>> the loudest, most macho person on the internet isn't always the loudest person in real-time. >> my mom always told me, most bullries cowards. >> you can always find us at the beat with ari. chris matthews has "hardball" now. i'll join him later in the hour. civil war. let's play "hardball." good evening. the battle between president trump and attorney general jeff sessions is escalating. we're watching civil war between mostly son senators loyal to the man from alabama as he chiles the president out there loudly trying to dump him. the fight is now making republicans take sides between donald trump, a former democrat from new york, and jeff sessions, a favorite of the old

confederacy. the latest assault is to hit jeff sessions for not removing the acting fbi director. he tweeted, why didn't attorney general sessions replace andrew mccain, a comey friend, who was in charge of the clinton investigation but got big dollars for his wife's political run from hillary clinton. draining the swamp, that's trump. the bugle call was unrelated to reality. for one thing, sessions wasn't attorney general when the fbi was going after the clinton e-mail. and second, president trump has the power to fire him and he hand done so. trump has spent this week leveling a steady strael of attacks. let's listen. >> well, sessions should have never recused himself. if he was going to recuse himself, i would have picked somebody else. >> i appoint ad man to a

position and then shortly after he gets the position, he recused himself. what is that all about? why didn't you tell me that you were going food and i wouldn't have appointed you? >> 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. i told you before, i'm very disappointed with the attorney general. we will see what happens. time will tell. time will tell. >> that's pretty menacing. sarah huckabee sanders said the president hasn't made a decision whether to remove or to sack sessions. >> i think the president has been very clear about where he is. he is obviously disappointed but also wants the attorney general to continue to focus on the things that the attorney general does. he wants him to lead the department of justice. >> if he is so frustrated and so

disappointed, why doesn't he ask him to resign or fire him? why doesn't he -- >> you can be disappointed this someone but still want them to continue to do their job. >> is he going to continue in that job? >> i think i made clear last week. if there comes a point he doesn't, he'll make a decision. >> according to sanders, president trump and jeff sessions haven't spoken in the last week. it is hard to have a conversation if you're not having a conversation. meanwhile, chuck schumer warned if the president fired sessions and tried to replace him during august recess, that would lead to a constitutional crisis. mike quigley of illinois, and the political reporter for the "washington post." i always like elected officials to speak first, since you are elected. what do you think the president is doing of the chinese water torture, the guy he picked, whatever you call it, the manly

thing, and make a decision about whether he wants his attorney general and make it public. >> i think the first reason is he wants to squash the russian investigation. he is positively obsessed with it as evidenced by his tweets and his actions. he would be better off letting us do the job. he should stop tweeting it. i guess his idea is if he fires sessions and puts in a lap dog, the lap dog fires rosen stein and mueller and either guts or ends the investigation into how the russians interfered in the democratic process. >> why doesn't he do that? just fire sessions. use the appointment in august to do just what up. fire rosenstein. if he doesn't fire mueller, put somebody nelson there. a lap dog. and get that lap dog. if he doesn't do it, to go another one. keep doing it until he fires

mueller. why doesn't he do that? >> i pride myself on the fact i can't read this man's mind and i have no idea what he'll do tomorrow and that's a little scary. >> paul butler, thank you. i don't know if there's a legal analysis. as t has he been lawyered up? get this guy to jump. don't push him. >> we know has the client who does not listen to lawyers. so he has three options with regard to sessions. he signed an executive order that says if the attorney general leaves, the position goes to the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein who the presses is also be crazy about. his other option is the vacancy chakt allows him to appoint anyone who has been appointed to the senate for any position as the acting attorney general for 310 days. third option. recess appointment. we heard all about it.

