Arkin, as well as Jennifer Bendery, the political reporter or huff post. Thank you both for joining us today. Guest thanks for having us. Host the latest news was last night, the race in montana for the open congressional seat, opened up by ryan sinking what does it tell us, if anything, about the broader state of politics right now . Guest i think you cannot take too many lessons away from the special election just because of the special circumstances in montana. Montana is interesting when it comes to congressional elections. It was much closer than the election in 2016. Things have moved closer. Most democrats in d. C. Predicted the results about what we saw last night. A single digit loss, not a particularly close race. I think thats how republicans saw it, too. I do not think the incident earlier this week a big chunk of the votes came in before the incident. But people in both parties would caution against reading too much into a special election. Host House Speaker paul ryan said he thought there should be an apology, and there was an apology by Greg Gianforte take last night. Talk about the reaction to this. Ncident reactions i saw were largely in one of two cap spirit they were lawmakers saying that should not happen. Really hould never that you should never physically assault a reporter, obviously. Was a reaction of jokes about body slamming reporters. It is crazy when you are reading news stories or writing congressional candidate who body slams reporter wins election. , thispened the day before body slamming incident happened the day before the election. It sounds made up. It is crazy. It is another blip in a kind of crazy political situation. There is a story in the washington post, pointing out the incident with no congressman forte. Gian press advocates see an increase in climate of anger, disrespect, and hostility aimed at the media from the public and elected officials, and they generally. Lame President Trump we saw then candidate donald trump talking about taking folks out on a stretcher and such. A you think that this is conjuring factor to this relationship with the press, and how have you personally been affected by this new climate . Guest i think anyone on the campaign trail senses something to that affect happening. , people ine chants Donald Trumps rallies turning and screaming angrily, shouting nasty things at reporters. I do not think that is particularly new, but when you have a president ial candidate or a president encouraging that aboutic, starting chants cnn sucks, it gives people validation that what they are feeling about the press is ok and they feel more comfortable about publicly making comments. They just feel more comfortable in that space. So i do think there is the sense that if politicians, public figures are going to encourage not say this kind of behavior is ok, that people feel ok in that behavior. There is no question it plays a role. Host jen, what about you . Have used have you seen things get nastier by folks that you cover, or readers or listeners . Guest i have noticed an uptick since probably the last year, since trump fueled this antimedia sentiment throughout the campaign and as president. It is pretty often i will get emails from readers or tweets from people on twitter that are saying the things i write are , that i am not a real reporter, or that the media lies and cnn sucks. , at least theck assertive anger by people who claim to hate the media and declare it all fake news that directly goes back to trumps cabinet. I have film of people turning around at a Campaign Rally and just screaming at them as they sit in the press area. And trump has been on stage and is cheering them on or letting them do it until he continues. That is not helpful for anybody. Host we are joined by real clear politics congressional reporter james arkin, and huff post reporter Jennifer Bendery. Democrats can call 2027 488000. 2027488001. 2027488002. Good morning, robert, on the republican line. Caller there is so much turmoil, and the media, i am sick of hearing about russia. There is nothing there, but they still want to waste our money for garbage. These people, as they fight among some cells before we got the democrats in therefore,. O argue and fight and reject they had eight years to get this country going. Got mess we have obama said he would fundamentally change america. He has. Look at the garbage we have got. I am sick of this stuff. People need to get together and get this country straightened out. We need jobs. They talk about, we need money. Well, get out and work. Trump is trying to get jobs. If people cannot wake up, they are stupid. Host is this what youre hearing from voters, james . Guest that reflects something a lot of voters feel. To the original point he made about russia, i would point out there are congressional investigations into russia impact into russias on the election. Special counsel appointed at the department of justice. Democrats are clearly more vocal in terms of wanting to get to the bottom of what happened, but republicans on capitol hill and at the department of justice, areclearly investing clearly investigating this as well. This is not something that can be brushed off as a partisan thing. Republicans on capitol hill are about investigating what russia did in the election and whether there are any signs of collusion. There are multiple committees looking into that. The dual, talk about process that is going on. These congressional probes are looking into what happened, how russia meddled with the election so that the American People can know, but now you have a special prosecutor, former fbi director , looking into this for potential crimes. How are these conflicting right now . Host the way people talk about it is that you have house and Senate Committees doing their own investigations. Er, thatcounsel muell is kind of a separate animal. Obviously he will be talking with members