good evening. there is a lot to get to tonight. there are new concerns about iran, new claims being made about whether iranian ships are carrying missiles and what america is prepared to do about it. and on the day the attorney general bill barr says he is okay if robert mueller testifies before congress, there is still no concrete plan for his appearance which has a lot of people wondering why. and president trump unveils a brand-new immigration plan, but it completely ignores some of the most complicated issues, keeping them honest on that. but first, there is breaking news on how michael flynn, president trump's first national security adviser, cooperated with special counsel robert mueller on the obstruction investigation involving the president, including what he told the special counsel about him being among, quote, a select few people, unquote, who heard statements among campaign officials about wikileaks after that group dumped stolen emails from the clinton campaign.

cnn's sara murray has details. explain what you're learning about the level of flynn's cooperation with mueller. >> we knew that flynn was an early and valuable cooperator, that he was talking with his interactions with the former russian ambassador. but this is giving more meat to the bones. it talks about the interactions he had, what he witnessed from other campaign officials about their eagerness to potentially get in touch with wikileaks after wikileaks had already started releasing stolen information, stolen emails. it also talks about how flynn cooperated with the special counsel's obstruction investigation. this new filing sort -- or this updated filing details the multiple instances where there was outreach from people connected to the trump administration or even to congress who reached out to michael flynn and his legal team, even after they knew flynn was cooperating with the special counsel's team. and this filing sort of notes that this could have influenced flynn and whether he was willing to cooperate. it even says that flynn and his legal team provided the special counsel's office with a voice mail. this may be the one that is referenced in the mueller report

and was a voice mail interest the president's counsel to flynn's counsel, talking about how they needed to know what flynn was providing to the special counsel's team. >> and i understand a judge ruled on the evidence tonight? >> that's right. that means we could see some of this publicly within the next couple of weeks. the judge basically said, look, i want to see portions of the mueller report that have to do with michael flynn that may now be redacted. he also wants to see transcripts of michael flynn's phone calls with these russian officials, including the former russian ambassador. remember, these were the ones that got flynn in trouble in the first place talking about sanctions, and the judge wants to see the transcript of this voice mail, these conversations that flynn's legal team or this message, rather, that the president's legal team may have been leaving for flynn's legal team. so we could see all of that publicly, anderson, in the next couple of weeks. >> sara, thanks. i want you to stay with us. i want to bring in former deputy attorney general elliot williams and current cnn legal analyst anne milgram for some perspective. anne, is this a big deal at all? isn't all of this baked into the

mueller report? >> it is in the mueller report. but remember, there were still parts that were redacted on the obstruction component that related to michael flynn. this is giving us more information, and it is showing us. the truth is always in the details. and it's fascinating to see, for example, multiple members of the trump administration and congressional officials reaching out to michael flynn after he was cooperating, for example. that's a significant piece of information that we only had a little bit of insight into before. >> why would people in the administration be reaching out to michael flynn, even though they know he is cooperating? >> it makes no sense. they know he is cooperating. they know robert mueller is investigating. they know that the president is being investigated for obstruction of justice, and they can't stop themselves from reaching out and i think it was they were so concerned about what flynn was saying. and trying to influence flynn. we know from the mueller report -- excuse me, when flynn's lawyer says we can't talk to you anymore basically, we're not part of this joint defense agreement. we know that the president's lawyer comes back and says the

president will see that as a hostile action that you're taking. >> elliot, is this anything more than just interesting detail, some of which may have been redacted? again, this was all information that mueller had to consider when he was making determinations he was making? >> it's interesting detail, but it's interesting detail that sort of shows the level of poor judgment exercise, both with respect to the willingness to play footsie with russia but also with respect to obstruction of justice. what i also think this particularly shows is now a very strong case to be made before flynn coming before congress. even if not in public, there will be testimony, at least in private meetings with congress and transcribed interviews. he has a huge incentive to do. he is still under a cooperation agreement. he hasn't been sentenced yet. and remember, he is sort of under judge sullivan's skin. if you remember, there was a point in a recent hearing where judge sullivan had sort of expressed his disdain for flynn

