including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ready for a new chapter? talk to your rheumatologist about humira. this is humira at work. this is cnn breaking news. hello. i'm erica hill in for kate bolduan. all eyes on the white house. at any moment we should see president trump sign that tax reform bill into law. remember this is not only a major legislative win for his presidency, it is also a campaign promise kept.

he will be signing the resolution as well to keep the government funded through january 19th. those are the two things left on the president's to-do list before he heads to his resort at mar-a-lago for his christmas vacation. will the president have parting words for washington, days after the republican congress gave him that major win. he could take questions from reporters before he leaves or he might not. kaitlan collins joins me now from the white house. this is a major victory for the president. and yet, not a huge ceremony for the signing of the bill, certainly not like what we saw after it was passed earlier this week. >> yeah, that's right. if it sounds a little loud behind me here at the white house that's because marine one landed on the south lawn. the president is going to be boarding it any minute now before he departs for his holiday vacation in west palm beach. first the tax bill, the president just tweeted a short while ago he's going to be signing it in the oval office.

we've been told by several white house officials it was likely he would sign the $1.5 trillion tax bill that republicans passed this week into law, but it was unclear through most of the morning whether the ceremony would be in public or private because there was nothing listed on the president's schedule. but just a few minutes ago they did call the press pool, a select group of reporters into the oval office to cover that, and you can understand why the white house would want cameras and reporters in there because, erica, this is arguably the biggest legislative accomplishment of the president's first year in office. he is certainly leaving washington on a high note now that republicans got this passed this week, but on another note something not on the president's schedule is a year-end press conference. now presidents typically hold these before they leave washington for that holiday vacation, but the president is not scheduled to hold one at this point. it's unclear if he will take questions from reporters as he's exiting the south lawn to get on marine one, but he hasn't held a

solo full-ranging press conference by himself since back in february and a lot of reporters were wondering if he would hold one this week before he leaves for mar-a-lago. right now, we're waiting to hear from him in the oval office during the signing ceremony and we will keep you updated on what he says as he signs the big tax bill, erica. >> we will be looking for that. thank you. also with us political director david chalian, political reporter rebecca berg, political analyst and correspondent for the hill amy parnes, the co-author of "shattered inside hillary clinton's doomed campaign" and political reporter alex [ inaudible ]. republicans warned trump of 2018 blood bath. david, i want to start real quickly on what we are not seeing today and to kaitlan's point the question as it to whether or not we would see the president sign this tax reform bill. does that strike you as odd at all? >> well, considering if you look at the track record for this president signing bills or

executive actions or proclamations, he calls the press in all the time for this. he likes to do the signings before cameras. the first thought that may not happen that seemed odd, but, obviously, the press pool has been in there and we'll see if the president had any comments to make when, indeed, he was signing this tax bill. it seems pretty clear with no formal end of the year news conference on the schedule, that the president wanted to leave the image of all the republicans on the south lawn touting their big legislative victory at the end of the year as the lasting image as people go into their holiday season and take a break from work, that they remember the big victory the president has. i don't think he's looking to distract from that. >> i want to get your take on this, the president tweeting not just about the signing but also tweeting with all my administration has done on legislative approvals, broke harry truman's record, regulation cutting, judicial appointments, building military,

va, tax cuts and reform, stock market and so much more i am sure great credit will be given by mainstream news, question mark. i don't think, david, that the president is fishing for a compliment there. let's take a look at this. does he deserve, quote, great credit? >> he certainly deserves credit for some of the accomplishments that he listed there, credits for passing the tax cut. every president benefits or hurts from the stock market or the impressions of the economy among the american people, so when that's going well, the president sort of -- that usually works to his credit in this case we're not seeing it impact his approval rating all that much. i think the sarcasm in the tweet you're sensing there gets to exactly why i think he was reluctant to hold a formal, customary, end-of-the-year news conference because he knew on his wish list of all those things he would love to talk about, questions on those topics would probably be few. >> when we take a look at this,

rebecca, the tax bill is almost signed and delivered, both parties are looking at this as a way to campaign to a win in 2018. what are you hearing? >> democrats believe, erica, that this is going to be a really positive issue for them because look at the public polling on tax reform right now. only about a third of americans support it. even republicans are divided on whether they support the tax reform plan that the president is going to be signing into law, so democrats see this as potentially a political liability for republicans and just look at how the vote turned out. not a single democrat, even the ones in some of these red states who are going to be running for re-election and needing trump voters to come over to their side, even those democrats decided they didn't need to support the tax reform bill, their messaging was strong enough. republicans feel once this starts to take effect, once people start to see the impact of this bill in their everyday lives, that public opinion is going to change. mitch mcconnell in an interview today with the "washington examiner" that published today

