tv CNN Newsroom With John Berman and Poppy Harlow CNN January 25, 2018 6:00am-7:00am PST
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feel the power of thenew power...smax. ...to fight back theraflu's powerful new formula to defeat 7 cold and flu symptoms... fast. so you can play on. theraflu expressmax. new power. good morning everyone. i'm john berman. >> i'm poppy harlow. at any moment we will hear from president trump amid the scenic swiss alps. the president is in davos at a gathering of the business elite that businessman trump never got invited to. he is there for the first time as president. if he's as talkative as he was last night at the white house, we may hear a lot more about the russia probe, what he thinks obstruction is and isn't, a path to citizenship for d.r.e.a.m.ers and why it's, supposedly not a, quote, big deal, to ask the
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acting head of the fbi if he voted. >> the cameras will be allowed in any minute now, we believe. the question is what more will he say about his legal vat gee in the russia investigation, because he provides some major tells when he surprised reporters at the white house, even beyond saying he is eveninger to speak to investigators. >> are you going to talk to mueller? >> i'm looking forward to it actually. >> you want to. >> just so you underthere's been no collusion whatsoever. there's no obstruction whatsoever. and i'm looking forward to it. >> you would do it under oath? >> i would do it under oath, yes, absolutely. >> again, the president went even further than that, raising even more questions. he is in davos right now. will he say more? our jeff zeleny is there waiting. good morning, jeff. >> reporter: good morning, john and poppy. you're right. president trump did arrive earlier this morning and he is
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on his way into the first meeting with british prime minister theresa may. we should see pictures and perhaps words from those two leaders shortly. we know, of course, their relationship has been fraught with some tension over the weeks. the president, of course, was scheduled to go visit london. he pulled back on that. the two leaders are meeting right now. it is still the words, the president's own words from the white house last night before leaving to fly here overnight that are still reverberating all the way over here in switzerland, particularly on the russia investigation. now, the president has said he is eager to testify. he also was asked if he believes mueller will be fair to him. let's watch. >> do you think robert mueller will be fair to you in this larger investigation? >> we're going to find out. here is what we'll say, and everybody says, no collusion. there's no collusion. now they're saying, oh, well, did he fight back?
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>> what is collusion? >> you fight back, oh, it's obstruction. here's the thing, i hope so. >> reporter: so the president right there talking about fighting back, talking about any talk of obstruction of justice is simply him defending himself, so trying to get ahead of what he could potentially see coming there. but again, the moment after the president left the white house again to fly overnight here, one of his lawyers at the white house ty cobb tried to walk back a little bit of what the president said, particularly that he was indeed willing to sit down with those investigators and prosecutors from the special counsel's office. this is what the president's lawyer said, seeking to clarify a little bit, if you will. he said, while mr. president was speaking hurriedly before departing to davos, he remains to continued cooperation with the office of special counsel and is looking forward to speaking with mr. mueller. of course, the point here is the lawyers are still trying to
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negotiate the framework around any of these meetings in terms of the scope of the conversation, the length of the conversation. so the president saying he would be eager to do so. the lawyers are saying not so fast, let's work out details before some of that would happen. >> jeff zeleny in davos. jeff, thank you very much. keep us posted as to the president's movements in these meetings. we're waiting to see him any minute now with theresa may. we hear what the president wants. what exactly is the special counsel after. cnn's shimon prokupecz with that. >> there are a couple of topics on the special counsel's mind, some of the things we have learned that trump's attorneys expect to be asked about is the comey firing, the president asking comey to drop the flynn investigation, reactions to some of comey's testimony on the hill that the president has said he had issues with, and also the
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outreach to intel leaders such as folks like rogers, the former head of the nsa, also coates, other people at the head of the dni, where he was asking them to help reassure people there was no collusion, to put pressure on people to say that. now, meantime, last night as the president surprised people, reporters when he entered the chief of staff's office, we asked him, our pamela brown asked him about this "washington post" story where he asked the acting fbi director at the time who is now the deputy director, andrew mccabe, about who he voted for in the last election. take a listen. >> did you ask mccabe who he voted for? did you ask him that? >> i don't think so. >> you don't think you did? >> i don't think i did. i don't know what's the big deal with that. i would ask you -- who did you vote for? i don't think it's a big deal, but i don't remember that -- i
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saw that morning. i don't remember asking that question. >> is it possible you did? >> i don't remember asking that question. i think it's also a very unimportant question, but i don't remember asking him that question. >> john and poppy, while the president may think this is irrelevant or he's downplaying it, it's possible special counsel and his investigators may ask him about that conversation with andrew mccabe. >> remember that answer and how he said it. shimon prokupecz, thank you so much. also this morning, the department of justice says it would be, quote, extraordinarily reckless is house intelligence chairman devin nunes releases the classified memo he wrote without letting the department review it. >> the memo which is being pretty tightly held right now by nunes and republicans on that committee alleges that the fbi abused surveillance laws. this is all tied to the trump russia dossier. our justice reporter laura jarrett has more on this. this is a fascinating back-and-forth between the two.
