between donald trump's associates and russians known to u.s. intelligence. a white house official says that the request was only made after the fbi indicated to the white house it did not believe all of the reporting was accurate. multiple u.s. officials telling cnn the white house sought the help of the bureau and other agencies investigating the russian matter to say the reports were wrong and there had been no contact. these officials said fbi director james comey rejected that request according to multiple sources in part because the alleged communications are part of an ongoing investigation. sean spicer says we didn't try to knock the story down. we asked them to tell the truth. the fbi did not comment. alisyn? >> so obviously this is not a typical request, pamela. how did it start? >> this all began with fbi deputy director andrew mccabe and white house chief of staff reince priebus on the sidelines of a separate meeting in the days after those stories were published.

mccabe told priebus that "the new york times" story vastly overstated what the fbi knows about the contacts. a u.s. official says mccabe didn't discuss specific aspects of the case but wouldn't say exactly what mccabe told priebus. the white house officials said priebus reached out to mccabe and james comey asking the fbi to talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories. again, the fbi refused that request. >> to underline that, pamela, this is certainly not a typical back and forth between any white house and the fbi. >> right. for a reason. there are decade-old restrictions on such contacts between the white house and the fbi limiting those discussions only to when it is important for the president's duties and where appropriate from a law enforcement perspective. so if the deputy director of the fbi, andrew mccabe did say this to the white house, he may have overstepped since it's an ongoing investigation, not to mention an investigation involving the president's associates and russia and the request from the white house is a violation of procedures that

limit communication with the fbi on pending investigations. alisyn. >> this is still a pending investigation, correct? >> it's pending, in full swing, the fbi counterintelligence committee investigating, congress is still investigating those alleged contacts. they're starting to collect documents and records, so the investigation is on going. >> pamela, we switch gears a little bit. you've also got reporting on the revision of the president's travel ban. what is that? >> sources tell my colleague, jay tapper and i the white house made the request to dhs to bolster its case for why the seven countries listed in the travel ban should remain. this request coming after the travel ban was blocked by the courts. a senior white house official tells cnn the department of homeland security and the justice department are working on this intelligence report that will demonstrate the security threat for these seven countries is substantial and the seven countries have been exporters of terrorism into the united states.

the situation has gotten more dangerous in recent years this official says. more broadly the refugee program has been a major incubator for terrorism. as mentioned, this report was requested in light of the court of appeals conclusion that the trump administration pointed no evidence as to why citizens from those countries pose a threat. cnn officials learned rank and file intelligence officials are concerned about this assignment. >> what are their concerns? >> it's viewed by some at dhs as an attempt to politicize intelligence to fit a policy rather than the other way around. some officials disagree with the trump white house position on the seven countries. in fact, the department of homeland security's in-house intelligence agency, the office of intelligence and analysis filed a report actually disagreeing with the white house view that blocking immigration from all seven countries is justified according to our sources. they do not think nationality is the best indicator of potential

terrorism. a spokeswoman for the department of homeland security confirmed this report to cnn saying while dhs was asked to draft a comprehensive report on this issue, the document you're referencing was commentary from a single intelligence source versus a thorough robust document with thorough agency vetting. sources say the new head of ina may also be trying to politicize intelligence. he initially objected to his division's assessment that was at odds with the white house assessment. the dhs spokeswoman says the notion of anything within the agency is absurd and factually inaccurate. the white house says the new travel ban is expected to be signed next week. back to you. >> pamela, thank you very much for bringing us all of your original reporting. president trump is responding now. he is tweeting about this. moments ago he says the fbi is totally unable to stop the national security leakers that have permeated our government for a long time. they can't even find the leakers

within the fbi itself. classified information is being given to the media that could have a devastating effect on the u.s. find now in all caps, exclamation point. joining us democratic congressman jim himes member of the intelligence committee. thanks for being here. >> good morning, alisyn. >> i just read president trump's tweet. i want to point out that cnn's reporting at least about all this and the intelligence community, it came from a white house official, not from the fbi. in other words, the president saying crack down on leakers, there are leakers in the white house that are sharing information because they think it's so important for it to get out there. congressman, what do you think that this tweet where he's saying he needs to crack down on the fbi, what do you think this means between the white house and the intel community? >> what this means, and you can

