hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 6:00 p.m. in london. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. happening this hour, the white house press briefing, sean spicer will brief reporters, take questions. among the likely topics many including the fate of health care. right now on capitol hill vice president mike pence and republican senators are behind closed doors considering the right path forward to try to achieve health care reform. there will also be many questions about the russia investigation. the national security agency director has a stark warning with possible russian election interference in the future. plus top republican senator lindsey graham now says he wants to investigate president trump's business dealings involving

russia. joining us now are white house correspondent sara murray and manu raju. manu, you had a chance to speak with senator graham a little while ago. what did he tell you? >> that's right. we did talk about a hearing that he had yesterday in which sally yates and james clapper did testify before his committee. he did say he felt that sally yates did an incredible job and he also said that perhaps donald trump kept michael flynn in that position for 18 days as national security adviser, even as he was warned he could vehicle blackmailed because, quote, trump is very loyal to michael flynn. what intrigued lindsey graham was an exchange he had with james clapper about possible business connections between trump interests and russian interests and clapper's refusal to respond. listen to his exchange from yesterday. >> general clapper, during your

investigation of all things russia, did you ever find a situation where a trump business interest in russia gave you concern? >> not in the course of the preparation of the intelligence community assessment. >> since? >> i'm sorry? >> at all? anytime? >> senator graham, i can't comment on that, because that impacts the investigation. >> so when i talked to lindsey graham about the next steps for his sub kmcommittee, he referend that specific exchange and says he wants to learn more about those business dealings. >> i want to know about what clapper said. i want to know more about trump's business dealings. >> what's the business interest of yours? >> i don't know.

the fbi, according to clapper, i think they're actually looking at that, so maybe that's something we need to steer clear of. what i'm trying to do is find out what happened so we can prevent it in the future. >> do you think his tax returns would be helpful in determining the business interest aspect? >> could be, down the road. >> so i asked him would you be willing to support for those tax returns. he said he did not know that yet. we're not going to get to that point. he did say he needs to be weary of what the fbi is doing. but interestingly enough does want to look into that further. also he said that he does want to hear from susan rice, the former obama adviser, about whether or not she was involved in any unmasking of identities. particularly for political purposes. as you know rice declined to appear at the hearing yesterday. he said i don't know if i'm going to subpoena her yet, but he does want to know if she was involved in any way in how this information got to the press. clearly his sub committee not done looking at this issue just quite yet, wolf.

>> clearly he's not going to make president trump very happy by what he said about this investigation into trump's business dealings with russia and including the possibility of trying to get his tax returns. sara, you're over there at the white house. the graham news comes just a day after the rather explosive testimony from the former acting attorney general sally yates and the former director of national intelligence james clapper. so what is the white house saying on this day after about all of that? and i ask you the question knowing i'm sure that the president secretary sean spicer will be bombarded with question about it. >> i think questions about donald trump's ties to russia are going to continue to haunt this administration. from the white house perspective their big take away after yesterday, the point they want to hammer home is that there is still no evidence of collusion between anyone who was associated with donald trump's campaign and suspected russian operatives. after we saw those hearings yesterday, the president took to twitter to air those grievances

saying it was a total hoax. but we know that the fbi is looking into this. i think one thing is notable. we did not hear the white house or the president address some sort of the bombshell revelations that we heard yesterday. the fact that sally yates, the acting attorney general issued a stern warning on more than one occasion about michael flynn, about the fact that he could be compromised, and then that president trump kept michael flynn in that role for 18 days after learning that flynn could be blackmailed. so far the white house has not answer t answered this question of why the president continued to keep flynn on until it became known publicly through news report that flynn was in this this position. >> we'll have live coverage of his press conference. that's coming up later this hour. sara murray, manu raju, thanks very much. the head of the national security agency, the nsa, just testified in front of the senate

armed services committee on cyber threats facing the united states right now. admiral mike rogers says there is a possibility of cyber capability of some of the u.s.'s strongest adversaries, including russia, that could exceed the united states ability to defend itself adequately. he adds the u.s. needs to be prepared for future cyber interference. >> the offensive side in general has the advantage over the defense. which is why the ideas of deterrence are so important here. how do we shape and change opponents behavior. >> in order to do that we would have to have a policy followed by a strategy, right? >> yes, sir. >> do we have that now? >> no, sir. but the new team is working on that. i want to make sure we all understand that. >> and the check's in the mail? >> after looking at the experience in 2016, which you just described, knowledge of penetration, attribution to a foreign state, going after key

