>> mattress and sheets. i'm just a farm kid from idaho. i grew up here. what i didn't know was there's kids next door who are struggling. i have kids sleeping on the floor. i was making a six figure salary but i fell into this need that wasn't filled by anybody. the need i have isn't financial. the need i have is seeing the joy on kid's faces, knowing i can make a difference. >> luke's non-profit sleep-in heavenly peace has delivered more than 1,500 beds to children across america. go to cnn heros.com right now to vote for him or any of your top ten favorite cnn heros. thanks for watching. our coverage continues. good evening. thank you for joining us. we begin with breaking new developments in the russia investigation and what they could mean. first, republican senators today

blocked bipartisan legislation to protect the special counsel. majority leader mitch mcconnell says it's not needed. >> this is a solution in search of a problem. the president is not going to fire robert mueller. nor do i think he should. nor do i think he should not be allowed to finish. we have a lot of things to do to try to finish up this year without taking votes on things that are completely irrelevant to outcomes. >> the solution in search of a problem, he says. the majority leader seems to be suggesting there's no reason to believe the president would take action to undermine the special counsel, to delegitimize his work in the public eye or otherwise short circuit the investigation. defenders of the president says he has yet to do anything along those lines. keeping him honest. if a bill protecting the special counsel is as leader mcconnell

says a search for a solution to a, is it a problem to replace the toattorney general with someone who has spoken out against the attorney general? okay, so maybe by now you're accustomed to a president rage tweeting against a man investigating him. if that's no longer a problem or so shocking what about this item he tweeted today? a photo shop collection of people the president has frequently lashed out suggesting they're traitors. robert mueller in the upper left and the current deputy attorney general of the united states, rod rosenstein, who the president hand picked for the job. this is something the president actually tweeted out. no doubt he would say, well, i just retweeted it, and yes that is true, but the president of the united states who you think has a lot of important stuff

took time to find this and retweet something from what is essentially a trump fan account. calling the deputy attorney general and the special counsel a and former obama traitors, is that a problem? >> with the president tweeting on a daily basis, the special counsel is conflicted that he is leading the so-called 12 angry democrats and demeaning and ridiculing him in anyway. to be so sanguine about the chances of him being fired is fodder for us i believe. >> we'll bring you more what senator jeff flake said in a moment. here's chris tunes of delaware. >> i don't know what would give me the idea president trump might suddenly do something unpredictable except he does it almost every day. >> cnn has exclusive reporting tonight that the president in his written answers to the

mueller team says roger stone did not tell him about wikileaks nor was he told about the 2016 trump tower meeting. the source said he was answering to the best of his recollection, which is the kind of thing a lawyer tells you to say so you have some wiggle room. the president also spoke to another question, would he try to undermine the special counsel by pardoning a key cooperating? quote, it was never discussed but i wouldn't take it off the table. why would i take it off the table? why would the president take it off the table? it's a good question. all presidents do have nearly unlimited pardon power, but why did the president decide to answer "the post" question in that way? reading here from the articles of impeachment against richard nixon when accuse him among other things endeavoring to call prospective defendants duly tried and convicted in return

for their silence or false testimony or rewarding individuals for their silence or false testimony, which is really just a fancy way of saying it's a no-no to ask someone to lie for you if you're in turn promising to pardon them down the road. now, we should say we have no evidence the president was doing the same or similar today. more now including the president's answers. what do we know about these answers that the president gave mueller? >> essentially what we know is this was in writing in obviously that they handed in as part of a set of questions. it was several questions. these were the two key points we have all been focused on, that the special counsel has been focused on. and like you said, anderson, the president is essentially denying that he had any knowledge of that trump tower 2016 meeting that his son don junior setup

with the russian lawyer. and also roger stone, whether or not he was communicating with roger stone about what he knew about wikileaks and whether there was going to be additional dumps of e-mails concerning john podesta and whether or not roger stone and the president were communicating about that. all of that he's denying. and as you said, you know, his lawyers carefully worded these answers to say that at least based on the president's recollection he doesn't remember ever having these communications. >> it's important that the reason mueller has been focusing on these two things is the scope of his questions was limited. he wasn't supposed to ask any questions about the obstruction of jury service s or potential obstruction of justice any anything that happened while the president was president. so he's focusing on the wikileaks and the ideas of this trump tower meeting, which potentially was a huge idea because that was the first time the trump campaign was told the russians were actually backing the trump campaign.