expect to hear the president speak a lot more about leaks, you can expect to hear my republican colleagues in congress do what they've been doing for the last couple weeks. they are not particularly interested in that stuff. what they want to focus on is leaks. you rightly point out the leaks are not coming from the intelligence community. >> just so that i'm clear. we get some of our information from the intel community and some from the white house. cnn bases its reporting on both. but continue. >> understand. leaks are an issue. there is a long conversation to be had about that, classified information should not be leaked in any circumstances. edward snowden, we can go back to watergate where watergate and bob woodward got started because there was a leak from an individual called deep throat. the main thing is the fact that the president's people went to the fbi and said we want you to do this. that is a profound violation of the way we do business.

then we learn, because cnn breaks another story, that the white house has been urging the intelligence community to arrive at a conclusion that supports where they want to be on the executive order. if people feel like they've seen this movie before, it's because they have. you just need to think back to the early days of the bush administration where poor colin powell, an honorable man sat in front of the united nations and said there are weapons of mass destruction in iraq when george tenet told the president this is a slam dunk. that happened because a lot of good people in the intelligence community heard loud and clear what conclusion the white house wanted and got sort of angled in that direction. this is a really scary thing with respect to what the white house is doing, telling the intelligence community what conclusion they want regardless of the evidence. >> congressman, let's break it down. let's talk about the russia ties, the ties between -- alleged ties between the white house or at least the trump campaign and russian officials, because the reporting is they

had repeated contacts during the presidential campaign. if the white house now doesn't like that reporting and even disagrees with that reporting and they think the fbi hasn't been forthcoming about what they disagree with in that reporting, what should they do? they're pressing the fbi to speak publicly. what should they do to make their case? >> first of all, they shouldn't contact the fbi. again, that is against the rules. i'm old enough to remember a couple months ago when ex-president clinton sat on a runway with then attorney general lynch and had a conversation. that blew up the republican party. mind you, that wasn't a sitting president, that wasn't the boss. so there is no doubt in my mind that if this story broke in an alternative eun verse with a president clinton, articles of

impeachment would be drawn up as we speak. long conversation about what the fbi says and doesn't say. the important thing here is that the white house severely damaged credibility. you talk about russian's contacts with -- the intelligence communities believes that there were contacts with trump's people. of course, the russians themselves, the deputy foreign minister of russia has said, of course, we were in contact with the trump campaign and yet the white house is saying no such contacts occurred. just as they said michael lynch didn't have a conversation with the russian ambassador. we're at a point in time here and this is concerning for somebody like me doing the investigation with my committee that the white house has at any number of times put out statements that have turned out to be flatly false. >> is your house intelligence committee looking into this? >> of course we are. both the house intelligence committee and the senate intelligence committee are undertaking investigations of all these links with russia. we are pursuing the transcripts of the conversation that general

flynn had with the russian ambassador. now, of course, we need to expand that investigation to include the fact that this white house seems to be trying to shape the intelligence they get to support pre-existing conclusions. that's pretty scary and it cannot happen. by the way, i should note, a lot of us wish we weren't the ones doing the investigation, that we had a 9/11-like commission, people not in the political fray, people who are elder statesmen to look into this very serious situation. mitch mcconnell said that's not going to happen. it is the members of the intelligence committee doing that investigation. >> congressman, why don't you have the flynn transcripts yet? >> well, first of all, the investigations have only been under way for a couple of weeks. the committees are getting all sorts of documents from the intelligence community, from others. remember there's an issue here, and boy could we talk a lot about this, but there are live

fbi investigations under way which, of course, is at the root of why the white house cannot and should not have gone to the fbi to say here is what we want you to say. we want you to help us politically. the fbi -- this is a whole long conversation because, of course, director comey prior to the election didn't feel all that badly about characterizing the investigation that was under way of secretary clinton's e-mails. now all of a sudden director comey is not quite as -- what's the right word -- maybe punctilious with his desire not to be out there in public. ordinarily fbi investigations, we would not have access to that. so we're going to need to work carefully to make sure we have all the evidence that the fbi has developed over the course of their investigations. that's a little challenging, precisely because the fbi needs to be careful when they're doing an investigation not to be public about what it is they're doing. >> congressman jim himes, thank you for sharing the information with us this morning. we obviously look forward to

