Russia. Everybody knows it. That was a democrat hoax. The russia probe the president is point fingers, but whos buying his claim of a hoax . I call on my republican colleagues to join me in calling for the firing of bob mueller. Look, its time for mueller to put up or shut up. If theres evidence of collusion with russia, lets see it. And the republican outrage. Would the president really dare to dump Robert Mueller . But at the top of the hour we have this breaking news. The president back speaking just moments ago outside the white house, insisting middle income americans will get a Christmas Gift in the form of a tax cut. His comments come despite democrats fierce opposition to the plan. Before they even know what the bill is all about, they talk about for the wealthy. This is going to be one of the great gifts to the middle income people of this country that they have ever gotten for christmas. Mr. President , why are the cuts temporary . Lets go right to nbcs jeff bennett at the white house. Jeff, with a good day to you, we saw the president getting on board marine one leaving for camp david. What does the timetable look like . Reporter the timetable is this. The house would vote on tuesday, the senate a day later on wednesday. Republicans believe they have all the votes they need to send this legislation to the president s desk for his signature by christmas. Alex, the president said earlier this week that if the house and senate do get him that bill by christmas break, the irs would be able to implement it beginning in early february. So this gop tax overhaul effort is on the move. President trump, as you said, just in the last hour was heading to camp david and he wanted to talk about taxes. That was fairly clear. He made a beeline over to the reporters and my colleague, kelly odonnell, asked him about the chief criticism of this republican tax plan, that it benefits wealthy americans more than the middle class. Heres his response. If you look at the whole thing, everybody is going to benefit. But i think the greatest benefit is going to be for jobs and for the middle class. This is going to bring money in. As an example, we think 4 trillion will come flowing back into the country. Thats money thats overseas thats stuck there for years and years. Reporter so the big thing in this republican tax bill, of course, is the big cut the big permanent cut in the corporate rate, dropping it from 35 where it stands currently down to 21 and there are some temporary tax breaks for individuals. But republicans are feeling pretty good about where things stand. Yesterday they won two key concessions from lawmakers who had been holdouts, including florida senator marco rubio, who wanted a bigger boost in the Child Tax Credit and tennessee senator bob corker, who was sort of a big flip to yes despite his longstanding opposition to any sort of legislation that would add to the deficit as this bill does. Democrats on the other hand say, though, alex that republicans are falling into a huge political trap. Heres a tweet from chuck schumer, the Senate Democratic leader. He writes this. Tax hikes for millions of middle class families, huge tax breaks for wealthy and corporations, that equals even better odds the house and senate become democratic in 2018. So democrats say even though the Republican Party is billing this tax plan as a way to help middle class americans, its really a thinly veiled handout to the wealthiest of americans and they point as backup to outside observers, independent economists who say the very same thing. Alex. Jeff bennett setting us up with a lot to continue our discussion right now. Thank you from the white house, jeff. Lets bring in Noelle Nikpour and Peter Emerson. Good day to both of you. Noelle, to you first here. There is no denying that the optics around the republican tax bill are not great. A poll out this week by marist found that 63 of americans disapprove of the gops handling of tax reform, 52 think this bill will actually hurt them financially if it passes. So if it is that unpopular, why such a rush to put it through . Well, you know, there are two things going on here. Im just going to be honest with you. Look, the Republican Party, they elected donald trump to do something, all right . All the way from immigration to taxation. And right now we are looking at a dangerous spot where the gop brand is and what has been promised to the voters. Look, the people that voted for Hillary Clinton, they dont like anything that the gop platform stands for, so theyre probably not going to be theyre not going to like whats in our tax package. On the other hand, we have been promised tax reform since august and it keeps getting pushed down the line. Now, democrats had a chance to come to the table and add what they wanted, but they didnt and they stood back on it and they didnt add anything towards it. I know that theyre complaining about it. I know theyre saying that this is going to not be a deep tax cut. But let me tell you something, 152 million americans are employed by corporations. Corporations are not the devil. Corporations need tax cuts as well. And i know that a lot of people say that the trickledown economics doesnt work. Trickledown economics, youre going to get people that say it does work. And when you have a tax structure that you have