that's going to do it for me this hour. i'm alex witt that's it for me. but right now david is here with the top stories. i have to go i've been on way too long. >> thank you very much. i'm david in msnbc in new york. one day after robert mueller investigation cracks president trump inner circle did the president just admit he knew michael flynn lied to the fbi.

we'll read between the lines. >> and sweeping tax overhaul that could become this administration first legislative win. democrats cry foul last minute. we'll tell you what's next for the bill and what it could mean for your bottom line if it became the law of the land. >> but begin this afternoon with flynn fallout. premt tweeting this, quote, i have to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and the fbi. he has pled guilt to those lies. it's a shame because it was lawful and nothing to hide. twitter response comes after the president fielded questions about michael flynn guilty plea and plans to cooperate with robert mueller investigation. >> [ inaudible question ] >> no, i'm not. and what has been shown is no collusion. >> well, team of experts join us in a moment to break that down. but begin with nbc jeff bennett

in the white house in washington. and we heard you get the questions before president trump before he went to new york. what is he saying about the news yesterday and how unexpected was the tweet this morning. >> well, entirely unexpected. he was doing it between the motorcade in new york city. and the implication, david, is president trump knew that general flynn lied to the fbi when he fired him h remember, the official line is that the president fired flynn for lying to the vice president. but if the president fired mike flynn for lying, knowingly lying to the fbi, there is a whole loss of obstruction potential obstruction of justice questions. i reached out to the officials of implications of that tweet. waiting to hear back. i also got a chance to ask the president this morning, one, if he's concerned about what mike flynn might tell the special counsel. and, secondly, if he still stands by his former national

security adviser. take a listen. >> no collusion. no collusion. >> [ inaudible question ] >> we'll see what happens. >> so he says we'll see what happens. that's sort of a standard dodge the president likes to use, so don't read too much into that. but we are all waiting to see what michael flynn is going to provide the special counsel in exchange to what appears to be a fairly lenient plea deal. >> let me ask you what the president saying there what's mirrored by their staff is saying? how did they react to the news of special counsel. >> reporter: well, they say that he learned of it for the most part when we all did, in the news. and that the white house was blindsided by this. another person close to the president says that this development is bad. to simply put, very bad for the president. there is no real good way to spin this. you see the president doing his best there to talk about something else. he would like to talk about

taxes, that huge victory the republicans scored last night in the senate. >> how much is this over shadowing that, jeff, the president up late last night? said he received a phone call. he wants that to be the paramount thing we are all talking about. to what degree is he not at this point? >> reporter: certain amount of frustration. he was in new york trying to slam democrats for not getting on board and joining the republicans who did vote for that plan. republicans have made clear on the record that they needed to pass tax reform, or i guess tax cuts, not just to have something to shoal folks back home, their constituents but also show republican donors having control of all the levers of power in washington actually means something and can actually come into fruition in terms of legislative policy. so that's the conversation the president wants to be having although he's certainly be deviled by all the attention on

his former national security adviser. >> thank you very much. joining frus the white house this afternoon. and president trump tweeting out that he knew flynn lied to the vice president and the fbi. but let's take a look at the time line. january 24th manufacture v investigated by the fbi. a day later asks comey if he can let the investigation go. two lays later president trump says in the first and only solo news conference he's had the white house, that he did not direct michael flynn to discuss anything. and then on may 9th fired james comey head of fbi. so did he know he knew? let's bring in our panel msnbc here in new york and editor legal with me in new york as well. and special assistant to president obama ned price and

director of national security george mason university. dana, let me start with you and this tweet who we say the president may be undone by a bigger character, tweeting while he was in the motorcade in new york. what do you make of that? >> what do i make of the president's tweets? >> that's a large question. >> i can minimize it, because in the law, the rules of evidence on twitter to be used against a defendant in a case. so we parse those words, and i guess it's the criminal defense in me that says well it could be an issue of punctuation. consider if he said i fired flynn because he lied to the vice president, and semi colon and lied to the fbi. but if prosecutors want today look at this as a possible admission, it becomes a statement that can be used against not only the president but anybody, anybody who makes a statement like that on twitter. that's why law enforcement love

