a family. brenda buttner, gracious, brilliant, beautiful inside and out. rest in peace, brenda, you're with the angels now and already missed down here. >> politics, front and center today. conservatives get their marching orders from the commander-in-chi commander-in-chief. >> the era of empty talk is over. it's over. there is such love in this country for everything we stand f for. leland: meantime, democrats vowing to fight back with new leaders and tougher messages, as they elect their new chairman. will that change the results at the ballot box? and before president trump addresses congress and the nation tuesday, he's going to touch base with the nation's governors. we'll check in with three of them, with their vision for

working with or opposing the trump administration. good afternoon from the crossroads of the south, i'm leland vittert in atlanta. at this moment, democrats here are voting on their new party chair that will decide the future of a party in disarray. elizabeth: all right, nice to see you, leland. i'm elizabeth prann at cpac. welcome to a busy america's news headquarters. that's where we're going to start our show today with fox team coverage. fox news correspondent jonathan serrie where the democratic party is currently voting. first let's go to lauren blanchard here at cpac, in the room where the main event will take place. >> hi, liz.

it's not a presidential year, but the poll at cpac is a hot topic. the difference between this year and last year, this year it's about the issues. >> this year people are excited about everything. i feel pretty much emboldened right now. they want to get their points across, whether it's economic issues or defeating isis and stuff like that is the really issues that they want to talk about. >> questions rainied from what they're doing and the national debt. the top three issues and if they approve the job that president donald trump is doi doing. so we're sorry, we're missing those sounds. so people were saying they somewhat approve of donald trump. another one said that he thought a question at the end asking folks what kind of

conservative is. he thought everybody was voting as a reagan conservative, someone else we spoke with said she's excited to see how the straw poll goes because she is excited to see the future of the conservative movement and what it has in store. now, the straw poll does measure about 1500 participants and voting closed just about an hour ago and now, although the main headliners already have addressed the crowd, we are awaiting the new epa administrator scott pruett, he'll be speaking to the crowd later in the afternoon just before those results of the straw poll are announced at just about 3:00. we'll bring you coverage of those once we know it. liz. elizabeth: all right, thank you very much. leland. leland: here in atlanta, liz, it's a battle royale.

a chairman will lead those wounded and divided preparing to take on president trump in congress. jonathan serrie a few blocks away at the democratic winter meeting, voting getting underway there. jonathan, you get a sense this is a battle for the future? >> you do, indeed. in fact, the meeting got off to a late start. they're resetting the stage for candidate for chairman to come out and make brief speeches here. let's talk about the two leading candidates, one is tom peres, he served as labor secretary during the obama administration. in the race for dnc chairman he enjoyed strong support from the democratic establishment. he faces stiff competition from minnesota congressman keith ellison, an early supporter of bernie sanders and one of the first democrats that predicted that donald trump had a shot at

the white house. he's head of the younger, more liberal base and the first muslim elected to congress. leland. leland: jonathan, last night i spent time both with the delegates, with the staffers, for chairman. what struck me the difference of the the democratic party. the direction they wanted to go in terms of taking on president trump and his agenda and also how to connect with the younger portion of america that may identify themselves as liberal, but not necessarily democratic. >> yeah, leland, a very important point to make. when you look at the seven candidates, they represent all aspects of the liberal to moderate spectrum. democrats are really trying to achieve a difficult balance here. on the one hand, they want to capitalize on all of the anti-trump sentiment among their more young and liberal base. they want to mobilize that base so that they're not just protesting in the streets, but

going out and voting and not just for president, but state, local and in mid-term elections, but experts caution, that cannot be a stand alone strategy. listen. >> than just opposing trump for opposition's sake. that didn't help hillary clinton in the general election where she basically presented herself as the anti-trump and it didn't resonate. >> on the other hand, the party wants to regain its reputation as a champion for america's working class. now, this is a group that largely left the democratic party in the last election supporting donald trump, leland. leland: a lot of discussion about that for the new chairman to take over, jonathan. what struck me, also, sort of both interesting and confusing is how this balloting process worked. it's not simply vote for who you want as chairman and then the guy with the most votes wins, it's complicated and arcane and may not favor

necessarily the person with the most support. >> yes, stick with me here, class. i'll try to explain it. will are over 400 members that would vote. five of those seats are vacant. so, you'd have a maximum today of 442 members. ow, in the fir any round of balloting, in order to win, you have to surpass 50% of the vote. well, we're talking about a seven-way contest so that's unlikely to happen in the first round of balloting. if it doesn't happen in the first round, they have a second identical round. if the second round doesn't produce a winner, then they go into third, fourth, fifth, et cetera, rounds. in those rounds the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated from the next ballot unless one of the candidates voluntarily steps down and endorses someone else. and then the process is repeated until you finally have

a winner who becomes the next chairman. dnc. did you follow all that? >> jonathan, i think we are going to start calling you professor serrie, political science and democratic politics here. great explanation. we'll check back with you on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth ballots if it gets to that as well. thank you, sir. >> see you then. leland: liz. elizabeth: all right. jonathan is our go-to guy. in the meantime, job creation and health care reform, those are some of the top issues the republican party made very clear at cpac this week. joining me now the chairman of the american conservative union and brains behind this operation, congratulations at cpac. >> you don't want to get ahead of your he have is-- yourself. elizabeth: an opportunity for cpac to identify itself, in the

beginning it was a perhaps rocky start? >> we had a question whether donald trump should be invited to cpac and the whole never trump movement last year. no, we said, no, no, he had a right to be heard. and this year, controversies what's happening on shutting down conservative talk on campus, something that we should address here, even when that talk is controversial. but we think it's okay to be controversial at cpac. when that talk turns into something that seems to be open to criminal activity we drew the line and we have drawn the line of alt-right and we just think that's wrong. elizabeth: a ton of issues, i heard. the take away. when people walked away feeling invigorated and what issues they feel they would get addressed in the next four years. >> this crowd is ready to

rumble on the major questions that face the country. they look at donald trump coming to cpac and what they love about him the most, he's teaching them how to fight. he's teaching them to fight back and that's often important when you think about, if we don't get this economy rolling pretty soon, americans are going to be hurting even more and i think it makes real question whether-- what's the roll of america around the globe and the global compli. if we don't protect your-- our borders, and protect from islamic terrorism. the people want to fight back and take back our country. elizabeth: not necessarily everybody voted for donald trump. i saw a ton of hats, but i talked to people the last couple of days who weren't on board and now they're coalescing for the party. do you feel that republicans are working on that now? >> most the people are

republicans, and some are conservatives and libertarians. they're impressed that donald trump came in the first 30 days, much like ronald regan and he picked through and did a lot to cement that relationship. he's going to need them as the days get rockier. elizabeth: oh, yeah. >> and the challenges get bigger and smart of him to reach out his hand and say we've got to do this together. >> we heard him talk about that yesterday. he said listen, i'm come to cpac and welcomed him with open arms and he's now president. he has to govern differently, can't necessarily have executive orders. people here when they listened to him yesterday, do they feel their voices were heard in his administration? >> one of the reasons that donald trump was successful in the run for the presidency, he listened to people. a lot of politicians weren't

listening to them and that was not picked up in the polling and political polling. and more than others who do it for a living. the voices were heard and they feel vindicated and like he's going to pick up their cause. elizabeth: matt, congratulations. a ton of energy this year. i remember when donald trump arrived yesterday, people couldn't get in. >> that's right. elizabeth: there was a lot of energy. >> they should buy tickets early next year, right? >> we have to give you time for a promotion, never too early. thank you, matt. appreciate it. and president donald trump's promise of a wall across the u.s.-mexican border could be a step closer to reality as they plan to solicit bids for construction. will is live in l.a. with the latest.

