the choice is yours. ♪ lower your blood sugar with invokana®. imagine loving your numbers. there's only one invokana®. ask your doctor about it by name. hello, i'm jim sciutto. wolf blitzer is on assignment today. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you are v very much for joining us. we begin with a president defiant into an investigation between possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. we'll hear from trump but as often happens we already have his thoughts via twitter. this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. and this. with all of the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and obama administration, there was never

a special counsel appointed. this the spelling error corrected there after the initial tweet. that tweet drawing this response from senator mark warner. he's the ranking democrat on the intelligence committee. >> i don't think there's an american that i've talked to in the last few weeks that doesn't think this is extraordinarily serious. you've got complete bipartisan recognition that the russians interfered in our elections. you have a firing of an fbi director. you have the president potentially sharing classified information with the russians. you have i think many members of the administration who understand how serious this is. the one person in that white house that perhaps doesn't understand how serious it is is the president. >> the president is holding a joint news conference with colombia's president. that is in a couple of hours. there will be questions about the investigation and the naming of a special counsel.

the president likely to be asked about new allegations involving michael flynn. "the new york times" reporting that flynn actually warned the trump transition team that he was under investigation for his ties, his paid ties to turkey. that warning coming well before the inauguration and before flynn was finally named the national security adviser. and next hour deputy attorney general rod rosenstein will be on capitol hill himself. he was supposed to brief the senate on the firing of fbi director james comey but now he'll like have to name his decision of a special counsel in the russia investigation. sara murray is at the white house. phil mattingly on capitol hill. the new flynn reports, has there been any response from the white house? >> we know the vice president was of course leading the transition at the time when all this is happening. his team is insisting they knew nothing about the fact that flynn was under investigation. the vice president put out a statement today saying the vice

president stands by his comments in march upon first hearing the news regarding general flynn's ties to turkey and fully supports the president's decision to ask for general flynn's resignation. the vice president hasn't always been as closely in the loop as you might expect him to be. we know the department of justice warned this administration about michael flynn and that he could be blackmailed by the russians. that information was not shared with vice president pence. it took him a while to find this out. he found out via news reports that he had been lied to by general flynn and that's why he was fired. >> we have the special counsel decision less than 24 hours old. are you hearing bipartisan welcoming of this decision or is it mostly the democrats? >> no, it's bipartisan. that's a rarity up here. there's clearly bipartisan support for the collection of robert mueller. democrats have been called for this for a number of months.

republicans were opposed to the idea of moving this away from just the congressional investigations, they have come out in support as well. but there's also been a big question. now that this is in place what does that mean for the congressional investigations? both these ideas were addressed by speaker ryan a short while ago. take a listen. >> i believe that the professionals in the justice department need to do their jobs independently, objectively and thoroughly and i believe the special counsel, which is robert mueller now, helps them do that. >> no, it doesn't, actually, so we are going to keep these investigations going here. >> and so the big question now is will those investigations in any way interfere with what robert mueller is trying to do? obviously the committee chairs of the relevant committees have said -- agreed with speaker ryan. agreed with leader mcconnell. these investigations will continue. can they get everything they need? will fbi director jim comey still testify publicly as he's been asked to do by four separate committees?

those documents also requested by four separate committees. there are unanswered questions. we'll also note rod rosenstein will be in the senate today briefing all 100 senators. he'll be in the house tomorrow briefing all members that are currently in place there. there are still a lot of questions. nancy pelosi, the leader of the house democrats just had a press conference and she noted that she has a lot of concerns about whether or not the justice department has some oversight of what bob mueller will be able to do. she also has a lot of questions still about the firing of jim comey. the big question now is these will both are classified briefings. will liawmakers be able to say anything? >> a lot of questions arising every day. we're just learning that senator burr is now walking back his comments on national security adviser michael flynn. he had said earlier today that flynn had refused senate

