a lot of unanswered questions. thank you very much and thank you for joining me today. inside politics with john king starts right now. i will see you tomorrow. >> thank you, pam and welcome to inside politics. thank you for sharing your day with us. the president was lying to you again. this time about russia business dealings deep into the 2016 campaign. detailing the scope of russian election meddling. social media pushed to discourage african-american turn out and carried over through the transition and inauguration. war iowa republicans like president trump, but are open to challengers. those in washington are, too. >> i see nothing wrong with challengers. that is part of our democratic

system. >> is there a world in which you think a democratic president would be better for the country than a reelected president trump? >> i don't want to speak to that yet. let's see what happens a year from now. >> back to that in a bit, but the president's top lawyer muddling the president's defense saying it's not a crime for the president to routinely lie to the american people. startling insight into the depth and the damage of the 2016 disinformation campaign. a pair the reports were done by cyber security firms and social media trackers, partnering the top universities. they analyzed twitter, facebook, instagram and you tube on how they manipulated the platforms. the big takeaways, the russian propaganda effort aimed to boost then president trump in the primary and the general election and russian operateors under indictment by the special

counsel sought to suppress the vote. and the intelligence said they got it right when they concluded moscow actively worked to get donald trump elected. analyzing this report, what are the big takeaways? >> what's stunning here is the scale and detail of the efforts by internet research agency. the russian troll farm linked to the government indicted by robert mueller's office. they go into great detail about what the ira tried to do not just during the 2016 campaign, but beyond. they make it clear the efforts were meant to benefit donald trump's candidacy and undermine hillary clinton's candidacy. one thing was to boost clinton's opponent, jill stein of the green party. back to the scale. look at the numbers. these are post that is the ira made. they were part of the data that was handed over by the social

media giants. 10 million tweets. 116,000 instagram posts. 61,000 facebook posts and 1,000 videos. on top of that, 44 twitter accounts that posed as u.s.-related news organizations that had collected around 600,000 followers. the report is very critical about the giants. they say they handed over the bare minimum in terms of data that what they analyzed so far is only what the companies felt they had to give to the intel committee as an absolute minimum. they said as a result there are likely out there far more russian accounts that social media companies have not yet identified. one of the important points is that another person besides donald trump was wikileaks and its founder, julian assange who we know has been connected to the russian military hackers that were indicted by mueller. it's a detailed and disturbing report not just about the last

presidential campaign, but as we gear up for the next. >> appreciate that. the more we learn, the more stunning it is. the report clarifies a central question of the probe, at least a big one untouched. whether there was any cooperation of collusion between the trump campaign and the russian effort. the conspiracy probe is one of the 17 investigations into the president, his presidency, inauguration, transition team, campaign, charity, and his business. the legal pressure is starting to trigger twitter rage and head scratching explanations from his top lawyer. rudy giuliani's spin? some think what the president denied for years actually happened. none was illegal. the president sometimes is lying, but he's not a lawbreaker. >> he changed his story four or five times.

>> so has the period. >> he's not under oath. i was with him a lot of the times and i can't remember most of the stuff that goes on there. >> dana bash. "the washington post." with bloomberg and katherine lucy with the associated press. you talked to rudy giuliani and i'm sorry, i get the politics. he has to clean up. the president had to change his story about the payments to karen mcdougal and stormy daniels. the president changed his story about the russians and the possibility of a trump tower. the president's lawyer, the guy he is paying money, i think, every time he goes on television he says the president is not telling the truth. so what? >> he's not and he hasn't told the truth. i think he sees it as his job to take those harpoons and be the person to go out and say i'll get the headlines.

it's not the first time he has done it. some of those headlines have not been helpful to the president. in this case it's a fact-based answer. the president has changed his story multiple times on this. what he didn't say, which i am kind of surprised about which maybe more understandable to the people out there who are watching and who are supporters of his, he did this and he changed his story and didn't tell the truth because he was trying to protect his wife. he did not say this publicly. that's on that issue. the whole trump tower moscow thing is 100% to do with his businesses and that's an area where the president did not tell the truth to the american people. giuliani said he didn't do anything illegal. never mind what he did. >> he has to clean it up because

the president did submit answers to the special counsel that included how long were you talking about this trump tower moscow? it's important because the initial story was this way and he changed his story. donald trump said it was this way and he's changing his story. they stopped in january. he's a serious candidate for president. stop. now it went on through june. he said even longer. >> did donald trump know that michael cohen was pursuing the moscow tower until june of 2016? >> according to the answer he gave, it would cover up until november 2016. >> what? is that a cya? it could have been all of 2016? >> it's surprising that the president's own lawyer seems to be confused about the very fundamental and basic questions about how long the president was talking to the kremlin or

