this is fareed zakaria back here on gps. thanks to all my guests and thank you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. i'm brian stelter. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "reliable sources," our weekly look at the stories behind the story. of how the media really works and how the news gets made. this hour, a democratic sweep at the ballot box this week, including a surprise win by this man, chris hurst. i'll talk live with the news anchor turned politician. plus president trump's dangerous disregard for russia's election meddling. expert analysis coming up. and i'll also share my latest

reporting about the pending at&t/time warner deal. but up first, no story exemplifies our broken media environment more than moore. roy moore. the gop candidate for an alabama senate seat stands accused of molestation and inappropriate behavior with teen and i this. and moore's campaign completely called the story garbage and fake news. you have seen the denials and attempts to change the subject. one of moore's defenders invoked mary and joseph from the bible in his defense. so how does a divide like this start? well, it's mully layered. first, there is media consumption. if somebody doesn't actually read the original "washington post" story which was researched and fact checked, then they don't have a full understanding of what is going on. i've seen a lot of that in the coverage. and then there is media literacy which we talk about frequently

here on this program. part of that is about ignoring the fake news which moore immediately used in his defense. but don't take my word for it. here is whatten an alabama repor said on anderson cooper about the allegations. >> there ahave been rumors through the years and for a lot of reporters, this will be the one that got away. >> interesting to hear that. a reporter saying there had been rumors about this for years. the "washington post" says it stumbled upon these rumors and then actively worked to confirm and krob brats the accounts, ultimately finding 30 sources for the story. but when i say something is broken, it also involves media responsibility. something is broken when bright bart works to discredit the report before it even came out. breitbart tried to preempt the "post" story. there is something broken when someone like sean hannity blasts the media for rushing to judgment and harkens back to bill clinton and talks about

hollywood without mentioning his own house, the scandals within fox news. there is a lot of lhawaiioflyly and also in-credit reporting. so let's talk about it. josh, you're in montgomery this morning. what is the current feeling about how this "washington post" story has been received by the voters there? >> i don't think much has changed. i think the people -- roy moore has a unique voting base here. and they have defended him for 40 years through a variety of different problems, i mean this is a guy who has gone on and on and embarrassed the state numerous times. and they have defended him. so it's a natural position for them and they are not going to believe this "washington post" story because it's the liberal media lying about their beloved leader here. and so --

>> you don't actually think that yourself, right? >> oh, no, absolutely not. no. >> so if the story had been published in an alabama newspaper, would people be more inclined to believe it? >> probably. but i don't know that even then. given the state of mind of a lot of roy moore supporters, i don't necessarily think so. i think they believe him first and last. >> take a look at the headlines in some of the alabama newspapers. we've compiled a collection of these to show how the story evolved. first it was about the allegations, moore facing sex scandal. but by sunday, this morning, folks are waking up seeing headlines about moore defending himself, promising revelations about some of the accusers, saying that he is defy answerly. so i wonder if that is the wrong way to be framing these stories.

>> yes. yes. absolutely i think so. you know, there have been some headlines that have been pretty embarrassing for some of the state's newspapers that foe on cussed on his defense and his allegations defenses the victims.on cussed on his defense and his allegations defenses the victims. there is nothing these ladies have done that would prove untrue. >> i wish there was more attention to what the women are saying. one of the lawyers came out yesterday and said moore is defaming my client. and yet most of the focus is on moore without evidence saying that he will come out with revelations against them. let's bring in the panel. jeff glereen field, you've watcd these scandals for many years. how do you think this is being covered?field, you've watched these scandals for many years. how do you think this is being covered? >> i think this is -- i don't know if it's ultimate because who knows what will happen next month, but we're at yet another stage of very familiar and depressing pattern. part of it is the increasing

polarization that says the facts are depend event on who is offering them and who he they hurt. and we see them on both sides of the political oil. ashd the washingtif you are a e supporter, the "washington post" must be like ground zero of the place i will not believe, i don't care what they said, i don't care how meticulously they reported, the "washington post" is attacking a guy that i like, therefore by definition it's got to be false. >> some of his defenders are talking about the media rather than the actual allegations. bethany, i know you have been public with your own experience, being abused by your rabbi. we were talking about this

before the program started. a reflection on how women don't come forward because they are desperate to be heard and somehow profit the way sean hannity implied. actually women are reluctant to come forward about these circumstances. >> yeah, in my circumstance i can't want to come forward. now when you google my name, the auto complete is the name of my rabbi. for matter what i do, no matter what professional successes i have, that is going to be following me for the rest of my life. and i have a whole other public persona. this will be the only thing these women are ever known for. that is not something someone wants to sign up for. so the accusation that they are doing it for fame, if i wanted to be a famous person in alabama, i would make a funny youtube video 3 i would w. i would write a great piece about, i don't know, target clothes. but that is not what they are going to be known for.

