Source: Clinton Camp, DNC Helped Bankroll Trump Dossier; Soldiers Were Gathering Intel On Terrorist When Killed; Flake: More Republicans Will Rebuke Trump; More Republicans Rebuke Trump; GOP Reached Tipping Point; Bankroll Behind Trump Dossier.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Because right now that is basically a fairytale ending for people trying to get out of that place. It's still very hard.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thank goodness he made the wedding. That is a great "Good Stuff."</s>CUOMO: Good for him. Good for him.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, time now for CNN "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow and John Berman.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Great to see you guys this morning. Thanks so much. It's been a busy 24 hours, hasn't it?</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it has.</s>BERMAN: So let's get to it.</s>HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. Top of the hour. I'm Poppy Harlow.</s>BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. New this morning, the president calls his relationship with Senate Republicans a lovefest. But to quote the famous Republican strategist Inigo Montoya, that word "lovefest," I don't think it means what you think it means.</s>HARLOW: Every morning. Case in point, Senator Jeff Flake, fresh off his public repudiation of the president, predicts this morning that more Republicans will follow. Listen.</s>SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: A lot of my colleagues share the concerns that I raised on the floor yesterday. And I believe that more of them will speak out in the future. I hope that we've reached a tipping point of some type where we don't continue to normalize by being silent the kind of behavior that we've seen. That's why I felt it was important to give the speech and I hope that we move in a different direction.</s>HARLOW: Well, this morning, the president says Senator Flake and his colleague, Bob Corker, are just sore losers. Here's what he writes. The reason Flake and Corker dropped out of the Senate race is very simple, they had zero chance of being elected, now act so hurt and wounded. This is continuing clearly this morning. Our Joe Johns is at the White House with the latest. Flake says more Republicans are going to speak out, not naming any, but, intriguing.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Definitely intriguing, Poppy, and that is the big question. What does it all mean? Where is this all headed? And he did say, yes, he wants -- or thinks a number of other senators will speak out. Some senators have already spoken out. John McCain of Arizona, which is interesting, like Jeff Flake, along with Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsay Graham has raised some issues. So there are a handful out there who said a few things. But the president really scoffing at the idea, referring to his meeting with all of the Republican senators on Capitol Hill yesterday tweeting, Jeff Flake, with an 18 percent approval rating in Arizona said a lot of my colleagues have spoken out. Really, they just gave me a standing o. So standing ovation notwithstanding. The question is whether the apple cart could be upset through all of this, especially when the president's biggest signature item, the thing he campaigned on the most, a big tax cut and tax reform is coming down the pike on Capitol Hill. There are concerns it could create a lot more deficit spending. Jeff Flake, for example, has always been a big deficit hawk on Capitol Hill, going all the way back to his days in the House of Representatives. But when asked this morning about it, he really didn't show any signs of backing down or bucking the president and his own party on the issue of tax cuts and tax reform. Listen.</s>SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: If we don't get some kind of tax reform, not just tax cuts, but tax reform, there's going to be great disappointment out there and people will saying, all right, you can no longer just blame the Congress. There's always a honeymoon period that an administration enjoys and people give a little slack, but we're coming to a point now where we've got to get some big things done.</s>JOHNS: So Senator Bob Corker, the other senator who really went after the president yesterday, has also said he'd like to see a tax plan go through as well, but he is very critical and very concerned about the possibility of increased deficit spending. Back to you.</s>BERMAN: All right, Joe Johns at the White House. Thanks very much. A lot to discuss this morning. Joining us, CNN senior political analyst, former adviser to four presidents, David Gergen, politics reporter for "The Daily Beast," Betsy Woodruff, and White House reporter for "The Wall Street Journal," Michael Bender. David, I want to start with you. We've all used a lot of adjectives over the last 24 hours, stunning, remarkable, unprecedented. But as we sit here this morning, after all of this, what's really changed?</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think what's changed, John, and it is significant, is that two senators have broken in a very, very complete way which invites commentary and more criticism of the president, both within the Senate and, frankly, among conservatives and conservative pundits around the country. I think the real issue, though, is whether Corker and Flake have moved from fairly reliable to unreliable allies for the president as he pursues his agenda. As you know, the Trump White House can't lose more than two votes in the Senate in order to get something through. And you now you have Corker, Flake, McCain, Sasse, Susan Collins all in this sort of -- do you have them or not, you know? And so it could give -- it could give the descenters more leverage going into the negotiations ahead over tax reform, which is always -- and tax cuts, which are -- you know, those are always contentious anyway.</s>HARLOW: It's a good point, David Gergen, but the question becomes that the -- will they actually vote against something they believe in, right? So Corker has a lot of power when it comes to taxes, but would you expect he, McCain, you know, a third Republican senator to actually vote against tax reform because they don't like the man, the president, personally?