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Health Care Bill Vote Delayed; Cruz Met with Trump; McConnell Speaks Soon on Capitol Hill; Republican Senators Invited to White House. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 27, 2017 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'll be back, 5:00 p.m. Eastern, in "The Situation Room." In the meantime, our breaking news coverage continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ana Cabrera, in for Brooke Baldwin this afternoon.

We begin with two breaking stories. At any moment now, the White House will hold its first press briefing on camera in exactly a week, and it's happening as Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell just announced he is delaying the vote on the Senate's version of the plan to replace Obamacare.

I want to get right out to our CNN chief political correspondent, Dana Bash. And also joining us, CNN national politics reporter MJ Lee, who is on Capitol Hill.

First to you, Dana. Why the delay?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Bottom line is he doesn't have the votes. He doesn't have enough fellow Republicans, never mind to pass this health care bill, but even to go along with a process, a procedural vote, that is usually really a party line situation even among rank and file Republicans who don't agree with the substance. They're breaking ranks even on that. So the majority leader didn't even have the votes to begin debate on this bill that they were hoping to do, really, today or tomorrow.

You know, we were talking to Republican senator after Republican senator who were saying that they were going to vote "no" simply on that and, Ana, Republicans who were pleading with the majority leader to give them more time to read this bill, to get a sense from their constituents, and also from the CBO report that came out yesterday of how exactly it would affect their constituents. And so basically Mitch McConnell decided to heed their concerns, to heed their warnings, and decide that it's better just to sort of take some time, take a breath, and take the risk, and it is a very big political risk to send everybody home, be back with their constituents, probably get hammered on some of the negative things that they've heard about this bill, and still hope that they can come back and vote "yes" as opposed to putting it on the Senate floor for a procedural vote that he knew was going to fail.

Look, this is a very, very difficult needle to thread and the Republican leadership has known that. It seems to me, and to my colleagues, walking around the halls here, that the leadership focus is probably more on the conservatives in the caucus to try to get them on board because some of the more moderate Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine, Dean Heller of Nevada, are - think that this is probably not as fixable when it comes to the cost of care to so many people in their states, especially without Medicaid help, and the Medicaid dollars are going to be cut in this bill.

So, at the end of the day, that is the big reason. It's just simple math. The votes weren't there. And Mitch McConnell decided he was going to have to delay this.

Not unlike what happened in the House of Representatives the first time House Speaker Paul Ryan tried to bring this up. He did not have the votes. He said, you know, we're going to wait. Actually, at the time he said, we're not going to do this and there was enough of an outcry from people who said, wait a minute, Republicans, you promised election cycle after election cycle to repeal Obamacare, get back to it. Mitch McConnell is hoping to get back to it and find a way to get to "yes" for at least 50 Republican senators.

CABRERA: It does feel like a little bit of deja vu after what happened in the House when they had set themselves a deadline and then had to draw back and, again, there was a bit of a deadline here before Fourth of July recess. Now they're delaying that.

BASH: You've got, a self-imposed deadline.

CABRERA: MJ, you're there among the senators up on Capitol Hill and I want to ask you what you're hearing about them now heading to the White House, senators continuing to meet with the leaders of their party.

MJ LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Yes. Well, Ana, you know, first of all, on this big announcement coming from Mitch McConnell that this vote is going to be delayed, I think Dana is absolutely right, the biggest thing that this tells us is that he knows that he doesn't have the votes right now if the bill remains what it is. But we already knew that. Again, as Dana said, five Senate Republicans have already come out to say that they don't even want to move forward to start the debate on this bill. So Mitch McConnell had to make a choice, is he willing to spent more time to debate and negotiate with his colleagues to try to get some of those members who are currently "no" and switch their votes to a "yes" and actually get this bill through?

And this is so significant because every indication that we have gotten throughout this week is that Mitch McConnell felt very strongly he did not want this to drag out past the July fourth recess. He knew the ramifications of that. Every indication we've gotten from leadership, even John Cornyn, moments before walking into a lunch, told me the vote is going to happen tomorrow. This procedural vote. So just in the span of a little bit, as he walked into this lunch, McConnell clearly decided that the time is now to make the decision, we will spend more time to win over some of these senators who are wavering right now.