the senate would have to go and recess for ten days and then trump would be able to appoint anyone he wants in that office. as long as they've been confirmed in that senate. until 2019. when the senate is out of session. >> legally, wouldn't he be within his power, there president, to fire sessions and during this august recess, use that opportunity to pick somebody he's been given an ambassadorship to and has been confirmed? come. on i need you for a couple days' work. i'll give you the ambassadorship in a week. but you're here to fire mueller. and then you can have an ambassadorship if you want one. >> under the vacancies act, the president can appoint an acting, if that permanent person has resigned. it seems like if the person is fired, then the president isn't allowed to go that route. more importantly, if he does any of these routes, fires mueller, everybody knows it is because he's trying to stop the investigation.

that is obstruction of justice. that's trying to impede an official investigation. so congress could use that as an article of impeachment. >> wow! let me to go phillip. what do you make of this history? what do you make of this? he's been pretty ruthless, willing to do what's necessary. kill this investigation. >> that's true. the fact james comey is no longer he the fbi director shows that donald trump is willing to pull the trigger on occasion. >> and sally yates. >> a much better cause there. jeff sessions was his guy. he was there early on in the primaries. he was a loyalist. trump turned on him solely because of the russia investigation. >> what isn't clear? >> it is not clear why trump doesn't just fire him as opposed to push him out. >> he suggested it is a legal

reason but i think it is clear he wants him out of there. he wants mueller quashed. and i don't blame him. if write worried about things like that. you know the history of special prosecutors. guess what they do? they prosecute. they don't give up and say there is nothing wrong here. they spend months and months and months. lawrence walsh or jaworski or ken starr. they find some crap on the guy and then they move. anyway, it has drawn significant criticism. watch these. they're mostly southern senators. they consider sessions one of their own. an old southern guy. you can almost hear dixie in their voices. >> i would fire somebody that i did not believe could serve me well. rather than trying to humiliate them in public which is a sign of weakness. he's trying to get sessions to quit. and i hope sessions doesn't

quit. if the president wants to fire him, fire him. >> jeff sessions is an honorable man. did he what any ethical attorney general would do unlder the circumstances. >> he is a man of very high integrity and he is an eagle scout. jeff sessions has my confidence. >> he is a man of courage. he is a man of purpose. and he is a man of substance. >> i think his independence has been proven by his willingness to recuse himself. >> jeff has been very loyal to the president. i think he deserves loyalty back. >> i would strongly recommend against firing sessions. >> you're from illinois. figure this out. there seems to be a regional loyalty to one of their own. to sessions. he is one of the post 1964, i mean that seriously, southern republicans now. they used to be all southern democrats. now they're all very loyal to

trump. and i looks line he's the leader among them. they're all sticking to him. >> it doesn't make any sense. the president has to remember something. this battle will be over someday. the health care battle will be over someday. he only has 52 votes in the senate. you can't go alienating they will when you're having 50/50 votes on critical issues. obviously the president doesn't understand the old notion, the buck stops here. if you watched the first half this year, everything is someone else's fault. >> give me a sense of how all these machinations by trump over the last sgeeks months now, begin to look like obstruction, if that is a determination by the special counsel mueller? where do you see him putting the, collecting strain. >> that's what prosecutors do.

that's what mueller did. it pretty cheer that his aim is to start the vekts. the statute says you're guilty if you attempt on impede an official investigation. under criminal law, president trump might not be guilt yiflt but under the articles of impeachment, that could still be used along with abuse of office. it is clear, he is very afraid of a russian collusion investigation. if it is not a crime, it is grounds for impeachment. >> i keep thinking about this when i come to boring. trump is fighting what he thinks is an excess teistential threat presidency. he thinks if he gets a top notch lawyer, they'll go after his tax records, they'll get his tax records, they'll dig and dig and dig. we saw what happened.

i'm not saying fair or not. trump has problem that's he made himself. if you look at what happened to clinton, a guy a lot of people watching this show liked. he got in trouble because hit something to do with white water. that may have been nothing. but that led to paula jones which led to monica lewinsky. this stuff metastasizes. i'm sure this president is not stupid enough, he must know these things can blow up. even if he didn't do anything wrong. that's an even if. and they'll find something did he do wrong. and he knows mule her find it if it's there. >> what i think we've learned is that trump does not think four steps ahead. he thinks what he can do to get out of the predicament. now he got out of a lot of predicaments that no one expected on the campaign trail. >> he has to cut the fuse. the fuse is coming to him. >> he is in a whole different infrastructure now. he is used to being in the corporate world.

