Him get confirmed . Plus, cars skidding, tractor trailers jackknifing, flights canceled, thousands of travelers stranded as the winter storm dumbs nearly 2 feet of snow on the northeast. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. Were going to begin with our politics lead. White house counselor Kellyanne Conway was, quote, counseled after she promoted ivanka trumps shoe line from the briefing room. They were talking about the clothes line, of course, after the president criticized nordstrom from dropping his daughters brand from what nordstrom said were declining sales. Were digging for more details on that story while the white house answers more questions about whether president Trumps Supreme Court nominee disapproves of the president s tweets attacking federal judges. The president is angrily disagreeing with that allegation. As you might expect the president s disagreement quickly got personal. Cnn White House Correspondent jim accosta joins me now. Jim, the white house says gorsuch was speaking only generally about attacks on the judiciary, not single out the president s tweets and comments. It is gorsuch a mess, jake. The white house appears to be just fine with Supreme Court nominee neil gorsuch after he expressed dismay with attacks on the judiciary in the wake of the president s comments on the judges handling the case of the administrations travel ban. Instead, President Trump and his top aides are directing their outrage at the Senate Democrat who first revealed gorsuchs remarks. For President Trumps pick for the highest court in the land, its a supreme turn of events. Supreme Court Nominee neil gorsuch was asked in a private korverization by democratic senator Richard Blumenthal about President Trumps attacks on federal judges. There is no question that judge gorsuch said to me that he found these attacks on the judiciary by the president to be disheartening and demoralizing. Reporter president s response, he didnt go after gorsuch. He ripped into blumenthal, resurrecting the senators past false claims that when he was in the marine reserves in the vietnam era that he served in vietnam and accusing him of misrepresenting what gorsuch actually said. In a attack the they are facing reelection battles. His comments are misrepresented. What you should do is ask senator blumenthal about his vietnam record that didnt exist. Reporter the white house may be threading a needle claiming gorsuch was only speaking generally pushing back on the notion the judge was being specifically critical of the president the judge was very clear that he was not commenting on any specific matter, right . And then he was asked about his general philosophy. He literally went out of his way to say im not commenting on a specific instance. Reporter that may be a distinction without a difference. Even if gorsuch was speaking broadly, the president s attacks on the judiciary would meet the standard of disheartening and demoralize asking add odds with what blumenthal claimed. There was no need to keep his feelings private. In fact, judge gorsuch specifically said, you should feel free to mention what i said about these attacks being disheartening and demoralizing. Reporter as well as what a federal republican said after he met with judge gorsuch. We talked about that and frankly he got pretty passionate about it. Reporter they are insisting the judge condemn the president publicly. To whisper to a senator, but to refuse to say anything public is not close to a good enough show on independence. So, for my view, not a good start for judge gorsuch. Not a good start. Reporter Senate Republicans are offering a glimpse of their talking points, too. I think that what judge gorsuch is showing here is his independent character, the fact that as a judge hes going to call them as he sees them. Reporter either way the judges comments are now a test for the white house where the president is still praising his pick. We respect and very much respect the constitution as written. And he will apply the law as written. Hes a mainstream judge, very much mainstream, and i urge you all to confirm him. Reporter the white house also expressed frustration that president obama was not scrutinized in the media when he scrutinized the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case. What president obama said was hardly the same kind of attack the President Trump levelled against the judge handling the travel ban when he said they would be responsible or that judge and perhaps the appellate judges handling this case right now would be responsible if there is a terrorist attack. Jake . Jim accosta, thank you so much. Lets go back to that developing story out of the white house, the administration is now responding to questions about counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway for a sales pitch of sorts that she made on fox and friends. Here is what she said this morning. Using the most prominent woman in donald trumps, you know shes his daughter. And using her, shes been a champion for empowerment of women in the workplace to get to him. People can see through that. Go buy ivankas stuff is what i would say. Im going to get some myself today. Its a wonderful line. I own some of it. Im going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody, you can find it online. Not a surprise. Thats todays installment of conflict of interest watching cnn money correspondent christina a. The white house didnt clear up a whole lot saying that she had been counseled. No, it didnt. And we probably shouldnt expect the white house to clear much up because the administration as weve been reporting all along, jake, doesnt seem to care about very blatant violation of ethical standards, norms, and in this case the law. Heres spicers response at the