all, i'm the guy that got president trump elected, bannon believes, so why not step into that role if trump were to vacate it. >> with the two men harbor contempt with each other, but they can't quit each other. that's a line in there. we're following a lot of news this morning, so let's get right to it. >> i hardly know the man and i am not going to say i want you to pledge allegiance. >> mccabe says former james comey discussed what he talked about with trump. >> when it seems like mueller is getting closer to the white house, we are distracted by something else. >> this vote will make a difference on how americans look at the u.n. >> i think the united states

needs to continue to promote the idea of a two-state saw lousool. >> jerusalem is our capital. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to your "new day." it's friday, december 22nd, 8:00 in the east. chris is off and bill weir joins me, and we're close to the holiday weekend. >> getting into the spirit. >> a lot of christmas music playing in here. in two hours president trump himself will head to mar-a-lago for christmas, and he will sign the tax into law before then. house minority leader nancy pelosi sent a letter to speaker paul ryan warning the speaker not to allow the house's russia investigation to shut down. heading into the new year, tensions are erupting inside the

white house over the strategy for the midterms, and there was a report that a heated discussion broke out with top advisers this week. let's join our gentlemen on to talk about it. good morning, josh. let's talk about the fbi, deputy director, seeming to cooperate james comey's testimony that the president asked for that loyalty pledge, perhaps part of obstruction of justice. jonathan, what are you hearing on this front? >> that the democrats are obviously, you know, very, very optimistic that this is going to be something that could that lead them to a political riches in 2018, that you now have the deputy of the fbi corroborating what the former fbi director himself has said and has written, by the way, i should

add, contemporaneously. this is going to keep the pressure on the republicans going into next year and continue to keep questions alive about what the president does, if there are further indictments from mr. mueller and whether or not he pardons people or ultimately fires mueller. >> i take jonathan's point that this is, they think, political hey for them, the democrats, but it's hard to know where that political maneuvering stops and where their true anxiety starts, about what president trump might do to robert mueller, and how they might impugn the entire investigation. here's an exert. democrats are deeply concerned about the efforts to curtail the investigation and its overall failure to address russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and we expect you will take

urgent action to -- they sound concern and they tell us taking a break for christmas, anything can happen while they are gone. >> there are multiple investigations going on here. the letter from pelosi to ryan was to put pressure on republicans in congress not to shut down that investigation. trump himself has been pressuring republican lawmakers saying can't you rush it or shut it down, and democrats want to make sure that doesn't happen. separately republicans have been trying to tarnish the image of bob mueller, the special counsel, and deputy fbi director, andrew mccabe, and so this is an all-fronts efforts among republicans to push back against the encroaching

investigations. on the flip side of the coin you have democrats insisting that these investigations not fall prey to partisanship and be shut down just because they are inconvenient or unwanted in the white house. >> on the other side you have also people like rand paul calling for an investigation into obama officials, likening it to watergate or worse than watergate, and let's listen to this talk for another investigation. >> the hearing is on the part of the republican attempt to divert attention from the -- from the real investigation into the collusion between the trump campaign and the russian government. and the subject matter is

frivolous. >> devin nunez says it's not a secret they are investigating the department of justice. how big is this going to get? >> i think it will get as big as the republicans in congress want it to get, and they are obviously being encouraged by president trump. i know for a fact he personally encouraged lawmakers to raise questions about the fbi's conduct, and to look at, you know, allegations surrounding hillary clinton from last year. look, the republicans in congress increasingly are more loyal to trump because he is basically signing their agenda into law, and he is somebody who they now feel more obliged to help out. yeah, they are trying to do what they can to raise questions about the investigators. look, there's no question questions should be asked about the conduct of the fbi, but there's certainly an effort that is going on here to -- you know,

in politics, you muddy the waters and we are seeing that happen right now. >> the president just tweeted and it's relevant -- >> oh, boy. >> this is your christmas present, jonathan, to you. >> early. >> it's relevant because it does shed light on what his top priorities will be for 2018 and what he thinks his legislative agenda could be. at some point and for the good of the country i predict we will start to work with the democrats in a bipartisan fashion, and infrastructure would be the perfect place to start after having foolishly spent $7 trillion in the middle east, it's time to start rebuilding our country. in the new year, he wants a bipartisan effort or a wish list. >> this is the question, alisyn, that everybody has been asking for the last year, why didn't he start his administration with infrastructure instead of trying to repeal the affordable care act which created so many

