hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching, thanks very much for joining us. president trump is warning that military conflict with north korea is a possible as his administration nears the 100 day milestone. just a little while ago he boosted about his administration's accomplishments so far. >> we're moving awfully well.

getting a lot of things done. we are -- i don't think there's ever been anything like this. it's a false standard, 100 days, but i have to tell you i don't think anybody has done what we've been able to do in 100 days so we're very happy. >> the president will address the national rifle association's convention in atlanta georgia shortly. we're going to bring you his speech live. it's a remark the president made during a reuters interview that's making headlines. >> well, there's a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with north korea. absolutely. >> the president says he would prefer a diplomatic solution and secretary of state rex tillerson seems to be leaving the door open for north korea talks. at the same time china is warning that the situation runs the risk of spiraling out of control. let's get more on the crisis with north korea and a preview

of the president's address to the nra. a ni athena, that was a tark warnistg about a possible conflict with north korea. what's the message the administration is trying to send regarding its approach to this cries sn crisis? >> well, the message that he and others are sending is that all options are on the table. that has always been the case. the problem is the military option and complicated and dangerous. it's not like the strike the president ordered against the air base in syria a few weeks back. you have u.s allies to think about. that's why diplomacy has been front and center. we've heard the president talk a lot about his hope that china will work hard to pressure north korea. china of course is the regime's main trading partner. and the president has talked

about a progress he's seen on that front. you also mentioned secretary of state rex tillerson who just a short while ago was talking about new economic sanction, the need to increase the financial isolation of the north korean regime and bring maximum economic pressure. the real question is you're hearing this new tough talk from the president. is there a new tough plan? will diplomacy and sanctions work now when they've failed in the past? this is something that administrations have tried to do. tried to pressure north korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. so far that hasn't worked. it's unclear if it's going to work this time. >> a lot more on this issue coming up. this is the first sitting president, president trump, to address the nra where you are in atlanta right now since ronald reagan did that back in 1983. is this a chance for the president to ref up members of his base? what do we expect to hear from this speech? >> i would say absolutely it is

a chance for him to ref up his base. i've talked to a couple folks here who are strong trump supporters. the whole crowd we imagine is trump supporters. 10,000 tickets i'm told were sold. 80,000 coming to this annual meeting but only 10,000 able to fit in this room. in an op-ed in the u.s.a. today the nra executive director, chris cox, sang the praises of president trump. i've also spoke ton to a spokes person who said this has been the most successful 100 days when it comes to the second meant in history. i would expect the president to talk about the importance of protecting gun rights. he may also mention steps his administration has already taken to expand gun rights like removing some obama era restrictions on things like lead ammunition and restrictions that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to buy guns. i think it will be an unthuz i

>> for much of the 100 days in office, his latest warning of a major conflict as elicited a very strong response from pyongyang. for more our international correspondent will ripley is joining us. he's the only western tv journalist in the country. will? >> reporter: wolfe, north korea certainly watching closely. this u.n. security council meeting chaired by secretary of state rex tillerson and also listening very closely to the rhetoric from president trump saying openly that a major, major conflict is possible with north korea. now the regime here ratcheting up their own rhetoric. new commentary from state controlled kcna saying the u.s. will be held accountable for it no matter who made the attack. it has been a busy week here.

we saw that massive live fire exercise. large nest their history they say with a barrage of artillery fire. h hundreds of long range self propelled guns firing. see saw north korea release this propaganda video, showing a simulated attack on white house, the capitol and what appears to be the u.s.s. carl vinson carrier. china saying they are now willing to work with the united states and the trump administration to try to roein n kim jong-un using their leverage they have. at least 70% of north korea trade is with china. they also choelontrol a lot of . but north korean officials are defiant in conversations we're having on the ground. they say they will not be influenced by international pressure from the united states, from the u.n. or from china. they say they have a right to develop nuclear weapons and the

missiles to deliver them. they say they must develop them to protect themselves from what they view as an eminent and growing threat of war with the united states. >> will, thank you. will ripley of pyongyang north korea. we'll get back you to. during that united nations court council meeting we heard this from the secretary of state rex tillerson. >> reporter: the more we bide our time the sooner we will run out of it. in light of the growing threat the time has come for you will of us to butt pressure on north korea to abandon this dangerous path. i urge this council to act before north korea does. >> diplomatic analyst is with us, former spokesman at the state department and the pentagon. what do you think secretary tillerson is trying to achieve at the u.n. security council? >> i think he's trying to do two thing. draw more international attention to the urgency of the