>> he's never feared something like this. total national humiliation after becoming president of the united states. it is a real fear. i don't think he can get it out of his head in the middle of the night. he's thinking sessions at 4:00 in the morning. i think that's the phone call that keeps ringing in his ears. this guy is coming after you. he has the best resume i've ever seen of anyone in american life. this guy bob mueller. thank you. and "the new york times." coming up, president trump bans transgender from serving in the military. where did that come from? what are the politics behind the surprise announcement today? is it an appeal to the political trumans out there? while republicans are struggling to get the votes they need, president trump is aiming at the holdouts. he's twleng twitter and calling they will out by twitter. will all that bullying get gop

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ask yourself, who is really the friend of women and the lgbt community? donald trump with actions, or hillary clinton with her words. i will tell you who the better friend is. and someday, i believe that will be proven out bigly. >> it's proven but not the way he said. that was president trump saying he would be a friend to the let's began, gay and transgender community. today he went back on that pledge. reversing the decision last year that allows transgender people to serve openly in the armed forces naflt series of tweets he wrote, after consultation with

my generals and military experts, please know advised the united states will not allow accept or allow. we cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disprupgs transgender in the military would entail. thank you. it is not clear what prompted the sudden announcement but it caught the pentagon off guard. they said we refer all questions about the president's statements to the white house. we will continue to work close when i the white house to address the new guidance provided by the commander in chief on transgender individuals serving the military. in 2016, rand research study estimates there were as many as 7,000 transgender people now on active duty in our services. today lawmakers from both parties blasted the sudden policy reversal. >> at the end of the day, i want a strong, vibrant military. i want to be fair. the best way to do this is to have a hearing, not a tweet. >> the president is sanctioning

discrimination. our nation is not safer when we sanction discriminatiself-incri discrimination. >> about whether or not someone can serve, it takes away from the debate. >> today president of the united states told thousands of american service members that though they will lay down their lives for us, that we will not fight for them. to every single transgender man, woman in our military. and our shores and well beyond. please know that we will never take your service, your courage, your patriotism for granted. >> that's bobby kennedy's grand son. i want to deal with thum aspeis. give me a sense of your duty.

how this affects you or how does it affect your feeling and thinking about what the president just said today. >> it's just a terrible message that the president he has sent to our active service, openly transgender service member who's are putting their lives on the line to defend this country. and protect freedom. and it sends a terrible message to them that they're not worthy of being protected. and we're confident that we'll stand up against this, this awful move. people shouldn't have to live in the shadows. this has been done in many other countries. >> in israel. how was your experience as military person this regard to your orientation? >> it was really difficult. i had to hide who i was. and i lived in constant fear that i would be outed. and at the time that i served, you would be discharged if you were openly transgender. so you lived in the shadows.

i was constantly afraid that i would get a call in to a commanding officer and be informed that i would have to leave the military. >> why do you think it never happened? for years before, we allowed open service. my cad was in the navy. there were gay people in the navy decades, generations before they ever legalized it. but your experience was bad because you had to hide your identity. >> absolutely. with the ban removed and people being able to bring their authentic self to the workplace, we see nothing, nothing happened. similarly we've seen the same situation in countries like israel and the united kingdom where he transfolks serve open. >> well, keep your voice going. people will like and you root for you. thank you very much. thank you for your service, by the way. not by the way. thank you for your service. anyway, it was met with, two

