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when it runs out of money that is unless lawmakers can get their act together and get us on a different path. for now all eyes are on a plan from speaker paul ryan with side step immigration entirely for now but appeal the democrats by reuping funding for chip. the question mark is what happens? >> on the right-hand side of the screen, a very big moment about to occur on the senate floor. in a few minutes jeff flake, a republican senator from arizona will take to the floor and deliver a stern rebuke of president trump, comparing his words and actions to those of joseph stalin, the soviet dictator. you're going to hear this speech from start to finish. as we said, it is highly unusual. first go to sunlen serfati and she'll give us state on the government funding and spending discussion. >> reporter: it is a big scramble behind the scenes but republican leaders say they are moving in the right direction they believe.

last night they presented the republican conference over in the house with a spending bill to extend government funding at least keep the government funded for the next 28 days. it would -- the spending bill would be extended until february 16th. this new plan you see the details up there does not address daca which is of course what many democrats wanted. it does though fund the children's health insurance program for six years, something that could wound many democrats and delays key obamacare taxes. house republicans are pushing ahead with this plan, a key wildcard will conservative members of the house freedom caucus get on board? republicans will need to pass this with only republican support. then it gets kicked over to the senate. if and only if, a big if, it gets passed in the house, there republicans need democrats to support this as well and get to 60. this puts a lot of democrats in a tough spot, especially some

red state democrats ready for re-election, you see senator manchin say he will vote to keep the government open and senator booker says he won't vote for a cr if it does not include daca. big question mark as of this morning where this all stands. that said, republican leaders in the house are pushing forward a t tep idly confident but a lot of gauging of support. the temperature of many members going on up here. they just met behind closed doors and we'll see a key press conference at this hour. speaker ryan to see where -- how he's feeling about all of this. >> thank you so much. another question, where does the white house stand? how do they feel about this? john kelly on capitol hill for a really interesting meeting with the congressional hispanic caucus which you have a sense doesn't like where the white house is -- >> pretty good sense of that. let's go to abby phillips with more. what's the strategy here? >> reporter: this is an important meeting in part because the reporting that we've

been doing has been that john kelly was in charge -- put in charge of the immigration issue and he was also one of the people telling the president that the durbin graham compromise proposal they presented to the president in the oval office was not a good deal for him. this was an opportunity to come back to the table with democrats and perhaps restore that trust that seems to deteriorated over the course of the last week. it's unclear on the spending front which you were talking to sunlen about where the white house is going with this. the white house said yesterday what they want is a two-year budget resolution but right now it seems very much like the only train that's leaving the station is a short term bill. we're hearing this morning from white house legislative director mark short that it's likely that the white house is going to issue some kind of support for that effort soon in part because it may be the only thing they are able to do in the short term. meanwhile, the president is on the hill today this afternoon for a ceremony honoring bob dole

and we're told he's not scheduled to have any meetings at the moment we're going to keep our eye on that and see whapds. there are clearly a lot of issues he is central to and all of the big players will be right there. we'll keep you posted on whether he's going to do any side meetings at the end of the day today. >> abby phillip at the white house. keep us posted. thank you. breaking news is this, cnn just learned that steve bannon has struck a deal with the special counsel. joining us now, cnn law and justice reporter shimon, we know he was served to appear before a grand jury. will he? >> it appears, comes from my colleague talking to people close to bennen. it appears bannon and mueller have struck some type of deal where he won't have to appear before the grand jury, at least

for now. it appears that the people attorneys for bannon have been negotiating with mueller's team and appears before mueller's team and will answer questions voluntarily. we don't know what this means for this grand jury subpoena that they served on him. however, a significant deal here, a significant progress here and that bannon has now it appears has agreed to at least voluntarily appear before a special counsel investigators. >> all right, shimon, we appreciate the breaking news very, very much. we'll get more on that in just a moment. we're minutes from something remarkable set to play out on senate floor, that sitting republican, senator jeff flake will condemn the president. >> suzanne has a preview for us. >> reporter: all eyes on the senate floor, ten minutes away when it's expected that senator flake will deliver these remarks. it is widely anticipated and

