of a new travel ban executive order being drafted by the white house. the trump administration could roll out the new order as early as this week. the homeland security secretary says the president is considering what he calls a tighter, more streamlined version of the first executive order. that first order was put on hold by u.s. courts. we'll have details ahead in a live report. stand by for that. we're also updating you on the search for a new national security advisor to replace michael flynn who served for three weeks. the president interviewed several candidates at his mar-a-lago resort over the weekend, and a news conference in brussels the vice president mike pence was asked about flynn's resignation. >> i was disappointed to learn that the facts that had been conveyed to me by general flynn were inaccurate, but we honor general flynn's long service to the united states of america, and i fully support the

president's decision to ask for his resignation. >> the vice president tried to reassure european allies of the u.s. commitment to nato. he also pledged that the u.s. will hold russia accountable for its actions in crimea and elsewhere. back to the travel ban replacement, though, right now. we're now learning some of the details about what is likely to be in the new draft order. our justice correspondent evan perez is joining us. what can you tell us about the new order? >> the key changes here are going to essentially try to make this bulletproof for litigation. we know there are going to be legal challenges that will go before the courts trying to undo this new executive order and so that is one of the things they're trying to do with the reference that vice president pence and john kelly have been making about streamlined order. one of the key parts of it is exempting green cardholders. these are legal permanent residents who are affected by

the original ban before they managed to relax some of those restrictions, and we're told that that's going to be a key part of the new order, which is to make sure that those people are not affected because they have legal rights even though they're not u.s. citizens. secondly, the second part of the order we expect to change it has to do with how the administration deals with visa holders who are en route. people who are already in the air rather than comparing to people who are not yet flying to the united states, people who are not yet traveling to the united states. we expect there's going to be some clarification to make sure that people who are in it the air are not affected. that was a huge problem that prompted chaos when the first executive order was released, and obviously, that raises new questions here for the administration because what is to say that people who have visas who are not yet traveling to the united states, why are they being treated differently from those who are already in the air? we'll see what the language is, the final language is on this.

we expect, wolf, this could happen in the coming next few days later this week. >> the travel ban will still focus in on the seven mostly muslim majority countries that were mentioned in the first ill-fated executive order, right? >> right, exactly. that's a key part of what they're trying to keep, which is the seven countries, which says administration says they find defensible. they think it's legally defensible because it goes back to some orders that were issued by the obama administration. those were not as restrictive as the executive order that was put in place a couple of weeks ago. >> and will there still be an indefinite suspension of any refugees coming to the united states from syria? >> that is part of what is still being worked on, wolf. we don't know exactly how they're going to treat people from syria. we expect that they will be covered. whether all of syria or whether there are parts that are under control of lombic it state, whether there's differentiation

from those people, and how they deal with religious minorities. that's another part of this executive order that we expect is going to have to be changed simply because that was one of the legal challenges, which is to make sure that people who are muslims are now being treatt be differently from people who are christians. one of the things the administration has right now is to make sure that people don't say this is a muslim ban. that it is really security-based as what they describe it. >> evan perez, we'll stand by for those details. the new executive order could come as early as this week. another important item on the president's agenda is finding a new national security advisor. the president is looking to replace michael flynn, who was forced to resign. our senior white house correspondent jeff zellaney is joining us. we heard vice president pence express disappointment that flynn gave him inaccurate information. he says he supported the president's decision to ask for flynn's resignation.

>> how is all of this playing out inside the trump administration right now. the president needs a new national security advisor. >> he does, indeed, wolf, and that is one of the top orders of business this week. in addition to the executive order on immigration that evan was just talking about, one of the other chief items of business this week is filling that position of national security advisor. so important in any administration. certainly in this one. >> i am told there is not a frontrunner, but we have a list of four people being considered. let's take a look at some of those names right now. one is keith kellogg. he is the acting director of the nsa. he is one of the people being considered. one is former ambassador john bolton. one is army lieutenant general robert caslen, the superintendent of the west point academy. finally, arm strategist

