hey there. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here at msnbc world headquarters at the half hour. here's what's happening. breaking news overnight. it took until nearly 2:00 a.m. eastern today before the senate passed that $1.5 trillion tax bill. the vote 51-49. tennessee senator bob corker was the only republican to vote against it, as did all the democrats. and moments ago the president tweeted his appreciation thanking house and senate republicans for what he calls the biggest tax bill and tax cuts in history. as for the president, he is preparing to leave the white

house for several fund-raisers here in new york city. while he has reacted to the tax bill, we have heard nothing directly about michael flynn's guilty plea for lying to the fbi. we have a legal look from the fallout coming up. the president is still standing bisect of state rex tillerson, rejecting reports that he was about to replace him with cia chief mike pompeo. he said they work well together. we begin with the white house in damage control mode. this nearly 24 hours since mike flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi. this is a key development in the russia investigation which has been dogging the trump administration. let's go to kristin welker who has the story. >> reporter: michael flynn's plea deal met with public silence by president trump. but one source close to the president telling nbc news it's very, very bad for the white house. flynn not only a former national security adviser but a key trump

confidante for months during the campaign. >> general flynn, how great is he? >> reporter: flynn had gone after hillary clinton over her e-mails at the republican convention. >> yes. that's right. lock her up. now that flynn has been charged, the white house staff wondering what he will say to robert mueller. some close to the president concerned. flynn could offer information that would harm mr. trump. although ty cobb saying nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than mr. flynn. mueller's investigation a frequent target of the president. eight months ago tweeting, mike flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch-hunt. flynn has long been a political lightning rod after being pushed out of the obama administration, he became a lobbyist, advocating for closer ties with russia. sitting next to vladimir putin at an event by a russia propaganda network where flynn gave a big speech. his biggest public moment inside

the white house as national security adviser, this tough talk against iran. >> we are officially putting iran on notice. >> reporter: but flynn had become a controversial figure behind the scenes. in january, then acting attorney general sally yates warning the white house that its national security adviser may be subject to blackmail by the russians based on his false accounts of conversations with the russian ambassador. two and a half weeks later, flynn was fired after it was revealed he had misled the vice president about those conversations and kwraeuts warning became public in the "washington post". >> nbc's kristin welker, thank you for that. with a good morning to you, danny. he pleads guilty about lying to the fbi. this all seems to mirror concerning all the reporting out there, it seems to mirror all the possible charges relating to flynn's lobbying work for

turkey. so your read on all of this stands on what? >> remember, that all of these potential charges against flynn are really separate from the crime of tpapls statements. in theory, everything that flynn did, everything that kushner, did all of these things could have been perfectly legal except flynn may have -- or pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about what he did. the underlying conduct may still be legal. it is the lying he is charged with. he is charged with a single count of false statements under section 1001. what that tells us practically is that the government is using that as a crowbar to incentivize this defendant, flynn, to give them the best story he can. here's why. so secure agreement, flynn, we can assume, must have impressed the prosecutors enough to offer him awe tkaoefplt that's exactly

what clients have to do in this situation. go to what we call a proffer meeting, tell the u.s. attorneys everything they know. the u.s. attorneys usually know more than they let on because they want to know if this person is lying. if they are dazzled with the information that flynn gives them, then they often the defendant a cooperation agreement. and it's a very, very difficult agreement to satisfy because he has to impress them between now and his sentences. >> and more charges they could potentially bring to him. how does he have to impress them? are we talking bigger fish? >> that's the complaint we have about cooperating witness agreements. think about this. any of us in the same position, if the government approached you and said we might charge your son. you're looking at possibly five years in prison. although flynn wouldn't get that, give us something that impresses us.

think of the incentive to exaggerate, embellish, give up big fish as opposed to small fish because that is usually who the prosecution is looking for, someone above flynn to impress them. there aren't a lot of people in this situation who are above flynn. >> jared kushner, how is he playing into all of this? because we know that he is among those that has directed mike flynn to do this. where does he fit into this picture? mike flynn to reach out to sergey kislyak. >> he may take the position that i was just following orders. someone told me to make a phone call. i made a phone call. theoretically it's possible that if kushner gave that order, that direction, that he may not have committed a chargeable offense. yes, he may have violated the logan act. but as we have seen, practically speaking nobody gets charged or convicted realistically under the logan act. theoretically it is possible

that kushner may have ordered the phone call but he may not have given a false statements to agents with if they talked to him about that. so what is key in the coming days is what did kushner tell them and how true was it when he told them? >> can i just ask you, what would be the incentive, in your experience, with clients that you have had, what would be the incentive for mike flynn to lie? >> in a word, massive. i have seen this. i dealt with this personally. mike flynn is not only someone who has been threatened by the government up to five years in prison for one false statement or several false statements, there's also been intimations that his son could be charged too. you think about your own family members. think about if your own child or your sib lincoln or parents were threatened with prosecution. what incentive would you have to come up with some kind of story. now, the government already knows that they're getting hand in hand with a convicted

