thinks it's a winning issue, his crowds love it and he'll keep talking about it forever. >> and ever and ever and ever, and phil and i will have to conquer it. thank you to you all. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck! >> hi, nicolle. i think the nfl, trump's the least of their problems. >> maybe the nfl's the least of trump's problems! >> both -- both statements are very true. anyway -- thank you. if it's wednesday, obamacare is dead. long live obamacare! tonight -- the president's health care flip-flop. >> the president called me ten days ago and asked me to work with senator murray to do this. >> so president trump was the key negotiator for the bipartisan deal then why is he now tweeting opposition? >> i don't respond to the president's tweets. i respond to getting the job done, working with lamar to get this passed. >> this president certainly supports republicans and democrats coming to work

together. >> what does the confusion mean for the chances of this fix getting passed? we'll get reaction from senator bill cassidy. at the forefront of the health care debate. and questioning sessions -- >> i can neither assert executive privilege nor can i disclose today the content of my confidential conversations with the president. >> will executive privilege continue to shield the attorney general from questions in the russia probe? we'll talk to senate judiciary committee member dick durbin. this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. good evening. i'm chuck todd near washington. welcome to "mtp daily." folks when there's a hugely important issue like health care it's important everybody knows what the president of the united states wants and where he stands

based on what he says. but we've seen so many instances where the president contradicts himself or the white house contradicts him or his allies contradict both, and health care is no exception. in fact, it sometimes feels like the rule. as a consequence, it's taken just 24 hours for this bipartisan deal designed to stabilize the health care markets temporarily to spiral into its own giant chaotic mess. last week the president cut off payments critical to obamacare's health insurance markets. called them a bayout for insurance companies. yesterday afternoon he heaped praise on this bipartisan senate deal to restore them calling it a "very good solution." at the exact same time the white house was telling us they opposed it. well, then last night mr. trump urged congress to find a different solution and today he and the white house slammed the senate deal as, guess what? a bailout for insurance companies. >> i won't do anything to enrich the insurance companies because right now the insurance companies are being enriched,

have been enriched by obamacare like nothing nobody's seen before. >> we said all along we don't want to bailout insurance companies but provide relee for all americans and this bill doesn't address that fact. >> is it droect say president trump does not support this deal in its current form? >> correct. >> what the heck is going on. if you want clarity from the republican chief negotiator on the deal, keep looking, because senator lamar alexander said today mr. trump personally engineered this compromise. >> he completely engineered the bipartisan agreement that senator murray and i announced yesterday in this way. he talked to senator schumer, encouraged him to ask murray to do it. calmed me twice over the last ten days to talk to me about bipartisan agreement for the short term. so -- >> a bridge. >> a bridge so people aren't hurt. >> and if the president did oppose this deal, it seemed like news to him.

>> you just got off the phone with president trump. did he indicate how he was inclined? >> well, he hasn't read it yet. he's been busy. we just introduced it yet afternoon. >> senator alexander also said based on his conversations with the president, mr. trump seemingly understands cutting off subsidies would create "chaos in the health care system" and this deal was designed as an attempt to avoid that. a very good solution in the rose garden yesterday became a bailout for insurance companies which senator alexander says it simply not true. >> we are having the strongest possible language in the alexander/murray agreement to make sure that the cost-sharing reduction payments for 2018 and '19 benefit the whole income americans, and don't benefit the insurance companies. >> needless to say, this mess is understandably a bit frustrating

not just for the president's allies but critics who cake to the table to back this deal. >> i don't respond to the president's tweets. i respond to getting the job done, working with lamar to get this passed. he is chommitted to doing it. >> will the president make up his mind? he keeps changing his mind on issue after issue showing an appalling lack of leadership. now, he said today it would benefit the insurance companies. he ought to read the bill before he tweets. >> so here we are with the president praising then opposing a bipartisan deal which he apparently really wanted to save the health care system from his own actions, because it would bail out insurance companies even though its architects say it doesn't. yes. we're all confused. tonight's panel is with us. thank you all for being with us. welcome. all right. george will --

