From washington who to vote for. I dont know any of these women. Announcer this is new day with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. Good morning. Welcome to i dont eyour new day. Alisyn camerota is off, and the one and only poppy harlow is here. The two yeah, cant wait for that. Did donald trump obstruct justice when he fired fbi director, james comey. The president s lawyer is arguing that the president is above the law and cannot obstruct justice. Why did the president resist firing f firing flynn for weeks after he learned he lied to the fbi, a crime. And then the rnc overnight opened up the financial spigot for roy moore, and a child molester could be the next senator from alabama, this comes as a woman that says she dated roy moore as a teenager when he was twice her age. She is sharing physical evidence of their relationship, and we will hear from Moores Campaign ahead. Joe johns joins us from the white house with the top story. Reporter you cant overstate the significance of this, its about rules, facts and law, as the russia investigation appears to be moving one step closer to the oval office, and democrats are saying its a question of obstruction of justice, and the president s lawyers pushing back but their legal theory apparently still a work in progress. Ty cobb downplaying the obstruction of justice defense put together by trumps personal lawyer. Its an interesting legal issue, and its not mr. Trumps legal strategy. Not only above the law, but free to interfere with any investigation and act in ways that are an obstruction of justice is unacceptable. Dowd floating whether this tweet from the president s account could lead to a potential obstruction of justice case. It suggests he knew flynn lied to the president and the fbi before he allegedly urged comey to drop the bureaus investigation into flynn. A source now telling cnn the president was told by white House Counsel in january that flynn misled the fbi about his contracts with the russians, and then received a warning that flynn might be compromised from then acting attorney general, sally yates. They were entitled to know the information they were conveying to the American People wasnt true. Despite the recommendation, the president kept flynn on the job for weeks, and trump caving to public pressure, firing flynn, and insisting he was a good man. The president now defending flynn after he pleaded guilty on friday to lying to the fbi. I feel badly for general flynn. Hillary clinton lied many times to the fbi and Nothing Happened to her. Flynn lied and they destroyed his life. I think its a shame. Flynns Deputy Mcfarland also under scrutiny in her testimony about flynn, and she told the foreign Relationship Committee in july that he was not aware of any communications between flynn and former russian ambassador, kislyak. Unsealed documents on friday showed flynn spoke to a transition official before meeting with kislyak, although mcfarland was not mentioned, cnn confirmed she was the referenced official. That was a false representation to the senate. And a big win in the courts for the president and the administration, a green light for the president s travel ban to be implemented even as challenges to that policy continue working their way through the courts. Appreciate it. Lets bring in cnn political analyst, joshua green, and associate for real clear politics, a. B. Stoddard. What is the take on this defense from the president s legal team that he cant be guilty of obstruction of justice . You heard the senate intel chairman saying he disagrees with that assessment, and im not a lawyer, and different experts were weighing in as to whether you could be charged with obstruction in the legal system, and that aside, the fact that we are even talking about this shows that he faces legal exposure, and that alone is bad. We dont know yet whether or not this tweet was real about the president knowing that Michael Flynn lied to the fbi. With all of these different lies, basically, we need to find out whether or not it was actually only a logan act, a potential logan act violation the private citizen representing the president of the united states. Nobody has been prosecuted for this . Would he lie to the fbi over that . Something we all knew was on every page of every paper. I dont think we know the full story of when the president knew about Michael Flynns discussion with the fbi, and what he might have lied about. Until we know what that full transcript shows and what moore could have been happening with kt and Michael Flynn and trump, i think that he looks like he could be in much more legal peril than it seems on the face of it. Two questions. What about the fact that the legal team is arguing over legal strategy rather than the facts here, and the fact that the legal team inside the white house is divided on this. John dowd said that yesterday which caused the hub pwub. This is a pattern we have seen, there seems to be disagreement within his own legal team. There was the famous lunch where they were overheard talking by a New York Times reporter fighting and disagreeing over a legal strategy, and here it doesnt seem to have their ducks in a row about what they want to say publicly about what trump might face, and i think the biggest significance of what dowd said yesterday, you dont come out and make a statement if you dont have some inkling your client is going to be charged with objection of justice. Its very unlikely he would be charged with obstruction of justice . Why . Because theres a good chance that mueller would make it a political process anyway, and all the questions go away. Impeachment is a political debate. Its about whether or not you have the votes, high crime and misdemeanor, it doesnt mean anything. It means what the lawmakers want it to mean in their context of discussion. What we are seeing is all about tactics. Question the premise . Hes not under investigation. Comey said hes not. The facts dont line up on this, and theres no collusion. And then question the