MTP EXCLUSIVE: BUDGET CHIEF MULVANEY SAYS AHCA FAILED BECAUSE ‘WASHINGTON WON,’ ‘NEVER ONCE HAVE I SEEN [TRUMP] BLAME PAUL RYAN’

EXCLUSIVE: OMB Director Mulvaney on Trump’s Fox News’ “Judge Jeanine” tweet: “I’m not sure what that was about last night”

EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (D): “Totally mystified by what Mr. Nunes has said”

PLUS: Warner: “I was very disappointed” with SCOTUS nominee Gorsuch’s answers

EXCLUSIVE: California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on proposed border wall: “We’re not going to bring stupid lawsuits … We’ll do the right, human, and I would even say Christian thing” 

MARCH 26, 2017 — “What happened is that Washington won,” said Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, exclusively to “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd about the failure of the Republican-proposed healthcare bill.

“Washington was a lot more broken than President Trump thought that it was,” added Mulvaney. “Is the Republican Party capable of governing? I know the man in the White House is capable of governing.”

Mulvaney also commented on the president’s Saturday tweet promoting Fox News’ “Judge Jeanine” program, which advocated for Speaker Ryan to step down: “I have spent more time within the last week with the president of the United States than I ever thought I would … Never once have I seen him blame Paul Ryan. So I’m not sure what that was about last night.” Watch the full interview.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) exclusively joined this morning’s broadcast together to discuss how House Republicans pulled the GOP plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act this week. Lee told Todd that “they could have gotten to a deal. There were a few things they could have added to the bill that could have brought enough people into the bill to vote for it so that it would have passed.” Dent addressed how the ACA is “a national healthcare architecture now” and that “we’re going to have to work with it to try to make this system better … that debate has already been settled.” Watch the full interview.

In an exclusive interview this morning, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was “totally mystified by what Mr. Nunes has said” about raw intelligence reports that may confirm that there was inadvertent surveillance of folks connected to Trump’s campaign. “I don’t think Mr. Schiff even knows today what those documents are.” Warner added that he’s “open” to an independent commission to investigate possible collusion.

On Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Warner told Todd that he has “not made a decision yet” on whether to filibuster the vote, but he “was not pleased with his answers, both I got personally or at the committee level.” Watch the full interview.

Todd spoke with Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Calif.) exclusively earlier this week for an interview airing this morning on the program and this week on MSNBC. On the proposed border wall, Brown said, “We’re not going to bring stupid lawsuits or be running to the courthouse every day … We’ll do the right human, and I would even say Christian thing, from my point of view. You don’t treat human beings like that.” Brown also addressed “the beginning of the end” of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s governorship, infrastructure for Silicon Valley and more. Watch the full interview.

NBC News’ Tom Brokaw, radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, POLITICO’s Eliana Johnson and MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid joined the “Meet the Press” roundtable for insight and analysis this morning.

Read the full transcript of this morning’s “Meet the Press.”

For more from moderator Chuck Todd throughout the week, watch MSNBC’s “MTP Daily” weekdays at 5 p.m., and subscribe to the “1947: The Meet The Press Podcast” for on-demand interviews.

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