we've seen a lot of -- of these moments with president trump, but on legislation to go in 24 hours, i mean, whiplash doesn't begin to describe it. >> he didn't need to get to this point in the sense that the subsidies that are at issue here, no matter what you think about the affordable care act they took an oath of office, all of them, to defend the constitution, not the affordable care act and two thing. everything is disagreed in this town by everybody. two things are indisputable. article 1 section 9 of the constitution no money expended from the treasury expect by appropriation of congress. second thing no one disagrees, congress never appropriated the money for the subsidies. so along come murray and alexander and what they're doing is clearly throwing a life line to the affordable care act. that's indisputable. the affordable care act for the

critics is somewhat like the iran deal as defined by the former prime minister of israel. a bad deal but a done deal. there are now lots of reliance and interest developed around this, and the, murray/alexander bill simply says, let's try and get to the next stage. whatever it is. we don't know what it's going to be. you can still say it ought to fail but right now it's too big to fail. >> interesting words. where are you on this? >> the analogy to the iran deal is exactly right. it's one thing for the president to say, can't cope with this mess. toss it to congress. so he has done that with the iran deal, he's doing it with health care. it's another thing for him having tossed it to congress to then toss it up some more and create this incredible chaos that he's creating. because there is another oath that the president takes to take care of the faithfully executed

for better or worse, the affordable care act is the law of the land. you have serious serious lawmakers, senator alexander and murray working at the president's behest, senator alexander tell us us to get to a attemptary two-year solution here. i'm waiting for senator alexander, a patient person to go full bob corker. >> what i don't get here. michael steele, lamar alexander, this is not a guy who's new to this game. he's been around the block and pretty risk oh verse. he's not going to climb out on a limb he doesn't think he's by himself on. you don't sign off on deals in this town when you do these deals if you don't know you've got, in this kashgs the white house and your senator leader with you. all of a sudden it looks like the president's about to saw off this limb. >> absolute legislative malpractice on the part of the white house.

their lead shop has been woefully incompetent from the very beginning in terms of -- >> you blame them or -- >> tell you what -- >> has the president made it job harder for -- >> exactly right. no coordination between the oval office and that lead shop in terms what they're communicating to the hill and their legislative office in terms where they'll going to go. so you have senator alexandersying, i had a conversation with the president who told me this -- >> right. >> i then to your point go out and rely on that when sitting in front of a reporter and say, yeah, we've got it locked up. the president's onboard, ready to move forward. finally have the compromise at least for two years to get us to george's point, to the next point. that's the problem. the president then is told, did you do that? because that's not -- we're not there. >> i get a sense, george, something else is going on and i think, frankly, the republican party right now is choking on steve bannon. meaning, this was a deal lamar was basically encouraged to make ten days ago.

and now everybody is watching steve bannon threaten primary challenges left and right and reezing, oh, voting for this deal could be problematic. >> could be problematic but less problematic than the chaos beyond the republican base that might result if these subsidies are abruptly stopped. now, clearly some of the insurance companies have already priced in their anticipation these will be stops, and there might not be chaos. the person who probably had his attention seized by mr. bannon, the president himself, who was told, i don't think he thinks far down the road on these matters and i think someone said, you know, this is going to be spun as -- >> you saved obamacare. >> there it is. you saved obamacare. does donald trump want to be the guy that saves obamacare? >> he doesn't but ultimately will be. the great irony here. >> does donald trump want to be the guy that inflicts pain on his voters? because the people who are going

to be most hurt by the end of these subsidies are classic trump voters. >> but seems to me he has thrown a pile of stuff by the end of the year. so daca is something that the trump base isn't going to be happy with and the steve bannon crowd will make him own in ways he --ened knew you have the idea of saving obamacare. can he do both? politically? i mean, i can't envision both. >> he can't do both. he will probably likely do one or the other. and i think that the one he'll -- >> the one he doesn't do either one becomes a political disaster. >> the one there will be salvaging on will the daca. the health care thing will continue to slip and slide the way the health care thing has slipped and slid so far. >> because of the 70-30 issue in favor of solving daca. >> that's the problem. >> the daca piece i think is the one that survives. health care moves on. >> to what, though?

