that's all for this edition of "dateline". i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning from msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's 7:00 here in the east, 4:00 a.m. out west. welcome everyone to "weekends with alex witt". new questions about why robert mueller is now pushing back on an explosive report about michael cohen. shutdown day 29. democrats make an offer. is it something the president can't refuse? twitter tease. what to make of the president promising a major announcement about the southern border eight hours from now. ready to march. protests planned across the country amid new controversy. but first up this morning, we have breaking news on two big stories involving the white

house. one the president expected to make a statement on that shutdown at 3:00 p.m. today. the second one involving the special counsel's office and a report about the president. in a rare move robert mueller's office disputing an explosive story from buzz feed. the report stated president trump directed his former lawyer michael cohen to lie to congress about negotiations to build a trump tower in moscow. the special counsel's office put out this response. quote, buzz feed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding michael cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate. the statement may allude in part that buzz feed learned about the alleged directive through interviews from multiple witnesses, text messages and a cache of documents.

buzz feed urged mueller to clarify what he's disputing about the report. >> we describe our sources here as federal law enforcement officials involved in the investigation of the matter of the trump tower moscow and we're not playing games with that characterization. these are strong sources close to the investigation. they are involved in the investigation who we spoke to after the publication of the story as well as before and who told us it was accurate. obviously the special counsel prefers to control the timeline and for reasonable reasons wants to operate on his own timeline and without revealing a lot of details. we went to them 24 hours ago and they declined to comment. >> the president's attorney dismissing the buzz feed report as categorically false. president trump criticizes buzz feed and tweeting fake news is truly the enemy of the people. joining me now msnbc legal analyst. let's get right into this. first i want to read that

statement again. buzz feed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office regarding michael cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate. what are they disputing here? do you sense it's the whole report that's inaccurate? >> first you have to look at how this statement is created. carr and the special counsel's office don't issue statements the way the president tweets. you can guarantee this statement was poured over by multiple, multiple eyes. it was approved. sent up the "chain of command". so every word has significance. and the words that i focus on are the words like "specific." these specific statements are not accurate. on one hand they may just be disputing the specific angle of the story, but on the other hand it's so exceedingly rare for

this office to issue any kind of statement you can infer they must have completely disagreed with the entire story, even though the use of certain words like "specific statements" leaves a little bit of wiggle room. >> the fact that this took 24 hours or so to get this statement out there, does it mean that they are pouring over every syllable on how to do this and does it tell you where the investigation stands? >> absolutely. consider everything that had to be made. they had to review the article. consult all the folks on the mueller team working on the investigation. decide we dispute this story and then, again, check with the "chain of command" in drafting a statement and then releasing a statement. the fact that it only took a day is remarkably quick given how much review is done before a statement like this is issued by the office of special counsel.

>> think about this. this seems to be unprecedented, right? what does this say about this particular report versus past reports when mueller's office has stayed quiet? >> that's exactly it. i mean there's the actual wording of the statement, but if you take a step back, the mere fact that there has been no other statement quite like this leads one to believe that they must have really disagreed with this story. so much so that they made this really difficult decision of breaking their silence, which has been a rule for the mueller team up until now. so to have enough reason to issue a statement, we really can infer that they must have completely disagreed. on the other hand, the wording of the statement using words like "specific" or characterization of actual documents and communications, you could draw from that that there is some truth to the buzz

feed story but the special counsel's office is not being specific itself about what it disputes. so this story is not over not by a long shot. >> but, danny, can you infer then that previous stories out there about the mueller investigation, they will take as being truthful or is it just that this particular one in their mind was so egregious that they needed to address this one. >> you hit right on the issue. no. all of the prior stories -- there's intono tacit approval oe special counsel's office of approval of those special stories. their policy is we ignore the noise, we do our job, we continue on the mission. that's why this statement is so curious and we will study it in the coming days justify as we studied the buzz feed story that exploded just recently.