>> that's right. and that is an important part of what mueller is look at. he would have had to do things to go to lawyers, perhaps go to the fbi, put things in place to protect himself. and the idea that he would not have done any of that and he knew this and allowed this meeting to go on would be extremely damaging both legally and even politically at this point. you know, it's interesting because there are these phone calls, these blocked phone calls we've all focused on about don junior and we still don't have definitive answers what those blocked calls are. don june, has told congressional investigators he doesn't remember anything about those phone calls, who he spoke to. now with the democrats taking over, they intend to go after that information to try and see if they can subpoena those phone records and see who placed those phone calls. >> manafort was there, kushner was there for a time. there's also the candidate at that point, donald trump had

promised big information about hillary clinton at a press conference that then never took place. >> that's right, that never took plis. a and what's interesting the russians set this up saying they wanted to talk about adoptions, and they say, well, we want to talk about hillary clinton and dirt and all these different things that were happening in this meeting and whether or not anything that was going in on in that meeting whether it was add any time to them the candidate donald trump -- even though the president right now is saying no, it's still not definitive from the special counsel's team. >> you heard a bit at the top from senator jeff flake, cosponsor of the mueller bill, and there's also the question about pardons. senator flake, the president saying today he wouldn't take a pardon off the table for manafort. as long as there isn't a quid pro quo happening behind the scenes a pardon for manafort would be legal, right? >> right. the president's pardon power is

nearly absolute, so yeah. >> in terms of your push for a vote to protect mueller, why do you think republican leadership, mitch mcconnell, in particular continues to refuse to a lllow bill come to a floor vote? >> the majority leader said at that time there's no worry, nobody's being fired, the president's not going to fire mueller. now the attorney general has been fired and someone who's been installed who's expressed hostility towards the mueller probe, and he now has oversight for that probe. so i don't know why we aren't more concerned here. i really don't. >> i mean, if you look at mitch mcconnell's argument, even if they're not concerned about the president firing mueller, what would be the harm in passing something to protect mueller? >> yeah, that's my feeling as well. i know the president wouldn't like it, obviously. but i think that's exactly what we need to do. the president needs to know that the senate will not stand for

him firing mueller. and the message he's getting right now is that the senate and the leadership will protect him. so i think that that's the wrong message to send. there are some who have legitimate concerns about its constitutionality but they can certainly vote no. i think constitutional scholars on both sides of the issue are in disagreement on this. i think it's structured in a way that it is constitutional. so i hope that we can pass it. >> the president's supporters will say, though, look he hasn't taken any action to block or defund or curtail the investigation. yesterday he told "the washington post" he has no intention to do anything to stop it. so despite any of his tweets he hasn't shown concrete steps of stopping it. >> look at what's happened. the attorney general has been fired and oversight of the investigation has been taken from the deputy attorney general where it belonged, rod rosenstein, and given to math

hew whitaker who has not ben con23rco confirmed by the senate and like i said when he was auditioning for this job, expressed a lot of hostility towards the mueller probe and indicated at that point there are ways without firing mueller into the probe, like starving the probe of funds. and we just don't know how much interaction there is right now between mr. whitaker and mr. mueller. mr. mueller might have to ask permission to issue certain subpoenas or to take certain actions that might be denied by mr. whitaker. when the report is actually issued it will be mr. whitaker's job to decide what the congress sees and what it doesn't see. so those kind of things are very much in question, and i think if behooves us to move in the senate. >> you have roughly a month and a half left in office. is this the end of the road for you in terms of trying to protect mueller? >> well, i can speak out as a private citizen but right now i have some leverage because there

are a number of judges, about 25 or so that we haven't moved through the judiciary committee that my vote is needed to move them through. and i've indicated i won't vote for those judges. in fact more than a dozen are slated tomorrow morning in the judiciary committee and i will vote no, which means they can't progress to the floor. in addition i just voted no on one they had to bring the vice president in to put on top for a cloture vote. i can use that leverage and i will, but unfortunately, you know, by january 3rd somebody else has to take it up. >> and last i want to ask about cnn's reporting president trump told mueller in writing he wasn't told about wikileaks, wasn't made aware of the 2016 trump tower meeting. the president may be very well telling the truth here, but for any reason he isn't, what would the consequences actually be? >> i don't know. we'll have to see the totality