said he was excited to take that fight to democrats to fight them on tax reform, but interestingly, erica, both parties don't believe that this is going to be the main issue. the main issue is usually how is the economy going overall, what is the president's approval rating in a midterm election like this and also democrats believe health care will still be one of the bigger issues policy wise. >> and we'll see what plays out with that. hearing conflicting reports just from republicans whether or not it's worth to continue the follow on that. you have fascinating reporting about republican concerns moving into 2018, including some specifically about roy moore which were brought to the white house by rnc chair mcdaniel and they were ignored by the president. tell us more about that? >> yeah, absolutely. during the final days of the alabama senate race, this is back when donald trump was still considering whether to go all-in on roy moore, he was sort of going back and forth on it, and you had the republican national

committee chairwoman mcdaniel go to white house chief of staff john kelly and produce for him a two pai two-page memo which showed under trump the gop support under women voters was plummeting, how fast the republican party was falling and warning him that a full-fledged trump endorsement of roy moore will further damage the party's standing with women. it was a warning that, as you said, went unheeded. trump went all-in for roy moore and we know what happened next, moore lost, and there's concern right now heading into 2018 that republicans are really struggling with women voters and that could turn against them next year at the ballot box. >> as everybody is trying to figure out what that strategy is for 2018, you have reporting on hillary clinton and how she may or may not be used, the cost benefit analysis being done. is there also a conversation that needs to be had with hillary clinton? are there people among establishment democrats not getting the message in the same way, maybe it is time for

hillary clinton to step aside? >> yeah. so there's kind of this push/pull happening. a lot of people want her in. they think that she could be beneficial and helpful in their districts, particularly if she won those in '16. so they're kind of encouraging her to come in and help out. but there are a lot of people that i talk to, a lot of democrats, even democrats that supported her, that are saying, please don't. this is a time to kind of clear the deck, bring in new, fresh blood. this what is we need as a party. we don't need barack obama and we don't need hillary clinton and i think you're hearing a lot of that coming from both sides. there's, you know -- there's no leader of the democratic party right now so it's -- they're looking for someone to kind of fill that void and that's hard for them. >> that's what we've been talking about for some time in terms of filling that void. also, in terms of whether or not the people at the top of the party, if there is one, in this case it's the president, are helpful, david, also in alex's piece, charlie dent noting that the president should be in his words very discreet and selective about where he

campaigns. is that message, david, getting through at the white house? >> well, we'll see when we see the president's travel schedule next year. what's going to be really interesting, and this is obviously not the first time, we saw barack obama deal with this in 2010, his numbers weren't great and how democrats navigated using him or not in advance of the sort of blood bath they had there, the same thing with george w. bush in 2006, but donald trump is even lower right now, so how donald trump reacts to republicans who say, thanks, but no thanks, mr. president, is going to be a fascinating story line to watch in 2018. this is not a president who likes to be rebuffed. he has a sensitive ego about these things. so how -- watching him deal with how his party navigates his low numbers if they don't improve will be critical to how the trump political operation deals with 2018. >> it will be fascinating to see how much of that is actually made public. and how much we learn about

that. rebecca, the president tweeting this morning about that he envisioned some bipartisan work ahead in 2018 and it could begin with infrastructure. are you hearing about an appetite for that? >> well that's a rosy view of things. there might be an appetite on behalf of the president, mitch mcconnell, has also said he wants to see things get done on a bipartisan basis in 2018 if they're going to get anything done at all, but there are few things working against the president in this respect. first of all, it's an election year and lawmakers don't tend to like to do tough things in an election year. and so even in something like infrastructure you're talking about government spending that might be running up the deficit potentially and so that could be a tough sell for many republicans in a tough election year for them. but also, i think what we saw with tax reform, for example, is even some of the vulnerable democrats in red states running in states where trump won in 2016, they didn't have an appetite to work with republicans. they feel like they are in a very strong position

politically, the president is unpopular, republicans are unpopular, their policies are unpopular, so politically there isn't a great incentive for democrats to work with republicans. the incentive might be to work against republicans next year. >> which will be fascinating to see. we are still waiting, we should be hearing from the president shortly but quickly, alex, back to your piece, one of the other things you touched on is the concern not just about women, but also the concern about the suburbs. that's a major concern for both parties. but to hear republicans talk about it after 2016 there's a lig light bulb there. >> this is a reason why democrats won in alabama and a really big reason why democrats won in virginia last month and it became such a big point of kerp for the white house after the virginia gubernatorial election that basically the white house put together an after-action report looking at -- >> i have to stop you there for a second. let's listen in. here's the president from the oval office. >> everybody good?

