Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20170727

Judiciary who thinks they might be. The 11th hour on a wednesday night begins now. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 188 of the still young Trump Administration and day 7 of the president s public humiliation of his own attorney general. Todays offensive was launched again from the president s cell phone. Trump asked why sessions did not fire the acting fbi director trying to tie him to jim comey and hillary clinton. It comes after days of attacks in which trump has called sessions very weak, referred to him as beleagued, said he was very disappointed in sessions. Tonight we have some new reporting from the Washington Post saying trump is talking privately about the idea of a recess appointment waiting until Congress Leaves Town on Summer Vacation to replace sessions. Quoting here, still raging over sessions recusal from the justice departments escalating russia investigation. Trump has been talking privately not so privately anymore about how he might replace sessions and possibly side step Senate Oversight for people familiar with the issue said. Two of those people, however, described trump as musing about the idea rather than outlining a plan of action. And the New York Times tonight reports from sources that white house aides including priebus and bannon believe they have talked trump down from firing sessions, but his anger was deep, they added, and nothing was certain when it came to the volatile president. The times indicates its trump family members who want sessions out as theyve become ensnared in this russia investigation. Tonight, Vice President mike pence was asked about the sessions matter on fox news. I think the president s been very candid. Hes disappointed. Right. With the attorney generals decision to recuse himself and to not know about hissive tension to do so before he was confirmed. As the attorney general. The washington way is to talk behind peoples backs. But thats not president Donald Trumps approach. One of the great things about this president is you always know where you stand. He said well see what happens in the future. Right. At least the American People know and every member of the cabinet can know that youll always know where you stand with President Trump. And at the White House Press briefing, Sarah Huckabee sanders reiterated trumps disappointment and added the two men have not spoken this week even though its important to point out sessions was in the west wing down the hall from the oval office today around the same time the president attacked him on twitter. I think the president s been very clear about where he is. Hes obviously disappointed but also wants the attorney general to continue to focus on the things that the attorney general does. Has he spoken to the president this week . Do you know when the last time the two of them spoke was . I dont believe theyve spoke this week. Im not sure on the time frame. If hes so frustrated and so disappointed in him, why doesnt he just ask him to resign or fire him . Why does he continue to tweet about him instead. Look, you can be disappointed in someone but still want them to continue to do their job. He wants him to continue in that job. I think i made it clear last week if there comes a point he doesnt, hell make that decision. Today started with the president catching everyone off guard, not the first time. This morning though, he wrote on twitter, after consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow, and lets stop it right there and look at that because for nine minutes, thats all we saw. Imagine working at the pentagon and thats all you saw before the president went onto the next line. He went on to say, he was blocking transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the u. S. Military. This major shift in policy came as our secretary of defense is on vacation. And came without a plan to implement it. No paperwork has been forwarded from the white house to the pentagon. When reporters asked how this change would work, heres a sampling of what they heard. Thats something that the department of defense and the white house will have to Work Together as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully. Again, implementation policy is going to be something that the white house and the department of defense have to Work Together to lawfully determine. The decision is based on a military decision. Its not meant to be anything more than that. Once again, this was a decision based on what was best for the military. And theyre going to Work Together with the department of defense to lawfully implement if. As i mentioned before, this was a decision about the military readiness. On that note, lets bring in the starting panel. Nbc news chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell is here with us tonight, politics reporter for the New York Times Jeremy Peters coauthor of todays front page article in trumps world very weak sessions twist in wind and Michael Schmidt who covers National Security at the times. Welcome to you all. Mr. Schmidt, youre going to get