[14:05:10] A telling example, I spoke to Ted Cruz briefly as he was walking into this lunch and, remember, Ted Cruz is one of the most conservative Senate Republicans. He has for years. In fact, he made a name in Washington for himself by opposing Obamacare and calling for a full repeal of the law. He told me that he believes we can get to a "yes," that they are not there yet, but he believes that we can get this done. And he also said that he had a productive conversation with President Trump.

Now, all of this is so important because we are maybe seeing sort of early signs that some of these members who have been a part of these negotiations, that maybe there is some wiggle room here, that members that we may not have necessarily expected as gettable members that perhaps after speaking with Trump, after speaking with McConnell, and having these closed-door negotiations, that they do want to eventually try to get to a "yes," and maybe this extra time will give them the opportunity to get there.

CABRERA: Let me ask you, MJ, given you had a chance to talk with Cruz following that meeting with Trump and he sounded optimistic, what did Trump tell Cruz?

LEE: Well, Cruz didn't actually go into any details. And, remember, the situation here is quite chaotic. A lot of reporters trying to track down these key senators. So it was a very brief conversation. And he didn't say exactly what Trump said. But again, even just the simple fact that he called this a productive conversation and that he is feeling optimistic that they can get to a "yes," that they, as in the Republican Senate conference, can get to a "yes" on this is quite significant.

Of course, at 4:00 we have this meeting that we just learned about that Senate Republicans will be heading to the White House. Again, just goes to show that this is full court press operation right now where the White House is being involved and, of course, McConnell is continuing to have these conversations with his colleagues.

CABRERA: Also joining us now, White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

Jeff, you're there at the White House. What are you hearing?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Ana, I can tell you, in about two hours' time or so, President Trump, Vice President Pence and others here at the White House will welcome Republican senators down here to talk about this health care bill. I am told it is not going to be as much about the specifics, but it is going to be an opportunity for Republicans to air their concerns and really meet as a group to talk about something Republicans have been trying to do, really, for nearly a decade here. And this is what the president and people here at the White House are hoping to prevent, a collapse entirely of this.

I can tell you, there is, you know, some surprise here, but not entirely. Senator Rand Paul was over here earlier this afternoon just about an hour and a half or so ago. He had a one on one, a meeting with the president. At that point it became clear that there were too many Republican opponents to this to move forward with the bill here.

So throughout the whole process, the president has not been as focused on the timeline as this as opposed to getting something done. Now, the question here is, can he sort of bridge this divide, bring the conservatives on board here? But that is something that will be discussed at this meeting.

I'm also told he's going to be sort of, you know, convincing Republican senators to trust him. Now there are so many outside groups that are opposed to this bill. The Club for Growth came out just again a short time ago with their opposition to this bill. So in some respects it's back to the drawing board. But the people hanging out there now are House Republicans who did vote for a different version of this. But look for this all to be discussed here at the White House press briefing, which will be a little bit delayed as Senator McConnell makes his comments on Capitol Hill to announce what just happened then.

And then later this afternoon, Republican senators will come here to the White House. It will be interesting to see if all of them come. They've all been invited, of course. We'll see if anyone decides to skip out on that, Ana.

But right now, at this moment, the White House is getting involved, is trying to show a sign of unity here to try and bring the party back together because it definitely is fractured on this key priority. And if this fails, it is really difficult to imagine how tax reform, how infrastructure, how anything else really can move forward here. This is something the party has wanted and tried to do for so long. They're trying to reset this here and come back after that July Fourth recess and try again to get these Republicans together.

Ana.

CABRERA: It doesn't get any easier.

ZELENY: Indeed.

CABRERA: Phil Mattingly is also with us on Capitol Hill where we are waiting to hear from Mitch McConnell.

Phil, what is the mood there?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, the big question now is what's going to change over a week, right? That's kind of what everybody wants to know because I think it's important to note, over the course of the last couple of weeks, even months, while obviously this has all taken place behind closed doors, this has involved the majority of the Republican conference. And Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, knows exactly where his members currently stand. And because of that, the fact that they weren't able to bridge the divide, the fact that they weren't able to reconcile what are very, very real, ideological differences inside their conference, it's a big question of what seven, eight, nine, 10 days is actually going to do to change that fact.