intelligence committee requests to give documents and his testimony. we now understand republican chairman of the senate intelligence committee is saying that may not be true for that question and more. joining me now is new york republican lee swrel dzelden. thank you for joining us today. >> happy to. >> on this question here, first of all, news that michael flynn may indeed cooperate with some of these requests coming from the senate intelligence committee. how important do you believe his cooperation would be? >> i think it's very important. in order to get to the bottom of the facts of what general flynn knows, he would need to be responding to subpoenas proactively. any type of questions to be answered or documents requesting production for, it's important whenever a congressional oversight hearing is taking place that we're able to obtain as much information as possible and where it relates to general flynn. his maximum cooperation will be

welcomed. >> toipt ai want to ask you abo the president himself has characterized the appointment of special counsel, as often does via twitter and he pronounce today a witch hunt. do you think that's a fair characterization of the investigation? >> bob mueller is a very highly ordered, my conversation since yesterday with colleagues here on capitol hill, both sides of the aisle, conservatives, liberals, republicans, democrats everyone holds bob mueller in the highest regards. we hold our law enforcement as well as our intel community in the highest regards. as it relates to the department of justice, the appointment of special counsel, we have the great professionals doing their work and it's important that we get their facts and that they don't jump -- no one jumps to conclusions. we do have people who serve in congress. we have members of the american public who are jumping to

conclusions and certainly are very much -- i mean, there were people protesting the president while his hand was on the bible calling for his impeachment. >> let me say that the president, the description you just gave of the professionals in the justice department very different from the president dismissing this from the very beginning as a witch hunt and unjustified. are you contradicting the president? >> it's hard to judge based off of two tweets a couple hours apart. his first tweet says this is a witch hunt. but doesn't actually say what this is. then two hours later he starts -- >> well, come on, let's be fair. we know what he was tweeting about. he also described himself as the most unfairly tweeted president in history and referenced why wasn't there a special counsel for obama and hillary clinton. >> right. but when he was tweeting that this is a witch hunt, i see it with colleagues and members of congress. we have colleagues who -- people i serve with who are calling for

the president's impeachment literally as his hand is on the bible before he even takes office. that is a lot of the noise whch. when we had a meeting on health reform and tax care and we walk out of the room and we have dozens of cameras only wanting to ask us about comey or a tweet, that's an unfortunate distraction. that takes away from the president's agenda where the headlines are about, you know, that investigation and not the most important issues related to tax reform and securing our country. i see why he'd be upset. >> are you saying that the russia investigation sbeerc interference in the u.s. election is not an important issue? >> no. that's not what i'm saying. what i'm saying is when it is impossible to talk about these other issues, and here we are, i get the opportunity to reference some of them where you're unable to talk about these other

issues. i have a district in the east end of long island. you ask people what's your most important issue. one will say health care. the next will say taking care of our veterans. the next will reference this investigation. i think we need enough space, enough band width to be able to focus on a legislative agenda to take care of our country and all these other issues that are incredibly important. there isn't just one issue that's important right now before congress. and before the american people. >> it's a fair point. i hear it from people as well, although the polls are increasingly showing the people do want this russia investigation to move forward. final question. i wonder who do you hold responsible for the i don't want to say hijacking, but the distraction away from the republican legislative jaepagen? do you believe the president himself shares some of the responsibility for that? >> you decide what you cover and we have a lot of different ways

that people get their information and you choose what stories we want to talk about. the president where there are victories that he works hard on with people in congress and with the american public, that's great. where there is a distraction that he is responsible for and unforced error on the part of the administration, there's no one else you can blame but yourself. but at the end of the day when you are doing an overall analysis of all the issues that we should be talking about and aren't, it's -- with all due respect, i'm just here to answer whatever questions you have on any topic and i would love to be able to focus on these other issues of bills that are getting passed and signed into law or other bills that need to be passed and signed into law to help my constituents and help the american public. that's where everyone gets their news through you watching tv right now. >> i look forward for further opportunities to talk about that and all these issues. thanks for taking the time

today. >> thank you. >> we continue to follow breaking news in new york's times square where the fbi is now helping new york police in investigating a deadly accident. res than two hours ago a speeding car plowed into crowds. one person has died. 19 injured. police are now saying they're investigating this as an accident rather than an intentional event. i want to bring in brynn. she's been down there at the scene. what is the latest you are hearing from the new york police department about this accident? >> well, right now we're being told this is an active crime scene. they're continuing to push us back street by street. we also know that the bomb squad is going in to investigate that car but i am told by a source that is just standard practice and there's no sort of alarm right now for that actual happening. but i do want to bring in anet. she is actually here. she witnessed this all go down. she was here with a whole bunch

