Realize that, you know, that we could be heading towards world war iii with the comments that hes making. The president , remember, was quote unquote not finished with corker according to a white house official and tweeted again this morning, this, the failing New York Times set Liddle Bob Corker up by recording his conversation was made to sound a fool and thats what i am dealing with. Well, hes also dealing with this, from a fight with a member of his own party to more tension with a member of his own cabinet, the president planning lunch today with secretary of state Rex Tillerson. Insert your favorite food fight joke here because i couldnt come up with a good one. This, of course, comes after the report surfaced that a frustrated tillerson had called his boss a moron over the summer. Just this morning trump is firing back in a new interview with forbes magazine, asked about the moron report, trump said this, i think its fake news but if he did that, i guess well have to compare i. Q. Tests and i can tell you who is going to win. Cnns kaitlan collins, always winning at the white house right now. Caitlin, has the official vetting rules change for the white house do they include an i. Q. Test requirement . I dont know. We will have to see, kate, but this meeting is not the first time that tillerson and trump have talked since these tensions have been at an alltime high. Weve reported they actually met in the oval office on friday. Thats just days after tillerson held that press conference where he denied he had considered resigning from his position as secretary of state, but notably did not deny calling the president a moron over the summer. Now a state Department Official tells my colleague, elise labott, that the president and tillerson did not discuss the moron remark when they met in the oval office on friday at the last minute to discuss a middle east issue but were told their meeting at the white house today, this morning, before that lunch, with defense secretary james mattis, the president , tillerson and other National Security officials are meeting to discuss issues like iran, and north korea, but its a lot of face time for these two men where the tensions have really been at an alltime high. As you just brought up, that quote from the president in his interview with forbes where he essentially said he could beat tillerson in an i. Q. Test, and then in that same interview he was also asked about a very public disagreement between these two men lately, after tillerson told reporters he had a line of communication to north korea, the president swiftly got on twitter and said that tillerson should not waste his time trying to negotiate with north korea. Now, in this interview the president was asked about that and he said he didnt see it as undermining tillerson, but that he was strengthening his authority. Its safe to say a lot of people did not see it that way, but the president is maintaining publicly he and tillerson have a good relationship, that they have a few disagreements, but overall, a good relationship. But its safe to say theres a lot playing out behind closed doors here between the president and his top diplomats. And theres been no secret, theres been no secret Rex Tillerson has been frustrated in how things have been playing out as he as he has been secretary of state. But when we say the president thought he was strengthening authority, tillersons authority or the president s authority, that can be a followup question this afternoon. Little later when they sit down for lunch. Caitlin, great to see you, thank you so much. President trumps former chief strategist has a message now for senator bob corker, pretty short and sweet, resign immediately. And steve bannon does not stop there. He says hes waging a war against the entire republican establishment. Were going to go after them and challenge them as a coalition the states. A coalition coming together thats going to challenge every republican incumbent except for ted cruz. Dana bash joining me with new details on what bannon is planning. This is fascinating and important new reporting youve been pulling together. What is the master plan here for steve bannon . Well, its a plan in the works. I mean theyre trying to get a sense of how to strategize, to come up with a National Message and when i say National Message, im talking about a National Message for the challengers who are going to try to take out the incumbent republicans. Theres no other way to put this, but an orchestrated, aggressive, civil war inside the gop. We saw something similar with the tea party in 2010, but a source close to bannon is arguing to, i should say i did this reporting with gloria and eric, is arguing that they want to do it in a more sort of calculated way, in a more careful way, to not get candidates who can topple the incumbent but then potentially not win in the general election in these states, so that is the goal, to have, you know, a whole National Aggressive game here, and when we talk about consolidating and nationalizing the message, what hes trying to convince donors, grassroots organizers and leaders, is that thats the only way to try to glean from donald trump the message that he successfully used in 2016. Populist message, us against them, the washington is broken, theyre not there for you. It truly is as sort of at its core the most populist of messages and the goal is to try to overtake the Republican Party with that wing. What are the incumbents that hes targeting . Its basically virtually every republican thats up for reelection . What are the incumbents saying about this . Not too much so far, but theyre probably going to have to and they will have to, if there are legitimate candidates that challenge them, raise money, theyre going to have to, you know, maybe think about how theyre going to vote in the senate, and if they vote maybe in a way that is too moderate or that is too washington