zbloinchts welcome to "inside politics. visiting the headquarters at the u.s. central and southern commands. see the pictures there. that's mcdill air force base. we'll take you there in a bit. should get some tape of the president meeting with troops.

we'll see what happens there. stay with us. one flash point. equating the united states with vladimir putin's russia. >> putin is an enemy of freedom of religion. the u.s. celebrates freedom of religion. putin is an enemy of the free press. the u.s. celebrates free press. putin is an enemy of political descent. the u.s. celebrates political disent and the right for people to argue free from violence about places where ideas are in conflict. there is no moral ekwifl ensy between the united states and america. another source of gop. the president is, again, insisting with zero evidence there were millions of illegal votes cast in november. >> no evidence it occurred in such a significant number that would have changed the presidential election, and i

don't think that we ought to spend any federal money investigating that. >> today is also a big legal test for the new administration. as it asks the federal appeals court to reinstate its travel ban asserting a lower court wrongly interfered with presidential power. >> there's simply no question under the constitution, and, frankly, under federal law that the president of the united states has the authority in the interest of national security to determine who has the right to come into this country. >> with us to share the reporting and their insights, cnn's nia malika herpd son, manu raju and the atlantic's molly ball. the ninth circuit court of appeals is the current stop for the high stakes legal battle, but the losing side almost certain to appeal the question of whether the ban is constitutional is likely to ultimately reach the supreme court. as this battle plays out, the president is ignoring pleas from his legal advisors to tone down

his attacks on the judge who issued the order halting the ban. "just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril," the president tweeted sunday. "if something happens, blame him and the court system. people pouring in, bad." there's a legal argument here, and as the legal argument plays out in the courts, have you this political argument where a lot of democrats are saying it publicly and a lot of republicans privately that it's not appropriate for the leader of the executive branch to be so personal, so pointed, so critical of the judicial branch. >> well, and it is very clear, like you said, a lot of republicans critical of this as well, very clear that trump is not very respectful of the separation of powers in this regard, and he believes that he can, you know, bully this judge the same way he thought he could bully the judge during the campaign by attacking the judge personally, leveling personal insults, and, thus, trying to get public opinion on his side. the problem is public opinion isn't the way the judiciary works. these judges are going to issue

the rulings that they're going to issue based on their ruling of the law, whether or not trump makes fun of them or blames them. >> and what about the supporter who says so what? this is who he is. this is what he does. you guys in washington should get over it. >> i think that's how they feel really. i mean, if you look at a lot of the polling, his overall approval rating isn't so good. in the 40s or so. among republicans it's quite good, and you hear from trump supporters this idea that this is what he was brought to washington to do. he is the grand disrupter. i think at some point the question, though, becomes to what end? sort of what are the results of this disruption? is it just sort of disruption for disruption's sake or were all the things.

>> trump went on twitter attacking the judge. there's an inherent conflict between trump's gut instincts and what people in the administration feel is the right message to be putting out from -- >> they scrub it or not. just the fact that trump had two days. well, that's -- this is sort of the long running trump show that the staff and his advisors try -- trump's comments and he upsets the apple cart entirely by going, you know, full bore. it's remarkable to watch. mike pence, who is every bit the conventional politician that trump is and try to explain.

in no relation to what the president said at all. whatsoever. it doesn't bother trump's borders because they're looking at this through their own world view, and it's going to take a lot more. the fact is that the separation of powers matter before trump was here, and it's going to matter after he leaves. >> it will certainly come up in those confirmation hearings for gorsuch. they say he is prepared for this, and he has a good answer for this idea of whether he will be unduliy influenced or whether or not he understands the importance of the independence of the judiciary. >> and you mentioned the vice president whose job sometimes, we make jokes about it, but he is out there, clean up on aisle two. he was asked yesterday about the moral equivalency of the -- we'll get to that in a minute. he was out there, you know, so-called judge. why is he critical of judges? is that appropriate? whether you like pence or not, he did a lot of the sunday shows yesterday, and just watch here to see how consistent he is. you can ask him anything you want. he knows what he wants to say.