we will study this statement by mueller's team to see what exactly we can divine from it. >> all right, danny, thank you so much. also breaking this morning potential signs of progress on this day 29 of the government shutdown. the president is slated to make an announcement at 3:00 p.m. from the white house today while one report suggests congressional democrats are upping their offer for border security in a new spending bill. joining me now from capitol hill, mike. sort this all out for us. first up, do you know what the president is expected to say at 3:00 p.m.? >> we know more what we're expected not to say. he's not expected to do what many have expected over the last several weeks. they consider it the easy way out. that's to declare a national emergency. thus far we don't expect the president to take that step, though, obviously, what we've leaned over the past two years and last couple of weeks is we

should not assume anything when it comes to what's going to happen next in terms of this government shutdown and in terms of what's coming out of the white house. alex, we often talk about a rare presidential speech on saturday or a rare saturday session of senate. rare is commonplace now. the senate will be in session. the senator, the democratic senator from virginia, a lot of federal employees in virginia and washington suburbs, tim kaine will be bringing the senate in. he'll make a speech on the senate floor. he keeps asking for what's called unanimous consent to bring up bills that were passed by the house that would re-open the government even a short term, a continuing resolution to fund those seven appropriations bills, those spending bills that have not been signed by the president, that have led to this partial government shutdown. he's not expected to be successful, so ate show on the part of this democratic senator tim kaine. anyway those who are out of work, the 800,000 federal workers directly impacted, those working without pay, of course,

and umpteen federal workers, any sign is good. everybody is going to be watching what the president has to say and whether there's any movement in the senate or house of representatives. >> listening to what you got to say about everything going on behind you. joining me now, julia manchester reporter for the hill, chief correspondent with bloomberg tv and abigail tracy writer for "vanity fair". ahead of the presidents shutdown announcement at 3:00 p.m. there's one report that says he's planning to make democrats a new offer to end the shutdown, but not expected to back down from his demand for a border wall and then you hear mike say he's not expected to declare a national emergency. do you think it's a legit offer or is the president trying to take control of the narrative. >> no. from democrats perspective they won't see this as much of a major break through. this comes at a time in which

republicans are starting to pressure this administration, according to sources that i talked to up on capitol hill to try to get this, it's some type of ending. the past 72 hours have been dominated by this back and forth, alex, between speaker pelosi and president trump. at times it's been humorous but it's no laughing matter this is now about a week and a half out until the president's state of the union address and no major break through right now in terms of these negotiations. >> so julia, house democrats who are contemplating voting to include more than a billion dollars on. border security spending, but that does no include money for the wall. what's the likelihood the president accepts that offer there's no funding for the wall. what's the point? >> i think at this point there's a low likelihood the president accept that offer. he has throughout the past couple of weeks been very loyal to his base saying i want $5.7

billion. we heard that. even when those around him in the white house, when mick mulvaney offered going less, the president publicly went after him in a meeting. so, you know, i don't see the president moving anywhere on this. however, from a public relations standpoint, you know, this done look very good for the president at this point. we're seeing a majority of americans in various polls are blaming him for the shutdown. i think democrats are very smart to potentially be thinking about making this offer because it makes them seem like they are willing to play in this deal. this major announcement, very interesting to see how this will play out. one thing that came to mind yesterday afternoon when he announced this, it seems like a tease for a reality tv show and i don't know how that will necessarily play with the american people. because there are thousands of government workers who are out of work or furloughed and that's impacting local economies and the economy across the united states. so, you know, it seems like it's

almost a bit -- this could be looked at as a bit of game playing. it will be interesting to see where it goes from here. >> game playing not what you want to hear when you have 800,000 and a domino effect with this shutdown. abigail, some people call it a cycle of one upmansship. nancy pelosi was asked to delay -- asked the president to delay his state of the union citing security concerns. the president postponing pelosi's weekend trip to afghanistan, cancelling it all together by pulling back the military plane. here's how nancy pelosi reacted yesterday. >> we had a report from afghanistan that the president outing our trip had made the scene on the ground much more dangerous. we never give advance notice of going into a battle area. we just never do.

