Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20170726

Humiliate them in public, which is a sign of weakness. Hes a man of courage. Hes a man of purpose. And hes a man of substance. Hes a man of very high integrity. And he is an eagle scout. And reversing history. President trump announces on twitter he is canceling the Obama Administrations acceptance of transgender people into the military. Even as he now predicts i can be more president ial than any president thats ever held this office. That i can tell you. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington where Senate Republicans are still searching for enough votes to pass some form of health care. The latest test being a straight repeal of obamacare after repeal and replace with amendments from senators cruz and portman failed tuesday night. Is the most likely option a barebones skinny repeal . And what the heck is that . Joining me now to sort all this out and the unprecedented war between the president and his own attorney general, Nbcs Kristen Welker at the white house and nbcs kasey hunt on capitol hill. Kasey, first to you. What is skinny repeal . I think i know but why dont you go through it . If you can hear me. Reporter well, andrea, im not sure that yes, i can, and i apologize. Were outside waiting for senators to arrive here, and we have a little bit of a peanut gallery, as im sure youre familiar with. But look, we dont know yet what this, quote unquote, skinny repeal will contain. Right now the conversations are around potentially eliminating the mandates, the individual mandate, the employer mandate, and potentially eliminating the medical device tax. Thats something that has actually had support from people in both parties. Its something that they think they might be able to get momentum behind. But really theyre just trying to cobble something together right now that they could eventually have a final vote on to say that they can that they have passed it through the senate and to take a look at what they could do with the house. But this is far from certain, andrea. Nine republicans voted last night against that massive overhaul package that of course weve been talking so much about. Were anticipating that the straight repeal vote thats set to come up here any minute will also fail, and then they will have to essentially go back to the drawing board. Were trying to talk to republican senators to get kind of a sense of whether they think they could do Something Like that. Lamar alexander was quoted as telling reporters this kind of a package would not be a solution to fixing the problems with obamacare. But this would potentially let them at least move on to the next thing which theres quite a bit of political appetite to do right now. Everyones a little worn out with this. But of course we shouldnt lose sight of the fact that there are a lot of americans waiting to find out what republicans are going to do. There are significant uncertainties now in the Insurance Markets that is having a real impact on people relying on these obamacare plans. Sos athis drags out and delays and theres still a lot of up certainty there are still these real world impacts going on. Andrea . And in fact, skinny repeal, whatever they call it, that would get rid of the individual mandate, get rid of the medical tax to support medical devices. So it would be devastating to many people who rely on these plans. Its not just some reduced form of health care. It really cuts the guts out of obamacare and the whole financing of it like a house of cards. Lets talk about Lisa Murkowski. The president tweeting against her today. And shes now responded, kasie. She of course had voted against the president. The president had tweeted, senator Lisa Murkowski of the great state of alaska really let the republicans and our country down yesterday. Too bad hes going after his own party, those who are rebellious. She has now responded and i think in an interview with you, kasie. Let me play this sound. I am in a position where im not looking to a reelection until 2022. Thats a long time away. And quite honestly, i dont think its wise to be operating on a daily basis thinking about what a statement or a response that causes you to be fearful of your electoral prospects. Were here to govern. She and susan collins, of course, getting the ire of the white house. And then today kristen welker, on twitter the president reversing the Obama Administrations transgender decision on active duty military. Doing it on twitter. And now criticized by john mckean, the chairman of the Armed Services committee, whos commenting, putting out a statement against what President Trump did on this. The pentagon is saying that they will defer all comment to the white house. But it is a big switch, and it is the first real sense of this president getting into the social issues that have been so controversial. Reporter thats right. This is yet another major shift, reversal of an obamaera policy. Andrea, President Trump announcing, as you say, on twitter this morning that effectively Transgender Service members can no longer serve in the military. Thats going to impact those who are currently serving as well as potential recruits in terms of the numbers, the amount of people it could impact. Theres a range weve seen everywhere from several to as many as 11,000. You mentioned senator john mccain. Let me read you a little bit of what he had to say, andrea, in this statement, which was scathing. He says, the president thes tweet this morning regarding Transgender Americans in the military is jet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via twitter. The statement was unclear. The department of defense has already decided to allow currently serving transgender individuals to stay in the military and many are serving honorably today. So there is some confusion about what specifically this means. Were going to have