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. we're going to take tyou there

live when the leaders come to the microphones. they'll be making statements. we'll see if they'll also answer reporters questions. they've been meeting to talk about issues like the syrian civil war, the fight against isis, the administration's decision to arm kurds in northern syria. lots of sensitive issues on the agenda. nothing to see here. that's the basic message from the white house today as they react to the reports that president trump shared sensitive classified intelligence with russian officials in the oval office last week. after a short statement about it yesterday, the president's national security adviser, general h.r. mcmaster offered much more about it just a little while ago speaking from the white house briefing room. >> it's wholly appropriate for the president to say whatever information he think system necessary to advance the security of the american people. that's what he did. as to your question on had that information been shared previously, i'm not sure about

that. >> when did he make the decision to share the information? >> he made the decision in the context of the conversation. there are no sensitivities in terms of me or anybody who's been with the president in many of these engagements. she shares informtion in a way that is wholly appropriate. 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. >> our senior white house correspondent jim acosta following the reaction over at the white house and senior national correspondent matthew chance is following all of this from moscow. general mcmaster was criticized for his short answer to question s about this explosive report. today he gave a little bit more detail. did he fundamentally change the story? >> he really did not, wolf. you heard during those comments you played that general mcmaster, the national security adviser to the president, described the president's behavior and conduct in that meeting with the russians as wholly appropriate. but he did not answer the

question and it was put to him a couple of times whether the president shared classified information during that meeting with the russians. as a matter of fact, just a few moments ago my colleague sara murray tried to ask that same question of the president as he was sitting down in the oval office with president erdogan who is hin washington. i also tried to ask the president after president erdogan was greeted by president trump at the door that leads into the west wing just about ten minutes before that oval office meeting the same question. did you share classified information. the president did not answer that question. so wolf, at this point it appears the white house is just not going to answer that question. but as we heard during that briefing that general mcmaster had with reporters that only lasted about 11 minutes, he started the briefing describing the president's and previewing the president's trip coming up at the end of the week overseas. the national security adviser tried to put the president's remarks and what he feel system

a fair context. here's what he had to say. >> then the president was emphasizing we have some common interests here. we have to work together in critical areas. 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. >> so there was another moment during that briefing, wolf, where it appears the national security adviser acknowledged that the president did not know where this information came from that he passed on to the russians, so it does raise this question whether the president was just sort of extemporaneously talking to the russians and then accidently revealed this information. you heard mcmaster saying the

president has the right, he has the authority to say information with foreign leaders when he sees that to be fit. but it does raise all sorts of questions as we head out on this foreign trip with the president over seas to some pretty critical countries. he's going to be leading with nato leaders in brussels, the pope in rome and also the g7. this is going to follow him along the way on this trip. the president is going to be asked are you taking the rye precautions when you share information with other foreign leaders. this wasn't even a u.s. ally. russia is far from it. and the president felt that he could share this kind of information with the russians. as you heard during that briefing, mcmaster saying it was wholly appropriate. but would not answer the ultimate question whether that information was classified. >> stand by for a moment. i want to go to moscow. matthew, what's the reaction from the kremlin so far to these reports? because at the heart of this discussion is the president's meeting last week in the oval

office with the russian foreign ministers as well as the russian ambassador to the united states. >> of course it was already a very controversial meeting. just the day before president trump had fired the head of the fbi james comey. so the russians already went into what they regard as a very serious and important first meeting. sort of shrouded in this controversy which was not of their making and they are deeply frustrated th frustrated that controversy continues. >> we do not want to have any relationship to this nonsense. he refused to talk about it any further. he said we've already said to much on this subject, do you want to confirm what happened on these meetings. they're irritated and frustrated. this relationship they thought was going to be transformational, pivotal, they were going to be doing deals on cooperating on international terrorism which was the subject

matter of the conversations with the president trump and the foreign minister and that this was going to be advancing that problematic relationship between moscow and washington. that has not come to pass. every time they take a step forwards, there are two steps backwards. they're very frustrated that every time they have a meeting -- >> hold on for a second. the president of turkey and the president of the united states going to the microphones. let listen in. it is a great pleasure to w welcome president erdogan for his first visit to the white house in years. the american and turkish people have been friends and allies for many, many decades. turkey was a pillar in the cold war against communism. it was against soviet expansion and turkish courage in war is

