>> we'll be working hard. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room". erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. without front next. speaker of the house nancy pelosi calls a last minus conference fighting back against the president on day 13 of a shutdown that seems to have no end in sight. plus trump's reality show calling a so-called press conference that was just a publicity stunt. he's trying to take the spotlight back from pelosi. the national debt at a new dangerous record. under a president who has called himself the king of debt but promised, promised this wouldn't happen. ate promise he's broken. let's go "outfront". good evening i'm erin burnett. breaking news. newly elected house speaker nancy pelosi fighting back in primetime. you were just watching a last minute press conference by pelosi, calling the last minute briefing just hours after

retaking her position as speaker. vowing to re-open the government which has now been closed for 13 days. >> we are diligent, diligent and persistent in trying to open up government. as i said today on the floor, we'll take ideas, good ideas from wherever they come. >> she's trying to, well, push the whole blame thing back on to president trump. the president today scrambling the white house press corps. now his briefing was only a five minute warning. and the president came out to the press briefing room taking the podium for the first time since becoming president of the united states, all in a propaganda show trying to steal the spotlight from pelosi and pound the table for his wall. >> i have never had so much support as i have in the last week over my stance for border security, for border control and

for, frankly, the wall. >> on and on about the wall. the president parading out border patrol agents you saw behind them to echo one of his most prized fear mongering lies. >> i just want to talk about some of those criminals that border patrol agents apprehend. murderers, rapists, people that commit very serious crimes in this country. >> they are bringing drugs, they are bringing crime, they are rapists. >> abby philip is at the white house. this is the dual. the president with the scrambling of this propaganda briefing and then nancy pelosi trying to host a primetime briefing to get it back. and now democrats trying to, you know, pass this bible, right and say okay we're re-opening the government. but the white house is now saying they are going veto it? >> reporter: that's right. this is truly divided government we see play out here in public fashion. the white house and house democrats are really nowhere

near each other when it comes to the border wall and now the white house has officially issued a veto threat whatever they pass out of the house tonight they will, the president will veto it. it has become pretty easy, much easier for president trump to run against democrats, to rail against democrats and blame them for the shutdown now that nancy pelosi has the gavel. that's part of what this press conference earlier this afternoon was all about. it was about president trump making nancy pelosi once again front and center in his argument against whatever is going on capitol hill. prior to this point, republicans controlled congress in both chambers. so tomorrow they are going to be back here at the white house, having yet another meeting. the democrats have now said they will, in fact, attend. the real question remains what are the dollars and cents here? we don't have any idea right now of what the president is willing to accept in terms of a compromise. there's no indication that proposals are going back and forth and, in fact, president trump is digging in his heels

talking over and over again about his border wall and really trying to win a public relations argument about who is to blame for the shutdown, really trying to also gin up his base. when he talks about getting more and more support for himself over the last several days that's because his supporters, republicans in congress and republicans perhaps throughout the country do, in fact, support him in this endeavor. the question is does the rest of the country? the polling we've seen is a majority are of americans do not support a border wall but president trump is eyeing 2020, eyeing his support from his base and digging in on this front. >> thank you very much. i wonder how many of his supporters realize the money he's asking for is a drop in the bucket of what a wall would cost. simon sanders is here with us.

and mark preston our senior political analyst. mark, what we're seeing today, nancy pelosi is all eyeballs are on her, right. getting sworn in again as speaker of the house. so that's not something the president wanted, right, as he's trying to win this battle over the wall. and the government shutdown. so he has this five minute warning and comes out to the podium, parades his border agents. she's duelling back. >> we're talking about optics. donald trump surrounded himself by supporters, union leaders who endorsed him for president. those are two organizations, they represent somewhere between 20, 25,000 either border agents or i.c.e. agents which is customs and immigration. the thing is a couple of years ago donald trump who had received their endorse american went out and said he received

the unanimous endorsement of agents of i.c.e. and of customs and border and guess what? that's not true. they did get it from the leadership but not everybody. even though we saw the optics of that white house briefing today or news conference or however you want to describe it, campaign event, what that is, is a small amount of those agents who would actually support and that being leadership and president trump. nancy pelosi holding a news conference in the hallways of congress, not some big glamorous press conference where she will talk about things, in the hallways of congress, very sullen, very dark, trying to get things done. again not planned. very smart way for nancy pelosi to come out and do her first news conference. >> ben, the president doesn't like to not be in the spotlight. but it doesn't seem to look like it's coming from a position of strength when the first time you go to the podium is on a day like today with no warning. clearly scramble, scramble.

