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tv   New Day With Alisyn Camerota and John Berman  CNN  December 17, 2018 5:00am-6:01am PST

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they are all under a legal microscope. so, how is the president responding this morning? name calling and lies. he called his former attorney, his fixer, his right-hand man, michael cohen, a rat. despite the fact that the fbi obtained a search warrant from a judge and had to show probable cause to search cohen's office the president is falsely claiming -- it's a lie -- saying they broke in. >> i was settling in for a longer read. >> it was a short reading. a lot of the readings are short. >> i understand now. i'm not going to get that comfortable. two reports from the senate reveal how russia used every single major social network to get donald trump elected and the senate intelligence committee is being told that firms like facebook and twitter provided their investigators with just, quote, the bare minimum amount of data, end quote. on top of all of that, a decision that could impact nearly every american, a federal judge in texas striking down the affordable care act.
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so what is next? >> joining us now, josh campbell, abby philip, david gregory. let me give you a sense of the number of entities being investigated right now. sdny is investigating the trump organization, trump inaugural committee. robert mueller is investigating the trump campaign, the trump transition, trump administration. new york state is investigating the trump foundation. we've got the new york attorney general's office, maryland attorney general's office, new jersey, sdny. all investigating. this leaves out, by the way, congress. a democratic congress, democratic house, which will take over in a few weeks, david. they will be investigating as well. that's a lot of investigations. >> it's a huge amount of investigations. it's so destabilizing. and for an administration that is already rocking back and forth because of a president who responds to every piece of this and seems to be destabilized by it, it doesn't look to be a
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great 2019 for the west wing and for the president. and those congressional investigations will be so public. the president has already said if democrats take him on, he will find a way to investigate him, using the senate. they won't get anything done. here is the impasse coming up this week, fundin the government. forcing a showdown over funding a border wall in particular, saying he will shut down the government, take responsibility for it. i think we could see a lot of this in 2019. and i think it bears repeating -- something jeff toobin said at 7:00, the mueller investigation has been a vault. we've tried to learn what we can from it, based on disclosures and filings. we still don't know what it is he has. congressional investigations from all different directions into trump finances, business and his conduct in the white house will be something that is very public. >> yeah. >> that the president will respond to. >> no house committee is a vault. it's like the anti-vault.
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it will absolutely be public. >> but, abby, obviously, we can't read the president's mind but twitter gives us a window into how he's feeling, what he's focused on. he is very angry that the fbi was doing their job by looking into michael cohen when they had suspected illegal activity. >> absolutely. the president has been aware for some time that the michael cohen raid was basically a pandora's box for the problems that he is now about to face over the next several months. that's why when that raid happened, the week that the president was exceptionally agitated -- our sources told us he was very upset. he came out publicly and said so. he kept calling it an illegal raid, breaking into michael cohen's office, even though michael cohen himself said that the officers were pleasant and professional, as they came in to execute on their warrant. and so president trump has known
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for some time that michael cohen has the keys to a lot of problems that he's going to face when it comes to his business, when it comes to his personal life, when it comes to the campaign, the transition. and the inauguration. these are all -- all these investigations -- some of these investigations we've heard more about, particularly this inaugural committee investigation, most of this is coming from the fact that michael cohen had access to documents, to recordings, to other hard evidence. not just his word that will put the president in some serious trouble here legally. and the problem for president trump is that while he has taken a public relations approach to dealing with these problems the last year or two, that is not going to continue to fly now that we have so many investigations, in so many different jurisdictions and real legal issues at hand. this is not just where the public sees these problems. it's also about people actually going to prison as we've now
