Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Ali Velshi 20170724

Different guy. Thats Sergey Kislyak. Hes the former Russian Ambassador to the United States, and im going to on be telling you about had i am in a minute because hes the guy that kushner was meeting with. But after Jared Kushners meeting he went to the white house with a message, and here is that. My name is Jared Kushner. I am Senior Advisor to. Donald j. Trump. When my fatherinlaw decided to run for president , i served his campaign the best i could becauseible in him and his ability to improve the looils of all americans. And now serving the president and the people of the United States has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work on important matters such as middle east peace and reinvig rating americas innovative spirit. Every day i come to work with enthusiasm and excitement for what can be. I have not sought the spotlight. First in business and now in public service, i have always focused on setting and achieving goals and have left it to others to work on media and public perception. Since the first questions were raised in march, i have been consistent in saying that i was eager to share any information i have with the investigating bodies, and i have done so today. The record and documents i have voluntarily provided will show that all of my actions were proper and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign. Let me be very clear. I did not collude with russia, nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on russian funds for my businesses. And i been fully transparent in providing all requested information. Donald trump had a better message and ran a smarter campaign, and that is why he won. Suggesting otherwise rid kuls those who voted for him. It is an honor to work with President Trump and his administration as we take on the challenges that he was elected to face, creating jobs for American People, keeping america safe, and eliminating barriers to achieving the american dream. Thank you very much. And i look forward to taking questions from the House Committee tomorrow. Thank you. I guarantee that is as much Jared Kushner as you have ever heard in your entire life, unless you happen to know the guy personally. We want to fit in as much as we can before President Trump speaks in a matter of minutes. You can see that on the bottom right corner of the screen. So our Political Team is ready to go. Hans nichols covering the white house for us today. Garrett headache covering capitol hill. Hans, lets start with you. The thing of that long statement that he read that is going to stand out is the part where he said i did not collude or know of anyone else who colluded with russia. And ali, the fist part of that thats a consistent message from Jared Kushner he said that going into the meeting, is the statement he released and then he said it coming out r. Whether or not he can say definitively that no one else colluded is under cut by his own defense, that email that he didnt read through. He claims he didnt read the entire email from done junior. So theres a little bit not inconsistency, but it isnt necessarily clear how Jared Kushner can make that blanket statement. And one of his arguments in there is that he didnt really have a great relationship with the russians and thats why he was trying to set it up on that december 10th meeting because he wanted to advance things. So how if he didnt have a strong relationship could he have colluded. I think thats one of the points hes making. In that email he did talk about those also said he emailed an assistant to leave that meeting early. And finally insists that he did not start this whole idea of a back channel. Speaking in the Senate Intel Committee, i think the urgent task for the hill i get to be an assignment editor. Garrett probably had the room wired. Garrett, lets talk about this because we know that he talked off the record not offed record, but behind closed doors to the Senate Committee staffers. What happens next and whats the significance of the fact that it was a behind closed doors meeting . Well, a couple Different Things going on here, ali. First of all, for people who auch us all the time, youll recognize this hallway. Were standing outside the secure room where the Senate Intel Committee sometimes meets when they talk about things that are classified or need to be kept behind closed doors. I talked to senator Susan Collins on her way out. Intel members dont pop in her on mondays. We assume she was here to learn about this meeting. And i asked her what if anything she could tell us about what the Committee Members have learned from this morning and she said that the chairman has barred the other members from talking about what happened in this meeting. So the through the course of the day were going to try to bear down a little bit more and figure out what more we can find out about that order. Jared kushner and his attorney took questions for about with two hours from a halfdozen or so committee staffers. None of the senators on the committee were present. They will probably went over that statement that he put out this monk. And then almost like a legal deposition they walk through the issues that are important to them. And for people who didnt like that this meeting wasnt done in public and on camera, including many democrats, its worth noted that these arent cake walks. Chuck grassley where Paul Manafort and donald junior may be called actually tweeted about this today saying coming before me and senator sign fine and our staffs is no easy thing in and of its own right. In many cases these are attorneys with years of experience on the committee, often predating the members themselves. So thats where we are with kushner this morning. The question Going Forward will be will he be back to appear in any kind of public setting. We