Never knew. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We have the first major event of the 2020 president ial election. Tonight ill be moderating a town hall with kamala harris. She launched her Campaign Officially in front of thousands in her hometown of oakland, california yesterday declaring we are better than this. It was a big time roll out. Well drill down as they begin the process of sticking a nominee. The field is already sizable and growing and another wild card may be about to jump in and change everything. Well have much more on that in a moment. What does harris need to say tonight to win over the voters . Making her first visit to iowa as a president ial candidate on the heels of her official Campaign Launch in california. I will lead with integrity and speak with truth. Truth, a word she said more than 20 times in her speech. She called on supporters to fight for their vision. People in power are trying to convince us that the villain in our american story is each other. That is not our story. That is not who we are. That is not our america. She laid out a pop list platform including Debt Free College and tax cut. She never said his name. Harris made clear she is ready to take on the president. When we have foreign powers infecting the white house like malware lets be true about true and present dangers. A reminder that the first in the nation caucuses are still a year away. She has used support and im open to democratic candidates. Beyond that field of democratic hopefuls a curveball from former Howard Schultz. He build starbucks from the ground up tweeting this video explaining he is considering an independent run for president. It is just a designation. If i run for president i will run under one banner, the American Flag. The blow back came swiftly from democrats saying schultz will dilute. It is from the Democratic Party on a starbucks cup. Dont do it howard. A message echoed by castro. I have a concern that if he did run that essentially it would provide donald trump with his best hope of getting reelected. After harriss speech yesterday i did speak with iowa democrats. One told me that while certainly it is early she thought this after listening to harriss speech, she is showing the early signs of having the right stuff for the long haul. She points out this year it is very different. Voters will want to hear not just an overall vision but want to bet every candidate on the issues, jake. All right. Thanks so much. My experts are here with maine there was an interesting part of her announcement speech which she talked about how she is not perfect. Take a listen. I am not perfect. Lord knows i am not perfect, but i will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect. I will lead with integrity and i will speak the truth. What was the strategy there . That was a section that got a lot of attention. I will say being there in the crowd that was the moment when she really got the biggest swell of applause. You were mentioning there were thousands of people. The crowds went back into the streets. I think that she knows that she has a very long and complex record and that there are lots of pieces of it that some are going to stumble over particularly some of the cases she handled as a prosecutor, as da of San Francisco and also as attorney general. There are a lot of democrats that feel she should have been more of an advocate for criminal Justice Reform when she was in some of those positions. I bet she will face a lot of questions on that tonight. And she is obviously getting hit from the right as well. Those are hits from the left. She outlined positions, Debt Free College, middle class tax cut. She wrote harris is delusional if it will support far left agenda, weaker borders and higher taxes. Thats pretty much a welcome to the race republicans taking her seriously and they are. She has had a strong rollout over the last seven days or so. By that i mean really well thought out argument for why she should be running. They want someone they can believe in. It is a process. Not someone that is known instantly. If you think about 12 years ago almost this week as barack obama got into the campaign no one thought he could be the nominee on that day. What did you make of it all . I thought the language that she used was quite impressive. It is that language that we need to use, making people feel like you like them. Especially when she said im not perfect. As we know, everyone is not perfect. One of the things i tried to say is instead of trying to hit yourself to a person republicans really need to hitch themselves to the platform, to principles. People will fail you. She opened herself up to making herself human. Im hoping some of the republicans will do the same thing, make themselves accessible, let them know they are not up here. They are right where everybody else is and this is about them. Let me ask you because a lot of democrats are upset. Schultz says he is considering a run as an independent. He said he will would selffund. You heard castros concerns there. Bloomberg said in 2020 the great likelihood is an independent would split the vote and end up reelecting the president. That is a risk i refuse to run and we cant afford to run it now. Do you share those concerns . I do absolutely. I think thats why youre hearing, you