tolerance. >> can i get to the question that i had, please? did the president reveal a city? i mean, the spin is that the president revealed a name of the city and that gave away information that undermined an ally. >> okay. so all of you are very familiar with the threat from isis. s all of you are familiar with the territory it controls. if you were to say from where do you think a threat might come from territory that isis controls, you would probably be able to name a few cities i would think. so it was nothing that you would not know from open source reporting in terms of a source of concern. and it had all to do with operations that are already ongoing, have been made public for months. >> back to my question, was this information that we shared with the russians also the same content that was shared with our allies? and specific to this threat

which is the president says was in relation to airlines. is this an imminent threat? was there a justification for in that moment needing to share it with the russians? >> i don't want to get into specifics of what exact information was shared with exact allies, but information on this topic of the threat to aviation was shared with multiple allies. as you know there are policies being put in place to protect against that threat. and you and many others have reported widely on this. >> something that our allies did not. is that what you were saying? >> in terms of the specifics, i can't -- i have no basis for comparison on what was shared with what country. but i will tell you that it was our impression that were all of us that were in the meeting that what was shared was wholly appropriate given the purpose of that conversation and the purpose of what the president was trying to achieve through that meeting. >> general, when you came out after the story broke, you said that the president did not

disclose any sources or methods. he did not reveal anything about military operations. why were you denying things that were not even reported? what the report said is that the president revealed classified information that had been shared by one of our allies in the middle east. so the question is simply a questions or no question here. did the president share classified information with the russians in that meeting? >> as i mentioned already, we don't say what's classified, what's not classified. what i will tell you again is that what the president shared was wholly appropriate. the story combined, what was leaked with other information and then insinuated about sources and methods, so i wanted to make clear to everybody that the president ain no way comp prized any sources or methods. >> do you have any idea how this got out and what steps are you

taking by virtue of discovering this as you did to try to limit the potential for any more leaks of national security? >> i think national security is put at risk by this leak and by leaks like this. and there are a number of instances where this has occurred and i think it's important to investigate these sort of things and to make sure that we have trusted organizations across our government that allows for the free sharing of information and collaboration. in terms of national security, what is critical is that you can assemble the experts you need. you want a bigger group, right? for any of these complex problems because you need their expertise. you need the tools that they bring to bear from different agencies and departments. so what we really have to do is make sure we have a really high degree of confidence in all of our organizations n all of our systems and processes, so we can do what we need to do for the president, which is give him our

best advice and give him options to deal with these problems. >> clearly you can't have that confidence by virtue of what happened yesterday. do you have an idea of how this got out and how can you tighten up the ship as it were to ensure from your perspective at least that this stuff doesn't get out? i think it's incumbent on all of us to bring in the people with the right authorities and mandate to take a look at how this leak occurred and how other breaches may have occurred as well. >> general mcmaster, to put a finer point on it, is there now an active investigation into how this information was leaked and can you tell us about who's running that investigation? i also would like to ask you given that president trump is now going to be meeting face-to-face with literally dozens of foreign leaders, if there are sensitivities to his discretion in what sort of information to decide to declassify, how is that something that you are advising him ahead of this foreign trip? >> well, there are no sensitivities in terms of me or anybody who's been with the

president in many of these engagements. she shares information in a way that is wholly appropriate. i should just make maybe the statement here that the president wasn't even aware where this information came from. he wasn't briefed on the source or method of the information either. so i'm sorry this is going to have to be the last question because we do have the president of turkey coming momentarily. thank you very much. >> he wasn't briefed? >> watching the national security adviser, h.r. mcmaster. welcome to kw"inside politics." he came into the briefing room to brief them on a trip, a nine-day trip, the first of presidency for donald trump. of course the questions dominating the story first broken by "the washington post" yesterday that the russian in a meeting with the russian foreign

minister inappropriately sthhar classified information, information that came from a highly sensitive source. general mcmaster using the words wholly appropriate to defend the president's actions i sag tsayi president had the right to do it. let's get into that. cnn jeff zeleny, abby phillip of the "washington post," karen of the "washington post" and knee wra malika henderson. >> kept saying wholly appropriate. he used that terms maybe a dozen times for the president to do what he did. at the end he added a bit of piece of information. when the president was sharing this intelligence with the russians, the president was not aware of the source, that he had not been briefed on the source of the information. that is the most sensitive part of this f. you lo. the president had this nugget of top secret so sensitive information it was not even being shared throughout the united states government. had not been shared with key

