>> diversity and group when your folks like justin amash were pretty strong libertarian side, folks who are strong on the national defense, just, we would love to do this, let reporters come into the beating some time. >> that's what i'm talking about. >> let us know. >> that would go viral. >> and listen to the debate. we've had people join and say this is some of the best debate i've ever had on capitol hill because we can add it back and forth, and you know, justin amash is always great on weighing in on his perspective and others. it's back and forth. that is opposite one of the best, biggest misconceptions about them. >> let me ask, i went to your cattle and i guess right after ryan or right after john boehner step down before got the speaker ryan. one of the things that you talk a lot about is the rules, adhering to the rules of the house of representatives. a lot of people wonder, and if you listen to cable chatter which i know not if you do. a lot of people say this is a group of 30 guys and they are stopping everything. they are not letting the house work its will because the m

and other members of the freedom caucus think need to happen. >> let me show you what justin amashponded. quote. trump administration and establish have merged into trumpestablishment. same old agenda, attack conservatives, libertarians, and independent thinkers. do you agree with congressman amash? has the trump administration merged into the same old establishment? >> i think justin is a good friend and someone i will help if he has a primary. what i also understand is look at the four corners of the document and the actual legislation and read the legislation andnd what it does and doesn't do. it doesn't bring down premiums. every health care policy expert will tell you that. it doesn't do that even cbo said it doesn't do that. so let's take a pause here. sometime i think we are getting all spun up. the sun is coming up tomorrow and things will be okay. a delay in doing this legislation. even the president said we can get a better bill after it was postponed a week ago. so let's do that. let's put together a better piece of legislation that keeps our word with the american peopl

[cheers and applause] john: justin amash is also an unusual congressman because he explains his votesoes it on social media. when congress finally voted to approve the keystone pipeline amash was only republican to vote no? why? the pipeline is good -- what is with you people? i want the oil. pipeline is a good thing. >> but the way the bills have been written, are such that one company is receiving a special benefit from the government. if you're going to improve the approval process you have to approve it for every company. you can't just decide that one company is going to be exempt and every other company has to follow the laws. john: that why is hayak firmly bense, hayak, one of my heroes. [applause] john: you stated your reasons on facebook. why? >> well i think it is important for people at home to know why we're voting on things and what we're voting on. we have to hold congress accountable. the only way to hold us accountable to hear from us what we're doing. i think it should be expectation of members of congress they explain themselves. they don't have to do it through face

justin amash was target of dan scovino, public relations director. pence met with them. with bring to you exclusively. he offered to broker a peace directly. i will broke ear peace. i apologize to the freedom caucus. some of these attacks were unwarranted. we don't want to get rid of you. he basically said, we'll offer you, this is public, we'll give you some of the stuff you want, ending some of the obamacare mannered dates, that they think were still, that they said were still in the current proposal. we did a full write-up on foxbusiness.com. i'm sure it will be on foxnews.com. this is an important story from this standpoint. when you have the vice president of the united states going and saying i'm going to broker a peace between this faction, not in the newspapers. my producer brian schwartz found this out today, exclusively -- liz: paul ryan with mike pence. >> when he says i'm brokering a peace between the freedom caucus and white house, he actually apologized from what we understand. liz: oh. >> the freedom caucus spokeswoman confirmed this account. liz: you can

so i also think that justin amash has come up with a very, very interests phrase. he talks about th the #trumpblishment, a meme that can be damaging to donald trump because his entire brand is being anti-establishment, yet he's going up against the genuine anti-establishment members of his own party. if that sticks, it could actually start eroding his base. >> michelle bernard, that is a very good point because the idea was that donald trump was going to come in and clean up washington. but if now he allows the tea party to pull the same sort of act on him that they did on eric cantor and say, no, he's the swamp, we're the ones who are draining the swamp, doesn't he place minneapolis inhimself in position, when he want to do tax cuts and other duff stuff? >> he put himself in a difficult position and started before the negotiating process. one of the things we should look at, really o has the leverage, does the freedom caucus have any reason to truly fear donald trump? it was donald trump as the negotiations were going on that capitulated and agreed to a plan in th