the president's inexperience didn't have him understand that protocol. >> do you view this as retaliation for your letter regarding the state of the union. >> i do not. >> is it a feud between trump and pelosi who he has yet to give a nickname too. he appreciates her power. do you think there's a winner, a loser here? >> right now i think with the government continuing to shutdown there are no winners. but i do know donald trump really views nancy pelosi as a formidable opponent throughout all of this. she's been very good in terms of the messaging and one step ahead. you saw her move with the state of the union and that really surprised and blind side the white house. then you saw them respond with cancelling her trip. one interesting thing, there's a difference between cancelling a trip to a war zone and a state of the union. i think her messaging in the day since as put her out open top when it comes to that. one of the things right now, you

know, this sort of back and forth it's not doing anyone any good. people are really looking for a conclusion to the shutdown and sort of this back and forth when upmanship is not getting anybody closer to getting their jobs back. >> let's move to the special counsel disputing the buzz feed report. democratic members of congress were renewing their calls to start impeachment proceedings if this report is true. let's listen to that. >> sure as heck explains why michael cohen lied in earlier testimony to our committee. we'll have to ask mr. cohen that. >> if it's true, then he should be impeached. let's not trip over ourselves, right. first make sure it's true and that's going to happen in short order. >> these revelations are deeply damning. and this moment could be mortally threatening to this administration. there's a credible case of obstruction of justice against

the united states president. >> if the president did what he's being accused of then he will be held accountable. >> look, does it illustrate the possibility that democrats in general might have overplayed their hand when it comes to impeachment talk relevant to this story? >> it illustrates the story that impeachment is active now in the political discourse and the real possibility for democrats and let's not, you know, forget that there's a large portion of the base of progressives who would like to see that happen and then there's that tension as you mentioned of democrats who don't want to see themselves make the case that they overplayed their hand. i want to note something very clearly. when i interviewed lanny davis several weeks ago, a spokesman for michael cohen he said that the white house was aware that michael cohen was headed to the hill to falsely testify. aware. that's very different and very different nuance than what buzz

feed is reporting which now the special counsel put out their statement refuting that report that he was instructed by president trump. i can tell you the base of sources i talked to at the white house, this is a president who has an e-mail, he text messages. this is a democratic landscape where you have people like senator mark warner of the intelligence committee who want to hear more from michael cohen and would also suggest that -- i'll keep this quick, it would also suggest why michael cohen originally lied when he first testified before to congress and we'll hear from him in just a few couple weeks. >> if buzz feed, julia, if this report resultly discredited, how much does that alter the conversation about starting impeachment proceedings? >> you know, it does essentially alter, i would say alter the conversation. we saw democrats were so quick to jump to the conclusion of we need to start impeachment proceedings or at least think about it.

one thing that stuck out the me when that report came out, in the 24 hours after, no other news organization was able to confirm it. you know minus organization wasn't and we weren't talking to a lot of sources that were able to confirm it. we saw other reporters on twitter essentially saying we didn't see this story going in that direction or our sources weren't matching up with that and i think that's something that democrats really should have paid attention to because we're already seeing it with the president on twitter. the president is going to essentially launch an attack on the press as well as democrats for jumping to conclusions. aesthetic i can't emphasize enough how journalists in the u.s. and abroad need to play error free ball with this administration because when these stories come out, there's bomb shell after bomb shell. just a week ago we were talking about the "new york times" report. it makes us look bad and we lose the trust of the american people. >> where do you come down, abigail on why mueller's office

reacted to this report? >> when we look at it. earlier in the show you mentioned this idea if they issued a statement like this for this report does that mean that all past bomb shells that came out are accurate? one of the interesting things is if you dial in and look at the conversation that was happening among democrats yesterday you had a number of people immediately start talking about impeachment because of allegations in the article. so i think when it came to, you know, this bomb shell and the buzz feed reporting i think there was a different sense of urgency around it. you had some individuals saying we don't even -- if we can find this is accurate the allegations about michael cohen and the president directing him to lie to congress we may not even wait for the mueller report to begin impeachment proceedings. i think there was a new sense of urgency in terms of the conversation that this report sparked. that really prompted and droof the special counsel's office to intervene. again it is hard to know exactly what details they are disputing, that wasn't outlined in their

statement, but i think if there's any sort of inaccuracy at all given the high stakes conversation happening in the last 24 hours it makes sense that they hopped in. all three of you, thank you so much. shutdown day 29. could two big new developments finally end it? i'll ask a member of congress that next. r of congress that next. t tell you anything about myself. but believe me... i'm not your average consumer. that's why i switched to liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. and as a man... uh... or a woman... with very specific needs that i can't tell you about- say cheese. mr. landry? oh no. hi mr. landry! liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ dad! hiding when i was supposed to be quitting. i thought, i should try something that works. i should try nicorette. nicorette mini relieves sudden cravings fast.

