This began about 1 1 2 hours ago when President Trump wrote a letter to the democratic leader explaining he does plan to deliver the annual speech in front of congress as scheduled. That letter reads in party it would be so very sad for our country if the state of the union were not delivered on time, on schedule and very importantly on location. Moments ago, the speaker answered that letter with one of her own saying she wont consider a resolution that authorizes his address in the House Chamber until the government is reopened. So now what . John roberts reporting live from the white house. Where they go something. I dont know. Yet to be seen. Clearly i mean, this is all parliamentary language in this letter that nancy pelosi sent the president just a short time ago after the president sent nancy pelosi this one. Forgive the highlighter. Its the way i keep my notes. But the president is not welcome in the house. Again, its in parliamentary language, but shes basically saying youre disinvited. I cant remember that ever happening where a speaker of the house told the president you cant come up here and give the state of the Union Address. So now the president has to decide, we dont open the government and she cant get a concurrent resolution before the house, but the house and the senate have to pass concurrent resolutions to authorize a joint session of congress in the house of representatives. So thats what shes blocking as opposed to saying youre not welcome up here. So now the president has to see if he can go to the senate and deliver it or maybe he might deliver it from the oval office or maybe as we were hearing yesterday, he goes to some location outside of washington d. C. And delivers it. The president in his letter to nancy pelosi basically called her bluff on this issue of security. Her letter that she sent to the president on january 16 said, listen, the department of Homeland Security, the u. S. Secret service, the leading asies in protecting the state of the union had been unfunded 26 days. Now 33 days. Theres concerns about security to which the department of Homeland Security and the u. S. Secret service said she never talked to us about that. Were just fine. So the president in his letter said, theres no security concerns regarding the state of the union. Therefore,ly be honoring your invitation. I look forward to seeing you on the evening of january 29. Now nancy pelosi saying no, you wont. So now well wait and see what the president comes up with. I do know, shep, they had a number of suggestions on what the plan b should be. One included some sort of an address on the border. Another one was campaignstyle rally before a couple thousand people. Im told neither of those things happen. The white house still planning its cards very close to its vest as to what will happen in the wake of this. Shepard trying to get the Big Broadcast networks to cover it while not in that particular venue will be their challenge. Because we know thats what they want. Another big story breaking, Michael Cohen who now says he volunteered to testify before a committee of congress and now says he will not because of threats to his family. This should become as no surprise. Last week his former attorney now turned p. R. Person, lanny davis, one of bill clintons former attorneys laid the ground work last week saying, well, michael is having seconds thoughts about whether he should do this. He feels like hes been threatened by the president s rhetoric. He said last week hes not 100 there yet. We discovered today that hes 100 not there. In a statement, lanny davis said due to ongoing threats from President Trump and mr. Guliani this weekend and mr. Cohens continued cooperation with john going investigations, by advice of counsel, his appearance will be postponed to a later date. Mr. Cohen wishes to thank chairman cummings to allow him to appear. He looks forward to testifying at the appropriate time. We dont know what that is. Unclear what the threats are that davis refers to. I contacted davis when the statement first came out about exactly what those threats were. Could he give me any detail. Lanny would only say nothing further than the words of the statements. So theyre not putting details to any of this. The president was asked about this just a short time ago in this pool spray. Listen to his response. I would say hes been threatened by the truth. Only been threatened by the truth, by me or his other clients. So the president has tweeted on many occasions about Michael Cohen. One he tweeted last week, which has been cited by people that talked with Michael Cohen, sounding threatening, a tweet in which the president said if Michael Cohen lying to reduce his jail time, watch fatherinlaw. The president tweeted on occasion of Michael Cohens fatherinlaw. Cohen took that to be a threat, watch out, fatherinlaw. I dont know if it was meant that way, shep. Shepard john, thanks. Background on what Michael Cohens attorney is saying about postponing his testimony and the alleged threats to cohens family. Rick leventhal is here with details. It seems to be about that matter regarding his father. We dont know what these threats are that Michael Cohen is talking about. As i dodd in these situations, shep, when theres a story about Michael Cohen, i called Michael Cohen. Went straight to voice mail. So i dont have any information from Michael Cohen about what hes so concerned about, what the threats against him may or may not be. He did say that his attorney said that cohen has to put his family and safety first. So what are the threats . We just dont know what the threats are. The statement said as recently as this weekend, the president and his attorney, rudy guliani, made threats that cohen was concerned about. This weekend, rudy guliani was on jake tappers show on cnn. The two of them went at it for a bit. Ill let you hear what he said on jake tappers show. He should give information maybe on his fatherinlaw because that is the one that people want to look at. Because where is that money . Thats the money in the family. I guess he didnt want to talk about his fatherinlaw. Hes trying to get his sentence reduced. That was the president on judge janines show. Shepard that was specific. Yeah, talking about this fatherinlaw. Is that it . We dont know. We dont know. Shepard all right. Second question. And that is the testimony here is going whenever it happens will be quite limited. So heres the thing. Michael cohen was supposed to speak to congress on february 7. This week we learned that he didnt want to answer a lot of questions. So he was not willing to testify about any investigations related to President Trump. His testimony would exclude any matters, including that involved the attorney general of new york, that involved the u. S. Attorneys office and the Southern District of new york and that involved the office of the special counsel. So he wasnt going to answer any questions about any investigations involving his former boss. All he would talk about is anecdotes that involved working with him. Thats all that he was going to speak about before we heard today that he was concerned about his safety and wasnt going to speak at all. If he does speak, it has to be before march 6. Thats when Michael Cohen goes to prison for an estimated three years. Shepard rick leventhal, thank you. Lets get reaction from ellison barber on capitol hill. What about it . Hi, shepard. Yes, we just heard from the chairman of the Oversight Committee, the committee of course that we did expect cohen to testify in front of this next month. As well as the chairman of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff. In