the first question because you cover justice and then some. I suppose youre getting asked this a lot. It may be unanswerable. Is sessions safe . If so, for how long . Well, i think at least for now, he looks like he is safe. It looks like the folks around the president were able to convince him that this would be a very, very bad thing to do. I think the president has seen that he, the huge fallout from the comey firing and the impact of that. And i think that hes afraid of what could happen, you know, certainly the people around him are afraid of what could happen if he were to fire sessions and implications of that. I think theres a real fear that the Republican Congress which has largely supported him may actually back off that support and may create some problems for the president. Michael say nothing about the fact that it would match the story line investigators are trying to prove. Well, that is true. I mean, the question here is whether, you know, as weve seen with comey, the question is was the president trying to obstruct the investigation. Would the president be trying to obstruct it by getting rid of sessions. That would certainly play into that narrative. This is something that mueller has looked at. Hes begun to look at this issue. And it is the reason why mueller exists. You know, if comey had not been fired and had not come out, that the president had asked comey to end the flynn investigation, we wouldnt be in this situation. The president wouldnt be as upset as he is with sessions. The president is really, really disappointed by this and doesnt understand why sessions did this. I think the president finally understands the impact that mueller could have on him. Mueller has an enormous amount of power. Hes going to look at everything in trump world. I think theres real deep concerns at the white house about that. To mr. Peters, i used to know just two things about recess appointments and fact check me here to see if theyre still true. Number one, its good still the next Congress Comes into town and number two, we havent had many fullon recesses in the modern era last couple of years. Theres a way to keep the senate minimally in session, maybe one or two members present. That way, most of the senates on summer break. But this cant happen. Is that correct . Thats correct from my understanding of the senate rules, brian. I think what weve never seen before and what kind of leaves an open question as to how this might unfold is youve never had a republican president and a Republican Congress together at such a tumultuous time where there is the question of the possibility of a recess appointment. Now, this assumes that republicans would somehow try to get in the way of sessions replacement and it also assumes that there will be a sessions replacement, which as my colleague michael was just saying we think right now maybe thats not the case. Maybe this has blown over. From what im hearing, as well, there have been senior aides in the white house telling the president that firing Jeff Sessions would abe terrible idea because of the rupture that it would cause with the conservative base of the republican party. Sessions was a validater for a lot of Donald Trumps warrior supporters. He was emblematic of the kind of conservative nationalism that eventually would win donald trump the presidency. So to jettison and humiliate him in such a public way has been a real problem on the right for trump. I think for now, youre going to see him probably ease up a little bit and given that youre up one day and down the next, riding high in april, down in may is always a situation with donald trump. I could see this repairing itself. Andrea, duly noted these twos brethren are with the New York Times earlier tonight, the Washington Post version of this was four sources still telling them this was possible. And i think that this is the confusion of covering donald trump because he is impulsive. He follows his own lead. He doesnt listen to his lawyers advice. I think if he gets annoyed more annoyed if thats possible with Jeff Sessions, i wouldnt bar anything. Because he, first of all, if congress leaves and i think there is a complicating factor here on recess appointments because of exactly what they were just alluding to what jeremy was just saying that both houses are controlled by republicans. And usually a house in control keeps that is senate in the by having someone babysit for gavel down for you know, 30 seconds or two minutes each time. Weve seen that happen fairly often. I would not rule it out. He could also get around all of this by firing mr. Rosenstein. Yeah. And appointing a more complicit deputy ag. So hes got options. Then we get into a summer more reminiscent of the mid70s than 2017. Mr. Schmidt again, another thing interesting about covering this crowd are the bedfellows created, sometimes short term for the task at hand. Tonight, we are led to leave it is messers mcgahn, bannon, and priebus who are on the talk him down team and its the trump family caught up in the russia investigation themselves who are on the get rid of sessions team. My sense on the