chips need to be replaced to fix the problem. watch out. alex ca is working on its own voice assistant. roku dis the most popular streaming device in the u.s. unlike alexa, it will just control tv and music. all right. there you go. 59 minutes past the hour. thanks for joining us. >> "new day" has you covered with day two. the see you tomorrow. fists are flying between the president and former chief strategist steve bannon. >> president trump's lawyer threatening legal action. >> steve bannon accused the president's son of trees on behavior.

>> it makes him look like everyone around him thinks he's a bumbling idiot and doesn't tell him. >> they think he doesn't know anything. >> i think bannon feels he has knock left to lose. >> fifteen states under a current weather advisory. >> the temperatures will be extremely cold, in fact, colder than we have seen the last 11 days. >> if you don't have a reason to be out, don't be out. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "new day". it is thursday, january 4th, 6:00 here in new york. here's our starting line. cease and desist. president trump's lawyer delivering that message to former white house chief strategist steve bannon. the president firing back saying after bannon lost his white house job, he lost his mind. in the book bannon blasts donald trump jr., jared kushner and paul manafort for a meeting with

the russian lawyer at trump tower. he calls it trees onnist and unpatriotic. and that's not all that has the white house so fired up. the president already began the year in a fury fueled in part by anger over his legal team over the russia investigation and shifting timelines about when it might end. the book now just stoking his anger. the voter fraud commission hasn't gotten any of the vote showing he should have won except voter fraud. state after state was refusing to participate. the president insisted the massive fraud was the reason he lost the popular vote, you'll remember. we have it all covered. first to joe johns at the white house. joe. >> reporter: good morning, chris. quite an extraordinary situation here. the president angrily lashing out at steve bannon for trashing

the president and the first family, using words like trees tre treasonist. some of the things he's quoted as saying have been said by democrats for months. >> reporter: president trump's lawyer threatening imminent legal action against steve bannon, use coulding him of defamation and arguing he violated a nondisclosure agreement when speaking to the author of this bombshell new book. bannon suggesting that donald trump jr., jared kushner and paul manafort from have been treasonist. the chance don jr. did not walk these jumos up to his father's office to the 26th floor is zero. it runs kopcontrary to his

longstanding position. >> the president was not aware of the meeting, did not participate in the meeting. >> bannon is quoted as discussing robert mueller's russia probe claiming they are going to crack don jr. like an egg on national tv. allegedly predicting the investigation will center on money laundering. claiming he not only lost his job is, he lost his mind. >> disgusted would fit when you make such claims. >> the president of the united states is a great man. you know i support him day in and day out. >> reporter: democrat andre carson saying bannon is scheduled to come before the house intelligence committee later this month. >> we want to make sure they

aren't out of emotionalism or spiteful statements. we want to find out what he really thinks. >> michael wolff's stunning new book characterizing the first year as chaotic and dysfunction al and president trump uninformed. and saying this about katie walsh allegedly had of the president. he didn't read. he didn't really even skim. some believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-literate. it was, said, walsh, like trying to figure out what a child wants. walsh denies making these remarks but it is similar to an article published in this. i got as far as the fourth amendment before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back in his head. the white house vehemently denying the accounts saying the book is filled with false and

misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the white house. the president holds several meetings today, none of which are spbgted to be open to the media for the third straight day. the low profile believed to be over anger with the russia investigation. chris and alisyn, back to you. >> joe, thank you very much. let's discuss all of this. joining is us now are cnn political analysts, john avlon and gregory. there is so much intrigue, it's hard to know where to start. let's start with bannon was on the radio last night and all he said was the president is a good man. he didn't deny this stuff. if president trump is really ex communicating steve bannon with the cease and desist, where does that leave us? what does that mean for his base, for the president's ties to the establishment. david, go ahead. >> we will have to watch as this plays out a little bit. the palace intrigue to say the

least. this is the reality tv show that donald trump seems to love to be in the middle of. it is spilling out all over the place. it cap is sures such a tumultuous first year in office. the political fallout is what you might expect. i think there's still a core of support for the president that is not necessarily shaken by this. it's events that will shake it. it is the president's reaction to those events that will shake it. but, you know, in steve bannon, you have somebody who is very media savvy, somebody also close to the president. and he is providing insight into what this first year was like that really could up end a lot of what has held the place together. >> also, look, i mean, bannon is having it both ways. he is saying is he supports the president. >> sure. >> and he's saying your son, son-in-law, and your friends

