Republican resolve . Tough questions for the white house. House democratic leader nancy pelosi. House Freedom Caucus founder jim jordan. And the chair of the dnc, tom perez. Here now, chief anchor george stephanopoulos. Good morning, can you believe its been just 38 days . 38 days packed with the shock of the new. A shock thats energized trump supporters, terrified his critics, mystified many around the world. As we come on the air this week, what have we learned to far about President Trump . Number one, hes not going to change. Donald trump intends to be president the way he became president. With tweets. Tough talk so often at odds with the facts. And direct attacks on the press he calls the opposition. I want you all to know that were fighting the fake news. Its fake. Phony. Fake. [ cheers and applause ] a few days ago, i called the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are. They are the enemy of the people. Number two, he meant what he said about cracking down on illegal immigration. The deportation directives from Homeland Security this week drove that point home. White house officials promise that his new executive order suspending travel from majority muslim countries that pose a Terror Threat will be as tough as the original ban blocked by the courts. All that is aimed at securing his most loyal followers. Delivering for them with a Supreme Court nominee. Executive orders. This weeks directive reversing president obamas policy on how schools should handle transgender youth. That leaves at least two big Unanswered Questions as the president prepares his first address to congress in two days. Can he make good on the promises that require a partner in congress . Especially repealing and replacing obamacare. Gop members got an earful on that across the country this week. Resist, persist. And what happens next with the president and russia . The white house hit by headlines late this week for enlisting the fbi and intelligence officials to counter damaging stories and appearing to interfere with independent investigations. As a Veterans Group prepares to launch this new ad. President trump, the fbi and cia say that russia interfered. With our election to help you. And we now know your campaign was in contact with them when it happened. So, sir, were putting you on notice. Were demanding speaker ryan and senator mcconnell appoint an independent commission to get the answers. Because defending america means finding the truth. Lets get answers now from the white house. Sarah Huckabee Sanders joins us now. Sarah, thank you for joining us this morning. You just saw that ad. Thanks for having me. Good morning, george. We heard from a key republican member of congress this week, darrell issa who says the attorney general Jeff Sessions must recuse himself from this russia investigation. Lets listen. You cannot have somebody, a friend of mine, Jeff Sessions who was on the campaign, and who is an appointee. Youre going to need to use the special prosecutors statute and office to take not just to recuse, thats you cant just give to it your deputy. Thats another political appointee. Sthat a senior republican congressman. What is your response . I think the real easy answer here is that the fbi has already said this store i have b. S. Those are their words. I apologize to my mom. Literally, those are the words of the fbi. That the story was b. S. They came to us. They approached us. Were putting that story out there. I think the American People deserve to know the truth. And thats exactly what it is. That theres nothing here. Just because reporters Say Something over and over and over again doesnt start to make it true. At some point, we get to a place where we have to move on and start focusing on the things that the American People care about. I dont think this is it. Weve talked about it time and time and time again. Asked and answered. Lets move forward. Lets Start Talking about the economy. Lets talk about education. Lets talk about border security. Lets talk about national security. Thats whats keeping most americans up at night. Thats what they want us focused on. Thats what this administration is doing day in and day out. A couple of things there. First of all, the fbi has made officially no comment. James comey has no comment. Youre saying the fbi told you that it was b. S. The fbi hasnt said that at all. I was asking a different question. The fbi investigation is continuing right now. The Intelligence Committees are continuing their investigations right now. And the question at hand is, is it appropriate for the attorney general to oversee that investigation . Here are the Justice Department guidelines. No doj employee may participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with any person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation. How can it be appropriate for a key member of the Trump Campaign to oversee an investigation into the Trump Campaign . George, were confident that whatever review Congress Wants to do, i think that is the first step. If they want to take that on, which there are two committees that are currently doing that. Were confident that theyre all going to come to the same conclusion. That we had no involvement in this. If democrats want to continue to relive their loss every day by doing investigations or review after review, thats fine by us. We know why we won the race. Its because we had the better candidate with the better message. They didnt campaign in the right places. They didnt have a good candidate. If they want to continue to relive that loss every day, then we welcome that. That wasnt a democrat. That was a republican member of congress. Ill take your answer to say you dont believe that the attorney general needs to recuse right now. On the investigations, though, you also saw i dont