Jake, whats your assessment . I think theyre going to pass it but remember the government shuts down friday. So keep that in mind. I do want to say once they get if had to this pro longed negotiation between the house and senate bills, we spend a lot of time in the house. We dont know how these people are going to react to changes to their bill. Theyve been all bought in for it several weeks now and any change to it will be a learning process to say the least with many House Republicans. But what nick said is right. They do believe that despite very bad public polling on this bill and its bad, its really bad, that they have to pass something before the end of the year and were going into an Election Year but the end of the year is a false construct. They dont feed to pass anything before the end of the year and anything shorlt of that would be seen as a failure. Well go out and sell it later. I remember the democrats doing that on something else. Affordable, affordable. I dont know. Though, in their defense they did spend almost a year debating the Affordable Care act. I mean i know the year end is a false construct but the roy moore factor makes it date of their election and then trying to seat a senator as fast as theyre going to try to seat a senator they do have a date to push up against. Though moore is a republican and should want a lot of whats left of this bill. This is the most complicated weve seen in washington. They have to fund the government, paz a tax bill, renew chip. They have supplemental spending bills to help places like texas and pouerto rico which are stil trying to recover. And raise spending caps to for what republicans call inadequate military funding. For a congress that weve all watched for many years struggle with basic functions of governing. This is a very, very complicated kind of mosaic of issues. And of course the political nature of them forcing this bill through, get democrats on board for those other things. Were going to talk about the other major story weve been covering are night. Behind the curtain of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. A process of taking witnesses into a windowless Conference Room where teams take turns pressing witnesses for answers. The press writes quote often listening in is the special counsel imhhimself. A sphinxlike and right now flynn is it seemingly muellers star witness. Lying to the fbi, something flynn accused hill hiary clintof doing. Im getting tired of the corruption and criminal behavior out of the clinton campaign. It levl of corruption, criminal behavior, all these things going on, its unbelievable. Hillary clinton lied to the fbi under oath. Unbelievable. Hillary clinton lied to the fbi under oath. So did Michael Flynn, apparently. And to paraphrase wakes up every day thinking how can he please bob mueller . And mike flynn was in every important meeting in the campaign and edhad of National Security. And the big question remains what does he have to say . Mike flynn and paul manafort. Weve known for some time they were in legal trouble. First, two big setbacks for the president in this investigation over the last 48 hours. First mike flynn flipped. And maybe even against the president himself. But this weekend it president confessed over twitter. Basically wrote a tweet that said when he fired jim comey, he knew it was after a felony been committed and they were investigating a felony, a lying to the fbi by it National Security advisor and maybe because of that he fired the fbi director. Thats textbook obstruction of justice. Can we talk about that tweet for a second . The president sort of acknowledging this and the president s lawyer saying riltser the first and only tweet ive ever dictated. I definitely did write that one. I had to fire general flynn because he had lied to the fbi. He has pled guilty to those lies. First of all the cover story here smells pretty stinky. That was a classic trump tweet down to the exclamation point. Second of all, its very strange thatd president s lawyer of all people would draft a tweet that incriminates him. Of all the people to make that mistake, it would not be the president s own lawyer. That was almost assuredly the president s own tweet. Probably easy to find out whos phone was drafted on and tweeted from. But it was terribly damaging because it basically have the president essentially admitting that he knew something terrible happened and he was pushing out, in future dates, pushing out the head of the fbi to stop an investigation of that wrong act. I was going to say i ruv this. An incredibly shortsighted strategy. Robert muellers going to get to that under oath in short order. So what was the point is . Another way tasay that is you cannot be both a lawyer and a witness in the same case and bob mueller will have to interview john dowd to see who drafted the tweet because it does incriminate the president. And theres no way he could avoid becoming a witness . He claimed he wrote it and more than to look at the furenz evidence. Trump himself handed down a pledge. Mr. Trump youve repeatedly deflected calls with the claim youll ask the best people. The best people. The best people. But i would get the best people. Were going to use our best people. Were going to have it best people in the world. Our best people. The best people. So how did the president go