there were 189 americans among the dead. >> that does it for us on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. mr. president, i have to say that you are living up to every, everything i thought you would. >> exquisite presidential leadership, mr. president, thank you. >> you are one heck of a leader. >> president donald trump delivered! >> we would fought be standing here today if it wasn't for you. >> mr. president hasn't even been in office a year. >> this has been a year of extraordinary accomplishment for the trump administration. >> look at all the things he has been able get done. >> mr. trump has been making history since the first day of this administration. >> this is one of the great privileges of my life to stand here on the white house lawn with the president of the united states who i love and appreciate so much. >> thank you for your love for this country. >> and we're going to make this

the greatest presidency that we've seen not only in generation maybe ever. >> paul ryan just said how good was that! >> eh. good morning. >> define good. you could just give maybe good for erdogan or putin. >> or trump. >> i do think, mika, that most autocrats and i'm really serious. >> thank you. >> most autocrats around the world would be embarrassed to have so many people fawning over them in public like that. you looked at what mike pence said in the cabinet room also, i'm really serious here, you wonder, of course, it was such a gross display that of course donald trump as donald trump always does gets in his way of a successful day for the republican party, for himself and for the biggest corporations

in the world. >> but he didn't force all those people to say that, my god. >> they knew that just like the saudis and foreign leaders know, the price of admission is sucking up and treating him like he's the most insecure autocrat on the globe, but i wonder what man, what man of any character would sit and listen to that without stopping, stop, stop, being embarrassed, then, of course the question, especially for mike pence is what man with any dignity would do the sort of thing that these people did yesterday. take a listen to this, mika. this is mike pence. >> myer would you loo tobacco say a few words? >> i know i speak on behalf of the entire cabinet and millions of americans when i say congratulations and thank you. thank you, you have spurred an optimism in this country that is setting records, mostly, mr. president, i'll end where i began.

i want to thank you, mr. president. i want to thank you, i want thank you, mr. president. god bless you. >> willie, unspeakable. we're not making, no president in american history would sit and listen to that and this is, of course, we're going to get to the news in a second. >> we will introduce it. >> what does that say about donald trump and what he thinks the presidency is about is this, again, it's oautocratic. >> well, those people know exactly what the president wants to hear, which is that he's responsible for this, that he's great. it's the same thing the saudis knew when they projected his fate that he responds, he is flattered easy by that praise, it goes on a day when some people at the table know it or no. that is a major once in a

labor platform the way they celebrated is unlike anything i have seen before. >> we have msnbc john heilman. >> it's like a cultive personality. >> it is. >> you know, at least they waited until the bill was passed this time. >> the time. >> rather than doing it partway through like the health care bill within they celebrated just the house passage, i just don't understand. it's not just, yes, the president obviously likes to be praised. i just find it strange in the context. these are politicians that have seen a lot. >> they should be. >> they are aware of a larger political context to praise the bill as a giant accomplishment. to sit there opposite a president with 35% approval rating who has an existential crisis on his hands, to know that, howell battled he has

been, how polarizing he is, it's odd that they would want to be caught on video, archived for all eternity, saying those things about a president who could i'll not saying predicting he will, who he is facing severe challenges over the course of the next few weeks and months. i don't understand that. >> how do you say that to a president already is on record, one of the greatest who has already proposed banning 1.5 billion from this country because of the god they worship, denying the existence of the kkk and david duke before super tuesday? making a racist attack against an american judge because his parents came from mexico, peaking an attack against a gold star family, who gave the ultimate sacrifice giving tear

son. charlottesville, a president that forgave white supremacy and tried to paint it all in moral relativism. over and over again. that is who these republicans, you can say it's a great tax be ill. >> you can say they got something done. >> it will get the xi kick-started. to say he's one of the greatest presidents ever, to do what they did is unspeakable. >> well, if you can't see all the things that joe listed there actually happening before your eyes to see something wrong i wish you could have heard madeleine albright, gosh, a year-and-a-half ago, or during the campaign in georgetown and l literally put the finger in my face, someone that group in the throws of something leak this in its full form or you could have heard my father on his death bed talking about the dangers of our strategy cal alliances and

everything breaking down and crumbling, that actually, i know this isn't fun morning fodder. it isn't fun to wake up to something like this. this is the reality. so also with us is former white house press secretary to president obama, now a political analyst for nbc news and msnbc josh earnest. also with us, republican strategist and political commentator susan dell persio host of casey d.c. on msnbc, casey hunt. >> so, that was a little. we went there at the top of the show. it's just there are moments where you have to stop, susan, and say, remind viewers and americans and people who love this republic, this is not normal. this is a personality cult. this is a very small step in a

much larger cons spushl republic is heading that is so dangerous we have to remind people is there we do, if you know, he did not show any respect to those folks. he calls everyone by their name, mike, this one, get them by their first fame. i think because he knows he has to be called president. it goes to autocracy that he loves and 39s off of. what's so surpriseing is to see republican lawmakers just embrace it and to the point, they have to, the leadership numbers for trump on the economy are actually better than his approval ratings for himself. when asking about the president, he's at around 35, 40%. when it comes to handling the economy, he's around 50. so that's what they should be embracing. the tax reform, stockmarket et cetera. but they are going down a really slippery path. because i don't know how orrin

hatch for everything we've seen. >> oh god. >> went there and said what he did was just -- >> it was terrible. >> -- it was a heart breaking stage. >> his legacy. >> that is a stain on his legacy, it will forever be a stain on his legacy, if you don't believe me, watch this tape two years from now. >> you are right. here's the thing, republicans made this bargain more than a year ago. they knew what was going to be acquired. they knew all of the offensive, outrageous incompetent things they would have to overlook in order to get this tax bill passed. so it's not particularly surprising to me that they made good on it in the end by pragz president trump. here's the difference between president trump and basically every president that has come before him. every president that has come before him have used that large platform as a position of national service to serve the country. president trump does not view the responsibility that he has to serve the country. he views it as an opportunity to make himself look good and all

of these members of congress, members of the staff know it's not about appealing to what's best for the country. it's about appealing to what's best for him. that's what they do to stay in his good graces. >> again, let's not wake up like every day is a magic am new day and pretend we're a character and we don't remember anything that happened before. i saw a picture yesterday of the daily news the day that paul ryan came out and endorsed donald trump. the headline, what i'm with a racist. this is again after he pretended he didn't know who david duke was, would not condemn the klu klux klan, the sunday before super tuesday, tried to ban 1.5 people from coming because of tear faith. on and on and on and on. so, yes, they knew exactly what they were getting into and why

they're doing a deeper dive now is beyond me. why don't we talk about the tax bill? >> yes. >> it is good news for the republicans. >> casey is still to get to. >> it was the celebration they have been waiting for. unlike the rose celebration in may when the house passed an obamacare repeople, but the senate couldn't follow suit. so it was kind of premature. yesterday republicans enjoyed the passage of tear tax bill by both chambers. the president enjoyed the moment. >> it's been and i amazing experience, i have to tell you. it hasn't been done in 34 years, but actually really hasn't been done because we broke every record. it's the largest -- i always say the most massive -- but it's the largest tax cut in the history of our country and reform, a tax cut, really something special. [ applause ] >> statistically, that's not accurate. >> that's actually a lie, craig surely was talking about it yesterday, john kennedy's was

bigner '64, reagan's was bigner '81, it's what donald trump does, he can't say we passed the biggest tax cut since ronald reagan. he's got to lie. again, taking something which would be a good day and just mucking it up. >> he's undeterred by the fact that that is not true. >> the fact that he lies over and over again and in high moments, he can't take the victory. he has to lie about the victory. >> so casey hunt, this, obviously, is a crowning achievement for paul ryan, for mitch mcconnell, something they've long sought. to josh's point earlier, every time one of these stories came up, whether charlottesville, a tweet about vis i kristen gillibrand or the answer is they want tax reform. so they will hang in with him until they got tax reform. well they got it yesterday. what itself the vibe?

what's the mood on capitol hill this morning? >> reporter: they did get it yesterday. i think a part of why you saw what you saw yesterday. i was right there with joe being kind of stunned to hear paul ryan calling the president exquisite, exquisite presidential leadership. >> oh god. go home. go back to wisconsin. >> it's painful. >> save your dignity. have you children. >> not. >> go ahead. >> so now when you sa they to a man, will it become a screaming headline? >> i hope it does. >> because when i said that about a him who, it was like i was attacking a woman and it was unusual curious how people think. >> you don't call somebody who is a racist who said what he said after charlottesville, who treats white supremacist. >> you have children. fall from grace. >> it's inspired by a party that inspired an assassin to kill a member of parliament. those are not the people you call exquisite. go ahead.

casey. >> yes, casey. >> reporter: the point i was going to make simply that this is paul ryan's crowning achievement. he has been working on it for decades, he is thrilled t. mood among republicans is one of jub lation i would say around this. but they've also learned a lot about how to manage this president and they've learned that if you go out on television, he will see it, it will come around and bite you if you try to have a private meeting with the president. you want to get something done. >> that sounds like an autocrat. i am struck by the degree to which it was obvious yesterday that they have absorbed this lesson and are acting on it. >> wow. >> not many people, i think most people watching know exactly what we are talking about, donald trump is trying to build a personality cult. have you ever seen or have any of your colleagues ever seen such a display of cravenness of

members of congress who are duly elect and equal to the president in power being so o bse queous to the president? >> reporter: i would say i have never seen anything, he called them one by one notified somebody by tear first name, which, of course, as you guys know, having worked with him for a long time, he's demanded that in business as well, everybody at the table calls him mr. trump. he uses their first name, he's mr. president. i remember when president obama was kind of at the height of his popularity. he swept into office in 2008 and there was just an incredible degree of excitement around the fact that he had been elected and democrats at that time were certainly falling all over themselves to say positive things about the president. but that was because they wanted to be associated with him and they felt proud of where their party was and the

accomplishments. i think the opposite is true in private. i was so struck by the disparity between what they were saying in public what we hear all the time behind the scenes if private about kind of the general exhaustion and unpredict ability of working with this administration. this will give them solace that maybe this was all worth it. their signature is on this bill. they can point to the judiciary and areas where things have changed in favor of conservatives. >> right. >> it was a striking day. >> and what is so strike again is if you look at what these members say behind closed doors, saying he is not mentally fit, saying that he is a horrific president, that he's got terrible leadership skills. >> those are people on the stage. >> very few people on the stage saying those things are the ones quietly behind the scenes telling every reporter that will listen to them, howell barrased they are to be associated with him. every one of them.

