Transcripts For CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20170329

Deal is, quote, an easy one. The white house says thats a joke but some angry lawmakers arent laughing. And putins enemies, as Russias Vladimir Putin cracks down on dissent, one critic who has been poisoned twice blames the attempted murders on the kremlin and speaks out to congress and to cnn. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Break flugs, Senate Intelligence committee has just signalled its ready to pick up the slack left by its seemingly dysfunctional house counterpart. Republican richard burr says the panel is reviewing an unprecedented amount of documents of possible ties between russia and the Trump Campaign. He says the panel has asked to question 20 people. Democratic vice chairman mark warner vows the committee will go wherever the facts lead and will get to the bottom of russias election meddling and will get it right. The first Senate Hearing tomorrow will focus on russias capabilities. The house committees russia probe has stalled amid partisan infighting that started when republican chairman devin nunes secretly visit the white house grounds and suggested he found evidence of surveillance and then rushed back to the white house without briefing his own committee. Beyond that, a cancelled public hearing and a cancelled Committee Meeting are also fueling charges by democrats that nunes is working with the Trump Administration. Hes rejected calls to step aside and indicates there will be no public hearings until at least after the easter recess. Ill talk to a member of the house Intelligence Committee, democratic congresswoman terry sewall and our correspondents, analysts and guests are standing by with full coverage of the days top stories. Lets get right to our breaking news beginning with cnns jessica schneider. Jessica, one Intelligence Committee bogged down in bickering. The other ready and eager to get going. Reporter thats right, wolf. The Senate Intelligence committee wasting no time. Chairman burr revealing that a sevenmember staff has already been knee deep in documents, that up to this point have only been chaired by the gang of eight and high level staff directors. The chairman saying that access alone is unprecedented in the history of the committee. Tonight the top democrat and republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee Say they are pouring through thousandses of intelligence documents as part of its bipartisan investigation into russian meddling during the election. This is one of the biggest investigations that the hill has seen in my tenure here. Reporter standing in stark contrast to the house inquiry stalled by partisan fingerpointing, the Senate Chairman and ranking democrat stress they are working together closely. We together with the members of our committee are going to get to the bottom of this. Reporter the senate Committee Saying it is getting unprecedented access to intelligence and will hold its first public hearing tomorrow. Obviously theres a lot of drama. Its important for us, at least, and i think all of us here, to remember to not lose sight about what this investigation is about. Reporter an outside foreign adversary effectively sought to hijack our most critical democratic process, the election of a president. The committee has asked 20 people to testify so far. I think its safe to say that we have had conversations with a lot of people, and you would think less of us in general flynn wasnt in that list. Reporter but general flynns lawyer tells cnn the committee has not interviewed flynn and has only spoken to his attorneys. Former Trump Campaign chair Paul Manafort will talk to the committee and Jared Kushner has extended the same offer. Questions have been mounting about kushners meeting in december with the chairman of the statesponsored russian bank veb sergey gorkov. The committee will conduct an interview with mr. Kushner when we set a date because we know exactly the scope what have needs to be asked of mr. Curb ter. Reporter sources tell cnn the committee wants to hear from christopher steele, the former British Intelligence officer who compiled a dossier alleging collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. Were not going to get into names that are on our list, but i can assure you that its lengthy. Mark and i have both agreed that were willing to issue subpoenas. Its tough to make a subpoena go outside of the United States, so we understand the limitations, but i i only say this. That he and i are tapping into everything that we can to understand how we increase our reach. Reporter the House Intel Committee meanwhile at a standstill. All hearings this week were cancelled. At least one House Republican says the senate should take over. It sounds to me like they are kind of getting into a stalemate position a bit paralyzed. The senate moving on a better trajectory and i think we have to rely on the senate for a report on the russian meddling in the election. Reporter democrats continue to call for chairman devin nunes recusal. I think it would be in the best trust investigation Going Forward if someone else on the committee were to lead it, but we really need to get this back on track, and i think the majority can start out by rescheduling this hearing. Weve urged them to do that, but weve yet to hear back. Reporter but nunes says he is committed to staying put. The white house, meanwhile, trying to stay out of the public fight. I dont think theres any actual proof or sustaining allegation about anything thats done. Again, i mentioned this yesterday. If you look at what