of her kids on a field trip to see phantom of the opera and they're in the middle of times square taking pictures. what did you see? >> i didn't see the initial hit. it was more hearing it. we heard the vehicle coming up fast. i heard people screaming. when it hit, he went into the divider things they have here to try to keep us from the traffic. gravel was flying everywhere. the car landed sideways. i saw a gentleman underneath the car and another gentleman was pulling him out. it was a real mess and i looked at the front of the car and saw the flames and said i have to get my kids out of here because cars and fire are something to worry about. i took my kids up the street and people just scattered all over the place. >> terrifying moments. you said there was no way this car was going the right speed. why do you say that? >> it sounded like it was going fast and the way it landed up on the pylon, the divider thing.

it just did not sound like it was doing normal city speed limits. >> did you actually see the driver? >> no, i did not. >> all right. we're glad all you and your kids are safe. thank you so much for talking to us. we really appreciate it. jim, i want to reiterate what you said. 19 people were injured. we have confirmed with police that one person was killed in what is preliminarily believed to be an accident. but of course that is still being investigated at this point. as i mentioned, we just continually are getting moved up. i do want to mention i talked to another witness who said he actually saw the driver run from the scene and he chased him down. he is now being interviewed by police at this point as a witness. we know from sources that driver was believed to be intoxicated. so we are still learning a lot of information here on the scene, but certainly we'll get back to you when we have more. >> but just to be clear for our viewers here, we do know it's preliminary, this is not a final conclusion, but they're

investigating it. preliminary is an accident, one. did he appear to be intoxicated. and isn't it our reporting that he has a history of drunk driving? is that right? >> that's what sources are telling cnn. he did have a history of drunk driving and it's possible he was in fact intoxicated when this crash happened. and again, to give you a quick landscape of the area where this happened, it's really just one street that this car could have gone down as you heard this witness say. the car was definitely speeding in her account. that's when it sort of flipped up on its side and many witnesses told us it caught on fire. but certainly like i said, one witness said that driver did try to get away but he helped stop him. we'll try to confirm that with police. yes, that driver according to cnn sources -- tell cnn rather that that driver does have a history of drunk driving and it's possible he is intoxicated at this point. >> brynn, thanks very much. even if an accident, a deadly one and dramatic for all those who witness today firsthand. thanks very much. coming up, one top republican

senator says the appointment of a special prosecutor will diminish the investigation and senator jack reed, a member of the senate intelligence committee will join me to discuss all this right after this break. anne

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welcome back. the leaders of the senate intelligence committee are backing the appointment of a special counsel on russia. but republican chairman richard burr and the ranking democrat mark warner say their own panel's investigation will go on. jack reed is a member of the senate intelligence committee. thanks for much, senator, for joining us today. looking at this now, democrats are welcoming the appointment of a special counsel. as a practical matter, though, does this appointment in effect over shadow the senate road? >> it doesn't overvshadow it. the special prosecutor will be pursuing criminal charges, investigations with the full power of an investigative office, a power to subpoena, to compel testimony, much more so than the powers that we have in the intelligence committee. our view is also to get the story.

but also to do it in the context of what we have to do to change the united states laws, to change policies, to provide resources so that we not only can look backward but also forward. this is a threat, this russia threat is not just a history. it's pending for our elections going forward. both investigations are complimentary. >> let me ask you this, because as i understand it, mueller is the special counsel now decides, for instance, what the fbi shares with you and your committees. i know there have been some frustration early on about how quickly the intelligence committee was sharing relevant documents, et cetera. i know that's no longer the case, but does this mean you're going to be -- likely your committee will have less access to the latest discoveries in the investigation, et cetera? >> i don't think there'll be any less access. again, we have to go ahead and ask the agencies to provide us information. they have to comply with their

rules. and the rules of the fbi are a bit different than some of the intelligence communities. we've made progress in getting cooperation from the intelligence agencies. we're similarly pursuing cooperation with the fbi. but i don't think his appointment will slow us down. in fact, i think he will be i think cooperative. in fact, i have no doubt he will be cooperative. >> and what about in terms of public testimony? since the revelation of memos written by james comey after this meeting with the president where he took it the president was telling him to layoff the investigation into flynn, great interest in his public testimony, including before your committee. have you heard from the former fbi director? has he answered your request to come testify? >> what i have heard is through the chairman and the ranking member that he is very interested in testifying. the question is the appropriate time. but my sense is, again, through their comment is that this is not a question of if but when.

