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 publicly

humiliates his attorney general, should sessions stay or should he go? >> we will see what happens. time will tell. time will tell. >> and a new order on russia. how will the white house handle the new sanctions bill that limits the president's power. this is mtp daily and it starts right now. good evening, i am chris jansing in new york. you want to stick around for the hour. you're in the eye of a breaking news storm right now. take a look live at the senate which just this afternoon has now begun what will be up to 20 hours of high drama as both parties debate repealing and replacing obamacare ahead of a series of make or break votes on that issue. it was just hours ago that republicans cleared that major hurdle as vice president pence broke a dramatic 50/50 tie on the senate's procedural motion to officially begin that debate.

and if that's not enough for you, well, they held the vote open just long enough for senator john mccain to cast the decisive vote as he made his emotional return to the senate floor for the first time since being diagnosed with brain cancer. [ applause ] >> mr. mccain, aye. >> they don't want anything done for the public good. all we managed to do is make popular a policy that wasn't popular when we started trying to get rid of it. i voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue and amendments to be offered. i will not vote for this bill as it is today. it is a shelf a bill right now, we all know that. whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the president's subordinates, we are his equal. >> that's the start of the breaking news tonight. over in the house, lawmakers are poised to send a big message to

the white house on russia as congress votes to impose new sanctions in retaliation for putin's interference in the election. if it passes with veto proof majority, he won't have much choice. also at this hour, the political world is watching the white house to see if president trump ousts attorney general jeff sessions. members from both parties rushing to the ag's defense as the president intensifies his war against the justice department. dimension that paul manafort and jared kushner were interviewed by congressional investigators today or that another white house communications official quit today after reports he was going to be fired. the breaking news doesn't stop there, if you can believe it. president trump just wrapped up a press conference from the rose garden after meeting with the prime minister of lebanon. while answering questions from reporters, he once again ripped into his attorney general. >> i am disappointed in the

attorney general. he should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office, and i would have quite simply picked somebody else. so i think that'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. >> the president also praised the senate's move to begin debate on repealing obamacare. >> i'm very, very happy with the result. i believe now we will over the next week or two come up with a plan that's going to be really, really wonderful for the american people. >> that mystery plan is where we begin tonight. action on capitol hill now turns to a series of dramatic votes in the senate. the first is going to be on the so-called repeal and delay legislation they passed in 2015. that vote is expected to fail.

after that, they're planning to vote on the senate's legislation to repeal and replace obamacare with a few amendments. that vote is expected to fail, too. so that leaves them with basically a free for all amendment process that's going to try to chip away at the law piece by piece. let's bring in a couple of my msnbc colleagues for the latest from washington, chief white house correspondent hallie jackson is there at the white house. garrett hague is on capitol hill. hallie, this is a president desperate for a win, took a lot of flack for not getting all the things done he promised in the first six months. in spite of sessions and all of that fighting, in spite of manafort and kushner being on capitol hill today, is he, is this white house looking at this as a good day today? >> reporter: listen, i think it is tough to separate at this point the issues of jeff sessions tweets and discussion and questions about jeff sessions and the health care issue because all of it is obviously causing a ripple

effect on capitol hill. it's having repercussions no matter what. now what you're seeing is the president publicly seize on the health care news, he did it explicitly in the rose garden, notably coming out, and the very first words out of his mouth were about health care and frankly john mccain and the debate now beginning on this potential plan to repeal and replace obamacare. that is what he wants to be talking about. that's what i think you can expect to see him mention in ohio tonight when he is at that campaign style rally. you saw him leave on marine one from the south lawn here a little bit ago. that said, there continues to be the shadow of what will happen to jeff sessions, and the president did nothing to make that any clearer or to lift that shadow with his comments today saying simply time will tell what happens to jeff sessions, and reiterating that he is disappointed in him. >> so what's next, that's the big question on capitol hill. i suppose you have a situation where you have this high drama,