is that not how you see it? >> i don't see it that way at all. i see the president of the united states of america looks at nancy pelosi what she has to say as being sworn in, looking at the issues of the democrats making clear that the democrats agenda is to come after him, to destroy him and anyone around him and subpoena them and even impeach this president. he said all right i got something to say to the american people. i'll walk out to my podium and tell the american people what this sal about and i'll stick by the border wall and this is how this will work and if nancy pelosi doesn't want to work with us so be it. there was a huge opportunity for the president to remind the american people that he's been in washington the entire time while nancy pelosi and other democrats are gone and the first thing they come to washington to do is to come after him and anyone connected with him and say the words impeachment and go after day one. they are not concerned about the government being shutdown.

>> they have something to re-open the government which he'll veto. >> it's meaningless gesture when you have to have something that the republicans agreed to it. >> they agreed to it in the united states senate. here's the facts, erin. the facts of the matter are 57% of americans do not support a government shutdown over the border wall. and the facts are also that, again, 57% of americans don't even support building a concrete border wall game of throne style wall along mexico. it was game of throne. he keeps playing with that poster. the facts also support that the president said that he will shutdown the government over not getting funding for his border wall. not border security which democrats are all but more than happy to fund. and fund these agents. >> no you're not. >> he would shut down the

government over the border wall. that's when this is about. let's not be dishonest. . >> mark, let me get you in here because i want you to talk about the significance of what trump did today. of all the moments he had, he chooses today to go to his briefing room for the first time. he's talking about the wall. what people should have heard, it seems like he should be afraid of what the democrats are about to do. ben you say it's b.s. they will do it but that's what they will do. investigation after investigation. >> i hope they do it. >> mark preston that's what he's looking at now. >> there's a couple of things. one, i think our colleague summed it up earlier today. this is the second half of a new game and donald trump doesn't necessarily know what's going hit him. i don't say that with any glee, i don't say that with any bit of anything except reality. democrats have the ability to go after president trump in way that we hadn't seen congress do because he was as we expect in

many ways the same political party to do. but, yes, he's very much in trouble. forget about impeachment. let's take the idea of impeachment off the table because you won't see nancy pelosi allow that to move forward. you won't see elijah cummings allow that to move forward -- wait a second -- unless that report comes out and does so. he needs be more concerned about these investigations by the oversight committees. it's ludicrous to think the government shutdown. what we're doing is delaying federal workers and not letting them go to work. that's what's happening. they are going to get paid. they should get paid. by the way they want to go to work this week. the idea this is called a government shutdown is ridiculous. >> the fact of the matter is that the only reason that the government is partially shutdown, the state department, department of homeland security which is ironic because he's

talking about securing the border, the department of agriculture, the department of justice, the only reason these entities are partially shut down and non-essential workers who are at home and not getting paid and contract workers won't get paid regardless when the government opens back up because donald trump threw a temper tantrum over his border wall. i'm not interested in -- >> let me explain it to you. >> this is not both sides. >> simone -- i'm going to quote erin from earlier. we're talking about $5.6 billion which is not all the money we need. don't lecture me or anybody else about trying to come together when you guys are not allowing $5.6 billion to use for border security in a way -- you guys

don't care if these government workers can't go to work. you care about beating donald trump. >> it is not fair to insinuate -- democrats do care. democrats do care. that's why they will put the republicans appropriations bill. >> you guys only care about beating donald trump. >> that's why nancy pelosi continues to in good faith when the president responds to her. >> there's no good faith. there's no good faith. nancy pelosi's own daughter said today she would cut heads off. >> the president is not moved by empathy. i was watching. my own two eyes. he said the president doesn't necessarily care about these government workers. government workers will not move the president. he wants his wall. that's an ally of the president, rick santorum. he doesn't care.

