hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington. 5:00 p.m. in dub lynne. 2:00 in tokyo. president trump reveals his budget and the cuts to nonmilitary spending are deep. the budget blueprint calls for a $54 billion increase in defense spending. take a look at this graphic. on the left you see the departments getting an increase. that would be defense, homeland security, veterans affairs. the social security administration. on the left are the agencies also facing cuts. the environmental protection agency, the state department, the agriculture department, the

labor department, health and human services and the list goes on and on. let's bring in our senior white house correspondent jim acosta. this blueprint is just the start of the budget process. what message is the president sending with this plan because it's really only a recommendation. it has to be appropriated by the house and senate. >> that's right, wolf. we'll get a briefing in about an hour from now. the director of the office of management and budget, mick mulvaney, will be speaking to reporters along with sean spicer. mulvaney did brief reporters yesterday about what's in this budget. and he's describing this as a hard power budget to contrast with that use of the term soft power during the obama administration. a term that hillary clinton liked to use at the state department. she liked to talk about soft power and smart power at the state department. talking about hard power in this budget. when you look at what they're talking about, $54 billion in terms of an increase in spending for the pentagon and then you

showed the pllist. you are talking about a 16.2% decrease for health and human services, a 31.4% decrease for the epa. 28.7% decrease for the state department. and on and on. and, wolf, what you'll have happened here in the coming days is you'll have both democrats and republicans pick apart this budget and see things that they don't like. already hearing from the likes of senator rob portman from ohio. marco rubio, lindsey graham in south carolina, all saying that this budget in terms of some parts of it is essentially not just dead on arrival but dead on departure. you have marco rubio coming out and saying today that the president doesn't get the budget. we set the budget on capitol hill. that gives you a sense as to what the reception is in congress right now. not just on the republican side but on the democratic side. the head of the dnc, tom perez

quoting joe biden saying don't tell me where your values are. show me your budget and we'll see where your values are. it's a sharp response to this budget right now but you're going to hear mick mulvaney defend this budget and say this is what the voters approved back in november and that's going to be reflected in this budget. >> now comes the hard part. he's got to get it appropriated by the house and senate and by all accounts, there are going to be major, major changes. the president is going to learn presumably what others can learn. they can make these budget recommendations but it's up to congress to decide what is appropriated and what is not. jim acosta at the white house, thanks very much. president trump, meanwhile, is defending his unsubstantiated wiretap claims against former president obama. but he may have complicated the situation even more. let's go to our senior congressional reporter manu raju up on capitol hill with details. let's listen to what the president said on fox news last night. >> the cia, i want people to

know. the cia was hacked and a lot of things taken. that was during the obama years. mike pompeo is there now doing a fantastic job. >> so he confirmed what other officials have been refusing to do because they couldn't do it. that the cia was hacked. explain why this is causing concern where you are up on capitol hill? >> well, from one democrat in particular, adam schiff, the top democrat in the house intelligence committee, said the president may have revealed classified information, wolf, by saying that the cia, in fact, was hacked. now this is what adam schiff just sent out in a statement saying that in his effort to once again blame obama, the president appears to have discussed something that, if true and accurate, would otherwise be considered classified information. it would be one thing if the president's statement or the product of intelligence community discussion and a purposeful decision to disclose

information to the public, but that is unlikely to be the case. now, wolf, schiff also notes that the president does have the power to declassify just about anything given that he is the president of the united states. the one person who can unilaterally decide to declassify classified material, but the question is, did the president intend to do that last night on fox news or did he just try to deflect blame for this major leak of information from wikileaks just a couple of weeks ago. troves and troves of information from the cia, internal information appeared to have been hacked but nobody in the government has officially confirmed that the cia had been hacked until the president of the united states admitted last night and did he mean to do it last night or was this a mistake? >> and did he mean to say all that information was retrieved was received through a hack. through a cyberattack, if you will, as opposed to someone on

the inside collecting that information on a thumb drive or whatever n then releasing it. the use of the word hack by the president was very specific. we'll see what happens. clearly he has now confirmed, according to the president of the united states, that the cia was hacked. manu raju up on capitol hill. thanks very much. meanwhile, president trump's revised travel ban hits a legal roadblock. federal judges in maryland and hawaii have temporarily blocked the ban that was supposed to go into effect today. our justice reporter laura jarrett broke the details on the maryland decision very early this morning. glad you were up very early. you were way ahead of the curve on everyone this morning. tell our viewers here in the united states and around the world what these two federal judges have now decided. >> so these two federal judges, wolf, have really looked at this and said there's some serious constitutional problems with this revised executive order. and they say, look, the administration did a lot of work. they've exempted green card

