[Dana Bash, Anchorwoman, Inside Politics:] Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash. John King is off. How do you move forward on an agenda with frustration and animosity between the president and the republican majority leader? The guy who's supposed to be his partner in the senate spilling into the public? As new CNN poll, we are releasing right now, shows republicans are turning on their own. Plus, the president is huddling today with national security advisors as Kim Jong-un puts Guam in his sights. Time to target, 17 minutes. Here to share the reporting is Carl Hulse of the New York Times, The Daily Beast's Jackie Kucinich, Jack Mason of Reuters, and Mary Katharine Ham of The Federalist. Marriages of convenience are bound to hit rough patches, right? Well, that's pretty much what's going on today between President Trump and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell except they are now arguing in public with a lot of people watching and it's causing quite a scene. The president is launching tweets at Senator McConnell once again this morning blaming him for failing to repeal and replace Obamacare and the president he's never been shy about blaming congress for his stalled agenda and now we see he's got some company. We have new numbers breaking right now from our new CNN poll that shows just how much Americans dislike congress. Only 20 percent in our new poll approve of the job congress is doing. As for the republican leadership, Senator McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, they are almost equally disliked. They get a thumbs up from only 24 percent of Americans. And that number is down from 39 percent in January, when it looked like there was a real chance the republican congress could deliver on that seven-year promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Well, some say President Trump is starting a fight with Senator McConnell is not a good idea, but the president clearly disagrees, and this could be why. He knows his approval rating, even when it's hovering around historic lows, when compared with other presidents is still stronger than his counterparts on Capitol Hill. Again, only 24 percent of Americans approve of the job, the republican leadership is doing 38 percent approve of how President Trump is doing. So he is doing better there. And among republicans, Trump gets even stronger reviews. So the republican congress is getting mixed reviews from its own party. Republicans are split right down the middle. 44 percent say it's been a success so far. 44 percent view congress right now as a failure. And when it comes to why congress has failed, why no major legislation has made it to President Trump's desk, far more republicans blame congress than the president. 32 percent say disagreement among republicans is the reason why. And only eight percent fault a lack of leadership from President Trump. And the president's advisors routinely praise his political instincts and Trump's tweet this morning is in lock step, maybe, with how his party feels. He said, "Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn't get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!" Now, the genesis of the latest spat between the president and the senate majority leader is this.
[Sen. Mitch Mcconnell,  Majority Leader:] Our new president of course has been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process. And so part of the reason I think people feel like we're under underperforming is because too many kind of artificial deadlines, unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating.
[Bash:] So, guys, thanks for coming in. And Carl Hulse, I want to start with you because we spend a lot of time roaming the halls of the Capitol and I know you know you can get inside of Mitch McConnell's head. Let's just start there.
[Carl Hulse, New York Times:] Well, I don't know if I want be there.
[Bash:] Well you know, why not? Better than better than most of us. He was in a comfortable setting there. He was at the rotary club and he just maybe said what he thought and what he was feeling inside of what he says in private, but I've talked to sources who are sort of familiar with him and close to the president who said, you know, maybe he shouldn't have started this because he did start it with that comment.
[Hulse:] I think one thing that he was trying to do was to discourage the administration from setting these deadlines, right? Because if you say you're going to do something by a certain point and then it doesn't happen because it never happens by a certain point in congress, then you're going to get beat up. Trump wants wins. I think that a couple of things are interesting. One, that he said McConnell has been screaming. I've never heard Mitch McConnell screams. So that was kind of funny. And, you know, Trump's base of support never really liked Mitch McConnell anyway, right? They say they see him as a big part of the problem but they have this huge month coming up. And I had a republican today describe this to me, it's like if FDR was undermining ike right before D-day, right? That this is the kind of problem that it can create. So, at the same time, though, I made one last point about this. The president just endorsed McConnell's candidate in Alabama, Luther Strange. So, on the one hand, he is beating him up, on the other hand, he is helping him out. I think, you know, Mitch McConnell's probably looking at this, shrugging a bit, but also saying, you know, we have to get pass these spats.
[Bash:] Exactly. Talking about spats, Jackie, I was told that, you know, that CNN reporter first of all, that the two men had an animated conversation by phone yesterday. I was told this morning that the president put in an initial call into Mitch McConnell and then when McConnell called the president back the president took the call and had that animated conversation with him from the golf course. I guess that's a whole new version of teeing off, right?
[Jackie Kucinich, The Daily Beast:] Right.
[Bash:] I'll be here all day. I'll be here today.
[Jeff Mason, Reuters:] Doesn't like to confirm that he is playing golf.
[Bash:] Well, there is that. Well, that was already he was already added because of Instagram pictures. But, I mean, you know, again, intense conversations between a president and a leader, that's, like, you know, no big deal, but it's the fact that the president keeps going after the senate majority leader on Twitter. Last night and this morning, that's where it becomes a problem.
