hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. from wherever you're watching thanks very much for joining us. coming up my interview wh bernie sanders. but first russian meddling in the u.s. presidential election front and center as we wait for today's white house press briefing. it's set to get under way in hour. we're going to have live coverage for you. that's coming up. looking at live pictures right now. press secretary sean spicer will face questions about the senate intelligence committee hearings. first hearing on in the senate on the russian investigation. we're also waiting on details on a planned meeting between the republican chairman and the oh o -- the chairman devin nunes under pressure to recuse himself

from the committee russian investigation. no nunes is about to do any such thing. in the meantime, internet trolls cranking out phoney stories, a deliberate campaign of disinformation. those are just some of the tactics that intelligence officials say russia used to interfere in the u.s. presidential election. that is the focus of today's senate intelligence committee hearing. >> the vice chairman and i reali realized if we politicize this process our efforts will lyingly fail. >> the public deserves to hear the truth about russia -- >> i will the prejudge the outcome of our investigation. we are seeking to determine if there is an actual fire but there is clearly a lot of smoke. >> russian meddling in our presidential election most likely is viewed by the kremlin as an unqualified success. >> this is a coordinated effort

to pit americans against one another politically, social economically. >> there's been more dead russians in the past three months that are tied to this investigation who have assets in banks all over the world. >> our senior congressional reporter manu raju has been following these developments on capitol hill. witnesses at the hearing say russian sbeercinterference in t. election is ongoing as we speak. >> that's correct. over the health care debate one of the witnesses testified that speaker paul ryan efforts to push through the health care bill could have fallen victim by this russian propaganda efforts trying to prop up damaging news stories, social media accounts on the issue of the health care legislation. also ascension within the republican ranks over speaker

ryan's tenure. clint watts, who testified here earlier, actually raised the prospect of not just hillary clinton was hurt by the russian hacking, but also marco rubio who of course sits on this committee and lost that republican primary to donald trump. raised the prospect that he was hurt, too, by these russian propaganda, russian efforts to meddle in the elections. i asked marco rubio if he was surprised to hear that afterwards. he declined to comment. he would not say if he had been briefed on the matter. after this first session broke out, we had a chance to talk to vase chairman of the committee, d democrat mark warner about his impressions of clint watt' testimony where he said the president used active mentors to undermine hillary clinton because this russian campaign, this is how mark warner responded. >> he said specifically part of the reason active measures have

worked in this election is because the commander in chief has used russian active measures at times against his opponents zch does that move you closer there could have been improper coordination between the trump campaign and russians? >> these are some of the questions we have to get to. this afternoon's hearing, you know, i'm going to try to drill down on the technology capability to actually target my precinct certain voters. what i've been told is that the russian intel services alone would not have that level of political sophistication about our electoral process to know which precinct in wisconsin, which precinct in michigan to target, so where did they get that information? and again, i'm not sure we'll get an answer this afternoon, but it's obviously one area of the inquiry. >> two of your colleagues,

feinstein, have said it would be important to get the president's tax returns to determine any financial links. do you think that's important? will you try to subpoena them? >> i have been actively calling long before this investigation started for the president to do what every other prior president and every other prior presidential candidate has done. >> he would not say, wolf, whether he would seek to subpoena those tax returns, but look for that to be a flash point. some democrats on the committee want to use the rules to subpoena those tax returns to see if there's any link between trump himself and the russians. >> manu, thanks very much. watching all of this on capitol hill. breaking news coming out of the white house right now involving the president's staff. what have you learned, jeff? >> reporter: we are seeing some signs of a shakeup here happening in the west wing of the white house in the wake of the defeat of health care. a deputy chief of staff to this

president katie walsh will be leaving the west wing, leaving the white house to go work for an outside group. one of those outside political action committees that support this is president's agenda. and this is just happening in the last few minutes or so. our jim a kosta is reporting this is because of a health care defeat. and katie walsh was a long time chief of staff, excuse me, at the rnc to reince priebus. she was very much in charge of driving the agenda here at the white house. also keeping things sort of running. we're also told by other sources that she's been frustrated. of course there have been some issues in recent weeks here at the white house. but the -- this definitely is not the first shakeup, but it's the second i guess if you can consider michael flynn of course the national security adviser who was let go more than a month or so ago. but wolf, this is defensely

coming on a day when the white house is trying to sort of reboot. they're looking for a win. the president earlier in the day was doing something he rarely does. he was taking aim at fellow republicans going after some of those house freedom caucus members. so this is something the white house is clearly trying to reboot and get things back on track here after a very rough ten weeks or so out of the gate. >> is this in any way at all related to the news that we got yesterday that ivanka trump, the president's daughter, is now taking on an official white house role as an adviser? >> wolf, that's a good question. the ivanka trump hiring sort of stands alone as itself. she is a -- an adviser unlike kb anyone else here because she is a family member, but she definitely is taking a greater role and roeins on everything here. we do not believe it's connected to that.

