repeal and replace bill died and that was extraordinarily deflating to the president and to the party. so failure on this, it would really change everything that we know about the way that the republican party and the government operates in washington right now, because this failure will not be accepted by republican grassroots around the country in my opinion. >> chris, change of subject. i need to get this in. "the new york times" now reporting that president trump over the summer repeatedly tried to urge senate republicans, including senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, the chairman of the intelligence committee richard burr, to end their russia investigation. is this appropriate? >> so i was struck by the piece and in particular the fact that richard burr, who is a very sort of establishment republican, not someone who's been hypercritical of the president, was willing to go on the record with "the new york times" and say yes, we had these conversations, he said he would like things wrapped up. that's important. because burr has a lot of options and one of which, that he most likely usually takes, is not to talk at all. so that's meaningful.