hello. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> president trump about to be wheels up right now going to the midwest to difficult his message on the republican tax reform plan. but instead of trumpeting the tax plan and the success at rallying republicans in the senate or talking at length about real plans to deal with

the latest missile launch from north korea, the president you see him there boarding air force one is inflaming emotions on twitter. forget the repeated attacks on cnn, forget the president taking shots at nbc, seemingly gloating over the firing of maug lawyer. the president of the united states is retweeting very disturbing antibiotic muslim videos from a highly controversial and indefensible source. it's raising all sorts of very serious questions about the president. our senior white house correspondent jim acosta is at the white house. our cnn international correspondent is monitoring all of this in london. phil black is there. let's start with jim over at the white house. we're seeing pictures of air force one getting ready to take the president and his entourage to missouri. last couple of times he left the white house for such a trip, he stopped on his way on the south lawn before boarding marine one to take questions from reporters. this time silence.

nothing. there have been some very disturbing tweets this morning. >> that's right, wolf. all we could see was the president mouth the words merry christmas to reporters as he departed the white house for this tax reform speech down in missouri later today. the theme of the day for the white house is supposed to be tax reform. of course, here in washington, it feels like groundhog day. because we're all talking about his questionable use of social media earlier this morning. this time this was the president's use of twitter and retweeting those very imflammatory videos from the far right british organization britain first. they are essentially anti-muslim videos that purportedly show, not verified but portedly show muslims causing harm to people over in great britain and other parts of western europe. sara sanders, white house press secretary was asked about this earlier this morning. here's what she had to say. >> i think his goal is to promote strong borders and

strong national security. and i think that is again, something thatting is no secret to anyone that that's a big focus of this president and a big focus of this administration. whether it's a real video, the threat is real. that is what the president is talking about and focused on is dealing with those real threats. and those are real no matter how you look at it. >> does it matter it's a fake video? >> i'm not talking about the nature of the video. you're focusing on the wrong thing. the threat is real. that's what he's talking about. >> so wolf, a critical point was raised in that qen a with sara sanders asked whether or not the president even knew these videos were real before he retweeted them. she did not answer that question. she only said that the real regardless whether the video is real. wolf, i know we're banging up against decades of restraint in covering the president. that is a part of the tradition of covering the white house. it's hard to argue he was doing

anything other than race-baiting when he was on the internet earlier this morning. >> yeah, it's still hard to believe he wouldn't have his national security counsel, his advisers check out those videos very controversial anti-muslim videos before he would retweet them to simply see if they were legitimate. and this is what we've seen from the president over the past three days alone. he made that pocahontas comment once again involving senator elizabeth warren during a ceremony honoring native american navaho code talkers, world war ii heros on tuesday. he attacked african-american athletes over the anthem protests, railed against illegal immigrants, spoke about his own birther claims that former president obama was born in kenya. today the anticipate muslim videos. what happened to the assumption that bringing in general john kelly as white house chief of staff would put all of this to an end? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. i try to ask general kelly the

white house chief of staff as he was leaving with the president, did he check the videos before the president posted them. of course, he didn't respond to that. again, wolf, this goes back to the question here at the white house, why is it necessary for us to ask whether or not the white house chief of staff is keeping an eye on the president and his social media habits when the president vowed to the american people he would be a president for all people, that he would be a presidential commander in chief. if you look at that list that you just laid out a few moments ago, it is hard to wrap your head around the fact that it's only wednesday. and he's offended nearly every minority or religious group that you can possibly offend here in the united states. and it just raises the question for this president and it's a question that is almost raised every day, who is left for him to offend? and it's just another example of how this white house really has to pay more attention to what's happening inside the oval office

with the president of the united states behaving in this fashion and spending less time honing its message, trying to get legislation passed. you have the president taking off right now on air force one for this speech down in missouri. that was designed to sell the gop tax plan. and, of course, as republicans up on capitol hill know all we're talking about this morning is the president's very questionable very controversial very racially tinged use of social media earlier this morning. it is like groundhog day because it is literally what we wake up to and come to the white house to expect every day here at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. it is basically what happens every day here. >> i'm sure his own advisers are wondering what's going on, as well. let's go to london. the president retweeted anti-muslim videos that are very disturbing. talk about the source of these, the source being where you are in britain. and what you're hearing about

the president's retweets. there is some angry reaction coming from the british government. the tweets orally came from brynn. this is a group who say they are christian patriots. there is a wildly held view this is a group of people who are die advicive and extreme in the way they go about trying to achieve their agenda. they believe that british people, these are all under threat by immigration and in particular by the islamic faith. they fear the islamification of this country. that is why they contest elections not successfully but also why they go onto the streets and confront muslims in very aggressive provocative ways. it is for this is that the leadership of this group, including the woman who originally tweeted these videos has, they have been charged and prosecuted for hate speech and these sorts of things.