of the committees on the work they are doing of on the work they are doing. The thing to watch more closely with mueller and his investigation he has a special, kind of a broader and deeper look into something that the committees may not be looking at. It is confusing. It feels like every day there is more news about another detail, more about the investigation, more subpoenas. A someone who covers the stuff, it is overwhelming and infusing. I cannot it is overwhelming and confusing. I cannot keep up with it. I cannot imagine people keeping up with it reading the news 10 minutes a day. I think it is important to take it withack and come at fresh eyes every couple of days. Muellers investigation is the one to watch. It will be interesting to see if james comey opts not to testify and instead talks to mueller. Impact of the investigation is a topic of the wall street journal. A report says the fbi told congress it would withhold for now memos written by former director james comey concerning interactions with president donald trump, while the Bureau Weighs how the special counsel investigations underway on capitol hill. Push we are seeing folks ahead, interested not only in these memos, but for former director comey to come in and testify and he wants to talk er first. Ctor muell talk about that collision between the committees and the fbi. Guest the committees are investigating the meddling in the election and how the United States can ask Going Forward to make sure that Something Like that does not happen again. Obviously, is looking at any collusion between the campaign and the investigation. There could be criminal charges, if that is warranted. Memos and james comeys testimony, he has said he wants to talk with former fbi director mueller or say anything to these committees that could potentially affect the investigation. The ability to bring criminal charges for the special counsel is very different than one congressional investigations can do. You have a lot of lawmakers saying we are going to continue our investigations, but they should perhaps take a backseat. There is an understanding that if these memos are going to be vital or essential to what doing, jamesler is comey might not be able to testify in an open setting or talk about everything from his memos or from his time in this investigation in an open setting in the committee because it could potential he impact the special it could potentially impact the special prosecutor or the special committee with director mueller. That will be the investigation that you want to keep your eyes on. There was a clear understanding from lawmakers it was going to have some effect. They want to continue the investigation, but they knew there was going to be some effect Going Forward. Calling from new york on our independent line. Youre on with Jennifer Bendery and james arkin. Caller i have a question and a comment. This montana guy has he been charged and arrested . Host what is your comment . Caller if he has been arrested, he should stand before a judge, because i think to let Something Like this slide is going to promote that lunacy that we see going on at the trump rallies, where, go ahead and beat them up, i will pay your law bills. I think this is kind of dangerous. It should be nipped in the bud. That is basically what i have to say. Host he was charged with a misdemeanor, correct . Guest i think he was charged with misdemeanor assault. I do not think he was arrested. , anpolice showed up ambulance was there. It was very dramatic. This all happened so fast, and then he won the election. I do not know what that means now. I suppose the reporter could press charges and it could get even more ugly. I think right now he has been charged with a misdemeanor and we are waiting to see what happens. Discussion that has come up in the wake of this is the fact that the majority of voters in this race cast their ballots early before this happens, before this happened, and are rethinking their choice. Host i think early voting ,uest i think early voting there are ongoing questions about early voting because so many votes were cast in the president ial election before significant things happened. A lot of people were talking about the effect of early voting in this election, the way it happened with this incident the night before. Early voting exists for a reason. A lot of people work, a lot of people are out in the state are out of the state. It is difficult for people to vote on election day, so early voting is there for people who are not able to go to the polls on election day. Most would say the odds of candidates committing misdemeanor assault or being charged with misdemeanor assault the night before the election affecting the vote is far less likely than the number of voters being able to go to the polls to take advantage of early voting. But it does raise question over but it does raise questions over whether early voting is the right approach. Some people were talking yesterday about whether this shows a need to move to a federal holiday for voting so that everyone can take off work. I think it raises those questions. There is always an ongoing debate after elections about this. Is calling from st. Joseph, michigan, on our democratic line. Caller i am calling in because i was all ready to vote for Hillary Clinton. And then when she came out behind that rope, i thought, what the heck is going on . Then she started the namecalling. The democratics started the name calling, just the leading and bullying. Bullying. Llying and and then the gentleman from of beingot tired bullied and fought back. Now he is the bad guy. I was listening to this lady speak here, and she used the word animal in the same but i didith mueller, not see her use that word in the same sentence when she was talking about comey. This is just what is wrong with the democratic and liberal people. Only they are allowed to call names. And you