>> president trump signed an executive order to start building the border wall and now fox news confirmed the administration is soliciting ideas from contractors with initial designs due in the coming weeks. as it stands now over 650 miles of the border which runs over 2000 miles. at cpac president trump emphasized that's about to change. >> we're going to build a wall, don't worry about it. we're building the wall. in fact, it's going to start soon, way ahead of schedule. way ahead of schedule. >> the administration does have some political hurdles. a tribe in arizona which has 75 miles on the border is against the wall and prefers using technology for security. in new mexico, 22 miles of state-owned land on the border has become a political battlefield. they are pushing legislation that would prohibit the federal

government from acquiring that land and in california may use state and environmental laws to prevent construction. then there's the price tag. somewhere between 12 and 21 billion dollars. president trump maintains that mexico will pay for it although the mexican government, liz,s a you know says that's not going to happen. elizabeth: all right, will carr reporting live, thank you so much. appreciate it. leland. leland: a little bit more on the immigration debate with texas governor abbott in a few minutes. the dnc is currently working to end the holding pattern that started last year when wikileaks ousted debby wasserman schultz. they're voting in a few hours and the democratic party will have a new chair. the meeting's agenda seems to isolate by causes, lbgt women and ethnic groups into separate meetings, something we've heard complaints about from democratic operatives here.

let's bring in a democratic strategist to tell us if playing identity politics will help rebuild the democratic party. great to see you. >> good to see you as well. leland: struck me one of your fellow democratic operatives and strategists said what we experienced in november was total market failure of the democratic ideals and the democr democratic party's message and now we need to reset. do you agree with na? >> absolutely. i think we got it correct, but we can't overcorrect. the american people particularly in states that made up the majority of the electoral college, they voted for donald trump, but let's not forget that hillary clinton received almost 3 million more votes than donald trump did in the election. i think the key here is that democrats-- we've got to sort of recrete our jobs message. if you look at working class white voters. working class undereducated white voters, president trump did well with the message. we want to strengthen the

middle class and that appeals to educated white voters. what we've got to do when we come out of the convention, whoever the leader is, we've got to articulate how we're going to make sure we have good paying jobs in america again. leland: can you articulate that message while at the same time articulating so much of the other messages we hear coming out, climate change, transgender rights, various other sort of, what one person said to me is the fringe issues that seems to be taking center stage so often? >> yes, look, we've got to be bold about those issues, we cannot run from who we are. the democrats have been the party of all people for a very long time. you've got to remember, this is the first time in republican history at a g.o.p. convention where you really saw the g.o.p. really even mention lbgtq rights and a gentleman who spoke at the convention. you look at also the conversation about transgender, folks have mixed emotions on and president obama did and had

a favorable rating. i think at a time when you have a president of the united states of america that has a 38% approval rating, i think that the american people are looking for him for leadership and i think there's a door opening for democrats. leland: how do you walk through that door? how do you become something other than what hillary clinton was, which was essentially i'm not donald trump. how is the next two elections, 2018 and 2020, how do the democrats make that about something other than a referendum on not being donald trump? >> we do it by starting today to say, listen, donald trump is the president, but we cannot make it about just resistance to donald trump. we've got to talk about three things, we've got to talk about jobs, i cannot stress that enough. i don't care who you are, whether you're a democrat, republican, independent, black, white, hispanic or asian, if you can give someone a good paying job in america, that's something they like and we've got to help to figure out how we're going to deal with this health care system that we have right now where many of those protests that you see-- >> you're getting a lot of energy to protests on health

care. when you hear somebody like keith ellison, we're going to resist donald trump or try to impeach donald trump a couple of weeks into office, it's a pretty negative message. you've got tom perez on the other side who somehow managed to make himself the reasonable, middle of the road guy when for so long he's been a staunch progressive liberal. >> well, i think what representative ellison said, yes, he's got to be sort of that symbol against resistance towards donald trump, but he also said yesterday when he spoke to the african-american caucus, the different caucuses had people running for office through their caucuses, he says we've got to have a platform to resonates with the american people and i think we'll have that when we come out today. leland: is this now or never? >> i think the selection of the dnc chair is beginning of our pathway towards regaining power in the senate and house and also focus on governors' races and mayors' races. leland: and 31 of 50 house--

state legislators you don't have. and come back after you have the new dnc chair and we'll see talk about what the future holds. elizabeth: iraqi troops backed u.s. support, in mosul, a fierce campaign against the islamic state. they've used car bombs, snipers attacking the special forces moving into the city. one iraqi general says their pace should speed up as they take more territory and cut off isis supply lines. >> ahead from washington and atlanta, 33 republicans, 16 democrats, one independent, as you look at the room there, the nation's governors are in washington comparing notes and getting ready to meet the new residents of 1600 pennsylvania avenue. killers for hire, what one

suspect says they were paid to carry out in a bizarre assassination with worldwide implications. and weighing the consequences of one of president trump's key promises to repeal and replace obamacare. will it lead to regret for republicans?

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>> welcome back to atlanta. more news from the dnc chairman's election in just a minute. right now, more questions than answers that remain in the investigation, the death of north korean leader kim jong-- kim jung un, kim jung nam. his death from a nerve agent took place earlier this month. one of the suspects, was, get this, paid $90 to execute the attack after previously claiming she thought she was pulling a prank. we have not heard the end of this story, that's for sure. >> all right, getting back to domestic news now. after an earful from rowdy town

halls in their districts, g.o.p. leaders will return to d.c. on monday. one rally by our revolution is underway on capitol hill. lets he a talk about implementing changes to the health care program will fall on the shoulders of the nation's governors. hi, garrett. >> hi, liz. one of the concerns for many of the governors is medicaid and how any repeal and replace plan will affect that. you have to remember under the affordable care act, 31 states and distr expanded medicaid to make people more eligible. and since 2014 added up to 11 million more people on medicaid's role. governors from those states are concerned about some of the obamacare replacement plans 0 that would scale back medicaid funding that they received. one was ohio governor john kasich. >> the president was very responsive to my concerns about the affordable care act and

medicaid expansion. he said he was very intrigued with the idea. don't know where that will all go, but i will tell you that the president was, you know, he listened very carefully to what i had to say about it and had a very positive response. >> and kasich said he's one of a number of governors who will be meeting with the new health and human services secretary tom price, with concerns how states can have more flexibility using medicaid dollars. for the governors, there's concerns over congress potentially moving too fast to removing obamacare before a replacement is ready. >> a complicated cumbersome bill, i think almost everyone would say it can be improved, significantly improved. but to say we're going to do that improvement down the road and repeal it without having an

idea, a specific idea what the replacement is, i think, would congress would love to do is push the costs off onto the states. >> now, congress gets back in town on monday and that's when house speaker paul ryan indicated that republicans plan to unveil their repeal and replace plans. stay tuned, liz. >> all right. garrett, thank you so much. leland. leland: more on that with our next two guests. coming up, how the governor of nebraska is shaking things up when it comes to the unemployed, and get this, he's got some advice for the president. plus, colorado's governor john hickenlooper weighing in on legalizing marijuana. you saw him in garrett's piece, and he's standing by to tell us why he says legalizing pots is one of the great experiments of the 21st century.