today that organization is thrilled to have received this sort of publicity, this amplification of their views. but british politicians here are much more concerned including the british prime minister prime minister teresa moi ho said donald trump was wrong to spread these messages in this way because there is an understanding here in britain that far right groups, you can't flirt with them or encourage them. you can't give them that sort of voice. it was only last year that a british politician by the name of joe cox was murdered on the streets by a far right terrorist who screamed among other things, britain first. as he shot and stabbed her repeatedly. so there is a great deal of concern, a great deal of outrage in this country today calling on the government to condemn donald trump for this move. and it puts the british government in a very difficult position because trez may the prime minister has worked hard to try and maintain a close

constructive working relationship with america's president. that's not always been popular here. and now, these tweets will make it even harder for her to justify that with the british public, wolf. >> certainly will. wonder if the president of the united states will be phoning the british prime minister and apologizing for what he has done. i suspect the answer is no. phil black, thank you. jim acosta at the white house, we'll get back to you. stand by. let's bring in our panel, shannon petty piece from bloomberg news, david gregory with us, and gloria borger chief political analyst. gloria, these tweets, retweets i should say are having a very, very serious impact on the president's image not only in britain but around the world especially at a time when the u.s. needs support from muslim majority countries, friendly countries in the middle east and elsewhere. >> yeah, jeremy corbyn, the leader of the opposition labor party in britain today called them abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society.

he's talking about the president of the united states. we have to take a step back. we look at everything that's happened this week that the president's tweeted about. it's only wednesday. he had a big win yesterday in congress getting his tax reform bill out of committee. he may be on the precipice of a victory on a very important piece of legislation for him. later this week. instead, we and other people around the world are all sitting here trying to decipher what is going on in his mind. and why he is doing these things. what are his motives? why did he decide to tweet this today? is it because this is coming up before the supreme court? maybe if you want to be rational. >> therable ban. >> you could say maybe that's why he was doing it. we know why he tweeted about nbc because he doesn't like the mainstream media including us. but we're on the verge of something that could be very dangerous in north korea.

and why is he doing this? why is he inciting this kind of discussion and potentially even violence rather than trying to solve our problems? >> the council of american islamic relations, david, they said these tweets you would expect to see on virulent aren't anti-muslim hate sites, nonthe twitter feed of the president of the united states. how damaging is this to u.s. relations with friendly muslim majority countries whether in the middle east or elsewhere. >> it's very damaging. because the president who finds himself again and again puts himself in a position to act like a crank, like someone ranting, it's not in the service of anything larger other than bigotry. there's not even a policy point behind it. even the contrast to north korea where he talked about they'll be fire and fury has now been temp tempered into we'll take care of

it. there's strategy in place. this is just not in service of anything larker. this is a president who an partial doesn't listen to anybody around him because we know some of the people around him would not in advance say that's a good idea to forward that kind of thing. it's toxic. it's toxic to his standing in the country, it's toxic to america's standing in the rest of the world. and he is not thinking about what comes next. clearly he's not thinking down the road. by the way, supporters of the president who would say you and the media, you harp on these things day in and day out and shows the patent unfairness. this is scrutinizing his words on a daily basis. >> sara sanders as we heard in jim's report defended the president saying it doesn't matter if those videos he retweeted were real because he's trying to address real threats. as you know, it comes at the same time "the new york times" is reporting he's once again

reviving the birther claims, the birther issue involving former president obama, raising questions whether the "access hollywood" videotape was authentic or if the voice was not really his. how do you see all this? >> well, what's surprising was all this talk of fake news in the same morning and here's the well, who really knows if they're real or not. maybe these are fake videos but it's a real issue amid all of this cry about, quote unquote, fake news they seem to be so concerned about. i guess obviously the other point is if you wanted to raise issues of concerns of border security, you could have done that in so many other ways than retweeting unverified video from a militant fringe british group. so i mean, there's many, many odd ways you can dissect that statement. but i mean, our analysis that we did at bloomberg recently showed he's tweeting more. the president is tweeting more,

