Week In The News: Health Care Revival, White House Chaos, Russia Investigation

Published July 28, 2017 at 9:00 AM CDT

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci speaks to members of the media at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

The Senate gets back to health care. Trump’s Transgender ban. Jeff Sessions drama. Jared Kushner says he didn’t collude. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

A GOP healthcare collapse this week. Wild profanity from the White House. And the Boy Scouts of America apologize for remarks of the President of the United States. Holy cow! John McCain cast the vote that brought down a “skinny repeal.” Anthony Scaramucci went off on Reince Priebus. The President went off on Jeff Sessions, and tweeted a ban on transgender military service. Congress sanctions Russia some more. This Hour On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines. — Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Nancy Cordes, chief congressional correspondent for CBS News. ( @nancycordes)

Josh Gerstein, senior White House reporter for POLITICO. ( @joshgerstein)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. ( @JackBeattyNPR)

From Tom’s Reading List

New York Times: Senate Rejects Slimmed-Down Obamacare Repeal as McCain Votes No — “The Senate in the early hours of Friday morning rejected a new, scaled-down Republican plan to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, derailing the Republicans’ seven-year campaign to dismantle President Barack Obama’s signature health care law and dealing a huge political setback to President Trump.”

CBS News: Did a spending debate spark transgender military ban? — “President Trump’s decision to ban transgender service members appeared to come in response to a spending debate that had been taking place on Capitol Hill. Leadership sources tell CBS News that during a debate on military spending, House Republicans asked the White House to support an amendment put forth by Missouri Republican Vicky Hartzler. Nancy Cordes reports.”

POLITICO: Senators alarmed by Russian influence on U.S. politics — “Senators of both parties expressed alarm Wednesday that Russia and other countries are working to influence the U.S. political process — and said that the Justice Department is doing far too little in response. Their comments came at a long-awaited Senate hearing on foreign influence on U.S. politics, which was earlier set to feature Donald Trump Jr. and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. The top Trump campaign figures cut deals with the Senate Judiciary Committee to give their testimony behind the scenes, draining much of the drama from the hearing.