jeff white houseing program manager. and welcome to the annual housing report. i've got a lot of material to cover so i may go briskly and we can take questions afterwards 678h. we go over just a quick summary of what our housing obligations are and we talked about the occupancy prefances out reach and our marketing practices and we highlight the marketing outcomes for three projects that reach 100% occupancy in fiscal year 16-17. we have a lot of our projects that are mid stream marketing and we decided to pick up the point if they reached 100% occupancy in fiscal '16 and '17 and we included them and they were dr. davis and you've seed the reports on those two projects and 72 town send which an inclusion ary project and the record talks about ocii's could be buying to the mayor's goal of delivering 10,000 affordable units by the year 2020 and we go over just production tracking by project area to know how we're doing and a summary of what we're working on and a work plan in '17 and '18 which is what we're in right now. just to recap, the mission of oc ii and th

and jeff mason, white house correspondent at reuters. jeff, i haven't been at the white house since inauguration. i miss it sometimes. sometimes i really don't. >> we miss you, ron. we miss you. >> thanks. let's start with you, erin. the president claims this is a christmas president. most americans don't seem to want it. "the new york times" survey monkey poll shows that majority, 57% of americans disapprove of the tax plan, while 37% approve. there's a lot of analysis that says most people are going to get a tax cut. why don't people like this? why don't they want this? >> it's been a contentious effort from the start. you've had partisan polling on both sides. now, the democrats came out fast when they said this is not a package of tax cuts from the middle class. this is relief for corporations. now, republicans are saying that could spur investment, spur business, and it could trickle down. but you have serious debates on both sides about whether this is going to lift up the middle class. that's what democrats are pushing on. >> as i

value and there's a lot of information but a couple of thoughts, the track ing charts, which think jeff white attributes specifically to my push of track ing the progress overtime and these very, very large re development areas and this is how we can keep track of institutional memory, these are stories that are being told about the success if you will of these very large redevelopment areas and it's one way to kind of not forget that this is a long story and keep track and each individual project but we argued we need to have the small stories, each one is human scale and it is something that makes us feel the value of our work but the big picture is how are we doing so i want to emphasize the value of those tracking charts and see where market trends like in mission bay south are setting up the situation where we're not able to keep up with the affordable housing and it raises questions about can we do more to make sure that the percentage of 30% or 27% is achieved at a sustained level so we don't have bottom points so we're down to 15% but it allows you to use that as a metrics, what do al

studios we have the principle whom you also heard from and then finally from ocii staff jeff white theousing program manager and pamela sims for housing to answer any questions that are appropriate. >> madam secretary are there any speaker cards in this item? >> yes, madam chair, we have two speaker cards. oscar james and ace washington. >> good afternoon commissioners, oscar james, residents and glad to see all of you here after thanksgiving. >> happy thanksgiving. >> you were able to shake off your turkey. this is a happy day for me. for a couple of reasons, one, having young community developers partake in this particular project that was one of the programs we started in the model cities project the young community developers and number two, i would like first of all, i'm in support of this project, i guess you guys already know that but one of the things i'm really looking forward to is making sure certificate holders both residents of baby hunters point and what's in addition and any other project that rel development agency went in to and tore down and rebuilt for the certificat

jeff is still at the white house. i believe and jeff there is also the issue of sally yate and don mcgahn and the discussion that was -- that was had a by those two and you have more details on that for us, jeff. >> well, that is right. the issue -- the other issue is what took so long for the trump administration to let michael flynn go, since they had been told by president obama himself at one point, we understand, and then by sally yates that their understanding was michael flynn was compromised and could be plaque -- blackmailed and he served 18 days before being let go by the trump administration raising a number of questions about president trump's judgment and again why michael flynn stayed on the job so long before it became untenable after "the washington post" broke a story about him. >> and i want to play tape relevant to the question for the white house and this is n interview lester holt had with donald trump this past may and see what president said then. let's listen. >> because my white house counsel d

