phil mattingly great reporting, thank you so much. back to john over in the florida keys. john? >> thanks so much, poppy. president trump due to arrive in florida any minute from now. this is his third trip in the last few weeks to a hurricane ravaged place. it gets to what so much of america has been deal with the last few weeks with the natural disasters. he will touch down on the west coast of florida in ft. myers. he can't come down to where i am in big pine key, the scene of the greatest destruction. it would be too disruptive of the relief efforts right now. let's go to ft. myers, alex is there, and alex, the president he does have a busy schedule set for today and could be arriving any minute? >> he is, john. he's due in just over half an hour from now as you mentioned, making his third trip to a hurricane ravaged area in just three weeks. he's back-to-back historic hurricanes. he is due to arrive and he will be accompanied by first lady melania trump and greeted by the vice president and governor and senators from florida. he's got a packed itinerary, starting off with a

let's go to cnn congressional correspondent phil mattingly. phil mattingly, what are republican leaders on the hill saying about all of this today? >> reporter: yeah, despite what we heard from senate minority leader chuck schumer, house minority leader nancy pelosi, paul ryan, the republican leader in the house saying there's not only no deal, there weren't even negotiations. these were discussions that occurred over dinner, chinese food, chocolate pie, brooke. very important to note there. very interesting to see. what democrats took coming out of that meeting is there is an agreement on the parameters of the deal. essentially how the protections of daca participants would be put in place and in exchange republicans would get a boost in the spending. the baseline for the protection of daca participants would be something called the d.r.e.a.m. act. it involves a pathway to citizenship. it's been a huge problem in the republican party for years. this is something i asked speaker ryan about. take a listen. >> did the president shed any light on

phil mattingly has more.>reporter: the worou heard in the weeks leading up to last week were dead, buried, gone. mechanic we'll try it again next year or the year after. no longer standing that way. the effort right now is very real and serious on a very compressed timetable. considering a new proposal. they only have 11 days to do it. by september 30th, they need to get this done if they want to, under budget rulesby able to pass something with a simple majority vote. the big question now is what's in this proposal. what it would do is a dramatic shift in how the u.s. has health care. one sixth of the economy -- there are some similar elements, like ending the medicate expansion in 2020. instead of keeping a less generous version of the obamacare tax subsidies, this would take all of the revenue and put them in block grants for specific states. this is a very real effort to get this done at the last minute. wait and see over the next couple of days how this progresses a big meeting tuesday after. republican

cnn's phil mattingly join us from the capital. phil if they had the vote they would have won't the vote right ? >> yes. there's one kind of tried and true clear reality, when you have the votes you put something on the floor and vote on it. it wasn't going to take multiple days to get this on the floor. they made very clear, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, lindsay gram, the coauthors of this bill as of yesterday they did not have the votes. the same today, the votes are still no votes. at this moment, anderson they don't have the votes. they might in the future it could be possible. at this moment they don't have the votes. >> and the comments about senator croochran didn't he say he'd come in to vote if need be? >> in talking to everybody at the senior levels in the course of five days leading to this all falling apart yesterday, not a single person mentioned senator cochran's name or his health issue. we saw three public no, votes. i'm told from several gop aids when they took an internal whether i happen count and got a

but first let's get the latest from our national correspondent phil mattingly.hud udbehind close doors a little while ago, but it's not clear at all whether they can get the votes they need to pass this bill. >> yes, that's right. you talk about that closed door meeting, it was extremely important for two reasons. you had people like mike pence and senator graham, one of the coauthors of the bill, come in and give their rara moment. next week is it. there are no other alternatives. for those who campaigned on this for year after year after year, this is your last chance. and more importantly what's going on behind closed doors, too, this is a policy. this is a proposal that zrasingly shifts how health care operates inside the united states of america. it changes even from past republican repeal plans the obama structure, it takes all that money and the medicaid expansion from obamacare and puts it into block grants to states. you would have them that would almost certainly lose money because of that. she and senator john mccain, by far, wolf, the two primary tar

to phil mattingly who joins us live from capitol hill. motional moment, phil. >> no question about it. think back three months ago particul particularly in the first couple days, things were very touch and go. staff didn't know how congressman scalise was going to end up. there were a lot of concerns about the depth of his injuries, the damage that had been done. they noted internal organs were hurt. you could look in a snippet from a "60 minutes" interview running on sunday, skungsman scalise -- congressman scalise said they needed to put me back together, that's how bad the damage was internally. no head's up he was coming back to the capitol but lawmakers have been waiting for the moment since the june shooting and interestingly enough, the fact that he's coming back at this time, very key time in the house as they look forward on legislative opportunities, i will tell you when lawmakers started to get the sense he was on the upswing and out of a bad place, was when he started participating in conference calls and as his role in the hou

