song, that's my favorite part of the song. >> great speaking with norah jones. thank you all for joining us at this hour. "inside politics" with john berman starts right now. >> and welcome to "inside politics." >> i'm john berman in today for john king. we are 90 days into the trump administration and just moments away from the white house briefing. press secretary sean spiceral take the stage any minute. we will bring it to you live because sean will no doubt face big questions about georgia. overnight republicans came within a whisker of losing the see the have a equated by tom price. instead the democrat who just fell short of 50% will face the republican who came in second in a runoff in june. sean spicer can also expect a question about the "uss carl vinson," an aircraft carrier which means it's a very, very big ship, the kind you should be able to tell which direction it is headed in.

but that battle armada as the president put it was not racing toward north korea when the president said it was last week. officials blame miscommunication but vice president pence on a tour of the region tells cnn the point is, "we're ready." north korea ranks high on the president's to do list along with tax reform, obamacare repeals, infrastructure, border wall. moments ago, he signed an extension of a program allowing veterans to get medical care outside the overburdened va. joining me to talk about all this, david drucker of the washington com, ml leak, and plaguie haberman also with the "new york times." it's like election morning. there was an election overnight. the biggest since the one last november, no doubt. and jon ossoff almost pulled off a stunner. he almost won this congressional seat in the republican hands since 1979. almost is still just almost. nai

naire president trump thanked himself for what he called a big win. he said "glad to be of help." one republican senator a southerner says essentially we need to be careful. >> the south is changing. atlanta is changing. and i like our chances in a runoff but we need to wake up as a party. there are districts like this all over the country that are getting more moderate. this should be a wake-up call for the republican party in the south. >> we've all been following this race. alex burns, just little picture why the couldn't jon ossoff get to 50? what kept him at 48.1%? >> look, i mean it's not the big, big picture but the medium-sized picture is that this is one of these congressional districts the democrats would very much like to compete in in 2018 but historically it has been very, very republican. last fall, you had donald trump win the seat, a very, very anywhere rowley lead as a president but tom price the incumbent congressman won it by

a huge marge. there is a heavy lift for the party ahead as they try to take more affluent mitt romney type drag them to the center or perhaps meet them closer to the center. jon ossoff didn't quite get there the last night. i do think to graham's point, there are a lot of republicans in washington if ossoff had won would have been hearing that race as the blaring air raid siren who still think it's sort of a red blinking warning light, right? there's not total panic today but there are a lot of folks in the party privately saying this is a signal that folks can't take anything for granted in the current environment. >> of course, maggie, there are people who say this is a referendum on president trump. 90 days into office, this is the first chance the voters had a chance to vote on his administration. karen handel who is the republican who will be running for the seat was asked this morning if she wants the president to come visit. listen. >> do you think that president

trump will come to georgia and campaign with you? >> i, i would hope so. i mean look, we -- all republicans it's all hands on deck for us. we know what's at stake here. i don't think that this is about any one person. it is all republicans, all hands on deck. so we are going to be united. >> what message do you think the white house is getting here? is it glad i helped which is what the president said or is it that you've got a real problem in that this republican district you know might be heading blue? >> i think i'm not clear what the white house is taking from it and what the president is taking from it. what i am clear on from what karen is saying this is still a republican leaning district. this is not a runoff situation or this is a runoff situation as opposed to an 18-person field. it is much better for her to do this as strict republican versus strict democrat you are seeing

signs in various districts and states across the country of republicans starting to creep away a bit from president trump on specific things. so i think you might see her take discrete steps away from him. it will be interesting to see how she calibrates on issues like repealing the affordable care act and core issues where the republicans have been struggling. i do think there were a lot of warning signs from last night's vote. this was not a district trump performed particularly well in. i don't think you can take it strictly as an anti-trump issue. more broadly, there is frustration among voters that republicans have a governing majority. they hold both houses of congress gres and they are still stymied. it's very harded to continue to blame democrats when you hold a majority in congress and you're not passing a repeal. that type of thing will be an issue going forward. >> let the record show you said the republicans are starting to creep away from the president. if you mean joni ernst saying

the president has a lot of flaws -- >> again, though, we have to look at this on a different scale. we saw republicans creeping away from then candidate trump throughout 2016 and still embracing him as it went on. so i think you're going to see as i used the word discreate, here's this is issue on which frankly probably it's not polling very well. i'm going to say this is not great where he is. but generally speaking we support our president. >> we were talking about this earlier. there are people who thought the president's tweeting getting involved in this race repeatedly might have energized the democrats and democratic energy is a big part of the story. >> look, make no mistake. the reason more than $8 million flooded into this district for an unknown 30-year-old with no track record is because democrats and progressives were jonesing to find a way to send a message of opposition to president trump. this was a good race for democrats to test where they are

