Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With John Berman And Poppy

What are you learning . Thats right, john. This is another example of the white house putting pressure on the department of justice and sessions to do something about the fbi. The axios report says at the urging of the president sessions told the fbi director chris wray that he wanted the Deputy Director Andrew Mccabe fired and in turn, the fbi director threatened to resign over the issue. Now its important to keep in mind that mccabe cant be fired. Hes a career fbi agent so wrays only option perhaps would have been to reassign him and thats what we reported previously for months. Mccabe has been telling people that he plans to retire in march completely aware of some of the political fire that hes been taking from the president and his allies over the fbis handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and his connections to the two fbi employees who has been revealed sent antitrump messages, these Text Messages, they had an affair and they were sending Text Messages between each other and the president has publicly called if are mccabe to step down. Hes repeatedly tweeted these attacks on the fbi and mccabe saying basically, when he learned that mccabe was going to retire saying the fbi director Andrew Mccabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go. Mccabe has been sort of this punching bag of sorts for the president and republicans who have taken issue over many of things that have gone wrong, they say, at the fbi. After this report from axios surfaced last night, the former fbi director sent his own tweet, sort of saying how good this was that someone was standing up and this is what he said, good to read reports of people standing up for what they believe in, and then he went on to quote mlk saying the ultimate pressure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Poppy and john, i can tell you that people inside the fiber taking good to this. Theyre happy to see that the fbi director is perhaps standing up to sessions and the president. Shimon, we appreciate the reporting. Thank you very much for going through all of that. Whats really interesting about the white house response is theyre not denying it. They are saying that the president does have a problem with some, quote, Senior Leaders of the fbi. Kalen collins is at the white house with more. Good morning. Yeah, good morning poppy and john. Thats right. The white house did not deny this in a very lengthy statement that they issued. They did not deny this reporting specifically, but they said the president has enormous respect for thousands of rank and file fbi agents who make up the worlds most professional and talented Law Enforcement agency. The statement continued he believes politically motivated Senior Leaders including former director comey and others he empowered have tainted the agencys reputation for unbiased pursuit of justice. The president appointed chris wray because hes a man of true character and integrity and the right choice to clean up the misconduct at the highest levels in the fbi and give the rank and file confidence in their leadership. Its worth noting that the president has had a troubled relationship with the fbi ever since he first took Office Nearly a year ago, and just in december he tweeted that he believed the fbis reputation was in tatters and the worst its ever been and chris wray is someone the president hand picked and we are seeing him put him in a very difficult position with the comments that hes made. Today this is noteworthy because the president could comment on this to reporters because we will see him for the first time here at the white house this afternoon as he signs off on trade racks and the first time we will see the president since the Government Shutdown midnight on friday, john and poppy. Caitlan collins, well be watching that very closely. Jeffrey toobin, you heard that white house statement that read in part politically motivated Senior Leaders including former director comey and others in power have tainted the agencys reputation for pursuit of justice. Leave, can a president or a attorney general fire a deputy fbi director if they think that that person is biassed . Not under the letter of the law, but i mean, what we are learning is that the president believes that the fbi is like any other agency, like the department of the interior. That the president has absolute authority to control and fire anyone who works there. Traditionally that has not been the case. The reason the fbi director has a tenyear tenure is because he is supposed to be insulated from these sorts of political pressures and the president has made clear that he thinks the fbi director owes him loyalty and him personally loyalty and not the government and not the rule of law and that has led to certainly the firing of comby and now this conflict with wray. What about the fact that wray pushed back and that wray threatened to quit. What does that tell you . That tells me that like comey, wray is trying to preserve the independence and the integrity of the fbi. And the firing wasnt worth the public firestorm. Right, and thats true, but look at, you know, what the white house is trying to do. They are trying to control the fbi every day in politically moat politically sensitive cases and in cases that involve the president as a potential target. You take great umbrage. We promised we would goet to this, you take umbrage with the notice that there is political bias. Andrew mccabe is a distinguished agent now at a senior level and the only charge against him as far as im aware has any factual basis is that his wife ran for state the state legislature in virginia during the 2006 campaign and was a democrat and was