sessions issue is that everyone is sort of on the same page. I think its pretty clear to them the impact that this would have. And that everyone sort of understands that. Weve seen so many different issues with this white house where indeed they do break down sort of on the republican line and line of folks from new york and people in the more democratic line. I think this one is pretty crystal clear. Theyre trying to avoid a situation like comey. If they could go back and put the toothpaste back in the comey jar, i dont think he would have fired comey because of what it has led to in the form of muler. Jeremy, you alluded to this earlier but proof that this is no ordinary time. Chuck grassley, Judiciary Committee chairman tweeted tonight, we have it and well put it up on the screen. In kind of twitter shorthand. Everybody in d. C. Should be warned that the agenda for the Judiciary Committee is set for the rest of 2017. Judges first, no punctuation, sub cabinet second ag . No way. That is being taken as the senators way of saying dont you dare touch Jeff Sessions. Exactly right. Theres a Certain Senate camaraderie, lets not forget Jeff Sessions was a senator two decades before he went over to Donald Trumps cabinet. They are certainly protective of him there. This is more than just about politics. As michael was saying, this is about legality, too. And the only one who seems confused here about whether or not it was proper for sessions to recuse himself is donald trump. Donald trumps closest supporters, Rudy Giuliani among them, have said yes, it absolutely was the right thing for sessions to recuse himself from an investigation that he was going to be a subject of. So if trump were to fire him, this would not only create, you know, a big problem with trump voters who saw sessions as kind of the conscience of this administration, the conservative conscience of this administration but also cause a huge problem on capitol hill and potentially open the floodgates for republicans to start breaking with the president in a way they have so far been very reluctant to do, brian. Andrea. The irony here is of all the cabinet members so far, perhaps also including the epa. Hes been getting the job done. The way donald trump wants him to get it done. Hes been tough on immigration. Hes been tough on sanctuary cities. Hes been tough on voting rights. He has cut back all kinds of issues that are near and dear to the heart of donald trump and to the conservative base. Hes been a very effective operator here. I have to ask you about the tweets on Transgender Service in the military. Buzzfeed had a piece tonight that said for someone at the pentagon, that was a heartstopping nine minutes. It was clear this was coming out of the white house. No one had any paperwork to back this up. And. Let me give you some context here. Let me set the table. They had a Principals Committee meeting today on afghanistan. They are stymied because of disagreements important disagreements among cabinet secretaries. Tillerson and mattis on one side, people in the white house the other on whether to send more troops. The president doesnt want to. Theyre trying to work around that. There is some signs that there were some signs that north korea is preparing another Missile Launch tonight, tomorrow, in the next couple of days and a new intelligence assessment saying that they got it wrong, that in fact, kim jongun is making very rapid progress cutting two years off the lead time to miniature a warhead and be able to get it to reenter the atmosphere. An Alarming State of affairs on that front. Youve got big plans about isis in syria. Youve got this dispute between the saudis over our biggest air base which affects our biggest air base in qatar. There are so many Foreign Policy issues and hes tweeting about transgender soldiers, men and women in the women who are performing, 15,000 people performing all sorts of critical activities in a volunteer army. There is no plan. The generals were not consulted. Theres no plan at all for how to muster them out if thats going to be the effect of some executive order which we have not seen. Michael, Maggie Haberman tweeted that the house loved todays briefing. Meaning by that, yes, this was something with a real human cost. And something that has to be debated and discussed. But it was also a giant daily distraction. Yeah, the briefing was short and sweet. And there wasnt a lot to it. There werent a lot of answers to these questions. The transgender issue is incredibly complicated at the pentagon. Its something that the Obama Administration spent an enormous amount of time looking at. They figured out how much it would cost. Its not a big cost. Its about 3 million or 4 million more for a military that spends over 500 billion. And this is something that the Obama Administration really worked a lot of time on. And now that theres this is announcement its not coming out for the press, there was not a lot of answers about what would happen with that, and you know, the press was certainly not satisfied with that. Jeremy, last word to you in a volunteer service in the modern