[John Vause, Host, Cnn:] Welcome back, everybody. It's 12.31 here in Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
[Isa Soares, Host, Cnn:] And I'm Isa Soares. You are watching CNN Newsroom live from Los Angeles. Now shock for republican lawmakers overnight in Washington where they suffered an enormous defeat in their effort to repeal as well as replace Obamacare. Senator John McCain cast the deciding no vote on the so-called skinny repeal measure, and that means Obamacare remains the law of the land.
[Vause:] U.S. President Donald Trump not happy. He tweeted this out during the early hours. "Three republicans and 48 democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let Obamacare implode, then deal, and watch."
[Soares:] Meanwhile, and watch meanwhile, back at the White House, a really ugly power struggle has gone public in a rather big way. Incoming communication director Anthony Scaramucci called the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza and viciously attacked Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. He accused Priebus of leaks and then he got really, rather, nasty.
[Vause:] Yes, then he got nasty. I hate to highlight here. This is from the New York article. "Reince is a paranoid schizophrenic, paranoiac," Scaramucci said. He channeled Priebus as he spoke, "Bill Shine is coming in," Bill Shine of Fox News is at the dinner. "Let me leak the effing thing and see if I can something blocked these people the way, something blocked Scaramucci for six months." I have no idea what any of that means.
[Soares:] A lot of expletives.
[Vause:] OK. They can tell you if we see a lot. We have on the republican side, Shawn Steel and John Thomas, and on the democratic side, Matt Lippman and Caroline Heldman. OK. Let's stop and look at the front page from the New York Post for Friday edition, "It's survivor White House." Center stage, reality TV star Donald Trump." Certainly, a lot of in-fighting right now within the West Wing. But I'm wondering, Matt, is it really survivor right now or is it more dynasty?
[Mathew Littman, Democratic Strategist:] Well, Donald Trump obviously likes the drama.
[Vause:] Yes.
[Littman:] But the problem is, that while all this drama is going on, he's not fulfilling the agenda for which he was elected. So, today healthcare reform failed. Tax reform, so far, nothing. Infrastructure, nothing. And that's the problem, is that there's all this drama and in-fighting inside the White House. But also, Scaramucci is probably not the right person for a White House communications job. That's another problem. You know, another person who kisses up to Donald Trump isn't the answer when you're having communications issues. Hiring a professional who knows how to do that job might be the right move. This guy seems to be in love with publicity, even this publicity, which we would consider probably terrible. This to him is fantastic and I think Trump likes it.
[Soares:] Well, this is how Scaramucci pretty much explained what happened. As we can read a tweet from him, he said, "I made a mistake in trusting a reporter. It won't happen again." I mean, he basically calls the reporter. He knows he's on, you know, the record. I mean, a White House communication director...
[Vause:] Did not say off the record.
[Soares:] He didn't say off the record.
[John Thomas, Political Commentator, Cnn:] Well, I'm not sure he has the experience to know that you don't state something that's off the record. It's on the record. And that's part of the problem. To Matt's point, you know...
[Soares:] But important to note, Ryan Lizza actually went back to him after when he called him, they had a conversation, and then the next day he followed up. So you can't say he didn't he wasn't aware of this conversation.
[Littman:] He probably knew the call was being recorded, which it was.
[Vause:] But Shawn, this is the thing, I mean, when are they going to get some experienced people in the White House who actually know how to actually make the White House work?
[Shawn Steel, California Republican National Committeeman:] Scaramucci really had a great debut. And then he had an incredibly strange conversation with a reporter that he really honestly believed that was off the record. He couldn't, because he really, he said things that you wouldn't even say to most people in life. He's embarrassed about it. And it shows one thing. This is such a different White House. It really drives the liberals crazy. The Trump supporters understand that they elected a bull in the China shop and they want all the furniture destroyed. And that's, you know, and you know, they're comfortable with that. Now, what Scaramucci do does in the next couple of days, he's going to he's going to has to be more transparent, he has to be more open, that's what people elected Trump for. Because he's the most unfiltered president of our time.
[Vause:] OK. You said it drives the liberals crazy. It's driving the conservatives crazy as well. This is Mark Levin from his radio show on Thursday.
[Mark Levin, Radio:] Do you think this kind of internecine warfare makes America great again? It makes these guys look stupid, moronic, pathetic! That's not how you serve your president, in my view.
[Vause:] Caroline, Mark Levin master of understatement, I guess. But you know, we should note, though, that apparently this war between Scaramucci and Priebus is actually being egged on by the president.
[Caroline Heldman, Democratic Strategist:] Right. And it's not serving him. Bless your heart, Shawn, but this is not good for the president. It's not just liberals who are upset about this. This president has the lowest approval ratings of any president at any point...
[Stell:] You're relying on the polls again?
[Heldman:] Yes, you know, it's data, numbers, I know facts are scary.
[Stell:] Good luck.
[Thomas:] Well, he's still at 80, 90 percent with his base.
[Heldman:] Nineteen-point-five percent of the population voted for this president. He has a steady stream of seven months of self-inflicted wounds. We can't act like this is normal. We can't act like...
[Steel:] But his base hasn't abandoned him yet, Caroline. That's the issue.
[Heldman:] His base his base has not abandoned him but his base is small and he has not been effective in pushing legislative agenda. And Scaramucci is just the latest in a stream of amateurs in the White House. It reflects poorly on the presidency and it reflects poorly on this particular president.
[Soares:] It has distracted the White House from the policies and legislative agenda then they should be focusing on, Matt.
[Littman:] Well, of course, the legislative agenda is kind dead in the water. The idea that big tax reform would happen, it's not happening.
[Vause:] Yes.
[Littman:] There's a semi-tax reform plan that came out today, not that great.
[Vause:] OK. We're going to take a short break. Stay with us. A lot more coverage out of the White House, the in-fighting and of course the failure to pass healthcare. Stay with us.