>> a beautiful shot of the national harbor. the last day of cpac. very successful, a fired-up crowd in the days we were here and outfits there. and donald trump's background in business, rather than politics, was a huge motivator for millions of americans. the message was clear, the status quo of government wasn't working and voters wanted an outsider. people in nebraska elected their own outsider in 2014 who took the stage at cpac yesterday. >> people want government to work, that's all they want. and too often it doesn't. in fact, that's one of the reasons why i think i was hired. to bring my business experience to making government run more like a business, to make it more effective and efficient. elizabeth: that was just a short snippet of his speech

there. i had an opportunity to spoke with the governor before he took the stage and he shared tactics in nebraska and what he expects from president trump on key issues such as health care and trade. >> one of the things we've done in nebraska is turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system. by that, we're asking anybody to taking the benefits to sit down with a coach and produce a resume', we reduced the unemployed, areduced payouts by 14 million a year and able to lower the unemployment insurance tax saving nebraska businesses 17.6 million. elizabeth: correct me if i'm wrong, what i'm hearing there is the power is in the state with something like this? >> absolutely. that's the whole problem with the last administration, they tried to take power away from the states. what we believe is that the states will actually do a better job of administering these programs because we'll tailor them directly to our people. elizabeth: news of the week, obviously, the president

reversing an executive order by barack obama. your reaction to that, and what was your activity and your engagement with that particular executive order? >> we're pleased to see that executive order reversed. we were one of the states viewing the department of education on that, they were outside the law. when we're talking about measures of education, it should be handled by the local level and allowing parents, school boards and schools to see how these should be enkt aed. elizabeth: is there are things to be done better? >> there's disagreement in groups of people and we have to work together on a common ground. i think philosophically when you talk about republicans, we're on the same philosophical pages. but when it comes to the nuts and bolts, we will have different things, but dialog to get there. elizabeth: things such as trade. what is your conversation or dialog with the president on ways to improve both of those? >> i think that trade, for

example, the president withdrew us from tpp which would have been good for nebraska, but when i had a chance to talk with him during the campaign, he wants the best deal for producers in the united states. he want to do it by bilateral trade negotiations rather than larger agreements like tpp. that's fine and it be successful, but we encourage him to do that and support mimm -- him in doing that. elizabeth: my last question, the president wants to roll back regulations. how does that help you as executor of estates when the regulations are rolled back. >> that's one of the biggest frustrations, that people have in the state government, the amount of rules and regulations that don't make sense. we want more freedom to enact programs, for example, for health and human services that the federal government wants to enact. give us the freedom to do it locally, we can do it better designing locally than somebody

in d.c. what works in nebraska might not work in new jersey. give the states that responsibility. elizabeth: are you excited to be here? >> yes, i'm excited about things in nebraska and talking about the overreach of the obama administration. elizabeth: it was interesting to speak with the governor and listening to the speech, it's putting the power back in the states and that's a number of the themes that we saw here at cpac, what we found compelling, all the speakers tackled a different issue. they brought in establishment g.o.p. they brought in libertarians, brought in conservatives. so it was a broad spectrum. it wasn't necessarily that you were going to hear the same issues addressed in speech after speech and that's what i found compelling about the week, leland. leland: and noted during your interview, liz, the past eight years, the cpac is not about opposing the obama administration and now the

republicans are in charge. and donald trump when it comes to immigration, we've got the governor of texas outspoken on that issue, we have governor abbott speaking about immigration and opposing the obama administration policies. and another issue that governor rickets talked about, transgender bathrooms, texas was part of that lawsuit as well. and a lot more on the plate. what you can talk about the issue of how striking the energy difference is. cpac is year ago when it was in disarray and then candidate trump didn't show up. 17 possible candidates to pick from the straw poll was a mess, now all of a sudden you have a unified message, kellyanne conway saying we are going to rename this t-pac instead of cpac for trump-pac. elizabeth: what we saw this year was different from years past.

there are people here that didn't necessarily vote for donald trump, but they have issues they feel passionate about and people who are here that voted for donald trump and with him from the very beginning. so we saw a wide array of constituents and we saw people coming in from across the world. i spoke with a man who came-- who moved to the united states from france and felt passionately will electing this particular president. i think it was a fascinating group of people and of course, we're going to have more coverage from cpac because it's not over yet. we'll be hearing from the administrator of the epa, that's scott pruett and he'll be speaking probably in our show in the next hour or two when he takes the stage. we will bring it to you live. i want to transition, we need to get weather in. more rain is on the way to the western u.s. following what has been a record-setting year for some areas, but the eastern u.s. will get its share of precipitation this weekend with a strong storm system headed that way.

our own meteorologist is at the weather center with the latest. hey, adam. >> you're absolutely right. tracking storms on both sides of the country. cooling off across the middle of the country. it's been so mild nationwide throughout february, beginning to see at least a brief cooldown. look at some of the numbers across the upper portion of the country. temperatures down into the 20, 25 degrees in chicago, incredibly warm a bit ago. you see a line of warmer weather just off in the eastern half of the country. it's when the cold air and warm air meets and you can see potential for severe weather and certainly we're seeing colder air. these are the 24 hours temperature changes and 14 to 30 degrees colder today than this time yesterday. when those two air masses meet that's where you'll start to see shower activity and we're seeing it run up here into the northeast. this is a line of what could become severe weather. it's on the lower end of that. just a slight risk. it's going to work its way toward the east coast running toward new york, philadelphia, washington, in the next several hours and here is our hour by

hour forecast. you can see the time stamp behind me. and here it is in the philadelphia area. new york city by this evening and then as this passes on through the area, we're going to talk about colder air funneling in on the side of this. the east coast has been enjoying incredibly warm temperatures the past couple of days. that's falling for the second half of the week and we are going to be looking here for the next couple of days, guys. >> all right, adam, live. thank you so much. after the break, the growing intensity of the trump administration's war with the news media. we're going to discuss that with the head of the white house correspondent's association jeff mason in the next hour, you don't want to miss that. some sights and sounds from the past few days here at cpac. >> treat us as grown-ups and that's what the american revolution is about and the constitution, we are grownups. we do not need the british government or any other government, other than an american government, to tell us

