>> if we can get to vote twice for families and small businesses, glad to do it. >> it is not tax reform. it is a heist that steals from millions of middleclass families and hands out money over to the wealthy. >> on the personal side the president will likely take a big hit. on the business side, he could benefit. >> the conductor was in the actual passenger section at the time of the accident. >> all of a sudden it was just crash. and there i was, down. >> we will find out what happened in this horrific event and we will make sure that in the future rail safety is assured. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to your "new day". chris is off. bill weir joins me. you picked a busy day. >> i tend to do that. >> there seems to be a lot of breaking news when you're around. a massive overhaul of the nat n nation's tax code.

the senate passing the gop bill while you were sleeping overnight. the house is expected to follow suit in a revote today, approving a bill that has been deeply unpopular in the polls. but those polls are not quieting the is celebration at the white house. president trump is set to sign this bill into law this afternoon. the next challenge for republicans is avoiding a government shutdown. the funds run dry at midnight. donald trump jr. trying to discredit the russia investigation. the president's son telling a group of young activists that the is is being fueled by government higher-ups trying to block president trump's political agenda. cnn is covering every angle starting with joe is johns live at the white house. good morning, joe. >> reporter: good morning, bill. the white house is pushing toward a media event later this afternoon. on twitter, the president promised a news conference. we'll see what form that ends up

taking. the initial white house reaction to action on capitol hill was to start recounting all the other things the administration sees as its accomplishments over the last year. make no mistake, this will be the first legislative victory, major legislative victory for the president this year. >> the tax cuts and jobs act is passed. >> reporter: senate republicans celebrating after passing the first overhaul tax code in 30 years. >> the american people will remember this night. i hope they do. >> this country will be moving forward again. >> reporter: the early morning vote, interrupted by protesters -- >> kill the bill! >> reporter: -- coming amid fierce objections from democrats who attacked the $1.5 trillion bill for disproportionately helping wealthy americans and corporations.

chuck schumer chastising republicans for talking in the chamber during its closing argument. >> can we have order, mr. president? >> the senate will be in order. >> this is serious stuff. we believe you're messing up america. you can pay attention for a couple of minutes. >> reporter: and decorum during the senate debate. >> this tax cut raises and causes a huge deficit to money to the wealthiest people in the country, creates a huge hole in the budget. who will fill the hole? not the lobbyist walking out of senator mcconnell's office 100 feet down the hall. >> reporter: republicans remain convinced that once the legislation is enacted, public perception will improve. >> if we can't sell this to the american people, we ought to go into another line of work. >> reporter: the house passed

the tax bill with every democrat and 12 republicans voting no. >> the report is adopted without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. >> reporter: the senate parliamentarian found three small provisions that violated budget rules, meaning the house will have to revote later today. >> to me it is is emblematic when you take major legislation, conceive of it in the dark and rush it through. >> reporter: after likely passing again in the house, the it will be sent to the desk of president trump. due to changes in the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax, the president is likely to benefit greatly despite insisting otherwise. >> this is going to cost me a fortune, this thing. believe me. believe me. this is not good for me. >> reporter: press secretary sarah sanders repeating tuesday before conceding mr. trump could benefit. >> in some ways, particularly on the personal side, the president will likely take a big hit. on the business side, he could benefit.

>> reporter: there is one more issue for the congress to deal with before they leave town for the christmas holiday. that would be a spending bill to keep the government from shutting down. several sources tell cnn the only scenario at this stage is yet another short-term continuing resolution. bill and alisyn, back to you. joe, thank you very much. let's bring in john avlon and alex burns to talk about all of this. let's throw up first for everybody on the screen what's in this bill. since it happened while everybody was sleeping, let's just go through a few details. >> alisyn, the accountant. >> i'm very good at numbers, as you all know. for the individual, it lowers most individual rates. it nearly doubles the standard deduction. that will be music to the ears of lots of people. it eliminates, though, personal exemptions.