they rolled their eyes. they mock him. they're humiliated to be associated with that man. then they go out and get behind the microphone and say, now, let's, so i think we've defined this problem. the personality of cult, an american autocrat in waiting. i hope americans are aware of that. now, let's talk about what this means for the republican party. now, i'm going to do a complete 180. >> okay. >> you have a republican party saying we were fought able to accomplish anything of significance can now say, if i'm a republican, i'm going out, i'm going home for the christmas brake, holiday break. if they hold town meetings, i will say, listen, it's been a rocky ride. look what we did. we got neil gorsuch in the supreme court. the federal judiciary, liberals complain about it every day, how conservative it's getting. we passed the largest tax cut

since the early 1980s. corporate tax rates for the first time in a generation are competitive with other countries across the globe. regulations have been cut in record rates. the economy is humming along faster than it's ever hummed along before as far as consumer confidence goes, a recent poll shows more americans think the economy is doing better than in any poll that's been taken before. stockmarkets are hitting all-time high. >> that means a lot for the college your child goes to. >> that means a lot for the company you work for. >> that means a lot for your 401k, yes, we have some problems for this president. but we republicans have stood and delivered. >> and the individual mandate is gone for this tax be ill. >> and the individual mandate is gone. so if you are republicans and you deliver that message, what's the democratic response? >> well, so many things to say.

certainly you focused on the tax bill. we should focus on, people comment for weeks, how unpopular this bill is, this will be the centerpiece of republicans, what they will both about and what democrats will tackle over. they will look at the piece of legislation, which is unpopular for good reasons, it's a bill that largely favors rich people and corporations. but if you are a working class american and you get a tax cut you don't care that corporate guys are getting a $20,000 tax cut. are you looking at the $600 tax cut that you really need. >> maybe. >> maybe they are.

the only data we have is the bill is incredibly unpopular. >> it should be unpopular. it's a horrible bill. i'm simply saying, if people vote their interest, like when boerne my runs around saying, can you have free college and you can have free health care and can you have a free car and we're going to give you a free cruise to alaska. everybody goes, oh, wow, i like that plan. well, if somebody is getting $600 more in their check, paycheck, they're going to think, i like this. well maybe. >> they will pay $650 more in health insurance the premiums will go up as a result. >> that hits the timing of that is much different. because they will see those paychecks come in, they will feel good until around okay or november within they get their notification right before election time. >> yeah, josh. >> so, josh, what's the democratic response to what republicans are sure to say?

>> mika is right about this. we experimented with this in 2009, what economists said when we were passing the recovery act, the most efficient what i to stimulate the economy was to give people a small increase in tear pay checks every two week so what we did was cut the payroll tax, it had a small impact in terms of the political conception of the assistance people were receiving from the federal government. it had an important benefit for the broader commitment it ended up being good for the economy, not for political argument. they may see a good thing, with one added benefit, which is the reason republicans did this hass will to do with individual tax rates than it does with the corporate tags rate. >> sure, it's all about their donors. by the way, 100%, by talking to donors and talking to republicans, if anybody goes out there and says that they pushed this and voted for this for any reason other than to keep their donors calm, they're not telling

the truth i they they have a began, profiting a at a sophisticate corporate tax cut and the people at tear base works are wondering why aren't people in washington doing for me? you are right. this will be a good thing politically for republicans because they took a huge toll over the course of this year. it showed up in virginia and alabama. republicans had not done anything and that did serve to suppress turnout in those important elections, you will have republicans saying, you may not like it, this is what we got done. >> that is going to help them politically. >> that is something democrats are going to have to grapple with. >> we will continue this conversation. a little more news before we go to break. senator al franken will officially resign on january 2nd. franken announced last month

he'd be stepping down amid a string of sexual misconduct allegations. in a facebook post the senator says he plans to spend his last few days delivering a series of final speeches on a number of issues. minnesota's democratic governor tina smith will fill franken's seat. she is scheduled to be sworn in on january 3rd and this, the "new york times" has announced yesterday that glen thrush was suspended as they look into allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior will be allowed to return to work. the "times" stated that thrush will remain suspended until late january and removed from the team covering the white house. the decision comes a month after vox published a report that contained allegations from four female journalists of inappropriate behavior by thrush t. paper reports their investigation involved interviews with more than 30 people in new york and

washington both inside and outside the "time's" according to a person briefed on the process. in a statement the paper's executive editor said the company had completed its inquiry and found that thrush had behaved in ways we do not condone, while we believe glen acted defensively, we decided he does not deserve to be fired. but they said thrush was undergoing counseling and substance abuse rehabl take ata. thrush is a contributor omsnbc. in a statement last month the network said it was awaiting the outcome of the "time's" investigation and that is here. so we have a packed show today. senators james lankford and amy klobuchar will be our guests. they just introduced a bipartisan piece of legislation that will avoid for foreign

interpret feerns in future elections. bob corker and chris van hollen will join the conversation and representative adam schiff will be here as well. are you watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ silver bells ♪ traders -- they're always looking for advantages. the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. fidelity. open an account today. ♪

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a dividing line is forming in congress as a high ranking democrat senator called for bipartisanship support of the justice department and special counsel robert mueller. on the other side of the capital, some republican members are looking to take on leadership, andrew mccape is slated to be interviewed behind closed doors by the oversight committees today. this after his eight hours of testimony at the house intel committee lasted until 10:00 p.m. tuesday night. politico reports on secret meetings by house republicans focused on corruption and biassed in the upper ranks of the justice department and fbi

led by chairman devon nunez of california -- >> hold on a second. wait. wait, this clown? is questioning, show his picture because he's, he just made a total absolute fool of himself this year. this clown is the one that is going to be questioning the integrity of the fbi? this guy that allowed himself to play the dupe for the white house and go back and forth and hold -- without getting information first and running into the white house and then being pulled around like a little puppet. this is the clown that is questioning the integrity of the men and women of the federal bureau of investigation that put their lives on the line every day for us? oh my god.

unbelievable, willie. >> they want to put out a conspiracy at the upper reaches of the doj and fbi. it's senior leaders improperly and perhaps criminally mishandled the contents of the dossier and alleged ties between president trump and russia, according to four people familiar with the group's plans. they say the groups rely on the same documents and testimony provided by toppled obama officials who were grilled as a part of the russia probe. republicans in the group suspect the fbi and doj have worked either to hurt trump or aid his former campaign rival hillary clinton. they reportedly hope to release a report early next year detailing their concerns the vice chairman, democrat, mark warner, made an impassioned plea on the senate floor yesterday in support of robert mueller. >> in recent days, the president said he is not considering

removing special counsel mueller. but the president's track record on this front is a source of concern. i'm certain that most of my colleagues believe that he wouldn't fire jim comey, either. congress must make clear to the president that firing the special counsel or interfering with his investigation by issuing pardons of essential witnesses is unacceptable and would have immediate and significant consequences. let's bring out "new york times" reporter michael schmidt on this story. there has been legislation proposed in congress to protect bob mueller from firing. it hasn't gone anywhere. what is senator warner after her here? is he putting up the red flare or is there legislation passed here? >> i think it would be hard to

have legislation. they have been quiet on it. the president is in an interesting position t. white house said mueller would be done by thanksgiving, christmas, early next year. this is an effort by the president's lawyers to keep him at bay and attacking mueller and firing mueller. so the interesting question which warner is sort of heading towards is what will happen when the president realizes mueller is not going to clear his name. we have to remember that mueller was appointed because comey wouldn't say publicly that the president wasn't under investigation. and i think that's what democrats are afraid of. >> hey, john, you've said be every that you believe that donald trump is looking for any excuse to fire mueller and these sad pathetic little republicans scurrying around trying to do his business and subcert the rule of law, attacking the men and women of the fbi, you think the only reason is to give

donald trump cover to subvert and obstruct and investigation that's only led to the arrest of his campaign chairman and his national security adviser? >> it wasn't the only reason. i think there is a concerted. we talked about this for weeks, we are witnessing a concerted coordinated effort to undermine the entire investigation from mueller to the fbi to the department of justice to make this all seem as though it's a corrupt enterprise that it is as trump alleges, a rigged deal. we are hearing that it is a witch hunt, that it's a hoax. all of those arguments that trump has made the people, his henchmen and cronies on capitol hill now, then in the obviously conservative media are all singing from that song book, they're attacking the fbi, mueller. he is not personally attacking mueller, he the president of the united states, but this is an extraordinarily dangerous thing happening in the house, he has recuse himself from the russia matter, devon nunez now it turns

out is running a splinter group that is using the classified documents that the house intelligence committee is gathering in order to investigate russia and the potential occlusion with the trump campaign in the election. >> wait a second is he recusing himself or not? >> he is recusing himself from the russia committee. >> he was so compromised that he recuse himself from the russian investigation but now he's acting as a sort of inspector general? >> that is more exulted and legitimized phrase i would use. he is running a rogue splinter group that's using the classified intelligence that's been gathered to try to investigate collusion in russia's role in the 2016 election, instead to use that material to try to tar the fbi and bob mierl, to try to soften them up for either donald trump firing mueller, donald trump the

argument going forward about whether impeachment is going to happen, about whether there are pardons that thump put forward. they are now engaged. fought just in a media campaign but if trying to fundamentally subvert what the house intelligence committee is doing. >> so listen, let me just tell you, republicans, children, you're out of your league. you are playing way out of your leak. bob mueller is several steps ahead of you. and will you destroy your majority for years to come. if you want to do it, your business. i think americans would probably be comforted with you out of power for a very long time and your president with a 33% approval rating. but michael schmidt, i'm a little confused i'm just a dump country lawyer, but i thought this fbi was the same fbi we heard last week had warned donald trump during the campaign about the russians trying to interfere with this campaign. >> yeah.

i think that you continue underestimate the impact these disclose years about pete strzok, with these text messages he was exchanging, it has given republicans a talking point to attack the fbi in a way that they didn't have before. and it has become the rallying cry. i think it's encouraged them, enthused them, that maybe there is a way they can't undercut mueller by continuing to attack him. >> it seems to me that they're just throwing whatever they can like monkeys throwing poo against the wall. last week it was text gate scandal. then we found out that those texts were improperly released. actually they were attacking bernie sanders and hillary clinton as well. that's okay. so they move on to something else. what exactly is the scandal? they're making things up every week. >> well, they're trying to find anything they can to raise questions about the fbi's credibility in this entire thing, which is funny,

considering how much the democrats raised questions about the treatment of hillary clinton. they are doing it with all these text messages. it allows them to throw stuff at the wall. with their base, if you look at the conservative media, a lot of this has stuck. a lot of it has taken hold and they will continue to use that as they try to show the politicalization of the bureau as they continue to investigate, as that report just pointed out. >> josh, this is what donald trump does when he sees trouble going down the tracks, go back to okay, november last year when his campaign felt confident it was going to lose the election. the election was ricked. there was questions on election day, whether he was going to respect the outcome of it. when he knows something bad or thinks something bad is coming this is what he does, he calls into question the credible of the source of the information so clearly he and now with the aiding and abetting some of republicans on capitol hill are softening the ground for what's coming from bob mueller. >> i think it's exactly right.

