chris cillizza for cnn politics and jack kingston, commentator former republican congressman from georgia and former senior adviser to the trump campaign. great to see you. amanda, jumping on a conference call with house republicans on sunday, heading to the hill to meet with the senate republicans tomorrow, that sounds something like something we haven't seen in quite some time from this president, putting some skin in the game. is that what we're seeing now? >> i would hope so. listen, it would help not only trump but the entire republican party whether you are pro-trump or a little ambivalent about him to get the ball rolling an get legislative wins. republicans reluctant to support trump if you care about getting him back on the rails give him something positive to talk about. pass these bills, pass tax reform, quit complaining about trump and do something positive to get him on the right track. >> but congressman, it still comes back down to the same question for folks on the hill, you hear it publicly and privately, can they trust that the president will get on board with whatever d

cnn politics reporter and editor at large, chris cillizza and analyst david gregory. since that's the development, this new "forbes" magazine interview with president trump that has just been published he's commenting on his real feelings of what rex tillerson said. you heard what joe just reported there, that the president said i think it's fake news but if he did, i guess we'll have to compare iq tests and i can tell you who will win. >> when tillerson was asked about this, he said he would not comment on this pit stuff. he did not say he didn't say it. >> the real question is, is rex tillerson going to be in this position a month from now? >> the parent/teacher conferences for these two individuals will be pretty tough. >> interesting. >> it is like homeroom, what we're seeing from the top levels of our government and it's embarrassing. what this shows to me is that whatever is going on, we're just learning the kind of the tip of it. and that relationship is most likely been compromised to a deeper degree, which i think raising the real possibility that tillerson w

let's bring back chris cillizza and john avalon. the family will have the body on display for loved ones to come by and bray at the casket. one of four men lost in an ambush in niger. we still don't understand the circumstances surrounding it. john avalon, that was one of the big points of takeaway. the call was not communicated the way the president intended it to be. fine. put that to the side. she said the familiar is -- has more anxiety, more pain over not knowing what happened to la david johnson, how he wound up being killed and whether or not he was left behind. >> that's right. and this was an attempt to move the ball forward on that. obviously today is an incredibly sad day for the family. she referred to him as her son in a community sense, a deep personal relationship, with a baby on the way, which is heartbreaking. it is clear the family felt disrespected, presumably unintentionally. the president referred to his widow as your guy rather than your husband or sergeant la david johnson. why was he left behind for 48 hours?

chris cillizza, one more for you. i read your people.ob corker told the world what he thinks of donald trump. here is an update. senator corker said he's standing by his comments that the generals and the secretary of state in the president's cabinet are keeping the u.s. from spiraling into chaos, standing by his remarks. >> i think rightly the las vegas story and the continued struggles in puerto rico still should dominate the news, but i will tell you in absence of such massive tragedies like that, this would be a huge moment. you have a sitting very well respected republican senator. he's the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee essentially saying the president of the united states is a force for chaos, and that without his secretary of defense, secretary of state and his chief of staff, the country would have -- not just the country, the world potentially given the role donald trump is playing would descend into chaos. here is what should be scary. two things. one, corker is saying what he really believes because he's r

we have cnn political analyst, david gregory, and chris cillizza. the whole niger tragedy spawned very interesting and informative and unusual press briefings. it's interesting to see him there talking to the press, and a few days ago it was chief of staff john kelly, and that has caused some of its own controversial, his briefing there. where do you think we are with niger? >> i think among the most important questions is to really understand what the u.s. mission is in niger, and not just niger but other african countries and other parts of the world where american forces are there, and probably small numbers, probably an advisory capacity. fighting an enemy in isis has been defeated on the battlefield but will mutate into a more localized but still deadly force. americans are entitled to understand what america sees as the mission, deploying these kinds of troops. that's at the largest level. and then more specifically here, were there intel swrupligence fs and what were the procedures that led to such a long time lag to getting to the forces tha

we have jeffrey toobin and chris cillizza. the jfk files really intriguing. what jumps out at you? >> it is shameful that the cia and intelligence agencies did not get their act together and release all the documents. the fact that this was a last minute rush for 25-year deadline. >> you think it was the cia not the president slow rolling a big reveal? >> no. i'm prepared to blame the trump administration -- the trump white house for a lot of things. but this is on the cia. these are their documents. they're the ones who should know that -- how this procedure should have worked. and also they should not be be protecting hundreds of pages of documents more than 50 years after this assassination. >> and the president agrees with you. we have the statement what the president said about this. it was in brianna's piece. do we have that statement? no. is it coming? all right. >> i don't have it either. >> i was told we have it. it's okay. there it is. i will say this to you. not only are the intelligence agencies perhaps stonewalling but they are also dropping this ridiculously intriguin