>> so you say the explanations are hollow. >> yeah, and absent an understanding of what it means to come forward as a victim. the exact thing that they feared coming forward is now taking place. their names are being smeared. and this is going to be the thing that they will be known for. and this is -- i mean, my oldest child is four. eventually i'll have to explain this to her. and people talk about it in front of my children as this is a normal conversation and i have to say i don't want to be talking about being filmed naked, but this will follow their children, be grand children, and people will bring it up to them in the supermarket and church. it happens to me and i have a far less famous story. >> i imagine you wanted to throw something at the tv when you heard sean hannity.

>> yeah, and there was a funny tweet makings rounds saying i reporter offered $1,000 and that dollar sign was actual at the end of the number. >> which is the way you write russian rubles. >> correct. >> that tweet, that was crazy. i'm glad you brought it up because it was so frustrating to see some of moore's defenders pick up on on this random tweet from a random user and say hey, look, there is some allegation now that the women were paid. in fact roy moore's own wife shared that on facebook in order to try to discredit the "washington post." >> yeah, and $1,000 is not enough money for that, i'm sorry. >> that is a whole separate matter. >> it's a ridiculous accusation that for $1,000 they are complete completely-this will follow them for the rest of their lives. so even he the sort of excuse that they are throwing out that they did it for $10,000 rings really more low. >> so david, zooming out to the other big stoirs, liulu i

-- louvre -louie cc, kevin spacey, how does the roy moore scandal relate to this ongoing crisis in hollywood and sexual harassment in workplaces? >> i think it is part of the culture ral tidal wave. there is a rolling back. we saw it in the election this year. we see it in bill cosby. this is part of that same thing. men thinking they have the right too invade the privacy and lives and bodies of other people. often women. this is a major, major moment i and bodies of other people. often women. this is a major, major moment and anybody who thinks that they can stand in the way of this cultural change i think is diluting themselves. and let me say one thing about the roy moore case and the layers you talked about of

media. on breitbart, there is a piece that says abc affiliate in alabama could not find one voter who believed post-reporting on roy moore. so i went to look at it. it's an abc affiliate, fine, that means nothing. it's a sinclair-owned station. there is an echo chamber being create here. and because it is a sinclair-owned station in alabama, it has the credibility of being local. what it amounted to was four people being interviewed by a young reporter versus the 30 people who were interviewed on the washington post. but it had that authority of the local people in alabama saying we don't believe anything in the "washington post." that echo chamber is one of the big stories of this year, that right wing echo chamber. and it's at work on this story. >> josh, bethany, thank you. jeff david, please stick around.

more to get to including president trump's tour throughout asia while all the headlines back here are about russia. we'll be right back. wi t-mobile's unlimited now includes netflix on us. that's right. netflix on us. get 4 unlimited lines for just $40 bucks each. taxes and fees included. and now netflix included.

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. welcome back. did something feel different about the news cycle this week? it was kind of weirdly calm, right? maybe is that because while president trump was on his high stakes trip in asia, he stayed on script and his twitter feed was pretty calm. but then this happened. look at these brand new 280 character tweets. this was the real trump coming out. shocking tweets about kim jong-un and other topics and of course his troubling comments about russia's attempts to interfere in last year's election. trump was asked on air force one if he trusts vladimir putin's denial of involvement and here's what he said to the press pool. there is no aud i don't or video, but we have the trance scripts. he said every time putin sees me, he says i didn't do that and i believe that when he tells me that, he means it. now, before leaving vietnam, trump held a news conference and

i don't know maybe he was trying to clean up his off the cuff remarks. let's watch. >> i believe that he feels that he and russia did not meddle in the election. i'm with our agencies with their leadership. >> so he eventually said what he could have said originally. let's take about it with jeffrey gle greenfield. your reaction. >> well, here's what is so, i don't know, mind boggling about this. there were a couple occasions on this trip where the press was unfair to trump. the picture of him dumping the fish food into the pond, that was not a mistake. and he really didn't say that he thinks japan should put more factories in the united states. it was kind of a garbled transcript. but then you have something like this which is logically inconsistent. he cannot simultaneously believe that putin believes he didn't do

