iron blak aaron blake, let me get you to jump in here. this reversal from the white house that was front and center, dominating the weeks before christmas because it resulted in secretary mattis' resignation and because as matt miller pointed out, it went against every political pressure facing this president. your thoughts on how john bolton got away with embarrassing donald trump? >> well, if you look at some of the comments that have come out in the last week or so, lindsey graham after meeting with the president i believe it was on december 30th offered a kind of version of events that squares once bolt saeon said. it seems like this decision was made a little while ago, maybe they're drawing out the string a little more. i think this is all confirming exactly what we saw from john kelly in that interview with "the los angeles times" where he talked about the people around the president can give him all of the information and from there it's up to the president to actually use it. it confirms what rex tillerson said a few weeks ago, w

capitol i'm joined tonight by aaron blake he is a senior political reporter with the washington post good evening aaron it's good to see you back here on the day you know as well as i do that ever since he became president donald trump has been at the center of numerous allegations but this buzz feed news report is different as you write in today's paper is this the smoking gun that could lead us to a criminal us president. well it could possibly be there's a couple big with that in the first is that this is a report that is based upon two anonymous sources it has not even been confirmed by michael cohen's team we don't know what the evidence cited in this story is and that evidence is very significant because if it's a situation in which michael cohen simply says the president told me to lie and the president says i didn't tell him to lie it's more of a he said he said so it needs to be substantiated in some way that there is proof that the president actually did ask him to lie now if that is in fact established if there is solid evidence out of that i would argue that this is someth

. >> i want to bring in aaron blake, senior political reporter for "the washington post." i'm still catching my breath after that interview with mariana atencio and that gentleman who has cooked at the smithsonian for 17 years, on the lower paid end of the spectrum who is really struggling on day 34. you've had people from the administration and from the president's campaign, lara trump, wilbur ross, who have come out and asked about stories like that. and i want to play a little bit of what they've had to say juxtaposed with some of the stories we've been hearing. >> listen, this is -- it's not fair to you, and we all get that, but this is so much bigger than any one person. it is a little bit of pain, but it's going to be for the future of our country. >> even when the shutdown does end, i have to wait for a whole paycheck to even get paid. i'm not going to get that back pay. >> mr. secretary, there are reports there are some federal workers who are going to homeless shelters to get food. >> well, i know they are, and i don't really quite understand why because, as i men

with us to talk about all of it, corn for npr, and aaron blake, senior political reporter at the "washingtonost." the dramatic reading was my own but you get the idea. here we are. the president complained about having to make the trim today. we know from leaks supplied to publications, he didn't think he should. that's a tough way to sell something. as we always ask, do you think a single mind was changed? >> that would be hard to know at this point but probably not. people are pretty well in their corners with a little more than 50% of the country thinking the shutdown was a bad idea and blaming the president ask, about 30% blaming democrats. throws the same 30% always with president trump no matter what. in many ways he was speaking to his audience. how do you know? while he was there, along the southern border, he did an interview with sean hannity that aired on fox tonight. the fox audience is just as important for president trump as the american people as a whole. he has to prove that he really is fighting for the wall pefl isn't giving up on it as it seemed before the shutdown began.

however as "the washington post" aaron blake points out using a national emergency as a back up plannes the idea of a true emergency on the southern border. several republican senators are voicing skepticism about this idea. >> i can tell you that for me on my side of the aisle, one of the concerns we should have if today the national emergency is border security he should go out to do that. tomorrow the national emergency might be climate change. let's seize fossil fuel plants. >> repurpose $5 billion close to $6 billion out of the defense department that's needed for defense needs, and use it to build a border wall, without congressional authorization is not what i think is intended by the national emergency act. >> house republicans broke ranks with the president and voted with democrats to re-open the government without new funding for the president's border wall. the bill would fund the treasury department, irs and other agencies ahead of tax season. three senate republicans said they would vote to re-open the government without funding for the border wall. despite the obvious b

. >>> let me bring in aaron blake, senior political director at the washington post and also danny cevallos. again, you know, not to belabor the point, but i think it bears repeating. if the president did in fact order michael cohen to lie to congress, is that obstruction of justice? >> it may be a crime. the way we get to that is we work backwards from what we know. what we know is michael cohen did plead guilty to a number of crimes. one of them was false statements, which is not perjury. it's a separate crime for the statements that he gave to congress. because they were not under oath. so working backwards from that, if president trump directed that activity that constituted the crime that may fall under a number of different criminal statutes. one would be conspiracy, for example, to commit that crime of lying to congress. the other might be the aiding and abetting statute. anyone who persuades someone to commit a federal crime is liable as if they had committed that crime him or herself. there are a number of federal statutes that may apply if it's established that donald trump direct

