happening now -- new york attack plot. a second isis supporter is under arrest accused of planning to bomb local landmarks. tonight, new details on the charges and the suspect's alleged attempt to kill a federal agent with a knife. and weapons, will isis terrorists get their hands on powerful chemical agents? new warnings from the u.s. about the danger from syria's arsenal of chlorine gas. sex triangle. we're learning more about a prison worker's relationship with two escaped killers. what did her husband know about that and the alleged plot to kill him. and strange politics. donald trump isn't the only republican adding some spice to the presidential race. >> i determined that now was the right time to launch my campaign for the republican nomination. oh yeah. [ laughter ] we want to welcome our

viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room"." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. let's get to the breaking news. chilling new details about a terror plot isis sympathizers right here in the united states. a second new york man was arrested to invite isis investigation, allegedly attacking an agent with a kitchen knife as the fbi close in. the suspect now charged with planning to bomb landmarks and tourist attractions in the new york area along with another man who was arrested within the past few days. we're also learning that officers are on alert for potential terror threats around the july 4th holiday. and other major events this summer. i'll ask the chairman of the senate intelligence committee about all of that and a lot more. our correspondents our analysts are all standing by as we cover all the news breaking right now. first, let's go to our justice reporter evan perez for the very

latest. >> wolf tonight this man is facing charges of attempted murder of a federal officer. mooney is 21 years, and the fbi says he admitted to being an isis supporter and being part of a broader plot to carry out bombings in new york. earlier, the fbi went to his family's home in staten island to carry out the search. as investigators continued their work he walked downstairs and lunged at an fbi agent stabbing him several times with a large kitchen knife. the agent was wearing a protective vest and wasn't seriously hurt. according to them he told them he had plans to travel to syria to join isis and he knew the u.s. was watching him. he was also involved with a plot with a 20-year-old college student from queens who was arrested in the bombing plot on saturday. possible targets including new york landmarks and the george washington bridge. and, wolf the fbi says these

men were researching how to make pressure cooker bombs. >> you're also learning evan about disturbing so-called plots leading up to the july 4th holiday and other major event. >> that's right, wolf they believe the threat level has never been this high in a long time. part of the problem is they believe that there's hundreds of isis supporters who are ready to carry out attacks in this country, if they cannot get overseas to join the fight over there. a couple of things are on their mind including the fourth of july holiday. and the upcoming visit by the pope in september. these are things that authorities are looking very closely at to see if there's any possible plots that are in the making. >> yeah the pope will be here in washington, will be in new york in philadelphia. i'm sure security intense for all of that. thanks very much. evan perez reporting. also tonight, there are growing fears that isis terrorists will get hold of a

very danger chemical weapon that's banned under law. chlorine gas is being used against civilians with stunning frequency in syria, as bashar al assad fights to hold on to power against rebels and the isis onslaught. we have a report that contains graphic images. let's go to our global affairs correspondent elise abbott. >> wolf police say working in syria with the preoption with systematic gas of civilians and provided heartbreaking and gruesome accounts of chemical warfare. a warning to our viewers, you may find the images you're about to see extremely disturbing. >> reporter: today, doctors working on the ground in syria shocked congress with horror stories of attacks. and fresh evidence the regime continues to gas its own people. >> translator: i'm a doctor and i'm very familiar with death. but i have never seen a more obscene way to kill children. >> reporter: syrian doctors have

documented 31 chlorine attacks in the past two months. many targeting civilian areas. all conducted by barrel bombs from helicopters. president assad calls it propaganda by the opposition. but the u.s. has no doubt he's responsible. >> the proponderance of those attacks have been carried out by the regime. >> reporter: a u.s. russian deal two years ago rid assad of most of his chemical weapons and scrapped plans for u.s. military strikes. but u.s. officials say chlorine is now one of this is weapons of choice and want russia to stop him from using it. >> i think everybody's patience is wearing thin with respect to the extraordinary depravity of the weaponry and mechanisms tour delivery which al assad has used against his own people. >> reporter: though chlorine is not considered one of the most