know hes talking to the house behind closed doors tomorrow. But how does the public ultimately get access to this information and when. I put that question in a way to joe mab chin earlier today. Listen to his response. If he doesnt end up testifying publicly in front of the committee would you want to see the trabs script or any other information from these closed sessions released publicly so people can see it . Well, if its not classified it should be. Anything thats classified some of our assets are in jeopardy, we want to make sure we protect them. But if theres nothing thats classified we can make everything as transparent as possible. So thats one possibility, but other folks around this committee have cautioned that as long as these things remain behind closed doors they dont necessarily want to give away the line of questioning or the line of the investigation that theyre following to people who might be testifying later. And there is this very delicate balancing act going on between the house and Senate Intel Committees, the judiciary committee, which is who would talk to manafort and trump junior and oh, way the way, the special counsel operating independently and theyre trying very hard not to cross those wires. All right. Thanks very much. Were going to stay on this story. I want to talk to you a little bit about what these meetings are that the Jared Kushner has had that have come into question. Remember originally when he filed his statement with the government it said that he had no meetings with russia officials. Turns out hes had at least four meetings that are of interest. The first one was april 27th, 2016. This is what we know of, by the way. This was at washington d. C. Hotel meet and greet. Russian ambassador until very recently in the United States. Number two was the meeting we have just learned about in the last couple weeks. June 9, 2016 at trump tower. Apparently he feels in that meeting for ten minutes. Says he texted an assistant to try and get him out of the meeting. But donald trump jr. Was there, the president s son, former Trump Campaign manager and as far as we know now five russians with connections to the government. Two things we didnt know about. Number three is december 1st, is 2016 at trump tower for 20 to 30 minutes. Jared kushner, Sergey Kislyak who we have already seen, and Michael Flynn. He was then a campaign advisor. He then became the National Security advisor. Meet approximating number four 20 to it 25 minutes in new york, sergey core kof a russian banker. The interesting theyre here is the statements from these two men are very, very different. They both say that Different Things happened at the meeting. So lots of curiosity around Jared Kushner and the number of high profile, well connected russians that he has met. All now it all goes back to that meeting. Jared kushner wasnt the only one there, so whats next for donald trump jr. And Paul Manafort. Joings me now, senator, good to see you again. Thank you for being with us. Good to see. Tell me what you make of all of this. It does become a little bit hard to keep track of who was where and what you want to know from them. My question is what are you trying to figure out given that you know theres the house intel committee, theres the Senate Intel Committee and theres Robert Muellers investigation. What document to know from dop junior and Paul Manafort zbloorl i did serve on the committee for two years so i have some understanding of what happens before that committee. But the bottom line is we have to get to the bottom of the trump russia situation. And the plot thickens. And the fact that Jared Kushner appeared for two hours behind closed and he came out afterwards and spoke about six complete sentences wherein he said he didnt collude. Thats his conclusion. I dont know that that would be muellers conclusion. So go ahead. Sorry to interrupt you, senator. There seems to be a line emerging from the white house and from trump surrogates who come on our tv and say you guys are all obsessed, meaning the media with this russian thing. We showed you, weve got mike 58 flynn, Jared Kushner, donald trump jr. , Paul Manafort, all sorts of meetings. What do you think youre going to make sense of . Clearly there is a relationship twreen the trump people and russian interests that seem to go back a long ways. And mueller will get to the bottom of it. The various house and Senate Committees will have their oversight roles to play. But there is a lot more to this. And frankly, im very distresd that the president of the United States of america is not more focused on getting to the bottom of a country, another country, not even our friend that countrys efforts to interfere with our democracy. I should think that should be on the top of things to get to the bottom of. And yet hes doing everything he can to casting aspergsz on his own attorney general, who i did not support by the way. And i think this is all to set the stage on how to get rid of mueller. I want to play a bit from the president s new guy scaramucci talking to jake tapper. Lets listen to this for a second. Somebody said to me yesterday i wont tell you who that if the russians actually hacked this situation and spilled out those emails, you would have never seen it. You would have never had any evidence of them, meaning that theyre super confident in their deception skills and hacking. I dont know who this anonymous person is who said that if the russians had actually done it, we wouldnt be able to detect it, but how about it was the president , jake. Okay. So senator, that was weird in and of itself that Anthony Scaramucci quoted and then said it wassed president , who is now an expert on hacking. I think thats such an insult by the president of our own Intel Community of which we have some 17 entities, and they concluded that with a high degree of confidence that