Transcripts For CNNW At This Hour With Kate Bolduan 20170327

If there wasnt already, manu. What more do we know about this meeting on white house grounds . Why is it raising suspicion . Reporter well, kate, i can tell you right now were learning a little bit more. According to mr. Nunes own spokesperson, who just issued a statement, saying that chairman nunes met with this source at the white house grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source. Now, the news here is that he met with his source on the white house grounds. We knew right before this, mr. Nunes actually told our colleague, jake tapper, earlier today that he reviewed the information on white house grounds for a secure location, but now saying he met with this source on white house grounds. We dont know who the source is, where its from. Last week i asked chairman nunes numerous times did this come from the white house itself . He said he will not go near naming the source, has not told members of his committee. Why this is significant, a few reasons, but one reason is now this committee is investigating the russian meddling and any ties between russia and the Trump Campaign, and democrats are concerned that mr. Nunes briefed the president of the United States at the same time this investigation is happening before they even learned about this information. Also it came right around the time that President Trump tweeted about any information that he had been the suggest of wiretapping under the orders of barack obama. Now, there are no evidence right now that weve seen to support that. The fbi and nsa have both refuted that, but mr. Nunes by making these comments last week that some of these communications with trump transition officials may have been incidentally picked up gave the ammunition some political cover after they were getting hit by these that the president was making without any evidence. So, a lot of questions right now, kate, but the news today that he met with this source on white house grounds, very significant, certainly advances this narrative and raises more questions as well. More questions, absolutely. Manu, thank you so much. Were going to talk much more about this right now. Joining me to discuss more about the controversy surrounding nunes is Washington Post reporter greg miller. Greg, you and your paper, youve had some really good information about this overnight. You guys have been Digging Deeper into last weeks intel news, and its all were talking about now, with the chairman of the house intel committee. Your reporting had to do with a phone call, swapped cars, time unaccounted for with the chairman. How does that play into this timeline . Yeah, its unclear how i mean, so hes now acknowledging that he met with a source at the white house. I havent seen the statement, so i cant tell you what time of day that meeting occurred, but we were hearing throughout last week that he had disappeared for a stretch of time on the day before he makes this announcement, the big unveil, and that was in the evening, that he had gone, separated from his own staff, went off on his own for some period of time and comes back, and you know, all of this is set in motion. And all of this is sort of really central to this question now of who is devon nunes working for . Is he working on the white house behalf or is he working for the House Intelligence Committee . Because you cant be doing both. In your report, greg, you had the aides to the chairman had denied the account that you were offering them. It now seems that theyre confirming some of what your account was. Im confused as to whats changed overnight from your reporting that theyre now putting out this statement saying, yes, he did have this meeting. Well, the denial that they gave to us was really strange, okay . So, it was they wouldnt discuss the particulars. They wouldnt say, you know so, they wouldnt go point by point on the chronology here and say, well, that parts wrong or that parts wrong. They just wanted to say, no, that account is wrong. So, that denial could have just been pertaining to one small detail in the sequence of events, even though the larger story was completely accurate. And from your reporting, you checked with the dni, the cia, you checked with the agencies where this kind of classified information and a briefing would have been held. Theres no account of the chairman going there. How unusual in your view in all your reporting is that the chairman would go to the Old Executive Office building on white house grounds to meet a source . Its extraordinary. I mean, no whistleblower that ive ever heard of it setting up a meeting with the head of a congressional Intelligence Committee at the white house. It just doesnt work that way. I mean, the thing is, he has to be in a secure facility to be able to review these classified documents. Right. Right . So, theres only so many locations in washington, d. C. , where he can do that. And we were just going through sort of process of elimination. Well, he didnt go to the agency, cia, didnt go to fbi. We were just trying to point readers to the probability that he ended up going to the white house, which it turns out, he did. Greg miller, great reporting and more questions raised now after all this and whats playing out this morning. We appreciate it, greg. Thank you. Thank you. So, on top of all