welcome to "inside politics." i'm dana bash. john king is off. an unprecedented public rift between the white house and the fbi over making a controversial gop russia memo public and the implications for president trump's new fbi director. plus, one of the president's closest aides is under new scrutiny in the mueller probe. and all of this drama is unfolding while president trump is heading to west virginia speaking this hour at the republican retreat on selling the agenda going into this year's midterm elections. his vice president feels good about their chances. >> elections are about choices.

if we frame that choice, i think we're going to reelect majorities in the house and the nat and i actually think we're going to -- when all the dust settles after 2018, i think we're going to have more republicans in congress in washington, d.c. than when we started. >> we begin this hour in suspense on when the president will make the final decision on authorizing the release of that controversial how else gop memo on russia. cnn has learned that the president has now read the memo, and not just that, cnn is also now reporting jaw-dropping news about phone calls the president is making to his friends and his allies, admitting to them that he believes releasing this memo will help undermine the russia investigation. and then there's the question of the fbi director, the one president trump himself picked after he fired james comey. he has made clear that he does

not want this memo released, so the question is, could christopher wray resign in protest? cnn is working all angles of the story, and with me first are cnn's sarah murray and shimon prokupez. i'm showing pictures of the president shaking hands in sara president is saying to his friends, that releasing this memo will help the russia probe. >> he is telling associates that he believes releasing this memo will help discredit the russia probe, and also there is this debate raging about whether this memo is misleading, whether classified information like this should be made public at all. this gives you a window into sort of the political calculus

the president is playing and what we expect will ultimately feel a decision to make this memo public. he feels this memo will reveal some of the top brass was out to get him from the beginning at the fbi and some of these intel agencies, and could give him further fodder to push for an end to this russia investigation. dana, as you know from your reporting, too, this is something the president is preoccupied with a year into his presidency, and it feels like this is at the top of his mind over and over again, and the backdrop to this has been very important to the president as he makes this controversial decision to make this memo public. >> such great reporting. sara, stand by. i want to bring in shimon right now. shimon, i mentioned that i was told the white house is feverishly trying to figure out how they can thread the neeldle here on this memo. give us the latest reporting on the status of this memo, what it's going to be released, and much more importanting, the

to-ing and fro-ing about how to do it and not really get to the precip precipice of the fbi director he chose doesn't get to angry that he calls it quits. >> it may be as early as tomorrow that this memo gets released and it's undergoing its review in the national security council with the intelligence folks there. the issue here is really the fbi. this is the fbi's information. this is their material that was brought over to congress. they then put this memo together. they continue to object. the fbi, their statement has not changed, their stance on this has not changed, and that is the real issue. what has really gone on here, what's really taking hold is that you have this public statement from the fbi, from the fbi director, certainly challenging the president's decision, weighing in saying, you should not do this and that it's going to cause problems for the fbi. and mostly it goes to the agents

and the analysts and the people who do this kind of workd day t day. it hurts them in the end. that is the position of the fbi director and that is the position of the fbi. and nothing simply has changed. whether it's redactions or something else, release of this memo itself is going to create problems. it discredits a whole host of people within the fbi that do this work. it brings issues to the russia investigation, and they are in the position that they still do not want this released. >> sara, on the flip side of that, you have the fbi obviously under scrutiny in this memo, and an open question is whether or not at the white house they can find a way -- i know we've been hearing about some redactions, whether or not that can happen and go far enough in calming things at the fbi, or whether taking things out of a memo that

the fbi says is problematic because it was already too cherry picked because there's not enough in there to give proper context, is really going to make a difference. >> that was one of the key concerns from the fbi, is not just the notion that things could be wrong, but that things are misleading, you're not getting a full picture of what went on here. when you see some of the reaction from the white house and certainly from devin nunes, the chair of the intelligence house committee. their view is of course they don't want this memo out there because it makes them look bad, but this is the entire point of oversight that we need to draw attention to these things when there are errors, when there are biases, things that go wrong in the process. the problem with this memo and the reason we're seeing such controversy is the very partisan way it's been done. certainly we saw this policy ranker with devin nunes pushing the memo through there, and there is also a question of how closely his staff may have worked with the white house

