with me alex burns, matt lewis, kirsten powers, margaret hoover, steve israel, scott jennings, an all-star group of people. a big week. kirsten powers, first to you. a big week. we've been talking all night. what do you expect we will learn about president trump this week? >> well, i don't know. i mean i think he's coming into this after obviously the first meeting with the european leaders not going very well. he's somewhat isolated. and so the question is, is he going to go there and continue to remain isolated or is he going to do something to try to, you know, soothe the relationships a little bit and try to get, you know -- not be on the outs with our allies. you heard angela merkel there basically saying we don't have the kind of relationship with the united states we used to have, and i think they're at a point where they're about ready to start looking other places for people to partner with. >> alex, that's a great point. all of us, we like being around people who like us. president trump is about to go somewhere where those people might be few and far between. it might be hard to

back with me now, the panel, tara, dan, mike and scott jennings. st to you on this "new york times" interview i would like to see the president giving more interviews and holding more press conferences since he hasn't done that since february. was this ill advised because of all the comments he made about the russians investigations? >> i'm not a lawyer, but if i have to imagine what the president's lawyers are thinking about it, probably cringing a little bit because he did say some things in the interview that have implications for the investigation and implications for the people who will have to answer questions before congress and the special counsel. that's unfortunate. also unfortunate for jeff sessions some of the things that were said. so, i actually think the president is probably his best advocate. so, i want to see him doing more interactions with the press, although i think in this particular case, it might have been a bit ill-timed to do a wide-ranging interview at this moment. although, i think the president should be as accessible as

well, we're joined by a republican tonight, scott jennings.ve you here with us tonight. when you look at this, one of the things "the new york times" is reporting that vladimir putin and donald trump might talk about, their shared disdain for the media. well, they could talk about that or what i consider to be a layup, the president could bring up russian election meddling. he can bring it up right now and that would pass, you know, a fairly low bar for a lot of people watching this meeting. why not just do that, scott? >> he could bring it up. what could would it do to say, hey, stop doing that. vladimir putin will deny it and we'll go on about our business and the russians will go on and do what they do which is meddle in elections around the world. look, they know that we know, and they know that most likely we're going to respond to it in some way in the future. the pressing issues that i think the american people care about, the syrian issue has not gone away, this north korean issue is dominating the news today. president trump in the pa

now, before you run it down, and i think what scott jennings said is very important. before you run it down, i think you have to remind yourself, donald trump was not elected to be a traditional president. so, if you hated him and you think he's terrible and should not be president, as a candidate, you're going to hate him and think he was terrible as president. but if you voted for something radically different, then you don't care about how it was -- how it was announced. that stuff doesn't affect you. so in a way, he's doing what he said he would do. i think it causes chaos among the establishment and that will ultimately not be good for him but he views it as doing what he was elected to do. >> chris, thank you. let's go to the vice president in the white house. >> members of congress, our distinguished guests, members of the law enforcement community from all across the united states, on behalf of the first family, welcome to the white house. and welcome to american heroes week here in our nation's capital. one month ago today, america woke to shocking news, that

we don't know what he's accusing him of. >> it's scott jennings. i have a question about your reporting. do you believe he suspects reince priebus or do you think he believes he knows it was reince priebus? >> that's a great question. i assume -- let's see. does he know or -- i would say suspect. i don't know if he knows. >> that's a strong accusation against a chief of staff in the white house, don't you think? and to be tweeting this out, that's certainly indicates something. >> i thin it's interesting that there's a real rush on the justice department to show they can be strong and prosecute leaks. this is something donald trump has said we want a strong department of yjustice and for n embattled attorney general proving he can be strong, maybe this is jeff sessions' opportunity to fall back into favor with his boss. >> and the financial disclosure forms are filed and they're not classified, just so you know. >> one of things we need to figure out is, is the accusation something that would eventually end up on a financial disclosure form and is

more of our players, political commentator peter beinart, margaret hoover, bakari sellers and scott jennings join us, as well. so i want to get all of your reactions to what happened tonight. the failure of repeal and replace in the senate and what will come next. peter? >> i think this is really a historic moment. it shows that the republican assault on obamacare playing out since it got passed probably will never end up succeeding in destroying it. and the question was why republicans didn't see the writing on the wall earlier. this has been incredibly unpopular from the beginning and it's really not what donald trump ran on. i mean, if there was a message for republicans in donald trump's primary campaign it's that what the republican's party's own voters were motivated by were issues like immigration and not an effort to repeal a health care bill that for all its flaws is benefiting a lot of them. >> margaret? >> the only place i push back on that is certainly trump voters may have different motivations for voting for trump than traditional republicans. remember, 90% of republicans voted