join us in welcoming to the stage house freedom caucus members, justin amash of michigan, founding founder jim jordan of ohio and mark meadows from north carolina. [applause] what is the definition of the freedom caucus? mr. meadows, start with you. mr. meadows: if we stay on script, i think we founded it -- i know you have founding members. and give a voice to millions of america -- americans thought were forgotten and believe needs to have a voice here and expects to have a voice but has been disappointed. that's what we are all about. >> mr. jordan, what is the biggest misconception about what you guys stand for. mr. jordan: we have folks like amash who is strong libertarian, folks -- strong on the national defense and we would love to do this -- almost impossible that to let reporters come into meetings sometime. >> let us know. mr. jordan: that would go viral and listen to the debate. we have people who joined and say this is the best debate we have had on capitol hill because we go at it. and amash is great weighing in and just back and forth. that is one of the biggest misconception

his comments as well as those from fellow caucus names including congressman jim jordan and justin amash came during a sitdown with political here in washington d.c. thank you to the entire peterson foundation of making this possible. before getting started we want to remind you to tweet us appropriate questions, hashtag playbook interview. will track them here on stage. i also like to encourage everyone to use the snapchat filter for today's event. without further delay please join us in welcoming to the playbook interview stage house freedom caucus members justin amash of michigan compounding chairman jim jordan and the chairman mark meadows of north carolina. [applause] >> thanks so much for doing this. >> this is getting complicated. >> all right. let's get started here. let's start with just some simple basics. what is the definition of the freedom caucus? mr. meadows, we'll start with you? >> and if you argue the same answer, you get a bonus point. >> if we stay on script. i think we founded it, i know you got found in the pacific with to give a voice to millions of americans who f

jordan: justin amash is a principled member. if there is the primary, i would do anything i can to help him. and there are 30 other members who will do the same. and a lot of people outside the freedom caucus who will help him win that race. you can applaud. [applause] >> we'll move on to some of the issues you mentioned, but the chamber commerce already tried this with you, right? mr. amash: a lot of people have tried. i want to say that -- they have been saying nice things about me. i would you say we have been fortunate to have two great leaders of the house freedom caucus who have been able to navigate a lot of difficult situations and especially mark, this term, under a lot of pressure, so i want to thank them. and we are good friends. we have become really great friends as a group and that makes a big difference. >> you alluded to laying out the calendar and the things you have to do. let's look forward here. we about to have another crisis in government funding. >> the government shuts down in a couple of weeks. mr. meado

, he said justin amash is a big liability, defeat him in primary .essman, i would ask you, tax reform is another priority for this administration. what does it look like -- >> it's a priority for all of us. >> well, it would a disastrous tax bill if he weakens the conservatives that would make it a good bill, so he's taking advice from priebus who is establish rent to the core and if it keeps up, he is going to get hurt the way establishment people actually hurt reagan, the only time reagan succeeded was when he didn't listen to the establishment folks like priebus is today and actually followed his own instinct, but i'm telling you, the president's administration will either succeed or fail over the next 30 days. he can work with people that got him there that defended him when others like ryan and the establishment were running scared or he can work with us to help him fulfill his promises, but this bill does not -- it doesn't satisfy any of the promises that we made. it's going to be bad. it's really going to be a disaster. sandra: we we wanted to

: justin amash never voted for anything. >> i'm trying to point out the divisions that actually exist caucus. congressman chris collins of new york, head of moderates said it will never meet with the freedom caucus. these two groups of people are at each other's throats. i think it constitutes a third party inside the congress, it's like fascist, it's like italy. [laughter] >> they set themselves outside. there's nothing they can do that's positive. all they can do is block things from happening. paul all and yet, kim, without them, let's say they have 30 members, we don't know exactly how many they have, that's enough to kill any bill because they only have a majority of 22. is -- is trump smart to go after them or is this going to make them dig in and blow up everything? >> well, the evidence so far is that his pounding on them a little bit seems to be having some sort of impact. you've had a couple of members of the freedom caucus who have left the caucus or criticized the caucus itself for going down the road that it did go down. the president has been tweeting about individual me