seeing what you find out in your investigation. thanks for being here. >> thanks, alisyn. >> david. >> in less than two hours president trump will address the biggest conference of conservative cpac. after chief strategist steve bannon repeatedly attacked the media in his appearance at the conference. cnn senior washington correspondent joe johns has more. >> reporter: in a rare public appearance white house chief strategist steve bannon assuring skeptical conservatives president trump will deliver. >> every day in the oval office he tells reince and i, i committed this to the american people, i promised this when i ran, and i'm going to deliver on this. >> reporter: bannon calling the deconstruction of the administrative state, committed to massive deregulation. >> if you look at these cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason. >> reporter: his rhetoric full of nationalist and populist ideology. >> we're a nation with an economy, not an economy in a global marketplace with open

borders. we're a nation with a culture and a reason for being. >> reporter: the president's chief strategist vowing the president's war with the media is going to get worse. >> if you think they're going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken. every day, every day it is going to be a fight. >> reporter: white house chief of staff reince priebus joining bannon, appeared perhaps aimed at countering reports that the two men don't get along. >> i can appear a little hot on occasions. >> if the party and the conservative movement are together, similar to steve and i, it can't be stopped. >> reporter: vice president mike pence speaking later in the evening. >> this is our time. >> reporter: vowing, despite sharp differences among republicans, health care reform is coming. >> obamacare has failed and obamacare must go. >> reporter: in a new interview with reuters president trump

reiterating his call for nuclear supremacy. >> if countries are going to have nukes, we're going to be at the top of the pack. >> reporter: the president also comparing his crackdown on undocumented immigrants to a military operation. >> we're getting really bad dudes out of this country. it's a military operation. >> reporter: the white house later attempting to clarify saying trump was speaking metaphorically. in mexico homeland security secretary john kelly trying to tamp down on fears. >> no, repeat no use of military force in immigration operations, none. >> reporter: joe johns, cnn, washington. >> we need to talk about cpac, steve bannon made a rather public appearance and he laid out the trump agenda ahead of the president's speech at cpac this morning. what will we hear from the president and what exactly is their agenda that steve bannon explained? our panel takes that on next.

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president trump on twitter this morning. saying the fbi is totally unable to stop the national security leakers that have permeated our government for a long time. this continues on his facebook page where he says they can't find the leakers within the fbi itself. classified information is being given to the media that could have a devastating effect on the uflt s.

he says in capital letters find now, explanation point. joining us jen sock key, former white house communications director, cnn political commentator anna nah var rah and katy mcnanny, political contributor to the hill. >> i guess today is we don't like comey day. after we loved comey, now we don't like comey. i think it's a very dangerous war for donald trump to wage. to wage war against folks who may have information that may incriminate you may not be the smartest strategy. what i would tell republicans is do your job, investigate everything, investigate the leaks, but also investigate the russian. the problem is donald trump and republicans want to be selective as to what they want to investigate. they only want to focus on the leaks but not don't to focus on all the other worrisome

information. we need to keep pressing as american people, forget the distraction, keep your eye on the ball, folks. let us keep demanding a full investigation, a full select committee to investigate all the russia ties including these leaks. >> jen, president trump isn't the first president who doesn't like any leaks. obviously president obama wasn't crazy about it. what goes on in the white house? what's supposed to have when you sense a deluge of information coming out of the intel community or even the white house itself? >> first of all, this is a completely different approach, which is president trump attempting to go after people who are making him look bad. that's very different from going after people who are leaking national security information that could be damaging to our country. this is exactly what he wants us to be talking about. the reality is, this story is about the white house trying to influence a law enforcement agency, something that white houses, democrats and

