gross abuse of power. >> what concerns me is the intent to carry out a plan to disrupt the election. >> it's very troubling. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to your "new day." it's thursday, december 21st, 8:00 in the east. chris is off and bill weir joins me. president trump and republican lawmakers are celebrating the passage of the landmark gop tax will, and republicans wake up uncertain about how it will impact them, and it includes the repeal of the mandate for obamacare, and what does this mean for the people who rely on that? >> all that, and the top ranking democrat mark warner of virginia warns president trump not to cross the red line by firing

robert mueller or pardoning any witnesses. let's get to joe johns at the white house. >> reporter: the hard task begins of rolling out the tax overhaul, but one of the things that could pour cold water on the enthusiasm over the tax bill is shutting down the government because the government's leaders can't get a spending bill together. they say they are going to do it. right now it looks likely they can, but time is running out. >> i look at these people and it's like we are warriors together. >> reporter: president trump celebrating the tax bill alongside congressional republicans after months of attacking gop leadership over previous legislative failures. >> paul ryan and mitch, we got together and we would work very hard, didn't we? it seems like -- it was a lot of fun. it's always a lot of fun when you win. >> reporter: the lovefest

continuing with ryan and mcconnell gushing over the president. >> something this profound could not have been done without presidential leadership. thank you. >> reporter: and there's confusion for taxpayers on how to prepare for the huge overhaul. republicans saying workers will feel the benefits of the tax cut in a matter of weeks. >> on january 1, americans are going to wake up with a new tax code. in february, they will see withholdings go down so see bigger paychecks. >> the tax bill making a impact on the obamacare individual mandate. republicans tried to repeal obamacare, but they failed. >> so with this bill, not only

do we have massive tax cuts and tax reform, we have essentially repealed obamacare and we will come up with something that will be much better. >> reporter: president trump selling the tax overhaul as a christmas present on middle class, and comcast and at&t promising $1,000 bonuses to their employees and wells fargo hiking its minimum wage, but pfizer and coca-cola saying they will turn over most gains to their shareholders. >> is that what you intended? giving more money so they buy back more stock increasing the wealth of the ceos? >> reporter: republicans have two days to pass a spending bill to avoid shutting down the government. a closed door meeting of house republicans late wednesday night ending with more questions than answers.

there are still more administrative steps to be taken on capitol hill before the president can sign the tax bill. we hear he is anxious to do so and might just sign it from mar-a-lago if necessary. nothing on the president's public schedule today and the question is if he will hold a year-end news conference. >> let us know when you find that out. thank you very much. joining us to discuss all of this, david and a.b. stoddard. the president admitted something yesterday that the public suspected. in all the polls, the public felt this favored corporations over the middle class and this was designed as a corporate tax cut, and that was really a crowning achievement and the purpose of it and the president seemed to reinforce that yesterday. let me play for you what he said.

>> our plan also lowers the tax on american business from 35% all the way down to 21%. that's probably the biggest factor in the plan, we become competitive all over the world. our companies won't be leaving our country any longer because our tax burden is so high because we are down to the lower end of the spectrum opposed to being the highest. >> that's probably the biggest factor and the crowning achievement they would say and it's a bit off script and message from the way lawmakers were trying to sell it in the past couple of weeks. >> look, i do think that the reason the republicans are focusing on this is because there has been for years a bipartisan consensus that our corporate tax rates and structure put the u.s. at a competitive disadvantage. there was always a debate of what the rate should be lowered to and other changes that should be made, and republicans believe strongly this is going to make

the u.s. competitive and that's going to be good for job growth and wage growth and now they have to hope that comes to fruition, and the reason is they were willing to bend more and make sacrifices on the individual side where you have tax cuts not permanent, and then depending on where you live and what your income is, the gains might be uneven. as well as the democrats have done, alisyn, in pushing as this as a tax cut for the wealthy, and that is a challenge for republicans, but the real challenge for the gop is to win back support for the bill in a lot of the upscale suburbs where the house majority will be contested next year. these are districts and states where voters tend to want to vote republican and tend to support tax cuts and like tax cut bills but they feel because of changes to state and local tax deductions and changes to the mortgage deduction, a lot of the voters think this bill will

