conduct for them to do that. i think whatever followed from that, i'm still trying to understand. >> gentlemen, thank you for helping us understand this a little better. we appreciate you both being here. thank you to the international viewers for watching. "cnn newsroom" is next. and for the u.s. viewers "new day" continues next. >> michael flynn is taking the fifth. >> refusing to testify without immunity. >> when you are given immunity, that means you probably have committed a crime. >> he has a story to tell. >> did you meet with the president or aides while were you there that night? >> no. in fact, i'm sure that people in the west wing had no idea i was there. >> two white house officials found the intelligence and provided it to mr. nunes. >> we invite the house senate and ranking member to review that material. >> the timing certainly looks

fortuitous and probably more than fortuitous. >> it looks like a coverup. >> this is "new day" withes chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> welcome to "new day." chris is off. john berman is joining me. happy friday. >> great to be here. >> we start with breaking news. president trump's fired national security adviser michael flynn offering to testify before congress did they grant him immunity. his lawyer says flynn has a story to tell about russia's alleged meddling in the u.s. election and ties to the donald trump campaign. >> the white house is facing a firestorm. reports showing that white house staffers who gave the house chairman nunes the documents with incidental surveillance of trump associates. we have a lot to cover on day 71 of the trump presidency. we have sara murray at the white

house. michael flynn seeking immunitim. >> reporter: that is right, john. more twists and turns as we dig into the russia probes with the ties of associates and russian operatives. now michael flynn, the ousted national security advisor, says his offer to testify comes with a catch. president trump's fired national security adviser michael flynn offering to testify before the congressional investigators if he gets immunity from progresses cues. flynn's lawyer saying general flynn has a story to tell. he very much wants to tell it should the circumstance permit. no reasonable person who has the benefit of advice from counsel would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized witch hunt environment against unfair prosecution. flynn's lawyer says discussion was the comm discussions have taken place. so far the offer has been not accepted. the trump administration is

battling allegations of collusion among probes in the white house and senate with the russian meddling in the election. the white house declining to comment on the flynn news. >> the very last thing that john podesta just said is no individual too big to jail, that should include people like hillary clinton. five people around her have been given immunity to include her former chief of staff. when you are given immunity, you probably committed a crime. >> reporter: then candidate trump echoing flynn's words. >> if you are not guilty of a crime, why do you need immunity? >> reporter: for weeks, house and senate investigators expressed interest in speaking with flynn in addition to three other former trump an soeshssas >> it is safe to say we had conversations with a lot of people. you would think less of us if general flynn was in this list.

>> reporter: he was forced to resign a month into the presidency. after admitting he misled mike pence with his conversation with sergei kislyak. that is coming after flynn's account and weeks after the j t justice department warned the white house. >> general flynn is a wonderful man. i think he has been treated very, very unfairly by the media. >> reporter: now this white house is insistent that questions about russia are a distraction. officials said repeatedly they believe there is no evidence of collusion between trump campaign officials and suspected russian operatives. it is worth noting the leaders of the senate probe have not gone that far. >> sara at the white house. but wait, there's more. another controversial consuming

washington. several staffers in the trump white house shared files with nunes. nunes then took that information dr directly back to the president rather than his committee and that weird chain of events. cnn's suzanne malveaux on capitol hill with more. >> reporter: good morning, john. the house and senate are not in session today. the congress member at the center of all this, nunes, is back in california for the weekend. the controversy over whether he colluded with the white house to back trump's claim he was wiretapped is taking center stage on capitol hill this morning. embattled house chairman nunes facing growing allegations of collusion with the white house. now reporting that white house officials provided nunes with intelligence reports during the secret visit to white house grounds last week. >> i briefed the president on the concerns that i had.

