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tv   New Day  CNN  October 25, 2017 2:59am-4:00am PDT

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know. at least they're doing something. thanks for joining us this morning. i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. two republicans with harsh rebukes muof the president. senator jeff flake is on "new day." bob corker also on "new day". we must stop pretending the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. >> when he lies about something and you know it's a lie, shouldn't you speak up? >> that's your job. >> this is a fight for the heart and soul of the republican party. >> i don't know why he lowers himself and debases our country. >> all this stuff you see on a daily basis on twitter this, twitter that, forget about it. >> his coalition to get things passed is now in some jeopardy. >> bob mueller's team has corroborated the fact of the dossier. >> there's a lot of motivations in the white house to distract a
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little bit here. >> why did they spend a year covering it up? >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and allici alisyn kam cam >> we begin with an extraordinary day with republican rebuke against a sitting president. two retiring gop senators calling out president trump as untruthful. senator jeff flake says he will no longer be complicit or silent, and bob corker says it will be known for debasing the nation. this civil war could challenge the gop and threaten the president's agenda. not surprisingly, the white house is defending president trump's clashes with both men. coming up on "new day," senator jeff flake will join us live. for every action there is a reaction. house republicans are trying to turn your attention to new
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congressional inquiries they are driving into the actions of the obama administration. three house committees are now investigating the justice department's handling of the clinton e-mail probe and the government's decision on a uranium deal that some in the gop think hillary clinton engineered. this comes as we get more details on the democrat pockets that help fund the infamous trump dossier. the democratic national committee and the clinton campaign did help fund research containing allegations about donald trump and russia. we have it all covered. let's begin with cnn's joe johns live at the white house. joe? >> reporter: good morning, chris. two prominent republican senators slamming the president with a message, this is not normal, putting the republican war on full display across the united states for everybody to see. senator jeff flake's speech on the floor of the united states senate really captured the
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imagination of a lot of people and also created big problems for the white house. the arithmetic could be changing at a time the white house could scarcely use it. >> it is time for our complicity and accommodation of the unacceptable to end. >> reporter: outgoing jeff flake fiercely denouncing president trump's policies and calling on his fellow republicans to do the same. >> when the next generation asks us, why didn't you do something? why didn't you speak up? what are we going to say? >> reporter: flake railing against the politics of the era of trump, the undermining of democratic ideals, the personal insults and what he called the flagrant disregard for truth and decency. >> reckless, undignified behavior is excused as telling it like it is when it is
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actually just reckless, outrageous and undignified. we were not made great as a company by indulge in or exall thing our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorifying in the things that divide us and calling fake things true and true things fake. >> reporter: mitch mcconnell praising flake but punting when asked by the reporters how the party would respond? >> at what point do you have an obligation as a leader of this party to weigh in on these very seergs criticisms of the president? >> what i have an obligation to do is to try to achieve the greatest cohesion i can among 52 republicans to try to achieve for the american people the agenda we set out to achieve. >> reporter: flake's sweeping indictment coming hours after republican senator bob cork also blasted mr. trump. >> the president has great difficulty with the truth. i don't know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard and debase our country
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in the way that he does, but he does. >> reporter: the retiring senate foreign relations committee chairman expressing concern that the united states' position in the world is suffering under president trump. >> world leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untruth. he's breaking down relationships we have around the world that have been useful to our nation. >> reporter: they're feud reaching a boiling point with the president responding to corker's attacks in a series of tweets, as petty while welcoming the decision of the senators to retire. >> i think they were not likely to be re-elected. and i think it shows the support is more behind this president than it is those two individuals. >> reporter: a source familiar with the president's thinking says he's in high spirits after flake's announcement. an ally of mr. trump's chief strategist also celebrating saying steve bannon added
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another scalp to his collection as another establishment domino falls. these two senators not running for re-election means they don't have to worry about being punished by the voters in the midterm next year. they'll be around until january of 2019. the white house needs their votes to get anything passed. chris and alisyn. >> appreciate it. let's bring in the panel. we have cnn political analyst david gregory and editor-at-large chris. what we're trying to tee up here is this is unusual, what we heard on the senate floor, starting with former president bush. you had mccain, you had corker. corker again. now jeff flake in this speech. there was a smattering applause for it. let's listen to more. >> the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institution, the flagrant disregard for truth and
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decency. the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people we have been elected to serve. none of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. >> so, david gregory, what are we to make of this? how significant is it? >> well, it's incredible to hear two republican senators going out of their way to criticize the sitting president of their own party to break with him in such dramatic fashion, to call him out on being someone who doesn't have the temperament to be president who's debasing the country, significant. if you oppose trump, maybe you say, wow, where have you been and where are more of you? on the other side of it are two men who are gone from the u.s.