russia had sought to interfere with our election. So i guess the misdemeanor would pay more credence to russias ability to hack and do all of these in secret than in our own Intel Communitys ability to ferret this out. And they have. Im really incensed that the president would be so insulting to the Intel Community, but this wouldnt being the first time. So just a little while ago, Jared Kushner in that statement he made outside the white house said that, talking about collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia, he said hasnt happened and suggesting otherwise insults or undermines those who voted for him. So theyre trying to make some connection between an investigation into something that may have been untoward and people who cast their balance lots for donald trump. And i think we have to make clear that thats not an overlay that anybody is trying to make. Except them. So all of their efforts to try and obs if i skate this investigation or the need for us to get to the bottom of it, it just means that, you know, the plot thickens of the and by the way, i want to say that while were deep in the throws of all these different shoes dropping all over the place, lets not forget that the senate is still very intent on pushing through or shoving down our threats the healthcare bill. Whatever formulation they come up with will hurt millions of people in our country, particularly the poorest, sickest and the oldest in our communities. So thats happening at the same time that were zeep in the throes of getting to the bottom of the russia situation. The democrats are promoting a big plan. Included in that is health care. But you dont have union i amty in the Democrat Party not even in the senate on what evolution of obamacare would look like. Some people some of your fellow senators think it should be single pair, some say it should be an expansion of medicare into a public option. Others say further expansion of medicaid. Are the democrats ready with something if this Healthcare Plan doesnt work that the republicans are trying to put forward . I think that we are very much coalescing around are the idea that the Affordable Care act can be improved such as with a public option which i supported as a member of the u. S. House of representatives working on the Affordable Care act, that we should lower presipgs drug costs. We certainly are coalescing around those kinds of proposals. So if we can get all of this done in a bipartisan, open way, which is how it should get done, into a system that impacts one sixth of our economy, then i know we can get something done. But chbt behind closed doors, resident shoving things down our threats in a way thats going to hurt millions hf people in our country, ari. Senator as the democratic senator from hawaii. Great to see you. Well talk to you again. Thank you. All right. Its american heroes week at the white house. Dont expect the president to let you know that. Of his tweets not a single one. Instead hes tweeting about draining the swamp, rereeling and replacing obamacare, Jeff Sessions who he labeled as beleague erred. And speaking of him, despite his repeated denials, the attorney general supposedly met with details of the Trump Campaign when he met with the ambassador during the 2016 president ial race. An elephant that the president cant seem to avoid, not even during a photo op with the white house summer interns. President trump, should Jeff Sessions resign . The blue room at the white house youre looking at right now. We are minutes away from the president taking a podium there and giving a statement on health care. Youll see it when it goes live as soon as it happens. Well be right back. 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That was garrett headache talking to senator marco rubio. Hes had a couple of kfrlsz since then, similar responses, that they dont want to talk about what the conversation was between Jared Kushner and Senate Intel Committee staffers. Well keep you posted if anybody says anything different. Bottom right of your corner, by the way, were waiting for President Trump to talk about victims of obamacare as he calls them. Well bring that to you when it happens live. President trump is continuing his attacks geps his attorney gener general, Jeff Sessions. His frugsz stragsz are growing. Axe i dont say is floating rudy jewel aen to head the justice department. But a source tells. That news follows a report from the Washington Post that claims Sessions Discussed Campaign matters with russias ambassador despite what he told the Senate Intelligence Committee Last month. Let me state this clearly, colleagues. I have never met with or had any conversation with any russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Joining me now is greg miller reporter for the Washington Post who is i acoauthor of that piece. Greg, is there something about the words that Jeff Sessions used that that testimony that could make the Washington Post reporting correct despite Jeff Sessions want you to believe hes had nothing to do with the russians. I guess you could get into debates about the definition of campaign related discussions. I mean, the indications are that they certainly held substantive discussions about important policy related questions that were central to the campaign and central to the idea of Trump Administration and account for why the russia ambassador was so sing laterally interested in meeting with Jeff Sessions at the time. I mean, sessions keeps saying that it was only in his capacity as a senator that he was meeting with the Russian Ambassador. Right. But no other members of his committee had such meetings with the ambassador. It was sessions alone who had very early on endorsed trump and thats what made him so important to Sergey Kislyak. Now, the Washington Post, you and your story issue one caution here, and its that russia