mr. sanders: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you. mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. the senator is recognized. mr. sanders: in that case, it doesn't have to be vitiated. mr. president, we are at a pivotal moment. if the congress does not get its act together by tomorrow there will be a government shut down. a government shut down will be extraordinarily destructive to the people of our country, millions of whom depend upon government services. it will be destructive to millions of federal employees who keep their families going with a paycheck from the government. it will be destructive to the united states armed forces, men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us. so it seems to me that we have got to do everything that we can to prevent a government shut down. now, as everybody knows, we have a republican party which controls the united states senate, republican party which controls the u.s. house of representatives, and a republican who i

mr. sanders: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you. mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitd.

the first was about the status of mr sanders. and the second question. was. how it can be seen as a diplomatic as from the point of your diplomatic status. well first of all when we talk about citizenship we're talking about providing guarantees. and. in no way the state is gives any international guarantees to the person who granted the status so the second question was. the status right. his mobility work to be able to move. well evidently any. mobility of a person who's six asylum in an embassy is a question to be decided in dialogue with the u.k. which is something we're doing right now as we've seen and on numerous occasions we are having a bilateral dialogue with the u.k. . and whenever we have such a dialogue on the any such dialogue delicate topic any comments need to be very. selective we these comments need not interfere with the dialogue that we have right now. graters. good afternoon mr miss minister. but i don't think that a crank. the u.k. has denied the diplomatic status of mr sands. and the foreign ministry of the u.k. has said that. the only

mr. sanders: madam president. the presiding officer: the -- the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to be allowed as much time as needed to complete my remarks. the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. mr. sanders: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: despite president trump's quote that we need a good shut down, the truth is that shutting down the government is a serious and dangerous action that we must do everything possible to prevent. shutting down the government would impact tens of millions of our fellow americans who would be unable to access government services. it would severely impact federal employees who would not get the paychecks they expected. it would also have a very significant impact on our armed forces. in other words, we must do everything that we can to prevent a government shutdown, which is exactly what will happen if a budget agreement is not reached by january 19 when the short-term continuing resolution expires. i am very disappointed, therefo

mr. sanders: thank you. mr. president, i rise today to speak on behalf of nearly 800,000 dreamers, young people who were brought to this country as children who today are living in fear and uncertainty. as a result of the trump administration's decision to end the daca program, these young people are at risk of losing their legal status and in fact face deportation from the only home that most of them have ever known. and that home is the united states of america. this is one of the great moral issues of our time and it is an issue that must be dealt with now as part of the budget negotiations. it cannot be kicked down the road any longer. we must pass the dream act now as part of the current budget negotiations. mr. president, in the last six years since the daca program was established, these young people, again people who were brought to this country as infants in many cases, were finally able to breathe al sigh of relief -- breathe a sigh of relief. for the first time in their lives, they could walk the stre

mr. sanders: thank you very much, mr. president. today i come before my colleagues here in the senate to urge in the strongest possible terms that the republican leadership here accept its responsibility and not allow the government of the united states of america to shut down. republicans control the u.s. senate. they control the u.s. house. and a republican is in the white house. please do not shut the government down. a government shutdown will be extremely distressing and difficult for millions of people in every state in our country who utilize government services. a government shutdown will be extremely painful for millions of federal employees who depend upon their paychecks to provide for their families. and a government shutdown will make it muches more difficult -- much more difficult for the united states military, the men and women who are putting their lives on the line to defend us, to do their jobs. the american people do not want a government shutdown. i do not want a government shutdown. and i believe that most of m

mr. sanders: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you. mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. the senator is recognized. mr. sanders: in that case, it doesn't have to be vitiated. mr. president, we are at a pivotal moment. if the congress does not get its act together by tomorrow there will be a government shut down. a government shut down will be extraordinarily destructive to the people of our country, millions of whom depend upon government services. it will be destructive to millions of federal employees who keep their families going with a paycheck from the government. it will be destructive to the united states armed forces, men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us. so it seems to me that we have got to do everything that we can to prevent a government shut down. now, as everybody knows, we have a republican party which controls the united states senate, republican party which controls the u.s. house of representatives, and a republican who i

