john avlon, margaret taliban, political reporter for the journal constitution, greg bluestein. >> john avlon, what do you take of what happened last night? >> first of all, all the money in the world can't fight a plus nine republican advantage. there's a redistricting issue in this country where all districts are not set up evenly. republicans ran someone with experience against a first-timer. all that money and unthus as couldn't over come that deficit. republicans successfully tied the candidate as a centrist, some far left millennial but also nancy pelosi. there are deep issues and brand. >> jason mentioned 0 for 4. essentially you have kansas, you have montana, you have georgia and you have south carolina, all republicans winning. margaret, if you're a democrat waking up this morning, what the heck are you thinking? >> if you're a democrat waking up this morning, it's back to reality. there was this kind of fantasy scenario that many democrats were hope for where there would be this major upheaval and it would complicate health care and mitch mcconnell's plans for a vote and it wo

john avlon, sage advice. be careful what you say and they keep saying a lot. >> this president has impulse control problems. the chance he is not going to say something is virtually nil. he offered on friday to speak to bob mueller. the fact that he is pulling a general akbar -- it's a trap. if they could, they would have contained him a long time ago. he is not wrong. it raises the question of the president's lawyer saying we will see about the sanctity of the special counsel. there are constitutional problems here. the president said that never stopped him before. he would be delighted to testify. >> a weird bread crumb when jason who is ally with the white house would not rule out firing bob mueller. >> that is outside counsel. >> panel -- >> sorry. not just outside counsel. rosenstein was asked and he would not commit to writing anything down to say bob mueller could keep his job without interference. >> a new legal headache for the president. he is about to be sued for allegedly hiviolates the constituti

political analyst of the daily beast john avlon. let's start with john avlon. we have a vested interest in this. why not just have jeff sessions testify in public in front of the senate intel committee? >> that is the answer in terms of transparency. the precedence is the comey hearings. in public and in private. he has given this up. it is the intel committee to follow-up on the investigation. the more that is public, the more that is transparent, the better for democracy with a civics stress test. >> margaret, one more issue in the game. are there tapes? are there not tapes? will the white house release them? it seems the white house sees utility in stringing the american public along. >> there is an interest if sessions testifies in open the way jim comey did. the differences are obvious. one is sessions himself may be to some degree in the cross-hairs of the investigation. jim comey intimated that is the case. the attorney general recused himself from the russia investigation. it seems there will be limits on what he could say whether in open session or in

. >>> cnn political panelist john avlon, cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein and white house correspondent from bloomberg news, margaret talev. >> i know south carolina was very close, shouldn't have been that close. i know georgia's plus nine republican and been held by republicans for a long time. but the democrats need to win places like this, and they didn't. what do you see as the lesson for that party and its leadership? >> it's very frustrating i think for democrats and it's going to create a lot of recriminations, particularly georgia six. you see the debate between the left and the center about whether ossoff is too moderate, to bland. it's hard to imagine a harder-edged message would have worked in this district. the most honest thing for democrats here is a reminder that tribal politics still work. what republicans were able to do in this republican-leaning dwrikt tom price, the inkurm bent had never loss more than 60% of the vote. more about partisan loyalty and essentially in the up-or-down referendum on whether you want republicans or democrats in control, they

. >>> let's bring in john avlon editor in chief of "the daily beast," and sara fagen.o a cnbc contributor. let's begin with this comey hearing tomorrow. the other hearing today shaping up to be a real watershed moment for the trump administration and as our poll shows starting out in a deep hole. >> the poll is stark. the vast majority of the american people don't trust trump on this issue. they don't think he was acting in the american people's interest. and that -- what's disturbing when you dig into it, though, there's still a stubborn partisan divide. republicans are more likely to trust donald trump. independents, democrats, moderates, liberal, skeptical. overall there's no spinning your way out. >> we saw president trump wish comey luck tomorrow. not sure how sincere that was. what's your take on the stakes and what the president and his team have to do to counter it? >> well, there's no way for donald trump to win tomorrow. it will be a bad press day no matter what. will they make it worse? they would be well advised to say they're going to let the investigation

back is karoun and let's bring in phil mudd and analyst john avlon. hn, is this a surprise that mueller is investigating obstruction of justice ever since comey's 2e6testimony where said he felt pressed to back off the investigation. did the investigation have to go in that direction? >> it is a confirmation of the direction it has been going. it is not incidental it comes out days after a trial balloon floating from the president that mueller could be fired. what also is new is the existence of the contemporaneous memo from the former director of the nsa. this is a ratcheting up. this is now not people saying they expect him to be investigated for obstruction of justice. it is confirmation that is occurring within the special counsel. >> phil mudd, what does this mean for rosenstein? if rosenstein was involved not in a process of obstruction, necessarily, but it was his memo and he was part of the dynamic with sessions and the president. might he have to recuse himself? is that required? is that necessary? >> i don't think he has to recuse himself. he