have to stand back and be bullied. Host jen, i want to give you a chance to respond to that. Caller guest i do not think i ever said the word animal. I would not call somebody and animal. I think you might have misheard me. Host what about this idea that some voters have said the press has gone too far. Rteanfo congressman pushed back, so to speak . Host he body slams guest he body slams a reporter the day before the election. Been 24 cycle has hours, where people were reporting on the incident, and then we are looking at the side effects on the election and some people were wanting to change their votes, and it was all very chaotic and jampacked into a short period of time. I am not sure what role the media should have played differently. I am not sure there is enough to go after the media for in a 24hour cycle when something unexpected happened before an election. Guest i would point out that the question the reporter was asking the evening before the election was whether or not the candidate supported the American Health care act that the house had past several weeks ago after a new cbo score came out that day. The candidate said he wanted to see a cbo score before he made a decision about whether or not he supported that legislation. Health care was a significant issue in that race. It was not as if this reporter was asking some personal being overly aggressive and he was asking a question about Health Care Policy. That is important to remember. The you said that different investigations by congress and the special counsel were different animals. You are not referring to a particular person. Item,ought up the cbo another big item this week, the Congressional Budget Office report that predicted 23 million fewer people would be insured in nine years under the current plan. What impact does that have, given the fact that republicans in the Senate Already declared it dead on arrival . An impact. Oes have a lot of republicans were hoping that changes they made to the election would have had a bit more of an effect on the coverage numbers. We saw essentially the same reactions that we saw when the first cbo score came out that potentially 24 Million People fewer could have Health Insurance before this went into effect. Brushed it off and said they were going to do their own legislation, that they were not going to vote on the house did, so they try to say the cbo score did not matter. A lot of what the senate does will be relatively similar, at least in structure to what the house did. There will be some significant differences. I think the cbo score that came out earlier this week it is a line in the sand, something that shows the potential impact that this could have. There are some senators saying they will not be able to support legislation that shows 23 million fewer people could have Health Insurance. Itdoes have an effect and directs how senators will approach writing the legislation. Host one report said it would lead to some deficit reduction and also they will be able to be reconciliation in the senate. Is that enough good news for the gop . That is likek putting lipstick on a pay. That is saying that we saved some money from the deficit and we cleared the rules so we could move the bill to the senate, so that is a huge win. But the bottom line, this bill might cut some money from the 23icit, but it knocked Million People off insurance. These are people. Each person is an individual life. I think the cbo report that came out this week was the death knell for that house bill. The senate bill is going to be quite different, if they ever produce one. The senate believes, in a way, including republicans, that the house bill had such a terrible cbo score i think the senate is relieved, in a way, including republicans, that the house bill had such a terrible cbo score. There were all these horrible statistics about, it takes away the preexisting condition guarantee, and it requires people in their 50s and 60s who are low income to pay substantially more money for their Health Insurance, which other people who actually need it more. There are so many things wrong with this bill. The fact that a couple the highlights about it are that it saves money and it can be brought up in the senate under congressional rules. I think the senate is relieved that this bill is as awful as it is and confirmed to be awful by the cbo. They have their own bill, and it may not even happen until 2020. It is a much more methodical process. Host lets look at what House Speaker paul ryan said after the cbo score was released. [video clip] the cbo says we are going to give state we are going to give states like wisconsin the flex ability. Look at missouri and kansas. Juste a new study that came out yesterday from hhs saying premiums have doubled in america because of obamacare. People cannot afford this, so what the cbo just told us is that the reforms we put in this bill will help lower premiums. I am very encouraged by that. What members are frustrated with is behind the cbo analysis about who gets insured and who does not get insured if you leave it up to a persons choice, they will make a choice. Government will stop forcing people to buy something that they will not buy, then they will not buy it here it that is what the cbo is saying. The lack of clarity on that point is what has members frustrated. Saw speaker ryan talking about obamacare collapsing. That is line which that President Trump frequently uses as well. How will americans know which part of the rising cost, insurers pulling out of the market, is it because of obamacare or because of the uncertainty over the republican plan . It is guest it is clearly difficult for people to understand. Some insurers have pulled out of the market, citing the uncertainty with republican reforms going through congress. The uncertainty with things like costsharing reduction payments and the administration has said they will pay