a little bit more lenient to the corporations, they do spend the money. A lot of people say we dont know if they spend the money. But the money does go back into corporations. It goes back but wait, noelle. Is there evidence that the way they spend the money is going directly to the pocket of the employees . That they actually increase their wages . I mean thats what trickledown economics is. It trickles down to everybody. Or do they just sit on greater piles of cash or increase the money for their investors . You know, i think you have to look at all different kinds of companies. Yes, you know, in every scenario, alex, youre right. There may be a company or two or three that will just be misers and just sit on the cash and just sit there and go look at us, were fat cats. But there are a lot of corporations, you know, owned by democrats, owned by just good, caring individuals that own corporations that really want to give back to their employees. Not everybody is an evil corporate doer that wants to hang on to a bunch of cash and just not let it float down to the employees or not create other jobs with it. Or new products. Maybe you have enough money to where you want to create new products. But not every corporate ceo and Corporate Board are evil people. I never said they were evil people. I know. I just think sometimes the priorities are all mixed up because they want to keep certain fat cats at the top real happy. Peter, do you want to chime in on this . What do you think . Well, i dont even know where to begin. All that noelle has produced is hearsay. Trickledown economics has been discredited for decades, number one. Number two, this tax reform bill was done behind closed doors. There was no opportunity for democrats to participate. Thats clear. No one disagrees with that. Third, what it is is a tax rebate. Its a Christmas Gift to republican donors. Remember donald trump in the expensive restaurant in new york promising the people there that he would cut their taxes. And hes done that quite well. The middle class tax cuts are temporary. So hes given a huge gift thats permanent to corporations while at the same time giving individuals a slight tax cut and then pulling it out in 2027. This is insane and theres not an economist that now agrees that given the deficit, which is incredibly important, incredibly important, from 1 trillion to 2 trillion, theres not enough revenue thats going to be created to cover the historic deficit. Most of all, next week the government, the Republicanled Congress is going to pass a new spending bill with no tax cut and increase defense spending enormously. This is insanity from an economic standpoint. Well, though, is it jumping the gun, peter, is it dangerous for Senate Minority leader, as he did, he was tweeting about how the democrats can benefit from the passage of this in the 2018 midterms. Is that a little premature . Way premature. Way premature. Because in fact it takes time to roll out these massive economic readjustments. In this case its a readjustment of wealth upward, not downward. No, i think the minority leader is way, way optimistic at a time when theres no such evidence to support that. So, noelle, i want to play for you a concern that senator Bernie Sanders raises about where the gop tax bill may ultimately lead us. Here it is. The richest people in this country, who are doing phenomenally well, the largest corporations who are enjoying recordbreaking profits, do not need huge tax breaks which then drives up the deficit over a tenyear period by 1. 4 trillion, which then leads trump and paul ryan to start saying, well, we have this big deficit. Were going to have to cut social security, medicare and medicaid. Thats not going to go over well. Do you think thats how you expect republicans to deal with an increase in the deficit from this bill . Well, in all fairness, Bernie Sanders is right about one thing and one thing i am a deficit hawk. I really resent the fact that we are adding to the National Deficit and republicans are supposedly deficit hawks and we have been arguing against the democrats for the spending, spending, spending, increasing the deficit. So that is one point that i will say that Bernie Sanders says. I do not like the fact that this increases the National Deficit. That is one thing. On the other thing about the about reducing the taxes for the corporations, once again, you know, a lot of corporations are sending jobs out of the United States. A lot of it has to do with the tax structure. So theres good and theres bad. But once again, all the democrats had a chance to get something that they wanted. Youve got to remember, some of these republicans were not on board and republicans were trying to promise anything they could so they could get this passed. Why didnt a couple of democrats come in on behalf of their state and say, you know what, i might vote with you but heres what i need. May i just point out one fact. Last comment. The last time we had a balanced budget and the deficit was lowered was during bill clintons presidency. The last time we had historic deficits bill clinton reaped the benefit of reaganomics. So those are the facts. Lets stay in the facts and not wander, please. You know what, we are going to wander into the whole discussion of roy moore and where that stands now if you