this, we learned this morning that the senate Intelligence Committee plans to question Donald Trumps soninlaw and close aide, of course, Jared Kushner, as part of its investigation of ties between the Trump Campaign and russian officials. Kushner would be the highest level closest to the president so far to be touched by this investigation, or going to be interviewed with regard to this investigation. The New York Times first reported that the committee wants to talk to kushner about his meetings with the russians, including some with russian bankers that were previously undisclosed. Lets bring in right now a member of the House Intelligence Committee, democratic congressman jim himes of connecticut for more on this. Congressman, a lot going on this morning, so i want to just get your take on a few of the things were learning. So, we heard from greg miller right there of the Washington Post. They had reporting of basically chairman nunes going missing and that his aides could not account for where he is. Now we have reporting from jake tapper saying that the chairman actually went to the White House White house grounds the Old Executive Office building on the grounds, the day before coming out with this information because that is where he was meeting the source to view the information. Did the chairman tell you on the committee all of this . So, the chairman, kate, has told us nothing. The chairman has told the democrats, the republicans, and the very dedicated staff of the Intelligence Committee, all of whom have been spending an enormous amount of time on this investigation, all of whom are charged with oversight of our Intelligence Community devon nunes has told us nothing and in fact has been canceling meetings. Ordinarily, we would go back to washington on a day like today, as ill be getting on a train very shortly, and we would have a 5 00 p. M. Meeting to talk about events of the week. That meeting has been canceled. And this is really discouraging, because you dont you know, you dont need to advance too far past sort of fourth grade civics to know that if youve got something of concern and youre in the congress and i have no idea what it is, because devin hasnt shared it with anybody, but if theres some issue of unmasking of confidential information, congress is to serve as a check and a balance on the president , on the white house. And yet, devin, chairman nunes has whatever it is hes done, it has been at the white house, it appears to have been in the service of the white house, and so, it is very clear that he owes us an explanation. In your view, congressman, why do you think it appears to be in the service of the white house . I ask because this new information out any morning im really curious on, the fact that the chairman met with the source of this information at the Old Executive Office building on white house grounds. Is that typical for a member of congress to do . No. No. As a member of congress of eightyear standing, ive certainly never done that. And no, its bizarre. Its loopy. And jumping in and out of cars. And then whatever else happened i mean, its not inconceivable that for some reason, you might want to meet first of all, the idea that the congress has sources is a little strange. But then whats particularly odd is that i as a sort of second ranking democrat behind adam schiff and all of his republican colleagues, we have been kept totally out of the loop. Its just bizarre. And so, as of friday, you all did not have any of the documents in your hands . You still as of today, monday at 11 09, have not seen the information that the chairmans talking about . We have no documents. And as i said before, maybe in some normal and less loopy world, we would get together, as we always do on our first day back, today at 5 00, and the chairman would say this was a big deal, its why i talked to nobody, its why i jumped in and out of cars, its why i went to the white house, heres what i have. Instead, our 5 00 meeting has been canceled. On another issue, if we can move forward, Jared Kushner, the senate Intelligence Committee has confirmed that jared well, the white house has now confirmed that Jared Kushner has volunteered to speak to the senate Intelligence Committee about his meetings with the Russian Ambassador and others, previously undisclosed meetings, some of them. Your republican colleague on the house committee, on your committee, mike turner, he said this morning that he does not see a need to speak with Jared Kushner right now on the house side, your investigation. Do you agree with mike turner . I think its pretty important that we speak to everybody. Im not quite sure where congressman turner is coming from. And look, many of these meetings may be innocent. A lot of them probably are. But when you take a big step back theres nothing wrong with on the surface, theres nothing wrong with Jared Kushner, who had a leading role in the transition, to have meetings with the Russian Ambassador and foreign officials. Its the fact that theyre previously undisclosed that i think is raising concern in peoples eyes. Well, just as importantly, this is hardly an isolated case. Michael flynn, roger stone, Paul Manafort, now Jared Kushner, jeff sessions, all people very close to the president , all people who had an unusual, not necessarily bad, but an unusual number of meetings with russians, and