only on certain counts. remember, kate. senator menendez and the doctor face 12 different counts. jury could come to an agreement on some counts and not others. >> this has been going on for 11 weeks. days on end. the jury has been deliberating with teaching a deadlock. another deadlock they have just reached in the breaking news. what it means going forward. stand by. this is a lot going on today. thank you very much for joining me. dana bash with inside politics picks up right now. welcome to inside politics. i'm dana bash for john king. we have breaking news on a very busy news day. this in bob menendez's corruption trial? new jersey. the jury informed the judge that they are deadlocked. they are deadlocked. they cannot come up with a

verdict at all at this point. we are going to bring it around the table. a lot of people who know the senator and the situation and here to share their reporting, bloomberg's margaret from the "new york times." we will start there again. karl is where the "new york times." michael is with the weekly standard and with the "wall street journal." michael bender. let me start with you. you covered senator menendez for a long time and are familiar with the trial. he was charged with 12 counts of experience, bribery, and fraud. refusing the power of this office. what do you think this says about the fact that the jury said it? >> no surprise. they have been struggling and the judge is trying to keep them to make a decision. these are very tough cases. the public corruption cases. the justice department does not have a good record in getting guilty verdicts here.

there was a lot of expectation in washington that he might be found not guilty. this means it will drag on for a while. they try again or what. people who were there don't think it was a really hard convincing case that they presented. >> stand by. we have our own justice reporter, jessica schneider who was with us. what are you hearing from your sources and our team about what exactly is going to happen now, not to mention what the judge's reaction was. i'm sure he was not pleased. >> this is the big question. what happens from here? the jury coming back. this is the second time this week they informed the judge they are deadlocked and can't come to a verdict. in the note they sent to the judge, they reviewed all the evidence slowly in great detail. many of them saying they are not willing to change their positions. right now it's papping in court. both the defense team for

senator menendez and the government lawyers. the prosecution. they are deciding what to do next. it is possible that the judge could once again instruct the jury to go back here. what the prosecution wants the judge to do is to instruct the jury to go back and continue deliberations and perhaps say to the jury there are 12 counts here. you do not have to decide on all 12 counts. you could come to a verdict. the defense would take this deadlock as a victory. this defense team wants the jury to have the judge instruct the jury that it is okay to be a hung jury. it is okay to not come to a unanimous verdict. those are the arguments happening in the court, but again, this is the second time this week that this jury -- this is the second go around since one juror had to leave on vacation last week and they said we cannot come to a unanimous conclusion. we are not sure what the split

is and how many want to acquit versus how many want to convict. that's all being played out in court. uncertain if they will go back into the deliberation room. >> i want to bring in the chief legal analyst. jeffrey, you have seen cases like this and public corruption cases are always difficult to prove. what is your sense of what happens next? >> i would not be surprised to have the judge urge them one more time to reach at least a partial verdict. judges hate hung juries. they never want to retry cases. it's a tremendous amount of time, energy, and money involved to try a case like this and they don't want to do it again. there is something called a dynamite charge which they give

to blast them out. given how long the deliberations have gone on and how long and how often they said they are deadlocked, it does seem like the case is headed for a hung jury. it's not a tie, but a win for the defense. 90% of trials in federal court and some conviction. if this is a hung jury, that will certainly be a victory for menendez and the defense team. it may yet lead to another trial, but menendez will remain a senator. a hung jury is snag they will

take. >> always better than a conviction. they can say members of the jury, please go back and try again. as we wait for that anda capitol hill for president trump to come out of his meeting with house republicans which is happening as we speak, they are voting on the tax bill later today in the house, we are following more breaking news on capitol hill. a bombshell report about democratic senator al franken of minnesota. he is now apologizing after a los angeles news anchor came forward and said he kissed and groped her without her consent back in 2006 while they were rehearsing a performance on a uso tour they were both on. franken was not a member of the u.s. senate at the time. she released a photo that appears to show franken with his hands over her chest. she is speaking out to inspire

