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Critical Health Care Vote in Senate Today; "Washington Post": White House Looking for New Attorney General. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 25, 2017 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any senator who votes against starting debate is telling America you are fine with the Obamacare nightmare.

[05:57:11] Showdown vote scheduled on whether to begin debate on repealing Obamacare.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: We are spending most of our time fighting this awful health care bill.

DON TRUMP JR., SON OF DONALD TRUMP: Having John McCain come back for this vote is a huge, huge break for Mitch McConnell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump and his aides have been discussing possibly removing Jeff Sessions.

TRUMP: We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's really disturbing here is that he's really torturing him.

SEN. BENJAMIN CARDIN (D), MARYLAND: President Trump's trying to interfere with the independence of the attorney general. That's absolutely wrong and should not be tolerated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, July 25, 6 a.m. here in New York.

Here's our starting line. Up first, a crucial vote today in the Senate to begin debating a repeal of Obamacare. Senator John McCain, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, will head back to Washington to cast what could be a deciding vote.

Next, President Trump's public feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions intensifies. "The Washington Post" reports that the president and his advisers are discussing the possibility of replacing Sessions, who Mr. Trump called "beleaguered." CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: House investigators are set to meet with

Jared Kushner today after he denied any collusion with Russia in meetings with the Senate investigators Monday, as the House is going to get together today for a vote on tough sanctions bills against Russia.

The question is: Will President Trump sign that measure into law, even though it limits his influence?

And the president is vowing to steer clear of politics when he gave this Boy Scouts speech last night. And I'm laughing, because he did not steer clear of politics. He gave them an earful. The president's speech was filled with attacks on his predecessor, his onetime rival and, of course the media. Remember, he was talking to the Boy Scouts.

CNN has it all covered. Let's begin with CNN national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux live on Capitol Hill -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Well, this is an extraordinary effort. Senator John McCain is going to be boarding a plane later this morning. He's going to head back to Washington to participate in that critical health care vote, despite his brain cancer diagnosis just less than a week ago.

Now his presence is really meant to bolster the Republican leadership's effort to get one step closer to passage. But it's far from certain whether or not it's going to be enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice-over): Senator John McCain's unexpected return to Washington adding last-minute momentum to the Senate Republicans' ongoing push to dismantle Obamacare.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: A know many of us have literally waited eight years for this moment to finally arrive, and at long last it has.

MALVEAUX: The Senate will vote today to begin debating the health care bill that narrowly passed the House in May. If McConnell secures the 50 votes needed to proceed, the Senate will then begin considering amendments to that legislation, although it's unclear what changes would be put forth, and how the Republican Party would come to an agreement after being unable to do so thus far.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: It's kind of hard to make a determination if you don't know what you're proceeding to.

MALVEAUX: President Trump ratcheting up the pressure, using the bully pulpit to warn fellow Americans to get on board or risk paying a price with voters.

TRUMP: Remember, "Repeal and replace. Repeal and replace." They kept saying it over and over again.

Any senator who votes against starting debate is telling America that you are fine with the Obamacare nightmare.

MALVEAUX: The Senate majority leader can only afford to lose the support of two Republicans, even with McCain's expected "yes" vote. Senator Susan Collins of Maine has already said she remains a firm "no," and several others remain undecided.

SEN. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R), WEST VIRGINIA: I can't say right now. I'm still very much a "no."

MALVEAUX: President Trump needling his health secretary about securing the vote at a Boy Scouts event in West Virginia on Monday night.

TRUMP: You're going to get the votes?

TOM PRICE, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Hope so.

TRUMP: He better get them. He better get them. Oh, he better, otherwise I'll say, "Tom, you're fired."

MALVEAUX: The president insisting this event wasn't the place for political rhetoric...

TRUMP: Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I'm in front of the Boy Scouts, right?

MALVEAUX: ... before launching into one attack after another, blasting his predecessor...