white house. margaret, there was some drama surrounding this. >> reporter: there certainly was, jeff. the white house officially says that omarosa fact, fired. it was chief of staff john kelly who informed her that january 20th, the anniversary of the inauguration of donald trump as president, would be her last day. apparently, according to reporting from my colleague major garrett, omarosa did not like those term, tried to appeal and have that decision changed, even went so far as to appeal to ivanka trump, the president's daughter to, ask to keep her job. she didn't get the answer she wanted. she then tried going into the white house residence, at which point she tripped the alarm. now, presumably she was going to try to speak to the president. what we know, though, is that in tripping the alarms, it did anger chief of staff john kelly, who had her escorted out of the premises. now, the secret service denies any role in having escorted her out of the building or out of the white house grounds. they simply say that they deactivate her pass, allowing her entry here, the former reality

we'll get the latest from nbc's jeff bennett who remains at the white house for the moment. jeff, with a welcome to you, the last 24 hours or so we've seen two senators who were nos, they're now yeses on this tax plan. is the president confident as he calls it the greatest christmas gift ever is going to happen? >> reporter: he is confident, alex, good afternoon. the president it appears will get his christmas wish. he will have that tax legislation on his desk for his signature in time for the holiday break. as you mentioned, the gop secured two yes votes from two lawmakers who had been holdouts. of course those two are florida senator marco rubio, who insisted on a boost in the child tax credit in change for his vote and in a major reversal, bob corker said he would vote yes for this plan notwithstanding his long-standing opposition to any legislation that would add to the deficit as this plan would. now, alex, the republican tax plan would cut corporate taxes by -- from 35%, the current rate, down to 21%. the individual rate, depending on how much money someone makes, they

jeff benet? >> white house departures would be rex tillerson, the embattled secretary of state. the white house has tried to knock down the reporting about an exit plan, exit strategy for rex tillerson. keep his name atop the list and mark short, the president's top, sorry, no the mark short, gary kohn, the president's national economics adviser, who butted heads with the president over the president's controversial comments about charlottesville, took himself out of the running. >> wash #yourefired. >> daca, advocates pushing for government shutdown. i'm not sure democrats have it in them to do that. >>> on what i'm watching, our new dog watching the show at home tonight, keep sending your photos, i love them, they're a favorite. second of all here is what i am watching for a wedding date from ashley parker, close friend of the show and michael bender who got engaged yesterday. it was great to celebrate with all of them, and ashley, i will not put you on the spot by asking if you set a date yet. what are you watching for next week? >> uhm, i am watching for the president leavin

jeff zeleny. he's at the white house. jeff, president trump trying to pivot today to tax reform. he wrapped up his speech just minutes ago. you have to ask, though, how does this loss in alabama, a huge win, impact the trump agenda going forward and any other possible implications there might be in terms of staff shake-ups or more? >> reporter: well, jake, the margins were already very narrow with the 52-48 senate republican majority. now that changes to 51-49. that means any piece of new legislation this white house tries to get through, they need to thread the needle very carefully or perhaps start working in a bipartisan way on bills like infrastructure and other matters. it's hard to imagine that happening at this point, but it's interesting to know if the white house will be reaching out to doug jones. of course, he will be one of the most conservative democrats in the senate, at least for the next three years or so. in the short-term, it probably means any big ticket items are not going to happen on the table. that's why they're moving so quickly on tax reform. but earlier

abigail: joining me today is jeff white, chief technical analyst at clearview. u for taking your time for us. jeff: always an honor. of course the s -- abigail: of course, the s&p 500, upon its record highs. let's talk into the bloomberg to use one of its great functions. the group rate returns see if you can break this down for us and take a look. up top, no surprise to you or , with one of our other charting experts concerned if there was a sector declining to the tune of 20%. not even close. i would love to know your technical perspective on the energy sector. jeff: well, when i look at the energy sector, it needs some work. it needs to close above the 71 area for a chance to get to this line zone. which is in a 75.5 monthly closing area. being a technician, and my , can vouch for this, this is equivalent to the number of people who live in ghost towns. if one looks at the january, 2015, or the end of 2014 monthly closing low and the december 2016 monthly closing high, you will see how a prior low when broken became a closing high area there. on a long-term ba

white house. margaret there was drama surrounding this? >> there certainly was, jeff. the white house officially says that omorosa resigned. cbs news learned that sunny was fired. chief of staff, john kelly who informed her that january 20th, the anniversary of the inauguration of donald trump as president would be her last day. apparently, according to reporting from my colleague, major garrett, omorosa did not like the terms. tried to appeal and that decision changed went so far to apale to ivanka trump, president's daughter to ask to keep her job. didn't get the answer she wanted. she tried going into the white house residence at which point she tripped the alarms. presumably going to try to speak to the president what we know in tripping the alarms it did anger, chief offf escorted her out of the premesis. the secret service denies any role in having, escorted her out of the building or out of the white house ground. they say that they deactivated her pass allowing her entry here. but we know now the former reality star, turned, office of public liason official is n