all people who have been a little bit less than forthcoming about what the nature of those meetings were or whether they even occurred. Look, that in and of itself is enough for an Investigative Committee to want to talk to everybody. So you know, were hoping that it happens. So, you mentioned some of the other players in this. You now have Paul Manafort, carter page, roger stone, all saying last week that they would speak to your committee. My question is maybe this is simple and perfunctory, but what setting are these interviews going to happen snp under oath . How is this going to be . Well, people make a big deal about under oath, you know, but remember, under oath is sort of theater. I mean, it is a very serious federal crime to lie to the congress. So, whether or not somebody raises their right hand and takes an oath, its sort of beside the point. When they testify, if its not truthful, it will be a jailable offense. Now, you know, most of this should be able to happen in the light of day, and i think thats very important for the american people. In theory, people like Paul Manafort and roger stone should not have access to classified information, and therefore, there should be no need for us to do these meetings behind closed doors. Current administration officials, and Jared Kushner is involved in seven or eight Different Things for this administration, they might be in a slightly different position, but the bulk of these discussions should be able to happen in the open. And real quick, those meetings arent yet scheduled, right . Theyre not yet scheduled. Not yet, okay. Were working on developing witness lists, but theyre not yet scheduled. Real quick, and were out of time, as always, congressman, but on health care, the House Republicans are back to square one after fridays dramatic end. The white house over the weekend saying theyre now looking to maybe work with some moderate democrats to try to get this ball rolling once again when it comes to health care. The president s chief of staff saying as much on fox news. What would it take for you to get on board to agree to work with republicans to repeal and replace obamacare . Well, not surprisingly, it would take that the president abide by the promises that he made, that he would make this thing better, that more people would have coverage that costs would go down, that pharmaceutical costs would go down. Ill tell you, well work with him on that basis. Of course, the bill that went down last you will work with him on a bill that says repeal obamacare . Well, of course not. Now, does that mean that obamacare is perfect . No, it is not. The Affordable Care act can use some amendment, can use some change. Costs can come down, you know, coverage can be expanded. On those issues, we will work with anybody. If its about improving, rather than taking away health care from people, we will be there to be part of the conversation. The labels are holding you all up. Its just the labels, not the details. No, it is not the labels. Im kidding. Congressman, great to see you. Thank you so much. Thanks. Also this morning, reset time, as were just discussing, for President Trump after his failure to repeal and replace obamacare. The president and his advisers are heading back to the drawing board, desperate to map out a win on their next big issue, tax reform. But with the infighting among republican lawmakers that we saw play out in dramatic fashion, how daunting does this make the next step . That infighting has one lawmaker heading for the exits. Texas congressman ted poe resigned from the Freedom Caucus, that group of conservatives, this weekend because of its opposition to the Republican Health care bill. Listen to him. Well, theres some members, i think, that wanted some really stronger parts of the repeal in the bill, but it would move too far to the right, where you wouldnt get any other republicans to support it. So, its a compromise. And i think that there is nothing that could be added to the bill that the Freedom Caucus would ever vote yes on. And so, i got the opinion that theres some members of the Freedom Caucus, theyd vote no against the Ten Commandments if it came up for a vote. Cnn Congressional Correspondent Phil Mattingly is joining me from capitol hill. The point taken there. Where do things go from here . Reporter great question and heres what people are trying to figure out on capitol hill this morning, whether or not the failure of obamacare repeal, this thing theyve campaigned on year after year, cycle after cycle, was really kind of the biggest failure on something so many campaigned on for decades, at least, has chastened the Freedom Caucus, has chastened these members who werent willing to come aboard, or whether its emboldened them. And you listen to congressman poe, kind of lays out the dynamics perfectly here as we move forward. Tax reform is not easy. If you want to move anything thats ambitious forward, you are going to need to try and thread the needle they were trying to thread during Health Reform try to bring enough conservatives on while not losing moderates as well. And i can tell you, there are no great answers to this right now. As you look forward, though, kate, i think the big issue is, clearly on the agenda they want to move on to tax reform, but one minor issue they need to figure out first funding the