systems in this country, some of which have now been designated as critical infrastructure, we have to be much, much better prepared. >> i agree. >> senator mike rounds is on the armed services committee. you heard admiral rogers testimony. senator, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. appreciate the opportunity. >> do you think the u.s. is prepared for a cyber attack potentially by another country, let's say russia? >> i think we're at risk and i think that's what admiral rogers has indicated. as a matter of fact, the science advisory board that gives information to the defense department made it very clear that for the next ten years our ability to defend against those attacks from our peer competitors which would include both russia and to a lesser extent china, is not equal to what their offensive capabl capabilities are. that's why they've indicated over the next ten years we have to have a stronger deternity in place and that means not just a

cyber deterrent, but also the understanding clearly in policy that certain items would want be tolerated. and that's one of the reasons why we've asked for the creation or a clear delin yaiation about cyber act of war f. . if we don't have that in place, others are more inclined to test the waters to find out if we really do have a red line that they could cross. >> did the russians cross that red line do you believe with their cyber activities, interfering in the u.s. presidential election last year? >> what they've actually done is the same as they have in previous years. they've been doing this type of activity for a generation. the difference this time around is that they are getting better at using cyber as a tool. they got in. in the past what they would have done would have been to sneak into somebody's office, take pictures of private notes and

letters and then release them through traditional means meaning r.t. or a news publication or pamphlets. in this case with social media and wikileaks, they were able to not only use sicyber to get in d look at what was on computers, but then they took that information and disseminated it using cyber means in terms of social media, wikileaks and so forth. their actual interference, their actual activity is not new. what is new is their competence, their capability to disseminate information. and it does ring a bell for us that says that, you know, if they're going to do that and they're not going to feel some sort of a price for it, then they'll do it again plch. mr. putin is very good at measuring his competition and fining out what he can get away with. our responsibility is to let him know that he's going to interfere with our election processor at least try to, there will be consequences. that doesn't have to be just

cyber consequence. we should all of our domains available to us. >> the nsa director also confirmed that the u.s. actually warned france about russia interfering with that country's presidential election last weekend. here's what admiral rogers said. listen to that. >> but if you take a look at the french elections, an unclassified hearing, we had become aware of russian activity. we had talked to our french counter parts that were publicly contributed saying we're seeing them penetrate some of your infrastructure, what can we do to try to assist. we're doing similar things with our german counter parts, with our british counter parts. we're all trying to figure out how can we try to learn from each other. >> so senator, how are the world's powers dealing with this growing cyber threat, particularly as it relates to

these elections in democracies across the globe? >> first of all, by getting the information out, that there really is such a thing as fake news. that there really is misinformation out there. to trust your sources. part of that is what happened in france where literally people started to understand that russia was trying to interfere. when that happens, it can have a backlash as well. that slows down their activity in the future. hopefully. but long with that, other companies have to recognize the risk that they take. it's not just a matter of responding in terms of cyberspace. there are other means as well. there's economic activity that can be impacted. we shouldn't limit the type of response to just a cyber response. but if you also noticed, admiral rogers made it clear we have the capabilities to limit what russia is doing. we've got capabilities and they wish they had our capabilities. we just can't be complacent. we senate simply assume that since we've got the capability

to monitor them that we have the capability to stop them from interfering. that's the reason why the science board had made it clear that we have to improve our ability to deter them in the future. cyber is one way in which to do it, to be able to go back in, to attribute who's actually causing the problem, to work your way through the different system, find that organization, and then to be able to respond to them accordingly. in milly seconds if it's under a cyber response or if it means a political means or economic means and in worst case scenarios if everything else fails, military means using the other domains that we have available to available to space. land. air. sea. >> senator, you heard your republican colleague lindsey graham just tell manu raju up on the hill he wants to look into president trump's business dealings with russia. he said he was particular lie intrigued when the former dni chief james clapper had a no comment during yesterday's

senate judiciary sub committee hearing and he added that trump's tax returns could also be helpful as part of this investigation. do you agree with senator lindsey graham? >> well, what i've said in the past is that we like the fact that with the intelligence committee we've taken a bipartisan approach. we respect the members on that committee. we'll listen to what they have to say and we'll respond after they've made their decisions. that decision and the investigation itself being held by that particular committee, which as i say has the respect of the united states senate, i think is a positive thing. if senator graham in going back to the intelligence committee makes that recommendation and they adopt it, we'll support their decision. >> senator mike rounds, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, sir. >> right now the vice president mike pence is weighing in on the future of health care here in the united states. he's meeting with the republican senators as we speak. he's also planning on making a weekly visit. this is part of his weekly visit

