And didnt. That request did not come to us. It went to the department of justice. Reporter steve king was saying we cant restart civilization. The white house have any reaction . Ill definitely touch base with the president and get back to you. Hallie. Reporter you just said a minute ago what the president meant when he tweeted about the wiretapping was and you sort of explained it. You also stood at the podium and says the tweet speaks for itself. When do you decide a president s twee, when his words are open to interpretation and am they stand on their own . Im sorry, can you further explain . His tweets do speak for themselves. Reporter but you interpreted it for peter saying, well, he didnt mean thats not what i said. No no reporter you said when he meant wiretapping, he meant surveillance. Thats whatnot he said. He had it in quotes. Reporter youre interpreting the tweet for us. No, in some cases ill ask about what the quotes mean. Reporter did you ask this . Yes. He said i was referring to surveillance overall. It was something that had been referred too in other reports. Reporter he cited other reports in his conversation with you . Yes. Reporter is that based dab on good try. Ive already been clear on that. Reporter i have a second. I want to go back to health care. Yes or no. Are cbo numbers legitimate or not . Thats not my determination to make. Im telling as i mentioned reporter the numbers legitimate . Hallie, it depends. A lot of things hold on, hallie up. Guys have like an nbc thing. Let me answer the question. I think when you look at whatever that number is, whether its budget or projections over or whatever, i think theres a track record that goes along a lot of times with whether or not the projections in certain areas, whether its unemployment, budgetary numbers, whatever our what the track record is. All im suggesting to you is very clearly that the numbers they did the last time ty did health care were off by more than 50 when it came to the number of people insured. Thats not my interpretation. Thats a fact. And i think its important for people to understand the differences. E eamon. Reporter there are two possibilities. The president made a decision back in november and Preet Bharara came down to the lobby of trump tower and said the president made that commitment. Did the president make that commitment to preelt bharara . I dont think it matters at the end of the day. The attorney general followed the practice for the last several administrations and asked the attorney generals from the last administration to submit their resignation. Reporter it matters in investigations and also the president made a commitment. If he made a commitment, why de change his mind . As i mentioned earlier, he called him to thank him for his service last week. He followed in the past practice of last several administrations and last several administrations they asked them to step down. Thats the appropriate thing. Reporter whats the difference i called on someone, thank you. Reporter Veronica Cleary from fox 5. I have two questions. The first, especially in light of whats happened in the room here today, the president tweeted this morning that much of the media is being rude and that we should be nice. So thats nice. Reporter my question is, is it our job to be nice . Do you think were nice . As i thank you, veronica. Ill leave it at this. I think ive been asked for my personal opinion several times. Thats not my job. I dont get up here to speak for myself. I speak for the president. I think that he has been very clear he doesnt believe some of the behavior and the reporting has been appropriate. And as to hallies point, i will let the tweet speak for itself. Reporter second question. But in is about you. The interaction you had at the apple store this weekend, what would be, i guess, your message to individuals who want to maybe i see that woman was you could argue, was very aggressive. If somebody doesnt want to be aggressive and has a question for you, what would be your kind of message to a regular citizen that has an issue . Ask it. I interact with individuals all day long. 99 of them are pleasant, even with people who may not agree. With our philosophy or our programs or whatever. But its a free country. And the beauty of it is that people can act how they want, no matter how thats interpreted. As long as they step on the stay on the right side of the first amendment, were fine. Jessica . Reporter thanks, sean. You said when the president said wiretapping in that tweet, he meant a whole host of surveillance types. We can be crystal clear, what surveillance types was he referring to then . What would you consider part of that range . I think there is theres a whole host of tactics that can be used to monitor somebody, either through wiretap or other ways in which you can surveil somebody. Reporter we took that to mean monitoring his calls specifically. What else would you include . Theres a whole host of things that fall into that category so im not sure how you took it. But i think there is a wide range of ways in which somebody can be monitored or followed up on. And i think if you contacted, you know, one of the Law Enforcement agencies, they will provide you with a whole host of ways. Thank you all. Be safe tomorrow with the snow. Thank you very much. Take care. Stay safe. Are you briefing tomorrow . Sean spicer taking a lot of tough questions from reporters there in the Briefing Room telling our own nbc reporters that you guys have an nbc thing. Yes, we do. Its called journalism. Well talk about two things from hour. First