know, a pretty swift and loud response from a lot of democrats. The other thing i think that is important to remember on a technical level, it is very hard and takes very very deep pockets to try to run as an independent. People dont realize the logistical work of the party, the people who knock on doors and make the phone calls and all of the elections between the president ial years, there is an infrastructure there and come pains build their own it is in terms of being competitive. I also think the challenge for him is what are you doing . Why are you running . There is certainly as a Democratic Party and republican party, theres some core values we share and some differences. I think on our side we are all excited. Well have a debate over ideas. With schultz, hell come in as im not to anyone because im selffunding. Tell us is it a goal of yours to get there . I think thats something he is tone da tone deaf about. Yeah. I want to go right to you. I think youre the kind of person that Howard Schultz wants to win over. Youre a republican that who would be concerned. How did you take it . I think he has an advantage. He can say whatever he wants to. He can make whatever promises he wants to. You have harris that will have to answer to a lot of her policies. A lot of things she has said. If you look at some of the candidates that have already approached that have already announced they are saying yeah, i may have said this and i changed my mind. If you look at senator who said i felt this way at one point and now i feel something different. So theres going to be some of that. He will be able to say what have he wants to. He does have a Business Record though. He does have a record. Yeah. But theres everyone stick around theres a political record and your votes, those votes will count for something. Right. Its a fair point. Everyone stick around. New comments just in from the white house as federal workers face yet another possibility of being furloughed again in less than three weeks. Another Government Shutdown being threatened. Well have much more from iowa, the site for the cnn town hall. Stick around. A, we treat soup differently. With vine ripened tomatoes, signature cheddar, simmered to perfection. With big flavors, not artificial ones. Enjoy 100 clean soup today. Panera. Food as it should be. From the very beginning. 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Read reviews, check hotel prices, book things to do, tripadvisor. Taking questions from the podium. It is now pretty much a monthly briefing over Border Security funding are set to kick off on the hill on wednesday all to hope to prevent a repeat of the completely avoidable Government Shutdown, one that forced 800,000 federal workers to go without pay. We are live from the white house. This kicked off with a big announcement on sanctions against venezuela. Yeah. Thats right. They came out several white house officials alongside the press secretary. They are formally sanctioning the state run oil company with treasury secretary calling it a vehicle for embezzlement and corruption. The National Security adviser did not rule that option out saying that President Trump has made clear right now he feels all options are on the table regarding that. Now, jake, this was the first press Briefing Since the Government Shutdown began and ended. Despite the fact that he said he does not feel hopeful congressional negotiators are going to come up with a compromise of democrats they said that the president does not want another Government Shutdown. The White House Holding the first press briefing of the year. The president doesnt want to go through another shutdown. Thats not the goal. The goal is Border Security. The White House Holds the record for the longest time without an oncamera Briefing Since they were first aired during the clinton administration. With 800,000 employees returning to work the record for the longest Government Shutdown in history. That return could be short lived. This group of bipartisan lawmakers has three weeks to find a funding proposal that could get the president s signature before the government runs out of money again on february 15th. Trump appearing doubtful a deal will be struck telling the wall street journal he believes there is less than a 50 50 chance. His chief of staff making clear that bypassing congress and declaring a National Emergency to fund the border wall is a top option. She willing to do whatever it takes to secure the border. A new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office showing that the shutdown cost billions of dollars including 3 billion that wont be recovered. Trump feeling the heat from some of the most prominent members of his base including ann who said he was the biggest wimp to ever serve as president for con seeding to democrats demand. They can take me as a standin but thats all i am, a member of the base. Telling she has become very hostile. Maybe i didnt return her foal call or something. It is not just members of the president s base that are frustrated. Moderate lawmakers are too. Shutdowns are never good policy ever. They are never to be used as means to achieve any kind of goal no matter how important that goal may seem to be. They are ineffective. Now, that first meeting with those congressional negotiators