work together. let's modernize our army and marines, our navy and air force, our coast guard, we need to respond to evolving threats from states like russia, china, iran and north korea. from networks, criminal and terrorists networks like isis. we need a military that is ready and agile so it can meet the full range of threats and operate on short notice across every do main, not just land, sea, air and space, but also cyberspace. we'll invest in new technologies so new breakthroughs can transform or military, just as stealth, rescission weapons and advanced communications did in the past. we'll make a renewed push to reduce the world's nuclear weapons because that does make us all safer. and we'll step up our efforts to secure nuclear material around the world and stop terrorists

from acquiring or using weapons of mass destruction. one of the first thing i will do as president is to call for a new nuclear posture review. we have to make sure that america's arsenal is prepared to meet future threats. we'll invest in the next frontier of military engagement, protecting u.s. interests in outer space and cyberspace. you've seen reports. russia has hacked into a lot of things, china hacked into a lot of things. russia hacked into the democratic national committee. maybe even some state election systems. so we've got to step up our game, make sure we're well-defended and able to take the fight to those that go after us. as president, i will make it clear that the united states will treat cyberattacks just like any other attack. we will be ready with serious political, economic and military

responses. and we're going to invest in protecting our governmental networks and our national infrastructure. i want us to lead the world in setting the rules of cyberspace. if america doesn't, others will. so in short, we have to be ready to win today's fights and tomorrows. but you know that the most important thing isn't the size of our military or the sophistication of our weapons. the most important thing is our people, the men and women who put on the uniform and serve. we need to take a hard look at our military's personnel policy to make sure we're doing everything to attract and keep the best and the brightest who

volunteer. we need to support not only them but their families. and as president i will never forget the debt we owe to our veterans and your families who also served. i will never ever disrespect gold star families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. or prisoners of war who endured so much in our name. to insult them is just so wrong aba and it says a lot about the person doing the insulting. in the senate i worked with republicans to increase the benefit paid to gold star families, to expand access to military health insurance to make sure all members of the guard and reserves and their families have access to health

benefits whether they're deployed or training at home. i fought successfully to amend the 2007 defense appropriations act to establish a training program for family caregivers helping loved unwiones with traumatic brain injuries. senator john mccain and i joined forces to raise money for a state of the art rehab facility in san antonio to help seriously wounded service members coming home from iraq and afghanistan. like you i was outraged by the scandals at va hospitals, people waiting for months or years for wheelchairs and basic medications, some even dying while waiting for an appointment. i know that you heard from secretary mcdonald and i know how hard he and his team are working. we are going to build a 21st

century department of veterans affairs that delivers world class care and we are not going to let anyone privatize the va. we're going to reform and strengthen it, not privatize it. we will ensure access to timely quality care for all of our veterans, improve care for women who are often underserved, identify and treat all wounds of war, visible and invisible, including agent orange and gulf war syndrome and traumatic brain injury and ptsd. we will end the epidemic of veteran suicide by expanding access to mental health care and fighting the stigma that isolates too many of our veterans from getting the care that they need. i feel passionately about this

because i have looked into the eyes of too many family members who have lost their loved one to suicide. that's why just two days ago when i released my plan to improve mental health services for all americans, i included a specific section about more help for veterans and their families because we know too many aren't getting the help they need right now. we've got to serve them just as they served us. we are also going to help more veterans looking for jobs with expanded tax credits for businesses that hire veterans, more support to veterans who want to start their own businesses, and making it easier for veterans to get credit for the skills they learned while

serving. and we will crack down on for-profit schools and companies that prey on or discriminate against veterans or military families. they should be ashamed of themselves and we're going to hold them accountable. we will also work closely with the american legion to clean up and expedite the appeals process. benefits should be expeditiously as possible. i thank you for the work you're doing on that. a lot of what i have mentioned have support from democrats and republicans, maintaining our military and caring for our veterans should never be a partisan issue. defending american exceptionalism should always be above politics. but this is not a normal

election. the debates are not the normal disagreements between republicans and democrats. so i hope you will listen carefully to what my opponent and i propose, consider our plans and the values behind them. and after you've given us both a fair hearing, i hope you will join the growing number of americans, democrats, republicans and independents who are supporting our vision for the kind of future that we want for our country. this election shouldn't be about ideology. it's not just about differences over policy. it truly is about who has the experience and the temperament to serve as president and commander in chief. just three weeks ago 50 republican national security