were dirty going to that meeting and that was a problem. that is what he was quoting as saying. he hasn't denied the quote. you can't have it both ways, john. >> not really. not in an environment like the trump family. >> they may not let him have it both ways. but he can say he supports the president. the president is a great man. and then the other part. >> he is using unvarnished legend, calling the language treasonist. he may try to have it both ways, but it won't work with the base. the core of the base will stick by president trump even if, as he says, he shot someone on 5th avenue. >> he has a lawyer send you a message saying if you do this, he will eye you. you can't criticize the government. those kind of letters are a

dangerous signal. >> as you said, it is a brushback pitch given that he is president right now. this is about incredibly significant. the inner circle is turning on itself. you have a circular firing squad as of yesterday. they are talking in really unvarnished terms. the fact that he went from being genius and incredibly close to being characterized as a hobo they really know is really serious. >> disheveled. >> to quote peter king. >> he's taking on the family, chris, as you said. if you have a president as owe assessed as he has been, he's been obsessed with this russia investigation. you have a guy who is a top adviser saying there is money laundering investigation when the president is already fuming that the thing isn't done, that it is not resolved, it shows you

how much insight into his head. not only has the president threatened to sue so many people over claims made against him which he doesn't follow through on, the voter fraud commission he disbanded because, oh, they didn't find anything. what about the president's false claims that he has been issuing since the time that he was a candidate? so the whole thing is such a seedy soap opera we have been watching for a year. now we are just getting a closer look. >> this is more significant is than the beginning of the second act. you take the last 72 hours. they have been incredibly significant. a totally different timeline with papadopoulos. when they knew there was allegedly russian involvement and sealing the e-mails. fusion gps saying, look, make our testimony public. why aren't you investigating deutsche bank loans, which are related to the charges of money

laundering which steve bannon said is the core, the addition to this meeting. this internal squabble falling out into public which will fuel further interviews and investigations. this is all a perfect storm and right at the heart of the trump white house. >> let's read a few more passages from the book because they're so juicy and so peculiar. it sounds like michael wolff's modus operandi was to let the people being interviewed spin yarns. he didn't fact-check them. he didn't necessarily need two sources. this is a very interesting read. he knits in the author's note that he let people sort of tell their own stories. then he printed some of those. so here is an interesting one about ivanka. between themselves, ivanka trump and jared is kushner had made an earnest deal. if sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she'd be the

one to run for president. the first woman president, ivanka entertained, would not be hillary clinton. it would be ivanka trump. that sounds fantastical, david. interesting, but i don't know what to do with that. >> it is indication of an incredible atmosphere of presumption of the family, but we knew that. >> who know back seat that. but to me it goes to the point that you have this ambitious circle and no check on it. there's no sense of what would be the appropriate way to move forward if her father actually won the presidency. the fact that he hired his children i think was a huge mistake. he was advised, according to the book, not to do that. we have known that from other sources as well. he just kind of barreled through. and i think that's something that comes across that, again, won't surprise a lot of people. the president barreling into this presidency unprepared, not believing that he would ever

become president. and then both presumptuous and arrogant and bumbling through in a lot of ways. the pictures of all of these ex treupb sisities, i think from the russia investigation to something like this, there is a real danger they will do as republicans do d to bill clinton, which is overreach. that is something we always have 20 make part of the conversation. >> meaning what? >> meaning there is a backlash that people, what they see in criticism of trump is hatred. and an unwillingness to give him any of his due when there is success, when there is an economy moving forward, the financial markets are moving forward very well. >> that's interesting. you know who said that? other than your greatness. michael wolff, obviously the writer of the book, was on tv a

