Helping us through the friday. Happy to be here. The tax bill hit a trilliondollar snag. What is now clear to several republicans is this plan is not what was promised. Its not going to pay for itself and doesnt look like in its current configuration it will reduce the deficit. Those were the big problems from the trump administration. The president s frustration with senators may be about more than just taxes. The New York Times reporting President Trump may have the Senate Committee to end its russia investigation. Lets go to Suzanne Malveaux on capitol hill. Reporter President Trump tweeting about this make or break moment for his administration and republicans trying to get some sort of legislative achievement here. They have a 1 trillion problem and thats how to pay for the tax cut plan. Republicans jockeying what to keep in and take out and whether or not they have those votes. We are on the cusp of a great victory for the country. The battle of the tax bill hitting a snag, and corker withholding his vote thursday after a new report by the joint committee on taxation estimates the bill would increase the deficit by 1 trillion over ten years, and would not produce enough revenue to offset the cost of the plan. Corker demanding a trigger to automatically raise taxes if the bill fails to generate as much Economic Growth as promised, but the senate rule keeper declaring such a proposal would not be allowed as written. A showdown unfolding on the senate floor, as they huddled around holdouts, jeff flake, corker and ron johnson. I submitted an amendment that said send the bill back to the finance committee and have them report back a deficit neutral bill, a bill that doesnt blow a hole in the deficit. Republicans now scrambling to appease deficit hawks. Lindsay graham acknowledging corkers concerns are real but adding failure is not an option, as Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell can only afford to lose two republican votes, this as senator Elizabeth Warren to demanding to see the treasury departments Economic Analysis after Steve Mnuchin promised the American People this. We think this tax plan will cut down the deficits by a trillion dollars, and thats a large number. The treasurys Inspector General launching a probe after receiving this letter from warren, questioning whether mnuchin is misleading the public. Its almost criminal. Its a lethal attack on the middle class. Democrats continue to hammer the gop tax plan asserting the bill will hurt lowerincome americans while benefiting the wealthy, and its predicted those earning less than 30,000 will be worse off by 2019, and those less than 75,000 worse off by 2027. Removing the obama insurance mandate would also result in 13 million having no insurance in the next decade. Reporter Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell says the bill will resume this morning. Also raising the Corporate Tax rate above the 20 after several years, its far from certain whether or not that is going to satisfy enough lawmakers to push this through, chris. Thank you very much. Once again, we are seeing the president getting in his way a little bit here with his own goal. He wants a win with taxes, so does the gop, but what he has promised is getting in the way. Is this really set up to help the middle class . We dont know. And another story, the New York Times is reporting the president pressed Top Senate Republicans to end their russia investigation last summer. Joining us on the phone, cnn political analyst, coauthor of the New York Times report. Maggie, always good to hear your voice. Thanks for having me. What do we now know . We know over the summer we were already aware where he started railing Mitch Mcconnell did not do enough to protect him from the senate probe, and since the president called the chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee and suggested that this ought to be brought to a close quickly. He had a similar conversation with roy blunt aboard air force one, and according to our sources he made other calls to senators where he suggested the same thing, other republicans. These calls were met with alarm even who republicans received them or knew of them downplayed them, and essentially he called on something else, and i did not quite feel pressured but he did bring it up. His aides will say its no different than what he says publicly, but, chris, as you know, the sense of pressure and propriety as somebody that could end up being, if not a focus himself, have his relatives at stake in this is questionable. This is a norm for him not to reach out to people on the senate side, its not a law but its not a norm we have seen somebody break like this before. The idea that he doesnt know what you are supposed to do and not do as president bea lies a lifetime. Where do you see this as moving it towards style and substance as to what could be a factor in this investigation . I think its too soon to say and we will possibly know more on that later, and a lot of it will depend on what the senators tell each other or the investigators about receiving these calls, and i think its hard for the president certainly at this stage of the presidency let alone his life of 71 years to suggest that he was unaware of that fact that you cant do that. I dont think that hes not aware of it, i think he doesnt care, hes impervious of the structures that apply to these kinds of situations, and the impact remains to be seen. Again, it could be read as trying to impact an investigation, and trying to impact the people conducting it. Whether they will say that is another question. Maggie haberman, thank you very much. I wish you a good