>> reporter: a bizarre development considering nunes went back to the white house the next day to brief president trump on material he allegedly got from the president's own staff. >> was this an attempt to find post facto justification? we don't have answers because as usual, the white house doesn't answer questions about this. >> reporter: nunes's previous statements contradicting the report. >> by holding the meeting on the white house grounds makes it appear someone in the administration was coordinating the release of the information to you. is that not the case? >> no, that's not the case. >> reporter: the new york times and washington post reporting one of the individuals who let nunes into the white house was brought on by former national security adviser michael flynn. both papers reporting that general mcmaster wanted to fire the staffer, but jared kushner

stepped in and prevented it from happening. >> the timing certainly looks fortuitous and probably more than fortuitous. better the letter, the ranking member asked to review the materials which i have. that suggests, of course, these are the same materials the chairman reviewed. if that is the case, it begs the question why all of the subterfuge? maybe there is an innocent explanation. >> reporter: sean spicer refusing to confirm or refute the report. >> i'm not commenting on the reports. >> reporter: the latest development coming two weeks after president trump suggested that more information would come out to support his still unproven wiretapping claims. >> we will submit things before the committee soon. i think you will find some very

interesting items coming to the forefront. >> on the speculation of whether nunes and the white house engaged in collusion overshadowed the first day of hearings where they delved into the russian disinformation campaign and tried to try to hack u.s. systems. alisyn. >> suzanne, thank you for that reporting. joining us is angus king of maine. good morning, senator. >> good morning, alisyn. how are you? >> i'm well. thanks for joining us on this busy news day. i don't mean your work, but your birthday. happy birlthday. >> thank you. >> enough frivolity. let's get to the news. will you grant immunity to general michael flynn who is asking for it? >> certainly i think it is premature to answer that

question. there is a process that has to be gone through. the committee isn't the decision of the chair or vice chair. we will have to understand what he is proposing. one of your commentators earlier said he is a subject of an fbi investigation. we don't want to do something to compromise that. whenever we do is in coordination with the fbi. >> michael flynn's attorney says he is has a story to tell about russia. meec meaning the ties or hacking or all of. that don't you want to hear that story? >> we do. we don't want to compromise the investigation going forward. we have to understand more detail of what he does have to say. usually when someone requests immunity, they have a story to tell. the other piece is that the fbi is also investigating this matter and as i say, we have to

coordinate with them. all in good time. i think that's the essence of it. everybody wants to get the news today or tomorrow. i don't want to do something and we don't want to do something that would compromise our ability to get to the bottom of the truth of the matter. >> senator, moments ago, the president tweeted about this thing. he said, michael flynn should ask for immunity in this is a witch hunt. s excuse of big election loss by media and democrats. >> i wish he would have taken a couple hours yesterday and watched the hearing we had the senate intelligence committee. there is no doubt whatsoever that the russians were behind an effort to interfere with our elections. that came through loud and clear. number two, there is no doubt this is a russian pattern for

years. one took it back to the '30s. they have been trying to do this disinformation as part of the tool kit. they are doing it in france and germany. to continue to deny that is just flying in the face of all of the reali reality. one of the witnesses testified now we know it was the russians and technical background. this is not a witch hunt. this is an effort to get to the truth of some very important questions. i don't think the president does himself any good by continuing to deny what is established. there isn't whether or not the trump campaign was in coordination with the russians was establish. that is part of the investigation. when you deny the basic facts that the russians were behind, i just think it undermines the president's credibility. >> senator, i want you to

explain what you learned yesterday that makes you say there is no doubt whatsoever that the russians interfered. we have been saying allegedly interfered. what to you is the smoking gun that makes this not alleged, but fact? >> one of the importants pieces of testimony yesterday afternoon, we had four hours of hearings yesterday by jim mandian. he is one of the leading experts in the country on cyber intrusion and cyber attacks and forensics which is how you determine where it came from. he testified at length about the technical background and how they draw conclusions that it has things to do with where is the ip address and what time of day and what are the kinds of standard software and computer language that is used. this is a science. i'm sure there is a bit of an

art to it too. also, this was unanimous conclusion of the intelligence community back last october and again, part of the evidence is that they are doing it right now. we know they are involved in the presidential campaign in france trying to boost one candidate and trying to sully the other. that is established. the longer the white house or president tries to argue with that, like i say, it undermines the credibility then to go forward and say something may have happened, but we didn't have anything to do with it. everything i have seen and particularly it was underlined by the witnesses we had. we know the russians were doing this. it was a very sophisticated operation. by the way, one of the things that came clear yesterday, they will keep doing it. buckle your seatbelts. this is not a one-time deal in