so now they've called aquarium call. >> this is a pause button. >> scott jennings is a republican whoorked in the bush white house and has seen many a big vote and understands the language of washington noted the key thing in what mitch mcconnell said. time to move on. they're sending it back to committee, which is what you need to do to keep the options open. >> let's listen to chuck schumer. >> and we're at this point. so i would suggest -- i want to say three things. first, i would suggest we turn the page. we turn. it's time to turn the page. i would say to my dear friend the majority leader, we are not celebrating. we are relieved that millions and millions of people who would have been so drastically hurt by the three proposals put forward will at least retain their health care, be able to deal with preexisting conditions. deal with nursing homes and opioids that medicaid paid for. we are relieved, not for ourselves, but for the american people. but as i said, over and over again, obamacare was hardly perfect. it did a lot of good things. but it needs improvement. and i hope one

joining the conversation ken cuccinelli and scott jennings. ott last you said sessions is a man of integrity. there's a lot of republican members of congress including other who have come to his defense who disagree what the president is doing. do you disagree with what the president is doing? >> i think at some point these guys should think about talking. jeff session coz call up the white house and ask for a meeting. they could clear the air or they won't. sessions signaled this week if you want to fire me, fire me. otherwise i'm going to indicate your agenda and doing a pretty good job. the president is frustrated about if he's going to be put through the wringer about things that came in the campaign, why is he being held to a standard over campaign stuff hillary is not being held to. something caught my eye tonight you'll see more of in the coming days. it appears to me that reacting to perhaps the president's frustration, some conservatives on the house judiciary committee will try to move forward with a congressional investigation on lor

alice stewart and scott jennings are here and 2016 independent presidential candidate edwin mcmullen.it's hard to overstate how stunning this e-mail chain is. this is the editorial from the "new york post" and they write in part, we see only one truly solid takeaway from the story of the day. donald trump jr. is an idiot. this is "the new york post" which has been very kind and friendly to the trump folks. what's your reaction? >> it was a stupid meeting to take and i'm sure in retrospect he wishes he wouldn't have taken it. it is time for him to make a strong statement that he understands and acknowledges there was russian meddling in the election. he needs to reaffirm he agrees with the transparency pledges his family and staff have made. they've all said they'd talk to investigators. if he'd take a couple of those steps tomorrow or this week, that would show that the white house is taking this seriously. >> what do you think about the response from republicans today? are you happy with it or no? >> no, i'm not happy with it. i think republicans have got to do more. they have to sho

scott jennings here. alice stewart. jason candor. i want to start with you, scott.washington post" is reporting that then-senator jeff sessions discussed trump campaign-related matters with the russian ambassador, according to intercepts with the russians discussions. so if this reporting is true, has jeff sessions been misleading the american people, the people who have been asking him about his interactions with russians? >> it is true that it would have been better had they gotten all the initial disclosures about the meetings correct. here's what we know about the thing tonight. all we know is the russian side of the story. we know kislyak sent a cable to russia. they frequently lie on these things to throw off american intelligence. it could have been a meeting about nothing. right now, all we know is it is jeff sessions and somebody that republicans think is of a man of high integrity verse the word of a russian who sent a cable that no one has seen. until someone shows me something that says jeff sessions did something wrong, i'm going to believe in jeff sess

michael dan ton i don't has been written -- also here political commentator scott jennings, who was special assist to george w. bush, and krystal ball, author of reversing the apocalypse. welcome to all of you happy almost fourth of july. kris an, to you first, talking about the president in the wake of the mika tweets, pre-cnn wrestling tweet. >> so saturday, roughly? >> saying he was being modern-day presidential. what do you think that means? >> whatever it means, it's making me sad. i never thought i would live to see the day when a president would lower himself to tangling with nini cable news host, no offense to you or joe or mika. i never thought i would sigh the day this was a useful use of his time, but i have to tell you, i think this conversation about donald trump versus the media is a much better conversation for him than some of the ones about russia or about this disastrous health care reform bill. so i understand why he's trying to change the subject here. look, it's unbelievably important the way this president has consistently tried to undermine the media, but i think he f

