chimeric. your post. and we question more. generally not letting anything get in the way to bring it home to the american people. saudi arabia promotes

a new crown prince how could it affect the united states we'll take a look on this edition. of the politicking i mean holmes in for larry king this week saudi arabia's king solomon appointed his son mohamed bin solomon as crown prince replacing his nephew who had been first in line to the throne what does this mean for the middle east and also for us saudi relations let's get an assessment from joel rubin he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs in the obama administration and is president of washington strategy group global government affairs advisory firm joy joel joins me from our nation's capital welcome joel thank you great to be with you amy. so let me ask you about this apparently they can leapfrog over the crown prince and put his son in place in the next in the line

of succession is this something that we should consider just sort of a blip internal saudi politics or is this an earthquake that could lead to real tension and conflict in saudi arabia but it is a significant shift and its timing is fascinating because saudi arabia right now is engaged in a variety of conflicts in multiple fronts right now again as we know they're engaged in a war in yemen they have been for two years now and it's become less. sure and led by head lice led by the crown prince exactly and so where is he taking the country right now with yemen we don't know and so for him to now a seed to the crown prince role and essentially sidelining family members who had been in charge of the interior ministry and have a significant role as well this is a watershed moment and he has near unanimous support as well amongst the saudi royal families but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be successful

to move forward there are a lot of issues on his plate. so jill what does this mean for saudi u.s. relations i understand that mohamed bin solomon he's goes by m.b.'s that he was the youngest defense minister in the world but these also been maybe cautiously trying to modernize saudi arabia as the trump administration pivot sort of back toward saudi arabia away from iran do you think that's going to influence that at all what we're seeing is a distant type of relationship right now between saudi arabia and the maid states just in the last couple of weeks we have seen president trump go out to saudi arabia and give essentially unconditional backing for saudi arabia yet since that time saudi arabia has led to a group of countries to isolate qatar and cut it off in a very counterproductive move and they have been just yesterday rapped on the knuckles so to speak by secretary of state tillerson who said through

a spokesperson that there is no justification for this so we're seeing two different kinds of dynamics and that that weakens the american ability to engage with the gulf states in fighting against isis and in dealing with containing iran it really does create a hold on let me let me stop you there and why would this harm our ability to fight isis as it isis also an enemy of saudi arabia it is and yet at the same time we need to have g.c.c. gulf cooperation council unity in order to effectively prosecute that and our primary base in the goal for the united states is in our day the air base in qatar and right now that's been essentially cut off by saudi arabia and so when scotter and saudi arabia and united arab emirates are at loggerheads and they don't have the unity we can't fully rely on our gulf partners to execute a war that's not just military but it's going to require significant efforts to

combat terror financing to deal with isis propaganda but we can't have them fighting. each other we need them to be on the same page so do you think that m.b. asked as he's known and he's only thirty one years old i believe he was educated in saudi arabia never in the west surprisingly a lot of the royals are educated in the west do you think that he'll be moving saudi arabia into the twenty first century when it comes to women homosexuals you know any number of things human rights could that sort of also be helpful to us saudi relations there is an upside here certainly with the younger leader but that doesn't necessarily guarantee any outcome and b s has been an advocate for saudi arabia twenty thirty to modernize their their economy and infrastructure and attempt to industrialize and wean off of oil which is a good idea the global price of oil is falling continually in saudi arabia needs to develop a more diversified economy but on social issues it's anyone's guess we've seen

young leaders take over countries in the middle east like bashar al assad and initially there were hopes for opening to the west into israel and internally and clearly we've seen that go to other way so there are no guarantees it's going to require a lot of significant intensive engagement with saudi arabia. let me ask you this the trumpet minutes you know trump's first trip abroad his first stop was saudi arabia he got the royal treatment dancing horses. like you know even a motorcycle rally the night before his arrival with with taco trucks as saudi arabia try to demonstrate an arab. right yes there affinity for u.s. culture do you what do you think this administration pivoting toward saudi arabia away from iran after the obama administration was working so hard on diplomatic relations with the islamic republic well the iran nuclear deal which was the center focus of the obama administration that deal has prevented iran from getting

