controversy and donald trump seems to only impact it. >> it could impact him with female voters. the theory is we're looking at comments since he is the presidential nominee for the republican party. thank you. and we appreciate you being here on "legal view." see you again tomorrow. "wolf" starts now. hello i'm wolf blitz er. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we're now just under 97 days from election day here in the united states. and there are rumblings inside the republican part yy about anr and frustration about recent comments from the candidate donald trump on a host of issues. right now donald trump is preparing for a town hall in daytona beach, florida, big crowd already there.

that event set to begin around two hours or so from now in that key battleground state. we'll have plenty to talk about today, given recent events. i assume he will discuss all those events as well. they include some reports of unrest inside the campaign and even a call for help to get trump's campaign back on track. campaign staffers are getting frustrated with the distractions donald trump appears to have brought on himself, distractions like trump refusing to endorse the house speaker paul ryan in his bid for reelection in wisconsin and senator john mccain running for reelection in arizona. the party's presidential nominee says mccain a former prisoner of war has not done enough for american veterans and paul ryan he said, quote, i'm not quite there yet, echoing something that ryan said about trump here on cnn a couple of months ago. the ryan snub is not sitting well reince priebus. he's been defending donald trump and trying to get the party

behind their nominee. adding to trump's troubles are comments from republicans like meg whitman, a major republican fund raiser, a former ceo of hewlett pa-packard is not alone jumping ship. quoting her, i will vote for hillary. i will talk to my republican friends about helping her. i will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her. from the outside, these interior battles point to a fractured campaign and party. donald trump tweeted, this there is great unity in my campaign perhaps greater than ever before. i want to thank everyone for your tremendous support. beat crooked "h." dana bash has been doing lots of reporting on this. da dana what's the latest you're hearing on the division, disruption emerging inside the gop. >> the very latest is at least in my experience in covering presidential politics which is a few cycles, something that was

pretty unprecedented which is about an hour ago a little more i got a call from pretty much all of donald trump's senior staff, all in one room in trump tower, pushing back on the notion that i reported last night that there is frustration within the trump campaign at the candidate, frustration that he is, as you just listed, lots of evidence that he's going off message, that he's not sticking to message, and the call i got was literally, do we sound frustrated? we're not frustrated. the frus straigs they feel is the media, that we're not covering the campaigns in an equitable way, said paul manafo manafort. but most importantly signaled this, you mentioned donald trump will have an event at 3:00 in florida. that he is going to be talking about a lot of things that republicans are pulling their hair out because he's not discussing about hillary clinton, about the e-mail

situation, about the four pinocchios she got talking about that on a sunday show this past week. and now about this iran deal which they think is a very beneficial thing to talk about politically. so you sort of see along with that donald trump tweet this unusual group call that i got from senior trump staff, all sort of points to the fact that they appear to be trying to get the narrative back on message, not to mention the actual campaign. >> well, how angry are republican leaders about what donald trump said yesterday in the interview with "the washington post" saying he's not ready to endorse the speaker of the house paul ryan or john mccain? >> furious. absolutely furious. it's not just republican leaders it's the chairman of the mentio sources who said he was so upset and really took it personally that donald trump decided not to endorse paul ryan in his primary bid because paul ryan and reince priebus are like family, they

glue up together in politics in wisconsin. reince priebus was the chair of ryan's very first congressional campaign. so reince priebus i'm told feels like he's stuck his neck out for donald trump, tried to get the party behind donald trump and that he wasn't getting the fact that you have to be a party leader and you have to say that you're good to back the house speaker no matter what when you're in the position that donald trump is. >> you've seen in of the reports, we're not reporting it but some of the reports out there going so far as saying that donald trump potentially could even drop out of this race, that sounds pretty far-fetch far-fetched. >> it does. we don't have reporting on that. but what we do have, i've talked to republican sources saying that because he is so mercurial, some party officials are trying to prepare for the what if scenario, what if he does drop out. it's a complicated arns. it is doable to get somebody else on the ballot, but again, this is just a preparation situation, not by the republican