to capitol hill. phil mattingly and joining us now. what are you learning about the vice president's efforts. >> they're going to be broad based. there's recognition inside the house and in the senate that they're in the very early stages of this process. despite all of the rang ling that we saw. the senate really is starting over on most of the major pieces here. the vice president's goal i think i've been told over the course of the next couple weeks is to make sure things stay on track. to make sure there is a legitimate effort behind closed doors to work their way on to consensus. there are major issues they need to confront do medicaid expansion, planned parenthood funding. and the house making clear they understand that the senate is going to go its own way on this and probably going to work on its own rather slow pace. but the goal is to make sure they stay engaged and keep this process on track as they move

forward to the hope there's a floor vote where they can get 51 senators and actually move this forward. >> actually, to be precise, they need 50. mike pence as the president of the senate, he can break that tie, right? >> yeah, that's exactly right. they can afford to lose two of their 52 senators and still have vice president mike pence come in and cast the deciding vote, give them 51 and move forward. i think the goal is to try to get as much, if not all of it together. when you look at the issues that kind of divide the conference and divide the republican party here, there's no question that there's a very real possibility they're going to lose one, two, or maybe more senators. that's why you see the white house engaged so early. that's why you see senators being very clear about the fact that there's a lot of work to do behind the scenes to get to the point where they can actually pass something. >> in the senate 52 republicans, 48 democrats. very quickly, the senate majority leader named a 13-member group of senators all male to deal with health care

reform. i take it you're getting new information on the makeup of that panel? >> look. senate republicans are aware this is not a good look. they have five very talented well-regarded female senators. the idea they wouldn't be part of this group is not necessarily a good public scene. i think behind the scenes it's caused frustration among the senators as well. the white house is telling my colleague they believe there will be a change to the makeup of this group. senate republicans say look, everybody in our conference is going to be involved. shelley, a west virginia senator, was involved in today's meeting. they're aware of the optics of this. there needs to be changes made. the white house says those changes are coming. at the moment senate republicans say we want everybody involved throughout. there are several groups working. they know this is a problem and it appears they're working on try to address that problem. >> let's see if they gain some women to that inner group.

thanks, phil, occuup on the hil. we're waiting on the daily white house press briefing. once it begins, we'll go there live. you'll see it right here on cnn. up next, i'll be joined by senator bill nelson of florida. he's a top democrat on the senate armed services committee. lots to discuss with him including what we just heard from the national security agency director about russia and more plus his hopes for health care reform in the u.s. senate. that right after a quick break. but tonight johnson's® can help with a bedtime® routine, clinically proven to help them fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. tonight we sleep™. ♪

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delineation deline president trump meeting with the national security adviser h.r. mcmaster this morning. afghanistan certainly a likely topic. the final proposals for a possible u.s. troop increase in afghanistan expected to cross the president's desk perhaps as early as this week. a boost of troop levels something general mcmaster and secretary of defense james mattis are apparently both in favor of. pentagon correspondent barbara starr is joining us. she's been reporting on. this barbara, what kind of numbers are we talking about when we report that a possible u.s. military troop increase is in the works? >> wolf, what we're talking about is somewhere between 1,500

and 5,000 additional u.s. troops to join the 8,400 u.s. forces already in the country. if it's 5,000, it's a significant increase, but what will these troops actually do? they are set to continue to work on train, advise and assist afghan forces. some could conduct counter terrorism missions, go after the taliban, go after isis, al qaeda remnants. this is pretty typical of what's been going on for the last 15 years, so the real question is would these additional troops be enough pressure to force the taliban to a settlement at the negotiating table? that may be a very tall order. >> and presumably there would be additional nato troops if the u.s. increases its troop presence. is there a decide as far as you're hearing within the trump administration over this strategy of doubling down right

now in afghanistan, 15, almost 16 years into this war? >> well, i think there certainly are some people within the administration who are skeptics of doing it. there are some who are very much of the america first school of thinking and they are not said at least not be supportive of an increase in the u.s. commitment. one of the other things on the table for the president to decide is giving commanders on the ground more authority to conduct their strikes, more authority for more ground operations, the very same authority she's already given them in places like yemen, somalia, iraq and syria. giving the pentagon more authority is something many commanders have wanted, but this is very dangerous business. it also means they have to own it. they have to be successful at it. president trump says he wants to win in afghanistan and there are a lot of people who think more -- just more u.s. troops won't be enough to push the taliban out of business.

