criticism for failing to disclose he met with the russian ambassador twice during the 2016 race. >> this as we learn about more trump campaign aides who met with that very same russian ambassador so why does russia continue to loom over >> let's try to get some answers. we begin with sarah. >> jeff sessions may have recu serks d himself but the questions about the president's ties to russia don't end there. it wasn't just jeff sessions that met with the russian ambassador. it wasn't just jeff sessions and michael flynn that met with the russian embassy but also donald trump's own son-in-law also met with him in december. >> i have recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump

campaign. >> let me be clear i never had meetings with russian operatives or russian intermediaries. >> but defending himself amid revelations that he failed to disclose he met with russian emotions bass dor twice during president trump's campaign last year. >> i don't believe there's anything wrong with united states senator meeting with an ambassador from russia. >> under oath, sessions had a different answer. >> i did not have communication with the russians. >> the attorney general admits. >> in retrospect i should have slowed down and said i did meet one russian officials a couple of times. >> and now plans to admit a supplement. >> my response went to the question as i indicated about the continuing surrogate relationship that i firmly denied and correctly denied. i did not mention in that time

that i had met with the ambassador so i will definitely make that part of the record. >> session's first meeting last july on the side lines of the republican national convention. cnn obtained copies of then senator's sessions expense report. it appears to reveal sessions used his campaign funds and not official senate funds to travel to the rnc. president trump staunchly supporting sessions. after his recusa announcement the president issuing a statement that reads in part sessions did not say anything brong. he could have stated his response more accurately. this as a senior administration official confirms another undisclosed meeting with the russian ambassador. this time between former national security adviser

lieutenant general michael flynn and the president's son-in-law jared kushner. the three meeting at trump tower in december. describing the meeting as an inconsequential hello. flynn was fired last month for misleading the vice president about his discussion about sanctions. >> that's come to light on the side lines of the republican convention. the foreign policy advisers to the campaign and ambassador and this is a guy becoming something of a man about town. you can see him here on tuesday at the point address to congress. it's unclear who invited him. >> man about town. thank you very much. >> dozens say recusal is not

enough. they're calling for resignation. republicans are saying he should resist even calls for a special prosecutor. more on capitol hill with that part of the story. this is the big story. what happens next. they are not satisfied. they want him to re-sign and others are pushing for more information. many calls for jeff sessions to return up here on capitol hill to explain what they say was misleading testimony under oath. >> for the good of the country, attorney general sessions should re-sign. >> democrats insisting that attorney general jeff sessions recusal doesn't go far enough. >> he has proved that he is unqualified and unfit to serve

in that position of trust. >> they are now demanding he go before the senate judiciary committee to face more questions about his past testimony on russia. >> i think he should recuse himself. >> stopping sort of calling for sessions to re-sign. some calling for him to step aside. >> there's going to be investigations by russia that he may become a witness and i don't think he should be leading the investigati investigation. >> applauding him after he did so. >> it doesn't say he's admitting guilt. >> defending sessions. >> we have seen no evidence from any of these on going investigations that anybody in the trump campaign or the trump team was involved in any of this. >> all of this as a top democrat is blasting james comey for dodging questions about the bureau's investigation into russia's meddling in the u.s. election last year. >> in order to do our investigation in a thorough and credible way we'll need the fbi

to fully cooperate. >> democratic senators are calling for more transparency as five committees are investigating the trump campaign's ties to russia. >> the intelligence community has to cooperate with them on the hill. it's apparent there's a problem. it's up to mr. comey to help solve the problem. >> while all of these congressional committees continue to investigate up here on capitol hill there's many that still say it's just not good enough. they want the new acting attorney general to go ahead and appoint an independent special prosecutor to look at all of this. >> thank you very much.

>> session recuses himself and hands over the investigation of the oversite to the acting deputy. now what? >> well it's not clear. this has become political warfare for democrats that would like to see him re-sign. it's very difficult to prove but democrats are going to put forth some kind of select committee or some kind of 9/11 style commission to investigate this. i don't think that anybody is there yet. i don't think that the republican leadership is there yet. >> who calls for a special prosecutor? >> a special prosecutor would be the a.g. or deputy in charge of making the decisions if the a.g. is accused. a select committee would be a

creation of congress and you have republican leadership. >> that is a very unfair question. we have no idea where it goes next because there's all of this talk about special prosecutor but that assumes that the d.o.j. is involved in an investigation where it's getting to its proscu proscutorial phase. this is premature in terms of what we understand about where the probe's stand right now so is this the right conversation to be having about will it be a special prosecutor? will it be an independent council? there's talk he wants to redo that statute because of problems in the past. are we anywhere near that in in terms of reporting? >> we're having that conversation because what democrats are trying to do now, i spoke to a couple trying to set a really high bar for what counts in a real investigation so that as this unfolds they can continue. >> but they're like five. >> right and the democrats are

