i'll see you again at noon eastern, right now it's time for "am joy" with joy reid. >> on this vote, the yeas are 51, the nays are 49. the tax cuts and jobs act as amended is passed. good morning. welcome to "am joy." there's a reason why republicans, many of whom did not want donald trump to be their presidential nominee dutifully and enthusiastically

lined up behind him any way. there's a reason why they've been perfectly calm, even zen about trump since, even given questions about his grip on reality. >> i know that two different people from the white house or at least saying they are from the white house and turned out to be a white house number called somebody i know in the last several weeks to say we are deeply concerned about his mental health. listen, what happens to a person who's under the pressure and threat he is -- and i believe what accounts for that is flynn's imminent flip or apparent flip, willingness to tell the story. >> none of that matters to republicans on capitol hill. not trump's insults against them, not his racist retweets, not his overall erratic behavior which outgoing senator bob corker, the only republican to vote against the tax bill overnight has described as turning the white house into an

adult day care center. there's a reason that republicans don't seem to care whether trump got into office with the help of a foreign power and why they support him no matter how much he degrades the office of the presidency. last night we saw the reason. when the senate passed a bill raising taxes on working americans in order to cut the tacks for rich and corporations. last night the american people saw for themselves there's only one thing republicans care about, the holy grail of republicans like house speaker paul ryan ever since they cracked open their first copy of atlas shrugged. >> going to yoga, that helps me get through the day. i don't want you to steal my mantra, but my mantra in yoga is tax reform. tax reform. tax reform. >> joining me now is gabriel sherman and karine jean-pierre

and gary sykes. paul ryan meant that to be funny, but this is a tax bill blatantly tilted towards the super rich, not just the rich, but the top 1% it would cut taxes immediately on corporations to the 20%. that's permanent. >> yeah. >> while giving temporary tax cuts to people in the middle but raising taxes on the poor. >> yeah. this is classic donald trump where he was out there in recent days saying he would get killed by this bill. every empirical analysis shows this will be a windfall for him and his family and open donors. there will be second order consequences to this tax bill. now that they got this through, hopefully they'll get it through as they hope through the conference committee, then they don't need donald trump for anything else this is the holy grail that republicans sort of wanted. i will want to see in the weeks and months ahead as the mueller investigation snowballs, we'll start to see them breaking from

trump. they got what they wanted which was the tax cut. >> there's been, charlie, this sort of duality among republicans, other than bob corker, but people like lindsey graham, who have been on both sides of the donald trump issue. this is lindsey graham, jake tapper calling oult lindsey graham this wednesday. >> what concerns me about the american press is this endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of cook, not fit to be president. >> i don't think i ever said the president is unfit to be president, you know who has? take a look. >> i think he's a cooke. i think he's crazy. i think he's unfit for office. what a difference a year makes. >> it's not just him, charlie. you have jeff flake of arizona,

from the hill yesterday flake will back the tax bill, but jeff flake gave that epic speech on the floor in which he talked about donald trump de-basing the office of the presidency. you have john mccain. john mccain, there's a piece in the huffington post that talks about the statements he made at the naval academy in october where he attacked nearly everything that donald trump represents. isn't it clear now none of that really matters to these republicans. they don't really care about that. they just care about what they did last night. >> yeah. i think it's hard to argue with all of that. the whole process was so incredibly shambolic. loading it up with those k-street goodies, releasing a 400 page tax bill minutes before they actually take a vote. adding more than $1 trillion to the national debt it came down to two things. number one, they needed to get a win. and as you pointed out, this is the holy grail.

i said before, there's a faustian bargain, that is we will look the other way, rationalize, debate, as long as we get tax cuts. you saw that. this week was also a microcosm of this whole mro social security. process. you had the president tweeting out anti-muslim videos, bizarre behavior. yet this is the new normal where elected republicans said nothing. there was no pushback. so what a surprise that the president is feeling empowered to get in touch with his inner fever swamp. >> yeah. karine, nancy pelosi tweeted out yesterday as this was unfolding on the other side of capitol hill, quotes from republicans. congressman chris collins saying my donors are basically saying get it done or don't ever call

me again. senator cory garner saying o donors are furious. lindsey graham saying the financial contributions will stop if we don't do this. trump came in saying he would drain the swamp, raise the taxes on the rich, all of that is not true, all they care about is what they did last night. >> it's exhausting having to come on all the time to tell you and everybody else and lay out how terrible the republicans are on the hill. unfortunately they make it easy. look, in the dead of night they decided to horse trade on the backs of the middle class, and poor people for what? to give a pay cut, a tax cut? to their donors and big corporations? that's what we're talking about here. this is what republicans have done. like you said, it's the holy grail. but there are a couple other reasons as to why they did this.

th they were worried about 2018, they have nothing to knshow for it, they were completely ineffective. this is something they feel they needed to do. and, hey, they wanted to get this done before another person was indicted from the trump inner circle. but this did this under the cover of darkness when americans were sleeping essentially, and did this because if they did this in the day of light, people would have rejected this process, a bill that is horrific, terrible, at its best got 28% of support from the public. if that. charlie talked about this faustian bargain that republicans have made. i've talked to republican strategists who said the same thing. it's not as if deep down they don't know that there's something deeply wrong going on in donald trump's mind.

he's saying now it's not him on the "access hollywood ta" tape. but they need him for one thing, that's because they're not popular with base republicans, but he is. this is donald trump tweeting something again that's not true. we are one step closer to delivering massive tax cuts for working families across america. special thanks to mitch mcconnell, who he has been hateful towards, and orrin hatch for shepherding this bill through. looking forward to signing the final bill before christmas. this was donald trump on the south lawn of the white house -- speaking on the south lawn about the passage of the bill. >> it was a fantastic evening last night. we passed the largest tax cuts in the history of our country and many other things along with it. tremendous tax reform. but it was the biggest package in terms of tax cuts ever passed in our country.

now we go on to conference and something beautiful will come out of that. >> republicans know he can sell that to their base. and paul ryan can't. >> yeah. but what i think will be fascinating is in the months ahead we'll see the results of this bill and what trump voters think when they see, you know, corporate dividends going up. if they pay attention to that. that's also another question. the actual base, the platform that donald trump ran on was not this bill. my reporting and other people have reported how steve bannon wanted a top marginal tax rate increase. there was a populist element to some of the trump tax plans. that's not this bill. so to what degree with he sell this bill of phony goods to his base? maybe they'll buy it. they tend to buy everything donald trump says. clearly the tax bill that mitch mcconnell rammed through the senate is not in the interest of the 30% of populist working class republican white voters that form the base of donald

trump's support. >> charlie, you worked in conservative talk radio. will conservative talkers present this is good for their listeners or will they sing the donald trump line and convince people they do like having their taxes increased? >> no, they will support this. i have to say on a personal note, i probably interviewed, you know, paul ryan and ron johnson dozens if not hundreds of times on the issue of the national debt, how terrible the national debt was. it's very disconcerting to me to watch them flip around and support a bill that will add so much to the national debt. one other point, by the way, for the deadline. they wanted to get this thing passed before the roy moore election in alabama. i don't think they wanted to necessarily have roy moore be the decisive vote on this tax package. but this will not get better with time. this will not age well. it's interesting to see how this plays out in 2018. >> the estimate that it will

add.4 trilliad add 1$1.4 trillion to the deficit. maybe their voters don't care, but donald trump will be selling it. we'll have more on the republican tax bill that passed the senate last night, but up next, the bomb that dropped on the trump administration yesterday. michael flynn cops a plea. this time of year is all about family. and we'd like you to be part of ours. so our chevy employee discount is now available to everyone. this holiday season, you pay what we pay. and not a cent more. we're so happy to share this with you. hey, mom and dad deserve some toys too. it's our way of saying happy holidays. and welcome to the family. the chevy family. get the chevy employee discount for everyone today.

