did the right thing. that's a butcher. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning. welcome to your "new day." thursday, april 13th. 8:00 in the east. what you heard during the campaign is not what you're getting now from president trump. the president reversing positions on several key campaign promises including what to do about nato, syria, russia, china and economic policy. >> this as u.s. officials tell cnn that there is new evidence that connects the syrian government to last week's chemical attack that killed dozens of men, women and children despite serious denials. day 84 of the trump presidency and why have it all covered for you. let's begin with joe johns live at the white house. >> reporter: good morning. approaching the end of the first 100 days, it's the reversals on foreign policy and economic policy that has seen the most striking this morning. more evidence than ever that

this administration is really starting to see the difference between what works on the campaign trail and what works in the oval office. >> i said it was obsolete. it's no longer obsolete. >> reporter: in a stunning reversal, president trump abandoning his often repeated hard-line position on nato. >> nato is obsolete. in my opinion, nato is obsolete. here's the problem with nato. it's obsolete. >> reporter: asserting it was his criticism that prompted the alliance to start fighting terrorism. >> i complained about that a long time ago, and they made a change. and now they do fight terrorism. >> reporter: despite the fact that it's been a central focus of the military alliance for years. this about-face coming as trump seeks support from u.s. allies amid worsening relations with russia. >> right now we're not getting along with russia at all. >> reporter: a geopolitical foe, he has resisted criticizing in the past. >> i think i get along very well with vladimir putin. i just think so.

>> reporter: putin says very nice things about me. i think that's very nice. >> reporter: the president now hardening his tone but again stopping short of going directly after the russian president. >> i'll also see about putin over a period of time. be a fantastic thing if we got along with putin. >> reporter: however, mr. trump made his feelings clear about syria's brutal dictator. >> that's a butcher. that's a butcher. >> reporter: a stark contrast to comments from administration officials last week who said then their priority is not toppling assad. president trump still gushing over his summit last week with china's president. >> president xi wants to do the right thing. we had a very good bonding. i think we had a very good chemistry together. >> reporter: telling "the wall street journal" the chinese are not currency manipulators after repeatedly saying so on the campaign trail. >> they are a grand master at currency manipulation. >> nobody has ever manipulated currency like china.

label china a currency manipulator. >> reporter: the president offering an olive branch to janet yellen telling the journal he respects her after saying this last september. >> i think she's very political and to a certain extent, i think she should be ashamed of herself. >> reporter: he prefers yellen keep interest rates low. >> i think our dollar is getting too strong. >> reporter: the comments causing a sell-off of the dollar. >> i want to do health care first. >> reporter: it was just last month the president said he was abandoning the issue after a bruising defeat in congress. now he's threatening to cut off federal payments to insurance markets in hopes he'll be able to force democrats to the negotiating table, which could trigger turmoil in the insurance markets. despite the flurry of flip flops, the president insists one by one, we are keeping our

promises. another good example of this, the president used to bash the export/import bank on the campaign trail. now he's sounding more and more like a supporter. really just an understatement from sean spicer yesterday when he told cnn, circumstances change. alisyn and chris, back to you. >> joe, appreciate it. david gregory and april ryan and reporter and editor at large of cnn politics, chris cillizza. editor at large. that's a strong title. i like that. so there are a lot of different ways to do this. the macro and then we'll get into individual cases. sean spicer says circumstances change. david gregory, they have not. the facts have remained the same. the president was wrong about the facts about nato. about china and its currency manipulation. about the state of play in syria and what it required vis-a-vis his earlier comments about what president obama should do. is he rewarded for accepting

reality, or is this something critics can point to and say we didn't know -- is that him? i'd like it directly from the president if we can get it. he's a very wired man. >> it's a soothing -- >> i would have thought you had a little black sabbath on. what's the answer? >> i think the only reason he's get something credit is he's moderating. people think he's returning to what people always thought. he has this pragmatic core and he's not going to get us into a trade war with china. he's not going to go -- he went in some of those directions right from the start with the travel ban and other things and now he seems -- there seems to be more of an establishment, moderate wing that is influencing him more. but you're right. he's catching up to reality. nothing has changed other than he's realized the presidency is different than i thought. lots of dig decisions. here's the other point. i think that he's realized, he looks at these first 100 days.

