Thats where they are right now. Theyre negotiating behind the scenes. Leaders have told me they will get there, they feel like the votes are there, as long as they line everything up. As it currently stands as of this moment. They are still working to lock all that in just a few short days before theyre expected to take that vote. You talk about rubio saying hes a no vote. Is that a bluff . Is that a negotiation tactic . Reporter theres an element of that, but something thats not knew, leaders were surprised by this hardline stance senator rubio has been talking about the refundability piece of this for a long time. His amendment to try to change that, failed. He was told that there could be no increase of the Corporate Tax rate to try to pay for things. Republican leaders have agreed to increase the Corporate Tax rate to pay for things. Thats where this all came from. Some behind the scenes frustration they werent willing to address this. Heres what im told at this moment, gop leaders are amenable to changes, not going as far as senator rubio wants. That probably costs too much. According to these leaders. But doing something behind the scenes to address this several senators have made the point that marco rubio, being the tax vote that ends up sinking this overhaul seems very unlikely to them. Several senate aides saying the same thing, the idea that he could be a deciding vote, they dont necessarily believe it. Theres no question about it, anderson, as of this point, at least throughout the course of the day, senator rubio is not budging from this stance, hes going to get something. Will it be enough . Have you sensed hesitency in general about moving forward on this . The bill has Approval Ratings in the low 30s and 20s right now . Or they want to get it done . Reporter to be blunt, no. They want to get it done, this underscores how this entire process has worked. Nobody thought this could be done in the time line theyre working on right now. Theres a reason this hasnt been done in 31 years. Theres all sorts of things that make this near impossible, and yet, over the course of two months, they are on the verge of actually doing this. The reason why, when you talk to all parties involved, political imperative. You talked about the lack of legislative wins, you look at the Approval Ratings of people around the country they recognize something has to happen. They believe the end game of this policy. Perhaps more important than anything else. Members know they need to get something, anything done before the end of the year, and that more than anything else is why Republican Leaders in the house and senate think the votes will be there next week. As i said, theres more work to do theyre planning on unveiling this bill tomorrow, work continues tonight. A lot to talk about tonight. Joining me, tara set mayer, bakari sellers, steven moore and angela rye. Do you think theyre going to get it done . I think so. Everyone is all in on this. I think this is smart political strategy by marco rubio. Marco rubio has been telegraphing this somewhat in recent days where he tweeted his announce with the fact that they voted down his amendment along with senator mike lee. Theyve been working on this child credit together. They voted that down during the amendment period because the idea was, you would have to raise the Corporate Tax rate up 1 , actually. 94 . From 20 to 20. 94 . That was told, no, thats too much, its going to hurt growth, and marco rubio tweeted out, wait a minute, trump just said we can possibly raise it to 22 or 21 , and thats okay. When we want to expand the Child Tax Credit, it wasnt. Hes kind of let them know, hes going to fight for this. Messaging for republicans, theyve done a terrible job explaining to middle class americans why this tax bill is good for them. We can debate this, whether it is or it isnt, but the republicans have done a terrible job, and this marco rubio can turn back, even if he loses it, he can go back and say, i fought hard for this middle class, this would help the middle class. He thinks rubio will be there for sure . I do too. Your in the airport, and you see the people yelling, get their way. You give way to bad actors, pretty soon a good actor is going to ask for someone. Hes got every right to do it. The key point is, its going to pass. Hes going to vote for it. Hes going to vote for it, hes going to get a little bit of what he wants. Thats good negotiating on his part. Hes talking about the Child Tax Credit is going up. Thats why this is a middle class tax cut. 70 of the country doesnt itemize because its too difficult. They use the standard deduction. The standard deduction is going to double. So you have the Child Tax Credit, doubling and the standard deduction doubling. If we said those three things over and over again, we would cut through what youre talking about, this is a middle class tax cut and it creates jobs. When you have corporations coming into the country, they create more jobs, makes us more competitive and helps the middle class as well. In my experience, the last people you want to yell at are airport employees and traffic cops. I agree. Bakari . The last thing he said, nobody believes, because we have had tax cuts before for corporations, and it hasnt translated to wages growing. Weve seen this before time and time again, Steve Mnuchin had a room full of corporate execs. Will they increase wages . None of them will raise a hand. Thats not true. Let me tell you something, if anybody believes that marco rubio is going to be the one for democrats whos a savior or the one who actually torpedos this tax bill i mean, marco rubio has about as much courage as a mammal in oz. Which we know is not a lot. My point in saying that is this. This bill an animal in oz . Yeah, wasnt it a big cat in oz . Who needed a heart in oz . It was the tin man. You meant courage. There we go. All right. Thank you, angela, thats why youre here. I get hung up on little details. Little details, that was like a sports analogy. Anyway, he does not have the courage to save this. With all of that being said, this is close to not passing, if