time to vote. republicans say they have a deal to pass a giant tax cut. >> it will be the greatest christmas present that a lot of people have ever received. it will be something special. plus the president claims he's getting a raw deal in the russia investigation. >> well, it's a shame what's happened with the fbi. how they've done that is really, really disgraceful and you have a number of angry people seeing it. and alabama elects a democratic senator and sets off trump. >> tonight is a night of rejoicing, because as dr. king said, the arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. "inside politics."

the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters now. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king, and to our viewers in the united states and around the world, thank you for sharing your sunday. forget the normal pre-christmas lull. it is a very big week ahead, the finish line in sight now for the president's new priority number one. after months of trying and failing to repeal obamacare, a big tax plan cut set for final votes this week. >> we deserve, americans deserve, a new tax code of a new era for american prosperity. that's exactly what the tax cuts and jobs act does. we listened, our lawmakers listened to their constituents, family and businesses, and this tax reform reflects the priorities of the american people. plus two sunday interview appearances today for

senate-elect doug jones as the public worries both their house and senate majorities are at risk in next year's midterm elections. >> alabama has been at a crossroads. we have been at crossroads in the past. and unfortunately we have usually taken the wrong fork. tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you took the right road! and president trump's lawyers are meeting this week with special counsel robert mueller. the investigation now reaches deep into the west wing, even the oval office himself. one reason? the president keeps trying to suggest it's all a witch hunt. >> there is absolutely no collusion. that has been proven. when you look at the committees, whether ilts tt's the senate or house, my worst enemies walk out and say, there is no collusion, but we'll continue to look. they're spending millions and millions of dollars. there is absolutely no collusion. >> with us this sunday to share their reporting and their insights, cnn sara mori.

we begin the hour with a dramatic and deliberate effort with president trump and his allies to question the integrity of special counsel robert mueller who leads the russian investigation. >> from the beginning they were pro-hillary. we understand people have political views, but they're expressing their views with such animus, and now with the president of the united states, they can't possibly be seen as objective, transparent or fair. >> a coup in america. kellyanne conway's complaint is about text messages by fbi agents, one of whom was assigned to the russian investigation. the information they keep skipping, however, is the fact the special counsel fired the agent the day he found out about the text. then there's this. a new attack. in letters to congress, they

alleged that special counsel mueller unlawfully obtained access to e-mail between the president-elect and inauguration. that is unlawful conduct by the prosecutor. but consider the context. if the president's transition team or his current legal team really thought they had a case, mueller was violating the law, they would make it in court before a judge, not in a letter to congress that carries zero legal weight. responding to the letter overnight, mueller said this. when we have obtained e-mails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process. now, the timing here is fascinating. the president's legal team meets with mueller and his top deputies this week with two indictments and two plea deals in hand, including the cooperation of former security adviser michael flynn, it is clear the investigation is intensifying, not winding down as team trump had hoped. let's start with the legal back and forth between trump's

transition team, kellyanne conway on television, a deliberate effort to try to undermine robert mueller, saying his team is biased. and last night which strikes me a little as the men versus boys in the sense they come after him with a letter -- forgive me, this is a stunt, it means nothing. doesn't ask for anything, it's not a legal document, anywhethe not going to court making a case against mueller. twice he uses the word criminal. criminal investigation, criminal pursuit of evidence. that's a big deal. >> yeah. i mean, the assumption that because mueller's team has these e-mails, they were obtained illegally, i think is a false assumption. there are many ways the team could have obtained the e-mails, most of them legally, and it certainly seems to me they are releasing this in order to attract attention. the largest project, really, is to turn the mueller investigation into the starr

investigation, which some people took seriously, but by the time the findings were released, it was considered a political and positi politicized process. >> kellyanne conway is not saying that by accident. the president himself alluded to this earlier in the week. it sets up a conversation. at the very moment his lawyers are going to sit down with the special counsel, the special counsel will raise their hand and say, cut it out. >> i think this meeting is important because it will set the mood for the president over the next few weeks, but remember over the week of his sort of christmas break when he's not going to be surrounded by all his people, he's a little less reined in, he has more time to gobble up cable news, he has more time to tweet. so he'll be a little bit more