think were there yet. Let me finish the question right there. Yes, sir. You heard republican members of congress saying this week that President Trump should release his tax returns. Senator collins said it may come to subpoenaing these tax returns. If Congress Requests the tax returns as part of the investigation, will President Trump provide them . Thats a question you would have to ask the president. What i do know is that, again, we have answered this question. I guess i dont know how many times you have to answer the same question. And people start to expect a different answer. Again, i wasnt saying that he shouldnt recuse himself or that he should. My point is i dont think were there yet. Lets work through the process. You guys want to jump to the very end of the line. Thats not how this works. Typically, you go through a congressional oversight, review, were doing that. Lets not go to the very end of the extreme. Lets let this play out the way it should. Again, i go back to, if you want to continue to relive this loss, then lets do that. But, at the same time, while the democrats and even maybe some of the republicans as you mentioned, want to talk about that, what were focused on in this administration is what we campaigned on. And achieving those goals. And making sure that america is moving forward. Again, i was asking about the fbi and the Justice Department investigation. Not the congressional. Lets move on to the state of the union. One of the big questions. At the state of the union coming up. I guess its not a state of the union. The address to congress on tuesday will be what to do with obamacare. And what the president will say should be done. During the campaign, he said everyone has to be covered. As recently as january 15th, he told the Washington Post were going to have insurance for everybody. Theres a brandnew analysis out just today about the republican plans about to be presented. They were presented to the governors yesterday. It says millions may lose coverage in obamacare repeal. Governors told. Policies supported by republican congressional leaders to replace obamacare could lead millions of people to lose their health care coverage. According to a presentation on saturday to state governors meeting in washington. It estimates the number of people covered by obamacare through the individual Insurance Market could be slashed by as much as 51 in states that chose not to expand medicaid coverage. And by 30 in states that did expand the federal state Health Program for the poor. So can the president guarantee that no one who has coverage right now will lose it under his plan . Look, what i know that the president can promise is what hes been saying. That this is not just a repeal program that we absolutely have to repeal it. But replace it with something thats better. George, even democrats will admit that obamacare is simply not sustainable. Its collapsing under itself. It cannot maintain the track that were on. We have to make big changes. I think republicans and democrats agree with that. This was a program that was shoved through with so many problems. Were still every day finding out new problems to the program. We know we cant just repeal it and not do anything else. We have to repeal it and replace it with something better. Thats what this president is committed to doing. Thats what i want to ask you about. You say replace it with something better. So does that mean that no one who has coverage now will lose it . I know that the goal is that we make sure that people dont lose their coverage. We have to put a high priority on people that need it most. We have to lower the costs. We have to make sure the people that need insurance the very most are covered. But at the same time, george, we cannot survive under the current system. We have to make a massive overhaul to the Health Care System in america. It is not sustainable. Everybody agrees with that. There is nobody that argues that were on a track that we can maintain. Were looking at every possible way to do exactly that. Repeal a terrible, failed system, and replace it with something better. Again, so ill have to ask one more time. You say replace it with something better. So will the president guarantee he wont sign a plan that will cause people that have coverage now the lose it . Im not going speak specifically for the president on that topic. But what i can say is hes made it a high priority. And a number one focus that we make sure that people that have insurance continue their insurance, particularly those in the highest need. He promised he wont touch medicare, Social Security, or medicaid. Can he stand by that . The president is committed to doing that. So far, as you have noticed over the last 30 days, hes done exactly what he said he is going to do. I dont see any reason to start thinking differently. I want to bring up another topic right now. Just yesterday, the miami herald the father of the navy s. E. A. L. Killed in that raid in yemen, ryan owens, has spoked out about the raid. He did not want to meet with President Trump. He said, dont hide behind my sons death to prevent an investigation. I want an investigation. The government owes my son an investigation. Will he get it . I cant speak to the military. But i can say that as a parent, i cant imagine the loss that he has suffered. I think every american owes his son a great deal of gratitude. Were forever in his sons debt. I know that he paid the ultimate sacrifice when he went on that mission. And i know that the mission has a lot of different critics. But it did yield a substantial amount of very important intel and resources that helped save american lives and other lives. And, as much as again, i cant imagine what this father is going through, i think hes a his son is a true american hero. We should