standard. He cant be charged with any of this stuff, anyway, hes the president of the united states. And the last one is trumps strongest suit, i would argue, which is a attack the people involved, and thats what will come next, and the question is if we get to that would a president named trump move on Robert Mueller . Theres concern among Congressional Republicans dating back to june he might. If he has people telling him, you can do this, he has no right to be there if you dont want him there . Thats a discussion republicans have been having all along. What do we do . And its going to be interested if the goal posts move for them following the passage of tax reform. If that is signed into law and they have gotten through their big threshold moment, how much does this tweet, it seems self incriminating and maybe it was really written by trump and all of these discussions about what flynn might be offering to mueller, does that begin to change the minds of Congressional Republicans in whose the hands impeachment would lie. Hes still speaking to his base and trying to muddy the waters and attack the messenger, but he has to answer to Congressional Republicans. Well, the president in his attacks on the fbi this week and substantiated attacks because of the agent who ran the Hillary Clinton email investigation and was the top dog on the russia probe until he was let go of it because of his political persuasion, this gives the president ammunition, does it not . If you look at the president s zigzagging political strategy on how you deal with mueller and the investigation, and if you go back to may, and you had people like steve bannon still in the white house, and as i wrote in my book, he was ready to throw hey makers at bob mueller, and they started spreading to reporters the idea on muellers team, they donated to democrats, they were basically trying to impugn mueller, and what we have heard over the past couple of weeks, speaking to people in and around the white house, dowd in particular has been telling the president , you are not in jeopardy, and probably going to be done by christmas, maybe january, and giving him happy talk to settle him down and keep him from going after mueller. Will trump be able to contain himself . I am not sure we know yet. We have a little time left. I want to play this piece of sound from one of roy moores representatives explaining why roy moore is being falsely criticized. Can we play that sound . If he did date a teenager, he didnt know about it. I cant tell you how many times i have been on a date and asked how old they were, especially firemanif i asked their mama if i could tkaeult them. Its wrong to con descend to the people of alabama, what they accept. Thats the behavior. We are seeing republicans move forward moore and not away. Is this over morality . I knew the day he should be expelled if he gets to the senate they would never expel him, but i was surprised to see them reengage just because the president endorsed him. This is going to be something they answer to. Every Republican Senate and house and probably all around the country between now and november of 2018. In terms of the moore defense, thats the goofiest defense for moore. He was signing their year books. They question the legitimacy of the handwriting. Heres a woman that said heres the card he gave me at my graduation party. The idea of the state of play is, your representative and says i cant tell you how many times i have been on a date and i didnt even know how old the girl was. Its just a very, very interesting play for republicans on that field. Were going to have a spokeswoman for the roy moore campai campaign in just a minute. Look at the aerials. A fastmoving and deadly wildfire exploiting in california. 27,000 people forced to evacuate. Ventura countys Fire Department said one evacuee died trying to escape. Ventura bracing for the worst. Powerful santa ana winds, you will hear a lot about that, because they will turbo charge flames and direct them east. 150 structures have been destroyed, 31,000 acres burned. 260,000 customers, no power. We will keep a very close eye on this as it develops. Meantime, republicans rushing through a major tax overhaul, but are they acting in the interest of the taxpayer or focusing on a big win for the president before the end of the year . Can it be true, will big baller be in the house . Lavar ball, father of the former ucla basketball player, liangelo ball, and what does he have to say to me today . I will talk to him about it all coming up. P to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . You feel better. Introducing tommie coppers all new shoulder centric posture shirt. Theyre biggest breakthrough yet. Advanced engineering promotes Healthy Posture and relief for achy shoulders and back. Visit tommiecopper. Com to see the entire line of wearable wellness compression. They have you covered from head to toe. Go to tommiecopper. Com right now and find out how you can save 25 on your first purchase, plus first shipping. Life hurts, feel better. Plus first shipping. Feel the power of thenew power. Smax. To fight back theraflus powerful new formula to defeat 7 cold and flu symptoms. Fast. So you can play on. Theraflu expressmax. New power. Republicans are moving their tax bills through congress with remarkable speed. A lot of intentionality that should be scrutinized. The senate is set to follow suit this week. Are republicans moving too fast on something that affects every american . Lets discuss this with somebody who knows the process as well as anybody, mr. Cantor. How do you say that, molesis. You got it. How happy are you that you are not involved in the gop processes right now . Listen, things happen in life and you dont realize the reasons for it when it happened and it seems like not a good thing and i am three years out and delighted and energized where i am now, and in the private sector, as you said, at molesis and company. Just to check a couple boxes, the personal counsel for the president is you cant talk about