hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 9:00 p.m. in moscow. wherever you are watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. up first, diplomacy tops the agenda. day 25 of the trump administration also. the white house faces a deadline today, the battle over the president's travel ban, and behind the scenes there is trouble. serious trouble within the trump team. on the diplomatic front president trump is meeting today with a visiting canadian prime minister justin trudeau. the two leaders hold a joint news conference right at the top of the hour. we'll, being, have live coverage for you. looking at live pictures from the east room of the white house right there. the judge who put president trump's travel ban on hold wants to hear from both sides by 3:00 p.m. eastern later today. that should give us an

indication of the trump administration's next move, and several key advisors appointed by the president are coming under fire, perhaps most notably the national security advisor michael flynn. we'll take a closer look at all the troubles facing flynn and other key members of the president's inner circle. that's coming up. let's get more on all of this, where, first, from our reporters. our white house correspondent sarah murray, who is joining us. our justice correspondent pamela brown is with us. our pentagon correspondent barbara star. sarah, let's -- give us a preview, first of all, of the major issues president trump, prime minister trudeau will be discussing. they're meeting in the oval office. they'll be having an extended conference before in about one hour they go into the east room for their news conference. >> that's right. they've already sort of started in this roundtable meeting, and it gives you an indication of how these two leaders are trying to find common ground. prime minister trudeau is really seen as a liberal icon, and he got along well with president

obama on a number of issues. obviously with president trump we're on different footing. we know they disagree on things like syrian refugees, but today they're hammering home this notion of foe mail empowerment. trudeau has made no secret of the fact that he declares himself very proudly a feminist, so we saw he and president trump in this meeting earlier today with president trump's daughter ivanka trump talking about this new coalition there launching together. a joint initiative to try to advance women entrepreneurs and female business leaders. it does seem like a way for them to present a united front. the president wants to hear from both sides in just about two hours from now. explain what's happening in the legal fight over the president's travel ban, which, as you know, has been rejected by the federal court so far.

>> they're trying to figure out the next step after the stinging loss in the ninth circuit. as one source said, there is a lot of lawyering going on. basically, today judge robard in the washington state court, the district court, is asking for both sides to follow briefs by 3:00 p.m., and there's going to be a phone conversation at 6:00 p.m. eastern. the issue issued a week and a half ago, should that endure through the trial on the merits of this travel ban or should the government be allowed to, you know, push for what it's been asking for for the travel ban to move forward while the appeals process goes on. that's going to be what's discussed today. then you have this other issue, wolf, that we spoke about on friday where the ninth circuit, one judge in the ninth circuit is asking for a larger panel to look at this case.

there's that at play as well, and the government is expected to file briefs and the state as well by thursday. there's a lot going on in the legal front, wolf. >> and we'll see what the decision is by the trump white house, the trump justice department. that could be released fairly soon. stand by for more on that. barbara, you're over at the pentagon. the president's national security advisor retired lieutenant general michael flynn, he is now said to be on very thin ice. he is in deep trouble for speaking to the russian ambassador to the united states about sanctions before president trump took office, and then misleading the vice president of the united states, mike pence, about that. how much trouble is flynn in right now, and is he likely to survive? >> this is about flynn's personal relationship with president trump. president trump is someone who is known to be very loyal to those who are loyal to sim.

donald trump does not like to appear foolish in his decision making in public, and flynn may have crossed the line in making the president look that way. flynn first adamant that he did not discuss the obama sanctions with the russian ambassador prior to president trump being sworn in. these are sanctions that obama put on the russians in the final days because of their involvement with the u.s. elections. now it looks like he did talk to them about that and has gone back -- has had to go back on his word on vice president pence that no such conversations took place. this is putting -- flynn in a very different situation with both pence and trump, so the question is going to be in the coming days. if it gets too hot politically,

will he cut flynn loose because he doesn't want to appear to have made a bad decision by hiring on flynn in the first place, wolf. >> a lot of people are wondering what the president is going to decide. barbara, the president also faces a major test right now in the global stage. north korea, as you know, they launched a medium range ballistic missile over the weekend. how significant is that action by north korea? how has the trump administration responded? >> well, north korea actually may be showing some new capability in this missile test, but how the trump administration is reacting is equally fascinating. some pictures, some photos emerging over the weekend being taken by someone at a dinner in mar-a-lago in florida where mr. trump and the japanese leader abe were having dinner. these photos showing some documents being spread out on the table all about this north korea ballistic test. why the test may be so important, the north koreans for the first time showing the launch of what is usually a

submarine launch missile launched by land and this is a missile that is solid fuel and this becomes something much more difficult for u.s. intelligence to track. the u.s. watching this carefully, and everybody watching to see if the trump administration has any specific reaction beyond strong words. will the trump administration take any action, possibly send more u.s. military capability to the pacific? it's a show of force against the north koreans. that's not happening yet, but those options certainly remain out there for president trump to act upon. >> barbara star, thank you. sarah murray, pamela brown. thanks to you as well. let's talk a little bit more about all the day's major headlines. joining us now from new york, james, the former cia director.

