reporting for us as he always does. thanks very much. to our viewers, thanks so much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett out front" starts right now. next, the breaking news, trump stands alone. tom republicans and democrats say there's no proof of his wiretapping claim, the white house digging in on the accusation, citing the media as proof. and nikki haley is out front defending the travel ban and her boss. and will veterans be taking the brunt of trump's budget cuts? let's go "out front." good evening. i'm erin burnett. we begin with the breaking news. president donald trump stand alone. congressional leaders giving strong rebukes of wiretapping, paul ryan saying no such wiretap existed, a quote, and the top republican and the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee came out jointly and said there are no indications

that trump tower was under surveillance by any element of the united states government. tallas top house democrat telling cnn he thinks co s jame comey will debunk trump's wire tam allegation in front of the house committee on monday. despite all of this, and two major republicans standing up and saying this didn't happen, the white house spokesperson, sean spicer, is unyielding. >> are you saying that the president still stands by his allegation that president obama ordered wiretapping or surveillance of trump tower despite the fact that the senate intelligence committee says they see no indication it happened? >> first of all, he stands by it, but you're mischaracterizing what happened today. >> spicer refused to say whether trump was relying on classified information to base his claims, instead pointed repeatedly to news reports. >> "the new york times" reported the following -- sean hannity

went on fox days after the election, heat street reported, andy mccarthy, sara carter from circa reporting. >> jeff zeleny begins our coverage at the white house. the president seems to be boxed in on this. it is not a small thing when the house speaker, when the chairman of the senate intelligence committee come out, members of his own party and say what he said happened did not happen. >> reporter: he seems to be boxed in by the facts on this. you're right about the republicans. they said, look, this didn't happen. they said that only after they were briefed by fbi and other intelligence officials here. remember nearly two weeks ago, it was the president himself who asked for congress to weigh in on this in the first place. now they are but not in his favor. president trump is even more isolated tonight in his substantiated claim president obama was spying on him at trump tower after saying this to fox news wednesday night -- >> wiretap covers a lot of different things. i think you're going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the

next two weeks. >> reporter: the leaders of the senate intelligence committee for the first time said they see no evidence to support the president's assertion. 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. senators richard burrito, a republican, and mark warner, a democrat, said in a joint statement. at the white house and bipartisan assessment sent press secretary sean spicer into a frenzied string of explanations for something increasingly indefensible. he had this exchange with our jim acosta. >> you were just quoting sean hannity there. the house and senate intelligence committees -- >> i also quoted -- you're going to cherry-pick -- >> you're citing sean hannity in a -- >> you also tend to overlook all the other sources. because i know you want to cherry-pick it. no, no, but you do. but where was your concern about "the new york times" reporter?

you didn't seem to have a concern are with that. >> we have done plenty of reporting on all of this. >> you want to cherry-pick one piece of commentary. >> -- associates of the president to the russians, has all been looked at. >> how do you know all this? how do you seem to be such an expert in this? >> i'm saying this has been looked at, sean. >> how do you know? hold on. >> reporter: for nearly two weeks the president's wiretapping claim has hung over the white house like a storm cloud. as one congressional leader after another has discounted it. speaker paul ryan added his voice again today to the list of skeptics. >> intelligence communities in their continuing widening investigation of all things russia got to the bottom, at least so far, with respect to our intelligence community that no such wiretap existed. >> reporter: the white house says the president still stands behind his wiretapping accusations and he acknowledged learning it from conservative news sites not the intelligence agencyings at his disposal. >> i said there's a lot of wiretapping being talked about.

i've been seeing a lot of things. >> reporter: but none of those things has added up to any evidence. he asked congress to investigate and now the answer has been the same from both parties and both sides of capitol hill. it's all heading toward a full boil next week when fbi director james comey is called to testify before congress. adam schiff, the tom democrat on the house intelligence committee, told manu raju he expects him to defwung wiretapping claim. >> he should be able to put that to rest. >> he'll say no, the president was not wiretapped? >> i do because there's no evident of this at all. >> reporter: congressman schiff said the fbi director would be able to put an exclamation point on all of this, then he said the ball is back in the president's court to explain what he believes is a baseless accusation. we'll see if that happens here after that hearing next monday. >> thank you very much, jeff.