era, you dont hear often who shouldnt serve, who shouldnt volunteer to serve their country. Exactly. The Obama Administration went far not just in opening the military up to transgender individuals but combat roles to all women and this administration seems intent on rolling back just who can serve in the armed forces in a pretty significant way and in a way that is another example of how President Trump is insistent on dismantling pieces of Barack Obamas legacy. Thanks to everybody for working late tonight and a note. Andrea mitchell, Jeremy Peters, and Michael Schmidt. We dont get to see andrea here in new york as much as wed like to on the late shift. So our thanks tonight go to seth meyers who had the good sense to have andrea on tonight as a guest on late night. We have further scheduled it so you can see it. After, switch over to your local nbc station. Because its andrea, its worth it to check your local listings. Thanks again to our panel and coming up for us, the new head of the white house communication shop may want to let trump be trump, but what are the president s lawyers saying about that . Some answers when we continue. The 11th hour is just getting started. For years, centurylink has been promising fast internet to small businesses. But for many businesses, its out of reach. Why promise something you cant deliver . Comcast business is different. We deliver superfast internet with speeds of 250 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than centurylink. We do business where you do business. Welcome back to the 11th hour on another busy night. Thanks to the Washington Post tonight. We are learning more about what the president s lawyers are advising him. When it comes to his comments at least on Jeff Sessions and bob mueller. Several lawyers around trump have been urging the president to stop his saber rattling against sessions and mueller, adding that his comments send a signal to mueller that the president s trying to shut down or curtail the investigation as if he does have something to hide. Well, with us tonight to talk about all this, Jill Winebanks back with us, one of the special prosecutors during the watergate scandal, former general counsel to the u. S. Army, Michael Crowley, senior Foreign Affairs correspondent for politico and jeremy bash former chief of staff at cia, dod and former House Counsel for house intel. Jill, what do you make of the legal advice the president is getting in. That is good advice. I dont expect that hes going to follow it any more than he has followed any of the other advice hes gotten. Hes making a mistake with all his tweets. Its almost like wag the dog, the movie where hes trying to divert attention from what is going on in this legitimate investigation which is anything but a witch hunt. Do you think hes acting guilty or innocent . He is clearly acting guilty. If he doesnt have anything to hide, why isnt he going to just make complete and full discolor, give out all the documents he could possibly give out and just answer all the questions, let all his people testify. He has to be worried right now whos going to be the first to flip on him. Is it going to be paul man manafort,who clearly is in legal jeopardy for a number of potential crimes. Is it already flynn . Is he already cooperating with the government . I dont know who it is but someone probably is, and that may be why hes so worried and so anxious to shut this investigation down. And i would have never thought i would have supported attorney general sessions. He does not stand for anything i believe in except in this case, he is doing the right thing. And i hope he will have the courage to withstand the twitter attacks and to stay in his job. Jeremy bash, mike pence went on fox tonight and i heard him repeat the president s recusal criticism of sessions. And it is an apparent people may not know how this works. The prior to taking a job and prior to the official announcement of a probe, an investigation, you cant know in advance that the conditions are going to meet the standard for recusal. But the attorney general as he explained to us met with his senior staff. He thought about it, and the only outcome for him was recusal which im quite sure you learned first year harvard law school. Yes, sessions is a witness in two of bob muellers principal investigative pillars. First he is clearly a witness in the russia collusion aspect of the investigation. Second and he later became and will be now a witness in the firing of jim comey aspect, the obstruction of justice aspect. You cannot have a witness lead and oversee an investigation. This is kind of recusal 101. I think the sessions decision to recuse himself was sort of a nobrainer. It was clearly the law and policy. And he was left with no choice, and i just want to point out in addition to the president s threats as trying to undermine muellers investigation, hes also witness tampering. Hes actually bullying a witness. Hes bullying Jeff Sessions and part of the reason may be that the president is trying to send a signal to Jeff Sessions if you step out of line in testifying against me