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Paul Ryan, GOP Leaders Speak Amid Health Care Battle; House GOP still doesn't have Votes to Pass Health Care; Scalise: "Our Bill Protects" Pre-existing Conditions. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired May 2, 2017 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: -- out of a meeting discussing the plans to repeal and replace Obamacare, to discuss, frankly, whether the plan might be dead at this point.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: A source from inside of that critical meeting this morning telling our Phil Mattingly where things stand at this moment. So, let's go straight to Phil Mattingly on the Hill. What are they telling you?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically they're saying, it's pretty simple. They don't have the votes, there's not that much more to it. That's what a member inside the room texted me after House Republican leaders kind of explained the state of play right now. And as Speaker Ryan, according to this member, made very clear, when they have the necessary votes, they will vote on this and that vote will likely happen very quickly.

But what this all means is they are still short of that magic number of 216. They are still working behind the scenes. I will say that a number of members coming out of that meeting, when they stopped some talk to reporters, said there is a sense that the conference right now -- the Republican conference right now, wants to do something, anything just to get this off of their plate, but again, this is an extraordinarily different political issue and very difficult policy issue. And at this moment, as we move through this week right now, House leaders, guys, are still short of the votes they need to actually have that House floor vote.

HARLOW: All right, Phil Mattingly on the Hill. Thank you very, very much for that. Keep us posted as you're getting all of this in real time.

Joining us now - are we going to Sunlen? All right, Sunlen, what are you hearing? I know you're waiting for - you're waiting for Paul Ryan to come in. What are you hearing?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. We are waiting for a press conference from the House leadership after a meeting with their full conference this morning at a critical moment when their bill does face some serious treacherous waters ahead. I think you could say. Heading into that meeting this morning has focused many members of the House leadership and some expressed a little bit of confidence, importantly, Steve Scalise, who is the House Whip, who is in charge of counting votes. Here's what the leaders told me this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: How close?

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R), MAJORITY WHIP: Very close.

We're working toward the vote and we've got a number of members at those questions that we're getting answers to. So, -

SERFATY: Do you think you'll vote this week?

SCALISE: It's going in the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Now, though there was some confidence expressed by leaders there, they are the trend, clearly, is headed in the wrong direction for them. We've seen a slew of House Republican leaders stand up in the last 24 hours and say they're against this bill. According to CNN's latest whip count, 21 House Republicans say they'll vote against the bill. That means, if they lose just two more Republican votes, the bill will fail.

Now, as of now there are still 17 undecided votes. So, this could quickly shift one way or the other. We know that Vice President Pence will be up here on Capitol Hill later today, not only meeting with the Senate Republican Conference, but he'll also be meeting with - personally with lawmakers one on one. And of course, John and Poppy, we'll get an indication of where this is all headed by the tone and what Speaker Ryan says just briefly here when he addresses us for the conference, John and Poppy.

BERMAN: All right. We're going to wait to hear from Paul Ryan. It should be very, very interesting, given what we just heard from Phil Mattingly, from a source inside that meeting. They don't have the votes, at least not yet.

Joining us now to discuss in a steamed panel CNN's national political reporter, MJ Lee, CNN's senior political analyst, David Gergen, an adviser to many, many presidents, also with us, CNN political commentators, Angela Rye, former executive director to Congressional Black Caucus, and Kevin Madden, the Republican strategist.

Kevin Madden, Republican strategist, how do you get through this? I mean, right now, we're hearing from Phil Mattingly, they don't have the votes. It's an enormous amount of White House pressure to get there. Paul Ryan is about to walk in front of that microphone. What the heck does he say?

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, you're giving me the easy question, huh? Look, it is -- very tough. And I think, one of the harder things of growing a vote like this for the House leadership is that the goal posts tending to move on their members. When you had an interview the other day -- with President Trump, where he said that he mandated that essential health benefits be in the package, when instead, the package actually changes the current rule related to essential health benefits.

What that does is send a message to a lot of those moderate voters that worry about the perception of that issue and the political fight that would ensue if they were to vote for this particular bill. That the White House doesn't really have the command of the issue and therefore, the goal post may move again if they were to take a tough vote and that increasingly, as -- the House leadership tries to cobble together the votes for 216, that increasingly becomes an important obstacle. I have walked with members of Congress down to the House floor to take a tough vote.