you saw manu raju at the end of that piece. he had a chance to speak to the house intelligence committee chairman. what is the chairman telling you? >> reporter: he's stand big what he said yesterday, which is i don't believe that trump tower was wiretapped under the orders of barack obama. even as sean spicer continued to dig in. spicer today also pointed to a statement that devin nunes made yesterday suggesting it was quote, possible there was some surveillance that incidentally picked up some communications of the president. now, i asked him, is there any evidence of that? he said no. take a listen. you said yesterday "i don't believe" your words. i don't believe. >> i don't believe that the president ordered a physical wiretap of trump tower. >> reporter: and what do you make of the -- >> it's a physical wiretap or other surveillance activities, which is the question. we want to make sure no surveillance activities were used for political purposes.

>> reporter: do you have any evidence to suggest that any incidental collection may have picked up donald trump's communications at all? do you have any evidence to suggest that? >> other than general flynn, we don't. >> so he's referring to the former national security adviser michael flynn, who had to resign after those contacts with the russian ambassador were picked up and later leaked to the press. but clearly saying there, erin, that, no, he has not seen any evidence to suggest that president trump's communications were picked up as part of broader surveillance and that's what trump was using to defend himself saying perhaps they're looking into it, perhaps nunes raising that specter but making it clear, he's seen no evidence yet, another suggestion or signal the white house is increasingly isolated in the response to this. >> thank you very much, manu. now to our senior political analyst prmark preston and the rest of our panel.

mark, i think manu raises a key point. the president said wiretapping in his tweets. we heard from the top democrat on the intelligence committee that did not happen. trump trying to broaden that to any sort of surveillance, you're now also hearing they along with devin nunes, chairman of the house intelligence side and of course adam schiff, they don't see any evidence of that either. >> right. one more it to, jeff sessions said yesterday in richmond, virginia, he himself as attorney general had never briefed donald trump on any kind of wiretapping allegations that donald trump, president trump, had made a couple weeks ago. what's problematic for the president is that he does seem to be in an island of his own. this wasn't something that had leaked out of the white house that they thought, you know, had happened to president trump. this came directly from president trump. this was a saturday morning, this was him on twitter. and how he went about it is very

unconventional and very reckless in many ways, erin. so, look, at the end of the day, it's the issue of credibility and i think right now that it's starting to erode a little bit for the president. >> jeff, let me ask you, right, in the exchange we saw between jim acosta and sean spicer, jim acosta was saying the heads of the intelligence committee on the senate, democrat and republican, have been briefed by the fbi and they say there is no evidence. donald trump and in this case it was sean spicer, his proxy, is saying that it's media reports the president is citing. here's how spice spice pean spi. >> i've been reading about things. i think january 20th "the new york times" article they were talking about wiretapping. there was an article. i think they used that exact term. i read other things. i think if you watch -- if you watched the bret baier and what he was saying and talking about and how he mentioned the word wiretap, you would feel confident you could mention the name. >> jeff, how does all this add

um? the fbi is saying it didn't happen. he's citing specific media reports. all i can do is speak for cnn, which we have reported that there were russians that may have been caught up in surveillance that were being surveilled and if they happened to talk to someone related to trump that may have been picked up. that is all we have ever reported. >> right. erin, i have to say i think there's a wild disagreement here. minutes before i came on i heard from a cnn viewer who was livid and believe it's not the president that's isolated but the media that's isolated. the question is you did -- it was just a great job letting sean spicer run on and you showed most of entire clip, and he asked the same thing i'm hearing from people here and they've raised in a separate column. i mean, one column after another, one news story after another has quoted government sources saying that there were ties from the trump campaign to the russians. where did that information come from? >> right.

