. >> also ron brownstein and mo kelly. great to have you all here. >> welcome to you all. >> big ideas from the president. small on detail. ron, the reality is, so far, there's no specifics from the president on how any of this will actually be paid for, and no plon an as to how this will e it through congress. >> yeah, i thought it was a more measured, controlled, at times more empathetic speech than we've seen from him before. but i think it's an emphatic mistake to view it as a reset. if anything, a doubling down on his determination to redefine the republican party around this populist, nationalist agenda, in which he even opened a new front tonight, by going after not only his familiar target of undocumented immigration, but for the first time as president, indicating that he would support reducing legal immigration as well. if you look at the budget document that he put out the other day, in which he said that he wanted to increase defense spending by cutting domestic programs, which primarily aim at younger people, w

ron brownstein, alex burns. alex, first to you, you have kevin mccarthy saying it would be a good idea for jeff sessions to recuse himself, jason chaffetz saying the same thing. this is a drumbeat. is this cooked at this point? >> this is a big deal, john. i was in dc over the weekend, the first few days of the week, talking with democrats about their general approach to dealing with the trump administration. they basically acknowledge their whole strategy, not just on russia but a whole host of issues, is to build pressure to where republicans have to split away from the administration. democrats know they can't bring trump to come to the table to make concessions on his own. last night and this morning is the first time we've seen republicans bend and say anything other than, you know, we trust the white house to do the right thing here. >> ron, to you, if sessions does not recuse himself, why is that a win for the white house? doesn't that just lead to this dragging on and more questions? wouldn't it be more

ron brownstein, david gergen, thank you very much.ate it. >> thank you. >>> senate democrats are getting ready to grill president trump's supreme court pick. coming up, how much opposition judge neil gorsuch will face at his confirmation hearing tomorrow. presents, how to win at business. step one: ask the presenter to "go back a slide." well played. you just tossed a mind grenade into into your colleagues' dulled senses. look at them, "what did i miss?" he one-upped me once again. step two: choose la quinta. and your la quinta reward points can be redeemed for everyday purchases on the go so you can win at business. learn more at lq.com today. various: (shouting) heigh! ho! ( ♪ ) it's off to work we go! woman: on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. and each job created by the energy industry supports two others in the community. altogether, the industry supports over 9 million jobs nationwide. these are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen, all while reducing america's emissions. e

we have shannon pettypiece and ron brownstein. ron, let me pull up what we know. the senate intel committee will have seven staff members dedicated to investigate this. they have an unprecedented amount of documents they will sift through. 20 requests for iron aftntervie. five scheduled. they hope to conclude before 2018. ron, you say that this investigation will still take them out of their comfort zone. what does that mean? >> the intelligence committee has been an island bipartisanship in a partisan congre congress. in the house, you see the waters rise to the dysfunction that divided other committees over the years and have now engulfed the house intel committee. the senate is proceeding on a better course. it is not used to be a big public committee. it is one used to operating more behind closed doors quietly dealing with sensitive information. this is a much more public role than traditional for the committee. the other thing worth yoetinoti this is a committee whose expertise is in the name. intelligence. they are comfortable looking into what russia did a

let's get "the bottom line" with cnn political correspondent ron brownstein.obviously the president was feeling good after the rave reviews for his address in front of congress. he doesn't want to be talking about the jeff sessions stuff. he had other things on the agenda. what now? >> first of all, roller coaster has been the defining principle throughout his political career. this has been a political figure defined by highs and lows. we should president expect anything less. this was the most severe version of it i think we've seen. i think it's a mistake to view the speech as a reset. i think it was a reaffirmation of his determination to redefine the republican party as a populist, nationalist party built around the white working class, but it was the most effective presentation of that argument that we have seen. it's an argument that has limits. as he show, it has some real power as well. then to go from that directly into the mall strom of the russia to story with another senior official being forced to acknowledge that at the least he misled congress