experts who served in prior republican administrations wrote a letter saying that they will not vote for donald trump because he would be, in their words, the most reckless president in american history. by contrast, i am deeply honored to have so many retired military leaders backing me, along with these republican experts. i'm supported by people on both sides of the aisle. -- foreign policy for the last 30 years. they know i believe in a bipartisan foreign policy. they know i believe we should be finding ways to bring our country together around national security, our role in the world, our values. they know they can count on me

to do that. and what matters to them is that we make the right choice in november. the stakes this fall are as high as any election in our lifetimes. so i'm going to keep raising these issues, keep telling people where i stand, laying out plans for what i do, if i'm elected. i have to tell you, it is a little funny to me. i get criticized for having so many plans. people say oh, there she goes with another plan about mental health, about veterans. i have an old-fashioned idea if i'm asking for your vote for president, i should tell you what i want to do as your president. so yes i have laid out plans and i'm going to work my heart out to implement those plans. and if i win this fall, no one will work harder for our troops, our veterans, and our military families. this is personal to me.

starting with my dad. his name was hugh rodham. he enlisted in the navy shortly after pearl harbor. he became a chief petty officer at great lakes north of chicago. responsible for training thousands of young sailoring before they shipped out to sea, mostly to the pacific theater. after my dad died i received letters from men who had served under him. i treasure them to this day. my father told me how emotional he got when he accompanied his trainees to the west coast and saw those young sailors get onboard their ships. he knew some of them wouldn't survive. but he believed in their cause,

he believed in them and they went to serve, to protect our country. they knew their country needed them. over the course of the last years i've also had the privilege of working with, helping and supporting so many active duty and retired military members and families. first as fist lady, then as senator, then as secretary of state. whenever i would go anywhere representing you and be privileged to meet with the men and women who serve our country, i would sit down, if we had a chance, and hear what was on their minds, shake hands and take pictures, sometimes bring messages back to their loved

ones. and i too knew that some of those young men and women wouldn't be coming home either. it's that kind of courage and honor that our men and women in uniform demonstrate every single day. i will never forget that. and i would expect the american legion to be my partner in the white house to make sure i never do. you and all of our veterans deserve nothing less. our respect, our thanks but you also deserve a country that honors your service, not just with words but with deeds. that's why the american legion

is so critical working every day to make sure america lives up to that standard. i will be doing that work right alongside you if i am given the great honor to serve as your president and commander in chief. thank you all. god bless you. god bless the united states of america. thank you. >> hillary clinton, the democratic presidential candidate speak in cincinnati, ohio at the american legion convention. we want to welcome our viewers in united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. we heard hillary clinton aattract donald trump during that 40-minute address all ahead of the major immigration speech that donald trump is set to driver later tonight in arizona. >> you don't build a coalition by insulting our friends or

acting like a loose cannon. you do it by putting in the slow, hard work of building relationships. getting countries working together was my job every day as your secretary of state. it's more than a photo op. it takes consistency and reliability. actually it's just like building personal relationships. people have to get to know that they can count on you, that you won't say one thing one day and something totally different the next. and it certainly takes more than trying to make up for more than a year of insults and insen wagss by dropping in our on neighbors for a few hours and then flying home again. that is not how it works. >> strong words from the secretary of state, the former secretary of state.

i want to talk about that and much more. trump's upcoming meeting later this afternoon with mexico's president enrique pena nieto. jeff zeleny is in since gnat for us covering the clinton campaign. here in washington, our senior report, white house reporter carol lee, and juan carlos lopez and washington correspondent for the new yorker magazine ryan liza. jeff, you're there, you're in cincinnati. she delivered a major speech on veterans affairs but we also used the occasion to issue several blistering attacks against donald trump. >> reporter: she did indeed, wolf and she did all of that without saying donald trump's name specifically or even mexico specifically. but she certainly didn't have to get her point across. this is very much a commander in

chief speech, i would say, wolf. she went throughout her address talking about american exceptionalism, talking about the allies that america has with the world and how she believes that her rival would break those. she spoke specifically about gold star families, saying i will not disrespect them. i will not disrespect p.o.w.s, of course referring to the dustup after the democratic convention, as well as as comments about john mccain earlier in the year. that drew the biggest applause line here from a crowd that was otherwise fairly quiet, respectful but certain lit not a crowd of democrats. the legion is a slice of the country but certainly more conservative. those lines drew applause here. but this is one of the i would say more sober speeches she has given all hanging under the framework of who this group and