it could have come from surveillance of russian nationals, which is what we have reported may have had happened. no one has ever said there was a surveillance of donald trump or anyone related to him or trump tower, which is the only thing donald trump, jeff, has said happened. >> erin, the implication repeatedly has been that donald trump or his campaign had ties to the russians, which, in turn, influenced the election, which in turn cost hillary clinton the election. that's the narrative. and i can tell you, i mean, there are people out there that just simply don't believe it. they believe this is a put-up job. they do not think the president is alone. they're with him. >> what do you say, juliet? >> well, look, there's two different issues and i think jeffrey is sort of purposefully merging them all together to avoid the reality that trump made up a tweet and everyone knows it was now made up. no one's seen any evidence of it, even one of his transition chair people has said there's no evidence of it. the second issue is the one that we ought to all be focused on of

course, which is whether how and why and to what extent did russia interfere with our election. we've been distracted for ten days and while we've been distracted for ten days, both our enemies and our allies are taking notice. just for one example. sean spicer in his attempt to sort of unwind whatever it is that was wound up throws the british intelligence agency under the bus and says, well, we heard they were possibly spying on trump. that required them to come out. our greatest ally, our supporter, and saying it wasry tick louse. this is having impacts well beyond the e-mails that people might be getting supporting or not supporting trump. the world is watching and let's just say it's not a very good show for the united states. >> steve, there have been multi. calls now for the president to retract his tweets, right, and no evidence, and i'm sure now he'll say let's see what comey

has to say specifically. but the heads of the intelligence committees have said the fbi have given them nothing specific. and there are other republicans saying he should retract. here they are. >> president trump must provide proof or evidence to s substantiate that claim. if he cannot, then he should retract. >> i think you ought to walk it pack if the evidence doesn't support the charge you made. in this case, i don't think it does. >> i think the president has one of two choices. either retract or to provide the information that the american people deserve. >> of course no indication he would ever do anything like this. what is the reaction? what do you think the russians make of all this? is this something that makes them jump up and down? >> yes. in short. the russianings must be extremely pleased with what started as a multipronged attempted influence on our

elections, which apparently they had some says at from the intelligence community has gone on for several months and now we have a democracy, both sides questioning each other, a lot of questions surrounding the president himself, involvement, scandal with the intelligence communities. this is all way above and beyond what the russians would have hoped for. but i think juliet got it exactly right. it seems to me all of this, whether we're talking about the potential for leaks or wiretapping or other surveillance, all of this serves to draw our attention and perhaps more importantly resources away from what ought to be the key question, was there any contact, cooperation, or collusion with the trump campaign and the russian government. that's the key question that i think we're -- he's trying to distract us from at this point. >> and there has been quite a bit of distraction from that. thank you all. next, bogus claims and broken promises. donald trump has said quite a few times that something happened and we'll find out about it in a few days or a few weeks. when do we take him at his word?

>> if i decide to run for office, i'll produce my tax returns, absolutely. i would love to do that. >> love to do that. plus the u.n. ambassador nikki haley, she is out front tonight. her reaction to her boss' wiretapping claims. and the president loves mickie d's, but does mcdonald's love him back? could save money on car insurance.nce you know, the kind of driver who always buckles up... comes to a complete stop...

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you're smart. you already knew that. but it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is, and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. now you're even smarter. this is truecar. following breaking news, the white house doubling down on the claim that former president obama illegally wiretapped trump tower. press secretary sean spicer insisting the president stands by the allegation and he'll eventually be proven right. multiple congressional heeders are saying there's no evidence at this time to support the claim. here's what's interesting about this. what trump did coming out on a saturday morning and saying thee things happened and then saying you'll see what will come out in next couple weeks, it will be really interesting. we have seen this in the past. in fact, it is a very distinct pattern for this president.

tom foreman is "out front" to show you. >> reporter: the fuse on the explosive wiretapping claim was lit by a flurry of tweets. just found out that obama had my wires tapped. this is nixon watergate, a new low. yet skeptical lawmakers pressing the president for details, he has waffled. >> i've been reading about things. i read in i think it was january 20th, a "new york times" article, where they were talking about wiretapping. i think you'll find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks. >> reporter: it's a pattern. in the election just weeks before the vote when many polls showed him traili ining he said >> the election is rigged, rigged like you've never seen before. >> reporter: he produced no evidence, yet when hillary clinton took the popular vote he flung out another unsubpoena ported claim. in addition to winning the electoral college in a landslide, i won the popular

vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally. on his tax returns, for years he promised he would release them. in may 2014 -- >> if i decide to run for office i'll produce my tax returns, absolutely. and i would love to do that. >> reporter: in february 2016. >> when are you going to release your tax returns? >> probably over the next few months. it's being worked on right now. >> reporter: and a few months later he said hopefully -- >> before the election, i'll release them. >> reporter: now he says he's under audit and can't. an explanation many tax experts find mysterious, questionable, and unsupported by the law. on barack obama's citizenship. >> why doesn't he show his birth certificate? >> reporter: for years trump implied obama was hiding something. then when the birth certificate appeared, a new substantiated claim came with it. an extremely credible source has called my office and told me that barack obama's birth certificate is a fraud. he said muslim crowds in america