guys both promise to stay with me, so sit tight. Meantime, President Trump is not yet ruling out a pardon for Michael Flynn, his National Security advisor, now cooperating with special counsel bob mueller in the Russian Investigation. Heres what trump told reporters yesterday. I dont want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. Well see what happens. Well, flynn has pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the fbi. Joining me now once again, natas natasha bertrand. Im curious of your interpretation of the president s comment there. Well, hes clearly setting the stage for a possible pardon of flynn or signal to flynn that it could be possible. It wouldnt really do trump much good to pardon him now because flynn has already been cooperating with mueller for quite some time. If you wanted to decrease the leverage that mueller had over flynn in the future, then perhaps it might be useful. But flynn has already told mueller everything that he knows, otherwise he wouldnt have gotten such a lenient charge. Mueller did he was able to charge him just with making false statements to federal agents. There was a ton of other things that flynn was vulnerable for. It raised a lot of speculation about why he hasnt charged for things like fara violations or potentially organizing a kidnapping on u. S. Soil. So its really an indication that flynn told him, look, i have some information about bigger fish that i can give you in exchange for a lesser charge. So what the president said there, can his words be construed as witness tampering or obstruction or is that a complete reach . Well, legal experts that i have spoken to have certainly said that it could bolster the case for obstruction of justice because, again, former fbi director james comey, he told congress that trump asked him to consider dropping the case into Michael Flynn back in february and Michael Flynn has always been this kind of you know, hes been trumps achilles heel from the very beginning. For some reason hooelt felt like this very strong loyalty to him to the extent where he might be willing to compromise his own position in the investigation to pardon him or give him the benefit of the doubt. So this really could bolster the obstruction case against him if he were to pardon him but it remains to be seen whether hed actually do that. What about the president s lawyers meeting with special counsel bob mueller next week . Neither the president or Vice President is expected to attend those meetings. So whats the expectation to come from the meeting . Well, they have been meeting or communicating with the lawyers for quite some time now. Over the summer they had an ongoing correspondence with muellers people to preempt this obstruction investigation and laying out reasons for why the president cannot obstruct justice because he has the authority to fire whomever he wants. They said because he has the authority to fire james comey because he has the ability to express his opinions on certain Ongoing Investigations because he is the president , then theres no way that he could have obstructed justice. So this is something they have been going back and forth on for quite some time now. It seems to be getting a little closer now to trumps inner circle. They have questioned jared kushner, they have questioned hope hicks and all of these have to do with the possibility that he did have corrupt intent when he fired the fbi director so there might be a greater sense of urgency now, but this is something that they have enclosurely been worried about since early this year. Heres Something Else folks are worried about and you in fact reported on it yesterday, that the Justice Department did not consult its Inspector General before releasing texts exchanged by those two fbi agents during the 2016 election campaign. Republicans are relying on these Text Messages as proof that its the fbi is biased against mr. Trump. So who released these texts . Does the public have a right to know what the agents are thinking . Does this in fact cast a legitimate shadow on the Mueller Investigation . Well, we still dont know who authorized the release of the Text Messages to the press. This is what ive been reporting on for the last week is that the Justice Department actually invited a group of reporters over to its offices on tuesday night, the night before rosenstein was due to testify before the House Judiciary Committee to view these private correspondences between two fbi agents, lisa page and peter strzok, which did express a significant amount of disdain for then candidate donald trump. You know, its very, very unusual that private messages like this that are the subject of an ongoing Inspector General investigation would be released to congress, let alone to the press. Now, the Inspector General did release a statement yesterday saying that he authorized back in november, he said that he would have no problem with these messages being released to congress, but there was another question about why release them to the press then and thats something we really havent gotten an answer on. Natasha bertrand, you usually do have all the answers so thank you very much for that. Still ahead, what might cause disorder in the court if one judicial nominee gets approved. The question is, how did he get nominated in the