personality. thanks to all of you for joining us. don't forget you can watch any time anyone, ac "360" begins right now. >> good evening. tonight, witch hunts and whiplash. witch hunt is how president trump described the russia probe today and whiplash is what the firing of james comey is causing. for the third time in nine days, the opposite of the answer that came before. in addition to everything else we'll be talking about and the search for the new fbi director the president's upcoming trip overseas we begin with another verbal backflip from the president of the united states. here's what he said with the president of columbia. >> director comey was very unpopular with most people. i actually thought when i made that decision and i also got a

very strong recommendation, as you know from the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. >> to dispose of that first claim about him being unpopular. acting fbi director mccabe said that was not true and he was widely respected. "keeping them honest" to somehow the president describes it. the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein wrote a memo and he read it and persuaded to one extent to fire comey. that was his account today. so was this just seven days ago. >> i was going to fire comey. there's no good time to do it, by the way. >> because in your letter, you said i accepted their recommendation. you had already made the decision. >> i was going to fire regardless. >> i was going to fire regardless. the president also said russia was on his mind when he made that decision. this was last thursday saying it was all him not rosenstein. rewind your brain to a couple days before that interview with

lester holt to the day comey was fired, tuesday, on that day according to white house surrogates, it wasn't president trump's idea, it was all rosenstein. as you can see, all rosenstein all the time. >> president trump made the right decision at the right time. to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general. >> the president accepted the recommendation of his kept deputy attorney general. >> he took the recommendation of rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. >> he brought the recommendation to the president the director of the fbi should be removed. >> when you receive a report so clear, and a recommendation by someone like the deputy attorney general, you have no choice but to act. >> he provided strong leadership, and to act on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general. >> he is taking the recommendation of his deputy attorney general. >> i personally am grateful we have a president who's willing to provide the kind of decisive an strong leadership to take the

recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to remove an fbi director who had lost the confidence of the american people. >> so today the president readopted that narrative, the one he then counter-spoke against right after all those statements were made. our slogan years ago where the news comes full circle, little do we know one day it actually would. perhaps ordinarily how the president explains his decision to fire the fbi director might not matter that much. it does, the focus of a probe whether the president included obstructed justice. rod rosenstein's latest account just today contradicts the president's latest account just today. you can't make this up. it's not our only story on all of this tonight, merely the first of many. more now from the white house and cnn, sarah murray. a busy bday for the president. what can you tell us?

>> reporter: the president was not hiding his displeasure the fact that a special counsel has been named and said it was divisive for the country and compared this investigation to a witch hunt. listen to what he had to say. >> i respect the move but the entire thing has been a witch hunt. there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign. i can always speak for myself and the russians, zero. i think it divides the country. i think we have a very divided country because of that and many other things. >> reporter: he shared other similar sentiment to that in a lunch with news anchors and a very different tone from the president today in that lunch and in that press conference than the somewhat demure statement we got under the president's name last night essentially saying there would be no collusion but he would wait to see how this went forward, anderson. >> as you reported, the president felt blind sided by mueller's appointment of special counsel.

some of his allies feel this could be positive for the president. >> reporter: they do. they see it as an opportunity to move beyond questions about the russia investigation and his staffers to say, when asked, there's a special counsel over seeing the investigation and we'll see what happens and back to pivot to the things people elected him to do in washington, they're looking to the foreign trip as an opportunity to do that, to reset and help president trump appear presidential once again and get back to their main message. of course, anderson, this only works if they adopt some kind of message discipline. that has been difficult for trump's team and it's also particularly difficult for the president when he's frustrated. >> i was going to say, not so much his team that has a problem staying on message. they seem to get their talking points and execute them pretty well. the president himself the person they're working for keeps reversing all their hard work.

they go out and scurry to the cameras when they need to and the next day the president tweets and continues the conversation. today, he didn't need to tweet calling this a witch hunt, could have continued talking about his legislative agenda moving forward, foreign trip coming up. he's still looking back. >> reporter: it's worth noting one of his friends we're talking to earlier today said the more we're reacting the worse it gets. we need to move on and talk about other things. it's very difficult for the president to do that when he feels he's under attack. that's certainly how he feels in the wake of this news about the special counsel. >> we'll see if he changes. more now from 1600 pennsylvania avenuey the president's closest advisors talking to him about lawyering up. the president outside counsel, what do you know? >> throughout the day, a small circle of advisors of the president talking about who they should hire for outside legal

