a.b. stoddard. it was interesting as i was listening to the ranking member talk to alisyn about the member. in a way they're precasting aspersions on what the democrats will do. they're suggesting i'm not so sure the president is going to release this. we think the president may stand in the way of this. democrats i think like the political position they've put the president in, chris. >> i think they should candidly. if you are for transparency, you're for transparency. that was the argument behind the release of the nunes memo. that argument i think still holds true with the memo that congressman schiff wrote. the issue here is one of those two memos affirm -- we know affirmed a belief that the president of the united states has that there is a deep state conspiracy within the fbi and the justice department that is out to sort of undermine him. the schiff memo presumably does less of that. is transparency still the goal even when the information contained within that memo is not directly supportiv

a.b. stoddard. a.b., there's speculation it's because "fox & friends" hasn't ended yet. do you think it's because he wants to do something publicly? why else wouldn't the president have signed it? >> i think it's everything. john berman stole my executive timeline already so i won't use it. basically we know his mornings are consumed with watching many different channels on television and making phone calls to his friends and being in private, executive time. he also loves suspense and loves to keep people guessing which in this case is unfortunate and inappropriate. maybe he wants a public signing. he can't drag this on too many hours more. >> the peril of the public signing will be that he'll have to answer questions about the rob porter issue, the domestic abuse scandal. this is the shutdown clock. the government has been shut down for 8:08:40 largely while you were sleeping. while this was going on, ron brownstein, this shutdown was brought to you by rand paul, the kentucky republican senator wh

a.b. stoddard from real clear politics. hello, my friend. >> hi, shep. >> shepard: where is this now?e talk about peeling an onion or licks to the center of the tootsie roll. they go around the outside to get to the middle. >> yeah, it's interesting. there are reports that sam nunberg has been told that he's not a target but the special counsel is interested to talking to him. you know, the special counsel has not been leaking. sometimes lawyers to these witnesses have let people in the press know what the line of questioning amounted to. >> shepard: what is it? >> there's reporting that sam nunberg was with donald trump for many years, five years between 2011 and 2016. close to the president as he was trying to build a premise for his candidacy. nunberg spent most of 2013 listening to thousands of hours coming up with a message that donald trump could use to appeal to the republican base. he was close to him. and reportedly looking more at this trip to moscow for the miss universe pageant in 2013 when president -- then donald trump wondered on twitter whether vladimir putin would att

a.b. stoddard. >> we'll show pictures later. thank you guys very much. >>> so a republican congressman and combat veteran with a change of heart about guns after the parkland massacre. he tells us why he wants these weapons off the streets and what he plans to do next. when did you see the sign? when i needed to create a better visitor experience. improve our workflow. attract new customers. that's when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics. yeah! now business is rolling in. get started at fastsigns.com. yeah! now business is rolling in. this is the story of green mountain coffee roasters dark magic told in the time it takes to brew your cup. first, we head to vermont. and go to our coffee shop. and meet dave. hey. why is dark magic so spell-bindingly good, he asks? let me show you. let's go. so we climb. hike. see a bear. woah. reach the top. dave says dark magic is a bold blend of coffee with rich flavors of uganda, sumatra, colombia and other parts of south america. like these mountains, each amazing on their own. but together

a.b. stoddard is here with us from real clear politics. what happens in washington politically when you have a day like this on wall street? >> i think the republicans will take great care to not shot the government down and get another funding bill passed as soon as possible without any disruption. they don't want a focus on their sort of dysfunction and their inability to govern right now. as we talked about with mike emanuel a debt ceiling increase to come up shortly. it's interesting. there's been quiet negotiations between republicans and the administration trying to convince president trump not to make the rash moves that he promised as campaign promises. designating the chinese currency manipulators, slapping tariffs on them. withdrawing from nafta. republicans have said that you don't want the stock market to go down. this has been such a great rally. he loves so much the success and the numbers that he sees on wall street. as i said before, it's an indication of approval for him. and the success of his first year in office. it's g