and establishment, then it could hurt them with the very base voters that theyre going to need against these republican primary challengers in their states and just to be clear, look, were talking about really popular incumbent senators in really red states. Yeah. Senators like john baraso of wyoming, deb fischer of nebraska. There are vulnerable republican incumbents but he doesnt want to bannon and his people who are going to help him with this, dont want to just focus on that. You know, the question also is, well if you spread yourself too thin, kate, what will that mean in terms of being able to really focus and again the argument that he is making is, better to spread yourself too thin because for them spreading themselves too thin the opposite side of that coin is Mitch Mcconnell and the Establishment Republicans having to defend many, many states they didnt even think about with important money. Lets see how this plays out. 2018, coming fast and furious. Thanks, dana. Great to see you. You too. All right. Joining me to discuss much more, chris aleeza is reporter and editor at large of cnn politics, mia mallika henderson, doug hyde, political commentator and former Communications Director for the Republican National committee and eric beach cochair of the Great American alliance of protrump pac. Let us begin where dana and i left off. Everyone thought 2018 would be a defining moment but everyone thought at first it would be republican versus democrat defining that moment. Now looks like its republican versus republican. What do you think its going to look like . I figured you came to me first because i worked for eric cantor and we had a bruising primary in 2014. I wasnt going to bring it up. The shot heard around the world on all of this. If people want to put primary challenges out there thats a good and fine thing to do, but lets be clear this targeting of every simm republican minus the one senator who called donald trump a sniveling coward which says follow the money will make it harder for donald trump to enact his agenda and thats the same thing weve seen with all of these fights with republican senators and members of congress. If donald trump is fighting with paul ryan or Mitch Mcconnell or now bob corker, hes taking his eye off the ball off tax reform and obama care repeal and all the things i hear from members whether more moderate or conservative members from very protrump districts they want to make sure that donald trump is doing everything that he can to stay out of his way to enact the trump agenda. One question, eric, i want to know if you guys are planning and playing in some of these races with steve bannon, where is mcconnell working against trump . If this is, you know, taking on the republican establishment and Mitch Mcconnell has become the boogie man of that . Sure. In full disclosure were partners this coalition so were going to take on. I dont know that the narrative is as accurate as its been reported. What we strive to do is really kind of go against the political consultansy class. They believe that you reach out to the middle and try to get 20 of the medium in the middle, and the moderate vote, try to moderate your candidates. I think what happens is, theres a disconnect between washington, d. C. , and the leadership, and really around that Trump Coalition. That agenda is built around some core issues that people in d. C. We see on this, you know, the daca Exchange Bill if you want to call it that, on illegal immigration, job creation, and also unfair trade deals. Thats something that leadership doesnt take up. These are the core issues that helped get donald trump elected, and i think what were looking for are these Trump Coalition and these trump agenda candidates that will go out there not just in the primary, but we want candidates because we believe that theres an intensity on the ground, theres these new and low propensity voters that will turn out to vote in droves and help win general election. Our model works. The old model does not. I mean, the low propensity voter that is a big part of this conversation and a big part of, of course, any 2018, any midterm conversation. Let me ask you the same question i just asked eric, where are you seeing evidence that Mitch Mcconnell, who is the establishment here, is working against donald trump . Well, i think the argument would be in terms of priorities and in terms of willingness to compromise. The reason that health care didnt go through because Mitch Mcconnell didnt push effectively enough on his members. Mitch mcconnell tends towards compromise to cut a huge compromise to avert the fiscal cliff with joe biden back when barack obama was president. So i think its really more about a willingness to play within the established d. C. System and a desire to have people who are not part of that system and wont play what those folks view as a game that does not benefit conservatives. This is not eric didnt make the case that it was and i think thats fair this is not really an ideological fight. Its more of an approach and tone fight. John baraso in wyoming is on all the voting measures, quite conservative. I would say the same thing about deb fischer, roger wicker. This is really about do you want to play within the system or do you think the system needs to be broken down and rebuilt in a different way. Thats the bannon argument. Its not moderate versus conservative. Just one final point op this, what role do you think the president plays when the primaries start kicking up . We saw the rnc doesnt get involved with primaries but when it comes to what happened in alabama, donald trump was on the losing side of that. That did not sit well with him, we know that. Right. What happens coming up . And thats the big question, right. He was on the wrong side of that race in alabama, in some ways has been fuming ever since then, and that was a Mitch Mcconnell idea to have him play in that