45 seconds staging a come back. [closing bell rings] still end the day lower. dow down 33. s&p composite down 36. that should tell you everything. senator mitch mcconnell is supposed to speak soon. connell: we prepare ad chart. there it is for you. the dow down as many as 350 points intraday with all the breaking news flynn related out of washington. trish: fought its way almost all the way back. connell: where we were, a lot of major gains for the week. good to be with you, again. i'm connell mcshane in for david asman. melissa: i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell." here is what more we're covering during this totally insane hour ahead. the big washington bombshell, former national security advisor

michael flynn pleading guilty lying to fbi. this as speculation builds other shoes may drop. abc reporting that flynn may testify against the president. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says there are enough votes to pass tax reform when the senate finally votes. what did they put in the bill to get holdouts to change their mind to get to yes and what are they taking out? we'll cover this and more. among our guest this is hour, steve forbes, former defense attorney gregg jarrett, texas attorney general ken paxton and iowa congressman rod blum. we're awaiting senator senator. he is expected to speak on the senate floor any moment with new details on the senate tax bill and schedule going forward including when we can expect the final vote. we'll bring you his comments live as soon as they begin. connell: don't see them yet. we begin with the markets, and the crazy day as it was.

investors digesting headlines melissa was talking about from washington. nicole petallides on floor of new york stock exchange. it has been a volatile day. been a while since we've seen a day like this. >> it was 400 point swings from top to bottom. we had been up close to 50 points and flown to the bottom down 350 points while there were concerns what michael flynn might say about president trump. that was quickly washed away and the dow finished nearly flat on the day, down 41 points. certainly erased a lot of losses focusing more on tax relief. of the news breaking in washington continually. some traders i spoke with, while some said they would take profits, others said i'm buying the dip just like i did on election night. that being said we have the best week of 2017 for the dow jones industrial average. it is up 2.8% as we go into this close here. the s&p up 1 1/2%, best week

since september. taking a look at some of the movers here we're looking at the tech names you love so much, folks. they're in your 401(k)s and ira's. facebook down 4.2%. alphabet google down 3%. amazon down 2%. they had been down much more and recovered a lot of their losses. for example, amazon was down another 10 bucks. we came off the low and finished down 41 with a winning week on wall street. back to you guys. connell: nicole, as we await senator mitch mcconnell on floor of the senate talking tax reform, republicans are close to the vote on their version of the bill. our adam shapiro has been all over for this, as we await the senate adam is here with the latest. what the latest your reporting, adam? reporter: we expect the vote -- a rama after we hear from senator mitch mcconnell. it will clean it up late tonight or possibly tomorrow morning. senators want to get out of

here. look what at the will be changing, what is added or taken out of the bill. first the original plan was totally repeal the alternative minimum tax. not going to happen. this will keep the ault turn tiff minimum tax but raise thresholds when that kicks in depending on the income. increase repatriation taxes. senate had lower repatriation taxes. they will match the house bill. 7% on illiquid assets, 14% on cash. this new manager's amendment will restore the property tax deduction with a cap of $10,000. susan collins maine wanted it big time. she wanted a increase in medical expense deductions from seven 1/2 to 10%. she got it but expires in two years. this is going on right now. democrats not happen with what is going on. looks like they have 52 votes. here is exchange between senator

wyden and john thune that sums it up. >> i think it would be fair to say that every few hours this bill just seems to get worse. >> i believe we will have a final product that moves us fundamentally in a different direction when it comes to our tax policy. in a direction that is good for jobs, that is good for growth. reporter: again it looks as if they have at least minimum 51 votes which is more than enough. that is what mitch mcconnell needs. we're awaiting on senator mcconnell. we expect vote-a-rama to begin momentarily. that would be after we hear from the leader. back to you. connell: get on with it after the comments from senator mcconnell. adam, great reporting as always. melissa. melissa: here is steve forbes, forbes media chairman. they talk about the amendments going act and forth. do you think there is any substantial change? >> no big, big changes. doing away with things like alternative minimum tax, not a

