let's bring back our panel, errol lewis, david drucker and jackie kucinich.kie, let's start at 30,000 feet. the constitution says advise and consent. they don't have a right to block and be the final word. this is really about ultimately the president getting a nod towards who he wants. how much political leverage is there in opposition? >> i mean, i'm sorry, i don't understand the question, chris. >> advise and consent means take a look, see what you see there. >> right. >> but then ultimately these are the president's choices. >> sure. >> how much political currency is there in opposition to these nominees? >> well, if you're a democrat, this particular democratic congress has sort of vowed to really block the president at every turn. they've cast it in nicer prose, at the end of the day they don't like this nominee, they don't like any of the nominees other than maybe general kelly and general mattis, but in terms of betsy devos, you have two republican senators who say they don't think that this is someone that should be the education secretary. so i thin

we're joined by mark preston, david drucker, lynn sweet and cnn political commentator errol lewis. mark, when it comes to the action that can be taken in 2018, i guess the biggest thing they could capitalize on is if republicans don't come forward with a plan to replace obamacare very quickly and they can argue that republicans are flat-footed, how important is it to have answers on obamacare and on a plan for their constituents? >> well, it's important and i'll talk about this from the political side of things. it's important for republicans to appear as if they have their act together, that they are tightly tied with the trump white house, that he's not out saying one thing and congressional republicans the next saying we have no idea what he's talking about. sp he have cl specifically, we heard that on obamacare. they need to have a plan to repeal and replace it. it matters for independent voters and those trump voters who weren't necessarily republicans. you're not going to get the democrats. that's clear, poppy. but also what's more important for democrats at this point, can t

. >>> mark preston, errol lewis, eugene scott here with me in new york, and evan perez back with us. mark, i'll start with you. we just played that clip from trump's chief of staff saying, nothing to hide when it comes to russia. why are some republicans then resisting a full-fledged investigation into the contacts between trump aides and russian operatives? >> ana, as phil just pointed out, we've certainly seen more leadership from the senate, particularly senate republicans, when it comes to ties if any that donald trump and his campaign have had with russia. we have seen from the house side, though, that they were looking into leakers. they wanted to find out who leaked this information and they plan to investigate. we did see, though, at the end of last week, a letter from jason chaffetz, the republican, and congressman cummings, elijah cummings, the democrat, who control the oversight committee in the house of representatives. they did send a letter to the speaker's bureau to try to find out more information about why general flynn attended an event with rt, which is the russian