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>> it really is. it's a remarkable fight growing more and more heated, directly pitting the intelligence community against the white house and certain gop lawmakers as the justice department and fbi, director christopher wray have both asked to see this memo and advise on any possible national security implications which is the normal case in this type of situation. they've essentially been rebuffed. certain members of the intel committee and house democrats. devin nunes, the chairman of the committee is pushing back through a spokesman saying the agencies that are under investigation by congressional committees typically don't get access to the committee's investigative documents about them. it's no surprise these agencies don't want the abuses we found to be made public. so pushing back there on the doj, poppy. >> also the on going back and forth over these text messages between these two fbi agents who did have roles in the russia
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probe and the hillary clinton e-mail probe as well. now it's not just their thousands of texts that are missing. it sounds like it's from thousands of other phones as well, right? >> that's exactly right. so we've now learned that thousands of cell phones, as many as one in ten, in fact, were affected by the same technical glyn ch that has prompted the inspector general to look at these phones from the two senior fbi officials who were formerly on special counsel robert mueller's team. samsung is saying it's not their fault. the justice department is saying the records search will still continue. the attorney general says he's going to leave no stone unturned on this. >> strzok and page, it doesn't appear it was just their phones. what about this idea that in the text between them they brought up the idea of a secret society which some republicans in congress say suggests some plot against the president? >> certain members of congress
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are raising alarm over this so-called secret society at the fbi. but the messages themselves, we've seen are cryptic at best. one at issue here, the fbi lawyer, lisa page says to strzok the day after the election, are you going to even give out your calendars? seems kind of depressing. maybe it should just be the first meeting of the secret society. it's unclear here what exactly she's referring to without more context which we don't have. i've reached out to the lawyers for comment, as well as we continue to dig into what these officials meant. but there are many more text messages here sure to come out in the coming day, guys. >> laura jarrett, thank you very much. want to bring in our legal analyst paul callan, former federal prosecutor samuel bul. poppy and i applied to law school, but not lawyers like you. there are things that came out yesterday that we really think shines a light on where their
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defense might be and how the president might answer questions. number one, and we played the sound before. we don't need to play it again. on the issue of obstruction, the president -- people says obstruction because i was fight back. samuel, you're a lawyer. is there a fighting back exemption to the issue of obstruction of justice? >> no. if the president is talking about his public statements that there was no collusion or he didn't obstruct, fine, he's entitled to fight back in that sense and he has been. that's not what the obstruction investigation is about. nobody thinks it's about that. it's about the firing of comey, the demand for loyalty, the request to drop the flynn investigation. that's not fighting back. that's tampering. there's no gray area between those two things. it's really just nonsense. >> then there was this moment that stood out to all of us yesterday in the white house briefing. maggie haberman, a great journalist as we know, asked such a pertinent question about
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the definition of collusion and how the white house sees it and got a pretty direct answer. listen to this. >> he says collusion between the campaign, does he mean himself or does he mean no one on his campaign could have done anything? >> look, i think he's stating for himself and anything that he would be a part of or know about or have sanctioned, but that would be something that, again, i think he's very clearly laid out. he and his campaign had nothing to do with. >> so paul, now collusion is about what the president knew or said or did, not what happened, not big picture, not tieing in his team. what does that tell you? >> well, it does give us a real tell on what the defense is going to be. the president is saying i didn't know anything about collusion. i'm not aware of my campaign being involved in collusion. however, if mueller has proven that there were lower level campaign officials who did collude with the russians, the president is trying to distance himself from that. >> isn't part of this legally sort of, if you didn't know, you
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should have known? >> well, that may be true in ordinary life. but in terms of criminal law, it probably wouldn't be sufficient to tie him in to an indictable offense. >> so interesting that all of a sudden yesterday we saw the new lines drawn on obstruction and collusion. and a third thing when asked about andy mccabe. the president was asked did you ask andy mccabe who he voted for, the president said i don't think so, i don't really remember. i don't remember, i don't know, i don't think so. how far will that go beyond closed doors when the special counsel's team is interviewing him when your former colleague, andrew weissman is interviewing him? is that going to satisfy investigators? >> they're going to have to take whatever answers he gives them. then the question for them is going to be how does that compare against the other evidence they have? what is mccabe's testimony likely to be on that? if it has the kind of rich detail we got from comey about his conversations with trump and