>> it's also going to cost the u.s. taxpayers billions and billions of additional dollars. barbara, thanks very much. let me bring in senator bill nelson. he's a democrat from florida. senior member of the senate armed services committee. thanks for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. so it would be smart for the u.s. to deploy as many as an additional 5,000 u.s. traps in afghanistan? >> yes. i support it. but wolf, there's no end to this. i am what we found is in occupy and force never wins in afghanistan. look at the whole history of the country. but at this point i don't think we have any other choice. because if we were to get rid of our 80 to 100, now maybe up to 13,000, the alternative, if they were to leave, it's going right back into the hands of the

taliban. >> but senator, let me interrupt you. if the u.s. couldn't get it done over these past 15, 16 years, when the u.s. had 50,000 troops there, 75,000 troops there, backed by other nato forces f they couldn't get it done with that kind of level and it was a disaster, why do you think it could get done now with an additional let's say 5,000 troops? is it simply a waste? >> your point is it's very difficulty and indeed it is. here's the hope. the hope is stabilizing it enough that you can bring about a peace settlement and that that peace settlement sticks. that's the only hope. >> is that at all realistic, senator, given the history of what we've all seen over these past 15, 16 years in afghanistan? because all of us who have covered that war, there were great hopes early on that there

was going to be a new government, a pro democratic government, the taliban was leaving, al qaeda was leaving. now isis is in the mix and there are reports that the russians are involved in arming the taliban. it looks like it could be just an open ended disaster for the u.s. >> kind of sounds like syria all over again, but it's not just in afghanistan the last 15, 16 years. look at the last century in afghanistan. this is always the case. occupa occupy and power never is the one that finally wins. however, wolf, we don't have any choice. we've got work to try to bring about a peace settlement for the interest of the united states and our allies and i think the increase of some 3,000 to 5,000

troops are a step in the right direction. but be sobered about the future. >> do you have affidavit in this afghan government there? because the u.s. can't want peace for the afghan people more than the afghan people want peace. are you confident that the regime there, the government there, is the right government to lead the afghan people towards some real settlement, real peace? >> well, it's a new day. look for example the rights of women. you're going to have a considerable rebellion among women if, in fact, you were to turn it back over to the taliban. so i think there are some new things that might indicate that there might be a peace settlement successfully. on the other hand, we're dealing with afghanistan. you know the history. >> let me play a little clip. this is the secretary of defense james mattis.

he was in denmark today meeting with some of the nato allies. listen to this. >> in afghanistan we're up against a determined enemy. as i said, isis has been thrown back there. al qaeda have been unable to amount attacks out of afghanistan. the government under the president and cheief executive are committed to working with their responsible citizens and there lies the path forward. when a government earns the respect and support of their people, then no enemy can stand against them. >> i want to get your response to that. what do you think? >> that's a responsible statement. that's what he ought to say. i think he believes that. if there is a possibility that that will occur, then, in fact, we ought to try.

>> it's a fair statement indeed. unfortunately, we've heard those kinds of statements from u.s. defense secretaries, u.s. secretaries of state, and u.s. presidents now for almost 16 years going back to the beginning of this war in afghanistan. the longest u.s. war in american history. let's hope it could be different this time. but i've got to tell you, senator, a lot of people are not very upbeat. another 4,000 or 5,000 troops probably not going to make that much of a difference but we shall see. senator, thank you so much. the fbi is considering kreki correcting the congressional record. this after comey raised eyebr s eyebrows. we'll have details when we come back.

