Shows the president s handling of the russias probe is beginning to slip. At the same time, though, the same poll shows support for special counsel bob mueller is also declining. Joining us now to unpack all of it. Well, i think what were seeing is the reality of this, all the information thats been coming out in the last couple of weeks. And, i mean, this week will be a super busy week in the Mueller Investigation. We begin today with lawyers for Paul Manafort back in court. They will make their case about, you know, this issue of lies. Prosecutors from the special counsels office on friday had said that manafort has lied about his contacts with individuals in the white house that were continuing into this year as he was facing his criminal trial, as well as his ongoing conversations with one of his Business Partners who was linked to Russian Military intelligence. Were also going to learn today from Michael Flynn. We will hear from his lawyers who are submitting their sentencing memorandum where they will make their case for why he should get no jail time. We heard from the special counsels office last week that flynn was very critical in cooperating. He also offered firsthand information about interactions between trumps Transition Team and russian officials, that that sentencing memorandum was heavily redacted. We anticipate flynns court filing today will also be heavily redacted. But it will kick off a busy week. Tomorrow we have Michael Cohen being sentenced. Hes going to make the case that he shouldnt get any time and a reduced jail sentence. We should hear from prosecutors there tomorrow. It will be a dramatic day. The culmination of Michael Cohens story. And were also expecting tomorrow afternoon the accused russian spy is changing her plea. Shes going to plead guilty, according to sources, to a conspiracy charge. We might learn Additional Information about how shes going to cooperate with government officials in that case. Poppy, jim . Thank you for all of that. There is a lot coming this morning. Lets talk to our chief legal analyst about this. Our political analyst and National Political reporter for the New York Times a also with us. Let me go to you first in the politics by the American People. That is the fact that, you know, you have got 29 people approve of the president as handling the russian probe right now. If you break it down among party lines, trump has a new low among republicans support of how hes handling it. Thats a 17 point drop from october. That is notable right now. 50 feel that muellers investigation will likely implicate trump in wrongdoing. What do you make of the decline in support among republicans for the president s handling of the probe . I think its notable that that 17 point drop comes after the midterm elections. You do have a pretty Strong Majority of republicans saying were going to standby our man. We think hes doing a fine job. You can see that in a lot of political polling that at the heat of an electoral campaign, everything is more polarized. The people go to their corners. Now that you have the pressure of a d versus r choice coming off of voters, they are more comfortable expressing reservations. Its also been a pretty eventful few weeks. The president has not exactly been governing himself with glory. But i think the notion of the pressure of the midterm elections coming off, loosening the Republican Coalition is something you are seeing on a number of fronts. Today we will learn something. We will not learn everything. It will be cloaked in legalese and so on, but well learn something about Michael Flynn and his substantial assistance to investigators. The difference with Michael Flynn is the communications with russia he lied about were during this transition. It was after this president was elected dealing with sanctions or issues that the Trump Administration was offering that to russians. How is that different for this president in terms of the cooperation that flynn could offer versus others like Michael Cohen . I think whats important is Michael Flynn operated at a high level. He was the National Security adviser. He was a close aid to candidate trump during the campaign. They cant no one can say, as they said about george papadopoulos, that he was just the guy getting coffee. And what i think is extremely important to know from Michael Flynn is what were the nature of the context he was aware of between people affiliated with russia and the Trump Campaign and the candidate himself during 2016 . You know, thats what this investigation is about. Was there coordination, conspiracy, collusion between the Trump Campaign and russian interests . Mike flynn is someone who would clearly know something about that. Jeffrey d, i want to get you take on Newt Gingrich who says for the American People to get the full picture, the American People should get to hear the tape of cohens testimony before mueller and his prosecutors. Your thoughts . Well, i think one thing that you know for sure is that Michael Cohen is going to be summoned to testify before committees in the house in the democratically controlled house of representatives. I have been talking to members of congress who are already planning to bring him in. It is not just one committee either. I dont think there is going to be a shortage of opportunities to hear what Michael Cohen has to say. We still dont know the full nature of his cooperation. We do know that mueller wrote a memo that said he cooperated in some very important areas, and his guilty plea was revealed a whole new chapter of the relationship between donald trump and russian interests. But i dont think we have to worry that Michael Cohen is going to disappear from the