legendary. that is so true. turkish soldiers fought bravely alongside american soldiers in the korean war and we haven't forgotten what they did. in some ways when we looked at their great brave ry in the figt of korea, it was just something that our soldiers and our great generals still remember. supreme commander general douglas mcarthur singled out and praised the valor of the turkish soldier. said some of the great soldiers of the world. today we face a new enemy in the fight against terrorism and again we seek to face this threat together. the turkish people have faced horrible terrorist attacks in recent years and even recently. we offer or compassion to the

victims and we offer our support to the turkish nation. we support turkey in the first fight against terror and terror groups like isis and the pkk and ensure they have no safe quarter, the terror groups. we also appreciate turkey's leadership in seeking an end to the horrific killing in syria. the syrian civil war shocks. the conscience of the whole world. all you have to do is look in the front page of the papers today and you'll see exactly what we're talking about. we also support any effort that can be used to reduce the violence in syria and create the conditions for a peaceful resolution. president erdogan and i are also discussing the need to reinvigorate or trade and commercial ties. these are area ws where we can

build our relationship that will benefit both of our countries. military equipment was ordered by turkey and the president and we've made sure that it gets there quickly. i look forward to working together with president erdogan on achieving peace and security in the middle east, on confronting the shared threats and on working toward a future of dignity and safety for all of our people. mr. president, thank you for visiting our country and joining us today at the white house. it is a great honor to have you with us. thank you. >> thank you. >> translator: mr. president, my dear friend, distinguished members of the press, at the onset i'd like to salute you

all. and i would like to take this opportunity to thank president trump and his team for the generous hospitality they have shown us upon arrival not only to my personal self but entire members of our delegation and the entire turkish nation. thank you, mr. president. and once again in your presence i would like to congratulate president trump for the legendary triumph that he has garnered in the aftermath of the elections. quite recently we've had bilateral discussions with president trump.

and we've had the opportunity to focus on the outstanding relations between turkey and the united states that date back a long time in history which are very well rooted and which are quite happily reached a level of trag strategic partnership. the relations between turkey and the united states have been erected upon democratic values and common interests. keeping our outstanding relations stronger than ever will be very important not only for common interests but also stability of the globe and peace around the world. the close cooperation that both

of the countries show demonstrate especially in the region which currently in turmoil will be very important for the rest of the world. and primarily we are alongside by each other as turkey and the united states under the roof of the united nations, nato, and the g20. we have been enjoying a close cooperation in all of these platforms in all of these around the world and in the future to come we are going to focus on making sure that we're going to expand our close cooperation and build on what we enjoy. we are determined to expend our relations and i believe my current officials at the united states will mark a historical

turn of tied. whether it be throughout the bilateral discussions, whether it be the discussions that we shall have between the dell gae mitigation mitigation -- delegations, we will have future gains from the discussions. we seem to agree on expending further our relations in the field of economy, trade, investments, energy and defense industry. it is going to be very important for us to forge a close sol day

t -- solidarity in the field of fighting terrorism and all the terrorist organizations in the region. and we are committed to fighting all forms of terrorism without any discrimination that pose a clear and present threat upon our future. there's no place for the terrorist organizations in the future of our region. taking pyd and the region -- taking them into concentration, the region will never be accepted and it is going to be against the global agreement that we have reached.

and we should never allow those groups to manipulate the religious structure and the ethnic structure of the region making terrorism as a pretext or an excuse. those who are willing to turn and see iraq, yemen and libya are found to lose eventually. they will never be able to turn that chaos in that part of the world into an opportunity and the terrorist organizations with blood in their hands are bound to fail. and as i have previously done so, i have been very frankly

communicating our expectations with regard to the federalized terrorist organization which we have notified our friends of their involvement in the failed coup on july the 15th in turkey. and we have taken into concentration the joint steps that we can take forward in syria and iraq. of course president trump's recent election victory has led to the awakening of a new set of aspirations and expectations and hopes in our region. and we know that by the help of the new u.s. administration these hopes will not be lost in vain.

and we find that it was the most necessary answer to be given to the syrian regime, especially in the aftermath of the recent chemical attacks that took place. and we know that in terms of keeping up with the principle and committed fight against the terrorist organizations all around the woorld we will not repeat the mistakes of the path and we will continue down this path together. in the restoration and the establishment of stability and security of the region in question, the alliance and the partnership and cooperation between the united states and turkey is of vital importance.

i hope and pray that both of us will be committed to expending further cooperation in the future along with consulting each other more frequently. we are laying the foundation of a new era between the two countries in terms of our relations. i hope and pray that this new administration will bring forth results for the administration. and i would like it thank president trump for his very kind and cordial invitation and i'm looking forward to hosting him in turkey along with his entire family. >> thank you all very much. appreciate it. we're going to go to meetings now.