and i mean it was dramatic. ron johnson comes in at the last minute, has this conversation with mitch mcconnell, then you have john mccain and all of the attendant emotion that goes with that, but now they have to get down to the hard work, can they find something that they can actually get passed? >> right, there's a lot of interesting sign posts in the debate. there was celebration in the rose garden when the house passed their bill, today, the drama on this, and now the let down on the side of this as you laid out in the open. next two big parts that the senate will talk about are almost certain to fail. first this vote on the 2015 clean repeal and replace. remember, this was -- we were talking about this a week ago, senators said that's not going to fly. couldn't get to 50 votes on that. then there's the better care reconciliation act, fancy name for mitch mcconnell's senate bill to replace obamacare. well, now it turns out that the two big amendments attached to that, meant to make

conservatives and moderates happy, ted cruz amendment to allow for strip down health insurance plans to be sold, and big amendment from rob portman's office to try to please moderates, get more money for medicaid and things like that, those don't qualify for reconciliation. i hate to get too technical, but bottom line, they can't pass them with just 50 votes, and there's no chance either one of those proposals are going to get an ounce of democratic support, so all of the scenarios we talked about until today were entirely destined to fail. that means the senate has to cobble something together, what we call the skinny repeal, try to find the most popular parts of any of the repeal efforts that are out there, slap them together and see if they can get 50 votes on it. >> this sounds like a bad diet plan. people don't know what this means, people in the senate don't know what it means, the american people don't know what it means, let alone, hallie jackson, that the president might know what it means.

let me go to the panel. thank you, hallie, garrett. we have a super sized panel. editor at large at the weekly standard, bill kristol. hugh hewitt. host of saturday mornings on msnbc. maria teresa kumar, msnbc contributor. if we don't have a plan, we don't know what they're going to vote on and they don't have a plan that has enough votes, what are they doing? >> well, i think they're going to get to the bare minimum that they can agree 50 votes on, that will include repeal of the individual mandate. probably the back signing of the device tax, and whether -- that seemed to bring back lisa murkowski to the fold of 51. >> but then the conservatives because of the cost. >> i don't know that you will.

getting rid of the individual mandate, that will bring in 51. i defer to other people. i believe something will come out of the senate. only alarm bell, john mccain on the floor saying he needed that what doug dues ee, respected across republican circles, what does doug ducey want for john mccain's vote. we have to weight and see. >> the president is banking on the fact that the american people are sick of obamacare, said as much today. let's listen. >> obamacare is a disaster. it's failing in every front. it's too expensive. it gives horrible coverage. it was gotten by a lie 28 times, it was a lie. you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan, all lies. and the people are sick of it. >> the fact of the matter is the republican plan is far less popular than obamacare. take a look at the latest "the washington post" poll. preference on health care reform.

50% obamacare, 24% republican plan. folks dislike the house plan even in trump counties, when you look at them, 12% say it is a good idea, 41% say it's a bad idea. bill kristol, what was the political calculation here? >> mitch mcconnell was determined to take a shot on the floor, i think it was a mistake. i think it is going to die in three days, i do not think they'll pass anything. >> is there something that you can see, some combination, the kinds of things hugh hewitt was talking about that could bring this to the floor and get a vote that passes? >> hugh is talking about the idea that republicans realize they have to do something about health care. most of the people in congress passing these, their conversations, commercials, all of the pitches made to their individual voters in their districts were making the promise they were going to do

something about obamacare. so i think republicans, all republicans are feeling that pressure, and because of that, they're going to be able to broker some sort of deal. whether or not they can pass it is a hard thing for me to wrap my head around mainly because you have someone even like john mccain, came in, had a remarkable moment, walked in, cast his vote to say let's talk about this, let's debate this. he quickly then pivoted to a rousing speech that they cannot just pass health care in a partisan way, they need to work together. they need to think of people's lives when they pass this bill. and he said frankly i am not going to vote for the bill in its form now. that presents the issue with the republicans, they were able to now have this debate, but you have someone as important as john mccain saying you know what, i'm not ready to back this bill. >> and yet even when you have that situation where you have these people who decided finally that they were going to vote at least to bring the debate to the floor, i was -- while this was