with educated suburban rites the kind of voters they have to win over next year if they're going to make a dent in the republican majority. but this is all about democratic energy and democratic opposition to trump that is really off charts. what they can take away from this is that they were able to make some inroads and there is evidence that if they fight hard enough and if they recruit the right kind of candidate they might be able to do some damage. on the other hand, it still shows you that if republicans can come together in a lot of these districts and overcome the challenges from the president and in fact the challenges that they have because they can't get enough done yet to maggie's point, then the republicans will still be in good shape and democrats won't have as much to show for all this as they would hope. >> mj, you've been covering town meetings. you get a sense of the democratic energy bubbling up. there are probably are some pretty democratic people coming to the meetings. do you get the sense democrats have figured out a way it larness this energy just yet in

the jon ossoff harnessed some but not 50%. >> there's no other single person who has done more to energize the democratic base than president trump. last week i was in denver covering mike hoffman's town hall. there were a lot of people as in other town halls who claim they were participating in a town hall for the very first time and making banners and posters for the first time. what i found so striking about this town hall was that the topics that these questioners and participants thought were overwhelmingly about health care. most people refer to there house republican health care bill as trumpcare, no the ryan care even though this bill basically originated from house speak ter paul ryan. and a fascinating moment took place at the very end of this town hall when mike hoffman was asked a question about sean spicer's hitler comment. we saw him being in that room, you could tell from the crowd reacting to the congressman starting to explain spicer's comments. it was only when the crowd

started to sort of verbally signal to the congressman that that was not okay that they would not you know accept an explanation from the congressman on the hitler comment that he finally came out and blurted out, he needs to go. >> the idea that we're in a moment of the hitler comment is something we're saying in national politics. >> we all know what it means. >> we'll be talking about the north korea comment with the carl vinson comment coming up in a little bit. i want to hear one last time from jon ossoff who be running in the runoff in two months. listen to how he sees the race right now in georgia. >> we will be ready to fight on and win. june if it is necessary. and there is no amount of dark money super pac negative advertising that can overcome real grassroots energy like this.

so bring it on. >> so he says bring it on. and republicans are going to bring it on. they spent some money already. it is going to flood into that district, alex. do you have a sense that jon ossoff, 30 years old, never run for office before, can take it? >> look, i think in some ways it's counterintuitive somebody who is basically a blank slate would the become the locus of all this political attention. the fact that he's a blank slate is part of why he's been such a tough candidate for republicans to attack so far. he has no track record in government. he doesn't particularly have a track record in the private sector the way somebody who is 55 and a filmmaker might. >> he has no home in the district. >> no home in the district which cuts both ways. but you know, he is sort of this projection screen for national liberal activists and strategists. they can make him whatever they want him to be. now republicans will make him exactly what they want to be. >> it will be fascinating see how hot this campaign gets over the next two months.

there is political breaking news from a fairly well-known member of congress. jason chaffetz from utah just announced minutes ago he will not run for re-election. is he going to stand down from national politics. we got a statement from him. put it up on the screen right now. he says after more than 1500 nights away from my home, it is time. i may run again for public office but not in 2018. for those who it would speculate otherwise it, i have no ulterior motives. i'm healthy. that said, i made a personal decision to return to the private sector. maggie? >> expressing confidence that you would do so well if only you entered the fight is something we've heard from a lot of people who ultimately decided not to run. i think he's in a unique position of having been the person who was so gung ho on the clinton investigations on benghazi on the clinton foundation. he has shown not the same deal as it treats president trump and business conflicts and interest and so forth in his oversight

role. i think he was facing becoming a bellwether of his own if he ran again in 2018 in what is already likely to be a pretty difficult midterm climate for republicans. >> even in utah? >> i don't think that utah's third district was going to be a problem for jason chaffetz. i don't discount there's more to the story than look i want to go make some money and spend time with my family notwithstanding all the time he spent away from his family while in congress. i spoke to republican insiders in utah before the show and they tell me that chaffetz has always been interested in running for governor and eyeing the 2020 governor's race there. somebody we might look to run for there seat is evan mcmullin who in that presidential race dollars very well in utah county, a part of utah's third district. so people talk about evan at times running for senate or this or that. but he sort of developed a base of support in this district and so if he runs, he could be a formidable candidate.