TRUMP: Did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?

MALVEAUX: ... and his former rival Hillary Clinton, again; boasting about his election win...

TRUMP: That map was so red, it was unbelievable, and they didn't know what to say.

We have a tremendous disadvantage in the Electoral College. Popular vote is much easier.

MALVEAUX: ... and rehashing his favorite campaign lines.

TRUMP: We ought to change it from the word "swamp" to the word "cesspool" or perhaps to the word "sewer."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: So here's how the health care vote is going to play out today. Republican senators will meet behind closed doors for their weekly lunch. That's where rank-and-file members will push, make their final pitch to move this forward. Then it's expected to have a procedural vote later in the afternoon that will determine whether or not Republicans' effort to overturn Obamacare lives or dies -- Alisyn, Chris.

CAMEROTA: Suzanne, thank you very much for setting all that up. Let's bring in our panel to discuss this very important day. We have

CNN political analyst David Gregory; CNN politics reporter and editor- at-large Chris Cillizza; and CNN political analyst John Avlon.

John, I'll start with you here in studio. It was Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee who says that they're entering a Wild West phase on the health care vote, because anything is possible today. They have a series of procedural votes, as Suzanne just said, and then who knows what happens next?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I mean, that's a pretty cool way to describe total chaos. You know, this is -- this is pretty unprecedented. Here we are talking a major bill, a seven-year priority and yet Republicans today are embracing and advancing the idea they criticized, rightly, Nancy Pelosi for.

You have to vote on the bill to know what's in it. No one's sure exactly what's going to be put forward today, other than they're going to do the "repeal not replace" first, and then let's see how many amendments we can tack on the donkey. It's going to be crazy.

CUOMO: David, what do you make of the situation in terms of the urgency to get things done when you don't know what those things are?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I just think it's really interesting, the specter of the president shaming his party. I mean, this is really, you see all the divisions in the Republican Party in the way that Trump campaigned on them, in 2016, to say you have establishment Republicans who can't get this one thing done.

And yet it's the president who's not really driving this policy with a set of ideas that the Senate is coalescing around. This is the Senate doing its own thing, trying to depart from what the House did, and realizing how unpopular this is politically, in trying to pick off various members.

I mean, the math is really tough, even to begin debate, to begin debate, let alone to find a path that you're going to pick up the key folks, like a Capito in West Virginia, a Murkowski in Alaska, maybe a Mike Lee, Ted Cruz. So it's just not clear where we're going.

But you have a president who's standing by, in effect saying, "I'm going to campaign against all of you, if you can't get this done," very much separating himself from the party at this point.

CAMEROTA: So Chris Cillizza, Susan Collins has already said at the moment that she is a "no." Here's our list of people to watch, key senators to watch today and how they vote. What are you keeping an eye on?

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: David's right. The math is still really tough. So basically, Collins is a hard "no," so now you can -- and McCain is coming back, which to be honest, 24 hours ago, I would have said probably wouldn't happen. So this is clearly, they're hoping, giving them momentum. [06:05:08] I think it is hard to say to John McCain, "Come back from

Arizona," given what he's fighting, "to be the 48th vote to begin debate on this." You know, my guess is they were able to say, "You'd be the 50th vote," but that means, all those people that you just showed, Alisyn, including Lisa Murkowski, including Rob Portman of Ohio, who was undecided, including Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, they need all those folks.

You know, Rand Paul has been back and forth, basically saying, "I'll vote for the motion to proceed," which all they're doing is voting for a motion to start debate that he do that if he got a clean repeal vote, so he's, you know, maybe too leaning, yes. The math is still really hard.

I just -- the thing that I keep coming back to is I cannot imagine Mitch McConnell or John Cornyn went to John McCain and said, "Come back here in the midst of" -- you know, we're a week, less than a week removed from learning that John McCain had brain cancer -- "Come back to D.C. for a procedural vote in which you will be the 48th vote to proceed to debate, and we're not sure about 49 and 50." Maybe that's what they did, and John McCain is just coming because he wants to be here for it, but typically the read-out would be he's coming because they believe that he is that 50th vote, that they can at least get this thing to a debate.