other victims of sexual assault to come forward and not keep their stories locked up for years. i want to read part of the account. this is what she said. he continued to insist and i was beginning to get uncomfortable. he repeated that actors need to rehearse everything and we must practice the kiss. i said okay so he would stop badgering me. we did the line and he came at me and put his hand on the back of my head and mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth. i immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again, i wouldn't be so nice about it next time. i top the get to our own mj lee on capitol hill. al franken released a statement about the accusation. what's he saying? >> that's right, dana. first of all, let me say we are standing outside of al franken's

office. we don't know if he is still on capitol hill. we have gotten a statement from him. let me read that to you. he wrote i certainly don't remember the rehearsal in the same way, but i send my sincerest apologies to lee an. the photo was intended to be funny, but it wasn't. i shouldn't have done it. yes, he did apologize in the statement and he is not denying that these things happened. but she also questioning her recollection of the events that she said were so disturbing. not exactly a full throated apology. you can bet that this is only the beginning of the fallout for senator franken. a lot of senators are being asked about this and their colleague being accused of these actions. the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is calling for an ethics investigation. his statement as well came out a couple of minutes ago.

connell saying with all credible allegations of sexual harassment or assault, i believe they should review the matter. i believe the leader should join me on this regardless of party. assault is unacceptable in the workplace or anywhere else. speaking of the democratic leader, that's chuck schumer. he did have a press conference scheduled for 12:30 that has been canceled. we don't know if that had anything to do with him. we are going to be looking out for the senators and getting their reactions and see what they have to say about the fact that a current sitting member of the senate has been accused by name of sexual harassment. >> mj, thank you so much for that reporting. as you said, we are waiting to see if the senator comes out of his office and if he does, let us know and we will come back to you. >> what's your reaction to this?

you could see it like the harvey wine scene scandal, but more difficult for roy moore. whether he stays in the race and whether the debate about his actions in alabama were diffused and divided. whether it's al franken versus roy moore or roy moore versus himself. we are waiting to hear the president weigh in in public on the situation in alabama. the nature of the allegations is different and it becomes a volume of specifics. the age of the person and the nature of the accusations and the fact that the person who is being accused in one case has suggested that he doesn't know these people or the reports are false. in the other case, naming the person by name and apologizing immediately at least for the fact that they were

uncomfortable. you can see how this becomes one thing. >> this is not somebody who al franken met once. he traveled with her on this uso tour as a private citizen. on to the point where he discussed it and her in a speech a few years ago on the senate floor. let's listen. we will have it in a second. we have this breaking news. we have it now. let's watch. >> and during a show i was kind of cohost with a beautiful woman named leanne tweeden. we do comedy routines and introduce music and the cheerleaders. i go out and do a monologue. this is something i had done for a number of years.

>> i found video from the uso tour in 2006. you watch it and you get the sense again from her could as well. this was something that she agreed to a little under duress to do. a body skit and kind of understand the body you have here. you have the young man and she looks uncomfortable and he makes a leering comment to her about her physical appearance. it's clear between the character and the sketch on stage and getting off stage. the other women who come forward and talk about inappropriate behavior, we are in this weird moment when we are drawing dividing lines between inappropriate sexual behavior towards minors 30 years ago and towards people of age, but it's

gross behavior. it's a huge problem on capitol hill. this is not the end. just the beginning. >> senator franken is one of many politicians on both sides of the aisle who condemned harvey weinstein's actions and his behavior. is he put a statement on facebook when he said as we hear more and more about mr. weinstein, it's important to remember while his behavior was appalling, it's far too common. >> i think it's shocking, his statement here. mj was saying this was not a full throated apology. franken is in this overlay and part of the culture in hollywood. he is at the center of both of these.

he has a half apology saying that's not the way he remembers it. and he's trying to parse this in a way she remembers it. the way she remembers it. that's beside the point. i think margaret's point earlier is true that i think this helps the roy moore and gives credence to the accusations. this is not just an attack on a republican candidate. there is bipartisan accusations. this is not a partisan issue. >> it is important to differentiate and delineate. allegations of going after minors. >> with very aggressive behavior. >> neither is good. let's say that for the record.

