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Don Lemon Tonight

President Trump Threatens to Close Border with Mexico Unless He Gets Funds for Border Wall; North Carolina Congressional Race Still Unresolved; House Republicans Raise Concerns over FBI and DOJ Handling of Clinton E-mail, and Russia Investigation; Cozy Relationship between President Trump and Fox News; Portland Hotel Calls Police on Black Guest Who's on the Phone in the Lobby. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired December 28, 2018 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[22:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. Day seven of the partial shutdown of the federal government, and no end in sight. President Trump is staying in Washington. He's growing angrier by the moment, sounding really like a pouting child. He's now threatening to close the border with Mexico. Close the border with Mexico.

Here's what he tweeted today. He said the U.S. will be forced to close the Southern border entirely if the obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the wall.

The president owns the shutdown, remember? He is the one who said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I will shut down the government.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: OK, fair enough. We disagree.

TRUMP: And I am proud.

SCHUMER: We disagree.

TRUMP: And I'll tell you what. I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck. I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, he's got that right. And the blame is all his. But Nancy Pelosi clearly on the minds of top aides at the White House today. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: She's unwilling to actually do anything until she gets her speakership.

MICK MULVANEY, INCOMING ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: This all comes down to Mrs. Pelosi's speakership. She does not have the votes, and if she cuts a deal with the president of any sort before her election on January 3rd, she's at risk of losing her speakership. So we're in this for the long haul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It's a good talking point. They're all on message, but they are wrong. House Democrats back in November overwhelmingly picked Pelosi to be their nominee for House speaker. And she'll likely have all the support that she needs when the vote takes place on January 3rd, which is next Thursday, by the way. It's coming quickly.

And that's the date that the president and all those people who are talking there, all of his aides, that they really should be worried about. You know why? Because Democrats take control of the House, and that means control of all the powerful committees that have been toothless under Republicans. They won't be anymore. And with control of the committees comes subpoena power.

Democrats are ramping up staffing. They are posting jobs, especially for investigators and lawyers with expertise in criminal law, as well as constitutional law, commercial, administrative and bankruptcy law. That's a lot.

Key Democrats say they have been inundated by impressive resumes, that a lot of people want to be part of what's expected to be the largest congressional investigation of a sitting president in recent memory. So here we go. Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy 2019.

Yet on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, inside the Trump White House, major jobs unfilled. The president doesn't have a permanent chief of staff. He doesn't have a permanent defense secretary or attorney general. And that's just to name a few.

Word from inside the White House is that since the Democrats' big victory in the midterm elections, President Trump has been worried. He should be, even though he constantly says this about the Mueller investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's a total witch hunt. I've been saying it for a long time.

It's a witch hunt. That's all it is.

They have phony witch hunts.

Witch hunt continues.

They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia.

There has been no collusion.

No collusion. There was no collusion.

The entire thing has been a witch hunt.

I call it the rigged witch hunt.

The witch hunt, as I call it, should never have taken place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Do you think he says it's a witch hunt? Is that what he said? OK. I just wanted to make sure. I didn't quite hear him there, that it's a witch hunt. Despite Trump never missing a chance to minimize the Russia investigation, Mueller has already sent -- these are the facts, OK?

Four people to prison, he's sent. One person, Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted at trial. Seven people have pleaded guilty, including Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Thirty-six people and entities have been charged.

In 2019, we're likely to see new developments in the investigation when Democrats take control. And the new year, well, it will likely bring new lies. The president told some whoppers this year, we can't list them all because we don't have enough time in this broadcast, but here's one, like when he said that he didn't know about payments to Stormy Daniels. Remember that one?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?

TRUMP: No. No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Then why -- why did Michael Cohen make this, if there was no truth to her allegations?

TRUMP: Well, you have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my -- an attorney, and you have to ask Michael Cohen.

[22:05:01] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?

TRUMP: I don't know, no.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well, Mueller did ask Michael Cohen. That was a big lie, though, that he didn't know. Michael Cohen told prosecutors he paid off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal on orders from Trump. Then the president in the run-up to the midterms announced that he was working on a 10 percent tax cut for the middle class. Remember that one?

He forgot to tell his GOP colleagues in Congress, who were caught off guard by it. It didn't matter, though, because it was a lie. He never spoke of it again after the elections. And then the granddaddy of them all, Trump claiming that Mexico is going to pay for a border wall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: We are going to build a great border wall. And who's going to pay for the wall?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE/UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Mexico!