Once you go beyond that, as John points out, I mean, we have no idea where it goes. They're just trying to get over that hurdle of starting a debate.

CUOMO: They're trying to get a win and really conceptually, starting debate on this wouldn't be a bad thing, seeing as how there has been none. You know, that would be good.

The McCain ploy, also fairly obvious, John Avlon. They're going for a Willis Reed moment.

AVLON: Appreciate that.

CUOMO: McCain is a minted warrior, that's what he is. His sense of duty is incomparable. So him coming back makes perfect sense. The idea of what they're going to accomplish, though, is where you may be cheapening that currency of John McCain. You're bringing him back just to check a box and get a win when you really don't have any Plan B.

AVLON: Well, it's a pretty big win, and it's as big a moment as it gets in these votes. Remember, in the Obamacare vote, you had senators sick like a dog, like Harry Reid was rolled in, you know, to vote. Every vote counts.

But John McCain is a warrior, and this has been a longstanding priority of his. And vote counts aside, I think it is about momentum. It's about commitment to achieving a conservative agenda. The problem is we don't know, actually, what conservative agenda specifically they're going to put forward that affects millions and millions and millions of people. CAMEROTA: OK. Another thing we need to talk about. David, the

president went to this big Boy Scouts jamboree last night, and he gave a big speech in front of them. It was, you know, sort of part campaign rally, part Boy Scout messaging, sort of.

I mean, you know, the boy -- "The Washington Post" pointed out that the Boy Scouts' mission is to be courteous and kind. Sometimes this deviated from perhaps that message, so let's play a clip for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You want to achieve your dreams. I said who the hell wants to speak about with politics when I'm in front of the Boy Scout? Right?

As the Scout Law says, a scout is trustworthy, loyal -- we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that.

Did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?

Do you remember that incredible night with the maps, and the Republicans are red, and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red, it was unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: David Gregory, your thoughts?

GREGORY: I mean, it's just so -- I mean, the tour de force going through the states on the map. Nobody thought we could win Michigan, and we're winning Michigan.

Look, I think it was striking in a couple of things. First of all, the not-so-subtle dig there at the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who apparently was an Eagle Scout and was not invited to this, despite other cabinet members who were scouts who were there, like Rick Perry and Rex Tillerson, too, apparently was an Eagle Scout.

CUOMO: Rick Perry, who he asked if you have the votes; and Rick Perry nods, "Yes."

GREGORY: Yes. "I'm good. We got 'em for you."

CUOMO: He's the energy secretary.

GREGORY: So it's -- it's -- I mean, you're in front of all these Boy Scouts, and you're talking about this great victory that we had in the electoral map. I mean, these kids were not -- were not voting in the election. So it was -- it was striking.

But I thought that the barb at Sessions was really revealing, and it says something. I mean, here we are on a day when the president is trying to get health care, a piece of legislation that he has not driven. He has just been really working from the outside now against Republicans; and he's sabotaging himself with his obsession around loyalty and, in taking on the Russia investigation to the point that he appears to be humiliating Jeff Sessions, his attorney general, publicly in an effort to force him out, despite perhaps thinking of all the complications that creates if he ultimately achieves that goal of either firing him or getting him to resign.

[06:10:16] CUOMO: And the contradiction. So he plays on loyalty. He's not talking about scout loyalty. He's talking about, you know, what's been happening with him and his political people around him. Trustworthy, loyal, yes, but what about helpful? Friendly? Courteous? Kind? Obedient? Thrifty? Forget about that in government. You know? Brave, clean and reverent. A lot of ideals.

CAMEROTA: But he got a lot of applause. I mean, if we're going -- he got a lot of enthusiastic applause.

