anywhere, just go to cnn go. ac 360 begins right now. let's go back to work, john berman here sitting in for anderson. a federal judge, a trump appointee, by the way, director of the white house, to reinstate his press pass. the work is the most important thing asking questionquestions, elected officials honest, keeping them honest no matter who has the microphone. the administration's particular words and actions have sparked so much concern. the white house did what it did with his credentials, it is why we're giving this claim by the president such close scrutiny tonight. >> you understand we want total freedom of the press. it is more important to me than anyone would believe. >> he said that shortly after

the judge ruled, we'll look closer at all of the legal ang l angles in a moment and we'll speak to sam donaldson about it. let's look at that claim that the president wants free of press. it is harder to see much evidence of that. as the record shows, no president has expressed the kind of overt, on going bitter antagonism toward the work that we do, not to say that plenty of other presidents have not had plenty of other complaints, but saying so outloud used to be a career killer. this was richard nixon lashing out at the press after his bid to become governor of california in 1962. >> as i leave you i want you to know just think how much you will miss me, you don't have

mixson to kick around any more. >> that landed him in political wilderness for six years, now trump barely goes sixth minutes between attacks on the press, and while -- here with all of the fake news, he says, coming out of nbc and the networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their license. bad for country. so leaving aside the factual matter that nbc as a network does not have a license. the intent was plane and people noticed. this was a threat against amazon. i'm right about amazon costing the united states post office massive amounts of money for

being their delivery boy. amazon should pay these costs, plus, and not have them bourn by the american taxpayer. millions of leaders don't have a clue, or do that. he is threatening to use the government entity to put a bite on the guy that owns the newspaper that he hates. wereize press, and the next, they put the entire press corps on notice. is it noticeable? you bet. is it coupled with other efforts, some of which that have been tried by other administrations trying too limit access to information? yep. and finally, does it jive with this? >> we want total free of the press, it is very important to me. so today's course action was

only preliminary, the judge focusing on the due process side of things, not the first amendment question. jeffrey toobin joins us with what is next. >> it was better than i expected and a very savvy and courageous move by the judge because -- procedures, you have to have rules that people can understand, and you to have a person who is in charge of making those decisions. none of which the white house had. so he basically sent the case back to the white house and said acosta gets his press pass back immediately and make rules and then we will see where the case it. >> he punted on the first

amendment, but made this preliminary judgment on the fifth amendment, due process. saying white house, you have to put a process in place. and the white house, the president sarah sanders today said we're going to put procedures in place which i think is a good idea. will they use the procedures to try to pursue jim acosta again. my hope is they will simply say okay, these are the rules going forward, bygones are bygones. >> the judge made clear there is no first amendment right to access the white house. >> i think that is close to what he said in fairness to sarah sanders. he did say the white house can make rules, there is no absolute access to the white house, but he has to -- but the rules have to be fair. and they have to give

journalists notice of what the rules are, and the opportunity to challenge them if they're punished. >> so is there a chance this becomes the de facto permanent status there. is it anyone's benefit to play this out to a trial? >> no. look, cnn has to do whatever it can do let jim acosta to keep doing his job permanently. if the white house says these are the rules going forward, but we're not going to apply them retro actively, i think that is a fair solution. the problem is if the white house says under the rules we're now prescribing, acosta is out again, we have to go back into court and continue the fight. >> so that could be the future. >> it's up to the white house now, they're going to make the rules, will they apply them to jim. >> i want to drill down deeper

of a notion of a chilling effect that makes the administration more accountable. now a journalist that sparred with presidents over the years, and clashed with answers they got, and joining us, saim donaldson, former lodge ti eer news research and analyst, who i did research for, sam great to see you, thank you for being with us, thank you for the deck lar race y-- declaration you submitted on behalf of jim accost that. >> i worry about these rules, they said there has to be dec decor decorum. they have to make it fair and orderly.

