captioning sponsored by cbs >> dickerson: today on "face the nation." senate republican cult last minute deals to get their tax bill passed. giant step for granting the president's wish for a tax bill by christmas. a sweet deal for normer national security advisor michael flynn might make for not so happy new year for the trump administration. >> the tax cuts and jobs act as amended is passed. >> dickerson: it was 2:00 a.m. call to president said he was happy to get. >> he can call me. largest tax decrease in the history. not even close. >> dickerson: as for news that flynn is cooperating in the russia investigation is the president worried? >> no, i'm not. what has been shown is no collusion. no collusion. >> dickerson: we'll talk about

the two big stories and more. with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. two senators investigating, south carolina republican lindsey graham and angus king will also be here. budget director mick mulvaney. and handicapped the chances of the government sitting down at the end of the week when it runs out of funding. plus, new poll numbers on alabama senate race. now is roy moore faring after allegations of sexual misconduct with minors. all that plus plenty of political analysis coming up on "face the nation." good morning, welcome to "face the nation" i'm john dickerson. we knew it would be busy week when congress returned to washington but we had no idea just how busy. more stories of sexual misconduct on the part of the longest serving house democrat john conyers now others prompted more calls for congress to do better job of policing its own.

north korea fired another missile, one that in theory could reach washington. >> it is a situation that we will handle. >> dickerson: progress on tax bill continued as a brisk face after senate republicans cut number of deals to gain its passionage. which thrilled the president. >> people are going to be very, very happy they're going to get tremendous -- tremendous tax cuts and tax relief. >> dickerson: that remains to be seen. unsurprisingly democrats were not happy. montana's john did show and tell of the massive bill. >> this is your government at work. here is the bill as written. here is modifications that are in it. i can read one word, it's called add this language. can you tell me what that word is? >> dickerson: arrived with a big development special counsel robert mueller's investigation into possible trump campaign collusion with the russians and obstruction of justice as michael flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi and said he's

cooperating with mueller. the president further muddied already complicated story with a saturday tweet that seemed to suggest he was aware of flynn lying to the fbi at the time when he was calling the investigation a witch hunt. i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and the fbi. he has pled guilty to those lies. day after the president fired flynn for lying, former fbi director james comey says the president asked him to go easy on his investigation of flynn. sources tell cbs news that the tweet was drafted by one of mr. trump's attorneys. we want to take a closer look at what the senate passed, their bill would repeal the obamacare individual mandate, corporate tax rate would be cut from 35% to 20%. it will nearly double the standard tax deduction, eliminate state and local tax deductions but allow up to $10,000 exception for property taxes. the bill would also double estate tax exemption limit and

raise alternative minimum tax threshold. analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan joint committee indicates that even accounting for economic growth the tax plan would add trillion dollars to the deficit. we begin this morning with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell he joins froes louisville. welcome, mr. majority leader, i want to start with the balance of the tax cut that passed through the senate. the corporate tax rate is at 20%, it's been sold as middle class tax cut but those middle class taxes will expire, analysis shows majority of the middle class will get a tax cut there are some whose taxes will increase, why not include this bill make it so that you could say everybody in the middle class will get a tax cut that's permanent? >> impossible to do that. you can't craft any bill that would guarantee no one was in a special category that might get tax increase. what i can tell you is that every segment of taxpayers,

every category of taxpayers on average gets significant relief. average family, $200 a year you mentioned standard deductions doubling child care credit increase, clearly most people, middle income taxpayers overwhelming will get tax reli relief. and because of the business tax changes, it's much less likely that the job they currently have is going to end up in another country, because we are clearly uncompetitive in the global economy with the current tax rates. john, i think this coupled with the regulatory relief, administration has been providing, the reasons that economy is beginning to pick up, consumer confidence subpoena. i don't want to read too much into quarterly growth rates but we've had two growth rates of 3% growth. i think sthg go to get the country growing again. >> dickerson: but the question of middle class, would be way to