holders, they've exempted those with valid visas. it still has a 90-day ban on those traveling from six muslim majority countries, plus looking at all of these statements from trump on the campaign trail combined with what senior advisers have said more recently. and they're looking at all of those things together to say, wait a minute. we have to put this on hold for now because we think this entire executive order is infected with religious discrimination. we haven't heard anything from trump yet but he heard him blast the federal court in hawaii last night. let's take a listen. >> this new order was tailored to the dictates of the ninth circuits in my opinion flawed ruling. this is, in the opinion of many, an unprecedented judicial overreach. we're going to fight this

terrible ruin. we're going to take our case as far as it needs to go, including all the way up to the supreme court. >> so now the question is, does he let his lawyers handle this at the justice department and proceed with the appeal? or does he come out and say something about maryland again today? >> and his angry words against these judges, these federal judges, presumably that could irritate a lot of these judges and further complicate the situation for the president. >> interestingly last night, wolf, several judges on the ninth circuit court of appeals took note of that explicitly and called him out in a 27-page document and they were in support of the travel ban and said we think our colleagues got it wrong last month. but they called president trump out for criticizing judge robart out in seattle and said that was improper. >> a lot of people wondering what happens next. good reporting, laura. laura jarrett reporting. the republican plan to repeal and replace obamacare has

cleared yet another hurdle. it's still facing enormous challenges ahead. republican congressman mark meadows of maryland is the chairman of the house freedom caucus. he's joining us live from capitol hill. thanks for joining us. >> great to be with you, wolf. thanks so much. >> all right. you said yesterday congressman that there are not enough votes for this bill as it currently stands to pass the house of representatives. you believe that's still the case? >> well, it is still the case, wolf. you know, we have a pretty sophisticated whip operation within our caucus. so even beyond our members, you can look at the number of other members that still have great concerns. but we're working. we're working trying to reconcile those differences and come together. but today, if this bill were put on the floor, it wouldn't have enough votes to pass. >> because you need 21 republicans to bolt. by our count there are at least 19 who have expressed opposition or leaning opposition.

what's your count? >> we don't give the exact whip account. it's a great question, wolf. but i would say that if there were oddsmakers on there being 40 nos and another 20 undecideds, they would not be too far off. but with that, it's a fluid situation. as you make one change, you either add or subtract the number of votes. we're not talking about one or two votes. we're talking about tens or 20s in terms of the number of people who would have to change their mind to pass this current piece of legislation. >> last night dana bash and i moderated a town hall with the health and human services secretary tom price and asked them about your comment that the freedom caucus has enough votes to block the bill. i want you to listen to what he said during the cnn town hall. >> he wanted a system that would make certain we addressed pre-existing conditions. made certain every american had the financial feasibility to purchase coverage.

that we made certain the medicaid system worked for patients. purchase across state lines. driving down drug costs. making certain the system had a transition to this new system that is going to work, i believe, so much better than where we currently are. so we want to make certain we're responding to the needs of the american people. when we do that, i'm convinced the individuals charged with that will be supportive. >> what's your reaction, congressman? >> you guys did a great job last night and secretary price is right on one thing. when we do all of the things he mentioned, there will be the votes. the problem is this particular bill doesn't do all of those things. a lot of that is what they call in the phase three portion where you drive down cost. you get competition across state lines. those are not in this bill that we're asking to consider today. and so what we're trying to do, and i was on the senate side today talking to some of the more conservative and moderate members over there trying to find some consensus.

and as we look at that, it's about getting as much as we possibly can in the repeal aspect. we're not repealing all of obamacare. we're leaving almost half of obamacare in place with this current bill. we've got to get rid of it all. and then as we look at a replacement plan for that, making sure that there's an adequate safety net, i'm committed. i think i committed on cnn that those pre-existing conditions were going to have a path there to make sure that we take care of those that have concerns with that particular issue. >> on health care, you have heard what republican senator tom cotton of arkansas has said that you won't have enough votes, certainly not enough votes to get to 60 in the senate and may not even have enough to get to 51 in the senate because some republicans there are bolting. so would it be wise for the speaker to pull this legislation right now and start from scratch? >> you know, i don't think there's a real desire to start from scratch.