supported by terry mcauliffe. The democratic governor of the state. Theres no evidence that mccabe did anything to help his wife win. Theres no evidence that he was a partisan. He, presumably, like every other fbi agent votes in elections, but the idea that his wifes candidacy makes him unqualified to be a Senior Leader of the fbi is something that doesnt have any precedent in our law. Since then the revelation of these Text Messages between peter struck and lisa paige to the folks working on the fbi investigation and the russia probe is in andys office. They think theyre talking about discussions about trump in andy mccabes office. A few have come out and we at cnn have not seen them. These have been released by republican lawmaker rob johnson, and here are some of them. Lisa paige saying unbelievable that the 2016 president ial race would come down to clinton versus trump. Now the pressure is the midyear review about Hillary Clintons email investigation. Another series of texts, you say we text on that phone when we talk about hillary because it cant be traced. Those are just a few. So what . What does that tell you . I mean, yes, the fact that this investigation was going on in the middle of a president ial campaign, everybody knew that. Obviously, they had to resolve it. This idea that fbi agents cant acknowledge whats going on in the real world. I read those Text Messages and i think so what . Theres also this new revelation that some six months of texts, they cant find them and is that in any way suspicious to you . Let there be an investigation of why theyves did appeared. Stuff gets lost, and it happens in Law Enforcement where i worked for a while. You know, if there was someone who got rid of these Text Messages for some sinister reason, that we should know. If they disappeared just in the normal course of business, we should know that, too. Care to weigh into the Stormy Daniels tempest and the latest page of it, that this group, the sort of liberalleaning group saying look, doj, you have to investigate whether this is improper use of potentially Campaign Donations . The prosecution of john edwards. Right. The former senator from North Carolina was based on a similar theory, that these sorts of expenditures could be seen as an Illegal Campaign contribution. John edwards was acquitted. So, you know, i do think legally its probably a long shot, but you know, the question of who where this money came from and why is certainly one that i would imagine would be of interest to voters and the public. Whether its a crime, its hard for me to say. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Counselor we got through a lot there. So this morning the government is open, so now what . The president just wrote the last hour, nobody knows for sure that the republicans and democrats will be able to reach a deal on daca by february 8th, but everybody will be trying with a big additional focus put on military strength and Border Security. The dems have just learned that a shutdown is not the answer. Cnns Suzanne Malveaux is live on capitol hill to take the temperature of where things are. Suzanne . Reporter good morning, john and poppy. There are negotiations taking place on the budget side as well as Immigration Reform and whats going to happen on the budget side is they will have to come with an agreement on spending caps and domestic and military spending. At the same time theyll be dealing with this daca deal and whether or not they can get something done in this very narrow wend owe and the february 8th deadline or whether or not Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell will take it up after that, after the deadline, but before march 5th when that daca deal expires. I had a chance to talk to senator Susan Collins of main. As you know, she was one of the republicans who hosted and brokered this Bipartisan Group to come forward with this agreement that ended this shutdown, and she told me about, first of all, her conversation with the president that she had after the deal was done. She said that he did not outline any specific red lines or parameters about the daca deal or Immigration Reform that he mostly listened, but he did express some optimism getting to the march 5th deadline and didnt mention the february 8th deadline, and also Susan Collins, she is one who is really going to have to hold Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnells feet to the fire in terms of promises here. A lot of people, democrats, as well as some republicans not quite sure if that is a deal that is good on paper, that is a real commitment here. Some democrats feeling cheated. Senator collins addressed that criticism specifically about the promise that was broken when she brokered her own deal with mcconnell over health care reform. The deadline of the majority leaders premise to me on Health Care Issues certainly slipped and i was not at all happy about that, but the fact is that we are continuing to work on that. Senator says she will continue to work on that with her colleagues in the next couple of weeks and as you know, just two and a half weeks to that deadline and whether or not the government will be funded and the big question, what the president wants and whether or not he will sign on and what they are willing to take on. Suzanne malveaux, thanks so much. We do have breaking news. U. S. State Department Officials tell cnn that u. S. Citizens were among those killed in the attack in a hotel in kabul this past weekend. The taliban released a statement claiming responsibility for this attack. Much more on that as we get it. Storm after stormy, the Watchdog Group says that those alleged payoffs from Donald Trumps personal lawyer to a porn star may have broken the law. Does this go anywhere . Also, a first volley and a new trade war. The president slaps new tariffs on chinese goods. Will there be a response . The president heading for the glitz and glamour of davos, but who will not be going with him . The first lady raising all kinds of new questions. This morni is back open. Congress now has 16 days not only to keep it open, but try to salvage a deal to protect some 800,000 d. R. E. A. M. Ers living in this country. The president says he is ready to negotiate, but could new developments in the russia probe get in the way . Joining us now is cnns political commentator matt lewis, and patrick healy. So the governments open. Thats great. Everyone wants to talk, thats great, but they want really different things. Patrick, republicans are claiming a victory and you know, look, schumers got a major challenge on his hands. His leverage is gone. What do dems do now . Its a real problem. Chuck schumer is hes great at winning elections. Hes terrific and very much helped the democrats get the majority back in the senate in 2006. He built it out in 2008, but here hes without leverage. His the democrats didnt have strong leverage on tax reform last month. That got away from them. Now theyre bfkasically lookingt a situation in three weeks where they need to put together a deal both on daca and on Government Spending and they dont at least right now, they dont have the votes. They certainly dont have the votes in the house, and what theyve really sort of given up, frankly, is the weapon that the shutdown gave them. Right. To sort of say to the house youre going to have to vote both to reopen the government and on something on immigration and on something on spending. Upon right now its sort of Chuck Schumer is the master political tactician good at winning elections. Not here. Right now the political tacticians in the white house are talking a lot and some may suggest talking too much. We heard Mick Mulvaney who is the budget director moments ago speaking to chris cuomo on the issue of what the white house wants for d. R. E. A. M. Ers here. Listen to what Mick Mulvaney said. What his position is on it . How do they get to stay . Who gets to stay . Depends on what we get in exchange. What do we get for a border secureit security . What do we get for a wall. He gave the president everything he wanted on the wall. I challenge that. Senator schumer says he insists that he gave it. Well have a discussion. Did he really offer 20 billion in appropriated funds or did he just offer 20 billion in authorized funds . Keep in mind, there is Border Security that was authorized in 2006. Right. That senator schumer voted for. Right. But that still has not been built yet because no one has appropriated that. Where are we on that . The very beginning when he was asked, what happens to the d. R. E. A. M. Ers and he basically said what do we get . The white house saying all of this big love that the president has for the d. R. E. A. M. Ers is conditional and transactional. Yeah. Everybody is probably going to be playing the exact same game in three weeks that we were seeing play out over the weekend where you cannot talk about the d. R. E. A. M. Ers without talking about the border wall. Once you Start Talking about the border wall, how much money is in what format is quite enough to make that handshake happen . This is what has been so frustrating for the lawmakers watching this and both republicans and democrats have said they feel in the senate and they get close and the terms switch and change because the white house is looking for a more do you put on the table from their list of demands. So the governments open for three weeks, but this is really act one of a play that we will see continue as we get into february because the issues have not changed. Youre hearing it the morning after they struck the deal. Its the same issues on the table. Wall, but Border Security versus daca and thats not going away any time soon. Matt lewis, two quick questions for you. The first is do you think the president himself can really claim victory here, himself, because he was a persona nongrata on capitol hill and we literally didnt see him for three days. Is this a win for him and his messaging . Was his tweeting enough or is it hard for him to say i won on this . Well, look, i think its a win for him and i applaud him for going dark. I think that its not ease per donald trump to keep his mouth shut. The fact that he was able to do it paid off. Ill just make this point. Ive been very vitt cal of donald trump, but i think there is also a possibility that donald trump does things that a normal, sane, competent republican president couldnt do. The republicans havent been very good at winning shutdown battle, but donald trump just won one. It looks like Donald Trumps going to actually move the capital to jerusalem. Donald trump has broken norms and in some cases, the norms were there for a reason and they were very important norms and its dangerous, but in other cases donald trump has broken norms that are arbitrary and theres a reason for republicans to applaud that. Matt, you also say when youre giving credit to the president here or at least saying hes getting what he wants, youre saying there isnt enough focus a split, a divide or a civil war inside the Democratic Party . Absolutely. I wrote a book about the republican civil war, and im not alone. Weve been chronicling the tea party and the split between the socalled, you know, republican establishments, and now you have the trump thing. Theres been so much effort and energy focused on the problems on the right, and i think that there really is something happening on the republican side, but weve mostly ignored the skichisms and the cleavagesn the left and whether thats the rise of t