and we all read the phil mattingly notes like the bible each and every morning, our correspondent ono current and former staffers. i read the word stunned on his note this morning, how some are describing it, horrified is another. one former republican legislative counsel told him. let me show you moments we caught on the senate floor to illustrate the pressure on these lawmakers involving the two senators, maybe the ones to decide if this republican health care bill passes, watch for arizona's john mccain and alaska's lisa murkowski. check this out. routine proceedings under tense circumstances. 4:28 p.m., the senate floor. senator mccain approaches senators murkowski and cornyn. after a few moments, cornyn moves on. we have no idea what they're discussing, but their body language appears emphatic. mccain seems to motion you and i. prying eyes within ear shot, the two move in closer. they continue their exchange as voting proceeds. >> mr. thune. aye. >> reporter: just a few feet away, majority leader mitch mcconnell in a huddle. with him, senator lindsey graham. not only the co-spon

let's go to our congress at correspondent phil mattingly who's working the story for us. there's a very tight deadline. >> 12 days, wolf. that's how much time they have to get something that over the course of the last nine months they have not been able to succeed in. they need to do that by september 30th if they want to do it under budget rules by a simple majority vote. that's exactly why you see republican senators today still trying to get their heads around what's actually happening. seven days ago this wasn't even an option, something senate leaders were taking seriously. now they are. the reason why? their conference said they want to give it another shot. what is actually in this bill, wolf, is extremely important. it's a bill that democrats, including chuck schumer, the senate democratic leader, is calling in the midst of a red siren moment. that's how seriously everybody is taking this. this bill has some elements of a traditional repeal and replace plan. it repeels the individual and employer mandates and ends obamacare by 2020. there are significant differen

i got to ask you, when he says to phil mattingly that's who he is.oes he mean he's a 71-year-old who refuses to admit he's wrong or zl something else tim scott is trying to tell us? >> i wouldn't speculate. in my personal opinion -- when people support him, he can't find a way to distance himself from them. we saw that back in the campaign, when he was asked to condemn david duke and he did it first and then three times he said he didn't really know who that was. he hesitated. so the president definitely has a history here and that in and of itself is another reason why he had an obligation and duty to marginal lies and condemn these people by name. he compounded things by saying not only were both sides to blame but there were very fine people who were marching with the neo-nazis. i think there's the president sort of lacks this maybe moral compass, moral understanding here. >> we get it. there are some bad dudes in antifa. just a failure to recognize the harm he did with that statement. and it's interesting to your point, he refuses to really go af

phil mattingly, thank you very much.tical commentator john phillips, kabc talk show host ana navarro. i appreciate it. ana, analyze the president's message on this for me, okay. pull it up. i would not sign graham/cassidy if it did not include coverage of preexisting conditions. it does a. a great bill. repeal and replace. okay. it includes coverage of preexisting conditions if you can afford it. >> well, it includes a waiver for states and i think that's a big deal for a lot of people. look, this is not an easy nut to crack. i think that it's important that legislators, that republicans, also democrats, keep trying to fix this bill, to fix health care. we have got to accept as americans that the current system has got tremendous problems, tremendous flaws and cannot sustain itself the way it is. so it needs to be replaced. it needs to be fixed. is this the perfect fix? probably not. and i think it's very hard for a lot of republicans to support it because of different reasons about including the preexisting conditions w

phil mattingly joins us from capitol hill. what do we know about what got collins to "no"?interesting thing about collins throughout the health care debate, anderson, it's never been a secret what her priorities were. after he voted tonight and put out the statement opposing the bill, she made very clear it was the fact they were overhauling the medicaid program without a significant number of hearings or a deep look into why they were actually doing it. when it came to the actual graham/cassidy proposal itself, even though there was an effort to set maine in a better place, she made the point, just because you can do this in a partisan fashion now, what's going to keep it going a couple years from you from now? preexisting conditions has been a concern for her. this bill goes pretty far in giving the leeway to cut way back on medicaid. it underscores inside the republican conference, as has been the case for the last nine months, ideologically they are not unified right now. >> senator graham spoke tonight, what does he have to say? does he believe it's over? >> he's still