out there saying, understandably in some ways that only under these terms would it really count as independent. only then would we get the truth. think how much we learned in the last month with no public investigation whatsoever but as david said the whole ball game is trying to split a couple of republicans and make it so confident for them and uncon veentd to have to deal with the day-to-day that at some point they say we need to set up a special panel. >> that's what is really important about yesterday is that republicans split and said this doesn't sound right. he needs to clarify what he said. >> issue with kevin mccarthy saying that as well. that moved the ball on this and got the white house pushing now

for more evidence and they're trying to get it out. >> it's not legal talk. we're still in the political realm of democrats that weren't able to stop any of president trump's nominations for a meeting with all the russians. that's a reality. where are all of these people through june, july august having meetings and conversations. what did they say and how were they saying it and what did mr. trump know about it. >> let's put up the time line as we now know it.

december 2016, jared kushner and michael flynn meet with the ambassador. >> we need to pull back and say what's on the table here. there was an active war committedty bithe united states with russia meddling in the election by 2016 the white house says there were contacts and meetings and the white house says no story there it's all ridiculous. now contradicting that he we have all of these meetings. there's no evidence to suggest this were concluding on hacking the dnc.

>> but is it typical to meet with the russian ambassador? >> it goes to the fundamental strangeness. didn't have a candidate and then a nominee with a 20 year track record of relationship that basically voters knew where he or she stood on russian policies. who had connections that went to the shadowy side.

>> it turns out a lot of that wasn't true. >> the answer to allison's question is yes they do meet with ambassadors. and him too. he meets with a lot of people and there's a whole separate discussion that we'll have about who this man is and why he's still in the country but he's been calling for months he should have been thrown out. but they blew it. she did. in a group. not individually in her office but with a group. the democrats want this to be unusual. they're saying this is more than just drip, drip, drip.

this is hey the e-mail scandal with hillary clinton was all about potential things that could have happened but didn't and this actually did happen. we were actually hacked, the russians have their fingers into the system and they all keep seeming to reach toward trump. this is real. more real than that, can they really empower that notion? >> they need probably a special prosecutor or select committee issuing subpoenas and getting e-mail traces at that level of information but i think you're right. meetings happen all the time and the key thing with michael flynn is he had a meeting and told apparently vice president pence something different than the truth or at least not the full information. but jeff sessions said i had a meeting with the ambassador, that in and of itself maybe

fairly benign unless essentially they're able to catch jeff sessio sessions. they would have been out over her and their people. >> this idea of let's be patient, let's see it for what it is, its hard to see that after what they did. >> as for the reasons why it's unusual and appropriate, remember at the dnc when trump comes out and says oh yeah russia i wish you would release all the rest of the e-mails. it never occurred they could be getting manipulated or played by the russians. i've talked to them that say they play for keeps and trump and his team did not appear to recognize the seriousness of that then or now or in the future and that's why this say big deal. >> stick around. we have much more to talk about with all of this stuff and

diving into who exactly this ambassador is. >> brother gregory gave us a good segway there because you have the politics and then the substance of the russia revelations. how significant is it that you have apparent connections between russia, this man on your screen and the campaign. what we don't know and what we do know, next.

chevy ireally...t awarded car company three years in a row. let's see how quickly you can read through all their awards. 2017 motor trend car of the year. kelly blue book 2016 best resale value... 2016 j.d. power highest quality breaking... ack. 10 best blah blah blah 2015...

only about 90 more to go! that's a lot of awards! now through march 13, get 20% below msrp on all 2017 spark, impala and sonic models. that's over $8,000 on this chevy impala. find new roads at your local chevy dealer. you may be muddling through allergies.oned with... try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin®. because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. try zyrtec®. muddle no more®. for every social occasion. so the the broom said, "sorry i'm late. i over-swept." [ laughter ] yes, even the awkward among us deserve some laughter. and while it's okay to nibble in public,

a lady only dines in private. try the name your price tool from progressive. it gives you options based on your budget. uh-oh. discussing finances is a big no-no. what, i'm helping her save money! shh! men are talking. that's it, i'm out. taking the meatballs. then you're a couple. think of all you'll share... like snoring. does your bed do that? the dual adjustability of a sleep number bed allows you each to choose the firmness and comfort you want. so every couple can get the best sleep ever. does your bed do that? only at a sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $899. and right now save $400 on our most popular mattresses. go to sleepnumber.com