>> that will be fascinating to see. maybe more than hrk, he has staked his whole career as being the anti-donald trump. >> except remember evan mcmullin is something of a -- being a potential spoiler. and number two, i'm not saying i think chaffetz would not win. if somebody has future political ambitions that you could get pretty dinged up in that race even if you win and it could be hindering you going forward. >> stand by. we're waiting on the white house briefing due to begin any minute. we'll take a quick break. we'll be right back back with more discussion and sean spicer next. all right.

sean spicer the white house briefing begins. let's watch. >> to set up for this afternoon's major event. i'm excited to announce that next monday on april 24th at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, the president will speak via video conference with the commander of the international space station peg a whitson and her fellow astronaut jack fisher. in 2008, dr. whitson became the first woman to command the international space station. and on monday, she will break the record for the most time spent in space of any american astronaut. the president joined by his daughter ivanka and nasa astronaut kate ruben will congratulate dr. whitson on this incredible accomplishment and discuss the importance of encouraging women to pursue careers in stem fields, science, technology, engineering and math. as you're all aware in addition to sign sag the nasa transition

authorization act, the president recently signed the inspire women act which insures that nasa continues recruiting women for important s.t.e.m. related jobs in aerospace, an effort particularly important to this president. we're working closely with nasa and the department of education to make this conversation available to be classrooms throughout the country. the department of education will also be providing tools for teachers to build lessons around. this conversation between the president and these two outstanding american who are orbiting 220 miles above their heads. the call will air live on nasa tv and stream on nasa's website and facebook page. and while we're on the topic of upcoming events, i'd like to note the president will welcome palestinian president abbas for a visit to washington on may 3rd. they will use the visit to reaffirm the commitment of both the united states and palestinian leadership to pursuing and ultimately concluding a conflict-ending

settlement between the palestinians and israel. we'll have further guidance on that visit as we get closer to the date. in terms of additional announcements, the president will be giving the commencement address at the coast guard academy in new london, connecticut may 17th. as we grow closer to the date, we will continue to provide updates. to current events this morning the president signed an important piece of legislation for our nation's veterans. the veterans choice program extension and improvement act eliminates the original sunset program which gives veteran who are unable to schedule an appointment at a va facility in a timely or convenient manner the ability to receive care from an eligible non-v.a. health care provider. using funds that have already been appropriated for this program, this gives our nation's heroes the peace of mind they deserve while this administration, would with congress to indicate comprehensive reform and modernization at the va. the vice president is continuing

on his international tour today. on tuesday, he spoke to 2500 servicemen and women on the deck of the "u.s.s. ronald reagan" in jan thanking them for their service and discussing the president's plan to rebuild our military. he then met with and delivered remarks to japanese business leaders and stopped by a youth baseball clinic before leaving japan. he is scheduled to land in jakarta, indonesia right about now. we'll have further updates on his travels the rest of the week. this week is also national park week and secretary of the interior ryan zinkee is currently in california meeting with rangers at five national parks. on monday and tuesday, he was at channel islands national park where he led a class of junior park rangers and today he'll visit golden gate national recreation area. since being sworn in march 1, secretary zinke has met with rangers at nine national parks and ten when he visits shenandoah outside charlottesville, virginia next week. every american has had the

opportunity to participate in the celebration of our nation's parks. they're free of charge this saturday and sunday. anyone interested in finding a local park or information can go to nps.gov. finally i know moments ago, the president announced that he will be holding a press conference next thursday to discuss the progress being made on behalf of our nation's veterans. we'll have further updates on the guidance for next week. with that, be glad to take a few of your questions. john. >> a couple of topics. georgia's sixth congressional district. the fact yawn ossoff pulled in five or six points more than most republicans thought he would have. lindsey graham saying this is a wake-up call to the republican party there's a lot of moderates beginning to emerge in the south to a greater degree that the republican party needs to pay attention to. i don't imagine that the outcome of the runoff is in that much question but does senator graham have something there that the republican party needs to pay attention to the changing demographics particularly the

south? >> well, i think you know that based on my former position, we talked about changing demographics and throughout the country and made significant headway in doing that. in large part, that's why we won. i mean, we have been talking how the republican party had won at so many different levels of our country but the presidency eluded us. this president got 306 electoral votes, i think we did pretty well in november. and we've continued to pick up seats around the country at different levels. i feel very confident about the state of the party. >> the fact that ossoff came so close to 50% -- >> well, again, i would just looking at the facts, there was one candidate on the democratic side. they spent over million. one that they backed. let's -- and i think when you look at the total republican vote, it was over that. this is a district that was very close on the presidential level last cycle and the democrats