And what's most important to them is that they know that they have strength in numbers and that - if they're being asked to take that vote by the White House. That the White House is with them on the details, so, when you're absent that, it makes the job a lot harder.

HARLOW: MJ, as watch House leadership walk in here, we're going to take them in just a moment. But MJ let me ask you this. These aren't Republicans in Hillary Clinton district.

[10:05:00] These are Republicans like Billy Wong of Missouri, who pulls out and says I cannot get behind this, because of what it does and it doesn't protect pre-existing conditions. How troubling should that be to this White House?

MJ LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Right. I mean, I think you're right that we're not just seeing one chunk of the Republican conference, coming out and saying we can't be for this bill. We're seeing a range of members, right, from moderates to the very conservative, saying, you know the bill at its base does too much to take away, you know, protections in Obamacare that were so fundamental to Obamacare. And then, just the - you know, experts coming out and saying, look, this is a bill that will allow insurance companies to charge older people more, to charge a lot more, you know, for people with pre-existing conditions. These are realities that make these members very, very uncomfortable.

BERMAN: You know, matters the communication for us here, David Gergen. Again, we are waiting to hear from Paul Ryan any minute now. We will bring you the news as it happens from this news conference. Some other members are speaking first, but we get the sense that Republicans in House, they want to vote on this and they really want to pass it just to get it off their plates, because it's gumming up the works - right now.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This has become a huge elephant in the room. They need to get it out of the room so they can focus on other things, one way or the other. And if they don't have the votes today or next couple of days, it may go down for the year. It's just hard to see why they would keep bringing it up and keep hitting walls.

And I do think, to go back to the point that Kevin was making, what the members look for in a controversial bill is for the president to provide a year cover. And for the president to go to the country and persuade people this is a good thing to do. If you have a president that doesn't understand his own bill, becomes a lot harder.

HARLOW: Right. Because he said things like this to Bloomberg and I quote, "It will be every bit as good on pre-existing conditions as Obamacare."

Now, Angela Rye, if you just read the amendment that is just patently - that is not true, at least as the bill stands right now. Does this president risk, not only confusing things and mudding the waters, as David Gergen says, but also having this sort of Obama-like, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor moment on pre-existing conditions?

BERMAN: You know what -- let's listen to the House Speaker Paul Ryan on the microphone right now.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: -- that is coming to the floor this week. A couple things, first, this puts more boots on the ground to bolster our border security. In fact, this is the biggest increase in border security funding in a decade.

It provides more resources to combat the opioid epidemic, which is a high priority for Republicans here in Congress. It expands the school choice program. That's something that many of us feel very passionately about. It expands the D.C. school choice opportunity scholarship program.

It maintains our pro-life protections.

It contains no new money for Obamacare, no insurance company bail- outs.

It takes major increases in defense spending while holding the line in non-defense. This is something that I think is really important, that people are, sort of, missing in this really important story. I cannot understate how much of a game-changer this is.

I used to negotiate budget agreements with the Obama administration. Under President Obama, Democrats insisted that an increase in defense spending be tied to an equal increase in non- defense spending.

"You want to help the troops? You want to help the military? I need just as much money for domestic discretionary spending." That was the Obama rule that we lived under for eight years. They insisted on this, even as our military plunged further and further into a readiness crisis.

Well, we got to a point that our Air Force pilots were going to museums to find spare parts over the last eight years. We got to our point where some of our planes are so outdated that whole fleets would qualify for antique license plates in Virginia.

This forced parity that we lived under under the Obama years really constrained our ability to rebuild our military for this century. This appropriations bill changes all of that. No longer are the needs of our military going to be held hostage for increases in domestic spending.

This means that we can finally make real important strides to increase and improve our readiness. It means we can get our servicemembers the tools and the resources they need to confront the threats that we face all around the world.

While we have a lot more work to do to rebuild our military, this is a very big first step. $25 billion, year-over-year, for our military and you do not have a corresponding $25 billion increase in domestic spending, which is what Obama would have requested and required. That is not here. We broke this parity and we think this is a really important step in the right direction.

The first responsibility of our government is national defense. Under President Trump, we are truly putting that first. We're excited that we're honoring two big priorities: a big downpayment on border security and a big increase for our military so that they can do their jobs.

MCCARTHY: Good morning.

