one word for that guy, coward. thank you for watching, everybody. it's been nice to have you with us. please stay tuned now, because wolf starts right now. right now, air strikes on gaza, rocket attacks on israel, could another ground incursion be far behind? we'll have a live report. also right now, tensions are high on the border. now the president is nearly doubling the amount of aid he's requesting to help solve the immigration crisis. will congress go for it? we'll have a live report. and the senator at the middle of a corruption investigation is claiming he's the target of a cuban smear plot. we'll have a live report. hello, i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. we begin with the middle east on the brink of war. overnight, israel launched a major offensive against the

hamas-ruled gaza strip, calling it operation protective edge. a wave of israeli air strikes hit some 50 targets, including what they described as militant houses. rockets are also coming in from the other direction. since monday night, dozens of rockets have been fired from gaza into israel. now israel says it has at least 40,000 reserve troops on standby for duty in the israeli military. president obama is weighing in on all of this as well. he wrote an opinion piece for an israeli newspaper, a piece written before the escalation of tensions. in it, the president emphasized that peace is possible between israelis and palestinians and that, quote, peace is necessary because it's the only way to ensure a secure and democratic future for the jewish state of israel. any peace process may now be, though, in tatters, as the israelis and palestinians appear to be at a tipping point for a war. let's go to cnn's diana magnet,

near the gaza strip. israel's defense minister says this offensive will, quote, probably not end within several days, so how are people preparing for an extended military campaign by the israelis? what's it like where you are? >> well, people are very scared. all day there have been the sirens sounding here. we are in sterod. you have 15 seconds to get to a shelter when you hear that siren before a rocket comes in. even the bus shelters, the schools, are all reinforced concrete to protect people. here in ashgalon you have 30 seconds. so not very much time in the rockets are coming in. israel defense forces say something like 130 fired out of gaza today. and they have struck 150 targets, they say, inside gaza, targeting hamas operatives

there. they say in precision strikes, but there have also been civilian casualties, including two children killed in those raids today, wolf. >> we've just been told within the past hour or so, diana, that air raid sirens have actually gone off in tel aviv. that some rockets were launched, at least one rocket launched from gaza toward tel aviv. apparently israel's iron dome system caught that rocket. all of this is putting a lot of pressure on the israeli government. they've now mobilized 40,000 reservists to be on standby. how close is this to another all-out confrontation? >> well, it certainly feelings as though it's getting that way. it's not on the level yet of november 2012 or 2008/2009. it has indications it's getting that way. a rocket was intercepted in the town of richon litsi, just south

of tel aviv, just about an hour ago, by the iron dome system. and this is the big fear. to date, the idea has been saying we know hamas has long-range missiles capable of reaching tel aviv and beyond, but they haven't been using them yet. but hamas has threatened that it will start to use them. it's really only about 100 missiles in its huge arsenal of around 10,000 that could reach that far, but it has threatened it will begin using those missiles if the israeli air strikes continue. and that's interception over tel aviv is an indication they're making good on their word. >> in israel for us, not far from gaza, diana, stay safe over there. we'll be in constant touch with you. the israeli air strikes have been taking their toll. our ben wedeman has been following some of the aftermath. he's inside gaza. >> we're on a rooftop in the southern gaza strip.

at 3:00 in the afternoon, the residents of what remains of of this house received a phone call. they were told to get out of the house immediately. a drone flew overhead and dropped some sort of projectile, a final warning for people to leave the area. what happened was instead of leaving the area, people came and gathered in the area. some of the neighbors suggesting they were acting as a human shield, people on the roof, people in the street below. then an f-16 came and apparently fired at least one missile into that house. i spoke to one young man who came to the rescue. he said that he dug several people out of the rubble but there were a total of seven people dead. among them, two young boys ages 10 to 11. we don't know who exactly was the target of the israeli strike. but the people in this area

point out that regardless, if there's one person in the area, there are hundreds. gaza strip is one of the most crowded places on earth. and therefore it's almost inevitable, if you fire a missile into an area like this, there will be innocent victims. now, there was another strike in gaza city where an israeli aircraft targeted a car carrying five men, killing all five of them. one of them was mohammad shaban, the head of hamas' naval forces. it seems at the moment israel's tactic is to target the homes of people affiliated with hamas but hamas is not relenting in its missile strikes on to israel. this morning, we spoke to an israeli military official who said they believe hamas has as many as 10,000 rockets. so there are many more rockets to fly and, no doubt, there will be many israeli air strikes in return. i'm ben wedeman, cnn, reporting

