Defense department to go toward the wall. Just a short while ago, the president said this about todays vote. Ill probably have to veto and its not going to be overturned and well have our whole thing. Its been the legal scholars all say its totally constitutional. Its very important. Its a Border Security vote. Its pure and simple. Its a vote for Border Security and a vote for no crime. However, many members of trumps own party say this vote is actually about a president overreaching his powers which is why the list of republicans voting to approve this block is growing of the straight to capitol hill we go. Manu raju has this vote tally. The fear from at least the white house that as many as 14 republican senators could say yes to blocking the president s National Emergency. What are the numbers you have right now . Reporter ten republicans have announced they plan to vote against the president , voting for that disapproval resolution in a matter of minutes, 47 democrats are going to vote for the resolution, that means 57 at the moment at least will rebuke the president enough to send it to his desk that at the moment is short of the 67 needed to overturn a veto. We expect more republicans potentially to vote for this measure but behind the scenes, the president and Vice President have been trying to limit those deflections in the republican side. Theyve had some success. One senator told he spoke with the president this week and the president made it very clear he wanted his this Emergency Declaration to go for isakson said he would stand with the president. Others made their position known including mitt romney who told the president last week that he plans to vote against him, support this resolution and hes doing so because he needs to uphold the constitution and he said the president urged him to change his mind. I informed the president last week that i would be voting in favor of the resolution of disapproval. Reporter what did he say . Hed rather have me vote in a different direction but i let him know that this for me is a matter of defending the constitution. Reporter the president s been lobbying pretty hard on this. Are you worried about backlash from the president for your support . I think the president recognizes that senators will vote their conscience and vote base upon their assessment of whats at stake and the principles involved and different senators see it different ways. Thats an issue of a pluristic senate but the president can certainly express his views as he has and individual senators will express theirs. Reporter and three republican senators last night, brooke, tried to essentially stage an intervention at the white house last night. Senator Lindsey Graham along with ben sasse and mike lee all went to the white house in what graham says interrupting trumps dinner to discuss with him a possible deal to avoid more defections, urged the president to back a separate proposal to limit the use of National Emergencies in the future. The president would not go along with that, but the pitch to him was, support that, perhaps you can limit republican defections, the president would not go along with that so the behind the scenes effort by the president having not much success in preventing this vote certainly from passing today, the only question now is how Many Republican senators will ultimately defect . At least ten right now, brooke. Well chat again during the vote. While some republicans and all democrats see this vote as really a way to stop the power grab, sources say the president sees this as a loyalty test. Again, we are minutes from this vote and while we wait, lets talk to Gloria Borger and charlie dent. So, gloria, to you first on trump sees this as a loyalty test. Uhhum. How big of an embarrassment might this be to the president . Pretty big. This is the second time hes going to lose something in the senate. The first time came when republicans voted to pull back american aid to forces in yemen and then this, again, as you point out, this is something the president campaigned on, it was his number one issue. Hes trying to make it a loyalty test and say this is about Border Security. Republicans are should be united with me on Border Security and theyre saying, no, no theres something important here and thats the constitution. Even though the president sort of hinted, maybe, okay you vote for this and maybe later ill support you on ill never do it again or no president can ever do it again and thats a little hockeyy. That is a big embarrassment. You would expect the Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowskis and ben sasses of the world, rand paul, rob portman just got added to vote yes. You wouldnt expect these names, so is there a certain senator who is surprising you the most and who else are you really going to be watching for . Well, brooke, im not surprised by any of the names you mentioned. Im really, frankly, shocked that there are not more republican members of congress who arent voting for this resolution. Really . There is an emergency. The emergency is the president ial assault on congresss power of the purse authority under article 1 of the constitution. That is the emergency. As far as i can tell, the loyalty here is to the constitution, not to the president. The president is taking defense dollars, military construction dollars and moving them for a nondefense purpose. That breaks the law. Theres all sorts of problems with this thing. I wrote the military construction bill before i left congress, so i know a little bit about this. If youre a senator and youre going to vote against this resolution, understand that your state has many has many projects that the president could siphon money from and youll be exposed on that issue. Why do you think theyre not doing that . What are they afraid of . I think the president gets the base ginned up and many members, republican members, unfortunately, are looking over their right shoulder. Theyre worried about a primary or maybe a president ial tweet and getting cross wise with the president. This is a simple issue of separation of powers, of congress protecting its power of the purse authority, plain and simple. Slam dunk. Gloria, back to manus reporting about essentially you have these three senators, these are typical allies of the president , graham, sasse, cruz and they barge in to this white house dinner and say, ill do this, ill vote in your favor but promise me you will never do this again . Where does trump stand on this . Well, hes sort of, like, okay, he tweeted at a later date if Congress Wants to update the law ill support those efforts, but what is that worth and as charlie dent is saying, you know, these members of congress, these conservatives and democrats who are joining are saying to themselves, what are we doing here . If we allow this president to have this authority and were supposed to be the ones with the power of the purse and then he can start moving around all the chips on the table when he wants to, you have to ask yourself whether youve essentially neutered yourself and your responsibilities as a member of congress, not only to your constituents but as charlie dent is also saying to the constitution. Yeah. And every member of congress has to ask himself and say, who am i and what am i doing here, to repeat a phrase. Why would they, charlie dent, why would they give him this one time pass . Why even be allowed to do this once . It all has to do with primary pressures, getting members of the Congress Republican members are worried about getting cross wise with their base. Its really that simple. Theres no other reason for this. If youre going to declare an emergency, a National Emergency, then the remedy, in this case a wall should address the underlying emergency and i can make a very powerful case that building a barrier is not going to stop, you know, poor migrants from Central American entering a port of entry and surrendering. You cant build the wall fast enough for a whole host of reasons. There are all sorts of problems with this thing from the article 1 issue. The remedy isnt going to address the underlying emergency. We are minutes away from the vote. Well talk about it when it happens live. Thank you very, very much for that. Beto orourke makes it official launching his 2020 campaign with a swing through iowa and a front cover of vanity fa vanity fair. He says he was just born to do this but what does he stand for . And 33 parents facing charges in that massive College Cheating scandal, but what about the students involved . Will they be expelled . What the schools are saying about that now . 