went all-in on this. they were clear going into this election, they said their goal was to get over 50%. they came up short. if you look at what his percentage of what it was presidentially it, pretty much tracks. i think this was a big loss for them. the bottom line is they went all-in on it. they said that they -- their goal was to get over 50%. they came up short. >> unrelated issue. tillerson's letter to paul ryan on the jcpoa in iran, is the united states basically saying there's no evidence that iran is cheating on the jcpoa? >> no, i think what the letter says is that the president is direct aginteragency review of the deal as to review that and we have 90 days before the next one comes up. we'll have more. right now the we're undergoing a 90-day review. the statement the secretary of state made to congress clearly stated that the president is directing the national security council to lead an interagency

review of the plan and evaluate whether suspension sanctions related to iran pursuant to the jcpoa are in the vital interests of the national security, of our national security. that's the letter clearly lays out what the president is going to do to make sure that they're living up to their agreement. >> reporter: is the president concerned iran may be cheating on the jcpoa. >> david all bite says they're developing a new centrifuge which he thinks could be a violation. >> i think that's why he's asking for this review. if he didn't, if he thought everything was fine, he would have you know allowed there to move forward. i think he's doing the prudent thing by asking for a review of the current deal and what's happening. >> sean, on the "uss carl vinson," what happened? take us through the events that led to the miscommunication this administration thinking that this vessel was thousands of miles away from its actual location. >> i'm sorry, can you repeat the last part? >> can you take us through the pents that led people within there administration to believe

the vessel was thousands of miles away from its actual location. >> well, pay come put out a release talking about the group ultimately ending up in the korean peninsula. that's what it will do. i think we were asked very clearly about the use of a carrier group in determines of deterrence and foreign presence and what that meant. that's what we discussed. i would refer you back to any other issues with that to the department of defense. >> does the president believe that he might have spoken too quickly on this location of the vessel before it was actually. >> the president said we'd have an armada going towards the peninsula. that's a fact. it is happening rather. >> sean, want to follow-up on that. you know, obviously when the president of the united states says there's military hardware going to a region in the middle of a crisis on the korean peninsula, the allies of the united states are encouraged. when that happens to not be the case, they can interpret that as a false encouragement.

how is this white house explaining to sk aouth korea an japan there was no "uss carl vinson." >> respectfully, jessica, i would asked you to either touch base with pay come or the department of defense. the statement that was put out was that the carl vinson group was headed to the korean peninsula. it is headed to the korean peninsula. >> it's headed there now. it wasn't. >> but that's not what we said. we said it was heading there. it was heading there. it is heading there. so that remains -- snoorgs a question the allies have? >> if there's an impression then that's not, there should have been clarification from people who were seeking it. pay come put out a release talking about what its ultimate zestings was going to be. that's where it ended up. >> why did the administration never clarify? because the intent and media reports was that it was headed there now. and now, with all due respect,

we were asked a question. no, no, that's not true. what i was asked was what signal did it send that it was going there. i answered that question correctly at the time that it signaled foreign presence, strength and reassurance to allies. that's a true statement. you're asking me why you didn't know -- i don't know. that's a question that should have been followed up with either pay come or the department of defense. the only question that we were asked was what signal it sends. we answered that very correctly at the time. >> don't you think it was a little misleading? no one found out about it till a picture was posted on a page. >> what part is misleading? >> we were asked a question about what signal it sent. we answered the question what signal it sent. i'm not the one who commented on timing. > what's misleading is people thought it was headed there now. it's going to be there weeks later. >> i understand the question, right. >> but what i'm getting at is, it was announced that it was going. it will be there. we were asked simply a question on that.

i think all other questions should be asked of the department of defense. john. >> reporter: thanks a lot, sean. earlier today china's foreign ministry said that china is increasingly frustrated with north korea. and north korea you may have seen it put out a simulated video over the past 24 hours which shows its missiles attacking, destroying an american city. what's the american white house reaction to that video and also to the comments by china's foreign ministry spokesperson. >> the first part this isn't the first time north korea has put out propaganda tools. i don't think we're going to comment every time they put out a piece of propaganda. it's encouraging to see china continue to move forward and join us in this effort to control north korea. i've commented before. i think that the relationship that the president started building with president x in mar-a-lago is clearly showing some positive signs. china continues to have both economic and political influence over china and so i think it's

important to see them heading in this direction. it's a very positive sign to see them play a larger and larger role. it is in everybody's interests to contain north korea's actions. john? >> how strong is that influence though if foreign ministry spokesman for china which the president is depending on for this particular incursion is saying that he himself, that china itself is frustrated increasingly frustrated with the north koreans? >> well, again, i think from an overall diplomatic sense it's a positive to see china continue to take positive signs aligning with the position that we have on this. that's a positive thing. i think the time will tell. but i think seeing a unified effort to contain north korea's threat is a positive step to protect not only our national security interests but those in the region. gone gizzy. >> thank you, sean. a few weeks ago, i asked you