from hiring the best people to firing his National Security advisor . In a tweet over the weekend, trump said in part quote i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the Vice President. Back in may he told nightly news anchor lester holt this. I believe two meetings and we ultimately fired and fired for a different reason. Youre talking about general flynn . Yes. Because of lying to the vice preside president . Yes, but everything plays into it. We fired him because he said something to the Vice President that was not so. So essentially hes adding the tweet to a layer to the interview. Sg he lied to the fbi, then he knew flynn was in much bigger trouble than just lying to the vice who then went on television and repeated that lie. And then you have to wonder when you start to look at the dates of everything. Is that why he fired comey or because he knew that comey could do something about it investigation and he knew flynn lied to the fbi and comey is in charge of the fbi so what does that all mean . It seems to keep pointeding to obstruction of justice but im not a lawyer. It calendar starts to point to it president knowing more than we originally thought the president himself knew. Heres afther piece of context. Until recently flynn was pictured as a loan actor. What we learn from these Court Documents is he coordinated this. The opening remaining question is was don don briefed on this . He says he wasnt. But its really not credible that he wasnt aware. And somebody who speaks to almost everybody at are times. Hes a social person who likes to be the center of the orbit. So to say he didnt know what was going on in the early days of his administration would be something few people would believe. And can i ask you. K. T. Macfarlane was referred to as flynns brain. She was the deputy National Security advisor and importantly it senior official working down at maralago who was talking to flynn on a day in, dayout basis and basically relaying instructions that youicide do this deal. I think its incredulous. Im quite certain hawae did kno. It question is was there an open question of we have to do a deal with them. At times the white house as thought to pin flynns transitions on the previous occupier of the office. And he friday cnn reported that flynns conversation with ambassador kislyak came with the blessings of the Obama Administration. James clap r dismissed that as absurd. But long before that the a white house thought to include tattoo the vetting. His clearance was last reissued by the Obama Administration in 2016 with full knowledge of his activities in 2015. I do feel badly. He served the country. Ee was a general. But he was approved by the Obama Administration at the highest level. And when they say we didnt vet, well, obama i guess didnt vet because he was aprovered at the highest level of security by the Obama Administration . Did you know he received payments from the Russia Administration . No, but maybe obama knew. So was general mcmaster and kelly and mattis. They all served in the military under president obama and preev ysh president s. Didnt he warn he might not be one of the best guys in this administration . Actually mike flynn was fired by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Career professional also military officers because of inhad comp tnsz and for no other reason. The charge hes making is he went to moscow and he was paid for that trip and that was during the obamau administration. The problem is he didnt disclose he was paid. And he may be culpable because he didnt tell them. I jump in here. Talk a little built about the relationship between flynn and the president and President Trump and how it evolved. Maybe he had developed this extraordinary loyalty to Michael Flynn, perhaps Michael Flynn would refuse to flip. We know the outcome of what happened there. How did this come to be and crumble . I think their relationship was based on two factors. It first was their shared feelings about islam and radical islam. They both have this apocalyptic idea of the threat of the muslim religion on their own shores. It became part of a new President Trumps speech on the campaign trail and in flynn he found a decorated officer who validated the way he felt and what he was already saying on the campaign trail and flynn i think found in President Trump some redemption. He had gone on to a Business Career as a consultant. And all the sudden he finds himself as the chief security advisor to the republican candidate for president. Which was a really big deal and when he comes back, hes in it starter slot for that top job. I think it was a relationship of mutual belief, loyalty that both of them felt to each other and the alliance of convenience. This was flynns ticket back to the big time and a way to show all of his critics they were wrong. I dont think it was a match of ideological soul mates. Trump could not find anybody else to advise them. And flynn could not find anybody to advise and they found each other. Whats your weigh in on that. I think jeremys got point. Weicide remember that he wasnt always this rogue operator uttering these nutty things. He was a guy that transformed the way special Operations Forces fought. Thats why obama appointed him had in the first place. Thats how he got his job at the dia. Its one thing to be an iftelligence officer