[14:10:08] But I'm told inside the room, inside this all Republican senator lunch, the message from the Senate majority leader was pretty simple, we're not there yet, we want to give our guys time to get there. That is an important moment for them, the recognition that not only are they not able to get this done today, but they are going to continue to work. There was a lot of talk that this week would be the be all, end all for this vote. Either you get it done this week or we move on. There are a load of very ambitious agenda items that Senate Republicans have planned. They take a lot of floor time. They take a lot of time period. So there were some question as to whether or not they would just move on if they couldn't get it done. The Senate majority leader has made clear he's willing to spend more time on this. The message I was told was, I want to give you guys space to get to "yes."

Now, have they made progress towards that point? It's an open question. There's been a blitz over the curious of the last 24 hours, Ana, behind the scenes trying to figure out what they can give Medicaid expansion state senators who are very wary about the changes and the phase out in that program, what they can give conservatives who are very wary about what they see as a lack of cutback of the Obamacare regulations. How they bridge those divides, how they kind of bring the two sides of their conference together, the ideological holds, remains an open question. It's something we're going to ask Senate Majority Leader McConnell when he comes up here, no question about it.

But it's the big question for the senators, as you've noted, when they go home over the course of the next week, they're going to be confronted with protesters, with people putting a lot of pressure on them to stay on "no" or not come around to this bill. That's only going to amplify this process and the difficulties they've had getting to where they are now. And where they are now, Ana, is they don't have the votes. And, in the end, that's really all that matters.

CABRERA: All right, Phil, stand by. Of course, we'll come to you as soon as you have some sound with the Senate majority leader.

Our thanks to Jeff, Dana, and MJ as well.

I want to dig deeper now with our panel. Joining us is CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger, Perry Bacon, senior political writer at FiveThirtyEight, and former Wall Street executive Alexis Glick.

I want to remind everybody, we are waiting for that White House press briefing expected to get underway any moment, and we're also waiting to hear from Mitch McConnell. So we'll, of course, bring that to our viewers live as it happens. But let's discuss as we wait.

Gloria, first, I want to get your reaction to Mitch McConnell delaying the vote.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Mitch McConnell's been around way too long and he's a very smart leader, and he doesn't want to commit the cardinal sin of taking an important bill to the floor when he knows he's going to lose the vote. And, you know, he probably wouldn't have been even able to get the procedural motion to proceed on this, and he thought that if the pushed this bill very quickly that he might have been able to get it in before the July Fourth recess, before members go home to their districts and start hearing more complaints about it. I think that was his initial strategy.

But he's not going to walk into the Senate chamber and have a vote on this and have it fail. And I think he's heard from his members. Lots of them were upset that they had no input. Some of them probably upset that Republicans are running an ad against Senator Heller, who is threatening that he's going to - that he's going to vote against this measure, that he might vote against this measure.

And so I think the story here was best put by John Boehner when - now that he's out of the speakership in the House, he's become a little bit more open about what he says. And he said, look, Republicans have never really agreed on how to proceed on health care. And we are seeing this play out here because the moderates are upset at the Medicaid cutbacks, and the conservatives are upset that they think that this looks too much like Obamacare. So it's very hard to thread that needle and figure out a way to proceed. But at the very least, they do need more time to do it.

CABRERA: And, Perry, all the Republican senators have now been invited to the White House. A smart move of the White House?

PERRY BACON, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT: You know, I'm sure it's smart to bring them all together and - but I don't think - my understanding is that President Trump has not been that involved in the details of the bill, so I'm not sure what he can tell them beyond a rah rah moment here. The key factor here is, you have two blocks of senators, one block that feels like there's been too many Medicaid cuts particularly, and then one block who says that there's too much of Obamacare here, we want more of Obamacare to be waived.

What I think you'll see happen, at least based on the House process, is that you're probably going to see an appeal to those conservatives to try to waive more parts of Obamacare, allow states more flexibility, and then make the bill sort of more conservative, and that's where I think we'll go next and you'll see if the moderates take that and can still accept it or not. But I think the bill has to move to the right now. You should think about what happened in the House where the Freedom Caucus blocked the bill for a while and they eventually made some changes and signed on to it.