a briefing with Sarah Huckabee sanders. But theres also a backlash, andrea, who say this move is backwardslooking. I just spoke with someone who served in the military, who was openly transgender, who said look, these are people who are fighting and dying for their country and this is a rebuke by the commander in chief. It will not make our country stronger or safer. It will do the exact opposite. Now, in terms of what weve heard from then candidate trump on the campaign trail, he vowed to be someone who supported the lgbtq community. His daughter ivanka trump has been vocal, has tweeted about the importance of lgbtq rights, but this will be seen by that community as well as a number of civil Rights Groups like the aclu as the exact opposite, as discrimination against that group of people, andrea. And kristen, i just wanted to get a reality check on the Jeff Sessions, this unprecedented situation between the president and his attorney general. The whole independence of the Justice Department is on the line here. The president again tweeting today, why didnt a. G. Sessions replace acting fbi director andrew mccabe, a comey friend who was in charge of clinton investigation but got big dollars, 700,000, for his wifes political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives drain the swamp. We have to unpack and fact check all of that. Its quite confusing. But the bottom line is on twitter hes going after sessions. Sessions was seen i think at the white house, but he is telling Close Associates at the Justice Department he is not quitting. So hes carrying on. Ironically, a lot of the president s agenda. His very conservative agenda on Voting Rights and other such issues at the Justice Department. Hes been one of the more effective cabinet secretaries. And the recusal is mandated under the legal procedures governing conflict of interest for lawyers, judges, and of course for the a. G. His decision to recuse himself, andrea, has been praised by democrats, by republicans, by legal experts who say look, he served on the campaign and so it would have been a conflict of interest. So it was the right move for him to recuse himself. And yet the president continues to step up his attacks on a daily basis. He was asked yesterday over and over again why doesnt he just fire his attorney general if he no longer has confidence in him. He disputed that he was allowing him to twist in the wind. He said look, im just disappointed in his skiegs to recuse himself, i want him to get tougher on the leaks. I thought that was an interesting comment. Is he hanging that over his head and saying look, if you take this action on leaks, if you get tougher on leakers i will pull back some of my criticism of you . That remains to be seen whether that will actually happen. But it is our understanding that Jeff Sessions has no intention of going anywhere. Yes, the president s attacks are getting to him at this same time he and his supporters stress he has a lot of conservatives who are urging him to stay in that role. But it does raise questions about the independence of the judiciary and concerns, andrea, that the president s broader goal is to have a new a. G. In place who will remove the special counsel and ultimately get rid of the russia investigation. So a lot of concerns particularly on capitol hill about what the president is really up to here. Kristen welker, kasie hunt, thanks so much to both of you for starting us off. And joining me now is mike levitt, former utah governor and health and Human Services secretary to george w. Bush. And msnbc analyst eugene robinson, of course a columnist, pulitzer prizewinning columnist at the Washington Post. Governor, let me just start with eugene here on the Jeff Sessions issue because this is so unprecedented to both of you really, to have the president not just in open dispute with any old cabinet secretary. This is the attorney general of the United States. Theres supposed to be an independent judiciary. How have we come to pass to this situation . Well, donald trump was elected president. Thats how we came to pass. Weve never seen anything like this. You and i have been around here for a long time. Even in the days when bill clinton clearly was not thrilled with janet reno as attorney general and there was some conflict, there was nothing like this. He wasnt public about it. He complained privately, some of it leaked out. Exactly. It never goes public. And its not just before because there was no twitter then. Donald trump is going out, standing in front of microphones and lets watch this from his News Conference yesterday with the Prime Minister of lebanon. If he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office and i would have quite simply picked somebody else. I told you before, im very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell. Governor levitt, youve been in the cabinet, youve been in the cabinet with a lot of internal disputes, but this is pretty remarkable. And on top of which Jeff Sessions as a senator was the very first senator, very first person from the senate to endorse donald trump. Hes now saying that thats because he felt that he had such big crowds that Jeff Sessions was just going along to ride his coattails if you will. But how does he continue this way . What is his strategy here in this public war of words with his own attorney general . I have to confess that like many others this is not a reality i recognize. Ive been in a cabinet in two different roles, and there are times when a president disagrees with something that a cabinet member has done and has every right to have a conversation about the cabinet members performance. But generally and i think properly those are conversations that take place eye to eye, knee to knee, inside the oval office. And believe me, when that happens, cabinet members listen. But to do it in a public way is well, lets just say its a