TRUMP: Who's going to pay for the wall?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE/UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Mexico!

TRUMP): Who?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE/UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Mexico!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Who's going to pay for the wall? Mexico. Another lie just to rile up his base. Mexico made it clear to Trump it's not paying for a wall. Its former president used more graphic language that I can't repeat on this program. He's not going to pay for a you know what wall, he said.

But here's one thing that is true tonight as we head into day eight of this shutdown. It's time for Americans to see those highly touted negotiating skills from the deal maker in chief and get the government working again. A lot of people are not getting paid.

And there's a lot to discuss in the hour ahead. Let's begin with Astead Herndon and David Swerdlick, and also April Ryan. April is the author of "Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House."

So good to have all of you on. Almost new year. The government --

DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Happy new year.

LEMON: Happy new year. The government is still shut down. Astead, I'm going to start with you. You think shutting down the Southern border is a real possibility right now?

ASTEAD HERNDON, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Yeah, I don't think that's something we'll see from the president. I mean, that is something that's going to take a lot of initiative. We know that the Democrats are coming into the House and that's going to be something that's going to limit his ability to do those type of actions.

But what we're seeing is the president who is under extreme pressure from the base to have increased actions on the Southern border, and he is feeling that type of heat. He's feeling that pressure. And so he wants to show that he has a strong hand, that he's doing everything he can to limit immigration.

But that is something that the Democrats are going to be able to rein in because the money that it would take, all of those things are going to have to go through the Congress, and we're not going to be able to see that.

LEMON: He returned to one of his favorite scare tactics. Remember this during the midterms, April? Today this is what he tweeted. He said, word is that a new caravan is forming in Honduras and they are doing nothing about it. He seemed to drop the caravan after the midterms, but you think he could effectively use it to lobby for a wall?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think so. I think everyone is kind of -- I think everyone is kind of hip to this game. You know, during the election, the midterm election, we kept hearing this caravan. The caravan was hundreds of miles away and it was like, you know, it was imminent doom, like it was happening the next day, and it didn't happen.

And it's almost like the boy who cried wolf. The president keeps saying it and saying it and it's not true. This president has been caught in so many big tales, if you will. I'm not going to go to the word "lie," but you know, in his mind, he might believe it. And in Sarah Huckabee's mind, she might believe it as well.

LEMON: Still a lie, if they believe it. Even if they believe it, it's not the truth. But go on.

RYAN: OK, thank you for pointing that out. You're right. But you remember, I have to work there, so I have to cushion it. But, no. You know, this president cries this big -- makes these big, tremendous, huge tales, and they don't happen. And he's left with it, and then people are like, oh, OK. And you're used to it now. It's not normal. It's not OK.

And these caravans that the president is concerned about is really, you know, fictitious. But, you know, this immigration thing -- and I really thought about this today as we end 2018, going into 2019, because you start out like you can hold out. But when you deal with this immigration issue, we have to really look at this.

It's a black-white-brown issue. This president is concerned about the browning of America and you have to look at it. Why is he so concerned about immigrants when this president has a close relationship to people who are from other countries? Two wives, his first wife and this wife. And we just saw that his in-laws received --

[22:10:01] LEMON: What they call chain migration, right, which is family reunification.

RYAN: Exactly. Exactly. So it seems to be OK for certain groups to come into this nation, but then when you have brown America and black America, they're from S-hole nations or they're terrorists or criminals. This is hypocrisy. It's racism. Let's just call it out.

LEMON: Remember you have to work there.

RYAN: It's just what he is doing. It's -- I know. But it's the truth. LEMON: OK.

RYAN: It's the truth.

LEMON: That's what I said. It's a lie even if they believe it. That is the truth. The thing is, though, I really do think -- listen, I think there is some truth to what you were saying. But I also think it's what works for this president and his base. If his base said, oh --

RYAN: The people are over it. People are getting over it.

LEMON: But if his base said -- if it would keep him in office and in power for his base to say, well, let's just grant immunity to everyone and let everybody in, all of the immigrants in, he would do that. Right, David? Don't you think?

SWERDLICK: Don, yeah, if I could jump in there, to your point and to follow up on what April was just saying, look, the president does things and has been doing things to hold on to the 40 percent of the country that's with him. But politics is a game of addition, and he is not adding onto his coalition to where he has a majority of the country behind him.

