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tv   Erin Burnett Out Front  CNN  January 22, 2018 4:00pm-5:00pm PST

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employee reporting since right now employees must report any harassment within four 45 i to an eeo counselor and often their soou supervisors get directly involved. this can create a cumbersome process for employees that might feel violated. they have a group that say they have witnessed or experienced this harassment. >> thanks for that report. very, very important. that's it for me. erin burnett outfront starts right now. breaking news, the government up and running, but for how long? why would democrats believe the president on immigration when they say negotiating with him is like dealing with jell-o. hundreds of text messages released to investigators five months of messages still missing. republicans say they prove bias against trump. do they? reports of hush money to a porn star who had on a alleged
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relationship with trump. did this break campaign finance laws? let's go outfront. good evening. outfront tonight, shutdown victory. president trump taking a victory lap as more than 30 democratic senators join all republicans in a vote to end the three-day shutdown. the house voting moments ago to end the impasse. the deal was done in congress and it was done by senators. that's who made the deal. the president was silent. today president trump only issued a brief statement which said in part, quote, i am pleased the democrats in congress have come to their senses and now willing to fund our great military, border patrol, first responders and insurance for vulnerable children. the short term spending deal came after mitch mcconnell, declared his quote, intention. intention to hold a debate on the dreamers in the come weeks. that's it. intention to hold a debate in a few weeks. there's no formal mechanism to
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force him to do this. some progressives are livid saying chuck schumer caved. he will bring the issue to the floor. is that a victory? why will republicans work with democrats on this issue when they have not done so before. the president's point of view on the dreamer issue and the immigration is to link immigrants to murder. here is his ad released this weekend. >> president trump is right. build the wall, deport criminals. stop illegal immigration now. democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants. >> illegal murder, immigrants, democrats. it's hard to imagine the president would sign legislation allowing the 700,000 plus treemers who were brought to america as children through no choice of their own, to stay in america. here's what's amazing. you just heard that ad.
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it's not the president's voice. the white house is trying to distance trump from the ad saying it's being leareleased b the outside group. the outside fwrgroup is the tru re-election campaign. let me make it loud and kwlecle who is behind it. >> i'm donald trump and i approve this message. >> case this point. the shutdown may be over. in reality the countdown clock has been reset. today's agreement is up in 17 days. pamela brown is outfront at the white house. pamela, what is the mood there tonight? we thought the president may come out and speak after the vote, sort of take credit for this, but no. >> reporter: no. that's true. you would think that perhaps there would be some sort of victory lap from the president. we're told that's not part of the plan now. inside the white house there is certainly a sense that the strategy worked. the strategy of saying the immigration bit would be different from keeping the government running and funding it. in fact, i was told by one white
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house official that throughout the day there's been congratulations exchanged with mark short, the legislative director. this could be a short lived victory depending on what happens over the next few weeks once funzing r infunding runs o again. it's unclear what would be worked out. it's interesting to note how low of a profile the president has kept over the last few days. white house officials say he was busy behind the scenes. he was making calls to republicans. you would think that perhaps now this has been done, that the senate was able to get the votes it needed that he might come out and face the cameras. we're told that's not going to happen. it's unclear as to why that is. one official said it's because they don't want it the mablg it about him. it's still a little questionable. you heard chuck schumer say that the great negotiator has been on the side lines.
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will the president be more active. that's still an open question. >> thank you very much. you stood your ground. you're not one of the democrats that came around. you voted no. >> the defense department is saying they can't sign contracts with this lengthy crs. they wanted to see something very short. is it the tuesday trump that says i want a love immigration bill and bring me something and i'll sign it or is it going to be the thursday version from two
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wee weeks ago who has breitbart leading him around by the nose. >> let me ask you in this deal, the government was shut for three days. from my understanding what has come out of it is exactly what the republicans originally wanted plus mcconnell said he has the intention to bring the dreamer issue to the floor. did senator schumer make a bad deal? >> it's a little more than that. over the weekend what we had was a group of republicans who went to mitch mcconnell and said we demand a debate on the floor. he promised to them, which is much more important than promising to us, that he would do that with a neutral bill, with a full chance for both sides to offer amendments to basically create an immigration bill which means we do have the opportunity that we succeeded in doing in 2013 where we came together, democrats and republicans to forge a bipartisan bill. that's the hope. >> why didn't you vote yes? >> for the reasons i said. we need really a short term three-day and realize we
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repeatedly brought up this three-day bill to keep the government open but to force dedicated negotiations. not two or two and a half weeks with doing nothing and then negotiations. >> you're saying it's only going to negotiate two or three days. that's the point you're making? >> absolutely in was all supposed to be done since october 1st of last year. the republicans were too busy with that health bill trying to destroy health care for some 30 million americans and the tax bill, which plundered the national treasury to deliver a trillion dollars to richest americans. they couldn't compel themselves to deal with the fundamentals of governing. a spending bill addressing children's health care, addressing community health centers and the opioid crisis. >> let's talk about this issue. sarah sanders pointed out that's not only in this continuing resolution but that other things in it are also things that democrats like you care deeply about. here she is.