it's not a mystery what they are trying to do here, it's worth remembering for a second as painful as it is for democrats what happened in 2016. what happened in 2016. i know speaking from my personal experience, standing at that white house podium, repeatedly asked about news reports, to the department of justice and the fbi about the latest on the hillary clinton investigation. oh, by the way, those news stories were never good for hillary clinton, so it's very hard to suggest there was an internal conspiracy to turn down donald trump when all the weeks about the election were about hillary clinton t. questions about the way that jim comey handled the investigation, handled the trump investigation, how he handled the clinton investigation. let's remember, we only learned after the election that trump. was actually under investigation and the dossier, that republicans like to talk about a lot. >> that also came out after the election, so it's really hard. >> a dossier first gen rated by

right wing money and supporters, i believes i pa i have this wrong, it was supporters of marco rubio, i could be wrong, the dossier was started from the right. another thing, too, comey, if comey had not released the letter ten days before the election. >> right. >> any neutral observer will tell you and i'll say this, just so democrats have a reason to be angry with me. vladimir putin didn't impact this election. nobody was stealing enough votes in wisconsin to steal this election. jim comey changed the outcome of this election. fbi director jim comey, after the football february, went after this, in a way that never allowed hillary clinton to gain their footing. so, we were very critical of hillary. it's not leak we're giving her a free pass here, i'm just saying for republicans now to say, oh, the fbi is political. that's really rip.

>> well, here's the other punch line here is that in the midst of all this stuff, comey's extraordinary news conference in the day after the fourth of july, comey's testimony before congress that took hours and hours, this which he talked about the investigation, comey's letters before election day never once did president obama or anybody else senior in the white house or in the administration question jim comey's neutrality. we believe that he was doing the best that he could. nobody suggested he was part of some sort of internal plot to undermine hillary clinton, which makes it particularly outrageous republicans want to have his vote. >> even though his actions led to the election of donald trump. >> let's button up this discussion with this, the fbi association which represents thousands of current and former agents released a statement in the wake of recent criticism from the president and other. it reads, in part --

. >> and we do recognize that work. i know everybody to a person around this table thanks the men and women at the fbi for what you do, whether there is a democratic president orao republican president. thank you for your service to america. >> michael schmidt. thank you for being on. yesterday, we met the whom who appeared to win the seat of delegates by one vote. >> woe. >> it turns out every vote does count, indeed, her opponent found another vote, control of the state's legislature could come down to a luck of the draw. >> do you believe they may flip a coin? >> amazing. >> you know a jackass asked me what do you do when there is a tide election? you know what i said? i don't know, flip a coin. >> or pick a name out of a hat. >> literally. >> oh my gosh. >> we'll be right back.

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. >> virginia's one-vote victory is now a tie t. day after democrat shelley simons was thought to have won her race by a single vote a. three-judge

panel determined the result actually is a tie t. ruling came after republicans challenged this questionable ballot. one ballot, two bubbles filled in. it was later determined to be a vote for the incumbent david yancey. the ballot gives simons and yancey 11,608 votes. under virginia law the board of elections will now choose the winner by lot. which means they will likely pull names out of a hat. literally to determine who wins the seat. they will also state that the loser of the drawing may petition for a recount. casey hunt. >> good lord. >> you fight for a campaign, it comes to a guy reaching into a hat. >> it's unreal. the consequences of, i remember playing this game as a kid, over god knows what. but the consequences of this are potentially incredibly enormous. not because this one race hinges on this, control of the state legislature. they have huge questions to answer, whether to expand

medicaid, for example, there are rights group was are talking about various issues, bathroom bills, things like that that have popped up. driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. the republicans control the legislature in virginia for a long time. a lot of things that democrats would like to try to undo. they will only be able do it if a woman draws her name out of a hat. >> it's true, it's not a whacky political story. it has massive consequences for control of the state house there. >> oh my lord, still ahead. we will take a look at how the tax bill headed to the president's desk should impact the most vulnerable americans. "morning joe," everybody, will be right back.

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all right. kasie hunt, before you go, is it midnight tomorrow the government runs out of money? where do things snatand? >> basically what's playing out is there's a series of difficult questions about reauthorizing

children's health care, what to do about dreame.r.e.a.m.ers? it looks like they're saying we can't solve the problem. the likely is they'll fund the government for a couple of weeks at the current levels and not answer the questions. but nobody wants a shutdown before christmas. the one question still is conservatives seem uneasy with this. they haven't gotten on board in the house. paul ryan needs to scrape around and find the votes to make sure everybody can go hoenl for christmas. that's usually a powerful motivating factor. fingers crossed we'll get to go home in a couple of days. >> still ahead, president trump says obamacare has essentially been repealed thanks to the republican tax plan. we'll fact check that this morning. plus senators bob corker, james langford, chris van holland and

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that's probably the biggest factor in this plan. many picked up on that comment from the president yesterday since republicans have gone to great lengths to tout their tax bill as benefitting the middle class. welcome back to "morning joe." it's thursday, december 21st. can you believe how close we have to christmas in with us, we have susan dell purseo, josh earnest, heather mcgee, jeremy peters and washington bureau chief for the associated press, julie pace. it's the top of the hour. it was the celebration they'd been waiting for. >> it was a big celebration. let's go to washington and see, julie pace, what was the mood on the hill, and do republicans really think they finally cracked the code and have something to go back home and

tout to their voters and more importantly for them right now, their donors? >> well, at both ends of washington aver kn washington avenue and on the hill, it was jubilant yesterday. the president got his legislation, and on the hill, this is what republicans felt like they needed headed into 2018. it's a grim scenario if you're a lawmaker running for reelection and voters say what did you do last year and you can only point to kneel gorsuneil gorsuch. they'll thrilled to have something substantial they can go back to voters. the reality is that whether you say it's a middle class tax cut or not, the bulk of the benefits are going to corporations, to big businesses, and to the wealthiest americans, and in talking to lawmakers and in talking to donors, it was the pressure from donors who have been so frustrated with this

republican majority and their inability to get things done that became the impetus for passing this. there are going to be benefits for some middle class americans for some length of time. you can't exclude the pressure these republicans felt from their donors and how much of a motivator that was. >> and jeremy peters, it's almost like there was a political contract between the donors and the republican members of congress. donors telling me all year we know we're going to lose the house in 2018. and they were saying that six, seven, eight months ago. we know we're going to lose the house. we know that donald trump is ir rational. we know he's unpredictable, but we have to get this corporate tax cut now because we'll never get it under nancy pelosi. it seems like that more than anything else has driven this republican congress over the past year. >> that's exactly right. i had a top republican strategist say to me this week

that they think if the election were held today the republicans would lose 50, 55 seats. there's a real sense of alarm and panic on capitol hill. but what you saw yesterday that celebration, that was not exuberance over the triumph over conservative policy. they were relieved they got something done to say see, look, we're not as dysfunctional as you thought we were. look at the bill. this is not a conservative tax bill. maybe it's conservative around the edges and the revisions it does to the tax code. it takes away incentive to ride your bike to work. it punishes universities with big endowments. i guess you can call that conservative in some way. at least it certainly is in line with the thinking of a lot of people in today's republican party, but where's the fundamental revision to the tax code? it's not here. again, you're going to be seeing the democrats painting this as a

corporate give away. donald trump said that himself yesterday in a line that is sure to be used in almost every democratic ad in 2018. that was almost as bad as when gary cohn said he was headed to aspen and wasn't thrilled about it because it's cold and there's no snow. >> yeah. i'm going to aspen. >> yeah. >> there's no snow and it's really cold. >> but my corporate jet will keep me warm. that's fascinating. a little take on i'm going to disney world. i'm going to aspen. so, willie, you think that that guy writes for breitbart, i think. >> the guy that tweeted? >> i think so. >> yeah. >> not gary cohn. >> just to be clear. >> charlie. >> yeah. >> it was charlie. bad eyesight. i couldn't see the icon. that's actually a great reminder

of what this president and steve bannon promised american voters in the fall of 2016. that the world is run by multinational corporations, that hedge funders and cogoldman sac and all of these huge corporatists across the globe dominate your life. they passed a tax bill that's being celebrated by the largest multinational corporation on the planet. it's being celebrated by hedge fund managers and being celebrated by billionaires that want to pass on as much of their money to billionaires in waiting that are children. this is -- this is the most pro big corporation pro hedge fund manager tax cut that's ever happened, ever happened.

ro ronald reagan's was across the board middle class tax cut. how do they square that when they go home? >> we had kevin brady on the show. it wasn't picking on him about carried interest. i agree it's an arcane thing to get into, but why in this bill the president said something was evil, why was that left in the bill if it wasn't just a sop to the donors? that benefits only rich guys who work downtown in new york on wall street. that's not draining the swamp. that's a question of fairness for americans. they understand fairness. and so look, when jeremy says there's nothing conservative in the bill, i think they would argue cutting the corporate tax rate to 41% is a conservative idea. and the companies will reinvest. some of the companies came out yesterday, and they will invest, hire people. they believe that is a pro

growth strategy. they believe they'll grow the $1.5 trillion hole they blew in the deficit. they'll say that's pro growth and conservatism. >> while some americans don't understand carried interest. they do understand billionaires paying 14% tax rates year in and year out. >> there's a difference. >> as they go to the polls next year, they'll understand what donald trump has done has made the rich even more comfortable. made the poor even more strapped. as caused health care, the foundation of our health care system to be shaken. i mean, they may not have to have a perfect definition for what carried interest is, but they will know this was a sop to the rich. >> that's right. and they'll understand that this bill rewards wealth over work. if you make your money because you inherited it from your

wealthy parents or because you look at the newspaper and the stock market has gone up and that's what you've done today, great, i made another $10,000, this is a win fall. if you make your money by pushing a broom or caring for people, you may get less than 1% increase in your after tax income in 2019, but your health insurance premiums will go up by about 10%, and good news, paul ryan says next year we're going to use the excuse of the $1.5 trillion deficit to come after your social security and medicare. this is a moral issue. there are people who can't afford to go to the dentist or the doctor. they have to choose between keeping their light on or driving their kids to school. and this is a country where there are more billionaires than there have been in the history of time. the american people including the majority of republican voters think that corporations

