then we need the confidence of knowing they are briefing us on the most significant issues. and at this point, i think that's very much in question. i don't think at all we've gotten the quarterly briefings that we should have been getting. not now. not while the -- not in the summer. not in the fall and not even to this day. >> to be clear. you learned things today you had not previously been aware of as a member of the gang of eight? >> absolutely. >> i'm going to leave it at that and thank you. >> you just heard adam schiff the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee saying the fbi so far not fully cooperating with the house intelligence committee investigating contacts between trump campaign officials, surrogates, associates and russian officials. russian operatives, if you will. that is an important headline. other headlines we're getting, and we want to welcome our

viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting here in washington. susan collins, an important republican senator from the state of maine just issued a statement saying the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions, should recuse himself to ensure public confidence in the justice department's investigation. he should also clarify his statements to the judiciary committee with respect to his communications with the russian ambassador. there are important developments that we're following right now. breaking news. a new russia headache for the trump administration. the attorney general is facing growing calls from republicans to recuse himself from the russian investigation and calls from democrats for him to resign. jeff sessions is under fire over his own contacts with russia. he met twice last year with the top russian diplomat here in the united states but he did not mention those meetings during his confirmation hearing. he testified that he knew of no contacts between trump

surrogates and russia. today sessions denied he did anything wrong. >> i have not met with any russians at any time to discuss any political campaign and those remarks are unbelievable to me, and all false and i don't have anything else to say about that. >> the senior administration official says the white house learned about sessions' contacts with the russian ambassador here in washington from press reports. we're going to have all the latest developments coming in from the white house. senator lindsey graham is among those republicans calling for sessions to recuse himself. graham also says he'll be meet with the fbi director james comey this hour to find out what's going on with the russia investigation. all this comes by the way as president trump gets ready to visit with the aircraft carrier to sell his military spending increase. representatives on that aircraft from the aircraft "uss gerald r.

ford." you see the president getting off marine one on this new $13 billion aircraft carrier. the "uss gerald ford." he's there in the newport news shipyard in virginia. he'll be giving a speech there in the next hour but he's got about 5,000 sailors, marines, ship builders, others who have gathered to hear him. this was supposed to be and probably will still be an important event for the president. he's upset that this aircraft carrier is way, way overbudget and way, way behind schedule. they started building this aircraft carrier back in 2008. it was supposed to be ready in 2014. it's not ready yet. president trump is upset about that and also upset about all of the money that has been spent, about $13 billion more than originally budgeted. let's see if he gets into all those issues during his remarks.

our correspondents are covering all these stories. our senior congressional reporter manu raju on capitol hill. our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny is with the president in virginia. cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertson is in moscow. manu, a lot of this stems from jeff sessions' own testimony and his january 10th confirmation hearing in the senate when he was questioned by senator al franken. listen to this exchange. >> cnn just published a story alleging that the intelligence community provides documents to the president-elect last week that included information that, quote, russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about mr. trump. these documents also allegedly say, quote, there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between trump surrogates and

intermediaries for the russian government. i'm telling you this because it's coming out. but if it's true, it's obviously extremely serious. and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and i didn't not have communications with the russian. and i'm unable to comment on it. >> all this came up during sessions' answers to a written questionnaire as well. so manu, talk about those two times that the now attorney general of the united states told the united states senate that he did not have contacts

with the russian -- or ryth russian officials. >> well, some democrats say that's perjury. he lied under oath. that's coming from nancy pelosi, the house democratic leader who believes he should step aside and resign, as well as, of course, if he doesn't resign, then step aside from this investigation. chuck schumer, the senate democratic leader, i asked him do you think sessions lied under oath? he would not go there but thinks sessions should step aside and they should name a special prosecutor. either the administration or congress should pass legislation ensuring a special independent investigation will actually happen. we're not really hearing much support from the republican side on that issue. only darrell issa, the california republican, has come out in support of a special prosecutor. but, wolf, a growing number of republicans are comfortable with the idea of sessions' recusing himself, including lindsey graham of south carolina, who told me it would be a no-brainer for sessions to recuse himself,