for a store near you. it still remains unresolved but we have been distracted for that by whether or not russia has completely undone our democracy. all of this information about contact between trump's campaign advisers and the russian ambassador considered to be a top spy in which in and of itself this bizarre story that the u.s. constantly talks openly

about who the top spy is. let's discuss what we know and what we don't. what we have done is we prepared our cards on each of them. there's others. let's start with paul manafort. he came into the situation with baggage. he was investigated i was ukraine for financial ties to pro russian party and the intrigue and some shifts within the campaign lead him to re-sign and he wound upstarting and i think to this day david he is the most pure example within the campaign of something that needs to be explained. >> what were the contacts initially at a time when someone certainly new to politics who

very cavalierly talks about having a better relationship with russia expressing admiration for vladimir putin as a leader. remember vice president pence said during the campaign that he was the stronger leader, putin was than barrack obama. so this admiration for someone that is a tyrant, who, you know, has been linked to killing his opposition or jailing political descent, in the country so you have these initial ties that go so far beyond even the bush administration, obama administration wanting to have a reset in the relationship and i think that caused an initial red flag. >> that was just the beginning. he was the national security adviser. the u.s. sanctions were being leveled against moscow and then he re-signed so much like miken

flynn if the administration is saying nothing to see here, two of their top guys re-sign over it. >> look, we were talking before the break about how unusual is any of this anyway, this stuff is unusual to have senior advisers to a presidential campaign that are deeply financially unmatched in russia. apparently connected to the russian government and people that have actually given political advice to alabama lice of vladimir putin. that's not something we saw four years ago. >> flynn was also at a big celebration for state russian news. they would argue with that in those that work for them, at a party with vladimir putin where he was being hosted. that's not on the card. >> key thing is they lost the confidence of donald trump and he likes people around him who

are loyal and also people that reinforce a sense of himself. they both did that in spades but it wasn't that there was a russian connection that as we know deeply troubled donald trump ethically and there were many problems going on in that campaign over the summer where donald trump lost faith. trump doesn't like the fact that manafort would leave on friday afternoon and go out. the broader issue though is why when this campaign was being built and why when there's starting to be evidence that the russians may have been behind different acts of e-mails was donald trump starting to align himself so closely and call on the russians to release all of

these illegally obtained e-mails. >> patrick makes a good point. we never heard the president say anything was inappropriate. i still understand that situation. we heard this story. it's the same story we told pence at the white house. we don't think he's misleading. >> i'm doing all of this work. and you're right if that all actually happened. you have to keep a window of doubt open from michael flynn that he was thrown under the bus. >> if you are president trump f you're his top people you are angry that you have an intelligence community and a prior administration that is leaking this information to suggest that there was something

really inappropriate about the contact and maybe collusion with meddling and manipulating in the election. >> compromise them on a leak argument. this is a guy, president trump, that in many ways, he not only leaks but also celebrated leaks throughout the entire general election. the leaks of the hillary clinton e-mail campaign was so outrageous and unprecedented. >> when you do have, you have to fight your way in. >> what can i say snp. >> what we're talking about right now is why the white house if they ever got to the point of being okay with an independent probe this is why they would get there. they're trying to pass health care bills and do tax reform and

do infrastructure and this is all they're talking about right now. so historically, you talk to republicans now, the reason why a president goes there is so that every day going forward he can say this is not my problem. go talk to the lawyer because i'm trying pass an infrastructure bill. trump is nowhere near that yet but this background noise is nowhere near this background noise. >> i am some what fascinated by him. he is a friend to u.s. intel officials widely regarded as a top spy yet he is in the country and meeting with various politicians including as we said the top advisers to the trump campaign. we had mike rogers on yesterday, former chair of the house intel. house intel committee that said he was summoned to the russian residence of the ambassador. he went to this big or nate

ballroom and it was massive and there was one table he was asked to sit at with the russian ambassador. >> in the middle of a whole huge ballroom. >> completely. i was like did you have to speak into the lamp. so anyway, what do we know about this russian ambassador/top spy. >> this silence tells the story of how this man has worked his way into all of these corridors. >> ambassadors into different countries traditionally played many different roles and often times they're intermediaries and people that see a great deal of intelligence. i don't know a great deal about what he does on a day-to-day basis. but ambassadors are generally people that are expressions of points and then vladimir putin as we know. he is essentially russia's top spy but he's following that

information. >> he's reportedly not very close to putin but as reputation and he would run into potential movers and shakers in the trump administration and make sure that he is having discussion. i thought it was interesting that he said these guys tend to be gossipy about politics and test it. >> this man is held as a spy and everyone knows it. it just seems to be very paradox. >> so the battle to replace balm care has taken an unusual twist. one gop senator accusing house leaders of playing quote hide and seek with their replacement bill.