explain that. i don't -- >> well, bounce back and forth between the hill and the white house. and -- look, we had two plans by the leadership that went nowhere. we now have the alexander/murray plan that was going swraomewher and now nowhere. it's stalled at this point. >> not yet. the definite article. "the" good policy consequence of the trump presidency is what talking about on iran. to congress, you fix. congress should have done in the first place. on the affordable care act, solve this. they should have done this in the first place. the revival, the resuscitation from a near deng experience of the legislative branch is not chopped liver. >> you're so optimistic! >> semiresuscitation. here, the thing making me despondent right now is that we have the legislative branch operating as, george and i agree, rarely, that it should. you know, coming together with a

compromise and it's going to get blown up and the amount of things congress has on its plate that needs done by the end of this year is beyond the capacity of even a functional congress and lord knows we don't have that. >> a friend of the show, amy walker, tweeted a quote from a republican strategist who says, "just get health care off the plate." do whatever it takes to punt. every time you bring it back into the debate it makes the republican party look incompetent. george? >> yes, well, they don't have to do anything to get off their plates except stop talking about it. >> don't you think they have to -- >> yeah. >> that's effectively what had happened. after the two failures everyone in this town was like, okay. we can move on to something else. the president himself, now we're going to focus on tax reform. >> and mitch mcconnell. on to cincinnati. bill belichick. >> absolutely. and it was the president who threw this back in the mix. so here we are. >> threw it back in the mix and

mess messed up the mix after he threw it back. >> we're our confused. stick around. a lot more to talk about. more health care in a minute. bill cassidy, republican from louisiana. he's next. stop short. i don't see nothin' man. you don't see it, he feels it. you are my hammer out there. don't let these young guys see you fold. ♪ i'm only human, i make mistakes ♪ ♪ i'm only human, that's all it takes ♪ ♪ to put the blame on me i'm alive because of you. i'm not a hero. we're brothers, we look after each other. thank you for your service. rated r.

welcome back. you know how saying goes. a watched pot never boiled an turns out a senate special election in a deep red state doesn't heat up until you stop paying attention. a new poll in alabama shows the democrat doug jones tied with the odds-on republican favorite roy moore sitting at 42% in that special election in december. this is a big league federal friends at fox news not one with specific methodology. big and great news for the jones campaign trying to woo attention from national democrats. why this poll even in deep alabama isn't as shocking.

first, republicans are divided. had to win a bloody primary and jones had the field all to himself. second, jones is blanketed air waves dexcrying a broken washington and republicans aren't respond, at least not yet. and remarks on this program, opposed to restrictions on abogues. won't play well for voters in alabama and money from the campaign apparatus. does he have real money and will bannon help moore? some of mitch mcconnell's friends might not be helping moore. a long way until december and the big test for jones proving his 42% is a floor and not a potential ceiling. we'll be back in 6 a seconds.

alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. ...and help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks! i'll take that. -yeeeeeah! ensure high protein. with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. ensure. always be you. welcome back. as we've mentioned the reaction has been swit to the proposed health care framework released by committee leaders. lamar alexander, patti murray.

and senator bill katz of louisiana expressed openness to the deal this morning. of course, the architect behind graham/cassidy. the last republican attempt at a major health care overhaul that ended up falling through. joining me now is senator cassidy. good evening, sir. >> hey, chuck. how are you? >> all right. i am good. let me start with this morning, that same event we quoted senator alexander at. you were also there. at the time you said you were inclined to support the compromise temporary deal but still reviewing the bill. i take it you've had more time to review the bill. where's are you now on this deal? >> frankly i haven't reviewed it. my staff hasn't spoken to me. many thing ice like abos i like bill. in the interim, the president came out against, paul ryan out against. some things are in there they find objectionable. i'll find that out tonight. just spoke to lamar alexander who is calling the president asking whatever his objection

is, make that portion of the language stronger. so i think we're still working towards and end. >> seems to me the objection, we kind of know what the objection is. this idea that there is money set ay side, quote/unquote, for insurance companies in order to provide the subsidies for low income americans to buy health insurance. the president believes any payment like that, if he believes it's a bailout to insures companies he won't support it, but how do you deal a deal that doesn't include this money? >> it's more complicated than presented. the issue is whether or not the rates that are filed for this plan year can be reduced if these payments are made. now, some feel as if it's too late in the game. that the insurance companies will charge their higher rate, plus get the payments. that would be a windfall for insurance companies. i've been against that from day one and told chairman alexander i would not support it. i'm gathering those who continue oppose feel the language is not strong enough on that particular