different management style than i think were accustomed to. And one of the things youve noticed as we have noticed is there are a number of republican senators who are former colleagues of Jeff Sessions, a number of conservatives rallying not only in the senate but in the media as well, rallying to Jeff Sessions defense. Im not sure how smart politically this is for the president. What does it project in terms of what kind of loyalty that he would give to his own people . Well, presumably donald trump recognized the quality of Jeff Sessions when he chose him as attorney general. Hes a fine man. Hes a dignified man. Hes a great public servant. And again, i think this is just a style of interaction were unaccustomed to and in my judgment not a productive one. Speaking of things that are productive and not productive, were going to have a series of votes now. Were expecting one very shortly. Weve already seen a defeat for the senate leadership. I want to ask both of you about this process that john mccain so strongly criticized on the floor. And theres some controversy over his own voting last night. But he says he will not vote for the substantive goals to become. The process is absurd. Were talking about between 1 6 and 1 5 of the economy and at the moment republicans in the senate are trying to reform and transform between 1 5 and 1 6 of the economy on the backs of envelopes, essentially making it it up as they go along, for strictly political reasons. This is no longer about helping the American People. Its no longer about shoring up Insurance Markets or making sure that medical care is more widely available or whatever your goal is. Theres no societal goal here. Theres a political goal. Its to fulfill a promise that was made. And the argument, the whole argument is that we have to do this because we made the promise no matter what it is we do. And governor levitt, as a former health and Human Services secretary, to be voting on legislation one after another, not only is it not read, theres no Congressional Budget Office score, we dont know whos helped, whos hurt, how many millions would be knocked off the rolls. How can the Republican Party defend this in the midterms and thereafter . First, can i say, andrea, i thought that john mccains statement yesterday was historically important. It was dramatic. It was wise. It was eloquent. And what he said about the history and the customs of the senate were words that every senator now and in the future should adhere to and listen. I do think theres some value in at least understanding the legislative strategy that Mitch Mcconnell is using. Hes essentially framing the issue so that he knows where the base votes are, and hes got 100 amendments now that hell start looking for ways in which he can piece this together. Whether thats the right legislative strategy from a policy standpoint i think is a separate question, but it is important to recognize that there is a strategy playing out here, and i think john mccain is right. If this doesnt work, then the senate owes it i think to the American People to go back to what he referred to as regular order. I thought it was very telling that he said to the applause of the democrats we need to get back to regular order. And then he said to the applause of the republicans, because the democrats didnt do it either. It was a kind of awkward humor that erupted inside the Senate Chamber at least as i heard it. It was telling and an important observation. And weve just heard that the votes that were supposed to be done one after another this morning are now delayed until 3 00. My suspicion is they dont have enough republican votes. And for many of these votes theyve been told by the parliamentarian they need 60 under reconciliation, whats called the budget process, not just the 50 that got it to the floor. And 60 is just not going to be possible according to any of the calculations that we have made. But is there anything that has been yet proposed that you think would improve obamacare and be a way of expanding healthcare or making it more viable economically . Both parties, andrea, acknowledge that there are things in the current law that need to be changed. I think the problem i think senator mccain hit the nail on the head when he said sometimes i and other senators have its been more important for us to win than it is to get it right. And his call was lets get it right. There are things on which this legislative body could agree if they could get down to the business of fixing health care. Well, we have to leave it there. But thank you so much, mike levitt. Thanks for being with us from utah and of course our friend here at the table, eugene robinson. And we have some breaking news. And it is good news. Its good to have some good news. Great news here in washington. Louisiana congressman steve scalise, majority whip, has been discharged from medstar hospital after spending more than a month recuperating from being critically injured in that june shooting at the alexandria, Virginia Baseball field practicing for their congressional baseball game. Hospital Officials Say the House Majority whip has made excellent progress, has had a number of surgeries. He will now begin a period of intensive inpatient rehabilitation. We continue to send our thoughts and prayers to the scalise family and hope progress continues and hes back on capitol hill soon. And well be right back. Tresi announcer tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. Dont use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Dont share needles or insulin pens. Dont reuse needles. The most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. Check your blood sugar. Low blood sugar can be serious and may be lifethreatening. Injection site reactions may occur. Tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical conditions. Taking tzds with insulins like tresiba® may cause