oh, my god, that was chris cuomo. i got to stop now. i'm going to end up on youtube. i got this video i have to show you. okay. here's this amazing 60-foot great white shark. if you thought jaws was scary. i can't show you it hopefully wolf blitzer is going to do it. i talked too much about chris cuomo. have a great day, everybody, see you tomorrow. right now, secretary of state john kerry has been spending the day in baghdad. the stern message he's had for iraqi leaders. stand by. also right now, shocking new detail, about the treatment of american veterans. in a scathing report just sent to the white house. we'll tell you what's in it and how the vavt is is responding.

team usa is staying positive as they look ahead to their next world cup challenge. we're live in rio. hello, i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. we begin in iraq, where secretary of state john kerry personally delivered a message to the iraqi leadership. kerry told reporters he unequivocally stressed the urgency of the situation. >> i roraq faces an ex-continui threat. the very future of iraq depends on choices that will be made in the next days and weeks, and the future of iraq depends primarily on the ability of iraq's leaders to come together and take a stand united against isil, not next week, not next month but now. >> our senior correspondent nic

robertson joining us live from baghdad. was he at all positive about the outcome? i know he had some lengthy meetings with the prime minister nuri al maliki. >> he did. it was one hour, 40 minutes long, which is long by any standards. certainly, he did seem -- did feel it made some progress. secretary kerry said the prime minister had given his commitment, that he was committed to the constitutional timetable, which means that the new government will begin to be formed on the first of july. it will take 45 days at the maximum constitutionally to come up with a name for the prime minister. another 30 days to form a government after that. that seemed to be a very key point, that maliki was saying he is committed to a new government. we didn't get any clues as to weather maliki considered himself in the running for that government. but i think one of the other important things we heard was that president obama, secretary kerry said, president obama

would not wait for the forming of this government if there was a need and an opportunity to take air strikes or direct action against isis, such as the threat, an existential threat to iraq, bubt a threat to the rest of the world as well. learning here, president obama won't wait for maliki to get out of the way necessarily before strikes are put in place. >> what's the latest with those 300 or so american military advisers, as they're being called who are either there already or are on the way? >> yeah, measure not really getting an update on the time line. certainly secretary kerry talked about, you know, the continuing supply of military aid and support and assistance to the iraqi military, particularly weapons systems and ammunition, that in some areas, they seem to be running low on. at the back of that concern, about what may happen, we've

seen so much of iraq's army literally dump weapons at its bases and take their uniforms off and leave. so clearly concerns about that. when do these special military advisers arrive? it's not clear. i mean, it does appear as if this process is slightly slowing. we heard late last week that they would be -- it was imminent the next couple of days, that it was talked about that some of them were already present in the embassy. now it appears as if they're coming, but not quite yet, wolf. >> we'll stay on top of that. meanwhile, i know isis fighters, they took several key towns over the weekend. is there any indication the iraqi military, largely trained and equipped and financed by the united states government, american taxpayers, is there any indication that they are putting up at least some resistance, at least a little bit more than they have been over the past couple of weeks? because the resistance has been virtually nil.

>> yeah, the iraqi army spokesman said they made a tactical withdraw from al anbar province. he didn't say specifically where. the facts on the ground precisely speak to that. they made a tactical withdraw to refocus their energies elsewhere. what it appears to be, the iraqi military is focusing on protecting baghdad. they're drawing a line around baghdad. the rumors are rampant, particularly in sunni communities here, that the army has given up on protecting the sunni communities, withdrawing itself to protect the shia communities. the army, you know, the army says that is not the case, but that is the impression and that is the map that's being created on the ground. the army is essentially drawing a line around baghdad to protect that, around shia shrines, samarra to the north baghdad, and also the shrines in the south, kabul and najeh, places like that, which would trigger a