thank you, director, for joining us. >> great to be with you. do you think mike flynn can survive this major blunder on his part? >> i don't know. it's not entirely clear it was a blunder. there are counter -- conflicting claims, but president trump moves fast on things. mike flynn moves fast on things, and sometimes you want -- often you want at least one party in the decision making in the government to say let's rest here for a minute. have a coke, get the experts in, kick the idea around, and see whether or not we've got a violation, we've got something that we have to deal with. but if everybody is moving fast and nobody is saying, boss, we need to take some time on this one before we make a decision, it can create a very difficult

situation. that may be where they are now. with the russian ambassador here, including on that day that the obama administration released those new sanctions against russia, expelled 35 russian diplomats for the russians' involvement in it the u.s. presidential campaign. the cyber attacks. if you will, he denied that he raised or discussed the issue of sanctions at all with the ambassador. mike pence, the vice president, and other administration officials went on tv. they denied sanctions came up, but all of a sudden a transcript apparently emerges from that conversation. u.s. intelligence, subject you know well, intercepting, listening in on that conversation, and it shows that

sanctions apparently were discussed in that conversation. now flynn says i don't remember. i can't recall. that's a serious problem as far as his credibility with the president, the vice president are concerned. >> it is a serious problem because depending on the timing, it could create legal problems with discussing something with a foreign country before you are authorized to and so on. i think there's a real difficulty here that stems out of what looks to be a lack of precision. you mentioned the possibility of a recording. well, that's the reason you have recordings and conversations like this between heads of state or very senior official and head of state, is so that you can go back and piece together exactly what was said when and whether or not it was properly worded and whether you were going to still stick with what we said

before and so on. it looked for a while as if that was not present here, and then it looks maybe as if it was present. there's still a lot of confusion. >> presume reply we'll get more clarification in the hours and days to come. let's talk about north korea for a moment. tests fired a missile over the weekend. president trump took the call during the dinner he was having in mar-a-lago. he stayed at his resort in palm beach, florida. dinner he was having with prime minister abe of japan. are you concerned? we've got the pictures now. you can see there were a lot of people who don't have security clearances walking around, waiters, among others, and a lot of guests that classified information apparently was being discussed at a dinner like this in the open, and it's raising -- it's raising a lot of concern that maybe they should have gone into a secure room to get that initial briefing on north

korea's ballistic missile test. >> that shouldn't happen in an uncleared facility. the basic problem here, though, is what do we do with the crazy north korea, and it seems to me that sending some military forces to the region, carrier battle groups, whatever, is called for here. we can't let the chinese and others say these americans are just a paper tiger. they say that we're not supposed to do something and then like syria several years ago, they ignore. so we've got to show that we can at least move some forces into the region, and i think that the situation with north korea is worse than a lot of people realize because they can orbit satellite, and they can fire a nuclear weapon. they have nuclear weapons. if you can detonate a satellite

with a nuclear weapon in it above the earth in certain locations, you can knock out the electric grid underneath, and that's to put it mildly, a very big problem. >> is north korea the biggest security -- national security threat facing the u.s. right now? i think i would say in terms of urgency probably yes. funldsly i would say more iran because iran is the world sponsor of terrorism all over the place, and they are really committed to the destruction of the united states. north korea may be. russia and china, especially russia, i think, is a matter of some substantial concern and iran up there right at the top. >> you say iran is committed to the destruction of the united states? they don't have that capability, though, do they, director? >> not yet with a nuclear weapon, but i don't think they

are many years away from a nuclear weapon. i think they may be in a relatively short time away, and in terms of their attacks through terrorism, through the revolutionary guard and elsewhere throughout the middle east and throughout other parts of the world, iran is a very serious problem already and will be a much bigger one very shortly. >> so you don't accept the notion that they're honoring their commitments to halt their nuclear program with the nuclear weapons deal? the nuclear deal that the u.n. put together, the u.s. participated in that because you heard the e.u., the european union, representative say after her meetings here in washington, the trump administration is now committed to honoring that nuclear deal. >> i think that the chance that the iranians are keeping their word is about as close to zero as diplomatic relationships go.

