Tonight. This is one of the backward and nasty Executive Orders the president has issued. Also today thousands of antiabortion protesters gathered in washington for the annual march for life. Mike pence told the crowd the president would announce a Supreme Court nominee soon and trump hinted strongly at the person hes choosing. The person i pick will be a big, big i think people are going to love it. I think evangelicals, christians will love my pick. And well be represented very fairly. Jeff zeleny begins our coverage tonight out front at the white house. Trump signing a flurry of Executive Orders this week, up to 14, but these on immigration, do they really have teeth . Reporter indeed they do. The ones that he signed late today, they do sort of play out exactly what he talked about in the campaign, Extreme Vetting. It should come as no surprise, but they are going at the heart
of refugees coming here to the country, particularly syrian refugees. The white house just moments ago actually released some of these orders. We are looking through them right now. But they do specifically focus Muslim Majority countries. This is all coming on a day when here at the white house he opened his doors for the first time to a foreign leader. Im not as fresh as you might think. Reporter President Trump welcomed british Prime Minister theresa may to the white house pledging to uphold the special relationship with the you can you can you c united kingdom. Great days lie ahead for our two peoples and our two countries. Reporter the world was watching for the first meeting with the foreign leader. Yet it was the more challenging diplomatic test hes facing with mexico and russia that took center stage, the president taking steps to cool an escalating standoff with mexico. He spoke on the phone for nearly an hour today with mexican president enrique pena nieto, who cancelled a trip to the u. S. Over trumps demand that mexico
could do it without congress. Something congress is likely to take issue with. Its something i have the right to do, something i can impose if i want. We are getting along actually very well with the Mexican Government. Well see what happens. Reporter a week into his presidency, he said its too early to say whether he will lift sanctions imposed by president obama against russian president vladimir putin. Hes set to talk with putin by phone on saturday. After being criticized for his praise of the russian leader, mr. Trump took a more measured approach today. How the relationship works out i wont be able to tell you that later. Ive had many times where id thought id get along with people and i dont like them at al all. And ive had some i didnt think i would have much of a relationship and it turned out to be much of a relationship. Reporter the president said he believes waterboarding and other forms of torture work but would follow the lead of james
research that the there are far more christians than muslims. This year the number of muslims ticked up because you had so many leaving syria and the vast majority of refugees leaving syria are muslim. Specifically syria, the percentage of religions coming out of there and into the u. S. 99 muslim, less than 1 christian. To be clear, the population of syria sl almost not exclusively but the vast majority of people are muslim. Latest numbers we have, 93 of the population is muslim, 5 christian. I should note that in recent years many of the christians have fled that country because of the dangers that donald trump is talking about. And most of them are concentrated around the damascus area. So donald trump is implying actually more than implying, saying in a statement the u. S. Made it more difficult for christians to come in than muslims. The fact is the u. S. Does not look at religion, does not give christian or muslim a benefit. It looks at the status of the refugee. The reason you have more muslim refugees coming from syria is there are more muslim refugees trying to flee syria, not because the u. S. Has imposed some sort of advantage on muslim versus christian. Jim sciutto, thank you very much. Laying out those facts there. Democratic senator jeff merkley sits in the Senate ForeignRelations Committee among others. You heard President Trump say he will give priority to christian refugees. What do you think of that . I think it goes against the fundamental nature of freedom of religion in our country. Its a foundation we dont discriminate on the basis of religion. When it comes to refugee, chiselled into the foundation of the base of the statue of liberty, it says give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the oppressed and afflicted of the world, not those of one
religion or another. Im particularly concerned about the second half of his order addressing basically being a muslim registration operation. So i want to ask you about that. Youre talking about a muslim registry. We have the order now so it would be a temporary ban on visas from a group of Muslim Majority countries. When he signed this Executive Order earlier tonight he spoke about what he wanted to accomplish. Im establishing new Vetting Measures to keep radical islamic terrorists out of the United States of america. We dont want them here. We know the San Bernardino attacks were carried out by a woman who had come to the United States from pakistan. Better vetting may have stopped her. She and her husband killed 14 innocent people. Isnt trump right to establish new Vetting Procedures . We had this model in place and it didnt produce a single
