topping this hour of 360. president trump trying to do what he does best, close the deal on a republican health care deal that a lethal number of republicans say they oppose. and the president trying to tiptoe past the claims that president obama wiretapped him. >> we're going to have a real winner. >> reporter: president trump on capitol hill today. seeking a win on health care. >> the it was a great meeting. terrific people. they want a tremendous health care plan. that's what we have. there are going to be adjustm t adjustments but i think we'll get the vote. >> reporter: but tonight the white house isn't sure it has enough votes to pass the

replacement of obamacare. the president back his case directly to house republicans delivering a blunt message behind closed doors. one person in the room told cnn trump said to republicans i honestly many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don't get this done. it's the first big test of whether the president can make good on a campaign trail promise while navigating one self-made distraction after another. the white house is trying to move beyond fallout from the ongoing fbi criminal investigation into whether the trump campaign worked with the kremlin to influence the election. james comey made it clear in a house hearing monday that the investigation is open-ended. >> i can promise you we will follow the facts wherever they lead. >> reporter: the president showing rare restraint in kentucky. not mentioning his discredited wiretapping accusation against president obama or the russia proep.

instead, he focussed on health care. >> as we move toward the crucial house vote on thursday, the seventh anniversary of obamacare's very painful passage, this is our long awaited chance to finally get rid of obamacare. we're going to do it. what's the alternative? >> reporter: the house freedom caucus, the most conservative cluster in congress, believes there is a better alternative. mark meadows of north carolina called out personally by the president for his opposition to the bill, said he was more worried about rising insurance premiums than his own reelection. >> at the end of the day, it is really about bringing premiums down. it's not about me or any member of congress. >> reporter: the conservative group club for growth is running tv ads urging republicans to vote no on the health care measure. >> congress is pushing ryan

care. >> reporter: the white house says the president hasn't ruled out campaigning against fellow republicans who try to block his bill which could have a ripple effect on the rest of his agenda. >> i think a price will be paid but with their own voters. jeff joins us now. the president finished speaking at a dinner. what did he say? >> it was a fundraising dinner for 2018 republican reelection efforts. this is front and center on this issue. the president made it clear. he said this is why you were all elected here to repeal and replace obama care. he has been meeting with members of congress all day long on capitol hill in the morning then this afternoon he met with 16 republican members of congress and tonight again, he's trying to use the power of purr swags, it's unclear if he's brought anyone over to his head. our count shows still 19 republicans are opposed to this. 7 are possibly leaning against it. he can only lose 21.

with about a day and a half left to go this white house knows it has work to do. >> all right. jeff zeleny, thank you. before the program i spoke with nancy pelosi. >> you tweeted yesterday president trump cannot be allowed to feel as if he can say whatever he wants despite a lack of evidence. do you think the president was lying about the wiretapping claims? >> either that or he didn't know what he was talking about, because first of all, the -- president obama would not do that, cannot do that, and he has nothing to support the claim he's made. >> you said he should apologize. does it surprise you to hear the white house is standing by the claim? >> no. this is the same president who said he won the popular vote because he had people voting illegally. no no bay disfor that. he had a bigger crowd than barack obama. whatever else he has to say. it's really kind of sad. >> do you think he just says

these things and -- he says things and moves on from them, and never address them again. >> he's upped the anti. when you decide you're going to say a president of the united states has wiretapped you, which you know isn't true, you have invited comment. it's not this is -- the it's no longer frivolous. this is serious. he should apologize not only to president obama but to the american people. >> we're 60-some days into the trump administration. if you had one word to describe the last 60 days or so, how would you describe them? >> ineffective. they've accomplished nothing. his the deflector in chief. he's deflected from the fact that he hasn't produced jobs or an infrastructure bill and accomplished nothing. he just has to deflect by coming

up with bans on certain religions coming into the country, and when that doesn't succeed, deflect to the president of the united states wiretapping. >> in terms of the russian investigation, james clapper said publicly when he left he was not aware of any conclusive evidence of collusion prior to january 20th. he said he's not aware of anything after january 20th. do you believe there is really fire there? there's a lot of smoke, but so far according to clapper there's no fire. >> well, first of all, two things about clapper. he left two and a half months ago. >> the investigation having gone on now we know -- >> but the investigation is continuing now. b, the way it works in intention, and this is where i was forged in the congress in intelligence is information might go from the cia to the fbi or the fbi to cia without going to the director of national intelligence. he might not have known.

