President is known to send for a long time. Hes spent the Holiday Season golfing in his golf club nearby, and tweeting about the fbi. In the last two days he sent four tweets about the fbi, particularly about Andrew Mccabe, the Deputy Director there, criticizing him for the way he handled Hillary Clintons email investigation and the fact that mccabes wife ran for state senate in virginia and took money from that states democratic governor. Now, we have learned, cnn has learned mccabe plans to retire in the coming months. But the tweets that the president has sent have led some democrats to speculate that trump is possibly trying to push mccabe out early. I want to read what you ted lieu has said, mccabe could be called as a witness in an obstruction of justice case. Robert mueller is investigating collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia during the 2016 election. Really it has been a conflict between the traditional things president s do around christmas, calling the troops, teleconference with the troops. President trump also called and helped take calls from the norad track santa feature where kids can call in and see where santa is according to norad. And then he went to a Church Service late last night with his wife. I want to mention something that was said at the Church Service, the homily that was given mentioned the fact that words can hurt people. Your words can have as much destructive potential as they do healing. So even on Christmas Eve, President Trump was hearing from people who are noting the fact that words have the potential to hurt. Very interesting. Dan merica, thanks so much. Joining me now to discuss this, what we just heard from the tweet from ted lieu, basically saying these tweets are a gift to Robert Mueller, why might that be . These tweets appear to be calculated to push andrew ma cape out of the fbi early. We know he plans to retire sometime early next year when hes eligible for retirement. These attacks at him appear to be aimed at pushing him out of the government prematurely. Its far easier to access people outside of the executive branch, they might be more eager to talk. And its helpful to muellers case because there are serious questions about trumps conduct, going to his mental state, why did he do the things he did. When we hear him talking about individuals, talking about the witnesses who are close in, Andrew Mccabe is one of the people comey confided in immediately afterwards, he can collaborate comeys story. It helps corroborate trumps mental state, why hes going after people, and it doesnt particularly help trump. And some may view mccabe as a witness. You look at what richard painter said, the ethics lawyer under george w. Bush said, he said you dont like mccabe because he is a witness to your obstruction of justice. Cnn reported that mccabe testified in congress that comey told him about the loyalty pledge that trump asked him to make. Whats the likelihood that mueller is looking at mccabe as a witness in this investigation . Right, so again, jim comey testified about five or six fbi leaders that he confided in, theyre all now targets by the gop, all people that almost certainly Robert Mueller is going to be sitting down with and hearing their versions of the event as they occurred at the time. Because these are people who are also very close to james comey when he was the fbi director, you look at what the white house is arguing, trumps lawyer argued earlier this month, the president cannot obstruct justice because hes the chief Law Enforcement officer under article ii. The president s lawyers say he had the right toleran do this, doesnt matter what he treats. Its not true. There are lots of examples of individuals within the federal government who are entitled to undertake an action but theyre not allowed to undertake an action for a corrupt purpose. Somebody might be allowed to award a federal contract to someone. If they do it in exchange for money, thats bike ribery, that crime. No one is saying that President Trump doesnt have the right to express conditions on certain cases. The question is whether or not he crossed that legal line just like any other american citizen. Theyre asserting that the president is above the law and cannot commit crimes. We know thats not true. You point out the legal questions are complicated. The white house, ty cobb, the lawyer there, has said, look, this is expected to wrap up very soon, early in the new year. Do you see that happening, or do you see this sort of dragging on for a while . Right, so weve seen this line coming out of the white house, potentially theyre even telling President Trump, setting this expectation. All evidence is to the contrary. We dont know, special counsel mueller has had surprises in the past, maybe hes ready to sort of exonerate the president , maybe in this letter that ty cobb is expecting. But all other signs indicate that this is a complex, ongoing investigation. Also it does appear like the white house has been surprised over and over again. So they clearly were surprised by the George Papadopoulos plea, the timing of the manafort and flynn sort of plea and indictments. And theres a sense that they dont necessarily know whats going on. This is a sprawling investigation, and its going to push into the new year. Exactly, and much to the chagrin of the white house, this shadow