starts on wednesday. What a compromise could look like or whether the president would accept it is still unclear. Sanders did tell reports they have not received another invitation for the president to deliver a state of the Union Address yet, jake. All right. Thanks so much. My panel is back with me. Sanders was asked about potential legislation to take the threat of a shutdown off the table. Take a listen. Look, im not going to get into hypotheticals of taking it off the table. So Many Americans cannot afford another shutdown. Can President Trump politically afford another one . I think he really doomed himself on this one. 800,000 people went without work. You have gop members who stood strong with him. They felt like he threw them under the bus. As they are sitting there not voting for any legislation that did not have any Border Security or border wall funding he went and decided that he was going to reopen again and we are back in the same place in three weeks. So i think that this is its groundhog day and i think its absolutely ridiculous. This is not how government is supposed to work. I mean this is too much power if c consolidated in the white house. This is why we are talking about Government Shutdowns every three weeks now. And karen, one of the things we did see is polling suggesting that pelosis negative poll ratings went up since this shutdown. Its not as though only President Trump as suffered even though the public overwhelmingly held him and republicans ri responsible for it. Of. Right. Remember that we were starting to see and i think this was confirmed over the weekend, gop senators and members of Congress Really starting to feel the heat and starting to crack. So i dont i think pelosi is confident and firm in her position and i think very clear if the president tries to shut this government down again and think about the optics of that. If you were to try to do that, after we know the 11 billion lost and to try to shut the government down again i think e you would have an open revolt. I think the other considerations, sort of daring them almost to do it. He puts on the table this idea of declaring a state of emergency which sets a precedent when we get a democratic the republicans really have no, you you know, argument to try to stop. I dont know thats a precedent we want to set. I have so say, no one got anything out of this. I was hoping we would be able to get some sort of immigration reform, something. Youre talking about people that are still not they dont have any predictability. They are going back to work for three weeks. You have no idea whether it will start all over again. It is the worst type of governing we really seen. This is what government is supposed to have appropriation bills sent to the president. He is supposed to sign it or veto it. We are not seeing any of this. Absolutely. Go ahead. You see and talk to voters in some of these states and you just there is so much anger and so much confusion about why all of that was worth it. I dont see how he says that happens. He told the wall street journal he was skeptical they would be able to come up with some sort of compromise. This is how its supposed to work. I dont she he has the power far shutdown. He said its not a good idea. I think republicans may break from him immediately. I think abemergency could be forthcoming. We have to take a quick break. Can the tone from the white house lead to a deal that the democrats can accept. More conversations. Stay with us. And if you feel, like i feel baby then come on, oh come on lets get it on applebees. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im gonna follow the sun now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller transitions™ light under control™ this is it guys. You ready . To have epix . Absolutely. Woooo youd laugh. Oh, ow. [ chuckles ] youd cry. Look, look, look, look, look, look, look,. Maybe even laugh while crying. What the fertilizer . Sounds pretty great, right . Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight just say, add epix and it can all be yours. Its easy to upgrade. And you dont want to miss out on everything epix. Tonights president ial candidate town hall. The white house just refuse today rule out another partial Government Shutdown on top of the long one that just ended. My panel is back with me. Let me ask you, the New York Times reports that the president s soninlaw was confident he could find a compromise on the shutdown. He has not been successful. The times reports negotiating a dale that would committed to a border wall as well as democrats that have casted prove to be more like his elusive goal and passing a criminal justice overall that had bipartisan support. Do you think kushner is out of his league on these negotiations . He should put his name on a ballot. It will be the best bet. I have to say this, i think all of the leaders, all of the members of congress, speak aer pelosi, they are the ones that have to get together and get this done. Like i said, too much c consolidation. The president is way too involved in legislating. It creates a big problem. Karen, another quote from the New York Times about kushner. His pitch, two democratic lawmakers, he told them he was the one that could land this plane. I think it is still circling la guardia. We saw earlier today