in either of these twos pillars i am going to take you out. Mr. Crowley, while weve all been talking about this, in your beat, there has been great progress along the topic of russia sanctions. Kind of quietly moving through congress and now the administration is faced with a very interesting decision. Bring us up to speed on everything. Yeah, brian. This hasnt gotten a lot of attention with Everything Else going on but this package of sanctions has moved through congress and they are sanctions on russia that the congress has imposed that among other things, tie Donald Trumps hands so that if trump tries to undo any of the existing sanctions on russia, theres an automatic congressional review, and beak, it means that trump is not going to be able to undo any of the sanctions even the ones that were imposed by executive order by president obama. And so for now, it would appear that any kind of significant deal with the russian president Vladimir Putin is off the table. Donald trump could try to veto this measure when it lands on his desk likely after an expected Senate Passage this week but hes almost certain to be easily overridden by the congress. These sanctions have overwhelming support. So really he would just be asking for another embarrassment. So hes going to have to swallow them. Hell complain about them. Whats really interesting is that if you read, you know, ive been reading the last few days english language Russian Media and comments by russian officials and diplomats. The russians are really running out of patience. Theyre very angry. They wanted those diplomatic compounds backing that president obama took. And they are really upset about these sanctions. Congress has passed. Theres a lot of talk now about retaliatory steps. We could see the russians for instance kicking out u. S. Diplomats, maybe closing american diplomatic compounds. Ill just point out as you recall when barack obama imposed sanctions at the end of last year on the russians as punishment for their interference in the election, mike flynn allegedly told the russian ambassador, dont retaliate. When trump comes into office, well make this right. Clearly thats not going to happen now. The bottom line is time is running out on this attempted reset that donald trump wants to do. The relationship may be about to get much worse. Donald trump may be about to suffer an embarrassment. Who knows where it goes from here. Its going to be complicated and potentially dangerous for the u. S. Russia relationship. Our relationship with russia may start to look like our relationship used to be with russia. Jill, to the legal question. Mr. Kushner, if he spends any more time on capitol hill this week, hes going to need his mail forwarded. They have weve seen the subpoena to man manfort. That has been withdrawn. Jared kushner has already sat across from several investigators. Read the tea leaves for me. Where do you think this puts the hill investigations and based on what little we know, where do you think mueller is right about now in his . Im going to guess that mueller is actually ahead of the congressional investigation. And has already gotten some of these witnesses under on the record in their own case. And that they will continue to do that. I think his statement sounded very plausible when you first read it, but as you probed into it, it looked like it fell completely apart and was not credible. At the bottom of his explanation was, well, i was just too naive. I didnt have experience in government. I only had business experience. And i didnt know what i was doing. I was too busy to read my emails so i went to meetings with people i didnt know even though i was too busy to read the emails about the meeting i actually went to the meetings. Thats not a credible excuse. I want to add one thing about Jeff Sessions which is President Trump seems to be angry about both the fact that he recused himself and that he didnt tell him in advance. One, everybody agrees that he was right to recuse himself that he had no choice. Secondly, he did advise the president during his confirmation hearing he said i understand the complaints. I will be talking to the ethics people as soon as i am confirmed and finding out whether i have to. At that point, the president could have easily withdrawn his nomination. So he was warned. And he shouldnt be complaining about what he should have told me. He did tell him. Jeremy, about todays announcement, either the stage craft or the substance about Transgender Service in the military. I heard a democratic u. S. Senator say this evening, what if it turns out that our expert at nsa, the person, go to person we have at nsa who by the way, equates and compares their service to this country with as much value to the country as frontline infantriry, what it furnace out that desk officer is transgender . Do we really expect them to put down their computer mouse, take off their i. D. Card and thats the last we should see of them . Its a horrible precedent. We have intelligence officers, military professionals, diplomatic professionals at this hour in some very austere corners of the