Transcripts For KGO This Week With George Stephanopoulos 20170709

A punishing recess back home. [ chanting ted cruz has got to go ] texas senator ted cruz says he can save the bill but will his colleagues agree . Whats the fallback if they dont . And what will it mean for your health care . We ask the senator live. And the clash over conflicts of interest. After calling out trump for appearing to profit from the presidency the nations top ethics watchdog abruptly resigns. Is he stepping down in protest . Were oneonone in his first sunday interview. Everything you need to know from washington, well break down the politics, smoke out the spin, the facts that matter this week. Announcer from abc news, its this week. Here now, chief anchor, George Stephanopoulos. Good morning. President trump is back in washington this week and back on twitter calling the g20 summit a great success. While the european leaders he left are openly warning of new divisions in the western alliance. And in moscow, Vladimir Putin and his team touting that first meeting with President Trump as a big win. They say its put the u. S. russia relationship back on track and put those questions about putins meddling in our election to rest. One big question this week, does President Trump agree . Heres the second tweet he just sent out, i strongly pressed president putin twice about russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. Ive already given my opinion. And back here at home, new signs this morning this issue is far from over. As he landed, President Trump greeted by this headline in the new york times. Trump team met with lawyer linked to kremlin during campaign. Back in june, just two weeks after trump clinched the gop nomination, his son, donald jr. , soninlaw Jared Kushner and Campaign Chair Paul Manafort met with a russian lawyer with ties to the kremlin. To putin at trump tower. This meeting had not been disclosed and corrects trumps earlier denials. Did you or anyone in your campaign have any contact with russia leading up to or during the campaign . No, not at all. Nothing at all . With that let me bring in our reporter that brought up that question, cecilia vega. Shes still in hamburg where she was with the president. Cecilia, good morning. So we have that report in the new york times. Weve confirmed it. There was this meeting in trump tower with a russian lawyer. Just the latest evidence that the president s previous denials are just not true. Reporter exactly, george. And the story broke as you said as the president was in the air on air force one landing back home in washington. Essentially this is more of the slow drip of names of people in the president s inner circle who after the fact are finding out they had met with people with russians, people with ties to russia, despite what the president told me there right after he after the election. But, look, weve got to say there is absolutely no evidence at this point of collusion, but what we know is that don jr. Is now among the list of names of people who met with russians. This is a russian lawyer who we know has known ties to the kremlin. It happened in trump tower about two weeks after the president clinched the nomination. Sources tell me that the campaign was not discussed. Don jr. Says that essentially they talked about the issue of russian adoptions, that this meeting was set up for him but, again, george, not what the president wanted to be coming home to after this trip that the white house is calling a big win. Here they are once again with questions landing right in their lap about ties to russia during the campaign. We also know that russian lawyer was pushing to ease sanctions on russia as well. Meanwhile, a lot of questions about what actually happened in that meeting between the president and president putin. We saw president putin saying yesterday that President Trump accepted his denial. This morning saying hes already given his opinion. The problem there is that press conference we showed earlier in the week where the president said a number of things. He said i think russia did it. There may have been others also. No one knows for sure. Reporter and that press conference was an astounding just one day before, hours before basically he sat down with Vladimir Putin in that closed room here at the g20. Look, we may never know what really happened inside there. It was just a small group of people, diplomatic aides on both sides and translators and the two leaders essentially but youve got this big question, did the president essentially agree with Vladimir Putins repeated denials of election hacking, of election meddling. The president , im told, repeatedly pushed inside that meeting, started the meeting with questions about whether there was election meddling on the part of the russians, Vladimir Putin adamantly denied it, but the big question seems to be still to this day, where does the president stand . What he told us when he was asked point blank in that press conference on thursday, it could be the russians, it could be other countries, but, george, hes still not saying who these other countries could be. Okay, cecilia vega, thanks very much. Also just back from hamburg, the treasury secretary steven mnuchin, he joins us now from washington. Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us this morning. Lots of tweets from the president this morning. He also said that the sanctions were not discussed in his meeting with president putin. It is time to, quote, move forward constructively with russia. Does that mean that new sanctions for russian interference are off the table . Well, george, first of all, let me just say i think the trip overall was just an outstanding success. We had over ten bilats, three pullasides and we met with ten leaders and other leaders at the three seas conference, and as it relates to the meeting with putin, let me be clear, what started out as a 30minute meeting lasted over two hours and i think what we should be focused on was that the president handled it brilliantly, look at what was discussed and what was accomplished. He fully addressed the election situation. He focused on the ceasefire in syria, which is a major accomplishment. He talked about ukraine, and he talked about north korea. So this was a very substantive meeting and on very important issues. Let me get