mr. george sanders. [applause] hi thank you so much for being here. i just i came here i called my wife she said where are you reading i said miami-dade college oh, i went there. you've been after 30 yearses you can be surprised. but she often tells story she was a dancer in new york city and had sort of thinnish high school in a regular way made her way here and this is where her intellectual life opened up and first novel is come out in august so she sends her greetings to miami-dade. this -- book was my first mofl but actually it was my first published novel. there's yeah. [laughter] there's this -- many years ago my wife and i met at syracuse students will, and many that romantic syracuse ambience -- we gotten engaged in three weeks married seven or eight months -- pregnant on honeymoon and then she had trouble with her regulate city and had to go to bed for five months of the pregnancy and happened with second daughter as well so by the time we had known each other two yearses are he had morphed from groovy beatnik to trembling aspiring suburbans

mr. sanders: thank you very much, mr. president. today i come before my

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: thank you. mr. president, i rise today to speak on behalf of nearly 800,000 dreamers, young people who were brought to this country as children who today are living in fear and uncertainty. as a result of the trump administration's decision to end the daca program, these young people are at risk of losing their legal status and in fact face deportation from the only home that most of them have ever known. and that home is the united states of america. this is one of the great moral issues of our time and it is an issue that must be dealt with now as part of the budget negotiations. it cannot be kicked down the road any longer. we must pass the dream act now as part of the current budget negotiations. mr. president, in the last six years since the daca program was established, these young people, again people who were brought to this country as infants in many cases, were finally able

mrs. sanders saying he was disgusted by the comment that they were untrue and all that. ve heard also is some comments he has made about how mr. bannon didn't help the cause in alabama. bannon basically backed the -- and president trump basically lost the candidate in alabama and donald trump, jr.'s comments sweet mr. bannon about that election. david: kind of makes you want to buy the book, doesn't it? jodi: ian: i think that was the intent. david: coming up, we are looking at surging prices, may be in for a shellshocked. this is bloomberg. ♪ david: this is "bloomberg markets: asia." controleizing of embryo. -- air. they can offer defense businesses without compromising. is now --ethere rose.r net loss for the. , the charge comes from earning sales over taxation and adjustment to deferred tax -- earnings will be below the 5.8 to 5.9, a share there. high, whatever you want to call it. have more thanks doubled. government says it would allow exports of medicinal weed. friendly rose about 125% shy of a 32% aim for the whole of last year. they say further litigation in the s

mrs. sanders' criticism. jillian: we will see what happens.onfident that they can win back balance of power, is it the same sense of security hillary clinton had in 2016, we debate the left's chance next. rob: but first, he's going to have to deal with own legal troubles here at home. we will talk about that. ♪ jillian: 30 minutes after the hour, good morning to you, illegal immigrant accused of threatening to kill passengers on grayhound bus will stay behind bars, passengers on the bus to milwaukee to chicago, rosas was terrorizing passengers on board. memory loss is top threat to national security according to california attorney general, about president making comments of africa and haitian countries. >> the inability to recall conversation, can you imagine when you have a conversation about nuclear war or what we do about natural disasters, that's dangerous. jillian: well, the president has cited border security as top priority, the senator has fought to preserve daca. senator flake taking aim at commander in chief. comparing president tru

