Mediaboss Marketing

First Read is your briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

For Republicans, its a make-or-break week on health care either they pass their Senate legislation (which then would be on easy street to become law), or they dont (which likely would stop their reform efforts for good). Its that simple, with Senate Republicans hoping to hold a vote by the end of this week before lawmakers go on their July 4 recess. To succeed, they will have to overcome four challenges. Call them the Four Ps:

Five Senate Republicans oppose the current bill: To pass the Senate, Republicans can afford only two defections, assuming that no Democrats support the legislation. And according to NBCs whip count, five GOPers oppose the current legislation:

And there are other undecided/unannounced GOP senators beyond these five, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Rob Portman (R-OH). Do remember: Because someone says they oppose the current legislation doesnt mean they wont support it after some changes. So we will update this list as things change.

As NBCs Kristen Welker reported on Today, President Trump has criticized Barack Obama for not acting more decisively to stop Russias interference in the 2016 election a significant change from Trumps previous indifference on the issue. Well, I just heard today for the first time that Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it. But nobody wants to talk about that, Trump told Fox News. The president also tweeted, Obama Administration official said they choked when it came to acting on Russian meddling of election. They didn't want to hurt Hillary? But with Trump blasting Obama on Russia, its worth pointing out all of the times on the campaign trail that Trump USED Russias information to help him defeat Clinton.

In addition, dont miss this piece from NBCs Ken Dilanian, Hallie Jackson, and others: The Trump administration has taken little meaningful action to prevent Russian hacking, leaking and disruption in the next national election in 2018, despite warnings from intelligence officials that it will happen again, officials and experts told NBC News ... According to recent Congressional testimony, Trump has shown no interest in the question of how to prevent future election interference by Russia or another foreign power. Former FBI Director James Comey told senators that Trump never asked him about how to stop a future Russian election cyber attack, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who sits on the National Security Council, testified that he has not received a classified briefing on Russian election interference. Dozens of state officials told NBC News they have received little direction from Washington about election security.

The U.S. Supreme Court heads into Monday, its last day of the current term, with two important questions so far unanswered: What's to become of President Donald Trump's travel ban and will 80-year-old Justice Anthony Kennedy retire? NBCs Pete Williams reports. Politicos Eliana Johnson tweets, No Kennedy retirement announcement at clerk reunion, I'm told, leading to dimming WH hopes he'll step down this year.

More here:
Republicans Face Climactic Week for Health Care - NBCNews.com