i think what they are trying to do is look at some of the components. and there are some good components. i don't support this particular bill but there are some good components in there. but based on my conversations with my senate colleagues and certainly with my house colleagues, there's not enough votes in either place to pass it the way that it is. but i promise the president personally that i'd negotiate in good faith. we've been sending 18 hours a day trying to make sure that we do that. and i am optimistic in the coming days that we'll be able to find a solution and actually drive health care premiums down. that's what this is all about. driving health care premiums down. >> on another sensitive issue, as you know, the president today unveiling his $1.1 trillion budget. it increases defense spending by $54 billion but slashes nonmilitary spending in many sensitive areas. are you okay with the cuts, for example, to the state department on foreign aid, cuts to health and human services, programs like meals on wheels, other

programs that assist low-income folks for obtaining heating assistance? these are recommendations by the president. are you okay with his budget? >> i want to applaud the president and director mulvaney for putting forth a bold budget. he was elected on november 8th to come in and place some priorities and truly speak out. now you know that i'm a big foreign policy guy, and as we look at some of the initiatives there, i want to make sure that we're strategically deploying assets in the current way. i'm right now looking at the dod side of that and how they're going to work with usaid and state because there's additional foreign aid in the department of defense budget. and so as we look at those, i think what you're going to see is, this is the starting place. ultimately some of those things i've delivered meals for meals on wheels. i think that those types of programs will stay in place. but it's a work in progress. but again, to criticize somebody

for putting forth a bold vision and really talking about our veterans, our military and fulfilling a campaign process, you can't really criticize that. but i can tell you as we come together, we're going to be looking at this in a real way to make sure that we put the assets and the appropriations in the proper place and only make strategic cuts. >> and he says he doesn't want to cut social security. said that during the campaign and this recommendation doesn't cut social security either. congressman, thanks, as usual, for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. good to be with you. >> thank you, mark meadows of north carolina. speaker paul ryan will be joining me at 5:00 p.m. eastern live in "the situation room" only here on cnn. that's coming up later today. also, president trump defends his wiretapping claim and says his administration will be submitting new information to congress for the investigation. we're going to ask a key member of the house intelligence committee about that.

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we're get something breaking news. new documents show president trump's former national security adviser michael flynn received a payment from a russian television station during a visit to moscow back in 2015. our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is with us right now. you are getting new information on this very sensitive information. he, of course, was fired, but tell us what you learned. >> this comes from the ranking democrat on the house oversight committee, elijah cummings. michael flynn, the former national security adviser, was paid more than $33,750 by

russia's state-run broadcaster, rt tv russia for a speech in moscow in december 2015. this from the top democratic representative cummings. the u.s. intelligence community has long assessed that rt is a propaganda tool of the kremlin writing in its january report on russian interference in the u.s. election that the organization had participated in disinformation campaigns aimed at the u.s. flynn had previously acknowledged the speaking engagement telling multiple news outlets in july and august of last year that he received money for the speech in moscow in december 2015 but declined to state the amount saying, and this is key, that the course of the funds was actually his u.s. speakers bureau, not the russian broadcaster which, as we mentioned, u.s. intelligence agencies describe as an instrument of the russian government. so, wolf, a couple key issues here. one, as a legal matter, if general flynn, and you remember he was the former director of

the defense intelligence agency. in light of that position and being a former military officer, one, has to report that he received income from any foreign entity and that it came from a foreign entity. what appears to be the case here is that in his public comments he said, no, i was paid by my speaker's bureau. we now know from these documents that the money came from russia. russia's state tv broadcaster rt. we asked general flynn's spokesman for comment on this. it said he reported the speech to the dia. i asked did he report this money coming from russia, from this russian state broadcaster and they had no comment. this will be a legal issue if he did not report that income on his security clearance form. it also is an administration -- administrate uf issue for the army if he did not report this to the army. and a legal issue for them, not a violation of the law but it would violate their guidelines for retired military officers. those are open questions now.