mr. sanders to caucus with them. i've known bernie sanders as long as i have known hillary clinton.ernie came to support jesse jackson as a democratic socialist mayor of burlington. he became a member of congress. he played a hell of a role in the jackson campaign getting progressives to come on board. he campaigned as an antiestablishment candidate in the 2016 cycle. there was a lot of excitement for him with democrats and independents. i believe he deserves to have a seat at the table. going forward, the party has to be inclusive. it has to be open to new voices and new faces, and i would hope that the democratic party will allow independents to come in and be a part of the system, but they have to become part of the democratic party. we have to strengthen the party. we cannot weaken it. we have to strengthen it from the inside out. brian: i want to show you some video, it is only 23 seconds long. i think you call donald duck "the damn duck." then you can tell us a story. >> donald duck, i am asking today as his representative, we are here to ask why he is ducking releasing his ta

mr. sanders to caucus with them. i've known bernie sanders as long as i have known hillary clinton. bernie came to support jesse jackson as a democratic socialist mayor of burlington. he became a member of congress. he played a hell of a role in the jackson campaign getting progressives to come on board. he campaigned as an antiestablishment candidate in the 2016 cycle. there was a lot of excitement for him with democrats and independents. i believe he deserves to have a seat at the table. going forward, the party has to be inclusive. it has to be open to new voices and new faces, and i would hope that the democratic party will allow independents to come in and be a part of the system, but they have to become part of the democratic party. we have to strengthen the party. we cannot weaken it. we have to strengthen it from the inside out. brian: i want to show you some video, it is only 23 seconds long. i think you call donald duck "the damn duck." then you can tell us a story. >> donald duck, i am asking today as his representative, we are here to ask why he is ducking releasing his

mr. bannon. ms. sanders: the book also said he had been sidelined by april, which goes further to indicate that he has very little credibility to give much information, particularly after that point, which most of the book is based after that time frame. again, this book is mistake after mistake after mistake -- reporter: were they not close by the time that you -- ms. sanders: i am not aware that they were ever particularly close. i would certainly say that they have spoken a few times since he left the white house, but it is regularlyhere were scheduled calls and certainly no meetings between the two of them. fred? reporter: thank you, sarah. does the president favor a national voter id? ms. sanders: look, we will continue to review the best way forward. just because the election commission is no longer in existence, we are going to send the preliminary findings from the commission to the department of homeland security and make determinations on the best way forward from that point. reporter: why dhs inst

mr. sanders: thank you. mr. president, i rise today to speak on behalf of nearly 800,000 dreamers, young people who were brought to this country as children who today are living in fear and uncertainty. as a result of the trump administration's decision to end the daca program, these young people are at risk of losing their

sanders: once again, the president and his feelings toward mr. bannon are very clear in his statement. there is not much to add beyond that. there is not much gray area. francesca? francesca: picking up on that, this is a dramatic falling out between the president, and someone worked on his campaign and also who worked on the white house closely every day. i think everyone is wondering, what led to this dramatic falling out, was it the loss of roy moore in the senate race, is this a direct response, steve e to steve bannon calling the president's son unpatriotic? sanders: i think calling unpatriotict's son is outrageous. >> a notice planing how the book came to be said for 18 months, including many -- 200 people, many of the president -- sec. sanders: he never sat down with the president, just to be very clear. there was one brief conversation that had nothing to do originally what the book. it was around five to seven minutes in total since the president has taken office, and that is the only interaction has had. >> any phone calls? sec. sanders

mr. sanders: thank you very much, mr. president.today i come before my colleagues here in the senate to urge in the strongest possible terms that the republican leadership here accept its responsibility and not allow the government of the united states of america to shut down. republicans control the u.s. senate. they control the u.s. house. and a republican is in the white house. please do not shut the government down. a government shutdown will be extremely distressing and difficult for millions of people in every state in our country who utilize government services. a government shutdown will be extremely painful for millions of federal employees who depend upon their paychecks to provide for their families. and a government shutdown will make it muches more difficult -- much more difficult for the united states military, the men and women who are putting their lives on the line to defend us, to do their jobs. the american people do not want a government shutdown. i do not want a government shutdown. and i believe that most of my