as aaron blake put it, calling this a deal between the democrats and go is kind of like calling the treaty of versailles to be a deal between the allies. not true for federal contractors. we'll see where that ends up that also includes payment for the fbi agents who showed up this morning in military style gear before the break of dawn to arrest the president's oldest and closest political adviser roger stone at his home in florida and haul him away in handcuffs. the special counsel indicted roger stone on seven counts of lying to congress, obstruction and witness tampering in an attempted cover-up of stone and efforts to get dirt on hillary clinton from wikileaks in 2016 and for the first time ever, the indictment traces those efforts directly back to the president's campaign according to robert mueller after the july 22nd,2016 release of stolen dnc emails, a senior trump campaign official was directed to contact stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information organization one had regarding the clinton campaign we don't know who it was that did it but it would have

aaron blake, thank you for spending much of the hour with us. >>> more answers in the front, steve mnuchinn hot water for saying nothing on the closed-door hearing on mysterious sanctions for mr. powell. ays. (dad) i think it's here. (mom vo) especially at this age. (big sister) where are we going? (mom vo) it's a big, beautiful world out there. (little sister) woah... (big sister) wow. see that? (mom vo) sometimes you just need a little help seeing it. (vo) presenting the all-new three-row subaru ascent. love is now bigger than ever. your digestive system has billions of bacteria, but life can throw them off balance. re-align yourself, with align probiotic. and try align gummies, with prebiotics and probiotics to help support digestive health >>> as wlern more about the except of robert mueller's scrutiny in the suspicious trump pro-russian policy, democratic lauer makers saying president trump's effort to make russian great again may be ongoing. democrats this week condemning the white house for lifting sanctions on one of vladimir putin's close allies, oleg deripaska, who has business t

robert acosta, reporter for "the washington post and aaron blake senior political reporter joining me on a balcony, lonnie, let me start with you. is that your former boss encouraging alternatives to president trump in 2020. is that how you read it? >> no look, i think he's stating what a lot of people believe to be the obvious. which is there will be a marketplace outside of donald trump. how big that marketplace will be is going to be the big question. but i don't think he is encouraging people to do it. i think he's stating the obvious, which is that someone will present as an alternative to donald trump. the only question is who that will be. >> who do you think it will be? or who should it be, in your view? >> look, i think you have a lot of people, jeff flake, ben sasss some have said, i don't know if it will be any of these people. it may be no one people are thinking of now. there will be an opportunity for somebody to present an alternative vision to donald trump. the problem is donald trump has a 98% approval rating. whoever does it is taking on a suicide mission. >> reporte

bush and gabby orr, aaron blake for "the washington post." big headline coming out of this. the president says he 100% can declare a national emergency and that he may very well certainly, definitely, not 100% but maybe do so if he doesn't get a deal. right now doesn't look like he's getting a deal. this may be his only way out. listen. >> i have the absolute right to declare. this was passed by congress. so when you say it wasn't passed by congress, it was. other presidents have used it. some fairly often. i have the absolute right to declare a national emergency. i haven't done it yet. i may do it. if this doesn't work out, probably i will do it. i would almost say definitely. >> andy, you have actually been in a white house when they have declared a national emergency. and i want -- >> many times, by the way. >> let me explain what this is and get your understanding of what you make of the president's remarks. so a national emergency is based off the 1976 nationals emergency act. it gives the president the broad authority to take action in a crisis and redirect money alre

aisha rasco, aaron blake for "the washington post." boy, gang, we have a lot to unpack. joyce, let me start with you there. let's break this up into pieces. let's start with rudy telling our team that if he changed his story last night on cnn it was only subconscious. he didn't mean to but he's clearly trying to draw the distinction between what he knows about the president and collusion versus what he knows about the campaign writ large and collusion. >> we've seen giuliani do this one time too many to fall for it again. he's sort of the lost leader. when there's bad news coming, when there's a big shoe to drop, giuliani comes out and sort of immunizes the population against it. the first time you hear it, it's shocking. this idea that giuliani has moved the goal posts on whether or not there was collusion between the campaign and russia. now when the information, whatever story is coming becomes public, will be desensitized to it in a sense and giuliani has played that role over and over again. >> elliott? >> okay, i think what they need to do is put giuliani in a box

aaron back to you. >> tauhank you, jack. ♪ >>> do you remember this performance we brought you are here on news4 today a few weeks back. the being ac pela choir at blakeh school.e they werforming in nashville to perform at the grand old opry,nl the high school group from maryland invited to perform. >> the school is mosting a life streaming event tonight. we wish them the best of luck for the incredible performance. wo amazing for them. >> yes. >>> practices started thise could's nfl pro bowl. two skins players made the cut this year but you'll only be able to see one on the field. all pro offensive tackle trent williams is sittingam out thee because of a thumb injury. williams has been voted onto thr o bowl steam seven straight years. ryan kergen is the pro bowler third year in a roe first year as a starter on the field when the game kicks off in orlando. >> the cost ofss your first c stamps is about to go up by 5 cents this weekend. you have until sunday to stock up before the pce shifts to 55 cents. now that is a 10% increase. the largest price jump in over two decades. th u.s. posta service is raising prices on shipping services coming after theus