Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Hallie Jackson 20170718

Surprise President Trump which is repealing for now. Something the gop didnt want in the first place. Highly unlikely. So, well talk about what happens next and what it means for your health care with the uncertainty powering what may be a roller coaster ride when it comes to how much you pay and what you get. Our Political Team is on the hill and at the white house covering all of this. I want to start with nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt and han nichols on the north lawn. Mitch mcconnell wants a repeal and what do you think well hear from paul ryan . Well, hallie, we are expecting, actually, to hear pretty shortly from Mitch Mcconnell on the senate floor, as well. And i think thats going to be very telling about how this goes forward. Now, we know the statement he put out last night, it lays out a complicated procedural set of maneuvers to try to get a debate started on the senate floor over health care. The proposal is to try to take up the house version of that bill and then amend it so it is a full repeal of obamacare and that they have two years to then replace it. So, what were waiting on now is weve heard from mike lee that hes willing to support this plan. Thats one of those conservatives who had come out last night and basically sunk the senate bill that they had spent all of those weeks negotiating. So now the question is, what will moderate senators do . Are they willing to go along with this plan and let that debate open and take the risk and see what happens . Our reporting has been that there are just not enough votes in the senate. Republicans have been on record. Many in leadership saying, we dont have the votes for this. The way mcconnell has set this up is start a debate on health care broadly and then potentially put that in as an amendment. It will probably fail. That raises a lot of questions. What is the end game and how does this whole process play out. I think over the next couple of hours youll want to watch the moderate senators who had concerns very, very closely. Still trying to catch up with Susan Collins. We dont want to presume or assume, but based on her previous comments, it would seem as though if she was opposed to the previous process, she would continue to be opposed here. So, if she hwont vote for that motion to proceed, that means one other person saying that they wont support that motion apologies. I think senator Mitch Mcconnell is taking the senate floor now. This discussion seems to veer into the abstract. These are not just numbers on a page. These are the lives of real people. These are the men and women we represent. Americans who are hurting. Middle class families who deserve better than obamacares failures. We worked hard to provide them with a better way. We did so in the knowledge that this task would not be easy. We understood it would not come quickly. But we knew that it was the right thing to do so we push forward anyway. I believe we must continue to push forward now. I regret that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failures of obamacare will not be successful. That doesnt mean we should give up. We will now try a different way to bring the American People relief from obamacare. I think we owe them at least that much. In the coming days, the senate will take up and vote on a repeal of obamacare combined with a stable twoyear transition period as we work towards patientcentered health care. A majority of the senate voted to appeal the legislation back in 2015. President obama vetoed it then. President trump, President Trump will sign it now. I imagine Many Democrats were celebrating last night. I hope they consider what they are celebrating. The American People are hurting. They need relief. And its regretful that our democratic colleagues decided early on that they did not want to engage with us seriously in the process to deliver that relief. But this doesnt have to be the end of the story. Passing repeal legislation will allow us to accomplish what we need to do on behalf of our people. Our democratic friends have spoken a lot recently about wanting Bipartisan Solutions, passing this legislation will provide the opportunity for senators of all parties to engage with a fresh start and a new beginning. For the American People. Listening to Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell outlining his plan fmoving forward. So far talking energy but we expect when he take questions those will focus on the big story of the day. I want to go back to kasie hunt in the halls of the capitol there. I want to get a sense from you on what stood out. He talked about the plan to repeal and put a twoyear timeline on delay. Paul ryan is talking health care. Lets listen in to that. Responsible to repeal obamacare without a replacement in hand . Wed like to see the senate move on something. We are proud of the bill that we passed. We passed a bill to repeal and replace obamacare. Replace it with a better system. But as you well know the legislative process for it to work house has to pass a bill. Weve done that. The senate has to pass a bill for us to even move the process forward. Thats the next step. So, were hoping that they can achieve that next step so that we can bring real relief. Heres the problem. Obamacare is in the middle of a tail spin. This law is collapsing. Weve got a promise to keep and, also, we need to step ahead of the problem that this law is collapsing. More and more people dont even have any choices left or even one choice. 