international viewers. appreciate you being with us. cnn newsroom is next for you. for our u.s. viewers we're about to get after it. new day continues right now. >> russia is a ru serse. i have nothing to do with russia. >> turning down the job of national security adviser. >> we want to save the transcript the american public deserves to get the answer. >> you would probably only know if you were in his inner circle. >> at home and abroad. >> it's one thing. >> this is new day with chris cuomo. >> welcome to your new day. president trump's 77 minute long

press conference was quite the spectacle and one for the history books. he defended his record and aired his many grievances. >> word of the day, was it effective. he did address a man issue of scrutiny. why he fired his national security adviser. the more we learn about the time line and the facts the less sense the resignation makes. we also have news that the man they wanted to take over for flynn turned down the job. let's begin our coverage with joe johns live at the white house. a familiar trump tactic. the president using antics on live tv to distract from the

controversy surrounding him and his administration. very similar to things he did during the campaign. >> the press honestly is out of control. the level of dishonesty is out of control. >> unloading on his critics. >> i turn on the tv and open the newspapers and i see stories of chaos. yet it is the exact opposite. this administration is running like a fine tuned machine. >> blaming others i inherited a mess. >> holding court for more than an hour, the president defending michael flynn fired this week for like about discussing sanctions with a russian ambassador. >> i fired him because of what he said to mike pence, very simple. mike was doing his job. calling countries and his counter parts so it would have

been okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasn't doing it. >> lashing out at the intelligence communities over leaks. >> what was wrong is the way that other people including yourselves in this room were given that information because that was classified information given illegally. that's the real problem. >> the commander and chief sparring with the media about reporting on leaks. the leaks are real. the news is fake. >> if the information coming from those leaks is real then how can the story be fake. >> the reporting is fake. it's a ruse. >> defending his postjurors on russia after a cnn report that his campaign aids had constant contact with russian intelligence operatives. >> i have nothing to do with russia. i made a phone call to russia for years. not that i wouldn't. i just have nobody to speak to. even joking about his response

to recent provocations. >> the greatest thing i can do is shoot that ship offshore 30 miles out of the water. >> everyone in this country is going to say it's so great. that's not great. that's not great. i would love to be able to get along with russia. >> the president defending the roll out of his now halted travel ban. >> on the travel ban would you accept that that was a good example of the smooth running of government. >> were there any mistakes in that. >> wait, wait. insisting that it went smoothly and blasting federal judges again. >> the only problem we had is we had a bad court. >> the president also touting again a false claim about his electoral win margin. >> we have 306 because people came out and voted like they have never seen before so that's the way it goes. i guess it was the biggest electoral college win since ronald reagan. >> president trump raising eyebrows for asking a reporter to set up a meeting with him for

the congressional black caucus. >> do you want to set up the meeting? are they friends of yours. >> i know some of them. >> set up a meeting, i would love to meet with the black caucus. >> and failing to condemn a rise in attacks happening across the u.s. >> we are concerned about it and what we haven't heard being addressed is an up tick in anti-semitism and how the government is planning to take care of it. >> i'm the least anti-semitic person you've ever seen in your entire life. in fact we did well relative to other people running as a republican. quite, quite, quite. >> make no mistake. even after that news conference the controversy has gone away retired vice admiral turning down an opportunity as national security adviser. citing his family as the reason

they don't want to get done and flies out to charleston today and after that tomorrow a big rally in florida. back to you. >> thank you. let's get analysis from cnn political commentator, former white house and communications director, good morning. great to see you. jack kingston, former senior adviser to the trump campaign and cnn political commentator. great to see all of you. there were many things that were eyebrow raising or certainly got a lot of attention during this 77 minute presser. so let's start with the moment where i think it bears repeating that president trump talked about the russian spy ship off the coast of connecticut. listen to this. >> the greatest thing that i could do is shoot that ship that's 30 miles offshore right out of the water. everyone in this country is going to say it's so great.