good thing. they will have to do reconciliation with the house. freedom caucus over there made it clear some of the provisions in the senate bill they will not accept even though it got it through the senate. so this drama will continue. the key thing on the personal side, they have to be blunt bit, made a hash of it. a lot of people will not get a tax cut. they will get a tax increase. on the corporate side if they department that at 20% i'm delated where they make things like pass-throughs and partnerships and s-corps, lowering the tax rate, good for senator johnson making that happen. senator daines of montana making that happen. that is a good thing. overall it is positive but by golly they made it very complicated. they could have done much, much better. one thing, melissa, i'm shocked at, they didn't reduce the capital gains tax, immediate experience shows increases government revenues to help grows the economy. melissa: there are some things they could have done they couldn't do, but they always say

the perfect is the enemy of the good. what do you think are the odds if they put this through, we see growth and come back and try again and do more? >> that is one thing they should make it clear. ii hope they stay away the talk this is only once in a generation opportunity. make it clear, every year or two years, they will come back to do more tax cuts. if you didn't get it this time. you can look forward to getting it next time. i'm afraid given what it took to get this tax bill through. there is no appetite to revisit this thing. it will take a real push by the white house to get this back on the agenda. trish: when we were watching the market today, you saw it really go down when we are getting news on michael flynn, it came back as we were hearing more about tax reform. how do you think the market digests all of these things together? >> on the flynn thing we are obviously waiting a lot of details but if there is going to be a constitutional crisis that is not good for the stock

market. melissa: we're a long way from there though. >> we're a long ways from that. market always react when they get unexpected news. they did not expect this thing to look like it could implicate the president. when they digested it, realized world is not coming to an end yet, you saw, almost evened out for the day being down 350 points. connell: pick up on that michael flynn story in addition to taxes the other big story dominated headlines to melissa's point. he pled guilty to lying to the fbi the former national security advisor. let's see where things stand now. blake burman joins from us the white house to break it all down. blake? reporter: hi, there, connell, michael flynn, the president's former national security advisor walked into a federal courthouse here in washington, d.c., pleaded guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators or two different occasions or at least a phone call on december 22nd, and

december 29th. phone calls with the former russian ambassador, sergey kislyak during the transition. flynn acknowledged that i realize the actions were wrong and through my faith in good i want to make this right. i made this decision in the best interests of my family and my country. i accept full responsibility for my actions. the white house is trying to distance himself from flynn with the president's attorney, ty cobb, saying in a statement, that flynn was on the job 25 days and called him a obama administration official. flynn's departure from the white house came after lying to the vice president about the now infamous december 29th phone call with sergey kislyak which what he lied to the fbi as well. the president's attorney ty cobb wrote, false statements involved mirrored false statements to white house officials which resulted in his resignation in february of this year. nothing about the guilty plea or charge implicates anyone other

than mr. flynn. however the documents also show that on december 29th, flynn called a senior official of the presidential transition team who was with other senior members to discuss what if anything to communicate to the russian ambassador about the u.s. sanctions. those documents go on to say, that flynn ended up calling back that senior official to report on the substance of that phone call. connell? connell: blake, thanks. bring steve forbes back in, get his take on all of this. as you and melissa were talking about a few minutes ago, steve we are a long way from being in a constitutional crisis. maybe that is the headline risk markets initially reacted to and bounced back but at the same time the question i come back in all of this, even thinking as blake was reporting on it, mike flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi. what we don't know, there are some theories, we don't know why. there must have been some incentive for him to lie. isn't that fair?

>> i think what he said, flynn earlier, is that he just doesn't have the money to fight this thing legally for two or three years. the emotional drain obviously is immense. i think this is classic case of the prosecution, whether flynn is guilty or not of bigger things or president, all that kind of stuff, they just wore him down. that is something that has to be addressed in the future. the prosecution has the resources of the state. if you don't have a lot of resources of your own, they can wear you down and get you to do what flynn did today. connell: why would he lie at first though? >> what? connell: the first lie would be before they wore it down wouldn't it be? back when the president was inaugurated. >> he put his foot into it, especially lying to vice president pence. he may have copped this plea today potentially because of a actions of his son. we just don't don't know what all motivations are. at the end of the day how much