unchained. but this could set in motion how they try to shape the public perception of bob mueller. we see the president out there insisting there is no collusion and everybody has agreed to that. that is his attempt to shape the public opinion of this. nobody has concluded that. the special counsel's investigation hasn't concluded that. the house and senate has not, but i believe you begin to see how he and his team figure out how they can win this war based on public perception rather than doing something more dramatic that might imperil the presidency like trying to fire mueller. >> the president's lawyers and john dowd certainly, ty cobb, have really praised mueller in the past and talked about how they're cooperating fully, this was a professional operation. that was their m.o. for months and months and months. now after the flynn indictment, john, as you point out this is widening, not winding down, you see a pivot among his political

advisers there with kellyanne conway on tv really going after mueller. i have to wonder how that plays out with the president and his legal team. if the president feels like he's under fire here, does he make changes on his legal team and take a different tact. >> does he change course? does he understand? michael flynn is cooperating. papadopoulos cuts a plea deal. there may be more superceseding indictments there. they're looking to make their public case for them and is he's telling people who might be interested in that job, it's going well into next year. this isn't going anywhere. >> it's not. it's a pr move as the investigation is ramping up. even if this document has no legal weight, and it might not, there is a campaign by the white house and the president's allies and the conservative media to discredit this campaign, and it's not working overall with the public. by a wide margin, americans

approve of this probe. 63%, according to a recently associated press release, 81% of republicans think this investigation is politically motivated, and we are seeing that show up in how republican lawmakers on the hill behave and how they approach this. the rosenstein hearing before the judiciary committee, republican after republican was taking swing after swing of him, pointing out these text messages. it matters. this is the stuff that makes its way into the living rooms of trump voters. >> if you watch any of the other programs, they are making the case that this is a biased investigation against the president. the coup headline on the jesse waters show. you make a good point about the republican base. republican after republican tried to get him to say mueller has overstepped his bounds, he shouldn't be looking at financial transactions, what are the manafort-gates indictments

about, they're not about the campaign. this is a man with years of law enforcement appointed by president trump. he says, yes, he supervises robert mueller and -- >> there are a lot of media stories speculating about what the special counsel mayor m or not be doing. i know what he's doing. i can assure you the special counsel is conducting himself consistently with our understanding about the scope of his investigation. >> that is a 2x4 of a trump appointee to the critics of this investigation saying he has to check in with me before he does anything, that's how the law works, and i'm good. >> one of the interesting things about how this investigation has pointed out is that we have seen so little of this in public. so much of this has happened behind closed doors, so it has been sort of cable news appearances where the president and his team have tried to shake public opinion. it's so different than when we

look back at previous scandals and we look back, for instance, atwaterga watergate, and this if the risks if his presidency stretches into 2018, if he loses control of one of his chambers, that this is happening behind closed doors. the ability of hitting the president with a 2x4, that could spill into the public and i don't think this is something the president or his team fully appreciate. yes, this is an investigation that hangs over the white house but it's largely been conducted behind closed doors. >> and the president is going to be emboldened to move on mueller the more you hear people talk about mueller, talk down the fbi, suggesting there is some kind of bias. if the president hears more and more of that, i think it will be easier for him to say, why am i even keeping this guy around? >> democrats picked up rumors this week that the president was going to fire bob mueller right before christmas. the president's lawyer says that's not happening. i think the democrats are

talking about that to make sure in most other public conversations they can say, mr. president, you can't do that. but when the white house suddenly becomes mor more aggressive, based on what happens in office, they know more than what we know. they know what the special counsel is asking for, they know about the inquiry. this was interesting, i thought, from james comey and all these attacks on bob mueller, the fired former fbi director, who was central as to whether the president was trying to obstruct the investigation tweeted out, the citizen's safety lies in the prosecutor who serves the law and not faction al purposes. he finds it necessary to poke the president now and then. >> he quotes something that makes an illusion.

i think this is shaping up to be a 2018 campaign issue. i think democrats are going to increasingly argue if the republicans stay in control, they're not going to let this investigation kind of move to its logical conclusion and where justice is dealt and you have republicans who i think are at least talking about the idea of a message where they point out that, keep us in power or democrats are going to try to impeach president trump. >> i think if mueller has proven anything, he's a seasoned, thick-skinned prosecutor who is not going to let these attacks hit him. the question is whether in congress or the white house there is some effort to rein him in. republicans believe they can finally deliver on a big move -- tax cuts. "snl" takes on a family discussion. >> you can finally say that again because the war on christmas is over. it will soon be replaced with a

war on north korea. it is burning all natural, all-american coal which is coming back in a big, big way. i've had an absolutely amazing first year in office. a lot of people have been saying it was the greatest year in the history of america and maybe the entire planet earth. remember how the economic crash

was supposed to be a wake up call for our government? people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse. they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters.

