latest man accused of sexual misconduct. preposterous says steve wynn, the casino billionaire. >> i want to thank the whole group. >> closely tied to president trump as finance chairman of the republican national committee. democrats are demanding the rnc return any campaign contribut n contribution. >> mounting evidence of possible obstruction of justice against the president of the united states. >> president trump ordered white house counsel don mcgahn to fire mueller last june. >> fake news. >> it is not a bombshell to mueller. >> i think that is obstruction of justice and grounds for

impeachment. >> there have been failures at msu. >> asking for immediate congressional investigation into usa gymnastics and the u.s. olympic exit icommittee. >> they knew what was going on and it went on for too long. >> i hope saturday morning has been good to you so far. i'm christi paul. >> and i'm martin savidge. it was just a week ago the president was singing his praises, now steve wynn, the rnc finance chairman, is in the middle of a sexual misconduct scandal. according to the "wall street journal," dozens of women say wynn performed them to perform sex acts when they worked for him. wynn says the claims are preposterous. >> and senate doemocrat s democ

suspiciousing legislation to protect mueller from trump. they want to keep any official from undermining the investigation. >> so we'll begin though with the scandal surrounding the top official of the rnc. miguel marquez joining us from las vegas with the details. >> reporter: good morning. the president and steve wynn have been competitors in the paths, their hotels here are just a blue blocks from each other. they have known each other for decades and now the sex allegations are casting that entire relationship in a new light. preposterous says steve wynn the vegas hotel and casino billionaire to charge that's ever assaulted any woman. the blistering statement from wynn himself after a bombshell "wall street journal" report that a manicurist in 2005 was forced to lie on a massage table naked while she claims wynn raped her.

the journ oial the reporting th he paid her $75 million in a settlement. wynn in a statement said the instigation of these actions is the continued work of my ex-wife, elaine, with whom i'm involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement. elaine wynn's attorney told the "journal" that is just not true. wynn the latest high profile wealthy and politically connected man accused of sexual misconduct. the "wall street journal" osays about to to more than 150 employees and dozens reported a pattern of sexual an abuse by wynn. wynn says we find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations regardless of the truth and a person is left with a choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multiyear lawsuits. it is deplorable for anyone to find themselves in this situation. the allegations now

reverberating in politics where despite history of supporting both parties -- >> i'm friendly with bill and hillary and a friend of donald trump's. i haven't given a dime to either one of them. and i haven't decided who i'm going to vote for. >> reporter: wynn now closely tied to president trump as finance chairman of the republican national committee. democrats are demanding the rnc return any campaign contributions from wynn, of the way republicans did with harvey weinstein. allegations against wynn are now being used to put pressure on the republican party. the democratic national committee saying today the rnc have helped fund the campaign of alleged child molester blindly supported the gop's attacks on women's health, supported a president who has been accused of sexual misconduct by over a dozen women, and now they remain silent amid sexual assault allegations involving steve wynn. one of their party's most senior

officials. so just how close are these two? last eweekend when the presiden stayed in d.c. because of the shutdown, he was supposed to be in mar-a-lago for a fundraiser. in his said, steve wynn spoke. the president sent a video where he singled out steve wynn. cnn obtained audio of that video. >> steve wynn, i want to thank you, i want to thank the whole group of money raised, you're really special people. thank you very much. we'll see you the next time. >> reporter: now on, in fairness the president did mention several other people, but he certainly singled steve wynn out. and coincidentally, today is steve wynn's 76th birthday. back to you. >> miguel marquez, thank you very much. let's talk about the other big political headline this morning. democrats looking for a way to protect special counsel robert mueller after reports that the president twrid ried to fire hi. caitlin collins, what are you

hearing this morning about the democrats' plan to protect mueller's team? >> reporter: well, they have raised the question of thousand protect robert mueller once again and they are seeking to ensmur that te ensure that the ongoing budget negotiations include some type of legislation that would protect the special counsel from being able to be fired by the president alone. now, this isn't the first time that the democrats have raised this idea, they actually brought it up late fall last year when there was speculation that the president could be considering bob mueller. but to talk of the legislation, it died down because not only the president, but his aides and lawyers insisted that it wasn't on the table for him to even be considering firing bob mueller. something we now know is not true with the wake of the "new york times" report that the white house counsel actually threatened to quit after the president told him to fire mueller. senator warner has been a critic