america believes its next commander in chief should be. >> the democratic candidate clearly trying to underscore her credentials as a potential commander in chief as opposed to what she said in donald trump's lack of credentials. >> we're hearing about his trip to mexico. part of the reason he's doing that is to look residential. standing on stage with another world leader puts him in a different light. there was hillary clinton showing why she is also presidential. a part reading of her resume and then undercutting donald trump, not using his name but at every turn, putting herself in the situation room during the bin laden reign and suggesting that donald trump doesn't have the temperament and experience in the way that she does to something like that. >> interestingly on this day that donald trump is actually

yout outside of the united states getting ready to meet with president pena nieto. >> she took some opportunities to dig at him for that. but this speech had a lot of things in it, cybersecurity, sequester, she talked about the iran deal, veterans affairs and essentially made a case for her professional experience, first lady, senator, secretary of state and she talked a lot about her father. all of it, though, then he tied it together saying what really means is the temperament. >> juan carlos, you know mexico, you know president pena. donald trump immediately accepted his invitation. why do you think he invited donald trump specifically? >> that's a question that i believe only enrique pena nieto

has an answer to. at the timing, the consensus you seem to be hearing out of mexico and many mexican americans, that if he gets donald trump to apologize, he might gain politically from this trip. good luck with that. but he has his state of the union tomorrow and donald trump is giving a speech today on immigration. it's surprising that he would be willing to have this meeting today not knowing what's going to come out of it. it's an interesting decision by the president of mexico. >> i don't know what was more surprising with the invitation from president pena or donald trump's accepting that invitation. >> and given his personal political situation in mexico, his approval ratings in the low 20s, donald trump is not a popular political figure in mexi mexico. so the president of mexico has every incentive to confront trump, not to give in to any of his requests.

most of the time when you meet a world leader that you've had an adversarial relationship with, you want to come out of that meeting with something. all of us are going to be asking trump, what did you get. i think it's a high risk low reward for trump. the big question out of it is going to be did he convince the president, did he make steps toward convincing him of that core campaign promise of making mexico pay for this wall. >> we'll see how he emerges donald trump with president pena at that bilateral meeting. they're supposedly going to be answering reporter's questions after the meeting and then he supplies to arizona for the big speech tonight. trump will speak at the american legion convention in cincinnati tomorrow. but today the republican presidential candidate is in mexico after accepting the surprise invitation to meet with the president of mexico, president pena.

later on tonight it's off to arizona to give what his campaign is billing as a major speech on immigration. here's how his running mate, the vice presidential candidate mike pence summed up the meeting when he was interviewed on cnn's "new day". >> today is the beginning of a conversation. it all proceeds out of a relationship. and to know donald trump is to know not your standard issue politician but really a business leader that knows, you know, you first got to sit down with people, you got to look them in the eye, tell them where you stand. they can express their positions and that's where real negotiation consist begin. make no mistake about it. i'm confident that my running mate will be very clear with president pena nieto about our priority of securing the border, building a wall. >> well, mike pence also applauded donald trump for accepting that invitation on short notice. it came just last week, that

invitation. the u.s. embassy in mexico city, apparently not very enthusiastic. the 'stach there advised the trump campaign not to make the quickly planned trip because of the logistical challenges caused by the tightened time frame. john vaus is live in mexico city for us. why would the mexican president invite donald trump to speak after all of the harsh words that have been exchange between these two men, the rhetoric that emerged, president pena referring to hitler at one time when describing trump. >> reporter: that's a big question that a lot of people are asking. there's not a lot of answers, wolf. president pena nieto has his lowest approval rating since taking office in 2012. so why would he want to be seen in a photo opportunity smiling and shaking hands with donald trump, a man who is deeply loathed by so many here in this country. why did he invite him to mexico