our sources is saying katie w walsh is not being fired. she is going outside the white house to build a coalition for his message. the hiring of ivanka officially certainly has everyone on edge in some respects and on watch here at the white house to see if other staff shakeups will occur because of that. in terms of if they're connected, we don't think so at this time. >> we know she worked very, very closely with reince priebus. >> yes, she was. >> jeff, thanks very much. meanwhile as the senate intelligence committee moves forward with its investigation, the same cannot be said for the house intelligence committee. right now that investigation is at a standstill. let's bring in a member of that committee. republican congressman chris stewart of utah. kr congressman, thanks very much for joining us. >> good afternoon, wolf. congressman, the speaker paul

ryan, he acknowledged this morning that the back and forth of the -- over the house intelligence committee's investigation has gotten in his words a little political and there needs to be a pause to gather all the evidence to get it right. i assume you agree with him that it's -- l i don't know if he said this, but i'll ask you. it's an embarrassment what's going on terms of the house committee's investigation. >> i think it's unfortunate. many of us who work on the committee, one of the things we valued was the ability to work in a bipartisan manner. one of the reasons is we were able to do it without the cameras in our faces and it wasn't as public. we took some responsibility, wolf, very seriously. look, we're going to follow this investigation wherever it leads, but i think it's better done if we do it not necessarily behind closed doors, but if we do it kind of quietly. if we do it very responsibly. when we start working and debating in the pull lib lic pu

it's not helpful. >> have you been briefed on the information that cahairman nune collected when he made that to the white house yesterday? >> you bet. we haven't actually seen the documents, but i know they're going to be delivered and made available to us. we spent a lot of time understanding what they contained. and they were meaningful things. they were things that i think that were, you know, troubling for us in some ways. again, we look forward to share that with the american people. but the investigation i think is just better done if we do it more discreetly. let me elaborate on that if i could, wolf. when we had the fbi director in our first open hearing last week, almost 100 times we asked him questions and he said i can't answer that in this forum. we want to bring him back, ask the same questions, get the answers and it gives us a better foundation for moving forward. >> when will you hold your next

hearing? >> next week. we're rescheduling those people who were scheduled to come this week and we want to bring the director back. we want to bring mr. rogers back as well. i think we'll see good activity in, again, early next week. >> so early next week general clapper, the former director of national intelligence, john bren on, the former cia director, are they going to be among those testifying as well as the former acting attorney general of the united states sally yates? >> yeah, that's certainly our hope and speexpectation. i don't know that they'll be here next. wee invited invitation. they know that. they've recognized that they would come. they're scheduling that now. once again, i don't know if it will be next week, but hopefully it's very quickly. >> they were supposed to testify on tuesday and the chairman canceled that. do you have a good understanding why? we were all anticipating an important hearing to get some information for the american public. >> once again, we want to be as open as we can.

referring to the committee hearing we had the week before, it wasn't very helpful in the sense that again and again and again the questions were asked and said can't talk about it here. i think those open hearings are better done at the end of the this process. let's bring in these individuals in a private setting where we can ask highly classified very sensitive questions and get the answer and lay this into a foundation and that hopes a door for us later on to know what we can ask and get answers to that haven't been designated as being very sensitive or classified. i think it's better for the committee. i think it's better to find the truth. i think it's better for the american people. they don't get frustrated when they hear the hearings and say i didn't learn much because they couldn't answer the questions. >> thank you for being with us. coming up, live pictures from capitol hill. september intelligence committee, they'll soon begin part two of there are hearing on

russian meddling. senate marco rubio was told he was a victim of russian hackers. we'll go there live when it resumes. i'll speak to bernie sanders about the russian meddling, whether he thinks there was collusion. a lot more. tha that's coming up next. marie knows that a dutch apple pie can make any occasion feel more special. so she makes her pie crust from scratch. and sprinkles on brown sugar streusel. so that you can spend more time making special moments with your family. marie callender's it's time to savor

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we're waiting for the white house daily press briefing to get under way. the press secretary sean spicer expected to take questions from reporters very soon. we'll have live coverage. first toipt brii want to bripng sanders. senator, thanks for much for joining us. >> my pleasure, wolf.