of the president, but here's what he had to say about the news. >> i think if the president had gone through with this or tries to go through with this on a going forward basis, we're in unchartered territory, we're into the real question of fundamentals of our democracy. are we still going to be a country where rule of law pervades and no one even the president is above the law? my hope will be come next week that the congress will take up bipartisan legislation that was around last year that would protect the special prosecutor from these kind of arbitrary actions. >> reporter: now, you notice there at the end he said bipartisan legislation. this will need republican support because they control the house and the senate. but right now, this is overshadowing washington, these breaking developments as the president is set to give his first state of the union address on tuesday. but right now, the mueller investigation is certainly overshadowing it all. >> caitlin collins live from the

white house for us, thank you. so we have 34re7b9s hav hav discuss, here do that, daniel lippman and page pate. we just heard senator mark warner there. do you think the democrats have a legitimate chance of passing legislation to protect mueller? >> i think there is a lot of support, people were really shaken by what they heard in that "new york times" report that caitlin collins mentioned. and it will just be really curious to see whether or not if they will -- again they need republican surpt and there is a lot of republicans i think also who do not want to see the special counsel fired. >> so the real question here is do you think republicans will go along with that? >> i think that that remains to be seen. i think that there is definitely -- you hear republicans up on capitol hill saying, you know, we don't want to see this happen.

a lot of republicans saying they don't think the president would make that step. so i think that obviously it would set a very bad precedent if the president were to take that step. so i think there is a chance that republicans could go along with this idea, yes. >> and i want to draw on your legal mind. two things. sources tell cnn that president trump is really upset and possibly considering firing rod rosenstein deputy attorney general. his advisers of course are telling him that is a bad idea. but what happens if he were to go through with it? >> the president certainly has the legal ability and authority to remove the deputy attorney general rosenstein. he works in the justice department. the president has the chief executive is in control of the justice department. it would be a very bad idea politically, but also legally because rod rosenstein is in charge of the special counsel's investigation. robert mueller has to report to rod rosenstein when he washhe w go in a different direction,

when he's made findings or conclusions. so if you remove rosenstein, you have to have somebody else put in place to bafshsically overse the investigation because the attorney general jeff sessions has already recused himself. so that would allow the president to have direct influence over the special counsel's investigation without removing rob mueller. so i can see why the president may want to do it, but it is a bad idea. >> and daniel, hold on a second. i want to ask one more of page. and that is if it got to a point where the president is actually interviewed by mueller and his team, would you expect that the question would be asked directly of the president, hey, did you really plan to fire me or attempt to fire me back in june of last year? >> i certainly think that those questions will be asked. maybe not that direct question. and first of all, we don't know that rob mueller would actually do the questioning. anyone on his team could take the place of the investigate tore at that point, the person who is giving the question to

the president. but i do think that they will focus on those conversations about replacing not just jim comey, but also the special counsel. because we know that at this point the special counsel's office has already interviewed people in the white house who say that these conversations took place. and we heard president trump say it's all fake news. so they may be able to confront the president with evidence that this conversation took place and if he denies it, then that is a potential faulgs statemelse sta. >> daniel, president trump has said that any talk that he tried to fire robert mueller was fake news. but everyone outlets like fox news have confirmed the details. so that that fake news defense really work for the president? >> i don't think most people agree with the president on this. you have christopher rudddy, ceo of news max, say it back in the summer who is one of trump's best friends try to warn him

against firing mueller. you also had anthony scaramucci who is still a big trump ally, he said back then that trump had thought about that as well. so i think back to your point about republicans, i think a lot of congressional republicans, they would be afraid if trump fired mueller because it could hurt them in the midterms. and also it would hurt the president as well because it would make it harder for them to defend him given the fact that mueller is a republican and is widely respected as being an arbiter of justice. >> well, okay. having said that then, let me go back to do you expect that maybe republicans would go along with the democrat idea protecting mueller in some way? >> i think after that report on wednesday by the "times," it is much harder for them to oppose that move. i think most constituents would

probably agree to protect mueller from trump firing him. and i think only the most hardcore trump supporters in the senate and house on the republican side would probably try to block this move. i think mitch mcconnell if it was up to him he would agree with this. he had told don mcgahn to stay in that job to try to protect trump from his own mistakes. >> and i want to move on n ste wynn. he of course is denying allegations of sexual misconduct that are detailed by the "wall street journal." when is the finance chairman of the gop, certainly the party and the president in some way you would expect have to address this? >> i would certainly expect so so on. so far the president has not gone on twitter about that. although he has been tweeting when the wall and border security. but he is the gfinance chairman of the rnc. this is a president throughout his campaign has been dogged by