republicans have avoided for decades. that's what we should be talking about here. ultimately the story is about their connections with the russians which also is what we should be talking about. this is the art of distraction from the white house. >> the obama white house aggressively prosecuted journalists because of national security leaks. it wasn't just about looking bad. the president here is also complaining about issues related to national security that could hurt the presidency. he may also be distracting from the fact that there's a big issue here about russian meddling that's not just about him, it's about what russia was up to and what it was up to last year and what it might be up to this year in europe as well which is dangerous. >> i don't think it's distra distracti distracting. i agree with anna there are two issues, the russian meddling issue and the leaker issue. they're separate, both important. sometimes in the press we kind of disparage the former to focus

on the latter. we disparage the fact that there are leakers leaking classified information which is extremely worrisome, not once, not twice. we've seen it a hand full of times in the last month. we should be concerned about that, not from a political standpoint but a broader american standpoint. >> what if this president fires the fbi director. >> i think he does have confidence in him and i think it would be a flaw to fire him. jim comey i think is a very honorable man. the fact he's had both the right and the left angry at him probably means he's doing his job in a dignified way. >> today the president speaking at cpac, very interesting because he avoided it last year because he was afraid people wouldn't think he was a bona fide conservative, but today he's all in and conservatives are excited because he's keeping his conservative promises to him. the mysterious steve bannon

snoek at cpac. he really speaks publicly and he talked about everything is going just as planned. it's not chaos. it's exactly how we want it. let's listen to a moment of steve bannon. >> there's a new political order being formed out of this, and it's still being formed. i think the center core of what we believe, that we're a nation with an economy, not an economy just in some global marketplace with open borders, but a nation with a culture and a reason for being. i think that's what unites us. i think that's what's going to unite this movement going forward. >> what did you hear from steve bannon? >> i heard him trying to make conservatives trump conservatives. i think the trump white house made a very concerted effort to really court and take over cpac. kellyanne was even more obvious about it. she said it's going to be tpac. we saw eight members of the white house go on that stage. donald trump is going today. i think they realize they've got

a conservative problem, right? trump has not always been a republican. he's not a conservative, but he's trying to keep that base completely with him, completely behind him. if that base starts chipping away, he's got real problems. right now he's at 39% approval. but 39 brs is a strong approval from that base. i think he was talking very narrowly to that base. frankly i had a hard time understanding some of the things he was saying. i don't know what deconstructing the administrative state means. these are code words that i don't speak as a traditional republican. >> the code words he talks about, the populism is perhaps the new conservatism. maybe that's the new republican party the president leads, talks about this singular america, the idea of defending a culture. he's talking about that in terms of economic nationalism, but it's the same language that richard spencer, the white nationalist who was expelled from the conference used when talking about his conservatism

which is his passion for defending a unique culture. >> there are very different things said. both using the term culture but they mean entirely different things. richard sherman's viewpoint has no place in this country. we're a melting pot in this country. steve bannon is very proud of that. what steve bannon is talking about, we have to protect american values. when donald trump says i only want people coming to this country who are freedom loving people, love the idea of populism and pluralism. that's what steve bannon is talking about. >> jen, what bannon is also saying is america should be free from and distinct from a global interconnected international order. >> the world is global, and the united states is a part of that. what i heard from steve bannon, i think what most people heard from steve bannon was a desire to shut the united states off from the world, to deny other

cultures from being a part of the united states. most people didn't hear an embracing of a melting pot. they heard, if you don't look like me and sound like me, then we don't want you to be a part of our culture here. that's a pretty dark and gloomy vision of the country and pretty dark and gloomy agenda. >> assimilation is very important. we want people who blooefr in american values. you look over to, let's say, the uk or european countries that embraced sharia culture. it's antithetical to the way it should operate. when he means our culture, he means our culture of democracy and assimilating and coming to american society and wanting to become an american. >> this administration has the political version of multiple personality disorder. what we are seeing is that the white house speaks solely to the base. donald trump is speaking to the base. and then he'll say i hate nato.

mike pence will go to europe and say we love nato. he'll say military operation and deportations. general kelly will come out and say no military forces will be used on deportation. mattis -- practically every cabinet secretary is doing and saying something differently than what donald trump is saying via tweet or cpac or wherever. he is speaking to the base while the rest of them are actually trying to run a very different government. at some point i think it's going to lead to a clash because it's very confusing. >> we are going to leave it there this morning. thank you all very much. have a good weekend. >> thank you. >> we are coming right back. the congressional recess can't end soon enough for some lawmakers facing angry voters at town hall events in their hometowns. what has constituents seeing red. a live report coming up. so you don't miss his first birthday. tickets, i need to see your tickets sir.