actually large corporations should have tax increases. so i absolutely understand that republicans see that they have to pay back their donors or they will not be able to fund raise from them next year, but that is just a way to get your message out. ultimately the american people are going to have the deciding vote about whether they get their jobs back. i don't think they will. >> as we've mentioned, the final tax bill include the repeal of the individual mandate which president trump says means that obamacare is essentially gone. >> we, i hate to say this, but we essentially repealed obamacare because we got rid of the individual mandate which was terrible. and that was a primary source of funding of obamacare. >> josh, did they get rid of obamacare? >> they didn't. >> what? >> they have thrown some punches at obamacare. some of them have landed. some have cut advertising,

shrinking down the enrollment period and taking away the individual mandate will have an impact. the biggest problem is people are still signing up for obamacare, and when they see the rates increasing, they now know who they're going to blame. they won't complain about the people who originally wrote the bill, they will complain and blame the people who made changes that have made the system less effective, and i think that's another rock in the pack that republicans are going to be toting uphill in the next election. >> susan, why would susan collins or lisa murkowski vote for a bill that so undermines obamacare and so helps the richest while not helping the working class in their state? >> well, lisa murkowski, there was something she wanted and they were able to fill it. susan collins is a very different story. she was promised some work arounds on health insurance, and guess what. that's not happening this month,

and she really is in a difficult situation, because she was insistent on it. >> she was lied to? >> yes. she was told one thing and they didn't deliver. it makes me wonder what's going to happen next year. is this potentially the last thing we see done before 2018? what can get done going forward? now you have more republican senators who can't trust the administration. democrats are digging in because they're saying hey, this is what we've got to run on. where are we going to get any bipartisan support to get anything done of measure. that's why any big reform like tax reform or health care, i mean, didn't happen under obamacare, but to be successful, we need bipartisanship. we need leaders. there's a reason why they work so hard, and there's a reason why democrats were concerned when donald trump came into the white house and promised a populist moment. this tax cut was supposed to be

married with infrastructure. that was where he was moving. that's where the democrats were concerned they were going to have to get on board with a trump agenda. donald trump changed that. he changed what was good for the country to winning for him. and winning for him is solely what is good for donald trump, not what's good for the country or what's good for the party. >> and i'll tell you what. you look at donald trump right there. he and his family, if you look at the most estimates of what this tax bill means for them, makes the family hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. it may -- actually, this bill may add up to to be one of the greatest win falls for financial win falls for any president that's ever signed a bill. the family, at least hundreds of millions of dollars from what's in this tax bill. so let's talk about health care for working class americans.

julie, susan collins obviously had a state in maine that is dependent on obamacare. she's said we can push this off until january, but what's the likelihood of it passing in january and what's the likelihood of susan collins getting what she bargained for? >> january was looking busy for republicans. as we look ahead to the shutdown deadline, it looks like they're pushing a lot of the touchy difficult issues they were going to try to address in the spending bill in january. daca, disaster spending. if you put it all on the table in january and ask republicans to go back to the drawing board on health care, we all know how this congress moves, and they don't move very quickly on complicated things. republicans made a short-term political calculation on health care. they did land a punch with repealing the mandate, but it makes the broader conversation about health care next year

really complicated. the rate increases that a lot of people who are signing up for obamacare now reupping their obamacare now will come in october right before the election. so there is going to be some pressure from people like susan collins to actually act to try to get something done, but the idea of republicans doing a big change on health care in the middle of an election, again, based on the way this congress has been dealing with difficult issues, it's hard to imagine. >> yeah. >> the governor -- >> can i just ask? we need to talk about this later, but this was sent to me. i saw it yesterday. did you see the headline, don mcgahn knew in january that flynn probably violated the law? did you see that? josh, that thickens the plot substantially that the president's lawyer and by extension, most likely most certainly the president knew that flynn violated the law. and they knew it back in

january. >> including when president trump asked the director of the fbi to go easy on his buddy. >> yeah. so drop the case. >> to drop the case and including when michael flynn had access to the most sensitive intelligence that is collected by the united states of america. he was in a position of a very delicate position where he was handling this very important information at the same time that people knew including his boss, knew that he was in deep trouble by law enforcement authorities. that is troubling. >> yeah. to say it's troubling, it's troubling for all americans. it's particularly troubling for a small subset of people working inside the white house. >> that too. >> the new york post, we're going to just do a news potpour potpourri. nick versus the dictator. willie, you just wonder, give the story and then i'm going to

ask why is turkey still a member of nato? >> that's enis cantor. he's been critical of erdogan. now that he's in the united states, he supports the opposition there, one of the opposition leaders in turkey, and now erdogan has called for the jailing of him. they threatened to jail cantor's father at home because of cantor's remarks on twitter. they forced cantor's father to write a letter and publicly denounce his son. cantor was defind yesterday and rolled his eyes. they're trying to arrest, turkey is trying to arrest the center for the new york knicks for being critical of erdogan in twitter. >> and that's someone donald trump admires? >> right. >> that and putin. he admires their leadership and power. >> and this is something flynn is accused of.

sending people back to turkey. we have laws and institutions in this country that protect people. i think this is an indication of how much those democratic principles with a little "d "have eroded in turkey because of unilateral decisions by people like erdogan. >> and people look to the united states as an example. they're not getting it from this president. when you have a national security adviser who plots and schemes allegedly to kidnap an opposition figure from turkey -- >> for $15 million. >> yes. and by the way, for everybody that's trying to get bob mueller fired, i don't know if they know this or not, but kidnapping, that is a crime whether it's in the state of pennsylvania or whether it's in the state of new york, and that will send michael flynn to jail until the day he

dies if he lives another 30 years, and his son. so they're running around -- when i said bob mueller was five steps ahead of the children on capitol hill embarrassing themselves going after an american war hero who guided us through 9/11, they don't know who they're going up against. >> it's a different weight class. donald trump only knows how to go after people and knock them down just by personality. little marco, little energy -- he's trying to use the same strategy on mueller. mueller doesn't care what you say about him. he doesn't care. and he's going to keep going, and he's not going to pay attention to this. and the one thing is just that is dangerous about donald trump, this is a pillar of society. independent justice department. how republicans are letting donald trump get away with it and not speaking out is a disgrace. these men and women put their lives on the line. they keep us safe. how you can't back them up --

and they make mistakes, but you want to point around congress and see the mistakes they've made? i don't think they'd be willing to admit to those. to go after the law enforcement agencies and go after mueller and make it personal, it's always about donald trump. he's going to find out mueller, he's not in the same class. >> jeremy peters, talk about the discomfort on the hill that some senior republicans have at some of the more junior members attacking the men and women at the fbi and going after an american war hero, bob mueller. talk about the discomfort that some republicans are feeling. >> well, what they'll say privately is the same thing they said after trump's attacks on a judge. this is an unwarranted and constitutionally dangerous attack by somebody on an independent branch of government. an independent entity in the

government in fact government. it violates the separations that are supposed to exist. to the point about mueller and how he doesn't care, that may be true, but you know who else doesn't care? donald trump. and donald trump is living in a world right now that is fed by the conservative media hysteria over bob mueller and his alleged ties to democrats, the attorneys who work for him who donated to democrats. this has been a narrative that's built up on a single cable news network and in the conservative radio sphere over the last several months. that is, this man cannot be trusted. he is politically tainted. therefore, he's unable to objectively investigate the president. this is a witch hunt, and donald trump hears that on hannity and breitbart. it's inescapable for him. it's hard for me to imagine that eventually that doesn't effect his thinking and his judgment.

>> i agree with much of what you said except for the one line, donald trump doesn't care. he cares. and he cares deeply right now. because a lot of people around him may be going to jail for a very long time. and if he's not indicted for obstruction of justice, he certainly could be indicted or be an unindicted co-conspirator. if he doesn't care, he's more detached from reality than we feared. >> thank you all for being on the show this morning. still ahead, james langford and amy klobuchar making a push for cyber security in the wake of last year's russian election meddling. also adam schiff will be here. we'll get his take on the new report that some republicans are accusing fbi leaders of anti-trump bias.

you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. >> a lot of people now in congress and certainly in the conservative echo chamber are attacking mueller all the time. is that a smart play politically? >> i don't think so. i think it's a reactive play. i think they think if we discredit him, anything that happens will be discredited. this could turn out that mueller exonerates the president. you don't want to discredit the guy that exonerates. it's born out of ignorance. it's ignorant. it's your last chance of the year to get our best offer of the year: zero percent financing for seventy-two months, plus an extra one-thousand cash back across a full lineup of ford cars, trucks and suvs. so hurry and save big on america's best-selling brand. it's the final days of the ford year end sales event with zero percent financing for seventy-two months plus an extra one-thousand cash back! see your ford dealer before jan 2nd and save.

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front of the usa "today," i'll tell you if i were running, this is what i'd be talking about right here. >> heidi's paper. >> there we go. where would you like me to put the paper? >> that one. put it back up. >> they're pointing. person pointing for you.

>> all right. okay. government headed for $1 trillion deficit. now, kids, and i do mean kids, it gets worse, because this tax bill will take $1.5 to $2 trillion. regardless of what demagogues in the white house and both sides of the aisle tell you, medicare, medicaid j is going to consume every dime that goes washington takes in, and then you add the interest on the debt, and then suddenly we don't have money for anything else. guess what. if you're 20, if you're 25, even if you're 30, good luck when you're my age with tax bills. you're really going to have

entitlement systems that have collapsed or you'll be paying 85% of everything you make to the federal government. with that happy news, i know nobody wants to hear about it. nobody ever wants to hear about it. that's why we have a $20 trillion debt that's going up to $40 trillion. when i left congress, it was $4 trillion and everyone was concerned. >> i thought this was what republicans care about. >> there are a few. >> pretty soon you're talking about real money. there are a few people who still care. with us from the appropriations committee, james langford, and member of the judiciary committee and ranking members of the rules committee, amy klobuchar of minnesota. they're out with a new bill that aims to protect america from foreign interference in future elections. as much as i would like to talk about the national debt, you all are actually talking about something more immediate right

now, and that is how do we protect future elections from what happened in 2016 when we see the administration that doesn't care. let me start with senator langford. >> that's what we seem is see is interference in the elections happened during the 2016 time period. the russians were trying to engage. our issue is how do we protect it for the future? states run elections. they should continue to. we have states that can't audit their election system. it took almost a year to contact the states that the russians were trying to get their system. we have to bolster up states to make sure they can audit their systems or we'll run into the same thing again. >> senator klobuchar, everybody seemed to be on notice. the obama administration knew the russians were trying to interfere in the election.