you get the deduction in lieu of that. it caps state and local tax deductions at $10,000. which is not good for people in new jersey, new york, connecticut, california. for corporations, it slashes the corporate tax rate. this is what republicans have wanted for decades. it is down to 21%. it lowers the tax burden on pass-through businesses. this is controversial. this is where the president stands to benefit greatly because of the way he is operating his real estate empire as well as jared kushner. it changes how u.s. multinational corporations are taxed. what else do we need to know? >> those are clearly the main points. what we will need to watch play out now is whether this gets sold as an economic stimulus through the form of stimulating corporate revenues and how much

it gets sold effect live as a middleclass tax cut. that is an argument we have really not heard break through so far. polling is is indicating that people mostly don't buy that they will get a tax cut everyone though many of them well. >> that's just a problem in pr. they will solve that. >> in other ways, i remember very well the day that obamacare passed, democrats predicting very confidently. this is a public relations problem when people see the impact go through. they will change their minds. republicans need to explain to people what's actually going to happen to their taxes. one thing that makes people nervous about their finances, it's change. >> obamacare was twice as popular as this bill. >> this is an interesting guide. it did take years for it to catch on. democrats did have to wait for the popularity. maybe they are laying the seeds

and this will rise. >> the fact that they jammed this through in three months is a political feat for the history books. >> it is is an accomplishment for republicans who need to put a question on the board. tax cuts are the closest thing to holy. sit a partisan vote. they got it done in record time. the president campaigned on the middle class tax cut. this was presented as an opportunity for simplification. god knows we need. this is primarily a corporate tax cut under the belief that will finally lift wages which have been stagnant. it will bank shot the middleclass. it might. but it is weighted towards the wealthy. >> as individual cuts expire, the corporate ones -- >> correct. so that's a big deal. look, right now politics is perception. but the fact that a tax cut bill is more unpopular than tax hikes, that's a bad sign to start w. let's see it take place and hope it has the affect that's intended and doesn't have

unintended consequences like income in equality. >> phil mattingly did a piece on this. they decided if they were going to do this in three months, which is unheard of, and if they weren't going to have the disaster of the repeal of obamacare, they would have to keep members away from the press so they couldn't express any of their own doubts to the press which would catch fire. and then they would have off-site meetings at fort mcnair nearby and talk it through until every member was comfortable and had all of their own grievances and issues addressed. that seems to have worked. >> it did. this is the first mature legislative process since 2010. you have never had this party pass major legislation that might be signed into law by a republican president up until now. this is a huge moment we're

witnessing. i want to underscore the stakes for republicans. i guess we are less than a year into the trump presidency. regardless of the outcome of the midterm elections they have full control of government for another year. but as a practical matter, they have maybe eight months left to legislate before the 2018 campaign really kicks in. maybe until the middle of next summer to get things done. if they didn't land this and land this now, you are looking at maybe a wipeout. maybe two years totally wasted. >> and the fiscal conservative rallying cry of taking on the general racial theft of the deficit and debt, they basically waved their white flag. >> pat toomey said 2.5 million and they settled at 1.5. >> that is united the tribe that

helped reach out to independents and mod rats. they seem to only care about that when a democrat is in the office. >> but they say all the economic boom that will happen will wipe that out. >> not even with 1.5. >> one of the big lessons of the trump campaign, this is not something that pat toomey was saying last year. but one thing is republican voters don't care nearly as much as deficits and debt as they appear to. we know democratic voters don't especially care about this. >> eight years of my life back during president obama when we talked about it. >> he was mashing his teeth over the debt. >> the president's son making headlines yesterday speaking to conservative college students and saying this about the russia investigation. >> my father talked about a rigged system throughout the campaign. people are like, oh, what are

you talking about? but it is is, and you're seeing it. there is and there are people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let america be america. >> sort of the deep state boogeyman we have heard of before. gentlemen, why is this important? >> i think it is is inside trump table conversation. but for me the most chilling part is the deep state. they are a group of people who don't want america to be america. that is a really specific dog whistle that is about -- there are folks who don't want our country to be its best. not that they want to undermine the president but they are trying to undermine this country and our fabric. and they work for the the federal government that the president runs. that is a dangerous rhetoric that disrespects deeply the people of government. >> this is where the circular