celebrated on 9/11. >> and i watched in jersey city, new jersey, with thousands of thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. >> reporter: he hinted at scandal in the election, tweeting he had spilled the beans on ted cruz's wife and tarring cruz's father too. >> all i did is point out the fact that on the cover of the "national enquirer" there's a picture of her -- him and crazy lee harvey oswald having breakfast. >> reporter: why headlines and outrage and days of furious debates followed all of these incendiary claims, one thing never has -- real, credible, official proof in any of these cases. erin? >> tom, thank you. "out front" now, former missouri secretary of state and former republican senator from pennsylvania rick santorum. jeffrey lord is back with me. senator santorum, usually on

this show, you know, you endorsed trump early when you got out of the race. you have often come on to defend him. can you defend him only these things, you know, when he comes out and says something happened? and then he says wait till you see what happens, a couple weeks you'll see some interesting things, then we never do, and in none of these instances did what he said turn out to be true. can you defend that? >> let's set aside the issue of the wiretap and the president says there's more evidence to come out and so we'll wait and see what that evidence is. but clearly this was an attack that he launched against the president on the issue of wiretapping that was effective in changing the narrative out there. as we've seen from a lot of -- this previous report, i had marvelled at his ability to be able to put his opponent on defense, change the subject and change the attitude of election and take advantage of that

situation. here's the problem that i see for president trump. we're not in an election anymore and it's not his opponent he's throwing off. i think it's him he's throwing off. i'm someone who is a strong believer in the trump message. i loved hi budget address. i think he's absolutely right on with the policies that we need for this country. and i'm someone who would like to see him not try to work to throw off his opponent which in this case he has no opponent, and who he's hurting is not a rival, he's hurting himself, because he's now the president and it doesn't matter whether he blames barack obama or not. people don't care about barack obama anymore. they care about one person. they care about the president. and he's the president. and so i just would hope that he would look at taking advantage of the popular positions that he's taken op immigration and on trade and on taxes and obamacare and drive those things home and keep his administration focused on that. >> jeff, he's not doing that and

he can't blame that on the media. he's the one who woke up at 6:05 or 6:35, i don't remember which, in the morning, and sent out all these tweets about wiretapping. it's just one example. he's the one who does these things. no one else does this to him, jeff. >> right. on the wiretapping situation, obviously i think he's right. i think he was surveilled. either that or there's -- i mean, i would be delydedly low tech and there may well be the kind of hacking going on here that's above my pay grade that makes everybody seem like they're being done in by somebody else when in fact there's still somebody else involved. >> i don't want to make this be all about wiretapping. the fbi is saying it didn't happen. the former dni chief is saying it didn't happen. yet people like you are still coming on and saying you think it happened. based on why? >> based on "the new york times"

and "the washington post" and the guardian in the uk and the bbc. i am reading these stories all the time. >> saying based on intercepted communications. take michael flynn. that was an intercepted communication of the russian ambassador. we know who that was. that was not a trump associate. >>, but how did that make it way to the media and for what purpose? >> what does it have to do with an -- i don't want to make this all about wiretapping. jason, let me ask you. when this happens, when the president is pressed to substantiate, when he says something happened, the birth certificate or anything else, he very often says others have said or others have suggested, basically it wasn't me. let me play some examples. >> there's this doubt. people have doubt. again, this was not my suggestion. i didn't bring this up. >> you yourself calling him a racist? >> no. hefls called that by the obama campaign. he was called it loud and clear. he was extremely insulted. >> why did you put him in your tweet if you don't believe it? >> they said it. i didn't say it. >> you know, the president's