first place . Just for the record, do you know what a motion in limine is . I would probably not be able to give you a good definition right here at the table. And battle on. Roy moore refuses to give up as he holds out hope. Well examine whether the Alabama Senate election is really a harbinger of democratic victories in 2018. More people shop online for the holidays than ever before. And the United StatesPostal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. Because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. In alabama, a defiant roy moore is telling supporters the battle is not over in that senate race. Hes asking for contributions to a fund to help him possibly contest his loss in tuesdays election. Well, Noelle Nikpour and Peter Emerson are back with me. Noelle, even if the president is saying roy moore should concede the race, what does moore gain by delaying it . First of all, alex, what is he doing . Im asking you. This is one of the worst things. As a national fundraiser, thats what i do when i come into the campaigns, national fundraising. Who in their right mind would give money to this guy who wont concede the race. Its over. President trump has already congratulated doug jones and im sure hes going to be going to the white house and meeting him and getting on with business. You know, this is really this is one of the worst examples, but i will with that, i will say this. This was not a gop candidate that everybody was rallying around. This was Steve Bannons deal. This was a Steve Bannon Movement. This was a red state. We had luther strange, and he challenged that in a primary. It was a waste of good republican dollars that went in this primary. And he should have gotten out. Governor ivey actually, the governor, should have actually not let this circus continue. But this is not a reflection on the gop. This wasnt our candidate. This wasnt our deal. This was a Steve Bannon Movement which now may be shut down. All right. Well, well let that rest there. Peter, i want to switch topics here and another big topic this weekend, the trump judicial nominee, matthew peterson, questioned about his experience in a confirmation hearing by republican senator john kennedy. Lets watch how that went down. Have you ever tried a jury trial . I have not. Civil . No. Criminal . No. Bench . No. State or federal court . I have not. As a trial judge, you obviously are going to have witnesses. Yes. Can you tell me what the dobert standard is . Senator kennedy, i dont have that readily at my disposal. But i would be happy to take a closer look at that. Okay. That is not something that i have had to contend with. Just for the record, do you know what a motion in limine is . I would probably not be able to give you a good definition right here at the table. I dont know, you almost feel sorry for him going through that grilling. So its like oh, no, oh, no. But peter, putting a nominee like this forward in the first place, whats the motivation . And let me just say all roads through a courtroom dont necessarily lead to a judgeship. What i mean is he didnt necessarily have to have Trial Attorney experience to become a judge. But i mean some of this stuff is like first and secondyear law school. Exactly. And also theres a level of cynicism in this administration is extraordinary because hes just one example. We can go back and look at numerous hearings on various candidates proposed, whether its for foreign service, whether its for the department of interior, now for a judgeship. So theres an overarching sense of cynicism that whoever we want as this administration declares, we will get. And with this particular congress, it seems like in almost all cases they get it. And thats really troubling, because this gentleman couldnt even be honest and say i dont know. He said im not readily available, i might have to consider it. So i find it deeply, deeply troubling. But its just one symptom of a massive realignment of everything we believed was credible and important in our government. All right, guys, i have to wrap it up there. Noelle and peter, always good to see you both. Thank you. The seven words you can never say at the cdc. The new report about a list that includes the words diversity and entitlement. Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. But after an electrical fire from faulty wiring, marys vintage clothing and designer shoe collection were ruined. Luckily, the Geico Insurance agency had recently helped mary with renters insurance, and she got a totally fab replacement wardrobe at bloomingdales. 