serious side effects like heart failure. Your insulin dose shouldnt be changed without asking your prescriber. Get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, fast heartbeat, extreme drowsiness, swelling of your face, tongue, or throat, dizziness, or confusion. Ask your Health Care Provider if youre tresiba® ready. Covered by most insurance and medicare plans. Tresiba® ready deliits perfection. Ruit. Seriously . An epic soundtrack . Is there any other way . Thats what a smoothie should taste like. Visit a store today for fresh fruit smoothies and summer deals. For the neverbeforeseen two sided clean, just add water. One side deeply exfoliates the other gently smooths and a flexible body cleanser inside lathers for a close, complete clean. Just hang your duo to dry after each use, for dayafterday of touchably soft skin. Find your duo in the bodywash aisle. Available in olay, old spice and ivory. Theso when i need to book tant to mea hotel room,tion. I want someone that makes it easy. Booking. Com gets it. And with their price match, i know im getting the best price every time. Visit booking. Com. Booking. Yeah President Trump is ramping up his unprecedented criticism of his attorney general, telling the wall street journal the former alabama senator, the first in the senate to endorse him, only did it because of large crowds at the trump rally, saying he looks at 40,000 people and then he probably says, what do i have to lose . And he endorsed me. Its not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement. But im very disappointed in Jeff Sessions. And lets get the inside scoop from susan page, usa today Washington Bureau chief. Sam fine, daily beast politics editor. And msnbc contributor. And peter nicholas, wall street Journal White House reporter. And one of the reporters who conducted that interview with the president. So let me start with you, peter. We know that when the New York Times was with the president last week there was only hope hicks, whos a very close aide, but not anyone whos going to tell the president to stop talking and not get into trouble. There was an army of advisers in the mnuchin excuse me, in the mooch era. Era of mooch. Now youve got a communications team. Thats right. It was a very different situation than the New York Times confronted when they did their interview last week. What we saw is gary cohn, who kind of sat with us in front of the president s desk. We also saw reince priebus, the white house chief of staff. We saw ivanka trump, the president s daughter. And we saw Anthony Scaramucci. So it was a large cast of characters who were in the president s field of vision. I did have a sense they were there as sort of a visual reminder of some kind that he needs to stay on message perhaps. And avoid some of those fireworks. But he stayed on message and still criticized his attorney general and criticized his secretary of state for not being tough enough on iran, for doing what all the other countries and the u. N. Weapons inspectors say, that iran for all of its other aggressions and support for terrorism that in the limited arena of the Iran Nuclear Deal iran is complying. So now theyve taken that away. Its going to be a state department decision. Thats exactly right. And what we did hear from the president is he will overrule his advisers when he decides whether or not iran is compliant. That his own view is that they are not compliant. He seemed unhappy with the decision to proclaim them compliant. And he said that next time around hes less likely to accept that judgment and is prepared to overrule i guess tillerson and mattis if need be to conclude that theyre not in compliance. So that was quite a statement from him. And every 90 days under the terms of that agreement the twoyearold agreement, sam, theyve got to Tell Congress they are or they are not complying. And this would be a big dramatic change. Tillerson has been undercut on persian gulf policy, middle east policy. Theres a big dispute ongoing about afghanistan, whether to send more troops. The pentagon wants more troops. The president doesnt. Whats going on with Foreign Policy . Its tough to figure out, to be honest. Now theres reports that they are sort of reverseengineering a reason to stay in afghanistan by talking to the president about the mineral supplies that we can mine economic benefit. And then youve got sessions. And sam, forgive me for dwelling on this but its so you are forgiven. Its so unprecedented. Its very odd. The threat here is he undercuts everybody. There are obviously exceptions to this rule, but they tend to not be the highprofile people in his cabinet. But there is not a Single Person of significance that he has not undercut. He even undercut Jared Kushner at one point in time when he talked about how he was getting more famous than he was. So there is this whole talk about how the president values loyalty and loyalty matters but hes an immensely disloyal person to the people around him and the common theme of the Trump Administration is that he will throw you out if he feels like youre not doing his bidding. And in this case with Jeff Sessions it appears that he has soured on him strictly because Jeff Sessions followed protocol and did what everyone considers to be the right ethical thing to do, which is recuse himself from this russia investigation. And then we have a tweetstorm, susan, an announcement about transgender policy, reversing the obama policy, which is now being criticized. The reversal has been criticized by john mccain, the Armed Services chairman. You know, interestingly also by senator joni ernst whos issued a statement. Shes another conservative republican with a military background. Conservative on social issues. And she says in her statement that she served with all sorts of people. If theyre willing to serve and able to serve, shes in favor of allowing them to serve, although she doesnt