hurt them in the wallet. that's why you saw a dozen house republicans from these sorts of districts vote against this. that, to me, is the real district. these are upscaled districts but that's where republicans could see real blowback next year and that could cost them in the house. >> a.b., as mr. trump was running for office he was talking about how he would close the loophole for hedge fund managers, the pass-through deal, and he was committed to that idea as late as monday but new york republicans who have to think about their donors on wall street put the kibosh on that. little things like that, things like the individual mandate for obamacare, which is more popular if you believe the polls than the tax bill itself, and how do you think it will play out politically? >> there really is a division in the ranks at -- between the administration, the outside influences like steve bannon, and the former chief strategist

to the president who wanted a 44% rate for anybody earning over $5 million was looking for a different tax reform. >> bannon was? >> yes, bannon was. gary cohen admitted they were pushing to close the interest loophole and tried it 25 times but congressional republicans kept slapping it down and that's why it stayed in place. so blaming that on congress. look, people have been pretty honest about this. chris collins, the congressman from new york, a big early supporter of president trump said flat out that the donors basically said they will never write another check unless we pull this together, and lindsay graham the senator from south carolina said something about that, too. they were basically going to be

abandoned by the people that support them financially, and with whom they need donations to basically defend their majority in the midterms next year. if they didn't accomplish this, the donors were furious they couldn't repeal and replace obamacare and promisd tax reform and republicans have been pretty honest about the fact that they were going to be abandoned by the people that give them financial support if they could not get this over the line. guys, there was this contest, it seemed, yesterday, of who could heap the most praise on president trump in light of the victory. i think the winner might be mike pence. >> i am deeply humbled to be vice president, because of your leadership and because of the strong support of the leadership in the united states, you are delivering that middle class miracle. i want to thank you, mr. president, i want to thank you

for speaking on behalf of and fighting every day for the forgotten men and women of america. because of your determination, because of your leadership, the forgotten men and women of america are forgotten no more and we are making great again. >> look at the president's body language, and even he is like take it down a notch, right? >> or maybe he was saying that's not good enough, i want more. >> yeah. >> all politicians like apblglation and they need to hear it, but the president -- by the way, you know, republicans used to complain about president obama who used to -- they used to count up the number of times he said "i," or "my team," and

now we see it in reverse and more so and i think that republicans understand this and they are trying to give him this affirmation to try and encourage him to play ball with them and to feel good about working in a more traditional environment, which he bucked in the last ten months in not just his detriment but to the republicans detriment. in the past couple months, we have not seen him beat up republicans too much, maybe a little bit, but not like over the summer. if president trump beats up on them less, at least with their own party heading into the mid-term elections they are in a better position and i think that's where they want to be and i think they will lay it on as thick as they have to to keep him happy. >> i want to know the thought

bubble over rex tillerson's head. i am sure twitter will have tackled that one. >> i think it shows mike pence knows if he ever will get the big chair, he's latching himself to the trump brand. no alternative for him. >> a.b., do you have a final thought in the next five seconds? >> nobody better to do this than mike pence. >> thank you very much. law mockemakers are lookinge bill called daca. could there be a deal in the works? a senator involved in the talks joins us.

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since 1985, selectquote has saved over a million families millions of dollars on life insurance. republican party and president trump scoring a major legislative victory passing the tax overhaul measure, but now the gop is facing a looming government shutdown. what is going to happen? let's talk about this and more with senator james langeford of oklahoma. >> good morning to you. >> congratulations on the victory of the tax overhaul. i know you expressed some displeasure or dissatisfaction that it would increase the deficit, and some say it would

be $2 trillion added to the debt, so why did you decide to overlook that? >> well, it's not overlooking it. different economists are forecasting, and all of them said it would be economic growth and it's a matter of how much. and some were saying .1% and others saying 5% growth. my main focus is we have to have the economy growing again. if we don't have the economy growing again we will never -- >> you got comfortable with the forecasts either $1 trillion, or $.5 trillion to the debt. >> the point of it is for me, trying to evaluate how are we

