♪ i make mistakes no, i'm not all right. i 'm alive because of you. we're brothers. we look after each other. thank you for your service. rated r. tonight paul ryan on tax reform. steve bannon on party reform. and harvey weinstein on behavioral reform. this is kacie dc. good evening. it's send, october 15th and the first ever edition of kasie dc. tonight i'll speak with paul

ryan. we're joined by senatorial franken who claims he's back to being funny in public again. and some are giving up and going home. susan collins stays the course. steve bannon takes center change declaring war on mitch mcconnell. we'll hear from chris mcdaniel, a conservative state from mississippi who came this close to beating an incumbent republican in 2014. will he try it again? we start with drama -- over the president's decision not to certify the iran deal. secretary of state rex tillerson has reportedly developed a tense relationship with nikki haley, the ambassador to the united nations. a white house official described the spat as, quote, world war iii proportions. the speculation, haley wants tillerson's job and has a better relationship with the president o. meet the press haley didn't encourage the feud but he didn't exactly deny it either.

>> that is just so much drama. i mean, it's really -- it's all this palace inteagrigue. i am glad to be living in new york. i don't want to be near the drama and i don't want to be near the gossip. i'm going to continue to do a good job. >> encouraging. adding to tillerson's troubles, senator bob corker has president trump has undermined tillerson's effectiveness especially with china and north korea. his choice of words left little to the imagination. corker telling "the washington post," you cannot publicly case trait your own secretary of state. yes, you raise the tension and it's very irresponsible. but it's the -- when tillerson was asked about it this morning, well, he went there. >> you have a cattle ranch. you don't want to say anything about the senator calling -- suggesting you've been gelded before the world? it's not anything that bothers you?

>> i checked. i'm fully intact. >> and with that, joining me onset, washington bureau chief and political analyst, phillip rucker, co-error of po lit co playbook, yamish and jeremy bash. he's a former chief of staff at the cia and the department of defense. so i don't really know exact lie what to do with tillerson's remarks. i'm going to start with you with a serious question. >> we're not going to have a play of words between antom mal and -- >> let's talk about what this means. this clearly was a situation where the reporting seems to suggest the president was in one place behind the scenes. he wants to scrap the whole deal. his team may have had some influence that says it's a half mesh spur decertify it.

>> the president had two choices. he could have withdrawn from the deal. by the rhetoric, the yardstick of his own rhetoric, he chickened out. he did not do that. he could do that at any moment. >> i feel like if he sees you saying he chickened out, we may not end up in the iran deal. >> the other choice was to basically say that iran is noncompliance and that's problematic because it was at odds with his own intelligence community, his own secretary of defense, his own chairman, so he went there and tossed the ball to congress. >> what's your sense talking to these players behind the scenes of how this all went down and what it means? >> there was some disagreement within the administration, some of the president's foreign policy advisers including mattis, the defense secretary thought we should keep this deal going. thought that was important for stability in the world and for our alliances in europe in particular. and when the president is just chasing at anything that obama created, we see him wanting to undo obama's health care log.

we see him wanting to undo the paris climate accords and here we are with the iran deal. get rid of it. blow it up. start over. >> do you think that's what it is? is it personal with president obama? >> i think that there's definitely a level of personal attack there. you remember that president trump started his political career with questioning whether or not approximately obama was in fact someone who was wborn i this country. the idea of why we maybe even have president trump. i think the reason why you saw president trump kind of go after my colleague peter baker who wrote he's essentially going over obama's legacy is that you have president trump essentially winning and you were out on the campaign trail. there were so many of his supporters that were really angry at president obama and voted for president trump to take away that legacy. he's finding he can't actually do that. i would say with this he chickened out in some ways.

as much as he set his sights on them has not actually gotten rid of either. he took partial steps to undercut both initiatives and left it to congress to figure out what to do next. that prompted these tweets from the president. he wrote, quote, the failing in the not in a story should have mentioned the rapid termations by me of tpp and the dakota access pipelines. also the reencent epa cancellations and our new supreme court justice. so the premise here essentially that the president speaks louder than he actually acts. do you think that's the case?