face of the earth. The democrats in congress now have the ability and very much the intention of calling him as a witness to testify in public. So alex, the republican line in response to cohens testimony here is clear. The president and his lawyers have said for some time hes a liar. Although, previously say that i had he wasnt a liar. But lately they are calling him a liar. You saw republican senators line up behind that yesterday. Orrin hatch, john kennedy. Lets listen to orrin hatch because he was particularly forward leaning on this point. Yeah. The democrats will do anything to hurt this president , anything. What happened before he was elected president , you know, its one thing. But since hes been elected, the economy has done well, our country is moving ahead, were in better shape than we were before he became president. I think we ought to judge him on that basis. But this is not the democrats. It is the Southern District of new york, the u. S. Attorney. You think hes a republican, do you . Well, he was appointed by the president. Hes been appointed by the president. Okay. But i dont care. All i can say is hes doing a good job as president. I dont care kind of says it all. Just for the fact that i just want to remind folks of what orrin hatch said in 1999 when a different president was being, you know, risked impeachment because of personal issues. Committing crimes of moral turpitude such as perjury and obstruction of justice go to the heart of qualification for public office. I mean, it is not only orrin hatch who has a direct contradiction between what he said then regarding crimes of lying, personal issues, et cetera, there are other republicans. Does that matter to republican lawmakers or voters today . The contradiction does not matter, right . Orrin hatch does have the luxury of only having a couple more weeks on the job, right . A lot of other republican senators are going to need to confront all these issues and a lot more. Jeffrey mentioned the likelihood and certainty of house hearings on all of this. You will have republicans in a different position than ever before when you have a public and adversarial hearing on all of this. It seems like orrin hatch is trying to differentiate by saying things happen before you are in the office and after. In 1999, it seems like thats what a number of republican senators jim named a few of the many of them. Its one thing before, talking about Campaign Finance violations here, and one thing when you are in office. How long can they walk that line and have it fly with voters . Well, if thats the line you are trying to hold here, that would make the entire Mueller Probe irrelevant because it scrutinizes events that happened during the election. But the whole russia story in its inception is a prepresident ial story, right . If thats the line you are taking, i dont think we have any indication thats going to fly with voters and even with a lot of republicans as cnn polling suggests dont really buy this idea that all of this is drummed up. I do think there is a warning flag for democrats there in what orrin hatch had to say in trying immediately to catch the prosecutors as democratic partisan, which they are not. It is such an obvious misleader statement. In fact, the previous occupant of that seat was fired by President Trump and replaced with a trump appointee. So to put him in that category of 17 or 18 angry kdemocrats, which also isnt founded. But sometimes the facts just dont matter. Anyway, jeffrey dand alex, than you very much. A source tells cnn the president was, quote, super pissed excuse the use of that word after he wanted to replace john kelly and nick ayers turned the job down. A fascinating new piece out this morning in the post. Many great lines, but let me read one of them from your reporting this morning. Trump was left at the alter. Imaging that. You report extensively on how this all went down and that the president was pretty clear wanted nick ayers. They had all of these lunches. They had gotten very close. And that there was no plan b. How can there be no plan b for such an important host . Well, the president frankly thought nick ayers was going to take the job. He was sbe grintegral. The president had been frustrated with kelly for several months and was ready for him to go. And jared and ivanka were big supporters of nick ayers and the president prepared him to accept it. They had already begun talking about how they were going to roll it out and then ayers got cold feet. Now the president is interviewing or talking to a number of candidates and a pretty discordant and wideranging search where its really unclear at this point who it is going to be now. It could take several weeks, were told. So what happened to the best of your knowledge . Vanity fair made a good point that nick ayers was concerned beyond the legal issues, beyond the difficulty of working for this president , nick ayers made a lot of money, tens of millions of dollars as a political consultant before he entered this administration. His level of concern about scrutiny for those findings, was that a major factor . It was a factor for some in the white house. They had begun receiving questions from reporters. There was a chance there would be democratic oversight. They will say to his supporters he wanted to go back to georgia. He will be supporting the president from the outside in the private sector. There are a whole host of reasons for him doing it that are not a negative. But others in the white house tell us finances were certainly part of the calculation. And also the difficulty that Reince Priebus and john kelly had in the job. You got the president clam mberg for him without actually