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the sort of strangeness of those conversations and the weird almost creepy kind of pressured context, if that's the sort of story that mccabe is telling and it's a credible one, it's not going to be very believable for the president to say, oh, this was an off-the-cuff remark. i'd ask that to anybody. it's going to sound like something that was intended to kind of get a loyalty test again. >> if the president had his druthers, it seems like he would go to coffee with bob mueller today. that's how he sounded last night. ty cob jumps in and says wait a minute. you had a piece out saying when mueller is around, silence should be trump's golden rule. >> the president has such a big ego, he thinks he can talk his way out of anything. his lawyers are terrified that in his rambling scruggss of these obstruction issues, collusion and other issues, he's
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going to incriminate himself. the president is one of the few people who has actually explained how he lies in the book. in the book "the art of the deal" the president describes something he calls truthful hyperbole when he would play to people's fantasies to try to sell them real estate. in other words, he was telling lies about the real estate to make it look better. but he said that's okay because it's truthful hyperbole. if he tries to pull that off with mueller, he's going to have a major problem. because truthful hyperbole doesn't exist. >> paul callan, samuel buell, thank you so much. new pictures of the president's son-in-law. there's jared kushner. this is as the president is meeting with theresa may. >> it's fascinating to see the collection of people. the freedom caucus very much involved with the pr over the
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nunes memo, in promoting that to be sure. and then jared kushner, of course, his son-in-law involved with so many things foreign policiwise, but also part of the russia investigation as well. >> absolutely. let's bring up the other video if we can. i think we have new video of the president arriving in davos, switzerland. there you see him at the world economic forum. he's walking up -- this is the main hall where all the ceos gather, all the world leaders in this one big building in the middle of the swiss alps in this tiny town. the president is there for the first time, walking into this meeting with uk prip theresa may. they will come out and we're expecting public reports shortly. >> we know how much he loves escalators. >> there are no escalators in that building. >> so much more including hearing from the president. stay with us. to see your
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welcome back. let me tell you what we're looking at on your screen. on your left was moments ago when the president arrived for his meeting with ter reza may. on the right, live pictures of american president donald trump with british prime minister theresa may. let's listen in. >> thank you very much. it's been an honor to be with prime minister theresa may. we've had a great discussion. we're on the same wave lengthy think on every respect. the prime minister and myself have had a really great relationship, although some people don't necessarily believe that, but i can tell you, i have a tremendous respect for the prime minister and the job she's doing. i think the feeling is mutual from the standpoint of liking each other a lot.
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there was a little false rumor out there. i wanted to correct it. we have great respect for everything we're doing, and we love your country because it's so good. and we're working on transactions in terms of economic development, trade, maybe most importantly military. we are very much joined at the hip when it comes to the military. we have the same ideas, the same ideals, and there's nothing that would happen to you that we won't be there to fight for you. you know that. i just want the thank you very much. this is a great honor to be here. >> thank you very much, mr. president. as you said, we had a great discussion today. we continue to have a great relationship between the uk and the united states. we face the same challenges
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across the world. as you say, we're working together to meet those challenges and alongside that working for a great trade relationship in the future which will be to both our benefits. the uk and the u.s. both do well out of this. it's been great to see you. >> great to see you. one thing that will be taking place over a number of years will be trade. the trade is going to increase many times and we look forward to that. the trade concepts and discussions, discussions really i think can say most lrptly that will be taking place are going to lead to tremendous increases in trade between our two countries which is great for both in terms of jobs. we look forward to that, and we are starting that process pretty much as we speak. thank you all very much for being here. thank you.