for example they seated doug jones as they should seat doug jones as we did before the Affordable Care act. Then youre at a 49 51 do you know thats how he would vote . Im pretty certain he said he wouldnt vote for it . You know why i know he would vote for it, he got there on the backs of black women. Black women are not going to benefit for the tax bill. So i will tell you, he doesnt want this. He doesnt want to have to take this vote. It will be 51 to 49. With corker, and were praying for john mccain, this bill is in the air. Marco rubio caused a lot of heart palpitations today. With his injection of this debate. Youre right, hes going to vote for the bill. Hes going to get what he wants. Like the mammal in oz. The thing that worries me a little bit. The republicans this bill will happen next week. Its a 51 they can only lose one. And so that gives power to anyone my worry, is that now anyone can say, wait a minute, i want this, i want that, and you get a flood of marco rubios. And that just isnt going to work. I think it will pass, you have to admit, the stock market has been going through the roof investors want it, business es want it. I think well get 4 growth the next year with this. For republicans, if they didnt do this it would be devastating. Politically devastating. I think they understand they have to hang together here or theyre going to hang separately. Look, its true that the polls show a lot of people are opposed to this, because they dont think that theres anything in this for them. One of the important points trump made in his press conference the other day, is theyre going to start the withholding changes in february. That means people are going to start to feel the effects of this middle class people are going to start to feel the effects of this. Black women, 60, 70, 80,000, married couples are going to see a 2,000, 3,000 reduction in their taxes. I think it will be popular and get done. Im worried about john mccains health, there are rumors that he is i love john mccain, i think hes one of the great heroes of america, but were really worried about his health. We wish him well. Angela . A couple things, i think its interesting, you started on the messaging, i also think that democrats have not handled the messaging of this very well. How so . To the point of itemized deductions, if they are too lazy or cant afford someone to itemize deductions for them, then yes they get a benefit, but for folks who do take the time to itemize deductions, the fact that you get your mortgage Interest Deduction hit. 750,000. Thats a pretty rich person. Oh, but this is a rich persons tax bill. Which is what no. No. I know that you had your turn, so let me havemin. It was only people with over 750,000 okay youre going to keep talking. I think its important for us to understand it is a rich persons tax bill. Thats what the democrats should have been saying instead of the tax scam. Theres one scandal after another. Tough scam has fallen on deaf ears. It didnt even resonate with me. One in the same, i think we can push back a little bit. I think democrats have done a pretty good job of using and even senator orrin hatch got tired of that line, youre hurting the middle class to give tax cuts to the wealthy, to the corporations. Thats been used against republicans for decades, which is why its perplexing to me, that republicans didnt anticipate that, and have proper messaging and stay on that to explain how this benefits, yes, its good for business, but its also good for the middle class. But you cant mess with bad policy, tara. There are some problems with it, but there are some good things. The republicans havent done a good job. Look at the Approval Ratings, its terrible. We should talk about how the tax bill is pro china. This is a bill that china does not want. Theyre the big loser. Those around the president know better than to even bring subjects up. Well talk to david gergen about that. Also, now that the former apprentice contestant is no longer working in the white house, what is in the future for africanamerican outreach in the administration. A u you neek question unique times. Well talk about it ahead. To find my next vacation. Rome, show me something. Im having breakfast at the pantheon. What an amazing view. Of your finger. Look at this view. Your finger isnt that incredible. Your finger and check this one out oh its so amazing move your finger three times points on travel and restaurants on every continent. Sapphire reserve, from chase. Make more of whats yours. It all starts with a wish. The lincoln wish list event is here. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down and a complementary first months payment. New reporting tonight, the Washington Posts says the president still doesnt accept evidence that russia interfered and supported him in the election. Those around him know he gets agitated when he even hears about it. The post spoke with current and former officials who say his Daily Briefing is often structured to avoid upsetting him with russiarelated intel, only in the written brief so as not to upset him. I talked about that with david gergen, who is an adviser to president s nixon, reagan, and clinton. According to the Washington Post, the fact that the president doesnt want to hear intelligence about russias meddling in the election is a stunning thing. His briefers have to figure out a work around. Its really eye opening. Its unique as far as i can tell, anderson. Its an alarming report. The post has talked to 50 people, so its a solidly built report. The president , because of his personal insecurities not wanting to have his election diminished in some way. If he accepts the conclusion of his intelligence agencies that the russians meddled, he thinks that somehow is going to diminish him, so he pushes it off. Hes said that publicly time and time again. You assume maybe privately hes exactly. Were able to thats just a public facade. Its so deep and ingrained he cant get over it. I think thats right. What this story really makes clear, and what people have wondered about is because of his aversion to hearing this, he