Transcripts For CNNW Inside Politics 20171203

Onceinageneration opportunity to deliver real tax reform for everyday hardworking americans. Inside politics, the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters now. Welcome to inside politics. Im john king. Toll our viewers in the United States and around the world, thank you for sharing your sunday. It is a moment of high consequence here in washington. A confidant of President Trump pleads guilty in the russia meddling investigation. Says he is cooperating with the special counsel. And suggests several others still in senior white house jobs knew of his improper dealings with russia. This acknowledgement of criminal guilt is a shattering moment for the trump presidency. We have a moment, similar to watergate, where the question is going to be, what did they know and when did they know it . Not just the president , but Jared Kushner and michael pence, the Vice President. That thickening cloud of investigation comes at what should be a moment of celebration. Senate republicans passed a tax cut Early Saturday Morning and after a frustrating first year, one major piece of the trump agenda now moving closer to the finish line. People are going to be very, very happy. Theyre going to get tremendous, tremendous tax cuts and tax relief. And thats what this country needs. Plus, yet another dizzying week included a Major International outrage. The president s decision to share hateful antimuslim bigotry with his millions of twitter followers raised alarms about his judgment and temperament here at home and drew rebukes from americas closest ally. This is like the president retweeting the coku klux klan. This is not a mainstream organization for the president of the United States, our greatest ally as a country, to be retweeting, to be providing a microphone to those voices. With us this sunday to share their reporting and their insights, julie pace of the associated press, sahil kapoor of bloomberg, Michael Warren of the weekly standard. Lets listen to the president , in a little bit more detail. He insists hes not worried. No, im not. And what has been shown is no collusion. No collusion. Theres been absolutely theres been absolutely no collusion. So were very happy. But despite that public show of confidence, the west wing is shaken, on edge. The new star witness in the russian meddling investigation says there were improper dealings with the russian government and that people as close to the president as you can get knew about them. In fact, encouraged them. That star witness is, of course, former National Security adviser, Michael Flynn. He entered a guilty plea on friday, admitting he lied to the fbi about late 2016 contacts with russias ambassador to the United States. Now, the white house has insisted, if flynn did anything wrong, he was freelancing. But court papers paint a very different picture, saying several top trump advisers knew of flynns russian dealings and one was directed by a senior official, president ial sources identified as president ial soninlaw, Jared Kushner. There is no question, special count Robert Mueller is focusing on the president s inner circle. And the president himself. And in pushing back, the president is raising new questions and giving the special counsel more to match up with other witness testimony. Just this morning, as part of a presun rise tweet storm, the president insisted, quote, i never asked comey to stop investigating flynn. Just more fake news covering another comey lie. Now the former fbi director, james comey, said the president did ask him to give flynn a pass and fired him after he refused to pledge his loyalty. This saturday tweet also raising eyebrows. I had to fire general flynn because he lied to the Vice President and fbi. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide. Listen here, cnn legal analyst, michael zeldin, a onetime deputy of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, call the president s new take curious. A bit more. I dont believe that the president would have known or could have known that four days after his inauguration general flynn had lied to the fbi. Sally yates didnt tell him that. If its true, its a bit more problematic, because it is the possibility here that the president is somehow intervening in an ongoing investigation. Where are we in the sense that we know that when the president tweets, that tells us what is first and foremost on his mind. He is still at it this morning. He was at it last night. We know what hes thinking about and trying to change the subject. Well get through some of those. But hes also putting more official statements in the public record, including with, hes now saying in an official statement, thats what a tweet is, i didnt tell comey these things. Comey says he did. Comey says he did. He says that in written testimony, said it appearing on the hill. When the president tweets this morning on the weekends, you can tell hes generally agitated with something. There was a scramble that happened yesterday after that initial tweet you put out there, about trump saying he had to fire flynn because he lied to the fbi. There was this scramble to portray this as a tweet that was written by john dowd, one of the president s lawyers, in an attempt to put a little bit of distance between the president himself and that tweet. Im not sure if its any better if its coming from the president s lawyer. Thats about as official as it gets. But theyre leaning hard on this idea that the flynn Court