lot. we have all been around michael wolff. he's been writing about politics all my life. he wrote about my brother, my father. he got great access here. in politics you don't get the benefit of having someone fact check what you say. it's a little bit of a reflection, john, of not knowing how to play this game by the people around trump. a little bit of that. and also that wolff was saying the right things to get that access. >> right. early on he really seemed to be but thorring up the administration in order to get access and then spoke in incredibly unvarnished terms. >> i want to chime in here. michael wolff said he wanted fly-on-the-wall access. he described himself as an interloper. nobody said get out, so he hung around. >> and got amazing copy. some of the quotes from the allegation that trump didn't

expect or even necessarily want to win the election, which is chilling with any sense of history that there was a larger prize in his mind, which is power not public service, fame not giving back and responsibility to the office. but also e-mails from a white house aide who said it's even worse than it seems. this is an idiot surrounded by clowns. that is pretty incredible. you can look at first year memoirs of presidencys. this is on a totally different surreal level. >> the point david is making is the so what part of this. for some it will confirm certain things. what bannon is saying about the investigation you have been hearing from nontrump folk that there are real issues. what's the takeaway here? >> it's not so much so what. it is, okay, this -- we know this, right? we're living through -- we have stepped into the surreal now for

over a year. and now we're getting more evidence of how chaotic and surreal it is. john is exactly right. there can be chaos in the first year. nothing like this. you have a president who is redefining what it means to be president on an almost daily basis. this is how it impacts him. you look at history. you've got, you know, dark personalities like nixon talking to the portraits. we are seeing some of that with donald trump in a fury that gets in his way. we know he's not disciplined when it comes to policy making. but this russia investigation, this kind of -- these kinds of revelations are from people who are close to him has such a potential impact on him that the so what is see how he responds to it and how, you know, destructive it becomes to his presidency. >> and we're hearing a lot about the allegations that have been leveled against the president

regarding the investigation now from his closest aides who were in the would you say at the time. that's different. we're getting more accounts of what happened on that air force one trip where there was the alleged dictated response to the allegation that donald jr. had been in the meeting with the russians for the first time. that could impact investigations. we need to do both. the trump administration, we need to say, look, here are the folks doing good work. here are the things they need success for. but not take our eye off the ball that this is normal behind the scenes. it all has weight in the first draft of history. >> such a great indication of when you know you got the president's attention when he tries to get you to start talking about something else. one, he's tweeting very early. two, he's talking about the election -- >> commission on voter fraud. and making the case for voter i.d. if they had done a real investigation into voting, they

would say. that's what he is talking about not this. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. we will talk about that in a minute. what's coming up on the show? former white house communications director -- you see him on your screen -- anthony scaramucci. he has been so sroebg is al abo vocal about steve bannon when it was not popular to be so. the mooch may make a return we have to get to this important story. president trump dissolving his controversial voter fraud commission. why is he doing that? one says it was off the rails. why they pulled the plug next the winter storm is battering the east coast. it's going on right now. we'll show you the situations up and down the coast next.

i tried hard to quit smoking. but when we brought our daughter home, that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how.

if yorheumatoid arthritisevere and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a medication, this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further irreversible damage. this is humira helping me reach for more. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira works for many adults. it targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. talk to your doctor and visit humira.com. this is humira at work.

all right. so the president dissolved his controversial voter fraud commission. why? well, that's the big question. we do know that the panel was established after the president claimed that vote r fraud is wh he didn't win the popular vote against hillary clinton. there has never been substantial proof of that. do you understand? the president is just tweeting about this this morning. many mostly democrat states refused to hand over data from the 2016 election to the commission on voter fraud.

they fought hard that the commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. system is rigged, must go to voter i.d. as americans, you need identification sometimes in a strong and accurate form. as opposed to what kind of identification? for almost everything you he do except when it comes for the most important thing, voting for the people that run your country. push hard for voter identification! back with us john avlon and gregory. gregory, the last part, have the argument. legitimate issue. a very strong reason people push to have voter i.d. but you can debate it. the rest of it, where is the debate in that? how is that just not untrue on its face. states did not not comply because they didn't want to reveal illegal voting. they thought this was a setup. they thought this was a railroad situation where trump was trying to show that something happened