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today's white house briefing set to start any moment. wee goi we're going to bring it to you live. while we wait, the fbi director james comey is take something heat right now. cnn has confirmed that while the fbi director was under oath last week he overstated the number of e-mails hillary clinton aide huma abedin forwarded to her husband. here's what he said last week. >> huma abedin appears to have had a practice of forwarding e-mails to him for him to printout for her so she could then deliver them to the secretary of state. she forwarded hundreds and thousands of e-mails, some of which contained classified information. >> let's talk about this with our panel. politics reporter and editor chris, our justice correspondent

evan perez and gloria borger. what are you hearing from your source sources about what the fbi director said? >> what the fbi director meant to say and what she should have said is huma abedin had a practice and system whereby her e-mails were forded as a back up and they ended up on the computer where they ended up on her then husband anthony weiner. when he described it, he said she had a practice where she would forward them. he actually went into this detail. she would forward them so they would be printed for her perhaps to present to the secretary of state hillary clinton at the time. that was definitely not correct. he came back later on in the hearing and tried to fix some of that. but now the fbi is facing the problem of fixing and correcting the record because this was congressional testimony under oath. there was a tremendous reaction to what he said. it was a lot of criticism from -- certainly from the right about whether or not she should

face some charges because of this. obviously there are not going to be any charges. that ship has sailed so to speak. but the fbi director misspoke, did not say it correctly. >> and he was not not precise on the aspect of classified information. listen to whalt else he said. >> during the following week they reviewed 40,000 e-mails. 3,000 of them were work related and came from blackberry z backups. 12 of them were classified but we'd seen them all before. >> of the hundreds of thousands that wound up on anthony weiner 12 he said were classified. >> this is something that came up during the investigation previously is that these were not marked as classified and she would not have known that these

were classified. they were not housed on a classified system even when she was at work so there's no way for her to have known necessarily that they were classified. it is true that the fbi later determined that some of the -- these e-mails contained classified information. it was the imprecise nature of the way the director addressed it. look, we've all made mistakes in the way we talk about this on camera. he is the fbi director. this is an important -- a very important part of the record. >> so are they going to correct the record? >> they need to fix it. >> i know they need to, but will they? >> we expect they will. they're looking into exactly how they're going to do that. we expect this will probably be a letter that will be sent to the members on that committee addressed to the chairman and rafrpging member rafr ranking member to fix what he intended to say. >> yesterday senator ted cruz went further referring to what

the fbi director said. he said what would you expect to happen, this is a question he asked general clapper, what would you expect to happen if you made a referral of ap individual who had forwarded hundreds or even thousands of classified information? so from the 12 e-mails that contained classified information they discovered expost facto, senator cruz is saying hundreds of thousands of classified information. >> this is the problem in our current politics. the cat once out of the bag doesn't return to the bag. the republicans will seize on that th saying commey was saying that it wasn't right but that's what he said under oath, people like cruz, and i will tell you the clinton folks will be none too happy about the fact that this -- they believe is now a pattern of behavior by james comey. they're very unhappy about his july 6th statement that he went beyond, well beyond saying simply there are no charges, called her extremely careless,

the letter on october 28th and now this. to my mind, under oath, i think evan's point is right. we all say stuff on camera that sometimes we either regret or we just mis -- numbers get wrong. i think that's probably what happened. the point is they view this as a pattern. they will seize on it and say this is more evidence that comey was intentioned in a negative way toward her. this is now the third thing that they will put -- >> comey should have said on those 12 e-mails that contained classified information, should have been precise and said it wasn't marked classified, didn't have the header that said classified. they looked at it and saw there was classified information. >> especially because this has been the subject of so much testimony since he made the announcement last july. he's testified probably half a dozen times on this very matter. >> this goes from your house is on fire to a little fire in your trash can which by the way you can take this bottle of water and douse it out.

i think comey deserves the criticism. i'm sorry. people -- an election was at stake in many ways. a person's life, huma abedin, who was accused of leaking classified information to her husband on his laptop. and all the rest. so i think that, you know, it's incumbent upon the fbi director himself to issue a clarification and i think he's -- you know, his reputation is really very much at stake here. >> another issue, manu raju spoke with lindsey graham. you heard him earlier. lindsey graham saying we need to investigate donald trump's business dealings with russia and that may even require donald trump providing us with his income tax return. >> everything in some ways comes back either to russia or the tax returns or both. look, this is why close listening and watching of the

these -- this testimony is rewarded. so lindsey graham asked the question, or someone asked the question of the panel, and clapper says i don't really want to talk about any investigations regarding trump and his business dealings because i don't want to get in the way of anything the fbi might have going on. possibly the fbi has nothing going on but certainly raised eyebrows. look, donald trump should release his tax returns. the reasons for not doing so are just not very good. his financial disclosure is not a far more comprehensive look at his financial records. the fact that we won the election cannot be read in any fair and factual way as a vote of confidence in him not returning -- releasing his tax returns. you've seen some republicans come out and say he should release them. i think over time you'll see more. >> i don't think lindsey graham asked that question because it just came out and he decided why don't i just ask that question.