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>> a live look at the white house, on this day 29 of the government shutdown. the president will make a major announcement on the shutdown at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. joining me here in studio, congressman meeks democrat from new york. welcome. always good to see you. all right. so we have a report from the "new york times" which suggests democrats are offering a billion dollars more towards security, border security. does that mean it would go to a wall or are there specific parameters this would be offered? what's the story here? >> we want the government re-opened. shouldn't hold people hostage. we made offers all along. just that this president hasn't accepted. if you look at before there was an offer on the deal, on the table, of $25 billion but that was for often years and it was very specific in regards to new

technology, drones, as well as fixing certain areas where there may need be fixing on fencing. a combination of things. that's nothing new. that's something old. this president never wanted to accept. hit been on the table. so who know what he's going to say at 3:00. you know, who knows, it could be anything. but democrats have always said we are concerned, we want to make sure our borders are protected. it's just that we don't want to go what trump has done, make a campaign promise or campaign lie that we'll build the wall and mexico will pay for the wall and the wall will make us safe. when you talk to any expert they tell you building a wall means nothing. >> this extra billion dollars was that specifically targeted to like drone technology, infrared lasers, that kind of things, the technological aspect of border security? >> those are all the things we're looking to do. what we've done which we think

is reasonable and after talking to the experts who are on the ground, who know what we need to do to protect the border. if you look at the members that represent those border states -- >> texas. >> texas. will hurd says the same thing. anybody who is an expert they are not talking about building a wall for the sake of building a wall. >> tell me what you think was behind speaker pelosi asking the president to reschedule the state of the union address and now this tit for tat it seems between the president and the speaker. >> i think legitimately, there was the appearance with all these folks being held hostage. you don't generally allow -- this is me talking now, you don't allow the hostage taker to go on television and say to the world that i'm holding these hostages or whatever he wants to say. we need to free the american

people. let them get paid. let them go back to work. don't hold them hostage as he admitted on vipe. he said it's my shutdown. the >> let's go to this buzz feed article. it's pretty explosive here. what do you make of the article and the mueller team taking this extraordinary step to refute what was said in the article? >> you know, my faith and confidence is in mueller. he's a professional prosecutor. i was a prosecutor at one point. i believe that one of the things that could be taking place, he's coming to the conclusion of his investigation and there are witnesses that you still are talking to, to make your case. and you can't allow -- you get upset when there's someone or a story comes out that could endanger whatever the conversation that you're having with additional witnesses that could be substantial to your case as you're building it, et cetera, but there's definitely a strong case that he's there and he does not want it tainted.

he's got to dot every "i" and cross every "t." >> wrrd to the talk of impeachment several democrats saw the buzz feed article, warmed up immediately to justification for beginning those discussions if not ongoing discussions towards impeachment. but if this buzz feed article is proven to be false, where does that put the discussion? >> well, i think that in every statement that i heard, the democrats have said "if the buzz feed story is true." so we got to find out that if it is true. if it is true, then you go back and you look at what took place with nixon. nixon was claiming he was innocent all along. then there was a break. then people heard the tapes. so it became true what they were saying. and the republicans didn't have the break. the democrats i heard who said impeachment, said, "if the story is true."

my thing is let's find out if it's true. the way we find out is when the mueller investigation has concluded. >> you don't believe impeachment discussions should be begun prior to the release of that report? >> i think that we need to know what the facts are. because impeachment by itself, what we've got to do, we got to make sure the senate -- impeachment by itself means nothing if you want to remove this president. you need republican votes on the senate side. we need to get the facts out. i don't want to pre-judge anything. i want the facts. once the facts are out. if he committed these acts then he's criminal with the evidence surely going there and people, democrats, republicans, independents, they all have to say we want to remove this guy from being president of the united states. >> all right. good to see you. looking very dapper this saturday morning. >> going to see some of my tsa acts at the airport who have been furloughed. >> i've had to pass through

