hello, i'm wolf blitzer, it's 1:00 p.m. in washington, 9:00 p.m. in moscow. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you very much for joining us. look at this live pictures from the orlando international airport. president trump just landed there moments ago. he's in florida today to talk about education, school choice, school vouchers among other things he'll tour a catholic school in the orlando area. we expect to hear comments from the president during that stop. we'll bring them to you live when it happens. from there, the president goes on to mar-a-lago, his estate in

palm beach, florida for the weekend once again. also the vice president, mike pence, is in wisconsin to talk about the republican plans for healthcare. he's in house speaker paul ryan's hometown to talk about the planned replacement for obamacare, the affordable care act. speaker ryan is there with him as is the new health and human services secretary, tom price. wisconsin senator ron johnson is with them as well. as the president focuses in on education in florida today, the focus back in washington continues to be on the trump administration's reported ties to russia. the attorney general, jeff sessions, has agreed to recuse himself from the investigations, but now there are new questions about other members of the president's inner circle. our senior white house correspondent, jeff zeleny is joining us. jeff is at the house. our justice department laura jarrett is with me in the studio. jeff, the president is in florida but he can't escape this entire russia controversy, can

he? >> he cannot, wolf. he was leaving the white house this morning, right before he did there was an animated meeting going on inside the oval office. this is coming at the end of a week where the administration with you hoping to still be talking about his speech to congress earlier in the week. instead ending it of trying to get to these meetings that happened last year during the campaign with the russian ambassador. of course they're trying to contain the fallout from all of this here, particularly with the attorney general's recruisal yesterday of any investigation involving the 2016 campaign. but, this is something that administration officials are still trying to contain and figure out how many meetings happened last year. it's something that will be the course of investigations on capitol hill. >> multiple investigations up on capitol hill. the fbi's investigation continues as well. laura, you're here with me as we

await the president's revised travel ban that was supposed to be released this week. now it's being pushed off until next week. the department of homeland security has come up on a report on radicalization in the united states what does it say and what could it mean for the revised travel ban? >> it's a brand-new report that leaked last night from the department of homeland security. it tracked 88 cases of foreign-born terrorists. it found most are not radicalized when they come to the u.s., but rather later become radicalized after they've been here for a few years. it's also interesting to note this is coming at a time when we saw another leaked report from the department of homeland security that concluded last week, country of citizenship is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terroristic activity. as we await this new travel ban, we have two internal reports from homeland security.

homeland security says both of these reports are based on unclassified materials only. >> basically undermines this notion that if you include a ban on these seven muslim majority countries because of fear of terrorism, if refugees, for example, come to the united states, this homeland security report basically undermines that, and it could force the white house to be reconsidering that. >> that's right. it's an internal report. this is coming from home lan security, saying those vetting procedures are not the ones that will work. >> stand by. let's get some information about these reports that are emerging about the vice president's use of a private e-mail account while he was governor of indiana. something similar republicans used as a major issue to hillary clinton. what is the issue here specifically? what do we know about the vice president's e-mail account, personal e-mail account while serving as governor of indiana? >> this is something that the vice president, of course,

talked about when he was running for vice president last year, virtually at every campaign rally he talked about the clinton private e-mail server. this is slightly different. he was using an aol account, a private e-mail address, if you will. not a private server. slight difference there. only a slight one. he was using to conduct state business as the governor of indiana. that was reported as part of a freedom of information request by the news. they reported last evening about several e-mails that the vice president was sending out on not classified matters, because he's a governor, but on state business involving sensitive matters. the vice president's office is saying this is not apples to apples at all. it is entirely different from the clinton situation. but it raises questions of should he have been using a private e-mail account, e-mail address for state business. it raises questions of hypocrisy here. republicans made so much of the fact that the clinton e-mail

server was a suggestion that she was not acting in a honest manner. this is something that the vice president's office certainly did not hope to deal with today. but again, part of the freedom information act request by the indianapolis star newspaper last night. >> jeff, thank you. guys, thanks very much. president trump is defending his attorney general saying that jeff sessions did nothing wrong, but maybe he should have been more accurate in his answers to the united states senate during the confirmation process. joining us now from capitol hill, louisiana senator bill cassidy, member of the finance committee, a republican. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. good to be with you. >> did the attorney general, jeff sessions, make the right move? >> of course, it recuse himself, absolutely. whatever investigation there has to be, the american people need to have confidence in. on the other hand i will point

