let me read you one quote from m.j. piece.n this body, this is a female lawmaker, you may be an enemy one day and a close ali the next when accomplishing something. women will be very cautious about saying anything negative about any of their colleagues. my god. >> the power between the staff and the members but like a chairman is much more powerful than a freshman member. one thing to note, 15 million in settlements means there's a paper trail somewhere. i expect reporters will look for that. that may be where the story comes in next. a lot of cases you're seeing the settlements create documents where you can break the story out who the members are. >> these lawmakers who are the press conference m.j. was reporting on today are trying to get it so it's public. i think they're probably going to have a good shot. we hope. thanks for that discussion. coming up, is the democrat running against roy moore in alabama trying to stay local, keep his distance from washington? who can blame him. alright, i brought in high protein to hel

cnn's m.j. lee live on capitol hill with this story. m.j.?well, john, this woman's name is stephanie kemplin. she is a 41-year-old army veteran and she says that she first met senator franken when she was deployed overseas in kuwait in 2003 when she was there on a uso tour to visit american troops and here is how she described the inappropriate touching that took place during this photo op. she said when he put his arm around me he groped my right breast and kept his hand all the way over on my breast and i remember thinking is he going to move his hand? was it an accident? was he going to move his hand? the touching she says lasted at least five seconds and she at some point shifted her body so his hand was no longer directly on her breast and as you can see in the photo senator franken's hand appears to be on her side. she also says she felt embarrassed, felt ashamed and was in shock and did not say anything to the senator in that moment. i should also note that a part of her story and a reason why she says this news has been so difficult f

m.j.ns us now to talk about how new york is preparing for what is going to be a huge day, a good one, but also one they have to worry about security. m.j.? >> that's right. and this marathon poses such a big security challenge because of its sheer size. tomorrow some 50,000 runners are expected to participate in this marathon, this very iconic marathon, and some 2.5 million extra people are expected to be on the sideline cheering on these runners who are participating in this race. this race that will go through each of the five boroughs of new york city. of course, the important context is the fact this terror attack in lower manhattan only happened four days ago, however, city officials have been insistent all along this week they intend to have the marathon continue as usual tomorrow, but they are taking some precautionary measures as they believe that this marathon is an important symbol of showing the resilience of the new york city people, but they also want to make sure that safety

and m.j. lee joins us from capitol hill. m.j., you know, the congressman's got new defenders, people who worked in his office over the years and this controversy interview that nancy pelosi did. >> reporter: that's right. and for the time being, democrats are really reeling about these new allegations against congressman conyers. we now know of at least two women, former staffers, who accused him of sexual harassment or inappropriate touching. for the time being, i want to be clear. congressman conyers is defiant, denying the allegations and he is actually looking forward to vindicating his nail. as you mentioned, a tough controversy for democratic leaders to handle. house democratic leader nancy pelosi in an interview yesterday on "meet the press" defending congressman conyers, referring to him as an icon and getting a little heat for it. here's a little of what she had to say. >> we are strengthened by due process. just because someone has accused, and was it one accusation? is it two? there has to be -- john conyers san i

. >> m.j. lee on capitol hill. first, let's get right to joe jones with more on the president's response. joe, what are we hearing? >> the president really weighing in on this issue of al franken in tweets just last night the president giving al franken one of his trademark nicknames calling him al frankenstein, though, frankenstein spelled incorrectly in the tweet and referencing the notorious photo of senator franken appearing to grope leeann tweeden. let's look at the tweets. the al frankenstein picture is sad, speaks a thousands words where do his hand goss in pictures three, four, five, and six and the second tweet, last week he was lecturing anyone, meaning nor franken who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women, lessy stahl tape, question mark. a reference to a new york magazine article in which al franken is quoted as joke about rape. on top of all of that the white house press secretary has said, among other things, that the white house believes there should be senate ethics committee in

what are we hearing, m.j.? >> reporter: well, with johjohn are, of course, two very different issues that are consuming capitol hill today. the first is tax reform. at some point later today, we do expect the senate to take a vote to begin the process of considering a tax bill in the senate. this, of course, comes after president trump made a personal visit to capitol hill yesterday, to try to win over some of those members who still have concerns, who are still on the fence. and the reviews are that those efforts appear to have helped, but i do want to emphasize that it is still -- there are a lot of moving pieces. a lot of negotiating that still needs to happen. it is still not clear the timing of when that final vote might take place. it could be as early as this friday. and now the second issue that is consuming capitol hill, the second half of that split screen day that we're having here today is sexual harassment. and of course, the member who is at the center of the controversy is congressman john conyer

