He is a heck no on trump care. Im a heck no on this. I think theyve got problems with the vote. Ive personally spoken to 29 of my conservative colleagues who are no on this as of today and were not even counting the moderate republicans who are a no. I think theyve got a lot of arm twisting to do between now and thursday if theyre going to pass this bill in the house. Does he sound scared to you . Because congressman massey was in the room today when donald trump came to the House Of Representatives to urge republicans to vote for the bill. Here is how congressman massey describes tough guy donald trump. Threatening and pushing around all those republicans who oppose the bill. He was very charming. There was some lighthearted jabs at his opponents in the room but it was all in good fun. Lighthearted jabs. That ought to do it. Thats what tough guy trump is delivering to republican opponents of his bill. Thomas massey doesnt claim to
be a tough guy the way donald trump does, but he certainly Doesnt Sound Afraid of the tough guy. And to listen to congressman massey, no republicans are. Hes been to kentucky once, and Vice President pence has been to kentucky once and its still not changing senator rand pauls mind or my mind. Im not sure what they can do to get the vote they need. President trump told them if they did not vote for the bill, they would face primary challenges in their districts. Again, congressman massey is not worried. Now, to your point about being in electoral trouble offer this vote, before i came over here to speak with you, i counselled my call log. I have 275 constituents who asked me to oppose this bill and only four who have asked me to support it. Known that from day one. Mark meadows won his last election with 64 of the vote. Mark meadows knows how to call calculate his chances. Ken, this is looking very difficult for paul ryan and donald trump in the House Of Representatives now. What im struck by is no one who comes out against this bill seems even slightly intimidated either by the speaker or the president. Yeah, theres a couple reasons for that, lawrence, i think. First of all, in this House Freedom caucus, you have folks that are just personally predisposed to opposing the leadership. Weve seen that time and again. So i dont think that either having the leadership or donald trump lean on them is
necessarily the ticket to getting them on board. Additionally, theres no evidence that trump would be able to leverage to actually go after gop house members. Tease are district by district battles, not National Media based Advertising Wars or air wars. As you cited in the runup there, the Health Care Bill is not particularly popular. So these folks are not going to face challenges from the right necessarily, let alone ones where donald trump would be a major factor in whipping up support for a primary challenger. Let listen to what Congressman David Brat told conservative caty tur today. Do you believe this vote is going to happen on thursday . Right now were aiming for it. Aiming for it sound like youre not very confident youre going to have it. I dont think theres the
votes. Theres 10 or 20 moderates and folks in tough races up in the Northeast Corridor that have coverage issues. So no. So its a problem right now. What does it mean to the Trump Presidency if the president loses his first big vote in the House Of Representatives . It would be huge, enormous. I was thinking about listening to trump make this case of not being able to persuade republicans, and i thought back to Ronald Reagan when he got his legislation through in the first year, and he had to apply pressure but that was because he had to convince democrats, not republicans. What youve got here is a weak president and an unpopular bill. Theyre having tough sledding. To see a republican president with a Republican Congress 60 days into his presidency have this amount of difficulty is extraordinary. Of course its an unprecedented
tremendous blowback. But the reason is that these are selfinflicted wounds by donald trump. He is a corrupt president and a corrupt man and it catching up to us. It not just the description, it the ineptness. It not just the investigation. Its the a this man just isnt up to being president and day after day, week after week, were seeing more and more evidence of that. I think its unnerving republicans. Ken, theres some speculation today that the drop in the stock market is related to what peter is now saying, that wall street is now getting that same kind of impress this presidency, that he is unbalanced and incompetent. What does that mean for thing about tax bill wall street is hoping for and all the
deregulation that wall street is hoping for . Thats a kind of valid question. They painted themselves in the corner by doing it as the first bill out. It just a super complicated issue. But additionally it want necessarily the one that he or the folks in his administration, in his inner circle, felt the most strongly about. They did feel more strongly about the a tax overhaul and some the deregulatory measure. The de they said the members of congress for six years, the republican members of congress had campaigned against my sources tell me there are folks inside the Administration O say
they wouldnt mind seeing this fail because they would see it as sort of a failure for paul ryan, who they believe put them in this position. Nont business, i agree with pete, it would be set back his entire agenda because some of these other. A quick last word on what you think if this bill either fails in the vote or if the speaker has to just take it down and not go to the vote on thursday, the potential damage to paul ryan. I think it would be a beg blow to ryan. I mean, this is his bill. He set it up. Hes pushing it. And trump has in a sense hinged connected himself to ryan, to that wagon. And if it crashes into the side of a hill, thats going to be very bad for ryan. But it would be bad for trump and it would be be bad for