i think lindsey graham asked that question because he wants to know more about trump's dealings. and he asked that question to clapper and he knew that clapper wasn't going to answer him and it gave him a reason to start talking about it. i think it was classic lindsey graham very smartly stirring the pot because he does believe that you cannot do a russia investigation without looking at donald trump. >> including his tax returns. >> donald trump will never be fully exonerated in this, which he claims this is fake news and no really story, unless the tax returns are part of it. you can say his business interests are in fact what he says. it's done. mark down the time. >> i'm anxious to hear what sean spicer is going to be saying at this press briefing. everybody stand by. there's another story we're following. protestors in front of republican congressman daryl ice's district in the city of vista, california. they want answers after he voted for the house's health care

bill. let's go to our national correspondent. she's right outside the district office. congressman isn't there but what hear you hearing from his constituents on the ground? >> we're hearing a lot. brought them out here to protest him, his health care vote. i want you to take a look. you can see people are spread all along this front sidewalk right outside his vista office. if you look this way, you see that the crowd just keeps going on and on. it is on both sides of the street. a lot of people here are carrying signs. they say we're coming for you in 2018. grandma's going to vote you out in 2018. they are unified on the single issue of health care. some of them are dressed as the sick and the dying hoping that he sees that at least and they have that laser focus goal of 2018 being the payback for that

vote last thursday. as you mentioned, the congressman is not here. he is in florida according to his spokes person, but we did receive a statement from the congressman and i want you to take a look tt becauat it becau he says is very different from what they're saying. quote, i work hard to cultivate a truproductive open line of communication. the most common story i hear is about how obamacare is hurting californiians. i made a commitment to repair the damage obamacare has caused and i plan to deliver on that promise. certainly, wolf, as you look around here, they don't feel that way on the sidewalk. >> they certainly don't. big crowd over there outside daryl issa's congressional district office. he was reelected but not by a large margin. let's take a quick break. we're standing by to hear from sean spicer, the white house

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to learn more. go long. live pictures coming from the white house right now. sean spicer getting ready to start his briefing today. he'll make a statement as he always does. some announcements. then he'll answer reporters questions. we're standing by. we will have live coverage. one of the subjects coming up is the senate now, it's in the senate's hands what happens with repealing and replacing obamacare. this might want go quickly. this could go on for months and months and months. the senate takes its time. >> i hear's complicated, health care. and yeah, it's going to take a long time because they're starting from scratch. they're not going to take the house bill. at some point, if it gets passed, they're going have to have reconcile with the house. there are some very different ideas over there. they've got some moderate

republicans who have already said if you're cutting planned parenthood, we're not going to vote for this. they have a lot of concerns. and they've also been criticized because their working group is all male. i gather they've added -- i gather they've added shelley from west virginia to that group. >> she was involved in the meeting today, but i don't know if she's being brought into that 13 member all-male panel. >> they're kind of the aware that the picture that presents is not great so i wouldn't be surprised if they would formally add her. >> i'm with gloria. i said from the beginning, their argument always was well we're going to consult with a lot of people. this 13 is a core group. but you should probably put a woman in the room. particularly because susan collins, three off the top of my head that have made substantial considerations, have thought

about what should be -- susan collins is part of an effort to actually put >> it's not the bill they like. >> no. the reason these people aren't in there is because all three of those people are more moderate than the average bear that's in there currently. but these are people they are going to need. they only have 52 senators. they lose three, they are at 49 and don't pass anything. i guess do you try to get them on the front end or the back? do you try to include them in the beginning or add them on once the bill is mostly formulated? i tend to think you are way better off policy-wise to do it on the front end. >> even one issue like funding for planned parenthood, if it's included in the senate version, it's going to have problems with a lot of conservatives among the republicans in the house. >> women's health when you talk about essential health benefits, talk about maternity care is one of the essential health benefits, i would argue it matters to both men and women,

but if states can opt out of essential health benefits, one of those benefits is maternity care, women's health, i would think women might have something to say about that and i would hope men would, too, by the way. but i think in this day and age, you saw the picture around the president when they won their vote in the house and it was largely male, largely white men and you see this picture in the senate, it just doesn't look like america. i think one first step of that is getting at least a woman in there. >> which, by the way, is a problem for the republican party and has been for quite some time. they need to -- politics isn't the first consideration here. how things look. but it should be a consideration given their problems in reaching anyone who is not a white voter at this point. >> let's get back to the russia investigation. it seems almost everyone up on the hill accepts the conclusion of the fbi, the cia, the nsa,