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senate. flake and corker will not be there any more. its hard for me to wake up this morning and look at this objectively as anything other than a pretty good day for now for president trump. maybe history regards this moment differently, if there are others who come along and widen or deepen the scism in the republican party. but for now this is a confirmation of what trump and his allies have said is the problem with washington at a time when the republican party is trying to unify. mitch mcconnell doesn't have to like it because he wonders does he have the votes to get a tax cut plan passed, which is his real goal to keep the party together. >> chris, why now? i mean, jeff flake and bob corker, they have 14 more months in the senate. why did he give that impassioned speech yesterday? >> i think we've been waiting for flake to say something about his re-election. candidly, this is to david's point, he almost certainly wasn't going to win a republican
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primary. this is the peril of facing down donald trump. you may get tauted by the establishment in washington, at least parts of it, but in your home state it might not work out. his opposition to donald trump, most notably through thinks book that he wrote in his book had really hurt him in his state. kelly ward, former state senator, who ran against john mccain unsuccessfully in 2016, there was polling that had her basically doubling jeff flake. i think foromewhat obvious, which is jeff flake sacrificed himself to try to make this point. he sacrificed himself and his political career to say, this is not republican, this is not conservatism. down this road lies nothing good. make no mistake, he sacrificed himself. he was not going to win a second term. so, i think in some ways it's simply the recognition of,
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frankly, pretty obvious political reality. >> he wrote an article in "the washington post." there's a sickness in our system and it is contagious. how much more damage to our democracy and to the institutions of american liberty do we need to witness in silence before we count ourselves as complicit in that damage? you know, john mccain and jeff flake both used this same word, cou countinance. jeff flake used it. it's an interesting word. it suggests you sit there with a calm face while something is going on, but that is exactly the face of the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell. his explanation for it is not that this is cowardess. i am here to enforce an agenda
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and that is my priority. and everything else is second to that. does that work? >> it depends who's answering that question, chris. mcconnell's made a calculation that i'm going to grit my teeth and bear whatever the trump years look like, however long that lasts because i have an opportunity to stay? power, republicans can stay in power. that's why paul ryan is hanging in there. this is a signature moment for conservatives like a jeff flake. the other side of it means you'll be quiet and not say anything in the face of this kind of behavior, threats to our democratic system that are kind of casual threats by the president. but here's the other side of this. i was in new hampshire last week talking to a classic new hampshire independent voter who had been a democratic voter in
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the past, supported trump and critical of trump in some areas. she says in the end that it's congress that needs the reckoning. she's not going to be sympathetic to the corkers and the flakes. she shings that system is still broken. she wakes up this morning and says corker is probably still doing something right. if euro posed to trump or on the fence, have you to hold in your mind as these revelations tumble out. >> we have -- maybe we have the cover of breitbart. steve bannon taking a victory lap like good riddance is the feeling for all of these establishment types, as they call them. >> alisyn, make no mistake, this is a great day for steve bannon. jeff flake's retirement, while mourned by some in the senate, will be cheered by folks like steve bannon. it will help him raise money. it will help him recruit against
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the other incumbents. he'll say the establishment is running scared. people who think jeff flake is a bad thing are the very establishment that steve bannon, frankly, thinks needs to go. can i make one point about flake's speech that i thought was important? david mentioned this. what flake essentially said is this is a shining moment for republicans -- should be a shining moment for republicans, but i am not willing to do what needs to be done. the sacrifice of principle is not worth what we will gain. i don't know that fellow colleagues will make. you saw mitch mcconnell praise jeff flake, but mitch mcconnell had zero interest in engaging in any way, shape or form after that luncheon with donald trump on the criticism of the republican party, is trump a republican, is he leading the