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>> thank you. thank you. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> we'll be talking about it. >> thank you. thank you. >> thank you very much everybody. >> there you have president trump and british prime minister theresa may, very cordial, back and forth. the president saying we have a great relationship and saying there's a false rumor that basically we don't get along. we do. you had an interesting note about that. >> theresa may went to great ends to say the respect the countries have for each other. when the president says we like each other is mutual. she didn't go out of her way to say by the way, i really like you. >> they have had their differences. prime minister may has encouraged him to stay in on the
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agreement. he retweet iing -- >> the president went out of his way to talk about trade which is i think what he wants. so much of this trip to davos to be about. at the end you heard reporters trying to shout questions. i think we're waiting for admiral kirby. you heard reporters shouting questions. i think they were asking are you going to go. >> i couldn't hear any of them. >> are you going to go to the united kingdom. there was no answer from the president. he canceled a trip there very recently. >> rear admiral john kirby, our military and diplomatic analyst along with global affairs analyst kimberly dozier. i hope you got to hear that. this is what you expect, admiral, in front of the cameras. i wonder because you've been in this position in terms of being at high level meetings, advising at high level meetings. despite the tension leading up to the meeting between these two
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leaders and their policy differences, do they ever speak their mind behind closed doors? >> sometimes they do, yeah. i went to davos with secretary kerry in 2015. so i've been in rooms like that many many times as he had bilats and discussions with foreign leaders. when the cameras are in there, you try to get out a major message, talk about the big issues. he did that. he talked about trade and certainly tried to put the issues of tensions between him and theresa may. but usually, particularly with the brits, because they are such close allies and friends, when the doors close and the media is kicked out, you can have very frank, candid discussions. so i hope they do. there's an awful lot to talk about. poppy, you mentioned the iran deal. i expect theresa may will bring that up. there's north korea where i think they support president trump's international campaign, but they are concerned about the president eeps potential
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rhetoric on twitter. there's a lot to talk about of substance. i suspect with the brits you can do that. >> kimberly dozier, again, the president went out of his way to say there's a false rumor that the two leaders don't like each other. he says i like theresa may, and i think the feeling is mutual. when it was her turn, she spoke about respect between the two countries, but i didn't hear her confirm the president's statement that the feeling is mutual. what do you make of that? >> i think she has decided by keeping this strictly business, she has everything to win back home. i think she's enjoying being the adult in the relationship here, that britain is, in general, that they can watch the spectacle of donald trump play out. think about british politics, they're used to big colorful characters. theresa may has to handle parliament questions every week where she deals with tough back and forth. she can take somebody like donald trump in verbal
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gymnastics. inste instead, what she does is take the high road, stick to business, and think about, also, what britain has to play for here. they're going through brexit negotiations. they need better u.s. trade. so she needs this relationship to stay on track, but by not being all friendly as she was when she visited the united states and she was ridiculed back home for being seen holding trump's hand as they walked past the rose garden, this way she can message back home i am dealing with this on my own terms and i am handling this president just fine on the public stage. >> that's a good point. they have their domestic presence, constituents to be worried about first and foremost, and the president playing to that america first policy, focusing on trade here, trade deals with the uk. admiral to you, theresa may was not happy when the president
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said there were effectively these no-go zones in london because of terrorists. she fought that both privately with the president and publicly. >> right. she was i think rightly concerned about that. this was an intrusion by donald trump into their domestic security concerns and procedures and something they absolutely have to take very, very seriously. yes, she was none too happy about that and i think rightfully so. again, that adds to the techks between the two of them. i do think picking up on something kim said, i think what they realize, certainly on the british side is this relationship is too important to let fail, and it's got to be bigger than personalities. it has to be bigger than donald trump. i suspect that at least on their side, they're going to come into this meeting with a list of agenda items, very businesslike, trying to get a little reassurance from the united states that we, too, feel that way about moving the relationship forward in a healthy way. >> admiral kirby, kimberly
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dozi dozier, thank you for being with us. immigration negotiations on capitol hill. a crucial meeting in one hour with a bipartisan group of senators. this after the president all of a den says that he is for a path to citizenship for d.r.e.a.m.ers. a whole bunch of new developments. >> a huge reversal. we're also moments away from the opening bell on wall street. stock futures shockingly up once again. the dow on track to hit another record. we'll have it all for you in just minutes. let's begin. yes or no? do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet? do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts?