41 of the counties in america have no competition and Health Insurance. They have one Health Insurer left. Premiums have doubled. Options are disappearing. Many counties in america now have no Health Insurers left. That is just the stark reality of the moment. Were hopeful that the senate can take the pause that they need to take and move forward on this issue so we can get something done. Im worried that obamacare will stand and the law will continue to collapse and people will continue to get hurt in the process. Said last night at the dinner that republicans did you air quote that like this when you said that . Okay. Do you agree that republicans now look like ghosts this is a legislative process. Its a hard process. We in the house are proud of the bill that we did. We passed a bill that we think is sufficient to addressing the real problem to keeping our promise. The senate has a razor thin majority. In reconciliation they need 50 votes. Not ahead of the next steps because, frankly, we just have to see what they can do and find out where it is that we can go. We have a serious problem on our hands. Who are you with . You stood out there covering months ago and be using their health care. How can you restore or even give them at this point . Weve done this in the house. We passed our simultaneous repeal and replace bill. We think that is the best way to go. Well have to go and wait and hope our friends in the senate get a bill passed and get something passed. Senator mcconnell said that he could possibly work with democrats to stabilize the markets. Do you think that is something that should be done quickly after repeal vote . Im not going to foreclose any options. The challenge i see is democrats have not been interested in working on this. They dont want to get us off of the obamacare train. They want to double down on a failed system that is in the middle of a collapse and, ultimately, its very clear that theyre more interested in the single payer system which means governmentrun health care. Governmentrun health care is not in our nations interest. If they want to get away from Government Health care and not double down on the failure of obamacare, then i think we have something to work with. The problem is we havent seen any evidence of that yet. Thank you. Thank you. A onetwo punch over on capitol hill. That was House Speaker paul ryan taking questions on health care. That little box on your screen will be Vice President mike pence in the next eight minutes or so and then, of course, kasie hunt. Paul ryan was basically pointing at Mitch Mcconnell going, your problem now. Thats essentially what hes saying. Look, were not sure what they can do over there. Thats what were going to spend the next couple hours finding out. You heard mcconnell before paul ryan essentially laying out for the cameras on the senate floor the plan that we knew he was going to try based on the statement his office put out last night. The question is going to be, how long does this plan hold or does it start to fall apart over the course of today . The way well try to answer that question is to talk to those moderate republicans who, frankly, thought that the house bill was too conservative. Who had a lot of concerns. Who have said from the beginning that there is no way to repeal this without replacing it because it is going to be basically you broke it, you buy it. If they break obamacare without having a fix for it, they are going to pay the political price for it. That was kind of the calculus that set off all of these months of trying to write this repeal and replace plan and wrestle it through congress. Were going to be talking to and find out from Susan Collins where she stands on this new plan and also talk to people like senator Lisa Murkowski of alaska and shellie morcapito and would not say one way or the other for the motion to proceed to the house bill. He and mcconnell have reportedly clashed pretty aggressively and a bit surprisingly considering the two have been thought of in certain policy terms over the years. Those are the people that we want to watch for. Keep in mind, we spent a lot of time yesterday talking about john mccain and his importance here because they do need 50 votes. They can only afford to lose two. Before when we were talking yesterday. Rand paul and Susan Collins were those two. We havent heard directly yet from rand pauls office but mike lee and other conservatives said theyre a yes on this plan and this is essentially what paul is asking for. If he decides hes going to vote in favor of this. You have suzens collins. One more moderate you have to wait for john mccain. If you get two more moderates, thats it for this version of the plan. Kasie hunt staying busy on capitol hill. Well see you later in the show. I want to bring in White House Bureau chief and phil rucker and White House Reporter for the Associated Press julie bikowitz. While kasie was talking paul ryan told members he will meet with Mitch Mcconnell. Mike rounds told garret who is also running around on the hill, this is not plan a, or plan b but probably plan c. Is plan c even feasible at this point . Were going to have to see if they can get these votes. We have been watching this unfold and the big picture the Republican Party has campaigned on this for seven years. Here they are in control of the house and the senate. They have the white house and its basically collapsing this effort. Its a real defeat for the party. Youve got august recess. At some point looming where members are going to go back to their home states and who knows what theyll be hearing from constituents. Probably not a lot of people pleased with how things have gone down this spring and summer. This is a defeat for the party, phil and julie. But also, frankly, a defeat for the president. And it sets up an interesting juxtaposition on pennsylvania avenue. The president having dinner talking about how to save health care. Two senators set to hit send on a statement killing this whole thing. And the white house dining room. Apparently no one has any idea on what was about to hit their inboxes. You didnt realize that jerry moran and mike lee. We did not know at this time. We were talking through next step. We have to finish this and some things to tweak out in this bill. Hans nichols is over at the white house. Clearly the white house caught a little off guard on