Trump Slams McCain As Health Care Plan Falters; GOP Health Care Plan: One "No" Vote From Failing.
BLACKWELL: All right, 14 minutes after the hour now. President Trump is going after Senator John McCain after the senator likely stopped efforts to repeal Obamacare this session. President Trump tweeted this morning, "John McCain never had any intention of voting for this bill, which his governor loves. He campaigned on repeal and replace. Let Arizona down." The president's comments, of course, come after Senator McCain said he could not in good conscience vote for the proposed Graham-Cassidy bill without knowing its impact, without knowing how much it would cost. McCain's no vote likely means Republicans will not be able to repeal the health care law with a simple majority by the September 30th deadline. Joining me now is CNN politics reporter, Lauren Fox, Danielle Lippman, "Politico" reporter, and Melissa Quinn, breaking news reporter with "The Washington Examiner." Good morning to all. I want to get to the potential of this being over in just a moment, but first, Melissa, let me start with you, the president last night said that John McCain wasn't on his list of potential no votes. This morning he's saying that John McCain never intended to vote for this bill. I wonder why there's any surprise when John McCain said this after his vote -- rather, ahead of his vote that thumbs down for the skinny repeal just a few weeks ago. Watch.</s>SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We tried to do this by coming up with a proposal behind closed doors in consultation with the administration, then springing it on skeptical members, trying to convince them that it's better than nothing. That it's better than nothing? Asking us to swallow our doubts and force it past a unified opposition. I don't think that's going to work in the end, and probably shouldn't.</s>BLACKWELL: And probably shouldn't. Same process, same concerns. Why was there any surprise that John McCain would not support this?</s>MELISSA QUINN, BREAKING NEWS REPORTER, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": Well, you're absolutely right. I think when you look back at John McCain's comments just a few weeks ago when the Senate first debated their first go around at repealing and replacing Obamacare, he was very passionate about the fact that any health care proposal that the Senate was going to take up needed to go through regular order, and the Graham/Cassidy bill did not go through regular order. In fact, I think a lot of people would agree that this plan really came out of left field, because Republicans and even President Trump had said that they were shifting their focus to tax reform, but there are two things about the Graham/Cassidy proposal that make it different from the health care bill that the Senate considered just a few weeks ago. First, this is a bill that was sponsored and really spearheaded by Lindsey Graham, who is John McCain's best friend in the Senate, and secondly, the bill had the support of Arizona Governor Doug Doocy, which sort of would have provided Senator McCain a little bit more cover if he did want to come out and support the bill, which we know now he's not going to.</s>BLACKWELL: So, Daniel, let me come to you, I said at the top that this is likely the death knell for this bill, but you've got two noes, that leaves 50 potential yeses, although, we know that Senator Collins is likely leaning no, is this over? Is Graham/Cassidy/Johnson/Heller dead?</s>DANIEL LIPPMAN, "POLITICO" REPORTER: It looks that way because you know, the Maine senator said to her local paper she trashed the bill, and so they are waiting for John McCain to basically give them cover to oppose it. They wanted him to do the same thing he did a month or two ago in terms of, you know, dooming this repeal effort. It's interesting to see how much effort the Senate Republicans have spent on this issue when they have nothing to show their voters. It seems like they are more likely to go into tax reform, where, you know, cutting taxes, that's their party, you know, that's one of their party messages. And so, if they can just go to that, then there's much more likely chance that they would pass something.</s>BLACKWELL: And, Lauren, the president said last night that it makes it more difficult, but he's going to keep trying. The president has signed on to every iteration of a repeal that came out of Congress. First it was the American health care act. The president said, I'm in. Then it was just repeal with no replace. President says yes. Then the Senate said we have a plan, president says let's go for it, skinny repeal, I'm in. The Graham/Cassidy bill, I like that, too. We heard from Congressman Dent, who's going to be leaving Congress soon, that the president needs to lead here not just accept and follow. Here's what he said.</s>REPRESENTATIVE CHARLIE DENT (R), PENNSYLVANIA: The president can blame whoever he wants for this. When we didn't pass the House health bill, you know, he told me before he was going to blame me, destroy the Republican Party, all that. But at the end of the day, to be fair, you know, the president really never laid out his principles or his plan on health care. And I've always felt if you're going to change the whole health care system in this country, it demands strong executive leadership, presenting a plan, principles, and going out and selling it. I didn't see that happen here.