In a row in paris. We welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Miami George Howell. The cnn newsroom starts right now. 5 00 a. M. On the u. S. East coast. At this hour, the health care is in danger of being taken away. After a judge in texas ruled the entie Affordable Care better known as obamacare is unconstitutional. If that ruling stands it would remove protections for those with preexisting conditions and thats a key point that democrats ran on in the midterm elections. Right now democrats along with several u. S. States appealed the ruling. Until the appeal is settled the law remain intact. Anyone wanting to signing up can still do so. Heres the thing. A deadline is looming saturday night. Youll remember the u. S. President promised to repeal and replace obamacare. It was one of his Campaign Promises so as you see he took to twitter to celebrate the ruling and push congress, to in his words, pass a strong law that provides Great Health Care and protects preexisting conditions. He also tells house leaders Mitch Mcconnell and nancy pelosi to quote get it done. For her the part the top democrat in the house nancy pelosi vows to fight for what she calls lifesaving protections for people with preexisting conditions. I spoke earlier with david katz, the former assistant u. S. Attorney who has insight on this and he explained whats going to happen next with the Affordable Care act. Listen. The house of representatives once its democratic, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated the democrats will join the lawsuit, move to intervene. It already has 12 to 16 state attorneys general who will be appealing it including the state of california. Its enormously important to the health of californians that obamacare not be struck down by the higher courts. And then if it gets appealed to the u. S. Supreme court, everyone is going to be biting their fingernails to see what chief Justice Roberts will do and there are ways to affirm to uphold the validity of the aca even with the revisions that were made to it. I believe chief Justice Roberts will in the end, i dont believe the aca will fall and in the interim until the u. S. Supreme court might say its invalid i dont see any reason why it will be changed. I dont see the democrats in the house agreeing to anything that the republicans and trump would want in the senate. So as a practical matter i think it will stay in effect until and unless the u. S. Supreme court with chief Justice Roberts casting the fifth vote strikes it down. If that happens, all h will break loose. My colleague is here with more on the Affordable Care act. George, i just want to provide some history. This is the last step in a long and rich history of health care and Health Care Policy here in the u. N. Lets look at the Affordable Care act, aka obamacare. Its considered president obamas achievement. It was signed into law eight and a half years ago. The goals lower the cost of health care in the u. S. , provide coverage for people who were uninsured, improve the quality of care as well. President obama had campaigned on this. So on reforming the health care sector. When it happened, he celebrated. Today after almost a century of trying, today after over a year of debate, today after all the votes have been tallied, Health Insurance reform becomes law in the United States of america. And obamacare did reduce the number of uninsured in the United States. 42 Million People did not have insurance in 2013. Thats the year before obamacare came into full effect. That number was down to 29 million in 2015 just two years later. But from day one republicans have opposed the law and they have tried to repeal it several times. In fact, repealing was one of candidate trumps key Campaign Promises. Remember it almost became a slogan, replace and repeal. But its not that simple. Over the last two years republicans have, as you know, cntrolled the house and the senate. Controlled all of congress and still they could not muster enough votes to fulfill that campaign promise. Still, though, the administration has taken several steps to weaken, dilute, hamstring obamacare. The big one the tax bill passed in 2017 that eliminated the individual mandate a key part of obamacare, thats the part that obliged people to get Health Insurance. Obamacare has been repealed in this bill. We didnt want to bring it up. I told people specifically be quiet with the Fake News Media because i dont want them talking too much about it. But now that its approved i can say the individual mandate on health care where you had to pay not to have insurance, think of that, you pay not to have insurance, the individual mandate has been repealed. And several thing are happening at once. The Trump Administration weakening obamacare but despite that people are still enrolling in this program. According to the government 12 million enrolled in 2018. 