out his meetings were all as official capacity rings true. we've seen multiple senators, both republican and democrat who have had similar meetings in their official capacity. >> we're showing pictures, senator, of air force one now opt ground in orlando, florida. the president will be descending down those steps momentarily. he has a series of education related events there before heading over to mar-a-lago and palm beach. do you understand why there is such concern? cnn has been reporting that ambassador kislyak, the russian ambassador, and at least three other trump campaign advisers met during the republican national committee in cleveland and additionally the ambassador was brought through the back entrance of trump tower in new york to meet with jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, now senior adviser, and former national security adviser michael flynn. you understand all of this is causing concern because of the

repeated denials that there were these kinds of meetings? >> i'm having a hard time hearing you, wolf. but let me say this. clearly there were meetings, but we don't know if the meetings were just normal course of events. obviously there's some who have a vested interest in making it sound like these were suspicious, we shouldn't have been doing them, whoever was doing them. that sort of thing. until we know the nature of the meeting, i think it's a bit hard to say. i think we know from yesterday that claire mccaskill who criticized these meetings, she had similar meetings with rush ambassadors. and similarly chuck schumer. so other government officials have such meetings with folks from other countries, including russia but not necessarily limited. until we know the details, it's hard to draw conclusions. >> you make a fair point. the only point i was trying to make, i hope you can hear me --

>> i lost wolf. >> you're not hearing me, senator? i think we lost the senator. well try to reconnect. you're looking to the right, you can see the president of the united states, he has just landed in orlando, florida for a series of events there. the president walking down the stairs now. he will be going over to a catholic school, talking about school vouchers. educational choice for parents in sending their kids to the appropriate school. subjects that have been widely debated and discussed over these past several years here in the united states from orlando after these meetings, we'll have live coverage of the president's address after these events in orlando. the president will fly not too far away from pal mum beach, florida, he has some meetings there. and the president, i'm told, will meet with some republican national committee leaders while there. you can see his daughter ivanka coming down with her kid, jared

kushner, the president's son-in-law, now a senior adviser to the president. they're going into a different vehicle. part of the motorcade that will take them to the first event. both jarrett kushner and ivanka trump have emerged as major players in this new administration, offering the president lots of important advice and moving the president in a direction that some of his other advisers are not necessarily supportive of. there are, as is always the case, serious debates before the final decision is made by the president of the united states. so we'll see the president fairly soon at these events in orlando, florida. let's continue to watch . as we do we'll try to reconnect with senator cassidy. we apologize, we lost that connection with him. my next guest says the recusal of the attorney general, jeff sessions, is not enough. congressman adam smith is the ranking democrat on the armed services committee, he's the top

democrat on that panel. he is standing by to join us live. you can see him there. and retired u.s. general david petraeus, former head of the cia, was on the president's short list for secretary of state and national security adviserment today he offered the president some words of advice on how to deal with russia. his interview with fred pleitgen coming up as well. success has always been measured in zeros. but shouldn't it be about firsts? and seconds? how about adding a third? we think there's a bajillion ways to measure success. like making your toddler giggle like this. yep that's a success! can teaching kids in another country how to say "pony" make you a success? the correct answer is yeah. what about taking pride in everything you do? finding the courage to do something you've never done? or doing something no one's ever done? we sure think so.

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and 10 grams of protein. all in 3 delicious flavors. it's choosing to go in one direction... up. boost. be up for it. moments ago, president trump landed in orlando, florida. he has a series of meetings there involving education, promoting school choice, school vouchers, other sensitive issues. we'll be hearing him speak later. he will also tour a catholic school in the orlando area as well. all this before he heads over to mar-a-lago and palm beach, florida for the weekend. we'll monitor the president's activities. we'll have live coverage of his

speech coming up. democrats have a message for the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions. his recusal, many democrats say, is not enough. adam smith of washington state is the ranking member of the armed services committee. he's joining us from seattle. congressman, thank you very much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. appreciate the chance. >> you say recusal is not enough. you say he is unfit to serve as the head of the justice department. you want him out. tell us why. >> well, it's -- what's interesting about this, as many people have said, look, there's nothing wrong on its face with members of the trump campaign, be it jeff sessions or michael flynn, having conversations with russian officials. you know, it's a little odd during the course of the campaign. but what's interesting is that they have done it, in a ways that subtrefuge, denied it.