support financially providing medical coverage for transition surgery and treatment. So here you have two conservative republicans with Strong Military backgrounds raising questions. And what did we hear from the Pentagon Press office . They have referred all questions about this to the white house. There are reports that the Pentagon Press office wasnt even aware the president planned to announce this big reversal this morning. Pretty extraordinary. And one other little quick thing and just check this out. Tweeted out and well put it out online. Rick perry, the energy secretary, and they are in charge of our nuclear weapons, was pranked by these russians comedians pretending to be the ukrainian Prime Minister. Yes. And talking Energy Policy with these two comics from moscow. It happens. It could happen to any of us. Youve been pranked by russian comedians before, andrea. I probably didnt know it. I probably still dont know it. Thank you so much. Congratulations on your big get, your interview. Sam stein, susan page. Thank you. Coming up, trumps world. While the president picks a fight with members of his own cabinet, what does he have to say about russia and waging war against isis . Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports, only on msnbc. Shawn evans its 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. And at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. Today were bringing you americas number one shave at lower prices every day. Putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. As one of those workers, im proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. Gillette the best a man can get. But their nutritional needs vremain instinctual. D, thats why theres purina one true instinct. Nutrientdense, proteinrich, real meat number one. This is a different breed of nutrition. Purina one, true instinct. Backpack, check. Thats the family taking care of business. Awesome notebook check. But who takes care of them . Office depot office max. This week, these composition books are just 25 cents each. Taking care of business the Energy Conscious whopeople among usle . Say small actions can add up to something. Humongous. A little thing here. A little thing there. Starts to feel like a badge maybe millions can wear. Who are all these caretakers, advocates too . Turns out, its californians its me and its you. Dont stop now, its easy to add to the routine. Join Energy Upgrade california and do your thing. I am not a fan of assad. I certainly think that what hes done to that country and to humanity is horrible. Had president obama gone across that line and done what he should have done, i dont believe youd have russia and i dont believe youd have iran to anywhere near the extent and maybe not at all in syria today. President trump echoing what cia director mike pompeo told tuesday in aspen last week, that the Obama Administration invited russia into syria and is somehow to blame for everything that has followed. Joining me now is brett mcguirk, the special president ial envoy for the Global Coalition to defeat isis. Brett, its very good to see you. Youve done this for a number of years. Youve been balancing all sorts of big challenges there. As we approach raqqa now as the next major target, maybe tal afar in iraq according to general dunforth, but raqqa really is the next big city in syria of course after mosul falling, what is the big challenge here . In terms of all of these disparate elements including the syrian kurds who turkey doesnt like and views as terrorists. Theres obviously a lot. Its a very complex picture. But i think we have a very clear and welldefined policy. Number one, we are in the stages of defeating isis and really annihilating isis. Thats the direction from President Trump which we are now executing on the ground. When it comes to raqqa the Syrian Democratic force wiz were working with and the force inside raqqa is about 70 local arabs, sunni arabs from the area. About 40 of raqqa now has already been cleared of isis terrorists. This is very much on plan. This has a long ways to go. Its a very tough battle. The battle began on june 6th. So were about six weeks into it. But its going quite well so far. About 40 of raqqa is cleared. We of course finished mosul a couple weeks ago. And as you just mentioned, general dunford, we have a very clear now plan, step by step for the final areas that isis continues to hold. This will take time, but the plan is very well defined and coming together. And a part of it, andrea, also is the bigger picture. Your leadin segment mentioned the russians in syria. Look, were working to find areas in which our interests converge in syria and we can find areas of the country in which we can Work Together to basically deescalate the overall violence. That means fewer people dying, fewer refugees, trying to return people to their homes. So we did that in the southwest of syria. Its a very important part of syria, right on the border of israel and jordan. That ceasefire now has been in place for over two weeks, its holding remarkably well and unlike other ceasefires we tried, what different is we worked for a couple months with the russians and jordanians who are a critical player in this, and King Abdullah was a real driver of this process, to work out a very painstaking negotiation kind of block by block through dpchlt aras city and in this part of syria for what we call a ceasefire line, a line of contact. This is really the first ceasefire weve had in syria where hef a very detailed line of contact where Everybody Knows where theyre supposed to be. So so far this is Holding Quite well. Were encouraged by it. Lives have already been saved. Well continue to work on that. Together, quiet down syria, deescalate the violence while we focus on finishing off isis. But finishing off isis is the real challenge because youve driven them out of mosul but theyve fled into the desert, theyve disappeared, they could be guerrilriluerrilla forces an interpol has put out a notice of a suicide squad of isis fighters, 173 strong, armed and trained and ready to strike europe. What do you do once you get back these cities but then theyre on the loose . Well, actually, what weve done it took some time to put this together. We had to seal the border with turkey. Remember, 40,000 foreign fighters, 40,000 foreign jihadis from all over the world fled into syria from traveling through turkey. 