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which means everyone has access to our real reviews that we actually verify. and we can also verify that what goes down, [ splash, toilet flush ] doesn't always come back up. find a great plumber at angie's list. join today for free. this morning on capitol hill they'll try to hash out a deal on d.r.e.a.m.ers and immigration. >> the meeting comes after the president shocked everyone with this statement on where he stands on a path to citizenship. >> do you want citizenship for d.r.e.a.m.ers? >> we're going to morph into it.
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it's going to happen at some point. over a period of ten to 12 years, somebody does a great job, they've worked hard. it gives incentive to do a great job. >> let's go to cnn's suzanne malveaux. they'll have to deal with the new reality of a new position apparently from the president. >> reporter: it's true you have a new position, but clearly one articulated by the president and throws things into flux here. you have chief of staff john kelly up here meeting with lawmakers pushing for the conservative point of view, the conservative hard line agenda. then you've got these bipartisan groups, the common sense caucus meeting in about an hour or so led by collins and manchin. i'm told their job is to move the train forward, to keep on the deadlines, to keep the momentum. the other bipartisan group that formed and met last night, their referees durbin and cornyn really meant to craft the legislation, the bipartisan
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legislation that hopefully will not only be to their convictions clear, but also satisfactory to the president who will sign on to something. a lot of people wondering what does this mean, this option for the dreamers, potentially this path to citizenship that the president has now articulated. it has been a position in closed doors floated by moderate republicans perhaps a compromise. hardliners say no path to citizenship, renew permits every three years. democrats are saying let this play out, let this happen really quickly. the d.r.e.a.m.ers have already paid dearly. give them a quick path to citizenship. reaction from many here, including senator lindsey graham who has been begging for leadership from the president saying this will greatly help the senate efforts to craft a proposal which president trump can sign into law. his statement representing leadership on immigration that will allow us to solve a difficult problem. i truly appreciate president trump making it clear he
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supports a path to citizenship for daca recipients. this will help senate efforts to craft a proposal which president trump can sign into law. we heard from senator tom cotton who tweeted he did not actually mention this path to citizenship but praising the president for other aspects that may be part of these discussions. but john and poppy, as you know, this is going to be a significant sticking point and people are very far apart in terms of that very controversial issue. >> suzanne on the hill. thank you very much. joining us political panel karoun demirj jan, david swerdlick is here and from realclearpolitics, caitlin murray burns. i would have paid to see steven miller's face when our pamela brown asked him that question about a path to citizenship, and the president saying what he did. is this it yet, path to citizenship or is this going to
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flip-flop in the day? >> the pattern thus far hag been nothing is the final word until the billings are moving across d.c. and getting signed by the president which we are very far away from. there will probably be pressure and discussions, and clearly there's a splintering in the white house between the president and various people. you saw members of congress, lindsey graham trying to seize this moment. he started this #trumpdreamers, trying to make this -- put this both in print and praise trump also and say this is the breakthrough and trying to lock into this before they lose it again. this has been a shifting discussion where you don't have the same line necessarily coming out of the white house depending on who in the white house you're speaking to. that's problematic in negotiations like this. we'll see what kelly says today where he'll be in the room negotiating and not the
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president. >> as poppy harlow points out to me, this is different than the goodlatte bill, different than what house conservatives -- >> really different. that never would allow path to citizenship, three-year work permits, but never citizenship. >> very different than what breitbart wants. a lot of people on that side of the debate. look at the headlines. amnesty don suggests citizenship for illegal aliens. the lines being drawn here, i'm very curious to see if the president, if he chooses to, can bring some of these doubters over to his side. >> there are multiple factions within the republican party. we're talking about the senate right now. not even in discussions with the house at this point which i think is interesting. we have seen bipartisan legislation come from the senate only to be dismissed entirely by the house of representatives. when we're talking about the
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base of immigration, this is one issue he campaigned very hard line on consistently. just talking to republicans and some supporters of the president, you get the sense that, if they get something in exchange for something on daca, that that could allow the president to make the case that i've championed immigration reforms that haven't been done by my predecessors. if they can allow him that, but then again, the question is what in exchange. there are lots of differences around border security, what that means, what the wall would mean, whether those are the same thing and also chain migration, diversity lottery visas and the other elements that will certainly be required i think for some kind of deal. >> i don't know if i'm sold on, okay, putting $25 billion, david swerdlick, back on the table for the wall which was there last week when all this fell ap past, is going to do it for the president's base.