but i wouldn't place a lot of weight on that. the fact is you have to have an investigation. and there are -- there is reason to believe there should be an investigation. the director mentioned that yesterday. >> there's a lot of democrats putting a lot of faith that there is some fire there. if it turns out there wasn't, how damaging is it for democrats? >> well, the director didn't say collusion. he said connection. a word like that. i don't think it's damaging at all. we do know that there's plenty of connection. that's self-evident, but is there any criminal violation or is there any other breaking of the law? the fact that they cooperated is not any -- is self-evident. the russians hacked -- they gave it away so that it would be leaked. it was leaked in a way that was damaging to hillary clinton. that's a fact. that's a fact.

>> you believe they have something on the president? >> well, i want to know, because the fact is this is a matter of our national security. >> who is the leader of the democratic party right now? >> well, president obama was the president of the united states until just a matter of weeks ago. i don't think that he can be dismissed as the leader of the democratic party. hillary clinton did not win the election, but a respected leader, but we have leaders for all different aspects. the democratic party is a congressional party. we have leaders in congress. >> but on the state level, the it's a party which has suffered tremendous losses in the last couple of years. >> it has, but we have a plan to address that. >> there's not one standard bearer that you see? >> we're not in a presidential time. >> finally, when you think about 2020, when you think about the next presidential race, how -- do you think donald trump is

going to make it four years? >> i don't know. it's up to him. it's up to him if he obeys the the law. i'm thinking of 2018, a matter of a year and a half from now, a little more than a year and a half from now, the referendum on donald trump will come forward. >> mad m leader, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> you can watch our whole conversation online. plenty of talk with the panel. joining us matt lewis, mary katherine hamm and kooesen powers. kiersten, i asked who is the leader of the democratic party, i thought i wonder what she's going to answer. >> kind of notable. to be fair, she's right. this isn't a presidential election year, but at the same time it speaks that there's a vacuum in the democratic party with president obama gone. the expectation was hillary clinton was going to win and it was going to become clinton clinton's party.

and now different people like cory booker or nancy pelosi vying to be the leader. nancy pelosi is obviously somebody who would come to mind when you think of somebody who is a leader in the democratic party as well. it was a very the telling answer, i thought. >> the answer was an ellipsis. but part of the reason is that because obama was the president and skilled at his job, they allowed much of -- many of the losses on the state level and let that get away from them. the party has been damaged in a huge way while folks were not watching the storm. >> during the election, it seemed like hillary clinton spent a lot of time focusing on having this be a referendum on donald trump. that didn't work out for her. is there danger for the democrats in focusing so much on russia to the exclusion of other things? >> absolutely. maybe there's a huge scandal brewing and maybe this is water

gate, but most of the time political parties when they focus on the home run, the silver bullet, the scandal, the one thing that's going to -- if we can just prove barack obama was born in kenya, then we can -- we don't have to do the hard work of actually winning elections. this russia thing is by definition a serious theory. sometimes conspiracy theories are true. but i would caution democrats. you can pursue this. i think we ought to pursue this as a country to a certain degree. but you can't put all your hopes and we're going to take down donald trump via scandal. you've got to do the hard work electing people at state houses, governors, and also developing public policy ideas. >> but i think jake tapper said the other day democrats are pinning their hopes on some grand multi-headed conspiracy that's not just one person with

