Middle income people and for jobs. It will also benefit lots of other things. I mean, were looking to if you look at the whole thing, everybodys going to benefit. But i think the greatest benefit is going to be for jobs and for the middle class, middle income. All right, cnns Boris Sanchez joining us from the white house. The president sounding really confident going into this week as he heads off to camp david. But, you know, hes not quite doing a victory lap just yet. Thats right, fred. Hes still kind of selling this bill as you just heard him do before he departs for camp david. Right now the white house is cautiously optimistic that barring any kind of procedural snafu this will be their first major legislative victory, the passing of the first major Tax Reform Bill in more than 30 years. Theyre confident, in part, because weve seen some republican senators that were previously in the no Column Switching over to yes, including florida senator marco rubio who drew a red line on thursday
thad cochran had an outpatient procedure on monday. His office says he will be on hand for this vote when it takes place either late tuesday or wednesday as its looking like right now. And then of course senator john mccain, whos being treated for brain cancer here in washington, d. C. At walter reed medical center. His office has said he will be there for a vote. But sources are telling cnn that his health is very frail. We should note that President Trump called walter reed yesterday and spoke with cindy mccain, the senators wife, to offer best wishes and to check in. Before heading to camp david, the president was asked about john mccains health by reporters, but he did not give any indication as to how the senator was doing, fred. All right, Boris Sanchez, thanks so much from the white house. Of course there are some sticking points and there have been along the way for this tax bill. Senator marco rubio threatening to vote against it at the last minute. But then the late edition now of a 2,000 Child Tax Credit change
is from a yes to a no. They wanted this included, something that wasnt in the house version. Senate won out and the final version eliminates that mandate. I want to bring in our political panel. Julian seleteser, cnn political analyst and historian at princeton. And our other guest, reporter for the Washington Post. Good to see you both. Julian, you first the president expected to potentially do a real victory lap. This would be his first, you know, legislative accomplishment, but given that this bill is so unpopular, the president is unpopular, congress is unpopular, its not necessarily reform, say some, but, instead, a new plan. How big of a victory might this be for the president . The good news for him is accomplishing something on the legislative front is significant and he will be able to point to
this as other republicans will be. As a change in domestic policy and a tax cut that a lot of the Business Community will be excited about. The bad news is this is the second most unpopular piece of legislation in about 30 years. So the republicans will really have to sell why this is necessary. And theyll be after effects that republicans will have to contend with, including taxes going up for many people in northeastern and the states and in california where there are many republicans who will face an angry electorate. So karoon, if they have to sell, you know, that this is something the americans really need, really sell it, when is there time to do that, will that even happen . That is their what they have to do in the next several months. Look, this is a win for the gop to have said look, we can actually get our act together and pass a comprehensive, after a whole year in which they
managed to not meet the mark they set for themselves. Its good for the gop members in the congress that are running again, a lot of this stuff does not kick in until the next tax cycle which people will not start to feel until theyre doing their taxes at the end of 2018. When it starts to matter is when people start to do their actual budgeting of whether they made out better or worse and we know some of these provisions for lower and middle class folks are expiring earlier than others. This will all start to kind of be a moment of reckoning before we get to the 2020 cycle. So there may be there may be individuals who are able to sell this as promises still of what you will be able to see that will be better. The bottom line, the actual tax bracket is, but the bottom line for people where they live when youre kind of balancing out both, okay, what is your raw tax bracket, but what is also the added burden that you dont necessarily have that Health Care Mandate anymore with these
subsidies, thats going to take longer for people to feel where they live and their actual budgeting at home. Can you get through one election cycle or more . Probably it starts to become difficult after the next november. Julian, a legislative win, does it potentially change the game at all for this president . I dont think it changes the game because President Trump will still be President Trump and my guess is the twitter feed will be filled with controversy in the coming weeks and the more controversial issues that he is involved in will not stop and so all of that will undercut the bill and the problems weve discussed. Will also be problems that the gop needs to deal with, rather than a piece of legislation they can just boast about. None of that goes away. That said, having a victory undercuts some of his opponents who say that he cant achieve anything. And that the Republican Party is in total disrepair. So thats thats good for the
administration. But i think all those other problems remain. Its not a Turning Point that transforms President Trump. All right. Lets talk about a little shakeup taking place in the white house among staff. Im talking about the departure of onmarosa from the white hous this week and all the publicity it received. She now very publicly kind of questioning the diversity of the white house. White House Press SecretarySarah Sanders was asked about diversity following this departure and even, you know, the question is about that too and heres what sanders had to say. Was omarosa leaving, how many senior staffers here at the white house are africanamerican . We have a really diverse team across the board at the white house. We always want to continue to grow the diversity here. Were going to continue to do that. And continue to work hard. I dont have a number directly in front of me specifically not africanamerican but i can say, again, we have a very diverse team at the white house. Certainly very diverse team in
the press office. And something that we strive for every day is to add and grow to be more diverse and more representative of the country at large. So karoun, she didnt really answer the question, because she was asked specifically about the number of, you know, africanamericans who are considered senior staffers and she talked broadly about diversity. So will there be greater pressure, particularly after this departure, for the white house to be able to specifically address that question . Sure, theres going to be greater pressure. The question is how do they respond to that pressure . Theres always pressure on the white house to have a staff that seems more representative of the demographics of the country than necessarily there is. This particular white house has a lot of white men in it, especially when youre looking at the cabinet and the inner circle. Yes, the president s daughter is there too. But you dont see a ton of racial diversity. Theres a few minorities in the