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mopping robotthe from irobot. its precision jet spray and vibrating cleaning head loosen and scrub stains. all while navigating kitchens, bathrooms and those hard to reach places. you and braava jet from irobot. better together. welcome back. president trump hits the 11-month mark this week. while it has proven more than a little dangerous this year to say deals are sealed, the president does seem to be on the verge of finally delivering a huge legislative win. >> it will be the largest tax cut in the history of our country, and i will say the republican senators, congress, men and women, have been incredible. >> both plans to vote this week. republicans can only afford to lose two votes, and it's not clear the ailing senators john

mccain or ben cochran can return to vote. the vice president on hand to break a tie if necessary believes it can get the planned tax cut plan through. any doubt about that? >> no, not really. even if mccain and cochran aren't there, they still have 50 votes, and with pence to break the tie, it's probably there. senator rubio bargained at the end, held out, got an extension of the child tax credit, susan collins got her preservation, ron johnson got a tax cut. there were a lot of deals cut at the last minute and they seem to have unanimous support right now. we're still waiting for susan collins' position, but she seems there. >> the house and senate have reached a compromised plan, two times standard deduction. drops the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. increases the child tax credit. that was the thing rubio held out for. a few americans would stay the

estate tax and it eliminates obamacare individual mandate. number one thinks they got something big done. number two, they hope it helps them in 2018. they hope their own base will say they did something, donors will open their wallets now, they at least got something done -- are they right? >> i think they hope this has a stimulative effect on the economy. the reagan-era economist that was pushing this bill hard and twisting arms on the hill, he was not happy with the way that -- he advised the trump campaign, i should say, but he was not happy with the way the individual side of this bill turned out. very happy with the enormous reduction in the corporate tax rate and said to the democrats, you tried your way for eight years, let us try our way. no guarantee this necessarily gives a boost to the economy, but the proof will be in the pudding, and we'll see. and if it doesn't come badoesn' us and tell us we were wrong.

>> from all republicans in washington, republican president, republican house, republican senate, if you can't cut taxes, why have a republican party is this. >> that's what they're here for, exactly. i think it's good to get the donors off their back, give them something literally and figurative figuratively. count me as very skeptical that this can impact their prospects in the midterms, not because the bill is unpopular, but because you have a president mired below 40% with a blazing stock market, plunging in numbers, i'm just not convinced this will change anything next year. a big chunk of this country is appalled that he is president of the united states. appalled. a tax cut bill is not going to change their view. a swing voter in a high-income district who thinks he's unfit to be president is not all of a sudden going to change her mind

next year because he got a tax cut. it's not going to happen. >> it is a stunning contradiction, because if you look back historically, how the economy is doing is so important to how people vote. it's so important to people's perceptions of the president. this is the kind of thing, i'm sure, kellyanne conway is feeling more positive than we are right now because -- right, but this contradiction that the president can't seem to overcome, while we constantly see him tweeting about the stock market, tweeting about the jobs numbers, because he feels like people should like him more because the economy is doing better. but john invits right, there iss sense of this president that he can't break through to the swing voters, that he needs to do something more than just cut taxes before they're willing to believe he is an effective executive. >> according to his rhetoric or his actions, he's done very little to expand beyond the base of the party even if the bill is an attempt to do that. >> and this bill -- at least on the surface, that bill will not

help there because no democrat is going to vote for it. you have 10 trump state democrats, democrat incumbents in states the president won on the ballot, and none of them like the tax cuts. >> feinstein wrote that bill, by the way, in '01. you have zero democrats now, zero. >> we see how well that played out when democrats tried to pass a legislature and people thought the benefits did not happen. i think the big question between now and 2018 is going to be what people feel as a result of this bill. they're not going to file their 2018 taxes until april of 2019 after the midterms. the only thing they're going to feel is somewhere between 15 to $23 per week that they're going to be withholding. the president passed the stimulus for 95% of working couples. they didn't feel it. only 12% of them thought they got a tax cut.