we'll show you the scavenger hunt that went on on capitol hill yesterday. with lubriderm. absorbs in seconds. moisturizes for hours. lubriderm. every body care.

with the deduction findingombine superpower of ibm watson? ah! you get more money. that's what you could get. h&r block with watson. get your taxes won.

replace the affordable care act. the senator believes house republicans are deliberately keeping the measure under lock and key. >> there's some question as to whether or not it exists at all. president trump visiting navy say loors long the uss gerald ford and building on his plan to pump 54 billion more dollars into defense and security spending. and a way to prevent wars and if necessary the way to win them. trump says he's asking congress to eliminate the defense sequester so the navy can regain it's strength and increase it's fleet of aircraft carriers. >> vice president mike pence reportedly used a private e-mail account to conduct official state business as governor of

indiana and his account was hacked. the indianapolis star reports he used his aol account to discuss a range of sensitive topics from security at the governor's mansion. he was a fierce critic of hillary clinton for her use of personal e-mail as secretary of state. >> so what do loyal trump supporters think about the most recent wave of controversy now surrounding the attorney general jeff sessions? are they concerned the a.g. may have lied under oath about his russia contact? do they think we need a broader investigation? next. r investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

the u.s.s. gerald ford. there's a cloud of controversy hanging over the administration. emotions battled because of the conversation with a russian ambassador considered by the u.s. to be a top spy. so trump supporters, how do they feel about what's going on?

>> on board the u.s.s. gerald r. ford sailors and ship builders pack the belly of the aircraft carrier anxious to see their newcomb hander and chief. >> i agree. >> i agree. >> many in the crowd haven't heard that new attorney general jeff sessions was under fire for sharing to say he met with a russian ambassador twice during the campaign. >> many are saying he mislead the committee during his confirmation hearings. does that concern you? >> it does. it does concern me so i hope that's not true. >> did he re-sign? >> we need to find out more about it first. >> do you think it's a big deal. >> probably talking with the russians and don't know what's going on. >> not because of mr. trump or

anything else. period got to take a man at his word, right. >> do you believe he told the truth? >> i do not know all the questions but they're still outside the line. he has something illegal that it's taken care of. >> when we told this trump supporter that unanimous is considered by u.s. intelligence to be a top russian spy. he refused to not even talk about the situation. >> some in the crowd thought sessions deserved a break. suggesting it was memory lapse or that he was possibly being coached. >> part of his job and normal routine. you don't know what you do every single day. >> are you at all concerned that senator sessions lied under oath. >> at that time he was probably

told he should not say anything. >> and about those appeals for him to step down. >> what do you make of the calls for the attorney general to re-sign? is it too soon? >> probably too soon. maybe wait more time just to see what happens let the whole due process continue. >> he's going to make a good attorney general. >> i think he will. >> so does this man that was quick to point out all senators talk to foreign nations. it's part of the job. >> does that bother you? >> no. >> why not? >> it doesn't. he's a patriot. god bless america. >> i always like watching those. you get a cross section obviously of opinion. based how how you're inclined to begin with. whether or not you want to give somebody the benefit of the doubt. >> you're going to play your preference. this is now a home team situation. but there's also a different dynamic going on.

it's hard for people to digest how much it matters because we don't know all the facts but what matters more to them in the belly of the ship, jobs. >> but you did hear people say that. >> you're going to have to give people facts more than ever now. they're not going to take it on trust or insenuation but they care about jobs. >> we do have a lot of facts for you this morning including of this important story. last month's raid in yemen in which the navy s.e.a.l. was killed, well, is it actually now baring fruit in the fight against al qaeda? there's differing reports and we'll tell you exactly what u.s. officials are saying about that. i have asthma...

...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo is specifically designed to open up airways to improve breathing for a full 24 hours. breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. do not take breo more than prescribed.

see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ask your doctor if 24-hour breo could be a missing piece for you. learn more about better breathing at mybreo.com. oh, how waso good!en house? did you apply? oh, i'll do it later today. your credit score must be amazing. my credit score? credit karma. it's free. that's great! um hm. just whip bam boom, it's done. that apartment is mine! credit karma. give yourself some credit.