CUOMO: He's the president of the United States. He's the president of the United States. Of course he's going to get applause.

But I mean, John, what did you make of -- forget about the fact that he goes "Who would -- who the hell would want to talk about politics when you're at the Boy Scouts?" You would. You'll talk about politics anywhere, especially if it involves bashing others.

AVLON: Yes, look, you know, on one hand I thought what I thought was troubling was at the mention of Obama's name, there were boos in that environment. That is not courteous or kind; doesn't live up to the ideals.

Washington should try a little harder to live up to those ideals. But tone comes from the top; and courteous and kind have been missing from the building, and that's something I think for all folks to reflect on.

That speech, it was a political rally at a place he said he didn't want to be political. But Trump has a magnetic inability to not bring everything back to himself. And the idea of self-transcendence has been lost.

CAMEROTA: All right. Panel, stick around, if you would. We have much more to talk about with you.

CUOMO: President Trump intensifying his criticism not just of Hillary Clinton but of his own staff, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He used the word "beleaguered," but remember, the reason Sessions is beleaguered is because of what the president must said about him.

"The Washington Post" is reporting that the president is weighing his options to replace Sessions. There's been no shortage of leaks on that front either.

CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns live at the White House with more. The word is that Rudy Giuliani brushed aside the thought of being attorney general, but he did think early on he was the perfect man for that job.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and he actually gave Sessions just a bit of a vote of confidence, if you will, Chris. Look, the attorney general, we're told, was here just yesterday,

meeting with the White House counsel, but we're also told he and the president did not meet and have not spoken since that remarkable rebuke in the interview with the "New York Times" just last week. The new communications director would not answer, when asked whether Sessions ought to resign, but he did say the two men need to sit down and talk about what the future looks like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, should Jeff Sessions resign?

JOHNS (voice-over): Attorney General Jeff Sessions' future in question today, with "The Washington Post" reporting that President Trump and his advisers are discussing the possibility of replacing him, despite the fact that he has been one of the president's most loyal supporters.

TRUMP: We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that.

JOHNS: The president publicly shamed his top law enforcement officer again Monday, labeling him as "beleaguered" and asking why he's not investigating Hillary Clinton. The dizzying escalation began last week in the president's interview with "The New York Times."

TRUMP: Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he would -- if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else.

JOHNS: Despite this public rebuke, Sessions insisted he has no plans to step down.

JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We love this job. We love this department, and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate.

JOHNS: Texas Senator Ted Cruz and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani dismissing reports they are being considered as possible replacements, with Giuliani expressing support for Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: I believe that Sessions made the right decision under the rules of the Justice Department.

JOHNS: President Trump lashing out against his attorney general, who he blames for the Russia investigation.

It comes on the same day his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, met with congressional investigators for the first time, denying any collusion with Russia, and defending the president.

JARED KUSHNER,WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: Donald Trump had a better message and ran a smarter campaign, and that is why he won. Suggesting otherwise ridicules those who voted for him.

(END VIDEOTAPE) JOHNS: The president tweeted just a few minutes ago once again calling out the attorney general, and once again, talking about the president's perceived desire or need for an investigation of Hillary Clinton.

Jared Kushner is back on Capitol Hill today, answering more questions. The president is expected to at least give reporters an opportunity to ask him questions, when he appears with the Lebanese prime minister in the Rose Garden later today.

[06:15:12] Chris and Alisyn, back to you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Joe. Thank you very much for all that.

So given the president's latest attacks, is he considering firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions? What would that mean for the Russia investigation? Our panel tackles all that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, should Jeff Sessions resign?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: That's President Trump there. He's taking a photo with the interns, the White House interns. He would then tell the media to be quiet, and he would then turn and tell the interns, "You see, they're not supposed to be asking questions right now, but they did anyway."

CAMEROTA: Right. So the eye roll is hard to interpret, because he's maybe rolling his eyes at the media, not at the outcome of Jeff Sessions.