>> okay. and the fact that there's now potentially a criminal investigation under way would not prevent him from coming before the senate to give public testimony about this? >> i don't think it would prevent him. i think it might sort of describe the detail or the questions that he would deal with, but he is, again, very knowledgeable lawyer himself. i don't think he would do anything that would either jeopardize an ongoing investigation or in some way complicate the process of justice. >> you know, senator, there's a contrary point of view that to some degree the appointment of a special counsel is sort of good news for the trump administration in that, one, they can now refer all questions to the special counsel, say listen, not a question for me, talk to the special counsel, and two, that because the special counsel works in secret that, you know, a lot of this information has been coming out

by some public comments, that this might put a damper on that. do you think that's an accurate assessment of how this might go forward? >> that might be impossible, but i think the best news is for the american people. they were increasingly worried about the direction this investigation was taking. would it be partisan. would it be a series of accusations back and forth. now with director mueller in charge i think everyone can have confidence that there's a professional with great integrity who understands the fbi very well, who understands the criminal justice process very well, and who i believe is committed to following the facts and the law to the appropriate conclusions. so i think that's the best outcome that has taken place here and it's a good one. >> final question for you, senator reed. you're aware of course of mr. trump, president trump's tweet this is morning calling himself the most unfairly treated president, politician, rather, in history.

calling the special counsel investigation a witch hunt. what's your reaction to those comments from the president? >> i think they're inappropriate frankly. the russians involve themselves in our campaign. that is the conclusion of our intelligence community. public conclusions. they have demonstrated the willingness and the ability to involve themselves in other campaigns. we've had testimony recently that they expect this to be the new norm, that they're going to come into the elections in '18 and the president's elections in 2020 so the notion that this is all about the president and he's the one who's being the object of this is not appropriate. this is a crisis basically with respect to our institutions of gov -- we cannot allow any foreign

entity to wooeield influence onr democracy. >> coming up, was it personal or political? new questions about why former national security adviser michael flynn would not green light a plan to fight isis. details right after this. it's time for some straight talk. if you love your phone but hate your bill. do something about it! no, not that. straight talk wireless let's you keep your phone, number and 4g lte network for a lot less, with the bring your own phone activation kit. it's time to ask yourself... why haven't i switched? unlimited talk, text and data for forty-five dollars a month, no contract. straight talk wireless. only at walmart.

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some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. . we're looking at live pictures from times square in new york city. police there expected to hold a press conference any moment with the latest update on that crash that killed one pedestrian, injured some 19 others, we'll take that press conference live when it happens. meanwhile, the trump administration dealing with more fallout. flynn told the trump transition

team that he was under federal investigation two weeks before the inauguration. let's bring in our panel to discuss that. we have senior political report nia-malika henderson and gloria borger here with me in washington and dana bash. we've got the full team. gloria, i'll start with you. why this continued loyalty from the president to general flynn despite many missteps on his part? >> well, currently of course general flynn is an orphan with no parents. with people from inside the administration. now. but if you look back at the situation during the transition, i was just talking to somebody who explained it to me this way. a source familiar. was that general flynn was the first one with brass on his shoulders to come out and endorse donald trump. they had the same attitude towards isis, which was we're

just going to get out there, we're going to kill it. the same disdain for the kind of intelligence that the united states was gathering on isis. and he loved traveling with flynn. remember flynn used to appear with him at rallies. >> very vocally, lock her up. >> right. so even after a lot of people inside the original transition said to donald trump, you know, you have to be a little careful about this guy, donald trump would respond and say i know, but he's been so loyal to me. so loyalty above all. >> vice president pence's role in this really more questions every week. i just want to remind our viewers what he said in a fox interview in march when pence was asked about the news that michael flynn had been secretly working as a paid lobbyist for turkey. have a listen. >> former national security adviser michael flynn has filed with the department of justice as a foreign agent for making more than $500,000 as a lobbyist