he's willing to shut down the government over this wall that nobody wants. >> yeah. let's be clear, the president cares about the issue of national security. cares about the police officer who was killed by an illegal immigrant in california the day after christmas. he's cared about this issue before he became president. it's what made him become president. and democrats are holding this country hostage over a measly $5 billion because all you really care about is not these government workers, stop lying to them. you care about beating donald trump and if you have to keep the government shutdown to beat donald trump that's the entire agenda that the democrats came out with today. we're coming after you, we're coming after trump. do it, impeach him. >> the border patrol said, that's what he said. he's going to get a wall for the shutdown. do you think his base know they won't get a wall even if he gets

every dollar he asked for. it's dishonest for him to say that he's doing it for the wall but he's not going to get his wall. >> i think the president understands asking for $5 plus billion is a realistic compromise number to get border security going in the right direction. and i think the president is very clear he wants the wall built. he also is a realist. he knows he can't get the total sum again democrats won't allow that to happen. he knows how the votes work to get even partial funding done. when they say the president is being stubborn he's only asking for $5 billion to let everybody go back to work and democrats say no. we hate you so much we don't care about border security we're going to screw you. >> one point to what ben just said, democrats were willing to do $2.5 billion. pence came and told them they were willing to do. the president was willing to do $2.5 billion. then the president came out and

back stabbed his own vice president. >> hold on a second. that's the difficulty of working in the trump administration that you go out with orders or direction to try to get something done and that could change on a turn. one thing we should note these are appropriations bills that are from last year. they should have been passed back on october 31st. or on september 30th. start on october 1st. republican majority in house and senate. they needed democratic support. they couldn't get it done. >> all right. thank you all very much. by the way i should point out none of this is money that we even have because president trump has now increased the national debt to an all-time record and we'll talk about that very, unfortunate, and bad

headline that just happened today. and next the new assistant house speaker on the vote that they are about to cast to re-open the government literally to go into those votes right new. and nancy pelosi today on this issue of indicting. she says it could be possible to indict president trump. is she right? (ding) hey, who are you? oh, hey jeff, i'm a car thief... what?! i'm here to steal your car because, well, that's my job. what? what?? what?! (laughing) what?? what?! what?! [crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem... like me. ♪ with expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. so even when she grows up, she'll never outgrow the memory of our adventure. unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip.

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breaking news. the new house speak nancy pelosi making it very clear where her party stands tonight as the government shutdown is entering its third week. >> does anybody have any doubt that we're not doing a wall? >> got it. "outfront" now newly installed

assistant speaker, ben ray lujan. i appreciate your time, congressman. all right. so when she says not getting a wall, you hear me, no wall, no wall, you guys are now down to zero dollars, right? no compromise on it? >> erin, look, i never supported the president's wall. i never supported putting one penny towards that. here we are in the midst of a shutdown that president trump took credit for. he said over 25 times he wanted to shut the government down and now he did it. there's no reason we can't open up the rest of government. have a resolution for border security. but if you ask if i support a penny for the wall, i don't. >> you're willing to negotiate. the question i have, when you have the speaker saying no wall, no wall, using the hand guess sturs here, not going to happen and we got a shutdown entering its third week am i right in saying this shutdown is indefinite. we're not anywhere close?

>> there's no reason that this shutdown could not end tomorrow. once we in the house pass these pieces of legislation today, continue resolution to keep the department of homeland security open through february 5th and then six other appropriation bills to open up the rest of the government that, by the way, all passed the senate appropriations committee overwhelmingly, the president could sign them today so we can continue moving forward and doing it in a way that is not hampering the economy, not hurting 800,000 workers not getting paid including 5,000 in my home state of new mexico. >> the issue is there's no border wall money in it. the president will veto it. he's made that clear. is this just politics this entire vote you're doing right now because you know what you're passing is not going to become -- he's going to we to it. >> erin, i don't believe this is politics because the bill that mitch mcconnell put on the senate floor before the end of

the year was to keep the government open. i can't imagine mitch mcconnell the republican leader in the u.s. senate would have done that if the president wouldn't have signed off. what happened the president decided to turn on fox news and listen to sean hannity and changed his mind. we should open the government up. that could happen immediately and continue these negotiations in a responsible way. >> congressman, the president when we went to the podium and spoke, he spoke about why he wants a wall, not a border security wall or barrier, whatever you want to call it, he wants his wall. here he is. >> having the drone fly overhead and i think nobody knows much more about technology, this type of technology certainly than i do. having drones and various other forms of sensors, they are all fine. but they are not going to stop the problems that this country has. >> says nobody knows more about drone technology than he does.

