tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN February 7, 2018 5:00pm-6:00pm PST
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>> reporter: critics have not just a bone, but a bone spur to pick with the president's parade. let's hope it is not on a windy day. jeanne moos cnn, new york. thank you for joining us. >> new details in the abrupt departure of white house staff ron porter. chief of staff john kelly's right hand man. now if the white house hopes this story would disappear quickly with his departure, it has not. questions are being raised about who in the white house knew about the allegations and when did they know. also questions about how porter got accessed to classified material. we begin coverage with jeff
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zeleny in the white house. what do we know about how much the chief of staff knew? >> rob porter's job was to control what the president sees and what he doesn't see in the oval office. we are told chief of staff john kelly had known about this for months. rob porter said he was part of a coordinated smear campaign. he said that as the white house was trying to explain and contain the fallout. >> reporter: few people stood closer to president trump. even a hand shake with chinese preside president. some top officials new about the allegations for months. >> rob has been effective in his
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role. >> reporter: porter responsible for every document that came into the president's hand even classified once despite having a security clearance. denying security clearance last fall. white house communication director hope hicks has been in a romantic relationship with porter aides tell cnn. despite he was involved in crafting the initial denial to the abuse allegations. porter first wife told cnn started shortly after their wedding in 2003 saying she was choked punched and emotionally abused. showing us these pictures of a
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bruised eye. he acknowledged the authenticity of the photo but saying the reality is nowhere close to what is being described. second weave sought emergency protective order against this. he wanted to hug and make up but was angry when i asked to get his thing suspecs and leave. when he returned a few minutes later, he punched in the glass on the door. i called the police. when he heard me on the phone with the police, he apologized and begged me not to involve them. when he heard me give the address he drove off. >> as has always been the policy of the white house, we don't discuss security clearance one way or the other. >> releasing dueling statements.
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>> reporter: this is when it was clear the white house was trying to put a positive spin on this. look at this first statement from orrin hatch saying it is incredibly discouraging to see auch a vile attack on such a decent man. shame on any publication that would print this and shame on the politically motivated morally bankrupt character assassins that would attempt to sul a a man's good name. hatch said i do not know the details of rob's personal life. domestic violence in any form is abhorrent. what this points out is that hope hicks was in charge of
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crafting the response to this. collecting positive responses to push back on that report last evening. the comment from senator hatch was issued but the hatch office tells us they did not know the specifics of the allegations and certainly did not see those photographs that were released earlier today. so that under scores the white house trying to contain this. it turns out they spent all day explaining it. the question now, rob porter is expected to stay on until his replacement is found but no information on how long that will be. >> you said general kelly knew about this starting this fall? >> that is what we are learning, that chief of staff of course knew about this early in the fall perhaps october or november because of the background check. he was alerted to the fact that the staff secretary who again is a key position in the west wing
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did not have permanent security clearance. that is why this was brought to his attention. rob porter has been rising via ranks here. taking on a lot of other responsibilities and talking about leaving the west wing at the end of last year. john kelly we are told urged him to stay on in this position and one of the reasons it looked like he tried hard to keep him. >> allegations disturbing but true. at a time when there is ongoing conversation about harassment and abuse, other allegations against trump associations and himself more on that from randi kaye. >> reporter: a bizarre altercation caught on tape. >> i can't believe you just did that. that was so hard.
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>> that is then breitbart reporter bright fields. claiming corey lewandowski grabbed her by the arm. then candidate trump insisted the reporter fabricated the ordeal. trumps pick for labor secretary withdrew his name in part after claims of spousal abuse came to light. the ex-wife had aired the couple's dirty laundry while in disguise. >> once i made that public, he
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vowed revenge. he said i will see you in the gutter. this will never be over. >> later his wife -- mr. puzner denied it all. the man trump chose to be his chief strategist. a santa monica police report from january 1996 detailed an altercation between bannon. describing the woman's eyes as red and watery. a spokesperson told politico that bannon had a great
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relationship with his wife. the accusation was first revealed in a 1993 book about trump. just before publication, ivana composed a statement i felt violated as the love and tenderness. ivana said the story is totally without merit. donald and i are the best of friends. donald trump has always denied the allegations. >> joining us is dana bash. kirsten powers.