problem and two, really try to galvanize additional sanctions, more diplomatic and economic efforts to try to pressure pyongyang into better behavior. i didn't hear a lot from his speech that we haven't heard before. very similar to the way president obama tried to approach this problem. the difference is, a, the clock is running out and he's right. they're getting more capable every day it seems like. and b, that this particular commander in chief is willing to participate more, to up the rhetoric, to up the sense of urgency in terms of what he's willing to do militarily. >> he was so blunt, the president of the united states in that interview with reuters. there is a chance the president said, there is a chaps thnce th could end up having a major, major conflict with north korea, absolutely. i haven't heard a president openly speak about a major, major conflict because the ramifications of that would be so enormous. >> millions of casualties, not

to mention war just not on the peninsula, but in the region. i think to some degree the president's a little disconnected from his national security team which thas been running a deliberate process on. this i'm guessing, but i think the president thinks by uping the rhetoric, he actually might try to bring china and pyongyang more to the table. >> when the secretary of state opens the possibility of the u.s. establishing a direct dialogue with north korea, the u.s. has not done that, there's been back channels, but the u.s. has not directly done that for quite a while, what do you think? >> if that's what they mean, that will be a huge shift. we've always said we don't want to legitimize the north for actions. north korea needed to prove able and willing to get to the table by committing to denuclearization. they're not going to do that. they haven't and they -- you can

see they have no intention of moving in that direction. i don't think that we're anywhere near a rightness for direct talks with north korea. >> what if they sort of just halt what they're doing? they're not going to give up their nuclear arsenal. what if they make a commitment to china and to the united states, to the international community, they're not going to go further than they are right now? they're not going to miniaturize a nuclear bomb and put to a missile that could hit the u.s.? >> maybe that could be the premise to sit down and talk, but that's where the discussion needs to go in the u.n. is what do we want the north to do now so we can try to solve this peace fully? more pressure, more sanctions, all that is fine, but did hasn't had an effect on them yet. what will it take to get them to the table? >> describe when you say there could be enormous millions of casualties whrk t

casualties, when the president says a major major contradict, certainly within hours or days there would be casualties. >> in the first two hours you could have more than 100,000 casua casualties alone. >> the north koreans have a million troops, but they have thousands of artillery pieces, conventional weapons and seoul, the capital is 30 miles below the dmz. >> it could be catastrophic very quickly. i think what pyongyang is trying to do. they do believe in regime survival. but they want to amp up the situation so much that the international community has no other alternative but to deal with them as a nuclear to nuclear basis. and that's where it gets really dangerous. and this guy's unpredictable. whether he's rational or sane or not sane. he's brutal.

he's ruthless. he assassinates people by using anti-aircraft machine guns. there's nothing rational about that. i think you have to take to him at his word when he issues these threats. >> all right, john. thanks very. john kirby. coming up, live pictures from atlanta where trump is about to address the national rifle association convention this hour. will he talk about north korea or his 100 day milestone? we're going there live. once he starts. plus donald trump's former national security adviser michael flynn at the center of a pentagon investigation into whether or not he hid payments from russia. will the latest news convince congress to rethink flynn's offer to testify in return for immunicipali immunity? we're going to ask adam schiff. he's standing by live. he'll join me right after this.

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. we're following the breaking news. there you see air force one just moments ago landing in atlanta. the president of the united states will head over from the atlanta airport over to the national rifle association's convention in atlanta. it's an effort to reenergize has conservative base no. doubt about that. he'll be speaking in atlanta. soon we'll have live coverage of that once it begins. in the meantime, the white house says it's not to blame for failing to improperly vet its former national security adviser, retired lieutenant general michael flynn. instead it's blaming the obama administration saying it was the president's -- former

president's administration that approved flynn's security clearances. renewed those security clearances in 2016. general flynn was pressured to resign for lying to the vice president about his conversations with the russian diplomat. now the pentagon's inspector general has opened an investigation into flynn for apparently failing to disclose payments he had received from a russian television station. those payments were for an event that included dinner with the russian president vladimir putin back in 2015. i want to get reaction to all these late breaking dwevelopmens with one of the leading investigators with russian interference in the u.s. presidential election. adam schiff is the ranking member of the house intelligence committee. he's joining us live here in studio. congressman, thank for joining us. >> you bet. >> when the white house yesterday sean spicer says it's the obama's administration fault that flynn got his security clearances renewed in 2016, the administration was still in office. they renewed his security