off, its going to be obamacare and the repeal of obamacare and the replacement of it with the Republican Health care plan. And the cbo score that is that we are awaiting. Secondly, what we just heard much of in that Briefing Room from hallie jack soson and Pete Alexander asking sean spicer when the American Public can trust what the president says. Peter alex ealexander is with u. Did you get an answer . Reporter ill let you be the judge. Whats striking is this is based on the conversation we had with sean spicer on friday. The president over the course of the campaign was heavily critical of the jobs number, and he said through sean spicer they were phoney then but very real now. The question i was trying to get to, when can we believe the president s words . When he accuses president obama of wiretapping, when will he say that was phoney or vice versa . Whether we got an answer, most can judge for themselves. Sean spicer said to me, if the president isnt joking, you can believe him, which raises another question about when is the president joking is when he isnt. Katy . That is a very good question. One thing we learned having watched donald trump now as a politician for coming on almost two years, i think the American People at home will watch this will know this as well, if it benefits donald trump, he likes it, if it does not benefit donald trump, he does not like it. Thats usually when its fake or terrible or sad. Rick tyler is here with me, an msnbc contributor. Also the former spokesperson for the ted cruz campaign. Rick, you know, its been a week since the president President Trump tweeted to the American Public and his millions and millions of followers that it is is it illegal is it legal for a sitting president to be wiretapping a president prior to the election . Hes basically ying that president Obama Wiretapped him, accused him. Saying he h evidence of this. The white house has not provided any of that evidence. There was a deadline today. The deadline today. The doj i think theyre going to show a microwave. Rick is being funny, referring to Kellyanne Conway saying earlier today her microwave over the weekend theres no evidence. I dont suspect theyll provide any. Maybe this has happened, we dont know about it, but someone on the white house staff should have walked into the oval office and said, mr. President , were going to walk this back. Until we walk this back, this is going to go on and on and on. Now, unless you think this is productive, well go on and on with it, but i cant imagine that its productive. Do you have any sense of anybody in that white house being able to walk into the oval office and saying, mr. President , we have to walk this back . Hes never really walked anything back. Hes apologized once. That apology came after the access Hollywood Tape and it was tepid. Could say whether or not it was a sufficient apology. He never walked back claiming barack obama was not an american citizen. That went on that was the beginning of his political career and hes never walked that back. Do we have kasie hunt with us yet . Kasie hunt, im glad we have you. Youre on capitol hill. Talk to me about the deadline that the doj faces today to get proof to the Intelligence Committee and the house there for this wiretapping claim. Reporter well, it does sound as though from what spicer had to say they have certainly not encouraged the doj to respond in a material way to in letter. And we do know that inside the letter, the house Intelligence Committee did not say if you do not answer our questions, we will subpoena this information. They didnt say what mig ppen in the event that there was no response. Now, i think that you can probably anticipate some public anger potentially from democrats if, in fact, they do get no response at all to this letter. But at this stage, its not clear that well actually understand or see any response or lack thereof. Next week were expecting jim comb y direct comey, director of the fbi, to testify in front of the house intelligence que. That might be a forum where you see people press further on this. While the questions have focused on this house intelligence demand, there is also senator lindsey graham, whos doing a parallel investigation in his judiciary subcommittee who also has power of subpoena and asked for this same information. Its entirely possible it may come out in a different way, depending on who congress demands. I do think to a certain extent the administration could potentially in this area learn that congress, as coequal branch of government, does have some teeth. Pete williams in our Washington Bureau and our justice correspondent, whose responsibility is it to hand over this evidence . The white house President Trump says he saw the evidence. The doj is the one that Congress Asked for the evidence from, but where does the responsibility lie here . Well, im not sure i know the answer to that question. I think i would look at it from the other perspective, which is where should congress go to get the information. It does seem the administration is in a bit of a box here. On the one hand, the president has asked the congress to investigate this. Kellyanne conway said this morning theyre not going to comment until they investigate. It has to go back to the agencies involved here to try to get the answer. The Justice Department seems like a logical first stop. I agree with kasie that i wouldnt call this a deadline. That implies if something doesnt happen theyll take away the keys to the car. Thats clearly not going to happen. What the Justice Department says is theyre studying