i would love to be able to get along with russia. >> who would say that's so great. >> what he was saying is if he doesn't at this point. somebody is going to say he's being soft on putin. he also pointed out that hillary had the reset. we do not mention and he looked into the soul of putin. it would be a good thing to get along with russia. >> the shooting down the ship would be so great. >> some people that are very antirussian now and they're doing sword rattling and they would be placated by such a

move. and getting this ship off our coast. he was also saying i don't have property there. i've never done deals over there. i don't even know the two phone calls, one about the inauguration and one about the election itself. so i think he was on the offensive about russia. he came clean about his campaign workers had nothing to do with russia. they weren't interacting with them. he did not run from the russian topic in anyway. >> i want to bring him in because you have been around the state department and the white house. what do you hear in that comment? >> i heard he may have been saying it offhand but i think this is a concerning trend of not reassuring the public. the person to do -- the reason to do a press conference is to announce something new to further your agenda and all

we're talking about now is the emotional roller coaster and what he may or may not have meant. you want to be clear and definitive about what you mean and what medicine campers you're sending because there's leaders around the world and embassies around the world reading his comments and saying what did he mean. i'm confused by that and that's not the message you want to send. >> he was just joking. don't take him literally about that. >> there's parts where he was joking and you hit the nail on the head when you said there were so many eyebrow raising moments. that's exactly what he wanted to do. that's why he was out there for 77 minutes. they're going to need a hook to get him off the stage. he was having so much fun. what he's trying to do is get us off topics. we were laser focused on the issues with trump world and russia and today we're here

having to unpack 77 minutes of unraveling, unhinged, unfiltered, unplugged. crazy funny at times. i never thought it was possible to get whiplash from watching tv. yesterday i got whiplash from watching tv. we were supposed to be in a press conference announcing a new labor secretary that's a guy from miami and a very solid pick whose name he couldn't remember halfway through the press conference. instead he was there to distract those people. he is playing us again and again and again. >> let me play for you another moment where he talked about the mess he inherited from president obama. listen to this. >> to be honest i inherited a mess. it's a mess. at home and abroad. a mess. i just want to let you know.

i inherited a mess. isis has spread like cancer. another mess i inherited. >> jim as part of the previous administration do you want to take a crack at that. >> look i think he may have been having problem with the english language. there are some issues that are on going that every president that comes into office deals with. there's no question that the battle to defeat isil was continuing when he took office but the reality is he also took over where there have been the longest period of job growth in history. more than 20 million people have health care. and i saw this say perfect example of it. and this belief if he says something it's true. and the irony is that's a page out of the putin play book. that's what they do.

people should be concerned about that. >> congressman, jim i think is being too modest. we have graphs that show he did not inherit a mess. certainly when it comes to jobs and the economy he inherited a gift. heres the unemployment rate. look how far down it is from where president obama that inherited a mess came into office. how do you explain mr. trump's view. >> he absolutely did inherit it. isis did not exist when president obama came to office isis happened under his watch. the demise of iraq. the deal with the nuclear deal of iraq and clean it up, in fact. 95 million americans underemployed. the household income fallen from

57,000, 53,000. that's what it is all about. we want change an an outcider and somebody from the business community that can turn this thing around. our immigration, there's no immigration security. nobody quite knows what our immigration policy is. >> i'll tell you what it is. >> last week in donald trump's presence. we have a senior adviser that's being cited r for e-- for breaches. so by telling us this and having us dissect whether it's true or not he is distracting us from his mess. we are here on tv arguing on whether he inherited a mess or

not because we are not talking about the incredible mess that has been the last 30 days under his presidency. a white house that leaks, back stabbing, it's crazy what is going on there but we're not talking about that. >> i want to give you the last word. we're almost out of time but what's your response to that. did some people see mr. trump's month as chaotic and messy? >> i absolutely don't think so. i think he hit the ground running and he has done a lot. worked through executive orders and reestablished a great relationship on the hill. he has most of his nominees through the confirmation process despite absolute positive democrat obstruction. democrats not even going to the committee meetings. democrats not even going to the swearing in. he has worked through a remarkable denial on the left

say th saying they don't like the election results. donald trump is persevering and he has a great job. there's nothing wrong with that. i'm in chicago. and the program he hosted and the obama administration. and this is the president of the united states, he has a plan and agenda to make america great again and it's going to happen. >> we'll have to get david axelrod on. >> he might have drunk too much. >> we like these bipartisan -- that is beautiful. that's a nice job. thank you very much. >> here is something that we do know. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are having a hard time getting their footing and president's news conference