are you concerned about what michael flynn might tell the

counsel? >> no, i'm not. what's been shown is no collusion. no collusion. [inaudible question] >> we'll see what happens. >> the russia probe is entering a new chapter now that michael flynn has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the fbi and agreed to cooperate with robert mueller. while lying to the fbi is a significant charge, it's what he lied about that could have far-reaching consequences for the white house. according to mueller, flynn made calls to the russian ambassador during the transition asking the russians to defeat or delay a u.n. security council resolution condemning israeli settlements. flynn wasn't working alone. he was directed to lobby russia by a high-level official, and sources tell nbc that's none other than jared kushner. flynn also asked ambassador kislyak to refrain from retaliating from barack obama's sanctions on russia during the

election. now all of this calls into serious question a line that the administration repeated in the days following flynn's ouster, that flynn misled them all. >> they didn't see anything wrong with what was actually said, but then we started thinking about whether or not michael flynn was being straight with us. that's when we started asking a lot of questions. >> joining me now is paul butler, barbara mcquade and malcolm nance. paul, we only have the white house's word for it, that flynn misled the white house. we don't have other independent evidence of that. let's set that aside for a moment. if michael flynn was essentially conducting foreign policy for the incoming administration while there was a sitting president, could that violate the logan act?

can you explain that act in lay terms and how often that is prosecuted? >> the idea is that the president of the united states is the person who represents the country before other nations. so it's a federal crime for private citizens to pretend he has the authority of the president. so, it's the oldest -- one of the oldest federal crimes around. it's been around since the late 1700s. how many successful prosecutions have there been? zero. zero. so there's never been a successful prosecution. at the same time that doesn't mean there couldn't be one. and it certainly sounds like

there was a representation by flynn that he was acting on behalf of the united states. here's the two words that jared kushner and vice president pence have to be worried about. martha stewart. martha stewart was prosecuted for lying about something that if she told the truth about it, it wouldn't be a crime. at the end of the day it doesn't matter what flynn did or what kushner may have directed kushner to do. if kushner lied about it, which mueller seems to think he did, that's a crime. he could go down for that. >> he could be threatened to be put in prison for it and then be made to make a deal and give them someone else. >> you got it. flynn has a sweet deal. he's got exposure for money laundering, for conspiracy to kidnap, he's getting false statements, he's not going to jail for that. his son probably won't even be charged probably. they only make a deal like that if the prosecutor thinks that he can get someone higher up on the chain. so, what mueller told flynn is

there are people who i want to put in prison even more than i want to put your lying butt in prison. if you give us the goods on them, you get a break. >> absolutely. barbara, let's walk back on who could be in jeopardy. there's smaller people down the chain, then we will get to jared kushner. sean spicer, this is what he said on december 28th. this is regarding what was happening on the call. this is once we learned that michael flynn was talking to ambassador kislyak and here is what sean spicer said happened on that call and the subsequent conversations with mcfarland. >> the ambassador texted him back, wishing him a merry christmas as well. and then subsequently on the 28th of december, texted him and said, i'd like to give you a call, may i? he then took that call on the 28th and the call centered around the logistics of setting up a call with the president of

russia and the president-elect after he was sworn in. >> so, barbara, that sounds benign. but one would hope that when he was in front of the fbi, if he ever gets questioned by them, that sean spicer will tell the truth, if that's not the truth. let's look at the timeline. michael flynn talks to the russian ambassador about this israeli settlement vote on december 22nd. on the 29th president obama revealed that we were instituting new sanctions. on that same day, flynn then speaks with the russian ambassador again about those sanctions. he makes false statements to the fbi on january 24th. then sally yates two days later warns the white house that flynn has been compromised. obviously they taped those calls, and then trump tells comey that i need loyalty. trump fires yates three days after that. it goes on from there. the "washington post" outs the fact that flynn could be subject to blackmail and he resigns on february 13th.

the day after that, trump tells comey i hope you can let this go. if you are mueller right now, barbara, who are you looking at questioning next to further move your way up the chain from michael flynn? >> yeah. i think one of the things that was revealed yesterday was in that document called statement of the offense. where mueller's team detailed the contacts that flynn had with the russian ambassador. and it reveals a couple of individuals who appear to maybe be those higher targets in the food chain. makes reference to a senior trump transition team official and a very senior trump transition team official who are they? there's a small universe of who those people might be. there's been reports that one might be jared kushner. one of them might have been flynn's deputy who was acting as a messenger between flynn and trump himself. and so it seems like those are the people who may be the targets of mueller's

investigation at this point. who do you talk to to figure that out? who else was at mar-a-lago that day? who else would know who was part of those conversations? it may be mueller knows who they are right now. getting a full understanding of what their role was in directing flynn to make those comments to the russian ambassador, i think, would be part of the goal. so he's closing in on that smaller part of the universe that exists above michael flynn. >> we know don magon, the white house council will be questioned. jared kushner was instrumental in pushing donald trump to fire comey. one would presume trump was at mar-a-lago when they were having those conversations. this is what donald trump said in one of these walk and talks about whether he directed michael flynn to discuss sanctions. >> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador? >> no, i didn't. >> prior to your inauguration? >> no, i didn't. >> why would you fire him --

>> i fired him because of what he said to mike pence. very simple. mike was doing his job. he was calling countries and his counterparts. so it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him do it if i thought he wasn't doing it. >> malcolm would it be credible to you if the buck stopped with jared kushner instead of donald trump in terps ms of directing these conversations? >> no, it would be incredible if it stopped with jared kushner. michael flynn was companion to donald trump almost from the beginning of this campaign. he had unlimited access. apart from not being a married relative of donald trump, he was one of the most senior people there. who in the transition was above him that would have been in position to give him orders in order to do anything? it's quite possible jared kushner was one. we saw that with reference to

the israeli resolution, where they called russia and told them not to take action. on the other hand, with regards to russia, with the obama administration kicking out spies from the united states, that would have to be someone very senior indeed. and that leaves only mike pence and donald trump himself. k.t. mcfarland, who is below mike flynn, is just going to be a messenger for whatever the message was from one of those two top officials. >> do you agree with that? who do you think would be logically the next person? who would mueller want, mike, in order to give mike flynn such a good deal? >> the director of the national security agency has pled guilty to a federal crime. he at this point is little guy on the totem pole. five people, president of the united states, the vice president of the united states, the attorney general, the president's son-in-law, kushner, or the president's son, trump jr. those are the only people who

it's logical to think is next in the sight of the special counsel mueller. >> we shall see. thank you very much. up next, trump versus reality. stay with us. my experience with usaa has been excellent. they always refer to me as master sergeant. they really appreciate the military family, and it really shows. we've got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. usaa was there hands-on very quick very prompt. i feel like we're being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. usaa, get your insurance quote today.

