she's at the white house and april, as i understand it, you had an opportunity to speak with elijah cummingsad criticism for the administration. what can you tell me? >> i talked to congressman cummings earlier, an hour or so before the briefing and asked about the poll numbers and he said the poll numbers are linked directly to the website. he said the president can weather any storm but this. he's got to deal with this and fix this website issue. now, mind you, congressman cummings is a friend of this administration and friend of the president. and also, this congressman said, look, because this white house did not -- or this administration did not inform the president like he should have been informed, there should indeed by a shake-up. i asked jay carney, he said they are listening but the issue is to get this website fixed. behind the scenes there's definite concern at the white house. the president's poll numbers have tanked dramatically and they know it. >> april, thank you very much. for the details on your conversation with congressman elijah cummings. >>> another story we're follow

for more let me bring in congressman elijah cummings from maryland. great to have you with us. >> good to be with you, ed. >> your reaction to the latest gop playbook of lies, the strategy and the bullet points they have orchestrated and put together with the social media to destroy something, what does it tell you about them and their motives? >> it doesn't surprise me. this is the second playbook, the first playbook basically had a lot of information again about how to talk negatively about the affordable care act but this has been what they've been all about all the time. keep in mind we got no cooperation from them when we were trying to pass the law. they've now voted over 40 times to destroy it. this is nothing new. as a matter of fact, chairman issa of my committee has just set up four hearings in states in arizona, north carolina, texas, and georgia. where they are going to hold so-called hearings to hear about the affordable acare act and do exactly what you just said. they'll go out and listen to people who may be complaining. the interestin

also from the ranking member, elijah cummings, saying republicans have done nothing but try to derailma care from the start. we're keeping our ear to this hearing and will keep you posted. >>> seldom if ever have politicians faced a more dramatically changing social and demographic landscape. the electorate is quickly getting more diverse. more hispanics, more unmarried voters, more support for issues like gay marriage. all of it posing a particular challenge for republicans. so yesterday rnc chairman reince priebus met with african-american business and community leaders in detroit. he announced the new michigan director of african-american engagement as well as creating the michigan black advisory council. some party leaders have been encouraged by chris christie's landslide re-election in new jersey last week. it included 51% of the latino vote. i want to bring in democratic strategist basil snickel and susan del percio. good to see both of you. one of the things that reince priebus said before he went into the closed door hearing was this, you have to be in the community for a lon

for more, let's bring in congressman elijah cummings of maryland. good to have you with us tonight.ppreciate your time. >> good to be with you, ed. >> were you expecting this low enrollment early on, and are you alarmed as all the tv anchors are that only 50,000 people have signed up nationally for obama care? >> i expected a low enrollment, because i had studied the massachusetts plan just like you did, ed. and so, you know, i expected that. the other thing that i did not expect early on is that so many governors would have refused to expand medicaid. because that would have taken care of a lot of people. but unfortunately, they did not. but i, like you, ed, believe that as time goes on, a lot of people will be sign uping up. the interest is phenomenal. and, again, we've had some problems with the website. but todd par, the technology superstar who is working on this, has made it clear that by december 1st, we should see vast improvements in the website. and so i'm looking forward to that. >> would you see these negative reports out there, and there's no comparison to what has happ

with us from capitol hill, congressman elijah cummings, ranking member of the government reform committeegood afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon, martin. >> congressman, what ask does it feel like to sit next to chairman issa, who has single handedly rendered his committee almost entirely irrelevant, because every single hearing is never about improving the lot of the american people, it's about showcasing mr. issa's skills as a delusional prosecutor, who would not have been out of place in the salem witch hunt trials of 1692. >> i can -- i think the best way to describe it is frustrating. when i think about -- >> frustrating, sir? i'm sure you can find language more descriptive. >> no, it's frustrating. when i think about what we could be doing, when i think about all of the people that, for example, want the affordable care act to work exactly the way it was intended to. when i think about the time that we waste, and the distractions that we pursue, the headlines that are put out there with no facts to back them up by chairman issa. all of those things take us away from where the america

i asked him directly of the charges of elijah cummings.im about the score of political points. >> to me, this is the most inexplicable actions of one of the elected representatives against their own people. >> and here is governor scott's response. >> now is the fact that they can't put together an exchange that they said they could do. look, they said this is their plan. this was their plan. we didn't pass this. the federal government passed this. >> how will you get your uninsured floridians? >> we changed our economy. the four years before i became governor, the state lost 832,000 jobs. state debt increased by $5.2 million. now we have the private sector. >> are the jobs that have health insurance? >> absolutely. one of two things will happen. you will either get insurance through your employer or when you have a job, you can take your money and buy health care. you get to spend the money the way you want to spend it. >> all right. almost 25% of florida's residents are uninsured. that is the second highest percentage among the 50 states

representative darrell issa chairs the committee while elijah cummings serve as the ranking member. >> the committee will come to order. the oversight committee exists to secure two fundamental principles. first, americans have a right to know the money government takes involuntarily from them is well spent. second, americans deserve an efficient, effective government that works for them. our duty on the oversight and government reform committee is to, in fact, protect these rights. our solemn responsibility is to hold government accountable to taxpayers because taxpayers have a right to know the money government takes from them is well spent. it's our job to work tirelessly with citizen watch dogs to deliver facts to american people and bring genuine reform to federal beaurocracy. three and a half years ago, closer to four, in a partisan vote, the house of representatives passed the patient protection affordable care act, commonly referred to as obama care. the act gave this administration more than three years to implement, gave them virtually unlimited money, ensured them for all p

