But certainly [ no audio ] all right. Were having trouble with sunlens feed. Thad cochran who has had issues over time hasnt been in the chambers for some time and john mccain, senior senator from arizona, battling brain cancer, he is in walter reed receiving treatment this week. Unclear when he will get out. Vice president mike pence has delayed, delayed a trip to the middle east. He will now be leaving on tuesday. Some of the thinking is, some of the thinking is perhaps he pushed off that trip because he needed to be around to break a possible tie. Right. Well keep an eye on it. They have a deal but do they have the numbers to actually get the vote through. Well come back to that in a moment as soon as we get sunlen back up. Pretty stunning new report in the Washington Post that talks about the president , the relationship with russia and the russia investigation specifically, and the refusal still to accept russian meddling in the races. One Administration Official tells the Washington Post that president is insulted by the idea that the russians helped him win and he has never held a cabinetlevel meeting about russian interference in the russian election. Joining us now to talk about this retired Lieutenant GeneralMark Hertling to help us understand whats going on. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate it. One of the key findings in the report in the daily intelligence briefing the intelligence officials talking to the president , feel like they cant bring up russian meddling. They dance around it because theyre afraid of upsetting him. The impact . Yeah. Its critical, john. Good morning to you and poppy. What i would tell you is intelligence is going to drive strategy, and if youre fearful when youre a member of the sbemgs Community Going in and briefing your boss about whats going on and not being completely candid and transparent about all the elements of the intelligence that youve gathered and we have the greatest intelligence Gathering Force in the world it could be problematic. Its one thing not only portraying whats going on but then getting action on that. The president is getting ready to or the National Security council is getting ready to deliver the National Security strategy. Thats really driven by intelligence and it tells you what youre going to do all over the world. Russia has maligned u. S. Actions in multiple places in egypt, syria, ukraine, north korea, so having intelligence in terms of what russia is doing, what putins russia is doing, is absolutely critical and you cant back off by delivering that intelligence to the people who are the decision makers. The fact that the president has this inability, according to what weve heard from him and this new Washington Post reporting, to draw a line between, you know, russias meddling in the election process, meddling in democracies and his victory, what does that tell you . Because now hes a year into his presidency and this report starts out with really high ranking people like jared kushner, like former chief of staff Reince Priebus going into this office and pleading with him for days to come out and say i accept the findings of this january 6th Intelligence Report and the refusal to do so . Yeah. Its difficult for me to understanding it, poppy. Every morning when i was commanding in europe i would get something called a black book which showed me what was going on throughout the entire theater now the president gets that for the entire world from his intelligence chiefs. He has to act on that. He has to put aside anything that has to it with the election, although that continues to be in the news every day, and he has to remember what his oath to the constitution is, which is to protect and defend the country against all enemies foreign and domestic and putins russia is definitely maligning multiple actions of the United States earned a the world. I think the separation of that and taking a businessmans approach where he trusts his employees and doesnt trust the employees of the person before him, is not true at all with the intelligence community. These men and women are faithful to the constitution, theyre faithful to the government, and theyre intent on delivering the kind of information that drives the United States security. The president has to understand that and take that for what its worth. There may be indicators there was certainly things going on with the election and believe that the election was influenced and anyone that has dealt with the intelligence community, can tell you why thats so, but thats one subject. The other subject is what is russia doing everywhere else and what strategy do we use to counter those actions . General, the fact that theres been no cabinetlevel meeting does it have a substantial effect or is it more symbolic, the message it sends not just domestically but internationally as well . Theres certainly that message getting out internationally, john, and its not just the cabinetlevel meetings with the members of cabinets. What kind of primary committees, the pcs and dcs occurring within the west wing and National Security council, if the president isnt taking a small group of people thats all the National Security team, defense, state, nsc but treasury and commerce to see what they have to say in terms of the security of the United States in smaller meetings other than the big cabinet, you have to get