staff on this memo. there are people who just don't trust this is a fair and honest process, that it might have been done as an oversight rule rather than a document the president can point to and say is, see, this russia investigation has been biased on me from the start. >> here to the table to share their reporting and insights, cnn's jeff zeleny, karen tumbleton of the "washington post." we've been talking with sources along with our team here who has been working on this. i want to start with one thing sara just talked about, which is questions about devin nunes, who is the intel chair, and whether or not he can even be trusted to have done this independent of the white house, which again, we're reporting this morning, politically the president himself has made very clear he thinks releasing this is a good thing. it helps undermine the russia

investigation. i just want to read part of a transcript from the internal deliberations inside the house intel committee about releasing this memo. democrat mike quigley said when you as the majority conceded to do this memo for release to the body and to the public, in preparation, the thought of doing it, the consultation of it, was any of this done after/during conversations or consultations with anyone in the white house? nunes: i would just add as far as i know, no. >> does that mean none of the staffers had any confrontation at all with the white house? >> the chair is not going to entertain a question by another member. so the answer is he's not saying no. >> he's not saying no and the white house isn't saying no, either. i think knowing what we know about the relationship between the chairman and the white house, it would be pretty unusual or unlikely if there

wasn't some coordination. and you don't have to divine much thought. the president made it clear that he wants this released. i think at a staff level, at the very least, it would be very surprising if there was not coordination. one thing they are coordinating on, though, i'm told, is the release of the memo if the president decides that, which we believe they will, that they will coordinate the release of the memo. but it's hard, again, to imagine that there wasn't some coordination here whether they said there was or not. >> especially against the backdrop of the very unusual drama happening last year with nunes saying he had some information he needed to get to the white house, when it turns out he got it from white house staffers in the first place. i want to drill down on the white house this morning. i call it jaw-dropping. there's no other way to look at it, that the president is calling people and saying, i

think it's good to release this memo because it will undermine the russia investigation. again, i feel like this is one of those moments where we're so desensitized to the president doing things that are so against protocol, forget about the law, which is another question. what do you make of that? >> i think it is yet another indication that the way the personal -- the president views everything in personal terms, not in institutional terms, not in, you know, terms of setting precedence. he believes it will undermine the investigation because it will undermine the fbi. >> i just want to say as you're talking we see on the screen this just kind of gives you a sense of another thing sara was talking about, which maybe is obvious, about how very important players kind of stand on whether or not this should be released. you see on the left the president, his chief of staff, the republican chair of the intelligence committee, and now, as of this week, the house

speaker. the ones who don't want it released, the democratic head of the intelligence committee and the fbi and the justice department. >> right. the whole irony of this is that if there is evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the doj and the fbi in this memo -- and of course nobody should be above raproach if that's the case, there is question about motive and who can be trusted. it's done by one party in the chamber of congress over objection by the doj and the fbi, and without approval from senate republicans on the intelligence committee. so this sort of thing has led to a fire swarm on capitol hill where you have, i believe just today, house democratic leader nancy pelosi asking devin nunes to remove this, giving him a dangerous unethical coverage. all of this as we don't even

know if the impact of all of this is going to be. the thing i would be keeping my eye fomd from devin nunes is what it says about rod rosenstein, who is now the lynch pin of this investigation. attorney general sessions above him is recused. if there is evidence of criminality, mueller will have to file a report for him and rosenstein has to decide what to do from there. >> and you mentioned that, laws he is said to be either mengzed directly or indirectly in the memo as part of the whole question whether or not a fisa warrant or warrants will done improperly. stand by, because on this very note we have some new information from the white shouse. the senior administration officials telling cnn that the white house has approved several redactions to this memo. but the white house has so far rejected the fbi's and justice

department's request saying they think it's meant to conceal information that might be embarrassing to the inner agency. the inner agency review of the memo is ongoing, according to this official. the white house would likely not send the memo, though, back to the house. it's not ready today. first of all, your reaction to that. >> i want to note the trump thing. i think it's a perfectly trumpian, stupid move to just say you think it will discredit all of this. like he's being himself and he's just putting out there what his actual desire is. look, this memo may actually discredit parts of the. many civil lerer tear yan rpz of indulging abuses of power.