lieutenant general h.r. mcmaster. wolf, these are four people that the president and his top advisors are talking to, but, again, this is not a final list. we are told by advisors that he might be interviewing other people, but, of course, this is someone who is replacing michael flynn, who was forced to resign last week, but a key question hanging over all of this, wolf, is will one of these replacement have the ability to put their own advisors and their own team in place? that is one of the questions here. the white house chief of staff reince priebus said over the weekend that they would, but, again, that is one of the sort of top questions hanging over these positions as well as others throughout this government that is it still not entirely formed. can you put your own people in place? it's a question that is the president has not entirely answered, yet, wolf. >> i know that the new national security advisor would have final say in bringing in new people on to the national security council staff. what about those that have already been brought in by mike flynn, the ousted national

security add viedsor? will he -- will he be able to keep all of those people that have been brought, in or can he get rid of some of them if he wants? >> again,ing a central question of this, wolf, and one is the deputy national security advisor, k.t. mcfarland. she was brought in. she was general flynn's deputy. she is still here presiding over this, but one of the things that any new national security advisor would want or most would want is the ability to bring in their own people here. that is one of the issues here when you have a key replacement like this just, you know, a month into the presidency. this marks the beginning of the second month of the presidency, so very unusual to be replacing someone so fast. again, that is one of the questions. will they be able to bring in their entire full set of advisors, wolf? >> important issue indeed. jeff at the white house, thanks very much. the vice president mike pence, meanwhile, continuing his trip through europe today. his first foreign trip since taking office. visiting nato's headquarters in

belgium just a little while ago. he addressed the reporters, and he said this. >> i think it's a demonstration of president trump's leadership that before taking office he was speaking about the fact that the united states provides more than 70% of the cost of nato today and we are -- we are committed to continue to do our part. the time has come for our nato allies to step forward. >> we want to bring in the secretary general of nato. he is joining us from brussels right now. mr. secretary general, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> you were with the vice president when he said that the u.s. commitment to nato is firm. were you reassured by those

words? >> absolutely. it's a consistent message. i have heard from president trump in two phone calls from the vice president today in brussels, but also munich on saturday and in meetings with the secretary mattis, secretary kelly, and phone calls with secretary tillerson, and the message from all of them is that united states is strongly committed to the trans-atlantic alliance, to nato, and will continue to support not only in words, but also in deeds because we see that the united states is now increasing their military presence in europe in renewed forces and more equipment. >> i want to remind you, secretary general, what president trump has said about nato recently. home play some clips. >> the countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense,ing a inand if e u.s. must be prepared to let

these countries defend themselves. i'm a nato fan, but if many of the countries in naturo, mae if the countries we protect, many of these countries are very rich countries. they're not paying their bills. >> strong words from the president of the united states. we also heard the vice president say he expects to see results by the end of this year. here's the problem, as you know, secretary general. only five of the 28 nato allies, they pay 2% of their gdp for defense, and that is unacceptable to the president of the united states. what are you going to do about that? >> i agree with the president of the united states donald trump that we have unfair burden sharing in natuo today, and that's why we agreed in 2014 to do something with it, to stop

the defense spending across europe and canada and then gradually increase and then move towards a 2% target, spending 2% of gdp on defense within a decade. the good news is that we have started to move. in 2015 we stopped the cuts in defense spending across europe and canada, and last year 2016 we had a significant increase of 3.8% in real terms, so $10 billion u.s. that's a significant increase of defense spending across europe. we turned a corner and started to move in the right direction. just last week romania announced that they will now meet the 2% target this year, and i expect the countries like india and latvia to be at 2% next year. we have started to move, and i welcome the strong message, firm message, from president trump on the importance of continued

increased defense spending across europe. >> what happens if they don't? you heard the vice president, mike pence, say the patience of the american people will not endure forever? what happens if rich countries like france, germany, italy, canada, if those countries don't step up and meet that 2% threshold? >> my focus is on what can we do to make sure that we succeed? what can we do to make sure that we continue and keep up the momentum, continue to increase defense spending? i'm not focussing stw insing ac what will happen because i think the only focus now should be to increase defense spending, and we are -- it is quite encouraging to see that defense spending has started to increase. the picture is still mixed, but it's much better than it was just a year ago. we have a long way to go, but we are moving in the right direction. we have got a very clear and

firm and fair message from the united states. europeans cannot expect that united states will commit to the defense of europe if they don't commit more to defense of europe themselves, but they are doing exactly that, and my focus is to make sure that that continues to happen. >> yeah. just to be precise, the u.s. spends 3.61 periods of its gdp on defense, and these other countries, a lot of them in nato, barely 1.5%. that's a problem. secretary general, there's a unilateral cease-fire in ukraine that's supposedly starting today. the russians say it is an opening to pulling out heavier artillery. how important is this a development? do you believe the russians will honor this? >> are think it's too early to say. we have seen many cease-fires before and not been respected.