with me now, mary katherine ham, errol louis, kirsten powers, scott jennings, and paul begala. ott, can the white house really claim this was transparency with a straight face? >> in a crisis public relations situation, typically you want your first response to be, you know, what's the old saying, measure twice, cut once. you don't want to be coming back to the well. they did, however it took, arrive at a transparent moment of e-mail release. that was a choice they had to make. they need to follow through on that now. and he does need to testify. he's offered to do it. that's absolutely the correct public posture. one worry i have about this whole issue is that in some of the reporting, there are west wing staffers on air force one, helping craft the response for donald trump jr.. >> reported that in "the new york times." >> yes, this is troubling, because you may have people who aren't in the meeting, who may be didn't even know anything about it until that moment, that are possibly now in the investigatory loop, when they otherwise might not have been. and so, as someone who's

let's discuss with cnn political commentator scott jennings, and former deputy labor secretary chris president obama's transition team. scott, first to you. republicans control both houses of congress. is canceling the august recess really going to be necessary to get their agenda moving forward? >> i think it's too early to tell. and i don't think the health care process is totally dead right now. i think there's movement going on this weekend. i know the data nerds and the spreadsheet junkies are sitting in the capitol building working and i know other leaders are working the phones. so we'll have to see what happens. of course it would be a devastating blow, i think, to the republican agenda if something doesn't happen by august. there's an old saying that time kills all deals. i think the more time that passes the less likely it is we get a deal on this. >> probably part of the reason mcconnell wanted to get a vote done as early as possible too. >> no question. the put up or shut up strategy i like because for seven years the republicans have run on this, and it was time to put u

here to discuss jason candor and general sake, and scott jennings. so good to have all of you on.e're now six months into this presidency, he came into office determined to undo president obama's legacy and today obama's signature achievement that the president said he'd repeal immediately. still the law of land. what does this mean for this president now? >> i think one of the things it taught us is that there has never been a shared republican vision for what the replacement is going to look like. it's not enough to say we're going to undo obamacare you have to replace it with something. the worry that i have as a republican is this issue is going to pop up in tax reform and other areas where it's not just enough to say you're against something, you alwaso he to be for something. to be for something you feed president leadership. and what this battle teaches us is there isn't a great amount of agreement within the republican tent about what needs to happen. >> generjen, here's what donaldp said about baobamacare, watch this. >> real change begins immediately with the repealing a

bush, scott jennings. the president told the american people they had no contact, no contacts with russia. now we're getting this drip, drip, drip. what do you make of this in terms of the white house's credibility at this point? >> it undermines the credibility. it's a story that keeps eating away at the contribute of the president and many of his closest advisers. this more dramatic than any other story. here you have continued news from the white house, there are no contacts, there are no contacts, and then we see it, we visually see there are contacts. and even since that news, the credibility keeps weakening because everything we hear turns out to be a little different than what actually happened. if so on if there's nothing to hide, they shouldn't hide things, and that week uns him politically. >> jared kushner's attorneys have been strategizing since mid june how to publicly disclose these e-mails as they were preparing for his upcoming. the you worked in the george w. bush administration in the whi

joining us now, scott jennings, bill press, michael sheer, and being joined from washington.has the the white house, doesn't seem like they have been able to get their arms around this this week. is that the way it seems as white house correspondent? >> yeah, partly it seems they haven't been able to get their hand around it. the story keeps changing. you have the situations in the white houses where the people who actually know information aren't necessarily the people who are, supposed to be communicating that to the rest of us. so there is a disconnect. but in addition, you know this is the white house that has clamped down on the dissemination of information anyway, not having regular briefings in the same way we should. interruption of the foreign trip. so that was sort of an oddity anyway. but, when you don't have that regular sort of pipeline, you, you don't have a place that, bill and i can sit in the briefing room and just sort of press them on all the questions anyway they have to respond. so, you have just had this vacuum. as you have been walking about on the show