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Or if youre prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for Heart Failure or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. Dont start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Since enbrel, my moms back to being my mom. Visit enbrel. Com. And use the joint damage simulator to see how joint damage could progress. Ask about enbrel. Enbrel. Fda approved for over 18 years. Welcome back, everyone. Im alex witt here at msnbc World Headquarters in new york. As we approach the half hour, heres what were monitoring for you. Just a short time ago the president left the white house to spend the overnight in camp david. He spoke to reporters about the republican tax bill and addressed another point of contention, that being the temporary tax cuts for the working class. So heres what he said. What will happen is at the end, whichever the administration is in years from now, theyll make it and maybe can even make it more generous if we can get the economy like it should be. The economy now has hit 3 . Nobody thought it would be anywhere close. I think we can go to 4, 5 and maybe even 6 ultimately. Joining me now, john harwood, cnbcs editor at large and josh dawsey. John, i want to get your reaction to what you heard there from the president and why not give the middle class permanent tax cuts like the big corporations . Because thats not the goal of this legislation. The core belief of republicans in passing this bill is that lower taxes for businesses will produce a lot of Economic Growth and through that process benefit average people. The individual parts of the changes to the tax code are way secondary to that. Now, mainstream economic evidence suggests that theyre wrong in their belief as to what will be produced by these tax cuts. Nevertheless, theyre passing it. If the president thinks that were going to get Economic Growth of 4 , 5 , 6 , if i said right now were going to have 10 growth, nobody could disprove that. But nobody in mainstream economics thinks that theyre going to hit 4 or 5 . As for 3 , thats happened a couple of quarters but we are not on a 3 path. In fact the main forecasters in the u. S. Government think it will be around 2 for a long time and even under their tax bill the most optimistic projections dont have them reaching 3 . He can claim whatever he wants, though. Which means you think the president said 6 , thats like stratospherically out there. Its ridiculous. Josh, how much of this tax bill do you think is about politics . Its about the 2018 election. And how dangerous is it for republicans given its unpopularity at this point . I think republicans are hearing a ground swell from their donors and supporters saying we put you in the white house, we gave you majorities in both parts of congress and were not seeing anything done. I think there was a deep fear among republican legislators that if they did not pass this tax reform bill that they would see their dollars dry up, they would see Political Support dry up and 2018 would be pretty dire. Now, this bill is pretty unpopular right now. A lot of criticism coming that its a give away to the wealthy and republicans say thats not true. But you have President Trump who i think is going to cast much of his 2018 campaign for the midterm elections when hes out on the road for candidates on the economy. And trying to push an economic message and trying to push these tax cuts. Well see if the American People are willing to take that message, if they want that message, but i think thats what republicans are banking on. Are there any, josh, possibilities that you can draw parallels between this and obamacare which at its inception was not popular, became popular over time or does the tax cuts because they expire in 2025, does that mean theres not enough time to let people congeal and people say, oh, yes, this was a good for. Thats what republicans are hoping for. Theyre blaming the media, democratic critics and others who oppose this saying youre not telling the whole truth. Once people in the middle class and corporations actually see their bills and they go down, and they will go down for many people, they will feel differently about this plan. I think time will tell how people react to that and what the legislation actually does. We havent even fully examined the full legislation that the house and the senate have agreed on and theres going to be a vote next week. Yeah, well see what happens with that. I think its pretty predictable at this point but well see with the Senate Rather the house on tuesday. Theres been growing criticism of special counsel mueller and his investigation. Some are calling it biased now. Theres one lawmaker taking it a step further. Lets take a listen to that. The elected representatives of the people, the congress, have an obligation to expose this bias, to expose what is a corrupt investigation and i call on my republican colleagues to join me in calling for the firing of bob mueller. John, with your reporting, how many do you think believe in sync with matt goetz there . Where do you see this going and do you see more lawmakers backing this call, is there a bandwagon jumping on . The ones trying to play the angles to their base will echo that but the serious people i think will not. Look, the idea that Robert Mueller, who is a republican, a supremely respected military veteran, fbi leader, somebody whose reputation was impeccable when he took this job, the idea that hes running a corrupt investigation is just preposterous. It is a Political Tool now for people to try to shield President Trump and shield whatever related effects might go after his party. It is possible that President Trump will take some action to go after bob mueller, but i think if he does so, that will generate a very damaging reaction both in the nation at large and within the congress. Josh, ive got to ask you about your papers reporting that the Trump Administration is banning the cdc, the centers for disease control, from using certain phases on official documents. They include evidencebased, fetus, diversity. What is this about . Its a diametrically different approach to all of the agencies. You see at the cdc theres a flash point with these words. A lot of them are conservative planned parenthood you see at epa their changing of rolling back all sorts of regulations. The interior, new rules on drilling. You see the trump doctrine come into these agencies and, you know, affect how they do research, affect what they can say, what they cant do. Its trickling down from the white house. I think pretty substantive ways. All right. Well, josh and john, i always love speaking with you both so promise me youll come back and see me again. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Going after the fbi. The impact of the president s comments at the Law Enforcement agency. Thats next. For your heart. Your joints. Or your digestion. So why wouldnt you take something for the most important part of you. Your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. Well, its a shame whats happened with the fbi, but were going to rebuild the fbi. It will be bigger and better than ever, but it is very sad when you look at those documents and how they have done that is really, really disgraceful. And you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it. Its a very sad thing to watch, i will tell you that. President trump piling on the criticism of the fbi after revelations that a member of the special counsel muellers team privately expressed antitrump sentiments. Last week trump tweeted that the fbis reputation was in tatters and then he vowed, fear not, we will bring it back to greatness. Joining me now, former federal prosecutor, steve mulroy and retired fbi special agent bobby shicone. Bobby, im going to reach out to you first because you worked at the fbi. What happens to morale within the bureau when the president publicly disparages its integrity . Integrity seems to be the thing you guys all sign up for because thats part of your inner cores. Sure, fidelity, brave re, integrity, what the fbi stands for. It doesnt have as much an impact as people might think. The fbi agents around the world as we speak conducting investigations just see some of this stuff that happened inside the beltway as white noise. This is one or two cases, albeit highprofile cases, but there are thousands of fbi agents working thousands of cases putting bad people in jail and keeping the American People safe. This is one mans opinion. Albeit its our leaders opinion, so its somewhat disheartening. But i think this is a case of him pandering to his base and i think it wont erode most peoples opinion of the fbi. Weve weathered storms like this. A year and a half ago people were blaming james comey and the fbi for Hillary Clinton losing the election. This is a highly politicized time. We will get through this as well. The fbis integrity is intact as far as im concerned and hopefully most of the American Peoples is concerned. So its white noise and youll go about your jobs and do your business . Most agents are focused on whatever theyre doing, their investigations. A number of the fbi investigates a wider breadth of crimes. Theyre focused on all of those investigations and doing them without bias and without prejudice. Steve, i want to get your reaction to what the president said about Michael Flynn yesterday. Lets play that. Would you consider a pardon for Michael Flynn . I dont want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. Well see what happens. Lets see. So natasha bertrand, a journalist who just left the studio a short while ago with Business Insider suggested this may have been a signal to flynn. What do you make of that idea . I dont know. If it is a signal to flynn, its pretty extraordinary. The obvious intent would be to get him to stop cooperating with the Mueller Investigation in exchange for some sort of implied promise of a pardon down the road. Two things about that. First, might be a little bit too little too late since hes probably already cooperated extensively with the Mueller Investigation. Otherwise he wouldnt have gotten such a great plea deal. Right. But if he does pardon somebody preemptively, and you can prove that it was to protect him or somebody else, then somebody close to him, then that would be obstruction of justice and at a minimum it would be the kind of thing that you would consider to be an impeachable offense. So what about fbi agent Peter Strzoki exchanging those Text Messages with an fbi lawyer. Writing that trump was an idiot. Should fbi employees discuss political preferences with one another . Well, they have this is to bobby first. No, absolutely they shouldnt be doing things like this, particularly this topic and when youre involved in the investigation. As a former federal prosecutor, steve, i know that this could be considered where an fbi agents impeachability on the witness stand comes into effect. This is a pragmatic or practical problem the fbi and the Justice Department may face down the line. Theyre going to have to turn over the personnel files of the investigators. If theres anything that can be used to impeach those agents as witnesses, that has to be turned over in discovery to the defense and it could be a real problem. So, steve, the doj releasing 90 pages of these Text Messages without consulting