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party down a party toward destruction? so, jeff flake, i think, made a personal decision that it wasn't worth it for him, but i don't think that's going to be the decision that most people within the party make. >> fellas, appreciate your take on this. it sure was unusual. everybody will have to agree on that. what ets impact s we'll see. probably soon. coming up on "new day" we'll speak with senator jeff flake. why did he do this now? what will be next for him? we also have some breaking news for you. another obama-era reversal. senate republicans killing a rule that made it easier for americans to ban together to sue banks and credit card companies. mike pence casting the tie-breaking vote. what does this mean? we have cnn's chief correspondent christine romans with more. >> it's a big win for wall street. president trump wants to loosen wall street regulations and this is his biggest win yet and it's a blow to the consumer
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protection bureau. gone is a rule forcing forced arbitration. that's in the fine print of the contracts have you with your banks, credit cards and other financial companies. it forces customers, us, to resolve disputes outside a courtroom, blocks us from banding together in class-action lawsuits. republicans call that rule an overstep by the cfpb richard cordry appointed by president obama. they claim class-action suits benefit trial lawyers not consumers. consumers say companies have all the leverage. victims from wells fargo have had trouble suing because of the arbitration clauses. this was just issued in july so those aggrieved by wells fargo can't use this. the cfpb found they struggled to open cases against their banks. the government's financial watch dog says this is a problem. the senate overruled that. >> appreciate it. up next, new information about the trump/russia dossier. you know it wasn't free.
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who funded it? it was republicans, it was democrats, but now we know which ones. there's a big clue on your screen. also, house republicans launch investigations into the woman who was just on your screen. hillary clinton. what's going on here? this seems like an obvious distraction from what's going on in the government right now. how will this play out? we discuss next. and now, i help people find discounts, like paperless, multi-car, and safe driver, that help them save on their car insurance. any questions? -yeah. -how do you go to the bathroom? great. any insurance-related questions? -mm-hmm. -do you have a girlfriend? uh, i'm actually focusing on my career right now, saving people nearly $600 when they switch, so...
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if you've been following along and watching the show, you know the infamous trump dossier was funded by both parties, but who was doing it is now more clear. a source confirms to cnn that hillary clinton's campaign at democratic national committee helped fund that research about donald trump and russia. it was a law firm who paid but they represented the clinton campaign and the dnc. "the washington post" was first to report this story. joining us is one of the articles on that article, adam, also a cnn contributor. let's jump ahead two steps to how this story is being received, specifically by supporters of president trump. the dossier is a phoney. it was paid for by his enemies. and all the investigations into russia, therefore, are fraudulent. what do you make of that? >> it is trud it was paid for by his enemies but certainly the
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intelligence community has stood up some of the underlying assessments or allegations that are contained in these reports that were prepared by this contractor for fusion gps, a former british intelligence officer named christopher steele. not all of the information, particularly the most salacious details, have been confirmed and they may never be confirmed. the findings he had that basically the -- that the russians were trying to help trump and some of these connections has been certainly alleged also by the u.s. intelligence community and is currently under investigation by the fbi and cnn and the these m of them, but some of them. >> because the implication is, no, no, no, all of this stuff was cooked up by clinton and it
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was she and her campaign and the dnc, they put people up to try to frame the trump campaign. that's the narrative being spun today in conjunction, no small irony, with these house investigations that are a blast into the past of the obama administration. do you believe that's a justifiable basis on your reporting? >> well, i think, you know, i think it's important for people to understand who was bankrolling this effort, this investigation being done by fusion gps. that is a legitimate question and one that's now been answered. you know, the issue now is, what is the nature of the investigation currently being run by the special counsel? whether or not that is going to stand up details that were in these reports is yet to be seen. and where that investigation goes, we don't know. i think that's really the important question. it doesn't -- the fact that hillary clinton's campaign and the dnc through a lawyer was funding this research doesn't affect the fact that there is a