and what is essentially an official visit. lawmakers and other mexican leaders have made it perfectly clear that donald trump is not welcome. talk to mexicans, they'll say unless there's a major change by donald trump in the tone and the rhetoric and the policy, then as far as they're concerned the relationship between mexico and donald trump at this point is irreparable. as to president pena nieto, maybe this is a symbol as wanting to sit down and talk with the man who could in fact, come november, end up being the president of the united states. maybe a chance to settle some of those issues, starting working out the issues with security, immigration and trade. don't forget, hillary clinton was also extended a very similar invitation. at the end of the day, it might be as simple as that, working on the relationship between united states and mexico, a relationship which is so incredibly important to both countrie countries. >> we'll get back to you. we're anticipating seeing donald

trump go into that meeting fairly soon with the president of mexico. i want to bring back our panel. nia, if they emerge from the closed door meeting one on one, the mexican president and donald trump, they make statements which we anticipate they will make, we've heard from trump's people that they will then answer reporters' questions that are there, this could be rather lively. >> yeah, you imagine. if you're president pena nieto, you have everything to gain to make donald trump look bad for some of the things that he said about mexican immigrants in the past and that there's going to be a wall and mexico is going to pay for it. and if you're donald trump who in the past has talked trash away from the actual person on twitter but when he gets on a debate stage he often pulls his punches. so you wonder if that donald trump style and pandering that

we've seen before come forward in this instance too. if it does, he has everything to lose because she's been so tough, talked so tough about this wall, talked so tough about his ability to get mexico to pay for this wall. you've seen president pena and former president fox calling him crazy, that there's in way that will happen. >> he's going to be asked, did you tell the president of mexico that any's elected in president in the u.s. that mexico will pay for it. >> imagine if he were to say no or that he backed down. it's really hard to imagine either of these folks coming out saying something dramatically different. but it's a very presidential scene. you've covered a number of these, a foreign leader and the president come out, they deliver statements and they take questions from the press. and so in that sense the donald trump perhaps has an opportunity to look presidential. but i would find it hard to believe that either of them

would come out and say anything dramatically different than what they've been saying. >> i know he speaks english although he likes to do interviews in spanish and i assume there will be translators there for this session. >> that's going to be interesting. and i think the optics are interesting. the fact that you have the president of mexico, a democratically electeds president hosting a private citizen from the u.s. donald trump has been elected to anything. you have a private citizen traveling to mexico getting this reception, standing with the president of the country he's maligned many times. but this is going to be part of this very atypical campaign. >> where do you see this heading today? >> i'm not being facetious when i say this but donald trump is experienced in public life is wrestling and the reality tv world. and he does like to create villains and then create some drama around going and meeting them. i think a lot of his -- it is,

as you pointed out, his -- he never is as serious when he says he hates someone or says someone is an enemy. he loves creating moments of drama that completely dominate our conversation. >> this will be a real moment of drama when we see them emerge from the meeting and then donald trump will fly off to arizona to deliver his major speech on immigration, all happening on this day. everyone stay with us. coming up, donald trump makes this his first international trip as the republican party presidential candidate. he did go to scotland for a golf course event, but that was not necessarily an international affair. we're going to ask a reporter how locals are reacting to the mexican president, president pena meeting with the man who wants to build a wall between the u.s. and mexico and wants mexico to pay for it. into one you'll never forget.

expedia plus rewards. earn points on over one million hotels, flights, and packages. poallergies?reather. stuffy nose? can't sleep? take that. a breathe right nasal strip instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than allergy medicine alone. shut your mouth and say goodnight, mouthbreathers. breathe right.

month after month. year after year. then one night,

you hydroplane into a ditch. yeah... surprise... your insurance company tells you to pay up again. why pay for insurance if you have to pay even more for using it? if you have liberty mutual deductible fund™, you could pay no deductible at all. sign up to immediately lower your deductible by $100. and keep lowering it $100 annually, until it's gone. then continue to earn that $100 every year. there's no limit to how much you can earn and this saving applies to every vehicle on your policy. call to learn more. switch to liberty mutual and you could save up to $509. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

donald trump is meeting today in mexico city with the mexican president enrique pena nieto. after that sitdown donald trump flies off to arizona where he'll give a major speech on immigration later on tonight. a speech that was supposed to come last week but delayed tonight as the candidate crafts his message to voters. a critically important issue here in the united states. joining us, california democratic congressman, melinda sanchez. joining us from new york, boris epstein, the senior adviser to the trump campaign. congresswoman, did hillary clinton miss an opportunity by not accepting the invitation