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anger voters continue to unleash on republican lawmakers at town hall events. it's led some lawmakers to opt for telephone town halls instead or skip them altogether. cnn's deb feyerick is live in covington, kentucky with more.

what's the latest, deb? >> reporter: at the rally yesterday the sense we got was there's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fear, especially because there's so many changes coming in so many policies. the people we spoke to, they want their lawmakers who represent all americans to really acknowledge the concerns and address them if possible. some lawmakers are taking that head on. others not so much. republican lawmakers confronted by furious constituents in town halls across the country. in florida, rowdy crowds demanding answers from congressman matt gates about whether he'll call for the release of president trump's tax returns. >> yes or no? >> let me say right here, right now, absolutely donald trump should release his tax returns. >> reporter: in arizona tempers flaring when representative martha mcsally sidesteps

questions about education secretary betsy devos. >> just answer our questions -- >> you may not like the answers i'm giving. >> what are you afraid of? >> reporter: in kentucky, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell avoiding scores of protesters outside this ticketed luncheon. >> it's pretty clear what they're protesting and that's the outcome of last year's election. >> reporter: when pressed by two constituents inside who paid up to $60 to make their voices heard. >> we are protesting the fact that to get in front of you we have to pay dollars. why won't you hold a town hall with your constituents? we want to hear from you. >> some republican lawmakers opting for telephone town halls or skipping the face-to-face meetings altogether. >> where is dave? you work for us. >> reporter: outraged voters holding empty chair town halls like this one in ohio with

cutouts of missing senator rob portman and in florida, one constituent chasing down marco rubio. >> are you going to hold a town hall? there's a constituent town hall today. we need to hear from you, senator. >> reporter: some politicians are citing safety concerns. texas congressman louie gohmert saying he's skipping the town hall because of what happened to gabby gifford. gifford released a statement saying i was shot on sunday, by monday my offices were open to the public. she said to the politicians who abandoned their civic obligations, have some courage, face your constituents, hold town halls. when i spoke to senator mcconnell yesterday and said these people want to be heard. he said we are hearing them, there's a fundamentally different view on what should be happening. david? >> deb, thanks so much. strong statement from former congresswoman giffords. president trump this morning

calling on fbi to find the leakers responding to our exclusive reporting on apparent white house attempts to politicize intelligence. we'll get "the bottom line" with david axelrod next.

the trump administration is under fire for two exclusive cnn reports today. first, the fbi rejected an unusual request from the white house to publicly dispute media reports that the trump campaign was in constant contact with russian officials. you know that story. then there's also growing concern in the intelligence community about how the white house is building its case for the travel ban. >> so what does all this say about the new administration? we want to get "the bottom line" with cnn senior political commentator david axelrod. ax, good morning. we took a step back after reporting on this all morning long. you've been on the inside and looking at this as a commentator. is it straight-up outrageous or having been on the inside, part of the administration that prosecuted national security leaks quite aggressively and angered the news media in the process, can you see some of

where the administration is coming from? >> there are instances in which the obama administration pursued leaks. generally they applied to places where they felt the leaks compromised people in the field, compromised operations that were under way, and those can be debated. but there are lines that shouldn't be crossed. the notion of anyone in the white house calling the fbi and asking them to knock down a story that is politically embarrassing about an ongoing investigation is outrageous and it's concerning. i and everyone should accept that when there's a new administration, policies will chan change. that is the nature of democracy. our institutions and preservation of institutions and trust in our institutions is something that has to endure from administration to administrati

administration. if an administration, a white house, a president is willing the subjugate them to their own political needs, we have a larger problem. i think that's what this poses. >> let's give the white house the benefit of the doubt. they're saying they're not trying to knock it down because it's politically embarrassing to them. they say the deputy director at the fbi shared his concerns that the reporting was shower roane yous. they simply asked the fbi to share those conclusions with the public at large. is that also off base? >> i don't think the chief of staff for the president should be talking to the fbi generally, whichever way the conversation is going about on going investigations and reports related to on going investigations, and the question for the white house is did they reach out to other intelligence agencies in an attempt to knock this story down as well.