in the field and another to lead an agency. Where do you think whats next for the white house . Weve talked bot how ty cob is trying to wrap up. Weve never believed a special prosecutor was going to wrap up quickly. It will not wrap up in the next month or two months. But we cant pretend we know what mueller is going after. But hes going after lots of things. The one thing is they may try to pretend on friday that everythings going to be fine and the president is fine but if who picks by the special prosecutors office, if Jared Kushner is being interviewed there keeps being reported the people theyre talking to gets closer and closer to the president of the United States. And how can you not be worried if your son in law is having these conversations, even just for your daughter . Indeed. Lets hold these thoughts. Were going to talk next about whats up for Michael Flynn j jr. Im joined by illinois congresswoman who co sponsored a bill to keep taxpayer dollars from settling sexual ahad rasment dlams 7 blm running a Small Business is demanding. And thats why Small Business owners need more. Like internet thats up to the challenge. The gigspeed network from comcast business gives you more. With speeds up to 20 times faster than the average. That means powering more devices, more video conferencing, and more downloads in seconds, not minutes. Get fast internet and add phone and tv for only 34. 90 more per month. Comcast is building americas largest gigspeed network to give Small Businesses more. Call 18005016000 today. Its been a water shed week for sexual allegations on capitol hill. A law maker behind an 84,000 sexual settlement payment made with taxpayer dollars. Ee responded saying while i 100 support more transparency with respect to claims against members of congress, i can neither confirm or deny that settlement. A day later top House Democrat nancy pelosi called on her colleague, from nevada to step down after a former aid accused imhad of making repeated sexual advances towards her during his 2016 campaign. Pelosi and the it rest of the Party Leadership also finally called on 88yearold congressman john conyers to step down including a settlement for sexual miscondoct. First all of it is not up to nancy pelosi. Nancy pelosi did not elect the congressman and she sure as hell wont be it one to tell the congressman to leave. That decision will be competely up to the congressman. Hes thinking about his health. Hes thinking about getting well. We will dis cusin the next day or so what mr. Conyers plans to do. Meanwhile republican congressman joe barton has announced he wont seek reelection after a nuan allegation. And theyve begun investigations if to allegations over senator al franken. The Hush Fund Elimination act seeks to ends the use of taxpayer dollars for harassment cases. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. Its nice to see you off the softball field and in the stud ye. So first of all this the bill that you have sponsored, walk us through it a little bit. I think there were lot of people surprised to learn if you were an aid who worked in a Congressional Office and felt harassed and you complained and there was a settlement that the taxpayers would pay for that. Frankly, members of congress were surprised. Not all of that for Sexual Harassment cases but we dont know exactly how much has been paid out for Sexual Harassment cases because its all bun din in secret. What this gets at is congressional accountability and slush Fund Elimination act. Its a perfect name are it. Were saying not one cent should the taxpayers be responsible to paying out for sexual predators and for members of congress be able to hide it from it public. We should hold our svls to a higher standard. Blake sort of hid behind this law. Some of these protections are aimed at it women who dont necessarily want their names to be public. But you could potentially make public the names of members without naming the victims. Were calling for the release of that. We think the members who have used taxpayer dollars to pay out victims, the public ought to know who they are. We also think it victims should be released from any muzzle on them if they choose to speak out. Do you have the power to end those agreements that have already been signed . I think a call out to the public is just who is going to support this measure and who is not going to support this measure. I think i cant imagine any taxpayer thinking its okay to hide this and for their hard earned dollars to pay out victims because a member of congress has behaved in this way. To you have a me too story . I was a journalist for 17 years and then i worked in health care for another 10 and now im running for my fourth term right now. Those are areas, just like if you work on a factory floorks if you work at a mall, a restaurant. I dont know any woman who doesnt have some kind of story. I dont have anything that has traumatized me but i certainly have friends where, as this me too movement has emerged and is growing have shared their own stories with me. You just shake your head saying how deep is this and is there any profession out there where a woman is not immune to it . It is everywhere. Especially you mentioned people who work in job wheres the harassment comes from somebody whos fought famous or maybe will never have recourse no matter how