don't miss "velshi and ruehl." we're going to be breaking down what the health care proposals mean for you. there are still some active proposals out there. that's it for me. thank you for watching "deadline white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york, and john mccain has gone full maverick this afternoon announcing he'd vote no against legislation championed and authored by one of his closest friends in the senate lindsey graham. he said i'd consider supporting legislation similar to that offered by my friends were it the product of extensive hearings, debate and amendment. but that has not been the case. i cannot in good conscience vote for the graham/cassidy proposal. i believe we could do better working together, republicans and democrats, and have not yet really tried. it's the stuff of legacies and

mccain has plenty of material but being one of the loudest and most powerful voices on the republican side to oppose the white house and the republicans in the senate who saw this as one of their last and best opportunities to repeal obamacare may become one of his most significant. all eyesor john mccain after this moment, his thumbs down the last time a repeal bill was on the floor. the president has made his displeasure with john mccain abundantly clear. >> what makes you think you can get an infrastructure bill? you didn't get health care -- >> we came very close with health care. unfortunately, john mccain decided to vote against it at the last minute. you'll have to ask john mccain while he did that. think, think. we were just one vote away from victory after seven years of everybody proclaiming repeal and replace. one vote away.

one. >> this morning the president tweeted a warning that clearly meant nothing to john mccain. whoever votes against hcare bill will forever, future political campaigns, be known as the republican who saved obamacare. but at least one very public voice in the debate liked what he saw from mccain today. jimmy kimmel tweeting this. thank you, senator john mccain, for being a hero again and again and now again. the question this hour, does he lead the way for other republicans to follow him in rejecting a bill that the gop donors and conservative activists are desperate to see passed? joining us to help answer that question, "washington post" congressional reporter kelsey snell, "new york times" chief white house correspondent and msnbc political analyst peter baker and npr white house correspondent tamron keith and ap white house reporter and msnbc analyst john lamir, the reverend al sharpton of "politics nation" and the president of the national action

network. and joining this program, at least with me hosting for the first time, republican congressman charlie dent. thank you for being here. kelsey, do you have an answer to the question. does john mccain pave the way for other republicans who are uncomfortable with the graham/cassidy legislation? >> i think it's very likely that he does. so right now we know for sure that mccain is a no and we know that senator rand paul is also a no. he went on a tweet storm earlier today reminding people why he wouldn't vote for this. he says it's not a full repeal of obamacare. then we have senator susan collins who we count as being a likely no. she's leaning no but hasn't really said yet. she's waiting for the official score, official report of how many people would likely lose coverage and how much this would cost. if she comes out as a no, that gives people the political cover they've been looking for to say this isn't going to work and i can't join in. we haven't seen that happen but i would expect if you see susan collins say no in the next

couple of days, that avalanche would start. >> this is a big blow for the white house. they've been publicly and privately beating up on republicans, including chris christie who came on this program earlier in the week and said he didn't support the bill because of all the people that would lose coverage in medicaid expansion states. his state is one of them. talk about how the white house has tried to project both complete ambivalence about the specifics of the policy but really the closest thing i've seen to desperation for a legislative win on health care. >> well, it's interesting. this is a white house trying to get back on track after a tough summer. and there have been signs where they seem to be kind of making some headway in that regard. and they had planned for this fall to be tax reform fall. then suddenly the cassidy/graham bill comes up and they are like, well, maybe we can try health care again. here they try it again and it seems to be fizzling out like the last time. it keeps knocking them off their agenda and message and plan they had for the fall.