chairman nunes has done, he has met with people who are cleared to discuss classified information regarding a review that he is conducting. Thats how its supposed to work. Reporter but still not offering answers about how nunes got on to white house grounds to view classified documents or who provided those documents. I dont have anything for you on that at this time, but, again, i dont. Have you looked into it . I have asked some preliminary questions. Ive not gotten answers yet. Reporter and now new questions are being raised about chairman devin nunes public statements. He told reporters yesterday he had invited fbi director james comey to testify again before house investigators but that director comey rescheduled. Tonight though an fbi official tells cnn the fbi never received any official request for a second round of director comeys testimony. Wolf . All right, jessica, thank you. Jessica schneider reporting. Lets go to our senior White House Correspondent jim acosta. Jim, whats the white house saying about all of this . Reporter well, they are still not saying how the House Intel Committee chairman devin nunes made his way on to the white house grounds for that mysterious visit here last week, but, wolf, there is some news over here in terms of staffing here at the white house. The president is adding a familiar face to his staff. The white house confirming just in the last few minutes that daughter ivanka trump will be an unpaid employee advisings the president. Her husband, Jared Kushner, the president s soninlaw, is already a Senior Adviser to the president so a husband and wife team working inside the west wing with the president. We should point out though that some officials here are already doing some cleanup on a separate front after President Trump made some remarks here that hell have an easy time striking a deal on health care, an effort that republicans left for dead less than a week ago. Nobody ever told me that politics was going to be so much fun. Reporter welcome to the art of the deal, take two. Just days after lose on obamacare, President Trump told a Bipartisan Group of senators he now has a simple strategy for health care success. Thats such an easy one, so i have no doubt that thats going to happen very quickly. Reporter pressed on why the president was suddenly sounding so confident White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said mr. Trump was only kidding. You probably have heard this and come across this notion that hes just detached from reality in making the comments. First of all, i think again, i would respectfully ask you to review the tape. He was having a light hearted moment. Its on tape. He was spoke poking fun and making fun. Reporter listen to the full comments. And i know that were all going to make a deal on health care. Thats such an easy one, so i have no doubt that thats going to happen very quickly, i think its actually going to happen because weve all been promising, democrat, republican, because weve all been promising that to the American People so i think a lot of good things will happen there. Reporter while one republican senator in the room said the president s comments were met with smiles. Everyone in the room smiled when he shade republicans and democrats alike. Democrats arent laughing demanding that republicans fix obamacares problems firing off a letter to the president saying we respectfully request that you abandon your efforts to repeal the Affordable Care act. They have a right to put out a left and draw their lines in the sand and the president is committed to going down the line he is. Reporter and both parties are fighting over the Supreme Court pick neil gorsuch and republicans threatening to use the Nuclear Option to break the democratic filibuster of the nominee. Well get judge gorsuch confirmed but it will be really up to them how how the process to confirm judge gorsuch goes forward. This is no neutral down the middle judge. The republicans are the ones making the choice to go nuclear. Reporter one looming question is whether the president will be able to strike a deal on goresium and recover from his failure on health care, an effort that was hampered by distractions of his own making. During his reception with the senators, the president had another headscratching moment on iraq. Our soldiers are fighting and fighting like never before. Reporter its a curious comment given that u. S. Soldiers are serving in an advisory role there. I think that theres been some progress particularly in mosul the way that they have taken back that city. Reporter but after a rocky week the president is trying to reset his agenda trying to rul back on prescription prices. Were for the into the have governor Chris Christie here, a friend of mine, an early, early endoers and an immediate endorser when he got out of the race. He will liked himself more than he liked me but other than that still do, sir, but thats all right. Reporter for a president who pays attention to the polls mr. Trump just received another urgent reminder of the negative Public Perceptions of his young administration. The Gallup Daily Tracking poll now shows the president s Approval Rating at 35 . That is underlink the need for this white house to find a win and find one quickly. Wolf, thats a brutally low number. Jim, thank you. Jim acosta over at the white house. Joining us now, a member of the house Intelligence Committee democratic congresswoman terry sewall of alabama. Thanks for joining us. Thank you, wolf. The chairman of your Committee Devin Nunes says your committee will be holding more public hearings, but he