. >> this is what chris cillizza writes.eople say it is reportedly, i guess, an open secret somehow. but if everyone around him knew he acted like this around women, why didn't someone ever mention something to obama or clinton or warren or any of the other politicians and organizations that weinstine lavished money on? do you think chris cillizza has a point there, hilary? >> it's a great question. i don't know if anybody did or didn't, so i can't speak to that. but i don't think you would have, you know, these folks embrace him the way they did if they knew. i just don't -- that's not who they are. having said that, i think that what we have seen in politics across the board and i used to work in the music business, and it was pretty gross regularly. this wasn't that unusual. what is unusual is the outcry and the passion that has come across for the last couple of years for, on behalf of women for victims, victims speaking out for themselves and people rallying around them. that's what we have to do, too. >> i have to brin

chris cillizza, thank you. chris cuomo, see you next hour. the nation is coping with the most deadly mass shooting in modern u.s. history. i'm brooke baldwin in new york. chris cuomo is live for us in las vegas. the motive is still a mystery. good to have you with us. the motive is still a mystery. what drove the retired accountant with no criminal history to stockpile 42 guns, bring 23 of them into a las vegas hotel room to commit a mass murder. police also finding hammers in the hotel room, perhaps to smash out those two windows up on the 32nd floor. police are also finding ammonium nitrate, a material used to make explosives in his car. and we just learned that the fbi is looking into why he wired $100,000 to the philippines before murdering all these people. we're also learning more about the 59 people who lost their lives. and these are just some of the faces. they were mothers and fathers and children, a kindergarten teacher, a special-ed teacher, war veterans, police officers, a mother described as the glue in her family, a husband who

. >> this is what chris cillizza writes.ple say it is reportedly, i guess, an open secret somehow. but if everyone around him knew he acted like this around women, why didn't someone ever mention something to obama or clinton or warren or any of the other politicians and organizations that weinstine lavished money on? do you think chris cillizza has a point there, hilary? >> it's a great question. i don't know if anybody did or didn't, so i can't speak to that. but i don't think you would have, you know, these folks embrace him the way they did if they knew. i just don't -- that's not who they are. having said that, i think that what we have seen in politics across the board and i used to work in the music business, and it was pretty gross regularly. this wasn't that unusual. what is unusual is the outcry and the passion that has come across for the last couple of years for, on behalf of women for victims, victims speaking out for themselves and people rallying around them. that's what we have to do, too. >> i have to bring

>> let's bring back chris cillizza and a.b. stoddard and let them handle this.ere is how a first lady spokesperson responded to that. mrs. trump has made the white house the home for baron and the president. she is honored by her role as first lady of the united states. she plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books. there's clearly no substance for this statement from an ex. unfortunately this is only attention seeking and self-serving noise. >> and the white house bashing the mother of three of his kids acres beautiful dynamic there, a.b. stoddard. what's your take? >> in your words, chris, we've got a situation here. i mean, you know, i really -- if i were melania, i think it would be better if she didn't say anything. at the same time, you're right. she's sticking up for herself. but it looks like she's bashing the first wife. the first wife overstepped her bounds and was being too provocative and attention seeking in her comments. it sounded like she was having fun and joking but it's all around something i would like to sort of unsee

hands in glee at the idea of and i give showdown between trump and tillerson political pundit chris cillizza quips the only way to settle this is with a life i.q. test paper view the donald versus king rex honestly i would totally watch others are questioning the behavior of trump and his top diplomat journalist bernie belvedere remarks the secretary of state calls the president a moron the president responds by assuring he would win in an i.q. test we are led by giants and jay dies posted a picture of a pacifier with the comment the president of the united states challenge directs tillerson to an i.q. test on world mental health day you cannot make this stuff up and this isn't the first time that trump has bragged about his intelligence look at this tweet from over four years ago sorry losers in haters but my i.q. is one of the highest and you all know it please don't feel so stupid or in secure it's not your fault. all right the german soccer powerhouse byron munich went from the pitch to the silver screen tonight right here in berlin it was a full house for the screening of the d.w. produ