forever been in his sons debt. Does the president want an investigation . I havent had the chance to speak with him directly about that. But i would imagine that he would be supportive of that. Final question, we heard yesterday in the president s tweet, hes not going to the white house correspondents dinner. Why . George, i think its pretty safe to say i think we all spend enough time around each other as it is. This wasnt a president that was elected to spend his time with reporters and celebrities. This is a president who campaigned on speaking directly to americans. And thats what hes going to spend his time doing. I think its kind of naive of us to think we can all walk into a room for a couple of hours and pretend that some of that tension isnt there. You know, one of the things we say in the south, if a girl scout egged your house, would you buy cookies from her . I think this is a similar scenario. Theres no reason for him to go in and sit and pretend like this is going to be just another saturday night. I think hes very focused on protecting our Borders National security, growing our economy. Instead of spending a night doing that, hell spend the night focused on what he can do to defend america. Pretty straight answer. I think a lot would say the eggs have gone both ways. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, thank you very much. Lets bring in the democratic leader in the house. Nancy pelosi, thank you for joining us today. My pleasure. You heard Sarah Sanders talk about the committee looking into the russia ties with the Trump Campaign. Also, pretty much saying there will not be a recusal for now from the attorney general. Your response . As you read the law and saw the law, the attorney general must recuse himself. But lets just take it back a step. You have seen a flurry of activities that are completely inappropriate, encouraging lawmakers, encouraging officials to Say Something is one way or another. Lets have the investigation and find out the truth. And we have been calling. We have 100, plus now one republican, on eric smallwells bill for an outside, independent commission to study the personal, political, and financial relationship between President Trump and the russians. So far, the efforts have been quashed by the Republican Leadership in the house. Youre getting pressure from democrats to go farther. Michael moore put out a tweet this week. He said tell your senators and house members now, you want them to cease all business until they appoint a special committee on trump and the russians. He gave the phone number there, as well. Are you ready to go that far . Let me just say, there is no business. Let me just lets put this in time. You did at the beginning of the show. In a couple of days, it will be 40 days. 40 days. 40 hours, 40 days, 40 years in the desert. 40 is fraught with meaning and symbolism. When president obama was sworn in on the steps of capital, he asked for swift, bold action now for jobs and education for the 21st century. And lists an agenda. One week and one day from that swearing in, the house passed the american recovery and reinvestment act. One week later, the Senate Passed it. On february 17th, four weeks from his inauguration, he signed a bill which saved or created 4 million jobs. He had already signed, Lily Leadbetter signed schip, the Childrens Health insurance program. By the time he had his first address to the join session, the first speech, he could say this is what i asked for. This is what we have done in the first four weeks. What has the Trump Administration done from their inaugural address, where they talked about decay and carnage . Theyve done nothing, except put wall street first. Make america sick again. Instill fear in our immigrant population in our country. And make sure russia maintains its grip, its grip on our foreign policy. You saw Sarah Sanders say, theyre going to talk about obamacare on tuesday night. Would not say the president will guarantee. It cant guarantee. The republicans have been baying at the moon for seven years that they have a better idea. Theyve come up with nothing. They say repeal and replace. That has alliteration. Thats all it has going for it. They dont have a replacement. What they have put forth and outlined will cost more to consumers. It will cover fewer people. It will give tax breaks to the wealthiest people. Imagine what the president wants to do, the 400 wealthiest families in america will get a tax break of 7 million a year. But if they do follow through and repeal obamacare. They wont be able to do it. Theyre not going to be able to do it . They dont have the votes. They have alliteration. Not votes. Humor me for a second. If they do, wont democrats have a duty to go in and help repair it so the people that will lose coverage, according to your analysis, dont lose it . Heres the thing. When we did the Affordable Care act, if everyone loved their care. If everyone loved it, which they didnt, and their insurance policy, we would still have had to do it because the escalating costs of health care in our country were unsustainable to individuals, families, small business, corporate america, and to the public sector. The costs were just soaring. So we do the care. And it had three goals. One, to lower coasts. The other, to expand benefits. And the third to improve, increase access. 