You heard from Congresswoman Martha Roby and from the speaker. This is a very big week this week. We have a lot before us. But I want to give a lot of credit to Congresswoman Martha Roby on the Working Families Flexibility Act.

She is an attorney. She is a mother. She is a congresswoman. And she is a wife. She knows the struggles that every other constituent faces with (sic). She's listened time (sic) to her constituents and everyone across this country.

They want more flexibility. Time is a part that you can't add more to, but what can you spend more time with, on the needs of a family or a loved one and others?

And why shouldn't the private sector have the same rights that government does? In 1978, government actually allowed this to go in place. You can work overtime, but the worker can decide how they would like to have either pay or comp time. Think about if somebody in your family was sick or in need to be a certain place. I think it would improve productivity and actually improve the work ethic of where we're going in this country.

And I want to thank her for continuing to fight for that, and Cathy for all her work with it as well.

The speaker laid out when it come to the omnibus, and the funding of what we have fought for so many years for when we watched our military be decreased. Well, we look around the world and the world is not a safe place. But this is an exceptional country. The world is safer when America leads. But if our military does not have the resources to be able to do what they need to do at any given moment, the world becomes very unsafe, as we see from what's happening around today, from North Korea, Syria, and beyond. This funding bill actually provides that. It is a first start.

Also, that won't be the only thing that we do this week. When we look at the great menace of North Korea, there will be a sanctions bill on the floor. The sanction bill will make sure that North Korea sanctions cuts off access to international ports, authorize sanctions on companies and financial institutions that do business with the Kim regime, and targets the regime's use of slave labor.

I think when you look at the final week of where we're going through, from the funding, from the investments of where we need it, from strengthening America's moral values across the world for those to see, and more importantly, looking for individuals to be able to have more time and choice and flexibility in their own workforce (sic).

SCALISE: I'm looking forward to a busy week this week. And it starts with the work that Congresswomen Roby has done to give more flexibility to families in the workplace. It's something that she's been pushing for and a lot of other members have been pushing for for a long time.

And as the leader said, it's only fair that if the private -- if the government -- if the government employees have that kind of protection and flexibility, why shouldn't workers in the private sector have that same ability to choose whether or not they want to spend more time with their --

[10:10:00] HARLOW: All right. We're going to keep monitoring this and bring you right back to it the moment that the words health care come out of their mouth and as they begin to take questions.

I mean, you could, Angela Rye, perhaps read something into the fact that, you know the three of them, GOP leadership, did not come out and say the words health care or say even we're making progress, Angela.

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: Sure, because they're not making progress. In fact, it looks like they're going the wrong way. If there is one more Republican member, according to CNN's vote - I think as Phil Mattingly talks about earlier or Sunlen did, you have a real issue. You're not going to be able to consider this measure, Poppy, before we went into the press conference. You asked me if this was Donald Trump's Barack Obama moment. Donald Trump would not have a -- Barack Obama moment if he tried.

So, let's just - I think, it's really important to take a step back and understand the facts surrounding what Barack Obama said. There are 262 million people who are insured in this country. Of that 262 million, 4 million people were not able to keep their plan. Is that 4 million too many? Absolutely.

The situation that we have right now is a president who is saying that pre-existing conditions will still be covered. That does not match up with the facts because now health insurance companies can a la carte and kind of cherry pick which parts of Obamacare or which parts of health care they'll choose to support someone or to allow them beyond a plan. That is not the same thing at all. In fact, that is a -- HARLOW: Stand by, let's listen back in. They're taking some health care questions.

SCALISE: -- puts patients back in charge and lowers premiums in the health care marketplace that is failing in a very dismal way right now. There's a tail-spin in the health care marketplace because Obamacare has failed the American people.

And I want to talk a little bit about preexisting conditions because that's come up a lot. Our bill protects people with preexisting conditions and it actually provides multiple layers of protection for people with preexisting conditions in ways that Obamacare doesn't do.

First of all, by having the ability for people with preexisting conditions to have continuous coverage as the rule of the land, across the country, no matter what happens, and then if a state wants to request a waiver. Even if that state requests a waiver and gets a waiver, continuous coverage is still the law of the land, can't be waived for people with preexisting conditions.

On top of that, in the state's waiver, they actually have to lay out how they are going to protect people with preexisting conditions, and they have to show that they have a high-risk pool to protect people with preexisting conditions.