>> we have lots to discuss. on the senate intelligence committee is tha t is meeting today on russian meddling, possible collusion with the trump campaign, the russian president vladimir putin today called those claims of meddling and i'm quoting him now, he said they were hoaxes lives, and provocations. do you think that president trump's associates co luded with russia to try to influence the u.s. presidential election? >> well, let me just say that i would take what mr. putin says with a grain of salt. the evidence is overwhelming. it is enormously serious that russia did interfere in our election. they have interfered not only in elections in the united states but in elections around td wohe world. that is what they are doing. we have to respond to that. it is a real political attack by russia against the united states. second of all, the issue of

whether or not trump or his associates, his campaign, had colluded with an issue of incredible consequences. i think the american people are a little bit astounded that when you have an a guy like putin why it is it president trump has only positive things to say about this authoritarian figure. what hold does he have over the president? it appears from media that russian lent trump and his associates money. does that have anything to do with trump's relationship with russia? these are issues. i don't have the answers, but these are issues that must be investigated. the american people want to know that our president is representing the best interests of the american people, not the

russian government. >> we know the senate intelligence committee is doing that investigation with the fbi. the house intelligence committee, they've got some other problems over. it but hopefully they'll get into this. let's move on to some other important issues. president trump hass said he'd like to work with democrats on health care. this morning he tweeted, he said the freedom caucus will hurt the entire respect agenda if they don't get on the team and fast. we must fight them and dems in 2018. and here's what the speaker paul ryan said in a new interview and over at a press conference earlier today about working with democrats. listen to this. >> what i worry about, nora, is that if we don't do this, then he'll just go work with democrats to try and change obamacare. that's not going -- that's hardly a conservative thing. if we're going to do what we said we would do which is repeal and replace obamacare and save the american health care system, something tells me the democrats

aren't going to help us repeal obamacare. they're the ones who accurate today -- accurate today -- created it in the first place. >> my reaction, first of all, what i would tell speaker ryan is he's got to understand that the united states of america today is the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all people as a right. i live 50 miles away from canada. they manage to do it. second of all we end up spending twicee as much per capita as an other country. thirdly we pay by far multiple times the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. all of that has to do with the power and the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and the sthr insurance companies. nobody i know thinks that obamacare solved our health care problems. but what it did do is provide 20

million americans with more -- with health insurance for the first time. it did away with this obscenity of denying people care because they had a pre-existing condition. it did some good things. what a rational approach would be, which apparently mr. ryan is not prepared to do, is for us to sit down and say how do we deal with the problems. >> let me interrupt you for a moment, because i know you support what you call a medicare single payer health care system, medicare for all, and you want to work and try to get that through the current political environment. but is that at all single payer medicare for all system, is that all -- at all realistic right now? >> not today it's not. i am going to introduce that legislation, because i think it is the most sensible and cost effective. medicare for all. medicare for 65 and older, we should have it apply to everybody. i am going to introduce that legislation. it will not pass under the

current political climate where insurance companies and drug companies have so much power. but what we can do working together is to say, for example, our deductibles too high under obamacare. the answer is yes. how do we lower those deductibles? how do we lower co-payments. how do we lower the cost of prescription drugs? trump has talked a lot about taking on the pharmaceutical industry. i have legislation in that would say bil save billions of dollars for the american people by allowing to purchase prescription drugs from canada and around the world. will trump work with us on those issues? the idea of a public option being made available in 50 states. this will improve obamacare. let's work together trying to do that. >> but you say you want to work together with the trump administration. earlier in the week as you know, he invited all 100 u.s. senators to the white house for a

reception. the senate minority leader chuck schumer went. dick durbin was there. you decided not to attend. why? >> because i'm not into social events. if the president is serious about dealing with health care, if he is serious about dealing with the high cost of prescription drugs, let's work together. i don't want to sit around just, you know, blaberring and talking about the weather. that's not the way you get real work done. i have introduced legislation that will substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs in this country. the president has said he likes that idea. he campaigned on that idea. let's stop the talk. let's sit down and work on it. >> has he reached out to you, senator, or have you reached out personally to him and said let's have a meeting? have you actually sat down and had a meeting with him? >> i don't want to just talk. there is legislation out there. look, this guy throughout his campaign said some good things among prescription drugs. if he is prepared to say senator