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special counsel who's investigating whether or not there was any coordination between the campaign and the russians. >> it is true. obviously, the special counsel's investigation didn't just grow out of the dossier. we don't even know what role the dossier plays in the questioning of his investigators. there's one thing for sure, it fueled a lot of political intrigue. what do you think the next step is? >> i think there's probably going to be a lot of questioning now about who within the campaign, who with dnc had visibility into the decision to hire fusion and receive their intel reports that was being produced by chris steele. that's probably a line of inquiry that will continue for a few days. i'm sure the republicans, like you said, will seize on this as evidence that their counternarrative they're trying to put out there to the investigation into trump's ties to russia is based on a fact
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that the hillary campaign was behind funding this research. obviously, though, the next step is waiting to see what mueller, the special counsel, finds in his investigation. >> we'll be waiting some while for that. remember, he doesn't have a duty to tell us. he only has to tell the a.g., so what we learn is a big question mark on that. one thing for sure, these facts will provide fuel for the fire. adam, thank you very much. appreciate you bringing the reporting to us. let's bring back our panel to help us sift through the conflicting claim and new threads of these investigations. we have david gregory and chris. you just heard the reporter for "the washington post." how significant do you think it is to this opposition research that ended up in the infamous russian dossier, that was first funded by anti-trump republicans and then the tab was picked up by the dnc and the clinton campaign? >> i think there's a couple levels about this. there's the political reaction and the substantive reaction. the latter is going to take a
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longer time. there are elements of that dossier that cnn did not report on because of the salacious details, which were unconfirmed and there was restraint, no matter what trump allies say, there was restraint on the part of cnn in the initial reporting of that dossier as reporters dug into it. but what the special prosecutor does with some of these facts, if they were able to be stood up and confirmed and other aspects of potential collusion with russians, on top of established facts of interference on the part of russia, that's the key thing to focus on. we don't know how that plays out. this is analogous to our discussion about jeff flake. i think the here and now is about a president who will say, a-ha, i told you it was my political enemies probably responsible for leaking all this stuff. is damning, they said th was out there sufficiently that we felt we had to inform the candidate and the
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president-elect. it got into the bloodstream of our intelligence community, something that was basically political op-o research. i think they'll use that against their enemies. >> listen, so many reporters can say the same thing that i can, which i've never talked to anybody involved with the investigation. for me it's all about the dossier. that's what it's always been. it was more of a shiny object but, chris, they now have a new card to play, which is -- >> 100%. >> -- clinton knew and she never heard a damn. that's all i heard from people, why didn't she say anything? why didn't her campaign fess up to this before now? >> at one level this is what campaigns do, try to collect opposition research on the other side. if you don't do it, it's basically campaign malpractice. that said, the uncertain funding of this and now it being linked
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directly to the clinton campaign and dnc, gives every trump ally a huge card to play to say, told you, partisan witch hunt. mueller's investigation is a witch hunt as well. you're conflating a lot when you do that. it was formed by rod rosenstein, it was not formed because of the dossier. the dossier is a piece of it because of some of the more salacious details. it's something that's drawn a lot of attention. that's not the fundamental core of this entire special counsel investigation. but donald trump has from the start via twitter and other things said witch hunt, hoax, all partisan, hillary clinton and her allies are doing this. this will be something that is not something he made up from whole cloth, which he has done before.