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remember, he promised them, not only would there be this big beautiful wall paid for by mexico. >> i think you're right. at this point republicans are fighting amongst themselves is how much ransom to extract from democrats to save the fate of the d.r.e.a.m.ers. the president is pulled in two directions. on the one hand, his base wants him tough on immigration. i'm surprised breitbart went with "amnesty don" instead of "daca don." at the same time you have a president who wants to be seen as a benevolent daddy figure. these daca kids are great, let's keep them here in the united states. they float out 10 to 120 yea ye for citizenship, see how much they can extract in exchange for not having the d.r.e.a.m.ers sent back to their home countries. >> shifting gears to the russia
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investigation and the politics surrounding it. some of the arguments made by those critical of the investigation seems to have taken a hit. it wasn't just the text messages of peter strzok and lisa page that were lost, a whole bunch of people in the fbi had text messages lost. thousands and thousands. also the secret society text back and forth, might have been a joke. karoun, have those trying to sew doubt on this investigation, have they already succeeded? have they created the reasonable doubt they're looking for within specifically the president's own supporters? >> the question has to be to what end. if the reasonable doubt is supposed to undermine support for mueller's probe, no, you still have a number of people in the gop saying mueller should be allowed to proceed with that to its end, whatever that is. he's still going. it's not like this has dismant l mantled the scrutiny about
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whether the president had connections with russian officials. republicans have seized on many of these particulars of ambiguity. at baseline this is questionable. mueller did let these people go from his team because of the texts being exchanged. it's not like there's no problem here. there is a problem here. the gop has seized on many different things, some of which have stuck, some of which, like the ones in the last 24 hours or so, have not stuck so well. but they're speaking to their base, if they're speaking to people who want to have reasons to try to absolve the president of whatever these investigations may find and call those into question, then these are little crumbs that can be seized upon in that way. i don't think you're going to see this stopped just because you had some setbacks and false moves this week potentially. i think we will see more -- there are more text messages that members of congress have their hands on. we'll see these things continue to come out. and as the fever pitch around
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mueller's probe grows and nears the president, we'll probably see this with greater frequency because there's going to be that political dispute, no matter what the facts are that they find. >> control room, don't kill me, i have to get this in quickly as they tell us to wrap it up. oprah just coming out with a new interview where to are the first time she directly addresses all this talk about her possibly running for president in 2020. she told "instyle" magazine, i've always felt very secure an confident with myself in knowing what i can do and what i cannot. it's not something that interests me. i don't have the dna for it. very quickly, caitlyn? >> i was surprised when this was first bubbling up how many democrats i talked to that were really enthusiastic about her running. that kind of showed the dearth of leadership in the democratic party. she does have a point, that this
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would be an incredible endeavor, unlike anything she's ever done before. and saying you don't have the dna for something i think is sending those signals. still a long way to go. >> thank you, guys, very, very much. another high profile meeting on the world stage for the president. he's sitting down momentarily with bring min netanyahu. we also breaking news on the mueller investigation. some new documents from the white house. stick around. we'll tell you what they are. [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours.