highly unusual, the president himself in a preemptive move criticizing senator flake saying he's weak on border security among other things. he clearly doesn't have a re-election bid so he feels untethered unbridled by the requirements of another campaign. he's become a really ferocious critic of the president. here's a little bit of what he's going to address. it is largely dealing with the president's critiques and criticism of the media. he's going to say to the president of the senate, mr. president, is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by joseph stalin to describe his enemies. it bears noting that so frout with malice was the phrase enemy of the people, even kruch nef forbade its use, saying the phrase had been introduced by stalin for the purpose of annihilating such individuals

who disdisagreed with the supreme leader. there has been pushback, how can you possibly compare president trump with joseph stalin, that there are million of those in the soviet union killed by famine, torture, all of that. even our oeb cnn's christiane amanpour pushing back saying that how could you make a comparison ahead of the speech, addressing that criticism saying he understands that stalin was a killer and president trump is not. but that using those words so loaded with such meaning and malice, enemy of the state that that puts in danger a reporters around the world, american journalists a s around the world he feels it's necessary to bring this forward. >> suzanne mall voe, thank you

so much. joining us now, four people, an array of titles but fantastic each and every one. david challion, steve bannon will not appear before the grand jury though striking a deal with a special counsel's office he will submit to question. a substantive difference, he will likely have a lawyer in the room. if he lies he's still in big, big trouble. what are the political implications here? >> there's nothing not serious about sitting down with an interview with the special prosecutor. do you remember back when steve bannon was publicly saying i don't need a lawyer. i'm not part of this thing at all. that's not the case anymore but clearly what was reported in the michael wolf back and public comments from steve bannon thereafter have raised enough questions about precisely what steve bannon knows he was a key part of the transition and key part of -- in the white house in

exactly the time frame that bob mueller and his team were looking at that the special prosecutor bob mueller and his team want to speak with him. i think that they were indicating how important this is for steve bannon to take this quite seriously by the way they went about doing this. first having the subpoena out there and then cutting his deal with the lawyer for the interview. i think they set the tone of how seriously they take his information. >> he won't be able to claim executive privilege in this conversation, this very important interview with bob mueller. i wonder why the political dance then with the house intelligence committee yesterday. why -- if he's going to answer these questions, which dana bash reported he will fully to mueller's team, then why did he do -- not do so to such a great extent yesterday for ten hours? >> interestingly, i -- my sense of it from reading about bannon and his words he has such

contempt for congress, he wasn't going to give them an inch. this is going to be a different kind of conversation very much so because if you lie to these prosecutors under these circumstances, independent of everything else, you committed a crime and the dirty little secret is, it's actually easier for them. try to unravel what you might have done seven months ago and what russian influence might have been there is really kind of tough. if i have a fact and you lie about it to me face to face as we're recording it, well, then you can move forward with a prosecution and make no mistake, that's what this is. this is not some sort of random abstract investigation. this is robert mueller looking for people who may have committed a crime. >> steve bannon likes to brag he uses hyperbole, it is not the type of thing you want to do when sitting down with an interview with the special counsel. shimon is here. one other key here, cnn reported overnight, unlike with the interview with congress, he will

answer everything before the special counsel, his legal team says there. do you have any sense of what the areas of interest are that the special counsel has with steve bannon? >> anything to do with the transition and his time at the white house. they are still investigating the campaign. you have to think about michael wolf's book and that is no doubt a factor these prosecutors and investigators on the team probably read through this book and questions came to their mind. the comments about money laundering in the book, his comments about the comey firing, those are the types of things no doubt those investigators and prosecutors are going to want to know about and who was behind the comey firing. what was the thinking at the white house. so certainly all of those things will probably come up. also, you know, whatever he says isn't necessarily whatever

bannon may tell investigators isn't necessarily going to be used as evidence in a potential prosecution. it could also be for intelligence purposes. they may want to know what was going on at the white house during all of this. and who better probably right now than steve bannon to ask those questions. >> yeah. >> right, you bring up the trump tower meeting, he's called that treasonous in his interview with michael wolf and told 60 minutes it was the biggest political mistake ever. not just for this president but pretty much ever to fire comey the way he did. let's move on to what is about to happen in minutes and that is sitting republican jeff flake will take to the senate floor and condemn sitting of republican president. rebecca berg to you, this is a big moment. what is the lasting impact of it? it wasn't that long ago he took to the floor to also make what some thought would be a monumental speech and we're not talking about it today. >> clearly a different setting, a more aus steer setting.

