good evening. tonight president trump's legal team is bracing for the big one when robert mueller says he would like a word or two on the record with the president. the last time something like this happened was in 1998. president clinton lied to ken starr's grand jury and it did not end well. this would not be the first time for president trump. as a private citizen, he gave plenty of testimony, not all of it the whole truth or even close. we'll talk about that. this weekend he said he is a genius, a very stable genius.

we'll have more on that. also the daniel control over the michael wolff book continues including steve bannon now backing away from some of what he said in the book. >> also will, when is he refused to leave and he was escorted out of the building by security. it was that kind of a weekend and it is still only monday. we again with chief analyst gloria borger with the trump/mueller story. what are your sources telling you about an interview between the special counsel and president trump. >> lawyers for donald trump are anticipating they're going to get this request for an interview, as one might expect. and there have been no substantive discussions on the matter yet. but his attorneys, as you would expect, have been talking about this amongst themselves for months about how they would handle any requests from the special counsel to talk to the president. as you can imagine, anderson, they're going to try to put as many parameters around it as

they possibly can to try to protect their client. >> what limits could the legal team imposes? >> they can ask. it is not clear what mueller would say to them. they can say look, does this have to be under oath, for example? can you give us written questions to which we would reply with written answers as happened with ronald reagan and iran contra. does this have to be recorded? can we have an informal interview rather than a formal interview? so there are all kinds of thing they're thinking about. they're looking at precedent, at reagan, at george w. bush, with iraq, the 9/11 commission. so they're trying to look at all these things and say, well, how can we respond to what will be an inevitable request from the special counsel? >> has the president's legal team spoken on the record? >> they have. and they have very little.

ty cobb who is the internal special counsel for the president inside the white house said this today. he said for the record, the white house does not comment on communications with the office of special counsel out of respect for the osc and its process. the white house is continuing its full cooperation with the osc in order to facilitate the earliest possible resolution. and anderson, they would like the get this over with as quickly as possible. and you know, you mentioned bill clinton earlier. they went through months of litigation on this and they finally wound up with clinton before a grand jury. and i don't think that is what trump's lawyers want at all. i think they would rather get this over as quickly as possible to try to find a way to accommodate what mueller wants with what they believe would be in the best interests of their clients and get it done. >> all right. gloria, stay with us. i want to bring in the legal experts.

jeffrey toobin, professor alan dershowitz. if you were advising the president or his team, what would you advise him about this. >> the dread would be if he got a subpoena to appear in front of the grand jury. no lawyer present. no opportunity to know the questions in advance. donald trump unscripted, uncontrolled. lawyer's nightmare. uncontrolled donald trump in a grand jury room. they'll do anything to avoid that. he won't plead the fifth. he has to answer the questions so they'll accept anything short of that, interrogatories, questions, written questions, maybe an informal interview. remember, if you lie to a law enforcement official, even not under oath, that is a serious federal crime. so mueller has the leverage here, the legal leverage because he can threaten the grand jury subpoena. but what i think ultimately they would prefer, the defense attorneys, is to make all kinds of proposals for mueller and then mueller turn them down and

not invoke a grand jury subpoena so they can then say well, we offered to cooperate but mewer didn't accept it. i don't think that will happen. i think there will be a compromise or he's be called in front of a grand jury. >> how do you see it? >> well, i think both sides have a lot of leverage. >> assal and said, there is the possibility of a grand jury subpoena but that could lead to months of litigation. i think the trump is at less risk than most people think because of the unique circumstances of these kinds of questioning. anderson, you have interviewed donald trump. we have all seen him answer questions. when you ask him a question, he will talk for 40 minutes in response. and he, in the grand jury or in any of these circumstances, there is no judge to tell him to stop. so i think whatever circumstances he winds up in, he is just going to filibuster. he is going to talk about what he wants to talk about.

he's going to say there was no collusion over and over again. and i think it will be very difficult for mueller and his team to pin the president down. he's testified many times. and i think he is at less risk than perhaps alan does under these circumstances. >> carrie, to jeff's point, every lawyer i've ever talked to, if you're going to testify, says answer the question. be as brief as possible. don't elaborate. to jeff's point, if he does elaborate on stuff, isn't that a danger for the president? >> i think there's a danger for the president and also a danger, sort of a legal risk, for other individuals who have already been interviewed by the special counsel's office who might be campaign aides or individuals who work in the white house. when he does end up having to conduct an interview with the special counsel's office, the question with respect to whether he tells the truth and whether or not his statements are truthful will have an effect.