we had a very successful meeting with the foreign minister of russia. our fight is against isis as general mcmaster said. i thought he said and i know he feels that we had actually a great meeting with the foreign minister, so we're going to have a lot of great success over the next coming years and we want to get as many to help fight terrorism as possible. and that's one of the beautiful things that's happening with turkey. the relationship that we have together will be unbeatable. so thank you all very much. i appreciate it. we're going to meetings. >> so there you heard the president of the united states actually answer a reporter's question following those statements by the president of the u.s. and the president of turkey, president erdogan. they both made statements, president erdogan going on in

length, but you heard the president in response to that one question at the very end say that they had a very, very successful meeting with the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov last week. it was a great meeting with the foreign minister. then he promised there would be great success over the next few years in fighting terrorism. there's a lot to unpack here. let's get some perspective from our cnn military and diplomatic john kirby. gloria borger. nick payton wall sh as well. gloria, your reaction to what we heard. his national security adviser did earlier in the day but the president said it was a very successful meeting with the foreign minister of russia. >> right. and then the president, there were no more questions allowed. i guarantee you there are a lot more questions that reporters would like to ask the president

about just what he told the foreign minister of russia. although, and i was hearing you guys before discussing this. i'm sure russia is upset with the way these things have unraveled. but actually they've had a lot more success here than anyone would have thought. having a meeting in the oval office with the foreign minister and with the ambassador, with the president the united states who apparently gave some highly classified information to them that they would not have expected that they would get otherwise, quite frankly. i think there are a lot of questions that still need to be asked about what specifically the president did tell the foreign minister in the oval office even though general mcmaster was careful to point out that the president himself did not know the source of information, but that still does not answer the question about whether he told too much of the classified information to the russians so they could have

reser reverse engineered it and discover whod t discovered who the source was on their own. >> you've been doing some reporting on the tensions that seem to be building up in the white house among the president's top aides and advisers. what are you learning? >> i reported that jared kushner inside the white house has not been happy and has expressed frustration with the communication staff starting with the comey controversy. i presume going forward. we know there's a lot of struggling going on always inside this white house, but i think the displeasure has also been on the president's mind about his communication staff. i also think in talking to people who talk with the president regularly, it was described to me that the president has lost confidence and this source said in just

about everybody who is working for him. that he feels under siege. that he's blaming his staff. he's thinking about next steps. we all know that the white house has, in fact, been in the process of talking to candidates for press secretary for example. and so i think this is in many ways, wolf, more of the same that we've been hearing from a white house that seems to be in constant turmoil since day one and that the president himself has been reaching out to people outside the white house to try and get their advice on what to do. i will add one thing which is that his friends outside the white house are now, and i'm hearing this for the first time, seeming to express a little bit of frustration at the president himself. wondering when, in fact, donald trump has to start taking some responsibility himself for some of the way he has handled things, most notably the comey

firing and the most recent episode in the oval office with the russians. >> very significant. john kirby, you're a former spokesman for the pentagon as well as the state department. the president said the meeting with the russian foreign minister in the oval office was very, very successful. he didn't go into any elaboration on the controversy that has erupted. that some classified information could have been compromised as a result whaf of what he told the foreign minister and the russian ambassador, but he did tweet this this morning. he said as president i wanted to share with russia at an openly scheduled white house meeting which i have the absolute right to do facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety, humanitarian reasons, plus i want russia to greatly step up their fight against isis and terrorism. then he tweeted a little bit later, i have been asking director comey and others from the beginning of my administration to find the leakers in the intelligence

community. give us your analysis of what has unfolded now since last night when the story first broke in "the washington post." >> it seems to me like this is just you indicati justification after the fact. general mcmaster sort of came out and said that the president was in fact winging it. he said it was in the context of the conversation. in other words it wasn't prepared or planned or researched and discussed inside the agency that he would talk about this sensitive information. if it was wholly appropriate as the general says it was, then why was it necessary to call the nsa and to call the cia after the fact and say hey, look, we want to give you a heads up about what was passed. and why would it be necessary to negotiate with "the washington post" before they publish their story about what should or should not be in that thing. why would you have to then right afterward put the national security adviser out into the west wing garden. i'm afraid it just doesn't add