developing, i talked to a number of democrats on the air, they admitted there's nervousness. let me ask you, maria, is your sense that democrats are worried that the republicans will come up with something, be able to come up with votes to pass it, and it is going to be a bill they don't like? >> well, they've had 8 years to come up with a bill and they don't have one at this point. what really was happening today, the fact that john mccain came and cast a ballot, he is trying to send a message to americans that congress still works, that they're still a party that has to have even a small win that can demonstrate that they're able to function. but i'm fully with bill, i think they're going to have a hard time. a lot of republicans when they go back to their districts in august, they're going to see the same town halls and see the same people thought they didn't like health care and realize wait, the reason i no longer have to file for bankruptcy because of my medical bills is now i have a safety net. >> bill, do you sense that republicans, a lot of republicans still feel like we need to do this because we made

this promise or is there a sense that there are a lot of americans who are falling away? i know when we have done interviews, there are people that said they were originally, one of the reasons they vote for trump, they wanted to get rid of obamacare, now they're not sure. can't even really remember why they wanted to get rid of obamacare frankly. i mean, do you think there is a widespread price to be paid if republicans don't just come up with a bill but pass a bill? >> no. i think there's more price to pay if they pass a bad bill. even if they pass something from the senate, they have to go through the house. not like it is off their back, it prolongs the agony. listen to what senator mccain said. he said let's not pass something on a partisan basis, jam it through when we don't know what the implications are, don't have a cbo score, et cetera. let's go back to regular order. not as if congress is over next week. they can go back to conference, medical device tax, democrats were against that. modifying the mandate, democrats

have been critical of that. if you do a small ball anyway, do it in a back burner way, get much more political coverage, credit for trying to work with democrats. the idea you put all of the republican party chips on the table to pass a pathetic bill that helps medical device manufacturers is ridiculous. >> big picture of where does it go for here, if they can't do it on things you just mentioned like the medical device tax where we know there's agreement on both sides of the aisle, it reaffirms for americans that nothing can get done in washington. to that point, here's a little more of senator mccain. i thought his very impactful statement on the floor of the senate today. let's listen. >> let's leave the history of who shot first to the historians. i suspect they'll find we all conspired in our decline either by deliberate actions or neglect. we all played some role in it. certainly i have. sometimes i let my passion rule

my reason. sometimes i made it harder to find common ground because of something harsh i said to a colleague. sometimes i wanted to win more for the sake of winning than to achieve a contested policy. >> hooug hewitt, you could hear a pin drop in that room. clearly people were listening, but did they hear what he had to say, do you think? >> i don't think they're going to agree with a lot of what the senator said, he enjoys enormous respect in the body, he is a great american, everyone pauses to say what a lion coming back and fighting on, wants to run that national defense authorization on the floor. i have to agree, getting rid of the individual mandate is a huge win for people that begin in the rule of law. that was the centerpiece of the supreme court case many years ago which the chief justice had taken grief over. getting rid of job killing taxes like medical device tax or

cadillac tax. also very important. so what they call the skinny bill i call the piecemeal approach. i believe it would get through the house, then they could go to the medicaid reform. i will personally be disappointed if they don't devolve medicaid, that's the pathway to better health care for americans, putting the control over medicaid in the hands of state and local authorities, not the federal bureaucracy. but i'll take a win, a win that gets rid of the individual mandate is a win for freedom. >> we are covering a busy day in washington. still to come, another showdown under way in d.c. president trump continues to humiliate his attorney general. should jeff sessions stay or should he go? that's next. e's nothing more important to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. and with their price match, i know i'm getting the best price every time. now i can start relaxing even before the vacation begins. your vacation is very important.

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president will sign the legislation, but the bill is expected to pass the senate, and if it passes with this kind of support, the president won't have the votes to sustain his veto. right now, the senate is debating health care. the president has been publicly calling out republicans, demanding obamacare repeal and replace. we are following everything out of washington including the clash with attorney general jeff sessions in 60 seconds. . so you save up to 30% on the hotel you want.