</s>BETSY WOODRUFF, POLITICS REPORTER, "THE DAILY BEAST": I think that's very unlikely. I would be quite surprised to see members like Flake and Corker vote against the tax reform package just to spite the president. That said, it's really important not to understate the extent to which these senator's frustration with President Trump is deeply personal. And my understanding is that in the cases both of Senator Flake and Senator Corker, much of this goes back to Charlottesville when Corker first started really vocally speaking out against the president. I spoke with a number of folks familiar with his thinking and One thing I was told was that a major tipping point for him was the way the president responded to the death of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. And, of course, in an opt-ed that Senator Flake wrote for "The Washington Post" that just ran, he specifically mentioned the president's response to Charlottesville as one of the key indicators that he could not be -- be part of the same party, part of the same overall project as President Trump. So, although news cycles tend to move on past events like that, on Capitol Hill, among the president's necessary allies, that memory is still very fresh and very powerful.</s>BERMAN: You know, Michael Bender, your piece in "The Wall Street Journal," though, you have discussion of what some see as a tipping point, but it's the forces of Steve Bannon who think that things are tipping their way. You quote Steve Bannon saying, our movement will defeat you in primaries or force you to retire. The days of establishment Republicans who oppose the peoples' America first agenda are numbered. Any way to argue that Steve Bannon is not winning the battle for the Republican Party right now?</s>MICHAEL C. BENDER, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": I don't think so. That's a good public service announcement from Steve Bannon to the rest of the party. But for -- I think, though, what we saw yesterday is for all the drama inside the U.S. Capitol, and it was a stunning day. You went through the list of adjectives earlier. All the momentum seems to be for the folks outside of the Capitol, the Steve Bannons of the world who are checking off, you know, a list of their victories here starting with Alabama. You know, they -- he and their -- his allies were looking at challenging Corker not too long ago. Corker is retiring. Now Flake. You know, so they, from outside the Capitol, they see this as the momentum is on their side and that they're winning this fight.</s>HARLOW: David Gergen, Flake, fascinating what he said to Alisyn Camerota this morning on "NEW DAY," that he thinks other Republicans will speak out soon on this, meaning they have essentially told him in private that they feel the same way. Who would you have your eye on to do that, because he didn't name names?</s>GERGEN: That's an interesting question. I don't know the individuals well enough to know exactly who would break, but I would assume some of the moderates are under a lot of pressure internally. Other -- I think the Susan Collins of the world are under some pressure to take a firmer stand. And one of the thing that happens when senators break like this, I don't think the dam is going to break and there are going to be a whole lot of senators, but there may be one, two, three. And, in that case, those are significant numbers when you have such a modest majority. And if -- you know, let's see what the -- the Republicans are going to have to make some tough calls here on this budget in the next few weeks, and that is, how are they going to get the spending down so they get those deficits down? Corker has said, yes, he wants to pass a bill. He also said he has a limit on how much deficit spending he will accept.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>GERGEN: And then he's off the train. Now, the -- that gives him some bargaining power in terms of saying, you want my vote, here's what I said earlier and I'm not backing down on that.</s>HARLOW: All right, stay with --</s>BENDER: Poppy --</s>HARLOW: Yes, very quickly.</s>BENDER: Well, can I just make a quick suggestion here that -- that I would watch for the momentum to go the other way. I mean what we saw yesterday was Roger Wicker, the incumbent senator from Mississippi --</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>BENDER: Being critical of Bob Corker, not Trump.</s>HARLOW: Of Corker.</s>BENDER: So as we get closer to the elections and these Republicans who need the base's support, I mean I think the pressure is going to grow on Corker and Flake, not -- not any more on Trump.</s>HARLOW: It's a really good point. He said it to John on this show. Everyone, stay with us, because, of course, we want you to weigh in on this big reporting out of "The Washington Post," new information about who helped bank roll that explosive dossier about then candidate Donald Trump and alleged ties to Russia, to the campaign. A source confirming also to CNN that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the DNC funded part of that research.</s>BERMAN: The source said the Clinton camp hired an intelligence firm in April of last year. A research firm in April of last year. The same firm retained to do research for some anti-Trump Republicans during the Republican primary. CNN's Jessica Schneider joins us from Washington with all the details. Jessica.</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, John and Poppy, of course that now infamous dossier of salacious allegations about President Trump, it became public in January. It was after FBI Director James Comey personally briefed the president on its contents. But now we're learning from a source that it was, in fact, the Clinton campaign and the DNC that initially funded the research. They retained research firm Fusion GPS and the contract for research services began in April of 2016, just as Donald Trump was taking the lead in the primaries. Now, CNN previously reported that the anti-Trump research was initially funded by anti-Trump Republicans during the GOP primaries and then the Democrats took over. Now, Brian Fallon was the Clinton campaign's national press secretary. He tweeted about this when it came out last night saying he was not aware of the connection between the campaign and the dossier. He tweeted this. He said, I regret I didn't know about Christopher Steele's hiring pre-election. If I had, I would have volunteered to go to Europe and to try to help him. And we've also