we are waiting for comment. this is one thing that elijah cummings is saying, did you report this income? we don't have an answer yet. >> this is when he went to moscow and was at that dinner with putin. the same table as vladimir putin. that's when he went there, gave a speech, and was part of this entourage if you will, with the russian president. >> a banquet host and organized by rt, russia today. this russian broadcaster. and you have seen this picture. many of our viewers have seen this picture, sitting right next to the russian president there. and, of course, this is relevant not just in light of the payments and reporting requirements but this meeting happened as we now know russia was beginning to interfere in the u.s. election process. and the view of the u.s. intelligence agencies is that the intengss of russian interference over time became helping donald trump win the election. >> the question, though, that they are looking into congressman elijah cummings, among others, he obviously had

security clearance as a former director of the defense intelligence agency. retired lieutenant general. but when you get a new job as national security adviser to the president, you have to update your security clearances and part of the process is reporting income. especially income from foreign sources. so the question is, if he didn't report this income, would that have been a violation of that entire security clearance vetting process? >> it would be a violation of the law if he did not report that income on what's known as the sf-86. your security clearance form. a violation of the law. separate from that would be a violation of military guidelines and administrative issue, not a legal issue for the military, for the army, i should say, if he did not report that as well. this income from the foreign entity. two issues there. administrate of one and legal one. both of them significant. >> jim sciutto doing some reporting. thanks very much. i want to bring in someone in the house intelligence committee, indiana democratic

senator andre carson. you are just learning about this as all of us are, all of our viewers are to what we just heard jim sciutto reporting about the fired national security adviser, retired lieutenant general flynn. what's your reaction? >> well, i think this reaffirms what we thought before that there was inappropriate transaction taking place, or at least a transaction in which the general was not openly honest about. and i think with this regard, there are reporting requirements that he has to adhere to which clearly come into question. >> let's move on and talk about the president of the united states. he had some very interesting -- he says he has some very interesting items that will be coming to the forefront over the next two weeks to back up his assertion about wiretapping and president obama launching wiretapping on trump tower in new york city. he says he would be submitting that new information.

what do you know about this? >> well, i think one thing about this president, he is certainly entertaining. he's a showman. he's consistent. he has been consistent. it's unfortunate now that this red herring, this distraction technique has been taking the american people away from the issues at hand. that is, this administration's involvement with russia, and that is perhaps the kind of agenda that hurts the american people. under the affordable care act, 20 million more americans receive health care coverage. unprecedented. until this day, we have the most insured people that we've ever had in history. under the republican plan, the republican health care proposal, over 24 million americans stand to lose health care. and i think that mr. trump's assertions against president obama are simply a red herring technique. >> let me just be precise and we heard from the former director

of national intelligence, general clapper, a couple of weeks ago saying he hasn't seen any evidence to suggest there was collaboration between the trump campaign and russia as far as the hacking operations on the democratic party. have you seen any evidence at all? hard evidence, congressman, and you are a member of the intelligence committee, to make that assertion? >> i have not. which goes more deeply into why i'm concerned about president trump's acertion. i think it's unfortunate. i think it wreaks of paranoia and someone who is undisciplined. he could have gotten on the phone and called the acting director of our intelligence services. he could have called director comey to get confirmation, but he did not. he was impulsive. he tweeted that out. that kind of manner and way does not speak of someone who claims to be our commander in chief. and, unfortunately, it makes us the laughing stock to the entire world. >> a quick question.

you obviously get a lot of sensitive classified information as a member of the house intelligence committee. in that fox news interview last night, the president confirmed that the cia had been hacked. he used the word hacked. and you heard adam schiff the ranking member of the committee saying that's classified information. you aren't supposed to talk about that, but the president did confirm that the cia had been hacked. presidents can declassify whatever they want. did the president go too far in this specific case? >> i agree with ranking member schiff. absolutely. i think, again, it speaks to the impulsivity and manner in which mr. trump is carrying on. i think that mr. trump has proven himself to be temperamental. i think i would encourage him as well as his advisers to reel him back some. i think we live in a very hostile time. at least globally where this --

disclosing this type of information jeopardize ourselves national security and jeopardizes the men and women who work tirelessly around the clock to keep americans safe. >> let me get your reaction to these two federal judges who have now blocked the president's revised travel ban executive order. you have called it muslim ban 2.0. the white house says this is an issue of national security. not having this ban makes the u.s. look weak. is there any additional screening measure you would support? what's your reaction to the latest judicial setback for the president on his travel ban? >> there isn't any circumstance under which i would support muslim ban 1 nor 2. i commend the judges and the courts for pushing back. and i think what this says, it speaks to the vision of our founding fathers who were, in fact, complicated but set up three different branchs of government to act as check and balance. of course, the press and media acting as the fourth estate. these actions are