and that elevates it in its importance and of course this comes just as john mccain published an op-ed and opinion piece also defending the role of the media, defending the role of the free press in the united states of america. the problem with this administration and this presidency in terms of these sorts of criticisms having a lasting impact is you know tomorrow we'll be onto the next controversy, onto the next tweet and there's still the fact remains most republicans still support president trump and his approval rating among republican voters still is positive and so jeff flake is in a position where he is as suzanne said in her report, untethered from any political considerations. he has the freedom to make the criticisms. this starts to have an impact when you reach a critical mass of republicans, it's sending an important message but

necessarily going to effect any change unless you start to see republicans enmasse echoing what he's going to say. >> it's not republicans en masse but not jeff flake on an island. john mcclain from arizona wrote an op-ed clearly designed to support what jeff flake is doing today, one of the quotes whether trump knows it or not, these efforts are being closely watched by foreign leerdaders w are already using words as cover as they silence and shudder one of the key pillars of democracy. brian stelter, it's a message we've heard from flake and john mccain and committee to protect journalists, there's a real concern around the world. >> that's right. this is a situation that's getting worse because of rhetoric from leaders like president trump. i think since he's not running for reee lengs, trying to get fellow gop senators on board to convert and convince them to speak out as publicly as he is, we heard reports since

inauguration day, other gop senators feel the way flake and mccain do and aren't as willing to say it publicly. the speech we're about to see partly directed as his fellow gop senators trying to convert them. it's also an important moment because flake is trying to get people to focus on what the impact is of the daily drip drip drip of trump's poisonous words about the media. here's a part we didncan put on screen, it was shared ahead of time, when a figure in power reflexively calls any press that doesn't suit him fake news, it is that person that should be the figure of suspicion, not the press. trying to turn that fake news slur around on president trump and think about what the impact of the words are. and i think trying to in a way defend the press and talk about the role of the press in democracy, pretty unusual to see in this era of attacks against the media. it will be notable to see it on the senate floor. >> we're looking at live pictures chuck schumer there.

we're going to bring you flake's entire address as soon as he begins. let's move on to keeping the government open. >> small issue. >> look, erol lewis, lindsey graham just made remarks, it's nults to do defense spending now and dac later. do them now both. he said republican's stance in the daca situation is naive after he made many headlines yesterday with his remarks as well. >> that's right. the effort by lindsey graham to get some sort of compromise here harkens back to an older time -- >> with daca. >> well, listen, kicking this issue down the road, can down the road has gotten nowhere. nothing is going to change in two months except frankly more people who are subject to the possibility of deportation. he also i think senses politically what more of his colleagues will probably realize later on, which is that this is going to be a potent issue

driving the democratic wave we see building. all of the polls suggest the democrats have an advantage. this is one of them, they are finding in district after district these heartbreaking cases of people who came here of daca recipients who want to enlist in the army. they are honor students and done this and that and charitable and part of thifr communities, it's going to be an important political issue. for a lot of different reasons, including the 2018 elections lindsey graham i think will come to be seen as someone on leading edge where the debate needs to go. the hard liners who want to shut it down and find hundreds of thousands and deport them, that's going to be a tough position to sustain through the elections. >> stick around for one moment. we have a whole lot of live events we're watching that could have a huge impact. jeff flake about to speak on the right on the senate floor attacking the president comparing him in his words to joseph stalin. on the left you see the house republican leadership, how do they plan to get the votes on it temporary spending measure? do they think they are there?

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all because of tax reform. i was another my son's basketball game on sunday, uaw worker from a chrysler plant said this will get me $4,000 in my paycheck. i thought this was only for the rich. i guess that's me now. it's working. it's just the beginning. at the heart of this law is a lower tax burden for american families who are going to start seeing this relief very, very soon. last week the treasury department announced that it has adjusted the amount of irs takes out of paychecks to account for the new law. 90% of wage earners in america will experience an increase in their take home pay startig as soon as february. let me say that one more time. 90% of -- >> paul ryan on the left, jeff flake of arizona on your right. talking about the free press and the president. >> so from the very beginning, our freedom has been predicated on truth, the founders were