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with its high-tech the cameras and radar,c... contemporary cockpit, 360 degree network of driver-assist technologies and sporty performance what's most impressive about the glc? all depends on your point of view. lease the glc300 for $449 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. what are you looking at? there you have it. president donald trump, prime minister benjamin netanyahu ahead of their fourth meeting
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since president trump was elected to office. let's listen in. >> thank you very much. it's great to be with prime minister netanyahu. we've developed a great relationship, both as countries where i think it's never been stronger. i can honestly say that, and also as personal friends. we have discussions going with israel on many things including trade. but the big move and something that was very historic and very important was the fact that we will be moving our embassy, as you know, to jerusalem. as we also know, that is way ahead of schedule by years. we anticipate having a small version of it open sometime next year. so that's a long time ahead of schedule. it's an honor, and it's a great honor to be with you.
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>> thank you very much. >> mr. president, i want to say something because this is the first meeting weave had since your historic decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital and move the embassy, and now to expedite the movement of the embassy to jerusalem. i want to say this is an historic decision that will be forever etched in the hearts of our people for generations to come. people say that this pushes peace backward. i say it pushes peace forward because it recognizes history, recognizes a certain reality, built on the basis of truth. by recognizing this history, you've made history. we will always remember that. we also support you completely in your position on the iran nuclear deal. you said it's a disastrous deal.
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you've said if its fatal flaws are not fixed, you should walk away from it. i want you to know, if you decide to do that, we will back you all the way. we also appreciate the fact that you confront iran's aggression with us and with other parties in the region as never before. i've never seen realistic alliance between the united states, israel and other allies in the region as strong, as unified as it is under your leadership. and the last one is, you stood up for israel at the u.n., in a remarkable way. lots of support. this is a place, it is a house of slander, and by word and deed you have told them enough is enough. as you finish your first year in office, i want to say that i look forward to continuing our remarkable, tremendous friendship in the years ahead, and i want to express the appreciation of the people of israel to you. thank you, mr. president.
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>> thank you very much. thank you. my honor. i have to say, on the united nations, we were pretty much out in the wilderness by ourselves, the united states, and we heard every country was going to be against us. and it was very interesting. i said, you know, we give billions and billions of dollars to these countries, it amounts to hundreds of millions and sometimes into the billions for certain countries and they vote against us. and i made a very simple statement that i'm watching. i'm watching. and we ended up getting 68 votes, either yes or we'll take a neutral position, which was okay too. which was essentially a yes. but we ended up getting a lot of votes that we were -- i would say virtually we were going to get none. and we give billions of dollars away every year to countries and in many cases those countries don't even support us. they don't support the united states. israel has always supported the
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united states. so what i did with jerusalem was my honor. and hopefully we can do something with peace. i would love to see it. if you look back at the various peace proposals and they are endless, i spoke to some of the people involved, i said, did you ever talk about the vast amounts of funds, money, that we give to the palestinians? we give, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. and they said, we never talk. well, we do talk about it. and when they disrespected us a week ago by not allowing our great vice president to see them, and we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support, tremendous numbers, numbers that nobody understands, that money is on the table. that money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace because i can tell you that israel does want
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to make peace, and they're going to have to want to make peace too or we're going to have nothing to do with it any longer. this was never brought up by other negotiators, but it is brought up by me. i will say that the hardest subject they had to talk about was jerusalem. we took jerusalem off the table, so we don't have to talk about it anymore. they never got past jerusalem. we took it off the table. we don't have to talk about it anymore. you earn one point and you will get more points later on in the negotiation, if it takes place, i don't know if it ever will take place, but they have to respect the process also and they have to respect the fact that the u.s. has given tremendous support to them over the years, in terms of monetary support and to other support. so we'll see what happens with the peace process, but respect has to be shown to the u.s. or we're just not going any further. thank you, all, very much.
