friends we start tonight with the bizarre carnival on health care in the senate and the so-called skinny bill this skinny bill would save some of the key provisions of obamacare but the senate g.o.p. can't seem to pass even a reduced version of repeal senators graham mccain and johnson openly criticized the skinny bill this afternoon skinny bill as a replacement for obamacare is a fraud the skinny bill is a very difficult to get in conference to find a replacement it is not a replacement in of itself the policy is terrible costly eliminate the individual employer mandate which we all want to limit it but we actually have a overall solution to the problem of obamacare so you're going to have increased premiums in most of obamacare stays in place if the skinny bill becomes law not only do we not replace obamacare we politically own the collapse of health care the three senators want to surance us from the speaker of the house paul ryan his body won't move to the bill to an up or down vote instead they want to build

a move to committee for further deliberation they believe this is the first step and finally repealing and replacing obamacare for more on this we turn to john nichols washington correspondent of the nation tonight john this is a very unusual dynamic that's playing out right now it's almost like the senate is trying to strong arm the speaker of the house what's your interpretation of this move by the senate and their analysis of the skinny bill. well i think the analysis that the members are speaking and put forward is a pretty accurate one it's a bill that that is completely dysfunctional it does certain things but by doing the things that it does it makes health care more expensive more complicated and frankly harder to access in many in many cases and this is just not the way to legislate it's a disastrous approach rooted entirely in politics mitch mcconnell desperately

wants to pass something out of the senate and get it into a conference committee with the house and he's hoping that then he and paul ryan basically can cobble together something which they would then have to take back to the house and senate how do you speak and write it would respond to this how do you think speaker ryan would respond to this what he just bring it to the floor when he put it in the conference he's got to put it in a conference ed because if you brought it to the floor in this form i'm quite convinced it would lose certainly the democrats would vote against it they should but remember speaker ryan when he was pushing in a much more detailed bill through the house lost a number of republicans and i think you lose more on this both on the right and in the middle for the republicans for the republicans really this isn't working it's not working in fact everything they've tried has failed and so what's the political fallout because right now it seems like there's just a big effort to save campaign face here. i think that's right and i think there's

also something else said which is sort of the ugly ugly underpinning of this senators whether they admit it or not like to take august off and some of them go back to their home states and they prepare their reelection campaigns others go on you know field trips to europe or whatever but august is usually a time off and it's quite clear that the senate is you know angling to try and get something done the problem is that they have nothing on the table that could in any way be a functional health care plan and i want to emphasize ed you know if you're looking if you're in washington i was there earlier this week around what's going on every place you go there are people with disabilities protesting there are folks you know who is real needs who are stepping up and saying you know what's being put on the table is disastrous and so i do think that it's a it's a call for a pause for these folks to step back well if it's a pause it's going to be a political loser because for seven years they've been talking about getting rid of

it what about the threats that are coming from the president and the administration this strategy that they're using that they're going to target certain senators for instance lisa murkowski of alaska now seems to be in the crosshairs of political crosshairs of this if she doesn't line up and vote the way the president wants her to is that going to work well no it won't work at all lisa murkowski will do what she did the last time which is run for reelection as an independent but she won't have to do it the way she did last time as a write in should be able to file get on the ballot i would say for sure but i'd say there's even a chance that democrats might stand down and that she could get reelected as an independent the way angus king does out of maine john i think this is a silly strategy and it isn't a no doubt john there goes washington correspondent of the nation pre-shared time thank you my friend thank you the senate overwhelmingly passed sanctions on russia iran and north korea today by a vote of ninety eight to two the bill already passed the. house or not for

nineteen to three support for the bill overwhelms any attempt of the president to veto it the bill targets russia's major mining energy and defense industries the european union has expressed concern over the legislation the trumpet ministration has also criticized the bill for including a provision limiting the president's ability to ease sanctions on russia in the future for more on this let's go to former u.s. diplomat jim jatra jim good to have you with us tonight what. what's the endgame here how serious is this oh you know it's really great ed to see the republican senate knuckle down do their job and pass a lot of obamacare repeal away then they didn't do that they passed this bill with all of the republicans all the democrats except for two bernie sanders and rand paul and i think the end game is this one they want to take away from the president one of his most solemn duties as the commander in chief in a t.v. executive which is the conduct of foreign affairs with foreign states and they want to basically put the mark of cain on russia that we are not not not