prosecution because those who would do us harm are going to circumvent that basic process. But what this does do is it feeds right into the isis message to recruit terrorists, which is that america is conducting a war on islam. So weve had this before. It didnt work, and in fact it caused a lot of hatred towards the United States, feeds into isis rhetoric, and that makes us less safe rather than more safe. When you look just at that case as an example, they didnt check social media, didnt do certain things. I think we could all look and say we wish they had. Maybe youre saying Extreme Vetting wouldnt accomplish that, but is he wrong to say that those processes need to be looked at . Listen, the we had this exact model in place. It didnt catch the situation that occurred in california. It didnt catch anyone, not one, but it did feed a lot of the
hatred of folks who felt the United States was treating muslims as secondclass citizens both inside of our country and treating muslims poorly around the world. And so if you want to add to the risk to the United States, this is a good strategy. If you want the United States to be safe, absolutely, vet our folks coming into this country. We do it. But dont do it on a religious basis. So today the president , in addition to those orders he signed today, Haeld Press Conference with the british Prime Minister. He talked about the weight of the office and how it has turned him towards god. This was in an interview with the christian broadcasting network. Ive always felt the need to pray, and you know that, so i would say that the office is so powerful that you need god even more because your decisions are no longer, gee, im going to
build a building in new york or im going to do these are questions of massive life and death. Theres almost not a decision that you make when youre sitting in this position that isnt a really lifealtering position. So god comes into it even more so. When you hear him talk about god, does that make you more comfortable hes assuming the weight of his office or make you less comfortable . Ive been hoping as he assumes the mantel of leadership hed step back from a lot of the conspiracy and hatred of groups and start to represent all of our nation and understand how important these decisions are. I was very concerned about his comments about nuclear weapons, nuclear arms race, because if you take someone who has a massive ego and isnt taking a decision seriously, we could make mistakes that could harm the entire planet. So thats a very thoughtful
statement and seeking spiritual guidance. That is a good thing. I must say, however, though, i hope hell bring much more of that concern as he nominates people for his administration because what we have seen as a man who campaigned, he campaigned against wit wall street, he campaigned for worker, and he campaigned for draining the swamp, but were getting the Swamp Cabinet of big oil, big banks, and billionaires who are very poor fit for running the departments that hes assigned them to. Senator merkley sh, apprecia your time. Youre welcome. Next, President Trump says one man has proof of massive voter fraud. Who is he . And what is his evidence . Plus why were the president and british Prime MinisterHolding Hands at the white house today . And our special investigation series on President Trumps border wall. Tonight inside the vast network of tunnels under the u. S. mexican border. Depending on the resiliency of the digging crew, they can go really fast really far. Tiki barber Running Hambone a barber shop . T hut yes surprising. Yes whats not surprising . How much money David Saved By switching to geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Whos next . Wion your certified preowned mercedesbenz, you can drive as far as you want for up to three years and be covered. So no matter where you go, your Peace Of Mind and confidence will be as unlimited. As your mileage. Visit the certified preowned sales event, now through february 28th. And learn more about our unlimited mileage warranty, only at your authorized dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. President trump not backing down on his claim of voter fraud in the election. He tweeted look toward to seeing final results. Greg phillips and crew say at least 3 million votes were illegal. We must do better. So who is Greg Phillips and why is trump citing him as a source . Drew griffin is out front. Reporter where does donald trump get his information of massive voter fraud . Not from study after study, report after report, analysis after analysis that has found no evidence but from a Nonprofit Group that has released no evidence. Its leading voice is the former Executive Director of the Mississippi Republican party. Hes now ceo of a health data Company Based in texas and a conspiracy theorist, and this morning on cnns new day greg
phillips wouldnt say what his proof actually is. You said we know 3 million illegally voted. We didnt name a soul, a person. Will you . Yes. Do you have the proof . Yes. Will you provide it . Yes. Can i have it . No. Why . Were going to release everything to the public. When . As soon as we get done with the checks. President trump apparently cant wait either. After Greg Phillips appearance, the president tweeted, look forward to seeing final results of vote stand. Greg phillips and crew say at least 3 million votes were illegal. We must do better. Votestand is Greg Phillips mostly empty app site with no proof of anything. Its affiliated with true the vote, a nonprofit that raised a Million Dollars in 2014 according to its latest tax filing. Paid half of that amount in salaries including 120,000 to its director, who raises money