deadliest agents used as a banned under law and makes a mockery condemning such attacks and threatening military action if they occur. >> just because chlorine say household product doesn't make it not a commonwealth of pennsylvania when it's put in a barrel bomb and dropped on civilians. >> reporter: with assad facing continued losses on the battlefield, nuclear civilian attacks have increased. without a u.s.-supported no fly zone toe protect sear grans assad's deadly skies. >> it seems bashar al assad has red from president obama that he can systematically use chlorine gas against his own people and get away with it. >> and tonight, the state department made clear there will be no u.s. military action to prevent assad from marching further chlorine attacks. they say only a political act will end syria's civil war. assad can continue impunity for

now, but the danger is those chemical agents to fall into isis hands. >> elise abbott at the state department thank you. back to the possible terror threat this summer. list ton what the chairman of the homeland security said on cnn just a little while ago. >> i believe when we approach the fourth of july we're probably going to see a lot more of these attacks, small scale, ramping up. joining us the chairman the senate republican committee republican richard bird. thank you for coming in. what do you make of what representative mccall just said. there there be more attacks coming up relatively small scale, but coming up with more frequency? >> well wolf 13 years serving on either the house intelligence committee i can't remember a time that we had more threats across this country than we do right now. none of them with the magnitude of repeated 9/11 but clearly an understanding that there are a lot of individuals tied to a

lot of different terrorist groups that have at least the attempt to carry out an attack. some of them as i like to say, they've dumbed down terrorism. >> and you think there are hundreds of supporters in the united states who might get -- almost every day there seems to be an arrest of some isis supporter in the united states but there are hundreds out there? >> wolf i don't know that any of us know exactly the number. but clearly it's the largest number of threats that i've seen in the time that i've been involved. i think what's gone maybe unpraised is the work the fbi and the joint terrorism task force across this country where we've been ahead of every attack. we've been on every person. and in a lot of cases arrests have made before the action has been taken. >> you heard evan perez, the justice reporter say they're worried about the up coming july 4th weekend. and the pope's visit. what can you share is about that

concern? >> those people who have the intent to carry out attacks here. look at holidays as a big event. look at it as a big opportunity that would be high profile and publicized in a big way. and in many cases, they're left up to the decision of an individual terrorist or a small group of terrorists that may not be as patient to wait for july the 4th. that's why we've got to be on these people and understand what their actions are every day 24/7. >> what can you share with us about these two guys in new york arrested. 21 neared fareed mamooney and the 21-year-old missoula? supposedly they were going to detonate a bomb. >> the fbi had good coverage on them. it was indicative of what we've seen is a couple times of the actions of an individual with a knife who knew he was being surveilled. and went to attack the surveillance officers. we're in a different type of

terrorism than what we've been used to. and it's not limited to new york city but clearly, new york washington other areas, are high targets. >> in the documents released by the justice department this knife potentially say big knife, could have been used to behead someone. >> well it could have been as you remember in boston it was a big knife. it was a hunting knife and the intent was to behead a police officer. >> and there was another suggestion is maybe they were planning to use a car to drive over to kill people with a vehicle. we've seen that. >> well this is very unconventional terrorism that we're involved with. as i said this is dumbed-down from what we've been accustomed to looking for big events high profile, high coordination. these are acts in many cases by lone individuals or small groups. >> is there any indication these two guys are part of a bigger terror cell? >> well i think we continue to look at those operatives in syria, especially in yemen, whose intent it is to carry out

acts in the united states and in europe. and in many cases we see direction, and certainly intent. whether there's direct communication, that's something we'll determine as we go through the forensics of this case. >> we're going to have a lot more to talk about. i'd like you to stand by mr. chairman. we'll take a quick break. much more coming up with the chairman of the senate intelligence committee -- right after this.