jeff bennett. he's live for us at the white house. jeff, first of all, why the abrupt schedule change? and why no ceremony for this? as stephanie says, this is the premier legislative accomplishment of the year. there was a party at the white house basically. everybody's been holding press conferences. i would just assume seeing how much the president likes to do this in public, there would have been a public signing of the tax bill. >> reporter: it's a good point you make. a white house official says the white house is trying to squeeze as much coverage as possible about this big legislative win. they want to do this signing ceremony. the latest guidance we have is they want to do this in january. my conversations with republican aides on the hill is they don't see many victories coming to them when they have to do things like shoring up obamacare, figuring out immigration compromise for daca. things that are much more favorable ground, let's say, for democrats. >> i also spoke to people in the white house this morning and they're pretty skeletal in terms of the staff. remember when th

our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny is joining us from the white house right now. jeff, we now know he wanted to hold a year-end news conference but his aides talked him out of it. what are you hearing? >> reporter: wolf, that is what we are told tonight by administration officials, the president wanted to do what many presidents do and hold a year-end news conference, but some aides worried the russia investigation and other things could overshadow the conversation. instead the president invited a few reporters into the oval office as his aides stood by and wat watched as he signed the tax bill into law. >> this is the bill right here. we're very proud of it. >> reporter: president trump signing the tax bill into law today. injecting a burst of reality show drama into the moment, the president hastily summoning reporters after white house aides said he would sign the bill privately. but from his seat at the resolute deafeni resolute desk, the -- watching television. >> we were going to wait until january 7th or 8th and do a big formal ceremony, but every one of the

cnn's jeff zeleny is at the white house for us. and, jeff, many, many questions today for white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders about these accusations. >> reporter: jake, there were many questions, indeed, but pretty much one answer. the white house again denying all of these allegations. they're saying that essentially, look, these have been asked and answered. the voters knew about these, of course, before the election last year. this is all coming under, of course, a very different microscope. white house press secretary sarah sanders also added this. she said it took place a long time before he was elected. with sexual harassment allegations stirring a national reckoning, three of president trump's accusers joined together today saying the man in the oval office should also be held accountable. >> i ask that congress put aside their party affiliations and investigate mr. trump's history of sexual misconduct. >> reporter: at least 15 women have come forward with accusations ranging from sexual harassment and miscond

>> let's go right to nbc's jeff bennett at the white house. jeff, with a good day to you, we saw the president getting on board marine one leaving for camp david. what does the timetable look like? >> reporter: the timetable is this. the house would vote on tuesday, the senate a day later on wednesday. republicans believe they have all the votes they need to send this legislation to the president's desk for his signature by christmas. alex, the president said earlier this week that if the house and senate do get him that bill by christmas break, the irs would be able to implement it beginning in early february. so this gop tax overhaul effort is on the move. president trump, as you said, just in the last hour was heading to camp david and he wanted to talk about taxes. that was fairly clear. he made a beeline over to the reporters and my colleague, kelly o'donnell, asked him about the chief criticism of this republican tax plan, that it benefits wealthy americans more than the middle class. here's his response. >> if you look at the whole thing

those are the words of jeff mateer. the whiteominations of talley and mateer. peterson withdrew his own name. out front, jeffrey toobin, april ryan, and daily beast editor in chief, john avlon. jeffrey toobin, you know a thing or two about judge appointments. the white house says this is standard. that's 3 out of 60 nominees so far that had to be withdrawn. is that standard? >> it's not standard, but what's much more extraordinary about these judicial nominees, and this counts for all 60, is how much ideology matters. this has been an enormously successful group, you know, who represent anti-abortion rights, anti-gay rights, anti-voting rights, anti-separation of church and state. these nominees have been idealogically uniform in a way that no prior administration has been. they have also been the least diverse group. i mean, if you saw that original shot, there were five white men sitting at that table. five. and that is typical of the bush nominees. very conservative, almost exclusively white men. and almost all getting through

