Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski Speak Out on Health Care, Russia Investigation.
CABRERA: The two women, two Republican Senators who stood up to their party and voted no on the Republican health care bill are speaking out. Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski told CNN's chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, they could not support the legislation because of issues dealing with access to health care, specifically women's issues. Plus, Senator Collins weighed in on the special council into Russia's election meddling. Let's listen.</s>DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: CNN is reporting that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, is expanding his investigation to include the president's financial dealings that may not have anything to do with the campaign in 2016. Is that appropriate?</s>SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R), MAINE: I believe that the special counsel has a very broad mandate and he should follow the leads wherever they may be. Thus, I do not think his investigation should be constrained beyond the mandate that he was given when he was --</s>BASH: The president called that a red line?</s>COLLINS: The president can't set red lines for Bob Mueller.</s>CABRERA: Well said. Let's bring in our Dana Bash, as well as Reid Wilson, national correspondent for "The Hill," and CNN politics reporter and CNN editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza. Dana, that interview with Senators Collins and Murkowski much more far ranging than we just played but, clearly, they are not afraid to take on this president.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, they are not. The conversation was mostly about their health care votes. They were both the only consistent "no" votes, and sort of opponents to what the Republican leadership and, to a lesser extent, the White House was trying to push through. They were the key reason that it failed. Obviously, John McCain, at the end, came in and sort of gave it the final -- the final blow. But, we talked about what it was like behind the scenes for these two women and these two Republican Senators and the intense pressure that they had to change. A lot of people say, Ana, that they are heroes, and a lot of people don't. That's where I started the conversation.</s>CABRERA: Reid, the president's --</s>CABRERA: You are both heroes to a lot of people. And heretics to a lot of people. How do you see yourselves?</s>COLLINS: Well, I see myself as someone who has an obligation to represent the people of Maine. Sometimes that means casting uncomfortable votes, votes that will make my party uncomfortable and even angry at me.</s>SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI, (R), ALASKA: You want to vote to do the right thing and so worrying about the consequences, are you fearful of repercussion from your party? A tweet from the president? A backlash from your leadership? I don't believe that we should be motivated or discouraged from taking the positions that are important to the people that we represent and our respective states.</s>BASH: Ana, she told me a story about the second time during this process that the president called all Republican Senators down to the White House, and he was, you know, really trying to get everybody to get on board and come together. And she said she stood up and said directly to the president, paraphrasing here, I don't vote for the Republican Party, I vote for the people from Alaska. Then Susan Collins jumped in and said, I remember that, I was really proud of you. It was interesting to get more of a sense of what went on in this dramatic, several-week process for the Senators behind the scenes.</s>CABRERA: Reid, the pressure coming from the president on that and other issues doesn't seem to be working. In some cases, it seems to be backfiring. Talk about the bipartisan effort to protect Robert Mueller, the special counsel to the Russia investigation, and giving Congress power to intervene if there's an attempt to fire him.</s>REID WILSON, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE HILL: Right. You made a very important point that the president's pressure is not working terribly well. And even somebody like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn't necessarily have the leverage, especially over these two Senators. Susan Collins built a career out of being an independent Senator. She's even thinking of running for governor in Maine, which would reduce the pressure even more. And let's not forget how Lisa Murkowski won reelection. She lost the Republican primary and then won a write-in vote. That's remarkable. And it speaks to how popular she is back home in Alaska. The fact that there are now two Republican Senators, Lindsey Graham, in South Carolina, and Thom Tillis, in North Carolina, joining with Democrats to support a measure that would protect Bob Mueller, the special counsel, tells me a lot of Republicans are not feeling political pressure that a typical White House might be able to exert over members of their own party. The fact is, this president has not built a relationship necessary on Capitol Hill to twist those arms and effectively get his legislative agenda through the Senate. And now that's starting to hurt. It has hurt over the last seven, eight months. The president is now leaving for vacation today and doesn't have a major legislative accomplishment under his belt.</s>CABRERA: Chris, of course, the issue of Bob Mueller needing protection by Congress, again, becoming a hot topic because of the president himself suggesting that if Mueller's investigation veered into his and his family's finances, that's would be a red line.</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Right. And you've heard the president's lawyers yesterday say something similar to that, which is, you know, we don't know about this, we haven't been told about it, but if it did go into his finances, we would object to that. Now, what does object to that mean in terms of what they actually do? I think you heard in Dana's great interview there with Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski that there's not a lot of appetite in the Senate for getting rid of Bob Mueller. As Reid noted, Thom Tillis, who is not exactly sort of a maverick, thus far, in his time in the Senate, joining with lindsey Graham saying we're going to protect Bob Mueller. There would be a huge outcry if Donald Trump did anything with Bob Mueller. That doesn't mean he won't. This is Donald Trump we're talking about. But I think he'd have huge problems in the Senate. Even within his own party, and even among many Republican Senators we're not talking about. Not the lindsey Grahams, Susan Collins, John McCains of the world, but others rank-and-file down-the-line Republicans I think would object to this. So does that mean Donald Trump won't do it? No. But I think he is at least aware it would face significant opposition among Republicans in the Senate and in the House if he did something like this, to penalize Bob Mueller for violating what he called the red line.</s>CABRERA: And, Dana, I also want to ask you about there's the Russia sanctions bill as well, that we've recently talked about in which the Senators and House members, Republicans and Democrats, passed bipartisanship. And they essentially tied the president's hands when it um cans to negotiating with Russia. It seems they may be emboldened now as a branch of government to really dig into their role as a check on the president's power. What are you hearing from others you're talking to on the Hill?</s>BASH: There's no question that they are emboldened. And, you know, look, you've got a bigger issue. There is widespread belief that Russia meddled in the U.S. election among Republicans. There is widespread belief, clearly, based on the lopsided votes for sanctions, that they need to be punished for that. That is why, as you said, Congress acted as the ultimate check on that issue, forcing the president to sign something he clearly did not want to sign to do just that. And so that's one example. Another I would point to is what went on with Jeff Sessions. The fact that the president was publicly shaming him and, you know, maybe even you could go so far as bullying him. Clearly, trying to get him to resign with his statements on Twitter and a couple of occasions in public in front of the microphone. And you saw Republican Senator after Republican Senator stand up and push back. Not just because Jeff Sessions is a former member of the Senate club, but because they got what the president -- what they thought the president was trying to do. Get Sessions out, try to get somebody in who is, maybe, you know, more easy to manipulate with regard to the Mueller investigation, and try to do it around there. And they stood up and said, oh, no, no, no, this isn't going to happen, we'll make sure of it.</s>CABRERA: Dana Bash, Reid Wilson, Chris Cillizza, thank you all for joining us.</s>CABRERA: Coming up, remember that vulgar tirade that cost former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, his job? We have the actual audio now. Stay with us.