as well as jason chaffetz of utah and raul labrador, a top conservative in the house. one person not going that far is house speaker paul ryan. has not said whether or not sessions should recuse himself. here's how he responded to the question earlier today. >> if he himself is the subject of an investigation, of course, he would. but if he's not, i don't see any purpose or reason to do this. we have seen no evidence from any of these ongoing investigations that anybody in the trump campaign or the trump team was involved in any of this. we have been presented with no evidence that an american was coclud with the russians to meddle in the election. >> wolf, the house intelligence committee just broke up. it had a closed door classified meeting where i am standing, just steps from where i'm standing right now with the fbi director james comey. democrats came out of that meeting expressing frustration that comey was not in the words of adam schiff, the top democrat, not forthright, not

forthcoming. did not answer the requests and schiff for the first time calling for an independent investigation and special prosecutor because he does not believe that the fbi has been direct enough about what they know about these contacts which allegedly occurred between the trump campaign and russian officials. but devin nunes, the republican chairman standing behind adam schiff. i said do you agree with adam schiff's assessment and he said no. so the disagreement remains. >> serious disagreement between the republican chairman and democratic ranking member. jeff zeleny, what about the reports we did report that the white house actually learned about the attorney general's russia contacts from news reports. they didn't know that he actually met with the russian ambassador here in washington. what does that suggest? >> that is our understanding that president trump and the rest of the white house learned about this contact indeed from that "washington post" report last evening. we are told by an administration

official that was the first time they knew about it. but, of course, senator sessions is more than simply a senator who is supportive of this president. of this campaign. he was one of the earliest senators, the earliest senator on board. he was part of the fabric of this campaign. really from most all of 2016. several of his staff members went on to work for the president in the campaign. so, wolf, there is no closer person or no clos closer cabinet member than jeff sessions to this white house. we're not told if the president will address this here. he is in newport news, virginia. he's here to talk about his military budget. how he plans to increase the military budget by some $54 million. that's still his message today. but i can tell you it is being overshadowed somewhat by another connection to russia here. so we will hear from the president in about an hour or so time when he talks about his original message. we'll see if he addresses it.

other administration officials earlier were calling this simply a partisan development. they were criticizing senator franken and others for this. i am told they intend to dial that back a little bit and are no longer calling it partisan because so many republicans now are calling on jeff sessions to recuse himself. so we'll have to listen to see what the president says here in the next hour. but again as you said, they say they did not know about it until last night. >> republicans, at least some of them, saying he should at least recuse himself from this specific issue. a lot of democrats are saying he should simply resign and leave the justice department. jeff zeleny, we'll get back to you. we'll have live coverage of the presidents remarks there. let's go to moscow. nic robertson is on the scene. what your hearing from russian officials about the attorney general's meetings with the russian ambassador in the united states? >> the position here is the russian ambassador isn't doing

anything wrong. this is his job in washington to meet with politicians and meet with other diplomats. if he wasn't doing that there would be something wrong. the view from here is, and we heard this from the president's spokesman today, dmitri peskov, saying there's a highly charged emotional atmosphere in washington right now. that the united states doesn't interfere in the business of other nations. that it isn't involved in this, but it needs to wait until the situation calms down and normalizes before moscow can make a judgment about what's really happening here. however, we've also heard from the spokeswoman, the foreign ministry here criticizing journalists reporting here saying that it's misinformation that it's media vandalism, even comparing the reporting of cnn in this particular case to george orwell's book 1984 saying the western media have become big brother. there's a sort of pushback two levels. a pushback against the

accusations about the russian ambassador in washington and a pushback that he was doing anything remotely wrong. that russia in this case, they feel is unfairly being tarred by infighting in washington. it's causing frustration. it's likely causing behind the scenes more anxiety than officials are letting on. the way they're dealing with it is to heavily push back those providing the reporting about all of this, wolf. >> nick, the ambassador that jeff sessions met with is the same ambassador whose interactions with the former national security adviser michael flynn led to flynn's resignation. what do we know about sergei kislyak? >> a career diplomat, wolf. 40 years working for the foreign ministry here in russia. started back in '73 dwragraduat from the institute of fphysics. joins the foreign ministry.