allies around the world. the president off the cuff in a meeting with the russian ambassador and the russian foreign minister talks about this threat with isis. general mcmaster saying essentially so what, who cares. the president has every reason to do this and it was appropriate. if you look at the reporting started from your colleagues, a lot of sensitivity here. >> i think it's really extraordinary that he buried the lead in that way. that the president would have information based on what mcmaster is saying, he doesn't have enough information understand how sensitive is really remarkable. in some ways maybe it was revealed today so that they could sort of take the temperature down on this situation. but i have a feeling it will have the opposite effect. the question ends up being why does the president of the united states, the senior most official in the entire united states government, not know what the entire context is around sensitive, highly sensitive

intelligence information that he is then making an off the cuff decision to share with basically our adversaries. >> but there is a point in the story by our colleagues where they said that the intelligence community prepares these multi-page briefing documents for the president and he insists that these briefing documents be boiled down to one page of bullet points and that he often ignores those. so if in fact he didn't know the sources t could sources, it could be, speaks to a part of his management style that has already been of some concern to the intelligence community. >> that has been a lot of the blow back more so from democrats and republicans. many republicans privately questioning just that zch. does he understand the gravity of his job? does he understand the lines of what you can and cannot discuss. it was a very key point you made

there. and the president, remember, during the transition, he mocked these briefings saying i'm smart. i don't need to every day get a briefing from these people. i'm smart enough. as we get into that, sort of the president's mindset, what deels did we learn from general mcmaster? >> the white house strategy going forward is to try and pivot as hard as they can away from this to focus on the leakers. that is where this investigation should be. that's where the spotlight should be. not on the president who apparently just, you know, revealed this. without any plan at all in the oval office, but on the people who confirm this and leaked it. but that i think there are limits to how much that will work. this was the very first incident, perhaps. but republicans on capitol hill up and down want a serious explanation from this president. it's one of the reasons the cia director is going to capitol hill this afternoon we're told to brief house members on exactly what happened here. i think the pivot only works up to a point. but in terms of the intel

briefings, experts at the time i were saying the reason for getting these every day and you internalize this information. you know what's changed, what hasn't changed. by not getting them every day or by not reading the fine print, you don't necessarily know what is a big deal or not. in terms of the city specifically, the city is the question here where this plot was originating from. general mcmaster did not say the president revealed that, but he almost did. he said the city is available, widely available through public source reporting, through newspaper accounts basically. that's amazing. >> he was confirming the story that the president gave up the sensitive location of where this information came from. essentially if you have the internet you can figure it out for yourself. wherein syria is isis strong therefore you would know it's this city or that city. >> he was part of the damage control effort last night. this story first reported last night. general mcmaster came out and issued i'll call it

nondenial/denial saying the president didn't do this and didn't do that last night without addressing the specifics in the story about what the president was alleged to have done. today in the briefing room there to explain the president's trip. general mcmaster essentially saying there's nothing here. >> the president was emphasizing, we have some common interests here. we have to work together in some critical areas. we have an area of cooperation with trans national terrorist organizations. isis in particular. and an organization that had already taken down a russian airliner and murdered over 200 people in october of 2015. and so this was the context of the conversation in which it was wholly appropriate to share what the threat was as a basis for common action and coordination. >> it's a strong defense from a very respected voice in national security matters, but it ignores part of the basic connect the dots part of what happened here.

the president has the right. he can declassify anything on a moment's notice. but the reporting was that this information was, and i'll read it, the information the president relayed had been provided by a u.s. partner through an intelligence sharing arrangement considered so sensitive the details have been withheld from allies in tightly restricted even within the united states government. which gets back to the point at the end. apparently even restricted from the united states president. >> apparently the ally that shared this information, you typically would want to get permission from that ally before you're sharing it and that apparently didn't happen in this briefing. interesting that mcmaster is out there. he's one of the ones who has some credibility. a lot of other aides, people like sean spicer, people like vice president pence, their credibility has been somewhat blown apart over these last couple of days because of the comey incident. so there he is out there. but he is sort of dialing back what he said yesterday. yesterday the reporting out of the white house and was the

story is false. today he's saying the premise is false which is a little different because the premise is essentially that there was something wrong with what donald trump did and they're saying it was wholly inappropriate. i think they said that 15 times. >> in some ways he had no choice but to have a different explanation today. just like in the comey exampling the president sent out dates to defend him then woke up on twitter and tweeted things out that essentially pulling out the rug. i wanted to share with russia in an openly scheduled white house meeting which i have the right to do facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. last night they essentially gone out saying the president hadn't shared anything sensitive. today they need a different explanation because the president gsaid yeah, i did, i' president. too bad. >> and another one whose credibility has been hurt was dina powell.