russian officials about trying to build the trump tower in moscow. if it was happening at the height of the campaign until november, after it became public knowledge, the russians were meddling in the election, he had a back channel trying to negotiate a real estate deal and not telling the american people that may have been why he was being so cozying up to vladimir putin and talking about why he wanted to have a great relationship with the russians and how sanctions needed to be removed. the president's own personal financial dealings with the russians were what was leading to this close relationship with putin. that would definitely change much of the tenor of the campaign. one thing that we still don't know is whether or not president trump was talking with the russians. >> quickly, i talked to giuliani after that appearance. what he said to your point about now they are on the record with the special counsel, he said the answer that the president gave

was general enough that it covered him admitting to talking about trump tower up through election day. >> if you are in rudy giuliani's shoes or anyone who works for the president, you know he does lie. he doesn't tell the truth. in a sense, you have to protect yourself against that. you broaden and create a window or a parameter in which almost anything could have happened and the story changes and you are still safe on that. >> one of the stunning things about the last week to 10 days is we get to the end of 2018 and many people thought we would wrap things up. what are we learning? the trump organization is under investigation. mueller keeps going about russia and the question of collusion. everything the president touches seems to be under investigation at the moment. you wrote about a president who is very isolated. andrew mccarthy, often a defender of the president saying the president is tweeting about

break-ins in michael cohen's office. he called michael cohen a rat for turning on him. a rat is a witness who tells prosecutors real incriminating information. perhaps a different word. they have a procedure for that. you should stop. friends of the president are saying we understand the pressure, sir, but what you are saying is getting you in more trouble. >> highly unlikely he is going to stop, but not just all the aspects of his presidency, but his life is under investigation. the pressures keep mounting and we are heading into a year where the democrats are taking over the house and there will be investigations as well. he is entering a new phase of his presidency and it's perilous. >> mueller wants to talk to the president. he got the written answers. you can hear rudy giuliani

trying to explain it there. the idea, the question, will the president sit down with robert mueller came up yesterday on fox news. >> is the special counsel wanting to interview the president? >> good luck. after what they did to flynn and they trapped him into perjury and no sentence for him? 14 days for papadopoulos? i did better on traffic violations than they did. >> when you say good luck -- >> they are a joke. over my dead body. i could be dead. >> it is such a trump white house answer. everybody has to put a qualifier on everything. they can't say anything definitively. >> this is a question now about rudy giuliani and the special counsel is going back decades. >> the witch hunt, they are going back to 1982, 1983.

they are going through business records. >> that's a political argument more than a legal argument to say this guy is out of control and he's a rogue prosecutor. is there any evidence going back to the 1980s. >> he said they are looking into it and he got it from the "new york times." when i say they, the prosecutors in the southern district of new york, not the mueller investigation are looking into trump records, but that specific date, he said he saw in the "new york times." >> with the talk of the witch hunt, rudy giuliani's former law person a pointed by donald j. trump. that's your witch hunt. today a new glimpse into the fruits of flynn's cooperation with the russia special counsel. prosecutors charging two business partners with conspiracy and mueller spun the case off of federal prosecutors

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booking.com, booking.yeah republicans and democrats keeping a close eye on the president's moves waiting for hints he might be willing to accept. lawmakers getting antsy to leave washingt washington. they said nobody wants to be here. the senate is in session all week. the house is out of town until wednesday night. besides a disgruntled tweet or two, the president not televising his next move. he continues to negotiate over border wall funding. one adviser said yesterday the president still willing and proud is how the president put it to shut down the government if he doesn't get what he wants. >> we will do whatever is

necessary to build the border wall and stop the crisis of ongoing immigration. if it comes to it, absolutely. this is a fundamental issue. at stake is whether or not the united states is remains sovereign and establishing and enforcing rules. the democrat party is a simple choice. they can choose to fight for america's working class or promote illegal immigration. you can't do both. >> phil mattingly joins us live. in the past, steven miller has complicated these things with statements like that. democrats think it's on the republicans. where are we? >> it's up in the air. we quibble with the white house and he is quibbling with lawmakers. it's now true unless it happened in the last hour or so. republicans and democrats have been waiting almost the last week for any word whatsoever from the white house. what i have been told from sources involved are republican negotiators have laid out pathways to get out of this and

option that is the president could take. there was a meeting on friday with top staff and he didn't settle on any of the options though he did appear unlikely to accept a short serm pu-term pun. they want to not be here during christmas and they want to set it off until january where nancy pelosi will be the speaker and that may be ahead of a more interesting dynamic in terms of fighting out the $5 billion for the wall. the behind the scenes is to be blunt. they want it to end and lawmakers are waiting for the white house to tell them how. you kind of hit on this. congress can be a very, very slow institution unless they want to move fast. whenever the president decides the pathway he wants to go. they can move quickly and can't move on anything until they know what he wants. republicans don't want to undercut the president.