globe risking their lives for our freedom. If they want to serve our country, we should have their back and protect them. When i read this mornings tweet had i one reaction. The president was unwilling to fire general flynn even though the white house has warned he could be blackmailed by the russians and yet they are prepared tonight to fire private flynn who is willing to rick his or her life for our country. Mr. Crowley, you get the last word. How often do you allow yourself to think about what if some news arrived, god forbid a thousand times tonight from the north korea that was real. What if news arrived from the middle east that was the kind of real and scary news weve seen for years. Thats going to show how much or how little of a president ial super structure we have. Yeah, absolutely, brian. You know, were seeing reports that Rex Tillerson is exas per rates and there are at least rumors going around hes been talking about leaving his job early. General mattis presumably was he appears that he was blindsided by todays announcement on the transgender policy. Reason to think he may be frustrated with President Trump. Increasing word of problems with h. R. Mcmaster who is being overruled who is frustrated in his interactions with the president. The point being you have a National Security team where theres discord, theres confusion and there seems to be growing confusion and exasperation was this president. How would this team perform in the eye of a real dangerous storm where lives are at stake. I dont think anyone can say for sure. Its certainly an unsettling prospect. A great though chilling conversation with three very learned guests. Our thanks tonight to Jill Winebanks, Michael Crowley and jeremy bash. Another break for us. Coming up, more questions today about the president and russia from lawmakers on capitol hill. Well talk to one of them when we continue. Introducing listerine® zero alcohol™. It delivers a whole mouth clean with a less intense taste. So it has the bad breath germkilling power of this. [rock music] with the lighter feel. Of this. [classical music] for a whole mouth clean with a less intense taste. Ahhh. Try listerine® zero alcohol™. Also try listerine® pocketpaks for fresh breath on the go. Tha. Oh, burnton gravy . Ie. Gotta rinse that. Nope. No way. Nada. Really . Dish issues . Throw it all in. New cascade platinum powers through. Even burnton gravy. Nice. Cascade. And welcome back to the 11th hour. Earlier this evening i spoke with democratic senator Sheldon White white house of rhode island, a member of the senate judiciary. I asked him about todays Committee Meeting as they continue their probe into russias interference in the 2016 election. Specifically, i asked how the president s tax returns made their way in todays hearing. Well, i raised the subject of the president s tax returns because we had the leading experts from the fbi, from the department of justice Counter Intelligence section of the National Security division, and from the department of justice inspector general, all in the office. All in the committee. And we were talking about how to protect against foreign interference in elections and foreign influence in our policy making. And i inquired as to whether in those investigations tax returns were an important matter. And, of course, they are because one of the ways in which the russians in particular use their influence in Foreign Countries is through business deals and through biscuitouts and through shell corporations and through things that would turn up in the american targets tax returns. Let me ask you further, do you predict that you will eventually have access to them, that mr. Mueller will eventually have access to them and do you further contend that that seems to be what scares the president most . Well, i am confident that bob mueller will have access to them. Id actually be a little bit surprised if he didnt have access to them already. But on the other hand, its still early and hes still getting squared away. So it could be that that comes a little bit later. But it would not be at all unreasonable to expect that he has them already. On our side, its the hesitancy of republicans in congress to sign off on a au subpoena that is holding us back. But part of what were doing is building the case for our republican friends by showing over and over again in different hearings that this is actually fairly common practice, this is important investigative information. This is helpful in get together bottom of what happened. And eventually, there comes a Tipping Point where weve made the case enough that it then becomes a bipartisan request. I think that day is inevitable. What happens, senator, in your view, if this president now that its in the realm of the possible, fires bob muler . There would be an absolute explosion on capitol hill. And i think a dramatic collapse of republican Political Support for him here. It would send a very powerful signal that he has something to hide. And that he wants to end this investigation before it can run its course and get to the bottom of what happened. And because hes