LEMON: Right.

SWERDLICK: He's got 40 percent. The bottom has not fallen out on him. But he does nothing to expand on that because he plays to that 40 percent on issues, as April said, like immigration where it's a zero- sum, us versus them, let's keep people who are different than us, whoever "us" is, out of the country. That means building a wall, having more border patrol, demonizing immigrants unless they're immigrants from certain countries. Can I just say one thing about him, Don?

LEMON: Sure.

SWERDLICK: Don, you said in your take about deal-making. We're right now in a position where right at this point in President Obama's presidency, he made a deal right after he got shellacked in the 2010 midterms, he made a deal with Republicans where he got repeal of don't ask/don't tell in exchange for what Republicans wanted, which was an extension of the Bush tax cuts.

It's not a shutdown situation, but here in this shutdown that we're in right now, President Trump has not done the same thing even though he's supposedly the great negotiator, of offering Democrats something that they want, which they might give him something that he wants, funding for the wall, which of course Mexico was supposed to pay for.

LEMON: Yeah. By the way, I had a, you know, brain you know what. I meant to say amnesty and not immunity. By the way, my producer didn't say that. There's been so many investigations. I have immunity on the brain here.

I want to ask you this, Astead, President Trump's press secretary, the acting chief of staff, all putting the shutdown, you saw that, saying that it's all Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats. Why is Pelosi to blame when he said that he would be proud to own this?

HERNDON: We knew the president was going to do this. He has one mode of operation which is to blame the opposite party. He clearly took responsibility for the "shutdown" in that Oval Office meeting we all saw. This is what his base wants. This is what they are reacting to.

I think David is right when he's saying that he's looking at that 40 percent of people who are his supporters because last year, I remember when he took that deal from Democrats and kept the government open but ceded on wall funding. That's one of the few times you had the Ann Coulters of the world, the Rush Limbaughs of the world, really upset with the president.

This time around, for better or for worse, he's listening to those voices and he is "standing up" for that wall funding. What that means is that he won't have that kind of deal-making, art of the deal moment. He is rooted to this kind of position that Democrats have a moral obligation in their minds to stand against. That puts us in this kind of stalemate that has led to this government shutdown.

LEMON: It's certainly making it interesting for us, right? And sadly interesting in a different way for the people who are not getting paid because of this partial government shutdown. David, I want to get to another important story we covered a lot on this broadcast.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections dissolved today without certifying results from the ninth congressional district, tainted by allegations, a ballot fraud by a Republican operative. Where does that leave this race? Will there be another election?

SWERDLICK: I think there has to be. I believe today it was reported -- incoming majority leader, Hoyer, saying essentially that Democrats are not going to seat the "winner" of the North Carolina election as they shouldn't.

There's too many allegations of fraud surrounding the election. They haven't gotten to the bottom of it all. You don't even have many Republicans defending this Republican candidate and this Republican operative.

[22:15:00] You will just have to have another election and let the chips fall where they may. I think it's a Republican-leaning district, but, you know, anybody's guess now what happens with this wild card in mix (ph).

LEMON: Again, happy new year. Thanks everybody. I appreciate it. Enjoy. Be safe out there.

SWERDLICK: Happy new year, Don.

LEMON: Is a nude selfie -- that's right -- a nude selfie part of the evidence collected in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation? We're going to get to the bottom of it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: House Republicans are getting in some last licks tonight, taking aim at the FBI and Justice Department's handling of the Clinton e-mail server and Russia investigations. Are they savoring their final hours in power or gearing up for a battle when Democrats take over next week?

Lots to discuss. Shimon Prokupecz, Renato Mariotti, and Michael Moore.

Is this 2014, '15, ,16, like, what in the world is happening? But, Shimon, I digress because it is breaking news. There's been all this intrigue surrounding the mystery court case related to Mueller's investigation, and there's new movement tonight from the Supreme Court. Tell us what's going on.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yeah. So this is one of the big mysteries in this investigation. Mueller has been trying to get information from someone, an institution, some company that has been fighting this subpoena. It's a grand jury subpoena. It's for information.

[22:19:59] And this company has been fighting it. They just lost the most recent battle. So now they've taken it up with the Supreme Court. What's interesting here is the few clues that we do have is that this is a foreign company that is owned by a foreign state nation.