well, the implications of that tweet are far-reaching, but first, we go to the white house to nbc's jeffe white house seems to be back-tracking on this tweet. we're accustomed to figuring out if what the president tweets is a statement from the man himself. sean spicer told us as much early on in this administration. what are they saying about this tweet in particular? >> reporter: yes, they're saying the tweets speak for themselves. in this case, the president's personal lawyer, john dowd, says he crafted the language for that tweet. he says he dictated the language for that tweet to dan scavino and that dowd mistakenly conflated flynn's lying to the fbi with flynn's lying to the vice president. and we should note that this is not the first time that dowd's name has emerged in the news. you'll rear a couple months ago, he and white house special counsel ty cobb were having lunch at a restaurant here in washington, and the two of them, david, were speaking so loudly about the russia case and how jared kushner figured into it that a "new york times" reporter seated nearby could hear the c

jeff zeleny. he is at the white house. , the president did not echo the same sentiments about russia that were outlined in a document released by the white house. >> reporter: he didn't, jim, you're right about that, but every president since ronald reagan has been required to release a national security strategy. basically an outline of the administration policy. and in the printed form from the white house earlier today, it talked specifically about a russia undermining democracies. but when the president spoke out loud, he made very little mention of that as he sought to fill in some of the blanks of his america first policy. >> america's coming back and america is coming back strong. >> reporter: president trump laying out his national security blueprint today, offering a broader look at his strategic world view. >> we also face rival powers russia and china that seek to challenge american influence, values and wealth. we will attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries, but in a manner that alwa

jeff bennett at the white house. jeff, thank you. republicans have been touting the final version of their tax plan as a win, not just for their party but for all americans. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell claims this legislation will bring, quote, real relief to the middle class by taking money out of washington's pocket and putting it into theirs. president trump says the cuss will promote jobs. major companies, cisco, pfizer and coca-cola say they will turn over most gains with corporate tax cuts to shareholders, undercutting president trump's plan to create jobs and boost middle class. quinnipiac show 26% of americans approve of american approve of the tax plan while 55% disapprove. for more who wins an loses,less bring in our panel, jordan fabian, politics reporter for "new york times," noah biermann and nbc national reporter jane tim. jordan, i'll start with you. we heard how the plan is supposed to help middle class americans, supposed to help corporations as well. who actually benefits -- who actually will this bill he

white house press briefing. did you see this? we get for from jeff zeleny. >> reporter: allegations of sexual harassment and miscondaumisconduct have rocked hollywood and the white house. a group of accusers coming front and center saying president trump should be held accountable for what they say his actions were. of course he has been accused by some 15 women of varying degrees of sexual harassment, misconduct, even assault over the years before becoming president. he even threatened to sue at one point. he never followed through on that. but the questions at the daily press briefing so strict and furious about president trump and his denials. this is what the white house press secretary said in his defense. >> the president has addressed these accusations directly. and denied all of these allegations. and this took place long before he was elected to be president, and the people of this country at a decisive election, supported president trump, and we feel like these allegations have been answered through that process. >> of course this is a diff

jeff zeleny, cnn, the white house. >> jeff, thanks. as mentioned the tax cut is the only significant piece of legislation to pass congress even though it's controlled by the president's other than party. jeff zeleny asked president trump if things would have gone better if he focused on a bipartisan issue earlier in his presidency, listen. >> you said you would start with infrastructure at the beginning the year -- >> we'll, we're going to get into infrastructure. infrastructure is what everyone wants, republicans and democrats. we're going to have tremendous democrat support. i actually wanted to save the easy one for the one down the road so we'll be having that done pretty quickly. i don't think we're going to have to do much selling, i think the corporations giving billions and billions of dollars away to their workers and many more are coming. i think that's really what's selling this more than anybody could. i think come february, when they open their checks and they see, wow, what happened, i had a lot more money in here. i thin

he said first that the white house should reconsider the nomination of jeff ma tier. d not proceed with the nomination of bret tally. now, both of these nominees in addition to several others, there has been a ka calf knee of criticism over these nominees really in the past few months. first of all i'll point to jeff. he's currently nominated for the federal judge spot in texas. but brooke there has been a waive of criticism because of speeches he's made in the past. in particular back in september cnn revealed back in 2015 jeff had made a speech where he called transgender children part of satan's plan. also said that same sex marriage would lead to problems with big a me and polygamy. so based on those comments there has been a wave of criticism about the selection from president trump. secondly the second nomination he pointed to was bret tally. mid-30s. but however bret tally has never tried a case. wife works for the white house as lawyer. he didn't disclose that in his senate forms when being considered by the judiciary committee. and also had a long list of soci