well, according to multiple reports kaepernick will end his protest. more in the bleacher report. what do we know. >> good morning. he will soon be a free agent and according to multiple reports he has decided to stand for the

national anthem next season. and started a movement and over the past year. and his method of protest and positive change he believes has been created and kaepernick has donated the organization. and you'll see one guy runs for cover on the replay. but don't worry. cat-like reflexes and just reaches out and snags it right out of midair. unbelievable. i've never seen anyone catch one through the air and didn't even flinch. and this brings to me, there's two scenarios when there's foul

balls or bats heading for stands. there's two types of guys. the guy running for the cover or the hero that runs for the catch. >> you know what we do. >> that was strong. you stay and take that bat in the head if you have to but you don't run away. do u.s. air strikes that have been targeting al qaeda in yemen, are they based on intel obtained in that deadly raid that killed a u.s. navy s.e.a.l.? we got the latest information on this, next. when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum -tum -tum -tum smoothies! only from tums

only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol®

>> let's discuss it with barbara star and former army commanding general and both of you bash rb. what did this raid yield? >> one of the questions people ask is was there actionable intelligence and what we're learning from sources we're talking to, u.s. officials they

say that they have been able to take some action on the intelligence gathered. it might not be what you expect. not exactly. it's modern warfare. it's in the cyber war that they discovered hundreds of contacts in the electronic data they gathered. the laptops, the cell phones and these are now people, contacts that are trying to follow up on and locate and see if they are genuine and see what they can monitor from the contacts. the worry of course is these are contacts people that may be sympathizers and could be involved in helping al qaeda in yemen plot future attacks. are you seeing bombs dropping although there are air strikes overnight. and specific intelligence, no but you're seeing action being taken very detailed intelligence analysis going on taking those actions to go through the data and see what they can learn.

>> that's so important. when there's a question of why didn't they just do witt an air strike. with an air strike you can't get that level of intel contacts. >> that's right. >> what i tell you too is the lay down of a network. this didn't happen. you have some pieces and suddenly you find one or two pieces. you can put all sort or of other pieces into place. one of the things in the military that do in combat is you fight for more intelligence. that becomes keaton battlefield. it isn't fighting the enemy,

it's more intelligence so you can get more of the enemy. and we can see what other people are doing and use a method where we used to send out messages and say what are you going to do next? it was seeing a bunch of cockroaches coming out from underneath. >> this will be comfort to ryan owen's widow that we saw there in front of congress that doesn't want him to have died in vain. i want to ask both of you about this new developing story. there is an intelligence assessment that has been leaked from the department of homeland security and apparently this is some information that would have gone into crafting or should have at least gone into crafting president trump's travel ban. what it has found is that most foreign born violent extremists

do not arrive in the u.s. from their home country radicalized. they are not violent extremists when they land. rather they become radicalized after living in the u.s. for several years. msnbc first reported this last night. cnn has not confirmed it. what does this mean about the travel ban and national security? >> it's another piece of information in this puzzle if you will because i think it's fair to say that intelligence has also shown that citizenship in a foreign country is not an indicator of radical activity. people who do not support the president's travel ban will make the case based on all of them that a travel ban was overly broad perhaps and it goes to people, an entire group of people based on their citizenship and based on where they have come from and what

most military commanders, what most professionals will tell you is its very pain staking work to find an individual that is radicalized and it doesn't necessarily mean everyone from that country is going to be involved in that kind of thing. you to hone in and have the intelligence to find a single person. >> and won't the trump white house in order to justify the travel ban just say well all this proves is there's people from foreign countries that are susceptible to radicalization. they become radicalized once they're here so keep them out. >> well then it would beg the question why not just ban everyone from coming here. there's all potential for having them radicalized as they come in. this combines what we're talking about between yemen and the

fight for homeland security. there's a lot of intelligence professionals in dark little buildings with a little bit of light coming in analyzing these issues saying what are the threats in yemen and the united states and it's very important to pay attention to these people who are doing this pain staking work and so far we have seen not as much attention being paid to these individuals who do this kind of work and do this analysis because it takes months and years to get the right data to protect the nation, both overseas and here at home. >> we have heard that the travel ban, their new and revised burden is going to be announced this week. we don't have a date yet and know when that will be happening. thank you for all the reporting information. thanks to our international viewers, cnn newsroom is next and for our u.s. viewers new day continues right now. >> i did meet one russian

officials a couple of times. >> i don't think so at all. >> i might have recused myself. >> i don't believe there's anything wrong with a united states senator meeting with an ambassador from russia. >> lieutenant general michael flynn and jared kushner. >> what is done is unprecedented in the history of this country. the investigation has to be strong. >> this is new day with chris cuomo. >> good morning and welcome to your new day. president trump standing by jeff session. attorney general fighting back against perjury allegations and recusing himself from investigations into russia but he is still under fire for his failure to