headaches for him this year, and he would be in a much different political place today if he started with the infrastructure. >> well, now he's starting the new year with infrastructure. >> paul ryan doesn't want to do that, he wants to focus on welfare reform and entitlements and has no interest in a massive infrastructure program. this will cause tension between the white house and the house. mitch mcconnell is more open to it, but this is not a ryan priority at all. >> but there's another reason why this is not going to happen for the first thing of the new year, because congress just punted an entire laundry list of things that was supposed to get done by the end of the year three weeks forward to january 19th. when they come back they have to deal with spending and budget and illegal immigration and the

d.r.e.a.m.ers. there's an entire laundry list of emergency items they need to get through, and democrats have indicated they are not going to go along willingly, that we could be looking at a debt ceiling breach or tkpwut shgove shutdown, what have you. jonathan is right, if trump started with infrastructure, the democrats were intimidated and probably would have gone with it, and flash forward now, and president trump is toxic, and most democrats would be punished by their base if they went ahead and corroborated. this is a wishful thinking on trump's part about what he would like to have happen. i don't think it's going to be reflected in reality. >> where trump generally leans toward, right, the comment in the latter part of the tweet about more money overseas, and if trump believes in much of anything, that captures it, why

aren't we doing more here at home and the vague nationalism, and that's where bannon leaned towards, and he turned over his agenda to small government republicans in congress and mike pence, they just don't have the same nationalist view as he does. >> they do have the big legislative wind with the tax bill, and jonathan you have reporting that there's still anxiety inside the white house about what they are going to do for 2018 and if this will be enough to carry them. what you have learned about the fears there? >> there's a widely held view in the republican party that, yes, it's good we have a tax bill going forward because it's something we can talk about, but nobody in the party thinks -- they are bracing for a brutal election year. the first mid-term is usually pretty difficult, and this president, given how unpopular

he is, it could be worse. and my colleagues, maggie, her story today shows real tensions in trump's orbit, and it's only going to be more uncomfortable for the white house because this president will face rejection from candidates who don't want to be seen with him next year on the campaign trail and it's going to be hard to stomach that. >> jonathan martin and josh green, thank you very much. a cnn exclusive, new ethics coming to light versus farenthold. he's facing accusations he may have cast another lie. >> we are learning new information about the ongoing ethics investigation into blake

farenthold. his former communications director spoke with the house ethics committee last week and they say she told the committee that farenthold asked her to do campaign duties, and she told the ethics committee last week she sometimes received the campaign-related request on official house e-mail and she sometimes used the house computer to do that campaign work. according to the source, she claimed on at least one occasion his chief of staff yelled at her to help with campaign efforts and she tried to express discomfort and why is this significant? there are strict rules prohibiting the use of resources

for campaign or political purposes, so if those allegations are found to be true that could prove he committed these allegations. she did confirm she spoke with the house committee lawyers last week. >> where does the ongoing ethics investigation stand with him? >> the ethics committee announced yesterday it is broadening its ongoing investigation beyond just allegations of sexual harassment. remember another former aide, lauren green, accused farenthold of using house resources to benefit his campaigns as well as

allegations that he or anybody acting on his behalf may have required members of his congressional staff to work on his congressional campaigns. i should note farenthold announced last week he would not run for re-election, and paul ryan supports that and he has not called on farenthold to resign. >> thank you. ambassador nikki haley following through on the threat to take names after the 128-9 vote condemning the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital. haley sent invitations to a reception and only to those countries that did not vote against the u.s. and michelle is live. >> i guess you are disinvited if you voted for the position against the u.s. position, but the party is not just for people

that voted against it but it's also for all of those that abstained, and so the u.s. did have support. if you didn't vote at all, you are also invited to this party. the invite says this is a reception to thank you for your friendship to the united states. sounds a little exclusive there, as if you didn't vote the right way you are not really being thanked for your friendship at this point. and a source that passed on the invite to us said think of this as just a first symbolic step in the united states taking note -- kind of like the taking names -- of who supports us and who doesn't. one foreign diplomat i spoke to who did not vote the way the u.s. would have liked sarcastically responded to this saying his team would be crying about this, alisyn. >> got it, michelle. thank you very much. >> i guess the dress code is

make 'em jealous or something like that. >> isn't it always. the russia probe is expanding. the senate intel committee looking into other campaigns including green party candidate, jill stein's. she will join us next. as being your most important note. so [singing]... if you nail that, then you're golden. ♪ i look where the rim and the net meet. put that basketball right on those hooks, and that's what i lock in on. ♪ let's talk about the equation of cooking. ingredients, and execution. the ingredients are controlled by somebody else. execution is all about you. ♪ ♪ ♪ give a little bit ♪ ♪ give a little bit... -hello. ♪ give a little bit... ♪ ... of your love to me oh, haha. ♪ there's so much that we need to share ♪