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breaking news for you. a rare rebuttal r from the special counsel's office to that buzz feed news story concerning the president and his attorney michael cohen, kelly o'donnell has more on that. what's the latest on all this? >> reporter: when you say rare, boy there has not been a time when the special counsel has gone out of its way to publicly challenge a media report. that is how notable it is and why it's so important. it brought about unlikely praise from the president's legal team. we typically here rudy giuliani criticizes the robert mueller investigation but now commending the office of special counsel for knocking down this story. today we expect the president to try to restart negotiations for the government shutdown. promoting his own headlines, president trump promises a major

announcement, live from the white house this afternoon, shutdown day 29. shifting to the border battle comes after a day long roller coaster ride on the russia investigation. >> a very big deal. >> reporter: intense media coverage, amplified of a buzz feed story that claimed the special counsel has a trail of evidence. the president instructed michael cohen to lie to congress. >> breaking news at this hour. >> reporter: friday night in a rare and stunning development the office of special counsel undercut that story with one withering statement. buzz feed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office regarding michael cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate. an opening for the president to knock buzz feed and claim a very sad day for journalism, but a

great day for our country. trump lawyer rudy giuliani demanded more. now the doj must reveal the leakers of this false buzz feed story, which the press and democrats gleefully embraced. friday democrats had cited the story to sound alarm bells. >> this president may well be complicit in participating in obstruction of justice. >> if the president directed michael cohen to lie to congress, then that's a clear case of participating in perjury and obstruction of justice. >> reporter: friday night buzz feed's editor said they hoped for more clarity from the special counsel. >> his statement which is obviously disputing some element of our story. >> reporter: what made the store so notable is the suggestion the president instructed cohen to lie. that in and of itself is a crime. this comment from special

counsel knocks down that story in a broad way, and so while there are many other ways that the white house might be exposed or people in the trump orbit exposed to some legal repercussions in the russia investigation, this headline generating story has been refuted by the special counsel, highly unusual and quite notable. also today, alex, the president says he's going to dover air force base for what is known as a dignified transfer to welcome home the real estate mains of four americans who were killed in an isis attack in syria. we'll see the president today. >> all right. kelly o'donnell at the white house. third annual women's march set to plaque place today in hundreds of cities across the country including a flagship martin nation's capital. hans, good morning. how big of a turn out are they expecting on this? >> reporter: it's unclear. two years ago they were in the hundreds of thousands. this year likely in the tens of thousands. i would add on the numbers that

two years ago everyone was surprised, even march organizers themselves on how much it took off, how it took fire all across the country, something similar could happen here today. of course the group, the organization has been had infighting, questions about anti-semitic comments by louis farrakhan. one of the organizers condemning the comments. later she cleaned it up and tried to come out forcefully against it. there are some tensions. what march organizers want to deep focus on is their agenda. their agenda for equal rights, equal pay. they have a whole host of things they want to talk about. at the same time yesterday the last big anti-abortion rally here in washington, d.c. some of those marchers plan to stay for another day and plan to hold a separate march which they are calling march for all women that rally. we could have duelling marches. there's a couple of different

routes for marchers to walk around. msnbc will be covering it live. we'll try to get a sense what their agenda and their focus is. >> looks like the weather may play a factor. how bad will the weather be and when? the answers after the break. up the years . but what i do count on, is staying happy and healthy. so, i add protein, vitamins and minerals to my diet with boost®. boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals your body needs. all with guaranteed great taste. the upside- i'm just getting started. boost® high protein be up for life.