>> yeah, it is. we should focus on one thing here. that tweet indicated that the president has not relied on congress for much and now he's relying on congress to alter some of the contours of the iran deal. that's a dangerous gamit. if you've been watching congress you know that congress can't do anything and can't do anything easily. he's turned to congress to rewrite or to potentially rewrite a huge international agreement or sanctions against a country. that's a huge deal and something that needs to get done with tax reform, government funding, the debt ceiling. >> so our holidays are toast? >> i just booked a flight and put insurance on it. that should tell you all need to know. >> where are democrats on what jake was outlining. congress has three options. they could reinstate those options and make the changes corker and cotton are talking about or do nothing and

essentially -- are democrats going to make the bet that the president is not going to simply decide to go all the way n unravel the deal? >> iran is doing a number of troubling things. some of the things the president laid out are true. they are sponsoring terrorism and conducting ballistic missile tests. that's precisely the reason we don't want them to go nuclear. iran does not have a nuclear weapon now and the deal has been holding. even skeptics at the time. i was one of them concerned about wasn't tough enough. we have to acknowledge they've been in compliance and to do anything now could cause them to restart their nuclear program. >> so what's the psychology behind the president reading peter's story in the morning at the white house and deciding that's what he absolutely needs to tweet about? >> he reads "the new york times" every morning. >> that's a good sign. >> including "the washington post." he's probably watching this show right now and he reacts to the media in realtime. he was really taken aback by that story in part because it showed him to be not living up to his words and rhetoric.

there's a broader pattern here. not just health care and the iran deal. look at opioids. he declared them to be a national emergency but it was all rhetoric. no action. he hasn't done the paperwork to make that declaration. >> the perception from democrats is that this president is doing irreparable damage to the country. can those two things be true at the same time? can he be hurting the country and not following through what what he claims? >> he did pull out of the paris agreement. he is in some ways dismantling the epa. he is going after, at least in some part, he's going after obamacare and making it harder for that law to function. i think there is this idea that he is doing damage. if you ask democrats. at the same time he's not doing the damage he's supposed to be doing. he's not building up the country and doing the -- and keeping the promises. and when i read peter baker's

story, the most important thing was that obama fell into the trap. he was going to close guantanamo. pass immigration reform. he said some of the things that essentially democrats really got excited about. when he didn't follow tlourks he got a whole bernie sanders wing of the party, all those days on the bus. people that would remind us why they didn't like obama. he was going to do this and didn't. if donald trump cannot stand president obama, if he's now in some ways falling into the same things and his legacy may be tied to him in this not so good way, that scares the president and that's why you see him lashing out at peter. >> i will say one thing. obama had a republican congress. almost his entire term which is a different dynamic. donald trump has an all-republican washington and cannot get anything done. so, i mean, i don't want to overstate this. >> and obama had an actual legacy legislation. like obamacare. >> 60 democrats in the senate. >> but if they would work with this party.

when he essentially left office, he could point to that and say, i changed american's lives in this way. president trump as of now cannot come close to saying that and has not made any friends in a congress congress that can say i trust this president to put my neck throughout to do things he tells me to do. >> if trump was as transformational of a figure as he thinks he is, he'd be able to get democrats to do things and maybe more than that. number two, the reason you don't see a legacy piece of legislation or even the seeds of it, as you remember, romney was planning his legislative assault during the campaign. had real plans to get things done. trump had none of that. >> and relationships. >> and understood that getting to know john boehner and had that whole team with mike levitt set up ready to go. >> trump has a real rebellion hoshands. john mccain voting no on health care and bob corker calling him