not less. to the point of isn't kelly supposed to be moderating him, everybody in his entire universal told him to stop tweeting from his friends to advisers to supporters. it's unanimously agreed upon. he's even tweeting more. it's not something he's going to stop. he apparently thinks it's working for him in some way or it's almost like compunction maybe. we've spent a lot of time psychoanalyzing these tweets. i suppose he's the only one who knows. >> it comes at a time gloria, whether he there is a case before the supreme court on thetable ban largely affecting muslim majority countries. all of this anti-muslim attitude sort of reminded me of what he said on cnn during the campaign. he told anderson cooper in march of last year this. listen. >> i think islam haye lates us. there's something there a tremendous hatred there. we have to get to the bottom of it. there is an unbelievable hatred

of us. >> those where is pretty strong words obviously. you know. >> he believed. >> a great friend of the united states, king abdullah of jordan is here in washington right now. he's a muslim. and if he sees what's going on, jordan is a very close friend of the united states. i don't know why, but president decided not to meet with king abdullah while he was here in washington. did meet with the vice president pence, secretary of state tillerson and others. you would think the president would want to meet with king abdullah while he's in washington who has taken in a million syrian refugees in jordan and doing important work in the region. >> he's praised him. >> he's a great friend of the united states. i can only imagine what king abdullah and others think when they hear words coming out of the president about their religion. >> but when the president retweets this video and you hear his press secretary do this double speak and say, it doesn't

matter basically it doesn't matter whether it's authentic because the threat is real. i mean, she the downplayed the questions about whether the video was accurate, whether you know, whether the perpetrator was actually muslim or not. downplayed all of that. and preferred to go to the fact that the threat is real. how would you take it if you were abdullah? it is -- it's -- i would say it was shocking but i guess it isn't shocking anymore. but this kind of double speak into but that shows people around him are willing to be compromised by him, as well. >> exactly. >> they're just not serious people who are handling themselves that way. i do think, wolf, some of this conversation focuses on idea, there must be some consequence to all of this. and we may yet see that. but donald trump as president feels vindicated by the fact that he has proved impervious to what has felled other public

figures, other political figures, and he keeps moving on to this same beat because he feels like it's working for him. and he won't listen to anybody else. whether it's taking ob north korea in the way he has. maybe he gets a break-through the previous administrations have not had. that sound bite to anderson sounds incredibly ignorant. what he's actually saying if you want to interpret him is that radical islam post-1979 has developed this hatred for the west and on and on. that's the level of nuance that he brings to these policy discussions which is none at all. there's a lot of people who say right on. we should have a president who talks that way even if it sounds as bigoted as that. >> there's much more going on. we're following several breaking stories right now. it's a busy wednesday for us. matt lauer fired from nbc for alleged sexual misconduct. the network made the announcement just a few hours ago. brian stelter standing by. he's got new information. later, donald trump jr., the latest to be called up to

capitol hill in the ever expanding probe into possible contacts between russians and the trump presidential campaign. lots going on. we'll be right back. ♪ what i got's full stock ♪ of thoughts and dreams that scatter ♪ ♪ you pull them all together ♪ and how, i can't explain ♪ ♪ oh yeah, well well well youuuu ♪ ♪ you make my dreams come true ♪ ♪ well, well, well youuuu ♪ topped steak & twisted potatoes at applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

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matt lauer is out at the "today" show fired for nbc calls inappropriate sexual behavior. the network says it made the decision to fire lawyer after receiving a detailed complaint from one of his colleagues. nbc also says it has reason to believe it was not an isolated incident. here's how lawyer's co-hosts broke the news to viewers this morning. >> you know, for the moment all we can say is that we are heart broken. i'm haefrt broken for matt. is he my dear, dear friend and my partner. he has beloved by many people here.

i'm heart broken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story and any other women who have their own stories to tell. >> cnn senior media correspondent brian stelter is joining us with more details about lawyer's firing. what are you learning? >> reporter: this was something prompted by a complaint to hr on monday night. a female nbc employee said that this inappropriate behavior began when she and lawyer were both in russia for the winter olympics in 2014. she told nbc that the inappropriate behavior continued after the olympics and apparently she had a very convincing complaint because within 24 hours, nbc decided to fire lawyer. the decision was told to him last night. it was told to his colleagues this morning. and what we see there from savannah guthrie in that clip is the raw emotion of just finding out that her co-host has been terminated. lawyer for 20 years was the face of the "today" show, the cornerstone of the show.