representation. michael cohen, his personal lawyer, seen in the white house earlier today, having these meetings to talk about a strategy here going forward. this is an entirely new horizon about to happen here in washington. a special prosecutor can look into everything essentially. so what i'm told is a small circle of advisors says the president needs more firepower on the outside. they are going to present a plan to him to hire some type of lawyers, a team of lawyers to help represent him in this going forward. >> plenty of legal scholars we talk to say the president should absolutely do this but are surprised he hasn't already. >> that's a good question. it's certainly typical for a president under this type of scrutiny and investigation to have someone from the outside. the white house counsel's office is handling the work of his current job. this is about a private action, something that happened during

the presidential campaign. we know president trump is slow to sep new people and new advisors. he's being presented a plan who he can trust and it's up to him to sign off on that. some advise him to do it before he leaves washington. the clock is running out and why there is a meeting at the white house and they're presenting him this plan if they haven't already. >> as we mentioned at the top. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein is at capitol hill briefing senators behind closed doors. depending which you ask, he said something that throws a monkey wrench into the white house explanation, the latest rationale for dismissing james comey. what have you learned about this closed door meeting? >> interesting depending on the senator, deferential to bob mueller. several senators came out and

made very clear it was their understanding rod rosenstein was aware james comey was going to be fired before he wrote the three page memo the trump administration officials have repeatedly cited as the reason, as you noted, anderson, the president himself cited for the reason for the firing today even though the president has also cited another reason for the firing. here's what i'm told actually happened. mr. roesgenstein made clear he was not pressured by the white house but made the day before the firing was likely to happen and then he decided to write the memo. very clear at the crux where the white house differed repeatedly on this story why this firing actually occurred and how this firing actually occurred, rod rosenstein was clear before the memo was written. here's what he didn't answer, just about every other question related to the firing. i spoke to a lot of democratic senators frustrated, felt more answers should have been given. he will have another opportunity tomorrow while he briefs the

house. don't expect more to come from there. he's being very careful especially given the appointment of the special counsel. >> what about the response to mueller as special counsel? >> it's very positive and his credentials unimpeachable. there are multiple probes going on and a lot of concern what his separate investigation or investigation as special counsel will do to those probes. take a listen what senator graham had to say, who is running one of those probes. >> the take away i had is everything he said was you need to treat this investigation as if it may be a criminal investigation. i think the biggest legal change seems to be mr. mueller is going to proceed forward with the idea of a criminal investigation versus counter-intelligence investigation. >> the senator's point is this. they don't want to bump into a criminal investigation. they don't want to be

subpoenaing documents that might get in the way of a criminal investigation. john cornyn said he believed this was the recipe for a train wreck. what senators are trying to figure out right now and leaders are trying to figure out right now how to grasp onto a single point of contact. leaders have been very clear i expect the congressional investigations to continue and expect the committees to continue their work in site. of or perhaps along with bop mueller. >> what does this mean for the congressional meeting moving forward? >> i asked about what does this drama have to do? he said we can walk and chew gum at the same time. the house obamacare passed and when you talk to aides, these are huge ambitious items they're trying to move through. if you want to do that you need the white house laser focused on those issues, out selling those

issues. only talking about those issues. they simply haven't gotten that up to this point. a lot of concern, while there's relief on the short term about the special counsel being made it may tie the white house up in weeks and months and perhaps years ahead and draws concern about the ambitious agenda items they had planned for 2017. >> all the the congressional committees on capitol hill investigating all those investigations will continue to move forward despite -- regardless of mueller? >> yeah. that's exactly right. the headers have made very -- leaders have made very clear that's what they want. democrat and republican said their investigation will continue. the house intelligence committee actually requested the comey memos today. a total of four committees have requested those memos from james comey over the course of the last couple of days and made very clear and nancy pelosi repeated she wants james comey

to testify. the big question, as this moves forward two-fold, will anything run into anything else? will these committees bang into one another? will they get in the way of bob mueller as the special counsel and what he's trying to do and more importantly are these investigations just surface-based? while they be undercut by everything going on or come to a real conclusion? i'm told when you look what the senate intelligence committee is trying to do, think of it more as counter-intelligence investigation, that will be their focus. it's an open question right now. they're kind of in unchartered territory right now. >> seems that way. the "new york times" has an article, president trump called the fbi director james comey weeks after he took office and asked him when federal authorities were going to put out word mr. trump was not personally under investigation according to two people briefed on the call according to the "new york times." mr. comey told the president if

he wanted to know details about the bureau's investigations he should not contact him directly but instead follow the proper procedures and have the whiteout counsel send any inquiries to the justice department according to those people. after explaining to mr. trump how communications with the fbi should work, mr. comey believed he had effectively drawn the line after a series of encounters he had with the president, other white house officials said he felt jeopardize the fbi's independence at the time mr. comey was investigating the links between the president and connections to russia. this is fascinating stuff, the idea that there would be this direct contact which goes against all protocol. >> very interesting, more reporting from michael schmidt who broke the story earlier. what it speaks to the president's mindset certainly before he was sworn into office, he seemed obsessed by someone clearing him of any wrongdoing in any of this.