substance came out of this, maybe they said some things or shouldn't have done some things, but doesn't look like yet from what we've seen a real impeachable offense. connell: right. >> i guarranty you if democrats take control of the house next year, they will use whatever they have to go after the president. they're out for flood. connell: early innings for all this stuff. steve, we'll come back. appreciate it as always. melissa. melissa: more news out of the white house. president trump breaking his silence amid a "new york times" report that the white house is looking to replace secretary of state rex tillerson. president trump responding this afternoon, that the media speculating that i fired rex tillerson or that he would be leaving soon. fake news! he is not leaving. and while we disagree on certain subjects, i call the final shots, we work well together and america is highly respected again. i guess that settles that. connell: i guess. or distracts us from this and other things we're talking about today. we're still waiting for senate majority leader mitch mcconnell on taxes and he is expected to speak on the floor

of the senate maybe giving us new details timelinewise on the tax bill and when this votes get going, adam was talking about the vote-a-rama, very exciting stuff, supposedly getting started after senator mcconnell's remarks. we'll bring you the comments live, so stay tuned for. melissa: new fallout after the stunning verdict out of the kate steinle murder trial. jury acquitted i will leal -- illegal immigrant over murder charges. texas attorney general ken paxton reports that the justice department is considering federal charges. connell: there are documents just released shedding new light on the infamous tarmac meeting between bill clinton and then attorney general loretta lynch in the height of the hillary clinton email probe. we'll have more. trish: michael flynn will testify about president trump, how much of an actual threat, if

this is going to happen, how much of it is a threat to the president and his administration? former attorney gregg jarrett is here with his take. >> i don't see this going any further. i don't see any evidence at all any connection between the president and general flynn, anything involving russian collusion. ♪

melissa: we are still awaiting comments from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell expected to speak on the senate floor this hour, giving us new details on the senate tax bill and the schedule going forward, including when we can expect the final vote. we will bring you his comments live just as soon as they begin. connell: look who is talking now. melissa: yeah, exactly. connell: wow. in meantime, what a day, michael flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi as we were talking about. one of the things that came out

was this abc news report that he is ready to testify supposedly against the president. gregg jarrett has been all over it, former defense attorney. he joins us in the studio. that is what the market initially reacted to. >> right. connell: then it came back, the idea, whoa boy, is this some sort of impeachable offense and everybody started getting ahead of themselves. what about the legal argument here? i heard more about the logan act and that i cared to hear and what is that? >> the logan act was passed in 1799. it says private citizens can not interfere in disputes with the united states government and foreign government. connell: right. >> nobody has been prosecuted under the lowing again act. why? legal scholars, judges, lawyers, pretty much agree it is unconstitutional. it is overly vague, broad and ambiguous. it is probably a violation of the first amendment freedom of speech. connell: is there any crimes we should be thinking about here?

obviously lying to the fbi is a crime and that is the crime the former national security advisor pled guilty to today? as i said to steve forbes, this is more of a legal question, there must be some incentive or reason he lied but i guess we don't know. >> we don't know why he would lie. maybe he has been in the intelligence community so long -- connell: used to it. >> that lying isry. i understand why papadopoulos lied to the fbi. he is young man. probably got spared. flynn should know better. i've seen smart people do dumb things and that was dumb thing. he is punished by the law. he was punished by getting fired for lying to the vice president. if there was something that mueller had that connected michael flynn with president trump in collusion during the campaign it would have been in the statement of offense today. connell: you think they would have put it in the statement?

>> right. instead they put in his conduct during the transition. connell: right. >> which doesn't violate the logan act because he wasn't acting as private citizen as the law requires in transition official. connell: was there any other act or law makes it illegal not interfear with foreign policy of a sitting president. >> absolutely none. neil: so when you're in a transition you can gut a deal with foreign government while someone else is present? there is no law to prevent you from doing that? >> what generally happens, conversations which the u.s. incoming president, here will be my new policy let's try not to engage in disruptions before it is instituted. a foreign government will do pretty much the same. there have been past presidents who have been very active interfering even before an election with foreign policy disputes. richard nixon, for example in vietnam. he was never charged with those offenses. so -- i don't see any violation of any law or statute.