and flynn's conduct, and even used a word -- i can't recall precisely, but it was pointed language. i've appeared in front of judge sullivan. that's generally not good. but particularly from him that could be particularly bad for mr. flynn. so there is a pretty big incentive he has to go before congress and given that he hasn't been sentenced yet, thumbing his nose at a congressional subpoena or request is precisely the kind of thing judge sullivan could consider in ultimately sentencing him. >> it will be interesting to see once the voice mail transcript is released exactly how the conversation between the trump administration official and flynn went down. and what if anything the president knew about it. >> absolutely. not only those conversations, but the conversations he was having with the russian ambassador in the first place that got him into trouble. but, you know, i think this will also further congress' push for this underlying evidence. and it's interesting that we may get the first crack at it coming from a judge, rather than coming from congress who is trying to conduct this oversight.

i think there is one other thing we need to keep in mind. mueller did bake all of this stuff into the cake when he wrote his report. may be new information to us, but it's not new to bob mueller. it gets back to the question of what did bob mueller want the public to do with this information? was he hoping to hand it off so congress would investigate it or was he hoping that which is essentially exonerate the president. let them make the decision, there is more here than just saying okay, this is baked into the cake already. >> and just in terms of wikileaks, it's not as if that they were just passive. this was actively trying to find out about podesta's emails. >> i think this is really important. what we know now is that flynn was part of conversations where they were discussing actively reaching out to wikileaks. and we know that mueller said there was not a conspiracy, but it certainly looks like they were trying to have those contacts or they were thinking

about having those contacts. and the president still has not admitted that russia has interfered with the 2016 election. and so this to me says a lot about what the administration was doing and is a really important point for us to think about. >> and et al. -- the elliott, do the discussions mean anything? the mueller report has already said, as anne mentioned, there was no conspiracy. >> but again, the question was even if there wasn't -- there is an argument to be made there was, but they've made the finding that there wasn't conspiracy. is this conduct that we want either a presidential campaign or a president of the united states to have been engaging in? and remember, congress has a different standard than the reasonable doubt standard or probable cause standard that would have driven or dictated the findings made in the mueller report. the ball is in congress' court here. there has been some hand-wringing on their end, but at the end of the day, they ought to be investigating this right now. and either making a determination as to whether to proceed with even oversight or

not, but again, regardless of whether there was a chargeable criminal offense, the question was it proper conduct? and that is congress' sole function and mandate here. i think information like we saw today bears directly on that question. >> and sara, do we know if this was the extent of flynn's cooperation, or do we expect more evidence like this to surface? because this sort of just came out. >> i think that's kind of up to the judge at this point. the government has written their sentencing memo. that's where we're getting all of this information from. but as you guys have pointed out, the judge is very skeptical about flynn's cooperation. i think that's part of the reason that he's asking to see so many of these transcripts, these other sort of portions of the mueller report that might relate to flynn's cooperation, because before he sentences flynn, he wants to understand sort of the full extent of what flynn has provided to the government. there is one other point worth mentioning, that flynn's cooperation may not be over. he may still be a player in the roger stone trial. the government has sort of held that out as a possibility, and we'll wait to see that.

would certainly give us more insight into this question of conversations between the trump campaign about wikileaks. >> it's so interesting. in watergate, it really wasn't until there were televised hearings where americans who hadn't necessarily been following it could suddenly hear tapes, see officials, john dean and others talking openly about things that had only kind of been whispered about or alleged or nobody had any idea about. it would be interesting to see what the impact of a flynn testifying, a don mcgahn testifying would be. >> i think it's true, particularly when you look at the poll on how many americans have actually read the mueller report. >> minority. >> and it's very long, 450 pages. it's dense and hard to get through. i read it. >> single space. >> yes, single spaced. so i think public hearings and these type of tapes, this audio recording, having that be part of the public conversation i think would change, might change a lot of the way people see this right now.

