The speaker warned him off of that. Made very clear that the individuals that would be voting for this bill were many of the individuals that helped republicans secure and maintain the majority, told them it Wasnt The Best idea. That said, there was still a House Freedom caucus meeting that was scheduled with tom price and nick mulvaney. They allowed that to happen after it was clear after the meeting there would be no movement with the conservatives, the House Freedom caucus members. The call was made. President trump called the speaker and told him clearly it was time to pull the bill and that is exactly what happened and the ramifications of that arent just micro, not just this week or this bill. They are health care, period. Obamacare stands not just for now, not just for the next couple months butter for the foreseeable future. A lot of republicans talked about if this goes down maybe kind of go piecemeal, piece by piece, try to do this in smaller chunks than all at once but is th
Wanted to have them all in this same meeting in the same room here to discuss all this with the president. But still, even though the vote is scheduled for this evening, expected this evening, other republicans im talking to here and on capitol hill say they would nobt at all surprised if it was set aside or pushed back. That happens, thats a sign there is a big problem. John . Thats an understatement to say the least. Jeff zeleny at the white house. Lets bring it into the room. House Speaker Paul Ryan was supposed to speak to reporters this morning. Hes delayed that until this afternoon. Horse trading behind closed doors, wheeling and dealing, the very thing republicans criticize the democrats for doing when they passed obamacare but well put that aside for a second. What does this tell you that the president is meeting and gets a standing ovation from members of the House Freedom caucus who at the moment you can make the case are undermining the president on priority number one becau
Today the russia investigation took a major step forward. For the first time a member of the president s inner circle faced questions on capitol hill. Put another way, this investigation has now come within one man of the president. He is arguably the closest man to the president. White house Senior Adviser and soninlaw Jared Kushner spent more than two hours with the Senate Intelligence committee and then he made a Public Statement saying he never colluded with russia. It comes as trump pours the pressure on his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, who rekuzed himself from the Justice Departments russia investigation months ago. A decision the president has not been able to get past. He wrote about sessions on twitter this morning, referring to his own Attorney General, mind you, as our beleaguered Attorney General. And tonight the Washington Post as a new report headline, trump leaves sessions twisting
in the wind Bile Berating him publicly. It reads in Part Sessions was once conside
Back. Overnight weve seen the president evolve his thinking to now advocate for the Death Penalty and, regardless, both of these statements are somewhat inappropriate and unprecedented just in terms of what a president traditionally would say, which is to restrain from offering this sort of commentary. It is in keep with the kind of public persona that donald trump has cultivated over many, many years in public life of trying to show himself to be strong and tough and have this steely resolve. But hes not a commentator anymore. Hes the president of the United States. So theres a different standard, and his words carry a different weight. Theres an obliviousness to the fact that he sits atop the federal government. A federal government whose Justice System he described yesterday as a Laughing Stock and a joke. Well, the comment to first it just shows his total lack of rigor in making any
pronouncements. This is someone who revels in his unpreparedness. Its an improvisational act. Theres
Beyond those who have been so outspoken to push back on that. Will we see other senators come out today and take a flake or corkerlike position on that . Well find out. But right now i doubt it. A standing ovation. I want to bring my panel in. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post and bret stephens, an oped columnist for the New York Times and megan murphy, the editor of Bloomberg Business week. Brett, i want to start with you. One trump critic said the ice is beginning to crack. What were seeing with bob corker, with jeff flake, youre going to see more republicans follow suit. Do you think thats the case . Follow suit in denouncing the president . Yes. Or in renouncing their political ambitions. Fair point. This is the key thing. Theres a law in economics, greshams law, bad money drives out good. In a sense what we have is bad republican politicians driving out good ones who are just removing themselves literally
from circulation. There was this conceit amo