out on diplomacy. the problem isn't that somebody called him a moron. the problem is the president is a moron, comma, according to people who have watched him inside the tank, inside the situation room. that's the first look that we've gotten from people who have watched him up close. all of us have just watched him from the outside. i want to switch gears a little to pick up on and for context, we covered brnie sanders campaign together. a lot of hours flying around corners of america. that was a lesson in how a party can split. and that's happening on the republican side, too, now. there was a time not so long ago when steve bannon was avoiding the spotlight during his seven months at the president's chief strategist. he mostly kept a low profile. they told politico, bannon is more comfortable operating in the shadows between government, big money and right-wing media. but that is no more. bannon is now front and center and he's leading a hostile takeover of the republican party. on saturday, he launched a

blistering attack on the republican establishment at the values voters summit in washington directing much of his firepower at mitch mcconnell. >> mitch, i don't know if you're watching today. if i can take a little rift on plutarc and shakespeare. it's like before the ides of march. they're just looking to find out who is going to be brutus to your julius caesar. yeah, mitch, the donors are not happy. they've all left you. we've cut your oxygen off, mitch. okay? but there's a time and season for everything. and right now, it's a season of war against a gop establishment. >> jake, i'm not going to quote what you're saying off the air because it's a family program. but what's your take? >> there's no truth to the fact that mitch mcconnell is not going to be able to raise money anymore.

that's a fallacy. he raises millions of dollars every quarter. it's still a very sought after person on the campaign trail. listen, two quick thoughts on this. mitch mcconnell is -- steve bannon is now supporting michael grim, an ex-con in long island, or staten island, one of the most liberal members of the litigation. he supported eric prince to run in wyoming. he doesn't live in wyoming. i'm confused about really where his political acumen comes from. i don't know his theory of the case. it will be interesting to see how these unfold. >> how is the president managing his relationship with steve bannon now? >> they talk frequently on the phone and, frankly, they have a personal relationship still. bannon still calls the president and gives him advice, but i think bannon is very much becoming this revolutionary figure in his own right. and in some ways, eclipses trump in terms of thinking about this politics beyond one election,

beyond one politician. he is trying to create a movement here. he wants to be an historic figure and is trying to build that. to jake's point, not a lot of evidence it's built yet but he's out there. >> and the president seemed to feel really burned by what happened in alabama as well. >> and haunted by it. he's been thinking about this loss for a few weeks. it's been very embarrassing to this white house. one reason you see the president turning to his bairx gain and again on these issues on the fight with the nfl and the pledge of allegiance and flag is to keep his base intact because he was so scarred by that alabama experience. >> do democrats -- would they rather see mitch mcconnell stay in than have steve bannon wreak this havoc with the hope of getting something done or -- >> it's hard to know. some democrats say the only good in this that can come out is the republican party will realize they have a major problem on their hands with the steve bannon wing and their party will split apart and there will be a realignment in american

politics. i'm not sure we'll see that but i'm sure that's some people's fervent hope and prayer. >> jeremy bash, thanks for taking the time to be with us. still to come, al franken and susan collins. first, steve bannon is lurking around those congressional races across the country. we'll talk about that with house speaker paul ryan and about where his true priorities lie when it comes to tax reform and his beloved green bay packers. >> what's more likely february 2018, your packers win the super bowl or you've passed tax reform? >> you have to ask me to choose between the two of those? >> i'm sorry. >> tax reform only because we're a little beat up right now. we've had a lot of injuries. >> you've had a rough start. >> we've had a rough start. only one loss but we've had a rough start. but i'll say tax reform. t savedy on my car insurance by switching to geico. i should take a closer look at geico... you know, geico can help you save money on your homeowners insurance too?