anything but that in fact his agencies say they did. unless you believe russia was doing it behind putin's back. and what is so confounding about trying to convey what trump says and who he is that the very use of his language, which is to be polite confusing, sometimes makes it possible to assume the worst things about trump and when you realize that was a mistake, you then see him doing something that says, well, yeah, on the other hand, he really does say some really bir czar things. it must drive the people covering trump on a daily basis completely crazy. >> john, does it drive your staff crazy? >> this is an ultra marathon and you have to find exhilaration in the challenges rather than exhaustion. but we also have to stay focused on the facts. and the fact is that donald trump sees himself as a tough guy truth teller in every circumstance except when it

comes to vladimir putin. and thelg he win he will contorf just to avoid questioning the manage's integrity. on veterans day, he made the statement there is nothing america first about taking the word of a kgb kernel oig over- intelligence services. so it's contradictory to the best interests of the nation and the way trump projects himself. >> doesn't make sense unless you believe -- let's be honest about this, what do reporters talk about behind closed doors when they are in the newsrooms? they wonder if russia has compromising information on the president. that is at the root of all this speculation. >> look, again, trump will criticize anyone about anything on the slightest drop of a dime except vladimir putin who he has refused to take the opportunity to criticize over the dam pain and ev damage pa campaign and even the

presidency. instead there is anger at the investigation. so it doesn't make logical sense and deeply troubling if you are thinking about america first. >> another quote from that gaggle on air force one, this is another comments from the president taking questions from reporters on air force one, he said this artificial democratic hit job gets in the way of trying to have better relations with russia and that is a shame because people will die because of it. jeff, these kinds of quotes almost miss the media radar. isn't that a profoundly shocking thing for the president to say? people will die? >> one of the things that trump has benefited from is that on a daily if not hourly basis, there are things that he says that you could never have imagined any other american president left, right, up or down of saying. and they kind of bleed into each other. and you sort of forget, oh,

yeah, 72 hours ago he go, he said this. but i think this comes down to a fundamental fact that the way the president argues is if something is potentially harmtful harmful to me or my standing, it could not have happened. so therefore my definition of reality is that whole russia story is a democratic plot and it's all about hillary clinton who by the way have i told you how many electoral votes i got against her. this -- the people who covered trump from back decades will tell you that the way he is behaving as president is totally consistent with the way has behaved since he first became a tabloid figure in the '80s. >> that is why our job is more important than ever. because in the mirds ofdst of r distortion, facts do matter. insisting that we impose perspective, what is normal in the case of the responsibility of the president, against the twitter tirades and the somewhat

unhinged statements. that is really important. we'll meet resistance and pushback, but it's absolutely essential to not giving in to normalization. >> and one more challenge for the president is trying to keep up with the drip, drip, drip much russia news. let's put on screen just four of the dozens of headlines from this week about the ongoing robert mueller investigation and the congressional investigations. john, how does t"the daily beas" keep up with the daily drip, drip, drip? >> we try to pick our angles. we have a great team of reporters really focused on the story. we think about it strategically. we push into individual leads we've got. and try not to say simply have the tail wag the doc and follow t dog and follow the pack. and the cumulative effect is that we keepand follow dog and follow the pack. and the cumulative effect is that we keep advancing the ball on this important story. >> all right. thanks for being here. up next, what we know and what we don't know about president

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is the trump administration trying to block thaetdeat at&t' acquisition of time warner and if so, why? some democratic lawmakers are asking if trump is meddling in the deal. so let's go through what we know and what we don't know. we know that this is the media merger of the decade with at&t paying $85 billion to buy hbo on, warner brothers, tnt, tbs and this channel, cnn. the deal was struck more than a year ago.warner brothers, tnt,

this channel, cnn. the deal was struck more than a year ago. about still but still awaiting approval. there has been a cloud hanging over this deal all year long because of this -- >> time warner owns the president's long time nemesis cnn. he has been at war with cnn ever since they started reporting the things he says and does. not fair. >> colbert is choking, but the trump factor is serious. donald trump publicly vowed to block the deal shortly before election day. >> at&t is buying time warner and thus cnn, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few. >> historically the republican party has had a pro merger