[ inaudible ]. >> good morning. >> good morning. good morning, everybody. thank you very much for being here. merry christmas. happy new year. have great holidays. we are going to sign some very important things today. one is a continuing resolution that very importantly gives us the right and we are ordering $4 billion worth of missile defense equipment and missiles themselves. very important. top of the line. best in the world. we make the best military product in the world. nobody is even close. so we're ordering 4 be there

worth -- $4 billion worth of missile defense. that will be done by signing right here and notifying the speaker of the house and president of the senate, designating the missile defense as emergency defense fund. it's $4 billion for that. $700 million for various other military forms of equipment and i'm very honored to be doing that. our military has been doing a fantastic job in so many ways with isis and everything they're touching lately has been working out. so we're signing that. this is the letter to mitch mcconnell and separately to paul ryan authorizing that having to do with missile defense.

okay. very important. so that's being done today and that's going to be sent out. when i watch the news, as you know, we had the largest tax cuts in our history just approved, and i was going to wait for a formal signing some time in early january, but then i watched the news this morning and they were all saying, will he keep his promise, will he sign it by christmas? will he sign it by christmas. and i called downstairs and said get it ready, we have to sign it now. we were going to wait until january 7th or 8th and do a formal ceremony, but every one

of the networks were saying will he keep his promise and will he sign it before christmas, and so i immediately called and said let's get it ready. as you know, $3.2 trillion in tax cuts for american families, including the doubling of the standard deduction and the doubling of the child tax credit. the typical family of four earning $75,000 will see an income tax cut of more than $2,000. many much higher than that. slashing their tax bill in half. and they're going to start to see that because we're signing today, they're going to start to see that in february. the numbers will speak. one of the big things that happen, you have some great companies, i want to thank at&t who actually was the first out of the box and boeing and saint claire and wells fargo and comcast, even though they own nbc which is not so nice to the presidency or the president, but

comcast also, they all have made tremendous contributions to their employees and tremendous contributions to spending money on this country because of the tax bill. they all said it's because of the tax bill. they're making tremendous investments. that means jobs. it means a lot of things. we're very happy. that's at&t, boeing, sinclair, boeing, wells fargo, comcast, many other companies, i see three more companies came on. a friend of mine, bob graff, called me last night and said the tax bill is incredible. he owns the new england patriots but he's in the paper business and he said based on this tax bill he wanted to let me know he's going to buy a big plant in the great state of north carolina, and he's going to build a tremendous paper mill there or paper products plant and i've had many calls such as

that, where people that are entrepreneurs in business, they're going out and they're going to buy, frankly, factories that are closed, abandoned and now not going to be abandoned any longer. this is having a bigger impact faster than i thought. the corporate tax rate as you know will be lowered from 35 to 21%. that means that more products will be made in the usa. a lot of things will be happening in the usa. we're going to bring back our companies. they've started coming back. i think they had certain confidence in me and figured we were going to get this done. they have already started. something very important to me, the family farmers and small business owners who lost their business because of the estate tax, most them won't have any estate tax to pay. it will be a great thing for their families. you can leave your farm to your family. you can leave your business, your small business, to your family, not even so small, because the numbers are pretty big here.

so they will be exempt from having to pay estate tax which will be tremendous. they will keep their farms and businesses in the family. businesses will be able to deduct 100% of the cost of their capital investments in the year the investment is made. that's called expensing. to do one-year expensing is going to be one of the biggest things in the bill. i think people will go out and absolutely go wild over expensing. bob kraft mentioned that last night in his telephone call. the fact that they can expense to one-year expensing is a fantastic asset. historic small business tax cuts and pass-through now are made really, really good for the business owner. they're hiring people. i see it on television. i'm reading about it all over, where people are hiring a lot of people right now to go to work. the small business tax cut and the pass-through are now really incentivizing people. we're going to bring back probably $4 trillion from