the trump campaign was warned by the fbi in july what the russians were trying to interfere with the election, and yet things moved forward. and now the trump administration is doing nothing to ensure that the russians, the chinese, the north koreans, other foreign powers don't actually interfere with u.s. elections and rob them of their vote in the future. >> exactly. and that's why we join together across the aisle, james and i along with senator harris and senator lindsey graham to put this bill forward that we're doing today, and basically one of the reasons that they didn't give them this information, this is unbelievable, is that the state election heads don't always have the clearance to get warnings about this information. so one of the things we do in the bill is put forth some requirements that they get those security clearances so they're able to share information in addition to a grant program which, by the way, amounts to 3%

of the cost of one aircraft carrier. when you think of our national security with this cyber war that we're seeing, that will allow states to use the money to upgrade their equipment, get back up paper ballots and make things safer for all americans. because, you know, we can talk about this all we want, but if we have a major hack into an election when 42 states haven't upgraded their equipment in ten years, it undermines the very democracy that's the foundation of our country. >> senators, it's willie geist. good to see you both this morning. senator langford, let me ask you about the vulnerabilities of the election system. as you look at what russia did and what's happen right now, if i'm an american voter sitting at home watching, where are we most vulnerable? >> one comment is the answer to joe's question, the administration has done something about it. the department of homeland security has been cooperative in helping with this bill, and

they've also been engaged in working with the states over the last year trying to help them upgrade their systems and to be able to watch out for real vulnerables. the key thing we need to watch for is their equipment auditable. can you run a ballot there and then verify it? if there's someone that hacks into the system, we lose all credibility in that system. they've got to be able to have a backup verification. about 12 states can't do that. quite a few of the other states, their voting machines, they'll upgrade them beforehand. we have to know the supply chain. is it verifiable? are the russians trying to affect the software on the machines before. it's basic systems about upgrades and securities. if states don't do that and haven't done it in a while, you lose trust. the last thing you want is a close election and loss of trust. >> senator klobuchar, russia tampers, but there's been no

evidence that votes have been changed in the election. do you see vulnerability there? >> it did not happen in the last election that our intelligence community has established but we had 21 attempts at hacking state election equipment and our intelligence agencies firmly both under the obama and trump administration have established this. i see it as a vulnerability, or we wouldn't be doing it. the things we said today aren't secret. they know it. it's important we upgrade the subpoe systems and help the states to do it. >> i'm entresinterested in yest. senator warner gave an important speech yesterday on the senate floor in reaction to a lot of activity happening on the house side. seems to be designed to undermine the credibility of the fbi and robert mueller. i'm curious, do you agree with senator warner that there should be a red line around the question of bob mueller and

whether or not he has any moves by the president to try to fire him? >> i do. what's interesting is the white house does as well. they keep saying with the president and everyone else saying we're not going to fire robert mueller. the comments senator warner made were legitimate to say everyone is under the law. but with that, earn should have have equal justice under the law even the president. when someone has bias against president trump, he also deserves equal justice. i've been outspoken to say mueller needs to finish his job and do it well. when he finds members of his team that have a bias, they should be removed. >> but director mueller, to be clear, removed that agent when they found out this information, and so i don't see it as james said himself, as tainting the entire investigation in any way,

and it is incredibly important given all the information we know already from our intelligence agencies that this investigation be allowed to be completed. >> senator klobuchar, i'd love to hear more from you on the issue of sexual harassment. there's been a lot of discussion, debate, about due process, and i'm wondering if you still think al franken's resignation was a good idea, especially given that he was open to an investigation? >> well. i firmly said there should be an investigation the day that the first information came out, and i will say that he, himself, made this decision to resign. it was not an easy decision, and i'm not sure in the mix of all the news and that tax bill yesterday, which i agree with joe, by the way, if it came out he gave a date yesterday of january 2nd, that he will be resigning, i don't think his voice will be quieted. >> do you think his resignation was a good idea? >> i did not publicly call for

his resignation because we are colleagues and we had many talks over that time, and the reasons that he gave for his resignation were reasons that he and i discussed. that was that with all of the mounting allegations but also the senators calling on him to resign, he was put in a place where he felt he couldn't be effective. he made the decision and he's strongly supporting the new senator that's going to come in in january, tina flynn smith. >> and then moving forward, it's behavior we're talking about. we're having a at times fiery but at times honest debate about how we handle these situations. moving forward, do you think due process is where we ought to be focusing on, how to actually make a process that is open to women speaking out but also open to fairness? >> yeah. i really appreciate that you have brought up those two words. i think it's really important that we have due process for

anyone. this isn't about toppling men. this is about safer work environments, and making everyone feel that they can be successful in a work environment. that means due process. it also means graduated penalties so depending on what the conduct is, there's a penalty that matches the conduct, and i think that's something all workplaces have to deal with, not just in the congress. >> absolutely. we're talking a lot about it here. senator lang ford, what do you make of first, al franken's resignation. do you think he should have resigned and where does due process go from here? >> a couple weeks ago, we spoke about it. i believe he should have gone through the ethics investigation. it's a good precedent for any investigation to say once there's allegations, establish the facts and conversation, and then to be able to mete out what's appropriate.

it's important that everyone is heard in the process. senators james langford and amy klobuchar, thank you. we appreciate your candor. >> thank you also for the bipartisan bill. i hope republicans and democrats get on board, because it may be republicans who have elections stolen from them in the future or democrats. it's so critical. >> exactly. it could happen to either side. thank you. still ahead, the president is awake and tweeting this morning saying the massive tax cuts which the fake news media is desperate to write badly about so as to plead their democrat bosses will soon be kicking in and will speak for themselves. >> then why don't you let them speak for themselves? >> he needs to make sure it's sort of like framed his way in a way that's not really truthful. but okay. we're going to bring in nbc's tom brokaw, next on "morning joe."

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this morning politico reports on secret meetings by a group of house republicans focussed on corruption and bias in the upper ranks of the justice department and fbi. led by chairman devin nunez of

california, it is reportedly an effort to build a case that senior leaders improperly and perhaps criminally mishandled the contents of a dossier on alleged ties between trump and russia according to four people familiar with their plans. they say the group is relying on the same documents and testimony provided by top obama administration officials who were grilled as part of the intelligence committee's russia probe. republicans in the group suspect the fbi and doj have worked either to hurt trump or aid his former campaign rival, hillary clinton. they reportedly hope to release a report early next year detailing their concerns. joining us now, ranking member of the house select committee on intelligence, adam schiff of california. good to have you on board. what do you make of those allegations and that effort? >> well, they look all too

accurate. what we've seen over the course of the investigation is with the chairman and some of the other committee members, not a lot of interest in the issues that the committee was established to investigate in terms of russia's interference in our election, the contacts between the russians and the trump campaign, but initially a focus on unmasking as a way of discrediting the obama administration and when nothing was found there, they moved to pivot to this issue to try to tear down christopher steel and bob mueller. these are actions that the white house wants them to take, that steve bannon wants them to take, but are destructive of our administration of justice, and, of course, a major distraction from the russia investigation. >> new reporting from nbc news about the justice department interviewing fbi acts about clint

hillary clinton. doj prosecuters have begun asking investigators to explain the evidence they found into a uranium deal that critics linked to bill and hillary clinton according to multiple law enforcement officials. a senior justice department official said the interviews are part of the effort to fulfill a promise she made to examine whether a counsel is warranted to look into what's known as the uranium one deal. how are we supposed to, adam schi schiff, process these efforts? there's a lot of questions about the clintons that we raised on the show during the campaign that were legit. what do you make of the timing of this? >> i think we have to look at where the uranium one

investigation originated. it originated in the white house. the president tweeted on the eve of the indictments, republicans in congress do something, all in capital letters, and urged them to investigate hillary clinton and then you had the white house intervene with the justice department in violation of policy and say get this uranium investigation started by lifting the gag rule on a particular witness, and so they broke down that barrier between the white house and the justice department. the justice department has unfortunately run with this, and they have all too many members in congress who are also willing to do the president's bidding. that's why we have this now new investigation of hillary clinton. let's not investigate what the russians did. let's not worry about what a violation of the sovereignty that was or what connections there is between the russia and the trump campaign. let's do another hillary clinton investigation. after all, you can never have too many of those. >> it's good to see you this

morning. there's been an effort starting with the white house but also from devin nunez. we saw it last week with the question of rod rosenstein to question the integrity of the fbi and question the integrity of the intel community. do you personally know all you know and what you can share publicly, do you have any questions or doubts about the way bob mueller has carried on his investigation and the pursuit of the investigation? do you worry it's biassed in some way as some people have argued? >> i don't. i have tremendous confidence in bob mueller and his team, and they also have too much confidence in bob mueller and his team. they're too worried about what he may find. to impugn the whole bureau is a way to protect the president. it's such a disservice. you have to wonder where the patriots in congress?

who will stand up for the checks and balances, for the brave men and women working hard to protect us. i've worked with the fbi for over 30 years. they're the most professional of all the law enforcement agencies, and that doesn't mean that every agent does everything perfectly, but there's no indication that the bureau exercised a bias in their handling of this. you can disagree with individual decisions, and i certainly have. chief among them, the decision by the director of the fbi to discuss the clinton investigation and not inform the country of a parallel investigation of the other candidate. i don't think it was politically motivated, and to suggest that bob mueller, a republican appointed by another republican, working with other republicans is somehow biassed against a republican president because of partisan reasons is a disservice and a smear of a dedicated public servant. more broadly, it hurts our

democracy and system of checks and balances. >> challenging times. congressman adam schiff, thank you very much. let's bring in nbc news senior correspondent tom brokaw. tom, he asked the questions where are the patriots in congress as it pertains to those issues. >> i've been careful about separating water gate and what we're going through now. it was a criminal conspiracy. a lot of people want to well, but tonally, this is rem us end. the white house claimed they were irresponsible and politically motivated in what was going on. so the best defense often is a very strong offense. and i think that's what we see going on here. when you watch, for example, congressman jordan the other day saying on the air, the entire country believes there's something terribly wrong here with the fbi and the corrupt

institution at this point. i don't think that's the case. i think most people in america think the fbi is a very strong organization. the agent who exchanged e-mails would turn out to be a girlfriend made a horrendous mistake and got out of there in a hurry. they'll have a hard time in making the case of mueller of a man with no integrity. he has a long distinguished career. >> what are the parallels? i was actually watching i think it was an hbo documentary on ben bradley's life. it was incredible to me seeing some parallels with water gate. i'd rather hear what you think the parallels are? >> i think they're tonal in terms of how the white house responded to assault they were under. i think it's there. when it comes to the crime itself, there was a criminal conspiracy with the active parmgs of the president of the united states. evidence they were paying off