karl. you and i have walked the halls of congress together for many, many years. i'm guessing that what the guys say to me is different than what they say to you off the record? is 24r more coming? >> 100%. i think for al franken, his big problem is, is there more coming out of him specifically. he said i was with a beautiful woman. that jumps out at you. there is a lot of pressure right now on capitol hill to identify people and come out with names. there is a reluctance to bring forward names because these are people you have to work with. they are elected and you need to make an arrangement with them. we will see whose names are

beginning to be named. i want to say about mitch mcconnell with the ethics request. this is a classic mitch mcconnell move and he wants everyone to share the pain here. he's got roy moore out here. here's al franken who is not popular with republican members of the senate for sure. it's interesting he was the chairman in the pat woods ethics investigation. >> mitch mcconnell is consistent. >> this investigation is slowing down to do other things. one of the main things he did was threatening democrats and saying if you want to go forward with public hearings, we will have more on some of your members. i'm sure this morning was get me ethics. >> probably. >> everybody stand by. president trump is on capitol hill as we speak. he is meeting with house republicans and waiting to see

if he speaks to us and to the reporters when he comes out. they will come up for a vote in about an hour or so. the senate republicans are hitting speed bumps. we will explain after a break. ♪one way or another, i'm gonna find ya'♪ ♪i'm gonna get ya', get ya', get ya', get ya'♪ ♪one day maybe next week, ♪i'm gonna meet ya' ♪i'm gonna meet ya', i'll meet ya'♪

>> you just saw president trump come to the microphone, sort of. with not a lot of insight about what happened, but a nice wave and seemed to say it went well. president trump is on cap top hill talking to house republican who is will vote on the must pass tax reform bill in about an hour. cnn's bill matingly was right there on the other side of the camera when the other one came up. phil, you have been talking to members inside the room that the president just left. what are you hearing? can you hear me? okay. we are going to wait to get

comes with phil matingly and we have reporters here who are well sourced and i can tell you before i go to you that the president we are told was joking about his occasional battles with house republicans and said of the members he was gathered with, about 30 to 40% are fine people. this is according to a member who texted that to cnn. i think we have phil back. let's try that more time. >> it's not always the best of cell phone coverage. you guys saw -- [inaudible] i have to stress that -- [inaudible] . >> i'm sorry. as i think you said at the beginning, the cell phone coverage is not great. that is summer true right now.

we are going to try to get connected when you can come up to the first floor. you are probably still in the basement and that's hard. not good service. they need to work on that. in any event, this is a big deal. when a president goes to capitol hill to talk to any member of congress. what do you think this did for the republican congress? >> what i was paying attention to was the difference between this effort and the obamacare deal effort. they have been saying for days and weeks and we knew we would get this passed, but you are not seeing a plan to have a rose garden celebration when the house passes. there are lessons if you talk to the white house. they learned a few lessons about going and talking to members and

making sure we know they have their back. a lot of houses as well on this. that's reflective with the house republicans. there is unity. of course as we have been talking about. >> i want to give a little bit more of phil's reporting. he was told that the president repeatedly told members that they have to sell the plan as the biggest tax cut in history. trumpian basically. he told members that this was a key line that they needed to remember. >> this is the cut cut cut bill. above marketing and the white house. >> which he nls a lot about. >> people talk about him being a real estate billionaire. he made his money in the market as much as real estate. they said ahead of time, he was not going-over there to negotiate the finer points of the law. it was going-over for a rally to give them talking points and

ways to talk about this. and provide historical context. it's a promise they made. this is the biggest and the largest. it gives historical edge as much as what he wants to push it. they will see what the particulars trickle out and how he conveyed that. >> i want to tell the viewers, you are looking at that long beautiful hall way that leads to the door at the end which is where the president came in. memorial door. on the house side of the u.s. capitol. let me give a little bit of substance of what we are talking about what the house will vote on today. the house tax plan would lower the tax rate to 20%. reduce the number of tax brackets to four and limit state and local property taxes. even getting to this point was not easy for house republicans. they had to do a lot of wheeling