he thought once flynn was fired the russia investigation would go away. I think he is naive and there are a couple of things that have come out of this this i think we have seen for sure which is running a business is not the same as running government. You cant do it the same way. They will keep trying. They seem like they dont know how to learn lessons. We are also seeing this is the limit of being a president who only cares about 30 , your core base and the freedom caucus. If youre trying to please a small group and not thinking about how to expand your base then youll run into other problems. You you have democrats who are accountable to other constituencies than your core 30 . I think part of what we saw are the limits of his power. Its in the all about what the fox news crowd wants. And lets talk about that. Sims releasing a tellall book. Look at this quote he released to the atlantic about what Steven Miller allegedly told him. I would be happy if not a single refugee foot touched americas soil. I mean so these are the competing initiatives here. You that kind of way of looking at the United States. I dont want any to ever touch the United States again and that the president thinks that is his base. That shouldnt be surprising. We all know what Steven Miller believes. It is long before he came into the white house. Steven miller is someone that has the president s ear often at the very end so you can see all of that. The question is the president going to change his approach at really what is the halftime of his first time in office . Last week was the beginning of year three. Is he going to continue to listen to Steven Miller . It seems like he is to me. The president is reasoniwill be him. The question is will he sort of, you know, overcome all of this . She spending so much time on capitol hill he is not tending here and we have breaking news right now. We learned that House Speaker pelosi formally invited President Trump to deliver the state of union at the House Chamber a week from tomorrow. I believe thats february 5th. That is a week from tomorrow. It was originally supposed to be tomorrow. Thats just a glimmer perhaps of cooperation. Yes. Something good going on in washington. I think whats so interesting also on the flip side of this is is how strongly could some of these democrats make this case that this white house has gotten so far away from the founding ideals of this country with comments like that about refugees. And you heard her do that again and again yesterday. A lot of the times it is because of these kinds of issues. It will be interesting that someone could speak to that feeling that the white house is totally out of touch with what this country is about. We when you hear comments that no refugee ever set foot. What goes through your mind . The first thing that goes through my mind is i hope he is not republican. Well. But i have to say, you know, this is the type of language i think gets people in trouble. We have forgotten that america is a country of immigrants. Every single one of us at some point our ancestors immigrated to the United States of america. This is the type of language that i think is really harmful. I do not believe americans have lost their way. I believe that we are pitching our principles to a person. There are a set of platforms we have to hold everyone accountable to. That also means the president and it Means Congress and it means that whoever is involved in the policymaking we have to hold them accountable to those principles. I would be remissed if i didnt point out that not all of us chose to come here. We were brought here. Right. I have to point that out. I think part of what this conversation is about and some of the comments that are now making the news that were said over the weekend is you know, we are a diverse country. It will be the most diverse we have ever had. So, you know, all of the candidates, because i dont think youll hear trump talk about it, the conversation will be how do we talk about prosperity and respect for everyone regardless of all pick it. We have absolutely got to make, you you know, the person who will take our hearts and show us that vision will be the person who can say here is how i will chart a path forward. It is a vision where everybody can see themselves in some form or fashion. Again, i go back to this is part of the problem with the republican party. You know, when your base is shrinking and youre not doing anything to reach out to other people, when you have a excellent like that from Steven Miller it says there is no deal to be had with regard to a border wall. If thats the starting point then, you know, its hard to know what would be acceptable. All right. Stick around. We have more to talk about. The white house also weighing in on the arrest of longtime associate, what sanders just said about the possibility of a pardon for stone. Stay with us. I am not for colds. I am not for just treating my symptoms. ahchoo i am for shortening colds when im sick. With zicam. Zicam is completely different. Unlike most other cold medicines. Zicam is clinically proven to shorten colds. I am a zifan for zicam. Oral or nasal. Want to take your next vacation to new heights . Tripadvisor now lets you book over 100,000 tours, attractions, and experiences in destinations around