Have those votes and at the same Time High Court drama going down, the grilling of neil gorsuch starting again this hour after being pressed about the president s criticism of judges. When somebody criticizes the hone hone honesty or integrity of a j. I find that disheartening. Somebody said i should not criticize judges. Okay, i will criticize judges. Trumps former chairman, working for a russian billionaire and his job was to promote Vladimir Putin. Okay. Heres where things stand right now. Republicans have 237 members, and they need 216 of them to vote yes, and that means they can afford to have up to 21 republicans oppose it but not a single more. Right now nbc news has counted at least 27 republicans who said they would vote no or at least leaning that way, so the white house and Republican Leadership have 24 hours to turn at least six of those nos into a yes. Can they do it . We have the best team in the business to break it down for me this morning. Lets take you to kristin welker. First, i have seen kristin back since getting married. Congratulations. Take me to the white house. I know we have seen situations like this before, and votes shift at the last minute, and how does this play out. Reporter thank you for the welcome back, and its all hands on deck behind the scenes and the president working the phones, and yesterday we saw him make that hard sell during that party dinner last night, and he went to capitol hill during the day, and his message, this is why we got elected, this is what voters expect from us, they want us to repeal and replace obamacare, and if we dont do it we are going to pay at the polls. Effectively saying, hey, look, you could be pry married if you vote no on the legislation. He called out one lawmaker by name, mark meadows, stand up, you oppose this bill, this is not the right way to go and you could wind up losing your job. And sean spicer was asked about this yesterday and take a listen. Yeah, i think there will be a price to be paid but it will be with their own voters and they will have to go back and explain to them why they made a commitment to them and then didnt followthrough. Reporter so the question is, will the president be able to close this biggest deal he has ever tried to get done, steph. Thats what we will be watching for. I spoke to top officials here, and they are not surprisingly expressing confidence and saying we are going to get it done in the house. Then i said to one top official here, what happens if you do get it through the house you still dont have the votes in the senate, and the thinking here inside the white house, first they will focus on the house and worry about the senate later. I want to take you to nbcs capitol hill correspondent, kasie hunt. Kasie, if the leadership can pull it off, where will the votes come from . Thats the question of the day, steph. Its not clear that they are there. The problem is the push pull and then t tension between them, and this is obamacarelite and they dont say its going to do what it will say it will do, and right now the conservative Freedom Caucus is not getting onboard. I talked to mark meadows, the conservative congressman and leader of the group from North Carolina about it yesterday after he stepped out of a meeting with the Vice President who is trying to personally convince him to get onboard and mark meadows is not there yet. Take a look. The president has the bully pulpit, and hes the mast kwrer negotiator. And the aides will say the president is not well versed in a lot of the policy details and it doesnt necessarily matter to him either way, so when you are trying to cut a deal that, you know, ropes 216 people in, changing one thing over here can have unforeseen consequences, and maybe thats a basic way of putting it, but thats kind of where they find themselves. If they say, fine, we will do what mark meadows wants just because we want to get a deal done, they will potentially lose a handful of republicans who, quite frankly, are feeling an entirely different set of pressures than the conservatives. I want to bring in my panel to break it down. Matt shrap, and matt i want to start with you. More than two dozen republicans, true conservatives like yourself have said i cant back this thing. Right. Is it the right move to stay behind your principles or the right move to get behind the president . Its not just conservatives who are opposed and moderate republicans are worried about the numbers that came out of the cbo that showed maybe more americans would not have Health Insurance if this bill passes. All legislation is imperfect. They have to ask themselves, do i stick to my guns on this or in the end is it too big of a failure for donald trump if it doesnt pass . Remember, this is a personal thing for the president. On his very first legislative attempts he stumbles on a replacement to obamacare, and thats why i think they will work hard to get it passed and they have the potential to get there. If you look at the markets yesterday, he is losing the confidence of those saying i am backing his policies. Is he using his bully pulpit, which has worked for him in the past, and is that the right move right now to get out and say to other conservatives, guess what, you dont back me, watch out for 2018, i wont back you . First of all stephanie, it better to have a loss for the president than for the country where people lose their medicaid coverage and Medicare Trust fund put in jeopardy because of the tax cuts the president wants to put in place, and i dont understand why you walk into a meeting with republicans and go and say i am going to run against you . Those are fighting words. If anybody has any sort of manhood or womanhood left inside of them you would think they would stand up to the president and say bring it on and come to my district and lets have it out. I want to show what mo brooks said last night on msnbc. I see it as a test vote of who is conservative in the house of representatives and in the republican conference and who is a liberal who runs as a conservative during Campaign Season and governor yearns as a liberal, so we will find out. It doesnt seem like theres a math for somebody like mo to get behind trump, but when you look at what is inside this b l bill, is President Trump in a tough spot between what conse e conservatives want and what others want is a big difference. Lets get to a detail here. What the hang up is with conservatives in the house is the budget vehicle called reconciliation which allows this bill to pass with a simple majority in the senate. It doesnt need the 60 votes but just 51. In order to get on the reconciliation vehicle you cant put all the changes on it. Only some will past the test and what conservatives in the administration and paul ryan are fighting about is what will pass the test of the parliamentarian. Its one of those Little Details that is annoying to people. Here is the thing, matt, you have had seven or eight years to figure it out. What is going to happen in the next seven or eight hours different than what happened in the last seven or eight years . I think thats a fair charge. Republicans have been criticizing obamacare for years and this is the time to put up or shut up, and thats a fair charge. Its day three of the confirmation hearing for neil gorsuch with testimony to resume in a few minutes from now. I want to take to you capitol hill where Chris Jansing is standing by. What can we expect . Fireworks, because yesterday by general consensus as hard as some of the democrats tried there was no real body blows that handed to neil gorsuch. He was often disciplined, and using words like golly and gosh, and he was given a lot of softballs by the republicans, but the democrats feel they have gotten some fodder to followup today. Each of the members of the committee will get 20 minutes for their followup and expect the democrats to hit him hard on things like abortion and Campaign Finance and gun rights. The white house tells me they are feeling confident about this, and they like the way it went yesterday, and some democrats will privately tell you they think there are democrats that would support him but nobody is completely taking the possibility of filibuster off the table, although there are certainly democrats that believe they should save that for the next Supreme Court nomination that this one would essentially be replacing a republican, a conservative with a conservative, and so i think that right now things are looking good for neil gorsuch, but the democrats are going to make a hard case today. I want to bring my panel in. Jamal over the weekend, Mike Bloomberg put out an op ed saying democrats dont make the same mistake republicans did, put country before party and i understand the hurt feelings out there but you could do a lot worse than neil gorsuch. I would say to Mike Bloomberg and everybody else, and absolutely democrats should put country before the party. Everybody talks about donald trump being elected by the country. He was elect ld by the minority and they were in key places. More than 50 of the people even 50 of trump voters are in favor of planned parenthood, and gorsuch made a decision to block that in one state. And those people should not be for neil gorsuch, and democrats have a right to stand up for that. Neil gorsuch seemed more like a Mitch Mcconnell guy more than Donald Trumps chosen one. Is there an argument to be made that things should be pushed off and give it more time here . Absolutely not. Bill clinton was elected twice to the presidency without getting a majority of americans, and george w. Bush was not elected with the majority you know it was 3 million votes . Yeah, whatever, california. Californians are not americans. Lets get to the question about whether or not neil gorsuch should go forward, and not only should it go forward, he will get confirmed. He is going to get the votes. If the democrats want to filibuster him, which will be the first time in modern history they go after a Supreme Court nominee, and what will happen is the threshold for the Supreme Court nominees will get dropped to 50, and theres one or two other openings coming up within a year, and if they want to be partisan, they would be unwise but they dont listen to me. Matt brings up a good point. Is that the right move for democrats and then you change the game and the person to get nominated next could be far scarier. You have to play the long game here. Heres the thing about that, Mitch Mcconnell can do that anytime he wants to, and if thats what he wants to do it he will do it, and what democratic voters want, and the millions of people out in the streets and the womens march, what they want from democrats two things, they want courage and vision. They want the courage of our convictions and the vision for it to take this country and include everybody in the prosperity that the people at the top of the ladder are receiving. I love it. This man answered the questions and they are impressed. Theres an argument where we want to see democrats stand up and respect yourself and the state you represent and a lot of people are looking at republicans saying are you going to get behind President Trump day in and day out after the tweets and insults and that has to work republicans that go home to some of their states. 