a connection. it's some sort of massive collusion. >> right. well, i think it's more than a conspiracy theory which often suggests there's little there in which to base it. i think there is a lot of circumstantial trails. there was a fellow here yesterday who said when you have a couple leads into a story, it's probably not going to go anywhere. you have three or four players with different stories, it's likely to lead somewhere. to go to your point, the democrats very much need a set of positive programs going forward. hillary clinton ran on a group of ideas that were fairly stale to the public. it didn't take advantage of technology and the new world. they need a bill when the president goes up with his tax cut bill, what's their plan for growth? what's their plan for infrastructure? they need to sort those things out? >> i agree. it's been 60 days. when you're in the opposition, it's easy to oppose and it's a

uniting factor. nothing unites the democrats like donald trump's tweets or james comey's the testimony. i don't blame the democrats. this is serious stuff that needs to beinvestigated. >> focusing on donald trump's tweets didn't work during the election. >> it didn't, but now there's a need to take him literally because he is president of the united states, and he did charge the former president of the united states with a felony which is a serious thing. and there is an fbi director now saying there is an ongoing counterintelligence investigation which you have to talk about. to the exclusion of everything else to david's point? i agree. you can't do it to the exclusion of everything else. but it would be malpractice for the democrats not to be talking about this. and talking about hillary clinton's e-mail and all the lock her up crap during the campaign, it didn't seem to hurt donald trump. >> also to the point of what matt is saying, though, if you look at even what happened with

the republicans where they ran against obama, they ran against obamacare, this is all they ever talked about was repealing obamacare, and they were in power and had no idea what to do. >> right. >> and so now we're actually looking at something that maybe be pass. we don't even know if it will pass. even if it passes, it's not that good of a plan. even if it passes, they just want to get something passed because he made a promise, but it isn't probably going to accomplish anything. >> there's danger in not just overreaching but dealing with the facts on the field. comey said during his testimony much of what has been leaked and reported is dead wrong. if you're dealing in facts that are not real and then it comes out that this was not -- that damages you. much like a wiretapping allegation will damage you. >> but it didn't damage donald trump when he said that hillary clinton was going to go to jail for her e-mails and et cetera. i'm not saying you should ride something that's fake.

but this is serious and very real. >> but the problem is that a lot of this is going to go back under ground. the investigations are not going to be in the news. there's nothing for them to talk about very much, and they need to be a party which is looking forward. they need to build a bridge. they need to bring in younger people who are the sense of the future. >> you can walk and chew gum. >> the attempts to take down the president. since water gate you've had white water and monica lun sewi and the bush national guard story. >> we're going to take a break. much more with the panel after the break including the push to get republicans in the house on board with their health care bill ahead of the vote. crunchy flakes. , wholesd good things come together to make one great thing. great grains. why be good when you can be great?

so this year, they're getting a whole lot more. people just can't get enough of me and my discounts. box 365, the calendar. everyone knows my paperless, safe driver, and multi-car discounts, but they're about to see a whole new side of me. heck, i can get you over $600 in savings. chop, chop. do i look like i've been hurt before? because i've been hurt before. um, actually your session is up. hang on. i call this next one "junior year abroad."

say hi to xiidra, lifitegrast ophthalmic solution. the first eye drop approved for the signs and symptoms of dry eye. one drop in each eye, twice a day. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and an unusual taste sensation. do not touch the container tip to your eye or any surface. remove contacts before using xiidra and wait for at least 15 minutes before reinserting them. if you have dry eyes, ask your doctor about xiidra.

at where instead of payinging a befor middlemen,em. we work directly with family farms to deliver higher quality ingredients for less than you pay at the store. get $30 off at blueapron.com/cook youthat's why you drink ensure. sidelined. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you. is the republican bill to repeal and replace obamacare in critical condition? a faction within the republican party said it is. earlier tonight i spoke with a

skeptic, the virginia congressman. >> i am still a no vote. i will tell you i'm very confident right now that there are not the votes to pass the bill as it stands. so if they want to have a vote thursday, i think that's going to end up putting some egg on some folks' faces but that doesn't mean we're going to abandon health care reform. it has to be done. we can't ignore the aca real thety where in a third of the localities there's one choice in providers so, of course, no choice. what i don't get is the impetus that this must be done now. it's not to get it done right away. it's to get it done right. >> back with the panel. congressman is part of the freedom caucus. they seem to be having the most objections to this. but you talked about this in the last hour. president trump has really gone all in on this. he really has -- he's out there