this, although some sources acknowledged to nbc they realized the bill was perilous, if you will. The president s push to get on board with this repeal plan. Its clear the white house has a strategy. Unclear if they have the information and the realtime vote counts to execute that strategy that was cast in high relief last night when they had the senators dining here, working through some sort of plan and completely bind sided. The other two senators from the right side of the spectrum were going and were going to torpedo this entire plan. What weve learned in the last 10, 15 minutes is that Mitch Mcconnell is daring his members. Hes basically calling their bluff saying hes going to hold a vote. Wants to hold a vote on a straight repeal. Heres the interesting thing and i think what kasie will figure out in the next couple of hours on capitol hill, any moderates that prevent that vote from actually taking place . Because now its up to them because some members are not going to want to be on record and they can torpedo this on the procedural side of things. Real quick the president tweeting today three or four tweets this morning. One of them talking about the importance of getting to a 51vote rule. In a lot of ways, they cant get to 51. The president is talking about abolishing the filibuster. They have a challenge getting to 51. Mitch mcconnell is trying to jam his members right now. Lets be very clear on that. Hes a craftae longtime legislative master. But hes trying to jam his members and just one, maybe two of them can throw a wrench in that by not voting on this procedural motion. If the others, the democrats, also decide that they want to throw a Monkey Wrench on the procedural side of thing. Those moderate senators we need to watch in the next couple hours and i will stop talking and we hope kasie hunt can break this. Finally, thank you. No, kidding. Hans, thank you very much. Ill see you at the white house later. Let me pick up. I wanted you to jump in. Hans was talking about the tweet with the 51vote threshold. Theyre there and they cant get it. Is the president plugged in enough on the intricacies of how this is working, julie . I think you hear an eagerness from the white house to turn this back into a political debate that he can sort of spin as a win. And the white house has long sort of seen the downfall of obamacare as an easier thing to message on than tweaking with the bill and repealing and replacing. Just with the tweets this morning you hear that same sort of sentiment coming from the white house. Lets just see what happens with obamacare and go from there. The Vice President. Were expecting to see him. You see that little box on your screen. In the next couple minutes, we thought around 10 15 and a source close to him will deliver a warning shot on health care. Thats what we can expect. Hey, its time for congress to do its job. That is what the white house, though, has been saying for a while. When you look back at this promise the president has been making for the better part of two years, well, lets just roll the tape here. We put together some of the comments from the president over the last eight, nine, ten months on how he thought health care was going to go. Here it is. Youre going to have such Great Health Care at a tiny fraction of the cost. And its going to be so easy. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated. Its a complicated process, but, actually, its very simple. Its called good health care. Were going to get this passed through the senate. I feel so confident. That was from the rose garden celebration in early may. So, some two months ago now. Confident this is going to get through the senate. Will he suffer from it politically with people who support him and people around the country . This has, obviously, been a lot harder than he thought it would be. Hes been an absent negotiator. On the senate side at least. These last several months. He had very little to say to try to galvanize the American Public behind this bill to make an affirmative bill for the Health Care Changes and its interesting that Vice President pence is the person today who is out front delivering that argument to the people. No on camera briefing from his white house today. Yeah. You hear exactly why hes been an innocent negotiators in the senate because he trashed the House Health Care bill after celebrating in the rose garden. Puts him in an awkward position to force a bill through if he turns around and calls it mean. I want to play jim jordan who is out on tv this morning talking about where this goes next at least from the house perspective. How that meeting goes between Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan. Heres what congressman jordan had to say. If it was good enough last congress. This is what drives voters crazy. If it was good enough last congress, why is it not good enough this congress when it really counts . Lets put it out there and see what happens when the role call is called. When its time to put up the vote and see what members do in light of what they did last congress and what they told the American People for six years they were going to do. Hes basically saying, hey, if they supported repeal only then why not support repeal only now . Its a calculation the white house is making, too. We counted up all these votes. You can get to 50 senators just by people who voted for repeal in the past. Theres an effort to apply the political pressure. They are clearly uncomfortable with these changes. Doesnt seem like the Senate Majority leader knows the outcome either. You sense from him a frustration and, you know, like you said, willing to let the members walk the plank on this issue. Get them on record. Were going to talk about the market. Clearly more uncertainty now than there was before. The president on the one hand saying repeal now. Let obamacare collapse and die and well fix it later. How do you see this playing out from a policy perspective for folks . It