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>> great to be back at cpac, the place i have really-- >> we love you! >> i love this place. love you people. >> i went to several of his rallies during the election season, but i really wanted to hear what he had to say after his election, what was he going to say to the people and it was a fantastic speech. >> the conservative movement is very coalesced around trump. >> our victory was a victory and a win for conservative values. >> the pass few days have been some of the most exhilarating i've had in my life because we have that kind of a president that just builds that in us. it's the most unusual thing i have he an ever-- i've ever experienced in my

life. >> the future belongs to you. it's going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever befo before. elizabeth: well, energy is definitely an understatement here at cpac this year. in fact, just about a half hour before the president took the stage yesterday, shortly after 10:00, the doors were closed the ballroom was at capacity and people waiting outside. as we saw from that, we saw a ton of fabulous outfits and people who are just really, really excited about this administration and the next four years. we'll continue to bring you highlights from the cpac, it's not over yet. in fact, the administrator of the epa will be taking the stage this afternoon and we know that sheriff david clark will take the stage after winning a supreme court immigration case where he went head to head with the immigration national advocacy group. the case argued that the sheriff should not have to release detainee information they hold at the local jail and for federal authorities. this reverses the lower court's

decision. sheriff clark released this statement on facebook, it's time for this pro illegal immigration group to embrace the rule of law of this country as relates to immigration. criminal illegal ailsions makes milwaukee county a dangerous place to work and play. i'm to protect law abiding citize citizens, and them first. leland: as we return back to atlanta. we've got a lot of folks-- right now keith ellison on the stage, who is preparing to give his speech as he runs for dnc chair. we've got his sign here, which says, unite. and that tends to be the theme at least his race for dnc chair. it seems to be he's in the number two position if you talk to folks around here. tom perez, the former labor secretary currently the favorite, his theme is stop

fretting, start fighting. that being fighting donald trump. and then there is a dark horse. we're going to talk about that dark horse who is the mayor right now of south bend, indiana. we're going to talk about him and a lot of other things with governor john hickenlooper of the state of colorado when we come back. it's about moving forward not back. it's looking up not down. it's feeling up thinking up living up. it's being in motion... in body in spirit in the now. boost. it's not just nutrition. it's intelligent nutrition. with 26 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. all in 3 delicious flavors. it's choosing to go in one direction... up. boost. be up for it. my insurance rates are but dad, you've got... ...allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid.

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>> welcome back to atlanta where the dnc will pick their new chairman in a couple of hours. the pick will speak volumes of a party currently divided about so much, including how to take on president trump. one of the bright spots for the democrats colorado and their popular governor there john hickenlooper, former mayor, joining us from d.c. where he's there for the national governors' association meeting. good to see you. >> how are you? how are you doing? >> i'm doing well. we'll get to your possible 2020 aspirations in just a minute. before the democrats can pick who is going to run for president they've got to run who is going to lead their party. how significant is this? so many people we've talked to in atlanta says this is really a proxy war going on in the democratic party for the future of the party. >> well, i think you've got a number of very qualified

individuals who have attracted a variety of support and you know, i feel no matter who is chosen, that the party's going to be in good hands and i think, you know, they'll be certainly different emphasis, depending who wins. but ultimately, i mean-- >> what does it say though, governor, for the first time in decades this is not a foregone conclusion. for so long the leader of the democratic party was picked long before the voting was picked. now we're talking second, third, fourth ballot, vote jockeying and vote swapping, very different from anything we've seen before. >> it is, but you're seeing-- this is politics recreated. it was during the presidential election. people want to get involved and that creates these kinds of tough campaigns. leland: there's certainly a split here and we talked about this sort of, the idea of the dark horse candidate, the mayor

of south bend indiana, pete buttigieg. he talks about new leadership, fresh start. whether or not you endorse pete or pick pete, the hashtag is. do you agree on this new leadership, fresh start is needed for the democratic party? >> i think we're always going to be the party for civil rights and social justice, for protecting the planet, but i've been hearing a more and more people talking we're the party of strong jobs and gives everybody an equal shot at success. that new direction is happening and i think all the candidates running support that. i haven't met pete buttigieg. leland: he's 35 years old. a veteran and rhodes scholar. one industry in colorado that's gone gang busters in colorado was the recreational marijuana

industry. i remember when it was legalized, you came out after the vote and said don't break out the dorito's yet. they've broken them out and it puts $100 million into the coffers in colorado and the trump administration and sean spicer saying that i do believe that endorsement of federal marijuana laws is coming which could put a freeze on economics in colorado. how do you feel about that? is this something you're willing to take the administration on about? >> certainly we haven't gotten any details yet. if you look at-- people across the country are getting a primer lesson how our system of government works. we have three, we have the tribe, we have the state government, a level of sovereignty and then the federal government. our voters in colorado passed recreational marijuana, put it into our constitution by 55-45. i took an oath to uphold our constitution and defend it and protect it, to support it.

so i think that's the key here is that even though i oppose that, you know, i didn't want them to have recreational marijuana legalized, i'm going to talk to the white house and say this is a laboratory-- >> we know you're going to be meeting with president trump coming up here as he talks to the governors. somehow, governor, you managed to run out of time before we got to ask you about 2020. that means you've got to come back and talk to us. we appreciate you being with us, sir. safe travels back to colorado. texas governor greg abbott from the other side of the aisle coming up to talk about president trump and immigration when we come back.

♪ ♪ leland: welcome back, hour two of "america's news headquarters," i'm leland vittert in atlanta, a city elizabeth prann knows, oh, so well. elizabeth, we misses you, but we know you're having fun. elizabeth: we are having fun, joining you live from cpac. conservatives are meeting here in maryland talking about issues most important to their movement. ♪ ♪ >> well, it could be the warm

weather. president donald trump spending his weekend here in washington, preparing for a busy week ahead including a meeting with the nation's governors. and, of course, his joint address to congress which will take place on tuesday. christian fisher -- kristin fisher is live at the white house with all the details. >> reporter: president trump is preparing for his very first speech to congress. white house officials say we can expect it to be a lot more optimistic, and, in fact, a tweet that president trump posted this morning may give us a preview of what we can expect to hear. he said, quote: great optimism for future of u.s. business and jobs with the dow having an 11th straight record close, big tax and regulation cuts coming. yesterday he talked about the nomination of judge gorsuch to the supreme court and the next version of his immigration order which he is expected to sign as early as wednesday. he'll also likely continue toate

fake news media. listen to what he said about them just yesterday. >> and i want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. it's fake, phony, fake. [cheers and applause] a few days ago i called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. they are the enemy of the people. [cheers and applause] because they have no sources, they just make 'em up when there are none. >> reporter: president trump not backing down, and his war with the media exploded even more right after that speech when several news organizations were excluded from an off-camera briefing with white house press secretary sean spice per. at that briefing spicer confirmed that the white house did ask is the fbi to challenge several news organizations about the accuracy of their reporting on alleged communications between the trump campaign and russian intelligence.

spicer says the fbi told us those stories were false, so we simply asked them to say the same thing to the press. but there's a new story out today in "the washington post" that says white house officials didn't simply ask the fbi to call these news organizations to clarify these reports, that the white house officials actually asked senior members of the intelligence community and even some members of congress. but so far the white house has neither confirmed, nor denied any of these latest twists and turns on this story which shows no sign of going away anytime soon, liz. elizabeth: kristin fisher reporting live. thank you so much, we appreciate it. leland? leland: well, as liz certainly knows, one of the big applause lines at cpac during president trump's speech was about, you guessed it, building the wall. he says they're going to start building it soon. we've already herald from our will carr that there are requests for proposals out in terms of exactly what this wall will look like and the cost to do it.