. >> rebecca berg from real clear politics, ron brownstein from "the atlantic".lter, based on reporting over the weekend, including yours, we have a top radio host and breitbart, i think, to thank for the president's comments over the weekend. >> yes r, in some ways this was big success for mark levin. on thursday night he said obama and obama's allies have been trying to attempt a silent coup against the trump white house. it spread around the west wing and apparently ticked off president trump, and we woke up saturday morning to those tweets. >> so the white house came out, rebecca berg, and said out pretty unequivocally, we nor the president will say anything about this until the investigation is over and then this morning went on a number of morning shows. listen to what sarah huckabee said when pressed on this. >> it's his information that president obama tapped his phone based solely on something he saw in the media, correct? >> he may have access to documents that i don't know about. but i do know that we take this very seriously and we think it should be

joining us, cnn political analyst ron brownstein. and david drucker, cnn political analyst, senior congressional correspondent for "the washington examiner." let's examine what kellyanne conway said, shall we? david, in this interview with "the bergen county record," she raised the fact that the cia can spy through your iphone. she says she was responding to jess about general surveillance. that is not in fact what she was responding to. i will read you the question. one of the things that seems to be dogging him are these accusations about wiretaps. do you know whether the president was wiretapped? then she brought up these other things. why drop this implications bomb and what are the consequences or what should be the consequences or that? >> well, i don't think there will be any consequences. politically people are either on one side of this issue or not. this is part of what the trump administration and the president in particular likes to do, and that is to raise all sorts of doubts so that if nothing is true, anything can be t

ron brownstein, the president said he's 100% behind this effort.% will be needed here i think, to get this bill through the house of representatives. >> history has been, since the republican takeover in 1994, that republican leadership in the house has almost always found a way to get the bill through the house. the one that sticks in my mind the most is the expansion of medicare to include description drugs, where tom delay had to leave the vote open, the longest vote ever, they usually find the votes by telling the the bill a little further to the right. and that can only compound what i think is the real problem in the senate. despite what president trump said, the fact that cbo projects 24 million people will lose insurance or 24 million fewer will be insured is still an obstacle for those moderate and centrist members in the senate. that's where the rub will come, even if the bill finds its way through the house. >> just to be clear, the members that cnn is counting is a no, they were not part of the meeting, not part of the group where presi

let's bring in ron brownstein, senior editor at the atlantic david truck kerr and senior congressional correspondent for "the washington examiner." thank you for being here. you have mark meadows, the house freedom caucus coming out feeling more optimistic as of late last night. you have sunlen's reporting that you have this paul ryan, gop house conference delayed, no cbo score yet. we don't even know what is in this bill or out of this bill, and they're supposed to vote on it today. give us a reality check. >> we've seen this before. under president obama it was understandable because they were always trying to do a deal to satisfy a democratic president. here is a big test for them. this is a lot bigger than health care, as big as health care is for many americans and as big a political issue it's been in the party since obamacare passed. a republican president and full republican control of congress. if they can't come together to pass health care reform, it's going to put in real serious question their ability to govern, put in serious question president trump's abilities as a deal

ron brownstein? president trump was talking about a blood bath if republicans don't repeal the affordable care act. you have more republicans i think beginning to focus on the question of whether they're lighting a fuse if they do. a majority of donald trump's votes came from whites over 45. 60% of the house republicans are in districts where the median age is older than the national average. every analysis that's come out this week has shown the big losers in the repeal and replace plan are older working age adults. three separate analysises showed people in their 50s and 60s the bill would raise premiums by 30%. as a result, s&p estimates over half of everyone 45-64 would lose it under the replacement. midterms are about angry voters. those are voters that republicans now depend on. they may be the ones who are most directly in the line of fire. >> who didn't see this coming. >> they're principle complaint was it cost them too much. you saw in the "new york times" today a voter saying an older whit

ron brownstein, listen to the house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes describe the president the united states and his early saturday morning tweets. listen to this. >> deputy, that would be very important -- >> i don't think we have that clip. i'll read it to you. at least a sentence or two. this is what devin nunes said. "the president is a neophyte to politics." >> yeah. >> "the president is a neophyte to politics. he's been doing this a little over a year. and i think a lot of the things he says you guys sometimes take literally. sometimes he doesn't have 27 lawyers and staff looking at what he does which is at times refreshing, at times can lead us to have to be sitting at a press conference like this answering questions that you guys are asking." >> you know -- >> pretty shocking to hear the republican -- house intelligence committee chairman call the president of the united states a neophyte. >> and he's echoing that argument from trump supporters during the campaign that the press took him literally but not seriously and his supporters took him seriously but not liter