. >> cnn national politics reporter, m.j. lee is joining me now with much more on this.ou have done some extensive reporting on how really big this problem is. >> yeah, and that hearing yesterday, kate, was certainly eye-opening, if not incredibly disturbing. basically current female members of congress saying that there are members of congress who are serving in office now, who have been accused of sexual harassment, even though they did not name these male members. and some of the stories that we're hearing, congresswoman spear, for example, saying that the stories she has heard involve private parts being grabbed on the house floor. this is some really graphic stuff that we're talking about. and that is, of course, a part of the reason why congresswoman spear and senator gillibrand, they are about to propose a new legislation, just a few minutes from now, on reforming the system, reforming the culture of how sexual harassment is treated on capitol hill. a part of what they're proposing is mandatory sexual harassment training for all members and staff in both the house

let's go over to cnn's m.j. lee for the very latest. m.j., what are you hearing from capitol hill? >> well, kate, there's no question that al franken's political future is really uncertain right now. these allegations that came up yesterday are, obviously, quite stunning. franken has not denied them and nobody is really coming to his defense. in fact, franken himself said in his lengthy apology yesterday he was disgusted with himself when he saw that photo that leeann tweeden posted and what appears inevitable right now, kate, there probably will be a senate ethi ethic investigation into this matter and importantly franken says he thinks this is appropriate and will fully cooperate and his democratic colleagues are also saying that this is the right course of action. listen to what two of his democratic colleagues said yesterday. >> very disappointed. i support an ethics investigation. this kind of conduct should not be tolerated by anyone and any public official. >> said he's going to cooperate with the ethics committee and that's the right place to handle this question. >> should

let's get over to m.j. lee on the hill with much more. what do you know? >> hey, kate. i'm actually having a hard time hearing you but i will try to report out what we know. what we know right now is that al franken, the democratic senator from minnesota, has been accused of sexual harassment on the record. this is from a woman who was a local radio host in california and first let me walk through what the allegations are that she is making and then i'll let you know what franken has had to say just this morning in response to these allegations. again, leann tweeden, the name of the woman making the fresh allegations, talks about an doesn't that happened in december of 2006. she says that she took a trip to the middle east to visit u.s. troops and along with some musical artists was al franken who at the time, of course, was a comedian. she was on the trip along with senator franken, at the time was not a senator, as a part of this trip to visit the troops. they were performing a number of plays. and some of the scripts were written by senator franken. this is according

what up, m.j. all taking in ewing's coaching debut. late first half hoyas up 13.n up 36-20 at the break. second half off the jacksonville miss, hoyas pushing the pace. ahead to jesse govan who gets two the the game high was 20 points each. patrick ewing gets the "w" as georgetown wins 73-57. so they host mt. st. mary's on wednesday, a three-game home stand to open up the season. george mason up three to louisville but they lost to 16th ranked louisville. sorry about that, patriots. we'll show you the highlights at 11:00. >> that is the news for now, thanks for joining us. "nightly news" is coming up next. we'll see you tonight for news after sunday night fo >>> tonight friends or enemies? what president trump said today about kim jong-un of north korea. and russians vladimir putin before meeting with the controversial president of the philippines. as we look at the defeat of isis in that country with u.s. help. inside the church, now a memorial to the 26 people kwild by the texas gunman one week ago today as hundreds gather for the first service since the massacre

they didn't respond to a request for comment but in an interview with wt m.j..com they said they're working address these concerns. i'm diana blast. reporting for "chasing news." >> thank you, diana. let's bring back the a-plus panel, jenette hoffman, hof iunis this is the way i look at this, kids denied entrance you could make argument if there was discrimination there that is one thing, test scores i don't see where there is lawsuit. >> i don't really see it f there was specific criteria the students met and denied they have a case. usually in ap classes it is years of building a foundation of test scores, of grades, of academic progress to get into an ap class. you can't just show up to start taking ap classes. >> take that premise. what if this is problem that is real and worthy after lawsuit, how do you deal with different kids with economic disadvantages and family situations? maybe some kids have more parental guidance in the daily school work, how would you solve something like this with dumping it down and lowering the bar? >> we need to look at levels in middle schools to go back

m.j., thank you so much. let's stay in the capitol, paul ryan, is holding his weekly news conference with reporters and listen in. >> no woman should have to endure harassment in any form in any institution, let alone here in congress. second, i'm formally inviting president trump to address a joint session of congress on tuesday, january 30th, in order to report on the state of the union. this will be a good opportunity for the country to hear directly from the president on the progress that we've made and on the work that needs to be done on our shared agenda and look forward to him accepting our invitation. lastly, on tax reform, i want to make sure you saw this letter from 137 economists across the ideological spectrum to congress that we received yesterday. want to read two sentences from this letter. the question isn't whether american workers are hurt by our country's corporate tax rate. it's how badly. the enactment of comprehensive overhaul, complete with a lower corporate tax rate will ignite our ec

s m.j., explain what happened here. >> this is a woman, now 33 years old. she went to the minnesota state fair in august of 2010. that date, of course, is really significant, because ought that point in time senator franken was actually in office. she was at a local radio booth where she was taking photos with different celebrities, different political candidates. when it came time to take a photo with the senator, she says that her husband was taking the photo, so he was standing in front of them, as the photo was being taken, the senator put his hand on her buttocks and that's what she was shocked by. >> and that he grabbed her tightly, as you described in this piece. what is interesting to me in addition senator franking's office says it doesn't remember it, but feels badly. >> she posted about it on facebook immediately after it happened. so this she brought to light years ago, but now it's coming to the national spotlight. significance to you? >> obviously this is a very serious allegation. in reporting out the story, we wanted to make sure did she tal