social media and twitter and facebook that's where criminal makes case sz against themselves by posting pictures or making statements that directly incriminate them and are admissible. so ultimately whether or not this tweet is bad for the president comes down to grammar and punctuation. >> we are splitting syntax and looking at punctuation as well here. but the focus is on obstruction of justice to a large degree. what did we learn yesterday about how robert mueller is approaching that in particular? >> well, i think we now know that's very serious problem. i think we know that it may include pence, it may include white house counsel don mcghan. i think yesterday it was a move that was signaling a lot of people, including a senior and very senior member of the trump transition team, host are now being implacated in what looks like conversations, both around the russia sanctions but also

the obstruction charge. and i think what trump does, when he kind of tries this one, two, faint, i didn't do it, but even if i did, it would be legal, but even if it was illegal i didn't do it. i think it's too clever by half. and as danny says, judges we have seen time and again taking judicial notice, dropping trump's tweets into footnotes. so when he more or less admits, well, i know flynn did something illegal, and then also i went and told comey to go easy on him, he pretty much made himself obstruction of justice t-shirt right there. >> let me ask you how you processed the information in the documents. the narrowness of the charge brought against michael flynn tell you about this investigation? >> well, look, at the end of the day h you know, michael flynn has only pled to the lies that he told to the fbi. very minor sort of lies about

what happened in the larger scheme of things, we know they have potential charges on him for the failing to register as foreign agent, the turkey issue, son, a lot of potential charges. he pled to one count to the fbi. so that suggests he's probably profered some information to the investigators. i wouldn't jump to what that is, but he has something to tell them, i think that's what's important about this. >> let me ask you about this, that being there was a senior transition official, very senior transition official as well. help us understand who michael flynn might have been communicating with, as you understand it, or as you confer what was happening a few months ago? >> well, learned something very interesting yesterday, david, in these documents, that is michael flynn was not acting on his own volution. he did not go rowingue.

he was following orders. so the question becomes who was calling the shots. as you mentioned these documents yesterday referenced a very senior transition official and senior transition official. the circumstantial evidence and reporting to date has suggested that the very senior transition official is jared kushner. jared kushner who has quite a bit of exposure in this case got a lot more yesterday because it seems that jared kushner was the one who instructed michael flynn to make contact with the russians ahead of a united nations security council resolution vote on israel settlement ac activity. the bigger question is who was the senior transition was in this case, there was some speculation kt mcfarland who was the deputy. what makes that interesting, as you can imagine, the deputy to the national security adviser would not be ordering the national security adviser to be doing anything. she would most likely be taking orders from somewhere else above the food chain. and i think that certainly raises the possibility that the ultimate person giving those

orders was someone like jared flynn or yes even president elect at the time donald trump. >> jared kushner or president trump as you said. let me ask you here about you wrote here about collusion. and this is a squishy thing. legal concept. where is the bar set? and how hard is that to have a conversation about that? >> it's such a good question. and i would commend to people, jeff tubin just did a fantastic piece that went online on the o new yorker today. which we know to be true. there is no collusion. you can have a conspiracy of a bunch of people can conspire to break a federal law or statute. but when trump says over and over, no collusion, no collusion, that's not a thing that mueller is even technically investigating. so really the question is, is he doing something else that we are all calling sloppily, i think, legal experts would tell you, sloppily calling collusion, that

is in fact some kind of conspiracy either to talk to russia about getting these wikileaks documents or to take money from foreign agents as part of a campaign. those are actual federal statutes. we can talk about that. but whatever collusion means, i think it's a way of deflecting and dis tracting from the actual possible conspiracy charges and the things that mueller is investigating. >> let me ask you about, a little psychoanalysis here, but we know now what he was lying about or the fact that he did lie t now it seems the focus shifts why he was doing that. and the president is raising the spector of that as well. is that inquiry now? >> it is an inquiry because there is an argument to be made he may not have been doing anything wrong. sure, you can make the argument violation of logan act, but it's been at deaths door for hundreds of years, last prosecution was i