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seen. the president is still not quite there yet in terms of understanding that that's what's at stake here, not just his ability to spin the narrative on twitter or on television. >> josh campbell, the statement that this president made, calling michael cohen a rat, lying about how fbi agents entered his office when they searched it. you seem like a mild-mannered guy. you find this deeply upsetting. >> i do. my former colleagues in the fbi find it upsetting. every time the president has taken this political attack, this political campaign to undermine the fbi, to undermine law enforcement, they're frustrated and angry. it's a campaign to undermine law enforcement for the sole purpose of attempting to discredit whatever robert mueller is going to find or the litany of investigations that you've talked about. the president of the united states is speaking like a mob boss. we have to call it for what it is. no one is comfortable saying
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that. it's the highest office of the land that we respect but he's speaking like a mob boss. we've come a long way calling out his lies. we would call it a half truth or misstatement. these are lies. now he's talking like a mob boss. he's using the same language ta people have used throughout history to attack law enforcement, to try to protect themselves. these were not innocent people. he's using these same tactics. long term -- this pains me to say this -- people talk about what the end goal is here. robert mueller may come up with some type of legal issue that the president faces at the end. there may be some type of impeachment issue politically. in the middle we have to understand that the president of the united states has violated his oath of office. when he raised his hand he swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the united states, the supreme law of the land. the document on which everything else rests in our society. he's undermining the rule of
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law. that should trouble every single american whether you're republican, democrat or independent. >> jim comey said as much. we know he was fired from the fbi. from the president of our country, lying about the lawful execution of a search warrant issued by a federal judge. shame on republicans who don't speak up at this moment. for the fbi, the rule of law and the truth. there happens to be a poll out by wall street journal/nbc news about some of this, about whether or not americans believe that the president is being truthful about russia. 62% now do not believe he is being truthful. only 34% say that he is. i'm not sure that that matters. the election is not today. who knows if this would even sway the election. it's just a snapshot that he's losing people, people are finding him less credible on matters of russia. >> well, i would be interested to see how that breaks down among republicans and democrats. where the president has been effective, unfortunately, is
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persuading his most ardent supporters that the rules are rigged, that somehow the system is rigged against him. it is not. those professionals who he has put in to the highest levels of law enforcement, chris wray among them, know that it's not. they're doing their jobs. so i agree that the president says things that undermines the rule of law, that undermines democratic institutions. but those institutions are standing strong. law enforcement is standing strong, investigating potential crimes and seeing where that evidence takes them. the search warrant that was executed against michael cohen was perfectly lawful. he knew it. everyone involved knew it. now michael cohen is someone who has been pressured to tell the truth about what he knows about donald trump. so the reality is that this president is under scrutiny for so many different things, including his role as a businessman, his financial relationships around the world that may be compromising his
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work as president of the united states. it's a very serious set of allegations. no wonder he's feeling so much pressure as a result of that. >> can i jump in real quick? david, the only thing i would disagree with there is with respect to how the public is viewing this. we've seen numbers for the fbi tank. confidence down some 51% of the american people have confidence in the fbi. you look 2014, gallup had that in the 70s. >> jim comey has a lot to do with that. >> let me finish if i can. this narrative that the fbi is corrupt, that these people who swear an oath to uphold the law. law enforcement is not perfect. there were decisions made in 2016 that we have to hold people accountable for. this constant narrative that the fbi is corrupt, that law enforcement is out to get the president and he's the victim of some rogue, out-of-control government, it's taking hold in
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the numbers we see there. if an fbi agent stands at someone's doorway and asks them for help, and they even think for a second i'm not going to help these people, i know they're corrupt, that's not going to help the american people. >> unfortunately jim comey has to own a lot of that, too, in terms of his conduct in the clinton e-mail investigation, the way he inserted himself into the political process. but i think the fbi, its tremendous record is able to withstand that and overcome this period of time. >> if i can change the subject for a moment, i'm of the belief that nothing is pure coincidence, especially with rudy giuliani, a lawyer but also a long-time politician. he spent a lot of time talking, saying words out loud on sunday morning shows. i was struck by what he was saying and why he's saying it now. abby, he said collusion is not a crime.