[Kucinich:] But that's what this president does. The problem is, Mitch McConnell's not really going to be bullied and this is actually kind of cutting off your nose to spite your face because he's going to need Mitch McConnell going forward. He can be angry at about Obamacare and you know what, he probably has a point. Republicans should have had something in place and ready because they've talking about it. I mean, Mitch McConnell, root and branch. You heard him say it over and over and over again in successive elections. That said, on tax reform, on infrastructure, on a whole host of other things that this president has identified as his priorities. He's going to need buy-in. And, you know, we saw it with Lisa Murkowski, with Susan Collins. When he kept on going after these senators, it doesn't it doesn't get him anywhere. There's that old adage, you attract more flies with honeys than vinegar. Well, he's putting vinegar on all over this relationship with Mitch McConnell at this point and it's going to come back to bite him.
[Bash:] Well, you mentioned that Senator Lisa Murkowski, our colleague Manu Raju has reporting today that the conversation that the president had with Lisa Murkowski as they were trying to get the votes for health care was so bad that it really helped to turn her off. And, in fact, I had a conversation with Senator Murkowski last week where she kind of alluded to it. Let's listen. Did you feel that he was trying to intimidate you?
[Sen. Lisa Murkowski,  Alaska:] I will just say that the president and I had a very direct call.
[Mason:] Direct. And usually code word for not a very good one.
[Bash:] Right. And I mean, so, look. You cover this White House every day. This is not a new phenomenon for this president to be very direct if we keep the diplo speak going here. And he did so on Twitter as well, but are there are there lessons learned? I mean, maybe I'm answering my own question. The answer is, no because he's still going after Mitch McConnell. The president doesn't really feel like he has anything to lose and our new poll shows that.
[Mason:] I don't think he does feel like he has anything to lose and I think it's just completely consistent with his style. Whether it's somebody he needs, whether it's somebody he doesn't need. If he feels like they haven't produced what he is looking for or feels like they've offended him in some way or in some general way has not done what he wanted, he's going to go after them and does it on Twitter. He does it in speeches. He does it in any sort of platform that he has, particularly, in social media.
[Bash:] Well, you know, Carl, you mentioned that there is a special election going on for the senate seat to replace Jeff Sessions in Alabama. And there is an inter I mean, sort of the republican fight for where they are is playing out in Alabama. You mentioned that the president endorsed the establishment figure, Lucer Luther Strange earlier this week, and on conservative radio that is not going over very well. I want you to listen to what Mark Levin said the other day.
[Mark Levin, The Mark Levin Show:] The president of the United States did something yesterday which was a stab in the back to every conservative in this country. He can't say he's an outsider when he just undermined every conservative in the state of Alabama and every conservative in this country by endorsing the worst candidate possible and empowering further Mitch McConnell, Karl Rove and this guy, Jeff Roe. Now I don't know how we're going to get change in this country when, Mr. Change is not Mr. Change. These elections have consequences. I think what he did yesterday was outrageous, absolutely outrageous. And I don't think many of you are going to forget about it.
[Mary Katharine Ham, The Federalist:] Well, this is the big like, this is the red line, the change line and that's what we see in some of his polling when people start losing fate that he can be an agent of change and I think he gets in real trouble because he wasn't elected for the other reasons, for the credibility and all these other things that people sort of gave him a pass on. I think the timeline here suggests perhaps the tweeting as a response to the grumbling on conservative radio, and there's some, in the past and the past weeks with the session and sort of travelled and where he backed off of that because there was a lot of anger in conservative circles as well. So perhaps that what's going on? But look, with this White House, with Trump himself, everything is a fight and every fight is public. So I think the idea that you're going to get a bunch of stuff done in congress because you stop having spats is like, that ship sailed. You have to get stuff down while you're having these spats and I think that's one thing that's interesting to me is why does McConnell, a little bit, poke the bear in a really not a big deal kind of way but you know who you're dealing with and then that starts this pattern.
[Bash:] And before we go to break, I just want to get your take on this. The president kind of has a point, right? I mean, the republicans in congress have been promising this for seven years. And this guy, just won the White House and should he not have expected these republicans in congress to be ready to go, to put this repeal and replace bill on the floor and move it through congress in a way that could actually pass among republicans?
[Hulse:] Yes, I think that from what I heard the White House was really seething over this. You know, here is Mitch McConnell, he couldn't deliver this, he's got the majority, and where was the plan? You promised you were going to do it. Yes, I think that the president is feeling let down by these guys. You know, it's an interesting point, just the whole, I said, you know, people used to go home at recess and they talk to their rotary and no one would know what they're saying, right? But now every comment is covered and I don't know that Mitch expected it to reverberate so quickly here in Washington, but he is, you know, he's got the president riled up.
[Bash:] They got they've got...
[Mason:] Mitch McConnell had a point, too, right? I mean, President Trump as a candidate said that Obamacare would be repealed and replaced on day one and Senator McConnell saying these were unrealistic deadlines and that is a product of not having...
[Bash:] That is true. OK, guys, we have we have to go to break, we have a lot more to discuss but as we do, I just want to remind President Trump, 38 percent in CNN's new poll republican leaders, 24 percent tells you a lot. There you see it again. Up next, the White House says President Trump is not backing down from his fire and fury threat and the threats from North Korea keep coming and they're getting more specific.