do you think that's true? >> erin, i do not believe that's true. just this last week president trump proclaims he knows more than the generals within the department of defense and armed services. it's untrue. look i was down there after we lost the first child and now young felipe. with i was at one of the port of entries they didn't have access to water. the water was contaminated. it wasn't drinkable. they couldn't cook with it or bathe with it. the ports in canada and water ports as well, that's where these dollars should be going as opposed to this reckless, ridiculous wall that the president continues to advocate for. >> you know, i don't know if you just heard ben ferguson he was

echoing many who support trump you democrats who have the power you'll use it to oust the president from office prematurely. congressman adam schiff who is taking over the armed services kmeeft talked abo committee talked about impeachment and here's what he said. >> we have to decide if it's the correct course of action. we should discuss it and figure out what's the best course of action it is. >> he said it's not too soon-to-be talking about impeachment. do you agree. >> we need to ensure special counsel mr. mueller can conduct his investigation, can complete his work. i hope mr. ferguson would agree he should conduct his investigation unimpeded and present the facts not just to congress but to the american people an only then will we find out where those facts lead. that's my position on this and i fully support making sure the special counsel can conclude his investigation, present his facts and then we'll have a conversation and see where those

facts lead us. >> i appreciate your time. thanks so much. next the united states debt. $2 trillion higher tonight than when president donald j. trump took office. what happened to his promise? >> we're going to start paying down debt. we have a lot of debt. we're going to start paying down debt. >> plus, robert mueller can he indict donald trump while he's president. nancy pelosi topping door to that being possible. is she right?

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today. this as we learned the united states debt hit a record high. stocks down, debt up, pretty toxic combination. one that the president today when he went to that podium for the first time chose to completely ignore. >> the economy is bringing people in because we're doing so well with the economy. >> here's what we learned today. the united states debt stands at $21.97 trillion. yes that's trillion. nearly $2 trillion higher than when president trump took office. and that is a promise broken. >> you know you look at our debt, $19 trillion going up to $21 trillion in a very short fashion. so we're going to straighten things out. we're going to start paying down debt. we have a lot of debt. we're going to start paying down debt. we'll pay down debt. does anybody not want it? please raise your hand. >> okay.

just to belabor the point he's done the opposite right? running up the tab and not paying down the bills. frankly this is one campaign promise that no one should be surprised trump has broken because here's trump. >> i am the king of debt. i do love debt. i love debt. i love playing with it. i am the king of debt. i do love debt. i love debt. if things don't work out i renegotiate the debt. that's a smart thing not a stupid thing. >> i'm sorry. right. okay. so steven moore joins me now. and keith boykin. steve, i laugh because those sound bites are so absurd and no one can say it better than trump but the bottom line is, steve, this is a president who does love debt and he has not kept his promise so far. >> well, you know, erin if you look at the preceding president this is a president who, you know, talked about how horrible the national debt was when he

was a senator. >> stop right there. >> let me make that point. >> every single president runs up the president. they are alter bill. but this one went out and said again and again. >> so did barack obama. >> why is your answer to why trump broke his promise, barack obama did too. >> every president going back to lyndon johnson has promised to balance the budget. we only balanced the budget four times in the last 60 years. you can make that criticism of virtually every president including barack obama you're right the debt has gone up by $2 trillion in trump's first two years. under barack obama it went up by $3 trillion in his first two years. the debt went through the roof under obama at a time when we already had a debt crisis. this is what happened to the debt under obama. it went way up.

>> steve, okay, you said every president since lyndon johnson had the debt go up. yes the debt repeatedly goes up. lyndon johnson balanced the budget, something that bill clinton did. he balanced the budget. when barack obama was in office he cut the federal deficit from $1.4 -- >> it went up by $10 trillion. >> he cut the federal deficit from $1.4 trillion in 2009 to $585 billion when he left. he cut it by half. yes the deficit rises even as the deficit goes down and that's important. you should understand that as an economist or economic person. you can't cut taxes and expect revenue to be magically made up which is what donald trump did in december of 2017 with a republican congress. they passed that $1.5 trillion tax cut. it blew a hole in the deficit. we have higher deficit as a result. he's increasing military spending. and on top of that he's

proposing space force and all sorts of other spending that he doesn't have any idea how he'll pay for. the guy is not serious about cutting the debt. he never was. you admit that. >> first of all the debt has stabilized under trump. that's the important measure. what is your debt. >> he said it's going to go to 96% of gdp from the current 78%. how is that stabilizing. >> the debt is surging -- >> that's not true. >> it absolutely is. basically stayed level when you look at the publicly traded debt as a share of gdp. now, the second point i would make is if you look at the tax cut, you're acting as if the tax cut contributed to the deficit. in 2018, erin, the united states government collected more tax revenues than any other year in history with the tax cut. so how in the world can revenues

be the problem? it's because we're spending too much money. i'm willing to blame the congress on this. they are spending too much money. >> we're not collecting revenue. we're not collecting revenue. we had a smaller percentage of corporate revenue last year in 2018 than in any year in decades. that's important because of corporate tax cuts. we had corporate tax cuts for the wealthy. now one thing i want to make clear is, obviously, the debt is a problem but i think the reason why we created the deficits and the debt that the republicans are no longer caring about suddenly is because they want to use this as an excuse to cut social security, cut medicare, cut entitlements. >> let's have the sound bite again where the president promised he would pay down the debt. can we cue that up. i want you to hear it.

here he is. >> you look at our debt, $19 trillion going up to $21 trillion in a very short fashion. so we're going to straighten things out. we're going straighten them out quickly. we're going to start paying down debt. we have a lot of debt. we're going to pay down debt. does anybody not want it? please raise your hand. >> steve, does he have any intent ever of paying down debt? >> i would love to see this happen. i would love to see the economy continue to grow. if we continue to grow at 3%, 4% per year this debt will fall. this is what larry kudlow and i told donald trump. grow the economy and bring the debt down. >> it hasn't happened. you're preaching trickle down economics again, same economics that has failed repeatedly. when i was in the clinton

administration we raised taxes, to 39.6%. guess what? we paid down the deficit and we created a surplus. in contrast when bush came in office in 2001, 2003 and cut taxes we created more deficits. don't preach trickle down economic philosophy. >> let's establish one thing. the king of the national debt is barack obama. >> the king of debt is donald trump. >> king of debt is donald trump. >> nobody knows more about debt than donald trump. donald trump, that's what he himself said. >> there's a thing -- >> i'm going to leave it. >> the economy grew at 3% this year for the first time and that never happened once. >> we actually don't know -- >> nobody knows the debt better than me. that drone and other things. thank you all very much. up next, nancy pelosi on whether president trump could be

indicted. >> i think that's an open discussion. i think that is an open discussion in terms of the law. >> and the new women in congress sworn in today making history, including the one you see there, first somali american reflecting on that by returning to the same airport with her father as they arrived into this country from 23 years ago. went into the science behindtt vascepa. prescription vascepa. vascepa, along with diet and exercise, has proven results in multiple clinical trials. vascepa looks different because it is different. over a decade of extensive research and development achieved proven results. that's the prescription power of vascepa. vascepa is not right for everyone. do not take vascepa if you are allergic to icosapent ethyl or any inactive ingredient in vascepa. tell your doctor if you are allergic to fish,

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tonight an indictment for trump. new house speaker nancy pelosi starting out with a bang, saying it's a quote open discussion today. >> everything indicates that a president can be indicted after he's no longer president of the united states. >> what about a sitting president? >> sitting president when he's no longer president of the united states. >> a president who is in office, could robert mueller come back and say i'm seeking an indictment. >> i think that's an open discussion. i think that's an open discussion in terms of the law. >> "outfront" now former white house ethics czar for president obama who served in the justice department and white house counsel's office and george h.w. bush administration and information deputy director for office of legal policy. you are convinced that president trump can be indicted, why? >> well, erin, i think nancy pelosi was right.

it's an open question. i do believe the correct answer to that question is that a president can be indicted. there's nothing in the constitution that says a president cannot be. there's nothing in the policy behindconstitution, erin. after all the whole idea of the constitution we didn't want king george, we didn't apartment monarch. everybody was sub gengt to through. if the president breaks through he should be prosecuted. there's a doj pinto the contrary. >> david? >> nothing open about it. it's not just one opinion. doj has revisited this question three times. twice in 1973. and once again in 2000. it concluded and, by the way, with respect to norman's truism to say nobody is above the law, et cetera, et cetera. the question always s-how does the law apply to a given person. the president occupies a unique

constitutional perch. bodies like congress and the judiciary, president is not just the head of the executive, he is the executive. the supreme court has embraced the same methodology and has concluded. >> what about the point he's not a monarch. >> forgive me, erin, that's irrelevant. to preserve a constitutional fabric, the constitutional architect you can't disable the president. everybody would agree just like -- let me mention the supreme court. if you subject a president to criminal indictment, criminal prosecution that would prevent him from performing functions that only he can perform. >> let me interject. the president once famously said i could shoot somebody on fifth avenue, you're saying if he did that, if he murdered somebody he

still above the law, still can't indict him? >> no, he's not above the law. he can't be indicted for murder. there's only one constitution proper way to deal with an be aberrant. you have the impeachment process which features political accountability. if congress were to proceed with impeachment that american people wouldn't support democrats would pay the price that republicans fade price for impeaching bill clinton. >> norm, you heard david. even in murder he would put it to the political process of impeachment. not indict somebody for murder? >> the murder example explains why this is so wrong. those opinions, i tanningle with that office all the time when i was in the white house because they are too protective of the president. it's like rudy giuliani saying a president can't be indicted. the courts have never decided it.

i must disagree with david because his arguments have been tried and rejected twice by the supreme court. and i think they would do the same -- >> on the contrary. >> david let me finish. a similar argument was launched in united states v nixon to prevent the president from being subject to subpoena. it failed. it was tried in clinton v jones. it faltd. the constitutional trajectory points to the president being subject to the same laws as the rest of us. that's the idea of america, david, please. >> this is rhetoric. you know perfectly well that in 2000 oc looked at the supreme court cases, the very ones you mentioned, both paula jones case and nixon case, and concluded that the supreme court were using the exactly same paradigm. but the particular position president, subpoenaing certain documents against the

generalized assertion of impeachment. there's more particularized assertion of privilege particularly when national security variety would have ruled differently. in paula jones the only reason the court went forward they said it was a small case and not a big deal. if it was otherwise the case can be stayed. you know perfectly well since you read those opinions that oc drew a lot of comfort from the fact that in three leading supreme court cases, the cases against nixon and clinton versus paula jones the supreme court validated the balancing approach starting from the proposition you can't incapacitate the president. >> norm, you brought up rudy giuliani. he says mueller's team admitted to him that they can't indict. he said all they can do is report. they can't indict. they acknowledged that to us. do you think mueller actually said that to rudy giuliani? >> no, erin. i suspect that there is a lot of

spin in that. now, i will say in fairness, bob mueller may feel that he is confined by that. i think the wrong oc opinion. it's not just me. conservative legal seculars disagree. ken starr himself said a president could be indicted. but mueller has a variety of ways of dealing with that. i think he could ask, for example, i want to indict the president but then stay proceedings. he could say oc is wrong like i'm saying, contrary to david, the constitution says in no place that a president cannot be indicted, and there's the 25th amendment which has a mechanism for dealing with a president who has to deal with an indictment. >> thank you both very much. much more to discuss on this. i hope to have both of you to do that. next we travel with two of the women who are new to congress.

their first day sworn in. there they are. >> what is your hope when you land in d.c.? >> playing nice isn't something in my vocabulary. >> rudy giuliani responds to jeanne moos after her story about witches upset with trump's use of the word witch-hunt. jeannie fights back. and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪ get your usaa auto insurance quote today.

tonightis's her house, nancy pelosi taking the reins as speaker of the house, paying historic to the class of new lawmakers. >> when our new members take the oath, our congress will be refreshed and our democracy will be strengthened by their optimism, idealism, and patriotism. of this transformative freshman class. >> it is transformative. this is shareece davis and deb holland, fighting back tears on the house floor, embracing each other. they are the first two native american women elected to congress. and the first somali american sworn into congress, there she is. yesterday, omar returned to the same washington, d.c. airport with her father that they arrived at 23 years ago, when

they first came to the united states from a refugee camp in kenya. kyung lah is out front with two more women who are part of this history making class. >> reporter: a predawn flight for katie hill. from los angeles to washington, d.c. a journey that's turning this citizen into a congresswoman. what is your hope when you land in d.c.? >> playing nice isn't something that's in my vocabulary. i just do what i think is right. we are regular middle class people. we're young, we look like, speak like the people that we're in to represent. i just think that's different from what it's been like. >> reporter: the 116th congress is different and historic. younger, more racially diverse, and more female. a record setting 127 women elected. among them -- 31-year-old hill. she ran as an unknown,

first-time candidate, and defeated a republican male incumbent, flipping her california district. in true millennial form, she's been sharing her ride on social media since her victory. >> hey, everybody, last day of first week of training here in orientation here in d.c. >> reporter: from meeting fellow new members to being selected for the house majority leadership, and adjusting to fine dining while flying cross country. does that all mean you'll govern differently? will government be different now because of people like you? >> i believe so, and i believe we're a big enough class, we dropped the average age of crosby more than ten years, more women than ever. so the face of congress is changing. and it literally is far more diverse than it ever has been. >> reporter: hill, who had never lived outside of california, or even traveled with so many bags, is now sharing an apartment with fellow democratic congresswoman

lauren underwood of illinois. she also unseated a man. a four-term republican incumbent, becoming the youngest black woman ever elected to congress. neither of you guys look like the traditional members of congress. >> isn't that something? >> reporter: together, they're the third and fourth youngest women members of congress. what does all of this mean for governing moving forward, having women like you in congress? >> i think it's going to be hard. we don't walk in and everything automatically changes. >> it was definitely a wow, this doesn't feel like me. my office was in this shady part of town. this is definitely different. >> reporter: inauguration morning. >> hi, how are you? >> reporter: a crush of cameras welcomed her. from congresswoman elect to

dropping the elect. >> it feels good. it feels like we can get to work. >> reporter: hill's cross country journey ending today, marking the beginning of her new role as a congresswoman. so a historic day here at the u.s. capitol. those gains being made only on the democratic side. the number of women who are gop representatives, that actually dropped. there's only one incoming republican freshman member, erin, and it does not appear that is going to turn around any time soon, the money, the organization, the energy is almost exclusively among democratic women. >> thank you very much. a fascinating story. we keep hearing about the year of the woman. now to see them and watch them coming in, it is incredible to see. and for more on katie hill, who you just saw there, "cnn tonight" will have her as a guest with don tonight. next, jeanne moos gets the last laugh after rudy giuliani's

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jeanne brought last week. rudy giulianiexplains to witches they shouldn't be offended by trump's use of the word witch hunt. >> reporter: this a story that continues to cast its spell. the other day we told you about self-proclaimed witches peeved at president trump for always saying -- >> i call it a witch hunt. this is a witch hunt like nobody's ever seen. >> reporter: we interviewed a couple of witches. >> really disgraceful. >> reporter: and thought we were done. >> now the witch is back. >> reporter: after all our toiling over the subject -- >> double, double, toil and trouble. >> reporter: the president's son took the trouble to retweet our story, dismissively. derangement is real, folks, #trumpderangementsyndrome. maybe he was unaware that fox news had done two segments on the same story. >> now upsetting actual witches.

>> some real-life witches are angry at him. >> reporter: talk about hoe kus pocus, fox news even had part of my piece. >> joining me now our go-to witch. >> reporter: next, rudy giuliani jumped onto the broom stick with his seemingly ernest tweet. there is no reason for the witches to be offended because "witch hunt" derives from, for example, the salem witch hunts were people were executed unjustly. the president's lawyer tweeting about witches raised eyebrows. rudy, sir, just stop. even kellyanne conway's husband, george, took a swipe. remember, this is the best lawyer whom donald trump could persuade to represent him. >> fire burn and cauldron

bubble. ♪ >> reporter: time to break the spell. >> i'm melting, melting. >> reporter: and kill the story. >> the wicked witch is dead. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn. >> cuauldron, bubble. >> one of rudy's best. "ac 360" starts now. good'veing. the world changed today for president trump and it could change even more tonight if and when democrats, who now control the house, push through legislation to reopen the government. the white house has already threatened to veto it. we'll bring you that as it happens. for now, we'll focus on the longer term and potentially more serious consequence of democrats in power. for the first time since taking office, president trump is facing the prospect of real, extensive scrutiny from the opposition party led by a highly disciplined adversary. >>