the intelligence community, that russia was responsible for hacking into these computers and getting this information that was awkward, embarrassing to the democrats, especially hillary clinton, during the campaign. although the president still in his tweets, still talks about this whole russia investigation as phony or as a hoax. what's the reaction up on the hill to the president's adamant stance, could have been china, could have been russia? he no longer talks about a 400 pound guy in new jersey that could have been doing this. >> he doesn't but people, i think you heard some members on the panel yesterday actually point out that they don't believe it's a 400 pound guy. obviously there's only so much you can tell the president and just finally you move on because you are never going to persuade or convince him to start saying what actually happened here. i think the adults up there on the hill are working on this investigation to see the extent of this meddling, to see whether

there's any proof that anybody knowingly provided any assistance to the russians, whether they knew what the russians were up to during the time that they were doing it. that's going to be very difficult to prove, obviously. but it is what they are working on. we know there's now a bipartisan investigation on the senate and in the house, they are trying to get theirs back in gear to do that. the fbi is where this is all going to be handled. the fbi will be able to determine what they can prove. obviously there is still a lot that the fbi is fearful that may have been lost simply because when these stories started circulating last summer a lot of the communications stopped, a lot of the overt acts that they were hoping to monitor for some time just stopped. so we will see whether or not we ever get any closure on this. >> i was intrigued, and chris and gloria, tell me if you feel the same way. yesterday when clapper, james clapper, former director of

national intelligence, he said even when he was the dni, director of national intelligence, he did not know that the fbi launched a criminal investigation into these allegations of trump associates being involved, colluding with russia starting back in july, so between july and january 20th when he stepped down, he did not even know there was a criminal investigation. >> what's surprising to us, probably not to evan, but surprising to us how silo'ed these investigations are, as they should be, by the way. that's why when he said he didn't see any evidence of collusion, it's because he want looking at that, he wasn't -- >> he didn't even know there was an investigation. >> he wasn't privy to that information. >> by the way, just very quickly, one of the things that made donald trump's four tweets in nine minutes last night, the first one incorrect that he made his twitter background briefly was that clapper had confirmed there was no collusion.

again, that's not what he said. he said i was unaware of this investigation and it should be noted there is no evidence that we have seen of any collusion. saying that clapper insisted that was the case, what clapper said is i don't know in the same way he said i didn't know this fbi investigation was going on. >> i will say one thing about that. a lot of people talk about this in an imprecise way. first, there is evidence, public evidence of donald trump saying in tweets and on stage during campaign appearances, roger stone talking about this, encouraging the russians to do certain things, encouraging wikileaks. there's plenty -- >> during the democratic convention he had that press conference saying i hope wikileaks can -- >> right. there's a lot of public evidence of attempted coordination, so to speak. what we don't know is whether or not there's any evidence of illegal secret collusion or coordination. that's what they are looking at. for people to say there's no evidence of collusion, it's kind

of a little bit of a red herring there. >> collusion is a word that -- >> right. we saw plenty of it. it was all in public in plain sight. the question of whether or not there's something illegal here, that is the other question that is being pursued. >> i have another question as we wait for sean spicer, and this is on general flynn which we all watched yesterday. was the 18-day gap or remember in watergate there was the 18-minute gap in the taping system? there is an 18-day gap here. and we need to find out what the white house was doing in those 18 days before they fired general flynn and what they knew and when they knew it. >> see what sean spicer is about to say. guys, everybody stand by. that's it for me. the white house press briefing as you can see, running a bit late, should start any minute now. we will have full coverage when we come back. at red lobster's seafood trios you don't have to choose just one thing. choose your trio with any 3 of 9 selections for $15.99.

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so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. you want this color over the whole house? it's just a burst pipe, i co(laugh) it. no. with claim rateguard your rates won't go up just because of a claim. i totally could've - no! switching to allstate is worth it. here we go. top of the hour. you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. we are a couple moments away from the white house daily briefing with sean spicer. we have our eyes on that. he is expected to hit a number of topics including health care, a possible surge in afghanistan and the testimony of sally yates. let's go to sara murray in that briefing room, waiting for sean spicer. quite a me