discriminatory, unconstitutional, unpatriotic and certainly un-american. >> very quickly, they point out the travel ban affects six muslim majority countries but most of the muslim world, including the largest muslim countries, are not impacted. your reaction to that? >> well, i think in many ways, i think it undermines our effort. i think it exacerbates the sentiment of islamophobia. i think it fuels the flames of an anti-immigrant sentiment. i have to remind people all the time, nearly 40% of our fortune 500 companies in this country are headed by immigrants. and so to undermine the very foundation upon which this country has been built, immigrants, it's to effectively dismantle america as we know it. and so what mr. trump is doing is he's hurting the relationships that we have. our national security partners, our international security partners, and he's fueling an

anti-american agenda and a terrorist agenda by doing these very acts. >> steve jobs' father was an immigrant from syria. that has been well pointed out over these past many months. all right. congressman andre carson, thanks for joining us. >> what an honor. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, the flintelligen community believes north korea will undertake a new round of nuclear testing. why the secretary of state rex tillerson says attempts to denuclearize the country may be a lost cause. we're going live to the region. anyone with type 2 diabetes knows how it feels to see your numbers go up, despite your best efforts. but what if you could turn things around? what if you could love your numbers? discover once-daily invokana®. it's the #1 prescribed sglt2 inhibitor that works to lower a1c. invokana® is a pill used along with diet and exercise to significantly lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. and in most clinical trials, the majority reached an a1c goal of 7 percent or lower.

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u.s. intelligence is picking up fresh and very concerning activity inside north korea right now. it's leading the defense department to believe that kim jong-un is preparing to launch a new round of missile testing. the news comes as the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson makes his first big trip to asia. he's in tokyo right now, just

across the sea of japan, from north korea. cnn's will ripley is joining us live from tokyo. you've been to north korea, what, ten times over the past few years. tell us what you're learning. what's secretary tillerson now saying where you are about north korea? >> here in tokyo, secretary tillerson giving his first press conference overseas saying the united states needs a new approach when it comes to north korea. he notably criticized the previous three administrations, democrats and republicans, over the way they've handled north korean policy. listen to what he said. >> the diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bring north korea to a point of denuclearization have failed. so we have 20 years of failed approach. >> he's making those comments at a time there is new intelligence.

satellites are showing activity on the ground at north korea's icbm launch site. also the potential for another nuclear test. the perfect storm right now which could lead to more provocative action. the military exercises between the u.s. and south korea happening right now. you have a major national holiday. their biggest of the year coming up in about a month. a time when north korea often likes to project power domestically and abroad. but yet what we're not hearing here in tokyo is specifics from secretary tillerson. how he actually plans with the trump administration and allies here in asia and around the world to slow north korea's nuclearizati nuclearization. >> we've been told president trump has been told and believes that north korea may be the gravest national security threat facing the united states right now. will ripley in tokyo, thanks for that report. coming up, budget backlash. the trump administration looks to boost defense by making major cuts to more than a dozen agencies. so what -- does it have a chance of passing? is it dead on arrival?

we'll discuss. also, health care, wiretapping, travel bans. those are just some of the topics that are likely to come up at today's white house press briefing. sean spicer will be briefing reporters shortly. we'll bring it to you live. ♪ (music plays throughout) ♪

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just moments ago, president trump left the u.s. capitol walking down the stairs with the irish prime minister, house speaker, congressman peter king over there. a lot of lawmakers wearing green ties today. the president was there to deliver remarks at the friends of ireland luncheon.

the event has become a st. patrick's day tradition dating back to 1983 in the reagan administration. the president there with the irish prime minister edna kenny. the press shouting questions. not many answered before walk away. >> mr. president, what are you going to do next with the immigration -- >> thanks, everybody, appreciate it. >> all right. there you have it. the president heading back to the white house. speaking of the white house, we're standing by for the white house press briefing set to get under way just a few minutes from now. one topic sure to come up, the president's new $1.5 trillion budget proposal which he calls a blueprint to make america great again. a big feature of that budget plan, a $54 billion increase in u.s. defense spending, paid for by stripping money from 19 other