he had a contract worth tens of millions of dollars a year because the show was so profitable and so many millions of viewers looked forward to starting their day with him. we see all of that tumbling down not just because of the one compliant monday night but because "the new york times" and variety magazine have been doing reporting about his past speaking with other potential accusers. those stories have not come out yet. we don't know the details of the allegations. nbc was aware those stories were in the works and this firing was in some ways a way to get ahead of what might be coming out next. >> pretty shocking stuff. brian, thank you very much. gloria and shannon are still with us. gloria, how significant is this? >> look, i think what you have seen over the last weeks or since the harvey weinstein stories are a lot of powerful men who have taken a very big, hard and dramatic fall. and i think what it means is that there is a reckoning going on in this country. and that bad behavior will not

be tolerated and that women who have been quiet for a very long time have finally decided that they will be protected if they actually tell their stories. and if they tell their stories accurately. and that they are -- you know, there are numbers of them so they feel a little more secure in that are sense. and they also feel i think that there is more of a willingness to believe them than there ever was in the past. so if they speak truth to power now, they really have a sense that they will be listened to in the way that they would want without fearing for their livelihood which was always a problem in the past. so i think it's not just in media and not just in entertainment. i think it's in corporate america and i hope it will you know, i hope it will spread but it doesn't come without a lot of pain on all sides of this. >> shannon? >> to your point, i hope that it

spreads. i wonder right now, we high profile people in politics and media stepping out. what i really wonder and think about is when does this get to the point of the retail worker, the waitress. the every day people out there who are suffering with this who don't have the type of voice who maybe don't have the platform to get attention because it's not a high profile figure. it's the nightshift manager. and so maybe it will start trickling down to that level. but and i also do find it surprising the difference on the political side where members of congress have been able to hang on so far. we'll see what happens. we're in the corporate world and the media and hollywood you know, and it's swift and it's quick brutal punishment. >> also, have you donald trump tweeting about in this morning because he can tweet about the mainstream media and doesn't like nbc just like he doesn't like us. as i was saying earlier. it's if he believes he's got

this bullet proof vest about him. he is tweeting about this and seems to forget in fact, he was accused of sexual impropriety by more than a dozen women during the campaign. yes, he got elected and we you understand that but he is somebody who has denied those charges but i'm wondering now whether in his own case and the fact that he's out there being a pundit on this stuff, whether he's going to have to deal with this again personally. you know, we just don't know. it is not as if he comes into this from a vacuum. he doesn't. >> there's more developments we're watching, as well. gloria, shannon, stand by. we're continuing special coverage including there. president trump's son donald trump jr. now called to capitol hill. set to meet with lawmakers up in congress about his cacs with russians last year. we have details.

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the staple is now set for a highly participated development in the russia investigation here in washington. sources say donald trump jr. has agreed to meet with the house intelligence committee as early as next week. the president's son faces questions about his russia contacts during the presidential campaign. let's bring in our senior congressional correspondent manu raju. tell viewers what you've learned. >> reporter: donald trump jr. has agreed to sit down before the house intelligence committee. we're told on december 6th. this will be the first time that lawmakers themselves will have a

chance to interview mr. trump junior about his contacts that he had with russians during the campaign season, his correspondent with wikileaks, which was recently revealed as well as that trump tower meeting from june, 2016 in which donald trump jr. was promised dirt from the russians on the clinton campaign. now, he has trump junior has met separately with the senate judiciary committee staff in september. but he has not met with the house intelligence committee and members themselves. they continue to try to explore exactly what happened particularly in that trump tower meeting. that same committee, the house intelligence committee about meet with someone else at that june 2016 meeting. that was the russian translator who was there. they met with him yesterday as part of their efforts to the investigate exactly what happened. and we're also told by senator richard bird that donald trump jr. is expected to come in

december before his committee so it shows that the president's eldest son still facing significant scrutiny on capitol hill. >> this russia investigation in congress and with the special counsel robert mueller fulling full speed ahead right now. thank you very much. the state of hawaii meanwhile is preparing to test a new system designed to warn residents in the event of an impending nuclear attack. the move comes as north korea launches another intercontinental ballistic missile, apart of its aggressive nuclear ambitions. we'll go live to the region when we come back. how do you chase what you love