>> could the white house exert executive privilege or keep trying to stonewall to stop flynn from testifying? >> yes. i think we could absolutely see that. they've already sort of -- >> that's their mode. >> that's what they've already said, it's protected executive privilege and they're still really pushing back on giving access to any of the redacted information, and they've said no to any of the underlying evidence. and that's what we're talking about here. those tapes, for example, that audiotape would be part of the underlying evidence. >> it would be fascinating. anne milgram, thank you very much. elliott williams. sara murray. sara murray, elliott williams. the latest from barbara starr next. also later, william barr says he won't stop mueller from testifying to congress. there is still nothing set in stone. so the question is why not? we'll talk to the man who literally wrote the book on mueller for what he thinks. the matters.ar... introducing the all-new 2019 ford ranger, it's the right gear.

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images showing iranian freighters reconfigured to carry hidden missiles. cnn has not reviewed the intelligence which has led to the u.s. assessment, and the u.s. government has provided no proof the ships are carrying hidden missiles and other munitions. this is emerging as congressional leadership in the heads of the house and intelligence committees known as the gang of eight meet for a secret briefing on iran. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr joins us with more on the iranian freighters. barbara, what more are you learning about what the surveillance is allegedly showing? >> well, u.s. officials are telling us, anderson, that they have images that they assess shows them that iranian freighters are carrying missiles. so what they're seeing is iranian freighters with huge areas of the deck cut out. and what they believe are missiles and munitions below deck, transporting them around. now combined with the smaller ships they see doing this, this so-called dhow's, this is really weaponizing the commercial fleet iran has up and down the persian

gulf, and this is putting these weapons potentially in range of being able to attack u.s. troops, military bases up and down the gulf. that's why it is so worrisome. >> two questions. this kind of movement outside the normal pattern of activity? and are these being delivered some place, or are these things that would be used from a ship? >> yeah, i mean, that's really the key question. some of them potentially could be fired from ships. some of them could be put ashore in various places and fired from there, delivered to shore. but that's really the key question. the extent to which this is outside the so-called normal pattern of iranian behavior in the region. they always have anti-american rhetoric. they always are engaging in potentially provocative behavior. they engage in weapons smuggling up and down the gulf. but officials are saying this doesn't appear to be any of that. this appears to be positioning missiles very carefully to be

able to be fired against u.s. assets in the region. >> all right. barbara starr, thanks. >> sure. >> well, a lot to talk about with fareed zakaria, host of "gps" and cnn global affairs analyst max boot, who is also columnist for "the washington post" and author of the book "the road not taken. american tragedy in vietnam." given these new developments we've learned, how dangerous? a situation is the u.s. in right now? >> i think in foreign policy terms this may be most dangerous. >> more so than north korea? >> i think so. north korea was hyped be up i donald trump because he wanted to make it seem like war was eminent and then he was going to be the peacemaker. you notice that now it became clear that he couldn't get a deal, he's lost interest. the situation is the same. why is it less threatening now than it was. but here what's happened, they've ratcheted up the pressure to an extent that an accident can happen. a miscalculation can take place. this is a very messy part of the world. there are iranian militias in iraq. there are iranian militias in syria.

there is stuff going on in lebanon. and then there is the persian gulf. there are all kinds of flash points. and by ratcheting up the pressure and being so ultra anti-iranian, it makes it difficult for the united states to back down. what we find in situations like this for america is it's very hard to back down because then your prestige is on the line, your credibility is on the line. this is a lot of what happened in vietnam where you just can't find a way to back down so, you ratchet up. i'm worried. obviously, most likely this will be resolved. but as i say, i can't think of a more dangerous point in the trump presidency in foreign policy terms. >> max, does the intensifying posture level that we see on the u.s. side make some sense given this new information? >> i think it's very hard to know, anderson, because we don't have access to iran intelligence. we're really at the mercy of the trump administration to interpret what they've learned. and unfortunately nothing in their track record would suggest