agencies. some of the biggest cuts directed at the environmental protection agency, departments of labor and agriculture. here's how the director of the office of management and budget mick mulvaney described drafting the proposal. >> we came at it, wrote the budget by going through the president's speeches. going through the interviews he'd given and talking to him directly and finding out what his priorities were. we took those words, those policies, and turned them into numbers. >> let's discuss with our political commentator, washington correspondent for the new yorker magazine, ryan lizza and maya mcguinness, the president of the committee for responsible federal government. $1.1 trillion budget. that's what to correct the number. $1.1 trillion. this is a proposal made by the executive branch of the u.s. government to congress. they have to appropriate the money. >> that to right. they have to appropriate it. and this will be greeted with a lot of controversy up in congress. you have one wing of the

republican party like paul ryan and the people around him who will say, well, what about entitlements, medicare and social security? maya will say something about that, too. this doesn't touch that. and that's an absolute promise trump made during the campaign he'd not touch entitlements. puts him at odds with the more libertarian leaning republicans in congress. then on the other side you have big cuts at the state department and for international diplomacy and you have a lot of foreign policy hawks who like the defense increase but say, wait a second. if america is going to be strong in the world, you can't touch the state department in this way. and then the massive cuts in discretionary spending. a lot of programs for the poor. you'll have a lot of democrats who will complain about those cuts. and the one question for the white house is, how does this fit in -- how does this budget help the people that the trump victory was premised on? same question about the health care bills. how does it help the white working class base that trump

promises to be a champion of? that's the big question i have. >> how do you see it? >> the budget is supposed to be the whole fiscal picture of the entire government and where we're headed. both what we're going to do in the current year and where we're headed over the next decade. the thing about this budget, it's called a skinny budget because it's the president's first budget. it makes some very large changes to some very small parts of the budget. it increases defense spending, it pays for that by cutting domestic discretionary spending, but it doesn't say a word about taxes and doesn't say a word about infrastructure and it doesn't say a word about entitlement reform, which is going to be the key to getting the debt under control. what we do know is in the beginning of the budget, director mulvaney talks about how the debt is a crisis. and they are promising not to add to the deficit. not adding to the deficit is not going to get the debt under control, but the real concern is when you put out a full budget, something they'll do in a couple of months. how are these numbers going to add up? he's been talking about very

large tax cuts. more spending on infrastructure. not touching on entitlements. that adds up to a picture that makes the debt much worse. you'll get a lot of resistance on these individual cuts and have a fiscal picture that may be much worse. >> he can't do tax reform until the health care issue is resolved. that has to come first. >> and that's partly just through a very complicated parliamentary process, the way that they have ordered health care in the reconciliation instructions and then tax reform. so that's congressional budget process is very complicated. and they've ordered those two things. and they can't do tax reform until they do health reform dh which is why the timeline is so important. if that lags, the -- it's like it could be a whole train wreck with trump's legislative agenda. they won't ever get to tax reform. but as maya pointed out, there's a lot missing. trump has called for a trillion-dollar infrastructure

proposal. no information about what that would look like or how it would be paid for. the wall -- the border wall. >> he is asking for a few billion dollars to start construction of that border wall with mexico. >> yes, for this year, 2017, the budget would add to the deficit. they don't pay for the additional spending in this year n asking for more money for defense and more money for the wall. id i'd like to add another political challenge they'll have. the republicans have insisted their budgets achieve balance within a decade. you now have a situation where i don't see how they're probably going to get to balance. for the first time that their budget isn't just messaging, it's about governing, we don't have a picture of how those numbers are going to add up. it looks like this year the deficit would be worse under this budget. >> thanks maya and ryan as well. coming up, two travel ban defeats in federal courts. a health care plan in jeopardy. the obama wiretap controversy. a budget plan facing serious backlash. so what is the president going to do next? we're standing by for the white

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. the live pictures coming in once again from the white house. press secretary getting ready to hold the hearing. nick mulvaney will actually open up the briefing and talk and the president's proposed budget

which has just been released. in the meantime we're following developments including the second major defeat for the president on his travel plan and health care ban seemingly on life support and claim of the wiretapping, and the budget proposal that some are calling dead on arrival. also getting in breaking news very important breaking news from the senate intelligence committee. we're just learning that the select committee on intelligence chairman richard burr and mark warner made the following joint statement regarding evidence that trump tower in new york city was wiretapped during the 2016 election. let me read it. quote based on the information available to us, we see no indications that trump tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the united states government either before or after election day, 2016.