national committee apparatus just by some committeemen who just kind of want to be be be prepared. >> what if situation. all right, dana. good reporting. thank you very much. let's talk a little bit more about the state of the donald trump campaign. joining us now, dr. ben carson, an adviser to donald trump, formerer opponent in the republican primaries. thanks so much, dl kar. carson, zwro joining us. >> always a pleasure, wolf. >> what's your reaction when you hear these roseports that donal trump, totally far-fetched, could drop out, calling awful the contests rigged if you will. when you hear all of these reports about the frustration in the republican party, what's your reaction? >> well, i've been talking to a lot of people around the country. you know, basically telling them, don't worry, don't jump on the bandwagon. there are a lot of people trying to stir up a sense of emergency, and there is no emergency here

whatsoever. but what does have to happen is that there must be a concerted effort to focus on the real issues here. this is a huge election that we're dealing with, and we're talking about a fundamental change in who we are as americans, that we go from a nation that is of for and by the people to a country that is of for and by the government. that is essentially what it's about. people are trying all diversionary tactics to get off of that. i think mr. trump recognizes that and is going to make more of an effort not to fall for some of the things that are used to divert attention. >> you're an adviser to donald trump, dr. carson. in the last few days, have you had a chance to speak personally with him about all of this and give him some advice? >> i've spoken to him within the last few days, yes. >> and can you share with us what your message to him was?

>> well, i never share personal conversations, but i will tell you that we're very interested in reaching out to, you know, demographics that traditionally have not identified with republicans and talking about ways to empower people. we want to traalk about the economy. there's so much to talk about in the economy, and particularly with the younger generations and how they're going to be be be saddled with enormous debt if we don't do something about it. we need to feek us ocus on a loe corruption that's just being accepted in our society. i'm not so much disappointed with the people who are lying and cheating and deceiving. i'm disappointed with the fact that so many of us americans have accepted that. it's no longer a big deal. and that's very alarming. >> was it wise for donald trump to say he's not yet ready to

endorse speaker ryanor or john mccain or kelly ayotte who's running for reelection from new hampshire? >> well, he's very pro-unite yy the party, and he will be obviously on board with paul ryan. paul ryan is a tremendous guy. i have great respect for him, great intellect. donald trump understands that. and any little differences that they have will be resolved and there will be unity in the party. >> because he said that he's not yet ready to support -- endorse paul ryan. he says john mccain, a vietnam war veteran as you know served as a p.o.w. there, that he hasn't done enough for vets and that's why he's not ready to support john mccain, even though both paul ryan and john mccain have endorsed donald trump. that was pretty surprising. that was a bombshell. >> and donald trump will be on

board with them as well. i don't think it's nearly as big a bombshell as people are making it out to be. you know, again, let's concentrate on the big issues, the things that really threaten this country, and as far as i'm concerned they're not republican or democrat things. they are things that are going to affect the quality of life in this country for everybody. >> what do you say to party members, republicans like meg whitman and others chris christie to aide to jeb bush who say they not only cannot vote for donald trump but they will actually back hillary clinton? >> i think there are a lot of people who perhaps are finding who their true beliefs are. maybe they never really were individuals who believed some of the things that the republican platform stand for, you know, individuality and responsibility and hard work and compassion for your fellow human beings.

