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Republicans are also getting tired of the president playing coy about whether he has recorded tapes of his private conversations with former FBI Director James Comey. If he has them, then they want him to give them to Congress. If he doesnt provide the recorded tapestapes that no one is sure he even hashe could face a subpoena demanding that he hand them overtapes that, again, no one can confirm even exist.

I dont understand why the president just doesnt clear this matter up once and for all, Senate Intelligence Committee member Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told the Associated Press.

Collins noted that she would support a subpoena if needed, but added that the president should voluntarily turn them over.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, agreed that the panel needed to hear any tapes if they exist.

Weve obviously pressed the White House, he told AP.

Trump still has not confirmed whether or not tapes exist and, when pressed about it Friday, said, Ill tell you about that maybe sometime in the very near future.

Hopefully the president will admit that he lied about the existence of tapes because he is a liar and that is what he does. But I doubt that will happen. In fact, I suspect that someone on Trumps staff is combing though all his mentions of Comey tapes to see how they can spin it.

Read more at Yahoo! News.

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Republicans to Trump: Cut the Act and Release the Comey Tapes if You Have Them - The Root

Donald Trump's campaign changed the political playbook in elections across the country. But if Republicans in greater Atlanta retain an imperiled House seat next Tuesday, it will be thanks in so small part to their having called a familiar play.

GOP candidate Karen Handel and a conservative super-PAC advertising against her Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff, have invoked House minority leader Nancy Pelosi to define Ossoff as out-of-touch with the district's voters. Handel said during a recent debate that Ossoff's values were "some 3,000 miles away in San Francisco." She called him a "liberal, Pelosi-like" Democrat in a recent interview. And the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super-PAC, has released multiple commercials linking the two. One that it pushed before the first round of voting on April 18 advised voters to "say no to Pelosi's yes man."

The demographics of the district, the Georgia 6th, indicate that such an approach should have legs. It has been reliably Republican for decades, and it remains favorable to the GOP despite recent redistricting that removed some of its reddest real estate. But it's also the sort of suburbia that wasn't gaga about the president in November; Trump won the district by fewer than two percentage points, the worst showing there by a GOP nominee in memory. So as Democrats try to use Trump's name to sink Handel"make Trump furious" was Ossoff's theme when he launched his bidRepublicans have come up with their reply.

According to the CLF, they're backed by sound data. As the Washington Examiner reported in April, "Tying Ossoff to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., proved especially effective. In an April poll the group conducted, respondents by a 62 percent to 26 percent margin said they preferred a candidate who would work with Ryan if elected to Congress, over one who would work with Pelosi." The CLF's aggressive last-minute intervention into the April runoff is credited with helping keep Ossoff below a 50-percent threshold that would have secured him the seat outright.

There's potentially a bigger-picture idea for Republicans in bringing up the former speaker: It's unifying. Handel has had the challenge of establishing her independence while not crossing Trump voters. "My job," she told me, "is to be an extension of the 6th district. It's not to be an extension of the White House, with due respect to the president." She otherwise has spoken favorably of Trump, though her casual support isn't a hallmark of her candidacy. While the GOP nationwide still mostly supports the president, the party cannot use him as a rallying cry and expect it to win purple districts, where soft Republicans and undecideds could turn elections.

But Pelosi? There's someone on whom the GOP will always be able to agree. Now let's see how effective she is as a motivating factor, more than six years since she last held the speaker's gavel.

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Republicans Needed Backup in the Georgia 6th. They Found It in Nancy Pelosi. - The Weekly Standard

The head of the Republican party clashed with party politicians Sunday over investigations probing whether U.S. President Donald Trumps campaign colluded with Russia, along with the testimony given last week by fired FBI Director James Comey.

I'm calling for an end to the investigations about President Trump's campaign colluding with the Russians, said Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), during an interview with Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace.

There's been no evidence of collusion, McDaniel said, adding she didnt think the investigation should continue.

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Her comments followed testimony by former FBI Director James Comey last Thursday regarding why he was fired on May 9 by Trump.

In March Comey testified that the bureau was probing Trumps campaign team and associates as part of a larger investigation looking into how Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election. American intelligence agencies issued a report in January concluding the foreign power worked to help candidate Trump and hurt his rival Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Read more: Trump could 'go down' because he can't stop 'inapropriately' talking, GOP Senator says

Despite what McDaniel says, finding out whether the Trump team colluded with Russia is central to the Senate Intelligence Committees own investigation into the issue, Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford, who sits on the committee, said on Sunday.