the letter. The letter hasnt been released publicly because apparently its sensitive. It apparently discloses the sort of things that might happen that gets into the process, some of which is normally classified. So, we havent seen the letter ourselves or we are likely not going to see the response. Is there any information that the doj could not give to the house Intelligence Committee . Any information that might be above their classification level . No, i dont think it would be a classification issue. The only time the Justice Department normally doesnt give material to congress is if there is a criminal investigation. You sort of see that going on right now with the russian investigation. The Justice Department traditionally doesnt like to share things with congress because it could undercut a criminal investigation, but thats dont know that thats whats going on here. I think this is simply well have to wait and see what they give them. We just dont know how theyre going to respond to this. Lets switch gears to the House Health Care bill and the cbo rating that we are still awaiting. Peter alexander, you had an exchange with sean spicer on whether or not the white house is going to believe the rating and whether or not we should believe the president s words about it. Lets take a listen. Eporr on the cbo report, did the president think it was real then and phoney now . What cbo report. Reporter on the expectation the cbo report is coming out about which you said if youre looking to the cbo for accuracy, youre looking to the wrong place. Three years ago you confirmed obamacare is bad for the economy. It was bad for the economy. Reporter the bottom line no, no. Reporter you said its not the place to find accuracy. Lets look at the cbos projection. It said thy projection on obamacare was in 2016 would have 24 Million People on it. The actual figure is 10. 4 Million People. Half the number of people it predicted would be insured were on it. The last time they did this they were wildly off. The number keeps declining. The question is, when can we trust the president when he says you asked a question about cbo and now conflating it with a question reporter the question in simple terms is when he says something when he says something, can we prust that its real yes. Reporter or assume its phoney . Donald trump has said multiple times in the past, hes cited the cbo multiple times on twitter. When he has criticized obamacare. When he did criticize obamacare. Peter, what do you make of that answer . Reporter well, bottom line is hes not the first politician to pick facts he likes andse them. What is unique in this situation is as president right now, puts lot of americans in a unique position, as well as lawmakers to understand when what he is saying is a real comment and when its a phoney one. That applies not just to wiretapping, the topic of cbo and the topic the president brought up which is incendiary, explosive sdpribd at the time, that more than 3 million americans voted illegally during the past election. Theres a task force being formed but nothing has gone further with that. The same applies to this wiretapping issue. We all wait and try to get any better understanding of whether this is something the president truly believes or something he was riffing on twitter on a saturday morning. Howard, how do democrats and can they take advantage of all this confusion . Well, despite the claims of spicer and trump, et cetera, et cetera, cbo is the most widely respected prognosticator in the country. The spicer quote, of course, is totally inaccurate as it often is. The reason for the shortfall in uninsured addition in insured people because republican governors refuse to expand medicaid, like in texas, which has 22 of adults with no Health Insurance or children with no Health Insurance. The cbo missed the mark because the republicans made them miss the mark. So, you know, i find this to be an incredibly distasteful and dishonest discussion. I think the American People know that. The one thing weve established in this first 50someodd days is donald trump does not tell the truth very oft its impossible to distinguish when he is tellinghe truth and when hes tellg the truth. Every american is going to make up their own mind about when they think hes telling the truth and when he isnt. His general the general view of donald trump is hes a guy thats not honest. I think thats going to be very harmful to him. Not now but some time down the line. We may be seeing the beginning of this with this investigation about the proof of obamas supposed wiretapping and russians and all this other stuff. Rick, do you think thats going to be an issue among republicans . It could be well, its an issue are you asking me . I was asking rick, but go on, howard. Im sorry. Well, the issue for republicans is, when do you stand up for the country and stop protecting donald trump . Nunez the chairman of the committee has mostly been a shield for trump. Hes going to have to actually have to do his job. Well find out if hes going to do his job next week when they interview comey, buecause theres some very tough questions comey will be asked and hes going to tell the truth. The truth will be uncomfortable for republicans and particularly President Trump. As governor dean knows, in politics you have resip rcipror. Its not a repeal at all, which is why the Freedom Caucus is so upset because the bill actually says it is it is a bill to amend obamacare. So, you can take seans big stack of papers and little republican stack, dump it on the democratic stack and thats what you