craft it so that the number of people who might get a tax increase would be pretty small and there were republican efforts to expand the earned income tax credit to make the child tax credit more robust, to lower the rates for people at the other end those were all republican efforts that didn't get much energy. where as energy on corporate tax rate was always, it's going to be 20% and no is tinkering with that, just in terms of where the emphasis was on the work there's much more work that could have been done on the middle class and lowering than what was done in crafting that bill. >> the questions whether usual getting tax relief. of course people on lower end don't provide huge percentage of the revenue that we raise through taxation. what people want is, am i going to get relief myself, answer, overwhelmingly, likely to. is my job likely to continue to be in the united states. are we going to laugh a growing economy so my children will be able to realize the same goals

and aspirations that i want them to have. and this is designed to get the economy growing. we didn't have single year, 3% growth during all the obama years. we were clearly under performing. you have to ask the question, why. combination of over regulation undulose tax code. >> dickerson: winners and losessers, let's move on to the question of process, because democrats of course made lot of complaints about process you said friday night you complain about process when you're losing. and the senate process might seem like something not important to people but you wrote a book called "the long game" in which you talk a lot about the process, you say in fact what is at the heart of the senate why it's a different institution. so, this looks like situation when you're in the minority you like the process built in the majority you move on. >> not true. we followed the regular order, multiple hearings, democrats were there, days of hearings, days of amendments, democrats

offered amendments in committee ad naseum. the process on the floor, the reconciliation process is regular order, that is how they passed obamacare. we didn't do anything that you could call a foul or process. let me just say they didn't like the fact that we repealed u unpopular individual mandate from obamacare yet didn't offer single amendment. >> dickerson: 25 days of debate on obamacare you said the process at the time was arrogant they were pushing popular bill through. this bill is unpopular why isn't this the same thing? >> we'll see how unpopular it is. when people start noticing they're paying less in taxes, the economy is growing, more jobs and opportunity but we have the very different -- pretty clear during this debate we have very different view of what america ought to look like. democratic friends apparently are quite content with slow

growth and little opportunity to improve the conditions. we think we need to jumpstart the economy and provide more jobs and opportunity for the american people. one of suggestion go to be proven wrong here. >> dickerson: let me ask you about roy moore. we have a poll out that says mr. moore supposition points over his democratic opponent, in that poll, it says that among mr. moore's supporters, 56% say they were more likely to vote for him after you said he should quit the race. what do you make of that? >> well, look, people in alabama are going to decide a week from tuesday who is send to the senate it's up to them. it's been pretty robust campaign with lot of people weighing in. the president supported something different earlier in the process. but in the end voters of alabama will make their choice. >> dickerson: should that be the final word, the white house when asked about the president's accusers said, voters heard about the president's accusers, they voted for him anyway end of

subject shouldn't that be the case with roy moore? >> well, look, i'm concerned about the senate. and if we have two investigations going on right now, senator franken and senator menendez might be another one depending on people who are in the senate. and it will be up to the people of alabama to make this decision and we'll swear in whoever is elected and see where we are at that particular pointed. >> dickerson: in the past you've supported ethics committed tee determinations of the case of senator vitter that said behavior before he got to the senate was not germane in terms of punishing him as a senator, that would seem to cover roy moore in which case let ethics committee look into it. >> i don't remember -- i'm not on ethics committee, i don't remember exactly how that case was handled. ethics committee makes those decisions whether behavior prior to the senate to relevant or not.

they will decide, the parameters, if you will, of their jurisdiction. that decision will be made based on facts of the particular case. i imagine probably will be a case, whether the out come is there, i don't know. but look, ethics committee is 3-3. neither side can take advantage of the other, it has to be pretty credible case to go forward. in other words, at least one member of the other party would have to decide that the case was worth pursuing, all that have will be considered by the committeef they have a member of the senate that they think has a case that ought to come before them. >> dickerson: majority leader mitch mcconnell, thank for being with us. joining us now, lindsey graham. congratulations, let me pick up on something we were talking about with majority leader on roy moore, majority leader said, voters of bam bell will decide. that seems like there's a new standard basically fit happened

before you got to the senate voters will decide. >> i think the body can regulate itself at the end of the day when he comes to the senate if he does. i think an investigation ethics investigation would be smarted thing to do. and we'll see what the ethics committee decides as to whether they look at behavior before he came into the senate, does that matter, if they do, what did they find, we'll see. >> dickerson: could you have him be a senator, would you be able to based on what you've heard, you'd be okay with him being a senator? >> we can't stop him from being seated f. there was an investigation in all six members of the committee said they believe he was a child molester that would be a problem. >> dickerson: move on to the president's tweet about the fbi, you're on the judiciary, oversee the fbi. president says that after years of phony, dishonest clinton investigation, running the fbi, remember pew takes is in