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>> i think democrats realize that the position that they have taken was indefensible and they had to focus on first funding our military, protecting border patrol agent, funding vulnerable children through the chip program. these were things that they didn't disagree with. they agreed with everything in the cr. >> she brings up funding vulnerable children. doesn't she have a point? >> our three-day resolution, continuing resolution also had the chip in it. we've been fighting since last august to get this bill on the floor. this was forged and bipartisanship. it should have passed last september instantly. they held it out as a bargaining chip in a shameful practice of holding 800,000 children hostage. >> you're saying that you plooef senat -- believe senator mcconnell because he made this promise to people of his parties.
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kamala harris told reports she does not believe mcconnell made any real commitment to deal with immigration. do you think she could be right or you truly do trust mcconnell? >> i do not trust him at all. he has promised lindsey graham and susan collins, jeff flake. made promises, commitments that he has not honored. however, realize republicans control the presidency. republicans control the senate. the mcconnell has decided to put the amendment box where we put amendments so they can be brought up on floor. he's decided to put his amendments in and lock the box so no democratic amendment can be considered. that's why we couldn't put up be bipartisan understanding we had with many members of the republican party for consideration. in that type of control we realize our leverage is modest. we do hope to hold mcconnell accountable for this promise but i'm not sure that we will
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succeed. >> you're being honest here saying your leverage is modest. you don't trust him. let me put it to you straight. the congressional black caucus leader said they're getting their butts kicked. talking about you guys. is he right? >> we wanted to attach the dream act and opioids to a must pass bill that would get to the president's desk. we failed in that effort. now we're on plan b. it did work in 2013. we're going to carry that battle forward. >> thank you. i appreciate you. our senior political analyst is out front. mark, i have to say at first he tried to say the promise was to lindsey graham by mcconnell. he's trying to be optimistic but i thought he was more frank later in the interview. our leverage is modest. i don't know if we'll get
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anything. he said we're going to hold them accountable. i'm going to throw something out. senate democrats did house democrats a big favor by agreeing to this. allowing house republicans to pass this bill, this cr, this continuing resolution for a couple more weeks. it allows the house democrats, all of them who are up for re-election to take a stand and vote against it. >> that's interesting. i guess it's long term, short term strategy when it comes to the midterm. let me ask you, the president. i played the ad where it's illegal ill grammigrants. the white house is trying to say an outside group did this. hee here he is speaking specifically about dreamers and during the
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campaign to talk about the tale of two trumps. >> it should be a bipartisan bill. it should be a bill of love, truly should be a bill of love. >> i will immediately terminate the president obama's illegal executive order on immigration. immediately. >> we're talking about dreamers for other people. i want the children that are growing up in the united states to be dreamers also. >> mark, look. you put that together with the ad and you hear senator the murkley saying we don't know which president is going to show up. which president is going to show up? >> who knows. depends what happens tonight. a republican said this to me who is no fan of stephen miller said stephen miller is the last person that whispers this his ear and that's why we're in this problem. republicans are not happy about this. if you look at polls we know that overwhelmingly the majority of americans want the daca issue
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fixed. they want to take care of these dreamers. there's that small group of hard liner, specifically stephen miller and some cases the chief of staff who are whispering in trump's ear as well as senator tom cotton and that's why he's stuck on this. nobody knows how to negotiate with the president because they don't fwhoe wiknow who will com door. >> are they the ones pushing hard line on immigration and winning? new pressure to release a controversial memo in the russia probe. trump's bragging about low unemployment among african-americans. does he and will he get the credit at the voter box?
