>> welcome to inside politics. i'm dana bash. john king is off today. papa who? we learn more about the trump adviser front and center in robert mueller's russia probe, team trump is kicking the man candidate trump once praised to the curb. >> i never heard of papadopoulos. he never showed up at trump tower and never had any interaction with the campaign leaders. >> george was such a low level volunteer, i don't recall having much interaction with him throughout the campaign.

>> steve bannon is whispering in the president's ear about ways to set fire to mueller's investigation. one thing trump lawyers have said is off the table. >> there is no conversation regarding firing robert mueller. >> and what this interview with white house chief of staff john kelly says about his relationship with the president. >> the lack of an ability to compromise led to the civil war. and men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscious had to make their stand. >> the facade of the white house is always beautiful. rain, sleete or shine. team trump's efforts to make like all is normal inside the white house right now is just that. it is a facade. despite push back against the bombshell changes against today and special counsel robert

mueller's russia investigation, the president is seething over the indictments of two of his former campaign aides and the plea deal taken by foreign adviser george papadopoulos who appears to be cooperating with mueller. after nearly a day's silence, president trump let loose on twitter saying essentially george who? few people knew the young low level volunteer named george who has proven to be a liar. just last year, then candidate trump described him this way to "the washington post." >> if you want i can give you some of the names. george papadopoulos. he's an oil and energy consultant. excellent guy. >> from excellent guy to liar. papadopoulos seems to have worn many hats. here's how another former campaign adviser describes him. >> he was the coffee boy. you might have called him a foreign policy analyst, but in fact if he was going to wear a wire, all we would know now is

whether he prefers a carmel macchiato over american coffee in conversations with his barista. he had nothing to do with the campaign and all this contact with alleged russians is beyond the scope of his volunteer duties. >> papadopoulos had admitted he lied to the fbi about interactions with officials close to the russian government. coffee boy or not, this is a tangible connection between a member of the trump campaign and russians attempting to influence the 2016 election. here to share the reporting and insights, margaret from bloomburg. karl from the new york times and john mccormick from the weekly standard. welcome, one and all. you hang your hat at the white house every day. what are you hearing about just in terms of this investigation about how concerned they are. >> yesterday was clearly a turning point.

this was this figure we were not expecting. we were expecting news of paul manafort and maybe michael flynn at some point. it was that papadopoulos revelation. >> stand by because we are getting tape in of president trump at the white house. let's take a listen. >> for the incredible work you are doing to help us pass the really historic tax cuts. there has never been anything like this in the history of our country. it's cuts and reand also reform. frankly it's also simplification. we are covering everything. there has never been anything like it. it's so important. the economy is doing very well, but it can do much better. a lot of jobs will come from this and companies will start pouring back into the united states. we will be announcing one big one sometime very shortly. a very big one coming back into the united states. all of you have done a tremendous job mobilizing

members and talking to the members of congress which is very important and making a strong case for tax reform in the media. the media is not all fake. therefore we can get a fair shake. now is the time to redouble our efforts. the country needs you now more than ever before. you are leaders of the country. certainly leaders on the subject. you know more about it than anybody. we need you to be united and committed and proactive in order to overcome the forces fighting and there are forces fighting out there that very much benefit by the way it is now. that's bad for the country. they know that, but they are fighting for themselves, not the country. in a few days, i will be traveling to asia to advance america's economic security priorities. i am counting on all of you to be back here working to maintain our momentum on tax reform and

tax cuts. that will be a short period of time i will be away. about 10 1/2 days and we will get back quickly. we are meeting in china and south korea and japan. we are going to vietnam and the philippines which is a strategically important location where the previous administration was not exactly welcome as you remember. the democrats we will say our tax bill is for the rich, but we know it's not. what they will do, they don't even know the tax bill. it hasn't even been put out yet. it will be over the next short period of time. they immediately say it's for the rich. it's for the rich. that's the right thing to say. for them. it doesn't work and they know that. we will have democrats joining us and voting for the reduced taxes. it's for the middle class and it's for jobs. it's going to bring a lot of companies in and it's a tax bill for business that will create the jobs. we are bringing it down from 35 to 20.