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but this is not that. this is the clinton and the campaign and dnc being behind something. really the key is not -- the fact that we're learning of the funding source now, right? that's the key. democrats helped fund an opposition research effort against another candidate is not a big deal. >> got it. now let's talk about these two investigations that have come back with a vengeance and was announced by house republicans yesterday, they say they are going to spend, you know, obviously time and energy and money looking into -- and they're complicated, right. first is uranium one. that's the deal that allowed this russian nuclear agency to get something like a 51% share of a u.s. uranium company. and nine federal agencies signed off on it, including the state department when hillary clinton was there. what more do we need to know
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about this? why now are republicans in the house looking back into this? >> they're doing it because this is -- this is the rebuttal, that the real russia scandal is this. some kind of sweetheart deal for the russians are nuclear energy that hillary clinton was behind. i mean, you know, this is what the american people are treated do in this back and forth. you know, stories that are difficult to wade through, story lines that are reduced to their simplest form, and that it's -- you know, it's basically on the one hand, on the other hand, that people have to reckon with. so, look, this is a distraction on the part of, you know, in most cases allies of the president who are pushing back against all of these narratives. >> this is why, david, to your point earlier, jeff flake, bob corker, john mccain, this is why it doesn't sink in the way it does when you
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hear the words. because people don't trust the institution. they say this is what they do. they don't like the outcome from the investigation. now they hold their own. they want to look into russia, they look, they find nothing. >> the truth is, this will give -- if you watched or consumed conservative media, all they talked about is uranium one. they see their base constituents getting up in arms something they move to address it. this will do that and it will provide a narrative out of capitol hill that is not the house and senate intelligence committee investigating russia's attempt at meddling in the election. it will be the clintons and barack obama, they did some stuff, right? i mean, it's obvious they did vague. they did some stuff. we're going to look into it. it's better story line than talking about donald trump and
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the split within the republican party. >> thank you very much for all the analysis. >> the old expression, the timing tells you what you need to know. why did it come out now? why do you think. china's new president proving himself more powerful than ever. there's something missing from the unveiling. we have a live report from beijing next.
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something was missing from his announcement. what was it? cnn's matt rivers is live in beijing with details. what do we know, matt? >> hello, chris. basically here in china over the last week or so, xi jinping has formalized what he's done over the past five years, that's since mao dong, the founder of communist china. one is enshrining his name into the chinese constitution. only mao has done that. the standing committee, the top leadership of the communist party, they were unveiled earlier today. on that committee big-time allies of xi jinping. what wasn't seen on that committee was an obvious successor to xi jinping when he would be expected to step down in 2022. why does this matter? it could mean that xi jinping would stay on until 2022 or even
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longer than that. this is an incredibly stable leadership in china. in a couple weeks president donald trump will be making his first state visit to china for some very high-stakes diplomacy on north korea. xi jinping will be walking into that meeting feeling very confident, secure in his domestic stability up. probably can't say the same right now about president donald trump with all the chaos going on right now in the united states. alisyn? >> thank you very much for all of that reporting for us. so, there are new details emerging about the deadly ambush in niger. what u.s. special forces were doing when they came under attack. that's next.
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on "new day" we test arguments and opinions, right? the way to do that is you have to go with the premise. that's what facts first is all about. have you to know what you can look at and say is objectively true and then everything should evolve from there. let's do that right now with this issue for the authorization for use of military force. what do we know? four american heroes are dead and others are injured despite being sent to niger to, quote, only advise and assist. but when you're in the middle of a war, there is no benign task. that's why the aumf is so important. the law is clear, article one, section 2 of the constitution lays out powers of congress and one of the most prominent is the power to declare war. they're supposed to hear a case from the president, military advisers and vote on whether or not to put u.s. blood on the line.
