you're live in the cnn news room. president trump is facing his most crucial week yet since moving into the white house. his first speech before a joint session of congress is in just two days. what's more, a brand new version of his con ttroversial travel b is expected. and a black tie gala called the governor's dinner. >> big dinner at the white house. much to be discussed including health care. and of course we are also focused on hollywood's biggest night of the year, the academy awards with millions watching, what will happen on stage with regard to the president.

will people get political and how will the president respond? >> i want to start with our white house correspondent ath. do you think he's ready to get specific? >> i don't think it necessarily means that specifics are going to be laid out tonight. we know this is a huge priority for this white house and for republicans on capitol hill. it's also a huge challenge. governor john ca came to the whe on friday and he spelled out the challenge facing republicans as they try to repeal and replace this law on face the nation this morning. take a listen. >> you also don't want to be in a position of where you don't cover these 20 million americans. you have to make sure that you have a system that's reformed, that's more affordable, and is

going to work, but we're just not going to pull the rug out from under people. >> and that is really the main challenge. you have 20 million people who now have coverage because of the affordable care act and there a lot of folks showing up at these republican town halls and districts across the country and confronting their representatives because they're concerned about losing access to health care. some of them telling emotional stories, so that is a big challenge. it's going to be a big topic of conversation tonight. also in a meeting tomorrow with governors and the president, but it's just not clear that a real plan is going to come together in short order. >> thank you so much for that report from the white house. and now let's bring in our panel, ben ferguson, a cnn political commentator and the host of the ben ferguson radio show and a new york times contributor, and we're going to talk to both of you of course about let's start with the speech. the president's speech, what we expect. ben, i want to begin before we

talk about that though, to discuss what happened at the white house we believe last week. and they've confirmed that the press secretary sean spicer is cracking down on leaks, so much so that he apparently called staffers into his office, demanded to see their cell phones to make sure that they weren't corresponding with reporters and asked his staff not to leak information about the meeting that he was having about the leak meeting. can you follow that? if you can't, it kind of shows you how absurd it is frankly, but what do you make of this? >> there's two things here. one you have a staff that many of them are new to the white house and some are nvery new to being in washington and if you're at the white house the that gives you a lot of clout. when i was around the bush administration on the bush campaign there were people that

wanted to be a bigger deal than they really were and so how they gained that stature was leaking information to reporters and kind of showing off what they know that maybe others didn't know. it's a problem. you have to crack down on it and i think what spicer was trying to do was make it abundantly clear that if you're using these apps it's a violation of what the law is to put this information out there to reporters and i think that's a good point that should be made. the second issue is you work for the president of the united states. you don't work for the press and you're t no going to basically use this to your advantage to in essence really help your own personal career moving forward by saying hey, gave a lot of information when i was at the who house. i think it's important that your staff work for you and not use it to their advantage for their own personal gain. >> i want to look ahead now to what we expect this week. we mentioned the big important

speech that the president is going to give, but he also plans to, we believe issue a revised version of his temporary travel ban targeting majority muslim countries. i want you guys to listen to what the president had to say about this this week. >> let me state this as clearly as i can. we are going to keep radical islamic terrorists the hell out of our country. we will not be deterred from this course and in a matter of days we will be taking brand new action to protect our people and keep america safe. you will see the action. >> how can the trump administration revise the travel ban and make it more palletable to the muslim community? >> i don't think they can and

thank you for calling it what it is. it's a muslim ban and i appreciate steven miller who cowrote the ban for his incompetence and honesty when he said it's not going to be that much different from the muslim ban that was narrowly focused and wasn't talking about the constitutionality of the ban but to remind president trump that there is something called checks and balances. he's not going to placate the constitution, ro or the immigration act that makes it -- and thank god for rudy julian. when it came to the intention behind this ban which is the muslim ban and the fact that it

