try to get a new plan to repeal obamacare passed today. they will vote on independent health care reform measures that if passed would likely be cobbled together in some sort of skinny repeal bill. >> i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside louis burgdorf and ayman mohyeldin. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." we've seen plenty of chaos but it may now have reached its pinnacle. it has now expanded to the west wing taking on the department of justice. and anthony scaramucci referred chief of sta chief of staff reince priebus

over to the fbi for a possible leak of his forms. >> we have president of the council offn foreign relations, richard haas, national political reporter for nbc news carol lee, political editor for "the daily beast" and nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt. does anybody here know who gary kasparov is? he's spent years speaking out against vladimir putin. he knows a thing or two about

oug autocrats. "who do my supporters hate?" . he was responding to donald trump's tweets yesterday. it was as kasparov called it, an autocratic distraction, calculated red meat, a cynical attempt to distract, from his failure to get a health bill passed and the ongoing investigation closing in on himself on family. this morning the west wing continues to put pressure on the justice department with the vice president now standing behind his boss as very public criticism of the attorney general. vice president mike pence says

time will tell whether jeff sessions has a future in the administration. >> the washington way is to tlkk behind people's backs. one of the great things about this president is you always know where you stand. his express disappointment here is very sincere. he said we'll see what happens in the future. at least the american people know and every member of the cabinet can know you'll always know where you stand with president trump. >> "the washington post" discussed that president trump talked about installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment. the white house responded "more fake news from the amazon "washington post" referring to the newspaper's ownership. last night the chairman of the senate judiciary committee isn't

the white house a clear message about the prospects for hearings regarding replacement. republican chuck grassley tweeting that "everybody in d.c. should be warned that the agenda for the judiciary committee is set for rest of 2017, judges first, attorney general meaning jeff sessions, no way." sarah huckabee sanders said the attorney general was there for other reasons. >> the attorney general was here for other meetings and did not see the president when he was here. i think the president is very clear about where he is. he's disappointed but he wants the attorney general to focus on

things the attorney general does. he want him to focus on immigration leaks. >> if the attorney general launches a leak probe, would that help his status with the president? >> i don't think that's the nature of the relationship. i don't think there's anything more to add beyond at this point. >> it seems this has all unfolded as the president first sought to undermine the judiciary and now is seeking to undermine the attorney general himself. it feels like some might argue that the president thinks the -- he actually thinks the attorney general is his lawyer. is that what you're seeing? what does he think of the role of the attorney general? because his disappointment points to personal support versus working for the country.

>> it's a complicated and nuanced for any president but for somebody who has never served in government, it's difficult to get used to. he or she is different than any other member of the cabinet. he's cornered on this. now he's put himself in a bad position. the attorney general is not going to unroo cues himself, probably can't be replaced in any practical way out creating a fire form and the repeated criticism is occupying anything -- >> his attacks on the torng were really one after the other. man, jeff sessions is that it seems amazing the president would tweet his disappointment again and again.

kasie hunt? >> yesterday i ran into bernie sanders and who said, look, i didn't vote for jeff sessions but this is a crisis. and republicans are defending him across the board and privately saying, look, there's just no way we have any interest in confirming nor attorney general if the president ousts jeff sessions. and that tweet from chuck grassley, grassley has shown a real willingness to sort of stick himself finger in the white house's eye. this is a definitive statement exercising the power he has to say no way. woof been back and forth on that for yoors. the senate is simply going to stay in information lost

lawsuits trying to got these appointments through the senate. i don't see this as an option unle unless. >> his latest yesterday morning attacked both the attorney general, jeff sessions, and the acting director of the fbi. quote, why didn't attorney general sessions replace acting fbi director andrew mccabe? a comey friend in charge of the clinton investigation but got big dollars, $700,000 for his wife's political run from hillary clinton and her representatives. drain the swamp. so is jeff sessions the swamp? but there are several factual errors. jeff sessions was not the attorney general when the fbi was vgting clinton. jeff sessions said he would

recuse himself pr before he was conformed. andrew mccabe had an oversight role but was by no means in charge of it. and whool he received support from terry mcauliffe, he was not the largest par tess pant. nk, it seems to me the president has really shot himselfthe but the bottom loon is he has insulted the very people who have supported him all along, starting with jeff sessions, who is very popular, especially in himself home state, didn't need donald trump to within himself

home state and does not need drft's today. he's a talked the one guy that the swamp locks ands that trump as on baesline. >> it's truly. >> it's the one guy who took a chance on hip. i think it important to step bag and a for he's mad at sessions for not shutting down an investigation. it's astonishing it's all jubs text and not subtext. >> also because he's so obsessed with his base, add to that to what could be the number one possibility, what he's done along the way is undermine the very man who is supporting him from the very againing who

really i think helped connect him with he is base. those base really respect sessions? most people respect jeff sessions whether or not they agree or disagree with him. it seems like a massive fumble with a pathetic attempt to distract. >> we've seen people peck fights with a number of people that he relishes and, whether it's on many grags or the or issues he campaigned on. it's a very odd target for him to peacekeeper and one doesn't seem to be sustainable. >> and richard haas prks the president continue it session

who he blames for kuzing himself froms russia investigation, which mitch mcconnell and or republicans say was the right ethical decision and the said to the president "i would do the right thing and radar loop kuz myself from the russian investigation" before he appointed him, he wouldn't have picked him. it's incredible. and there's rod rosenstein, a career justice department employee nominated by republicans, including himself, he appointed a special counsel and trump has questioned his integrity by stating publicly there trump says mueller can't

be trusted because who interviewed to be foob director. acting federal budget director, andrew mccab who is described as in charge of the clinton investigation. richard haas, the russia vgs he some to be putting down people and blackly. >> what it do is roo you would let the investigation go ahead. and you could say i it copit has

other federal courts so o fay f you've got hundreds if not thousands of positions still open in this administration. if this is the way the person puerto ricans puerto ricansin and it seems look he's slapping himself pace right in the face. >> i guess it does. i like richard as point. there is a problem with staffing that comes from this. if you're going to demand loyalty from the people who were the most loyal people on your cam pan, what message does that spend to pr expectative hires? it's have difficult to make sense of this. the one thing that i can gather -- well, there's two things. one is that trump likes a show.

it seems very much out of a chapter out of the apprentice. the or thing is thoo trump but also for people currently in office that if you get too close to him with respect to the russian investigation, he will make your life miserable. i think that's not a have subtle directive, it not a subtle message at all. i don't think he wants it to be subtle. this he want people to know you better be on his team dpoing himself bidding or heand if you look at sort of the shows he's produced, think he's playing the wrong person on the show. if you're losing raspberry

because you prove if then kind of lose out on your bass by plal and mash halperin, who the base really respects, isn't oo playing the prn end fired instead of being the person where he says, o. >> do you think it might be that oious because he'll stop -- >> this morning the wall street editorial board all say this is a bad idea. and i have reason we'll see probably while i'm speaking he's tweeting about the attorney general but think that's going to stop. >> for example, these are the

american people o voted him into office and they are smart people. they wouldn't imagine that the president just decide to tweet today something supportive of jeff sessions that they would fall for that. i mean, that would be the president treating them like they're -- >> he's done so many things since he's got elected -- he turned the government over to goldman sacks. >> he also as a way of just company so you -- this is so obvious yesterday, we're not covering it. it's a des tracks. the story is jeff sessions, russia, jared kushner, the story is donald trump. the store is the failure of hack. these are the sr and causing his

on had your canadian inside the white house. you can't distract the base and america from the real story with that sore. >> i would have thought the president would have thought that jeff sessions was going to resign. in his previous life the president would have been able to get rid of the equivalent of jeff sessions. i think what this is is another lesson in government, that when you're president, you may be first among equals but you do not have all the authority and all the power in washington. he has a political base that is somewhat independent. this is, again, the president is going through a series of lessons about governing 1301 and i think this is the most recent message. >> it's one joe always talks about, washington always wins. still ahead on "morning joe o ", mitch mcconnell wants his caucus

to focus on health care. plus, the new white house communications director reportedly threatens the chief of staff over leaks saying the fbi over leaks. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. chances are, the last time you got a home loan, you got robbed. i know-- i got a loan 20 years ago,

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the reported tensions between the president's incoming communications director and his chief of staff are spilling out into the open. it comes after political reported what it calls anthony scaramucci's financial forms.

sca scaramucci tweeted "in light of the leak of my financial disclosure info, which is a fell any, i will be contacting the fbi." then came this tweet from "new yorker's" ryan lizza. and then from phillip rucker, "i'm told tonight there's a reason mooch tagged reince on fbi leak. >> and scaramucci tweeted