overseas. nobody knows the exact number, but it's massive. it will be over $3 trillion. it could be $5 trillion. it's a tremendous amount of money that was overseas that the bureaucracy plus the tax laws didn't allow it to reasonably be brought back into our country. we think at least $4 trillion is going to be brought back, and if you look at that, it's going to be brought back right under the code. this is something that republicans wanted for years and democrats wanted for years and yet it never got done. who would object to trillions of dollars being brought back into our country? nobody. but it never got done. now it's being done. and the bottom line is this is the biggest tax cut and reform in the history of our country. this is bigger than actually president reagan's many years ago. i'm very honored by it. in addition we have anwar. we're opening up anwar for drilling. they've tried to get that for 40 years. they've tried to get that even

during the reagan administration and could never get it. that alone would be a big bill if that ever happened. but that's even part of this. and we have, of course, the individual mandate, which is a very unfair and very unpopular provision, as you know, and obamacare essentially i think it ultimately leads to the end of obamacare. i think obamacare is over because of that. we're going to come up with something that's really going to be very good. the individual mandate was very unfair because you're basically saying pay for something in order not have to get health care. so you're paying, you're paying not to have to have health care. it was very unfair. many people thought it should have been overturned in the supreme court. didn't quite make it. almost, but didn't quite make it. now we're overturning. the individual mandate, most unpopular thing in obamacare. very, very unfair. so this is the bill right here. and we're very proud of it.

it's going to be a tremendous thing for the american people. it's going to be fantastic for the economy. it's going to keep companies from leaving our shores and opening up in other countries. they are very disincentivized to do that. there's not a lot of -- lot of not a lot of sense to do that. you do that and i don't think you will be running your company very well. what's happening is we're going to sign this. this is a little picture of it. it fits nicely in the box. i said take it out of the box because people have to see. and all of this, everything in here, is really tremendous things for businesses, for people, for the middle class, for workers. i consider this very much a bill for the middle class and a bill for jobs. and jobs are produced through companies and corporations and you see that happening. corporations are literally going

wild over this. i think even beyond my expectations, so far beyond my expectations. i'll sign this today rather than having a very big, formal ceremony in two weeks when we were going to do it because i didn't want you folks to say i wasn't keeping my promise. i am keeping my promise. i am signing it before christmas. i said that the bill would be on my desk before christmas, and you are loeldsiholding me to th. we did a rush job and it's not fancy, but it's the oval office, the great oval office. just to conclude, our country is doing very well. we've tremendously cut regulations. legislative approvals for which i'm given no credit in the mainstream media, we have i believe it's 88, which is number one in the history of our country, second now is harry truman. harry truman had more legislative approvals than any other president and a record long held and we beat him on

legislative approvals, for which i get no credit. a lot of people say he needed this because he has had no legislative approvals. well, if you look at va accountability act and so many other bills having to do with the va, having to do with the military, having to do with many things, we have more legislative vict victories than any other president. this is the capper, because this is again the biggest tax cut, the biggest reform of all time. so it's an honor to have you with us and we will sign this right now. this is something i'm very proud of. great for our country. great for the american people. thank you all. so we won't do the whole thing, but this is basically what it

is. that's your bill. and i want to thank some people in particular that aren't here, because again we expected a formal ceremony in two weeks, but mitch mcconnell has been fantastic, worked so hard. we would speak at 3:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the morning and we would speak whenever we had to speak, but he worked so hard. the exact same thing could be said for paul ryan. they are very proud of this. we're already seeing the results. as i said, long before, long ahead of schedule. paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, thank you very much. orrin hatch, the chairman, made a beautiful speech the other day in front of the white house. absolutely brilliant, beautiful speech and we appreciate it and i appreciated it. hard working.

kevin brady, i don't think he slept for months. it's almost like that's all he is it was this. mike enzi, senator enzi. diane black. rob portman. the group of rob portman, rob worked so hard, so knowledgeable on the subject. pat toomey, likewise, tim scott, likewise. john thune. these people worked so hard. i don't know if they're given the proper credit. the whole senate when i say the senate, unfortunately, the republicans in the senate, democrats don't like tax cuts. they want to raise your taxes. they don't want to lower your taxes. they want to raise your taxes and they want to spend money foolishly on things that we don't need in many cases. so we're cutting taxes, we're taking care of our military, and we're taking care of people and we're really doing the job. these folks have been so fantastic that i had to call them out. plenty of others, believe me,