will continue to hang over it. Susan hennessey, thank you very much. Joining me now, alice stewart, cnn political commentator and former Ted Cruz Communications director. Thank you for coming on in this holiday, we appreciate it. Merry christmas. Merry christmas to you. Robert, ill start with you. President trump went after fbi Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabe over the weekend after word that he intends to require. He said, mccabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. Hes not being forced out. What is the president trying to gain with this attack and is it effective, in your view . Like so many of the slanderous attacks the president and his team have engaged in towards fbi officials, its not only false, but more to the point, every one of these attacks, whether its rod rosenstein, jeff sessions, Andrew Mccabe, sally yates, they have nothing to do with the fbi and the fbis conduct. It has to do with donald trump trying to protect himself and his Political Team trying to protect him during the russian probe, because in the case of Andrew Mccabe, the president only turned his anger towards him when he testified in congress that he supported james comeys testimony where he felt the president was looking for a loyalty oath. I think its also important to remember, while the president is degrading the fbi, lets remember just three days ago, our fbi disrupted and in fact arrested individuals who were plotting a very severe terrorist attack in san francisco. For all of us, the fbi should be in our prayers this holiday and christmas with gratitude for the work they do for our country. Thats certainly not great optics on the heels of the fbi preventing that attack in san francisco. To you, alice, i want to go to this headline in the Washington Post that said, no longer a lonely battle how the campaign against the Mueller Probe has taken hold, citing a comment by adam schiff that the white house would like to have the best of both worlds. The make the public case that they are cooperating while their allies do the dirty work. With the attacks on the fbi and mccabe in particular, i think what this does do, and its something that the president always has high on his priority, is really energize his base and get them riled up and get them involved and really energizes and slolidifies their support. The problem with that is it tends to put him in legal jeopardy, possibly, with some of the comments hes making. This isnt going to sway Robert Mueller in any way, shape, or form, hes going to do his investigation the way hes going to. What the president says in his tweets is furthering his dialogue and his notion that any talk about fbi and russian interference is undermining his victory. I wish that he would really grasp the concept that he won the presidency, he won it fair and square, and any questions about russian interference are more to get to the bottom of did they interfere and influence our election. I wish he would grasp that and fully embrace the investigation. More than anything, they say theyve done nothing wrong, they say theyre in the clear. If thats the case, which i hope it is, then they should fully cooperate with the fbi, give them all the information they need and let them put this investigation behind us. I was encouraged that he did have his legislative Affairs Director marc short on the sunday shows yesterday and gave his full support and praise for fbi director chris wray, thats a strong and important step moving forward. Lets just hope we have a lot more of that in the new year. Its interesting, though, because, you know, while you see the president going after specific agents such as andy mccabe, peter strocz, he really has been resistant to go after Robert Mueller himself, and we wonder whether that will continue into the new year. Jeff flake, the retiring republican senator, he spoke with abcs jon karl about the white house and republican attempts to undermine Robert Muellers probe. Take a listen. The sensitivity that the white house has to the special counsel and this investigation is troubling. I still cannot figure out the rationale for the timing of the comey firing. If the president continues to try to, you know, undermine the legitimacy of that investigation and if republicans continue to try to help with that, i think that puts us in peril. What do you think he means, robert . What does he mean when he says it puts the u. S. In peril . Clearly i think its a very valid point, and senator mccain has made the same point, that when President Trump actually takes Vladimir Putin at his word, as he says, or when in fact he supports the words of a kgb officer over our own National Security leaders, when he tried to demean and degrade the federal bureau of investigation or attack the department of justice and not listen to nor respect the advice and counsel of our National Security officers, he in fact is jeopardizing our interNational Security, our place in the world, and the confidence that the United States is held in by other nations. Senator flake made a very important point. I would make one other point, when he talks about the timing seems curious to him, the timing isnt curious. The parking lresident said thatd jim comey over the russia thing. Many of the people hes attacking are former war heroes when they stand up and seek the truth. What we bring this all