heard from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. She tweeted as well last night. She said, the real Russian scandal, Clinton campaign paid for the fake Russia dossier, then lied about it and covered it up. Of course sources have told CNN that Special Council Mueller's investigative team did meet with dossier author Christopher Steele over the summer. That was all part of the Russia investigation. And also the latest news in this, John and Poppy, is that Fusion GPS, that research service, well, they have been subpoenaed by House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes. Devin Nunes actually wants the bank records from Fusion GPS. That might lead to even more information about what was discovered, who else funded this, who else might have been involved in this. They're now in court playing this out, Fusion GPS, saying that this is First Amendment issue, that they shouldn't have to hand over their bank records. A court date is scheduled for that tomorrow. So this could continue to develop here about this dossier. John and Poppy.</s>BERMAN: All right, Jessica Schneider, thanks so much. Let's bring the panel back to discuss this. And, Betsy Woodruff, you've done your own reporting on this subject for "The Daily Beast," and what you've found is this is exactly the subject that Republicans would like to focus on, particularly the House Intelligence Committee. They've been pushing this.</s>WOODRUFF: Right. Exactly. Devin Nunes is the chair of the House Intelligence committee. There were some speculation, indication, conversation that he'd recused himself from the Russia probe after his now notorious midnight visit to the White House back in April. In reality, however, Nunes is very much a driving force behind the work that Republican staffers on the intelligence committee are doing related to these broader Russia questions. For all practical purposes, the House Intel Committee is running two separate investigations. There's the work that's going on that's more public, interviews that are taking place in a secure facility in the basement of the Capitol, but then simultaneously there's the work that Nunes and some of his top staffers are doing. And much of that work is focused on trying to discredit the dossier and the work that Fusion GPS did during the election. The fact that we now know that Clinton campaign and the DNC helped funded the work of Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS is something that's incredibly useful to Nunes as he engages in that project. Additionally, the reason we know about this, according to reporting, is because of a letter that was released as part of the back and forth in court over Nunes' subpoena. It's certainly plausible that if Nunes hadn't subpoenaed Fusion GPS' bank, then we wouldn't know about the DNC and Hillary Clinton's funding of Fusion GPS, at least not as soon as we do know about it. So his work is certainly having an impact.</s>HARLOW: Well, and, Betsy, exactly, I mean to that point, Mike Bender, if you ask Ken Vogel of "The New York Times," who has been reporting on this, tried to report on this earlier, he says that the Clinton campaign lawyer lied to him. That Marc Elias lied to him. And here's what he writes. When I tried to report this story, Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias pushed back vigorously saying, you or your sources are wrong. We haven't heard any response saying that that is incorrect. How big of a deal is it if the Clinton campaign lawyer lied to him about it?</s>BENDER: Well, yes, I'm not sure what Ken's reporting was. I don't know -- have any reason to doubt it. But you're well aware of the game here in Washington where, you know, the truth is -- it comes in shades, and lawyers and PR folks shade it in order to push their own version of the truth here. And I think in this case, we're in a -- the facts that we know now, we're in a situation here where -- this sort of rare situation where the spin from both sides here, from Trump world and Clinton world looks to be right. I mean, you showed Fallon's tweet earlier, and you know, based on what we know now that there's nothing wrong with opposition research, and it looks like this went through the normal channels to do so. And you know, inside the White House, this backs up their argument that this is politically driven, and has roots going back to Clinton, if not, you know, establishment Republicans who were trying to keep Trump out of the race.</s>BERMAN: And we should note, we will speak to Brian Fallon, who was a spokesperson for the Clinton campaign. And David Gergen, he should also note, the intelligence community whatever and whoever funded this dossier, and we know it was people associated with the Clinton campaign and DNC, the intelligence community has corroborated parts of it, some of it. So, you know, the Mueller investigation goes on no matter who funded this dossier?</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It does. It's like your very big aircraft carrier, it just keeps moving through the water while we have spats on the side. I do think that, yes, it is true that campaigns do a lot of opposition research and sometimes pay for it, so there's nothing earth shaking about that. What I do think about this (inaudible) to find that the Clinton campaign and the DNC have been paying for this, has an unsavory quality about it, and it looks like the Democrats really were trying to, you know, frame Trump in some way. And the dossier has -- loses of its credibility if you think it has been paid for by the Democrats. So, I think overall this is one of those things -- it's from that the Republican standpoint and the Trump standpoint, it's a bit of a gift that they have because they can really muddy the waters with it.</s>BERMAN: We will see how they use --</s>HARLOW: We'll see what Brian Fallon says.</s>BERMAN: We will indeed. All right, guys, David Gergen, Betsy Woodruff, Mike Bender, thanks so much. Senator Jeff Flake says get ready for more Republican senators to speak out against the president. Where are they and what does that mean for the agenda? Plus, new information about what the U.S. troops were doing in Niger just before they were ambushed?</s>HARLOW: Also this morning, how does a tiny and I mean, tiny Montana power company land a huge $300 million contract in Puerto Rico to rebuild? New questions this morning about potential ties to the Trump administration, ahead.