ron brownstein is here, and amanda carpenter. ron brownstein, they are not close. they are not close yet. >> i think i actually think the crunch point is going to be different than where it looks today. if you go back since the republicans took over in 1994, whether in the newt gingrich era or the tom delay area, the house republican leadership can almost always find a way to get these bills through the house. and maybe the closest analogy to this was the 2002 prescription drug bill. as we've seen over the last couple of days, every interest on every side of this debate, the american medical associations, the hospitals, the nurses, the aarp representing older americans, have all come out against this bill on the belief that it will withdraw coverage from too many people who were covered under obamacare. i think in the end that is going to be more the crunch point than people like senator de mint who are complaining it doesn't undo enough. initial estimates are that about half the people who obtain coverage under obamacare may louis lose it under this bill. that wil

political panel, juliet eilperin is the senior national correspondent for the "washington post", ron brownsteinditorial director for the atlantic media, where, we are also joined by analyst and slate's chief political correspond dent jamelle bouie and the ben domenech, the publisher of the federalist. jewel jet, i will start with you, what happened with healthcare? >> welshes what you really saw was an extraordinary moment of gamesmanship where president trump delivered an ultimatum to house republicans, dared them to take a vote and pass the bill that they have been working on for a couple of weeks and at the end of the day, paul ryan, the speaker had to come down and admit that he could not force his members to walk the blank for this proposal, plank with this proposal and acknowledged the affordable care act is the law of the land for the foreseeable future. >> dickerson: what is the 11 for this for republicans. >> a number of lessons. prior to my work with the federalist i worked for 12 years in health policy and in the bush administration during the medicare part d fight and in the senate

. >> ron brownstein, rebecca burk back with us. we heard donald trump say two weeks ago i have nothing to do with russia. where do we go from here? >> well, you know, obviously there have been business and connections over the years. the beauty pageant. so the categorical nature of the denial has always been extreme. look, the answer is we just don't know. what we have is clear evidence of contacts. we have a tremendous amount of investigative reporting including a "new york times" report that was overshadoweds by the revelations about attorney general sessions that said that the former administration had obtained reports from other intelligence services in europe about meetings between trump associates and russian assets. and that also that there was intercepts, national security intercepts in which russian officials talked about their access so the trump administration. we simply don't know what that entails, whether that is even correct. and so, you know, you've got these three different investigations going on. you have the exe

. >> ron brownstein, thank you. >> it all started with the marines but now the investigation into onlineups posting nude photos of their female colleagues, well it has spread to all branches of the military. so next a former secretary of the navy on how this hurts the military. patients they ask me at whitening all of the time. i tell them the thickness of your enamel determines essentially how white your teeth are going to be. the strength of your teeth needs to be there in order for that whiteness to last. i would definitely recommend the new pronamel strong and bright to my patients to keep their enamel strong, help to keep stains away, and polish the enamel. they're going to get whiter, brighter teeth. this is going to be a really great product for my patients. ♪ at where instead of payinging a befor middlemen,em. we work directly with family farms to deliver higher quality ingredients for less than you pay at the store. get $30 off at blueapron.com/cook >>> new information for you this morning. it's now all four branches of the military that are looking into this issue. posting nude

let's get the bottom line with senior editor at the atlantic ron brownstein.en to a little of congressman poe making the case for inaction. >> we have the tax situation, which is next. i think that's going to be more difficult to change the tax structure of the country than replacing and repealing obamacare. whatever the plan will be, it will not be as conservative as some people will want because the conservatives continue, unfortunately, to vote no no matter what. >> so, the winning, where is the winning? >> yeah. look, i think president trump faces a catch 22 going forward. on one hand, the healthcare built clearly showed the limits of trying to govern with a republican-only strategy. what that does is in essence it gives a veto to each faction of the party. on the other hand, reaching out to democrats is extremely problematic because of the way both the campaign and the presidency has unfolded, his disapproval rating among rank and file democrats is approaching 90%. it's in the high 80s, which makes it very, very difficult for any democratic legislate tore

