JUDY WOODRUFF: But, first,
back to the president's
public appearances
today, the state of his

agenda, and his working
relationship with
congressional Republicans.

For more on all that,
we turn to Amy Walter
of The Cook Political
Report and Tamara Keith

of NPR.

Politics Monday.

Thank you both for being here.

So, let's start.

We heard a little of this
earlier, but let's bore
in on the president's
earlier criticism

of Mitch McConnell, the
Senate majority leader.

The president had McConnell
over to the White House
today, as we saw earlier.

Over the weekend, though,
the president's former chief
strategist, Steve Bannon, spoke

at the conservative
Value Voters Summit.

He was combative about
mainstream Republican senators
whom he is vowing to unseat.

Let's listen.

STEVE BANNON, Former White
House Chief Strategist:
All you folks that are
so concerned that you're

going to get primaried
and defeated, you know,
there's time for mea culpa.

You can come to a stick
and condemn Senator Corker.

And you can come to a stick,
a microphone, and you can
say, I'm not going to vote for

Mitch McConnell for
majority leader.

SEN.

MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY),
Majority Leader: My goal, as the
leader of the Republican Party

in the Senate, is to
keep us in the majority.

The way you do that
is not complicate it.

You have to nominate people
who can actually win, because
winners make policy and losers

go home.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And so,
Amy, I don't know whether
it's complicated or
not, but Mitch McConnell

is saying the party is going
to win the way it is, and
Steve Bannon is saying, no, we

have got to move to
the populist right.

AMY WALTER, The Cook
Political Report: Right.

Mitch McConnell is correct.

His job is to protect the
people in his party and
the people in his caucus.

Steve Bannon's job is to protect
the president, and what Steve
Bannon sees as over-reliance

on this establishment thinking.

His job is to blow things up.

Steve Bannon's is.

Mitch McConnell's is to
kind of -- is to keep
things steady as they go.

And this is, in sum,
the relationship between
the Republican Party
and Donald Trump, which

is a president who came
in vowing to shake up
the establishment, to do
things very differently.

And the personnel who's
committed to doing this in --
within their own party is Steve

Bannon.

And it's Mitch McConnell
whose job it is to try to keep
these incumbents together.

And, as we saw, Mitch McConnell
and his team have spent a
whole lot of money trying to

protect one of those,
Luther Strange in Alabama.

Didn't work out so well.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Didn't work out.

And Steve Bannon really
is trying to help
some other candidates.

TAMARA KEITH, National
Public Radio: He is.

He says that he wants
to field candidates for
basically every Senate race.

He wants to go after people
who are very conservative,
who have never voted
against President Trump

on anything, but who are
part of a leadership and
support Mitch McConnell.

The thing about today that was
fascinating to me is, President
Trump in his Cabinet meeting

was asked about Bannon
and says that he was
sort of sympathetic
to Bannon's position,

that he felt like there were
some senators that -- you
know, some are good people, he

said, but some of
them need to go.

And then he goes out,
has this impromptu press
conference in the Rose
Garden with Mitch McConnell,

and basically was like, yes,
I'm with Mitch McConnell.

We're on the same team.

Mitch McConnell is
Steve Bannon's public
enemy number one.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, you
set this up perfectly,
because we were going
to show -- we are going

to show what the president had
to say, both at the Cabinet
meeting and later with Senator

McConnell.

Here it is.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the
United States: I can understand
where Steve Bannon is coming

from.

And I can understand -- to
be honesty with you, John, I
can understand where a lot of

people are coming from, because
I'm not happy about it and
a lot of people aren't happy

about it.

Steve is doing what Steve
thinks is the right thing.

Some of the people that he
may be looking at, I'm going
to see if we talk him out of

that, because, frankly,
they're great people.

What Mitch will tell you is
that, maybe with the exception
of a few -- and that is a very

small few -- I have a fantastic
relationship with the people
in the Senate and with the

people in Congress.

Just so you understand,
the Republican Party
is very, very unified.