a declaration of war militarily but a declaration of political war they are the main adversary for the foreseeable future and that is locked into law they just don't want a better relationship with russia i mean that's how some know they may interpret it so how can the president support this out of principle could he veto it and just say look i'm trying to do a better job of the rusher and you lawmakers on capitol hill i'm trying to drain the swamp i'm an outsider you know i'm connecting with a different part of america how can we accomplish a better relationship with russia if this happens he can't and that's what it's designed to do to make sure he cannot do that if he wants to veto it i suppose he could go on t.v. talk to american people deliver a hell of a speech saying why this is wrong what's constitutionally wrong and rally support from the people out there i don't know if that would work to tell the truth given how much of this bill removes along the line of demonization yeah of any kind of contact information that is contrary to you know what see. then wants to tell us so

what was the anticipated action of russia the european union quickly jumped out and said this is going to hurt our economy this is especially germany what we did we know of course that the germans and other europeans have been hurt by the existing sanctions against russia since two thousand and fourteen and what they do is they basically shut up in the lump it because they're afraid of us they won't they're promising some kind of retaliation i'm not sure what much they can do to us and i think they're afraid to do it and there are so many people within their structure that are basically controlled by us i don't think they'll do anything so far as the russians they've been very measured and frankly patient on any retaliation sense president obama started hitting them with sanctions i think at this point they wake up and smell the coffee and they say look it's not happening we were hoping for improve relations with the united states and it's not going to happen this puts russia on the same playing field with north korea yeah it's i mean it does yeah and yeah it's bizarre and it really is well does crimea and ukraine mean that much to

these lawmakers because you could make the argument that it's going after the russian defense industry is it meant to push american industries is it meant to push americans american energy i think it's been i think the what with the l. and g. being shipped to europe it's a small part of that but only not so much for the american energy sector but in order to frustrate russia with one of its mains imports well i'll tell you honestly i think we've passed the line of rationality the russians could give crimea back to ukraine they could they could supposed up the eastern ukrainian republics in the nets they could pull the rug out from under assad in syria and the stench would still stay in place and it's amazing jim jetter it's nice to have you with us thanks so much the senate judiciary committee held a hearing today on russian election meddling donald trump jr paul manner for it and glenn simpson were expected to testify but instead brokered arrangements to keep their interviews private at the center of today. hearing was hedge fund head bill

browder the military has been following the story and she joins us for more this seems more than interesting testimony oh at the focus today of the meeting was supposed to be oversight of the foreign agents registration act and on the alleged russian election meddling and while bill browder gave his testimony before the senate he really offered no concrete evidence to support any of those claims. turned out that in putin's russia there are no good guys no empathy and no morals to threaten me with death they threaten me with kidnapping in the face of evil i don't think there's any other way to characterize mir putin the russians will do anything they can get away with or even stuff they can't get away with to arrest kidnap torture and kill just to take people's properties away the russians are liars rather shut down his operations in russia just a few years ago and is now wanted by the kremlin for tax evasion but since then has

been lobbying for say against russia and worked on the magnitsky act and this is where he brings up the russian attorney natalia vessel that's he says that her law firm is tied to the kremlin and is working to overturn the magnitsky act but what was even more stunning was browder allegation that vessel at sky is working to overturn the act because russian president vladimir putin wants to protect his own personal wealth which could be at peril under the magnitsky act spoke exclusively to vessel and for her response. as a person who he talks about in his statements i'm also ready to testify and prove to anyone in the united states or any other country that mr browder is telling lies i'm ready to defend my good name in any court but knowing the negative attitude towards russia that is prevalent among americans today knowing their hatred towards their own president i am not sure the us is ready to give me that chance if we follow the democratic process that they love so much we will need to have

a public hearing and give every side a chance to present their case and surely every participant must be guaranteed safety so the attorney at the center of the don jr trump tower meeting firestorm is itching to tell her side of the story it's unclear if the senate committee will allow her to speak and if she could even offer any new information and add as you mentioned senate wanted to hear from man to fort dodge jr and simpson who runs that research firm with the now debunked dossier on president trump today as well but those gentlemen chose not to do so in a public setting and will provide their stories americans to the committee separately and is there any real investigation going on as to what broader did in russia to make him a fugitive basically it does not appear that way right now all right thanks manila and to give you an idea of how paranoid lawmakers are about russia this conversation unfolded at the hearing yesterday senator amy klobuchar char of minnesota a pertly does not understand why or to he does not have to register as