going to deal with debt and deficit and you will never deal with it with a 2% growth, like now, and this gives us the opportunity for economic growth and with that comes increased taxes because they make more money so pay more money. >> it's a gamble. you are hoping for that. the bread and butter of conservatives, as you are, it seemed, was, at one time fiscal responsibility. >> and i think it still is. you still have to have economic growth and fiscal responsibility and you have to have the opportunity to grow out of this, and i would tell you, every time you do any tax policy it's a guess, and if you tax too much it slows the economy down and if you tax too little you can't pay the bills of the economy and government and so you have to hit that balance and it's always your best guess as you walk through it, what is the best

guess. >> there's a piece of legislation about russian meddling in our elections. let me read to you, and i know you crafted it, but let me read for the viewers. during 2016 election russia hacked presidential campaign accounts and launched cyber attacks as least 21 state election systems and attacked a u.s. systems software company, and this dangerous precedent should be a wake-up call as we head into the 2018 election cycle. why do you feel so strongly about this? >> i feel strongly about it because it's obvious. if we allowed russians to do it and we didn't catch it, and if we do it again in a future time that's our problem of what we are not taking advantage of what we know to be true.

>> where states are not keeping up their equipment we need to provide grants for them to take care of the equipment. 12 different states right now cannot audit their elections after the fact. i think that's a problem. every state should be able to audit their system. we need to maintain the state control of that, they manage all elections but where they need help in the process we need to streamline that process of how they keep things up to speed. >> you say what happened in the 2016 election should be a wake up call. does the president need a wake up call? >> the homeland security department is very active in this, they have been very engaged -- >> i mean president trump. he called the russia story a hoax. do you think the russia story is a hoax? >> no, i do not. i think the president's greatest frustration is sometimes there's an impression that comes out

that russia is the reason he won the evidence. there's no evidence any vote was tampered with or anything changed in the system, but there's clear evidence the russians were trying to probe our system and engaging on social media and trying to examine different voter systems across 21 different states. >> i think you are right, the president does have a hard time distinguishing between russian meddling and accusations of russian collusion. it ends up he says things like this to the wall street journal. is the whole russia story a hoax? >> we're actually walking through multiple investigations to be able to lock down all the issues with the russia investigation -- >> but the meddling. he lumps them to go.

>> there are two different issues. did the russians affect the outcome, and the president has been outspoken about he did not collude with them, and there's no question they tried to meddle in the elections, and they like to demonstrate their power through their means. >> you have shared your unequivocal position with the president? >> i have, actually, and he has heard me say it multiple times in media settings like this and in private settings like this. >> he believes you or is skeptical? he understands russia meddled or no? >> you will have to ask him about that. we will be in settings when i hear him say things, but i don't

press him on that while i'm on the senate intelligence team. >> do you believe he thinks russia meddled? >> i think he does have a sense that the rain showereussians weo do something, and what that level is you would have to ask him. he's very passionate about they didn't collude. >> i want to ask you about the continuing resolutions to fund the budget and whether or not we are going to have a government shutdown sometime in the next 24 hours, and one of the sticking points in daca and that's the program that protects the children who were brought here as minors through no choice of their own. i know you are in the middle of negotiating about this and what do you think will happen with this program? >> we won't have a daca extension during this time period. i think there has been wide agreement on this as we have tried to work through the issues on it, and it will not happen in december but will most definitely happen in january or february. the daca issue, the president

put out a march deadline and it has to be dealt with legislatively, and we're not there yet. we have to work through the senate and the house is trying to work through a process to figure out how to deal with it. when you deal with daca, we put out a bill called the succeed act because three different times the d.r.e.a.m. act has come up, and even when it was a democratic house and senate and white house, the d.r.e.a.m. act did not pass. we need to resolve daca for those kids and we believe we have a good solution, tom tillerson and i do, and you have to deal with border security because if you deal with daca now, you will have another group of dhaaca coming through. you have to deal with the child

and the parent. how do you handle those two separately? you need compassion for the kids and also holding up justice under the law. >> a one-word answer, do you think these kids will be protected and stay or deported and stay? >> i think they will be protected and stay, and there are others including myself that are clear about that. >> have a merry christmas. the top democratic senate on the intelligence committee is making it clear to the president he better not interfere with robert mueller. his counterpart in the house joins us next, live. rained by es in twenty different industries. the ibm cloud. the cloud for business. yours.