from han unis in the southern gaza strip. is there anything that can actually defuse this tense situation? i'm joined by fawas gerges, who has written several books on the subject. fawas, thanks very much for joining us. what do you think, can anyone bring a cease-fire about? the egyptians succeeded a couple of years ago. as you will remember, there were suggestions maybe qatar, maybe others. i suspect maybe the palestinian authority of mahmoud abbas might have a shot of doing something. realistically, are we on the brink of war, or can it be avoided? >> well, the irony, wolf, is that neither camp wants all out confrontation. neither the israelis, nor the palestinians, would like to engage in all out war. ironically, both camps have been engaged in the so-called gradual limited escalation.

this gradual escalation is spiraling out of control. prime minister netanyahu is under tremendous pressure by the conservative wing of his administration. to basically escalate and go into gaza. and the hamas, the palestinian movement, hamas is also under pressure by its constituency and also public opinion to respond to the killing of its civilians. as you know, several palestinian civilians have been killed today. i think the most important task, to answer your question, is to bring about deescalation. because for both camps to climb down from the tree. and i think egypt is the most important player here, wolf. egypt is the only power that can mitigate between hamas and israel. egypt has been mitigating. you have the gradual escalate, escalation has reached a tipping point, and this is where the united states and egypt and the world community must work

together to help both camps. it is lose-lose. this is a very dangerous operation. hamas does not want to engage in all out confrontation in israel because it would be very costly. so the challenge is for egypt and the united states and the international community to come in before its too late. >> as you know, the u.s. doesn't speak with hamas, the egyptian relationship, under the new president el sal sissy, that relationship has deteriorated. i interviewed the plo am bass do the representative in washington, bahn erhakat who said maybe they could bring about some sort of cease-fire is that realistic, do you think? >> i think it is. president abbas and the egyptians and the americans, they work with egyptians, as you know, on security questions. there have never been any kind

of disconnect between the americans and the egyptians. and there is now a national unity government, as you know, between hamas and the palestinian authority. and that's why the egyptians and the americans can work directly and the americans indirectly with hamas. a big point, wolf, the current wave of violence and killings of both israelis and palestinians is a product of the breakdown of the peace talks initiated by the obama administration. the reality is, if there is no -- if we don't tackle the root causes of this particular confront, there will be another wave, a third wave and fourth wave, because the reality is you need to basically address the question of israeli occupation of palestinian territories. you need to address the two-state solution. i know a bit about the palestinian perspective. there is a sense of hopelessness among the palestinians. there's no light at the end of the tunnel of occupation. and the palestinians were hoping

that the unity government would bring about an american intervention in the peace process. >> well, the president of the united states wrote an op-ed article, an opinion piece, in harratz, the israeli newspaper today. mahmoud abbas wrote an article in haaretz as well, as did prince turkey of saudi arabia, the former intelligence chief. i think it's significant the saudi former intelligence chief writes an article that appears in an israeli newspaper so maybe some cooler heads can prevail. let's hope there's no escalation. it looks dire right now. far farwaz gerges, thank you. senator robert menendez, he's claiming he's been the target of a plot by cuban spies. coming up, he speaks exclusively to our own dana bash. up next, crisis at the border. president obama's asking congress for nearly $4 billion to deal with the problem. we're going to break down the

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children by the tens of thousands crossing into the united states illegally.

angry protesters chanting for them to go back home. the obama administration struggling to cope with a huge immigration crisis. right now, here are the latest developments. today, the president will ask congress for $3.7 billion in emergency funds to help deal with the problem. that's substantially more than he was expected to request. also, the president offered to meet directly with the texas governor, rick perry, to discuss the influx of immigrant children. and governor perry has now accepted the invitation. the president still has no plans to visit the border when he travels to texas tomorrow. and in oklahoma, an oklahoma lawmaker says he was blocked from visiting a detention center in his state where some of the children are being held. on cnn's "new day," the congressman explained why he wanted to visit the center. >> there is human suffering here. as members of congress, we have to figure out why. the president is going to ask us