says he doubts the hearings will be held before the end of the easter recess. Is he intentionally stalling this investigation . Do you believe that . Listen, wolf, i think all of us have been quite disappointed in hour chairmans inability to get this investigation started. I obviously think that we should be moving along now. I know that the democrats on the house Intelligence Committee are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work. The American People deserve to have answers and transparency and independence is important. I think that my chairman has really his confidence, the confidence that we have in him and in our committee has been damaged by his actions of last week and by his cancellation of all of the hearings this week. Nevertheless i can tell you that the democrats on this house Intelligence Committee are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Do you believe the chairman was actually taking orders directly from the white house when he cancelled that hearing that had been scheduled for this week with among others former Deputy Attorney general sally yates . Listen, i think that the silence that my chairman has had, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee has had with respect to why he did what he did last week, has given all kinds of all kinds of led all of to us believe that theres all kinds of stuff going on, so im not really sure what prompted him to to not have the public hearing, but i can tell you that the public hearing needs to occur. I think its great that the Senate Committee is working well, but we on the house have oversight responsibility, and we should not shy away from that responsibility. What excuse did he give you when he cancelled that hearing that was scheduled for yesterday with sally yates, with the former director of national intelligence, with the former cia director . So the chairman said that he wanted to have before that public hearing another private classified hearing with the fbi director and the nsa director. Obviously we welcome that, but we dont think that that should be instead of a public hearing. We can have both. Do democrats youre a democrat, have any means of forcing the chairman to reveal the source of his claims regarding potential surveillance of members of the trump team during the transition . Yes. I think that its really important that we have a complete witness list and that we in the house do all that we can to try to connect those dots between the Trump Administration and what went on in russia. You know, wolf, i think that all of this has been a major distraction. The American People deserve to know what happened. We should know how they hacked. We obviously know why they hacked and we know that it was influential, but we have to know the full scope of it and make sure that it doesnt happen again, hand that can only work if both the house and the Senate Committee fulfills its oversight responsibility and i personally think that we must have an independent commission as well. Independence and transparency is whats required. Will you subpoena the visitor logs at the white house for the day that devin nunes, the chairman, was there . Im not sure what my Ranking Member will be subpoenas, but i think that that sounds like its something that we should get ahold of. I think that its important for our for the the chairman of this committee to be forthright and forthcoming about how he got into the white house hand what he saw. He said only that he would let us know at some point. I think that that point has come and gone, wolf. We deserve to know. What about the president s tax returns . Will you subpoena those . Clearly the tax returns i think are relevant. They are relevant because we need to know what ties bush know, we know that this president made over 10 million hand that he has 564 relationships, business relationships. Its important for me as a member of the house ways and means committee, if were going do true tax reform, i would want to know that that president is not benefiting or instructing to us do things that will benefit him directly and that being the reason why he wants those reforms so i think its important to know and having his tax returns are important. I know youve called on the chairman devin nunes to recuse himself from this current russia meddling investigation, but are you willing to go one step further and actually call on him to step down as chairman . You know, wolf, ive actually worked with devin for four years on this commit and i also served with him on the house ways and means committee. Hes been a friend and shown himself up until this point to be really collegiate and really professional, and so i i think that it may be important to have him as part of the National Security investigation but not this investigation of russia, so i do want him to recuse himself. Im not prepared at this point to go further than that. Im hoping that the devin that i know will come forward and be forthright in what he knows and and get this investigation back on track. Congresswoman sewall, i want to take a quick break and resume our questioning right after this. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. The markets change. At t. Rowe price. Our disciplined approach remains. Global markets may be uncertain. But you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Our breaking news, leaders of the Senate Intelligence committee are vowing a comprehensive investigation into ties between russia and the Trump Campaign saying they will follow the intelligence wherever it leads, but the house intelligence probe has stalled right now amid partisan infighting and the embattled chairman devin nunes indicates no public hearings will be held until after the easter recess. Thats weeks from now. Were back with democratic congresswoman terry sewall of alabama, a member of the house Intelligence Committee. I would like to ask you about the serious bipartisanship from the Senate Intelligence committee, comparing their effort to the house investigation. Do you feel some degree of embarrassment for how your entire committee has now devolved into some pretty bitter partisan bickering . Well, wolf, i am glad that the senate the Senate Intelligence committee is working well in a bipartisan manner. You will remember that we, too, started out three weeks, four weeks ago with a press conference with both our Ranking Member and our chairman. Look, i think that theres no two ways about it. We both both senate and the house have oversight responsibilities, and it is embarrassing that were stalled where we are, but i know that we can get back on track if we work together, and i think that the confidence in the chairman has been affect, and i think that the credibility and integrity of our investigation has been tainted by his actions, and so in order for us to get back on track i think that we must have a new chairman. You want a new chairman, is that what youre saying . You want him to step down . No. I want him to recuse himself on this investigation, im sorry. I wanted to be precise. Do democrats on your committee bear any portion of the blame for the stalled investigation . I think weve been very forthright. I think adam schiff has been thoughtful and cooperative with our chair. Would i like to think that were the adults in the room, wolf. The Senate Intelligence leaders revealed new information during their news briefing today. According to senator warner, herss the ranking democrat, paid russian interknelt trolls target the the information campaign, simple battleground states like wisconsin or michigan jorge hoe. Can you tell us anything more about that . Warner senator warner said there were 1,000 russian trolls specifically working on that. Well, listen, i really cant divulge what i know or dont know with respect to classified information, but i can tell you that its important that we get to the bottom of russias meddling. I mean, they attacked america. They tried to and did affect our u. S. Election systems, and what we learned in the public hearing that we had is that it can and it will happen again, so i think its really important that we get to the bottom of how it happened and make sure that it never happens again. Yeah. Your colleagues in the senate, they totally agree. Congresswoman sewall, thanks for joining us. Thank you, room. State department employ who had access to top secret information has been arrested for making false statements and is accused of spying. Our justice reporter Laura Jarrett is with us right now. This woman is facing some serious charges. Reporter thats right, wolf. In a lengthy federal complaint released today, federal investigators say this state Department Employee allegedly failed to report thousands of dollars of gifts and other benefits she received from two intelligence agents from the chinese government, including cash, meals, vacations, going back years, they say. Now, according to the complaint, this individual named candace cli bo cliborn was an Office Management specialist since 1999 and she held a number of posts overseas, including in beijing, china, but shes now accused of purposefully misleading federal investigators about her contacts with these foreign agents, even going as far as alleging, confiding to someone that the chinese agents, quote, spies. Now the government says after the state department and fbi investigators contacted her, she instructed her coconspirators to delete evidence connecting her to these foreign agents. Icallyborn made her official appearance in court this afternoon and has pled not guilty. The state Department Says its cooperating with federal investigators. Serious developments indeed. Well stay on top of it. Laura jarrett reporting. Were also standing by to hear from the top of democrat on the house Intelligence Committee adam schiff. Hell be joining me live later for an interview in the situation room. Is the house investigation on the russian meddling about to implode and a new warning about russian president Vladimir Putin who says he survived not one but two poisoning attempts. I was thinking around 70. To and before that . Re . You mean after that . No, im talking before that. Do you have things you want to do before you retire . Id really like to run with the bulls. Wow. Hope youre fast. I am. Get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change with Investment Management services. Gave us the power to turn this enemy into an ally . Microsoft and its partners are using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and sequence their dna to fight disease. There are over 100 million pieces of dna in every sample. With the microsoft cloud, we can analyze the data faster than ever before. If we can detect new viruses before they spread, we may someday prevent outbreaks before they begin. Guests can earn a how cafree night when theypring book direct on choicehotels. 