didn't make anything easier. the word stunned keeps coming up. cnn live on capitol hill with more. what are you hearing? >> well, chris, it quickly turned into must see tv up here on capitol hill. a number of house republicans, in fact, were working out in the house gym at the time of the press conference all glued to their television screens and sources describing their reaction at varying levels of shock and dismay. telling john king this something that should have been done in front of a therapist and not on national live television and then there was this reaction coming from a republican lawmaker that said, quote, we're just trying to manage this bleep. the people that love him will love him more and the people that hate him will hate him more and the people in the middle will look at it the way we look at it in congress. that's just the new normal. that's just the [ bleep ] that happens. i don't know how else to manage

it. that speaking to the great sense of frustration here on capitol hill. the fact that they do have this ambitious agenda, the big ticket items of tax reform, repealing and replacing obamacare which paul ryan and president trump both recently indicated that they want to move forward on in the next couple of weeks but there's worry and concern, will any of this get delayed with the distractions coming from the white house. >> thank you for all of that. well, president trump talked about hillary clinton 11 times during his press conference. what does her former campaign manager think that was about? he's here, next.

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president trump made a lot of things known yesterday. one of them is that he believe haas the criticism he is getting right now is fall out from the campaign and efforts to try to help his rival hillary clinton. take a listen. >> nobody mentions that hillary receives the question to the debates. hillary clinton did a reset remember with the stupid plastic

button that made us all look like a bunch of jerks? does anybody really think that hillary clinton would be tougher on russian than donald trump? you can talk all you want about russia which is all a fake news fabricated deal to try to make up for the loss of the democrats. >> president calls all the reporting on russia fake news. offered not one fact to disprove any of the reporting we have done thus far. so let's bring in somebody that actually does believe exactly what the president just alleged. robbie that was hillary clinton's campaign manager and thinks she would be doing a better job. so let's take a look at what the allegation is from the president. which is that he inherited a mess that was made by yours candidate. isis didn't exist. the administration called it the jv team and now they are the scourge of the planet.

the economy, all of these underperforming jobs. people not fully integrated into the work force. it's all on you and he has to clean it up. your take, sir. >> well, chris, i mean, obviously, i think your reporting on this was very good. this is all an attempt to distract from the incredible problems that president trump has had in his first few weeks in office. it's amazing that it's been less than a month we already had the national security adviser re-sign in disgrace. we had a nominee about to drop out. his own advisers are in ethics allegations. the list goes on and on. trump is in charge now. that's something he didn't have the campaign. there was a desire for change and i have run elections where you're the changed candidate and it's a pretty easy message. it's harder when you're in charge and you're accountable for what is happening every day

and i think we all need to keep the focus as you are doing on holding the president accountable and what matters is what he is doing in our foreign policy. what matters is our national security and whether he's delivering on the promises of his campaign. >> what proof do you have an the situation that trump inherited wasn't a mess. >> look, you have the chart earlier on your program. unemployment went down and we had years of economic growth under the administration and it was in turmoil when president obama came in and hillary clinton and president obama worked hard to repair that and i want to underscore the point right now in my mind is not to talk about the last four years to last 8 years. the point is to talk about right now where we go as a country and what is very trouble as good that it's come out not just that

there were contacts recently between trump's administration and the russians telling me that the sanctions may be taken away against them. but also that his advisers were actively talking to the russians and there were real questions on the table about whether they were coordinating on the best of the documents. >> it becomes less and less clear why the man was forced to re-sign but the president made a point yesterday. he said hillary clinton tried the russian reset. nobody was mad at her for that. i'm trying to get along with russia and all of you are making it a conspiracy. how is what is going on with flynn and maybe others reaching out to russian counter parts to try to create a better situation than the one right now any different than what you did? >> well, hillary clinton did try

to create a reset with russia. vladimir putin continued to commit human rights abuses and she held the line and, in fact, vladimir putin accused her of creating the protests happening in russia and it's become apparent that he tried to punish her for resisting him on human rights. through the documents that are put out and the theft of private income accounts to hurt her and help donald trump win. what has come to light is donald trump's associates are told with russian intelligence officials. apparently regularly taps the phone calls at the same time that russian intelligence was stealing documents at the dnc. >> we do not have any proof that