>> from the outset of his campaign for president and the outset of the administration, president trump has made it clear that our administration is going to put the safety and security of the american people first and the executive order that he signed suspending travel from countries that have been compromised by terror is consistent with that objective. >> it is if it you go through the transcript at home, folks, if you want to see it again, maybe you support them, maybe you don't, maybe you like him or maybe you don't. as a communicator, he is remarkably consistent and disciplined even when people are trying to get him to answer for some of the things his president, his boss, says that are a little out there. >> it leads him to extraordinary places, though. when he was talking to john thurston, for example, yesterday he said under repeated questioning about is the united states morally superior to russia, he wouldn't say yes or no, and the reason -- of course, mike pence thinks the answer is gentlemen. >> we know from his history he does. >> of course, he does.

he reveres the united states and -- >> has been a hawk on russia. >> absolutely. >> he doesn't want to say anything that will even offer the slightest hint that he is running from the president who sort of gives him a job that he probably would never have gotten. >> that's the important point here, right, that for so many conventional republicans and conservatives, mike pence is the one in the white house minding the store. he is the one that they are counting on to make this. they think that pence can make this a conventional republican administration while trump puts on a side show over here that doesn't matter. trump has already proven, number one, he can do things. he can sign executive orders that actually have an affect in the world. he is not just out there tweeting and causing outrages, and number two, that pence is very careful, very diplomatic, very speaking -- careful not to speak for trump. he is not going to be giving a wink and a nod to conventional republicans saying we're on your side. >> when they're talking to mike

pence, and they do talk to mike pence wrush they gave his cell phone out to every republican senator. what mike pence is reassuring them on these things. is that what donald trump actually believes? will he change his message? will he be in line with what mike pence is saying or is he just trying to reassure them hoping that donald trump has gone that way? >> we're in a new week of the administration. not what the president says. >> which is -- >> that's pretty striking. he is also doing things that are testing the norms of american politics. stopping people with green cards from coming into the country is not something president mike pence would have done. mike pence can sort of, like, trump's play all he wants, but that is not something that -- >> to that point, once the stay was issued by the district judge, the state department, the

department -- open the borders, let people in. they went back to a traditional world where we know that's not what the president -- we know that's not what steve bannon and the white house want going forward. to the point what has been interesting i think the last 72 hours, maybe goes back about 100 hours, you had the story on the border wall. we had so many republicans openly on the record, names attached, criticizing the president. mitch mcconnell, the top of the program, trying not togs i think the president is wrong, but then making clear he thinks the president is wrong on issues like russia, on issues like voter fraud. you saw conservative senator ben sass of nebraska talk about russia. donald trump tweeting so-called judge, where the point -- democrats think it's a constitutional crisis to have the executive meddling with the judicial. republicans don't go that far, but they do get into the respect for institutions. if the president is poo-pooing institutions -- >> i don't understand language like that. we don't have so-called judges. we don't have so-called senators. we don't have so-called presidents. we have people from three

different branches of government who take an oath to uphold and defend the constitution, and it's important that we do better civics education for our kids. we don't have any so-called judges. we have real judges. >> again, that's a conservative republican senator. we know he was not a trump fan during the campaign. let's be honest and open about that. still, to go publicly on television and essentially say that will the president of the united states needs a civic legacion, it's remarkable. >> it is remarkable. i think we remember very well donald trump's speech where he said that he alone can fix it. he didn't necessarily talk about the three branches of government, one of which at this point is checking him in providing some balance, but, yeah, i mean, i think republicans obviously troubled by this a great deal. what it means in terms of what they'll actually do, pleem, it's one thing to sort of publicly criticize the president, but what does it mean for what they do in terms of policy? >> here's the big question. it is already becoming clear that donald trump cannot get

everything he wants. that's normal. no president gets everything he wants. even when his own party controls all of the branches of government. he is not going to get everything he wants, and he is being blocked on multiple fronts. he is not getting the travel ban that he unilaterally signed. he is not getting congress to do the things he wanted done right away, like on obama care. it's clear he finds that frustrating. how is he going to respond? number one, he could just pretend he is getting everything he wants and talk up the things he is getting and downplay the things he is not getting and make it seem like he is being very effective, it or he can continue in this vein where he makes it clear how frustrated he is and goes to war with everybody else in washington, and that would be a real conflagrati conflagration. >> if he does the latter, and his approval rating stays in the 40s, they won't worry about it. we wait for the legal developments. the ninth circuit could ask for a hearing or rule tonight or in

the next day or two. up next, though, to russia with love. president trump, again, speaks warmly of vladimir putin, but this latest version crosses a new line. i'm a concrete mason. i own my own company. i had some severe fatigue, some funny rashes.