visionary in regard, understanding good faith and good facts between the governed and government would be the very basis of this ongoing idea of america. as a distinguished former member of this body, patrick moynahan said, everybody is titled to his own. but not his own facts. now during the past year i'm alarmed to say senator moynahan's proposition has been tested more severely than any other time in our history. for it is that reason that i rise today to talk about the truth and the truth's relationship to democracy. for without truth and principled fidelity to truth and shared facts, mr. president, our democracy will not last. 2017 was a year which saw the truth objective and em pier cal evidence based truth more battered and abused than any

time in our country, at the hands of the biggest figure in the government. the white house enshrine alternative facts in the american levelicon, a justification for what used to be called old fashioned falthood. it was a year in which a daily assault on the constitutionally protected free speech was launched by the same white house an assault as unprecedented as it is unwarranted. the enemy of the people was how the president of the united states called the free pass in 2017. mr. president, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by joseph stalin to describe his enemies and it bears noting that so frout with malice was the phrase enemy of the people, even crush chef forbade its use, saying the phrase had been introduced for the purpose of

annihilating such individuals, unquote, who disagreed with the supreme leader. this alone should be the source of great shame for us in this body. especially for those of us in the president's party. for they are shameful repulsive statements and of course the president has it presisly backward, des position is the enemy of the people and free press is the des pit's enemy and makes the free speech the guardian of democracy. when a figure in power that calls them fake news, it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, not the press. i dare say that anyone who has had the privilege and awesome responsibility to serve in this chamber knows that these reflexive slurs of fake news are dubious at best. those of us who travel overseas, especially to war zones and other troubled areas, all around the globe and encounter members of u.s. based media who risk

their lives and sometimes lose their lives reporting on the truth. to dismiss their work as fake news is an affront to their commitment and their sacrifice. according to the international federation of journalists, 80 journalists were killed in 2017. a new report from the committee to protect journalist documents that the number of journalists imprisoned around the world has reached 262, which is a new record. this total includes 21 reporters and being held on false news charges. mr. president, so powerful is the presidency that the damage done by the sustained attack on truth will not be confined to this president's time in office. here in america, we do not pay to the powerful, we question the powerful most ar dentally. to do so is our birth right and requirement of our citizenship. and so, we know well that no

matter how powerful, no president will ever have dominion over objective reality. no politician will ever get us -- tell us what the truth is and what it is not. and anyone who presumes to try to attack or manipulate the press for his own purposes should be made to realize his mistake and to be held to account. that is our job here. that is just as madison and hamilton and jay would have it. of course a major difference between politicians and free press is that the free press usually correct itself when it's made a mistake. politicians don't. no longer can we compound the attacks on truth with our silent acquiescence. no longer can we turn a blind eye or deaf ear to those assault on our institutions and an american president who cannot take criticism, who must constantly deflect and distort and distract who must find

someone else to blame, is charting a very dangerous path. and a congress that fails to act as a check on the president adds to that danger. now we're told via twitter that today the president intends to announce his choice for the quote, most corrupt and dishonest media awards. it beg ars believe that american president would engage in such a spectacle yet here we are. 2018 must be the year in which the truth takes a stand against power that would weaken it. in this effort, the choice is quite simple. in this effort the truth needs as many allies as possible. together my colleagues, we're powerful. together we have it within us to turn back these attacks, to right these wrongs and repair this damage and restore reverence for institutions and prevent further moral vandalism. together united in this purpose

to do our jobs under the constitution, without regard to party or party loyalty, let us resolve to be allies of the truth and not partners in its destruction. it is not my purpose to inventory all of the official untruths of the past year but a brief survey is in order. some untruths are trif yan, such as a bizarre intention regarding the crowd size at last year's inaugural. but some untruths are not at all trivial, such as the seminal untruth of the president's political career, the repeated conspiracy about the birth place of president obama, also not trivial, are the equally pernicious fantasies about rigged elections and massive voter fraud, which are as destructive as they are inaccurate. to the effort to undermine confidence in the federal courts federal law enforcement and

