the process has begun long ago, but it really formally begins on wednesday. so that was president trump telling his treasury secretary to get to it, get tax reform done. he s putting pressure on congress to move forward on health care before his first 100 days are over. there appears to have been some progress. the leaders of two house republican groups who clashed on the last bill reached an agreement on language for a new amendment for the replacement plan that would preserve essential health benefits. coverage for pre-existing conditions. allowing children to stay on parents health care plan until age 26 and allow states to seek limited waivers to opt out of provisions. whether the house could actually pass it in less than a week. yesterday, even president trump seemed a little skeptical. listen. how are you going to accomplish all that? it s going to be great.
situation arise this week when you were with the president. take a listen, and then we re going to let you explain it. okay, thank you. how about you get the first. can you handle that? okay. for my son. oh, that s even better. i like it. thank you so much. thank you. he s a great boy. leland: so the marine first lieutenant is going to get a pen from the president to head off to iraq, and he also got a phone call as well. yeah, it was a really special moment. i was didn t know if it was appropriate to say anything, so it was just so wonderful of senator purdue to say to the president, hey, congresswoman tenny s son is a first lieutenant in the marine corps, he s deploying very soon to iraq and kuwait, is there any way she could get an autograph from you. and i pulled out a piece of stationery, and the president said, absolutely. he sat down and he wrote him a note, and then he said, can i call him? i said, absolutely. [laughter]
we are actually going to engage the world in a realistic fashion leland: so is this a little bit of a victory tour post the syria airstrike? i certainly think so. certainly from the, you know, the way that you re seeing mattis engage with the arab partners, saying we need to do more with saudi arabia, saying that iran is a clear, you know, state actor that is influencing everything in terms of hezbollah, you know, syria, the militias in syria and certainly the houthi-backed rebels in yemen. and remember certainly, especially israel. israel shares a border with syria, so they ve got a lot at stake here leland: so, ben, the word you used was engaged. where does this go from here? this was a president who campaigned, he said, basically, america first. we want out of the middle easts, we want out of the problems of the middle east. and suddenly now the way you re talking, this is a president and an administration who says we re reengaging, we re willing to bomb syria because of the
yesterday. we will will be having a big announcement on wednesday having to do with tax reform. the process has begun long ago, but it formally begins on wednesday. reporter: so that was president trump telling his treasury secretary, steve mnuchin, to get it done, get tax reform done. it s very clear that he wants to score some legislative wins before his first 100 days are over. leland? leland: and we ll see what kind of concessions have to be done to make that happen. kristin fisher working the weekend as well. thanks, kristin. liz? elizabeth: well, the rain is not deterring thousands of people from hitting the streets here in washington where the march for science is underway. it s one of more than 500 rallies scheduled across the globe today, which is also earth day, to protest what they say is an attack on science. james rosen is on the ground at the national mall. james, tell us, what are you seeing? is the rain clearing up at all? reporter: it is not. in fact, it seems, e
james, back to you throughout the day and more analysis on this later on in the show as well. thanks, liz. elizabeth: president trump reaching his milestone days from now, 100 days in office. he s facing a possible government shutdown if lawmakers and congress don t send a bill to the white house. and there s the border wall and increased defense spending. kristin has details from the white house. yes, there are several significant deadlines, some are fixed deadlines like the deadline to avoid a government shut down. others are self-imposed by president trump, like his new call to repeal and replace obamacare. those right there, those are two tall orders for congress to accomplish in less than a week, but then, president trump added even more to congress s workload with this announcement just yesterday. we will be having big announcement on wednesday, having to do with tax reform,