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southern great lakes with snow. these are scenes from des moines, iowa. the snow led to the temporary closure of an omaha, nebraska airport after a southwest airlines plane skidded off the runway while taxing. over 1100 domestic flights have been cancelled so far today with thousands more delayed. the worst may be yet to come. heavy snow is expected today moving east. let's go right to nbc meteorologist michele grossman who has all the delays. >> this is happening every weekend. we're tracking another major winter storm. this storm is about locations. some will see heavy rain, ice, freezing rain, snow. let's take a look what's happening. this is a look at radar. two pieces to the storm. a cold piece up to the north. that's where the snow is falling and heavy snow in some spots. in between the pink line is the sleet and freezing rain. freezing rain that's where you have those very tricky conditions when you're out and about. then we have that warm part

where we'll see potential for severe weather. we have a tornado warning as early as this morning and a tornado watch in parts of mississippi, louisiana through 1:00. so it's going to be a busy day. winter weather alerts. pink that's your winter storm warnings. affecting 111 million people. it will extend into moan and tuesday. keep that in mind as you head back to work most of us on tuesday. this is what the storm looks like. it will strengthen as it heads east. it's moving quickly to the east. before that we'll see snow. snow in the midwest up to a foot in some spots. then it will head off to the northeast. major snow will happen in parts of new england and interior new england. upstate new york into parts of northwestern pennsylvania. over a foot of snow in some spots. then it will race off by sunday, really strengthen, really crank up the wind. then we'll have that dangerous frigid arctic air come up. some spots well below zero on

monday. anything wet will refreeze on monday. we'll continue to watch this throughout the day. enough is enough. republicans repudiate racist remarks by congressman steve king. would they ever do the same to president trump? >> however let's go to late night laugh lines about the president's problem with the written word. >> president trump misspelled the word hamburgers in a tweet this morning. and sure it's easy-to-make fun of trump for misspelling a word. so here goes. >> that's right. hamburgers is what -- how doe that happen? >> that's right right, president trump misspelled the word country in a tweet this morning. not the first time the president messed up a country. country.t i? come on, get back. quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. can't nobody beat you, can't nobody beat you. hard work baby, it gonna pay off.

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challenge the veracity of a story. my guess it was done because if you've noticed there's a lot of talk about impeachment coming right afterwards. it's a way to slow things down a bit so the country didn't get hurled into some sort of chaos. but, again, the fact that we're even having this conversation suggests that there is an incredible appetite for whatever the mueller investigation will ultimately show and what they will ultimately reveal. but, unfortunately, what this has done is given the president a little more ammunition to sort of go after the media. but i think it's important for democrats to sort of again wait, be patient and still focus on the work ahead of us. >> brian, this report being the first of its kind that mueller felt he has to dispute in this manner, what can we deduce about all the other reports on the russian probe? we've heard nothing from mull per those. does that allow us to presume

those were re? >> what we do know is the buzzfeed story was incorrect. first time we've ever seen the special counsel's office respond. yet, that report triggered democrats into their thing, talking about impeachment. but if you look at the other news reports, i think we need to read these and understand we need to wait. we're going to see the mueller report at some point. it seems that this is an endless investigation that will never actually produce a report. but at some point we'll see it. we'll get to understand what the facts are. we'll see a lot of the news stories be debunked. some will be confirmed. but ultimately i think democrats need to stop talking about impeachment. it clearly, they love to talk about it. and the story has, is something that we should all look at and say hey, maybe we shouldn't believe buzzfeed as much as "the new york times" or "the wall street journal" or the "washington post." >> congressman steve king was

rebuked this week, pretty much stripped of all committee assignments, because of his white supremacy comments in a recent "new york times" interview. the president praised steve king before and also during rallies, saying he was a nationalist. do republicans need to respond more forcefully to the president in this regard? >> yeah, i think they absolutely do. i think "new york times" hit the nail on the head this week, that the republicans have allowed this, to sort of come to the surface. this sort of racism, bigotry in a way that i think a lot of us, mainstream republicans or right of center policy analysts were surprised by. and now there's going to be pressure i think on both sides, i think we're seeing a percolating of antisemitism on the left. bigotry and racism on the right. both parties are going to have to really sort of get beyond their partisanship and the policy prescriptions they want and sort of squash that on the margins before it becomes mainstream. because unfortunately on the right it has become a little bit