. >> with us, abby phillips, ron brownstein and mary katherine. it is day 69 of the presidency. the republican president frustrated by an embarrassment in the obamacare defeat. the freedom caucus will hurt the entire republican agenda if they don't get on the team and fast the president tweeted this morning. we must fight them and dems in 2018. the president's remarkable threat geagainst republicans -- speaking to cbs this morning paul ryan warned bickering republicans a president look for a win might wander way to the left. >> what i worry about is that if we don't do this, then he'll just go work with democrats to try and change obamacare. that's hardly a conservative thing. >> the president of the united states saying he's going to work with democrats on this. >> i know. i don't want that. i don't want government running health care. >> a lot of fun if you like politics. number one i think by tweeting this this morning the president doesn't want us to talk about russia. we will. we have an hour. we will get to that. number two, how much of this is a game? the president workin

with me to discuss is ron brownstein, cnn political analyst and senior editor of "the atlantic" and been stein, a long time professor of law and economics at pepperdine university and former speech writer and lawyer for president nixon. i know that time is always so precious, time on your weekend. ben, i want to ask you first, it can't be overstated just how much of a priority president trump and the gop had made repealing and replacing obama care. can the president really afford now to just throw his hands up. three weeks of debate. pull the bill, time to move on to something else and let obamacare explode? >> well he screwed this up so badly, it makes me want to cry. i mean i am a republican, i voted for mr. trump. it takes a very long time to work out a comprehensive health care bill. i helped work out the one for the first one ever submitted by a president to congress, mr. nixon, late '73, early '74. it takes months to go through one detail after another. he didn't do it he didn't take the time. he obviously didn't take the time to do it he handled it very badly. i don't know what hi

with us, the atlantic's ron brownstein, julia hirschfeld davis, dana bash and perry bacon of 538. president trump this hour is in a make or break meeting sitting down with house conservatives who are the biggest obstacle to passing that legislation to repeal and replace obamacare. it is hard to overstate the stakes here. the vote is scheduled for later today. it's scheduled for later today and defeat would not only undermine the young trump presidency but also the leadership of house speaker paul ryan and his key deputies. let's go to jeff zeleny at the white house. the president is in this meet with these members of the house freedom caucus. he's been trying for the past week-plus to get them to sign on. what's going to happen? >> he has, indeed. this is one of those final meetings. it's not open. this is a meeting he's having privately. we have a glimpse of what's happening in there because one of the president's aides sent out a picture showing a standing ovation. when the president was walking in. we don't know if they'll be leaving to a standing ovation. the reality is some o

one including ron brownstein who are had his confirmation this week and he said despite the fact he was letter of resignation, he will not be accepting, so, the question is what what happened with him. >> one u of the most aggressive outspoken prosecutors of wall street and why now, thank you so much. we'll check back with you. we have more straight ahead and it started after a short break. it's not a quick fix. it's my decision to make beauty last. roc® retinol, started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it, the better it works. retinol correxion® from roc. methods, not miracles.™ >>> hello, again. thank you for being with me. we're following breaking news. the high profile u.s. attorney from manhattan has indicated he will not submit a rheletter of resignation and will make president trump fire him. lori jarrett joining us now on the phone. what do you know why he has said, i'm not quitting. you there? no? we're going to try and get that connecti

ron brownstein, thanks as always for the wisdom. >> thank you. >>> two key members are at odds.committee chairman devin nunes has accused adam schiff. jeff pegues has more. >> the president made a slanderous accusation against his predecessor, one with absolutely no basis. >> the intelligence committee ranking democrat adam schiff accused devin nunes of trying to muddy the waters. >> that effort has led us town this rabbit hole and affects the only one in the house. >> in the 2016 election that former trump campaign chairman paul manafort whose relationship to russian ol' i gasp pawson has come under scrutiny and the committee will hear from fbi director james comey and nsa director mike rogers in a closed session next week. in a tweet schiff accused nunes of trying to choke off information from the public. on wednesday nunes rushed to the white house to tell the president what he said was legal foreign surveillance that involved members of the trauma p transition team. >> i have seen intelligence reports that clearly show that the president-elect and his team were i guess at le