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sound bites. joining me by phone, steve schmidt, senior strategist on the mccain, pale encampaign in 2008 and is an msnbc contributor. is this the way you see it, steve, this is a showdown and we're waiting for the explosion? >> certainly looks that way. look, what's clear is that the president objects very strongly to this investigation and he keeps moving closer to what ultimately ends in a constitutional crisis. it's a serious situation. he clearly doesn't understand that there are constraints on the actions of even the president of the united states in this country of laws, and the assault now on the attorney general that he's launching, he doesn't seem to understand is what it would do is put the deputy attorney general into the

attorney general position and it is highly likely even this republican congress would refuse to confirm anybody to take sessions' place. >> he could do it, though, right? he could wait until the senate goes out of session, then put somebody in there. sounds like when you say constitutional crisis, like the only reason he would do this is to get rid of mueller. that's all that this is about. >> this is all part of the chain of events that started with the firing of jim comey which is one of the dumbest political decisions, legal decisions that anyone in politics in the modern era has ever participated in. and the firing of comey guaranteed there would be appointment of a special counsel. now that special counsel has really a license to investigate wherever he sees fit to get to the facts, that may involve

looking at the finances of the trump organization. seems from public comments with great sensitivity to that. now you have literally the entirety of the white house senior staff and people closest to the president all lawyered up, all with contradictory stories. on a larger issue, this question of russia that we know that in every instance where they had opportunity to be transparent, they barricaded. >> you're a communications guy, you understand what it is to get messaging out. have you ever seen anything with the public shaming of the attorney general by the president of the united states, it started with his comments to "new york times," complaining he shouldn't have recused himself. it continued in a series of tweets over the course of weeks. then "the wall street journal" comments today, his comments, standing in the rose garden. i mean, have you ever, did you

ever imagine even from this president, you would see him going after in such a public and humiliating way a person who not only was one of his early supporters, but then today seemed to be dismissive of the fact that it made any difference that he supported him in the first place. >> first, on a practical level, you have to be psychotic to go serve in this administration as a cabinet secretary, as a member of the white house senior staff when you see president trump practice his conception of loyalty. two, this is covered internationally, it makes the united states of america look like the banana republic. three, when we think about the collapse of trust in institutions in this country, the loss of faith in our institutions by the american people, you have the president who is creating this chaos which further drives down trusts in

institutions. it is terrible and so beneath the dignity of both offices, the office of president of the united states and attorney general of the united states. >> steve schmidt, appreciate you taking time to talk to us. thank you. >> my pleasure. thank you. we're going to turn to the other big vote happening on the hill today. the house just wrapped up its vote on russian sanctions. the latest on that just ahead. and it's also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you ♪ hey. what can you tell me about your new social security alerts? oh! we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so you'll be in the know.

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and we are back wondering will attorney general sessions cave to the president's pressure. joined again by the panel. i'm looking at a list of what is now ten senators who have come out and supported verbally or in written statements jeff sessions. leader mcconnell. he did the right thing to recuse himself. senator graham, never once downtown his integrity. rob portman says he is an honorable person. i could go on and on. what's going to happen here? >> it seems as though the president is prepping himself for either pushing for jeff sessions to resign or firing him outright. today's statements were remarkable in that the president spared no words.

there was no oh, the media bashing saying the media is making this a big deal, that i really appreciate him, that i stand by him. hesse press shop and communications staff said that president trump stands by jeff sessions, in reality, the president who has always been his best messenger, always the person with the final word on many things, he is saying that he doesn't know what's going to come of jeff sessions. that i think tells jeff sessions that look, your time is limited. i would not be surprised to see jeff sessions out of that job within this week or within this month because president trump is making it very clear that he's unhappy with him. now he's publicly talking about it. first he started by talking to my colleagues about jeff sessions and now it seems as though he's ready to tell everybody that he's not happy with jeff sessions. just add quickly, you talked about the idea that jeff sessions endorsed him early, not out of loyalty but because alabama was going to support him very, very much. so this idea that the president is looking at jeff sessions and

trying to discredit the fact that jeff sessions was the first senator who came out to support him, in other words, he is saying jeff sessions isn't loyal, and as a result i don't need to be loyal to him. >> that's exactly right. while you have this split between demembekey members of t senate on both sides of the aisle. joining me, voted against the final vote in the house in may. you just got out of a meeting with paul ryan. what can you tell us about that? >> oh, i go into a lot of meetings, all i can say is we're trying to plan a path forward. we have to deal with appropriations bills, budgets, debt ceilings, tax reform. >> did you talk about how to go forward on health care? >> i can tell you what's happening on health care now, the senate is taking up their bill. there will be a few amendments offered, one by portman, one by cruz, i believe the senate bill offered as amendment to the house bill. i don't think any of those three