whether that will help or hurt we can guess. but the other thing that's going to come up is immigration. the white house promising to put out some principles on that. what was supposed to be a well ordered autumn after a chaotic start to this presidency once again seems to be up -- outside much their control. >> i wonder if this pushes the president further into the arms of chuck schumer and nancy pelosi who so far he's been able to rack up more legislative progress with. >> i was talking to a republican consultant who used to work for the president who suggested that republicans' final last big push here on health care was in part a response to that shot across the bow by making a couple of deals with the democrats earlier this month, but the president is probably not going to be able to work with republicans on tax

oversau overhaul which is the next thing. they are supposed to roll that out in principle next week. it's not clear whether this is going to send the president back into the arms of the democrats. >> what are your sources telling you about the frustration level inside the white house? they made it as much of a full-court press. they were on "fox & friends" attacking republican critics of this bill. they saw this as their maybe one of the last and best hopes for getting something done. do you think the white house tries to wash their hands of health care reform after this and just move on? >> i think there's some regret for this recent last embrace of the bill. there was some ambivalence early on. mike pence made the rounds. >> he left the u.n. week to go down and lobby. >> exactly. and came back. doing the morning shows. the president yesterday while with the president of egypt launched into a thing about graham/cassidy. and i think there is frustration. and must-see tv is going to be tonight.

the president on a friday night is doing a rally in huntsville, alabama, and i think he might mention the words john mccain. >> i think you're probably right. republicans, though, i mean, john mccain didn't reject this bill on its substance but on the process. republicans are in control of the white house, the senate and the house. why can't they get something -- it's like the gang that can't shoot straight. why can't they adhere to normal order which is all that john mccain wanted and which is what john mccain said he wanted when he came back to the senate chamber? >> time is running out. the hourglass is nearly empty. we have until september 30th. this bill was a desperation pass, a hail mary. and when you get beyond the process, there are substantive issues here. for those of white house represent medicaid expansion states, much of the big ten conference, we saw this as a transfer of a lot of revenue from our states to states that did not expand.

texas, mississippi, alabama, georgia. so my state, we would take an $11 billion hit between 2020 and 2026, and then there's a cliff in 2026. there's some big issues here for us. we need to work this issue out from the center out. we have a proposal to do that. i wish people would embrace it. >> republicans with a conscience. and white house without a lot of legislative skill helped sink what is just deja vu all over again. another failed attempt to repeal obamacare. do you think the president is sort of looking around his golf club and saying, why do i keep working with the bad news bears when chuck and nancy at least come in and give it to me straight? >> i think, first of all, i ner thought i'd say it twice, but i have a lot of respect for senator john mccain because he did say the process should be at least we should be debating and discussing it. and i think that the congressman

is right when he says there are issues here beyond winning and losing for the president. we are talking about a lot of money. we are talking about people with pre-existing conditions that may not be able to afford care. so beyond this, we are talking about millions of people's health care. but the president has got to be saying to himself, i can't win for lose with my own party. maybe i should be dealing with the democrats. the question is, how far will schumer and pelosi dance with the president before they start eroding some of their support and the support of their base? and it's going to be a tricky dance for them, but i hope people have at least the memory of the people that are going to be impacted both by immigration as with health care as mccain did and as some of the congresspeople that -- like congressman dent. because we're talking about real lives here, not just keeping score at the white house. >> and jimmy kimmel, i guess

i've covered him all week because i think for a lot of people, he's crystallized the reality. i wonder, kelsey if you can talk about the pliks olitics on the democratic side of the aisle. are they waiting for potential fixes to the exchanges or i think obamacare was amended close to two dozen times while president obama was still in office. could the president be persuaded by democrats to simply improve upon the bill? i know chuck schumer said once repeal is off the table, he's more than happy tho work with the white house. are you picking up anything from your sources on capitol hill that that may be the democrats' next move? >> for a long time, for months now, when you've asked nancy pelosi or chuck schumer if you have all these ideas for fixing the affordable care act, why not tell us what they are and put them out there. they thought it was a no-win situation for them to put out fixes when they knew republicans were only going to pick them up