depends on what the what we end up having. If we have a repeal now and replace later. What is the replace going to be . Theres no plan. Back to the floor where rob portman someone who has been critical of this is in the hallways speaking now. Lets listen. Big changes since 2015. One is now we have 19 counties without a single insurer. In 2015 we had insurers in every county. We have another 27 counties with only one insurer. And one reason these companies have left and created not just fewer choices for the people i represent, but also higher premiums and higher deteductibl is because of the uncertainty. We have to look and see what the socalled repeal bill entails. But if it is a bill that simply repeals, i believe that will add to more uncertainty and the potential for, ohioans to pay even higher premiums, higher detectives and so well have to see. Obviously, look for a cbo analysis of that to see what it involves in terms of not just premiums and deductibles and coverage. Im concerned about something that will simply repeal and its impact on costs and choices and health care. Senator, are you willing to support mcconnell in this new process . Nbcs kasie hunt trying to get a question in to rob portman. If she is still with us, i want her in front of the camera to talk to us. One on f the people on the moderate side and making clear that repeal only is not something he can get behind. Thats exactly right. Listening to portman there you dont sense an appetite to move quickly on this. I think they feel like this isnt working. Lets move on. Rob portman as we know wants to get to tax reform. Thats the other thing. The white house has been talking this up a little bit. Some folks we have been talking to, full steam ahead on tax reform and a very ambitious timeline to get something done on that. Well see what happens with that. They had a very ambitious timeline for a while now and it keeps getting delayed and pushed back. They have to decide what they have to do on health care before they can move forward on anything else. Julie and phil, stick around. We have much more to come on what has been, frankly a pretty rock n roll show so far. We are watching live to see Vice President pence expected to talk about the senate Health Care Bill collapse. Microphone now. We expect to see the vp standing behind those shortly. Well take you there live when we come back. 80 percent of recurrent ischemic strokes could be prevented with the right steps. And take it from me, every step counts. A bayer aspirin regimen is one of those steps in helping prevent another stroke. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [car tires screech] [bell rings] oscwe went back toing bithe drawing board. S. And the cutting board. We removed the added nitrates and nitrites, byproducts, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. Every. Single. One. Why . For the love of hot dogs. Its my decision to make its nbeauty last. Ix. Roc® retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. And the longer i use it, the better it works. 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Yes im gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. All right. Lets talk about those russian diplomatic compounds. The u. S. Shut down as part of punishment for election interference. Moscow is mad. Really mad and today the foreign minister is now saying russia reserves the right to retaliate. If the u. S. Does not give those compounds back. This thing is heating up. Theres some real questions about what the Trump Administration will do next. Joining the conversation now is former republican congressman bob barr who also served as the u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of georgia along with julie and phil back for the hour. Bob, i want to start with you. This thing, we have been hearing the foreign minister, russian representatives, members of the government talk about this practically every day now with this new warning this morning that russia reserves the right to retaliate. So, in your view, should the Trump Administration be considering giving these compounds back . Well, presumably and one hopes that there was a well thought out reason for taking these steps in the first place. And when you do that in the International Arena sort of like playing a game of chess. You want to think two or three or four moves down the road. And if thats the case, then i would say the Trump Administration continued to play those moves. It depends, certainly, to some extept extent on what the russians say and do. Simply because the russians demand something doesnt mean we have to do acquiesce to it and these are diplomatic games that go on all the time. This is really nothing new. Anything youre hearing now from the sort of new rhetoric, the increased rhetoric from russia that is giving you cause for concern or to you as youre talking about, hey, politics as usual with them. I dont really see anything here that is alarming at all. Again, you know, even years ago when i worked in the intelligence business with the cia and in some of my work as u. S. Attorney here in atlanta. We would have International Matters and you would always expect an adversary whether its russia or china or cuba to take steps, if you do something, then they do this. And you do that. But whats more important than what is going on publicly in this arena is whats going on behind the scenes sort of in secret and hopefully there is a lot more going on that the public doesnt know about with regard to the Trump Administration figuring out what russia has done and taking steps than, you know, the public posturing which really is not that important. Do you think there is more going on behind the scenes that people know about . Id be very surprised if there isnt. And if, in fact, there isnt, then we have a real problem here. I would certainly presume that there is. When you talk about sanctions. Im speaking more broadly now. Should the president be considering relaxing any kind