2016. >> there was something else that happened at your hearing. another witness said something eyebrow raising. clint watts. let me play what he said. >> follow the trail of dead russians. there are more dead russians in the past three months tied to the investigation who have as t assets and banks all over the world. >> what does that mean? >> he was following conversation about follow the trail of the money and there have been a number of deaths. vladimir putin's opponents have a way of turning up either dead or sick in some extreme. >> is that connected to the u.s. meddling? >> i don't think you can make that connection. i'm not prepared to make that connection. they may have just been garden variety opponents of the regime in some way.

there may be a connection. i'm not ruling it out. i'm also not saying there was. i think that's yet to be determined. one of the things we learned yesterday. there's a lot more to come. a lot of information out there. we're starting to dig into it on our committee. i think all of us have been to langley and the cia headquarters and going through the classified documents. i have and marco rubio has. i think the other news from yesterday, as you mentioned got buried by the house chair, was we are pursueding in a non-partisan way. i think that is really important. it is not going to be easy. there will be times when it is a strain on that. i think many of the members on both sides realize that vladimir putin is an equal opportunity bad guy. he may have come after the

democrats this time. he could easily come after the republicans next time if it suits his purposes. his purposes. not ours. >> senator, what do you make of the news this morning that devin nunes was provided the sensitive information he saw at the white house by white house officials that we're not naming? >> first, i repeat what chairman burr said the day before yesterday at the conference. i want to focus on what we're doing and not comment on the white house. it is clear that the chairman should not have gone to the white house in the midst of this by himself without informing the committee. as to how they sort that out and what the results are, the house has to sort that out. >> senator angus king. thank you very much. have a great birthday. >> thank you. moments ago, president trump said that general michael flynn

should seek immunity. is that political advice? is it legal advice? is it smart? that's next. what makes this simple salad the best simple salad ever? heart healthy california walnuts. the best simple veggie dish ever? heart healthy california walnuts. the best simple dinner ever? heart healthy california walnuts. great tasting, heart healthy california walnuts. so simple. get the recipes at walnuts.org.

president trump weighing in moments ago on a request from his fired national security vice other michael flynn who is seeking immunity for testimony before congress. mike flynn should ask for immunity in this is a witch hunt. excuse for big election loss by media and dems of historic proportion. let's bring in analyst david gregory and reporter abby phillip and julia icahn. the president of the united states weighing in on someone involved in the investigation. seeking immunity. i'm not sure i have seen anything like that. >> there is a lot we have not seen like predonald trump who ss to take this is as a joke and proceeded by members of the white house staff who had no

business leaking the information. it raises question of who is in control. the white house chief of staff or national security adviser ors white house counsel. who has control or whether there is open season to investigate the leaking that was going on which is trouble some and the president is so upset about. the fact that the president keeps considering this a joke, although he has fired two people close to him. senior advisers as a result of this, seems hard to reconcile. >> juliette, how do you see this? >> i think the way david put it is exactly right. the more the white house views this as a joke, i think it under mines any narrative to defend them selves. you look at the activity last week and mike flynn and the news last night and the white house needs to have a narrative.

there is no question about it. just too many data points to suggest they can ignore this or keep invoking hillary clinton. i also for viewers, remember the rest of the world is also watching this. we tend to think insular. we think of countries like north korea and russia and china and troops in iraq and syria. all of this lack of focus, lack of formality by the white house is viewed by them as well. it will impact how they treat us as enemies or foes. >> the president of the united states is calling an fbi investigation into alleged connections collusion with the trump associates with the russian as as a witch hunt. he is calling a republican led senate investigation into the same thing. a witch hunt.