for $2 billion. in order to solve the problem, we need to understand the problem. and certainly before we -- before we spend 2 billion taxpayer dollars, we certainly don't want to exacerbate the problem. >> that number has gone up to $3.7 billion. that's what the president is seeking from congress emergency funding to deal with this crisis. the crisis along the southern border is part a bigger and bitter national debate on immigration policy. a small california town is at the center of the battle. angry residents there say they'll keep fighting. plans to bring undocumented immigrants to that town for processing. cnn's kyung lah reports from murietta, california. >> reporter: this is what victory looks like, say protesters in murietta, california. they're jubilant because this chartered plane from texas filled with undocumented

immigrants from central america, most of them women and children, went to chula vista, california, instead of murietta. the federal government is moving them to california to cope with the crisis in texas. an influx has crammed facilities along the texas border. a total of 60 to 80,000 children without parents are expected to cross illegally this year. the government's solution, fly and bus them elsewhere for processing. that didn't work last week in murrietta. protesters forced them to turn away from the murrieta border station. it's turned this normally quiet town into a battleground for the nation's immigration policy. the buses may not have arrived this time, but immigration and customs enforcement says the migrants will keep on coming to southern california.

protesters promise the same. >> as long as it takes is what it comes down to. we don't want to see any confrontations between us and government agencies or anything like that. but a lot of us here are willing to make a stand. >> reporter: kyung lah, cnn, murrieta, california. >> we want to take a closer look at the obama administration's efforts to deal with this. our senior white house correspondent jim acosta. the president now wants $3.7 billion in emergency funds to deal with the crisis. earlier, we thought it would be about $2 billion. so what happened in all of a sudden, it's nearly double what we originally thought he was going to request. >> all a long, white house officials were telling us to expect that dollar figure to be in excess of $2 billion. it turns out it's almost double than what the white house was initially signaling. let's run through where this money is going to go.

it is interesting. a big bulk of this $3.7 billion, $1.8 billion going for the care of these unaccompanied children. they need to be housed somewhere. they'll be detained for an indefinite period of time. white house officials could not say on a conference call with reporters earlier today just how long these children will be kept in the u.s. before they're processed back out of the country because they don't have legal standing. white house officials say to remain in the u.s. $1.1 billion for the transportation, detention and removal of those children. and of course those adult undocumented migrants who have been crossing the border in recent months. and $433 million. it's not cheap to have additional border patrol agents on the border. they'll be incurring overtime costs. and then $64 million for new immigration judge teams and legal aid for these immigrants. that's part of the process the white house wants to get going right away, to expedite and streamline the process to make sure those children and

undocumented immigrants are processed through the system, given every legal right under the u.s. immigration law, and then sent back to their country of or jen. the president will be seeking legal authority for the department of homeland security to expedite that process. white house press secretary was asked during the briefing whether or not there would be offsets for this budget request. he said no, in emergency situations, that is not usually the case. one final note, we should point out, president obama and rick perry will meet in dallas tomorrow. rick perry, the texas governor, who has been criticizing the president, has accepted the president's offer to meet to talk about the crisis. >> there's no guarantee congress will appropriate the nearly $4 billion, right? >> no guarantee of that. there's a statement from boehner's office basically saying at this point they're going to look at this request, but the speaker at this point would prefer to send national guard troops down to the border to beef up security.

the white house says that is not happening. they say what's in the supplemental request should be sufficient. as they were acknowledging on the phone earlier this morning, they don't know how long this crisis is going to go on. it's starting to sound like the bp oil spill from four years ago. officials just can't say when they'll get it capped. >> jim acosta at the white house, thank you. apowerful senator, anonymous tip is it, cuban spies. another dramatic turn. and thousands and thousand, of children crossing illegally into the u.s. shot obama administration have seen this coming? what should the president do now? your 16-year-old daughter

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the immigration crisis unfolding certainly has a lot of finger-pointing going on in washington. president obama and democrats blame the republicans for not passing comprehensive immigration reform. republicans accuse the president of making the problem worst, no matter who's to blame, it's a crisis right now for the obama administration. let's bring in our senior political analyst david gergen.

he's been an adviser to four american presidents from both parties. he's joining us live. so what can the president do? what advice would you give the president right now to deal with this immigration crisis? >> i think he's done the right thing in proposing this $3.7 million emergency supplement to try to stem the tide, provide more facilities, get these children turned around and back home. i think it's wise that he's meeting with governor perry of texas. i would recommend if i were there that he also go to the border. i think it's important. i think it gives him a platform to make an international appeal to the nations of central america, to the families there, keep their children home. it's too dangerous to send them here. a lot of them get exploited along the way. we'll be sending them back. we'll try to help you economically to grow and have better prospects for your children. i think take ownership of it. and when you have an emergency, i think the president stepping forward taking ownership is a good thing.