essentially for turkey. your reaction to that? >> let me say hearing that story -- >> we're going to go right to new york now because the press conference beginning on the this incident in times square. have a listen. >> today here in times square. we're going to provide you with information. i want to emphasize up front this is preliminary information. obviously investigation under way. there's a lot we will learn in the coming hours. but we're going to give you the information we have at this point. i'll start then you'll hear from our police commissioner james o'neal and commissioner dan nigro. so far what we know, 23 individuals were injured in this incident. that includes trageically one young woman who has passed away. the perpetrator is in custody. is a united states citizen and a former member of the armed

forces with the united states navy. he has a criminal history. the commissioner will go over that in a moment. based on the information we have at this moment, there is no indication that this was an act of terrorism. i want to clarify again. based on the information we have at this moment, there is no indication that this was an act of terrorism. that being said, we are reinforcing key locations around the city with our anti-terror units of the nypd. we'll have an abundance of caution, major sightes in the cy will get additional police coverage from our anti-terror units. those who were injured and for the families and particularly for the family of the young woman who was lost, our prayers are with her family and with all

those who right now are suffering because of this horrible incident. i want to thank all our first responders. the perpetrator was apprehended very quickly. and i want to thank all the first responders who immediately came to the scene to aid the wounded. you'll get an update on the status of those who were affected from the fire commissioner. this is a tough day for new york city. but as usual, the people in new york city will stand firm. we'll be resilient. we have tremendous faith in our first responders who handled this situation so quickly. and we will provide regular updates as more information emerges. now i'll present our police commissioner james o'neal. no problem. okay. all right. we'll get it back.

how about now? you guys good? we have audio? we have audio now? how about now? peter, you want to take a look at it? all right. ready to roll? so as the mayor said, this is preliminary information. this incident happened about an hour and a half ago so it a's a subject to change. this is what we talk about at every press conference. we try to get as much information out to you as possible as soon as possible. at approximately 11:55 a.m. a 2009 honda passenger vehicle mounted the sidewalk on the west

side of 7th avenue at west 42nd street in times square. the vehicle occupied by a male driver proceeded to driver at a high rate of speed along the sidewalk from 42nd street to 45th street striking a number of pedestrians along the way. the honda eventually came to a stop on the north west corner of west 45th street where it collided with a metal. along the route it struck 23 pedestrians causing multiple injuries and one fatality. 22 victims were moved to local hospitals. the driver, a 26-year-old male identified as richard rohas, a resident of the bronx, was taken into custody at the scene. preliminary investigation reveals that rohas has a few arrests and two of them are for a dwi. detectives are currently refusing any other criminal history for the subject.

further investigation is ongoing at this point as the mayor said, there is no indication that this incident was terrorism related. commissioner nigro will talk about the injuries. >> i'll talk about the injuries in general terms. we're not going to talk about names or specific injuries. we did have one person who was pronounced at the scene. there were four critical patients removed, two to bellevue, two to roosevelt with traumatic injuries including open fractures, including multiple traumas. none of those at this point, thanks to the fact that they were quickly transported to the hospital, is likely. but it doesn't mean they are cleared. none of those four are right now likely to parish. conditions can change. we're very hopeful the fact they were treated quickly and removed quickly that they will survive. three other injuries were very serious, but not critical. they were also removed to local hospitals.