of the mueller report, and hopefully we will, but i don't know what context that would be in, or what evidence we'd have to the contrary. so i'd have to see it in the context of the report. >> do you find it hard to believe, though, that then candidate trump was not informed of the trump tower meeting by his own son? >> no, i don't know. i'll wait for the mueller report on that. i don't want to speculate, but when you're the candidate you're usually informed of those kind of things. >> let's get some more perspective tonight. shawn lou, laura coates, kirsten powers, rick santorum and in some far off distant land called new york cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin, a creature of new york. laura, the defendant -- there's a lot of stuff that just seems normal now, but when i saw that retweet from the president, the president is defending his own

deputy attorney general behind bars. >> you could say it was shocking but it isn't shocking anymore. that's what's so shocking about it, is that he's accusing effectively his own deputy attorney general of treason. and it just seems to me he's accusing bob mueller of being mccarthy and the rage we're seeing now seems to be getting more and more frantic every single day. and i think it's because the walls are kind of closing in on him and maybe manafort's attorney has been telling him things he's not happy to hear because he's been keeping him informed on what's been going on in the mueller negotiations. and giuliani has said they knew it wasn't going well. and so, you know, i think this is a president that is under an awful lot of stress because he seems to be spending all of his time -- all of his time tweeting

ability -- >> laura, it is a little ironic for the president to be talking about joe mccarthy in a negative way when the president's idol, roy cohn, was the right-hand man of joe mccarthy. he was the snake behind the power. >> it's hard to actually inject here because it is ironic. it's hypocritical and of course what's so shocking is the president has essentially tried to create his own list of people who he thinks are his political adversaries, are his enemies including the press, people who were required by law and ethical obligations to recuse themselves, jeff segs. somebody who was required to actually appoint a special counsel, rod rosenstein. that's really difficult for people to wrap their minds around especially remember the president of the united states is the head of the executive branch whose role it is to fa h

faithfully ensure it's executed. and gloria is right, you get hotter under the collar the closer you are to the flames. in every statement that he makes, everything entices mueller and the scrutiny of special counsel to say why is the lady protesting so much. >> senator santorum, do you think rod rosenstein belongs behind bars? are you immune at this point to the president's re-tweets or tweets? >> i guess, yes. the answer is i think we all are, i mean to the way the president interacts on twitter. i think rod rosenstein has made a lot of bad decisions as deputy attorney general. and i don't believe there should have been a probe, i think it should have been handled internally in the justice department. having said all that, that is not an appropriate retweet on the part of the president. again, that's par for the course. >> jeff, on a legal standpoint

the president said he's not ruling out a pardon for manafort. i assume he was asked by the new york post about this. could he be accused of sending a message to manafort? >> he sure could. and he sure could be -- it could be an obstruction of justice. you started the program talking about, you know, nixon. you know, this idea that the pardon power is absolute is not true. if someone walks into the oval office with a suitcase full of cash and says pardon somebody in return for the cash, that's not protected. and to use the pardon power to interfere with a pending investigation, which is the only interpretation possible of what the president was saying today, that is an obstruction of justice. now, remember we are in the realm -- criminal prosecution is off the table, he's president, he can't be prosecuted, this is

now a political matter of impeachment. nancy pelosi, jerry underler, the new chairman of the judiciary committee, they said they're not interested in pursuing impeachment as long as it's impossible in the senate. is it obstruction of the justice? could they conclude this abuse of the pardon power is obstruction of justice? absolutely. >> do you think he was sending a message to manafort? >> i think he was. and to gloria's point why could the tension be increasing on the president right now, this odd force agreement between manafort and the trump lawyers that's a very reckless thing to do. and the most intriguing aspect of that is that could convert the lawyers into witnesses. if trump's team is telling manafort, hey, don't say this, ease up on manafort, say something else, that is obstruction, and they could have to testify about that, which would essentially pierce the privilege aspect of it.