by hiring private fundraisers and posting frightening but vague youtube posts like this. Is Election Fraud a real problem . Yes. How bad is it . Well, we have over 800 convictions listed in our online convictions database, but that number does not scratch the surface because for every case of fraud thats actually run through the Multiyear Gauntlet of litigation thats generally necessary to get a conviction, another hundred cases are never prosecuted at all. How does she know that . Good question. Here are the facts. There is no proof of widespread voter fraud in the United States. In study after study, republicanled, democraticled, independentled, academic led, going back years and years, no one has been able to prove there is systemic vote fraud in u. S. Elections. And weve been down this road before. In 2002, republican president george bush with his republican
attorney general John Ashcroft launched the Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative to crack down on election crimes including vote fraud. After six years, the total number of people convicted for voter fraud, less than 150. A Rutgers Professor who analyzed data from the initiative concluded the percentage of illegal votes was statistically zero. And as for the elected secretaries of state who actually run elections in their states, not one, republican or democrat, has voiced any concern about massive voter fraud in the november 8 election prompting the National Association of secretaries of state to say we are not aware of any evidence that supports the voter fraud claims made by President Trump. Apparently not enough evidence for the president. Drew griffin joins me now. Also with me our Washington Bureau chief from the daily
beat, david chalian. Drew, youve gone through the facts. Were hearing these assertions they say theyll come forward and have names. Is it possible theres any way, that theres some evidence the secretaries of state have missed and everyone else has missed and there are millions of illegal votes . No. I dont know how else we can go over this but no. The people in charge of the elections are secretaries of state. That was a powerful statement. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said ive found no evidence. In a december 1st file big trumps own attorneys, all Available Evidence suggests the 2016 General Election was not tainted by fraud. Some people, erin, are going to watch this and think were all involved in a conspiracy, a media conspiracy, to hide the fact that 3 million to 5 Million People voted illegally in this election, but thats a pretty big and growing conspiracy of
conspirators now involving 32 republican secretaries of state i guess. Pretty stunning because you have to realize that there would have had to have been coordination. This wouldnt have randomly happened sporadically all over the place. David, President Trump is citing Greg Phillips and drew just showed us who he is. He has shown no evidence of voter fraud. You heard him there. Hell put it out when hes going to put it out, has no credibility on this issue. How dangerous is this that the president of the United States put out a tweet citing this guy by name . Well, i mean, it could be dangerous. Its certainly not a wise move for the president of the United States, the leader of the free world, to be highlighting and spotlighting conspiracy theorists with no proof of what theyre claiming. Thats not a good thing. But i think there are two ways to think about this. If this is just donald trump smarting over the fact that he did not win the popular vote, thats one thing. And then this could be sort of a personal mission for him. But if this is donald trump as i
think some of his critics fear laying the groundwork to put more strict voting regulations and rules into place to try to limit peoples access to the vote, then that could become a much more serious problem. Jackie, to push his unproven voter fraud allegation, trump told a story this week. He had this Cocktail Party at the white house and told a story about a german golfer. He said this golfer went to vote, i dont know why, but he went to vote in florida and he was turned away. Latinamericans, hispanic who is he says were not citizens voted. Turns out the story is not true. But trump apparently was told the story, running with it, telling people, using it to bolster his claim. What does this mean about how hes going to govern . This is governing by anecdote. I hope this isnt how. Its like an episode of gossip girl. Its not usually what comes out of the oval office. A guy told a guy who may have been that guys cousin that
there was voter fraud. It doesnt make sense. It doesnt inspire confidence. One would hope that, you know, perhaps he would get his sourcing a little better before he makes these kind of wild very serious allegations having to do with the electoral process. But, yeah, once you started digging into this, the daughter of that german golfer said trump and this golfer arent even friends. So the whole story was sort of blown up with a couple phone calls. Drew, this happened before president george w. Bush ordered an investigation into voter fraud. It took six years. You report fewer than 150 people were criminally convicted. That wa