that they are going to be very reliable narraters of what is going on. remember, this is a president who lies an average of like 12 times a day. john bolton is somebody who lied in the past, twisted intelligence to try to make war with iraq more likely. so why would you trust him today? they have a major credibility problem which i think is coming back to haunt them right now. >> that is the danger of having an unreliable narrater. it's like reading "gone girl." you don't know is this accurate or not. >> and this is "gone girl" with nuclear weapons. >> right. >> there is also this additional layer which is the two people he seems to have subcontracted iran policy, mike pompeo and john bolton, have long histories of being in favor of regime change in iran. bolton has for a long time associated himself with these insurgency groups within iran that are trying to overthrow the regime that view basically is that the only solution to the iran problem is to overthrow the iranian regime. first of all, that seems very unlikely. this is a regime well

entrenched. secondly, this is fueling iran nationalism because they see themselves as being bullied by america. third, imagine the chaos. if we thought regime change in the iraq produced chaos in the middle east, regime change in iran will be a different level. >> much more complicated. >> much more chaotic. they have their tentacles in syria and lebanon and iraq. >> but they have proxy supporters all over. >> exactly. they actually helped us enormously in afghanistan. they could destabilize afghanistan where there are still american troops. >> i mean, this would be iraq on steroids. a much more difficult military problem. in some ways, anderson, i think our salvation here may actually be the fact that donald trump is basically a neo isolationist. he does not want to get into a war. but unfortunately, what he does like to do, he likes to bully people. he likes to push people around. he likes to put a finger in your chest and try to provoke a reaction. my concern is that bolton may be maneuvering him here.

we know john bolton is actually in favor of regime change. he's in favor of military action against iran. my concern is bolton has led donald trump 90% of the way there and all of the sudden donald trump looks around and says where the heck am i? how did i wind up here? it's a very dangerous and volatile situation where iran could fire the first shot and that could then justify military action by the united states. >> there is sort of the confusion over who is responding to whom here. is iran making -- moving things on ships because of the u.s. position, or is it the other way around? >> i think honestly, there is no confusion. the united states has been ceaselessly provoking iran. it has had a long strategy of regime change. think back to desert 1, the carter administration. i very much doubt -- max is right. we don't know the intelligence. but i very much doubt that these limited maneuvers that seem to be taking place are iran preparing for some kind of full-scale attack of the united states. they know they would be destroyed. >> fareed zakaria, max boot,

thank you. >> thank you. well, the attorney general says he won't block special counsel robert mueller from testifying, but there is still no concrete plan for that to happen. i'll talk it over with a member of the house judiciary committee, next. at panera, our salads are uniquely crafted. with peak season berries, creamy avocado. and a dressing fit for a goddess. come taste what a salad should be. and with panera catering, there's more to go around. panera. food as it should be. (danny)'s voice) of course you don'te because you didn't!? your job isn't doing hard work... ...it's making them do hard work... ...and getting paid for it. (vo) snap and sort your expenses to save over $4,600 at tax time. quickbooks. backing you. welcome to our lounge. enjoy your stay. thanks very much.

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congressman, attorney general barr saying he is fine with mueller testify, has that cleared the way for it to actually happen? where do the negotiations actually stand? >> well, we hope so. the negotiations between the committee staff and mr. mueller's team are ongoing. we hope that he will come before the committee. as you mentioned, the attorney general has now said he has no objection. we're back to that position. so it's very important for the american people to hear directly from special counsel mueller, that he has the opportunity to walk the american people and members of congress through the findings of his report. so i hope he will be before the committee in short order. >> are those discussions between the committee and mr. mueller or between the committee and the justice department? and if it is the justice department, because i guess he still works there, do you believe they're negotiating in good faith to make this happen? >> i hope they are. i mean i think mr. mueller is still an employee of the department of justice.