government. And if they dont figure out how to get a spending bill through by april 28th, they are looking square in the eye of another government shutdown, one that democrats have made clear, were not going to help you out of this divot that youve wandered yourselves into. So, when you look at the dynamics of the conference right now, of the republican conference, this same push and pull we saw in Health Care Reform is clearly going to exist on the spending bill as well. If they figure out a way to get by that, kate, and look, leadership officials have made clear, they dont want a government shutdown, then you move on to tax reform, and its tax reform that while the Administration Says its going to be much easier, well have a bill by august, it is not true that this is an easy process. Perhaps ideologically when it comes to tax cuts, the Republican Party is more aligned, but youre dealing with lobbyists and other interests that come from the districts of a lot of members that makes it a difficult pull. On top of that, they needed the obamacare to take away 1 trillion to reset the base line. Thats now gone as well. So, at best, youre looking at a pairedback tax reform. At the worst, youre looking at another really, really complex, complicated effort coming over the horizon, kate. And as they look into the future, im already having flashbacks to government shutdowns. Great to see you, phil. Thank you so much. President trump says it is time for democrats to reach out. Democrats say, no, its your move first. How realistic is any bipartisan effort moving forward . Lets be honest. Plus, mystery at maralago. Democrats demanding the visitor logs of guests that go into the president s florida resort meet with him. Do they have a case . And is the u. S. To blame for the deaths of dozens of civilians in iraq, including women and children . Serious questions and ill speak live with the u. S. Led coalition there. Through dna i found out that i was only 16 italian. He was 34 eastern european. So i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors we thought was italian was eastern european. This is my ancestor who i didnt know about. He looks a little bit like me, yes. Ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. Get started for free at ancestry. Com you need one of these. You wouldnt put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day . Aleve, live whole not part. Tell you what, ill give it to you for half off. [he has a new business teaching lessons. Rodney wanted to know how his business was doing. So he got quickbooks. It organizes all his accounts, so he can see his bottom line. Ahhh. Thats a profit. Know where you stand instantly. Visit quickbooksdotcom. Its from the art of the deal that wasnt now into where do they go from here . From the white house to capitol hill, the president still dealing with that embarrassing defeat of the president S Health Care bill. Where do they go now . Let me bring in cnn political director david talion for more on this. Its the blame game, but were moving past that because the white house says were moving on. Where does the president turn now if hes looking for a Winning Coalition on anything from here on out . Well, right, because youve got to look at this both from a policy lens and a political lens, and the president himself on friday, as you were discussing with phil indicated, tax reform is next up in terms of the big legislative push. Tax reform is not going to be any easier here, kate, necessarily, despite the overall, yes, its more politically popular to lower peoples taxes than it is to reform the health care system. But it is still going to be tricky because its a Republican House divided, on tax reform as pell wp as you know, the border adjustment tax that is part of speaker ryans push its a sort of pet project of his, his baby something donald trump was opposed to, then said he was warming up to, but that the retailers in this country will sort of freak out about. So, its not going to get any easier, because youre still going to be unable, if youre donald trump, to find a unified Republican Party. And so, that has as i was talking about with phil, that has the president and some of his deputies now floating the idea of working with democrats Going Forward. I asked jim himes that of connecticut, and he said, sure were happy to work with them then i asked on anything with the word repeal . And hes like, of course not. So, do you really see that happening . Well, this has sort of been the internal Democratic Party conversation since the election, right . They want to figure out if as a party, they want to follow Mitch Mcconnells lead in the obama era and just be the party of no to everything, or do they want to find some places infrastructure seems like the big, juiciest target for them where they really might be ideologically aligned with donald trump in a way that they can reach across the aisle. Heres the problem, since the election when that conversation started, that conversation is all renewed again now because they just saw donald trump suffer a political defeat with the health care repeal, and so, they smell blood in the water. The Democratic Base does not want democratic politicians in washington working with donald trump at all. They want to say no to everything with trump. And democrats now just saw that saying no, not coming and talking