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in the trump era, things have not gone according to plan. at least not for congressional

republicans. health care reform has sputtered. the president is breaking deals, but with democrats. still, house speaker paul ryan is holding out hope that he can deliver on the opportunity of his lifetime. the first significant tax reform since 1986. the year he got his driver's license. i spoke with him in his capitol hill office about whether it will happen this year or at all. you have spent so much time focusing on your tax reform plan. the details are still coming out here. but it's clear that wealthy americans are going to get a hefty chunk of the benefits out of this bill. are you open to shifting that through the course of negotiations? are you open to giving more of that to the middle class? >> that's the entire discussion about fourth bracket on high-income earning so they don't get a big rate cut, that that goes to middle class taxpayers. the question is how to set the numbers. we're waiting to see what the

budget resolution looks like. so that is the key. and the president made it really clear to us. he said to us, i don't want healthy income earners to get a big tax cut. that should go to middle income earners. on the flip side, businesses, and remember, people own businesses. it's really important that we drop tax rates on businesses because businesses in america are being taxed at much, much higher tax rates compared to their foreign competitors and we're losing them to foreign competition as a result of that. >> you're assuming quite a bit of groilt if growth. you've always been previously a deficit neutral guy. >> i'm going to -- i'm a supply side believer. i'm a believer in broadening the base and lowering the rates and that will give us faster economic growth. if you ask me that all tax cuts pay for themselves? no, that's not the case. some do. basically depends on how high the tax is, and what kind of tax

you're talking about. when we lower tax rates, that helps economic growth and especially in the international area, where businesses are taxed on average of 22.5% and we are taxing american businesses, big and small, between 35% and 40%? >> they pay lower than that efec efectively. >> i was just with u.p.s. bir big, huge company. they compete against dhl, 24%. i was talking to harley-davidson. a big milwaukee company. their effective tax rate is in the mid-30s. they are competing against companies taxed at like 20%. so we are putting our forms at a competitive disadvantage. when you take loopholes away, that's fair. >> you said last week in a speech, if we squander this opportunity, it will never come again. some will say this is your defining life's work. if you can't pass tax reform, how long do you see yourself staying speaker of the house?

>> i took this job to do big policy things, not to be a caretaker. not to be here and have this title. i took this job to do things. to improve people's lives. to pass the principles and policies that i've spent my adult life working on. and so, yeah, this is one of those big issues. it's not just me. it's us. we. here in congress. we ran on doing this. the president ran on doing this. so we've got a big commitment to keep and the great thing about kiping this commitment is everybody benefits. that's why, among other reasons, i took this job as speaker of the house. >> do you risk losing the majority if you can't do this? >> i don't get into the political speculation. we need to keep our word. >> isn't that the underlying message that you've been send g i ing? you might have a small problem here but if you don't -- >> we want to show there's a reason for us being in the majority. we're going to help grow the economy. give people tax breaks. simplify the tax system. grow the economy.

if we don't do that, then that doesn't look very good. and more importantly, we ran on doing this. we ran house, senate president trump on overhauling the tax code and cutting taxes for middle class taxpayers. so we've got to make good on that commitment. >> the president has regularly engaged in disputes with various members. bob corker the most recent. ben sasse. is that helpful? >> it's what he does. he and i have -- not on this particular issue, but we've had our engagements, in the past, too. what i'm trying to get our members to do is focus on doing our jobs. we're here elected to represent our constituents to advance your principles and pass solutions. that's what we're focused on. i try to urge members not to get distracted. >> did you ever imagine washington would be the way it is? >> i think the country is pretty darn polarized. i think one of the reasons is because the economy has been pretty darn flat for a long time

and there's a lot of anxiety in america. and this is one of the reasons i'm so focused on this agenda because i think it will give relief to this agency becaunxie it will help them. >> is the president helping? >> he's helping us with tax reform. do i wish he would tweet less? i course i do. he knows that. that's something out of my control and i don't think it's something that's going to change. is he going around and helping us sell tax reform and connecting with people? did this president as a republican win wisconsin for the first time since '84 and pennsylvania and ohio? >> did he do that by uniting or dividing. >> you look at where i came from, he united people. he brought people into our party voting for a republican president, a hotly contested u.s. senate race and these are democrats that felt like they were overshadowed. we used to call them reagan democrats. now they're trump democrats. he put together a darn