>> here to discuss former congressman steve israel, cnn political commenter, ana navarro and scott jennings, both political commentators. ana, your reaction to senator john mccain's emotional return to the floor? >> it was emotional for me. i spoke to yawn a couple of days ago, last week, and i knew he wanted to get back in the game. i think it was a very well thought out speech. i understand a lot of people are very disappointed with the way he voted, wish he had voted differently. that being said, i asked him to take a look at his words. i thought his words were particularly significant for republicans. for me the part that stuck the most was when he reminded republicans that they are not subservient to the president of the united states. they are equals to the president of the united states. an equal branch. i think it's a very powerful moment when 80-year-old john mccain gets up from his sick bed after surgery, after receiving a scary scary diagnosis, and gets up and goes to give this call to action to his colleagues. his defense of the institution, this defense of going back to regular

"outfront" now, van jones, a former special adviser to president obama, scott jennings, ron rotunda whoerved with ken starr. van, kushner insists he did nothing wrong. right now there is nothing to prove he did anything wrong. is it possible there's more to come or is it possible that this is, as has been said, a nothing burger? >> well, i think kushner may become an even richer man because apparently he's been able to create a smoke machine so there's always smoke but there's never a fire. every time these guys come before the camera they say nothing is going on, they deny everything and then admit to something they just denied before and now they say we are done. if you see this pattern of denial, deny it, admit it and then deny something else, you have to wait. in a few more weeks or months, no one would be shocked if it turned out there was another russian, four more russians that talked about this. but the overall effect of it is to get the american people used to a level of insanity and drama in the white house, which is bad for everybody. >> scott, jared kushner said he didn't re

necessarily what the news would be reporting, but what the republicans would say someone like scott jennings or other republican supporters. what do you think they would be saying if the shoe was on the other foot about this situation. >> no, absolutely. what we have seen both on both sides. the partisan tribalism on both sides at its zenith. i would argue to bakari, i worked for the candidate who said that our number one geopolitical foe was russia. >> he got laughed at. >> we were mocked. >> you're right. >> those same candidates -- right. i just wish there were more bakaris out there admitting we were right and they're looking hypocritical now. >> guys, let me tell you this. if it had been john podesta and chelsea clinton doing it, i would be saying exactly the same thing that i am saying today. the first thing we have to do is defend the democracy and the integrity of our elections. shiite partisanship down. >> scott, i'm three minutes over on this segment. >> i agree with ana. i have said from the beginning, the russians tried to meddle in the election. i'm not sure we know they needed

joining me everfer granholm, former governor of michigan and scott jennings, a former special assistant. bush. so good to have you both on. scott, what do you make of president trump, his sort of, i guess not sort of, his bully pulpit tactic on republicans tonight? because many people say his involvement is too little too late at this point. >> well, his involvement matters to some senators who i think live in states where he's very popular. number one among them is shelley moore capito of west virginia. gallup showed west virginia is donald trump's best state. he has over a 60% approval rating. what he's doing tonight is more microthan macro in my opinion. he's telling people in states where he's popular you need to vote yes on the motion to proceed and i'm popular in your home state. >> his strategy on health care has changed several times. it went from repeal and replace to, let obamacare fail to an amendment free-for-all on the senate floor. i mean, the republicans really, do they even know what bill they're voting for? >> well, what they're going to do tomorrow, they have to get ov

also with us scott jennings, maria cardona and jason miller. so adam, first of all, i just want to focus with you. the report about the attorney general, just explain what you are reporting tonight. what's the story? >> so, you know, we reported back in march that when sessions appeared before the senate judiciary committee and was asked the question about, frankly, al franken didn't really ask him that question, but his answer was that he didn't have any contact, communications with the russians, we found out that wasn't the case, that there was a meeting at the rnc on the sidelines of the rnc that he had a meeting with kislyak, and that there was a second meeting in his office in september. we subsequently learned that they were kislyak and sessions attended the same event in april where trump gave his first foreign policy speech. >> i recall. >> we were trying to figure out what were the contents of these contacts? what they discussing? so, you know, sessions specifically said he did not discuss campaign matters in his march 2nd appearance w