intelligence community and the free press to perhaps the most vexing untruth of all, the supposed hoax at the heart of special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. to be very clear, to call the russian matter a hoax as the president has done so many times is a falsehood. we know the attack orchestrated by the election were real and constitute a grave threat to american sovereignty and national security. it is in the interest of every american to get to the bottom of this matter wherever the investigation leads. ignoring or denying the truth about hostile russian intentions towards the united states leaves us vulnerable to future attacks. we're told by our intelligence agencies that these attacks are ongoing. yet it is recently been reported that there has not been a single cabinet level meeting regarding russian interference and how to defend america against these

attacks. not one. it might seem like a casual and routine untruth, that it has now become the white noise of washington, in fact a serious lapse in the defense of our country. mr. president, let us be clear, the impulses underlying the decemb dissemination of such untruths are not benign, conditioning the public to no longer trust them. the destructive effect this kind of behavior on our democracy cannot be overstated. mr. president, every word that a president utters projects american values around the world. the values of free expression and reverence for the free press have been our global hall mark. this is our ability to freely air the truth that keeps our government honest and keeps the people free. between the mighty and modest,

truth is a great leveller. and so respect for freedom of the press is always been one of our most important exports. but a recent report published in our free press should raise an alarm, reading from the story quote, in february, syrian president bashar al assad brushed off an amnesty international report that 13,000 people had been killed in one of his military prisons by saying you can forge anything these days. we're living in a fake news era. and the philippines president duterte explained of being demonized by fake news. last month the report continues with our president quote, laughing by his side duterte called reporters spies. in july, venezuelan president maduro complained to the russian propaganda outlet that the world media has spread lots of false versions, lots of lies about his country, adding this is what we

call fake news today, isn't it? there are more. the state official in myanmar preently said there's no such thing as rohingya. it is fake news. he was referring to the persecuted ethnic group, leaders in singapore, country known for restricting free speech, have promised fake news legislation in the next year and on and on and on. this feedback loop is disgraceful, mr. president. not only has the past year seen an american president borrow despottic language to refer to the free press but inspired dictators and authoritarians with his own language. that is reprehencible. we're not in a fake news era as bashar al assad says, we're in an era in which the a authoritarian impulse is reasserting itself to challenge free people and free societies everywhere. in our own country from the trivial to the truly dangerous.

it is the range and regularity of the untruths we see that should be the cause for profound alarm and spur to action. add to that the by now predictable habit of calling true things false and false things true. we have a recipe for disaster. george orwell warned, the further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. any of us who have spent time in public life had endured news coverage we feltwi was jaded or unfair. in our positions to deploy idle threats to use laws or regulations to stifle criticism is corrosive to our democratic institutions. simply put, it is the press's obligation to uncover the truth about power. it is the people's right to criticize their government and it is our job to take it.

what the goal to the truth. president john f. kennedy on the 20th anniversary of the voice of america was eloquent in answer to that question. we are not afraid to entrust the american people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas and alien philosophies and competitive values for a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation afraid of its people. mr. president, the question of why the truth is under such assault may be more historians to determine. but for those who cherish american constitutional democracy, what matters the effect on america and her people and her standing in an increasingly unstable world made all the more unstable by these very fabrications. what matters is the daily disassembling of our democracy institutions. we are a mature democracy.

it is past time to stop excusing or ignoring or worse, endorsing these attacks on the truth. for if we compromise a truth to the sake of our politics, we are lost. i sincerely thank my colleagues for their indulgence today. i'll close by borrowing the words of an early adhere ent to my faith and find has special resonance at this moment. his name was john jacques and kplied the question, what is truth. his search was express in poetry and ultimately in a hymn i grew up with, oh, say what is truth. it ends as follows. then say what is truth tis the last and the first. for the limits of time it steps orthothe heavens depart and the earth's fountains burst, truth, the sum of existence will

weather the worst. ee eternal, unchanged ever more. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. >> mr. president. >> senator from minnesota. >> mr. president -- >> republican senator of arizona jeff flake condemning republican sitting president, president trump for his assaults on the truth. clearly explaining the danger to our democracy in so many ways. there's a lot to get to. let's bring back in the panel to talk about all of it. david chall oixt n, last year was a year that saw truth more battered and abused than any other at the hands of the most powerful person in our government, the president. >> he said some of those untruths were trif yan in nature, like lying about the crowd size at the inauguration but ticked through really important untruths pasht of donald trump's past and present.