sanders: the president continued to have conversations with him, also often asked for by mr. bannon. it does not mean he cannot hold that position. >> your comments about kim jong-un, is that the psychological assessment or is that your opinion? ms. sanders: i will not get into any further details on that front. one last question. i will come back. andrew, go ahead. >> president enjoyed a slight bump in popularity when golfing. is it possible americans like him more when he is out of the news and not tweeting? ms. sanders: i think americans like the fact that he got the largest tax cut in history done and the fact that they will see a lot more of their paycheck and the fact that american companies are investing in this country and not other ones. they like the fact that american companies are now giving out massive bonuses across the board. we are seeing every single day more and more companies and announce decisions like that. i think that is what most americans are certainly very happy about as they went into the holiday season and had a little more money to consider spendin

sanders: thank you, mr. president. as he said, this is only the beginning, and we are excited to see the economic growth and optimism continued to soar in 2018. earlier today, the president hosted republican senators to talk about responsible immigration reform. he reiterated our view that any action on daca must come with action on the president's immigration reform principles which were released last year. these include a physical border wall on the southern border, interior enforcement, which means more ice and border patrol agents as well as a crackdown on sanctuary cities, and reforms to the legal immigration system, like ending chain migration and the visa lottery program in favor of a merit-based immigration system. next week the president is inviting a bipartisan group of senators to the white house to discuss the next step on responsible immigration reform and to continue that discussion. with that, i will take your questions. reporter: sarah, a follow-up on the steve bannon issue. did white house staff, inclu

sanders. >> thank you, mr. chairman and doctor hall for being here. i think before we do oversight over the cbo, it might be a good idea to do oversight over this committee. it might be a good idea for the budget committee to actually produce a budget. and it was a radical idea. but that is what we want to do. maybe it might be a good idea for the republican leadership, 116 days into the fiscal year, actually do something more to give a short-term budget resolution. the truth is, as any business person in america will tell you, you can't run any kind of entity on a month-to-month basis. we are a $4 trillion entity. that is what the united states government is. there are some agencies clearly that need more funding. there are some agencies that need less funding. and the idea that we are saying that every agency of government, every month we get exactly the same amount of money that they previously got, because of continuing resolution is not set. i suspect if anyone looked at it he would find they were wasting tens and tens of billions of dollars. fun

white house press secretary sarah sanders dismissed the allegations, and said mr.mp is justifiably angry. >> i think, furious, disgusted would probably certainly fit, when you make such outrageous claims and completely false claims against the president, his administration and his family. >> brangham: we'll delve into this more deeply, after the news summary. in the day's other news, former trump campaign chair paul manafort sued the justice department and special counsel robert mueller, who's leading the russia investigation. manafort has been charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, working for ukraine. he argues investigators overstepped their bounds by indicting him for conduct unrelated to russian interference in the election. iran's elite revolutionary guards has now deployed to three provinces to put down protests that began a week ago. at least 21 have dies, and the unrest kept spreading today, even as officials organized major rallies to support the government. we'll have a full report, later in the program. north korea reopened a cross- border

sanders: we feel that mr. comey and others have been highly politicized -- but certainly, more generally speaking, it had become political, and that was one reason why the president wanted director ray there. someone with impeccable integrity. and if there are changes that need to be made, he will do so. how does he know that director ray will not resign? i haven't been part of those, so i can't speak to that. i haven't spoken to him, i was part of any conversation. curious what the conversation was. because he was concerned about these reports. ms. sanders: director ray is the head of the top law enforcement agency. it is very routine that he would speak to the white house counsel as well as the attorney general. as i understand it, the conversations have been routine, not whether or not he would keep his position. if anything further, you should ask the department of justice are the fbi. >> does the president think that andrew mccabe should step down? concerns --ed about does the president have concerned wit