>> on that there's a lot of disagreement with you. you hear from administration officials and even, by the way, some trump administration officials who say apparently they're honoring their commitments, at least the narrow commitments on the nuclear program. at least so far. on that point we'll continue our discussion. >> maybe very briefly. >> we'll see what happens down the road. the former cia director james woolsey joingsz. different perspective. congressman adam shif, ranking -- standing by live. we'll get his stake on donald trump's national security advisor, michael flynn. we'll discuss north korea, its commitments, including iran. also, take a look at this. live pictures from the white house where president trump and visiting canadian prime minister justin trudeau will be holding a joint news conference in about 45 minutes or so. just moments ago you can see the two were seen walking over to a lunch at the white house. live coverage coming up.

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zblienks president donald trump and his advisors say they have a lot of options on their proposed travel ban. the one that was halted by the ninth circuit court of appeals in a unanimous decision against

the administration. we could learn the white house strategy as early as this afternoon. joining us now congressman adam schiff of california. >> what's your advice to the white house, the president, the justice department right now? what to do about the travel ban? >> i think they should scrap it. it was an immaterial conceived idea. if they want to explore any further vetting that should be in place, they should do that. it sends exactly the wrong message and it plays into al qaeda and isis narrative, and it alienates our allies in the region. our work in iraq just got a lot more difficult. >> what about michael flynn, the president's national security advisor. should he go in. >> he should go. he should go. you know, we certainly need to get to the bottom of just what he discussed with russian ambassador, but his explanation now that he doesn't remember whether he talked about sanctions just isn't credible.

bear in mind, this is a guy who relentlessly and unjustifiably attacked susan rice saying she misland the country, and now it appears he has mts led the country on a -- >> is there a hard intelligence, hard information confirming that he lied to the vice president mike pence by denying that the subject of sanctions in that phone call with the russian ambassador ever came up? >> i don't know the answer yet. it's something i think the intelligence committee ought to be investigating as part of its investigation into russian covert influence. i think the reason that flynn is in such trouble right now and the reason why the trump administration just doesn't label this as fake news is they know that if there is a transcript, if there are recordings, that can't be dismissed. that's why i think they have to take this seriously. frankly, the policy is enormously wrong-headed of easing sanctions on russia, but the fact that they would mislead the country about this is inexplicable. >> isn't it routine, though, that the u.s. would monitor

phone conversations? especially on open lines that a russian ambassador or high ranking russian official might have with an american? >> that's not something i would comment on, but i think prudently if i were an american in russia, i would certainly assume that they were listening in on any of my conversations and obviously we have a keen interest in what the russians are discussing. what i think is interesting here, there are allegations, again, as yet unproven that they may have also used encrypted communications since flynn was talking with the russians. if he was using cryptic communications, it wasn't to conceal it for the russians, and you have to ask who were they concealing the conversation from? >> this is an important element. explain what you mean. when he made that call, and apparently there were several phone calls to the russian ambassador here in washington. he was part of the transition team. he was a top national security advisor to the then president-elect. what kind of encrypted communication would they be u.s.

government approved encrypted government communications? >> then, of course, the question was why were those being used? who were those communications to be consealed from? why was it necessary to go to that if it they were talking about christmas greetings as sean spicer apparently misrepresented to the country? >> are you worried? i mean, there's been some concern out there that forget about the one phone conversation that michael flynn may have had with the russian ambassador and misleading the vice president and other officials, including the white house chief of staff reince prooebus, press secretary, sean spicer. forget about that, but there's a broader problem involving michael flynn's connection with russia. >> this is the most serious allegation that was made in these articles, and that is that the december 29th communication between flynn and the russian ambassador wasn't a one-off where, it was a part of a long series of communications that

took place during the campaign. now, that's four square within the things we need to be doing on the intelligence communities. that would mean the potential of collusion. here you have the russians hacking, conducting illegal covert operations in the united states. if there is any kind of cooperation with the trump campaign, that would violate numerous laws and be far more significant than any potential violation of the logan act. >> i have covered u.s.-russian relations for a long time. used to be the soviet union. i don't remember ever -- we could go back and triple check, a time when the u.s. imposes some sanctions against russia expelling 35 diplomats, and then all of a sudden the russians say, you know what, accident we're not going to respond in kind because almost always throughout that long history and especially during the cold war, the u.s. knows something, the russians do exactly the opposite in return. the question is asked did flynn say something to the russian ambassador that eventually got

up to putin to say we're not going to expel american diplomats. >> this is why the call is so suspicious taking place on the day that sanctions are announced. >> don't react to this. we'll take care of this. again, the context is this is right after an election in which the russians helped donald tr p trump. here you have the chief national security proxy for trump potentially telling the russians we'll take care of it. >> it was very curious because the putin decision not to expel american diplomats impose sanctions in return followed a public statement by the russian foreign minister saying the russians would respond directly with sanctions of its own and expulsions.