the clock ticks down and is his position going to be something viable or is it going to be something that leads to more fights? the answer is what everybody is waiting for and will dictate whether or not we are still standing here over the holidays. >> i have a funny feeling we will be trying to figure this out. this is on us this week, phil. let's come back in the studio. you heard steven miller, one of the hard line advisers who say no, this is up to the democrats. let's listen to chuck schumer who said no, no. it's republicans who have a choice to make. >> president trump should understand, there not the votes for the wall in the house or the senate. he is not going to get the wall in any form. they have to have the guts to tell president trump he's off on the deep end and all these going to get with his temper tantrum

is a shut down. he will not get a wall. >> we going to have a shut down? >> he said i will take the mantle that i am proudly shutting down the government. over government funding over who gets the blame and who is going to end up getting the backlash for shutting down the government. the president said it will be him and he's putting the pressure on republicans who said i don't want to be here during christmas to figure out a way to get out of this. you have people like steven miller who are enthusiastic about the fight and the president is enthusiastic and they don't have the republicans in the house. many of whom are lame duck representatives who want to leave washington soon. they don't want to come back to washington to have the fight. the president does not have the cavalry he needs. >> great point because they don't have it in the senate.

they just lost 40 seats in the house. most of them are not for the wall. this is ryan costello and how he put it to the "new york times." you are going to say gob people and wrapping up and pressing red or green. it's going through the motion. if it's still paul ryan. if the republicans call up to alert, they have to be here for this vote. there are 30 guys and ladies. they say i'm sorry. because of how lame those lame ducks are right now. >> they have no love for the president. to be fair, there are members of congress and many of them feel it is their civic duty, their duty to come back and vote especially on the basic thing that congress has to do which is fund the u.s. government.

that's their main job. we will see. they're going to the end of the line and the president and people around the president are talking about fund the wall in exchange for daca. democrats have so far shown no interest in doing that. we will see what happens at the end of the week. >> i think the democrats understandably believe they not just have a strong hand, but the president will not probably give a clear signal to anybody, including the people around him until the last moment. one would think that because we have seen these fights before, it will end up with a short-term. you can't say that with any certainty. president trump is unpredictable. >> that are means carrying over to a democratic house where the president has less leverage. >> one thing is the optics of

the fight for the wall. he sees that as a good thing and christmas shut down which a lot of people are not that enthusiastic about it. if it punts into the new year, he can be seen as continuing to fight for what he sees is a priority. >> one other thing on the issue of who gets the blame, the democrats were ecstatic he said so. there is no evidence the public take this is out on one side or the other in subsequent elections. >> they hate them all. this is a "usa today" poll. blame trump and the republicans 23% and democrats, 24% and equally 30%. keep the government funded. >> get groceries and feed the kids and keep the government funded? up next, iowa republicans support the president, but many

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mom. ♪ welcome back. iowa republicans want to see him tested in 2020. a new rather thanship into the next election cycle. 81% of iowa republicans approve of the president's job

performance. more than 8 in 10. a strong standing among the republican base in a state that kicks off the 2020 election. here they would definitely vote for president trump? almost 7 in 10. two thirds say yes. in 10, a little bit of a warning sign and they say here's where it's interesting. iowans cherish caucuses and want the candidates to come every four years. 63%. most say they will vote for president trump. they want to debate and want others to come in and challenge him. only 26% would discourage him. republicans like the president, but they want to kick the tires and have the caucuses be vibrant. that question gets asked not only in iowa, but critics here in washington. >> it's always interesting when we have primaries because a lot of times it allows different

viewpoints to surface and it can influence public policy down the road. it's healthy for our democracy. it's up to those individuals to decide whether or not they are going to have the president have an uphill climb since he is the president and in office now. >> probably have an uphill climb is a significant under statement. he is being polite. it's interesting. we love him, but kick the hires. defend the caucuses. >> they like caucuses and like competition. republicans are always going to want to see all their options. even in the very last days of coming into 2016 caucuses. people would tell you the top

five. they are always done too early. the other thing is while trump won the state in 16 and continues to have a lot of support there, he didn't win the last go around. ted cruz did. there is a pocket of people that might be interested. >> senator collins has favorable with iowa republicans. john kasich, 31. ben sasse 24 and jeff flake 16%. if you are a challenger, the hill is pretty steep. >> it's enormously steep. the idea that somebody will defeat president trump in a republican primary is at this point far over the horizon. the more important question is, how much damage would a challenge do to him for the general election? that would be worrisome and people challenged in primaries have gone on to lose in the general election even if they have done fine. >> jimmy carter and george h.w.

