With new comments or noncomments on mike flynn. Hes talking about the threat from north korea, russia, alabama and taxes, too as we get ready in a matter of hours to finally get a look at the final text of that big plan. Senator marco rubio reiterates this morning hes holding out, looking to leverage his votes for more money for child tax credits. The president today seems to be amenable to that. We have Pete Williams and Peter Alexander standing by. Peter, i want to start with you, were taking a live look now. Any minute the president coming up to speak at the fbi. On his way there, you had an opportunity to talk with him about a lot of headlines related to this speech. Let me put this into perspective. He talked about the fbi. He has slammed the agency before. Hes angry at the fbi because of the russia investigation. And theres a lot of news this morning on where he is, where his head is at when it comes to that investigation. Reporter weve got a little insight into exactly whats in his head as the president came directly to our cameras and spoke to us within the next hour as he prepared to make that trip to quantico. We heard from the president ripping into the russia investigation again, as a democratic hoax. He insisted again there was no collusion whatsoever. You played that sound bite that i think was a good selection that you cut out there. He said people are very angry about the fbi. Its clear that one person is very, very angry about it. Its the president himself. Heres more of what he said when he was asked specifically about his thoughts about the fbi that he shredded on twitter a matter of weeks ago, saying its reputation was in tatters. Its a shame whats happened with the fbi, but were going to rebuild the fbi. It will be bigger and better than ever. Its sad when you look at those documents and how theyve done that is really, really disgraceful. You have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it. Its a sad thing to watch, i will tell you that. Im going today on behalf of the fbi, their new building. Everybody, not me, when everybody, the level of anger at what theyve been witnessing with respect to the fbi is very sad. Reporter that was President Trump speaking on the south lawn, preparing to board marine one. We tried to pin him down on some questions that remain unanswered. One of them, a significant one, when did the president find out that mike flynn lied to the fbi. My colleague Kristin Welker asking that question. The president saying you know the answer. How many times have i been asked this . Apparently not enough because we do not yet know the answer. Unclear whether Robert Mueller does right now. When a followup was posed about whether he would consider a pardon for mike flynn, he see i dont want to talk about any pardon for mike flynn yet. Yet. Peter alexander, ill ask you to tick through other critical headlines not related to russia and the fbi. Stand by. I want to get to Pete Williams in washington. We have to point out as we wait for the president to deliver the speech over in quantico, it was just last week that the fbi said the agencys reputation was in tatte tatters. That was just the latest from the president over the last year. Take a look at your screen because youve got the president s tweets. Workers of the firm involved with the discredited and fake dos yeah take the 5th. Who paid for it . Accusing the agency of being involved. He said it was once cherished. Sad to watch. The fbi is not able to stop National Security leakers that have permeated our government. Then, more recently, everybodys asking why the Justice Department and fbi is not looking into all of the dishonesty going on with crooked hillary and the dems. Hes not in front of the agents themselves, correct . Talk through what we expect to hear from the president at this Graduation Ceremony. Reporter where he is today is at the fbis National Academy in quantico. It does two things. It trains the new agents, but this is not a new agent class graduation. The president is speaking to the national academic, which trains local Law Enforcement and even some international Law Enforcement people from around the country and around the world on how to do their jobs better. Be better managers, policemen, investigators and so on. So thats the audience, the venue though is of course, sort of ground zero for fbi training. So it is the president s first appearance in front of an fbi audience. Hes been critical of the fbi, but hes tried to suggest his criticism is for the fbi leadership under james comey. Hes tried to draw a distinction. He said that it was in tatters, were going to clean it up. The new director he appointed has testified in front of congress. Hes been defensivdefensive. He had a two or three minute answer he adlibbed by saying the fbi i know is very dedicated. The fbi people i know do their jobs well. So hes been a real cheerleader for the agency in the short time hes been there. It is a politically fraught moment, youre right. But the president is trying to draw this little distinction. Even though apparently, at times, he cant help himself. Youre referencing those comments from christopher wray, as we look right now, the curtain having just opened on stage. You can see the folks there sitting and ready to go. I want to go back, as we keep an eye on this live shot here, to Peter Alexander. We want to listen to the president s speech. Were very curious to hear a couple other headlines that you asked the president about today on the south loan just within the last hour related to other big news out there. For example, the race in alabama, roy moore not conceding. Taxes to. The taxes as he was walking away, i said why would not release his taxes to people to put this question to rest. The first question i posed to him was specifically his view on roy moore, the