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as special counsel, robert mueller, faces tpwrgrowing critm from republicans, and the top democratic senator issued a warning to the president. >> congress must make clear to the president that firing the special counsel or interfering with his investigation by issuing pardons of essential

witnesses is unacceptable and would have immediate and significant consequences. >> so here to discuss this and more we have the top democrat on the house intelligence committee, congressman adam schiff. the president says he's not considering firing mueller, and his attorney, ty cobb, calls it a baseless rumor. do you believe them? >> i don't rely on them at all because we have seen in the past the president changes his mind on a dime, sometimes multiple times a day, and if next week we put pressure on mueller again or tweeted at him or going after rod rosenstein, he would have an explanation for his change of heart. i think congress needs to take up legislation to protect robert mueller and the investigation, and the spectacle that we are seeing in the house where

members of the house intelligence committee and house judiciary committee are attacking the fbi and attacking robert mueller and calling the fbi corrupt, and all of this is encouragement to the president that he can act in ways that would be destructive in our system of justice and he would have only too many kwaoeu esant members in the house. >> maybe it's not getting rid of rosenstein or following mueller, but maybe it's what you are talking about there, just chipping away at mueller's reputation by saying things about him so that he stays in place but when his findings come out they are tainted somehow? >> that's unquestionably part of the strategy in the republicans in the white house and steve bannon and it's baring some fruit. some part of the justice

department is being eroded and we saw that in the release of the tax -- text messages went to the media and not congress. why did it happen? i think it's the deputy attorney general is feeling the pressure. this is, i think, deeply dangerous for the independence of mueller's investigation. he needs to be allowed to do his work and not be interfered with and not have the department of justice violate policies in ways that threaten his investigation, and he needs the make sure that the attorney general, deputy attorney general, and robert mueller needs to have the scope to investigate and protect the american people. >> you said you believe the president is pressing house republicans to stop their investigation. what is your evidence?

>> well, look, he says it almost every day. we see that he intervened with the senate republicans urging them to curtail their investigation. his proxies like steve bannon are out on tv saying we need to shut these investigations down. they are not hiding their hand. they are being quite deliberate about it and it's having its desired affect. we have no witnesses scheduled after january 1st, and there are dozens more we need to bring in. they are scheduling interviews out of the state while we are here voting on the tax bill and taking a lot of otherwise inexplicable steps and it looks like they are bending to the white house and its allies. >> and meeting behind close doors with mccabe, and can you share what you learned? >> i can't go into the testimony, but i can say about

mr. mccabe, i think he has been a dedicated public servant to the country, and the bureau he represents has some of the finest agents in the law enforcement agency, and people are calling for him to resign with no accusation or proof of any wrong doing on his part. it's grossly irresponsible. it's going to be doing lasting damage, and there's already erosion of the public confidence, but to credit the fbi and the department of justice the way they are now didding doing is completely irresponsible. >> and do you think that as senator chuck grassley suggested, he will be fired? >> no, i don't think he will be

fired. people that work for the federal government are not precluded from having their spouses either have a political career or express political views. some of the suggestions, for example, for chairmen of the committees of the house and senate that bob mueller should fire on his team that contributed to a democratic candidate. you can't ask people about their contributions or discriminate those that participated in the political process and saying you are not going to be hired or going to be fired because you engaged in lawful political activity. and it shocks me that people in power are making these arguments, and they are shocking when you consider that each of the pivotal people doing this, in terms of robert mueller and christopher wray and rob rosenstein, these are all republicans and yet the gop, at least in the house, is not

satisfied with r satisfi satisfied with ref kuppublicans conducting the republican investigation. >> thank you for being on "new day." a grieving woman is demanding answers about what happened to her fiance about the u.s./mexican border. why are there still so many questions about a border patrol agent's death there. in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence. looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor. feel the power of thenew power...smax. ...to fight back theraflu's powerful new formula

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one month after a border patrol agent died and another injured in west texas the fbi says they still do not have a clear answer about what exactly happened. cnn's scott mcclain spoke with the deceased agent's fiance about what she has been told by authorities and joins us from el paso, texas, this morning. >> reporter: when martinez was killed, she thought answers would come quickly. this happened late at night in a row mot remote area, and investigators

don't have the benefit of footage or a record that martinez used his radio to call for help. the one potential witness has yet to reach out to her. >> we talked about our future, what he planned -- what we wanted to do. he always spoke about getting old together. >> reporter: it has been a month since martinez was killed on duty. a month, wondering what happened. >> the whole thing is very confusing. you know, just the fact that nobody is getting any answers makes it even worse. >> reporter: on the night of november 18th, martinez was working alone about 30 miles from the mexican border, and what happened next left martinez badly injured and unconscious

and later died in the hospital. >> i still have the i love you note he left before he went to work. i found it the following morning when i was going through my makeup. >> reporter: how did that make you feel? >> it tore me apart just to know that somebody loved me that much. now he's gone with no answers. >> reporter: a second agent was also found injured in the same area but survived and the patrol border union was quick to label it an attack and on twitter the president used it to promote the border wall. but one man suggested the agents may have fallen eight to ten feet or could have been clipped by a passing tractor trailer.

>> these agents didn't get clipped by a truck or car. they were attacked. it's plain to see they were attacked. >> reporter: the fbi was investigating several possibilities, including an accident, an attack or a dispute between the two agents. in the weeks after the incident, the fbi set it sights on two brothers. investigators searched the vehicle they were in that might tie them to the scene and the fbi since indicated it's no longer looking in that direction. >> you had the opportunity to go out to the scene. what did that tell you? >> i find it very hard that a fall could have caused all the damage he had. as far as him being sideswiped,

that couldn't have happened either because he was not off the freeway, he was actually on the side road. from the damage to his face, there's no way. there's no way. >> reporter: the one person that might have answers, agent garland, says he doesn't remember anything after arriving at work that day. garland has not responded to interview requests and ochoa says she has not reached out to her family to offer condolences. >> i think he will start remembering things and they will catch who did it. now it has become so hard to believe that he can't remember. anything. >> reporter: the border patrol union says garland suffered severe head trauma, that he wants to remember and get this out in the open and wants for justice to be done. another important point to make is that ochoa asked the fbi whether it's possible that

martinez was killed with rocks, and the fbi told her there is simply no evidence to support that. >> oh, my tpwaugosh, scott, it a mysterious. garland holds the key and he has not reached out to the martinez family, and a lot of questions to be answered. president trump incorrectly claims he did away with the obamacare, but the individual mandate was repealed, so what does that mean for everyday americans? we get the bottom line with david axelrod next. celebrating the holidays with a class of vigneault won't expand your waist line. >> good. >> let's establish what moderate drinking really means. for women, 1-ounce serving per

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the cdc recommends all baby boomers get tested. if you have hep c, it can be cured. for us it's time to get tested. ask your healthcare provider for the simple blood test. it's the only way to know for sure. we didn't want to bring it up. i tell people specifically, be quiet with the fake news media because i don't want them talking too much about it, but now that it's approved i can say the individual mandate on health care where you had to pay not to have insurance, think of that one, okay, you pay not to have insurance, the individual mandate has been repealed. >> that is president trump claiming, as you heard there, he repealed obamacare by hiding the ball that the new tax bill repeals the mandate, and let's get the bottom line from our cnn