criminal to testify against other potential persons. they do that all the time. they're used to it. the reality is that these cooperating witness agreements, heavily incentivized, exaggerating the story to impress the government and ultimately implicate others. >> danny, thank you for that. we appreciate it. let's bring in zelena maxwell, director of progressive programming for sirius xm. joe watkins, form erp white house aide to george bush. welcome to you all three on a saturday morning. rick, with you first here, do you see any sense of what white house insiders are saying about this very sudden and unexpected flynn development. if you were in the west wing, what would you be thinking? >> it should be very nerve-racking for the white house. he was close to president trump. remember flynn pled guilty to

lying to the fbi, which you can't do. there's clearly other charges that he could be charged with related to his dealings with turkey. there is a kidnapping plot, et cetera. jared kushner's liability looks like whether he did lie to the fbi or not, we don't know if he did. kwropbtd that, i'm still not clear what the underlying charge is going to be. the logan act has never been prosecuted. it seems like it wouldn't be. it remains to be seen. president trump has been protecting general flynn. and outline he would want to protect jared kushner. there is still a lot of unanswered questions here. >> how do you interpret what happened with flynn? is there a way to read more into this than actually exists? or is it clear the line is drawn to the oval office? >> i think we can draw a few things from what happened yesterday. first of all, when you look at

the statement of the offense filed in court and you look at the dates in the statement of the offense, we know that he spoke to the fbi, lied to them january 24th. that same week was a very busy week in the trump white house. on january 27th is the day sally yates went to the white house for a second time to warn them that michael flynn could be black mailed by the russians because he had misled officials and the fbi about his conversations in this particular case. but also that was the day of the comey loyalty dinner. and i think that when you're looking at the timeline here and you're using the papadopoulos statement of the defense and yesterday flynn's statement of the offense, i think some of the dots are being put together by these investigators and it's becoming a little bit more clear what we're looking at in terms of collusion. now, we don't have enough evidence to say that collusion handled or did not happen. but i think a lot of the puzzle pieces are coming together.

and it's becoming more clear that certainly at the very least the trump white house had many contacts with the russians and had been lying about it for a year. >> he is angry the way he has been treated and is angry that the president abandoned him. do you think that could influence cooperation with mueller's investigation, someone so vocal in his support and now the table seems to be turned on him. >> of course he feels like the tables have been turned on him he might be angry. you heard danny say that flynn has plenty of incentive to tell the truth and to tell what he knows to robert mueller. mueller is a very, very deliberate lawyer. he is going about this in just the right way. he probably has lots of information. we know he has lots of information. and he's just taking his time and just making sure sure that

one by one he gets the people he needs to talk to talk. and flynn now has lots of incentive. i'm a father. and i know that if i were put in a position where i had to protect my son, i would protect my son. so michael flynn wants to protect his son, keep his son out of jail. he feels abandoned. >> regarding jared kushner, you know he is facing scrutiny after flynn said kushner is the one that directed him to contact the foreign governments. to all three of you, is kushner now too much of a liability for the white house? rick, you first. >> i think he has been all along. i don't know what jared kushner brings to the white house. he doesn't have any government experience. he clearly was not the campaign manager. i mean, he seemed to be a senior official in the white house. it is hard to imagine that he wasn't getting advice over all

of his decisions including the ones that directed flynn to contact the russians. let me emphasize i don't quite understand what the underlying charge would be. if he didn't lie, will they prosecute him on the logan act or receiving something of value to a campaign that he shouldn't have received. right now it doesn't look to be impeachable. >> quickly, your thoughts? >> i think jared kushner should be concerned if he did lie to the fbi. now that we know that buehler spoke to him very recently and asked specific questions about michael flynn, it's clear now that we have the charging documents in the flynn case, that robert mueller knew everything he needed to know about jared kushner's behavior. if he was not honest, he's in a lot of trouble. >> do you concur? >> i would concur. and if i were president trump i

would have told him not to join me in the white house in the first place. >> where did it all go wrong for retired general michael flynn? in and out or so what? the possible end result if the president gives the secretary of state his walking powers. next hours, in the bank. roy moore's democratic opponent's advantage over him and what difference that will make on election day. i'm ryan and i quit smoking with chantix. smoking was comforting. it was like a security blanket. it made me feel good, it really did.