of russian sanctions given the environment that hes in politically right now . I dont see any reason for the president or the administration to be relaxing any steps that were taken previously unless there is something very important first that the russians will do. And its far more important than simply meeting with putin and saying one is satisfied with his explanation. That is a far too simplistic approach to dealing with any foreign nation, but, particularly, russia. Which ever since the days a century ago has been as Winston Churchill once said is like an wrapped up in paper with a bow on it and you have to undo all of those things to figure out exactly what it is theyre saying and doing. That requires good intelligence. It requires a well thought out plan and it requires a great deal of secrecy. Let me ask you about this trump tower meeting that happened, obviously, back in june during the campaign. Don jr. Meeting with the russian lawyer. The ap is now reporting, im going to read you this quote. She was drawing attention and u. S. Government officials for her work with an Investment Firm attempting to weaken u. S. Sanctions and denied her entry into the u. S. According to government. Given your time in d. C. , were you familiar with either nutalia or anyone in that meeting prior to last weeks reporting . No, i never absolutely not. There were so many red flags so to speak that would have gone off in advance of the meeting that i think would be, it would have been highly inappropriate and far too poetentially dangerous to engage in such a meeting at that particular time. When you look at the fall out now and. Do you think the president s team is serving him well here . I know the lawyers and theyre doing the best they can. In terms of Legal Assistance for the president and those around him, the best thing to do would be to get your house in order outside of the media, make sure that you have all of your information, make sure that you have interviewed all of the people involved privately. And do very, very little in terms of Public Comment on this. Frequently what gets people in trouble more than anything else is things that they say after something has been done trying to plaexplain it away. Weve seen that, i think, over the last ten days or so since this story first broke. Would you advise the legal teams here to do it a little different and back off those public statements . I think it is important to let things calm down. There is a special prosecutor, mr. Mueller involved here. And while im not a great fan of that process, it is a process Going Forward and whatever one says or doesnt say can affect where that special prosecutor goes. So, i think thats why its very important to avoid to the greatest extent that you can Public Commenting on these sorts of issues. Let the investigations, whether its the congressional side or bob muellers side. Let them proceed and stay out of the media would be my advice. Okay. That perspective, bob. Thank you. Talking aboutt the legal team. The growing cast of legal advisors surrounding the president and his team. Walk us through your reporting because this plays into what bob is talking about. This is exactly why the white house turned to come inside the white house. The new person hired to work on the president s interior. Lots of lawyers involved mark kato and given legal advice for decades and has a new connection with them and now this new player has a growing role inside the white house and sort of able to communicate directly with the president and help the rest of the white house staff develop some sort of communication strategy, which we all have seen has been lacking at times. And that speaks to what bobs talking about. Bob barr, former congressman, thank you for joining us on this program. Much appreciate it, sir. Coming up after the break, were switching gears to talk about health care, again, because believe it or not more developments in just the last few minutes here including any minute now Vice President pence expected to speak about this Health Care Collapse as soon as he starts, were taking you there live. Plus, were doing a little thought experiment here on what it would mean for you if obamacare does actually get repealed with no replacement. 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I voted against this approach in 2015 and i do not think that it is going to be constructive to repeal a law that at this point is so interwoven within our Health Care System and then hope that over the next two years we will come up with some kind of replacement. I think that would create great anxiety for individuals who rely on the aca. I believe it would cause the Insurance Markets to go into turmoil. And i dont think it is the right way to proceed. What i am recommending is that senator lamar alexander, the chairman of the Health Committee start hearings to look at what we can do to fix the many egregious flaws in the aca, so that it will work better for our country and for all americans. Thank you, guys. We have to go. Enough of a Republican Party to join you in opposing this if it wont pass . I have no idea what the vote count is going to be. Thank you, guys. That is a Significant Development from Susan Collins. It happened during this last commercial break in just the last couple of minutes. Kasie, the developments here coming constantly. Not surprising from Susan Collins, but it is important. Right . Thats right, hallie. We were anticipating this is what she is going to say. Significant. She is now on the record saying she is going to continue to oppose what republicans have been trying to do in repealing and replacing and now just repealing obamacare. She came out and said, look, im going to be a no on that vote to open debate on the house bill. This is mcconnells plan to get to a repeal only vote. That the vote the president has been calling for and rand paul calling for. That is our First Official no vote. We spoke to a number of moderate senators