>> number one, i'd urge people to read the piece by m.j. the rules amber referenced. these arcane rules on cnn.com. this is stunning. the rules feel like they're from 250 years ago in terms of how victims report and how that gets litigated out. >> victim heavy. >> the other thing is, how is this not a bigger story? $15 million of taxpayer money has been paid out to at least most of it as congresswoman spear said most they believe to silence or quiet sexual harassment accusations? congress? i mean, that's stunning. i would assume we're going to hear much more about this. i thought that hearing yids in which congresswoman comstock from northern virginia, a republican, congresswoman spier told stories regarding elevators regarding staffers going to a home and members of congress disrobing. this is the stuff i cannot believe candidly, may be i'm naive, i cannot believe these things are happening. and again, these are our leaders. whatever you think of congress, these are people elected to lead the country. policy wise and by example. and so i t

. >> m.j. lee, thank you so much. us now is chris stuart of utah, and proposed new legislation that deals with sexual harassment. can i get your reaction to the latest news on senator franken? >> it's just wrong. i don't care who you are, senator, congressman, being in a position of power doesn't excuse this type of behavior, and it's become pervasive. we have intimidated and shamed these women into silence. if somebody touched one of my daughters like this, i would reign hell down on them and i would not poopoo it away. it's just wrong. >> should senator franken step down? >> i think anybody who has credible accusations against him and admitted to those accusations, i don't think they should be serving in a position of responsibility such as the house of representatives or the u.s. senate. >> congressman, you did propose legislation today that deals with accusations inside the house of representatives, and what it would do is prohibit n nondiscloser agreements as a condition for legal settlements. explain. >> it's si

since then we have learned from my colleague, m.j. lee, that nancy pelosi and members of the congressional black caucus were working behind the scenes to give him a graceful way of stepping down from the judiciary committee, laying the ground work for that. after that became public, and with we learned that he was stepping down, she issued a statement saying zeroed tolerance means consequences. i have asked for an investigation, and as that investigation continues, congressman conyers has agreed to step aside as a member. as a woman and mother of four daughters i take any accusation of sexual harassment very seriously. we are in a watershed moment on this issue, it is not a license for harassment. i commend the brave women coming forward. >> lots more where this goes. president trump is back in washington as all of this unfolds. he landed a short time ago after spending thanksgiving at his private resort in florida. there he is getting off air force one. he didn't talk to reporters, but as you know he does like to share during twitter

m.j., okay. >> yesterday you were unable to answer the question of whether more women would be coming out with allegations. it does seem that that's a question that only you can answer. what is the reason, can you tell us, that you can't definitively say more women have not come out with more allegations, of these kind of stories? >> sure. if you had asked me two weeks ago would any woman come forward with an allegation like this, i would have said no. so, i cannot speculate. this has been a shock and it's been extremely humbling. i am embarrassed. i feel ashamed. what i'm going to do is i'm going to start my job. i'm going to go back to work. i'm going to work as hard as i can for the people of minnesota and i'm going to start that right now. thank you, all. thank you. thank you. >> senator al franken for the first time taking questions since these allegations have come out saying, again, he's embarrassed, ashamed and promising it won't happen again. can we go back to garrett haake? is he there? give us a sense -- at least watching it on tv, garrett, you do get a sense from him he's

talking to "sports illustrated" swimsuit editor m.j. day. we never met.ou guys come up with it. >> we are looking for the next christie brinkley so we decided to put it out there to instagram and we got over 5,000 applicants who wanted to be a part of the "sports illustrated" swimsuit issue that represent all walks of life, all levels of experience and all different types of beauty which did what the swimsuit issue is about. >> absolutely. >> so did you find your next christie brinkleyy do you guys want to meet the finalists. klaus klaus. iyonna, camille, tabria, olivia come on out. [ applause ] wow! hi, girls. congratulations to all of you. i'm going to start with iyonna. you are currently a security officer. >> yes. >> you have a red belt in tae kwon do. why is it important for you to see more women like you in the pains of "t.i." >> because where i come from there is not a lot of big opportunities so i would love to inspire and motivate people to just go for their dreams. >> look at that i love that picture of you. that's fantastic. wow. i just saw the