at the center of it, its hard to believe thats not a conflict of interest. And it wouldnt be surprise me if we immediately established fullon Investigative Committee like the Watergate Committee and why not hire bob mueller and keep him on the job and so i dont think he gets rid of bob mueller as easily as he might think by firing him. Interesting idea. Sheldon whitehouse had, democrat from rhode island. Thank you, senator for being on with us tonight. My pleasure. And coming up, republicans who control both the house and the senate suffer yet another loss on capitol hill trying to repeal obamacare. Well ask the question, what happens next. We need a rescue plan for people in ohio who are in counties where there is not a single insurer and costs have gone up, practically doubled for individuals. I didnt think repeal only was appropriate because it doesnt provide that help for those people. Important guy, senator from ohio. Welcome back to the 11th hour. Rob portman speaking on capitol hill as his party pushed ahead with its effort to repeal obamacare, a version of a repeal only bill from 2015 failed today on a vote 4555, seven of the no votes came from republicans. Including senator mccain. Just as he had promised yesterday. Six of those republicans actually flipped their votes to no from 2015. Senator collins of maine has remained such a consistent no voice on repeal and not replace. With us tonight to talk about all of this, from milwaukee, our friend longtime radio talk show host and author Charlie Sykes, often disappointed in his party, never sad or weak. And from washington, Kimberly Atkins, boston herald, chief washington reporter and a recovering lawyer. Welcome to you both. Charlie, lets talk about your party. Formerly the party of bob michael and mack mathias. Im hearing serious people talk about health care kind of continuing on until next year. Does this end with a whimper and who is going to tell the customers and their level of anxiety . Well, those are great questions. You know, i heard one senator saying that maybe theyll vote on this by friday and put it behind them. Theyre not putting it behind them because this is a quagmire. Look, theres no question about it. This was a stinging defeat for the republicans. After seven years of promising they were going to get rid of obamacare and replace obamacare. Now theyre faced with this idea of the skinny repeal. Tell folks what that means. Well, its just its all the choices are horrible. Skinny repeal basically just eliminates the individual mandate, the employer mandate, cuts funding for planned parenthood, a few other things, maybe eliminates the medical device tax but leaves Everything Else in place, all the subsidies and medicaid expansion. The problem with that is this process has been so dysif you thinkal. This is reckless because basically what it does is it will force the existing exchanges should this become law into a death spiral. The republicans will own it. It is almost literally politically suicide dal. Its an example of their desperation to get a win no matter what. I think at this point, people like john mccain have to be as good as their word, return to regular order, some sort of rational form of legislating. He can make that han by vogt against this later this week. Kim, what republican superior is this president going to be able to count on be . Look, i think in this case, i think charlie is absolutely right. The republicans are in their own quagmire. And unlike with the passage of the Affordable Care act in the first place when president obama was very invested in the policy itself a part of putting it together, the president in this case doesnt really care what passes. He has shown no you know, favoritism for one plan or another. He just wants to win. He just wants to put something in the win column and call it a success without really thinking about how it will impact people. And meanwhile, were having one measure after another with predictions that millions of people will Lose Health Coverage and premiums will still go up. But meanwhile, have you people like john mccain like a group of governors today bipartisan governors including Charlie Baker from massachusetts where my paper is, calling for people to say look, enough. Lets come together. Lets nick skinny repeal and all these other plans. Come together. Use regular order. Democrats and republicans, figure out a way to stabilize the markets. Thats the problem. We want to stop insurers from leaving the markets. It seems like the only real solution is the one thats politically impossible right now. And in 30 seconds or less because im scooting to a break, while you guys hang on, charlie, what about mccains blasphemous suggestion yesterday that they have regular hearings in the committee in the senate where this should originate from, throw open the doors, let people hear it and see it and all that. Yeah, what a radical idea. Could he have made that happen the other day by voting against the motion to proceed. But ultimately, the only way youre going to be able to break this kind of stalemate is to do that. But of course, i dont