A newscast reviewing and analyzing top stories of the day as they happen. Interesting part of the president s answer to ainslie earharts question, that hasnt played in that portion that you aired there, shep, where the president said this was not a Campaign Contribution, because it wasnt the campaign that paid it, it was me. And i have tweeted about that in the past. Now, you remember, the president put an awful lot of his own money into the campaign. So i asked sarajevo hah Huckabee Sanders how did the president dlinity what was going to the campaign and what might have gone to other people for campaign purposeles. Listen in here. How do you draw the line between what was a Campaign Contribution and what might have been a payment to somebody for other purps. Secretary sanders im not going to get into the back and forth of the legal part of. This i would refer to you the president s outside counsel 678 as i told cecilia, what i can tell you is what the president has stated a number of
Repealing and replacing obamacare. Until now, though, the details have been a closely guarded secret with a handful of senators working behind closed doors. Heres what we know about the plan well be seeing later this morning. It slows down the time frame in the house measure for rolling back the Medicaid Expansion. It also improves tax credits for lowincome and Older Americans from the house version, and it offers states more flexibility on waivers to opt out of obamacare regulations. And that includes essential health benefits. It also defunds planned parenthood for a year. That move could violate Senate Budget rules that gop is using to pass the bill with only 51 votes. Several Critical Issues remain. That includes a fund to fight opioid abuse, money to stabilize insurance away from obamacare and the timing of Obamacare Tax repeals. Also unclear the, the fate of coverage for unclear, the fate of coverage for preexisting conditions. That is key. And senate gop leaders face a possible
United nations, Ambassador Nikki Haley said north koreas Missile Launch brings us closer to war. That the u. S. Does not seek. President trump says america will be saying and celebrating Merry Christmas with a big, beautiful tax cut, a message delivered in missouri this afternoon in a speech that at times matched his freewheeling Campaign Style of old, pushing just about every conservative hot button including a diagnosis of north Korean Leader kim jong un as a sick puppy. John roberts starts us off. We are going to start spending here. We are going to protect our country, whether its north korea or anybody. We are going to protect our country like never before but weve got to start focusing on our country. Thats why i am saying america first. It was an umbrella message from the president from st. Charles, missouri, economic and National Security in the wake of north koreas latest missile test. President trump promising measures to put the squeeze on kim jong un, in a tweet announcing
Democrats, senator Kristen Gillibrand of new york for wouldbe trump challengers. I think this is a moment for all of us to ask ourselves what we are called to do. Only light can drive out darkness. Only whats right can defeat whats wrong, and i feel very called at this moment to make that difference. Back to politics a bit later, but we begin with the sad breaking news out of Northern Syria. Authorities say u. S. Service members have been killed in a massive suicide bombing blast in manbij. We have video of the scene at the very, very moment of the explosion. We want to warn you these images are quite disturbing. You see two people walking on a sidewalk with a small group behind them. Suddenly, a huge explosion. The two people fall to the ground and our chief executive international correspondent, Clarissa Ward is live in syria. What is the latest we know about this tragedy . The latest we know from the turkish president recep erdogan that 20 people were killed in this attack from the
Quid pro quo, it is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the democratic server as well. We do that all of the time. I have news for everybody, get over it. There is political influence in Foreign Policy. Mulvaney was asked to clarify four times in that press briefing and every single time he indicated that linking the aid to the request for an investigation was perfectly aokay. M mulvaney seemed to realize his mistake when he said let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between ukrainian military. There was never any condition in the aid related to the server. He says no aid. What you just described is a quid pro quo. Funding will not flow unless the investigation into the democratic server happens as well. We do that all of the time with Foreign Policy. One of trumps as lied said that in the Briefing Room it was a disaster. Okay, hans, mulvaney is now saying the media misconstrued what he said. It was not a closed door interview and then a print story. We