</s>BLACKWELL: To what degree is that frustration or concern shared on Capitol Hill?</s>LAUREN FOX, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, I think it's a double-edged sword. A lot of members of Congress say that they wanted to craft their own health care bill. They did not want this just coming from the administration, they wanted to work through this. Now on the other end of that, it's very clear that President Trump is not a policy wonk. He is not someone who has poured over exactly what he wants the American health care system to look like. He wants Republicans to get it done. And I think there is some frustration on Capitol Hill that the president hasn't been out there doing rallies, something that he loves to do, something that he could do to energize the base around this. Instead, a lot of members go home and they hear from liberal activists who are at town halls telling them that they don't want them to support this bill. I think there is a little bit of frustration there that the president has not been taking the lead on this.</s>BLACKWELL: So, Melissa, what's next? Will we see as the president calls them Chuck and Nancy back to dinner, trying to work out a deal with Democrats. The president, of course, appreciated the praise that he got after coming up with the deal relating to the debt ceiling and Harvey aid. Not so much the pushback from conservatives on the DACA deal, but is that potentially in the cards?</s>QUINN: Yes. I think we'll have to see. In terms of health care, Republicans are pressing up very quickly against a September 30th deadline and Senator Cassidy has said he wants to continue and push forward and ideally pass a bill overhauling the health care system. But like you mention, Republicans have a very packed agenda in the next few weeks. We have a March 5th deadline in terms of when DACA will be rescinded. We have a budget deal expiring at the beginning of December. We have heard a lot of rumblings for months now about an infrastructure plan, tax reform, so whether or not Republicans decide to put health care aside in the next few weeks and shift to these other items on their very lengthy agenda is ultimately up to Senate Republican leaders.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes. Chuck and Nancy, of course, being the Democratic minority leaders, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in the Senate and the House respectively. Daniel, finally to you, this event was about a lot of things last night, but it was supposed to be a full-throated endorsement of Senator Luther Strange and his run-off on Tuesday, and I have to say, this was probably the most unorthodoxed endorsement we've heard of a candidate. I want you to listen to what the president said about his support for Luther Strange.</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: We have to be loyal in life, you know, there's something called loyalty with these folks and I might have made a mistake, and I'll be honest. I might have made a mistake because, you know, here's a story. If Luther doesn't win, they are not going to say we picked up 25 points in a very short period of time. They are going to say, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, was unable to pull his candidate across the line. It is a terrible, terrible moment for Trump. This is total embarrassment. I mean, these are bad people. And by the way, both good men, both good men, and you know what, and I told Luther, I have to say this, if his opponent wins, I'm going to be here campaigning like hell for him. But, I have to say this, and you understand this, just look at the polls, Luther will definitely win.</s>BLACKWELL: I mean, you put a cherry on top at the end. What's under that cherry is the question. Maybe I made a mistake, I'm dragging him across the finish line, and, hey, if my guy doesn't win, I'll be here for the other guy. The interesting part here is, all of it's true. And if Luther Strange loses on Tuesday, we will say the president was unable to drag his candidate across the finish line, just as the president said.</s>LIPPMAN: I've been watching politician endorsement rallies for several years, and for them I've never seen a single one say I might have made a mistake by coming down here and rallying for this guy. And so, you know, Trump returned to his comfortable, you know, room where he likes to bash the media. That's his -- he loves that line and so -- but it doesn't seem like he was doing Luther Strange any favors last night. And it seems like more people were there to see Trump than Strange. So, there is much more grassroots energy for Roy Moore. So, he may very well win on Tuesday.</s>BLACKWELL: I'd love to know how many of those people in that venue last night actually are going to vote for Roy Moore but just came to see President Trump. Daniel Lippman, Melissa Quinn, Lauren Fox, thank you all. All right -- Christi.</s>PAUL: We have to tell you about the thousands of Americans in Puerto Rico, who are being forced to evacuate because of what you're seeing on your screen there, fears that this dam could collapse. We have a live update for you from Puerto Rico next.</s>BLACKWELL: And right now, rescuers are still hoping to find anyone under this pile of cement and glass and steel. This is Mexico City days after the earthquake toppled buildings there. We're going to go live to one of the rescue sites.