Despite his own rocky relationship with the truth. President trump says its time for talks with north korea, what would those circumstances be . Search and rescues will be beginning very soon because of those mud slides. Welcome to early start. Im christine romans. We start with the president suddenly refusing to say whether hed meet with the Russia Special counsel. A potential meeting with Robert Mueller hanging over the president. But asked at a white house News Conference if he would sit with bob mueller, the president was noncommittal. What he is committed to is repeating this claim about collusion. There has been no collusion between the Trump Campaign and russians or trump and russians, no collusion. Bottom line they all say theres no collusion, and there is no collusion. I can only say this, there was absolutely no collusion. But it has been determined there is no collusion. When they have no collusion and nobodys found any collusion at any level. The president s eighth denial came tweeting calling it a witchhunt and saying russia and the world are laughing at its stupidity. He called for republicans to finally take control. It is worth noting republicans run all the house and senate appointees. Yesterday trump would not repeat his earlier state that he is willing to testify under oath. For the latest lets turn to jim acosta at the white house. Reporter today President Trump dodged a big question as to whether he would sit down with Robert Mueller during the special counsel investigation. Instead of answering that question directly the president repeated his claim that there was no collusion between his campaign and the kremlin. Heres what the president had to say. So well see what happens. Would you be open to well see what happens. Certainly, ill see what happens. But when they have no collusion and nobodys found any collusion that any level, it seems unlikely that youd even have an interview. Reporter but thats not what the president said last year when he told reporters he is 100 willing to testify in the russia investigation. Would you be willing to speak under oath to give your version of events . 100 . Zroigood morning. I want to zero in here on daca and the wall and the big immigration mess that is confronting this Bipartisan Group in washington. Youve written so much about this. Last night kellyanne talking to Christopher Cuomo about the president s evolving position about that big beautiful wall that would be paid for by mexico. After coniferiffring with th experts the president has confirmed he knows part of it will be a physical wall and part of it technology and part of it will also be fencing. There are rivers involved, mountains involved, and terrain that isnt conducive to building an actual structure in some places. You realize the true magnitude of the things you have to manage, and then theres just up is up and down is down and the president when confronted with this information he knows this, or he should know it. Is this a potential opening to get daca and maybe more . To your latter point, christine, i think that everyone on capitol hill expects the Border Security piece to be some sort of compromise thats not going to be, you know, a 2,000 mile wall. No one is really talking about a 2,000 mile wall at this point the white house and dhs is never talking about it. It was a wall of semantics to be perfectly honest. It was always symbolic during the campaign. And i think the reason the president continues to return to it over and over it was so symbolic to his base. The wall includes other things like just more intense law enforcement. You already hear lawmakers on capitol hill saying they want to include some of those provisions in as Border Security which traditionally doesnt deal with the interior and the way you enforce the laws there. What were seeing in washington is a weird sort of parlor game saying im channelling the wall, no the president never said that. Really its not about the wall but how you get into the nittygritty of how people define Border Security and whats actually effective. He was voted in by people who wanted a wall. They dont want drones the Washington PostEditorial Board writes, democrats who choke on the wall loathe to hand mr. Trump a political triumph might ask themselves what other deals they might strike that could do some tangible good and its such a relatively moderate price. The likely answer is very few. The likelihood the New York Times has a hard line story about the plan emerging out of the House Freedom caucus, is there a word for democrats imposing this symbolic word, the wall, and denying d. R. E. A. M. Ers what they want when its being offered by the white house . Democrats want to say they oppose the wall, but theyre defining as you guys did which is sort of a 2,000 mile massive barrier and yet theyre willing to support things that include money for physical barriers and things like improving existing fencing and border crossings and that kind of thing. So theyre playing things just as much and are definitely going to be willing to come to the table on some Border Security measures. Which you described from this bill, that is what i was saying when people are trying to include interior enforcement and Border Security, there are some very controversial provisions in that bill. It is incredibly expensive even though they presented it as narrow. That is the type of stuff democrats will never agree to in exchange for daca because they dont see it as a fair trade. I want to talk about this remarkable meeting with the president. He brought the cameras in at the very beginning, and it was almost like season 2 of the donald trump presidency. And he even basically said that. Listen to what he said about welcome to the welcome back to the studio. Nice to have you. And he had poked some fun at the press and is really kind of still at war with the press, quite frankly. And i want you to listen to a little bit of sound from him talking about how unfairly hes been treated and how american libel laws need to be strengthened. Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American Values or american fairness. So were going to take a strong look at that. We want fairness. You cant say things that are false, knowingly false. Cant say things that are false, knowingly false from a president that says things that are false, knowingly false. The free press in this country has very high standards and high bar, and we should say were sorry when we make a mistake, but libel law almost sounds like a lot of credit. The courts have been balance libel laws for about 200 years. I think they sort of thought through these things about what you can say and what you cant, and look, the right to freedom of speech, not to be defamed and the right of the free press to call power into question and to challenge authority and to really on behalf of the American People be skeptical and make sure that the people in office are doing what they say they are doing. Those are fundamental values of the United States. And, you know, this is not new from donald trump. We heard it during the campaign. He loves to claim hes going to sue people for defamation and never does because actually proving it in court you would find in fact a lot of things he says are untrue are true. And its not surprising bluster but certainly the First Amendment has been litigated for a long time in this country and balanced by jurists. Its also not the purview by the white house. Leaves that to the supreme court. Thats right. Congress writes the laws and the judicial system up holds them and challenges them. Well see you in about 30 minutes, thank you. The death toll, meanwhile, rising to at least 17. Flooding and mud slides in california, more than a dozen others still unaccounted for. The 101 freeway, californias main northsouth Coastal Route was buried under mud and debris and will remain closed until monday. More than 500 responders deployed. A cnn affiliate spoke to one after her home was wiped out. She was in the voluntary evacuation, calling out her name all night long. 1,500 homes are still being threatened. Hundreds were destroyed. Our reporter is there and has more for us from monticito. Reporter when you talk about 100 homes destroyed in this flood, heres one of them. That is actually the remnants of a house mixed in with boulders mixed in with trees and other debris. And as we come over here, you can see where this flood that came cascading down from the thomas fire burn range basically rocket blasted this house right off its foundation. And this is widespread. They went through houses like this, way in the distance you see it, you can see where the mud level rose up on the white wall. And then a pinkorange marking, thats spray paint, thats from the search and rescue crews mark it so everyone knows theyve been through there. Same thing with that car up, paint facing just slightly up, they marked that one, too. Looking in there and hoping perhaps they would find someone alive. We know there are people missing and this death toll will rise. Devastating flood, how it rolled through monticito and basically took with it everything in its path including trees, boulders and houses. Back to you now, dave, christine. 15 of the 17 deaths were in mandatory evacuation notices. After months of throwing rocket fuel on the fire, the president shifting tone and signaling hes ready to talk with kim jongun. So when would the time be right . Well discuss live in seoul next. It takes a lot of work to run this business. But i really love it. Im on the move all day long. And sometimes, i dont eat the way i should. So, i drink boost to get the nutrition im missing. Boost high protein nutritional drink has 15 grams of protein to help maintain muscle and 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d. All with a great taste. Boost gives me everything i need. To be up for doing what i love. Boost high protein be up for it oh, look. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair®. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. And when youod sugar is a replace one meal. Choices. Or snack a day with glucerna. Made with carbsteady. To help minimize blood sugar spikes. You can really feel it. Now with 30 less carbs and sugars. Glucerna. Trust 1 doctor recommended dulcolax. Use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. Suppositories for relief in minutes. And dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. Dulcolax. Designed for dependable relief. Im about to pop a cap of mmm fresh in that washer with unstopables inwash scent boosters by downy. Ah, its so fresh. And its going to last from wash to wear for up to 12 weeks. Right, freshness for weeks downy unstopables. For a fresh too feisty to quit. And now try downy unstopables with the original scent of tide 7joining her daughterst tyoga class. Ut she was thinking about her joints. But now that shes taking osteo biflex, shes noticing a real difference in her joint comfort. With continued use, it supports increased flexibility over time. Karen shes single. It also supports wonderfully high levels of humiliation in her daughter. Karen shes a little bit shy. In just 7 days, your joint comfort can be your kids discomfort. Osteo biflex. You were made to move. So move. Mission for himself. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. That was then. This is now. The white house says President Trump is open to talks through the u. S. And north korea under the right circumstances. A decidedly different tone than the one weve heard from the president over the last few months. Will, good morning to you. Has the north made any concessions . They have not. They get an all expense paid trip to the olympiccess. They continue to keep their Nuclear Weapons at this point. They agreed to have further talks about easing military tensions with north korea. They reopened diplomatic and military hot line. But really tangibly nothing has changed from the north korean perspective. Theyre still developing their Nuclear Program as kim jongun said he was going to do in their new years address. And now instead of the return to fire and fury but the donald trump of the campaign trail when he was talking about sitting down with having burgers perhaps. President trump being a strong leader and bringing about the influence that allowed these talks to happen, president moon obviously being diplomatic here and the president said that they believe a stronger u. S. South Korea Alliance could lead between a talk between the United States and north korea. That could eventually lead to denuclearization. North korea has said repeatedly including in a state media article just today they are not giving up their Nuclear Weapons period. Dave. So no concessions. They get be on a global stage soon. The texas long horns earn their biggest win of the College Basketball season. Andy shoals has details. We have a short amount of time to get our patient to the hospital with good results. We call that the golden hour. Evaluating patients remotely is where i think we have a potential to make a difference. barry murrey we would save a lot of lives if we could bring the doctor to the patient. Verizon is racing to build the first and most powerful 5g network that will enable things like precision robotic surgery from thousands of miles away. As we get faster wireless connections, itll be possible to be able to operate on a patient in a way that was just not possible before. When i move my hand, the robot on the other side will mimic the movement, with almost no delay. Who knew a scalpel could work thousands of miles away . Stay at la quinta. Where were changing with stylish makeovers. Then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. Bravo, tall meeting man. Start winning today. Book now at lq. Com we know life can be hectic. Thats why, at xfinity, weve been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. Now, with instant text and email updates, youll always be up to date. You can easily add premium channels, so you dont miss your favorite show. And with just a single word, find all the answers youre looking for because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. Download the xfinity my account app or go online today. The university of Texas Basketball Team coming through with an emotional win after their star player diagnosed with leukemia. Andrew jones fractured his wrist in december and when he returned from that injury he barely played because he complained of being tired. After undergoing many tests his family announcing yesterday he was diagnosed with leukemia. Long horns ended up getting their biggest win of the season, winning in double overtime. After the game players on the team, well, they held up jones jersey as they they sang the eyes of texas. The head coach with tears in his eyes said they loved him and hoped for the best for him. Hes got a fight ahead of him, but i know hes going to fight. And our guys really fed off his spirit tonight. A linebacker who injured his spine in aurally december making an appearance at practice yesterday. Sharing this pic saying its great to be back for practices and meetings. Just to be able to feel a part of it means the world. So im worker harder than ever. I have to get back. According to reports he regained feelings in his legs just last week. Just seeing him around, it feels good. Hes a good spirit, hes smiling. Hes still coming in and checking on us. It really lifts you up when hes around. We cant wait. Were so excited when he comes in here. Its an amazing feeling. Vice president mike pence and his wife will be leading the u. S. Delegation in next months Winter Olympics in pyeongchang, south korea. The Vice President will attend the Opening Ceremony and then hell make stops in seoul, south korea and tokyo where he will meet with leaders concerning the stability of the korean peninsula. The first lady will not be attending the Opening Ceremony according to her spokesperson. Before you know it, less than a month away the Opening Ceremony taking place february 9th. Wont it be interesting that north korean delegation, we dont even know how theyll get there, where theyll stay and all eyes will be on them in the midst of this nuclear showdown. President trumps latest comments on a russia probe, notable for what he says and what he wont. More from the white house next. Heres the story of Green MountainCoffee Roasters sumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. Lets go to sumatra. Wheres sumatra . Good question. This is win. And thats wins goat, adi. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. Making the coffee erupt with flavor. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. That erupts with even more flavor. Which helps provide for wins family. And adi the goats family too. Because his kids eat a lot. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. Packed with goodness. vo do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light. Do not go gentle into that good night. Well see what happens. Nobodys found any collusion at any level. It seems unlikely that youd even have an interview. President trump suddenly noncommittal on meeting with the Russia Special counsel. He is more than willing to remind us th