and people on the fence. So far most have been noncommittal. Rob portman wouldnt say one way or the other how to vote. Allowing the process to start to unfold, but he did say he doesnt support the house bill. And that things have changed since 2015 when they first,er when they voted on this version of ill cut you off kasie hunt. Mike pence talking about health care. Not true. They said if you like your Health Insurance, you could keep it. Not true. We were told that Health Insurance costs would go down. That one wasnt true either. Our administration is actually shown that the average premium on the individual market is more than doubled since obamacare went into effect less than four years ago and in some states more than triple. When obamacare passed we were promised that families would save up to 2,500 in premiums every year but the average of oba obamacare premiums today cost more than 3,000 than a plan did in 2013. While premiums are soaring, choices are plummeting. Next year, nearly 40 of americas counties, including nine entire states will have only one choice of a Health Insurance provider. Meaning theyll have essentially no choice at all. And even worse, dozens of counties will have no Health Insurance providers whatsoever on the Obamacare Exchange in 2018. Men and women behind these statistics are real people facing the real crisis. Behind every number is a name. And behind every name is a story. Ive heard them as ive traveled across this country on our president s behalf. I heard first hand from job creators just like all of you in this room and working families about the burden that obamacare has placed upon them. The burden of higher costs and less care for the vulnerable. Oba obamacare has failed and obamacare must go. Now, President Trump and i are grateful for the efforts of Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell and the vast majority of republicans who have worked so hard in the house and senate to keep their promise to repeal and replace obamacare. As the president said just earlier today, most republicans were loyal, terrific and worked really hard and there are no true words. But, last night we learned that the senate still doesnt have consensus on a bill to repeal and replace obamacare at the same time. President trump and i fully support the majority leaders decision to move forward with a bill that just repeals obamacare. And gives Congress Time as the president said to work on a new Health Care Plan that will start with a clean slate. You know, the senate actually passed the very same bill in 2015 and sent it to president obamas desk and they should do it again. But to be clear, the senate should vote to repeal now and replace later or return to the legislation carefully in the house and senate but either way inaction is not an option. Congress needs to step up. Congress needs to do their job. And Congress Needs to do their job now. As the president said with his inexhaustible optimism and determination, stay tuned. We will return. We will rescue the American People from the disastrous consequences of obamacare and restore a Health Care System based on personal responsibility, free Market Competition and statebased reform. Thats the american way to meet the Health Care Needs of the American People in the 21st century. And were not going to stop fighting until we get it done. But im here today on the president s behalf to say thank you. Thanks to the National Retail federation and all the members for what you do for america every single day. Its amazing to think for 106 years the National Retail federation has given a voice to the corner stores, the mom and pop shops, the groceries and Department Stores and internet retailers and all the other retailers that are literally the back bone of every american community. And the businesses represented in this room you have been listening to Vice President mike pence now talking retail since he is at an event with the National Retail foundation. But prior to that talking about health care. While the Vice President was talking, we got some information, some new news now from shellie who says she cannot support a repeal now, replace later plan. Again, literally every minute were getting new developments on this. Garret has been running around congress, as well. The halls of the capitol. I believe hes joining us live now. Garret, put this into perspective for us. This has been a morning of fastmoving developments. Yeah, hallie. Just within the last few minutes, we got this statement from shellie saying she would be a no on this repeal only plan. I just spoke to Susan Collins coming into a hearing here a few minutes before that and she confirms she remains a no on doing the repeal only plan. Just the back of the napkin math here, unless john mccain is back here on capitol hill, they dont have the votes. Republicans dont have the votes to pass this repeal only plan. They have the two noes and with mccain back at home in arizona recuperating, theyre not there yet. We have heard from a lot of skeptical republicans on the hill today. They did not expect this thing to fall apart, at least not in the manner it did last night. Everyone from people like rob portman to sort of more traditional conservatives, allies of Mitch Mcconnell like mike rounds of south dakota. Everyone saying this is not ideal. This is not what we were hoping for and theyre going to need to review it and they want to hear from mcconnell. This will continue to develop throughout the day, hallie . Including in the next 90 seconds. Well see Chuck Schumer take to the senate floor to talk about this from the democratic perspective. Well keep an eye on that and bring it to you live when it happens in the next 1 15 now. I want to bring back in julie and phil here. We have been watching this develop. You have been sitting here with me on set as were looking at our emails deurg the bre s durd former chairman of the white House Counsel of economic advisors and lonnie chen, also served