bit. i want to talk about this cdc moment, the centers for disease control, and what, david, your paper is reporting. that the trump administration has sent the agency by way of someone who is leading the finance office of the cdc sort of a list of banned words and phrases. seven of them, including vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidence-based, and science-based. and to eliminate those words from any kind of policies or written material within the cdc. so, david, two of your reporters got wind of this by way of anonymous sources who were at that meeting, because this wasn t in an official capacity information coming from the cdc. why? is there an explanation as to why there is the banning of this kind of vernacular? so, fred, first of all, great
so, lauren, what about the potential deficit, the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation says this bill could increase the deficit by almost $1.5 trillion. are there any republicans openly worried about that? and, you know, saying that just might give them some hesitation over a vote? well, in the beginning of this debate, senator bob corker said that he was deeply concerned about the deficit. he did not want to vote for a bill that added one penny to the deficit, but yesterday in a big surprise he released a statement that said he now plans to vote for this bill, so clearly that s been a big change here, and i can t actually identify anyone in the u.s. senate now who s saying that the deficit is going to be what keeps them from voting for this tax bill. so that s, obviously, a major change. all right, lauren fox, thanks so much, good to see you, appreciate it. let s talk more with our political panel, david swardlick
the citizens of the united states well on this trip. fred? all right, ryan nobles in honolulu, thank you so much. joining me right now, cnn political commentator david swardlick and josh rogin, a washington post columnist. good to see you both. first, the president s five asian nations tour comes at a very prickly time. how much will the russia probe interfere, potentially, with trump s ability to assure, comfort, or even work with leaders worried about north korea? sure, fred, so i think at a minimum it s a distraction for the president, even though the administration, i think, would probably welcome this trip abroad, a chance to get away out of the daily grind of washington, the news of the russia investigation is going to follow them, it s going to keep us busy here, and i think that it also as you say lets leaders across the world know that this president is not on the same page with his members of congress here, he s not necessarily on the same page with people in his inner
into the summer, keeping russia in the spotlight as the midterm congressional races heat up. jessica snyder, cnn, washington. all right, i want to bring in our political panel, david swardlick is a cnn political commentator and assistant editor at the washington post and josh rogin is a columnist at the washington post. gentlemen, welcome back. i want you to hear what trump campaign adviser carter page had to say to cnn about his conversation with jeff sessions, where he mentions that trip to russia. you know, i that mention, which was the big headline yesterday, was a brief comment as we were walking towards the elevator after having a dinner together. and so it was such a nothing event, and, you know, as you ve correctly noted, i mention that, you know, i m heading over there and totally unrelated to the campaign, so i actually had it was a meeting that or a dinner that was set up sort of at the last minute and i ended
trump didn t really meet with them at all. they were just collecting people willing to sign up to what was then considered a long shot endeavor, so these characters, j.d. gordon, carter page, george papadopoulos, they all seemed like they were, you know, in the inner circle, but the truth was that they were low level periphery figures and their reemergence into the debate is now sort of calling into question all of these important issues, and the bottom line is that, you know, we re going to have to wait and see if mueller can connect these issues, which at the time were sort of well known but not seen as important, to what actually happened, what actually was the russian interference, whether or not there was collusion. so far those connections have not been made or at least not made public. let s wait and see. got it. all fascinating, nonetheless. josh rogin, david swardlick, thanks so much, appreciate it. all right, president trump embarking on the most ambitious trip of his pre