2013, 14, 15, 16. So what we had to dos with work with the turks to seal that border. Thats now done. Very difficult for these fighters to get into syria and most importantly its now almost impossible for them to get out. Our strategy is not to just push them into the desert. It is to encircle where isis is and then annihilate them, particularly the foreign fighters. Our policy is very clear. Any foreign fighter that is in syria or iraq still it is our policy to make sure they can never get out of iraq and syria. They will die there. In mosul the reason the battle is so intense in the last three weeks of that battle because we had hundreds of foreign fighters from all around the world as far away as china that barricaded themselves in the old city in civilian structures wearing suicide vests killing civilians as they tried to leave, but none of those foreign fighters got out. So it is our strategy to make sure they cannot get out. You mentioned interpol but this is very important. Interpol is a member of our Global Coalition. And thats symbolic because this is not just a military fight on the ground in iraq and syria. Its a Global Coalition. It continues to grow. Now has 73 members. We just added four members in recent weeks, four critical much not countries. And interpol is a member because what we are doing when we find information about a foreign fighter or someone who tried to join isis or did join isis its a global data base now of 19,000 names so that any interpol member country and members of our coalition can share that information so at a routine traffic stop, at a border check or at a search were able to find these people and protect our own homeland. This will be painstaking work over the years ahead, but thats why we built this Global Coalition to stay ahead of it. And interpol is really critical on the Law Enforcement side, a critical member of our coalition. Brett mcguirk from the state department. The man on the spot. I know youre just back from syria last week. Thank you very much for all youre doing. Thank you so much. You bet. And coming up the pentagon issuing a troubling new warning on north koreas missile capabilities. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. In body, in spirit, in the now. Boost® high protein its intelligent nutrition with 15 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. For when you need a little extra. Boost® the number one high protein complete nutritional drink. Be up for it how to win at business. Step one. Point decisively with your glasses. Abracadabra the stage is yours. Step two. Choose laquinta. Where youll feel like the king of the road. Check out our summer rates now at lq. Com. For her compassion and care. He spent decades fighting to give families a second chance. But to help others, they first had to protect themselves. I have afib. Even for a nurse, its complicated. And it puts me at higher risk of stroke. That would be devastating. I had to learn all i could to help protect myself. Once i got the facts, my doctor and i chose xarelto®. Xarelto®. To help keep me protected. Oncedaily xarelto®, a latestgeneration blood thinner. Significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. It has similar effectiveness to warfarin. Xarelto® works differently. Warfarin interferes with at least 6 bloodclotting factors. Xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor interacting with less of your bodys natural bloodclotting function. For afib patients wellmanaged on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® compares in reducing the risk of stroke. Dont stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase risk of stroke. While taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. It may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. If youve had spinal anesthesia, watch for back pain or any nerve or musclerelated signs or symptoms. Do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures. And before starting xarelto®about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. Its important to learn all you can. To help protect yourself from a stroke. Talk to your doctor about xarelto®. Theres more to know™. Welcome back. There are troubling signs today that north korea may be getting ready to test another longrange missile. As soon as tonight. Even as u. S. Intelligence now believes the regime could be able to strike the u. S. Mainland with a Nuclear Armed missile as early as next year. That is a twoyear shortening of the timeline. Joining me now from capitol hill is democratic senator chris van hollen. Senator, thanks for joining us. I want to ask you about it threat because now were hearing they could have a mini warhead if they can solve the reentry problem on the warhead side, the heat factor obviously, as early, as soon as 2018. This puts a huge pressure on our military to come up with a military plan for a problem for which many say there is no military solution. Well, its a very dangerous situation as you say. It looks like theyre on track to have an icbm that could strike the United States a lot sooner than people thought. Theyve already got nuclear weapons. Which is why, andrea, weve got to step up in an urgent way. The economic pressure on north korea. The reality is we have u. S. Sanctions in place. There are International Sanctions in place. But lots of firms and banks around the world are violating those