CUOMO: True, true, and -- but both interpretations would be accurate. We would roll his eyes at the media, for sure, and he'd also roll the eyes at the thought of Jeff Sessions leaving office. Why? Because "The Washington Post" is reporting what's pretty obvious, which is that the president is looking for a replacement for Jeff Sessions. You just don't treat a sitting attorney general the way you do, the way the president is, if you want him to stay. All right?

[06:20:04] And just moments ago the president tweeted out of nowhere, "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes." Interesting word for a president to use. "Where are emails and DNC server and intel leakers?"

Let's bring back the panel, David Gregory, Chris Cillizza and John Avlon. So David Gregory, what do you make of the posturing towards the attorney general by our president?

GREGORY: Well, look, it's no longer shocking, given this president and what he's done and what his views are. I think, you know, the only conclusion is that this president wants to shame Jeff Sessions into resigning. He has no regard for the independence of the Department of Justice or the rule of law.

You know, everyone was outraged when he fired the FBI director investigating him, Jim Comey, rightfully so, by the way. But I don't think there's any reason to believe that Trump will stop. I think he'd be -- I think he'll fire his attorney general. I think he may make a move on the special counsel. And he'll take all comers, because he doesn't seem to care about democratic processes or institutions and certainly thinks the investigation about Russia is a loyalty test, and not something to be investigated thoroughly, and that the presidency should be protected and that our electoral system should be protected.

So if you play this out, if he wants to sack Sessions, what's going to happen? Rod Rosenstein is the deputy. He probably resigns or he gets fired. So does the president think that he's going to get some loyalist to him confirmed by the United States Senate? I mean, that is crazy.

I think Republicans might on this one finally balk a little bit, given how popular Sessions is among conservatives and, indeed, among the kind of, you know, nativist right that counts as a big part of Trump nation.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, John.

AVLON: Look, you know, the president just tweeting moments ago, calling his attorney general weak, that's the narrative he's trying to send; "beleaguered" was yesterday. Right? So this is an attempt to force him out and attack him the way he did his opponents on the campaign trail.

It's also a resurgence of another campaign trail riff, "lock her up." And what I think also is being done is an attempt to say, "We're going to investigate Hillary Clinton. We're going to prosecute her." That's the hanging offense, allegedly, for Jeff Sessions. But the largest game is exactly what...

CUOMO: We heard it yesterday with Sean Duffy, a favorite surrogate of the president. Out of nowhere, Chris Cillizza, he started talking about how, "Well, if you really want to know what Russia did, to get to the bottom of it, you need the DNC server. I mean, really, that's the beginning of the trail."

So Chris, give the audience a little bit of a background on that in terms of what we understand about those servers...

CILLIZZA: Sure.

CUOMO: ... and why that statement makes or doesn't make sense.

CILLIZZA: So look, Donald Trump has been fixated on, and it is somewhat out there. Hillary Clinton -- more than half of the emails that were on her private server she deleted before they ever made it to any closer inspection, based on her lawyers going through them, not one by one but broadly speaking and saying, "This is personal." OK, so they made that call; no one else did. They were deleted. There's debate over whether they can be recovered or not, so he is fixated on it.

The other thing is, DNC resisted turning over its server to the FBI in the wake of the hacking in the WikiLeaks investigation. So these two things have become big causes on the conservative right.

The issue is Donald Trump won, in no small part, I think, because of conversations about the email server, the way -- poor ways in which Hillary Clinton handled it.

You know, Donald Trump is doing this thing that he did in the business world, too. He doesn't -- for all of his "You're fired," you know, bravado, he doesn't actually love firing people. Yes, he did get rid of Jim Comey, but outside of Comey, you have Sean Spicer, who he basically asked to say, even though he had appointed Scaramucci to the communications director job. And you have Mike Flynn, who he fired because he lied to -- he, Mike Flynn --lied to Mike Pence. But Trump has repeatedly said, "I wish we hadn't fired him." So he doesn't really like to fire people.