why did you take credit card debt on? second kid. private school. medical bills. moving costs. solid ground. a personal loan from sofi is a smart way to consolidate credit card debt. certain borrowers cut their credit card interest rates 42% and increased credit scores 17 points on average. borrow up to $100,000 with low rates and no hidden fees. find your rate in just two minutes, and take on your debt at sofi.com.

this monday bishop william barber and dr. reverend liz theo harris will take their poor people's campaign to washington. the two faith leaders say the republican tax plan is not only immoral but an act of violence against the poor. that won't stop republicans from passing it or donald trump from signing it. up next, is trump losing his battle with reality? ah, but i may as well try and catch the wind♪ our mission is to make off-shore wind one of the principle new sources of energy. not every bank is willing to get involved in a "first of its kind" project. citi saw the promise of clean energy. we're polluting the air less. businesses and homes can rely on a steady source of power.

this will be the first of many off-shore wind farms in the u.s. ♪for standing in your heart is where i want to be and long to be ah, but i may as well try and catch the wind♪

>> something is unleashed with him lately. i don't know what's causing it. i don't know how to describe it. i think the last couple of days tweets have been markedly accelerated in terms of seeming a little unmored. >> with the russian investigation ratcheting up pressure on the white house and circling closer to his inner circle the question of donald trump's stability and his attachment to reality deserves a serious reckoning, especially amid reports that trump that been telling people around him that in his mind the voice on the access hollywood tape that we all know is donald trump and who donald trump is donald trump is not actually donald trump. you heard that right. the "new york times" reports that trump told a senator in january "we don't think that was my voice." the times reports that in recent days amid mounting sexual misconduct against many men,

trump stupnned his advisers abot the access hollywood tape. the world inside trump's mind is still a place where barack obama's birth certificate is fake and widespread voter fraud robbed him of the popular vote. joining us now is tara dowdell and kurt bardella. tara, i'm glad you are here. you know donald trump. you were on "the apprentice," you were a contestant on the show. does this person who is now denying that it's him in the access hollywood tape, even though you see him in the tape and hear his voice, who still apparently is a birther, believes barack obama lied about his birthplace, and still thinks he won the popular vote but for voter fraud, is this the same person you knew when you were on "the apprentice"? >> i want to stipulate a couple of things up front. number one, donald trump has always been a liar. that's something that's been consistent throughout his entire life.

but with respect to his behavior now, it is markedly different from what i experienced on "the apprentice" and also when i met him in my capacity on the gubernatorial campaign in new jersey and when i worked in the governor's office in new jersey. what i see as different, i think some of these things he's saying now are still strategic. talking about obama's birth certificate, that is sort of where he retreats to. i think for him, when a lot of pressure and focus is on him. but i do think where you see the distinction is he was able back then to look at a person, gauge them, and engage them as a chameleon based on what he thought that person would respond well to. with us on "the apprentice," he very much wanted us to admire him. we were there to compete for a job with him. he treated us with a level of respect, and he was also sometimes charming. what i see now is his inability to really even change his behavior. he is just always angry.

he's always compulsive. there's zero discipline, not that he was ever particularly disciplined. zero discipline and zero self control. that's a sign that it's a very different donald trump and that people say, why are you on tv analyzing his behavior? you're not a medical professional. he's a president of the united states and this matters. >> kurt, in the "washington post" you have a story about donald trump essentially trying to reshape reality. to make it comport to what he wants, not just what he wants but what his supporters want. this says trump asked others whether they think the voice sounds like him on the access hollywood tape, suggesting it is not, he would assert and people would say, okay, let's move along said one person who heard the comments. there's no point sitting there and litigating it with him. a second person recalled that he says it's not really me. i don't talk like that. it strikes me that that is very

similar to the sort of conspiracy theorys that you see on a place like info wars, on breitbart, this fits with what a lot of his right-wing media support base wants to do. do you think he's consuming conspiracy theories or that he believes them independently and is passing them along to these places? >> i think it's both. i think they feed one another. we already know trump's media diet includes reading sites like breitbart, watching programming on other cable channels. it's like they're talking to one another. so when the media that he pays attention to only frames thing a certain way, to protect him, to mislead their audience, to mislead supporters, he absorbs that and believes that to be truth. he regurgitates it, they report on what he says, which is based off of their own bad reporting and manipulation, and it continues to go as a cycle. we're seeing from both sides of this, the media he cares about and donald trump, the systematic

december tru destruction of fact, truth. they are doing it because they have known since donald trump became president that we would get to the point we're at now, the mueller investigation would close in, facts would come out that showed that his own closest advisers, not people he never heard of, not people who were low level interns or not directly with the campaign, the former national security adviser flipped on him. they knew this moment would come, the only chance they had was to pollute the entire environment and make it so the people who tell the facts are "fake news." >> tara, on the point of the mueller investigation, because in the previous block we were talking about -- charlie sykes made the point, that at a certain point once republicans get him to sign the thing they want the most in the world, the tax cuts for the wealthy, they don't really need donald trump anymore other than to sell it further to his base. once it's sold, passed, you know, there's a question of then what happens to his mental health when republicans stop

sort of fawning over him which is what they've been doing. donald trump seems to be convinced that he'll be exonerated by the mueller probe. the "washington post" on tuesday reported that trump expressed certainty that the special council probe will be finished by the end of the year, complete with an exoneration by robert mueller. ty cobb, his lawyer, is not walking him back from that belief. he's echoing it. there's a piece in -- i think this is the "washington post." nothing about the guilty plea or charges implicates anyone other than mr. flynn. this demonstrates the special counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a porompt and reasonabl conclusion. if that doesn't happen -- it's not going to happen. if the mueller probe escalates and republicans move away from trump, then what can you predict happens with him? >> we're seeing it now.

he's unraveling. he's unraveling before our very eyes. what confuses people is that it is a both and situation, right? he's also trying to be stra t m strategic. some of these lies are a strategy on his part telling his base what he thinks they want to hear. that's happening too. so people are confusing the two. he is also unraveling. he could not deal with the pressure of the campaign. he had moments then. we saw him unravel during the campaign. now he's the president of the united states, he's not capable of dealing with this level of responsibility. remember, at the trump organization, there were times when donald trump was not fully in charge of what he thought he was managing. we thought his marketing arm made it appear he was in charge of this massive operation, when in reality the banks had put people in charge of many of the properties because he was such a terrible leader and manager. remember, most of the buildings are his name having been licensed and the team of

consultants around him that manage a lot of that. so, what -- so the notion that he was ever going to be able even in the best frame of mind to handle this level of responsibility when he couldn't do it at the trump organization, i think is all we need to know. i do think right now he knows -- while i said he's unraveling, i think he also knows what the stakes are in this. this notion that he's stupid is not true. that's part of why we see him unraveling. >> kurt, donald trump, you know, this experience of those of us in new york who have known him for a long time, one thing that's clear, he wants to be liked, loved, adored. he has really put his name on this tax provision, this tax bill. he's touted it. he's already this morning out saying it's a great achievement for himself. he sees this as a triumph for himself, but he's also the guy who promised a lot of people he would raise the taxes on the rich and protect the ordinary working person. when part two of this kicks in, the tax hikes go for the working