i want to bring in our political director david chalian. all right. the president is being firmly rejected by the republican chairman, ranking democrat on the intelligence committee saying he was totally wrong in those allegations he made nearly two weeks ago. the four tweets when he made these brutal accusations against president obama. >> look at the word you read, surveillance, they didn't specifically say wiretapping which the white house has been hung up on that word. this it is broadest rebuke of what donald trump claimed that we have seen to date. and we heard from the house intelligence chairman devin nunes, ranking member adam schiff, now the both democrat and republican there in a very strong broad wording here that basically there was no surveillance of trump tower. >> no wiretapping. the president admits himself in

his binterview with fox news >> but that's not what he initially said. >> no, terrible, just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower just before the victory. nothing found. this is mccarthyism. at 6:49 a.m. is it legal for a sitting president to be tapping a race prior to an election turned on by a court order, a new low. i bet a lawyer could make a great case -- how low has president obama gone to tap my phones during the sacred election process, this is nixon water gate bad, sick guy. >> now richard burr of north carolina, the ranking democrat of virginia mark warner based on

the information available to us we see no indications that trump tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the united states government either before or after election day 2016. >> what a rebuke of the president coming the day after his interview last night in which he doubled down on his accusations >> right. yesterday on fox he was still trying to worm his way out of the lie about wiretapping in that word saying you're going to see in next couple weeks, so you surveillance more broadly, remember these two senators, house members we heard from yesterday. that's half of what we call in washington the gang of eight. the people briefed with utmost intelligence, so these are full authorities on this. they are providing a path to the president where he can no longer justify not retracting those tweets. apologizing for accusing barack

obama of a crime, the white house is in such a pickle. the president looked like a third grader in that interview yesterday trying to squirm out of a lie. >> let me play the clip. this is the interview in which he doubled down on his accusations in the fox news interview. let me play that excerpt. >> on march 4th, 6:35 in the morning you're down in florida and tweet the former administration wiretapped me, surveilled me at trump tower during the last election how did you find out? >> i was reading i think january 20thth "the new york times" article about wiretapping. i think they used that exact term. i read other things, watched your friend bret baier where he was talking about certain very complex sets of things happening

and wiretapping. i said wait a minute there's a lot of wiretapping being talked about. i've been seeing a lot of things. for the most part i'm not going to discuss it because we have it before the committee and we will be submitting things before the committee soon. that hasn't been submitted as of yet. >> so 51,000 people retweeted that, they thought that was plausible, they believe you, you're in charge of the intelligence agency. every intelligence agency reports to you, why not go to them? >> because i don't want to violate strength of an agency. we have enough problems. >> the president could simply say i made a mistake, i want to apologize for smearing him the way i did. let's move on. we're not hearing that.

>> we're not hearing that. it's just not okay for the president of the united states to make this unsubstantiated claim. obamacare repeal and replace, getting this travel ban through courts, getting his nominee neil gorsuch on the supreme court. there's no end to the list of things he should be focussing on and pushing through on his agenda and this is a complete distraction from that. >> do you see he could potentially do what i just said a lot of his supporters would maybe like him to do and go against the grain of his normal activity and apologize publicly to the former president? >> if past is prologue, that's not normally what we get from donald trump. apologizing for things doesn't seem to be in his vernacular much. >> the accusations in the four tweets were very, very tough accusations.

>> a reminder we're standing by for the white house press briefing. the news continues right now with brooke baldwin. all right. here we go. top of the hour, brooke baldwin you're watching cnn. you have been looking at live pictures from the briefing room at the white house. sean spicer will be stepping behind the podium, we'll take it live. he has a lot to answer to today. the cup runneth over is one way you can put it. multiple fronts including the revised travel ban rejected by the courts again. his party's health care plan is peril. budget blueprint is turning washington on its head and two major headlines came out first the joint statement from the senate intelligence committee about the president acuting

former president obama of wiretapping him quoting both the chairman and co-chair here senators burr and warner quote based on the information available to us we see no indications that trump tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the united states government either before or after election day 2016. that's a big deal. number two this piece of breaking news serious new questions about whether president trump revealed classified information on television. that concern is coming from the top democrat on the house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff, democrat referring to an interview that the president just gave which appears to acknowledge the cia was hacked. all of this is out there right now as we're waiting for shawn spice to spice -- spicer to step behind the