she came out and said the story was false. >> another thing that mcmaster revealed today was that the president decided in the context of the conversation to reveal this information. so he didn't go through a process. he didn't consult with his aides apparently. and so there's a question about, you know, this is a decision that the president made in order to bring russia into the fold on the isis fight. or bring russia closer on the isis fight. why didn't he consult more closely with his national security aides and figure out a way to do it that would not potentially jeopardize information that as you point out wasn't even ours to share? >> you hear this a lot that the president in these meetings is winging it to a degree in part to impress the people he's meeting with, but to the point, having covered the white house, for meme people at home, you ha meeting coming wup with a forein leader, it's on the books for some time. if you have a foreign partner, you have to go back to the foreign partner, is it okay,

should we share this, this goes on forever. >> this was not an openly scheduled meeting. the president said an openly scheduled meeting. it was on the schedule sort of but it was not open at all to u.s. meeting organizations at all. there was one photographer in there for the russian state media. >> he got totally played on this. the white house staff was totally played which adds to the conversation of are they amateur. they were published of him chumming up. >> and all because of putin. >> and all the russian ambassador who has been a central figure in a lot of other problems for the white house was in that meeting and i don't believe that was on the public schedule either. >> that part was not. we'll continue the conversation. up next democrats call all this more proof the president isn't up to the job and what republicans aren't saying is just as important. happens next? nothing. only glad has febreze to neutralize odors for 5 days. guaranteed. even the most perceptive noses won't notice the trash.

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take control. ask your doctor about nonprescription ibgard. welcome back. the white house as you just heard called it wholly appropriate, but president trump's disclosure of highly classified secrets about isis is drawing strong condemnation from democrat whose serve on the intelligence committees in congress. >> they're not doing the job they should be doing to make sure he's understanding the gravity. i'm concerned about the safety and well-being for an awful lot of people around the world that work with us in many different ways. >> what has now happened is that all over the world, whether china or hong kong or australia or africa, people are saying i might give a tip that the next day is being discussed on cnn new day because the president talked about it with somebody who in this case russia doesn't necessarily have an interest in keeping it secret.

>> and missing from the air waves, elected republicans willing to strongly defend the president. >> the real question here is what's prudent and imprudent. third, it doesn't help that this is with russia. our interests and russia's interests do not align. putin is a bad guy. he wants to fracture nato. he's an enemy of free speech, e religion press. >> it's not at all helpful that this happened with the russians. >> the suspicion, distrust, fear of vouching for the white house is growing among republicans t.t. it's quite striking. we aususually talk about democr and republicans but i want to get into what we're talking about protecting sources, there is somebody somewhere in a town in syria who is providing information about isis threats to a government that is then passing it on to the united states which has that information. the goal being to keep those of us at this table and those

watching wherever you are around the country alive. or if you're in the world somewhere to keep us alive. so you hear sometimes the language of washington is hard to follow. the sensitivity of protecting sources of intelligence is a paramount mission if you are a senior official in the united states government f. you're on the intelligence committees. the white house is right. there's too much leaking of this stuff at times. but the question in this case is did the president of the united states recklessly or casually just hand something to the russians who do not share the united states interests when it comes to isis in syria? >> right. we may actually never know if any consequences there are to this because these types of bra operations are so secret and so closely held we wouldn't know the repercussions. it's conveyed from the white house that they understand the gravity or the erring on the side of caution that needs to be

in place on some of these issues and the president is moving forward kind of the bull in the china shop such in the way that he conducted himself as a candidate but that has to change when you're president. >> when you hear what's coming out of the white house, if you hear what donald trump said, he essentially said i am the president, i can do whey want to do. from the republicans, somebody like mitch mcconnell said he would like a lot less drama from the house. sort of like donald trump, you naughty boy around something that's very serious, matters of life and death, matters of national security, revealing the city which is what "the washington post" said that trump did in that meeting means that you can probably sort of reverse engineer who that person is and you cut off that source. >> and if you're the russians, you're thinking the united states through an ally has a good source inside syria and we're doing a lot of things in

syria the united states doesn't like, like propping up assad, providing the jets and other military equipment that kills innocent si va -- republicans a comey, but it predates that ru luck tant to go out and defend this administration because they're certain what they're told by the staff is going to holdup to be true. somebody close to trump dauurin the campaign and transition. they're in a downward spiral and have to figure out a way to go come to grips with what is happening. the chaos being created by the lack of discipline is creating an environment that i think creates a worrisome environment. he praises the national security team. he says the chaos is being created by the lack of discipline. he means the president.