>> should the obama administration, david, have seen this coming? >> that's a good question. i think there were certainly signs of it. we've been hearing about this for a long time just in the public press. and of course our intelligence folks knew. these children have been, after all, to get from central america to mexico, that's a long trek. i'm sure our intelligence people knew about this. so i'm surprised that suddenly it seems to be, you know, we're all surprised. i'm surprised that we're surprised. i'm surprised the government in washington is acting like they're surprised. once again, one of these things, the more you can anticipate in the white house what's coming and get and prepare the public for it, it it's easier to lead, it's easier to get public support for what you're trying to do. i think the president's trying to do the right thing here by stemming the tide and sending them -- these children home. >> they passed comprehensive immigration reform in a bipartisan way in the senate but

it collapsed in the house of representatives. republicans were opposed. a lot of them didn't like what they called amnesty, as you well know. the president says the failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform certainly contributing to this current crisis. is he right? >> i think it has. and i think it's contributed to the sense that america is paralyzed, can't act, and i think it's weakening us in the middle east. another emergency on the president's desk. any time that the president seems week at home, i think it weakens his standing overseas. part of this, wolf, it's not just the failure of the bill, the fact is that we sometimes send a lot people back and then suddenly we call it off and say we're going to keep people here and have been confusing signals. if you're a family in central america, you think, maybe we've got a shot here. they're taking an awful chance with a 13-year-old child traveling unalone. all sorts of things can happen and have happened to a lot of these poor kids. i mean, they're the pawns in all

of this. >> it's a heartbreaking story all around. all right, david, thanks very much. david gergen helping us better appreciate the stakes, what's involved. coming u.n., hillary clinton, she's traveled from baltimore to berlin on her pobo tour. has the effort paid off? and senator men nen does has been dogged by an ongoing federal investigation. is is his team using lege inings as a legal strategy? stand by. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities.

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welcome back. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. a powerful typhoon is bearing down on mainland, japan, right now, after side-swiping the island of okinawa. check out this amazing shot of the storm system from space. the storm has lost some strength. it's now the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane. more than 600,000 people were told to evacuate as the storm approached okinawa. very few did. a u.s. military base, as you know, is in the region, in okinawa. massive waves and rising waters are some of the biggest concerns right now from the storm. a storm of a very different

sort is brewing in washington. it stretches all the way to cuba. senator robert menendez of new jersey's already the focus of an investigation by the fbi and the justice department. now, a year and a half after salacious allegations about the senator and underaged prosta it prostitutes surfaced, his attorney is adding cuban spies to the mix. our dana bash is following the story. you got an exclusive senator with him. he's obviously the chairman of the foreign relations committee. why would cuban spies, as the allegation goes, be directly involved in trying to smear him with these allegations of underaged prostitutes? >> he thinks it's possible exactly because of his powerful position. he's been very critical for more than two decades of the cuban government. and now he is pointing to a story that originated in "the

washington post" with government sources saying that there is a cia report that this all could have started with the cuban government, that it was a conspiracy, a plot, really, by the intelligence community of that government to try to take menendez down. listen to our conversation. >> it should be pretty appalling that a foreign government would be engaged in trying to effect an election or a united states senator. if that can happen, i think there's real consequences for our democracy. i hope that the authorities will investigate and come to the bottom of who was engaged. >> is that what you think happened, that you are somebody of cuban descent, you have not ever made it a secret your opposition to the cube be governme cuban government, you're about to become the chair of the foreign relations committee is that what it is? >> for 22 years, between the house and senate, i have had a firm position in opposition to

the cuban regime that violates the human rights, the democracy of the people of cuba. i have been outspoken in that regard. and i wouldn't be surprised if the regime would do anything it can to stop me from being in a position that ultimately would impede their hopes of being able to get a different relationship with the united states based upon their interests but not the interests of the cuban people. >> you're not at liberty to talk about the letter your lawyer wrote to the fbi. you're in the proof business. if you're probing anybody in a hearing, you would want proof. do you have proof? solid proof of this? >> look, you know, it seems to me that based upon what the "post" sources are, that it's the government that has the proof. and it seems to me that the government should ultimately, internally, review what its sources are, from whence it got this information, and what have