Documents dont provide a smoking gun on collusion. And that is true. But what they do do is continue to undermine the initial white house explanations about why flynn was fired and what he was up to during the transition. Its really difficult now, i think, to believe that there was no one else in the Transition Team that was talking to flynn about sanctions on russia. Now weve got k. T. Mcfarland, Jared Kushner talking to flynn about russia. Is circle has suddenly grown a lot closer to the president. When youre talking to people since friday inside the west wing, a sense of where is this going . A sense, they cant just say flynn is freelancing. You look at the emails, other emails, one is from k. T. Mcfarland. She was flynns deputy. She was in maralago during the transition. He was about to call the russian ambassador. He checks in with the team in florida, k. T. Mcfar laland put an email, if there is a at this time ftit for tat trump, will have a tough time. Now, what the trump team is saying, she was talking in shorthand. Shes saying, thats what the democrats were going to say. But you have a, these emails confirm, theyre having conversations about talking to the russians before theyre in official power, about american policy. Which is taboo, if not just flatout wrong. And which has just thrown usa election to him. Bob mueller is not shutting down anytime soon. Absolutely not. And julie is right that this is part of what this does is sort of give some concrete information and proof behind the idea that this was not a free lansice lancing effort by Michael Flynn, but in fact, a campaignwide to make these overtures to russia or improve relations with russia and to talk specifically about sanctions. What those k. T. Mcfarland emails do show there wasnt just a policy imperative behind that, but a political imperative behind that. Because whether or not you believe she was simply stating a fact that democrats are going to say and are saying that russia tried to swing the election to trump or you believe that she was actually stating that as a fact that she knew to be true, its certainly the case that that was what was animating what their conversations with the russians were going to look like going forward. And that could be a major problem. And again, it gets to this question of whether the president was directing this, whether we know that his inner circle and people as far up as his soninlaw, there was no one closer to him than Jared Kushner on the campaign or on the transition were doing, so far from sort of indicating that this is wrapping up, this is an indication that mueller has a lot more to dig into. And every time the president makes a Statement Like that tweet yesterday, hes got some more. Because now hes essentially suggesting that not only did he know that flynn lied to the Vice President , but he already knew that flynn lied to the fbi. And for anything that happened during the campaign, and up to 25 days into the administration, mueller also now has a Michael Flynn that signed a plea agreement that requires him to tell things that bob mueller is not asking about. If he become ace ware of anything, if anything pops into his head, hes spoke to talk up. I think the fact that the Mueller Investigation is in the white house now, essentially. Short time period, the Trump Administration official is he was an Obama Administration official, but he was a Trump Administration official in the white house. But i think its important to focus on what this plea deal is about. We should also remember that mike flynn was being investigated for a lot of things. A Foreign Agent registration violation. He wasnt reasonabled. All these sorts of things. And this was a pretty small guilty plea. What hes pleading guilty to here. And i think its important to remember that that what the Mueller Investigation is after, what it can ask, what Michael Flynn might be testifying about, may not have to do with this very interesting, you know, late december conversation. It could have to do with a lot of other things. And i think the myopic focus on simply that twoday period where hes talking with kislyak, sort of hides the fact, obscures the fact that Michael Flynn was a major figure in the Trump Campaign and the white house. I think that is a critical point, because mueller is a very strategic person. He gets the George Papadopoulos plea, he indicts the former Campaign Chairman of the deputy, he gets a plea from a guy they said was the coffee boy, but he gets the word russia in Court Filings and puts it in there. Youre right, this doesnt tell us about the campaign. This is about transition after the campaign. But he gets russia, he gets dealings, and he puts in the court file, in a time when all these other white house officials have to come in and testify and be witnesses, he puts in, you keep saying he was freelancing, i have the proof he is not. You were all in on this and if you were all in on this, what else were you all in . The information said he told four lies. They only charged him with one. A prosecutor only does that, only lets you off easy, if you will be with if he thinks hes getting a bigger fish. Exactly. And Michael Flynn is exposed on a number of counts. He has potential criminal exposure on the issue the allegations on turkey, on kidnapping and lobby and stuff like that. And if youre bob mueller, putting him on the two lies he had admitted to, with contacts between the president ial team and russia as it relates to sanctions and a u. N. Security Council Resolution