is targeting seven muslim majority countries in which zero foreign nationals have committed zero violent acts of terror so it's not going to go well. >> i just want to say, so you're saying he's not going to placate the muslim community, not going to placate the aclu. i don't think he's trying to go there. >> ben, go ahead. >> there's two things here that are just absolutely flat out wrong about what was just said. first off we hear this talking point from democrats. they say well, of the countries on the list there's never been an attacker that has come from that country and hurt anybody in this country as a terrorist. let's be very clear. many people go to other countries that allow for isis or al qaeda to operate from some of those nations and they then become a terrorist and they actually train in other countries. so the idea that well, no one was ever born in one of these seven countries and did an attack on this country, that's

not dealing with the reality of the situation. >> france and belgium? >> let me finish. you look at these terrorists and where they are actually now. it is very clear for example syria, that there have been terrorists from multiple nations that have gone into there and trained under isis and that has been a safe haven. you look at the countries on the list and there is a hot bed right now, most of them don't even have central functioning governments. so how do you even check individuals coming from that country if you can't even check with a central government that is nonexistent? the second issue is, when you say it's a muslim ban, that's fear mongering. that is not a muslim ban when a billion -- a billion muslims from around the world can come to america, no problem from any

other country in the world? >> your response to that? >> it's a nice alternative fact and a nice desperate spin, but donald trump -- donald trump promised a permanent ban and then he said a temporary ban and as we know he's fulfilling his promise with a muslim ban which is from seven muslim majority countri countries. if you really are worried about a national security, 15 of the 19 hi jackers who brought down the two towers were from saudi arabia. two were from uae. one from egypt and one from libya. and by the way, none of those countries are on the band and by the way, dana, of the uae, saudi arabia and egypt donald trump has business ties with those countries. so if you're really concerned and add europe in there. france, belgium -- >> would you feel more comfortable if saudi was on

there if uae was on there? you would be as critical. >> of course not. this is a counter productive ban. it's ineffective. there's a reason why experts have said this would be useless. this will be a thoroughly ineffective counter productive ban which will not help our national security. he says go after cyber threats. go after individuals who get radicalized and you know something about this because he said this will be counter productive and ineffective. >> let's get ben back in. >> one simple thing here. this is a huge reason why donald trump is the president of the united states and hillary clinton is not. because americans understood that there's an actual threat from terrorism and as he just implied there that oh, all these terrorists came, you know, weren't from asaudi arabia, wha countries did they train? >> are you fine with europe. >> >> let him finish. let him finish.

>> when you're fighting terrorism you don't care about where the country, the passport of the person is from. you care about what country they're coming from and if that country is harboring, aiding and/or abetting isis or other terrorist groups and the reason why these countries matter is because they have been active hot beds factually of terrorist organizations who have been bringing citizens from literally all over the world to train in those host nations and most of them do not have a central government. >> so canada, france, belgium, netherlands. got it. >> we're going to have to leave it there, gentlemen. thank you very much for that spirited discussion. i appreciate it. certainly won't be the last. thank you so much. and president trump will make his first address before congress this tuesday. you can watch it live right here on cnn and then stay tuned after for the democratic response and reaction from around the country. our coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern and one more programming note, i will be moderating a town hall with republican

senators john mccain and lindsay graham on wednesday at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. and new reports reveal the white house enlisted top congressmen to dismiss stories about the trump campaign's ties to russia as calls for independent investigation grow. i'll talk to one of the members of the house intelligence committee. you see him right there. we'll talk to him next. you're live in the cnn newsroom. (announcer vo) when you have type 2 diabetes

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asked house intelligence committee chairman to reach out to the media in an effort to knock down stories about reporter communications between

the trump campaign and russians known to the u.s. intelligence community. that news follows exclusive cnn reporting that the administration asked the fbi to do the very same thing, but the fbi declined. i'm joined now by democratic congressman mike quigley, also a member of the house intelligence committee. thanks for joining me. let's start right there. as a member of the committee what do you make of that reporting that the white house asked your chairman to effectively do its pr work for him? >> sure. and let's begin with the request of the fbi. i mean, the agency's job is not to be an extension of the press or the pr department of the white house. and is asking the chairman, you know, it's clear there's an attempt to silence or to quell the investigation. it makes absolutely no sense. i can't imagine that the intelligence community would listen to the chairman at this time when they're beginning a criminal investigation.