hopefully we can have a cease-fire in place now that it can be respected. the important thing is to make sure that we have the mechanisms in place to make sure that the cease-fire is respected and that we see the withdrawal of heavy weapons, and the most important thing is to make sure that international service, the observers from the ose, are allowed free access, safe access, to make sure that the cease-fire is fully implemented. >> secretary general, you heard our report that the president may roll out what's being described as a streamlined version of the u.s. travel ban as early as this week. the new version expected to exclude green cardholders. what is your reaction as the nato secretary general to this travel ban that is now being considered and is expected to be released later this week that for all practical purposes, puts a hold on those seven muslim majority countries sending

refugees to the united states, at least for the time being, and syria indefinitely? >> this is a very important issue, but it's not nato mandated to have any opinions about migration policies or refugees policies. our task is to work with all the allies to make sure we have strong collective defense and that we work together in addressing challenges like terrorism,ing and there nato has stepped up its efforts. we are in afghanistan making sure that afghanistan doesn't become a safe haven for international terrorists again, and we are stepping up our support for the international u.s.-led commission fighting isil in iraq and syria. that's our focus. when it comes to national migration policies, i will not go into that debate. >> the nato secretary general. thanks very much for joining us.

and we're following breaking news right now out of the united nations where the russian ambassador to the united nations vit al sl has died. we are getting details on the sudden death of the diplomat from russia to the united nations since 2006. we'll bring you more on this developing story as more information comes in. vitali, the russian ambassador of the united nations, has died. still ahead, as the search for a national security advisor heats up, we're going to have a former member of the trump transition team join us to see what she thinks about the president's choices out there. there you see her, congresswoman marcia blackburn. she's standing by live. we'll discuss that and a whole lot more with her. plus, we're keeping a close eye on protests happening across the country right now. take a look at live pictures coming in from chicago. demonstrators hitting the streets against the trump administration. we'll have updates throughout this hour.

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. take a look at this. we've got live pictures coming in from new york city, chicago. it's president's day here in the united states. protesters are turning out across the country for what is being called not my presidents' day rallies. some significant numbers of anti-trump protesters expected in several cities around the country. we'll update you on the latest. stand by for that. the protests, by the way, are a sign of the growing concern over many of president trump's new policies. let's discuss this with our next guest. republican congresswoman marcia blackburn of tennessee is joining us. she was also the trump transition team's vice chair. congresswoman, thanks very much for joining us. >> let me quickly get your reaction to the various protests happening around the country right now. when you see some of the pictures, what is your reaction on this president's day? we're seeing anti-trump protesters emerge.

>> well, what we know is that we are celebrating every president that has served our nation who has stepped up and has offered themselves for service, so i would hope that they would celebrate all of our presidents and what they have contributed, and i -- you know, it's free speech if they want to peaceably assemb assemble. that is a right that they have. when it begins to cost extra for cities and counties or is a burden, then they need to work with the entities, and i haven't seen any of the protests today. i have been out working. >> you got your hands full. let's talk about free speech while i have the sensitive issue. >> sure. >> the president recently tweeted that the news media here in the united states, the press, is the "enemy of the american people." i want you to listen to what some republican senators john mccain, lindsey graham, had to

say about those words from the president. >> if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press, and without it, i'm afraid we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. that's how dictators get started. >> the backbone of democracy is a free press and an independent judiciary and they're worth fighting and dying for. >> do you agree with the president that the elements of the mainstream media here in the united states are the enemy of the american people? >> i think many times the opinion based journalism for individuals are putting their opinion into what they're reporting is what frus rates a lot of people, wolf. you and i can have -- >> congresswoman, let me interrupt.

even if people and the press are expressing opinions whether on the left or the right, way-out opinions, does that make them enemies of the american people? >> i think what it does is to cause people to have to look for different sources for getting their information. we see a lot of people -- we would like somebody to report the news. that's why they end up watching c-span. i do think it's important for us to have a press that is a free and open press. we know that they're not always going to agree with us. you and i can have great debates and remain cordial, but have differing opinions.