to them at all about health care, worked for if your goal is to defeat donald trump politically, worked for bruising donald trump politically. So, whats the incentive right now for democrats to sort of reach out to the president , say, yes, lets form some new coalition here . Unfortunately, it sounds like its going to have to be seeing regular old taxpayers being hurt by their inaction seems to be the only thing that will push them into action. But this also, david, this episode over health care has raised a lot of questions about the relationship between the president and the House Speaker, a crucial one to getting anything done. They talked over the weekend a couple times, according to both sides. They both say everything is great. Do you believe it . Does look great to you . Does everything look great to you . Perfect. Listen, its a forced marriage, right . So, its an arranged marriage that neither one of them would sort of have set up for themselves if they were plotting their own paths. And so, it is a relationship, one, that they both need right now. So, i do believe in that sense theres no reason to sort of turn their back on each other. But these are not people that are paul ryan and donald trump, kate, are not ideologically simpatico in a lot of ways, so i dont know that well always see them working beautifully together. There will be divides. I think the two men understand that they neech each other. Thats what the aides are saying. That will keep them charging forward, no matter what. David, its great to see you. Thanks, kate. Thank you. Just ahead for us, the president has spent nearly one out of every three days this presidency so far at a trump property. Who foots the bill . Who profits . Does it matter . Plus, a witness says he heard people screaming for help, pleading for someone to save them. A u. S. Led air strike being blamed for the deaths of dozens of civilians now. Its now under investigation. A Coalition Spokesman is joining me live next. Yeah, i just saved a whole lot of money by switching to geico. Huh. We should take a closer look at geico. You know, geico insures way more than cars. Boats, motorcycles. Even rvs geico insures rvs . Whats an rv . Uh, the thing weve been stuck on for five years wait, im not a real moose . . Weve been over this, jeff. Were stickers im not a real moose . Give him some space. Deep breaths, jeff. Whats a sticker . . Take a closer look at geico. Great savings. And a whole lot more. The u. S. Militarys investigating claims that more than 100 civilians have been killed in recent Coalition Air strikes in mosul, iraq. If confirmed, the air strike would mark the most civilian casualties since the u. S. Began fighting isis back in 2014. An iraqi commander reports at least 112 bodies have been pulled from the rubble, but there are still a lot of questions about what exactly happened here, this as defense officials are announcing that they will soon be sending hundreds more troops to that very place. Lets get more of the details that we know, at least understand right now, from pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, whats the very latest . Reporter well, lets just deal with those additional troops first very quickly going to mosul, iraq. These are a couple hundred troops or more from the 82nd Airborne Division at ft. Bragg. They are going to iraq, to mosul, to beef up the ability of the u. S. To advise and assist iraqi forces there. They will work as military advisers. The fighting in west mosul, which is a heavily populated neighborhood, is getting very grim, because there are thousands of civilians there on very narrow, crowded streets, crowded neighborhoods. So now we come to this situation on march 17th. What the u. S. Knows is that an air strike was called in at the request of the iraqis. It hit somewhere in this neighborhood where youre seeing this utter devastation, more than 100 bodies pulled out of houses so far, and it is believed there will be more to come. The investigation now centering on how did this all happen. If the people were being held as civilian shields by isis, the u. S. Says it did not know that they were there, but this is going to be an ongoing situation in such a crowded neighborhood. Isis continues to hold people essentially hostage in their homes in these neighborhoods. The target was said to be a suicide bomber truck filled with explosives. So what we dont know, did it hit the truck, and were there secondary, massive explosions that brought down these houses, killing all these people, or was there some mistake in how they targeted it . Kate . Very key questions here, barbara. Thank you so much, Barbara Starr for us. I want to ask these questions to the spokesman for the coalition executing the air strikes. The colonel is joining me from Task Force Headquarters in kuwait. Colonel, thank you so much for your time. Barbara laid out the estimate is over 100 bodies being pulled from the rubble. What is the estimated death toll right now of civilians . Do you think reports of 200 people seem possible . Thanks for having me, kate. You know, the death of any number of civilians in war is a terrible tragedy and weighs heavily on our hearts, and thats why we take any allegations such as this extremely seriously and why were currently conducting an assessment to determine the facts of the case. And one of the facts that