not only as to whether or not he then is liable in some way for giving false statements to investigators, but also his statements will be compared to information that others have given. so those statements will be compared. so his truth telling is important. not just for him but as well as for others. >> professor, tim o'brien was sued by donald trump when he was a citizen. he was working at "the new york times" at that point. they deposed donald trump. according to tim, a number of inconsistencies, false statements came out in the president's deposition. when president clinton testified, he was allowed, if memory serves me correct, he was allowed to be in his lawyer's office. it was done by remote and his lawyers were actually present. so those are the things they can negotiate. >> they can negotiate but i do think that any president who goes on and on and on raises the

odds that he'll say something that's not true. now, he's been deposed. but you don't normally get indicted for lying under deposition. you should. people should be indicted for lying in a deposition but they're not. if you're the president of the united states, every line will be scrutinized. he doesn't know what others have told mueller so he will be surprised by some of the questions. and he'll have to spontaneously answer. if he's in a grand jury, he can say time-out. i don't want to answer that question. i want to talk to my lawyer and get advice. knowing donald trump, will he do that? or is he going to go ahead and answer the questions? if i'm a lawyer, i want control over my client. and anything they do will be an attempt to get control over the situation. >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> anderson, they may try and kind of narrow or try to narrow the scope of the questions. for example, we won't ask about collusion but maybe we'll ask about obstruction. and it really all depends.

and you guys are the legal experts here. i'm not. in talking to lawyers, it seems to me it also depends upon the content of what they want to ask trump specifically about. if it is obstruction, it goes to his state of mind at the time that he fired comey? >> gloria, that was my next question and i'll ask it to you jeff. if the president wants it to only be on the subject of collusion, and not any financial issues, that's obviously something i guess they could try to negotiate. but jeff, what is the timing of when this interview takes place? what does it tell you about the status of the mueller investigation? because wouldn't mueller want to talk to the president toward the end of an investigation after all the information has been collected? so because the chance of calling the president back, i assume, would be limited. >> it would be remote in the extreme. it is true. i think you're absolutely right that the mueller team will want to interview trump towards the

end. but remember, gloria's reporting says they have not yet started the final negotiations about when this interview will take place. so we are not yet seeing officially the mueller office saying, this is it. we're ready to do it tomorrow. so remember, this is an investigation where they have a trial coming up in may, of manafort and gates. and the white house, every time ty cobb speaks to the public, it is always about we want a prompt resolution. we think things are wrapping up. he said thanksgiving. he said the end of the year. here we are, we have had no signal from the mueller office that they are wrapping up. we have a lot of hopeful comments from white house lawyers saying, we think they're wrapping up but that's not the same thing as an actual conclusion. >> remember, ultimately, mueller has the authority to not negotiate.

he has the authority to simply send out a subpoena with no limitations no, compromises, asking him about anythinging from obstruction. now of course, the president can file a lawsuit. and maybe delay it. but that flies in the face of the commitment by his lawyers that they want it to be done quickly. so i think mueller has the leverage advantage. but he doesn't want to seem like a bully. he doesn't want to seem like he's doing something that interferes with the operation of the president. >> i think -- i'm sorry. i think the president has plenty of leverage here. >> what is it. >> look how much the republicans have been attacking mueller. he could turn this into mueller overstating. mueller demanding too much, you know, breaking promises. this will not be a one-sided political argument. and the president and his party are already lined up against mueller.