CABRERA: We don't know what the president's message is going to be exactly, but we do know just before this big announcement, Ted Cruz, who's one of the opponents of the bill, he talked to the president. They had about an hour-long meeting. And Cruz was sounding a lot more optimistic from that meeting. And we heard in other conversations that the presidents have been having with the president that he has been talking not about policy but about the middle class, those who voted for him and saying he needs to bring them some relief.

[14:15:18] Gloria, is that the right strategy as this debate goes on? BORGER: Well, I think, you know, I think it's smart for the president

to start talking about the people who voted for him, the middle class. And, you know, the problem with this bill, as you look at all the CBO analysis, is that this does affect older voters and lower income voters. And those are people who also voted for Donald Trump. So I think it's smart for Republicans and the president to start talking about middle class voters because those are the voters also that feel neglected in all of this. But even the Republican moderates who oppose this say those are precisely the voters that they believe would be affected in the worst ways, particularly at the lower end of that scale, and older voters.

So I think that, you know, I think that Republicans have to find a message on this bill other than, we promised you we would repeal and replace, which of course they did. But they have to tell people how this will make life better for them. For some people, it will lower their premiums, for example, right? For some people it will increase their premiums.

CABRERA: For the young and the healthier.

BORGER: Right. So they have to figure out a way to frame their argument to voters on this other than repeal and replace.

CABRERA: Again, two pictures there on the right of your screen as we await live statements from Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, following his announcement that he's delaying the vote.

And we're also awaiting the White House press briefing on camera, as you can see, for the first time in a week. And, of course, Sean Spicer will be stepping to that podium. We'll keep an eye on both of those.

But, Alexis, let me ask you about that CBO score. How much did that hurt McConnell?

ALEXIS GLICK, FORMER WALL STREET EXECUTIVE: you know, it was not catastrophic. Yes, there is the risk of the 22 million uninsured. We saw 23 million with the House bill, you know, just about a month ago. The thing here that we have to take into account is the fact that the deficit reduction suggests just north of $320 billion. So I think I'm - if I'm Senator Mitch McConnell right now, the great news for him is he's got wiggle room. And, in fact, that $200 billion of wiggle room versus the CBO estimates of the House bill will give him some opportunity to negotiate on the side with the Democrats, in particular who want to guarantee that some of those subsidies remain. If they can keep those subsidies in place, they can stabilize the exchanges and they can address some of those concerns about rising premiums, rising out of pocket expenses.

The other quick thing I would just add to this is, let's not forget how critically important health care reform is to tax reform. And I think if I'm sitting there at 4:00 in the White House today, that's what I'm going to say to these senators. We've been talking about health care reform for seven years. This is as integral to the success of tax reform as it is to health care as a whole and, of course, from the Republican point of view, reduction in regulation and some of the legislation and some of the - the - essentially the subsidies that have been in place.

Final thing, of course, is the implications for Medicare, Medicaid, right? Let's talk about the 70 million people. They're talking about 15 million people will no longer be on that Medicaid payroll if you look at this over the long-term.

CABRERA: Because that was the Obamacare extension or expansion.

GLICK: It was expanded by 15 million. It's going to be completely wiped out and 31 states opted in, which is why so many of the governors came out and said, senator, slow down. Let's sit down and have a robust conversation about this and not try to vote on this in the course of seven days.

BORGER: You know what -

CABRERA: Let me get back to Jeff Zeleny real fast, Gloria.

BORGER: OK.

CABRERA: He has some news from the White House.

Jeff, what can you tell us?

ZELENY: Well, as we're sort of, you know, putting this all together here as Republicans are, you know, being pretty frank in their opposition to the substance of this bill, we are also learning about those ads that were aired against Senator Heller out in Nevada. He is one of the most vulnerable Republicans. And the super PAC that is aligned with this president has decided to run some of those ads.

Well, we are told by Republicans who are close to the process that that may have backfired. In fact, our own Jim Acosta is reporting this. He said, "this thing has not moved since last Friday. The needs are not being met for conservatives. So this could have been a key error."