What he's doing here is making it so uncomfortable for Jeff Sessions that he hopes Jeff Sessions resigns.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CILLIZZA: You can't -- you shouldn't, Chris -- sorry, Alisyn, it's a really quick thing. Chris said, you know, you shouldn't treat your attorney general like this. You shouldn't treat anyone like this. I mean, you -- if you have an issue with someone, you should deal with it privately and say, "You either have to go or you have to stay or we have to change this conversation."

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CILLIZZA: Not just attack him to the point where you force him out. I mean, this is bullying.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, John.

AVLON: Look, he's trying to back-channel the Saturday night massacre. That's what's happening, right? If Sessions resigns, then you appoint someone else, who then assumes power.

CILLIZZA: That's right.

AVLON: And says, you know, "The special counsel thing is really a terrible distraction," and as Chris said, you know, "I'm going to be in a position to investigate more effectively, because I'm not directly connected with the campaign," depending on who it is. And that's the larger game here.

[06:25:11[ It's also about repeated attempts -- you know, he goes after the independent journalists, and independent judiciary consistently, because those are forces that can constrain and hold presidential power accountable. And that's why this all demand our attention. And the Hillary Clinton stuff is simply because the only thing that

unites his coalition right now seems to be hatred of Hillary Clinton. It's a golden oldies thing.

CUOMO: Well, he knows it. Look, Donald Trump, the biggest mistake his adversaries make is questioning the intelligence of the president.

CILLIZZA: That's right.

CUOMO: Because it's just a mistake. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's very savvy, and he's very good at manipulating narrative. His latest tweet, again, he was probably watching the morning shows, not liking what he's hearing, and he's engineering what he believes to be the truth.

"The problem is that the acting head of the FBI" -- this is the president, good, there's the tweet -- "and the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H." -- Hillary -- "for his wife."

CILLIZZA: The -- just Chris, just real quickly, contextually there, what -- he has made this claim before. He's talking about a half-a- million-dollar donation from Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia's political organization to a -- to a Virginia state Senate candidate, Andrew McCabe's wife, who ran in 2015. So...

CUOMO: So they set it up really far in advance.

CILLIZZA: It's not from Hillary Clinton, just by way of context. Yes, Terry McAuliffe and the Clintons are clearly aligned. No one would question that, but it's not from her. This is one of those things where he sort of aligns a series of facts and then tries to make it true by saying it over and over again, and it just -- that doesn't make it true.

GREGORY: Can we just keep our eye on Republicans here? Because this is what's really interesting. Here the president is essentially ripping members of his own party on health care, saying they're a fraud. "They said they were going to repeal and replace Obama care. They haven't done it. Now they have a chance," when he's not really driving that.

On the day of the vote he's out there further humiliating his A.G. So, you know, Trump is sabotaging himself or, to your point, Chris, maybe he's looking at it differently. I mean, he is allowing himself to be completely consumed by this. Maybe he wants to run on the Russia investigation for re-election. I mean, honestly, maybe he thinks "I'll just keep fighting this big fight," because that's all he seems to be able to do. He's using all that capital for that purpose.

CAMEROTA: Gentlemen, thank you very much for the perspective on all of this, obviously. It will be a very big day and week.

CUOMO: We do. You know why? Because this vote matters. Even though it's just procedural and to open up debate, which wouldn't be a bad thing. It's nice when our lawmakers actually talk about what they want to do to the lives of the rest of us. But we have a lot of the players for you today. Look at your screen. Key members of Congress, not just about what's going to happen with health care, but also surrounding Jeff Sessions. You have a lot of experience on that screen with these types of maneuvers, so we'll be talking to all of them this morning and get their take.

CAMEROTA: So a major win for the Trump White House. The big decision in court that is boosting the president's controversial Voter Integrity Commission. We'll tell you about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)