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if roger stone or anybody gave a heads up about wikileaks, that's not a crime. when pressed about why the president's changed his story so many times on stormy daniels, that contradict each other, so, obviously, they're lies, he said the president is not under oath. this looks, to an extent, dumbing down the standards by which we judge the president, abby. curious about now why, why this week does giuliani, does the white house think something is coming? do they think that there will be evidence presented to the effect of these claims he laid out? >> pretty textbook example of moving the goal post. whether or not it's because he knows something is coming, it's entirely possible. it's also not the first time he has done that. remember when they used to talk about contacts with russia? that used to be the metric by which we were trying to gauge whether there might be any there there. the trump tower meeting happened and then all of a sudden
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contacts with russia became no longer a problem for the president's attorney. this moving of the goal post is something that's been going on for quite some time. what's extraordinary is that the president's no conclusion narrative has now become well, even if there was collusion, it's not even a crime. collusion is not something that's even a problem. this is a public relations battle that rudy giuliani is trying to wage, in terms of trying to undermine anything that might come out, that might make the situation look worse for this president. the difference, though, is what giuliani says and what the actual law says, what the court of law might find or what congress might find are xloelt different things. and i think that you have to keep that in mind. but he's trying, clearly there, to basically change the rules of the road here in terms of what we've been talking about for many, many years. it will be interesting, though, to see whether president trump
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suddenly drops the no collusion moniker that he has been using for months and months on twitter. if that goes away for president trump it's not clear to me what else is left. how on earth can we judge what collusion is if suddenly it doesn't exist, if suddenly cooperating with a foreign government to influence an election is no longer something that we think is illegal or at least completely unethical. >> david, very quickly. in our few waning seconds, mick mulvaney is now acting chief of staff and head of kraft services in the white house. he has a lot of jobs. obviously a very capable guy. how long do we think this will last? supposed to be acting but there's no end date. >> what a hard job. you have somebody in the white house, the president who is such a gut player, who really calls all the plays and yet you have to have a chief of staff who can
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hold it all together, who is on record saying he thinks he's a horrible person, going back to the campaign. presumably, he will overcome that. the difficulty is if the president had so much respect for top military men like john kelly, with whom he had such a difficult time getting along, i think it's long odds that mulvaney can do well. they get along well but that will be tested by everything unfolding in the new year and will stress this president a great deal. mick mulvaney, tray of t the -- john, abby, david, thank you for being here. what do they want to know about his finances? that's next.
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there could be more legal woes for president trump in the new year. president adam schiff expected to become chairman of the oversight committee talked about his plans for conducting an investigation that will be parallel to mueller's, probing trump's connections to russia,
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saudi arabia and the other places, as schiff described his approach, it became clear that he wasn't just planning to cross truch's red line, he intended to obliterate it. author of "it's even worse than you think: what the trump administration is doing to america." adam schiff is not paying attention to the red line? >> absolutely. he has a very specific reason. he says, look, we are interested in compromises, risks to america's intelligence and national security position. and if the president has financial interests in russia, with saudi arabia that skew how he governs, that's somethng we need to look into. and, specifically, he wants to know, is deutsch bank, which has been fined, have they engaged in
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conduct with the president and the president's family that is compromising to american national security interests. >> here are the things we gleaned from your article. correct us if you're wrong. the possible trump organization, money laundering through deutsche bank. he also told us on air that he's very interested in whoever that blocked number was that don junior called from trump tower and wants to release transcripts from the conducted interviews. you have been investigating donald trump for many years. what do you think adam schiff will find? >> the tax returns are the beginning who point and then you need the books and records behind them. wire transfers are all searchable. every single transaction where saudi money, russian money, any other dubious transactions took
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place, those are can all be found and identified and they have at least partial cooperation from alan weisselberg, executing the trump financial actions for decades. i anticipate they'll not have a great deal of difficulty, they just have a lot of work to do to uncover what money flowed where, when, what is known. in the summer of 2015, don't forget, donald trump said the disclosure forms from what we've seen are not designed for a man of mr. trump's great wealth. they're not. there may be a lot of things that he was not legally required to disclose that may be disturbing when they come out. >> and to what end, jeffrey toobin? the house intel, the nt is still in republican hands. does he fear that the american public has some sort of investigation fatigue that he could come up against? >> i think it's funny to think