(LAUGHTER)

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Amy,
as Tam said, which side
is the president on here?

AMY WALTER: You don't
hold a press conference
in the Rose Garden to
say that you are really

unified with the person standing
next to you if you are really
unified, because we would

know you're unified.

You don't need to stand out
in front of a bunch of cameras
to tell people that you're

unified.

It's pretty clear why they
did this today, because the
story over the weekend of Steve

Bannon and then the constant
attacks of the president
on Mitch McConnell.

More important, the president's
agenda is not exactly lining
up with where the Republican

agenda is.

What Mitch McConnell wants to
do, number one, save the Senate.

Number two, the way they think
they're going to save the
Senate is by passing tax cuts,

tax reform, whatever
you want to call this.

That's what they
want to focus on.

The president, meanwhile, is
throwing a whole bunch of other
things on their plate, which

could deter them, whether it's
from DACA, Iran, and now of
course on Obamacare and the

payments to the
insurance companies.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Tam,
the president does keep
bringing up health care.

He brought it up again today.

He said the short-term, we're
going to maybe get something.

It may take -- it left us all
wondering, what exactly is
going on with regard to health

care?

TAMARA KEITH: And that
is not entirely clear.

It kind of depends
on the minute.

So, President Trump
says, yes, maybe we can
get this short deal.

And, as you reported earlier,
Patty Murray and Senator
Alexander, Senator Murray and

Senator Alexander,
working on some sort of
bipartisan maybe fix.

But then you have the
president's budget director
in an interview with
Politico on Friday -- this

is Mick Mulvaney -- making it
very clear that the president
isn't going to accept some sort

of small ball bipartisan deal.

He wants more.

He wants to extract more.

You know, when the president
has talked about, well, maybe we
can do something with Democrats,

he has typically still wanted
to repeal Obamacare, and that's
not something that Democrats are

interested in talking about.

AMY WALTER: And this is the
real danger for Republicans,
which is, the president is very

intent on showing that he's
followed through on his promises
and protecting the Trump brand.

He's not as interested in
protecting the Republican brand.

He's not on the ballot in 2018.

His party is.

So, Mitch McConnell obviously
is much more concerned about
what happens to his Republicans,

the president much more
concerned about what happens
to the President Trump brand.

TAMARA KEITH: And he's still
-- he's talking about 2020.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

TAMARA KEITH: Today, in that
press conference, he was saying,
oh, I hope Hillary Clinton

runs in 2020.

The president is
very focused on 2020.

And driving a wedge with
Republicans in Congress
and the establishment
is great for his brand

for 2020, but his
presidency is contingent
on what happens in 2018.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Yes, it's --
and the different messages, the
signals coming out of the White

House out of Steve
Bannon, who we know still
talks to the president,
leaves us al scratching

our heads.

I do want to ask you both
about the reporting on
CBS and The Washington
Post over the weekend,

really disturbing reporting
about the links, the
pharmaceutical industry,
certain companies

that ship drugs, Amy,
to retail stores.

They lobbied heavily to prevent
any sort of slowdown in what
they were doing because of

the opioid -- with
the opioid epidemic.

And fingers are reported at
certain Republicans and a few
Democrats on Capitol Hill.

AMY WALTER: Right.

A lot of this started
under -- the bill that
was actually passed was
passed under the Obama

administration, so this is
not just a partisan issue.

The real question is whether
Tom Marino, the congressman who
shepherded this bill through

Congress, is being -- right
now has been nominated
as the drug czar for
President Trump, whether

he becomes now -- either he is
pulled out or at the very least
a lot of very sharp questioning

at his hearings.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

And President Trump says
he's going to look into it.

Meanwhile, the Senate minority
leader, Chuck Schumer, as
well as Joe Manchin from West

Virginia are saying
that he should withdraw.

And President Trump didn't
dismiss that out of hand.

He says, we're going to
have to look into Tom.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tamara Keith,
Amy Walter, Politics Monday.

Thank you both.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.