>> i'm going to agree with him many times. there are times i'm not going to agree with him, but i think it is important that news be reported factually. i think it is important that reporters and anchors be well informed, and i think it is part of my responsibility to also make certain that when i give information that i have properly sourced that information and then individuals can make -- i'm comfortable someone is always with or either always against me, and i think that in this era of protests and in this era of

opinions on the air what we have to realize our nation has been very well served by a robust two-party system that allows for a solid and respectful debate on the issues that are before us. i hope that in this time -- >> the only question i have been hitting you with is the words that are disturbing enemy of the american people and i don't hear you saying -- you disagree with them, but i don't hear you saying that he went too far, way too far. these are dangerous words.

>> it would not be my choice of words. it would not be how i would have expressed frustration with the press. i do understand that there are so many people that feel like they only get opinions from certain news programs or certain anchors or certain networks, and they seek out sources and shows, wolf, that are going to allow them to have a little bit of give and take. somebody who will help them think through issues and where they are on things because we've got a lot of issues on the plate. we're trying to deal with tax reform.

>> it's important we do continue that debate, and i think also it's important that we have those that are on the other side in the senate that will not be obstructionists, but will move forward in good faith and allow this president to get his cabinet in place so that both chambers, the house and the senate, can work with the administration to do our job. >> the beauty of a free press, the beauty of our democracy is that there are a lot of views out there and people are able to express those views and not necessarily be branded as a result of that, whether on the left or the right, enemies of the american people. all right. congresswoman, we're going to continue these conversations down the road. marcia blackburn joining us. thanks very much. >> good to be with you. thank you. >> still to come, the president facing a big week ahead promising a new executive order on immigration. we'll discuss what the stakes are for this young administration. people confuse nice and kind but they're different. it's nice to remove artificial ingredients.

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we're keeping a close eye right now on anti-trump protests across the country. take a look at the live pictures coming in from chicago right now. cnn, by the way, has some teams on the ground nationwide. we're going to bring you updates. stand by for that. in the meantime, president trump may be widening his search for a national security advisor. he interviewed at least four candidates over the weekend, and the white house says he may be talking to other candidates today. let's discuss that and more with our panel. we have our cnn political analyst mark preston. april ryan, white house correspondent for american urban radio networks, and our cnn political analyst k irs ten powers, columnist for usa today. what do you think? he has to come up with a new national security advisor quickly. in terms of the reaction that they're having and chaos of

president trump. it's the comments that he has made about nato, the comments he has made about the european union and it's the sort of chaos that you see in his white house. even our allies notice this kind of behavior that national security advisor is a critical position, and it was very chaotic. took a long time contrary to what the vice president said to get him replaced and so i think they are trying to move quickly to get somebody in there. up close working. apparently one of the issues is can this new national security advisor bring in his -- >> apparently they're all men that are being considered right now. his own team right now or will he have to accept who michael flynn originally brought in? >> the president made it clear that the pick that just withdrew that, no, you cannot. reince priebus said over the weekend that'sen the case. that the person will be able to bring in the person that they want or the people that they want, but the question is how

much will that play out? where will the marrying be of you can bring in who you want or the president will have his team in place that he wants. you know, it has to -- this has to solve itself very soon. the global community, leaders are very upset and concerned because they're hearing one thing, and particularly with nato, they're hearing one thing from the president, and now you have pence there to calm the fears. the fact that dwoent have a national security adviceor -- they need to be up to speed right now. >> the national security advisor has to make sure the president is well briefed on all of these really sensitive issues that doesn't go out and say something that could cause some serious problems where. >> yeah, no doubt about that. i think whoever they do decide to get, needs to work well with general mattis, who is very well regarded. the defense secretary who is actually over in iraq right now. not only is mattis well thought of here within our own

