let's discuss with our panel, david gregory, ron brownstein and karoun demirjian.n't like it, susan collins, shelly capito of west virginia has reservations. where is this? >> i think they're still in a very difficult place. they're close enough to perhaps pull it across the line because with the president engineering and making demands from the white house, it's a reminder of how much political peril republicans face if they don't come through on this. i think what a lot of more centrist conservatives even are feeling is that this is just an incredibly unpopular step to be taking with how they refashion a repeal of obamacare, that it puts them in a very precarious position and they're not sure about the kind of political backup they'll have if they take this vote and ultimately pass it. they would have reconciling to do with the house version as well. i think that is the state of play at the moment. >> ron brownstein, you noted mitch mcconnell has taken a traditional tact to get this through. he's made concessions to the conservative members of his party hoping an

the shake and the underpat. >> look, you know -- >> ron brownstein? your thoughts? >> well, as i said before, i think of all -- there are so many things that are unique about president trump, but i think one thing that is typical about him is this enormous belief in the ability of a personal relationship to cut through the entrenched disagreements between nations. we saw this with xi jinping, when he had the, what he thought was a very successful personal bond at mar-a-lago, and here we are, a few weeks, months later, and he's expressing frustration that that encounter did not change years of underlying chinese views about the proper way to handle north korea. and did not lead they will further in the direction that we hoped they would take. and i think we are heading inexorably for the same thing with slpt, where president trump said during the campaign, it would be an asset for us if i have a good relationship with him. that we can, you know, he will respect me, more than he did president obama. and therefore, they will move in the direction that we

let's discuss with ron brownstein, rebecca berg, and salena zito. salena, to you as someone who has sat in the oval office and interviewed the president on more than one occasion, what does it tell us that on the six-month mark of his presidency, we are now hearing from the president, an attack on his entire justice department, particularly jeff sessions, and frankly, an attack on the entire judicial process? >> well, i'm not surprised p. i mean, you know, maggie haberman is such a great reporter, right? and she really has a way of c l pulling him out, he's very comfortable when he talks with her. and i thought that they were all able to have him talk about sort of the insecurity that he has about a attorney general that is now someone who doesn't immediately have his back as soon as he is, you know, president, right? and this is something that is important to presidents. and show, you know, i think he feels vulnerable without having that guy or, you know, if it ends up being a woman, that woman, you know, as part of his team. he's disappointed. thi

let's bring back in our panel, ron brownstein, david sanger. take a listen to what his defense secretary, james mattis, just said about north korea. take a listen. >> i cannot believe this capability in itself brix us closer to war, because the president has been very clear and the secretary of state has been very clear that we are leading with diplomatic and economic efforts. >> so karoon, unless the president means very severe additional sanctions on banks, for example, pretty severe things doesn't seem to jive with what mattis is saying. how do you see it? >> it's a clarification that is important that the secretary of defense made, because you saw these rockets firing in the air, and clearly, that's supposed to send a message to north korea about the force we could exert if we wanted to hold them back in. but would that make north korea ramp up faster and produce a response that would force us more towards a difficult situation. mattis is trying to be abunda abundantly clear that's not what's happening. it's also notable that there has been

. >> discuss with ron brownstein, and john thin gruber, and stephen moore is with us. good to see all of you this sunday. all right. so, ron, we begin with you. we heard senator collins say she can't issupport the current heah care bill and rand paul the same. can't lose another senator and pass this bill. how in trouble is it? >> well, right on the ice edge. particularly because yesterday even after the presentations from the vice president and hss secretary, you saw opposition from democrat govern ares and republican governors of arizona, arkansas, neff nevhef nevada an. republicans talking abblock granting medicaid to ronald reagan and george w. bush. gingrich passed it, bill clinton vetoed it. what's changed, the aca expanded to low-income working people and in essence, reached medicaid up the income ladder at the same time the republican coalition was reaching down the income ladder. when you look at these interior states, west virginia, ohio, arkansas, other kentucky, states like that, the voters who would be hurt the most by these changes, these severe cuts in me

