Sides. That plan is a campaign to make America White again. Can moderates find a compromise in the middle . The president wants to get this done. Hes sympathetic towards that. Joe mansion joins us in moments and prime time speech. President trump is getting ready to deliver his first state of the union address. The United States is once again experiencing strong economic growth. But which President Trump will show up . No politician in history has been treated worse or more unfairly. Hello im jake tapper in washington where the state of our union can stormy. Thats a receive incidenference no town not a reference to the porn star who was paid by the president for her silence. According to a gene your Administration Official the president s speech has been in the works for many weeks. If the president sticks to his prepared remarks he is expected to take a victory lap take touting his tax reform plan. He alsos ahead by pitching his new immigration frame work to the nation and to congress. Late saturday night the president was up tweeting about the plan which includes a proposal for the d. R. E. A. M. Eer covered by daca and attacking the democrats. He tweeted quote i have offered daca a deal and a 12year path way to citizenship because the republicans want to fix a long time material problem, two, to show the democrats do not want to solve daca, only use it. Karsing a shadow over the moment of course the ongoing russia investigation and the news reported by the New York Times that President Trump ordered the firing of Robert Mueller in june. Here with me now is susan collins, shes a member of the Senate Intelligence committee. We always appreciate you being here. Thank you. I want to start with reports that the president ordered husband white House Counsel to fire Robert Mueller. Mueller was ultimately not fired. They say this story doesnt matter t does it matter to you . First i think its important to note that the president cannot directly fire mr. Mueller. The only person who can fire mr. Mueller is the Deputy Attorney general, hes the person who appointed mr. Mueller and last year at a hearing i questioned him at length on this issue and he was adamant that he would never give in to any white house pressure to remove mr. Mueller. I think what happened here is the president had a bad idea. He talked with his counsel who explained to an angry and frustrated president why it was a bad idea and that was sepp months ago and the white House Counsel is still on the job and mr. Mueller is still aggressively investigating and thats as it should be. Sources tell cnn the president has been talking about firing rod rosen stein because of this frustration. Well, if thats true, that obviously would be a terrible mistake. Weve seen what happened back in the Nixon Administration when president nixon on the saturday night massacre kept going down the line until he would find someone who would fire the special counsel and that didnt end very well. Beyond whether or not the president has technically obstructed justice, because thats a decision that will be made by mueller and theoretically congress, maybe even judges, do you agree with the idea as a political matter that the president has clearly tried to stop or impede the russia investigation . I think the president would be best served by never discussing the investigation ever whether in tweets, except in private conversations with his attorney. And this is hard for us, but i think weve all got to be patient and allow the independent counsel to conclude his investigation and bring his findings forth before speculating on whether or not there are sufficient grounds for any kind of wrong doing. We just dont know. There have been a number of bipartisan bills that would attempt to protect the special counsel from firing by the president and you said in december you havent seen the need for legislation protecting mueller. Do you see the need now . It probably wouldnt hurt for us to pass one of those bills and i give senator tillis and senator coons great credit for coming up with the bipartisan bill and senator Lindsay Graham and booker have a different approach. There are some constitutional issues with those bills but it would certainly not hurt to put that extra safeguard in place given the latest stories, but again, i have faith in the Deputy Attorney general that hes going to do what he told me he would do. A lot of republicans calling for the release of a memo written by the House Intelligence Committee that alleges fbi abuses of surveillance laws in this case. In this case against trump and this investigation. The Washington Post is reporting that President Trump wants this memo released against the advice of his own Justice Department, people in the Justice Department very concerned that it might reveal sources and methods and that there are other issues with the memo. Democrats say its quote profoundly misleading. Do you think it should be released . One of the problems with the house investigation that has been very partisan. In contrast the Senate Intelligence committee under the leadership of warner have worked together and i think thats a far better approach. I have a lot of confidence in the fbi. They are the nations premier Law Enforcement agency. That doesnt mean