believe in 1983. so anything else flynn had to be believe he was doing so at the orders of others. few good men defense. someone else ordered the code red that's why i made the call. really does raise the question why lie. he might not have believed he was lying. yes, he pleaded guilty, but this developly not a statement that he truly believed was making a false statement. in reality he was presented with a prosecution for section 1001, and he made a business decision to pled guilty to it and of course he put those facts on the record and considered to have done it. but he may not have been aware that he was lying. although his plea indicates otherwise. >> let me ask what you the cooperative michael flynn means for the investigation going forward outlined in the plea yesterday that heel cooperate fully. what will that entail? what do we know what that will entail? obviously he can't do anything under cover because the fact this was a public plea. what's the role he's going to

play going forward? >> i think he's going to have to tell the prosecutors everything he knows. he was pretty high up in the conversations going on. and in the white house for good party. so he knows a lot what was being discussed. to the extent he's trying to make charges. anything there? who knows. but clearly profered something on him. so there is a lot here, but again i think a lot of people are jumping to conclusions what he might say. we don't know what he's got. >> and let me ask you about the role here that michael flynn played within the campaign, transition team, and the administration. of course it was a brief stint there. but he was the president elect for a substantial shaamount of time? what might he know? >> michael flynn was one of the

earliest boosters of president trump. but also featured in some of the notorious scenes from both the campaign and in the transition. perhaps there is none more notorious than the meeting in december of 2016 with jared kushner, michael flynn and gore kof. it was during that meeting there would be proposed a back channel, private back channel between the trump team and russians using russian infrastructure to avoid u.s. surveillance. so that's going to be of interest to the prosecutors, not only what was discussed but why. why did the campaign, why did the transition team at the time find it necessary, or at least convenient or valuable to have a potential back channel with the russians that would be able to evade u.s. surveillance. of course michael flynn was also there during the first 24 days of the administration itself. and he could shed light on whether there was any quid pro quo in the first policy decisions that the trump

administration put forward visa vie russia for anything that happened during the election or transition itself. >> you've written about being the two parallel legal tracts in the america. and i want to ask you america's cognizance what's going on here. this is complicated web what's happened here. twlas a cultural change when this happened? is this somehow easier for americans to get their arms around? >> i think one level yes. i think anybody who has watched law and order and the mob get chased down and flipping up and what a roll up looks like says, yeah, i kind of know what that looks like. at another level i think that, and this was why i wrote this piece, that i think we need to be honest about the fact that a lot of people don't understand what's going on, a lot of folks are in media bubbles in which this has been dismissed as fake news. we saw the white house saying not only that obama hired flynn and this is all obama's fault,

but also this whole thing is going to be wrapped up by christmas. and i think there is an awful lot of folks who see this piece with a larger sense the whole thing is a witch hunt as trump keeps saying and about to go away. so it's hard to say whether this breaks through any of that. tan particularly i think this in tandem with the tax bill yesterday meant there was so much crazy to contend with. i think at the end of the day, people do understand that something serious is going on. >> great piece. thank you very much. thanks to all of you. up next republicans mark a make are victory in the effort to overhaul the country's tax code. >> the tax cuts and jobs act as amended is passed. >> but will the russian investigation over shadow his progress as he approaches a major milestone in office? do stay with us. les event is he.

i can guide you in. no, thanks , santa. i got this. santa: uh, it looks a little tight. perfect fit. santa needs an f-150. that's ford, america's best selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across the full line up of ford cars, trucks and suvs. for a limited time, get an additional $1,000 cash back on top of 0% financing for 72 months. get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event.

live binge dvr'd shows,te sport, while painting your toes. get these exclusive offers 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.

we got no democrat help and i think that's going to cost them big in the election. because basically they voted against tax cuts. and i don't think politically it's good to vote against tax cuts. but what we are doing, if you look at it, we are going to grow the country. we are going to grow jobs. we are going to be growing everything. >> president trump and fellow republicans in a celebratory

mood on capitol hill passed a massive tax reform bill. that bill passing without a single vote from democrats, 51 senators in favor, 49 against it. only republican to oppose the legislation, long time bob corker of tennessee, also not running for re-election. majority leader mitch mcconnell called this a victory for the american people. >> now to make america more competitive and keep jobs from being shipped offshore, and provide substantial relief to the middle class. >> joining me now is tim philips president of americans for conservative group. great to speak to you. i want to play a little bit of video. john test tear from montana saw this bill fort first time around the time that i did it, a little over 10:00 last night and this was his reaction. >> this is the tax bill. see how thick it is. this is what it looks like. oh, no, let's look at the bill.