maybe all along they did feel that the government knows best and the government should be in control of our lives. and if that's the case, you know, they should go wherever their beliefs are. i think there are equal number numbers of people from the other side as things are explained to them who will say, you know, actually, i'm much more of a person who believes in traditional america. >> what did you think of donald trump's reaction to that muslim-american family who lost a son, a captain, captain khan, who died fighting for the united states in iraq back in 2004? what was your reaction to donald trump's statements in the aftermath of what those grieving parents said? >> well, obviously, you know, any family who loses service membe members are people for whom we should have great sympathy and certainly i feel very much for those families. recognize that they are grieving

and very often, you know, they will say and do things out of that grief. i think we should just give them a pass and move on. you know, i'm hopeful as time goes on everybody on both sides of the aisle will simply adopt a position that we're not going to make these the issues. we're going to talk about the real issues that affect america. i can't get that point across enough. people, all of us, americans, we have some real serious issues here. if our founders had gotten caught up in all these little things and not dealt with the big issues, we wouldn't even have this country today. >> should donald trump apologize to those parents? >> i think, you know, we should clearly move on. i don't think it would be harmful if they apologized to him and he apologized to them. but i don't see that happening. >> why should they apologize to

him? >> well, for one thing, you know, if you accuse someone of something that's not true, it usually is a reasonable thing to acknowledge that. >> so what you would like to see is an apology from those parents. is that what you're saying? >> i would say, you know, rather than make this a one-sided issue, why don't we all just say, back off a little bit. we have such important issues to deal with. and you know, let's just call a truce. and the best way to call a truce is simply to vsay, i'm other that, you're over that, i'm sorry i said this if it offended you. other side, i'm sorry if i said that. because that's not our issue. you know, our strength as a nation is through unity. it's not through division. division will destroy us. a house divided against itself cannot stand. that's what we need to be be concentrating on.

not these peripheral issues that don't mean anything. we just seem to be addicted to things that don't mean anything. >> dr. ben carson, thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. thank you. and coming up, the shake-up over the democratic national committee. more senior staffers to resign after those embarrassing e-mails got leaked. so how worried is the clinton campaign about other private information getting out? i'll ask the chief strategist for hillary clinton's campaign standing by live. plus, $400 million air lifted to iran on the very same day four americans were freed. the state department says it's just a coincidence. critics say it's clearly ransom.

more heads roll, three high level staffers of the dnc has resigned. wikileaks is promising to release more e-mails. joel benenson is the chief strategist for the hillary clinton campaign, joining us from the headquarters of the campaign in brooklyn. joel, thanks very much for joining us. joel, can you hear me?

i think we're having trouble. joel, you can hear me now? >> i can't hear. >> he can't hear me. we've got a technical problem. we'll fix it. let's take a quick break. we'll be right back.

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he's join us from brooklyn right now. joel, how concerned are you about wikileaks releasing potentially more embarrassing e-mails, the embarrassing e-mails from the dnc, the dccc and maybe even from your campaign? >> wolf, i think the real concern here is you know, we've had our opponent donald trump encouraging the russians to meddle in our elections. >> he says he was being sarcastic. >> well, i think what's clear is that he hasn't been sar cass kick tick. what he's been doing is aligning himself very strongly with vladimir putin. he tampered with the platform we republican convention to remove a provision that would let ukraine defend itself against putin. he has called for the u.s. to abandon its nato allies in europe. and he has praised vladimir putin and said he deserves an "a" for leadership. this is a man who isn't just playing footsies with the

russians. he's giving vladimir putin a big bear hug. that should cause worry throughout everyone in america, especially when he makes reckless statements saying he should hack into our computers and interfere with an american election. it's unheard of, unpress departmented in a presidential campaign. >> but how worried are you that your computers, your e-mails at the campaign already have been hacked or are about to be hacked and more damaging information about the campaign, about hailry clinton, could be released? >> my understanding last week when this was raised for the first time, wolf, is that our systems have not been compromised. we've had multiple expert experts looking at our computers and making sure that everybody here takes every precaution they can. you know, we can do what we can on our end. what is really should be most concerning as i said is that donald trump wants to facilitate and encourage the leader of russia, a strong man, to meddle in our elections. that's really problematic. it's unheard of and i think it