reputation and trump has certainly ploetsed his promoted. but they say it could harkocoul consumers. at&t disagrees and so do lots of outside experts. they are baffled by this out of the blue opposition from the government. so there is speculation that this is really about trump's dislike of cnn. let me show you the other reason why suspicions are so high. this is the man now in charges of reviewing the deal at doj, him he speaking when the deal was announced last year saying he didn't see major antitrust problems. >> gist tjust the shear size mu and the fact that it is media i think will get a lot of attention. however, i don't see this as a major antitrust problem. >> so all of this, these are all

the ingredients for a media mystery. he now says he was taken out of context then, but he has gone either changed his mind and colleagues have concluded this is a bad deal, or politics are at play. on wednesday, the ft pointed toward political interference publishing this jaw dropping, quote, at&t has been told it needs to sell cnn to get the acquisition approved. does that make sense? a doj source says we didn't tell at&t to sell cnn, at&t ceo offered to sell it. but the next day, stevenson on denied that. >> first and foremost,er respect tifr of what you read yesterday, i have nerveon denied that. >> first and foremost,er respect tifr of what you read yesterday, i have nerven denied that. >> first and foremost,er respect tifr of what you read yesterday, i have nerve denied that. >> first and foremost,er respect tifr of what you read yesterday, i have nerve been told thnever e price was selling cnn. and likewise i have never offered to sell cnn. there is absolutely no intention that we would ever sell cnn.

>> are so here's what i think happened. i think stevenson said in private what will it take. what is the price of getting this deal approved. is the price that we have to sell cnn? i think stevenson is trying to solve this mystery just like media reporters are. what are the reasons for the government's holdup? now, at that conference, i had a chance to ask stevenson about the concerns that maybe it's trump exerting influence. >> do you have any reason to believe that there is a trump factor? >> i have no reason to believe that. i mean, look, my only -- my only interaction with anybody in the federal government on this deal, and i want to think before i say this definitively, has been with the department of justice. you know, i have no way of even answering the question to the positive on or negative. i don't know. i kind -- based on my conversation with the doj, i'm doubtful. so i have no reason to suspect that. >> the next day in l.a., it was

asked have you had any discussions about the merger with the white house or attorney general jeff sessions. here's what he said. >> no. i can't get anymore clearer than that. despite what some people may say and like to inject politics into our review of the merger, that is their right. i don't have the resources to fight those. i have to keep my nose down and be a law enforcer and do what is good. >> so he denies swfrinterferencd so does the white house. but a cynic wouldn't say that trump doesn't need to pick up the phone to abuse his power, because his twitter feed is filled with criticism of cnn and gli gripes about jeff sessions. is so logical to ask, what is holding up this at&t/time warner deal? i'll continue to report on this and as soon as i know, i'll share it but.

with you. we'll talk more about this later, but up next, a story that you may remember from a couple years ago. two people gunned down on live tv. the former tv anchor whose girlfriend was murdered has been elected to the virginia statehouse. chris hurst will join me right after this. remember that accident i got in with the pole, and i had to make a claim and all that? is that whole thing still dragging on? no, i took some pics with the app and... filed a claim, but... you know how they send you money to cover repairs and... they took forever to pay you, right? no, i got paid right away, but... at the very end of it all, my agent... wouldn't even call you back, right? no, she called to see if i was happy. but if i wasn't happy with my claim experience for any reason, they'd give me my money back, no questions asked. can you believe that? no. the claim satisfaction guarantee, only from allstate. switching to allstate is worth it. only from allstate. directv has been rated number one in customer satisfaction over cable for 17 years running. but some people still like cable. just like some people like wet grocery bags. getting a bad haircut. overcrowded trains.