republican veterans. americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afford that had opportunity. that's straightforward. john mccain called the tweet unclear, add go there's no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy regardless of their gender identity. we should all be guided by any american who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so and be treated as the patriots they are. you can't say it better than th that. apart from the inhumanity of singling out 7,000 people who have chosen to serve in the military, what is trump up to by joining this fight on the side he's taken? >> well, the twitter storm is a trans apparently fraudulent pretext. his generals didn't tell him to

do. this he said it does not affect the military. or the capacity to fiflt anyone spent on herring for transgender people, it is a teemy fraction less than 1% of what is spent on herring in the military generally. and more is spent on viagra by the armed forces than on that. >> so viagra is covered? is this a -- i know you love these one shot shooters. is the military really paying for viagra or not? >> yes. yes. >> okay. go ahead. that surprises me. >> but i think what happened here, chris, was number one, there's an appropriations bill that is going through the house that has $1.6 billion to build 60 miles of trump's wall which tells us how much the whole wall would cost. and a lot of republicans on the far right introduce an amendment saying, transgender people couldn't have any of the medical services they need to achieve their transgender status. and that amendment was voted down. some of them said, we're going to vote against the whole bill.

the wall would have gone down. they went to the white house. they went around paul ryan and they demanded the president do something about this. he did far more than they asked. they asked him to do something about the medical services. >> who is going to like what he said today and who will not like it? be clear on this. >> the religious right will like it. people who are hard core in his base will like it. when they put out the earlier today, the argument that this is really going to help them in the rust belt. the people who gary this so deeply who viet against somebody aren't going to vote against debby staub now in the first place. he is pursuing an objective that has nothing 22nd there which is the wall. it is a shameful abuse of presidential power. >> the white house says that was merely, pure lay military decision. axios is reporting that this issue had been quietly burning for months with social conservative leaders pressing

the white house on why it hadn't made a decision on this. social conservatives and a large part of the base, including many veterans and presently serving officers will be thrilled by the decision. that's what he says. i'm not sure how many people will be thrilled. by the way, who cares? who is focused on this? >> i care. i care. >> you care positively. i'm talking about the other side that will get a kick out of this. >> look, i think that's right. this is the jerry falwell crowd. they push the president. he's given in to them. i don't know if he would have if the wall had not been at stake. the idea that somehow or other they will make the a wedge issue in the rust belt states, it is preposterous. the voters in michigan and macomb koibl are not running around saying how do we keep the transgender people out of the armed forces? they're saying how do we protect

our jobs? how do we earn more? >> could it that be trump is very sophisticated and he knows you and me will yell about this and therefore he makes the case, us against the elite, against media. if he can throw up another range war with the media and liberals, progressives, he won again. that makes the people who don't like us more excited about being for him. it is not just a distraction. he wants the war to stay hot. >> i think everybody likes you so i wouldn't worry about it. >> singing my praises. i don't think that's the issue. up next, trump goes after alaska. republican senator lisa murkowski saying, she let the country down. he's getting personalful are these attacks hurting or helping? what's with him?

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back to "hardball." secretary tom price is also here today. dr. price, by the way, you're going to get the votes. he'd better get them. he'd better get them. otherwise, i'll say, tom, you're fired. >> welcome back. that was president trump on monday. joking that he would fire health and human services secretary tom price if he doesn't get the votes to repeal obamacare. anything to help him deliver on one of his top legislative promises. >> i've been here six months. i'm ready to act. i have pen in hand. believe me. i'm sitting in that office. i have pen in hand. inaction is not an option. and frankly, i don't think we should leave town unless we have

a health insurance plan. unless we can give our people great health care. >> and he's not afraid to go after members of his own party if they fail to show their loyalty to him. just this morning, prufr attacked senior senator from alaska tweeting, senator lisa murkowski really let the republicans and our country down yesterday. too bad. senator murkowski is one of two gop senators who voted against the motion to proceed on the repeal effort. and last week, senator dean heller in nevada, used one of his favorite tools in his arsenal, public humiliation. >> this was the one we're worried about. you weren't there. but you're going to be. look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn't he? okay. >> public humiliation hasn't worked just yet. the senate rejected a proposal to repeal health care without a replacement. i'm joined by bill johnson who joined president trump in youngstown, ohio, just