'81, when this country is still the soviet union, he's assigned to new york to the u.n., to the united nations there as a second secretary representing the u.n. a low position. four years later, promoted to first secretary, sent to the soviet union's embassy in washington. he leaves '89. so he has about ten years in the united states. he comes back to russia. he's serving here. serving in russia in various capacities in the foreign ministry. 20 -- or 1998, he's assigned to become the russian ambassador to brussels. also russia's representative to nato as well. 2008 he becomes the deputy foreign minister -- between 2003 and 2008, the deputy foreign minister here in russia. before then being assigned back to russia as ambassador. so this is a long diplomatic career. n this is what russian officials are pointing to here. that he is a professional and they consider that he's done

nothing outside the bounds of what a normal professional diplomat would do, wolf. >> nic robertson in moscow for us. thanks for that report. coming up, the ranking member of the house intelligence committee says the fbi is not answering important questions on the russia investigation. we'll have more details. we're following the breaking news. we'll be right back. their experience is coveted. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of - researchers of technologies that one day, you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team.

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take a look at live pictures from the "uss gerald r. ford" in newport news, virginia. the president, president trump, he'll be speaking there about an hour or so from now. he's meet with sailors, marines, ship builders, others. we'll have live coverage of that once it begins. in the meantime, there's a huge question in washington today. did president trump's attorney general mislead the united states congress about talks with the russians during the presidential campaign? we now know the attorney general, jeff sessions, met

twice with the russian ambassador last year. something he did not disclose during his confirmation hearings, even under questioning. i want to bring in our panel. our chief political analyst gloria borger is with us. former federal prosecutor laura coates and global affairs analyst, senior national security correspondent for the daily beast, kimberly dozier. it's an issue of not disclosing right now that's causing a lot of anguish, not just for democrats but for plenty of republicans as well. listen to some republicans now suggesting the attorney general should at least recuse himself from this investigation. >> i think the attorney general should further clarify his testimony. and i do think he should recuse himself. >> what about recusing himself? >> absolutely. if, if, if, if there's ever

credible evidence of inappropriate campaign contacts between trump officials and russia, jeff sessions cannot, in my view, make the decision to go forward or not go forward because of his ties to the campaign. that's a no-brainer for me. >> he's going to have to answer questions as a witness. if there's going to be investigations about russia that he may actually become a witness and i don't think he should be leading the investigation. >> well, i have to say, you know, whenever it's appropriate, i will recuse myself. no doubt about that. >> so the issue is not whether or not it was appropriate or authorized for him to meet with the russian ambassador to the united states. the issue is whether, allegedly, did he commit perjury when he wasn't forthcoming in response to questions during his senate confirmation hearing. >> you remember the old watergate saw that it's the cover-up, not the crime. and his crime here was, of course, that he didn't disclose to the committee.

and, look, i think that he has a way out of this. and the obvious way out is to hold a press conference, which i think he's got to do. answer questions. and then recuse himself. and don't forget. this is somebody who during the whole hillary clinton e-mail brouhaha said that lynch, then the attorney general lynch, ought to recuse herself because she met on an airplane with bill clinton and a special prosecutor ought to be appointed. what goes around comes around. this was his solution for that problem. and maybe it should be a solution for his own problem. and i wouldn't be surprised if that's how it evolves. it seems to me that the easiest solution for him at the very least is to recuse himself. and i don't think that would be particularly difficult for him to do. >> a couple of times when he didn't notify the senate that he met with the russian ambassador, we played the exchange with

senator al franken in which he said he didn't meet with russians. there was a written question senator leahy sent to him that was this. i'll put it up on the screen. question, several of the president-elect's nominees or senior advisers have russian ties. have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day? sessions reply in one word, no. so the question is, and you studied this. you are a legal annualyst. some are already saying he committed perjury. this was sworn testimony under oath. >> it walks and smells like perjury at this point. you have a statement, not only what he said but what he wrote. the reason this is so important. gloria is right about the way the optics look and how to get out of it if you were an everyday person or a congressman perhaps. the problem is semantics is why everyone hates lawyers. you cannot get into a game about whether or not it was perjury or