back to the question though. Are sanctions off the table now . Im not going well, what i would say, first of all, we have sanctions that are already on the table and we expect to enforce those sanctions. And, secondly, you said that the issue of russian meddling was fully discussed. What we dont know is does President Trump agree with president putin that does he accept president putins denials . Well, george, everybody is focused on that and what they should be focused on is what was discussed in the substance of the meeting, and let me just say, why would President Trump broadcast exactly what he said in the meeting . Strategically that makes no sense. What he broadcast and what well, hes already doing that on twitter this morning. Hes just not answering that question. I got it, which why should he answer that question directly. Hes made it very clear how he feels. Hes made it very clear that he addressed it straight on, and there was significant substance. This is a very important, important for us to have discussions on substantive issues, and i think the president handled it brilliantly. You say hes made it very clear how he feels. But we all saw in that press conference earlier in the week in hamburg where the president said about three Different Things on whether or not russia meddled. He said i think it was russia. I think others did it. No one nows for sure. What is the president s position on whether or not russia interfered in the election . Does he accept the conclusions of the Intelligence Community . I think it was very clear what he said. He said those three things and thats what he believes but, again, whats important here is, what is the president doing . This is a president thats focused on action. And this was a foreign trip where we had very, very significant meetings. This was substance. We had over an hour and a half meeting with president xi and his team where we focused on trade, economic issues, north korea. Were following up with a comprehensive economic dialogue with them here in d. C. In july. President trump is focused on action and getting things done. So, just to be clear, the president does not accept the very clear conclusion of the Intelligence Community, i want to read it right here. They said, we assess Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the u. S. President ial election. The president saying no one knows for sure. Again, what i would say is the president is focused on strategically negotiating with putin, and we have some very serious issues to deal with, which are syria, a ceasefire thats in both of our interests and having a nofly zone. Dealing with the issues in the ukraine, which are very important. Dealing with north korea and the ballistic missile. Thats what the president is focused on. The president also said in his tweets this morning that hes setting up a Cybersecurity Partnership with president putin. Thats already drawn a response from many including republican senator marco rubio of florida who said partnering with putin on a cybersecurity unit is akin to partnering with assad on a chemical weapons unit. Your response . Well, in all due respect, and i think very highly of the senator, but let me just comment on that i think this is a very important step forward, that what we want to make sure is that we coordinate with russia, that were focused on cybersecurity together, that we make sure that they never interfere in any democratic elections or conduct any cybersecurity and this is like any other strategic alliance, whether were doing military exercises with our allies or anything else. This is about having capabilities to make sure that we both fight cyber together which i think is a very significant accomplishment for President Trump. I know you also believe that the fact that the g20 is now focusing on trade is a win for President Trump as well including their focus on the trade in steel. President trump before this meeting was closing in on a decision whether to impose tariffs and quotas on imported steel. The president of the European Commission has vowed retaliation if he does that. Are you worried that that kind of decision from President Trump could spark a trade war . No, im not worried at all. Quite the contrary. We had very substantive conversations on steel, especially with the chinese delegation. Were making very Good Progress with them and i think that the threat of different actions in trade sanctions and other things is whats led to very proactive discussions with all of our counterparts and what were trying to do is negotiate agreements with them, and i think were making very Good Progress on that, and if we cant get the agreements that President Trump wants, then well take action on trade. It had been reported that the president was just days or weeks away from reaching this decision on steel tariffs or steel quotas. Is he now going to put off that decision until the g20 have a chance to examine it . Again, i think President Trumps made it very clear. He is not going to broadcast all his strategies, so that when were negotiating kind of with all of our counterparts were doing, were not going to broadcast on tv what our strategy is exactly when were taking actions. What i can tell you is we had very substantive discussions and we think were going to move forward, and let me tell you, you know, we made major progress from my first g20 finance ministers meeting where we discussed trade and it was 191, we had almost a complete consensus on trade at this g20 leaders meeting where if you look in the communique, we have language on around reciprocal trade and the importance of reciprocal trade and almost every single bilat we were in, the president talked about trade and what were looking for is free and fair trade and were looking to make sure that we can grow our exports so that we dont have a giant trade imbalance. Lets talk about mexico. You were in the bilateral meeting with the mexican president that the president was in. Right before that meeting the president was asked if he still thinks mexico should pay for the wall. I want to show that. Mr. Trump, do you still want mexico to pay for the wall . Absolutely. Thank you all. Thank you very much. So the president said absolutely in front of the cameras. Did he raise that issue with the mexican president in the meeting . There was nothing about