mike flynn was the subject of a wiretap. we do have proof that he got picked up on a wiretap conversation. let me ask you, i want your take on two other things. one, what is your take on what the democrats are doing right now. are they opposing too much? give me your take on that first? >> part of the problem is many of these nominees that president trump is bringing forward are either unqualified and unacceptable and he had to step away. we'll always give president trump the benefit of a doubt. we want our country to be successful. the test here is whether he is doing the right thing on foreign policy and helping people's lives get better in the country. what is disturbing is these connections with russia are true. and he is somehow beholding to russia for helping him get

elected. and secondly did we hear him talking about creating jobs and raising wages. yesterday people in this country are angry and hurting and all we hear about is stripping away regulations for wall street. more tax cuts for corporations. i don't see what he is doing to help that family who is really struggling right now. democrats need to stay focused on that and what the president is doing for working people in this country. >> we are waiting to see when that pivot happens back to the agenda. he promised the people that put him there. appreciate it. thank you for being on the show. >> thank you so much. allison. >> president trump verses the media, his continued attacks do not appear to be hurting the press. only energizing them so why is

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well it was his first solo press conference as president but the issue he hammered was not unfamiliar. listen to this. >> the press honestly is out of control. the level of dishonesty is out of control. it's all fake news. russia is fake news. this is fake news put out by the media so prompting this headline. we have ron brownstien. he was playing the hits wrong. this is one of his favorite topics. i think what is interesting from where we sit i don't get the sense that his attacks on the media or the press are working. i have people, strangers now come up to me and say like, you know, thank you for bringing us

information. people grab me by the shoulders and say your job is more important now. it's not working to turn people off to the press. >> it sharpens the divisions right? which is the story about everything about donald trump's presidency. there's two key points to understanding what we saw yesterday and what we have seen throughout the presidency. the first it's a mistake to strew attacks of the media in isolation. yes it's loudest when aimed at the media but he has been criticizing and trying to delegitimize every institution. he compares the intelligence community to nazi germany. he validated his executive order and described john mccain and lindsey graham perhaps as leading critics in the senate as advocating for world war iii and it isn't a mistake to say all of donald trump's base cheers what

sh is happening. there's a section that applauds every time he attacks the media. over one quarter of the voters said in the exit poll they didn't think he had the temperament to succeed as president they were willing to take the risk. a lot of those more casual voters are uneasy about the way donald trump approached the job on his first day in office. >> you hear people talk about how they feel and what they think and that's fine for the voters but you hear it in the media as well and the president yesterday provided an opportunity. he said it's a ruse, a trick, something that's artificial.

the less this man being forced to re-sign makes sense. let's go all the way back. well at some point he misleads it. what does that mean? did he deceive him? there's no proof to support that but the fact he went out and got it wrong about the sanctions talk wound up being what is referred to by the president and why he re-signed and then he says it's the media that did him in and is this ridiculous notion that the president that calls us fake listened to us and responded to our reporting but how big a situation is this.

he would have ordered him to do it if he had known that he wasn't going to do it, whatever that means. the fbi says that flynn wasn't misleading them. >> he said it was because he wasn't fully truthful with mike pence but there was no reason for him not to be truthful because everything he did was fine. >> he knows he's getting it from the same universe of intelligence that they don't think mike flynn was intentionally misleading. >> it's such a distraction in the press. what is amazing to me is he went

out there and flynn was part of this and the overall russia story that swirls around him. the travel ban. he goes yesterday to try to clean this up. himself. i am tired of the clouds over this. aim going to go out there and fix this and the guy says it's a dysfunctional place over there basically and he can't build his own team so this military man says no to his commander and chief and i'm not going to go serving that role. what is that but chaos if you can't start filling your national security adviser role you just made have a can. >> he likened it to a type of

sandwich. >> i was trying to keep it clean. >> not a tasty sandwich. that's how what he likened the idea of taking that job would be. >> it goes to the point, it's the prerogative of every president to go out in front of the press and say things are better than you think. or the difficulties that have quickly emerged on the two enter piece domestic policy agendas and health care and tax reforms.