logic gives me a headache. if there is a deep state and people don't want america to be america they are undermining the country. just follow the conspiracy theory. it is being operated by the russians? that leads us back to who? it used to be the russians. now in the trump conspiracy who is the puppeteers above these people? i know. what am i saying. it's hillary. >> i don't know how many follow-up questions don jr. will be prepared to answer on this one. the highest levels of government is a specific characterization. we're really in a different place than 10 months ago. you can't point to that many people of the highest levels of government who his dad didn't put there. so who is he talking about? >> there's only so much you can run against washington when you run washington.

this is a deeper rift. when you go back to wing nuts, this is an old rift back to john bunch society. people at the highest levels of government trying to undermine american sovereignty. >> and joseph mccarthy. >> absolutely. >> the committee on unamerican activities. it's the same parlance, right? >> yes. >> but the trump machine works if you have an other. a counterpunch. if it's not the media or hillary, it could be the deep state. gentlemen, thank you so much. the trump administration getting set to celebrate its first legislative win. it is not popular with voters. how will americans sell it to the american people? congressman shawn duffy here next. (laughter on tv) when it's finally sunday and you've got no plans but with your comfy pants... (alert chime on phone) keep it simple

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after hitting a bump in the senate. the white house plans to celebrate the first legislative win this afternoon. shawn duffy is a republican from wisconsin, chairman of the financial services subcommittee. congressman, good morning. >> hey, good morning, alisyn. thank you for having me on. merry christmas. >> merry christmas to you. i know you feel you got a christmas present. >> i think america does too. >> you are taking a victory lap other than this hiccup. can you peel back the curtain on what allowed this to happen in the space of three months. we know the failure of the obamacare repeal. so what was different this time? here's what we understand. there was an off-campus retreat where everybody got together and sort of got on the same page. so tell us what it looked like in the halls of congress there. >> i think you have to go back even further. this started back in 2016 when we talked about tax reform and

what tax reform should look like. we wanted to make it simpler and make sure it hit our corporations. and it also goes to middle income americans. that was the first process. most of our attention was drawn to health care reform. that wasn't very successful. and second agenda item was going to be tax reform. once health failed, the ways and means committee, the tax writing committee, they had been working all year on on tax reform. it just came to light for everybody as health care reform was over. but we wanted to get a different environment. to talk about what we want to do on tax reform, we wanted to get off the hill and go to a different location. sometimes venue can be helpful. a three-month process and america can read the different bills in the house and the senate and and it has been an open and transparent process. it will especially help lower income american families. >> democrats think a lot of this was done in the cover of the night, they weren't invited into the process.

listen, you guys won. here's the problem. the latest polls. tpherpbs don't like what they have read so far. the latest poll out yesterday morning shows 55% oppose what they see. they don't like it. so why have you done such a lousy job of selling it and how do you fix that? >> they will say, oh, my god, this is tax breaks for the rich. if that was true we would have real problems and the poll numbers would be right. that's not the truth. if you look back to ronald reagan, it had lower ratings than this package. when people start to see more money in their paychecks because of tax reform and they see the economy grow, they're going to love it. what does the democrat party saw about tax reform? it didn't come to pass. it happened for me and my family. i got more money.

in the long run, because you will siebert economic growth, this will be a winner for america and for those of us who voted for tax reform. >> the truth is, congressman, corporations do get a huge benefit, arguably the biggest benefit by having their tax rate lowered so much. you seem to be putting a lot of faith or stock i should say in the goodwill of corporations, that there will be a trickle down effect. that hasn't always been true. and i'm not sure what you're pinning your faith on because even ceos haven't said that they're going to spread this around to higher wages of workers. >> i'll point to a couple basic facts. it's a good point but i would disagree with you in a couple things. barack obama 35% corporate rate was too high. he thought we should have gotten to 25%. we're at 21%. we're not far off where barack obama was. when corporations pack up and leave and go to other countries because of tax rates, we might

