Why today . Is it because the media with a laser focus on health care and the russia investigation has to cover it . One could be for given for wondering if this is more about changing the narrative for an administration thats having a tough week. The president is missing no chance to hairs and publicly belittle his own attorney general. Jared kushner has been speaking to lawmakers about a meeting he had with a russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign. There have been staff shake ups and mixed maenlz from the new White House Communications team. And now within the past 24 hours theres been a major defeat on a widely unpopular healthcare bill that could have caused millions nor mernls to become uninsured. And were expecting another defeat in just a moment. Lets go to garrett headache. Garrett, are this next vote is scheduled for some time in the next half an hour. This is also a vote a bill that is not expected to pass. Tell us about it rrlt thats right. So in the next half hour we should see republicans vote on this clean repeal or repeal and delay. This is the same vote they took in 2015 when they knew president obama would veto it. Now its expected to fail but probably by a narrow margin. Weve heard three no votes back when this was discussed as plan a. A week or so ago. I would doubt that many more republicans than that would vote against it just so theyre not accused of voting for something when they knew it would be vetoed and against it later. After that were going to start the process of moving towards what republicans are seeing as sort of the end game here, which is what weve been calling this skinny repeal. The idea on that the way you can think about it is to take the clean repeal or even the bcra and just keep stripping away the elements out of it that republicans dont like until they get to something that 50 of them can agree on. So if theres concerns about roll back the medicaid expansion, hok, thats out. If there are concerns about maybe repealing some of the taxes, okay, those are out too. And youll eventually be left with just a bear minimum repeal, maybe just the individual employer mandate and one of the tax coming out. But the idea being you can just kick that over to a Conference Committee and sort it out with the house there. Already democrats are calling that a troe january horse saying theyre just going to get something to pass and were going to be right back where we were a week ago a few weeks down the line. For a lot of technical reasons that you and i cant get into now you cant just pass anything and hope it matches up with the house bill. Lets talk about this transgender military ban that was announced this morning. A lot of people are saying did this come out of thin air . Is this just distraction . There is actually something about it thats relevant. There was some discussion about this last week that the president may have been reacting to. Reporter thats right. So on the house side theyre dealing with a spending bill right now that has an amendment in it from a conservative lawmaker that some people saw as a poison pill. This one lawmaker had inserted an amendment that would remove funding for transgender people in the military who needed medical treatment in their gender reassign wants and things like that. All democrats were opposed to that amendment. A lot of moderates were on poegsd to that amend am. And we had some reporting that the house leadership had reached out to the white house and said, guys, anything you can do to help us with this . And what so what we saw from the president here this morning, might, we cant directly connect the dots here be a hand fisted way to deal with that problem. Here on the senate side, the Senate Armed Services committee were caught unaware of this. But it does seem like there was some conversation between House Republicans and the white house on this issue in the days leading up to this. So the idea is that if the president handled this, it wouldnt have to go into this bill and the president was interested in that bill passing because its got funding for the mexico border wall. So he gets to get a win on that bill. Reporter exactly right. So the lawmaker who had proposed this amendment says oh, i guess it doesnt matter any more. If were not going to have transgender people in the military,ic withdraw my amendment. And this spending bill which does indeed include some funding for the border wall along with a number of other priorities for the administration republicans would be able to move forward. Thanks very much. Lets go to Kristen Welker who is in the White House Briefing room for us. Kristen, as much as one might think that the transgender ban was an effort to distract from the other matters at hand, and there are certainly were a lot of questions in the White House Press briefing it, there were certainly a lot of questions about Jeff Sessions and the president s tweeting about that and about health care. So the focus for journalists remains on these big issues. Reporter thats right. First to Jeff Sessions. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sort of reiterated what we heard from President Trump yesterday, which is that hes disappointed in Jeff Sessions, but that there has been no decision to remove him. And she didnt really move the ball forward on that point. I thought, though, the fact that she got so many questions about the transgender ban was significant, the way in which she answered them significant, ali. A lot of takeaways. One, she couldnt spell out what this policy will mean to those who are transgender who are currently serving our country. She was pressed over and over again on whether or not this policy was rolled out without a whole lot of thought, without really consulting with enough people within the department of defense, whether it was done half hazardel. She pushld back on those times of characterization. But bottom line, ali, she couldnt say whether people who are currently