he's calling him out and looking for somebody to bring in a primary challenge with justin amash in 2018. but the administration could be calling on primary challenges to members of their own party is pretty astouastounding. and it shows where where we are in terms of the replacement and repeal of obamacare to happen soon. >> ryan nobles reporting at the white house, thank you. >>> we'll talk about this with our panel, cnn political commentator and chief of staff to reince priebus at the republican national committee, mike shields. the white house correspondent for the washington examiner, sarah westwood. and former philadelphia mayor, michael nutter. sarah, to you first, can president trump change the subject and maybe control the intelligence narrative fighting unverified reports, picking fights on twitter, et cetera. how do you view what is happening? >> the best thing president trump can do is allow the investigation to proceed as quickly and smoothly as popular. the quicker that it is over with, the quicker he can move on to other parts of his agenda. but it is clear that democrats,

the president's social media director calling for justin amash to be primary.ow big of a deal is this? >> it's very unclear what trump is trying to do. the only way he's going to push his agenda through congress is to make friends in congress. you don't just push everybody away to help you make friends. if he's pushed away democrats or they'll not work with him for all sorts of reasons, if he's pushing away the freedom calk urks he's got a very group of people. it's the rest of the republicans and only that group who can get his agenda across. that's very hard to do to get to 216 electoral votes if you're irritating and alienating a whole lot of the people you need to persuade to your side. >> is this part of his strategy in doing this? >> it was probably his strategy as a celebrity and businessman is to say, bring it on, put up your dukes, let's fight. but he's in a different situation. >> with me or not with me. >> he can't get anything done unless he has congress working with him to pass what he's looking to pass. if he's push away everybody in congress, he'

>> reporter: but at gatherings this week in michigan for congressman justin amash, the mood was lessfrontational. >> first of all, thank you, congressman. >> i've been doing this for many years, and i think that reduces a lot of the tension and allows you to have a better conversation with people. >> reporter: as a member of the freedom caucus in congress, amash's voting record checks many conservative boxes-- anti-obamacare, anti-abortion rights, anti-tax increases. but his unwavering stands on almost any issue have left him isolated at times, though that appears not to concern him. >> i'm not scared of my positions. i think many of my colleagues maybe are a little bit afraid to express their own positions. >> reporter: now in his fourth term, this republican's opposition to military intervention has let critics to call him al qaeda's best friend in the congress, to say that he's out of step with constituents or he's a big liability-- and that's what the republicans are saying. he's against the keystone pipeline, against funding cuts to npr and planned parenthood, and he thinks all

justin amash has proposed this, rand paul, mike lie. so you would he to eat it. you can only spend what you bring in. it's more important than donald trump's tax returns. kennedy: that goes hand in hand with the debt ceiling. they keep jacking up every year like a flat tire on a car. it gives them license to spend more money. the idea of tax reform. >> we haven't had a real budget in years. at the end they are we'll carry it over and we'll continue doing it with add-ons. donald trump talked about a skinny budget. he spent the same amount or a little bit more than last year, but it only covered 25% of the budget. entitlements and interest on the debt. that's on auto pilot. we should be talking about this, especially at tax time. taxes -- i don't agree with you that taxes are theft. but taxes should be focused on paying for the services we agree on. kennedy: people should have the ability on their tax returns to decide where that money goes. >> that might be something interest where conservatives would say i don't want to fund planned parenthood, libertarians would

freedom representativeg jim jordan and house freedom caucus chairman mark meadows and representative justin amash, signaled that they would be able to support the risk sharing fund. however, they are advocating for other tweaks to the health care proposal bill. it is not clear right now whether a comprehensive deal has been met. i am told that the whipping operation continues amongst republicans including house caucus members, the conservative wing of the republican party, to see if the votes are there. there was that devastating policy debate for speaker ryan and president trump in trying to craft a health care policy proposal. , there haso this aid been significant progress this week. they are looking to head into next week's easter recess with some type of progress being made which looks like what's bigger i was just talking about in his weekly press conference. vonnie: he said there was broad consensus within the gop. does this mean that obamacare repeal or a replacement is dead for this congress? i think the conversations are ongoing and we have seen vice president mike hans continued to mee