>> they could also convert to defends themselves. although impeachment may be off the table if it's a foolhardy request by the house to try to guard the senate, giuliani, i don't know what he's done, but the idea someone who's not the president of the united states may be dangling aicat carat o c impede an investigation -- >> it is fascinating one of the things you point out about this president he does for a lack of transparency, he is ouls incredibly accidently trance parent. i mean, he does say stuff which is in his head which many presidents wouldn't say. >> i also think another thing that is different and maybe the lawyers can correct me if this is lay person that seems this way, that pardons -- you know, i don't think -- i think other presidents were more judicious

obviously in considering who they give pardons to and followed more of a process. but i think because donald trump clearly doesn't do that and he sent the message very clearly from the beginning he wasn't going to do that, it opens up these kinds of situations where you have somebody angling for a pardon the way manafort is. in such an ovaert way that i jut don't think in the past you would have been able to do that. >> jeff toobin, you've had plenty of sleazy people trying to get pardons from the president in the night after leaving the white house when their term is just about up. >> bill clinton really shamed himself by pardoning mark rich, a fugitive, his brother. i mean the end of the clinton administration was a really bad low point. if i could go back to the lawyers for a second, i don't think there's anything unnecessarily inappropriate about lawyers talking to each other when they're all being investigated.

i think what's really bizarre about all this is that manafort's lawyers are telling all this stuff to the trump lawyers and everyone else. even though they're supposedly cooperating with the mueller investigation. i think that just shows how much manafort has given up on the legal system and is putting all his bets on getting a pardon because he's just -- that's his only hope because he's now burnt all his bridges with mueller. >> we've got a take a quick break. we'll talk more about this when we come back. with all this playing out and russia and ukraine on the brink of perhaps open warfare, we'll take a look at that. and later what the united states does and does not know about the murder of that man, jamal khashoggi, an allegation the trump administration is not saying all it knows what role saudi arabia's crown prince played in it. the administration is saying something else, and to some the cia's director's absence at a

key briefing today speaks volumes. details on that. before nexium 24hr mark could only imagine... a peaceful night sleep without frequent heartburn waking him up. now that dream is a reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? after bill's back needed a vacation from his vacation. so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain so you can move more. dr. scholl's. born to move. the updates you made to your plan strengthened your retirement score. so, that goal you've been saving for, you can do it. we can do this? we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today.

nana, let's do this! aye aye, captain! ♪ and as you go through life -whoo! -♪ tryin' to reach your goal

♪ and as you go through life hey. i'm sue. and my first call is crunch. ♪ delicious 100% real chocolate embracing the lightness of crispy rice. crunch. the chocolate bar all americans love. ♪ bum bum bum bum bum t-mobile believes it's better to give than to receive. some may disagree. (screaming in excitement) join t-mobile and get the samsung galaxy s9 free. ♪ bum bum bum bum bum

♪ can you feel it ♪ can you feel it put a smile on everyone's face this holiday, with great gifts from amazon. with low prices and free shipping on millions of items, for everything you need this holiday, visit amazon.

a lot happening in washington between the breaking news on the president talking about pardoning paul manafort, the prison meme retweet, and cnn's exclusive reporting on it two key questions he gave robert mueller. and he also complained about how his reality show "the apprentice" was robbed of an emmy, which it was. but he's president and still thinking about that. i actually never watched it. back now with the team. >> he talked about why he didn't win the nobel peace prize. >> i'm not sure anyway -- the

cnn reporting that mr. trump told the special counsel in writing through his attorneys that were obviously worked on the document he didn't know anything about wikileaks during the campaign and obviously nothing about the trump tower meeting, we don't know what robert mueller knows. and a number of people who testified in front of robert mueller said they felt he already had the answers to things they were being asked about. >> which makes a lot of sense he would, and it's not surprising that the president would say i had no knowledge of either of these things even though he seemed to be foreshadowing what he thought was going to occur, particularly with wikileaks, we're going to do this big dump and have all this information on hillary clinton e-mails, which he then didn't have. so it's not surprising. i think that what we see there is the lawyer ling, you should

excuse the expression, wiggle room, but would say to the best of my recollection, trump always says he has the best memory of everyone in the universe but now we put these weasel words in there so that he could -- >> he certainly knows who that blocked phone call was made -- >> he does. >> that's so easy to get that information, and i think that's generally true. i mean, at this time in the investigation they're going to know most of the answers and that's why we're seeing so many false statement problems. they already know those questions and they're testing the credibility of the people coming in. and most of those tests are being failed. >> senator santorum, you heard senator flake saying if he wants a vote on a bill to protect the special counsel, do you think that bill deserves a vote? >> no, i don't. number one, it's never going to become law. i don't understand what jeff