while i'm in asia, members will be traveling around the country talking directly to taxpayers and focusing on the regional media which we find to be a much more credible media to be honest with you. i found it to be incredible how good they are. secretary mnuchin and my economic team will remain totally focused on tax reform. they will be staying here and will continue to work closely with all of you. we had a great relationship with most of the people in the room. we need your continued input to make sure that the final bill gets all of the details right. that we get that approval. i want the house to pass a bill by thanksgiving. i want all of the people standing by my side when we get ready to sign by christmas, hopefully before christmas. you will all be in the room standing front row center. we will find a place where you can all stand front row center. it will be the biggest tax event

in the history of our country. thank you all for being here today. we have a couple of folks i would like to have say a couple of words while we leave the media. tom donahue has been president of the u.s. chamber of commerce for a long time. do you have anything to say? >> thank you very much for having me, mr. president. the business community has been waiting a long time for an administration and a president and a willing congress to do what we haven't done for many decades. we think we were lucky to arrange a budget so we will have a better opportunity in the senate. i think you are right. there are some members of the democratic legislature that will come around on some of this, particularly if the numbers are as promised. you hit it right on the head. we have to work on it.

we will have some differences amongst the business community on what should be the takeaways and the ads, buttee ha we have k on that and your planning is quite good. off to asia and everyone else get it worked out. >> i will come back and see what we can do. i appreciate it very much. we did get the budget pass and that was a big event. that doesn't often happen. we got it fairly easily passed. a couple of extra voted if we needed them. more than a couple of vote fist we needed them. there is great spirit for this. the republicans have a tremendous spirit. we have no democrat support. we may have on the tax cuts because it will be hard to run successfully saying they want to raise taxes. the democrats want to raise taxes and really create obstruction. the republicans want to lower taxes. we want to get rid of regulations. i have gotten rid of more

regulations in the first nine months than any president has for their term in office. that's a big statement. we have just begun. we have at least another 50% that we want to do. that will be fantastic. in some cases it's statutory. you have to give notice and another notice and wait 90 days. we have gone along that statutory process and i will tell you, tom, you will see a lot of additional relief from these horrible regulations that have been killing our country. they have been killing. as you notice, gdp was announced and shockingly to a lot of people despite the hurricanes that possibly could be considered to be one point. we were at three. we were at 3.2 last quarter. we were at 3. that would have meant we would have hit four or there abouts. those are numbers that have not

been seen for many years. we are doing well and will continue to do well. we have companies that want to move back to the united states and because of regulation and what we are doing with taxes and big ones are going to be announcing soon. dirk, could i ask you to say a few words from the national association of wholesale distributors. that would be great. >> first thing, mr. president. thank you and appreciate the opportunity to be here. a few of us in the room are old enough to remember being in this same room when president reagan was working on tax reform. the two of us at least. tom was here. 30 years or so passed. the tax bill doesn't resemble what was done in 86. reform is long, long overdue. i represent an industry with high effective tax rates.

they are tired of paying the other guy's taxes. unstated, but i assume that the kind of admission for being here today is that you support the process going forward. obviously each of us have to see the details and maybe one thing or another that we would like to see different. the broader perspective is for the good of the economy. the good of the country and frankly the good of our members. you have to support the process going forward. you have our commitment to do precisely that. >> that's great. thank you. that's really great. i appreciate it. it's so important that we talk tax cuts. that's to me the very big thing to tax cuts. we desperately need them. so many other things are happening including bringing four trillion back to the united states and that money will be put to work for our people creating our jobs and factories and plants.