that there werent an agent and a lawyer who had inappropriate and highly political Text Messages in the midst of investigations, but lets look at what happened. First of all, the special counsel immediately removed the agent from his team. In response to that and second perhaps even more important, there is an on going Inspector General investigation into this matter and i think again, we should let the Inspector General sort this out. And so defer to the Justice Department, dont release the memo . On the memo, i dont know whats in the memo. They wont show it to senator bur. And i think that needs to be shared but also my concern is whether it would compromise classified information. And thats a really serious matter so to me, the preferable way to handle the allegations of wrong doing by certain fbi agenerals and a lawyer there is to leave it in the hands of the Inspector General. I know him, hes aggressive. Hell do a fair investigation. Lets turn to immigration. Youve been work with a Bipartisan Group of senators to come up with a bill that can pass the house and the senate. It proposes a path for citizen for 1. 8 million d. R. E. A. M. Ers and ends to the diversity lottery program. How different is the white house proposal from the one that youre working on . Well, were going to be meeting this week. Our Common Sense Coalition to take a look at the four pillars that the white house has put out there. I think all of us realize that its going to take a compromise on this issue for us to get something done and protect the d. R. E. A. M. Er population which is certainly a goal of mine but i think the president is also right act Border Security, that we do need to beef up our Border Security. We know that from a state in mexico theres been an influx of heroin which is very inexpensive and is ravzageing communities and families across our country and weve been talking about securing the border better since the george bush administration. It doesnt mean a wall literally across our southern border, but it does mean using technology. Now, some people arent going to like that. Some people arent going to like the path to citizenship for the d. R. E. A. M. Ers. What this is about is the compromise and its important to know that our coalition is not a legislative committee. Were going to be making recommendations to the chair. And i hope we can find a way for it. I think its really important. Whats your reaction to the wall street journal story alleging that President Trumps lawyer Michael Cohen saw a 130,000 payment go to a porn star who at one point had been claiming a relationship with President Trump while married to melania although both now she and President Trump deny it . Well, i dont know the circumstances of it. In some ways this sounds like an issue thats between president mrs. Trump because it doesnt seem to be a work place issue as far as i know. Okay. I want to ask you about the former now former finance chair of the Republican NationalCommittee Steve wiynn stepped down after massive accusations of sexual misconduct. He has now stepped down but he still donated a lot of money to republican candidates and after the harvey swiweinstein scandal now i want to ask a republican senator about steve wynn. Do you think republicans who took money from steve wynn should give it back . If theyve accepted contributions from him recently that have not been spent, absolutely. I dont think its a close call to return the money. Im very pleased that he immediately stepped down from the rnc position. I was going to call upon him to step down. And the allegations against him are very serious, because they do involve harassment at the work place and inappropriate behavior and sexual abuse. So i think theyre very serious allegations, and should be treated as such and im pleased to say that ive never received any money from mr. Wynn so i have no money to return. Its always good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us. Will language help to reach a bipartisan deal . Well ask senator joe mansion next. 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Jimmys gotten used to his whole yup, hes gone noseblind. Odors. He thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this. Luckily theres febreze fabric refresher for all the things you cant wash. It finds odors trapped in fabrics and washes them away as it dries. And try pluggable febreze to continuously eliminate odors for up to 45 days of freshness. Pluggable febreze and fabric refresher. Two more ways to breathe happy. Welcome back. Im jake tapper, the right and left are in agreement when it comes to President Trumps immigration frame work. They both do not like it. Democratic Senate LeaderChuck Schumer said the plan is a wish list for anti immigration hard liners. Now a group of senators are doing what seems impossible at this point coming up with a compromise that could pass the senate and the house and be signed by President Trump. Joining us now to discuss is one of the senators leading the bipartisan effort, democratic senator joe mansion of west virginia. Thanks for joining us. I want to get to immigration in a second but first let me ask you about the recent developmentes in the mueller investigation. The news that President Trump had ordered the firing