his presidency as they contain unprecedented attacks on a sitting member of his own cabinet. last week he tweeted 31 times.

since scaramucci was appointed trump delivered one of the most poorly received speeches of his presidency, as we have been discussing, to the boy scouts. harold ford, you know this man well. do you think he'll do anything to help trump build support for anything he wants to do beyond the 37, 38% of die-hard, i can shoot someone on fifth avenue and they'll still love me supporters who he probably in fact could do that and they'd still love him. usually a communications director's job is to build a diverse enough coalition behind a president for him to get things done. >> much is smart, tough. he is entrepreneurial. he has made himself, a self-made man. i think he has a tough job. i think he'll be honest with the president. at least i hope he'll be honest with the president. i think he is one of the people who can be honest with the president about what he thinks -- >> it doesn't seem like he has been honest with him yet. his tweets have been double from a week ago and the speech was one of the most offensive of his

presidency. >> isn't the first thing a communicator does is get his arms around communications? >> it's only three, four weeks. will be different. >> you think trump will change in four weeks? >> the communication strategy in the white house will have to change, that's why anthony was brought in. if the communication strategy -- >> do you think he was brought in, he fired someone this morning from my understanding. i understand his mandate is to fire leakers and do cable combat. do you think his idea of his job is to change the way the president communicates? >> i don't know the exact answer to that, but i have to think communications around the issues they care about, the agenda they want pursued and pushed is not changed in a serious way, mooch is an honest guy. he's going to know he's not doing the job and the president will know the same. listen to what anthony said, he would let the president be himself more. don't mistake what i said around

getting rid of sessions and mueller. if that's what he wants to do, do it, defend it, and move on. the mooch will help him, be honest with him. >> calling a grown man the mooch. doesn't just defend the president, he moves and talks lime him. i think we have a daily show montage to run while we talk. don't get distracted, it is pretty good. when the cameras aren't on, they say this guy is donald trump's mini me. >> i was in the white house for his charm offensive. he copped a lot of the president's mannerisms. >> do you think he studied them or they're the same person? >> they have similar backgrounds in new york. >> really, really rich, that's how you move your hands, i don't know. i'm not really, really rich. >> he may be trump's -- he let trump be trump. the president said if he didn't have social media, he didn't know what to do with himself, what anthony scaramucci said. he believes this is an effective

communicating tool for the president, but knows it is something the president needs as a release. >> shelby, one thing i heard from trump voters, i did about a dozen pieces with trump democrats that voted for the president, arguably the softer part of the coalition, first to go if there was trouble, but they loved his agenda, hated his tweeting. do you think, to me, it seems like they solve the wrong problem. the problem wasn't that trump wasn't uninhibited enough on twitter, problem is they couldn't drive a message that -- >> in their miensnds, voters sa wish he would put down the phone. like his policies, hate that he communicates this way. i think that scaramucci thinks he is a good translator. he seems to soften what trump is saying, package it up, make it sound pretty. but he could run into issues he may not foresee with the number of people out speaking on behalf of trump at this point. you have lawyers, sekulow was on

tv this week, he and scaramucci had different messages about whether or not trump talked about pardons. you naturally run into these problems. if scaramucci can't managerially get his arms around communications, he is going to have a problem. much more from capitol hill, a new sign that republicans may not trust the president when it comes to russia. whoa! you're not taking these. hey, hey, hey! you're not taking those. whoa, whoa! you're not taking that. come with me. you're not taking that. you're not taking that. you're not taking that. mom, i'm taking the subaru. don't be late. even when we're not there to keep them safe, our subaru outback will be. (vo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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right now on capitol hill after weeks of negotiations the house is voting on new russia sanctions.

my panel is back. heidi, what are the stakes for this white house if the house and senate pass similar versions of this bill and it goes down to 600 pennsylvania avenue waiting for the president's signature? >> he's going to have to decide whether he signs it or he puts up a fuss and risks being overridden by congress which could very well happen given the overwhelming number that this passed by in the senate, and of course it doesn't help him that he's just fresh off this trip to europe where he was seen hud g huddling with putin and coming back with new stories leaking about him potentially wanting to give back compounds in russia. probably has the dan der of congress up about the need to put some restrictions on him. of course, what we do know is that the president's main objection or the white house's concern even though this covers iran and north korea are regarding his ability or that he would be constrained in terms of easing sanctions on russia, so

he faces a real test here. >> the republicans face a test, too, and so far they passed it. >> you asked earlier where the republicans stand, this is where they'll do it. this is a place that unifies many republicans. it is tremendous it is happening on the day that john mccain returns to the u.s. senate, those that played a role in his political life are proud to see that. this is something he talked about almost two decades, this is where republicans will divide the president. it is a place where base voters are different from the president as well, gets away from issues of the russian investigation, goes more to feelings about the geopolitical success of the united states back to the cold war. >> looks like democrats are voting no in the house. i don't understand that with the numbers you had up. >> the vote coming in. >> i am assuming some provision. >> we are watching the wrong vote. i think there's been bipartisan support for both pieces. but harold, on the broader

bucket of u.s., russian relations, seems like role reversal. you now have democrats coming out ahead of republicans, most cases, the sanctions are the exception, but democrats sounding the alarm, national security officials from obama administration being the most strie denlt. in aspen you saw comments from former intelligence officials talking about the threat we face from russia. do you think democrats are enjoying the moment of having the upper hand on national security when it comes to russia? >> probably. and rightly so. democrats and republicans, the country should be excited and proud, the democrats and republicans can come together on something significant in foreign policy. that's why mccain's speech was important, we have to be a check. we are an equal branch to the president. the fact that the president is not enthusiastic about signing it, he wanted a start a cyber security joint commission with the russians, people think there may be something more there, even though something may not be there. >> to your point, heidi brought up a point about the timing of

this. president trump went and spoke with putin, there were questions about whether the bill would survive in the house. he came back, found out he had a second meeting with putin on the sidelines, we found out he was talking about sanctions after tweeting he didn't talk sanctions and the bill was revived immediately. there was great concern. every contact you see between trump associates and russians over the past year has involved sanctions in one way or another. >> everyone invited back tomorrow. thanks to our panel today. that does it for us. chris jansing is in for chuck. if it is tuesday, it is a breaking news jamboree. tonight, not dead yet. the senate votes to reopen the debate over health care. >> we have a duty to act. >> we're going to give you great health care. >> can republicans come up with a bill that can pass the senate. plus, the president and jeff sessions. >> i am very disappointed with the attorney general. >> as president trump