for this month. They have not said how they will ,andle costsharing reductions and that uncertainty is really troubling for insurers. Premiums were rising under the Affordable Care act, and they are also rising because of uncertainty with reforms republicans are trying to get through congress, and some democrats think this is an intentional muddying of the waters. Democrats think they are absolutely they are actively trying to make the law work less well so that they have a better argument for the reforms they are trying to get through congress. Republicans dismiss that and they say the law is unworkable. But what it does, it paints a tounderstand picture for americans to understand how their Health Insurance is going to be affected. There are questions people have about the Affordable Care act, whether it is changes the republicans are trying to make. It is very difficult for people to understand how this will affect them personally. I think that is true. Health care is extremely complicated for everybody, for people who cover it regularly in washington. It is worth pointing out that one of the most common lines you will here in washington from republicans is that obamacare is collapsing. The word collapsing was at one point the term they decided they would all use. If you talk to any Health Care Policy experts we have Health Care Policy wonks where i work that understand the ins and outs of health care as an extremely complicated process. It is not collapsing. There are some markets like iowa that get attention where insurers are pulling out, and that is not good. Other states like tennessee, that is happening. Overall, the program has stabilized and started to improve over the last year up until trump came in. There are data points that once trump came in, that is when people started to get nervous who are operating Health Care Services in the market. Your point, it is true that there is this feeling that republicans are trying to choke off parts of the Affordable Care act so they can turn around and say it is not working, whereas this is a major Government Program that takes routine maintenance, like any major Government Program. Republicans simply are not doing it. Republicans is trump is not giving money to states to operate the programs. It is spooking insurers out of the market. So this comment that it is collapsing, it is almost like it , that iscreated cycle created and fueled by republicans who do not like there is a major republican who do not like that there is a major Republican Program taking off. But to call it collapsing is simply inaccurate. Most of them know it. Some might not know it. But given talking points, that is what they will say. Host we have a lot of callers waiting to talk to you. Lori is talking to us from the republican line. Caller how are you . Say, i am veryo proud to have voted for trump. I believe he is doing a great job. Media that currently the is giving him a bad rap. I do not follow anything that the media has to say because ,very time i turn on the tv where the media is actually speaking, it is very negative. It is always negative. There is nothing great to say, even when he does something great. It is really a sad situation. Jennifer the person, not quite sure what your last name was about the Affordable Care act and how it is not collapsing, as you say that is so untrue. Because i know my daughter in. Aw had to go to this insurance even though they get this special pay toward a subsidy toward this insurance, they have a 6,000 or more deductible that they have to meet. Not only do they have to meet that, they have to pay not been they have to pay 900 a month for a family. Me, as not a working person my husband works and we have our own insurance but because of that, our insurance has had to go up. I do not think it is fair that the people who are working are having to be made to pay for the people who are not working and getting insurance for free. Time tryinglly hard to understand that. Ast i want to give jen chance to respond. Premiums and high deductibles were problems before President Trump was elected, right . Guest yes, and there are also problems before obamacare. That theay it is true things that people are struggling with right now under the Current System what i if theay is that Affordable Care act were maintained, and if insurers were not so spooked to try to pull out and republicans would try to make some tweets here and there some tweaks to fix it, as any Government Program needs, the pricing would become better because people would be more reassured that the ram is solid. That the program is solid. Some of the specifics show that people with existing conditions say, if you have a Mental Illness or a circle of Substance Abuse they will be paying thousands of more dollars each because now preexisting toditions are not guaranteed be part of an essential benefits program. I would also point out that the direction republicans are trying to go would raise prices on 60se in their 50s and extremely significantly. As we get older, we have more health care costs. I do not think that the Affordable Care act is perfect. There are a lot of things wrong with our health care system. I think the direction that republicans in congress are trying to take this now that they control congress is going to hurt people more who need help the most and who cannot afford it the most. On our independent line, calling from florida. Seller lets try to unconfu russia. First, flynn. And theneeded money russians were talking to him. Engage russia. The conversations are picked up the cia. Fisa courts just admonished the administration. Lets talk about that, how they are looking into people and how they are using these techniques. The media conflates russia and the trump campaign. We know the media is colluding with the democrats. Wikileaks proves this. Hopingocrats are just there is some kind of conspiracy that the people could