entire republican party. It would signal to voers theyre not ready for primetime. Theyve got the senate, the house and the presidency and they cant govern. They cant pass what is sense and you know politic, victories build on themselves and so do defeats. If this goes down, this isnt the only issue theyll go down on. And there as within more night nairos and then those republicans who voted for it and compromised themselves in the house will have done that for nothing, trying to get them to do that once given on any other bill is going to be pretty tough, too. Ken vogel, peter wehner, thank you both for joining us tonight. Thank you. Coming up, the leader of a Physicians Group tells us hes never seen legislation that would do more harm to health
legislation that has ever been presented in congress concerning health care, according to a Physicians Group. Thats next. With advil, youll ask what Sinus Headache . What stiff joints . What time of the month cramps . What nighttime pain . Make all your pains a distant memory with advil the worlds 1 choice what pain . Advil. Not just the automobile, f tomorrow will transform but mobility itself. An autonomousthinking vehicle protecting those inside and out. And its the mercedesbenz of today that will help us get there. The 2017 eclass, with innovations no car has offered before. And that will change driving forever after. Lease the e300 for 549 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. Yesterday Robert Dougherty tweeted this in 38 years advocating for doctors, patients and doctors ive never seen a bill that will do more harm to health. He is a senior Vice President at the American College of physicians, americas second largest physician group. Last night he said verse 2. 0 is even worse. Medicaid block grants, work
mandate, ban on further expansion will harm the most vulnerable. And joining us now, Robert Dougherty. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. I want to start, first of all, with what you see as the differences in this 2. 0 version, the version of the bill that was hastily written yesterday and released last night. Sure, lawrence, and thank you for having me. The original bill was bad enough because it targeted the most Vulnerable People in our society, poorer and sicker people, particularly those on medicaid. In an effort to make sweeteners to attract more vote, they made it even worse for those people by putting a block grant aid, which means they would be Stuck Holding the tab and they would need to and then the work mandate, we believe health care is a right and people shouldnt
be forced to prove that they are able to work in order to have coverage. I want to go to something that donald trump said about physicians specifically and their reaction to the Affordable Care act. Lets listen to this. Many of our best and brightest are leaving the medical profession entirely because of obamacare. Obamacare has been a complete and total catastrophe and its getting worse and worse by the day and yet you watch the fake media, the fake news and they try and build it up. Its a disaster, fellas. Its a disaster. Your reaction to that, robert . Physicians have frustrations
with red tape and things like that, but that has nothing to do with the Affordable Care act or obamacare. The physicians i represent internal medicine doctors, the largest specialty in the United States are strongly committed to the idea that their patients should have access to Affordable Health care. What we know is that the bill that will be going to the House On Thursday would roll Back Coverage for millions of people and get particularly the most vulnerable and that really sticks in our craw. A society should put its greatest attention to supporting those who need help the most, the poor kids on medicaid, elderly on medicaid, Mental Health disorders who get coverage through medicaid and the idea of going after those people and taking the coverage away, to our members at the American College of physicians is unconscionable. You are getting some help from Rick Schneider who sent this letter to his delegation saying there are 1. 75 million
children, seniors, pregnant women and disabled individual served by traditional medicaid in michigan and roughly 104,000 of them reach side in your district. He wrote to u. S. Representative tim wahlberg in a letter saying that this legislation will adversely impact them. It seems that thats not something understood by a majority of the republicans in the house. Maybe so far. Were still hopeful the bill will not pass the House On Thursday or that speaker rife ryan will reconsider rushing ahead and rushing the legislation through. Clearly governors, governor kasich is another, who understand that medicare is crucial to the health of their resident and medicare expansion states like michigan, ohio, terminating that program would have terrible consequences for Vulnerable People, older and sicker people covered by medicaid right now. I think there are more and more republicans who are getting it, certainly the governors more and more are getting it but i do think you see more members of congress, members of congress that are having strong reservations at least with the plan thats being put forward for a vote on thursday. Yeah, i think from your experience you know when you see this kind of trouble getting through the house, theres probably even more trouble trying to get the same bill through the senate. Robert doherty, thank you for joining us. I really appreciate it. My pleasure. Up next, the Senate Confirmation hearing a Supreme Court justice. What you should be looking for in that hearing. Thats next. Various shouting heigh ho its off to work we go woman on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. And each job created by the Energy Industry supports two others in the community. Altogether,