>> exactly. that's in passive voice. he's giving us a sentence that doesn't have a subject. it also speaks i think to a couple of things that we know are characteristic of trump. one of them is he does not have a high regard for expertise. he trusts his own gut. he trusts his own instincts for sort of understanding the person he's talking to and getting to a deal. and you know, there are some situations where you've got to trust the experts. >> i just want to read you a tweet. this is mike gallagher. republican but ex-marine. the white house should share a transcript of the meeting with the house intelligence committees. >> the republicans that are criticizing donald trump on the record are few and far between. almost 300 lawmakers on the hill and it's sort of the usual suspects. cor corker has been critical.

mccain was something of a criticism. we wish he wouldn't 2w50e9 twee much. so until you have criticism of this president from the republicans, i think the question is whether or not they're giving him permission structure to behave this way. their silence in some ways, i mean, if you crash the car when you're a kid and your mom doesn't say anything about it, you might think you got away with something. >> that's a critical question. if you look at the private incoming from republicans it's quite damming. but how much of it will escalate as we go public? you're seeing trickles. up next the senate marriage wishes for less drama and more governing. day 117 and even fellow republicans see a white house still not ready for prime-time. i-

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i think we can do with a little less drama from the white house on a lot of things so that we can focus on our agenda which is deregulations, tax reform, repealing and replacing obamacare. >> today's drama of course sharing highly sensitive information with russia joins a long list of episodes from the initial travel ban rollout to the shifting accounts of why the fbi director james comey was fired. raising basic competency questions about the president and his staff. >> you know, governing tweet storm to tweet storm is not a sustainable strategy. the president has picked a lot of good people. there are a number of really wonderful -- they're smart people and they're honorable people in this president's white house and they have a really, really hard job because it just feels like kiddie soccer most days. >> again, in the last block as l a republican senator, yes, a long-time critic of the president, not a fan during the

campaign, but saying how great most of the staff is and then talking about kiddie soccer day. >> the point is republicans control all ends of washington. all corners of washington. and the agenda is absolutely stalled. it was stalled last week with james comey. never mine the confirmation hearing for the replacement of james comey is going to suck up considerable oxygen this summer. the timeline is shrinking for the president and the republican party to get their agenda for it. that is when i think senator mcconnell and rothers will hit their breaking point. never mind matters of national security. he already talked to people in swing districts, other places who are worried about this. ben saase has been on the leading edge of this. he didn't support the president. in fact, he didn't vote for the president. he voted for the vice president. which also raises the question where is the vice president. he were told that he felt burned last week, he felt rattled by it

and he has no intention of getting involved in this. sometimes vice presidents have to do what they do but he is absent today for a reason. >> the president is about to take this nine day trip, first overseas trip. i was in touch with people he will meet on the trip. got feedback saying what's going on, what is he up to? reading a note from a state department producer saying this raises question s about whether he can trust the president when we share intelligence. >> you have all this criticism. you hear the staff is great. sometimes we worry about the president in his tweets. listen to general mcmaster, he defends it as wholly appropriate. but then he added this very important nugget. the president shared intelligence with the russians but wasn't completely aware with what the intelligence was. >> i should just make maybe the statement here that the president wasn't even aware of where this information came

from. he wasn't briefed on the source or method of the information either. >> that is only going to add to the questions about how this white house works. and what is the source in this particular dysfunction. >> right. and can we believe what mcmaster just said. i mean, who is he getting his information from? did the president say he wasn't aware? did the people who brief him say they didn't brief him? we just don't know. again, i think it raises more questions about how routinely is he getting briefed. how much is he paying attention to those briefings and whether or not people are keeping things from him or he's just missing a part of the briefing. >> and most elected republicans have been relatively muted on this. orrin hatch saying he think its's overblown. mitch mcconnell trying to move on k we talk health care and tax reform. those are suddenly more popular than what the president shared. if you like at breitbart news, they are defending the president. it's an interesting moment. the allegation here is, the