massive sectarian backlash and potential bloodletting if isis attacked them, which they said they wanted to. we hear from tribesmen in the west of the country, they're telling the army, take off your uniforms, go home. the army is doing that. in many cases, they are literally collapsing and not able to stand up to these sunni tribal and isis forces arrayed against them, wolf. >> yes, if that's the way they're going to fight, the 300 american military advisers certainly not going to make much of a difference on that level. secretary kerry also spoke about the need to bring kurdish leaders into the fold as part of a new government and it's been the kurdish peshmerga fighters who had the greatest success in battling isis forces. our arwa damon has more on the battles in northern iraq. >> reporter: 24 hours before we arrive south of this area, isis

attacked. catching the kurdish peshmerga unit off guard. it won't happen again. peshmerga commander watched isis appear just an hour after the iraqi army withdrew, casually staking their claim without firing a single shot. "that used to be with the army," he points out a two-story building. that's the isis flag right there? another planted on the water tower. the battle lines drawn, but for over a week, not crossed. then came the isis assault. they came at us from three directions, this colonel tells us. the battle lasted for six hours. in the distance, an iraqi military vehicle commandeered by isis. the intersection at this combat outpost is protecting is

incredibly strategic. saddam hussein's hometown of tikrit in that direction. to the north, the oil rich city of kir kirkuk. and then a straight shot to the capital. there were people with them, people from the area, the colonel remembers. it was isis fighters and also people from the tribes. it's a murky dangerous alliance. opening multiple fronts towards baghdad and testing the peshmerga's resolve in the north. there were two casualties during the firefight, one of them happening right here, one of their commanders were killed, and he was just saying that this is some of the blood stains that are still here. the kurds, a population with a long and tormented history, vow they won't give up this land. as isis and sunni fighters carve out their territory, the kurds are making sure they stay out of

theirs. arwa damon, cnn, salawadin province, iraq. one top former member of ir iraq's government is now speaking out and placing direct blame for the escalation of the violence. our senior international correspondent ivan watson is in istanbul, turkey. ivan, tell our viewers who you spoke with. >> this is iraq's former vice president. two years ago, he had to flee the country while still technically in office facing murder charges. he has since gotten numerous death sentences in an iraqi court in absentia. now, he blames this uprising on what he describes as the discriminatory policies of nuri al maliki against the sunni arab community, which hashami says he represents. so he has this strange position where he is both denouncing isis as a terrorist organization, but supporting the uprising against

the iraqi government as a sunni arab response to discriminatory authoritarian policies by the government. take a listen to an excerpt from our conversation. do you support this isis offensive? >> not definitively. first of all, in fact, isis is just part of the spectrum. they're not representing the entire revolution. this revolution and clear-cut oppression, it's arab sunni community revolt. we do have a case. we reached a breaking point, either to be or not to be. our existence, our identity, our dignity, being threatened by maliki. >> what concrete steps would you like to see the u.s. take right now? >> we need an immediate action to be taken.

to avoid any sort of military escalation on the ground. one, to tell nuri maliki that your era is finished, and you have to leave the prime minister position. second, to establish a real inclusive national unity government. just a caretaker government. >> so wolf, iraq's fugitive vice president telling me that this is the worst crisis he's seen iraq, in iraq, in the turn lebs year since the u.s. invasion in 2003, and he says it's the maliki government's persecution of sunie a rabs like himself that created a vacuum that isis has exploited. he says, i have lost control of the young sunni arab men, and they've gone to the side of extremist groups like isis, leaving men like him in exile

here in turkey, caught in the middle between what he described as sunni muslim extremelies and shiite muslim extremists. wolf. >> ivan watson, from istanbul, watching this story with huge, huge ramifications. just ahead, our own fareed zakaria on the outrage over the prison sentence for three journalists. up next, why is he personally the target of u.s. sanctions? weekdays are for rising to the challenge. they're the days to take care of business. when possibilities become reality. with centurylink as your trusted partner, our visionary cloud infrastructure and global broadband network free you to focus on what matters. with custom communications solutions and responsive, dedicated support, we constantly evolve to meet your needs. every day of the week. centurylink® your link to what's next.