one of trump's closest associate, a social media director, tweeted, justin amash, take a look at the tweet calling on the trump team to amount a primary challenge to amash in 2018. this is astounding. even though the president vaguely talked about the idea of some of these freedom caucus members receiving a challenge. this is the first time someone from the administration targeted one of these members. chast interesting of revealing is the way amash responding. he responded of a tweet of his own. he used the new term called "trump establishment" to describe the way the trump administration conduct themselves. it is important to point out that amash has never been a trump's supporter. he was a ted cruz's supporter and publicly stated that he was not going to vote for donald trump. this is someone that's not venturing out too far. it shows us how divisive things are in washington. we don't know where his partners are. >> we shall see ryan nobles. david, yesterday and last night we know the ranking members of the house adam schiff went to the white house where he saw the documents that

so, i also think that justin amash has come up with an interesting phrase.ut #trumpestablishment. that's a name that can be very damaging to trump trump. because his entire brand is anti-establishment. and yet he's going up against the genuine anti-establishment members of his own party. if that sticks that could start eroding. >> the idea that donald trump is coming in and cleaning up washington. if now, he allows the tea party to pull the same act on him as they did on eric cantor, saying, no, he's the swamp. we're the ones draining the swamp. doesn't he place himself in a completely untenable position when he wants to do other things like tax cuts? >> yeah, he's put himself in a very difficult position. one of the things we should look at is really who has the leverage and does the freedom caucus have any reason to truly fear donald trump. it was donald trump as the negotiations were going on that capitulated and agreed to the approached health care plan that would drop essential benefits as a way to appease the freedom caucus, and the freedom caucus said

trump's meade kra director now urging a primary tee feet for one free thom congressman, that being justin amash. why do this? why is the president motivated to take on members of his own party? >> i think it's not own only nonproductive to take on your own party and why the health care plan failed is because donald trump is unable to secure support from members of the freedom caucus in part because e was using intimidation tactics in privacy meetings and he wasn't taken seriously the concerns offered by the republican leaders in the house. so you also have to keep in mind, the replacement plan only pulled at 18%. when it comes to the president using the bully pulpit, whether you're a moderate republican or from a conservative district, chances are your constituents didn't vote for this plan. the moderates are not on the side of the president. you don't want to pick fights with members of your own party if you're going to come back to the table and try to to this again? >> what does this do? does it provide an opening for democrats? >> i think it does. independent voters don't to like unified pa

dan scavino calls justin amash to defeat him in the primary and justin tweeted, "same old agenda. ives, libertarians and independent thinkers." it's the latest battle between trump and freedom caucus members like amash. on thursday, the same day "the washington post" reported that the president could actively campaign against republicans who did not back him with one white house official saying, "our view is, there's nothing as clarifying as the smell of air force one jet fuel. so if he needs to bring in the plane and do a rally, he's going to think about that." congressman, thank you for joining me. >> happy saturday. >> good to see you. you supported the health care bill. you should be safe from an air force one visit. what about some of your colleagues? should they be worried. >> well, president trump ran on an agenda that connected with the american people and he's intent on fulfilling those commitments. so he will go into the districts, i'm sure, to convey what he believes is important to get this agenda through and i think that cooler heads will prevail at the end and we'll b

here at the white house posted on twitter quote donald trump's bringing jobs back to michigan in justin amash is a big liability likely trump train, defeat him in the primaries. the best we can tell this is the first time somebody in the trump administration has come out and publicly taken sides in a republican primary so this serves as a very stern warning to other republican lawmakers on what could happen if they don't get in line with this administration's agenda. julie: president trump is spending the weekend at the white house with the vice president and in fact traveling this weekend and he is in ohio today. what is he doing? >> he is in ohio today and this is the second week in a row that the vice president has traveled to a state that they won in november. last week he was in west virginia and today as you mentioned he was in ohio during manufacturing facilities and small-business owners. he told them the presence top priorities are creating jobs, jobs amort jobs and ranter what the white house has done this week to help achieve that goal. he pointed to president trump signing two exe