>> more insight into what's happening in the administration. an aid to dr. ben carson fired. what he did during the campaign that lead to his dismissal. we have facts ahead. today, unlimited gets the network it deserves. verizon. (mic thuds) uh, sorry. it's unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. (thud) uh... sorry, last thing. it's just $45 per line. forty... five. (cheering and applause) and that is all the microphones that i have. (vo) not just unlimited. verizon unlimited. for millions of baby boomers there's a virus out there. a virus that's serious, like hiv, but it hasn't been talked about much. a virus that's been almost forgotten.

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a top aid to ben carson has been fired after an article he wrote criticizing donald trump has surfaced. renee is live with more. what does it say.

>> good morning, this is 26-year-old singleton. he worked on several campaigns and was working as a top aid to ben carson. his pick for housing and urban development. now the young conservative is one of the few african americans in the trump administration but as of wednesday hud confirms singleton was no longer an employee. a source close to the situation tells cnn he was fired because what he wrote in an article published in the hill last october. he took the gop to a new moral low due to comments like the muslim ban as well as rhetoric about the black community. part of that read quote as an african american like so many of my peers i'm concerned about police brutality, the lack of economic and educational opportunities for urban cities and the complete disregard for criminal justice reform.

hearing the nominee of my party ignore these harsh truths and opt for words like law and order sounds like a coded message from an era in our history that should stay in the past. he goes on to say a republican asked aren't we morally obligated to stand up to trump. of course that was written in october before trump was elected. i spoke with several in the african american community that say that come men was actually very reflective of how people in the community feel perhaps trump may have learned from this individual instead of firing. that's the opinion among many in the african american community i spoke with. back to you chris. >> good reason. no reason, bad reason. those are the guidelines when someone is going to lose a job in government. if it's for bad reason this may not be the end. dramatic video captured on a police body camera shows a washington state police officer going beyond the call of duty. the officer using his baton to

shatter a car window and free a woman from her burning car. dan simon has the story. >> reporter: the heart pounding rescue captured on the officers body cam. >> you get there and all you see is this car on fire. >> we got you. >> reporter: the police officer using his baton to break a window trying to free a woman from a burning car. >> i was so helpless. just absolutely helpless. >> reporter: kim novak had just come from the grocery store when she said her car hit an ice bump and lost all power. she couldn't open the windows and even the door locks would not budge. >> what's on fire? >> the car. >> where in the car. >> in the hood. under the hood. i can smell it burning. oh dear god, please get me out.

please. i'm kicking. kicking. oh god. >> reporter: unable to kick her way out there's little time before the smoke will render her unconscious. >> i heard on the radio and i was like i'm going to go to that. we surveyed the scene and we had to punch this window out to be able to get her out of here. >> after several strikes a small opening for kim to climb out. >> created just a big enough hole for her to climb through. >> yes. so she was able to make it out of there so i instruct her, let's go. i grab an arm. the neighbor grabs an arm, pull her out of the car.

>> i was just at the mercy of whoever was going to come and save me. it happened to be tim, thank god. thank god for that. >> all right. are you good? >> because she knows without his initiative and grit she likely would have died in the smoke filled car. >> how are you doing? good to see you. >> dan simon, cnn washington. >> beautiful. they do god's work every day. every hour of the day and we always get a chance to profile them. >> it bears reminding and thanks. >> president trump declaring a war on leaks and leakers. what he plans to do to the intelligence community, next. .i? neutrogena® hydro boost water gel. instantly quenches skin to keep it... ...supple and hydrated... ...day... ...after day. with hydrating hyaluronic acid, which retains up to 1000 times its weight... ...in water.

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president trump's top choice to replace michael fin as national security has rejected the offer. saying he could not give the commitment and focus that position requires. this as president trump calls on the justice department to investigate leaks from the intelligence community. let's discuss this with a cnn national security analyst and

retired cia chief of russians operation. perfect person to talk to an andrew mcmullen former chief policy director of the republican house conference. he launched a third party run against president trump and you're also the perfect person to speak to about all of this. steve, what do you think of mr. trump's tension, maybe all out fight with the intel community? >> well, the problem with it is of course, it takes a toll on the relationship between the white house and the intelligence community. when you start talking about things like perhaps need to reorganize or pursue leakers, i think former dni jim clapper got it perfectly right in his recent statement. if you go after leakers, you need to do it in a way that doesn't negativively affect your

intelligence community. because it will eventually come back to bite the administration by not having as much good production out of the intelligence community as you need. morale is important. they are a brilliant group in cia and other places but there's a tipping point after you've been compared to nazis and professionalism questioned. you have to be careful on that balance. >> is that why you think that they have been leaking? >> well, i think people have been leaking for a number of reasons. i would mention that i think this says more about donald trump's leadership and some of his activities than anything else. if you're the president of the united states, and you decide you're going to pit senior aides against senior aides and if you're unable to get buy-in from the rest of the executive branch on the direction of your leadership, then you're setting up a situation in which it's possible for there to be leaks.