mr. bannon with respect to the campaign. >> sanders citing executive privilege that goes back decades. >>wledge that has never happened in history. and it is happening right now with mr. bannon and also not supported by any case law or any statute. we believe this is the white house in most aggressive way yet, trying -- i hope when he does come back that and we are hoping that is soon that is correct -- the white house will clear the way. they should allow him to testify without any parameters on his testimony. but that has to be sorted out sooner rather than later and that is a decision by the white house. otherwise he should be held in c contempt. >> did either of them invoke executive privilege in the same way bannon did? >> a senior level executive branch member testified today and was asked questions about the campaign, the transition and told us that he was under no instructions to invoke executive privilege which shows the white house is selectively picking who can tell us what. now cory lewandowski is continuing to answer questions by the campaign won't go into anything that was s

sanders of vermont. >> senator from vermont. >> fifty. mr. president, ie asked the quorum call be initiated. >> senate is not in a form call. >> okay, that does not have to be issued. mr. president, we are in a pivotal moment if the congress does not get its act together by tomorrow there will be a government shutdown. a government shutdown would be extraordinarily destructive to the people of our country, millions of depend upon government services andnd it wil be destructive to millions of federal employees keep their families going with a paycheck from the government. it will be destructive to the united states armed forces, men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us. it seems to me that got to do everything we can to prevent a government shutdown. now, is everyone knows we have a republican party which controls the united states senate, republican party which controls the us house of representatives and republican who is the white house, president trump. we are now three and a half months into the fiscal year and yet the r

mr. chairman, dr. hall, welcome. senator sanders covered some of the issues i was going to ask you about, but i want to ask you about the impact of cr's on the work of the congressional budget office. we heard from the pentagon spokesperson a few weeks ago that going from cr to cr, we have had four results in wasteful spending at the defense department, and has negative consequences for our defense. cr makeng from cr to your work at cbo harder, and what are the consequences? >> it does make things harder. we have actually put off some things, some computer work and things like that. rightcontinue under a cr, now i think we will have to curtail our higher and move down and moveds -- hire down a few spots, cancel some training and travel. it does have a consequence for us. >> in terms of your planning, does it make your planning harder and does that lead to inefficiencies in terms of being able to hire when you need to? >> yes, it does. >> congress reauthorize the children's health insurance program for six years, and as was reference

sanders: the president continue to have conversations , often asked for by mr. bannon. that does not mean he can't hold that position. your comments about kim jong in mental illness, is that based on a psychological assessment? sec. sanders: i am not going to get into further details on that front. i will take one must question. reporter: the president enjoyed golfing in florida. can you talk about when name -- if the americans like a more? sec. sanders: i think americans like him or that he got the largest tax cut in history done. i think they like the fact that american companies are investing that in this country and on other ones. i think they like the fact that american companies are now giving out massive bonuses across the board, we are seeing every single day more and more companies announced decisions like that. i think that is what most americans certainly were happy about. particularly as they went into the holiday season. to they had more money consider spending as they celebrated christmas with their families. well the president -- is on theng critics, presi

mr. mccabe. white house press spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders was asked whether pressure from the trump administrationd any role in the decision. >> the only thing the president has applied pressure to is to make sure we get this resolved so that you guys and everyone else can focus on the things americans actually care about and that is making sure everybody gets the russia fever out of their system once and for all. >> nothing improper, nothing inappropriate whatsoever from the president since he came into office since he came to this investigation? >> no. brent: we want to get to our washington bureau correspondent. good afternoon to you. we have andrew mccabe coming under pressure from the white house. tell us why that is. michel: well, mccabe has been associated as a close former ally of former fbi to james comey. he was fired last year as he was investigating possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. it is not a surprise that trump would like to get rid of mccabe given the closeness to trump enemy james comey. and of course for republicans and trout, mccabe -- trump, mccabe had b