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>> gloria borger and i have been digging on what is going on there. a couple of things we have learned first that the president himself we are told by two sources did not know about these allegations about the fact that the fbi clearly found this information when they were doing the background check of rob porter. the president didn't know until the daily mail was presented to him. so didn't become aware until it was in the public sphere and the other thing is ivanka trump we were told was quite upset about it when she found out particularly when we saw the photos we all saw of his ex-wife and the bruises. it is a complicated dynamic not just for hope hicks, helped lead the defense of rob porter, but also people like ivanka trump
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and others who in the white house have come to know and rely on rob porter. but there is also kind of a sense, i am told of protectiveness of hope despite the fact that she, again, is very complicated, concerned because she has become almost a member of the trump family, that if this guy, if it is true that he did this to his ex-wives and report reported allegedly a girlfriend as well, would hope be next. >> reporting for the white house that they have been scrambling to defend porter. >> he has called him, as you said a man of true integrity, that was part of the statement that kelly drafted along with hope hicks and sarah sanders, the white house press secretary and a spokesperson for jared
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kushner and ivanka and now that we are learning more information about the fact that kelly in the fall was made aware of these allegations by his ex-wives, by the fbi. >> paul, as someone who has worked in the white house, does it surprise you that the president would not have been informed. >> the president should have learned about it when mr. porter was fired. this is on general kelly. he knew about it according to dana's reporting and he did nothing. either he didn't believe the charges or he didn't care. either one is problematic. it is credible, women coming forward with photographs, multiple women, a restraining order, or maybe he didn't care which is shocking. it is just outrageous. so this is where the story goes in terms of white house management. the staff secretary is one of the most sensitive jobs in the
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government. the point of entree of all the sources in the government. circulates to make sure she gets feedback from these agencies. it is critically important to know this person is trust worthy. he can't get a security clearance nor should they get one. >> was it wise to have hope hicks involved as a crafting in the statement. >> as a former communication director for a congressman, i can tell you absolutely not. if that had been a circumstance where i was involved with someone in our staff who was in trouble and facing these types of accusations, i would recuse myself from that process and let the chief of staff or the deputy work it out. it was a huge conflict of
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interest. plenty of other people that could have handled it instead of her. this entire episode is disturbing to me. because of the decision not to do anything about this when the fbi went to general kelly about this, as the chief of staff that is dereliction of duty in my opinion. his job to protect the office of the presidency and the president and to manage the staff and to find out something like this during a security review. they knock on your neighbor's door from third grade and these are thorough reviews. so the fact that they let this go is concerning to me. to paul's point, they didn't care or were negligent. >> the idea that this would not eventually get out, this information would not get out seems naive ar ignorant. >> it does. >> or arrogant.
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>> this is what the me too movement was about. a lot of people don't understand w women, when they come forward and telling the stories are almost always telling the truth. and i think he probably believe because he had a good relationship with this person, a person he respected. this is not the kind of person that beats women and they don't understand that all kinds of people do that. and so all kinds of men rape women, abuse women and they seem like upstanding wonderful people. they might be a good son or a good coworker but have this part of their life. >> i remember general kelly at one point, i think he was attacking a congressman for a statement he made, he said back in my day women were respected and it would be interesting to know if he already knew about
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the allegations. >> that is a good question. kirsten, you are right, it is a cultural thing but it is something else. you have to remember what this white house is like and what it has been like and john kelly found, he thought in rob porter somebody he could rely on and somebody that could do the important staffs of a staff secretary but take on an elevated role which rob porter has done in the last couple of months. acting almost as deputy chief of staff. he did so in davos. so that is something to keep in mind. and talking to sources and i know gloria has as well, you are understanding that kelly had his head in the sand on these allegations because he felt that porter was so valuable and did the day-to-day operations of
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keeping the white house ship afloat. >> the dueling russia memos. and what the president calls a new bomb shell newly released text messages. and the conspiracy that others think they reveal. however there is something you need to know of the bigger picture and the senator behind them all. keeping them honest, next. and i couldn't wait to get my pie chart. the most shocking result was that i'm 26% native american. i had no idea. just to know this is what i'm made of, this is where my ancestors came from. and i absolutely want to know more about my native american heritage. it's opened up a whole new world for me. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. yes! ours is still buffering. what's happening? you're experiencing a network delay. you both need to be watching that on the iphone with verizon.