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about fatigue before they've even done anything. >> we've been mired in lots of investigations up till now. >> that's true, but there have been no congressional investigations of this white house. and look, let's think about something very specific. here you have an american relationship with saudi arabia where you have many people in congress, democrats and republicans alike, say iing griffin the apparent involvement of the saudi leadership of the american journalist in turkey, why is donald trump so solicitous of saudi arabia? one explanation might be is that he's making money in saudi arabia. that is something that schiff is going to look into. i don't know what he's going to find. that, to me, is a very contemporary example that is worth finding out. >> schiff is just going to shine
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a lot on all of this. i don't have to tell you. sometimes there's overreach when, you know, parts of congress want to investigate a president. did he discuss that at all? >> i think they are very aware of the multiple committees that are interested in getting involved. david mentioned the tax returns. that is very much the province of the ways and means committee. and that's going to be up to the ways and means committee. you also have elijah cummings' oversight committee and jaerry nadler's judiciary committee and, for example, michael cohen, who is of interest to all these committees. they're going to have to parcel out these investigations and not be duplicative but it is a concern to worry about overreach and overkill before they've done a single thing. >> david, listen, i think that you have recommended the adage of follow the money. is that what you believe the
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revelations that will come in the next two years, do you think that the revelation will be that this was -- that we will see some greed and we will see financial connections, possibly more than collusion? >> well, remember, collusion is just another word for conspiracy, which is a crime. we're going to absolutely see that donald has done things that are illegal. remember, this is a man whose own tax lawyer, when donald would have a civil trial for income tax fraud testified that's my signature but neither i nor my firm prepared that tax return. someone who will go that far in committing fraud undoubtedly will be uncovered by these investigations, has commited other bad acts. jeffrey raised a very important point. four key democratic house committees have to be strategic. they have to come up with solid stuff. and if they get running down rabbit holes or pursuing
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efemoral things, the public will turn on them about that. there's plenty of substance for them to go at. all they have to do is be smart, solid and keep reveal important and stunning new facts. >> i introduced nancy pelosi for this "new yorker" story. she was making the same point as david, giving a bit of a warning to her committee chairman saying you've got to go with your best stuff. you have got to have substance. you can't investigate everything. that's one thing she said. i don't think they're going to be caring about ivanka trump's phone records. >> e-mails? >> or e-mails. that stuff is embarrassing, but that's not the core of their jurisdiction. so i think that message has been heard. we'll see whether they can act on it. >> david in the next year, will the public see donald trump's tax returns? >> i don't know if it will be within a year but yes, we're eventually going to see his tax returns.
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there's a law that absolutely says the irs shall turn those tax returns over, but by themselves it's going to require a lot more work to understand them. one thing to watch for is what happened to all the money from the inaugural committee, particularly the $26 million paid for five weeks of work to the friend of melania trump? that's a tremendous amount of money. where did it go? who did it end up with? they'll track down that money and we need an audit of what happened to those proceeds. >> that is a criminal investigation now in the southern district of new york. >> right. >> as well as whatever congress may decide to investigate. earlier in the program you listed all the trump affiliations that are under investigation, and the inauguration is one. >> as our kicker, very quickly i want to talk about "saturday night live" because the president apparently did not like the depiction of "it's a wonderful life" showing if he
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had never become president. so much so that he said the real scandal is the coverage hour by hour of networks like nbc and spin machines like saturday night life, nothing left but unfair news coverage. and democratic commercials should be tested in the courts. can't be legal, jeffrey. >> we're so inured to his crazy tweets that it's hard to be outraged because you can't be outraged all the time. but the idea that "saturday night live" should be tested in courts, should it be legal? there are certain core values in this country and mockery and opinions about the president of the united states is something that is really in the core of our national fabric. and the idea that the president should claim that that's something that belongs in courts is pretty chilling. >> a court will laugh it out. >> alisyn -- >> go ahead. >> unfortunately donald is a man who has no ability to laugh at himself. every other president lets it
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roll off their back. george h.w. bush thought that t dana carvy did a wonderful job the way he mocked him. there's no joy in this man at all which for him is very sad that he will never know joy, contentment or be able to laugh at himself as the rest of us can. >> this is just a weird thing. you know, i forgot where i read it. someone pointed out that you never see donald trump laugh. you see him smile occasionally. >> that was me. >> was that you, david? really? i apologize. >> yeah. you'll see some forced laughs. a few forced laughs, yeah. >> on that cherry christmas note, gentlemen -- >> i just laughed. >> yes. we are still capable of laughing. jeffrey toobin thank you for sharing your reporting with us and david as well. john? russians used every social media platform to influence the 2016 election, two reports out,
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both with new details about this huge russian effort. that's next. there's no excuse for what they did to you.