i'm sure they're looking closely to see if there was a michael flynn role in that decision. any of that down the road. >> absolutely. >> very serious allegations. very quickly, do you agree with the director, north korea right now is the top national security threat facing the u.s.? >> you know, i'm not sure whether it's north korea or iran? probably on any given day it seems like either would qualify. i do think that the north korea is more likely to have the serious flash point because if they get to the point where they can put miniatureized nuclear weapons on an intercontinental ballistic missile, then you are at a decision point, and that's a very tough decision. i think with the iran nuclear deal we've put off any kind of confrontation like that at least for over a decade, so i think perhaps the more immediate threat in terms of nuclear weapons comes from north korea. the more approximate terrorism threat comes from iran. >> you're assuming the iranians honor the nuclear deal.

>> thanks for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. >> the east room of the white house, the president of the united states. the prime minister of canada. they will be having a news conference, a joint news conference right at the top of the hour in about half an hour or so from now. they'll open with statements, answer reporters' questions. stay with us. our live coverage continues.

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president trump now neegt

this hour with the canadian prime minister justin trudeau. the two leaders who held a joint news conference at the top of the hour. you look at the east room of the white house. near about to let reporters and guests and officials from the u.s. and canada in. they're not in there yet. that news conference scheduled to begin about a half an hour or so from now. our chief national security correspondent jim schudo and political analyst gloria borger. how much trouble is michael flynn, the national security advisor in? >> i think he is in a world of trouble. i spoke with a source of knowledge about this this morning. i don't think any decision has been made. flynn has clearly gone out of his way to apologize to people. i believe including the vice president with whom he spoke a couple of times. i do believe that all of this story about what he said to the russians and when he said it

comes on top of another layer of what was described to me as a whole level of incompetent on his team. there is a sense that they've been behind on a lot of issues that they haven't staffed the president as well as they should. if you take this situation on top of that, it's not -- doesn't seem like a well-oiled machine. let's put it that way. >> it doesn't -- i refer to it as this thunderous silence over the past few days. we're not hearing a lot of support from top white house officials for the national security advisor michael flynn. let's listen to the white house policy advisor steven miller on nbc yesterday. >> the white house did not give you anything to say other than -- >> you cannot -- you cannot say -- >> asked and answered. >> the president still has confidence in his national security advisor. >> it's not for me to tell you what's in the president's mind.

that's a question for the president. it's a question for our chief of staff. asked and answered. >> asked and answered. >> i haven't heard anybody say anything positive about michael flynn at least publicly. the trump people are not going out there and defending. the president was directly asked. he suggested i don't know anything about it. >> almost certainly inaccurately right at that point. it was out. it was very public. that silence is deafening. it gets to a whole new. it gets to his effectiveness, right? part of that is certainly -- the principal part of that is the president's confidence, but it's also this appearance incompetent and confusion and lingering questions, but then it's also internal relationships. having lied, it seems to the vice president about it, says then it gets to how the senior most levels of the team are working here. none of that looks good. >> the trouble is that's a criticism you could apply to

many corners of the administration. it almost would be unfair. i will say, remember, he was forced out as a head of the defense intelligence agency in the obama administration. a criticism that was not being able to manage that large organization well. >> normally a situation like this, says if you are the president or the vice president, somebody lower like the national security advisor does something, they have a serious problem with, they sort of hold back and say, well, maybe he could e he should volunteer to step down and resign. >> that may come. that may come. i think the big issue for him is that he has no pot of goodwill inside the white house. as we all know, it's kind of dysfunctional over there these days. each part of the white house is trying to sort of find its way. i was told there's only one star in the show. that is, of course, donald trump.