have. Thats what this bill is. Theyre pitching it as repeal and replace. So, a lot of members you can because its smaller, its not better. Its not better. Its actually the whole thing. The whole thing combined. But sometimes republicans will say, look, the president needs this. Oftentimes that happens when the president has been in the Republican Party, has been in the trenches with the gop, has gone out and campaigned and is aligned with the party. Hes not. Hes a populist, hell do what he needs to get done. The question is, do they believe obama will be im sorry, that trump will be there to have their back when they make this difficult vote . I dont know. Is donald trump just for donald trump or is he for the Republican Party . Thats a big question that nobody has a real answer to. Not yet. Its an answer they dont necessarily want to have. Peter alexander, kasie hunt, rick tyler and howard dean, thank you for breaking down that press briefing with me. Meanwhile, another congressman is clouded in controversy after a weekend tweet that his critics call racist. Iowa steve king siding with a controversial politician overseas and hes not backing down. In an interview this is morning. This western civilization is a superior civilization. And we want to share it with everybody. Well ask a senator from one of the most diverse states in the country what she thinks. Snooit. Right now i want to turn to microsoft pulse question of the day. Were asking, are you worried about losing your coverage under the house Gop Health Care plan . The poll is open. Cast your vote at pulse. Msnbc. Com. Dad likare you going to weeks be using my car . Until my Insurance Claim goes through this is our car. Mr. Parker, my parents have allstate. They have this claim satisfaction guarantee. Really . Their claim experience is fast, fair, and hasslefree or they get their, like, money back. Saraaah come to prom with me no. Hey mr. Parr. Claim satisfaction guarantee, only from allstate. Its good to be in good hands. [and her new business i do, to jeanetgo. Jeanette was excellent at marrying people. But had trouble getting paid. Not a good time, jeanette. Even worse. Now im uncomfortable. But heres the good news, jeanette got quickbooks. Send that invoice, jeanette. Looks like they viewed it. And, tada paid twice as fast. Oh, shes an efficient officiant. Way to grow, jeanette. New. Get paid twice as fast for free. Visit quickbooksdotcom. Its the simple things in life that mean the most. Boost® simply complete™. No artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners, plus 10 grams of protein and 25 vitamins minerals. It doesnt get better than this. Boost® simply complete™. Iowa congressman steve king is facing backlash today over a tweet critics are calling racist. The congressman praised the far right candidate for Prime Minister of netherlands running on a strict immigration and antiislam platform. In a tweet congressman king says, wilder understands culture and demographics are our destiny. We cant restore our civilization with, quote, somebody elses babies. What does he mean by that . He explained it or tried to this morning on cnn. Well, of course i meant exactly what i said. It always is the case. Chris, its the culture. Its the culture not the blood. If you could go anywhere in the world and adopt these little babies and put them into households that assimilated into america, those babies will grow up as american as any other baby with as much patriotism and as much love of country as any other baby. Its not about race. In fact, the struggles across this planet, we describe them as race. Theyre not race. Theyre culturebased. Hawaiis democratic senator joins me now, on both the Senate Armed Services and judiciary committees. Senator, a number of democrats are pouncing on this today. Your fellow senator brian schatz tweeted, sigh. In hawaii no one knows. Ted lieu tweets, you know what makes America Great . You get to make obscene comments and i get to call you a stark, racist. John lewis says this is bigoted and racist. It you suggests there is one tradition and one appearance that all humanity should conform to. This is not just republicans coming out against this, but paul ryan has also said that he does not agree with senator with congressman kings statements. So, my question to you is, what h did we get to this poinwherthese outrageous statements are free to be made in such a public way . Aloha, katy. Well, steve king has always been on the fringes in terms of his views about immigration and what our country should look like. So, hes gotten even more overt in his comments. And i think its because he thinks there is a listening ear or ears at the white house with the kind of divisiveness that has been promoted by President Trump. When you say listening ears at the white house, what do you mean by that . Steve bannon and probably the president himself. You believe theyre open to this sort of message . I would say so. The president instituted a muslim ban so were talking about a president who is targeting immigration, immigrants and thats very much in line with where steve king has been. Its just that hes gotten even more outrageous. Hes talked about, for example, electrified fence across our borders. Thats how we deal with livestock. So, i dont think we should give much credence to steve king except that exemplifies the more outrageous things this administration has already done and i think will continue to do. At the same time, one of the most outrageous things this administration has pushed out, the president has pushed out, is the charge that president