jeff benefit net at the white house, thank you so much for that. what you are seeing there live, marine one landed at andrews air force base. the president will be departing and boarding air force one bound for new york city in a few minutes. we will stay on this picture. a couple areas to go over. we will talk about taxes and the russian investigation. first with taxes, let's bring in heidi pryzbilla, and josh pharaoh, senior editor for business insider. guys, this will probably be short and sweet, a question to each of you. heidi, walk us through what you think it took mitch mcconnell to score this victory, what still needs to be hashed out within they go to conference. >> reporter: alex, he gave away basically what the senators asked for in terms of senator ron johnson wanting more relief for small businesses, senator susan collins said she got assurances that they will come back and patch up only things on health care. essentially, they added more money to the price tag to bring over some of these reluctant senators. there was one senator that

jeff bennett is at the white house this morning with more. porter: good morning, sheinelle. president trump so far isn't talking about, isn't tweeting about that bombshell plea deal involving his former national security advisor, michael flynn. a development, by the way, that marks a major milestone in special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. retired general michael flynn, once president trump's national security advisor and key confidant, now a convicted felon. flynn, who had called for hillary clinton to be thrown behind bars over her e-mails -- >> damn right. >> reporter: -- pleaded guilty friday to willfully and knowingly making false, fictitious and fraudulent statements for the fbi about his contacts with russia's former ambassador to the u.s., sergey kislyak, contacts he had previously denied. court documents state that on december 22nd, a, quote, very senior member of the trump transition team directed flynn to contact the russian government and others about a u.n. resolution on israeli settlements. sources familiar with

. >> jeff bennett joins me from the white house. hite house is towing the same line they did last year which is these women are not telling the truth. >> you would be right. the trump administration officials are rejecting these accusations, dismissing them as false. here's the official line from the white house, katy, coming from a white house spokesperson. the statement says this. these falls claims totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts were addressed at length during last year's campaign american people voiced their judgment by delivering a decisive victory. the timing and absurdity of the false claims speaks volumes, and the publicity tour that started only further confirms the political motives behind then. because the president has denied the allegations, the allegations should not be seen as credible. what's notable about that strategy is the president himself has used that same line in defending roy moore. the alabama senate candidate who has been accused of initiating sexual relationships with teenage girls w

let's begin with jeff zeleny at the white house for us. jeff, the cnn poll today found president trump's approval rating hitting a new low in a cnn poll. possibly passing this tax bill could help him get that number up. >> reporter: jake, that certainly is the hope of the white house, that any big accomplishment would improve his ratings, but that is an open question here. of course his approval is based on the full picture of his presidency. but one question here today at the white house, will this bill benefit the president more or the middle class? president trump on the verge of tasting victory on a $1.5 trillion tax plan. >> today we are giving the people of this country their money back. this is their money after all. >> reporter: despite protests in the house chamber, republicans finally flexed their muscles and relied on their congressional majority to help deliver what will be the gop's biggest legislative victory of the year. yet the tax bill scheduled to a final vote tonight in the senate remains deeply unpopular. opposition to t

bring in nbc's jeff bennett following it all day from the white house. jeff, donald trump made a big point signing the tax bill before christmas. what else can you tell us about this? >> reporter: you know, the president often reacts to what he sees on cable tv news. today, no different. the president by his own accounts. heard him call it a rush job earlier. he hastily called together staffers saying he needed to sign this legislation now, because he was watching television news. the question he saw, whether or not the president would keep his promise and sign this legislation by christmas. so that set in, a reshuffle. reshuffling the plans here at the white house. his trip to mar-a-lago pushed back a little. reporters kaled into the oval office to capture the bill signing, the biggest achievement of his presidency as you pointed out. i've asked a white house official. will the president still hold this formal event in january. they're not entirely sure. it matters because the white house previously was trying to carefully choreograph the slowest of stri