and dealing. among republicans. democrats are for the most part not a part of this conversation. >> you identified an important issue here. the deduction for state and local taxes. the house bill retains some of that which is going to allow republicans in new york and california to vote for this version. if the senate version eliminates all of that, i had a lot of republicans in the house tell me if it came back that way from the senate, you would lose house republicans. this is going to be a close vote. they know they are going to pass it today. this was a cheerleading session. this bill is struggling in the public, i think. you see polls that it's not popular. people are starting to realize that they will lose the benefits they had on this. it would help to call it the biggest tax cut ever if that was true. it's not. >> that is impacting the numbers in the senate. it's very close.

one senator is gone and there is a group of somewhere between one and six others who are wobbling on it. they can't lose more than two. that's part of why you see president trump when he goes to the hill to rally lawmakers not saying these are my red lines. this is my drop dead. he is saying pass it and we will get to it. during the break, the early reporting i saw from our team of bloomberg is to say that roy moore was not part of the discussion. there was another small victory lap on asia. shocking. the discussion of the basketball players. >> he walked around getting the ucla players back to the u.s. >>. >> but then in terms of lawing lines in the sand about this is what i like in the house and the senate bill, that's not what today is about. he is trying to rally to the next phase say figure we get this done, we tackle the welfare

reforms. >> the senate will come around the taxes. the house is going to vote today on what i just talked about. it tends to be a different beast. the issue there is that you have one republican saying no, i can't support this. it depends on whether or not they can make changes. it's a list of many others who are not nos and not yeses. john mccain, susan collins, lisa murcowski. jeff flake. bob corker, rand paul. ted cruz. it's a long yes. james langeford. it's a long list. there it is. some of these senators are playing for leverage which is a smart move. it's legislating 101. since they only have two votes

to play with, meaning they can lose two and then a third means this thing is not going to happen. it's kind of dangerousous. >> susan collins i think is an interesting case. she wants to vote for a tax bill including the health care mandate repeal in that complicated that for her. >> corker and flake we know about them too. who knows where they will come down on this. senator mccain opposes these big efforts here. we watched johnson negotiate up to the last second. >> he seems more gettable than the rest. especially with the health care. >> this is part of the dispute over roy moore. can you get the votes in time? i think it's an open question in the senate. i was actually a little more confident a few weeks ago that we could pull this off. >> and it's worth repeating.

we have been talking about this for several days and the critical difference was adding the repeal of the individual mandate throwing obamacare into the mix. senator john mccain was not a yes or a no said the following. i just picked up the newspaper and they made a huge change. every day there seems to be. no, it's not regular order. i have no idea, but i'm insisting on regular order. >> that sounds like a guy trying to buy a room. >> look, he helped to save the other two. >> he had been going back and he is raising the regular order in his rational. >> can you imagine a world politically here? they are republican who is failed to do this in addition obamacare? i have not talked to one republican who has not been desperate and fatalistic about getting tax reform done just to

say to the voters, look, we can get something done as opposed to we had nothing. >> if the republicans head into 2018 saying we have nothing, it would not shock me at all. they have not been able to invest on any issue for several years. they had the majority in both chambers and with this president, their lack of progress on health care gives me no confidence of getting tax reform done. to the point they were making earlier, the last time big juicy tax bill got passed 20 something years ago, they showed it was two out of three americans with the tax bills too high. that number now is right around 50%. not a lot. it is not ground swell it was back in the 80s. i'm just not sure that some of these senators feel the need to push a tax cut through just for the sake of having a victory.

>> very quickly too. >> i think that is the conundrum. they convinced themselves that they needed to pass something. what if they pass something? then they had a run on the 18th. that's a big problem. i don't think republicans have figured it out. trump is at 38 or 37% approval rating. >> we are going to take a quick break and it's dangerous to run on the biggest tax cut in history is how the president has republicans to market it behind closed doors. if you don't get one. >> our yore tax bill goes up. >> even worse. >> we have live pictures in capitol hill. we are waiting for the president to leave the u.s. capitol and head down pennsylvania avenue back to the white house after his meetings. we'll be right back.