and other foreign diplomats in washington and elsewhere have been known at times to report false or misleading information to bolster their standing with their superiors or to confuse u. S. Intelligence agencies. Sergey kislyak would have known, given his experience as an ambassador in the United States, that probably some of his communications, if not most of them, were being monitored or in some fashion looked at. Is it possible that he was saying that he was having these flushl meetings with Jeff Sessions for some reason than an actual true reflection of the meeting . Yeah. Its certainly possible. Youre touching on something here. Theres a real key difference between the Jeff Sessions situation and the Michael Flynn situation. Flynn was trumps National Security jfr initially. He was actually caught on audio, his actual words, his conversations with kislyak were intercepted and therefore you had flynn speaking. There was no way for him to talk around that or to deny it. But in this case, youre right, what we have are intelligence reports on what Sergey Kislyak is reporting to his bosses in moscow. And of course, so thats just one persons account. Perhaps hes exaggerating or embellishing or as we say in the story, hes known among russia experts who regularly see intelligence on russia as a really reliable correspondent with his bosses at the kremlin. Yeah. In fact, this is what it says in your newspaper about it. U. S. Officials with regular access to russia intelligence reports say kislyak whose tenure as ambassador to the United States ended recentel, was non for accurately relaying details about his interactions with officials in washington. So while diplomats often do this, kislyak wasnt known for being dishonest about telling what the context of his meetings much. Wasnt known for that and in this case when you look at sessions and the way his explanations have changed so dramatically over a short period of months. Initially hes testifying saying had no contact with any raugsz. Then we write a story saying thats not true. Then hes saying well, didnt have any conversations about campaign related stuff with any russians. And now we have, you know, evidence to the contrary that i think a lot of senators are looking at very closely. And so the level of trust in sessions own accounts is whats up against is what is up against this evidence that is based on the intelligence reports that intercepted kislyaks conversations with moscow. Greg, good to talk to you about this. Thanks very much. Well, youre looking lets look although pictures of the blue room and the white house. In just a few minutes were expecting the president to give a statement on health care. Were going to bring that to you live as it happens. Well be right back. Once upon a time a girl with golden locks broke into a house owned by three bears. She ate some porridge, broke the baby bears chair, and stole some jewelry, a flatscreen tv, and a laptop. Luckily the Geico Insurance agency had helped the bears with homeowners insurance. They were able to replace all their items. Including a new chair from crate and barrel. Call geico and see how easy it is to switch and save on homeowners insurance. Finding the best hotel price is now a safe bet. Because tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites so you save up to 30 on the hotel you want. Lock it in. Tripadvisor. Im proud to make dog chow in vodavenport, iowa. An. Dog chows been a part of my familys life for over 40 years. My grandfather made it and now im making it. As a microbiologist i ensure that dog chow leads with high quality ingredients. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. Another battle shaping up on capitol hill this week. Its want health care. House lawmakers are expected to consider legislation on russia and iran sanctions as early as tomorrow t. Now, the bill would include limits to the president s ability to lift sanctions without congressional approval, which is an obvious set back for donald trump. Last year both trump and putin said sanctions were at the heart of the bitter relationship between the two countries. Joining me now on set. Samantha power. She also served at the treasure democratic. You have been going through this actual bill and i think whats note worthy. Youve even given me notes on it. Is that congress is not just talking about the content of the sanctions, but theyre designing it so that the president cant get himself out of them. Right. Absolutely. So part of it is that theyre codifying some of the sanctions into law. Right. Which is a distinct which is very distinct from an executive order. Right. A president can implement and withdraw an executive order very easely. For context on russia. There are some russian sanctions that are codified into law and theres some that were done by executive order by president obama toward the end of 2016. Right. They start and theres some from the ukraine invasion. Thats right. They started in 2014 and then they continued through 2016. And when President Trump came into office in january, a lot of folks were concerned that he could withdraw his executive orders just as easely as they were implemented and legally he could have. And so actually theres a provision in this law, and i did actually read it line by line. Oh, i know. There is a provision in there that states that the president will not remove sanctions unless the exact behavior for which the sanctions were imposed has ceased. And theres a very important point. So the president cant remove them because he thinks negotiations are going well or as a carrot to russia. Right. Sanctions are there for specific things and those things would have to cease. They even deal with cybersecurity. Yes. Very importantly. We as american citizens havent seen seen or heard a stark conclusion especially by the white house on the russian interference in our