enormous amounts of money to the burglars. his chief of staff was going to jail and others because of their participation. we had congressional hears where the country could make decisions about that. we're not at that stage yet. there are a lot of questions being raised. for example, and i don't think this has anything to do with criminality, but when donald trump says i can't show you my tax returns because they're being audited. just say here they are. they're under audit, and i won't be a beneficiary of the tax plan, or it will be great for me. >> i think he will be a beneficiary. >> that's the point. here's history. people forget ronald reagan fought hard to have a big tax cut. he pushed back against a lot of people. a year later they had to raise taxes because the deficit was

going up. the deficit was $45 billion. it was a big issue in the republican party. now the republicans on the hill and in the executive branch are saying deficits? it's fine. nothing for fine, nothing for us to worry about. a number of people that i've talked to who are no longer in power in the republican party, but have a long history of participating in these kind of decisions say tax reform we needed, not just going in and slashing and burning in a hurry to get something on the books before we get out of it. so i do think that you've got to look at the history and what has happened. look what they did in kansas? they cut taxes and had to go back. they went broke in the state. it doesn't mean that we don't need to have tax reduction in a lot of areas, but the way they were done in a hurry here seems to me to be antithetical to any good business operation, to say nothing of a political

operation. let me make one other point which has president gotten enough attention. they are having success with the caliphate and isis. that hasn't gotten enough attention. they have brought that down in iraq and syria. >> back to the question about mueller. if you had asked people six months ago do you listen to republicans, people said if donald trump ever tried to fire bob mueller, it would provoke a constitutional crisis. now you have house republicans sounding like they might be open to it, in fact, might applaud if trump were to fire bob mueller. play this out. if trump were to go and fire mueller, at this point would the republican party join together with the democratic party and say, hey, hold on, you can't do that, or would we be in a situation where we'd be in unchartered waters. >> john, it's very hard to predict what either party would do under any circumstance these

days because there's very little history. i would say the fbi in the judgment of most people in this country is still one of our most valued institutions and mueller's reputation across the board has an enormous amount of integrity. >> the president just tweeted, tom, was "fox & friends" just named the most influential show in news. you deserve it, three great people. the many fake news hate shows could study your formula for success. tom? >> well, he watches fox news because it reenforces what he believes. fox news, after shepard smith in the late afternoon is on a jihad right now on the whole question about whether there's a fairness about this or not, the transfer of uranium, for example, to iran. schepp smith has gone into some detail to say it didn't happen. she didn't have the authority to do that. that ends at 4:30 or 5:00, whenever he gets off the air. from then on, the whole assault

is on the institutions. newt gingrich -- >> through fox? >> newt gingrich looking in the camera and saying the fbi is a corrupt organization. three months earlier he said bob mueller is one of the great kwishd public servants we had. so we're at war here and it's going to be sorted out in the final analysis. >> tom brokaw, thank you very much. great to have you on this morning. still ahead, we'll bring in members of the senate budget committee. republican bob corker and democrat chris van hollen. their very differing tax on the gop tax plan. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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it it will be an incredible christmas gift for hard working americans. i said i wanted to have it done before christmas. we got it done. >> do you think the tax bill will help republicans win the house? >> let them think that.

[ laughter ]. >> both democrats and republicans say they're excited to run in 2018 on the gop tax plan. which party is right about that? plus republicans lavish praise on the president. "morning joe" is coming right back. i ponder the deep questions, like which came first, the egg? or the chicken? how would i know? but i do know that first, qualcomm connected the phone to the internet. and now, everyone is posting and scrolling and sharing everything. yessir. qualcomm invents, then the world innovates on top of their breakthroughs. invention comes first. and a whole lot of it starts at qualcomm.

at bp, everyone on an offshore rig depends on one another. that's why entire teams train together in simulators, to know exactly what to do before they have to do it. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. mr. president, i have to say that you're living up to every -- everything i thought you would. >> exquisite presidential leadership. mr. president, thank you.

>> you're one heck of a leader. >> president donald trump delivered. >> we would not be standing here today if it wasn't for you. >> this president hasn't even been in office for a year. >> this has been a year of extraordinary accomplishment for the trump administration. >> look at all the things he's been able to get done. >> president trump has been making history since the first day of this administration. >> this is one of the great privileges of my liech, to stand here on the white house lawn with the president of the united states who i love and appreciate so much. >> thank you for your love for this country. >> and we're going to make this the greatest presidency that we've seen, not only in generations, but maybe ever. >> paul ryan just said "how good was that?" >> well, define good. maybe good for erdogan or putin. >> or trump. >> i do think, mika, that most ought kratz, and i'm really

serious -- most autocrats across the world would be embarrassed to have so many people fawning over them in public like that. and you looked at what mike pence said in the cabinet room, also, and i'm really serious here. you wonder -- of course, it was such a gross display that, of course, donald trump, as donald trump always does, gets in his way of a successful day for the republican party and for himself, and for the biggest corporations in the world. >> but he didn't force all those people to say that. my god. >> yeah, they knew that, just like the saudis and just like foreign leaders know, the price of admission is sucking up and treating him like he's the most insecure autocrat on the globe. i wonder what man -- what man of any character would sit and listen to that without

stopping -- stop, stop, being embarrassed. and then, of course, the question especially for mike pence is what man with any dignity would do the sort of thing that these people did yesterday. take a listen to this, mika. this is mike pence. >> mike, you'd like to say a few words. >> i know i speak on behalf of the entire cabinet and millions of americans when i say congratulations and thank you. thank you -- you have spurred an optimism in this country that's setting records. mostly, mr. president, i'll end where i began, i want to thank you, mr. president. i want to thank you. i want to thank you, mr. president. god bless you. >> clearly unspeakable. no president in american history would sit and listen to that, and this is, of course -- we're going to get to the news in a second. but what does that say about donald trump and what he thinks

the presidency is about? it is -- again, it's so autocratic. >> well, those people we just heard from including the vice president of the united states know exactly what the president wants to hear, which is that he's responsible for this, he's great. it's the same thing the saudis knew when they projected his face on the side of the hotel when he arrived. he responds and is flattered by that kind of praise. it goes on a day ha is a major ones in a generation achievement for the republican party, that tax reform. the way they celebrated it yesterday was unlike anything i've seen before. >> analyst for msnbc news john heilemann. john? >> it's like a cult of personality. at least they waited until the bill was passed this time rather than doing it part way through like with the health care bill when they celebrated just the house passage.

it's not just -- the president likes to be praised. people obviously know he likes to be praised. i find it strange in the context that these are all -- these are politicians that have seen a lot. the guys have been in national life for a long time and they're fully aware of the larger political context. to praise the bill, to praise this as a giant accomplishment, to say all those things, but to sit there opposite a president with 35% approval rating who has an extensional crisis on his hands to know how embattled he's been, how polarized he's been, knowing what could lie ahead, it's odd to me they would want to be on video for all eternity saying those things about a president who could -- i'm not saying he will, but who he is facing severe challenges over the course of the next few weeks and months. i don't understand that. >> how would you say that, mika, to a president who has already on the record, one of the

greatest of all time? how do you say that about a president who has already po posed banning 1.5 billion people from this country because of the god they worship, denying the existence of the kkk and david duke before super tuesday, making a racist attack against an american judge because his parents came from mexico, making an attack against a gold star family who gave their ultimate sacrifice by giving their son in combat. you could go on and on. charlottesville, a president that for gave white supremacy and tried to paint it all in terms of moral relativism. over and over again, that is who these republicans are praising. >> you can say it's great they got something done. >> you can say it's going to get the kme kick started, but to say he is one of the greatest presidents ever and to do what they did, it's unspeakable. >> well, if you can't see all

the things that joe listed there actually happening before your eyes, to see something wrong, i wish you could have heard madeleine albright a year and a half ago during the campaign when she stopped me on the street in georgetown and literally put her finger in my face and talked about the danger of trump, someone who would know, someone who grew up in the throes of something like this in its full form, or you could have heard my father on his death bed talking about the dangers of our strategic alliances and everything breaking down and crumbling because that actually -- i know this isn't fun morning fodder, isn't fun to wake up to something like this, but this is the reality. also with us, former white house press secretary to president obama, now a political analyst for nbc news and msnbc josh earnest. also with us, republican strategist and political commentator susan del percio and nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "casey

d.c." on msnbc, kasie hunt. >> there are moments when you do have to stop, sue an and say, remind viewers and americans and people who love this republic, this is not normal. this is a personality consult. this is a very small step in a much larger direction that this constitutional republic is heading that is so dangerous, we have to remind people. >> we do. what's also interesting, if you notice in that press conference, he did not show any respect to those other folks. called everyone by their name, mike, this one, that one, get them by their first names. i think that's because he knows he has to be called president. it goes to the ought to being see that he thrives on. what's so surprising is to see

these republican lawmakers embrace it and to heilemann's point, they have to -- the leadership numbers for trump on this economy are actually better than his approval ratings for himself. when asking about the president, he said around 35%, 40%. when it comes to handling the economy, he's around 50. so that's what they should be embracing, the tax reform, stock market, et cetera. but they are going down a really slippery path because i don't know how orrin hatch, for everything he's seen, went there and said what he did was just -- it was actually heartbreaking to see. >> horrible stain on his legacy. >> that is a stain on his legacy and will forever be a stain on his legacy. if you don't believe me, let's watch this tape two years from now. josh. >> you're right. here's the thing, republicans made this bargain more than a year ago, they knew what was going to be required. they knew all of the offensive, outrageous, incompetent things they would have to overlook in

order to get this tax bill passed. so it's not particularly surprising to me that after making this deal, that they made good on it in the end by praising president trump. here is the other difference between president trump and every president that has come before him. every president ha has come before them, used that platform as a position of national service. president trump doesn't view the responsibility he has to serve the country. he views it as an opportunity to make himself look good. all the members of congress and members of the staff know it's not ability appealing to what's best for the country, it's about appealing to what's best for him. >> let's not wake up every day like every day is a magical new day and pretend like we're a character out of momento and we don't remember everything that happened before. i saw a picture yesterday of "the daily news," the day paul

ryan came out and endorsed donald trump. the headline was "i'm with the racist." this was, again, after donald trump pretended like he didn't know who david duke was, would not condemn the ku klux klan the sunday before super tuesday, tried to ban 1.5 billion people from coming because of their faith. on and on and on and on. so, yes, they knew exactly what they were getting into and why they're doing an even deeper dive now is beyond me. why don't we talk about the tax bill. it is good news for republicans. >> it was the celebration they've been waiting for, unlike the rose garden celebration when the house passed an obamacare repeal but the senate couldn't follow suit. so it was kind of premature, yesterday republicans enjoyed the passage of their tax bill by both chambers. the president enjoyed the moment. >> it's been an amazing experience, i have to tell you.