i think the number could be higher than $4 trillion. it has been 2.5 trillion for so long. it got a lot bigger. they kept saying that i think the number will be well over $4 trillion and we will be coming back to our country. so many other things. one of the other elements that are important and you are going to say a few words next. i'm dieing to hear what you had to say. one of the things is simplification. too complicated. we are simplifying it greatly. i want to thank all of my folks for being here and working on it. gary and steve and everybody. the process is complicated, but the end result will not be that complicated. it will mean people will pay less tax by a lot and companies will pay less tax by a lot. that's a big difference and companies are going to start rebuilding and they will stay here and expand and build new plants in this country. they won't be going to other

countries like they have been for many, many decades. karen, could you say a few words on small business and entrepreneurship counsel. >> thank you very much, mr. president for your support and leadership on this issue. this is really one of the most critical issues for small business. they know if they get tax reform through, they will have more capital to put back into the businesses. they are going to invest more and they are going to provide higher wages, better benefits for employees. the business owners and entrepreneurs are leaders back in their communities. they do see the lack of dine ammism. they don't see new business creation in their communities. that's a serious problem in this country. according to our numbers, 3.2 million missing businesses in our country because of people not taking risks. we are very excited about tax reform in terms of growth it will bring and investment it

will bring and making the u.s. a haven for the capital. again. we need to get that edge back. they need to encourage more people to start businesses. particularly millennials that will add to our competitiveness. so thank you. >> of the things we have been talking about and there never has been anything like it is the level of enthusiasm for business and manufacturing. it's the highest level it ever has been since the charts started. we have a tremendous level of enthusiasm for business and manufacturing and nobody has seen anything like it. the stock market is at an all time high. historic high. it's going up i think 54 times since i was elected. we hit the record 54 times. i notice it's up again today. it's always good. we will try to keep it going up. we created almost 5$5.5 trillio

in stock market wealth. $5.5 trillion since november 8th. we are honored by all of that. a very big part of it will be tax cuts and tax reform. we will work on that together. thank you all very much. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. we are not looking for that, no. hopefully not. something some people have mentioned that, hopefully not. you going to -- manafort? >> thank you. >> what's your reaction. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> you heard president trump having a meeting and extensive conversation for the cameras with people who were there to talk tax reform from various industries at the end you saw a

conversation that he was having with karen, the president and ceo of the small business and entrepreneurship counsel. what he did not want to talk about, but one of the questions from reporters at the end was about paul manafort and whether he will pardon him. he didn't answer that question. let's bring it back around the table. let's stick with the issue of tax reform which was in addition robert mueller and his investigation on capitol hill. it is all the talk in washington. there is a lot of things that we don't know about what's going to be in this legislation. even though we expect they will unveil it. we don't know if they will cut tax rates and how the bill will treat the state and local tax deduction or 401(k) benefits which is a biggie. we don't know whether it will include ivanka trump's child care tax credit or the deficit.

what we sudden this is the republicans's last chance to claim a really big and important legislative victory for them. what was your take away? >> thanksgiving is the new end of the year. so now the president said he wants a vote by thanksgiving. part of this is a reflection on the part of his party. this sort of feeling that they can show they can do this. president trump, the strength of the markets has been paramount in terms of his defensive opening months in office. say what you will about legislation being slow to pass and we have a problem repealing and replacing the affordable care act. president trump will send a tweet about the market's strong performance as a desire to keep confidence going in the economy. partly is that's part of how it pays for itself, but without that, he is really in trouble and he is starting to get nervous. >> everything on your list that

we don't know are who the losers are going to be. we know the winners and there will be a big pass through of corporate tax cut and rate cuts across the board, but we don't know what's going to happen with the 401(k)s. they are going to keep the property tax deduction possibility in the state and local aspect and the rest will go. we don't know how they will fit this in the $1.5 trillion box and the losers have been the ones to kill it. this is why it hasn't been done for 31 years. >> that's a great point. you had a story when you talked about one of the aspects of the people who make $1 million a year. susan collins, a moderate republican from maine. i don't believe the top rate should be lower for individuals making more than $1 million a year. i don't think there is a need to eliminate the estate tax. >> she is a big important vote.