54 you did a good job with your answer. There is no question every moment of the President Trump presidency is not bliss, but he fights for the principles they care about and one of the principles they care about is making sure the Supreme Court looks at the law just like on the temporary travel ban, they want the judges to look at the law. On the planned parenthood case, all neil gorsuch did was look at the law. I dont know what his position is on planned parenthood personally, and it doesnt matter, what matters is the law. We will talk about the wiretapping when we come back. We have a breaking new report that trumps former Campaign Chairman once worked to advance russian interests. We are live. I dont need to tell you where we are, look at the set. The white house behind us. I am guessing President Trump is watching. Good morning, donald. Higher higher parents arent perfect, but then they make us Kraft Mac Cheese and everythings good again. Can i get some help. Watch his head. Im so happy. Whatever they went through, they went through together. Welcome guys. Life well planned. See what a Raymond JamesFinancial Advisor can do for you. Everything your family touches sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. Will your business be ready when growth presents itself . American express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. Find out how American Express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open. Com. singsong budget meeting. Sweet. If you compare last quarter. Its no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with no artificial preservatives, flavours or dyes. Welcome back. I am Stephanie Ruhle live in washington, d. C. You better turn up the volume for this breaking news this morning. Trump campaign ties to russia, Paul Manafort once secretly worked for a russian billionaire to advance russian interests. Peter alexander is at the white house to tell us more about this. What do we know . Reporter the Associated Press reporting from 2006 to 2009 Paul Manafort, as you noted, the Trump Campaigns former chairman secretly worked for a russian billionaire to try and advance the interest of Vladimir Putin, and we tried to undermine antirussian opposition across former soviet republics, and the ap has a 2005 memo where manafort writes to deripaska, and he signed a contract in 2006, and he told da deripaska in 2005, we are now of the belief this model can greatly benefit the putin government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success. The ap says that manafort did not disclose details about his foreign lobbying work to the Justice Department during the period in that contract, when that contract was in place. Stephanie . What is manafort saying this, or the white house . Reporter we just spoke to the white house a short time ago, and sean spicer told me, and i will use his words as they came out, quote, it would be inappropriate to comment on a person that is not on a white house employee. They did describe manafort as playing a limited role in the campaign, and he was the chairman, and in a statement to nbc news, manafort confirmed that work with deripaska, but said it did not involve representing russian interests. I have to bring in my panel. For sean spicer to say we are not going to comment on somebody not employed by the white house. Which is it . Yesterday sean spicer did comment on Paul Manafort and characterized his role in the campaign incorrectly saying he had a limited role. In terms of transparency, what is the white house doing . They are losing a lot of credibility this week . I have been watching these hearings with the Intelligence Committee and fbi direct comey, and he said it was clear theres an investigation going on about russias actions in our election and also about wrong doing with members of the Trump Campaign. When theres an investigation going on, the white house has no business commenting on any of it. What i would advise this white house to say is you will not comment on people that are caught up in the investigation, and dont comment, because it would be inappropriate. We all want to know what the facts are and we want to know what the fbi said happened and did not happen and same thing with the Intelligence Committees in congress. Comey also refuted President Trumps claims on wiretapping, and i know you were saying give it time and lets hear what they have to say . The wiretap something a 1950s dragnet term. What happens in the 20th century, its surveillance. It happens through our phones dont you microwave smith me, and trump says i just heard Obama Wiretapped me. The government can listen to us on our phones, and they did that and they unmasked one person looked at in this investigation, and what i will do is make you a promise, after the fbi comes out with their findings and these Intelligence Committees, and Congress Comes out to them, and if there is no truth of any evidence of surveillance, i will stand by what they said. And the wall street journal says the president clings to its wiretap assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle. They continue to say russia is a rouse. You look at the markets finaling starting to respond saying maybe trump first thing, they need to stop lying. That would be helpful in terms of the having the credibility to govern the country. If they are not guilty, stop acting like it. I think you have mike flynn and Paul Manafort that said they did not meet with the russians, and barack Obama Wiretapped his phones, and the fbi director had to come out that is not true. At the cente