reporting, and the report suggest solid, that the president shared something with russia that hasn't been shared throughout the united states government. hasn't been shared with western allies. that's the big dust up. and a lot of the people who are defending the president saying no big deal, let's go back to the campaign where president trump then candidate trump was on the trail and the allegation was that by setting up a private e-mail server hillary clinton had put some things at risk. >> remember hillary clinton was e-mailing about the drone program among many other extremely sensitive matters. this is yet more evidence that clinton is unfit to be your comma commander in chief. >> they ran an ad to echo that point. i raised that. if you're in our business and our business can be broadly defined, when something like this comes up, you see the reflex -- the people who wanted hillary clinton to lock her up,

impeach her, run her off the stage crowd doesn't even want to ask questions. it go away.o defend it and make- >> they're making an argument that as president of the united states it's not illegal for him to reveal classified information. but that says nothing about the propriety of it or the appropriateness of it or the domino effect or anything like that. it's very telling to see these folks just say well, technically it's not illegal. to say nothing of the risks that the sort of information gatherers might face as a result of it. i was e-mailing with some former clinton folks last night and many of them are saying this is literally what they were warning about donald trump and about his ability to contextualize information. many of them are looking at the situation about what is happening right now and the sense of hip okay r--

>> he's never been in elected office. most of his senior staff has never been in government. give them time. they're smart people. they'll figure it out. after the comey firing and after this, the initial travel ban roll yu rollout, a lot of keystone cops. last night as this was playing out i want to read you the tweet from the buzz feed white house reporter. just put the tvs on super loud after we could hear yelling from the room with bannon, spicer, sanders. if you still have this internal fighting in the white house, this bickering over how do we handle this and you read the stories today, look at the reporting today, who's to blame? fire spicer. who's to blame? do this. what's going on? >> it isn't all the people around him. he's put his people in a very difficult position. because he can be impulsive in terms of how he goes about things. he basically has asked his people to go out on a limb.

then he cuts that limb off. then he sort of blames them for falling. that's the situation that played out with the comey thing. that's the situation that played out with this as well. all of this talk of a shakeup and we've reported it at times and the post as well, it doesn't matter. because the drama is in the oval office. the drama is donald trump. >> some of the yelling that's happening in the west wing is important to point out it's a very small place. so when you're standing in a hallway, you actually hear some things. some of the yelling is at the situation. they are frustrated at the situation that they are in now. but i think nia is right. yes, at some point there will be new people coming in t. happe. it happens in every single administration. this is the worst time to -- you won't have a wholesale shakeup. this is a critical moment for this president. we've seen how slow they are to fill jobs. b, it is him. this is not a staff responsibility. he was the one in the oval office. his staff realizes that. >> but if you look at how he ran and what he ran as, he ran as a

business executive who would bring sort of the crisp decision making. he also ran as somebody who would keep this country safe. and those are the two things that i think are exposed here. the country wanted something different. they wanted a disrupt oer. his supporters are still very much with him. but the question is, are people right now thinking this is what they elected? >> and i would add to the question is will we see at some point evidence that he's learning from experience? including learning from mistakes? all new presidents make mistakes. sit tight. we'll switch gears a little bit. some tough words about the former acting attorney general about how the white house dealt with the michael flynn saga. -where? -san francisco. -when? -friday. we gotta go. [ tires screech ] any airline. any hotel. any time.

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welcome back. pictures here outside the west wing of the white house just moments ago. the turkish president erdogan arriving. greeted by president trump outside of the west wing. you see the marine standing by. the two gentlemen having meetings inside the oval office. we expect joint statements from

them. we'll bring those to you live. a lot to discuss. security arrangements, the battle against isis. we'll get back to that meeting as soon as we see the two leaders. heads up. that's how the white house described a visit from sally yates to share information about michael flynn. yates you'll recall told congress it was more serious than a heads up. she said she delivered a stern warning flynn was lying with a russia context and it could open him to kremlin blackmail. the white house waited 18 days to fire flynn. tonight she share more in a conversation with anderson cooper. >> was the underlying conduct illegal? >> there's certainly a criminal statute that was implicated by his conduct. >> sean spicer said on the day after michael flynn resigned that it was a trust issue that led to his resignation, not a legal issue.

do you agree there was no legal issue with flynn's underlying behavior? >> i don't know how the white house reached the conclusion there was no legal issue. it certainly wasn't from my discussion with them. >> a number of things jump out for this. toupt wat you want to watch tonight to see the entire conversation. legal issue. certainly a criminal statute that was implicated by his conduct. number one, she's raising those stakes. number two, she's doing so publicly. >> now that she's out they can't really control what she says about the situation. the white house has sort of tried to impinge her character so sahe's in a position where se wants to defend herself and also point out some of the things she mentioned in her testimony which is that -- which contradicts what the white house is saying. essentially she gave them multiple warnings, met with them in person multiple times. and also gave them access to the underlying materials as soon as the monday after she told them.