a misstatement when you run the department of justice. and when you run the department of justice you have an obligation to eninsure that people believe in the possibility of objective justice. if you have the leader of the department of justice saying that, let's play the game of, i didn't really remember. i may have had amnesia. prosecutors pounce on this for good reason. the reason that recusal would be important here is, listen, i was a career prosecutor. the line attorneys do the bulk of the work and he would be a figure head about this. it would be aeeasy to recuse himself. it's not easy to maintain and preserve the credibility if you have the fox guarding the hen house. >> should he resign then? >> i don't think we're resignation territory yet. we don't fully know the full story. i do believe that due process is deserved and warranted for even the head of the department of justice. particularly for the department of justice. but here we have very clear

indication that somebody has made a misstatement verbally and in writing and frankly this will be a domino effect. what else is he not going to be able to oversee for the doj? he was a very big part of the campaign. akin to a surrogate and named a surrogate. will this have a domino effect on anything else coming up in the future? if that's the case, we have a very lame duck for a doj head. >> we're learning more about sergey kislyak, the russian ambassador to the united states. he's been here in washington for a while. you are doing some reporting on him. what else do we know? >> i have to say, when you meet ambassador kislyak, you don't forget it. he's an imposing man, straight out of central casting. has excellent english. heavy russian accent and his public appearances are few and far between. he has held several different posts in the foreign ministry and as we all know about how the russian intelligence world works, there are diplomats and intelligence community, they

work very close together. that's why we had two diplomatic compounds shut down by the obama administration as a way to punish russia per interfering with the u.s. election. they are deeply linked. to meet with one is to have contact with the other. and that's why this is so concerning for lawmakers on the hill. >> and u.s. intelligence believes he's a potentially a top russian spy and a spy recruiter, in addition to being the top diplomat here in washington for the government in moscow. gloria, people are going back and looking at sessions' record. he's been at the senate for a while. he wanted loretta lynch to recuse herself on the investigation after she met with president clinton on that -- after she had that meet with president clinton on the plane during the investigations of hillary clinton that were ongoing and her e-mail server and all of that. but listen to what he said back in 1999 during the height of the

monica lewinsky scandal, the impeachment allegations that were going against then president bill clinton. listen to what he said about the president, president clinton lying under oath. listen to this. >> the president under oath, being alleged to have committed perjury. but there are serious allegations that that occurred. and in america and the supreme court and the american people believe no one is above the law. >> so those words are now being replayed as we just did involving his testimony under oath before the senate. >> right. as it should be. he is the attorney general of the united states. and if you take a step back, what we are doing now is parsing the words of the attorney general to your point. and it's very -- it's a very difficult situation for him. and he would have been able to. it's not as if when you testify before congress, by the way, and you make a mistake, that you

can't go back and correct the record afterwards. you take a look at your written testimony, and you are able to amend your written testimony and say, oops, i made a mistake. i actually did have these contacts. that was not done. that might have caused an uproar, but you want to have everything 100% right. so this kind of thing doesn't happen. the question that has to be answered is, why did you not remember this. as you say, this is a man who is hard to forget. why did you not remember this? if you did remember this, why didn't you tell us? and why not correct the record? the statue gives a lifeline to jeff sessions. that's the word intentionally or willfully or voluntarily. whatever word to say he did it on purpose. and you implied some malicious, nefarious intent. >> if he would to said to senator franken and leahy, i did meet with the russian ambassador

in my capacity as member of the senate armed services committee, but there was no discussion of any campaign related information, that would have been a more forthcoming, honest explanation. but from his perspective, and it probably wouldn't have derailed potentially his confirmation as the attorney general. >> this is what we talked about. >> senators meet with ambassadors all the time. nothing to do with the campaign. strictly armed services related business. he didn't say that. that's why he's in deep trouble right now. gloria, laura, kimberly, thanks very much. coming up -- >> [ inaudible ]. >> couldn't hear it but president trump ignoring reporters' questions about the attorney general when departing the white house earlier today. he'll speak next hour in newport news, virginia. will he address the big story of the day? we'll go there live. live pictures right now. a lot of sailors, marines,