will pass. i think their intent is to free wheel it, hope that something passes the senate so they can force this to a conference committee. >> i wonder if you think they made a mess of this. you said this on air, that you think the problem with -- one of the problems with obamacare is that it got pushed through, as you put it i think to one of my colleagues, got muscled through by the democrats. here you have the situation where republicans have decided they're going to do a debate, they're going to debate, try to talk about two bills that we know don't have support, that don't have the support of the american people if you believe polls. they're going to open up this free for all debate on who knows what the amendments are going to be, what do you make of the way they're handling this? >> well, like i said, you're correct. i did say that in 2009, 2010. the democrats muscled through obamacare on a partisan basis, we as republicans shouldn't make that same mistake this year. >> but are you? >> well, yes. that seems to be the plan. they're going to try to muscle something through on a partisan

basis. whatever the senate passes, i suspect the house won't be able to take it up in that form. they're going to force us into a conference committee. whether anything can ever be agreed on, call me skeptical. >> where do you think the president stands, is it clear what he wants to happen or does he want a win of any kind? >> the president, he just wants a bill on his desk. i don't think he is concerned about policy details one way or the other. that seems to be his position. he'll take whatever he gets. i think largely the health care issue has been outsourced from executive branch to congress, and that's where we are now. i say put me down as skeptical that anything will get to the president's desk through the process we are considering at the moment. >> we will be watching. congressman den congressman dent, thanks for talking. republicans and the push to repeal obamacare, certainly a lot of hard work to get to the motion to proceed, but president trump didn't always see it that way. remember this? take a listen. his take on health care

over time. >> i've been saying this for a long time. my first day in office i'm going to ask congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability, you're going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost, and it's going to be so easy. health care is always difficult because you have to weave a very narrow path, like a quarter inch wide, right down the middle, and if you go a little too far right, you lose three people on the left, if you go a little too far left, you lose five people on the right. it is a very, very complex and difficult task. >> joining me, house minority whip and maryland democrat, steny hoyer. the president seems to appreciate the fact of how

complex the idea of repeal and replacing obamacare is. having said that, how are you feeling? are you concerned at all as someone that's been very vocal in your support of obamacare and the need to stop some of these big changes that the republicans have been calling for, that they won't be able to get a bill through. how confident are you? >> well, i'm confident that if they get a bill through, that needle they're going to thread that the president refers to is not going to be a pretty one for them and a lot of americans are going to be very, very upset. the reason they've had so much trouble is the american public are not with them. the american public are substantially for the affordable care act now, which is a change from 8 months ago. they've looked at what the affordable care act gives them, what they would lose under the republican proposals, and they decided they want to stick with the affordable care act. 75% of them say look, fix the affordable care act. what they're doing in the senate now -- >> i think it is a critical point you just made,

congressman. i heard that as well from democrats as i have been out around the country. they know there are problems with it. many of them faced those problems. what specifically would you say right now would be the priorities that need to be fixed in obamacare that maybe you could use to get some republicans on board. >> we need to stabilize the market clearly. whether that gets republicans on board or not. republicans are worried about the small market. they're correct to be worried about the small market, individual market. it is too expensive for most people. we've got to deal with that. they have some things like health savings accounts, and competition across state lines. we don't think those would work particularly well, but we could talk to the republicans about that. but the fact is what we need to keep are the essentials in the affordable care act that make it accessible to people, make it accessible to people with pre-existing conditions, make it affordable for people of limited incomes, and keep them healthy.