shows again why he's unfit to be president of the united states. >> the trump campaign is blaming reports about frustration and turmoil within the ranks of -- blaming those reports on hillary clinton. i want you to listen to the trump campaign chairman paul manafo manafort, what he said on fox today. >> the turmoil, this is another clinton narrative that is being put out there and that the media is picking up on. mr. trump has appeared this week in front of crowds that are overflowing onto the streets. so the campaign is in very good shape, you know. we are organized. we are moving forward. and the clinton machine may not like it, but we're prepared for the fight. >> so what's your response to mr. manafort? >> my understanding from the stories i've seen and reports i've heard, wolf, and i don't know if you have different information, but that the journalists reporting on this have sources inside the trump campaign. we wouldn't know what's going on in the trump campaign. we can certainly look at it from the outside and what we see is

the party nominee unraveling on almost a daily basis, behaving more erratically, more insulting towards military people. and anybody who disagrees with him. and that's why i think you're seeing more and more republicans saying, wait a second. weaver we've got to put our country ahead of party here and they understand what that means. and they're doing that not because ofnything we're saying about the trump campaign. they're doing that because they're walking away from the trump campaign of their own volition. >> yesterday president obama said he's going to move ahead with the transpacific partnership, the tpp, right after the november election during the lame duck session. he says the critics including hillary clinton are wrong and he's right. listen to the president. >> well, right now i'm president, and i'm for it. and i've got some very close friends, people i admire a lot, but who i just disagree with them. and that's okay.

i respect the arguments that they're making. they're coming from a sincere concern about the position of workers and wages in this country. but i think i've got the better argument and i've got the evidence to support it. >> so if hillary clinton is elected, joel, and he pushes for passage of the trance pacific partnership during the lame duck session in november, december, january, let's say before she takes office if she's elected, will she lobby against the president? >> i think most importantly, wolf, is the president just expressed his respect and admiration for people who disagree with him. i think as we saw last week ms. clinton has mutual respect between she and president obama. she also said tpp fails to meet as negotiated at the end of the

fiernl agreement her criteria for protecting american jobs rg for ensuring that american wages would rise and that it would benefit america's exporters around the world and not give china an upper hand. i think that we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, if she's elected in november. the president will pursue his course of action while he's president and i'm sure that she will make clear her views at that time to him and probably to the public if he wants to have this debate aired out then. i mean, he is the president until january, as he said, and he is going to continue to push for his policies and she'll continue to make her opinion known on the tpp issue. >> but you know, joel, china is not part of the tpp. >> well, one of the key provisions that has disturbed people on the other side here is what's kaulded the nations of origin provision which means an

ownership of a particular entity. doesn't have to be a majority stake in order for that business to be be considered a vietnamese business or a malaysian business. there are concerns around provisions like that that it would give china more of a free reign in the region than they should when we're talking about trade deals. >> joel benenson, the chief strategist for the hillary clinton campaign. joel, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me, wolf. coming up, donald trump draws anger for refusing to endorse paul ryan and john mccain. plus, we've just received word that his running mate mike pence has now endorsed paul ryan, this after trump adviser dr. ben carson just told me that trump will in fact eventually endorse paul ryan and john mccain. we're going to get our panel to weigh in on this, the back-and-forth. stay with us. our medication... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage.

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the image of frustration and turmoil within the ranks but sources say trump aides are scrambling to get him back on track after days of distractions that he was basically responsible for. let's bring in our panel to discuss. cnn political commentator ryan lizza, ma tea gold. ryan, what do you make of this turmoil that we've seen over the past 24, 48 hours? >> well, what i guess i don't understand is why the trump campaign just doesn't try and turn the page. i mean, that was a pretty alarming report in the "wall street journal" this week about the obama administration sending cash to iran. this is right in trump's wheelhouse, right? he has talked about the iran deal. he has criticized the obama administration in relationship with iran. so they just seem to never take