twisting arms today. you said you thought that he should be speaking more about the details of the bill, less about the politics of it. the question is does he really know the inner workings of the bill. i mean he's not necessarily a policy kind of wonk. >> i think he's different from most presidents we've had in that regard. president reagan was famous for not knowing all the details. in a situation like this, he knew the details. tax reform, he got deeply into the budget cut and knew the details pretty well. i think this is extraordinarily unusual to have the first bill out of a new president who campaigned on it to be in this kind of trouble. usually in the first year there's sort of a sense of a honeymoon and you get your first bill. your own party supports you. the fact he's having trouble with his own party, reflects not only the last years with splits in the party but the fact is

when he with such an unusual president in the white house with extraordinarily low approval ratings. he's having a hard time bringing together public support and public pressure on the congress. you haven't heard anything about calls and letters coming into the white house or coming into congress. what you've heard is if they go for recess in two weeks, it's going to tank the bill. >> do you think that's part of the bill, the recess? >> absolutely. that's part of it. the other part is i think speaker ryan and maybe correctly, believes that there is very limited time to get anything done. in terms of actual days of legislating. if you want to do tax reform and health care and infrastructure like basically this has to happen. and so i think it sounds great to say let's take our time and

really craft a really good policy. you know, if you've talked to people on the hill, they'll say there isn't time to do it. it's do or die time. >> it was never going to look like a perfect policy. there is a gap between trump and his promises and what the freedom caucus likes. trump said there has to be a replacement. they have to get one that gets moderate votes in the senate. they're in a bind. it wasn't going to look beautiful. they were going to have this fight. my question was whether trump thought it was his fight. today he signalled he thinks it's his fight, and then he says i might go after you guys and people say i'm not sure he's serious about that. he loves going after fellow republicans. >> he was joking, i think. >> but i think also some of the freedom caucus members feel

pretty comfortable with their constituents. they have good relationships with them. the complaints you hear from them is basically this was put before everybody and they said love it or leave it, basically. they sort of went through this process of saying you can offer some ideas, but they weren't interested in listening to them. part of the problem is because this is really paul ryan's baby, and paul ryan is not acting the way a leader would be acting which would be pulling people together and wheeling instead. he's like this is my baby, i've been waiting for this my whole life and you're going to vote for it. >> and the dirty little secret is the republicans have never agreed on what to do with health care. it was easy for them to oppose the conversation earlier, and that did very well for them, and now they have to come up with something, and they've proposed something that nobody really loves except for maybe paul ryan who does love it. and maybe not so much, actually. so you have this kind of orphan out there that everybody's

trying to embrace, including donald trump, and he just wants to get it done so he can just chart one win and move on to the others. >> now, for the last -- since franklin roosevelt, policy making has been president centric. the president the white house proposes and congress disposes. that's what's not happening here. making it paul ryan's bill has made it easier for people to oppose it than if it was the white house came up with the idea and the president rallied for it, went to his rallies and sold it. you don't see that. >> we have to take a quick break. more news with paul manafort facing new allegations.

i was thinking around 70. to and before that?re? you mean after that? no, i'm talking before that. do you have things you want to do before you retire? i'd really like to run with the bulls. wow. hope you're fast. i am. get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change with investment management services. announcer: get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. ♪ ♪

if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective. if other treatments haven't worked well enough, ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works by focusing right in the gi-tract to help control damaging inflammation and is clinically proven to begin helping many patients achieve both symptom relief as well as remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. while not reported with entyvio, pml, a rare, serious brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections, or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio. if your uc or crohn's medication isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. entyvio. relief and remission within reach.

at crowne plaza we know business travel isn't just business. there's this. 'a bit of this. why not? your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. which is what we do. crowne plaza. we're all business, mostly.