>> it's a great point because everyone will get a tax cut. for some people it will be modest. 100 or 2$200 makes a big difference. this is not, however, if you go back in time, corporate americans get a big tax cut here, middle class get a small tax cut. do you feel better about the environment around you, because this does not meet candidate trump. >> the largest reductions are for the middle class that have been forgotten. the middle class family of two children will get approximately a 35% tax cut. >> the middle class is getting nowhere near a 35% tax cut. candidates all the time, all candidates say things in a campaign that doesn't turn out to be true. president trump is not unique in that regard. but the question is, can he convince people, hey, this is the best deal i could get, and

b, just trust me, you're going to see this wave of economic growth. >> the biggest weakness, one of the biggest weaknesses is there has been zero sales pitch for any legislation from this white house not on the health care bill, not on the tax bill. there's been very little sales pitch from congress. there was a bit more from paul ryan on this tax bill, but there was no sales pitch from mitch mcconnell on the health care bill that then failed by one vote and very little on the tax bill, either. >> i do think, unlike 2010, republicans will run on this tax bill in 2010. most republicans ran from obamacare in 2010. we'll see how that plays out. up next, we'll see more how senator doug jones views the issue. that stunning win already resetting expectations for the 2018 midterms. of money ever sine switched to progressive. this bar is legit.

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. we are indeed in the struggle to preserve our republic, our civilization and our religion. and to set free a suffering humanity. and the battle rages on. this has been a very close race, and we are awaiting certification by the secretary of state. >> as you can see right there, roy moore still won't concede alabama senate race. but just about every other republican facing reality. democrat doug jones will join the senate in early 2018. let's take a look. his win has proved to many that new year could bring a giant anti-trump republican way.

alabama just voted in a democratic senator. why? let's move down here, birming m birmingham, 30%. look next to birmingham in shelby county. yes, roy moore won this suburban county, but that is not the margin the republican needs in the close-in suburbs. roy moore needs to do better than that. the reason people think 2018 is the way for the democrats, it's not just alabama. close in, the democratic base. look at these margins. turned out hugely in the government's race. but let's move over here. loudoun county used to be republican. the margin here, nowhere near where they need it. drop down here. again, the republican wins but just barely. that's a dead heat in a suburban area that used to be reliably

republican. democrats look at this map in new jersey, in alabama. nancy pelosi thinks she may go from democratic leader back to speaker. >> as you saw in alabama, you saw in virginia before that, suburban republicans are in trouble, very serious trouble. if republicans think they have a problem now, wait until they raise taxes on millions, millions of middle class families and hand a tax break to corporations to ship jobs overseas. >> when you cumulatively look at the three races it's easy for the republicans to say new jersey is blue. it's almost a rationalization to say new jersey is trending more nationally blue. a democrat just won alabama. if you look at the suburban slump, and it wasn't just roy moore. the white house can say it's roy moore, he's a bad candidate, he had all the flaws and attl

allegations against him. there is a trump analyst within the suburbs that says the house and senate are in play. >> the imperative in 2010 is impossible to ignore where in 2009 you had republicans win unlikely races for governor, in new jersey as well, and win a very unlikely senate seat in massachusetts when scott brown won. we're seeing the same thing here, where democrats picked up two gubernatorial seats, they picked off republicans, and where they won a very unlikely senate seat in alabama. i think the parallel is also between president obama and president trump where their wins are not helping their party down ballot. >> and what so worries the gop beyond this point is president obama's numbers were better than president trump's numbers are now. he was obviously not in a good place in late '09 to '10, but he

was more popular than this president. i think if you look at the 2018 map, 24 seats for democrats to take back the house, i think most folks would say that's certainly feasible right now, and looking at the senate map, a one-seat majority for the republicans? that's certainly in danger now, too. the reason it's in danger is you've got twin pillars. fired-up democratic base, younger voters, not white voters, coupled with people who are kind of leaning to the right who are in college and the suburbs who do not think this president is fit for office. >> you have leader mcconnell who is furious at steve bannon, the president's former top strategist now back at breitbart news who pushed roy moore against their favorite candidate, running off luther strange. some people say, okay, you just got spanked in alabama, learn your lesson, get out of the way, candidates go in statewide.