are not necessarily criminal or illegal, just my looking at them. Clearly, theres a reason these lies were put out there. Why are multiple members of the president s inner circle and Transition Team lying about contacts with russia . And right now we have four indictments and two guilty pleas and it looks like mueller is closing in more and more and hes moving up the letterhead. This is the National Security adviser to the president of the United States. Access to every piece of intelligence coming into the United States government. And i just want to read one piece of the filing. A very Senior Member of the president ial team directed flynn to contact officials from foreign governments, including russia and source tell us that very Senior Member is Jared Kushner, the president s soninlaw. If youre the president of the United States, general flynn has flipped, you know your soninlaw has been interviewed at least once. You know this investigation is continuing. That this is as close as you can get. The question now is, forgive the watergate cliche, what did the president know and when did he know it . I think a very important thing you said, Jared Kushner interviewed once. I think actually twice. Cnn reported that some time at the end of november, that he came in. And it wasnt for hours long, kushner was there, he was there for fewer than 90 minutes, just a week or so before this guilty plea comes down. I would be very interested to know what exactly mueller asked him in that relatively very short period of time. I bet the president is interested, too. Up next, more on general flynn and why his guilty plea matters so much. And politicians say the darnedest thing. Saturday night live putting the flynn flip in the context of the christmas season. Im Michael Flynn, the ghost of witness flipped. Mr. President , theres a lot of people from your past that could come back to haunt you. Tonight you will be visited by three of them. Who are you . It is i, Hillary Rodham clinton you have no idea how long ive wanted to say this. Lock him up no no filtering it out to help you continue enjoying your screens. Or. You could just put your phones down and talk to each other. [laughing] natures bounty lutein blue. Because youre better off healthy. Was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government . Sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. Im tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. Its why i left my Investment Firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. But here we are nine years later and this president and the Republican Congress are making a bad situation even worse. They wont tell you that their so called tax reform plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. It blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. Its up to all of us to stand up to this president. Not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. Join us. Your voice matters. The morning walk until. It. Wasnt. Dont let type 2 diabetes get between you and your heart. Even if you reach your a1c goal you are still at risk for heart attack or stroke. Talk to your Health Care Provider today about diabetic heart disease. And find out more at heartoftype2. Com. Your heart and type 2 diabetes. Make the connection. These make cleaning between myi love easy. Sy. Gum brand for healthy gums. Soft picks, proxabrush cleaners, flossers. Gum brand. We do not need a reckless president who believes she is above the law. Cha [ chanting lock her up ] lock her up. Thats right yeah. Thats right, lock her up. If i a guy who knows this business, if i did a tenth of what she did, i would be in jail today. Thats Michael Flynn at the Republican Convention last year. The irony, more than obvious. But the message of that clip is the important part. The candidate gets the final say on plum convention roles. General flynn was there because of his close relationship with donald trump. The rule of law does prevail in this country. And that to me is very important. Obviously, huge implications for the white house. Its not a good day. He is not a coffee boy. This is not a hoax, its not fake, its real. General clapper there speaking to jake tapper friday afternoon. General clapper, the former director of national intelligence. Not a coffee boy, thats what they said at George Papadopoulos. You cant say that about Michael Flynn. And to the generals point, pretty hard to say this is fake and this is a ruse, when you say the former National Security adviser admitting he lie, when he was in the white house, the lie took place when he worked for the president of the United States in the west wing of the white house. And what we do know that he lied to the fbi in this january 24th interview about activities that took place during the transition. What we dont necessarily know what was in the rest of his proffer that led bob mueller to give him this deal where hes cooperating with the investigation. And that is what has to be very concerning to the white house right now and is concerning to the president and his lawyers, because those charges that he wasnt charged, that the lies that he told, that he was not charged, in this deal, are still things that mueller could come back and charge him with. So he has a lot hanging over his head. He obviously has a lot to say to bob mueller. And those are the conversations and the pieces of information, those are next shoes to drop. And you have to remember with mike flynn, he is one of the few people whos been tied up in all of