elections. And this legislation has a section on calling for the administration to impose sanctions on any russian individual, entity, institution that has undermined our cybersecurity. And they talk about and any interference in elections. And i think thats very important. So theyve asked for a report, labeling who has been involved, and calling for sanctions against them. And they are looking like its going to be a veto proof majority in the house. Right. Thats right. I think i see a bunch of people standing there in the blue room, so im going to have to go there. A former spokesperson for former ambassador to the United Nations samantha powers. Lets take a look at the white house blue room s. The president is being introduced at the moment by tom price, health and Human Services secretary. Were going to go there in just a few minutes. I think what were going to do now is let me just ask my control room where were going now. Why inaction on this problem is not an option. Right now obamacare is failing to deliver for the American People and the folks here in this room today are a stark reminder of that problem. Principles of health care are pretty clear, accessibility and affordable and quality and choices. You all represent millions of americans for whom those principles have been violate. And its balls of yoecause of y and your experience that were here today to urge congress to give the president a bill to sign. The president has laid out a positive vision for how to fix this mess by putting patients and families and physicians in charge of health care decisions, not washington, d. C. We are committed to ensuring that the American People enjoy a Healthcare System that works for them. The president has mate that crystal clear. And an individual who just like the president has been working day and night on getting this accomplished is the Vice President. He understands the imperative of patientcentered health care. And its an honor to introduce to you my friend, the Vice President of the United States, mike pence. Well, thank you, doctor price and good afternoon to all. To the families who are gathered here from all across america on behalf of the first family, welcome to the white house. Since the first day of this administration President Donald Trump has been working to keep the promises that he made to the American People, to rebuild our military, revive our economy, and this president has worked tirelessly to repeal and replace obamacare. President trump knows that every day obamacare survives is another day that American Families and american businesses struggle. As weve traveled across the country, weve heard first happened from americans just like those who stand behind me today, from families who are bearing the costs of skyrocketing premiums and plummeting choices, families who have lost their doctors, insurance, and from families who are starting to lose hope that congress will ever respond, that as ive told every one of them and people all across this country, thanks to the leadership of President Trump, help is on the way. President trump hears you. He is fighting for you, and he will keep fighting every day until we give the American People the world class access they deserve. Tomorrow the United States senate will have the opportunity to begin the debate on a bill to repeal and replace obamacare. And as the president said this morning, after years of talking and campaigning on it, now is the time for republicans in the senate to act. Republicans in the senate will have, in his words, a chance to do the right thing, to keep their promise to the American People and these families and families all across the country. And this president and the American People republican counting on the senate to act. So with gratitude for his leadership and his persistence and determination to make American Health care great again, it is my high honor and distinct privilege introduce to these families and all of you the 45th president of the United States of america, President Donald Trump. [applause] well, thank you very much, Vice President pence, secretary price, and thank you everyone for being here today. For the past 17 years obamacare has wreaked havoc on the lives of innocent, hardworking americans. Behind me today we have real American Families, great families. Just spent a lot of time with them, who are suffering because seven years ago a small group of politicians and special interests in washington engineered a government take over of health care. Every pledge that washington democrats made to pass that bill turned out to be a lie. It was a big, fat, ugly lie. Democrats promise the americans like steve finn, a former Police Officer in West Virginia that they would save 2,005 hundreds a year under obamacare. Instead his premiums have more than tripled. Thats pretty bad. As a result of obamacares skyrocketing costs, steve and his family and many of his employees had no other option than going on medicaid and giving up their existing coverage. Thats pretty bad. No choice, right . No choice. For them obamacares promise was a nightmare. Marginry and kevin were from South Carolina have a son monty who suffers from spina bifida. Washington democrats promised families like the weres that if they liked their doctor they could keep their doctor, but now there is only one insurer left in the exchange. And she says she waits every year anxiously to learn if the doctors and hospitals that her son needs the most will remain in their network. More obamacare lies. And weve seen that up front, unfortunately. Up front and personally. The democrats promised mills aat can i son that her sons preexisting conditions would be covered. The at can i sons quickly learned that obamacares promise for covering preexisting conditions was meaningless, though the doctors you need to care for you arent on your obamacare plan. So you just