flake's game is here. he's holding up judicial nominations for a bill that's never going to become law and not accomplish what he wants to accomplish. to get a vote on it -- >> you say never become law because the president is not going to sign it. >> he's not going to sign that bill and so this is quick side venture on his part to show he's standing up because he thinks he's running for president in 2020. so what he's doing is really just harming the ability for these judges who deserve to get on the court, we have shortages on the court right now, and he's blocking nominations for no good reason. >> kirsten, i mean the flip side of that, we've had mitch mcconnell saying, look, the president is not going to fire robert mueller. and if this is solution in search of a problem then if -- >> then pass the bill. if it's not going to be an issue just pass the bill and sign it. what's the problem?

>> there's constitutional questions whether this is something the senate can and should do. and there's the idea of raising the specter of saying, okay, we're going to vote for this because we are concerned the president's going to do this. i don't think most republicans, and i talked to a lot of them, are concerned the president is going to do anything to stop the mueller investigation because they know that would be a cataclysmic disaster for the president to do. and so this is just more hype and more drama than it is reality. >> but he fired his attorney general, right? >> he fired his attorney general -- he wanted to fire his attorney general two years ago when he reaccused himself. >> he put rosenstein behind bars on a retweet today, but that's his own deputy attorney general and he said he never should have done it -- but why would you think the president of the united states would never do something like fire bob mueller? >> because he's not in his

interest to do so. >> but everything single thing that's enticed the mueller proeb has be probe has been self-afflicted. they actually have a law in the books that say you've got to take an oath you haven't been involved in a dual in order to become a public official. if you think about this this is law that would actually protect somebody -- >> he's not going to sign the bill so it's an irrelevant exercise. >> i think that the notion of being an exercise in futility because of the president's own inclination is a different question than whether or not it's a useful and important law. >> we've got to take a break here. coming up more than what seems like the president's agitated state of mind over the mueller investigation is a possible meeting with vladimir putin could be just days away. we'll talk it over next. 'm a bro.

do you offer $4.95 online equity trades? great question. see, for a full service brokerage like ours, that's tough to do. schwab does it. next question. do you offer a satisfaction guarantee? a what now? a satisfaction guarantee. like schwab does. man: (scoffing) what are you teaching these kids? ask your broker if they offer award-winning full service and low costs, backed by a satisfaction guarantee. if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab.

if you don't like their answer, not in this house.? 'cause that's no ordinary family. that's your family. which is why you didn't grab just any cheese. you picked up new kraft expertly paired cheddar and swiss for eggs. beat that! kraft. family greatly.

xfinity mobile is a designed to save you money. even when you've got serious binging to do. wherever your phone takes you, your wireless bill is about to cost a whole lot less. use less data with a network that automatically connects you to the most wifi hotspots in millions of places and the best 4g lte everywhere else. saving you hundreds of dollars a year.

and ask how you get xfinity mobile included with your internet. plus, get $200 back when you when you buy a new smartphone. xfinity mobile. it's simple. easy. awesome. click, call or visit a store today. there's a lot swirling around in the mueller investigation including what we now know were two answers the president gave to written questions. two sources telling cnn the president denied being told about the 16 meeting promising dirt on hillary clinton and denied roger stone told him about wikileaks. now, all of this is bubbling up. the president is getting ready to head to the g-20 summit where

he could be meeting with vladimir putin. joining me to talk about it all is ralph peters. thank you for being with us. let's talk about the putin thing. we still don't know what was discussed between vladimir putin and president trump behind closed doors in helsinki. >> and we will never know unless the russians tell us. it's definitely a problem. i suspect that even trump's most loyal henchmen, and they are indeed hench men, i like that old-fashioned english word, are advising him not to embrace vladimir putin. but trump is a creature of impulse. it's hard to imagine him not going off into a corner with putin and that's always dangerous. also we don't know what trump and his people are telling the russians. today in the russian papers,

they're convinced there's a full blown meeting going to happen probably saturday or maybe friday between putin and trump. it's odd. i mean, even if we move the issue of whether putin has something over trump, which i continue to believe, trump is just drawn to him. there's this -- >> he's drawn to power, it seems like. any sort of person who exudes the power he wishes he had. >> that's the case with everybody from xi to erdogan. but there seems to be something special about putin that just draws the guy, and we should all be terribly concerned about this. because right now the media is so concerned with other things. we're blowing off the crisis in the black sea and the kirch strait. >> of course, between russia and ukraine. >> again, the russia papers, russian media, they're beating war drums. that may mean nothing in the long run, but putin has been amassing troops. he wants ukraine back.