hasn't been done in 34 years, but actually really hasn't been done because we broke every record. it's the largest -- i always san jose the most massive, the largest tax cut in the history of our country and reform, but tax cut. really something special. [ applause ] >> technically that's not accurate. >> that's actually a lie. but craig shirley was talking about it yesterday. john kennedy was bigger in '64, reagan's was bigger in '81. it's what donald trump does, he lies. he kapcan't just say, hey, we passed the biggest tax cut since ronald reagan. he's got to lie. again taking something which would be a good day and just mucking it up. >> he's undeterred by the fact that that's not true. >> the fact that he lies over and over again and lies without seizing, and even in high moments he can't just take the victory, he has to lie about the

victory and sully it. >> kasie hunt, this obviously is a crowning achievement for paul ryan, for mitch mcconnell, something they've long sought. to josh's point earlier every time one of these stories came up, whether it was charlottesville or a tweet about kerstin gillibrand or a tweet about mika, why won't you come out against the president? they're going to hang in with them until they get tax reform. they got it yesterday. what's the vibe, what's the mood on capitol hill this morning? >> reporter: they did get it yesterday. i think part of why you saw what you saw yesterday, and i was right there with joe in being kind of stunned to hear paul ryan calling the president exquisite, exquisite presidential leadership. >> oh, god, paul. >> what's up with him? >> go home, go back to wisconsin. >> it's painful. >> save your dignity. you have children. >> let's not. when you say that to a man, will it become a screaming headline?

>> i hope it does. >> when i said that about a woman it was like i was attacking a woman and it was unusual. curious how people think. >> you don't call somebody who is a racist, who says what he said after charlottesville, who tweets white supremacist videos out of great britain, inspired from a party that actually inspired an assassin to kill a member of parliament, those are not the people you call exquisite. go ahead, caskasie. >> reporter: paul ryan is thrilled. the mood on capitol hill among republicans is one of jubilation around this. i would say, they've learned a lot about how to manage this president and they've learned if you go out in public or go on television and say something negative, he's going to see it and it's going to come around and bite you if you try to go have a private meeting with the president and want to get something done. >> that sounds like an autocrat.

>> i'm struck by the degree to which it was obvious yesterday they absorbed this lesson. >> still ahead on "morning joe," senator bob corker called the gop tax bill a once-in-a-generation tax holiday. >> senator chris van hollen with a very different opinion. we'll hear from them men "morning joe" continues. stay with us. our bond is fraying. how do we get back to "us"? the y fills the gaps. and bridges our divides. donate to your local y today. because where there's a y, there's an us. a trip back to the dthe doctor's office, mean just for a shot. but why go back there, when you can stay home

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i sard very specific lip use the word tax cuts. for 34 years they've been trying to do this and they haven't and they used the word reform. well, there is reform, but i said we're going to be talking about tax cuts. our plan also lowers the tax on american business from 35% all the way down to 21%. that's probably the biggest factor in this plan. ♪

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the average american will get a tax cut in the first couple years of this bill of a little over $1,000, maybe $1500, $1600. if they know in the end their taxes will go up a decade from now and there will be big cuts to medicare and medicaid coming, i don't think most americans will be happy with that deal. >> that's democrat senator chris coons yesterday admitting americans will get a tax cut in the first few years under the new tax bill. if that does happen, how will democrats campaign against it in the midterms next year. with us is member of the appropriations and budget committees, democratic senator chris van hollen of maryland. it's good to see you. i know you're opposed to the bill, voted against it in the senate. what do you make of cutting the corporate tax rate down to 21% will spur businesses to invest, spur businesses to hire. in fact, the white house and republicans will point you to companies like at&t, boeing and comcast, our parent company here, as having already done so in reaction to that bill? >> well, a couple things.

we know trickle down economics doesn't work. we tried it with the bush tax cuts. the only thing that went up with paychecks of the very, very wealthy and the national debt. the reality is what republicans promised repeatedly with respect to their latest version of trickle down, is that workers would get a $4,000 pay increase, permanent pay increase. so over a ten-year period that would be $40,000. we're going to be asking every six months whether people got their $4,000 annual raise throughout this period. it's not coming. i'm afraid to report, in fact, the democrats offered an amendment during this process that would have assured that that money from the corporate tax cut went down to workers on a regular basis. republicans said no. at the same time, millions and millions of middle class americans will see a tax increase in the coming year, and that's to pay for this gigantic

corporate tax cut. by the way, we also add over a trillion dollars to the national debt which comes to $1,000500 a year for every income ptax payig household in america. >> we can talk about at&t with a pending deal. that might be a strategic move. how do you respond to companies who say because of what passed yesterday, they're investing back, will hire people, invest more money. are those all pr stunts? >> i think they are doing it as a pr stunt because the question will be -- these are one-time bonuses. that's not what was promised. what was promised was a $4,000 a year pay increase into the base. that is why you see union members going to these corporations and saying, look, thanks for the one-time bonus, but that is not what was promised as part of this tax cut.

at the same time you see those one-time bonuses. in the last couple weeks you see reported $87 billion in stock buyback. that's money going to the shareholde shareholders. i want to remind people that 35% of those stockholders are foreign stockholders. so in the year 2019 $48 billion is going to go into the pockets of foreign stockholders coming out of the pockets of mid euns of middle class taxpayers. that is not america first. people are on to this. and the more they see it, the more they'll hate it. >> senator, john heilemann here. i want to ask you about health care. as you noted, as everybody noted yesterday, president trump threw in, by the way, we got rid of the affordable care act. not exactly true. they did get rid of the individual mandate. i want to ask you two related questions. one, what are going to be the short-term immediate effects of getting rid of the individual mandate in terms of health care in america? second and relatedly, you've got

the chip program which also is expired. i believe, according to some forecasts, we're going to start seeing thousands of people losing their insurance on january 1st. talk about the immediate health care effects of those two combined elements of what's happened over the last few days. >> both very bad news for health care in america. getting rid of the individual mandate which says we're all in this pool together so we don't have what republicans used to not want to have, people getting health care for free, or showing up at the emergency room and having it go into higher premiums for everyone else. what that will mean, the people in those exchanges will have paid 10% more in the premiums which have been going up because of other things the trump administration has done. according to the non-partisan congressional budget office, you'll have 13 million fewer americans with affordable health care at the end of the story

he here. regarding the children's health care program, you're right, the authorization expired in november. we need to address that issue. we should not have been taking care of all these big corporations at a time when children's health insurance is expiring, community health centers are runny out of money and other priorities we've got. >> senator, susan del percio. we heard from the democratic side this is the worst possible tax bill ever. we know democrats did support some of the things in there. specifically what would it take to get you on board, what weren't the republicans able to offer you and what would you take out specifically? >> first of all, we don't think a middle class tax cut should raise taxes on anybody in the middle class. this will raise taxes on millions of middle tax households across the country. we don't think there should be a

windfall corporate tax break. we've supported reform done in a way to make sure some companies don't pay the full freight and other companies pay zero. lots of ways to address that wut this big corporate giveaway. >> like what? >> for example, you get rid of some of the tax loopholes in the corporate tax code and do it in a revenue neutral way. the obama administration put a number of things on the table very reasonable when it came to corporate tax reform. we don't think we should provide a big tax windfall to the very wealthy in this country. millionaires under this trump plan will get an average annual tax cut of $70,000. at the same time we're piling on another trillion dollars of debt to american households throughout the country. that doesn't make sense. so our view was let's have a bottom-up, middle class up proposal, not a trickle down proposal. this is all about trickle down.

the reality is every time we've tried this, what happens is the folks at the very top essentially pocket almost all the money. other people get a little bit. of course, under this plan, even those who get a little bit, it's temporary. goes away at the end of the day while the corporate tax breaks are forever. >> senator van hollen, josh earnest here. in less than 48 hours, both the house and senate have to pass funding bills to keep the government open they'll need democratic votes to keep it open. what are democrats insisting on to support this bill? >> my view is we should stay here and get our work done. we spent two weeks on a bill that is a big corporate tax giveaway, will benefit the biggest corporations and the wealthiest americans. we should deal on a permanent basis with the children's health insurance program. i don't see why people have to go week to week worrying about

losing health care. we should also deal with the issue of d.r.e.a.m.ers who president trump has then threatened to deport. we should stay here and get it done, not have wasted the last two weeks on a bill that the american people don't like and they're going to really hate it when they see their household debt going up. the alternative is republicans coming back next year cutting medicaid, medicare and social security because they'll rediscover the fact that they added trillions to the debt. >> senator chris val hollen, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> up next, one of senator van hollens on the budget committee, republican senator bob corker joins us. we'll take a first look at the a.p.'s top ten stories of 2017. "morning joe" will be right back.

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people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse. they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters.

let's go back to capitol hill and talk to the chairman of the foreign relations committee and member of the budget committee, bob corker of tennessee. much to talk about with this tax bill. let me begin with your name being knocked around in the news. people suggesting you got a kickback -- the corker kickback, it has a ring to it. what's your response? >> joe, i had absolutely nothing to do with any clause whatsoever in this bill. it's been totally debunked. i didn't even know the provision was in the bill. i went through a thorough tick tock on thursday with republican leadership to talk about the differences between the house and senate bill. as you know, senate passes a bill, house passes a bill, it gets conferenced, and they went through the all the details, did not mention this one. we talked about the 21% corporate rate, the 37% top

individual rate. on friday morning after talking to people all over the country and economic development people in our state, i decided to support the bill. i get a call from a reporter on saturday night who makes me aware of this provision, knows i know nothing about it and then proceeds to act as if this had something to do with my vote. i got to tell you, joe, i've had a healthy respect for the media. i have not liked the tearing down of the media. i have people i work with every day. i have to tell you, i have a little bit of empathy now for what the white house deals with. i'm sorry, this has been totally, totally torn down as a fact and yet people that i respect are still repeating it. it's part of being here. >> i was going to say, when we first heard about it, we

suggested that maybe somebody had set you up or slipped it in there and then leaked to the press. did that happen? >> no. >> how did this provision get in the bill? >> as you can imagine, i've done a lot of due diligence to find out. it was in the house bill. it's been in there since the 1st of november. this is something kevin brady and others have been pushing for. when they merged the bills together as related to pass-throughs, this came in. it was not air dropped. this is part of the house language all the time. i will say, joe, and i'm probably going to catch a lot of flak, i do think that pass-throughs are being dealt with in a very generous way. my sense is over time adjustments will be made. they've lobbied heavily for provisions, i'm sure real estate community, manufacturers and others that are pass-throughs,