mr. bannon. >> other white house officials were not working with him in helping ms. sanders: -- -- ms. sanders: any who did as far as we can tell -- >> monday at 5:00 p.m., can we , where its on that will be televised, will there be any -- i do not want to spoil anything but there are quite a few individuals who will be up for those awards. beyond that, we will have to see what happens monday. we will keep you posted. it might be hard for him to present trophies if you are not there but we will have to wait and see what happens monday. justin. >> one on policy. a letter from the department of transportation, just so the administration -- the framework for the rail tunnel in new jersey, this infrastructure, i wonder if the president -- [laughter] in principle supports the 50/50 split and if not, what has changed from the bipartisan delegation last year. as we get further into the year and further into conversations on infrastructure, we will roll out details on what we want to do, what we want to accomplish, and what the plan is to do that. you say shorter list on the demands on immigra

mr mckay. white house press spokesman sarah huckabee sanders was asked whether pressure from the trumpet biggest gratian played any role in mccabe's decision here's what she had to say. given that the president's apply pressure to you is to make sure we get this resolved so that you guys and everyone else can focus on the things that americans actually care about and that is making sure everybody gets the russia fever out of their system once and for all you know shorten adjusters nothing nothing improper nothing inappropriate here at all whatsoever from the president since he came into office when it comes to this vote no. all right for more now we want to go to our washington bureau our correspondent there michelle can you give standing by good afternoon to you michelle so we've got andrew became he's been coming under increasing pressure from the white house that it's no secret tell us more about why that is well make the case has been closely associated and regard as a close ally a former f.b.i. chief james called me and told me of course was was fired last year by president trump as he was

. >> it is good to see -- >> even though his own press secretary sarah sanders conceded on cnn, mr. trump hasn't even read it. >> has the president seen the memo yet? >> not that i'm aware of. i know he hadn't prior to and immediately after the state of the union. >> while she waffled on it, john kelly was much more clear. apparently brushing off concerns from wray and can rosenstein. they both tried to change kelly's mind earlier this week. >> it will be released and the whole world can see it. >> what changes the next day? do you think things change the next day after, do you think? >> again, i'll let all the experts decide that when it is released. this president, again, it is so unique that he wants everything out so the american people can make up their own minds. if there are people to be held accountable, so be it. >> democrats say the imagine behind the memo, devin nunes, would not reveal whether his staff would work the white house. >> i asked the chairman, did he work with, and i asked all the preliminaries, coordinate, discuss, and he said not to my knowledge. i asked, di

mr. bernie sanders. brian: yes. how is your new year's eve? not as good as this one.crash the south white house. ♪ doctors and pharmacists for their own frequent heartburn. doctors and all day all night protection. when it comes to frequent heartburn, trust nexium 24hr. ♪ steve: talk about being in the right place at the right time. a group that gathered in palm beach, florida to welcome the president in mar-a-lago got the surprise of a lifetime saturday when the president invited him in for a visit. how did that all happen? joining us now is the person who got the unexpected private tour from the president he joins us now from palm beach. good morning to you. >> good morning. steve: you are out on southern boulevard. you are all holding up great big signs that are positive toward the president. he goes by. 20 minutes later a white van pulls up, says hop, in we will take you to mar-a-lago. what happened next? >> oe yes. it was a great day. next they brought us in. they brought us over to mar-a-lago and they let us over by the pool. once we got over by the pool. the pr

. >> secretary sanders: thank you mr. president.s i said, this is only the beginning, we are excited to see the economic growth and optimism continued to soar in 2018. earlier today the president hosted republican senators to talk about responsible immigration reform. he integrated the view that any action on daca must come with the actual reform principles that were released last year. these include a physical border wall on the southern border, interior or a reinforcement which is more border patrol agents as well as a crackdown on sinks where he said and reforms to the legal immigration system like ending chain migration and the visa lottery program in favor of a merit based immigration system. next week the president is inviting a bipartisan group of senators to the white house to discuss the next steps on responsible immigration reform and to continue that discussion. and with that, i will take your questions. >> a follow up on the steve bannon account issue, the white house staff including steve have to sign nondisclosure agre