he believes it belongs to russia. it's a mystical tie. and he also in a practical level wants a land bridge. he wants a land bridge between russia and crimea. not just the $4 million bridge over the kirch strait. there's that. there's a crisis with the ukrainian church, the orthodox church succeeding from the overlord -- >> which is a blow to putin. >> it's a huge blow, but it also further divides ukraine and russia. a lot of things that we're ignoring are building to a head. does that mean putin is going to get a green light from trump to invade tomorrow? no. not necessarily. but we need to pay attention. >> but to the idea of a green light, if you're a world leader and looking at how the u.s. is responding to things, you look at how president trump has responded to the murder, with the butchery of this journalist, jamal khashoggi, and how continually no matter what the

cia says, you know, you have john bolten saying i didn't listen to the tape, i don't speak arabic, why would i listen to a tape of someone getting killed? >> that infuriated me. you don't want to listen to that tape? i don't speak arabic either, but i'll tell you if you listen to a tape of somebody being tortured to death, you can figure out a couple of things. the screams are universal. the gloating tone of the torture is universal. and these people are cowards for not listening to the tape. it astonishes me they would take such a position. the president's position on khashoggi has squandered much of the remaining credibility we have. i'm a real politic guy. i want what's best for this country for security and internationally, but we've been presented with this false dichotomy. the idea that the practical approach to strategy precludes human rights. in the age of hypermedia when we're constantly bombarded with

images of suffering around the world, why support, rational support for human rights around the world is indeed a part of real policy. >> what the president often says is there's a lot of bad people. but you look back at ronald reagan who would talk about a particular soviet dissident. even if he wasn't able to make a difference for all the soviet dissidents in one blow, the highlight of plight of one person can make a difference and can have a ripple effect. >> the fact that you can't do everything doesn't mean that you shouldn't do anything. and yes, picking moral examples. there is a place for ethics, that forgotten word in washington. indeed, for morality in our policy, it doesn't mean compromising our security. it means a legal resident of the united states, when they are murdered in a consulate on foreign soil, that you take a stand on that. and by the way, anderson, the

1970s are over. we do not need saudi arabia. saudi arabia desperately needs us, desperately. for all the armaments they've bought and will continue to buy, the uranians with all their old junk would keep them alive, any u.s. military officer who has ever been around the saudis and training in schools around the desert can tell you they expect us to do it all for them. and we can't and we shouldn't. trump is shaming us. >> i appreciate you being with us. thank you. coming up, more on jamal khashoggi's murder. one nagging questioning after that closed door briefing with centers. why wasn't the cia director there? we'll have that, plus hear from senator jack reed next. ready to juvéderm it? correct age-related volume loss in cheeks with juvéderm voluma xc, add fullness to lips with juvéderm ultra xc

and smooth moderate to severe lines around the nose and mouth with juvéderm xc. tell your doctor if you have a history of scarring or are taking medicines that decrease the body's immune response or that can prolong bleeding. common side effects include injection-site redness, swelling, pain, tenderness, firmness, lumps, bumps, bruising, discoloration or itching. as with all fillers, there is a rare risk of unintentional injection into a blood vessel, which can cause vision abnormalities, blindness, stroke, temporary scabs or scarring. ( ♪ ) juvéderm it. talk to your doctor about the juvéderm collection of fillers. ♪ ♪ ♪

the best are back. applebee's bigger, bolder grill combos. now that's eatin good in the neighborhood. in america, the zip code you're born in can determine your future. but no matter what neighborhood you grow up in, the y creates opportunities for all. for a better us, donate to your local y today.

we spoke before the break about jamal khashoggi. today mike pompeo gave a closed door briefing on his murder. afterward defended the trump

administration's response. he said there's no direct reporting connecting the crowned prince to the killing. cnn has assessed the prince directed the murder which the president doesn't seem to want to believe. the trump administration did not send cia director to the briefing. here's what pompeo said when asked why she wasn't there. >> i was asked to be here, and here i am. >> but senators were frustrated. why isn't the cia director herself here? >> i was asked to be here and i'm here. >> joining me now is senator jack reed. what's your understanding why gena haspel wasn't there? the cia said the notion that anyone told her not to attend the briefing is false. >> well, i think senator durbin is probably more accurate than anything else.