and daily beat editor in chief john avlon believes the president is doing something sinister, evil. >l critics fake news, let's just think about that for a second, when fakeis news is a real problem proliferating on social media. all of a sud want you're doing is a conscious orwellian switch of muddying the language of truth versus lies. o when that's emanating from the oval office that's something real sinister and we've got to keep an eye on as a country, as citizens. >> cnn is fake news. by the way, here's what's happening. this is all under the direction of jeff zucker, and now playing the victim. in reality, the fake news network cnn has been aggressively pushing the russia tin foil hat conspiracy theories and others, you know, there's other blatantly fake news stories. they've been doing it for a desperate attempt. will he ever respond to this? things unlikely. look what happened when james o'keefe actually tracked down zucker and asked him about cnn's abusive and bias coverage. by these way, fox cannot independently verify the footage, but you can see it yourself. >> james o'ke

magg maggie haberman and john avlon and chris cillizza. that is the common phrase. haven't talked to him about it. it is highly indicative of a message from the white house. that is? >> it is two messages. we have to assume a claim no knowledge of conversation is now what passes for an answer from the briefing room podium which is a different point. be peter baker and i reported monday night that the president has grown frustrated with jeff sessions. complaining about him privately. it dates back one to the travel ban that wasn't a ban and now is a ban again. it has been blocked in the courts. the president despite the fact it was an executive order he signed and blaming the department of justice in terms of how this is played out and defense of it. this goes back to when jeff sessions recused himself from russia-related probes. coming on the heels of a report in the washington post that sessions had not revealed during the conversation hearing to become attorney general he had at least one meeting and might have been multiple with the ambassador from russia. sessio

we've got brian carron and cnn political analyst john avlon.been in the center of the storm here, went at it with huckabee sanders about this idea of bullying from the white house. they have certainly broken new ground in dealing with what they don't like being reported by saying it's all fake. let's be honest, it's been effective. >> it has been effective, it's been problematic as a reporter to try and cover something and to vet your facts and then to have people believe other than the facts that you know to be true. it's a difficult proposition. it's one that's made more difficult by the fact that the press by its very nature, we're a competitive group, and so it's not often that we work together very well. it's very easy to divide and conquer. that's what this administration has done and has done very successfully and continues to do. it's disheartening that so many people will believe what is said without at least checking the facts out themselves. >> john, the question of the white house briefing, this has become a really hot topic. should

. >>> "outfront" now, john avlon, reporter and editor at large, chris cillizza.well has been hired by jared kushner. that shows how serious jared kushner is taking his defense. >> absolutely. this is a top flight criminal defense lawyer. this is a rational action if you want to stay out of prison. but the white house has not been telegraphing the importance of this. the fact that the president's son-in-law is lawyering up to this degree shows a real sense of concern. and you've got to assume that's a rationale concern. >> very serious. chris, your take? >> well, look, if you have the money to get the best money can buy or damn close to it, then you do it. and abbe lowell is up there no matter what you think of jared kushner. i think john is right that this is -- >> that abbe is the kind of guy that keeps you out of jail? >> no. donald trump has a tendency to pursue this as a sideshow or circus, his words. i think jared kushner is smart and i think any of us would do the same. you get the best possible lawyer to make sure your viewpoint is represented. it's a star

we have political analysts david gregory and john avlon and cnn chief political correspondent dana bash. we'll get to that in a second. we get the procession was secretive and we get that was opportunistic because they want to deliver on their promise to repeal and replace. mitch mcconnell believes this is the best way. what does today bring? >> i think it starts to sharpen the debate, both within the republican party and then the senate overall. i think it's really interesting to try to understand, as i think some of the reporting and the discussion on the program this morning has gotten into, what is the strategy of leader mcconnell in terms of how he gets the votes and how he sells the plan? one big takeaway for me is there seenls to be a conflict on what the president says has got to be health care without a heart. he's described the house bill as mean. how is he going to square that with what the senate wants to do, which has been described this morning on the program as obamacare light, rolling back provisions that are in obamacare while retaining some of the more popular provisio

. >> to discuss it we have david gregory, jackie kucinich and john avlon. >> david, for our viewers, what little we know about this health care bill that's going to be unveiled to other lawmakers at 9:30 this morning, what changes, what does it mean for regular people? >> well, i think the big guess in the political context are going to be about process and about how this is being written and conceived and sold and scored before it's actually voted on. so how much of the substance we actually get to in a public debate i think is a big question. the fundamental policy pieces have to do with how many people are covered, what kind of subsidies are actually received for people who need help to afford health care insurance and how the legislation affects the market, how the insurance market will actually operate which will ultimately affect premiums. you have a safety net aspect of it which is going to be changed with regard to medicaid expansion, with regard to who qualifies for getting the insurance. again, this will be the subject of debate. i think the big question will be, when you h

let's bring in our political panel, cnn political analyst david gregory and john avlon and associate editor and columnist at realclearpolitics, a.b. stoddard. david gregory, not just the tweet continuing confusion about whether or not president trump is under investigation. it's jay sekulow's own words yesterday which contradict each other. let me play that for you for a moment. >> should we take that tweet from the president as confirmation that the president is under investigation? >> let me be clear. the president is not under investigation. >> now he's being investigated by the department of justice because the special counsel under special counsel regulations reports to the department of justice, not an independent counsel. he's being investigated for taking the action that the attorney general and deputy attorney general recommended him to take by the agency who recommended the termination. >> do you understand whether he's being investigated or not? >> a lot of gymnastics here. look, we have a president who in all of his unusual behavior provides an open window into what he's