of mueller in june and only backed down after his white House Counsel threatened to quit. Many in your party are calling this obstruction of justice. Take a listen to connecticut senator richard bloomen that will. Theres an incredible case of obstruction of justice against the president of the United States. And its unfolding right before us in real time with the actions and statements that hes making. Now hes talking about not just the attempted firing of mueller but also the firing of comey and other examples. Do you agree that theres a case of obstruction of justice against the president . Jake, i vice presidehavent that road. I believe in the rule of law and it pertains to all of us and if any of this has happened it will come out. But you know, people from new york have a dimpb way of talking and speaks and i take that, you know, literally. I said okay, he blew off about some things. Theres a process to go through. If hes going to go down this road which id advise him absolutely do not do, mr. President , let mr. Mueller the his job. I think that he will be fair, hell be just and hell get a conclusion. I would encourage everyone to work with him so we can get this to an end, but the more hyppeop get fired up about it the more it continues. The democrats try to include a proposal to protect the special counsel in the next round of government funding talks ahead of the february 8th dead line. Youre a key figure in neg sh d negotiating the spending bill that reopened the government. Theres a process they have to go through. Mr. Rosen stein would be the first person that i would think if theres going to be some movement in that direction where theyre going to go first, and i think that would give us time to move and act if we need to. I hope it doesnt come to that. I really do, but we have to wait and see. But again, let me just say this. I have the utmost confidence and faith in our Justice Department. These are not people that are working for fame or fortune. When you look at the fbi agents, you look at all the spepeople i the intelligence community, they are committed to who we are and the ideas that we have and basically the ideals of america. Jake, what i want to say to mr. President trump, people have to understand, theres been a man all his life has been control of his own life, his own destiny. Hes been very successful. Hes been able to have control of his personal life and his professional life in the Business World and now all of a sudden hes in a whole different realm and i can imagine the frustration he might have saying listen, i was able to give orders and get this and this done and if not, i would either fire this person or hire this person or give someone a financial incentive to do something differently. It doesnt work like that and thats what makes our government so special. It makes our country so special and when they can understand that everything is going to be just good, fine. Lets turn to immigration. The white house frame work for the a deal on the d. R. E. A. M. Ers includes a path way to citizenship for 1. 8 million of them. 25 billion for Border Security and the wall. Republican immigration, horde liners support the president s frame work but i want you to take a look at what nancy pelosi had to say about the proposal. Well, im on the subject of d. R. E. A. M. Ers since last night the president put forth a plan, let me just say what i said last night. That plan is a campaign to make America White again. Make America White again. Where do you come down, sir . You know what, we done need that type of rhetoric on either side from nancy, paul ryan or anybody else and i come down this. The president has laid out a template. Were going to look at that template and were going to work with it. I think what it really comes down to, jake, how big do you want to go . 2013 we passed a lease of legislation in the senate, bipartisan and people says well, the wall, let me tell you one thing, we have the wall. We need to repair the wall. Well need to build more wall. We need to do whatever we can to secure the borders. We had 42 billion of expenditures to secure america with that piece of legislation in 2013. But also there was a path way to citizenship for 11 million people. If you want to go big, thats big. If you want to go medium or you want to go small, we need to decide. You cant have big on one end of it and immediamedium or small o other end. Work with sue son collins, i think our grounding will be what can pass or what will move through the senate. Were going to meet monday night and start over again. And theres no way that anyone should be considering any more of a shutdown, even talking the nonsense of a shutdown. Lets get down to business and fix it and we can do it. The president s laid out what he wants. Thats a good starting point. Lets see if its something we can agree on. Something we can adjust and something we can negotiate with. But you condemned Nancy Pelosis rhetoric. I have one question before you have to go. Im condemning all this crazy rhetoric that goes on. Just because someone is republican is not my enemy and we have to work together. Got it. I want to ask you, sir, about your partys last president ial nominee, Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported that