everlasting effect on nike. they will weather this according to analysts. they said, yes, this is embarrassing for nike but the company will still come out on top. >> first and foremost, we hope zion is okay and he'll be back on the court. thank you for joining me today. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. it's deadline day for prosecutors who want former trump campaign adviser paul manafort to serve a sentence. the mueller report could show new information about the trump administration. the new numbers that show the miles trump traveled to his stunning victory is not so busy anymore.

african-american women at a big conference in new orleans. and if you're castro, you work iowa and build support one group at a time. >> i just want to tell people i read your book. it is wonderful. please go to a library, go to costco. buy the book, whatever. >> we begin the hour with a big legal deadline today and an intriguing question it presents. how much is robert mueller ready to tell us? a midnight filing deadline for russia's special counsel in what could be mueller's last public act before he delivers his report to the justice department. today's sentencing for manafort gives prosecutors a big opportunity. that opportunity is to put meat on the bones buried between other court filings and the chance to answer the biggest question. was there collusion and did it reach into the heart of the trump campaign? the president with a morning twitter reminder, quote, no

collusion, and the president says, the witch hunt must end. the collusion question, of course, central to mueller's big investigation, and his prosecutors have hinted manafort is central to their theory. they say manafort complicated his predicament by lying after finally agreeing to cooperate. they say those lies include cooperating with the trump white house and lying about the meeting about trump tower moscow. why he lied and what we can learn. julia pace from the associated press, paul holson from the "new york times" and shimon prokupecz in buzzfeed. the judge can obviously read what's hidden behind the redactions, but what will we learn? >> i think we'll see why prosecutors think paul manafort should get the sentence they're asking for. will it go further than the other documents?

it's going to be hard to say right now because i still think we're guided by the same principles that they can't reveal information that is still under investigation. but i think they're going to probably go deeper than they've gone in any other filings trying to link paul manafort to what was really going on here. i think you're right, their theory has been that paul manafort is the central figure in this entire investigation, certainly on the collusion end whether or not he was somehow getting help from the russians for the campaign, so that's going to probably be laid out a little bit more. but look, the judge already knows a lot here. we've got through so many different hearings, the breach of the cooperation agreement. but what is significant in all this, john, is this could be the last significant filing from the mueller team, because we do expect him to wrap up, if not today, any day next week. >> that's where the intrigue kicks in, in the sense that if you're robert mueller, you know all the public scrutiny on this investigation, you know what the

president has said about you and will continue to say about you. and you know the american public, whether they're partisans and have already picked sides, or if they just want to know, two years, answer the questions. you don't know how much the report will be made public by the justice department. that could be a fight down the road. whether it's the manafort indictment, any indictment, all these filings we've learned crumbs, we've learned little pieces. but all the redactions keep us from learning how it all fits together. will mueller feel the pressure of, all right, this might be the last public thing i file? air it out. >> we don't know, but certainly we know a lot. it's not as though we're going to get a report from mueller via the ag because mueller has been complete in a lot of these filings. but there is a string and we don't know how they all fit together at this point. one thing shimon said, and i think it's important, when they

talk about paul manafort they say, look, everything paul manafort is getting in trouble for, this is all before he became campaign manager. this has nothing to do with his role as campaign manager. what we're actually seeing, and we may see more clearly with this filing, is that actually is not the case. he is central to this question of whether the trump campaign colluded with russia to influence the election, and that goes completely against everything we've heard from the trump administration. >> that is essential. >> donald trump gets nominated and a couple weeks later the guy who is his campaign chairman and the most important guy at the convention in terms of the operations is meeting with the russia operatives. why? >> they said this in a court transcript right out of the hearing. we may actually see him say this in writing out of this filing we get today. >> this goes to the larger view of what we think is going on and what goes to the motive here. this goes, i think, very much to the heart of what the special counsel's office is

investigating. he's still with the campaign at that point. he's kind of busy. he's trying to win a presidential election. why is he having this meeting? the unanswered questions we're looking for that the prosecutors say he lied about after agreeing to cooperate. why did he make a $120,000 to a pro trump pac? why did he try to minimize kilim nirks k's role in alleged witness tampering? what is the other doj investigation man a mort aldly lied about? which trump administration official did manafort contact after his indictment? >> part of paul manafort's trial became so focused on ostrich skin jackets, things like that, that that's what the president chose to focus on and it helped distance himself from paul manafort. we saw those things come up in filings but it didn't quite play

out in public as some of the other stuff for paul manafort in his campaign. >> it is mueller's question to answer in some form, was manafort, and roger stone, for that matter, were they just swamp creatures trying to make money, peddle influence, hoping trump was going to lose? or was there a coordinated effort in the campaign to share information and get help from the russians? >> those two things don't have to be in conflict. they could have been doing both of those things. i think the trump tweet this morning is indicative. we don't know what's going to happen, but i think people around the city feel this is coming to a climax. this is sort of the first part of it and where is it going to go from here? i do hope they actually start to say some things today, because what's gone on so far as given the president and his team a chance to say, hey, this really wasn't about us, this is about

something else. but this could be about them. >> one way or the other in the sense that if mueller has spent all this time in what he finds is a bunch of stupid meetings and a greedy trump organization, but if there is no knowledge of it, he should say so. if they can prove knowledge between officials and the candidate himself, they should say that, too. apparently the manhattan d.a. is also waiting on this, and the idea that there are some who think the president could still examinercise his right to pardo paul manafort. the "new york times" reporting this hour, the manhattan district attorney's office is creating charges against the trump campaign chairman in an effort to ensure that he will still face prison time even if the president pardons him for his federal crimes, according to several people with knowledge of the matter. why was manafort lying? did he have some secret deal,

maybe? we don't know that, but this could be a backup plan. >> it is a backup plan, and the d.a.'s office has been at this for well over two years, since manafort got involved. but they didn't want to conflict with what robert mueller is doing, and now that that's coming to an end, they may see opportunity here. they've been ready to file charges, they've been ready to have the grand jury file charges, essentially, and move on with that case. it is a backup plan. there is always concern that the president would pardon manafort but he can't pardon him in this case. it's all a backup plan. >> also a reminder, just the fact this is now focusing on sdny, while the mueller investigation may be reaching a conclusion and we'll learn what he came up with, there are a whole other set of investigations that actually get, from what we know publicly, closer to the president, his business, other people around

him. >> i need to interrupt the conversation for breaking news and shocking charges this hour out of palm beach county, florida. jupiter police say robert craft, he's the owner of the new england patriots, paid a prostitute for sex. >> yes, sir, he is one of the individuals. >> can you tell us who he is? >> that is mr. robert kraft? >> robert kraft, the owner of the patriots? >> yes. >> what is he being charged with? >> he's being charged with the same thing as the others, and that is soliciting prostitution. >> jason, what more can you tell us? >> reporter: really, this is an embarrassing moment for robert kraft, a 77-year-old billionaire, owner of the new england patriots. just to recap here, jupiter police announced that he is charged with two counts of soliciting and another to commit prostitution. this is stemming from an eight-month investigation,

eight-month-long investigation. this stemmed from florida, also to china and to new york, and apparently what investigators are saying is he visited this day spa on not one, but allegedly two occasions, and according to what investigators are now telling us, he is among some 25 men who were arrested, again, for soliciting a prostitute. again, this is the owner of the new england patriots, a friend of the president. again, much of the details of this coming forward to us now as his press conference now just wrapping up. you're getting the headline there that robert kraft, owner of the new england patriots, arrested at a day spa in jupiter, florida. as soon as we get more information, we'll pass it along. >> our legal analyst paul callen, joins us on the phone. give us this case and the high

profile of the new england patriots owner being arrested in this case. >> it's shocking, but on the other hand, john, it's not called the world's oldest profession for nothing. solicitation under florida law is punishable by up to about a year in jail. you can get a year in probation or a thousand dollars in criminal fines. they also have an interesting provision in florida law that you have to complete a hundred hours of community service and attend a prostitution and human trafficking awareness course. so he's in for an embarrassing time. it's unusual that the john, which is what he is in this case gets arrested. usually the person running the brothel gets arrested, so this is an unusual approach to round up the johns. you see it happening periodically in jurisdictions where there is a major prostitution problem, and he just got caught in the net.

it's a really damaging thing to his reputation, obviously. >> to that point, you heard the law enforcement briefing where they said mr. kraft was one of 25 men as part of this. so clearly the police seem to think they had a major problem on their hands. i'm not trying to put context into this, i'm not sure how i would put context into this, but an organization, a business, being used for a major operation that they thought they needed to make a statement here, right? >> absolutely, and send a message out to the community that they're not going to tolerate the operation of these spas that periodically become popular in urban communities around the country. so this is not unusual. it does happen all over the country but it's kind of a send the message arrest. >> paul, stay with us. christine brennan, our contributor, also sports columnist for "usa today" joins us. robert kraft -- full disdisclos, i saw robert kraft.

we had a brief conversation, mr. kraft and my children, at an elevator in a hotel. when you heard the news, robert kraft arrested alleged to have solicited prostitutes? >> john, robert kraft is arguably the best known owner in sports. there are a few others out there, too, but he's certainly in the top five, maybe the top three in all u.s. sports. so he has farther to fall than almost anyone. as you well know, he is one of the faces of the new england patriots. they played in ten super bowls, they have won a record six championships under robert kraft. he is so recognizable, he is so well known, and he really represents his franchise the way most owners don't in the sense that he's out front, very visible, and deflategate, very visible in that controversy several years ago. so the potential down side of something like this for robert kraft, john, is even worse than

it would be for most people because so many people know exactly who he is. >> to your point, he's an icon in new england for turning what was a losing franchise around, but nationally known, a, because of the patriots' success, b, because of his friendship with the president of the united states. the president of the united states has nothing to do with this, but the fact the politics of this have come into play, that magnifies it. that's your point, right? >> absolutely. you're right, he has been a very vocal support of the president. robert kraft, john, and you know as well by being someone who follows lots of sports and has watched sports for years, he is a very visible person. he doesn't shy away from taking stand out there. some owners want to be out front, others want to be behind the scenes. and robert kraft, a 77-year-old who has always been out front and has always enjoyed the limelight and the spotlight and sparring with journalists and just being a guy who loves to

represent his team. and this, of course, is the exact opposite kind of publicity that he would want, but because he is so well known, now the scrutiny is there in a way that it wouldn't be for so many other people. >> we'll keep an eye on it as the investigation plays out. christine brennan, thank you. the next move trying to block the president's emergency declaration and his border wall. g look better on an iphone? both. and with our unlimited plan, people can choose the best in entertainment. hbo, cinemax, showtime... starz, vrv, amazon music, or pandora... now people can get what they want. because everyone's different. i feel like we shouldn't talk for a couple of days. at&t has the only unlimited plan that gives you your choice of top-tier entertainment. get an iphone xr on us when you buy the latest iphone. more for your thing. that's our thing. take prilosec otc and take control of heartburn. so you don't have to stash antacids here...

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pear. what is the momentum on doing this and what's the latest count? >> keep public affections down. this isn't a matter of will it pass the house? yes, 226 is more than 218. democrats have a majority, and it most certainly will pass the house next week on a vote. it should, as i'm being told right now, pass the senate as well. it will only take a simple majority for the senate to pass something to terminate the national emergency resolution. this is where the support has shifted towards. keep the number below a veto majority. in the house, between 221 and 290. from talking to house republican aides at this point in time, they believe they can keep it down with help from the senate. expectation right now is maybe they lose five, maybe six republicans. that will also fall below a

veto-proof majority. that means despite the opposition, and we heard bipartisan opposition, the president's national emergency declaration will obviously stand. obviously this doesn't factor in the lawsuits that are coming, some of which have already been filed and will be filed in the future, but from a legislative perspective, their main mission right now is to keep the numbers down. will it be a rebuke for the president if the republicans join nancy pelosi in the house, if republicans join democrats in the senate to try and block this? yes, it most certainly will. but will it stop it? on its face, as long as it stays under the top two thresholds of a veto majority, it won't, and that's pretty much all the white house cares for, john. >> phil mattingly, appreciate it. jeff zeleny joins our conversation in the studio. democrats obviously understand that math, too, but they think it's important to do. the mueller report could interrupt everything, but if not, change the debate in washington to something they may

not win in the end in terms of the resolution, but they think they're on high ground with the american people. >> i think they do, but the president probably won't pay much attention. he'll be in vietnam with his summit with kim jong-un. this is just one example, we see them every day of every week, about what it means to be a democrat in control of the house. but at the end of the day, i would be very surprised if there were a lot of republican defections on this. there is certainly no reason for them to do that. >> the house freedom caucus, all those people, tend to go along with it. susan collins in the senate has been very outspoken. a lot of other appropriaters, roy blunt is one. the senator who chairs the committee said he would not vote to reverse this. but this is bad for the congress, and this puts the republicans in a bad place. so they're going to side with trump over their own institution. appropriations power is really

the heart of congress' power. you start giving that away, you really don't have much left. i think it's going to be a tough vote for some of these republicans. they're going to have to go with the president, and they know that they are giving up their own authority. >> and the speaker seems to get it, speaker pelosi writing a letter last night sending it out to all colleagues in the house, trying to get at that point, simply saying, republicans, i thought you were constitutional conservatives. if you're constitutional conservatives, you have to vote with us on this one. she said, i write to all members of congress to co pif sponsor congressman joaquin castro's privileged resolution. the house will move swiftly to pass this bill. the president's decision to go outside the bounds of law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process violates the constitution and must be terminated. >> i think he is looking to see

who dares to cross him on this priority for his administration, so i think the reaction of the republicans' names that we see come out could be interesting. we might see some tweets from the president attacking, potentially, some of his critics. >> certainly politics are at play here. jeff is right, in some ways this will be a bit of a show vote because they probably won't be able to get enough to clear the veto-proof majority. but there are republicans who will be on the ballot in 2020 in some tough states, and some of what pelosi and the democratic leaders in the house over the next year or two will be putting those guys in really tough spots, to choose between voting against the president, taking a stand and appealing to the moderates in the state. this is one of those examples. >> it's a great reminder that anything that happens in washington right now, yes, it might be a policy challenge, and a legitimate one today, but most of the calculations will have 2020 implications. you look at the cover of "the

new yorker" essentially saying he wants to finish the wall. and if you're a democrat running for president, especially if you're a socialist trying to make an early mark in the campaign, impressive fundraising so far, bernie sanders says, no, mr. president, don't make this about me, it's about you. >> do you support that resolution? >> of course, i do. what the president is doing is unconstitutional, it's illegal, and it is part of his movement toward an authoritarian society. this guy clearly is not familiar with the constitution, clearly not familiar with the separation of powers. he thinks he's got it all. he's the only one running the sgovt that h government and that has got to stop. >> we'll have that fight over the constitutional question that falls short of the votes. we'll leave that up to the courts. >> it will be fought out in the courts. republicans are going to be up. this is a tough vote for cory

gardner in colorado. he has to appease the right but has to win the general. i think the other reason that looks bad for the republican and i think we'll see a lot of old quotes come back to haunt him, about president obama's use of executive authority. the house republicans sued president obama over spending money that they didn't authorize on health care. and, you know, the pen and phone comment that the president made back then, you know, this was an outrage. it's hypocrisy in washington. >> the other person who was outraged about that was donald trump. >> there is some understanding when republicans are outraged but don't vote in that way, so we'll see how many republicans join in this vote. breaking news this hour, patriots' owner robert kraft busted on solicitation of prosecution. he was at a day spa when these

alleged crimes took place. a statement came out, we categorically deny that mr. kraft engaged in any illegal activity. because it is a judicial matter, we will not be commenting any further. that from the new england patriots about their owner, robert kraft. we'll be right back. we're working together to do just that. bringing you more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all. smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels and reminders to think balance. because we know mom wants what's best. more beverage choices, smaller portions, less sugar. balanceus.org

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new details today on the inner workings of the trump reelection campaign, including the president's eagerness to

play a disruptive role in the democratic nominating contest. kaitlan collins include this in their reporting. the president intends to play an active role in the democratic primary and has constructed ways in looking for ways he can, according to more than a dozen republicans involved in his campaign. his team is working to sow divisions among rivals and looking for opportunities to cause chaos from the left and right in the words of one adviser. the president wants to get into the game, said a top republican who talks to trump frequently. people may knock him in terms of running the government but he gets the campaign and can't wait to get started. what he calls strategy, it's an interesting reporting, some of it is just fun. forgive me, i like politics. let's get to the democrats. we can see some of them.

we can read about crazy bernie, howard schultz, even who we thought would come out of wall street. he likes to meddle. >> he's watching the town halls and the news coverage but he also wants to play in the primary. which is not entirely unusual. in the obama campaign they were running some television ads about mitt romney, trying to defile him. a, it shows the president loves the campaign, wants to get back in there, and i would assume it's a nice distraction from everything else going on, with the mueller report and other things. but he wants to play a role in this, and he's advised his advisers from the rnc and other groups that he wants division and chaos. those on the left will be engineered by republicans. you'll see attacks on the red also by republicans.

he's asking questions about amy klobuchar. he's struck by the fact that she won 47 counties in the state of minnesota that he won as well two years earlier. he's paying a lot of attention to this. when you ask a lot of people, who do you want to run against, he goes back and forth. elizabeth warren comes up again and again. of course, he's been calling her pocahontas for a long time. >> he does spend a lot of time with elizabeth warren. he gave kamala harris a lot of credit for her rollout. a lot of governments think amy klobuchar may give an appeal to the president. >> so far i love the competition, i love what i see. i don't want to pick anyone out. a lot of people say biden is doing okay, but he was always a 1% guy. he ran two or three times, he never got above 1%. then obama came by and took him off the trash heap.

he's weak. but i think he's leading right now, from what i understand. i'll be watching, and whoever it is, i think we'll do just fine. >> you add in your reporting, that is extraordinary. of course you want to know what the competition is. but to be out there doing all that, that's a little much. >> he's acting like a commentator a lot of times on this whole race. on the biden point, look, there are people around trump who get the seriousness of the political position that he is in. he is not in a particularly strong position, and in the states that he really stunned the clinton campaign by winning, wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, that is where a joe biden could pick up some ground. it's where an amy klobuchar could pick up some ground. around trump there is a reality that there are tenets who can really block his path. but there are real candidates who can do that. he may take some jabs but that comes from knowing that the vice

president would be in such a position. >> this came up during the 2016 campaign after corwin lewandowski was fired. he was fired and people said, stay away from him. trump called him all the time. because of that, this jumps out to me to watch in the days and weeks ahead for potential fireworks. a power storm between trump's campaign and those who watch has already emerged. corey lewandowski and david bossie were not invited in the meeting. lewandowski and bossie have the president's ear. they do not have a seat at the table. when he wants to invite people to the table and talk to them, he uses this. >> the trump and lewandowski team is a mainstay we'll see over and over again, but to point of the president wanting to meddle in democratic

primaries, i did some reporting recently where i found out the president's main superpac, america first, actually invested significant resources into two of the republicans' opposition groups america rising, and asked them to write books on all the democratic candidates, joe biden being one of them, so they're well prepared going into the primary and can use this opposition research to sort of meddle and potentially pick the winner they want to run against by weakening some of the other ones. >> to that point, rahm emanuel, he did this when he was head of the congressional campaign committee, and one of rahm's slowigans is, pick your opponen. it's a great story there. i think something to watch is they might help elizabeth warren, right, because they want to hurt the other people, or whoever they decide. to me that will be interesting. who will they be working to get out there. >> bernie sanders, you might

think, oh, he would be easy to run against, but the president might not be sure of that, and also joe biden, because of pennsylvania. the headquarters will be in roz ly -- roslyn, washington, three miles from the white house. >> it's a fun marker. write it down, circle the names, highlight it. let's circle back and see how it goes. up next, what voters have to say about the president's national emergency declaration. with vine ripened tomatoes, signature cheddar, simmered to perfection. with big flavors, not artificial ones. enjoy 100% clean soup today. panera. food as it should be.

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a closer look now at the fight over the president's national emergency declaration and how the policy battle today is shaped largely by 2020 political confirmations. democrats confident the republicans are on their side to turn over the president's decree. but the president has a small slice of the electorate, and with that he sees a fight worth fighting. the question, do you support the president's national emergency? no. 60% disapprove. these aren't the big numbers the president looks at. this is what he cares about most. 85% of republicans support the president, so he thinks he's on safe policy on political ground. he also hopes this number convinces members of congress

nto stay with him. so how does he see the big picture as he gears up for 2020? his overall approval rating, remember, we had the shutdown. people thought he would tank over that. no. yes, 52% disapprove, but 46% approve in the fox news poll. not a tank but more than people thought it would be. in 2010, this is where he was when he began. this is all fox news polling. his disapproval up from 48 to 52. his approval rating was 48% when he started, 68% now. down a little tiny bit but essentially within the margin. so looking ahead to the reelection, he says he'll be just fine. >> nobody has done the job that we've ever done. i mean, nobody has done the job we've done on the border. and in a way, what i did by

creating such a great economy, and if the opposing party got in, this economy would be down the tubes. i hear a lot of people say, oh, well, maybe the previous administrati administration. let me tell you, the previous administration was heading south and it was going fast. we would have been down the tubes. >> he likes that phrase. let's bring in the host of the podcast democrat. that's the stunning part to me when you look at this. we've gone through two years of constant chaos, turmoil, controversy, a booming economy, the cloud of investigation. the president essentially today is more or less within the margins of where he was when he started. >> a stable number. >> just because americans are locked in, we're in a polarized world, and nobody who doesn't like him will give him credit, nobody who likes him will move away no matter what he does? >> he does have a honeymoon with

democratic independents. he hasn't tried to reach out to independents and democrats. he continues to reach out to his base, so these numbers don't move that much. he has a narrow band, and even though the numbers are a little bit better than they were perhaps a month ago, they're still within that range, and he's really being graded on a curve in that he still h has majority negative ratings and he's had that since day one. >> the national emergency declaration, the democrats want to overturn it. we know most members of congress think this is wrong on principle. that's our job. we appropriate the money, the executive branch shouldn't do that. that 85%, will it cause a lot of republicans to bite their pride, so to speak? >> republicans were less favorable. republican voters were less favorable. there were majorities still

upward past 67%, but not the percent you see now that the president has made this decision. it was easier to tell republican senators the opposition to executive overreach, the sort of things they said when president obama was in office. but now that trump has taken this concrete action, republican voters tend to follow the president. they like him, they trust him, and they think when he takes an action, it's positive. this has really put a lot of republican policymakers in a much more difficult position. >> i want to show you the map of approval by state. we vote for the president by state. the president flipped michigan, flipped wisconsin, flipped pennsylvania, traditional blue states. if you look at the darker states, the darker the state, the higher the president's approval rating. the lighter the state, the less of an approval rating. that's not a great place to be heading into your reelection. what does that tell you about

the different map the president will face this time? >> in those states, right, there are states where they had a lot of democratic gains in 2018 in some of those states, showing the same enthusiasm we're ciega cross t -- seeing across the country. on top of that you have polls over 50% across the country. you see other polls that show almost 60% say they would vote for anybody else, somebody else and not vote for him. the numbers are weak in potential expansion states, changing the map or expanding the map a little beyond those three states. i think it shows him in trouble. >> it shows him in trouble, but i remember 2016. there weren't many poll showings on trump winning, either, and he did. >> right, and we don't elect the president nationally. the polls tended to show hillary clinton up by two or three points nationwide and that's what happened in the popular

vote, but that's not how we elect presidents. those blue wall numbers you just saw do signal some serious weakness. the question is, who will democrats nominate and will they be able to successfully appeal to those voters who are disenfranchised, disillusioned, rather, with the president's job. in gallup polling, you have 69% of americans who suspected next year they'll be better off than they were this year. so you can look at it half glass empty, but if you look at the economy that are still low in those states, it definitely indicates a weakness heading into the campaign. >> i just want to show a tweet from kristin anderson. today is my last day in the 18-34 crosstab. happy birthday. >> thank you. >> come in, the water is fine.

as we go to break, a little taste of the 2020 trail. this is amy klobuchar still talking about her campaign rally in a snowstorm. >> one of the republican senators who will go unnamed came up to me and said, really, after your announcement did you really raise a million dollars in small donations? i said, yes, i did, but half of them came from snow globe manufacturers. and he said, really? i'm like, you are such a republican! the only one to combine a safe sleep aid, plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back. aleve pm for a better am.

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important news about the political chaos in the commonwealth of virginia. virginia house republicans announcing today they will hold public hearings into allegations of the democratic lieutenant governor justin fairfax. two women have accused fairfax

of sexual assault. he denies the allegations. jessica dean joins us with more details. jessica, how is this going to play out? >> reporter: what we're hearing is the house and justice committee will be the ones holding these meetings, and in these meetings, both the accusers will have a chance to testify and to talk and tell their side of the story. they've both been very public saying they want that opportunity to do so. we're also told that lieutenant governor justin fairfax will have an opportunity to tell his side of the story in these meetings. all of this coming after house democrats rejected a plan to build a panel, to get together a framework to do this in a bipartisan way. we're learning it's simply the house republicans that will be taking this on. we have no date as to when this will happen. the general assembly is wrapping up on saturday. as someone who has been covering this for weeks now and all eyes were kind of on the general assembly as the body that could move something like this forward, the question was would

they do so, and john, now we have our answer from house republicans. >> we'll watch this play out. jessica kedean, i appreciate th live reporting. good for them. democrats might complain, wait a minute, why not a bipartisan process? they tried for weeks to negotiate one. meredith watson in a post-op ed, jessica tyson through her attorney, they both said we would like a public hearing, we demand a public hearing. and they do. because they have a problem with the governor who admitted to a racist attack, and the attorney general who has admitted to a racist attack, the lieutenant governor in the middle with what is a criminal offense, what happens now? >> i think what it doesn't do is go away. i think there was some hope among virginia democrats that the tension would die down a little bit and they could survive this, that northam sort of making a tour of the state. this is going to be a big thing for months to come in virginia,

and i think they still need to figure some kind of way to correct this whole situation. for the state democratic party, this doesn't look too good here. >> it will revive questions about what they do with those who have called for democrats to resign and pull themselves out, but there may be a problem now with fairfax. but northam, if he gets his way, it seems he wants to sit and serve out the rest of his term. >> fairfax doesn't think this should be done in legislative hearings, he said it should go to law enforcement. i don't know what the right word is for that. he's a former prosecutor, but you're telling these women -- you're trying to tell them, this is your option. go to the police and file a complaint as opposed to, get a hearing in a format that you are comfortable with.

this should be their choirce, nt his choice, is the point i'm trying to make. >> and it's open to republicans, and the president is saying the wider politics of this is maybe good for republicans since virginia has been trending blue. this is a serious matter, but democrats have been hypocritical at best on this in virginia. >> the fact this isn't going away just brings up this massive national discussion how these issues should be handled when politicians face accusations. we obviously had this discussion with kavanaugh and how this plays out in virginia and the different accusations of hypocrisy going on, maybe this should lead to a path forward of how it goes on in the future. >> a republican-led committee in the virginia house of delegates saying it will hold hearings. gives both women a chance to testify, gives the governor a chance to testify. we'll stay on top of that story as well.

thanks for joining us on "inside politi politics." have a great weekend. we'll be live from iowa on sunday with senator kamala harris. hope to see you then. brianna keilar starts right now. have a great day. i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters underway right now. another day, another stunning charge. patriots' owner robert kraft accused of soliciting sex in a prosecution sting. plus a capitol on edge, a president under siege and a week that's shaping up to be the most consequential for the trump presidency. any moment robert mueller may drop the secrets he's been holding. paul manafort filing may tell all. what's next for jussie smollett? despite the charges against him,