up. obviously there was some sensitive information passed to the russians . if they want to call that successful, that's fine. we don't know what information it was. we don't know that the nation that gave it to us intended it to be passed on to another nation, most especially not russia which is acting against our interests inside syria. >> john kirby, stand by. in this case payt nick payton walsh happens to be in the united states. you're based in beirut, but you spent a lot of time in turkey, syria, iraq and elsewhere. how is the world viewing what's going on in washington right now? >> i think if you view foreign policy it's prerhaps the one ara in which donald trump has a series of clever experts to advise him, in mcmaster, jim mattis as well, he hasn't made claring mistakes, but he seems

to dip into foreign policy. when something is going well -- here you've seen him with one of the most important characters he has to deal with in the closing chapter. he said nobody tougher against isis than he would be. president erdogan has said quite clearly that he has a problem with the current u.s. strategy to defeat sis because they're trying to encircle raqqa, but also some syrian rebels. those syrian kurds turkey considers to be allied with a group inside turkey and they have a problem with that from the beginning. the clear agenda in the background we didn't hear much about, willing president erdogan trying to persuade donald trump to undo over a year of military planning. one gift he gave to president erdogan, he said about the fight against isis and the pkk.

the pkk is the name of the turkish kurdish group the u.s. considers terrorists, but turkey considers to be the mirror image of the syrian group that they're using to fight inside russia t.'s very complicated, but it's also the closing chapter in defeating isis. >> they both agreed but there are some major differences between the u.s. and turkey right now on various aspects. president erdogan did go out of his way to repeatedly praise president trump and certainly all of us who know president trump i'm sure that was very welcome to him. >> legendary triumph at the election. that's the words he must have got the most pleasure from hearing, but also referring to how the possibility of a historical turning point in turkish/washington relations. they're always uncomfortable with the obama administration approach to fighting isis and the big ask in that room from president erdogan will have been to donald trump, will you turn your back on about 18 months

work of military planning to fight isis inside raqqa and go along with my plan that's not quite so ready or are you going to tell me you're going to be backing my enemies in fighting isis. >> president erdogan saying he expressed hope for a new era in u.s./turkey relations. nick, thanks very much. gloria, john, thanks to you as well. lots more news unfolding. a demand for answers up to capitol hill as members from both sides of the political aisle express dismay over the latest west wing controversy. also the first television interview the former acting attorney general of the united states, sally yates was fired by president trump. now she's speaking exclusively to cnn's anderson cooper. stay with us. we'll have that and a lot more when we come back. unlimited plan? and fees forr only t-mobile gives you unlimited data with taxes and fees included. that'll save you hundreds. get two lines for a hundred dollars. that's right. two lines of unlimited data. a hundred bucks. all in.

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lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are pressing concern that president trump shared classified information with

russia. ma mark warner gsd -- mitch mccon downplays the story but he says it's another distraction for republicans. >> well, i read "the washington post" story and i read general mcmaster's response which tends to refute the story. rep rebut the story. i think we could do with a little less drama from the white house on a lot of things so that we can focus on our agenda. >> our congressional correspondent phil mattingly is up on capitol hill. what's the latest you're hearing from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle? >> no shortage of questions. a little of scurrying for any type of answer from the administration. i will note you've seen republicans really point to what national security adviser h.r. mcmaster go ahead this afternoon. changing their tone a little bit, most notably senator john

mccain who put out a statement about the disclosure of this information. now saying that he trusted h.r. mcmaster at his word. another republican from oklahoma saying something similar. i will note there are a lot of republicans who are raising serious concerns and one or two who think it's just overblown. >> accuracy is important and understanding what happened is important. that would be fair. i think it's a the right thing to do for the american people but we need to learn more about it. i have very specific questions. i hope they'll be answered at some point today. >> they claim they haven't and i saw is it mcmaster? yeah, i saw mr. mcmaster. i believe what he said is true. so i think it's something that's way blown out of proportion. >> and wolf, i can tell you over the course of the morning talking to dozens of senators, one-on-one and with groups of reporters, senator orrin hatch said -- he was really the only one who was willing to stake out that position.

others appearing to join him in the wake of mcmaster taking questions. what was notable of the marco rubio. he said last night they reached out and he did not answer the questions. he's planned on getting more answers today. that's what you hear from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, wolf. the house intelligence committee will meet today. they will be briefed and classified setting by cia director mike pompeo. it is a long scheduled briefing. i'm told that briefing will focus on what the russian intelligence meeting. wolf, again, a lot of questions. a lot of serious concern. everybody around here is pretty much just trying to get their head around something that appears to once again be a dramatic breaking story that nobody was looped in on and now there are real questions about, a, what it means, and b, what this means more broadly for the republican agenda going forward. >> thanks very much.