a nuclear weapon and in fact the trump administration is corroborated that and said that iran is living up to the agreement but that's essentially where the iran. has stalled is what iran is doing in the region in terms of supporting syria and sermons of supporting sectarianism in iraq there are a lot of problems there and so saudi arabia rightly is attempting to push back on it but the danger with what president trump has done is he's essentially given a blank check to saudi arabia and so now saudi arabia maybe settling scores in a sense internally with cutter as an example in him breaking with qatar yet cutter interestingly has been supporting efforts inside iraq to promote reconciliation. dari. an iraqi who was here in washington recently talking about reconciliation process sees cutter's been supportive of that now they're on the outside of the saudi tent and so i don't see

a real cohesiveness right now and that's the challenge so pushing back against iran is not going to be cohesive if the saudis and the gulf allies are not on the same page so joe let me ask you you know the big question that you know facing this administration and you know our fellow citizens is our involvement in syria you mentioned. iran's part in a participation in the syrian conflict backing bashar al assad against u.s. backed rebels you know a lot of americans are very war weary they feel that going into the middle east has never worked out well for us it is always turns into a quagmire and yet we're seeing this administration might be getting more deeply involved and you're saying you know it might be appropriate because we need to push back on iran's expansionist ambitions in that region no not not appropriate to get engaged militarily in fighting iran it's appropriate to push back against iranian behavior though in the region in terms of its support for terrorist organizations and also calling it on its human rights violations but what's happening inside

syria when you see american. military activity getting closer to iranians to the islamic revolutionary guard corps these are legitimate dangers botts and we have to be very careful if we're going to get engaged militarily we have to be centrally have our eyes wide open because we've seen as we did with the war in iraq that one can think they have a magic bullet solution with a couple of bombs or fifty nine tomahawk missiles for example being shot in syrian base but that didn't stop syria but i do think that a cohesive well organized comprehensive strategy to deal with iran's behavior in the region is necessary but currently it's very piecemeal and so we're just seeing . efforts here and there and no strategy lining up and that could put it in a very weak position so jill very quickly before we go we see new had lined that hillary clinton our former secretary of state is being formally investigated by the

state department for her handling of classified information which our former f.b.i. director james comey called extremely careless and that she at her aides may lose their security clearance i just have a really simple question why do they have security clearance now that they're private citizens yes well i had a security. as well when i was at the state department and one can maintain that security clearance for two years after they depart our exit that is from their positions and if they had continued engagement they maintain it so that that's why but it should time out on its own naturally but it's appropriate to look into whether or not they mishandled classified information but this is a normal course of events certainly it's part of the bureaucratic fallout of the past year or so of reviews but i don't think that she or her aides are looking at classified information now unless they're working in support of some type of client our contract our work that requires them to do that. all right thanks for answering

that burning question at least my mind i appreciated joel groovin joining us from washington d.c. thanks so much my pleasure thanks amy turning now to national politics i'm joined by peter cox men former press secretary to then senator hillary clinton he was also an officer in the u.s. navy and is president presently an advisory board member for the that voice foundation and betsy mccaughey a new york post columnist former lieutenant governor of new york and a senior fellow for the london center for policy research welcome thank you so let's talk politics let's talk georgia sixth district big huge race the most expensive congressional race in u.s. history fifty million dollars spent by both sides you know combined so peter your guy he got twenty three million dollars he had a one hundred paid staffers he knocked on over half a million doors had eleven million dollars in t.v. ads and he lost what happened well it's

a republican district republican candidate won by twenty six points last november so it was an uphill battle i think the lesson i take away as a democrat is that we need good candidates recruit can say why wasn't he a good candidate well he's a little young i don't know that he's done very much in public service i tend to be old fashioned i think you should go i don't think working on the hill counts but i think he does but maybe maybe do a little bit more maybe a little bit more seasoning maybe live in the district so these are all lessons i think we can take i think it starts with taking back the house starts with recruiting the best candidates we can get i don't think in this district we did that i think the reason was because it's a it's a heavily republican district there are ninety six districts that are less republican that will be up in november and i think we have a really good shot at a lot of those so betsy. off of that point this is an r. plus ten ten point district and mishandles he only won by five points and she had to spend millions of dollars because of course the. kratz where we're spending on