Now, these ads, of course, were never played as much as they were initially intended to be. They were smaller buys on digital and other things. But it certainly sent a shot across the bow. And Republican senators, as well as Democratic senators in different years and times, do not necessarily like outside intervention like that here. So that could be one of the decisions that sort of, you know, upset and angered some Republicans, and it did not have the intended effect of urging him to vote for it. It, in fact, may have had the opposite effect.

[14:20:12] But it highlighted the fact that state by state by state, these individual senators had individual problems and questions and issues with this bill. This was not some just, you know, monolithic partisan effort here. You could look state by state and see, you know, how the uninsured would be affected here. So those ads are now being viewed by Republicans, at least some Republicans, as a potential mistake here. But all that, Ana, I'm sure will be discussed here at this meeting at 4:00 when Republican senators come here to the White House and regroup in one respect with, you know, what comes forward for this bill because doing nothing now at this point is not an option.

This is more than politics at play here. You know, the Republicans own this for the first time in ten years. They control the House, the Senate, of course, and the White House. So the onus is on them to try and fix this.

Now, interestingly, it will be interesting to see if Democrats are brought in on this process. That is what the president said after the first House failure the first time. He said, well, I may have to reach out to Democrats. That, of course, did not happen, but this, of course, is a bipartisan issue out in the country. Voters are not as concerned about which party fixes it, but they need their health care issues fixed here.

So this is a turning point a moment for this White House, this administration, and for both parties, quite frankly, Ana.

GLICK: Ana, you know, one other thing I would just reference here is, when you look at the analysis of this, about 45 percent of the value of this bill is going to the wealthiest Americans, OK? So approximately those who are making upwards of $1 million or more. Now, some of those deficit hawks would argue that that is a pro-growth, pro-job scenario because there will be a reduction in what you call the net investment income from about roughly 24 percent down to 20 percent. I don't want to ignore that because that is really important to what happens in the future tax reform legislation.

And I think the other quick thing I would just say to you, if you look at what's happening, whether it's health care stocks, hospital stocks, medical device stocks, across the board, many of them are rallying on Wall Street. In fact, they are up about 16 percent, 17 percent this year ahead of technology. I tell you that because there were a lot of taxes on those companies in the Affordable Health Care Act. So if those reduction in taxes come through, there is the belief that costs will decline, that medical device companies will no longer have to pass on those costs to the consumer. So there are some who look at this and say, this is a step toward a pro-growth, pro-job scenario. The problem is, 50 percent of Americans could be affected by the bill that we're looking at right now.

CABRERA: And I want to come back to that, but first let's go to The Hill. We have some sound now with Republican Senator Roger Wicker, who just stepped out of their Senate meeting, their luncheon.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A real quick bite.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Decision to pull the bill until after the recess?

SEN. ROGER WICKER (R), MISSISSIPPI: Well, clearly, there's a little more negotiation to do in getting to 50. And I think the meeting at the White House today will help. And as - I think it's fair to say the goal is to have a consensus agreement by the time we break for Fourth of July and then an agreement as to when it will be taken up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you surprised that the vote was delayed?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An agreement by the end of the week?

WICKER: It's really - you know, I've - I've been here since 1995. It's hard to surprise me about much of anything anymore

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to follow up. You said the goal is to have an agreement before you leave for the July Fourth recess (ph)?

WICKER: That is my understanding. The majority leader expressed that hope. And so he's going to be meeting with some of the people who have reservations and suggestions. And I'm hopeful that we can come up with something that works well for the American people, works well for American patients, and gets us where we need to go and then we'll actually have the vote after the Fourth of July.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will having time, though, to chew on -

WICKER: But let me take this last question, though, because I do have an appointment across the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to chew on the bill over the recess, do you think that that's going to be a productive move to help senators get to "yes," or do you think that going back home and to their constituencies that they'll face, you know, challenges.

WICKER: Well, actually, I think the more we talk about what this actually does in terms of giving people choices, in terms of protecting the Medicaid program, making it sustainable in the long haul. I think the more we actually get past the rhetoric and into the substance of what helps this country in the long run and helps patients, it's hopeful in getting the bill passed. How's that?