phil is on capitol hill. we're following that story. the former acting attorney general stahally yates was firey president trump. now she's giving her first television interview to an der s -- anderson cooper. nobody does underwater stunts, sylvia. except me, of course. this is my stop. adios! ♪ if you're a stuntman, you cheat death. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. número uno! i count on my dell small for tech advice. with one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. ♪ ♪

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a cnn exclusive, our own anderson cooper spoke to the former acting attorney general of the united states, sally yates. it was her first tv interview since being fired by president trump. yates discussed the warning she gave the white house about the former national security adviser michael flynn and his contacts with it is russian ambassador to the u.s. here's a preview. >> the underlying conduct itself was potentially a fireable offense? >> i can't speak to a fireable offense. it was up to the president to make that decision about what he was going to do, but we certainly felt like they needed to act. >> actually asked you at that first meeting whether wlor not u thought the national security adviser should be fired. what did you say? >> i told him it wasn't our call. >> was the underlying contact illegal? >> there's certainly a criminal

statute that was implicated by his conduct. >> you wanted the white house to act? >> absolutely, yes. >> to do something? >> we expected the white house to act. >> did you expect them to act quickly? >> yes. >> there was urgency to the information? >> yes. >> you're in government one week. you get fired. now you're out. you're watching day after day after day go by and nothing seems to have happened to the national security adviser that you have informed the white house about. just as a private citizen at that point, did it concern you? >> well, sure. i was concerned about it. but i didn't know if perhaps something else had been done that maybe i just wasn't aware of. >> maybe that they were keeping him away from certain class filed information while they were investigating, something like that? >> maybe. i just didn't have any way of knowing what was going on at that point. >> were you aware that he sat in, even from media reports, that he sat in on a phone call

with russia's president? >> just from media reports. >> did you find that surprising? >> well, sure, absolutely that was surprising. >> 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 that there was no legal issue. it certainly wasn't from my discussion with them. >> do you think michael flynn should have been fired? >> i think that this was a serious compromised situation that the russians had real leverage. he also had lied to the vice president of the united states. whether he's fired or not is a decision for the president of the united states to make. but doesn't seem like that's a person who should be sitting in the national security adviser position. >> michael flynn was let go after "the washington post" reported a story. some republicans have accused you of leaking it. did you leak to "the washington post"? >> absolutely not. >> did you authorize somebody to leak? >> absolutely not. i did not and i would not leak

classified information. >> have you ever leaked information to the press? >> no. >> the president seems to suggest they were behind this "washington post" article. the morning before you testified, he tweeted ask sally yates under oath if she knows how classified information got into newspapers soon after she explain today to white house counsel. he seems to believe that you -- you're the leaker. >> there have been a number of tweets that have given me pause. >> you want to elaborate on that? >> no. >> anderson is with us right now. pr pretty impressive woman. what else did she share. >> the house has gone after her and a lot of the surrogates of the president have gone after her saying she's looking for a political career, she's being approached about running as the governor of georgia. she acknowledges she is a democrat but that she has no intention of running for a political office anytime soon. she says she doesn't know what she's going to do.

she wants to take about six month off, kind of get perspective. i think she really wanted to speak out. have people kind of know the full scope whof what she has do in her career. she's been branded for the last week of her 27 year career. she wants to point out she has a long career prosecuting corruption against republicans, against democrats. and though she may be a democrat, she took very seriously her role in the department of justice as a nonpartisan as a career legal prosecutor. >> she was highly ordered by not just democrats, but republicans as well. >> she's often referred to as an bo obama a pointee but she was hired by bob bar. >> georgia republican congressman. anderson has a great interview and you can see it later tonight. sally yates and anderson, 8:00 p.m. eastern the interview will air only here on cnn. coming up, the president accused