one thing that members of congress hate is when people set deadlines for when they are supposed to act. >> by people, you mean the president. >> mitch mcconnell hates that because when they don't make it, we write stories. talking about the market and you realize this too. this tax plan is built into the market right now. the market is already anticipating a tax plan. that keeps the market up. if they don't get something done quickly or if it falls apart, the market will respond and i don't think the president will be talking so positively about the market if that happens. >> you are right, but the details do matter in a big way. at the end of the day, what so many people who voted for president trump were banking on was there lives being different and more money being in their pocket. if you don't have real tax relief for people who are in the middle class, maybe some of the

working class voter who is put him in the white house, president trump will hear about it. >> that's the single biggest threat. the overall tax burden for the people in the middle class is lower. you move all the pieces around and you change state and local property tax reductions and other exemptions, you could end up paying more. the big question is how big will the tax credit be? that's the central question here. if it's the same issue of people who are richer get a bigger tax cut. i don't think that will kill the bill, but if people are paying more, they are in trouble. >> it's not donald trump in the white house as a republican. we always have to remember that this is not the classic cut taxes for the wealthy because that tends to be our base. donald trump's base, his pop lift message appealed to not just the traditional republican voter and the tax legislation

will be the key question of whether he can deliver. >> the argument runs alongside the idea that corporations need a break and can spur the economy. it's exactly that. if this is a shell game, you take away from the state and local deductibility or the ability to save for retirement to give you a tax cut, that whole argument is off the table. i will throw the fed into the mix. just because i'm bloomberg. we are expecting this announcement on thursday. it's possible that the next fed chair could send signals that have an impact not only on all these levers in the economy and the markets and such. depending on what we know about the background, their approach to inflation and other things like that, if they follow that course, that could have an impact that may offset or encourage what the effects are supposed to be of the plan. it's another piece to watch both

in terms of how the tax vote plays out and how the president's pick for the fed plays out. >> i want to get this. >> that room at the white house didn't look very pop lift to me. >> the bankers? >> the typical big business washington lobbying groups. they will have to get beyond that if they want to sell the message. >> that's very true. you know deadlines. the president's deadline of thanksgiving, realistic or not? >> maybe in the house if it went great for them. i don't think they can do that in the senate. i do hear more from republican senators now saying we have to get this done boy the end of the year. the market is a concern. they are accelerating this. but this whole week was supposed to be a big tax reform roll out and other things are getting in the way. >> except for one example of how difficult it will be. that's the centerpiece of the middle class breaks they are offering. that will draw opposition from

real estate. charities don't like it. wealthy people give more to charity when there is a deduction. the number of itemizers. the effect that will happen that the lobbyists and wealthy people. >> the reason this has not happened in 30 years. >> we will take a quick break and go back to the top story which is the robert mueller investigation and what is happening inside those white house walls. stay with us. do only half of your daily routine, so why treat your mouth any differently? complete the job with listerine® help prevent plaque, early gum disease, bad breath and kill up to 99.9% of germs. listerine® bring out the bold™

by talking tough on the national debt?ected will they stay true to their words? or did they promise you one thing-only to do another? right now, congress is talking about tax cuts that will add trillions to our national debt and hurt our economy. it's time to tell congress-don't borrow more money from china. and leave more debt to our kids. keep your word. tax cuts shouldn't add to the national debt.

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strategist steve bannon is feeding the flame saying the legal team strategy to play nice with the special counsel is an epic failure. bannon wants the president to signal that it's time to go all out against robert mueller and his team. a source familiar with this said he is advocating a scorched earth strategy. cut funding and more. just a quick reality check. to do that, a lot of republican who is support mueller's probe would have to play ball and it's not clear that would happen any time soon. we are back with the panel. so much that has developed over the last 24 hours with this probe. let's stick on this theme about how the white house is reacting to this. the president himself and what he is being told to do or not to do is fascinating to me. just the notion that obviously