obviously we wanted her there, and it was not just one senator but a broad range, a bipartisan range wanted her opinion. many of my colleagues have not had the opportunity to hear directly from the agency about their conclusions. they want her to do that or ask questions. and the sense i have, senator durbin's comment is indicative, is that she was told not to go. and by the white house. >> what did you make when you heard bolton say that he hadn't listened to the tape because he doesn't speak arabic, why would he need to listen to it? >> well, i think he'd have to listen to it. one is it's not just the words. those can be translated and understood. it is a sense of what took place. hearing how quickly mr. khashoggi was assaulted. was there any discussion? you don't really have to understand the language. you can understand screaming and hollering and ultimately what

happened, what's been described in the press as what happened to mr. khashoggi. >> senator lindsey graham switched his vote on the bill to end the u.s. involvement in the war in yemen. and i want to show our viewers just what he had to say about this. take a look. >> i changed my mind because i'm pissed. the way the administration's handled the saudi arabia event is not acceptable. i said, listen, it's pretty obvious to me we're a coequal branch. you've made your assessments what the intelligence shows, i'd like it make my own. the only way i can make that assessment is to be briefed. it it is credible that the crown prince was complicit, then i will take action consistent with that. >> there does seem to be some pretty strong bipartisan support on this. do you think is there enough that any presidential veto could be overridden? >> well, there's strong support. we had 62 votes on the resolution with respect to yemen today.

i think this whole issue of getting access to the cia report for all of my colleagues is important, so we have a bipartisan base of support. i think we work step by step. the first step would be to take action in the senate. i hope we can get the sanders-mike lee bill through, and hopefully the house, if not this house then the next house moving forward. >> why do you think that's so important? >> well, it's important because the khashoggi murder was a violation of the basic norms of international behavior. and even a suspicion that the crown prince was involved or high level members of the saudi government was involved raises serious concerns about their conduct, their reliability and our relationship with them. and the president has gone out of his way to dismiss this.

it can't be dismissed. it has to be vaeevaluated. o i think the only way is to get a redacted report out that comes to a conclusion. it would probably be much different than the president's conclusion. i think honestly the best approach would be an international investigation by credible and neutral authorities so these questions could be asked. we may never find out whether the crown prince was involved or not -- well you'll never find out unless you ask questions and probe the evidence in order to get a clear picture. >> i want to check in with chris to see what he's working with on "cuomo primetime." >> we're going to go with two questions tonight, the legalities of what it means when a president says a pardon is a possibility for paul manafort. what does that mean legally? what are the parameters? are the abilities of a president to pardon absolute?

you'll hear arguments on both sides of that tonight. we will also be talking about the political considerations of what will happen next in the mueller probe with this new information about what the president said in his answers, and more importantly what he did not say. and then we have a moral there's a reason it's being called a humanitarian crisis right now, and we have a special announcement on that to make as well. >> all right. chris. about 10 minutes from now. there are still thousands of central american migrants in the border city of tijuana. we are there. we'll talk about what they're seeing and they think there could be more violence. you can do it. we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo!

little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats moderate to severe plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla,75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be.

otezla. show more of you. woooodang. woooo!!! dang. ha hah!!! we hide hotel names, so you can find four star hotels at two star prices. ♪h-o-t-w-i-r-e hotwire.com♪ ♪ bum bum bum bum bum t-mobile believes it's better to give than to receive. some may disagree. seriously...no...no...no... others won't believe it. (screaming in excitement) and some just won't have the words join t-mobile and get the samsung galaxy s9 free. we look forward to your reactions. (screaming in excitement) ♪ bum bum bum bum bum back pain can't win. now introducing aleve back and muscle pain. only aleve targets tough pain

for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve back & muscle. all day strong. all day long. ♪thisi'm gonna let it shine. ♪ it's energy saving time, ♪ i'm gonna reduce mine. ♪ californians all align ♪ to let our great state shine. ♪ let it shine, ♪ the power's ours to let it shine! ♪

at the border in tijuana tonight, thousands of central american migrants are taking shelter as they wait for a chance to seek asylum in the united states. their crowded conditions at the makeshift camp and even more migrants are expected to show up in the coming days. that's a drone shot of it. cnn crews have visited the site and found pretty bad conditions including open sewage drains. this is in the wake of last weekend's clash at the border where they said rocks were thrown at patrol officers and teargas was fired in return.