and use them against them as they were trying to appeal the affordable care act. they may start rolling some of those out. some of these negotiations have already begun. senator lamar alexander who heads the health, labor and pensions committee, he's been working with senator patty murray on a bipartisan plan to get these cost-sharing reductions. we talked about them previously in the health care debate, but getting these written into law so the insurance companies have some certainty that they are going to get the payments, the federal payments they use to take down the cost of out-of-pocket expenses for the lowest income people. those talks have been ongoing. they seem to be making progress but senator alexander pulled out of those talks when it looked like momentum was building for cassidy graham. they may go back to the negotiating table and that may be the first time we see a real bipartisan effort on health care. >> i had the hunch as kelsey was

talking that president trump's eyes would glaze over if someone tried to go into him on the substance of any of that. not that mine were, but i was riveted, but i want to ask you about the politics of this. i imagine his beef with john mccain is about blocking him from a legislative win, not about not repealing obamacare. donald trump over and over again expressed ambivalence about the substance of single payer health care. he seems like someone that either doesn't understand the way most of us who aren't millionaires get our health care or doesn't care if there is something obamacare-like. he just thought it had a bad brand and he was told by advisers there were problems with it. what would you gauge the president's interest to be right now in doing something, anything, even if it's just a package of fixes with democrats? >>i yeah, i think that's the question of the hour. he's said repeatedly, hey, well, fine if you don't want to pass this bill. we'll let the whole thing blow up and blame it on democrats.

to reverend sharpton's point, that's a very washington point of view about points scored and who is up and who is down. the idea of letting it blow up would leave a lot of people impacted. does he want to do that? and so this moment, this idea where he seemed to be trying to shift from the first few months of his presidency and it's very uncertain whether he can make it last, presents the ultimate test because there is something in the middle to be done. not satisfying to conservatives like rand paul who say we have to get rid of it altogether. not satisfying to the bernie sanders medicare for all crowd but it would provide stability and certainty and make at least a number of lives better, even if it didn't accomplish what the ideologues on both sides would like to accomplish. here's a test for donald trump. is that what he wants to do? >> you know donald trump. you know what makes him mad and you know what makes him glad. he loves the good press that he got. the little bump in his approval rating he got after being seen

as someone who could work with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi. give me the odds. what is your prediction for, a, how aggressive democrats are in taking something that could pass in a bipartisan way to the white house. do they take the initiate sniff do they take the bull by the horns? and, b, what resistance does donald trump get inside his own west wing now that folks like steve bannon have been vanquished? >> i think he will get minimum resistance in the west wing because i think that they are totally embarrassed tonight. and they probably need a win. i think the problem is going to be who is going to make the overture and what that looks like. schumer and pelosi are going to have to be very careful that they look like they are going too far to embrace trump who has been hostile to their base and to them. let's remember, he just stopped calling them names the week before last. the other part of that, though, is does trump look like he's been so humiliated, he has to

reach out? so a lot of it is going to be, who is going to call for the date and then where are we going to date at and what is going to be the circumstances. the pressure on both sides are going to be trump, why are you hurting the party? he's in alabama tonight campaigning for someone. suppose he loses last one -- he cares about looking like a loser. the party of trump is what he cares about. and he lost a big one today, it appears. if he loses down there with this race in alabama, i mean, he is a guy that really cannot stand losing. and if he keeps losing, not only will he find a way to talk to pelosi and trump, he'll be talking to nicolle wallace and al sharpton. >> hell freezes over first. where do you put the odds on the rage meter tonight in is donald trump more angry at john mccain, or does he save all of that blast for republicans who promised for 7 1/2 years to repeal and replace obamacare and

just can't do it? >> i don't know where he's going to rage. he told me he was going to blame me. >> you're in the line of fire. >> we can get a win here. >> for the people. for the american people. >> even for the president. we can pass a bipartisan bill. we have a five-point plan, problem solver calk urks we put it together, put the cost-sharing reduction payments, stabilization fund for the individual market. repeal the company mandate for the smaller companies, repeal the medical device tax. we could pass that out of the house, out of the senate. it's a matter of leadership wanting it to go to the floor. it would go to donald trump, i bet he'd sign it. >> stick his name on it i'm sure he'd sign it. my thanks to kelsey snell and reverend al sharpton. the latest health care fail surgoing to land like a thud in bedminster where donald trump woke up on the russia side of