about the president's upcoming visit to rome and whether or not he would have an audience with this pope. and i pointed out that this is something that's part of modern history going back to 1959 when president eisenhower had an audience with pope john xxiii. you said it was something you would definitely be in favor of. a few days ago, "the financial times" reported that sources within the administration said this was very unlikely to happen and that for the first time since merely 60 years ago, the president would not have an audience with the pope. >> yeah. >> why? >> right now at this time, obviously, we headed to both brussells and sicily. if we updates on the schedule and we're still plenty far away, i'm sure we will let you know about any additional stops. >> are you in touch with the

holy see about -- >> i appreciate the effort. till we have an update, i'm not going to go there. francesca. >> back on iran in the state department's letter to congress, there's been some talk about stricter sanctions on iran for the ballistic missiles test it's been conducting and state finance. >> terror. are you concerned that tougher sanctions on iran would violate it to motivate -- sorry motivate it to violate the nuclear deal? >> well, obviously, any action that we would take if we did is something that gets vetted through the interagency process and all of those kind of considerations are taken in terms of trying to achieve the effect that we want. so sanctions have been an effective tool in many cases and i think that as we mentioned a lot of 250i789s, the president doesn't telegraph what action he's going to take. as reconduct review of options available in this situation, we'll go through the interagency

process and have different entities weigh in. >> in consideration of those potential. >> obviously. we're well aware of any potential negative impacts that an action could have. so regardless of whether it's an economic, political or military action, you always weigh all those kind of options. george? >> one small follow-up on that. the president has said though that he would like to see the nuclear deal renegotiated with iran. how specifically does he plan to get a new deal? is that something that he still wants to do? >> again, that's why we're undergoing this interagency review. part of this is to get the entire team to look at it as part of the next 90 days. review that is required under the deal. so we will have recommendations that will be presented to the president on where the deal stands and how to act further. george? >> reporter: thanks. looking ahead to the 100-day mark and setting an side executive orders, can you say what the single piece of

legislation that you proudest that you got through the congress that was on the president's agenda? >> well, a few things on that. number one, we're not done. we've got a little days before we hit the 100-day mark. what you've seen out of this white house is a very robust agenda of activity. there's a lot of executive orders that i think the president's been pleased with not only what they've done or what they do but what they've done. when you look at immigration in particular, we see a fairly significant drop at the border. i think on jobs, there's been a lot of activity that we've been very proud to see american manufacturing and job creation. but then there's pieces like what we did today i think if you're a veteran who served our country to know that you have additional options to get health care in a timely manner or not just but agee graphically friendly manner so you're not driving hours is helpful and a strong symbol of how we treat our veterans. there's a lot of things the president has done on veterans,

on immigration, regulatory reform. we're now at a dozen congressional review act piece afc legislation that have been signed that have had i think a very, very positive impact and will have a positive impact on job creation. i've noted before to you that only one had ever been signed in history before. that's a private significant achievement for this president and obviously, when you look at the confirmation of neil gorsuch to the supreme court, it's another significant one. we'll spend time talking about this next week. but i think we're very pleased with what the president's accomplished as he noted yesterday in wisconsin, the amount he's done overall has been significant. zeke? >> reporter: two different topics. first, on the potential for a government shutdown next week in the cr. the budget supplemental the white house requested a month or so ago included defense spending

cut and other discretionary spending nondefense included funding for the wall. what is -- is the president going to insist that the cr that will be necessary to keep the government open after next weekend will include all of those priorities or would he accept a an flat cr that would continue the status quo? >> obviously, we're having those discussions can on going with house and senate leaders as we approach this deadline. but as you correctly point out, the president's priorities are very well-known what he wants to do in terms of both military and homeland security. but i think that to start negotiating in public will probably not be a pruchbt thing to do as we get closer to that deadline. i just -- i respectfully we're days away. you'll have plenty of time to see what's in there. >> reporter: sorry. late last night, the presidential inaugural committee released its list of donors in the filing period. it included great amounts of

money, lots of money from corporate donors many of them who have business before the administration. the president who ran on the drain the swamp slogan is concerned about the perception certainly or the potential for any real conflict of interest between some of those donations coming into it supporting his inauguration. >> no, i think it is just like a campaign in the sense that you have -- there's disclosure on this for a reason so you know what's happening. i think funding the inaugural committee has pretty much been a nonpartisan activity that is going back every administration going back through administrations. so this is a time honored tradition. i think a lot of americans and companies and entities are proud to support the inaugural. and i think that you've seen that over time the people who have been -- there are a lot of people who take pride in helping us show the world a peaceful transformation of power. >> richard. >> i want to go back to