everybody is kind of holding back to see what the president wants to do here, but as for flynn himself, there is not that kind of level of we have your back because you're doing such a kbraet job. we have your back because you've been include si to us or because you've served the president so well. he has none of that. >> we just heard something from the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee that skbrufrpjumped out at me, suspect it jumped out at you as well. he said apparently there's been some indication that michael flynn was with the russian ambassador here in washington. that they engaged in encrypted communications, whether texting or, i don't know, specifically what he was referring to, but that would be pretty extraordinary for an american to be engaging with a russian ambassador through encrypted communications that presumably would be designed to prevent the u.s. intelligence community from monitoring those conversations. >> no question.

listen, says if that is true, that shows an intent, of course, to conceal what you are talking about, which is never good. particularly when you are speaking to a diplomat from a major adversary. you have two levels here now because there's been a lot of talk that there are transcripts of many of the phone conversations as they would be because by its nature, you are going to -- the intelligence community is going to listen to the conversations of a senior russian diplomat. you have that. if you have those, plus just the fact that they were encrypted, that speaks to not -- not wanting to have that content heard which then speaks to why. why would you want to do that and is that proper behavior? >> why would you not be more forthcoming to the incoming vice president of the united states before he went out on the sunday shows and said definitively these conversations had nothing to do with sanctions. i think in this case it may be the coverup that's a problem for him. >> maybe they had encrypted communications in addition to that phone conversation or

several phone conversations. you would think that the former head of the defense intelligence agency knows the capabilities of u.s. intelligence that phone conversations with a russian ambassador to an american people are listening in. >> then the lesson might be don't have those conversations, right? >> good idea. >> particularly on the administration -- >> stand by. we're only minutes away from the president's joint news conference with the visiting prime minister of canada. you're seeing live pictures now from the east room right now. of course, once that begins, we'll go there live. we'll hear from the president. we'll hear from the prime minister. up next, nearly 200,000 californians evacuate the area around the nation's tallest dam amid serious fears of part of it may be failing. ♪

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low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood. tomorrow, i'm gonna step out with my favorite girl. ask your heart doctor about entresto®. and help make the gift of tomorrow possible. some good news for the 188,000 people forced flee their homes in northern california fearing a three-story wall of water could be released from the country's tallest dam. the problem? a main spillway is backed up and damaged. let's go to cnn's paul gamman, is he the scene for us. i know you have an update, paul. give us the very latest. >> we'll show you the very

latest. now, success on this story, this dramatic effort, to keep dam from spilling over, bursting with the compromised spillways. it's measured in inches. look behind me, wolf. if you see off in the distance, that is the water pouring out of oraville dam kicking up after that spray. that's a good sign. they say the water level here so now dropping at about four inches per hour. it had peaked, of course. it was going over the spillway, and that's when all these fears for massive flooding and possibly a huge and colossal breach surfaced. that's when they evacuated all those people. this is oraville lake, and look at it. we can give you an interesting perspective. during the drought more than two years ago you could walk parts of this lake. you could walk the lake bed, wolf, and now it's completely filled with water. they have had so much rain here

over the past few months. the good news as we pointed out, the lake level is dropping. they needed to drop even more before the next storm hits so they could assure everyone's safety. back to you now, wolf. >> we'll take the good news for now. paul, thanks very much. right now the president and the canadian prime minister justin trudeau, they're having lunch ahead of their joint news conference scheduled for the top of the hour. looking at live pictures from the east room of the white house. when we come back, my panel will weigh in on how these two very different world leaders will try to narrow their difference on key issues, including trade and immigration. stay with us. i should take a closer look at geico... you know, geico can help you save money on your homeowners insurance too? great! geico can help insure our mountain chalet! how long have we been sawing this log? um, one hundred and fourteen years. man i thought my arm would be a lot more jacked by now. i'm not even sure this is real wood.

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take a look at this. live pictures from the east room of the white house. at the top of the hour, president trump, canadian prime minister justin trudeau. we have been meeting to hold a formal joint news conference. they will be answering questions. let's bring in analysts. the u.s./canadian relationship

is critly important. a lot of people don't realize marrying's number one traitd trading partner is not the eu. not china, not japan. it's canada. >> yeah. and i think people are wondering why dose donald trump seem to be much more obsessed with mexico than canada. we run a surplus with canada, versus a deficit with mexico. he has been much more focused on fooling like we are getting a bad deal with mexico. a lot of people are looking at this meeting with a lot of interest because these leaders are so different. justin trudeau is sort of liberal super hero, progressive hero, they have a lot they could disagree with on substantively, but trudeau wants to have a smooth relationship with donald trump. >> he is doing his best but they have serious differences. the president's travel ban, the policies on refugees,