impressive vote coalition. he did unify that front. >> since the president was elected you said you've made it known to him you don't want him to tweet. you've defend his actions by saying he's new to this. you didn't go after him by name after charlottesville. during the campaign said in the wake of the "access hollywood" tape that was released that you would never defend trump, not now and not in the future. i've heard from some critics of you who are republicans and they don't necessarily recognize the republican party under trump and they're disappointed. >> they can view that however they want. the best thing i can do is help us pass an agenda that improves people's lives. we have an agenda we all agree on. we have unified government. it's important to make this unified government work. imagine if we decided just to have some internal food fight and get nothing done for the country. how does that help people get a job or more take-home pay and relieve the insecurity in this country that are living paycheck

to paycheck? it doesn't. if we want to play some d.c. game of fighting each other and get nothing done, maybe that would satisfy a few people. but i'm elected to defend the constitution, to represent people in wisconsin, to help run congress, to improve people's lives and you do that by getting things done and in this unified government we have, we have a tremendous opportunity to get big, good things done. that should to me is the most important thing i can contribute to. >> you mentioned an internal food fight and your majority which is a nice segue into my question about steve bannon who is picking a food fight with a lot of your incumbents in the senate and the house. are you afraid of what steve bannon may do? >> i'm not afraid of it. i think we'll be fine if we do our work and getter jobs done and pass our policies. >> is he helping the republican party? >> i don't think it's helpful to go after fellow republicans. what's most helpful is if we all unify around our common goals, principles and purposes and get

an agenda passed. i don't think having these fights are helpful. but at the same time, i don't think it's going to deter us from doing what we says we were going to do. >> are the messages steve bannon is sending to the republican base helpful for the country? >> to be honest, i'm not paying that close attention. i'm a little busy with a day job. i dont know what you mean when you say the messages. i'm making sure we get our message passed. they've written a lot of stories going after you. >> death, taxes and attacks from breitbart. i'm so used to that that to be honest you don't spend time thinking about things like that out of your control. >> death, taxes and attacks from breitbart. joining us for reaction to that, former senior adviser to jeb bush and former press secretary to house speaker john boehner, michael steele. michael, great to have you here at the table. i want to start with you. how hard is paul ryan's job right now and how tenuous is his position?

>> i think his job is incredibly hard, but i think he's incredibly dedicated to it. he had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the speaker's office. he was convinced he could get big things done that helped people and that's what he believes tax reform is. it's going to help create jobs, help people get higher wages, help bring our economy back to life. and that's the reason people elect republicans. that's the reason people elected president trump. and that's what he'll give everything he has to try and do. >> so far it's not exactly going very well. he keeps saying we'll be fine if we just pass our agenda. the agenda is completely stalled and the president is piling up health care, iran, all these other things ahead of his priority. >> the president either doesn't know or gets bad advice about what he needs to do on capitol hill. especially when he fights with members of congress who are critical and key to his agenda. you can almost understand that because he has no experience in washington and his team is

mostly made up of bankers and people who don't understand washington. the president has not done a good job in setting expectations. the white house said we're going to get tax reform done by august and -- >> were those expectations set by the hill? >> i think paul ryan always said we'll get it done by the end of the year. even that's a little bit rosy. i am being kind to my friend. >> you are a republican in congress. you feel whipsawed between the president telling you he's outsourcing foreign and domestic fols you and then sending nasty tweets about you. i don't understand how this gets resofld. >> the president in this case, it's so self-destructive with these tweets. he's build some relationships and burn them all down and have to start over. and he does not trust paul ryan and certainly doesn't trust mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader. there's just a disconnect there. and they agree on this agenda but can't seem to get past the personal distractions the