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secret society turns out to be something of a joke. page texted strzok about preparing talking points for then fbi director comey because potus president obama wants to know everything we are doing. president obama's personal involvement in the e-mails. johnson's report omits context that could provide alternative explanation. three days after lisa page sent that page, president obama confronted putin about his meddling in the election. that could be one explanation why president obama could be interested in what was being investigated. which put senator johnson on familiar ground when he was
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sounding the alarm about that secret society. he said on fox news what this is about is further corruption more than bias. the secret society, we have an informant talking about a group that was holding secret meetings off site. the frenzy he whipped up seemed to do with a gag gift of cal ders. it was a joke. when that was finally disclosed senator johnson's response of it being a joke saying it is a real possibility. we asked senator johnson to come on the broadcast and we never heard back. we are happy to welcome congressman himes of connecticut. this is the second time alleging some security base -- what is
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going on here? >> well, it feels like just a week ago i was standing here talking about how sad it was that a united states senator would trade his legacy, his integrity for this crazy idea of a secret society. which as you said was debunked and now he has done it again. worth stepping back here so the american people understand what is happening in this building. there are a number of individuals who will sacrifice any desire to be loyal to the truth concern about their own credibility sadly chairman nunes and the memo and the white house experience and the unmasking scandal, these are all faux scandals that are thrown out for the sole purpose of saying golly, i wonder if the fbi is on the up and up. important for the president to have supporters to have this
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uncertainty. >> won't be a rush from republicans to come out and talk about this publicly. are you hearing anything privately? >> a great deal of concern. it is not just private. as you know, subsequent to the release of the nunes memo which the president characterized as vindicating him. including gowdy as one of the guys who reaches across the aisle. he said this in no way vindicates the president or damages the mueller investigation. speaker ryan said that. and four members of the intelligence committee said that. quite frankly, a number of republicans are questioning this daily effort to create a sense of, i mean, ron johnson said it, corruption all at the expense of the federal bureau of
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investigation. >> they say unless there is grave threat to national security. we don't know if anything will be redacted. would you be okay with some redactions? >> well, to me, who probably has more information than most, no, i don't expect to see any redactions, devin nunes and the white house collaborated to confirm that an american citizen had been subject to a fisa warrant and cast down on the integrity of that memo. so i am really worried that reactions, the horse is out of the barn with respect to classified information. so any redactions i fear would be done bus thecause this memo point by point to the nunes
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memo. >> longer memo and some republicans who have come on the show, and others raising questions about whether -- saying democrats were smart enough to put sensitive information that has to be redacted which would allow claims that things are being hidden from the american people. and you can say, aha, they are censoring this. >> everything in the democratic memo makes reference to the fisa application that the republicans and the president decided to put out there and describe. >> it is much more detailed. >> because we feel allegiance to the truth. we have footnotes, you can look up where the notion comes from. the idea that somehow the democratic memo is putting sources at risk after what had
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happened would be a pre text to take things out. this memo is a refutation of the memo. i would be astonished if the trump administration voluntarily allows a fact pattern that is not conducive to the president. >> the white house says they are following the same procedures with the democrat's memo as they do with the republican memo, do you believe that is accurate? >> remember at the state of the union speech somebody leaned up and said release the memo and the president says 100%. when he says that in my office, i will belief the process is credible. >> corey lewandowski says he is not going to appear without a subpoena. where is this resistance coming
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from? >> with bannon and lewandowski and other individuals who work at the white house, we are involved with a legalistic dispute with the white house. making room for legitimate kperj executive privilege and you know the president has -- the white house has claimed that executive privilege should extend to the transition before the president was even the president. and this would be breaking new legal ground and we are in an argument with the white house on that basis. >> thanks for your time. i appreciate this. let's discuss this with carl bernstein and also ann milligram
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and mike rogers. does the argument being made that the democrats may have put sources and methods with the idea that they will be redacted and therefore they will cry foul. does that ring true to you? >> if you recall, the fbi did say they didn't want the first one. so interesting to see if the fbi comes out and says i don't want the second one either. there will be some things about the fact pattern that should not be disclosed and they may have to redact it. i don't know. you are never going to get to the truth as long as some people are shooting from the hip. i don't think any of it is helpful. they are trying to conduct their
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political position through these classified memos and then release them and no one is going to win in that and people will go to their corners and in america, if the republican version is out, they will love it because they are republican. and what is the victim is the truth. carl, >> carl, what do you make coming out with these text messages. >> to obscure a legitimate investigation into the conduct of the president of the united states his family, his businesses, and his organizations in the campaign and having to do with the most serious business imaginable, the undermining of our elections by the russians. that is what everybody's eyes should be on.