yesterday. i've never actually seen it. i think fdr tried this back in 1938 or so. when he went after a couple of senators he didn't like. do you think it is good politics for this president to call out because he doesn't like their votes? >> well, first of all, i was not with the president yesterday. i had votes on the the sanctions of zmouk iran. i was here in the capitol. this is the same president that got elected last flof and i don't see that he's changed his tactics. the people who elected him. especially the people in my district are refreshed, they have a president who says what he thinks. and he is not afraid to call people out when they're not helping, to do what they promised they're going to do for the last six years. which is repeal and replace a failing health care system.

that has destroyed our health care system. especially in districts like mine in ohio. >> what do you think of the seven republicans who didn't vote to repeal? >> well, they have to answer to the people that hired them. i can tell you in my state, take an they will, for example, that has pulled out of my state. we have 18th xoinlts don't have a health care provider or a health insurance carrier on the exchanges. and a third of those are in my district. and people want us to do what we said we would do and what the president said we would do. he is holding people accountable. >> if you were called to vote up or down, straight repeal. where would you vote? >> i would vote absolutely yes. is that the perfect solution? no. we have to move the ball forward, chris. this obamacare as it is is

failing. and in those 18 counties that now have no insurance carrier on the exchanges, where are the people with pre-existing conditions in those counties going to get health insurance from. >> were we better off before obamacare? >> i believe we were. >> in other words, with no national program on health care. we're better off. >> i will tell you that we knew we needed major reforms in health care. >> no. before we had a national program like obamacare. we didn't have anything before 2009. do you think we're better off -- 2010, rather. >> i think we were better off without obamacare. but we needed health care reform. >> we didn't have anything. the republicans never cooked up anything. the democrats were never able to. you're saying obamacare is worse than nothing. >> absolutely it is. because we don't want the federal government running health care. we simply don't. >> in the past year, kaiser health tracking polls have shown the affordable care act has been, has seen an increase in pop larts.

51% of voters have a favorable view while 41 have an unfavorable view. one pennsylvanian explained why he was repealing it. as much as i was against it, at this point i'm against the appeal. now that you insured an additional 20 million people, you can't take the insurance away from these people. it's just not the right thing to do. >> i wasn't elected by polls. i don't base my votes based on polls. i represent people. not polls. >> do you think people want to get rid of it? >> absolutely. the people want to get rid of it. absolutely. they've lost access. they've seen skyrocketing premiums. they don't have access to their doctors. thousands have been driven to the medicaid rolls. there's nothing available on the exchanges. >> you never hired a pollster

some. >> i hire a pollster. >> you hire them and pay for they will. if you don't believe in polls, why do you pay for them? >> you put words in my mouth. i don't represent polls. i represent people. >> why do you say the polls show obamacare more popular than unpopular don't mean anything. >> i didn't say they don't mean anything. i don't respond simply because a poll says one thing over another. what i responds to is what the people this my district say. and the people in my district who are now in six of my counties have no influence under obamacare and have seen the premiums skyrocket. they don't like it. they want us to do something. and i want to follow through. >> just to finish discussion, to clear the record. your view is that the people of your district in ohio basically would be better off before we had obamacare and would like to go back thomas a starter for anything now. >> i think the people in my district want to get rid of obamacare. they like were we've done in the

house. i'm looking forward to what comes out of the senate. >> sorry about getting that wrong. somebody told me you were at that rally yesterday. you obviously weren't. thank you for clearing it up for us. up next, does president trump think he's ready for rushmore? he says he's more presidential than anyone except abe lincoln. it's time for a getaway. the lincoln summer invitation is on. now get our best offers of the season. on the agile mkc. on the versatile midsize lincoln mkx. or go where summer takes you in the exhilarating mkz. the lincoln summer invitation sales event. ask about complimentary pick up & delivery servicing. right now get zero percent apr plus 1,000 dollars summer savings on the lincoln mkx, mkc and mkz

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welcome back. president trump made it clear last night that he won't leave it to the historians to judge his presidency. he has already determined he ranks among the best. at a campaign style rally in ohio yesterday, the president addressed criticism of his governing style that his ability to act presidential is second only to abraham lincoln. let's take a look.

