Are you prepared to fly the flag at half mast . I dont like abusing any privilege, but when i see something that we should do, i always do that, yeah. I always do that. I believe you should. When its a worthy situation, i do believe it. Do you expect Matt Whitaker to be involved in the russia probe. Do you want him to be involved . Do you want him to rein in Robert Mueller . What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions. Executive order on birthright citizenship this week . Other things have come up. We will be signing it soon. Was it a political stunt . Were signing it. Were doing it. It will probably work its way up to the Supreme Court. Birthright citizenship probably works its way up to the Supreme Court. It will be signed. We wanted a perfect document. Because of the election and all of the delays in the election and whatever is going on in Broward County, remember the word Broward County. Is there any evidence of fraud in Broward County. Look at the past. After the election, theyre finding votes. Then you look at her past where shes already been convicted. And now theyre finding votes. Who is her . You have this guy who represented Hillary Clinton and a lot of very shady things. I think what you ought to do is get smart. Good luck, folks. Ill see you in europe. Well, that was quite a press availability from the president , as you see him leaving there with the first lady, melania trump, for the trip to paris to commemorate armistice day. A few to tick through here. One, just within hours, a couple days after Matt Whitaker being appointmented the acting attorney general, the president more than half a dozen times there in those comments notes he does not know Matt Whitaker, although he went on to say that he is a very, very highly thought of choice. But he went back again and said, i dont know him. Was he putting distance between himself and the new sitting attorney general . A lot of headlines there on the president. His comments on the russia investigation, again, calling it a phony hoax. Interestingly, tying the recounts in florida and arizona, particularly in florida, somehow to the russian dossier. I imagine because of the involvement of a lawyer who often works for the democratic party. A sitting president , poppy, casting doubt on legally required legally required recounts in the state of florida. Part of which arose from all the controversy in 2000 with the president ial race there. Jim, near the end, it struck me that a female reporter, were trying to figure out who it is, asked the president a very important and direct question. Do you want whitaker, the acting attorney general now, overseeing the russia probe to rein in mueller . Whitaker has talked extensively including on this network about reining it on. What did the president respond. He didnt answer. He insulted her and said what a stupid question. Its become a goto line for the president with questions that he doesnt like. Right . Hell even sometimes call them dangerous or violent questions. Really without basis there. Interesting reaction as well. He did mention daca there and saying he expects that to go to the Supreme Court where he hopes a better result than he has seen so far in the appeals courts. But we have a lot of folks, a lot of smart folks here to help us analyze the multiple headlines in the president ial comments. Shimon prokupecz, abby phillip, maeve reston, also april ryan on the phone. If you can hear me, i think we want to give you a chance to respond to the president. I hesitate to repeat this, but the president , and im just quoting him directly here, talk about somebody whos a loser. She doesnt know what shes doing. Whats your reaction . Well, jim, first of all, thank you for being kind enough to understand that those words are terrible from a sitting United States president versus someone who has been covering president s before he came and probably after he leaves. I have been there for 21 years, and i have covered three president s prior to this. And i have had a great working relationship with all three, from bill clinton to george w. Bush to Barack Hussein obama, and now donald john trump. And something is awry. Each president understood that reporters, those president s prior to this, understood that reporters were part of the underpinnings of this nation. The white house correspondents are the first line of questioning american president s. And yeah, sometimes we ask questions that they did not like, and maybe there was a bit of retaliation or fight back, but guess what. At the end of the day, it was part of the american process. Part of what our Founding Fathers put in place for the accountability of a president of the United States. And this president seems not to lake it, therefore, im a loser. And im okay with that. You know, the questions that i asked, and lets just go back to the press conference. The one that he had the day after the midterm elections. I as a reporter, a reporter will do, and other reporters in that room did that day. Shouted out questions. I had a chance with a pregnant pause in the time the president answered a question to the calling on another reporter. I threw out the question about Voter Suppression that has been rampant during this midterm election. We heard about it in florida. We heard about it in georgia. We