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it's not laughing matter. it's a serious question. you heard that just discussed. former white house counselor to clinton. also our newest political commentator. paul, let me start with you. you heard sanders say stephen miller is not running the show. do you buy it? >> no. we thought the show was going to be the apprentice. it turns out to be who's the boss. i was honored to serve president clinton in the white house. every president has to defer on some issues. say if this was agricultural policies, he has an agriculture study at purdue, i think it would be wise to defer to secretary purdue. this is the president's signature issue and on it he has said many times, that he would
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sign legislation to regularize the dreamer status and he's flip-flopped because stephen miller, the staff yanks it back. we know who is running the show down there and it's president stephen miller. >> steve. >> well, i would say to that paul as long as we're talking television shows, when you say president stephen miller, i would tell you that's as laughable and fictional as the show barney miller. >> i'm thinking of a purple dinosaur. >> anyone who observes, which is everyone in america, president trump knows whether it was from the apprentice, candidate trump, president trump, knows this is not a man who cedes authority and control. i have the privilege of knowing him personally. the idea he would give up control to a second president or a pseudo president is laughable in its face. what's really going on is the left realizes that they lost in this showdown over the shutdown.
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what are they trying to do now. they're trying to create a boogeyman in stephen miller. here's the problem. president trump ran unambiguously on a program of controlling the border and reforming our immigration system as candidate. he was elected primarily probably on that basis and now he's following through on it. he may be out of step with the mainstream media. he's not out of step with america. >> i understand you all disagree on the power he has. even republicans like lindsey graham says stephen miller has that power. sometimes it's not reality but perception that matters. stephen miller is getting the same headlines that upset when they applied to steve bannon. president miller shutdown. business insider, report some now referring to miller as president stephen miller.
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john kelly the chief of staff. how are these headlines for stephen miller and john kelly's future? >> there's some reporting that general kelly is looking for the exit which i would not blame him. he's an american hero and deserves our respect. mr. miller, slightly less of a hero. he's a 32-year-old guy, worked on the hill. that's fine. i never saw steve bannon overruled the president like this. the president sat down. we all saw it on national television. it was remarkable meeting. he sat in the cabinet room. >> tuesday meeting. >> senator dianne feinstein said would you sign a clean daca bill. allow the dreamers to stay with nothing else attached. no strings attached. let me read you what he said. he said yes and then move to phase two which would be come prehencive immigration reform but i think we need to do daca
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first. that's the president making a deal until steve miller overruled it. it's unprecedented. >> the idea that stephen miller, who i really respect. >> that makes one of us. >> that he's the pup -- >> i said respect steve miller. >> i don't loik like a staff guy overruling the president. >> the idea he's the puppeteer is an absurdity. he's an important voice among many important voices. he has the mandate of american people and changing this country when it comes to the economy. >> yet when it comes to immigration steve miller, not
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only is being credited by democrats and republicans with having the final word on this, whether you want to say overruled or convincing. he is passionate about immigration. he actually is the only one who has come out and take questions on immigration from the press. here he is in a combative exchange in the press briefing room. >> aren't you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant come sboing into this country i you're telling them you have to speak english. can't people learn how to speak english when they get here? >> first of all, right now it's a requirement to be natural iedsed you have to be english. >> are we just going to bring in people from great britain and australia? >> i am shocked at your statement that you think that only people from great britain and australia would know english. >> sounds like you're trying to engineer the rational and ethnic flow of people into this country. >> that's one of the most outrageous, insulting and
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foolish things you've said. for you that's really -- the notion that you think this is racist bill is so wrong and so insulting. >> combative to say the least, paul. >> to say the least in that sense i think he's reflecting the president. it's a tragic thing. the majority of americans believe our president is racist in the polling. over 50% thinks he prefers white people to non-white people. why? because he said so. he was in that infamous meeting and he said we need more immigrants from norway and not from unflattering comment countries in africa, the caribbean or central america. when you say you want more white immigrants. that that sense mr. miller is repeating the president's view which is a racist view. >> what's actually racist is telling minorities and i say this as a hispanic the telling minorities at election time we value you and value your vote and forgetting them between.