27 were newcomers. Thank you very much. Now in addition to the Health Care News that weve been following mr. Trump has had a very busy friday. He announced that the man you see here, Mick Mulvaney will take over as chief of staff. Hell take over for john kelly. Also sources telling cnn mueller still wants to interview the president about obstruction of justice, this despite mr. Trump answering written questions from mueller and President Trumps inauguration, thats also under scrutiny by a report from wnyc. We understand they say that the Trump Organization was paid by the inaugural committee for hotel rooms and meals at Donald Trumps hotel. One person negotiating for the organization, according to the report was the president s daughter, ivanka trump. Finally Donald Trumps former Attorney Michael Cohen after being sentenced to three years in prison he says mr. Trump directed him to pay hush money to two whom say they had affairs with mr. Trump. And another target of the Mueller Investigation is general michael flynn. Hes the former National Security adviser who quit just days into mr. Trumps term. Michael flynn admitted he lied to the fbi about communications with russias ambassador to the United States. Since then hes been cooperating with the special counsel and on friday Robert Mueller issued a surprising memo on flynn. Our pamela brown has this story. Reporter the special counsel is pushing back at Michael Flynns lawyers assertion that the former National Security adviser wasnt appropriately warned about the repercussions about lying to the fbi. In this new filing muellers team said flynn chose to lie weeks before the fbi interviewed him by claiming he didnt discuss sanctions with the russia ambassador. Muellers team made the case his false statements were voluntary and intentional and the fbi gave him multiple opportunities in the interview to correct his false statements and he only did so once the fbi used the exact language that he had used from that phone call. Now while filing notes the fbi didnt think flynn was being intentionally deceptive at the time it says he should know better lying to the fbi is a crime and shouldnt have to be warned about it. What also struck out to me the documents say flynn then told Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabe that mccabe knew what was said in his conversation. So its unclear why flynn would continue to make false statements in his fbi interview if he thought they did know the truth. Of all the people caught up in the various investigations, one of the more surprising figures has been President Trumps former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen. In his telling story to prosecutors hes directly implicated his former boss in the hush money payments to two women before election. A possible violation of Campaign Finance law here in the u. S. Heres cnns story. Im done being loyal to President Trump. Reporter he spilled his secrets to prosecutors. He begged for mercy from a judge. And now Michael Cohen speaking to the american people. I will not be the villain as i told you once before. I will not be the villain of his story. Reporter President Trumps former fixer and personal lawyer opening up for the First Time Since he was sentenced to three years in prison on wednesday. In an interview with abc, the 52yearold convicted felon still agonizing over what he says was the toughest dave his life. I have to be honest, its been very rough. Reporter he pleaded to numerous crimes. But it was his Crimes Involving the now infamous hush payments to two women that have directly implicated the president of the United States. Trump lashing out on twitter this week saying he never directed cohen to break the law. But cohen now telling a different story. He directed me to make the payments. Reporter saying the order to pay off former playboy model Karen Mcdougal and silence her before the 2016 election came directly from his boss. Nothing in the Trump Organization was ever done unless it was run through mr. Trump. Reporter the president s former fixer addressing trumps biggest headache, the russia investigation. Cohen has already met with special counsel Robert Muellers office for more than 70 hours offering them information about his contacts with russians and conversations with people close to the white house. The special counsel did say you were doing your best to tell the truth about everything related to their investigation, everything related to russia. Do you think President Trump is telling the truth about that . No. Its a big statement. Reporter he says hes not done talking. If they want me, im here. And im willing to answer whatever additional questions that they may have for me. Reporter cohen says the person in the white house now is not the trump he once admired. I think the pressure of the job is much more than what he thought it was going to be. Reporter cohen reports to prison in march and will pay more than 1 million in restitution. A stunning fall from grace for a man who said he was loyal to a man for too long. The man doesnt tell truth and its sad i should take responsibility for his dirty deeds. A legal challenge facing the Trump White House may have drawn many parallels to the watergate scandal in the 1970s. A pivotal figure back then was john dean. John dean the white House Counsel under the former president nixon. His damaging testimony during the watergate hearings eventually led to nixons resignation