the whole reason for his being is to get results. he's got to get some wins up on the board. that's his calculus. it's not a process. it's results and he sees a way to do that by changing some of these. he wants progress on north korea. so that part of it is the open to pragmatism. doesn't have strong principles or ideology. >> april, how do you see it? some call moderating, others flip-flop, others on-the-job training. >> you've listed all the above. most importantly, i believe that this president, just looking at the last couple of days leading into 100 and looking at the man who was running for the office, two totally different people. i believe what he's found now is that as president, we need the world, we are a major power. we are the leader. but at the same time, we need our allies.

for instance, he was talking about china. when he was running for the oval office, being a money manipulator. a currency manipulator. we have a complicated relationship and have had one with china for a very long time. but we need china when it comes to issues of north korea. we need nato when it comes to issues of terrorism. we need these people and he's finding it out in a major way as he's ever made this shake-up in his national security team and he's focussed in on now being president and understanding the real ramifications of what happens if we don't have these groups with us. >> strong point. you can twist reality when you're the outsider. once you get in there and have to own the situations, you have to own the facts as well. chris cillizza y is this happening? this spate of 180 pps is it circumstantial or just a reflection of what's happening around the president. the steve bannon intrigue, the nationalism strain, is it getting beaten down? is this the moderate voice

rising? >> i'm a big believer there are really no coincidences in politics. it seems more than a coincidence to me that trump's move, at least closer to the republican establishment, to a more modera moderate, pragmatic politics dovetails with the fact that steve bannon is the clear ideologue of trump's foreign advisers is being either phased out or diminished. i also think, though, there's a big difference between what you say on the campaign trail and what you can do. barack obama learned this. >> does this qualify as poetry versus prose? this was just being wrong about a situation. china is raping uwhat it's doing with its currency. hadn't been trading down for a year. you know? nato doesn't fight terror. yes, it does. these are factual misrepresentations. is that really poetry? >> it's not a massaging of his

positions. it's an outright change of his positions. i mean there's no debate about that. and it's not just a change of positions by the way, chris, from the campaign to the presidency. it's from two weeks ago to today. i think -- i return to the fact that at donald trump's heart, what is the defining document of donald trump's life? the art of the deal. everything is a negotiation. everything is a deal. the positions he took then, even if then is two weeks ago, he views as, it was the right position to take then but today -- to sean spicer's quote, circumstances change. you can see that if you're a trump alirks that flexibility and willingness to change as a positive, or if you're not a trump ally will say this person lacks any core belief system to govern by. >> this is trump rules here. it's not like anything else that we've seen. normally we just never see this. it's like, oh, well, nato is obsolete but it's not obsolete

anymore. i've just changed my position. it's no longer working for him to go after nato. he sees it in a more responsible way because there's this quality about him he didn't realize what the history was between north korea and china and didn't realize how complicated health care was. >> there's another element. he just met with the secretary-general of nato. that's another defining characteristic that once he meets with china's president or the secretary-general of nato, he then is inclined towards them. that is when you -- >> he wants -- because he wants to be accepted and legitimate. let's go back to the maggie haberman theory. he can't quit maggie haberman of "the new york times" because he loves "the new york times." he loves "the new york times." i love "the new york times." who loves it more than me. but because he craves that legitimacy, even as he wants to lash out. >> go ahead, april. >> i'm going to go back to a comment made recaearlier. he thought when he was running