in this case it's particularly pronounced because donald trump has an unhealthy relationship with the russian government, according to press reports and cnn and new york times, the very foreign adversary that undermined our election and influenced our election on his behalf. that causes built in tension between him and the intelligence community and that's what we're seeing and i don't expect it to go away. i don't think donald trump does either. that's why i think he threatens to reorganize in what is code for weaken the intelligence community in their response. as long as he has issues with russia, the intelligence community and he are not going to get along. >> let's talk about russia. steve, you were the former cia chief russia operations. what do you see the possible

russian ties? >> i don't think there's very much good news especially after we saw the press conference that president trump conducted yesterday. he said things like, well, it wouldn't be so bad to paraphrase if we had some sort of good relationship with russia and to paraphrase again, my old boss, attempting to have a good relationship with russia is not a policy. you need to identify what u.s. interests are and need to identify firmly what russian interests are and fully understand that and try to find that very slim part of the diagram as to where there might be cooperation. but i have to tell you, when you have a country like russia and man like vladimir putin whose goal is to undermine liberal democracies in the west and drive wedges in nato, it's awfully difficult to find that kind of common ground. it's going to be tough but we need to develop a realistic open eyed policy and i don't think

we've seen that yet out of this administration. >> you feel strongly about this and written an op-ed in the "new york times" today. why do you think what you heard is dangerous? >> we have a foreign adversary like steve is undermining democracy across europe and united states and according to reports from cnn and new york times and others, his campaign maintained regular contacts with intelligence senior intelligence officers of that foreign adversary, russia of course, that is a grave, grave set of facts. it is a threat to our national security. we hear this and many americans maybe don't understand how unusual and alarming this is and therefore become normalized and we stop holding president trump

accountable. this is a grave situation. it's hard to overstate how serious this is. >> i want to stick with you for one more second. why then don't you hear republicans in the house whom you have worked with as a policy director, why don't you hear them speaking out more forcefully? >> well, it's a complicated situation. the answer is but a couple of factors are the following, number one is that for republicans who have been waiting to advance conservative policy agenda items for a long time and quite frustrated at the inability to do that. they now have the opportunity to do that with donald trump. so that sort of -- the shiny thing that could be distracting when we've got a deeper problem here with russia and president trump, the other issue is that i think many republican leaders may not understand how serious -- they understand how serious it is and understand it's serious but they don't come from an intelligence background and haven't seen the sort of

thing play out internationally, so they recognize it as being a problem but maybe aren't as alarmed by it as they should be. it's complicated but those are some of the factors. >> steve, just to end it, it sounds like what evan is saying is that republicans in the house are acting in self-interest. we understand they have an agenda and want to see happen but not in national security interest. >> i would really agree with the statement that you cannot overstate the seriousness of this. one of the insidious parts of this, russia understands so well our sort of west and united states optimistic outlook. isn't there something that can be done with russia? can't we work with them like other countries? and i think that view permeates some of our politicians as well who haven't up front seen or and are not constantly reminded of the horrific things russia has done. it's a very dangerous ground.

>> steve hall, edward mcmullen, thanks for being here. we're following a lot of news. let's get right to it. >> the press has become so dishonestly. honestly out of control. i want to find a friendly reporter. >> you can control the bully pulpit, can't control the facts. >> russia is fake news put out by the media. >> the information coming from the leaks is real, how can the stories be fake? >> the reporting is fake. mike. i didn't direct him but would have directed him. >> bob harward taking a pass on the job of national security adviser. >> this administration is running like a fine tuned machine. while we're in this back and forth, the world is getting more dangerous. >> this is "new day." >> good morning, welcome to your new day, up first, donald trump returning to the