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there's another key figure playing a role in the crisis in iraq. his name, consumel irani. this is a man seen as a key strategist also in syria and elsewhere as well. brian todd has been looking into this man. what are you learning? clearly he has a lot of influence. >> he has a lot of influence in iraq and in the region in particular. his name is general consum sulamani. he's helping the iraqi regime fight the isis militants. this man, sulamani, has been an antagonist and behind some of the more notorious attacks against americans in iraq, during the iraq war, his qods force was responsible for training shia militants on how to attack americans, attack them

with explosive devices that were, you know, they devised with the iranians help there. he is a very dangerous respected figure among the shia community there. >> is he in baghdad advising maliki? >> he may not be there now but it was reported, the week before last, he was there, and possibly hundreds of qods force iran revolutionary guard members are helping the iraqis fend off isis militias in certain parts of the country. iran's president rouhani denied he was there. but they believe he was there and helping to defend them against isis militants. >> the u.s. secretary of state is in baghdad meeting with maliki, other top iraqi officials and you've got this sulamani, may even be there right now. sounds like nuri maliki is trying to play the u.s. card and iranian card. >> maliki needs all the help he

can get. he needs help from the americans with certain weapons and probably some advisers that are going to be going in. he needs help from the iranians because they know about how to raise shia militias against these isis militants who are sunni. they've trained these shia militias before. they know how to get them to fight. they're valuable to the iraqi regime too. also, sulamani is seen as being very responsible for bashar al assad's regime, turning the tide of that war in syria. sulamani was there, helping assad fight the rebels there. his influence is all over this area. >> you'll have more on "the situation room" later today. thank you. coming up, the world cup, team usa is putting their tough tie in the rearview mirror as they look ahead to a win. and you're in, challenge, unsterile medical equipment,

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some say damning new details breaking today about how patients were ignored, mistreated at va hospitals around the country for year. it's part of a new and scathing report given to the white house. let's bring in cnn's drew griffin. it's been his investigation that first brought national attention to this issue. the va is now admitting patients were not only neglected but they were also denying that any were hurt as a result of this neglect. so ways going on here? because there seems to be a contradiction. how bad is it? >> yeah, i think that's where

you really have to dig down on this report. it comes from the office of special counsel. these are the government prosecutors who protect government inside whistleblowers and investigate whistleblowers complaints. they have sent a letter to the president this morning, basically saying, hey, we've investigated a lot of these va problems, a lot of these health problems, and we've brought these to the attention of the va. they don't agree with us. we, the special prosecutors here, believe the va is really not capable of investigating itself. they cite ten different cases of what appear to us to be obvious patient neglect where the va has determined it was just harmless error, no harm done. in the letter, 50 different allegations of patient threat or safety are currently being investigated. 29 of those are so bad that they've been referred to the va for further investigation. let me give you one example. in massachusetts, a vet with a

mental illness problem checked into a hospital in 2003, was not evaluated by a psychiatrist until 2011. an eight-year delay before this mental illness patient was evaluated. the va determined no harm in that case. it just goes on and on. according to the office of special counsel, they say the va routinely suggest all the problems that you mentioned really are not affecting care. the osc simply says that is not possible and the va needs to address this issue immediately. >> so what's next? the special counsel i assume is still investigating. >> what the office of special counsel is still suggesting to the president is somebody at the va, at a very high executive level, looks at what the va inspected itself, trying to do some kind of back check on these

medical examiners that have taken place, to determine truly if these veterans had been harmed or died as a result of these delays in care. the osc thinks this should be brought to the attention of the president, which is why this letter was sent this morning. >> it should be brought to the attention of the president and everyone else for that matter, as you're trying to do. this just coming in to cnn. a formerly classified memo detailing the case against anwar al awlaki was been released. believed to be the leader of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. the letter says the 2010 drone strike was ordered in yemen because there was no way to arrest awlaki. the government fought the decision, saying it would damage national security. anwar al awlaki, a u.s. citizen, was killed in that u.s. drone strike. still to come, finding the right balance between work and family. it's a personal issue with the

president. also coming up, we're going live to rio, where american fans are getting over one disappointment but still have hope for world cup gorld. nt when you're running a successful business. so we provide it services you can rely on. with centurylink as your trusted it partner, you'll experience reliable uptime for the network and services you depend on. multi-layered security solutions keep your information safe, and secure. and responsive dedicated support meets your needs, and eases your mind. centurylink. your link to what's next. when folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country,