others, ship builders, have gathered to hear the president. plus, a growing number of democrats now calling for the attorney general jeff sessions to resign. >> the fact that the attorney general, the top cop in our country, lied under oath to the american people is grounds for him to resign. >> his integrity and independence has been questioned. it would be better for the country if he'd resign. >> democratic congressman brendan boyle is standing by. he'll join us live. we'll discuss this and more when we come back. of bad breath gs for a 100% fresh mouth. feeling 100% means you feel bold enough to... ...assist a magician... ...or dance. listerine®. bring out the bold™

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liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. showing live pictures right now from the "gerald r. ford" in newport news, virginia. the president will be speaking next hour to about 5,000

sailors, marines, ship builders there. about his goal to rebuild the u.s. military and increase dramatically defense spending. we'll have live coverage of the president once he arrives at that event. meanwhile, a chorus from both sides of the aisle for the attorney general, jeff sessions, to recuse himself from the justice department's russia investigation while others like the minority leaders in the house and senate, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are formally, publicly, aggressively calling fors resignation as attorney general. joining us is brendan boyle, member of the house foreign affairs committee. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> you meet with ambassadors here in washington, i assume, all the time. >> i do. it's quite common and have never met with the russian ambassador. >> but it wouldn't be anything wrong if you met with -- >> no, what would be wrong is if i was asked if i'd met with the russian ambassador and then lied about it under oath.

that would be a violation. >> from his standpoint saying the question seemed to suggest if there were conversations about the campaign with the russians, and he insists he did meet with the russian ambassador but they only spoke about senate armed services related business. he's a member of the armed services committee and met with him in that capacity. >> first, according to senator mccaskill who has been on the armed services committee for about a decade, the russian ambassador has never met with her or any other members of the armed services committee. you would expect the foreign affairs committee. two, if it was inocuous, why didn't he just say that? i think sessions lied or either committed perjury or came dangerously close. either way he shouldn't be attorney general of the united states. let's not lose focus on what really matters. and that is that we need a special prosecutor now. you even have adam schiff, the ranking member on the intelligence committee, one of the most responsible members of congress now calling for an

independent special prosecutor. senator schumer calling for that earlier this morning. i'm calling for that. we have right now, wolf, what is the most serious scandal since wat watergate. i don't say that as any form of exaggeration. we need an independent prosecutor that is not jeff sessions. >> so i assume you simply don't want him to recuse himself. you want him to resign? >> i would want him to resign but again, i wouldn't want any sort of implication that this story is just about jeff sessions. that is one part of what is overall again the biggest scandal since watergate. >> you think he should be charged with perjury? >> i'm not a lawyer. even though i always get confused for one. i'll leave that to the legal experts. it's pretty clear he at the very least misled senator franken and the rest of the committee. again, if the explanation was innocuous that he was just meet with the ambassador during the course of work as a senator, why he didn't simply state that is

very odd. >> adam schiff complained today at a briefing with the fbi that the fbi is not being forthcoming to the intelligence committee. he said that's a serious problem. >> that is a serious problem. now you have a bipartisan investigation. i notice that you had both chairman and republican chair and ranking member having a joint press conference. that's a good sign. but the fact that fbi director comey is not being straightforward with that committee is all the more reason why we need an independent -- need a special prosecutor and then if a special prosecutor isn't appointed, it's up to congress to resuscitate the office of independent counsel. >> the argument the fbi makes is that this is an ongoing investigation and you don't share information during an ongoing investigation. that's the argument they're making why they aren't being completely forthcoming with members of the intelligence committee. >> if that's the case then a congressional investigation cannot do the work that it should be done. i would point out in watergate

you had the house committee, the senate committee and a special prosecutor all happening in parallel. no reason why these are not either/or situations. >> brendan boyle, thanks for joining us, the congressman from pennsylvania. later this hour, james rish will join us live as well and i'll ask him if he thinks the attorney general jeff sessions should recuse himself from a russia probe and what he thinks of bringing in a special prosecutor. while calling out the attorney general, jeff sessions, over the meetings he had with the russian ambassador, democratic senator claire mccaskill made her own mistake she's now trying to clean up about sessions. she tweeted, i've been on the armed services committee for ten years. no call or meeting with russian ambassador ever. ambassadors call members of the foreign relations committee. but then evidence actually surfaced that the statement wasn't exactly true. here's a tweet from the senator back in 2013.