the idea that the president is obligateded to give into mueller here, i just don't think that is politically right. >> doesn't mueller just say pre american has an obligation to testify fully and completely in front of the grand jury. we won't treat the president any differently. we will send him a subpoena. he has to testify. his lawyer can be outside the room. that's the way we treat everybody who is a witness in america. why isn't that a good answer? >> the reason is we have a constitutional system where the president is the executive branch. and he has different -- he has different responsibilities and it has never been said, whether it was a civil case, clinton v jones. the president is in a unique place with regard to the constitutional system. and i don't see that the president will be intimidated by that. >> that's my argument. i've been making that argument for months. the president is in a unique place. he has executive authority. but the one thing i don't think he would ever do would be

interfere with a grand jury subpoena requiring him to behave like pre other american does. but we'll see. >> we have to take a quick break. i want to hear from gloria when we come back. more on the possibility of frump testifying under oath and also later, is oprah winfrey for president something real or just a brief flare in a cold winter? we'll have more on that ahead. there are two types of people in the world. those who fear the future... and those who embrace it. the future is for the unafraid. ♪ all because of you ♪ ♪ when it comes to presenting evidence, nobody does it better. she's also this close to finding bigfoot. but when it comes to mortgages,

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>> back now with our panel, if president trump does testify under oath.

as a real estate developer he was deposed many types over many years. his track record was uneven. jeff, gloria, alan are joining us right now. so one of the things that is so fascinating, that was alluded to in the last discussion. that mueller is really holding all the cards in terms of information that the president doesn't know what mueller knows, doesn't know what all the e-mails that mueller has had access to. so for something like the trump tower meeting with donald trump jr., paul manafort and people who claim to be working for the russian government offering dirt on hillary clinton, there may be a whole slew of e-mails about that meeting that the president has no idea about. >> there is certainly more that the special counsel's team knows than the president and the white house know. but the white house knows more than we know. they have been in talks with the special counsel's office. for example, several months ago they had written some memos that they submitted to the special

counsel's office trying to argue why the president shouldn't be subject to an inquiry into obstruction, for example. so they have behind the scenes been trying to weed down the investigation. the issues with respect to the interview are first a format. the things we were talking about before the break. what will be the format of the interview, who will conduct it, who will be able to be there with the president. those types of things. then the second goes to an issue that gloria mentioned before the break which is the substance. will the substance of the interviews, assuming they take place, only pertain to obstruction, only pertain to issues related to cooperation or if we want to call it collusion with the russian government in terms of their meddling in the election, or even an aspect might be going on that we know the least about, inquiries into trump organization financial issues. so those substantive issues would mean very different things for the president if he was interviewed.

>> gloria, what's so interesting is the president is already on the record with the "new york times" when asked financial issues going back years or decades was a red line for him and he said it was a red line. so the idea of him being questioned about financial or banking issues, that's obviously something he -- >> i think that would come as a shock to his attorneys who have said over and over again that they see no indication that that is what this special counsel is honing in on. we don't know. but the white house does have an idea, i believe, of what people inside trump world have testified to mueller. don't forget, ty cobb has been in the white house sort of producing all the documents that were sent over to the special counsel's office. he has been helping coordinate the interviews between people inside the white house like hope hicks, or white house counsel don mcgahn, or former chief of staff reince priebus.

it would seem to me that he would have gotten a read-out of what those people were testifying to the special counsel. so i think they have sort of a general knowledge of part of the body of work that the special counsel has in front of it as far as what they know about. >> professor, you and i were talking about this during the break. this whole issue of the president's stability which has been raised by his critics, obviously, the people who believe he is not in some way stable would welcome this kind of an interview because of the very notion, if they believe he's not stable, that he might reveal something. >> i think that's right. they will look at everything he says and try to use that as proof of their -- i taught psychiatry in law for a quarter of a century. i wrote the standard case book coeditied on accessory and law. the first rule you never diagnose someone that you haven't met and haven't analyzed

and haven't examined. the only thing more dangerous in politicizing criminal issues is what the soviets did, it's what the apartheid did, the chinese regime. we should not go down that line of giving accessories the power to use their political opposition to try to create a diagnosis. if you don't like president, vote against him. and believe me, they'll go through every line of testifying. somebody on your network earlier today said he has alzheimer's. you should check the statements he made now against what he said ten years ago. well, check the statements i make now against statements an i made ten years ago. i was a little brighter then than i am today. that's what happens when you get old. the idea of trying to pathize political differences is so dangerous to democracy. >> i thought carrie did a very good job talking about the different variables that could be in place, regarding trump's testimony.