wisconsin yesterday. >> you want to go back, huh? >> the president said about the issue with the local dairy producers, dairy farmers that the white house was going to work on that very hard. actually starting today. that's what he said. >> yeah. >> calling canada and asking for solution. has the white house been in contact with anybody in canada in ottawa. >> i'll have an update for you hopefully at some point on that. but i'm well aware of the president's comments on that. i think it's an important issue for people in wisconsin and the president looks forward to following up on that. >> going to go on this point. >> all i will say is that the president is going to make sure we follow up on that. >> quickly, he said that on nafta, he wants very big changes. are we going to get rid of it

once and for all? are we at that point. >> we'll see what pans out in the negotiation. can i just -- >> need some help? >> i think i got this. but thank you. maybe. thanks, man. i'll see you in a minute. >> hold on. >> all right. that was cool. >> real quick, how do you follow that? just to john gizzy's point i want to make sure i know the we will be reaching out to the vatican to see if an audience with the pope can be accommodated. we'll have further details on that. we would be honored to have an audience with his lowell holiness. david? >> thanks, sean. what's the white house reaction to the deportation of juan montez, a dreamer from california. apparently the first one to be sent back. >> that situation is evolving right now. there's a lot of things being

looked at in terms of the circumstances surrounding that. i would ask you to stay in contact with the department of homeland security. >> the did president trump say -- >> again, i don't want to comment right now in the sense there are some circumstances regarding that i think that need to come out or be further looked into. i think getting ahead of that could be an issue. so i just respectfully i would say that i don't want to rush to judgment. i think there's a lot of additional details that are coming out about that issue and i think the department of homeland security is probably the best place to get updates. >> sean? >> helen. >> two topics. i want to ask about ga. two quick ones on that. is the president planning to campaign for the republican challenger there. >> will he go to georgia to get out the vote? >> i don't know. if needed i think the president will make sure he does everything he can to maintain majorities and further the party. we'll see if we're needed. >> is he committing too much

political capital on a race the republicans should be winning easily? >> it's interesting. i thought some of the coverage was intriguing as i watched it. the democrats went all-in on this race and spent over $8.3 million. they said on the record that their goal was to win this race. they lost. and the reaction has somewhat been you know, that they almost won. no, they lost. they made it very clear what their goal was in this race. they spent $8.3 million and threw everything including the kitchen sink into it and lost. not in terms of what their stated goal was. they said their goal last night was to win the race with over 50%. they spent $8.3 million. they didn't run for a runoff. they ran to win last night and they lost. anything short of describing that as a loss is sort of inconceivable to me in the sense that's what they said their goal was to do. they said we want to win tuesday night with over 50%. they came up short of their

goal. they put all the money they had in there, all their firepower and came up short. so it's a loss. there's no -- >> second topic deportations and i'm not speaking specifically about this case. there seems to be a little confusion. if you can clarify, what is this president's position on undocumented immigrants living in this country who have not committed serious crimes? >> i think the president's priorities on immigration have been clearly laid out first and foremost to make sure that people who have committed a crime or pose a threat to public safety are dealt with first and foremost and that we would continue to address immigration going forward. >> i guess my question is those hose have posed a threat. >> as i said, the goal and the focus has been on people who pose a they're the to the national security or in some other way are in violation. >> people have not posed a threat in come cases. it was confusing. > i would respectfully suggest in this particular case, the

facts are not completely out yet. i'd rather not jump to judgment on what's happening. >. >> mara. >> thank you. i want to get more clarity on iran. is the president determined to pull out of this agreement as he promised during the campaign or will that decision be determined by this review? >> i think part of the review, the interagency process is to determine where iran is in compliance with the deal and to make recommendations to the president on the path forward. >> so he might or might not decide to pull out? >> i this i that's why you underdak -- >> this decision has yet to be made? >> that's why he's doing a review. >> because that was a campaign promise. >> i understand that. the point i'm making is he asked account interagency team to conduct a review as the secretary laid out in the letter last night. anita? >> reporter: sean, two questions on one issue. my colleague who is currently in colombia was learned that the

president met with two former presidents of colombia last weekend in mar-a-lago. i think it was set up by senator rubio owes office. some people there are saying it's to undermine the current president's next visit next month before he comes here next month. why was that not released publicly to the press, to the pool at the time and secondly, can you talk a little bit about the point of that visit and do you all stand by the colombian. >> i'll be glad to look into the circumstances. i don't have anything for you at this time. i will get something and read it out. >> are you saying it didn't happen. >> i'm unaware of the circumstance. >> can you get back to me on the policy issue. >> i can. >> why not release that if that's the case. >> because i don't know that it's the case. so till i know, i think it woud be tough to answer the second question. thank you guys very much. we'll have an event for you tomorrow. take care. have a good one. >> a patriots question. >> sean spicer leaving the briefing room.