as policy director for the romney 2012 campaign. We have 4 a seconds before we get to senator schumer. You have sort of informally advised Mitch Mcconnell and the senators on the first draft of this bill from what i understand. From your insider perspective, what went wrong here . Well, it comes down to policy differences, hallie. That is what this is about. Senators who feel very different about the medkaed expansion and assistance to lowincome americans and frankly very different about regulatory reform. Those policy differences ultimately did this bill in and those policy differences continue as republicans search for a solution Going Forward on health care. And, jason, will the solution come potentially from working with democrats here . Do you think when we see senator schumer hes going to say, lets all Work Together . You know, the Affordable Care act was an improvement on the status quo. This bill would have taken us back in the direction of the status quo. Thats a direction people didnt want to move. Certainly things you could do like, for example, bring in insurance and Rural Counties that dont have as much coverage. The Affordable Care act is mostly fixing itself as long as the administration doesnt take a dramatic step to worsen it. But legislation could certainly build on that. Make it even better. But that could only be done on a bipartisan basis and building on something that basically is working. This talk of bipartisanship, phil, realistic . Julie shaking her head here. I think unrealistic, but there is a chance that there could be some bipartisanship in tinkering around the edges and maybe making a fix that democrats could agree to. No way Democratic Senators are going to join these republicans to appeal president obamas signature law. Thats why you hear the president turning to talk of lets let obamacare fail because that really is essentially the only way to get democrats to the table is to let obamacare sort of unravel in the hopes that democrats will sort of throw up their hands and say, lets talk. Well, so, when you look at what happened in the last couple of minutes here that we have been talking about. Coming out a no on repeal and replace later. Collins the same thing. Portman is concerned. Reaction from other senators who were still on the fence about this. What shot where does Mitch Mcconnell go from here . He has been making his members walk the plank and take this vote. Is this going to be a significant it feels like a significant moment for him. It is. Hes going to try to get to a vote but i dont know if hell have one. Two have said no and some are not ready to say no publicly. Well have to see how it unfolds. Its not good for mcconnell. How does he salvage this . I think having this full repeal vote those of you who wanted this vote, you get it now. You get the opportunity as you guys have said to walk the plank. The challenge is, by the way, this repeal bill that theyre talking about. This 2015 repeal bill does not even repeal as much of the Affordable Care act as the bill that was just pulled from debate. This bcra vote. So, it will be interesting to see how people respond to this and also the challenge that we had two or three years of history since that 2015 repeal vote. This is the point that rob portman was making. It does put senators in a different position now in terms of how theyll vote on this than potentially on how they voted in 2015. Im not sure where they go from here. Perhaps they pursue some of the fixes that jason was talking about. Perhaps they look at some of the statebased approaches that Susan Collins and bill cassidy of louisiana have been advocating for. That may be a potential fallback approach. But all the traditional approaches, repeal and delay, et cetera, dont seem the cards right now. Jason, were expecting again to see senator Chuck Schumer take the floor of the senate. Weve been showing that live shot any minute here. Can you talk through what you think this means for the president s agenda, a major priority for President Trump and now increasing scuttle but on the hill that tax reform will be the next big thing. Where does the president go from there if he wants to reach across the aisle and get democrats on board with something . I think its a real shame the administration chose to put this first. They could have gone to democrats in the beginning of the year, said they wanted to do revenue neutral tax reform because our tax system does need fixing and substantial investment in infrastructure. Those are two things that would help our economy a whole lot more than anything were talking about here in our health system. But they were put second in the case of taxes. Its squi switching to a big tax cut, you wont get democrats on board with that either and youll be in the same situation if you have three republican defectors i think a path jason youve got to cut you off, were going to listen to senator schumer here. Should be crystal clear, the core of the bill is unworkable. Its time to move on. Its time to start over. Rather than rerepeating the same failed partisan process yet again, republicans should work with democrats on a bill that lowers premiums and provides longterm stability to the markets and improves our Health Care System. I heard the republican leader sh morning say that democrats quote, decided early on that they did not want to engage seriously, unquote, on health care. In the same speech, the republican leader also admitted that the very first thing the republican majority did this congress was to pass reconciliation so they could Pass Health Care on a party line vote. 50 needed. No democrats needed. Early on, the majority leader told democrats, we dont need you. We dont want you. Respectfully i take issue with the idea democrats didnt want to engage on health care. The majority leader admitted that he decided the matter for us when he locked democrats out of the process at the outset. At the very beginning of this congress, President