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Because nows the perfect time to learn more. Go long. Were following the breaking news. The republican and Democratic Leaders of the Senate Intelligence committee promising a very serious, thorough and bipartisan investigation of russias meddling in the president ial election. The committee holds the first in a series of public hearings tomorrow. Lets bring in our experts, brianna keilar, youre with us. They clearly wanted to instill confidence today, the republican and Democratic Leaders of the Senate Intelligence committee, that they were on the right path. It is such a different scene in the senate than it is in the house. I mean, can you imagine adam schiff, the ranking democrat on the house intim committee and devin nunes, the republican chairman coming together and having a press conference, i dont think so, right. Were seeing this sort of partisan clown show play out on the house side, and so you have two senators trying to show that there is a bipartisan effort to get to the bottom of something which the Intelligence Community has determined quite some time ago was the russians interfering or at least attempting to interfere in a way that would undermine faith in the democratic process, something that is so key and certainly mark warner and richard burr feel goes beyond politics which we heard today. Burr and warner, the chairman and the vice chairman. Right at the top before they even answered any questions said were not going to discuss whats going on in the house intelligence. Probably a good thing to stay away from. This is outside of the comfort zone for the Senate Intelligence committee. Thats not usually a public venue. To handle this kind of sheprofile public investigation is requiring them to go beyond what they usually do and so far they are handling it better than the house. What youre seeing is the dysfunction and parliamentary polarization of the house. This is the way the house operates on most issues over the last several years and what were seeing here is the public getting kind of a window into what happens on many of the substantive issues and the same we did on health care where there was no effort from the beginning to have bipartisan buyin. Heres some where you node it and they cant cross that bridge. Not that long ago there was similar bipartisan cooperation in the house Intelligence Committee as well. Yes. Phil mudd, youre an expert in this area, you used to work at the cia and the fbi. Senator burr, hes the chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee refused to rule out the possibility that President Trumps associates, his team was involved in some sort of cooperation with russia, but i want to play for you the specific words of what we heard last week from the fbi director james comey because he does not make a Statement Like this casually. I have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of our Counterintelligence Mission is investigating the russian governments efforts to interfere in the 2016 president ial election, and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russias efforts. Now, he doesnt say that lightly. Whats your understanding . You seem to have a little smile there. Because i think he might see these two statements from burr and from comey in the same light. I think they are radically different. I think the panel is correct on burr. Hes got to come out looking at the train wreck on the house hand last few weeks and say, look, were going to do this fundamentally differently. The comey statement is far more interesting and i think profound. I think weve underplayed it. Look, going back to last summer, comey came out and said were opening an investigation and then he says in the election cycle, before the election, were closing it, and as you remember he had to come out and embarrass himself and say now were closing it again. Now he comes out a few months later and, again, puts his foot into it after that embarrassment and says we want to announce publicly, which the fbi director rarely does, that were opening an investigation on this. Let me give you the bottom line, wolf. He doesnt do that if theres just smoke. He does that if theres fire. We on the public side have seen the smoke in the russian investments i think when he said that he realize that had this is going to get a lot more difficult for the white house and that the fbi and the department of justice which has to make the decision on prosecution, is heading towards potentially indicting somebody. Because he went one step further. We didnt put this extra sentence in theically. Ill read it to you. This is comey once again last week. As with any counterintelligence investigation this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed. That sort of underscores your point, right . Thats right. Hes got to decide, remember, the fbi conducts the investigation and then they walk across the street to the department of justice and say, look, we only investigate, you have the lawyers. Youre responsible for determining whether we can actually prosecute. That that sentence you just read suggests that hes looking at a crime which the department of justice was would then prumpt again, i cant bleach he would comeut and say that without having some evidence we havent seen that suggests to him that its okay to tell the American People weve opened the investigation because a month or two or three down the road hes going to say were closing it and somebody is going to get prosecuted. Brianna, the fbi rarely even tells anyone that they have an investigation thats under way. For him to publicly reveal there is a criminal investigation under way, as phil just said, thats a huge deal. It is a huge deal, and i think part of it is setting the record straight because if you listen to the white house briefing, the line that you hear from the press Secretary Sean Spicer over and over is there has been no finding of collusion, and he scoffs