opportunities to sort of get back on message or just deliver a consistent message that is right in their wheelhouse. i mean, the fact that they're having dana's reporting today which is great, the fact they're calling reporters and denying the turmoil story rather than just moving on and trying to change the subject, you sort of scratch your head as someone who watches politics. it's puzzling that they don't know how to change the subject, turn the page. >> matea, yesterday in an interview with "the washington post" yesterday, he says he's not quite ready to endorse the speaker paul ryan, but mike pence, his vice presidential running mate just called into fox and said he was supporting endorsing paul ryan. there seems to be a little disconnect there. >> if you read the transcript with my colleague mr. phil rucker, you will see mr. trump intentionally made that comment about speaker ryan. he comes back and says he specifically notes he's not ready to endorse him. as we're reporting right now, i

think it's fair to say the party is in full panic mode. every day spent on this is a day not spent talking about hillary clinton's e-mails, iran. you can see it on the campaign trail. i was in colorado springs on friday talking to conservative voters and republicans, and they have deep a.m. biff lance about trump because of this concern about his tendency to sort of go off message and be unpredictable. i heard that over and over again. they didn't know whether he was going to be someone who would be steady. and that is penetrating even with his base now. >> this is the same donald trump we saw throughout the year of the primaries. >> yeah. >> and the caucuses. and he beat 16 established, well-funded republican candidates and now he's just continuing that same strategy even though a lot of his advisers want him to tone down. >> absolutely. i mean, you have to assume from his perspective he thinks, you know what? i've outsmarted everyone. i've gotten this far. i captured the nomination of the republican party of the i know better thane all of the supposed

political pros. i do think that there are fundamental differences between a party's primary and a general election. and that maybe he's a little blind to that. i mean, there are -- i don't want to exaggerate how much -- fairly serious republicans at the sort of strategist level people who never liked trump in the first place but looking into if this gets worse, can we replace him? you know, can you actually dump trump after the party's actually had its convention? now, is that a full-blown -- no elected officials have said that yet. but the fact that those conversations are even happening just shows how panicked republicans are right now. >> the fact that people are looking at the rules of the republican national committee to see if less a formula, say he were to drop out, it's totally far-fetched, how would they go about getting a nominee? the fact that people are talking about underscores the turmoil. >> sure. though i think there's nothing in trump's constitution or track record to date that would suggest that he would actually

voluntarily drop out. i think one of the things we're seeing happen right now is a real attempt to try to do some damage control and insulate the remaining republicans who still have primaries coming up who have to deal with this. >> thank you very much. coming up, on the money trail. a major shipment of cash totally $400 million sent by the united states to iran on the very same day four americans were freed. was this a situation of quid pro quo? the state department says no. what was it? we'll speak to the spokesman for the state department.

a landmark nuclear deal implemented a $400 million payment delivered and four americans released. first reported by the "wall street journal," all of the events transpired between the u.s. and iran, the very same day in january. u.s. marina myrrh heck mahdi, "washington post" reporter jason rezaian and ftwo more were rele an january 17th, the exact same day an unmarked cargo plane delivered $1.7 billion in cash an a pallet.

i'm joined now by mark toner, the deputy spokesman at the state department. mark, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> this report raising lots of questions. the republican national committee just issued this statement a little while ago. i'll read it to you. part of it at least. the obama/clinton foreign policy not only means cutting a dangerous nuclear deal with the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism. it also means paying them a secret ransom with cargo planes full of cash. this reckless arrangement is not only a major breach of longstanding u.s. policy, it also means millions of dollars potentially finding their way into the pockets of terrorist organizations while putting a price on the head of every american. lots of questions raised, mark. why wasn't congress made aware of the specifics of this arrangement? >> well, in fact, it's hard to know where to begin with that statement, wolf. first of all, this was no

ransom. it was a settlement for an outstanding claim in the haig tribunal that had been established, let's be clear, in 1981 to resolve any outstanding claims between the u.s. and iran. and was similar simply not linked to the he release of those detained americans nor the iran nuclear deal. >> why wasn't congress informed of the specifics of the arrangement? >> well, again, i would take objection to that. even publicly. the president and secretary of state kerry were out within hours of when this arrangement was made, the settlement concluded, talking about it publicly. certainly congress was informed on the details prior to the settlement. >> because a lot of the members of congress say they repeatedly asked including chairman of the relevant committees repeatedly asked for these specifics. they weren't informed. and we weren't informed that