immigrants, the prime minister tweeted to those fleeing terrorism and war, canada will welcome you as diversity is our strength. i didn't hear the notion of extreme vetting. >> no. it is funny that every president seems to be on the tweeting agenda. the reason is a lot of this is moving in real time. first you have the ninth circuit. and at 3:00 today you may have another appeal. i think what's going on is the tendency of a tul world leaders to say listen this is so fast and movely quickly, but let me get my viewpoints known. i think trudeau was signaling they do not believe in this ban. >> i'm wondering if a reporter -- i think two american reporter get to ask questions,

two canadian reporters get to ask questions. i'm wondering if one of the questions is going to be involving the future of the national security adviser michael flynn. >> we have all this reporting about what everybody around him thinks. we have some reporting showing that president trump is upset with him but we don't know if that means that he would actually fire him. i will say, we talk about donald trump valuing loyalty. he tends to value it in one direction. he requires a lot of loyalty from people, but the fact that flynn has been with him from early on doesn't necessarily mean he wouldn't throw him over board. look at corey lewandowski, very loyal, when it came to the point he didn't feel he was like the right person -- >> he fired a bunch of people, paul manafort 789 there were a series of top campaign officials let go for a variety of reasons and others were neglected and didn't get jobs in the

administration. >> yeah. because he look at what's best for him. corey is the best example to compare to flin because he was so loyal and there from the beginning like flynn was. a lot of people think he will be loyal to him because of that. i don't think. i will he will keep him if he decides it's good for him. but not out of loyalty. >> the logan act, people talk about the logan act, lorie, you are a legal analyst. it has been in effect a couple of hundred years but never seriously been used. explain why he potentially d michael flynn could have legal problems. >> it says no private citizen could stand in the face of the president in regard to foreign policy. we want one president to speak on behalf of the government. he allegedly made connections to the russian ambassador right after problem came down with sanctions against russia. and nobody retaliated.

that gave pause to the fbi and intelligence community. now the question is not whether or not this is legal issue, it is usually a political weapon the logan act except in one event f there is an investigation into russia's hacking into our elections you better believe if there was a benefit derived for flynn or the administration based on that investigation that will betest the logan act. pelosi was accused the same thing. jesse jackson years ago. areally here the big thing is about russians's alleged hacking. >> quickly. >> i think where this is different, it involves sort of on its face shady behavior. to be going and doing this. >> you see people have now gathered in the east room of the white house. we are going to go there. any moment now the president of the united states, the prime minister of canada, they will be holding a joint news conference.

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breaking news. hello. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. thanks very much for joining us. i want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. this is cnn's special coverage of president trump's joint news conference with the visiting canadian prime minister, justin trudeau. the event is about to start any moment now. while we wait, we have a pull panel of analysts and correspondents with us. i want to go to our white house correspondent sarah murray. she is in the east room of the white house for us right now. sarah, set the scene for us. >> reporter: we are expecting to see prime minister trudeau and president trump at any minute. they were in meetings this morning and had a working lunch.

trudeau had a comfortable relationship with president obama. coming in with president trump we are seeing a different relationship but we are seeing them want to sort of kick it off on the right foot. they focused a lot of their afternoon on female empowerment. trudeau has labelled him feminist. they sat around a round table with ivanka trump, the president's daughter and launched a coalition to advanced female entrepreneurs, female business leaders. we will see if the united front carries over into the press conference. we know the world leaders have different perspectives for instance on how to handle seniorian refugees. trudeau has welcomed them while donald trump has attempted to implement a travel ban that is now caught up in the courts. it will be interesting to see if the two world leaders side by side are addressing any stickier issues like this today. when a visiting leader comes to the white house for a joint news conference they have opening statements. they will both make opening statements, and then they will take questions.

two american reporters will be able to ask questions, and two canadian reporters will be able to ask questions. i assume that's the procedure, sarah, for today. >> it's dangerous to assume that donald trump will stick to procedure. that is what we would certainly expect. but as you know, president trump has not really one for the pomp and circumstance of most things, particularly here in the white house. i think there is always a possibly that he will shake up what has become the norm for these kind of press conference, wolf. >> and the norm for these kinds of press conferences, there are a limited number of questions, the reporters, the good ones, they ask multiple part questions so there is really two or three questions in that one question. and normally the president andist having leader they will answer those questions. we see staff members, key people walking in right now from the canadian delegation, from the u.s. delegation. they will be walking in, sitting in the front rows. then the reporters will have the opportunity to ask somist questions. sarah, stay with us. we will get bacyo