much we talk about this. Do you think nancy pelosi should have called for congressman conyers to resign earlier . I think its easy to play monday morning quarterback. She as called for a full accounting of not just mr mr. Conyers and do you agree . I think weicide say enough and the stories are credible. I dont think theres anybody who is saying these women are lying. These are credible stories. I believe it women from everything ive read. I did what you do for a living. And i was an investigative reportr reporter for a number of years as well. Your job as a journalist and this is real news you get to the bottom of this and you have multiple women who verify the stories and thats what were seeing in each of these cases. Nancy pelosi has gotten closer to the presidency than she was third in line. As speaker. This is my overall view of when Something Like this happens is lets use it as a moment we can learn from. And lets move forward and make something good out of this. Our bill we introduced this past week i think is a step in the right direction. Im working in a bipartisan fashion both in the house and the senate with a bill that will be introducing this coming week that will look at it private sector and call for more countability. I just learned that businesses can write off as expenses when they have to pay for lawyers to protect them, their Senior Leadership from Sexual Harassment charges. They can write off the expenses for lawyers and even the pay out to tear victims. Thats not right and the more the public finds out, the more theyre going to call on members off congress to do something more about it. And it seems theres a massive tax bill. You know its a shame. And its not just the fact that weicide be holding our svls to a higher standard on Something Like this but every day with Donald Trumps tweets theres so many diversions every single day. We should be fighting every single day for jobs and making sure that the economys working three jobs to just make ends meet. Thats it kind of district i represent is one where people have seen their jobs go to places like china and mexico. As were talking about our economic agenda among democrats, were saying you have gotten a raw deal. And weve got a better deal to offer and thats what we want to keep focussed on. Thank you so much for coming on the show tonight. I really appreciate it. And coming up Michael Flynn pleads guilty to federal charges. But as nbc has reported, his son was part of the investigation as well. When we come back, well talk about whether the deal means he wont face charges. Some air fresheners are so overwhelming, they can. Send you and your family running. Introducing febreze one for fabric and air. No aerosols. No dyes. No heavy perfumes. It cleans away odors for a pure light freshness. So you can spray and stay. Febreze one, breathe happy. Does he have it full confidence of the president . Yes, he does. A lot of significant things happening with leaders around the globe and obviously general flynn is a part of all of those. The president is evaluating the situation. Hes speaking to Vice President pence relative to the conversation he had had with general flynn. According to one senior official and welker, the nsa, the acting National Security advisor and keith cell aug. Michael flynn has resigned. In just a few short hours on february 13th, National Security advisor, mike flynn went from having the full confidence of President Trump to being out of a job. Donald trump jr. Will appear beor the House Intelligence Committee this week in a closed door session. Hes expected to be asked about his meetings with russians at his meeting with russians in june of 2016 at trump tower and his encounter the month before with a russian banker with close ties to kremlin. Trump jr. Will also meet some time this month with staff of the Senate Intelligence committee. Back in june trump jr. Weighed in on it flynn matter. On fox news criticized former fbi director james comeys statement that he President Trump when i hear the flynn comments. You and i both know my father a long time. With he tells you to do something, theres no ambiguity in it. Theres no im hoping. You and i are friends hey, i hope this happens i want you to do your job and for himp to write a memo. But he didnt do anything. As for flynns son, michael g. Flynn, hes the subject of a federal investigation as part of the russia probe for his work as chief of staff for his fathers lobbying firm. As part of negauche yagds oestie elder flynn, hes not expected to face charges. Recently wrote a piece titled quote how my flynn jr. Is dealing with being trapped thin mueller investigation. Thanks so much for coming in tonight. Walk us through the dynamic that has been laying out. Because weve talk lautd about it. Is mike flynn senior going to end up cooperating becausef his son . It seems as though we know the answer to it question about where or not hes going to operate but is this the core reason why . It seems like its at least a reason why. In his statement that accompanied the plea deal, flynn said he was doing the best thing for his country and his family. From everything we know about flynn jr. He was very if volved in the intel group. Had his hands on bank accounts. He had real criminal exposure and youd have to think any deal his father would have made would have been