. >> ron brownstein, this is a major challenge for president trump. so he's given different signals. he's said via twitter it's time for china to step up but we understand from a conversation from president xi of china, he signaled the u.s. might be willing to do something. >> first of all it is a reminder there is a real world, real threats and challenges that go beyond wrestling videos. this is a job that literally at times can have the fate of the world seemingly in the balance and i think president trump is not the first president from either party, first of all, to have been frustrated by the lack of good options on north korea, and second, in his frustration, i think, with xi jinping, not the first president who kind of thought a personal rapport with a fortunately leader would overrule and override contrasting interests of the nations themselves. we saw it with george w. bush and vladimir putin when he looked in his eyes and saw his soul. i mean this is a fundamental problem, a conundrum, where china is the one power that seems to have the abil

ron brownstein, ryan lizza, phil mattingly.il, in a way that sets us up for where we should have been all along, which is republicans, you're in control, but you have to work with the democrats. we know there are issues in the individual markets. we also know now there's a higher level of popularity for the aca than we've seen since its inception, so fix what's there. is that a reality? >> it's a difficult dynamic. look, there are republicans who are game for this. there's a recognition that short-term stabilization, some funding mechanism for the marketplace right now, obviously the cost sharing reduction money for the insurers, that needs to be settled as well. laura alexander who chairs the senate health committee is ready to move forward on a bipartisan basis. the baseline for republicans that they campaigned on is repeal. if repeal is not what they're pursuing, conservatives made very clear they're not going to help fix something. they were never for a fix, they didn't campaign on fixes. basically you would have to get ind

. >>> ron brownstein, cnn senior political analyst and senior editor with us now as well as lynn sweetshington bureau chief with the "chicago sun-times." thank you both for being with us. ron, i wanted to ask you at a time when this administration is asking voters here in the u.s. to hand over some pretty personal information, under the purpose they say of solidifying elections and the validity of elections and that kind of thing. cnn, however, has some reporting that russia is indeed -- that russian spies are ramping up their efforts here inside the borders of the u.s. with that said, we have a president who says look, you hit me, i'm going to hit back hard. did he hit back hard enough with putin based on what we know of the meeting? >> yeah. i think -- i think the reaction is very -- whoever's account you accept, the reaction from the president is ambiguous and ambivalent at best. i think there is less to the difference in the accounts than meets the eye or maybe meets the ear. if you take rex tillerson at his word, our own secretary of state's version of events, the president in eff

ron brownstein, cnn political analyst, author of a brand-new out just this morning weekly column on cnn.com lines." shelby holiday, politics and business report for the journal. ron, you say this is built on a foundation of sand to begin with. what do you mean? >> it's built on this allegation with utterly no proof, in fact, proof in the opposite direction that millions of votes were cast illegally to, you know, swing the popular vote in the 2016 election. there simply is no evidence of large-scale in-person voter fraud of anything like that magnitude. in fact, i remember a couple years ago when pennsylvania passed one of the restricted voting laws, when they went into court, they stipulated they could not identify a single case of in-person voter fraud, you know, as part of their justification. look, access to the ballot box is becoming one of the many issues dividing red and blue states. while we see these tougher voter i.d. laws in a number of the red states, you see blue states like oregon go in the other direction with automatic voter registration or vote by mail in colorado and washin

. >>> john avlon, ron brownstein and white house correspondent from bloomberg news, margaret talov. so john avlon -- >> good morning. >> normally a chief of staff is tasked with making the trains run on time and everything is sort of funneled through the chief of staff. the chief of staff is sptelling the president what's in place. we have no idea what his style will be like and whether or not people will still be able to go around john kelly to get to the president, including anthony scaramucci. >> the president likes military men. in fact, the national security apparatus has been the most competent and effective of his administration. there's some hope that that background that john kelly brings, his experience working for really respected bipartisan leaders like leon panetta and ron gates will bring discipline and order to this white house. the questions are, can scaramucci and his son-in-law keep bypassing the chief of staff? or will the president concede that we need to impose some structure and order on this administration? trump is going to trump people but kelly at least is

let's bring in our panel, cnn political analyst ron brownstein, counterterrorism ability lift philip mudd and associate es tore for real clear politics a.b. stoddard. first things first, if a known russian lawyer with kremlin and putin ties were coming to the u.s. to meet with a campaign, is that something the fbi and cia would know about, would catch wind of or can these things sort of happen secretly? >> i don't think they would necessarily know about that. that would defend in part on whether that person has a direct relationship with the russian government. i think looking in retrospect, this starts to get more and more interesting if you're a federal investigator a year after the event. let's collate a few items. we have breaking news. we have the new reporting that jeff sessions story about how many times he met with russians changed. we had general flynn in january so embarrassed with his relationship with russians that his story changed. we're seeing less than 5% of this. the fbi is gathering massive quantities of e-mail and phone information, if you match that with what we'v