the lie about barack obama not being born in the united states. the lie about massive voter fraud across the country calling into question the very institution that our democracy relies on to be able to have a people governored by elected representatives and saying that the russia investigation by bob mueller is a hoax, jeff flake portrayed that as one of the greatest lies that donald trump has told over the last year. >> i'm sure if the president was watching that would be the part that would jump out at him and bother him the most. this wasn't a defense of the press as we thought it might be going in. this was a defense of truth, jeff flake standing up for truth. >> i thought, not just defense of the truth but the need for a shared truth, for shared facts across the country from elected representatives to the people that they represent because that's the only way you can move forward in a democracy. and what struck me, reberg ka berg and i want you in this conversation right now, he was telling people inside the

senate, it's on us to deal with it and shame on us if we don't. he said this alone should be a source of great shame for us in this body, especially for those of us in the president's party. >> absolutely interesting, call to arms and language you don't typically hear a sitting senator used to describe his colleagues to point at them and say this is on us, this is on you. and it especially has resonance because jeff flake isn't going to be here after this congress because he's retiring from congress, not running for re-election. but the other senators who he was speaking to, many of them will be here into the future, into the final two years of the presidency's first term and potentially second term. he's telling them this is going to be their issue to have to address. i think it's important to remember that politically, it has political consequences because david chalian alluded to

this, if you will don't have a shared truth you're starting from, starting debates from, how can you possibly have a debate, how can you possibly communicate to people on the other side of the aisle and reach the compromises that lawmakers need to reach. >> not only did he make the comparison to joseph stallen in enemy of the people, but brian stelter, he talked how this president opened the door to dictators around the world, like the president of the philippines, duterte, to use the phrase fake news when standing beside a laughing president trump trip and bashar al assad who brushed off a report about the tens of thousands of innocent people killed by calling it fake news. in the united states president trump's anti-media attacks are just words, they are not backed up usually by actions but in other countries, these kind of words used by dictators and authoritarian leaders are

backed up by actions. pre-dating trump's inauguration, but in the past years since he was inauginaugurated. he used the word fake, calling polls and stories and journalists fake. that has a poisonous effect over time. what jeff flake is trying to say here, that the culmination of all of those insults and slurs and the accumulation of all of it does damage -- >> the actual danger. >> did damage to the democracy. he's articulating what a lot americans feel, maybe not many loyal trump supporters who feel the media is out to get their president but what the rest of the country feels right now. he also focused on checks and balances and that was my main takeaway, the idea that congress has to stand up when there was an assault on the truth. >> you're not seeing it. >> we have a debate on whole versus house. you have -- >> good point. >> homeland security secretary

under oath saying she did not know whether norway was predominantly white? this is a committed public servant with a decorated record who said that out loud and you see what jeff flake is seeing the assault on the truth is poisonous. >> so many ways and situations, the trump presidency has been like a character test for the collective u.s. institutions of democracy as well as for individuals. individuals have to make a decision. if you look at somebody like lindsey graham, do you play golf with the president and flatter him constantly? do you stand up and speak the truth about what happened in a private meeting. do you try to push against his policies? how do you make that work? i think jeff flake unfortunately some of his political colleagues will dismiss him, it's easy for you to stand in the well and make a brave speech, you're not running for re-election. >> that actually looks really bad for them to admit publicly we won't say what we think because we want to be elected again.

>> it's extraordinary, when you see people in the meeting splitting hairs, it was house and not whole and i didn't hear it or maybe he said -- maybe he didn't. people who were sworn to uphold the constitution to do that, jeff flake is telling us, look, this is unfortunately, i hate to be pessimistic but this strikes me as one more in a long line of warnings that were a staple of the republican debates in 2015 and 2016. we were told over and over and over again that chaos would follow if we continue to turn a blind eye to some of the negative characteristics of donald trump's history and his political style and his rhetoric and vul garty and falsehoods and obscenity. you know, he pulled the sword out of the stone and he's the president. when we hear one more speech saying, it's almost kind of like an i told you so speech, in the guise of trying to warn us one more time. the question for everyone watching this broadcast, to

decide what we're going to do. >> let's bring in patty saloois doyle. let me begin with what the response is going to be from republican colleagues. you're a republican strategist, former communications director for ted cruz. we heard jeff flake call this a move to prevent further moral vandalism and said together we have it within us to turn back the attacks. is this a moment of that where there is more coming together, more of those running again but also running behind jeff flake to support him? or iss erol right, they will no. >> given that he's outgoing and the president is here to stay and republicans need to work with him. the reality is of this entire fake news dialogue is that the president really believes that and believes fake news happens and large part of the media is responsible for that.

