Republicans Divided Over Health Care; GOP Showdown Over Obamacare Repeal; Interview with Congressman Mark Meadows of North Carolina.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to THE LEAD. Let's stay with politics now. President Trump meeting with skeptical conservatives on the Hill today as he throws the weight of the White House behind the House GOP's repeal and replace health care bill. Selling it to his own party will be the first big task for the presidential deal maker. CNN's Phil Mattingly is live for us on Capitol Hill. And, Phil, already, there is a lot of squabbling between the White House and Republicans on the Hill about who is at fault for something of a rocky roll out.</s>PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, the kind of blow back certainly caught everybody off guard. The intensity of it wasn't expected. They expected some, but the intensity has certainly added to the pressure here and it's not just from conservatives. It's from outside interest groups and interests as well. The American hospital and health systems put out a letter saying they have significant concerns. The American Medical Association said they can't support the bill because of potential reductions in coverage. All this makes very clear, Jake, Republican leaders, this is their bill. They have a lot of work cut out for them.</s>MATTINGLY (voice-over): For House Republicans, the big sell is on.</s>REP. KEVIN BRADY (R), WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE: This morning, we will answer President Trump's call.</s>MATTINGLY: Two committees launched the first legislative action in a long awaited Obamacare repeal bill. Speaker Paul Ryan making a not so subtle pitch and still skeptical and even out right opposed members. This is exactly what you campaigned on.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I have no doubt we'll pass this because we're going to keep our promises.</s>MATTINGLY: Even as he acknowledged despite those promises and the full-on support of President Trump, he still has problems inside his own party.</s>RYAN: What you're seeing is we're going through the inevitable growing pains of being an opposition party to becoming a governing party.</s>MATTINGLY: Sources tell CNN GOP leaders blitzed their members behind closed doors today, with House Majority Whip Steve Scalise placing a split screen slide on a projection screen of Trump and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The question Scalise asked, whose side are you on? The GOP aides realize it will take more than that as conservatives continue to threaten to sink the bill altogether.</s>REP. MO BROOKS (R), ALABAMA: It is a lump of coal. Ultimately, it will result in the demise of our country or at least contribute to our debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy.</s>MATTINGLY: Among those in need of persuading, Senator Ted Cruz, who despite the unfounded allegation tying his father to the assassination of</s>JFK -- DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting?</s>MATTINGLY: And this unflattering tweet about his wife Heidi will be welcomed by President Trump at the White House tonight for dinner and some lobbying on Obamacare. And with good reason, on the other side of the aisle --</s>REP. FRANK PALONE (D), RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE ENERGY & COMMERCE COMMITTEE: Mr. Chairman, I'm simply asking for recognition with regard to a parliamentary inquiry.</s>MATTINGLY: -- there is no help on the way as Democrats today spent hours criticizing the bill.</s>REP. RICHARD NEAL (D), WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER: Does it cover more Americans? No. Does it cut the deficit? No.</s>MATTINGLY: Mocking the process and the president at the same time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bad. Sad.</s>MATTINGLY: As well as the components for maintaining preexisting condition protections, to allowing kids to stay on their parents' health care until the age of 26.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a lot of plagiarism in this bill.</s>MATTINGLY: And attacking the legislative sprint now in full effect.</s>REP. LLOYD DOGGETT (D), TEXAS: Last week, this bill was literally under armed guard in the capital, kept a secret as Donald Trump's tax returns.</s>MATTINGLY: The Democratic efforts falling short of derailing any aspect of the GOP plan. Underscore that the GOP leaders from Trump on down, the issue is their party. And they simply aren't there yet.</s>RYAN: Look at what this does -- this is a conservative wish list.</s>MATTINGLY: And, Jake, I'm standing right outside one of the committee rooms where they are actually slogging through the legislative action. But an important note here: there are no changes expected to these bills, at least in committee. So, how do you get those skeptical or down right opposed conservatives to come aboard? Well, we're starting to get a hint of President Trump's strategy, some of those House Freedom Caucus members, the most conservative of the House Republican Conference, they will be heading to the White House to bowl, persuasion in full effect, Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much. Let's talk to one of these skeptical conservative Republicans who says he won't vote for the bill as it's now written, Congressman Mark Meadows, Republican of the great state of North Carolina, joins me now. He is also the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Congressman, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it.