20 million, 400,000 people now have health care who didnt have it before. This is the important part. 155 Million People who get their Health Insurance through their workplace have now had expanded benefits. Stopped the rate of increase of costs. But, no longer will you have preexisting condition prevent you from getting care. I understand that. No, i understand that. Dont you have an obligation to protect those who will lose coverage . Well, it isnt a question of that. You have to have the full package. If they come up with something that lowers the costs, expands the coverage, increases benefit, then well have something to talk about. We havent seen anything to talk to them about. In any category. Theyve put forth nothing. When he makes his address on the 40 days that hes been president , he has nothing to show for it but fear. In every way to people who are sick, fear. To people who are immigrants, fear. Fear of the greed on wall street taking america back to where we were. What kind of reception is the president going to get on tuesday . Aye read that some democrats are thinking of bringing guests they believe have been impacted by the president s policies. Well, that would be a normal thing to do. I, myself, would bring a guest who is a dreamer. A guest who has lost her son through gun violence. Ill bring a guest who is a symbol of the freedom of the press, which the president , in his authoritarian manner, is attacking. And i think thats really our biggest guardian of democracy is the First Amendment. The freedom of the press. Are there any issues where you feel you can still work with the president . Back in november, you talked about infrastructure. Theyve talked about perhaps a 1 trillion infrastructure plan. We dont know if hell propose a plan on tuesday. Is that something the democrats can get behind . Lets talk about that. I call him the deflector in chief. He has no jobs bill. I talked about president obama in the first four weeks, 4 million jobs. He has no jobs bill. So hes got to talk about the press. He has no jobs bill. So he has to talk about kids transgender kids in school. He has no jobs bill, so he has to talk about immigrants and have a ban on muslims coming to the country. All of this is a deflection from the fact that he has done nothing. We havent seen a jobs bill. We havent seen do you have an open mind on it . If he has, as i have said to him and said publicly, if he has an infrastructure bill that really helps to address the deficit we have in our infrastructure in our country, lets talk about it. But if it is yet again, another tax break for his rich friends, disguised as an infrastructure bill, were not going there. Nancy pelosi, thank you for joining us this morning. My pleasure. Lets turn to congressman jim jordan. Of ohio. Hes the founder of the house Freedom Caucus. One of many republicans that faced tough questions this week. Lets take a look. Hang on, hang on. I want to answer the question. Hang on. Hang on. [ crowd chanting ] all give us more insurance. Congressman jordan joins us this morning. Thanks for coming in. Youre the cleanup true today. First on this issue of the investigations on russia. Is recusal by the attorney general necessary . Is a special prosecutor necessary . Lets let the process work. Some have called for a select committee. Some a special prosecutor. Lets let the committees work. If theres more investigation thats needed im on the oversight committee. Weve never been shy on digging into the issues. No one has accused me of going easy on my own party. Well do that. I think when we had the irs scandal a few years ago, they were targeting conservative groups, after awhile, i called for a special prosecutor. We let the process work. When i did, i sponsored the legislation that went through the house. Unfortunately, it fortunately, passed the house. But harry reid stopped it in the senate. We did that because we found that barbara bosserman, at the Justice Department, the lead investigator on that case was a maxout contributor to president obamas campaign. We thought that was a conflict. So we said, lets have a special prosecutor. And no, harry reid wouldnt do it. So if thats a conflict, isnt the attorney general sessions a conflict . Lets see how this plays out. We havent seen him put someone on the case who is a maxout contributor of the Trump Campaign. What im saying is let it play out attorney general sessions was right in the middle of the Trump Campaign. What i didnt see when we were doing this, is you and the press call for a special prosecutor when the irs was targeting people for exercising the First Amendment free speech rights. Lets see how it plays out. I think thats a deliberative process is appropriate. Were going to see how obamacare plays out. You heard what the democratic leader, nancy pelosi said. She said you cant repeal it. We have to repeal it. We told the voters we would. We have to repeal it and replace it. Remember what the American People were sold. They were sold a bill of goods on this thing. I tell people, they were sold a caribbean cruise and they got the titanic. This thing is a mess. You dont take my word for it. Remember jonathan gruber. The New York Times called him the architect of obamacare. He was on video tape telling us that they misled the American People. I talk about the nine false statements. Like your plan, keep your plan. Like your doctor, keep your doctor. Premiums will go down. We were told deductibles would go down. We were told that the website would work. That the website was skurs. We were told emergency room visits would decline. The coops, 18 of them have gone bankrupt. What about the analysis that says, if you repeal it now, millions lose coverage . Think how bad it is right now. We have fewer choices, higher premiums, higher deductibles. Think about what the American People, of course, there were three elections. Talk about these protests. How about the protests in 2010 on election day, 2014 on election day. Just this past november 8th. Where the American People said, get rid of this law. We know how bad it is. One of the key people warning against that is your own governor. John kasich. Republican of ohio. Heres what hes saying this morning. I think some conservative republicans in the house will say, get