"wrong" and contradicts what he said earlier in the day. >> what i'm discoughikof -- discovering that the older people are responsible for the leaks and they're getting the newer people to do their leaking. i'm going to hermetically seal those. >> his allies believe a series of stories, a lot in the "new york post" came from reince

priebus's office. they have been going at it from the earliest days of the administration on the question of leaks and this is a return of some bad blood from much earlier in this administration. >> sam stein, this seems constructive. >> there are so many layers to this story that make it objectively hilarious. one that his financial disclosure form is a public document. it didn't require a leak of any sort. i'm more shocked from the fact that we're getting leaks from the white house about their anti-leaking strategy. there's various layers to pull back from here. it's tough to figure out whether this is all deliberate or these people don't actually know what they're doing. >> it's against the law to leak

classified information. >> there's nothing classified. it's not against the law to leak gossip about leaking in the white house. so the whole thing is kind of ridiculous. the good news is it plays out on twit are right in front of us so you don't have to guess. it's a live so opera on twitter. >> anthony scaramucci, has he undergone somewhat of a transformation since he's joined the trump administration or is this what he's like? >> this is what he's like, this is his personality. he is guy who just like donald trump, being himself. >> downhe not car for donald

trump for some time and were some of his ideas fairly progressive? >> that's true of a lot of people in the administration. >> he's a former hedge fund guy. on top of that, he had his own tv show. in common with trump is the idea of being a showman. i think one of the things that trumps like about him is he's good on tv, he's sort of a warrior. i think he was pebd for his experience of fighting on t haven't, being good on tv and being a good spokesman for himself and for others. >> he gets branding and television. those are two things donald trump cares a lot about. >> he's taken the infighting we've seen for months and put it it out in the open. the other thing i would say is he's been there for less than a week. didn't he say he wasn't going to start for a few weeks because he

needed o get his financial con flbs of interest in check? and here he is. >> gives you a whole new meaning to can't be suld, where an orderly process can't be assumed. this administration didn't invent the idea of leaking but history suggests it's directly coral lated, to the extent people do not trust the process, they don't believe the process is fair and orderly and predict a are. we're back in a moment. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me,

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33 past the hour. joining us now, columnist at "the washington examiner,"

kristen saltis-sanderson. we want to connect the dots, the undermining of his attorney general, senator jeff sessions. a white house official told time magazi magazine's zek miller said they are thrilled the media is focusing on transgender service member issue. no trade deals to boast about torng jeabout about attorney general jeff sessions is most successful at implementing the policy that trump promised.

he backed off investigations into the police departments and said he would restore mandatory minimum sentences. and in response to all of this, the tweets about transgender troops and president trump seems to be turning up the conservative rhetoric on the menace of undocumented immigrants at his recent rallies as well. >> you've soeen the stories abot some of these animals. they don't want to use guns because it's too fast and it's not painful enough. so they'll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15 and others and they slice them and dies them with a knife because they want them to go through

excruciating pain before they die. and these are the animals that we've been protecting for so long. well, they're not being protected any longer, folks. kristen, i guess first of all, do those dots connect at all from your perspective? >> well, it's certainly unusual that the president out of nowhere would pounce or or create this issue about transgender people in the military. this was an issue that began as a small debate on capitol hill about a funding provision, whether the defense budget would pay for certain type of surgeries for transgender servicemen and women. the pentagon was caught off guard. i think this is bad policy but what's worse is it's bad policy

that appear to be made for a political reason. and it true that jeff sessions has been the most effective cabinet member for implementing trump's agenda. most of the items that have been implemented divide the party. for example confiscating property from those who who are charged with a crime but have not been found guilty. some of the ones that are a necessa

necessary, it seems as if he's saying no, no, i'm still on your side. >> then again he attacks jeff sessions. of course the base will remember his past tweets on this, you that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs. here's and any scaramucci. he wrots "yacht potus history." what do you think is going on here? >> he was extraordinarily pro gay rights at the republican convention and yesterday we saw the prospect more trump whiplash, warn hatch, chuck grassley outflanking the president on the left as being more pro gay rights than he is.

i can't really see the decision. the processwhich he did it was completely unorthodox, those who are currently in the military, what they do. about even as a ditracks, it's not particularly effective. >> no, it's pretty weak. kenneth starr writes m "the washington post," "mr. president, please cut it out." tweets to -- tweet to your heart's content but stop the wildly inappropriate attacks on the attorney general, an honorable man who i've known since his days hooses ently

become mr. president, for the sake of the country and for your own legacy, please listen to the grow but by upholding the traditions of a national it seems he may have misfired just a judge here. long time tra dgs of independence in the department of justice and how you have a

and that is not at all how the system is supposed to work. and that is within tn it. it's the breakdown of these institutions. >> can you imagine you're serving in the u.s. military, you're on the ground in a place like iraq or syria and you learn about this new policy through a tweet? through through a tweet? and this was done allegedly in the name of readiness. can you imagine anything that would distract more from readiness? nobody is not only not think about them but how this would be implemented. >> or that it's even official policy. >> this is bad and it's wrong. >> and, kristen, given the fact that your expertise is in fact polling, do you think that

especially members of the president's base, do you think they'll be impacted bit president undermining jeff sessions so terribly and so repetitively over the course of days? >> there's a chance. donald trump's numbers don't have much lower to go. he's already got most people who are not part of his core base already kind of skeptical of this presidency. but certainly if you're going to lose folks, it's the conservative part of the party where he really needs those folks to stay on board. these are folks in the mid-term elections are going to be critical, that they want beem in washington that are going to support this president and help him get himself agenda. do you risk just adding to sense that washington's in total disarray, that none of them can agree or get anything done and therefore why would i as a conservative father, why would i bother sending people to washington to support this

president or support this congress? more dysfunction i think can breed more disillusionment at exactly the time when conservatives are going to need their base energized to turn out in those mid terms. >> it's really confounding. >> thank you so much. up next when the president started tweeting about the military yesterday, the pentagon was apparently concerned that he was about to declare war on north korea on twitter we'll talk about a world ins did array next with richard haas. ♪

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secretary of state rex tillerson is looking to shoot down rumors he's looking to make his exit from the trump administration. reports say he could resign from his position by the holidays or sooner over reported frustrations with donald trump,

including his comments over jeff sessions. tillerson addressed the speculation on his future yesterday during a photo-op with the qatari foreign minister. >> reporter: how long are you staying for? >> as long as the president lets me. >> reporter: how is your relationship with the president right now? >> it's good. >> and, richard haas, he met with the qatari foreign minister. what's your position? >> he's in a difficult position. with qatar, the secretary of state has been out there shall we say on his own trying to negotiate and it's impossible. and there's the larger issue if you're rex till atillerson. the president tells foreign

leaders he's the go-to guy and undermines your authority. and he hasn't helped himself, focusing on, what, reorganizing the state department. so why he's not trying to get people to fill important positions it be fair, he's in a terrible situation but he's actually exacerbated it. >> if you pull out 20,000, 30,000 miles and look at the world and how it is seeing this administration, you have the president's son-in-law who i think is 34 years old and has absolutely zero foreign policy experience, someone correct me in i'm wrong, put in the center of middle east peace and a lot of these mang russian meetings,

he's either his job. how does that look from the outside looking in? >> you got the answer in your question. >> it looks horrible. >> and the rest of the world is beginning to discount us. what we're doing is moving to what fareed zakaria once called the post american world. it's less because of the rise of the rest. it's more because of our own decline. we are doing this to ourselves. we're taking ourselves out of our traditional role that has worked for no less than 70 years. we're pulling back. there's no one out there who can fill our shoes. this is going to become a far messy world. the disarray in the world and the disarray in washington are feeding on each other. and the fact that the united states is no longer willing and able to lead the world means the world will begin to unravel. which, by the way, will affect

us. we can't build a giant mote around the united states. we can't insulate ourselves from problems in the middle east. this administration is feeding a situation that will actually come back to bite us. >> i know that mccaster and mattis said they want to stay in their lane and get as much done as they can, but i don't understand why these people along with rex tillerson who probably have the most influence, do something about the president's behavior before this administration literally crumbles. >> i think they need a joint intervention. you have the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, secretary of homeland security. they should basically insist on a degree of process. tweets or white house statements, they should not go out unilaterally. you can't have formal meetings with the security council. there was one and then the president changed the language in nato. you can't insist on always getting the policy you want, but

you can insist on a degree of professionalism and proceed and discipline. this would save the president from himself. this is not working for him. >> it would also seem like north korea would be the event or the issue that should create a process like that. >> it should be the story. >> i know -- men my father worked with, men and women, this would never hold. meanwhile, the pentagon says that pyongyang will be able to launch a reliable nuclear capable icbm as early as next year. cutting two years off the previous estimate and britain and australia are now urging china to do more to persuade north korea to drop its nuclear missile programs. as you said, carol lee, these are serious times. >> the window on -- for action on north korea is closing much more suddenly than anybody predicted. china is not going to solve this. china wants a divided korean

peninsula. we have now been facing up to extraordinarily consequential decisions on whether we live with a north korea that can directly threaten us or whether we're going to try to do things which could be just as consequential in terms of a second korean war. the time for deciding things has boiled down to months, not years. >> it's a much more complicated issue than, say, afghanistan, where you've seen this white house incapable of coming to some sort of solution. it's not a simple problem, but it's certainly less -- carries less urgency. it's less of a crisis and less complicated than something like north korea which has widespread consequences. if they can't do it there, it raises questions on whether they can do it in north korea. >> coming up, the vice president has a way to spin the take on jeff sessions into something of a positive. we'll have that and more on the,