i think there's one she left out that's very important. which is simply, how long the testimony will go. when george w. bush agreed to speak to the 9/11 commission, he gave them an hour. one hour. i think we all underestimate donald trump's ability to run out the clock. he could get one question and talk for 40 minutes. and it is very hard to interrupt him. you've interviewed him. you know how hard it is to interview him and he wasn't even the president of the united states then. i think the president is in a lot better shape regarding this interview than perhaps others do here. i think the idea that he is going to be pinned down by an e-mail, when he doesn't use e-mail so it won't be his e-mail. people wrote about him. i just think he is a very experienced customer. he is president of the united states. it is very hard to tell a president to shut up when you

don't -- when there's no judge in the room. i think he is in better shape than we're giving him credit for. >> jeff toobin, gloria borger, thank you. there's a new report on what appears to be the president's shrinking workday even though his spokesman said he is working tirelessly for the country. what freshly obtained documents of his private schedule have to say about that. it's the phillips' lady!

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welcome back. let me start with this keeping it honest segment. here at "360," we're in favor of people watching more cable news and that goes for everyone, including the president of the united states. not that he does watch a lot of cable news. here's what he tweeted in july. the white house is functioning perfectly, focused on health care, tax cut reform and many other things. i have very little time for watching tv. that tweet went out at 9:309 a.m. eastern time. the president tweets a lot in the morning. especially about what he is watching on cable news programs. sometimes within minutes of the segment in question. apparently that tweet wasn't enough for the president so back in november he told reporters, i don't get to watch much television primarily because of documents. i'm reading documents a lot. it is not exactly news that the president is doing exactly what he says he's not doing but now we have a look at the president's website. the website axios got a look at the president's private schedule. every morning he has three-hour

period called executive time. according to the documents axios has executive time is from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. during executive time, you might think he would be in the oval office or elsewhere in the west wing doing executive stuff. instead, according to axios, this is the last place you actually find him. officials saying executive time almost always means tv and twitter time alone in the residence. if that's true, he starts around 11:00 and usually wraps up around 6:00 or earlier. by comparison, president obama was at the office between 9:00. president bush was at the office at 6:45. for the record, this president's workday was longer at the beginning of his administration. it's certainly a difficult job and he's entitled to do it any way he sees fit. however, does seem rich to be tweeting you don't watch a lot of television at the very moment you're almost certainly watching television. it's too rich to say you're too

busy reading documents and judging by all the morning tweets, you spend three hours every morning not reading documents or not only reading documents. it is like spending so many days at golf clubs after saying this -- >> i wouldn't leave the white house very much because, you know, little things like these little trips. they cost you a fortune. >> i love working. i'm not a vacation guy. >> i don't take vacations. i'm not obama where he takes air force one to hawaii. >> i don't take vacations. i promise you, i will not be taking very long vacations if i take them at all. there's no time for vacation. >> other people go away for weeks and weeks. i don't like taking vacations. >> obama likes relaxing and going on vacations. me, i like working. i like working. i really do. if i get elected president, i'm going to be in the white house a lot. i'm not leaving. we have deals to make. who the hell wants to leave, right? >> today a spokesman told us "this president, would tirelessly for the american people."

he said it aboard air force one, if you're wondering where he was heading, he was on his way 0 give a speech and then to see the college national championship. so is this president a part time president? david chalian and dana bash. so david, three hours for executive time for a very stable genius. allies might say what's the problem with that. he is allowed to make his own schedule. >> i would agree. he is allowed to make his own schedule. as you noted in what you were just going through, anderson, george w. bush came in at 6:45, barack obama between 9:00 and 10:00. whatever the work flow of the day, would for him, i wouldn't begrudge him that. it is the hypocrisy in what you can clearly line up. his tweets with what he's watching on television. just like he did when "the new york times" reported last month that he watches a ton of cable tv and then on air force one, he says i don't watch tv at all.