what's perhaps most disturbing is it seems to have an attempt to be a chilling effect on the investigation itself. i can tell you the investigation has just begun, and it is absolutely critical to understand how this took place. the measures that the russians took to attack our democratic process, they can't be quelled in the investigation's infancy. >> i want you to listen to something that your republican colleague of california told bill mar this weekend. take a listen. >> you cannot have somebody, a friend of mine, jeff sessions who was on the campaign and who was an appointee. you're going to need to you the special prosecutor's statute and office to take not just to recuse. you can't just give it to your deputy. that's another political appoint appointee. you do have to do that. >> what was your reaction when you heard that and just for

context this is a man who did chair the house oversight committee and he did so when president obama was in the white house and really investigated pretty vigorously across the board. to hear him say that about a republican president, what do you make of it? >> i welcome the news. congressman issa and i formed the transparency caucus in the house, so i guess it's welcome if not totally unsurprising the fact that he wants an independent investigator involved in this. i would only add that we actually what we need is a commission to look at this as well. unfetterred, independent. bipartisan, bicameral with the tools necessary to complete the job. >> so we're talking about two different things, of course. first and foremost it's the fbi investigation into russian involvement meddling and democratic elections and second is what's happening where you sit on capitol hill. the house intelligence committee

apparently has, you know, an investigation already going on. i've spoken to several members of the senate intelligence committee, republicans and democrats who insist the probe is vigorous and will be even more so. are you experiencing the same thing on the house side? >> well, what i think -- obviously we're talking about two things. i want an eindependent investigator. i want a house and senate investigation. look, if we can't have an independent investigation the next best thing is to have the house and senate with the vigorous investigation. as i said, it's just the beginning but we need the white house to cooperate and we need the chairman of both committees on the house and senate side to say nothing is off the table. and it was a little surprising to see mr. nunez say what he said just recently given he has assured us several times that nothing is off the table. the investigation will be

complete. >> now, you just got back from ukraine. i have to ask you broadly, did you learn anything there with regard to russian meddling in u.s. elections? >> well, i was there in 2014 as well right after the revolution and just before the elections there. they are battling to implement democracy. at the same time they're fighting the russians in eastern ukraine after the invasion of crimea. they need our help now more than ever and they don't need an administration telling the world that perhaps we should lift these sanctions when they gain absolutely nothing. our eastern european allies need our help now more than ever and the information is clear and the concerns in ukraine are there that the white house might not be there for them and they're questioning the motivations. >> question the motivations of this president, but beyond that, my understanding is that there is -- you know, that there could

be information in that country among its leaders about what happened in this country. anything that you can share? >> not at this point. again, my briefings for the most part were from being on the house select committee on intelligence. i will just say that it adds additional reasons and arguments for a complete investigation as to all communications. was there collusion involved between this administration as a campaign and anyone in russia. >> and based on what you know, what's the answer? was there? >> based on that -- let me put it this way. there are more reasons now than ever to have an extraordinarily thorough investigation. i believe we should have an independent commission, but i'm going to do the best i can working with my colleagues on the house side investigating this, letting the facts take us where we need to go. >> i realize you're -- >> and let the public deserving

to know exactly what took place. >> i would not be doing my job if i didn't ask if you'd like to elaborate on that? >> all i'll say is there's enough concern out there, nothing has taken place. nothing i've learned so far has told me that as i've heard from others on the committee, there's no there there. there's enough there there to be very concerned as an american citizen and a member of that committee. >> thank you so much. i appreciate you sitting with us and giving us a sense of course what happened on that trip to ukraine. >> and coming up, he's been portrayed as the grim reaper, the puppet master and who is steve bannon? we'll pull back the curtain with someone who knows, next. (mic thuds) uh, sorry. it's unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america.