a.b. stoddard. i see you wearing your green, john. that's really hurting. what was so interesting this weekend, a bunch of republicans came out and said the nunes memo does not vindicate the president, most notably trey gowdy. he hpld draft it. let's play a longer version of what he said about the memo and its effect on the president. >> the dossier has nothing to do with the something at trump tower or an e-mail sent by camp bridge. it really has nothing to do with george papadopoulos's meeting in great britain. it doesn't have anything to do with the obstruction of justice. so there is going to be a russia probe even without a dossier. >> john, what he means is if the memo -- sorry, as the memo alleges, the dossier was the basis for the investigation. he said that's just b.s. >> he lays it out really clearly. there will be a russia investigation because of obstruction and on and on. to some extent this is republicans gaining spine when they're on their way out the door. we have seen this before in criticism of trump. gowdy is a guy who puts the justice pr

a.b. stoddard. we were going after republicans saying you're stalling.hey said, no, we're following the process. it was a delay game. what is your take on what this memo reveals. i know you're not a politician. but was this savvy for the democrats to rekindle this conversation after the nunes memo fell flat? >> i thought they should have just left it sit. people in the national security world, i don't know about the public sphere. i'm not a great politician. but they look and said this is a joke. why even were bother to respond. you're giving it more credibility than it has. one thing that is fascinating just a few weeks ago people were taking shots at the investigation. it's a hoax. it's a reduce. people taking shots at mueller. in the interim, gates is flipping. remarkable indictment of 13 russians and russian entities. if you haven't read it, you have to read it. and the deputy attorney general calling the white house saying is we cannot confirm that it is going to be clearance for jared kushner any time soon. the debate nunes was trying to start abou

a.b. stoddard, and mike p leleska. a.b., let me start with you, this is just weird, the way the white house is handling it. it's strange on a couple of levels. you have the president who just refuses to acknowledge the potential alleged abuse victims. sarah huckabee sanders came out with some very strange word holdings that we condemn this but there needs to be due process. then john kelly, who i think it is the fourth or fifth time he's sort of put his foot in his mouth, where he's not actually representing what happened. again, it sets them back from being able to get ahead of the story. >> they bungled the story incredibly. obviously they sent kellyanne conway out to the sunday shows to say that women should herald the great economic news and all the job growth for women under president trump. and that president trump has come to the aid of women privately. and then they had sarah huckabee sanders, another woman, at the podium saying over and over again yesterday that they take, you know, all domestic violence seriou

a.b. stoddard, associated editor at real clear politics.mingway, senior editor at "the federalist." welcome to all of you. byron, there's a lot of money for defense, domestic money. what is it doing to the budget deficit in the long term? makes the budget figure and the deficit bigger. no doubt about that. what it shows is a lot of lawmakers don't want another government shutdown and they are tired from staggering from one continuing resolution to another. the government is going to shutdown in three weeks and then to accept it out of that again. there's no way to do it. republicans have been wanting to get more money for defense. they are going to get a lot more money for defense. democrats have been wanting more money for domestic spending. they are going to get back. and the budget hawks are going to get mad. they will stage protest votes. and then everybody will make a deal. >> shannon: a.b., this is something republicans have talked about for decades. they don't like government took up big government and spending lots of money. >> i li

a.b. stoddard, great to have your insights. >>> democrats released their long-anticipated memo rebutting claims the fbi abused its power in the russia probe, but will it do anything to sway public opinion? and parkland, florida, high school teachers back in the building today preparing for their school to reopen wednesday. we'll talk to one teacher who was in the school this morning about the challenges he's facing in this, his new normal. >>> democrats on the house intelligence committee released the rebuttal in contrast with the so-called nunes memo. finding investigators acted appropriately. the release comes on the heels of a guilty plea by associate rick gates. there are new charges against manafort himself by the special counsel. mike, good to have you with us on this busy monday. the democratic memo, the democrats' memo looked at republican claims that officials abused the process for obtaining the fisa warrants to eavesdrop on carter page. what arguments did they offer in that memo? >> that's right. so as you'll remember it was a little over three weeks ago devin nunes and republicans r

a.b. stoddard. when you have the pursestrings, you tend to spend more. what is the theory of the case from the white house about why the spending and the deficits are worth it? >> well, in fairness to president trump, he did, of course, in a trumpian fashion some point in the campaign he could balance the budget in a couple of years. but that was -- that was an entire campaign built on the fact that he was going to offer a deeper safety net, never touch entitlement spending which is the driver of our debt and really broke with our republican party on that quite emphatically. he never promised them what is sort of the doctrine republican government shrinking and budget cutting policies whatsoever. he has toned down the talk about it. they've gotten through a failed effort to repeal and replace obamacare and through tax reform, but he has not committed in any way to the freedom caucus mission to a fiscal rectitude. so this break in the party is really interesting because you see people trying to blame congressman jim jordan is trying to blame it on paul ry