it is blatantly not true because you can match up his twitter feed to segments he watches on television. >> it is not like there isn't a history of presidents closely watching television. lbj watched tv reports about vietnam. one could only imagine if there was 24-hour news on watergate. can't one argue president trump's twitter fixation the behavior partially a product of the times? >> i think you could argue partially a product of the times. these times were pretty similar when president obama was in the white house and there was no indication that he was as obsessive about cable news and about absorbing and consuming this kind of news as this president is. and let's be clear. a big reason that president trump is as obsessive about cable news is because cable news and all news, newspapers and broadcast news is all about him right now. so he wants to get a sense of

what people are saying. his hope is to get affirmation. he gets that from watching another cable network mostly as opposed to getting facts at places like these. the last time i covered a white house full time was george w. bush. the thing that people criticized hip for was that he was out to lunch, that he didn't watch enough tv news. you remember covering katrina. he was accused of not really understanding the impact and absolute horrors going on there because he didn't turn on a television because that wasn't sort of culturally what he liked to do. >> david, in past years, when presidents have taken vacation, their supporters have said, wherever the president goes, he can work and do business and there's secure areas for him to gather information and phone calls that can be made. so i guess that argument could also be made for this president. >> without a doubt. if he is up in the residence,

there is nothing stopping him from directing what's going on downstairs in the west wing. i think that's true. i guess also, this shouldn't be terribly surprising. if anybody has been watching donald trump over the years of his career in business, this is somebody who has been completely obsessed by his press coverage in ways that i have never seen with politicians. and they're pretty obsessed with their press coverage. taking out every article and writing personal notes and having his assistant fax that back or e-mail that back to a reporter, he had a very -- in his business career, an obsession with his press. i don't think that's baited at all. >> to be fair, not just about his own press coverage, david, you're right, but just about news in general. if you look back at his twitter feed, that is the biggest window we have into what he's thinking and what he's doing, back way before he decided he was going to run for office, he commented

on everything, on what was going on in world events, how the president was doing, from that to what was going on with the kids from "twilight." this is something that he's always done. there was no reason to believe that he would change that even especially when he became president. >> i had forgotten about the "twilight." >> you're welcome, anderson. >> a reminder of that. i believe it was dating advice or relationship advice for some actor or actress. >> another example of the presidency, not changing him but him changing the presidency. >> thanks very much. could the next presidential election come down to president trump versus oprah? two close friends tell cnn oprah is "actively thinking, about running for president in 20. details on that ahead. you know what they say about the early bird...

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oprah winfrey's impassioned speech at the golden globes has inspired talk of her rubbing for president in 2020 against trump. frentsds are saying she is "actively" considering it. here's the moment when she got a standing ovation last night. >> i've interviewed people who has gone through the most ugly things life can throw at you. the one quality they au seem to share is the ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning even during our darkest nights. so i want all the girls watching

here now to know that a new day is on the horizon! on the horizon! on the horizon! on the horizon! on the horizon! and when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight. and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say me, too again. >> her words were certainly the talk of twitter and led to the trending it #oprah2020. this afternoon the white house responded to the speculation. a spokesperson said we welcome the challenge. whether it be oprah winfrey or anybody else. oprah winfrey has been asked

about a potential run for the white house several times since the 2016 election. with a look at that, here's randi kaye. >> oprah winfrey just weeks after donald trump won the white house signaling she may be open to running for president in 2020. >> i actually never considered the question even a possibility. i just thought, oh, oh. >> right, it's clear you don't need government experience. to be elected the president of the united states. >> that's what i thought. gee, i don't have the experience. i don't know enough. now i'm thinking oh. >> reporter: the more that idea, oprah for president gained traction, the more she pushed back. on cbs this morning. >> you can be safe with that. there will be no running for office of any kind for me. >> on the late show with stephen colbert after oprah shot down the idea of michelle obama running for president, all eyes were on her.

>> is there any other charismatic african-american woman that both sides of the political aisle really love? [ cheers and applause ] >> never! >> oprah again trying to end the speculation during an interview with "entertainment tonight." >> that is just not going to happen because that would not be my strength. my strength is bringing people together. my strength is connecting people to ideas. >> even during campaign 2016, there was already talk of oprah at the top of the ticket in 2020. after she did a segment on "60 minutes" talking to michigan voters an opinion piece in the ""new york post"" read, she is uniquely positioned. should she wish to commit herself to seek the democratic nomination for president and challenge trump in 2020. oprah tweeted back, a response that only added to the speculation. thanks for your vote of confidence. democrats best hope for 2020. that nearly 20 years after