this, who is around trump in three distinct and really important periods. The campaign. He was flying on Trumps Campaign with him, he was at campaign events, obviously at a highprofile speaking role. During the transition, he was talking to foreign governments and involved in a lot of realtime discussions about policy going forward. Yes, it was 25 days. But it was 25 really important and hectic days in the white house. So those three areas of time give him an awful lot to talk to bob mueller about. And bob mueller put a marker down here. And he is very strategic in the sense that this is about conversations during the transition, but showing that flynn is saying now on the record and cooperating that he was in touch with all of these other people in the transition. What message is bob mueller sending to those people when he calls them back in about election stuff and ask him about other things. They all know that flynn is cooperating, that the emails have been turned over. You asked this question to the president. What did he know and when did he know it . Can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with russia during the course of the election . Well win told you, general flynn, obviously, was dealing, thats one person during the election . No, nobody that i know of. So youre not aware of any contacts during the course of the election . How many times do i have to answer this question . Can you just answer the question . Russia is a ruse. Theres the president of the United States on the record. The charges with flynn deal with after the election. Deal with the transition. But thats on purpose. We know hes still looking into a whole lot of election season stuff there. The credibility of that statement and so many others from the president are going to be called into question as we go on. And you have to have a sense, if youre one of those people that was at maralago in december, who was around the president in campaign, youre asking, is there something i need to know about. Or if youve told anything to investigators that you now flynn can contradict, you have to get in there and clean it pup. Theres a flippenantspaflipp president himself seems to get his news from a lot of sources that arent talking about this. And one this comes back home to the white house, i think a lot of people are going to be shocked. I would imagine that the president s flippancy aside, everyone below him is calling up their lawyer, make sure if they didnt have a lawyer already lained up when mueller was named as special counsel, theyre doing it now. I can speak for myself, ive got relative radio silence from a lot of those people that were in campaign, transition, white house, somewhere in that span over the last couple of days. People have to be worried. Because theyve got to make sure theyve got their stories straight. And the defining question for mueller, tracing it back from the transition, trying to pull the levers of Foreign Policy while president obama was still president , to help russia, but why are you so inclined at every stop to be cozy to russia, to be favorable to russia, to take russias side on these big questions. Thats what theyre trying to trace back. The president is trying to change the subject a bit today. Director mueller, now special counsel mueller, did remove from the investigation an fbi agent this summer. He got reports that the fub agent had sent some texts to a colleague that indicated an antitrump bias. He was removed from the investigation back during the summer. What the special counsels office would say, we found a problem and dealt with it quickly. The president saying, after years of comey, the famodishone clinton, its reputation is in tatters. But worry not, we will prinbrin back to greatness. Now hes saying the whole thing is tainted because of this. Thats his best argument . I told you that they were going after me, that they were favorable to clinton, this is the proof they need. I think that mueller seems to have acted pretty quickly is a counterweight to that. But as a messaging tactic for the president , this is about the best he could ask for coming on the heels of the flynn plea. And theres a method to that, too. Every time he does that, it gets a lot of attention and his base listens to him and believe him more than anybody else. Thats why we see 80 to 85 of republicans continue to pottsup him. And the way the Party Leaders deal with the situation in the wake of these charges is going to be dependent on what the base thinks is really true. And what well get next from bob mueller in addition to that. Up next, Senate Republicans pass a big tax cut plan and are betting it awill help the econoy and their 2018 election prospects. But not a done deal just yet. Nice man cave nacho . [ train whistle blows ] what . stop it mmhmm. Weve been saving a lot of money ever since we switched to progressive. This bar is legit. And now we get an even bigger discount from bundling home and auto. I can get used to this. It might take a minute. Swing and a miss slam dunk touchdown together sports touchdown hi, im just looking at my account, and ive got all this extra cash back. Yep. Thats your Cashback Match. Only discover will automatically match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year. You matched everything i earned this year . Yeah. Whoo more money more money its all very exciting. Im going to spread the news spread it wide its Cashback Match people people you know that. You all work here. New cardmembers get a dollarfordollar