a foreign agent r.t. america was explicitly set up to avoid the foreign agents registration act because it's registered as a nonprofit instead of a government affiliate can one of you mr hickey mr priest step can you elaborate on why our t. is not currently registered under farrah. senator i probably shouldn't comment on any particular individuals or entities but it strikes me that when congress passed fair or amended it recently and maybe in the sixty's this is when this change for the forty's it deliberately carved out u.s. own and media organizations was very precise about that so what that tells me as a prosecutor is that that intended to capture potentially others. meanwhile sarah huckabee sanders called out the press today for not reporting on breaking news regarding the president and the russia dossier released in january.

the guys love to talk about russia and there's been nonstop coverage in the one day that there might have been a question on russia there wasn't often then we have a lot of media with russia first and but today there was public testimony that further discredited the phony dasi a that's been the source of so much of the fake news and conspiracy theories and we learned that the firm that produced it was also being paid by the russians this is yet the latest piece of evidence that been the case what the president has said that this is a witch hunt and a hoax the joint chiefs of staff responded to the president's tweet on wednesday banning transgender individuals from the military the department of defense says it has received no guidance from the white house on the matter and until it does will make no modifications to its policy and will continue to treat its personnel with respect lack of communication is not the only thing afflicting the trumpet

ministration the president staff is also descending into chaos and infighting white house communications director anthony skara mucci seem to implicate white house chief of staff writes priebus in leaking his financial disclosure information skara mucci remove the tweet and spoke about the issue on c.n.n. today if you want to talk about which staff we have had we have had differences when i said we were brothers from the from the podium that's because we're roughly the some brothers are like able other brothers can fight with each other and get along i don't know if this is repairable or not that will be up to the president but he's the chief of staff he's responsible for understanding and uncovering and helping me do that inside the white house which is why i put that tweet out last night when i put out a tweet i put wants its name in the tweet they're all making the assumption that it's him because journalists know who the leakers are so if alliance wants to

explain but he's not easily. let him do that but meanwhile top republicans have come to the defense of attorney general jeff sessions senator lindsey graham said that there would be held to pay if the president removes the attorney general there will be no confirmation hearing for a new attorney general twenty seven to. jeff sessions is. there will be holy hill today. any effort to go after mohler could be the beginning of the end of the drug presidency unless mother does something wrong. for more on all of this we go to our political panel the saving political analyst scott davidson joins us also former georgia state representative an attorney don jones and id harris conservative talk show host from las vegas well we've got a lot to talk about and we're going to take the time to do it first of all your thoughts this is a white house that is airing dirty laundry is the president quarterbacking this you

get a sense that he's giving direction to. go out and drain the swamp i can't get sessions to do an investigation so i want you to do it that's what it looks like your thoughts you know on one hand i believe that the president has no idea what he's dealing and many of his voters elected him because he did not know politics on the other hand i believe he using some of the skills he learned when he was working on the apprentice to keep people distracted to keep us looking at think other than what we should be paying attention to it is a mess and it is embarrassing and now i don't think anyone can tell the difference between what's things are done intentionally and what's things are just them bumping in the walls not knowing which direction they're going to god david said why didn't the chief of staff come out and defend himself today well i mean i think the reality is that you have a president using a social medium that you know no other president ever used and it's catching people off guard as we see as far as the defense piece. there needs to be better communication along the lines especially when it comes to anybody from the defense

industry itself you're talking about the top generals they really need to be the lockstep with what the commander in chief is saying and not be caught by surprise especially when it comes to something like you know something is a stream is a gender band i think that in the bigger issue there is that you know twitter is not policy twitter is not something that's legislation and then you can make announcements i understand that but it also but you said it creates chaos and confusion expression when nobody in this town understood or even knew that was coming. to your thoughts on this all of a sudden transgender people can't contribute to the united states military because the commander in chief sees it that way but none of the generals really were on board with it officially what about and they haven't come out and said they're for this either what do you make of it well i think that nobody can argue that people who are gay or transgender it can serve honorably in the military they have they do and i agree with that but the problem with that is if we're paying for surgery we're paying for hormones we're paying for all those things what that means is