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president trump, live pictures there. mcdill air force base. his briefings will such on syria. maybe he will hear something to make him reconsider this. >> do you respect putin? >> i do respect him. >> do you? why? >> i respect a lot of people, but that doesn't mean i'm going to get along with them. he is a leader of his country.

i say it's better to get along with russia than not, and if russia helps us in the fight against isis, which is a major fight and islamic terrorism all over the world, major fight, that's a good thing. will i get along with him? i have no idea. >> putin is a killer. >> a lot of killers. we got a lot of killers. you think our country is so innocent? you think our country is so innocent? >> striking comment there. the president's putin fetish has long frustrated fellow republicans. conduct themselves and the way the united states does.

>> again, mcconnell, one of the most disciplined men in washington not saying the president is wrong, but then going out to make crystal clear he thinks the president is very, very, very wrong. your point earlier, you were saying they keep hoping the vice president pulls the president away from where he is, which nobody can quite understand where he just refuses to say, yeah -- that he won't criticize putin is one thing to drive people on the hill particularly a little crazy, shall we say, but the fact that he equated the united states with vladimir putin's russia has them all spinning now. >> yeah. it's like a sort of, you know, lefty college professor. >> it's also a line straight out of russian propaganda, right? you watch all the shows and -- >> oh, you're so clean here, america? how about your own central intelligence agency? >> no standing. >> of aaafter all you've done. look at kissinger and -- >> trump doesn't know that. he doesn't know that he is

reprizing the rt talking points. he doesn't know that he is doing a howard zimmer impression. it's his go to line. he has not made the jump from citizen to candidate or president. it's different now. he doesn't quite get that. >> that's remarkable. read the transcripts of donald trump from that interview. he sounds like candidate trump, right? i mean, he doesn't seem like -- he clearly has access to enormous amounts of information now that he is president. he can call on anyone and do some sort of briefing. he clearly hasn't done that, so he keeps going back to these same ideas about putin, about ripping up the nuclear agreement. it just doesn't seem to have moved off of it. maybe he will at some point. it's not clear. >> it's clear that the rn republicans on the hill are not okay with his rhetoric. is there a bipartisan push to stiffen sanctions against russia

and people from john mccain, lindsey graham, to democrat ben carden and -- does mitch mcconnell bring the sanctions bill to the floor of the senate and confront donald trump on this issue? we don't know where the administration stands. that is -- what pushes them to go after this issue on trump? what's it, comments like these, or do they stay and let donald trump clean it up? >> when you ask people about this, whether they're people who served in prior administrations, democrat or republican, people are divided where, some people say he just doesn't get it, doesn't understand it, and hasn't taken the time to learn it as president, hasn't taken the time. other people say he is just stubborn. he doesn't want to say he was wrong. democrats, though, are starting to be more open suggesting there's something nepharious at play? >> i want to know what the russians have on donald trump. i think we need to have that investigation done by the fbi through his financial, personal, and political connections to

russia and we want to see his tax returns so we can have truth in the relationship between putin, whom he admires. >> it's hard to realize where we are. we're three weeks into a new presidency. we have republicans openly criticizing on the record. that's not a back benching rank-and-file member of congress who is saying i want to know what the russians have on him. now, is she speaking from some knowledge because we do know there are investigations going on capitol hill about alleged connections between the trump campaign and the russian government? she gets classified briefings. or is she just appeasing the democratic base that wants their lawmakers to just throw the kitchen sink at the president? >> i think it's a lot of the latter, to be frank. last week they suggested that trump should be impeecached. this is not anywhere near

