To take payments from foreign governments three years ago. This is coming from the house democrat, Elijah Cummings who lashed out today. The white house refused to release even a single document, not a single document in response to the bipartisan document requests. Not one syllable. I watched sean spicer say how hard it would be to respond to our request. Come on, man. I do not understand why the white house is covering up for Michael Flynn. I dont get it. After the president fired him. For lying. So the president fired him for lying about his communications with the russian ambassador. They should be bending over backwards to help us. It doesnt make sense and makes the American People think the white house has something to hide. So the White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer just now in the Daily Briefing hitting back on the vetting process in putting the blame on the Previous Administration on the Obama Administration and how spicer responded to this saying these trips in question, the finances in question, they are saying your report didnt happen after the Obama Administration had signed off. Tell me more about that. Brooke, one of the things that sean spicer said, which was very interesting, he said he was taken aback at the accusations by congressman Elijah Cummings of a coverup by the white house. He said it was a very big deal and pointing squarely at the white house about the fact that he says they havent given any disclosures to the committee about what they knew about Michael Flynns financial dealings with foreign governments. So secretary press Secretary Sean Spicer coming out a few minutes ago saying that he was taken aback and then pivoted and in the spring of 2016 indicating perhaps that the Trump Administration didnt exactly do the proper vetting or enough of the vetting when they brought Michael Flynn in as National Security adviser and then press Secretary Sean Spicer went on to say that hes reiterated this several times whenever questions about Michael Flynn has come up, he said that the president made the right decision at the right time. So continuing to defend and bring Michael Flynn in as National Security adviser and really continuing to shift the blame, in this case, to the Obama Administration. Brooke. Lets stay on this blame game. Thank you, jessica. I have with me now Michael Allen who worked under george w. Bush and now is managing director of Beacon Global Strategies and steve hall, a retired cia chief of russia operations. Great to have you all on. For people asking about questions about general flynn and the blame game, he, general flynn, was issued a security clearance under the Obama Administration in the spring of 2016. The trip and transactions that youre referring to occurred in december 2015. So passing the buck back to the Obama Administration. I think were conflating a lot of different issues here. The inquiry of whether you should deserve a security clearance or not is basically you have to fill out some forms and youre sort of a judged to be able to receive suitable information. What the reporters are trying to get at is notwithstanding whether hes eligible to receive National Security intelligence, did you also do a political vet of general flynn to make a judgment about whether its a good idea for someone who sat down with president putin, to hold a position such as National Security adviser. So its career professionals, not politicals, who do these type of security clearance checks. So i think weve done a lot of talking past each other. Steve, youre nodding. Yeah. The point i was agreeing with very strongly is these are security professional who is do these security checks. Theres really no politics involved at that level. There might be some sensitivity given that flynn is a senior guy and some of the time when some of the checks were being done is director of dia. Thats always a little tricky if youre the investigator. Theres a lot of conflation going on. What are the connections between a guy like flynn and the russians because if i were a russian intelligence officer, hes the guy i would want to be my spy. Im not saying that he did that. We dont know that yet because of these ongoing discussions. But hed be the right guy to do it. And there are at least three investigations into it. Thats the crux of it. But there are all of these tentacles from this story orbiting around general flynn. Let me just go back. Youre right. I dont want to conflate. Its complicated. Theres an issue whether the dia warned him about going into retirement, money you made from foreign entities, the bit about the security clearance. But just coming back to you, would they not have vetted the they being the trump team, if spicer is passing it back to the Obama Administration on the vet, what about if he was integral in the transition and campaign and onto the white house . Did they not revet . Apparently not and heres what happened. Flynn was a senior person on the campaign. As far as these people in the Trump Campaign were concerned, he was a former Senior Defense intelligence agency. Uhhuh. Official. One of the top intelligence agencies in our government. So i think they assumed, listen, if he were good enough for a top intelligence job, hes suitable for, as far as were concerned, to be a National Security adviser. I think what should have happened is we should have had additional looks, not just in the black and white of has he disclosed everything or has he not but also, hey, is it a good idea that we have someone who did take a highprofile trip over to russia . Is that an appearance issue or is there more to it . I think those questions should have been asked at some point. Thats one piece of it. Let me move on to the next piece. If the pentagon, if dia said that they warned flynn against taking foreign payments and that he still did it as these declassified documents apparently suggest, does that prove that he broke the law . Its unclear if that proves in a legal sense that hes broken the law. Again, i would agree that you have this constant drip, drip with flynn. I think thats why youre getting a lot of the ongoing investigations that you have right now and dod has one going now in addition to the fbi investigation and the congressional investigation. So, yeah, appearances is an important thing and then what you do is important as well and they have senior positions in a new administration and im looking at what are the counterintelligence downside . Flynn doesnt pras the pass the test. Lets talk about carter page, michael, former campaign adviser, one of the central figures in this investigations over alleged ties between russia and the Trump Campaign. He was on new day with chris cuomo. Listen to these questions and how carter page keeps saying never, never, never until one moment. Watch. Did you coordinate or communicate the details of your trip or that you were going with any member of the Trump Campaign or add administration . Again, none of those details they new i was going but nothing was how did they know . Again, i dont talk about internal discussions but it matters. It matters. Because the suggestion is they knew you were going. If they had an interest in you going, destructive to american policy. Absolutely not. Michael, how big is this . I think its big. I mean, listen, the Key Committee here is whether there was coordination between the leaks that the russians orchestrated from hillary clinton. And it looks like carter page is stopping short of admitting that what hes saying is in contact with the Trump Campaign but obviously they may have given him some sort of charge or instructions or it could have been very innocent. As you go over there, tell them we want a better relationship with them if President Trump were elected. Thats the crux of the matter. Thats what hes going to have to answer under oath and i expect theres a lot of documentation and eventually the fbi will get to it. Michael and steve, thank you both very much. Let me continue on. Why wont the treasury secretary guarantee that the middle class will not pay more under the president s new tax cut plan . The white house just responded. Stay tuned for that. Im Brooke Baldwin and this is cnns special live coverage. 