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has been. but we know that moving beyond the failures of obama care is the right thing to do. we put a lot of hard work already into this. we've had important successes like we saw with the vote to proceed yesterday. we have to keep up the work now so we can get this done. >> in just a few hours we'll get a better idea of what the republicans can cobble together their caucus and come to aconsensus on health care. chuck schumer says his party will have no part of it, even though some democrats came armed with hundreds of amendments. welcome back to "morning joe." it's thursday, july 27th. joe has the morning off. with us we have senior political analyst for nbc news and mnbc mark hallparen. richard haas, national political reporter for nbc news, carol lee, sam st ein, kasie hunt, and

robert costa. good to have you all on board this hour. the west wing continues to put pressure on the justice department with the vice president now standing behind his boss's very public criticism of the attorney general, jeff sessions. mike pence says time will tell whether jeff sessions has a future in the administration. >> i know the washington way is to talk behind people's backs. but that's not president trump's approach. one of the great things about this president is you always know where you stand. his express disappointment is sincere. he said we'll see what happens in the future, but at least the american people know, and every member of the cabinet can know you'll always know where you stand can president trump. >> and jeff sessions stands on a very bad place, especially after being so loyal to the president for so long during the campaign. he's now on the outs with the

president. "the washington post" reports that president trump has discussed with con if i daunts and advisors the possibility of firing him and installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment. the white house responded to the reports stating, more fake news from amazon washington post referring to the newspaper's ownership. both the post and "the new york times" are reporting aides have warned him about the legal ramifications. then the white house was sent a clear message about the prospects for hearings regarding a replacement. chuck grassley tweeting everybody in d.c. should be warned the agenda for the judiciary committee is set for the rest of 2017. judges first. sub cabinet second. a.g., meaning the attorney general, no way. jeff sessions kept out of the public eye yesterday and was later spotted at the white house. though press secretary sarah

huckabee sanders made clear he was there for other business. >> the attorney general was here for other meetings, not with the president. it was a principals committee meeting and did not see the president while he was here. i think the president has been very clear about where he is. he's 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. he wants to do that strongly. he wants him to to kwfocus on t like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues. i think that's his focus at this point. >> if the attorney general launches a leak proebe, would that help his status with the president? >> i don't think that's the nature of the relationship. i think the president is disappointed. i don't think there's anything more to add beyond that at this point. >> sarah huckabee sanders brings up a great point.

she talks about the nature of the relationship. mark, under normal circumstances, what is the job of the attorney general of america in. >> to represent the united states. that person is the people's lawyer. there are times when they have to interact with the president, particularly post 9/11. the skrus tis department and fbi do so much in terms of national security. there's an operational team there. when it comes to criminal investigations, anti-trust investigations, things like that, it's supposed to be more arm's length, but that's not the kind of relationship donald trump has ever dealt with. >> so bob costa, if you could take this to the next level, sarah huckabee sanders also made a good point talking about the nature of the relationship. can you explain the nature of the relationship between jeff sessions, very supported by the base, by donald trump's base? it's very important to him, and

the job that he's doing now, and what the president exactly is upset about that jeff sessions has done or not done? i want to make sure that jives with the actual job with the attorney general of the united states. >> reporter: this relationship has had two main phases. the campaign and the presidency. when i was in mobile, alabama two years ago, i saw then senator sessions form this bond with candidate trump, talking through immigration policy, hard-line policies they both shared and they really were on the fringe to the gop and they brought the views to the center. but ever since president trump took office and especially since that day in early march when the attorney general decided to recuse himself, it has been an unending nightmare for jeff sessions. the fury of a president, public grousing, private complaints. that has remained the problem. the president has felt vulnerable that he doesn't have

his kind of ally inside the justice department. and there are questions inside the party about whether that perspective from the president about wanting an ally is appropriate. >> okay. and just to remind everybody, this does not include what the president said in his interview with the wall street journal or also the news conference with the leader of lebanon but he tweeted this. these are some of the president's statements about attorney general jeff sessions. ukrainian efforts to sabotage trump campaign quietly working to boost clinton. so where is the investigation attorney general? attorney general jeff sessions has taken a very weak position on hillary clinton crimes. we where are e-mails and dnc servers. here's another tweet where the president attacks jeff sessions. why didn't attorney general sessions replace acting fbi director andrew mccabe, but got big dollars for his wife's

political run from hillary clinton and her representatives? drain the swamp. he is definitely not a fan of jeff sessions. maybe he should fire them. maybe that would be better for the president if he'd be more comfortable with his attorney general. >> it's not his attorney general, for one thing. second, if he fires him, he needs to find a new a.g. or the deputy a.g. as the acting a.g. chuck grassley said there's not room for a nomination. the second is a recess appointment. the president could block it. i think the bigger problem here, honestly, i think often the president is all tactics and no strategy. he lives in the day. he does the things that makes sense right now in the day. he does not always think about three or four or five steps down the road. what's the end game for the course of action he's chartered.

i think we're seeing it now with sessions? . >> the press and a lot of democrats have looked at the tolerance of republicans. how can they do this? i believe the most significant aspect of this is that republicans in congress will not put up with this. they're already at their wit's end. now what he's done in terms of sessions, they're running the risk of alienating republicans and affecting commerce. >> they're being very embarrassed on many levels. >> reporter: just to add to mark's point. it's not only republicans on capitol hill who rerisks -- he risks infuriating. it's the conservative base, even the populous base. >> what do you mean if? he has gone after him. he has eviscerated him publicly, shamed him. >> reporter: couldn't agree more. i think if he moves forward with an actual firing, you could see some revolt on the right.

in the breitbart wing of the republican party, sessions is, for nearly a decade, the hero, and if you take out the hero from the cabinet, you'll have perhaps a political cost. >> fascinating. >> "the wall street journal's" editorial board writes about trump's session's abuse. mr. trump's suggestion that his the attorney general prosecuted his defeated opponent is the kind of crude political. mr. sessions had no way of knowing when he accepted the a.g. job that the russian probe would become the fire storm it has or that his belated memory of brief public meetings with the russian ambassador in 2016 would require his recusal from supervising the probe. he was right to step back once facts were out. not the least to shelter the trump administration from any suspicion of a politicized investigation.

if mr. trump wants someone to blame for the existence of special counsel robert mueller, he can pick up a mirror. mr. trump prides himself as a man above political convention, but there are some conventions he can't ignore without destroying his presidency, and kasey, republicans on capitol hill are -- i would -- i would contend they might be at a risk at this point if they don't take a look at what's happening here and decide whether or not they want to go their own way. >> i think we may be at that point. how often are "the washington post" wrote an editorial that sounded a lot like what you just read. when the editorial pages are on the same page, that's pretty surprising. and look, i think i have been surprised by the just complete directness with which republicans have been going at this issue private slly, public. it doesn't compare to other situations where you get people walking onto the subway train

and the capital saying i don't comment on the president's tweet. their commenting. the republican agenda is already mostly stalled. if the president goes through with an actual firing of the attorney general, i think you could see open warfare between the president own his party. we've seen him apologize for him be it concerned or afraid of the forces that put him in office. i think they are very clear about where -- how they feel about jeff sessions and this situation. >> sam? >> i suppose i agree. but i want to see what happens with the vote on health care today. there is an underlying thread through all of this which is that trump as richard alluded to in the last block, feels like he always should get his way, and when it comes to jeff sessions, that means having jeff sessions unrecuse himself from this probe, or badgering him publicly for that recusal. when it comes to the transgender

ban that was announced hastily, it's making military policy without consultanting the department of defense. when it comes to health care, there's a story today that the interior department was threatening the alaska senators for lisa murkowski's vote against health care reform. the pattern is the same. trump and by extension his cabinet feel lake they can and always should get their way and they're willing to badger people until they do. i'm a little hesitant to say that it's going to create open warfare. i want to see what happens today for health care. >> when you look at the case that's being made to the president inside of the white house, his top advisors are telling him based in my reporting, don't just refuse to fire him because we don't want to have this public spectacle of the president firing another top law enforcement officer. resist doing it, they're telling him, because he is the most

reliable cabinet official in terms of enforcing the president's immigration policies, law enforcement policies. he actually believes in trumpism, or this kind of nationalism, hard line conservatism. and he's following through on it on many fronts. if he goes, they say, don't think your views are suddenly going to be pushed throughout the government. >> goodness, richard, it seems so self-destructive. >> it's interesting you say that. "the wall street journal," let me quote three sentences. a sitting president is not a one man show. he needs allies and allies to governor. his treatment of jeff sessions. i think the highlights the difference between governoring and what worked for him to be counterproductive now. >> there's nothing jeff sessions could do on the russia investigation because he's recused. and if he quit, it would be

horrible for the president. >> i know, and you can't untweet things. i think scaramucci disagrees. he thinks if you delete your tweets you didn't say it. you did say it and now you're hiding it. and now the president, can he unsay everything he's said on camera and in his twitter accounts about jeff sessions? he has humiliated the man. he's totally, completely undermined his attorney general. it's just flabbergasting. >> it's strengthened him, though. >> jeff sessions? well, that's the thing. jeff sessions doesn't need donald trump. >> this is as popular in washington as he's been in a long time. he's always had supporters in senate. you have democrats supporting him now who voted against him for attorney general. in a certain sense, this is as good as it gets for him. >> it's made him bigger and stronger and more supported on both sides of the aisle. i guess he can thank the

president. >> and it's shown weaknesses in the president. >> he didn't kill the king here. >> i don't understand. today senate republicans take a stab at dismantling obama care after failing to pass anything yesterday. in the afternoon the senate rejected a repeal option that would have provided a two-year delay of implementation. the vote was 45-55 with 7 republicans oh posing the. a similar bill passed in 2017 but was vetoed by president obama. later in the day they decided to block a democratic measure that would order lawmakers to return to health care bill to committee. when the senate returns this morning, will will be ten more hours of debate followed by a so-called vote-a-rama. senators will be able to offer amendments to be voted on without debate. while democratic senators chris