a visit is be counted as a resoundingly victory on the d.l.c. this i think that the outcome is very promising for the republicans because this is no longer a solidly republican district it's a district in transition if you look at the demographics of this district. the population is changing rapidly a best majority of the voters in this election were actually newcomers not just to the district but even to georgia including very sizable hispanic and asian populations so what i take away from this is this is a much bigger win that if it were a solidly republican tradition the way to put it is it's not the district isn't changing what's changed is that republicans nominated a candidate for president who is not remotely attractive don't know how to educate the wealthier registered voters of this district are very different look at the

data look at the census data they were registered voters in this district are very different from what they were when tom price but if i may let me stop you right there are let me ask you though it went from plus ten now to plus five do you think that president historically low approvals and historically high bad press cut into just i'll be honest and i think she would have won by a much bigger margin if she had emphasized her commitment to the trump agenda lower taxes repealing and replacing obamacare more jobs instead of harping at the fact that she grew up in the district and went to elementary school in the district frankly a majority of voters didn't care about that because they didn't grow up in the district stay right there where politicking right after the break. about your sudden passing i phone lee just learned you were yourself in taking your last wrong turn. to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry.

so i write these. last words and hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath. but then my feelings started to change you talked about war like it was again still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question our arc and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with death and this one quite different i speak to you now because there are no other takers. to hold claimed that mainstream media has met its maker. in case you're new to the game this is how it works now that the economy is built

around corporations corporations run washington washington controls the media the media and both the voters elected businessmen to run this country business equals power boom bust it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before. welcome back to politicking i'm joined by peter kaufman and betsy mccoy in studio betsy let me just actually very simple question what is in the senate republican bill doesn't come you know yes let me point out the senate republican bill provides a reform of medicaid to slow future in the roman medicaid does not repel thera away from twenty others claim in fact the bill includes a grandfather clause that protects anyone currently enrolled in medicaid no one

will be quote thrown off medicaid as bernie sanders was apparently let me ask you this little bit about process senate well the republican party criticize the democratic party for passing obamacare in secret party line vote without letting the other side participate in the process and now it appears they're doing the very same thing we'll ever see anyway to pass a bill that affects one sixth of the us economy tell you what's happening we have to pass a bill because obamacare is collapsing millions of people especially in states like iowa where all the insurers have pulled out face the prospect of not being able to buy coverage but is this the way you do in people explaining let me just explain give me a minute. so mitch mcconnell knows he's the senate majority leader that he has to get a bill to the floor but chuck schumer and the senate minority leader has sworn resistance obstruction right sabotage and so the senate republicans want to draft a bill they're going to release it in the next twenty four hours there will be as

mitch mcconnell has promised unlimited debate unlimited amendments offered everybody will have a chance to thoroughly look at this bill and discuss it and change it obamacare is running into trouble we know this we know that premiums are going up we know that insurance companies are pulling out of different markets and leaving people who are on the you know the private individual market without anywhere to. get insurance or health insurance or other so my question to you is did democrats have a responsibility to participate in the reforms process well let's take a step back ok the house passed a version a repeal of obamacare ok that according to the c.e.o. will poll twenty four million americans off of health coverage you know what he says they will lose their health coverage that's what c.e.o. says no that's what the c.p.s.'s down i think that ok you don't know as we don't know we don't know what's in the senate bill no matter what we pretend to know

because nothing's been public about the senate bill it's a handful of guys in closed doors trying to trying to work a political deal so they can get fifty votes plus the vice president to pass it there's not going to be a single hearing there's not going to be any public discussion unlike obamacare which had months and months of hearings senator you're not answering a question which is should democrats now that was then this is now but we're going to move on to health care we have multiple democrats who have said we have adam schiff who's on the house intel committee the democratic member we've had dianne feinstein democrat from california senator both of them a said that they have found no evidence of collusion between russia and the trump campaign nothing has boiled up to it has bubbled up to them but they're continually investigated my question to you is do you think that there's a there there whole certainly a way to present a topic that's it's not as if i should get i think there is a there reason the reason that we have to investigate these things is to find out if we already knew that there was collusion and we could point to say e-mail