. >> looking forward to next year's election, are voters going to see somebody like justin amash andor as lawmakers standing up to a president who has a very low approval rate in the mid 30s. >> i have no idea what's going to transpire between now and election day. i have no idea where we're going to be. i don't think of these states where you have freedom caucus members in very conservative states, they're going to find somebody to the right of him to have to lose this election? forget it. i hope in 2018, we as democrats need to take back 24 seats. that's the number one priority of everybody on the left side, keep motivating our base. 24 seats. i don't know what they're going to do but the infighting is going to make the 24 seats a lot easier. >> you talked about democrats sitting back and watching. how does that translate into action, this attitude, and getting voters to want to put democrats in power? >> i think that we're seeing on a grass roots level, the energy level, i have not seen since 2008 since barack obama was running for president for the first time. you see grass roolt

in fact, michigan congressman justin amash responded to the president, warning: it didn't take long for swamp to drain, no shame, mr. president, almost everyone succumbs to the d.c. establishment. so who will ultimately come out on top? fox news' ed henry is here now. >> good to see you. dagen: good to see you, ed. i was waiting for donald trump to tweet about the freedom caucus -- >> just a matter of time. dagen: it took him almost a week, and he didn't call out anybody individually by name, which was surprising. >> not yet, but closer to the midterms you could see him calling people out. this is maybe a preface to actually getting down and hammering individual conservative lawmakers if they don't come to his cause. i see this as a big short-term political problem for him, though, because antagonizing others is not what he needs right now. we had heard from some of our reporting that before the health care failure a couple weeks back steve bannon had called these freedom caucus members in and said, look, this is not a conversation, basically. this is the bill, this is what we're doing,

justin amash's district is different than the other three members.d run a cardboard republican that said republican on it and they would win those districts because they are solidly republican districts. >> can you get to a primary? >> that is the other thing. good luck trying to find something to the right of jim jordan. >> i believe most of the freedom caucus members ran ahead of trump, right? >> right. >> you never know what happens in a coordinated intensive campaign that donald trump is leading. who knows, right? i think it is interesting he has identified the freedom caucus as the problem be. confusion after the health care bill failed over whether he was going to blame paul ryan or blame the freedom caucus. now they seem to be -- white house seems to be very coordinated and saying it's these guys that are a threat to our agenda and they need to be sghined. >> disciplined. >> you had mark short the president's legislative affairs guy and steve bannon and a few other people in the administration making clear they wanted to know who the no votes

i was a member of the tuesday group, but justin amash, a senior advice to the president this morningalled out on twitter, one of the most transparent members of congress, goes to social media on every single vote, he is somebody with deep conviction, so much so that though we rarely agreed on policy, i invited him down to my district to meet with republicans at one point. the president is taking a different approach which is to attack them. the problem is, the president can't get to 218 votes if he alienates republicans and democrats, which is what he's managed to do in the first 72 days. >> i bet you wish you were still in congress. at the same time, i bet you are wishing you weren't. >> #notmycongress. this is not the time for me to be in congress right now. >> the question for you, representative, at this point, then, it's not just the freedom caucus. do you think other members of the gop caucus are saying i am worried, based on the success or lack thereof that he's had with congress, it appears that many are just giving him the hand. >> every member of congress right now, the one

let's play three of the members starting with justin amash. >> a child to get his way. but that's not how our government works. >> we're trying to help the president. but the fact is you got to look at the legislation. and it doesn't do what we told the voters we were going to do, and the american people understand that. that's why only 17% of the population supports this legislation. >> i don't work for the president. i don't work for the leadership. i work for the people that sent me here. >> rick wilson, they tried to pass a $1 trillion tax cut disguised as a health care bill that got 17% support. that means even republicans hated the bill. >> yeah. and look, free market republicans hated the bill because it was basically just a different set of giveaways to the insurance companies and to pharma. and the freedom caucus guys hated it because it didn't look bold enough. it was too gutless. and the rest of the republican caucus hated it because it looked too heartless. the thing was a hot mess from the get-go. but trump was trying to sell what trump always sells, which