people and republicans come after entitlements, coming after medicare, medicaid, social security, they will be more than happy to leave his name on it. most americans don't even know who paul ryan is. when the unpopularity of this bill kicks in and it washes over donald trump, then what happens? do the breitbarts of the world keep defending it? throw him up the bus? >> i think they keep defending it until it becomes impossible to defend. trump loves putting his name on things. he loves owning these things. without question, this is donald trump's tax reform bill. went all in on this. there will be a massive backlash from the american people when they realize that guess what, your taxes just went up. your healthcare costs just went up. the things you think you'll get, that will benefit you, that your wages will get better, job also get better, the economy will skyrocket, none of those things will happen. as every empirical data has told

us. there's going to be such a massive backlash. they have done a horrible job of managing expectations. the biggest mistake that president obama made during the passage of obamacare is when they said if you like this plan, keep it. the intentions turned out to be different than that. here we go now with republicans saying all these things will happen for the american people, for the middle class, the working class, none of those things will happen. their life will get so much more worse, they will be held accountable at the polls. >> then what happens for donald trump? he's expecting positive headlines out of this the process headlines will be process. we know how the media works. trump got wind, democrats pass bill. that's the way the media works. they'll give him something like a positive headline. they won't be able to maintain that long. once the pain kicks in, then what happens him when he's getting blamed? >> exactly. that's what's going to happen. that is just an eventuality. so i think what i see is the --

one of the reasons why trump is so dangerous is that he's so easy to be manipulated. we know that. so he -- how you manipulate him is through validation. how you unravel him is through not validating him. that is what will happen. i think we're in for a very rude awakening. i don't see this ending very well at all. yet, a reminder, we have not seen donald trump's medical records. all we saw was that letter from that strange doctor saying he was, you know, as fit as a stallion or something to that effect. and -- so, i mean, that's another thing. we have no idea what his medical records say. >> yeah. oh, boy. tara dowdell and kurtd kurt w b thank you very much. coming up, the tax bill consequences for you and your bottom line. the author of "trickle down economics" who later changed his mind joins us next. i just got my cashback match,

is this for real? yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover.

in all fairness this will cost me a fortune this thing. believe me. believe me. this is not good for me. me, it's not so -- i have some wealthy friends, not so happy with me. but that's okay. >> to borrow a phrase, wrong.

donald trump would stand to save about $35 million a year under the senate tax bill that passed in the wee hours of the morning. under the house version which would completely eliminate the estate tax, trump's family would benefit more, family would bene even more, raking in a tax break of more than a billion dollars with a b. bruce, the assumption that's underlying the idea of cutting taxes on corporations to 20% and cutting taxes on wealthy people is that when you give rich people money, they will suddenly turn that money into jobs. but gary cohen who's the chief economic advisor to donald trump tested this proposition at a "wall street journal" ceo summit back on november 14th. let's play what he did. >> if the tax reform bill goes through, do you plan to increase capital investment?

just a show of hands if the tax reform goes through. okay. >> why aren't the other hands up? >> the idea that if you give very wealthy people and corporations tax breaks, they turn into jobs, it's just not true. even ceos don't believe it. >> it's complete nonsense. it's a lie. bloomberg, reuters have done surveys of corporate executives. by and large, they all say the same thing. we're going to increase our payouts to shareholders. we're going to increase bonuses for corporate ceos. this is not going to create a single job, believe me. >> what would be the justification in your mind that republicans would have for raising taxes on lower income people? they spend all of their income. why raise taxes on them? >> it really defies

comprehension. maybe they think that the poor have it so easy that they need to have to pay more taxes to force them to go out and work more. it really -- the amazing thing is that people seem to be accepting this so meekly and mildly. it's really akin to rape. it really is. >> the thing that republicans have always said they care about for deficits. i've never really believed they care about deficits. but they say they care about it, particularly when there's a democrat in office. this bill is estimated to put $1.14 trillion on top of the national debt. that's according to the joint committee on taxation. it's going to balloon the deficit. is there anyway to justify adding to the deficit, essentially meaning that younger americans, millennials, et cetera, are going to have to pay the bill for it in addition to later on having their own

retirements cut, their social security and medicare. >> there is no economic justification for this tax cut whatsoever. in the past, when we've had large tax cuts of this sort, they all took place at a time when the economy was in a recession or just out of a recession. the economy right now is at full employment. that means we're not going to be able to reduce the unemployment rate further without sparking an increase in inflation. i believe that the minute the ink is dry on this tax cut, all of the fiscal responsibility groups and the office of management and budget and the white house will all be saying, we're shocked, shocked to discover that the national debt is rising very, very rapidly. we must do something about it and it will all take the form of cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid. >> as a matter of fact, just to make that point, marco rubio basically admitted that on

thursday. this is marco rubio talking about step two after these tax cuts go into force. >> you have to do two things. you can't do one. you've got to do both. you have got to generate economic growth, because growth generates revenue. but you also have to bring spending under control and not discretionary spending. that isn't the driver of our debt. the driver of our debt is the structure of social security and medicare for future beneficiaries. >> number one, two tax cuts create growth? and number two, are republicans next coming after social security and medicare? >> tax cuts can increase growth. a properly designed, targeted revenue neutral tax reform that lowered the corporate tax rate would probably increase growth. but this is just a give-away. there's nothing in it that will conceivably lead to increased growth. i think the estimate you gave of a loss of 1.1 trillion in revenues is way, way low. it's probably going to be upwards of 2 trillion when all is said and done.

secondly, marco rubio basically gave away the game, which is something republicans have been doing for 40 years, which is called starve the beast. they believe that the only way they can cut entitlement programs, which of course are very, very popular, is to create a deficit so large that there is absolutely no other choice. the real tragedy is that when democrats regain control of congress and maybe the white house, they will have to do the dirty work. >> wow. bruce bartlett, sobering news this morning. thank you. coming up, the next step after michael flynn's guilty plea. my experience with usaa has been excellent. they always refer to me as master sergeant. they really appreciate the military family, and it really shows. we've got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. usaa was there hands-on

very quick very prompt. i feel like we're being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. usaa, get your insurance quote today.

the man who led the charge of "locker up" at the gop convention is now a convicted felon. a dramatic twist that had spectators shouting "lock him up." flynn has agreed to cooperate with robert mueller's russian russian investigatio investigation. the plea agreement stems from a meeting the general had the sergei kiy kislyak.