abbey, you get the president is all in on discrediting any questions at all about possible con da contacts from his campaign. >> he has been for some time. what i think is happening here is this is a president who he says and allies say likes to punch back. that is what he is doing. he is punching back at the folks who he believes are coming after him. the problem is this is very real. it is not just people making comments about him. this is the product of an actual investigation. when he responds to it, he is creating reaction out in the world. we saw this happening with the wiretapping claim. when the president says something, it results in other people taking actions that can then come back and hurt him more. for the white house, this is a real problem. they are trying to move forward on real legislation and issues they want to push and jobs

general. every time the president goes on twitter and pours gasoline on the fire, he is creating a big explosion that is coming back on their faces in a way that is damaging to long-term agenda that is not all about russia every single day. >> david, michael flynn's attorney has dangled this juicy morsel and said to the senate and house intel general flynn certainly has a story to tell. what are we to make of that play? >> we don't know. first of all, anybody who is entitled to seek immunity and not indication of guilt, contrary to what he himself said, and what president trump has said, there are and these investigations, politics gets crazy. you do have not just a committee looking into you, but the fbi and things can get out of hand. you want legal protection.

there's nothing untoward about seeking that immunity. maybe he is unhappy with how he was treated as a result of all this. in the internal investigation and white house that led to him being fired because he wasn't honest about contact was russian ambassador. he certainly has lots of contacts here advising president trump going back to the campaign on the issue of russia. flynn has extensive contact with russia. this all is relevant to the core question. did the campaign work with russia in the attempt to manipulate the outcome of the election? the president gets sensitive of this. we don't have evidence of what russia tried to do actually determine the election? they did try to influence it. the president has to get beyond himself and ego and think about the presidency and importance of the presidency. >> he is calling that a witch hunt.

moments ago, secretary of defense, james mattis, was speaking overseas. he said that russian violation of international law are a matter of record from what happened in crimea and including mucking around in other people's elections. while the president of the united states is calling this a witch hunt, juliette, the general is saying the opposite. again, back to the immunity here. michael flynn is not just anybody. he may have been the most important policy adviser to donald trump during the campaign. for a few days, was the national security adviser in the white house. >> that is right. we need to make clear to viewers we don't know the nature of the proffer. what will he say? people should not say this is all of a sudden in the oval office. we have the proof. that is absolutely not true. the content of the proffer could be there's nothing there to at least proof by michael flynn

there may have been some influence by donald trump or close associates. what we know at the very least is mike flynns was so close to this white house so early on and he was a controversial figure in the national security world. his statements of hillary clinton and lock her up was viewed as a little bit disconcerning for someone in a than fo uniform to be saying that. we know mike flynn has something to say, but we don't know if it is something we want to hear. i will say looking at the white house right now, this is the last thing they wanted. mike flynn is the first person in the inner circle to now suggest he is no longer going to go down with the ship if it is going down. >> interesting to hear the president say he should seek immunity gichbven what you are saying. thank you for being withes us.

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did president trump foreshadow the two weeks in what led up to the officials giving nunes classified reports? let's look back. this is president trump on march 14th. >> you will find interesting items coming to the forefront. >> on march 21st, pressed for evidence of the wiretapping claims, sean spicer might have done something foreshadowing. >> let's see how the week goes. >> march 22nd, the chair the stages committ intelligence committee nunes briefed the media and white house before the committee about getting his hands on intel of incidental collection of donald

trump and associates. on march 27th, we learned he viewed documents on the white house property. the white house's response? >> it doesn't seem to make a ton of sense. >> yesterday, march 30th, the new york times reported two white house officials played a role in providing chairman nunes with the evidence he is describing. within minutes of that report hitting, the white house invited the highest ranking members of the house and senate to view news classified materials recording the 2016 election. let's discuss with this norm eisen and former george w. bush vice other. gentlemen, what did the president know and when did he know it? when did the white house know it? why is it relevant? >> good morning. thanks for having me.