well look into is exactly how many civilians died in that incident and if we had anything to do with it. Right now, the number 200, you cant say thats possible, though . No, at this point, i couldnt say. You know, that territorys been, until just very recently, held by isis. The Iraqi Security forces have just recently liberated it. Coalition forces are not on the front lines fighting, but we are going to do an assessment on the case, take a look at the strikes we did in that area, and determine the facts and determine the credibility of the allegation. So, there is a lot of confusion surrounding those air strikes. Is it your understanding right now that the air strike brought down buildings with civilians in them, or do you think Something Else brought those buildings down . Well, again, thats why were in the assessment stage. We can determine for sure that we conducted the coalition conducted strikes in that area, a number of strikes throughout that neighborhood, and one fairly close to the place where they have indicated that they have civilian casualties. But you know what, the Coalition Takes human life very seriously, as opposed to isis, who is actually using humans as shields and is using protected sites, such as schools, mosques, and hospitals as weapons Storage Facilities and as fighting positions, and thats what were seeing here. Were seeing isis, the evil that they are, use peoples houses where theyre in as fighting positions, and it makes it extremely difficult to target them when theyre doing that, but words taking all the precautions necessary to ensure that we minimize any Collateral Damage and we never target civilians. Some of the reporting is that the air strike, at least one of the air strikes, was targeting a truck packed with explosives, a suicide truck, if you will. Do you believe its possible the truck targeted blew up just before the air strike . Ive heard that as one of the possibilities. We did target a suicide vehicle in that neighborhood during that time, but i couldnt say for sure whether that was what brought down that house. Listen, we want to be very specific. When we make an announcement to say were responsible for civilian deaths, thats something very serious, and we want to make sure that we have our facts straight. So were not going to speculate on whether we have them or havent. Were going to make an assessment, which is going to take some time. And when we come out and say something, it will be definitive. Do these air strikes in question and everything that were talking about in this very heavily packed, populated area of mosul change the strategy on how you go forward in assisting and helping to retake mosul Going Forward . Well, you know, we want to protect civilians at all costs. We always adhere to the law of armed conflict, and our Iraqi Security forces are doing everything they can to protect civilians, their countrymen. So, when we look at hitting specific targets, we want to make sure that we only use precision munitions, and we want to make sure that the type of munition is proportional to the target. We dont want to use something thats too large to take down a specific target. Were trying to eliminate fighters, snipers, say, in a building or on a top, were going to use a smaller munition that just kills those fighters, rather than take down the entire structure. We want to protect that infrastructure. We want to be able to return mosul to the people that live there. So, bottom line, with these air strikes, did you hit your targets . Well, thats what the assessment is currently looking at. There were a number of targets in that area. We are going to take a look at the strike videos that are available, and we will determine if there was any Collateral Damage to any of those strikes or if that building was, in fact, a target at all. I cant say that for sure until the assessment is complete. Okay. An investigation, as we mentioned, is under way. Colonel, thank you very much for your time. We sincerely appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Of course. Coming up for us, back to the president s first 100 days. Democrats smelling an opening of sorts after the gops Big Health Care failure last week. But is the left getting a little too confident . Some lawmakers discuss a potential move toward universal health care now. We will discuss. Well be right back. Nobody does unlimited like tmobile. While the other guys gouge for unlimited data. Tmobile one save you hundreds a year. Right now get two lines of data for 100 dollars. With taxes and fees included. Thats right 2 unlimited lines for just 100 bucks. All in. 