And therefore, they're arguing that divulging any information would violate laws in their own country, and that is why they should not have to cooperate with the Mueller investigation. They've already lost here on the appeals within the appeals court. They're now taking it up to the Supreme Court. But of course, all of this is under seal, so we really don't know much more than these two clues that it's a foreign company.

And that also essentially the other thing that's been going on here is that reporters who have been trying to cover some of these hearings have been thrown out of the courthouse because everything has been closed off and it's all been sealed. It's a huge mystery, but certainly something very important for the Mueller team. It's information that they clearly believe is key to their investigation.

LEMON: Interesting. Shimon, also House Republicans, as I said, they wrapped up their review of the FBI's handling of the Clinton and Russia investigations, and they're reiterating some of their prior criticisms. Can you tell us what they're saying?

PROKUPECZ: I mean, look, it's everything we've already heard, Don, right? They are not happy with how the FBI conducted the Clinton investigation. They think that the way they handled the Russia investigation was different than the Clinton e-mail investigation. They also feel that the FBI and the Department of Justice were not cooperative in their investigation.

Remember, they wanted all sorts of information. A lot of it classified, deeply secret within the Department of Justice, within the FBI. They wanted documents. They wanted information. And the Department of Justice and Rod Rosenstein were fighting them on this, and they say that that was unfair to them, that it really prevented them from getting everything.

But the one good thing that they did say, I think, in all this is that the Mueller investigation is important and that that needs to proceed.

LEMON: Yeah. Let's talk about that because I want to read the quote, Michael. It's a note from the Judiciary Committee. It's from Bob Goodlatte, the Oversight Committee Chairman, Trey Gowdy as well. Here is what they write.

They said, there has been no effort to discredit the work of the special counsel. Quite the opposite. Whatever product is produced by the special counsel must be trusted by Americans and that requires asking tough but fair questions about investigative techniques both employed and not employed.

Good news for the special counsel, Michael?

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA: You know, I really think, Don, that they're just damning him with faint praise. They're sort of picking up the role here of the classic criminal defense attorney, and that is when you don't want the jury to find out that there was a smoking gun somewhere on your client's property, what do you do?

You go after the cops who found it. You talk about how bad the cop was and how many donuts he or she eats and all the things in the personnel file and all that. And you try to divert the attention away from what there is. So they're essentially saying, oh, we want to trust Bob Mueller, he's got a great investigation going on.

But at the same time, they want to discredit him by picking on members of his team and things they did or didn't do that they felt like might be some vulnerabilities there with the investigation. We know they're not really interested in it because they're not interested in conflicts. They raised the issue about these conflicts of interest.

But the Republicans hadn't raised any issues we got with acting Attorney General Whitaker and the things that he said with the new nominee for attorney general and the things that he's written, with Kavanaugh and the things he wrote during the time. They weren't offended by any of those things. So, this is just a way to sort of poke holes while at the same time being able to say we support the special counsel.

LEMON: All right. Renato, there is also this line. It says, leaks jeopardize the fairness of investigations and the confidence Americans can have in the objectivity of those conducting the investigation.

So, Renato, they are interested in who the FBI and the DOJ potentially talked to in the media, right? I'm just wondering, it seems like they may not be the best messenger considering all the leaks that come from Congress.

RENATO MARIOTTI, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: No question. It looks like most of the news that we've been getting about what's happened in the Mueller probe has come from Capitol Hill, particularly when witnesses related to the Russia investigation were called into Capitol Hill.

And also I will tell you if there's one very substantial leak investigation involving, you know, an important Justice Department investigation, it would be leaks coming from the New York FBI's office to Rudy Giuliani.

You know, if Republicans were really concerned about leaks, they would, you know, follow up on the fact that, you know, James Comey thought there were leaks that were coming out of the FBI and were potentially influencing the presidential election. So, you know, I don't think they're seriously interested in leaks. It strikes me as sort of a diversion.

LEMON: Should they be looking at possible leaks possibly from Devin Nunes, like leaking to the White House about information? I mean, did they investigate that leak?

[22:25:00] I don't know. Shimon, then there's -- go on.

MARIOTTI: Well, yeah, it seems more serious.

LEMON: Yeah?

MARIOTTI: I was just going to say, Don, that's more serious because what he's doing there is leaking to a subject of the investigation, who has been actively trying to undermine the investigation. Much more serious to me.

