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Week in politics: Tax reform, Flynn and the Russian probe, can a president obstruct justice, and more
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Dec 4, 2017
Listen 48:07
Week in politics: Tax reform, Flynn and the Russian probe, can a president obstruct justice, and more
After a marathon session on Friday night that bled into Saturday morning, Senate Republicans passed their version of tax reform in a 51-49 vote along party lines, with Tennessee Republican as the lone ‘nay’ vote on the Republican side.
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, then-national security adviser, arrives to a swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 22.
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After a marathon session on Friday night that bled into Saturday morning, Senate Republicans passed their version of tax reform in a 51-49 vote along party lines, with Tennessee Republican as the lone ‘nay’ vote on the Republican side.

After a marathon session on Friday night that bled into Saturday morning, Senate Republicans passed their version of tax reform in a 51-49 vote along party lines, with Tennessee Republican Bob Corker as the lone ‘nay’ vote on the Republican side. The Senate version still has to be reconciled with the House version before President Trump can sign it into law, but the passage of the bill is just as much of a symbolic victory for the Republican-led Senate, which failed very publicly to repeal the Affordable Care Act earlier this year, as it is a concrete victory.

We’re also continuing to follow the fallout of Gen. Michael Flynn’s guilty plea to lying to FBI investigators. Flynn has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into potential ties between Russian election interference and the Trump campaign. Following a flurry of tweets over the weekend, questions have arisen about whether some of those tweets might amount to obstruction of justice. President Trump’s private lawyer, John Dowd, told the publication Axios that the president can’t obstruct justice. Is he right?

We’ll also get an update on how Jared Kushner’s mission for peace between Israel and Palestine is going, and look at a new poll from CBS News on how Alabama Republicans feel about the allegations of sexual misconduct against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore.

Guests:

Sean T. Walsh, Republican political analyst and partner at Wilson Walsh Consulting in San Francisco; he is a former adviser to California Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger and a former White House staffer for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush

Matt Rodriguez, Democratic strategist and founder and chief executive officer of Rodriguez Strategies. He is also a former senior Obama advisor in 2008; he tweets @RodStrategies

Credits
Host, AirTalk
Host, All Things Considered, AirTalk Friday
Senior Producer, AirTalk & FilmWeek
Producer, AirTalk with Larry Mantle
Producer, AirTalk with Larry Mantle
Associate Producer, AirTalk with Larry Mantle
Apprentice News Clerk, AirTalk
Apprentice News Clerk, FilmWeek