the questions about the president matter because since the russia scandal broke, during the campaign, my bipartisan colleague, professor payne and i said donald trump has a disturbing mystery at the middle of his finances. he denies russian financial connections, but his son before mr. trump ran for president said, they see a lot of russia money in their businesses and russia is very important to their assets. so we need answers to whether mr. donald trump has financial incentives for his bizarre -- >> what does it have to do with the information and when and how nunes got it? >> two words. cover-up. this goes to the whole strange

keystone cop affair of mr. nunes, who is a close trump associate. he sat on the transition team. running to the white house. remember, there are questions about whether he was honest. he said it was not a white house source. hiding it from the committee. parsing through the data in the white house. it has the smack of a cover-up. the critical question is why is donald trump instead of saying as matt's boss would have said, let the chips fall. we'll cooperate. why is he furiously denying and stonewalling? can it be because he has financial ties he does not want revealed? >> matt, your response. >> my response is the following. i don't know this for sure, alisyn. i'll try to answer your questions here. i think when the president initially came out with the tweets with surveillance in quotes, i think he tweeted that.

this is going to be shocking because somebody told him that the trump team was being surveill surveilled. i don't think that should be shocking. i think what we're seeing here is a process. i will give you it is very uneven. i think we're seeing a process whereby the american people and voters are going to see the evidence and they will make up their minds as to whether it was appropriate surveillance or inappropriate surveillance. all of the rest of this, alisyn, is absurd. what it gets to is one basic question about russia and our elections. vladimir putin has tried to affect our elections. all the fbi experts say it. cycle and cycle. it is repugnant. it is nothing new. the idea any of these people involved in the trump campaign had to help vladimir putin do something he is does every cycle. >> i want to press you on one

thing. the timeline is fishy. unless president trump had a crystal ball or to your point, he had actual information how could he have foretold on march 15th where he said i bet something will come out about wiretapping evidence in the next two weeks. >> because i think there is evidence to show that there was inappropriate surveillance of the trump team. >> hold on. hold on. >> let me finish. general flynn was unmasked, which was unlawful. we will find out who did that. were other people unmasked? >> i think leaking classified information is unlawful. unmasking in and of itself is not necessarily unlawful, matt. >> let's not have it both ways. >> i was having it one way there. again, we have to talk about what is legal and not legal. i want to correct you on a few points. hang on. >> if you get unmasked, do you

realize how inappropriatinappro? >> it is not necessarily -- you said unmasking. >> i want to press here. you are saying the reporter did not commit a crime. >> that's not what i'm saying. leaking can be unlawful. unmasking in and of itself is not, which is what you said. >> let me clarify. if the fbi person unmasks somebody and gives that to a reporter, that unmasking is unlawful. >> you now changed exactly what you said. matt, the other point i want to make here. you said that there's no question that russia meddled in the election. which is something that donald trump, the president of the united states, barely admitted to and only after months and months of saying there is no evidence of it. you went farther than the president did. >> that is the key. let me try to answer the question. i think russia tries to do everything it possibly can to destabilize our country. i think russia is a threat to america on the globe. i think the fact that we take

the next step to assume it was the trump campaign that was coordinating with them to do it. they don't need anybody's help. >> you are at odds with the fbi director james comey who announced to the american people last week that the fbi is investigating allegations of collusion with trump associates and russians. he said he would not do that because he was asked a direct question by mike turner fllunle there were credible allegations. >> there is much to agree within what matt said. we should look at the question. there is no proof that anything improper happened with the materials that nunes snuck over in the dead of night. matt, the big issue here and you said it. our country was attacked. i know you are a patriotic american. that is the focus. we don't understand donald trump's own financial ties because he won't release his