off to meating with russian ambassador. upset about arbitrary, cruel decision to end all u.s. adoptions, even those in process. she explained it this way. >> you know, 140 characters are tough. the word from should have been in there. but i didn't have room. i was thinking of a one-on-one meeting like he had. i was talking about international adoption. it wasn't anything about armed services. it wasn't one on one. >> musccaskill has called on je sessions to resign. coming up, the president will soon arrive at the "uss gerald ford." he'll be speaking in the next hour. will he provide details on his proposed defense budget? will he even address the controversy surrounding his attorney general? we'll look ahead and discuss when we come back.

some more live pictures coming in. the president of the united states getting ready to address about 5,000 sailors, marines, ship bell euilders at the "uss d ford," an aircraft carrier. not yet ready. way beyond schedule. we'll have live coverage of the president's remarks coming up. the white house press secretary sean spicer just tweeted this picture of the president meet wiing with some those sailors. the president sporting a red usa hat. fitting the president is visiting the shipyards in newport news, virginia. they'll be very busy if the president gets his wish to increase military spending by $54 billion in this current year and next year alone.

on the president's wish list are dozens of new naval ships. here with me, retired admiral fallon. thanks for joining us. >> sure, wolf. >> what do you think about the president's request for billions more in defense spending right now? as you know, the u.s. already spends more on defense than the next six, seven or eight countries combined, including china and russia. >> it's true. we also have a responsibility that we've assumed worldwide that nobody else has. but reality is that the services has been spending a lot of money in recent years on these wars in the middle east and there's been a recapitalization that's long overdue. particularly for the navy, which has not been able to keep up with readiness. so right now the readiness of the forces, the head of the navy is not anywhere near where it needs to be.

it needs to be fixed. >> this new aircraft carrier. you served in the navy for a long time. you were the head of the military's central command. and i love aircraft carriers, don't get me wrong. the u.s. now has ten of them. used to have more. this one -- they started building it in 2008. supposed to be ready in 2014. it's now 2017. it's not yet ready. it's billions and billions and billions of dollars overbudget. it's going to wind up costing u.s. taxpayers $13 billion. here's the question. why do they always get it -- not always, but most of the time these defense contractors, they get it so wrong. they make promises. it's going to be delivered on time but it's way, way delayed and way over budget. >> i think the problem is it goes way beyond the defense contractor in question here. and that is that the process in my opinion is broken. the acquisition process is badly broken. has been for some time. so it's a rarity that you can

find any program of whatever size that seems to be on time and on budget. one of my laments in service, trying to deal with this. but this particular piece of hardware is unique in that it's -- >> this new aircraft carrier. new generation. >> the first one in 50 years. the nimitz class carriers which, as you correctly pointed out, 10 in the navy now. really designed back in the late '60s. nimitz went to sea in the mid'70s. this technology, first time in 50 years but it's a lot more than just a new ship. we've -- there's certainly enduring value in these carriers. the average lifespan is about 50 years. and this particular ship has an entirely new reactor design. first time in 50 years. >> and the president is being briefed on this, i'm sure, right now. but i know that he is very frustraifrus frustrated with these costs. he wants to work hard to make sure that the costs go down.

i assume we might hear that? >> great idea. there are all kinds of factors. one of them is building one at a time, which is what's going on of any ship is really a challenge. the other thing is the new technology that's being incorporated in this one is -- there's no more complex ship in the world than an aircraft carrier. this incorporates very novel features such as the electric catapult. we've never done this before. very interesting. >> when he speaks we'll be hearing a lot more. let's see if he gets into the cost overruns and delays as he has with a new air force one and f-35. >> show me a program that's on time and on budget. >> admiral fallon, thanks for being here and thanks for all the great work you've done. >> thanks, wolf. coming up, president trump once again will be speaking very soon about the new aircraft carrier. not yet ready but will be ready, we're told soon. the "uss gerald r. ford."