thinking about signing an executive order where he wants to take your guns away. you hear this one. but he said that's what he's thinking about. i didn't say he's citing it. i've heard it from numerous networks and read it in the papers. my source is the papers, so they're pretty good sources. >> first of all, the fake news, thinks the papers are pretty good sources. the jokes aside, his defenses don't suit the messenger. can that keep working for him? >> well, the messenger is him and he just keeps lying so i certainly hope not. put the politics of this aside, the president just keeps lying. he's done this about every week. we give you two really practical reasons that aren't about politics, not about democrat or republican, why that matters to us as americans. the first is if the president keeps doing this, then it's going to really hurt his credibility with the american people and the reason we care about that is because the president has the responsibility of delivering really important news. what happens when president trump has to go on tv and change the threat level or say that

there's a very specific terrorist threat that we need to look for and we're not sure that he's telling the truth. that makes us less safe. a second really practical reason, we're all out here trying to raise kids who tell the truth. and when you're sending your kid to school, you know, to elementary school where he would get in trouble for doing what the president is doing and turns and says, well, the president does it, i mean, he's a role model. >> what do you say that to, senator santorum, especially the credibility issue, that some point people may not believe him when it's very important that they do. as you remember pointing out i guess even in selling the core message you believe in that he may lose power in doing that and leverage because of these other things. >> look, i think these are all legitimate points. i have to say that, you know, i'd like to see the president come out there and talk about what he knows not what he's read in the paper. i understand you read things in the paper. i see things on tv. but when you're the pilotresidef

the united states, the asum sgs you have better information than what's in the "national enquirer" or even the "new york times," which in some cases are similar publications. i'd like to see the president talk more about what he knows, what he's been briefed on and stick to those things that are really much more in line with what a president would be talking about. >> i'll leave it there. >> quit making stuff up. >> thank you all. of course we'll be back to discuss this. next, our big interview, the u.n. ambassador nikki haley speaking with me, telling me what it is like to work for donald trump right now. >> he doesn't tell me what to say. i don't have to take directives. >> you'll see that full interview next. and one group of people who could feel a major impact from trump's budget cuts. military vets. not the group you were expecting me to say, right? i'm not talking about the endowment for the arts or public broadcasting. i'm talking about vets.

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tonight our rare interview with the ambassador to the united nations and the former governor of nikki haley is out front. i sat down with her moments ago. we talked about trump and russia, north korea, and the travel ban which she initially opposed. but the top meb members of the senate intelligence committee saying there's no evidence trump was wiretapped by the trump administration. i asked if it was a mistake for the president to make this claim with no evidence of it being true. >> well, erierin, i haven't hea any of that news until just awe few minutes ago so i'm not sure about the facts in terms of what that is. we always said an investigation needed to be done and once the facts came out the answer would be there. so certainly that's what i'm going to go back and look and i think we need to look at the facts and the testimony and see what happens. >> so, if it turns out that what they say, the democrat and republican leaders, say the

true, there was no wiretapping, no surveillance, then what the president tweeted with not true and it sort of started this wild goose chase and was baseless. will that hurt you? because his credibility hurt is yours. >> that's not going to hurt me. what you're seeing is the united states is in an interesting position. on one side we're coming out very strong, everyone at the united nations knows, you know, that there's a new trump administration in town and they're responding positively. one, that we have the backs of our allies, making sure we have it strongly, and two calling out things that are wrong. if the president goes and thinks something has happened and goes out and puts it out there, the goal is to make sure that the investigation happens, make sure we find out the facts. the if it happened, deal with it, if it didn't happen, deal with it. i think that's what he's doing. >> but i get to this point, if it didn't happen, then you can pick the word you want to use, it was untrue, it was false, he lied, whatever it might be, but that makes people wonder the next time he says something

happened, maybe it didn't happen. that is a hit to credibility, isn't it? >> i understand that, but he'll answer for that. you know, he know what is made him put the tweet out there so i think he'll answer to that. >> your view on russia and that of president trump has differed at times. when he was asked about putin being a killer in an interview, he said there are a lot of killers, you think our country is so innocent? that's a quote from him. putin's russia as we know kills dissidents, kills journalists. he's called putin smart. you have said unequivocally, you've been defin tich about this, the united states cannot trust russia. is the president being naive? >> i would never say that the president is naive or even imply what he knows or what he thinks on those -- i co-know that he's very aware of the things i've said. he is not in any way told me not to say them or in any way said you need to work with russia.