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You may never even sit in the back seat. Yeah, but maybe you should. laughter new video, new pictures just in of President Trump meeting with Small Business owners at the white house earlier this hour, all female, Women Business owners, Small Business owners. This comes after the stunning defeat of the republicanS Health Care overhaul plan. Some democrats after that see an opening, not to rework obamacare, but to perhaps take it even further. Heres senator bernie sanders. Obamacare has serious problems. Deductibles are too high, premiums are too high, the cost of health care is going up at a much faster rate than it should. Ideally, where we should be going is to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a right, and thats why im going to introduce a medicare for all singlepayer program. Singlepayer program. How far is that going to get in a Republican Senate and Republican House . Ill leave that to you to decide. Minority leader Chuck Schumer meanwhile has something to say about talk of the white house working with democrats on health care Going Forward. There is a catch. As long as they say no more repeal thats a loser 17 of americans like trumpcare, thats it. They didnt want it. And stop undermining aca, and well work with them. We have ideas, they have ideas to try to improve obamacare. We never said it was perfect. We always said wed work with them to improve it. We just said repeal was off the table. Repeal is off the table, friends. Joining me now is alice stewart, cnn political commentator, former Communications Director for ted cruzs president ial campaign, and john salo, former chief of staff to senator max bachus, who had an integral role in crafting obamacare the first time around. Great to have you. Lets talk about where we are right now. You now have the white house chief of staff saying that theyre looking to basically try to pick up some support from moderate democrats to try to find some way to work on health care Going Forward. Do you see any incentive that could happen . Yes. Clearly, if the white house is ready to drop repealing the law full stop and fixing where it needs to be fixed in order to make the law work better and make the Health Care Exchanges work better but if were honest, what we were looking at was the house plan, and thats why conservatives didnt like it is that it wasnt a repeal, it wasnt a repeal. It was a fix. But its in the labelling. Why does the labelling matter so much . Because i think its substantive, actually. So, this would have to youd have to go back to the old days where, you know, the speaker actually had to put together votes from democrats and republicans in the house in order to put a bill together that meets everybodys expectations of what Health Care Delivery should look like. I think what senator sanders is doing is we saw mastering the art of the deal by saying we want to go so far to the left, knowing that thats not going to happen, and then trying to negotiate someplace in the middle. Look, republicans in the house and the senate campaigned on repealing and replacing, period. Right. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. So for them to do anything less, at least in this first attempt out of the gate would be going back to the promises they made. So, those that were firm, especially the house Freedom Caucus members, say this is what they promised their constituents. And despite all the armtwisting by the white house, they could not go back home and do anything short of what they promised. What do you think would bring a democrat to the table right now, though . It seems that theyve seen very successfully what just saying no does. It succeeded here. Yep. Do you i think its time to ratchet back expectations a little bit about whats possible. And i think what if the law starts collapsing like republicans think its going to . Well, Congressional Budget Office differs with that view. So, they said the exact opposite. They said that markets were going to be stable. Now, if the white house decides they want to sabotage the law by, you know, holding back money in order to market the insurance exchanges to individuals, then you know, there could be some negative impacts there. But you know, lets get back its not going anywhere, youre thinking. Yeah. Its not going anywhere. Lets get back to the basics and make it work for the american people. Thats why people send people to washington, to make government work. Thats what everyone says theyre trying to do, from a different perspective. The Freedom Caucus says they were sent there to repeal this thing and what they saw was not a fix, was not a repeal, was not fax. After all this has played out and the president calls the Freedom Caucus out on twitter, as Phil Mattingly fittingly put it at the top of the show, do you think this has chastened the Freedom Caucus or emboldened them . You speak to the members of the Freedom Caucus, this has emboldened them. This showed them, if they stand by their promises and stand by their constituents, first of all, they have no fear in terms of reelection efforts, but they knew they were doing this on principle and this is what they promised the people they would do. And more than anything, i just have a piece put up on cnn. Com, the opinion page. Look, when were talking about onesixth of our nations economy and revamping of our health care, we have to slow down. We cant draft a bill which a lot of republicans think that. 18 days, thats all the time youre going to give health care . Completely. How slow do you want to go, though, jon . Thats the big question. One word, is tax reform easier than Health Care Policy . No, its much harder. So, tax reform is going to be very, very difficult. And again, i think we need to get back to basics. Government funding needs to be fixed by the end of april. You have a debt ceiling increase that we need to get through in the fall. Im starting to have the shakes again, thinking about government shutdowns and a debt crisis. Okay lets focus on the basics. Here we go, guys. This is how to keep the government open. Great to see you. Thank you so much. Ah, so exciting, looking forward with those things in the future. Democrats are raising the red flag on trumps winter White House House guests, demanding the visitor log of people going into the president s florida resort and meeting with him. Is that a fair request . Were going to discuss that next. You need one of these. You wouldnt put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day . 