reporter: that s right. this is an intra-party clash long in the making and finally coming to a head now. first thing to know is that the center of gravity among senate republicans is for more ukraine aid whereas the center of gravity among house republicans is less ukraine aid. and a lot of senate republicans were a angry at the mill area spending number that the house republicans negotiated in the debt limit agreement but they knew that they were jammed and they had to pass the bill. so what happened, a bunch of republican military hawks got in the room and defensed chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell to issue a joint statement saying that they could pass ukraine aid separately and not take it out of the military budget. that means that it would have to pass congress which means that it would have to go through speaker mccarthy. and he gave a flat no when asked about the idea of ukraine aid supplemental. let s hear more.
undermining their message they are a big tent party, putting them in the situation where they are going after two of their own. it is a year, almost a year after they ousted liz cheney from leadership and all of the attention was on the internal republican vision. they want to be talking about biden and policy heading into the midterms. then they just had to come and really kind of take this move that was meant to appeal to more of the trump base. and so there are some who say, the freedom caucus members, they wish there was more done to take actions against cheney and kinzinger including kicking them out of conference. but a lot of the members that i talked to sort of gave tepid responses like why do we have to do that? and the ones who sort of threaded the needle was when i said can you respond to this and i got a flat no. which, you know, at least they re telling you instead of using a bunch of word salad to say it. if you re going to try to find the silver lining on that. mark, l
are having throughout the mexican economy. even in staples like tortillas. back at the lp gas tank exchange depot, alejandra hopes the president s idea can make a difference, but has a wait and see attitude. there s a lot of talk, but no results, she says. as she puts the full tank in her car to go back home, she says all she hopes is that next month s trip for a refill won t leave her again with an empty pocket. rafael ramos, cnn, mexico city. the white house says the world s major oil exporters seem unwilling to increase supply as gasoline prices soar. president biden recently appealed to opec and russia to boost production, but received a flat no. u.s. officials say they are monitoring prices and will take unilateral action if necessary. cnn s eleni giokos has more from
wiretapping and russians is not helping matters. they need to focus on this piece of legislation and get it passed. and of course we are waiting to see what those concessions are, what those amendments are. we could learn in the next few minutes because key meetings are going on. happy st. patrick s day to all of you, year all wearing green and i m the one who s irish and i m not wearing green. thanks so much. still to come, a potential big development here. cnn now counts 22 house republicans as a flat no or leaning no on the republican party s plan to repeal and replace obamacare. can they be moved? plus president trump says north korea has been playing the united states for years, and his secretary of state now says all options are on the table, including using military force. and coming up, president trump holds his first meeting with one of the world s most important leaders. he will take questions from the press. this after the white house forced to apologize overnight to
framework for him to do what he wanted to do. but that he s had no contact with the chinese government at all. he says i only work with journalists. let me read a part of what he said. the question specifically to him, michael was regard you seek giving classified to the chinese government. some are saying you didn t answer clearly, can you give a flat no? to which he replies no, i ve had no contact with the chinese government, just like with the guardian and the washington post, i only work with journalists which is what you said this as well, michael. there s been development of whether or not he s going to seek asylum or refuge in a different country. what are you hearing there? well, you know, in that question about why he went to hong kong, he was asked, instead of going to iceland, which does have this tradition of internet freedom. and he said he did express concerns that the icelandic government would be more susceptible to pressure from the u.s. government so he didn t