from president pena first? >> i don't think so. i mean hillary clinton is focused on what she needs to do to win the presidential election. that's talking to voters here in the united states. i think it's pretty fool hearty for donald trump to take a break and travel outside the country to somehow try to elevate his stature when we're less than 100 days from the election and he's doing so poorly in the polls. clearly he's not focused on what he needs to do here in order to win the presidential election. >> we're actually 69 days away from the election. boris, let me let you respond to that. why did he decide to accept the last-minute invitation? >> first of all donald trump is up in a lot of the polls, up in the l.a. times poll, tied in several others, she's either up with or tied in florida, ohio and very close no pennsylvania and michigan. we're doing absolutely fine in the polls and he's take a few

hours to be the real leader that he is. that's why he was the first one to go to louisiana when the floods happened. that's why he's the first one to respond to attacks in brussels, nice, orlando. he's going to be meeting with the leader, the president of mexico because he was invited to talk about the real issues that face our two countries and provide leadership where it needs to be. it's agile -- >> it's not leadership to demonize -- >> hold on. i'll let you finish. >> donald trump will always meet face to face with those he needs to negotiate with. the narrative that he's not welcome, i'm not sure that's true. donald trump never said anything bad about mexico. he said we don't want illegal immigrants in this country. we want a country and a border. hillary clinton wants to swing or borders open, 100% amnesty. >> let me remind you what donald

trump said about mexicans, they'rerapists -- >> that's incorrect. >> boris, hold on. let mer speak. >> it is not leadership to demonize a community, to use venomous rhetoric and then accept an invitation and think everything is going to be given. i want to warn the gop of one thing. in the los angeles county, i don't know what polls you're looking at, sir, wu in l.a. county you cannot get your hands on a trump pinata because they're sold out and on back order. >> we may lose l.a. county. >> for every child that's taking a whack at a trump pina that, that's a vote are they have lost for a lifetime. >> we may lose l.a. county even though i'm not convinced of

that. >> you said he was up in the polls in l.a. county. >> i said that the l.a. times national poll has us up by two points and and reuters, now we're tied in the reuters tracking poll. donald trump is doing great and the reason is because the voters see a choice. donald trump offering fresh ideas. and hillary clinton failed at everything she's done. look at her speech to the american legion. it was a bore. that's why the crowd was so quiet. she doesn't have new ideas because she's been out there over 30 years and failed at everything from the d.c. bar to being, the worst secretary of state in the country's history. she's telling the veterans she's going to be there for them. the obama/hillary ticket was a failure. she cannot be aloud to be president. >> congresswoman, go ahead.

>> he can use whatever outlandish and outrageous talking points to try to distract from the fact that donald trump is not doing well, despite assertions -- >> look at the polls. >> -- to the contrary. she's leading in most polls. >> not in the reuters poll. >> women, muslims, minority communities, latino communities, those are the emerging leg traits. >> what do you like about hillary clinton's candidacy. >> hold on, boris. >> i'm sorry. a true leader is not rash in his decision-making, does not insult other leaders of other countries. a true leader doesn't alienate your friends and your allies and then just think that from one day to the next you can, by one visit, change that dynamic. >> he obviously has not alienated the leader of mexico. >> leadership is working with

other people. >> when i may respond. >> boris, i wanted to point out -- >> you cannot go it alone with today's complex problems aebs say you're a leader. >> may i respond? >> that l.a. times poll is an online poll doesn't mean cnn's polling standards. i want to point that out. but do you think donald trump will tell the mexican president later today when they meet that the u.s. will build the wall and that mexico will pay for it? >> we're also tied in the reuters poll. >> that's also an online poll. that doesn't necessarily meet cnn's standards. >> we could talk about polls until we're blue in the face. the answer to your question, there will be a constructive dits cushion on all issues. of course we need to stop illegal immigration in this country. he said that a lot of illegal immigrants that come in this country create crimes. kate stanley was brutally murdered in a sanctuary city.