$400 million in foreign currency, euros, swiss flanks, was being flown to tehran, being delivered in an unmarked plane exactly the same time the american hostages were released. you're saying that was totally coincidental? >> well, a couple of points to make. i really can't speak to the mechanics of how the settlement was made except i would only underscore to your viewers and to the american people that it's important to acknowledge the reality of iran's financial connections to the global financial network or financial system rather at the time this settlement was made. and it was not an easy thing to do to make this settlement. there's not -- you know, there was disconnect if you will and remains disconnected from the global financial system. >> the state department does consider iran the number one state sponsor of terrorism, is that right?

>> that is correct. and again, we've made no claims otherwise. in fact, president obama, others have said that we still don't expect or don't see, rather, any change in iran's behavior as a result of the nuclear agreement. but a couple of points here. one is, this nuclear agreement was never meant to solve all of our problems with iran. those problems persist. but what it did do was it took a significant problem off the table, and that was iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon. and that has and we stand by that, that has been taken off the table by the iran nuclear agreement and iran has abided by that. >> the longstanding u.s. policy is not to pay ransom for the release of americans being held by terrorist organizations. has that policy changed? >> not at all, wolf. and thank you for giving me the opportunity again to stress there was no ransom here. what we saw was frankly the culmination of several different lines of effort, but they were separate. and i can't underscore that

enough. there was the jcpoa, the iran nuclear agreement, the release of the detainees and finally the resolution of this claim of the haig tribunal. that by the way saved american taxpayers billions of dollars in interest. let me make it -- go ahead. >> are there any re"stictiost rn how the iranians can use the $400 million? >> i can't speak to what restrictions may be in place regarding that. that is iran's money. but what we have seen and i think some u.s. officials have spoken to this is that the money has not been used -- as far as we can see, for any nefarious purposes. it's been used for infrastructure improvement, development projects, et cetera. now, we can't rule that out again because we've seen iran continue to exercise bad behavior in the region. we can't change that overnight. >> they're still providing military and financial aid to the bashar al assad regime,

hezbollah, other groups the u.s. considers to be terrorist organizations, right? >> that is correct. we've seen, again, that behavior continue. but again, this was a settlement of a claim that frankly had the tribunal settled it may have gone more in the iran's favor and cost the americans taxpayers money. these are from the downfall of the government in 1979. this tribunal was set up in place. and another point to underscore that has been lost in all of this, there's been over 4700 claims settled on behalf of american citizens and american companies to the tune of several billion dollars. that's important. this is a two-way street here. >> the whole notion of the $1.7 billion that the u.s. is paying iran, has the rest of that 1.3 already been transferred as well? >> i can't speak to whether that's been finalized. it's really out of our hands here at the state department. what i can say is we'll

>> iranians themselves say you paid ransom, the united states paid ransom for the release of those americans. are they lying? had. >> i think the source of that comment was an iranian military commander who has probably his own reasons for putting forth that kind of claim. he's playing for domestic audiences. all i can say is, and i would hope that people would trust in what the president has said, the secretary of state has said versus an iranian military commander. >> to wrap it up, mark, the fact that the americans were released exactly at the same time as that plane arrived from switzerland with $400 million in hard currency in cash, that was totally coincidental? >> what i'll shay iay is, becau the iran nuclear agreement, that opened up the space to settle this claim, and also to confirm or to get the release of these american detainees.

but it is really important to stress here that these were all separate processes. in fact, the hague tribunal claims process had gone on for decades, years, and in fact we were able to bring it to a successful conclusion. but there was no linkage. there was no ransom. >> bottom line question then is -- if you had not delivered that $400 million on that day, exactly at that time, would those american detainees, hostages, have been released on that day? >> yes. we believe so. because that was worked through a different process and it was concluded successful. again, because of the space that our negotiations with the iranians had opened up in other areas. >> mark toner, deputy spokesman for the state department. mark, thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up, breaking news just coming in to cnn. president obama commutes more than 200 more prison sentences in a single day. that's a new record. we're going live to the white house when we come back.