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bring it on. that's what alabama senate candidate roy moore is telling the establishment. he shows zero sign of backing down in the face of more accusations of misconduct. in fact, he and his team are pushing to discredit some of the then young girls who say they were his victims. meanwhile, two more women have come forward, telling "the washington post" moore made unwanted advances in the past. just to be clear, this makes seven women now accusing roy moore of sexual misconduct. the big question today as it was yesterday and the day before, will president trump weigh in? he declined an opportunity to comment today on capitol hill, but counsellor to the president kellyanne conway said this this morning. >> the president will make a statement when he wants to make a state. none of us should get ahead of that. whatever the facts end up being,

the premises is the principal is that there is no senate seat that is worth more than a child. >> the president's daughter and white house adviser is mincing no words. ivanka trump said there is a special place in hell for people who prey on children. i have yet to see a valid explanation and i have no reason to doubt the victims's accounts. let's get straight to the correspondent for the latest. jeff, you have been doing excellent reporting on the discussions and the debates behind closed doors in the building behind you about what the president should say and obviously at this point why he hasn't said anything. >> dana, we can hear right there looking at kellyanne conway and ivanka trump. part of the advice or the thinking going on inside some of the these meetings. there are advisers to the president who believe he should

say something. those two are among them. i am told that the president is not inclined to address this at this time. he has been watching it very carefully. yesterday i was told by someone who is very involved in the decisions who are close to the white house. the president does not want to get engaged in an entirely long conversation about sexual misconduct. he went through that himself in his campaign just a year ago. he said the women who accused him of wrong-doing were lying and the white house stood by that. this is something that the white house is not eager to get into. the daily press briefing, the first one that the white house had since the president left for asia two weeks ago. sarah sanders of course will be asked these questions. that will be the first opportunity for the white house to come in on this. i am not expecting the president to weigh in on this. he believes that the people of

alabama should decide here. maybe at some point he will. told not immediately and not today. >> thanks so much for that reporting. and margaret, that's a really important point that jeff is hearing from the sources. the president, part of the reason he doesn't want to weigh in is because of the baggage he has. >> he want to fire wall what is going with roy moore with the president. that makes sense as part of what you are talking about. a desire to make sure this doesn't become about the president. none of the campaign caligations involved involved minors and high school girls. inside the white house, this has been the topic of discussion before the president came back from asia. questions about how much to get into detail while he was still in asia or on the plane and how much before he got back and got well rested.

if he said don't vote for roy moore and they vote for him anyway, he hasn't helped the matter and he lost when it comes to sway voters, that's part of the consideration. if he waits on this, they weigh in on other issues and he will have to hold back from tweeting about al franken. >> can you imagine how they were joking and aides are stapling his hands to the desk. >> he doesn't talk about this and we don't talk about that. >> it's hard to imagine him intertwining himself in the race again. >> he had a moral leadership question. >> not only the point about his own baggage with these sorts of allegations, but that was a

litmus test during the campaign and who was loyal to him and going to be around coming into office. the one person who is adamant about not showing any sign of weakness is the chairman of his campaign, steve bannon is now the lead cheerleader for roy moore who has to be telling him the same thing. >> no question. having said that, mere mortal politicians who don't have teflon on this issue as president trump proved he had during the campaign are trying to separate themselves big time from him. one example is congressman stifers. listen to what he says. >> i subsequently asked for my money back before the allegations came forward. i do believe the women and i think that roy moore should step aside. to him at this point, i don't think anyone can manipulate anybody into doing anything, but