senior white house correspondent jeff zellony is joining us with the latest. right now republicans could be down at least two votes from what they need to pass their bill. this is tense. >> reporter: wolf, it's tense indeed, the white house and republican leaders have reached an agreement on the compromised version of their bill merging between the house and senate versions. while that plan is in place, the question tonight is are the votes there? president trump has been working behind the scenes on the telephone throughout the week and including this afternoon. trying to urge republicans to not let their biggest victory slip away. >> bun, two, three. >> reporter: president trump grabbed a pair of golden scissors today at a white house photo opportunity on cutting regulations, but beyond the smiles tonight, deep questions remained over the prospects of the signature republican tax plan. >> i think we will get there. it'll billion in a very short period of time. it will be the greatest christmas present that a lot of people have ever received. it'll be somethin

i want to start with nbc's jeff bennett, following the latest from the white house this afternoon. jeff, sarah huckabee sanders sort of addressed some of these accusations of sexual misconduct against the president, but that briefing was quite something. what can you tell us about what happened? >> reporter: you know, kasie, with the three women reviving their allegations of sexual misconduct against president trump, sarah huckabee sanders went back to the white house line. denied the ak kwoccusatiaccusat discrediting the suspects saying the timing was questionable. >> look, the president addressed these accusations directly and denied all of these allegations, and this took place long before he was elected to be president, and the people of this country had a decisive election, supported president trump and we feel like these allegations have been answered through that process. >> reporter: you heard her say some of the allegations took place long before the president is elected. that is actually not the case. some of the alleged misconduct actually took place a few years ago. thes

jeff bennett at the white house. joining me now, republican congressman from ohio and member of the house financial services committee warren davidson good to see you. congratulations to you and your colleagues. getting this tax bill passed. what's your general sense of it? what's the outcome now? a lot of disagreement about the effect of this tax bill. the effect it's going to have on the economy. what's your argument to your constituents now? >> i'm excited about it. it was a tremendous victory. it was a nice celebration, and people feel like it's a partisan victory because of the way the vote was and the messaging is. but this is a real win for america. a win for american companies. defensive in that sense. the corporate rate was a big reduction and moved us to the middle of the pack globally. we were at the back of the pack. so it really will keep us at -- >> i appreciate your language on that, because i've had to correct a lot of people saying the u.s. was the highest corporate tax country in the world, talking

the white house briefing as jeff pointed out scheduled to begin a little while from now. sanders will have to answer lots of questions including about nikki haley, the u.s. ambassador breaking with the white house line about the accuse accusers. more on the breaking news in the terror attack in new york city. more on the suspect who detonated a bomb in new york's port authority bus station. stand by. ♪ what i want, you've got, ♪ but it might be hard to handle ♪ ♪ like the flame that burns the candle ♪ ♪ the candle feeds the flame ♪ topped steak & twisted potatoes at applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. just serve classy snacks and bew a gracious host,iday party. no matter who shows up. do you like nuts? or a little internet machine? [ phone rings ] it makes you wonder. shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. so all you pay for is data. choose by the gig or unlimited. and ask how to get a $200 prepaid card when you buy any n

. >> cnn's jeff zeleny has more white house drama. >>reporter: good morning, dave and ali and. >> she is the senior adviser to the president in charge of african-american outreach. of course she also was the star in the apprentice series some years ago. she left the white house abruptly earlier in week. she was not pleased by that. there were reports of screaming and yelling and being taken out. white house officials have down played most of those but we know there was a back and forth series of exchanges. but it raises the question why will she still be on the government payroll for another month or so until she leaves in january, because she is no longer working here. we took that question to sarah sanders on thursday. >> you said she will stay on until january 20. why are the taxpayers continuing to pay her salary. >> as i just said i'm not going to weigh in any further into personnel matters. >> why is she still on the payroll for another month? is that normal. >> look, there's a lot of different protocols that take place. that's

so joining me is jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters and blake. fternoon to both of you. >> good afternoon. >> jeff, this was one of the things we saw seamlessly carry over from the campaign to the presidency. really an us versus them attitude and a fixation on pitting the media as the opposition party. why do you think trump feels like he needs to do this. >> i think president trump likes to have a foil, and i think he's used the media as a foil consistently throughout his political -- short political career and before that which he has acknowledged. and something that he's gone back to over and over since coming into the white house and no doubt will continue to do. it's something that also resonates well with his base, when he attacks the media and uses that fake news moniker. many people who voted for him and who are following him closely on twitter really respond to that and like that. and we've seen that at rallies as well when we go now following him as the president, but also when he was a candidate. if he turns his ire on the media, that g