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he's been called donald trump's brain, even president bannon. steve bannon's name is well known but the man himself is not. that started to change just a little bit this week. >> steve bannon's cpac appearance wasn't just notable for what he said but because he spoke publicly at all. >> you're a really likable guy. you should do this more often. >> don't count on it. bannon is just fine being the

guy seen by the cameras, but not heard. oval office photo ops called signing ceremonies and business meetings. he's a big thinker laying an intellectual foundation of what he calls economic nationalism to donald trump's unorthodox brand. >> there are many things hitting the president's ear and desk every day, different things that come to the president that want to move him off of his agenda and steve is very consistent and very loyal. >> bannon is a complex character. a virginia native and former naval officer from a democratic working class family. in many ways it makes sense he'd dedicate himself to giving his brethren a voice. but he is also an elite. a harvard business school graduate that worked at goldman sachs and made movies in hollywood. he became editor in chief of the

ultra right brietbart and tried to reshape the media. >> what we need to do is bitch slap the republican party. >> the reason reince and aare good partners is we can disagree. >> bannon has not changed. the world has by signing on to the trump campaign and then becoming white house chief strategist and counselor he's now in a position to reconstruct the institutions he deplores from the inside. >> you think they're going to give your country back without a fight you are sadly mistaken. >> he is a warrior creating a think tank inside the white house to promote it. but bannon only articulates his views with like minded media, making way for publications like time to call him the great

manipulator. >> that's enough fun for tonight. >> because he doesn't speak out he leaves high profile attacks like this unanswered. >> it's a stunning thing that a white sue premist would be a member of the national security council. >> he doesn't care what people think of him. >> and joining me now the senior editor of the standard. i'm going to ask you about the piece on steve bannon but i mentioned that bannon generally doesn't care what people think of him so why do you think he appeared at cpac this past week? >> well, i suppose he's reaching out to people he thought of as -- as the hard line of the -- of the republican party. the people receptive to the old brietbart message. the people who thought that part of the problem with american

politics was in the republican party itself. and i think he turned out to be mostly true although there were people at cpac who objected to, you know, to his type of conservatism. >> now, there have been a lot of portrayals of bannon in the media over the past several weeks. we showed one of them, the grim reaper, they also called him the puppet master. the manipulator, the grim reaper, but that brings me to what you said. many paint him as a cartoon villain and then you went on to say while he is certainly a hard line conservative of some kind the evidence that he is an extremist of a more troubling sort has generally either been massag massaged, misread or hyped up. what do you mean by that? >> well, i mean, let's take for example bannon called brietbart

a platform for the alt right. which is a description that's now used to include a whole bunch of right wing groups that certainly includes a bunch of racists and white supremacists. at the time bannon said it though, i think that it had a much broader meaning and it was used to include a lot of internet type disdense from the republican party. so i don't think it's fair to go from there to call him a white nationalist for instance as some in the democratic party have. >> you also wrote this that i also thought was fascinating. there may never be a trumpism and unless one emerges the cl e closest we may come to understanding this administration is an expression of nbannonism. >> when you talk about problems

with the administration i think the thing that a lot of americans are -- a lot of trump's opponents are very unwilling to face up to is that that id logical problem comes out of american democracy which is that trump has kind of a mandate to do things like reform immigration policy. however, he's not very good at articulating it. he's -- in fact, he's so poor at articulating to the american public that one suspects that he either can't or he simply doesn't want to. bannon is a much more -- has a much more systematic way of going about describing these things. at least if you can judge from his radio shows and his writings. so he might be a much better way to decipher what the -- what the administration really wants. >> do you think that the president and steve bannon would be better served because he is so articulate for his thought

and his intellectual premise that he would -- should come out more and explain it? >> i don't really know. you know, i mean, for our sake, for the sake of clarity, for the sake of knowing exactly what's going on in the administration, yes, certainly. for the administration's own purposes, i think they might be distrustful enough of the media that they don't want to sort of like offer steve bannon up that way. >> we can only wish. we can only wish. thank you so much. and again, your piece in the new york times today was fascinating. i encourage all of our viewers to read it. thanks for your time. and coming up, dinner party diplomacy. president trump and the first lady are getting ready for their first big social event at the white house tonight. a black tie dinner with governors. we're getting a sneak peek of the black tie affair. you see there ivanka trump,