donald trump told larry king he would likely choose oprah as his vice president if he ever were to run. >> do you have a vice presidential candidate in mind? >> well, i really haven't gotten quite there yet. oprah. i love oprah. reap would always be my first choice. if she would do it, she would be fantastic. she's popular, brilliant, she's a wonderful woman. if she would ever do it. i don't know that she would ever do it. >> meanwhile after her mega speech at the golden globes, her long-time partner stedman graham told the l.a. times in response to oprah running for president, it's up to the people. adding she would absolutely do it, and ladies "the view" already hashing it out. >> this is donald trump's worst nightmare. why? because she would have higher ratings than he will. believe me. she's had higher ratings. she can throw that in his face every sent day. >> i love oprah. i love what she's done. i always call her the oracle instead of oprah. don't we already have someone in the white house who has no

political experience? it's not going that well. >> oprah 2020. it may have a nice ring to some. for now, it is all just talk. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> joining me for their take on this, brian stelter and political commentator van jones. brian, based on your reporting, how serious or not serious is this? to have that powerful speech last night and all the speculation is one thing. actually putting together a campaign and taking that step. that's a huge step. >> she hand crafted the speech, for the golden globes. topic was the me, too movement. it wasn't about president trump. but there were certainly lines in the speech that would work in iowa or new hampshire that could come straight from a stump speech. i think the answer to your question is oprah's doing a lot of listening. she has high powered friends who are urging her. she's not saying she's in but she's definitely not ruling it out either. she is taking a wait and see approach just like lots of

potential democratic candidates in 2020. one source said, she is soaking it all in. listening to all the ideas and thinking about what to do. >> van, as you consider this possibility, what do you see? obviously, people would have said donald trump could have never been president and he's president. >> well, the question is, does she want to be demoted from queen of the universe to president of the united states? that's the only question. if she wants to do it, she can do it. she is probably the most beloved human being on earth. she is probably the most beloved carbon based life form on earth. if she runs, she will destroy anybody in front of her. the question is, does she want to do it? i've talked to a lot of people close to her, around her, there is basically bedlam in oprah land right now. people are begging her, please run, please run, please run. she's given no indication she's moved off her position that she doesn't want to do it. i will say that speech last

night was extraordinary. that speech, she did in nine minutes what barack obama did in 17 minutes in 2004. she told her story. she told the american story in a way that just was electrifying. if she decides to do this, it is going to be one of the most extraordinary runs in american history. >> the world of politics is a dirty business in a lot of ways. to your point, it is a step down for her you're saying. but to actually enter the fray, things change quickly. you get bruised and battered and muddied. >> here's the difference with oprah. she's already confessed to everything about her life. her life is an open book. in fact, the tough thing on oprah might be somebody saying your life wasn't as bad as you say or mistakes you made weren't as awful as you felt like they were. she has uniquely positioned

herself to be able to take those blows and turn them into advantages for herself. listen. i'll say one more thing. part of what happened with hillary clinton was that she was not able to get white women to vote for her. the majority of white women voted against her and for donald trump. i do not think that's a problem that oprah winfrey will have. i think she'll have women, men, blacks, whites, latinos, business people. come on. i'm waiting, i'm watching. something's going to happen here. i hope. >> if she were to get into the primary, could she get backlash by taking up all the media oxygen much like trump diif it s her and trump, the media coverage of both would -- i mean -- >> hard to imagine. >> i don't know if there are enough hours in the day. >> i think there would be grumbling from other candidates. a lot of the reasons why oprah

is getting calls is because of a sense that the democratic field is weak that, there's not a lot of obvious candidates who have star power and charisma and a real opportunity in 2020. i'm sure there's a lot of politicians that would disagree with that statement. in oprah's word, there are a lot of people who are concerned. about the weakness of the democratic field. that's why they're urging her to run. what she would bring is the ability to put on a show just like donald trump. she did it for decades in check, "the oprah winfrey show." that's why so many white women love her and black women and many men as well. she appeals to a wide array of people in the country. she's not commenting. i checked in with her company again tonight. they're just letting this trial balloon float up into the air today. >> van, in terms of actual pentagons she takes on complex issues, a lot of that has not been fleshed out by her publicly. so that would be one step, that also might alienate some people. it is easy to say you love oprah.

but then if she starts to take position that are antithetical. >> it's conceivable. she would have to deal with that. let me say one thing. she could hold together a front against hatred in the country. i think a lot of people are concerned about the growing hatred and intolerance. she could hold against that. and second to that, the policies are going to pale. that's what's needed in america right now. >> thank you very much. president trump gave a speech in tennessee today before a fired up audience, mostly devoted supporters. that is next. 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.