this is what it really looks like. i want you to take a look at this, folks, this is your government at work. >> senator pointed to the margin, some handwritten a den tu dum addendums to passing. tell me about that? >> it's following regular order. it was considered and passed by the senate finance committee before thanksgiving. it was then passed by the budget committee this week. this tax reform and tax cut bill in the senate is following regular order which is the way it's supposed to go. and you will always have last minute tweaks and changes which they were being referred to. but the truth is democrats in the senate are going to oppose anything this president or the senate republicans do for political reasons. they are not going to support it. and so they are screaming about process because they know on the merits of this legislation, they lose with the american people. because it lowers rates. it will actually increase job

creation and get pros expert going in this country the way we need it to go again. >> i know your group is grassroots advertising. you went out and tried to convince people it's important. there has to be much of people who were wondering why it was done in this rushed fashion. yes through regular order but five or six hours before that final bill came out and voted on. what would you say about the process, the way it was in washington? >> no process is perfect but this is a good one. president revealed the tax reform, let folks keep more of their money, simplifying the code as much as possible. trying to get some of the carve outs and special interest. he put all that in late april. we supported it at that time because as a good sense of principles. the house and senate have worked through this all summer look. if you go back and look at the core principles released in july for this tax cut plan, they are

very similar to what the senate passed last night and what the house passed a few weeks ago. so it's been a process that has been fair and open. and, again, democrats are losing on the merits of this legislation. so they have to go to process. and that's a losing argument for them in the end. this is good legislation. not perfect. but it's good legislation that we think will get the country moving again and hopefully bring back pros expert to the americans. >> you bring up the big six let me read a bit from what senator bob corker put out in a statement last night, lone republican who didn't vote. he says, at the end of the day i am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns, my eyes linder on that word believe, it's something we heard from the senate majority leader as well, they said it's going to lead to more growth the deficit going

forward. how worried are you what this means for the deficit in the u.s.? >> well, the congressional budget office and the other scoring groups that senator corker is relying on, they notoriously get things wrong. they are trying to predict interest rates and economic growth seven, eight, nine years out whrks the best experts can't predict it five or six months out. and get this tt same people saying this tax cut bill will raise the deficit are the same people who missed by half a trillion dollars how much obamacare would cost in these first years of obamacare implementation. they missed obamacare by half a trillion dollars. their estimates are parlor games. we know that tax cuts historically, whether it was the kennedy or reagan cuts or george w. bush cuts in 2001 and 2003, they actually racised revenues o the government. they are a parlor game. if they worked in the private sector they would be fired by

how badly they missed the obamacare care projections. >> help me understand what these next few weeks will look like as we move to congress and reconciliation. some celebration at the white house but still a lot of work house to do. from your perspective leading the conservative group what are the next two weeks going to look like? >> it's going to be complicated because the truth is the bills that the house and senate passed, there are some significant differences. each will appoint conference committee members and they'll have to negotiate out the key details. and there are some big ones. for example, just one i'll mention, the corporate rate cut does not go into effect in the senate version until 2,00019. the house version kicks in in 2018. we know, we think the house version is much better on the corporate rate kicking in it 2018. we have to get this economy moving again after the last decade of stagnation. so significant changes, or excuse me significant differences that lie ahead that have to be hammered out.

but we are optimistic it will get done and get done before christmas. >> last thing about the continuing resolution being debated on capitol hill that would keep the government up and running past december 8th when it would run out to december 22. what do you make of the stop gap funding? i think a lot of people haven't heard the words regular order in a long time when it comes to the budget process. >> we've been dispontded for a decade, neither party has been come to regular order on the budget which is best way to go to try to control federal spending and make sure it's doing a good job for the american people. so we are disappointed in that. it's not a new problem however. we know for now the priority has to be getting this tax cut and tax reform package done, not the budget resolution. let's get that done in a timely manner. the priority has to be tax cuts and tax reform. that's what's going to help the american people the most. >> hock. tim, thanks very much for the time.

still ahead who is next, general flynn cops a plea and cooperates with the special counsel. we'll talk more about that as the russian investigation intensifies. when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum -tum -tum -tum smoothies! only from tums

i am a first responder tor and i'emergencies 24 hours a day, everyday of the year. my children and my family are on my mind when i'm working all the time. my neighbors are here, my friends and family live here, so it's important for me to respond as quickly as possible and get the power back on. it's an amazing feeling turning those lights back on. be informed about outages in your area. sign up for outage alerts at pge.com/outagealerts. together, we're building a better california.