i hope he steps aside. >> he donated and asking for his money back. that's an easy political move to show your disapproval and disgust. >> it's what you do to take your money back. against roy moore is pretty devastating. he called her out of her trigonometry class in high school and probably be the most memorable part of the story when he asked what she was doing and she said i'm in trig class. that's devastating. to get back to the white house, it's tough to say how we believe the alabama women when their stance is trump that all the women who accused him of liars. that's a tough distinction to make. i also noticed in ivanka trump's

statement she referred specifically to children and making clear that delineation. i think roy moore and people in washington want nothing to do with him for the most part and are going to stick to that. >> hold that thought because there is one thing i have to bring up before we leave this topic. that is sean hannity. yesterday or two nights ago he made a big deal out of saying roy moore, you have 24 hours and you have to better explain yourself. roy moore wrote a letter to sean hannity, an open letter denying the allegations. here's what sean hannity said last night. >> i lived in alabama. i enjoyed my time in alabama. i know these people. they are smart, they are great americans. god, family, faith, country. i am very confident that when everything comes out, they will make the best decision for their state.

it shouldn't be decided by me and people on television and mitch mcconnell and washington and talk show hosts and news people. >> the technical term for that is a punt. normally what a rival news channel says is not really relevant. in this environment and this administration for this particular host, sean hannity who is very close with president trump. he is probably one of his closest advisers, at least we are told, the fact that hannity came out and suggested he had 24 hours was an indication he was maybe providing cover for the president and he pulled back. that's noteworthy. >> the president's own up and down views of this. i want to go back to what you said about trump's teflon qualities. we think of it now size we didn't think he was ahead and his win was a surprise and maybe

the allegations didn't hurt. i'm not sure that's the case. here's the fact of the matter. there is now probably about the same amount of time between roy moore between the allegations coming out about moore and the "access hollywood" tape. it will be interesting to see. it has been a steady story coming out. roy moore is no donald trump. that indicates what hannity said is that they are hoping that alabama doesn't have to say what they want alabama voters to do. just get rid of this guy. that's a big possibility. >> they might not. i was in the philadelphia suburbs after "access hollywood" came out and every woman said they didn't care about it. you know what, it was a different climate. everybody stick with us. we have a big vote in the house on taxes in the next hour. stay with us. ♪when you've got...♪

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make more of what's yours. >> as we see, president trump has just wrapped up a meeting on capitol hill ahead of a crucial must pass bill for republicans in the house tax reform. i want to bring in phil matingly. what's the latest? it sounds like they might be voting soon. >> in a matter of minutes. about 20 minutes is what they are expecting. the best distribution i got of where things stand in the house is from a member. i texted him and said what are you expecting? he said two words. no dram a. you have been watching house republicans and that might surprise you, but it underscores the work that has been done behind the scenes. to the political imperative, to get something done, anything done legislatively. that is moving this forward. this is one of a multistep

process. a big with a lot of significant hurdles and problems bubbling up about what will happen in the next steps. dana? >> phil, no drama. i'm not going to put you on the spot, but do you have any sense that right now it just seems from your sources that they are not expecting anything last minute. sometimes that happens as members are heading to the floor and it looks like we are minutes away from that. >> look. they have this one pretty set. the house ways and means chairman felt like they had the votes locked up then and they had a few more days to go. again, you know this as well as anybody. you have seen over the course of the last or years. they think they are on solid ground and it shifts and they fall through. this is not that situation. i'm told they won't get it done by one or two votes, but should have a cushion there. what comes back to the house on taxes in the weeks ahead is not

going to be what they pass today. you lock the numbers in now, it's a lot more difficult for them to flip and flop if the future. republican leaders are cog cent of that and it will be close, but not something where they crape by by one or two votes. not according to sources that are very involved in the process. >> the best person to follow and listen to on this tax legislation. any legislation. thank you so much, for your reporting. we will check back with you. the senate has problems and assuming that nothing changes, this was real wheeling and dealing for the house ways and means committee chairman and the republican leadership to figure out this secret sauce on what is put together here. there was a lot of discussion about getting rid of the deductions for the state and local taxes. they got rid of that and kind of

picked and chose and it seems as though they are going to do it successfully. >> you are feeling more gracious than i am. >> maybe because i see things crash and burn so much in the house. >> when they had troubles in the health care bill and paul ryan said we are going through growing pains here. the first time we had the majority. the republicans have been in charge of the house for while. they should know how to do these basic first hurdles. that's symbolic of the era we are in where the first hurdle, the lowest hurdle they have in the whole process here. we can spend time talking about it's amazing. >> how many times have we been in the hall way coming towards each other like this? can you believe they can't get x, y, or z done.