at the idea of it. The truth is this is something that is in progress, and we got that today from senator burr when he said we would be crazy to draw conclusions at this point in time. Part of what he was saying was this is what were looking at. Its going to take weeks. Were going through all of this information as our Staff Members are as well, and i think when youre hearing from the white house if you were just to take them at their word, it sounds like oh, its over and done and nothing has been found. That is not the truth. The president in his most recent tweets, he keeps calling it a hoax, this whole russia investigation, and says its the work of the fake media. Those tweets and sean spicers admonishment yesterday of april ryan just is so are so upside down. When sean spicer was saying, well, everyone who has looked at this has concluded there is no collusion. Everyone except the head of the fbi who is conducting the actual investigation and who in the clip that you played said they are actively investigating. They have not concluded that there is, but they have certainly concluded that there is not, so this is clearly an ongoing investigation, and to kind of put it in the rear view mirror is i think more Wishful Thinking than status report. Donald trump says its a hoax because it is something that he feels is just an effort to undermine the legitimacy of his presidency, and lets be honest, i think there are some of his critics who are happy to do that, but what you see, and i think you should take to the bank is when you see richard burr and mark warner standing side by side and theres bipartisan agreement that this is very serious and it goes beyond politics. You heard mark warner, the vice chairman, say this is the most significant issue, investigation in all of his years of Public Service hes ever been involved n. Stand by. 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Get symbicort free for up to one year. Visit saveonsymbicort. Com today to learn more. Were standing by to speak once again live with the house Intelligence Committees top democrat representative adam schiff. Stand by for that, but right now i want to get back to our experts. Phil mudd, youre still with us. I want to get your reaction to something that the president said last night about the fight against isis in iraq. Listen to this. Were doing very well in iraq. Our soldiers are fighting and fighting like never before, and the results are very, very good, so i just wanted to let everyone know. All right. He says the results are very, very good. Our soldiers are fighting and fighting like never before, but, remember, the u. S. Has been has had troops in iraq, what, since 2003, since the second gulf war that liberated iraq from saddam hussein, and, what, we lost about 3,000 u. S. Troops, tens of thousands came home severely injured. We used to have 150,000 troops fighting there. The point that hes saying they are fighting like never before, your reaction . Thats a setup. I suppose i havent been around for 50 years, wolf, surprisingly, but i suspect every president in the history of the United States has done this hand thats claim credit for stuff he hasnt done. Isis made progress and embarrassed the you can are ay military through about im going to roughly estimate the mid2014. After that the Iraqi Military surprised got off the back foot and started going on the offensive. Through 2015 and 2016 ramadi, tikrit, going into 2016 the biggest fight, they started last year before this president was in office, the fight for mosul and made a lot of progress. Im sniffing around what the president is saying with the words he used Like Fighting never before and im guessing within the next couple of months he owes going to say my policies are responsible for the turnaround and im going to say thats a penalty flag. What happened was the iraqi army turned around and they started fighting the isis adversary and that happened well before this presidency. Yeah. The u. S. Has now about 5,000 troops in iraq, mostly advising supposedly as opposed to on the ground troops, but well see how that works out. Another statement the president made, brian falah, last night. He says he thinks theres still a very good possibility of a health care deal, repealing and replacing obamacare. Listen. And i know that were all going to make a deal on health care. Thats such an easy one, so i have doubt that thats going to happen very quickly. I think it will actually. I think its going to happen because weve all been promising, democrat, republican, weve all been promising that to the American People, so i think that a lot of good things are going to happen. Youre smiling here, too. Sean spicer, the White House Press secretary, said the president was just joking. Dont take that seriously. He didnt sound like he was joking. He was speaking to democratic and republican senators at a reception last night at the white house. Or if he did he then sort of pitch outed what certainly sounded serious. I dont think donald trump is the first politician to say what he would like to be true. I think hes very aware of the fact of how difficult this is. If he wasnt, he is. He certainly is after last week. I think talking to a Bipartisan Group there he wants to put the pressure on. He wants this to be done, and i think that where the white house is they understand that at some just having dropped the ball and not Going Forward with the repeal on obamacare, one of his major promises, if they have a chance to do this again, they have to do this in order for him to make good on that. He says this is such an easy one dealing with