they didn't access that material for several days and then didn't fire flynn until weeks afterwards. there's a distinction between what she's saying and what the white house is saying. we can't a a jude indicate it but it's fair for her to put it out there. >> i guess clapper left right around the inauguration, but as the president complains about leaks, veterans of the national security intelligence apparatus continue to speak publicly where normally they go back into the shadows. to me it's them serving notice. you continue to trash us, we're going to speak piublicly and hod you accountable. >> this town is filled with dedicated professionals who do their jobs and they are alarmed at what they're seeing. there are a lot of them. a lot more of them.

but i think her whole interview i'm told is even more f fascinating than that. >> the leakers a lot of times are donald trump's advisers. >> some are his advisers, actually. >> and they know that donald trump reads the paper. he watches cable news. that's in a way the way you get his attention. to look to the press. some of those people aren't in the white house. they're in the fbi or the doj. this is a strategy they're reporting to try to get the president to behave differently. >> this of these people are defending institutions that they believe have held this government together through thick and thin through very dangerous times. and that really they believe need to be preserved for the future. >> help me with the tea reading of the search for the new fbi director. susan collins said it shouldn't be her colleagues.

she said these are not normal times. here's mitch mcconnell. he held up, locked a vote on merit garland, president obama's choice to be on the supreme court. listen to mitch mcconnell saying i think he'd be a great fbi director. >> i recommended merit garland. he was the prosecutor in the oklahoma city bombs case. it would make it clear that president trump will continue the tradition at the fbi of having an apolitical professional. >> a source close to the judge said thanks but no thanks. >> it would also create an opening on the bench which mcconnell would love to see that. >> this is kind of cruel, right? there is mitch mcconnell. he blocked merit garland from the supreme court. that would have been his dream i'm sure to be on the supreme court. now he's like oh, you serve -- >> now you have dinner with president trump and ask him to pledge your loyalty before you take over the russia investigation. >> but the reality here is the

president i'm told wants to try and make a decision before friday. before he leaves and really for almost a week and a half. the attorney general jeff sessions came over to the white house last night about an hour before this mcmaster statement to update him on the interviews and things. the president i'm told is going to meet with a couple finalists. we're not sure how many. and make his decision. mike rodgers is the choice of the fbi rank and file. we'll see if he's the choice of the president. we don't know that. >> with mike rodgers, he was saying, and i'm sure this is the way that all of these folks are saying this, can they be independent? can they do their job without interference? >> we're standing by. turkish president erdogan is at the white house. the two leaders are about to speak publicly. "inside politics" will be right back. we're keeping an eye on that. with type 2 diabetes a lower a1c is a lot about choices.

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gum brand. let's listen to the president of the united states at the white house with the turkish leader. it is a great honor to have president erdogan from turkey here. we're going to have long and hard discussions. i know that they will be very successful. we've had a great relationship. we will make it even better. so we look forward to having a very, very strong and solid discussions. we'll be having lunch in a little while and we'll actually be making a statement right after this in the roosevelt room. thank you very much.

>> you see the president trump with president erdogan of turkey in the oval office. little bit of time left here. they tried to ask did you share classified information with the russians. the president did not answer the russian. we'll see if they take questions. they'll going to have joint statements. we'll see if the president takes questions. >> he's not scheduled to at this point and i would be surprised if he would at this point. they're trying to let the national security advisers words speak for them but that changes a lot. the president always seems to have the final word. >> he sometimes get his in own way like he did last week talking about russia, talking about all kinds of things that the staff had determined not to their advantage to do. it's a real risk to have trump

out there answering questions chl. >> the question of what donald trump is going to say in this meeting with erdogan t sort , if hangs out there. >> that's it for "inside politics." just moments away from joint statements with trump and president erdogan. wolf blitzer will be in the chair to bring you that when it happens. -what? -we gotta go. -where? -san francisco. -when? -friday. we gotta go. [ tires screech ] any airline. any hotel. any time. go where you want, when you want with no blackout dates. [ muffled music coming from club. "blue monday" by new order. cheers. ] [ music and cheers get louder ] the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. it's travel, better connected.

hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in new york. from wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us. right now you're looking at pictures coming in from the roosevelt room at the white house. any moment we expect to see and hear from the president of the united states. he's meeting right now with the visiting turkish president erdogan.