</s>REP. MARK MEADOWS (R), NORTH CAROLINA: Jake, it's always great to be with you. Thanks so much.</s>TAPPER: So, the number three Republican in the House, Majority Whip Steve Scalise told you and other Republicans today when it comes to this bill, you're either with Nancy Pelosi and you oppose this bill, or you're with Donald Trump and you support the bill. Under this construct, I suppose, you're with Nancy Pelosi?</s>MEADOWS: You know, I'm with the American people, Jake, and you know that. I'm a straight shooter and what happens is if it's a bad bill, whether it's on our side of the aisle or the Democrats' side of the aisle, I'm going to stand with the American people. And Donald Trump and I are not at odds. We want to make sure that we repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with something that drives down health care costs and insurance premiums, and this doesn't do it, Jake. And, so, you know, when you put those slides up, that doesn't do anything to compel people to look at this. These are principled decisions. We have to have an honest debate and hopefully negotiate to get to a place where there's 218 votes in the House.</s>TAPPER: Do they need to get rid of the refundable tax credits in the bill, which some of the house Freedom Caucus Members have called Republican welfare? Is that one of your big objections?</s>MEADOWS: Well, that is an objection, but that's more a tactic on where we get there, Jake. I can tell you that in our bill, the one we endorsed, it doesn't have refundable advance tax credits. But really, we had even some of our members saying, well, what about the working poor, how do you handle that? And, so, we had amendments looking at Dr. Rand Paul's bill to make sure that we can supply some money, at least seed money to make sure that we do that. But to do a new entitlement program, do I have a problem with that when indeed it's not even means tested? We have it -- if you're a certain age, you get it. It does have a cap on it and that's an improvement. I would acknowledge that. But really right now what we're looking at is my big concern is will it drive down insurance premiums and the analysis that I've done at this point would suggest that it doesn't, and it doesn't even cover as many people as perhaps what we have right now.</s>TAPPER: Beyond allowing more competition across state lines, what do you think would be an effective way to bring down premiums?</s>MEADOWS: Well, one of the ways, Jake, that you could bring down premiums is to allow insurance companies to offer different kinds of insurance. Everybody talks about this being a full repeal, but the fact of the matter is we're still mandating insurance companies what they offer and how they offer it. So, if I want to buy a catastrophic plan that has a deductible of 25,000 or 50,000, and fund my health care needs through an HSA, I can't do that today because the law prohibits it. We need to address that. That starts to drive it down. And so, until you really have more flexibility in the insurance industry, we're not going to be able to drive costs down.</s>TAPPER: Are you prepared for the political pressure of this? President Trump says he's proud of this bill. The plan is going to be wildly popular. He's working to convince Republicans to support it. He sent out a tweet yesterday. I guess it was a nice tweet about his friend Rand Paul coming on board, but some people thought it was a way of like showing like, "Hey, I'm paying attention to who is opposing me." Are you at all concerned?</s>MEADOWS: Well, I mean, political pressure, getting a call from your own president, of course, I would be not honest if you say, are you worried about that type of political pressure? But I can tell you this. I believe when the president understands the fact that this is not going to really help millions of people, that he'll be with us on our side because I campaigned with him. I know what he said in North Carolina and other states in the South. And as we see that, it's all about making sure that we provide more affordable health care. And, so, you know, as the president weighs in, that message that is being reported is very different than what I heard from the vice-president and Director Mick Mulvaney which says we're open to amendments. Let the negotiations begin. We're a willing partner in that ready to negotiate, ready to get to yes.</s>TAPPER: All right. Congressman Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina -- thanks. We'll have you back as this process continues. Appreciate it.</s>MEADOWS: Thanks, Jake.</s>TAPPER: Schools shut down, companies closed as rallies take place around the world on, quote, "A Day Without A Woman". Plus, a criminal investigation being opened into the WikiLeaks dump of some scary CIA documents that say the agency can hack into cell phones, TVs, cars. Are more leaks on the way? Stay with us.