serving would be able to keep their job. And then secondly, she over and over again said, look, the bottom line about this, its about military readiness. It has nothing to do with other issues, those on capitol hill, for example. She tried to make it all about that, and she said that this came after a robust review by the president and by his military advisers. And then finally, she got a lot of questions, ali, about some of the president s own statements in the past as it relates to the lgbtq community, including one tweet back in july in which he vowed to fight for the community. She was pressed on that over and over again, including by our own peter alexander, effectively saying doesnt this suggest that hes not fighting for the lgbtq community. Sarah Huckabee Sanders pushld back against that as well. Not surprisingly. At one point she became so frustrated she said im going to basically call it a day if all of your questions relate to this issue. Of course, we have many more questions. She ended the briefing because the president is about to give remarks on jobs. And were going to be livg to those remarks. Kristen, thanks very much. Kristen welker at the white house. Thank you. Garrett headache at the capitol. All right. The Health Care Battle playing out on capitol hill this afternoon, we should note congressman carter voted for the house version rf repeal and replace obamacare back in may. I guess i dont have to add that qualification. Most of your colleagues, all of them voted for it. Not all of them. Not all of them. Youre right. An overwhelming majority of them voted. Well probably have to make the stipulation if you didnt volt for it. That would have to be what i would call out. Nar. Lets talk about the one that is before the senate now, the repeal and maybe replace later. Do you think thats a good idea, the two years to get the repeal instituted while a new bill is designed . Well, theres no question about it. We said all along that we were going to have a transition period. We never claimed that we were going to just turn the lights out and go home. We always said there would be a stable transition period, a guide path if you will, a time during which people could get adjusted. And weve made that clear from the very beginning. What do you think, though, given the reality i guess in 2015 january it was easier to do because the idea was putting a bill up that you knew that president obama would never sienl. Now this is a bill thats about to be law and it seems thaw on the republican side have different views, understandably, about what repealing obamacare should look like, everything from a clean repeal with no replace to a repeal of the mostly medicaid type parts of obamacare. Its seeming hard to come to an agreement on what a bill looks like. Well accident obviously there are indications of that over approximate in the senate. Im baffled by the fact that someone who voted for a repeal a year ago doesnt vote for it now. I dont know what has changed. The only thing thats changed is weve got a president who will actually shine that law now, unlike the previous president who did not sign the law. So it bafls me to think that someone is not in favor of it. Look, this is a failed experiment. Obamacare, all were doing right now is throwing good money after bd a. We are just and we are continuing to stabilize it. Ive heard the critics say youre just letting it fail. No, were not. When tom price became secretary of health and Human Services the first thing he did was to shore it up to make sure that it was going to continue on for at least two years while we had a transition period. If you look, the administration for the month of july just paid the health care zblooish theres some uncertainty about that, right. Thats what the issue is. The insurers are saying that the president has not made an absolute commitment for has tom price to continuing the insurance subsidies that the Insurance Companies get to subsidy low income participants in obamacare. So thats the kiemd of thing that leads to uncertainty. He just made the july payments. Your contract is up, were not really sure were going to renew it at some point ill just start looking for an alternative. No. I would. If my boss sends me that message, im going to look for another job. The Insurance Companies are looking for another alternative and that alternative involves raising premiums. Well a at in point youre right. We are having raising premiums but its because of the failure of obamacare. We havent even had our plan to take effect yet, so how you can blame it on our plan, im not understanding that. Lets say the senate gets some plan passed. None of the plans are as satisfactory at no time conservative wing of the rpgs in the house of representatives. Do you see a way to reconcile these bills . I do. The most important thing at this point is to keep the process going. Weve got to continue to move the ball down the field. The senate needs to get back to us, whatever theyre going to get back to us. Im not sure that a skinny repeal is the answer. I dont know that we can accept that in the house. But at least get Something Back over to us so that we can get it in the conditioners so that we can continue to work on this. The worst thing we could do right now is to punt. We dont need to do that. What do you think about the president going after Lisa Murkowski for her no vote yesterday on the motion to proceed . I think its perfectly fair. Let me tell you, somebody needs to go over into that senate and snatch a knot in their ass. Im telling you, it has gotten to the point where how can you say i voted for this last year but im not going to vote for it this year . This is extremely frustrating for those of us who have put so much into this effort. I serve on the health care subcommittee. We met for 27 1 2 hours to come with up with the American Health care act. It is a good bill. It needs to be voted on. It needs to pass. Congressman, i love talking to you and im