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and there you see air force one. why? because the president will be boarding shortly. he's heading this way to new york city. he will attend three fund-raisers benefiting the rnc in areas of midtown and a private residence. we will let you know when he takes off from andrews air force base. new insight into michael flynn and the life he lived before his plea deal. he served for three decades in the u.s. army. he led the defense intelligence

agency before being forced out. this under the obama administration. he briefly served as the president's national security adviser, resigning after 24 days on that job amid revelations he misled the vice president about russian conversations. joining me now, someone who has known flynn for years. general barry mcofry. tkpwaorpbg, sir. i would like some context. i know you were supportive of his appointment as national security adviser until he began making controversial remarks and tweets while serving on trump's campaign. but given that general officers and soldiers, they are held to the highest standards, what was your reaction when you first heard about a fellow decorated officer lying to the fbi and subsequently now facing indictment? >> well, it's obviously a very sad day. look, general flynn was one of the most effective people in the war on terror that we had in uniform.

he and general mcchrystal are the reason we haven't suffered a disaster of attacks. so i think he started off the rails as a director of defense intelligence agency. he had target fixation. what happened was any enemy of al qaeda and isis is a friend of mine. therefore his relations with the turks and the russians, that sort of thing. when the obama team fired him, by the way, for basically stepping on their narrative that we have won the war on terror, i think he went into a dark place. he just got unstable. incident was incredible the chants, for that matter the whole notion of lying to the fbi. alex, one thing deserves to be said. i have been in and out of three administrations in the white house and dealt directly with national security advisers. it is my personal opinion, not based on evidence, that there is

no way that every aspect of his contacts with the russians he wasn't directly communicating with the president of the united states. the adviser, chief of staff are the only people that can call a president and get him up at night. him up at night so i think we will hear to the degree the president of the united states and others were all aware of. it's a notion he lied to vice president pence, you'd have to say in my view probably the president did, too. >> all right. >> that remains to be proved. >> it absolutely does and part of mueller's investigation, imagine a major focus of that. general, i want to ask you about the possible shakeup that's been reported coming to the white house that the president wants secretary of state rex tillerson out t. president's rejected the reports, calming it fake news, mr. tillerson is getting ready to leave for university. he's going to go on a week-long trip. how much does this kind of

uncertainty undermine diplomatic efforts for the u.s. and do you think that tillerson will have a problem being taken seriously while he's in europe? >> of course. there is almost no credibility left. secretary tillerson sort of surprised me how ineffective he's been. the whole notion of slashing a third of the state department budget is just preposterous. and, you know, obviously, lack of communication with the president, himself. which almost is to his credit. but, look, at the end of the day the new team allegedly, this mike pompeo and senator cotton, they are very capable, knowledgeable, smart people so the new team may well be a step forward 678 although, there will be policy arguments against them they are certainly competent, secretary tillerson has been to my surprise a disaster in dealing with foreign policy. >> all right, general, it's always good to speak to you. i'm sorry about the brevity of this situation. we will up to you again. thank you.

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i'm totally convinced this is a revenue neutral bill. actually a revenue producer bill that will get america moving again. >> senate majority leader mitch mcconnell taking a victory lap after the senate passed the tax bill a final vote 51-49. bob corker was the final no vote. joe, why did the final gop holdouts, why did they ultimately push this thing through? do they really believe in what the bill was all about or was it arm twisting? >> well, of course, mitch mcconnell earlier in the week said this was a giant rubbics cube. he went to those on the fence, he gave them what they wanted. susan collins, he gave each what they wanted. he bought the the problem

solved. so he got his 51 votes, senator corker being the only republican senator to hold out, of course. and to stick it to. corker is the only one who is running for re-election. at the end of the day the importance for republicans is to go back if you are facing re-election in the mid-terms to go back to your constituents and say i got something done, i got this tax bill done, whether or not it's revenue newt tram or producing is yet to be seen, i haven't seen the evidence to that. >> revenue new tral or generating? what are your thoughts? >> ryan voted for it. i think it's a pretty good bet. i think this vote may be revenue neutral even if it didn't pass. i think the economy is on an upswing despite the lack of action legislatively. look what this bill is not. this bill is not the largest tax increase, decrease in america. it's probably the 8th. two of obama's tax increases were larger. this bill represents a .9% of

gdp, reagan's by comparison was almost 3%. it is not tax reform. there are relatively few things to be reconciled between the house and the senate bill, so my guess is it will probably pass. >> one of them, though, removing obamacare's individual mandate t. house is expected to get on board with that. so is this the end of obamacare as we know it? >> reporter: i certainly hope no. i'm certain millions of americans who benefit from obamacare hope that's not the case. what i find completely preposterous in terms of the process, i know process is not a sexy point when you are talking about how the sausage is made. when you have no debate. there is no transparency and there is absolutely no hearings for a massive tax overhaul, i mean, what kind of governing is that? for all of the republican talking points that we heard the past seven years and eight years under obama about the fact that obamacare was ran through in the middle of the night. that's what they literally did

here. obamacare was not rammed through, there were a year of hearings we all watched on television. i think the process here is one of the most troubling pieces of this, the fact that each individual senator got essentially a gift personally for their constituents in this bill, some pork essentially. that's a term we haven't heard in a while is really troubling. there was person language, anti-abortion language, that was taken out literally in the middle of the night. that was included in this tax bill. and i just think that the process sheer one of the most troubling pieces of this entire endeavor. >> opening up arctic oil drilling again, all of. that okay. you guy, thank you so much. >> thank you. the new legal questions steming from the flynn plea deal. coming up, the prospectus from the house judiciary committee that voted to indict president nixon. we will talk about that next on msnbc live. i've asked for a luxurious new buick suv.

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