this is a very, very tender story, shall we say, for the administration. so there are lots of reasons for them to want to knock this story down. if you start using the fbi as a political organ to knock down stories about on going investigations, you're into a very, very serious area. >> the broader context here is that this administration is at war with the fbi, if you read the president this morning on twitter, and the intelligence agencies, in the same way they're at war with the news media. the issue is, when something bad happens, if, god forbid, there's a terrorist attack, sensitive intelligence that would require a response to head off an attack, there's so much distrust in our government that has real consequences. >> david, you just hit the core point. this is the point i was making

before. the erosion of trust in our institutions is a real problem, and when the president of the united states is leading that chorus, it's really dangerous for the country. it's not just the intelligence community, the fbi, the media. it's also the courts when the president got a decision that he didn't like, his first instinct was to try to impeach the court as political. this is a very, very dangerous trend. and i don't even know whether it's a calculated strategy or just wanton disregard and lack of appreciation for our institutions. but whichever, it's very, very dangerous. i'm not one who thinks the news media should be harping on the attacks on the news media. i think people find that tiresome perhaps. but there's no doubt that the white house would like the news media to become house organs for the white house, and they don't want unpleasant information published. that is not the role of the news

media in a free society and every citizen should be very, very clear on that. >> david, let's shift gears. former house speaker john boehner was at a health care conference yesterday and somebody slipped him some truth serum, and he spoke about obamacare. so listen to this. >> in the 25 years i served in congress, republicans never, everyone time agreed on what a health care proposal should look like. not once. if you pass repeal, not replace, first, anything that happens, it's your fault. i shouldn't have called it repeal and replace. that's not what's going to happen. basically going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it. >> what do you think of his comments, david? >> first of all, i tell you that he walks around -- and ever since he left that job, he's been walking around with a truth

serum patch. john boehner is having the time of his life speaking his mind. of course, the people who are most aggressive in that caucus about repealing and replacing are the people who be deviled john boehner throughout his speakership and the reason that he left. it's been this on going problem. the republican party for six years when after repeal and replace, they were going to remove obamacare. now they have the responsibility of doing it and they're coming head on with the reality that there are many elements of that program that people very much like, and that if you remove some and not others, the whole thing can collapse. it can be a house of cards. so i think you're going to have a bill that says repeal and replace because they promised to repeal and replace obamacare. but inside that bill, you're going to see what john boehner forecast, which is more of a modification of obamacare than a replacement of obamacare. >> can i do a quick one? we remember back in the bush

years carl rov being the brain. do you think all this about steve bannon is overblown, or is he truly informing the president's world view? >> i think he is. i think the difference between donald trump and george w. bush or other presidents is he's never had any real experience in government politics or policy making. so he comes to this office with no grand world view. i always joke that if he had a halt today, it might say rent this space. steve bannon fills in -- steve bannon fills a lot of that in. you can hear trump in some of the things that he says about the world and about sort of putting a moat around america. so reflecting what is a long-held view of steve bannon who has this apocalyptic view of judeo christian society at war with islam and about global lichl as a threat to the sovereignty of this country.

you can hear intimations of that in trump's rhetoric, and i don't think it's something that donald trump has long studied and thought about. yes, i think bannon is really influenced. >> david axelrod, have a great weekend. thank you. >> okay, guys. sunday is oscar night in america. will it be a big night for "la la land" in la-la land. just let that wash over you. ow political will the stars and the hosts get? i think a little political. we'll have all that coming up. your insurance company won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation.