go, that's not a big deal. but they take jobs from american families away from them when they leave. i want to make sure though the average rate in the industrialized might be 21%, american families win. that means jobs and better salaries for the american people. i can't specifically point to what ceo is going to do what. they have more money. they can bring it home. they will reinvest, innovate and families prosper. >> hopefully. hopefully they will do that. the truth is, hold on, congressman. the truth is they have been sitting on record profits. they are flush with cash. our big corporations, they're not cash-strapped. they haven't been raising wages. they haven't been necessarily investing into this. this moment where gary cohn was at this conference of ceo and they were asked point-blank and

he expected him to say just what you're saying. and he didn't. watch this moment. >> if the tax bill reform goes through, do you plan to increase your company's investment. just a show of hands. >> why aren't the other hands up? >> i'm sure you probably can't see that but there was a smattering about reinvesting and capital investments. you heard gary say why haven't other hands gone up? are you giving corporations too much credit? >> well, barack obama and i are giving credit together, a bipartisan move. look at history, alisyn. whether it was jfk, ronald reagan or george bush, you saw economic growth that happened in america. >> hold on, hold on, congressman. that's not true. >> it is true. >> as you well know, i think the

bushes will tell a different story. it is not true that every time you lower taxes the economy booms. it's just not true. sometimes when you raise taxes, the economy booms, as it did with clinton. george h.w. bush had to raise taxes because there were problems from having lower taxes. >> i'm going to throw something to your viewers because they are smart viewers. they have probably heard of inversions where american countries buy a small foreign company and move the business overseas because of taxes. we heard china is eating our lunch in a massive debt. how does an american company compete when our company pays 35% and irish company pay 12%. their profits are eaten up. they can't reinvest. if viewers think you can compete and win when you pay three times

in taxes, we're going to lose. we have the smartest, brightest, hardest working people. if you can't invest capital, you're going to go somewhere else. we have seen that happen. make sure money comes back and is reinvested here. this is going to be a good thing. listen, you made the point well, we're staking our future on this. and i think that history dictates and this economy has dictated you lower regulation, you let people spend more as opposed to brats in washington. we do better as a country and families do better. so i think this is going to work. >> okay. a couple of more questions. have you read the entire 120-page bill. >> i can't say every word. i have ride wide swaths on some and summaries on others. >> this has all happened so fast. will you get a chance to read all 120 pages of it? >> listen, it's a small task.

some of it gets complicated. i have to say i have to make sure how this is working. that's why summaries and conversations are helpful because tax code is complicated. when you look at things that happen behind closed doors, if you look at obamacare, nancy pelosi wrote it. >> that's the same thing that is happening, congressman. it sounds eerily similar. by the way, my producer told me 520 pages. you're really going to like this after we pass it. you don't like it what you have seen so far but let us pass it and then you will find out exactly what it's going to mean. >> obamacare actually brought the bill to the floor and members saw it as it went to the floor. that's why nancy phroepbsy said we have to pass it so you can find out what's in it. four days. all day long over a month ago. it has been out there a long time. >> you still haven't been able to read all of it.

>> but to say it hasn't been out there, the american people can't analyze it, if you want to read the whole text and not big swaths and certain summaries of others, you could do that. >> but you haven't done that. >> wait. alisyn, you said this bill was done under the cover of darkness. we're talking about the process. the process has been going on for well over a month. i watch your show. you have been talking about the different specifics of our bill over a month. how could it be behind closed doors. >> i hear you. i said democrats say that. they felt cut out. >> i watch your show and you have talked about it over the month. so you have to have the details of our plan. >> i appreciate that plug. but i'm telling you democrats like joe manchin said they felt they felt left out. your point is you said you haven't even had a chance to read the whole thing so how do you expect americans to have