in the election that did not happen. that's why they didn't want to comply. >> right. because incident was a waste of time. an abuse of government resources and time. this is a joke. the president saying there's vote isser i.d. problems and voter fraud. he is the same person that said barack obama wasn't born in this country. let's stop paying attention to this. he did a big to-do and it went nowhere because there was nothing to it. he ought to look at voter disenfranchisement. get people voting. he made a big claim, used the power of the presidency to do it, and came up with nothing. republicans came out and said i don't know what they're talking about. we haven't had evidence of voter fraud. this is a waste of time. this is exactly what i was talking about in the last segment. this is the the president going on to fantasy island and

becoming his own worst enemy by indulging his basis instincts without fact. and here we go. this is day one after the book. >> yeah. this is real fake news, pardon the oxymoron. because this is the kind of stuff the president was peddling. as you know, i do the voter panels, some with die-hard donald trump supporters. one that caused the face palm is when they told me -- this is their quote. 3 to 5 million illegals voted in california and that's what cost the president the popular vote. in other words, by the president peddling it, his supporters do believe it and it does become pernicious. this could have answered the questions and stamped out that false narrative. however, they're disbanding. >> no. exempt for the fact that the fix was in from the start. this was ideological agenda designed to defend the president's insecure response to

losing the popular vote. and the fact that a lot of supporters repeat that talking point shows that words do matter. it wasn't about a search. it was about defending the president's instincts. the real issue is not voter fraud. the real issue is voter disenfranchiseme disenfranchisement. they are moving this to the department of homeland security. so i ask them, has the department of homeland security done anything to defend our critical infrastructure in the wake of russia's meddling in our election? we haven't seen any evidence of that. >> it is also the irony that when it's bad for the country, bad for democracy, this president does not step up and say to homeland security, you better make sure the russians can never do this again. but when it's bad for him, which is in his optic of why he lost the election, they go to homeland security and say you better figure this out.

nobody ever disputed it except him. >> the popular voted matters to him. it's okay. it's okay for it to burn his butt that he lost. he can grow his base and win by a lot more the next time. this is a great window into what you're dealing with as donald trump as a man. it is important to analyze it. there has to be always a little bit of truth. >> it is a small case. >> the de minimis cases plants in people's mind, i knew this thing. i heard this story. this person is dead that still vote stpwhrd there is . >> why does it matter? he is undermining the pillar of

our democracy. that is something that any self-respecting citizen, let alone a journalist, can't allow, david. >> this is part of his what i think both supporters is and critics would say his political skill. it's cynical, of course. but it's all part of undermining any case against him. if there's something there, it will be billed as selective prosecution and that the fix was in from the beginning. and if it comes up short, it will be the deep state and the media and everybody concocting something. he has to cover it all ways. this is the meeting la mania to say, oh, no, i didn't win the popular vote because of this reason. let's go back to an amazing political coup on the part of donald trump, upending the republican party, overcoming the

establishment. why isn't that enough is the big question. >> if his die-hard supporters don't want to believe the media's take on there not being vast voter fraud, believe the republican secretaries of state. the republican secretaries of state, this is not a democratic whitewa whitewash. they said not in our start. >> sure. >> we have anecdotal evidence that somebody came, they didn't know they had moved. they tried to vote twice. >> they prosecuted a handful of cases. >> sometimes republican. >> that's part of why they couldn't get secretaries of state because as you say it was a waste of time and spinning their wheels. and the white house first started acting for people's dates of birth, social security numbers. and the secretary of state is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, why are we handing you all -- >> a lot of them don't even have it. >> that is not a violation of principles of federalism. >> they went after people

registered in multiple states and they had people in their own administration, bannon. >> that's right. not an organization driven like this was. >> that's the shame, david, right? you can do a panel like this, get into what they do. >> that's a rigged system. >> and different levels of chilling they do. he would have expanded his base. instead, he just got another day of a slapdown for a political move. >> at the same time he's threatening more legal action. all the people who accused him of sexual misconduct, he threatened to sue. hasn't happened. he only lost because there was voter fraud. again, uses the government for the big commission that goes nowhere because it's a joke. that's what people need to be paying attention to. this is more potential long-term damage that the president can do

in office. >> on the tax payer dime too. >> thank you very much. let's get to this enormous winter storm slamming into the northeast as we speak. some areas could get a foot of snow. how'd that go? he kept spelling my name with an 'i' but it's bryan with a 'y.' yeah, since birth. that drives me crazy. yes. it's on all your email. yes. they should know this? yeah. the guy was my brother-in-law. that's ridiculous. well, i happen to know some people. do they listen? what? they're amazing listeners. nice. guidance from professionals who take their time to get to know you.