LEMON: Shimon, there's this now. It might be a headline of the day, OK? In some of the data collected by the special counsel's investigation, there might be a nude selfie.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: If 2018 couldn't get any weirder, what do we know?

PROKUPECZ: Well, the thing is we really don't know much, who this is or why this is even in these court documents. It appears that Mueller in the collection of intelligence and evidence collected this nude selfie. And this has to do with the troll farm, this Russian troll farm, these indictments that were filed against a bunch of Russians for all of the disinformation campaign and other stuff.

The company that was indicted hired lawyers, American lawyers, and they've been fighting this case here in Washington, D.C. This has sort of backfired a little bit on the special counsel because I don't think anyone expected Russians or this company to start fighting any of these charges.

Essentially they're arguing that they want to know how the Mueller team obtained some of this information, and the Mueller team is saying, well, hey, we can't tell you because of national security reasons. And this company is arguing, well, what does a nude selfie have to do with national security? So this is ongoing. But one of the things, I mean, it is pretty funny in some ways.

LEMON: But it's serious. I mean you're giving a serious explanation. This is real. It sounds crazy. I'm laughing, but it's actually serious. Go on.

PROKUPECZ: It's serious. The reason is that this entire part of this investigation has kind of backfired on the Mueller team in that they never -- I don't think anyone expected this company or the Russians to start fighting some of these charges.

But by doing so, it's forced Mueller to reveal some information, and obviously the concern is that these Russians would get a hold of this information, and they would know where the Mueller team found it, got it, and would reveal some of our intelligence gathering.

LEMON: Yeah.

PROKUPECZ: So that's the concern here. But this certainly -- this entire part of this investigation may have backfired on the Mueller team.

LEMON: OK. I want to get this in, Michael, because House Democrats are hiring. I don't know if you saw at the top of the show, I gave you the list of it. Look at this. The Judiciary Committee wants folks with expertise in criminal law, immigration law, constitutional law, intellectual property law, commercial and administrative law, and oversight work.

The Oversight Committee and Intelligence Committee are looking for people too. What are you expecting from these investigations? That's a lot that they're looking for, man.

MOORE: That's a lot of people. First thanks for not asking me about the nude selfie. I really think that, you know, I think what's happening, what you're seeing is they're going to look at a lot of things and a lot of nonsense that has gone on over the last two years.

Here's the caveat I'd give to the new majority in Congress. That is don't get too bright eyed and bushy tailed with your investigation at this point because you've got to govern at the same time.

I think when you see things like immigration lawyers, constitutional lawyers, they might be looking at things like the child separation at the borders, whether the policies have been appropriately enacted and in place. Those are good, legitimate areas of concern.

LEMON: Is it bad for them to get their ducks in a row, though?

MOORE: It's not bad to get their ducks in a row as long as we're focusing on the hunt. We don't need to spend all our time looking for criminal activity. We need to be talking about how policies --

LEMON: The business of the people.

MOORE: That's exactly right.

LEMON: Yeah. OK. Thank you all. I appreciate it. Happy new year to you.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: It is a bromance of epic proportions. We're going to take a look at the president's relationship with Fox News. Are they too cozy? That's next.

[22:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, here's a question for you. Is there a closer relationship in Washington these days than the one between President Trump and Fox News? From hiring its executives and personalities for high profile positions in the administration to an infamous campaign rally where Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro appeared onstage with the President, it seems like the lines between the two are hard to distinguish. Lots to talk about. Frank Bruni is here, but first here's CNN's Brian Stelter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Fox and Trump. Trump and Fox. It's a Presidential love story like we've never seen before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much for being with us, Mr. President.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I love Fox.

STELTER: And in 2018, it was so cozy, critics likened it to state-run TV, or a TV-run state with Trump getting his daily briefings from "Fox and Friends" and getting directions from Jeanine Pirro.

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST: I would like to direct my open to the President of the United States. I am pleading with you, just do it?

STELTER: Pirro shows how traditional lines are being crossed or erased altogether. She held fund-raisers for GOP candidates all year long. And on the eve of the midterms --

TRUMP: She is my friend, and she is your friend. Justice Jeanine.

STELTER: Pirro onstage with the President along with Sean Hannity, who had said he was not there to campaign.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All those people in the back are fake news.

STELTER: Fox chastised them the next day, saying the network didn't condone the appearance and saying, quote, "it has been addressed." But Fox's highest rated shows campaigned for Trump almost every day. Like any couple, there are occasional squabbles, but it's a mutually beneficial relationship.