done that. >> hold on a minute. there's parts of the bill that i can read and understand. tax code is very, very complicated. as we are dealing with international companies. on some of those more complicated parts i read summaries so i make sure i understand it. unless you're a tax expert, some of it gets to be very deep. that's why i've chosen to deal with the legislation as i have. but the point is, this is different than the thousands of paid bills that come out on the floor and voted on day one. it was done through the leaders, nancy pelosi, as ours which has gone to regular orders. i think the process has been open. we should be able to get joe manchin. that would be great to get joe manchin. but sometimes there's a resist movement going on in america. people don't want to give donald trump a win even though it will help the american people. a lot of democrats, because their base will go after them if they work with republicans, i'm seeing it all the time right now, they don't want to get

involved in the conversation. >> i hear you. that wasn't joe manchin's position. >> i agree with you. >> we always appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective and your position. it is helpful to get it. congressman shawn duffy, thank you very few. >> thanks, alisyn. have a good morning. >> you too. we fact check in real-time here. just to clarify, president obama's plan would have lowered the corporate tax rate to 28% and lowered the effective corporate rate for manufacturers to 25%, which is what the congressman was talking about. okay. there you go. get at out your abacus. a heated back and forth between a congressman and the white house press secretary. the congress at the center of the on exchange joins us next. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. ♪ when you have a really traumatic injury, we have a short amount of time to get our patient

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a heated exchange on twitter between press secretary sarah sanders and a california congressman. an erroneous tweet misquoted sarah sanders saying the gop begged democrats to work on tax reform. congressman ted lou said you

don't serve in congress. and i can say with absolutely certain you are lying. >> this is a president who would have been happy to take their call and have is their vote to help americans have more money in their paychecks, more money in their pockets, more money for businesses to reinvest in this country. that's something that democrats shouldn't need to be begged to be part of. >> she said dear ted lieu, i don't seven in congress but i can read. if you had read the story not an incorrect tweet, you would see that what i said. good morning, congressman. >> good morning, alisyn. >> what's your response to sarah sanders saying you should spend more time doing your job? >> well, my response is, first of all, the hill had a tweet that turned out to be incorrect which meant my tweet was

incorrect. and i am totally fine knitting errors. i wish the trump administration would also admit errors when that happens. and i would urge the press secretary to give her own advice to me also to her own boss. >> spend less time tweeting, more time doing your job? >> oh, yes. i would love if the president did that, exactly. >> that's the message you want her to give her boss. tweet storm done. now let's talk about this tax bill that is about to be signed by the president. listen, we just had congressman shawn duffy on and he said what we have heard from all sorts of republicans. you democrats were invited in. this wasn't done in the cover of darkness. you could have negotiated with them. you could have made this bipartisan. what's your response? >> it was done in the cover of darkness. let me just give you one example. a provision was inserted this past friday and a senator on the republican side had to write

another senator asking how did that get in there? we got this bill on monday. then we voted on tuesday in the house. there were no public hearings where witnesses could go and offer their testimony. this was totally unlike any other legislative process. it was rushed through, which is why we are voting on it again today. >> there was a procedural hiccup that somehow you got wrong and now you have to vote on it again but it will pass. >> it will likely pass today. democrats are not opposed to tax reform. we are opposed to harmful tax reform. this bill will harm america by exploding our deficit by $1.5 trillion. it is going to have cuts to medicare. most of the benefits go to the super wealthy. >> let's talk about this. this is where the rubber meets the road. the corporate tax rate is going

to be lowered. that's something that president obama wanted, something democrats wanted and republicans wanted. it's happening. so why so much consternation? >> i'm not opposed to lowering corporate tax rates but i will if it causes $25 billion in cuts to medicare. none of it is paid for. $1.5 trillion of it not paid for it. not only will medicare be on the chopping block, but eventually social security and other programs that really help a lot of americans. that's why this is such a harmful bill. it is general racial theft from our children. >> tell americans when that's going to happen. what's going to happen next? >> so the bill's provisions don't take effect until next year. but next year some middleclass families will see a tax increase. by 2027, most americans will see a tax increase. but the corporate tax cuts do not expire.