murphy and jeff merkley said they have 100 documents to offer, chuck schumer may have thrown a wrench into their plans last night. >> since the beginning of this debate, we've just been taking votes on amendments to a piece of dead legislation. what kind of process is this? until we see the real bill, democrats will offer no further amendments. >> all right. well, democrats may not be offering any amendments. the senate is still expected to vote on individual health care measures. that may be cobbled together into what's being called a skinny repeal. that option is being criticized by a group of ten bipartisan governors who are calling on democrats and republicans to work together on health care reform. c kasie hunt, what's the best hope here for anybody, especially republicans. >> look, it's a mess at this point. and i think everyone is

acknowledging behind the scenes that's the case. they can't get these votes together, and, look, republicans are taking all kinds of -- sam mentioned that we lisa murkow i murkowski, the senators from alaska are getting calls from the trump administration, threatening them over their votes. lamaring a ek sander from tennessee, he voted no on that 2015 repeal. in his statement he said i don't think americans trust congress to repeal this and then take two years to put it back just like a pilot wouldn't take off without a plan, and then risk crashing. so they are looking for something, anything that they can call a win here today. but it's looking like they may not even get that far. the individual mandate, if they were to repeal that, there's a lot of concerns it would just break the individual insurance market. and they'd go nowhere. maybe they'll repeal a medical device tax. that's something that everyone can agree on. but i think, look, republicans

are tired of this. they're worn out. i think everybody is looking for a little bit of a break, and the next 24 hour are going to be pretty long. >> bob costa, how could this happen? republicans are in charge. they've been talking about repeal and replace for how many years? >> since 2010. it's been nearly a decade of promises and pledges from republican leaders that they're going to uproot this law, but this law has become rooted in many of these states. if you look at recent comments from former speaker boehner, former majority leader cantor, they have been quite candid in saying they thought the anger of the republican base could help lift them to electoral success in 2010 and 2014, and they really never confronted the base about the reality of what is actually possible should they ever win power back in congress and at the white house. and they're now facing this dilemma of having made this pledge, trying to check that box, but so many governors

including republicans are saying we want to have less disruption in our health care systems. we want to keep the medicaid expansion. maybe try to get rid of some regulations and taxes, but beyond that, this whole idea of full repeal, it's pretty much dead in the eyes of republicans i talked to privately. >> wow. >> they're the dog that caught the car, really. i mean, at some point reality was going to catch up to republicans in that they had to legislate a repeal and replace plan. if you step back for a second, there is something truly remarkable happening. there has not been one public hearing on a bill that could revamp one sixth of the u.s. economy. we don't actually know what the bill is that they're going to vote for, and we have less than 24 hours to go. there was a cbo estimate that suggests that the plan that they're going to vote on would result in 16 million people uninsured. we don't know the plan. there's a very real chance that they will actually go ahead and get the 50 votes to pass this

thing. this is a very weird, i would say arguably, irresponsible way for going about legislating health care. and the truth of the matter is that they might actually pull it off. >> that's incredible. robert costa, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," last week anthony scaramucci referred to reince priebus as a dear friend. yesterday he seemed to accuse him of committing a felony. we'll go live to the white house where the new communications director is certainly making a splash. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. a millie dresselhaus doll! happy birthday, sweetie! oh, millies. trick or treat! we're so glad to have you here. ♪ what if we treated great female scientists like they were stars? ♪

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>> one of the big problems here i'm discovering is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking and they ask junior people to leak for them. and so i'm very proud to be reporting directly to the president so like in i can seal off the team from this sort of

nonsense. >> a son he never had. incoming white house communications director, scaramucci talking last night about his plan to put a seal around the cokom's office and sp the leaks around the white house. joining us kristen welker. anthony scaramucci seems to be suggesting one of his co-workers is behind what haes calling a leak about himself. it's all about anthony. >> he has made this his top priority to crack down on the leakers. let me take you back to the original tweet that spark third down fire storm overnight anthony scaramucci tweet act the disclosure of his financial disslow sure form. he says in light of the leak of my financial info, which is a felony, i will be contacting the fbi, hash tag, drain the swamp.

and he tagged reince priebus. he's walking that back. overnight he said no, that's not what i was doing. i was just making the case that the top people within this administration are also trying to crack down on leaks. then in an interview moments ago he said look, i'm not trying to point the finger at reince priebus. if he wants to explain that he's not a leaker, he can do that. he also made this interesting point which he says people inside the administration are effectively trying to bring down president trump. so he wants to find those people and root them out. i've been talking to anthony scaramucci. i said how are you going to get rid of the leakers. he said he's willing to fire every single person in the comm's department. it's a tough backdrop. people keeping their heads down and doing their jobs. there's no doubt there's concern

they may be blamed for something they didn't do. again, walking tobacco fact that he was directly pointing the finger at reince priebus. trying to make the case it's lower level people who are leaking. >> nbc's kristen welker, thank you very much. i would say mark, is the concern here that anthony scaramucci might want to be concerned about leaks about the president and about the administration and not about himself, that if it's all about anthony, that could be a dangerous place to go? >> well, yes. look, anthony scaramucci is the first communications director in the history of this country who does not report to the white house chief of staff. he reports directly to the both. i don't think he would have taken the job if he reported to reince priebus. they blocked scaramucci from a job in the beginning of the

administration through prileaki negative information to the new york post. that history is the predicate to a situation now where those two are despite saying they're friends, fighting for supremacy. their camps believe only one person will survive this fight. what happened the last 24 hours is the latest manifestation of anthony and his allies trying to completely marginalize reince priebus? . >> what does this have to do with the president's agenda? >> that's a great question. it's about the food fight internally. i think what kind of puzzles me as a reporter is that anthony is blaming the junior press staff for leaks. as a reporter, i would not go to the deputy or a press secretary to get a leak about the white house. the reason the white house -- the reason the white house is leaking is because the president likes a format that he goes around chains of command. because he talks to lots and

lots of people all the time on his cell phone who are outside the white house. >> who does? >> this the president. >> oh. >> the leaks are a function of the way the president does business. and you can't stop the leaks by firing some junior press secretaries. >> what little structure exists in this administration is in the chief of staff's office. reince priebus has a normal flow of paperwork, but he's one of the least powerful chief of staffs and people like bannon and scaramucci are stepping in to say we want more of the power and influence, the chief of staff would have less, and some of them would like to see them go. the president's agenda, if reince priebus goes, the question of who is going to provide structure is a big question. the others aren't big on structure smcht. >> is it defamation or a lower level version of that is use a

position in the white house to publicly accuse someone of a felony when they did not commit a felony? >> is there history for that? >> no. i'm wondering what it is. isdefamation? it seeps dirty and destructive. >> it's like "game of thrones" but with more viciousness. >> yes. >> mark was saying the people he's criticizing implicitly in his press officer are mostly reince's people. they came with reince from the rnc. it makes me wonder whether it's more about the food fight and the battle. >> they'll also destroy the ability for these people to sit around and have a conversation on a policy issue. i worked in the white house for four years. you have to be able to say things around the table or in the oval office without fear that it's going to be end up in the washington post or online. whatever modicum of structure and process exists, this will destroy it. you need an element of trust. >> it's mean girls.

>> well, that's been -- the point -- >> i wouldn't know. >> it seems like it. >> the president feels he can't have conversations in the oval office without things getting leaked. but the idea to focus on these lower level communication staffers, it's -- anyone who has covered the white house understands that -- and particularly with this white house, there are different ways to structure it. they don't know very much. the fitypes of leaks out of thi white house, can't be coming from low level staffers. it's not structured in that way. >> it leaks from the top. that's what people have learned over the years. >> it appears he's looking in the wrong place for the leakers. this comes as the senate debates what could be the most consequential legislation in years. joining us now from capitol hill, republican senator bill cassidy of louisiana. he's been a leading voice on the push to dismantle obama care. very good to have you on the show. mark as the first question for you.

mark? >> senator, good morning. what do you think is going to happen today on health care in the senate in lay it out for us. >> well, we'll vote on a series of amendments. i heard somebody earlier prognosticating that would end up voting on a so-called skinny package. the exception with that person's commentary, whoever it was, i couldn't see. it doesn't remake one sixth of the nation's committee. it affects 4% of the people who are in the individual market. the skinny package will be a very skinny package, and again, having little effect beyond moving the process forward, giving more work down the way. at that point only affecting 4% of the folks in the country. >> sam? >> that was me who said it. i take your point. this will effect the individual marketplace, but the cbo does suggest that 16 million could become uninsured. that's not what i want to ask. senator, you were fame for saying any health care bill had

to pass the jimmy kimmel test, and the jimmy kimmel test, is that any child born with a defect, a preexisting condition should not have to worry, the family should not have to worry about how to pay for the medical treatment. if you're in the individual marketplace, and you lose your coverage because of this skinny plan, how does that pass the jimmy kimmel test? i just want to preface this. you're going to say this is about moving a process forward. there is a real possibility that skinny repeal passes the senate and the house takes it. this could be the end game of the house -- of the legislative process. does that pass the jimmy kimmel test? >> the status quo does not pass the jimmy kimmel test. there's 95 counties in iowa which do not have a single insurer. that's across the country. status quo is failing jimmy kimmel test. >> does the skinny repeal pass

the jimmy kimmel test? >> you might not want the answer to be to move forward, but i'm fighting for the graham cassidy amendment. >> does the skinny repeal? >> if we need to pass this to get graham kaz di, that ultimately plays to an end. you can't look at it as a single step in isolation. >> but it could be a single step. you could pass this bill. it could go to the house, and the house could say we'll take into the senate passes and there's no more negotiations. if that's the case, does it pass the jimmy kimmel test? >> it will in the sense that those who wish to purchase insurance can because it does away with the individual mandate, but the individual mandate is laughable because it doesn't account for the fact that in iowa there's 94 counties without an insurer. and so your question is predicated upon an idealized version of what does not exist.