So all of those layers in -- are in place to protect people with preexisting conditions in our bill, which focuses on reducing cost while protecting people with preexisting conditions.

But let's look at Obamacare, because there's this assumption that Obamacare actually does protect people with preexisting conditions. So I asked my own constituents, just like I did when Obamacare was moving through Congress back in 2009, before we had our 27.5-hour markup in Energy and Commerce.

I did the same thing. I reached out to my constituents in Southeast Louisiana and I said, "Share with me your stories." And I got a number of stories from people with preexisting conditions who were being hurt by Obamacare. And I want to read one of them right here.

Chris (ph) from Slidell wrote to me, "I have a preexisting condition. ACA insurance is outrageously priced with huge deductibles. It has been cheaper for me to pay out-of-pocket for two surgeries, all other medical expenses and the ACA penalty rather than to purchase insurance and still have to cover a large deductible and co-pay.

"My prescription costs have skyrocketed. My husband is covered by the V.A., but I don't qualify for any coverage. We're being penalized for working and taking responsibility for our own expenses. ACA has cost me thousands of dollars with not a damn thing to show for it."

This is one of many examples that I've personally received of constituents with preexisting conditions who are being hurt by Obamacare. Our bill actually stands up for patients like Chris (ph) and others so that they not only have protection for their preexisting conditions, but they actually have lower premiums so they can have better choices for their family.

MCMORRIS RODGERS: Good morning. This week, we will finish our work on the final appropriations bill from the budget. And it was a bipartisan effort. For the Republicans, our priorities were the certainty --

[10:17:13]

BERMAN: All right. We're going to come back and talk about this a little bit. We'll dip back in when Paul Ryan takes questions. The House Speaker, MJ Lee, Steve Scalise, the Majority Whip, right there, said essentially that pre-existing conditions are covered in this bill. That people with pre-existing conditions, he suggests, they would be better off in fact than they are under Obamacare. That muddies the waters, frankly, because the fact on the matter is that people with pre-existing conditions could have their rates raised by infinity. We don't know by how much. Insurance companies could raise rates on people with pre-existing conditions and make them affordable --

LEE: And he said multiple -

HARLOW: His words, multiple layers of protection. Is that a fact?

LEE: He said multiple layers that even though Obamacare doesn't have - look, we've been doing a lot of reporting on this, talking to a lot of experts. And the consensus is that this bill with the McArthur amendment would hurt people who have pre-existing conditions, medical histories as well as people who are older -- people in their 50s and 60s would be charged more.

And I think it's interesting that they're making this comment today on the heels of President Trump going out there and saying I am committed to making sure that people with pre-existing conditions have better protections than the protections that are in Obamacare. Clearly, Republican members are feeling a little bit of heat. They know that pre-existing conditions is the big sticking point and they want to get out there and make these promises. But frankly, I don't know that these are promises that they can keep through this specific legislation.

BERMAN: David?

GERGEN: Well, I think they've got irreconcilable differences within their own Republican caucus. I think it's just too hard to put this like a Rubik's Cube. Listen, they came up with a bill - their first bill was -

BERMAN: You know what, here's House Speaker Paul Ryan. Let's listen in.

[10:18:52]

QUESTION: -- did the president hurt your effort on health care yesterday?

And, number two, are you losing this argument about preexisting conditions?

(inaudible) Scalise addressed that, but it seems like, even if there are many (ph) perceptions, that it's hard for you guys to win that back...

(CROSSTALK)

RYAN: Not at all. The president's been -- been nothing but helpful on health care. He's been very helpful on health care. He's helping with a lot of our members. And, as -- as Mr. Scalise mentioned, there are a few layers of protections for preexisting conditions in this bill.

What's important is we want to have a situation where people can afford their health insurance. We want to have a situation where people have a choice of health insurers. That's not happening in Obamacare.

Remember, over 1,000 counties in America have only one health insurer to choose from, a monopoly. And those people are getting cranked with high premium increases -- double-digit premiums increase last year, even bigger ones being predicted for this year.

So what good is insurance if you don't get it, if it's not offered to you or you can't afford it? So the purpose of our bill is to get more choices to lower prices while preserving the protections for preexisting conditions.

So that is a very important thing. We're excited about this policy. We're making very good progress with our members, and our president has been instrumental in that.

RYAN: Yeah, Christina (ph)?