health care. Right. A month ago he said no one anticipated how complicated dealing with health care would be. If they honestly wanted to go forward with democrats involved, they have both a political problem and a substantive problem. The political problem is his disApproval Rating among rank and file democrats today is around 90 , far higher than any new president has ever had disapproval among voters in the opposite party. That makes it hard for democrats to work with him on tomb things. Substantively theres two different issues in obamacare, theres the purchase of private insurance on the exchanges and there there is a real problem with markets being destabilized and the poe fence for a narrowly crafted agreement that could bring in some democrats to troy to stabilize the markets. The problem is that the republican bill also includes the repeal of expansion of medicaid and goes to the point of block granting that to where 14 Million People would lose coverage. Its the bigot budget savings for republicans. If thats part of the deal, very hard to see the democrats coming on board. Everyone stick around. Much more coming up, and in a little while, by the way, ill be speaking live to the tom democrat on the Intelligence Committee, representative adam schiff. Will the latest partisan bickering derail the investigation of russian interference in the president ial election . Up next, as Vladimir Putin cracks down on dissent, a critic who has been poisoned not once but twice has a dire new warning for u. S. Lawmakers. Hes a nascar champion whos shes a worldclass swimmer whos stared down the best in her sport. But for both of them, the most challenging opponent was. Pe blood clots in my lung. It was really scary. A dvt in my leg. I had to learn all i could to help protect myself. My doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®. To help keep me protected. Xarelto® is a latestgeneration blood thinner. Thats proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again. 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Vladimir karamerza said he has been poisoned and sent into a coma twice. And today he lives to Tell Congress about it. The price he says to be in opposition of one man. Antiputin activist, is speaking out tonight on capitol hill. Warning lawmakers about the aggressions of the russian president. I think you should look at the general track record of mr. Putins regime, the media, rigging of elections, black listing of ngos, opposition activists and human right activist. I think the trend is clear. Karamurza said he was poisoned in 2015. Almost died, but recovered. Last month he was stricken again. Investigators havent proven that poison is the cause. His case is eerily similar it that of russian age gentle ex ander, he had been digging up information damaging to the kremlin. In a cold style operation in 2006 someone slipped the radio active substance, polonium, into his tea, which ultimately killed him. The british investigated. There were all sides represented. Tons of evidence. On the basis of that evidence, british judge found that mr. Putin is likely to have ordered this killing. Vladimir karamurza said he is especially concerned about new crack downs by the russian president. Anticorruption protesters in dozens of russian cities were rounded up sunday. Among them, man whose ambitions to challenge putin in next years president ial election are being stymied by his various arrests and dub yas charges. Just last week putin critic and former russian lawmaker was gunned down in broad daylight in kiev and a lawyer for a russian whistleblower was badly injuried in a suspicious fall from his moscow apartment window. Analysts say putinss poeoppons like karamurza have to be on guard. Offices will be closed down. People will be followed. Some more people are going to be arrested. Saying that wont stop him. We will continue our work. Because we know there are many people in russia who reject this regime for who jereject everythg it stands for. Putin and his aides deny involvement in karamuzas illness and in all cases but tonight karamurza is taking steps to protect his family. He has gotten his wife and children out of russia but says he plans to return soon to resume work and wolf he has it be taking his life if his own hands when he does that. Putin remains incredibly popular in russia, right in the Approval Ratings are about 80 , wolf. Analysts say more and more people are especially growing frustrated with the economic stag nation especially young people there. The sense that putin and his cronies are enriching themselves whilesome people are struggling. The Opposition Leader has been investigating that kind of corruption. Thank you. Coming up, breaking news. Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee Say they are ready and eager to get going with comprehensive vichbt gags investigation between ties of russian. Congressman adam schiff. D i gety parking validated . 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Get unlimited access to all of netflix and more, free with xfinity on demand. Happening now, breaking news. Most important probe, Top Republican and democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee revealing new details about their russia investigation. Promising to get answers about moscows contacts with the trump team. Will the bipartisanship last . Division and delay. House Committee Intelligence says the next russia hearing wont happen for about a month amid partisan turmoil and accusations that is acting as a surrogate for the president. Ill talk live with the commit oos top democrat, congressman adam