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>> thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> thank you. >> we're going to see what happens. we have a proposal for peace. it is a great proposal for the palestinians. i think it is a very good proposal for business. it covers a lot of the things that were over the years discussed and agreed on. but the fact is, i think you know this better than anybody, there was never any deals that came close because jerusalem, you could never get past jerusalem. so when people said, oh, i sent it back, i didn't send it back, i helped it. because by taking it off the
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table, that was the toughest issue. and, look, israel, something is going to happen. they'll do something that is going to be a very good thing. but they want to make peace and i hope the palestinians want to make peace, and if they do, everybody is going to be very happy in the end. we'll see what happens. >> mr. president, any -- >> i didn't really read the remarks. i think i'm probably better off not seeing them, but we have done a lot to them, and hopefully they're going to make peace for their people. you know what, it's many years of killing people. it's many years of killing each other. they have to be tired and disgusted of it. so let's see what happens. i think eventually very sound minds, i hope sound minds, are going to prevail and it would be a great achievement. i said it from day one if we could make peace between tisrae
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and the palestinians. but the money is on the table. the money is never on the table. i tell you up front, we give them tremendous amounts, hundreds of millions of dollars a year, that money is on the table. because why should we do that as a country if they're doing nothing for us? and what we want to do for them is help them. we want to create peace. and save lives. and we'll see what happens. we'll see what happens. but the money is on the table. thank you very much. >> guys, thank you. thank you. >> very interesting to see president donald trump and the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, clearly very close personally benjamin netanyahu saying the relationship has never been stronger between the
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u.s. and israel, and the president saying the same thing. president trump saying out loud for the first time that a small embassy, a small u.s. embassy will be open in jerusalem next year in 2019. vice president pence said next year. we know small embassy in jerusalem. the president said there is a peace deal on the table. the u.s. has a peace deal. joining us again, admiral john kirby and daniel kurtzer, ambassador. your general reaction to what you just saw? >> as you suggested, john, they enjoy a terrific relationship. and that's a good thing when the prime minister of israel and the president of the united states get along so well, there is almost a mind meld between them. and for both of them, it is very important for their domestic audiences. of course, it doesn't resolve any of the major issues that are on the table. president suggested there is going to be a peace plan, but we haven't seen it yet. and the palestinians have said the united states is not a partner.
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so the meeting is faded to succeed, but the question is how much progress they'll make at it. >> we know, admiral, how well the president responds to flattery and he got a whole lot of it on camera from prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying by recognizing history, you have made history, calling their friendship remarkable and tremendous. and then the president on the substantive side talking about a peace deal, he says is on the table between the israelis and palestinians. he said, quote, everyone will be very happy in the end, and he's still insisting that by what he calls taking jerusalem off the table, by moving the embassy to jerusalem, he has helped the process. that is certainly not how the palestinians see it. >> no, not at all. and mahmoud abbas made it clear that the united states is now removed itself as any kind of mediation role in the israeli/palestinian peace process. we removed our leadership, we removed any influence we might have had. he didn't take jerusalem off the table. he made it or of an issue by declaring it as the capital of israel, though that's been said
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before by presidents and saying he's going to move the embassy there. the status, the final status of jerusalem was always supposed to be, according to the u.n. process, settled by the parties, by the two parties at the final negotiations. that was the whole process in place. by doing what he did, and because the united states had until recently such influence, he actually made it more of an issue and set back any potential peace process going forward. >> admiral, 30 seconds left, jerusalem is off the table, does that mean the palestinians won't get their capital in east jerusalem? that i don't believe has exactly been discussed just yet. he also said the israelis have to give something. >> it is not going to go away for the palestinians, still an issue for them and they'll continue to want to seek that. and then, you know, again, on where this goes with israel, i don't know. clearly what he's done, though, is by declaring jerusalem the capital and by saying he's going to most embassy, he's given israel everything and gotten nothing in return from israel. i find it interesting keeps
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talking about the money to the palestinians, which is really humanitarian aid and assistance more than anything and didn't talk about all of the money and aid we give to israel, largely on a military defense program. >> that's a very salient and important point. thank you, admiral, we appreciate it. ambassador, thank you so much. let's go straight to our jeff zeleny, our senior white house correspondent, following all of this with the president in davos. we're getting more reaction to the two key meetings with prime minister theresa may and netanyahu. what are you hearing. >> reporter: no question, the president meeting here with these two leaders, you heard, of course, and you saw the very warm relationship between these two leaders and it is one of the reasons that meeting was in fact scheduled. these two leaders don't necessarily have as much business to do because they do agree on so many things. of course, central issues here are where does the peace process stand as admiral kirby was saying there, that's an open question here. we know where it stands on one side,
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