what does that mean? that there is one question and if a reporter tries to follow it up he or she is out. that doesn't accomplish anything. if the rules are not aimed at trying to suppress the questions, but stopping us from digging in, we're in trouble. i asked president clinton whether or not it was true that he raped wendy debroderick, and he said his lawyer gave a statement about that, and i said couldn't you just deny it, sir, and he said see my lawyer, they were horrible questions but they were the questions of the moment but i never heard a word of complaint about that. if president trump thinks rules can avoid his having to answer

jim acosta, john carl, we all used to work for abc, april ryan, anyone else, he is wrong. i just hope that it doesn't come to that. >> the president said today that nobody believes in the first amendment more than he does. >> he does when it suits him. by dealing with the press and the new york tabloids that went to bat for the false image of himself that he peddled. so he understands how to manipulate the press. i think what we saw today is a first rate decision that own abl -- enables the press to pursue the truth, their job at these press conferences and briefings. and we need that and it was a good suit that cnn filed.

and we should prevail. beyond that i think we need to rethink how we conduct the briefings. the press conferences, and the briefings of the president of the united states basically using them as an occasion to lie and to manipulate the press. i don't think we should necessarily be running them verbatim beginning to end, it is like free air time. we need to reevaluate how we engage with the president, our job is repertory yal. and i think the format has ceased, particularly under this president, to serve the interest and the truth and we need as a profession to start finding a new way to do business in this white house. >> there was a threat from the white house today to suggest that if they don't like the

question they may just end the news conference and walk away. what happens then? >> it could be terrible. you know carl is right we have to rethink how we will do this this but we have been discussing whether or not we should walk away, should the press corps walk out? it is our job o to ask questions and stay there. i think he was doing the right thing, but that is a fair discussion. what is not fair is that we ask a tough question and the president made it clear he didn't want to answer it who gets the questions. >> i want to say an amazing

thing here. i want to the press conferences as a copy boy, and i dictated them back at the newspaper that i worked for. watching kennedy engage with the press, to understand the engagement was a thing to be hold. it started to decesinagrate. i said to him at the time i think we need to rethink how we cover these press conferences. >> are the answers worth it? that is the what we're getting toe, maybe it is not worth it. >> we need to be able to get the truth out.

>> whether or not -- whether or not it is worth it or not is a value judgment. he gets to say it. we get to ask questions. he gets to give whatever answers he wants, but his answers, worth it or not in the long run, history will say that wasn't the truth or that made no sense, and that is why we're there, we have to keep trying to do that. i went to the john kennedy press conferences also, i never had the courage to try to ask a question of him, and he was a charmer. many of the questions were like mr. president sir if you mind could you please tell us how you feel about -- >> no, come on, folks, one said mr. president, and this was to lynn don johnson, later, it is a lonely job, isn't it? i think it probably is, but we have to ask direct questions

politely but firmly on issues of the moment, and not hold our punches and say gee, it is too bad this happened. >> not that. >> one other thing about reporting of this president, it has been fabulous reporting that exposed this president from the beginning of administration through today in a twha no presidency has been covered. with persistent excellence by the press corps. and we should not be a deferential in a kowtowing way. but we do need to find a way to engage that makes it possible to get better information out of it and not allow the president so simply conduct the symphony.

>> but carl, when you were covering him earlier and breaking the stories, the public was listening and watching, and the public got on to what was happening and kwam to believe that he ought to leave. they are bringing forward things that the public should pay attention to. and half of the public doesn't care. >> the president is great at making it up to the press, not his conduct. and indeed, he sought to under mi undermine our credibility by lining. that is something that we need to engage with. >> is this the end? >> yeah, in the end, sam, thank you for being with us tonight and for the example you set for me and the others.

stick around, we're going to talk to you a little gig. we'll get your input on another story coming up. breaking news in the killing of jamal khashoggi. and vice president pence looking adoringly at president trump, so why is he asked all of the time about his loyalty? him, that guy? details ahead. r best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain so you can move more. dr. scholl's. born to move. wmust have cost a lot. a fancy hotel. actually, i got a great deal. priceline saves you up to 60% on hotels, but that's something the hotels don't really want other guests to know. i saved about 120 dollars a night!