snuck in the back door at the republican national committee. michael flynn was fired for doing the exact same thing that jeff sessions just did. if there was nothing there, why was michael flynn fired? >> let me interrupt for a second. when you say he snuck in the back door, that was at trump tower in new york city in december. >> yes. >> when the russian ambassad bb met with michael flynn, and jared kushner. not to the republican national committee. i wanted to correct that. but go ahead. >> it's all the secrecy that surrounds this. and the fact that we know the russians hacked into the dnc computers to try to throw the election to president trump. they tried to undermine the democrats. that's been determined. look, we need a special prosecutor to figure this out. maybe it is just as innocent as jeff sessions and michael flynn and the president and all these people say.

but there's so much dishonesty surrounding it, it at least raises the question of what was going on. michael flynn got fired for doing the exact same thing that jeff sessions just did. which was being dishonest about his communications with russian officials. >> here's -- >> why wouldn't they just admit it? >> the difference is that michael flynn lied to the vice president of the united states who was upset about that, went on television, said there were no such meetings, and then thanks to newspaper reports they found out about the meetings and the president fired him. but in this particular case -- >> all jeff sessions did was lie under oath to the united states congress while speaking to the american people. it's okay to lie under oath to the united states congress, but, you know if you lie to the vice president, then you get fired. >> in this particular case, he didn't lie to the vice president or the president. they simply say they were not told about these meetings that

the senator never told them about it. the president yesterday said he only learned about them through newspaper accounts that emerged over the past day or so. day or two. you know, the question of whether he lied to the senate, that's a subject that obviously is under debate right now. he says he was not fully responsi responsive. if he had his way now, he would have answered the questions more robustly with additional information. he insists he didn't lie. >> again, that's exactly what michael flynn said. michael flynn said, yeah, i had the conversation with him, i didn't remember whether or not the issue of the sanctions came up. that's exactly what michael flynn said. when i told him it didn't come up, i honestly thought it didn't come up. i didn't remember it. it was a long conversation. we talked about a lot of stuff. it's the same thing. i don't know what's behind this. it may be nothing. i think at this point there's

been enough dishonesty that we need a special prosecutor to look into it and look into greater detail the russian hacking of our elections. this is something that russia is doing now throughout europe or has been accused of doing in a number of different elections interfering. they allegedly interfered in the brexit vote. they're now allegedly interfering in a variety of different elections. this is a matter of national security and trying to figure out what was going on within the trump campaign. >> there are fbi investigations, sarious senate and house and intelligence committee investigations looking into that. as far as sessions is concerned, the president issued a lengthy statement. he said in the end it's a total witch hunt by democrats like you. and sergey lavrov said ted this all looks, in his words, like a witch hunt. same word the it the used.

what's your reaction to that? >> first of all, this from president trump who spent years basically accusing barack obama of not being legitimate because of his birth certificate, because he was born in kenya, which, by the way, as we learned from ted cruz's campaign wouldn't have even mattered, give than president obama's obama was clearly a u.s. citizen. even if he had been born in kenya, he would have been eligible to be kenya. i guess president trump knows something about witch hunts. in this case we have evidence that the russians hacked in to democratic computers, to try to throw the election to president trump. we have a whole series of trump trump administration officials who have not been honest about the campaign meetings they've had with various russian officials. it may not turn out to be anything. but right now we are not getting honest answers from anybody in the trump administration. which is why, again, i think we

need a special prosecutor to look into it, to get straight answers, and i certainly think if michael flynn got fired for doing this, jeff sessions as the top law enforcement official in the country should be fired for doing the same thing. >> congressman adam smith of washington state. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. we'll have more. there's new developments emerging now in the entire russian investigation. we'll have more on that when we come back. my name is anne. i'm one of the real live attorneys you can talk to through legalzoom. don't let unanswered legal questions hold you up, because we're here, we're here, and we've got your back. legalzoom. legal help is here.