a.b. stoddard. david, people will say, boy, you guys can't move off of this. how can we when we don't know what the story is? we haven't gotten a straight line. kellyanne conway said the right thing on the show yesterday. that's not a unified voice coming out of the white house. >> no. it's a mess. i don't know that we're going to get to the bottom of it. but there is a lot to get to. this was poorly handled, bungled or full of deceit or both. there are real questions about john kelly's role as chief of staff. but they have closed ranks, as i say. i think this weekend showed that. the president showed us two different things. on the one hand, he is willing to get rid of the guy. there is internal pressure, enough people saying, no, you can't keep him around. there is ample evidence that he was encouraged to stick around throughout all of this. people knew about these allegations and kept him along because they liked him a lot, thought he was doing a great job. and then the president and his public face with his comments is going to be true to form. you know, t

a.b. stoddard, real clear politics. and brendan greely, editor, all we know so far. shannon, to you first, do you believe president trump is really looking to go to war with the nra? let's say they raised the age limit on assault rifles. in a way that should be a positive to the nra. that's basically saying we're comfortable with ar-15s. what the nra wouldn't be comfortable with is banning them. >> i see so many parallels between what's happening now and what's happening with immigration. an hour-long televised -- >> unfortunately nothing happened. >> -- where the president seemed to be moving towards the center, seemed to be open to a lot of ideas. seemed to put things on the table that democrats liked. then all of a sudden the opposite side gets to him. he has a meeting with wayne la pierre on sunday. monday, he comes out with a different version. but even this idea of saying don't worry about the nr an, we'll take them on. i remember in the immigration meeting with senators saying, you know, i'll take the heat for you. don't worry, i'll take the heat. then the hea

a.b. stoddard. help me with this. the president has tweeted this morning talking about his infrastructure plan. he is not a plan who's known to be stymied by his own deliberations. if mick mulvaney who we like and respect. there's an open invitation, if mulvaney is right and when the president saw the picture, that was very startling to him, one, that assumes that he didn't know about this all too damn well before as did other members of that white house but even if that's true david, why didn't he tweet about it then when he saw this picture? why do we have to have these other things that maybe you and i have been hearing from those around the president, he really doesn't like people who do this? why hasn't he said anything, david, if he was so moved by this photo? >> because that's not him. he reluctantly comes around to doing in this case the appropriate thing when there's enough information, however late it comes, however much deceit or bunningling before hand when they say we've got a situation, we have to get ri

a.b. stoddard. when i say nobody will come on, i'm talking about the gop. you will get democrats.uld do more to start the conversations. we'll ask that question. it starts with terms of tone from the top. the president was urged i by aides to say more about the shoot, and he declined. your read? >> well, the president has made it clear throughout the shootings that have taken place in his first year of office that he doesn't want to do anything beyond offer condolences whether in a tweet or on camera. he's not obviously unlike president obama who would come out and address these situations because he wanted to talk about mitigating the threat, wanted to talk about making changes. president trump doesn't center any plans to address these issues. he is not on his agenda. he is not pushing his own party, members of his party in congress to make changes. it is not a priority. so he is going to try to avoid talking about it. in his tweet, i would note he said no one should have to feel unsafe. or not feel safe in a school. members of both parties agree now none of us are safe anywhere

a.b. stoddard for real clear politics. a female, welcome. great. nick comfosore and kurt bardell, a columnist for "usa today," huff post and nbc's think. paul ryan is saying that the underlying decisions, the underlying documents make this very clear that this is a political issue. mark warner says he's seen the underlying documents and it's very clear it's not a political issue. what we're not seeing and i guess what i wonder if this ryan statement is a bit misleading. what we're not seeing are the underlying documents. we're seeing a four-page memo which reads much more like a press release than anything else. >> it's like watching two people play poker and you can't see their hands but you can see the cards on the table. we don't know what the underlying facts or underlying intelligence was and we're not going to see it. what we have left -- >> it's classified. >> so we shouldn't see it. instead this debate between partisans on both sides. saying this is accurate. no, it's not accurate. we're never going to know. and the point is this because of