the bed. we'll show you the developments in the investigation into possible collusion that may have inspired the president's latest rants. also ahead -- foreign policy by trash talk. it's just another one of the norms that donald trump is blowing up. but there are any dangers to making america's adversaries the targets of personal attacks? fortunate enough to travel to many interesting places. i've always wanted to create those experiences for others. with my advisor's help along the way, it's finally my turn to be the host. when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise

i'm extra happy today that i never fell for the john kelly has stopped the president from tweeting about russia and the

fake media narrative because today the president started his day like this. quote, the russia hoax continues. now it's ads on facebook. what about the totally biased and dishonest media coverage in favor of crooked hillary? the president also tweeted this. the greatest influence over our election was the fake news media screaming for crooked hillary clinton. next, she was a bad candidate. maybe some of these headlines are starting to get under his skin. mueller requested phone records about air force one statement. u.s. monitored manafort after he left the trump campaign. joining the table, tim o'brien, the executive ed tor of bloomberg view. let's start with you. what do you make of the president kind of breaking the seal in the kelly era and getting back to his favorite release for his frustration and anxieties about the russia investigation? >> i think there's almost an inverse relationship between donald trump getting out of bed

and tweeting about hillary clinton and the amount of fear he has about the gravity of the mueller investigation. i think usually when he pipes up about the mueller investigation and usually adds hillary clinton to a tweet it's because there's been significant developments in the investigation. i think this is starting to fall into three broad baskets. you have a collusion investigation that may or may not ensnare him. you have an obstruction of justice element to this that may well ensnare him and that touches on why mueller is looking at air force one records, going into communications within the white house. he wants to see how heavy a hand the president had in terms of guiding people as this investigation proceeded. and then the great third sort of bogeyman out of there is something resolving around bribery and financial quid pro quo and that touches on jared kushner, trump's relationship with the -- some of the various

development deals in moscow that touched on all those things. >> peter baker, weigh in on the first and second raw nerves because i think the other two headlines on "the wall street journal report"ing about being under surveillance after he left the campaign could be in the first category that tim ticked off. the investigation into possible collusion with russians. jeremy bash suggested on this program that investigators are going to want to answer the question, whether or not it's possible that manafort was placed inside trump's orbit or pushed in that direction by the russians. sort of an extraordinary thought. and the second rail if you will, that tim mentioned, the obstruction questions which seem to meet today's other headline about bob mueller wanting the phone records from air force one. that seems to be a line of inquiry that goes to that second bucket. potential, possible questions

about whether or not obstruction of justice occurred. in responding, i believe, to your paper's questions about the don junior meeting. >> so it's very interesting. the president spent the first four days of the workweek in new york at the united nations doing high-level diplomacy. his speech to the united nations was incendiary but scripted. otherwise he stayed relatively restrained in terms of trumpian standards and wasn't making surprise statements that really inflamed things. he was on good behavior. didn't trash a lot of people. as soon as he gets to bedminster where he's now out of the normal bubble of the white house and the diplomatic circles, suddenly he's waking up again and getting mad at all those things you just mentioned. john kelly is not able to stop him. that's a fair point. i don't think john kelly is trying to but even in the context of this, he didn't go after mueller. he actually did not talk in those tweets about the issues

you mentioned. but i think the things that are rubbing him the wrong way, he goes to hillary clinton and the media which are fair targets and not ones going to get him into trouble with the special prosecutor or his own lawyers telling him don't go after the guy that can indict people. >> which speaks to questions about his growing anxieties and fears about the third category. let me get you to weigh in about one of the targets or he becomes an unlikely defender of facebook. responding seemingly to the news from mark zuckerberg yesterday that they would turn over more information to congress. donald trump recoils at any suggestion that any force, whether social media, julian assan assange, anyone, anywhere, had anything to do with his winning this election other than pure trump. >> he seems to be defending facebook, again, something facebook isn't defending itself