sanctions. Theyre doing business with north korea. Especially chinese banks. Which is why senator toomey of pennsylvania and i have introduced Bipartisan Legislation to put greater economic sanctions on north korea using the model we had in the iran sanctions legislation. And its why the house just the other day passed sanctions on north korea. Weve got to move forward right away and get those into place. Senator corker, who of course you know is the Foreign Relations chairman, said to David Ignatius of the Washington Post this morning that theyre going to strip the north korea part out so that they would not have as big a challenge in conference to coordinate the senate and house bills because the senate bill as you know is 971, or 972. The house bill passed Something Like 4173. I dont remember the numbers off the top of my head. But it was overwhelming vetoproof. As long as you can pull the north korea piece that the house added out. Do you have any support for your standalone bill . Well, my view is we need to move quickly. We should adopt the north korea sanctions bill from the house. But i do believe it needs to be supplemental down the road. What i dont want to have happen is any delay because i think its important we move forward right away. I just had a chance to question secretary mnuchin, the secretary of treasury, in a Committee Hearing the other day. Actually, earlier today. I asked him if President Trump had agreed to sign the legislation that passed the house both on the north korea sanctions and the russia sanctions. He said he didnt know yet. Weve got to get moving on this. As youve just indicated, were getting urgent reports about escalating developments in north korea, and we know there are measures we can take economically. Lets move quickly and comprehensively. And there is some indication from Anthony Scaramucci that he has not decided yet, the president hasnt decided whether hes going to sign this. These votes have been so overwhelming that if he vetoes it hes going to be overridden. It would be the first override of donald up from. Maybe he would invite that, to set himself up against the republican congress. I dont know whether that is part of the strategy. Let me ask you about Jeff Sessions because a number of your republican conservative colleagues have come to his defense. And many of your democratic colleagues and perhaps you as well disagree with some of his policies. Very conservative enforcement policies, volting rights, sanctuary cities, but it cant be healthy for the attorney general of the United States to be under attack from the president of the United States. Andrea, as you said, i have strong disagreements with the positions attorney general sessions has taken on all sorts of issues. The ones you mentioned. Also his efforts to roll back some of the efforts to make sure we dont have minimum mandatory sentences for nonviolent offenders. Substance abuse should be treated as a health issue more than a criminal justice issue. But with all that being said it is dangerous to have a president of the United States talking about removing the attorney general because now the attorney general did what was the right thing to do and really what was legally required for him to do, which was recuse himself with respect to the russia investigation. So sessions did exactly the right thing in that respect. He said ive been part of the Trump Campaign so, i cannot be impartial when it comes to investigating potential collusion between the Trump Campaign and the russians, recused himself, and of course now we have a special counsel, robert mueller. But it is outrageous and really verges on another kind of obstruction of justice to penalize the attorney general. And of course it would be even more outrageous if he got somebody in his place in order to fire mueller, which is what some people are speculating. All of this clearly violates the bounds of the constitutional sort of structure and is a very dangerous moment constitutionally if thats whats going on. Senator van hollen, thank you very much. Thanks for being with us today. And well be right back. Whuuuuuat . Rtgage offer from the bank today. You never just get one offer. Go to lendingtree. Com and shop multiple loan offers for free free . Yeah. Could save thousands. You should probably buy me dinner. No. Go to lendingtree. Com for a new home loan or refinance. Receive up to five free offers and choose the loan thats right for you. Our average customer could lower their monthly bills by over three hundred dollars. Go to lendingtree. Com right now. singsong budget meeting. Sweet. If you compare last quarter. Its no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with no artificial preservatives, flavours or dyes. Parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what . You could apply for a Medicare Supplement Insurance 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. 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. In its first challenge to the president , the republicancontrolled house overwhelmingly joined the senate last night in approving new sanctions against russia with a vetoproof majority, also adding north korea and iran was already in that bill. Joining me now, nbc News Senior National security analyst, juan zerate, security adviser to george w. Bush, and evelyn farcuss for russia, ukraine and eurasia, nbc Foreign Policy contributor. With all of your experience, you can sort this all out. First of all, the secretary of state really challenged very credible reports, from my reporting, hes frustrated, the president criticizing him in the wall street journal for recertifying iran last week for obeying at least the Nuclear Agreement and him saying next time hes going to do it himself because hes sure they really arent obeying it. Yeah. They have already taken the middle east policy away from him. Thats green blat, special envoy of the