it in the joint readout of the meeting. Again, the substantive portion of the meeting was really talking about nafta. Thats the major issue. We also talked about immigration where weve made enormous progress with them on combating illegal immigration, which is a very important issue. I think, you know, we have a 90day period where we cant negotiate on nafta, but we can talk about principles. Were moving forward very proactively. Weve had discussions with them and the canadians and i think were looking forward to renegotiating nafta and thats the significant accomplishment. As it relates to the wall well figure out the wall, im confident. Whether we do a solar wall that we can sell electricity or we do an electronic or traditional wall well move forward with the wall. But mexico is not going to pay for it, are they . I didnt say that. The president said he expects it will be paid for. You say that but the president apparently didnt bring it up with the mexican president. I spoke with secretary of state tillerson about a month back and he said he didnt bring it up in his meeting with the Mexican Foreign minister. Isnt it time to concede that mexico is not going to pay for that wall and youre not going to be able to renegotiate nafta if you insist on mexico paying for the wall. Again, what i would say is thats not the focus for the moment. The focus is nafta. I think, again, we have a very Good Relationship with the Mexican Government and with the president and i think were moving very proactively to a solution and, again, the two priorities at the moment are immigration where weve already made substantial progress and nafta. And, again, let me tell you, i sat in every single meeting other than the russian meeting, these were substantive meetings and whether it was chancellor merkel, whether it was Prime Minister theresa may, whether it was the trilat we had with japan and the republic of korea, these were substantive discussions on economics, national security, korea, President Trump is all about action and this was just we had lots and lots of meetings with lots of discussion on important issues. So bottom line, immigration and nafta renegotiation are priorities. Paying for the wall is not. I want to move on to tax reform now. I know youre in the middle of that as well and the meetings with speaker ryan and others. When will the plan be ready and is it still your goal that the wealthy will not receive a net tax cut . So let me just say were absolutely committed to getting tax reform done this year. I think its critical for economic growth. I think as youve heard us say we need to get back to 3 or better gdp and our plan is to have a fullblown release of the plan in the beginning of september with being able to vote and getting this passed before the end of the year and we are having meetings, multiple times every week with the leadership of the house and the senate. Were having lots of listening sessions. We probably met with 300 or 400 different business leaders, out siders. Think tanks and learning from the health care process and we will weigh get it done this week. The website this year. Excuse me. The website oxios reported steve bannon in the white house is advocating a 40 top tax rate. He wants a 4 in front of it. Maybe even higher than 40 . Is that idea actually on the table . No, its not. I have never heard steve mention that. Its another example of a false leak thats being reported. I think its very clear kind of we have a proposal out there that the administration has put out with a top rate of 35 where we reduce and eliminate almost every single deduction so that means that people who are in the high tax states will have no tax reduction and itll be offset by reduced deductions. So thats the current plan. That seems to be a slight change in your position. Before you were saying none of the wealthy would get a net tax cut. Now youre saying only the wealthy in the high tax states will not get a net tax cut. Let me just say, the plan hasnt been finalized and i think again for most people they have lots of deductions, you know, i think weve heard a lot of feedback from new york, california, new jersey, connecticut, illinois and i think we want to be sensitive to those states in those economies as we shape the plan. But, again, the president s focus is a middle income tax cut, reforming the business tax system to make it competitive and creating a tax simplification that will grow this economy. No one in the middle class will have a tax increase . Thats our objective, absolutely. And also the big question of whether this is going to be tax reform or a tax cut, is it going to be revenue neutral. Under the current rules any tax reform would have to pay for itself over ten years or be revenue neutral. Will your plan meet that or are you considering something that would increase the deficit over that time frame of ten years . Well, let me just be clear. First of all, were finalizing the details of the plan so theres certain issues that are still on the table. But i will say this will be tax reform and tax cuts and we expect that the plan will be fully paid for. Now, one of over ten years. Again, what ive talked about before is there are different projections and with our projections you create over 2 trillion of additional revenues. So it will be paid for over ten years. The question is whether well get credit for all of that under the under the current models of the joint Tax Commission and, again, thats one of the things thats under negotiations that were discussing right now with leadership. Youve got a lot on your plate including raising the debt limit. The chairman of the House Freedom caucus and those in the house conservatives are insisting that any debt ceiling has to be paired increase has to be paired with spending refors and cuts that move the budget towards balance. Is that something youre considering . Again, let me say on the debt limit, ive said this before, im all for controlling spending and i think that congress has the absolute right to control spending and we should be focused on that particularly given the size of the national debt. Having said that, when weve already committed to pay for things, we have to honor those commitments. And the debt limit is about paying for things that weve already committed to. Its different than the budget process. So one