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go through their stages of grieve, media seems to go through the predictable stages of koncoverage. and then sometimes there is another shooting to cover.e pre coverage. and then sometimes there is another shooting to cover. let me bring in chris hurst. he's a former anchor, boyfriend of the slain television reporter alison parker. chris, good to see you. >> good to be back with you again. >> we talked 2 1/2 years ago after alison was gunned down, her cameraman also killed. you have channeled your glarief into something positive. on tuesday you won a delegate seat there in virginia. tell me what that moment was like tuesday night that surprise victory against an opponent that was backed by the nra actually? >> yeah, and that cameraman's name is adam moore. i want to make sure all your

viewers remember him, as well. for me on election night, it was actually more affirmation of what me and my campaign staff and this entire movement of grass roots support had been building for for nine months. and i actually felt very confident from the moment that i announced that i was going to run that we were going to be successful. and so we just had the desired outcome on tuesday night. and now it's time to get to work, time to if full it promises made to the people of my district, people of southwest virginia. my home and to the commonwealth of virginia . >> what have you learned about the press now that you're on the other side? >> well, i didn't think it would take me this long to not enjoy having to answer the same kinds of questions all the time from reporters and having to field the same exact questions all the time. and one of them is actually what has been said in some interviews that i've done since i won

election, surprise upset win against an nra-backed opponent. i never wanted my election to be about me or about alison or about guns. we wanted to be about issues that are really important to the people of our district here, which is expanding medicaid here in the commonwealth of virginia. it looks like that is very possible now that we have a better balance of power in the commonwealth, about really investing in rural economic development and bringing back jobs to a heavy manufacturing base. >> chris, you've already learned how to pivot to campaign issues. i respect that. i me >> i mean it's true. we didn't do any mailers or commercials about firearms. we didn't talk about it unless i was asked about it. and i have no on problem talking about firearm legislation because we have -- >> but you did not want to be a one issue candidate. >> right, because you're not a one issue journalist.

there are so many things that you've covered over the year. and when i was in the safety reporter, there were many issues that i covered as well. >> does it disturb you know when you see coverage of something like zult t hittesutherland str seems we are losing our goose remember these are horrible crimes.ings, it seems we are losing our goose remember these are horrible crimes.s[rins we are losing our goose remember these are horrible crimes. >> and it's only when mass shootings occur that the media pays taechks toviolence. but it's most often men and women of color murdered every single day, older white americans who are more susceptible to suicide, they are the most at risk population to suicide, accident al firearms

deaths among children because of unsecured guns being made available to them. and women in particular who are susceptible to intimate partner violence. those kinds ever shootiof shoot deaths are not covered nearly as often. plas sho mass shooting are distinct phenomenon. we can look at better ways to protect people in the public, but it's a distinct psych along c psychological if a knowledpheno. my late girlfriend's killer was inspired by the killer at virginia tick. tech. they want the notoriety. alex was killed at the movie theater. you have to give no note righty

on to the notoriety to these shooters. the overwhelming number of people that are dying from firearm deaths go uncovered. >> chris, thank you for being here. congratulations on your victory. >> thank you very much. always good to be with you. when we come back here, what is negative partisanship and why is it such a problem? ♪ ♪ you nervous? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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just how divided are the united states of america and how does that explain a lot of the media and politics story we cover? i'd like to address that now starting with animated data from the pew research center 2k4 hwh has been tracking it for decades. this is from 1994 until this

year. democrats on the left in blue, republicans on the right in red. and how the media and democreim shift further to the left and right as the years go on. less and less middle ground.ate shift further to the left and right as the years go on. less and less middle ground. we know big portions of the american public are deeply negative views of the american party. this data makes the point. 45% of republicans see the democrats as a threat to the nation's well-being and 40% of republica democrats view the republicans a threat. so what is the difference? is there anything journalists can do to help bridge this divide? to this concept of negative partisanship, how do we boil it down for the audience? >> over the past several decades, people have become obsessed with politics as a

badge of identity, the way perhaps religion may have been. but what do libertarian republicans really have in common for example? they focus on what they hate, what they oppose, the drumbeat hammered home bipartisan media in particular and their politicians. so the only glue holding the coalition together is opposition, not proposition. and we see that played on out in election cycles as well. it's easier to rally against something than to stand for something. >> that's what i kept seeing with coverage of the roy moore scandal. folks will stand by roy moore simply because they can't bear the thought of electing a democrat. >> and in the trump era, trump is going after the media. i may not like trump, but i like the people he is attacking. fox's obsession with talking about hillary clinton. losing candidate is not talked about usually nine months into the

it makes us dumber, it makes us meaner, more divide as a country. >> negative partisanship is the glue that holds these things together. david, what's your view on how this is -- how this comes through in news coverage? is it fair to say, we do have a partisan media in this country, is it fair to say this is a problem on the left, but more of a problem on the right? >> i think it's absolutely more of a problem on the right. in two ways. one, to give you an example of it, i think friday night with lori ingram on fox news, she didn't want to defend roy moore straight up so she found a clip from "morning joe" on msnbc, where someone said, look, if the republicans stand with roy moore, this is who they are in the next election cycle. they protect predators. they are the party of predators. and so that's like 30 seconds. and then she says, oh, you want to go there?