we have no ability to stay where we are, because where we are fails the jimmy kimmel test. >> kasie hunt. >> senator, do republicans have the votes to repeal the individual mandate today? >> i'm not a whip counter. probably so. the american people do not like the individual mandate. again, one thing susan collins and i proposed which is inherent in the graham cassidy amendment is we would allow states to automatically enroll folks unless they don't want to be. that's what we do with medicare. democrats support that. they told me privately. and so i do think that's an alternative policy that could be instituted instead of the individual mandate. i do think we probably have the votes, but i can't swear by that. >> i want to follow up by what you were saying to clarify. you're calling this a very skinny repeal, the goal of which is to advance the policy so you can then get other policy. are you saying what the senate

is going to vote on maybe late in the middle of night tonight doesn't actually matter in the long run? republican leaders are arguing this is their big win on repealing obama care. >> it wins, because -- imsz. it's early. it absolutely matters because the american people have said over and over again, they don't like the individual mandate. they don't like the mandate upon employers. and there's been a bad effect of both. 50% of the people paying the individual mandate report an income of less than 25$,000. we can do better. that would be an important achievement. and that's oftentimes what people think of as obama care, the individual mandate and the employer mandate. what i'm saying, i want more. i want to add onto that the graham cassidy amendment. it allows a more robust response so that iowa doesn't have 95 counties without a single insurer. >> all right.

senator bill cassidy, thank you so much for being on the show today. >> thank you. >> coming up, regulations currently prevent the president from directly firing robert mueller himself. but the president has repealed plenty of regulations. could he just repeal that one too? and what about the possibility of a nixon style saturday night massacre? we'll dig into the president's options ahead on "morning joe." ♪

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>> it's my impression that the special counsel serves at the pleasure of the attorney general and there are certain standard for his removal. and that his removal is only at the pleasure of the attorney general. i may be wrong about that. >> do you know of any reason for a cause to fire mr. mueller as of this date in. >> no, i do not, senator. >> and that would be your decision if that ever happened, right? >> that's correct. >> and you're going to make it and nobody else? >> as long as i'm in this position, senator, it will be my responsibility to make that decision. >> in light of these reports that came out yesterday that

folks at the white house, maybe the president were looking at ways to fire the special counsel mueller, and as you testified today, given the current situation, you are the only person today in a position to actually do that firing. isn't that correct? >> that's correct. >> all right. special counsel robert mueller may be legally out of the president's reach. the power to hire and fire seems to rest squarely with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who is only in charge because jeff sessions recused himself. but what if a new attorney general was put in place? joining us now is a senior fellow at the brookings institution and coed or the and founder and chief benjamin whitis. is there any other way around it, is it out of the president's

reach, and if the president fired mueller, what would your reaction be? >> well, there's a lot of questions there. is it out of reach? the answer is no. he can, number one, he could remove jeff sessions and rod rosenstein and replace them with people either on an acting basis or with senate confirmation on a permanent basis who could carry out as well. and they would have to, i think, act in violation of a regulation under which mueller was appointed in order to do it. but the president probably does have the authority to rescind that regulation or order it rescinded, and that would eliminate the entire office of special counsel if he did that. don't underestimate the power of

the presidency. what would my reaction be? i would think that would be a nuclear strike on american rule of law democracy, and i would hope that the congress of the united states would awake from its long slumber. should awake, even for the fact that we're having to have this conversation about it. >> let me ask you about something the wall street writes in their editorial today, which is otherwise critical of the president. they say the president is right that appointing mueller as special counsel was a mistake because of his close relationship with both the fbi and his successor, mr. comey. is that a fair, do you think? is there merit to that? >> it's a ridiculous position. first of all aw, this is a complicated investigation. it involves counterintentillige

elements and a wide swath of the bureau's and possibly prosecuting functions. there are relatively few people in the united states who are actually qualified -- >> sir -- >> day one to run it. and bob mueller is one of these people. >> i agree that he's qualified for the complexity. but doesn't his friendship with james comey make it complicated for him now that james comey is part of the investigation? >> look, i don't want to speak to their personal relationship of which i'm not especially -- i don't -- i don't know that relationship that well. i have never had the impression that it is a close personal relationship. jim comey was mueller's successor. they worked together at the justice department. i believe they have a lot of mutual admiration. i know that that's true in jim's case. i do not have the impression that they're especially close,

and i think that the closeness of the relationship is largely a creation of the people who want there to be some sort of conflict in that regard. i think it's a mutually respectful admiring professional relationship. >> carol lee? >> yeah. if the president did take this step toward mueller which you described as a nuclear strike on the ruefle of law, can you walks through what happens? is there somebody else? what's the reaction or the process? >> it sort of depends how he does it. if the objective is to remove mueller but not destroy the office, not eliminate the office, you could imagine somebody else stepping in or being appointed. that's what happened when nixon fired archibald cox and made the grave mistake of leading the appointment of someone else in

his stead that turned into a fateful error onnixon's part. both are awful situations, but they are different. i think it's a little bit hard to game out without knowing exactly what he would try to do. >> thank you for your incite. richard, i'm curious, watching everything that we just talked about since the show started this morning, from the perspective of the foreign policy team, explain to me how they don't -- and i mean general mattis. i'm talking about mcmaster. i'll talking about even rex tillerson. how do they just turn away and keep doing what they're doing? why not approach this president and get some proper process in place here. if you are from the perspective of these leaders? >> well, i think that's exactly what they should do. t not working.

you have way too much improvisation. we haven't faced a real crisis, and i don't believe the administration has what it needs should something materialize. what i think is there should be a collective intervention in the office. the president can't afford to lose all of them. kelley would be four. he can't afford to lose all of them. that would be a crisis of confidence. they should insist on certain ground rules about how this administration is going to run itself. and the president has to stop the tweeting, because these are white house statements with the full weight of the presidency. or at least get them cleared first, and i also think you they can't be end runs around the national security process. there can only be one national

security process at the same time. the president can't have more than one running. >> he's just hired the closest to him, the communications director also has a tweeting problem. which is unbelievable at this point. it's fantastic. you can't write this stuff. up next, president trump leaves his own military scrambling after an abrupt policy announcement on twitter that many say was just a distraction from other problems that he's created for himself. we'll be right back. we, the people, are tired of being surprised with extra monthly fees.

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defense. the fbi was reportedly blindsided by the president's pick to lead the fbi after leaving so much of his senior staff out of the loop. the u.s. military was caught off guard when the white house warned the syrian regime against carrying out plans, chemical weapons attack, defense officials said they had no idea the white house was planning a statement. and the department hoff homeland security was surprised by the president's travel ban. according to "new york times," secretary kelly looked up at a tv and saw the president signing the executive order that he was discussing at the very moment. kelly says, he had seen earlier drafts of the proposal. but again, sir richard haase, aside from the fact that there are those in political circles, analysts who were saying the transgender tweets were to distract from sessions, session' tweets attacking the auditor general, questioned by intel

committee about the russian meetings and other ongoings that he doesn't remember and donald trump, jr., his own son's organizing of that meeting with russia, which, of course, are center stage to the russia investigation and, of course, we will continue to ask those questions, but how was this viewed from the world where the president is so out of step with his government? >> look. any time you make policy this way, you will make bad policy, because you don't vet it properly and you don't prepare for implementation. that's what we will see here. look, we got thousands of people in uniform and in the field who are transgender, no one thought what this will mean to them. it's a question of readiness, by the way, troops in israel and most european countries include transgender. so the idea by having them, it detracts from unit readiness, actually the opposite. at last night's check, we were do you just fine, israel is doing just fine with these people in uniform. so what this will do is cause a

problem where one didn't exist. >> yeah, some would maybe want somebody close to the president to have him think before he tweets. but that person is anthony scaramucci, who is tweeting, deleting his tweets in real time, pause they're inaccurate. unless releasing public documents is a felony. >> well, we know that ty cobb is going to come into the white house relatively soon and he will come into the tweeting related to the investigations. and i believe, again, there will be a fight for supremacy between scaramucci and priebus. i think only one will leave alive and that person i think will be part of trying to convince the president he's got to change his ways. >> still ahead, with his future as attorney general uncertain, the justice department just announced that today, jeff sessions is heading to el self, currently the third most dangerous country in the world. the doj says he'll attend briefings on the ms-13 gang

immigration, drugs and human trafficking. meanwhile the number of administration officials the president is attacking keeps growing, and they all have one thing in common, involvement in the russia investigation. we'll run down the list. plus, new comments from the white house director of communications anthony scaramucci describing his relationship with reince priebus saying, quote, some brothers are line kain and abel. who is kain and who is abel? ""morning joe" '80s is back in a moment. there'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. that's why booking.com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy.