rid of the whole thing. Thats not acceptable when you have 20 Million People, or 700,000 people in my state. Where do the mentally ill go . Where do the drugaddicted go . Sountds like hes talking about you. What is your answer to the governor . We didnt tell the American People, well repeal it, except were going keep the tax increases some are talking about. We told them we were going to repeal it and replace wit a marketcentered, patientcentered plan that brings back affordable Health Insurance. We have to remember where were at. Obamacare said this, were going to have mandates. Regulations. Were going to make people buy it. If they dont, theyll get penalized. What kind of plan is that . Thats what americans have living under now. So we have said, lets get rid of that. Lets put on President Trumps desk the exact same plan we put on president obamas desk a year and a half ago. And youre confident you have the votes for that . We better have the votes for that. Im confident that President Trump can do that. Thats what he campaigned on. What i campaigned on. Right now, one plan put forward. One by dr. Paul in the senate. And one sponsored by the house Freedom Caucus in the house. We say, repeal it just like we have done. Just like we did with president obama. Put the same bill on President Trumps desk. And then our replacement measure empowers people, families, and doctors, not washington, d. C. You heard Sarah Sanders say the president doesnt want to touch Social Security, medicare, medicaid. Going to increase military spending. Huge tax cuts. And perhaps the trilliondollar infrastructure bill. Can you do that without inke increasing the debt . You have to pay for those things. Youll not vote for a budget that increases the debt . We have a 20 trillion debt, george. Do we want to keep saddling our grandkids, our kids. The debt to gdp ratio is 1 to 1. Its a dangerous place to be. We have to pay for these things. Thats what republicans campaigned on. Thats what we have to do. We make this job way too complicated. Thank you, congressman. Thank you. Well be back with the roundtable. And later, the new chairman of the dnc, tom perez, joins us live. Mthat stuff only lasts a few hours. Or, take mucinex. One pill fights congestion for 12 hours. Guess i wont be seeing you for a while. Why take medicines that only last 4 hours, when just one mucinex lasts 12 hours . Lets end this. 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Im doing all i can. That includes brilinta. If you cant afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. Cough doesnt sound so good. Take mucinex dm. Ill text you in 4 hours when your cough returns. One pill lasts 12 hours, so. Looks like im good all night some cough medicines only last 4 hours. But just one mucinex lasts 12 hours. Lets end this. Whats the biggest misconception about whats going on in the Donald Trump White House . Uh, well, in regard to us two, i think the biggest misconception is everything that youre reading. We we share an office suite together. Were basically together from 6 30 in the morning until about 11 00 at night. I have a little thing called the war room. He has a fireplace. Nice sofas. Cpac scored a rare joint appearance by Reince Priebus and steve bannon. And the man who organized it, matt schlapp, joins our roundtable next. Bannon. And the man who organized it, matt schlapp, joinsous roundtable next. And your joints really love them too . 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Why take medicines that only last 4 hours, when just one mucinex lasts 12 hours . Lets end this. We need to define what this great, great Unprecedented Movement is and what it actually represents. The core conviction of our movement is that we are a nation that put and will put its own citizens first. [ cheers and applause ] President Trump at cpac on friday. Were joined now on the roundtable by matt schlapp, chairman of the american conservative union. They run cpac. Democratic strategist stephanie cutter. The editor of the new yorker david remnick. Amy holmes. Political analyst for rasmussen reports. And former clinton labor secretary and uc berkeley professor, robert reich. The author of saving capitalism out now in paperback. You have a major report out called active measures. It looks at how the russian interference into the campaign fits into what they want to do in europe and what putin wants to do across the west. And one of the things i was struck by is a pretty stark divide between how the democrats on the Intelligence Community speak about the investigation and how the republicans speak about it. This is a piece where i collaborated with evan in washington and josh in moscow. Theres a big history of active measures on both sides. Americans have interfered in regimes and regime change. And altering the cold war. Interfered in elections, as well. This has been back and forth. This is nothing absolutely new. But the extent of this potentially is extraordinary. We have 17 intelligence agencies all saying, asserting, that there was serious interference in our president ial election. The administration, you heard it again right there, sort of doubling and tripling down on the idea that there were no inappropriate contacts. Heres the problem. The problem is intelligence agencies are not giving us the evidence of this. And here they have a point. They say, the intelligence agencies say the difficulty of giving evidence is you give away your human sources or your technological means. And people do have memories on the left and the right on the iraq war when the intelligence agencies went very bad and did a great disservice to the country in cooperating with the bush administration. What we need is a real investigation. I think people on both sides of the aisle, by the way, senator mccain, senator burr, republicans, have