and he goes out and speaks to his base and it energizes him. media is the foil and the enemy. the problem is from a communications standpoint, if there is fake news or story that is factually incorrect, you ask for a correction, if it is an unconvenient or uncomfortable truth, you suck it up and take it. free press is valuable to our democracy, important to have truth to power and just because you don't like a news story that comes out, you cannot push back and paint the entire press as the enemy of the people. i think that is where he crosses the line repeatedly. and i think john mccain wrote a great piece in the "washington post" this morning and that the president's criticism of the media is inconsistent at best and hip critical at worst because he himself sometimes uses alternative facts and sometimes if it's a positive news story, he loves to talk about it. if it is not positive, he likes to question it and call it fake.

>> you know, patty, alice notes jeff flake won't get much support from the republican side here. i often hear democrats or progressives criticize people like jeff flake for taking a stand like this, making a big public speech on the floor of the senate like this, coming out against the president for his assault on truth but voting with him more than 90% of the time. he's in the senate for another year basically. is it enough to speak on the floor of the senate in your mind if he continues to vote with the president? >> look, i think senator flake's speech today was very powerful. particularly in the back drop of the last two days where we have republican senators and our you know, dhs secretary basically lying about what happened in the oval office two days ago. but i think when he said that it doesn't go as far as what other countries have done in terms of

making the press the enemy of the state, i think he's wrong there in that the president comes pretty close to that line. i mean, certainly he's not killing anybody but you know, he has taken credentials away. he has kicked reporters out of press avails and picks and chooses who he wants to be in a press avail and kicked reporters out of the oval office. he has threatened to take away licenses of the media. these are all things that go right up to that line and it's a scary place because the press is the core to our democracy. it keeps our government and our elected officials honest. and the president has decided for whatever reason, he is not going to be honest. the way to get away with not being honest is to discredit that check, the press, in terms of their own honesty. >> rebecca berg, i think we were

all struck hearing jeff flake saying and the biggest mistruth of them all, the most vexing untruth, his words, is the president calling the russian investigation, bob mueller's investigation a hoax. to hear that from a sitting republican senator, a day after steve bannon basically played congress for ten hours not answering any of these questions that they had pertaining to the russia probe. what did you make of that? >> it is such an important remark, poppy, if you look at the polling of public opinion of the russia probe and public opinion of bob mueller, you see that republicans over time have come to distrust the probe and come to distrust bob mueller. now something north of 70% of republicans believe that the point of the probe is not to look at possible con lugs and russian interference, these serious issues but instead an effort to undermine the president of the united states, donald trump. so it's important for republicans like jeff flake to

say, wait a minute, what the president is saying this is a political witch hunt, it just isn't true. because and i think this goes back to why jeff flake made the comments in the first place. the president has a megaphone that gives his statements more credibility than maybe they warrant. if he says something like that, that the probe is a political witch hunt, people do believe it, not everyone, but some people and especially his supporters. that's why jeff flake is calling on his colleagues to take the president on and challenge him on these things. >> he didn't have to bring up the russian investigation right now, the speech would have been the same without it. he chose to, one might wonder it was a political statement. thanks so much. a fascinating moment to see. we'll be right back.

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manu raju was in the room. what did he say? >> reporter: he did not say if they had the votes in order to keep the government open until mid february, which is the proposal that is on the table, saying that it's something they are still looking at determining whether they have the votes to pass. to make sure they have enough votes, but he tried to put the pressure on democrats in the house who are resisting this along with conservatives in the house also resisting this because he's pointing to language in the bill that would extend the children's health insurance program funding for that program that's about to lapse as well. that authorization about to lapse. this is how paul ryan put it in trying to urge democrats to vote for the bill later this week. >> i feel that it makes no sense for democrats to try to bring us to a shut down and shut off chip funding for states running out of money like minnesota and washington and kentucky and other states. i think cool heads hopefully will prevail.