so i do want to look at that. the other thing i don't understand about this story is for a year we've been in a situation where we don't have full contacts. we are getting leaks that are selective, that are not the full context of the story, that are we know exactly what the motivation lz. i don't mind having more information that gives context to the story that we have here, it is appropriate for the oversight on these agencies for vet reason to make sure they don't take their very important rules that they have over our civil liberties and don't, you know, let it run amok. the problem here is we can't trust that because it's so partisan. we can't trust the investigation. >> i would like all the weeks that happened this past year.

or, god forbid, the intelligence and the house works together and comes up with something together. >> he believes the senate should weigh in before this is released, so i think that's a very important part. the distinguishment between the house separation and the. this is only one-half of the government leading this charge. >> let's talk about wrchris wra. he was put in after the president fired james comey. he won wide praise, wide confirmation for this very reason. he was not a political pac. he's someone who is a careerist who likes to follow the law. how do you think that plays into

this very real rub between the agency and the white house? >> well, the real question is whether this pushes it to the point where christopher wray feels like he has to resign, stand up for his agency. and the question is not just whether the fbi screwed up, which can happen, which does happen. the question is did he take an out-of-context memo and use that to say these were their motivations. that is the truly corrosive aspect of this. it goes to the fbi's motivations. if you don't have a full case to make on that score, it is a very reckless thing to do. >> the fbi put out a statement about this memo saying there were no internal information

that would interrupt this memo. i think they were talking about what this could do down the road should something happen, especially when it's wrapped up in such an explosive issue. >> i put up on the screen the political divide on whether to release this memo. the think we have to think of time and time again is christopher wray is the president's own pick for the fbi. >> and rosenstein. >> rosenstein, too, but rosenstein came up and was basically picked by jeff sessions. wray was very much a president trump thing. everybody stand by. up next, don jr.'s meeting with russians back in 2016 is back in the spotlight after the "new york times" reports one person v. ready to tell. i have type 2 diabetes.

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welcome back to "inside politics." we were talking about this controversial memo written by house republicans on the intelligence committee. i want to report that the top democrat in the house, along with the top democrat in the senate, have sent a letter obtained by cnn asking the house speaker please not to release this memo. we're going to talk more about that in a little while, but we also want to turn to the special counsel investigation, which amid all of this is still going full steam ahead. and a former trump aide who dealt with the russia probe but abruptly quit last year is about to tell investigators what he saw firsthand. the "new york times" is reporting that the president's former legal spokesman mike carollo, is ready to tell cnn

about new e-mails between president trump and his son. president trump responded in those e-mails, i love it when the lawyer said he would bring political dirt on hillary clinton. this was june 3, 2016. according to news shared with the times, hicks told carollo and the president that the e-mails will never get out because only a few people had access to them. she, of course, was wrong. a few people had access and released them which prompted don jr. to release them himself. now, an attorney for hicks denied anyone suggested any e-mails would be concealed, and carollo reportly told mueller that they said it in front of the president without a lawyer on the phone and that the

conversation couldn't be brik protected by attorney-client privilege. this could be, as we wait for carollo to testify and get more information, this could be the most explosive bit of information we've seen so far. >> i think so. mike carollo has a lot of experience, he's a pro, he's been a justice department spokesman. and this goes to the question of obstruction of justice, which lawyers will tell you is a state of mind crime. it is all about, you know, what your calculation is in doing certain actions. so one question will be whether there is any record of this conference call, whether anybody has anything that you can point to that is concrete as to what exactly was said. >> and you mentioned mark rike