sanders, i've seen your legislation on reimportation, has 20 co sponsors in the senate, i know a number of republicans are sympathetic to the concept, if he said let's sit down and work on the legislation, i'll be there if five minutes. but i don't want to do a photo op with the president if we're not going to go anyplace. he talks a good game. i want to see real action. >> another area where there has been some agreement involves trade. he's withdrawn from the tpp. you don't like that deal either. but "the wall street journal" is now reporting there are early indications he's only going to make when wha at it describes a modera moderate changes. do you believe he's living up to his campaign promises on trade? >> wolf, i'll say this before and i'll say it again. i think the president lies a great deal of the time. i think he toll the american

people, working class people during the campaign that he was going to stand with them, that he was going to take on big money interest. he ended up apointipointing hal wall street to his administration. the guy is considering to be his fda secretary administrator is a man who wrote in direct opposition to a lot of what trump said about prescription r drugs. he said one during the campaign and he's doing the very opposite. on trade, no i would not be surprised. we do need to rethink our trade policies. it is not acceptable to me that profitable corporations throw american workers out on the street g to china and mexico and pay people very, very low wages. we have got to everything we can do to create a trade policy which not only works for the multi national ceos but works for the working people of this country. >> i know there's another issue you're committed to and that

involves the environment. president trump signed a sweeping executive order this week involving the environmental protection agency which officials said looks to curb the federal government's enforcement of climate regulations by putting american jobs above addressing climate change. react to that move. >> wolf, that is such a nonsensical and stupid and dangerous approach. it's almost indescribable. look, the scientific community is virtually unanimous. while trump and his friends may think climate change is a hoax, what the scientists are telling us, it is real, it is caused by human activity. it is already causing devastating problems. and all over the world you're having countries beginning to transform their energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency sand sustainable injury. and guess what?

far more jobs are now being created in sustainable energy and energy efficiency than are being now created in the fossil fuel industries. you have the absurdity of exxon, the largest oil company in america telling the president he should not withdraw from the paris agreement. this is very dangerous, because if the united states does not lead the world in transforming our energy system, i worry very, very much about the nation and the world that our kids and grandchildren will be living in as a result of the devastation caused by climate change. >> is there anything you do to reverse his new regulations? >> well, obviously we will try to do everything that we can do. but i think you're seeing states all over this country, cities all over this country understand how dangerous and absurd his ideas and his actions are and they're going to continue to go forward, trying to combat climate change along with countries all over the world. >> the senate is scheduled to

vote next week on whether or not to confirm judge neil gorsuch to the united states supreme court. you're voting against that confirmation. will you also support a filibuster? >> well, we can argue about terminology. first of all, yes, i am going to be voting against gorsuch for the following reasons. i had a meeting in my office with him. it was a pleasant meeting. we talked for i think 45 minutes. here are the issues that worry me. i worry that billionaires are now able to buy elections because of sncitizens united. i know he can't on a particular case. i was not impressed about his views on that issue. i believe that voter suppression, republican governors all over the country trying to make it harder for people of color and poor people to try to participate in our democracy. was want impressed what he had to say about that and with regard to privacy right and a

woman's right to protect her own body. the rule is if anybody objects t requires 60 votes. so i believe somebody will object. i think that we should obey the current rules and it should require -- we should require 60 votes for gorsuch's appointment. >> but then you know the republican majority leader could do the what's called the nuclear option, change the rules, which would require a simple majority. >> well, i would hope that he doesn't do that. the democrats also power to do that. democrats did change the rules for a lot of reasons, and i supported that. but what democrats said is when you're dealing with a lifetime appointment to the united states supreme court, such an important position, it should be bipartisan. it should be -- it should require 60 votes. i hope mitch mcconnell remembers that and maintains that situation. >> senator sanders, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you very much, wolf.