cnn's phil mattingly has more from capitol hill. >> reporter: here's what we know just nine days outfrom when senator republicans have to pass a health care bill if they want to do it with a majority vote. they don't have the votes yet. but that doesn't mean they're not optimistic. take a listen to what senator lindsay graham said. >> we're at a point where we're going to take the bill up. to my republican colleagues if you have a better idea -- >> mitch mcconnell wouldn't go that far but he's going have the vote next week. the big question is can they get those snaertenators who are undecided? senator john mccain, always been the same thing. process. senate republicans went out of their way to schedule a hearing for him next week be able to check that box but spoke to mccain on wednesday and he made clear that's not the processes' talking about. he's talking about hearings, markups, floor action, conference, house having an opportunity to amend this. when it comes to lisa murkowski, all about the data. they want to make sure she knows they're willing to do whatever they can to get h

cnn's phil mattingly with more from capitol hill. >> reporter: one key mark for republican the they couldn't loose any more than two senators. now they have. senator susan collins coming out monday night saying she would be opposed to the bill and by all accounts almost putting an end to the latest effort, sit, sixth, seventh, eighth. but one thing is clear. idealogical republicans haven't figured out how to bridge the divide. it came at the end of a hearing on the bill. protests, many in wheelchairs that had to be removed. visceral almost reaction to what has occurred with this bill. a really, really good way to underscore the opposition. there hasn't been a public announce. yet that they've putting an end to the process. aids telling me mitch mcconnell has a chance to talk to the council before pulling the bill altogether. you want to know just how far senator collins wa z from supporting this bill? >> obviously this was an issue to which i've given a great deal of thought because there are many problems in the affordable care act that do need to be fixed. however, it was clear to me that

cnn's phil mattingly has more.orter: when it comes to the future of repeal and replace, it's very much so up in the air right now. obviously republican leaders want to have that vote next week. they have to have that vote if they want to be able to move forward on this. the big question is will they ever get the votes? you break down who is actually in play right now and everybody comes back to the same two people. murkowski of alaska and joskbr mccain. we've asked senator mccain a couple times he says that's not regular order. i want more than that. of note, lindsey graham, working on him. the other person, lisa murkowski. i spoke to her early on. she said i'm not going to be bought off. i if she sticks to that policy going forward, it's going to be tough to see her get to yes. but, she's back in alaska. i'm told the trump administration officials have been reaching out to her repeatedly making sure she knows they're available at all times. i can also tell you on capitol hill we're seeing a series of draft proposa

. >>> phil mattingly has more on the challenges facing republicans as they try to make good on the promise to replace obamacare. >> there was one kind of key mark for senate republicans as they pursued once again an effort to repeal and replace the obamacare. they couldn't lose my nor than two for thats they have. senator susan collins coming out monday night saying she would be poeft the bill and putting an end to the latest effort, the fifth, sixth, seventh eighth who knows where they're at. but republicans haven't figured out how to bridge their divide. it came at the end of a long day, a day that had a hearing on the bill, that had pr protesters who were chanting and had to be arrested by capitol police, kind of a visceral reaction to the bill and a way to under score the opposition around it. and you can look at the cbo bill around it, saying only 20% supported it, and of that group only 46% of republicans supported the bill. again all underscoring why this has been so difficult up to this point. there hasn't been an announcement they are putting an end to the process. aids telling me

cnn congressional correspondent phil mattingly says president trump is pushing for this bill and claimst would cover pre-existing conditions, but that is not necessarily the case, right? >> reporter: a lot of concerns from wary senators and outside groups. when you dig deeper into the bill, doesn't necessarily hold up. as the senate plows toward a last second attempt to repeal obamacare next week, president trump is weighing in on twitter, trying to soothe skeptics in his own party. he tweeted, i would not sign graham/cassidy, did not include pre-existing conditions. it does. trump's defensiveness for people with coverage if they are already sick. it has been a central and toxic piece of the repeal debate for months and one that was magnified, again, overnight, by all people, jimmy kimmel, whose son was born with a heart defect. >> last night on our show, a senator from louisiana, bill cassidy, i took to task for promising to my face that he would oppose a plan that turn people with pre-existing conditions away. he said anything he passed would have to pass the jimmy kimmel test. it was

with me david and phil mattingly, who are listening along in this powerful moment. phil, these are one of these moments that just give you chills and that it's a really important you were there to be able to witness it. just seeing steve scalise there and the powerful message he gave that he is a living example that miracles can really happen. >> look, you flashback three and a half months ago, kate, and how palpable it was that everybody was so shaken. nobody could believe the vulnerability. nobody could believe a targeted attack could occur. more importantly nobody knew if congressman scalise was going to be okay. there were several days and nights where it was very touch and go. the congressman referenced those. one of the interesting and best elements of what was an excellent return to the house floor, was pointing out david bailey, one of the capitol police officers along with crystal griner, in the audience, who saved his life, also pointing out his doctors at medstar who admitted made very clear had to save his life on the operating table multiple times as wel