joining us is charles, and jeffrey lord and scott jennings. charles, first of all, on the whole idea that something could happen on the paris climate accord, the president has pulled out of the paris climate accord. when he did, he said, maybe we can renegotiate something. maybe that's what he's referring to? but the idea he'll suddenly backtrack seems ludicrous. >> there's no reason for us to try to struggle to make this make sense. the president says whatever pleases the audience that he's pandering to. that's what he does. so whether or not it is true, whether or not it holds any weight, i never put any weight in it. i'm kind of judging him by his actions. and his actions do not dictate that he has any opening on this at all. >> it's interesting, scott, to charles' point, the president talks tough about a lot of things. it is true when he's in front of somebody else, he seems to -- i mean, he was asked about comments he made about paris being, according to his friend jim, who nobody can seem to understand who his friend jim is, paris isn't

scott jennings. cnn political analyst kirsten powers. cnn political commentator robby mook.ow you were a cnn -- where have i an bn? tara, good to have you back. haven't seen you in a while. so thanks for coming on, everyone. i'm going to start with you, tara. anthony scaramucci has come in like a category 5 hurricane. in the job less than a week. i think his official starting day was yesterday. so -- you think he's going it make it through the week? >> well, he'll certainly make it through the week because obviously donald trump has empowered him to be this bulldog to come out there, not be a traditional white house communications director. i mean, i was a communications director on capitol hill. not in the white house. on capitol hill. the tenets are basically the same. this is not how you behave. >> would you have done that? >> if anyone had done that, they'd be fired. there's no way that type of behavior, that type of language, on the record, this very bombastic in your face antagonistic relationship would ever fly. that's just not appropriate. but this is something curio

also with us scott jennings, maria cardona and jason miller. i want to focus with you. the report about attorney general, explain what you are reporting tonight. what's the story? >> so, you know, we reported back in martha when sessions appeared before the senate judiciary committee and was asked the question about, frankly, al franken didn't ask him that question, but his answer was he didn't have any contact -- communication was the russians. we found out that that wasn't the case, that there was, you know, a meeting at the rnc on the sidelines that he had a meeting with kislyak and there was a second meeting at his office in second. we attended that they attended the same event in april where trump gave his first foreign policy speak. >> i recall. >> we are trying to figure out what were the contents of these contacts, what were they discussing. so, you know, sessions specifically said he did not discuss campaign matters in his march 2nd appearance where he announced his recusal. >> right. he was very blunt about that. >> well, he was blunt about it when referring t

here to discuss is daniel dressner, and scott jennings, a former special assistant to president george w. bush. gentlemen, good evening to you. dan, i want to get your reaction to president trump warning special counsel mueller not to investigate his family finances as part of the russia probe. we put the quote up here and let others see it. he is saying basically, no, this is about russia and not to go too far afield. why does he feel he can tell the special counsel the parameters of his investigation? >> because donald trump looks at anyone employed by the federal government as part of his personal staff, basically. and so as a result, he thinks there is no wall between him and special or between him and mueller. so therefore it's not surprising he thinks he can lay out what the contours are. and there are two ways you can interpret this. one way is to believe trump does believe he's innocent and therefore he thinks it's completely outrageous that mueller would investigate anything beyond russia. or that donald trump has really got something serious to hide and is sort of saying don'

margaret hoover, dana bash, scott jennings, jason candor as well. jean pierre and also alice stewart joins us. alice, a stunning defeat. do you believe this will cause f fissures in republican support for donald trump? >> how many times have we heard repe repe repeal obamacare. yes, some parts of the country only have one choice for health care. all the senators that voted yes for this, they can campaign and said, i did what i could, i tried and i fought. i have a "yes" vote for replacing obamacare. the one person that doesn't have something to hang their hat on is president trump. he campaigned on this as well. he wasn't able to get people together. and unfortunately, he's the one that's going to have to try and explain this to the people. and all this week, he's been saying, you republicans, you republicans, you need to get together. but it's also part of his responsible to corral them together. [ inaudible ] >> he campaigned on this just as much as everyone else did. and i think mike pence was an advocate for him to bring people together but he h

vance, the author of a memoir of a family and culture in crisis and political commentator scott jenningsto have all of you. j. d., we're now six months in to this presidency. he came into office determined to undo president obama's legacy and today obama's signature achievement that the president said he would repeal immediately still the law of the land. what does this mean for this president now? >> well, i think one of the things it taught us is that there has never been a shared republican vision for what the replacement is going to look like. it's not enough to say we're going to undo obamacare. you have to replace it with something. the worry that i have as a republican is that this same issue is going to crop up in tax reform, it's going to pop up in a number of other substantive areas of policy where it's not just enough to say you're against something. you have to be for something and to be for something, you need presidential leadership. you need the congress to have a shared vision of what's happening and what this particular battle teaches us is that there isn't a great amoun