threads from roger stone to his russian friends that he said he communicated with then we would know that so we have some sense of my discussion so far do you believe that the trump campaign was engaged in collusion i don't know that's why we need an investigation of what do you as an american like to know that certainly don't when it donald trump as our commander in chief want to protect which he apparently did say are former f.b.i. director. please investigate but maybe so you know what i mean what doesn't it was hey go easy on my buddies you also said police are going to figure. that out and then he said you're fired so when you go to that see the difference is his own words betsy the russian investigators and it seems to gotten trump really off track that he is tweeting about it and in fact one of his tweets apparently it provoked james komi so much that he sent his own memo to friends at columbia university to leak it to the new york times in the hopes that it would trigger a special counsel which it did so do you think that some of this is of the

president's own making i think that a lot of the media attention is of the president's own making but the underlying investigation has about as much credibility is the salem witch hunts and if you look at home in jenkins piece in the wall street journal this morning he's really assess this very carefully and looked at the fact that over months and months and months and several committees now have been able to turn up absolutely nothing so they can continue to investigate but it is a distraction to you know you can show you traveled keep tweeting about this i mean he's been told look i mean this this is hurting you legally though i'm ready to advise the president what he should tweet about but i think that why not america well because he's got plenty of advisors already i think that most americans understand that the really important issues are lowering taxes lower in health care premiums and improving the job prospects in this country not investigating or not on efforts of the administration to improve relationships with russia so let me ask you about that peter just as

a political matter for the democratic party and going into the midterm election do you think that it's a successful strategy to be you know their slogan being the resistance we just saw in georgia that that didn't work for the democratic candidate do you think that this focus on russia it seems at least in the media and among some democrats on capitol hill including some house members who want to introduce articles of impeachment is this a good. for the party going into a midterm election if i were going to set the agenda for democrats for twenty a.t.m. please do it right don't care health care health care not the issue we should be talking about bob miller is going to get to work and he's going to uncover the ties between the trump family and russian financial interests that we know exist because his sons were bragging about it before donald trump started lying about that there are some things you do think that obama would walk up to it i think let him do his job and people like me are going to talk about it i was a veteran i served in the intelligence community i mean a thank you for your service q but this trial that me for that is why oath care how

your health care democrats on the house side that want to introduce articles of impeachment you think it's wise to have a steady lawyer who's in house leadership he thinks that would be a big mistake well i think it's wise to pursue it articles of impeachment i think it's wise to pursue these investigations ok the house republicans are going to do what they can to cover up for this white house like they've been doing bob miller will get to the bottom of it would you in china's own house democrats to introduce articles of impeachment to the house floor for a vote to not at this point until we get the majority but see what do you think about i think it should depend on the evidence and clearly there is none. for four people in either political party to subject the nation to impeachment when there's seems to be no evidence of wrongdoing would be very unpatriotic but i want to ask about see with all of this rush of business do you think that it has gotten the g.o.p. and the trump administration off track when it comes to their legislative agenda and i did already look the g.o.p. has not passed one major piece of legislation since january twentieth well that's

not true let me point out that in fact the the trumpet ministration has achieved a deregulation revolution in the first half of the first year in office it's amazing whether it's the e.p.a. whether it's the f.c.c. those are executive orders out of the white house we're talking about passing legislation on capitol hill and a lot of critics say that well you know there are you have not succeeded there you have to look more of paul ryan. and then mitch mcconnell but i would say this ryan seems very teed up to get these tax cuts passed and mick mulvaney the head of all m.b. office of management and budget is working very closely with both houses to get this tax agenda through and that's one of the reasons that mitch mcconnell is so determined to get the health bill on the floor next week because the first reconciliation bill will be about house let me ask you about that here the common sense caucus yes there is one on the house. believe it or not twenty democrats twenty republicans and in the past couple of months they instead that they do want