>> coming up, the breaking news we're following, we've just learned that the house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes and adam schiff, they have met. we have details about how that meeting went. also the breaking news this hour, president trump's deputy white house chief of staff leaving her job at the white house. we have new details behind this staffing shakeup at the white house. all this likely to be covered by the way in the white house press briefing which begins any moment now. we'll have live coverage of sean spicer's briefing. he'll answer reporters questions. lots going on. stay with us. your insurance company

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. there's breaking news in the very partisan battle on the house intelligence committee. the republican chairman and the ranking democrat. they have just met. here's what the democratic congressman adam schiff just said. >> i think it was certainly not an easy meeting, but an important meeting. and we're also trying to go forward with the hearings. we have agreed to go forward with the closed hearing that the chair requested with directors comey and rogers. we have also asked the chair to

go along with our request that the hearing we had agreed to, which was scheduled with sally yates, directors clapper and brennan also go forward. >> that's adam schiff, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee. let's discuss this and a lot more. gloria, you're with us. there's a lot going on in this entire investigation. not only in the house side. they're trying to make some peace there. senate side, they're going forward not only with today's open hearings, but with quiet closed door hearings they're going to be having including with the president's son-in-law jared kushner. >> right. we don't know that's been scheduled yet and we don't know when in the sequence it's going to come, but i've been told by a source familiar with what jared might say is that he is going to see is he met with the russian ambassador and with the official at a russian bank, gorkov,

because he was trying to establish a back channel at that point during the transition to putin. and they were trying to find the right person to engage with on establishing that back channel. so first he meets with the ambassador. says to the ambassador who should i meet with? and the ambassador suggests this gentleman gorkov. now, if anybody had done a goog google search on gorkov, they would have found out that he is with the bank that has been sanctioned by the united states government and he has direct ties to putin. apparently i was told that did not occur at the transition, that gorkov was not vetted, that jared kushner met with him as a result. that sanctions were not discussed. that personal business dealings were not discussed. but that jared wanted to find this back channel and that when rex tillerson became tapped as secretary of state, that no longer needed to be done because

of course tillerson had -- >> what you're learn is ambassador kislyak, he recommended the so called back channel through this -- >> through this banker gorkov. then kislyak wanted to meet with jared kushner again and cukushn g said i don't need to. >> let me go to jeff over at the white house in the briefing room. jeff, multiple breaking stories we're following including this white house staff shakeup. update our viewers on that. >> indeed, wolf. we do expect to hear that shortly here at the press secretary when sean spicer has his daily briefing. there is a bit of a staff shakeup going on here in the west wing t.'s the deputy chief of staff. somebody not necessarily familiar to viewers, but very familiar inside the halls here at the white house here on capitol hill. this is something that really is the, you know, the culmination of one of the fallout from the collapse of the health care

defeat. this is something that is, you know, coming as the white house is trying to regroup and sort of reengage. part of that is reengaging with the outside as well. the deputy chief of staff here at the white house is katie walsh. she worked at the rnc before she came here to the white house. she'll be leaving here and she'll be going to head up one of the outside groups as a senior o senior adviser to help the president's agenda outside of the white house. but it is also a sign that things are not going along as smoothly here as they would like leg is lafbly speaking. one of the biggest defeats of this administration so far is they are trying to put things back in order and get things back on track. this is one of the shakeups. we're not sure if it's the last shoe to fall here, but it's the one that's happening right now. >> i suspect it won't be the last shoe. there's often shakeups early on in new administrations. it comes curiously as ivanka

trump takes on a major new official role as a major office in the west wing of the white house. not just the informal adviser. but she's now a special assistant to the president. she won't be taking a salary or anything like that, but she is now a government employee. >> indeed. ivanka trump will not be taking a salary, wolf, but she will be a top adviser. of course she has basically been playing that role for the last several weeks or so. she's in a lot of meetings. her advice is certainly heard and listened to here at the west wing. but this essentially formalizes that role. we do not believe these staff changes are linked necessarily, but ivanka trump is playing a very important role here at the west wing trying to reboot and reshape and jet her father's agenda back on message here and things moving more smoothly. we'll see how that sort of plays out. but there is some grumbling from

some other staff members. she can't be fired of course. so this is a new dynamic that's injecting itself into the west wing here, wolf, but she and her husband jared kushner, another senior adviser now two of the most important people next to the president who obviously have his ear, wolf. >> laura, i want to bring you into this. cnn legal analyst. any ethical or legal issues in having her, the daughter of the president, as an official in the white house? >> it's more of an issue of perception than it is radiculle. they already issued a letter saying the white house does not need to follow the same antin - the theory being that the white house as a nonexecutive agency does not follow the same rules.