mr. costa asked sarah huckabee sanders if d.r.e.a.m.ers should have confidence a deal would be made. she quickly answered yes -- >> as long as it meets the president's criteria, or whatever she said. >> right. that to me shows to a certain extent the presidency is operating in a bubble, because 15,000 d.r.e.a.m.ers already lost their protections. >> right. >> we have immigration rates taking place across the country at these 7-elevens. an activist in new york city taken into detention. things are happening on the ground. for these d.r.e.a.m.ers, it's a roller coaster. someone part of nbc news be latino, we cover immigration and follow immigration and talk to sources every day. >> yeah. >> it is often very -- lately, often confusing to me, to many of us who follow this so closely. so how can people whose lives are going to be affected by this, could be upended? how could they vi have any confidence in think future? >> as of this morning, provide visions for the d.r.e.a.m.ers has don't lead to a path to citizenship citizenship. you said yesterday it's a nonstarter. if this is true -- w

mr. bannon with respect to the campaign. >> sanders also characterized bannon citing executive privilegewhite house following a practice that's gone back decades. has any other administration tried to exert executive privilege for anything that's happened during the transition? >> no, to my knowledge that's never happened in history. it's happening right now with mr. bannon. it also is not supported by any case law or any statute. and so, again, we believe this is the white house in its most aggressive way yet trying to obstruct our investigation. >> tray gowdy said he's been told bannon is coming back tomorrow. can you confirm that? and do you think he should be held in contempt of congress if he continues to refuse to cooperate? >> i hope when he does come back that -- and we are hoping that's soon, that the white house will clear the way. the president said after all that he wants to fully cooperate. and so they should allow him to testify without any parameters on his testimony. but that has to be sorted out sooner rather than later and that's a decision by the white house. otherwise

the first question on steve bannon from president secretary sarah sanders. >> it's clear what his position on mr. bannon is. it's pretty lengthy and pretty detailed and there's not much to clarify or add. >> is there regret? they did have a long and close working relationship. >> once again, the president's statement fully addresses his position and his relationship with with mr. bannon is. april? >> when is the last time the president talked to steve bannon and this is a serious question. is the question blocking steve bannon from calling his cell phone? >> i'm not aware he was calling his cell phone. the last conversation took place the first part of december. >> what is the news to the base? what does this do to the president's base? >> i don't think it does anything to the president's base. the base and the people that supported this president supported the president and supported his agenda. those things haven't changed. the president still is exactly who he was yesterday as he was two years ago when he started out on the campaign trail. his agenda hasn't changed and his continue to fight a

mr. mccabe. is he disappointed he's leaving his post as the deputy f.b.i. director? ms. sanders: i haven't asked if he was disappointed, i can tell you he didn't play a role in that process. reporter: in one of the president's tweets in december he said andrew mccabe is, quote, racing the clock to retire with full benefits, 90 days to go. does the president belief that andrew mccabe should be allowed to retire with full benefits? ms. sander: again i refer you to the f.b.i. for any specifics around the news of today of his stepping down. reporter: i have a question about the state of the union. you mentioned who would be in the first lady's box at the state of the union you talked about a lot of different guests. i didn't hear anything about the president's family. can you say choff the president's family members will be there? nd can you potentially preview travel the president will take? ms. sanders: all the president's children will be at the state of the union along with the first lady, with the exception of barron, i don't think he'll be there. as far as travel we'll keep yo

th reporter: sanders said the author, michael wolff, only had limited access to mr.mp, a claim wolff disputed this morning. >> i mean, i've spent about three hours with the president over the course of the campaign and in the white house. >> reporter: in a tweet today, the president called that book phony, said it was full of lies, and implied that wolff has made a career out of inventing stories. jeff. >> glor: margaret brennan, thank you very much. the f.b.i. is once again investigating a charity the president often brings up, the clinton foundation. here's justice correspondent jeff pegues. >> this program has created more d momore opportunities. >> reporter: cbs news has learned in recent weeks f.b.i. agents have been re-examining the clinton foundation's finances. unents want to know if donations were made in exchange for political favors between 2009 pod 2013 when hillary clinton was secretary of state. >> my theory about all this is disclose everything, and then let people make their judgments. cl reporter: since president dainton left office, his foundation h