connect the dots. The real conspiracy is this driver out of michigan, brownshirts from the democratic party. It is pretty straightforward what happened. Thank you very much. Host do you want to respond to that . Guest most people in washington would say it is decidedly not straightforward, what happened. There are a lot of questions still to be answered. That is why there is a special counsel at the department of justice investigating this. There are a lot of confusing details, a lot of different actors. A lot of people are looking into these questions. I do not think that a lot of the points the gentleman made our answered yet. I think it is at this point still very early in the investigation, and there are more Unanswered Questions than there are answered questions. Line fromew is on the massachusetts. Caller i am talking about obamacare. If the republicans did not waste eliminaten trying to obamacare and try to help it, it would be a Better Program by now. And not voting for the to putructure bill americans to work, there would be a lot more americans working by now. But the republicans seem to the bible saying help those who cannot help themselves means the rich need more money and the poor do not, so they are taking away money and from allmps, these other programs. I am 62 years old. I have learning disabilities. I worked washing dishes. I worked three jobs, seven days a week, from 1986 to the year 2000. And now i am physically unable to work. ,nd you guys, the republicans are going to cut the rug out right from under me where i will not be able to host let me ask jen for people who voted republican and democratic is there room, a place for democrats and republicans to come together . That is something President Trump said he was willing to do on the campaign trail. Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of this whole debate. It is so partisan right now in gress, it is almost as if lets say a democrat decides to work with a Republican Group on something. There is the sense that the democrat might get pressure from the left that they might be primaried. , it is apolarized shame. There is so much fear about peoples reelections and the partisanship that is driving it right now, that people are afraid to do anything to work on the Affordable Care act together to make it stronger. Some notablee are changes to the Affordable Care act that democrats would support to work with republicans on. But the climate here it has gotten worse over the years, and it is not productive in that sense. It is so much more focused on getting reelected. Right now, on health care, republicans passed their bill in the house earlier this month. It was a clearly artisan vote. It was a clearly partisan vote. Republicans are working behind closed doors. This is not how you in good faith put together something that will help people in the country who need help the most. Host do you think there is any hope for bipartisan action . Guest at this point, probably not on health care. Tactically, the president could to particularly democrats in the senate who were going to run for reelection next year and said i want to work with you on health care, i want your help. He could have put them in a difficult position of either saying they would not help on health care or to work with the president. The problem with that is that republicans went into it with the goal of working through a process that allowed them to do it without a filibuster, meaning they could bypass democrats, and secondly, they started with the gold of repealing the Affordable Care act, the singular achievement of the obama administration. As jennifer said, it is verymely partisan, polarized, and it makes it very difficult for anyone in congress on either side to have any interest in working with the other side of the aisle. Then you have President Trump saying politically the best thing would be to elect the Affordable Care act the best thing would be to let the Affordable Care act collapse. And then talk about the political benefits of the law collapsing in order to push democrats even further away. I think at this point, given the way things have gone early, i do not think either side has any interest in bipartisan action on health care. Host lets talk about leaks for a moment. President trump said he vowed to investigate leaks into the investigation coming out about the manchester terror attack. This is after Prime Minister theresa may and other u. K. Officials were very angry over these leaks and to temporarily stop sharing information with the United States. Is this part of a bigger issue for the president , talking about it for a long time, or is it something separate . Saw after the you president fired fbi director james comey, almost daily there was some sort of intelligence leak about the investigation and the president , about the comey members about the comey memos they have been talking about it. You also have democrats frustrated that the president chose to reveal information in a meeting in the oval office with the russians. Across the board, there is a. Roblem with leaks any sense of the word leak, people are frustrated by it. Our sherry is calling from independent line in indiana. Caller i have two quick comments to get off because my battery is about to die. James said the rush investigation were really new, and i do not think that is true at all. This has been going on since the middle of the campaign, for almost a year. With all of the leaks in the Intelligence Community, if there was something there, dont you think we would have heard it by now . I am disappointed in cspan. Every time you have magazine articles that you highlight and read, it is something negative. I would like to see a little bit more from both viewpoints on cspan. Guest you are right that the fbi was investigating the actions meddling in the election going back to last summer. Members of congress have said they are in the