in a cnn exclusive interview, the former cia director general david petraeus says that trump should be wary of russian president vladimir putin. >> it's very clear what vladimir

putin's objectives are, in many cases they are unacceptable to us, nato, our allies and partners around the world. having said that, there could be some convergence on interests defeating the islamic state al qaeda and stopping the bloodshed in syria. >> could that be a spring board towards better relations, do you think? >> i would go into this with my eyes wide open. with very, very realistic appraisal of what russia has done and what putin would like to do. i think strategic dialogue with one's adversary should not be avoided but you should pursue it. >> our senior international correspondent fred pleitgen joins us now. what did he say about more u.s. troops in syria?

>> he said he believes that that's absolutely a possibility and saying that he said would make sense at this point in time. he believes there's a lot of momentum going on in the fight against isis, not just in seyri but also in iraq. he believes u.s. ground force could have a huge effected on the momentum of the battle there. let's listen in to what he had to say. >> i think the place you may see somed a de ed additional initia syria. there's a possibility of additional forces on the ground, to augment what has already been increased and achieving important battlefield momentum. raqqah is just about surrounded at this point, the capital of the islamic state. >> of course there are a lot of other forces at play. there would have to be an accommodation with turkey to make something like that work. he also says he believes that in

iraq there could be a longer-term presence of u.s. forces there. he said he has no doubt that isis will be defeated, but the big question is what comes after that? how can iraq be stabilized and reconciliation take mraplace ane protected by u.s. and coalition forces. >> did general petraeus weigh in on the president's national security adviser? >> absolutely. i asked him about that as well. especially with the confirmation hearings going on. he had nothing but praise for general mcmaster. he said it's someone who is an analytical thinker, capable of running a bureaucracy, running an organization like that, but also going to speak frankly to the president and someone who can definitely play his part in something like the national security council. of course, also when it comes to arguments, with some of the civilians who are in there like steve bannon if there are issues with some of the other advisers in there.

he believes that in the end the counsel that general mcmasters will be giving the president will be persuasive to president trump and have a long and positive influence on president trump as well. wolf? >> fred pleitgen reporting from berlin, thank you very much. the president is trying to turn the tables now on a democratic critic of the subject of ties to russia. just moments ago, president trump tweeted a picture of the senate minority leader, chuck schumer with russian president vladimir putin. the tweet says, we should start an immediate investigation into senator schumer and his ties to russia and putin. a total hypocrite. our senior congressional reporter is joining us right now. what are you hearing? what's the reaction from senator schumer's office? >> a bit of a snarky push back. schumer tweeteding, happily

talked about my contact with mr. putin and his associates. it took place in 2003 in full view of press and public under oe oath, would you and your team? this appears to be something that happened in 2003, where they were touring the lukoil gas station in new york city at a time when putin was visiting the u.s. schumer saying i'm happy to discuss this if you want to talk about your ties and contacts with russia. this as tension is ratcheting up between these two men. in the beginning people thought they could work together because of some ties to new yorkme meny. schumer tried to down play this saying they're not friends. schumer has been critical of everything from his cabinet selections to this investigation, even calling for

sessions to resign. it will be hard for schumer to work on donald trump with his agenda given how opposed most of his caucus is to what donald trump is doing. and donald trump letting out his frustration with senator schumer. you can read the tweet two ways, serious, should be ang investigation, or just being snarky and cynical and trying to embarrass the senator. >> schumer plays a key role here, as a senate democratic leader, he's one of the big eight to get these secret intelligence briefings that most members of congress do not get. so he's deeply involved in this investigation into russia. he know ace will the of things that we don't know. and that we'll be looking into donald trump's ties with russia. interesting decision by the president to put this back in the news especially at a time when chuck schumer himself is looking into this issue. >> is it the big eight or the

gang of eight? . the gang of eig . >> the gang of eight. >> thank you very much for that. there's been an arrest in connection with some of the ant anti-semitic incidents that have occurred in the united states. bomb threats and desecration of some jewish cemeteries. brynn gingras will be joining us. she has new information. we'll be right back. sound way to go. let's talk asset allocation. -sure. you seem knowledgeable, professional. would you trust me as your financial advisor? -i would. -i would indeed. well, let's be clear, here. i'm actually a deejay. ♪ [ laughing ] no way! i have no financial experience at all. that really is you? if they're not a cfp pro, you just don't know. find a certified financial planner professional who's thoroughly vetted at letsmakeaplan.org. cfp. work with the highest standard.