piece. if it can be made stronger they may indeed support it. >> is it that easy? that you can -- is if that, that that change alone is going to -- is going to change the mind of the president and paul ryan? >> i can't get in the mind of the president or paul ryan. i'm not they. on the other hand, people have spoken from the white house expressed that specific concern and again speaking to alexander and others that seems to be one of the major issues. no one wants the insurance companies to get a windfall. everyone wants premiums to be lower for americans. if we can figure it out maybe it can go forward. i'm not in direct negotiations, but that's the take i've learned. >> during this, during the various press question time that the president has provided. some of it formal. some informal, he keeps saying he's got the votes. graham cassidy has the votes. wait a year or two. i'm sorry. you tell me, sir. if you had the votes, wouldn't

you have voted on graham cassidy? >> so you can't separate the policy from the process. we had a very short turned of time before september 30th, the deadline ran out. a couple senators wished to have committee hearings. well still we will have those now. that will be the process, but we can't use this reconciliation bill in 2018 because that is dedicated to tax. if we're able to do it, it would be using a 2019 reconciliation bill, which would be next year. at that time hopefully a chance to go through the process allaying concerns of at least a couple folks concerned about the process. >> senator, why go down this reconciliation process? i mean, seems like it's politically perilous and will never be accepted law of the land by both parties? >> i will say the graham/cassidy bill is far better for states like virginia, missouri, maine, florida. i could go down a few others. represented by democratic

senators. it's not a partisan in that sense bill. on the other hand -- a lot of quote/unquote blue states. states with democratic governors do get hurt. be realistic. >> you say a lot. the ones that expand medicaid, even those end up at the end, we held harmless almost all. and we did it koconsciously. we don't mean to hurt folks. i'm a doctor. i don't consider democrats or republicans. i consider them americans. we can say the status quo is not sustainable. right now a family making $82,000, a family of three, 401% of the federal poverty level will not be able to afford insurance on the exchanges. that insurance being $30,000. before these latest premium increases. now, the status quo is not sustainable. we have to do something for those families. some folks just don't care about them. i do. we've got to do something i

think graham/cassidy does. >> do you think it is easier for you to get your bill a hearing your bill an opportunity to pass if this alexander murray compromise goes through? is that making your job easier or harder to get your larger overhaul bill to be considered and passed? >> i haven't thought that through, chuck. i do think, if there's flexibility given stakes to lower premiums and if the cost-sharing reduction payments aren't a free windfall for the insurance companies, but can lower costs, that would be better for some of the folks, those struggling families and i am all about those families. my bill will take care of itself because the problems of obamacare will only worsen's if we can do something for the working families i'm all about that. >> let me ask you this. you guys have a lot of stuff piling up by the end of the year. and there are some things that seem as if they're must-passes. but some things are must pass that may not pass. let me ask you. when you prioritize, we have an

issue having to do with the obamacare markets could explode, if the payments aren't made. many insurance companies warned of this. others are worrying about this. you have the doaca issue. expiration of protections in there. the budget itself. the debt limit. what's going to get lost? what are you concerned about that is going to not make it through by the end of the year that causes problems going into 2018? >> i suspect what will give or weaken for senators, that's okay. if we have to work through weekends to get through this work load, i'm all for it. >> you're not going home without daca and this obamacare issue resolved? you're not going home for christmas until those two are resolved, or not? >> i am all for resolving those, and if it requires celebrating christmas in d.c., i won't like it. i prefer to be in louisiana, but if that's what it takes i'm all for it. >> is it going to be that difficult? is this going to be easier to have in one big pileup type of thing the end of the year?

does that make compromise easier because, frankly, there isn't enough spotlights to focus on one thing or is that actually grog to make things potentially, frankly, easier to disrupt by one senator? >> i'm a big believer in two things. one, that sometimes you have to make it bigger to solve a problem. and things piling up may mean that we can make it everything bigger and solve them all at once, if you will. also a big believer nothing like a deadline to sharpen someone's mind. so if we have deadlines it has to be done, always the optimist, i am hoping that drives the action and we get the business of the american people done. >> all right. senator bill cassidy. with a little bit of update about where alexander murray may be going. appreciate you brings that to us. good to talk to you, sir. >> thank you, sir. when we come back, attorney general jeff sessions faces tough questions about the russia investigation.

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still ahead, fallout from that report ak congress hand covering the deas efforts to fight the opioid epidemic. first, today's market wrap. >> chuck, had the dow rising sharply today. closing above 23,000 for the first time. the dow adding 160 points. the s&p gained two points. the nasdaq closed a fraction of a point higher.