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it releases a Cooling Sensation in your mouth and throat. Zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. Nexium can take 24 hours. Try cool mint zantac. No pill relieves heartburn faster. Produced better justices than John Marshall or Oliver Wendell homes, both of whom did not have confirms hearings and had not been subject to fbi Background Checks because the fbi had not been invented yet. The first Senate Confirmation hearing was at the beginning of the 21st century when president wilson chose the first jewish nominee, louis brandeis, the supposed gentleman of the senate then were taken aback by a jewish nominee and decided we better slow this thing down and ask a few questions and so they had their first Confirmation Hearing. Louis brandeis was then confirmed and went on to become one of the great figures in american jurisprudence. There were only two more Confirmation Hearings before the Television Days and both to address suspected scandals and both were then confirmed. William o. Douglas was the longest Serving Member of the
United StatesSupreme Court and possibly its most influential and its most liberal. Most liberal member ever. He lived a romantically scandalous life for his era as a Supreme Court justice. He was married four times while serving on the Supreme Court. Excerpts of an article he wrote appeared in ever green magazine, which was considered a mildly porn graphic magazine. It is impossible to imagine the longest serving justice in the history of the United StatesSupreme Court getting through a Senate Confirmation hearing today. And luckily for william o. Douglas, he didnt have to. Douglas reportedly sat outside the Judiciary Committees meeting room on the day he had heard his nomination was going to be discussed privately among the members, and he passed a handwritten note to the chairman saying do you have any questions for me . That note came back to Justice Douglas with the chairmans handwritten oneword reply no. And the republic survive and Justice Douglas wouldnt recognize what went on at the Judiciary Committee today. It is a game, steeped in a relatively short tradition that the press mistakenly thinks is a long tradition of judicial nominees refusing to comment on anything that you would ever expect a candidate for the United StatesSupreme Court to be able to discuss. Like, say, the single most famous case of the modern era, roe v. Wade. They pretend that cannot be discussed. The game of the judiciary is to pretend you dont have an opinion on the case everyone has an opinion about. Here is Clarence Thomas in his Confirmation Hearing in 1991
telling senator Patrick Leahy that even though roe v. Wade was decided when he was in law school, he neff talked about it, never formed an opinion about it. Have you ever had discussion of roe v. Wade other than in this room . In the 17 or 18 years its been there . Only i guess, senator, in the fact in the most general sense that other individuals expressed concerns one way or the other and you listen and you try to be thoughtful. If youre asking me whether or not ive ever debated the contents of it, the answer of that is, no, senator. Have you ever, pretty gatherings or otherwise, stated whether you felt that it was properly decided or not . Senator, in trying to recall
and reflect on that, I Dont Recollect commenting one way or the other. There were, again, debates about it in various places but i generally did not participate. I dont remember or recall participating, sir. Judging by pat leahys followup question, he didnt actually believe that answer. That was the moment i decided Clarence Thomas was willing to say anything and that was before anita hill came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment. Today neil gorsuch was willing to play the game. He couldnt possibly offer his opinion about the case because of that meaningless and false and relatively short Senate Confirmation tradition that says you cant possibly be a fair
Supreme Court justice if youve ever thought about any case that may come before you in any form. Of course exactly the opposite is true. President s are looking for highly educated lawyers who have already been through the Senate Confirmation process at least once and sometimes twice as federal judges and Appeals Court judges. And that theyre the kind of people who think about this stuff every day. But in the Senate Confirm ago Confirmation Hearings, they have to pretend they havent and they have to pretend theres no hypothetical case they could ethically answer in their Conformation Hearings pause then no one would believe they could be fair in a Case Resembling that came to the Supreme Court. Heres neil gorsuch today playing that game. Its a blanket religious test. Is that consistent with the First Amendment . Senator, we have a free Exercise Clause that protects the free exercise of religious liberties by all persons in this country. If youre asking me how id apply it to a specific case, i cant talk about that for understandable reasons. No. Theres nothing understandable about those reasons. And to prove it, gorsuch himself later actually did talk about a hypothetical case, as senator leahy persisted with his line of questioning about religious tests. Let me give you an example be, should there be a religious test to serve in the military. Senator, that would be inappropriate, yes. Thats against the law. Thats against the law. See . Pat leahy actually got a Supreme Court nominee to teak a hypothetical position on a hypothetical case that could now easily come to the Supreme Court. President trump could easily decide that the solution to the Massacre At Fort Hood by Army Major Nidal has and is to ban muslims from serving in the military. That is not far fetched in trump world. And neil gorsuch has already ruled on it right there in the Judiciary Committee today. But that doesnt mean that he would not give a fair hearing to all of the details of a particular case, that a trump ban of muslims in the military would present to the Supreme Court because fairness as a judge does not mean in a you have no opinions. Fairness as a judge means that as a human being you are full of opinions, political and otherwise, but fairness as a judge means that you limit your judicial findings and your jujs rulings to what the constitution intends. Being a fair judge means that the controlling law in the case is more important to you than