QUESTION: Do (inaudible) president's tweet this morning in a way (ph) (inaudible)?

RYAN: How many times have I had this "Do you agree with the tweet this morning?"

(LAUGHTER)

You talking about September?

Look, we've got a long ways to go between now and September. But I share the president's frustration. The -- what a lot of people in America don't realize is appropriation bills, they take 60 votes to pass. They can be filibustered.

And so all appropriation bills therefore have to be bipartisan because Democrats can always filibuster a -- an appropriations bill.

Having said all of that, I feel very good about the wins that we got with the administration in this bill. Look, I negotiated the first Murray-Ryan agreement a number of years ago.

Under the Obama rules, you had -- if you wanted to help the military, if you wanted a pay raise for the soldiers, if you wanted to buy new airplanes and new ships and more munitions, a dollar for that, you had to have a dollar domestic spending.

We just broke that parity. We just -- that's the biggest victory we could have had: $25 billion year over year for our military to begin to rebuild our military without that kind of corresponding increase in domestic discretionary spending.

So that to me is very important. But look at the other conservative wins we have in here. Our pro-life rider is preserved. School choice advanced. We're fixing things like forest fires and -- and -- and the disasters that we have, and we're giving the border patrol the kind of increases they need.

We knew we needed a big down payment on border security. We knew that, with a five-month bill, the wall is really more about next year. And that fight's going to be this summer. But we wanted to get the administration a really good down payment on border security, and that's why this bill has the biggest increase in border security funding in 10 years. So we think those are really good wins. I know that there's a P.R. machine that the -- that the Democrats are pushing. I'd say, don't look at the press releases, look at the bill. And when you look at the bill, there's a lot of good conservative wins here.

But chief among them are the president's two highest priorities: support our military and get border security, get a down payment on border security, and this delivers that.

MODERATOR: Last question.

RYAN: Yes?

QUESTION: Mr. Speaker, (inaudible) expressed disappointment, though, that Planned Parenthood still remains funded, and that's actually (ph) (inaudible).

RYAN: Planned Parenthood is not funded. But (ph)...

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... (inaudible) there hasn't been (inaudible).

RYAN: ... so we...

QUESTION: I'm also wondering (inaudible).

RYAN: Sure. So...

QUESTION: It -- I know (inaudible) Planned Parenthood in a reconciliation, you've talked about (ph) (inaudible)...

RYAN: .. so -- you're -- you're -- you don't even have to ask my question if you're answering my question.

(LAUGHTER) RYAN: You're getting there. OK, I'll (inaudible).

QUESTION: ... question.

Are you committed to reconciliation steps (ph) even if health care isn't part of it? And how will you make that (ph) decision?

And sanctuary cities -- when is that going to happen? Is that going to...

(CROSSTALK)

RYAN: Let me just say what -- a couple of things. And look at what all our pro-life groups are saying. They're saying the Planned Parenthood legislation needs to be in the reconciliation bill as it is, because that's how you get it into law.

We know, we always knew, that it takes 60 votes to pass an appropriation bill through the Senate. This bill does not have funding for Planned Parenthood. That's important. The reconciliation bill advances the pro-life cause even further.

So no Planned Parenthood funding in here. And, by the way, Tom Price is now the person who approves grants that go out to the states. So we feel very comfortable that we're working hand in glove with the administration to advance our pro-life priorities.

So I'd say, number one, they're advanced here. We keep all our Hyde amendment riders, and then our reconciliation bill -- that's the bill that you don't need 60 votes on.

That's the bill that you don't need to have Democrats with, and that's the bill that -- we're advancing our cause even further. And that is why these two efforts in conjunction with one another advance our cause and our principles quite a bit.

Thank you. Thank you.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)

[10:23:30]

BERMAN: All right. House Speaker Paul Ryan there, answering questions on the spending bill that he may with the Democrats, very defensive about that, also talking about health care. One thing he did not say, as Poppy Harlow duly noted during this, was that we have the votes right now to pass the plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.

HARLOW: Or even more confident. I mean, remember Gary Cohn came out yesterday, and said, this is going to be great week. We think we have the votes.

BERMAN: They don't. They do not have the votes as it stands right now. If they did have the votes, there'd be a vote scheduled, we'd have a countdown clock up in that screen right now, saying you know, two hours until Republicans will vote on this bill, it does not exist as of now.