of the things i think over time is we need to change this debt limit process so that were focused on controlling expenses but that when weve committed for them, its clear were going to pay for them. And the dollar is the reserve currency, the world and the United States is the best credit in the world and were going to keep it that way. It sounds like you want a clean debt limit. I want to do a final question on health care. You know the senate is considering their repeal plans, it looks like its having some trouble right now and the president just before the break tweeted out that if republican senators are unable to pass what theyre working on now, they should immediately repeal and replace at a later date. Is that the fallback position . What i would say is the president s First Priority is for the senate, the house to pass the plan, and i know you have senator ted cruz on right after me, and im very hopeful that his plan and his changes will get supported. And i think wed like to get health care done. If we dont get this passed then the president as he said will go to the next plan. Secretary mnuchin, thanks for your time this morning. Thank you. And we do have senator ted cruz standing by. I want to go to rim height now. Senator cruz, you heard secretary mnuchin right there. He seemed to endorse your plan. The way i understand it youre saying youre advocating you want to give Insurance Companies the ability to offer a variety of plans in every state as long as they include one that includes the basic benefits package. Some analysts are saying thats going to be a classic death spiral. Well, good morning, george. Good to be with you. You know, when it comes to repealing obamacare, what i think is critical is that republicans, weve got to honor the promise we made to the voters that millions of americans are hurting under obamacare. I believe we can get this done. I believe republicans can come together to honor that promise and i think the way to do it is to focus on lowering premiums. The biggest reason so many millions of people are angry or frustrated with obamacare is that its made premiums skyrocket. Now, how do we lower them . Through two things, number one, and this is actually already included in the bill, we allow people to pay premiums from Health Savings accounts so you can pay from pretax dollars. Thats a 20 to 30 decrease for many taxpayers in premiums immediately. Thats a proposal i introduced and has been incorporated in the senate bill. Thats a big deal but, number two, you referenced the Consumer Freedom option and i think really the Consumer Freedom option is the key to bringing republicans together and getting this repeal passed and what that says is you, the consumer, should be able to choose what health care you want to buy. If you want to buy a plan with all the bells and whistles, with all of the mandates under title 1, you can buy that plan, those plans will be on the market. Those plans will have significant federal taxpayer money behind them, but on the other hand, if you cant afford a full cadillac plan, you should be able to buy another plan that meets your needs. So the Consumer Freedom option gives you, the consumer, choice whether to go with the full cadillac or a skinnier plan thats a lot more affordable and for a lot of consumers that may be much better than having no coverage whatsoever which is what they have now. As you know this could be an uphill fight with your colleagues including senator Chuck Grassley of iowa. What it will mean for coverage of preexisting conditions. Heres what he said to iowa public radio about your proposal. Theres a real feeling that thats subterfuge to get around preexisting conditions and if it is, in fact, subterfuge and it has the effect of annihilating the preexisting condition requirement that we have in the existing bill, then obviously i would object to that. What do you say to senator grassley . Well, look, i think we are making steady progress, and i think the conversations have been collaborative and in good faith. You know, i dont think we should be deceived by Chuck Schumer and his attacks and misstatements. Thats Chuck Grassley. Not Chuck Schumer. I understand that, but whats being repeated there is what schumer said this week, which is that he called it a hoax and, listen, Chuck Schumer and barack obama know a lot about health care hoaxes. They sold obamacare saying if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. That wasnt true. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. That wasnt true. That they promised the average family their premiums would drop 2,500 a year under obamacare. That wasnt true. In fact, their premiums have skyrocketed. When it comes to preexisting conditions, the Consumer Freedom amendment was designed to be a compromise, to bring together both conservatives and moderates to unify the party. How does it do that . Because it maintains preexisting conditions protections. It is predicated on plans being offered that meet every one of the mandates including preexisting conditions. So it doesnt take away anything that people have right now. But let me just stop you there. All it does is it adds new options. Let me stop you. It requires only one plan in the state have that basic benefit package and you know what the concern is of Many Health Care analysts. They say that plan that, you know, the healthy and wealthy people will take the low cost plans and theyll all flood into the lowcost plans, leave a highrisk pool for those who actually have Serious Health problems, premiums, deductibles will skyrocket in that pool and make it unaffordable. Lets talk about how that would operate. Thats an understandable policy concern and i think its right that you would see some market segmentation, you would see some younger and healthier consumers choose to go to freedom plans that have much lower premiums and the argument youre laying out, well, gosh, willthat drive up premiums on the title 1 plan. I dont believe it would for two reasons, number one, for the people getting the freedom plans, youd see a massive decrease in premiums. A lot of people getting benefit. But for the people still on the title 1 exchanges, weve got two major sources of taxpayer revenue, the first are the tax credits, the second are over 100 billion of Stabilization Funds. And, george, the question