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let's go to rio right now. our "new day" anchor chris cuomo has the assignment. walk us through where we go from here. what's next for team usa? >> wolf, i think you put it perfectly. they got a point. they got the draw. and they still have some work to do. there are more potential outcomes that are positive for the u.s. than negative. basic form, they need to do well against germany, which means they need to draw. they need to tie. as long as they should do, they should be fine. there's very little chance it goes badly for then not exiting the group as long as they tie. if they win, obviously, it's over for them. if they lose, it gets very complicated. it depends how many goals they have. it could come down according to the fifa rules to a coin toss by a fifa official to see whether the ghana or the u.s. gets in. in all likelihood, as long as

they play solidly, and it's an important assumption because i believe last night was a hump test for them. i think the team now believes, talking to the player, they know what they have to do to compete against the best, they should be okay. >> there's certainly a ton of excitement down where you are in brazil. a lot of excitement here in the united states obviously as well. so the fans, take us a little bit, chris, behind the scenes. what's it like to be down there in brazil for these huge games? >> you know, wolf, i don't have to tell you, you've done so much excellent coverage and so many different situations. but you know better than i what a privilege it is to cover something that's so significant and yet positive. it's so rare. yes, there have been protests. yes, brazil has a lot of problems as an emerging democracy. to have all these different countries come together, the crowd, wolf, it's like being at a wolf blitzer fan convention down here. the people are rabid, they're painting their faces. instead of wearing the trademark wolf beard, they're painting

their faces with the national flags, they're celebrating each other when they're playing in their matches. they're literally you'll have argentines who are backing the u.s. when they play and americans who are watching the belgium team and cheering them on. it's a beautiful thing, especially with so much that we're watching in other places of the world right now. so the crowd has just been crazy. i think it's important to note, there's been a big uptick in american enthusiasm for the sport. more tickets were sold to the u.s. than anywhere else for the world cup, except brazil. brazil, as you know, they call themselves opajo football. this is the country of football. you know about the viewing parties back in the u.s., wolf, so the team is strong, the support for them just as strong. >> it seems pretty well organized. i know there were a lot of concerns only a few weeks ago was brazil really ready. based on your eyewitness account, are they ready for what's going on? >> look, i think it's better than what we saw with the most

recent olympics in terms of the infrastructure. i don't think they were as ready as they could have been. given the problems they're facing here with infrastructure, i think they're not a drawback to the games. at least in rio, because remember it's taking place all over the country, in rio, they're doing a good job here. people seem to be enjoying it thoroughly. >> i'm sure they are. we'll see you tomorrow morning, reporting on "new day." you're staying put for the time being, is that right, chris? >> i'm fighting to stay, wolf. i'm going to say the captain wants me to stay. the captain of the cnn team. hopefully that's enough. >> i was in south africa four years ago for the world cup. i loved every second of that. you'll love every second of this. enjoy and have -- bring the team a lot of good luck. i love the shirt you're wearing. chris cuomo on the scene for us. thanks very much. journalists, a very different story we're covering, they're now jailed, simply for covering the news in egypt. and their sentence, today, they

got word on how long they will be in prison. cnn's fareed zakaria standing by. the white house is hosting a summit today on a topic that hits home with president obama. millions and millions of americans. stand by for that as well. now to a story of an honor doren daughter undocumented and living in the united states. for 20 years, she and her family have been apart. it was the entire family's grief. ro rosa flores has more on this american journey. >> this neighborhood in honduras is not only home to both poverty and violence but to families as well. and to this mother. who would give anything to see her daughter again. she says she has always supported her children. even when one of them wanted to take on the dangerous and uncertain voyage to the united states in search of opportunity.