your own opinions or prejudices. It doesnt mean that you dont have opinions or prejudices. And so neil gorsuch got nothing wrong on his side of the game today in the Judiciary Committee. Very, very few Supreme Court nominees ever do get anything wrong because it such a simple game. They dont even get things slightly wrong according to the rules of that game. Democrats in the senate along with republicans unanimously voted to the justice that neil gorsuch is nominated to replace, antonin scalia, who was the most right wing Conservative Judge in the modern history of the court. He got the unanimous vote of democrats and republicans because the tradition then enforced that vote. The tra dgs was simply is the nominee qualified to be a judge. Not do i agree with this nominee. Thats the new standard, do i agree with this nominee. And it is just as will the as the old standard because the constitution gives no guidance to what senators are supposed to consider. The standards are all based on tradition and now we see that that tradition changes over time. Senator al franken disagrees with judge gorsuchs position on a case involving a truck driver who was fired by a Trucking Company after disregarding his supervisors order, unhooking his trailer and driving to a gas station to get out of the freezing cold. The truck driver, who had been in his unheated truck for hours in subzero temperatures said he was numb and his speech was slurring and by the time he left the broken down trailer, heres what senator al franken said about this case today. It is absurd to say this company is in its rights to fire him because he made the choice
of possibly dying from freezing to death are causing other people to die possibly by driving an unsafe vehicle. Thats absurd. Now, i had a career in identifying absurdity. And i know it when i see it. And it makes me, you know it makes me question your judgment. Senator franken thinks its absurd that judge gorsuch ruled for the Trucking Company against the truck driver. That alone is a perfectly legitimate reason for senator al franken to vote against neil gorsuch. But there is another bigger reason that has never been present before in the Senate Confirmation process for any Supreme Court justice in history, and that is neil gorsuch is the only nominee ever selected to fill a stolen seat
on the United StatesSupreme Court. Well discuss what the senate should do about that next with frank rich. I no longer live with the uncertainties of hep c. Wondering, what if . I let go of all those feelings. Because i am cured with harvoni. Harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of Chronic Hepatitis c. Its been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. And is proven to cure up to 99 of patients who have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. Certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. Before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if youve ever had hepatitis b, which may flare up and cause serious Liver Problems during and after harvoni treatment. Tell your doctor if youve ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. Taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. Common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. Ready to let go of hep c . Ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. At crowne plaza we know Business Travel isnt just business. Theres this. a bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. Cars. Com anyone ever have occasional y constipation,diarrhea, gas or bloating . She does. She does. Help defend against those digestive issues. Take Phillips Colon Health probiotic caps daily with three types of good bacteria. 400 likes . Wow try Phillips Colon Health. Im heartened by the support i have received from people who regne that theres no such thing as a republican judge or a democratic judge. We just have judges. In this country. Except of course the judges who actually run for office in states that elect judges. And of course the judges who are selected for the Supreme Court of the United States who in recent times anyway have already been clearly identifiable by the president s who chose them, like neil gorsuch, as democrats or republicans. Joining us now frank rich writer
at large for new York Magazine and Emmy Award Winning producer of hbos veep. I want to go to the imagery moment in the oneonone with donald trump where donald trump asks neil gorsuch a question that he disapproves of. Lindsey graham sets the stage for us. Lets watch this. In that interview, did he ever ask you to overrule roe v. Wade . No, senator. What would you have done if hed asked . Senator, i would have walked out the door. Its not what judges do. And there is the perfect execution of the theater of the Confirmation Hearing performance by a Supreme Court nominee. Didnt it look rehearsed . Yeah, it did. And also i dont believe a word of it. I believe if that moment happened, he would have said to himself im dealing with the most ignorant president in history who doesnt even know the public tradition that were not supposed to discuss this and i will tell the most ignorant president in history i cant comment on that now, i dont have he would have given his Confirmation Hearing answer to the question, which is i cant talk about that. Although the way lindsey graham, who is after all a lawyer framed that question, there was a lot of wiggle om yway. He just asked him if he asked you would you overturn it. The question could have been what do you think about roe v. Wade and gorsuch could have told him the truth and still he could have given that answer to graham under oath today. Right. So the democrats have a very tough set of choices in front of them. They, first of all, have this issue of the stolen seat. Theres no question that the asterisk is on this seat of all team. There are many on the democratic side who want them to vote
