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at the top of this hour of 360, the ax man cometh. a preview of the first white house budget and cuts every else. more on this from jim acosta. >> reporter: president trump's message to washington, get ready for the budget ax. >> we're going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people. >> reporter: officials say the president plans to ask for a staggering $54 billion increase in defense spending, offset for cuts in non-defense programs, including foreign aid. the budget is so big it eclipses what the federal government spends at the state department and epa. >> we are taking his words and turning them into policies and dollars. >> reporter: the peak of the

president's budget comes as the white house is still grappling with questions about the trump campaign's contacts with russia before the election. over the weekend, darrell issa supported a special prosecutor may be necessary to put the matter to rest. >> you're right that 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 use the special prosecutor's statute. >> reporter: the white house response to that -- >> i guess my question would be a special prosecutor for what? how many people have to say there's nothing there before you realize there's nothing there? >> reporter: spicer also defended the white house decision to enlist the gop intelligence committee chairman and the cia director to talk to reporters about the russia controversy. >> all we've sought to do is to actually get an accurate report out. >> reporter: devon nunez was careful to say he's yet to see any proof of wrongdoing. >> we still have not seen any evidence of anyone from the trump campaign or any other campaign for that matter that's communicated with the russian government.

>> reporter: when asked about the prospect of a special prosecutor, the president gave this curious reply. that's odd, concerning the president just spoke to russian president putin just a few weeks ago. not to mention his own trip in 2013 for his ms. universe pageant. >> do you have a relationship or anything that you feel that you have sway or influence over his government? >> i do have a relationship. and i can tell you that he's very interested in what we're doing here today. he's probably very interested in what you and i are saying today, and i'm sure he's going to be seeing it in some form, but i do have a relationship with him, and i think it's very interesting to see what's happened. >> do we know what president trump is expected to say in tomorrow's speech? >> reporter: we have some hints, anderson. senior officials were briefing reporters earlier this evening at the white house. they said the president and his team are still finalizing the

speech at this point, but consider the theme of the address. it's going to be called renewal of the american spirit, an optimistic vision for all americans, contrast that with the president's talk of american carnage in his inauguration address. perhaps they're taking some of those criticisms to heart that the inaugural address was too dark in tone. and they also say that the president's address is going to be focused very heavilily on national security issues and economic opportunity for all americans in those forgotten corners of the country. and also what we're going to be hearing from the president tomorrow night he is going to be talking about keeping campaign promises. whether you like his being in office or don't like it, it's hard to argue with the fact that he's keeping his promises. the white house war on leaks. senior editor jeff zeleny has

more. >> reporter: the job of white house press secretary sean spicer increasingly includes being president trump's enforcer. >> we get our job -- >> reporter: he's leading a crackdown on leaks inside the white house, going as far as launching a random check of staffer's phones during an an emergency meeting last week to see if they were sharing information by text or e-mail or using encrypted apps to do so. the white house counsel's office authorized these checks, and president trump directly signed off on the move, eager to send a signal that he is furious at leaks during his first five weeks in office. spicer also had the president's blessing from blocking reporters from several news organizations from a white house news briefing. >> i'm not going to discuss what we did internally. >> reporter: he would not directly say whether he asked the director of the cia to help push back on news reports about alleged contacts between the trump campaign and russian intelligence operatives.

>> i think it's interesting that i'm being asked what's appropriate when what we're doing is urging reporters to engage with subject matter experts who can corroborate whether or not something's accurate or not. >> reporter: but the white house did enlist the chairman of the house and senate intelligence committees to talk to reporters. urging them to speak out against news accounts of reported russia links. >> i think we did our job very effectively. it was about the accuracy of the reporting and the claims that were made in there. >> reporter: the extraordinary moves have added tension to an already combustible environment in the west wing. from the moment he stepped into the briefing room on the second day of trump's presidency, has been a lightning rod. >> this was the largest audience to witness an inauguration period. >> reporter: he soon became the subject of "saturday night live." with millions mccarthy amplifying his anger.