. >> nbc's jeff bennett is at the white house once again with more on all this. they were your questions, we heard your voice there under the president, so what do you think the mood is from the building behind you right now? >> reporter: it's mixed emotions. one of victory and one of defeat. publicly the white house says the president is singularly focused on the next steps for this republican tax plan, as the house and senate sort of conference their two bills together. privately, though, alex, people close to the president are telling us that the president was blindsided not just about the news of michael flynn's guilty plea, but the fact that he's now cooperating with the special counsel, which suggests that michael flynn could have information about people higher up in the trump food chain that special counsel investigators want to get to. and we know based on the court documents that mike flynn, nbc news is reporting, has implicated jared kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior advisor, as well as k.t. mcfarland, a former trump advisor. so the questi

. >> for more on the president's speech and the impact it could have i'm joined by jeff bennett at the white. jeff, tell me more about this. >> reporter: ali, you didn't see it there, but the first part of the president's speech was reminiscent of a trump campaign speech from 2016. spent about the first ten minutes of the speech laying out the greatest hits of his first 11 months in office, as the president sees it, to include the success of the stock market. something that has very little 20 do with national security. as he moved into a summation of his national security strategy, what you saw was the president lay down the guideposts for what you could call the trump doctrine saying the u.s. exists in you new era of competition, pointed to rival powers such as china, such as russia and said the u.s. could cooperate with russia when the opportunity arises pointing out he spoke to russian president vladimir putin yesterday, putin calling the president, thanking him for a tip from the cia that helped putin apparently thwart a terrorist attack planned in st. petersburg and also threats of rogu

no doubt makes for interesting uncertainties to head for a white house that's about to celebrate its first big legislative victory. more from jeff zeleny who joins us from the white house. what is the latest from there tonight? still confident on how this will play out? >> the white house is very confident how this is playing out. they are watching the debate unfold on the senate floor. an aide told me this is largely just a pro forma. they are watching but not worried at all. they know they have the votes they need. it's interesting, though, a few weeks ago president trump talked about getting democratic support and votes. that will not happen. we know the democrats are opposing this lock step. republicans, though, do believe they have votes and one reason we know, i'm told by an official they're planning a celebration ceremony tomorrow afternoon here at the white house. they've invited republicans from capitol hill up here to celebrate the passage of the listing legislative victory. all that is just procedure. the white house is intending to take a victory lap tomorrow. the preponderance wisident will bill at that time. he wil

despite increasing momentum of the mueller investigation, they told white house kronlt jeff bennett he was not concerned about collusion. >> thank you all very much. thank you very much. thank you. >> by phone, sharon is joining us by phone, reporter for "new york times." as you look through the article, i'll read the title, says e-mails dispute white house claims that flynn acted independently on russia. then sharon won asks who else might be involved in the process. >> reporter: what we learned is that the narrative has changed, right? what the white house had been saying was that flynn talked to the russian ambassador about u.s. sanctions against russia and that the other transition official on the trump team didn't know about it but in fact the e-mails coupled with michael flynn showed that others did know he was talking to the russian ambassador and that kt macfarland's e-mail with another transition official were forwarded to six trump transition officials, including reince priebus, shaean spicer a steve bannon. >> you add those names to the list of potential people that knew thi

first, let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. jeff, on the day after the president's major tax bill victory, he's now facing some very sobering numbers in our brand-new poll. >> reporter: wolf, he is indeed. those numbers come specifically that 56% of americans in our poll say they do not trust what the president says about the russia investigation. now, this speaks to his legitimacy, his credibility here, of course, as the white house is preparing to take a victory lap for that tax plan that was passed this week. even as the vice president is landing in afghanistan and the president is visiting troops tonight at walter reed. >> i bring greetings from your commander in chief. >> reporter: vice president pence secretly touching down in afghanistan tonight. meanwhile, president trump, who has yet to visit a war zone as commander in chief, visiting wounded warriors at walter reed medical center. >> we're just going to wish them a merry christmas, a happy new year, and we love those people. >> reporter: white house officials say he's