obviously, when leaves the department, that will change the dynamic a little bit. but with the attorney general saying he has no objection, hopefully that clears the way, and mr. mueller come before the committee. >> do you think there is a possibility that mueller doesn't want to testify before your committee? >> i mean, it's hard to know what's in his mind and in his heart. i expect that as a professional, mr. mueller is interested in setting the record straight. and this is obviously a very damning report with lots of revelations about the president and his administration, and i would expect that mr. mueller would welcome the opportunity to be sure that was shared appropriately with the american people. >> he does, though -- this is a 448-page report. he had the opportunity to say everything he wanted to say as he and his staff wrote it. in past testimony, he's been very judicious in what he said. he is not particularly loquacious and speaking extemporaneously. is it possible frankly that he has said all he wants to say in the report and that you're not going to be able to get much new out of him? >> well, i think don't forget what has changed in the

intervening time is the attorney general's mischaracterization of the findings in the report and his four-page summary and the way he has spoken about it. i think the record needs to be set straight with respect to that. i think mr. mueller made it clear he relied on the legal counsel's memorandum that says a sitting president can't be indicted. i would be curious. i think many people will be interested to know if he agrees with the more than 500 prosecutors and doj officials who say if he weren't the president, he would be indicted. look, he is a person that has been very quiet. his work is complete, but i think he wants to be sure, or i hope he wants to be sure that it's not misconstrued or misrepresented to the american people. it's too important. the work was too serious. so i expect that a person of his integrity would want to be sure this information was communicated accurately and the conclusions he came to were explained carefully. >> yesterday the attorney general apparently greeted speaker pelosi, jokingly asked if she brought her handcuffs, obviously making light of the inherent contempt threats. joking aside, where does that stand right now?

when is the full house going to vote on holding barr in contempt? >> i don't think the attorney general should make a joke of this at all. this is with respect to the attorney general of the united states being in contempt of the congress of the united states, continuing an effort to stonewall the american people, to prevent people from gathering the facts and getting to the truth. it's not a laughing matter. i expect that there are a number of other committees that are considering contempt citations. i think the sense is those will go to the floor together. but we fully intend to use all the power that we have to ensure that we get the materials that we need to make informed judgments that we can compel the attendance of witnesses before the committee to testify under oath. because remember, if the executive branch is permitted to extinguish our right to collect evidence and bring witnesses before the committee, it will have effectively eliminated the oversight responsibilities of congress. that would be a disaster. so mr. barr should take this seriously and should understand that we are going to use all the tools at our disposal. we have a process we have to follow, but we do not intend to let up. we're going to hold the

administration accountable and get the facts and the evidence we need to do our jobs. >> congressman cicilline, i appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. >> more now on this from garrett graff, a cnn contributor and author of the "the threat matrix: the fbi, war and global terror." >> now that the attorney general says said mueller can testify, do you think he will do so and will do so voluntarily? >> i think mueller is probably not relishing appearing on capitol hill, but he will comply with any invitation or order from congress to appear. >> if he does testify, what challenges do you think committee members would face in questioning him? obviously he has testified before and he has shown a lot of restraint. >> yeah, he is not someone who is anywhere near as loquacious or extensive in his testimony as we've gotten used to seeing someone like james comey speak. and so i think in some ways the onus is really going to be on the members of the committee to

make sure that they're asking sharp pointed questions. because mueller is not going to want to go much beyond what he's already said in the report. so in some ways, the most interesting answers are going to be the things where he says i can't talk about that because of an ongoing investigation, or i wouldn't characterize it that way or sort of some -- you're going to have to sort of read between the lines of a lot of what he is going to want to say. >> it will be interesting to see if he goes beyond really, what he said in the report. obviously it's a 448 page report. so he had plenty of time and space to say what he wanted to say. no doubt they will be kind of trying to get a kind of a fuller understanding of his thinking on how hamstrung he was by the department of justice's guidelines on not indicting a sitting president, for instance. >> exactly. getting him to talk about his thought process and whether he would have, for instance, brought criminal charges against

someone in this instance who was not the president of the united states will be interesting. but remember, robert mueller could have spoken at any time through this process. and the three times that the special counsel's office came out and decided that there was time for a public event, rod rosenstein gave the speech twice and bill barr gave that third talk. so obviously mueller has passed up the previous opportunities that he's had to speak publicly, and he knows that. and so anyone who sort of thinks that they're about to get robert mueller unplugged on capitol hill whenever he arrives in the witness chair is probably going to be disappointed. >> i wonder if he's always assumed that he would have to testify at some point, that it would just be part of this process. >> absolutely. and i think a lot of people have missed how closely the special counsel's office was keeping congress informed, liaison.