connell: that is interesting. that is interesting, one i heard people talking about today. i want to move to the other topic, gregg, while we have you here. "judicial watch" came out released fbi emails related to the meeting june 2016 between loretta lynch and president clinton and those documents that have been revealed that the fbi may have been more concerned with finding the leaker than maybe the actual meeting itself. so -- >> which is unbelievable. connell: give us your analysis of this one. >> first of all it is not a crime to leak the truth of a meeting on a tarmac. now it may have been a violation of security protocol and certain regulations, depending upon who is the leaker but it is not surprising to me that the fbi is more concerned about a leaker than they are about the propriety, maybe illegality of the meeting between loretta lynch and bill clinton. was a deal cut? did she promise him his wife would not be criminally charged for what appears to be a clear

violation by hillary clinton of the espionage act? gee, sure enough, days later after the meeting, james comey pretty much exonerates her. connell: timing is everything. gregg jarrett, with the legal analysis as always. thanks. >> my pleasure. connell: melissa. melissa: we're still awaiting comments from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell expected to speak on the senate floor this hour with new details on tax reform. senator al franken speaking right now on the tax bill. this is the first time we have seen him in a public forum since the sexual harrassment algations were lodged against him two weeks ago. we'll take you back to the senate floor when mcconnell begins. connell: throwing a monkey wrench maybe in the white house agenda, growing concerns over the guilty ply of michael flynn. also the kate steinle verdict that came down yesterday, the impact politically of some of those things on the president's agenda, potential fallout. that's coming up. plus more calls for

congressman john conyers to step down amid the sexual harrassment allegations piled up against him. why the congressman though, is not backing down. ♪ >> it will be congressman john conyers who will be the one to decide what it is he is going to do. it is not going to be washington. ♪ complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman? hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable. i could be up for that. that's taking options trading from wall st. to main st. : what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade

. melissa: backing down, the attorney for embattled representative john conyers saying the 88-year-old congressman will not be stepping down. amid sexual harassment allegations. >> he will continue to defend himself until the cows come home because unequivocally, unmitigatedly, he is indicating he has not sexually harassed anyone. we will discuss in the next day or so, what mr. conyers plans

to do. melissa: here now is brad blakeman, former staffer to george h.w. bush, and hadley heath manning, director of policy for the independent women's forum. brad, is that what you expected? >> absolutely. he's going to go kicking and screaming, but he's going to go. the only question is when? the leader pelosi now others have lined up against him. they've heard enough of the evidence. he's already made a payout. we know that from the witness who received it, which may jeopardize actually her testimony now, but he's going to go. no question. melissa: hadley, what should be the standard here? maybe it's about the voters in his district who put him in office and up to them to put pressure on him to go? is it up to other members in congress? what's your take? >> well, there are courts of justice and, of course, there's the court of public opinion which always matters more when you hold public office because your voters are ultimately your

jury, they'll decide if they believe that they can entrust you, not just on matters of personal character but issues where you're supposed to be representing them. i believe that the conyers story as well as the allegations made against senator franken, should bring to the forefront, the need on capitol hill to address really a cultural issue. many years ago there were changes that made it harder for people to bring accusations against people who hold public office and the office of compliance handle those things but office needs to be reformed so we as taxpayers understand the transparency, which awards and settlements are related to sexual harassment, and which are related to other workplace violations. we need to know, unfortunately, we've been footing the bill on the settlements. melissa: incredible, we didn't know we were footing the bill on the settlements and getting a lot more clarity, including the taxpayer funds that were used to settle the case against congressman blake farenthold. $84,000. brad, i'm sure you had a chance to look at this one over a

little bit. what did you think? >> unacceptable. the fact is there are many members of congress that didn't know that this was going on. not one dime of public funds should be used to pay off any of these victims, and we need to know whether it's a republican or democrat who they are, what it's all about, and they need to pay it back themselves. melissa: hadley, what's most incredible about this case in particular and you saw him on the screen is that people in congress knew about this. they knew about the sexual harassment issue, they knew about the departure of his aid, but apparently, supposedly, no one had any idea that congressional funds were used to make this settlement, and i continue to ask this question how can lawmakers who make the laws not know that this money is being used in this way? >> that certainly has been concerning in recent weeks as we've been talking more about the office of compliance, what