Obviously, if there was any American, including the president, who tried to interfere in the election or to try to do an obstruction of justice, that would be very important to know, Lankford said in an interview on CBS' " Face the Nation.

Lankford said the bipartisan group is trying to get all the facts out about Russian interference, and whether any Americans tried to assist them, as well as a series of leaks of classified information.

Lankfords Senate Intelligence Committee colleague, Maine Republican Susan Collins, agreed.

Whether or not there was collusion, collaboration, cooperation between the Russians and members of President Trump's campaign team, she told CNN's " State of the Union," would remain the focus on their investigation.

Comey testified last Thursday that during an unusual one-on-one meeting with Trump in the Oval Office in February the president asked him to let go an investigation into fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn was sacked for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian officials the day before he met with Comey at the Oval Office.

Flynn is the subject of one strand of the FBIs investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

The Republicans have also disagreed about whether or not this one-on-one meeting was improper.

Lankford called the meeting inappropriate.

It is awkward, he said, to have the president of the United States sitting down with the leader of the FBI to ask direct questions, and for the issue to come up about the Michael Flynn investigation.

Investigations into whether President Donald Trump's campaign team colluded with Russia are dividing Republicans. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Collins agreed that the meeting which Trump initiated was inappropriate, but that Comey should have pushed back and said we cannot be having discussions like this because the independence of the FBI is really important.

Comeys testimony has brought many legal scholars to the conclusion that Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice for efforts to quash the investigation.

Collins said she believed Comey when he testified that he felt pressured by the president to drop the Flynn investigation. But she said this doesn't eliminate the possibility that there was a misinterpretation of Trumps words.

McDaniel went a step further to say that we don't know what happened in these conversations and that Comeys testimony was simply his version of events.

Ahead of Comeys testimony McDaniel created an opposition team operation made up of 60 staffers inside the RNC to defend the president, sending out thousands of tweets on social media with the hashtag #bigleaguetruth.

I feel like the truth is not getting out there, McDaniel said. And so, we're going to push harder, because we want to make sure that the American people are hearing a different narrative and the right set of the right version of what's happening.

McDaniel said the investigations into Russias interference in the election should run their course, but any investigation of collusion needs to end.

The American people want it to stop, she said. This is a fishing expedition to try and run out the clock for the Democrats hoping to make gains in 2018.

Trumps Attorney General Jeff Sessions is set to testify to the Senate behind closed doors in response to Comeys testimony on Tuesday, June 13.

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Russia Investigation and Comey Testimony Cause Republicans to Turn on Each Other - Newsweek

AARP is targeting 11 GOP senators, including key centrists, to oppose the House-passed healthcare bill that would raise premiums for seniors.

The ad campaign expands a May effort that ran ads targeting five senators, calling for the House-passed American Health Care Act to be scrapped. The expansion comes at a pivotal time as Senate leadership hopes to vote on a healthcare bill by the end of July.

AARP is targeting Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Joni Ernest and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Dean Heller of Nevada, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

The list includes some key centrists who will be critical to the GOP leadership's hopes of passing its own version of the American Health Care Act before Congress' August recess.

Heller and Flake are up for re-election in 2018. Heller, Portman and Capito are pushing leadership for a seven-year phaseout of Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.

AARP, the nation's biggest seniors lobby, has been opposed to the American Health Care Act for some time, angry over a proposed change to premiums for senior citizens in insurance plans on the individual market.

Obamacare allowed insurers to charge seniors three times the amount they charge a younger person. The American Health Care Act would increase that to five times.

"Our members and other Americans over age 50 are very worried about legislation that would raise their premiums through what is, in effect, an age tax," said AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond.

It is not clear what pieces of the legislation the Senate will keep, including the age-rating ratio.

AARP also derided problems with Medicaid and hurting "protections for people with pre-existing conditions."

A controversial last-minute amendment to the legislation, which passed the House last month by a 217-213 vote, let states opt out of community rating mandate. States could get a waiver that would let insurers charge sicker people more money.

House Republicans say that $23 billion included in the legislation for high-risk pools could help offset any increases. A recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office said that money wasn't enough to offset major increases for people with pre-existing conditions such as cancer or diabetes.

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AARP targets more Republicans in new healthcare ad buy - Washington Examiner

(WASHINGTON) Fellow Republicans pressed President Donald Trump on Sunday to come clean about whether he has tapes of private conversations with former FBI Director James Comey and provide them to Congress if he does or possibly face a subpoena, as a Senate investigation into collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice extended to a Trump Cabinet member.