[14:25:07] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Senator Wicker.

WICKER: Thank you.

CABRERA: Again, that was sound from Roger Wicker. He's a Republican from Mississippi.

Let's bring back our panel.

And, Gloria, just reacting to what you heard from him and the comments that after Fourth of July he believes they may be closer to an agreement. Do you see that playing out?

BORGER: Well, he could be - well, you know, at this point, you can't - you can't guess. I mean, who knows. Mitch McConnell is just not going to go home and sit on his hands. He's going to be talking to members about what they need.

The difficulty that they have here is that they are taking away benefits from people. We spoke before about 15 million people who will lose Medicaid. Yes, there was a Medicaid expansion. Republicans argue that it was expanded too much. But once people have a benefit, it's very difficult to say to them, oh, by the way, you're not going to have it anymore. That's why we call these benefits "entitlements," because people believe, after they have it, that they are entitled to continue to have it. That's why we call Social Security, Medicare an entitlement.

So I think they are between a rock and a hard place here because they want to get rid of Obamacare, but because Obamacare has helped a lot of older and low income and sick people, they have to figure out a way to do this so they don't hurt people, many of whom are their constituents.

CABRERA: And it's not just the entitlements, Gloria. When we look at what the CBO score found, those older Americans are going to be hurt as well because the Senate bill allows insurance companies to charge older Americans five times as much as they would a younger consumer, a younger person.

BORGER: Right. Right. I mean -

CABRERA: And, of course, under Obamacare, it was only three times as much as that younger -

BORGER: Right.

CABRERA: And I want to put up a specific example real fast before you react because I think this really helps to paint the picture. A 64- year-old person with an income of $56,800 a year would pay $6,800 under the Obamacare's silver plan. That still sounds like a lot.

BORGER: Right.

CABRERA: But under the Senate plan, that cost would go up to $20,500 a year.

So, Perry, that affects -

BORGER: Right.

CAMEROTA: A whole lot of people.

BORGER: It does.

CABRERA: Democrats, Republicans, Americans.

BORGER: It does. And this is why it would be wise for the president to call in Democrats because you do have people whose premiums are going up under Obamacare. You have insurance providers pulling out in many states of exchanges. And so you need to fix Obamacare. We understand that that needs to be fixed.

And we also understand that you don't want premiums to go up for these older people who are not yet on Medicare. And what might make sense, in a perfect world, and excuse me for being so Polllyanna-ish as to recommend this, but what might make sense is actually if Republicans believe that they can't get to "yes" on their own, that their - it may make sense to sit down with some moderate Democrats and say, look, how can we work this out for the American people so they don't suffer premium increases or getting dropped altogether off of their insurance and -

CABRERA: I want to get Perry Bacon back in here.

Perry, what are your thoughts as far as where this goes next?

BACON: So I think it's true that overall the bill would be more popular if it had higher premiums or if the premiums were lower, it had more cost sharing for people, if it made it easier for people to pay for their health insurance, if it had more money for Medicaid, that that would make the bill more popular with the public. But in this particular process that we're talking about here is, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson, four of the six members who said they don't like this bill so far, they think it's not conservative enough.

CABRERA: Right.

BACON: Not that it's like insufficiently conservative. Not that it's too liberal, but it's too conservative. So what they're looking for is not more subsidies. They're looking for more waivers so states can have more changes. They're looking for things that are going to make the bill - they probably have less Medicaid in them, not more. I think that's what you have to watch for next is the bill is likely to be pushed to be more conservative because that's where the members are right now.

And I'll be curios to how Donald Trump deals with it. Donald Trump said the original House bill was too mean. So this bill is going to get, in his framing, more mean. And I'll be curious if he can accept that, because that's where the member - the vote margin here is on the conservative side, not the moderate side.

BORGER: No, I agree with that.

BACON: So that's the interesting part to watch.

CABRERA: And everyone hold their thoughts for just a moment. Republican Senator David Purdue of Georgia is reacting.

Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about the big picture, though, about why the president is struggling on corralling Republicans? It just seems like he doesn't have - doesn't have the political capital that most presidents do to kind of get the party in line.

[14:30:00] SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: This president is the first president in our history who has had neither political nor military experience.