TRUMP: Let's go to a real network.

STELTER: Trump gets intel from Fox. He live tweets the shows. And he gets talking points, calling Democrats dims.

TRUMP: The dims. Who says that? Lou Dobbs, the great Lou Dobbs, he says that, right?

STELTER: In return, Fox gets promotion. Media critic, David Zurawik, says, Trump knows he needs Fox, and Fox friends like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham.

DAVID ZURAWIK, MEDIA CRITIC, THE BALTIMORE SUN: Look at the way he is had to sometimes kiss up to Fox.

TRUMP: Laura. Laura. How good has Laura been, right? Do we like Tucker? I like Tucker.

STELTER: It is a remarkable merger. Trump has given 40 interviews to Fox since inauguration day. One day even waking up at White House, seeing Steve Doocy outside, and coming out for a chat.

STEEVE DOOCY, FOX NEWS PERSONALITY: You are about to see something on the Fox News channel that has never happened.

STELTER: Off the air, stars like Sean Hannity confer with Trump by phone. "The Washington Post" say advisers sometimes call Hannity the shadow Chief of Staff.

[22:35:02] And Hannity's former producer, Bill Shine, is now Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications. Shine was co-President of Fox News when he was forced out in 2017. He is still being paid millions in severance and bonuses.

Meantime, former Trump communications Director, Hope Hicks, is now the head of PR for Fox's parent company. Her very first press release announced Fox's corporate support for this Trump-backed criminal justice reform bill. The revolving door keeps turning with Trump hiring Fox contributors like John Bolton, now the National Security Adviser. Host Kimberly Guilfoyle left Fox, joining her boyfriend, Donald Trump Jr., to work at a pro-Trump PAC.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, FOX NEWS HOST: I love you too.

STELTER: And Fox anchor turned State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, is now nominated to be Trump's ambassador to the U.N. The Fox influence is stronger than ever, pushing Trump to take far right positions and keeping the border wall front and center.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people.

STELTER: On Trump's best days, his TV echo chamber cheers. And on his worst days, they sometimes just close their eyes or look in the opposite direction. Just last week when James Mattis resigned in protest, Carlson led his show with a border wall monologue instead, mocking Democrats.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Only dumb people believe in walls. Walls work exceedingly well. Nothing works better in fact. STELTER: The journalistic wall between Fox and Trump is long gone. This former Fox commentator, Colonel Ralph Peters, says the network is now a destructive propaganda machine.

LT. COL. RALPH PETERS (RET), U.S. ARMY: Trump was just a gift to Fox. And Fox in turn is a gift to Trump. People that only listen to Fox have an utterly skewed view of reality.

STELTER: Now in response to Peter's criticism, Fox basically says he was just trying to get attention after leaving Fox News. But the bigger point here, the merger between Fox and Trump, it's been visible on television. It's been happening for years, and right now it is cozier than ever.

Yes, there have been a few moments where Fox hosts have broken with the President, have challenged the administration, but those are the exceptions to the rule. We'll see if they become any more common next year. Don?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: We'll see. Thank you, Brian. I appreciate that.

Well, President Trump and Fox News continue their cozy relationship, or will Fox amp up the criticism? Frank Bruni and I have a lot to discuss.

[22:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We're back now with Frank Bruni. Frank, thank you so much for joining us. So you saw Brian Stelter lay it all out right there, this relationship with Fox News and the administration. It's going to be -- we are going to see a different dynamic in Washington now because the Democrats are taking over. You've got the Mueller investigation, you got other investigations, all of this stuff going on.

What do you think is going to happen in 2019? Do you think you'll see Fox break with this President? You think you'll see it doubling down?

FRANK BRUNI, OP-ED COLUMNIST, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I think it's impossible to say, but whatever Fox does is going to be one of the really accurate yardsticks for how Trump's presidency is going. So, if you see his -- this will be ratings driven, right?

If you see his approval numbers drop, if you see Republicans becoming even more defiant than they were in the last couple weeks, then, yes, I think you'll see Fox cease to be unending cheerleaders for him. Because as Brian laid out so brilliantly in that piece, up to now we haven't seen anything like this in terms of the relationship of a major news organization to a presidency or an administration. I mean, this isn't so much a relationship as it is a collaboration.