>> reporter: he's become one of the leading faces of the trump white house, which can be tricky terrain, serving under a president who has long managed his own press. >> there's no question they have gotten the attention of people in the white house and across the administration about cracking down on leaks. but sean spicer telling me this evening it was actually his decision. he said the president did not sign off on this. anderson, we are told differently. all the sources have said the president is intent on cracking down on these, but, as you know, the meeting on leaks actually leaked. so i think they have work to do. >> thank you. jen psaki's back. she worked for president obama. jen, you and i talked to the last hour. no administration likes leaks, but targeting your own staff like this, have you ever heard of anything like this? and does it work? >> well, no, it's not normal. i think it's probably something demoralizing to staff, no doubt

about that. it's not something i was ever a part of, but i think there's a larger objective, anderson, and that's to distract from discussion and coverage of the russia story, the russia investigations and the connections reportedly, between senior officials that are close to president trump and the russian government. >> so you think leaking the story about the leaks is actually an attempt to distract? >> that's correct. i think it's part of the continued effort by the trump administration to distract from the more problematic story, which is the ongoing investigation into the connections with russia that are problematic, and you've heard republicans and democrats speak out about and even in the last 24 hours. >> ari, do you think there's any truth to that machiavellian maneuver, and do you think cracking down on leaks or asking to see employees' phones actually works? >> well, i'm with jen on 4/5 of what she said. it's demoralizing, it's

unusual, it's something i never went think, through, and it's a sign the white house is serious about cracking down on leaks, but it has nothing to do with russia. it has everything to do with this white house being frustrated by the number of leaks that have taken place. i can understand why there's frustration. you never want to go in a meeting, and in this case, there was a planning meeting to go through future events. sean was in the meeting. information got out right after the meeting, so it directly resulted from his frustration and should have been a closed meeting. but i'll tell you. the reason people don't leak in a white house is because everybody gets along well, and everybody's got their back. and if people are leaking so much in this white house, it's because there are factions, and that's really the cause of these leaks. >> so it's what? it's to curry favor? it's to kind of show your faction in the best possible light or cast doubts on other factions? >> it's typically because people are jockeying. you need to do it my way. no, you need to do it my way.

i forget the better argument. no, i have the better argument. and because the process isn't smooth enough yet, the process is sound, i know i got a fair hearing, so i accept the result win or lose. that's what leads to no leaks. when you have a situation where people are jockeying for their position and there are rival positions, and they feel like they're not given a fair listening to, that typically is what makes people go outside the system and leak to the press, because they're frustrated. >> jen, does that sound to you like a reasonable explanation of what's going on? this does seem to be a white house with a lot of different camps. >> yeah, i think the difference that you see in this white house that's different from what i experienced as part of the obama team and probably what ari and many of the bush team experienced is that we were a family. you know, we could, you could punch your own brother or sister and tease them, but you didn't want other people to. i think a lot of them didn't work on the campaign together.

they're still getting to know each other. but what has struck me is a lot of the leaks that we've seen are pretty malicious, about who's up and down. we're talking about that because one, they're not putting policy proposals forward, so there's lot a lot of other things to talk about. so it also strikes me as a different tone and kind of leaks from past white houses. >> ari, if there are leaks also coming from top people in a staff, i imagine, then, people lower down also feel, well, if the, if the people, you know, running the show are doing this, it's fine if i do it too. >> that's exactly right. george w. bush had the luxury of watching his father's administration where there were a lot of leakers. then he hired a staff that was much more team-oriented. and jen's right about that. we had each other's backs. we were a family. i was very proud to watch staffers clash with each other to get their position to the president and not a word ever got out.

and that's served the president well, so he could hear unvarnished opinions from two different factions in an oval office, yet nobody turned on anybody because it served the president well. i was very proud to be part of an operation like that. i hope the trump people get there, because it's going to make the day a much easier day. it's always a hard place to work, but it's much harder if you are worried that the people you're working with are going to leak to somebody outside. you never want a white house that runs like that. >> it's never the press people who are leaking. because it's against their own interests, too. so that would be a surprising turn of events. >> jen psaki, thank you. ari fleischer. we'll be back with both of you. i want to get jen psaki's take as a former state department spokesperson on massive cuts proposed. plus, the president says nobody knew health care could be so complicated. we'll look at that. his efforts at changing it so far. we'll be right back. wait for it. in about five minutes