against. facebook is undertaking a process. it's now working with investigators and working with congress. they say that a large number of ads, something like 500 different ads were purchased by russian-linked entities that were designed to sow discord among the american electorate. not necessarily to promote president trump but to sow discord on hot-button issues that the president was talking about as a candidate. he says the facebook thing is a hoax. what he might be trying to say is just because there were some facebook ads doesn't mean that that's why i won the election. >> facebook ads bought by russians. they're never like people from canada or france. they're always russians. let me get you to weigh in. i've made some calls myself to democratic offices, republican offices. not a lot of resistance in congress to knowing a little more or having facebook which has become such a force be more

accountable. potentially even to be regulated. what's your feeling on the role we now know facebook played in being one of the tools that russians used to make their views or help press some of the levers of our democracy. >> when you get beyond the russian meds meddling, i'm worrs a guy who has to buy advertising, we go to broadcast media, and we're heavily regulated. >> and you have to disclose. you buy an ad on this network, you have to disclose. >> they'll pull your ad down if there's something wrong with the disclaimer, or if a third party busy an ad. there's heavy regulation. on the internet, social media, it's the wild west. hell, the russians can buy ads. i'm not saying that it affected the tallies. >> you are a politician and you run ads. if it's out in the open that's something you could support, more disclosure? >> i think we have to have more

disclosu disclosure. either we lax the rules for broadcast or put more social burdens on social media. >> bob mueller is seeking the phone records on air force one. we have some footage of the white house staffers that got on that plane. we know what happened on that plane. donald trump, i believe i have the language here from "the washington post," personally dictated a statement in which trump junior said he and the russian lawyer had primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children when they met in june 2016. we know that that was a lie. we know that was a false statement. we don't know why they lied or if the intent was to cover up something more nefarious, but we know it was a lie. bob mueller wants to know, who was in on that? can you talk about -- i've got some reporting that suggests some of the communication staffers who were on board were opposed to these words being conveyed from the white house. they were for more transparency.

can you talk about the stakes and i think there's a list of press staffers on it that's become public that mueller is seeking to talk to some of the aides on that flight. can you talk about the stakes for anyone involved in that and how that's really fallen apart and become a real flash point in the investigation? >> a number of staff. the communications staff, mueller wants to talk to hope hicks, sean spicer, rinse priebus and others.resistance. it's not easy to tell the president, sir, i don't think we should do it this way. there somewhere that suggested, i'm not comfortable with this. some staff back at the white house who suggested we should do this differently. the president stepped in and said we need to, and whether he dictated word for word what he wanted to be said or said this is the thrust of what i want. and that's a story that fell apart. and that story fell apart -- >> the white house's story. the reporting was never challenged. phil rucker was on and this reporting they never asked for a correction to this statement.

trump personally dictated a statement and trump junior said he and the russian lawyer primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children. we know that is a lie. >> it's the white house's story that fell apart. it's a story that changed about four times in as many days. >> don junior kept changing it. he'd release a little more -- >> over the course of one weekend. >> right. >> it's a real flash point. something the mueller team has been looking at. and they've been circling quite a bit recently. >> all the president's tweets this morning, all of his comments ever about the -- whether today it was facebook or hillary clinton or the russian meddling, the target of his anger is never russia. it's never like, he's the president of the united states and this is a foreign power that meddled in our election and yet they never bear his wrath. everyone else does. >> your expertise is investigative journalism. i want to read something about the manafort headline. there's now a -- i don't know if you'll call it a cold war or hot