still does not want reports in his intelligence briefing, they have to dance around it gently so they dont irritate him in the briefings. Because of that aversion, the government itself is not taking the kind of aggressive actions you would expect from a government whose voting booths have been or whose voting processes have been manipulated by the russians. Under ordinary circumstances, the president would order a crackdown, lets figure out what happened, lets go after it, lets pass laws, lets hold the russians accountable. None of that. So in effect, the elections coming up are much more vulnerable than they would be otherwise. A president whose insecurities are putting a threat putting a danger over our own election process goingforward. This is something which the entire Intelligence Community has said is concerned about. General michael hayden, former head of the cia says its the political equivalent of 9 11. Yes. That was an interesting quote i thought. I hadnt seen quite those graphic dramatic terms. If thats the conclusion of someone whos really seeing the intelligence, i think we have to take it seriously. Again what it says, the russian threat it does not say it tossed the election to hillary, it does not say there was collusion. What it does say is the meddling itself, constituted the direct threat to american democracy, and were not cracking down on it as we should. For a president whos so obsessed with winning, it allows the russians to win. If the idea of the the strategy of the russians was to sew discord, to meddle in the election, not only did they meddle in the election, theyve won by not allowing the United States to actually prevent it the next time. Exactly. And lets see the story also points out its not just about the voting, its about they wanted to increase political polarization, they wanted to increase polarization between the races in this country. And they wanted to diminish americas influence overseas, theyve accomplished all three of those without tossing the election necessarily and left us vulnerable. Thats a damning report. Its incredible, david gergen, thank you. Thank you. Back now with the panel. Joining the conversation also is former congressman jack kingston. Does this concern you . I mean the idea that one reading of the Washington Post report is that the president s own i dont know if its insecurity or belief that people are trying to diminish him or his totally legitimate election result is preventing him and the u. S. Government from addressing a Serious National Security problem. Its worth noting, hes publically said he trusts his intelligence agencies and he believes there was meddling. He did say that only after controversy he did. This is a report of whats people trying to characterize his briefings. The russians interfered in our elections. Its being investigated on capitol hill, the president should take a stronger stance in pushing back on this, i also think we go a little too far. David gergen just said, they interfered with our processes. Theres no evidence of that, theres evidence they tried to influence the election by buying facebook ads and those sorts of things. As someone who does that, i can tell you, what weve seen so far, at a very, very minimal level. Theres no evidence they influenced the election. Theres no evidence they divided people, the way that david gergen discussed. What frustrates the president i believe, is that this turns into a partisan issue, it and becomes a political football. I dont think he should react to that. But he does have a good point that this becomes a very were getting ready to hear it. It becomes a partisan issue. Theres never been a cabinet level meeting to discuss future Cyber Efforts to prevent russian sberns interference . No, and i agree with that. I consider russia the state, the enemy of the people. When they do something this, in some countries it might be considered an act of war. We have to take this incredibly seriously. Im agreeing that the president should take it more seriously. However, the tone of this goes into a partisan place that is also not appropriate. Theres no evidence the russians actually changed the outcome of anything in the election. Having worked for the committee on Homeland Security before i worked for the cbc, where i was very proud of the many things we did on a bipartisan basis, being able to take an offensive look and approach toward a strategic approach toward Cyber Security was one of those spaces. And to me, its maddening that we cant have a conversation about not only what russia could do, but any country could do. Because its one of our most vulnerable spaces. We do so much online, not just the ways in which precincts were vulnerable, and were attacked, and theres proof of that. Theres not just facebook ads, there are multiple spaces in which this was a problem. Voting machines, have you seen any evidence . Thats not what happened, but thats not but youre also minimalizing. And thats dishonest. No, im trying to give context, as opposed to becoming a partisan i didnt make it partisan. There have been a number of secretaries of states and states where their voter rolls were hacked. And voter information was taken. 21. 21 to be specific. So thats more than just buying facebook ads. We know that individuals impersonated black lives matter activists to sow discord. Thats more than just buying facebook ads, we know that John Podestas emails were hacked and leaked by a russian agent. Thats more than just buying facebook ads. What im saying is, we can man ma liez this all you want, can you say its just as trivial as you want, but thats not the facts. And the president of the United States, democrat or republican, if someone in this is not a partisan issue, what youve seen on the hill is, youve seen democrats and republicans alike. Youve seen tom telis, the United States senator from north carolina, and mark warner work diligently in a nonpartisan fashion to make this happen. So do not minimalize the antibiot attacks on our democracy. I dont think anyones minimalizing it. The president is. I dont think he is. Part of his criticism