carollo, and by way of context, this is someone who way preceded the trump world. he was not a natural in the trump orb but not a trump person. mike carollo is a pro's pro who went to work for the trump legal team completely on board. if corallo ends up offering sort of critical testimony it's because he saw stuff that genuinely struck him as either illegal or unethical or both. >> it goes back to the moment that he quit so abruptly. he left that job so abruptly shortly before air force i flew home from hamburg germany where the president was at that g-21 meeting. the fact that mark corallo left abruptly weeks after that and now he's saying this, i believe

is explosive. you don't get any more explosive than hope hicks. she literally sits outside his office. >> i've been told not to lose sight of the fact that her lawyer spoke on the record to "the times" which he doesn't do, and here's what he said. she never said that, talking about hicks, and the idea that hope hicks ever suggested that e-mails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false. >> i mean, i sympathize with corallo, because if i was a traditional actor in the trump white house doing things by the rules, i think i would have hightailed it as well. i think the fact he contemporaneously reported it leads to the seriousness of this, the fact he needed to tell people around him and documented it quite legally in the white

house. so the fact that it was bannon we heard about initially, we've got hope hicks, and as you say, it doesn't get closer than that. >> she's already spoken to the special counsel. >> there is so little of the story. >> and beyond that, she is not somebody, i'm sure you would agree, that the president would have to ask for a loyalty test. it is definitely assumed with hope hicks. however, the president has in some way, shape or form, asked that of many people who work for him. cnn was first to report yesterday he asked that of rod rosenstein. obviously we know he asked that of james comey, his director who was a long-time senator dan coates, nsa director mike rogers and the list goes on and on. most of these people are not sort of in the traditional

political world. they are people who take an oath, really, to do the job to protect the institution thaz they run, which are traditionally apolitical, or at least try to be. >> right. the government officials, people who serve in government for a while, are are objeobviously ca between a president who demands service loyalty and institutions that serve the public before the president. asking mueller to look into this, i think it's intriguing, because as part of any obstruction of justice, this could be the bread crumb in that trail. i can't stress this enough, that indicting anybody, especially a president, for obstruction of justice is a really, really high bar. we don't have evidence, clear evidence, of criminality on the

part of the president. so we don't know if this is going to end up in a court of law, this is going to end up being a legal issue or if this will be charged by public opinion. everybody stand by. we are just moments from president trump speaking to republican lawmakers at their annual retreat in west virginia. we're going to bring you that as soon as it happens. stand by. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. my healthy routine helps me feel my best. so i add activia yogurt to my day. with its billions of live and active probiotics,

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president trump is scheduled to speak in just a few minutes in west virginia. we're on it live, of course, we'll bring it to you when it happens. meanwhile the president is tweeting a familiar tone, seemingly putting aside the across the aisle unity message that he emphasized during his state of the union address. he wrote today, heading to

beautiful west virginia to be with great members of the republican party. we'll be planning infrastructure and discussing immigration and daca. not easy when we have no support from the democrats. not one dem voted for our tax cut bill. need more republicans in '18. march 5th is rapidly approaching and the democrats are doing nothing about daca. they resist, blame, complain and obstruct and do nothing. start pushing nancy pelosi and the demes to work out a daca fix, now! behind closed doors, what is your sense of the mood specifically when it comes to this very tough election year, especially for house republicans? >> better. at least, that's according to several aides in a private briefing with mitch mcconnell yesterday. they went through a powerpoint presentation that showed numbers rising in support of the tax reform bill and numbers

shrinking between democrats and republicans. that is a turn -- dana, if you recall back in early january when the president met privately with republican leader at camp david and republican majority leader kevin mccarthy laid out a very dire scenario in terms of numbers we're looking at. so they look at it as a positive, no doubt about it. but i'm told they also approached it with optimism as well as skepticism. the real headwinds that people are facing and the fact that still there are a lot of americans that are opposed to the tax overhaul bill. that is something, dana, the republicans think they can change. i'm told when you wake up in the morning, you should be talking about the tax bill. when you go to sleep in the evening, you should be dreaming about the tax bill. that is their focus. that >> and the question is if they'll get pushback from the