there is an estimate of how many undocumented immigrants in the united states. the pew research center says the number continues to shrink. the estimate shows 10.7 million undocumented immigrants in the country in 2016. the most recent year government numbers are available. that is at lowest estimate in a decade. before i spoke, jorge ramos who is in tijuana. jorge, the situation where you are now in tijuana, some have described it, the city's mayor has described it as a crisis. he's been asking for humanitarian help. can you tell me what you've been seeing, what you've been hearing? >> reporter: what i'm seeing now and what i'm hearing is we are right in the middle of a humanitarian and international crisis. of course there is a lot of blame to go around. we can blame the central american governments for extreme poverty, for rampant corruption, for the gangs, for the violence. we can blame the mexicans for allowing them to come here. we can blame the united states and the trump administration for creating a bottleneck.

let me give you an idea, anderson. we are here in this refugee camp. there are about 6000 people. among them, 1,000 children. and they want to go to the other side of that wall. that's the united states right over there. but they can't because every single day the trump administration is only processing about 100 asylum applications. and with that, it will take months for many of the people over here just to go to the united states legally. so many are trying illegal ways to get into the united states. >> what are the conditions in the camp like? i was talking to our reporter leyla santiago yesterday. it looked like there was a lot of water on the ground. people were complaining about access to food, even the toilet facilities. >> reporter: the conditions are terrible. what i see, i see a lot of trash around me. i've been talking to families all day long. many of the kids are sick. you can see people coughing. it is getting really cold at

night. there's no possibility for them to go anywhere else. >> are more people continuing to arrive to stay at that camp? >> reporter: yeah, they're coming every single day. they have hundreds more, sometimes thousands more. the number that i have in this camp last night, there were about 6000 people, but thousands more are coming. the new government told me they are considering between 9,000 central americans to 15,000 central americans. and after christmas, in january, february, more are coming. >> is there any sense from what you see or what you hear that frustrations could boil over to the point where there will be another clash with mexican officials, with u.s. border patrol? >> reporter: well, let me just say this. trump is the wall for them because they realize that they cannot go to the united states legally.

and they also understand that, that they might face teargas again. teargas is not a strategy, but they learn very fast, so they are not trying to go in mass again to the american side, but they are doing something completely different, probably more intelligent. i was talking to some of our correspondents right here at the border. if you go five miles that way or 25 miles that way, the wall that you see behind me disappears. and guess what? i mean, if they don't see a legal possibility of applying for political asylum, they're just going to go a few miles and then they're going to try to cross. that's exactly what's happening right now in the rio grand valley, record numbers are trying to cross. that is what's happening. if there is not a legal possibility for them to go to the united states, they're going to try to do it illegally. >> the people you have spoken with there with long waits to

claim asylum, if they're not going to go someplace else, are they planning to just stay where they are now and hope eventually to have their claim heard? >> reporter: yeah, i think if president trump wanted to send a message to central america, that people shouldn't come, that message really hasn't reached them. more people are coming. they are willing to stay here. i talked to many of them throughout the day and they are willing to wait as long as it is necessary because for them it's not a possibility to go back to their countries of origin. we're talking about thousands of dollars to go back to their countries of origin and they decided to come with the caravans because they didn't have to pay 4, 5, 6, 7, $8,000 to come to the united states. so once they are here, once they saw the possibility of coming collectively, therefore, without having to pay the coyotes and being more protected, they're not going to go back to their countries of origin. this is a real crisis, a humanitarian crisis, an international crisis.

it has to be resolved by many countries. and teargas is not a strategy. teargas was used. they understand it could be used again, but they're trying completely different ways of getting to the united states. >> jorge ramos, i appreciate your reporting. thank you. >> reporter: thank you, anderson. >> quick reminder don't miss full circle, our daily new interactive on facebook. get all the details. watch it week nights, 6:25 eastern facebook/anderson cooper full circle. i want to hand it over to chris cuomo. primetime starts right now. >> i am chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time". >> we now know the president's answers to some of mueller's most pressing questions. but the real story is how they were answered. and did the president really signal to paul manafort that he may get a pardon? if so, what does that signal to bob mueller? there is plenty to test, my fr