mark sanford, ted yoho, justin amash all saying he should row lease his taxes. walter jones, matt goetz, david young. adam kinzinger said it's the right thing to do and the other two town halls are getting attention because they're republican senators. by the way, many if not all of the people i'm mentioning, they're in places where donald trump won by double digits. senator james langford said something that i think cut to the chase for a lot of people. he promised he would do it, talking about his taxes. he should keep his promise. and there was a lot of talk at his smaller town halls about the heightened rhetoric. he said, look, donald trump is not somebody we should set out as an example of how to use social media. and then it was joni ernst. joni ernst who said, yes, he ought to release his taxes. and then she said this. >> now, i think that we have a president that has a number of flaws. with the trips to florida, i do wish that he would spend more time in washington, d.c. i do think we need to bring manufacturing back to the united states. maybe he puts h

let's play three of the members starting with justin amash. >> a child to get his way. that's not how our government works. >> we're trying to help the president. but the fact is you got to look at the legislation. and it doesn't do what we told the voters we were going to do, and the american people understand that. that's whynly 17% of the population sports this legislation. >> i don't work for the president. i don't work for the leadership. i work for the people that sent me here. >> rick wilson, they tried to pass a $1 trillion tax cut disguised as a health care bill that got 17% support. that means even republicans hated the bill. >> yeah. and look, free market republicans hated the bill because it was basically just a different set of giveaways to the insurance companies and to pharma. and the freedom caucus guys hated it because it didn't look bold enough. it was too gutless. and the rest of the republican caucus hated it because it looked too heartless. the thing was a hot mess from the get-go. but trump was trying to sell what trump always sells, which is sort

the president's director of social media urged a primary campaign against gop congressman justin amashlingering bitterness is there? i don't know if bitterness is too strong a word. but what are the lingering feelings between freedom caucus members and the white house? >> i'll tell you that i've led soldiers into a designated hazardous duty area. i've tried murder trials. i've done a lot of stuff in my life. and i can't describe the pressure that i felt during this process. and i'm one of 435. >> really? >> i believe the president is -- absolutely. but i think the president is trying to do what he thinks is best for america. he didn't get it done the way he wanted to get it done the first time and he was frustrated. that makes him human just like the rest of us. he has my forgiveness and my support. but he doesn't have my vote until we get a bill that will be consistent with what i told the voters who i ran for election in front of. >> bottom line, what do you think the chances are the republicans are going to be able to get this done? >> we're going to pass a health -- look, we've alr

i mean justin amash, thomas matthews, not a member of the freedom caucus but is very conservative. jim jordan of ohio. you look at rand paul who golfed with trum top day, these are all very important allies in cutting taxes, getting real tax reform and so many issues that trump wants to get done. it doesn't make any sense to do this. i understand that this administration will work with democrats on certain issues. probably in the frinfrastructur bill. to get a real tax reform bill across the finish line and this health care debate is not over. there is still a chance to repeal obama care. i think it was not wise to attack so early the house freedom caucus and conservatives in general. >> right. and david, twitter is powerful. it's part of the modern machinery of politics. it doesn't work for everything. and i don't know if we want to get personal. i remember watching you learn twitter. ? yeah. i was like i don't know about this. i said try it. and now he has more followers. what at which timer is good for. i want to put up a trump tweet that didn't appear to work. not that one. but