bush. i want to look at the democratic numbers. we have the new partisanship and a lot of them say it's early. it's good for a base line. here we are. as we close out 2018. 32% in iowa among democrats. beto o'rourke said it. in 30 place in iowa and under national polls. if you look at the numbers, you say great. obama was third. was brouk seto o'rourke saying e next obama? >> for any poll, it is important to get the base line. you see how the movementgoesin the place like iowa where they like to wait until the last minute. we looked at generally in the fall of four years ago about where the gop field was. guess who was number one? mike huckabee. trailing by double-digits in

number two? paul ryan. that gives you a sense of how things change quickly. when there is a wide open field like there is on the democratic side. the same on the republican side. >> this is how wide the field is going to be. it remains to be seen. i think the numbers will help lawmakers and candidates decide over the holidays whether or not it makes sense for them to run. they are looking at the numbers at 2% or 3% and decide it's not for me. if they see themselves as viable, they decide to pull the lever. the numbers are going to be important for those officials who are thinking about running in 2020. >> the numbers clearly change if you go back 8, 16, 20 years. if you are trying to raise money, sometimes if you are an asterisk, that becomes an issue. a long time senator announces he is retiring.

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>> the u.s. military had 62 militants and affiliate were killed in a pair of air strikes over the weekend. u.s. africa and no civilians were hurt and attacks were done with the goal of denying the militant. just moments ago, senator lamar alexander said he will not run again in 2020. he will have served a combined 25 plus years as governor and senator. he chairs the education committee and has been a close

ally of the majority leader, mitch mcconnell. this first. the space force almost here. three u.s. official saying the president plans to officially establish a new military space command this week. the officials say they are working on a draft proposal to put the space command under the air force. mike pence plans two visits to the pentagon in florida. melania trump's spokes woman jumping to her defense after showing a drop in the first lady's popularity. in an op-ed, they take aim at our contributor who wrote a piece criticizing mrs. trump saying she doesn't understand what it means to be first lady. she has never met mrs. trump and insists she has her facts wrong. >> these days, the consistent negative coverage that mrs. trump gets is not fair. i know i'm going to be attacked for saying this, but we are

defending ourselves. i can't tell you guys how many inquiries i get that have nothing to do with the substance of her work. >> i want to talk about lamar alexander. a change in the republican party we just saw. marcia blackburn was elected to the eat and bob corker retiring and alexander stepping aside. the presidential cal pain. we are making light of it, but he has been a significant figure with a deal maker for mitch mcconnell in the senate. what does it tell us? >> it's the end of an era and it really is not just for the republican party, but particularly in tennessee. lamar alexander comes out of the group spawned by howard baker. it was a particularly successful group of politicians that tennessee kept sending to washington and came to do real

work. they came to compromise, when necessary. they were not overly ideological, but in a constructively way. as you have seen now, this latest announcement, bob corker leaving and term limited as governor. you can see it coming for the last three or four years in tennessee. this really does put the end point on it or the exclamation point. >> well played. the exclamation point. we can disagree with the politics sometimes and you use the term real work. they viewed their job to do something as opposed to just do nothing. next, a federal judge in texas delivers a win on obamacare. might it actually backfire?

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the president is overjoyed. an obama court ruling is more of a headache than a victory. a judge ruled the individual mandate is unconstitutional. the landmark health care law cannot stand. here's the president's take on twitter. we have a chance with the democrats to deliver great health care. a supreme court decision will lead to great health care results for americans. the president's tweet implies it could make its way to the supreme court. nothing changes immediately, but it was republican who is filed this lawsuit and the court win comes just after giant democratic 2018 gains where health care was a driving issue. >> at the polls, this was really very much on the ballot in november. health care was the number one issue for voters. those voters voted overwhe overwhelmingly for democrats. this is a nightmare for the republican party. >> some republicans will see that as spin from an obama guy,