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just a couple of hours, two new reports about russian attacks on the 2016 election will be released by the senate intelligence committee. the washington post obtained a draft of one of these reports, and found that russia used, quote, every major social media platform to help elect president trump. but also said these efforts continued after the election. want to bring in cnn chief media correspondent brian stelter. let's read you the highlights of this senate report. there are two. the first report of the post is from oxford. this found that they used every social media outlet. the campaign intensified on youtube after election day and reached 126 million people on facebook, 20 million on instagram and then this headline. what is clear is that all the messaging clearly sought to benefit the republican party, specifically donald trump. >> this is two years of investigation into the social networks and how they were manipulated, how they were misused and abused by these
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russian criminals. now it's all been pulled into one place by these two reports that were commissioned by the senate. it's helpful to get our arms around just how big and how impressive, in some kind of twisted way, this russian effort was. it wasn't just twitter or facebook. these two reports that are building on some of the journ journalism that's been done the past couple of years. the headline is that this is not in the past tense. this is not a past tense story. we're not talking about what was. we're talking about what is, present tense, ongoing efforts. >> even bigger than we thought for a longer time than we thought. >> yeah. >> those appear to be the big headlines. if you thought it was just twitter, it's not. >> one of these reports single out youtube saying the russian effort was pronounced on youtube after election day, continued
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into 2017 and even up until today. we saw a little of this activity around the midterms. russian trolls are almost dormant, waiting for whatever next campaign or election that comes along. >> one report. >> by oxford. >> by oxford. "new york times" just scooped the other report that comes from an outfit called new knowledge. where it differs a little bit focuses on voter suppression. a lot of the efforts were designed to keep democratic based type voters at home. the voter suppression effort was focused particularly on bernie sanders' supporters and african-americans, urging them to shun mrs. clinton in the general election and either vote miss stein, the green party candidate, or stay home. >> you thiching about pushing different buttons in different ways, one way to support president trump is by encouraging his voters.
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another way to support trump is by discouraging voters who are not going to support him, by discouraging the democratic vote. that's what this report says was happening, among other things. whether you were trying to suppress some voters or encourage others, all of it was in the same direction, trying to support donald trump to get him elected and then to support him in office. and now that we know more about that, it makes you think more about trump's ties to russia, meetings with vladimir putin. how much did these trolls effect the election? we'll never know. not everybody voting was manipulated by russian trolls. sometimes there's hysteria about what it meant. what these trolls and hackers did in 2016 is they changed the media environment, they changed the online environment around our conversations about elections. they amped up the fire. they made things uglier and
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hotter. according to researchers, that's continuing as we speak. >> that's interesting because it takes us back to the beginning of all of this. >> yes. >> even as we are now in december 2018, the mueller report could be days or weeks ago, more indictments could be days or weeks aaway but let go back to the beginning. >> and what actually happened. >> a giant russian effort to influence the election and these reports say help donald trump. now we understand more about how vast that effort was. and that, in and of itself, is a glaring headline that all americans should care about. >> and it means we need to make sure that these technology companies -- this was happening right under their noses. we need to make sure that these companies are held accountable and are taking steps to prevent this in the future. that's part of this as well. we all love, hate twitter, instagram. this malicious behavior was happening on those platforms. >> these social media platforms
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aren't actually coming clean with as much as they actually have. >> yes, our colleague reporting that new research has found that they've provided the bare minimum of what they could have provided in terms of help. facebook and twitter are blunt about this and said they didn't do enough. but what are they doing today? that's the ongoing question. this is not something that you can fix like a broken arm. it's like diabetes, a chronic condition of the internet, misinformation that's being spread and that has to be managed every day. >> brian stelter, thank you. making fun of a tragedy, pictures posted from the campfire cleanup that cost workers their jobs.