donald trump will end sanctuary cities. donald trump will make sure we build a wall and we need to stop illegal immigration into our country just like mexico wants to stop illegal immigration into its own country. those are issues that will be discussed along with nafta. a 22-year-old agreement that needs to be updated. there are supposed to be supplemental agreements on labor and the environment that were never passed. we need to make sure that happens and make sure that all sides of nafta -- it's not just the u.s. and mexico, that all members are getting the maximum. that's why i'm here, to talk about the strength of donald trump. clinton supporters can only attack donald trump. >> we're all out of time. i promise you will be continue this conversation down the road. the former mexican

president, va sen taye fox, he tells cnn that the trip by donald trump to mexico city should not be happening. >> he is not welcome to mexico by 130 million people, we don't like him, we don't want him, we reject his visit. i don't understand why president pena has offered this opportunity. i think it's nothing more than a political stunt. trump is using, mexico is using president pena to boost his sinking poll numbers. i think this is a big mistake on part of the president pena. >> afterwards trump tweeted, former president va sin taye fox also invited me when he apologized for using the f bomb. fox tweeting right back, quote i invited you to come and apologize to all mexicans.

stop lying. mexico is not yours to play with. show some respect. let's talk about all of this and more, get mexico's reaction to donald trump's surprise visit today to mexico city. i'm joined by our senior washington correspondent, carlos lopez once again and joining us from mexico right you, josh partlow, the mexico city bureau chief for the washington post. josh, what's the atmosphere there towards this meeting that's about to happen between donald trump and president pena? >> i think people are completely shocked from people on the streets to the highest levels of government here. very few people had any idea yesterday, including i've been told cabinet ministers that this visit was going to happen. from everything i've been able to learn, this was almost a formality, this invitation and no one expected that donald trump would say yes. it's been shock and outrage now at president pena nieto that he

would invite the man who is probably one of the most unpopular americans out there here. >> i assume josh logistically it's a nightmare that's a hastily called visit. >> it's been total chaos. people are trying to plan protests, people are on the streets of mexico city ready to express their dismay. the logistics of where this is going to take place. what we're hearing now is that they will be meeting in the mexican presidential palace and making statements to the press. but all the logistics from his landing, which take place any moment if it hasn't already were obviously planned last minute. >> juan carlos, it's a question a lot of people are asking. the mexican president. was this short of a formality to

invite both of these candidates to come visit mexico city so we can have a conversation. did he actually believe donald trump would accept the invitation? >> presidential candidates have visited the mexico in the past. it's a low key affair. they go and meet with americans who are living in mexico because it's a very strong tie. this is surprise in the timing. maybe the crisis he's facing with his low popularity and the issues facing mexico led him to believe this might spark something else. the question is what can he get out of it. >> does the mexican president think that a meeting like this could boost his popularity among mexicans? >> if he thinks that, he's probably the only one that thinks he does. he's already, like you mentioned, suffered from plenty of scandals, conflicts of interest scandals from the government, rising violence.

lately accused of plagiarizing his law school thesis. his popularity is really low and he's battling from one pop to the other. he's got a state of the union address coming up this week. all of the attention had been on what's he's going to say and now this comes in where he invites donald trump which has set off the outrage in mexico city. i guess he can look that he might think he can be the statesman, the take the high road and meet whoever is going to be the politician here, you know, or the possible president. but that's about all i can get it back to. >> thanks very much for joining us. juan carlos lopez, thanks to you as well. isis announces the death of one of its key figures. but who killed him in the details of how russia and the united states are publicly arguing over whose strike took him out.

pena niet u.s. defense official tells our own jim sciutto that russia's claim it killed the key isis deputy abu al adnani is laughable saying, "we stand by the statement we conducted yesterday. we conducted a strike that targeted adnani. we are investigating the results of that strike." al adnani directed some of isis' most important operations, including the terror attacks in paris and brussels. we're also learning from a senior european counterterrorism official that new intelligence indicates isis has stepped up efforts to try to infiltrate operatives in to the uk to launch new attacks.

let's discuss these developments. i'm joined once again by our international diplomatic editor nic robertson, and our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto joins us from the pentagon right now. jim, even during a gaggle, a conversation aboard air force one, the white house press secretary, josh ernest, said there are no facts to substantiate russia's assertion they are responsible for the killing of al adnani. has the u.s. coalition confirmed who actually killed adnani? >> no, they say they are still assessing at this point whether he is dead. this normally takes some time. the process involves some open source information, things like isis yesterday announcing that adnani is indeed dead, but they want to corroborate that with other information from the ground until they reach a high confidence level that in fact he is killed. it is interesting, just left the pentagon briefing room here. you basically have the pentagon,