LEMON: But don't you think they're kind of the -- they're similar in a way whatever works for Trump that is where he goes, whatever it wins. Don't you think that maybe it will be the same way for Fox if they see that there is something that is going to come out of the Mueller investigation or if they see his popularity dropping, that they might reverse course?

BRUNI: I think they're going to see how Republicans and how the public is reacting to it. So, I mean, if his approval numbers don't drop after the Mueller report, if he has somehow convinced all of these people that this was a witch hunt and none of this is to be believed, and it becomes a war over the versions of truth, they may stick with him, but I think it's going to be ratings driven. It's going to be approval ratings driven.

And if Fox starts to turn on him, that is going to tell you that something's happening in the country at large because they're going to look at that before they make any decisions.

LEMON: Brian did say this at the end when he was throwing back to me that it's worth noting that there has been some criticism. We've seen some criticism of the President recently on Fox News. I just want you to hear this. This is a reaction to the President's visit to troops in Iraq. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is giving Russia a big win. Vladimir Putin praised him. He also is doing exactly what he criticized President Obama for doing. He said President Obama is the founder of ISIS. He just re-founded ISIS because they've got 30,000 men there and they're already striking back with our would-be evacuation. The President has got a - he's in really on the griddle with this.

JULIE BANDERAS, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I also really had an issue with the words "we're not the suckers of the world. We're no longer the suckers, folks. And people aren't looking at us as suckers." He used the word three times.

I would never consider us as a country, as the United States suckers. We have always led the fight in every single major war. Our military men and women, I believe, deserve way more respect than that. What does that say to the families who have lost loved ones in wars prior to right now? Oh, so my son or daughter was a sucker when they were fighting for our freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm actually going to push --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That sounds like some of the commentators here on CNN that they call fake news.

BRUNI: You know, amen to all of that.

LEMON: That's exception (ph).

BRUNI: In some ways, that's the exception that proves the rule. You know, we're noticing that because it is so incredibly rare, but I think it's also a reflection of just how disturbing and upsetting that visit to Iraq was and what he said. I mean, it's been criticized as a political rally where you shouldn't have a political rally. [22:44:58] I was unbelievably struck by how he went to thank the

troops, or supposedly to thank the troops, and then told them how thankful they should be for him. And he turned that event, which is supposed to be a moment of Presidential generosity, he turned it into what he turns everything into, which is an opportunity for self- affirmation.

LEMON: Yes.

BRUNI: He was there bragging about himself, telling them, I got you a raise, and you haven't had one in 10 years, untrue. I got you billions and billions of dollars of new equipment, probably exaggerated. But it was all about what I, Donald Trump, have done for you and what you owe me, and it was a kind of sad statement about and metaphor for his entire presidency, which seems to me, a sequence of events designed to make him feel better about himself.

LEMON: I think it's interesting what you said. You said it's the exception that proves the rule, right, because it stands out.

BRUNI: Yes.

LEMON: Listen, I think Shepherd Smith is an exceptional journalist. I have no criticism of Shepherd Smith, but Shepard Smith will say something that has been said on this network 50 times. And he'll say it and it becomes news because there's actually someone on Fox who is doing credible, objective journalism.

BRUNI: He'll get praised for it.

LEMON: Right.

BRUNI: But I'm glad you said it, because we're talking about Fox and we're really talking about a collection of people on Fox. We're talking about Hannity. We are talking about Pirro. We are talking about Ingraham. We are talking about Tucker Carlson. There are other terrific journalists on Fox.

Chris Wallace did one of the most recent long interviews with President Trump --

LEMON: Brett, Shep --

BRUNI: -- and his questions were as on point and as tough-minded as if we'd worked for any other network. So -- and I think people like him, the other people at Fox, they're as heartsick about this as some of us are. And they, I think, understand even though they work for Fox, that Fox News has become one of the main agents and engines of partisanship in this country.

LEMON: Yes. I think Shepard, I think Bret Baier, Chris Wallace, and they all do a great job. There are others -- I don't want to leave anybody up, but there are some folks there who do really good journalism.

BRUNI: Yes. LEMON: Thank you. Happy New Year to you.

BRUNI: Happy New Year to you.

LEMON: A young black man on his cell phone in the corner of a hotel lobby that a security guard approaches him that he says he is trespassing even though the man has proof that he is a guest. It only gets worse, OK, from there. The young man joins me next.