against gorsuch on just that alone. It wont make a difference but i can understand the desire of the Democratic Base to want. It was a stolen seat and it an outrage. Thats a good way to protest it and it not outrageous to cast that vote as opposed to what Mitch Mcconnell did to merrick garland. Neil gorsuch called up garland to say this seat should have been yours. Lassie come home. Should all the democrats oppose moving to the vote . In other words, filibustering it
because that risks the possibility that Mitch Mcconnell will then say, okay, no more 60vote threshold on Supreme Court justices and then what are you going to get in the end of that anyway . Nothing good if i would not know how to advise a democratic senator on this. And given that harry reid and the democrats sort of set this precedent anyway about breaking rules like this, thats not good and that could come back to haunt them, particularly if theres another obviously if theres another Supreme Court vacancy. The list of gorsuches just goes on and on. They had a dozen off the top of everybodys head in washington that the list that gorsuch was on. Right. Theyre all sort of youngish, theyre all presentable or most of them are presentable. Really this guy, im sure hes a lovely man and smart. But really, if he wanted to cast in an hour drama you wanted to cast this person, this is from central casting. I mean, the question i guess one of the questions thats being calibrated is how far from scalia is he . Where is he in terms of a replacement in that seat . What does he do to the balance of the court . Well, the Washington Post i think had a story, the political scientists have looked at every single opinion of his say hes considerably to the right of both Clarence Thomas and alito. So i think we have the answer to that question. Thats the scalia seat. He may be to right of scalia. The on person ever to the right of those guys. Frank rich, welcome back from hollywood. Youve wrapped on veep. We need to see more of you. Coming up, the world was watching when the fbi director told congress that the president of the United States was not telling the truth. At ancestry, we call it a hint. Simply type in a name and follow the Ancestry Leaf far into your familys past. A past filled with stories that intrigue. And inspire. And in doing so, reveal the one unique, improbable, and completely remarkable path that led to you. Discover your story. Start searching for free now at ancestry. Com theres nothing more than my vacation. Me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. Booking. Com gets it. They offer free cancellation, in case i decide to go from kidfriendly to kidfree. Now i can start relaxing even before the vacation begins. Your vacation is very important. Thats why booking. Com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. Visit booking. Com now to find out why were booking. Yeah if you have moderate to Severe Ulcerative Colitis or crohns,
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or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Im still going for my best. And for eliquis. Ask your doctor about eliquis. The more the president angers our closest allies, the more he weakens our ability to deal with the threats that were facing in the world. Joining us now from paris is christopher dickey, world news editor for The Daily Beast and msnbc contributor. What was the European Reaction to that extraordinary hearing yesterday . Well, i think the first reaction was to report the facts that the fbi director is essentially saying President Trump hasnt been telling the truth about all kind of things and that the investigation about the russian involvement is still under way. But i think also the reaction was why is Trump Tweeting in the middle of all this . Why is trump going on and on about this on twitter when theres a very solemn hearing going on in front of the u. S. Congress . I think people here are very confused watching this administration, and i think they just dont know what to do when they look at trumps presidency. So one of the things theyre doing is theyre starting to
turn more toward russia. Were hearing a lot here in france, even from president ial candidates about the need for closer relations with russia because russia somehow is a more traditional ally, is a more stable country. Its absurd to think that that would be the case, but thats what were hearing. Its such a strange turn of logic, if we can even use that word, christopher, but is that just part of just how disorienting the trump phenomenon is in europe . Well, i think so. I mean, i think trump is going to in may hes going to the nato summit, well, thats great. But the fact is people here just dont have much confidence in the United States to back them up anymore. And as Chancellor Merkel suggested in only slightly veiled language, theres real questions now about whether the United States shares the values of europe or at least of mainstream politicians and
leaders in europe. Is the United States really supporting democracy . Does it understand how serious the problems can be if you embrace russia . You know, so what they do is they say where can we look for stability . And if were not going to get the kind of backing we need from the United States, we better start looking to cut better deals with russia. And how did the Merkel Visit Play in europe, especially the moment of donald trump refusing to shakeer hand camera where everyone could hear it . I think people were appalled. I think merkel understood and i think many europeans understand that the policies of the Trump Administration are deeply hostile to the European Union and in many in many respects to nato. The merkel when she was standing there next to him kept trying to call him out very quietly saying, you know, we believe in europe and you dont