tatters, worse in his tore built fear not bring it back to grea greatness. fbi in tatters? >> no. i think comey needs to answer questions as his time as director. he made some decisions that were really very, very wrong. i would just say this, there is ongoing criminal investigation, comey may be part of it. he tweeted comment ongoing criminal investigations at your own peril. >> you were a former prosecutor, along those lines, the president has said he knew that clinton lied to the fbi yesterday he has called the invest situation a witch hunt because it was a witch hunt he fired james comey how do you know he lied to the fbi then fired the fbi director for investigating? >> what flynn lied about, i don't think it's wrong for transition person. i think the logan act is worth

the paper it's on. i'm not worried about what happened after the election in terms of trying to communicate with the russians about the israeli resolution or about sanctions. it comes down to the following to me, was there any effort by the trump campaign to coordinate with russian intelligent services or any entity controlled by the russians to receive benefit during the election. they found the one guy that would know that. >> dickerson: that question of obstruction, because that's the other thing that's part of this issue, if you know he lied to the fbi how can you say an investigation into whether he lied to the fbi is a witch hunt but commission he fired for carrying out? >> apparently this statement is that -- by the president's lawyer says, i didn't know, he wasn't in on the interview. he did know that he lied to the vice president. the vice president was very upset, he took action. to me that's not the issue. here's the issue. the fact that from my point of view, if it was coordination between the trump campaign and the russians, i can't think of a

person who would know more about that than flynn. >> dickerson: on the national security front, you are very critical of the russians for interfering in the eye can. >> yes, they did. dickerson: former obama administration official says interference was cyber equivalent of 9/11. if after that kind of an event, given your foreign policy judgment about incoming add energies that says to the perpetrator of, let's work out deal on sanction, is that will punish for that behavior don't overreact because we'll be on your side later when -- the newts judgment. >> number one, the obama administration didn't acted like known. they were late to the game, did the least amount possible. what they did in the interim before trump took office was a slap on the wrist. i don't buy that whole narrative. i don't have a problem with the trump administration reaching out to the russians we're going to take a different view about sanctions, seek your help in the u.n. secure.

secure. >> that behavior after the election is reaching out to foreign government we have different view about things. i'm not here to condemn the president about that. here is what i'm saying. that collusion between a campaign and foreign government is unacceptable l. is no evidence of collusion, nobody has been charged with it, but you found one person who would know if it did exist. so it won't be long before we understand one way or the other that the trump people clueded with russia because i can't imagine it happening and flynn not know about it. >> dickerson: let's take a quick break. we'll be right back. pap h for every hour that you're idling in your car, you're sending about half a gallon of gasoline up in the air. that amounts, over the course of the week, to about 10 pounds of carbon dioxide. growth is good, but when it starts impacting our quality of air and quality of life, that's a problem. so forward-thinking cities like sacramento are investing in streets that are smarter and greener.

the solution was right under our feet. asphalt. or to be more precise, intelligent asphalt. by embedding sensors into the pavement, as well as installing cameras on traffic lights, we will be able to analyze the flow of traffic. that data runs across our network and we use it to optimize the timing of lights, so that traffic flows easier and travel times are shorter. who knew asphalt could help save the environment? >> dickerson: we're back with senator lindsey graham. senator before we get to north korea one more question on this investigation. the president made this calls up to the hill about these investigations into russian interference. was that appropriate for him to make those phone calls? >> i don't know what the consent was. but he's never asked me to stop an investigation, that would be inappropriate for the president to say, stop the investigation, it's not inappropriate to have a

discussion in general. again, i just want people to understand, mike flynn would know if there was collusion in my view between the trump campaign and the russians. there's no evidence of collusion, nobody has been charged with collusion. the lawyers said there was no collusion can if there was, flynn would know, we're going to know pretty soon. >> dickerson: but on larger question you're not saying only about collusion because there is obstruction of justice question. >> completely different, built that's not my focus. >> dickerson: i understand. i'm saying in general -- north korea. where are we with north korea right now. >> been we're getting close to military conflict because north korea's marching towards the technology of icbm with nuclear weapon on top that cannot only get to america but deliver the weapon. we're running out of time. said that yesterday. i'm going to urge the pentagon not to send any more dependents to south korea, south korea should be unaccompanied tour. it's crazy to send thousands of

