ALSO: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SEN. ROY BLUNT: “MEDICARE FOR ALL MEANS MEDICARE FOR NONE”
PLUS: EXCLUSIVE ONE-ON-ONE WITH REP. ADAM SCHIFF: DEUTSCHE BANK HAS A “HISTORY OF LAUNDERING RUSSIAN MONEY”
NEW: NBC NEWS/WSJ POLL: 62 PERCENT SAY TRUMP ISN’T TELLING THE TRUTH IN RUSSIA PROBE
DEC. 16, 2018 – Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said today on Meet the Press that the recent “way-out-of-the-mainstream” ruling against the Affordable Care Act in Texas is an “awful, awful decision” and that the first thing he plans to do is “put a vote on the floor urging an intervention in the case.”
The Senate Minority Leader told moderator Chuck Todd in an exclusive, live interview that the “first stop is the courts” and that it “puts a lot of our Republicans in a box because they sort of were ones that, you know, were two-faced.”
Sen. Schumer also stopped short of endorsing ‘Medicare for All,’ saying instead: “I’m going to support a plan that can pass and that can provide the best, cheapest healthcare for all Americans.”
On President Trump’s proposed border wall, Sen. Schumer said “President Trump should understand. There are not the votes for the wall. In the House or the Senate, he is not going to get the wall in any form.” Watch the full interview.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) also joined the program for an exclusive, live interview on set to discuss the recent ACA lawsuit ruling and encouraged people to remember that the ruling has “no immediate impact.”
“Nothing changes yesterday. Nothing changes tomorrow,” Sen. Blunt said. “This will be another area where healthcare will be used as a political issue way beyond the ramifications of one district judge making a ruling that has no immediate impact.”
When asked about ‘Medicare for All,’ Sen. Blunt said, “The one thing I think we would be able to unite on is ‘Medicare for All’ would wind up meaning ‘Medicare for none.’ If Democrats want to take that view to the American people, and seniors, particularly, people who are now covered by Medicare, understand the ramifications of that. There is no way that will happen. And there’s no way voters will let it happen.”
In response to investigations into the Trump inaugural committee, Sen. Blunt, who served as chair of the separate Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said that Trump Inaugural Committee Chair Tom Barrack “was always very good to deal with” but noted, “I have no idea what they did.” Watch the full interview.
In addition, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), incoming chair of the House Intelligence Committee, shared with Chuck Todd in an exclusive interview why the Deutsche Bank records are important in relation to the Trump Organization, stating that the bank has a “history of laundering Russian money. They paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines to the state of New York because they were laundering Russian money.”
Rep. Schiff continued, “What do we make of what the president’s sons are reported to have said, about not needing to deal with U.S. banks because they got all of the cash they needed from Russia or disproportionate share of their assets coming from Russia. If this is a form of compromise, it needs to be exposed.”
When asked about how far the Mueller investigation should extend, Rep. Schiff responded, “The president has wanted to draw a red line and say, ‘You can’t look at my business.’ But if the president’s business is trying to curry favor with the Kremlin, we can’t ignore that. And the president should not be in a position to say, ‘You can’t investigate certain things, only other things that I don’t care as much about.’
“If Mueller is not looking into this, and I don’t know whether he is, someone needs to because otherwise we are being derelict with our security.” Watch the full interview.
Plus, in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll, six-in-10 Americans say President Donald Trump has been untruthful about the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, while half of the country says the investigation has given them doubts about Trump’s presidency. Read more about the poll.
CBN News Chief Political Analyst and co-Author of “The Faith of Donald J. Trump: A Spiritual Biography” David Brody, POLITICO National Political Reporter Eliana Johnson, Washington Post columnist and NBC News and MSNBC Political Analyst Eugene Robinson, and NBC News Correspondent and Host of MSNBC Live Katy Tur joined the broadcast’s roundtable for insight and analysis on the week in politics. Watch the full panel.
Read the full transcript of Meet the Press this morning and follow the show on Twitter and on Facebook for the latest.