president keeps creating to get it done. >> it seems like ryan has fared better than mcconnell over the course of the last month or two by keeping his head down. he never really engages particularly with tweets or anything like that. where's your sense of where the president is on that. does he care more about picking at mitch mcconnell than he does about ryan or is his relationship with ryan better than with mcconnell? >> the relationship with ryan is better than with mcconnell. we should point out they are meeting tomorrow to try to hash out what the faushlgs genda will look like. a meet with vice president pence who is a key player in all of this, helping smooth out the relationships on the hill. >> also worth remembering that facts matter. the house passed obamacare repeal and replace. the senate didn't. it's obvious why he may be less happy with the senate majority leader. >> when i talk to republicans on the hill, they also think that they need to set realistic expectations and the exact same reason yes health care failed or the same reasons tax reform can

fail. that's the fact they have to see whether or not they press -- trust the president to back policies to understand the policy, to put his full weight behind the policy and in some ways mend relationships so people can say, okay, i trust this president that when i get hammered back home, when people say you'll cut entitlement reform and all these tax cuts to the rich and how much are you going to give me, that the president is there to back me up. at least the republicans i'm talking to on the hill don't see donald trump as being someone that's going to have their back. >> we have to leave it there. still to come, presidents and vice prts past and present descend on the state of virginia. we'll talk about the center of the world for the midterms when we bring back states of play in just a little bit. you're watching "kasie dc." kyle: mom! mom! kyle, we talked about this. there's no monsters. but you said they'd be watching us all the time. no, no. no, honey, we meant that progressive would be protecting us 24/7.

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there are new allegations against harvey weinstein. they are investigating the sexual assault allegations of three women. one of them claiming to have been assaulted on three different occasions. the metropolitan police has not

identified weinstein as a suspect. their policy is only to identify people who have been charged with crimes and weinstein hasn't been charged with anything. worldwide, more than 30 women have come forward to accuse weinstein of sexual harassment or misconduct. more than 30. a spokesman for weinstein said any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by mr. weinstein. he has further confirmed there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. on saturday, the academy of motion picture awards arts and sciences which has awarded his movies 81 oscars over the years expelled weinstein saying the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over. the problem of powerful men harassing women doesn't just affect hollywood. i asked speaker paul ryan about whether that culture exists in washington's corridors of power.

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i'd like to switch topics and ask you about something that's been in the news. a little bit of a difficult subject. that's harvey weinstein. he's operated in an entertainment culture that allowed powerful men to go unpunished and that led women to be silent in the face of things that they maybe experienced or went through. do you think a culture like that exists in the halls of congress and what should congress be doing about it? >> it would be naive to suggest that doesn't happen. and i do believe exposing these things can help improve the culture. look, i've got to confess. i'm not a big hollywood gossiper. i didn't know who he was. i'm not a big hollywood pop culture. it's horrendous. no woman should ever fear they

have to put up with this kind of stuff. obviously he needs to be held to account. in any institution, wherever you look in society, you're going to have these kinds of problems. the more you can expose it and the more we can castigate people in society on these things to show that this is not acceptable behavior, that's to the good. >> that was more from my interview with paul ryan talking about whether washington has symptoms of that disease that's just been wracking hollywood. joining me reporter for "usa today," heidi przybilla, msnbc contribute are ashley parker. we now have all ladies at the table. i want to do that for this conversation. part of what i want to talk about. the speaker said it's naive to think this doesn't happen in the halls or corridors, whether it's congress, washington, places where the power dynamic is out of whack. >> i think that's very fair. washington is sort of the cliche is that it's hollywood for ugly

people but if you want to talk about a huge power differential, washington is such a city where there's people in power and then the people who sort of are built around them from pages to low level assistants to serve those in power. that's a dynamic that is sort of the flip side of what we're seeing come out in hollywood now. >> what do you think is -- what has made the difference in having all these women come forward. all these men, one after another, who clearly have been engaged in patterns of abuse for years and dozens of people had never said anything and now in the past year, year and a half we've had women be willing to come forward and speak out? >> a lot has to do with female reporters? i was very honored, proud of my colleagues at "the new york times" because not only did they go after harvey weinstein but bill o'reilly. female reporters brushed off, sometimes with these high-powered people saying i have way more power than you and then reporters who are