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we're back with the chairman of the senate intelligence committee senator richard burr of north carolina. let's get to another breaking story that we're following right now. you heard elise abbott report about it. they're absolutely certain that the syrian government is using chlorine gas to kill its own people. you have no doubt about that? >> i have no doubt. >> you believe bashar al assad regime is doing that using chlorine gas to kill syrians? >> absolutely. indiscriminately, they don't discriminate against adults or children. they used it as an army. >> how worried are you that some of those chlorine gas launchers are, if you will could hand up in the hands of isis? >> i think most of the chlorine

weapons of late have been barrel bombs or some hybrid of that original barrel bomb that are dropped out of helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft. that's why it begs should we or coalition forces make sure there's no a no-fly zone in syria, for the purposes of protecting the syrian people the civilians. but clearly, there's reason to believe that isil or other terrorist organizations within syria might begin to use similar types of weapons or they might find a cache of syrian military weapons they could use. >> they would not hesitate either to use that type of chlorine bombs? >> not for one minute. >> you heard the defense secretary ash carter today testify before the house armed services committee. and he said quote, hope is not a strategy in the fight against isis. do you understand the u.s. strategy in degrading and ultimately defeating isis? >> i don't think there is a strategy to defeat isis. i think the president has said that our strategy is somewhat a

patchwork. and the region is in chaos. i'm not sure wolf that iraq or syria can ever be put back to what it looked like. i think that the borders are going to be changed in the future. and it may be aligned more based upon sunni and shia and kurd conclaves, more so than what those historical borders, or colonial borders looked like. >> because what really worried me is when i heard general dempsey, the operating chairman of the joint chiefs asked carter say, look they tried to recruit about 24,000 iraqi troops for training by the u.s. military personnel who are already there. about 3,000, 3,500 are there already. maybe only 7,000 showed up. of those 7,000, who knows how many of those desert after they get training. can the u.s. get the job done without the iraqi military stepping up to the plate? >> well i don't think we can.

the only force that fights in iraq today is the shia militia. they're controlled by iraq. not by the united states. the kurds put up a fight in a geographical region that is not totally defined and not targeted every day by isil. and the iraqi special forces and shia militias the ones going up against isil. so far, icele leisil has dominated because of the battlefield strategy. isil actually pays their fighters. isil has a recruiting mechanism that is almost as good as the u.s. isil has special forces like the u.s. not to call this an army is a real mistake. >> i think they trade officers of the regime. they were baathists, many of them. >> they are but they have mirrored battle operations like a u.s. military general would put together. and in many cases iraqis have turned and run actually box the

fight has begun because of the shock of all it they use and create in special forces. >> do you have confidence in iraq's hadi al abadi is going to go to officials? >> i have real concerns that iraq with our help can hold off isil. and extremely concerned with how committed we are in the region with what shia militia might do to u.s. forces. >> and shia militia, a lot of them are clearly backed by the iranians? >> backed by the iranians and governed by the iranians. >> where do we be with this emerging deal to stop iran from developing a nuclear bomb. are you with the president on this? >> i'm not exactly sure where the president is going to end up what i just heard from secretary kerry of late we're no longer interested in knowing everything about their nuclear program prior to this. these are game-changers. these are deal-stoppers i would

think. not just for the united states but everybody in the region. and i can't believe the direction they've turned in the last month of negotiations. >> yesterday he said secretary of state, don't be fix yaltated on the past of what their nuclear program was. lindsey graham said he got a call from secretary kerry saying he had been misunderstood in what he was saying. >> i heard the quote and it's hard to say it was misunderstood. wolf without a baseline to work from how in the world can went force an order. >> that's a game-changer. saying they're not going release that. >> i think it's absolutely essential. i think most in the region believe it needs to be essentialpy. >> senator, thanks very much for coming in. richard burr the chairman of the senate intelligence committee. just ahead -- the manhunt for two convicted killers on the

loose. police release their information about their spectacular prison escape. plus the deadly warning from the woman accused of helping the convicts. was he in on a plot to kill her own husband? big day? ah, the usual. moved some new cars. hauled a bunch of steel. kept the supermarket shelves stocked. made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. what's up for the next shift? ah, nothing much. just keeping the lights on. (laugh) nice. doing the big things that move an economy. see you tomorrow, mac. see you tomorrow, sam. just another day at norfolk southern. doesn't it seem like the wireless world today could use a smile? at cricket wireless, we think so. that's why prices for our plans are all in taxes and fees included. and we've got more 4g lte coverage nationwide than t- mobile or sprint.