allegations of sexual misconduct himself. i think this is certainly going to be increased pressure when lawmakers return to washington next week if the white house and rnc do remain silent about this. of course important to note wynn said this is preposterous that these things did not happen. but the scope of the allegations that were reported by the "wall street journal" go as far as rape, so i would find it very difficult for the president to remain silent here giving the glowing speech that he gave in that video that we played a couple minutes ago. >> all right. well, good to see you all and thanks for joining the conversation this morning. want to tell you about a deadly bombing in kabul this morning. these are the numbers coming into us now. 40 people are dead. 140 others are injured. reuters citing afghanistan health ministry put the number of dead above 60 however. so some conflicting numbers there.

but very significant. this was the scene right after the bomb detonated. the attacker drove an ambulance loaded with explosives into a government building. officials say police did identify the attacker at a check point, but they couldn't stop him in time. the taliban by the way is claiming responsibility for the attack. russian trolls on facebook. organized two opposing protests. and people fall for them both. will it work again this year? >> time's up, time's up, time's up! >> time's up they are chanting there on michigan state's campus. students challenging the leaders there to make a change. this of course after the sex abuse scandal. also civil rights groups and victims rights activists take on betsy devos and the education department. find out why they say a new policy is having a chilling effect on survivors of sexual assault on college campuses. ♪ ♪

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the chants of "me too" as students turned out in support of nassar's victims. >> the former gymnastics doctor spending the rest of his life in prison for sexually abusing dozens of young gymnasts and the board of usa gymnastics now says all its members, all, will resign. >> and michigan state university president and athletic director also stepping down. students say they should leave. >> the amount of indifference that all of them have exhibited is unprecedented and disgusting and they all need to leave. >> i think the most important thing is to show the survivors that they do have a support system and that so many students do care about them. >> christine brennan with us now, sports columnist.

>> students we saw that turned up in support of survivors at the michigan state basketball game. it was both a visual and powerful statement. and i'm wondering what does michigan state university need to do to start the healing process? because there is still also the investigation process. >> well, certainly one of the things you wonder about as the board of trustees including the man who said a few days ago referred to the whole terrible story as that nassar thing, so my sense is after the athletic director is gone, of course the president is gone, that that there may be others that have to go. i also think a sense for the students or athletes and of course this would go for usa gymnastics a sense that there is a real change in terms of listening to athletes, in terms of some kind of liaison not just in name only, but someone who the athletes feel they can speak to, who listens to them. you know, this was a 20th century reaction frankly by

michigan state and usa gymnastics to a 21st century problem and thankfully the voices of these women were heard and now we're seeing waves of concern and horror about what happened. and it is late. it is very late in the game, but thankfully now finally happening. >> very good way to characterize it. let's listen together here to michigan state's basketball coach. >> the top priority in this healing process is for our courageous survivors. and as a campus community, we do need to come together as spar n spartans to be a part of that healing process. that will fall on all of us. as far as the reports today, we will cooperate with any investigation going forward as we hahave always done. >> so do you expect, christine, that there will be civil suits

brought and how might that affect the university? >> well, if penn state is our guide, the terrible jerry sandusky story that in some ways is still playing out at least in terms of feelings and emotions and anger at penn state, yes. and of course this, the numbers here, are penn state times ten. and so absolutely i expect that. and of course what the men's basketball coach said, mark dantonio, the football coach, also now being looked at in a new espn "outside the lines" report about sexual assault and how they handled it. and so the bottom line is when it rains, it powerurs. and michigan state is now getting scrutiny it should have received decades ago. >> do you think other universities, other institutions are paying close attention to this or are they saying no, that is not us? >> they sure better be. wow. i mean if there is any lesson

among many lessons including we should be listening to young athletes and the adults failed these athletes, i think those rts main things. but the fact that there was an unbelievable lesson that was sitting there just a few hundred miles away from michigan state and that was penn state. and that the president, president simon, looks at that title th-- hears about it, didn take it any further in her own brain, doesn't have the ku curiosity, why wasn't she thinking of penn state. and it cost her her job. >> and that is one of the mind boggling parts of it, if they didn't pay attention to penn state, you hope people will start paying attention to this now certainly. christine brennan, appreciate your insight. >> thank you very much. still to come, "me too" survivors will be at the president's state of the union speech. but will the president hear their message and