very early stages of the investigation. They just began issuing subpoenas. They expect opened and closed sessions to hold interviews, send out more subpoenas. When i talked about the early stages, i do not think that anyone expects that in the next month or two months or three months we will have complete answers on this. This process will go to the end of this year, potentially into next year. Obviously the special counsel ,as just appointed weeks ago last week, i think it was. So he is going to have to get up to speed on what the fbi has been investigating and decide what direction he wants to take his own investigation. That is going to take some time. A lot of people want immediate answers. They see reports in the media and they think that the notion that the president is guilty that is not the way it works. These investigations will take a lot of time. Guest dan coats, the director of intelligence, was asked about thepost story about russian influence on the investigation. I am fortunate to be able and need to spend a significant amount of time with the president discussing National Security interest and intelligence as it relates to those interests. Number of topics on a very regular basis. I have always believed, given , andature of my position the information which we share, it is not a probe for me to it is not appropriate for me to comment publicly on any of that. So on this topic and other topics, i do not feel it is appropriate to characterize discussions with the president. Host how difficult a position does this put director coats in as well as National Security director rogers in to have this information, out, that the president tries to get them to push back on this narrative that is under investigation. They still have to work with him. To work witho have him. Theyre a legions is to keeping things classified. And doing investigations their allegiance is to keeping things classified. This is part of a disturbing pattern. The story of james comey it feels like two weeks ago, three weeks ago, when the stories came out, that trump had privately asked james comey when he was fbi director to go ahead and let it go, stop investigating me. Host to stop investigating michael flynn. Guest right, to stop investigating my team. That is completely inappropriate. Ist were seeing is d. C. A town of leaks, particularly in congress. We are seeing blowback at the president for insulting the Intelligence Community and for insulting law enforcement. Then youdo that, and make outrageous statements about things that have happened or not happened, and then you fire the fbi director who has been in place for a while, it is not surprising that the leaks started to pick up soon after that. These are people who want to protect intelligence and respect and maintain respect for their industry. You probably do not want to badmouth the Intelligence Community. They have the goods and are looking out for our best interest. Where he was saying that he, too, was nudged along it is part of the narrative going on right now. Host cooper is on our republican line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Back to the aca. I agree that it is a very hyper partisan time that we are in right now. It seems like at least it seems like at least one of your aca wass forget how the passed initially with no republican input. Some special vote rate on a saturday night. Secondly, i think it is collapsing. We just read last weekend, and some, we just read last weekend, anthem was strongly considering pulling out. Lets talk about truth without exaggerating. Host is that one of the reasons we are seeing problems with obamacare . That it was passed and that it had to be passed quickly after the death of senator ted kennedy , where the democrats lost their vetoproof majority. Passedcertainly it was with only democratic votes, and it was rushed because they were becausethe because there were special circumstances and the needed to pass it quickly. I think republicans worked very hard to make sure there were no republican votes on that law. It created a law that republicans were not going to support from the beginning. That is why you had seen republicans for a long time saying it was not workable. They came up with the idea of repealing and replacing the law very early, before it was even implemented. True that thely Affordable Care act was passed without republicans. You cannot call it a bipartisan law. Host from flint, michigan. Hi, debbie. First i would like to apologize to you for that man last week calling you a little girl. That was unacceptable. We appreciate your fairness. Republican, from independent, democrat. For all the republicans an independents who do not think there voices are heard who do not think their voices are heard james, is it not a fact that the republicans made a decision early on that they were not going to back president obama for anything . Nothing . ,here were 111 Meetings Committee meetings, etc. Republicans were invited to all of these meetings. And now a lot of what they are doing is trying to dismantle everything president obama stood for and that president obama did for our country. History is not going to treat these guys good. They are going to treat them very badly. History is going to look act on them and say what a bunch of big 80s they are. What a bunch of whiny asses. That my point about it is you are absolutely right, there was a committee process, and democrats spent a long time trying to Court Republicans who they thought would be amenable to what they were trying to do. A lot of democrats were frustrated that they spent so much time trying to Court Republicans. It made it more difficult to do what they ultimately wanted with health care. There was a sincere effort to get some republicans and they ended up without any. To thisans winning knowing they would not get democratic support to repeal the Affordable Care act, so they did not make any