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following the dramatic launchity most advanced missile yet, president trump is putting north korea on notice tweeting earlier today, just spoke to

president xi jinping of china concerning the provocative actions of north korea. additional major sanctions will be imposed on north korea today. this situation will be handled. let's bring in our cnn international correspondent will ripley join us from seoul, south korea right now. will has traveled to the region to north korea i think about 17 times over the past few years. will, north korea hadity own antagonistic message for trump today. tell our viewers first of all what he said. >> yeah, there's a new north korean propaganda message citing a military officer and there's this swagger that i sensed when i was in pyongyang within the last few weeks this rel confidence on the part of the north koreans and this tone towards the u.s. president. kind of matching his rhetoric for much of this year although he's been dialed back lately. let me read you a portion quoting this officer. "i seem so see old lunatic trump

and riffraffs making a great fuss downed about i our new gift package referring to the icbm that was launched. goes on to say the old lunatic remains in such provocations as relisting the dprk as a sponsor of terrorism. the stronger counter measure of the dprk they will meet. interesting north korean propaganda is now mentioning the state sponsor of terrorism. perhaps this is some indication that this missile launch was at least in part a response to the north korean outrage over being put back on that list that they were taken off nearly a decade ago when there were negotiations about their nuclear program. we know how that turned out. >> yeah, this was a really significant achievement for the north koreans, the launch of this latest icbm. how worried is the south korean government? our in seoul, south korea right now. how worried are they especially the upcoming olympic games? >> there is great concern.

you know, they tried to demonstrate their own capabilities to shoot down this ballistic missile by launching their own precision missile exercise within six minutes of the north korean provocation. the reality is icbms are quite difficult to shoot down. this is the kind of weapon that could pose a real threat to the region. we do have the winter games, the olympic games happening relatively short distance from north korea. as far as we know no north korean athletes qualified for the games and there is growing concerns the north could use the publics as a time to perhaps conduct even more missile tests or nuclear tests as a way to embarrass south korea to try to make people afraid of attending the olympicss and south korea remember back in 1987, north korea was believed to be by the cia behind the bombing of a korean airliner more than 100 people killed just before the summer games, the 1988 summer games here in seoul.

many believe that was an attempt by the regime of north korea to frighten people from flying here to south korea for the olympics. >> south korean military believes the north koreans are moving much more quickly and earlier thought. will, thank you very much. new york one step closer to becoming the nuclear threat many people feared foughting the latest launch claiming it can reach anywhere in the united states. senator lindsey graham issue this had warning. >> if we have to go to war to stop this, we will. if there's a war with north korea, it will be because north korea brought it on itself. we're headed toward a war if things don't change. >> let's bring in democratic senator mazie hirono of hawaii, a key member of the senate armed services committee. what's your reaction first of all to senator lindsey graham's comment about potentially a war

involving the uz and north korea? >> as general mattis said, war is not the first line of defense that we continue to push for diplomatic resolution at a time though when president trump is cutting the funding and resources for state department. this is very much the wrong thing to do. just a little while ago, i met with the nominee for the number three position in the department of defense. he has experience in the state department. certainly has been -- has experience with north korea. and so he said the of course, we need to be militarily ready but at the same time, if the diplomatic aspect of our approach is not going hand in hand, then this is not a good situation. so we continue to look at our sanctions. we'd better make sure the sanctions we've put in place are actually being implemented and i think the president definitely should tone down his rhetoric because that is not helping at

all. and at the least he should be supporting his own secretary of defense in his efforts to resolve this diplomatically and at the same time, we obviously need to make sure that our relationships with our allies and our support and understanding with our allies in this part of the world remains very, very strong and firm. >> what are you hearing, senator, how close north korea might it be right now to developing a full scale intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach anywhere in the united states with a nuclear war head? is it a year away, six months away, two years away? what are you hearing? >> i'm not hearing that kind of time frame because i think the intelligence and i used to serve on the intel committee out of north korea is very, very skimpy. so i wouldn't be able to hazard a guess. but there's no question that will kim jong-un is totally intent on becoming a nuclear power. and at the same time, we need to keep up our diplomatic

approaches and china needs to be right in there. and to the extent that russia also plays a role here, they need to also step up and step in. >> for the first time since the cold war, as you well know, hawaii, your home state, will be testing its nuclear warning sirens. do you feel like a strike is imminent and why has hawaii decided to reactivate those sirens? >> well, these are not reacty straighting of the sirens as far as i know. it's a new kind of siren top forewarn us in the event of an attack from north korea but it's part and parcel of the civil defense system that our siren system that we've always had in place because hawaii in the middle of the pacific can be hit by tsunami, et cetera. so this is in addition to the warning systems that we've always had in place. and i do keep in touch with our emergency response people in hawaii just met with them to make sure that all of that is in place. at the same time, when i met