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more now on the proposed spending plan the president is proposing. late this evening, john mccain called for a good first step, but not enough. as for some proposed cuts, they will be substantial. more on all of that from michelle kosinski. >> reporter: today the director of the office of management and budget spelled out generally what would be slashed from the state department's budget. >> there's going to be a lot of programs, that, again, you can

expect to see what the president said he was going to do. foreign aid, the president said we're going to spend less money overseas and more of it here. >> reporter: the exact number targeted hasn't been made public yet. >> reporter: reuters quotes officials as saying it would be a whopping 30% cut. employees are already calling it devastating. >> the savings in our budget will come from looking at outdated and duplicative programs. the reductions spending will be sensible and rational, but they will also be tough. >> reporter: to offset the $54 billion increase in defense spending bill, even if the administration removed all aid the u.s. gives other countries, which in 2015 was more than $27 billion, foreign assistance is still less than 1% of the total u.s. budget. the state department's entire budget for 2017 was not even $54 billion. >> you see these reductions, you'll be able to tie it back to a speech the president gave or something the president said previously, we are taking his

words and turning them into policies and dollars. >> reporter: the state department's many programs include development, democracy, education, disease prevention, climate change, helping women. and today more than 100 retired top u.s. military officials spanning multiple administrations, including john allen, david petraeus, and former cia director michael hayden wrote a letter to congress, stating their strong conviction that elevating and strengthening diplomacy and development alongside defense are critical to keeping america safe, even quoting the current defense secretary james mattis on capitol hill back in 2013. >> you don't fund the state department fully, then i need to buy more ammunition ultimately. so i think it's a cost benefit ratio. the more that we put into the state department's diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to

put into a military budget. >> reporter: the generals and admirals ending their letter with now is not the time to retreat. >> michelle, congress ultimately is going to have to approve what the president proposes. is that likely given those numbers? >> reporter: some republicans on the hill say they don't want to respond to this until they see detailed numbers. what came out today was a very preliminary blueprint. you could say there aren't too many people on either side of the aisle who wouldn't want to see the government function for more efficiently, and bring down the debt. but there are plenty who see state department programs as enormously important for national security. i was the former defense secretary of robert gates who was a republican who said development programs contribute to stability and could eliminate the need for u.s. soldiers to go into a bad situation county the road. as he put it, development is a lot cheaper than sending soldiers.

anderson? >> back now with jen psaki who once served as state department spokesperson and jeffrey lord. it's interesting. i've been in afghanistan many times out with marines. a lot of what they're doing is development work, going to villages, meeting with elders. it's work that the state department was supposed to be doing and never got around to it, the level it was supposed to happen in afghanistan. and since you hear general mattis say if you don't have diplomats, you got to buy more ammunition. >> that's exactly right. secretary gates used to make the argument when he was with president obama and president bush that one of the lessons learned is that we couldn't win it all with military might. and we're not fighting world war ii anymore. we're fighting different wars with a much more different enemies who are diffuse around the battlefield. and we need to do a lot more with working with countries, we need to address needs on the ground. these are pivotal programs that you saw retired members of the military say would be devastating to the war donald

trump says he wants to win. >> ronald reagan never cut the state department funding as i recall. >> he may have cut a little here and there. two points here. when military folks make the argument for the state department as opposed to the diplomats making it for themselves, that carries more weight i think with the president. but number two, the budget director's job is frankly terrible. and no matter what administration you're in, but particularly if you're in a republican administration, where you're talking about bloated government and waste, fraud and abuse, et cetera, there is enormous pressure on this push -- person, to be make the knife and cut out and go as fast and deep as he can. and there will always be bureaucratic resistance in there. you have people so devoted to their programs way down in the bowels of the housing and urban development program. so this is the perpetual battle. and this is what we're going to see play out here. >> george w. bush ran against the whole idea of nation