. >> already overcast in washington, d.c., friday but justin amash cast di

. >> look, justin amash is going to beat anybody that trump puts up there and this is a war that theresident cannot afford to have. i mean he's going to have -- the notion that he said in the tweet will be fighting the free dam caucus and democrats then says who will he not be fighting, the moderate republicans? oh, wait, he went after charlie den of the tuesday group. at a certain point he has to build coalitions and underpinning that is the base of the republican party and the house freedom caucus is very much connected in. i know he feels betrayed by them. but as raul labrador tweeted, he said we are your friends. it's the other people who are leading you astray. with bad legislation. >> doesn't labrador have a point? >> he does. but who would have guessed that the republican party would be the big tent. look at the democratic party they're much more cohesive and the republicans are the big tent. >> is that minority versus majority? >> boehner once said that getting the republicans is like trying to get a wheelbarrow across the floor and not letting a frog jump out of it and now t

his comments as well as those from fellow caucus names including congressman jim jordan and justin amash came during a sitdown with political here in washington d.c. thank you to the entire peterson foundation of making this possible. before getting started we want to remind you to tweet us appropriate questions, hashtag playbook interview. will track them here on stage. i also like to encourage everyone to use the snapchat filter for today's event. without further delay please join us in welcoming to the playbook interview stage house freedom

justin amash, somebody who opposed the bill that he's trying to advance.en these two. >> we are talking about the democrats are in identity crisis are and won't admit that donald trump won the election. let's have that on the table, why is the white house official attacking a sitting republican member of congress that this president needs to pass repeal and replace to deal with tax reform? pushback on them, sure, these are just talking opening day for baseball, pick your metaphor, but you need these republicans because otherwise you need democratic votes. the democrats as we started saying, they're not working with this president. abby: if you think about it, a lot of the members of the freedom caucus were the first ones to jump in the trump train and a lot feel they are standing true to their values, they promised constituents for a very long time, the bill did not fit with what they have been promising for a long time. they are in a tough place. >> right. president trump, you're now part of the swamp so you're trying to get us to move to the middle of th

justin amash, they want to primary him. >> they believe, his chief of staff, reince priebus, who is princablyehind this, long-standing feud with conservatives in his party, a big sort of supporter of paul ryan and obviously the health care plan which he was directed they're against it. they think this begins and ends with reince. they have a lot better relationship with -- neil: where is the conservative caucus, individual members how they voted on certain things or would have, they stood by him in the darkest moment? >> i wonder if trump reels lies that. if priebus realizes that. i wonder -- neil: all the leadership guys did not. >> pence didn't go on tv. kellyanne conway disappeared. rudy giuliani did. very few -- neil: a lot of them, even amash, were smarting at this. i'm wondering if the president is tweeting out we're all getting along and everything is fine, yet, by his own blessing pushing a primary challenge to amash and maybe others what do you make of that? >> they think reince is behind that, not necessarily trump even though it is his twitter handle. neil: do you think anything is

justin amash, for example, of michigan, to send that message.d you think of that, how do you feel about that? >> i see that donald trump is someone who want to keep his word. he wants to keep his promises. one of the promises that donald trump made was to repeal and replace obamacare. and the bill that is under consideration right now is an important first step. it is not the end-all, be of-all but takes an important first step. it is underlying bill, the base of the bill, that we put on president barack obama's desk last year that he vetoed. neil: members that don't share the view or giving primary challenge for them if they don't go along? >> president trump continues to keep the lines of communication open. that i think is going to be most important, that he and the house members, the senate members, we are united around this goal. we need to keep the lines of communication open to get results. so we get the bill on president's desk. those members, as i have conversations with them, they, they are encouraged too. they wantoe a part of the sol

on the right, representative just justin amash from michigan tweeted xm corporate bank is stealing.es garrett is what democrat steny hoyer called the ultimate form of sabotage. and one of the most vocal advocates said she has refer nations about the nominee. without a full board the bank cannot make loans larger than $10 million. sony and caterpillar have fought to keep this bank alive. guys there could be fireworks when the nominees face the senate. >> thank you so much this morning. >>> when we come back on "squawk box," a record-breaking box office debut. we have the numbers from the latest "fast & furious" next. >>> right now, though, as we head to break, a quick check of what's happening in equity futures. things looking higher. dow up by 15 points. s&p up by 15 point. and nasdaq up by 6 points. "squawk box" will be right back. ♪ stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr.

without further delay, join us in welcoming to the stage house freedom caucus members, justin amash of michigan, founding member jim jordan of ohio and mark meadows from north carolina. [applause] >> thanks so much for doing this. >> this is getting complicated. >> let's get started.