the white house all but calling russia a liar on this. the pentagon press secretary punching holes in the russian story here saying, one, they have not seen the russians use precision guided weaponry as was used in this strike. two, that they haven't seen the russians devote in his words, peter cook's words, much effort to tracking adnani before this point, whereas the u.s., peter cook said, has been trying to track him for some time here and it is those reasons that give them confidence that it's their strike. we did ask peter cook if they had any evidence that russia was operating in the area at the time and might have had a strike that could possibly have targeted adnani and the answer from the pentagon was again, they have no facts to support the russian claim. u.s. standing by its claim that they targeted adnani, the only remaining question is can they confirm that he is in fact dead. >> assuming, nic, he is dead, what does it mean for isis? how much of a setback would this

be? how quickly, for example, potentially could he be replaced? >> they could replace him very quickly, wolf. the reality is that this is an organization, a terror group, that's built upon trust, and that's probably the most important thing that's been broken here because he is someone who has a long lineage of trust with baghdadi, the leader of isis. that's not something that they can replace. physically replace him with somebody else, absolutely they could do that. the command structure, key people -- and he was one of them close to baghdadi -- but built on these what they call councils that run anything from military operations to financing the terror group. there will be a pool of people who can replace him. but this was a guy whose voice resonated in the living rooms and bedrooms across europe, even in the united states, with some of the sort of lone wolf type attacks he called for. we can see how those were followed through by some of these wannabe jihadis. the attack in nice was just one example of that. they will replace him, but this

is a significant setback for them. this is a time when they're losing terth in iraq, they're losing territory in syria and in libya as well. they'll put forward another voice but it perhaps won't carry the same weight, won't have quite the same trust within the organization if we look at the way over the past decade or so al qaeda leadership structure was broken down over time. this is what's happening here. ultimately it weakens the organization. this is a voice that called for terror. it was a voice that was answered on the streets of europe and in the united states as well. that it is gone is a positive. they'll find another. >> quickly, nic, what can you tell us about this report from this western european counterterrorism official that there is indications isis is about to step up a terror attack against the uk? >> well of course, europe has gone on a much more forward-leaning approach to countering the terror threat seeing what happens in brussels and france. more people arrested, more

interrogations. in britain the assessment has been from these interrogations they are learning isis wants to penetrate the united kingdom. they would really like to attack there. there are several reasons why they haven't been able to do it. one, britain is an island so there is no land connection. that of course has been key for al qaeda to slip -- isis, rather, to slip people around europe crossing in the free passport zone. they can't do that getting into britain. they have to show a passport. they can get tracked down and recognized. weapons much harder to get in the uk than they were, for example, than we saw in brussels or paris. >> jim, how seriously are u.s. officials taking this isis threat they will now retaliate against the u.s. for the killing of al adnani? >> they take it very seriously. they do say adnani's death if it is confirmed is a significant blow because he's had such a central operational role in many

of the attacks against the west. they credit him in effect for attacks that killed some 1,800 people. this is in paris, this is in brussels. in turkey as well. but, fact is, oftentimes when you have strikes like this that take out significant leaders or losses on the battlefield that isis attempts to show its strength, its relevance, its resilience by attempting to carry out further attacks abroad. so they will take a threat like that very seriously. >> jim sciutto, nic robertson, guys, thanks very much. that's it for me. stay with cnn. much more coming up on donald trump's meeting with the president of mexico. we got you covered. and we won't stop. but did you know your eyes, your brain, and your joints really love them too?

introducing megared advanced 4in1... just one softgel delivers mega support.

delivers mega support. an expression of disgust caused by inadequate litter tidy cats is the cure. with new guaranteed tidylock protection, you won't have to face one more stank face. tidy cats. every home, every cat. there's a tidy cats for that.

i'm terhe is.at golf. but i'd like to keep being terrible at golf for as long as i can. new patented ensure enlive has hmb plus 20 grams of protein to help rebuild muscle. for the strength and energy to do what you love. new ensure enlive. always be you.

hi there, i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching cnn. thank you for being with me. let's get to the breaking news. a major moment here in the race for the white house. we are waiting to see an image sure to send shockwaves through the political world here and beyond our borders. why? because donald trump will be standing by the president of a nation trump has maligned, really ever since the first couple of minutes of his campaign. talking about mexico and trump's own advisor tells c