you see immediately on capitol hill is a bipartisan legislative effort to address this. not only to have greater transparency but eliminate the so-called shush fund used against accusers here. melissa: see you back in a little bit. stand by, connell? connell: we have breaking news. thought this might happen. it has. the department of justice filed for arrest warrant for jose garcia zarate, the undocumented immigrant acquitted yesterday of murder charges in the kate steinle case. the arrest warrant has been filed by the department of justice. d.o.j. officials will speak, by the way coming up with the texas a.g. ken paxton, stay tuned for that. melissa: new fallout from the guilty plea from trump's former national security adviser michael flynn. connell: and closing in on senate republicans expected to vote any time, trying to pass their version of the tax bill. battle is not over and rob blum

coming up with his take on that. that's next. ♪

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throughout the hour for you, the former national security adviser michael flynn with the guilty plea today to lying to the fbi. now it's only part of it. there have been details coming in on who may have involved, who he have spoken to. ashley webster in the newsroom monitoring it all and getting reaction from congress. what are you hearing, ashley? >> the shocker of the day, connell. once news broke that mike flynn was pleading guilty to lying to the fbi about contacts with the russian ambassador, democrats were quick to condemn. that's the headline for you. adam schiff, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee said the news was breathtaking and also said in part this is a national security adviser of the country. the chief adviser to the president in terms of protecting our country and basically he has admitted that he is a liar. democratic congressman jerrold nadler of new york took it a step further, he says there is now more than enough evidence to form the basis of a

congressional investigation into the president's obstruction of justice. democratic senator mark warner says when it comes to russian interference, the president is in denial. take a listen. >> mostly every one of my republican colleagues acknowledges russian intervention. the one individual that still seems to deny that this is not a major issue is donald trump. and i kind of wonder why? reporter: flynn's revelations are not earth share thing and prove no russian collusion or interference in the 2016 election. senator lindsey graham saying this, as far as i understand there is nothing where flynn was colluding with the russians. meanwhile senator jim inhofe of oklahoma defended flynn's character today, said he this, i know him well enough to know in anything he does he thought he was doing in the best interest of america as his life has reflected. the question is does mike flynn

have any more information that can hurt the president. we haven't seen any sign of, that guys. >> republicans defending him and democrats condemning him. reporter: shocker of the day. connell: that's why we put you on the story. thank you, sir. melissa: more reaction is congressman rod blum from iowa, sir, thank you for joining us, we got that report midday that it looks like general flynn was going, or didn't look like, someone was saying general flynn was going to testify against the president. what do you think about that? do you think that's true? do you think that's going to happen? does it sound likely? what's the scuttlebutt where you are? >> first of all, good afternoon from the swamp. [laughter] and i want to drain it. i want to drain it. yeah, this is a fishing expedition on behalf of the special counsel. flynn lying to the fbi is all about flynn lying to the fbi. this has very little if

anything to do with president trump, and most of the things he lied to the fbi about occurred after trump was elected president. it was during the transition and he supposedly spoke with the russian ambassador, and the russian ambassador said it would take him a half hour to list all of the officials of the trump transition team he had spoke with. this is much ado about nothing, and i am confident there is zero connection of this with president trump, particularly if we go back to the reason for the special counsel, it was to look at collusion between the trump campaign and the president himself, and the russian officials during the campaign. this is all about the transition team. melissa: i want to talk about taxes because money is very important to all of us here on this show. a tale of two tax plans. the senate is poised to pass version of the gop tax bill with a vote that is expected as early as tonight leaving republicans with the next hurtle which is merging the