match at the end of their first year. Only from discover. Last night at about 3 00 in the morning i got a call. I said, call me. You can call me. Its the largest tax decrease in the history of our country, by far. Not even close. Its not quite ready to wrap and put under the tree, but the president s promise of a tax cut by christmas is within reach, now that the Senate Passed its plan, as you heard from the president , very early saturday. One giant hurdle remains. The house and senate now need to negotiate a compromise between two competing plans. A compromise that can then, again, pass both chambers. The senate drama included lastminute changes made by hand. Some democrats complained they were learning about changes from lobbyists, not fellow senators, but it passed, 5149. All the democrats voted no, plus one republican defection. Tennessees bob corker. As you noticed, at the end, there was not a single democrat who thought this was a good idea. And so, were going to take this message to the American People also a year from now. Everybody had plenty of opportunity to see the measure. You complain about process when youre losing. And thats what you heard on the floor tonight. A very happy, if a little weary, majority leader after the vote Early Saturday Morning. This is a giant deal. There was a question of whether the republicans could get to the finish line in the senate. They still have a ways to go. Most people seem to think theyre going to take the political imperative, that we better do something this year, and get it done. But, lets start with the Senate Getting to the finish line. What was the most critical thing . Well, they made a series of compromises at the end to placate holdouts. You got jeff flake and jim langford with some various measures to contain some of the gimmicks in there, specifically as it relates to small businesses. You gave Susan Collins an exemption on the state and local deduction, which is important for the northeast. So, they were close, now they finally have it over the finish line in the senate. Theyve got to go to conference with the house. And get it back to the house and the senate, but this looked very doubtful for a long period of time. Theyre very close. Theyre pretty much there. And if you look at some of the details, this is the senate bill. They have to reconcile with the house. The basic architecture are the same, but some of the details are a little different. If you look at the senate bill, Corporate Tax rate would drop from 35 to 20 . Individuals get two times the standard deductions, temporarily, though. Families get twice the Child Tax Credit they now get. Access for state and local income tax deduction. Health care, it acts as the individual mandate and expands the medicaid deduction. So now they try to figure this out in the shortterm. The republicans are betting getting a signature item done. This is the one thing that was on everybodys list for the Republican Party in 2017 theyll do. Obamacare repeal is not going to happen. President s promised infrastructure plan this year is not going to happen. That political imperative seems to be drawing to the finish line. Given the past ten months, will they get it done in the next three queweeks . It seems like they are most of the way there, and there is such a desperation on the part of republicans to have this be a win. Theres so much in this bill, as you just outlined, that they like. The repeal of the individual mandate. The large, large and permanent Corporate Tax cut. The individual tax cuts, even though they are only temporary, the tax cut for passthrough entities, these smaller businesses and partnerships. This is all huge for republicans and they really, really want this to happen. The problem, i think, that we saw this week, the only problem is that in getting it to the finish line in the senate, they pretty much negated the possibility that they were going to be able to get this back through the house without a conference, which was a hope among some white house officials, that they could sort of prebake a lot of these deals they would have to cut with the House Republicans, and essentially have a bill that after passing the senate, could very quickly just be preconferenced in through the house, within a matter of hours. And that clearly didnt happen, because of all the deals they had to cut at the very end. And its not totally clear. I mean, the run . Hold out bob corker had big concerns about the deficit effect of this bill. And there are a lot of conservative republicans in the house who ostensibly, are very concerned about deficits. And so, you could imagine a scenario where they have some lastminute reservations and they want to see this held up. But again, i think the imperative is so strong, i wouldnt be surprised to see most of them swallow those concerns. Zble especially in the house, since the deficit is such a huge concern. Some of these guys got elected on the idea of deficit and government overspending. But theyre all up for election next year and theyre facing the prospect of having to face voters, youve got the white house, the senate and the house and you couldnt get anything done . That for house members is actually, i think, worse than perhaps putting a i side some of their concerns about deficit spending and just voting for this bill. Political imperative. The fact that so many are turning their back on the deficit pledge is pretty stunning. Lets listen to the president who has been asking him to do this. Hes the one who says, plaez