we have senior political analyst ron brownstein, julia pace and all allis fill mont. there was a lot of between chris and jay about the intel community as chris pointed out donald trump's own intel chiefs including the cia director, this is of course your wheelhouse have concluded, that russia meddled. what did you hear there? >> i heard a couple things. first one thing we'll put aside for a moment. there was a referral to this as a heat of the moment decision. we should get back to that allison. the president's son has had 13 months to think about this and he never actually bothered to review his e-mails to determine if the word russia was in a subject line. hard to believe. this is not a heat of the moment decision to keep this quiet. on the issue of the intel community, i think there is a really significant point here in all the noise and there was a lot of noise in that conversation, one basic question, did the campaign officials including the president's son willingly accept a meeting to discuss receiving information from a hostile foreign power? >> yes, we know

let's get the bottom line with cnn senior political analyst ron brownste brownstein.t is the bottom line on better days ahead for health care? >> look, this bill has been ground up. we've been watching it in real time, ground up in the collision between the gop's historic ideology and its modern coalition so on the one hand you have the voices on the right, mike leigh, rand paul saying it doesn't go far enough in uprooting obamacare and a larger group of moderates and main stream conservatives who say look we are taking away coverage largely from people who vote for us. look at the numbers the urban institute on who lost coverage under the senate health care bill, 80% don't have a college degree, 70% in a household where someone works full time and 60% of them are white. who does that describe? that describes the modern trump coalition. there is no way around that conundrum for the republicans. >> where does that leave them, ron? what is next? we heard m.j. and everybody describe a repeal and delay strategy, we've heard that's one option. >> right. >> we've also heard

elise labott and political analyst ron brownstein also back with me. good to see you all.t. let's begin with the meeting itself. whether these two if met or not, here is president trump in his own words about their encounters, or lack thereof. >> i never met putin kbrop know who putin is. never spoken to him, don't know anything about him other than he will respect me. >> i was in moscow recently and spoke directly and indirectly with president putin who could not have been nicer. >> all right. ron, let me begin with you. you know, whether they've met or not, what's the goal? what is it that president trump would want to get out of this meeting with vladimir putin? >> it's a giant open question. his national security advisers has said essentially this week, they're winging it. that there is no fixed agenda. you can certainly imagine that president putin is coming in with a fixed agenda. in many ways the most chilling moment the james comey testimony when he said, russia will be back again, in terms of trying to interfere in our elections. whatever else you think about this

salena zito, mark preston, ron brownstein, appreciate it. >>> tax form promising -- >> steve mnuchin says a plan is on the way. christine romans is here before the bell. >> hi. >> is it on the way? >> with something for everyone, according to steven mnuchin. he says it will happen and have all the things they want, corporate tax cut, fewer tax brackets for individuals like you and me and a top tax bracket of about 35%. and this is the timing. >> our plan is to have a full-blown release of the plan in the beginning of september, being able to vote and getting this passed before the end of the year. >> so, it won't be easy. there's a reason it hasn't been done since 1986. it won't be easy and everybody will have to give something up. what am i talking about? 35% of filers, itemize their deductions and white house plan and house republican plan would get rid of all deductions except mortgage interest and charitable deductions. that means no more state and local taxes, being able to write those off your federal return, student loans, child care, the like. this will not be popular with pe

ron brownstein, what is your bottom line on the 11 pages? >> the baseline.trong a baseline jared kushner sets here, the intensity of his statements. no subordinate clauses here, chris. there was no collusion, minimal contacts. he has now provided, in essence, a very strong, unequivocal statement that investigators will go back and look at. in terms of what's in here, i was struck mostly by one thing that isn't discussed and one thing that is discussed. the isn't discussed is he notes, in passing, he was the leader of the digital and data and polling teams. many of the democrats and many of the investigators looking at this, you know, want to -- have focused on that area. the question of whether these fabricated news stories, how were they targeted in the u.s.? did they know themselves where to target it or was it a point of collusion. another thing that struck me is that he confirms that he discussed with ambassador kislyak the creation of a secure communications channel through russian facilities, does not answer why -- even if you thought that was necessar

joining us cnn senior political analyst, ron brownstein. cnn political analyst and white house correspondent for politico, tara palmieri. donald trump jr. says he released his e-mails to be completely transparent. now, the white house has praised his move, but i want to play for you part of the interview donald trump jr. gave to fox news on tuesday as part of this decision to be transparent. >> did you ever meet with any other person from russia that you know? >> i don't even know. i probably met with other people from russia. not in the context of a formalized meeting. >> as far as you know, as far as this incident is concerned this is all of it? >> this is everything. >> ron, four days later we now know that wasn't completely transparent. that wasn't everything. what we don't know is why he didn't say something more. if nothing happened, if this is a big nothing burger, why so much misinformation? >> well, first, i think you picked the exact right clip to highlight because donald trump jr. facing these questions went on the single friendl