they done about it. >> the government has, but do you all have as well? >> the government is the one in possession according to "the post" articles. as far as i'm concerned, it's the government that should produce the information that they supposedly have within their own agencies. >> let me play the devil's advocate here. that is, that perhaps your legal team made this information public as a diversion, as a way to sort of muck up the federal investigation of you. >> well, first of all, i think that you have to have -- i think a credible entity like "the washington post" would have to have their own sources. and they would have to verify their sources. so i think that's pretty f farfetched idea. >> wolf there are two important layers here. one is, just the idea of the cuban government may have actually started this scheme to try to take menendez down. that is something that, as you

heard, he wants an investigation of. but then the whole reason why this is even an issue is because of an ongoing probe of him for a couple of things, but mostly it's related to the idea that one of his donors is under investigation for potential medicare fraud. and so the whole concept here is whether or not, if the cuban government was involved in this, then that could taint the whole probe of him that's been going on for a couple of years. >> i'm glad you caught up with the senator, dana, thanks very much for the hustle, good work. a lot more on this story coming up later today in "the situation room." coming up here, new allegations of spying leveled against the u.s. after a suspected double agent was arrested in germany. should we be surprised by this kind of alleged friendly espionage? also, what have we learned from hillary clinton's book tour, the good and the bad? maggie harborman, she's standing

by next.

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the republican national committee site selection team has picked cleveland for their 2016 convention. cleveland beat out dallas in the final vote. ohio, as all of you know, is an important battleground state for the republicans and democrats. in 2012, republican presidential candidate mitt romney narrowly lost in ohio by just three

points. in cuyahoga county, that's where cleveland is located, romney lost by 40 points. the full nrc needs to sign off on the choice in august. sarah pail lin has some kin words for hillary clinton. saying she appreciates clint be's boldness. refusal to attack her in the 2000 campaign. clint be's refusal to follow the lead is mentioned in her book entitled "hard choices." the "hard choices" book tour has kept secretary clinton in the spotlight. sometimes it's been good. sometime also not so good. you wrote a fascinating piece in politico. it's been a rough few weeks for the secretary on the book tour. why is that happening? >> well, her interviews are the main reason that happened. generally speaking, this book tour has had some strengths for

her and weaknesses for her. the interviews have really been where she's tripped up. there's also been the question of how well the book is selling. she gave a statement that she later called inartful about her wealth that was problematic. she went on and, you know, she cleaned it up but not totally effectively. >> what has been the major positive element of the tour? >> the major positive is she can now point to having done what her aides tally is about 25 hours worth of interviews which no other potential candidate for 2016 has done. no one has gone through the meat grinder the way she's gone. they did, in their minds, achieve one of their objectives, kevlar test her record at state. they feel critics have not laid a glove on the book. critics argue that because the book is kind of mushy in term, of her record. >> what does all this tell us about a possible hillary clinton 2016 presidential run? >> candidly, i think it tells us

very little, other than at this point, i left this tour thinking she is running for president. this has been a big question obviously. nothing has happened that has changed that opinion for me and i think a lot of people. she's not pushing a message yet. she's not decided at this point what the why of a clinton candidacy would be. because she wasn't pushing a message, these interviews ended up being largely about her as opposed to voters. >> what do you make of these reports, a front page story yesterday in "the wall street journal," she's trying, slowly but surely, to distance herself from some critically important policy issues from the president? >> she was pretty clear in the book where she disagreed with him on foreign policy. she actually has not deviated from him on economic policy. when she talked about economic policy at the aspen ideas festival last week, she was largely cleaning up her own

mess-ups on the issue of wealth and on her paid speeches. another comment in addition to the dead broke comment, which is where she talked about they had earned their money through hard work and people don't see them as part of the problem. we pay ordinary income tax, unlike some people who are, quote, truly well off, unquote, as you know, that was a big issue for her. if the economy looks like it's humming in about a year, i would be very surprised if she does. >> about 200,000 jobs a month are still being created. i suspect you will be absolutely right. what it did show me, this entire book tour, it is grueling, a lot of interviews, speeches. she's been moving from city to city to city. it showed she's pretty healthy right now. the suggestion she may be weak because of a blood clot from a couple years ago. she seemed pretty fit to me. >> that was another objective you hit on. thank you for reminding me. when karl rove did that bit about how her health was a big issue, she had had a traumatic