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>> we just shut down the government for them. >> for his panic americans. they shut it down for ill leega immigrants. they have done tremendous harm to the economic prosperity of legal hispanic americans. of legal african-americans. what the president is doing is saying america first no matter your creed or color. your economic prosperity -- >> norway first he said. >> it's my first priority. there's nothing racist about it. that's the opposite of racist. it's saying we're not here to exploit you. we're here to improve your lives. that's what president trump has done. >> all right. thank you both. paul you have the first. i appreciate your time. next, republicans pushing harder on that controversial memo alleging fbi wrong doing in the russia probe. why won't they let the fbi see
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it and respond? a new twist in the storm y daniels affair. did report offense a pay off violate campaign laws? my guest is going to court. coaching means making tough choices. jim! you're in! but when you have high blood pressure and need cold medicine that works fast, the choice is simple. coricidin hbp is the #1 brand that gives powerful cold symptom relief without raising your blood pressure. coricidin hbp.
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new tonight in the russia investigation, house republicans ramping up their push to release information tied to a memo spearheaded by house committee chairman. it accuses the fbi of wrong doing during the 2016 campaign. it says there was a bias towards democrats. democrats say the memo is full
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of partisan talking points and nothing more than an attempt to distract from the russia probe. obviously this memo release the memo has gotten national attention. what is the latest on the push to relohse it an what's in it? >> i'm told by key republicans they are pushing very hard to release this memo very soon. as soon as next week when the house returns to session after a rece recess. it's taking now a verecess. it alleges the fbi acted improperly by not telling the judge who has overseen the warrant that they are using part of the justification that the trump-russia dossier that included the allegations comp e compiled by the british agent. this is something the fbi has requested to review this memo.
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full of these republican allegations but the chairman of the committee will not give the fbi an opportunity to review this memo. i talked to one key republican earlier tonight about why the fbi should not review it. this is what he said. >> i'm not in favor of looking at doj and fbi weighing in. they've been less than cooperative on a number of fronts. >> they need to have a role in reviewing the memo first? >> no. they know more about what's in the memo than perhaps anybody else. at this point i think they understand the wrong doing that certainly the memo would highlight. >> now to release the memo the process is this. the house intelligence committee would vote to do that. it would go to the president who would decide whether or not to declassify it. if he does, the memo is public. >> lawmakers are seeing nearly
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400 new pages of text messages involving fbi agent that was removed from bob mueller's team, some 50,000 text messages. >> they're saying it shows an effort by the two fbi agents. they were biassed against then candidate trump. it alleges that then attorney general loretta lynch knew they were not going to move forward on some of these charges against hillary clinton as part of that clinton e-mail investigation. republicans are raising concern as about five months of missing tex messages that were not turned over to congress. democrats are saying it's part of an effort to distract from the russia-trump investigation as republicans are starting to pursue this new line of inquiry going forward. >> thank you very much.
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let's talk about the text messages that we have. put aside the ones that are missing. let's talk about the ones we have first. as he points out some of them seem to raise red flags. where they suggest loretta lynch who was then the attorney general knew the conclusions of the fbi's investigation when she seemed to imply i'll accept whatever it is. these texts, let eets just 's j clear, were made before comey made the announcements. timing looks like hell. it's her reply that seems to damming. she writes back it's real profile since she knows no charges will be brought. that's the operative text.
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>> does it look bad? absolutely. you're going to read the tea leaves the way you want to. in june of 2016, you have that phoenix tarmac meeting between attorney general lynch and the former president. that's what comey uses as the basis for coming out on july 5th and doing shotgomething unprecedented weighing in and saying we're not going to bring charges but here are things that happened. the fbi has never done that before. we have been around for 110 years. we follow the evidence. does it look bad? absolutely. it absolutely looks bad. i think a lot of people are uncomfortable with it. the only way to get to the bottom is some folks are brought forward and asked to testify under oath. >> what do you say, richard? >> i think these two people maybe shouldn't be working for the government. they shouldn't be using their official texts, phone lines to be sending messages to each
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other. big picture is that there was absolutely no legal precedent for charging someone with what happened to hillary clinton. we've been over and over this. that's a 2016 story that they are trying to dig up in 2018. no legal precedent for charging someone for negligently handling classified information in an e-mail account like that. zero. talking a bt computer with hillary clinton e-mails on it. that was used to spread the rumor they are re-opening investigation. they threw the election for trump. the notion they were favoring clinton is laughable to what happened in 2016 that last week of october.
