be willing to force a government shutdown over the issue. chuck schumer knows the mueller protection bill has bipartisan support. it s sponsored not just by democrats but also by republicans, and jeff flake, who is an outgoing senator, so perhaps doesn t have as much influence, has called for the legislation to be brought to the floor. this is a pressure tactic by schumer and democrats to force republicans on the record at a time when their earlier arguments that there was no need for mueller protection bill may no longer carry as much weight given jeff sessions has been fired and the person who at least temporarily has replaced him has openly expressed criticism of the russia probe. do republicans have the votes to push this? yes, you have the flakes who have expressed public support for this, thom tillis as a co-sponsor, but you still have the senate majority leader, and he, again, stated that mueller does not need protection. is there any new move post election in this direction?
foundation. it indicates mueller s team is trying to determine whether stone had other go betweens for wikileaks. the washington post first reported the special counsel s interest as a possible intermediary. his attorneys declined to excellent. back in september his said his client was never in touch with wikileaks or its founder. for stone s part he maintains that he was the principal intermediary adding i had no advance knowledge of the source or content. stone says believes mueller could bring charges as a pressure tactic. robert mueller and his partisan team of prosecutors
hope they get and to talking about it. president trump says that china will come around to sit down at the table and make a deal on trade. they re just not ready yet. when he surround them with new trade deals with mexico and canada and japan and south korea, he will go to xi jinping and say you re going to be the only one that doesn t cut a deal with the united states? it s an interesting pressure tactic. he s yet to get the chinese to move. john roberts, thanks very much. on the phone with us, north carolina republican senator tom tillis. thanks for taking the time. much to ask you, sir, concerning pastor brunson. what do you know about when he s supposed to land in germany or anything like that? he s in route. turkey cleared him. we had wheels up at 4:00. we ve been working on that since this morning. he will be in germany briefly
changed. that s so far not likely. let s get the inside scoop from msnbc contributor peter baker and ann guerin. welcome both. ann, first to you. you and i covered nafta in the past. you can t just negotiate one part of a three-way deal. i know they would like to and they can do a side deal with mexico, but that isn t nafta. he s now saying that he s renaming it because he, of course, campaigned against nafta. so three things. trump hates nafta. always has. he said he would be willing to have a look at it to see if it can be redone to his satisfaction. but it s always been clear his preference would be somehow to do away with it, something he cannot do unilaterally. this is the next best thing. this is a pressure tactic against canada and his former friend now not so much friend justin trudeau. and it s also a way to change the subject from john mccain and
a first. this becomes a big moment for jeff sessions and rod rosenstein, they made pretty clear, especially rod rosenstein, that the mueller probe is legitimate. that it should continue, that robert mueller should be allowed to do his work so the president doesn t see this as interference, he sees it as he can do whatever he wants. he famously talked about how much president obama was protected by his attorney general eric hold er but this president has an unusual view on how to use presidential power with his attorney general and this looks like a pressure tactic. jeff sessions will probably talking to john kelly, the chief of staff and others and has to ask themselves what is do they do in response? do they hunker down or do they need to take action.