this has the ranking member of the oversight committee, elijah coup cummings furious.started correcting today and issa wasn't happy about it. >> your reputation precedes you. unfortunately, however, last week chairman issa appeared on fox news, and accused you and other political appointees of engaging in a, quote, pattern of interference and false statements related to this site, end of quote. that's a serious attack against your integrity. i don't want to get into anyone's intent or motives here. but i do want to give you an opportunity to respond directly. >> it was the case, absolutely. that was a key issue that hit the site. it's still an issue for the site. there are other key issues that have to be addressed with the site in terms of its spoerms, stability, functionalality. and there are aggressive efforts happening it to do that. it's getting better and better each week. >> did you engage in a, quote, pattern of interference and false statements, end of quote? >> no, i did not. i did my best understanding at the time, and i'll continue to do that and i will rel

elijah cummings, a top democrat, and congressman cummings have talked about how the president should have more knowledge of what was happening and there should an staff shake up at the white house. here's how jay carney responsed. >> we always listen to chairman cummings. i'm not aware of the specific comments that you're referring to, but i would simply say that he and others in congress who are strong supporters of obamacare and the affordable care act share in the president's frustration, and want as much as he does the problems to be fixed so the promise of the affordable care e act can be realized. >> concern not only from republicans but fellow democrats as well. >> libby casey, thank you very much. regarding what jay carney was saying today there is a report out that suggests the obama administration knew about the problems with the roll out of healthcare.gov as far back as march. administration officials admitted there were red flags about the site, and health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius was briefed on those problems just a few weeks before she testified in

and the top democrat on the oversight committee, elijah cummings, called on issa to withdrawal the subpoena issue a public apology. issa does not appear ready to do either of those things. another wing of the kill obama care wing was in florida. you might remember generation opportunity from the creepy uncle sam ads designed to convince people not to sign up for the health care exchanges. the group took that message to the university of miami on saturday, where creepy uncle sam posed with students at a tailgate party before the miami/virginia tech football game. generation opportunity told "the tampa bay times" that they "rolled in with a fleet of hummers, hired a popular student deejay, set up optout corn sets, hired eight brand ambassadors, aka, models with bullhorns to help out." brand ambassadors, nice. what you're looking at now are the students at the generation opportunity party, which looks like there's a lot of opportunity going on there, but there is another side to the obama care battle. there are people who are working day and night, seven days a week to make obama care work. an

. >> that was house oversight member elijah cummings questioning white house chief tech officer toddaway from his 24/7 task of working on the website to attend today's hearing on the rollout of healthcare.gov. we'll keep an eye on that hearing. with friends like this, you've all heard about this, form eer president bill clinton saying obama care should be changed. why did he do it. and duly foot noting. senator rand paul is foot noting his speeches but does it really matter. sahil kapur, michael tomasky and zerlina maxwell. gang, it's good to have you here. michael, i want to start with you because we had senator ted cruz giving his opinion on why he thinks president bill clinton is coming out swinging with these comments from yesterday. take a listen. >> that was certainly revealing, and it suggests perhaps that hillary clinton is looking to run away from president obama and run away from obama care. and that ought to be a signal to democrats, this thing isn't working. >> all right. so is that the line of thinking when the president has been out, president clinton that is, out front

ranking democrat elijah cummings fired back. >> nobody in this room, nobody in this country believes that republicans want to fix the website. for the past three years, the number one priority of congressional republicans has been to bring down this law. >> reporter: still, republicans argued the website's woes are partially political. they suggested the reason people had to create accounts before they could shop for coverage was the administration feared sticker shock when they saw the cost. a top technology officer at medicare, henry chao, insisted the white house had no role in that decision. >> absolutely not. it was a decision made on the results of testing. it would be pretty egregious and i understand that a lot of folks are wondering why the website is functioning the way it is, but to consciously know that it failed testing and to then put into production for people to use is not what we do. >> reporter: and the white house chief technology officer todd park, who appeared under subpoena, insisted they're slowly getting the problems fixed. >> the website is getting better eac

. >> and finally, i spoke to one of congressman elijah cummings constituents. she told me obama care would have her protected from these greedy insurance companies. >> i started my business, i got sick. and i was not on a corporate plan anymore. and my insurance company dropped me. after i had been ill. $50,000 of bills later within my first year in business, i was speechless. i didn't know what else to do. it was extremely difficult for me. i wish obama care and/or the affordable care act actually had been there for me, because the insurance wouldn't have had the opportunity to do that kind of thing to me. >> now, i think chris wallace at fox news sunday should get our three examples and put them on the sunday show. of course, it's positive news that these people are being helped. the facts are very clear. obama care saves lives and provides higher quality health care for all americans. higher quality health care for all americans. your policy has to have standards. you can hear from real americans here on "the ed show," or you can listen to the republican ope

the obama administration is furious and so is ranking democrat elijah cummings.anding chairman issa withdraw that subpoena. elise joins us. >> thanks, greta. >> who has been subpoenaed and why. >> this is the chief technology officer of the united states who works in the white house and he has been enlisted to help fix this struggling health karen rollment site. is he one of the main people helping to organize this effort. >> i thought jeffrey zions was one of the maim people his boss where the buck stops was h.h.s. secretary sebelius. who are these other people. >> you are right on both counts. no, they are bringing all the talent they have to the table for. this todd park is some guy who has done billions of dollars of work in healthcare it. they really trust him. they think is he going to be great. he is in all kinds of papers. but now darrell issa is saying that he needs it to show up to capitol hill to tell lawmakers what's going on. initially he refused to do that. >> when was he tasked to it fix the site? >> i believe in the beginning of october. when they