a couple headlines. number one rob gronkowski poked his head in right there before sean was done. there was also some policy discussed beyond the policy of patriots tied the tight end gronkowski. he talked about the georgia special election and called it a big loss for the democrats despite the fact that democrats got very close to winning a districting in republican hands since '78. on the carl vinson that is now headed to north korea, the white house sean spicer disavowed any notion they were dishonest about it saying we said it was head there had eventually eve though it was headed in a different direction at the time. there were questions about the iran deal, a letter the secretary of state sent recentl certifying iran is complying with the deal. sean spicer says the president ordered a review of this. talk about this briefing. where to begin in maggie haberman, let's clean up north korea first of all because this gets to the issue of honesty which is an issue we all face but this white house maybe faces

questions more often than others. sean spicer says when the administration talked about the aircraft carrier heading to north korea, we were right because it's going to get there eventually. that's like saying i'm going to be 70. not tomorrow. but eventually i'm going to be 70. >> that's a real if for me in terms of getting to 70. look, i think we have seen -- i'm making this all dark right now. we have seen a reluctance by this white house to ever acknowledge being incorrect or being inaccurate or making a mistake. but this was -- it was one of the strangest stories. i don't know of another way to describe it. when it became clear over the last 24, 36 hours that this was not true, this is a white house that has been fond of misdirection. a white house that has done intentional things like this. this does not appear to be that way. you don't get to grade on a curve and essentially say because it got there eventually and it's a big ocean after all which is where there was going,

the needless and corrosive desire to both never admit wrongdoing or an error while also often intentionally saying something that is not true is very problematic when a, this is a public trust job, number one and at some point, again, there will be some issue that is not of the administration's own making where they need people to believe them and why would they. >> their allies at stake here. a major military movement they're discussing here. mj lee, a big loss for the democrats. it's not surprising that sean spicer said that but he basically said there's no other interpretation. it is only a big loss for democrats. there's no lessen to be learned here for the white house. >> clearly sean spicer walked into that briefing room with clear talking points calling this a big loss for democrats and saying it's inconceivable to him anything would go call it anything other than a loss for the democrats. he understands and i think white house officials understand as we

heard someone like lindsey graham saying what happened last night was definitely a warning shot to republicans and i think in the bigger picture, it was so significant because it is going to shift in some ways the way that democrats think more broadly about the 201 midterm elections and thinking about how does this change our map and our strategy. do we want to try to go into the states more typically republican. >> does that broaden our map heading into 2018. >> then there was the issue sean was asked if president trump is going to georgia six to campaign. he didn't say yes. he said we'll do what is helpful. stay tuned on that. and david and alex, on iran, it started out as a technical issue. the secretary of state rex tillerson had to write a letter to the speaker of the house essentially certifying iran is still complying with the nuclear deal there. and the secretary of state said it's true. iran is still a state sponsor of terror but comrooim complying with the agreement right now.

spicer said the president has ordered a review of the entire situation. we're 90 days into the administration. this is the president who said he would rip up the agreement on day one. >> look, i think what's interesting here is the president i think spoke out of both sides of had his mouth on this issue which is not surprising because early in the campaign, he talked about the iran deal being a deal, one he wouldn't have signed and he thought was a disaster but a deal is a deal. since i know deals, i'll find a loophole and if they're cheating i'll make sure they pay for it. as the campaign wore, he seemed to move more in the direction of ripping it up. i'm not surprised that the president has moved in this direction. he is trying to deal with crises on multiple fronts. north korea, you've got syria. jawboning iran now that he's president will require him to back up rhetoric with action. if you pull the u.s. out of the iran deal, you don't nix the iran deal. you simply pull the u.s. out of it. meanwhile the other countries that are a party to it remain with sanctions relief.

unless the president is prepared to lead the, a u.s. effort across the world to try and corner iran and deal with what many people i think rightly believe is a flawed deal that gives iran a path to a bomb in the next ten to 15 years this may be the better play but it's so interesting coming from somebody who criticized everything president obama did and here's another case where he's embrace agobama policy. >> day one, he was going to rip it up on day one. worst deal ever signed he said. now the secretary of state iran is making good under its commitment. stick around. a lot more to discuss including the patriots headed to the white house absent tom brady. we'll be right back.