15 are less serious injuries. we all green tag injuries. all of these people have now been transported to the hospitals and are being treated. we won't divulge any names or ages or where they come from at this point, but there was a very large amount of fire department and police department resources arriving here very quickly and thanks to that, people received care in a very timely fashion. >> all right. let's take questions. in the back? >> we've been listening to an un date from the police department and new york mayor on this incident in times square. they are investigating this is an accident. they say the driver is in custody. he has prior arrests for drunk driving. sadly some 23 people injured and one person died. we're going to continue to monitor it. give you all the late skpest an

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welcome back. we've been covering multiple stories. the incident in times square, but also new revelations about mike flynn, the fired national security adviser. toi i want to bring our panel back. dana, i want to go back to you because this was interrupted when we went to the press conference in times square. i'll play vice president mike pence's comments in a march interview regarding what he knew about flynn. ask for your response. have a listen. >> former national security adviser michael flynn has filed with the department of justice as a foreign agent for making

more than $500,000 as a lobbyist essentially for turkey. your reaction to that? >> hearing that story today was the first i heard of it and i fully support the decision that president trump made to ask for general flynn's resignation. >> you're disappointed by the story? >> the first i heard of it and i think it is an affirmation of the president's decision to ask general flynn to resign. >> dana, the options there for the vice president, neither is really good because either he's not being truthful in that answer or he was running the transition and did not know that a senior appointee was under federal investigation. >> and now it appears that it is the latter. at least that is what the vice president's office is saying. we have a new statement from an aide to the vice president. the vice president stan stands by his comments in march.

upon first hearing the news to general flynn's tries to turkey and fully support's the president's decision to ask for general flynn's resignation. he's claiming ignorance that even though he was the head of the transition, he did not know that general flynn had these ties. despite the fact that we now know that general flynn or at least is reported gave that information to the transition. now, apparently the person that general flynn told was don mcgann who was the counsel for the transition. now the white house counsel. so then the next question in this particular thread of this drama is why didn't don mcgann tell the vice president? and so that's sort of -- that's next. but the fact that mike pence was the head of the transition and this wasn't, you know, a low level appointment. not an appointment, but not a low-level pick. the national security adviser on the president of the united states. one of the most important, probably the most important

nonconfirmed aides that the president of the united states has. the fact that he had ties to turkey should have been a giant red flag that the white house counsel should have been holding and running in and telling the president, the vice president, and everybody else. >> no question. let's be honest. nia, to be frank here, this administration does not have a good record of credibility on this or other issues like this. it brings -- for instance, sally yates warning about flynn where she says she made it very clear that he seemed to be compromised to don mcgann. again, white house says well, it was a heads up, this kind of thing. but following a simple pattern. either not informing others in the white house or not, you know, accurately characterizing. does it beg belief for you? >> you know, it is a little hard to believe. if you think about that transition team, mike pence obviously the head of it, but jared kushner is also on that

transition team. ivanka trump also on that transition team. all of these people very much involved you would think in trying to vet folks, in trying to figure out where people should be in the administration. and get the administration up and running in a credible way that doesn't cause problems for the white house going forward. and you have mike pence there who again is in this similar situation. he didn't know. he was told a story and he went out and told essentially a lie about mike flynn initially and then of course about the firing of james comey. so this is a white house that has a credibility problem and we see it over and over again. >> and the victim is the vice president. a frequent victim of that credibility because it was only a week ago that mike pence, among others, came out and doubled down on this idea that rod rosenstein's report on comey that led to the firing which the president later undermined. >> we ent kndon't know how to characterize the vice president.

we know what he has said and we have to take him at his word, but the whole flynn story is so head scratching because it wasn't just this red flag if this story is accurate. it wasn't just this red flag. it was the president of the united states saying that maybe you shouldn't appoint this guy and there were warnings there. there was intelligence there. and so you have to go to the president i think on this. because the only one who seemed to be truly attached to general flynn in any way, shape, or form was the president of the united states who admired him and trusted him and felt that he helped him win the election. >> dana, we hear a lot more as often is happening. leaks from inside the white house about disarray, consideration of a reshuffling of senior positions in there. is that a reality? do you see that, particularly an incident like this, does the president blame particular

people >> the answer is, from my reporting and gloria's great reporting as well, yes, he's blaming everybody and anybody, no question. but the open question is whether or not there will be any changes made. it doesn't seem that there's anything afoot right now, but that could change in five minutes. one white house official was joking, not joking with me the other day that all these intrigue stories and who would have thought the first person to go wouldn't be sean spicer or reince priebus but james comey. you never know what is going to happen and what this president is going to do. but given the fact that they are in a new state right now, a state of special prosecutor and they need to get their act together, it is possible that that could mean a freeze of just keep everybody in place right now and let's just work with what we've got.