let's bring in our panel, ron brownstein, and author of "the point," chris cillizza. ron, we don't care whether the iq test was serious or a joke, but we care about the stability of the people that corker says are the buffer between us and chaos. what do you think the stability is of the secretary of state? >> i think you put your finger in the right place. we know the president for both political reasons and seemingly psychological reasons enjoys and is drawn to and is compelled to undertake a series of feuds around him. you can get wrapped around that and lose sight of what we are dealing with. we had the secretary of state apparently call the president a moron after a meeting in which we now know the prompt was a demand for a massive increase in nuclear capacity. even more importantly, chris, i think to describe what is going on between the chairman -- the republican chair of the senate foreign relation committee, and i am unaware of a senate foreign relations committee questioning the basic competence of the president of their own party and saying by temperament t

ron brownstein, reporter and editor at large, chris cillizza, and kaiser health news julie rovener. do you want to start with the political hypocrisy or policy implications. >> it is a series of actions designed explicitly to destabilize the exchange portion of obamacare. medicaid is still out of their reach and proved surprisingly difficult. as you point out, as christine pointed out, you add up everything that is being done in terms of reducing the amount of money spent on outreach, in terms of closing the website for maintenance during the open enrollment period, pulling back on the cost-sharing payments, the executive order, which is the beginning of a process that would allow insurers to essentially segment off more healthy people at the cost of raising prices for older people with greater health needs. they all have the same effect. the perverse element of this has been that the biggest losers in this overall direction as in the republican house and senate is health care bills have been older, working age adults. two-thirds of everybody in the country, 35 to 64, is white. most

chris cillizza is here, political analyst april ryan as well, senior political analyst david gergen,ood evening, all. let's have this conversation that's been so difficult for lawmakers to have, at least it appears to be. bob, 12 of the guns modified with this device called a bump stock, essentially turning them into automatic weapons and tonight the president, top republicans, even the nra appear to be embracing the idea of banning these devices. but do you think that's a way for them to avoid the meaningful debate on guns that they have successfully done in recent history? >> well, i think it's the nra seeing the writing on the wall that this is going to happen and i think it's remarkable. even though, don, this is very narrow, they're not going to get background checks any time soon but the fact that the nra sees that this could have prevented some deaths and some injuries is remarkable. whether it's attached to a fiscal deal in december, i think this is going to happen and this is a gun control measure that is significant. now, a lot of members hadn't heard what a bump stock is b

. >> let's bring in chris cillizza right now. we'll get cillizza later. let's talk about what we are doing here. the president has a tall task. the moral agency of the president, it's a big part of his job and we will see what he says when he gets here. he didn't have know-how, you buy this, and it's legal to buy and it's illegal to use. explain that to me. you are the professor. >> it's the old argument in the '80s, remember the fuzz busters, the rage during the '80s. it was legal to own them but in many states it was illegal to use them. i have spoke to a number of fbi instructors, and they said these are devices easy to get and install and easy to use and lethal. what is the sense of it? we don't allow silencers? we don't allow folks to shorten shotgun barrels, and we don't allow people to modify a serial number on a weapon, and that all makes sense. what is the purpose for a civilian that will circumvent the law. you can own it but you are not supposed to use it. what is the sense in that? >> the reason you want to draw the distinction, it's my freedo

let's bring in reporter and editor at large for cnn politics, chris cillizza. let's give a little attention to why the president did what he did yesterday. he had to know or should have known that presidents call the families of the fallen, but he did it anyway. why do you think? >> because he has a compulsion to be the best, the first, the only in every situation. whether he knew or not is sort of beside the point. i feel like we have that debate all the time. did he know what he was doing? the outcome is still the same. you are raising questions about past presidents. we focused on president obama, but bush as well, did do things to acknowledge the fallen. remember, it's the most exclusive club in the world. you see tremendous camaraderie with the past living presidents with the exception, right now at least, with donald trump. >> i am still issuing with this issue, and put aside the false claim that his predecessors did not make these phone calls. why the delayed response? why did it take two weeks and even after the tragedy of the "uss john s. mccain" crash