>> it is much easier, by the way, to act presidential than what we're doing here tonight. believe me. and i said, with the exception of the late, great abraham lincoln, i can be more presidential than any president that has ever held this office. that i can tell you. >> i've never heard of lincoln referred to as the late great. that's usually for sportscasters. then the president raised the prospect that his face might one day be added to mt. rushmore but said the press wouldn't understand that he was just joking. was he serious? >> here's what i would do. i would ask whether or not you think i will someday be on mt. rushmore. no. here's the problem. if i did it, joking, totally

joking, having fun, the fake news media will say, he believes he should be on mt. rushmore. so i won't say it, okay? >> i think did you, sir. whether there's any truth behind his work or not, a 2009 poll conducted by 60 minutes and "vanity fair," it shows that john f. kennedy would be added if a fifth monument would be add. if you ever have a chance, go see it. it is overwhelm. i'm glad to say, the beat on msnbc, and kaitlin burns is a reporter, and ozzy is a reporter for politico. my colleague. what is trump doing here. the other night, he made a -- i would say, a troubling reference to the fact napoleon lost a battle of moscow because he had an assignation, like an illicit

date so he wasn't able to fly over from paris to moscow. in those days, we didn't even have trains. we had wagons and feet. that's how you got somewhere. what was he talking about? this is dizzying history. and talking about president lincoln. we did have fdr somewhere in the middle. he's in league with lincoln. >> i think he is so self-obsessed, the only way he knows how to give a compliment is how they measure up to him. >> does he know the other presidents? >> i don't think so. i remember christopher hitchins who talked a lot about himself and the writer said it is hard to draw a portrait in the shadow of such a large self-portrait. and that -- >> christopher did have an ego but he was also brilliant. you're so young. it's insane. i don't know if it has anything to do with age. why would anyone come pair

himself to the greatest president. most would say lincoln was the greatest president. to had bring everyone together, to they'll south, all the time with the rebel trumaoops. he could see the lights of enemy when he took office. >> if you think about having covered lots of trump rallies, there's so much theatrics involved in this. he plays to the crowd in this way. he also doesn't have any legislative, major legislative accomplishments to go back to a state that he won and say i did. this i think this sticks out to him, november 8, 2016. he repeatedly references the election. and the fact he won the election. over and over and over again. >> it was very impressive to come in second in the popular vote. >> he won. break your heart. you're counting hits. count runs.

>> i think it is a mixed -- i think it is a mixed medicalory. >> the amazing thing is he got 46%. we were talking about that today off camera. let me ask but the buffoonery of i think there are three things to worry about. one is the buffoonery. the other is we don't have an actual presidency ready. even with nixon, we had a middle east war. in the middle of watergate and all the hell going organization he saved israel. and he did the job of delivering weapons to the arms there. in this case, i'm not sure we have a ready operation. the third thing is there's nothing getting done. suppose trump was a boring president like president mondale or maybe hillary in a way. a boring trump might be worse than a wild trump. >> i think in trump's mind, attention is power. and as kaitlyn was saying no, legislative accomplishments. and as ari was saying, the only way trump understands the world is solely through himself.