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♪ >> when did they start singing in the movies again? >> i don't know. this is some movie called "la la land," just another movie we'll never see, nominated for a record tieing 14 academy awards. the 89th awards hosted by jimmy kimmel this weekend. what can we expect sunday night? let's get a preview with cnn contributed tarnish shell turner and cnn's senior media correspondent and host of reliable sources brian stelter. >> stelter, how did you worm your way into covering the

oscars? are you working the red carpet? >> the biggest night on tv after the super bowl. >> anything that happens on tv, he needs to be a part of. >> i've seen that. >> nischelle, let's get your predictions. what are nominated for best pictures. we have all these on our screen. which one do you think is going to run away with it? >> brian might disagree, but i think "moonlight" will take home best picture. "la la land" has momentum, but i think "moonlight" has been lauded by so many people, critically acclaimed. it also won awards early on in the award season. i definitely think we'll see this movie take home best picture. >> it's hard to imagine hollywood voters not choosing "la la land" because of all of the hollywood references in it. >> but it wasn't the best movie. >> i think the best movie was either "arrival" or "lion." i'm guessing "la la land" will

take it home. >> can we talk about best actor and whether casey affleck who was brilliant in manchester by the sea is going to get this? there's a lot of talk about denzel as well. >> i think there could be an upset. i think denzel might take this home. that's just because we saw denzel win a s.a.g. award for this role. if you look at the academy voters, a lot of them are actors. actors lean more toward him. a new pool of voters, 673, the youngest and most diverse ever. denzel was masterful in this role. i think he'll upset casey affleck. >> i'm with nischelle. >> i saw "manchester by the sea," a gorgeous piece of art i could have done without because it was like having my heart removed from my body without anesthesia. >> i heard that time and again, he turns in a phenomenal performance but it really is heart-wrenching. >> i'm going with nischelle, i think denzel will end up taking

it. as incredible as casey affleck was, and as interesting as gosling was in "la la land," i think co-star emma stone is probably the most likely winner as best actress. for best actor, i'm thinking denzel. >> let's look at best actress. >> does tom brady win anything on this? >> ask brian. >> so what do you see, nischelle, who do you think will win best actress? >> i agree with brian, most likely emma stone. early on natalie portman had a lot of momentum playing jackie onass onassis, but i think emma stone will take it home. >> what about politics? how much will be dominated by politics? will we hear more from the overrated meryl streep -- when i say overrated, i'm just quoting the president. what do you expect, brian from this night? >> there are so many stars in hollywood that have a lot to say right now that are supporters of this so-called resistance against the president who see a stage in front of 40 or 50 million people and can't pass up

an opportunity to at least in a subtle way make a comment about the current political condition. of course, we'll hear a lot of debate the next day, a lot of outrage. but if you've got that clans, it's the biggest audience on television after the super bowl etch year, a huge stage, hard to pass up that opportunity. >> i actually don't think meryl streep is overrated. i just want to make that clear. >> it also depends on who wins. we'll probably see the supporting actor ali win, he is muslim. he has come out strong against some of the things going on right now with immigration and the trump administration. you could hear a political speech from him. if iva due very nay wins, you'll probably hear. >> the white house would like more than to hear diatribe from los angeles. >> that's a good point. it does deepen the divide and creates more of the sense that hollywood liberals are against the president. it was only a few haurs after

meryl streep's speech that the president weighed in on twitter and made it an even bigger deal. >> thanks, you guys, have a great monday. >> and thank you to you, david gregory. >> i was sweeping up in the back. they said they needed someone in for cuomo. always a pleasure. >> great to have you. >> cnn "newsroom" with poppy harl harlow after the quick break. with car insurance, and i was not happy with the customer service. we have switched back over and we feel like we're back home now. the process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life. call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs.

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good morning everyone. i'm poppy harlow. john berman is off today. thanks for joining us. president trump takes the stage this afternoon. he will speak at cpac, the nation's premier gathering for conservative leaders and activists. we'll bring you those comments live as soon as we begin. we begin with exclusive reporting from cnn on the trump white house and a very unusual request raising eyebrows. sources tell us the administration wanted the fbi to publicly dismiss reports of contact between russian officials and trump campaign advisers before the election. the president responding this morning on twitter we'll have what he said in just a moment. first let's straight to justice correspondent pamela brown who has been working sources all day and night breaking this news. what can you tell us? >> cnn is