with the house intelligence committee, the senate intelligence committee that were conducting their own parallel investigations. most people don't know that robert mueller brought his very experienced, very seasoned congressional liaison from the fbi over to the special counsel's office to ensure that congress was kept up to date along the way. so i'm sure that mueller has always anticipated that he would end up in the witness chair, and i'm sure he's not particularly looking forward to it. >> it would also be interesting to hear if he's asked or if quotes the president has said about him, about his team are read to him, if he actually chooses to respond to things the president has said about him. >> yeah, and i would imagine that he won't. i would imagine that we would see him if pressed, make a strong defense of the justice department. its independence, it's integrity, and the nonpartisan

apolitical nature of the way that it carries out prosecutions. you know, i think you could imagine him saying comments very similar to what fbi director wray said in taking issue with attorney general barr, characterizing the investigation into the trump campaign as spying, for instance. >> garrett graff, i appreciate it. thanks very much. still ahead, president trump unveils a merit-based immigration plan that fails to address some key issues. we're keeping him honest, next. i was driving home through torrential rain when my car was swept into a flash flood. i scrambled up this really big tree and i knew my wife wouldn't know what was gonna happen to me so i video chat her and i said, "yeah, yeah, i'm up in a tree." after about five hours, and a lot of phone calls with emergency services, they sent a helicopter,

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facing battle from democrats and some republicans, president trump has unveiled his plan, if it can be called that, to reform legal immigration and border security. it's been sold as merit-based, giving preference to the high skilled and educated, however short on details, and that is putting it mildly. the white house says they intentionally left out the things that were too divisive. keeping them honest, the whole issue is divisive, in no small part due to this white house. in this new plan, for instance, there is no mention of daca for the dreamers. there seems to be no mention of family separations either.

here is white house press secretary sarah sanders this morning talking about why those things, which are pretty major things, were left out. >> this is a serious immigration program, why not address the issues of daca, of family separation? >> because it's a serious program, it's not included. every single time that we have put forward or anyone else has put forward any type of immigration plan that's included daca, it's failed. that's a divisive thing. >> i'm not even sure what that means, because it's a serious plan, they didn't address those serious issues. anyway, moving on, the plan was so short on details, that many lawmakers, including republicans, said they don't even consider it a real legitimate proposal from the white house. republican senator susan collins couldn't support it, even lindsey graham said the plan was, quote, not designed to become law, unquote. so what is it designed for? because before today, this was all supposed to be easy if the democrats would only just play

ball. >> we have a crisis at the border, both the national security and humanitarian crisis. democrats have got to stop ignoring the problem. sit down with the president at the table. >> the time has come for the democrats to come to the table and start negotiating. >> i think if the democrats have those type of concerns, then they should sit down at the table and negotiate with the president. time for democrats to work with us and fix this problem. >> look, it's time for congress to come to the table. >> it's time for them to come to the table and work with us. >> it seems like a talking point. but after today, what are they supposed to do to actually work on? that isn't even clear. earlier tonight i asked democratic congresswoman kathleen rice who is a member of the homeland security committee what she thought of the president's plan. congresswoman rice, i wonder what did you make of the president's speech today? is there anything in there that you could get behind? >> not likely, anderson. i come from a district in new york that has a total of about

