back with us now, political commentators errol lewis, also alice stewart and joining us brian fallon well. want to go to you first, brian. among your many other jobs, you once worked in the justice department. and before we were talking to shimon prokupecz, the oddity of this, where you have fbi agents, investigators, theoretically, questioning the attorney general of the united states in a closed room. explain to us how unusual that is and the implications. >> well, it would be highly unusual in any other circumstance other than this one that we find ourselves in with donald trump being the president and himself being under scrutiny in this russia investigation. so it was reported a few weeks back that mueller's team already is starting to negotiate the terms by which they will interview the president himself. so we should not be surprised to hear that they have sought out the attorney general. of course, there is two points of interest with respect to the attorney general, at least two. number one is, he himself had contacts with the russian government during the campaign. at least

this is according to brian fallon. at this point it's guaranteed shut down of some duration because the house would need to also pass a new deal the senate struck. so it can't happen in only 20 minutes. so we are guaranteed a government shutdown in, what, 14 minutes up on the screen. also some new information that we have here according to our folks in washington. democrats proposed a cr that would expire on january 29th, which is the day before the state of the union. and ken cuccinelli, this question is for you. two sources say democrats have pitched a new continuing resolution that would expire on january 29th, the day before the president's state of the union address. republicans are not willing to consider that, one source says, but conversations are still ongoing. ken, they're trying, but it's not enough. >> yeah, well, it's interesting the date they pick. i assume they picked that date because they think it puts pressure on the president. i think if the republicans agreed to that date and we just saw flat fundin

brian fallon said, it is dangerous, leads to the perception they are bending to political pressures. >> i think it does. >> the imperative should be to get to the truth. when it was uncovered that the fbi director and the host of people around him were making the decisions and writing drafts exonerating hillary clinton before they had interviewed some 16 witnesses, that is absolutely wrong. and when you look at trey gowdy and john ratcliffe and they look at this case and they say, this case, absolutely different and out of style and out of protocol, than any other case they have seen, that is why congress does oversight. >> jeff sessions, i am happy for him to look at the files and the investigation to have career folks who work under democrats and republicans walking through the investigation, how they got the answer they did. but i don't like is, if you don't like the answer politically, then somehow, when a new party is in power, you reopen the investigation. that is what i don't like. >> sandra: time is going so fast. so much. the nunes deal in the document, it leading to the sup

. >> i want to bring in brian fallon now. brian, should the dems take this proposed three-week deal? i have to say this came over as an urgent at 9:16 p.m., and people knew that before they started voting. so i mean are they going to change their minds now? this whole thing with lindsey graham and then lindsey graham saying he couldn't sell it, what have you, this came over at 9:16. anderson was still on the hour. does this matter at this point? >> no. i don't see why the democrats would go for that. three weeks versus four weeks. it's the same difference. it's just an excuse to punt without dealing with the daca issue. and, you know, i keep going back to this notion that jeff zeleny just a minute ago was talking about, you know, why is it going up to the deadline? dysfunctional government. well, actually republicans and democrats had a deal in place with a week to spare. last week, lindsey graham, jeff flake, dick durbin, bob men endecember, gang of six, three democrats, threen ares, went to the white house to present donald

. >> i want to bring in fallin here, brian fallon, you worked at the justice department. how do you see it in. >> just a couple of minutes ago jason spe jason speculate speculated jeff was bowing. there are political appointees jeff sessions would go and seek their political counsel to see how it might fit. he would have gone through that process, been told point-blank you need to recuse himself -- >> and he said he was told by department officials. >> exactly. and for him to reject that advice and continue on and not recuse himself -- >> not necessarily. there's a chance he may have stayed. >> let me finish. so what's clear is that he acted based on the guidance he was given by the career lawyers, whose job it is to give suggestions in these scenarios. and what has he done despite that sphhe didn't recuse himself but gone about trying to please donald trump. i'm sorry, but the spokesperson at the justice department who's denying it, she's been caught denying things that have been proven true in the past. >> they deny everything. >> what we do know according to the articl

from a clinton spokesman brian fallon saying of the new probe "i think even that is extremely dangeroustice department should not be opening itself up to the perception that it is bending to political pressures from the white house. the department is supposed to operate independently of the white house and even if this is just a perfunctory depth that they are taking to try to appease the president that in and of itself is an abuse of the doj authority. the president repeatedly asked for a new investigation to clinton's email practices. meantime, the justice department is also launching a probe into whether the clinton foundation was involved in any pay to play politics or other illegal activities while clinton served as secretary of state. white house press secretary sarah sanders reacted all of this is morning. >> i think there have been a lot of things that give us cause for concern and i think it's a great thing that it's being looked at. we'll have to wait and see what happens but there's certainly been a lot of information out there that i think gives all of us cause for concern a

. >> brian fallon, final word? >> i think mitch mcconnell is a realist and the idea some kind of big cut slashing of medicare and medicaid is going to make it ways through both chambers would be pushing republicans politically to the limit. you saw susan collins stretched to vote in favor of the tax package hear it from her constituents in maine. they lost a senate seat in alabama a new democrat sworn in, a one-seat majority. democrats are going to run on entitlement cuts based on what the tax bill will likely mean for those programs. if they actually make it even more plain by putting a bill on the floor that would seek to voucher medicare it will send a lot more republicans to their doom in the mid-terms this year. >> see how much will susan collins trusts mcconnell after this time around. >> right. >> thank you very much. jackie, kevin, brian, nice to have you. >>> the unrest will end soon, that is what iranian leadership is saying this morning after we're in the midst of a sixth day of the anti-government proes

brian fallon, put on your former department of justice spokesman hat for a second. how much wiggle room is there in what the lawyers for president trump want and negotiate, as lawyers for ronald reagan and bill clinton have done previously, and what the special counsel might demand? >> yeah, so there's certainly nothing that prevents donald trump's lawyers from asking for a lenient approach here, in terms of being able to submit answers, for instance in writing. they wouldn't be doing their jobs if they weren't seeking the easiest way for donald trump to handle this as possible, but i don't see a scenario where bob mu mueller is going to go halfway and submit to something like a set of written answers. the trouble for donald trump, of course, for all the bravado we hear from him when he's behind the podium or in an interview, for instance in that lester holt interview he basically admitted to firing jim comey because of the russia investigation. what you find whenever he's deposed in a legal scenario, if you look back at lawsuits he's been a party to over the years,

brian: justin timberlake did that with jimmy fallon on snl. ainsley: how did he have this leotard? not good at the sewing thing. oh, hi. who's waiving to me? hi, come come on over here. what's your name? what do you think of this cold? >> freezing. >> it's freezing; right? how cold is this? i think it's 13 in new york city. thank you for coming out, by the way, and wearing a hat. it's very important. let's take a look at the temperatures right now. look how cold it is. those are current wind chiles. it feels like minus 10 in boston, it feels like 2 in atlanta. it feels like 14 in new orleans. i know. it's crazy cold. record-breaking cold here. wind chile advisories from the gulf coast all the way up to the great lakes and the northeast and i just want to make mention we have a big winter storm that's going to take shape this week bringing the possibility for snow for northern florida and georgia and the northeast as well. so stay tuned. we'll bring you the very latest. ainsley: that's wonderful. it's so pretty. steve: thank you very much. meanwhile, our military under president trum