really here is how are we going to provide for, how are we going to provide assistance to people with serious diseases, serious preexisting conditions. There is widespread agreement in congress, theres going to be significant assistance. Heres what obamacare does. It takes tens of millions of Young Healthy people and it jacks up their premiums, it doubles or triples their premiums and takes all that extra money not for them but uses it to cross subsidize people who are sick. I dont think thats fair. I dont think that makes sense. Id much rather use direct taxpayer funds, lets use Warren Buffetts taxes and not some 30yearold who is struggling and just beginning her career. Dont double her premiums to cross subsidize other people. Thats what obamacare does. Its wildly unfair. I think one of the issues is that people say you dont have enough money to subsidize middle class people. Who would only be going to low income. I do have to move on. George, let me point out that thats not accurate. You have two different sources of federal taxpayer funds on the exchanges, number one, the tax credits that are key directly to premium prices but, number two, the senate bill has over 100 billion dollars in funds for the Stabilization Fund that are designed to stabilize those premiums. The objective has to be, and i think the way we get this done is focus on lowering premiums. If were lowering premiums, its a win win for everybody. I think the question is would that be enough . What happens i know you hope your amendment is going to work. What happens if it doesnt . We have two different paths being talked about right now. Senator mcconnell in kentucky last week saying, listen, if this fails youve got to go work with democrats to shore up the insurance markets. You have President Trump and Steve Mnuchin just saying, no, we should move to the repeal then replace option. Whats your answer . I agree with the president and, indeed, thats something mike lee and i both urged back in january. We pointed out that congress has voted 40, 50, 60 times to repeal obamacare, and mike lee and i both said, all right, lets start with the language in 2015 that just about every republican voted for in both houses. Lets pass that, have it go into effect a year or two years from now and then spend that time debating the replacement. At the time that proposal was rejected by leadership and the administration, but if we cant get this done right now, i agree with the president then lets honor the promise on repeal and spend more time to get it done but let me be clear, george, i believe we can get it done. I think there is an agreement, my objective for the last six months helping lead the working group on health care has been to reach consensus to bring together and unify the republican conference and the way we do it is focusing like a laser. How do we lower premiums . The more were lowering premiums the better and if a year from now, two years from now, three years from now premiums continue to skyrocket, we will have failed but if they go down, if Health Insurance is more affordable, thats a big win for everyone. Finally before i let you go, do you agree with President Trump that his meeting with president putin was a big success . Look, i wasnt in the meeting with president putin. I will say this i think the president had a very strong trip to europe and i think the most notable part of the trip wasnt even the meeting with putin, i think im glad theyre talking. I hope productive things happen but the most notable part was President Trumps speech in poland, which was a powerful speech and it really highlighted the polish peoples resistance to the nazis, resistance to the soviet union. He recounted pope john paul, one of the great World Leaders of history who stood alongside Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher with a million poles in the public square. Ive been to that square in poland where they were chanting we want god in this communist atheist country under the iron curtain oppressed by the soviet union. I got to tell you im certain putin and the russians did not like President Trump powerfully telling the power of freedom and the desire of people to live free to overcome the oppression and tyranny of the soviet union and i would note of modern day russia as well. Senator cruz, thanks for your time this morning. When we come back, the roundtable weighs in on trump, russia and all the weeks politics and after calling out President Trump over his business ties, the governments top watchdog on ethics is calling it quits. Did walter shaub resign in protest . Hes joining us next. Announcer this week with George Stephanopoulos brought to you by trivago. 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Stomer insights from the data wait, our data center and our clouds cant connect . Michael, can we get this data to. . Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. You used to be the yes guy. What happened to that guy . Legacy technology can handcuff any company. But yes is here. So, youre saying we can cut delivery time . Yeah. With help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. With the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. The president is now entering a world of public service. Hes going to be asking his own appointees to make sacrifices. Hes going to be asking our men and women in uniform to risk their lives in conflicts around the world. So, no, i dont think divestiture is too high a price to pay to be the president of the United States of america. That was the director of the government ethics office, walter shaub back in january. As you know President Trump refused to divest and this week mr. Shaub resigned. This is his first and only sunday interview. Mr. Shaub, thanks for joining us this morning. Thanks for having me, george. Shortly after you gave that speech, the white house chief of staff Reince Priebus was on this program. I want to show you what he said. Will the president elect be taking any further steps to deal with his possible business conflicts . We saw what he announced this week, but the head of the office of government ethics said this was meaningless from a conflict of interest perspective. Rigth, and the head of the government ethics ought to be careful. That person is becoming extremely political. What went through your head when