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worked at the facility and had relationships with the men. source, telling us that joyce mitchell now in custody warned her husband the convicts were planning to kill him. now investigators are hoping her cell phone may yield new clues. our national correspondent jason carroll is working the story, he's up on the scene. jason, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, wolf, about that cell phone, i can tell you that a source with knowledge of the situation said that joyce mitchell's cell phone records have been subpoenaed. and so far, they were not revealed and given them the lead that they so desperately need. tonight, the search expands. law enforcement is now releasing progression photos to show what david wet and richard matt would look like after more than ten days on the run as the search runs cold. >> we're concentrating our efforts not only in this vicinity but out there the nation and beyond. >> reporter: cnn has learned joyce mitchell the woman

accused of helping the escapees warned her husband lyle of the murder plot telling him your life is in danger. mitchell became so worried that she warned lyle mitchell that sweat and matt were planning to kill him. >> as of today, we had no information whatsoever that he had prior knowledge of the escape that he participated or actively assisted in the escape of the two inmates. >> reporter: officials say joyce mitchell is watching the news coverage of the manhunt from her jail cell. and more news of a bizarre love try angle joyce mitchell had relations allegedly with both david wet and richard matt. in 2013 sweat was removed from the tailor shop when his inappropriate relationship with mitchell was discovered. later in that same year a sexual relationship took place inside the tailor shop between mitchell and matt. it's the only known place the two were together according to a law enforcement source. all of this unknown to lyle

mitchell who worked in the same tailor shop. investigators are also looking at other prison employees and their possible role in the escape. one thing they're considering is whether or not any of the other prisoners may have created some type of diversion, before during or after matt and sweat escaped. >> i really don't get how no staff person heard steel being cut in back of the both the cells. but let's assume no officer heard it. a prisoner heard it. and in the prison they would have ratted them out. >> reporter: and, wolf i wanted to give you some updated information about that honor block. you remember that special section of the prison where both richard matt and david sweat were housed where other prisoners were housed where they were given extra privileges and other prisoners don't have. cnn has learned that clinton

correction facility has indeed shut down the honor block section of the prison and has returned to a regular cell phone. wolf. >> probably a good idea over there. jason, thanks very much. let's get more of what's going on. joining you the former atf special agent in charge the security expert matthew horace and director of the fbi analyst tom fuentes. tom, they've got her cell phone records. presumably they're going to look at that. she's making statements to the law enforcement over there. what else could they use her for to try to get maybe some indication of whether these two guys? >> i think they have all the time in the word to get as much from her. we're hearing all these stories that she puts out. they were going to kill her husband. they were going to drive 700 miles. she was going to pick them up. we don't know if she's lying. then we don't know if they were lying. all the statements coming out as

pure fact shouldn't be because it's all guesswork on everybody's part that it's the truth. >> do you think they've gotten, matthew matthew, everything out of her that they could that she could help share to find these guys? >> i would absolutely agree with my colleague tom fuentes, what we don't know is the information they're garnering from speaking to other guards prison guards and others there. i think there's a lot of information out there. and i think it looks right now that these suspects may have compartmentalized her plan as plan "b" or "c" and not plan "a." . >> you also heard jason carroll say they were part of the so-called honor block. i still don't understand why they were part of an honor block after having been convicted of murder. that honor block has now been shut down. your reaction? >> too little too late. listen this whole thing say serious security breach from the moment this was planned to the

time these guys escaped. i have to agree with tom, there are other people involved in this that are unknown to us at this time. but law enforcement is running down those leads with those 800 people and 400 leads. >> do you understand why two murderers are put in honor block? do you understand that, tom? >> no, that's why i'm not running the prison. it makes no sense. the other issue matthew is talking about, the small tools that she confesses to bringing them aren't what cut through a wide block through the steel, through all of that. i liken that to cutting down a tree with a steak knife. somebody else helped them with more powerful tools. that's what they need to find out. is that a prison employee? a contractor a corrections officer, but somebody else besides her is involved in this. >> your reaction to that matthew. i assume you also believe somebody on the outside was helping, helping this escape which seemed to be pretty elaborate. these two guys are still on the run. >> well remember aside from