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this is distraction to keep your eyes, my eyes off of it and to create the impression of a partisan equal battle between two sides here. smear the fbi and the president of the united states an authoritarian demagogue in the mold of mccarthy just as mccarthy smeared the state department. we are watching a side show here about a president invoking treason. that is where we are. >> it is interesting that a lot of these things that are happening these days, it seems like it is just about getting a news hit or the first impression and it doesn't matter if it doesn't hold up to the light of truth after several days as long as a couple of days of stories run about a secret society and then oh, it is a joke. >> talking about this premise that the text messages related
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to the hillary investigation. when that was closed in july on september 2nd, the investigation wasn't open. so simple time line. we don't know for certain, but we do know that president obama saw putin three days later and he did raise russian interference. when you pull the facts out just an incredible story that would put out about the text messages. >> facts have little to do with the approach of the white house and those in congress that continue to carry the water for the white house instead of being interested in a legitimate of the investigation. >> does the time line, and even if it unravels over the next several days doesn't seem to matter? >> i had a senior agent used to
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tell me when we get into these investigations he said, you know, context matters, i'm sorry and my bad mean the same thing unless you are in a funeral. and so context does matter. what worries me is that we are so quick to run to the microphone, that you don't have time to absorb the information. 50,000 texts. it would be good for someone to go through 50,000 before drawing a conclusion. more on the ongoing party warfare. more ahead.
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>> president trump pointed out on camera that after the state of the union he planned to release the memo all along. 100%. >> 100%. >> according to reports he had not even read the memo. carl, is it fair that they ao s they are going through the same process? >> no. let the agencies determine what could be released and then let the memo go. but it is all a side show. we are finding ourselves in this country now because of such conduct as we are seeing in that committee, and by the white house, we are showing ourselves to be incapable of investigating the president of the united states and those around him to determine on whether or not he and those people have engaged in
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conspiracy or broken the law and if we can't have an investigation to determine that the president of the united states is or is not above the rule of law, we need to have the precedent and the continuation of the precedent that the president is not above the law. what we are seeing here is the deterioration of that by trying to smear the investigation and take us into the side show. this is not about the fbi. this is about donald trump, his family, the organization. >> and the committee has threatened to hold steve bannon in contempt. what options do they have if he is refusing to respond to the subpoena. >> the committee does have the option to hold steve bannon in contempt. but remember, it is a majority vote. 13 republicans, nine democrats. a majority would be 12 people. this is a question of will the committee do that. and if they were to vote that,
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it would go to the full house, the full house a majority vote and then go to the u.s. attorney's office. it seems to me, like they are trying to get bannon and his lawyer to walk in the door to say look, this is going to go. i don't know if they are willing to issue contempt. but i don't believe bannon. >> the white house hasn't invoked privilege that we know about in the case of jeff sessions but just saying i don't think i want to answer that. because this is a conversation i don't believe i should answer that. is that something that would commonly happen when you were chairing the committee? >> no. and it is how you conduct yourself in that investigation matters. if the people you are bringing
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in and they know their comments are going to be kept on the record in a classified setting i think you get much better cooperation. i don't know who would want to go in for any particular reason without some spot that it is going to end up on cnn or fox news or fill in the blank within 30 seconds and that is hindering their ability to do a legitimate investigation inside. mike connoway he is calm and rational. and trying to put together the elements of the investigation. and these folks are coming in and not going to be cooperative to that end. holder was held in contempt by the house. >> that's right. usually both parties in the congress of the united states are zealous in the prerogatives of the executive branch to bring people before their committees
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and they have held traditionally those people in contempt and with good reason because they have the power to bring in witnesses and again, when you go to the partisan ropes, this is what results. >> thanks very much. breaking news in the rob porter departure after the break and the president said he would shoutdown the government and now he is supporting the deal and guess what is missing. keeping him honest, next.