absolutely kind of talking to women, giving them safe spaces to share their stories. as someone, as a black woman we talk about diversity in terms of color. having women in your newsroom is important because they'll understand in some ways how to speak to other women. they'll understand what stories are really important and be dogged in their reporting. i'm not saying male colleagues can't tell these stories but for me, reading these stories and knowing they were written by women who are amazing investigative reporters, that's part of what's making the difference. >> one of the authors of that report did a story about how they wrote the story that set off this cascade. a lot of the people i talked to wanted to speak to a woman reporter. is there, do you see a difference there? i certainly -- there may be a certain level of comfort but -- this tells us about how far we really have to go because we are not just talking here about harassment. we are talking in several cases about rape. and this did not come out until

the reporters went to these women and had to give them assurances and one of them even walked it back because harvey weinstein was so powerful that he was buying these women off. he was also apparently working the media behind the scenes. and to your point, of course, it's everywhere. it's not just hollywood. it's not just capitol hill. look what's happening with the tech companies. and some of the harassment reports that have been going on out there. and that's presumably a newer generation of men and women who are promulgating this behavior. this is not the 65-year-old harvey weinstein crowd. >> it's incredibly difficult to confront and talk about it. i certainly have delts with instances was i was a young reporter in washington of things i never told anybody about or maybe told my friends about. the one cultural change and i want to bring up woody allen made some comments today. he was quoted in a bbc story warning about what could happen

here. he said that allen hoped the revelations which emerged after an investigation by "the new york times" would lead to some amelioration but you also don't want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a salem atmosphere where every guy in an office who winks at a woman has to call a lawyer and defend himself. that's not right either. >> first of all, many things to unpack there. he's probably not the best person to be offering advice, but i also think you mentioned being a young female reporter. where do you sort of draw the line? is it winking? is it something more insidious? speaking of a witch hunt, i think of it on the flip side that one thing that helped these women come out in addition to sort of safe spaces, maybe female reporters, is a lot of these things there's a dull or a buzz or hum. people know about it. but it's not public. and then there's strength in numbers. one woman who goes out and --

>> like cosby. >> like cosby. even some of president trump's accusers. one strong woman comes out. then another and all these people feel they were maybe confidesing to their friends, boyfriend, parents, they feel safe to say because there is strength in numbers. >> i find it almost offensive to say, what's wrong with a wink. what's wrong with also touching my hair, with also a slight pat? none of that is okay. if you are my editor, a reporter, you shouldn't be winking at me or padding me or touching me. you should be answering my questions and maybe trying to run away from me if i'm stalking you on the halls of capitol hill. you cannot try to pacify and say that was me joking around. you are taking that too seriously. that's the culture that you need to change across the united states. it's not okay at all under any circumstances for you to be any way looking at my body or as a woman and saying that. >> for people who don't understand some of the male commentators who don't understand and are talking about different shades and lines when

this is assault. there is no distinction here. >> there isn't. there is still a code of silence that needs to s to be broken. senator susan collins joins me live in studio to talk about why she decided to stay in the senate. and the uncertain future of obamacare. you're watching "kasie dc." they really appreciate the military family, and it really shows. we've got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. usaa was there hands-on very quick very prompt. i feel like we're being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. usaa, get your insurance quote today. ♪ do you want clean, stain free dentures? try polident. the four in one cleaning system kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria, cleans where brushing may miss. helps remove stains and prevent stain build up.

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what if... "people" aren't buying these books online, but "they" are buying them to protect their secrets?!?! hi bill. if that is your real name. it's william actually. hmph! affordable, fast fedex ground. after months of rumors and speculation, susan collins has decided not to run for governor of maine and will instead stay in washington with us in the senate where she has become a crucial swing vote as a powerful senate republican. thank you for being here. >> thank you and congratulations