you're not ready for the military you're not military is about military readiness it's about unit cohesion and there are tons of people who can't get into the military even our senator dean heller our conservative senator well some i in nevada came out and said anybody who wants to join the military should be able to that's all crap that's the most discriminatory it you know employer in the world i don't people who can't get in because they're fat can't get in because they have asthma can't get in for all kinds of raise you have psychological issues other things like that and of course you can't get into the military unless you can serve militarily so the problem with that is we're spending money helping people get this are you sure now if you are you're going to get out of this are you ok with the way the president handled it his generals didn't know it was coming yeah i mean you know john you know how is he just talks before he actually gets policy in place so i don't think it's a good idea but i think what he's doing is sending out a signal that he's kind of done with this that it's a distraction from the military purpose and that's the whole point lou dawn your thoughts on this no. donald trump is the distraction this issue should have been about what you're talking about is it appropriate to pay for certain surgeries

first of all these people have already made it into the military and so the fact that they decide to to have some surgery along the way there is besides the point this president is coming out on very serious policy based on completely unrelated legislation related to medical care this type of thing is inappropriate and then had the nerve to say that everyone and all the chiefs of staff support him he hadn't even spoken to them this is a wreck he's getting us into a fight with north korea and all these other countries but they he's going to weaken our military he has to do better scott how do you think the rank and file with your military experience give us an idea how do you think the rank and file would view those i think in the majority of cases if i mean just even from my own perspective the bottom line is that you have to look at it from a readiness perspective if you are a soldier military service member whatever it is if you can meet the requirements and as far as operational standards and opt in military to say you can meet those requirements then you should be able to serve now there shouldn't be a distractor as far as what's happening we're talking about

a very small segment of the population that is you know that could affect things i also think that again it's all about being the military readiness piece i mean if you look at certain things and i know there's always the so is it the right call is it the right call for right now again we need to see somebody actually do a study look at things how it goes and then go from there heidi is jeff sessions going to stay on as attorney general or as the president apparently going to get his way and get him out what's going to happen there you know it's amazing isn't it jeff sessions one of his earliest supporters jeff sessions has been a very loyal soldier and not only is it scary what he's doing to jeff sessions it's scary for everybody else in the white house who were donald trump can love you one minute and turn on you the next and then donald trump just not figuring out yet that this is not a company where you can expect loyalty from people or get rid of them he's really not made the adjustment you have just said i don't blame jeff sessions for not leaving but if he does leave there cannot going to be able to have somebody else confirmed. that's going to leave a big hole in the a.g.'s office i think jeff sessions is pretty tough but i think

is very surprised at what donald trying to do and it's just it's not actually don't you find it ironic on one hand there's a witch hunt going on inside the white house to get leakers and there's an issue of loyalty going on it's almost like a loyalty witch hunt that's happening there on this kind of a hunt to find out who's not loyal and yet he's trying to get rid of the guy's probably been one of the most loyal supporters of all what do you make of it that donald trump is his the worst own his own worst leaker right he puts out information in a way that he said and i am not a supporter of jeff sessions at all but i believe him firing jeff sessions it's one more step towards n.p.c. meant that folks like me would love on the other hand jeff sessions has made it clear on a number of other issues like marijuana legalization i he's not going to listen to the president's wishes why is he not considering fine jeff sessions for not listening to his wishes on policy but more about because he won't recuse himself before he was even hired for the job is ridiculous dawn jones heidi harris davidson great to have all of you with us tonight thanks so much just over one year ago

turkish president won overcame a violent coup attempt in the country since then the country has faced repeated foreign and domestic political scandal now the kurdish president is criticizing israel for cracking down on palestinian protesters at jerusalem's temple mount this as seventeen of turkey's journalist from one of the country's oldest newspapers faced charges for the failed coup attempt turkey accounts for nearly a third of journalists imprisoned worldwide. clashes continue on jerusalem's temple mount earlier today palestinians gathering for prayers fought with israeli police police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters while prime minister benjamin netanyahu ordered reinforcements to the city the fighting began two weeks ago when two israeli police officers were killed in a knife attack the united states has announced a new round of sanctions against venezuela washington has called on the nation's