cabinet level position. But not people that are front and center in the biggest jobs and the ones that are kind of on camera every day. I guess i wonder if this white house hasnt felt like it had to acquiesce to the question of, you know, is the staff at all representative of the demographics of the nation with this departure. Does this now press the white house to say we have to be more transparent about the representation or lack thereof . It may increase the pressure but again, theres all kinds of pressure to this white house that they choose to respond to. Does this mean theyre going to turn around in the next month and find, you know, promote africanamerican people to be taking over, you know, jobs that are within the president s inner circle . Thats not the way theyve operated thus far. I cant predict what they may do to respond to the pressure. Certainly this is now in public as criticism. The president does not always respond to public criticism so its an open question. Julian. Yes, this is a president whos taken on affirmative
action. Who has often mocked the idea of diversity. So i doubt whether that pressure will really get to him or get to his inner circle and at the same time i could almost imagine him using this as one of those cases where hes under attack from the politically correct quote unquote crowd. And acts in defiant fashion. So its often hard to prediction how hell respond to these issues. Theres that today Washington Post story thats talking about whether people in a meeting at the cdc were told even among the words no longer to use in written documents diversity, but we dont have any official word from the white house whether theres a directive and whether that meeting really took place, even though the Washington Post standing by its reporting and the sources that were at that meeting. All right, thanks to both of you, julian, karoun, appreciate it, happy hanukkah, happy holidays. Still ahead, President Trumps lawyers are set to meet with special counsel robert
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the russia investigation could be headed for a few pivotal moments next week. Sources say a key meeting is set to take place between President Trumps private lawyers and the special counsel where the president s team is hoping to learn the investigation is northe nearing its end. This comes as music publicist Rob Goldstone who set up meeting is set to testify in congress at any moment now, any day now. Lets bring in cnns Nic Robertson who is in moscow for us. Nic, what role is this Publicist Playing in the investigation . When is he likely to testify to . Well, we got an idea of it when he talked to a journalist from a british newspaper about a month or so ago and he said he wants to clear up his involvement in all of this. He says he is just an innocent
party. That he was asked by one of the mus music, you know, a singer based in russia who he represents to set him up with a meeting with donald trump jr. And this is what he went ahead and did. But obviously for the investigators, theyre going to want to know about what he meant by some of the things he said and the email when he set this up that he would be bringing a russian government prosecutor with him, natalya valiskaya. She has come out on television and raised her own questions and doubts about goldsteen and the v veracity of what he might see. So an effort to undermine whatever he tells the investigators. But key will be to find out what he said in that email, that he would be able to hook up trump jr. With people who could give him information, russian government information, that
could be detrimental to hillary clinton. Theyre going to want to know and understand more about it. And the other avenue that they may want to explore with Rob Goldstein as well, goldstein has said that he was in moscow in 2013 with donald trump when he was here for a Miss Universe pageant at that time so there will be perhaps elements of now President Trump, donald trump at the time, Visit To Moscow then that they may want to talk about because theres been that document, the dossier that was produceded by fusion by fusion gps, contributed by former mi6 analyst christopher steele, that perhaps pertain to activities and events during that visit in 2013 so goldstein may be able to provide clarity on those issues. Thats what investigators are likely to want to probe and find out more, but specifically what
he meant when he said russian officials havent had information that could damage hillary clinton. All right, Nic Robertson in moscow, thanks. All right, still ahead, the cdc reportedly given a list of words prohibited from use in any official documents by the Trump Administration. Among them, fetus, transgender and diversity. What might this say about the legacy of the Trump Administration . Sciencebased when preparing next years budget. The Washington Post reports the Trump Administration gave the cdc, the centers for disease control, a list of seven prohibited words and phrases including vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidencebased and sciencebased. The health and Human Services spokesperson disputes that Washington Post report, saying, quote, the assertion that hhs has banned words is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process. Hhs also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in Program Evaluations and budget decisions. A longtime cdc analyst told the post the reaction in the room was mostly are you serious . Joining us now via skype from washington is lena sun, National Health reporter for the Washington Post. Lena, i should say, hi, good to
see you. This is pretty extraordinary reading this. A lot of your information, you and another reporter, your information is based on people who were in the room who anonymous, theyre not revealing themselves because they were not speaking in an official capacity, right, so based on these sources, did anyone in the room at the time of this meeting or announcement ask what is the basis of these bans and why . So you have to understand the federal budget process. Were in that now. Federal agencies are working on coming up with the documents to say heres what we do with the money that the federal government gives us. And they describe those programs. And thats where we are now. And this is the context for which those words were told to these Budget Analysts that they werent supposed to use them. Because some drafts had included these words and they were being kicked back and they were flagged as, you know, needing
correction. In the case of three of those words, was in writing that they were kicked back. And when the senior person thats a career Civil Servant had this meeting with the budget analyst, she said and there are other words and then she listed the words and then they were not supposed to use them. Was there any challenge in the room as to why . No, you have to understand, these people are budget their job is to write up the budget and if you put in these words well, if you put them in at your level, theyre going to get taken out later on. So save yourself some time and dont put them in because theyre just going to get kicked back and delay the process. E guess theres a feeling too if they publicly dissent, i mean, in the room, then their jobs are in jeopardy . Well, the job is to write the budget. The cdc is part of hhs. Hhs is part of the federal government. This is what theyve been told they do. They would this is what they got to do to keep their jo