building and ends up nation building in afghanistan and iraq, and a lot of that ends up being done by the military, because it's so dangerous, and they're not really, you know, ideally, that's not what they're supposed to be doing. >> this is where general mattis can have a serious effect. this is a guy with experience in this field as you heard from that testimony there. he can give an excellent point on this. >> there are a lot of voters who voted for donald trump, and a lot of americans saying why are we giving all this money to countries overseas who are not our friends and are not voting with us in the u.n. or whatever it may be. we have problems here at home, we're giving a lot of money overseas. >> that's an argument that's been around for a long time. the problem with the budget is it's a 10% increase for the department of defense. you'd be hard press to find who thinks that the department of defense doesn't have enough funding. a lot of people in the military say -- >> john mccain said it tonight.

general hurtling, they say the equipment's not up to date. there hasn't been the kind of upkeep. >> does that require a 10% ? that's why you have to cut these other programs. i think there's always going to be opposition, nobody cares about foreign aid. that's something when i was at the state department we worked hard to change, but it's complicated, and it's hard to explain to people it's about the security of our diplomats. it's about the work we do in countries that keeps us safer. >> it's a political hard sell. >> even though it's 1%. >> i can't tell you how many conversations over the decades i've had with regular folks. that's one of the first things that they zero in on. why are we giving our money to -- fill in the blank here, when it's better spent on or what have you here. >> ahead, overhauling obamacare. house speaker paul ryan met with president trump today. was president trump able to be convinced on a replacement plan?

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week six of the trump presidency is beginning with a laser focus on repealing obamacare.

at the white house today the president met with key stakeholders in the debate. republicans are working on a plan. phil mattingly has more. >> nobody knew that health care could be so complicated. >> reporter: tonight president trump ramping up his pledge to undo and replace the cornerstone achievement of his predecessor. >> obamacare is a failed disaster. >> reporter: meeting speaker paul ryan and mitch mcconnell behind closed doors to map a path forward. >> this is a rescue mission. we have to step in and prevent obamacare from getting worse, from collapsing, and we will replace it with a law that's better. >> reporter: and huddling with insurance executives in the white house. >> if things aren't working out, i'm blaming you anyway. >> reporter: shortly after a sit down with republican governors. two key constituents as they struggled to get behind a single plan. insurance executives are uneasy

about an unstable marketplace. gop governors increasingly split over how to handle medicaid reform in any new proposal. >> if nothing happens, problems happen for people in this country and in our states. >> reporter: those meetings a precursor to trump's prime time speech to a joint session of congress tomorrow night. aides tell cnn, a robust call to repeal and replace the law will be a central component of the remarks. wave plan that's going to be fantastic. it'll be released fairly soon. we'll be talking about it tomorrow night during the speech. >> reporter: house republicans have their own repeal proposal they plan to release as soon as next week. it was recently leaked, showing it would replace obamacare subsidies with tax credits. increase the amount insurers could charge older americans and likely cost some their policies altogether. >> i predict the discord in their party will grow, as republicans turn to washington after this last week of angry town halls.

i believe the odds are very % high. we will keep the aca. it will not be repealed. >> reporter: this as obamacare is consistently polling better than ever, something trump sought to play down today. >> there's nothing to love. it's a disaster, folks. >> reporter: but the number reflect a pressure on gop officials that is only growing, something clear in the town halls they faced just last week. >> reporter: and anderson, the town hall outcry really adding to the urgency right now for republican leaders. there's a recognition that they need to move quickly. the window is closing, and this is exactly why they need the president's support on their specifics now. if they don't move quickly, there's a recognition that their members could start disbursing, could start leaving them right now. they're already seeing one. mark meadows, the chairman of the house freedom caucus already saying he would be opposed to the leaked draft of the repeal bill that we saw last week.

if they start losing members en masse, this whole process collapses. that is exactly what republican leaders are trying to avoid and exactly why they want president trump tomorrow night to be very explicit in his support for their path forward. anderson? >> joining us now, senior nia-malika henderson. political reporter and political commentator, ryan lizza. trump saying, quote, nobody knew health care could be so complicated. >> he's the only person to ever utter those words. >> everyone knew this was complicated. it's almost he can be forgiven for thinking it was simple, because the approach to health at least from the republicans point of view is repeal and replace. it's a bumper sticker, it sounds so easy. he adopted that approach. early on he said you can repeal it and replace it on the same day, swap it out. but the tentacles of health care so embedded in the economy.