taxes to the taxes. to the attacker, we know mr. flynn wants immunity. you have to assert self incrimination to get the immunity. he has incriminating information. that is the focus, matt. attack on our democracy. mr. trump's role. what did he know? when did he know it? if flynn gets immunity -- i agree with mr. donald trump's tweet. we should get immunity. if he has information that is important, get it out there. this is a crisis. our country was attacked. >> ambassador and i could agree. i want to know what russia tried to do in the election and i don't think we hold back on knowing what this information is. let's let the american people know. number two, surveillance is a very, very important thing that happens that the government does and it is powerful. if you allow a president or administration to go beyond the confines of the law and if we find out information that it

happened, we should treat that seriously. guess what? the most recent president can then do the same thing which is a problem. >> you don't know if it is that. >> you don't either. >> you agree with me -- >> hold on. it could be incidental collection? >> let's be clear. if it is what we call incidental, what we know is the charge -- you know what it means? it means almost every conversation that can happen. that is the problem which is if that is given to the president's team and if he is allowed to say who is on the conversation, there are all kinds of ethical problems with that. the ambassador agree was me. >> if you agree we should get donald trump's russia related taxes on that. i would agree on that. >> i always said he should release his taxes. >> they just did. point of agreement. guys, thank you very much. have a good weekend.

america's top diplomat condemning while donald trump is calling on investigations about russia. he is calling the investigations a witch hunt. why isn't the administration on the same page? we have a live report for you next. did. e process through usaa effortless, that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life.

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and the butchery begins. what am i gonna wear? this party is super fancy. let's go. i'm ready. are you my uber? [ horn honks ] hold on. the biggest week in tv is back. [ doorbell rings ] par-tay! xfinity watchathon week starts april 3. get unlimited access to all of netflix and more, free with xfinity on demand. secretary of state rex tillerson denouncing russian an direction in ukraine. it comes the day after the u.s. no longer wants to oust the leader. elise abbott is traveling for us this morning. good morning, elise. >> reporter: good morning, john. you heard donald trump during

the campaign and talk about a warming to russia and nato being obsole obsolete. you would have thought his top diplomat would have come here enforcing that. rex tillerson arrived here and talked about the need to give nato the resources it needs and working together and talking about countering russian aggression in ukraine and eastern europe, which the ministers will speak about during the day today. then secretary tillerson came from turkey yesterday which his comments really took a significant break with the obama administration. they insisted president assad must go, but secretary tillerson said assad's future is determined by the syrian people. you heard nikki haley doubling down on that. as sad is not the priority. isis is the.

it is clear that they want to focus on the question right now. that doesn't square with allies. i'm sure they will hear about that today. alisyn. >> elise, fascinating to hear the thinking on assad. up next, what leads someone to join isis? clarissa ward talks to a man who is willing to lead and die for isis. she talks about it next. in my johnsonville commercial we open up in the forest. hi. i'm jeff. i'm eating my breakfast and all of a sudden a raccoon come up and ask me, "what are you eating?" i told him "johnsonville breakfast sausage, fully cooked." porcupine comes in and he says, "does that come in patties?"

i said "yup" wolf comes in and says, "how'd you learn to talk to animals?" and i said "books" and we had a good laugh about that. [laughter] that's a commercial made the johnsonville way.

one rookie stands apart. he had to go beyond the call of duty just to make the force. >> you all set to go? okay. >> this is the officer's first week as a police officer. but the 28-year-old is no rookie. rather, it's been a long painful road getting to the point. >> i was like, i'm so young. i'm not sure if i'll be able to stand again. >> that moment was five years ago, soon after fulfilling his dream of becoming a marine. his first deployment brought him to afghanistan. during a raid, he jumped on an ied. >> i remember the med vac coming

in and saying hey, man, you're going to be okay. you're going to be all right. >> any anger this happened? >> no. i was very blessed to survive the blast. for me to point any fingers at anybody would be silly. i pointed fingers to people to help me. >> it only took him three months of rehabilitation. his next challenge, to join the police force. he knew he had a tough ahead, academy training. this time going through it as a double amputee. >> there was an exercise we did and there was one time where the fist man proceeded to attack me and i fall on the ground and to them it was a good test to see if i would be able to get back up. i was able to just pop back up. >> why was it so important to you that you were able to do everything equally.