together and say what do we know in terms of state secrets that will help us compete better. If hes not doing that, thats problematic and its not just russia, theres many other parts of the world this has to occur and if those things arent happening it is it will provide a challenge to our National Security. Lieutenant general Mark Hertling, thank you very much for joining us on all of this new reporting this morning. Pleasure, thank you. Okay. Joining us now our political panel, Amber Phillips for the Washington Post, also joining us who else is with us right now, david trucker, a mystery guest, i didnt know, no one told me. David is here as well. Because you surprised us with your presence, i want to start with you right now. This is something youve talked about a great deal, the inability of the president to separate the fact that, you know, he won the election, he is in the white house from people who said that russia meddled. Now the Washington Post is reporting saying he still doesnt believe that russia meddled and he fights the very notion. Your reaction. This is everything we have seen since he took office and ive always thought that president is missing an opportunity because i think the preponderance of the evidence is their analysis is that russia did, in fact, meddle in the election. It doesnt mean President Trumps victorys illegitimate. You can point to Hillary Clinton and all of the mistakes she made as the reason that President Trump won, in addition to many of the things he did right in a very close election. Russia still meddled. They meddled on President Trumps behalf with the intent of helping him because Vladimir Putin saw the president as a fellow nationalist who would be more amenable to russias agenda around the world and he did not like Hillary Clinton, still blaming her for in his eyes fomenting democratic uprising the last time he was on the ballot or some point he was on the ballot in the early 2000s. So none of this is a problem. And what the president had the opportunity to say when he came into office, yeah, the russians meddled, it happened under the watch of my predecessor and i will be the one that does something about it. I think this would have put him in a very strong position and would have also changed the politics surrounding the russia investigation because the fruit of the investigation has always been in some ways the fact that President Trump will not bad mouth Vladimir Putin. Hell bad mouth everybody, the chinese, the europeans, allies, adversary, not putin, who remains a one of our major geopolitical adversaries around the world in many theaters. So i dont think any of this is surprising, but i do think the president could approach it differently and come out looking much better. So, to davids point, amber, this is, you know, what a senior white house official told the Washington Post reporters, one of whom we had on last hour, to try to explain some of this. Let me read things to you. We were looking to create some sort of bargain that would help us navigate a very dangerous world, but if we do anything, congress and the media will scream bloody murder. That is the stance of the white house, trying to, you know, explain this. Do you think thats a fair counter argument to the point that david makes . I think that to the point david made, there is, you know, the facts suggest that this election, even though russia meddled, as intelligence agencies say, is not illegitimate. Trump won. But trump seems to be emotionally connecting the election and russia meddling and not looking at it rationally saying if i acknowledge that russia meddled in this election, i am in his mind, delegitimizing my win. You know, if you move by one percentage a couple of states, trump could have lost the election. Obviously he lost the popular vote. I think the white house is struggling, how do you explain a president who is really focused on an emotional reaction, that is not rooted in the facts . The fact that the staff is afraid to talk to him about it is interesting. We want to go back to sunlen. Stand by. We will talk to you in a second. Sunlen serfaty stand big on capitol hill. We tried to talk to you before about the new concerns about the numbers game, not within the tax plan, but getting people inside to vote in the chamber, particular Health Concerns about two senators, whats going on . Thats right. The margins here were always going to be tight for Republican Leaders but now there is extra dynamics at play causing a lot of lastminute uncertainty as they barrel towards potentially having a final vote in the senate on monday. Now, we know Vice President mike pence, he has delayed his trip to israel. His vote is going to be needed next week when they vote on this with pence voting for the tax bill they can only afford to lose two more republican senators. That math very important because we have two republican senators, john mccain anded th thad cochro have been ill and missed votes. Thad cochran does intend to return on capitol hill to vote for the tax bill next week. Mccain who is in the hospital for that is still a tbd. Add to that mix we have a lot of wild cards here. Senator flake, senator collins, we also have bob corker, hes not said how he will vote but they cant rely on his vote. He said just yesterday, look, i have the same concerns about this bill that i always have. So while the members here