have a meaningless promise, and Everybody Knows it 6789 and most people on obamacare know it. After an excruciating series of events and complications, melissa and her husband found themselves just before christmas moeshlel and financially devastated crying in a Doctors Office faced with yet another seemingly unpayable bill. When insurance wouldnt cover the at can i sons care, they emptied out mels sas 401 k to pay their bills. Theyre not going to be and they havent been the first. There are many, many cases such as that. The 401 ks. The first rule of medicine is do no harm. But obamacares lies have caused this and throughout the whole country families like this nothing but pain. Earn and andy whit sick are Small Business owners from illinois. They have six children h. Their youngest daughter poppy has a rare genetic condition. Children born with it are sometimes called butterfly children because their skin is as fragile as the wings of a butterfly. Poppy has to wear special bandages all of the time. Unfortunately, under obamacare poppys insurance has been repeatedly discontinued and replaced with what washington deems equivalent policy. But for poppy these plans are not equivalent and poppys family has top spend precious time and tremendous resources fighting for exceptions for poppy. The washington politicians who made those promises to steve, marginry, melissa, erin and their beautiful children want to ignore all the pain, all of the suffering and all of the money, the tremendous amounts of money that these lies have caused. They want to forget about the countless americans theyve hurt and the many that they are conditioning continuing to hurt every day by refusing to help us replace obamacare. For the last seven years republicans have been united in standing up for obamacares victims. Remember repeal and replace, repeal and replace. They kept saying it over and over again. Every republican running for office promised immediate relief from this disastrous law. We as a party must fulfill that solemn promise to the voters of this country to repeal and replace, what theyve been saying for the last seven years. But so far Senate Republicans have not done their job in ending the obamacare nightmare. They now have a chance, however, to hopefully, hopefully fix what has been so badly broken for such a long time. And that is through replacement of a horrible, disaster known as obamacare. The senate is very close to the votes it needs to pass a replacement. The problem is we have zero help from the democrats. Theyre obstructionists. Thats all they are. Thats all theyre good at is obstruction, making things not work. They say all the right things and then they do exactly what theyre not supposed to be doing. The democrats arent giving us one vote. So we need virtually every single vote from the republicans. Not easy to do. The senate bill that is being considered outside of the out right repeal of obamacare will also provide emergency relief for the laws victims and it will deliver truly Great Health Care and Health Care Reforms that our citizens want, need and really should be demanding. Some are demanding. Youll see that at the voter booth, believe me. Here are just some of these terrific reforms that we will be doing if everything works out the way it should. The senate bill eliminates the painful individual mandate. It eliminates the are job killing employer man dated, repeels other burdensome taxes and will significantly lower americans premiums. It will stabilize collapsing Health Insurance markets and give americans far more choice and far more flexibility. The senate bill protects coverage for preexisting conditions, and you dont hear this from the democrats. They like to tell you just the opposite, and they didnt even know the bill. They run out, they say death, death, death. Well, obamacare is death. Thats the one thats death. And beside that, its failing, so you wont have it anyway. It dramatically expands Popular Health savings accounts. It provides tax credits so americans can purchase a private plan that is right for them and their families. It devotes substantial resources to fight the opioid, and this is a tremendous problem, the opioid epidemic, 45 billion is being put in so that the people in many states like new hampshire, ohio and so many others who have such a big problem can be helped and helped greatly. Going to be fighting the drug problems very, very seriously in my administration. And it provides among many other things higher, quality care and more flexibility for states to administer medicaid to better serve their poorer citizens. Tomorrow the senate will vote on whether to allow this urgently needed bill to come to the senate floor for debate. The question for every senator, democrat or republican, is whether they will side with obamacares architects which have been so destructive to our country or with its forgot ten victims. Any senator who votes against starting debate is telling america that you are fine with the obamacare nightmare, which is what it is. For democrats this vote is a chance to make up for the terrible harm they have inflicted on americans like those who are with us today. Obamacare has been for them a nightmare. There is still time to do the right thing. And for Senate Republicans, this is their chance to keep their promise. Over and over again they said repeal and replace, repeal and replace. But they can now keep their promise to the American People to provide emergency relief to those in desperate need of help and to improve health care for all americans. Every member of the senate i say this. The American People have waited long enough. Theres been enough talk and no action. Now is the time for action. We are here to solve problems for the people. Obamacare has broken our Healthcare System. Its broken. Its collapsing. Its gone. And now it is up to us to get Great Health Care for the American People. We must repeal and replace obamacare now. Thank you, god bless you, god bless the United States of america. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] all right, then. President donald trump with a group of people he described as victims of obamacare throwing down the gauntlet to kind of everyone to republicans, to pass a repeal and replace bill for obamacare, to democrats to, as he said, fix what is broken in health care. It was quite an interesting speech. I want to bring in a couple of other people to give us some expert analysis on it. Michael sper is the chair of Health Policy and management at the Columbia University school of health. At the department of health and Human Services under the second bush administration. And ms nbcs hugh hugh wet host of not only as a result morning show. I know youve got to go soon, hugh, so im going to start with you. That was an interesting speech to say the least. Im not quite sure who the target was except for everyone. The target, i think, ali, thanks for having me on, six important senators tomorrow, susan kol lijs of maine, Lisa Murkowski of alaska, shelly more capito of West Virginia and dean heller in nevada. Theyre moderate republicans and then mike lee of utah and rand paul of kentucky. These are the six republicans for whom this entire day was staged because youve got to get to 50 votes. And hes making the point that kaish how can republicans have campaigned on having a new bill for seven years and not even debate it. So i think the whole show was for the benefit of those six republicans to remind them that they have promised to do this. Youve been around long enough to know that the president has something of a bully pulpit and when called upon to use it which has been called upon a lot recently that wasnt it. If youre one of the six people, no one is saying i better get into action now. I have to disagree with that a bit. I think if youre deep heller youre worried. Youre toast if in fact this doesnt pass and it doesnt help the situation. The other five arent up for reelection so they can be a little bit indifferent to what the president says. But hes focus on the fact that they promised and this will be a brand that will stick with them for a long time if they dont proceed to debate. They might vote against the final bill, but tomorrows vote is hey, we wont even talk about and those six republicans if they wont talk about it, it will be very hard to live down what their conservative even their center right and moderate friends in the years ahead. Right. I guess the things you have to do to get mike lee and rand paul on board are different than what the other senators get on board. And you and i discussed this many times, President Trump says a lot of things that isnt true about obamacare. Hes focused on the exchanges. They are absolutely very real. Many americans have seen their premiums go up. But, you know, carrying on about how its broken, its all a mess. Everything is a lie. Its all a failure and the whole thing is destroyed its disingenuous and not going to work for capito and heller and murkowski. 14 out of 17 counties in nevada have no insurers on their exchange. Zero. 19 counties in ohio have no insurers on their exchange. Zero. Right. More americans benefited from the Medicaid Expansion than the obamacare markets. Thats the part that the president never talks about it. It depends on where you define medicaid. I was a local Health Administrator that believe that medicaid is paper insurance its not health care. It does work for many people. You stay as long as you can. Good to have you there. Lonnie, over to you. The fact we have all been debating health care while the president has been instructing congress about what to do about it. We know that theres a little bit of truth to what the president said. Most of it isnt true. But the fact is thats not a winning argument that the president has got. The only argument hes got that works is that all ran on a platform of repeal and replace and they might get hurt if they dont get it. This is really first time i think we have heard the president come out and endorse and embrace the senate bill. He hasnt really done so to date. He basically said to Mitch Mcconnell, youre going to have a vote tomorrow. Theres been a question about what that vote is on. You ought to vote on the senate bill and he was out there making the case for the senate bill. Which he hasnt done and frankly a lot of republicans havent done write which explains why this senate bill is polling so poorly. I know. I think the president said look, im for this bill. Vote on this bill, lets go. Let me bring michael spare in here. We get into the policy of this a lot. What was real, what was not real about the accusations that the president made about obamacare . What was real is that there are people who are suffering from the high cost of health care in the United States. Im sure that the people he had behind him had legitimate they have legitimate issues and problems. Theyre not the legitimate issues and problems of the Affordable Care act. Theyre legitimate issues and problems of the Health Care System that needs to be fixed in lots of different ways. What was not real in my view was the fact in the argument that obamacare is failing, that its led to sort of the horrific outcomes that hes suggesting and that if we dont get rid of it, you know, the world is about to come to an end. That was not true. Lonnie, he talks he promised that there would be lower premiums and stabilized markets. Now, you would have to fully i understand why that people dont think the cbo stuff is always accurate on health care because it had some misses when it came to obama care. But theres nobody whos talking about lower premiums. The issue is whether premiums will increase this much or this much. Theres no plan under which