too mainstream, that it's in the white house. >> what do you think the king situation handled correctly? or a little too much? was he punished sufficiently? >> i don't think he was punished sufficiently -- i think he was punished sufficiently in the sense that democrats now in power did everything they needed to do to sort of isolate him. i think that was incredibly smart and the right thing to do. did it need to happen previously? absolutely. to your question before, i don't think republicans have done enough and i quite frankly don't think they would do enough to really challenge the president's own comments on these issues. i'll push back a little on what was just said. i don't want to associate ant antisemitism with the left. that's not something that's indish tiff or prevalent among democrats or liberals. but i will say that the antisemitism and racism that is becoming much more i don't want to say pervasive, because i

think a lot of it was already there, but the fact that we're seeing it and hearing it, is because of the way that people have allowed this president to set the tone and to set this atmosphere and this climate. and that's what between need to push back on. >> whatever the genesis, it is very, very disturbing. to you, brian, my question is why have republicans been largely silent on the president? and his various comments? >> well they haven't. mitt romney has been outspoken. i think when the president makes mistakes -- >> you know what brian, we're talking about mitt romney and i'm presuming you're going back to the op-ed that he wrote, which was remarkable and it generated a lot of conversation for its strength and its uniqueness. i'm saying in general, you know, with mitt romney being a bit of an outlier, why is it that the average rank-and-file republican does not repudiate the president for things that he has said? >> i think he has been. i really do. i think in certain times when he's stepped over the line, i think republicans have said,

hey, we don't agree with that look at the democrats. the democrats did not do anything to push back on one of their own freshman members, calling the president of the united states an m-f-er, that's over the line. i can't tell you how many times you've seen democrats call all republicans racist. and that's over the line. or use a nazi and call republicans nazis, you hear it all the time from the left. but nobody pushes back. >> somebody i'm thinking from the right, i'll let you get in in a second. someone from the right who pushed back is bob corker. whoops, he's gone. >> he didn't run for re-election. >> and i think there's going to challenge, there was eight years in which republicans were waiting to push through their tax policy. to make changes to health care. changes to energy and the environment, there's a lot of republicans who are sort of turning a blind eye, i agree, i think it's bad strategy. but i think a lot of people are thinking if they can turn a blind eye to that and we'll push through the market-based policies that we can all agree

on and ultimately this will all go away. i think some people thought they could swallow hard and do that initially. but i think there's a point at which more right of center people need to stand up. >> i think it's a farce equivalency to compare what democrats have done and said about this president, and the president from on high, from his office, condoning a lot of the behavior that we've seen. charlottesville in particular, that's not all of it. the rhetoric, the language, even in our conversations about the wall. on a policy issue. how he's demonized immigrants in this country. that's not something that you see on the left. >> i would disagree with that. i'm sorry, to be clear, there's plenty of sort of pushing the antisemitism on the left under the rug. i work with women's groups all the time. was with a lot of different women last night speaking at an event. there's a lot of willingness to say that doesn't really happen. but the reality is it's

happening. we do see it for instance in the leadership of the women's march. >> i've got 15 seconds, women's march, what are your expectations, sabrina? >> it's going to be a smaller crowd. while there are challenges in america for women in terms of the workplace and i think we need to talk about criminal justice reform and i think there's a lot of issues, but life in america is pretty good and i think unfortunately the women's march is sort of tried to paint this picture of women versus men and that's just not flying with as many women today. >> basel, brian, sabrina, thank you all so much. gauging the latest moves in the 2020 battle for the white house, ahead on "up" with david guerra. capital one cafes. you can get savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. and one of america's best savings rates. to top it off, you can open one from anywhere in 5 minutes. this isn't a typical bank. this is banking reimagined.

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comcast business. beyond fast. that's a wrap this hour for me, i'll see you at noon. but now it's time for "up." well this is "up" i'm david gura. the oracle speaks, the office of the special counsel issues an unprecedented statement disputing a buzzfeed news report that president trump directed michael cohen to lie to lawmakers. today, that news site is stand big its story. >> i think you know he's made these sort of, these statements and we'd like to know what he's talking about. >> the white house calls the report ridiculous and continues to attack michael cohen's contribute. >> michael cohen is lying. he's a weak rs