war but there's now a clearly a struggle between the manafort forces beginning to gently push back against the trump forces and someone close to manafort says in response to "the wall street journal report" about manafort being monitored by law enforcement that, quote, it's unclear if paul manafort was the objective. perhaps the real objective was donald trump. >> well, that's the million dollar question. and i don't think michael flynn was being monitored for a healthy period of time. felix sader who was under -- in cooperation -- >> we don't talk about him. tell our viewers who he is. >> president trump was in partnership with bayrock, two floors beneath the trump organization. they built the trump soho tower. he's a career criminal with organized crime ties. >> what a neighbor. >> of russian descent. and a partner. and trump has spent the better part of ten years denying that he knows sader, which is just a

flat-out lie. they had a very close working relationship. he's testified to such under a deposition. and i think in all these relationships, two questions that come up are, are any of these individuals agents for a foreign entity, and does that present a national security problem? and then secondly, in the course of doing any of these things, were favors or money -- did they trade hands ultimately to get to the president? i think that's going to be a thing that mueller is going to focus in on like a laser. i think in the manafort situation, they were monitoring manafort presumably for -- possibly for tax evasion, money laundering. there's a little box on your tax return where you have to receive money from overseas bank. if you don't, it's a tax fraud. and they have very reasonable legal reasons to look at manafort and in the course of those communications with the president could have arisen.

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the scourge of our planet today is a small group of rogue regimes that violate every principle on which the united nations is based. the iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the united states has ever entered into. it is time for the entire world to join us in demanding that iran's government end its pursuit of death and destruction. >> if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to total ly

destroy north korea. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. >> kim jong-un now dialing up the rhetoric in response to president trump's speech at the u.n. telling the people of north korea, now that trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world, we will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history. whatever trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation. i will surely and definitely tame his mentally rearranged u.s. dotard with fire. rouhani vowing to rachet that country's nuclear capabilities saying we'll increase our military power as a deterrent. we'll strengthen our missile capabilities and will not seek permission from anyone to defend our country. joining the panel for this is nbc news foreign correspondent keir simmons.

i've been dying to ask you all week if donald trump's five days in new york made the world more or less safe. >> reporter: well, that's a tough question. i'm told there's a little bit of one of those television delays on the line, nicolle so we may end up understanding each other about as well as president trump and kim jong-un. but we'll give it a shot. i understand that it comes down to whether you accept that kind of schoolyard science if you like that the best way to stand up to a bully is to stand up to them. anyone who has been in the schoolyard and witnessed that kind of thing knows that sometimes that kind of thing ends up in a fight. people are talking about this, nicolle as tense. this fire and fury that you're seeing, this almost reality tv if you want to put it that way, isn't really tense. what is tense, what worries me the most is to hear the north koreans talk about the possibility of, for example, having a high altitude nuclear

test. the kind of thing we haven't seen since the 1960s with the u.s. and ussr. that kind of thing, if the u.s. intelligence spotted them prepared for that, president trump would be in a position whether to launch a preemptive strike and whether that preemptive strike would have to be some kind of armageddon raining down on north korea in order to be sure that the north koreans couldn't retaliate because one of the issues with north korea is -- it's a bit like the way intelligence folks talk about dealing with terrorists. you know, they say that they have to be lucky all the time to stop the terrorists. the terrorists only have to be lucky once. same thing with north carolina. if you're trying to stop north carolina through military action, you have to completely stop them. if you leave any chink available for them to retaliate, even with a nuclear missile, the consequences are really, really serious. but, of course, the consequences of raining fire and fury down on north korea like that is serious, too. >> let me turn to iran with you. and it strikes me that 48 hours