It was a sign of escalating fallout from riveting testimony from Comey last week of undue pressure from Trump, which drew an angry response from the president on Friday that Comey was lying.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was in for sharp questioning by senators on the Senate Intelligence committee Tuesday. Whether that hearing will be public or closed is not yet known.

"I don't understand why the president just doesn't clear this matter up once and for all," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of that committee, referring to the existence of any recordings.

She described Comey's testimony as "candid" and "thorough" and said she would support a subpoena if needed. Trump "should voluntarily turn them over," Collins said.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., also a member of that committee, agreed the panel needed to hear any tapes that exist. "We've obviously pressed the White House," he said.

Trump's aides have dodged questions about whether conversations relevant to the Russia investigation have been recorded, and so has the president. Pressed on the issue Friday, Trump said "I'll tell you about that maybe sometime in the very near future."

Lankford said Sessions' testimony Tuesday will help flesh out the truth of Comey's allegations, including Sessions' presence at the White House in February when Trump asked to speak to Comey alone. Comey alleges that Trump then privately asked him to drop a probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russia.

Comey also has said Sessions did not respond when he complained he didn't "want to get time alone with the president again." The Justice Department has denied that, saying Sessions stressed to Comey the need to be careful about following appropriate policies.

"We want to be able to get his side of it," Lankford said.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said "there's a real question of the propriety" of Sessions' involvement in Comey's dismissal, because Sessions had stepped aside from the federal investigation into contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign. Comey was leading that probe.

Reed said he also wants to know if Sessions had more meetings with Russian officials as a Trump campaign adviser than have been disclosed.

Trump on Sunday accused Comey of "cowardly" leaks and predicted many more from him. "Totally illegal?" he asked in a tweet. "Very 'cowardly!'"

Several Republican lawmakers also criticized Comey for disclosing memos he had written in the aftermath of his private conversations with Trump, calling that action "inappropriate." But, added Lankford "releasing his memos is not damaging to national security."

The New York City federal prosecutor who expected to remain on the job when Trump took office but ended up being fired said he was made uncomfortable by one-on-one interactions with the president just like Comey was. Preet Bharara told ABC's "This Week" that Trump was trying to "cultivate some kind of relationship" with him when he called him twice before the inauguration to "shoot the breeze."

He said Trump reached out to him again after the inauguration but he refused to call back, shortly before he was fired.

On Comey's accusations that Trump pressed him to drop the FBI investigation of Flynn, Bharara said "no one knows right now whether there is a provable case of obstruction" of justice. But: "I think there's absolutely evidence to begin a case."

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the Intelligence committee, sent a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, urging him to investigate possible obstruction of justice by Trump in Grassley's position as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Feinstein is the top Democrat on that panel and a member of both.

She said Sessions should also testify before the Judiciary Committee, because it was better suited to explore legal questions of possible obstruction. Feinstein said she was especially concerned after National Intelligence Director Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers refused to answer questions from the intelligence committee about possible undue influence by Trump.

Feinstein said she did not necessarily believe Trump was unfit for office, as House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has asserted, but said he has a "destabilizing effect" on government.

"There's an unpredictability. He projects an instability," Feinstein said. "Doing policy by tweets is really a shakeup for us, because there's no justification presented."

In other appearances Sunday:

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he would take Trump up on his offer to testify under oath about his conversations with Comey, inviting the president to testify before the Senate.

Feinstein acknowledged she "would have a queasy feeling, too" if Comey's testimony was true that Loretta Lynch, as President Barack Obama's attorney general, had directed him to describe the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton's email practices as merely a "matter" and to avoid calling it an investigation. Feinstein said the Judiciary Committee should investigate.

Sessions stepped aside in March from the federal investigation into contacts between Russia and the campaign after acknowledging that had met twice last year with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. He had told lawmakers at his January confirmation hearing that he had not met with Russians during the campaign.

Sessions has been dogged by questions about possible additional encounters with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

As for the timing of Sessions' recusal, Comey said the FBI expected the attorney general to take himself out of the matters under investigation weeks before he actually did.

Collins and Feinstein spoke on CNN's "State of the Union and Lankford and Schumer appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation." Reed was on "Fox News Sunday."

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Republicans Tell Trump to Come Clean on Possible Comey Tapes - TIME