republicans in the house and republicans in the senate have been incredible. so this is what we get. we had it. it was all set to go. as soon as i got back from christmas, we'll be working in florida, i'll be working very hard during that christmas because we have many things we're talking about, including north korea, including a lot of things happening in the middle east as you know. we've made tremendous strides, obviously, in syria with isis. we've taken back virtually of the caliphate and all of the land. same thing in iraq. making tremendous strides. sort of the unwritten story right now. since my speech on afghanistan, we're making tremendous progress, tremendous strides. we've opened it up and it's a whole different world in afghanistan. i can tell you that. i'll be working very hard over the holidays. again, i want to wish you a very merry christmas. i have some beautiful pens over here and because all of these

folks are either continuing to work down the road or getting ready to leave and i'm sure they will be working very hard also, i think i'm probably going to hand some of them to the press. the media, would any of the media -- look at these camera guys. but i think we'll do that. we have them. many of you have worked very hard. many of you have worked very, very fairly. and we really appreciate that. you want the box with it or not? >> mr. president, can you talk about how much you'll travel to sell this tax -- >> i don't think i will have to travel too much to sell it. it's selling itself. it's becoming very popular. i think you'll see something on february 1st, when they open up the paycheck that's when you will start to see it. by signing it now, it kicks in for this year. remember, if we didn't make a certain date, it wouldn't kick it until next year, meaning the following year.

'19. i wasn't happy with that. we worked very, very hard to make sure it was this year. even language originally said the corporate would kick in in '19. we didn't do that. we have it kick in now. we had to sign. i don't think we will have to do much selling. i think the corporations giving billions of dollars away to their workers and many more are coming, that's really what is selling this, maybe better than anybody could, including myself, but i think come february when they open their checks and see wow, what happened, i have a lot more money in here, i think that's really going to be something very special. so have a great holiday, folks. some of you folks take -- in particular, like the boom holders so nice to me the other day and the cameramen. >> mr. president [ inaudible ]. >> thanks, everyone. >> thank you. >> thanks, everyone. >> i think the democrats will really regret -- the democrats already regret it. you know, they have their typical thing it's for the rich.

that's not true. they've been called out on it by the media, actually. the democrats very much regret it. they wanted to be a part of it. just doesn't work out. i really do believe and i've said on social media today, i really do believe we're going to have a lot of bipartisan work done and maybe we start with infrastructure because i really believe infrastructure can be bipartisan. we've spent $7 trillion in the middle east, not to mention all of the lives and all of the heart ache and it's so sad, $7 trillion, it's time for us to rebuild our country. thank you very much. [ inaudible ]. >> thank you very much, everybody. >> thank you. [ inaudible ]. >> do you wish you had started with infrastructure at the beginning of this year -- >> we're going to get infrastructure. infrastructure is the easiest of

all. we're very well on our way. we've essentially repealed obamacare. you know, the individual mandate is a big factor in this bill. a lot of people don't talk about it because the tax cut is so important. infrastructure is by far the easiest. people want it. republicans and democrats. we will have tremendous democrat support on infrastructure as you know. i could have started with infrastructure, i actually wanted to save the easy one for the one down the road. we'll be having that done pretty quickly. thank you all very much. i appreciate it. thank you very much. >> thank you. [ inaudible ]. >> i think i have. one thing i really learned is i learned and got to know and became very friendly with the people in the house, the people in the senate, both republicans and democrats. when i came, you know, i didn't know too many. i was very politically active but didn't know too many. the fact that i've become friends with so many of the

names i read off and so many of the senators, so many of the congressmen and women, i think that's a huge factor. i can call anybody now. i know every one of them very well. i understand the legislation very well. so, you know, it's been a process. a great process. really beautiful. but i do believe -- i do believe that the fact that i have gotten to know so many of these people and many of these people i have to say, not saying all, but i'm saying many of these people are great people that truly love this country. so i think that helps. i think you'll see that in this legislation. >> thank you. >> thank you all very much. >> thank you very much. [ inaudible ] thank you all. >> and again, president trump there moments ago in the oval office, signing that tax reform bill. want to go to jeff zeleny at the

white house in the room, jeff, about 20 minutes there, we heard a fair amount from the president, walk us through a little bit more of that? >> erica, it was interesting the president was perhaps giving a bit of a reality show view of signing this bill, saying he wasn't going to sign it but then decided to sign it to keep his promise. perhaps injecting a bit of drama into the news programs. he acknowledged he was watching this morning on television. just the top lines, he did sign that emergency spending bill to keep the government open for a few more weeks. you know, he noted the defense spending in there as well. of course he signed the signature tax plan and he thumbed it on his desk a little bit. it's pretty tall. it's about 3 inches tall or so. he thumbed it as he signed it touting it as his biggest accomplishment. after that was over he was asked if he plans to travel around the country a lot and sell this