sort of entreaty to get democratic support. Youi was going to add are correct that from the very beginning, republicans set out to not work with obama on almost anything for years. It has been that way as long as i have been covering congress. It is also true that democrats did pass the Affordable Care act only on a partyline vote. Republicans are trying to repeal and replace the obamacare law on a partyline vote. Now is that what republicans are trying to do would actually take away Health Insurance from people. We are not talking about your politics anymore. This is real people who now have Health Insurance who did not have it who are at risk of losing it and not being able to iford basic services anymore they were to become law, which it will not. Is of the partisan fighting worth looking at, but now this is talking about real peoples lives. It is not just a game, it is health care. There is a point at which partisanship will cease and people will think about not hurting people. Host we are talking with Jennifer Bendery and james arkin about the week in politics, and that week with the broad news coming out of the white house itself is a little quiet. There have been some romans about potential staff changes. What have you heard about that . Alwaysthere are rumblings about staff changes at the white house. I think some of the latest arelings that i have heard about sean spicer is he safe . Ill he stay press secretary is there going to be a different chief of staff. There is talk that Reince Priebus was on his way out. I heard a rumor that newt chiefch might be his next of staff, but now Newt Gingrich is moving overseas with his wife. There is always talk about people being on the way out because trump is impulsive and not happy with people on every other day. You tell us is there new drama in the staff gossip circles . There are dynamics that maybe there is some tension between Jared Kushner and the white house. That jaredt the news kushner is part of an fbi probe to be changed at all . Guest i doubt that the news about Jared Kushner being part of this will change much. We have been hearing rumors about a staff shakeup. Withiginally started out steve bannon and mens previous being at odds in the white house, and they made a really strong effort that they were united, and the article after article about Jared Kushner and Stephen Bannon being at odds. And rumors of staff shakeups. The assumption should be that the staff is going to remain as it is now, whether or not sean spicer might be out as press secretary has been floated for weeks and weeks. It has not happened. I think that this is sort of reflective of the environment that he likes to work in. He likes the chaotic uncertainty in the workplace, and these rumors are going to continue. Is that my expectation the white house is going to stay the way it has been until something changes. You have to take each rumor with a grain of salt, given that none of them have led to a staff shakeup so far. Virginia. Lorton, go ahead, greg. Caller just a couple of quick points. Ifing is, with comey the president does not like him, he can fire him. That is the way it is. The way he responded to the Hillary Clinton investigation, he should have been fired. Secondly, the president has the power to decide that is part of the constitution. As thesefar investigations go with russian collusion, can we really say this campaign did not have contact with china, maybe other countries, to lay groundwork to see what they are going to do depending on if he gets elected . Thirdly, what about the dnc, who colluded against Bernie Sanders so that he could not obtain the nomination . Host that is a lot of time that is a lot of points and we do not have a lot of time. We will let jen speak on that. Guest i guess i would say that. He dnc had its own drama, too it is appearing to i think it is important to point out that the russian investigation, looking at potential collusion with the trunk campaign and russian officials was to affect the election. This is not just talking with russia or china or another country. We had the unusual circumstance of russia meddling in our election last year and that the trump campaign, somebody was working with russian officials during that time, with the knowledge that this meddling was intended to help trump win. That is a very different dynamic than anything we have ever seen. Host lynn is calling from california on our democratic line. Caller good morning. How are you doing, everyone. Wonderful discussion. I have been washing i have been watching washington journal for 25 years. A great jobg posting, kimberly. Jennifer and james, thank you for your intelligent and informative discussion this morning. It is a little after 6 00 this morning. I was watching what sparked my call is when this lady i forgot where she is from. Talking about jacobs, the reporter he would not have been manhandled. I am paraphrasing. He was not leaving mr. Gianforte. What i wanted to express to everyone, he was doing his job as a reporter. Freedom of the press is alive and well, think goodness. , thisk what happened started with President Trump during his campaign when he was egging on his campaign, egging on supporters and talking about concerned about real like ers, you know, Jennifer James and others trying the their job and tell truth. Disagree. Be something, important to informed, if he does something that is good, can also be is rmed, most of this negative because hes been extremely negative with all the ifferent executive orders and rhetoric. Thanks for the insurance corporation, iut feel bad for the people that lynn, you are , breaking up, last word to james. Guest to the point she made at the beginning. Like i said earlier, asking a policy question about whether or not this candidate supported breaking up, last word to james. Thet to the American Healthcare ac
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