president who has the biggest megaphone. what are we expected to hear from the president today? >> you'll hear a lot of similar themes that you saw at the state of the union the other day. vice president pence was making similar points that the speaker was making behind closed doors. you need to talk about what republicans did in 2015. they want to focus on what they accomplished, and if you look at the very end of 2017 with that tax overhaul, with some judiciary appointments that the senate was able to push through, they have a record to run on. the question is are they willing to do it? you talk to republicans from the house, especially who are in tough races, concerned about whether or not the president will be a drag on them, the vice president and the president today will say, not the case. we are going to stand with you shoulder by shoulder. we will be with you the entirety of 2018. the question is if all the house republicans actually want that, dana. >> that is the key question for sure. maybe some senate republicans where the president won a double digits plus, but maybe not so

much some of the house members and tough races. thanks so much, phil. appreciate that reporting. back at the table i want to pick up on one of the things phil was talking about, the generic ballot which basically means how broadly the house democrats are perceived versus how the house republicans are perceived. he's talking about private polling inside the republican party showing it looking better for republicans. that's true in some public polling as well. mahmet university did it and showed that democrats only held a 2% lead and a 9% lead in the republicans. >> up until the tax bill, they were not able to repeal and replace obamacare. the list of unable to was much

longer. so, look, i think that had an effect. and what phil said, republicans members should wake up thinking about taxes. as you said, they wish the president would just talk about this. why doesn't he travel the country talking about this instead of stewing inside the oval office and the white house about everything else here. he draws attention to the russia investigation. but i think this is a reminder that democrats here, of course, history would show us that it will be a good year for democrats. the president's party of power always loses seats with the exception in modern times of president bush in the wake of 9/11, of course. but democrats have been recru recruiting very well, but it's no walk in the park for them, either, because they have their own internal divisions in their party. it's february 1st. let's take a deep breath and see how these individual races go. >> the important things for republicans here is to take this tax bill and tie it to the good

things people are seeing in the economy. and the fact people are more optimistic about the economy than they have been in well over a decade in every single poll. what republicans are counting on, yes, this tax bill was unpopular when it was passed, and yes, it remains somewhat unpopular, but starting in march people will begin to see little changes, in some cases big changes, in their pay stubs. the republicans are also going to try to wrap this in and say, look, you want this to continue, you have to keep voting for republicans. >> and mary kaplan, the judge started talking about things very important here as to whether republicans can take the house. 36 house republicans have said they're retiring or running for other office which means they're not running for reelection in the house. that's 15% historic. >> it matters a lot.

it means there are no appetites for running. some of them are in high tech blue states where, by the way, the tax bill does not sell as well to that particular kind of republican voter who may now be a swing voter. so you see some indications that there are challenges in those places, even though -- like the tax reform bill has gone up well into the double digits in approval, and that's before people have seen the impact on their paychecks. so i do think that's something that will work for republicans. they still have to get that credit for that, right? they have to go home and talk about it and have trump not completely derail them and they have to contend with what has proven to be really good organization on the ground from democrats, plus enthusiasm. they actually have thrown together the gop and done well. >> everybody stand by. we're waiting for the president to speak in west virginia. you see the podium there with that presidential seal. as soon as he stands behind it, we will get it to you. we also want to look at something the president is claiming. record ratings for his state of the union address.

the numbers may say otherwise. stay tuned.

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exactly why washington sucks. he also tweeted a few minutes ago, the vp talks a good game on bipartisanship, but firing shots is not leadership. manchin is up for reelection this year in a state where the president won by more than 30 points. a happy day for rex tillerson. plenty of his critics never expected him to last 12 months as secretary of state, but here it is, his one-year anniversary in office. in that time, tillerson has had to knock down a few rumors that his days were numbered. take a listen. >> i'm not going to deal with that kind of petty stuff. this is a town that seems to relish gossip, rumor, innuendo and they feed on it. they feed on one another in a very destructive way. i don't work that way, i don't deal that way. >> this is a republican chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. he said that the president has, quote, castrated you before the world stage. >> a check on bully attack.