clearances even though a year earlier he went to mos you tcow. there was all that video of him having deny winner with putin. >> this is a continuation in the early days, when they felt the yemen raid hadn't gone well it's obama's fault. now they're saying it's obama's fault that we didn't vet him better. they have the responsibility to vet people they want to place in senior positions. the security clearance forms we have requested on a bipartisan basis in the intelligence committee, we haven't received them yet. i look forward to going through them. there's a question did flynn report any moneys that he received? that may have impaired the vetting process in terms of the agency for security clearance. but there's no excuse for the trump administration here and simply blaming obama, that argument has really a shelf life that expired a long time ago. >> if he didn't disclose the

money he received from russia and for turkey on those security clearance, his request to get his security clearances updated, renewed, that's a violation of the law. >> it is. so i think there are potentially three legal clouds that hangover general flynn. one is whether his receipt of funds of unauthorized by law. another whether he failed to properly disclose to receive these payments when he did his security clearance and also whether he made false statements that are a violation of law. there are probably good reasons why he is now asking for immunity. but it is way premature for our committee to be considering that request. >> his lawyer has suggested he's got a story to tell and he'll tell it to members of congress if you grant him immunity. are you thinking about that? >> well, it's i think very early for us to be considering

something like that. we ought to be interviewing each and other witness. >> have you invited him to testify? >> i'm confident the point will come where we will be inviting him, but we have a lot of work to do before that, to bring in other witnesses that can shed light on the circumstances that led up to his firing or whether there were false statements in connection with any of these issues. we also want to discuss with the justice department their eck qu -- equities and we want to receive a detailed proffer from flynn or his attorney as to what he will say before we would evaluate that kind of request. >> you have hearings coming up next week. tell us about what we can anticipate. >> we have a hearing, closed hearing coming up with general comey -- i'm sorry, director comey and director rogers. >> of the national security agency. that's behind closed doors. that's on tuesday, right? >> that is on i believe may 4th, but we also are trying to reschedule the open hearing with director clapper, director brennan and sally yates. >> that was supposed to be may

2nd, right? >> you know, i can't remember what -- the original date i think we asked the two directors to come in. a closed session was the 2nd. i think they were available a later date that week. so that we anticipate is going forward. >> it sounds like the schedule is changing. are there still problems with the republicans? we remember devin nunes, the chairman, he has recused himself. you've got a new acting chairman as far as the russia investigation. is that cooperation back? is it working? are there still partisan divisions? >> actually it's been very good. very productive. i think mike con away is doing his very beast ast and we're tr to get this on an even keel. we are inviting witnesses before the committee. we're rescheduling hearings that were deferred or canceled. we're working with the agencies to get the cooperation of the agencies we need. so we are now fully back on track. >> i want to be precise.

the fbi director james comey, the nsa director admiral mike rogers, they will testify behind closed doors later in the week, later next week, but the other hearing with sally yates who is the acting attorney general james clapper, john brennan, former cia director, that will be an open session earlier in the week. is that date still open? >> that date is still open. i believe we're going forward with the closed hearing towards the latter part of the first week of may. the open hearing we're still in negotiation with the senate over who will be interviewing what witnesses in open session. but we expect that to go forward as soon as we can pin down the date as well as get the schedules of the witnesses. but in all of this we're working very collaboratively, democrats and republicans together. >> quickly on north korea, you've been studying this very closely as all of us have, when the president of the united states says in his reuters interview there is a chance that

we could end up having a major, major conflict with north korea, absolutely, what's your reaction? >> my reaction is if this was a statement made in complete isolation, it would be one thing. when it's a statement made while we have an aircraft carrier group headed there, when we're in the process of installing missile defense there, this is going to be read very differently. i'm all in favor of putting maximum pressure on china to really clamp down on north korea economically. it's the only thing that will i think cause north korea to think twice about moving forward on the nuclear and missile front, but i do worry about an excess of rattling. it puts the president of the united states in one of two positions. if the north korean goes forward with nuclear tests, what has the president locked himself into doing. if the north korea goes further, miscalculates based on what the president is saying, so pressure

china, absolutely. be very careful about the military sabe or rattling. >> do you faf vor the u.s. openg a direct dialogue with north korea? >> i think at a point we should consider that. the alternative is a military fronttatio confrontation. we need to get some show of progress by north korea and if we do get verification, it will have been to be iron clad. they've cheated before. if we don't have that kind of inspection, they'll cheat again zbl . >> thanks very much for joining us. looking at live pictures. heirs force one just touching down in atlanta. the president is aboard air force one. he'll be driving in a motorcade to the convention. he'll be speaking later this hour. we'll have live coverage coming up in the meantime republican congressman mel brooks is standing by.