more breaking news. john mccain said he has serious questions about paul manafort's ties to russia. he's facing new allegations that he took steps to hide payments he received for consulting work he did for ukraine's former pro

russian president. a ukrainian lawmaker released documents he claims show mr. manafort funneled the money through an offshore account. mr. manafort's name came up in yesterday's house intelligence committee hearing. earlier i spoke to a congressman on the committee and wants manafort to the testify. i asked if that would require a subpoena. >> that would be up to paul manafort and his lawyers. he will along with a few others be at the top of the list of the people if we do a real investigation we would need to interview. it feels to me there are four or five people we must speak to. they may choose to not come voluntarily. then we would need a subpoena. they may at the end of the day if they don't want to speak, they have the right not to. that would be interesting. >> you say four or five, you mean manafort. >> stone, michael flynn, we

probably want to have a further conversation with jeff sessions. i don't believe he has the kind of deep and long-standing ties to russia that the other people do, but yeah, we should be able to talk to them. >> carter page? >> he would be on that list, absolutely. one paul manafort joined the trump campaign in march of 2016 he brought years of political experience to the job including the the consulting fork that the fbi is looking at. brianna keilar has more. >> reporter: long before paul manafort was facing skrooutny for his ties to russia he overworked on ronald reagan's campaign and managed bob dole's national convention has bowl attempted to push bill clinton out of the white house. even then with a party over abortion brewing manafort was tasked with smoothing things over ahead of the republican

convention. >> everybody is united. what you saw today was the republican party coming together. >> reporter: it's the very reason he was brought on to the trump campaign in the spring of 2016. trump faced opposition within his own party that threatened to spill over during his nomination in cleveland. >> i have fantastic people. paul manafort just came on. he's great. >> reporter: his influence was seen as a threat to corey lewandows lewandowski. >> i work directly for the boss. >> only one guy you listen to and it's trump? >> i listen to everybody, but one voice is louder than everybody else. >> manafort convinced trump to practice more discipline with limited success and used teleprompters at least occasionally. >> they're not bad. you never get yourself in trouble with a teleprompter. >> reporter: he implored republicans to get on board. >> grow the campaign and build it out. a steppingstone in that process. >> reporter: trump clenched the

delegates needed to secure the nomination in may. by june lewandowski was out and manafort alone held the reigns after counseling trump to tone down his het rick. >> at some point i'm going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored. >> reporter: in mid august just three months later, he too was gone. amid an investigation of his lobbying firm for its work with the ukrainian political party loyal to russia. >> we've learned there's an ongoing investigation into possibly u.s. ties to corruption. >> reporter: manafort denies any wrong doing but the investigation is dogging the trump white house. sean spicer trying to minimize manafort's influence. >> manafort played a limited role for a limited amount of time. >> reporter: not an accurate portrayal of his role. he advised mr. trump and president-elect trump. and despite his short time

leading the trump campaign he oversaw key moments. as trump won the delegates and picked his running mate and through the convention. >> thank you very much. amazing to hear sean spicer say he had a limited role for a limited amount of time. ahead more breaking news. at his confirmation hearing, neal gorsuch criticized president trump's attack on judges. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ lease a 2017 lincoln mkx for $369 a month. only at your lincoln dealer. guests can earn a how cafree night when theypring book direct on choicehotels.com

and stay with us just two times? spring time. badda book. badda boom. or... badda bloom. seriously? book now at choicehotels.com like paperless, multi-car,e and safe driver, that help them save on their car insurance. any questions? -yeah. -how do you go to the bathroom? great. any insurance-related questions? -mm-hmm. -do you have a girlfriend? uh, i'm actually focusing on my career right now, saving people nearly $600 when they switch, so... where's your belly button? [ sighs ] i've got to start booking better gigs. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis

isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask your dermatologist about otezla today. otezla. show more of you.