so the way we look at russia the way we look at every other country. if we see something that's wrong, like their involvement with crimea and ukraine or we see something like them supporting and not fighting the chemical weapons situations in syria, we're going to call them out on it. but if we see where we can work with them on issues like isis, we absolutely are going to do that. it's not about are they a friend or a foe. it's how can we find them to be a friend when we need them and when they're a foe, we'll stay true to american values and call them out on it. >> are you concerned, ambassador, trump himself or the trump campaign could be compromised in any way by relations with russians known to u.s. intelligence as these investigations are looking at? >> i have no reason to be. i know that everybody else wants to talk about it, but there's nothing that's been krpg to con to me at all. i know ambassadors do what ambassadors do, go and talk to everyone and try and communicate their stances as much as possible. that's part of doing your job. i haven't seen anything or heard anything that would imply

otherwise. >> i want to ask you about the other news, the breaking news here, the travel ban, supposed to be in effect today as you know. it was blocked. you came out and said it's not a muslim ban, specifically referring to the second new travel ban. two judges say that it is, and one cited specific xhecomments part of the reason. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. i think islam hates us. >> the whole history of it. when he first announced it he said muslim ban. he called me up, said put a commission together, show me the right way to do it legally. >> when then candidate trump proposed a muslim ban, you were vocal, called it un-american and unconstitutional. why do you believe the intent has changed from what these statements say when judges say these are admissible? >> first of all, the daughter of indian immigrant parents, i would never support a muslim travel ban. i would never support a ban

that, you know, labels people based on their religion. what i will support and what i do support is what the president's intention is, which is -- and i saw this as governor -- can we vet these people properly before we allow them to come into the united states. and as governor i saw that in many cases we couldn't, and if you've seen my record, we stopped them from coming in or attempted to stop them from coming in. the president has a genuine concern about the safety of american citizens. that's what you want your president to have a concern of. all he said was he wanted to do a temporary stop and he wanted his administration to prove to him that they were doing all they could to vet. there's not one u.s. citizen that should question that, because we know the terror in the world, we know the threats in the world. we want to make sure we'ring to everything we can to protect people in this country. >> so you believe that he has changed his view. >> in my conversations with him as well as with other officials, in no way have they ever implied

this was a travel ban. in every way they have said we have to protect the american people, how do we know for sure that we're not allowing any terrorists or threats in. >> and do you have concern, if it was really about that it would have targeted countries, let's just say, where the 9/11 bombers came from, egypt or saudi arabia or lebanon or the united arab emirates, none of which are on this list, does that worry you? >> i think what you want to talk about is this narrative of a muslim ban, if he really wanted to do a muslim ban, there would be a dozen other countries on the list. and indonesia is mostly muslim. none of them are on the list. so if that was his intent, the list would have been a lot longer. he went by factual basis where is the threat, where are the terrorist threats that we have, and where to we have the least information on the people from that country. that's how it was chosen. it's all about terrorist threat and it's not like we're not seeing those threats across the world. he's just trying to get in front of it to stom any chance that something could happen. >> i want to move to asia.

the secretary of state rex tillerson is there right now. particularly talking about north korea. and he called for a new approach to north korea. his words specifically, ambassador, were, the diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bring north korea to a point of denuclearization have failed. there have been six rounds of sanctions since 2006 against north korea. there have been five nuclear tests over that time frame. has diplomacy failed? >> i think what you can look at is north korea has not budged on anything, so we have to take a new approach. what i will tell you is we are taking north korea very seriously. it is a top priority that when you look at the fact that north korea over the last year fired 24 -- did 24 ballistic missile tests, two nuclear tests, you have to question. and then on top of, that does multiple ballistic tests at the same time and you've got the assassination of his brother, you have to call into question what will work and what can't. i think what you're seeing secretary tillerson do is go and

talk to south korea and let them know that we have their back, go and talk to japan and let them know that we need to work together and continue to be the allies that we've been, and then go to china and say, okay, what more do they need to do for you to be -- to consider them a threat? and at this point, this is number one priority for the united states and we're going to do something about it. >> you're saying number one priority, which fits with what john brennan told me last fall, this would be the number-one issue facing ip coming president. indeed we know that it is. but what is this new approach? knowing that china is the key to this is not new. what is new? is a pre-ememptive strike ohmly the table? >> i know everybody wants just one action that happens. this is about showing that we're serious in the united states about north korea. this is about showing we're not about talking anymore and we need other countries, specifically china and russia, to step up and show us that they are as concerned as north korea, you know, as we are. and so we're going to call on