the manhunt which we're all focused on there's several other elements of this investigation. there's the planning and execution, who what who knew who helped them and who got the tools into the cell. there's the planning of the breakout. who knew that was going to happen. what other prisoners? what other guards? who turned a blind eye while pipes and steel walls were being cut? and then there's the escape plan. whoever plan they used "a," "b" or "c," they're still out there and we still have a major issue. >> tom, police have now released two images of what these guys might look like ten days on the run unshaven. there you see them with stubble and beard. what's the point of releasing these kinds of pictures? i assume these guys shave if they wanted to. >> they could shave, wear turban baseball hats. i think their eyes give them away. especially matt he has dark evil eyes that would be hard to conceal whether he has ten-day growth or one-day growth.

i don't know about that. another issue i wanted to bring up hampering the investigation is they need to find out if somebody else was in that tunnel helping them. and that crime scene was obliterated when the governor chose to take a camera crew and go crawling through there last saturday before crime scene investigators could get in there, look for other people's hair clothing and other evidence. that was a very important crime scene that was just wiped out basically by that. >> let me get the response matthew, was that a blunder by the governor of new york matthew? >> it certainly was an ill-advised thing. at the end of the day, as commander in chief, i guess he thought it was the right thing. but tom is right, that crime scene could have been compromised by anyone. >> this is the longest prisoners have been on the lam from a maximum facility in the united states since 1990. what does it say about this escape? why has it apparently been so

successful in your opinion? >> well, i think there are several elements that we know and several elements that we don't know. keep in mind whether escaping from a facility or being on the run. looking at the eric frein case he was in the woods in the pocono mountains in pennsylvania for 48 days before we captured him. complex investigations require resilience and patience. and law enforcement has that. we'll see the investigation expand in a larger area it will expand out nationally and internationally. >> these guys could be anywhere. matthew and tom, thanks for joining us. just ahead, our correspondents working their sources are getting new information about the manhunt for the escaped prisoners, and the plot to break them out. >> plus the trump wildcard the newest presidential candidate keeps trying to pick a fight with jeb bush. instead of punching back jeb bush is slow-jamming.

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after decades of political scandals in this country, there's still none that compares with watergate. tomorrow night's episode of cnn's original series the 70s

focuses on what former white house counsel john dean called a cancer on the presidency that led to president richard nixon's resignation in 1964. dean was admittedly involved in the watergate cover-up. but he went on to cooperate with prosecutors and went on to expose all the shocking details. scandal to the nation. >> you're fully aware, mr. dean of the gravity of the charges you have made under oath against the highest official of our land the president of the united states? >> yes, i am. >> and being so aware, do you still stand on your statement? >> yes i do. >> john dean is joining us live from denver. he's the author of "the nixon defense: what he knew and when he knew it." thanks so much for joining us. you were obviously right in the middle of the watergate scandal. you knew about the cover-up being launched. how difficult -- reminder of yours -- how difficult was it for you, john to admit your own

decision of guilt, if you will? >> well first of all i admitted it internally wolf. i tried to persuade my colleagues including the president, the only way to deal with it is to come forward with the truth. i couldn't sell that internally. as a result of the president still pushing me to do a bogus report and the cover-up going on that's when i broke rank. so by the time i broke rank it really wasn't a difficult decision to admit my guilt. >> why do you think your white house colleagues refused to admit their guilt. they fully understand what was going on? >> well you know i've speculated on that. we'll never know fully what's in their own minds they until they were convicted beyond a reasonable doubt claimed they were innocent men. i did note later in documents they supplied to the court, they told the judge indeed who was their sentencing judge that he had been committed the crimes they'd been charged with. so it took them a while to come around to that point, though.