he could put this business approach to these problems this nation is having and he's finding out it's not about business now. it's about intelligence. and when he first became the president-elect, the intelligence community was so concerned about his approach to the world and to the stakes that are still so high. they were concerned it was going to be more business people at the table than intelligence people. now, before 100 days, he is realizing that intelligence is the leader and that he had to change his scope in thinking when it came to the world. if i was someone who was supporting trump, when he was running for president, i would wonder this morning, is this the man that i really had faith in and what he said he was going to do? a lot of these people thought he was going to do whattee said he was going to do. and that's a big question. how will they, those people taking him literally, look at him now because he has indeed changed? >> gets unprecedented

forgiveness from the base and they're unusually centered on what happens at home. to the wallet, to the economy. that's what they're holding out for. the idea of bannon's in trouble. sara murray has good reporting about bannon's allies circling around him, figuring out his options. the idea that bannon is out, we are ignoring the reality of what that would bring. to have steve bannon on the outside, the strongest link to the base that put the president in the white house, a man known to use the tactics at disposal to go after enemies, what a big deal that would be to have him on the outside with all he knows now. all he's heard. and the base that he can connect to. >> right. in the same way it was something of a coup for trump to bring bannon in. certainly unorthodox to bring him in in the first place and get that media machine on his side. the reverse is also true.

if bannon is out and, you know, not happy about being out, it is possible that that would be a real thorn in donald trump's side. the one thing i'll say, this is a guy with 20-plus million twitter followers. he's still the president of the united states. y could breitbart news turn against hum and that would not be pleasant for him? sure. but donald trump did so many things during the campaign, even in his early days as president that would seemingly antagonize the people who voted for him or supported him and they still voted for him and they still, as far as every poll i've seen, support him. i'm skeptical any one person or one organization could break that bond. the thing he has that every politician wants is he is able somehow to channel the ase, even when he's not really doing things they want. i still think most of those people say he's an outside are. he's doing things differently. he's unorthodox.

yes, i think that's a concern. do i think that that would prevent donald trump from pushing steve bannon out the door? his comments in "the washington post" and "new york times" over the last two days would suggest no. >> you're right. we hear it all the time from his base, they like that he's shaking it up, they like his unpredictability. that's an asset. even if he does a flip-flop or 180-degree turn. panel, thank you very much. >> gregory has to get back to the president who just called him during the show. no, we're kidding. it was a lovely tone. coming up, nato's secretary-general is going to join us to talk about his meeting with president trump. did the president make progress in that relationship? >> cnn has learned that the u.s. intercepted communications between the syrian military and chemical experts discussing preparations for last week's sarin gas attack. cnn's barbara starr is live at the pentagon with more of her reporting. >> good morning.

well, the u.s. intelligence and military community did in fact, get intercepted communications from the syrians as they were planning on executing that chemical attack in idlib that has horrified the world. intercepted communications. it doesn't mean the u.s. knew ahead of time but once they have the time, date and place of the attack, they were able to go back into all those communications, all those intercepts. they scoop up, sift it all out and isolate what happened, what they got on that day at that point in time at that location. it's become a very crucial piece of evidence in the administration's case that they have rock solid intelligence that the syrians executed that attack. what about the russians? well, as we reported here at cnn, there was a russian drone flying over the hospital where so many people fled to try and get treatment for their injuries. u.s. officials say they have reason, they have intelligence that convinces them it was a

russian drone. and a couple of hours after that, the plane comes in and bombs the hospital trying to erase the evidence. and the u.s. now says the russians did have chemical expertise inside syria. they are trying to put the full case together. chris? >> all right. and obviously those facts so important if we might see another pivot from the white house in terms of a disposition towards a major player. in that case, russia. now we have another example of that. the president called this organization obsolete for months. now president trump says they are on the same page. what did the secretary-general of nato take away from his meet with the president? we ask him live, next. think again.ate? this is the new new york. we are building new airports all across the state. new roads and bridges. new mass transit. new business friendly environment. new lower taxes.