obstruction of justice, the president is above the law, he cant obstruct justice . Leaders are elected with the trust placed in by the voters, and obviously i know that President Trump and his team made sure that trust is intact, and hes got to be concerned as things unfold that that trust is in place. I trust in our Law Enforcement director mueller and the conduct of this investigation. I think the majority of my former colleagues would be in the same place. Mueller, a man of fine integrity and you trust him. Absolutely. The president is not above the law . Absolutely not. Roy moore, does it bother you the party is moving back towards him . Yeah, aoeug thii think he de lose. I think that when people elect folks to Public Office they expect their leaders to live to a much higher standard and thats what ought to be maintained. Quick counter argument is this is about alabama voters and not what you d. C. People think about it and we have no criminal investigation or trial or due process . No question its up to the alabama voters. Again, its what i think, and thats fine, but the alabama voters will decide. I am just you asked what i feel about it. Does it bother me . Absolutely it bothers me. I think we ought to maintain that moral standard that i believe our party is about. Taxes. All right, and thank you for fielding those other questions. Process matters. When you rush something through that is very important you are asking for trouble. You lived it and criticized it openly and roundly when it came to the aca, but the aca was debated to death comparing that with this big tax bills . This is not an unusual process, as you suggest, working its way through congress. This is why i believe paul ryan and Steve Scalise insisted there be a Conference Committee between the house and senate and i think members expect that kind of procedure, so to allow further vetting, there are provisions in conflict and controversial provisions in both, and i think its a huge win for republicans and the american economy, and i think we are going to see a lot of growth that will continue to result from these policies. You dont headline it by saying huge win for the middle class. Part of the political problem is the president , at least, and certainly early on said it would be the best tax cut for the middle class we have seen. Its hard to justify on all of the objective analyses that have come out every time we show a graph, the middle class doesnt do as well as the top tier. It depends on what your definition of the middle class is. If you are an average family of four in the 50,000 a year range up to 100 or a little over that, you are doing well under the tax bill. They are doubling the standard deduction, which takes a lot of people paying taxes to begin with other than the payroll taxes. I think what you saw in my state of virginia about a month ago is you saw suburban voters in the upper middle class saying im not so sure i like what is going on in washington in general and i am concerned about what that means in this tax bill because theres a lot of people who end up will end up paying more at the upper middle and upper ends of income. These voters, at least in the suburbs of the country, have been traditional republican voters. I do think that what this bill will provide to them is more economic growth. Hopefully well have enough time once the bill passes to see this economy lifted, to see wages and jobs lifted so those suburban voters feel they are going to be able to see a benefit. Growth is a function of the economic argument we will have all day, and i know at least five sides to it now about what lower taxes means in terms of overall stimulation, and better if its in the business side, and just to double down on one point, which is over time you see the middle class that theres a claw back on these, and they get bit harder than those at the top. The provisions in some of the bills will have to be matched up, but what they are doing with tuition balances, and the suburban voters in their 50s that dont make much money and are not rich, they will see premiums go up when the mandate goes away, and those are costs that are being put on the middle class, why if your intention was to help them most of all, which is what the president promised. As far as the mandate is concerned, the numbers on that is because a lot of people buying insurance because they have to and not because they want to, and thats, again, the reason why you are seeing the drop in the number of coverage. As far as price is concerned, it has always been a republican position that if we lift the kind of prescriptive measures in place under the aca, under obamacare, you will see a market that will compete for peoples business in Health Insurance and you will bring down price. That was always the problem under the aca, affordability left the equation it doesnt get better if you take Healthy People out of the equation. If you lift the prescriptions of the mandated benefits and say lets let people have more skin in the game and give them catastrophic coverage so nobody goes if you reduce what the companies have to provide, they will provide less, and people will get caught up but if theres a sensible minimum to allow for catastrophic coverage so nobody has to go bankrupt for paying for health care, thats where we start. On the distribution of wealth and income and the rest, i always have believed if you get an economy that grows there will be more money to go around in terms of helping peoples wages going up with jobs and opportunities, and you talk about the provisions that are on the table for being slashed and thats targeted tax expenditures is what they are called to assist those especially in the area of Higher Education, and how are you going to take away that kind of assist. If you look at the Higher Education authorization bill recently introduced on the republican side, theres more reform needed in that arena instead of trying to put bandaids on the problems. This is the disconnect going on. Theres a lot of problems ri