those we can't bend on or compromise on. that doesn't mean we can't sit down and talk and compromise as we have done on the russian sanction bill, iran sanction bill passed. >> do you think the president will sign it? >> it passed 419-4. if he doesn't sign it, we'll override his veto. passed 98-2 in the senate, he will look at those numbers, some people on his staff probably are going to advise him, mr. president we lost this, sign the bill, move on. but he is not very predictable as we've all seen. so i don't know whether he'll sign it or not. >> let me talk to you about one of those things. that's what has been a public shaming of jeff sessions. there are a lot of people concerned that he could fire him because it is clearest's been trying to pressure him to step down. what would be the reaction should he try to fire jeff sessions and do you believe any move like that is nothing more

than a move to get rid of mueller. >> i think clearly that would be a move to get rid of mueller and to protect himself for something he says is fake charges. if they're fake charges, why don't you sit there, let everybody investigate the charges and find out they're fake, nothing happened, there was nothing there. it is like not releasing his tax returns. why doesn't he release his tax returns. everybody concludes because there's something he wants to hide. if he fires the attorney general, first of all, it's another demonstration of how badly he treats people. this is somebody who was very loyal to him. i think the first and one of the few united states senators that supported him from very early on in his campaign and who shares apparently many of his views, but because he recused himself properly, the ethical thing to do, the president is mad at him. the attorney general did the right thing. and if he's fired by the president, it will clearly be another indication of an attempt to cover up whatever happened

vis-a-vis russia. >> congressman steny hoyer, thank you for coming to the camera. appreciate it. >> thanks a lot. we are back with jeff sessions's former colleague, senator richard shelby. he will join us ahead. the watch me let if fly. this i gotta try weekenders. then we've got the bendy... ... spendy weekenders. the tranquility awaits. hanging with our mates weekenders and the it's been quite a day... ...so glad we got away weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders. ♪ backpack, check. that's the family taking care of business. awesome notebook! check. but who takes care of them? office depot / office max. this week, these composition books are just 25 cents each. ♪ taking care of business

shawn evans: it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get. welcome back. joining me now, senator richard shelby of alabama. he served for two decades alongside another senator from alabama, jeff sessions, before

he became attorney general. senator, it is good to see you. i want to ask you about health care, but let's start with what everybody is talking about, that is the president in the rose garden today continuing what has been almost a long series of newspaper interviews, tweets, humiliating essentially his attorney general, somebody that was very loyal to him, first person in the senate to support him. you put out a statement, you came to his defense today, talked about him as a man of integrity, loyalty, extraordinary character. the president today questioned even whether or not jeff sessions played any role in his support, whether he owed him any loyalty because he said it didn't seem to be a big deal in terms of his support making a difference in him being elected president. what do you make of the president's public shaming of your colleague, former colleague jeff sessions? >> well, i tell you, i've known jeff sessions day in, day out, worked with him for 20 years and i think i know him and a lot of

us in the senate that know him and respect him know him, too. he's a man of courage. he's a man of purpose. and he's a man of substance. i don't know everything that's going on between the president and the attorney general, but jeff sessions' got a lot of respect in the senate, he has a lot of respect in my state, and i do know he was -- while i was in the senate, he was the first one to endorse the president, was loyal to him, and i hope things work out. >> he is not willing to step down, he says he loves his job, wants to continue to love his job. you know him well. zo do you see a circumstance where a comment or tweet will get him to step down? >> i don't know any of that. all i can tell you is this could have been handled in a different way. i hope -- we don't need this, it is not good for the president,

it's not good for politics in general, and it is certainly not good for the justice department. >> would you draw a line in the sand and say to the president to his face you need to leave jeff sessions alone, he is a good man? >> well, i'm not going to draw a line in the sand with any president. i respect the office of the president and so forth, but i have a lot of respect for jeff sessions, he is my friend, but more than that, he is a man of courage, integrity and purpose. >> you tweeted this afternoon it is vital we keep our promise to repeal obamacare and replace this failing law. are you okay with voting for a bill that might mean coverage for fewer americans or do you even have a sense right now of what bill you guys might eventually vote on? >> well, nobody knows exactly what the final product is going to be because we haven't even debated the bill in the senate, this is step one. i was initially and still am for outright repeal, then work with the democrats to replace it with some. there's going to be winners and

losers, but we ought to look after the most vulnerable in this country, and ought to cut down all of the barriers to competition and free market. part of health care's problem, there's not real competition in the marketplace. >> does that eventually mean, the cbo seems to think so, that fewer americans will be covered, a lot fewer? >> the cbo has been wrong on a lot of things. i hope they're not wrong on this. ultimately we have to figure what we can pay for, look after the most vulnerable and knock out barriers to free competition. >> senator shelby, appreciate your time. thank you so much. you guys have a lot going on now. we do appreciate it. we'll be right back. >> thank you. ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected.