he says that there is going to be a construction project beginning ahead of schedule. a big part of that wall is going to be some 1600 miles long, goes along the border with the great state of texas, and the governor of the great state of texas a friend of the show, joins us now. governor abbott, nice to see you, sir, from washington. >> you too, leland. it was great to see you in houston, now i'm here in d.c., and you're in atlanta. leland: you know, for some reason i just don't think this is going to be as much fun for either of us than that weekend at the super bowl, but we'll press on with the news as it were. this week so much happened on the issue of immigration. we've heard mr. trump over and over talk about how already the enforcement is beginning. we're getting a bunch of, quote-unquote, bad dudes, quote-unquote, the hell out of the country, the president said. are things really changing on the ground. are folks in texas really seeing a difference? >> first, who would have thought a president would actually live

up to what he promised during the campaign, and that's exactly what president trump is doing. second, we are seeing activities on the ground. during the obama administration, we had great difficulties with immigration custom enforcement, because the obama administration would not allow them to do their job. now we are seeing the empowerment of i.c.e., of border patrol, and they are now actually doing their job. and so those who are in the state of texas illegally and have committed crimes are now being apprehended and going through the deportation process. leland: i'm hoping you can shed some light on this, because so often we hear about sanctuary cities and the issue about whether or not it is local police's job to enforce immigration laws, whether they're allowed to enforce immigration laws. give us a sense of how it works in texas, because i know you've already started the work of trying to, at a state level, crack down on the practice of police not enforcing immigration laws.

>> as governor of texas, i have begun banning sanctuary cities, and then through the legislative process we've passed a law or proposed law out of the texas senate going to the texas house now. what i did as governor is i defunded travis county which is where the city of austin is because travis county adopted some sanctuary city policies. i withdrew $1.5 million of funding from the governor's office to travis county. on top of that, what the state of texas is seeking to do is to make it so punishing for cities and counties that they simply cannot have sanctuary cities. that includes fines that could add up to about $9 million a year, it could also mean jail time for officials like the travis county sheriff who is now promoting sanctuary city policies -- leland: wow. >> -- that have real dangerous consequences for the people who live in travis county. leland: well, if your texas rangers start putting anybody in handcuffs, i know we'll be down there to cover it.

i want to get back to the politics of this though. there's the issue of the law, and then there's the issue of the optics. and i'm wondering at the rga if there's any discussion here about how to make sure you all stay on the right side of public opinion. 85% of americans say, look, we support defunding sanctuary cities -- 80%. on the other hand, the issues of, quote-unquote, mass deportations, whether or not police arrest folks that they meet on traffic stops or through their everyday interactions that are not here legally, that's a little less decided. the public's pretty split on that. have you all discussed how to make sure you stay on the right side of optics on this? >> the trump administration has been abundantly clear. when secretary kelly came out this past week and said there will be no mass deportations. what they're looking to do is to enforce the rule of law remembering that we are a nation of laws and especially as it concerns law enforcement such as sheriffs.

either you have to enforce the law, or you have to the get out of the business of law enforcement. it's very simple. and what texans expect and what i think americans expect is for law enforcement officials to keep our communities safe. you know, what americans want with most of all is to be safe and secure where they live. in travis county, we have a sheriff who let out of jail about 50 people who were in the country illegally, who had committed crimes who were behind bars for crimes such as allegations of felonies such as sexual assault of a woman, sexual assault of a minor that were released back onto the streets. americans and texans want nothing to do with law enforcement officials who make their communities more dangerous. leland: yeah. well, governor, it seems as though you along with the trump administration are doing something about i. if anybody's going to arrest that sheriff, you let us know. we want to cover that. >> i will be there. [laughter] leland: i'm sure you will. i have no doubt. governor, we'll look forward to

our next conversation. hopefully, pick somewhere more sunny this time, it'll be fun. >> thank you, leland. leland: all right, back here in atlanta during the dnc as they try and figure out who their next chairman is going to be. immigration, a huge issue right now as we look live inside the convention center behind us where the dnc is way behind schedule. jehmu greene on the stage right now, she is one of the candidates. you might recognize be her from television. she is running for chairperson of the dnc. each candidate gets ten minutes, and then the first ballot starts. and we just received word from the dnc that they are going to be using paper balloting rather than the electronic system previously planned for voting today. when you put these two things together, one could ask what could possibly go wrong with that. donna brazile there, the interim chairman, is now introducing the next speaker. these guys are a couple of hours behind schedule. so what was supposed to be done

by noon could stretch well into the afternoon before the dnc has a new chairperson. what that means for the dnc coming up here in just a few minutes for the future of the party as well, now back to liz where a party, the republican party who met at cpac is, dare i say, far more united than the democratic party here in atlanta. hi, liz. elizabeth: well, and it's a pretty unbelievable saturday, because if you think of the conversation that we're having right now, it's going to be a completely different one hours from now. obviously, the dnc's going to be completed with their ballot process, and they'll have a new dnc chair by the end of the day here. here at cpac, which has been going on for the better half of four days, concludes today, ending with a straw poll that we look forward to and we talk about every year. and a lot of the conversations talking about hearing the president as he will be addressing congress this week. so 40 days after taking the oath of office, president trump finally will return to the u.s.

capitol to face his toughest audience yet. he'll be addressing a joint session of congress on tuesday. he'll be spelling out his vision and his to-do list. so how well will he be received by democrats? of course, he has skeptical members of his own party, so let's debate it, ford o'connell and robin bureau join me now. gentlemen, thank you for joining me. before i get to tuesday night, robin, we're talking about the news of the day here, we're looking at these democratic, these men and women approaching the staging one by one, these candidates getting ten minutes to voice why they should be the next dnc chair. and i want to ask you what does this weekend mean for democrats? >> oh, it means a lot. a lot is riding on this, and i really hope that we can come together. i just heard a moment ago that you mentioned that the gop is more united than the democratic party. i actually tend to agree with that. this is our weekend to try and come together around a chair. and we've got to, basically,

sing "kumbaya" and rally behind somebody. so i hope that there's one person who can do that. elizabeth: robin, did you hear that, is that something that -- or ford, rather, are you going to agree with robin on that, that you feel the republican party is coalescing a little bit stronger than the democratic party? >> well, absolutely. the democratic party doesn't know why donald trump won, they're a party split in tatters. they don't know exactly how to go forward, and the question is who is going to be that dnc chair. of course, republicans are hoping it's going to be keith ellison because that's great news for us, because essentially the democrats could put forth a louis farrakhan-act lite shows they don't know why the republicans won. donald trump won because white working class voters jett tysoned the democratic party, and he was able to bring them under the republican tent. elizabeth: robin, tuesday is a big night for president donald trump.