government to cancel the upcoming constitutional reform process as sunday's vote for a constituent assembly in venezuela draws closer president nicolas maduro sat down for an exclusive interview with r.t. r t correspondent arn parent hell has the details tonight as a vote approaches washington hasn't wavered from its interference in venezuela's internal political process this week the trump administration announced new sanctions against thirteen top government officials as a warning to the country to not continue with its constitutional procedure speaking to our team president nicolas maduro stood up to that escalation but the but i mean his way that he's ready for any snow really i think is insane for the extreme right in the u.s. to be talking of a blockade against venezuela in funds they've already started in direct blockade against our financial systems this was the cause the crisis over the past three years that we have economic strength in venezuela always pays what to use and fulfills its responsibilities in two thousand and seventeen two thousand and

eighteen and two thousand and nineteen country will continue to fulfill them. meanwhile three people have died after the opposition called for a forty eight hour strike in protest of sunday's vote during which they blocked streets and set up barricades and blocking venezuelans from going to work even if they wanted to the death to bring the toll since this round of violent demonstrations began to one hundred six dead in four months that number includes some killed by state forces as well as several people. lynched by the opposition for supporting the government and others killed as a result of chaos in the streets according to president maduro the nature of these demonstrations is nothing new in fact violence has been the opposition's strategy for years. i think the opposition has been doing this for eighteen years first against hugo chavez and for the past four years against me there's no other way to resolve conflicts in the country than through democracy and elections in may for three and a half weeks i tried to establish direct dialogue with the opposition i wanted to

include them in parliament but they refused this is a period of political isolation they drifted into right wing radicalism they were imprisoned by a strategy of violence and ignoring those who voted for. debate over the importance of whistleblowers continue today in washington d.c. the national whistleblower appreciation day meeting are teased and sweet attended the meeting and has this report. well today's conference was actually a celebration for the first whistle blower law that went into effect on july thirtieth of this seven hundred seventy eight and according to those at the meeting today including senator chuck grassley it was something very important to our forefathers senator grassley who's the chairman of the senate whistleblower protection caucus said because of whistleblowers more than fifty three billion of taxpayer dollars has been recovered because of insiders it's now known that more than five hundred eighty million was lost to corporate fraud senator grassley says whistle blowers are fired blacklisted and harassed when they're merely trying to do what's right he says because of those willing to speak up it was discovered that

some vets were waiting up to two years to see a doctor and know many won't know the sacrifices whistleblowers and me to do what they feel is their duty to serve their country senator grassley says they're punished and they retaliate or seem to walk free most of the award laws began in one thousand nine hundred one known as the lacy act initially encouraging the detection and reporting of illegal wildlife trafficking insiders with vital information on work compensated many times according to grassley it's quite the opposite for today's whistleblowers he's speaking out protection for whistleblowers inside intelligence agencies and is now working to seek protection for whistleblowers within the i.r.s. those with access to classified information are encouraged to work with the inspector general's office to release information safely and honestly and senator grassley says he still thinks there needs to be a rose garden ceremony for whistleblowers something that hasn't quite caught on come on his colleagues in washington it's just weeks. and that is our news tonight

follow me on twitter unusual they have like me on the first world trade we've got a midfield supporter to watch thanks for watching. the book it's called the feeling of freedom to the lead everyone in the world should experience flamingo lead and you'll get the old lego mold according to just. welcome our world come along for the. games.

in case you're new to the game this is how it works now the economy is built around corporations corporations run washington the washington post media the media over the voters elected the businessman to run this country business equals power you must it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before . van jones is certainly no stranger to controversial statements but few can say he doesn't provoke thought and he's my guest on this edition of politic. politic and on larry king you know van jones is sometimes in the news for controversial statements on the air and often often what he says leads to deeper

discussions between conservatives progressive's and even those who don't know if i is either drug den of vipers either he formerly served as president barack obama's green jobs adviser he's a new york times best selling author political commentator and president of the dream corps his latest venture is we rise tours launches this week that initiative will be fueled by something he calls the love army will find out what he means by that later in the program van jones joins me here on set ok before we get to your fabulous new idea tell me your assessment of trump six months in as expected that worse i think that donald trump has done worse than i thought when it comes to his own base in other words i expected to be outraged by his policy when it comes to muslims or mexicans or whatever i thought he would do what .