bill. he knows polling is clear it's not popular. a majority of americans believe it will not benefit them. the president was more optimistic and said look, i don't think we have to do much to sell this bill. people will see it in their p paychecks. he called out companies for giving bonuses to workers, and investing in building and things. he said he wanted to work with democrats, tweeted that this morning saying he hopes democrats would work with him on infrastructure. i asked him at the end if he wishes he would have started his first year with infrastructure, wishes he would have started something with a bipartisan support on this and he said he wanted to save infrastructure because it's easier. so he believes he will try and do that in 2018. that is a tall order. republicans do not agree on the funding for this. some democrats now are likely reluctant to work with this president. we will see how that plays out in 2018. an as we kept asking questions, the president to me seemed eager to answer them.

that is something that's been going on behind the scenes here, erica, that the president, in fact, wanted to hold a news conference, his aides advised him against it thinking that all types of questions would come up, but at the very end there you couldn't hear him on were, i asked him if he had any regrets from this year, any regrets in 2017 and looked us square in the eye and says no. erica? >> there we have it. it is interesting that he was more open to questions today and did want to speak more with reporters. thank you. our panel is back with us. i want to touch on a couple things that jeff just brought up which stood out to me as well. let's pick up on infrastructure first because we did end on that. the president saying he wanted to save what was easier for down the road and yet not only is this difficult because republicans and democrats don't see eye to eye, we're moving into an election year? how easy is infrastructure? >> it just got a little more complicated by the price tag associated with the tax plan. i mean this is, you know, there

is going to be an added deficit issue to deal with as if the president is going to push infrastructure as they try to deal with the funding around it. that being said, it is the kind of issue that both republicans and democrats and i see now we see the president at joint base andrews crossing from the helicopter to the plane to begin his vacation, it is, erica, i think an issue that we have seen democrats and republicans join forces on in the past, lots of bipartisan plans have been put forth about how to deal with infrastructure, but i do think the price tag associated with it is going to be a huge problem and how it gets paid for and he may be right that he can pick off maybe some deep red state democrats that are up for re-election, but right now, as you noted, it is an election year we're coming into, and the democratic base is so fired up by an anti-trump energy, that i think the democrats are going to think two or three times before they start working with this

president. >> a couple other things that stood out, specifically picking up on the president saying this bill is going to sell itself. we heard from mitch mcconnell if they can't sell this they're in the wrong line of work and he believes it's a lot of corporate bonuses being announced doing the sales job for him. >> right. and yeah, you heard him kind of tout these companies by name and i think that was a really big thing for him. he tweeted about it this morning. this is a big focus. this was his news conference if you want to call it that, his end-of-the-year news conference where he kind of talked about all the things he's done and most proud of and this was something that he really wanted to highlight today, that corporations are kind of rallying behind this, that it's good for the economy, and that people, the middle class, will see this in their paychecks and he repeated that a few times. >> we'll have to see, obviously, if that bears fruit and how that bears out as we move into 2018 and into february as we heard. another thing at the end that was interesting, he talked about the relationships he has formed with members of both the house and the senate that he didn't

know a lot of people when he got there, he now considers a lot of these people and said some republicans and democrats friends. and just brings to mind when barack obama first came into office and tried to do things a different way and there was criticism that he was not reaching out enough to lawmakers and was not trying to work with them enough. has president trump reached out enough in that respect and established these friendships he talked about? >> it's interesting. he has been reaching out to a lot of senators particularly on our side to talk about legislation and to talk about how things are going to go next year and you know n addition to talking with republican senators about perhaps bringing up some kind of infrastructure bill in hopes of gathering democratic support, he's talked about things like doing a prescription drug benefit bill and all these things are going to be geared towards winning over crossover democratic support. but look, as some of your other guests have noted it's going to be hard to get that done in part because a lot of these democrats are going to be under extraordinary pressure from

their own base not to play ball with him, not to cooperate with him because they have to worry about primaries from their own side in 2018. it's going to be very hard to see this president reach out across the aisle, with his approval rating around 35% and get something done. >> rebecca, we heard a short time ago from mitch mcconnell, who the president called fantastic, just a few moments ago there, so mitch mcconnell saying that he is starting to when asked about the president's tweeting habit he said i haven't been a fan until this week. i'm warming up to those tweets. do we have a sense how long the love affair will last between these two? >> until the next hangup in congress. january and february will not be an easy time on capitol hill. there are a lot of big things that congress needs to address including this spending measure that they passed yesterday in the house and senate. they're going to have to come back and address this again at the beginning of the year essentially so when mitch mcconnell can't deliver for the