disclosure. You say yes, he was involved. But was flynn was he a key Decision Maker in the firm . Or ive seen some reporting that suggests he was simply scheduling meetings but therefore would have known everything going on. More like an administrator, more like a top aid but someone who knew what was going on. May have been signing papers or dealing with papers for izhad father. We know his father exposure probably from possible farrah violations. It law that requires you to register as a foreign agent. In this case for turkey. So nothing like a master mind but someone in the room for a lot of stuff. What is your reporting on the role this played and is it a closed issue now . Can we stop talking about Michael Flynn jr. . Its not clooer. The things weve been reporting in terms of turkey are extraordinary and its amazing to me this just goes away with one guilty plea. And what im talking about is there are allegation there was a deal where flynn and or his son would have been paid 50 million if they facilitated the expudition of this cleric he doesnt like who live thins poconos. And its not even clear this is true. These are allegations we believe mueller is investigating. The forb lobbying violations, those were actually mentioned in the Court Documents. But flynn was not charged with those violations. One thing clear. This was enormous leverage. The idea that his son faced criminal exposure. His had son has a young baby at home. Weigh in there. Whats your take . Look, flynn jr. Was essentially his dads Administrative Assistant and his main job was to schedule and set up appointments and make travel arrangements. So he would have been there but look, the operation that hes referring to, the expedition was more like a black bag plan. This is like a private effort to take this cleric and send him back to turkey. Not like a formal extradition. Thats crazy stuff if its true. So i think flynn jr. On top of that was incredibly intemperate. Ee was practically daring the special counsel to come after him. He was scoffing at the investigation. In terms of twitter feeds that have done damage to the administration. I would say trump first and Michael Flynn jr. s second. So hes in a lot of jeopardy, casey. From gq magazine, thank you very much for being here. Thanks as always. One of our show regulars now. And dont forget to tune into headliners Michael Flynn. Finds out how one of the nations most admired military leaders wound up in the senlter of the russia investigation . Brl my daughter is. Studying to be a dentist and she gave me advice. She said. Dadgo pro with crest prohealth. 4 out of 5 dentists confirm. These crest prohealth. Products help maintain a. Professional clean. Go pro with Crest Pro Health crest prohealth. Really brought my mouth. To the next level. Welcome back. There is new reporting from the wall street journal. President trump continually to find loopholes to bring order and discipline to the white house. Quote it president on occasion has called white house atds to the private residence in the evening where he makes assignments and asks them not to tell mr. Kelly about the plans, according to several people familiar with the matter. Some of the president s friends have taken to calling milania trump and asking had her to send messages to her husband. Kelly is also losing the battle with twitter feed after he retweeted antimuslim videos prompting rebukes in the british Prime Minister and in the house of commons. Lets explore this really quickly. Because im trying to i was trying to put myself in a situation where i remember calling somebody and telling them i want you to do this thing but dont tell mom and dad. Or dont tell mom. Yes. I dont know i dont find it all that surprising and i think we can all sort of agree that john kelly has brought some sense of at least order and chain of command to the white house, at least up to him. But hes always said the president is the president and he never pretended like he was going to be able to control the president s twitter feed. But hes the president of the United States. In the end hes the number one guy and if he wants to talk to his staff in the private residence and tell them not to tell john kelly, i dont know how you counteract that. And he didnt hire john kelly to control him. He is the president. He controls his staff. They report to him. John kelly was doing whatever hes doing and the idea that he has some assignment to control what the president tweets or does, its fan fiction. Its not reality. Its his twitter feed. And kelly does set a different tone inside the white house. He also seems i think the hill seems to feel as though having kelly in charge is helpful. Its come up a lot of times in the course of the book that im writing about congress in the era of trump. John kellys not quick to return phone calls. Its actually easier for many people to get in touch with the president and his chief of staff takes a couple days to return calls and this is from without the this is from very senior members of congress who feel like they can get in touch with the president a lot easier than his chief of staff. There are a lot of situations where you want to talk to the chief of staff and not the president and its not worth a call to had president because the president is juggling all these things and the call to the chief of staff is easier. But