on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

a huge winter storm is hitting the northeast with blinding snow and wind. let's get to meteorologist jennifer gray who is live in the weather center. where is it now, jennifer? >> it is right off the coast of

the mid atlantic. it is continue to go strengthen rapidly. you can see all the winter storm warnings up and down the east coast. we have added a few since yesterday morning. the eastern portions of long island under a blizzard warning. portions of jersey and boston included in that as well with wind gusts potentially up to 60 miles per hour with that blinding snow, as you mentioned. here's the radar. and you can see this is the low right here just off the coast of north carolina. washington, philadelphia, new york. even boston getting a little bit of it as we speak. you can see long island getting pretty heavy snow. as we go forward in time, this is going to continue to strengthen even more. so we will start to see the winds pick up even more. hurricane-force winds possible off the coast of cape cod. as incident continues to push to the north a little bit later this evening is going to be a fast mover, guys. this is going to push out very quickly.

temperatures behind it are going to continue to drop tomorrow and saturday. chris? all right. jen, thank you very much. appreciate it. we're going to go to break. the president's allies are saying the gloves are now off. steve bannon attacked the trump family. why is the president's former chief strategist getting so personal? we'll ask two people who know him well next. strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. neulasta helps reduce infection risk by boosting your white blood cell count, which strengthens your immune system. in a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17% to 1%, a 94% decrease. applied the day of chemo, neulasta onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the next day. neulasta is for certain cancer patients receiving strong chemotherapy. do not take neulasta if you're allergic to neulasta or neupogen (filgrastim). ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems, allergic reactions, kidney injuries, and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. report abdominal or shoulder tip pain,

trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. in patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. the most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. so why go back there? if you'd rather be home, ask your doctor about neulasta onpro. which means everyone has access to our real reviews that we actually verify. and we can also verify that what goes down, [ splash, toilet flush ] doesn't always come back up. find a great plumber at angie's list. join today for free. but some of us make somethinge make sommuch more. dinner. mom would be proud. with blue apron, any night is a chance to see what cooking can do.

in an odd move for a president but not for donald trump, his lawyer is issuing a cease and desist letter to steve bannon after he described donald trump jr.'s meeting as treasonist in a new book. but bannon says he still stands by the president. take a listen. >> i don't care what trump says. he would have never gotten in without you. >> thanks for the kind words.

nothing will ever come between us and trump's agenda. don't worry about that. don't worry about us and trump and the maga agenda. we're tight on this as we've ever been. >> he said he was falsely quoted when talking about trump and trump's son-in-law. joining us now is curt bardella, former spokesman for brigeitbar news. and keith koffler whoeo "bannon. >> correct always the rebel." steve bannon said that meeting in trump taufrs treower was tre. >> he wouldn't have said it if he didn't believe it. he doesn't minutes words.

he speaks bluntly, directly. if that is what was reported, that's what was said. that was the inept. if that wasn't his intent, he would be the very person out there saying he got it wrong. michael wolff got it wrong. they would be sending a cease and desist to michael wolff if they thought he was misquoted or misrepresented. >> how do you square with him saying i'm with the president, he's a great man, with going after his son and son-in-law and saying they commit aid treasonist act? >> i think first of all, he probably did say that. and i think he probably regrets it. steve bannon is not always as calculated as people think. he does make mistakes. he said around july or august, the time he was being moved out, i don't think he respects donald trump truly. i think what we are seeing now is bannon said this. you never know. trump gets angry at people. he brought reince priebus after

he tried to drum him out of the primary. anything can happen. he is trying to stick close to the president at least for now and see what happens. he's playing it cool. he may come out okay. they may even reestablish their relationship. >> really? you think he could reestablish a relationship with steve bannon after the president says he lost his mind and he went after his son for treasonist activity? >> i don't think it is likely. it is possible because anything is possible with trump. haven't we learned that? i think the ones that should be celebrating are democrats. bannon is trump's conduit to the base, other than trump who is the best con due it to the base. trump may think he won the popular vote, but he did not. he won the electorate by 10,000 votes is here, 10,000 there.