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an explosion injures more than 40 people at a pub in japan. witnesses reported the smell of gas and found windows shattered after the blast. a fire, which broke out after the explosion caused one building there to collapse. police and firefighters are warning that more explosions in the area could happen.
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california crane company fired three employees after offensive photos they took in the camp fire wreckage were posted online. they say they are looking into criminal charges. one of the fired employees could not be reached for comment. the camp fire was the deadly sbest most destructive wildfire in california history. >> you have to see this. a driver escapes unscathed, believe it or not, after crashing his car into a home in alabama. montgomery fire and rescue responded to this unbelievable wreckage scene sunday morning. that's a car crashed into a house. it is nearly vertical. amazingly, we are happy to report neither the homeowners nor the driver were injured. i don't know how that's possible. the cause of this accident is under investigation. >> parallel parking is very hard. you know, things can happen. things can happen. >> vertical parking is even harder, but they pulled that
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off. hillary clinton reaching out to a third grader in maryland after the girl lost her race for class president. martha morales came up one vote short and had to settle for being vice president. clinton wrote, quote, while i know you may have been disappointed that you did not win, i am so proud of you for deciding to run in the first place, adding it's not easy when you stand up and put yourself in contention for a role that's only been sought by boys. morales says she was excited to have received clinton's letter. >> losing by one vote. again, we learn the lesson, every vote counts. >> george h.w. bush, the passing of george h.w. bush, these politicians who have dealt with defeat, there's something so human about it, and their ability to connect with others on that level has changed a lot of lives. george h.w. bush did that for a generation. >> absolutely, and all the letters he wrote are special to those people as i'm sure this one will be. obamacare is facing its
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biggest challenge yet. a judge has knocked it down. david axelrod gives us his thoughts in the bottom line next. e. press the button to brew up powerful relief. to defeat your toughest cold and flu symptoms fast. new theraflu powerpods. press. sip. relief. ♪ can you feel it put a smile on everyone's face this holiday with great gifts from amazon. with low prices and fast, free delivery with prime. ♪ can you feel it
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a federal judge in texas has struck down the affordable care act, claiming the individual mandate is unconstitutional. >> president trump says it's not even useable, hurts families better. we have a chance with democras s to deliver great health care. a confirming supreme court decision will lead to great health care results for americans! david axelrod joins us. david, that's one take on it, that the president thinks this will be great for all americans. what's your take? >> it's probably the same take as the tens of millions of americans who got coverage through the affordable care act
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and almost the entire medical community, which is that this would be a catastrophe if it was upheld by the courts. it would be a catastrophe for people with pre-existing conditions and for many others who couldn't afford health care, got health care through the affordable care act. he's right that deductibles are high, but they're high in part because the administration has been running a rear guard action against the affordable care act since the beginning. and if there were another solution or better alternative, certainly the republican party would have surfaced that in congress over the last couple of years, and we know that they did not and that's why it failed. we also know this. at the polls, this was really very much on the ballot in november. health care was the number one issue for voters. those voters voted overwhelmingly for democrats. this is a nightmare for the republican party. >> in fact, the president seems to be rooting in that statement
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on twitter, if i'm reading it correctly, which sometimes it's hard to do, frankly. he seems to be rooting for the supreme court to uphold this decision. i don't think that republicans necessarily feel the same way because then they own people losing coverage for pre-existing conditions and they own people losing coverage, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. they don't want to be in that position. most of them ran this last campaign on protecting those things. >> exactly. you see senior republicans say we're going to wait to see what the courts do. they do not want to dive into this one more time, knowing what a disaster it was for them before. >> let's talk about mick mulvaney, now acting chief of staff, though there's no end date. there was an interesting video that cropped up from 2016, before he knew that he would be working for donald trump, in which he seemed to share his true feelings. let's listen to that for a
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second. >> i'm supporting donald trump. i'm doing so enthusiastically as i can, given the fact that i think he's a terrible human being but the choice on the other side is just as bad. >> what are your thoughts? >> at least he's going in with eyes wide open, right? i don't know what mick mulvaney did to draw the short straw. so many others have turned the job down. the problem is chief of staff implies that you can manage the staff, but also that you can speak with the president, guide his decision making, offer him counsel and have him act on that counsel. no one has been proven able to do that with donald trump. that's why even someone like general kelly had such a difficult time in the job and mulvaney, it's telling that he only took the job on an acting basis. don't reflect much confidence that there's a long-term future in that position. >> just want to point out, obviously, mulv a.