. let's turn to the investigation into the recent string of bomb threats on jewish community centers, jewish schools, other institutions here in the united states. a fired reporter, juan thompson,

through see him, he has been arrested. he's accused of making some -- some of those threats and cyberstalking an individual. the jewish community center released this statement "jcc association of north america is gratified by the arrest made in connection with the large number of anti-semitic threats that have targeted jcc and other jewish institutions over the past two months. we trust that the perpetrator s perpetrators behind all of the threats will be swiftly identified and brought to justice. brynn gingras joins us. what do we know about thompson? >> authorities believe the reason he jumped on this wave of anti semitic threats is to get back at an ex-lover.

he made about eight threats to different institutions in four states, talking about the anti-defamation league in new york city, schools, a jewish heritage history museum also here in new york city. apparently he would make these threats in the name of his ex-lover and say she was the one responsible for all these threats across the country, in a sense trying to frame her in other cases we're told by the criminal complaint he would say his girlfriend was trying to frame him as well. so a sort of interesting situation that he was trying to get his -- back at his girlfriend by using this wave of anti-semitic incidents we've seen across the country. eight threats that he's been responsible for, according to authorities, in four different states. >> he was fired from the interseptemberinte intercept a few years ago. they put out a statement? >> they said we're horrified to

learn this morning that juan thompson, a former employee, has been arrested in connection with bomb threats against the adl in mult tl jewish communities. he was there at intercept for just over a year. he was fired for fabricating sources with that news site. cnn interviewed him or asked for an interview after this happened last year, he denies all of those charges. certainly a lot of people putting out statements, the jcc, adl, and intercept, all happy to hear there's some resolution to this wave, but there's someone else or a group also out there. >> we got a statement from the jewish -- from the fbi on the meeting that james comey, the fbi director had with jewish community leaders. you can see a picture of comey at fbi headquarters in washington meeting with jewish community leaders. this is a jcc statement.

this morning leadership from the jewish community met with fbi director comey and the senior leadership team of the fbi to discuss the range of threats directed against jewish institutions. the conversation encompassed the current situation and potential stra strategies for future collaboration. all expressed the deep gratitude to the community and for the efforts that the fbi is placing on the ongoing investigation. the representatives of the jewish community left with the highest confidence that the fbi is taking every possible measure to resolve the measure as quickly as possible. brynn, thanks for that update. i know you're working the story for us. we'll stay in close contact with you. coming up, president trump just touched down in florida, orlando specifically. he's expected to pitch a controversial education program that's been highly debated on the political front. we'll have details when we come back.

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look at these pictures coming in from orlando where president trump just arrived at the st. andrew catholic school. he'll tour the school, promote school vouchers. the president prom miised to sp billions on school voucher plans nationwide. 16 years after implementing one of the first school voucher systems, floridians are still at odds on whether the program helps or hurts students.

>> math, science -- >> reporter: for this 7-year-old ala alana, going to public school was miserable. she had trouble making friends, didn't get enough attention from teachers and even hated the food. her grandparents say almost every day ended in tears. >> so why you cry, mommy i don't like it here. i don't like it. it's not right. >> reporter: so anna brought her second grader here, to kingdom academy outside of miami. where alana has flourished. >> i think it's better here. >> reporter: but she can only attend the school because of a controversial program, one at the center of a heated political battle in florida for 16 years. instead of paying taxes to the stated, corporations get dollar for dollar tax credits by donateding money to organizations like step up for students, which gave many of the 98,000 scholarships to lower income students, enabling them to go to private schools

statewide. >> i don't think that low-income children should have less opportunities than more affluent children. children don't get to choose the environment they grow up in why do we have more opportunities for affluent students? >> reporter: opponents say it's leaving many students behind. >> we're at the point now where we don't have enough books for each student to take home. >> reporter: this student says by not paying taxes, corporations are robbing public schools of funding. >> if the money that went to vouchers was reinvested into the schools, we would have the schools that parents are looking for. we wouldn't have the need of vouchers. by funneling this money away t hurts the kids. >> reporter: program supporters say there have been eight different independent reports, and several court decisions that show the program does not cost public schools money.