children to south korea. i want them to stop sending dependents, i think it's now time to start moving american dependents out of the south korea. >> dickerson: how close you say we're getting close to military confrontation, what are we talking about here? >> intelligence community can tell you that better than i can. i have extensive discussion with the administration about this topic. the policy of the trump administration is to deny north korea the capability to hit american with nuclear tip missile. preemptive war as last resort. that is becoming more likely as technology matures. every missile test, every underground test of a nuclear weapon means marriage is more likely, i think we're really running out of time. the chinese are trying but ineffectively f. there is underground nuclear test then you need to get ready for a very serious response by united states. >> dickerson: should the congress be having a big open

conversation about preemptive war? >> i think so. i think the president as commander in chief has ability to strike north korea to protect the american homeland. that discussion needs to happen among ourselves. >> dickerson: lot me ask you about the president's team, lot of back and forth about whether secretary of state tillerson, after all the reports so forth do you have confidence in the president's team around him to manage this tricky question? >> he's got the best united team of anybody i've seen. since i've been in washington the president itself early on made right decision, i'm not going to allow north korea to hit america with nuclear weapon we're not going to live than threat, if i have to go to war, i don't want to to stop it i will. everybody before president trump screwed it up including republicans, now we need to get it right. i think he's got the right approach, he's got the right team. i hope china will help us, we're running out of time. >> dickerson: we have run out of time, senator, thank you. we'll be back in a moment.

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>> dickerson: senator angus king, welcome. mitch mcconnell says regular order on this tax bill. >> if that was regular order i mated to see something else. this is the bill. i brought it. this is the bill that we got at about 6:00 at night that we were going to vote on that night. there were no hearings, there was some general hearings about tax reform, zero hearings on the bill. and even the bill that was reported out by the finance committee was different than what we were handed that we had to vote on few hours later. what worries me, i come on deered a staffer's desk. all the way through. now, i can't say i understood all of it but you could do the things that we were talking about, reducing corporate tax rates, doubling standard deduction, maybe 50 pages. this is 477 pages, john. there's a lot of stuff in here

that i don't think anybody knows what it's all about. i just happen to pick up, i marked understand margin on page 409, domestic royal and gas extraction income. what's that all about? there's a later provision about income on oil and gas from foreign countries, what's that about? the point, nobody knew what was going on here and there was a moment when we could have fixed it. chuck schumer moved to recess friday night about 9:00 until monday give people chance to go through this and dig through it. partyline vote, denied. end up voting at 2:00 a.m. >> dickerson: mr. mccome said plaining about the process means that you're losing. >> i think there is -- there's a point there because i heard him complain about the process a lot when i first arrived. but at some point process matters. the 86 tax bill, hearings, ten months, the vote in the senate by the way was 90-10.

this one barely was dragged across finish line on partyline vote. >> dickerson: what happens now? >> well, there's lot of talk about what the conference will be. i give it 50-50 there will nobody conference, i think there's a chance, because i don't think that either side wants to take the house or senate wants to bring this back to the floor. the house just may take senate bill and send it to the president. what happens now is, we've now made a 0-year decision, this may be most important vote any of us take in our career. because this isn't the reauthorization of the faa or even the farm bill. this is something that's going to affect every american, every business, the whole economy for decades. and what happens now is, we're going to see -- i give it three predictions. i got three predictions. one you're going to she people put on long serious face as was, the deficit is a problem, we can't do snap or social security

or medicare we got to restructure, that's number one. that's the first prediction. two, we're going to find some really stinky stuff in here that we didn't know. and three, anything good that happens in america in the next year including good weather at the super bowl is going to be attributed to this bill. those are my predictions. >> dickerson: we'll come back talk to you senator on the other side. commercial. we'll be back with senator angua king after this break, stay with us. us. glam stors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. the moment a fish is pulled out from the water, it's a race against time. and keeping it in the right conditions is the best way to get that fish to your plate safely. sometimes the product arrives and the cold chain has been interrupted, and we need to be able to identify where in the cold chain that occurred.

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