on your new show. >> thank you. i really appreciate it. let's start with health care. what do you think is realistic for what the congress can actually accomplish on health care? >> i'm actually optimistic that the work of senators lamar alexander and patty murray is going to bear fruit on the senate and they were meaty, substantive hearings on the affordable care act. >> but mcconnell shut that down when they decided to try, right? >> that's true. but when the bill was out there by lindsey graham and bill cassidy were not approved, they are absolutely critical now that

the president has decided to cut up the subsidies that help lower income people that cut out their costs. >> and would the president sign a bill that would just address what alexander and murray are going to talk about? >> they are going to have a more comprehensive bill than just restoring the help for low-income people with trheir deductibles and co-pays and this is a good one, reflects input from both sides of the aisle and i'm hopeful that he will do so. >> i want to ask you about what was very long -- i remember asking you multiple times in the hallways, are you going to stay or go. what ultimately kept you hear in the senate? there are so many people that feel like the atmosphere here is incredibly toxic. did you feel that way? is that why you were thinking of leaving? >> i was thinking of leaving for many reasons. one is that i missed being in

maine full time. most of my family and many of my friends are there and governor is a more hands-on job where you can promote more economic opportunities and that really matters to me. but then i looked at all that is going on in washington today. the issues that we're dealing with are so consequential, i do play a key role as one of those senators who can work across the aisle and actually get things done and i just felt that i couldn't walk away even though it's a very difficult and troubled time in washington. >> you along with senator lisa murkowski and john mccain were the thin red line against the repeal of obamacare. is that something that you must have argued with mitch mcconnell about at some length.

it had to be a tough position to be in. >> it was a tough position because i think there are a lot of flaws in the aaffordable care act that would help our insurance markets that operate better, that would lower premiums for people and would fix a lot of the other problems in the law and that's what we should be concentrating on. most frustrating to me is neither the aca or any of the republican alternatives did anything about the underlying costs of health care. and that's the huge issue that none of these bills nor the current law really addressed. >> you were just one of a few women senators in congress that are still not equal representation of women compared to the population, of course, by a large margin. is there a difference between between a trump senator than there has been in the past? >> i haven't really thought of it that way and i don't think

i'd see a big difference but i do see a difference now that we have more women in the senate. and to be elected in her own right, there were many others who have been appointed, usually up to the death of their husbands. but three of those were from the great state of maine and something we're very proud of. what i have noticed is that you still have to prove yourself if you're a woman who is elected to the senate. if you're a man and elected, it's assumed that you belong there but women have to prove themselves. i do want to say, we don't think alike. we -- but when -- they don't. we span the ideological spectrum as the male counterparts do. >> do you think president trump treats women well. >> i've been disappointed in the way that he treated women during the campaign.

i think he has appointed nikki haley to important positions. i've been impressed with several of his appointments and i haven't seen what i saw on the campaign now that he's president. he seems to be more equal opportunity in his comments about people. >> lastly, very quickly, we have to wrap up, harvey weinstein, the allegations have rocked hollywood. what is your view of what should happen now? should congress take a look at nondisclosure agreements, for example, in employment contracts or becoming an issue around this? is that something congress could look at to try and make this better? >> well, it seems to me this is primarily a law enforcement issue given the rape allegations and that's where most of the focus should be but certainly it's something that would be good for congress to take a look at because this is far too prevalent not just in hollywood

but else where. >> senator susan collins, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. i really appreciate it. >> thank you. and coming up, senator al franken joins me live to talk tax reform and the iran deal. and later, this week's kasie's dvr. we break it down so you don't have to. and plus, we talk about the push to beat the republican establishment by other republicans. ""kasie dc" is back after this. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends, three jobs... you're like nothing can replace brad. then liberty mutual calls... and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement™, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. my doctor recommended i switch laxatives. stimulant laxatives make your body go

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try to undo the obama presidency. >> it's the week that president trump went rogue. >> this is the equivalent of health care arson. >> what are they doing? >> i'm very disappointed in the president's actions. >> i think it actually helps the family. >> on iran, the president threatens to end the nuclear deal. >> it's a very brave decision. >> we can't really say with confidence that they are complying. ha