going to invite you right now to come back, but the president is walking out into the rose garden, so weve got to go to him. Thank you for your time, sir. Thank you. We just met. We took pictures, right . Thats right. Well, thank you very much. Its my great honor to officially welcome boys and girls nation to the white house. Really special place, isnt it, though . Isnt it great . [applause] great. And i want to congratulate you what a job youve all done basically on all youve achieved at a very young age. Its incredible. For decades the American Legion has brought the best and the brightest to the white house. This has taken place for many years. Each of you were chosen out of the many thousands of people that, you know, theyre all calling in, they want to get into the white house. Is anybody upset that youre here . Okay. But youre all really happy that youre here s right . [applause]. But you represent your state, and thats a very, very important element too and a very important factor in getting here. You all share incredible talent and drive. Most importantly, you have each other to really work with and to help. And you help each other, youre teammates. You love our country. Thats something we all have in common, right . We love our country, right . [applause] while you come from all corners of our great landscape, youre all united by your dwoegs, total dwoegs to our Great American flag, our freedom and the principles that bind us together as one people and one nation. For more than a century the American Legion has taught young citizens about the importance of patriotism and loyalty to our country. And through it all there is nothing like what youre doing today and what youve achieved over a very, very short period of time. We want to thank you and we want to thank the National Chapters and everybody else. We have to really give a special thanks to commander charles schmit. Where is charles . Come on up here, charles. What a great jobl. Come on. See, he wants to give you all the credit. Who served in the air force for 28 years and now advances the legions proud legacy. Thank you, charles. [applause] today were joined by president of the American Legion and auxiliary mary davis. Where is mary . Hello, mary. Want to come up here . Come on, mary. An executive director who i know verna jones. Come on up, verna. I want to thank you for your commitment to these incredible students and to our country. Thank you. I alsome want to honor former National Commander bob turner, who everyone knows. Bob, bob, bob, bob, bob, bob. Wow, thats pretty good, bob. Thats as good as ive ever heard. Thats fantastic. Come on over here, bob. Be careful. We dont want to see bob go down. Do you agree with that . Because elnevhe will never forg that. This year bob is celebrating his 35th year helping to lead boys nation all as a volunteer. Thank you very much, bob. [applause] and bob, i know everyone here today agrees when i say thousands of Young Americans are better patriots because of your incredible and stead fast service. Right, fellas . Right . Through this program countless young people like you have been inspired to protect american interests and to promote american values. Right . Many of those who have been in your place have gone on to become governors, members of congress, generals and one even became a president. Do you know who that one was . Bill clinton. Thats true. See. The American Legion has held this meeting for seven decades. Just think of the history that has occurred during that time. When the first group of students met in 1946 thats an important day. You know why . Thats when i was born. I hate to admit it. I hate to admit it. Oh, 1946. Oh, well. I shouldnt have said that, bob. Our nation had just welcomed home our brave heroes whose spirit and courage achieved victory over tyranny in world war ii. Just over 20 years later young men and women like you watched a man land on the moon and dreamed of new fron tears in space. In 1987 americans all across this nation joined their hearts wr president Ronald Reagan in the hope, the prayer and the conviction that the berlin wall would crumble in the face of truth, justice and freedom. You know all about that. In each of these moments and so many others america try umd. We win. We know how to win. And we win because of the spirit of our people. Believe me, thats a big part of it. Just think of the amazing moments in history you will witness during your lifetime. You saw one on november 8th, right . That was a Pretty Amazing that was a Pretty Amazing moment. We have. And were doing a good job. Our country is doing so well now. Were doing a good job. Are you all happy . Yes, sir. Because you have what it takes to be the leaders that will shape this future. Some of you may want to come back to the capitol some day. Youre going to be back, many of you, and help make the laws that will guide this nation and govern our land. Others may choose to answer the call of duty, put on the uniform and risk everything for our nation and for our nations people. Still others may become business leaders, teachers, artists and inven tors. We have them all. We have them all here today. And some of you dont even really know what it might be, but we have people that are going to be so successful, so incredible in their lives. And youre going to be happy. Do what you love. Do what you love. Follow what you love. So i want to just tell as you pour your whole heart into everything you do, really youre doing it for your family, youre doing it for your country, but youre also doing it for yourselves. Because ultimately you have to do it for yourself. Its better for your country, and your country wants you to succeed so much. But theres no country like the United States of america, and theres no country that can give you the kind of opportunity that we give you in the United States. [applause] being successful is about finding your purpose in life and never, ever giving up. Do you ever give up . No.