said its necessary to investigate this in a serious way. Otherwise we go through the cloud, this sort of dissonance of an election that has been spoiled. And might not be the decisive factor. The only factor by my means. But its something deeply important. Youre seeing divides on the republican side right now. Yeah, absolutely. I think but lets go back to the fundamental issues. Congress job is to do oversight. They should do it aggressively. When it comes to national security, the Intelligence Committees are the right place to start. They should be aggressive and go where the facts take them. As far as the department of justice. Its ironic. When you have Jeff Sessions waiting for his next three top appointments to get picked and literally the News Coverage is, well, he couldnt even recuse himself to his deputy because that person is a political, when that person is not a political. Theyre a career. So if we look at all of this, its ironic so far hes saying hes not going the recuse himself. Why would we staff a special counsel when we havent staffed the counsels office . Lets start staffing doj and then we can Start Talking about special counsels. What is your thought . It seems to me from listening is the white house is trying to kick the can down the road. Lets let this process run out. Fine, lets let it run out. We know where its going to end. They have already tainted the process by trying to get the chair of the select Intelligence Committee to speak to members of the media on their behalf. Theyve reached out to intelligence and Law Enforcement officials. To try to get them to speak out on their behalf. Theyre trying to influence the process. Therefore, it needs to be independent. We have been down this road before. We know how it ends. The only way to do this right is to have an independent process. Any chance the white house breaks on this . Not as of yet. I dont anticipate that. I think its important to say that Loretta Lynch did not recuse herself. In the email investigations for Hillary Clinton. She reserved for herself to right to overrule james comey if she had a disagreement with him. I think we need to clarify that there. Also, senator marco rubio, i think it was just last week. He put out a tweet, as we now communicate through twitter, saying hes very confident there can be a thorough, robust investigation. Chairman mccain might want to look at it. Staffers are discussing their access to classified information. So they can i would disagree with you, stephanie. We dont know where this is going to end. I agree. Thats why we need to investigate. We dont know where its going to end. But i think there is absolutely nothing more important to the integrity of our democracy than public trust, that, in fact, our Voting System was not tampered with. No danger for the democrats in pushing this too far . There is not a danger right now, george. Particularly when youre seeing cracks in the Republican Party. When darrell issa says, yes, we need a special prosecutor. When john mccain starts to say, look, we have to get to the bottom of this. If the public does not trust that it will be overseen correctly, we have no choice. I dont get this whole thing. The department of justice oversaw one of the most politically sensitive issues with the clinton foundation. There was no special counsel. And the voters got to decide whether it was handled well or not. This is for the congress to handle through the Intelligence Community. This is our national security. We have a brandnew administration. There is one person over the department of justice. Lets get a few more people populated. Thats before the senate right now. That needs to happen. If theres something done inappropriately, then you go to the next step. We start with hold on a second. Wait a second. You keep saying the fbi investigation exists right now. Thats right. And it should. And it should. Its an actual investigation. The question is, should the attorney general be overseeing that . I do want to move on to a separate part of this. David, i want to bring in question to you. One of the other mysteries here that its been difficult for anybody to get to the bottom of, is explaining, with whatever context there may have been, what is behind President Trumps sort of courtship of Vladimir Putin . I think we have to find out through further investigation. Theres great concern, and you see it in the journalism around it, that theres a number of things. That there are financial interests that have to be looked into. Theres the question of contacts between people in the campaign and russians, which could lead to some sense of collusion. Again. This is not conclusive yet. And at the same time, you have the white house trying to block inquiries. Trying to get people from the fbi to tamp down stories happening in the press. This is all very serious. The bigger question on the one hand you have the question about the integrity of our democracy. Which couldnt be a larger question. And at the same time, you have our conflict with russia. Its very, very serious. And what are the motivations for putin to interfere in the first place are because he wants to weaken western institutions from nato to the european union. So the whats at stake here could not be larger. So the stakes for independent inquiry into this, whether its journalistic or Law Enforcement or congressional is absolutely essential that they be this is can i jump in . In your recitation just now, you point to one of the problems and the challenges of the investigation. We dont know what the target is. We dont know if its russia. If it is, you cant prosecute russia. It wouldnt be appropriate to have a special prosecutor. Thats why there needs to be this investigation moving forward to zero in on what were talking about. What about this weakening . I mean, if you really look at it, does anybody think donald trump is going to be a kind of pushover for anyone . Its inevitable hell get at odds with Vladimir Putin. Have you heard his statement . And the other choice was Hillary Clinton. The other person was Hillary Clinton, who had the gimmicky red reset button and was trying to be friendly. This is why john mccain is so very important here. Because if we have hardliners and military expects in the senate who are going the say, no, we have to have an investigation, with ve got to get to the bottom of this, this gives credibility. As long as this is a partisan issue, its going nowhere. But when republicans, particularly john mccain, start saying we have to get to the bottom of this, it becomes a completely didnt issue. We have to take a quick break. Well be right back with the newly elected dnc chair, tom perez. Also going to talk about this on our roundtable. Ut it with the rb rbt. Miles per hour. S traveling ove0 to win, every millisecond matters. Both on the track and thousands of miles away. With the help of at t, Red Bull Racing can share critical information about every inch of the car from virtually anywhere. Brakes are getting warm. Confirmed, daniel you need to cool your brakes. Understood, brake bias back 2 clicks. Giving them the agility to have speed precision. Because no one knows like at t. 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We will all be able to say, the United Democratic party led the resistance, ensured that this president was a oneterm president , and elected democrats across this country a fiery start there for the new chair of the dnc, tom perez, after his election yesterday. He joins us live this morning. Thank you for joining us, mr. Chairman. Always a pleasure to be with you. You got a congratulation from the president yesterday right after your win. Congratulations to thomas perez. Who has just been named chairman of the dnc. I could not be happier for him or for the Republican Party. Your response . Well, you know, congressman ellison and i are united and our Democratic Unity is Donald Trumps worst nightmare. We not only had a good day here in atlanta yesterday, george. But we had a good day in delaware. Because the real challenge is, can we channel this energy that we see across america into positive action . In delaware, there was a race for a state senate seat. The balance of the senate was at stake. We came in there, we had a great candidate. The dnc supported. Our revolution supported. Grass roots activists supported. She kicked butt. And we took that senate seat. State senate. Thats what we have to do as democrats is help elect people in state houses. The presidency. Local government. Everywhere in between. That is a start. But i think you would agree, its just a start. Absolutely. Yesterday, you had bernie sanders. There was discord at the meeting. Actually some boos after you won. Bernie sanders came out with a warning. Of course, he backed keith ellison. He said, its imperative that tom, you, understand that the same old, same old is not working. And that we must open the doors of the party to working people and young people in a way that has never been done before. How do you do that . It starts with the partnership that congressman ellison and i have. We have been friends for a long time. Our values are identical. We want to make sure that everyone has a fair shake. We want to make sure that the woman i met in detroit, part of the fight for 15 movement, she slept in her car the night before i met her with her three children, we want to do better. We want to make sure that when you work overtime you get paid overtime. These are things that donald trump is fighting against. These are things that were all fighting for as democrats. When we lead with our values, we win. Thats what were going to do. Youre up against a brutal map, both in state houses and in the congressional midterms coming up in 2018. I want to put up a map from the 2016 election. Showing by county, the Election Results by county. The sea of red all across the country. How do you begin to turn that tide of red around when its so predominant in so much of the country . We begin by building strong parties in the 50 states and the territories. We didnt invest enough in our state Party Infrastructure. We didnt invest enough in grass roots organizing. We ignored rural swaths of america. We cant do that. We need an every zip code strategy. We need to redefine the role of the dnc so were helping to elect people from the school bard to the senate. The best way to do that is to build the strong infrastructure and strengthen partnerships with people in the labor movement. Planned parenthood. Others involved in the grass roots organizing of infrastructure. When we lead with values and are in every zip code, we succeed. Im very optimistic that we can do this. Because i think we have the right values. Think we have the right message. We saw it yesterday in delaware. Were going to see it down here in atlanta in a Congressional Election coming up in cobb county and surrounding atlanta. Thats what we have to do everywhere. A lot of work. Im optimistic. Hillary clinton put out a video just before the final vote calling for unity. Lets listen. The challenges we face as a party and a country are real. So now, more than ever, we need to stay engaged. Let resistance plus persistence equal progress for our party and our country. So Hillary Clinton is staying engaged. Are you hoping to see her run again in 2020 . Everyone who wants to run should run. Im confident well have a robust field of candidates. What im also confident about is as we invest in our state Party Infrastructures, were going to build strong capacity to elect democrats up and down the ticket. Theres such an electricity out there across