he has been cent at bay by his lawyers and hasn't really tweeted about mueller for months and months and months. now he is urged by steve bannon to get out there and go crazy. you know people on capitol hill, do you think there is any chance they would go along with it? >> that would royal capitol h l hill. they are nervous right now and much prefer to talk about tax reform. they have to talk about this. if it got pushed to that other level, that would really trip a wire over there. chuck grassley said yesterday he thinks that the special prosecutor should continue. that's pretty much the position over there and a move to cutoff funding would spark an uproar on both sides. >> one of the things that she talked about was the frustration

with her and other republicans that the president has not been vocal enough about how real the russian interference was. there are less and less questions shrinking by the day and revelations with some of those plea documents and the indictments. just ratchet that up that if you look at this on two tracks, whether the russians interfered and the second question of whether there was collusion. she said on the second question, there is probably weeks or months of investigation ahead before that can be answered, but the first question, there is no doubt about it. for the president not to be hammering on this and raising holy hell about it and talking to his base about it and regular americans about it, it means that americans are not as informed or as worried as they should be. there is not enough of an urgency about the response and the stage the investigation is in right now, it makes it more

important than ever for him to engage. to the extent that other republicans feel that way and are willing to advocate, it limits his ability to play with this or mess with the probe. >> and the way that mueller and his team kind of showed their strength with the strategy to not just put out the indictments of paul manafort who we were expecting at some point who was briefly the campaign chair and rick gates and this other man, papadopoulos who people had not heard a lot about. i covered the trump campaign and i heard the name, but he was not a very important guy. having said that, he doesn't have to be important for the press to know about him for him to get his e-mails answered the way he did inside the trump campaign. this is something i top the bring up and illustrate how many trump campaign officials did

respond to him according to this affidavit yesterday. paul manafort was a high ranking campaign official referred to in this affidavit who was discussing and communicating with donald trump about potentially meeting with russian officials. another campaign official -- this is how he is referred to in the affidavit. he forwarded the e-mail that i just mentioned. another high ranking official who got e-mails from papadopoulos several times to discuss russia's interest in hosting donald trump's campaign supervisor. sam clovis who wrote great job to papadopoulos. again, a response from the trump campaign to this man, low level or not, making suggestions about meeting with russians about dirt that they have on hillary

clinton. and an unknown adviser who papadopoulos e-mailed and saying that they had interesting messages from moscow. that kind of paints the picture in a nut shell of what this very long affidavit said here. >> the most interesting part about papadopoulos is he is referred to as a proactive cooperator. he is respecting with the investigation and there has been speculation of people in the past. we have no idea whether that's true or not. how many people could he get information that they committed any wrong-doings or crimes here. >> how long has he been working with them and provided information to. i want to point out that as much as this is a legal matter, the public opinion matters a lot too. this inside, outside game where the white house is playing defiant against this stuff and calling it a hoax and the president is doing it himself. but the tony podesta side of

this is an incoherence here. steve bannon is playing along with this creates the impression from the newssources where conservatives and republican voters get information. there is nothing going on here. >> you mentioned tony podesta. he is the brother of john podesta who is hillary clinton's campaign chair. we will not test you about all of these connections. talk about that. about the connection here. donald trump tweeted the biggest story yesterday, the that has dems in a dither is running from his firm. we know about what we knew about crooked demes is ---by the way, he is a democratic lobbyist. he also didn't work. >> and the lobbyists, the point is here that the prosecutors cast a wide net and see things that are about foreign contacts

that hit a lot of firms. >> in a bipartisan way. >> this is a common practice in washington. he is moving away from the big firm and giving the republicans a great talking point. as you said, it's incoherent. one thing i wanted to say about trump and papadopoulos is that one, of course they are going to sort of diminish him, but trump took great pride in how small his campaign staff was. there were not that many people working. so whatever level you are at, you are having contacts all through the ranks of the campaign. there was a great comparison that trump made to me personally one time that i have 70 or 80 people working in my campaign and hillary clinton has 700. this was a point of pride. the fact that he would know things is not surprising to me. >> lots of outside advisers. anyone who covered president

trump's campaign and influence waxes and wanes overtime. that's the kind of thing mueller and his team will look at. >> stay tight. we want to make sure you tune in tonight and don't miss the special report on the russia investigation hosted by jake tapper at 11:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. up next, the white house chief of staff sounding and acting a lot like his boss. the john kelly-donald trump mind meld, ahead. you wouldn't do only half of your daily routine, so why treat your mouth any differently? complete the job with listerine® help prevent plaque, early gum disease, bad breath and kill up to 99.9% of germs. listerine® bring out the bold™