let's talk about two words, bill clinton. and the next 30 minutes is bill clinton and hillary clinton and every sin the right has ever had. i thought, wow, that was the way to get out of that one. but there's something else deeper that feeds into what you and john were saying here. it's the populism that -- the, quote, populism. trump won by saying, look, there are these forces that are causing all the pain to you people out there who feel abused. i'm the only one who will stand up to those forces. last night i saw, and bannon said the same thing, you said you know what this roy moore is about -- he was speaking somewhere -- it's about tearing down roy moore and tearing down anybody who will stand up and speak for you. whether it's trump, whether it's breitbart, whether it's moore. i heard almost the exact same words from bill o'reilly when he had a -- you could call it a rally but there were only 2,000

people in baltimore last month where he said, you can't trust them, "the washington post," "the new york times," the cnn, the baltimore sun, they lie. i tell you the truth. pay attention to me. and i thought, my god, this -- these people. and it's people on the right are exploiting the physicifissures society and driving this. media political figures. in that arena, it wasn't chilled, i don't want to overstate it, but i was sickened by what i heard from o'reilly and i read it in breitbart's coverage of bannon's speech. >> let me turn to one other topic, this at&t/time warner deal. there were so many headlines this week that were really pretty worrisome, about a chilling effect, a chilling effect on the freedom of the press if the trump administration is going to try to punish cnn by blocking this deal. what's your read to? >> i think it transparently is what if looks like. this is partisan politics and

personal grudges playing out on our economy through the regulatory apparatus. this is something we're more acquainted to seeing in banana republicans than a republican president. the president has gone after the media, called us the enemy of the people. gone after nbc, talked about taking away licenses. the doj reversed itself on the anti-trust implications much this merger. the president said if my administration won't let this go forward. sinclair -- >> sinclair trying to buy tribune, which would give it more local stations, also under glovt review. >> by former trump aides. so, this is sort of a nightmare scenario when it comes to partisan media and presidential power and personal peak. this is something we've seen in other countries. we have to call it out clearly. >> to be clear, you believe -- i might suggest to you is a conspiracy theory that the president's interfering. >> i think what is at least likely as you get the thomas a.

beckett/bridgegate scenario where people are doing the bidding of what they believe the president would want. because the president has said it over and over, including that speech in gettysburg, my administration will not let this go through. i don't tend to believe conspiracy theories, people aren't that organized but people anticipate what they think the boss man wants and they'll execute that order. >> there's been denials from the white house and from the doj about this. i have about a minute left. what's your read on what's going on? >> brian, that's it. amen to what john said. i'll tell you something else, this sinclair deal, they put themselves -- the justice department and fcc and trump administration put themselves in a box. he had this friendly media outlet, giant, 233 stations, consolidation of power as it's never been, unprecedented. and the head of the fcc has been moving heaven and earth to get sinclair this approval. and where do they stop? they go after at&t and cnn on this one. i think john is absolutely

right. and if they block this, we need to scream holy hell when they approve sinclair, if they try to get that thing through by the end of the year. sinclair acts like it's a done deal bit end of the year. >> yeah. john, david, thank you so much for being here. after the break, what does press freedom really mean? and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424.

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find out how at sanfranciscodignity.com. before we go here today, today cnn opinion is launching a new series called free press, what's at stake on cnn.com every day between now and december 1st government officials, seasoned journalists and prominent

historians will explore the importance of the first amendment in an independent press. i kicked off today with an essay about press freedom. it's not just about journalists and reporters, its for all of you at home. press freedom is really your freedom. check it out at cnn.com/opinions and i'll see you back here next week. russian denial. president trump seeming to backtrack after appearing to side with vladimir putin over his own intelligence agencies. and calling former intelligence chiefs political hacks. two of the men he called out, james clapper and john brennan, are here to respond exclusively next. plus, dueling plans. republicans in the house and senate try to come to an agreement on taxes. >> we're not doing this for political benefit. we're doing this to help improve people's lives. >> as new details are released, will some middle class americans take a hit?