weekend. Thank you, sir. You, too. Lets discuss that with jeffrey cubin, and chris cillizza. Its not that the president is unaware, its that he doesnt care, he does things his way. We know that. As we are seeing him do things his way, too, we also heard him say how the president is speaking out on things, telling people reportedly in his golf courses, im totally innocent and theres nothing to see here. You get to a point and sometimes i feel like a broken record but you get to a point, chris cillizza, yes, its detracting from what he, himself, wants to accomplish. Yes, and i think its important, erica, to remember that hes often blundering into these things when it has to do with russia. Lets keep he does a fair amount of that anyway, but it often has to do with russia. The examples you mentioned and the example erica reported on, and these are things that are not well, i defer to jeff as to whether or not they are technically legal or illegal, and i would say they are in the gray area that donald trump likes to operate in, but they all seem to have to do with the russia investigation, and at that point i dont think that donald trump gets the benefit of the doubt here. I dont think the explanation of, he just doesnt know what hes doing really kind of flies. Hes the president of the united states. If he did not know what he was doing when he was elected in terms of this stuff, its up to him and the people around him to say you cant call these people and ask them to do these things you are doing. Its inappropriate even if its not illegal. Maybe they have done it and he doesnt listen, but the result is the same. He continues to do this stuff specifically around the issue of russia. This is ordinarily the point where you would say you have to get inside his head to understand why hes saying what hes saying, but you cant do that so be quiet mr. Reporter. Not here. Half of my life i have watched donald trump be very effective in different ways, and be people in my family, and he knows what hes doing. This is not the idea that its about his ignorance, but its about his inclinations. For all of this going on with the democrats, so what that he calls members of congress and says, i hate this, theres nothing there, you are in my party, dont let them kill me this way. At the end of the day, thats not a crime. Lets draw some distinctions here. When he goes up to people at his golf course and says this is a bunch of nonsense First Amendment right. Knock yourself out. Not even close to any sort of criminal activity. If you are the boss of the fbi, as the president is, and you fire the head of the fbi for the sole and exclusive reason to stop an investigation of you, that is potentially a crime. Maybe, maybe not. Well, maybe, maybe not. Richard nixon was the the articles of impeachment dealt with the abuse of the fbi. Thats a Political Action and not a legal action. Impeachment is about votes. They do high crimes and misdemeanors i am talking about mueller. Its legally questionable that that whole chapter of that. Now, what about talking to senators of your party about the political problems . Certainly expressing general indig nation about the investigation, theres certainly nothing wrong with that. However the president has leverage over his members of the senate. I wont appoint your judge in your state thats what i am saying. Jeffrey, you have to remember, hes smart. The idea of leverage has to be Something Like bribery, you are going to do that in this investigation or and we dont have that. Thats why facts matter. You cant say categorically that these Connections Centers about the russia investigation are appropriate or clearly inappropriate or illegal because you have to dig into the facts and see what was really said. I want to pick up on that for a second. We believe facts come first. I dont like when he uses the hash tag against me. I digress. As we are looking to at just where we stand in this week and the distractions and the things we are learning about the president , theres a retweet of these horrific antimuslim videos that we know about. What was striking this morning, the wall street tunnel editorial page, and im quoting, mr. Trumps battle by quote fake news is driven by his belief that he aint getting sufficient credit for his achievements, such as his tax bill. We would advice mr. Trump to reign himself in for the sake of his own presidency but by now we know thats hopeless. Strong words there, but chris cillizza, in terms of reigning himself in goes back to the first point, the president probably doesnt think he needs to be reigns in. Theres a 0 chance he will reign himself in. I feel strongly about that one, and its to chris cuomos point. Anybody that has followed trumps life in new york city and then nationally knows that this is him. What you are seeing is him, the unpredictability and arat eubgness, and the wildness and the willing to thumb your nose at wisdom. He operates that way always. He always has. The idea that donald trump pushed he would be so president ial once he won the nomination or won presidency, we would all be bored, and that has been proven to not be true. Thats true of the russia investigation, and his continuing to bring up Hillary Clintons emails, and the inauguration crowd size and the tax bill and the boasting of a health care, and its across everything, things large and things small. Diplomacy, this is the best thing china has ever done, this state dinner with me. Its everywhere. Its pervasive and who he is. I want to offer an alternative high idea. The president does get us to talk about stuff, and we are not talking about the income wealth transfer from the middle class to