nearly 20 years ago, natalya kissed her daughter lesley good-bye. the 25-year-old left on foot.ho. this mom says she's now trapped in the very situation her daughter left behind. over the years, she has only spoken to her daughter by phone. never seeing her face-to-face. i met this family while i was filing special reports for cnn in honduras. when i learned about the agony they were facing due to separation, i thought, there's something we can do here. i started looking for her daughter lesley. and found her living in new york. sharing her mother's grief. lesley says she used to cry alone, thinking about her family thousands of miles away. she was undocumented and couldn't visit. we took a dvd of my interview

to lesley.arents and showed it - she was finally able to see her parents. for the first time in almost two decades. she couldn't believe her eyes. her mom showing the many years on her face. >> when you left, they were -- >> big difference. >> the home she grew up in, a shell of what she remembers. and also shocked at the poverty and violence plaguing her old neighborhood. what didn't surprise her -- her father talks to cnn. he's never been timid, she says, and while this unconventional reunion brought her some joy, nothing replaces seeing family

in person. her dream now, aside from becoming a u.s. citizen, is to visit her family in honduras one day. rosa flores, cnn, new york. i make a lot of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 50,000 bonus points when i spent $5,000 in the first 3 months after i opened my account. and i earn 5 times the rewards on internet, phone services and at office supply stores. with ink plus i can choose how to redeem my points. travel, gift cards, even cash back. and my rewards points won't expire. so you can make owning a business even more rewarding. ink from chase. so you can.

nearly 60%, that's the estimate of american households

whose children -- with children whose both parents work. today, those families are the focus of a summit at the white house. the goal, striking a strong and better balance between work and home. kate boulden had a one on one interview with president obama. kate's joining us now. it's pretty clear he favors some greater flexibility in the workplace for working parents. >> that's definitely the case. here's why. you really lay it out. the economy is changing. more and more women are becoming breadwinners of the family. and buy and large, workplace policies have not evolved or changed with this change in the house hold. so the president and i, we were talking about this, and i asked him what he wants to see happen. he wants to see private business step up. they're highlighting corporations that are making changes in the workplace. he also says he wants to see the federal government step up as well. >> i'm going to be taking some action. a presidential memorandum

directing every federal agency to be very clear to their employees that it is my view offering flexibility where possible is the right thing to do. we don't want people having to choose between family and work. when you've got an emergency situation. >> so that's -- i mean, he says there's several things they want to focus on. they want to focus on paid leave, especially talking about maternity leave. child care, equal pay. some of the big issues they're taking on. he said he acknowledges that these are big issues that need a lot of people involved and obviously congress to be on board with some of this. the first step, he indicates, would be getting everyone together and highlighting best practices at least. >> he told you also, kate, why this is such an important issue personally for him. tell us what he said. >> he did. i mean, you remember, he pointed out in his state of the union speech. he said very clearly, when women

succeed, america succeeds. he said it is not just about policy for him. he laid out why it is person as well. >> i was raised by a single mom who had to work, go to school, raise two kids. didn't come from a wealthy family. we were helped by my grandparents and the primary breadwinner there was my grandma. who never got a college education but worked her way up from a secretary to being a vice president of a bank but also hit a glass ceiling. i got a strong successful wife who i remember being reduced to tears sometimes because she couldn't figure out how to juggle everything that she was doing. and i've got two daughters that i care about more than anything in the world. and -- so this is personal for

me. and i think it's personal for a lot of people. this is not just a women's issue. this is a middle class issue and an american issue. >> and the proof is in the pudding. they've really pulled out the star power for this event today. the president speaking. the first lady will speak. as well as vice president biden and jill biden. they're really bringing out the big guns, if you will, to show this is an important issue for them. the politics of this also doesn't hurt the white house. the democrats have said their midterm strategy is centered on getting the women vote out, attracting more women voters and this doesn't help them at all. doesn't hurt them at all, i should say. >> kate bouldan reporting for us. good work. we'll see you tomorrow morning on "new day." we have chris cuomo in rio, we have kate bouldan in new york. we've got the whole "new day" team. in a few moments, i'll ask