his reaction to the president's direct warning for north korea, the one week spending bill just passed in the house and senate, and what's next for repealing and replacing obamacare. lots to discuss when we come back.

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sa rjts. president trump just moments ago getting off air force one. the president aboard air force one arriving. he's going to be heading downtown in atlanta to the national rifle association's convention. he'll be the first sitting president since ronald reagan in 1983 to address the nra convention. get into the limo and head downtown and give that speech. we'll of course have live coverage of that. the president's speech this hour will follow his direct warning that a major, major conflict, his words, quote, major, major conflict with north korea is possible. republican congressman mel brooks is joining us. he's a member of the foreign affairs and armed services. thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> you studied north korea. you know the ramifications, the

enormous impact. this could be the gravest national security threat facing the united states. i don't know if you agree with that and a lot of people believe it is. when the president says there is a chance we could end up having a major major conflict with north korea, absolutely, let me get your reaction. >> that's the way it's been for 64 years ever since the korean conflict ended in 1953. technically the war, never a peace treaty. it's always been a suspension of military activities. fortunately we've not had the kind of outbreaks and the loss of life we had during the korean conflict. i think his statement is consistent with reality, but it's a little bit bold for a president to actually say it. >> that's what i thought too. there is enormous concern. let's not forget there are millions of people who live within 30 miles of the demilitarized zone. 28,000 u.s. troops as well.

listen what-to-whto what he sai interview. >> he's 27 years old. his father dies. he took over a regime. so say what you want. but that's not easy. especially at that age. i'm not giving him credit or not giving him credit. i'm just saying that's a very hard thing to do. as to whether or not he's rational, i have no opinion on it. i hope he's rational. >> rex tillerson, the secretary of state, he said this on fox news. he said all indications are that he is not crazy, referring to kim jong-un, he may be ruthless, he may be a murderer, he may be someone who in many respects we would say by our standards is irrational, but he is not insane? >> your comments? i. >> hope that he is rational. i concur with the president's remarks in that regard. to me i've always thought of him as a very smart person who knows how to act crazy in order to achieve goals. on the other hand t may not be an act. you never know for sure.

there's always some degree of question about how good our intelligence is about the mental state of someone who acts like this dictator in north korea has act. but if he is rational, he must know if you attack south korea or the united states, he will die. that will be an end result. there will be of course people in south korea and the united states that may also parish at the hands of this north korean dictator ship. but if he is rational and he wants to live, then the assured destruction doctrine that we've had with the soviet union, russia and china ought to deter him from engaging on in the kind of military activity on a regular basis. >> i've heard your colleagues saying they don't think u.s. intelligence has been all that great in providing the answer to his rationality. are you confident you know whether the guy is rational or not rational? >> i'm going to skip the rationality is go to a

classified briefing i've had in the last few days. it's quite clear sometimes we are surprised by the advances that the north koreans are making with respect to certain things that i'm not at liberty to discuss. >> military advances? >> i'm not going to get into any details except to say i would expect that same kind of uncertainty applies to the mental state of the north korean dictator. keeping in mind that even under the best of circumstances, we have psychologists and sociologists, whatever, making evaluations. there's always some degree of uncertainty about the mental state of somebody. i say that having been a prosecutor and a defense attorney where we litigate mental states of mind on a regular basis. >> is china helpful right now in dealing with this nuclear threat? >> they can be. >> but are they as far as you know right now? >> okay. i'm going to give a big picture. it's my impression that for years, decades, china has been using north korea for purposes that benefit the chinese. by way of example, to the extent

we're distracted with our strategy thinking, our military to so to south korea and north korea, we're not focused as much as we should be on the advances the chinese government is making there. it might also be that the chinese are concerned that president trump might actually implement that currency manipulation tariff that would have a significant adverse effect on the chinese economy. in turn would mean less money for their military buildup. to the extent they can act like an honest broker, they might be ail to protect this trade advantage they have vis-a-vis the united states and be able to keep back donald trump and the united states effort to try to balance the playing field when it comes to trade. so i see them using north korea in a lot of different ways. that being one of them. >> china is now emerging as the number one trading partner for the united states.