and obviously backstroke is the health care system at this point. so he is learning on the job. and we see all the time -- >> he said about terrorism. it's a number, yeah. >> even when he's reading about obamacare, it's almost like he's learning the information for the first time. >> i want to play something president trump said back on the campaign trail in october before he became president. let's watch. >> my first day in office, i'm going to ask congress to put a bill on my desk replacing this disastrous law. and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability. you're going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost, and it's going to be so easy. >> it's clearly, and to be fair, a lot of politicians say one thing when they're campaigning, when they're in office it's a whole other thing, but it's clearly not so easy. >> it's not easy.

if that were true, if we could all have great health care at a fraction of the cost, i think someone would have figured that out and had it done. so the obama administration spent a lot of money, raised taxes and insured a lot of people. at the end of the day that's what obamacare did. it insured tens of millions of people. if you're going to dismantle that, someone is going to lose. so now they're getting to the nitty-gritty. if we get rid of obamacare, what are the tradeoffs? who's going to lose health care? who's going to pay more for health care? who's going to pay less? so he's finally grappling with that in a way he never did. >> and then what political price the president would pay if he doesn't follow through on campaign promises or if whatever the republicans come up with fails. >> is just as bad as what they say obamacare is now. we see some of that already playing out in these town halls and republicans dismiss that as

that's just sort of angry liberals or act vests. activists. i spoke to some people in iowa, real hard core republicans, they want to see this move forward really quickly in terms of making good on the president's promises. they all know there's some sort of price to pay. democrats have said there's no such thing as obamacare it's essentially trump care. >> that's what they would like. >> that's what they would like voters to believe. and all the problems associated with it. >> if he can't do it, he does have an escape hatch if he wants to push it, if the right would let him. he can make some minor fixes to obamacare, call it trump care and move on. >> we've been reporting tonight on leaks coming out of the white house. the president actually talked to fox news this afternoon about it. they just released that portion of the interview. we're seeing it for the first time. let's play that. >> can we talk about president obama? you said you personally get along with him. you guys were going at each

other for three, four, eight years. it terms out a lot of his people the protests against you. do you believe president obama's behind it? and if he is, is that a violation of the so-called unsaid president's code? >> no, i think he is behind it. i also think it's politics. that's the way it is. >> bush wasn't going after clinton, clinton wasn't going after bush. >> well, you never know exactly what's happening behind the scenes. you're probably right or probably right but you never know. but i think president obama's behind it, because his people are certainly behind it. and some of the leaks possibly come from that group. you know, some of the leaks, which are really very serious leaks, because they're very bad in terms of national security, but i also understand that's politics. and in terms of him being behind things, that's politics, and it will probably continue. >> interesting to hear president

trump basically blaming obama holdovers for some leaks, which, you know, have come, i guess he's talking about leaks which aren't coming from the white house, which there are some of those. >> the hidden hand of obama. and you will hear this theory for a while, in terms of blaming leaks out of the intelligence community. i mean, in some ways, it borders on paranoia. >> yeah. he was sort of pushed into agreeing with the idea that obama was behind the protests, which i haven't really seen much evidence of that. on the leaks of intelligence, if you read the stories carefully, there's no doubt that a lot of the sourcing on some of the more blockbuster stories do say, according to current and former administration officials. so just reading between the lines, there's no doubt that some of that information is coming from officials of the previous administration, which is exactly what you would assume, because those are the people who knew about this.

>> the idea of president obama pulling the strings, that's unclear, but people -- >> i doubt it very much. although the former cia director bren nan was on tv on sunday and people have accused him of leaking and he says he has not had any conversations with any reporters about this. but there's no doubt that there are current and former officials in the intelligence community that are talking to reporters. just ahead, the father of navy s.e.a.l. ryan owens is speaking out. demanding answers about the raid that took his son's life in yemen. he refused to meet president trump at dover air force base, details on that ahead. you make it detect what they don't. stop, stop, stop! sorry. you make it sense what's coming. watch, watch, watch! mom. relax! i'm relaxed. you make it for 16-year olds... whoa-whoa-whoa!!! and the parents who worry about them. you saw him, right? going further to help make drivers, better drivers. don't freak out on me. that's ford.