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The big story today after months of hints, Public Events and selfdescribed soul searching, the former texas congressman has finally made his decision, he is running for president in 2020 and hes already campaigning in the first state to hold a president ial nominating vote, iowa. Its the first stop in our campaign to be president of the united states. This setting right now, the very first event of our campaign for president is an example not only of the way i wish to Campaign Across this country for every single american and i could careless, your party persuasion, your religion, anything other than the fact that right now were all americans and were all human beings and we do everything within our power for one another, for this great country and for every generation that follows. This is democracy. His announcement coincides with an extensive profile in vanity favanity fair in which he is, quote, born to do this. So with me now, vick colins. They just interviewed orourke. So thank you so much for being with me. I got to start with this vanity favanity fair bit because this is this is a guy that seems to me paints himself as, i was once on the El Paso City Council and i ride my bike to political events and i like to instagram my family. Im just like you. Why vanity favanity fair . I understand libowitz has has a connection to el paso. You think her father was in the military. That could be the reason that happened. Do you think its fitting with his personality . Im sorry. Do you think its fitting with his personality . The vanity fair piece . Yes. I saw part of it and read part of it. It portrayed his personality pretty well. Hes just like when he was when he was a congressman, you would just run across him on the street just by himself. Nobody with him. Easy to talk to, you know, so that part of him thats a correct persona. As we all know, this whole democratic field, everyone thats jumping in has been shifting left and from what i read in local texas politics, orourke has had success with a large number of white republicans and a former editor for your paper was actually quoted in vanity fair saying that orourke does indeed have a republican connection, but the article also points out that he can come off as, quote, politically indistinct and slippery. So do you think, vic, thats part of orourkes strategy to not define himself as a progressive to appeal to a more moderate democratic audience . Well, he doesnt like to label himself in any way. When he was on city council here, he was you would call h m a progressive. They did a lot of things they gave tax incentives to a big complex thats a big retail complex. They had some part in trying to get a baseball stadium in downtown el paso, so he did have that progressive label here on the city council. So would you label him a progressive even though wont label himself as one . Yeah. I mean, id say hes a progressive leaning maybe moderate, maybe. He portrays himself, of course, saying that he isnt running against anybody. Hes just running for the country, running he did a lot of that in his texas campaign. Hes just this guy that wants to bring the country together and, you know, thats what he said when trump came to el paso. He held a big rally, you know, several thousands of people that was just like right across the parking lot from where trump was speaking to a big crowd also. Made his mark, has made his mark for years and now hes on the main stage, so to speak now throwing his hat in to be the next president of the united states. Vic, thank you for weighing in there from his hometown of el paso. The next president ial hall is with 2020 candidates elizabeth warren, jake tapper is hosting that. Live from jackson, mississippi, monday night, 9 00 eastern here on cnn. We are getting fresh reaction from the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee today over emails that detail this back channel between Michael Cohen and rudy giuliani, something first reported right here on cnn, an attorney who said he was speaking with giuliani reassured cohen in an email that cohen could quote unquote, sleep well tonight because he had, quote, friends in high places. Im wondering if you take that as a dangling of a pardon, if you have any concerns about that . We have seen the president dangle pardons publicly really through much of the course of the investigation. It doesnt require any great imagination to picture the president also having conversations privately as hes having quite publicly. We obviously are deeply interested in all the documents that mr. Cohen produced and others that weve been able to obtain. Well be looking to corroborate the evidence weve received and this is very much a deep interest of ours. Robert bianca is a former prosecutor. Bob, obviously chairman schiff is interested in looking in to this. Do you see this as some sort of pardon dangling . I dont know yet. I dont think we have all the facts. It comes down to whats being said of the theres nothing wrong with attorneys or people approaching the president who has the absolute authority of the pardon and say, wed like you to consider this. The question becomes, whether or not if you play ball with us and dont cooperate, then were inclined to give you a pardon. Heres the thing, he did cooperate because you think he being Michael Cohen. Michael cohen. Cohen saw something that weve been saying some lawyers for a long time in him being a lawyer knows, you can pardon cohen for the federal crimes, but you cant pardon him for the state level crimes. I think unlike manafort, cohens legal team sought smarter by not seeking the pardon. If i can get it, i can get it. Id have to say to him as a defense lawyer, you get that federal pardon, you are going to be with the state ag and the Manhattan District Attorneys Office in a hot flash and the president can do nothing for you. Yeah, okay. Well see where it falls with regard to chairman schiff. I wanted to ask you about prosecutor andrew weissman. Hes a key member of muellers team. He was at roger stones Court Appearance today. Hes expected to leave the office and the doj soon. This is what steve bannon actually referred to him to Michael Wolff as the lebron james of Money Laundering investigation, so i know. So his departure. What does that signal for you . Having led an agency of people that are very dedicated investigative personnel, involved in a very large investigation like a wiretap investigation, t