president, that's when you see the president getting frustrated. right now, everyone is feeling great, they're in this honeymoon phase after passing tax reform, and we saw that great kumbaya moment among republicans at the white house yesterday, but that -- or this week, rather, but that will only last i think as long as, you know, things are going well for republicans and it is completely possible in the beginning of next year that things go off the rails once again. >> jeff, we talked a little bit about and we heard the president talk about the individual mandate and brought that up and why it's important that this will in his words this morning saying essentially lead to the end of obamacare. that's backing off the claims that we heard from the president after the passage of this bill when he was saying this would essentially repeal obamacare. how important is that conversation moving forward, jeff? >> i'm sorry. we don't have jeff. david chalian, i'm throwing that to you. >> can you repeat the question? >> i absolutely can. so one of the things i noticed from the president he was talking about the individual

mandate and how important that was to him in this tax reform bill. but changing his language from what we heard the other day, walking back what he was saying, this is essentially repealing it, nobody wanted to talk about it, that's what's happening. today he was saying accurately that this in his mind believes this will lead to an end of obamacare. there's not the same appetite between republicans as to whether or not they should tackle that. where does things put us moving into 2018? >> he did modify his language and made sure to note that the obamacare repeal is the least popular part of obamacare so therefore indicating an understanding. there are other parts of obamacare that remain the law of the land. so, you are right to note there is a discrepancy, certainly between lindsey graham the republican from south carolina who said let's forge forward to repeal the entire law to mitch mcconnell the leader in the senate who suggested perhaps we've been there, done that, and it didn't prove great, and we have 51-49 and this may not be the smartest thing to do.

one thing about those pictures we saw with the president who instead of jumping on the plane went over and shook some hands on the tarmac, the president in the oval office earlier, this is a president who i think for much of this year has not been displaying much joy in the job. he hasn't really had that sense about him, but with this big victory at the end, there seemed to just be, as he's on his way to christmas vacation, so i think we can all relate to feeling joyous about that, but there seemed to be an airness, something lighter and more joyful about his presence today as he ends this year on this high note. you just sensed a different weight about him as the president finishes his first year. >> part of what jeff noted, i would say to your point too, one of the things i picked up on, the president offering the signing pens to members of the media, specifically calling out the camera folks there, the

photographers, some of the boom, the audio operators, and even saying look, many of you have been working hard and you've been very fair. that is also a change in tone from the president. >> of course. a few minutes earlier he was slamming nbc for not being fair while pointing out that comcast gave bonuses. i don't imagine he's going to all of a sudden turn a leaf and have a love affair with the mainstream media. >> i don't think any of us are waiting for that. that's true. as we move forward and look to the rest of this. rebecca, as everyone does prepare to leave town at this point, and republicans feeling very good about what happened, democrats doubling down on why this will be their message for 2018, what do you think the mood will be when people come back? what are you hearing? >> it's going to be back to work, back to reality. republicans are feeling buoyant including the president because of their big victory on tax reform. of course there wasn't a government shutdown this week, which was not a foregone conclusion. there was only a spending deal reached at the very last minute for republicans and so they're

feeling good there was not that crisis, they got a big victory on tax reform, but when they come back, as i mentioned a few minutes ago, congress is going to have to deal with some hairy issues including the csr payments deal that susan collins exacted as a concession as part of this tax reform plan, and some other big spending issues. it's not going to be easy going for congress when the lawmakers return and it's going to be an election year. the pressure is on, tepgs is heightened and the president clearly has his own list of things he wants to get done, which is going to add pressure, of course, to republican leaders to deliver on the agenda items. everyone is feeling very good right now. democrats seeing the polling and republicans with this big policy victory, but i think it's going to be back to reality when they return to washington at the beginning of next year. >> it will be interesting to watch for as well while this is a vacation period for many folks around the country, just how many of their constituents are speaking up on both sides and letting them know exactly what they think the agenda should be

heading into the new year. thanks to all of you for sticking around and walking through that with us and happy tlaiss. >> holidays. >> you too. >> after signing his tax reform bill, the president apparently turning his focus to infrastructure and predicting he will be able to bring democrats to the table. i will ask one democratic lawmaker if he's on board. whose fleece was white as snow. but after an electrical fire from faulty wiring, mary's vintage clothing and designer shoe collection were ruined. luckily, the geico insurance agency had recently helped mary with renters insurance, and she got a totally fab replacement wardrobe at bloomingdale's. mary was inspired to start her own fashion line, exclusively for little lambs. visit geico.com and see how affordable renters insurance can be. it's an emotional connection i focus on techniques because it's really the techniques