he can win a war with bannon. but if bannon ends up injuring him he will lose the 2020 election because any diminution of support as caused by bannon could cost trump the election. >> look, unless you get off on negativity in general. i don't know that there is much cause to celebrate for anybody in this. even the democrats should want a strong and economy would you say. they may not agree but they should want it to be competent. one of the allegations will be he's not loyal. anthony scaramucci is on the show. he has been consistent in saying, especially early on, bannon is not loyal to the president. he's not about team. he's about himself. is this what we are seeing in the statements that scaramucci, even trump himself, will question his loyalty. they were right. >> absolutelily. this is something that has been brewing since february of last year when steve bannon appeared

on the cover of "time" magazine which started this chain of events that has led us to this point where trump is ousting bannon very publicly. you look at the period of time that bannon gave this interview to wolff and made these statements he was fighting with trump jr., ivanka and jared every day. he was leaking things about them. even the pages of breitbart would runnin' credibly negative stories about trump's family members. that was all at the direction of steve bannon. when steve left the white house last august he gave a quote saying the trump presidency we fought for and won is effectively over. it gives how he felt about the president and his family at that time. >> we are still locked in, he's a great man, we're there step for step. >> because he knows trump remains popular with the base. bannon is going to be watching as this goes along. he may do a deal with democrats

on daca. he's already passed a tax bill largely basically, as trump has admitted, a corporate tax bill, which is not exactly a populist move. bannon will wait and watch and see how popular trump remains with the base. if bannon turns on him and says, hey, wait a second. this is what breitbart has been doing, they're going to be watching trump and saying, are you staying with religion? are you staying with the populist religion. if not, they're going after him. that could be damaging to trump >> what are sources telling you about whether or not they talk, bannon and trump? >> they said five calls on the call logs. they've talked more often than that i think on cell phone. i don't know exactly how many times they've talked. but i know -- you know, one of the things about them is they get along. the interesting thing is for trump, it's family over everything. he loves his family more than anything. however, he is closer eye dee logically to steve bannon and

maybe in terms of his personality to steve bannon than he is to someone like jared kushner. they love to talk. they use salty language. trump has listened closely to bannon for many years. i think that is something to be considered as the relationship goes forward. >> it will be interesting to see if they talk and when after these kinds of comments, curt. so what does this mean in terms of bannon's goals with what to do now? he says he will still support the president. how do you square that with when he said? >> you will see a contrition tour from steve bannon, which is what we heard on his radio show with that clip you played. in the last 24 hours, "washington post" reported that the mercer family that funds bannon's enterprises, all the initiatives, that funds breitbart, they are done with him. they're not going the fund him anymore. it is a huge, catastrophic blow to steve bannon.

part of the things that gave him leverage, power, influence was the idea that he had a billionaire in his pocket that gave deep pockets to be impactful in the political process. if that's gone coupled with the fact that breitbart lost 3,000 of its advertisers in the last year in a campaign being led to boycott them for the type of content they run, financially they're in a very precarious position. i think steve will do everything he can to get back in the president's good graces. >> mercer does a lot on school choice and things that aren't overtly partisan. there is a thing that peter thiel. anyway, keith, curt, thank you very much for giving us insight into the man at the center of all of this intrigue this morning. appreciate it. back to you. chris, much more on the bombshells inside that michael wolff book as new excerpts are expected to be released this

morning. we will read them to you. but first the basketball ball playing family has arrived in lithuania. what does that look like? technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how.

steyer: the president's national security adviser -- guilty. his campaign chairman -- under indictment. his son-in-law -- secret talks with russians. the director of the fbi -- fired. special counsel robert mueller's criminal investigation has already shown why the president should be impeached. you can send a message to your representatives at needtoimpeach.com and demand they finally take a stand. this president is not above the law. i tabut with my back paines, i couldn't sleep and get up in time. then i found aleve pm. aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back.

aleve pm for a better am.

lavar ball is going global, drawing quite the crowd upon his arrival in lithuania. coy wire has more in this morning's "bleacher report".