now that she's an employee, she's more beholden to it. the only legal recourse you have is you can't get a salary if you don't follow them. well, she doesn't have a salary, so there's not really a whole lot of recourse you can have. hillary clinton back in '93 had to do the same sort of dance with the court of appeals when she said can i serve on the task force for health reform for then president clinton and they said, again, the white house as an own agency does not need to follow the nepotism laws. >> you're been doing reporting on the shakeup at the white house. the deputy white house steve of staff moving out. >> i think it's sort of an open secret that the folks who were at the rnc and are now at the white house have been pretty frustrated. it kind of makes the trains run on time. health care was a disaster. it's not as organized as it should be inside the white house.

katie walsh is somebody who was considered sort of an ultimate professional inside the white house. i was told by one source that her loss is a tremendous loss. i think she was frustrated to be very honest. and i think that reince priebus, jared kushner, and steve bannon were stall looking for a place for her to land and this job seems to be the perfect fit. >> the outside job. >> the outside job, you know, running this independent group is that going to provide air cover for donald trump's white house. it's the perfect place for her to land. i will tell you that in talking to somebody both outside the white house and inside the white house today, they do believe it's going to be a big loss for them over there. >> it comes at a time when there's so much going on. neal, i want to bring you into this as well. the next week the chinese president is coming to the united states. he'll be meeting with president

trump at mar-a-lago down in palm beach. >> apparently the chient nienesr wanted to have a more informal outing. big fancy club. golfing goes on down there. he met with the japanese leader there. this will be a tough conversation. it hasn't been exactly on good relationship that this president established from the get go with the chinese leader. had to sort of walk back this idea of recognizing china and pledge that the united states would recognize the one china rule and donald trump has also talked about currency manipulation. said that china is raping this country in terms of currency in trade. this will be a tough i think conversation and maybe it's best that it's at mar-a-lago. >> everybody stand by. once again the white house press briefing is about to begin with sean spicer. we're also following right now a major announcement from the u.s. commerce secretary wilbur ross.

today ross announcing the government has partnered with at&t to build a broad band network for first responders. our congressional correspondent sunlen serfaty is joining us with details of this announcement. i understand this idea was born out of the 9/11 commission. is that right? >> that's right. this is a big problem that was identified on 9/11 among first responders that the network went down and they weren't able to fully communicate with each other as they handled the cries it. so this was one of the main recommendations of the 9/11 commission. what it does is it sets up a high speed network for first responders to use as they deal with crisises. at&t is backing with up with over $40 billion with the effort. they'll be in charge of building and developing the network that will be overall 50 states. at the department of commerce the secretary really celebrating this as a big win for public and private partnerships.

>> today is a landmark day for public safety across the country. and is a prime example of the incredible prosecugress we can through public private partnerships. >> with that investment and the build out of this network, officials tell me this will create 10,000 new jobs over the next two years. it is a 25 year contract so the potential for many more tens of thousands of jobs are on the table. the first responders i talked to said this is a big win for them. it will make their job much easier once they get the network and get the technology at their fingertips. >> thank for that update. another important development, jackie, i want to bring you into this as well, an interesting tweet this morning from the president. i'll read it to you. the freedom caucus, those are conservatives in the house, will hurt the entire republican agenda if they don't get on the team and fast. we must fight them and dems in

2018. that's the president. the speaker paul ryan at the same time is saying in a new interview he's worried that the president might decide, you know what, let's go work with the democrats on health care reform, repealing and replacing obamacare. all these very awkward signals. >> awkward signals and missing steps. there's no evidence that donald trump has even attempted to reach out to democrats. and then there's the mixed messages. join the team or -- not even or. join the team. we're going to fight them and the democrats. that's not really a good rallying cry if you want to bring someone over to your team. so far a couple freedom caucus members have pushed back calling him a bully saying that they don't really need to go along with his jane whchlt y. when you look at their districts, they don't. so he needs to give them more

incentive, not less incentive to work with this white house. so far we're really not seeing that. >> everybody stand by. they're running a little late over there at the white house. we'll have live coverage of the press briefing with sean spicer. that's coming up. he's about to speak. and answer reporters questions. we'll be right back. ♪ hey allergy muddlers are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® it's starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®.