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comcast business. built for business. a sudanese woman sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her christian faith is free today. she was released after an appeals court found an initial judgment against her faulty. when she was sentenced, the 27-year-old woman was eight months pregnant. she gave birth to a baby girl in prison. her death sentence was condemned internationally by human rights groups. after detaining three journalist being from al jazeera english for 177 days, today, a egyptian judge sentenced them up to ten years in prison after convicting them of aiding the muslim brotherhood. these are three charges the men strongly deny. the secretary of state john kerry at a news conference in baghdad today responded angrily

to the news out of egypt. >> today's conviction is obviously a chilling and draconian sentence. and, you know, it's deeply disturbing to see in the midst of egypt's transition. it simply cannot stand if egypt is going to be able to move forward in the way that egypt needs to move forward in order to respond to the extraordinary aspirations of those young people who twice came in in order to demand a responsive government. the white house similarly condemned the egyptian courts. let's bring in "fareed zakaria gps." what does it say about what's going on in egypt right now? a new president has just been elected. >> it tells us, wolf, the old

egypt is back, the state of mubarak and nasr, the state that ruled in an uninterrupted military dictatorship is back because despite the claims they're moving toward democracy and trying to create genuine transition to pluralism, freedom of the press is entirely under siege and under attack from the state. look at the charges. these journalists who are very fine professional journalists are being essentially charged for criminal activity for aiding terrorists which is entirely untrue. two of them sentenced to seven years. one was sentenced to an additional ten years, wolf. do you know why? he was charged with possession of ammunition. why? while covering these protests he found -- this man found a spent casing, in other words a used shell. he happened to put it in his

pocket as a souvenir. for that act he has been sentenced to an additional three years in jail. this is how absurd these charges are. >> totally absurd. mohammed fami used to work with us at cnn, someone we know well. when i was in cairo a year and a half ago for an interview with mohamed morsi, then the president of egypt, he helped set it all up. he's an excellent producer and journalist. the thought he'll spend seven years in prison for simply doing what journalists are supposed to do is truly, truly -- not only chilling, it's outrageous. the question is this. is there a possibility this can be overturned and these three journalists can be freed? >> yes. mohammed has also worked with me, terrific, highly professional journalist. they're all really fine professional journalists whose

only sin was to commit journalism. that's all they were doing, covering the story. judge haves been doing mass sentencing where they sentence hundreds of people to death at a time, shows how ludicrous the whole process is. some of those sentence haves been overturned on appeal. that is possible in this case. it's also possible that the president, frankly, could summarily dismiss the whole thing. egypt has turned into a dictatorship which means if president sissi decides, he will do it. i think secretary kerry has been very good, but privately should be pushing them harder. it wouldn't hurt if president obama were to speak out on this. the issue of freedom of press is at the heart of building a new democracy. if that's what egypt wants to do and they will not allow journalists to operate freely, they will not allow the free

flow of information, then the whole thing is a sham. >> the white house today, the new secretary, josh ernest began with a statement saying, quote, the white house strongly condemns the conviction and sentencing of these journalists in cairo, quoting "flouts the most basic standards of media freedom." the united states, as you know for other reasons, strategicing reasons, egypt has a peace treaty with israel. we know egypt is an important strategic partner. u.s. taxpayers provide egypt with a lot of military and economic foreign aid. here is the question. if egypt continues to arrest journalists for simply doing journalism, sentencing them to seven or ten years in prison, there will be outrage in the united states, and a lot of that pressure for foreign aid for egypt will go away. >> that's true. it's a very complicated subject. egypt gets a lot of that foreign