according to court documents, flynn says he contacted the russians at the urging of two top officials in the trump transition team. flynn was one of trump's early yers -- earliest allies. none other than michael flynn is named in the indictment. but the swift guilty plea means that mueller is reaching right into the heart of trump's inner circle, applying pressure that can only go in one direction, up toward trump and his family, including his son-in-law jared kushner. joining me now paul butler and former fbi double agent rosa brooks, former pentagon official and security analyst matt miller. you wrote a piece in news week that's up today. you said michael flynn lied to the fbi about russia but he should have known better. why? >> simply because he spent 30-plus years as a member of the intelligence community. look, for those that don't know,

when you're entrusted with secrets, the code you take is just to tell the truth. that sounds quaint and that might sound simple. but when michael flynn was in the room with those investigators he could either say i don't recall what happened with kislyak. instead he chose a definitive answer, not yes. he said no. in fact, we now know that he lied. he decided to lie. the only thing i can draw from that is that someone who spent 33 years in that community had to have been faced with the position that if he told the truth, the truth would have been far, far worse than the lie. why was he lying? what was he protecting? why was he afraid of telling the truth? >> i think that's the definitive question. it wouldn't have even been something you could presume if you are michael flynn. this is not a guy who just walked in off the street. he's a career military man, a

three star general. why would you not just assume that your conversations with sergey kislyak were being recorded? it does sort of defy credulity. someo what are your thoughts? >> you would think so. i will tell you the one and only time that i met mike flynn while he was head of the d.i.a. i went with a group of other think tank folks to visit him. he's a very smart man. he asked all kinds of smart questions. he presented us all with a commemorative coin commemorating our visit and the date on the coin was the wrong date. so maybe that just says it all. i don't know. it is truly bizarre, right. f if you are the head of the defense intelligence agency, you know to a complete certainty that we do monitor the communication of foreign diplomats, particularly when they come from states considered to be adversarial to the united states. it's bizarre.

i mean, i think that if he thought he was doing nothing wrong, if he just had a brain fart as my children call them, then you just say to the fbi, i shouldn't have done that, i screwed up, i really goofed here, i shouldn't have been having those conversations. i think it's absolutely right that lying about them to the fbi suggests that there was more going on that was even worse. >> yeah. you do what karl rove did. you go back and revise your statements so they are no longer lies. the extraordinary thing about this, in the flynn statement that he put out afterwards, he himself defends himself against treason. after over 33 years of military service, my decision to continue to serve the united states, it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of treason and

other outrage yoous acts. it begs even more questions. >> he's pushing back somewhat against the idea that he colluded with a foreign government, that he had any inappropriate contacts with russians. the story he's trying to tell is that everything he did, he was directed to do. when we get to the question of why he lied about these contacts, what we found out yesterday is, he wasn't just lying to cover up for himself. he wasn't just lying to cover up the fact that he had had these conversations with sergey kislyak. he was lying to cover up the fact that a vast number of people inside the transition, later inside the white house, knew that he was doing it. we found out he had called down to mar-a-lago, talked to his deputy who was meeting with other transition officials, including presumably the president and reince priebus. he doesn't just lying to save

himself. he was protecting an entire apparatus inside the white house that was in on this thing. >> let's do a little round robin. let's start with jared kushner. we know that michael flynn talked to senior transition officials, quote, unquote, about his contacts with russia, one of them presumably could be jared kushner. this is from the wall street journal back in november. jared kushner also happens to be the person who reportedly pushed for the firing of jim comey, who was investigating all this. >> the statement of offense contain this s this narrative on having these conversations with the russian ambassador. then calling a senior trump campaign official. it sounds like jared kushner. so he's got exposure. not so much for a substantive offense, but for covering it up. if he lied to the fbi about it, then he is going down. again, president trump is famously disloyal.

who has he been super loyal to? michael flynn. flynn knows something. muell mueller's about to find out exactly what that is. >> one person he's been disloyal to is jeff sessions. jeff sessions is not necessarily out of the woods either. this is adam schiff regarding jeff sessions on thursday. >> i asked the attorney general specifically did the president of the united states ever take any action that you believed -- instruct you to take any action that you believed would hinder the russia investigation and he declined to answer that question. >> intriguing. >> not answering that question is answering it. because if the answer was no, you would say no. i think we have a pretty good idea what happened here. we know he's taken a number of steps to try to impede the russia investigation. the president said the reason he

fired comey is he didn't like the handling of the russia investigation. jeff sessions was involved in that decision. he signed his own memo that went to the president along with rod rosenstein's memo. the question is, was there anything else. when we look at obstruction of justice, we focus a lot on his decision to fire comey. but we also know in those months between -- he called the director of the nsa, asked all of those people to interfere and try to stop the russia investigation. it's hard to believe he called all these officials he barely knew and he didn't call his attorney general who supervises the fbi and who he had known through the campaign, had a close relationship with, and didn't ask him to inappropriately intervene as well. those are the kinds of things you're going to see mueller looking for to prove obstruction of justice. >> would we look with a little

more skepticism at these white house narratives that mike pence was simply lied to and knew nothing? he was a part of the transition team. when sally yates gave this warning that michael flynn might have a problem, one would presume the vice president of the united states was theeold t too. is mike pence out of the woods here? >> i don't think anybody is out of the woods. we're likely to hear more information in the weeks and months coming as flynn tells mueller what he knows. it's hard to underestimate how betrayed many of the military personnel i speak to feel by flynn's behavior. we have hundreds of thousands of enlisted men and women who are told constantly and reminded constantly you will be fired, you will be prosecuted if you don't stick straight to the line in terms of avoiding contact with foreign adversaries in terms of terming t itelling the so forth. when they see a three star

general like mike flynn doing this, it's a slap in the face for all of those people who have been abiding by the rules all along. >> not only skirting the rules in terms of his lobbying, but dealing with autocratic governments and taking cash. >> and cashing out. absolutely. >> so you have him not just taking money from rt to go and sit with vladimir putin at his table, he and jill stein both being at that table. but also taking money allegedly from interests in turkey. this renditioning conspiracy theory of trying to take a u.s. resident and ship them off to turkey. and involving his son. >> it's the absolutely antithesis of the idea of service. >> so michael flynn's son has not been charged with a crime. it's not clear whether his possible legal exposure was extra pressure that pushed flynn to plead guilty.

flynn junior is not expected to be charged. >> i think this is a pretty sweetheart deal that mike flynn has. i'm sure matt miller can speak to this, but when it comes to these cases, the government has time on their side. michael flynn does not. we've heard he's going to put his house up for sale. these defenses are not just incredibly difficult to mount. they're expensive. i think that's probably a couple of things that are on the dock besides the fact that he doesn't necessarily want to go to jail. i'm sure his pension as well as his son, i think these are the lit aany of charges that are alleged here, i think the fact this has been boiled down to one simple charge speaks volumes to what flynn has offered. we know what the risk is, his son, his livelihood, his family. there's a lot on the table to negotiate with. >> they only charged him with one thing, just lying to the fbi. they could have gotten him for any number of things.

so the fact that they didn't charge him with anything more than lying to the fbi and they didn't charge his son, wa dohats that say to you? >> mueller already knows exactly what it is that flynn has to offer. whatever it was, it was good enough for him to give flynn this sweetheart deal. as for the son, again, when prosecutors want to get you, they don't just go for you. they go for your people, your family. that's what makes people change positions. that's why now with trump, this is getting personal. this is flynn, but it's also his son and his son-in-law. so we can expect that the president might react differently here than he has to other phases of this investigation. >> rosa, we know that donald trump seemed to have a particular interest in protecting mike flynn. it was flynn that he asked comey to protect before he fired jim comey. flynn does seem to be the person in the most jeopardy.