heard about it north dakota, we heard about it in texas and in North Carolina and other places. The naacp and even reverend Jesse Jackson had to step in on election day, and today, this president is tweeting about voter fraud when Voter Suppression is more rampant than voter fraud. So he responded when i asked about Voter Suppression. And then i took it as he wanted to respond. Then when i stood up, he may not have heard my voice or knew it was me. He heard my words, but he may not have known it was me. When i stood up in his response, he tells me to sit down in a condescending ugly manner. He might be reacting to that, but it was a real issue. For 21 years, i have been at that white house, and hes talking about i got a pay raise. Im glad he thinks he knows about my finances, but its interesting. Im proud to work for cnn. I have been working in this business for 21 years. They just take note because im now at cnn. It was a coincident that i came to cnn when i did. April, no one should face that kind of language, and youre damn good at your job. Lets just say that for folks listening here. I want to go to Shimon Prokupecz because you were watching the words closely, im sure, and within a day or two of appointing a new acting attorney general, the president , and i went back and counted, was more than half a dozen time, uttered the words i dont know Matt Whitaker, i dont know Matt Whitaker. Did you see the president putting distance between himself and the new acting attorney general . Absolutely. That was the goal here, the fact he wants to put distance between them because of the reports and the things that whitaker has said on our air, the oped hes written, criticizing mueller, criticizing the investigation. And the idea that, you know, he certainly, the optics are not good for this white house, that whitaker was put into this position, given the criticism hes had towards the Mueller Probe. Right . The oped, the other things he has said publicly, so the optics are not good. Publicly, the president may think that its all good. But behind the scenes, there are people who have raised issues with the appointment of whitaker as the acting attorney general. But theres also concern over the department of justice. The idea that whitaker is somehow very highly thought of, that hes this very smart man. Look, our team here has been talking to people at the department of justice. And they all have raised issues with this. They dont think hes qualified for this job. They do think that he was placed at the white house to be sessions chief of staff, to spy on the department of justice. To be the president s spy. That has always been a concern for people at the department of justice since hes appointed. Everything that we hear the president say about whitaker is quite frankly not true. There are concerns about his appointment. There are concerns about his views on the Mueller Probe. There are concerns about his qualifications to run this agency, to be the top Law Enforcement official of this country. What qualifies him for that . And certainly, you know, the fact that hes loyal to the president , well, in the president s eyes, that may be enough, but there are people who work at the department of justice, people who work at the fbi, who he now is in charge of that have raised concerns. Yeah. And you know, shimon, to your point about those concerns and what it may mean for the Mueller Probe. When the very important question, one of if not the most important question asked in that entire gaggle by our own abby phillip, might you try to rein in mueller. The president wouldnt even answer it, he called her stupid. A president who moments before called for respect in the white house, called africanamerican reporters stupid, nasty, and loser, referring to april ryan and abby phillip. Well get to abby in a moment. Jamie gangel is also here with me on all of this, to put a button on the whitaker stuff. There were so many falsehoods there when it comes to not knowing whitaker. I think the gentleman doth protest too much. As jim sciutto said, how many times did he say he doesnt know him . Heres the reason its not credible. There is no more important position in the cabinet to donald trump than attorney general. He didnt pick Matt Whitaker by accident or because he didnt know him. By tradition generally that position would have gone to Rod Rosenstein. He went around Rod Rosenstein and he picked Matt Whitaker on purpose. And as shimon mentioned, our reporting has said and also the New York Times has reported that Matt Whitaker was the eyes and ears of the white house inside the justice department. Right. So it just doesnt make sense. Right. Abby phillip, youre joining us now as well. And abby, look. The president responded to your important question saying that it was a stupid question. He actually didnt answer it. And on top of that, abby, its important to call out and note that the president also threatened to take away more reporter credentials. Yeah, poppy. You know, in that gaggle, its usually really loud. A lot of reporters out there screaming questions at the president. I tried to ask him multiple questions during the gaggle. He ignored most of them. One of the questions i tried to ask was whether he was punishing reporters because he didnt like their questions. He refused to answer