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president trump has been a little tense the last few days, you can blame some of the on the home work assignment that he and his legal teams are working on. he was asked when he will turn them in. >> could you provide an answer, sir? >> about what?

>> are your lawyers working -- >> my lawyers are not working on that, i'm working on that, i write answers, i was asked a series of questions, i have answered them very easily. very easily. i'm sure they're tricked up because they like to catch people, you know is the weather sunny or rainy? he say it may have been a good day, it was rainy, he told a lie, he perjured himself. but they were very routinely answered by me. okay? >> very routinely answered, he says, by me, also, he had a source familiar with what we have been reporting, says that long running negotiations and team mueller, they say the president and his legal team took issue with some of the

questions, specifically those covering the transition after the election. they would not say if the president answered those questioned and if there was responses to all of the questions that were asked. joining us, kari cordero. saying i'm answering the questions, not my lawyers here, the lawyers are involved. this is a take home open book exam. the advantage of it is that you get to have help. he gets help from his lawyers. he was responding to giuliani's interview in the washington post yesterday where he said there is a lot of troubling issues in these and some of the questions are problematic. and the president is trying to give the impression that it was a piece of cake, i have nothing to fear, i don't need my lawyers, that is the message he is trying to send. if it is true that i can't tell you. >> we have called this a take

home open book exam, still he has to tell the truth, i have to believe they're going every every work of the questions and answers meticulously. >> of course they're going to review his answers. some of this information particularly if it has to do with the allegations of obstruction, those go to his intent when he took certain actions, whether or not those are things that took place before he was president or things like the firing of the fbi director. in some cases it may only be him who knows what the answer is, but certainly his lawyers will be reviewing these, perhaps rewriting them, redrafting them, in a twha minimizes his exposure. i'm really struck by his statement that the questions are from "people who have bad

intentions. he is talking about federal prosecutors. he said these before, but it is worth noting it. it is their job to envors the law. >> yeah, and it was an exattention of what he said yes when he wasn't after the special council by name. >> robert mueller has a distinguished record as few public servant that's have that are highly regarded by republicans and democrats, and alo along comes president trump to call him a disgrace. i think we need to look at the last two weeks, since election day. we have seen a rage aholaholic

president like we have never seen. we have never seen a president in such a long public rage like we have seen in the last few weeks. in paris, in washington, at the special prosecutor, at the press, it has been unceasing and horrible to look at in terms of what does this mean? in terms of our governance. and what we are seeing now is this president has his back to the wall, and i want to say one thing about -- he keeps saying no collusion, no collusion, no collusion. we know that mueller has a sprawling investigation that is all about looking for collusion among trump's associates, his family, his campaign aides, whether or not he found it or not, we don't know, but it is a

serious sprawling investigation and trump understands that. and with the new acting attorney general, trump now has a spy for the first time that is looking at what mueller has. and he has been, trump, throughout his presidency, absolutely in a crazed state because he doesn't know what mueller is doing. now he has a sense of what may be going on, and we may be seeing that in this rageaholic behavior. >> they wrote about the inner workings of the mueller campaign, we don't know what matt whittaker has been telling him. it it is something he likes to refer to as a perjury trap, that is not something they taught you

at harvard law school. >> it is a meaningless phrase. perjury is perjury. this idea, the president talked about, that if you say it was a sunny day but it was cloudy they will charge you be perjury, of course not. it has to be a substantive statement that is relative to a central issue in the place. it has to be an intentional falsehood. perjury is about intentional lying and it is rarely prosecuted, but it is prosecuted when prosecutors see it. they don't prosecute people that make mistakes. >> what's the best way to avoid it by the way? >> tell the truth. >> these written answers, they're not the end here, necessarily. they turn in the homework assignment, but the special council could come back and follow up on these, right? >> the special council will