government, but thought well of by our allies around the country, and in many ways has had to go and did a lot of cleanup. i do think there is concern from some of these generals who are being considered for this that they're not going to be able to get anything done because donald trump may just wake up some morning and fire off a tweet that could cause their world a major shake-up, and that's problematic. >> the new national security advisor could be announced hopefully very soon. there's going to be an announcement, we believe, this week on a new travel ban that will try to deal with some of the issues that the federal courts rejected the first time around. they seem to be getting closer, but apparently not there yet. >> well, i don't know if there's any way that they actually can please the judicial branch of the government, because the problem isn't so much what's in the text. it's what president trump has said. what they look at in the body of the text, even if they as reported are only going to apply it to -- they're not going to apply to green cardholders, and they'll take out the reference to, you know, prioritizing religious minorities.

it doesn't change the fact that they still are muslim majority countries as far as we know and that president trump has said in in the past that he wanted to ban muslims from coming to the country. the court does look, in fact, at the intent. i don't know how he ever gets around the fact that they believe his intent is to discriminate against muslims. >> during the campaign he is talking about radical islam, and they are also looking at changing -- i don't know how you get around the wording, but there is a big concern with the language that this administration has been putting out globally as well as within this country. those words -- words mean something, and they insight a fear, and it could spark jihadism, whatever the white house wants to call it, but i would prefer to say jihadist behavior, and there are cells

still in this nation that could be excited or ignited from this. >> a travel ban like this will make national security even worse because it will insight radicals out there to go ahead and join isis, for example. >> right, because what we've done is that we're handing them a gift to go out and try to recruit young muslims to join isis or to join other terrorist groups in an effort against the united states and in an effort against the west. we have specifically heard that from military commanders who have been on the ground. these are the guys who are walking the streets in many of these nations right now trying to bring peace to these streets, and there is concern quite frankly that it is going to cause more harm than help. >> mark preston, thanks very much. april ryan, thanks sow. kirsten powers, always good to have you here on our show. still to come, there are new developments on this presidents' day here in the united states. people are turning out across the country for what they're calling not my presidents' day rallies. these are some live images

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>> the president -- written both inside and outside the halls of parliament wrrks crowds have gathered to protest the government's invitation for a state visit for president trump. the british parliament, meanwhile, is taking up the same question. -- >> the den grags of women, religious minorities, the banning of refugees, torture as the new normal.

we cannot accept those things as the new normal. it wouldn't be acceptable from any country and certainly not from our greatest ally and one country that has stood up in the world for the values of liberty, equality, democracy, and the rights and equality of all before the law. that is why we have a special responsibility, mr. walker, and it's why we have a special responsibility in this house to speak out. >> our frederick is with some of the protesters over at parliament square in london. fred, explain to us why they are protesting this state visit by the american president. >> i think the operative word here is indeed state visit, wolf. they're not protesting against donald trump, president trump, come here at all, but they say they don't want a full state visit. i want to, first of all, show you what's going on here. we're right here in the heart of london, the iconic parliament square. there's big ben. a couple of thousand people have turned out here, and they are saying they don't want a full state visit that entails a lot

of the things as a proet cal. a banquet with the queen. one of the things that's being discussed right now in british parliament is that it would put the queen in a bad position if the president came here and went to that banquet with her. it would entail a gun salute. it would entail the president and the first lady riding in the carriage, the queen as well, and that's something folks say should not happen. they think that it's too early in president trump's term, and generally they obviously have a problem with some of the rhetoric that they've been hearing out of the white house in the first weeks of the trump administration, and you hear that here at this protest where what people really are protesting the most is the stance on immigration. the executive order, the travel ban, they say that's something they certainly don't like. also, of course, the idea to build a wall with mexico. that's also something that doesn't go down well here at all. what the folks are saying is that the president can certainly come here over to britain, but they don't want that full state visit. they think it's too early and obviously they're highly critical of a lot of the things

that have come out of the administration in the first couple of weeks. wolf. >> the protests in london. thanks very much, for that report. still to come, there are protests here in the united states on this president's day as well. people are turning out across the country for what they're calling not my presidents' day rallies. take a look at the live pictures coming in from chicago where an anti-trump demonstration is underway right now. more on that. that's coming up.