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all right. welcome back. in politics, 90 days can be a lifetime or the blink of an eye as president trump marks 90 days in office. a little bit of a report card for some of his promises. the obamacare repeal fail. didn't happen. the border wall incomplete. the travel ban another fail a double fail from the courts. the president did withdraw from the transpacific trade partnership. his supreme court is on the

bench as we speak. tax reform is an incomplete right now. so far no tax plan from the white house stall. so far he has failed or declined to label china a currency manipulator. says he's not going to do that despite promising that. to hear the president tell it, it's been 90 days of nonsfop stop accomplishments. >> no administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days that includes on military, on the border, on trade, on regulation, on law enforcement, we love our law enforcement. sfloofr novel administration has accomplished more in 90 days. i just went to the fdr museum in hyde park. they have a chart about the 100 days of franklin rose very. comjs banking acts, abandonment of the gold act. glass stealing, jobs relief. the list goes on and on. alex burns, sean spicer jas was

just askeded about legislative achievements from this white house. there haven't been any. he points to the supreme court and points to regulations and executive orders anytime he's asked. >> the supreme court is a real win. if you were to sort of scale that list of pass/fail grades, you would have to make in order of importance, you would have to have obamacare repeal fail as like this size and everything else as like this size. it's not just that they haven't repealed yet. it's that it blew up on the runway on the launch pad. they're nowhere in terms of getting that done which has been the defining cause of the republican party for nearly a decade now. i think that it's something that's hard to grade as a sort of pass/fail thing. but he haven't even staffed up his administration. the cabinet hasn't been fully confirmed. >> u.s. attorneys earns. >> not nominated. i remember we had a conversation probably five months ago talking about the slow pace of the

transition, how they have to pick things up or we'd still be talking about just filling positions in the second year of the administration. that seems like and i evidentable now. >> the white house keeps dangling this notion we're getting closer. it could happen very, very soon. might it happen very soon? >> right now we have no indication either the white house or members of congress, republican members of congress are making headway on this front especially now that they're in recess and they're really facing and confronting the blowback from having attempted to do this once from their constituents. i thought it was very interesting that president trump was talking about health care and then moving on to tax reform in his speech yesterday because when you talk to republican members of congress on capitol hill and especially talking to them during this health care debacle, their biggest fear was that this health care effort blowing up in such a dramatic way would hinder the party's efforts going forward on any big

pieces of legislation including tax reform because one, it really highlighted the big divisions within the party and you know raised questions about how do we bridge these philosophical gaps and two, there's no real political momentum to do something else in addition to health care reform. so the president can talk about everything he wants to do but he has to sort of confront the realities that this is going it be a big challenge for him. >> this is where you can tie together the president's legislative agenda with this georgia election we've been talking about. if the president over the next couple months is going to ask republicans in genuinely tough districts that are closer than that tom price seat in georgia to walk out on a live for a tough vote on health care and tax reform, he really, really needs karen handel to pull out in the race and look strong at the end of the day. >> he's treating it all the way he treats everything through the prism of the campaign and his business which is a loyalty test. i was thinking about as you were talking about the georgia district, he has remained in

campaign mode. that was essentially the trump cult of personality. he has continued to govern in that way. you cannot govern in that way for many reasons. we have not seen this president as i was looking through the losses column you were listing, he did what we have never seen a president do in plod dern history. there was no outreach whatsoever to the people who didn't vote for him no outreach top understanding people who were not with him and trying to bring people together. he has remained in campaign mode to the point of not staffing up the administration with a lot of people because they were critical of had im. >> david, ten seconds. >> and the most important thing about the failure of legislation is that what the president was supposed to be good at was deal making and negotiating. maybe he didn't know government or policy but he could put together deals. so far he has not been able to deliver on that. that could hurt him heading into 2020. >> incomplete on any and all deals. guys, thank you very much. that does it for us on "inside politics." >> the new england patriots headed to the white house right

now. we saw rob gronkowski there moments ago. all this picks up after a quick break. there's rob gronkowski. >> thanks, man. >> much more from rob gronkowski and wolf blitzer coming up next.

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hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. up first, the white house fields questions about tensions with north korea, the iran nuclear deal and the outcome of a high profile special election in the "uss state of georgia while russian bombers have been spotted off the coast of alaska now for the second time within 24 hours. let's get details from our reporters. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is joining us, senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny is with us, and ivan watson is joining from us seoul, south korea. barbara, what can you tell us about this latest incident much closer to alaska than the first incident involving these two russian