ea get it done by christmas. Dont carry it over to 2018. Hes happy. It was the biggest package in terms of tax cuts ever passed in our country. Now we go on to conference and something beautiful is going to come out of that mixer. We now go into what i call the mixture. And the mixture is conference. And out of that, the House Republicans and the Senate Republicans are going to pick something that will be truly spectacular. Its like baking a cake. You put the mixture in. I love sometimes the language of this time needs to be changed. The mixture. Its not but in that same set of remarks, michael, he also said, maybe the corporate rate will be 22 . That was one of the reasons it held up things in the senate. Mitch mcconnell, the leader kept telling senators, the president wants 20 , we cant raise that, which would free up some money to do some other business. Now the president , after the vote, says hes open to this. Could the president complicate the very delicate act of trying to get to the finish line . That sound you hear is mike lee and rubios heads exploding when they heard that. That was the push at the very end. As you all know, it was just, raise the corporate rate just 0. 94 and they couldnt get it done. I think this was this is a big victory for republicans, but its also, in some ways, a missed opportunity as they look at 2018. It is a bill that looks very much like a conventional republican tax bill, there were some opportunities there, i think, to actually do a more trumpianstyle populist, particularly with the Child Tax Credit, to expand that Child Tax Credit, which rubio and lee were trying to do, to working people who dont pay income tax, but pay payroll taxes. They werent able to get that done and in fact werent able to get Many Democrats even onboard with that. I wonder if what comes around to november 2018, thats going to be a very difficult political sell. This is a typical republican tax bill, pretrump. Is trump going to be able to sell that . Hes going around saying, this doesnt help wealthy people. Wealthy people are mad about this. Republicans have often argued, just because wealthy people are getting a tax cut, thats good for growth, good for the economy. Thats the sell that paul ryan wants to make, but donald trump will be the one at the front. Is he going to make that . Im not so sure its going to be effective. And as you have analysis during this conference period, is he going to call it mean or come out and Say Something to me, theres two sides of this coin. Stunning, hats off to mitch mcconnell, not about the policy, but as a partisan leader, being able to keep the republican discipline and force that in the end. He only last one vote. But on the flip side, stunning testament of the current political environment. Ten trump state democrats, president won their states, on the ballot next year in the senate races, not one of them felt the political compunction that they had to vote for this. In fact, they said their safe vote back home is trumps for it, i should be against it. Theres no Strategic Plan to win over Heidi Heitkamp or joe manchin or joe donnelly, who would like to be able o to s survey, i voted with republicans and broke with my party. 30plus points in west virginia. These are democrats who are certainly vulnerable. Can i just say, republicans are playing a very interesting long game here and playing it very effectively. When democrats have the presidency under bill clinton and barack obama, they talk about the debt, the debt crisis, they get them to cut spending. Then when they return to power, they use that spending to cut taxes. Its a very effective strategy and its worked well and its the mantra starve the beast, shrink the size of government. The next one will be, our entitles are out of control and we have to cut medicare and social security, because now we have no money. Great historical perspective. Up next, the president stokes antimuslim sentiment and angers a critical ally. And the secretary of state insists he isnt going anywhere. Welcome back. Americas place and its face on the world stage were called into question this past week. On the personnel front, word of a major shake up plan leak. The president wants secretary of state Rex Tillerson forced out. And to tilt his team to the right by shifting mike pompeo over to state and asking conservative senator tom cotton to take the cia job. Word of this came from the president s inner circle, but on friday he called it fake news, though his tweet doing that then went on to make clear whos boss. Hes not leaving. And while we disagree on certain subjects, i call the final shots, we Work Together, and america is highly respected again. That from the president. Highly respected would not be a factual way to characterize the reaction to another set of trump tweets, retweets putting the president of the United States blessing on antimuslim bigotry promoted by a neonazi british fringe group. The fact that we Work Together does not mean that were afraid to say when we think the United States have got it wrong and to be very clear with them. And im very clear that retweeting from britain first was the wrong thing to do. Lets get to the personnel stuff in a minute and start there. This is the president of the United States retweeting just a hateful account, from the white house, angering the british ally. The white house says it doesnt matter who cares about the details of the video. This is about the president trying to make a point that having tough immigration is