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late development of the sudden -- >> reporter: why the white house would think it would be a good idea for the chief of staff john kelly and others here at the white house to release statements praising rob porter in light of that he is serious allegations of abuse. and we got an answer. senior white house official told me that those initial statements were drafted and written in response to the first daily mail story that detailed the allegations but did not include the photograph of one of rob porter's ex-wives with a black
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eye. when that emerged that changed everything. simply the white house was not responding quickly enough to this fast moving story and obviously the photograph did change everything for this white house. now, you know, you can take a look at some of the statements that were put out earlier today. one from john kelly and one from sarah sanders. rob porter is a man of true integrity and honor and i can't say enough good things about him. he is a friend, a confidant and trusted professional. sarah sanders talking about her year working alongside. i have worked directly with rob porter nearly every day for the last year and the person i know is someone of the highest integrity and exemplary character. those of us who have the privilege of knowing him are better people because of it.
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so in response to this first story, obviously they thought they could weather the storm but everything changed when that disturbing photograph came out and people are going to be saying this, and saying this to their tv screens, you shouldn't need a photograph to know that domestic violence is a serious issue. >> there was an extemporaneous account by one of the women about the incident, you know there was an order of protection i believe. so there was history of this in documentation. it is not as if you know, came out of whole cloth. interesting that they are saying it was only the photo that somehow changed the perception. >> reporter: and that might be because porter and perhaps some loyal allies inside the white house were circling the wagons around him saying this isn't
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true. but when the photograph came forward and then rob porter himself was saying in that statement, hey, i know that photograph. i took that photograph. it became very obvious to people in the white house that he could no longer stay here. it goes to show you they were not responding quickly enough or appropriately enough to the damaging and disturbing allegations in this story and it took a photograph to move them in the direction that we saw things end up today. >> yeah. i am not sure they are helping themselves by using that as an explanation that it took the photo. jim acosta thanks very much. >> nothing for either the white house or democrats on immigration. this evening the president tweeted out his a-okay. ends the dangerousesser and gives secretary mattis what he needs to keep america great. keeping him honest, that is
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interesting. >> i would shut it down over this issue. i can't speak for everybody at the table. i would shut it down over the issue. if we don't straighten out our border, we don't have a country. without borders we wouldn't have a country. so would i shut it down over this issue? yes. >> that was yesterday. and here is today. >> what he said yesterday is no longer operative. he is going to support a two year spending bill without funding for the wall. >> the focus for us has always been to get a two year budget deal and also laid out the priorities that we want to see. we made no secret the president wants funding for the wall and border security and we expect to see that reflected in the budget. >> he said he wanted to shut the
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government down. >> the position hasn't changed and i addressed this yesterday. the president is making a point. the only people that have shut the democrgovernment down are t democrats. we have laid out exactly what we want to happen and working towards achieving the goals. >> he is the one who said he wanted to shut the government down. >> the point yhe is making when you put it in the context is that if we are going to have that fight, a fight that the democrats started last time that they lost. >> let me replay what the president himself actually said 24 hours ago. >> without borders we don't have a country. so would i shut it down over this issue, yes. >> sounds pretty clear. the senate budget agreement with
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not dealing with budget and daca. phil mattingly joins us with >> well, we have the dealt. $300 billion in increases and spending over the course of two years, $80 billion in hurricane relief for texas, puerto rico. even an increase in the debt ceiling, taking that usually self-imposed crisis off the table for congress until march of 2019. we have the deadline as well. obviously midnight tomorrow night. the government shuts down. what we don't have yet and what we don't know is where the votes are. you hit the key issue right now. there are going to be republicans that vote against this. some have already said they're completely opposed to this. what that means that speaker paul ryan in the house is going to need democratic votes and that's a problem. the reason? exactly what you laid out. daca, immigration, for a long period of time this deal has been held up because democrats recognize that republicans want defense spending so much, the increases in defense spending, that it's a key piece of
