capitol hill reporter from the hill, molly hooper. molly, good to talk to you this morning. what are the biggest concerns you're hearing about from members of the senate republican caucus? >> you're hearing people like senator mccain, lisa murkowski, mike lee complain about the fact they don't know what's in the bill. at the same time, mitch mcconnell is saying, listen, we've been talking about this for seven years. and what he plans on doing in 0 order to get the bill to the floor is essentially to bring up the house-passed bill, the american health care act. and the senate republican leader will offer the gop version as an amendment to that. so, you know it limits the amount of debate they can have on that measure because it's going to be considered under special budgetary rules. only 20 hours of detail. even though republicans and democrats can offer, quote, unlimited amendments it has toe fit within that 20-hour time frame. and that leaves a lot of republicans uncomfortable, especially the moderates. >> molly, let me ask you about paul ryan, he addressed criticism that t

. >> molly hooper, thank you. >>> during the white house briefing deputy press secretary sarah huckabeeanders criticized the trump administration and what she called the trump hoax. she got into a tense back and forth with one white house reporter, take a listen. >> if we make the slightest mistake, the slightest word is off, it is just an absolute tirade from a lot of people in this room. but news outlets get to go on, day after day, and cite unnamed sources. use stories without sources. have, you know -- you mentioned the scaramucchi story but they had to have reporters resign. >> come on, you're inflaming everybody right here, right now with those words. this administration has done that as well. why in the name of heavens -- any one of us, right, are replaceable? any one of us if we don't get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us. you have been elected to serve for four years at least. there's no option to that. we're here to ask the questions, you're here to provide the answers. what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country

. >> joining us from washington, reporter for the hill, molly hooper. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> you saw a marked change in tone from last week's hearing, in fact, democrats much more aggressive with their former colleague, but interestingly enough, we saw some republicans seemingly ready to move from accusations of collusion. >> slultly. i mean, i thought tom cotton's question was interesting, but it was a very interesting hearing in that basically senator sessions came out, wanted to clear his name. keep in mind, after jim comey's memos came out throughout the hearing last week senator sessions' name came up a lot of times and he hasn't really had a chance to speak out against what comey was saying, so it seems to me this hearing really was more about sessions clearing his name as you saw when he was talking to senator wyden, more so than getting to the bottom of the counter intelligence investigation into russia's interference in the u.s. election, and that's what the intelligence committee, senate intelligence committee is trying to ge

let's bring in sara westwood for the washington examiner and molly hooper, congressional reporter atill. thank you so much for joining me. sara, senator rubio's comment is what we're hearing from most republicans in congress. it is a far cry in newt gingrich calling for bob mueller to be fired. how big a tipping point might this be for the republican party when you have someone like gingrich who is also criticizing members of his party for not defending the president? >> you do see those close to president trump starting to come after mueller personally not just the allegations and democrats pushing them you've seen roger stone call for mueller to be fired. you've seen congressman gohmert in the house, but at large you don't see that message taking hold with the rest of the congressional republicans. they don't want to get into a fire fight with someone that they've just weeks ago praised. mueller received a lot of bipartisan accolades when he was appointed special counsel because he has such unimpeachable credentials and most republicans recognize if president trump were to remove m

molly hooper and jeremy is with the reporter of the new york times. what is your reaction to the putin remarks? not unexpected? what do you gather from the economic forum? >> vladimir putin is backtra backtracking from the statements earlier this week. maybe it could have been someone from russia. some russian patriot who wanted to help the cause as he put it. let's not forget who we're dealing with here. we're not dealing with the russian president, but skilled manipulator. former intelligence officer himself. a spy at one point. he is expert at trolling the united states. i think it is worth pointing out it is no accident that he is conducting an interview with a respected journalist who happens to be one of donald trump's least favorite reporters. i don't think that was a coincidence. >> molly, i hear your reaction in my ear. what was your overall take? >> come on. all i can say is vladimir putin telling us that the cia might be behind this. you know, he has known it to happen. is that because the kgb has done it to russia to his opponents? i heard

joining me to talk about this, molly hooper, congressional reporter for hill and john harwood, welcomeu both. molly, i'll start with you. what's the mood among republicans on capitol hill this morning as they face this tough testimony from sessions? >> well, i think lawmakers are looking forward to this. ultimately they want to get to the bottom of this and move on. i think that comey's testimony, which by all accounts was brutally honest according to one senator up there asking those questions, leaves a lot of questions for sessions to answer. in fact, you know, why did he linger after that february 14th meeting? did the white house advisers including sessions warn trump not to have a one on one meeting? did trump suggest that idea to his advisers and not take their advi advice? who knows but that's something lawmakers want to get to the bottom of and go away -- >> i'll bet they do. >> they do and they just want him to quit tweeting i think. that's the general consensus. >> i like how you said they want to get to the bottom of this and move on. i think a lot of people wishing it was t

. >>> molly hooper, good to he so you. he quickly said the tweets they were not appropriate, but he seemed to let a lot of the president's behavior slide in the past as he did earlier this month in explaining trump's comments about michael flynn to then fbi director jim comey. take a listen to that. >> the president is new at this. he is new to government. so he probably wasn't steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between doj, fbi, and white houses. he is just new to this. >> do you think that the relationship could actually change here after all this that happened yesterday, and do you think people and members especially are looking to ryan to do more and say more really? >> and say more. well, the key here is that we have to go back to the election and that "access hollywood" tape. it came out where trump made the comment about grabbing women's you know's, and paul ryan took a risk, and he got in the conference call with the house republican conference and basically said -- did not condo

joining me, molly hooper, congressional reporter at the hill and washington bureau chief for "new yorkdies, welcome to you both. gabby, start with you. republicans and the president still cling to this repeal and replace mantra. is charlie dent right that the legislation piece remains unfulfilled and is that why moderates may never get on board? >> he is certainly right there's growing tension between moderate and conservative senators over this bill. that is going to jeopardize how quickly it moves in the senate. we know senate majority leader mitch mcconnell wants to force a vote this week before they leave for july 4th recess, it seems unlikely that will happen now that we have five senators that express td opposition to this legislation and a number of moderate senators like lisa murkowski, susan collins from maine who said they would be probably opposed to this legislation if there are more conservative adjustments made to it over the course of the next week. >> molly, with the way you cover congress, what specifically do you think it is going to take republicans to reach 50 votes