but a lot of republicans see it this way. we got crushed this way and why do we have to deal with it again given the last two years of history, they were not able to pass anything. >> that's the case. it's not even that things could get worse for people. it's that republicans had absolutely no shot at a solution that is different and is workable. they don't. it collapsed because they couldn't come together on a way to fix the real problems. even democrats made the problems because it was complicate and they were and are divided. >> lamar alexander couldn't get conservative support. >> think that we need to step back a little bit on this and it will be a long time before this would end up in the laps of the congress. it may or may not. it will be in ia couple of years. at this point it's as it was, but this grenade got rolled out

and for good reasons that republicans are worried about. so many of them spent much of the time defending themselves on the preexisting conditions issue. they would have to try to make good or make a deal with the democrats. that's not going to be easy. >> the democrats are moving to the left when it comes to health care. more people are talking about medicare for all and the single payer plan. the idea of having a grand bargaining for trump and the republicans is a fantasy right now. republicans don't want to deal with health care and they spent time trying to deal with health care and the democrats ran on health care and won and they are trying to push as far as they can to have a more progressive system. it doesn't appear that there is any middle ground they can reach on this. republicans in the house have the "wall street journal" editorial board say this is probably a problem for

republicans even though it may appear to be a win for them. >> they are saying it is worried and they will rush to get a deal and go too far agreeing with the democrats. democrats claim to be alarmed, but they are elated. they are denying health insurance for preexisting conditions and that's the issue now. democrats are moving to the left and they are trying to deal with the issue. democrats have their problems. we are going to have what? 2010, 2012, 2018 and now 2020 with obamacare front and center? >> it could be that way. this is a huge issue in the mid-terms and a lot of provisions in the affordable care act have grown more popular overtime. all kinds of pieces and guaranteed in health plans and

pieces have grown more popular with the public. republicans are trying to strike a balance. a long awaited criminal justice bill. the president's own party, some of it, trying to stand in the way. life insurance?

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reform bill backed by president trump and opposed by many conservatives. they rewrite many sentencing quite lines and won support after fierce lobbying by his son-in-law, jared kushner. the measure also provides funding to help inmates while in prison to try to keep them from coming back again. senator tom cotton to take the lead that is soft on crime. the arkansas republican pushing three amendments to limit the damage. in an op ed interview, they jumped on the bandwagon too soon. a number of serious felonies are still eligible for release in the version of the bill the senate will vote on. they flunk the basic test on safety. >> do you have this internal

republican divide and we passed this. we will get criticized for being soft on crime. >> there is bipartisanship and a piece of legislation moving through congress. this is something that president trump got behind in part because of his son-in-law that pushed this and by most accounts has been effective. here in washington, sort of being able to bridge the divide and they haven't been able to do it on many issues. not only have they been able to get democrats, but the president on board as well. it seems like it's on the path to getting to the president's desk. >> it's so rare these days, compromise, back when we were

walking the hallways, it was less rare. it's so rare these days, you forget how it works and it is important to take a step back and say this is a good thing. just in terms of i'm not making a judgment on the policy, but in terms of the process. there are people on both sides who disagree on a lot of things to get together and do what they are supposed to do. >> on the same page as president trump. van jones on the same page with president trump because of the bipartisan conversations. this is rush limbaugh, almost always a defender of the president saying i don't have issues with the bill, mrmr. mr. president, but are leaving other things off the table. >> donald trump ran for office, building a wall and stopping it. it's the reason he was elected. a lot of people are getting nervous and wondering why the president isn't moving on this.

especially the administration seems to be getting behind prison reform that may in and of itself be okay, but it's not why he got elected. it's not going to get him reelected. people are not going to race to the polls in 2020. we have to keep trump in there. it's immigration and illegal immigration. >> is that a nervous base or is it a legitimate question? >> if you heard the president talking about the wall, he hasn't forgotten that that's a key promise, but it creates an interesting split screen in the final weeks of the year on the shut down. on one issue and yet is on the brink of a big bipartisan agreement. >> they want to play out the key votes and if it passes in the senate, if it passes in the senate, they have to go back to the house. paul ryan for a week or two.

it should pass. we will keepaneye ont. stay with us throughout the week. shut down week. we will keep track of it. brianna keilar starts right now. >> live from cnn's washington headquarters under way right now. round two on capitol hill in the ring. james comey and house republicans. two damning reports detailing the expansive campaign to get president trump elect and keep him in office. millions of americans are at risk of losing coverage after a federal judge strikes down obamacare, ruling it unconstitutional. and four days to go until a potential government shut down. as of now, neither side is blinking. legal jeopardy is increasing and so is his anger over the russia