you saw that and did white house pressure have anything to do with your decision to resign . Well, when i saw that, it was really an interesting morning because i was watching live. I think the fairly explicit threat from Reince Priebus during that show really is emblematic of how the interauctions with the white house have been since the beginning of this administration. But, no, i wasnt pushed out at all. And as you know, president obamas ethics counsel called your decision a protest resignation. Is he right . Well, ive been doing government ethics for a long time, and i really always thought that the ethics rules were Strong Enough to protect the integrity of the governments operations. My recent experiences have convinced me that they need strengthening and, frankly, they convinced me that ive achieved all i can possibly achieve in this job. When the opportunity at the Campaign Legal center came up, i wanted to seize it before it was gone because i really think i may be able to have more impact from outside the government than inside at this point because ill have a lot more freedom outside the government. The white house gave us this statement after your resignation. I want to read it to you. Heres what it says. It says mr. Shaub has been outspoken by leaking, tweeting and writing letters to Democrat Members of congress. But since the president was sworn into office he never once raised travel, passive holdings or other ethics issues involving the president in a single discussion with the white House Counsel or deputy counsel overseeing ethics and compliance. Your response . Well, thats just a ridiculous statement. Im the head of a federal agency and i make decisions about what information were going to release in an official way on behalf of the agency. In order to communicate with the public. And one of the prime functions of the executive Branch Ethics program is to try to engage the public, bring them, you know, help them understand the ethics rules and how theyre being applied and help them to have confidence in the governments operations when the rules are being followed and, frankly, ive only got two sources of leverage. One of them is the white house and that has always worked in the past because every white house in both democratic and republican administrations have been incredibly supportive of the Ethics Program until now. But lacking that support, the only other avenue oeg has to leverage change is communicating with the public and enlisting them but, no, i havent just been sitting around writing to one partys members of congress. Ive been responding to letters and questions that have been sent to me and thats the responsibility of the head of an agency. Its only in the past few months that the executive branch has ceased responding to any letters from congress other than those from committee chairs. But its always been understood that youre supposed to respond to members of congress, and they havent all been democrats. Some of them have been republicans. But is the white house right when they say you never raised these issues directly with the white House Counsel . Ive spoken with the white House Counsel quite a number of times prior to the election. After the election, he absented himself from the program and had us deal with his deputy who is in charge of ethics and weve worked closely with them so i have no idea what theyre talking about. And Going Forward what exactly do you hope to do and what kinds of changes do you think are needed in the laws right now . Well, i think we had a recent experience where oge tried to conduct one of its routine oversight functions by collecting records. The white house responded consistently by challenging oges authority to carry out its routine and most basic functions and fought us on even releasing those waivers and then when we finally got the waivers, it was heartbreaking to see that many of them were unsigned, undated, explicitly and implicitly retroactive and that two of them were issued by the counsel of the president to a class of appointees that hes a member of. Thats just incredible. So what id like to see is oge to have a good deal more authority to compel the release of documents and records. Id like to see some Enforcement Capacity and id like to see some rules to address president ial conflicts of interest because every past president since enactment of the ethics and Government Act has understood that a president can have conflicts of interest and should address them and the breach of that ethical tradition has been the start of every problem thats flowed from that in the past several months. Mr. Shaub, thanks for your time this morning. Thank you. Coming up, the roundtable weighs in on the president overseas and the battle over health care at home. Announcer this week with George Stephanopoulos brought to you by ibm. To you by ibm. Hey. Pass please. Im here to fix the elevator. Nothings wrong with the elevator. Right. But you want to fix it. Right. So who sent you . New guy. What new guy . Watson. 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Its basically the same. We cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. The roundtable is here ready to tackle another busy week in politics and well be right back. Her daughter, troundtable is here ready to tackle another busy week in politics and well be right back. Hroundtable is here ready to tackle another busy week in politics and well be right back. Eroundtable is here ready to tackle another busy week in politics and well be right back. Roundtable is here ready to tackle another busy week in politics and well be right back. But when it comes to mortgages, shes less confident. Fortunately for maria, theres Rocket Mortgage by quicken loans. Its simple, so she can understand the details and be sure shes getting the right mortgage. Apply simply. Understand fully. Mortgage confidently. We dei should know. M our eyes every day. 