pelosi. i asked pelosi do you agree with maxine waters. she said only when and if he breaks the law. i'm not quite there yet. there is that part of the base that is dragging the leadership to align themselves in this very aggressive push against it, but the democratic leadership does not want to overreach. >> we'll talk more about the democrats later in the program, but have they not been just as guilty by undermining trust in institutions by saying so-called judge. are they not doing the same thing if there are investigations, but to publicly talk about impeaching a president the third week in office. the democratic leader to say i want to know what the russians have on him on public television. >> there are investigations that are going on, right? 17 intelligence agencies basically came out and said the russians meddled in this election. there is obviously reporting about the dossier. it's not for nothing. i mean, this isn't some conspiracy theory that she's basing it on.

maxine waters is one thing, but i think nancy pelosi is looking at this and saying, you know, to borrow from trump, there is something going on. it's so utterly bizarre. >> people are saying -- >> exactly. people are saying this fetish and obsession with putin, it's the thing he has been most consistent on throughout his time on the political stage. >> to your point about what republicans confront him about the sanctions, listen p to marco rubio. you heard from mitch mcconnell and from ben sass. here's marco rubio tweeting over the weekend. "when has a democratic political activist been poisoned by the gop or vice versa? we are not the same as putin." signed mr to make sure he signed that himself. >> when do they cast a vote that contradicts president trump? marco rubio, obviously, really went after tillerson hard in the confirmation hearings and voted to confirm him. he voted to confirm every single one of the president's nominees. the big question is when do they

actually, you know, have an intervention with him or oppose him by actually casting a bill? >> or do they just get over the whole thing by pretending that they agree you, because that is obviously the path of least resistance for everybody and what happened, as you say, in the tillerson confirmation. >> i think the more the president talks, the less likely it is they try to paper it over and let it go. >> he is making it harder on them. >> all right. everybody stand tight. up next, sharp elbows and intriguing leaks. is team trump already in turmoil? but kind is honest. this bar is made with cranberries and almonds. so, guess what? we call it cranberry almond. give kind a try. knows how it feels to seees your numbers go up, despite your best efforts. but what if you could turn things around? what if you could love your numbers? discover once-daily invokana®. it's the #1 prescribed

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>> welcome back. president trump this morning tweeted something rather cryptic. "i call my own shots. largely based on accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. some fake news media in order to mashlg nammize lie." why the need to remind everyone he is the boss? maybe, just maybe, this magazine cover had something to do with it. top aide steven bannon dubbed the great manipulator by "time" or maybe this saturday night live skit are struck a nerve. >> mr. trump, thank you for still accepting our refugees.

>> say what? >> president obama said america would accept 1,200 refugees. your country's compassion will not be forgotten. >> no, no. no refugees. america first. australia sucks. your reef is failing. prepare to go to war. steve, i think that was bad. was that bad? >> no, it went just according to plan. >> whose plan? >> your plan. >> it's always interesting when a presidential aide seeps his way into pop culture like "saturday night live," but whose plan? your plan, my plan? why is the president tweeting this morning he is in charge. do we have any doubt? >> we know why. >> this is -- you know, you ask the question before the break. is the white house already in turmoil? i think the proper word is it's always in turmoil, right? i mean, this has been the case throughout donald trump's business career, throughout his campaign, and for you his white house operation. he is someone who thrives on

chaos, who always creates competing power centers with different aides and makes them vie for his favor. i think it's somewhat strategic. i think he feels he gets better results that way. it seems like a tough place to work, but he feels that that is the best way to insure success. >> is he comfortable with people saying on "time" putting steve bannon on the cover saying that steve bannon essentially manipulated him to keep it closely held into the white house and did not really inform the state department and the department of homeland security to not inform members of congress so you had more than one hiccup along the way? is he comfortable with someone else getting the attention? >> no. >> no. absolutely not. >> clearly not where. >> there appear to be in the reports this weekend to the effect that he was not too happy. a lot of this is his own doing. he created these different power centers within the white house ask in his administration. people who come view policy and politics completely different or are at complete odds with someone who would work in the