receive at some point these answers it seems like, and they will decide whether or not they find those answers sufficient, whether or not they want to still pursue potentially talking to the president, so much time has gone by that it does seem like if the president was requested to interview or even if they decided to go forward with a subpoena, that he would certainly challenge it. that is where the appointment of acting attorney general wh whittaker becomes very important. the exercise of real substantive authority. whether or not it serves as a subpoena on the president could be decided by the acting attorney general. he is in a questionable legal perspective. a questionable legal appointment. it is hard to understand with all of the other senate

confirmed senior officials who could have been and should have been appointed as the acting attorney general, that position becomes quite important. >> he only agreed to answer questions about events during the campaign. he has said he is not answering questions about the firing of comey or any of the acts he made as president. >> really appreciate it, next we have breaking news, what the cia concluded about who ordered the murder of jamal khashoggi. instead, he's the tallest guy in his office.l basketball player. yeah, eric's had to compromise a lot in life.

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breaking news tonight on the murder of jamal khashoggi. the ccia concluded that the cron prince did know about the assassinati assassination. john hudson did some of the reporting on this story. thank you for joining us, the cia's conclusion that the crown prince ordered the assassination of john khashoggi, where does this come from? >> a major part of this is the audio that the turks had, but they had multiple sources of information including a phone call that was made by the saudi

ambassador into the united states to jamal khashoggi if is based on a number of evidence and it is a high confidence fact. >> and you suggest it was a said i did ambassador, he issued a statement tonight to deny those claims, what do you make of that? >> we included the essence of the statement in the denial. they provided a longer statement and they published that out there. but we boiled down the essence of that and put that in the story, but of course we also reflected what we heard from other sources on this story. people familiar with the situation. >> president trump, you're

reporting that he has been briefed on this? he has been told, he thinks that the crown prince ordered this assassination. do we know what his reaction has been? >> we have seen the reaction, we have seen this play out over several days. the president has always said that the relationship that the united states with saudi arabia is important, but he also made, you know, made it very clear that he believes this is one of the worst cover ups ever. they tried to balance what is a growing amount of evidence that this was something directed by very senior saudi leadership and they tried to balance that with the reality that they would like to keep this relationship with the crown prince who they tried to cultivate a long relationship with for a few years now, and who they consider the lynch pin of their strategy. >> thank you for being with us,

john hudson, thank you. here is a small sample of what the president has been saying lately. take a look. as of this moment, they deny it, and they deny it vee. >> your son-in-law got on the phone with the crown prince, what did he say? >> he denied it. >> i just got off of the phone with the crown prince, i asked and he firmly denied ordering the killing of that saudi resident. explain how sure the cia needs to be to come to a conclusion like this. when they conclude the crown

prince order this is assassinati assassination, how certain? >> i can't officially collaborate the reporting on the cia report, but for the sake of discussing it, it is accurate and valid. i think that the fact that apparently this came with a high confidence, when you a high confidence level to a report, typically you have, you know, very good sourcing from multiple sources. and so that is, i think, that was the case here. and i think beyond that i think this report simply serves to reinforce what anyone with a modicum of understanding about how things operate in saudi arabia, which, you know center around mbs, the de facto ruler in saudi arabia, and he involves himself in all matters big and small, so no question that than

operation like this could not have been planned and executed without just his knowledge, but i'm convinced the direction. and i felt that way before this reporting of the cia report. >> and again the phraseology you report is high confidence, which means they have it from multiple sources. the president, at least according to the post, he is questioning the intelligence he is getting from his own agencies. we have seen that before, i wonder if this is similar or if it is because he doesn't want it to be true for policy reasons. >> i expect it is the latter. in the past couple years, he has what i will call -- what i will characterize as an elastic evidentiary bar. i'm sure he will keep raising it in this case, the bar, ever higher. but you know, it stretches