but now 45 years later dean says watergate was small potatoes compared to what he sees around the Trump White House. Heres what he told john berman. Reporter about all of this today this is what you wrote, this what were seeing today is much more damning than watergate and its just getting started. You believe this is already more damning than watergate . Well, the few sentences that precede that i noted how we have the president s campaign is under investigation. The president s transition is under investigation. His inauguration is under investigation. His presidency is under investigation. He and his family are under investigation for their foundation and other activities. Thats far broader than anything that happened during watergate and those investigations are just starting. Again that was former white House Counsel john dean speaking earlier with my colleague john berman. Youre watching cnn newsroom. Still ahead were continuing to monitor whats happening on the streets of paris france, the nation bracing for another day of protest. Why some protesters say the concessions made by the french president this week are still not enough. Plus australias Prime Minister says the country now recognizes west jerusalem as the capital of israel. Well have details and a live report from jerusalem as newsroom pushes ahead. [narrator] meet sharks newest robot vacuum. It powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. One dock, two sharks. The shark ion robot cleaning system. ready to juvederm it . Correct agerelated volume loss in cheeks with Juvederm Voluma xc, add fullness to lips with juvederm ultra xc and smooth moderate to severe lines around the nose and mouth with juvederm xc. Tell your doctor if you have a history of scarring or are taking medicines that decrease the bodys immune response or that can prolong bleeding. 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Emanuel macron tried to make concessions earlier this week including cancelling the gas tax but many say it doesnt go far enough. They plan to continue demonstrating. Lets go now live to the streets of paris. Melissa bell is there. From your Vantage Point what are you seeing . Reporter i would like to show you whats happening here on the champselysees. This is the fifth consecutive saturday of this protest. You can see that the yellow vests and far fewer on champselysees than there were at this time last week. Another interesting figure is the number of people taken in for questioning. 47 for paris this morning at the same time last week the figure was well more than 300. Thats a fairly concrete measure of what were witnessing which is clearly the numbers are down. That was the big question ahead of today. Would those announcements made by emanuel macron on monday help to take the wind out of the sails of this protest . Would the terror attack in strasburg earlier this week also help to take the wind out of the sails of this protest . Apparently so far the answer to that appears to be yes. There are fewer people at least here on the champselysees this morning. As you can see what weve just witnessed, those images you saw, the police managed to contain the numbers because they were relatively down. Sort of boxed them in on the sidewalk, so much so that a while ago they opened part of the champselysees to traffic. If thats not an indication of how Different Things are this week, i dont know what is. Then the yellow vests pushed past, reached those police defenses, in fact, to make their way back up. The question is whether that changed ratio, they have the same number of police men and women on the streets of paris as last week. Fewer protesters whether that changed ratios mean whether authorities can contain the violence and make sure this saturday is more peaceful than the last or the one before that. Well keep in touch with you. Lets get some analysis from our journalist joining us from paris. Good to have you on the show again. Lets give our view ears live look at whats happening in paris. This is down the champselysees, thousands of police have been deployed in the french capital. 70,000 throughout the country. On friday the junior interior minister said this, we expect less people to show up but we expect the individuals to be more determined. Again, things are just picking up this day at 11 20 in paris, but what are your thoughts and expectations as this day continues on . Well, as you just said, its still early in the day. Usually later, in the Late Afternoon that the most violent crowd tend to try and take advantage of the situation to go and do some looting, just two weeks away from christmas. As melissa bell said, less demonstrations, less demonstrators in paris, less also in the provinces, that two interesting phenomenons. One is that those who are demonstrating today are the most politicized and so you have the farright and you have the far left. United in trying to shake up not only macron himself, but the government and if possible the whole republic. And then you have also the most violent ones who need to have quite a bit of a crowd to operate more efficiently. So its probably too early in the day but it does explain