he'll be addressing both democrats and republicans in both the house and the senate, and i want to ask you about what you feel he needs to address. typically, when he speaks to large groups, he uses broad strokes. it's a very, like i said, a broad speech. does he need to be more detailed when he addresses congress on tuesday? >> absolutely. aye been saying this -- i've been saying this for seven months now, that i want policy. he's got to give us policy. he's got -- i'm worried that he's going to -- a leopard's not going to change its spots, and he's going to talk about his war on the media, how they're the opposition party, but he's got to give us policy. and be i know he's not going to talk about the three investigations right now into russia trying to affect our system of democracy. but, you know, he's got to give us substance, not just this rhetoric. elizabeth: okay, ford, i want to get your response to that, because i assume there will be plenty of substance, but i want to know what you think needs to be different about this

particular address. >> well, i think this could be one of the most important speeches of the trump presidency. what he has to do is instill in congress the will to govern and to get things done, and i think he's going to put out a policy speech on infrastructure, securing the southern border, overhauling obamacare and tax reform. his real audience is the american people, because if he can convince the american people he's on their side, the american people will force congress to get things done. and i think that's the big thing right now, it's instilling the will to govern in congress because right now, honestly, congress is all over the map. elizabeth: all right. robin and ford, that's all the time we have, unfortunately, with all the news going on, but we hope to have you back after we hear the president speak, and where'll break it -- we'll break it down after that. thank you, gentlemen. >> you got it. thank you. ♪ ♪ leland: and a fox news alert as one person is right now being treated for serious injuries after a car hit three people

outside a bakery in germany. this literally just crossing the wires. the man was captured by police after a short standoff. police say the incident happened in a central square in the german city of i'den burg. there is no word on the man's motive. obviously, car attack into a large group of people brings up so many questions especially now, but we are hearing from the german authorities at least right now they have no reason to indicate this was terrorism. we're going to keep an eye on this story as it developed out of germany where it is already late saturday night, bring you more as we get it. back here in atlanta, democrats participating at the winter meeting for the dnc where they will pick their new chairperson, got a pep talk and a charge to stay involved by none other than former democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton. >> the challenges we face as a party and a country are real. so now more than ever we need to stay engaged, in the field and

online. reaching out to new voters, young people and everyone who wants a better, stronger, fairer america. leland: obviously, mrs. clinton -- who lost the presidential race to donald trump back in november -- delivered the message via video recording to the group here in atlanta. the video highlighted the party platform the democrats put forward in 2016 and emphasized the need for grass roots activism moving forward. and it's interesting to note, liz, that despite all of that from what we heard from hillary clinton, in many ways it's exactly the opposite of what we are hearing from democratic activists and the folks who are going to be picking the new dnc chair. a lot of them saying the big problem was the platform in 2016, that focused so much on what they call fringe issues. a lot of people saying we're focusing way too much on the 1% issues, transgender rights,

climate change, rather than a real message about jobs and working class democrats who very clearly left the report in 2016 and voted for donald trump. big discussions here about how to get that back, the direction of the democratic party. and there's two big choices here at the top for democrats in atlanta. is it keith ellison, the first muslim, a defender of louis farrakhan? alan dershowitz coming out with an editorial saying if ellison is elected chair of the dnc, they are going to leave the democratic party. pretty serious stakes here. and as you noted, with a party that is so clearly divided. elizabeth: yeah. and i think it's so funny because i've seen a lot of networks play that piece with hillary clinton, and afterwards they would have a segment and debate, and this was on a number of networks, on whether that helped or hurt the cause. and i think you're certainly seeing a different message here at cpac which is, obviously, a conservative meeting, it's been a conservative meeting for a long time. the last president to attend was

ronald reagan. we've had this conversation many times. but what we've noticed over the past couple days that we've been here is it isn't necessarily staunch conservatives that attended in the time, it wasn't diehard donald trump voters, it was really a broad array of people who came. they came here for different reasons, and they're deciding to coalesce as a party because we heard reince priebus say when he and steve bannon were together they're a force to be reckoned with. so we're seeing a call of unity right here this weekend, and we'll see where it goes. like you said, the democratic delegates will be casting their ballots for a new dnc chair, but here at cpac, it's still in full swing. we're waiting to hear what epa administrator or scott pruitt has to say. he talked a lot about rolling back regulations, the president did, and scott pruitt's first address to the epa was that he wanted to make regulations

something that made the epa more regular. so he wanted them to be he's and roll back unnecessary regulates. and we think that could be something that we hear him talk about when he takes the stage. of course, when he does, we're going to bring it to you live. leland: well, you do get the sense that that deregulation -- oh, go ahead, liz. apologies. elizabeth: oh, no, i'm not sure if we're supposed to be tossing for a break or waiting for scott pruitt. leland: you never know, we'll -- [laughter] that happens sometimes. you did bring up the issue about steve ban nonand reince priebus talking and one of the things that bannon really spoke about was dismantling the administrative state, dismantling so much of the government, the theme we've gotten from so many of mr. trump's cabinet members who have spoken at cpac and have also spoken throughout this week. fascinating time there, for sure. elizabeth: all right. well, now i have been told to toss to break.

when we come back, we'll bring it to you live, but in the meantime, congress will be getting back to work on monday after getting an earful from constituents. we're going to talk to some of those lawmakers who heard there those voters coming up.d the trn told some media outlets that access to the press gaggle was invitation only. how members of the press are responding. and like we've talked about, picking a new party chair and finding the path forward, what democrats in the winter meeting in atlanta are focusing on. >> the republicans have done a much better job of recruiting candidates from school board on up. ♪ ♪

i'm ricardo, a sales and service consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. every situation is a little different. it could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number.

sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer. one of the great things about comcast, there's always room to move up. of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. ♪ >> i hope to see that when we leave here, we're unified as a party, and we get back and learn from the mistakes that were made in the past and try to correct those mistakes. >> we're hurting in terms of our bench for candidates. the republicans have done a much better job of recruiting candidates from school board on up. but we are strong on the issues. >> i think one of the reasons that we didn't win, we didn't organize from the ground up from the local level. it would have been good for us to have our local young people campaigning, working for the party. >> they'll come together because of the different issues that trump has now exposed.

i think the fact that so many groups will be attacked, i think now we'll come together to try to fight this. >> in my opinion, i think we need to move back toward the center. i think in the past we have ignored some of the, some of the moderates. leland: attendees here in atlanta talking about what they want to see in the new dnc chairperson. the election was supposed to take place right now. the dnc, shockingly, is behind schedule. speeches going on right now of the potential chairperson candidates x then voting begins. this is the first time in decades that the result of that election is not a foregone conclusion. there is real division here in the democratic party, and it was laid bare last night at the various factions and the various parties for those running for chairperson. you do get a sense, liz, that this is really much more than an election about a chairperson for

the party. this is a proxy war, if you will, for the future of the democratic party and the direction it is going to go, whether it becomes simply united against donald trump or whether, as other folks have proposed especially system of the younger of the dnc members and also those running for dnc chair, have said we need to be so much more than against donald trump. we need to be for things. we are going to know a lot more about how politics in 2016, 2017 and 2018 will go in a couple of hours here as the democrats forget out who will lead them into the midterm electionses and who will lead them as they try to take on president trump and some of his policies. elizabeth: right. like you said, we'll be watching people take the stage there at the posed yum. ten minutes -- podium. ten minutes for each of the candidates, so we'll be watching that live. >> the first amendment, nobody knows -- loves it better than me. [laughter] nobody.