>> if not for "the washington post" reporting, woodward and bernstein, as you well remember do you think the american public would have actually have known the truth? >> i think they would for sure. what "the washington post" did, and i've known bob and karl i didn't know them before watergate, but afterwards what they did, and ben bradley, is they kept the story alive. they kept it alive in washington inside the beltway, where judges members of congress prosecutors were reading about it. the rest of the country wasn't informed about it because they didn't seem to care. it's really not until the spring of 1973 after the election after mixon was overwhelmingly re-elected that it breaks wide and becomes a national story, followed quickly by the resignation of the chief of staff bob haldeman and my forced resignation as well. and that's when the press really picks it up. they also look at it during january of 1973 when there's a trial of the original watergate

burglars. >> you have written an important op-ed for cnn.com now called "why watergate endures." explain what the american people the country, can still learn from the watergate scandal? >> well i recently did a book as you mentioned, there wasn't a page of that book that i didn't learn something new about that bit of history that so affected the nation sorefor so long. we still have a legacy. we have a suffix "gate" for every scandal as you well know. i think people don't really want to repeat that history. and understanding it that's what cnn and playtime hbo has done an excellent job of presenting that history. >> and our documentary of the '70s. you also said john for political reasons, some of them are trying to in your words recast the whole watergate story.

you believe that's dangerous, don't you? >> well i it's inappropriate. it's a very difficult thing to do. you can only do it by ignoring the truth. the record of watergate, in fact the nixon presidency is so vast and so complete we'll never have anything like that again, wolf. including the president's own secretly taped conversations. so as the years have passed we know everything there is to know about watergate. so it's very dishonest for people to try to create another version that has nothing do with history. >> john dean you can read this article on cnn.com "why watergate endures." thanks for coming. the legacy of the seventies. he's definitely a wildcard for the republican race. donald trump, campaigning in new

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take a look at this. live at sighmultaneous campaign events. jeb bush in iowa. donald trump campaigning in new hampshire. his first campaign event in the first primary state. trump has come out swinging taking some especially sharp jabs at jeb bush. let's go to dana bash who has more on what's going on. what's the latest? >> reporter: jeb bush is focused on jeb bush and his own campaign. he took it to washington washington iowa that is. >> i'm here to ask for your vote. >> reporter: this intimate neighborhood q & a session is what voters in the first caucus state expect. jeb bush has his work cut out for him in iowa lagging behind scott walker and trailing others

like ben carson and hike huckabee. he turned a voter question about religion in schools into an attack on hillary clinton. >> she said something to the effect of, if you -- if your religion belief comes in conflict with a woman's right to choose or some other social issue, you have to get over it. >> reporter: never mind hillary, first there's the enormous republican field to battle including a new wild card. >> there are a lot of people running for president of the united states. last time i checked, another guy showed up yesterday. >> reporter: donald trump wants to pick a fight with jeb bush. >> he is weak on immigration. he is in favor of common core. how you can vote for this guy? >> reporter: on immigration, trump called for a wall on the southern border. >> i will have mexico pay for that wall. >> reporter: bush is trying not to take the bait. >> is that something that sounds rational? >> no. >> reporter: he is laughing it off. >> trump took you on in a speech

today about common core and immigration. i want to ask you -- >> sorry. i shouldn't have done that. >> reporter: he kept the laughter going on "the tonight show." he joined jimmy fallon to slow jam the news. >> whoever we choose will be tasked with changing the course of our country and whipping america into shape. >> you hear that america? jeb bush has says he wants to whip you "50 shades of gray" style. >> i think i speak for all americans when i say, ew. >> reporter: fallon who has a young audience that bush is trying to reach, ribbed him about the logo. >> do i pronounce it jeb? do i shout it? >> reporter: jeb bush's father and brother did quite well in the iowa caucuses. in today's times, caucus goers are more conservative and skeptical of some of jeb bush's positions, like on education and immigration. bush's senior adviser is a