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welcome back to "mtp daily." attorney general jeff sessions was on capitol hill today for his regularly scheduled overs t oversight hearing. not surprisingly, faced a lot of tough questions but the toughest came on the russia probe. >> haven't been interviewed by the special counsel in any way, shape or manner? >> the answer is, no. >> were you aware of a meeting between don jr., manafort and jared kushner with a russian

lawyer and other russians in trump tower? >> no. >> since you have qualified for denial to say that you did not "discuss issues of the campaign with russians, what in your view constitutes issues of the campaign? >> well, let me just say this without hesitation, that i conducted no improper discussions with russians at any time regarding a campaign or any other item facing this country. >> joining me now is senator dick durbin. democrat from illinois. sits on the judiciary committee. questioned sessions today. also, by the way, the democratic whip, making him the number two in senate democratic leadership. senator durbin, welcome back. >> thanks, chuck. >> i know there were a lot of topics not just russia on the table and i plan on getting to them with you, but let me start with russia. your impressions. your questioning was more

focused and daca and i'll get to that in a moement. but your impressions of the attorney general. do you believe he was forthcoming and honest with the committee on all things russia? >> i can tell you, there were a lot of questions he answered and a lot of questions he didn't answer. i can't recall an attorney general before us who has invoked executive privilege that often in one case he referred to his so-called work product as a reason why we couldn't answer. question. he was being extremely careful when it came to the things he said, particularly conversations or things said to the president, one would understand, with an ongoing special prosecutor, an investigation under way, he has to be careful. >> do you think his decisions to invoke executive privilege at times do you think these league judicious about this, that this is a, he's being -- he's following the obligations. his job here? >> i think he is not only, but

them. understand, chuck, it's not a matter of bob mueller and the russia investigation. the last time jeff sessions appeared before this committee, he was a senator speaking the position of attorney general. answering a question imposed by senator franken his answer led to discloser that hadn't been published before and his recusal it was a significant moment. he was being extra careful today. >> interesting you said extra careful. i'm trying to understand, do you think these being judicious, that's fair, or being too careful? do you think he's being overly cautious and not forthcoming enough with the committee? >> overly caution, but it goes back to what's been said years ago. you don't know what you don't know. what he doesn't disclose of a conversation, or disclose a contact, you never know what occurred in the course of it. we'll be in a dark a long time

unless there's another source of information. >> sticking with russia. a lot of questions he didn't answer. in your mind, what are a couple, wait. you've got to be able to answer this one? >> the whole comey episode. just doesn't ring true. you know? to have both the attorney general as well as his deputy attorney general heading off in the direction of making up an excuse or a reason for firing jim comey and then the president in front of lester holt ends up saying, it was about that russia thing. we had to put that behind us. there's something about this exchange which just doesn't ring true for anybody who's taking a look from the outside. >> what are you -- either do you think the attorney general's misinformed, out of the loop or covering for the president? >> hard to say with this president and the with he reacts to things, but he was being asked, at least asking those in charge, give me a good reason for getting rid of comey, when the real reason everyone knew and he disclosed to lester holt the next day.

an unusual chapter in presidential history. >> i want to get to other topics. wide-ranging oversight hearing and everybody had issues to deal with. opioids came up with think with orrin hatch. talk about your questioning. where are we on the daca deal? i'll be hon effort with you, three weeks ago felt as if you just were trying to dot is, cross ts. this protection gets signed end of the year in some form or the other. now it feels like we're much farther away from that. where are we? >> i can tell you that i sense the immediatancy and urgency of this issue for the lives of 780,000 protected by daca now have an uncertain future subject to deportation and not legally being allowed to work. i feel that intensely. the president on a good day has said positive things about the d.r.e.a.m.ers and daca on a bad day have to have a wall and a lot of other things before i consider it.