let me bring in cnn political analyst, ron brownstein. and cnn political comment tatser and former chief of staff to reince priebus, mike shields. welcome back, mike. is this the way for trump to solve a couple of big problems, this idea of jeff sessions maybe moving into a different role, getting an attorney general then who has not recused himself and could fire special counsel mueller and then appease the conservative base that has rallied behind sessions? >> yeah, real quick i want to do go back to something that boris said. i think it's worth remembering that chairwoman rhonda mcdaniel was chosen by president trump and i think the connections there are very strong. as reince moves out of the white house he will advise the white house on the rnc he built. i don't know where this rumor came from. i don't know if it's an official thing or another leak. i think it's a nonstarter. i don't believe that attorney general sessions will be at dhs. i don't know that he wants to go there. i don't think that he -- you know, if the senate is sort

joining us to discuss all of this is errol louis, ron brownstein, who is debuting a new column today on cnn.com called "fault lines." everyone should read that and colonel cedric leighton. colonel, we heard president trump there at a rally say i wish that china were doing more to help us with north korea but that doesn't seem to be working out. is china out of the equation? >> no, i don't think so, alisyn. they're there forever because they're north korea's prime benefactor. everything commercial north korea does, everything military north korea does somehow there's a chinese connection to it. in the past the chinese were avid supporters of north korea. now that relationship has cooled, but they have it in their interest to keep north korea as stable as possible, because they don't want any type of implosion in north korea, and they certainly don't want a german style reunification of the korean peninsula. it's in china's interest to keep north korea where that is. if that means a few weapons tests here and there, they will basically allow those to happen. >> colonel, make us behind

. >> let's bring in now cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein and national correspondent for "the hill" reed wilson. you've got to ask now this is day three of this feud and this mess from the president, is oblivious? we know he watches shows. is he oblivious to all this? or is he emboldened by it? >> first of all it's good to be here my old colleague reed. we worked together for many years down the hall from the "national journal." i think this fits in with the overall strategy and direction of this administration which is essentially to stoke and mobilize the 45% on a good day, that is with him and to make very little effort to kind of speak to or address the concerns of the majority of americans, beyond their hard-core base. if you follow the direction on policy choices, whether it's health care, which we'll talk about or environment and climate or the budget or taxes, all of that is aimed very narrowly in terms of the kind of appeal it has, and the strategy of consistently attacking the media, and repeating the arguments about the discredited arguments about widespread voter f

tara and ron brownstein and elise lavitz. the bilateral meeting between trump and putin was very small. just four people. compare that to the one trump just had today with china's president xi, which you see on the right hand of the picture. does the fact that only the president and his secretary of state rex tillerson were there at that meeting with the russians hurt the white house's ability to control the narrative? >> well, i think it does. and i think they wanted it to be very small for that specific reason so that they were just going to have their narrative and that's it. you have seen how many leaks there have been about his conversations with the russian foreign minister and ambassador kislyak. when they met several months ago there were several leaks of that conversation. this was a very small, tightly controlled conversation. and i think they liked it that way. >> ron, can you see a possible strategy in the white house choosing not to deny putin's claims? >> no, really. i mean, i think in some ways the distinction

ron brownstein with us. over the weekend, president trump tweets this video.ws him beating up a man with the cnn logo. the antidefamation league traced the video. they traced it to a reddit user who has posted a lot with anti-semitic content, other bigoted content. the white house denies this, that this is where it came from. they won't say, though, where the video does come from. so, what does it say that this content is, either making its way around the oval office or to the oval office? >> or through the oval office. ordinarily, you would say it is astonishing that a president and a white house would reach into this kind of muck to find an image to promote, except we've had the example that you cited a few minutes ago during the campaign of the anti-semitic imagery around hillary clinton that the candidate then retweeted and promoted. and also, frankly, we've had examples without retweeting others of the president using extraordinarily hateful speech himself on twitter in the last few days with mika brzezinski and joe scarborough. look, at this point anyone

cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein, as balanced as they could. cnn political analyst david drucker and a.b. stoddard. david, i don't know where to begin. what did you hear you would like to talk about? >> all of it. let's hone in on a couple of things here. i don't know that they even go together. as a matter of u.s. foreign policy, kellyanne conway did comment on how this white house views russia and its ability to work with vladimir putin. it's confusing because the president's national security team, general mattis, general mcmaster, nikki haley seemed to recognize president putin for what he is, a u.s. add variesry that you cannot trust. they've recognized putin for what he is and work to counter his influence in europe and the middle east. the president and his leadership here, his rhetoric is so important. we saw that reflected in how kellyanne conway talked about the president's meeting with vladimir putin does not seem to recognize that he's an adversary that cannot be trusted and it appears, possibly, that the president is about to try h