a joint statement, they said we understand the legitimate concerns for the safety and security of mr. Cohen and his family members in light of the attacks last week by President Trump and again this past weekend by his attorney, rudy guliani. The last week reference to suggest that the concerns are over what both john and rick have discussed, the threats related to Michael Cohens fatherinlaw. But lawmakers here are not giving information there. A statement that weve heard democrats say after the president tweets about mueller, the special counsel investigation or anything related to russia, they say the president should not make statements or take any action to obstruct congresss independent oversight and investigative efforts. Not a lot of republican reaction just yet. We have reached out to some republican members on that Oversight Committee. Congressman jim jordan, who is the Top Republican on that committee, reached out to his office. They were holding off on speaking just yet and said in passing us over to the spokesperson that speaks on behalf of them now, minority on the Oversight Committee. In the past, congressman jordan expressed skepticism about this Michael Cohen interview in general. Take a listen. Their first big hearing, the first big hearing, theyre bringing in a convicted felon that is a star witness in the Mueller Investigation and theyre going to have him in an open hearing environment answer questions. Michael cohen. Thats strange. Other democrats were waiting to hear from the Oversight Committee before they would speak with us on the record. They said they would talk and maybe have something to say after mr. Cummings put out his statement. Obviously we have that now, shepard. Well see if we hear anymore from lawmakers here on capitol hill. Shepard what has chairman cummings said about the possibility of subpoenaing Michael Cohen . When we asked him that earlier after this news broke and he wouldnt comment, but then in that statement with schiff, he did say this. When our committee began discussions with mr. Cohens attorney not appearing before congress was never an option. We wont let the president s tactics from fulfilling our constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities. This will not stop us from getting to the truth. We expect mr. Cohen to appear before both committees and we remain engaged with his counsel about his up comincoming appear. They say not testifying is not going to be an option. Shepard. Shepard more ahead on the historic fight over the state of the Union Address and the parent fall of a socialist government. Venezuela in turmoil. Today a new man steps to the podium before the screaming masses and proclaims i am the new leader. 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The way the state of the Union Address works, the speaker of the house invites the president of the United States to address the two houses of congress and the Supreme Court justices and all of us in the House Chamber. Thats the state of the Union Address. Thats cancelled. Can the president move it somewhere else, somewhere else in washington or down on the border, in a stadium and it still be the state of the Union Address . Some of you are arguing that it can be. As it turns out, eh. Chad pergram is our main man, our senior producer, this is a matter that is technically and for the moment unclear . Right. This is an extra constitutional question at this point right now, shep. The term state of the union resides in article 2, section 3 of the constitution. It just says the president has to provide this information from time to time. As we discussed, president George Washington gave the state of the union. They stopped that process in the early 1800s with thomas jefferson. Woodrow wilson rekindled it in 1913. Can the president still call it the state of the union . It was formally started to be called that in the mid 1940s. Heres the other question. Some people are started to chatter here on capitol hill, what happens if the president comes to the capitol next tuesday night and says i want to come speak . First of all, the house of representatives has to be in session. As House Speaker nancy pelosi indicated earlier today, they have to pass a concurrent resolution between the house and senate for the president to come into the chamber and speak. He has floor privileges in the house and senate. What i have right here, this is the house rules book. Article rule number 4 in the house, it lists who is able to come in to the House Chamber and speak. Thats very important, shep. The president is one of them. The librarian of congress, the architect of the capitol, heads of departments, foreign ministers, governs of state. At the end of the day, even if President Trump comes to the capitol, he cannot speak without the concurrent resolution. Nancy pelosi, when she returned to the capitol a couple moments aid said thats not going to happen. Kevin mccarthy said he would submit a concurrent resolution. The house doesnt have to take it up. Heres some concern that they have on capitol hill. You remember in 2016 in the summer, they had the guns sit in. They wonder if the president might come into the House Chamber and have a rump session with just republicans and have republicans try to stream it live. Shepard and then there was a time when nancy pelosi was speaker, if im correctly remembering, and the republican august of 08. Shepard the republicans talked about gas prices too high. She ignored it and let it happen. She looked the other way. Republicans came in to the chamber each day, held a rump session. The house was not in session. Technically that was a violation of the rules, but House Speaker nancy pelosi looked the other way. Shepard if she shuts it down and says theres no activity going to be happening here, theres nothing into which he can walk. Thats right. Hes welcome in the capitol. He could come to the House Chamber. The rule book is silent. If he can come in the chamber if the house is out of session. He cant speak in front of a joint session of Congress Unless they both approve it. Shepard imagine they hold up a cell phone and he talks to it and they stream it. Thats what getting people concerned here if they go down that route. Shepard might as well get the whole circus in town. Theres another thing that is happening right now. The president was going to have a gettogether with conservative leaders to talk about the shut down. You know, do some talk about what it is their next moves will be. That is closed to the press. Not unusual at all. A lot of events at the white house are closed to the press. This event is closed press. You know who the decider is . The president is the decider. He just made a new decision. The cameras are allowed in. So in a moment, well hear the president and conservative leaders giving their take and thoughts on how to take on the shut down and thoughts about how to end the shut down. The democrats have said look, this is solid. We wont talk to you. Now nancy pelosi says about anything business. None at all until the government is reopened. That is it. Unless and until theres movement, that is it. Now, theres Bipartisan Legislation that they can bring together if they wanted to that does not include a wall. They can reopen the government pdq. The president says no on that. Standoff. How long might this go . Breaking news now im told in venezuela. We have just gotten new word on the crisis in venezuela. Maduro was pushed aside and now they brought in a new leader. This new leader supported by the president of the United States and we just learned all american personnel have been told to evacuate venezuela