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welcome back. it's time for the lid. let's bring back our panel. we got a bunch of members on the hill. when we started talking about jeff sessions. i want to go back to it p pi thought it was maybe the

understatement of at least the day. you don't want the say the year anymore because things happen so fast. you have the new commune kicati director scaramucci saying about trump and sessions, obviously there's an issue in the relationship. when you hear somebody like an alabama republican senator who said what he just said about the president and his concerns about the way all of this has been handled, you have more and more senators coming out and talking about this. do you think there's anything that will stop this president from getting rid of jeff sessions one way or another? >> i'm not sure he has the nerve to. if he does, deputy attorney general rosenstein becomes the attorney general. the senate will not concern some ally. he will be worst off. i think it's important that sessions stay in the job. he took an oath to the constitution, not to trump.

he's done nothing wrong. he followed the ethics guidance of the justice department in recusing himself. he's not accused of any inappropriate behavior. couple of questions about the campaign and russia contacts but those are minimum. i think he behaved honorably. trump is the one who is behaved in way that's disgraceful, not sessions. >> i agree. he's trying to humiliate him into resigning. oc obviously, it's not working. you have rush limbaugh, when he says the president has gone too far, is he worried at all about losing conservative media? >> i think he has to. anthony scare amucci made that statement. he advised the president not to fire robert mueller.

the president should not try to fire muller. the president probably wanted jeff sessions to go. because he wants an eric holder or a bobby kennedy, jack kennedy, relationship. you can't have that when the attorney general is recused on the major issue of the administration. bill is right. the attorney general testified in his confirmation hearings that he would submit the question of recusal at the department of justice and he's an honorable man. that ethics official said he had to recuse himself. this was easily foreseeable. the president might have with drawn it at that time. i think the only way jeff sessions leaves is if the president fires him, as is he right to do. i disagree with bill. i think there are people who are, the former ag who would get through the senate and the president might establish a close relationship not hampered

by the recusal. the president ought to have seen this coming because jeff sessions said as mitch in huch confirmation hearings. >> there were a lot of tsa nating things. you mentioned the one that caught my ear. he wants his daurks his son-in-law, people he feel has nothing but his interest at heart. isn't that what has gotten him into some of these pickles when you have congressional committees calling in your son-in-law. calling in your son asking them questions. this russia probe isn't going to go away. most people, to be fair, think that that there was a good set of questions asked of jared kushner. he comported himself well inside

those two day in a row hearings. he wants more people who are family like around him. is that the answer here? >> that's exactly what we're seeing even with the appointment of scaramucci. he wants people that have him back 110%. that's not the position of the top job of law enforcement with the ag. jeff sessions, we have a litany of differences but the fact he recused himself said i'm going to have to demonstrates the justice department is not supposed to be a dotted line to the administration. the challenge that trump is facing is he wants to run our gov government like a family business. it's a sacred institution of checks and balances. the more jeff sessions does not resign and make the president make the hard choice of firing him, the institutions are working. >> let you have the last one. do you see any circumstance in which the attorney general decides he's going to step down? >> i don't see that because i

think he wants to do this job because he's been passing real policies that have real effects. he's taking on sanctuary sentencities. he's changing mandatory sthn sentences. i think he likes this job. >> many of the things he's doing are things the president said he wanted done when he ran for election. thanks to our panel. thank you. more after this. so you miss the big city?

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that's all for tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more mtp daily. good evening, ari. good evening. thank you. donald trump said he would win so much you'll be tired of winning, but he is losing on russia tonight with both parties joining in a major house vote to tie his hands on sanctions. after six months of wrangling, there was an unusual sight in washington. the prospect of a do something congress while donald trump continues to lash out at the russia investigation. congress is lashing out at russia passing a bipartisan bill to keep sanctions on the putin government. a move arriving the same day jar jar jared kushner facing house investigators. it's the concept for