credulity to think that he was not directly involved or directly ordered this. >> "the washington post" broke this story and it appeared in the wall street journal and the "new york times." someone wants it out there that the cia has a high level of confidence that the saudi crown prince ordered this. >> someone, and it may not have been someone in the intelligence community, lots of people outside of the ic would have been aware of the reporting. so i think it is someone that is concerned about the situation, wants it out there and in doing so puts more pressure on the administration and maked it hs harder for them to tap dance. >> so if the order was ordered by the crown prince, should

there be severe consequences, does the united states need him as an ally? >> i think we need saudi arabia as an ally. right now i guess the administration view is that they are synonymous with the crown prince. i hope that the royal family would think of a effort heir apparent for the king because for my money, and i think for lotts of other people, he is severely compromised himself by his involvement in this really d d d despicable act. >> coming up, has the president lost confidence in his vice president? new reporting says the president has been going around asking aides if mike pence is loyal. we will talk about that next. the hard work you put into lowering your

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today the president said "i am almost happy with all of my cabinet." that may include the vice president. reportedly he has been asking aides if mike pence is loyal. it has alarmed some of his

advisors. here is just las wet week, a da after the midterms. >> will the vice president be your running mate in 2020? >> i have not asked him, but i hope so. where are you? will you? >> he stood up and raised his hand when asked. joining me now is michael dantonio. i believe the only man to have written a book about donald trump and mike pence. also joining us kirstin powers, this whole loyalty issue is interesting and the reason i think this "new york times" piece is getting so much focus is the idea of mike pence and loyalty, has there been anyone in this administration that has

gone out of his way to just pour the praise on the president other than mike pence? >> no, there hasn't. that is what makes it so ludicrous and it sounds paranoid, frankly. this is not someone you think the president would ever think twice about whether or not he is loyal. you could say he is probably loyal to a fault. there is nothing that the president does that he won't defend no matter how horrible it is. so this to me suggests that the president is not in the greatest state of mind if he is questioni questioning whether or not he is loyal to him. >> it always has been a one-way street and let's think about the person before mike pence who was abjectly loyal or fawning where the president was concerned, it was michael cohen, it is likely the president has been

reflecting on who is loyal, who is not loyal, who can i trust, and he is starting to be paranoid in a way that is almost f feral. he is a cornered animal that cannot trust anyone. he established a problem of never gaining enough trust and never giving any trust, and never creating any. so who would be loyal to trump after he has done what he has done. any number of people who he has betrayed. he will live in a world of betrayal. >> there is an element of this. there has been a rumor at some point or another, or a discussion a some point or another about what it might mean to replace the number two on the ticket, to replace the ticket. even barack obama.

there was a discussion, i don't know but they said should we think about someone other than joe biden. for trump we saw what happened in the suburbs, how he did with women in the midterms, people are thinking about what about nikki haley. there is a reasonable discussion to be had here. >> i think that is true, but that would not explain the questioning of the loyalty, right? he could just say look, i have a problem with women voting for me and maybe we need to do something different, but i will say they don't think that would make that much of a difference. i don't think a vice presidential candidate will make up for the deficit that he has with women. assuming that nikki haley would even codo it. i don't think it transfers that way. a lot of women are turning against him. >> in this reporting in the "new york times," they make note of the fact that president trump

has never let go of the fact that pence did issue a statement critical of them over the access hollywood tape. trump is never one to forget a slight, is he? >> no, he never forgets a slight, and i also recall that karen pence was very upset about that "access hollywood" tape. and the pence's have a relationship that is very different from any marriage that trump has ever had. these are two people, mike and karen pence, who respect each other immensely. they're very committed to each other. karen has always been mike's number one advisor in all matters. and i think she is disgusted by donald trump. there is really no doubt about that. so we have to wonder, you know, the president may be right here to be thinking "well, can i trust mike pence?" . and who would be happier if

donald trump left the white house early than mike pence. i think he would be delighted and the vice president is a man since he was 17 years old he had this ambition. and he did the decision to be the running mate over his wife's actions. >> kirsten, what do you make of michael's note. what do you think that this gets to the president's mind-set over the last two weeks? >> i think up it shows he's feeling paranoid. of course he has his eye on the presidency. that's why he's vice president. >> it's what being vice president is all about. an update on the midterm elections. in georgia, stacey abrams ended her bid to become the first