them to act. that's what this is all about, calling them to act and see exactly do they think it's a threat or not, and then we will plan our decision based on what they do. >> so if they don't, if it isn't satisfactory, then a preemptive strike is on the table? >> i would never do a hypothetical, but i would tell you all options are on the table. >> let me ask you, have you spoken to, do you have a relationship at all with the north korean envoy here at the u.n.? >> i do not. >> not at all. no meetings or anything. would you meet with him? >> not until they do something positive. you know, we're not seeing any positive actions come out of north korea. and so i can meet with them, but all they're going to do is continue to show through their actions that they're not listening to anyone. so at this point it's reason why we don't want to get back into the six-party talks. we're not willing to do that. been there, done that, and it hasn't worked. what we're saying now is you have a decision to make. we're going to talk to china and find out what their decision is.

we'll talk to russia and find out what their decision is. at the end of the day, north korea has to show some sort of positive action that they take our thoughts seriously in order for us to move forward. >> during the campaign, you had a contentious relationship with trump. here you both are. >> every time someone criticizes him he makes a political attack back. that's not who we are as republicans. >> she's very weak on illegal immigration. you can't have that. >> donald trump is everything we hear and teach our kids not to do in kindergarten. >> nikki haley, who backed the wrong horse -- >> mr. trump has definitely contributed to what i think is irresponsible talk. >> i've given her tremendous contributions over the years but i guess now that i'm running she doesn't like me quite as much. >> ambassador, how often do you talk to president trump now? >> pretty often. i'm in d.c. quite a bit, whether it's in meetings, we had lunch week before last, me, him, and

the vice president. we're constantly in communication. and you know what i'll tell you, e've always been true to myself and when i see something wrong, i call it out, regardless of who it is. he knows that about me. we were friends before the election. he was a supporter before the election. >> as he pointed out he donated you money. >> yes. but he also knew i stood strong for what i believed in. as that political play happened we said what we thought. at the end of the day, i can tell you the number one thing we both want to see is a successful united states, a strong united states, and one that leads genl. and so we have a great working roim. what i am thrilled about is he allows me to do my job. he doesn't tell me what to say. i don't have to take directives. i am part of a group that makes decisions on how we're going to go about doing things forward. he's been unbelievably supportive of the job i've done. >> have you changed your view? when you said donald trump is

everything we teesm our kindergarten kids not to do. do you not feel that way anymore? >> what i was referring to is tone. tone matters. having said that, his tone is his tone. his mannerisms are his mannerisms. but his actions are solid. and that's what i appreciate about him. is he's always been about action and that's what i want to see happen. >> do you want him to get off twitter? >> i think he's if he's on twitter. i'm on twitter. for us, it's important to have that communication with the public. he feels like he needs to have that communication with the public. so, you know, you're not going to stop him from tweeting any more than you'll stop me from tweeting. it's another way to get the news out, and if he feels hike he's not getting the proper things out in the news, he's going to go out and tweet it. so until the relationship's mended between the media and the president, you're going to continue to see him tweet his own news. >> do you think he understands the significance, though, of his

tweets? talking about the wiretapping. he tweets that out and that is false. that was a lie. does he understand the harm that that can do to himself, to his own administration? >> he would never knowingly lie. i can honestly say that's not his intention. he's trying to let the public know what's going. it's great that you have a president community kite caiting directly with the people. he's worried people won't find out what he's think organize believes so he tells them. >> the canadian prime minister justin trudeau was here. you went to a broadway show with him and ivanka trump, "come from away." you were there last night. do you and ivanka trump have a close working relationship? moo we do. yes. we respected each other before. we work well now. same with jared kushner.

i respect both of them tremendous tremendously. >> thanks for your time. >> i appreciate it. >> the u.n. ambassador nikki haley. next, are military veterans in danger of losing their jobs? why? president trump's budge it. we'll explain. >> we can't spend money on programs just because they sound good. >> and why was a feet 2013 from the official mcdonald's account making fun of trump's hand size? jeanne moos on a possible mac hack attack on the potus. knows how it feels to seees 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.