race. Right. Vesshe will have to figure o does he try to play in mississippi if there is a primary challenge, does he try to play in any of these other states. Baraso, if theres a serious primary challenge against deb fischer. Seems like it would be a waste of his time to play in these races because no matter what, its very likely that a republican is going to emerge from those contests and a republican who is with donald trump, if not in tone, in temperment, certainly in terms of ideology, so hes got to figure out where he plays his time. I think sort of the benefit for him in 2018, bannon is smart here, i think, to make it sort of like a trump 2016 campaign in miniature, so you are getting i think, you know, in 2018, all of those hot button issues out there that donald trump ran on and won successfully on. In that way its smart. You do get those low propensity voters engaged and energized in advance, again, of not only in 2018, but in advantage of 2020. I think from that point, i think its a really smart thing. Its going to be chaos for some of these folks, particularly for people like dean heller and jeff flake, the ones likely going to be most worried about this but they were already probably going to have a serious challenge in those races anyway but now youve got sort of money and bannon and breitbart in these raise too, so theyve got real cause to worry. Meanwhile were not but doug, i have to get you on something else, i got to go here because whenever anyone starts rebranding on Senior Member of the Republican Party, we got to go to it. Donald trump now branding bob corker Liddle Bob Corker and hitting at the senator again this morning. Nia its like a can i say its a lame nickname. Okay. Im going to let doug go at this. Nia not little. Nia is quite tall. I will just throw that out there. Nia is tall. Why she finds this ridiculous. What with whats so intriguing about this back and forth is i havent seen yet and maybe it will come, i havent seen yet that a single republican come out to condemn what corker said in this interview. What does that mean . Well, what bob corker said publicly is exactly what so many members of congress and in the senate, whether theyre moderate or conservative, are saying every day. I remember on inning into gration day, i had Inauguration Day i had a congressman say to me, this is not going to end well so im going to focus on my committee and subcommittee. We should remember of those critical of corker and i understand if you want to be critical, those saying he should resign, bob corker like every senator and member of Congress Took an oath to protect and defend the constitution, not any politician, thats a big difference. Eric, whats your view on this . Newt gingrich was on cbs this morning and said this isnt helpful to the country or the Republican Party, they should have lunch and get over it. Do you agree with newt . Yeah. I think thats probably right. But i also think this, i think that theres the turn inside of washington, d. C. , and you mentioned, you know, nobodys talking about trump on his issues, nobody is talking about, you know, the certain issues that they dont want to get done and the senates, you know, Approval Ratings are in the teens because they havent passed any reforms. I think they have a credibility problem there in the senate leadership. When you look at Marsha Blackburn in tennessee and kelli ward in arizona and danny tar cane nan in nevada, candidates that are going to come in and push towards these reforms that not just donald trump ran on, but the voters voted for. And right now what were doing is were discounting the voters. Thats the problem with the Republican Party, is were not capturing these new voters that came into our party that expect real reforms. Youre saying thats what trumps not doing in this fight . What are you saying here . No. Im saying thats what were not doing in terms of the echo chamber in washington, d. C. We should embrace these new voters and the agenda trump ran on. We dont understand how he won and the reasons that he won and those certain states and all across the country. I mean the idea that, you know, senator corker and any other senator thinks that theyre driving the narrative in pushing it forward, you know, into congress, i think is a false one. This is the Trump Coalition agenda that needs to be followed through with. Well, lets ask bob corker about that, because he was just as elected by his constituents as donald trump was elected by the country. Guys, stand by. Great to see you. Appreciate it. Coming up for us, the president s war with the nfl apparently far from over. President trump now calling for a change to laws that give the league big tax breaks. Where is that going to head . The death toll rising right now as wildfires are raging across california. At least 11 people are now dead. This is fastmoving wildfires. Dozens more are in the hospital. More than a thousand homes and businesses destroyed. We will take you live to the heart of the disaster on how things are going there. Wemost familiar companies,s but we make more than our name suggests. Were an organic tea company. A premium juice company. A Coconut Water company. Weve got drinks for long days. For birthdays. For turning over new leaves. And we make them for every moment in every corner of the country. We are the cocacola company, and were proud to offer so much more. Tmobiles unlimited now includes netflix on us. Thats right. Netflix on us. Get 4 unlimited lines for just 40 bucks each. Taxes and fees included. And now netflix included. Hes a nascar champion whos shes a worldclass swimmer whos stared down the best in her sport. But for both of them, the most challenging opponent was. Pe blood clots in my lung. It was really scary. A dvt in my leg. I had to learn all i could to help protect myself. My doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®. To help keep me protected. Xarelto® is a