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>> we just heard president trump saying he is ready to work with democrats next year, making that statement after signing the gop tax overhaul bill into law. he also signed that spending bill that was passed that keeps the government open through january 19th.

it also sets the stage for showdowns on spending, immigration, health care and national security. are democrats ready to deal? chairman of the house democratic caucus. sir, good to have you with us. >> great to be with you. >> you ready to deal with the president? are you game for bipartisan work on infrastructure? >> this has been a year of lost and squandered opportunities. the president just signed a tax bill that will really open up the nation's bank and take out a loan against our debt of over $1.5 trillion. actually 2.2 to $2.3 trillion when you include interest. that is spent to give one of the biggest tax cuts to the wealthiest people in america including the trump family. that money could have been used quite frankly to help support a bond program or as i call

marshall plan. where will we get that money from now? that money that we are borrowing from future generations, we could have invested in infrastructure to help the generations prepare for the new economies. that's an opportunity squadered by this president and the republican congress. >> the funding is not there and that's a major hurdle to getting anything done, but would you be open to the idea of working with the president? >> we have always been open to working with the president when we believe it benefits the american people. he failed to demonstrate anything so far that we agree with in terms of helping move the agenda forward. we promised that we would deal with the issue of the dreamers and the daca and those soul who is right now this christmastime are languishing, wondering whether or not they will able to remain in the united states as productive individuals. those are almost a million people that the president left in a state of limbo.

merry christmas to all those folks. that's incredibly unfortunate. >> i want to move on to what we saw that speaks to your concerns. the house passing another measure that the president just signeded as well as a disaster aid bill. you included an extension of the children's health insurance children keeping the government open into january. the disaster aid relief. you voted against them because you didn't feel they did enough. at this point is a little something better than nothing? >> we have a number of priorities that were not met in the negotiations on the extension of government and the continuing resolution. you mentioned a number of them. what are in the concerns of democrats today as i mentioned before, daca. pension protection for pension ears in this country threatened

to lose upwards of half of their pensions. there are a myriad of issues we are concerned about. their needs were not met either in the extension of government bill or in the supplemental bill that passed yesterday too. >> that's why you are voting against them. is there -- are you going to find the president is talking about he thinks there is room for bipartisan work? do you think there is bipartisan work on things that are important to you and your constituents? >> it's my hope as we move forward, his commitment to jeff fleck and his promise that he would address the issue of daca and my hope is that mitch mcconnell and speaker ryan come to the table and deal with that issue. that's one of the problems he made. we stand ready to work and move forward an agenda that is positive for the american people and we just haven't seen that from this president yet. hope springs eternal. you never know with this guy.

>> we heard that this week we would see a bipartisan effort in the house dealing with an overhaul of how sexual harassment and other claims are handled. a bipartisan effort, i know you are a big supporter of it. why didn't it come to fruition? >> you would have to ask speaker ryan that. at this point we need not a gold standard, but a platinum standard of sexual harassment in the workplace. for corporate america and academia and for those in wall street and the media and those in entertainment. across the board. it's something that it's time has come and why speaker ryan did not have a bill on the floor this week is beyond me. i don't know why. >> sorry this still a priority? >> i think it is a priority. i think the american people expect the congress to hold a higher standard and not the weakest. >> we will continue to watch to see where that goes.

i know you are archg to get home. merry christmas and happy new year. lots to discuss in 2018. >> yes, indeed. >> an update in the russia investigation. the second in command at the fbi that is backing up james comey's claim that the president demanded his loyalty. stay with us. i had frequent heartburn, but my doctor recommended...

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>> welcome to inside politics. i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. off to mar a lago for christmas. the president said it's his big resolution and he predicts there will be bipartisan dealing. plus, friend or foe. the president's united nations ambassador said she is making a list and checking the votes. it's official, the president signed the tax cut plan today and it also repeals the obamacare coverage mandate adding this 2018 election year challenge for the president's party. >> obamacare essentially it ultimately leads to the end of obamacare. i think obamacare is over because of that. we will come up with something that will be very good. many people thought it should have been overturned in the supreme court. didn't quite make it, but almost. now we are