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we've been waiting for you here. good morning, i'm christi paul. >> i'm martin vsavidge. steve wynn is now in the middle of a sexual misconduct scandal. dozens of women say wynn forced them to perform sex acts when they worked for him. he calls the claims preposterous. >> and senate democrats are trying to take steps to protect the special counsel from the white house after major news outlets confirming including cnn confirmed that president trump came close to firing bob mueller last year. so following in the foot steps of hollywood actor, democratic congress women plan to wear all

black to president trump's state of the union address. this is happening on tuesday and the reason is to show solidarity with the "me too" and time's up movements. they have been drawing attention to sexual misconduct. in fact some lawmakers are bringing survivors as guests. congressman mcclane, congressman mike quickly, congress one speier are bringing activists or survivors. let's talk about this. tarana, i have to start with you. as i understand it, you were invited to go to the state of the union and you declined the invitation. why? >> i did. representative speier invited me to go to the state of the union and be her guest along with two

on of the other women who were on the golden globe red carpet with me and we all three decided to decline and instead we are having our own event, the staets state of our union, to talk about women's issues that are happening across the united states and solidarity that has grown over the last year since this administration has come into place. >> and are you even going to watch the state of the union? >> probably not. >> amy, i know you'll be watching the state of the union address. knowing that there willen advocates in the audience, how do you think the president -- should he mention it in his speech, will he? >> well, this is a social movement sweeping the nation. and i'm glad these victims are coming out and having their voices heard. but i think this is hypocrisy at its finest because these democratic men and women, they are inviting these victims, it should be the i knew movement and didn't do anything to help. they remained silent. there is a sex hush fund will

taxpayer dollars have been spent covering up conduct in congress and the people have a right to know. >> and we can talk about that but one didnoesn't absolve the other. >> but the thing is, i feel like these victims are being used as pawns. and they need to clean up their own house. how dare they go and sit and bring these victims using them and that is the other thing, they are trying to conflate, this is the resistance movement and there is a difference in "me too" and the resistance. i stand with the "me too" movement. i know women that have been victims of sexual assault. that didn't mean that they are necessarily opposed to president trump and the democrats and the resistance movements are opposed to president trump and that is all -- that is their whole on objective is to oppose the president. i predict that there will be some outbursts there or some scene caused by they are so resistant to the president. that is what this is about and it is unfortunate that they are

political pawns. >> tarana, do you believe the same sf. >> no, this is about survivors and actually any woman that is a survivor of sexual violence would be opposed to the president who is a self described sexual predator. he said out of his own mouth how he treats women and how he preys upon women. he has several women who have come forward to bring allegations against him. so i don't see this as a political stunt because it is democrats and republicans who have known. the people who use that fund come from both sird sides of the ais aisle. so this is bringing to light the issue of sexual violence to our country. >> and i have to keep going because we have a couple things to get to. tarana, about the steve wynn accusations this morning of sexual misconduct there. he of course the finance chair for the rnc. what is your reaction to that news coming out this prised any. every time there is a new question of what a do you feel

about that. and no, i'm not surprised. this is what we've seen as a pattern in powerful men. they have access to wealth and pri privilege and they use it in this way oftentimes. >> amy, when harvey weinstein was accused of sexual assault, there were republicans left and right saying you need to return the contributions, any democrats who had received major money from that man. steve wynn is the finance chair for the rnc. do you anticipate as we look ahead to midterms, do you anticipate that republicans who received donations from him will also donate to charity and will do so publicly? >> well, i would think that if they do, they will do it publicly. i think we have to wait and see how this plays out. i mean -- >> do you think they should, do you think they should return money from steve wynn? >> probably. yes, i do.

listen, i think that we have had a problem with powerful men abusing women. and i'm glad that it is all coming out. i don't want to sound like that i'm excusing their behavior. we have called for all of these republicans and democrats in congress that have been accused of this and there have been payout, we've called for them all to resign. i don't care their party. this is about humanity and about respecting and treating others. so you know, if tsteve wynn did this and guess his board is doing an investigation and it will all come to light, we'll get to the bottom of it. but just because you're republican does not excuse your behavior. i want to say one thing before we go is that if in fact this is not anti-trump and this is not the resistance movement, then are any of al franken or john conyers or anthony weiner's to audience of the state of the union? i don't think they are and they don't want to highlight the problem that they have had in the democratic party. as a matter of fact, when this came out about john conyers,

nancy pelosi called him iconic. and so they try to excuse it. >> and jackie spears called for him to step down. >> and she covered it. she's been part of the problem covering up. you cover up for your career? that is not acceptable. >> okay. i'm sorry, we're out of time. tarana, i'll let you respond. >> you stand here representing trump. you can talk about the democrats all you want to. i haven't heard you say a word about the accusations against the president almost 20 of them now. he is self described as a sexual predator. so if the democrats have to come clean, your president has to come clean. >> tarana, amy, i'm sorry, we're out of time. very important conversation. we will be watching state of the union. we thank you both so much for sharing with us today. >> thank you. texans took to the streets facing off in opposing protests.