it's lard to follow the president's progress, but a couple times today attorney general sessions despite the fact he's never supported the d.r.e.a.m. act or anything like that, despite that said several times the president felt favorably towards these young people. i'm one of those people who grabs at those straws and says that's something we can build on. >> what is your definition of enhanced border security and what's the president? >> the president wants everything. he wants the wall from sea to shining sea. 2,200 miles and 10 miles high and 10 miles deep. he wants it all. we know we're not going to give that to him. goes way beyond border security. it's keeping a campaign promise and shouldn't be interfering with the lives of these young people. we can vote for border security they is senseble. may be overload but a sensible approach. >> ask you about opioids. senator hatch did an interesting thing in his talk. i'll deal with it later in the show, but opened his questioning

and seemed to address all of you. all of your colleagues in the judiciary committee referring to the bombshell "washington post" "60 minutes" report about the bill that stripped the dea of some of its enforcement powers and the attempt to crack down on opioid distributors and senator hatch said, everyone on the commit and in the senate voted for this bill twice and it was only a seven-page bill and you can't sit here and deny you didn't know what this bill was about. a. is he right? are you complicit and, b., do you regret your vote? >> i do regret my vote and i'm joining in with claire mccaskill to reverse this change in policy, because we know what happened. as a result of that change in law, the number of raids made on those who were misusing sdris s distribution networks dwindled down to a handful and that in this time of opioid crisis is inexcusable. i can make my own excuse. the dea saying a good version of the bill.

i added amendments i thought were available. my president, barack obama, a man i served with on the senate signed it into law. all good arguments on the side of the law, but the net result of it, lack of vitch wlevigilan is unacceptable. they need to be health to a higher regard with regards to these opioids. >> this story strikes me the distrust between the public and washington. i sit here and ask myself how do 100 extraordinarily intelligent people get snowed by this bill? what do you say to the american public? >> they have a legitimate interest in it and legitimate reason to be skeptical how this was handled. i look at the end product and say i didn't see this coming. i certainly wasn't there standing up saying i've got to find a way to go easy on distributors senting many more opioid pills into communities than they could possibly need.

clearly used for abusive conduct. i should have seen that coming. i didn't see it coming. now that i've seen the result of it i want to undo it as quickly as possible. >> quickly, the health care deal. on again/off again/on again srb off again/on again. do you believe you will ever sign on to a deal that does have -- this money for insurance companies in order to bring down premiums? >> what the money is for is for the people buying premiums, buying the health insurance from the company to subsidize their premiums. so does the money go to the insurance companies? yes, through the consumers. we're giving them a break on the premiums they pay. but we want to make sure it doesn't go for any other purpose. so let me give credit where it's due. we have two senators, republican, lamar alexander, a democrat patti murray who accepted the challenge given to them by congress and the american people to finally get together and do something in washington on a bipartisan basis. soon as they did, the most

conservative members of the republican party said we want nothing to do with itened a the president kind of fishtailed around. we're not sure where he is from day to day, but we have a good, solid approach to keeping premiums under control and extending the reach of health insurance protection to more americans. it was done on a bipartisan basis with compromise on both sides. i hear back home every time i go home do more of this, senator. solve some problems instead of setting out press releases. >> senator dick durbin. leave it there. as always, sir, thanks for coming on. up next, i sort of teased it earlier. it's a big story that isn't going away anytime soon. to savy on your medicare part d prescriptions, switch to walgreens. we make it easy to seize the day, so you can get more out of life and medicare part d. just walk right in for savings that will be the highlight of your day. walgreens has $0 copays on select plans

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the one and only cadillac escalade. ( ♪ ) welcome back top congress is handled's opioid crisis or how congress is handling criticism how it's handling the opioid crisis. we mentioned this story a few moments ago. by now you've probably heard about the "60 minutes" "washington post" story alleges congress pass add law making it tougher for the dea to stop digb companies from blircherring rou quantities of opioids. senator orrin hatch of utah helped usher it through congress. today hatch used his time to question sessions by pushing back on criticism of the bill, of its chief sponsor congressman

tom mean re marino of pennsylva if you don't like the bill -- >> even after the bill passed congress they could have advised president obama not to sign on. don't forget, the bill bears his signature. let's not pretend the dea, both houses of congress and the obama white house all somehow wilted under representative marinos nefarious influences. >> marino by the way, had to withdraw his nomination to be president trump's drug czar. look, politicals are nervous about this story. senator hatch's speech in the well of the senate shot floovpr that to understand. easy to understand and a made-to-order 30-second negative ad. may or may not have been responsible for the making of the law, tom marino either. he's likely to run for

re-election. a senator understanding how dangerous a story like this poses because how easy it is for the voter to say, typical washington. here they go again. perfecting their "don't blame me" responses. be right back. ng) (beeping) we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork, your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you too. at optum, we're partnering across the health system to tackle its biggest challenges. at optum, we're partnering across the health system big thinking in the finger lakes is pushing the new new york forward. we're the number one dairy and apple producers in the eastern united states supported by innovative packaging that extends the shelf life of foods and infrastructure upgrades