back to is, this is about russian interference in our election. Theres pretty much universal acceptance of the fact that they interfered in our elections. To what degree they influenced the outcome, that remains to be seen. But i think it would be best served for the president to finally accept the fact that this is about russian interference and influence in our election, nothing more or less. If he would help them get to the bottom of this. The key outcome to this is to be sure this doesnt happen again, because its a serious problem. Alice, robert, thank you so much, Merry Christmas to you. Breaking news coming in at this hour, White House Press secretary Sarah Sanders says President Trump has briefed about a terrific in about a terrorist attack in kabul. Coming up, an act of war. Those words coming from north korea after the latest round of u. N. Sanctions. And they dont have to dream. 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Starting at only 99 including shipping and a lifetime guarantee. For your best friend our new dog beds are just as dreamy and made with the same quality and advanced technology. This offer is for a limited time, so visit thecompanystore. Com today. We are now down to the final week of 2017. 2018 will be here before you know it. For a couple of republican lawmakers, its a year their party should fear. Look at some of the audiences cheering for republicans sometimes. You look out there and you say, those are the spasms of a dying party, when you look at the lack of diversity, sometimes. It depends on where you are, obviously. But by and large, were appealing to older white men. And there are, you know, just a limited number of them. When you run into a headwind, you have to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst because this could be a bad year. Both of them are retiring from Congress Next year, both believe republicans risk losing their majorities in the house and senate, and both have been outspoken critics of President Trump. My panel is back with me now. Alice, to a first, senator flake, as you heard there, he referred to the gop as having death spasms and that the base is shrinking. Do you agree with that . How does the gop build beyond its base . A couple of things, pamela. First of all, flake and dent are unbound by the niceties of ry i for running for reelection, so they can say what they feel. Throughout history there has been a pattern of midterm elections not being very favorable to the Current Office in power. That is a challenge that the representation are fully aware of and are taking steps to address that. Look, money matters, when were talking about campaigns. The rnc has 40 million in the bank. The dnc, democrats have just 6 million. I think its really important to keep in mind, we have a lot of seats up for grabs come the midterm elections. Those in power, the incumbents, have a lot of things in their favor. When youre an incumbent, you have name i. D. , the ability to build a war chest, support from the current support, and you have the ability to continue doing your job in washington and raising your name i. D. Heading into the elections. Im confident that the tax reform legislation will be a positive thing. It will boost the economy. When it gets right down to it, people will respond when they have more money in their pocket, the economy is strong, and the agenda from this president is strong. That will be a big benefit to the gop. I think they do need to make sure and make some headway with regard to women voters. The rnc is aware of that, theyre taking steps to do that. I think surely well lose some seats but nowhere near the death spiral that some are predicting. What do you think . Alice, i admire you, but i wonder whats in your eggnog this morning. Thats my little secret. Okay. That being said, i must say, when you look at the existing Republican Party leadership today, its like a country club catered by meals on wheels. Theyre an older party, out of touch with mainstream suburban voters. Yes, the tax cut is a massive Corporate Tax cut, thats why the Republican National committee raised so much money, they deserved it for putting it through. Some polls by two to one, in the cnn poll, 55 were opposed the tax cut legislation. You have President Trump with record low Approval Ratings in the history of president ial polling, ranging between 32 and 35 . You have a climate building, would you have more Democratic Candidates emerge to go ring to office. You see it in the generic polling, when people are asked which party do you prefer being in charge of congress, and in every poll, the country prefers democrats to be in charge and not republicans. Im not suggesting that in fact theres a tidal wave coming but theres certainly a strong wave building. You saw that with the victories in virginia, the victory in alabama and new jersey. The republican suburbs are voting democratic, the swing areas. Thats what we have to focus on. He raises a few good points. Look, we learned our lesson in alabama, in virginia. The key in alabama is lets vet or candidates better, make sure we dont put up another roy moore on the ticket when we have to go out and defend him, which i did not, for the record. Vetting proper candidates is key. Robert raises a good point, the president s Approval Ratings are not good. If hes still continuing to be in the low 30s as we