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so, what happened? in 1973 in the wake of the horrors of vietnam, congress reaffirmed its role with something called the war powers resolution. it repeated the president can only send armed forces into action after a declaration of war with specific statutory authorization, a umf, or in the case of an attack upon the united states. that, of course, is exactly what happened on september 11th. a week later congress passed an amuf letting the president strike back. or as every president since has interpreted it, associated forces. turns out that has meant everyone from isis to bashar al assad to assad hussein. this one allowed president george bush to attack iraq.
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it's used as part of the justification. because why? because al qaeda was there. tied it back to the original 9/11 amuf. what happened in iraq? we know what happened there. many in congress felt burned by the intel failures and they didn't want to own this anymore and it it would be the last use of force congress has actually authorized. the most glaring example is what happened in 2013. syria's assad was believed to have used chemical weapons against his own people. the story would be obama vacillated on his own red line. there was room for criticism there. he did go to congress and ask for an aumf. congress wanted nothing to do with it, the bill stalled. right move, wrong issue, isn't the issue, it's that congress didn't want to do its duty. obama did bomb isis targets and ironically claimed he was authorized by the, you guessed it, aumf. we have troops all around the world in ugly conflicts you
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don't even know about, but to vote on this risk of blood has been all related to 9/11 and that aumf. our troops are just advising, like in niger, where they died. advisers like the four men and their families were told their sacrifice is sacred. the question becomes, when will our lawmakers respect what is sacred and do their duty by fulfilling this need to debate and authorize military force? alisyn? >> chris, thanks so much for all of that background. we do now have details emerging about the mission. the u.s. troops were on in niger when they were ambushed by islamic fighters three weeks ago today. military officials tell cnn the team was gathering intelligence about a suspected terror leader. joining us now is cnn military and diplomatic analyst john kirby and cnn national security analyst samantha.
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great to have both of you here. john kirby, let me reiterate what was in the headline. three military officials told cnn leader. they were not there on orders to kill or capture any terror leader. how does this fresh perspective change the way you see this mission? >> it doesn't change a whole lot n my mind, about the mission itself. this is a foreign internal defense mission they were on. they got retasked, it sounds like, while they were out in the field. that's not unusual, not uncommon for retasking to occur. the fact they were asked to gain more intelligence or gain more situational awareness, that's all part of a parcel of foreign train and assist, which is all about making the local forces better at defending their own citizens and going after these terrorists. >> samantha, it's great to have you here and your experience and perspective. to let the viewers know since you're new to the cnn family, you were in the -- you were a national -- you were a senior adviser to the national security
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adviser tom. you were in the west wing when word came in about the benghazi attack. it was you who went with a note of this alert to general dempsey and secretary of defense lee i don't know -- leon panetta. what do you think about what's trickling out in niger? >> i don't think it's helpful to compare the two but we learned an important situation in benghazi. it distracks us from finding out who's responsible, holding them accountable and mitigating any risks to u.s. personnel overseas. these are american tragedietrag >> do you feel this is being political sized to the detriment of finding out what's happened? >> i think there are bipartisan calls and general kelly
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responded and said he would like to be more transparent. there's a senate arms committee hearing tomorrow morning that will be instructive. the important point is we have to let the investigations proceed. they'll be looking into the tough questions that many of us are asking. >> there is actually a lot of new colors so let me read that for everyone and have you both weigh in. here's what these military officials have shared with cnn. it's interesting. this 12-member team was conducting routine patrol alongside 30 nigerian soldiers when they were asked to check on a site where a high-value target was previously. the team was tasked only with collecting possible intelligence. the mission's perceived threat level was not changed because the military leaders still believed the team would not encounter any enemy fighters. that's interesting. we didn't know why the threat level wasn't changed, why they didn't call sooner. the team did not encounter any enemy forces at the site.