to work with republicans on tax cuts and tax reform again you know looking at the democratic agenda going to twenty eighteen do you think that would be wise for them to do to show points of compromise and cooperation i think if there is room to make progress we should work together to make progress now the reason that the trumpet ministration doesn't have any legislative achievements to point to is they have no legislative strategy and no what gender they said are just out is you know the true day rants of the listeners are a lot grander and they are so doing he legislative so the point from joining the republicans control the white house they control both houses of congress this should be a time when you point to your greatest legislative achievements this is their two year run republicans don't much have only fifty two seats in the united states senate so they will need eight democrats to you know peel off and get on board and this is going right we'll see what's going to be on i'm waiting for the wings just like that but it seems i should be so tired of winning right now all right all

right right but it seems that you know or has had a strategy of resistance and you know being an obstructionist if you want to use that term again politically is that helpful and useful if democrats have lost for special elections and the need to present to voters a positive agenda there is a way to work together x. cuts and tax reform would be the first domino money that is no i would not. it's a winning strategy so you disagree with the comment that your america through america or for the democratic party no i don't think i don't think steely health care from twenty four million people is a winning strategy for anyone and if republicans are going to do that they will hear about it in november twenty eighth betsy do republicans need to pass tax reform tax cuts going to twenty two you know what happens to the motives of the absolutely critical because the american economy is not competitive and global scale and the reason is that our corporate tax rates are so much higher than other industrialized nations we must pass tax reform to get the economy moving to get up

to three percent growth that produces jobs jobs jobs that's what america is a political matter if the g.o.p. fails to. reform or replace obamacare are they going to pay for in the polls by their own voters their own base yes i think it's very very important that they get this bill through because the number one issue for americans and health care is premiums they're way too high they have doubled since obamacare went into effect at the end of two thousand and thirteen premiums like you would all be in the room to that is more here sent to a piece saying it's better to take your time for a good bill than to russia dr bill they've been trying to balance that but the fact is they don't have much choice you have because if you look at the facts in many many parts of this country many many counties all the insurers have pulled out and it is absolutely essential to pass a bill now so that the insurance companies will come back into the market and offer coverage and moreover hundreds of thousands of people have been demoted from full time jobs to part time jobs pushed down into that non earning category or

a little earning category because of the obamacare employer mandate we've got to get that off the books what is surprised you most about president presidency how effective he is when you look at the deregulation revolution that's going on in washington the coal mines that are opening well and in some cases reopening he is already boosting job growth all up. lost this country even without the help of god haters same question see what is surprise us not as they discuss to do or say the most but what has surprised you the most the chaos and incompetence at every level in the trumpet ministration they can still key jobs the president seems more obsessed with how his press secretary looks on t.v. than he does about achieving any progress for the american people and that's been the most disappointing well thank you for a very heated hot debate we like that it politicking good bye to peter coffin and betsy mccoy we appreciate you joining us thanks so much thank you thank you for

joining me on this edition of politicking and thank you to larry king for letting me sit in this chair today it's been an honor remember we love hearing from you so join the conversation on larry's facebook page and as always you can share your thoughts on twitter by tweeting at teens things and using the politicking hash tag i also invite you to join me on twitter at real amy holmes and that's all for this edition of politicking. about your sudden passing i've only just learned you worry yourself and taken your last wrong turn. up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath . but then my feelings started to change you talked about war like it was again

still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question our ark and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters my mind it's consumed with death this one quite different i speak to you now because there are no other takers. to claim that mainstream media has met its maker. peers will people been saying about rejected unable to watch the senators full on awesome well the only show i go out of my way to launch a lot of the really packs upon our little league yap is the john oliver of our three america is going to say we are apparently better than blue nothing better said i see anybody had ever heard of love redactor the night not the president of the world bank though very popular in a serious look send us an e-mail. through

. a long tell arbonne in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture why is the mainstream media ignoring the role voter suppression may have played in helping karen handel defeat john asaf in the georgia six write off greg palast just a mole and the senate republican health care bill is secret no more.