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see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. welcome back. the white house chief of staff last night on fox news trotting out the company line. >> i know that the gentlemen were indicted today. all of the activities as i understand it was long before they ever met donald trump or had any association with the campaign. i think the reaction of the

administration is let the legal justice system work. everyone is presumed innocent and we will see where it goes. >> a rebuttal from the former general trying to distance the president from the indictments, but as the wide ranging interview went on, kelly stirred up a new controversy with his answer on what caused the bloodiest conflict in american history. >> it was loyalty tow state first in those days. it's different today. the lack of an ability to compromise led to the civil war. men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscious had them make their stand. >> we will throw it to the resident civil war historian buff. what do you make of that? >> the president himself said this earlier. i think this year in an

interview with a historian. what was the deal with the civil war and why couldn't that have been worked out. the interesting thing i found that he said was inability to compromise. american history told you they tried to compromise around the civil war. the compromise of 1850. the missouri compromise and the kansas-nebraska act. i didn't cover any of those even though you think i might have. >> you came in around reconstruction. >> right. this is an issue that couldn't be compromised. own slaves or not own slaves. for him to bring that up out of nowhere in some ways after charlottesville and some of the other things that have gone on and his own problems with his distribution of what went on with fredricka wilson, it was a real mistake. >> as we continue to talk about this one other part of the interview, not only did he allude to what the president said that got him in trouble using the term both sides, he talked about another hot button

issue and that is robert e. lee. >> i think it's very, very dangerous. it shows you how much of a lack of appreciation of history and what history is. i would tell you that robert e. lee was an honorable man that gave up his country to fight for his state which in 150 years ago was more important than country. >> for those who didn't cover the civil war, robert e. lee was of course the who led the charge of the south and led the confederate soldiers. obviously this whole notion and the question about statues that are sprinkled all over the south, particularly in his home state of virginia have been the thing that keeps bubbling up. what do you make of him getting out there on this? is it party line and something that really does help the president with the base or dangerous? >> i guess two different points. i don't think it's wise for

generalicle tow get involved in the hod button issues. he has the authority and to squander that over debates that are not very relevant to the ongoing white house, it's not very wise. if we talk about what he said, you go back to abraham lincoln and the only reasonable compromise is lincoln's compromise. that that was morally defensi e defensible. keep slavery out of the ter tows and it will die in the south. you can have a just solution while avoiding those dieing in war. on the question of robert e. lee, he doesn't play a moral superiority. if the north were in the south, the people were all playing this bloody price for slavery. i think it's more complicated. i don't think that general kelly should be getting this. >> i want to move on, but as we look ahead to 2018, i talked to many democrats in trump districts who just are fearful

of democrats jumping on this. they think it's a distraction from what really matters and hurts democrats and that republicans are playing right into that. the other thing that was really striking about john kelly which we never got to see before because he was a military man, a-star general and dhf secretary. the character and the man and the guy who was running the trains at the white house and his approach is a lot like the president. you mentioned fredricka wilson, the congresswoman. a mistake he made about referencing a speech and a video where he said something she didn't say. he didn't apologize at all. listen to this. >> yeah, and a number of people that were there after she said what she said about me were volunteered to come forward. they saw her both before and after her official comments. i said no, let's not do that. these are fbi agents, former fbi