the world like new york, from bus tours to breathtaking adventures. Tripadvisor makes it easy to find and book Amazing Things to do. And you can cancel most bookings up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund. So you can make your next trip monumental. Read reviews, check hotel prices, book things to do, tripadvisor. Billions of problems. Morning breath . Garlic breath . Stinky breath . Theres a therabreath for you. Therabreath fresh breath oral rinse instantly fights all types of bad breath and works for 24 hours. So you can. Breathe easy. Theres therabreath at walmart. Sanders would not rule out a pardon for roger stone. Has the president ruled out for roger stone . Im not aware of that. Can you guarantee that the president wont pardon roger stone . Again,ly not talk about hypotheticals that are ridiculous. Stone is facing charges in the special counsel investigation and is yet another accused of lying about russia from his personal attorney to his Campaign Chair not just during the 2016 campaign but while after trump took office. Snyder reports this raises the question, why. Roger stone flashing his victory sign outside his ft. Lauderdale. The trickster is expected to be inside tomorrow to face arraignment on his seven count indictment on charges of false statements and witness tampering all relate today muellers russia investigation. He courted reports before leaving for the airport seeming to flip on his previous statement that he could cooperate with mueller. Are you willing to cut a deal with mueller . I dont answer hypothetical questions. I have no intention of doing so. Stone left that possibility open. Any chance youll cooperate with mueller if he asks . I would certainly testify honestly. I would testify honestly. Roger stone has been making the rounds. Two fbi agents here Holding Assault weapons. I said i would like to know what the charges are. They said well tell you that in the car. Stone allegedly lied about directing assange to find out about email. He said the information is accurate. Ill be happy to testify. I would suspect to be subpoenaed. Ill let the testimony fall where ever it falls. Zb he insists he was acting on instinct when he predicted the releases from wikileaks. I connected the dots. I admit, thats hard to accept. Roger stone fired back. I have data that proves he would be lying. Lying exactly the charge stone and several other former Trump Associates are facing in the Mueller Investigation including the president s former tone and fixer Michael Cohen, former Campaign Chairman, former National Security adviser Michael Flynn all accused of lying to federal investigators or congress but the unanswered question muellers team may be trying to figure out, why do they all seem to have lied . And who else could be lying . Thats twhat he plans to get to bottom of. He says he plans to send some of the transskicripts of witnesses Robert Mueller. He keeps saying that possibly will help mueller with any additional perjury charges, jake. All right. Thanks so much. Sanders was also asked if she could guarantee trump was not talking to roger stone at the time that stone was communicating with wikileaks and that no one close to the president was informing him what was happening with wikileaks. This is sanders response. What i can tell you is that the president did nothing wrong throughout this process and the charges of the indictment have absolutely nothing to do with the president. There have been a lot of charges and there have been some pardons. There still has not been any specific charge by the special council of conspiracy. Nobody in the trump world has been charged with conspireing with the russians. We have all of these people lying about it. Why . Thats the great question. They are clearly they have never been had one central story here. I think we should go back to what she just said. She was repeating what she said last week. She is not saying it is not involving the campaign though. One of the questions is the president talked to roger stone a lot during the president ial campaign. It was a huge frustration to Campaign Officials because the president likes to use the phone. As for the lying it is off the coverup as it is anything else. Well see where this goes. Look for Michael Cohen to go to perhaps give more answers there. Is this is end . Is this the beginning of the end . We dont know. It seems so difficult for the white house to have any kind of answer of this at all. It is some times on small matters. I makes you think there has to be Something Else beneath this. There is so much attention within the American Public about this. He wasnt talking to him while all of this is going on. It is very difficult to believe. And congresswoman love, we now have roger stone accused by the special counsel and cohen admitted he lied to congress about the project. The National Security adviser admitted he lied to the fbi about the fact that he did discussion sanctions with a russian ambassador. Former Trump Campaign aid lied about his contacts with russians. Why all of the lies . What are they trying to protect . I think you said something that is really important. As mueller was going through the case they havent found any evidence of collusion. I guess the message hasnt gotten to this long line up which is now a longer