same building. >> has led to questions. who is he listening to? who is driving the policy of the administration? that's one of the reasons ideal reince priebus had to make clear in the interviews with "the post" and "the times" over the weekend that he is in charge. >> if you have to tweet that you call the shots and you have to say i'm in rj chag, doesn't that raise a question? >> one of the things that always -- it's also led to this sort of chaos is leaks. i mean, embarrassing leaks. reading the "new york times" who richly detailed the -- there is the image of donald trump in his bathroom watching television. i mean, i'll never get that image out of my head at this point. it's not a flattering picture. it's not a dignified picture of the leader of the free world. you have all of these power centers sort of leaking stories, some of which make donald trump look like he is in over his head and then competing and trying to

undermine each other in the press. whether it's bannon or -- who knows where these leaks are coming from, but it's just not a great look for him. >> let's read a little from that story. maggie -- mr. bannon has rushed into the vacuum saying to allies that they have a brief window in which to push through their vision of mr. trump's economic nationalism. we're moving big and we're moving fast, he said when asked about the upheaval. we didn't come here to do small things. >> i think what matters to trump here is the idea that he has been use -- he is being used. the idea that others are using him as a vessel for their agenda. if things are being put in front him of for him to sign that are being misrepresented in a way that has consequences or make him look like he is not in charge, that i think matters to him much more than an unflattering story about a bath robe. he is loyal to people he thinks put his best interests first, and he is going to, i think,

discipline anyone that he sees as putting their interests or some policy or idealogical interest above the interest of what is best for him. >> bannon is on record, by the way -- i think it was before he joined the campaign, calling trump a crude instrument last year for his sort of vision of economic nationalism. there is a sort of notion of either intentional or not, bar lowering for the coverage of trump in some ways because have you to because there's so much of it. can you imagine any other president trying to tweet out the moment that i'm in charge here, who's questioning going after a federal judge and saying any terrorist attack is on this judge personally. then, you know, equating the american government with what the russian government is saying, you know, there's no angels here in america. >> only three weeks in. >> that doesn't even mention, you know, attacking schumer.

it goes on and on and on. i just laugh at this notion of, oh, the press collectively has hooked up on trump. think about just those three examples that i mentioned, and any other president, either party, and sort of covering what it would ensue. the challenge with trump is there is so much of it, and the deluge that comes the next day, it sweeps out the previous weekend. this happens again and again and again. we are used to this in the press cover and covering the campaign. the capitol -- the folks in the capitol are not used to it. this is the most -- when does the exhaustion set in, okay? we've done it for a year and a half now, but this is different. a different sort of culture than washington is used to. when the folks on capitol hill get tired of the constant drama -- >> who do the folks on capitol hill call when you kr a big question? do you call ivanka if it's child care or steven miller or reince priebus? do you call the secretary of state or homeland security or steve bannon if it's a question about border security and enforcing this ban? it's early.

it's only a couple of weeks. maybe it sorts itself out, but that's a pretty big question early on. >> maybe they just stop calling. maybe they just decide they're going to run the show themselves because the white house is too chaotic to deal with it. >> i find it interesting that ban and steve miller is sieg that there's a brief window to get their agenda through, but their agenda is a lot different than the agenda of the republican leadership on the hill who want to focus on obama care, who want to focus on tax reform, getting rid of some obama regulations. not necessarily the travel ban and other social policies that perhaps the white house is -- >> everybody sit tight. up next, the democrats see the new president as politically weak, and they aim to keep it that way, but finding a voice isn't the same as finding the votes. did you know 90% of couples disagree on

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zbriefrmg . president trump's approval rating is under water. he is the least popular president in the last 60 years. democrats don't want to let him off the mat. >> this guy is a fraud.