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it may be oscar night for most of us but here in washington, governors from around the united states will be treated to a different kind of glamour. a black tie event at the white house. it's the first big social event put on by the new trump administration and it is one of the most important of the entire year. let's bring in white house reporter kate bennett and you've been doing some great reporting on this. first of all how big a deal of this is for melania trump? >> you know, this is sort of unorthodox situation with the first lady where she's splitting her time between washington and new york so there's this inherent mystery about her anyway, so are we going to see her really pull out the stops here or is she going to set the tone for an elegant evening? she released a statement earlier today saying that the theme of

tonight's dinner is going to be called it's spring renewal and she's really celebrating getting the country together, the governors together and it's going to be nonpartisan and it's going to be filled with, you know, the white house has come to life gleaming with the dazzling experience of eternal spring. i mean it sounds really great and then of course like donald trump tweeted that there's a lot to discuss including health care. so here she is saying it's going to be this nonpolitical evening with all the governors and then but potus president trump has maybe a different idea about what the dinner table conversation will be. either way t's a big deal. the first time the trumps are entertaining at the white house. >> you didn't even talk about the jazz men which with can talk about another time. what are some of the details question sides the jazz men that go on. the work on it has to be pretty

intense. >> i spoke with jeremy bernard who was the obama secretary for many years and he said he would start planning months in advance sometimes for a dinner of this time. he would create three to four tables for the first lady to see, each set up with a different china or different plowers or different table ware and she can see what she liked and what her style would be. i would assume that's going on in the trump white house as well. there is a new social secretary, a woman named rickie lloyd on staff who was hired just a handful of weeks ago. this will be her first test in terms of setting the table literally in terms of what the white house does in terms of entertaining. >> from flowers to entertaining to seating to the china, you want to incorporate everything you can because these are the governors from all 50 states. it's a massive undertaking and considering the first lady's office right now is not staffed to the hilt the way the obamas

was, it might be a bit of a challenge but we're hopeful they'll pull it off. >> and quickly, we're just sort of taking for granted that the first lady's office is doing this. she is doing this and people know that she doesn't live here, she's staying in new york. her son is continuing -- a continuing out the school year there but this does mean she's engaged on the traditional first lady level. >> she is the hostess of the white house. ivanka trump will be there as well. but certainly this is melania trump's moment to really play the role of first lady and open the white house, the people's house for this black tie ernt, this big gala. i'm hopeful we'll see more of it as the trump administration goes on but this is a big jump for her to get her feet wet within the social atmosphere of washington. >> thank you so much, my friend. appreciate that. >> and coming up, we go to the west coast to the real red carpet on oscar night and look

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it's oscar night. hollywood's biggest night for movie stars to take the red carpet and all of their glitz and glamour to and find out who will make the top honors in the 89th academy awards. let's go to stefani and you're joined now by a special guest. >> i am. i have with me right now sting and jay, they're the men behind the empty chair, the song that goes along with the hba documentary about the american journalist who was killed in syria and we've talked about

this already before but now that we're actually here, you've both been nominated. what's it like to be here now and having more attention on this film? >> it's good to be invited to the party but especially when you have something important to do. i think it's a very important movie for people to see. when the truth itself is under attack. james was a man who put his life on the line to bring the truth to america. he lost his life. so we're here to honor him, to respect him and be grateful and i think all americans should be grateful for that kind of heroism. >> and you said to me before that there's only one person that could do this job and write the lyrics to the song. >> it takes a very specific sensitivity, somebody that can get past themselves and allow incredible compassion. it's very hard to do. it's next to impossible because everything to the left and right of it is just dead wrong. so you know, we wanted to