>> this feels as if flynn is going to be the person that connects kushner to this p a. and of course once you kebt the son-in-law then you connect to the president. >> that was our chuck todd yesterday answering the question who is next. in the wake of yesterday's guilty employee from michael flynn. new york times also suggest could be jared kushner and donald trump junior. he was directed to contact by a senior transition team in december of last year. they say this official is the president's son-in-law jared kushner. donald trump junior a member of the same transition team is expected to appear in the closed door session next week. if flynn's testimony ends up saying they were untruthful in congress, could they be the next to call. joining us now is our panel from

washington. "new york times." politico editor and hosts. let me start with you and the tweet we saw from the president just a little while ago, a lot of speculation swirling here this could narrow the focus here on obstruction of justice allegation. the president tweeting this morning, i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and fbi. he's pled guilty. it's a shame because his actions were not unlawful. nothing to hide. we heard a few moments ago this was tweeted while he was on a fundraising trip. what do you make of the president? >> it's remarkable tweet. because if donald trump knew that michael flynn lied to the fbi seems to open him wide up to charge of obstruction of justice. because a few weeks later he had a private meeting with the director james comey, with whto

go. he took that as an order which he did not obey. and then of course subsequently he fired comey. and this goes to tt heart of the obstruction of justice question that robert mueller is investigati investigating regarding donald trump and the people around him. i have a feeling we'll see the story change on this tweet as the day or days move forward. but for right now it's just a forehead slapper. >> let me ask you the spector of jared kushner in all of this. we are dealing with senior and very senior, reporting it could be jared kushner. what do we know about the role he's played in this thus far? >> sometimes we think donald trump and jared kushner are always acting in lock step. but there are some moments in the transition that we thought jared might be out for jared and in a bigger way the kushner. so one of the things the plea told us he appreciate shurd flynn to do is vote against the

russians condemning settlements in israel. we know he has a connection to netanyahu. another one he has a huge debt on his building at 666th 5th avenue. so that's another thing on his mind. another thing on his mind at the time was chris christie who had prosecuted his own father, landed jared kushner father charley in jail and ally to trump. so there is evidence that jared is going to be looking out for himself. and when everything comes down on this, ably lowell his lawyer and ty cobb could not be working in lock step. >> let me ask you about this issue over israel settlements. this was something that had been

reported and keen interest to them. given that, what was reported and what we knew about all this. what more did we learn yesterday? >> we learned there was a secret effort by the trump group to reach out to the russians before office to undermine obama foreign policy. there is a law called the logan act that seems to prohibit that. never been enforced. it's not clear whether it's enforceable. but american tradition where we have one president at a time. and what we learned from this indictment it wasn't just michael flynn doing this on his own reaching out to kislyak, he was doing it at the direction of jared kushner. and that's really significant. jared kushner was interviewed by robert mueller just last month we've reported. we know very little about what he was asked. but if he didn't tell the truth about his interaction, that's going to it be a very big problem for him. >> and virginia, chime in. >> i think it's interesting that the president in this tweet that seems to be i'll advised, if not

imm implacating of him, his point this is all about the lies, and later otherwise he says there is no collusion, gets around, i'll put it this way, we've inherited from watergate that the covrimes the cover up. so here it's the crime. what michael flynn was lying about is an interesting thing. doesn't mean it's not scandal us. so we all know bill clinton lied about having sex with monica lewandowski. but perjury is illegal. so we have flynn doing something scandalous, that may or may not be illegal or fall a foul of the logan act, doesn't maybe -- collusion itself doesn't meet the requirements for being high crime. on the other hand it is shocking

that this happened. it's in violation of -- the reason logan act was not enforced who could imagine it would be violated. i mean talking to the french about under mining american foreign policy. it just never happens before. so i think the shock what we learned from the plea happened at mara lag a should not be under stated. and the shock should have the effect i think of getting people to really gun for mueller on this and say this is not a nothing burger. >> really quickly here. i mentioned donald trump junior is going to be appearing before lawmakers in the coming day. what will they be interested in hearing? like his father is very active on twitter as well. >> of course they'll talk about that infamous meeting. they are also going to ask him about a lesser known but i think very important may 2016 encounter with russian named alexander torsion at a dinner.