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number one, nato is obsolete. number two, the countries of nato are not paying their fair share. >> it's obsolete and we pay too much money. >> president trump slamming nato on the campaign trail as obsolete. today he has a completely different view. >> i said it was obsolete. it's no longer obsolete. >> joining us is nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> just a couple of months ago, mr. trump said nato was obsolete. yesterday said it's no longer obsolete. has nato changed, or has mr. trump? >> first of all, i welcome the very strong support of president

trump to the alliance and nato is the most successful alliance in history because we have been able to change when the world is changing. so nato is constantly changing. now we are stepping up our efforts to fight international terrorism, and we are -- so nato is important for europe but also for the united states. >> was nato obsolete before now? >> nato has always been relevant because nato has been extremely important to be able or to preserve the peace and stability in europe. we know that peace and stability in europe is also important for the united states. two world wars and the cold war have told us all that stability in europe is important for the security and prosperity and nato has been a key tool to preserve that. >> so why did president trump change his opinion?

>> for me, the important thing is that he has been very consistent when it comes to nato in all my interactions and conversations with him. i phoned him just after he was elected. then he expressed strong support to nato. i also talked to him earlier and now met him yesterday in the white house and it has been a very consistent message from him, but also from his security team. secretary tillerson, mattis, mcmaster. the national security adviser. and they have all expressed strong support of nato. at the same time they have underlined the importance of nato increasing its efforts to fight international terrorism. i am working on that. and there is also an importance, a burden sharing. we have turned the corner and european defense spending has now started to increase. >> is that right?

that's fascinating. so when president trump pressed the nato allies to pay more of their fair share, he said the u.s. was the footing too much of the bill, are you saying you've seen a difference in terms of those allies now stepping up more financially? >> what i'm saying is that in 2016, we turned a corner because after many years of decline in defense spending across europe and canada, we, for the first time, saw an increase in the defense spending. >> and to what do you attribute that? why did you turn a corner? >> we decided, all 28 allies decided in december 2014 to stop and to gradual increase and then to move towards spending 2% of gdp on defense. and in 2016, we saw a change. and also i have expressed that

the strong focus of president trump on this issue has been helpful, but, of course, these are decisions taken in 28 parliaments, governments, so there are different reasons. but the main reason for me to be welcoming this development is nato allies are now making good on the pledge they made in 2014. >> so you're happy that president trump has been talking about it, but do you credit him with being the catalyst for this? >> he has helped by having such a strong focus on the importance of burden sharing and defense spending. at the same time this has been something many nato leaders have been advocating in favor of because we have all seen it's possible to reduce defense spending when tensions are going down as we saw after the end of the cold war but intentions are increasing again. we have to invest more in the

defense. and then we had -- we have seen the process where we started to move in that direction and this decision by national government but the strong focus of president trump has helped to push that development. >> it doesn't bother you if he takes credit for it? >> the most important thing for me is that we see an increase in defense spending and that we see a significant increase across europe and canada. we still have a long way to go. so all the issues i discussed with the president is how can we make sure that we keep the momentum and that we continue to see an increase in defense spending. >> tell us about the big headline in your mind from your sit-down with president trump this week. >> it was a very good and productive meeting. first of all, he reiterated his strong support to the trans-atlantic because this is important. strong nato is important for europe but it's also important

for the united states. two world wars and a cold war have taught us peace and stability in europe is important for security and prosperity in the united states. we have to remember the only time nato has involved the defense bills of our alliance was after the attack on the united states, 9/11. and we discussed the importance of nato both for the united states. >> secretary stoltenberg, thank you for sharing your perspective with us. the united airlines fiasco is getting a lot of heat. could it have been avoided with a little change? a lawmaker coming on says yes and his take on whether the democrats will work with trump.