mark preston, senior political analyst, chris cillizza, and nia malika-henderson, senior reporter. great to see all of you. mark, on health care, let's start there. the president hit on that quite a bit in the speech. this was threatened for months, cancelling the subsidies, this divides his party. if you look at republican member, she wrote on twitter this after the president announced it, cutting health care subsidies means more uninsured in my district. the president promised more access, affordable coverage, this does the opposite. what does this all mean? >> couple things, puts incredible pressure on republicans in congress to try to do something to make sure the markets are not destabilized because the insurance companies now are looking at this and anticipate this. this is going to hurt them. the question is how do you stabilize markets to the point where president trump and the republican controlled congress can get through and repeal and replace obamacare. that won't happen in the next couple months. if it happens, perhaps happen in the first quarter of the next year. bott

i want to bring in chris cillizza, our cnn politics reporter. what did you make of the speech? >> pretty stinging rebuke and i'll sad the second from a former president or former presidential nominee. let's not forget john mccain's speech winning the liberty medal earlier in the week, which echoed much of what george w. bush said in the speech. on one level, it's not that surprising. george w. bush is the brother of jeb bush. he is a figure of the republican establishment. jeb bush is someone donald trump went after viciously during the campaign. on the other hand, there have only been 44 presidents of the united states. this is one who happens to be in the same part as the guy currently in the white house, who he doesn't say his name, but man, are you, it's pretty clear what he's talking about. conspiracy theorys, total fabrication. repeatedly talking about bigotry and white supremacy. >> there was a specific reference to charlottesville when he spoke about soil and blood. you heard them uttering blood and soil, nazi formula. >> and mccain used that same formulation. i think h

i want to bring in now cnn's chris cillizza, our politics editor at large. jim sciutto, cnn's chief national security correspondent. and april ryan, cnn political analyst. good evening to all of you. as i started, i said what a day to be an american, to witness all of this, in just one afternoon. april, i'm going to start with you because you were in the room for this. general kelly expressed disgust that congresswoman fredericka wilson listened in on the condolence call from the president. and then he talked about the media. >> it stuns me that a member of congress would have listened in on that conversation. absolutely stuns me. and i thought at least that was sacred. >> so she talked to the media about it, i should say. what is your take on the general being stunned that it became political, april? >> well, first, i wasn't in the room. i was in little rock, arkansas. but i watched from my hotel room in real time. and as you know, don, i have been in conversation with congresswoman frederica wilson who said the reason why she heard it is because the master

now outfront, mark puto who spent the day with congresswoman wilson and chris cillizza. mark, you were there, with her throughout the day and with congresswoman wilson when she learned what general kelly said about her. you know, in part, the empty barrel comments, of course, and calling her selfish. what was her reaction? >> i was on the iphone with the story on it and she looked at it quickly and said, he'll say that to save his job, he'll say anything. then wilson reiterated that she had other witnesses on the call and it wasn't just her. as you pointed out, her account of what trump said is similar to what john kelly said trump said. the difference here seems to be in context. the outlier appears to be president trump who called wilson's version of what he said fabricated, yet, again, kelly kind of echoed what wilson said trump told the widow. >> that's tree. look, the attacks on the congresswoman were deeply personal. play again, you know, kelly telling that story of the opening of the fbi office back in 2015, the dedication of the field office in miami. here is wha

. >> joining me to discuss this and more, politics reporter and editor at large chris cillizza, nia mallikarmer communications director for ted cruz's presidential campaign, alice stewart and chairman of the pro-trump pac, too many ps, great america alliance, eric. i'm just going to simplify your intro from here on out. >> good. >> first to you, is david chalian was perfectly laying out, in the poll, the overall view of president trump's relationship with congress is, 32% approval. 54% disapprove. same question among republicans. 68% approve. yeah, 68% approve. what gives when all he says is he can't get anything done. republicans seem to see this differently. >> yeah. i mean, they seem to think that it's going well. i mean 68%, that's not a terrible approval rating. when you stack up the 68% against other approval ratings when it comes to trump among republicans, it's much higher. in the 80s in most things, 80% approval rating among republicans in terms of his handling of immigration in terms of whether or not republicans think the country is going in the right direction also in the 80s. s