this is a transfer of wealth from the middleclass to the super wealthy and to large corporations. >> i understand. of so you are saying that the benefits for individuals sunset eight years from now. listen, that's an eternity. anything is possible. there could be new administrations, a change in the balance of power. anything is possible by then. so that's not anything that i think americans really worry about today in terms of how they're going to pay their bills. eight years from now, is that what you democrats are hanging your hat on in terms of how you tell the american people this isn't good for them. >> no. we are hanging our hat on massive unfairness. the corporate rates don't sunset. and the state and local tax deduction will cause taxes for millions of middle class families to rise. it does not do 245 for corporations. corporations get to still take it but the middleclass family in california, new york, new jersey will not. >> it is the people in the

californias, new jerseys, new yorks, connecticuts, those are the blue states. that's where the math may not work in your favor. listen, that's just a percentage of americans. people not in those states may feel good about this when they say their tax returns. >> yes. i can understand if a republican legislator in alabama voted for this. i cannot understand any republicans in california, new york, new jersey voting for this. the ones that did, they are going to face a difficult reelection next november. >> congressman, we appreciate you coming on with your perspective on all of this breaking news. >> thank you. alisyn, what caused that deadly train derailment? what we have learned about the workers at the controls when the train crashed. the very latest next.

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the investigation into the deadly amtrak train derailment is focusing on driver distraction and inexperience. the national transportation safety board reveals that the engineer and a conductor unfamiliar with the territory were in the cab when the disaster happened. no explanation for why it was going 80 miles per hour in an 30-mile-per-hour zone. they are awaiting interviews. a police officer dragged half a mile. there was a clear baggie containing an unknown substance. when the driver woke up, he sped off with the officer holding on to avoid being run over. the officer eventually let go, suffering serious road rush rash to his legs and arms. that is scary. oh, my gosh. imagine how terrifying that must

have been. all right. something later. disney's hall of presidents has unveiled its life size robot of president trump. twitter users say the face looks familiar but not like mr. trump's. cnn's jeanne moos explains. >> reporter: george washington introduced to animatronic, donald trump. >> three simple words. we, the people. >> reporter: we, the people, all seem to be noticing the same thing. best described in two words, jon voight. there is an uncanny resemblance to this trump supporter. >> he will save our america. and he will certainly make it great again. >> reporter: read one tweet, congratulations jon voight to be elected to disney's hall of presidents. to be fair, every robot in the hall of presidents looks like they were designed by a guy who

lost his glasses. from obama to bush. some imagined the other reactions to president trump's presence. >> to stand here among so many great leaders of our past. >> reporter: there is one other theory on why president trump doesn't quite look like himself. it looks like disney world expected hillary to win. noted someone else, i'm not saying disney made a hillary robot that last minute changed into trump clothes, but. a petition with 15,000 signatures asked to on not let trump's figure speak. the president recorded the audio at the white house. >> and the best days of our great nation are still ahead of us. >> reporter: tweeted one critic, anyone who can hack into this and replace the audio with "access hollywood" tape is a national hero. while someone did dub in the

audio. >> he referred to my hands. if my hands are small, something else must be small. i guarantee there's no problem. i guarantee it. >> reporter: we can guarantee what lincoln would say. >> all men are created equal. >> it's amazing how well that works. >> they got the tie length right. nothing excites the kids -- i know the kids want to ride space mountain but let's go look at robots. presidents through history. >> jeanne moos, another fabulous one. all right. what donald trump jr. is now saying about the people trying to stop president trump. the head of the nsa calls it scary, next.

my father talked about a rigged system throughout the campaign, and people said, what are you talking about? but it is, and you are seeing it. there is and there are people at the highest levels of government

that don't want to let america be america. >> donald trump, jr., suggesting government higher ups is using the mueller investigation to block his father. let's bring in cnn's national security analyst, general michael hayden. your reaction when he says they don't want to let america be america? >> as suggested last night, that's more than just a little bit scary. is that a barely coded attempt to say america should be governed by the unchecked will of the executive. those so-called forces pushing back, they also go by the popular name the rule of law and the system of checks and balances that governed us for 2