important. There are a thousand million ways to make the point that tough immigration why . Just somebody, why . Theres no good reason for it. And it does matter. It matters who hes choosing to promote on his twitter account, given the wide following that he has, given that hes used that as an official mouthpiece of the administration, and the reaction from theresa may is particularly notable, because shes been trying to find ways to play both sides with trump. She was here very early in the administration. She had a visit where she was very positive about him. Shes been a little more restrained in the criticism than some of the other european leaders. But for her, in her political moment, this was unacceptable. There was no way that she could say anything that was short of the statement that she did make. And she actually, i think, is going to get a bit of a boost in britain right now. And what that means in terms of the u. S. Relationship with the uk, what it means with europe as theyre dealing with things like the iran deal, for example. Where he actually needs the brits on his side, if hes going to try to make changes to that deal. This is not a situation where its a tweet thats just a throwaway. I think it could have implications for the relationship with the uk. Consequences in the relationship. And some are worried, and we havent seen any evidence of this yet, but his own state department sent word to the white house, be careful here, this could cause protests around the world. Right, stoking grievance and resentment is a big part of President Trumps political appeal, economic, and as we see here, racial. I think thats the answer to your question. Its part of the fuel thaen fla that enflames his base. I think its important to know that at president has a tendency to tweet and observe things as if hes an idle observer of his own government. When youre president , every word weighs a ton. Im not sure he quite grasps the impact of his tweets on world events. And the idea that he could be putting aside for a moment the truly hateful nature of these particular videos that he was retweeting. The idea that the president of the United States would actually be circulating something on his twitter account, which as julie said, he has said, they have indicated at the white house, they consider to be an official statement of the United States government, that he doesnt know the nature of. And he doesnt know where they come from. And the white house essentially asked reporters this past week to believe that he had never heard of this woman who initially put out these videos is stunning. And weve repeatedly seen from the white house lectern, at the briefings, that this is not a white house that considers their words or their statements to have to be particularly carefully worded, to have to be accurate, necessarily, if they didnt know it at the time. And that is something thats new under President Trump, and its not something in the ten months that hes been in office that hes learned on. Hes continued to do this. Its reckless. And theres no indication that he thinks that theres a price to be paid for it. And lets come now back to the personnel. These stories leaked out, first to the new york times, that the president had this plan, the chief of staff was orchestrating it, pushed tillerson out, put pompeo in there, now the president says its fake news, Rex Tillerson said people need to get better sources. This came out from Senior Administration officials. So whether theyre going to force him out whether they wanted to diminish him and publicly humiliate him, why . Well, with i dont think the president is very happy with Rex Tillerson, despite what hes saying. I think this is real. I think this is happening, its in the motions. And the question really now is when. Look, i think theres actually a correct view that pompeo, though hes to the right, certainly to where the right of the state department bureaucracy is, might be a better manager of what Rex Tillerson has been. Theres been a lot of reason not just from the white house, but from the state department, as well, to be angry and frustrated with the way Rex Tillerson is running just hasnt worked out. I think the bigger question, though, is whether tom cotton at the cia is the right move, either for the krcia, both for e cia and for cotton himself zplp and if youre going to fill these jobs over a fouryear term, do you want to take these jobs . If the president asks you, thats what im hearing. Okay. Our reporters share from their notebooks next, including a big decision from the president in the middle east and a yearend showdown over a possible Government Shutdown. We all want restful sleep. Thats why natures bounty melatonin is made to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. So youll be ready for whatever tomorrow brings. Because moms love is unconditional. Even at 6am. Natures bounty melatonin. Were all better off healthy. Was supposed to be a wakenty reup call for our government . Sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. Im tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. Its why i left my Investment Firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. But here we are nine years later and this president and the Republican Congress are making a bad situation even worse. They wont tell you that their so called tax reform plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. It blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. Its up to all of us to stand up to this