10,000 daca recipients and tps holders. so it doesn't even address that issue. so i think it's going to be a non-starter for someone like me. that's just in my district. but looking at the larger issue, if you're going to really try to address the issue of immigration, you need input from both republicans and democrats. i don't think they got input from anyone. certainly not anyone on the democratic side, and not even any republicans. this was a plan that was hatched by the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, who to my knowledge, has no background expertise on immigration, and by stephen miller. and we know that he was the architect of the family separation policy along with jeff sessions. there really was nothing that -- from which we could start, i don't think. >> it is interesting that daca was not even mentioned. the president, remember he held that bipartisan meeting one time at the white house, and he

seemed to be siding at first with democrats saying that, you know, he wanted comprehensive immigration reform, and then he was reminded by republicans that that's not really a term that he's supposed to be using because it has a different connotation than perhaps he understands. but to not include daca in any speech, obviously it's going to be a non-starter for democrats. they made it clear that daca has to be part of comprehensive immigration reform. >> trump talked about that very early on as you mentioned, and we came very close on the floor with coming up with our own resolution on the daca issue. he's got to deal with the far right members of his party who have said no way under no circumstances can we allow a path to citizenship for daca recipients. and i think that's crazy. you know, these are people who have been here, who were brought here when they were children who are contributing to their society, their community. and these are the kind of people we want to keep here. so i think it's going to be a

very difficult sell, not just for democrats to get democrats on board, but also there are a lot of republicans who want to address the daca issue as well. >> in terms of the proposed what the president is referring to as a merit-based system, you read the m.l. lazarus on the statue of liberty, it's give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. it doesn't say your educated, your wealthy, your english speaking masses. >> i'm here because my father's father came here when he was 12 years old. he was not skilled at all, and he built a life here. and so what he is saying is forget about what he is saying about families. if you're an individual who wants to come here and make a better life for yourself, according to this plan, you're going to have to do it by yourself here and leave the rest of your family, whether it's your wife, your children, your mother, your father, your cousins all back home. i mean, he puts no value

whatsoever on keeping family units together. and we know that immigrant families have been coming here and built this country into the greatness that it is. forget about that. and to say that you have to be able to speak english, there are some people that trump knows himself that didn't know english when they came here. so i think that's kind of crazy to make it -- and when you say merit-based, i just think that that's forgetting about how important it is to make sure that we allow a diverse group of people come here through our immigration system. we need that kind of diversity. it is what america is based on. it's what has made this country so great. and his plan today would completely do away with that. >> and lastly, i guess the question is if this proposal doesn't satisfy what democrats want out of immigration reform and doesn't really satisfy what republicans want out of immigration reform, what was the point? >> well, i can tell you what the point was. as i was listening to it, i thought wow, this would really be a great political ad.

and that basically at the end of the day is what he said, if i can't get this passed, let's win. i'm not really serious about this. i'm just saying this because all i've done for the last four years is talk about immigration, immigration, immigration. so i'm just going to put this out there, knowing that it's not going to go anywhere, not because it's not going to get any democratic support, although it won't, but it's not going to get a lot of republican support either. we'll just forget that and take care of this after the 2020 election. so for all intents and purposes, that really was what it was. it was a political ad in the rose garden of the white house, i might add. >> congresswoman rice, appreciate your time. thank you. >> thanks, anderson. more to come tonight, including president trump's air force one attack on the latest democrat to declare for the democratic presidential nomination, new york city mayor bill de blasio. [music and singing in the background] [music and singing in the background]

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we got the big guns coming up at 9:00. let's check in with chris.

see what he's working on for "prime time". >> i really don't even work on my arms to be honest. it's more of a full body mentality for me. we're going to be talking about how what came out in the president -- >> whole body mentality. >> that's me. >> arms all are i got. you just said that. that's not what i was going to say. i think very rarely. we have a new financial disclosure. from the president. everybody is blown away by the headline. $434 million. huge number. very wealthy man. >> 40 million of it was from the hotel in d.c. >> for all the talk about the economy, revenue growth wasn't so great for this president's portfolio except for that d.c. property and one other in that area. why those? where does the money come from? i think it's going to feed just as largely the question of the taxes. so we have daniel dale fact