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in 2016 in the russia probe. one campaign is that of jill stein's. joining us now is 2016 green party candidate, jill stein. thank you very much for being here. >> great to be with you, alisyn. >> what is the story behind that photo taken at that state dinner? >> the story is pretty straightforward. as you mentioned, i was there for a conference basically on international international relations and the role of media by the state tv networks for india, china, and many other countries around the world. it was a very interesting conference and it's all up on the web. you can see exactly what went on. the dinner was really a formality. i was seated at the table with

other diplomats, basically, from china -- not china, but from germany and from the czech republic. when vladimir putin came in very late in the dinner, he was accompanied by three or four men who i assumed were his bodyguards. i later learned they were not his bodyguards, they were his inner circle, but nobody knew that because nobody was introduced, and i was only able to talk to my right and the german chancellor was the only one within earshot that spoke english, and vladimir putin went around the table and shook everybody's hands, but no names or words were exchanged. >> you never had any other interactions with vladimir putin? >> that's right, yes. nothing in advance and nothing

afterwards. >> if it's as innocuous as you just laid out, why are they investigating you? have they spoke to you? >> they have not. at this point they asked for documents and we are cooperating with that. i take very seriously the interference in our elections whether by a foreign government, by gangster networks, foreign or domestic. i think we ought to have a commission on election integrity that addresses the many aspects of interference in our elections and that would go a long way to restore the interference in our process. >> do you think russia meddled in the elections? >> i have not seen the evidence. i would love to see the evidence to know. i think it would be naive to think they did not try. regrettably this is sort of the

norm now. there are actually hundreds of millions of hacks every day, just into the state government of utah, probably because there's a big nsa center there, but hacking, as we know from the ransom ware episode, and hacking regrettably -- we are in the wild west of hacking, and i agree with the president of microsoft who actually called for an international conference, a geneva summit on cyber warfare. i think we need some rules of the road that can be applied across the board. >> when you say you have not seen the evidence that russia hacked, or there was russian meddling. just yesterday i spoke to senator james langeford who talked about he's trying to pass legislation, a bipartisan legislation because he's on the intel committee and the evidence is so overwhelming to him, and let me just read to you what he

says. intelligence reports factually established that russia hacked presidential campaign accounts and attacked a u.s. voting systems software company. why don't you believe the intel evidence that has been presented? >> for example the states of wisconsin and california disputed that, and they are among the 21 states that have alleged to have been attacks, and the intelligence agencies themselves say they alert this, and this is their opinion and they do not have the factual information, and if they do perhaps the intelligence community has seen things the public has not and if that's the case we deserve to see it. when we were in the crisis with the soviet during that crisis, and kennedy declassified that

information and showed the evidence. >> okay, and let pea -- >> some think we should be going to war now, and that means the american public needs to be really informed. >> let's talk about that. when the intel community says they have evidence of russian digital fingerprints on the dnc computers, you want to see the letters? what more do you want to see than what they have said has allowed them to conclude that, yes, russia meddled? >> let's start that our intelligence agencies should be allowed to inspect the dnc server, and they did not let them do that, and we are relying on a private security company that doesn't have the greatest

representation that was under the employment of the dnc. when matters become as seriously as they are, we need to rely on the best intelligence we have and that has not been put to use yet and the phifbi tried to obt access to the server but was denied and so there are gaps in the information that could be far more persuasive to the american public, and when the stakes are as high as they are now, we need to have the best information. >> from what you have seen out there do you think that president trump's campaign had inappropriate contacts with russia? >> so to my mind -- the question is not only inappropriate contacts, it's quid pro quo, um, other forms of influence, vested interests, violation of campaign

finance laws and money laundering, and i think all of that is really important and that's in the purview of the committee. i think the committee should go forward and continue to proceed. there may be information that mueller has at that point that he has not made public, and to his credit he has taken care not to sensationalize or politicized this investigation. >> but have you seen things in the public purview that caused concern that made you think there were inappropriate contacts that were not disclosed? >> yes, i think failing to disclose the contacts was a problem and trying to cover them up was a problem. and then for donald trump to have basically fired comey because he refused to let go of the investigation, including into general flynn, you know, that is all very much of concern and needs to be pursued.