bannon said, no way, this is just a senate fund against mitch mcconnell. all red, this is your state on bannon. alabama switches over. >> a bit misleading there. >> it's a bit misleading, but if your voters reject your product, you change it. but the republican party doesn't have a consensus. this is going to continue, and again, that's one of the reasons democrats are optimistic, because they think they've got candidates coming out of the woodwork to run, and republicans are going to have factual fights throughout the year. >> he's been fighting this battle since 2010. he lost a number of senate seats because republicans have nominated an atrocious candidate. roy moore is just another example of that and this comes after mcconnell cleaned up in 2014 when he took the majority, snuffed out all these candidates and he's beginning to lose the battle again. alabama, 29% of the electorate.

it's larger than a proportion in this state. if democrats can have that kind of turnout among non-white voters, then the electrorate ca look as much of a dream electorate as it did now. >> to which comes in the role of the president. the "washington post" says the president is going to be out there campaigning everywhere. you have to get invited to campaign, number one. the first one is usually bad. obama lost 63 house seats in his first midterm. here's what peggy noonan writes about the president. mr. trump's practiolitical malpractice has been to fail, since he's just -- since his

election, to increase his popularity and power. he has failed to do so, pry laerl due to his self-indulgence, his tendency to overpower. >> does that present challenges for 2018? sure. are there going to be candidates who don't want to campaign with him? sure. and what does he say when he goes out and campaigns alongside people? we heard over and over again from the white house the president is going to be out there selling health care, he's going to be out there selling tax reform. he has to have a pitch that's going to help candidates down ballot and he has to know what to say. >> who is going to invite him? if you're a safe, conservative, southern house member, sure. the republican party will need the fundraising money. >> that luther strange rally he did in huntsville, alabama in september, i can't tell you how many folks that has scared off in the party. he's not going to come to your state and your district and make it about you and your campaign.

he's going to make it about him and whatever grievance he has at the moment. whether that's nfl players and the flag or robert mueller's investigation. he's not going to be the great guy delivering for illinois 7 and he knows that. this boy came into a boy scout event. why would you risk bringing him into your state for a campaign? paul ryan has had a giant win. so why is it said he may be heading for the exit? ® xarelto®... to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner... ...that's proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again.

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you're going to be very glad that you did. tha...oh, burnt-on gravy?ie. ...gotta rinse that. nope. no way. nada. really? dish issues? throw it all in. cascade platinum powers through even burnt-on gravy. nice. cascade. every morning i wake up in my office and i scroll twitter to see which tweets i will have to pretend i didn't see later on. every afternoon former speaker john boehner calls me up, not to give advice, just to laugh. actually, it was john boehner who was the one who tried to convince me to take this job of

speaker. he even got cardinal mullen to call me and convince me to take this job. god may forgive you, cardinal, but i will not. >> there was chaos during the presidential campaign and repeatedly this year. but in the reports these days that speaker ryan may be waiting to pack it in after the president's tax cuts, the president called to check in. and the speaker made clear, just wild rumors. is it? is paul ryan thinking of packing it in? >> i don't think it's wild rumors at all. i don't think you would find a lot of folks on the hill to say he's going to be there beyond 2020 and he might not even be there for the next election. >> if you think you're going to have to hand the gavel back to

nancy pelosi, do you want to be speaker when that happens? >> he has to file for reelection. you can't run for reelection when you're urging people in your caucus to run for election yourself. so he has to run for reelection. but i think it's very much possible that he runs for reelection and then steps down if they get waxed next year. >> i agree with that. i think if republicans hold the majority in the house, he's likely to stick around. >> the way i heard this -- forgive me, but the way i heard this is he's frustrated. i think everyone in washington, especially those who have to deal with him on a daily basis, have trumpsaustion. he doesn't see his wife very much, he doesn't see his kids very much. my question is, is he just venting at the end of what has clearly been a frustrating year and getting a victory on tax cuts, getting home for the holidays will clear this up and he comes fully back in, or is this bigger than that? >> i think it is bigger than

that. he's joked about how miserable his job is. it's not fun in many, many ways and speaker ryan is not that person who wants it for the sake of power. he had to be dragged into it kicking and screaming. one thing that makes paul ryan tick, tax cuts and he said next year they're going to try to move to a different welfare system. >> you're going to get a welfare system with only a few votes? >> no. >> this might convince him to stay. breitbart news, word of these rumors came out that ryan is thinking of pack ing it in. they say, why wait? maybe that's a reason to stay when you're getting kicked. >> he said he doesn't read breitbart. >> he has people reading it for him. >> a lot of people pretend not