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welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. today is president donald trump's first president's day here in the united states. he is being greeted though with

protests from coast to coast, including one right outside trump tower in new york city. bryn gingras is joining us live from that protest. what's it like. >> reporter: you can hear behind me it's loud and active right outside trump international tower. people are passion add today on a beautiful day to come out and protest. this enormous protest, not my president. i have got to till, this isn't the main protest. i want to look around and show you the trump international hotel and tower. nypd set up barricades and shut down the area right in front of the hotel. we are going to bring camera over here and zoom down the street. that's actually where the protest is happening. we just took a walk down there just a few minutes ago. that crowd of people stretching five or six new york city blocks. that's another enormous protest. the one that is entitled not my president, which got started on facebook of it's happening all

across the country at this point. at this particular one, 14,000 people said they were coming and nypd is certainly expecting huge crowds. they are not bloody glove to march anywhere but they are staying put make, their voices heard on a number of issues. again, right here outside of trump international tower. >> you are at trump international tower near columbus circle. you are not on 5th avenue at trump tower. the crowds gathered near you? they did that deliberately. >> reporter: they gather one or two places, sometimes outside of trump tower. sometimes outside the hotel. for this particular one they wanted to be here. it's gathering on columbus irk circumstance cell and past the avenue here. >> bryn, thanks very much. still to come, the new defense secretary of the united states, james mattis, makes his first visit to iraq. you are going to hear what he had to say about situation in iraq, the fight against isis and a lot more when we come back.

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welcome back. the u.s. defense secretary james mattis is making unannounced trip to iraq and baghdad. he addressed kerpts over prump's comments that isis might not have happened if the u.s. haddic at thatten iraqi oil after the second gulf war. here's what the defense secretary had to say. >> all of us in america continue to pay for our gas and oil all along. i'm sure we will continue the do so in the future. we are not in iraq to seize anybody's oil. >> ben wedeman is in istanbul following all this for us. ben, what do we expect the come out this visit by the defense secretary? >> reporter: probably the most important thing so far, wolf, is reassurance, just as mike pence,

the vice president is in brussels reassuring the u.s.'s european allies, the presence, the visit of the secretary of defense to baghdad is reassuring iraqis for one thing that those threats so to speak by donald trump during the campaign and after the inauguration, that perhaps the u.s. might seize iraqi oil, shouldn't be taken too seriously. now, i was in baghdad two weeks ago. and another point of contention of course was iraq's inclusion in the list of seven countries in the travel ban. so there are some ruffled feathers that need to be smoothed there. and it does appear that general -- rather secretary mattis, who has a lot of experience in iraq has been doing exactly that. also importantly, it comes less than 48 hours after the beginning of the latest phase in the offensive in mosul to retake the western part of the city. and of course the united states plays an essential role in that

operation with more than 5,000 u.s. military personnel on the ground. the united states has provided weaponry, training, and of course the u.s. has airplanes as part of the international coalition that are hitting isis targets in and around mosul as well. so all of that taken together, of course, this visit is important, and this is an opportunity for the united states to reaffirm its commitment to iraq in the war against isis. wolf? >> yeah, but i think it speaks -- i think speaks volumes that, what, 14 years after the war in 2003 an american defense secretary still cannot show up in baghdad with an announcement in advance. it has to be secret. it has to be unannounced because of the security considerations. and that speaks volumes about what's going on in iraq right now. same by the way in afghanistan. they can't make an announcement in advance that a defense

secretary or any other senior u.s. official is going because of concerns of security. and once again, that speaks volumes. ben wedeman, thanks very much for all your good work. that's it is for me, thanks for watch, i will he be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room. in meantime, the news continues right now right other on cnn. wolf, thank you, hi there i'm brooke baldwin. you are watching cnn. today of course is president's day, but for thousands of people, they are expected to observe the holiday by taking to the streets, in cities around the country, to protest the current president. these are dubbed these anti-trump rallies called not my president's day. they are planned for big cities, washington, d.c., los angeles, chicago, atlanta and new york, where 14,000 pem are expected. the organizers are protesting what they called, quote, un-american policies of the curren