HARLOW: David Gergen, you were mid thought when we jumped to Paul Ryan.

GERGEN: Well, I just think you've got an irreconcilable split within the Republican Party. You started out with the bill that was analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office. They said 24 million Americans would not have health insurance ten years from now. That same bill has -- and it couldn't pass with that. So they had to have more conservative language and provisions. And that brought us into, you know, undercutting essential benefits and undercutting the pre- existing conditions guarantee. So we're there.

On one hand, the bill says yes, we're going to guarantee, but on the other hand, we're going to grant waivers to states. And guess what, Tom Price they just mentioned is the guy who's going to grant the waivers. So, a lot of moderate say, wait a minute, you can't - you know, that's a Jiu-Jitsu -- you're deceiving people. The guarantee doesn't really last because of the waiver. So, I think they've gotten themselves in a position now that they went so far right, they can't get it passed. If they come back left, they lose the conservatives. That's a very hard thing.

[10:25:04] LEE: Yes and I thought it was notable during this press conference that Paul Ryan insisted that President Trump has been helpful in the health care debate. A lot of members privately will say he has not been so helpful. And I think, on two big fronts, he has actually created more of a mess for Republicans. One is on the talking points, right? He's going out there and saying this bill is going to be better for people with pre-existing conditions, for sick people. Experts say that's simply not the case.

And I think, second, just in terms of putting forward a deadline, remember from the very beginning, President Trump put a lot of pressure on Republicans and say, we need to do this right now. And then, there was the pressure of the 100 days. That's why they made a second Sabbath this last week. And now, we have another deadline, pressure coming from the White House to get this done before next week's break.

BERMAN: Hey, Kevin Madden, shifting gears a little bit from Obamacare, one of the things that they did do, Republican leadership, in this press conference is basically say, we didn't get a bad deal. This spending bill that they have to extend government, you know, to keep a shutdown away until September. Republicans, the leadership has been criticized because a lot of people have said the Democrats won on this, including the Democrats, who said we won on this. And the House leadership there was very, very defensive. What is the reality as far as you see it, Kevin?

MADDEN: Well, I think -- you know, I think, look, it was emblematic of just how tough the challenges are on health care, that they kept shifting their remarks towards things that they do believe that they're making progress on. I do think that they are still proud and they are trying to show accomplishments on things that are important to many members inside their conference. Namely, funding on Homeland Security, funding the military and then, taking a tough stance with stronger sanctions on North Korea.

So, that is the job of leadership right now, is to back up their troops and show that there's been progress made on many of their priorities as well as some of the priorities of this White House. You saw Speaker Ryan there take great strides to show that there's not a whole lot of daylight between him and the White House. As MJ pointed out there, maybe folks that are grumblings privately, but the speaker has to keep his folks moving forward and remaining optimistic about the weeks ahead -- if he's to really try to achieve some of these goals that they've laid out, these ambitious goals that they've laid out on their agenda.

HARLOW: Angela Rye, final word to you. It wasn't long ago when John Boehner basically said this is really, really hard to do and you know, maybe you just sort of reform Obamacare as it stands. Do you see this increasingly as a win for your side? Does that may actually become an eventuality that the conservatives would someway, somehow agree to?

RYE: Well, I think, unfortunately, Poppy, given what policy issue we're talking about. This is health care. This is the same issue that almost had Jimmy Kimmel in tears last night. Us, fighting like this, isn't a win for anyone. It really isn't. And so, the bottom line is what do we do to ensure people -- American people - what do we do to make sure that they have the greatest coverage possible and to not talk about it in hyperbolic terms but in very real terms. Repeal and replace was always a bad strategy. That's why it didn't work more than 60 times. So then, it really comes down to, I think, what Bill Clinton said about affirmative action, "Amend it don't end it." That's the bottom line here. That's the only way the American people win.

BERMAN: All right, guys, thank you so much for watching this. - Again, the headline here is, there is no vote at this point to repeal and replace Obamacare. Phil Mattingly reports the move from inside the meeting there is that the Republicans do not have the votes, at least not now. Can anything be done to convince some voters ahead? We're going to speak to a member.

HARLOW: A member who is a no vote. We're going to hear from them. Also ahead, a story you will not want to miss, an FBI translator who went rogue, spent time with ISIS and then, she married a terrorist. Our exclusive report is ahead.

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