ago, iran was adhering to not completely, there were a lot of allegations that there were some technical violations on their end to the iran nuclear agreement. but before donald trump came to new york and said i have decided, i have decided, and really toyed publicly with desertifying the iran deal. iran wasn't talking in this bellicose manner. they weren't talking about building missiles and being deterred. america has more influence when we were speaking softly with a big stick. and it's not clear we still have a stick when it comes to iran's nuclear program. >> yeah, there are lots of holes you can pick in the iran nuclear deal, but i guess one of the crucial issues is to just make a comparison with the north koreans and iranians. if donald trump unravels that deal, for example, what message do you send to the north koreans about the prospects of them

being able to do a deal with the u.s. what many people forget about iran and countries around the world. we spend a lot of time talking about the politics inside the beltway and the forces that dictate washington. what we often forget is countries like iran have different countervenning forces and there are conservatives and reformers there so the conservatives in iran love the idea of this deal being unraveled. and they particularly like the idea of it being in their eyes, the fault of washington. that's the kind of nuances that maybe get lost when you have kind of a chest thumping approach to diplomacy. >> so it's always conservatives in the crosshairs. peter baker, let me get you to weigh in. let me ask you about the state department's position today that according to heather nauert, the economic pressure campaign is basically working. that they wanted to elicit this

response. do you think the white house security team is in the sit room looking at what they describe as terrifying prospects, terrifying choices, choices between bad n worse when it comes to north korea are heartened really by the north koreans' response? >> well, you know, i don't know about that. i think what -- >> is it spin, though? is this state department spin? we're having success. we're having an impact. kim jong-un is feeling the impact? >> have you ever heard the state department saying they weren't having success? of course. but what you saw this week is really interesting because you saw the bellicose speech. we're going to destroy north korea if we have to defend ourselves. rocket man is on a suicide mission. but then the option he announced yesterday, the president announced yesterday is the conventional path which is to say rachet up the economic and diplomatic pressure. bring them to the same table. praise the chinese for taking action on their banks. these are the convention al way

of going about this. real ways and deeds merger that's really interesting. if this leads to an atmospheric nuclear test, people will say it didn't work, obviously. that's a -- something we haven't seen in 30 years. and that would be a huge consolation. but i think what the administration is looking at is not that the sanctions are going to stop kim jong-il but they'll start squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until the point where they feel the need to come to the table. >> the best thing about donald trump's foreign policy seems to be the team that's advising him on it. the worst thing seems to be his execution of it. >> well, on north korea, i think the deeds of the administration by and large have been good. isolating north koreans, pressuring -- >> the incendiary rhetoric i don't think is helpful and the bigger challenge not just about north korea but nafta, the paris agreement, the south korean trade agreement. the iran deal.

i vote forward south korea. i support the nafta. i voted against iran and paris. my point is we shouldn't be talking about pulling out of all these agreements right now. particularly the south korean trade agreements. as there's real threat is occurring as we speak. and so i think this calls into question the united states' commitment. for the next deal we're going to strike, will the next administration say we're going to walk away from it? my concern is i hear all this discussion. i was just in korea. i don't think kim jong-il is -- kim jong-un is suicidal. he cannot sustain a war, a conventional war, if he were to launch. he'd kill hundreds of thousands of people and lose the war and lose his regime. this seems to be about him staying in power. but i fear there's going to be a new round of proliferation with south korea and perhaps japan if we don't get this issue right. >> thank you so much. keir simmons, thank you for joining us. the delay didn't get in our way.

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in a dam failure causing a flash flood emergency in puerto rico. officials calling this an extremely dangerous situation with buses evacuating people as quickly as possible. all this as the island remains without power. tammy leitner joins us from san juan. >> reporter: hi, nicolle. things around here look like a war zone with no power, no running water and food in short supply. if you look behind me, that's the line for one of the few working atms we've seen. and this is just one neighborhood. just a short while ago we came from a neighborhood where they're still making rescues where people are trapped in their homes. we went out with the mayor as