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ney's people have come out and said he feels different now. >> i'm sure he does, now that he has gotten to know the person. >> you sent out your own tweets noting that because mick mulvaney is not giving up his job at omb, he may be called before congress to testify which is something that most chiefs of staff don't face. >> this double-hatted quality of mulvaney now does make him -- i thought that was a very interesting point. it does make him vulnerable to subpoenas which most white house staff would not be. they can't resist that in the case of mulvaney. maybe they can divide the issues and say he can talk about omb issues but not white house issues, but it does create another layer of complication. >> david, as john berman has taught me, it's never too early
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to talk about 2020. >> honestly there's all this posturing and positioning to talk about before our eyes. they're all running right now in ways that we're barely perceiving. >> the latest cnn/des moines register poll. joe biden, bernie sanders, beto o'rourke, elizabeth warren, kamala harris and corey booker. obama was third in a crowded field then. your thoughts as you see that list? >> yes. b beto o'rourke is a phenomenon now. he inspired people around the country with his campaign, particularly younger people. and that is the basis for a strong candidacy if he decides to run. he has the ability to raise the money that's necessary. more importantly, in some ways,
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he has a kind of ready-to-go organization around the country, young people in particular ready to march behind him. he has to decide if he wants to do it. the fact of having never set foot in iowa, that he would poll so strongly has to be encouraging to him. >> you can already see the other candidates or potential candidates reacting or making decisions based on beto o'rourke. that's the most interesting thing. david, thank you for join iing . have a good day. >> thanks. you too. y the masculine fragrance. yves saint laurent. i got beat up because whati was different.? you can't keep on running away from your problems. so, i created a world where i can heal. welcome to marwen. the only way you're going to get better, is if you face those jerks who beat you up. i'm not really sure how to do this. we got your back. we always have your back.
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i have my art and i have my friends. i have hope and that's something they can't take away from me. hell yeah.
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tums chewy bites with gas relief it is time now for "the good stuff." mother and son from texas, getting a christmas gift they won't soon forget. missy wolf took her 6-year-old son, matthew, to meet santa claus. matthew is blind, has autism. missy said when she told that to san santa, he got down on the floor so matthew could see santa in his own way. >> having him feel all over his coat, the fuzz, the felt and the hat. and he even said pull my beard. is there anything else you want to feel? he said your eyes that twinkle. so he let him feel his eyes. >> speak to the child on his level. santa says this is what christmas is all about. look at that picture. that is magnificent.
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>> that's beautiful. what a sensitive santa, to know how to approach matthew. >> let's be honest, thif there' one guy that knows everything -- >> it's santa, you're right. >> all aspects of his public life. cnn "newsroom" starts right now. all right. good monday morning, everyone. i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm jim sciutto. make no mistake, president trump is approaching the half mark of his presidency with a wide array of investigations and now a possible government shutdown is growing more likely over his signature campaign issues/policy priority, the wall. >> that's right. on capitol hill this morning. also, foerm fbi director james comey is due next hour, makes

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