>> his two interviews with chris cuomo here on cnn has made him a really big deal in lithuania. this is presented by the new 2018 ford tf-150. he pulled his sons out of school to go to lithuania to play basketball. he arrived yesterday, and it was madness. >> let's go. which way we headed? we're happy to be here. we're happy to be here. let's keep it moving and grooving. this is awesome. we happy to have a new chapter in our lives. my expectation is for my boys to have a lot of fun playing ball in front of people. we're coming to lithuania. >> are you not entertained? liangelo, lamelo ball will be in a city of 9,800 people in prienai. they are coming from the

sunshine state, metro los angeles. it is about 70-degree weather. from the golden state to a baltic state. the entire country has about 2.8 million people and 30-degree temperatures right now. liangelo and lamelo ball will play the first game next tuesday. we'll be keeping in tune with that. >> they're lucky to play inside. how do they develop? how do they keep a profile going, especially for the young kid still in high school. will he mature enough to make it to the next level. it's a dicey move for ball. that shirt, tie and vest, strong. strong. >> trying to be like you, chris. >> take care. a race that could determine virginia's house of delegates will be decided by pigging a name out of a bowl. one of the two candidates joins us next.

with best in-class towing 2018 ford f-150. best in-class payload and best in-class torque the f-150 lineup has the capability to get big things to big places --bigtime. and things just got bigger. f-150 is now motor trend's 2018 truck of the year. this is the new 2018 ford f-150. it doesn't just raise the bar, pal. it is the bar.

four hours from now a name will be drawn out of a bowl in virginia to tkrpl the 94th member of the house of delegates. a lot stake is the balance of power. if the democrat wins, they would split the 100-member house 50/50. here is shelly simonds. good morning, miss simonds. how are you feeling at this

hour? >> good morning. oh, gosh. it's just such a crazy situation. and, you know, i'm trying to stay strong. i've got thousands of supporters in newport news and people in my community who frankly need health care. health care in virginia is really on the line. >> everything you have worked for, your political future will be decided by the fickle finger of fate four hours from now. is that the right answer? >> you know, i wish it hadn't come down to this. i would much rather have the people of newport news, virginia decide the fate of this election for sure. last night i was at home trying to prepare for the coin toss. i thought there are no speeches, no preparation that i can do that will get me ready for a coin toss. >> that's good news. there's no homework involved in

a coin toss. they are going to pull the name out of a bowl, as we have said. what happens if you lose? then what? >> you know, i have had a pretty long career in politics. i've been on our local school board. i have run for office before. and i'm going to continue to stay engaged. my big issue is really fighting for teacher pay raises in virginia. right now teachers are paid about $7,000 below the national average in virginia. and we have a teacher shortage crisis. so, you know, education is going to continue to be a big focus for me, win or lose. and i have made a lot of friends in the general assembly. >> i mean, in terms of process. if you lose, why not demand a recount? >> all options are on the table for us. yesterday when i did make an offer to my opponent to try to

make this coin toss binding that he misrepresented my intention. yeah, i'm not going to unilaterally disarm. all options are on the table for us. >> i see. because you had made an offer that the pulling the name out of the hat would stand and that you wouldn't demand a recount. however, when your opponent refused to agree to that, you're rethinking. so you are saying you also would want a recount. >> oh, yeah. yeah. it was always a deal. we were offering a deal to him. and he didn't take it. so now we're onto the coin toss. and after that, anything is on the table. it is sad to think that i could win this coin toss and still not necessarily be seated because of republican maneuvers that they could do in the house of

delegates. >> such as? >> they could vote not to see me on tuesday. i have my family here, my kids here. and it's like how many times does mom have to win before she can be seated in the virginia house of delegates. >> yeah. this is an interesting lesson for your kids and not one that you had intended to teach them. well, shelly simonds, we will be watching closely as we have throughout all of this craziness. it shows that every vote does count. thank you so much. we'll see what happens at 11:00 a.m. eastern today. >> thank you, alisyn. >> we'll talk again. and thanks to our international viewers for watching. for you cnn "newsroom" is next. for u.s. viewers, "new day" continues right now. >> bannon is essentially saying there is a there there in the russia probe. sit