senate bill with the house passed legislationment so what do you think? can all republicans unite behind a bill? what do you think are the essential tenets of what finally comes together as one bill? what will it look like? >> yes, and we're coming back a day early next week on monday. melissa: good for you. >> we can vote on the house on going to conference. so i'm confident they're going to pass something today in the senate and go to conference, and i am absolutely confident melissa, we will have this on the president's desk on christmas eve to sign as a christmas gift to the american people. there's three things it has to contain. does it simplify taxes? 95% of americans say the tax code is so complex they can't do their own taxes. yes, i know the house version does that. melissa: wait, wait, wait. i feel that's one of the places where it fails, it doesn't feel sympaler. there is still a zillion brackets, we heard about the post card, it's not the post ward. to you, what's simpler about it? >> today 70% of tax filers i

think we're talking 90 million tax filers do not itemize deductions, they sake the standard deduction, we are doubling the standard deduction from 12,000 to 24,000. it's estimated that 90% of americans will not itemize deduction. that's when you get into the schedules, melissa and the details and the headaches quite frankly. so that's probably going to encompass 30 million tax filers can literally do it on a post card. that is great simplification. secondly a tax cut to the middle class and thirdly reignite economic growth so middle class for the first time in 20 years can effectively get a pay raise. melissa: okay, i know you're the chairman of the house small business committee. some of the complaints have been it's helped some small businesses, not the last group. how do you want the group to look in the end so that it helps small business? >> well, the first $75,000 of

taxable income is taxed at less than 10%. we decreased taxes on small business, allowing 100% of expensing on capital expenditures. melissa: you want that pass-through to go further? that's been the thing that has been the debating point? do you want the pass-through to go down for more businesses? . >> i wish the tax reform package could have been bigger and bolder, we're working with budget reconciliation rules. it can end up not costing but reducing taxes by a trillion and a half dollars. we did lower the pass-through rate in the house. let's go as small as business, small businesses are mainstream businesses, let's reduce the burden to give workers a rays and expand the business. melissa: you mentioned the swamp. we want you to spend less money, you can come back and spend less money after this? >> amen to that. the democrats say the tax cut

is going raise the deficit. first of all because it increased economic activity, it's going to reduce the deficit over the next two years. but ronald reagan famously said we don't have trillion dollar deficits because we tax too little. we spend too much. i am with you a thousand percent melissa. we need to get spending under control. melissa: get it under control or next time i'm going to be grumbling. >> and if we get it under control, maybe we can share a slurpee. melissa: i'm a slurpee drinker in my twitter profile. did you your research. thank you. >> i did. melissa: thank you, thank you. connell: no idea what he's talking about. you like a good slurpee? melissa: coke, white cherry. connell: we have to get to the breaking cherry on the kate steinle verdict and the news that came in today. reigniting the immigration debate. how the government is trying to get justice for the family.

the a.g. of texas ken paxton will sound off on that. >> we will prosecute to the fullest extent available under the law because these cases are tragic and they're entirely preventable. [phone ring] hi anne. so those financial regulations being talked about? they could affect your accounts, so let's get together and talk, and make sure everything's clear. yeah, that would be great. being proactive... it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.

. melissa: after a stunning verdict, the department of justice just filing an arrest warrant moments ago against jose inez garcia zarate, the illegal immigrant acquitted in the kate steinle already trial. here now is ken paxton, the texas attorney general. sir, what do you think about this? more successful at the d.o.j.? >> first of all, very sad day for the family. they watched their daughter killed, and then watched somebody who had been deported five times who should have been deported again, who somehow gets out of jail as a convicted felon and finding a gun that

wasn't his and killed his daughter and the ending justice is a few years of prison time, which he's probably already served. a sad day for the family. i don't know what the city of san francisco tells this family. it is definitely a sad day for them. melissa: yeah, i mean now they're filing another arrest warrant, the department of justice immediately. do you think they'll be more successful given that, you know, some of the faults in the original case, they talk about overcharging him, that it would have been easier and more straightforward to convince the jury of manslaughter based on the physical evidence. also, if you talk about the venue and you know the city that we're talking about where this was, does it make a bigger difference if these are charges from the d.o.j. and talking a federal level? >> you know what? you never know, it depends on how the prosecution's approached. i'm certain one thing that should happen whether they pursue another trial is he

