Hello listeners it is Thursday July 20th. I'm Scott Bland your host and you are

listening to Politico's nerd cast.

I'm saying it every week but once again surprise surprise we have a

packed show a lot to talk about the latest updates on health care Senate

Republicans are still trying to cobble together

something that can attract 50 votes in the Senate so that they can move forward with

their longtime campaign pledge of repealing Obamacare. But once again this week they fell short, some key

defections from conservative senators, from moderate senators. Dan Diamond is

joining us again to tell us how it all fell apart and what Senate Republicans are trying to do to cobble it back together.

We're also going to talk about tax reform.

This is another big weighty policy issue that Republicans in the White House and Congress are eagerly

tackling right now and yet talk to any observer and they'll tell you that however difficult health

care has been been tax reform is

going to be more difficult. We'll dig into that a little bit and tell you exactly

why people are saying that. And we're going to talk about the interview that

everyone's talking about today.

Donald Trump sat down with the New York Times in the Oval Office on Wednesday and attacked

his own attorney general, issued vague warnings at Special Counsel Robert Mueller, called former FBI director James

Comi a liar and much more.

So we will talk about everything that happened there and Trump's freewheeling style and how it's affecting

Republicans in Washington. A couple things before we kick off remember please

email us at nerdcast at politico.com if you have any questions and please subscribe, rate us and write

...