Obama Wiretapped him. Now, we can get very easily to the bottom of this by the president simply telling us where he got that from and focusing once agn onwhat we really need to do is this trail of bread crumbs that leads from the trump team to russian interests and russia is trying to interfere with our political system and our democracy. Thats what we should keep our eyes on. I called for an independent investigation. We need special counsel to get to the bottom of this. This is clearly an issue that the president and his team does not want us to continue to focus on. Senator, on that subject, lets loosely call it a deadline that the doj is facing today to deliver evidence on any wiretapping. The president s adviser, Kellyanne Conway, was on the morning shows today talking about potential evidence that there might be to hand over. Take a listen to what she said. Do you know whether trump tower was wiretapped . What i can say is there are many ways to survey hell oech now, unfortunately. Do you believe there was an article this week that talked about how you can surveil someone through their phones, through their certainly through their television sets. That sounds like a very incendiary allegation. What the president is saying what jim clapper has said on other networks if not this one, he can say those organizations under his purview did not do this but that does not discount the rest of the obama administration. When you say incendiary accusation, it was the president im not inspector gadget. I dont believe people are using the microwave to spy on the trump campaign. However, i have im not in the job of having evidence. They made a statement, quickly walked it back regarding the microwave. Then she ended that sound bite mashup we just showed you by saying, im not in the job of having evidence. What job is she in, senator . This is the same person who said that she and the Trump Administration deals in alternative facts. Alternative facts are lies. So, shes comparing a wiretap that requires a warrant. We have procedures for that from ways products can give information about us. So, those are two different things. Kellyanne conway, i wish she could just stick to the truth. Wish she would stick to facts. Again, alternative facts. Thats what this Administration Pushes out all the time. Thats this is why you know, we still havent gotten to the bottom of the russian interference with our elections and the trump teams connections to the russian interests. You know, dont we care in our country if a Foreign Government tries to interfere with our elections . I would say the majority of people do care. But this constant barrage of tweets and distractions should not dissuade us, should not cause us to lose sight of what we neat to get to the bottom of. We need an independent investigation. Are you saying you dont trust the house Intelligence Committee to do this in a bipartisan way . Thats one group, the house Intelligence Committee, but, you know, they operate in a different kind of conditions. No, id like to see a very public, transparent investigation into the russian interference with our elections. Senator hirono, democrat of hawaii, thank you for joining me. It could be the biggest wallop of the winter season. 120 Million People are in the eye of a noreaster. Were tracking the storm next. Whats the best way to get two servings of veggies . V8 or a powdered drink . Ready, go. Ahhhhhhhh shake shake shake shake shake done you gotta shake it i shake it glad i had a v8. The original way to fuel your day. I own my own company. I had some severe fatigue, some funny rashes. Finally, listening to my wife, went to a doctor. And i became diagnosed with hodgkins lymphoma. That diagnosis was tough. I had to put my trust in somebody. When i first met steve, we recommended chemotherapy, and then we did high dose therapy and then autologous stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, he went on to have progressive disease i thought that he would be a good candidate for immune therapy. Its an intravenous medicine that is going to make his immune system evade the tumor. With chemotherapy, i felt rough, fatigue, nauseous. And with immune therapy weve had such a positive result. Im back to working hard. Ive honestly never felt this great. I believe the future of iunothepy at ctca ivery bright. The evolution of cancer car here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Appointments Available now. A reminder. Spring is just one week away. Apparently winter is not ready to let go yet. But millions from washington, d. C. And boston are bracing for the possibility of an enormous winter storm. The biggest one of the season. On capitol hill, votes will not be taken in the house tomorrow due to Flight Cancellations. And they will reconvene on wednesday afternoon. The power of this system is already being felt in the Northern Plains and the midwest. North dakota covered in snow and bitter cold temperatures. In minnesota, a soccer match played in whiteout conditions. Take a look at that. Nbc meteorologist Indra Petersons has the forecast and tom costello is monitoring the travel conditions. Indra, what can we expect . This is a major storm. Especially very late in the season. Take a look at chicago. They saw heavier snowfall this morning. Still the threat for lakeeffect sn as we go through the evening hours because its been such a warm season. Then well really start to see things rile up. Well be talking about that system developing. Look how many of you guys are effected right now we we have warnings out for 121 Million People for these watches, warnings for this big noreaster impacting so many of you as we go throughout overnight hours. The biggest thing, even blizzard warnings went up this morning. Well watch toward jersey, long island, coastal sections of connecticut. Notice, just watches out for the boston area. The reason for that, the low keeps making its way closer to the shoreline so we have so see if this shifts farther to the east and west before we know exactly how much snowfall boston will be looking for and what criteria youll be looking at. Keep in mind, the low hasnt developed just yet. Overnight well see it develop, see showers at commute time toward d. C. Then it will make its way up the coastline as we go towards the overnight hours. 