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>> absolutely. >> let's talk about the texts we don't have. the other issue is we have five months of texts that we do not have. all the inappropriate phone calls to the russian ambassador, the national security advisor, michael flynn. that's a strange time line, let's say the least. they say these are missing because they were switching their sam sung phones. have not answered whether it's these two people's messages that are missing or perhaps others. do they owe it to us to get to the bottom of that? >> i think they do. at a minimum it fuels conspiracy theories. they look at this and go five months. one month after the election through the transition which is the greatest period of time we're look at this counter
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intelligence investigation into russia meddling into our election. yes, it's going to have a huge impact. under normal circumstances, and i'll disagree with richard on this. i would leave this in the office of inspector general. they are apolitical and they do great work. under the current set of circumstances we're dealing it, i think a special prosecutor needs to be appointed. >> i want to give you chance to respond. information about the fbi. they won't give it to the fbi for the fbi to look at. democrats say it's political who have seen it. when you put all this together, is there any reason to have a second special counsel or is that ceding to conspiracy theoryists. >> i would have a special counsel. what i blame president obama for is not having the fbi be on top
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of the situation with the russians interfering in our election. >> you're saying you would do a special counsel? >> no. i think congress, needs to investigate why the fbi wasn't on top of the the russians messing in our election. in 2016, why were the obama administration slow to deal with this. we had the russians interfering in our election, the fbi was aware of it. they just sat around in 2016 and did nothing. it's not this stuff in this report. this is irrelevant to the big picture of what happened in 2016. >> there was an investigation. just because the president
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didn't push it at the time because president obama thought it would tilt the election -- >> or he thought hillary was going to win. >> exactly. >> there's always been an investigation into that. we worry about china, north korea, russia meddling in our election. that investigation was under way. >> thank you both. next, a complaint just filed with the justice department over stormy daniel and alleged hush money paid to silence her about an affair with donald trump. did the payoff break the law. trump taking credit for gains that benefit african-americans. does he deserve it? >> i don't see a lot of what he's doing that has affected the black community. there's a vacation at the end of every week with hilton. whatever type of weekender you are, don't let another weekend pass you by. get the lowest price when you book at hilton.com we can go down this what do you think? ♪ "never been in love" by cobra starship feat. iconapop ♪
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did donald trump's lawyer break campaign finance laws when he paid a porn star hush money to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with trump? a watchdog group says yes. filing a complaint with the department of justice and the federal elections commission. common cause is pointing to wall street journal report that said trump's lawyer paid daniels before the election. cohen set up a shell company to pay her. paul, thanks very much. i appreciate your time. we spoke to a former lawyer who said this is a legitimate case.
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michael cohen has just told me that your complaint is baseless along with the allegation that president trump file ad a false report. what's your agent? >> the argument is that michael cohen is an agent of president trump. he's president trump's personal lawyer. he was the head lawyer at the trump organization at the time of this payment to stormy dan l danie daniels. we allege two violations. two different types of violations. one is pretty clear that the president or someone closel related to him spent $130,000 to influence the election. hush money to prevent embarrassment of the president with an individual with whom he had an affair who was talking to major media outlets at the time. this came about a week after the access hollywood tape went public. violation number one, failure to disclose an expenditure by the trump campaign committee in the amount of $130,000. the second violation that we
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allege is possibly having occurred is if this money did not come from president trump, there was an illegal campaign contribution. if it came from the trump organization, that's an illegal contributi contribution. if it came from another individual, that's an illegal large contribution. >> that's your logic there. as i said, michael cohen is telling me your suit here is baseless. obviously, daniels has denied the affair. trump also denied via trump's attorney. i guess the question for you if you cannot prove it was hush money that was paid to her, does that take away your case? do you have to prove it was money to shut her up? >> we don't have to prove anything. the legal standard for filing a complaint like this one at the federal election commission is it's there reason to believe the law was broken. they have subpoena power. it's the dent of justice job to
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investigate. they like wise have subpoena power. it looks pretty obvious this was hush money payment given the timing, given the reporting that ms. daniels was talking to major media outlets. >> she was negotiating with media outlets about appearing and given an interview a view years prior to in touch magazine with great detail about the alleged affair. does it matter if donald trump knew about the money? if michael cohen went and did this without trump's knowledge, does that take away any concern about the campaign? >> it definitely matters. if he was acting without donald trump's knowledge and authorization and completely without any knowledge or authorization by other trump campaign committee staffers. this will not be. it's not a contribution to the trump campaign. our complaint is invalid.