she waded through chest-high water calling out on a bullhorn if anybody needed help. there were people stranded on their roofs, on patios. they rescued eight people. most were elderly. some needed medical attention. they were checked out by emts and some taken to the hospitals. the problem here in puerto rico is nowhere near being solved. they're still making rescues and it's unclear how many people out there still need help. >> and joining us now on the phone from san juan is puerto rico's secretary of state, luis rivera marin. he was just in the brief on those failing dams we told you about a moment ago. please tell us how the evacuation process is, if that's still under way or if people are largely out of harm's way. >> no, the evacuation process still under way. many of the roads are obstructed. so that makes it a logistic challenge. we are going to do a flyover now. it's one of our principal dams,

and all those communities down stream have been warned. we need to make sure. we don't have tv. the radio signals are radio signals limited because of downed antennas, so we're going back to the original tools of sirens, bull horns and flying over communities with loud speakers to make sure people evacuate low-lying area. >> are you competent you have time and the resources to help people who can't get themselves out of harm's way? >> yes. we are confident. we do have -- all our towns in the coastal area whereby it's more flooded after the gates have been opened. that's where the water is mainly

accumulated. there are many that are safe, and we have the sirens going, and we have been moving very swiftly. so we just had a press conference and everyone is right now -- we speak, notified and moving along, but not heavily populated. >> what is your greatest concern at this hour? is it the lack of an ability to communicate via cell phone? the lack of power to communicate with citizens or lack of resources ask is there more the federal government could be doing to flood -- bad word -- help surge resources to you? >> certainly communications is san issue. you always rely on proper communication

communications, satellite phones, never the less, have been -- resourcing tools that were used 40, 50 years ago, and those are the radios and the patrol car, the police patrol cars, in the ambulances. so we're going back to basics, and using that uhf technology as our means of communication. >> everyone here watching these images feel so helpless. remind viewers what we do to help. what organizations are providing you with the most and best help? >> make sure your donations reach knows in need. the first lady has sped up a -- a group and some accounts on a web page. unitedforpuerto rico.com. again, unitedforpo puertopico.c,

thousands, in the last few days, rescued 2,200 families out of rooftops and there are many, many more that lost their roofed houses. so we are in need of our government, the president declared an emergency. so your donations are really welcome as well as your prayers. >> we will put all that information up on your website, on the screen, and you are in all of our thoughts and all of our prayers. thank you for taking time to talk to us. we appreciate it. we'll be right back.

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there was a lot of news this week. a lot going on, but it was donald trump's first big week back in new york since becoming president and his first turn on the world stage. take a look. ♪ >> i actually saw great potential right across the street, to be honest with you, and it was only for the reason that the united nations was here that that turned out to be such a successful project. >> fortunately, the united states has done very well since election day last november 8th. the stock market is at an

all-time high, a record. unemployment is at its lowest level in 16 years. >> we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. the united states is ready, willing and able. >> the iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the united states has ever entered into. frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the united states. and i don't think you've heard the last of it. believe me. >> mr. president, have you already decided what you'll do about the iran deal? already made up your mind? >> mr. president, have you

decided? >> i have decided. okay? >> can you tell us what your decision is, sir? >> i'll let you know. >> africa has tremendous business potential. i have so many friends going to your countries, trying to get rich. i congratulate you. i'm greatly honored to host this lunch to be joined by the leaders of ethiopia, ghana, guinea, nambia. >> i think it's -- >> there's no nambia. >> and ignored my decision what the decision on the iran deal. >> and nambia.

>> and wouldn't tell theresa may what was decided. >> and pulled out, four deals. >> suggested pulling out of. american that makes commitments, usually has to survive administrations. that's a concern to me. we just can't walk away, and then, president trump wants to enter agreements. what's the next administration -- walk away from that deal? >> good questions one and all. my thanks to you both joins you for the hour. that does it for us. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> hi, nicolle. my best to you all. if it's friday, another republican health care bill hits the wall. tonight the maverick strikes again. senator john mccain says he will not vote for the graham/cassidy welfare plan. now what? >> the vote can comes early as