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they left the location. on their way back to the operating base, they stopped in a separate village in order to enable the nigerian troops to replenish supplies. while there u.s. troops met with local leaders as a courtesy. the official said it's quite probable someone in that village tipped off the isis-affiliated terrorists that u.s. was in the village and set up the ambush. the village elders themselves are not suspected. that's a lot of new detail. that's interesting to see how that unfolded. what do you think? >> it is interesting information that's coming in. the additional detail. in essence while it puts a little more flesh on the bone, it does reinforce what general dunford said in the briefing room a couple of days ago about sort of how this unfolded and what authorities they had to do their mission. so, i think again, to samantha's point, we need to let the investigation proceed, let the facts take us where they will. we'll get to the bottom of it going forward. >> as a national security
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analyst, from what you hear from these scant but now more details than we've had, do you think they could have done something different? >> i think we need to wait and see what happens with the investigation. the investigation is going adeqp readiness, was there adequate intelligence, was there adequate equipment. before we have the answers to those questions, i think it's dangerous to jump to conclusions. while the investigation is under way, i think it's critical the administration continue to emphasize there won't be any interpretation in our counterterrorism operations. the terrorists wouldn't take a break while we search for these answers and neither can we. >> thank you very much for all of your expertise. let's get to chris. president trump is pushing his tax framework on capitol hill. can he get republicans to unite to get something in the win column? next. we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew.
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that's it. look how much coffee's in here? fresh coffee. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied. are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me? do you wear this every day? everyday. i'd never take it off. are you ready to say goodbye to it? go! go! ta da! a terrarium. that's it. we brewed the love, right guys? (all) yes.
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president trump is on
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capitol hill pushing his tax legislation overhaul. but what is that? there are so many details that need to be filled in, so let's bring in cnn's money chief business correspondent christine romans. what do we know and what does it mean? >> what are the sticking points for republicans, that's the big question, too. the tax framework is very vague, so thaction-writing committees can fill in those details. there are three key areas that are the fine print here that will be a problem. first, adding to the deficit. many of the gop are deficit hawks. they don't want to see these tax cuts blow a huge hole in the deficit. an estimated 2.2 trillion bucks over the next ten years. one way to pay for them is get rid of deductions, including the state and local tax break. that's another sticking point. it affects mainly middle income hou households in high tax states. gop members could bolt. that tax break is very popular.
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to support eliminating it would be political suicide. the last division here for the gop, optics. the president says this is a middle class tax cut but the biggest tax savings go to the richest americans and corporations helped by a lower tax rate and getting rid of the estate tax. all of this while talking shrinking 401(k) savings. the optics not good there at all. those are the three main sticking points right now. >> that's really helpful. i'm so glad you do the math so we don't have to. my son's fifth grade math stumped me. >> i find that hard to believe. >> bar graph. >> people need to pay attention to this stuff because they'll be hearing one thing but what they ged -- >> it's all a big negotiation. your mortgage interest, we're told is safe. charitable donations, we're told is safe. everything else is pretty much on the table. the gop civil war, if that's what you want to call it, is
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certainly intensifying. republican senator jeff flake calling the president's behavior, quote, reckless, outrageous and undignified. he joins us live with why he did this and what it means for him next. jooishgsz i want ycome on mom!t easy. go slow. ♪ let's go! ♪ mom! slow down! for the ones who keep pushing. always unstoppable.
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nonprescription ibgard- calms the angry gut. we were not made great as a country by indulging our worst impulses and calling fake things true and true things fake. >> the president now has three people who have broken with him. he can't lose more than two on any big vote. >> i think the basement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for. >> they were not likely to be re-elected. that shows that the support is more behind this president than it is those two individuals. >> both of these really started with personal jabs from the president to these members. >> it's a tough situation for the republican party. we are seeing buyers remorse play out publicly. >> we're going to concentrate on what our agenda is and not any of these other distractions you all may be interested in. >> history will look back and say why didn't we stand up? i hope more of us do. >> this is "new day" with chris

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