if there wasn't something inappropriate or illegal going on, why were all these lies told in order to cover it up? from the point of view of general flynn alone, we know that he was working for the turkish government and did not declare that and was undertaking actions here in the united states on behalf of the turkish government, and that is absolutely outrageous. >> in summary you think the mueller investigation and the congressional investigations into the trump contacts and trump campaign are legitimate and should go forward? >> absolutely. yes, yes, this investigation has a very important and legitimate mission. i don't think, you know, it should be tampered or distorted by politicizing or sensationalism and by some of the frankly low standards reporting that has sensationalized and politicized

it, but down to the core mission of the investigation, it's very important and it should go forward. i am fully cooperating for my part and it should be supported. >> dr. jill stein, thank you very much for coming in and explaining what is going on with your campaign and any investigation, we will follow it closely. thank you so much pfp >> thank you. a defense department nominee take his name out of the running after the senate arms committee expresses their views on guns. now dr. winslow is speaking his mind again right here, next. feel the power of theraflu expressmax. new power... ...to fight back theraflu's powerful new formula to defeat 7 cold and flu symptoms... fast. so you can play on. theraflu expressmax. new power.

president trump nominated dr. dean winslow to be the assist upt secretary of defense of health affairs, and by all accounts he is supremely qualified. 35 years in the air force and six deployments to iraq, and as winslow testified before the senate arms services last month, he said something about the mass shooting in sutherland springs,

texas, sank his nomination. >> just say how even sane it is that a civilian can go out and buy a semiautomatic assault rifle like an ar-15, which was apparently the weapon used. dr. winslow withdrew his name from the consideration of the post, and he joins us. >> thank you for having me on the show, sir. good morning. >> take us to that moment, and you just came from england, and reflecting about the morning with an airman shot up a church in texas. what made you say that? >> to put it in more of a con tec -- context, i learned about it when i got off the plane and i

was sad that 26 innocent men, children and women were slaughtered in a church. that was weighing on my mind. clearly i had no intention of becoming a poster boy for gun control. my purpose was to serve my country again, our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, and work with jim mattis, and that was my agenda that day. i was frankly a little blind-sided by senator sheehey's questioning. >> did you know the day, the moment that you put yourself in trouble with such a charged topic? >> honestly, you know, i plead guilty to, sure, a degree of

tphaoeu ef tea. i honestly had no idea that saying what is i think most people in the world consider to be a reasonable comment would have caused so much problems. >> right. >> again, just a minor defense of myself, there was a number of questions that went on before and i was in the process of explaining systems failures and how that one needed to look at other factors besides just the ca category of discharge and the responsibility to notify. >> i think americans love bare-chested truth. you point out you were a marksman and a gun owner, but you say, quote, assault weapons

in the united states are not being used to kill, quote, unquote, bad guys in self defense, but for entertainment, mass murder and domestic terrorism. what do you say to a member of the nra who wants their ar-15? >> i think that honestly, you know, somebody who has fired the military version of that rifle, it's a fine weapon. i want to be clear that i fully support the second amendment, and i support all the amendments to the constitution, but these weapons really are essentially weapons of murder, and they are designed specifically to kill human beings. i am just concerned if you look at every major mass shooting, or at least most mass shootings that occurred in the united states over the last few years since the assault weapon ban was allowed to expire, that the majority were committed with this particular weapon or similar weapons.

>> point out they are not for home defense, and they are lousy hunting weapons because of the accuracy beyond 100 yards, and obviously this peeks to the power of the nra over the lawmakers of the country. did you talk to jim mattis? why did you feel compelled to pull your name? do you think the white house could have fought for you more? >> first of all, again, i want to emphasize that the reason i put my name in consideration for this position originally was out of personal loyalty and great respect for jim mattis, who i think all of us would agree he's served in the military in the last 25 or 30 years, he's the finest combat leader of our generation and a person who is extremely thoughtful and wise, and i think every person who served in the military for the last few years would love to work for jim mattis. the other reason is i felt strongly, and i loved the 35

years i spent in the international guard and air force -- >> i understand why you wanted the job, but why did you pull out is my question? why not fight for that job? >> i think that since my nomination was on indefinite hold, i wanted that position filled. again, our servicemen and women and families deserve to have an assistant secretary of affairs in that seat, and i did not want to put jim or his team in the position of having to delay filling that position, so i felt the right thing to do -- after i spoke with general mattis -- was to with draw my name and he concurred with that position. >> for those interested your op ed is powerful, and it's really an indication of how ideological

purity is here. steve bannon detailing his complicated relationship with the president in a revealing interview with "vanity fair." does he have his eyes on the white house? we'll have more. you can't predict the market. but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price... ...we've helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