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leverage for a party that's in the minority in the house and the senate. decoupling those two items without any guarantees of a house debate on the immigration issue, that would be problematic. there are real questions on how many democrats speaker paul ryan can bring aboard. aides i'm talking to say they feel like they will be able to get there, that will will be enough republicans to support this deal. they're not going to need an enormous amount of democrats but it's still an open question going into tomorrow. that obviously is quite the high wire act given how little time until that deadline. >> nancy pelosi had a record breaking speech on the house floor today. will it have any impact? >> reporter: look, i think it's an open question to some degree, right? but it was an important moment for the leader, who has come out against this bipartisan deal, which is interesting in and of itself. her staff was integral to getting this done. they were in the room every single step of the day. but the leader's issue was daca. it was immigration. it was the fact that what senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has committed to, an open debate, no fingers on the scale,
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has not been committed to yet in the house. paul ryan making clear he wants to deal with this, but he also wants to deal with it if it's something that president trump supports. that's the trust deficit right now. as you noted, eight hours, the lod longest continuous speech on the house floor in at least a century. reading letters from dreamers, reading bible verses. i think the big question right now when i'm talking to democratic aides is will that have the effect of getting the entire caucus or at least more than they need to keep the votes from going over the threshold speaker paul ryan needs to shut this down altogether, to get some kind of commitment for an open debate. right now that's an open question. i'm hearing they feel like they'll be in good shape towards the end. leader pelosi rallied the democratic caucus today. what that means going forward, well, we're going into just about 24 hours till a shutdown, and that's still an open question, anderson.
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"usa today" is reporting that u.s. olympic figure skater adam rippon declined an invitation by vice president presence to meet with him during the winter olympics after criticizing the vice president on his stance for gays and lesbians, after reading remarks by rippon a couple weeks ago, the vice president through his aides wanted to set up a face to face meeting to talk about it. cnn's will ripley is in south korea for us tonight. what are you learning about this? >> reporter: we know that adam rippon gave that interview on january 17th with christine brennan from "usa today," who said he didn't feel -- rippon didn't feel that vice president pence should represent the
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united states delegation at the olympics given his track record of being unfriendly to the lgbt community. there was a statement up on a congressional website back in 2000 where some people perceived to indicate his support of gay conversion therapy, and rippon, out as a figure skater, said he didn't want any part of it and said he had no interest in meeting with vice president pence at the olympics, which is customary for the u.s. athletes. >> what is the vice president's office now saying about all this? >> reporter: well, the vice president's office is disputing "usa today's" reporting that he was so disturbed by this article that he tried to set up a meeting with rippon, which rippon then denied. there's a tweet out from the v.p.'s communications director. it reads, the "usa today" report is false and should be corrected. the vice president's office did not reach out to set up a conversation with mr. rippon. as we've said before, the vice president is supporting all the u.s. athletes in the olympics and is hoping they all win medals. but, again, christine brennan, very well sourced, standing by her reporting, says there will not be a correction. >> it's not just the figure skater who has concerns about
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the vice president leading the delegation. i want to play something that gus ken worthy told ellen degeneres just the other day. >> myself and adam rippon are the two first openly gay males competing in the olympics and it's just incredible to see how times have changed. but then to have someone leading the delegation that's like directly attacked the lgbt community and just a cabinet in general that just sort of stands against us and has tried to do things to set us back, it just seems like a bad fit. >> has gus or rippon said more about this? >> reporter: yes, gus ken worthy, the freestyle skier and adam rippon said they have no desire to meet with president trump at the white house after the olympics. if you think about it, this is really a sea change for olympic athletes who are out. you think about johnny we're who was criticized by judges for the way he dressed. you think about brian boitano.
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he didn't come out because he was afraid he would lose sponsorship deals. to have adam rippon and gus kenworthy, two openly gay olympic athlete who's are taking a political stance like this, it's an extraordinary change for the olympics. >> thanks very much. up next, a key white house aide denies domestic abuse allegations against him but resigns. sources say white house officials, at least some knew about the allegations and protected him. the latest from the white house when we continue. ...you could learn you're from ireland... ...donegal, ireland... ...and your ancestor was a fisherman. with blue eyes. just like you. begin your journey at ancestry.com make the most of every hour. here comes a new year. of every single day. with the power of tempur-pedic sleep. choose the mattress brand ranked highest in customer satisfaction by j.d. power. tempur-pedic sleep is power. for my constipation, i switch to miralax.
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