let's go to jeff zeleny right now who's at the white house with new information about how president trump is is taking all the news. jeff? >> reporter: well, jake, good evening. first and foremost, i can tell you the silence here at the white house is deafening. this is something the president tweets so often as we know, they talk about so many things. not tonight. there's not been any official word from the president of his team as they've been watching these. we have been talking to several republicans close to the white house. i was talking to one just a short time ago. he described this as a wake-up call to the president. specifically talking about steve bannon. they believe that the president followed steve bannon, his chief strategist's, lead on this and decided to gradually increase his support for roy moore over the last three weeks or so. the president was advised by so many republicans in this town, on capitol hill, at the rnc, to stay out of it. he followed steve bannon's lead and got into it. several other republicans are also speaking out against this. one republican source c

to jeff zeleny outside the white house with more.gn this thing in the oval office, but not have a big to do around it, not on camera, right? no questions that we know of? >> at least that is the word we're getting right now. it's interesting the president just sending out the message a short time ago saying he will sign this bill into law in the next half hour or so privately in the oval office. aides and advisors say this will be a private ceremony, certainly a striking departure from how the president normally likes to announce or herald these type of things. particularly on the biggest legislative accomplishment of the year. it is raising some questions why he didn't have a bigger event in the rose garden as was initially planned or some place else here in the white house. the president has signed so many executive orders this year, had so many ceremonies for different matters. this is the first real big piece of legislation and and as of now we're told he will sign it privately. many discussions going on behind the scenes this mo

let's go to the white house right now. cnn's jeff zelleny is standing by right now. g on mccabe and comey, any reaction from the white house tonight? >> reporter: there is no reaction on this new reporting from the white house tonight. i've reached out to several officials here at the white house to ask them directly about this loyalty pledge, of course, and the fact that it seems to be backing this original story up, and we've not gotten a response. at the time though wolf, white house defended that private meeting saying that the president asked for pledges of loyalty and expects it from a lot of people who work for him. but of course this was so much different because this was the fbi director. but on the new reporting, there is no reaction yet from the white house. >> also new cnn polling about the president's and robert mueller's handling of the russia investigation. tell us about that. >> reporter: it offers an interesting look at how the different figure gss figures are viewed by the american public. take a look at numbers out this evening. in terms of bob muel

let's go of to jeff zeleny at the white house. w the president is watching the results come in. >> reporter: we do indeed, wolf. i'm told the president is in the residence of the white house watching the results come in and watching this alabama race very carefully. over the last three weeks ago so he has gradually distanced himself from the republican leaders up on capitol hill who have been sharply critical of roy moore. well, the question is what happens if he wins, if he'll, you know, what the president will do then. i am told that the president's support for moore offers a window into this thinking. it's really been somewhat of a kra shen doe if you will. he initially was tepid in his support. but i am told by a republican official close to this white house the president does not plan to support any kind of talk of censure if he comes or any type of resistance. his message will be the people of alabama have spoken. now, the interesting question will be if jones wins, will that still be the president's message, of course? wolf,

jeff bennett is at the white house. kacie hunt on capitol hill. kacie, there may be a deal but a deal to do this all over again it would seem. what's latest from the funding? what are the issues that have made this a difficult problem? >> it looks like, craig, they're going to keep governing the way they have for quite some time now. members of congress have talked a lot about how they would like to actually write budgets, actually do real appropriations in the parlance of capitol hill. and, again, it doesn't seem to be happening. they don't even have a broad deal on how much to spend on defense versus nondefense. that's why they waited this long in the first place. they put it off until december 22nd so they can try to get that kind of deal. they don't have that. they also don't have a deal on the children's health insurance program, as you point out, on how to deal with the obamacare markets after those payments were eliminated. what to do about dreamers. how to reauthorize a surveillance program. disaster relief. we may see happen today as well

nbc's jeff bennett is at the white house with more for us. jeff, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, willie. this robert mueller's russia investigation appears to inch closer to the president's inner circle, president trump is defiant, telling me he's not concerned about the guilty plea of his former national security adviser, michael flynn. >> with you concerned about what michael flynn might tell the special counsel? >> no, i'm not. >> reporter: president trump addressing for the first time his former national security adviser's guilty plea for lying to fbi investigators about prior contacts with a russian official. as part of a plea deal, michael flynn has agreed to fully cooperate with special counsel robert mueller's investigation into russian election interference. >> what has been shown is no collusion, no collusion. there's been absolutely no collusion, so we're very happy. [ inaudible question ] we'll see what happens. thank you! >> reporter: but on twitter, the president defended flynn, writing "it is a shame, because his action