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best, he recharged his batteries, so to speak, in front of a crowd. telling members of the american farm bur ree row federation plenty, including precisely what

he wanted to hear. >> oh, are you happy you voted for me. you are so lucky that i gave you that privilege. >> our gary tuchman was there as well talking with members of the president's audience. >> reporter: thousands of people lining up in the opry land resort and conference center in nashville, tennessee, to see president trump in person. >> how do you feel he's doing so far? >> i'd give him an a, maybe an a plus. >> reporter: this isn't a trump rally, it's the national convention of the american farm bureau administration. but the people going to watch the president speak are big fans of him. >> he tweeted my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being like, really smart. when you hear that, what does it make you think? >> well, i don't know. >> when he says, like really smart, if you're really smart, do you need to tweet it and say that to everybody? >> i don't know. but you know, people with higher intellectual levels than me anyway, they have a different way of expressing theirselves and they can more or less speak

above my level. >> reporter: almost everybody we talked to here wants to defend donald trump. >> are you a mother? >> i am. >> would you like your kids to tweet like i'm really smart? do you think that would be a good thing for them to do? >> i probably wouldn't want them to be braggadocious. >> but it's okay if your president is? >> well, not really. >> so you do or you don't think it's a good thing for him to do? >> i want him to be confident. you don't want him to appear braggadocious but sometimes we need somebody to be that way and do what they say they're going to do. >> if you are indeed stable and you are indeed a genius, do you need to tweet that? >> i personally probably wouldn't, but he's very confident in what he's doing. >> reporter: for quite a while now many supporters of mr. trump believe he needs to tweet to get his message out, despite the fact that as president he can say what he wants, when he wants, where he wants and how he wants. >> how does naming people and giving people names like crooked and little and sloppy -- how

did you -- does that help 322 million americans? >> doesn't bother me. >> how does it help americans when he does it? >> i'm not saying it helps america, but it doesn't bother me and i don't think it bothers the majority of the people in the united states. >> when he says he's an excellent student, but we've never seen his grades, do you think he's being too pompous or do you like when he says stuff like that? >> he's the president of the united states. what does it matter what his grades are. >> but he's the one bringing it up that he was an excellent student and he says he's a stable genius and he says he's like a very smart person. should he be talking like that? >> i think that's fine. it doesn't matter. i mean he's the president. show some respect. >> reporter: and regarding one other presidential issue freshly in the news, what if donald trump ran in 2020 against oprah winfrey, would she get trump voters? >> never. no. >> how come? >> i think she's completely lost touch with where she came from and i think that she has a

different agenda than americans. >> so if she ran for president in 2020, do you know who you would vote for, oprah winfrey or donald trump? if they ran against each other. >> i don't know because i would have to see what her platform is. what she would be wanting to do for the country. >> so you would consider possibly voting for her, depending what happened? >> i could consider it, sure. >> reporter: anderson, president trump told the audience that he signed two presidential orders to improve rural internet service and then he launched into promoting his twitter brand. he told the audience to make sure you look into it. and it's our way of getting around the media. so he's sticking to that rationale. anderson. >> gary tuchman, thanks. a lot more ahead. is the groundwork being laid for an interview with president trump by special counsel robert mueller? the new year only eight days old. a lot to unpack. we'll be right back. flo: just like magic, progressive gives you options based on your budget. [ gasps, laughs ] you ever feel like... cliché foil characters scheming against a top insurer for no reason? nah.

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topping the hour, something far more consequential to the president than what he says on twitter about being a very stable genius. new reporting tonight about what he soon might be called on to say to russia special counsel robert mueller, who is turning out to be a very serious prosecutor and perhaps a very real threat. cnn justice correspondent pamela brown joins us now with the latest on that. so what are you learning about a possible interview between the president and mueller?