white house. Jared kushner is interfering in all of this persian gulf policy. What does the secretary of state do . Well, i think the first problem is, you have a lot of these policy disputes, which are some of them serious. Serious questions like the recertification of iran and what the u. S. Iran relationship should look like, playing out in the twittersphere instead of in the sit room. And i think thats a part of the challenge were seeing, obviously with the attorney general, as well. You also have the fact that you have so many nearterm crises bubbling up at once. You have the crisis in the persian gulf between qatar and our allies, saudi arabia and the uae. Greater confrontation with iran, north korea inching closer and closer to the ability to hit the United States with a nuclear weapon. All of these things are urgent, and i think the Administration Six months in is still trying to find their feet as to how they manage all of these policy challenges at once. Especially as they try to pivot from the obama era and some of the policies that they have been handed. Let me just drill down on one of those things and follow up with evelyn. North korea, according to our reporting, and also the times Washington Post first to report it, the new assessment they have figured out how to miniaturize the warhead and put it on the longrange missile. Havent ironed out the reentry, but the estimate is a year, two years sooner than we thought. Yeah, the intelligence communities both in the United States and in the region have debated what the missile capabilities have been, whether or not they could create an intercontinental capability. And youre right, the last link in that is the last entry of the vehicle, the ability to bring the missile down on to a target. The second part is, have they minute tourized a nuclear device. Still some debate on that. If they are quickening that pace, we are reaching that closing window of opportunity to try to prevent their capability to threaten the United States directly. That is gamechanging. That also, andrea, explains why the administration has been so urgent, why they claim the era of strategic patience has to be over, and why they have been trying to put more pressure on china to affect the calculus in pyongyang. Evelyn, youre a pentagon expert. What are the military options what so much of this is buried underground . How do you target for a preemptive strike . I dont think there are good military options and i remember when i went to pyongyang and the nuclear facility, the only one they had at the time, the plutoniumbased program, the high end of the estimate was material for ten weapons. Now the high end is about 48. So its not just the capability, the ability to reach the United States. But also the proliferation danger. You know, now that they have more material. The military options are not very good. And thats why i think you see the administration trying to put pressure on china, on russia, as well, and on obviously north korea to get back to the negotiating table. Im a little bit nervous, because they seem to be threatening regime change. You saw that, even in your interview when you interviewed general dunford, our patience running out. And that worries me a bit. Because regime change is the last thing thats actually going to make russia even more intransigent when it comes to dealing with north korea and helping us, as well as china. The chinese recently moved troops to the border. Theyre clearly worried. The border with north korea. Theyre clearly worried. Im going to have to leave it there. I think the administration is just trying to change the calculus. Change the motivations. And in the iran context, keep in mind, israel was saberrattling. A lot of experts think that helped bring iran to the table, effectuated sanctions from europe. The u. S. May be trying to do that with north korea. Thank you so much. Thank you. Could not think of better guests today. Thank you. More ahead. Well be right back. No, please, please, oh shrieks in terror heavy breathing and snorting no, no. The running of the bulldogs . Surprising. Whats not surprising . How much money aleia saved by switching to geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Its my decision to make its nbeauty last. Ix. Roc® retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. And the longer i use it, the better it works. Retinol correxion® from roc methods, not miracles. ™ theto me than my vacation. Tant so when i need to book a hotel, i want someone who makes it easy to find what i want. Booking. Com gets it. And with their price match, i know im getting the best price every time. Cmon, gary your vacation is very important. Thats why booking. Com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. Visit booking. Com now to find out why were booking. Yeah and thanks for being with us. That does it for this edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Remember, follow the show online on facebook and on twitter mitchellreports. Craig melvin is next here on msnbc. Hi, craig. Good to see you, my friend. Good wednesday afternoon to you. Craig melvin here at msnbc headquarters in new york city. Transgender ban. President trump taking to twitter to call for a total ban on transgender individuals in any capacity in the armed forces. What it means for the thousands of Transgender Americans already enlisted in the military. Also this afternoon, repeal and delay. A little over two hours, the gop will be putting up their latest bill to repeal obamacare. That one also widely expected to fail. So whats next in the health care fight . And still slamming sessions. Day three of the president s twitter tirade against his attorney general. What hes saying today, as Oval Office Insiders suggest there could be some major changes coming to the department of justice. Well get to that in just a moment. But we start with two big fights. The one