press briefing just a few hours ago. Kellyanne has been counseled and thats all were going to go with. Shes been counseled on that subject and thats it. Now, critics are already saying his response was tepid in the face of public outrage that trump still shows that, you know, it still shows that the white house is taking kellyannes comments seriously, but perhaps they went too far. Look, even congressman chaffetz who defended the president for attacking nordstroms just yesterday on our air, he said at the time that trump was being a coating father and said that conway today he said conways comments were wrong. Look, people dont like the idea that the president and his aides are using the office of the president to defend and promote ivankas brand. They just dont like it. Phone lines at the office of government ethics are flooded. Their website crashed today and my legal and ethics sources cant believe what happened. But the blow back at the end of the day may not amount to much because enforcement falls within the white house and the most serious punishment for this kind of thing is dismissal. Its not a criminal offense, jake. That said, i have been reporting on how little separation there is between the president and trump ward. Now does that imply apply to the entire white house staff . Interesting. And conway suggested and so did spicer yesterday, sean spicer the press secretary, that nordstroms decision was politically motivated to drop her line, ivanka trumps line. Was did . Well, nordstrom says it was a purely business decision. Sales of the brand had been declining to where it made Good Business sense to discontinue the line. Now, look, i spoke to people at ivankas company a month ago. They said the brand was targeting Millennial Women in urban areas. Guess who isnt a fan of ivankas brand right now . Millennial women in urban areas. So, its not hard to see why nordstrom and now other retailers are backing away from their previous relationship here, jake. And we can expect to see this play out over the next weeks and months because that online petition to boycott ivankas brand that started with a millennial woman seems to be gaining some steam here. Interesting. Christina, thank you so much. Lets bring in democratic new jersey senator corey booker. Thanks for joining me. I know you want to talk about russia and well get to that. I want to talk about the two stories we covered. Kellyanne conway, do you think she was breaking the law when she encouraged people to buy ivankas cloelthing and are you satisfied hearing the white house counseled her . I pulled the law to see what the rule was. It says very explicitly that you cannot use your position to endorse merchandise or try to sell merchandise. Its clearly what she did. She clearly broke the law. But i think that there are, again, this is not a felony offense, and i think its serious, but i think it speaks to a much larger issue which i think most americans should be very, very concerned about. Its the fact that we still are now two, three weeks ed into the presidency and donald trump has not removed himself from his businesses. There are serious conflicts of interest between him and the businesses now being run by his family members. And he clearly does not respect any line nor does he respect the gravity and the seriousness of those conflicts. And now theyre involved in International Businesses and donald trump is our representative, the peoples representative along the International Stage and there are clearly conflicts there. This is a clear and serious problem. This is just one small example of that, but this is unacceptable and i believe it in violation of the emoluments clause of the United States constitution. Senator, let me also ask you, there is a debate right now about whether when judge gorsuch referred to attacks on the judiciary as disheartening and demoralizing whether he was specifically referring to what President Trump did or was he speaking more broadly, either way, does the fact that he would say this make you more inclined to support his nomination to the Supreme Court possibly . Well, it doesnt make me more inclined to support him because of his judicial record. But i tell you what, it makes me respect him because i think that like many of my republican colleagues, we clearly understand that many of the things that donald trump is doing in a shortterm presidency is undermining the basic institutions of our democracy. Whether its one day hes insulting the judiciary as a whole or another day hes insulting the sanctity of our electoral process by making an outright lie and claiming that there is broad scale millions of people voting fraudulently, donald trump is not just whacking in a blit cal way, he is whacking at the roots of what makes us strong, the judiciary, the electoral process, and his attacks on john mccain. We are an article 1 branch of the government. We are put first for a reason. We provide checks and balances with the Administration Every time the United States senator takes issue with a policy, be it a Foreign Policy or domestic policy, and donald trump wants to turn that into an ad hominem attack and come back in a pech atlanta way. Again, to me, that is insulting. So, here is somebody, not just insulting, its wrong. It undermines the way our democracy is set up. Donald trump seems to have no respect for our traditions but seems to be dedicate today attacking the very institutions that make us a great and free country. Senator booker, dont go anywhere. Were going to take a quick break. The snalt just held a hearing on the relationship with russia. Several lawmakers went after President Trump. Stick ruined. Were going to discuss that next. I mean wish i had time to take care of my portfolio, but. Well, what are you doing tomorrow 10am . Staff meeting. Noon . Eating. 