this guy ran for president of the united states saying i, donald trump, i'm going to take on wall street. these guys are getting away with murder. then suddenly he appoints all these billionaires, his major financial advisor comes from goldman sachs, and now is he going to dismantle legislation that protects consumers. >> aggressive language from the democrats here. before we start the conversation, i just want to show some of the dynamics. the president's approval rating is under water. meaning more people disapprove than approve. look at the partisan breakdown. the 0% of the republicans -- only 10% of democrats. 89% of democrats disapprove. you see independents. it's more split. 5 4% disagree. you hear bernie sanders. i'm not kr -- the campaign isn't as in tune with blue collar workers as he thinks. how much of the fact that 89% of democrats disagree pushing members of congress to probably go even farther than they would

like in opposing the president. >> huge dynamic right now. they're trying to keep pace with their own base. they're trying to grapple with how to accommodate voters who they don't want opposition only. they want, you know, based to stop this person in his tracks. it's nothing like we've seen in this country. ist not like the democratic opposition of we're going to rally support and hope -- this is much more like other countries have had. no, this guy is a threat to the country. he must be stopped. >> these democrats in congress don't speak that language are trying to accommodate that, and it's ungamely to watch it. >> you saw schumer early on come at him. even bernie sanders to a certain extent and say that they thought they could work with trump on any number of issues, infrastructure, on trade as well. in talking to progresssives,

they faebl feel like they have gotten some of the folks, like schumer, to, as they said, join the resistance, which is what they're calling this movement. we haven't seen anything like it. >> i think we have. i think this feels very much like 2009 when republicans were inclined to try to work with the new president obama and it was their base, but want the republican base. a new movement outside the republican party and the tea party that literally was sending hundreds of thousands of people to the streets putting pressure on republicans who might otherwise have wanted to find compromises saying we will not stand for that and then making good on that threat by literally throwing them out of office. >> this is the real dilemma nor the leadership. especially in the senate. chuck schumer has to worry about five red state democrats from really red states. ten states trump won those democrats and they're up for re-election, but they're very, very red stagts. those senators need trump supporters to help win re-election, and chuck schumer needs those five senators to win

the re-election in order to even have a chance to keep the margin the way it is. this is going to play out in the neil gorsuch nomination. a lot of them want to be open to possibly voting for him, but the base wants a serious fight. chuck schumer is caught in the middle because he does not necessarily want to go all the way out, force them to use the nuclear option and change the filibuster to get another conservativing to replace conservative scalia. >> in the supreme court we still have a few cabinet picks. the senate is supposed to deal with those this week, and during the break you said they might be in session all night because the democrats have some business they want to do. >> the trump administration knows this. they coined this trump's state

democrats so they know the real box, i think, the democrats are in because is it the party of bernie sanders or is it the party of schumer or somewhere in the middle or heidi hydecamp. the big test is 2018. you mentioned the tea party very successful in terms of turning the tide, in turning the numbers on the hill. because their base is so diverse and diffuse, and people are talking about black lives matter, they have issues with the environment. it's so diverse and diffuse in terms of issues they care about, it's hard to know if they'll coaless around candidates in 2018. >> the rhetoric has become quite striking. we earlier in the show the democratic leader say i want to know what the russians have on him. bernie sappeders, who probably said this anyway. he is a fraud. listen to dianne feinstein here. again, ranking senior senator from california. ranking democrat on intelligence matters. she's long involved in judicial matters. she's talking about president trump criticizing the judge who blocked the travel ban.

>> the president is not a dictator, credit chris. he is the chief executive of our country, and there is a tension between the branches of government, specifically the framers of our constitution wanted a strong congress for the very reason that most of these kinds of things should be done within the scope of lawmaking. >> she's a moderate, by the way. >> you can say the president is wrong. she's saying the president is not a dictator. >> this is somebody who does not come from the kind of radical liberal wing of the party. she's viewed as a right winger in san francisco, her own town, and she has actually caught flack out there because she voted to confirm both pompeo and john kelly, breaking with her new freshman colleague. that's the kind of pressure you see being brought to bare. two words for you that right now democrats have on their minds. branch lincoln, she was the senator from arkansas. she was the senator from

arkansas who lost her re-election in 2010. not entirely but in small part at least because she had to spend months that year fending off a primary from the left. to the point there is that even in these fairly conservative states, there is a liberal bench of activists, and they can find somebody, to challenge a democratic senator from the left, they can find one in missouri and north dakota and montana as well. >> she still won that primary. i mean, the problem that they've had making a tea party of the left in the patst is that progress sifz don't have the numbers. even in democratic primaries where. >> she got blown out. probably would have lost anyway. >> we'll see. the seeds are being planted. we should see what grows. a group of republicans still looking for a voice in the trump white house. i accept i don't race down