Trump and leader mcconnell said, dont come knocking at our door on health care. We dont need you. Now that they are one party effort has largely failed, we hope they will change their tune. It seems like Many Republicans are ready for a truly bipartisan effort on health care indeed. My friend senator mccain urged it quite strongly saying the Congress Must now return to regular order. Hold hearings and receive input from members of both parties. And he said that while reco recuperating in arizona, thats how strongly he feels about it. Other republican senators have made similar comments. But the republican leader still plans to ignore their advice and instead plans on holding a proxy vote on a straight repeal of our Health Care Law first. Make no mistake about it, passing repeal without a replacement would be a disaster. Our Health Care System would implode. Millions would lose coverage, coverage for millions more would be diminished and our Health Care System would be in such a deep hole, that repair would be nearly impossible. In passing in fact passing repeal and having it go into effect two years later is in many ways worse than the republican Health Care Bill that was just rejected by my republican colleagues. Its like if our Health Care System was a patient who came in and needed some medicine. The republicans propose surgery. The operation was a failure. Now republicans are proposal a second surgery that will surely kill the patient. Medicine is needed bipartisan medicine, not a second surgery. We urge our republican colleagues to change their tune. Passing repeal now is not a door to Bipartisan Solutions as the majority leader suggested this morning. Rather it is a disaster. The door to bipartisanship is open right now, not with repeal, but with an effort to improve the existing system. The door is open right now, Republican Leadership only needs to walk through it. As Many Republican members are urging me. The door is to accept the progress weve made in our Health Care System and work to improve it. The Affordable Care act isnt perfect but repealing all of the good things about the law will create such chaos, that there will be hardly be anything left to repair. Republicans dont need to wreak havoc on our Health Care System first in order to get democrats to the table. Were ready to sit down right now if republicans abandon cuts to medicaid, abandon huge tax breaks for the wealthy and agree to go through the regular order, through the committees with hearings onto the floor with time for amendments. Thats how we perfect legislation here. Thats how its been done for 200 inevitably, when you try to draft something behind closed doors and not vet it with the public, it becomes a failure in this case a disaster. So again our republican colleagues dont need to wreak havoc on our Health Care System first in order to get democrats to the table. Were ready to sit down right now. Again, if republicans abandon cuts to medicaid, abandon tax breaks for the wealthy and agree to go through the regular order. The door to bipartisanship is open right now. Republicans only need to walk through it. And id remind my republican friends that the cbo has already scored the idea of a clean repeal bill and it would be a catastrophe, listen to what nonpartisan cbo, cbo appointed the head of cbo appointed by the republican leader of the senate and the republican leader of the house. Heres what cbo said. It would cause 32 million heres what cbo said about repeal. It would cause 32 million americans to lose their insurance. Premiums would double while cutting taxes for households with incomes over a Million Dollars by over 50,000 a year. It would end Medicaid Expansion with no grace period or option for states who like their Medicaid Expansion and want to keep it. In many ways, its just as cruel if not crueller to medicaid as the trump care bill in a different way. So i would expect the same senators who are concerned about trump care bills medicaid cuts will be equally concerned about what repeal and delay would do to medicaid. Many of my republican friends rejected roundly the idea of repeal and delay several months ago at the beginning of the year when President Trump first proposed it, it seemed like that would be what republicans would do. Here are just some of the names back then who said, repeal and then replace, later doesnt work. Here they were, cassidy, alexander, collins, corker, cotton, hatch, izaacson, moran, murkowski, paul. I would tell those colleagues and all of the others, the idea hasnt magically gotten better with age. It is still nothing more than a cut and run approach to health care that will leave millions much americans out in the cold and raise costs on everyone, the young, the old and the sick and the healthy, working americans and middle class families, everyone will be hurt but the very very wealthy. Mr. President , every day that republicans spend on trying to pass their now failed partisan trump care bill, every day they spend cooking up new tricks to bully their members to get on a Health Care Bill is another day wasted. Another day that could have been spent working on real improvements to our Health Care System. Democrats want to work with our colleagues on the republican side to stabilize the marketplaces and improve the cost and quality of care. And we want to do it via regular order, a process this body has used time and time again to produce consensus bipartisan historic legislation. The majority leader said in 2014, in a speech entitled restoring the senate that quote, this is Mitch Mcconnell. When the senate is allowed to work, the way it was designed to, it arrives at the result acceptable to people all along the political spectrum. If its ang Assembly Line for one partys legislative agenda, it creates instability in strive rather than good stable law. I want to repeat that. These are the words of Mitch Mcconnell. I hope leader mcconnell is listening and remember these words, he hasnt for the