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the outcry against united airlines continues to grow. you saw the video, that passenger screaming like they were trying to kill him as he was dragged off a full flight. lawmakers taking action to try to keep this from happening again. democratic senator chris van holland of maryland joins us.

culpabili culpability, blame, wrongdoing. what would make it better? >> well, chris, the underlying issue here is something many people don't realize. and i didn't realize it either that airlines, even after you have boarded and got on your seat and you're ready to go have the legal right to forcibly take you off the airplane if they've overbooked or something else. obviously, they can do it for public safety reasons if you pose a threat, but i don't think many people realize they can do it if they've overbooked or just want the seats for someone else. my view is once you're on the airplane they don't have any kind of legal right to forceibly take you off. what they have to do is what they try to do before you board which is offer passengers an inducement to deplane. and there is a price at which you're going to get the volunteers to get off that airplane.

that's what they should do rather than have this situation. >> agreed, but they didn't. what is the customer's cargo act and how will they fix this. >> the customer's not cargo act says exactly what i just talked about which is if you have a situation like this in the future, the airline does not have the right to can come up to a passenger and say to you, hey, you're going to have to get off this airplane. what they've got to do is say to the passengers on board, we're going to offer you $1,000 or if that's not enough, $1500 or whatever price is necessary in order to get someone to volunteer to deplane. and there will be a point where passengers do that on a voluntary basis. if you look at this, under the regulations right now if they actually eject you and force you off the airplane, the maximum that they can compensate you for

is $1350. $1350. at some point it's in their financial interest to throw you off the airplane rather than offerincentive. >> it will be interesting how that tracks and how the airline industry pushes back on that. let me ask you about a couple other news items of the day neppresident says he's going to slow down payments to providers of health care to force democrats to deal. he says he doesn't want to hurt people but that will be on you guys, not him. will that get you to the table? >> you know what? this is so reckless and irresponsible. the president tries to say with a straight face it's not going to hurt people, but it will simply throw a monkey wrench into the system instead of trying to mess up the system. we should be looking for ways to improve it. chris, we've always said that

we're willing to work with anybody to improve the affordable care act. what we will not do is be complicit in trying to blow it up and destroy it, which is what president trump and the republicans tried to do, and there was a huge public outcry that helped stop it. so, fix it, yes, but not be party to an effort to undermine the whole process and whole system. >> do you think he has the ability to not pay? is there afternoon existing contrast that he'd, therefore, be violating. and do you think you can get enough democrats to work with him to obviate the need for the freedom caucus. they want repeal. they don't care about the replacement part. do you think you could get enough democrats on board to work with the president on working the aca to remove the need for those freedom caucus votes? >> well, chris, we've put a lot of ideas on the table, and if president trump will join with

us on those ideas, we can move forward. for example, one of the big issues in the exchanges is making sure we have enough carriers that can offer health insurance plans and that can create enough competition to keep down the price of premiums and other costs. one obvious way to do that is to create a public option within the affordable care act. that would create more competition and guarantee that in every place in the country, you've got a provider. i certainly welcome the chance to work with president trump on that kind of fix. >> so you think you can get enough vote ooze. >> but this idea that -- >> go ahead, please. >> if he were to come out -- if he were to come out today and say, look, i want to work with democrats and propose the public option, which is a common sense solution, i think we could move forward. but i'm not hearing anything like that. >> right. >> he seems to be trying to get the freedom caucus on board.

and to do that, he has to blow it up more and more and more which is going to be unacceptable. so give me another example. very early on in this presidency, democrats in the senate put forward a plan to modernize our national infrastructure. something candidate trump talked about a lot on the campaign trail. we've not heard anything about how they want to move forward on modernizing our infrastructure. we put forward a plan. join us. rather than engage in these kind of threats to not pay providers and blow up the system and hurt millions of people. >> senator, thank you very much. they say they have to get health care done first. you have leverage there. the bad news is you guys are nowhere close to coming to a deal. thank you for being on "new day." we'll be following this very closely. >> good to be with you. >> alisyn? >> two high-profile apologies this week. the ceo of united airlines and press secretary sean spicer.