the Inspector General. So would you say theres just political motivation behind this move and do you think it was appropriate . Its certainly unusual to disclose this kind of material when theres an ongoing pending i. G. , Inspector General, investigation by the department of justice. It seems a bit premature to do that. It could hamper the ongoing Inspector General investigation. So you really have to wonder what motivated this. Why the rush to put this stuff out there. It certainly is a plausible scenario that there was political motivation behind it, that theres an Ongoing Investigation to discredit the Mueller Investigation for any number of political reasons. I think the idea that we would use that alone, though, to discredit the entire investigation or the entire agency seems a bit of a stretch. Okay, i hope you guys both come see me again. Thanks so much. Thank you. Coming up next, america the divided. What is causing the rift between so many in this country to grow even wider. And later, what the tax plan means for the future of the obamacare individual mandate. Some answers coming on that. Fred would do anything for his daughter. Well fred. Good thing the front of this unicorn washed. The shirt with gain. 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A history of depression. Or suicidal thoughts,. Or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla. Reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Other side effects include upper. Respiratory tract infection and headache. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take. And if youre pregnant or planning to be. Ask your dermatologist about otezla today. Otezla. Show more of you. Should roy moore concede . I think he should. He tried. I want to support the person running. We need the seat. Wed like to have the seat. I think were doing very well on the tax. Well see what happens, but i think were doing very well. Its something thats going to be monumental. Well, you heard it there. The president telling republican roy moore hang up your hat and accept the results of the alabama election. Moore, hes vowing to contest the race he lost tuesday amid allegations of sexual impropriety with teenager girls decades ago. Voters instead chose doug jones, the first democrat to represent alabama in the senate in 25 years. So joining me to talk about that and a lot more, pam levy, ben jealous, and norm orstein. Also author of the book one nation after trump. With a welcome to you all, norm, ill start with you and the fallout from the Alabama Senate race. The exit polls show women helped doug jones win. What does that say for future republican races there . What was most interesting about this, alex, is that it was suburban women and particularly the nonevangelical suburban women who turned to doug jones. A lot of those were trumptargeted voters, and voters who normally would go for republicans. And if that becomes a trend, admittedly roy moore, a racist antisemite, homophobic, lawbreaking pedophile may not be a typical candidate, but it doesnt spell good things for republicans, and i think theres a lot of nervousness out there if they lose a deep red state like alabama. You dont mince words do you there, norm . No. Im too old for that, alex. Kind of said it all. There you go. So, ben, a couple of headlines there that there were attempts at Voter Suppression. There was a headline of that in the Huffington Post mostly having to do with people that didnt vote regularly. What do you make of this . This is a state that exists in Voter Suppression all the time. Voter id of trying to keep people from voting who have been incarcerated. What weve known, and what we learn there again, was frankly what selma taught us, which is that the antidote to vote suppression is massive voter turnout. Its about signing up voters and turning them out. And if we do that we can win. And thats true across the deep south. We dont have to settle for the status quo. But it does mean that we have to work harder to make sure that those who have been locked out of voting and those who are new to these states get signed up and get turned out. Okay. By the way levy, i apologize for that, but are democrats pamela making too much of this win . If economy does well under trump, as heres what hes writing, 1998 demonstrated the truth of the unofficial slogan against clinton first ran, its economy, stupid. Beats the yuck factor. Talk about that. Yeah. Look, right now i think democrats have a lot of reasons to celebrate. I think what you saw in alabama was enormous energy on the part of the democrat base. And if thats something they can continue to mobilize and build on, then they are going to look really good in 2018 and 2020. But absolutely the economy is a huge deal. I think its just one of those mega factors that will help determine election after election. Will is not much you can do about it. But if the economy is in ha particular good place, i definitely think that boosts republicans and trumps chances. And its possible that could counter a counteract a lot of the energy. 