front. on day two of his confirmation hearings neil gorsuch was asked about president trump's attacks on the federal judge who blocked his administration's travel ban. here's what judge gorsuch answered. >> when anyone criticizes the hon us theesty or motives of fe judge, well, i find that disheartening. i find that demoralizing. >> judge gorsuch previously said the same thing in private conversations with senators. senator richard blumenthal went

public and president trump tweeted about it, called it a misrepresentation to the judge's remarks. now the judge did so publicly. it was a long day in the senate hearing room. today some of the questions had a sharper edge. >> reporter: in the midst of a ten-hour day of tough questions. judge neil gorsuch emerged as a supreme court nominee who refused to be pinned down. >> when i became a judge, they gave me a gavel, not a rubber stamp. and nobody comes to my court expecting a rubber stamp. >> reporter: senators pressed him on his views and future rulings. instead he pointed to his respect for legal precedent and pledged to keep his own opinions out of consideration. >> my personal views i'd also the tell you, mr. chairman, belong over here. i leave those at home. >> reporter: he rarely referenced president trump directly but rejected the notion that his nomination was based on a litmus test. >> did he ever ask you to

overrule ro e v. wade? >> no. i would have walked out the door. it's not what judges do. >> reporter: they seized on the decisions they say favor big business. >> how do we have confidence in you that you won't be just for the big door rations. >> i par tf you want cases wher ruled for the little guy as well as the big guy, there are plenty of them, senator. >> reporter: a minnesota senator hammered into neil gorsuch for his dissent offering in sympathy or a truck driver fired for levering his disabled trailer behind after spending hours in the cold and snow at the side of the road. >> it is absurd to say this company is in its rights to fire

him because he made the choice of possibly dying from freezing to death or causing other people to die possibly by driving an unsafe vehicle. that's absurd. >> reporter: democrats touched on president trump's twice written and rejected travel ban. it's a case neil gorsuch could hear if confirmed? >> in due process rights exthe tend even to undocumented persons in this country. >> i will apply the law. i will apply the law faithfully and fearlessly and without regard to persons. >> reporter: president trump praised his nominee throughout the hearing tweeting judge gorsuch is the kind of judge we need, someone with a brilliant legal mind. gorsuch seemed unflappable but showed a rare moment of

frustration. >> there's a great deal about this process i regret. i regret putting my family through this. >> but to my question -- >> senator j the fact of the matter is it is what it is. >> reporter: cnn, washington. our panel, jeffrey toobin, also price foley. jeff, these comments by gorsuch, they seem to be in line with what today seemed to be about. >> wouldn't be a rubber stamp as he said, i have a gavel, not a rubber stamp. it was a like a lot of his testimony, it was prudent and careful. it was not extreme. it was not extreme criticism. it wasn't praise for the president. and i think it was the right line for what he should say. you know, he was not obligated

to attack president trump, but he was also obligated i think to defend the federal judiciary. >> i guess another moment was talking about ro e v. wade. were you surprised? >> no. they invoke the ginsburg rule. no forecast, no hints. the it's ironic to me. on the one hand you have the democrats on the judiciary committee seeming to suggest it would be inappropriate for the president to impose a litmus test on abortion. and gorsuch slammed the door shut on that and said i wouldn't even entertain the possibility of abiding by some litmus at the same time, but at the same time they seem to be demanding a litmus test because they kept pushing him on the issue of abortion and trying to get him to sort of prejudge the issue, which would require him under the rules of ethics to recuse

himself. >> there is an irony in saying not to have a litmus test and to seem to have one. >> i think the ginsburg rule is madness. you have senators with opinions on rules. obviously they know what they think about it, but somehow it's supposed to be a secret. i just think it's crazy, but that's what democrat and republican nominees have come to say in front of the judiciary committee and gorsuch followed that tradition. >> it's appropriate to ask judges especially someone with his track record, his opinion on abortion. the problem is he has no history on abortion. there aren't that many hot button abortion issues in the tenth circuit. he gets a pass on that. but asking him to prejudge or explain how he would rule on a future case is entirely inappropriate, and if he had done so on that or any other hot