. >> i want to bring in now cnn politics editor at large chris cillizza. welcome to the panel. >> thanks. >> video of the conference from the may of 2017 surfaced today showing cambridge analytica's top digital officer talking about their role in the trump campaign. watch this. >> we started working with the trump campaign in about june of 2016. when it became obvious that a sophisticated data apparatus would be needed. this data was also used to produce a custom tool kit for the campaign. we then used those to project the priority for each particular state to inform the campaign how much investment they should place on each particular state. >> so, chris, that directly contradicts what the trump campaign said yesterday. it said, and this is a quote, "once president trump secured the nomination in 2016, one of the most important decisions we made was to partner with the republican national committee on data analytics. leading into the election the rnc had invested in the most sophisticated data targeting program in modern american history which helped secu

lauren fox, chris cillizza, thank you so much to both of you. we appreciate it. other big issue at hand is that republican tax plan you just heard our panel there mention. it's going to be the topic for the cnn debate night tonight. senator bernie sanders and ted cruz are going to battle it out tonight at 9:00 eastern. >>> and next, attorney general jeff sessions exchanging heated words with senators over the russia investigation. hear what he had to say when asked if he's been interviewed by special counsel robert mueller. what powers the digital world. communication. that's why a cutting edge university counts on centurylink to keep their global campus connected. and why a pro football team chose us to deliver fiber-enabled broadband to more than 65,000 fans. and why a leading car brand counts on us to keep their dealer network streamlined and nimble. businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink. how much money do you think you'll need in retirement? then we found out how many years that money would last them. how long do you think

joining me to discuss, political director david chalian, chris cillizza, editor at large i have major beef with, which i will unload, i'm going to unload corker style on you, mya mcginnis, president of the federal watchdog group committee for responsible federal budget. everything that you stand for right now, mya, i don't know, responsibility, federal budget, i mean, let's get to all of it. david, first to you, let's sum up the morning, the president said for a cumbayah rally with republican senators on capitol hill, bob corker criticizes him and then trump counter punches. and now we are watching like a political nuclear war all almost before folks have finished breakfast. right? >> yeah. kate, it's -- this is truly stunning. i know we've spent the last nine months talking about the unprecedented nature of everything that has been going on in the trump presidency and that is certainly a deserved nickname for the presidency, but this is a senior statesman in the president's own party, who has just declared the trump presidency a failure. that's basically what he's doing. he has said

. >>> "outfront" now, jamie gangel, special correspondent, and chris cillizza, political editor at largeokay. this isn't the first time mccain and trump have sparred over this issue of the vietnam draft. trump, of course, we all know, said mccain was not a hero because he was captured, and has never actually apologized for that. and mccain said this about the president just last month on "60 minutes." here he is. >> we're very different people. different upbringing. different life experiences. >> what do you mean by that and what does it make you think about? >> he is in the business of making money and he has been successful both in television, as well as "miss america" and others. i was raised in a military family. i was raised in the concept and belief that duty, honor, country, is the lodestar for the behavior that we have to exhibit every single day. >> i mean, it's pretty powerful, chris, he's contrasting "miss america" -- >> yeah. >> -- with the concept of duty, hon honor, and country. >> i mean, he doesn't say donald trump's name all the time, but it's pretty clear whether it was

. >> david gregory, chris cillizza, thank you for the analysis. how does senator jeff flake feel this morning? he joins us live here on "new day" in just minutes. >>> we're following breaking news. senators reversing another obama-era policy late last night. the senate is making it easier for banks to avoid any type of litigation. right now you have consumer protections that allow for arbitration clauses to be upset and that you can sue. no more. cnn chief business correspondent christine romans joins us now with more. i thought we were supposed to be about the little guy in this administration. how do you reconcile that with this? >> it's a really good question because the president wants to loosen wall street regulations, chris, and this is his biggest win yet and it's a blow to the consumer protection bureau. gone now is a cfpb forced arbitration clauses. that's in the fine print of contracts for banks, credit cards and other financial companies. they force customers to resolve any disputes outside a courtroom, blocking them from banding togeth