celebrate the love and compassion of james. >> well it's a very beautiful song and when it comes on in the movie you definitely feel it. look at this lovefest with these stories. john legend and sting hugging it out here. so it's a lovely song and best of luck to you both and good to see you again. so yes, you saw that little h l hollywood moment when you see john legend and sting hug it out. >> that was pretty cool. very jealous of you right now. also incredibly jealous because you spoke to somebody else who is very well known, not just for l.a. and for hollywood but he's there tonight for an oscar nomination but of course hamilton. >> yeah. len manuel miranda is a well decorated director on broadway. he's also the man behind the

disney movie that came out. i spoke to him about what it was like to be here. take a listen. >> are you in full mode? >> yeah, yes, i am. no, i've seen this on tv so many times. it's a whole other thing to be in the middle of it. >> and you're performing tonight. right? >> yeah. i hope i don't lose my voice between the 1,200 cameras and the theater. >> what's it mean to you -- he's super talented. he's done all these things. people know his name from broadway, oscar nominated lin manuel miranda. >> we watched the oscars and we talked about how i would be going with him so this is a real dream come true. >> all right. is there anyone you're looking forward to meeting tonight? >> we met gail bernal so there's really nothing left to do here. pack it up. >> he is just so charming and

you know what else he told me? like the first thing he did when he was done with hamilton he cut his hair off. i almost didn't recognize him. >> i remember that. he cut it off and he went out with jlo and did a song. how cool is it that he brought his mom? >> i love that he kept his promise from little him to bring his mom. it's so awesome. >> rel quick, the actually wards tonight, what's the buzz about the big prize, best picture? >> best picture, obviously "la la land" is favored because it has 14 nominations going on but there has been some buzz that perhaps one of the more dramatic films could make it in there. but at the end a lot of people think it's still going to go with the love note from hollywood to hollywood which is "la la land." >> all right. stephanie, thank you so much and because you don't have eyes in the back of your head i'll tell

you that judd just walked behind you so go get him. >> i'm on it. thanks, dana. >> and coming up, a new leader for the democratic party whose liberal base is demanding confrontation with the trump white house. so is he ready for the job? ♪ machines don't have emotions. but the rare few can inspire them. ♪ the new lc. the new ls. the new lexus. experience amazing. we can't stay here! why? terrible toilet paper! i'll never get clean! way ahead of you. charmin ultra strong. it cleans better. it's four times stronger... ...and you can use less. enjoy the go with charmin.

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kurt busch is the winner today of the 59th running of the daytona 500. if you're looking to get really close to the action, in charlotte, north carolina, racers can suit up and experience the thrill of racing firsthand. >> welcome to charlotte. this is nascar's headquarters. >> the nascar racing experience is a program where people can come out and take a ride or drive in one of these stock cars here at charlotte motor speedway. you can reach speeds of over 160 miles an hour. a lot of people say that it's kind of their bucket list to come out here, and when you take that ride, you can really feel

the banking and the speed out here at the racetrack. >> our customers are a little nervous when they're coming in, they're not sure what to expect. but after we put them through the class, they're put in a car and they're instructed via radio. every driver coming out of the cars has a huge smile on their face. charlotte is a race-oriented area, a lot of the back gouchbd of racing comes the this area. >> a lot of our cars are pretty mundane, so getting in a car like this really makes you feel alive. the world is full of surprising moments. they're everywhere. and as a marriot rewards member, i can embrace them all.

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newsroom. any minute now, president trump

is set to speak at his first big social event. a short time ago, president trump tweeted about it. big dinner tonight at white house with governors. his first prime time speech before a joint session of congress is just two days away. plus a brand-new version of his controversial travel ban is also expected this week. i want to begin with white house correspondent athena jones. the president seems like he's ready to talk health care, but are we going to get specifics? >> reporter: i'm not sure we're going to get any specifics from the president tonight. we'll wait and see what we hear. but we do know this is one of his main campaign