republican congressman scott taylor of virginia and jen psaki, former white house house communicationsart with you. what do you think that the chances are that this will actually happen? >> i like ben sasse a lot. bad idea. the idea of trying to repeal this thing and not replacing it. we didn't run on repeal. we ran on repeal and replace. we need to repeal and replace. what mitch mcconnell laid out was absolutely proper. we don't get this thing done, we're going to have no choice but to save the system because if we don't save it, then millions of people are going to go uninsured and we're going to get egg over our face. that means we're going to have to work with democrats. mitch gave a dose of reality. we either work this out and find something we can pass or lots of bad things are going to happen. so it's not a free ride for you guys on the right or the left who say oh, we can't -- you know, we're going to draw our -- put our stake here. if we don't get this, then mitch mcconnell and donald trump have no choice but to save a bad system. and that is a disaster in 2018. that's why the

. >> scott, thank you for. that will jen is grilling.ey, jen, what's the difference between barbequing and grilling again? >> what is the difference between barbequing and grilling? >> oh, god, we don't have time for that. >> okay. >> live snow. >> yes. >> let's just talk about grilling is grilling. this is grilling. barbeque is smoke and time and it just wood smoke, time, really bash couch but we don't have time for that. >> we don't have time for. that will so we have ribs. you came from across the street to get some ribs. >> did i? i didn't even know. >> i ask this question, do i do this at home or do i need a smoker thing? >> you can do it at home. you can't rush them. that's the whole thing about barbeques. >> can i put them in the grill. >> grill, cold side, you have another side super hot with charcoal, throw some wood chips, put your top on, let it smoke. >> i love it. >> we don't have time to talk about that. >> for barbeque, do i have to have barbeque sauce. >> no, i actually prefer, we do dry rub style, which promote flavor of

scott. >>> so, we will check in with jen, because she's moved to the board walk in cape may. >> sort of promenadeit is, you know, not made of boards. some people call it a boardwalk. so i've ran into couple of new friends, we have arena and sophia. good morning. >> morning. >> you guys are here all season of the first of all what's the best thing to do in cape may? >> well at night it is the arcade, definately. >> during the day? >> beach. >> beach, okay. you're on your way to lifeguard camp watch do you have to do for lifeguard cam snap. >> basically just like training, they talk you through water safety and stuff like that. >> yes? is it hard? >> i don't know, i've never done it before. >> this is your first time? >> yes. >> have you given her any tips? >> not real. >> i no. fourth of july, everyone goes down to congress hall, watch the fireworks off the ends there. what's the best part about being here for this day? >> at night, when all the fireworks are going off, we like to have our glow sticks. >> not going to lie, i love a glowstick. do you have those glow balls? >> glow sticks. >> all se

jen smedley and kristin hensly from i mom so hard. >>> let's get over to wapner and "the half. >>> welcome to the halftime report i'm scott wapner ourrade this hour, sacking goldman. the stock getting a rare downgrade today as another influential analyst calls for a dramatic shakeup at the firm, including -- get this -- the ouster of ceo lloyd blankfein. let's begin with kbw's call of the day, a downgrade of goldman. it is to neutral analysts cutting the price target there by $30 as

jen smedley and kristin hensly from i mom so hard. >>> let's get over to wapner and "the half. >>> welcome to the halftime report i'm scott wapner our top trade this hour, sacking goldman. the stock getting a rare downgrade today as another influential analyst calls for a dramatic shakeup at the firm, including -- get this -- the ouster of ceo lloyd blankfein. let's begin with kbw's call of the day, a downgrade of goldman. it is to neutral analysts cutting the price target there by $30 as well. comes on the heels of a disappointing quarter that saw the firm notch its worst ever results in the commodities business they say this is kbw's note today -- we have more questions than answers about the franchise's health at this point in time. should we? >> well. >> -- you take one quarter >> two quarters of bad trading yeah, we can ask the question. i think the question is a little bit bigger than one or two quarters this is a firm that over decades has had a little bit of a tug-of-war going between investment banking on one hand and trading on the other hand. you've had a guy at the helm for ten years that's a trader extraordinaire in yea