having to do the job. But from the last two chief of staffs, it didnt end well and it ended with a diminish reputation and a lot of backlog from the president. So able to avoid that and still support the president. So im not sure that he actually turned out so bad here. Thats an interesting point. We might know in the next minute or the next hour the president said two or three days now that hed make the decision in the next few days. I dont think were quite there yet, guys. I think lit be a while. All right. All right. Well take your word for that. Great reporting. Thank you very much. Ahead for us, 44 former senators with a dire warning. We are entering a dangerous period. Why they are telling current senators to be, quote, steadfast and zealous guardians of democracy. Googles ceo will testify publically for the first time facing allegations of political bias against conservatives. What will he say . U. S. And china tensions rising. A diplomat being detained in china as a top chinese executive remains in jail. Whats happening here . The major implications ahead. Is this for real . Yep. We match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. Whoo i got my money hard to contain yourself, isnt it . Uh huh let it go whoo get a dollarfordollar match at the end of your first year. Only from discover. The greatest wish of all. Is one that brings us together. The lincoln wish list event is here. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with 0 down, 0 due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Only at your lincoln dealer. You might or joints. Hingirst for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. The cold and flu fightings. Machine. You put in your machine. Press the button to brew up powerful relief. To defeat your toughest cold and flu symptoms fast. New theraflu powerpods. Press. Sip. Relief. City fallout let ourere lungs breat es can you hold me, i cant even speak oh my, here it goes cause this is already bigger this is already bigger than love dare to be devoted. Jared. A dire warning and a plea for bipartisan ship. 44 former u. S. Senators, republican and democrat, signing on to a letter in the washington post. In it they warn current lawmakers of a Tipping Point in the u. S. As Robert Mueller finalizes his report and House Democrats prepare to investigate this president. Here is part of that letter. It is our shared view we are entering a dangerous period. When constitution crises have threatened our foundations. It has been the senate that stood in defense our democracy. Today is once again such a time. We urge current and future senators to be steadfast and sel loss guardians of our democracy by ensuring partisanship not replace national interest. Lets go to mike quigley of illinois on the intelligence and appropriations committees. Thanks for taking the time this morning. Good morning. Thank you. This letter, it gives a noble message, an important one but not the first time we have heard one like this. It is not from former lawmakers, from former National Security officials, defense officials, but those messages have not sparked action. And you have seen a very partisan response for instance in the last couple of days from the revelations from the mueller and cohen investigations. Why has this kind of urging from some very respected republicans and democrats not sparked change. Yeah. I dont know that it will. It is extraordinarily disappointing. I would only amend the letter to say that we entered that dangerous period some time ago. Its disheartening for me that those who have stepped up are those republicans who are leaving, right . I mean, i appreciate senator flakes effort to get the bill on the floor to protect the Mueller Investigation. Where are those who are sticking around . Where are their efforts to do this . Where are the equivalents of Senate Mccain on the House Republican side . This is the time to step up. This is the extraordinary period of our life where the rule of law and our constitutional protections are at risk. We are learning each day of new threats to this. Last week we saw witness tampering by tweets by the president of the United States. Now is the time to act. Let me ask you, because four democrats you have a challenge coming up. Its been articulated by members of your party, incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who said, listen, what he has said so far looks like an impeachable offense, but that democrats it still might not be politically smart or wise for them to pursue impeachment against this president. Where do you stand on that . Or is the evidence you have seen so far, are those of impeachable offenses and would you then vote to impeach . Look, i put it this way. I have told the republicans that they need to let the Mueller Investigation continue to its c completion and restart the house investigation to find out what took place and how to stop it in the future. It is only fair for me to say to those in my own party, let them complete their work. Lets get the complete round up. There are those who want to move forward with impeachment months ago, before we knew anything about the extraordinary details of the cohen investigation, manafort and general flynn. Those were pretty breath taking revelations that have taken place. I think we have to be fair and consistent. Were going to take control of the house in january, and i believe its incumbent upon us to work on a bipartisan basis. Then it is up to them to act. Okay. From your perspective, because to be clear, you will have the majority. You have the ability to act on your own. The evidence you have seen so far are those impeachable offenses by this president. Ill put it this way. The presid