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>> we close every day by going around the table asking our reporters to share a little bit from their notebook and get you ahead of the big political news around the koerp be. nia. >> trump last week had his roundtable sort of with black america to mark black history month, and liberals obviously were very critical of some of the things he said, but also in talking to black republicans, they were also critical as well in terms of the people he is surrounding himself with. they look at people like amarosa, who is in his -- on his staff, people like ben carson, and they don't see many black republican establishment types. they do see white establishment types who have been welcomed into the white house. people like reince. they don't see a lot of those same type of people in terms of black republicans. i think in looking in the coming weeks for black republicans to make a little bit of noise in terms of wanting to have real sort of establishment black republicans who are steeped in policy to have a voice in this white house because so far they don't really see it that.

>> still a lot of vacancies. >> one of the most interesting things is establishment versus nationalist. reince priebus versus steven bannon. i have i could approximate up over the weekend a little bit of unease among some folks in the white house who are more traditional republicans about the role jared kushner played last week in scuttling the executive order, lgbt rights. the fact that it was leaked pretty fast, that jared and i e iechb ivanka's fingerprints were on this irritated folks and they thought that jared was being naive to think that their liberal new york friends, would somehow think better of trump because of this one executive order, and what i was told is that all this does is basically irritate our allies in the religious conservative world and it's never going to get us any captain wi

capital with the left. they're going to oppose trump regardless. fascinating because kushner comes out of more of a democratic orbit than new york. >> tensions, tensions, tensions. >> we talked the last segment about the red states, but right now there is a very aggressive recruitment push by the republican leaders to insure that they can have five challenges against the five red state democrats. they're really leaning on house republicans to consider jumping into these races. i talked to kevin cramer of north dakota who is certainly open about challenging heidi hydekamp. now that she's been passed over, she's at the top of that target list, and also people like luke messer from indiana, considering challenging joe donnelly. watch for those names to start to get more prominence as they start to decide whether or not to become candidates next year. zhoo that's the most important part. candidate recruitment. >> the interview with mitch mcconnell was so remarkable because you heard, if you listened, shot after shot sort of across the bow of donald trump. delivered in mcconnell's way,

very lejts e gently without calling attention to itself, but, you know, disputing his characterization of the judge, saying the senate won't implement the travel ban, say -- disputing his characterization of putin, saying the senate doesn't want to take up the voter fraud investigation, and differing with trufrp on the nuclear option. you take all this together, mitch mccobble is very clearly saying to donald trump if you want to do any of these things, you're going to hit a brick wall in the form of the senate majority leader and just as he did in the campaign, he is showing he knows better than anyone how to handle what donald trump represents. >> quietly but firmly. again, remarkable. just heading into the third week of the new presidency. i'm going to close with this. coach bell trick might call it doing my job. there was a football game last night. maybe many of you watched it. fist, let's just take a look at this, where this is my hometown newspaper. that it was. nia is laughing at me here. look at that. that was great. the favorite photo of all was this one. let's turn now. come on. give me the co mmi sh.

>> is there any news here? a victory lap? >> that would be mvp. thanks, co mmcommish. minutes away from a speech by president trump. my colleague wolf blitzer picks up coverage after a quick break. . this bar is made with cranberries and almonds. so, guess what? we call it cranberry almond. give kind a try. when you're close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin.

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i'm wolf wlitser in washington. thanks very much for joining us. we have some breaking news to begin with. right now president donald trump, he is at mcdill air force base in tampa, florida. that's the home of the u.s. military central command. just a few minutes we expect to hear directly from the president. he is having lunch with service members and others there while we await the president and his remarks, let's talk about some of the biggest issues swirling around the president right now. especially the back and forth over a judge's order suspending the president's executive action on immigration. the one that temporarily banned travellers from seven majority u