very close to putin. trying to get a meeting with meeting with jared kushner. apparently he said let's not meet with him. and somehow he ended up at a meeting and i know they want to ask what happened and what was said. >> i appreciate it. thank you for joining me in new york. with four members of trump team, could the white house change tune on what it calls fake news? >> fake stories are being reported. a lot of bad things are being reported that aren't true. hand you know i think to a certain extent maybe i can blame the media. i'm also on a lot of medications that dry my mouth. i just drank tons of water all the time. it was never enough. i wasn't sure i was going to be able to continue singing. i saw my dentist. he suggested biotene. it feels refreshing. my mouth felt more lubricated. i use biotene rinse twice a day and then i use the spray throughout the day.

it actually saved my career in a way. biotene really did make a difference. [heartbeat]

our recent online sales success seems a little... strange?nk na. ever since we switched to fedex ground business has been great. they're affordable and fast... maybe "too affordable and fast." what if... "people" aren't buying these books online, but "they" are buying them to protect their secrets?!?! hi bill. if that is your real name. it's william actually. hmph! affordable, fast fedex ground.

well, i think most of us believe it's not a witch hunt or hoax and fbi dreblgtirector bel this is legitimate concern. >> broader pattern of the immigration and campaign people just lying about their context with the russians on very serious matters. >> well, two members of congressional leadership saying the russian investigation is very much real. president trump insisting he fired michael flynn because he lied to the vice president. he is the fourth trump member to be charged by robert mueller in russia investigation which the president has called fake. >> general flynn is a wonderful man. i think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media. as i call t tit, the fake media >> i think it's sad what they

have done with the fake dossier. >> i was going to fire comey, my decision. this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election. >> joining me now is my panel. i'll start with you, the way this is changing or looming over political discourse in this country. we fausted over the course of the hour on the legal implications what we learned yesterday. politically did things change yesterday when this happened? >> yes, i think so. when you have actual charges and former national security adviser and not the former campaign manager, talking about somebody who was in the white house, somebody extremely close to president trump, who pled guilty, so now convicted felon of lying to the fbi which is very serious charge. apparently donald trump knew that at the time, because today he tweeted that he fired michael flynn in part because he lied to the fbi. so there is nothing like a real

indictment and real charges when you file court documents that be lie the argument that this is fake. >> you see how this plays out in washington. yes we had a vote last night at 3:00 a.m. on this piece of tax reform. above i think many members of congress if not all of them would say these investigations are looming large over the policy making process. when you get out of washington and get across america is it beginning to effect how people think of politics. >> i think people already think of politics as divided nation that's why a lot of people sick of it and want to see congress achieve results. and i think we'll see that in 2018 reflected in the way people vote. so the president fired michael flynn on february 13th. and then on february 14th is when he had the infamous comey meeting asked him to get rid of the investigation, drop it. that doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. he is saying it was very serious that he lied to the fbi. but the fbi should drop it. lying to the fbi is a crime. period. and the president doesn't seem to grasp that. and digging himself into a

bigger hole. at the same time i'm hearing in the conservative stir cells this argument well look what this special counsel has done. they spent $5 million and all they have gotten is paul manafort, george papadopoulos and general flynn for lying about something not related to the campaign. so they are making that argument. and they are going out and starting to pressure people from the base to push congress to defund the mueller probe because the mueller probe, if mueller got fired you would see republicans turn on trump in an instant publicly. but if you defund it, you are not technically firing mueller, you are just not able to pay anybody working for mueller and nobody works for free. >> so living under the leadership someone outspoken, goes without saying, and said time and time again this is a fake investigation. if you were counseling somebody, republican candidate who is seeking office now, what would you tell him or her about how to engage in this issue? i think you might say to the president best not to talk about this or tweet about what's going on.