>> do you have the republican votes? >> we haven't whipped it yet. >> the democrats have been insisting there should be a fix to deal with undocumented immigrants that came in at young ages and get that language on the so-called defer to action childhood arrival program by this deadline by friday. this shutdown dead lynn but this is not going to happen this week. the questions for democrats whether or not they are going to fight this tooth and nail, not give the republicans any votes because republicans themselves do not appear to have the votes in order to get this through based on separate opposition from conservatives in the house, freedom caucus but separately poppy and john, the immigration talks are going to continue today for key members and sit down behind closed doors and try to hash out a separate compromise to get going but that still will not be done in time for friday talks. at the end of the day what the democrats do and what do the conservatives in the house do.

and the vote comes later this week. >> who blinks. thank you. we appreciate it. president trump as you know often casts himself as the outsider shaking up things in washington saying he will bring jobs back. >> days away from the one year anniversary of the inauguration, martin savidge went to youngstown, ohio to ask trump supporters how they believe he's doing so far. >> anywhere you look in youngstown reminder of what's been lost, factories, jobs, the city's population is down by almost two thirds from the 1950s. the economy wasn't just disappearing here, so was a way of life. >> i realized that the core foundation of our country is slipping away. >> i mean, it got to a point i did not like the direction my country was going. >> the answer for many was donald trump. in 2016 according to the mahoning board of elections, approximately 7,000 registered democrats switched parties to become republicans.

>> says it's going to take a miracle first and bring jobs back. >> you're in housy trade deals, we fix that, the jobs can come back. >> something he said that sticks with me, he wants to give the power back to the american people and that's something i can certainly get behind. >> i'm with a pastor and stay-at-home mom and student and machine shop worker and union member. democrats raised in democrat families who crossed over to vote trump. we're one year in. how is he doing? >> fantastic. >> better than i ever would have dreamt. i mean that sincerely. >> really? >> yeah, i agree. he's doing wonderful, staying on task. >> reporter: we start with a hot button topic of the moment. how big an issue to all of you is immigration? >> huge. >> huge. >> reporter: really? in youngstown, ohio? >> absolutely. as far as i'm concerned, they are stealing jobs of rightful citizens. >> reporter: it's also about something else trump voters say is important, rules and respect.

>> i feel like when people come here illegally you don't respect our laws and shupt come here free wheeling like that. >> reporter: a year later they all still want the wall. he says he used to cringe, not any more. because you've grown numb to it? >> not numb at all. i know what he's done. i'm starting to get an inkling why he uses twitter in the way he does. if all he had to rely on is what people say about him, i might not like the guy. i love the guy, the job he's doing. >> reporter: justice meant trump at the rally and said he's not a racist. >> he was the nicest person and obviously if he was a racist as everyone paints him out to be, he could have walked past me and not even said a word. >> reporter: what about the lies? >> do i think he's lied? no. he's fallen short in his goals? we all do. >> reporter: economically they

say things are getting better, stock market sean home values are up. >> industries are booming, everywhere i've seen. >> reporter: i look around here and don't see a boom. >> in this area, no, but i feel like there's small businesses starting to pick up. >> reporter: derrick says trump's tax reform will fuel the recovery. >> in my community will benefit from the tax cut. >> reporter: do you think the media gives the president a fair shake? >> i don't think so at all. >> no. >> reporter: one year later, these voters couldn't be happier. they see achievement, most of all they see a president like them. >> he's like ten ashs sometimes and says things off the cuff like we do, like real americans do. we're not perfect. i'm tired of suave and polished and teleprompter, i am. i want my country back. cnn, youngtown, ohio. >> appreciate the reporting.

quite a day a lot of news. >> a lot going on and so much more to come. i'm john berman. "at this hour" starts now. it is 11:00 on capitol hill and it's looking like high noon in the showdown over government funding. the threat of a shutdown looms larger than ever. hard line conservatives are bulking in a last minute reprieve offered by their own party and democrats are not budging without a deal on immigration. cnn's sunlen certificaserfaty i capitol hill. are there enough votes to avoid a shutdown in the house? >> we simply don't know yet. speaker of the house paul ryan staying far away from making any sort of predictions on vote counts himself. he spoke at the press conference here on capitol hill and he was asked do