you get lower premiums except for the strange ted cruz plan that offers you a lower premium in exchange for a box of band aids and hope nothing happens to you. Look, theres clearly a trend going on. Which is that health care is becoming ever more expensive each year. I think the president was referring back to a promise that president obama made regarding what the Affordable Care act would do to premiums which obviously it hasnt done. But Going Forward, we have to be realistic about this which is that there are things we can do to slow the rate of growth premiums and certainly there are things we can do to offer more choices for people that might involve picking plans that have lower premiums. Yes, less benefits but lower premiums so there are options out there. As an expert on this you would agree that at some point its just garbage, right . The stuff that ted cruz is peddling is low premiums for virtually nonexistent health care . Well, look, what this is about is what kind of plan do people want . I wouldnt call it complete garbage. People ought to have optionality and thats not a garbage idea at all. If you have someone who is relatively healthy they may make a different set of decisions than someone who is not doing as well or who is sicker. Thats why you need special protections with those with preexisting conditions. But in the Current System under the Affordable Care act that optionality doesnt exist. Ill take his word on it that garbage is a little strong. How do you square the circle. You come one plan that offers low coverage. Which is maybe what they want, and then you have everybody else who needs Serious Health care or has preexisting conditions somewhere else. You still have the same problem that we have got and that is anybody with a Health Condition going to pay through the roof. The premiums may be lower for some people but theyll have high deductibles. If they need health care theyll have hard time finding a doctor or getting access to the health care. One other thing to note, when we talk about the president said he supports the senate bill right now is at least three different versions of the senate bill. Theres the initial senate bill which the cbo has scored, then the cruz bill which you referred to. And then the fact that the Senate Parliamentarian has said various elements of both cant be so you have a third version of the bill. How they a square that and how they get to 50 on any of the three and how they ask republicans to open debate when they dont know what theyre voting on im unsure of. How do republicans particularly to hugh hewitts note earlier, you have murkowski and Shelley Moore capito, a constituency of women who dont some of the things of what this bill will do to planned parenthood and others. How do you get on the moderates onside . For seven years it was very easy for republicans to say look, we dont like Affordable Care act. When you come to finding the replacements there are more differences than we previously anticipated. The answer for Mitch Mcconnell, at least as it comes to this week, is lets just short debate on something. The argument hes making is we cannot have this argument about substance unless get to the argument first on a bill. Presumably thats either the house passed bill or the most recent iteration of the senate bill. But Mitch Mcconnells point is lets not get this bollixed up before we have the substantive discussion. Lonnie, you worked for mitt romney who supported a universal coverage system. Yeah. Well, look, i personally think that coverage is an important goal. I think its an important met rick but thats the kind of debate we need on the senate floor. We need a debate about what the right kind of Public Policies are Going Forward on health care. Its impossible if we dont agree to move to debate. I think thats whats so frustrating for Mitch Mcconnell and other Republican Leaders right now. Were not getting to the debate about policy. No, we dont want to proceed to have a discussion about anything. Thats unfair. You could have hears about this and consult the groups, the special Interest Groups and why not have hearings and come one a bill rather than throw a bill out there and hope that people like it . We have been having hearings for the last seven years thats not true. They have moved to the the public hearing on health care not been done. No, we have had lots of hearings. With whom . In the house ways and Means Committee and the Senate Committee about the different types of provisions you see contained in the senate bill. But no one has had a public hearing on this bill. Thats a fact. But the policy that goes into it we have had tons of public hearings on that for the last seven years. Thats the point im trying to make. I have had the American Cancer Society on this show, i had the Heart Association on this show, aarp, i had every single one of them, the nursing association, saying can we have a meeting with Mitch Mcconnell and guess what he says to every single one of them big fat goose eggs. There very zero hearings. There have been all the hearings a Better Process is good. These issues have been discuss. Im wearing a big santa claus hat right now. Thats how well end the show. Im wearing a santa claus hat and there have been hearings about obamacare. Good to see you. And hugh hewitt who walked away from this conversation several minutes ago. A busy how hour, thats it for me now. Were going over to nicolle wallace. Deadline white house. Hi, everyone. Hes 4 00. Jared kushner today added his voice to the i did not collude with question choir. He asserted that the mere act of asking questions about his fatherinlaws campaign and contact with russia ridicules his voters. He faced questions from Senate Intel Committee staffers on capitol hill. Let me be very clear. I did not collude with russia nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so