republican candidate in the Alabama Senate race, i asked him should roy moore concede. Here was his answer, take a listen. I think he should. He tried. I want to support always the person running. I think were doing very well, well see what happens. Its something thats going to be monumental. It will be the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. As far as roy moore, yeah, i would certainly say he should. Reporter i followed up asking about some of the reservations by marco rubio and mike lee. He was confident that they would be on board at the end of the day. I asked him if hed seen the final bill yet that a lot of lawmakers have not yet seen. He said of course ive seen it. Then he was asked specifically about the special counsel, Robert Muellers investigation about these questions of collusion right now and heres what he said specifically on that topic. There is absolutely no collusion. That has been proven. When you look at the committees, whether its the senate or the house, my worst enemies. They walk out, they say there is no collusion but well continue to look. Theyre spending millions and millions of dollars. There is absolutely no collusion. I didnt make a phone call to russia. I have nothing to do with russia. Everybody knows it. That was a democrat hoax, it was an excuse for losing the election. It should have never been this way, where they spent all these millions of dollars. Even the democrats admit there is no collusion. There is no collusion, thats it. Weve got to get back to running a country. What we have found, and what they have found after looking at this really, scam, is they found tremendous, whatever you want to call it. Youll have to make up your own determination. But they found tremendous things on the other side. When you look at the Hillary Clinton investigation, it was you know ive been saying it for a long time. That was a rigged system, folks. That was a rigged system. When you look at what they did with respect to the Hillary Clinton investigation, it was rigged. And theres never been anything like it in this country that weve ever found before. Its very, very sad. Reporter would you consider a pardon for Michael Flynn . I dont want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet, lets see what happens. Lets see. Reporter that was President Trump, some of the comments he just made on the south lawn moments ago, speaking like a man who has been watching a lot of television in recent days and hours, focusing on a lot of these topics. Hes a fox and friends fan. Some of these topics are ones theyve been focusing on in recent days, weeks, months as well. The bottomline is he spoke about having not called russia during the course of the campaign. We knew donald trump and Vladmir Putin did speak to one another yesterday and that the president praised putin for his nice compliments about the u. S. Compa economy. I appreciate you coming on to talk through those headlines as we keep an eye on that fbi Graduation Ceremony for state Law Enforcement officers. You can see the president there on stage. Hell be speaking any moment. Well have his remarks live. I want to bring in our panel, Kaitlin Huey Burns and shane goldmacher. As we watch the president , i want to talk about what pete and peter discussed. Regarding the president s attitude toward the fbi. I think pete is right to say there has been a little bit of nuance in those remarks. The president has also been critical of fbi leadership. One of his Deputy Press Secretaries was out this morning talking about the president s relationship between the doj and fbi. I want you to listen to what he had to say. The president has full faith and confidence in the rank and file members of the doj and fbi. However, it is troubling. Deeply troubling, that the revelations have now come to light that there is extreme bias against this president with high up members of the team there at the fbi who are investigating Hillary Clinton at the time. Were a little concerned at what were seeing here. Hes talking about concern in the doj and the fbi. Again, drawing a line, delineating between the rank and file members and leadership. Can you do that . Can you draw that line . Hes saying both things. Deeply troubling. Love them but worried. And complete confidence. Extreme bias, complete confidence. This is a careful line hes trying to walk to maintain the thing. How he feels about this mueller probe, youre hearing lawmakers on capitol hill on the republican side start to echo his line of questionsing as it to pertains as to whether this probe should go on. I think there are a lot of questions given that bite of sound, you know, we know hes frustrated. But now you have the Michael Flynn bit of this, youve had a lot of movement on this probe over the past few weeks. There are a lot of democrats who are trying to protect thereat part of part of it. Theres the echoing of republicans. Loud and clear we heard that this week with republicans who potentially have legitimate concerns about whether bob mueller is overstepping the bounds of his investigation. Concerns that Rob Rosenstein tried to lay to rest. You also have some in the conservative political media that have now questioned the integrity of the fbi, you have some republicans calling for sort of oversight investigation into the doj. What does that say about this moment of where we are . This is the conversation were having politically. You have the president muddying the waters. You have the fbi, the mueller investigation, the department of justice, agents who serve in both parts. Its all a confusing thing for an average person trying to keep track. What the president is doing by throwing in questions of bias and criticism, hes making it seem that mueller is messed up, it all is just rigged. This is his key word. The second part of that, the idea