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purina one, true instinct. >> good morning, it's thursday, july 27th. welcome to "morning joe." we seen plenty of chaos over the first six months from the trump administration, this morning, it is quite possible the white house reached pinnacle dysfunction. it is not just the president publicly attacking his attorney general. that's now expanded to most of the west wing taking on the department of justice. and also this morning, multiple reports say the communications director anthony scaramucci referred chief of staff reince priebus over to the fbi over a possible leak of scaramucci's financial form. scaramucci now denying he did that, but tensions between the two key advisers all reportedly

very raw. with us this morning we have from ms nbc mark pal person, and president test council on foreign relations and author of the book "a world if disarray" richard haase and national political reporter for nbc news carol lee, political editor for the "daily beast" and host of the podcast "candidate confessional" sam stein and nbc news capitol hill correspondent casey hunt. joe, of course, has the morning off. does anyone here know who gary kasparov is? he's the russian grand chess master turned political activist who has spent years speaking out against vladimir putin. he knows a thing or two about autocrats and yesterday he wrote on twitter, quote, autocratic distraction, who do my supporters hate? who can i get them to hate? how can i make this hated targets angry so they lash out? he was referring to donald trump's tweets yesterday,

seemingly out of the blue, announcing a ban of transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the military. it was as kasparov called it an autocratic distraction. calculated red meat for the president's base a. cynical attempt to ignite a culture war, all to distract from his ongoing betrayal of his attorney general, his failure if getting a health care bill passed. and the ongoing russia investigation that is closing in on his own family. so this morning, the left wing continues to put pressure on the justice department with the vice president now standing behind his boss' very public criticism of the attorney general. we're going to start there. vice president mike pence says time will tell if jeff sessions has a future in the administration. >> the washington sway to talk behind people's backs, but that's not president donald

trump's approach, one of the great things about this president is you always know where you stand. his expressed disappointment, he is very sincere, he said, we'll see what happens in the future. >> right. >> at least the american people know and every member of the cabinet can know that you'll always know where you stand with president trump. >> the washington post reports that president trump has discussed with confidence and advisers the possibility of installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment. the white house responded to the report stating, quote, more fake news from the amazon washington post. referring to the newspaper's ownership. both the "post" and "new york times" are reporting that aides have warned him against the political and legal ramifications of firing session also. then last night the chairman of the senate judiciary committee sent the white house a clear message about the prospects for hearings regarding replacement, republican chuck grassley tweeting, everybody in d.c.

should be warned that the agenda for the judiciary committee is set for the rest of 2017, judges first, subcabinet second, ag, meaning attorney general, no way. sessions kept out of the public eye yesterday and was later spotted at the white house. though, press secretary sarah huckaby sanders said he was there on other business. >> the attorney general was here for other meetings, not with the president. it was a principles committee meeting and did not see the president while he was here. i think the president has been very clear about where he is. he's 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 departments of justice. he wants to do that strongly. he wants him to focus on things like immigration leaks and a number of other issues and i think that's what his focus is at this point.

>> the attorney general launches a leap probe, would that help his status with the president? >> i don't think that's the you know nature of the relationship. again i think the president is disappointed. he stated that. i don't think there is any more to add beyond that at this point. >> so mark halperin, curious, it seems this all unfolded as the president first sought to undermine the judiciary, now is seeking to undermine the attorney general, himself, it feels like some might argue that the president thinks he actually thinks the attorney general is his lawyer. is that what you are seeing or how, what does he think of the role of the attorney general? because his disappointment points to personal support versus working for the country? >> it's a complicated and nuanced relationship for any president, but for someone has never served in government, it's a difficult thing to get used to, but he's different than

every other member of the cabinet. he's cornered on this. if he -- now he's put himself in a bad position. there is no food outcome at this point. the attorney general is not going to unrecuse himself. the attorney general probably can't be replaced in any practical way without creating a firestorm, it's occupying every bit of discussion on everything, so i believe they may have convinced him to stand down on the attacks. >> if the attacks on the attorney general were one after the other, i mean, jeff sessions is so well liked among his base and he's so respected in the senate, that it seems amazing that this president would tweet again and again his disappointment for jeff sessions, casey hunt. what has been the reaction to the president's treatment of his attorney general jeff sessions? >> well, i never thought i would get to a point where i can ask democrats about him and they would defend him.

yesterday i ran into bernie sanders, he said i didn't vote for jeff sessions, i think this is a crisis. also, republicans are defending him across the board and privately saying, look, there is just no way that we have any interest if confirming another attorney general if the president ousts jeff session and that tweet from construct grassley, grassley has shown a real willingness to stick his finger in the white house os eye. he has sometimes gone back and forth. this is a definitive statement exercising the power he has to say look no way. you know, on this recess appointment, we have been back and forth in years. if president trump tries to do that, he likely will trigger another round of lawsuits. president obama lost lawsuits trying to get these appointments through the senate. so i don't see that as an option loatheer. >> judging from his tweets

against the attorney general, it seems that trump pretty much wants him to focus on investigating hillary clinton, something he said we need to move on from. his latest yesterday morning attacked both the attorney general jeff sessions and the acting director of the fbi. quote, why didn't attorney general sessions replace acting fbi director andrew mccabe? comey friend who was in charge of the clinton investigation, but got big dollars $700,000 for his wife's political run from hillary clinton and her representati representatives. drain the swamp so is jeff sessions the swamp? there are several errors in there. jeff sessions was not the attorney general when the fbi was investigating clinton. jeff sessions said he would recuse himself from any involvement in clinton investigations. in his confirmation hearings before he was confirmed. andrew mccabe had an oversight role, late in the clinton

investigation, but was by no means in charge of it. while mccabe's state senate campaign received donations from governor terry mcauliffe and the state party in march of 2015, she was not the largest recipient and it came almost a year before mccabe became deputy director and had any roam in the clinton case. nick, it seems to me, the president has really shot himself in the foot. he's trying to throw that transgender tweet out there to get people on tv and get people to march and caitlin jenner to go on tv, but the bottom line is, he has insulted the very people bo have supported him all along, starting with jeff sessions, who's very popular, especially in his home state, didn't need donald trump to win his home state and does not need president trump today. >> well, you know, it's fascinating in kind of attacking and badgering sessions, he's attacked the one guy who both the swamp likes, right, and the senate, he's very popular and

trump's own base likes. >> right. >> sessions really was. >> confusing. >> the first true believer in washington. it's kind of astonishing to see this the one guy from the establishment so to speak who took a chance on him. i think it's important to step back and say for the record, the president has made it very clear the reason he's critical of sessions, he's mad at sessions for not shutting down a duly constituted investigation into foreign interference in the election. and he wants to get rid of him to stop the investigation. it's kind of astonishing it's all text and not sub text. >> also because he's so obsessed with his base, add to that very important equation that you laid out there, that definitely could be the number one possibility carol lee what he's done along the way is undermine the very man who has supported him from the very beginning who really, i think, helped connect him with his base. those folks really respect sessions. the senate respects sexes. he's served for decades.

most people respect jeff sessions, whether or not they agree or disagree with him. it seems like a massive fumble with a pathetic attempt to then distract. >> we've seen this president pick fights with a number of people that he relishes in this sort of thing. this may be the fight that he picks that he doesn't win and not just because of his base and because of the split that jeff sessions has among republicans and senate, but because he's been up with of his most effective cabinet members in terms of implementing the trump agenda, whether on immigration or other issues that he campaigned on, so it's a very odd target for him to pick. it's with under that doesn't seem to be sustainable. >> richard hauls the president's continued to go out to those investigating russia and potentially uncovering his financial relationships. there's an actual list that's building up here that, it just seems so obvious, of course, it could be something else. there is attorney general sessions, of course, who he blames for recuseing himself from the russia investigation,

which mitch mcconnell and other leading republicans say it's the right ethical decision and also, quite frankly, the president actually admitted that if jeff sessions said to the president, i would do the right thing and recuse myself from the russia investigation before he appointed him, he wouldn't have picked him. it's incredible. there's also deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, nominated by republicans, including himself, rosenstein appointed a special counsel and trump has questioned his integrity by stating wrongly that rosenstein is from baltimore where there are quote very few republicans, fired fbi director james comey is a long-time republican, who served in three gop administrations, special counsel, robert mueller, widely thought as a man impeccable credentials and integrity. trump says mueller can't be

trusted because he interviewed to be fbi director. acting fbi director andrew mccabe, who spent his whole life in the bureau the president inaccurately describes as in charge of the clinton investigation, richard haase, the russia investigation, he seems to be down playing it and pushing away people and publicly shaming them if they have any connection to it that perhaps might hurt trump in the court of law s. that a fair assessment? >> well, it does, mika, it reenforces the sense that there is something there to hide. if you thought there was nothing there to worry about, you'd let the investigation go ahead. it would not come up with something. you can say i told you all along, there was no "there" there. all this does is reenforce everybody's desire or commitment to keep looking or peeling away layers on the onion, otherwise, why would you be doing all this, it creates foreign policy pressures, and it is hardly a

recruiting post tore this administration, you got hundreds if not thousands of positions still opened in this administration, if this is the way the president turns on the first person in the senate who came out for him. loyalty has to be a two-way street, loyalty from subordinates as well as loyalty up. >> still ahead on "morning joe" there is more public infighting in the trump administration. now the white house communications direct zor apparently attacking the chief of staff for what he calls a potential felony. that's just ahead on "morning joe." first bill kierans with a check on the forecast. bill. >> good morning to you, mika, overnight, kansas city was hit with thunderstorms, they had seven inches of rain. we have widespread flash floods. they have reported dozens of water recuse in homes. here's an exam this goes over a six-hour loop. here's kansas city here, these

thunderstorms sat over here. these red boxes are current flash flood warnings t. worst has been near the indian creek. that's just south of kansas city. they are two feet above the highest water level they've recorded on the indian creek. that's significant historic flash flood. this is the indian creek south of kansas city. this is happening now in the kansas city area. it's courtesy of hstv there in kansas city. a busy morning for the kansas city fire department trying to keep people safe and save lives. >> more flooding in the next couple days, west virginia, virginia, especially, around the del mar area, baltimore included. so there is a chance it could have additional flash flooding as we go throughout friday, especially right here throughout areas of d.c., for knowing, virginia beach northward, there is nice weather to be had, great lakes you look fine.

northwest, you look good, we're hot in areas of texas to oklahoma. we will keep you updated with the historic flash flooding. new york city, your late rain will come in late friday night. are you watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. 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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>> in a series of tweets the morning, president trump announc announce trance gender people will not be allowed to serve in the u.s. military, which brings us to a new segment, so, that was a lie then? first up -- >> as your president,ly do everything from my power to protect our lgbtq citizens. >> this has been -- sooo...that was a lie then?

>> joining us now, columnist at the "washington examiner" christian anderson. christian, we want to connect the dots between the president's tweets yesterday, announcing a decision that could affect thousands of troops before making any plans. and then the much bigger, much more legitimate jeff sessions' story the undermining of his attorney general senator jeff sessions a. white house official told "time" magazine zeke miller they are thrilled the media is focusing on transgender service member issues. it's worth looking at the corner the president appears to have painted himself into we are peeling obamacare stalled, failing, the massive border wall, fought even begun, that was one of his campaigns, build the wall, build the wall. no new improved trade deals to boast about. attorney general jeff sessions is arguably the most successful at implementing the policies that trump promised his base.

sessions has moved forward at restoring mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. he backed off reform investigations into police departments initiated by the obama administration and on the very day the president branded him as beleaguered, sessions announced that federal funding to sanctuary cities would be tied to immigration authorities. in response to all of this, the tweets about transgender troops out of nowhere. president trump seems to be turning up the conservative rhetoric on the menace of undocumented immigrants at his recent rallies as well. >> you've seen the stories about some of these animals, they don't want to use guns, because it's too fast and it's not painful enough. so they'll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15, and

others and they slice them and dice them with a knife because they want them to go through excrushiateing pain before they die and these are the animals that we have been protecting for so long. well, they're not being protected any longer, folks. [ cheers ] >> kristen, i guess, first of all, do those dots connect at all from your perspective? >> reporter: well, it's certainly unusual that the president out of nowhere would pounce on this or create this issue about transgender people in the military. this was an issue that began as a very small debate on capitol hill about a funding provision, whether the defense budget would pay for certain type of surgery for transgender service men and women. this really, the pentagon was caught off guard. >> right. >> reporter: so setting aside whether you think this is good or bad policy.

i think this is bad policy. what's even worse it's bad policy made not for some kind of policy reason but for what appears to be a political reason. and it's certainly true as you pointed out that jeff sessions as attorney general has been the most effective cabinet member for implementing trump's agenda. in fact, most of the items that jeff sessions has gotten implement reasonable doubt in some way shape or form, something that divide the republican party. take for instance civil asset forfeiture. a big issue came up in the news last week, giving law enforcement authority to confiscate assets from somebody not charged or convicted from a crime. this really divides many in the republican party. jeff sessions had advanced it. so going after jeff sessions puts trump in jeopardy with some of the very traditional constevetives that have backed him. some of the folks within the party who are hardline conservatives, the ones that wanted obamacare repealed from the beginning that were a necessary part of trump's coalition, he ned to peel those

folks from a tread e ted cruz or what have you, pushing these cultural buttons, it seems as if he's trying to say, no, no, i'm still on your side. >> coming up on "morning joe" president trump is clearly reshaping the presidency, it's not the executive branch feeling the effects, "time" magazine says all over town traditions of good behavior seem to be crumbling. we will look over the next issue next on "morning joe." a millie dresselhaus doll! happy birthday, sweetie! oh, millies. trick or treat! we're so glad to have you here. ♪ what if we treated great female scientists

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>> vaex tillerson is looking to shoot down rumors he is looking to make his exit from the trump administration. reports suggest tillerson could resign by the holidays or sooner over reported frustrations with president trump, including his comments on attorney general jeff sessions. on tuesday a state department spokes woman denied the rumors the secretary was planning a departure him tillerson, himself, addressed the speculation on his future yesterday, joining a photo op with the qatari foreign minister.

>> and richard haase, he met with the qatari foreign minister, your thoughts on what went on in there? >> he's in a difficult position structurally with qatar with qatar, you have a divided administration, elements of the white house have sided 100% t. secretary of state has been out there shall we say on his own trying to negotiate. it's impossible, if you are rex tillerson, how can you be an effective secretary of state if you have a president who is tweeting, a son if law who the president tells foreign leaders he's the go-to guy, it under mines your authorities, tiller al tillerson has to focus on the state department. you have a patient on the table in critical condition, it's not a great time to redecorate the

operating room. why he's reorganizing and fought getting people to fill important positions? i don't understand, to be fair, he's in a terrible situation. >> terrible. >> but he's actually exacerbated it by his own focus. >> so we will move on, just add to that, if you pull out 20,000, 30,000 miles and look at the world ap how it is seeing this administration, have you the president's son-in-law, who i think is 34-years-old, has absolutely zero foreign policy experience, unless someone correct me if i'm wrong put in the center of the middle east peace, speaking with russians at meetings he claims he doesn't know anything about. he's either incredibly inept or woefully ineight proept for the job and rex tillerson it appears has to compete with him to be able to do his job how does that

look from the outside looking in in it looks horrible. >> the rest of the world is beginning to discount us. what we are essentially moving to fareed za carrkari called th decline of the foreign world. what itself so stuning is we are doing this to ourselves. we are taking ourselves out of our traditional role that has worked for no less 70 years, we are pulling back. there is no one out there that can fill our shoes. this will become a foreign messy world. the disarray in the world and the disarray if washington are feeding on each other and the fact that the united states is no longer willing and able to lead the world means the world will begin to unrav em, which by the way will effect us. we can't build a giant moat around the united states, we can't insulate ourselves from problems in the middle east and north korea. but this administration is feeding a situation that will actually come back to bite us.

coming up on "morning joe" the people president trump wants gone are so far on the job. he clearly has the authority to fire jeff sessions, but robert mueller is a different story. we will break down where the powers of the pretty begin and ends. "morning joe" is coming right back.

>> another big story is trump's feud with jeff sessions, when asked he said time will tell. when asked if he was feeling lines from his magic 8 ball, trump said, ask igen later. >> and we're back, twitter and jen didn't like my address. so this morning, there seals to be new tension within the white house specifically between the president's incoming communications director anthony scaramucci and chief of staff

reince we have bus, joining us, peter alexander, what's the latest? >> reporter: hey, mika the president said during that famous news conference he is running a fine tune machine, it looks a lot more like the latest episode of game of thrones, the team of rivals airing its dirty laundry once again in the public, the president attacking jeff sessions, now a feud between the chief of staff reince priebus and the incoming communications director anthony scaramucci. it comes in the wake of scaramucci's public or his disclosure forms. financial disclosure forms, which are a public available document published late last night he says someone released as a felony, they're publicly available. >> that would not be a felony. here is stunning new criticism speaking to cnn. take a listen. >> i've done a major amount of work over the last five days. i have interviewed most of the assistants to the president. i've interviewed most of the

people in the communications team in the white house and what the president and i would like to tell everybody, we have a very good idea who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are in the white house. now, few want to talk about the chief of staff, we have to have odds, we have to have differences. when i said we were brothers from the podium, that's because we're rough on them. some brothers are abel, other brothers can fight with each other and get along. i don't know if this is repairable or not. he's the chief of staff, he's the president, he understands uncovering me inside the white house, which is why i put that tweet out. if reince wants to explain he's not a leaker, let him do that. >> reporter: of course, a remind that kain murdered abel. this is not way a normal white house works. during the course of that conversation, scaramucci made some other news on the topic of

that russia sanctions bill, saying the president may veto it, that he may veto it in order to do some tougher sanctions against russia, nonetheless, that goes against what we we heard from press secretary sarah huckaby sanders, yesterday saying the president supported the view of congress with this russia sanctions bill. the bottom line right now is that this conversation today scaramucci is the newest member of the staff taking over as sean spicer prepares too leave was almost exclusively about scaramucci. it wasn't advancing administration policies, it wasn't about the president. >> yeah. >> he said he was there, sanctioned by the president, given permission, the bottom line is, it's definitely something the white house you would assume done want to be talking about, of course the president likes these sort of fights, it's trying to demonstrate loyalty. >> it seems to be a lot about anthony, i'm curious, peter, just what's in those financial disclosure documents that are

public information anyway that it's not a felony to? what was so upsetting to anthony scar nuch? because, clearly, he is making it very clear, everyone should worry about upsetting him. so what was upsetting about that? >> reporter: he said in recent days, you know, he was trying to crack down on leakers and basically said -- he was willing to fire anybody, he'd throw them on pennsylvania avenue with the tourists to sell post-postcards. we know he was a wealthy wall street financier, worth about $85 million. be clear, this was information that wouldn't come out publicly, it's information that is publicly available through official channels. it's not entirely clear what sort of got him going on this specific topic. there is concern we should note, a lot of people have concerns about the conflicts that scaramucci still has about the sale of sky bridge capital, his former firm or still current firm, since it hasn't been