see a lot of bipartisanship breaking out in the era of donald trump. So you know, yes, thats an option. Is it likely to happen . Im somewhat skeptical. Our panelists are going to stay with us. Were just going to take a pause. Get in a break. When we come back, late news of something of a war between scaramucci and priebus as the west wing remains interesting tonight. Welcome back to the 11th hour. We promised you this before we went to the break, and we want to bring you up to speed on a political story thats breaking as we speak tonight, a lot of it over twitter. It starts with politico. Apparently the recipients of a leak of scaramuccis financial statements. His statements he submitted to get this new job. He stands to profit from sky bridge, his fund, and his time in the white house. He tweets this tonight. In light of the leak of my Financial Disclosure info which is a felony, i will be contacting fbi and the justice department. He choose to follow that with, swamp and tags Reince Priebus. Our friend of the New York Post notifies us this is real. Tensions are raw as ever. Theres a reason mooch tags reince on fbi leak tweet. Ryan tweeted tonight in case theres any ambiguity in his tweet, scaramucci wants the fbi to investigate reince for leaking. Dont you need a White House Organization that find tuned machine to be running to then set out on the business of the agenda of the American People and the administration . Look its wednesday and we havent had enough dysfunction and division in the white house. This takes it to a whole new level. Hes not officially on the job, he was appointed five days ago and he clearly has the long knives out for Reince Priebus. This white house, as dysfunctional as it is is not big enough for two highlevel staffers tweeting suggesting somebody else might have committed a felony. Just when you thought it couldnt get any whackier or uglier, it does. The new guy, for people saying is the mooch going to clean things up, regular order in the white house, we have a resounding no to that. Kimberly these stories all come around to you because the agenda lands on your beat. So i find myself asking you yet again on yet another appear on your broadcasters what about tax policy, what about infrastructure, and so on. Where are those votes that they can just lock in and count on . Its tough and its making it harder and harder for republicans to stand behind them and back them in these policies that they would much rather be focusing on, and the president himself is stepping on his own message. He had a big announcement today about jobs and manufacturing that nobody is talking about. In wisconsin. In wisconsin, a very important state. Nobodys talking about it, and because he himself is attacking Jeff Sessions on twitter, being increasingly combative on twitter. We dont know how much of that is scaramuccis influence, the fact that he is being so open in his criticism of Jeff Sessions on twitter both Reince Priebus and steve bannon want him to pull back on. Im sorry. I know this is evidence that Anthony Scaramuccis hand might be in that as well. Kimberly, thank you. Charlie, its killing me not to talk about the jobs in wisconsin where youre sitting, but were going to have to put it off for another broadcast because of this breaking crazy west wing news, and we have to catch another break. So with that, our thanks as always to Charlie Sykes and Kimberly Atkins for staying up with us. When we come back, good news to share from capitol hill when we continue. Work up a sweat during the day. Not at night. Only tempurbreeze® mattresses use an integrated system of technologies to keep you cool while you sleep. So you wake up feeling powerful. Only exclusive retailers carry breeze. Find yours at tempurpedic. Com cooling. New bandaid® brand skinflex™, bandages. Our best bandage yet it moves like a second skin. Better . Yeah. Good thing because stopping never crosses your mind. Bandaid® brand. Stick with it™ last thing before we go tonight, as promised, we have a bit of good news to leave you with. Congressmen Steve Scalise of louisiana has been released from the hospital. Its been six weeks since he was shot at that republican baseball practice for the annual congressional baseball game. His doctors say hes made excellent progress from a life threatening gunshot wound. Scalise who comes from the do you have louisiana stock came closer to death on that day than anyone realized at the time. The snipers bullet entered at his hip and passed from one side clear to the other on his pelvis, tearing up several organs in its path. Hes already had several surgeries. While he has a long road ahead hes in good spirits and is continuing intensive rehabilitation. You recall two Capitol Hill Police officers were wounded in the gunfire, and police in alexandria bravely ran toward tonight i am disappointed in the attorney general. The president continues his attack on his own attorney general and now his acting fbi director. I think the president is disappointed. Tonight Donald Trumps latest assault on the rule of law. Growing fears of a slow motion saturday night massacre