brain injury. he said it in an off the record speech that was reported and then he spent several days talking about that. some republicans talked about it. part of their goal was demonstrating this is not a concern. so she went on a tour that anyone would find grueling. she went and signed books for several hours at a stretch. critics will say that's not much of a problem. it is not actually really an easy thing to do. it's also not the same intensity level as the presidential campaign. in terms of the pregame, it's impressive. >> certainly is, maggie, thanks very much, maggie haberman, our political analyst. steamy love letters from the president to his mistress. startling revelation, about a man most historians have written off as rather boring. up next, the german chancellor angela merkel is unsure if she can trust the united states after another alleged spying controversy has blown wide open.

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(water dripping and don't juspipes clanging)ncisco. visit tripadvisor san francisco. (soothing sound of a shower) with millions of reviews, tripadvisor makes any destination better. on this day in history, july 8th, 1889, "the wall street journal" was first published. "the journal" was created by edward jones and charles burtstressor and was four panels lost, cost 2 cents, published as a afternoon newspaper. today it is 40 panges long, cos $2. thousands of americans were caught in the nsa surveillance network. "the washington post" reports

the nsa scooped up things like baby pictures, medical records, resumes. documents show that 90% of the people included in the nsa surveillance program were not federal targets. the united states is now accused of buying german intelligence secrets. reuters other media outlets reporting that secrets came from an agent inside the german intelligence agency. here's the reaction from the german chancellor angela merkel. >> translator: if the reports are correct, it would be a serious case. if the allegations are true, it would be, for me, a clear contradiction to what i consider to be a trustful cooperation between agencies and partners. >> the latest breakdown in relations with germany over spying and espionage. last year, it was revealed the nsa had, indeed, been monitoring merkel's cell phone. joining us, the foreimer cia

counterterrorism expert phillip mudd. how surprised are you about these allegations that the u.s. was supposedly the cia, if you believe reuters, was running an agent inside german intelligence? >> well, wolf, there's something here i don't understand. this to me is surprising. here's the story. i feel like we're on summer vacation and we just did the borders of the puzzle ander's saying what's in the middle of the puzzle. we've seen the borders of this story but it's not clear to me we have anything like what happened here to its fullest. if you're in the midst of the scandal we're in the midst of with the snowden revelations and the rupture with the germans over those revelations, why do you run a source into the german intelligence ministry, especially if he's acquiring stuff that's not critical to america's national security interest? i don't understand why this would have been done. that's >> if he's supposedly a walk-in, let's say, some german intelligence officer, he

approaches an american. let's say some cia operative, officer who may be working inside germany and says, i have information that is of critical importance to the u.s. national security, what does a cia officer do in a situation like that? >> well, first, you have to talk to the guy and figure out what he's got, who he is. but i think when that information goes to cia headquarters, and believe me, after 25 years at cia, i can guarantee you that immediately someone at the embassy in germany sent that information back to washington. everything is captured in what we call cable traffic between the field and headquarters. somebody's got to do a quick risk analysis. that is, this information might be interesting, but that's not the right question. the right question is, a, how interesting is it? and is it worth potentially damaging relations with the germans? and b, who is the person providing the information? how stable is this person? we found out later this person

was trying to peddle information to others, including the russians. >> at what point does the cia go to german intelligence and say, hey, there's this guy who has come to us, and he works for you guys? at what point does the u.s. actually inform german intelligence of what's going on? >> boy, it looks like from the surface that should have happ happened early on in this case. there's one additional question beyond why the united states might be doing this that i might have. you might be able to talk to this person with legitimacy if you thought the person was offering information about the security of the united states that the german sources weren't providing, but if it was just what i saw in the press in the last few days, i think you would go to the german government and say, hey, we have been allies for decades. we're in the midst of a spy scandal. let's give you a heads-up about