veteran iowa strategist. he is wired in a way that could help bush that may not be apparent now but remember the iowa caucuses are more than six months away. >> dana thanks very much. six months not very long. joining us john sanunu a former governor a former chief of staff to the first chief of staff, he was an adviser to mitt romney and the author of a new book. there you see the book cover. he with will we will talk about the book in a few moments. donald trump, he is in this race. he has threatened to jump into the race. he is in it right now. he is a republican presidential candidate. if he were to get the nomination could you support it? >> i will support whom ever the republicans nominate. but i don't think he will get the nomination. he will have a good time doing this. the voters in iowa and new hampshire are more discerning. i think you will see a lot of

winnowing down. he will be part of that. >> what do you think of his going after jeb bush the former florida governor? you are close to the bush family. when you hear him talk about that about jeb bush what do you think. >> jeb is a big boy. he will be able to handle that. i think he is handling it just right, low key. look the best way to get visibility is to attack a big dog. that's what donald trump is doing. >> who is the front runner for the republican nomination right now? you are a former co-host of "cross fire" here on cnn. you are a political pundit. >> there's probably four or five that are the serious frontrunners including governor bush governor walker senator rubio among others. it is too early, wolf. i know the press likes to have a definition of who is leading. but it's not going to happen in any clear way until after the first debate. >> who would have the best chance of beating, let's say, hillary clinton assuming she gets the democratic nomination?

>> it should be a governor or former governor not only for having the best chance to beat hillary but to fix the mess this administration is leaving the country in. >> a lot of hillary supporters insiders, they feet john okaykasich. >> he has to get his temperament under control. he will be a forbidable candidate. my son is endorseing john kasich. he is in the group -- >> what do you mean his temperament? he has a temper? >> no. he has a style that i think is maybe a good style for campaign as governor. there's a slightly different demand that the voters make when you are campaigning for president. i think john understands that. i think he will deal with it quite effectively. >> you remember ross per rowe perot and what he did. some are suggesting that donald

trump, he has billions what knows, but he has billions. if he wants to run as a third party independent candidate the way ross perot did back then that could have an impact right? >> that could have an impact. bloomburg could have an impact all kinds of -- a third party candidate could have an impact. we have to see what happens. >> you think trump would do that? >> i don't think so. i think he wants to get the -- if you will the visibility of the primary process. but i don't think he will taint his brand all the way. >> you think bloomberg, the former mayor of new york is thinking of it. >> we heard rumors in the past. they have all the money in the world do it. >> if you were advising jeb bush what does he need to do to get this nomination? >> i think he has to demonstrate to people how effectively he was as governor. he has to show them that he is really more conservative than the current perception is. >> you have written this book.

you were the white house chief of staff. viewers might be interested in reading about the first president bush. what will they learn? >> they will learn that in addition to his great achievements in foreign policy he passed more domestic significant legislation than any modern president, except johnson and roosevelt. legislation that had a huge impact on the environment, on deregulating energy on dealing with civil rights, americans with disabilities act. they are going to find out this was a more conservative president than most think. >> after the first gulf war, when he led the u.s. operation desert storm, liberating kuwait operation desert shield his job approveal was in the 90s, 91 or 92. yet he lost his bid for re-election. why? >> i call it the churchill affect. he led great britain and the

united kingdom, england through the second world war. even before the end of the war, there was an election and england turned away toward a more domestic prime minister. you mentioned ross perot. he got two-thirds of the vote that should have been george bush's. >> that's why he lost. one other thought about the book. >> i tried to make it an easy read and tell people what goes on in the real white house and wheel the real leadership. george bush was a great president who listened and worked with his staff and frankly never bragged about himself. i thought it was my turn to brag. >> you saw him and barbara. how is he doing? >> he looked better than a year ago. he was lively, participated in the conversation. i said it on another show barbara was as feisty as ever.

>> thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. breaking news. investigators subpoenaing prison worker joyce mitchell's cell phones scouring her call history. we learn more about what she did and did not tell her husband. my guest, john walsh, host of "the hunt." a near collision at chicago's midway airport. two planes taking off. a live report coming up about that intersection. breaking another east coast shark attack. the teen who lost his arm in one attack speaking out for the first time. let's go "out front." good evening. i'm erin burnett. breaking news.