the wealthy. This tax bill is not popular. Which is very unusual. Its very unusual. I know the president thinks its going to be a big accomplishment, and maybe theres more method to his madness than we give him credit for. Talking about steinle. Its how do you discuss what the president does. Sometimes its a good misdirection. Hes arguably one of the best at playing the media. But when you distract us you distract your own people as well and they are not set up to deal with these kinds of situations, and you get sanders that developed the stonefaced version of what we saw with her predecessor, in which she says things nobody can believe that she believes. It creates problems. It created problems for us as journalist. Do we cover the tweet of the day . Is that the most Important News . When the president says something historically it has been news. More often than not he is talking about what matters. My twitter thread reads as the fabric of truth on this. Its about 65 35, 35 all about what the president said, you are wrong to question it, all you do and 65 is why are you being distracted by this. I would say 65 35. President ial approval. His challenge was to deliver for the middle class, and these are his people, and will he get it done . We will see. We will have to leave that there. President trump claiming the gops Senate Tax Plan will cost him a fortune. We are going to put that to the test, next. Let our your inner child at the lexus december to remember sales event. Lease the 2017 rx 350 for 399 month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Lets get the lady of the house back on her feet. And help her feel more strength and energy in just two weeks. Yaaay the complete balanced nutrition of ensure with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. Ensure. Always be you. If yor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough, it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. This condition has not been reported with entyvio. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. Duncan just protected his family with a 500,000 Life Insurance policy. How much do you think it cost him . 100 a month . 75 . 50 . Actually, duncan got his 500,000 for under 28 a month. Less than 1 a day his secret . Selectquote. In just minutes a selectquote agent will comparison shop nearly a dozen highly rated Life Insurance companies, and give you a choice of your five best rates. Duncans wife cassie got a 750,000 policy for under 21 per month. Give your family the security it needs, at a price you can afford. Since 1985, selectquote has saved over a million families millions of dollars on Life Insurance. Time for cnn facts first, President Trump claim the republican tax plan is going to cost him a fortune. Thats not true. The president suggested rich people like him will suffer, but its more likely the plan will benefit President Trump and his family and do so in several ways. Ending the alternative minimum tax while the removal of state and local Tax Deductions will hurt a new yorker like the president , his real gift is going to be the amt, its designed to kick in whenever somebody is paying too little in taxes under the regular tax code, the only tax return we have from the president is 2005 and that year he got hit with 31 million in amt because he claimed a huge operating loss and carried it forward over year to year. Its all completely legal its why he himself has criticized the tax code of having too many loopholes and ending that will benefit him big time. And then corporate shells, like pass throughs, llcs, you know what these are. The plan cuts the tax rate on those types of entities, so trump will stand to gain. Then weakening the estate taxes. The house version matches the present but calls for an allout repeal of the estate tax by 2024. Both bills keep the steppup rule allowing them to step up the cost after the death of a family, meaning they have less gain and less taxes to pay on. Another tough fact. This plan is what it is. You look at the numbers. Its not about spin. We cant be sure how the president is going to be affected. Why . Because unlike any other president since nixon he has not released any tax returns, and right now it appears that decision, as we suspect, you know, is to hide from unfavorable facts. Thats what we know. Thats what we know about the plan. Lets discuss. Joining us is republican congressman, rhonda san tuesday of florida. Good morning, chris. You heard what we laid out about the president. Do we have it right or wrong . Its hard to know because he has complicated financial arrangements. Its good for the president and its also good for our economy, and the fact to me that its good for him is not a reason to vote against him. If it was good for him or bad for him, but bad for the country, then just the fact that people may want to see people get socked with more taxes that wouldnt be a reason to vote against it. What i am trying to focus on is what are we doing to make sure we keep and retain capital here in the united states, we have a Global Economy and the Business Structure is not competitive, and we have trillions of dollars we would like to see coming back into the united states, and if by doing that allows us to grow more and wages to increase and jobs to be created, the fact that trump may be getting a tax cut to me is not a reason to vote against the plan. Its about the fact that based on the projections that they have again, this is an under analyzed bill because its being rushed through the reconciliation window. They are fighting over the fact that it adds to the deficit and debt in a way that is unacceptable to members of your par