there's some generous language in here throughout relative to them. my sense is over time some adjustments are going to need to be made. >> senator, it's willie geist. the question is why did you decide to support the bill, if not for that kickback. your concern when you didn't vote for it the first time was on deficits. you stuck to your guns on that. not much changed between that first vote and the second with regard to deficits. how did you come around to vote for it? >> so look, i lost on the senate floor, right? >> i did everything i could to attempt to deal with what might have been shortfalls. i still had hope that we might end up doing something in a bipartisan way. i was working with many of the people that have been on your program talking to the white house about the same, trying to figure out ways, as we moved along, to deal with what is -- let's face it, on a $43 trillion base over the next ten years, based on the dynamic scores and current policy, there is a great

possibility of a $500 billion gap. so i spent the week i made the decision on the phone with people all across our state, chambers of commerce, economic development recruiters, people you have on your program, luminaries across the country involved in investment on both sides of the aisle. as a matter of fact, a democratic lumme air probably had the most impact on me and finally decided, look, for our corporations to be competitive internationally, for us to really do the things on the business side that can cause us to be competitive for the longer haul, is our country better off or not having this piece of legislation. i decided it was. >> your concerns, senator, about the deficit remain. >> they do remain. they do remain. obviously there are projections that say this can be overcome. i will say we have a lot of

momentum right now as it relates to economic growth. if we can convince the president that maybe some of the trade policies he's been looking at are not in our country's best interest, we can end up with a better immigration balance in our country. i think we are in a place where growth for our country is tantamount, and i believe it's a good piece -- we're better off with this legislation than not having it. that's why i voted for it. >> we know you to be a practical man. you've been a businessman in your past life to look at balance sheets. can you look in the camera and say the economy is going to grow much to cover that $1.5 trillion bottom you've created in the deficit? >> willie, let me go to the 1.5 number. the number is actually about $500 billion when you look at current policy which is the same baseline that bowl simpson used when they were doing their work

then you add the joint tax dynamic growth of $480 billion. the actual gap is about 1.2%. these are all done through modeling. i guess at the end of the day i was willing to take the risk that keeping our companies from doing inversions and going to other countries, making them competitive internationally, to me it was worth the risk, and i think there's a good chance we can overcome that. but i think the growth aspect was the determining factor to me. >> senator, john heilemann here, i want to ask you a question on a different topic which relates to bob mueller. yesterday senator warner got on the floor and gave an impassioned speech to say we have to have a red line drawn around bob mueller, if donald trump tries to fire him, we have to push back on that. i want to ask you personally what your reaction would be if the president tried to or did fire the special prosecutor or what you think senate

republicans more broadly would say if they were to happen? >> john, i think there would be an uprising and revolt. i think that's beyond the pale. i don't think it's being considered. i get no indication from the white house that this is something they're even thinking about. there would be an uprising. that would be something that would not be tolerated, period. >> what would you do? >> i don't know. i don't know what would happen at that juncture, but i think all of us have sent strong, strong signals to the white house just like i'm doing right now that that would be a totally unacceptable move to make. i know the house republicans seem to be agitated more that way. i don't know of anybody here in the senate -- i'm unaware of anybody, not a single person in the senate that believes that is a move that should be tolerated. >> do you find it troubling, i'm curious what your reaction is to see republicans on the house intelligence committee, the house judiciary committee

attacking bob mueller and attacking the credibility of the fbi in pretty heated terms. what's your reaction to that? >> john, you've covered us for years. the house is a little bit different body. it acts in a little bit more partisan manner. joe can attest to that. >> hell, yeah. >> you've got two different bodies. that's not something that would be tolerated on the senate side. i don't think it's -- i see no possibility of that happening. i hope i'm not back on this program in six months -- >> senator corker, josh earnest here. there's another way your name is being bandied about, some speculation you're on the short list to replace secretary tillerson at the state department. is that a rumor you can rule out given the exchange you've had with the president over the last couple months? would you accept an appointment

as secretary of state? >> secretary tillerson, i was with him two days ago, was going to have breakfast with him yesterday until we had the late vote we had, i canceled about 1:30 in the morning. but, look, he's not going anywhere currently. i sense a little bit of a reprieve there, if you will. i'm his biggest fan, i think you know. certainly he has not been perfect and has not handled the reforms at the state department in a great way. he's had other issues just dealing with the public. he's sound in his judgment, and i appreciate the team that he and mattis and mcmaster and kelly are in dealing with our foreign policy issues. again, there's no indication to me that something is on the brink. i talk to him in a very close and personal way. >> susan? >> senator, susan del percio. we hear a lot from reasonable, sensible republicans like

yourself that they want to see bipartisan efforts. >> right. >> is it that the democrats are too afraid to even get linkedin as we're heading into an election year with anything on the trump agenda, or are republicans just being a little too unrealistic in putting them and the democrats in too much of a difficult situation? >> look, the front -- everybody has made mistakes on this tax bill. i wish i negotiated a narrower deal on the front end as it relates to the headroom given in the senate on the budget side. i'll be honest, i wish i could have pushed for something even tighter. the democrats made a mistake by sending a letter on the front end to mitch mcconnell telling him what their demands were. all but three senators signed it. that was a mistake. it kind of gave an indication that, hey, we're not really on board. i will say, and the reason i voted no on the senate bill as it came through, there were 10 or 12 democrats who i think were

more than willing to come aboard. that is one of the reasons i voted no. i was talking with them for the next three or four days. i called the white house on sunday morning after the friday night vote. i don't know if you remember the president said something on a saturday night about, well, maybe the corporate rate could go to 21% or 22%. when i saw that in "the washington post" the next day, i called him that morning and shared with him that i really did believe that there were ten or 12 democrats, i won't mention their names to impugn them on your program, that with just a few changes could have come on to the bill. so i think this whole process could have been much, much better for our country. what i tried to sell at the white house and then followed back up the next tuesday was to say, look, if we could do this -- if you all would just sit down and talk with them for an hour and we could bring on 10 or 12, maybe 15 democrats, then we've got something that will stand the test of time.

i think that there was just a concern with dealing with house republicans and all that was happening that, if those discussions began, it would upset all that was happening. but no, i think we've got possibly -- we'll do some on department of defense frank reforms in a bipartisan way. i'm still working with mark warner on gse reform. everything we do, everything in the foreign relations committee starts in a bipartisan way. there's more happening that's good than you think. >> senator bob corker, thank you very much for coming on the show. have a good holiday. >> thank you so much. >> did you see that disney hall of presidents? >> no. >> we've got to get video on the show of the hall of presidents. donald trump is in the hall of presidents. you won't believe what happens next. >> i'm scared. it's creepy. >> an extraordinary rendering. >> the ap is out this morning -- >> biggest stories coming up

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fascinating about number ten, what would we do is if we were fighting a war with iraqi soldiers and it just sort of went away? years ago, islamic state was our number one story. now it's slid -- not quite out of sight but down to number ten. maybe that's a good sign that there's victory at hand. but i also think so many other things this year that kind of pulled people's attention away from that region. >> seven, obamacare. number six might be surprising to some in the white house down that low, the trump/russia probe. >> i was thinking that's been a great story.

we'll have to wait until next year to see how it comes out. >> that's a long process. >> we have number 5, north korea. obviously, we have been perched, if you talked to military officials working in the administration, they have suggested for six months we may be on the precipice of the war on the korean peninsula. >> that story at times seemed to be almost something out of dr. strangelove, the insults back and forth. and yet it's not funny. the potential is there for some kind of horrible military apocalypse, so it's a strange story. >> number four is the hurricane onslaught, harvey and maria, stories that linger because of puerto rico still being without power and clean drinking water and the administration, you know, according to its critics taking its eye off a major problem with american citizens. >> i think in any one of those storms might have made that top ten list by themselves. you put the three together in a

staggering. >> and the las vegas shooting. the follow-up on that has been curious. a lot of mysteries. we still, i don't think, have a straight answer about that security guard. exactly when he called it in. did he escape the country? is there a connection? what's happened on that story? >> all the attention that's been focused on that gunman, the 65-year-old gambler, and still no firm explanation of what caused him to do this. so the degree of carnage and the mystery makes it sort of different in an eerie way. you knew why they were doing it. >> as quickly as we find out about motive, you go to facebook, twitter -- >> you get so much information. >> we're months out and it's still not clear. >> and the lack of clarity is giving birth to a lot of conspiracy theories. >> it's like this guy never

existed. how do you go -- how does anybody in 2017 go through six decades prior and leave -- >> -- calls it bad blood. >> who is a wealthy man. has had success in life. it's not -- the interesting thing, people are starting to freak out about the fact that they don't know more about him. >> and the security guard as well. what's the story there? >> number two is an entire year. >> well, that was tough for us because there was no -- >> trump's first year? >> there was no question that the president was the most omnipresent person in the news, but was he the top story, did we break him down into sub topics or did we just put his whole year together? do we want the whole year or the sub topic? it was tricky. >> all right. and number one, sexual misconduct. >> yes. >> so how would you characterize where that story -- how would you describe what that story is? >> well, i mean, i've been in

the news for a while. i can't remember anything equivalent to this where stories started out whether it's bill cosby or the fox news people, harvey weinstein. and then it never stopped. every day it seemed. or every week. where are all these shoes coming from? they're still dropping. and it's not ended yet. it's going to keep going. >> do you think it was because it was in media or the entertainment or perhaps because it left a sitting senator, u.s. senator, having to resign? >> i think that the thing that's driving it is the number of women who feel emboldened to speak up, who hasn't before, and there's this ripple effect where these other women said, i should have the courage to do the same thing. it keeps going. >> it was, you know, it existed for quite some time at the very highest levels. >> 1967, the summer of love, and the message was free love. and there was a sexual revolution that came out of that. 50 years later, you're actually seeing many on the left and some

on the right are now pulling back and saying hold on, we're going to have to renegotiate some things about relationships. >> it's amazing. >> yes. >> the ap's top ten stories of 2017 is out this morning. david, thank you very much. >> ufos, not the top ten. >> that does it for us this morning. chris jansing picks up the coverage right now. chris. >> joe and mika, thank you, good morning. i am chris jansing in for stephanie ruhle. there is a lot going on so let's get right to it. republicans rejoice. the president prepares to sign tax reform into law and gop lawmakers praise him repeatedly for his first legislative victory in this trump administration. >> president donald trump delivered. >> heck of a leader. >> extraordinary accomplishment. >> but now republicans face a new hurdle, avoiding a government shutdown and the clock is ticking. warning. the top democratic on the senate intelligence committee wni