to read things these days. paul ryan hasn't been dealing with president trump in the past year, he's been dealing with president trump throughout the campaign, and now with him governing in office and trying to be governing partners, it is interesting to me the president picked up the phone, gave him a call. >> some things in life, and we know if you're paul ryan and mitch mcconnell, you have learned you can't control the president, you can't moderate the president, you can't get the president to change his behavior no matter how many times you ask him. look at the emergency poll. you're speaking of paul ryan and right now the democrats have a 15-point lead when voters are asked, are you voting democrat or republican in congress? if it stays at 15 points, paul ryan is not speaker. if it's above that, it's more questionable, and if it's 25, see ya. >> i think he's gone. >> you think he makes the

election? >> i think he files and runs for election next year, but just because he's talking about entitlement to reform next year, he said he wouldn't go after reform in this country. he turned his agenda pretty much over to congress. >> promise not to cut social security and medicare, promised not to cut medicaid. the medicaid he backed off pretty quickly. clearly paul ryan is trying to work with him on other things. >> maybe that's a reason to stay, if you can get the president to switch on policy. up next, looks on what the president is thinking inside north korea and his broader security strategy. my day starts well before i'm in the kitchen. i need my blood sugar to stay in control. i need to shave my a1c i'm always on call. an insulin that fits my schedule is key. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar

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how's it going down there? that's good. lica misses you. i'm over it though. (laughter) that's fine. i miss her more than you anyway. ♪ ♪ hey, my window is closing.

yeah that's okay. alright miles. i love you. (phone hangs up) ♪ ♪ yeah i love you too. ♪ ♪

one last time around the

"inside politics" table. we asked the great reporters to share something out of their notebooks to get you around the corner. >> he's going to jet off soon for his vacation, but he still has questions about north korea. there are republicans who think he'll have to make a decision on this soon. keep in mind who is advising him. in this case it is secretary of state rex tillerson. they obviously have been sending very conflicting signals about how to handle north korea, but the president likes a little bit of unpredictability. i'm told by at least some that private they have reached a temporary detente. it's trump. so temporary could be a key there. >> detente. >> we spoke about the midterm climate earlier, but i just want to focus on how big this wave could be. i was talking to democrats this week, and it's remarkable to sort of get a glimpse at their

bullishness. i talked to one former party leader who has both led and also run campaigns, run for office himself. he thinks they could get 40 seats in the house. keep in mind, democrats need 24 for the majority. you hear the party talking about 40 seats now. it's a long way until next year's election, but you have people looking at a heck of a year in the house. >> john, there are going to be winners and losers in this tax bill, but i want to run through the constituencies who ran at the last minute. a tax on grad school tuition waivers, gone. the medical expense reduction, preserved. the johnson bill trying to be preserved that would allow churches to oppose political candidates. that was defeated. the tax for legal abortion, defeated at the last minute. we'll hear a lot about this bill but their constituents can rest

easy. >> the winners will be celebrating and probably raising their fees. iliana? >> the president announces his national security strategy in a speech tomorrow, and i'll be watching whether this document merely collects dust or whether it actually serves to guide the administration's foreign policy which, up until now, really seems to have been guided by the way the president wakes up feeling, or really by his instincts rather than by so some over ararching theory or principle. i'll close with this. as we wait to see if the ailing mississippi senator ed cochran makes the tax cut vote, there are already contingency votes in the way if cochran can't return to work or if he decides to step down in the early new year. it's clear this would create another flash point in the republican party civil war.

mcdaniel who lost to cochran thinks he should be seated in the republican constituency. but mitch mcconnell wants no part of that. the former mississippi governor hailey barber. if such a vacancy occurs, both the mississippi senate seats would be on the ballot next year and feature attractions, you might say, in the gop factual war. hope you can join us weekdays as well. we're here at noon eastern. how will alabama's new senator deal with donald trump and how will it change the map? jake tapper is next. have a great day. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424.

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will he pull the trigger? a prominent democratic congresswoman says rumors are swirling on capitol hill about the russia investigation. >> i believe that the president wants all of this shut down. he wants to fire special counsel mueller. >> this is a lawyer for the trump transition team questions whether the investigation is tainted. >> there is absolutely no collusion. i had nothing to do with russia. >> will the president fire mueller? will he pardon flynn? plus, tax plan revealed. and republicans appear to have the votes they need to pass it. >> we're very, very close to a historic, legislative victory. >> who wins and who loses in the newbill? we'll discuss t