let's see if he addresses the attorney general controversy that's now erupted. contacts with the russian ambassador to the united states. calls within his own republican party for sessions to recuse himself from any investigations involving russia. republican senator james risch, a key member of the foreign relations committee. there you see him up on capitol hill. he's standing by to join us live when we come back. sugar, we're letting you go. what? who's replacing me? splenda naturals? look, she's sweet, she's got natural stevia, no bitter aftertaste and she's calorie-free. so that's it? we made you a cake. with sugar? oh, no. (laughing)

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. welcome back, once again looking at live pictures of the president aboard uss gerald r.

ford. we're standing by for that, we'll bring you his comments live. >> the calls for the attorney general of the united states jeff sessions to at least recuse himself from an fbi probe between ties and the trump campaign and russia, those calls are growing louder and louder, sessions is under fire for failing to disclose two meetings with a top russian diplomat last year. let's bring in senator james risch. senator, thanks for joining us. >> sure. >> your republican colleague congressman jason chaffetz said he should recuse himself from this investigation. do you agree? >> certainly jason has absolute

right to express himself in that. i don't really consider it my place to advice jeff on that. jeff has said he would recuse himself if necessary. i take him at his word. he's a smart guy, been around a long guy, very ethical and i have every confidence he will handle it properly. >> how upset are you that on two occasions process before the senate he was not completely forth wright when he was asked about communications with the russians and he said no, but now thanks to the "washington post" report he did. is that not perjury? >> no, i would ask you to go back and put the dialogue up on your screen and let the viewers decide that. they were in dialogue about

between trump people and ranking officials, and he categorically denied he knew anything about that and there are no facts other than what has been published in the newspaper and he was not part of any of that, so i would really disagree with your characterization that it was a misrepresentation. having read that i would conclude -- >> senator, let me read the written exchange he had with senator leahy, several senior officials have russian ties have you been in contact with anyone in the russian government about the 2016 campaign either before or after --?

no. >> the convention going on in cleveland at the time when he speaks to the russian ambassador at a convention in 2016, don't you think he was having conversations about the election? >> no, we meet readily with -- high ranking officials, politics is the last thick on tng on the, we talk about cooperating with terrorism and other things, he said he had no exchange, i believe him. >> when he was asked by alfranken that anyone communicated with the russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign, what would you

do? that wasn't asked if he had any meetings, personally involving the russians, his response, i'm not aware of any those activities. i have been called a surrogate a time two and i did not have communications with the russians and i'm not able to comment on it. he did with the russian ambassador on two occasion including a one-on-one meeting here in washington. >> wolf, in all due respect when you read the question as you just did that question was levied against him in the context of campaign communication sgls senator, why couldn't he have said i had no communications about the elections but to be honest in my capacity as a senator of the armed services committee i did meet with the ambassador, but there was no discussion of the

campaign, shouldn't he have said that. >> your answer would have been better, he did not give that answer, but i think he gave clearly an honest answer as he was sitting. >> i suspect and i think you agree with me senator, it probably would have caused a little commotion but probably still been confirmed. now because he avoided sharing that information with the senators, you see what's going on. >> well, clearly these things happen from time to time. and it's unfortunate he didn't have you sitting next to him knowing what the situation would be today and being able to advice him because i suspect his answer would have been much closer to what you said, but where he was being asked the question in the context he was, he gave an honest answer and it was certainly accepted. >> senator rish, thank you.

i'll be back 5:00 p.m. in the situation room. we're following all of the breaking news. the president aboard the new aircraft carrier, the news continues right here, right now on cnn. i'm brianna keilar, special live coverage in a chaotic day, the ppt is moments away from speaking live from the uss general f ford. -- russia all of this after it was revealed that sessions met with russian's ambassador twice, this included a formal sit down