i want to go back to something you said about the military community. could flynn lose his pension over this? >> he could, absolutely. >> say again. >> he absolutely could. >> yeah, yeah. so it's an interesting question. i want to go around and just ask what you all think could happen in theory if donald trump were to try to pardon mike flynn, paul manafort, geor or anyone e. >> it's really too late to pardon mike flynn. if he pardons him, suddenly flynn loses the ability to take the fifth amendment. he can't incriminate himself if he's already been pardoned. mueller would be able to compel his testimony. it would get flynn out of this guilty plea, but it wouldn't prevent him from testifying against the president even if he wanted to. with manafort, he could certainly do it there. you would hope that would be the red line to make congress act.

it would tee that issue up of the president being an absolute lawless president four square in front of the congress. >> if he does it, he's writing his own article of impeachment. the question is what will the republican congress have the will. mike flynn is charged with kidnapping or conspiracy to kidnap as a state crime in new york. president trump has no power to pardon anyone from a state crime. whatever mike flynn knows will come out. up next, your moment of maxine. when you've been making delicious natural cheese for over 100 years like kraft has, you learn a lot about people's tastes. honey, what do you want for dinner tonight?

oh whatever you're making. triple cheddar stuffed sliders. sold!

live binge dvr'd shows,te sport, while painting your toes. on demand laughs, during long bubble baths. tv on every screen is awesome. the xfinity stream app. all your tv at home. the most on demand, your entire dvr, top networks and live sports on the go. included with xfinity tv. xfinity. the future of awesome.

i'm sorry. i'm sorry. i'm sorry. the level of corruption, the criminal behavior, all these things that are going on, i mean, it's just unbelievable what we're seeing in our country today. >> there's an old playground saying. he who smelt it dealt it. that certainly seems to be the case for disgraced national security advisor michael flynn who pleaded guilty on friday to lying to the fbi. he famously led "lock her up" chants during the gop convention. maxine waters tweeted after the plea, lock him up, lock him up. joining me now is maxine waters

herself. i want to play one more bite from michael flynn's raucous performance at the republican national convention, when he was far more smug. here he is. >> lock her up. if i, a guy who knows this business, if i did a tenth of what she did, i would be in jail today. >> congresswoman, can we officially say he has done at least a tenth of what hillary clinton is supposed to have done? >> let me just say that this administration was warned by obama. sally yates warned them that he was probably compromised by the russians. trump paid no attention. pence paid no attention. they know who he is and what he's all about. and so he has been caught. and mueller has done what i've always known he would do,

starting to connect the dots and bring them in. and we know that he would like to have immunity. this man is guilty of something. i think it's a lot and i think the president is connected and knows what it is. >> congresswoman, you have been out there touting the idea that donald trump should face impeachment. that has fallen on deaf ears among your colleagues on the other side of the aisle among republicans. does this indictment and this guilty plea of michael flynn -- have you seen it change the attitudes on the other side of the aisle at all? >> not yet. but i think it's going to be hard for the republicans to continue to be silent standing with this president as it unfolds. this is the tip of the iceberg. there's lots more to come. i think it's going to lead right to not only collusion, obstruction of justice, money laundering.

it goes on and on and on. we are at a point in time in the united states of america with a president who is involved in all kinds of things that would shock people, i do believe. so i know that i've been calling for impeachment. i know i've been criticized. but i know everything that i have learned about him and his allies, their interest in lifting the sanctions, their connection to vladimir putin, their connection to the kremlin. i know that we are going to find that this president needs to be impeached. >> in all seriousness, there have been some real questions about donald trump's mental state. not only tony schwartz who wrote "the art of the deal," bob corker who has called the white house an adult daycare center. you tweeted on friday, mr. president, there's help for your deteriorating mental health.

it's called admitting guilty and telling the truth. why do you suppose they haven't been willing to do anything about this president's mental instability? >> the republican party is in disarray. i don't know that it is a party anymore. first of all, you're absolutely correct. they're silent. they aren't saying anything. tillerson called him a moron. people are questioning his mental health. look what they just did with this tax reform bill. they created a $1 trillion deficit when they're supposed to be the conservatives concerned about our budget, concerned object our expenditures. so i don't know who the republicans are anymore. they're simply now tax and spend republicans. there are simply republicans who are standing behind a president who's taking us to war, who's bullying, who's taunting, who's carrying us right into a war with north korea. i don't know that there is a republican party.

it is absolutely outrageous. >> let's talk about that tax bill for just a second. just a few of the highlights, if you want to call them that. for individuals it eliminates personal exemptions. it repeals state and local tax deductions which is going to hurt people in states like new york. it expands the child tax credit. for corporations it lowers the tax to 20%. it's going to add about 1.4 trillion to the deficit, but it's also going to raise taxes on the poorest americans. we've been talking earlier with republicans who say once this thing passes, which is the thing that paul ryan and republicans have wanted most really, to slash taxes on the wealthy, raise them on the poor and then cult in cut into entitlements. once they do that and they don't need donald trump anymore, do you think that's the point at which republicans drop him? >> i don't know. some are saying they just wanted to get past this tax scam that they are doing and then this

would free them up in order to do what they should be doing in truly representing the people. let me just tell you, this tax scam they are fostering on the american people is simply, you know, a tax scam that's for the wealthy. i mean, they have never touched the 35% to 20% reduction for corporate taxes. that has been consistent on the house side and on the senate side. reduce those taxes for the big corporate interests in the america from 35% to 20%. they have fiddled around with a lot of things, but the fact of the matter is they're willing to penalize poor people, hard working americans who don't make a lot of money. middle class americans. the individual cuts that you will see, they all are going to be no good in ten years from now. they're temporary. but the corporate tax deductions are permanent.

>> yeah. how do your colleagues -- i'm always fascinates by the conversations that must be taking place across the aisle. how do they justify, for instance, rescinding the tax break for teachers who buy school supplies or the tax break for grad students who are not rich who want to go to school or making the tax exemption for people who send their kids to private school get more generous the more wealthy you are. is there a way they try to explain to you why they have to do that? >> no. they don't attempt to justify it. they think they can get away with anything. they think they can tell their constituents anything. you are absolutely right. we have teachers all over america who spend their money to make sure that they have the supplies and equipment that they need for their children in the classroom. and they don't say thank you teachers. certainly we're going to give you a tax break. no. they make their lives more difficult by not allowing them

to deduct even the interest or any of the money they're spending. with the state of the unioudent care about, no, they're going to charge them higher interest on student loans. they think those constituents who are voting for them won't find out and they don't have to answer to them. it's outrageous. >> yeah. we have haven't even gotten into it, but gerrymandering and voter suppression kind of gives them an insurance policy. maybe if people want to vote against them, they may not be able to get rid of them. >> maybe, maybe not. but they've got jeff sessions there doing their bidding. >> thank you. coming up, the battle for alabama. donald trump is heading to roy moore country. say with us.