>> it wouldn't be fair that i was given something on a golden platter. >> he graduated the academy president of his class, an honor given to him by his fellow recruits and now in uniform again, he is an inspiration to the community he serves. >> cnn new york. >> oh, my nosh. thank goodness for people like that. what an inspiration. >> amazing pictures, too. stunning to see. >> we want to show you this. there is a cnn special report and it gives up a special look at how isis recruits its soldiers in the west. >> meet a 28-year-old isis veteran. he offers a rare insight into the mind of an unrepentant isis

supporter. >> every muslim in the world has to believe in the faith. >> that dream led him to the civil war in syria and to isis. he says he never killed anyone there. >> let me ask you something. if you had been asked while you were in syria to execute someone, would you have done it? >> look, in islam there is the pledge of alliance. >> would you have done it? >> because office to oh bay amir. >> would you have done it? >> it's not a funny thing to execute people. it is something terrible, but, yeah. >> all right. fascinating. it is also fascinating that this guy that you interview, he is

28-years old. a former catholic alter boy from belgium. >> this is what we have to understand. it is no long they are kind of remote foreign threat from people in far away countries speaking in foreign tongues. it's within our own societies now. the internet and the kind of incredible isis propaganda machine has meant their warped ideology has really managed to permeate western society. and we have seen thousands of young people in the west who have been drawn in by the allure of this ideology who have ended up in syria and iraq and joining isis. the question is when they come home, what do authorities do with them. >> that's a good question because he is not an isis fighter anymore. but he's not retired from the ideology. he still believes what he believes, correct? >> this is what is so rare.

i have interviewed a lot of former isis fighters who have come back and normally they don't want to show their faces. they will say they had a complete revelation, they realized it was terrible. he is an unvarnished look at a sort of much more sinister reality, which is i still support the ideology. i regret coming back. i wish i was still there. i say i won't be violent in any way but you realize it is up to security services and they have a very challenging task to determine who is just an extremist and who might actually carry out a violent attack because not every extremist becomes a terrorist. >> you talk about the allure of this radical ideology that drew him and he talked about the motivation being that he wants a kala fate. >> the awe lure was the

romanticism of a brotherhood, of being somebody. you have a sense of purpose. you're participate anything this brotherhood and we are going to honor ala's law and bring back the golden age of islam and that is very intriguing and seductive message to a lot of people in the west. >> can i ask you one question? the u.s. secretary of state yesterday said that it will be up to the people of syria to ultimate decide the leader of syria, which is a verbal policy it shift, right? it had been the policy of the last administration that they should go. so this effectively change anything? >> effectively, i don't think it changes much auz as you say, john, while the obama

administration didn't actually do anything to make it happen. at the same time, this could potentially be a big mass calculation because one thing the trump administration is possibly not taking into account is that isis was born in the vacuum of the syrian civil war and the terror and bloodshed they have perpetrated sprang directly from the chaos and terror and bloodshed that the regime is responsible more. as long as you have them in power, as long as they are killing innocent people, you will have a magnet or a pull for young muslims all over the world who feel the west has handed us over to this brutal dictator. >> fascinating to watch your reporting. thank you for sharing it with us. to want us tonight for isis behind the mask. it is 10:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn.

we're following a lot of news this morning, so let's get right to it. >> michael flynn is taking the fifth, refusing to testify without immunity. >> when you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime. >> he has a story to tell. >> did you meet with the president or any of his aids while you were there that night? >> no. i'm sure people in the west wing had no idea i was there. >> we invite the senate and house ranking members and chairman to the white house to view that material. >> the timing certainly looks fortuitous and probably more than fortuitous. >> it looks like a cover. >> this is new day. >> welcome to your new day. chris is off. john berman is with me. happy friday. we begin with