>> i did not expect that answer. >> and he told our elise lavitt earlier this year that he doesn't intend to go anywhere. i'm going to stop this next story and take you straight to the president himself. he's about to take the stage in west virginia. let's go there. ♪ and i gladly stand up ♪ next to you and defend her still today ♪ cuz there ain't no doubt i love this land ♪ god bless the usa >> thank you, paul and mitch, for the introduction and for your tremendous leadership. you folks have done well. i just looked at some numbers. you've even done better than you thought, i think, based on what we just saw about 10 minutes ago. i want to thank you to the governor of this incredible state, my very good friend jim

justice and his wonderful wife kathy, who are with us. and jim is now a proud member of the republican party. he was a democrat. he switched over, right? you don't see that too often. maybe you'll see it more and more, but thank you, jim, and the hotel is beautiful and everything is beautiful. we appreciate it. it's great to be among so many friends for the second time this week. tuesday was an incredible evening as we were all inspired, and i really mean that. we were inspired by america's heroes and uplifted by everyone who has sacrificed in the fight for freedom. they were and are incredible people that we saw that night and tremendous courage. one of the people, i have to say, boy, you have a very big hand, steve. steve scalise. great hand.

and we're all truly blessed to be americans. before going any further, i want to send our prayers to everyone affected by the train accident yesterday, especially to the family of the person who was so tragically killed. our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. thank you. with us today on stage is our incredible leadership team, and they really have. if you just look at what's happened in the last short period of time. without them i never could have won the presidency, i guess. i don't know, could i have won the presidency without them? huh? steve, yes, right? i don't know. but they have become very good friends and we're now in battle together and in friendship together. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. great guy. that was a big win we had, mitch. senate majority whip john cornyn.

john, thank you. great job. house majority whip steve scalise again. steve, thank you. house majority leader kevin mccarthy. kevin. chair john thune and house conference chair kathy mcmorris rogers. did they forget your name, john? what's going on here? john cornyn everybody knows. they didn't put his name up but that's okay. that's the first time that's ever happened. hey, john, that will never happen again. working together we have accomplished extraordinary things for the american people over the last year, and i really believe this is just the beginning. you know, paul ryan called me the other day, and i don't know if i'm supposed to say this, but i will say that he said to me he has never, ever seen the republican party so united, so

much in like with each other, but literally the word united was the word he used. it's the most united he's ever seen the party, and i see it, too. i have so many friends in this group, and there is a great coming together that i don't think either party has seen for many, many years. right? that's good. i was hoping he wouldn't deny that. he did, he called me, and i thought it was very nice. thank you, paul, very much. every day we're removing government burdens and empowering our citizens to follow their hearts and live out their dreams. the priorities of the republicans in congress are the priorities of the american people. we believe in strong families, and we believe in strong borders. we believe in the rule of law and we support the men and women of law enforcement.

we believe every american has the right to grow up in a safe home and attend a good school and to have access to a really great job. and we know that for americans nothing, absolutely nothing, is out of reach. because we don't know the meaning of the word "quit." we don't quit. and the republican party certainly hasn't quit. if we did, we wouldn't be here today, we would be sitting home saying, boy, that was a tough year, instead of that was one of the greatest years in the history of politics, in the history of our country for a party, what we've done and what we've accomplished. i don't think it's been done. and certainly not by much. we had a year that was almost, i would think, unlike any. it was a tremendous success. i give everybody in this room the credit, and i give certainly these people behind me tremendous credit for what took place, especially in that last

month. that was a month of tremendous pressure, and that was people that were able to act under pressure, my favorite type of person. they were able to act under tremendous pressure. so i just want to thank you all because that's what it was all about. and, you know, it was interesting, while we had a great year, we weren't being given credit for it. regulations at a level that nobody has ever done. in a year we knocked out more regulations than anybody. supreme court justice, judges all over. so many different records, so many successes. but when we got the great tax cut bill, and we call it the tax cut and jobs bill, we got that, it was like putting it all in a box and wrapping it with a beautiful ribbon. we started getting credit not only for that but for all of the other things that we did during the year. it's amazing the way that happened. i was surprised, actually. we got a lot of credit from a