>> this is the easy vote right now. the new york and new jersey people pulled away from the bill. he managed to hold it together and there is a good argument. they are not right now. they may later. the one thing i would say is when theyed added the health care in the senate bill, they gave the democrats the talking point they have been looking for. we are taking away your health care to give a tax cut to corporations. you will hear a lot of that. >> let's give credit back to the house bill back to the white house. who has been on capitol hill. the vice president was a very good report against house republicans. he's now the white house director who has been working on

this and the administration. also donald trump has not been around to tweet out he doesn't like this detail coming out. that helped and also in a positive way, he has been talking about this. going out there and doing it. >> as you are speaking, you see the president somewhere in there. he will be coming. his top aides there, steven miller and sarah sanders who you recognize from the briefings. you see the white house chief of staff on the left. john kerry. mark short who you were talking about is on the right of the screen and just turned the corner. when the president goes to the hill, there is know entourage. understandable. >> this is a rallying point. he is able to come in. >> there he is with the vice president. you were talking about him before with his former fellow

colleagues. that's a big deal. >> mr. president, should roy moore step aside? should roy moore step aside, sir? >> a little discipline there. >> just in case you couldn't hear, a reporter asked if roy moore should step aside and he didn't answer. they asked about the al franken news and didn't answer. >> i'm not sure if time is a friend to this legislation not just because of something coming out of the senate, but because for the average middle class tax payer who this has been sold as a boom to them, there are many consequences in off years in particular. they may not be realized for a while in terms of ways to deduct individual things that are important. the blocks in the middle class with expenses and student loan

stuff. the implications in getting $1,000 or $1100 cash in hand is not fully realized and once that's vetted, public support may reaction and reactions that will affect the same house member who is were okay now with it and their ability on the senate to go back and be in support of it. >> i want to make a turn to one of the things we started with at the beginning of the show. al franken and the allegations against him. i was standed a statement we got from senator patty murray. a democratic senator and member of the leadership who said she is happy that al franken apologized. she said his apology doesn't reverse what he has done. she supports the accusations and hopes this is the latest example of the problems of this front. the spurs continued action to address it.

pretty strong. >> it helps democrats that the minnesota governor would say a new senator if al franks en a democrat. >> they have no choice. not just because of the democratic base, but they want to continue pressing for more answers. they want it in step. >> i am told that the democratic leader, chuck schumer was supposed to have a press conference and cancelled it is saying there should be an ethics investigation. >> i think you are seeing something that could spiral more. >> you could end up with big

ledge clagz and big oversight here. she is very tough and strong. let an apology take this away. >> we have democratic women who will not be afraid to stand up to it. >> they worry about the reputation of the institution. they don't want -- they consider themselves very civilized place in society. when this comes up, they want to

make sure especially in this environment we are in. i think the environment will change. >> it's a boy's club. >> there has been a lot of reporting. and you see a democratic senator aing them. and if they see you will get the report it has to start getting more numbers. she said that there are two sitting member who is she heard

accusations about. it's hard to imagine. like what we saw with weinstein, the dam breaks and it's hard to imagine they will not see more. thank you for joining us on inside politics. the house is expected to vote very soon. you are in the very safe hands of wolf blitzer after the break.

i'm wolf blitzer in washington. from wherever you are watching, thanks very much for joining us. it's crunch time in the republican push for a massive tax overhaul. the house of representatives set to vote any moment and republicans are very optimistic they have the 1r0e9s to pass their tax plan. we expect to hear from the house speaker paul ryan shortly. we will bring you that live