mr. kushner's role in the prison reform initiative? >> secretary sanders: he's helping lead that conversation. and put stakeholders together from a number of different areas that have expertise this matter. one last question. anita? >> going back to immigration, can you just shed a little bit of light on what the holdup is? mebls of the republican party were in the negotiations, they are the ones saying they agree with democrats. the administration has been in the meetings, at least some of them. what do you not like? >> secretary sanders: there's only one member that said there was a deal reached and the other members are well in sync on the same page that we haven't quite gotten there but we feel like we're close. we're going to keep having this conversation, the president had a meeting here today, with a number of members, both from the house and senate republicans and dem cats. democrats as a followup discussion on immigration. again, we feel very strongly we can get a deal made. >> the president talked about missing, is that the issue, or funding? >>

sanders: i think the president's statement fully addresses what his position and what his relationship with mrwas the last time the president talked to steve bannon? is the president now blocking steve bannon? reporter: i am not aware --sec. sanders: i am not aware he was calling his cell phone. i believe the last conversation took place at the first part of december. reporter: [indiscernible] sec. sanders: i don't think it does anything to the president's base. the base and the people who supported this president supported the president and his agenda. those things have not changed. the president is exactly who he was yesterday as he was two years ago when he started out on the campaign trail. as agenda has not changed. he is continuing to fight for and push for that agenda. i think the base is extremely excited and happy with the job this president has done and his first year in office, look at all he is accomplished, he is hot -- they are happy with where he is. reporter: steve bannon has been following -- some people who may not necessarily be for the other, people. what happens there? sec

mr. leahy: madam president, my colleague from vermont, senator bernie sanders, wrote a what i feel is a terrific op-ed about why we should not -- why we do not need to close down the government, why we can do our work and why we should and the people rely on us to. i'd ask unanimous consent that that op-ed piece be placed in the record at this point. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. i have two requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have been approved by the majority and the minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, when we were debating the tax relief law at the end of last year, it was a very familiar debate in ma

at the time sarah sanders said president trump had quote weighed in as any father would. and wolff says it led one of mr. trump's spokes men to quit. >> also this morning new reporting from the "new york times" reports president trump lobbied jeff sessions not to recuse himself from the russian probe. that move might be considered in evidence of obstruction of justice by the president. times reporting special counsel robert mueller is aware that last march trump order the white house counsel don mcgann to stop sessions from refusing himself from overseeing the investigation. >> the incident another possible example of trump's influencing. congressman, top democrat calls mcgann's reported conduct completely unacceptable. he says mcgann should make himself available to the commit it. >> "new york times" also reporting that four days before then fbi director james comey was fired last may, an aide to attorney general jeff sessions asked a congressional staffer whether he had damaging information about comey, a person with knowledge of the meeting tells the times quote, wanted one negative article a day in

house reporter asked white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders if the president says that this is all bogus why doesn't he just fire mr moeller and get this over with and here is her response they want to see this come to a complete and full conclusion i think we all know what everybody in this room would do if the president did that and i don't think that's helpful to the process . i heard that and i thought well so the white house says that the president is making crucial decisions based on what he expects the behavior of journalists to be so how in the world we supposed to report that. yeah first don't. nobody believes that if the president thinks that the heat is too intense at some point nobody believes that he won't actually get rid of the special prosecutor so let's let's set that aside. he and while they say they may want to see the process come to fruition the truth is that the president and his advisors have spent the last basically the entirety of his term in office talking down mauler and his team trying to discredit the f.b.i. trying to a salish this narrative that that it's a politicized investigation an