lot of people and all of a sudden they're saying, while he had a lot of accomplishment -- and then they went on to do the thing. but the fact is -- you understand that. but we really did, we got a lot of credit. it all came together in that final month. i give everybody in this room, really, kudos. we're a nation of builders and dreamers and strivers and we've already created a lot of jobs since the election. we have created 2.4 million jobs. that's amazing. that doesn't count things that are already happening. the stock market has added $8 trillion in new wealth. unemployment was at a 45-year low, which is something. after years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising

wages. african-american and hispanic unemployment have both reached the lowest levels ever recorded. that's something very, very special. and when i made that statement the other night, there was zero movement from the democrats. they sat there stone cold, no smile, no applause. you would have thought that on that one they would have sort of at least clapped a little bit. which tells you, perhaps, they would rather see us not do well than see our country do great, and that's not good. that's not good. we have to change that. as i said, we've eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration as ever eliminated, and that means four years, eight years or, in one instance, 16 years. in one year we've knocked out more regulations. it's an amazing thing. and i happen to think that that

is every bit as important toward our success as the tax cuts. i have many business friends and many people in business that came to me and they say -- including small businesses. they say the fact they no longer have to go through years of turmoil in getting approved and getting approvals and getting rule changes and getting all sorts of things, and getting old while they're waiting to get them, the fact that all of that is gone is probably as important or even more important to the massive tax cuts we've gotten people. so that's something. we've signed into law the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. i have to say, included in there is the individual mandate. we repealed it. that's a big one. that's so big. by itself that would be a big achievement. and we sort of take it as, well, that was included. and anwar, one of the great

potential fields anywhere in the wor world. and i never appreciated anwar so much. my friend called up who is in that world and that business and said, is it true you're thinking about anwar? i said, yeah, i think we'll get it. he said, are you kidding, that's the biggest thing by itself. ronald reagan and every president has wanted to get anwar approved. after that i said, make sure that's in the bill. that had a big impact on me, bill. i didn't really care about it, and then when i heard everybody wanted it, for 40 years they've been trying to get it approved, i said, make sure you don't lose anwar. but it's great for the people of alaska and senator sullivan and senator mccasskey are here someplace. where is don young? you're such a quiet guy. don young also.

don, thank you. we were always good together, we never had a problem with it. when you think about it, that by itself is a big bill. the individual mandate by itself is a big, powerful bill. that was just added on to what we did with the massive tax cuts. i want to thank senator finance chairman and a very spectacular man, orrin hatch. where is orrin? orrin is -- i love listening to him speak. he said once, i am the sing get gre -- single greatest president in his lifetime. he's young, so that's not saying much, but he also said i was the greatest president in history. i said, does that include lincoln? he said yes. i love this guy. house of ways and means chairman

brady for their incredible work. what a job. i would call kevin night after night, kevin, what about this, what about that? you were always there. he was working. what do you average sleep in about four weeks? maybe nothing. i think he had no average. um. maybe we'll do a phase 2. are you ready for that, kevin? i think you're ready. we'll get them even lower. but we are proud of you. here in west virginia as a result of our tax cuts, the typical family of four will save roughly $2,000 a year. to lower tax rates for hard-working americans, we nearly doubled the amount earned by a married couple is completely tax free.

when i came into this beautiful building, just i while ago one of the people just said, i just got a check and i have 221 there are more than i had last year at this time in my envelope. really, that's what we were -- we were waiting for february. and then we got hit with these corporations giving tremendous bonuses to everybody that nancy pelosi called crumbs. that could be like deplorable, does that make sense, deplorable and crumbs? those two words seem to have a resemblance. i hope it has the same meaning. but she called it crumbs, when people are getting 2,000 and $3,000 and $1,000. that's not crumbs. that's a lot of money. we also double the child tax credit and that's been a help to so many. we've gone from one of the highest business tax in the world to one o