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time for the 5 things to know for your new day. president trump reversing his stance on several key campaign issues pulling a 180 on nato, syria, russia. >> cnn has learn the u.s. intercept intercepted word about syrians conducting the chemical attacks. there's a suggestion a nuclear test may be imminent. the u.s. carrier strike group is headed to the region right now. >> the family and lawyers for the united passenger dragged off a plane expected to announce legal action today. the passenger says he is still recovering from injuries. the sculptor of wall street's charging bull statue

seeing red over new york city's decision to keep the fearless girl sculpture in place until february. he says it's distorting the message of his art but new york city's mayor says fearless girl is staying put. camerota scizz says -- >> fearless girl stands. >> strong. for more on the 5 things to know go to cnn.com for the latest. we'll get the bottom line on how the presidency changes a person. that's with david axelrod next. did you think fresh food only comes from a farm? well, think again. nutritionist lisa dreyer has today's food as fuel. >> seafood is one area where going wild does make a difference. i typically recommend wild salmon. especially for children and pregnant and prebreastfeeding women. it has lower levels of saturated

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president trump's campaign trail promises worked for him. now in office he's reversing many of those. is the presidency changing trump or vice versa? let's get the latest from president obama's david axelrod. has the presidency changed donald trump? >> well, clearly, his positions have changed. and, you know, in some ways this isn't unusual. every president changes some positions when he takes office

because the reality of governing is different than the reality of campaigning. george w. bush campaigned against nation building and once the nation was attacked, he ended up sending troops into iraq. president obama campaigned against the health care mandate. once he became president, he discovered without a mandate it would be hard to cover people with pre-existing conditions. so he went forward with it. so this isn't that unusual. what is unusual is how flagrant these changes are in the case of donald trump as a candidate. we all remember his chants about china that were kind of a centerpiece of every one of his appearances and his pledge to name them as currency manipulators and take strong steps against them and so on. and, obviously, that has changed. he said nato was obsolete. that's no longer operative. nato is now relevant again.

and, you know, there are a series of these positions that come very quickly. in donald trump's world, inconsistency is not a sin but losing is. and the last 80 days have not been replete with victories. he's been turned back on his travel ban. he lost on the affordable care act. although he's trying to revive that firkght, i see. i think as he said last week, i don't mind being flexible. the political realities and governing realities are crowding in on him, and he wants to -- he wants to win. >> there's more to plum on this but i want to get your quick take on some news. carter page was on "gma" this morning. he said he could not say that sanctions weren't discussed in his calls with the russians. how big a deal is that? drip, drip, drip, or could be material? >> that's, i think, a pretty big

deal. the next question that will come in, who authorized him to have those discussions? how high up did it go? i mean, it's kind of extraordinary because we have two things going to at once. maybe they're somewhat related but you hear this harsher rhetoric on the part of the administration toward russia even as more pieces begin to fill in on the picture of what happened before the election between members of the trump organization and the russians. and, you know, so we have -- all throughout the campaign, you talk about these changes of position all through the campaign, trump touted his desire to have closer relations with putin. said he thought he could get along with putin. now this very harsh rhetoric from the administration toward putin. even as the picture is filling in on what happened during the campaign. >> that leads us to steve bannon. if president obama had ever called you one, some guy who

works for me, how would you -- i think i'm quoting the president accurately. he said steve bannon is a guy who works for me. wat does that mean about steve bannon's stature now? >> i'm sure there are days he referred to me as a guy i wish wasn't working for me. i think the bannon situation is part and parcel of the first topic we covered. bannon was useful to the president during the campaign. clearly was more than just a guy who worked for him. you don't name just a guy who worked for me as your chief strategist and seat him next to your chief of staff and make him essentially co-administrators of your white house. but as i said, the first 80 days have not gone well for donald trump. and steve bannon was the engineer behind the travel ban that the courts twice stopped. he was very much involved in the fight over the affordable care act. and that's something that donald