elizabeth: all right. some are questioning the president's statement after certain media outlets were prevented from attending a gaggle with white house press secretary sean spicer. fox news media analyst and host of "media buzz," howard kurtz, is here to break it down for us. >> thanks very much. as you said, sean spicer sparking a media uproar by holding an off-camera briefing for pool reporters, inviting some journalists but excluding cnn, "the new york times" and politico. many in the media condemning the move with jake tapper calling it un-american and washington post editor mary barron saying it was a-- marty barron saying it was appalling. joining us now is jeff mason, white house reporter for reuters and president of the white house correspondents' association. jeff, what exactly is it that you're strongly protesting? >> well, what we're protesting, howie, is the idea of not including a broad, diverse group of journalists in what is, essentially, the daily briefing. what happened yesterday was

instead of having the briefing in the press room, sean spicer and his team decided to hold a gaggle, as you said, in his office. and we encouraged them to hold that gaggle even if it was going to be off camera in the press briefing room so that a lot of organizations could attend, and that's not what they did. so a lot of organizations did not get a chance to ask questions or be present for that briefing, and that's why we protested. >> the white house says this is no big deal, all accredited news organizations are allowed to come and try to ask questions and because it was a pooled event, the pool districted everything that happened to the -- distributed everything happened to the rest of the media, and this is much ado about nothing. your response. >> it's true there was a pool reporter present, and that information was distributed, but i guess our point is there are some times where it's appropriate to use a pool and some times where it's not.

but i do think it's important to emphasize the context which is that sean spicer, since coming into office with president trump, has been holding regular briefings in the briefing room on television. that is a trend that he has set, and we are optimistic that that's the trend that will continue rather than one in which people are not included. >> a lot of people, jeff, have been digging up quotes from spicer. back in december he said you can't when it comes to government ban an entity, that's what makes a democracy a democracy and not a dictatorship. what if he says, look, occasionally we're going to do this, it's our right. what's the case are you going to make and how might you get this overturned? >> well, again, our case is at what is essentially a briefing about the news of the day, it should be in the briefing room. and even if it's not on camera, it should be at a place and at a time when the full press corps is able to take part. >> all right. no question he was sending a message after president trump's

strong denunciation of the media at cpac. thanks very much, jeff mason. more after the break, be right back. ♪ ♪

>> we're back with jeff mason, president of the white house correspondents' association. we had to go to a hard break which happens sometimes in television. we were talking about sean spicer excluding some news organizations from a press briefing. here's some of what the president had to say at cpac in maryland. >> i want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. it's fake, phony, fake. [cheers and applause] a few days ago i called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. they are the enemy of the people. [cheers and applause] >> now, jeff, the president in his original tweet said that cnn, abc, cbs, nbc and "the new york times" were among those fake news organizations, enemy of the people.

do you, as the head of the correspondents' group, object to that sort of language from the president? >> of course. the association supports the first amendment, supports the right of white house correspondents to do their job and certainly would not describe our, you know, top members or any of our members, be it tv networks or newspapers or newspapers and television networks that are less prominent than the ones you just mentioned. all of them are members of our association who spend the day when they come to the white house reporting on the news, reporting on the story of the trump administration. the media is a key and integral part of u.s. democracy. that is the purpose that we serve, and we willen continue to do that. -- we will continue to do that regardless of the rhetoric from the president of the united states. >> right. but on this battle about the off-camera briefings, what cards do you have to play? a couple of organizations, ap and time, boycotted. might you encourage other members not to attend if the white house is going to pick and choose which news organizations are allowed in.

>> you know what? i'm going to hold off on discusses that kind of strategy. our discussion right now is with sean spicer and others in the press team about how to make sure something like what happened yesterday doesn't happen again. and they've been, i think, largely honest brokers with us in the last month about granting access to journalists, giving us the ability to ask questions, i'm hoping that yesterday was an exception, and i would just put it in the broader context of daily briefings that we've held so far. >> jeff mason from reuters, thanks so much for joining us from the white house lawn. elizabeth. elizabeth: howie, i know you have a big show tomorrow, i assume this'll be part of the conversation that you'll be having tomorrow. >> we're going to drill down on this, talk about the president's attack onion mouse sources. he thinks some of them are made up, steve bannon says we're all part of the globalist, corporatist media, we'll talk about that as well. war has escalated, and we'll is saw that covered, and corey lewandowski will be one of our top guests.

elizabeth: all right. packed show, howie. thank you for joining us and, of course, we'll be watching tomorrow at 11. thanks so much. >> good to see you. elizabeth: now to some of our other headlines. we're here at cpac, as you know a lot of conversation about the health care law. only 21% of the country approves of the job congress is currently doing. the republican study committee is hoping to change that tide, addressing obamacare like i mentioned, of course, tax reform and rolling back regulations. joining me now is the chair of the republican study committee, representative mark walker. sir, thank you so much for joining us today. >> thanks. it's my privilege to be with you. elizabeth: i do want for some of our viewers at home to know what was at the heart of your speech today when you spoke to really a lot of folks here? >> yeah. we were very surprised, a lot of energy in the room. been that way for several days here. part of our message is to make sure we're taking our message to new communities. it's very easy to talk to the

base, but our calling is to talk about individual liberty and opportunity if all of our community. we look forward to doing more in the future. elizabeth: we've seen a lot of these town halls, and when we talk about obamacare and, in fact, there was an article out, if i'm not mistaken, it was yesterday that parts of a proposed law had been leaked to the media. i think for our viewers at home, they sort of want to know what's the latest, you know? there's a couple of factions and they have a number of plans. what right now is the latest, and can we see, perhaps, a bill coming down? >> i think we can. we're getting closer and closer. we had some of this information last week in our conference with kevin brady and speaker ryan. we want to make sure though as we move forward that we're not creating a fourth column of long-term entitlements that is incumbent upon the middle class -- elizabeth: is that the tax deductibles you're referring to? >> the tax credits, reforms

working very hard at social security, welfare reform. we don't want to add another column long term that we can't pay for. we want to provide individual options for everyone's health care, but allow them to make the choices instead of federal man dates. elizabeth: medicaid, hot topic. people at home are saying don't mess with my medicaid. could that be a threat here? >> no, i don't think it is. a lot of people were driven to medicaid under obamacare. sadly, this is a lot of doctors who aren't taking it. i believe of the 18 million that did get insurance, close to 12 million were put on medicaid. we want to get back to the place where every american has a choice to be able to draft and secure insurance that's tailor made for them and their families. elizabeth: you brought up a point earlier, you said that you wanted to expand your base. we saw some polling that president trump has the support of republicans but isn't gaining the support of democrats. and, obviously, when it comes to the health care law, when it comes down to it, you're going

to need that support. how do you get that support right now in. >> i think you start in any other aspect of life, you start with investments in relationships. you build trust. sometimes you have to do that before you introduce policy for people to understand that you do have the very concerns at heart in their best interests. if we can start with that, i believe we can make more successes. elizabeth: we talked about the timeline, and i know you can't necessarily give us any promises, but people want action, and you need to get to tax reform. >> you're right. elizabeth elizabeth when are we going to see something on paper? >> well, you're right, it's urgent right now because a lot of these other things are depending on our movement. tax reform, we talked about infrastructure. there's some things also with religious liberty protections to make sure those are for generations to come. to give you specific timelines, i'm going to say spring. i'm hoping that spring, right behind that i've seen some of the tax reforms coming out, we're very excited about it. but this is the opportunity.