this next story which we'll bring up after the break is fascinating. we're now finding out that the russian internet trolls organized both of those protests on facebook. and the real question, is this some sort of dry run for a much larger effort? 75 million of us suffer from the gritty and frustrating symptoms of dry eye. we need theratears®. theratears® is more than just eye drops. it's eye therapy. dry eye symptoms are caused by a salt imbalance. theratears® unique electrolyte formula, quickly restores the natural balance. so your eyes will thank you. more than eye drops, dry eye therapy. theratears®. you wouldn't feel good not knowing the price here. don't let it happen when you buy your diabetes test strips. with the accu-chek guide simplepay program,

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so they shouted back and forth. >> those opposing protesters dnt didn't know, and is this back in 2016, that russian trolls had organized both of the events on facebook mitti inpitting both ss against each other and now the question, will we see more of this in the upcoming midterms? joining us to talk about it all,

our national security analyst. good to see you. so i just find this first of all mind boggling and it doesn't seem to be a clear example of how can influence and cause protests. so what do you make of all of this? will we see more? >> i think that we will. and this latest threat isn't surprising. we have to remember that russia's operation didn't start with donald trump. and certainly didn't end with the 2016 election. this operation is long standing and it is ongoing. we have to be clear that putin sees the world through a kgb cold war lens. his goal is to sow divisions in the united states and western europe and to create confusion as part of a breerd effooader e undermine liberal democracy. and he is relying very heavily on russia superiority in the digital space. this involves everything from weaponizing information and spreading disinformation,

misinformation through lying on bots and trolls which have proven very efficient to polarize america. this includes messages about particular candidates as well as just promoting and amplifying efforts that create division within the united states. and so that has been evident in various protests and messageshe alt-left as well as promoting messages about conspiracy theories that confuse americans and undermine the credibility of other institutions. we saw it play out with the release the memo conspiracy. >> yeah, let's listen together here to a top putin critic. and a political rival. what he said of russians election meddling. >> translator: i have no doubt that the kremlin did everything it could to influence these elections and that there were indeed hacks on the dnc and of the e-mails. this is something they have been

doing inside this country for a very time. this happens all the time but honestly i doubt it had any impact on the presidential elections. is this a good thing about authoritarian leaders. whatever they do it, they do it ineffectively. of course they are trying to stick their noses into elections. they will continue to try to influence situations using propaganda and stishing up c is conflicts. but you shouldn't overinfluence the lev overestimate the level of influence. >> he says don't overestimate the influence, but he acknowledges that we don't know the impact of the efforts. how confident are you that these efforts will be spotted and will be deterred as we move into midterm? >> that is a great question because every day that goes by, we're getting closer to the 2018 elections. and frankly, the balance is tipping more in russia's favor in the digital space.

i don't think we know exactly what kind of impact russian influence had in the 2016 election. but what we do know is in a they're very efficient in spreading disinformation and misinformation about particular candidates. and as we get closer to 2018 and as we work to protect our democracy, we have to start thinking about how we fight back about that during the cold war, the united states and russhsia engaged in a lot of conditif ev conventional, but now they are going on line. the uk has set up a new national security information to identified misinformation and disinformation. france, macron just announced a new law in the run up to the french elections do exactly the same thing. and at this point the difference between the cold war and today is that i don't really feel like we're fighting back yet. >> yeah, it is very double

troubling. be us we used to worry about russia as a military adversary. but this is very different. >> thank you samantha. so civil rights groups are taking the education department to court saying rules that secretary best p. bdevos issued discriminate against survivors of sexual assault on campus. e t. they read more. how do they find the time? ... with audible. audible has the world's largest selection of audiobooks. for just $14.95 a month... you get a credit good for any audiobook ... and you can roll your credits to the next month if you don't use them. audible members get free no hassle exchanges ... and use the mobile app to listen anytime, anywhere. start a 30-day trial and your first audiobook is free. listening, is the new reading. text audio22 to five hundred five hundred to start listening today. i don't want to lie down. i refuse to lie down. why suffer? stand up to chronic migraine with botox®. botox® is the only treatment for chronic migraine shown to actually prevent headaches and migraines