i can tell you for many people they have a tough time getting in touch with kelly. And we know President Trump likes to have conversations, likes to know whats going on. And he use tootd call a lot of people we know,tects message and then expect calls back and have that back and forth. Thats i think how he gets information. So he doesnt want to be blocked off. Hes a social being. He watch as lot of television. If they appear on television and say something, thats maybe the best way to get a return phone call from the president of the United States pnchts 18 people to watch in 2018. Thats next when. When you have a cold, pain from a headache can make this. Feel like this. Allinone cold symptom relief from tylenol®, the 1 doctor recommended pain relief brand. Tylenol®. Tha. Oh, burnton gravy . Ie. Gotta rinse that. Nope. No way. Nada. Really . Dish issues . Throw it all in. Cascade platinum powers through even burnton gravy. Nice. Cascade. Donald j. Trump. Its the muslim stuff, right . No. The birther stuff . No. Pocahontas . No. Wait, making fun of the handicap reporter. Im the ghost of witness flipped. Oh, thank god, steve bannon. Youre here to save the day with your terrible white magicing. Who are you . Haha. Merry christmas. I have no idea how long ive wanted to say this. Lock him up. Snl doing what they do best. Got to love it. A brand new list of people to watch closely in 2018 is out in politico tonight. Top attorney, andrew wieseman made the cut and a sneak peek of this list out tomorrow. Lets go through a couple highlights. These may be people some of our viewers may not know and they will, exactly. I think one person that you mentioned is nick arz. Thats Vice President mike pences chief of staff. The president is not going to be a central figure at least in purse onen the campaign trail. What member of the house orsubt would want a president with 30 Approval Ratings at their firm . Mike pence is already out there, already raising money. Hes the guy behind mike pence who decides who hes going to give money to. Mike penls is giving donations actively across the house and the senate. So this is somebody whos going to control the white houses efforts in races across the country. Andee was recently quoted that republicans needed to get on board with on the donald trump. Or else. Or face this idea that theres money that will go to mike pence and his pack. So you better get in line. Cory bliss is the top guy at paul ryans super pack. He runs the Congressional Leadership Fund which is a big, Massive Organization not really well known but spends a lot of money, gets a lot of money. So theyre going to be very active in house races as House Republicans cling to their majority in an orrau where they are very unpopular. They are passing bills that there unpopular and in some cases not passing anything at all. Hes dgoing to spend a lautd of money and shaping the way this election looks on the ground. And he ran rob portmans senate race in ohio somebody in the center of the action as we say. This sort of evolving story line around whipping the house. Ive always been skeptical. Yeah, we can take back the house. But im on the fence now. Except for the fact that virginia is a purple state starting to trend blue and, and, and donald trump. So i take the whole lets look at virginia and apply it to 2018 with a grain of salt. But what we know is to come back the tax reform conversation, to come back to the ideas of passing something as well as something that makes their donors happy, passing that tax reform will make some of their donors very happy. Thank you very much for this list. A couple of women on this list as well. Check it out on politico. Com. When we come back what to watch for in the week ahead. And were back with what to watch for in the week ahead. Your still with us. What are you looking for this week . So im looking to see the implications sink in of the tax bill and the Senate Republicans and House Republicans look on what they actually just voted on or about to vote on in principal. It takes the geographic lines of power in america and punishes the Democratic Coalition and rewards the republican one. The problem is if youre a republican in a blue state or a place like with a job center with lots of tech, this is not necessarily a good bill. Watch out. What do you watch for . The start of the negotiations between the house and the senate. Government shuts down, end of the week. How are they going to get that done . How are they going to get the tax built and government funding debate so quickly. You keep bringing up that shut down at the end of the week. I keep blocking it out. Im interested in Susan Collins says shes an idea of part of voting for the tax reform package. I want to know if the house of representatives is part of that deal. Its a great question. Im going to bring up and this is just out, an op edfrom billy bush in the new york times. He said of course you tds. That infamous quote on the access why former National Security adviser Michael Flynn was fired. Republicans within striking distance of tax reform. This week the house and senate work to reconcile tax bills to get something to the president s desk. Unrest in the middle east. Following reports the Trump Administration is considering moving the embassy in israel to tel aviv in ver redujerusalem. Some world neerds a