with the nominee to the number three position of the department of defense, said that there is a new radar that is supposed to come into hawaii to enable us to detect missile launches from north korea that that should be speeded up and at the same time, i working with dan sullivan of alaska to make sure that we have in place the surface to defense -- surface missile defense systems. >> let me get your quick reaction to the republican senate tax bill which passed the senate budget committee yesterday. later this week, there will be a full scale vote on the senate floor. listen to what senator john cornyn, one of the republican leaders said this morning. listen to this. >> we would love to have a bipartisan bill. but that's really up to them. >> if they can't get any of their amendments which means they can't get anything changed, why would you expect them to cooperate with something they think is fundamentally a fraud. >> because that's the way our legislative process, would. >> what's your reaction,

senator? >> i characterize this bill, this tax bill of the president and the republicans as a solution in search of a problem because they're solution is we should give the richest people and the richest corporations in our country huge, huge tax breaks. and has a solution. what is the problem? the problem is that they're doing this on the backs of middle class people. so it's a solution in search of a problem. the real problem is what's happening to the middle class, the fact their wages have not kept up. college costs are going up. health care costs are going up. that is a real problem and this bill does nothing to address it. so when he says that's how our process, would, no, the way the legislative process should work is regular order where we have actual hearings, none of which has happened with regard to the tax bill. >> as you know, the republican majority in the senate 52 republicans, 48 democrats, in the democratic caucus, they could lose two. they can't lose three.

what do you think? will they get this senate bill over the finish line? >> my hope is on behalf of all the middle class people and others in our country and not the top 1% of the richest people or the orp r corporations already holdings over a trillion dollars in assets overseas, they're not using it to create more jobs or increase wanings of employees that this is a sucker of a bill and we should kill it and start over. to really help the middle class families that are taking it in the necking with this bill. >> do you think they have the votes? >> so far, perhaps not because we're hearing different things about members of the republican caucus having concerns. believe me, the president has every intention of shoving this down america's throat and we democrats are going to stand firm to make sure that doesn't happen. one of the other huge dangers to this bill is the elimination of the individual mandate under the affordable care act. that is tantamount to repealing the affordable care act.

didn't we just have this battle and saved health care for 13 to 33 million people just in july and they're trying to do it again. when does this all stop? when does the middle class get the kind of help they need? >> senator hirono, thanks as usual for joinings us. >> right now, president trump is en route to m where he will be pushing the republican tax plan. the speech later this afternoon around 3:30 p.m. eastern. you're looking at live pictures coming in from the site there. whether he address his controversial retweets? will he double down? much more coming up. i'm done. done with figuring it out for myself. i'm done with surprises. i'm done with complicated. if you're on medicare, and ready to be done with complicated, turn to unitedhealthcare and our medicare advantage plans... like aarp medicarecomplete. these plans can combine your hospital and doctor coverage, with prescription drug coverage and more, all in one plan for a low, or even no, monthly premium.

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way to missouri right now to sell the republican tax plan. the question is will he also address a number tv controversial retreats he fired off this morning. let's go to abbie joining us in saint charles. any word on where the president plans to address these anti-muslim videos he retweeted earlier today? >> reporter: well, wolf, the president left the white house just a couple of minutes ago and on his way here but still hasn't said anything about these videos he left under a cloud of controversy this morning he retreated several videos from an unvetted videos from a woman who is leader of a far right british group that is very controversial back in her own country. those retweets are getting pretty negative reviews back home. but the white house is not saying a whole lot how the president came to see these videos and then sent them out

again to nearly 40 million twitter followers. these depict muslims carrying out violent acts. it's not clear it's real. sarah huckabee sanders telling people earlier this morning whether they are real or not, the threat is real. but, wolf, no word on what that threat is. and if the president from this podium later today will address the controversy at all or elaborate further on what kind of threats specifically he was trying to bring awareness to with those retweets this morning, wolf. >> we'll stand by to hear what the president of the united states has to say. i'm sure he'll speak at length on the tax cut legislation, let's see if he gets into some of these other very controversial issues at the same time. abby thanks so much on the scene for us in missouri. nbc news fires long time matt lauer.

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this is cnn breaking news. we again with the breaking news on this wednesday afternoon. i'm brooke baldwin. thanks for being with me. another powerful man is out of job at a parent inappropriate behavior at work. this time it is matt lauer. long time coanchor of the "today" show whose name is synonymous with morning television. nbc news says he was fired after a detailed complaint by colleague about