that, but later on, i did ask him one of what i think is the most pressing questions that a lot of people have about this Matt Whitaker appointment, which is whats the intention here . Does the president want his new acting attorney general to rein in Robert Mueller . Does he want him to step in in a way that Jeff Sessions did not, which is why the president was so upset with Jeff Sessions . And he said initially, he said, well, thats up to him. Then i asked him, do you want him to rein in mueller. He called it a stupid question. But its really important, the most important question here because there are a lot of really clear questions about whether Matt Whitaker ought to be doing that given what he said publicly in the past about mueller. Absolutely fair question. And a question the president should expect to answer there. Mave, lets do a little Fact Checking because the president made quite a point of saying that the special counsel Robert Mueller is not senate confirmed. We should make clear that is not anywhere in the special counsel law. He does not require Senate Confirmation for that position, though he does have Senate Backing and they have extended his term. We should also note as fbi director, he did go through Senate Confirmation there. Why was the president doubling, triple down on that point . Clearly, he feels like hes under attack with these very hasty moves that he made this week in the justice department. Partly because, you know, so many voters around the country are watching this and wondering, you know, whether were seeing, again, another slow motion saturday night massacre. You know, you talk to voters around the country, and they say that the russia investigation doesnt have a direct impact on their lives, but they dont like it when they see the president making what are blatantly political moves to protect him and to put a shield around the white house. And i have to say that his conduct in that brief gaggle, you know, again calling out a female reporter, is exactly what alienated so many collegeeducated women in the Election Results that we saw on tuesday night. I mean, this is a this is going to be a huge problem for republicans Going Forward as he continues this kind of conduct. Over the last year, talking to women voters all around the country, this is exactly the kind of behavior that they hate, that they feel is misogynistic and they dont want to see from their president. I think thats an Important NoteGoing Forward as we think about whether or not republicans can hold on to the white house. What is the plan to bring back those collegeeducated women . And obviously, President Trump is not going to do anything to help them with that thus far. The plan seems to be to double down on this going to war with the various camps he goes to war with. Listen, theres a lot more to digest. Please stick around. Were going to be back after this short break. At tmobile, forty bucks gets you an unlimited plan and a new Samsung Galaxy s9 included for every line. This is what you get with your 40 plan at verizon. Recap with tmobile, you get this four lines four phones for forty bucks. With verizon, you get this. The choice just got a whole lot more obvious. Get more because you deserve it. Only at tmobile. When you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Girl, pepto ultra coating will treat your stomach right. 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Now through december 29th for every o, thats good ™ pizza, soup or side you purchase well donate a meal to feeding america®. Because o, thats good ™ still digesting numerous headlines from the president speaking to reporters for 25 minutes before his departure for france with the first lady. Were back with Shimon Prokupecz, jamie gangel, julie pace. You did a good job, jim. With a name like this, i better pronounce other peoples names right. Julie, let me start with you. The president is really going all out on the legally required recounts in the state of florida as well as efforts through the courts and elsewhere to recount in georgia the ongoing one in arizona, all following the law. Calling them fraudulent, making a connection based on i dont know what to the russia dossier. But he also claims that all recounts go in the direction of democrats, which is factually not true. There have been some recounts that have advantaged republican candidates in this cycle. What is happening here with the president . He clearly doesnt like the possibility that he might not that republicans might not get this Senate Pickup in florida. It appears to be part of a broader strategy. Right. Well, it looks like what hes trying to do is undermine the process so that if these recounts, which as you note, are legally mandated, if they go against the republicans, if as more votes are counted, the Democrats Gain ground and ultimately win in florida in particular, then he will raise doubts about those victories. He will say that they are fraudulent, that the republicans were disadvantaged. But hes wrong because the recount process is mandated by the states. Its known to anybody who wants to go and look at it. Its laid out very clearly. Publicly available information. So the state is simply following, and going to be simply following their law in this case. So the president is really providing people mis