line up of people that are lying that the coverup is worse than the actual issue. I think they have to do everything they can to cooperate. If they would cooperate we would see a little more movement in the report. We just have to let mueller do his job and please just cooperate with him so this can get done. It is something that is weighing heavily on the american people. This entire and karen, today roger stone says he has no intention of cutting a deal with mueller. This weekend he told them he would consider cooperating with muellers investigation. Take a listen. Any chance youll cooperate with special down sit Robert Mueller if he asks . You know, thats a question i would have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion. If fls wrong doing by other people in the campaign that i know about, which i know of none, but if there is i would testify honestly. Yeah. Why the mixed messages. He said he wont cooperate and a day ago he said he perhaps would. Perhaps his lawyer called him after that and said we have to be careful how we speak about this. We really do have to watch the double speak in all of this. Stone was contradicting himself what he said in the campaign. One other piece to this, obviously we only know what mueller is letting us see in the indictmenting. Who knows . He may have absolute proof of collusion and proof that laws were broken. It may be the case that he is not ready to show his hand yet. Also dont forget all of these things were happening at the same time. We know the dnc was hacked. We know manafort was giving polling data. We know donald trump was calling on the russians to look at the Hillary Clinton email. There are a lot of things happening in conjunction with some of the things we are learning out of roger stone. All right. Up next new reporting on the push to get u. S. Troops out of afghanistan. Plus an air force veteran about to be buried with no one around and word spread on media and social media and texas respontded in an incredible way. Stay with us. Isnt what goes into your soup. Just as important as what you get out of it . Our broccoli cheddar is made with aged melted cheddar, simmered broccoli, and no artificial flavors. Enjoy 100 clean soup today. Panera. Food as it should be. Now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller transitions™ light under control™ transitions™ presents four new colors style colors by transitions™ transitions™ presents four new colors sometimes a cough gets in the way of a good nights sleep. Thats when he needs vicks vaporub. Proven cough medicine. With 8 hours of vapors, so he can sleep. Vicks vaporub. Goodnight coughs. Rjs we may now be closer than ever to at least the beginning of the end of the longest war in american history. A source familiar tells me today the plan continues to be a potential withdraw of up to 50 over u. S. Forces from afghanistan. No final decision has been made. This comes about a month after President Trump first ordered preparations. This plan is exactly that, a plan hinging on whatever negotiators agreed to and contingent on final approval. There is a rush of new hope today after news that the United States and taliban agreed in principle for some sort of peace deal that deal would see the taliban commit to keeping it from being used as a hub for terrorism which is how this war started in the first place 17 years ago. Two days ago the central state veteran secretary urging the public to show up and pay their respects at the funeral of a vietnam veteran who would be buried alone. That community made sure air force vert ran got the sendoff he deserved. This is the only image we have of Joseph Walker. He served from 1964 to 1968. Walker die until november. Not much else is known of his service but what these people did know about Joseph Walker is that no familyov or friends wer going to show up at his burial. The call went out to make sure the 72yearold was honored and perfect strangers showed up in force. Air force honor guard escorted in kileen, texas. The front row sat empty but many surrounded the pavilion to pay their respects to a veteran they didnt know. Lord, lets not forget the sacrifices that have been made by this awesome veteran. Im so overwhelmed by the show of love and support for someone they have never met before. With no family to accept the American Flag it was presented. He helped spread the word about walkers service. I was blown away of what i saw today. It is a good feeling that came through my body. It is one of those that wow, its just beautiful. All that mattered is the uniform that no veteran will be left to pass away alone. What is really sad is that official said this is common since 2015. He says his state agency has handled the funerals of 97 unaccompanied veterans in the last three years. Thank you so much. Dont miss it tonight. Ill be moderating the town hall with kamala harris. It starts at 10 00 central on cnn. Happening now, breaking news. Pelosi just invited President Trump to deliver his on again off again state of the Union Address a week from tomorrow in the House Chamber. The white house says President Trump doesnt want to go through another shutdown. The president got nothing and now says the odds that republicans and democrats will strike a deal are less than 50 50. No stone unturned. The fbi searches