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as we reported, president trump plans to propose a budget that ramps up defense spending by $54 billion. he said today that our military needs to start winning again. just six days into i see had term he gave a go-ahead for a raid in yemen that claimed the life of ryan owens, a navy s.e.a.l. the first combat death of the trump presidency. the raid had been in the planning stages for months under the obama administration. over the weekend, owen's father went public with his criticism. he wants answers as to why his son died. boris sanchez has details. >> reporter: 36 year old ryan

owens was the only u.s. service member killed when a group of navy s.e.a.l.s. attacked an area in yemen. according to the white house, the mission was, no, i don't, gather intelligence. some reports say as many as two dozen civilians or more were killed, including an 8-year-old girl. several other service members were also injured. days later, during ryan owens' dignified transfer back to the united states, president trump extended heartfelt condolences to his family. >> he died in defense of our nation. he gave his life in defense of our people. our debt to him and our debt to his family is eternal and everlasting. >> reporter: but ryan's father, bill, has revealed that he refused to meet the president at dover, saying to the miami herald, quote, i told them i didn't want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn't let me talk to him. owens goes on to say that he

believes the white house is hiding behind his son's death. while the administration claimed the raid was a success, some lawmakers, including republican senator john mccain quickly criticized the operation. >> when you lose a $75 million airplane and more importantly, an american life is lost and wounded i don't believe that you can call it a success. >> the action that was taken in yemen was a huge success. american lives will be saved because of it. future attacks will be prevented. the life of ryan owens was given in service to his country, and we owe him and his family a great debt for the information we received during that raid. i think any suggestion otherwise is a disservice to his courageous life and the actions that he took, false stop. >> reporter: but bill owens, who did not vote for mr. trump tells the miami herald, the white house owes him an explanation, quote, i'd like some answers about all the things that happened in the timeline that

led up to it. i know what the timeline is, and it bothers me a lot. he also questions whether the raid was politically motivated, as it came just one day after the president announced a travel ban on seven muslim majority countries, including yemen. why at this time do there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn't barely a week into the administration? why, for two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in yemen. everything was missiles and drones, because there was not a target worth one american life. now all of a sudden we had to make this grand display? >> and press secretary sean spicer was asked about this today, what did he say? >> reporter: he was asked about the miami herald article. he said he couldn't imagine what bill owens is going through, but then he went on to defend the decision for going and conducting that raid. >> he made a sacrifice for this country, he was on his 12th deployment.

and i know that his wife, when she spoke to the president knows that he did this because he loved it, he cared about our nation, and the mission was successful in helping prevent a future attack or attacks on this nation. it obtained a lot of information that will help us keep safe. >> reporter: now to be clear, anderson, there is an investigation into the death of ryan owens, but whether it digs deeper into some of the political implications that bill owens is making about the raid has yet to be seen. >> boris sanchez, thanks very much. up next, former president george w. bush breaking his silence on president trump. like t-mobile. dy dd while the other guys gouge for unlimited data... t-mobile one save you hundreds a year. right now get two lines of data for $100 dollars. with taxes and fees included. that's right 2 unlimited lines for just $100 bucks. all in.

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well, a moment ago you saw a video. president trump was asked, in fact it looked like he was sort of pressed into violating the unspoken rule of the current president speaking ill of the previous one. mr. bush weighed in for the first time on president trump, he covered a lot of topics tied to the new white house when he spoke to the "today" show.

including russia. bush 43 said there should be an investigation between ties with the russian government. he also praised the senate intelligence committee chairman, a republican who's leading the probe. take a look. >> i think we all need answers. whether or not this special you're talking to the wrong guy. i have great faith in richard burr, for example. head of the senate committee. if he were to recommend a special prosecutor, then it would have a lot more credibility with me. i've never been a lawyer. and i'm not sure the right avenue to take. i am sure though that that question needs to be answered. >> a lot to discuss. ari fliesher is back as well as political analyst. and knowing president bush like you do, were you surprised at how candid he was? >> no.