canada and mekxico two and thre. in the midst of all of this the president says south korea should pay the u.s. a billion dollars for the deployment of that anti-missile system in south korea to deal with the potential threat from north korea. what do you think about that? you're on the armed services committee. >> i think we have a $600 billion def set. we have a $20 trillion debt. we're headed to bankruptcy of america if we don't change our path. that's the warning of the congressional budget office and other federal government aemgss. to the extents we can encourage our allies to pay for their own defense, that's a great benefit. >> do you think it's wise to raise that at a moment like this? >> i think it's wise to raise the cost, keeping in mind the admiracle testified before the

house armed services committee when he was chairman of the joint chief of staff, what was the number one national security threat? it wasn't north korea, china, russia or iran. it was our debt. our debt is what long term with bring america to its knees and we better deal with it quick before it happened. >> see if the president can convince south korea to hand over a million dollars for that missile. mo brooks of alabama, up next, reflecting on his 100 days in office, president trump says the job is more difficult than he had imagined and misses his old life. we're only moments away from the president's speech to the nra, the national rifle association. we're going live to that convention in atlanta when we come back.

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president trump just arrived in atlanta. any moment now he's going to be addressing the national rifle association in atlanta. he's in a motorcade. you see pictures of him walking down the stairs at air force one. at this convention, about 10,000

people will be hearing the president. no guns will be allowed inside the presidential speech at the nra convention. that according to the secret service. we're going to go there live as soon as the president arrives. we'll have live coverage of his remarks before the nra. this is the first time a sitting american president has addressed the nra since 1983 when ronald reagan did it then. president trump has been in office now for 99 days, but today the president is admitting he misses his old life. the admission made in a brand new interview with reuters. listen to this. >> i loved my previous life. i loved my previous life. i had so many things going. i actually -- this is more work than in my previous life. i thought it would be easier. i thought it was more of -- i'm a details oriented person i think you would say that. but i do miss my old life. this -- i like to work, so that's not a problem, but this is actually more work.

>> let's discuss with our panel. joining us our cnn political commentator, washington correspondent for the new yorker. ryan. our cnn politics reporter chris. cnn chief political correspondent dana bash and chief political analyst gloria borger. let me get your quick reaction to what we just heard from the president. a lot harder than he thought it would be. >> it's kind of stunning that he didn't think the job of being president would be difficult. and he also sounds to me like somebody who's not happy in his job, wolf. i spoke with a biographer recently for a piece we did on cnn and i asked him whether the president was lonelily. this is a biographer of trump. listen to what he said to me about the loneliness of donald trump. >> i do have the sense that this is a lonely president. this is a man who's always loved

to be surrounded by good friend, long-term friends, by family members. you know, he's now not really having much access to his two sons, eric and donald, jr. his son baron is with his mother at trump tower five days a week. i think this is why he travels to florida so often. i think it's a cure for the loneliness. >> he's not happy. and i think what we heard in the quote from reuters was he's not happy because he's alone but he's also not happy because the job is so difficult for him and more difficult than running his real estate empire. >> dana, what do you think? >> i got nothing. it's really hard for me to be speechless, but i feel like how do you even begin to respond to the notion that the presidency is hard?

okay. yeah. we got it. and it's not as cool as being a billionaire real estate guy/reality star in new york city. makes sense. so what did he think he was going to do? how could he possibly think it was anything other than hard? and anything other than lonely? it's probably one of the loneliest jobs in the world no matter how important it is. >> you wrote an excellent piece about this. go ahead. >> i think he used his inside voice outside. he used the voice that you're supposed to sort of -- i think many presidents feel this way. it is daunting to be the president of the united states. maybe many of them think in their private moments this is incredibly complex and difficult. they just don't tell a journalist that. i think that he is someone, the historian gloria quoted i think is important. he is someone who has always been sort of a home body.