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It is the making access records available to lead American Government openness act. Yep, thats it. It would force the white house to create an online database of every person who visits anywhere the president conducts official business. Getting past the ridiculousness of the name, lets talk about what theyre asking for. David, its great to see you. You too. From everything that youve seen, david, is this a fair request . Have other president s rolled out visitor logs of their weekend travel in the past . Other president s have not had a parallel situation. President obama did release some of the visitor records. People coming to and from the white house, although not all. He didnt release guests at parties. Maralago is where trump lives and he does business, but its also sort of a semi public place. It rents its ball rooms out. Trump himself seems to treat it like the party guests as sometimes people hell meet with. He doesnt maintain a bright line between what hes doing as business and doing as sort of pleasure. So if you got this, youd get a whole lot of people who had nothing to do with the president , but you might get a few people who had real contact with the president while they were there. This of course comes back to transparency and how transparent any administration is. The argument for providing names of visitors is the public deserves to know who the president is meeting with on government time, on taxpayer money. What is the argument against providing this information . Well, i think in this case it would be that trump goes to these places as sort of retreats, that theyre not everyone who walks in the door is not there to meet with him and it would invade a lot of peoples privacy who are going to a wedding or to play tennis. I think he would say the visitor log is not analogous to the visitor log at the white house which sualso is not provided. Thats very true, but what information do you glean from it . Your paper also crunched the number and reporting he has spent one out of every three days since taking office at a trump owned property. Your specialty has been investigating potentially conflicts of interest. Does this pose one . Well, we dont know enough yet. Certainly trump promised at the beginning of his administration that he would stay away from running his businesses, that he would not participate in sort of the administration of his businesses, which he still owns. And this may be a sign that pledge was not very iron clad if hes spending all of his time at the businesses. He certainly has done nothing physically to separate himself from the businesses. Its kind of hard to believe he has totally separated himself in terms of management from the businesses, but we havent seen enough yet to know and the access that the members of his golf clubs are getting. If we start finding out some of these members are getting Big Government contracts or that theyre fining special purchase at the white house because they see the president in the context of the club, then i think well know more about the conflicts of interest. David, great to see you. Thank you. Back to some of our breaking new this hour, why did current republican in charge and the current republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, why can he have some mysterious meeting on white house grounds the day night before releasing information on potential trump surveillance . Theres new details pouring in. More on that next. Plan whenever you want. No enrollment window. No waiting to apply. That means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare Insurance Company. Medicare doesnt cover everything. And like all standardized Medicare Supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay. So dont wait. Call now to request your free decision guide. It could help you find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan that works for you. These types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Nun rates are competitive, and theyre the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. Remember these plans let you apply all year round. So call today. Because nows the perfect time to learn more. Go long. Welcome to inside politics. Im john king. Back to work at the white house after a devastating defeat and as washington the blame game rages. The House Speaker gets public love after a bizarre president ial tweet. He doesnt blame paul ryan. He thought paul ryan worked really hard. He enjoys his relationship with paul ryan, pthink that paul rya is a great speaker of the house. There is no conversation with regards to replacing the speaker. Its all hands on deck with regard to obamacare, tax reform, the border wall. Never once have i seen him blame paul ryan. The folks who voted no are the folks to blame. The conservative group that would not help the president loses one member who says its time to