1 to 3 inches per hour will be possible. It will last throughout the day. Boston getting in the mix as we go towards noon. Look what happens as we go towards the late commute. What are you looking at. Boston on that border, rain, wintry mix or snow. So hard to forecast depending on where that low goes. Thats how well know how much snowfall were getting. Were catching it closely for you tonight. Well hit a few feet here in new york city . A potential of 12 to 18 inches. That is quite a bit of snow. Hope youre ready. I will be sleeping in my office tonight. Now onto the airports. I imagine there are a lot of Flight Cancellations going to because of this. Well find out just how many from our own tom costello, whos at Jfk International airport here in new york. Tom, whats the latest . Reporter hi, katy. Cancellations building fast. Were now at about 4400, starting tonight and through tomorrow. Thats the number right now. And the number is going to climb, of course, as we move into tomorrow. Take a look at flightaware misery map. This is a sense of whats happening in the country. Well watch closely chicago, which is already having a rough day today because of the storm. Lets move the curser over to boston and then down the coast. Those are the airports that are already going to see the most cancellations, according to the tabulation. Boston, newark, jfk, laguardia, down to philly, dwi and into washington, including reagan and dull les dulles. The most affected airline, southwest, jetblue, american, united and republic already canceling flights and waiving the change fees. If youre flying into or out of the midatlantic or northeast in the next few days, you may not be flying so you can wave the 200 change fee if you call the airport and say, i probably need to rebook. Its probably not just the i95 corridor and airports up and down the spine, if you will. We also were also likely to see buffalo, maybe even pittsburgh. Well see how long the impact is on chicago. Its going to be a rough couple of days. Katy . No alternative facts here, all facts. Aviation facts. Thats the good thing about my beat. Yeah, you got it easy, although you are also our bearer of bad news today. Can you see in these images, the snow is already affecting a ton of people across this country. It will soon be here to the east coast. After the break well go back to politics. Specifically, this health care bill. The gop is still split over the partys plan to replace obamacare. Florida congressman Francis Rooney calls the bill a good start, but what will it take to get everybody on board . Ill ask the congressman next. Here . becky ive seen such a change in einstein since he started eating beneful. The number one ingredient in it is beef. einstein the beef is fantastic becky hes a very active dog. He never stops moving. He has enough energy to believe that he can jump high enough to catch a bird. It has real beef, grains, vegetables, and he loves it. Well, we were coming for an interview. So he wanted to wear his tie. einstein its my power tie. It gives me power. vo try beneful originals with beef. With real beef as the number one ingredient. Healthful. Flavorful. Beneful. E trades powerful trading tools, give you access to indepth analysis, and a team of experienced traders ready to help if you neeit. 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Americans should pick the plan they want. Now theyll be able to pick the plan they want. Theyll be able to pick the doctor they want. Theyll be able to do a lot of things that the other plan was supposed to give and it never gave. That was President Trump sitting down with americans saying theyve been hurt by obamacare. Calling them, quote, obamacare victims. Were also getting word that donald trump will be in senator pauls backyard on monday, in louisville, kentucky. Rand paul has been one of the bills chief critics. The photo op you just saw is part of the white house strategy to counter negative expression on the bill. The c. Before will it shift the tone of the ongoing markup sessions . Joining me from d. C. , florida congressman, Francis Rooney, a republican who sits on the Foreign Affairs committee. You called this bill a good start. Were seeing this bill going through committee and not getting changed much. In your opinion, what does need to change in order to make it a better bill . An acceptable bill . Sure. Thank you for having me back on. There are a few considerations. You know, there are nonmedicaid expansion states, like florida, that need to betrted fairly in the reconfiguration of medicaid. And i think thats some things are being worked on there. The other thing is making absolutely sure that we do Everything Possible in the reconciliation process. That whatever we can accomplish through reconciliation, we do. We dont leave anything on the table. And that will get us as far down the road as possible with