3 45 . Uh, compliance training. 6 30 . Sams baseball practice. 8 30 . Tai chi. Yeah, so sounds relaxing. Alright, 9 53 . I usually make their lunches then, and i have a little vegan so wow, you are busy. Wouldnt it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do . Yeah. Introducing essential portfolios. The automated investing solution that lets you focus on your life. [he has a new business teaching lessons. Rodney wanted to know how his business was doing. So he got quickbooks. It organizes all his accounts, so he knows where he stands. Ahhh. Thats a profit. Way to grow, rodney visit quickbooks. Com. I have agerelated maculare degeneration, amd, he told me to look at this grid every day. And we came up with a plan to help reduce my risk of progression, including Preservision Areds 2. My doctor said Preservision Areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula the National Eye Institute recommends to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd after 15 years of clinical studies. Preservision areds 2. Because my eyes are everything. Share the joy of real cream. With reddiwip. Deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia welcome back. Our world lead now. Vladimir putin may have an easier path to reelection or whatever passes for the electoral process in russia. Russias most prominent Opposition Leader was convicted of embezzlement this week, surprise, surprise, a conviction that likely bars him from running against putin in 2018. Some say it was fabricated. Cory booker is still with us, he sits on the Foreign Relations committee which just had a hearing on russia. Senator, i dont know your reaction to this news out of russia about putins potential opponent being convicted of embezzlement or if you have a broader look at putin and the electoral system. Well, Vladimir Putin has proven himself to be someone who has no respect for democratic traditions and we see what happens to Opposition Leaders in his country. They are poisoned, they are killed, or they have trumped up charges like this one appears to be. We had a hearing today which was probably one of the best notes of bipartisanship ive seen in these days since trumps inauguration where senator corker, a republican from tennessee, spoke with some conviction about the need to get to the bottom of the influences that putin has had in this country in terms of our electoral process which won republican senator likened to the cuban missile crisis in term of the potential of the gravity of the threat, but also trying to understand how we could have a president that makes a moral equivalency between the United States of america and Vladimir Putin in fact, senator, let me interrupt you for a second. We have some of the sound there. Lets play that and get your reaction to it. I see no moral equivalence, none, between ourselves and the actions that russia has taken and i agree with you, those comments to me do not reflect certainly most members of the United States senate, i would say all, but i think at least most. So, were going to try to cut a deal with a guy who thinks hes win rgs ha no internal pressure and wants us to give up everything in exchange for him doing what he claims to be doing anyway. It may sound harsh but i think its a stupid deal. Were you surprise today hear such strong condemnations of the president s comments and the president s plans from your republican colleagues . No, i wasnt surprised at all. Having lots of conversations with everybody from john mccain and Lindsey Graham to many of the senators that are sitting on the committee. We understand the United States of america was attacked in a very serious way. They went after undermining our elections, spreading fake news, injecting propaganda into our internal systems. In addition to that, within these hot spots where were trying to bring about peace, you have russia acting in egregious ways in areas like syria, or attacking ukraine and encroaching on their borders in grieve us ways. Sat down with ambassadors from ball tick countries, estonia, latvia, lithuania yesterday to see the fear that their country has because they are experiencing serious russian interventions, trying to undermine their democracies. This is one of the worst actors on the global stage that is doing very serious things. Now not just globally where in the European Parliament is taking action, but also here in the United States. And we need to treat it that way. I do not understand, i have no explanation why our president seems to be cozying up to someone who is causing so much global chaos, terror, violence, and crimes. I do not understand. There is no explanation possible for why we should be doing this. What we should be doing right now is stepping up our actions against russia, whether it be added sanctions or more continued support for those trying to literally defend themselves from russian encroachments like the ukraine. Senator cory booker of new jersey, thank you so much for your time. We always appreciate it. Dont be a stranger, sir. Thank you very much. The white house is demanding an apology from senator john mccain after he criticized the raid in yemen where a navy seal was killed. What about all the times mr. Trump attacked military operations and raids . Stay with us. Trust safelite. With safelites exclusive on my way text. Youll know exactly when well be there. Giving you more time for what matters most. team sing safelite repair, safelite replace. What makesheart healthysalad the becalifornia walnuts. R . The best simple veggie dish ever . Heart healthy california walnuts. The best simple dinner ever . Heart healthy california walnuts. Great tasting, heart healthy california walnuts. So simple. Get the recipes at walnuts. Org. If you have