PLUS: Price on removal of W.H. Office of Drug Control: “I don’t think the American people care,” “What they care about is that we are absolutely addressing this opioid crisis”
EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Blunt: House health care bill is “not dead on arrival”
EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Feinstein on Yates’ testimony tomorrow: She “apparently has some information as to who knew what when that”
MAY 7, 2017 — In an interview on this morning’s “Meet the Press,” Health and Human Services Sec. Tom Price defended criticism that the health care bill passed by the House this week does not cover Americans with pre-existing conditions, telling NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell that the 22 organizations disputing this are “not recognizing is that this is a different, and we believe, a better way to cover an individual with pre-existing illnesses and injuries because it allows for every single person to get the access to the kind of coverage that they want.”
Price also addressed the lack of diversity and women in Thursday’s Rose Garden celebration, telling Mitchell that those present were “prominent individuals who are leading in this area of health care.”
When asked about the elimination of the White House Office of Drug Control in a time of an opioid epidemic, Price responded: “Now whether it’s through an office within the White House or whether it’s through a department, an agency of government, I don’t think the American people care. What they care about is that we are absolutely addressing this opioid crisis in the most aggressive and effective manner possible.” Watch the full interview.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) exclusively joined the network broadcast, telling Mitchell that the House health care bill is “not dead on arrival,” but that the Senate will be “taking what the House was able to do, looking at that carefully and come up with what the Senate thinks the Senate can do.”
Blunt also addressed Russian interference in the election ahead of former top Justice official Sally Yates’ testimony tomorrow: “What was particularly wrong was General Flynn not being truthful about the substance of what he said and the campaign was apparently, or the transition rather, was apparently concerned about that early on, and it appears they should have been.” Watch the full interview.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) exclusively reacted to the House bill coming to the Senate: “I don’t know what the leader, McConnell, has in mind. I don’t know that the thirteen white men, when you have five Republican women who are excluded from that, that these thirteen men are supposed to sit down and put something together.”
Feinstein told Mitchell that Yates “apparently has some information as to who knew what when that she is willing to share. And that would be what she knew about Michael Flynn’s connections to Russia and exactly what she knew they were.” Watch the full interview.
Read the full transcript of this morning’s “Meet the Press.”
For more from moderator Chuck Todd throughout the week, watch MSNBC’s “MTP Daily” weekdays at 5 p.m., and subscribe to the “1947: The Meet The Press Podcast” for on-demand interviews.
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