african-american gauche in the u.s. abrams acknowledged republican brian kemp will become the next governor of georgia. kemp was repeatedly accused of voter suppression. in a speech, abrams said kemp's eight years as the chief's elections officer resulted in systemic disenfront cheesement, disinvestment and incompetence. she and her supporters hoped for a runoff and she was considering more legal challenges but desized to end her campaign. kemp ended up ahead by more than 54,000 votes. at twist in the mid-terms, republican when the president mocked mia love of utah for not embracing him before the race was called? >> mia love gave me no love. and she lost. too bad. sorry about that, mia. >> too bad. right now mia love has pulled ahead of her democratic challenger. as of tonight she is ahead of ben mcadams by 419 votes.

let's check in to see what he's working on. >> jb, my man. >> if you determine elections by what happened on tuesday, that's how you wind up with mia love and many others. he doesn't get -- i don't know why it's crazy that i'm saying this but it's always takesing weeks and that's why we're looking. we're in a divided country right now. the electorate is reflecting that. tonight we'll take on a couple big things in a deep way. what does this mean that the president says his answers are done for the mueller probe? what most those answers include? >> we'll look at what the law is surrounding freedom of the press and what remains as a challenge going forward. it's not just about acosta or cnn, there's much bigger

prospects involved? >> you got me hooked. look forward to seeing the show, we'll see you in just a few minutes. ahead, an update on the devastating fires in california.

the death toll from the fire in northern california has risen to 63 and the number of missing is more than 600, possibly as many as 630. the camp fire, as it's called, is the deadliest and most destructive of the state. kaylee hartung has the latest. >> reporter: the smoke from the camp fire lingers and survivors on the ground face a bleak picture. this makeshift campground in a walmart parking lot is near the remnants of the town of paradise. many have lost everything. these survivors are just trying to catch their breath in the smokey air, looking for answers to the question, what's next. >> did it burn down or didn't it

and we just don't know and it's hard to try to figure out your game plan when you don't know your game plan. >> reporter: anna goodnight and her husband william rushed out of their home. they were only able to grabbed me -- grabbed meication and important documents. >> we saw everything burning down. >> reporter: they have no idea if their home is standing. they ears just glad they made it out alive. >> i hope there's some closure for the families that have lost family. we're hearing a lot of horror stories. >> we're living, a lot of people didn't make it. >> reporter: crystal survived hurricanes in florida, she was hoping to make paradise the next chapter. >> i thought -- we were happy, exciting, they had called us and

told us to come next week, it was going to be a time where we came in but everything is gone and i don't know what's the next step. i'm just winging it. >> reporter: despite facing her own long road to recovery, crystal's been visiting the people at the camp, offering to help however she can. >> i can't do anything but one day at a time. it's out of my hands. stay praying, stay asking the lord to cover us or cover them. make sure they have a safe place to land in all of the situation situations. >> people are wondering why the number of people missing continues to rise. 630 names are on the list's last release by local officials but they caution it is difficult for them to pinpoint that number because so many people have been displaced. paradise is a town with a population of more than 25,000 people. they say some people could have evacuated to areas where cell phone service is unreliable. others, that i say, could have

evacuated and not reached out to family members so they don't realize people are looking for them. anna goodnight who you just heard me speak with, she told me she hasn't looked at the list because she's afraid she will know names on it but, john, authority asks if you look at the list, please let them know. because in the meantime they will make sure everyone is accounted for. >> kaylee hartung, thank you for your reporting. terrific job. the news continues, we'll hand it over to chris cuomo. >> i am chris cuomo and welcome to prime time. let freedom rein. the president can't just pull a press pass because he doesn't like certain questioning. the law is clear. now what is not clear where we go from here. trump signalled how he'll respond and we'll test that for you ahead. is is the mueller probe about to end? trump says that's what he heard and that he's answered all the special counsel's questions and he did it all