still frederick ingram with the state teacher's union disagrees. >> you go to many schools in florida, you see the lack of programming, lack of band classes, lack of arrested classes, fewer vocational classes, teachers who are not paid what they need to be paid for doing the work they need to do. >> reporter: despite this, parents at kingdom academy say there is no debate. >> if i didn't have this choice, i would have to move to a place where he didn't have to choose. when it comes to my children, sky's the limit. i will do whatever i need to to make sure their needs are accommodated. >> reporter: boris sanchez, cnn, miami. we have live pictures coming in from janesville, wisconsin where the vice president, mike pence is peeking to business leaders there on obamacare, health reform -- healthcare. pence stirring up controversy for using a private e-mail account while he served as the

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florid it's the cloud the trump administration can't seem to get out from under. talking about russia, the attorney general jeff sessions has recused himself between investigating any links between russia and the campaign. now more trump advisors confirm they met with the same russian diplomat. joining us, summers and gloria borger, and we learned jared kushner, michael flynn back in

december met quietly without any publicity with ambassador kislyak in trump tour in new york city. >> there are a lot of people in and around the world meeting with kislyak which seem to be working very hard at his job, first of all there's nothing improper about people from an incoming administration reaches out or taking meetings with ambassadors from lots of countries. that's perfectly fine, the question we have to have is what was discussed and dwoeon't knowe answers to those questions and this meeting came in december at about the time when president obama was going to announce sanctions against russia, e pell russian diplomats after theying they had interfered in the american election process, so

this didn't happen in a vacuum. there was perhaps a reason that the russian ambassador could be agitated about something and perhaps wanted to meet with folks who were coming into the white house, but again, dwoeon' know exactly what was discussed but seemed to be an awful a lot of tentacles and meetings going on and we need to know what occurred. >> we know there are a lot of investigations going on. the white house has investigation, senate intelligence committee investigation, and a lot of journalists are investigating as well. this could fgone on and on and on, how does the administration deal with this? >> gloria is right that there probably wasn't anything improper about this, but day after day news cycle after news cycle, new details coming out that the administration has been

reluctant to forthright answer, it does hang a cloud around this new administration. so it is incumbent on them to come out and say this is what happened, these are the detail sos ts so americans can stop asking sh these questions. >> jeff sessions recused himself from participating in the investigations but a lot of democrats are saying that's not enough. >> they are saying he ought to resign. and you have to be careful because you can overreach on the that end of the spectrum. a white house that would try to get ahead of the story and instead of this drip, drip, drip, would send out a list of all the people who met with all these ambassadors, here is when they did it. this was a five minute meeting, this is a ten minute meeting and get them all in the room and say

raise your hand if you met with the russian ambassador, and if they're not doing that the first question is why not. ? >> you got an issue that's going to embarrass you it's better you release the information than wait for some adversary to release it because it comes out a whole lot worse: >> absolutely, but that's not been the pattern of the trump administration, every time we have seen damaging or unfavorable information let's say come out, it is almost never the trump administrations or trump surrogates coming out and getting ahead of it as gloria said so there isn't this drip, drip, drip, which is where we are. >> and now the question of vice president pence using a private e-mail account while governor of indiana that did contain business related issues and

apparently this happened even before he was really criticizing hillary clinton's private e-mail server and there are accusations he's being a hypocrite. >> you can say that, you talk to pence people and they'll say he didn't exclusively use a private server. it's completely legal in the state of indiana to have a private g mail account and your encouraged to do and your public account, but you said what he said during the campaign of what he said about hillary clinton's e-mail server and you look and say, well, you used one too. >> but indiana government business dealings. >> he likely wouldn't have had access to the same kind of

classification but the chanting lock her up, i know they're going to want to know what was in those e-mails. >> in the meantime t news continues right here on cnn. i'm brianna keilar thank you for joining me, president trump visiting a catholic school in orlando, this is happening after his administration is getting a schooling with a new homeland security system casting doubt on a travel ban. found out after exam 88 cases of terrorism, found out they do not arri arrive in the u.s. radicalalized. but after. this is based on unsealed information not