completed. there are conflicts, it may not 'completed until after his official arrival date. by the way, he is not officially on staff. he becomes officially the middle of august. >> nbc's peter alexander, thank you so much. joining us now, chief legal correspondent and host of "the beat" on ms nbc, ari melbourne, michael duffy with the latest political reportings how trumps attacks are sewing chaos in washington. michael, ariel, i'll ask you the first question, michael, i'll start with you, what do you think the -- where do you think the bigger questions lie around donald trump jr. and his disclosure that changed many times about the meeting with the russian lawyer and many other people, jared kushner, his son-in-law and all the things that he didn't include on his disclosure forms and the meetings he had that he doesn't remember, the cyber humiliating

of the attorney general or this infighting between reince priebus and anthony scaramucci with anthony scaramucci accusing reince priebus of a felony that doesn't exist? your pick. ? it's a target-rich environment they say at the position. and i think to me the most interesting question on a day or a morning like this is as the trump team, the president, and his new aides continue to shatter norms, all over town, both in terms of what they're announcing, how they're announcing it. how they're treating their own folks, much less how they're treating their rivals, really raises the question i think for me is, is there ever going to be a price for this. president trump once said, i can shoot someone broad daylight, i wouldn't get arrested. so far in a lot of ways that continues to be right. all of this norm shattering, you know --? right. >> -- different kind of behavior

hasn't had much of a cost to him. his base seems firm enough. he continues to play it to. plays to it. that's certainly what transgender was about yesterday. >> that was sort of a made-up thing, not policy. >> i don't think that's right at all. >> really? >> i think we're six months in, we're seeing more of a punishing sets of reactions to the norm shattering than you normally would this early in a honeymoon. you have a special inquiry, which has its impact. you have a bipartisan russia sanctions move here on the hill, you have obamacare votes that show that the president's claim that he'll sign anything isn't a good enough legislative strategy. i think there are many ways we are seeing in the political branches and the system as we understand it, the independents and the doj, republican senators standing up like chuck grassley last night and saying, if you try to do a recess firing of attorney general jeff sessions,

say hello to acting attorney general rod rosenstein for the rest of the whole year, which would be apparently donald trump's nightmare. i take mr. duffy's point there are many ways the president has gone away with things. i think we are past the moment of norm shattering without accountability. >> you say, hold on one second, michael, you use the terms shattering norms, that's a very positive term and that's what trump won on. i think we're in a different category here. i think we're shattering hope. we're shattering the hopes of his faith, he's shattering the hopes of the people who voted for him t. people who want their lives improved t. people who feel left oust t. people who want the swamp drained. none of that is hang. nothing is getting done. some would argue the president is failing on every level of trying to give hope and something to hold on to, to the very people who voted for him. he's not shattering norms. he's shattering hopes. he is shattering the

institution, the democracy, along the way. why do we keep using this term norms? bucking the trends of washington? >> i was going to say, i think i was right. there are storms gathering, clouds gathering for trump. i haven't seen the behavior change yet. >> right. >> i do think, what i'm watching for is for that to change and maybe that's crazy and it will never change and he'll go like this all the way through. >> oh, he's not changing. >> as to whatever end this -- awaits him. but i don't think it has -- any of that so far has had much effect. i do think what we saw yesterday in reaction to the transgender tweet and the further attacks on sessions suggested there could be a reaction coming. but i guess i don't yet see it. so, you know, maybe. >> just a question for michael, first a pre face. i don't think you are right about this mika, here's why. >> tell me. >> i think there is a large subset of some voters and a majority of them for whom when they read there is chaos in washington that the norms in

washington are being shattered, they cheer. they love that. they didn't vote for him to get -- >> it's hope. they want their lives to change. >> maybe. but they also want revenge against the people they feel have marginalized them. trump scratches thatti itch. you are talking about the norms, if question i have, whack is the audience for these norms and what's the constituency for these norms and rules he is breaking, is it people in walk or is it americans? >> oh, no, i think you are absolutely right this plays entirely to his base, his set the group feels like they have been ig nordz by the government and the media -- ignored by the government and the media for generations, the elites they feel abandoned by and arguably misserved dramatically by and so every time people like us get upset or find ourselves shocked at the latest round of you know inexplicable or otherwise unprecedented behavior, that does raise a cheer in he is

base. >> that is good for them. can you see they kind of pivot back and forth some days and others they work that base really hard. so i think it is working for them. and all of our reaction or the reaction of a more establishment walk, so far hasn't quelled him or stopped him or slowed him down. it seems to be kind of picking up. >> so you think that itch scratched is still going to feel good when health care is taken away from people who voted for trump can have access to it when the jobs still don't come, when all of the problems that he made on his agenda, he turns on a dime on? i don't know how long that lasts. >> that's the big question, but if you have given up hope that washington can effect or help you, if it has no relevance in your life, you think it's a nest o self quell dwelling vipers, you want to see it blown up. on some people it's satisfying. i'm not saying it's a majority of the country. >> right.

>> it's a big part of his base. >> or how long it can last, to mika's point t. president is going to have to do something and get some wins and follow through on his promises at some point. one of the things that i think is interesting about this moment or whether it's a question of whether or not we are at a sort of moment, we've seen if recent days, particularly which is republicans on capitol hill, which is three things in which they have decided thatry going to push back on the white house about it. jeff sessions, it's the russia sanctions issue and then you talk criticism of his move on transgender, individuals serving in the military. and going forward, it remains to be seen. it's a moment that we haven't seen before, where you are getting this swell, if it continues, that could spot real trouble for the president. >> all right. he has humiliated and spoken publicly about jeff sessions and that he's not happy with him. he said the kind of things you say when are you about to fire somebody. if his team gets around him and

talks him in keeping sessions, doesn't the president get rolled? doesn't he say that, didn't he say he was his hen decideer? he never refers to anybody? >> well, this is the chief irony of this moment in the trump administration. a man who got famous for pre tending to fire people. >> right. >> learning it's more difficult in real life. there is not a reality show, the washington post saying in this reporting last night, that he just hopes jeff sessions will go away. ae hls tweeted yesterdays about the -- he also tweeted yesterday about the acting deputy mccabe. he could remove him. there is a lot of buck passing for someone that got payments saying "you're fired." there is a lot of pretend presidency going on. the other thing i think is so interesting you and nick i think are having the same conversation about two different jobs. >> yeah. >> you're talking about the president as the chief executive officer of the united states and

woes obligation to the health care markets, to the people serving abroad right now, ricking their lives who may happen to be transgender and the white house doesn't have an answer for them. someone could killed today transgender, do they get a pension or not for their family. you are talking about policies. you are not disadpreeing wigree. the time of the tweet and the content and the specticles, we need to offer the public more than just contents if we are going to be a constitutional economy. >> next week we sessions, will he be fire? >> up next, obamacare repeal of the repeal/replace, what plan c

or d or f. republicans have full control. "morning joe t" is back in a moment.

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spirit and is looking for returning to work." the senate will continue to debate healthcare options today after republicans once again failed to pass any legislations yesterday. when the senate returns this morning, there will be ten more hours of debate, followed by a so called vote-a-rama. joining me now is cnbc brian sullivan, brian, we'll start with you and new reports you are following. where is brian, what can you testimony us? >> there is an interesting report that came out of the intercepts that said steven bannon, a name that you are familiar with, i think we have

mentioned a few times proposing to raise taxes on americans of 44 tax rate. we know under some of the tax plans that's been floated, they want to cut that vote. he's proposing a 44% tax rate, not like the surtax that hillary clinton proposed a couple of years ago. no word of this getting tractions in the halls of the white house. bannon potentially saying lets go after the rich to pay for the middle class tax cuts. >> good gracious. >> brian sullivan, thank you very much. first of all, your state on that and the healthcare vote. >> it fits with steve bannon, the populist man. the man that's push ing the

agen agenda. but, this news itself does not not surprise me. the talk of a skinny healthcare. the problem is even if you do something that are sounds modest in this debate like getting the individual matter. any change even a so called modest change is detrimental and pushing people off insurance. >> that's the bod littom line. even the cbos, there is so many different ways of looking at it. that ultimate does not fly. >> it does not actually solve the problem. senator cassidy is saying it is better than obamacare. it is not really clear. passing the skinny repeal is going to kick a lot of people out of the private markets. it is going to send the private markets into chaos.

it does seem like this is a political course pulling the cart. the goal is to get something good done. >> how does this look all around world in terms of this president? >> we have our end problems in the uk right now and sitting in the uk, this looks like some where between incompetence and deep worrying. >> and the uk has serious problems. >> we have serious problems. we are not in the state to criticize others. i look at washington right now and i cannot believe it. everyday i think are we moving towards unconstitutionalty or further incompetent. healthcare, the idea that you say is being done, down the torpedo. >> you know what they say in london.

you cannot trust a product labeled skinny. >> like a skinny margarita. tall skinny suggests it is not anything significant and it would be if they were to do something like this. after this amount of time the republicans would have planned for this moment and everything shows they have not. >> they have planned for it. it is deeply divided. you got conservatives who don't think any rights of universal healthcare and the moderates worried about people using health insurance. this is a deep drift within the party. it is going to be extraordinary hard. it maybe super skinny with a little bit of extra. the substance is there is a party that's deeply divided. >> if you look at the concept that we drained the swamp, it looks like we drained the water. thank you very much. the new issue of the economist

is out today. "venezuela in chaos," make sure you should take a look at this. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. so good to be here, starting off with anthony scarramucci of a leak which was not a leak. a target on reince priebus. >> he's not a leaker. let him do that. and the skinny on healthcare. it looks like republicans are going to push for the skinny repeal and the president is making it clear. what happens if republicans don't support it, they're going to get it. >> they'll have a lot of problems. and in my favorite, money power favorites, the powers of jobs, china's