should be deported and we need to do a better job of keeping these guys out of our country, which is obviously something the president is focused on and we appreciate in texas. melissa: yeah, when you say he should be deported, it makes me -- he's been deported so many times, and he still came back and murdered someone, it doesn't give you any comfort at all to think about deporting him, it feels like it could be much safer to keep him locked up here, if there were a way to do that? >> obviously, if there are more charges that can be brought, they should be brought by the federal government, given the fact they were not successful in the state of california. the other part of this is exactly what we're talking about. do a better job defending and securing our borders, this president has done a better job than any president in modern times. as he focuses on the wall and more agents and technology, those are all things we care about in texas given the fact we have the same issues in

texas and you and i are talking about the same issue in the future if we don't resolve this. melissa: what have you seen in your area recently. people are talking about the fact there are fewer immigrants coming over the border since the election. has that changed? has it rebounded? >> it's been great. we've probably dropped 60 to 70%. i've talked to border agent, customs and enforcement, local police officers along the border, and the cooperation is amazing with the federal government, they're getting to do their jobs which over the last eight years, they were told they couldn't do. so it's made a huge difference. melissa: texas attorney general ken paxton, thank you. >> thank you, have a great day. connell: more breaking news on the mike flynn story. really the one that impacted the markets so much earlier. it's been a clarification or maybe a recharacterization of that report that could be very important. we'll have it for you next.

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. connell: there's breaking news on a couple of different fronts and you might remember that brian ross is the investigative reporter at abc news earlier today, he really broke the story on the mike flynn case, saying that the former national security adviser might be set to testify against the president. an important update on the abc news reporting, on the most recent filing of that story. dropped the reference to candidate donald trump. it just says donald trump. that might speak to the timing

of all this. it's one of those things that could be very important, brad blakeman is with us former staffer for george w. bush and hadley heath manning as well. welcome back to both of you. also a development on tax reform that won't kill the bill by the way, i don't think, because they'll be able to pass it 51-49 if math is right, that's because senator bob corker is against, it get to that in a second. hadley on the abc news update. could this be important because it goes to timing. if the instructions being given to michael flynn during the campaign by the candidate trump had happened before the election, that might be much different than transition officials which is what the criminal complaint said. what do you make of that? >> well, as always with stories that are developing, i think this reminds us we have to take

the earliest reports with a grain of salt, as more information comes to light, sometimes the narrative of the story might change. ultimately we have to wait. it's hard to be patient in a world full of instant gratification and twitter and news that moves fast, but have to wait for the facts to come to light and be sure we're looking at facts that aren't going to change overnight. connell: brad, your take on that and pick up on taxes if you don't mind, looks like they're going to pass on this thing. on the flynn story, how significant is the change you think? >> very significant, a rush to judgment by abc, they didn't have facts and timing is everything especially in this case. a candidate doing something like was alleged in making contact with the russians, especially with all the allegations is much different than a transition, trying to make a new contact with incoming administration with foreign government. so it is a huge clarification, and it goes to the heart of what flynn pled to, that is making misstatements while in

the transition, not when he was an adviser to the campaign. connell: real quick, corker is against it. >> that's fine. connell: they're still good to go, 51-49. >> absolutely. they're good to go, and expected we would lose one or two, we can only lose two. and gets him pays now is fine because he may be a yes vote once this gets out of conference. connell: thanks a lot, brad and hadley. thanks to both of you. melissa: bob corker a no on tax reform as we await mitch mcconnell to speak on the floor. what we know now?

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melissa: breaking news. right now republican senator bob corker is a no vote on the gop tax bill, saying in statement, quote, this is yet another tough vote. i am disappointed. i wanted yes. but at end of the day i'm not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation based on the information i currently have to

deepen the debt burden on future generations. i can't stop myself from spending. wait, that wasn't part of it. connell: you have seven more seconds. melissa: no. connell: that does it for us. what an hour. take a deep breath. "risk and reward" starts right now. liz: picking up on the breaking news, senator bob corker will now vote no on the senate tax plan that senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is expected to come to the senate floor, possibly getting more clarity on status of the tax bill. we'll bring that to you as soon as it happens. senator corker a no vote. a dramatic 350 point drop triggered by washington wash turmoil. turbulence, triggers by former national security advisor michael flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi cooperating i