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education department and secretary devos are facing a lawsuit over a policy on sexual assaults. a group of civil rights ae advocacy groups filed lawsuits this week. >> advocates say the changes have already had a chilling effect on survivors who are coming forward. so cnn politics senior writer is

back with us here. i want to read a statement for everybody from the advocacy groups that filed in suit. it says they are suing to stop the department of education's new and extreme title ix policy saline it was issued unlaufrlly a and based on beliefs about women and girls as survivors. help us remember what the obama era rules were and what changes are going to be made to that? how does it truly affect these students? >> sure. so if you remember back to 2011 and 2014, the obama administration issued several sets of guidances that opened up this process, it was hailed by groups like the one you mentioned as strengthen iing rus for survivors, something called the preponderance of the evidence standard is what we're talking about. and now in 2017, fast forward to september and under the trump administration, betsy devos

rolled back those guidelines and instead we're getting a standard called the clear and convincing standard. and two concrete things to know is that under the interim guidance that betsy devos rolled out in 2017, now there is no time line that these cases have to be finished in, that was something involved in the obama era guide answer. the new ruling also allows these cases to be settled with a mediator between the accuser and accused. i spoke to a number of the civil rights groups earlier this week and they say that there has already been a chilling effect on campuses just in that short time, that victims and survivors aren't as willing to come forward because they see the deck as stacked against them and they can't get justice. >> why do you think this decision was made to rl back these changes? was it just because it was done by a democrat being president? >> i don't think that is it. you heard the education secretary address this in the speech that she gave last year in which she announced that she was planning on withdrawing these guidelines. she says that she thinks these

horrible crimes do need to be prosecuted and addressed on campuses, that said she wants to make sure it is a process that is fair to everyone. a number of these groups that represent the largely male accused people who are accused of committing these crimes, they say that the standard that the obama administration set out the bar is too high, the process isn't fair to them. there has been a political firestorm kind of around this issue. so it will be really interesting to see when secretary devos rolls out her finalized guidelines which she says she plans do after a formal comment period, what those final guidelines look like. schools are still grappling with this. the interim guidelines do conflict with some of the existing things in place. >> and i know this has been a controversy from the beginning. let's listen to devos in september when she was announcing the changes. >> the truth is that the system established by the prior administration has failed too

many students. survivors, victims of a lack of due process, and campus administrators have all told me that the current approach does a disservice to everyone involved. that is why we must do better because the current approach isn't working. washington has burdened schools with increasingly elaborate and confusing gid lieed lines a than lawyers find it difficult to understand and navigate. >> so are there colleges -- she said they were saying it was confusing and it didn't work for them. but are there colleges that are proposing -- they won't listen to this? >>. >> are some colleges who have said that. i remember back in september talking to a number of title ixed a palestinian straight tix ed a pladministrato administrator. and yil comale comes to mind. they plan to state course. but i think that there is a really important point to make

that there is a lot of confusion around this. we're hearing from schools across the country who quite frankly don't know how to proceed and these crimes that get to the core of the student's experience on campus. and a number of these social justice organizations are telling me these are definitive experiences for the largely young women victims who can change what their college experience is like. it is a very personal crime and administrators don't know how to best help these students when the offenses do happen. so i think they are looking for a more formal setting from the department of what do next. >> and one of the things that i heard that was troubling to many civil rights organizations was it there was talk of mediation. what does that mean and why is it controversial? >> i think it is rather controversial because rather than having a formal review board or someone from the university kind of sit down and make a decision as to what happens, these mediations in some cases can put the accuser right in the same room with the accused, something that i think is a little different. one thing that is really hard is

that every campus handles this differently. there is no standard. and i think that is something that a lot of the civil rights groups really want to see. >> all right. thanks for breaking it down for us.see. you. >> all right. we'll see you again at 10:00 a.m. >> smerconish will be coming up after this brief break. 1, 2, 3, push! easy! easy! easy! (horn honking) alright! alright! we've all got places to go! we've all got places to go! washington crossing the delaware turnpike? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money sean saved by switching to geico. big man with a horn. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

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i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. we welcome our viewers. so are headed for a face-to-face showdown between the president and the special counsel or despite the presid