aid because it signed the camp david accords, returning land to israel. it's tied in with a broader strategic puzzle. it will be difficult to withhold the aid without unraveling that including the peace treaty with israel. however, i think it's very important for the united states to send a signal that we do not believe that the united states does not believe egypt is on the right track, that these are terrible, terrible mistakes. as secretary kerry said, they're losing faith with the people of ij into. i think it would be perfectly reasonable to suspend a variety of programs. the u.s. has military aid, non-military aid, other kinds of contact. it's not just bad for journalists. it's terrible for egypts. when you think in terms of attracting tourists, all this is sending exactly the wrong

signals. >> certainly is, fareed. let's hope the egyptians reconsider and let these three journalists go and do their work. they should not be in jail right now simply for being journalists. fareed, thanks very much. the president of the united states speaking at the white house on an issue so important to millions and millions of working families. let's listen in. >> family is the bedrock of our lives. we don't want a society in which folks are having to make a choice between those two things. there are better decisions we can make and not so good decisions we can make as a society to support this balance between work and familiarly. most of us. most of us, most of our days consist of work, family and not much else. those two spheres are constantly interacting with each other. when we're with our family, sometimes we're thinking about work. when we're at work, we're

thinking about family. that's pretty universal experience, true even when you are president of the united states. i am lucky that my daughters were a bit older by the time i became president. so i never had to meet a world leader with cheerios stuck to my pants. that has not happened. i'm also lucky because we live above the store, so to speak. i have a very short commute. as a consequence we've been able to organize ourselves to have dinner with michelle and the girls almost every night. that's pretty much the first time we've been able to do that in our lives. but before i moved into the white house, i was away a lot, sometimes with work, sometimes with campaigning. michelle was working full time and was at home with the

responsibility all too often of dealing with everything that the girls needed. and so we understand how lucky we are now because there was a big chunk of time when we were doing what so many of you have to deal with every day, and that is figuring out how do we make this whole thing work. a lot of americans are not as lucky as we have been. it is hard to get by. our businesses created, 9.4 million new jobs in all. but we all know somebody out there still looking for work. there are a whole lot of people working harder than ever but can't seem to get ahead and pay all the bills at the end of the month. despite the fact that our economy has grown and those of us at the very top have done very well, the average wage -- average income hasn't gone up

for 15 years in any meaningful way. and that means that relative to 15 years ago, a lot of families just aren't that much better off. the sacrifices they make for their families -- we'll quickly break away from the president. we're getting important news here. he had an important conversation with russian president putin today. jim acosta is our senior white house correspondent. jim, tell us what we learned. the president and putin on the phone, that doesn't happen every day. >> reporter: it doesn't happen every day. we found out at white house press secretary josh ernest, the press secretary saying that earlier this morning president obama and vladimir putin spoke via telephone and talked about the crisis in ukraine, of course, talked about the separatists there. the president in that phone call, according to josh ernest, warned the russian president that there will be costs if moscow does not deescalate that

crisis there, the president leaning very heavily on pout tin saying it's up to the russians to control those separatists, to send the message that they need to stop disrupting the scene in eastern ukraine. the president making it clear in this phone call, according to josh ernest, that the u.s. along with its g7 partners may move forward with some sort of sectoral sanction. we heard last friday, wolf, that they ma be more of a scalpel-type sanction that might be imposed as opposed to broad sectoral sanctions. the president did warn about that in that phone call with vladimir putin, wolf. >> the president continuing to speak now on the issue of working families and kids. we're going to continue to monitor that. that's an important issue for this president on this day. he's got so much on his plate right now, not only putin and russia and ukraine and what's going on in iraq and syria, egypt, libya. he's got a huge, huge agenda right now. jim acosta, our man at the white

house, thanks very much. that's it for me. we'll have a lot more coming up later today in "the situation room." remember, that airs 5:00 p.m. eastern. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com wolf, thank you so much. great to be with all of you at the start of the week on this monday afternoon. i'm brooke baldwin. as i come to you at this moment, more iraqi cities are falling, seized by radical militants and their bloody march to bagdad. secretary of state john kerry in iraq's capital on the mission to help the iraqi government regain control of the country. secretary kerry calling for a new iraq government that rises above sectarian motivations, stopping short of calling for the ouster of iraq's prime minister nuri