. >> cnn correspondent phil mattingly is here. phil, what is going on? please make sense of this? i feel like i cover congress for a long time but i feel like i have no idea right now. >> you're in the same boat as a lot of people here. what's important here is the nuance here is what's going to actually make the deal happen. if you want to track back into what happened last night, there was a dinner and the agreement was on kind of the parameters of where a final deal would end. essentially, they would protect daca participants in exchange for significant package border security, whether it's money, resources, something like that. the details of what each of those two things actually will be, are extraordinarily important. you're finding out why this morning, take a listen to what democratic minority leader in the house nancy pelosi told us she believes the deal contains just a short while ago. >> last night, leader schumer and i had a very productive meeting with president trump. we agreed to a plan to work at an agreement to protect our nation's d.r.e.a.m.ers from deportation.

phil mattingly has that for us. >> reporter: as the senate plows toward a vote to repeal obamacare, president trump is unequivocal, tweeting, i would not sign graham/cassidy if it did not include coverage of pre-existing conditions. the bill's co-sponsor also toeing the line. >> more people would have coverage and we protect those with pre-existing conditions. >> reporter: trump's defensiveness over the issue is understandable. the issue of whether the gop proposal maintains protections for all has been a central and toxic piece of the repeal debate for months. and one that has been magnified exponentially by, of all people, a late-night talk show host on a two-night attack. >> so last night on our show, i -- a senator from louisiana, bill cassidy. i took him to task for promising to my face that he would oppose any health care plan that allowed insurance people to turn people with pre-existing conditions away. and he said anything he supported would have to pass what he named the jimmy kimmel test. which was fine. it was good. but unfortunately and puzzlingly he proposed a bill that would al

with us to share insights julie herschfield davis, phil mattingly, bloomberg and elian na johnson of politico. is it just noise or should republicans be nervous their republican president maybe with the obamacare experience in the background saying that didn't work. i'm going to try this. >> i think jeff's right the notion they're going to all team up together and do a big deal on tax reform seems remote right now. it is interesting that trump is really going at this sort of threat to sort of cut republicans out of the process. and work with democrats instead because the dynamic they're facing on the hill with tax reform and so many other things is they want to try to do a republican deal that is all white house driven and driven by the republican leadership. if this he can't get to 51 or 52 votes, they have to do something else. part of the play is they want republicans to feel more pressure to get together as a coalition because they know if that doesn't happen, the president is all too willing to deal with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. >> in talking to republicans this morning,

phil mattingly is on capitol hill following all of this and where this stands. am cassidy, phil, the plan had been seen even when they rolled it out as a hail mary, acknowledged that this was the plan they thought had the best shot but it was a hail mary because discussions were elsewhere at the time. what's changed? does it have a shot now? >> that's exactly right. a hail mary would imply that they're on the field with a chance to throw the ball. nobody even thought they were getting on to the field with this proposal and that was as recently as early last week when not just top senate republican aides but senators were dismissing this as there wasn't enough time. wasn't a reality based proposal. maybe they like the policy but didn't think they could get it there. that's different. let me tell you the seeds of this came really because of two individuals, senator lindsey graham, senator bill cassidy who have been working member after member calling in to breitbart and cnn trying to do whatever they could to sell this plan. they saw some of that pay off last thurs

one person telling my colleague phil mattingly this is a nightmare scenario because both of those things are very difficult for republicans to act on so the idea of tying those two things together, has a lot of folks nervous. >> and again, all you had to do was hear speaker ryan right there for him, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of his life. he wants the world to be about tax cuts and reform starting tomorrow because he thinks that might be a way out for republicans in congress who will have to wait and see. mj lee, thanks for being with us. election day in alabama, a crucial test for president trump. the candidate he is supporting in danger of losing to a candidate backed by many of his own supporters including the man who helped engineer his white house victory, steve bannon. senator luther strange facing off against the former judge roy moore in today's runoff. the president has made two statements on this morning to try to boost support for strange. his latest statement minutes ago, alabama get out and vote for luther strange he has proven to me he will never let you down. #m