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just in to cnn, we're now learning that republican senator of texas is withdrawing his name for consideration as the next fbi director. in a statement, i'm quoting him now, i have always considered public service to be a great privilege how i can best serve my fellow texans and my country has and will continue to be my guiding principle. now more than the ever the country needs a well-credentialed independent fbi director. i've informed the administration that i'm committed to helping them find such an individual and that the best way i can serve is continuing to fight for conservative agenda in the u.s. senate. last hour, the national security adviser to the president, general h.r. mcmaster, faced the blowout from the allegation that the president didn't put national security at risk and described the conversation as

wholly appropriate. >> i just should make the statement here that the president wasn't even aware of where this information came from. he wasn't briefed on the source and method of the information either. >> i want to bring in our panel in washington. sa cedric leighton, shelby holiday for "the wall street journal." it's pretty amazing that the president wasn't briefed on where that very sensitive information came from. you would think someone on the staff, the national security adviser or someone else would say this is really sensitive information. be careful how you share it. >> yes. and it was surprising to hear that h.r. mcmaster had not spoken to tom bossert about why he alerted the agencies about donald trump's comment. everyone is focused on the nuances of what donald trump said in the oval office when he was meeting with kislyak and

lavrov. when you look at the big picture, this is a huge question of judgment. h.r. mcmaster is saying that his behavior was wholly appropriate. donald trump has created a huge communication crisis. he's tweeted more than 40 times about the russians and/or department of justice officials since it was known to us that he was under investigation. and one of those tweets was about tapes. it was a provocative veiled threat about james comey warning him not to leak because there may be tapes. now it's coming back to haunt him. if you have tapes, we want transcripts and we want to hear what you've said to the russians. he's created huge questions about his judgment. >> cedric, we just heard the president say that it was a great meeting with the foreign minister of russia, very

successful meeting. you worked in the u.s. military. you dealt with very sensitive intelligence. what's your analysis? >> wolf, my basic analysis is this. when you look at the appropriateness of sharing this kind of information, it depends on the appropriateness and what context. i'm sure the russians were thrilled to get this kind of information from the president. the problem is what does it do to our relationships and to not only the intelligence relationships but the ability of the people on the ground to actually do their job. so if this was, for example, a human source, that human source is in danger right now. if it was a technical intelligence source, that could be put at risk by sharing this information with the russians. >> it certainly could. and it's causing a lot of problems, shelby, for the white house, not only internally, there seems to be a lot of dissent and anger among senior

aides but with republicans up on capitol hill, some of whom are increasingly losing confidence. >> it's true. they are being forced to answer questions about why they aren't holding donald trump accountable. i was at a town hall last week after the fbi director was fired and republicans were extremely angry, as were democrats, with congressman tom mcarthur and why he hasn't stepped up to the plate and held trump accountable for firing the fbi director, not releasing his taxes. you have democrats now threatening to not hold any confirmation hearings for a possible future fbi director until there's an independent prosecutor. our "wall street journal" polls are showing that donald trump is losing his base, those number supporters of his. >> cedric, we heard from susan rice, president obama's former national security adviser, talking about the president's

use of twitter. listen to this. >> we can't allow twitter wars to become shooting wars and instead of excusing russia's outrageous behavior and branding nato obsolete, we must defend every nato ally unconditionally and firmly counter russia's cold war tactics. >> colonel leighton, your reaction? >> i think that she's right. susan rice is putting it into a good modern context because twitter is a risky medium. you can say a few things but only 140 characters. the other part of it is that there is a lot of nuance to foreign policy and it requires a deep understanding of not only relationships but also with the strategic interest of each country and the fact that we are not looking at this from a strategic standpoint like the russians are puts us at a

disadvantage and the president needs to understand these may be nice people to talk to but they are not our friends and he needs to react that way. >> earlier today, shelby, senator mccain put out a statement. sharing sensitive information with the russians and time he did not spend focusing on russia's aggressive behavior. you're finding increasing criticism along those lines? >> it's true. it's hard to know what the white house would gain, especially at this time when the pressure is ramping up for an independent investigation into president trump and his campaign's ties to russia. i spoke with an fbi director who said that recruiting is difficult and recruiting for the director position is extremely difficult. this is one of the toughest jobs. you don't get paid a lot of money and candidates have withdrew their names because they don't know if they can stick it out.

>> the president leaves for europe this weekend. we'll be covering t. of course. shelby and cedric, thank you. >> they face off on health care, the economy, other sensitive issues facing the united states, the live cnn debate will air later tonight, 9:00 p.m. eastern. that's it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." the news continues right after a quick break. finding time to get things done isn't easy.

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do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount hi there, i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. you're watching cnn. for the second time in less than 24 hours, the white house is defending president trump against an accusation that one legal scholar constitutes, quote, the most serious charge ever made against a sitting president. cnn has now confirmed the details first reported in "the washington post" that president trump divulged highly classified information to not one but two russian officials during this white house visit last week. sources