we'll see. >> nia and gloria if we have time, i want to ask -- there's a contrarian point of view that this oddly enough might give the white house some breathing room. one, a special counsel truly works in secret. if any special counsel is going to obey that rule, it's a guy like bob mueller. you still have the hill doing its work but really he's going to have the best access. he's got the ability to subpoena, to indict, et cetera. does this conceivably give the white house some breathing room? >> possibly. you think about something like jim comey who might have been set to testify on the hill. maybe he doesn't testify now because bob mueller who is a good friend of james comey says it's important that you don't testify. so a lot of the things that we might have expected to be out in the open might not be out in the open. if you're the white house, that might be a good thing. it also, i think, is a good thing for this white house if, in the end, donald trump is

proven right and that there was no collusion, bob mueller is a guy who has that credibility to make that case so there was no there there. >> in effect you traded james comey for bob mueller. a arguably tougher. >> i think it's a short-term view because, yes, it does get it out of the spotlight but the long-term view is this can go anywhere. they can subpoena the president's taxes. the special counsel can -- really has broad jurisdiction here and can go anywhere he wants. don't forget, the whole lewinsky scandal started with whitewater. look where that went. in the long term, i think they all know that they have problems, even people who are sitting in the white house right now with nothing to do with this are now thinking, wait a minute, i also have to get a lawyer. >> yeah, which is a shame, dana,

because you have lower level staff, right. it's tough for them to bear the cost going forward. but on this issue, as it does just politically here now, because the bob mueller as a special counsel has enormous power that many members of the congressional committees -- and i'm sure they've expressed to you. they've expressed to me -- frustration, from the intelligence community. that's not a problem that bob mueller is going to have. >> it's not. it's not. no question there's frustration from democrats and republicans i'm talking to saying that they feel that this puts a freeze on what they're doing and it may not be a full-on freeze but it will shut them down from doing a lot of what they wanted to do. first and foremost, talk to james comey in a public setting. that deal had not been struck to get him before congress and then, poof, we have this special prosecutor.

and so the feeling among people in the senate in particular who wanted to hear from james comey in a public way is that it's probably not going to happen because robert mueller is going to say, you know what, let's just hold off. let me get my ducks in a row. let's not have him go out and talk publicly about the memos and everything else until the special prosecutor has a sense of where he's going to go with this, his staff in place and all of the above. >> it's interesting you bring that up. i asked senator jack reed. does this mean you're not going to be able to get comey to testify? maybe they are putting a brave face on but, no, we are going forward. is that a pipe dream? >> probably a pipe dream. >> i don't know. >> we will see. the dominant force here is going to be bob mueller in terms of resources and in terms of access and it's hard to see that these congressional committees are going to have the same prominence. >> look at iran-contra.

it was a joint committee but they went very separately from lawrence walsh, who was the special prosecutor at that time. so you had iran-contra and they had public hearings because their job is different. congress' job is to inform the american public about what is going on and to get to the truth of the matter. the prosecutor's job is to prosecute. they are very different jobs. if you remember, the congressional committee gave oliver north immunity. the congressional committee did not. they said, we need to get the truth for the american people and that caused a lot of problems. >> and comments he made in public became material to -- >> it was not upheld on appeal. >> politics will come into play here. republicans are running these committees and in some ways you wonder how eager they are to get this stuff out in public. >> nia, dana, gloria, thank you

very much. breaking news now. officials telling cnn that u.s. war forces have struck in a safe zone there. details from the pentagon next. . your only worry... will be how to drink this monstrosity. get help with hotels, free twenty-four-hour flight changes, and our price match guarantee. travelocity.® wander wisely.™ hi..and i know that we have phonaccident forgiveness.gent, so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight- four weeks without the car. okay, yup. good night. with accident forgiveness your rates won't go up just because of an accident. switching to allstate is worth it.

hi there. you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. we have this breaking news here out of syria. air strikes from a u.s.-led coalition has just hit pro-assad regime forces. it's happened in an area that is labeled quote/unquote a deconfliction zone. we have barbara starr and rick francona in syria. barbara, first to you, just on the facts, this area