he has homes in lots of places, but a home body who likes a very small core group of people around him who are his family. so now melania and baron are in new york. you have the sons cut off at some level because of the conflicts of interest. you have ivanka and jared kushner as the only family around him during the week. i think of the times painted of him walking around the white house kind of flipping the cable channels, which is not dissimilar to my life. >> you know, something contradictory about trump is he is one of the most dishonest presidents, but he also incredibly transparent and tells you what is on his mind. so this is two sides of the same coin. this is an example of him points for being honest. he's saying the job is harder than he thought. so he's validating i think what a lot of us thought about his

view of the presidency is that he saw it as a sort of acting role that you were just sort of the -- you know, you didn't really have to do a lot of work. you were the front man and a cheerleader for the country. but think of the times in the last few weeks he has said wow, i can't believe it is this hard. on nato, he said i didn't know anything about nato. that's why i said it was obsolete. on health care he said i didn't know it was complicated. >> china and north korea -- >> ten minutes in a conversation with the president of china and he changes his mind about that. this is a guy we are watching learn the job in real time. >> sort of. >> but remember go back to june 16th, 2015 when, you know, people that said okay, all right, fine, he announced for president. and then it got further and further down the road and he started winning and he started doing better. i think there was probably no one more surprised by that than donald trump. >> well, so he went after -- >> no matter what he says publicly, that's exactly what it

is. >> he went after it as a lark and certainly he had very specific issues he was going for. those resonated because he's a master marketer. >> he went at this because he was trying to get a better contract on the apprentice. okay? that's the story. he did not expect to win. and this is just not -- this is a little more difficult than a reality tv show. >> very difficult being president of the united states. it's a good understatement. >> everybody stand by. wayne at the national rifle association is speaking. the president should be arriving there momentarily at the national rifle association convention in atlanta. he'll be speaking fairly soon. we'll have live coverage of that. and all the other important news right after this. ♪

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any moment now, the president of the united states will address the national rifle association convention in atlanta. wayne lapierre is still speaking there. the president momentarily will arrive at that convention center in atlanta. about 10,000 people have gathered inside. we'll have live coverage once the president starts speaking. ryan lizza, this is an important speech for the president. not only are 10,000 members gathered inside for this event but it's his base. >> it's his bates. he's never gotten into gun rights or abortion rights. another week where he thought he

had a health care compromise and doesn't look like they have the votes, his tax plan has complications, he doesn't have a lot of victories here in d.c. his staff likes to get him out of this environment in d.c. and before his base. he'll be doing it today and tomorrow in harrisburg, pennsylvania. >> we started interviewing a group of grassroots conservative leaders at the beginning of the republican nominating process and reinterviewed them this week around the 100 days. one of the biggest takeaways was from conservative leaders, many were not on board at the beginning because they didn't really think that they meant it on conservative issues like the nra and abortion. and they say he does mean it because he's putting his money where his mouth is or pen where his mouth is or the legislation that he supports where his mouth is. that's something that cannot underestimate how big of a deal it is for whom it would be able to support somebody who was pro

choice, antigun, health care system. >> not that long ago, they wouldn't have gotten far in the primary process. >> don't forget, he owes them. they spent $30 million on him. they were the big winners because they spent the most on donald trump and will get the most back and it's a transactional relationship, honestly. and i think, don't forget, they also believe that his son, john jr., who is very pro-gun, now ryan zinke, interior out of montana. they feel that they are protected here. this is an issue for them. it's kind of a give me. it's not that complicated like health care, for example. or the presidency. so i think it's one of those things where he can go before this group and say thank you so them for spending that money. >> getting -- ryan mentioned

getting out of washington and i think that can't be overstated enough. he is very isolated here. there's no question about it. he doesn't have many people around him that he trusts. he has advisers. he doesn't have many family members. he always fuels himself by the energy of those crowds. he was at his best. he was at his best in campaign rallies. now, at his best is something that bothers many democrats and many independents, even some republicans. but at his most trumpian successful messaging-wise, getting in front of a crowd, this is a performer. he is more so than others. somebody who is a reality tv star before this. i think they are smart, to gloria's point, it's an easy win. he's not going to lose a lot of votes here. the people who don't think he should speak to the nra will

never be for him anyway. >> and in red states in which there are democrats -- >> this event and all of us have seen him at these kinds of rallies, you're right, it will energize him. he'll get thunderous applause from the nra members who are there. it will help him on this day 99 leading up to day 100. >> not getting out of congress right now. >> today and tomorrow are events that should energize him going into the next 200 days. >> all right. stand by, guys. that's it for me right now. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern. up next, president trump will speak before the national rifle association any moment now. we'll have live coverage of that when we come back. i'm a concrete mason.

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