the republicans have never had 240 republicans in congress ever since 1913 when it expanded. this is their moment to lead, but we must deliver for the american people. elizabeth: yeah. let's hope in-fighting doesn't get in the way. thank you so much. >> it's always a privilege. elizabeth: congratulations on your appearance here at cpac. thank you. all right, leland, what we've been doing is watching the activity here at cpac. as i mentioned, we've been awaiting the administrator of the epa, scott pruitt to take the stage, waiting for him to speak to an eager crowd here at cpac. meanwhile, we'll hear from him in about a half an hour, in the meantime, you're watching a number of the candidates for the dnc chair take the stage in atlanta. if i'm not mistaken, they have about ten minutes each. they're running a little bit behind as they carry on with the elections down this for the next dnc chair. leland: yeah. well, let's hope cpac is running

slightly more on time than the dnc elections are. they were supposed to have results by now, elizabeth, here in this atlanta. live pictures though inside of the convention center just behind me where they are now counting the ballots for the first round, the first ballot for the dnc chair. this is how it's going to work. the ballots will be tallied, they're paper ballots. there will be two independent counts of the ballots hooking for the same number. the -- looking for the same number. the counts will continue until the two counts are identical, and then as we have nicknamed him professor serrie, jonathan serrie, explained one of the candidates -- and there are more than half a dozen candidates for chairman -- have to get more than 50%. so this could go all afternoon as they go through ballot one, ballot two, ballot three, ballot four, etc., until they get more than 50% of the vote there for one of them. a lot of questions here in atlanta for exactly what the future and the direction of the democratic party is going to be. somebody who has a lot to say

about that, robert furtillo, one of the big radio talk show hosts here in atlanta, joins us next with his vision for the democratic party and why he says there's a real problem with the democrats if somehow the money behind the democratic party and the base of the democratic party have very, very different interests. when we come back. ♪ ♪ hey, it's the phillips' lady!

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...only allstate sends you a bonus check for every six months you're accident free. silence. it's good to be in, good hands. leland: and welcome back to atlanta where the democratic national committee is picking their new chairman in the convention hall behind us. voting underway right now as they have just started to collect and count the ballots. could be a while til we have an answer. a little insight, we're going to bring in cbs atlanta radio talk show host, civil rights activist robert patihlo. thanks for joining us.

>> thanks for having me, leland. leland: this is way more than who's the chairman, it's the fight for the future. >> you have to realize in the last decade the party's been decimated. the appeal of president obama covered up some of the deficiencies in the party. we've lost more than 1,000 legislative seats, 20% of the house seats, 20% of state legislatures, so we have to change the direction of the party. leland: there's two parts of a party, right? you've got the money folks and the fundraisers. for the democrats, those folks are in california and new york, and then you've got the activists, the people who perhaps needed to work in the states that hillary clinton lost if you guys are going to take back the white house or take back system of the other seats you talk about. president obama's really thrown his weight behind tom perez, his former labor secretary, although there's folks like you who say that's the wrong direction. >> we're seeing a rerun of the democratic primary where you had

a progressive wing of the party, a progressive part of the party that stood up for working families, stood up for the elderly, stood up for african-americans, civil rights issues, and then you have the moneyed elites who stood on the -- leland: so you're an ellison map. >> definitely, because he represents what the base of the party supports. and in opposition you have the people who control the fundraising of the party, and their voice usually win withs. leland: well, we'll see if they win. balloting underway right now. quickly, you're in radio, so you know how to do this. alan dershowitz says if ellison wins, he's leaving the democratic party because he thinks he's an anti-semite. are you worried about the backlash of keith ellison who's so controversial? >> i don't think he's controversial at all. i think this is exactly what you saw the tea party do to president obama in 2008 and to see a democrat do that on a democrat is sad and exactly the type of difference between the moneyed elites and the other

part of the party. leland: we'll see if the democrats speak ill of each other. stick around, if we get a verdict or a result in this election, we'll have you back in the next hour. >> absolutely. leland: thanks, robert. as the voting continues here in atlanta, we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ usaa gives me the peace of mind and the security just like the marines did. the process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life. the slopes like i used to. i even accept i have a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. but whatever trail i take, i go for my best. so if there's something better

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elizabeth: all right, it is a packed day all up and down the east coast. we are live here at cpac in maryland. we have been awaiting the epa administrator, scott pruitt. he was initially supposed to speak around 1:50, and now we hear he's running about 30 minutes late. he was sworn into office february 17th, and he spoke to the members of the epa just ca couple days -- just a couple days ago, talked about rolling back regulations, and we're curious if that's what he'll be discussing when he approaches still a very eager crowd. we have been hearing cheers. there's a panel on stage. there, obviously, will be the straw poll that takes place right around 3 p.m., and after that we'll see sheriff clark, who was here yesterday, but he'll be taking the stage today. so really some big names up until the last minute. obviously, yesterday we saw the president speak to an incredibly

eager crowd, before that we saw steve bannon, kellyanne conway, reince priebus a number of governors and some big names attending cpac this year. and i know, leland, you're seeing just as much activity but for a very different reason down in atlanta today. leland: well, certainly a very different vibe in atlanta for the dnc chairperson election, that sort of overwhelming confidence and enthusiasm that you're seeing at cpac. here at the dnc, very clear that this is a party divided, and we are trying to find ware way whether it be -- find their way whether it be to the base, the old guard of the dnc, whether it be to a new, young progressive like the mayor of south bend, indiana, a gay former afghanistan vet rhodes scholar who's making this sort of dark horse run for the dnc chairperson. much like cpac, liz, we are behind schedule here in atlanta. we were supposed to have results by now, instead this is just the

first ballot of voting for who will be the dnc chair here. should have results from that first ballot in just a couple of minutes, liz. elizabeth: well, what i think -- and i know one of your guests spoke about this, which was really put it very well, is that this particular election is really looking forward to what's going to be next for the party. it's really much more than any other election in the past when it comes to electing a dnc chair because we're looking ahead to, obviously, the midterms and beyond. they really want to coalesce and get a message. we saw that here at cpac. we're going to be continuing to follow both events throughout the afternoon, so stay with us. cting to hear as i mentioned here from the epa administrator, scott pruitt. stay with us. boost

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>> whether it's about regaining power or exerting it, political movers and shakers are out in force this weekend at the conservative action political conference just outside washington. we are waiting to hear from scott pruitt, the new leader at the environmental protection agency. >> and in atlanta, georgia the cross roads of the south, the democrats, are they cross roads themselves. this is the dnc winter meeting where they are now trying to pick their new chairman. they have just finished voting for the first ballot on deciding who will lead them into battle