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Dont start humira if you have an infection. Talk to your doctor and visit humira. Com this is humira at work. President trump, Vladimir Putin on friday, big meeting of the week. Lots of questions about what happened in that room. Some answers this morning as well. Lets talk about it on our round with katrina vanden heuvel, editor and publish of the nation. Wall street journal columnist, author of the new book, false black power . , jason riley and democratic congressman Eric Swalwell and representative tom cole and, katrina, let me begin with you right now. Weve heard from the president this morning. His tweets about the meeting and weve heard from Vladimir Putin and weve heard from Steve Mnuchin. If you sort through it, everybody is saying, it appears they basically said lets agree to disagree about what happened to the election and lets move on. It sounds like that. I think but to step back i think perhaps even more important, there was a dialogue established at a time of deteriorating u. S. russian relations. I think it is in Americas National interest to have a working partnership with russia and they proposed a ceasefire, weve seen ceasefires fail in syria but thousands of lives may be saved and the destabilizing refugee flow is in europe which were subject to the g20 may be halted. I think you need a working partnership to halt nuclear escalation, nuclear proliferation, to combat terrorism, so i step back, the nation set the nation leads the resistance against trump. I dont see this in the context of the two men, i see it in Americas National interest to have this working partnership. That makes sense but, Eric Swalwell, the price is soft pedaling russian meddling. I think the president missed an opportunity to tell Vladimir Putin we know that you did it. It wont be tolerated. Theres a price to pay and that you cant do it again. And instead he still cant definitively say that it was solely russia that attacked us. As we go into another election regardless of what happens with the collusion investigation, we have a responsibility to secure the ballot box and i dont think americans have that assurance. I too wish the president had been more forthright in calling putin out on this, but i also think this is the sum of trumps dealings with russia. I think on policy, hes been much stronger here. I mean, against russias objections he supported montenegros entry into nato over the objections of russia were putting reins on the ground in bulgaria to defend against russian aggression in eastern europe. Were unleashing oil and gas production. Russia does not like this. They need High Energy Prices. Putin needs High Energy Prices so policywise i think trump is moving in the right direction and thats where he is projecting strength. And the president did call out russia in that warsaw speech. I think that was the highlight of the week. Honestly, i agree with senator cruz on that. It was a dramatic place to do it given the history between poland and russia to mention the ukraine, to reinforce article 5 inside a nato country thats actually meeting its 2 and, frankly, has fought with us in multiple fronts. I think that was a very, very powerful thing to do and much more substantive. I think the Putin Meeting was more about the two people understanding one another staking out initial positions but hopefully developing a working relationship. I agree very much with what katrina said on that. I do think, of course, foreign interference in elections is unacceptable. We have a special counsel with a very able legal Team Pursuing that. We have congressional investigations. But i think, you know, you step back and i have to say as a progressive, you know, i worry about a new cold war. I mean former defense secretary William Perry says that the Nuclear Catastrophe is more dangerous now than it was during the first cold war. We live in an era of Nuclear Amnesia and weve been reminded we cannot. I do believe diplomacy, tough diplomacy in our National Interest is effective, and i do believe and we may disagree here that as a progressive cold wars empower the worst forces in our society. They fatten military industrial budgets, they close space for the dissent that i think is needed and we saw in hamburg, of course, so i am outlier, but i think we need to restore a sense of what is imperative in terms of halting were at risk of military conflict and accidental conflict in regions around the world. No one wants a cold war. The question, are we acquiescing to too much russian aggression. One of the points i would bring up there you look at the g20 meeting, no statement condemning the north Korean Missile tests likely because china and russia objected. Sure. Right. These are strong men that understand action, though, and i think policywise that is what trump is showing again striking military bases in syria, russias ally in the assad regime is not something russia appreciates and trump is doing that. You know, trumps critique of his predecessor was that america was not projecting strength abroad and that the bad guys were noticing and trying to take advantage of that. Hes trying to stop that from happening. For the last decade, though, this summit has been an opportunity for america to demonstrate exceptionalism on the economy, on national security, on the environment. The g20 summit as a whole. Yes, and we didnt see that and the president had an opportunity to work with other leaders to show people at home hes for their jobs and health care and also when it comes to securing our democracy, it was really alarming that he struck an agreement on cybersharing with russia when the french who were just attacked were at the summit and germans have an upcoming election were at the summit. You would have thought thats who he struck an agreement with. Even marco rubio calling him out on that. Look, i think we dont know what the substance of the agreement is yet and i think its a little bit premature. I would prefer a working relationship. One where we understand the dangers and understand who is and what putin is but one where when we can find Common Ground and we do it. I think thats what the president did and had a really good week. Former georgia senator sam nunn released an important letter june 27th before the g20. He talked not about a partnership with russia but he talked about the importance of perhaps reviving a 2015 cybersecurity treaty. We needer cyberrules for the road. We talk about hacking elections. The Trump Administration is defunding the federal Election Assistance Commission which should be strengthened. But think about the stories weve heard about possible hacking of nuclear utilities. Just this week. It could move toward hacking of command and control