checking and also he's on this full time looking about whether trump's money comes from. what kind of business person he is. he clearly has a lot of profit and incentive coming from the businesses and then we'll have tom on to talk about why he's going after his own party as having blown it. we'll test that. >> chris, obviously you know new york mayor. bill de blasio. >> i do well. >> he's entering the presidential race. i want to show our viewers what fellow new yorker and no fan of his, trump said about him tonight. >> i can't believe it i just heard that the worst mayor in the history of new york city and without question the worst mayor in the united states is now running for president. it will never happen. i'm pretty good at predicting things like that. i would be very surprised to see him in there for a long period but it's just not going to happen. if you like high taxes and if you like crime you can vote for him but most people aren't into

that so, i wish him luck but really it would be better off if you get back to new york city and did your job for the little time you have left. good luck. do well. >> matters so little that he made a video about him. a video of hey let's make a video and have me be back lit and let's do this thing. >> that's probably just how he said it. it reminds me of the video he made where the eagle attacks him. >> it is similar to trump tower. how fondly we recall the days. >> he is on pretty firm ground going after de blasio. come on, 73% of people in new york say he shouldn't run for president. he does have more approval than disapproval in his job as mayor but it's something else we'll deal with on the show. is 23 too much of a good thing?

>> see you about six minutes from now. >> coming up, what does one have to do to earn a presidential pardon? how about write a book praising the president himself. that just happened. another story on justice and the age of president trump. next on the ridiculist. at panera, our salads are uniquely crafted. with peak season berries, creamy avocado. and a dressing fit for a goddess. come taste what a salad should be. and with panera catering, there's more to go around. panera. food as it should be. forget about vacuuming for weeks. the (new) roomba i7+ with clean base automatic dirt disposal empties the roomba bin for you. so dirt is off your hands. if it's not from irobot, it's not a roomba.

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thanks to priceline working with top airlines to turn their unsold seats into amazing deals, family reunion attendance is up. we're all related! yeah, i see it. and because priceline offers great deals by comparing thousands of prices in real time, sports fans are seeing more away games. various: yeah-h-h! is that safe? oh, y... ahh! not at all. no, ma'am. nope. and more people than ever are enjoying romantic getaways. (romantic music) that's gross priceline. every trip is a big deal. president trump is handing out pardons like a bunny that likes rotten eggs. the latest is conrad black.

billionaire canadian turned u.s. felon. convicted for fraud and hey, get this, obstruction of justice. so he has two strikes against him but in the plus column he is a personal friend of the president that doesn't like talking about obstruction of justice and he gets a little thumbs up from the president because he recently wrote a hard hitting expose of the trump administration. i'm kidding. he actually did write this book. the title, donald trump, a president like no other. black writes that president trump is a good deal more ethical and honest than many other business men. perhaps like many of the business men mr. black met while serving time in florida. in announcing the pardon the white house referred to black who after he was released from prison was deported from canada and banned from returning to the u.s. for 30 years as lord conrad black. you can google how he got that title. let's just say he ain't in the line of succession to any throne

unless it's one president trump just flushed. by the way, in announcing the pardon, the white house listed some of lord canadian bacon's other books but none about the president nor did they mention the sizzling chemistry in 2013 on black's talk show. >> you're becoming the great authority and the great czar of golf clubs in america. are you not? >> i have a lot of golf and buildings. we're building all over the world. we have jobs going up all over the world and they're very exciting. >> can we go back to that cut away shot of lord black. what is that? for someone so wealthy. he was shooting a show with a nanny cam. it kind of looks like whatever the white house is calling him was shooting a show with a nanny cam. like security needed a wide shot. now obviously this is not the first time the president used his pardon power for what he

calls unfair treatment and the constitution calls justice. there was right wing conspiracy theories. convicted of federal campaign fraud. he got the giant sharpie scooter libby. treatment and maybe his nickname as well and who can forget joe arpiao held in federal contempt for detaining undocumented ingrants in arizona. who would have predicted that president trump would see that as no big deal. there's been other pardons. it does help if you have a kardashian willing to go to the white house for a photo op on your behalf. the swamp stench is strong tonight and the president and his wealthy pal can beg our pardon on the ridiculist. i want to hand it over to chris. cuomo "prime time" starts now. >> in line of succession for no throne except the one the president just flushed. >> i'm glad you got it. >> that is a keeper line.