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it should not be prosecuted. i highly doubt that was the case. we're talking about donald trump's personal lawyer who seemingly orchestrated this whole thing. he set up the llc. i'm pretty sure an investigation would reveal that donald trump was fully knowledgeable about this. >> of course as you point out it was tone just before the election. thank you very much. i appreciate your time. >> thanks so much for having me. next, some gains for african-americans in the past year on unemployment which trump is taking loud credit for. does he deserve it? the white house spending out pictures of donald trump working. i don't know if that's what this is. can i just call it out. sometimes you just have to see that what you see looks a little strange. was he posing? 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.
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already employed 50 people says he plans to hire more in the up coming months. >> we should have a big creation of jobs from a neighborhood of chefs, bartenders as well as server. >> reporter: it is the kind of economic boost president trump has been eager to take credit for. along with the surging stock market and a record low african american unemployment rate. >> i am very proud of that. >> reporter: slipped to 6.8% in december. part of that drop could be attributed to fewer people looking for jobs. and still the latest good news as part of a long-term trend that began under president
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obama. >> i think president trump is sitting if a position where things have been set and the road map was already there. >> reporter: parks says trump does deserve credit for the record setting stock market. >> i have seen it definitely rise. it is only fair to give him the credit for that. >> reporter: what about other promises he has head. >> a lot of things have not been answered. >> reporter: do you feel like the president genuinely wants to help the black community? >> that's a tough question for me to answer. >> reporter: parks is one of the 88% of black ohioans who did not vote for trump in 2016 and he does not appreciate some of his rhetoric when talking about black people. including recently calling african nations shithole
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nations. her tax preparing business was hit hard during the great recession but bounced back. while she deserves trump deserves credit, she doesn't think some of his policies are going to help her. >> i believe it is going to help the very rich. >> athena, it is incredible because they are giving credit but credit and votes how big is the gap between the two? >> i think it could be big. they are giving credit but only on the stock market. some people say they are not in the stocks. so they don't benefit directly. we spoke to several black voters off cramera as well as on camer.
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you are not seeing a lot of support growing. >> thank you so much. and next, is this donald trump working hard during a shutdown? is that what working hard looks like? jeanne moos is next. do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet? do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts? what about a dedicated service team of trading specialists? did you say yes? good, then it's time for power e*trade. the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. looks like we have a couple seconds left. let's do some card twirling twirling cards e*trade. the original place to invest online.
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tonight some people are saying the president who loves to put on a show is doing just that during the shutdown. here is jeanne moos. >> reporter: there was a time when president trump was proud of his messy desk. >> look at my desk. >> reporter: whether in the oval office or trump towers. >> successful people have a lot going on on their desk. >> reporter: not much going on on this desk. online critics weren't buying it. i do conduct most of my most important work with a phone in my hand and nothing on my desk while staring vacantly off into space. this the photoy you take while
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sitting in the president's desk. the white house probably decided to release the desk photo because everyone kept saying the president -- >> i don't think that donald trump did a heck of a whole lot. >> reporter: nixon could have used a dozen paper weights. but trump wasn't the only president to have his desk sanitized. critics on twitter put stuff there. stuff like a toy train, a toy phone, a cheese burger and diet coke. some imagined he was calling his wife. or maybe on hold with the white house comment line. >> we look forward to taking
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your cars calls as soon as the white house re-opens again. >> the best part is the hat. that he put the hat on for the picture. thanks to all of you for joining us. and don't forget you can watch outfront any time. go to cnn go. "ac 360" begins right now. it is over. president trump should be signing it any moment now. this should get the government back open for business only 22 weeks. president trump and the gop. here is what happened today. senate majority mitch mcconnell struck a deal. mainly a battl