button issue, there would be calls for his recusal. >> i just don't buy that at all. i think these are intelligent people who thought about these issues. we should know what they think before they're appointed. i recognize that no nominee thinks what i think about this, and -- but i just think it's cra crazy. >> he seemed calm and collected throughout the entire thing. >> he has a tremendous advantage in this circumstance. he knows so much more about everything he's being asked than the senators, and in a couple of times it came back to bite them, the senators. one tried to confront him with a story that came out about a law school class he taught where one woman thought he engaged in sexist behavior in the classroom. he told the story of how he taught this case out of a textbook and went onto say that

his mother was a pioneering lawyer in colorado. and i think completely turned the tide because durbin broke the cardinal rule which is you never ask a question you don't know the answer to. >> in a courtroom, that's rule number one. >> and it applies in a hearing room. professor, thank you, and jeff toobin as well. coming up tonight, electronics bigger than a smart phone banned from the cabins of some international flights. the question is why now. what we've learned about how intelligence and al qaeda may have played a role in the decision next. good things come together to make one great thing. great grains. why be good when you can be great?

bp developed new, industry-leading software to monitor drilling operations in real-time, so our engineers can solve problems with the most precise data at their fingertips. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better.

this is pete's yard. and it's been withered by winter. but all pete needs is scotts turf builder lawn food. it's the fast and easy way to a thick, green, resilient lawn, with two simple feedings. one now, and one later this spring. it takes grass from hungry - to healthy. pete may not be an expert, but look at that grass. this is a scotts yard. for a quick and easy lawn care plan, download the my lawn app.

if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective. if other treatments haven't worked well enough, ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works by focusing right in the gi-tract to help control damaging inflammation and is clinically proven to begin helping many patients achieve both symptom relief as well as remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. while not reported with entyvio, pml, a rare, serious brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections, or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio. if your uc or crohn's medication isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. entyvio. relief and remission within reach.

more breaking news. starting friday you will not be able to carry electronic devices bigger than a smartphone on some flights. although they'll still be allowed in checked baggage. there's still a lot of questions about the airline electronics ban. but american and british airlines authorities say trying to keep passengers safe. cnn spoke with a member of congress about the issue who said the decision was based on new intelligence and the reality of existing intelligence. asking why now, instead of giving details they said because the intelligence community perceived the threat to be persistent and emerging and they had to act. here's more from rene marsh.

>> in unprecedented move department of homeland security is demanding international flights from ten overseas airports in eight mostly muslim countries ban almost all electronics larger than a cell phone from the cabin of a plane. the u.k. following the united states' lead, will now ban large electronics in the cabin of certain flights too, indicating there is intelligence that's creating concern. >> it's clear that with these new restrictions, the united states is essentially saying that they do not have full confidence in these airports in these various countries to stop bombs getting on planes. >> tonight sources tell cnn the electronic ban was not prompted by a specific plot but in part by new intelligence. a u.s. official tells cnn al qaeda's affiliate in yemen was perfecting techniques for hiding explosives in the batteries of electronic devices. the information was obtained over recent weeks and months.

department of homeland security said the intelligence "indicates that terrorist groups continue to target commercial aviation and are aggressively pursuing innovative methods to undertake their attacks, including smuggling explosive devices in various consumer items." dhs pointed to the february 2016 midair bombing of a somali passenger plane as proof of terrorist groups continued efforts to target commercial aviation. sources say a sophisticated laptop bomb blew a hole in that aircraft. but u.s. intelligence has known for years terror groups have been working to perfect and conceal explosives to smuggle on board. so why such a drastic ban now? >> one scenario is the new administration in the united states has re-evaluated the entire threat stream to passenger aircraft, taking into account all the intelligence that's come in the last several

years. >> the ban is indefinite and it is unclear at this point when it would end. if airlines refuse to comply, they would lose travel certification to fly to the united states. anderson? >> rene marsh, thanks very much. joining me now juliette kayyem, former u.s. assistant secretary for homeland security. this new intelligence that aqhp has been perfecting techniques for hiding explosives in laptops and other devises, what have you been hearing about it? >> that's what i've been hearing from sources and people i'm talking to in both the previous administration and this one. this has been a highly classified threat stream over the cost of several months. it was so significant that some sort of training and exercises, some planning for the possibility this could happen, actually occurred at the white house. the question that we're all asking what is has changed that would have led this threat stream to cause the enactment of such dramatic security measures?