1/2 centuries. >> what is it an appeal for? >> it's an appeal for the unchecked will of the executive to govern the united states and get in the way of president trump is to somehow be un-american. i don't want to be judgmental and i don't know the trump family at all but seems to me from the outside looking in, this is a family that is used to getting its way. when people stop that from happening, they are viewed as enemies rather than in the american political system doing their job with competing in co-equal branches of government. >> judging from the twitter habits about the president and his son, bad thing about conspiracy theories and these sorts of things, but take us inside t inside the structural balances in the cia and other agencies,

and certainly there are those that have liberal leanings but how could they undermine a presidency? >> sure, just to set the record straight a little bit, bill, on balance through a process of self selection by and large the american military, the american fbi, the american intelligence community trends a bit right rather than left, and that's not a fundamental issue, it's just a reality. we have learned how to cabin our political preferences over here and not let it affect ore professional performance. before everybody out there jumps on me, it's an imperfect world and we are imperfect beings and occasionally one inappropriately gets in the way of the other, but on balance, our institutions, what i call our permanent government are as apolitical as any in the world and we rely on them a great deal. >> general, bill and i have been talking about this all morning,

and i am truly trying to understand what don junior is saying, so when he says there's people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let america be america, and to your ear does that mean the department of justice or cia or the fbi? who is he referring to? >> you kind of rack and stack, alisyn, the last ten months, all of those institutions and more have been in the dock at one time or another. you know, intelligence, so-called judges, fake news, a tattered fbi, again, the technique appears to be not to argue the merits of a particular case but to undercut the legitimacy of the institution or the person that is pushing back. look, we need to be careful here, too. let me pivot a little more off the question bill asked just a minute ago. intelligence or fbi pushing back

in our appropriate role in terms of the rule of law. but we have to be very, very careful. we can't be so reflexive about that that we are or we appear to be the opposition and heaven forbid that people begin to think of us as simply the resistance. that's not our role. donald trump is the legitimate president of the united states, and in a sense we owe it to him, our loyalty and service but it has to be within the bounds of the rule of law and truth and fact. institutions have to hold that ground, again, without being reflexively negative. >> what makes americans americans are these discussions, hopefully respectful policies --

>> allowed to protest. >> allowed to hold truth to power. bewary of those that throw around un-american, right? >> indeed. look, i'm not a fan of doing anything for the anthem except standing up, but when the president made it the issue he made in that speech in huntsville a couple months ago, this was really easy. it now became something that was distasteful to me compared to something that threatened my liberals as an american, and i wrote on that one, put me down with kaepernick. >> thank you for joining us. we are following a lot of news this morning including breaking news, so let's get right to it. the tax cuts and jobs act is passed. >> this is serious stuff. we believe you are messing up america. >> this is a historic moment we

are able to bring relief to the american families. >> if you want to do a middle class tax cut, darn it, give a middle class tax cut. >> there are people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let america be america. >> that was a little scary. that's an appeal to the heart of hypocrisy. >> by casting doubt on the integrity of the institutions. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> welcome to your "new day." it's wednesday, december 20th, 8:00 in the east. bill weir joins me, chris is off. a widely unpopular landmark overhaul of the u.s. tax code is in just hours becoming the law of the land. the house is set to vote one more time on the measure before the president signs it. >> president trump already taking a victory lap tweeting

praise for what he calls the biggest tax cut in history, and not technically true but lawmakers turn their attention to a government shutdown. >> reporter: the house of representatives has to vote on a few small tweaks to the bill and after that the white house is planning on a media event here sometime this afternoon, and the president on twitter has also said he's planning for a news conference today. we will see how that develops. initially the white house was really talking about all of the president's so-called accomplishments during the last year, and during a news conference yesterday at the white house in the briefing room, however, make no mistake, this bill is the president's first major legislative accomplishment of his administration, and it's coming in the final days of