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Ask your doctor about it by name. But theyre different. D kind its nice to remove artificial ingredients. Kind never had to. Weve used real ingredients, whole nuts, and Natural Flavors from the very beginning. Give kind a try. Welcome back. Youre watching cnn. Im Brooke Baldwin. Now to something entirely different coming out of washington today. Where do you want it . Around his neck. Kids on capitol hill. House Speaker Paul Ryan welcoming these guys and gals on take your child to work day. Not just on the hill. Aww. But over at the white house. However, behind these fun moments, there is serious pressure and posturing and maneuvering as there is less than 48 hours to go before the 100day benchmark. And its happening just as House Speaker ryan says hes setting no deadline on passing a replacement plan for repealing and replacing obamacare even though the conservative wing of the party Just Announced a version that they would support. Were making very good progress. Were going to go when we have the votes. But thats the decision well make when we have it and this puts more federal protections in on preexisting conditions. Why this amendment is a step in the right direction, we believe the smarter way to do on getting premiums down and protecting people with preexisting conditions has had federal and state support for people who are sick. Now the focus is on whether the moderate republicans will support it. We are also getting word today of this threat from the democrats. Party leaders say they will oppose the bill thats preventing a Government Shutdown if a Health Care Vote actually happens before saturday, that 100day mark. Carol lee is all over this, a White House Reporter for the wall street journal. This threat from the democrats, they dont have the votes, how much oomph is behind the symbolism . Reporter its not very clear but youve seen the president and republicans trying to set up a potential Government Shutdown to blame the democrats, which democrats arent really in control so thats going to be a hard one to spin but if the government shuts down, its going to be the democrats fault. Theyve set that narrative. We dont know exactly what is going to happen. And they will punt a lot of this, to give themselves more time to work something out. Certainly a Health Care Vote, obviously to democrats, is a poke in the eye and thats why when it first came up, they were going to renew this Health Care Push with Republican Leaders on the hill thought it wasnt necessarily a good idea because they need democrats on board to get a spending bill to avoid a shutdown. What about this whole tax cut plan that we saw 24 hours ago unveiled in the briefing from secretary mnuchin and mr. Cohn that has a lot of, you know, critics of the president running foul and they dropped all these proposals but a total dirth of specifics. Where is that today . Reporter well, the white house feels like they have a little bit of mom mentum. Its an outline of the things that the president would like to see. Its very Broad Strokes and they feel it differs from the House Republican plan and so but it wasnt outright rejected by House Republicans so they feel good about that. But theres a long way to go because you need to, a, fill in the details and thats where all of these debates were going to happen and its going to get difficult and then if they want to get democrats on board, particularly in the senate, thats going to be a whole other debate. And its not clear how with the timing of any of that is, i dont think anyone expects it to move really quickly because these issues just dont do that here. But the president was very he was most clear hes been in terms of some of his legislative priorities, even though it was a very Broad Strokes outline of this plan. Right. Broad strokes, lacking in specific. Before we let you go, do we have the picture from take your child to work day . I was trolling your twitter page, looking very good in the Front Row Center at the briefing today was little hudson, your little dude. Yeah. I love it. At one point when sean spicer was talking and then he laid down with his blanket in the front which some reporters want to do sometimes, too. Carol lee, thank you. See you in washington this week, my friend. Thinking of sean spicer, white house Spokesman Sean Spicer aims for major cuts in taxes but a few explanations as carol was outlining on the specifics about how to pay for all of this. And the white house didnt directly answer how it would benefit the president and his family and instead americans are likely applauding the president s proposals. So with me now, alexis glick, hello. Hello. So taxes, taxes. We know the optics of this, two former goldman guys and the critics are saying this is all great for the trumps of the world and wall street. I was on with anderson and then i saw gary cohn speak at a private event last night. One thing ill tell you, go back and look at garys story. He comes from an immigrant family, had displex yeah. Grew up in cleveland. Everyone is looking at him saying that he looks like a mr. Goldman sachs but before anyone judges the Decision Making around this tax reform strategy, heres what ill say to you. The headlines today scream this is the richest cabinet in history, they are worth 12 billion, the rich are getting richer. Lets take it down to what you talked about, which is the person who voted him in office, the low to middle income earner. The estimates are that their taxes will actually rise because of this talk around the removal of the deduction, the federal deduction on state and income taxes. Yep. And that would really affect those in new york and california and stronger blue states. The reason they didnt come out with those level of income in those three brackets that theyre proposing, they have to sit back and analyze how does that affect not only the longterm deficit but how will that affect the constituent, the every day person who is watching right now who put him in office. So on that secretary mnuchin was touting that this will be good for the middle class but stopped short of saying, yes, i can guarantee it. Here he was with george stephanopoulos. Can you guarantee no one in the middle class is going to pay more . Thats our objective, absolutely. Is it a guarantee . Theres no guarantees until its done and on the president s desk but i can tell you thats our number one objective in this. I guess telling the truth and not overdelive