2018 will be so great for the dems they dont need a mess hague. Does anyone buy this . No, i dont think so. I think its better if there is a message. And if there is a contrast. One thing ill say though following what pamela said. I think the republican tax bill is taking a gamble in a couple of ways. One is we are getting ee norm sus deficit increase at a time of full employment and ha is the wrong time to do it but it create a sugar high in the economy followed by a massive collapse. Its possible that sugar high will last through 2018. And they tried to time the tax increases for middle class people to come significantly later on. But having said that, its also important to realize that the economy has been doing pretty well the last few months and Donald TrumpsApproval Rating has dropped to the low 30s. So i dont think its just the economy here. Lowest for any modern president in the first year in office. Thats for sure. Yeah. Guys, i want to turn to the Russian Investigation and begin here with you, ben, listen to what the president told reporters yesterday. There is absolutely no collusion. That has been proven. When you look at the committeeses, whether its the senate or house, everyone is my worst enemies, there is no collusion but well continue to look. They are spending millions and millions of dollars. There is absolutely no collusion. When you look at whats gone on with the fbi and with the Justice Department, people are very, very angry. Ben, do you think this is a clear effort to try to discredit mueller . Yeah. You know, there are rumors swirling on the hill he may try to fire mueller soon. And god i hope he doesnt. We, all of us, deserve to get to the bottom of this and to know the truth. And quite frankly, those who were working with the russians and seems like somebody was, need to be held fully accountable. This president has rlly tried to obstruct justice in ways that are deeply disconcerting and i really hope that he does not go further. Pamela, what about putin, is he playing into our president s need for public praise . The president said they chatted over the phone and putin c congratulated trump on the economy. Yeah, i think putin holds ha odd sway over the president and certainly the Mueller Investigation is to find out if there is more, some sort of financial relationship or other sort of relationship going on that we need to know about. But aside from all of that, absolutely the president seems to be in awe of strong men and talks about putin openly as someone that he admires. And when putin calls and says nice things about him, i think that absolutely is affirmation that trump needs, and i think that he takes that affirmation instead of other signals you are doing a good job, instead of looking at whats good for the American People and polls. So i think its definitely troublesome. And if that is all there is between trump and putin, its a problem but certainly trying to figure out if there is more. I want to turn tour book quickly, one nation after trump. And how did america become so divided . You said this is about the decline of the community. Can you explain that . Sure. If we go back several decades, what we see is, and we saw this i think illustrated pretty vividly in the book, bowling alone by robert putman, that we have seen that in cities and small towns and rural areas where people used to congregate together and larger sense of coming together for sometime. Partly driven by the massive income inequality and the stagnant incomes that we have and partly by racial differences. The sense of community has gone away. Trump has appealed to nationalism as opposed to a new kind of patriotism, celebrating as americans i think was a cuing in to some of this. You put that together with the deep partisan tribalism, and its good part of the reason as to where we are now, which is not a good place. Unfortunately where we are now is end of this conversation. But i appreciate all three of you. Good to see you. Thank you. Ban on words of the cdc this next in our next hour. Give ancestrydna, the only dna test that can trace your origins to over 150 ethnic regions. And open up a world of possibilities. Save 20 for the holidays at ancestrydna. Com. When heartburn hits fight back fast with tums chewy bites. Fast relief in every bite. Crunchy outside. Chewy inside. Tum tum tum tum tums chewy bites. More people shop online for the holidays than ever before. And the United StatesPostal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. Because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. Lets get the big guy in place. The ford year end sales event is here. I can guide you in. No, thanks , santa. I got this. Santa uh, it looks a little tight. Perfect fit. Santa needs an f150. Thats ford, americas best selling brand. Hurry in today for 0 financing for 72 months across the full line up of ford cars, trucks and suvs. For a limited time, get an additional 1,000 cash back on top of 0 financing for 72 months. Get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event. So im all out of time on this saturday. Im going to turn things over to my colleague Sheinelle Jones. Hello everyone im Sheinelle Jones jones in new york. But whats in it, the tax plan, the president speaking moments ago. Tremendous for the tax reform. This is going to be one of the great Christmas Gifts to middle income people. Yes, its a tax cut for the middle class, but the giant part really goes to the wealthy. Kushner in crisis mode, pr firm from all the attention from the russia investigation. And dont say that is correct the