there's two options. one, there's new intelligence, more specific intelligence, the administration has not been direct about that. the other is that a new administration has come in. and has looked at the previous threat stream and maybe their risk tolerance is lower and said, look, we're going to put this ban on in the next three days. >> i mean, the rollout of this, there's certainly a lot of questions as to why the department of homeland security gave airlines 96 hours to comply instead of implementing immediately. >> yeah, i've never seen anything like this. in fact, it fits no model in which you have no specific threat, and yet you have this sort of very hasty, immediate rollout, yet you're still giving people three days to implement it. sort of fits no previous security rollout i've ever seen weave. we're dealing with the global aviation community. millions of people in the air at any given moment. it's going to have a dramatic impact. >> also in terms of potential

risk, it could also be dangerous to put laptops and other electronic devices in checked bags. >> that's exactly right. i've been talking to some israeli security officials who argue that, look, you could still have a cell phone detonate or have some trigger that detonates the laptop and it's actually further away from people, from flight attendants or the pilot being able to get the fire out. so there's going to be risks to any security measure. and i think what's sort of -- the burt den on this administration is to explain to the american public, let alone the global community, why this action which is impacting millions of people is actually sort of linked to the threat that they face. because from my perspective, if you're worried about a tactic, a specific tactic, the use of a laptop, then wouldn't you want to get laptops off of all airports? because someone can take a flight into london, get the

laptop, and then do london direct to jfk and you're not going to capture them in the laptop ban. i think one of the issues out there for all of us is the lack of linkage between what may be a very serious threat and this sort of, let's just say, not-nuanced ban that is impacting middle east and north american countries. >> julie khan, thanks very much. ? we're facing 20 billion security events every day. ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks... actually, we just handled all the priority threats. you did that? we did that. really. we analyzed millions of articles and reports. we can identify threats 50% faster. you can do that? we can do that. then do that. can we do that? we can do that. our insurance company may not have a name your price tool

[ shouting ] but we got disses for days! your mother is so lame, she never put any notes in your lunch bag. sandwiches o-o-only. yeah! yeah, well if you use progressive's name your price tool, maybe you could use the savings to buy a decent suit. i got this jaime. ♪ you could throw shade all day ♪ ♪ but it'll never land ♪ 'cause we got the name your price tool ♪ ♪ in the palm of our h-a-a-and ♪ mic drop. mime: ouch. what? it was a sweet burn. progressive's name your price tool. word to your wallet. choicehotels.com. badda book. that's it?. he means book direct at choicehotels.com for the lowest price on our rooms guaranteed. plus earn free nights and instant rewards at check-in. yeah. like i said. book now at choicehotels.com (singsong) budget meeting. sweet. if you compare last quarter...

it's no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with no artificial preservatives, flavours or dyes. made with no artificial preservatives, well, what are you doing o take care otomorrow -10am? but... staff meeting. 3:45? tai chi. 6:30? sam's baseball practice. you are busy. wouldn't it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do? yeah. introducing essential portfolios the automated investing solution.

that's it for us, thanks for watching. time to hand things over to don lemon. "cnn tonight" starts right now. this is cnn breaking news. breaking news, a late night on capitol hill with the gop's health care bill hanging in the balance. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. thanks for joining us. do or die time, less than 48 hours to go before the house votes on the long-promised republican plan to repeal and replace obamacare. paul ryan's team working furiously behind the scenes. president trump on the hill today warning republicans they could lose their seats if the bill fails. will his own party give him the win he so december pret needs right now? plus all the president's men, paul manafort, michael flynn, roger stone to name a few, do they have ties to russia? will they come back to haunt the trump white house? we'll discuss all of that. i