insights, mary katherine ham of the federalist, michael sheer of "the new york times," and cnn's phil mattinglywe begin with the president's war of words with some of america's best-known athletes. a fight that raises a question of free speech, of patriotism, and of race. >> this guy that we've put in charge has tried to divide us once again. and, obviously, we all know what happened with charlottesville and the divide that that caused. and now, it's even hitting more home for me now, because he's now using sports as the platform to try to divide us. >> now, this is hardly the first time this president has started a new fight, seemingly because he's losing an old one. and this one escalated quickly. it began friday night in alabama. the president was there to urge voters to turn out in a senate race on tuesday. but he got more animated voting -- venting, excuse me, about the silent protest a few african-american nfl players take part in on game day. >> wouldn't you love to see one of these nfl owners, when somebody disrespects our flag? to say, get that son of a [ bleep ] off the field right no

. >> i mean, april, listen, phil mattingly caught up with tim scott. this is his response. "that's what he is. it's who he has been. and i didn't go in there to change who he was. i wanted to inform and educate a different perspective. i think we accomplished that. and to assume that immediately thereafter he's going to have an epiphany is just unrealistic." well, say what you want. he could have reacted whatever. but it was a classy way of saying it. that's who he is. it's who he has been. is that the realization a lot of republicans are having now in washington? >> yes. it's the realization of many people, but it doesn't make it right. this is the sixth time this president has spoken to reporters or to the american people on charlottesville. he's back and forth, back and forth. and to once again double down on both sides and to say there were some really bad dudes on the other side, so i guess fighting for what's right makes you a bad dude. a lot of people are bad dudes. and interestingly enough, from my sources, when tim scott was in the oval office with the president, y

be able to work on some of these issues together, but this is what he had to say today to our phil mattingly after hearing about what the president had to say on air force one. he said, quote, that's who he is. it's who he has been, and i didn't go there to change who he was. i wanted to inform and educate a different perspective. and i think we accomplished that, and to assume immediately thereafter that he's going to have an epiphany, it is just unrealistic. and one of the thing that senator scott said to us yesterday was that anyone over the age of 3 can't be changed after a 40-minute conversation. it seems that senator scott did have a realistic view of this conversation with the president. >> all right, ryan nobles, appreciate it. a lot to talk about tonight with the panel. joining me, jennifer granholm, beana, and alice stewart. why bring this up? he's asked about the meeting with senator scott and he pivots very quickly to perhaps the most controversial comments he's made in his presidency. >> i think one of the only answers is he believes it. he think he's right. he doesn't like to b

i want to quickly go to our congressional correspondent, phil mattingly, following the breaking newsn capitol hill for us. i just got the report. you've got the report. the congressional budget office report, it says what millions of americans will likely lose their health insurance if this legislation were enacted into law. is that right? >> reporter: that's right. based on the graham-cassidy bill legislation, the u.s. senate is considering millions fewer over the course of years would have insurance coverage than do currently do under law. there's a big question here -- there's no specific numbers. you remember quite well we often talk about specific numbers from the cbo. this only has millions fewer because it is a preliminary report because the cbo made clear it would take several weeks for them to actually be able to analyze this bill. remember the compressed timetable that they're working under. also a key point, the cbo confirms that it does meet deficit reduction targets for the bill to be reconciliation compliant. that budget rule was the only reason they rushed this report.

right now, and he said that he was surprised that john mccain came out as a no vote today as phil m mattinglys been telling us for days that he was a no vote. >> and i said that with the call list of the ten senators that he was describing, and first of all, the hilarious of the president lobbying the senators and asking trump for all of the favors and a picnic on the white house lawn, and so he was riffing in a humous way about ii -- humorous way, and i was unclear about the original votes in the the summer or the current graham/cassidy bill. it was not quite clear, and in either case, he had a list of the ten republican senators who he was told to lobby, and it is sort of an indictment of his political staff that john mccain was not on that list. they obviously did not do the work to understand that mccain was wavering whether it is on the first bill or the more recent one that that mccain came out against today, but certainly, at lot of frustration in his voice with john mccain, and trump being trump, i felt that he was a little bit more restrained than he usually is. >> yes. >> and he is h