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time for the five things to know for your "new day." president trump will sign the gop tax plan into law this morning before heading off for the holidays. and then house minority leader nancy pelosi sent a letter to paul ryan warning him not to allow the house investigation to shut down. and then united nations voting overwhelmingly shooting down president trump's decision on jew. and then the bill extends funding to the children health

insurance program, that's c.h.i.p., through march. is ousted white house strategist, steve bannon, thinking of running for president, and "vanity fair" says yes, but his spokesman says no. president trump leaving washington shortly to spend christmas in florida. will he speak to the american public first or buck the end of year news conference tradition? we explore. and could be on the journey to much worse. try parodontax toothpaste. it's clinically proven to remove plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums. for healthy gums and strong teeth. leave bleeding gums behind with parodontax toothpaste.

from our family to yours... may all your wishes come true this holiday season.

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president trump leaves for florida in about an hour, and he's not expected at the moment to hold a former year-end news conference, as so many presidents have, but press secretary sarah sanders offered

this on fox news. >> you never know. we like to keep you guessing. >> truer words never spoken. great to see you guys. listen, the president has a legislative achievement he can tout and that's in the yes column for why he should hold a press conference, and then the no column with the sexual harassment and other stuff. >> i can sit here and think of a dozen questions all of us have about michael flynn's firing and the circumstances around james comey's firing, and we are at the end of the year where so many norms have been thrown straight out the window, and

holding press conferences is one of them, and i went back and looked every year since 2003 there has been the end of a year home come season, holiday season press conference from the president. back in the '80s and '90s, they were common then as well, and every single year since 2003 we have had one of the end of year pressers. >> i want to note that he tries the keep the press on the string by saying you never know, and it ruins travel plans and et cetera -- >> i don't think anybody feels bad for us, bill. it shows the lack of respect he has for the press. >> yeah, when he avoids questions it's another way to play to his base to deeply distrust the media. if you are a supporter of president trump, some of those supporting his presidency and rooting for him, they have questions, too. >> yeah, i think that it's very

important for transparency and daylight to ask the president whatever we want and they think he communicates to them through twitter. >> he has a safe space in fox. has he done any interviews that are non-rupert murdoch. >> every since mueller was appointed, no interviews off of fox or christian broadcasting. >> you made a point about the super bowl. >> yeah. >> that's looming out there. if he avoids that it's yet another thing broken. if it was fox doing the game i could see him saying i will do it, but with nbc doing the game he will find a reason and probably tie it to his nfl opposition, saying i can't do it because -- >> you just gave him a great

suggestion. he will tweet that within the next half hour, bill. look, obama sat down with bill o'reilly. >> he didn't like it but he did it every once in a while. >> maybe if they had a sinclair or fox, maybe they would only appear on those channels, but it's a new development with president trump and it's unusual he is sticking with friendly pro-trump interviewers, and not going on late-night or daytime shows, and if you had a record-low approval rating and disliked by the majority of the public -- >> i can't imagine. >> i know. >> would you stick only with your fans or try to appeal to the rest of the country by doing more than tweeting. >> one difference is he actually works for us and has a

responsibility to convey information to the public. he could argue what he's doing is really sort of another be a raw investigation of his responsibility. he won't responsibility to the public. >> but didn't it come back to the russia investigation, he will step in something or say something that worsens the investigation. >> sometimes he can't help himself, like on the walk to the helicopter, and a lot of times that's when he hangs himself. >> when he talked about charlottesville the first time, and the early hours after heather heyer died -- >> it was an impromptu presser. >> we see the real trump in those moments, and we may see that today when he's on the way to mar-a-lago. anything is possible with this president and that's why it's the greatest tv show on earth, right? >> on that note, thank you very

much for being here. >> "good stuff" coming up next. >> let's do that. healthy shapes a clear, taste-free, 100% natural daily fiber... that's clinically proven to help me feel fuller longer. benefiber® healthy shape. this i can do! [ mouse clicks, keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours.

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for the one woman in your life who's both. ever us. available at kay, jared and zales. time for the good stuff nows. a kentucky grandfather took his granddaughter out to lunch and noticed a man in need, his shoes held together by duct tape, and so he slipped off his boots and ate in his socks. >> he said, why would you do that? i said, because god told me to give him his shoes.

>> what a wonderful gesture on the part of that man. i have a present for you. it's called amanda -- >> yes, i have heard. >> it's my novel about an idealist journalist navigating her way through. >> i have seen the publication. this is it. >> thank you. three shopping days left. anybody can pick it up on the new releases table at barnes & noble. time for cnn "newsroom" with poppy harlow. note to bill weir, i already read alisyn camerota's new book. president trump is about to set out for his mar-a-lago holiday but a couple important loose