( ♪ ) more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. (clapping) and the united states postal service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. ( ♪ ) because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest.

even the smallest things why did you take credit card debt on? second kid. private school. medical bills. moving costs. solid ground. a personal loan from sofi is a smart way to consolidate credit card debt. certain borrowers cut their credit card interest rates 42% and increased credit scores 17 points on average. borrow up to $100,000 with low rates and no hidden fees.

find your rate in just two minutes, and take on your debt at sofi.com. and i am a senior public safety my namspecialist for pg&e. my job is to help educate our first responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. i live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. once i moved here i didn't want to live anywhere else. i love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other people's lives. together, we're building a better california. . coming up, donald trump defends roy moore and irritates america's closest ally, which happens to be planning a very big royal wedding. sound like he's trying to get kicked off the guest list.

candidate roy moore has

denied he targeted teenage girls at the local mall when he was a prosecutor in his 30s. he will soon get some fresh backup from his most powerful defender. donald trump will hold a campaign style rally in pensacola, florida, just 20 miles from the alabama border four days before the election. joining me now amy kramer of women for roy moore. i want to play an ad that the roy moore campaign is currently running in that alabama senate race. take a look. >> a vote for roy moore means securing the border, defending the second amendment, tax cuts and conservative supreme court judges. and doug jones? we'll let president trump tell you about doug jones. >> we don't need a liberal person in there. jones, i've looked as ed at his record.

it's terrible. >> before i come to you on this, donald trump has added to that by also just openly defending roy moore. let's listen to that. >> he totally denies it. he says it didn't happen. you know, you have to listen to him also. you're talking about he said 40 years ago this did not happen. so let me just tell you. roy moore denies it. that's all ki can say. he denies it. >> does donald trump's backing wind up carrying roy moore over the top in all likelihood, or does it matter? >> i'm not sure about that. i don't know that it matters. i think he's going to pensacola, which is about 20 miles from the alabama border four days before this special election. there will be some polling that will be done between that rally and of course election day. we'll know whether or not donald trump is giving him a bump. but i'm not so sure that he will. what i do know is this, when

those two men are standing on that stage together, 18 women have accused both of those men of being sexual predators. i can tell you this as well. roy moore in that campaign ad that you showed a minute ago. he said the gay and lesbians are changing our country. here's a dirty little secret, everybody. we've been around a long time, since the beginning of time. no, we're not going back in the closet for you folks. i don't know whether or not roy moore is going to win or not. i think he will. he's bumped up in the polls although there's a "washington post" poll that came out this morning that has jones with a three-point lead. we'll see what happens there. look, it's alabama. guess what? they like having conservatives in the senate. so let's let them send one. fine with me. that's mitch mcconnell's

problem, not mine. >> i want to read you a letter from one of the multiple accusers of roy moore. she says this. i'm not getting paid for speaking up. i'm not getting rewarded from your political opponents. what i'm getting is stronger by refusing to blame myself and speaking the truth out loud. what you did to me when i was 14 years old should be revolting to every person of good morals. now you are attacking my honesty and integrity. where does your immorality end? amy, do you believe her? >> i wasn't there. i don't know any of the facts. i was not there. you weren't there. i'm not here to judge these women or to call these women out. actually, i am with women for trump and we endorsed roy moore. i was at an event women for roy moore two weeks ago. but alabama's going to make the decision. you asked the question, does it matter that president trump's going there?

i'm glad to see he's going there. but at the end of the day, i think alabama is going to decide. what's really relevant here is that the people across this country are tired of washington sticking their nose into everybody's business and trying to choose the candidates and the races. i think this is a rebellion against number mcconnell and the 20 to $30 million that he spent. whether or not president trump goes or not, i think that the people are still going to come forward. and i think they will vote for roy moore. >> do you believe the women who accused bill clinton? >> i mean, there's a lot of accusations out there. i'm not here to judge any of these women. i don't think that's right. i wasn't there. >> why would a woman come forward and say that roy moore did this to her when she was a 14-year-old girl? you don't believe them? you don't have an opinion?

if it's true that he preyed on teenage girls when he was a 30 something year old prosecutor, does that immorality matter to you as a voter? >> joy, this is the thing. i myself and my family are victims of being accused of the most horrific horrible things you can imagine for political reasons. there's still litigation going on in the state of georgia. >> you're not answering my question. >> no, i am. i believe you're innocent until proven guilty. that is what this country is founded upon. i believe that. i was not there. i'm not going to judge these people. that is not why i'm here. there's an alabama senate race. regardless of what i say, you say or anybody says in the media, the alabama voters are going to decide. for us to pretend they don't have the knowledge and with

wherewithal to lay all of this out and make the decision for themselves, that's preposterous. these are smart educated people. i believe they are going to decide what's best for them. >> it sounds like amy is saying this doesn't matter to her. it sounds like there are a certain percentage of alabama voters for whom the allegations of child molestation are irrelevant. there's a poll, who has higher standards of personal moral conduct? doug jones wins that easily, 53% to 34%. if doug jones is thought to have higher morale standards and yet he's only leading in the poll by a three-point margin, is that an indication there are some voters in alabama who just decided they don't care about his morality? >> that is exactly right. i find this a fascinating conversation for this one point. if in fact roy moore wins -- and i think he will -- and it comes out -- and amy's asking for

proof. innocent until proven guilty. and if there's proof that roy moore did any of the things he's accused of doing, will you stand by him and will you still be women for roy moore? i just -- would you support an ethics investigation? you know, we can have a conversation all day about washington, d.c. and mitch mcconnell. nobody in alabama gives a damn about mitch mcconnell. i hate to break the news to them. >> they absolutely do. >> no, they don't. let me finish. >> quickly, jimmy. >> nobody cares about mitch mcconnell except in kentucky. just like you said, alabama people vote for people running in alabama. kentucky people vote for people running in kentucky. that's a fact. >> you may not, but the people do. >> hold on.

timeo timeout. let me ask amy two quick questions. if roy moore gets elected and then proof emerges, proof positive that he actually did molest girls, would you change your support for him then? >> joy, we have stood beside him and if he is elected, that is what the voters will choose. >> wait a second. i want to make a point here. this is the thing. if he is elected, there should not be any ethics investigations. the reason is because these people are going to the polls knowing all the information that's been put in front of them. they have the wherewithal to make the decision. should there become an ethics investigation and mitch mcconnell and his cronies tried to expel him from thenit united states senate, that's a very dangerous line. >> let's talk about another thing that we know that roy moore did, you know, putting aside alleged child molestation.

roy moore led the charge against removing session gas station fr -- segregation from the alabama constitution. does the fact that he did that impact your support for him, amy? >> joy, i am going to say this. first of all, we got involved in this race months ago. we actually endorse brooks. then we came to the runoff and now here we are. we are standing beside roy moore. >> can you just answer my question? don't give me a speech. answer my question. >> there is not one candidate across this country including president trump that i agree with on every single issue. >> do you have a problem with roy moore leading the charge against removing segregation from the state constitution? it's really a yes or no. >> joy, i don't know what you're talking about. >> let me put it back up so you know what i'm talking about. roy moore led the charge against removing segregation language. you know that alabama has a history here. he led the charge against

removing the language of segregation from the constitution. it's pretty straightforward. do you have a problem with that? >> i mean, can you tell me more about that? because i don't know what you're talking about. do i believe in segregation? absolutely not. we're all the same. we're all americans. >> but you don't have a problem with it. jimmy, i'm going to give you the last word here because it does seem to me there is nothing one could say about roy moore that could move amy kramer and others -- >> i just wonder something. if roy moore -- donald trump said i could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody and i'd still get elects. he was right. if roy moore did exactly the same thing, they're going to stand by him because he's republican. i'm fine with republicans owning republicans. i'm totally okay with that. i just think that you have to when you own them, you have to own everything about them.