agents that were there. that part we should let go. >> do you feel like you have something to apologize for? >> no, never. i will apologize if i need to, but for this i stand by my comments. >> you nailed it. nothing more trumpy than refusing to apologize especially when it proves you wrong. the other was the false e 85 lens. the both sides that got the president in trouble. what he thinks the compromise should have been. there were compromises attempted all along the way between the anti-slavery north and the pro slavery south starting with the 3/5 compromise. even after the civil war, they were made by lincoln and reintegrate the southern states and get them back into the union. what should have been the compromise between beating and raping people and freedom for

them. >> i want to get your take on the man we just saw. the vail lifted on who he is and what he stands for and how he seems quite similar to the president. >> the real promise and strength of generalicle when he came over a few months ago was, was the value behind the scenes in terms of internal operation and staff marching orders for the staff who comes in and goes, to some extent to the president. his public face is a totally different enterprise. it's snag is still evolving and not something he has experienced when the white house has experimented with bringing him out only when the president is in trouble. he has done a couple of press briefings on days when they felt they needed to do it. otherwise the president's own words or the press secretary's ability to change the narrative was not working. this interview seems to be also an example of that and they are fine tuning his efficacy in that

manner. >> everybody stand by. up next, russia, russia, russia. what's all this about russia infiltrating your social media feed? google? facebook? twitter? you use those. you might have been trolled by russians trying to change your vote in 2016. >> we have to take steps to protect our democratic institutions including how social media is used by foreign governments to try to influence america's democratic institutions. if you have medicare parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare

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welcome back in just a couple of hours, top lawyers for facebook, twitter and google get old school grilling on capitol hi hill. senators want to know how deeply the russian campaign was able to influence the 2016 election. early raw numbers are the following. on facebook, 126 million americans have been exposed to content conjured up by russian troll accounts. on twitter, a similar scope. over the dramatic final three months, accounts with possible russia ties generated 1.4 million tweets. cnn's dylan buyers joins me now and you gave me that information and have been doing incredible reporting. what are you watching for when the tech heads, the social media heads go before congress later today? >> how forth coming they are going to be and how much they

are actually -- the lengths they will go to to give lawmakers the impression they are willing to play ball and they take the issue seriously. everything they have been transmitting so far since first revealing that there were russian bot ads, their entire approach has been to say this was not a big deal. don't worry about it. the idea that russian meddling on social media had influence on the election is crazy. all of a sudden it was not crazy, but it was small. then it was bigger and now we are learning 126 million. >> not small at all. >> no. targeted. they said it represents.004% of what you would say of watching 600 hours of television and seeing ad. there is this notion they keep trying to push it down. >> that's not what capitol hill wants.

>> every lawmaker is going to demonstrate that they are taking this issue sourcely and they are not trying to dismiss and pretend like it didn't matter. >> karl said every lawmaker is thinking this could be me. i could be targeted next. >> absolutely. >> thank you very much for your your awesome reporting. john king is back tomorrow when wolf blitzer is up after a break. and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide. it could help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you.

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accused of obstructing justice to theat the fbinuclear war, and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down news organizations that report the truth. if that isn't a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become? i'm tom steyer, and like you, i'm a citizen who knows it's up to us to do something. it's why i'm funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. a republican congress once impeached a president for far less. yet today people in congress and his own administration know

that this president is a clear and present danger who's mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. and they do nothing. join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing what's political and start doing what's right. our country depends on it. how much money do you think you'll need in retirement? then we found out how many years that money would last them. how long do you think we'll keep -- oooooohhh! you stopped! you're gonna leave me back here at year 9? how did this happen? it turned out, a lot of people fell short, of even the average length of retirement. we have to think about not when we expect to live to, but when we could live to. let's plan for income that lasts all our years in retirement. prudential. bring your challenges.

>> i'm wolf blithser. it's 1:00 heir in washington and 8:00 in moscow. wherever you are watching from, thanks for joining us. we start with president trump said to be seething right now over developments in the russia investigation. a former campaign adviser is helping the special prosecutor's office and investigators say he's a small part of the larger ongoing investigation. the white house now seemingly focused on trying to discredit the man,