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other side effects include upper... ...respiratory tract infection and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take... ...and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask your dermatologist about otezla today. otezla. show more of you. welcome back. the white house has been embroiled in a back and forth all day with a florida democratic congresswoman and the family of a service member about whether or not the president was disrespectful during a condolence call yesterday. and trump offered a grieving military father $25,000 in a phone call in june but didn't follow through. a spokesperson responded saying the check has been sent. it is disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately

by the president, and using it to advance the media's biased agenda. i'll be honest, i didn't think we would discuss this here and then it kept going all day. and it feels like the president the can't stop digging a hole here, a little bit the president got himself in some trouble before he was elected, picking a fight with a gold star family. and he didn't exactly learn from that experience. now we have he be just the congresswoman but dead soldiers, a mother affirming her view. it is very hard to know what was said in the conversation that you haven't listened to and tone matters and what comes before and after the sentence matters. i think the bigger point is that, one of the roles that a president fills is the role of consoler in chief. and sadly, we call on a lot of our presidents to do that over

time. that's not a role this president who has an empathy deficit is very well suited for. >> i hear you. and i get how it can be misconstrued. he tried to compare himself to other presidents. >> sure. the pointless pugnacity of the man who says he's proud of being a counter puncher and he counter punches even when he hasn't been punched. >> exactly. i don't understand why he went down this road. >> let me say something mildly on his behalf. he is barely on speaking terms with the english look. i don't think i've heard him complete a sentence in two years that had an object and a verb. >> you're saying let me defend the president here. >> but he makes george w. bush looks like cicero. he gets on the phone with these people and it is awkward.

it is an agonizing moment and he doesn't respond well. >> you can absolutely picture michael. it gets misconstrued and that's why this story felt uncomfortable. and then you go down. and all of a sudden, they make this pledge about all the service members. you're going to find out a lot from the gold star families. >> i think the fact is, he probably spoke awkwardly. he was trying to say, your son made a sacrifice. i know he understood what he was doing getting into and it didn't come out the right way. here's the problem. you don't come at this with the stroke of a check either. and you, so the idea that you're going to start striking a check for a gold star family every time you talk to them. what's the expectation here? what people are looking for in

this moment is for the president of the united states to offer some consoling words. to really represent the nation. >> the president did bring it on himself in the sense that he did compare himself favorably and inaccurately to other presidents. and as i understand the story about the gold star father, he raised with the president the subject of not receiving death benefits because those went solely to his estranged wife. so it wasn't, i'm a little bit defending the president here and then i'm not going to. so he didn't just kind of on his own out of blue offer money. but if you're going to offer money, for goodness sakes, follow through. and i would like to take umbrage on behalf of my newspaper at the use of the term disgusting. the reporters on the news side reasonably called this father, he had an amazing story to tell.

reporting it is not disgusting. it is journalism. >> and he's the one who said all these things so people will double-check everything he says. >> there's a larger issue here. and that is how easily so many people don't believe the president's word. and that's something i feel like he's brought on himself. >> there are not enough people giving them benefit of the doubt. >> the assumption that he somehow disparaged rather than said what was awkward. >> even when we don't know, the default position now is that he's not telling the truth. he began as president talking about the crowds. he goes to the cia, was that day two? and further exacerbates this. and ten months in, people say, well, we've got the picture. >> and now we wonder why senators are running around trying to figure out, where does the president stand on health

care? it touches all of this. i'll let you go. appreciate it. thank you very much. politics is all in the family in indiana. wait until you hear who is running for congress now.

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in case you missed it, the white house may be getting a very familiar face on capitol hill. gregory pence, mike pence's older brother, is running for a congressional seat in indiana. the same seat that used to be

held by his younger brother, mike pence. so what's in a name? american politics? a whole lot. democrats are banking on some pence fatigue in the hoosier state. that's all we have for tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more "mtp daily." >> senators grild attorney general jeff sessions. this was his first senate judiciary he committee testimony his since confirmation earlier this year and there are four key headlines. the first is maybe the worst. more pressure on what critics say are his misstatements about contact with russians. the democrat who questioned him into that original denial was back a