things only exist in relation to him. the idea of being presidential is also, forehim, that's sibon must with being weak. when he says being presidential is easy. what he is signaling is that it is weak. he doesn't do anything that requires sustained effort. that requires sacrifice. >> trump often cites history to exaggerate his own achievements. the only thing is he usually gets his facts wrong. earlier this month he claimed he had signed more bills than any other u.s. president. >> 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 legislation, than any president ever. for a while, harry truman had us. now i think we have everybody. i'd better say think. otherwise they'll give you a

pinocchio. i don't like pinocchios. >> well, stop earning they will. "the new york times" and others were quick to correct the record saying trump has signed fewer bills than any recent president. i just think that ozzy just said something pretty brilliant. attention is power. every movement occurs, trump who is the dominate. calling somebody little marco or attack hillary or making some absurd historic event. an historic claim or going after transgender people. as long as he's the topic, he thinks he's winning. >> this is not a policy presidency. it is a content presidency. richard haas said it in the 60s. there's interest politics, do gooders, people who say how will health care boring. that's a great thing. and then there's status politics. if you're interested in status and you see him as an icon of

the people. it doesn't matter what he does. the content is the story. >> that tie of his makes a big statement. >> quickly. do you agree? attention is power? >> trump thinks of himself as his own historic figure. he ran against over president. he ran against obama, against the clintons, the bushes. he sees himself as his own element. it is ratings. >> this is "hardball." so you miss the big city? i don't miss much... definitely not the traffic. excuse me, doctor... the genomic data came in. thank you. you can do that kind of analysis? yeah, watson. i can quickly analyze millions of clinical and scientific reports to help you tailor treatment options for the patient's genomic profile. you can do that? even way out here? yes. even way out here. hey. what can you tell me about your new social security alerts? oh! we'll alert you if we find

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congressman steve scalise has been discharged from the hospital. he was critically wounded last month when a gunman opened fire at baseball practice. a statement said the congressman will now begin rehabilitation. every one here at "hardball" wishes him a full recovery. take the zantac it challenge! pill works fast? zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. when heartburn strikes, take zantac for faster relief than nexium or your money back.

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nitrites or artificial ham has preservatives.tes, now it's good for us all. like those who like. sweet those who prefer heat. sfx - a breath of air and those who just love meat. oscar mayer deli fresh. sweet! we're back with the "hardball" roundtable. ari, my colleague. >> my esteemed colleague. >> tell me something i don't know. >> they said travel ban would be a fly-day pause to come up with a fuller immigration policy. look for the president to column empty handed. no actual wholistic policy. >> lots of -- lots of palace intrigue in the white house. who is leaving, who is staying. my colleague scoop that had the white house, may actually be

under construction next month. everybody will have to leave the building. >> who will get sacked? >> we'll see. is reince priebus gone? >> among presidents of mt. rushmore, the most quotes from abraham lincoln including one that says a friend is one who has the same enemies you have. trump knows maybe something about history but he cares about certain quotes. >> somebody else knew it because there it was on the screen. there you go. thank you. [ dog whimpers ]

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trump watch wednesday july 26, 2017. donald trump doesn't mind casualties. he doesn't mind leaving political bodies along the road if he can get where he wants to go. he dumped paul manafort, chris christie. he is based on his rap sheet about to dump jeff sessions. along the way today he announced the 7,000 transgender people now serving in the u.s. military forces. did he so because would it give him street cred with his base. as the godfather said, it is just business. the business trump has chosen. when it comes to defending his real estate on pennsylvania avenue, he will treat even his people like small potatoes. that's "hardball" for now.

thanks for being with us. tonight -- >> i am disappointed in the attorney general. >> the president continues his attack on his own attorney general and now his acting fbi director. >> i think the president is disappointed. >> tonight donald trump's latest assault on the rule of law. growing fears of a slow motion saturday night massacre. then did the president just ban transgender service members so he could pay for a wall with mexico? plus, mitch mcconnell's final push to bait-and-switch his own caucus. >> i think you're going to have a great health care. >> when "all in" starts right now. >> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. it is beginning to look like to borrow a phrase from the watergate scandal, a saturday night