trump can't tolerate. >> this idea of him being on the outs, don't you have to factor in what that would mean and how dangerous bannon would be on the outs unless he leaves on his own terms? >> he might want to leave on his own terms. >> what i'm saying is, if you are managing the situation, you have to make sure that this guy, bannon, is okay with it because he's so connected to the base. he is a known user of the dark arts, in coming after people he doesn't like. he can be really dangerous with everything he's seen and heard in the white house, do you want him on the outside? >> that's the calculation the president has to make. very tricky. you don't want to follow down his path but you don't want him outside leading the opposition. he's in a strange netherworld right now. >> thank you, david, for the bottom line. >> up for good stuff? >> that's right. >> that's all i needed to hear.

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but they're different.d kind it's nice to remove artificial ingredients. kind never had to. we've used real ingredients, whole nuts, and natural flavors from the very beginning. give kind a try. good stuff. prom season is approaching. prom is expensive, but not for these teens in connecticut thanks to a pop-up boutique hosted by a group called prom angels. they provide all kinds of donated dresses and accessories. it won't cost the teens or their

parents a dime. one of the prom angel cos-founders says he does it not only for the teens but for the families. >> just allows them to take that money and put it towards college edge education, toward a car. this is just a huge stress reliever. >> nice, prom angels, you're good. >> i have some hideous dresses i can donate there. >> i don't believe that. you are eternally stylish. from the united airlines ceo to white house press secretary sean spicer, who said sorry best? jeanne moos shows us. >> reporter: for a while it seemed stuff dragging an apology out of united. finally the ceo said sorry. >> probably the word ashamed comes to mind. >> reporter: you didn't need a poll to engage public opinion. >> what a week for united airlines. the company lost $255 million in market value in one day.

they could have given each of those four passengers they kicked off the plane their own jet plane. >> reporter: it's been a banner week for apologies. pepsi had to pull their new commercial. the one spoof by snl. >> i stopped the police from shooting black people by hitting them with pepsi. i know. it's cute, right? >> reporter: and then sean spicer had to admit -- >> i screwed up. >> for his hitler comments. >> someone as despicable as hitler who didn't even sink to the -- to using chemical weapons. so you have to, if you are -- >> oh, no. did i just defend hitler? >> reporter: sean spicer versus oscar munoz. the battle of the abject apologies. who grovelled most. >> you saw us at a bad moment. >> not a very good day in my history. >> reporter: take it from brenda lee. ♪ i'm sorry >> my mistake. my bad. my blunder.

♪ please accept my apology >> this can never, will never happen again on a united airlines flight. >> it was a mistake. i shouldn't have done it. i won't do it again. >> i sought people's forgiveness because i screwed up. >> no one should be treated that way, period. ♪ so sorry >> reporter: who was the sorryiest. >> painful to myself to know that i did something like that. >> sean spicer seemed most contrite. one internet poster put him in full apologetic regalia wearing a united uniform holding a pepsi. >> it was insensitive and inappropriate. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn. new york. >> brenda lee. haven't heard that in awhile. you only know who is most sorry by what is next. who doesn't do it again. >> who doesn't do that same thing and who is better as a result. >> it would be a challenge for either of them to do that again. sean spicer did it more quickly. he should get some points for

that. >> agreed. we have some breaking news. let's get right to cnn newsroom with poppy harlow and john berman. take it away, guys. this is cnn breaking news. >> good morning. i'm poppy harlow. >> i'm john berman. breaking news this morning. just moments ago, our first look at an interview from the syrian leader bashar al assad. he sat down with afp and said this whole idea of a chemical attack in syria is a complete fabrication. >> the interview was just feeding in right now. we're going to bring it to you in just moments. as we wait for that, gleelet's o barbara starr at the pentagon. >> good morning. president assad of syria speaking about this and we have not seen the exact words yet. we're aware that the syrian government has placed many restrictions on that interview. so we will have all the appropriate caveats on what the s