political commentator, david axelrod. great to see you. >> happy holidays. great to see you. >> what did you think when you heard president trump say he coached people not to talk about the individual mandate. >> what was surprising to me, he stp stepped on his own story, and they were celebrating this passage of the tax bill and he was so froustrated he couldn't end obamacare and the affordable care act, and he went forward anyway. why you would want to be the grinch that stole health care on the eve of christmas, i don't know. i don't think it was good politics. i am sure if i was his aides, they looked at each other and say why did he have to introduce that into this discussion today. you know, i think he felt

embarrassed by the fact that he has not been able to achieve that goal and wants to insist that somehow he snuck the repeal of the affordable care act, this pill in the apple sauce of the tax bill and he said what he said. >> there were a couple interesting things. first he said he didn't want the lawmakers to give the information to the press so he was trying to keep that information from the public, but having got having gotten rid of the individual mandate, doesn't that go a long way of helping obamacare collapse? >> i don't think it will collapse obamacare, but it will cost 13 million people their health care over time. that's a significant blow. and the fact is that for health reform to work you need everybody in the system, that's how you lower costs and spread risks. in that sense, it's a damaging

thing. you know, look, the affordable care act is really embedded, and there are tens of millions of people that have health care today because of it and there's a lot of public support for it and that's the reason congress has had such a hard time repealing it. i think by touting the fact that he had this element in the law, the president just made an unpopular tax bill even more unpopular. it was not very wise on his part. >> let's play a little bit of yesterday's master class in buttering up the boss. we have been sort of talking about how the optics and the arrangement of the shot is reminiscent of "the apprentice." here's mike pence letting the big man know what he thinks. >> i am humbled as vice president, because of your leadership, mr. president, and because of the strong support of leadership in the congress of the united states, you're

delivering on the middle class miracle. >> it went on for a while. of course, we remember joe biden lead into president obama saying this is a big f'ing deal, so -- >> he got to the point quicker. >> how much time did you spend in the white house hrlavishing praise on obama? >> if we had done that, if this had been a public session of lavishing praise on the boss, he would have laughed for about ten seconds and cut it off. obviously the president needs that, he wants it. mike pence knows the way to the president's heart is to praise him. but, you know, it should not have been humbling, it was a little humiliating to have to go

through all of that in front of the cameras, but that's the way this administration rolls. >> i wanted to see the thought bubbles of john kelly and tillerson. >> if you were a republican with a pet agenda and need the president's help, like all good cooks know, add more butter. >> there's no doubt about it. all these republicans have mastered the art of playing the president and manipulating him, and the way to his heart is through lavish praise. we hear a lot of it. you heard a lot of it at that session. have great holidays, you guys. >> you, too, david. thank you for being here. okay, "the good stuff," that's next. appearing next to me in plain sight.

hallucinations and delusions. these are the unknown parts of living with parkinson's disease. what stories they tell. but for my ears only. what plots they unfold. but only in my mind. over 50% of people with parkinson's will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. and these can worsen over time, making things even more challenging. but there are advances that have led to treatment options that can help. if someone you love has parkinson's and is experiencing hallucinations or delusions, talk to your parkinson's specialist. because there's more to parkinson's. my visitors should be the ones i want to see. learn more at moretoparkinsons.com

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this holiday create a gift from the heart that could only come from the pandora boutique at jared. a world of pandora including exclusive pieces designed just for jared. ready to be mixed, matched and stacked with help from jared's own pandora expert. the one gift that speaks volumes you'll both treasure forever. that's why he went to jared. as our friend, chris cuomo, would stay. a third grader got a jump-start on holiday giving this year. back in september she began a collection drive in her school for the homeless. >> it felt really good because

some people don't get the stuff we have. >> out of the mouths of babes, huh? hup last year she coordinated a book drive, and she is using the grant money she was awarded to buy more supplies. >> that's awesome. future business leader. >> exactly. exactly. spreading the love. thank you for spending this morning with us, and it's time now for cnn's "newsroom" with poppy harlow. good morning, everybody. it's a 9:00 a.m. eastern. john berman has a well-deserved day off. just hours after they manage to overhaul the entire federal tax code for at least the next decade, republicans and congress are struggling to keep the government's doors open and bills paid for one more month.