what would you say about a house in senate race had to engage in the capitol hill and white house? >> you have to talk about dysfunction on capitol hill. for getting donald trump for a second, republicans in the senate having majority? both. we should have had repeal and replacement of obamacare done. we mud have had much easier time on tax reform. but we haven't because we don't know how to govern. so you need to talk about coalition builder not only within the republican but with democrats to the extent we can get democrats to work with us and vice-versa. that's where i would focus. at the same time a lot of issues out there impacting people. i would talk about tax reform and how we have this growing deficit which is made worse by the tax reform package. elimination of salt. i would try to donald trump as much as possible. >> would your counsel be the same for progress or democrat politics as well to focus on the issues and not focus on this one in particular? >> i think it's a little bit of both. you want to point out tour constituents the danger that donald trump is to the country.

i mean i think that we are dealing with national security threat. and just to be really frank about it, when you have somebody tweeting things that could impact our policies towards a tinder box like north korea, but on the other hand i think we have to, i agree with evan, i would also counsel democrats to focus on ts issues. because when it comes to this tax reform package, giveaway to corporations and putting it on the backs of the middle class and poor people. while simultaneously gutting obamacare. and i think that that's something that impacts not only people's pocket books but also their health and families health and children's health. what was the rush to pass a package literally when we were asleep and you can't have health insurance for children, you couldn't do that, but we had, had, had to packs tax reform in the dark of night? i think the republicans don't know how to govern and just demonstrating that. so you would point out the issues that you would want to work on and why republicans are

not getting the job done in the majority. >> i'll ask you lastly just about the degree to which the message from the president is sticking. talks about the fake media and news and all that. is that resonating at all do you think with voters? resonating less as we go through something like the tax reform process where people are hungry for what's going to be in ha big piece of legislation? >> look, i think 30% of people that support donald trump no matter what happens in the news hand mueller investigation, they will probably still support donald trump. but when people are looking at less money in their paychecks and when they are getting bills for health care it's going to be really real that donald trump is not getting the job done. and i think that the evidence will be very clear. >> thanks to both of you. thanks for joining me here in new york. and still ahead sounding the alarm on flynn, a look back when the whousz was alerted michael flynn could be compromising. we'll break down that time line. wondering, what if? i let go of all those feelings.

because i am cured with harvoni. harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. it's been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. and is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if you've ever had hepatitis b, which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after harvoni treatment. tell your doctor if you've ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. ready to let go of hep c? ask your hep c specialist about harvoni.

( ♪ ) when it comes to holiday shopping, my wife loves style, my son is all about technology and my daughter? she just loves horses.

don't you just love one-stop shopping? i do. ring in the holidays with buick. get up to 20% below msrp on most 2017 luxury suv models. that's over $7,100 on this buick envision essence. experience the new buick this holiday season. the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. finally, we told them that we were giving them all of this information so that they could take action. the action that they deemed appropriate. i remember that mr. mcghan asked

me whether or not general flynn should be fired. i told them that's not our call. that's up to them. but we were giving them this information so they could take action. >> that was acting attorney general sally yates raising red flag about michael flynn. president trump attorney put out a statement, saying, quote, the conclusion of this phase of the special counsel's work demonstrates again that the special counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion. we should note that the white house was not moving with speed. january 24th interviewed michael flynn at the white house two days after he was sworn in. asked about the interview with the fbi. january 25th receives a readout of the fbi interview and causes yates to sound an alarm. on january 26th called don

mcghan to quota sensitive matter face-to-face. she pointed out he was lying and making him subject to blackmail. february 13th, 18 days later same day "washington post" flynn resigns. now the white house is praising special counsel for deliberate speed and reported that trump wants the entire russian investigation finished by the end of this calendar year. well, with only 18 days left in 2017, questions are mounting about who else could be implicated in robert mueller's probe. we'll be right back. it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. try super poligrip free. ♪

good saturday to you. i'm david gur a. the president not uttering a word about michael flynn guilty plea. he lied to the fbi but still tweeting about it, i had to lie him because he lied to the vice president and fbi. he pled guilty to the lies. it's a shame because there was nothing to high. we'll discuss the significance of that tweet with a team of lawyers. but first we'll go to the white house. my colleague asked the president about that. what did he have to say? >> look, we know from the court documents that michael flynn consulted with senior trump transition officials about his contacts with the then russian ambassador