he is candid. and let me just say this. i didn't speak to the president today so i'm not speaking for him. but i think it's fair to say when you ask him a direct question, he gives you a direct answer and when it's dealing with russian interference in our election, that chafes george bush. he doesn't like the idea that russia could have or did interfering our election in any way and i think he thinks it's in the country's interest to know everything to know. >> he was quiet during president obama's tenure, something he took seriously and yet one month into the trump presidency, he's already speaking out. >> right. in his own kind of way i think what he was doing was kind of throwing shade a little bit more than directly criticizing don d -- donald trump. it's no secret he and his family were not supporters of donald

trump but he did go to the inauguration and he has been gracious. there are certain things that matter to george w. bush and ari knows this better than anybody. but talk about it muslim ban which the trump people would not call a muslim ban but this is a man who went right after 9/11 to a mosque to say that this does not represent islam, this is a perversion of islam and -- so i think russia, as ari points out, very, very important to him had. so i think there's a kind of a moral temperment there that is true george w. bush. >> ari, do you agree with that? >> well, the part about the mosque and what president bush did do on september 16th, george w. bush is beyond that. he doesn't need to compare himself to barack obama or to donald trump. he recognizes times change.

it's their role now to do as they see fit. they're the president. so he accepts as a given that because he did something one way, does not mean that his successors must do it one way. that's why he respects their right to govern as they see fit and he's not going to criticize. >> but the fact of the matter is that the bushes are on far better terms with president obama than president trump. the way he treated jeb bush in the primaries, i can't imagine that would soon be forgotten. >> and bush 43 just adores michelle obama. i think george w. bush is comfortable in his own skin. i was a co organizer of a c-span poll and president's day came out and george w. bush got an upward tick.

why? part of it is people say gosh compared to donald trump, george w. bush looks good and also because he's handled his ex-presidency with great dign y dignity, working with wounded warriors, painting and only talking seldom. today it was with matt lauer. they're good friends and said yeah, i don't like the games he's playing with putin. he didn't say it forcefully but the words were there. >> he's not going out of his way to give a speech against donald trump. he's on a book tour because of his artwork and i think actually the bush former president bush spoke in a way that a lot of republicans will be happy to hear. >> ari, i want to play for our viewers what former president bush said when asked about the media. >> i consider the media to be indispensable to democracy.

we need an independent media to hold people like me to account. i mean, power can be very addictive and corrosive and it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere. one of the things i spent a lot of time doing was try to convince a person like vladimir putin, for example, the notion of an independent press. >> obviously, ari, when he was president, i'm sure there was tons of stuff that the media did that he didn't like and to hear him make this very full throated defense of the media i thought was interesting. >> well, this is what you have as a luxury of a former president. i think all former ptzs can easier say that now. people in office would say there's a lot of information unfair or wrong or bias. so when you're a former president, you just stick to the good stuff. >> especially when you're on a

book tour. >> you could add that to it too. i think, look, for donald trump, the question is could he make the same statement? and a piece of me says he would make that same statement and preface it and talk about enemy of the people but if they do their job right, they're indispensable. i don't think that was a shot at donald trump as much as it was george bush making his statement clear about what he thinks the role of the press is. i was in those meetings with president putin and he did press putin about a free press in russia. that is important to him. >> i want to thank everybody. be back in a moment. ildcats 'til we die... this i gotta try bendy... spendy weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders.

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time to hand things over to don lemon and cnn tonight. i'll see you tomorrow night. you are looking live at capitol hill, where in less than 24 hours the president will address a joint session of congress for the first time. this is cnn tonight. i'm don lemon. the president promising his speech will lay out details of his proposed budget. 54 billion. that's how much he wants to cut from multiple federal agencies and shift to defense spending. meanwhile, president trump says this about replacing obamacare. >> we have a plan that i think is going to be fantastic. we'll be talking about it tomorrow night during the speech. >> plus the white house pushing back on further