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tonight the trump administration defending budget cuts to nearly every agency saying the proposed budget puts taxpayers first. >> we can't spend money on programs just because they sound good regarding the question as to climate change, i think the president was fairly straightforward. we're not spending money on that anymore. we consider that to be a waste of your money. >> up with group fearing for their jobs, though, in some cases military vets. rene marsh is out front. >> reporter: air force veteran frank has worked at the epa for six years, but tonight he fears he could soon be unemploymented. president donald trump's proposed bunl it calls for slashing 3,200 jobs at the epa and military veterans could make up a big chunk of the cuts.

>> if you slash the budget unilaterally as it's been proposed you're going to have a detrimental effects to veterans. >> reporter: while in the air force he won't to war in kosovo in 1999. today at the epa he says he fights a different battle as a water quality analyst. veterans account for almost a third of the 2 million federal workers. in 2015, more than 1,200 employees at the epa for veterans. >> when military leave service and are looking to get jobs out in the civilian sector, one of the places they look to acquire a job is with the federal workforce. >> reporter: that's because the federal government prioritizes hiring veterans. while on the trail, trump repeatedly pledged his support for vets. >> we're going to take care of the vets, believe me. we must also do more to help our veterans find jobs. >> reporter: critics of the cuts say those statements don't square with the proposed budget. >> they're not going to be

spared. i see veterans being cut from every agency and department. >> reporter: at the housing and urban development agency, trump wants to eliminate a program proponents say has been vital in reducing homelessness amongst veterans. the office of management and budget calls the program ineffective and proposes boosting spending for the veterans administration. dan caldwell with conservative leaning concerned veterans for america says the budget makes veterans a priority. >> people using veterans as shields to basically try and block any cuts in wasteful spend big saying this will harm veterans because veterans work in the federal government is disingenuous. >> reporter: asked whether vets would be spared from the cuts an epa official told cnn in an e-mail, quote, the blueprint is a proposal. there are many steps left in the budget process including congressional action. little solace for vets like frank. >> even though it's not been identified, certain programs are

going to get cut that are going above and beyond what is already being stip late sod the potential is always there for any of our jobs to be cut. >> reporter: trump took to twitter a few hours ago tweeting his commitment for veterans saying, quote, we will rebuild our military,wy will keep our people safe, we will take care of our vets. i spoke to several veterans no work inside these federal agencies and they say they don't feel taken care of when they see this proposed budget. that says it it is important to remember it is a proposed budget, it still needs to pass through congress, and there are items in the overall proposal that even his own republicans won't go for. >> all right, renay. thank you. on a much lighter note, mcdonald's twitter account hijacked at the expense of the president. was it the hamburglar or a hacker? here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: like salt on a wound, there was nothing sweet about this mctweet from

mcdonald's. @realdonaldtrump, you are actually a disgusting excuse of a president and we would have love barack obama back. also, you have tiny hands. this to a guy who's been photographed eating mcdonald's who knows the menu. >> what did donald trump order? >> fish fillet sometimes. the big macs are great, the quarter pounder with cheese. >> reporter: the tweet lasted only about 20 minutes before mcdonald's deleted it, later posting twitter notified us our account was compromised, hacked by an external source. a mchack attack. seth myers tweeted, clown on clown crime. someone else made the donald resemble ronald mcdonald. was the culprit the hamburglar or perhaps rival burger king? while the president probably wasn't lovering it, this guy may have been. barack obama was photoshopped into the president's meal

asking, too much special sauce? trump supporters suggested a boycott. once it became known the account was compromised there were mostly jokes. in fairness, trump's hands make their regular cheeseburger look like a big mac. do my hands make my burger look big? to think the president once did a mcdonald's commercial -- >> big and tasty for just a dollar. how do you do it? what's your secret? >> reporter: guess who has to clean up this whole mcdonald's pr mess? former obama press secretary robert gibbs, who is now global chief communications officer for mcdonald's. what does the president like about mcdonald's? >> at least you know what you're getting. i don't want to go into a restaurant and say mr. trump would like a hamburger to go. i don't know what they're going to do to that hamburger. if they like me, i'm happy. >> reporter: at least his hamburger didn't get spit on. someone just spit out a tweet. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> delicious taste tester, john. we'll be right back. you know who likes to be

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