[22:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Two employees of an Oregon Hotel accused of racially profiling a guest are on leave tonight. Jermaine Massey says that he was harassed by staff at the Portland Doubletree for taking a call in the hotel lobby. He recorded the incident and posted it on Instagram.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Portland police will be here in a minute.

JERMAINE MASSEY, OREGON HOTEL GUEST HARASSED BY STAFF: Thank you. Call them. I'm waiting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

MASSEY: They're coming why? Why are they coming?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Escort you off the property.

MASSEY: Because why -- and I'm staying here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not anymore.

MASSEY: OK. I'm staying here. I have a hotel. I didn't do anything to you. I'm sitting over here taking a phone call.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, police arrived and Massey was asked to leave even though he was a hotel guest. The Doubletree General Manager called the incident unfortunate.

Well, Jermaine Massey joins me now along with his attorney, Greg Kafoury. Thank you, gentlemen, for joining us. Wow. Jermaine, I'm so sorry that you had to deal with that. Tell me how this all happened.

MASSEY: Thank you, Don. I was coming back to my hotel. I had attended the Travis Scott concert earlier that evening. And on my way back from the concert, I had gotten a call and a text message from my mom that she needed to talk, and she lives on the East Coast. It was pretty late her time. So, I told her I would contact her once I got out of my lift back to the hotel.

I get to the hotel and I walked through the lobby. I noticed there was a crowd of people in the front. So, I decided to find an area a little bit more remote around the corner, sat down, I propped my feet up, you know, got comfortable, and you know, because I was bracing myself for this call that my mom was -- that I was about to have with my mom.

A few minutes into the call, I was approached by the security guard that you see in the video and he asked me was I a guest at the hotel. And I affirmed and told him yes. Shortly thereafter, he stood there and he said, you know, what room number are you staying in? And I told him I don't know the room number.

And then at some point, I showed him my room key. And he continued to harass me and asked me questions on what my room number was and from there, I told my mom I will call her back and I started recording the incident.

LEMON: So, you ended up eventually leaving the hotel, right?

MASSEY: Yes, yes, I left the hotel.

LEMON: So, but you said that you could you have gone to jail had you responded differently, right?

MASSEY: Yes, absolutely.

LEMON: Yes.

MASSEY: They gave me two options when the police arrived. I asked them what were my opportunities here and they told me I could either stay and ignore their requests and be arrested or I could comply and go pack up my room and leave the hotel.

LEMON: So Greg, what have you heard from the hotel about this incident?

GREG KAFOURY, ATTORNEY FOR JERMAINE MASSEY: I've heard corporate public relations and corporate gobbledy gook (ph). You know, we've asked them, please explain in writing publicly why this man was approached, why was he interrogated, why was he trespassed? Why did you call him in your initial response a security threat?

[22:55:00] And you know, we've not had a straight answer from them. And I anticipate we're going to get a straight answer when we put some people under oath.

LEMON: But the employee, the people who you claim harassed him or racially harassed him, they have been put on leave, correct?

KAFOURY: Yes, it doesn't mean much. What we're looking at is policy. Why is a security guard deciding to exclude anybody from a public place in an open hotel in the lobby, why is he targeting this guy? Why when he says I'm a guest here does he even have to answer that question? Why when he shows a key is he still being harassed? You know, there's something going on here that has to do with policy and we're going to find out what it is.

LEMON: Jermaine, you know, the past year police have been called on black people in Starbucks, barbecuing in the park, selling water bottles, napping in a dorm room, the common area, and now, this one, you know, lodging while black. Why do you think this is all happening?

MASSEY: Don, I wish I could answer those questions for you. It's hurtful. It's humiliating. And I don't understand why it continues to be an issue. I'm a person at the end of the day just like everyone else, and I deserve respect and fair treatment, and I did not receive that on Saturday.

I can't explain why these people do these things. I think that there's a lot of perceptions about black males in particular that we're threats and we're harmful and we're just fearful individuals, and you know, that bias, it impacts these situations, and it's harmful to us as a people.

LEMON: Well, I want you to keep us updated on what happens and when there is an update, I want you both to come back on. And in the meantime, you have a happy holiday and thank you both for coming on, gentlemen, I appreciate it.

KAFOURY: Thank you.

MASEEY: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Thank you.

And you, as well. Happy New Year to everyone. I will see you in New Orleans on New Year's Eve. Make sure you tune into our special. Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)