literally everything. and if he's a segregationist or a homophobe, you have to own that. >> i could say the same thing about democrats. that's one of the big problems in washington, d.c., it's all about party politics. we need to look at issues in america. >> i'm calling a timeout. the segment is over. but it does sound to me, amy, like you're saying that you do believe what are allegations are against democrats. you just said you can't judge republicans. but democrats, you believe whatever it is. >> what i'm saying is we as americans -- it is better for us to look at issues instead of being -- >> child molestation isn't an issue. i have kids. >> i do too. i have a daughter. >> wow. then it doesn't bother you that the man might have molested children. >> can i just say one thing quickly? as a victim of child molestation

i think it's disgusting that amy would support a child molester. >> we have to leave it there. i never like to do that but we have to. >> he has been accused, not proven guilty. >> that is true. he has been accused of child molestation. up next, international outrage. we're going to take it across the pond. how donald trump ticked off america's closest ally. not just being in the military, but at home. she thinks she's the boss. she only had me by one grade. we bought our first home together in 2010. his family had used another insurance product but i was like well i've had usaa for a while, why don't we call and check the rates? it was an instant savings and i should've changed a long time ago. there's no point in looking elsewhere really. we're the tenneys and we're usaa members for life. usaa. get your insurance quote today.

essential for vinyl, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™".

xeljanz xr. a once daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. needles. a must for vinyl. but for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. an "unjection™".

one of the advantages of having such a special relationship with the united states is when a friend tells you you've done something dread fully wrong, you tend to listen. wouldn't the world be a better place if the prime minister could persuade the president of the united states to delete his twitter account. >> the united states closest ally is throwing stones from across the pond after donald trump put a crack in the special relationship with his reckless tweets. trump earned himself a rebuke from british prime minister theresa may after he retweeted misleading anti-muslim videos from a far right fringe group in britain. this may not be the last we hear of trump snubs by the brits as it's still an open question whether he'll be on the guest list at prince harry and meghan markle's spring wedding.

joining me now is martin lewis. martin, let's start with the tongue lashing that donald trump got at the hands of members of parliament this past week over the retweet of this muslim video. does that signal that the brits may want to walk back even the idea of trump visiting? i think he has an imminent visit coming up. >> well, there's been a disgust with donald trump since the day he was elected. the british people are fairly divided politically, but they are united about donald trump. there's been a desire to not have him make the state visit. but after he retweeted these videos from an extremist far right organization, which was the equivalent of -- our parents generation, the greatest generation fought together, the brits and the americans, against nazi scum. this organization is nazi scum, kind of like the kkk. and the woman who actually put out these videos is like the sebastian gorka of britain without the humility. so there is revulsion in britain

from all sides of the political spectrum that donald trump could have done this or associate with these people. >> and you have the spokesperson for donald trump say that it doesn't matter if the videos in question, which essentially tried to accuse muslims of homicide and attacks on nonmuslims, but it doesn't matter if they were real or not because the idea is real. what is the thought on that over there in the uk? >> exactly, i mean the thought is just simply this is clearly dog whistle stuff. we do have fringe elements in all societies. we've had it in britain as well. but it's always a small minority, but they have given standing by social media, and the thought that an american president could share this with his 44 million followers, enablers, whatever you want to call them, is really repugnant. there's actually been an uptick in support or joining of the facebook page of this right wing organization since trump tweeted these videos, so there's

absolute disgust and a hoping that this will end soon. >> let's talk about the impending wedding of meghan markle and prince harry, which has all of us in the former colonies all excited. i guess it's ironic that we fought a whole war to get ourselves out from under the queen but we're still interested in the royals on this side of the pond. what do you make of the reaction? have people in britain reacted as strongly to the idea of this interracial relationship as we have over in the u.s.? >> with the exception of the usual suspects of right-wing loonies, there's been great support for it. it's lovely. listen, britain and america have had a couple of disagreements along the way, 1776, 1812, but they are with the exception of the disgust for donald trump, which does unite them, the british and the americans are coming closer together. they like each other. so there is great happiness that this very beautiful woman, who has proudly got her

african-american heritage and they could be coming together. i don't think there's any likelihood that donald trump will be invited to the wedding, though, because there is a royal proclamation in 1378 that if there is a wedding in a royal chapel, there can only be two people with orange hair there. prince harry has orange hair and the one who didn't get the marmalade color from a bottle has priority, so i don't think trump will be invited. >> and i think presumably the obamas would, however. there's quite a close relationship between the royal family, at least the younger set, and the obamas so you would assume they would be there? >> there is a warm, one hopes that might happen. it's going to be a private wedding. by the way, i'm being a little cruel about donald trump. i think we should give him -- cut him a little bit of slack. there has been some discussion here that donald trump had been constantly saying that he hoped to be revered as a leader like lincoln. and i can say now that it is going to be the case, he is like

lincoln. lincoln rockwell, the founder and leader of the american nazi party, mercifully no longer with us. the other thing that has been commented on in britain here about donald trump is that he's not been given sufficient credit for a couple of things. one is he said there was going to be a big tax cut for christmas, and it's actually in the bible, it says lo there some come a great prophet onto the land and if you're a billionaire or corporation, they will be getting a profit and his family values are fantastic because his children are going to get a billion dollars and he's -- and he's sympathetic to child molesters. he's very compassionate. >> i hate to stop you, really i do, but we have to go. martin lewis in london, thank you. tune in for more "a.m. joy" tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern.

that is it for "a.m. joy" for today. time now for the latest news with alex witt. alex. >> so soon? i was just getting ready. i thought you'd be talking a little longer because you always have great stuff to say. >> all i have to say is i love you, love your outfit. we both have on cool boots. a good day to all of you. i'm alex witt here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. it is high noon in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west and here's what's happening. 24 hours of drama for the president. two big moments for the president, good and bad. >> what has been shown is no

collusion, no collusion. there's been absolutely -- there's been absolutely no collusion. >> all right. first, former national security advisor michael flynn cuts a plea deal with the special prosecutor on russia. we'll have reaction to president trump's remarks on collusion ahead. then hours later, the senate passes the sweeping gop tax plan. it is a triumph for the white house, but there's still a fight ahead. >> we've been given this 20 minutes ago, 25 minutes ago. we're supposed to vote on it in a couple hours. >> democrats asking what's behind the numbers? we have reaction and analysis all for you next. but we begin this hour with president trump breaking his silence on that guilty plea by his former national security advisor mike flynn. it is a key development in the russia investigation. he and the white house are downplaying today. in fact here is what the president told reporters as he left the white house for new york this morning. >> are you concerned about what michael flynn might tell the special counsel? >>