are making progress in the policy, yesterday they merged the two bills from the house and senate together to make one bill they can actually vote on, while theyre making progress on the policy the politics is not in line where they need to be. All this said, this is just a few days potentially before they hold a final vote. So a lot of uncertainty. Sunlen, thank you. Lets go back to david and amber on this one. David, if you look at the newest polling on this, looks like most of the senate bill, more of the senate bill got into this than the house bill, the most recent polling shows overall americans dont like it, 55 , party lines, 56 of republicans like it, thats helpful to the president on this one. What does this do for the in the how business is the political dividend if he can get this through in year one . Its important for the president and republicans to be able to deliver on something significant. Both from the standpoint of delivering on Campaign Promises because of the importance politically that actually following through on what you say youre going to do in the campaign, has become. Thats become a much more important thing than it was in the past when voters sort of expected Campaign Promises to fall by the wayside and they were willing to live with it more. I also think given were approaching a Midterm Election year and republicans are in full control of government, if they cant show their own voters that they got something for full control of government, theyre going to throw up their hands and say theres no point in us showing up again if you cant do anything. For all of the crowing that the president does about all that hes accomplished and on the executive side and regulatory side and the judicial side, hes got a great argument to make on the legislative side, its just been nipping around the edges here and there, at given things. So i think this is a very big deal for republicans. The next challenge, of course, is going to be whether or not people actually like the tax bill and whether they like it in the right places in swing districts where the House Majority could be on the line. All right. Our thanks to Amber Phillips, david trucker, and sunlen, thank you for being with us. Omarosa out at the white house, but she says she was not thrown out. Others are saying somethings else. Also, a very, very interesting comment she made about what made her uncomfortable at the white house. Reporting on that next. When i received the diagnosis, i knew at that exact moment, whatever it takes, wherever i have to go. Im beating this. My main focus was to find a team of doctors that work together. When a patient comes to ctca, theyre meeting a team of physicians that specialize in the management of cancer. Breast Cancer Treatment is continuing to evolve. And i would say that ctca is definitely on the cusp of those changes. Patients can be overwhelmed. We really focus on taking the time with each individual patient so they can choose the treatment appropriate for them. The care that ctca brings is the kind of care ive wanted for my patients. Being able to spend time with them, have a whole team to look after them is fantastic. I empower women with choices. 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Patrick woke up with a sore back. But hes got work to do. So he took aleve this morning. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Tylenol cant do that. Aleve. All day strong. All day long. Mans inner voice why talking property taxes. Ere . Woah. Go over there then, make a mountain out of that reddiwip. Im out. Made with real cream. Reddiwip. Instant greatification. Outgoing aide to the president Omarosa Manigault newman is fighting back from reports she was fired from the white house following a confrontation reported with chief of staff john kelly. Take a listen to her. John kelly and i sat down in the situation room, which is a very secure, very quiet room in the white house, and we had a candid conversation and i wanted to make the oneyear mark that was one of the goals that i set out to and then get back to high life. So youre saying all the reports from one person, but no. Lets be clear. Only one person. Only one person. No one else has reported what shes reporting and this is the one person who has attacked me for the last year. You know this is personal. So separate from what omarosa is talking about there, cnn reporting this morning that omarosa did not resign as she says and once she made it known that she was going to appeal her case to President Trump, she was escorted out. Joining us now, though, is the one person that omarosa was talking about there, political analyst april ryan of american radio networks. Again, i dont think its any mystery shes talking about you. She says you have a personal vendetta against her. Whats your response . Well, ive been doing this for 20 years at the white house, been in the business for 30, and, you know, ive been covering any and all things president ial. Thats what a White House Correspondent does. Listens to sources inside the white house and outside of the white house. And one thing for sure, be it republican or democrat, some may not have liked what ive reported but ive never had anyone say theres been a vendetta. Ive heard republicans say im fair and democrats say im fair. Im doing my job. When you get sources mine think about this election night, im working until