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wheyou wantve somto protect it.e, at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. legal help is here. the live picture is coming in from the white house briefing room. momentarily, the white house press secretary sean spicer will face questions on what's going on in the senate and house intelligence committees, their investigations into russian meddling in the u.s. presidential election. live coverage coming up. there's one reason, gloria, why

this briefing is running more than 20 minutes late. it was supposed to start at 1:30 p.m. eastern. it's getting close to 2:00 p.m. now. there's a major new story in the kn "new york times" that's just been posted. two white house officials help give the republican chairman devin nunes intelligence reports and "the new york times" names these two officials, a senior intelligence official of the national security council and a lawyer who works on the lawyer national security issues in the white house counsel's office. and i assume there will be plenty of questions to the white house press secretary on this because these aren't just some low-level anonymous officials. these are major players in the national security area at the white house. >> they are. and you know, devin nunes has refused to answer questions about who his source was. he was seen as the cloak and dagger stories on the white house grounds, going to secure

locations to look at documents. the question is whether these documents did in fact come from the white house itself and if that's the case, was that because they wanted to and the transition officials and potential discussions with the russians and a story about unauthorizized leaks and the rest of it and nunes has been talking about the unmasking more than he has been talking about the story that the senate intelligence made it very clear that they are going after today and that's why he's been criticized so much. and by the way, i believe that today he's on a trip to california. >> we saw nunes come out with

this press conference saying that he had to run over to the brief on donald trump on whatever he had found and we found out that he actually got that information from the white house. it was very easy to unmask, to use a phrase that nunes likes to use a lot. if the idea was to help donald trump and sort of run point for him and interfere for him on his behalf, it really hasn't worked. and it seems like there's a coverup here and now they have no credibility. >> he did just meet with schiff, the ranking member. schiff expressed hope that they can get back on trap. when you have stories like this coming out and democratic members see that, the hope fades. >> and we're going to get

reaction from the white house press secretary momentarily. but when you have the senior director foretell generals at the national security council and the top lawyer who works on national security issues at the white house counsel's office briefing nunes who came over to the white house to get this information, these are senior players in the trump white house and presumably that has to be carefully coordinated. >> and as an agent of trump and trying to feed the chairman of intelligence committee about somebody who is a subject of investigation. that cannot work. >> here he comes, the white house press secretary. >> a little bit of delayed reaction. before i get into the events of

today, there's a few items i want to update you on, things that have happened since our last briefing yesterday. the president spoke with prime minister al abidi and a read-out should have been issued. yesterday, 13694, regarding militia cyberattacks. as you know, this notification is required by statute in order to extend the national emergency that the past administration declared. the president believes this significant cyber-enabled activities continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to our national security and economic prosperity. therefore, he's determined that it was necessary to continue this national emergency. last night, a federal judge in hawaii put an indefinite hold on the president's executive order issued on national security. the department of justice is reviewing the ruling and is

considering the best way to defend the president's lawful and necessary order. this ruling is just the latest step that will allow the administration to appeal. a week ago, the u.s. district court upheld the white house's order on the merits. they believe it will ultimately be allowed to move forward. this morning, we announced the president will host president xi in mar-a-lago on april 6th and 7th. they will chart a way forward for a bilateral between the two nations. and now on to some of the events of today. this morning, the president had a meeting with treasury secretary mnuchin along with the economic council and the rest of the president's teams of experts have been meeting with and hearing from stakeholders on all sides of the tax reform debate.

tax reform has been a centerpiece of the president's agenda since the beginning of his campaign. the team is weighing the best option to develop a plan that provides middle class tax relieve and make american businesses more competitive. enacting the first tax reform since 1980, it's going to be a serious undertaking and we're at the first stage of this process, beginning to engage with members of congress, industry constituents from around the country and other stakeholders. tax reform has been a part of the political discussion for years and accordingly, people have lots of ideas about it. we intend to hear from them. he will meet with those who support and oppose the various policy options that sit on the table because the president on the hill this morning was glad the nomination of agricultural nominee, governor sunny perdue

advanced out of committee. all thousand he's disappointed to see deblmocratic senators wh approved alex acosta, the labor secretary designee, have stuck to a party line vote. the president looks forward to having him on the cabinet as soon as possible. also, first net announced at&t will build the first broadband network dedicated to first responders dedicated to the emergency and fire and police personnel critical to their missions. it's a sign of the incredible ability of public/private partnerships to drive innovation and solve some of our biggest issues while creating jobs and growing the economy. back to the schedule this afternoon, the president hosted a legislative affairs lunch on opioid and drug abuse. it was