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got some breaking news coming in to cnn. president obama has just commuted the sentences of 214 people. that's the most granted on a single day since 1900. let's go to our white house correspondent, michelle kosinski. michelle, explain the background, what happened here. >> reporter: hey, wolf. just look through this long list of the people whose sentences the president has just commuted. they span the country. but there are similarities. these are non-violent drug offenses. in many, many cases these people have been sentenced to life in prison. mainly in the late '90s, early 2000s era. in some cases they are large amounts of drug, like cocaine. in some cases there are firearms convictions that go along with that. possession of a gun during a drug offense. but these are non-violent offenses and this is what this administration has tried to do, go back, look at the long

sentences that people got during the wars on crime and drugs during that period of time, and try to give them a break, frankly. the president has commuted more than 560 sentences like this during his time in office. that's more than the prior nine presidents combined have commuted, wolf. >> are more expected? he's still got a few more months in office. >> yeah. i mean they never rule that out. this has been a pattern. every two months or so the white house releases the notice that they've done this. they list everybody whose sentence has been commuted. in certain cases there have been some notable people. the mother of a denver broncos player was in one of these groupings of commutations. we've had an opportunity to interview some of these people, too. their stories are extraordinary. they were young at the time, they made some bad choices, they own up to that, but they were stunned to find that they were sentenced to life behind bars

for what are in some cases relatively minor drug offenses, wolf. >> president obama just posted on his facebook page -- ill a he read it to you -- too many men and women end up in the criminal justice system that serves up excessive punishment especially for non-drug violent offenses. but this is a country that believes in second chances so we've got to make sure our criminal justice sis telystem w for he everyone. he's made that point in recent months. >> reporter: it is a matter of fairness. when you look hat a sentence non-violent, possession with intent to distribute, someone got a life sentence for, versus a violent crime today which they don't get as long a sentence for, it is a matter of trying to even out the severity of some of these sentences that, upon review now, are deemed to be too extreme. interviewing people here at the

white house a couple months ago who had just been released after decades behind bars, the emotion there, feeling that they were locked away for a drug offense, and that nobody heard them saying, why am i still in here? in some cases they wrote a letter to the white house. and to have that heard and have it acted upon, that was everything to them. >> michelle kosinski at the white house, thank you. also breaking right now, a washington, d.c. police officer is under arrest, charged with providing financial support to isis. nicholas young, of fairfax, virginia, just outside d.c. was arrested this morning by the fbi, scheduled to make his first court appearance minutes from now. he is an officer with the washington metropolitan area transit authority. investigators say he made several trips to libya trying to buy gift cards to help isis with recruiting. young will appear in court in alexandria, virginia just moments from now for his initial appearance. looking at live pictures of the courthouse. he could face up to 20 years in

prison if convicted. important story we're following. that's it from me. much more coming up. i'll be back later today 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." lots of news happening today, and it continues right now right here on cnn. wolf blitzer, thank you so much. great to you with you on this wednesday. i'm brooke baldwin. this is cnn. heads up -- donald trump is set to speak live a short time from now as the republican nominee is under pressure like never before because, in case you missed it moments ago, his own vice presidential nominee contradicted trump's latest decision, his latest headline here in the last 24 hours. we'll get all into that here in just a moment. but first, keep in mind, this comes as sources say his own staffers are growing frustrated with trump going off message, a