america. Not just the traditional activists. Its people who come up to me and say, tom, i was a casual participant in democracy. I understand that democracy cant be a spectator support. Congressman ellison has been spectacular at tapping into that grass roots advocacy. Were working together to make sure we translate this activism into results. Because when we lead with our values, i think we succeed. Chairman perez, thank you for joining us. Pleasure to be with you. Lets bring it back to the roundtable. Bob, i want to begin with you. Theres a lot of energy out there in what theyre calling the resistance. The key question is can it be turned into an enduring and Effective Movement . That is the key question. Right now, there is a disconnect, george, between a rather sclerotic democratic apparatus, that is in complete disarray. And a huge uprising at the grass roots, mostly against trump. How can tom perez, can he actually utilize that, turn the Democratic Party from a vast fundraising machine into a movement . Hasnt been done before very easily. You remember in the vietnam war days, we had a huge uprising. But obviously, the Democratic Party had nothing to do with that. The thing that worries me most of all is that if you look at the problems inside the Democratic Party, they have a lot to do with the same sort of populist uprising were seeing across the country, including the donald Trump Campaign. People, for 35 years, have not had a raise. The average american is actually economically in a lot of economic desperation. Insecure. We have parts of this country that are really, desolate in terms of the economic activity. And so, youve got a lot of anger out there that nobody, neither the democrats nor the republicans, have come up from with a way to respond to. I guess the question is, stephanie, can that anger be channeled into something that delivers for these people . Or is it enough right now for democrats and the opposition simply to try to take down trump . I think you can never be wholly successful when youre just against something. You also have to be for something. I think what you heard, im not sure whether to call him secretary perez or chairman perez. Tom. Saying is that were on the right side of the issues. We have the right values to make this argument. I think what youll see him do is not just build help build the Party Infrastructure from the bottom up and provide the right tools to be able to do that all over the country. Not just the coast. Not just blue states. Not just battleground states. But also democrats stick to their values and argue for their values. Not just to prevent trump from doing bad things. What hes doing with the deportation force. What he did with the muslim ban. Democrats will speak up about that. Then what are democrats for . Raising the minimum wage. Increasing manufacturing bases. Providing more opportunities for education. These are all things that we can do to Start Building a stronger economy especially for the people who havent gotten a raise. David, are there any issues where they can cooperate with donald trump . Or is the price too high, the price that the activists impose too high on the elected officials . Yes, i think there are issues that people can cooperate on. The infrastructure is the classic one that people say they can create jo cooperate on. Create jobs. As long as there are no details out there. How you pay for it. As long as there are no details. The question is to what degree are people that consider themselves to be trumps voters going to be disappointed by the Trump Presidency . And how quickly . How quickly . All this ideological talk about economic nationalism, we have heard at cpac, they put a name to i didnt hear a lot of disappointment in that room. Just so you know. Well, that room is that room. The question is, the country. There are systemic, painful problems of globalization and deindustrialization that cannot be solved with a phone call or a tweet or an angry speech or trying to isolate the press and the First Amendment. Sooner or later, the donald trump show, excuse me. Let me finish. Sooner or later, the donald trump show, which is a projection of strength and authority, will have to deliver to his voters. And if he doesnt, in very real terms, if he cant supercede where the president cut the unemployment in half, and do better, then i think hes in trouble. I want to agree. I agree with the secretary. If the Republican Party was looking for its most pristine conservative voice, they probably would have picked somebody other than donald trump. Its the idea that hes willing to take on things and fight and hes willing to address these basic economic issues. Thats what he has to do. We only have about 20 seconds. What are the concrete things he has to deliver on . Let me be specific about this. I think at tephe end of the day it is making those wisconsin, pennsylvania, ohio, workingclass people see a real difference in their life. Well track it through their takehome pay and greater economic opportunity. If that doesnt happen, i agree, were in trouble. That has to be the last word. We dont have any time. Its the debate. Economic nationalism versus investing in people, their education, training. We have to go. Well be right back. And well be right back that is all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. Please tune in tuesday night. Ill be anchoring abc news live coverage of President Trumps first address to congress. Our whole Political Team is on hand. That starts at 9 00 eastern. Check out world news tonight. Ill see you tomorrow on gma. Slightly cooler and sunshine will fade away throughout the afternoon and were bringing in showers this evening. Ill track it for [ alarm weather. Eping ] [ laughter ] cartoons. Wait for it. 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