a guy of yours making a mistake. >> what is fascinating, very intriguing, now there are reports, you have seen them, that germany now says they're going to start surveillance on american and british intelligence operations. they say they haven't done that since the end of world war ii. if in fact germany decides to start spying on the united states, recruiting agents, assets in the united states, what does that say to you? >> to me, this is potentially a short-term ripple effect. we might see some not necessarily spying on the united states, but for example, if i were the germans, i might be putting people outside the embassy to say, hey, we're watching you. if you don't knock this off, things will get painful for you and your spies because i'm sure the germans are aware of the spies residing in germany today. one of the interesting parts of the story is the cooperation will continue between the services despite what you see at the diplomatic level. the reason is simple. in the post-9/11 era, if you're

not an enemy, you're a friend. that is around the world, everybody, the indonesians, the yemenis, the somalis, everyone sees terrorism as a threat. even if you see diplomatic waves under the surface, when you see that threat, you're going to continue trans-atlantic cooperation. with the rise of isis in iraq, the militants, and the number of europeans in iraq, there is no way if you're a security service in the united states or in europe you want to break off intelligence ties. no way. >> philip mudd, thanks very much. i'll leave you with this thought. when angela merkel was here in washington, met with the president, she sought assurance from him that the u.s. would not spy on germany. she did not get that assurance, the germans were pretty upset about that at the time. we'll leave it on that note. phil mudd, as usual, thanks for your perspective. coming up, the president

warren g. harding, considered by some to be barely a blip on the radar of american history, but guess what? we're learning more about him. a lot more about his softer, and shall we say steamier, side? ah... (boy) i'm here! i'm here! (cop) too late. i was gone for five minutes! ugh! move it. you're killing me. you know what, dad? i'm good. (dad) it may be quite a while before he's ready, but our subaru legacy will be waiting for him. (vo) the longest-lasting midsize sedan in its class. introducing the all-new subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru.

we were asked to name one thing about former president warren harding, you might have come up empty until now. some steamy letters are

revealing a side of the 29th president we have never seen before. here's cnn's jake tapper. >> reporter: we've heard all the rumors about jfk. we've read all about clinton, we've seen more than enough of anthony weiner, but it turns out the steamiest and perhaps best documented of washington's wanton lust comes from warren g. harding. >> people think that 100 years ago, nobody had sex fantasies, and i keep telling people, if those people didn't have sex fantasies, we wouldn't be here today. >> reporter: don't let the top hat fool you. these letters are not proper. 1,000 pages of notes, not to harding's wife, but to his mistress, will be released online by the library of congress at the end of this month. their public display goes against every publicly written desire of the nation's 29th president although they're not that tough to square with the historical opinions that he was one of america's worst

presidents ever. the letters were win between 1910 and 1920 and shipped to his mistress in a train like this. the letters precede his time as president, although they include all but one year of his time in the senate. they have been under lock and key for 50 years. page after page of harding's handwriting describe in detail what he describe as his eager, jealous, wistful love for his neighbor's wife, cary philips. january 2nd, he wrote, i wonder if you realize, how faithfully, how gladly, how passionately, yes, you do know the last, you must have felt the proof. proof, it turns out, was something she may have been very interested in. some experts believe that she may have been a german spy. >> she was being followed by the bureau of investigate as someone who was a spy. and i think that this was kind

of an insurance policy for her to keep these letters that people would not bother her if they knew she had them. >> just as modern-day casanovas try in vain to delete e-mails and text messages, the married presidential hopeful pleaded with his lover to dispose of the evidence. i think you should have a fire, chuck them, he wrote of the letters. do, you must. having so many letters on hand, all my love making is old to you. it is old, a darling old story which isn't to be made new. >> it really became urgent once he started running for president, and she asked for money, she blackmailed him, and he said i'll pay you $5,000 a year as long as i'm in office but you have to give me the letters back, and she kept the letters. >> jim spent five years researching harding's letters and discovered the lengths the couple went to hide their lover, including code names such as ms.

powderson, and hidden code words. >> if he was writing a so-called public letter to her that anyone could see, he would write constant and underline it, and it was code for i love you more than all the world. >> tats it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." newsroom with brook baldwin starts right now. wolf, thank you so much. we begin with severe weather here, breaking news in the world of weather. chad myers, we're going to you with news on tornadoes in cleveland. what's going on? >> just on the southern tier there, valley city has trees down and also roof damage from a big storm that went right over the top of them. if you are buffalo, cleveland, pittsburgh, and east of there, there's going to be a significant severe weather event tonight. let me get right to it. there's the tornado warning, just expired one minute ago, but there was a tornado, i believe probably on the ground near valley city into the southern sections of cleveland.