president. Not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. Join us. Your voice matters. Lets head one last time around the table and ask our great reporters to share a Little Something from their notebooks. Julie pace . This week the spouupreme cou will hear arguments between a gay couple in colorado and a baker who refused to bake them a wedding cake. The couple is really worried this will open up the door to a wide range of discrimination from businesses against samesex couples. The baker argues that hes an artist and he shouldnt be compelled to make a cake that violates his religious views. This is something thats going to get a lot of attention. A lot of interest from both sides here. A big argument to watch here. Fascinating case to watch this week. Hopefully well have the time to spend on the supreme court. Sometimes we get distracted by other things. John, the government is set to shut down this month and democrats are debating amongst themselves how far to go and push and force this battle. There are three things they want, b stabilization, extend the Childrens Health Insurance Program and they want a daca fix. Democrats are really mad about this tax bill and various other things that are going on. And there is determination among some of them to fight to the end, even force a Government Shutdown if they have to. Some of them dont want to go so far. Well see what happens. Very interesting few weeks ahead. Michael . Well, with taxtaxes arent d have a Government Shutdown, but maybe were actually going to get something in the next year on infrastructure. The administration has got a goal, im hearing, of Something Like early summer. You should be watching people like elaine chao, the transportation secretary, epa administrator, scott pruitt to be lead from the administration. What im hearing from capitol hill is, some complaints that the administrations a little vague, not entirely clear about what they want. General idea is, though, more flexibility to states and that means more money to spend on roads, bridges, these sorts of things. Be on the lookout for that. They promised it in year one. Well see if they can get it in year two. Julie . This year the president will make a big speech on jerusalem, recognizing jerusalem as the capital of israel, which is something no american president has done in decades. It is follows of the United States, but this is a big move that hes actually making, sort of in substitute for making the decision, which he promised to do during the campaign, to actually move the American Embassy in israel to jerusalem from teleaviva. A lot of his proisrael and religious conservative supporters wanted to see him do that. Hes punting on it a second time. And im hearing hes getting a lot of pressure to say in this speech this is the last waiver hell sign, this is the last time hell make the decision. But its not clear theyve laid the groundwork in the arab world or in the middle east at all for this kind of a speech, which is going to be a very significant stateme statement. And theres a possibility, too, that it could actually violate some u. N. Security Council Resolutions that do not recognize the sovereignty of israel. So, big speech to watch and a lot of Unanswered Questions about how the administration is going to play this and how it will affect the potential for a peace process. To borrow a word from the president , huge. Its a very huge deal. Ill close with this. Theres an old saying that timing is everything in politics. Well, the paraleglea deal with l Michael Flynn is a great example on two fronts. Michael mueller has to disclose his spending and a guilty plea makes it most difficult to cast the investigation now as a waste of time and money. And as the legal fallout rattles theest wiest wing, theres this with the first year winding down, were already starting to see a trickle of departures. With the stunning flynn news, lack for morale issues to tip the scale for many that are leaving for many that are torn about moving on or giving it another year. Thanks for sharing your sunday. Much more on the Michael Flynn cooperation deal and the broader russia meddling investigation just ahead as the top democrat tonight Senate Intelligence committee joins state of the union with jake tapper. Have a great. Say hello to the braava jet mopping robot from irobot. Its Precision Jet spray and vibrating cleaning head loosen and scrub stains. All while navigating kitchens, bathrooms and those hard to reach places. You and braava jet from irobot. Better together. When trying to save for the big things in life. We tend to start small. Less of this. Cut back on that. But if it feels like a lot of effort for a little gain. Change that. Start with something that makes a big difference. Your student loans. Refinancing with sofi saves over 22,000 on average. Its an easier way to reach your life goals sooner. Weve helped over 195,000 people. We want to help you too. Find out how much you can save in just two minutes at sofi. Com save investigation bombshell. President trump insists ha s het worried about Michael Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the fbi and now cooperating with the probe. Theres been absolutely no collusion. But now new questions about what the president knew and when. Well talk exclusively with the top democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee, senator mark warner, next. Plus, latenight victory. The tax cuts and jobs act is passed. While you were sleeping, and without time to read the full