that as you heard the president say just this morning to Peter Alexander, to Kristin Welker, to others at the white house, that this is a scam. The russia investigation is a scam. Ask Paul Manafort if its a scam. Ask mike flynn if its a scam. There are concrete actions being taken from the special counsels office. You have four people connected to either the Trump Administration or the campaign. Which is significant here. And thats why calls for the probe to be shut down, or questions about its integrity. Really are important because there has been progress on this issue. So the president is certainly in a tough spot right here, even if he maintains that this doesnt involve him. There have been movement, its going to be very hard to shut it down. If the probe finds nothing and youre questioning the integrity of it, where does that put you later on . As youre talking here, were watching the fbi National AcademyGraduation Ceremony for some of these Law Enforcement officers who started their training in october. The attorney general Jeff Sessions is expected to introduce President Trump. Well keep this up on the screen in and out. When you see Jeff Sessions you know were getting close to the president. We want to listen in to the president s remarks given the conversation were having now, right . What has happened over the last week related to the president and his relationship with this agency. We also want to talk about another major headline today. That is when you heard the president discuss earlier this morning, really just in the last hour or so, saying hes seen the final text of that tax bill. Hes seen it. We have not. We will later on today. This is a big deal, right . Our first look at the final text. Youve got members of the house and senate having hammered out the details for the week behind closed doors. Not everybody is on board yet. You know this. You know that senator marco rubio is now throwing a wrench into these plans. He is out this morning reiterating hes not behind this bill yet. Not unless he gets more money for child tax credits. Garr garret hague is on the hill for us. Walk through when first of all when, what time should we set our alarms to to get the final text of the bill . Reporter even as we speak, members of the Conference Committee are coming into the offices just behind our camera here to sign the final copy of the conference bill. Negotiations are done. There is a finished product that some members have signed off on, even as were talking now. So the president has probably seen it. If he says hes seen it theres probably something for him to look at . Reporter i have no reason to doubt that. We have members of the house and senate coming in to sign it. The guidance weve been given is theyll brief the members of their committee and that we, the rest of the public and media will see whats in it sometime this evening. What makes this all interesting, as you talked about marco rubios complaints and concerns that this childcare tax credit isnt going up high enough. Whatever accommodations have already been made. This bill is done. Well see if theres enough in there to accommodate the junior senator from florida or not. Lets talk about the junior senator from florida. This is a discussion that came up when marco rubio publicly said out loud what he says hes been saying privately. I will tell you that the president is not worried about it, at least not visibly. He thinks marco rubio is going to ultimately get on board, even though senator rubio says he wants more money, he wants to add money to this child tax credit. Heres the big question, and this is one i know you and i have talked about. When push comes to shove when this thing gets up for a vote and its on the senate floor, is marco rubio going to be the guy that tanks this plan . Reporter i think thats extremely unlikely. Marco rubio has gone along with a lot of what the president has wanted to do. Hes put this amendment to add more money in the childcare tax credit. Even when it was voted down he voted tod move this bill forwar. He has not shown to be someone who wants to stop this if he doesnt get what he wants. I have to tell you, Republican Leaders know if everyone is here next week, they could theoretically afford to lose marco rubios vote. They have one vote essentially to give if bob corker stays a no. Its a terrible look for one of the most visible republican senators to go down fighting on a bill trying to add a tax credit that directly impacts american families. Thats something leadership would like to avoid if they can find some compromise for what rubio says he wants. Its not the optics of it, there are questions, too. Questions about having enough frankly people. Bodies on the senator floor to get it done. Senator mccain has been hospitalized fighting to try to get better. His office says hell come back as soon as he can. Senator cochrans office said he should be back. Hes had health problems. Reporter its definitely factor, both of those men were out all week long. John mccains office has said he wants to be back as soon as he can. I talked to jeff flake yesterday who said that mccains wife was coming out here to see mccain over the weekend. You know, if theyre not physically able to do this, that cuts the margin substantially for what republican senators need. You know, stating the obvious here, john mccain is such an icon within the party. They want him here to be part of this beyond just his vote and mathematical one vote out of 52. Theyre coming up against a really tough timeline. They have momentum on this bill so they want to get it through. When they come back next year theyll have one less republican senator. The other part of this, the challenge for republicans is multidimensional. They needed to pass the tax bill because they need to show they can govern. If and when the