systems, of strategic arsenals. We need rules of the road and we need an International Multilateral agreement on north korea there is no viable military option. And i think bill clinton from 1994 to 2000. I think all previous negotiators on the north korea agreement understand that there is a way forward but it will require diplomacy which i think too many have forgotten. But no good options right now. No good options. I do want to move on to the domestic front and health care. Seemed like a pretty tough recess for a lot of your republican colleagues. Great to be a member of the house out there and watch senators for awhile. Is this going to come back to you or is it dead . I dont think its dead at all. Frankly, i met with some senators before the break. They were much more optimistic than the public before the break. Before the break but, look, i dont think opinions will change that much on that. It really is going to get down to whether or not the ideas, for instance, that senator cruz is advancing really can bring people together. Whether or not theres enough extra money in there and there appears to be to address a lot of the problems and concerns that individual members have. So, yeah, look, they got 45, 47 votes. The last thee or four really are down to whats the individual concern, can we get you the fix that gets you there. And if anybody can get that done, Mitch Mcconnell can. There are faces now to what the Affordable Care act means, and i think over the past few years as the republicans have talked about repeal, repeal, repeal, those stories havent been told. I was at a Farmers Market in my district yesterday. A woman came up to me and said my husband has cancer, our costs have gone down since the Affordable Care act. Those people are being heard and thats why youre seeing pressure in the senate. Youre hearing senator mcconnell say that hes willing to work with democrats if this fails. Is he going to have a partner . I hope so. Theres a lot we can do to strengthen it to make sure places where there is not enough competition that you can put the risk what are the conditions . We never see what the fixes are. I mean, democrats have talked about that for a little we need some fixes and, okay, tell us what you would propose. But so i think its more rhetorical than real. I think its an opening for democrats to if the history of reform in this country really operated with an obstructionist Republican Party right now, it isnt, history of social security. You build on it. You build on it. I think its an opening for democrats to talk about health care as a right and i think its an opening to begin to fight for medicare for all which would include the United States and the western industrialized nations, it is more efficient. 60 of americans according to a ugov survey in april would like to be part of such a thing. Its an opening to begin to fight for that. Jason, how badly does President Trump need this . Almost every modern president has had a major legislative success. I think he needs it very badly and i think that republicans are learning that the political cost of trying to roll back an entitlement is going to be too high. I think the basic infrastructure of obamacare is here to stay. Theyre going to tinker with it. Theyre going to call it so this repeal and replace isnt a decent fallback. I dont understand how you sell. How do you in 2018 you go to voters and say we voted to repeal it and then delay any implementation of a replacement. I think youre giving democrats this huge talking point. Republicans just took away, they voted to take away your health care with no plan to replace it yet. How irresponsible. Thats a tough twostep. We dont disagree on that. Thats my position well stated. But ill say this, i mean if i were presented with repeal, i would still vote for it but, you know, i think mcconnell is right and the president took this position, the leadership has taken this position consistently. You dont tear down one system until you have something to replace it with. Its a measure of a Republican Party which was in the wilderness for seven years, this was the mantra, repeal and replace and now we see how empty that was. I think in any functioning democratic system to go to the voters with what is on the offer now would be political suicide in 2018. The republicans have been so focused on the failure of the exchanges, and theyre right, the exchanges have not worked. But the real anxiety i think theyre learning coming from the people who gain insurance through medicaid. Medicaid. Then as they the anxiety of those folks in places like ohio and pennsylvania, wisconsin, states that the president won, his voters are worried of whats going to happen to medicaid under the republican plan and thats the biggest thing. Anxiety of uncertainty. The uncertainty that hangs over the dinner table every night for so many families about what health care will look like next month. Thats, you know most people, frankly, get through their employer. Thats not going to change or medicare. Thats not going to change or regular medicaid. Thats not going to change. Were really talking about a comparatively small portion of the market here and i think its actually very confusing in the discussion thats been as if everybody is going to have mass no, but medicaid down, though, we miss a chance to reform an entitlement program. Medicaids expenses are growing at unprecedented ways. I couldnt agree more. And this is an opportunity to do so. That will be the problem here. Well end on that point. Agreement with you two and probably disagreement with you two. Well be right back. And now we honor and now we honor our fellow americans who serve and sacrifice. In the month of june three Service Members were killed in afghanistan. Well be right back. That is all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. Check out world news tonight and well see you tomorrow on gma. Up next, a vacant home is engulfed in flames as firefighters try to keep it from spreading to nearby homes. The latest on a wildfire that grew by 1700 acres overnight. Good morning to you. Live look outside from our explore for yum camera, low 50s, cooling begins today. Well see whats left of the fog there, still at the shoreline. Well talk about how much cooling and another warmup in the sevenday outlook next on abc 7 mornings