majority in the senate. Do you believe it will get to simple majority reconciliation . It would have to go a long way if youre taking what is i mean, we havent seen the cbo score yet. The cbo score could make it very difficult to get reconciliation done in the way youre proposing. I know we can get something done through reconciliation. The question is going to be whether we can get enough done to satisfy enough people that we really move the ball down the field. Im not an expert on this reconciliation stuff. Ive only been in this game for a couple months, but i have heard that its kind of a black box system and we just dont know whats going to come out of it. Talk about the cbo specifically. The white house today in that press briefing a few minutes ago pushed back on the cbo. Basically discrediting it in a preemptive attack. Just in case the cbo comes out with a score that is not favorable for this plan. So, in that in that given all of that, congressman, what do you make of whether the cbo comes out and scores this well or potentially negatively . Are you going to trust the cbo . Should the American Public trust the cbo . Once it comes out ill do the thing i always try to do in these circumstances, is a lot of research and get a lot of input. I read an article this morning that the results of obamacare were widely dispirit from what the cbo so we want to understand their assumptions. The Obamacare Cbo score was actually the most spoton in terms of nonpartisan assessments of that health care bill. It was still off, though, as you said. Lets talk about what this plan looks like as of now. The republican plan. The kizer Family Foundation says the new plan would affect older and poorer americans living in High Cost Health care areas. Hopefully we have a full screen. Cutting medicaid will not help. It found according to the brookings institution, at least 15 Million People will lose access. Our team on first read says this promises republicans are making cannot be kept. So, given that, do you think this is a bill that you should be voting yes for . Well, i believe in the free markets, katy. I think part of the problem with obamacare, it didnt respect the ability of markets and competition to drive costs down. You know, the bill provides for a leverage multiplier of the base insurance cost for covering elderly people. If this thing works like its supposed to, all their costs will go down and deductibles will go down because of competition. At the end of the day, theyll be better off. It provides for the tax equalization where people that dont have a company plan, like people in or a union plan or a governmental entity plan can also buy aftertax dollar insurance. And i like the idea of stimulating affiliated plans of small employers banding together to be able toexpand the use of group plans. Thats onehing in this whol deal that seems to work well, is Group Insurance provided by employers and unions and the like. Congressman rooney, republican from florida. Youre always welcome back on my show. Thank you. Thank you. Snoou as the gop tries to sell its health care plan, much has been made of a patientfocused model. For Small Business owners the uncertainty around the Affordable Care act is giving many pause. Jo ling kent takes a look. Reporter as republicans and democrats on capitol hill battle over repealing obamacare, even within their own parties, Small Businesses are caught in the confusion. As a Small Business owner, i am in a constant struggle to do right by my team within the constraints of our balance sheet. Reporter lawyer Danielle Vogel opened glenns market in washington, d. C. , five years ago. She now employs 95 workers and wants to continue to offer coverage to her employees. Its not as expensive as you would think and gave us mileage in being an attractive employer. Reporter shell be forced to raise store prices. The anxiety mirrors the mood inside some insurance companies. Health care providers are still awaiting specific details to plan next years coverage. Health plans are feeling a little better about 2018 and hope within the next four to six weeks they can commit to continuing on next year. But we still need to resolve a couple of those uncertainties. Reporter the biggest uncertainty, how much the republicans proposed plan will cost providers. Were all working a little bit in the dark here. Thats highly unusual and makes it very difficult to have a factbased consideration. Reporter the nonrtisan kaiser Family Foundation is focused on the 10 million americans who receive health care from the public marketplaces set up under obamacare. Across the country, the marketplaces are still pretty stable in most places. But in pockets of the country there are real problems when people in the marketplaces dont have a plan currently that they can use. Reporter with major insurer h humana deciding to leave the exchanges, prrlt is facing a more complicated landscape. Its at a critical moment where a lot will depend on what the Trump Administration does or doesnt do in this kind of interim period when the marketplaces are hanging in the balance. Reporter but for Small Business owners like vogel, theres no time to wait around for congress to make a final decision. We offered health care before we were required to. We will offer health care if were no longer required to. But from a planning perspective, it is absolutely impossible to predict what our obligation is going to be. Reporter jo ling kent, nbc news. Now, lets check in on todays microsoft pulse question. Are you worried about losing your coverage under the house Gop Health Care plan . So far, 98 of you say, yes, you are worried. Theres still time to cast your vote at pulse. Msnbc. Com. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson is heading out on his first foreign trip. Hes going to asia this week on a hunt for new options for dealing with north Koreas Nuclear threat. Ill speak to former ambassador to china, max baucus next. Announcer get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. The battle has begun. Soldier versus soldier. Army versus army. Nation versus nation. Evony the kings return. Download now and play for free. Hei dont want one thats haded a big wreck just say, show me cars with no accidents reported find the cars you want, avoid the ones you dont plus you get a free carfax® report with every listing i like it start your used car search at carfax. Com President Trump is expected to welcome chinese president xi jing ping at maralago next month. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson will lay the groundwork for this meeting while in asia this week. The biggest question, hanging over the secretarys trip, how will the u. S. Help south koreas military without offending chinas longstanding relationship with north korea . These are very clearly defensive measures were taking in response to an increasingly worrying, concerning threat from north korea. China understands that threat. Joining me now, former montana senator, max baucus, a democrat who served as u. S. Ambassador to china under president obama. Ambassador, thank you for joining me. Lets get right into this threat of north korea and what is going on right now. Foreignpolicy. Com had a sobering read over the weekend that said, north korea is not testing their missiles and their missile capability, they are practicing it. What sort of threat is north korea right now and how important does it make this meeting between donald trump and xi jinping. Kim jongun has to be stopped one way or ather its up to the collective interest of the United States, south korea, japan, even china to stop him. Frankly, i think this is a great opportunity for secretary tillerson. Hes got a couple things to do. One, hes got to show that he is the man. I mean, he is the person in charge in developing u. S. Foreign policy with the president. Chinese have read reports in the u. S. , they wonder is secretary tillerson solid, is he in the background really the man that will determine policy. This is an opportunity for him to show he is, in fact, the person. Second go ahead. I was going to say secretary tillerson is laying the groundwork and President Trumps meeting with jinping will take that further . Im saying tillerson is our secretary of state. The chinese will be watching him very closely, see what kind of man he is, see someone they respect and like, or is he somebody thats going to be pushed on the sideline so that they, the chinese, dont have to deal as much with him. Its very important for him, secretary tillerson, to show that he is actually the person, the primary advocate of u. S. Foreign policy. And the United States is going to focus more on china than it has in the past. Third, well be much more strategic with china. Thats secretary tillersons strength. Hes a strategist. He thinks long term. Exxonmobilmade decisions that affected his company 10, 15 years out. We have to do more of that with respect to china. Gwynn your experience, what is the one thing, one piece of advice you would give to President Trump ahead of his meeting with xi jinping of china . President xi is no fool. Hes very smart. He spent a long time he cannot be pushed around. One bit of advice would be, respect china. Set up a relationship where each of us respects each other and each knows that neither can bully the other or the other can push the other around. Establish that relationship and make it a long conversation, meet for hours alone, so they start to understand each other. But understand this is a matter of mutual respect. Were not going to let china push us just as recognizing choin is not going to let us push them. In this meeting between the president and the chinese leader, is there a way that donald trump can get him on americas side in pushing back against north carolina, pushing back against the Nuclear Threat that it poses . Well, identify been to a lot of these summits. President xi, president obama. At these summit each president gives stock positions and speech, almost statements. I would like to see the two of them kind of ask questions of each other. More relaxed. Figure out how they how they understand each other better. Only then will we be better to understand the premises, the assumpti behind some of the statements that president chi ma xi has to do. Thats what president obama has to do President Trump has to do. Dont worry, i had that messup a little while ago. Thank you very much. That wraps things up for me at this hour. Can you catch me at 5 00 today. Kate snow picks things up. Happy monday. Good to see you. Were keeping an eye on the latest from the white house right now, where at any moment President Trump is expected to meet with his cabinet for the very first time. Were expecting video of that meeting very soon. Well bring that to you just as soon as it comes in. We also just heard press Secretary Sean Spicer attempt to clarify President Trumps tweet on wiretapping accusations, as the house Intelligence Committee is waiting to hear from the Justice Department at this hoir about those claims. Well tell you what the press secretary just said and the latest from capitol hill in a moment. Were also keeping a close eye on that p