that's why he started those conversations with the fbi director. it's so clear, based on this reporting, james comey has a deep paper trail. the white house has said, look, those conversations didn't happen but that's really all they've done. they've not refuted it in any serious way in terms of specifics about this. james comey, he's known across washington as being very me t k meticulate taking notes like this. the president was trying to move from it at the news conference saying next question. there's more to hear from the james comey side that will come out either in congressional testimony if he testifies or special counsel. i'm also struck by remembering that day in january, when the fbi director, who stands 6'8". he's a towering figure. the president called him up and brought him sort of into a bear

hug. in video, we've seen so many times, anderson. that, according to this story and other reporting we've done, made the fbi director so uncomfortable at the time, at the moment. now, we know why if this reporting is to be believed. more layers of the onion with the unusual contact with the president and fbi director. >> what's so fascinating about the call the snorkt times is reporting -- the "new york times" is reporting on the personal nature the president of the united states believes he can influence things or his desire to do things personally, whether making that call or whether it's getting jeff sessions out of the office and getting the vice president outside of the office and having a private conversation with the director of the fbi the white house is now refuting. frankly, i don't know why anyone would believe what the white house say, some unnamed white house official saying that conversation between comey and the president never happened. the only way they would know that is depending what the

president of the united states told them and we know the president has told them things either not true or he then refutes a day later. >> no question about it. the credibility is on the line. every story that has come out. boy, this week, there have been so many of them. the instant response from the white house to say, no, that did not happeny that is not true. the reality and communications people in this white house only know what they are told, quite frankly. all of this emanates from the oval office himself. the president had the forum to explain his side of the comey story and quickly moved on from that. he said something else at that news conference today, he said, even my enemies have said i'm not implicated in this at all. that's just not true. the fact of the matter is people across the board have said, look, we don't know if there is collusion and why there needs to be an investigation. beside from james comey we're

getting more and more of this certainly must be frustrating to the white house, as of yet we have not seen the president release anything to refute any of these detailed recollections from james comey. coming up next, the president's insistence he is the real victim. and what the special counsel is investigating. what muscle strain? advil makes pain a distant memory nothing works faster stronger or longer what pain? advil. i use what's already inside me to reach my goals. so i liked when my doctor told me i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating what's within me with once-weekly trulicity. trulicity is not insulin. it helps activate my body to do what it's supposed to do release its own insulin. trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises.

i take it once a week, and it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen and i may even lose a little weight. trulicity is a once-weekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. trulicity is not insulin. it should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take trulicity if you or a family member has had medullary thyroid cancer, if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to trulicity. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms such as itching, rash, or trouble breathing; a lump or swelling in your neck; or severe pain in your stomach area. serious side effects may include pancreatitis, which can be fatal. taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your risk for low blood sugar. common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite and indigestion. some side effects can lead to dehydration,

which may make existing kidney problems worse. with trulicity, i click to activate what's within me. if you want help improving your a1c and blood sugar numbers with a non-insulin option, click to activate your within. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity. p this video calling the fbi director comey over, when he asked him earlier to be cleared about his involvement with russia. and this morning, this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politics in american history. with all the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and obama administration there was never a

special counsel appointed. hard to know what he was referring to, the petraeus affair and benghazi and the fbi investigated hillary clinton on her e-mail server and found no criminal wrongdoing, just bad judgment. the obama administration was notably short on administration scandals. as to the witch-hunt, the president was already on a role the day before. his commencement speech yesterday at the coast guard academy. >> look at the way i've been treated lately, especially by the media. no politician in history, i say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. >> can you imagine if that was your commencement address? one for the memory books. the four u.s. presidents shot dead might disagree with that statement.

joining us the panel. is it helpful for the president to portray himself continually as a victim, the greatest victim of all. >> i was in the white house for the iran contra fair. ronald reagan stood up at some point and had the new york jets for the super bowl ceremony and he stopped and said, i don't have many fans anymore. presidents think this way when they're under assault. i would make the appoint particularly have been through iran contra. the media insisted he had personal responsibility. it turned out he didn't. but every single night on the news there was that finger-pointing at the president saying he was responsible. i understand what he's talking about. agenda politics. >> i guess there's a difference between an offhand remark by president reagan and giving a commencement address how bad

things are for him, go forth unafraid. every legal expert for the last couple of days said the best thing he can do is be quiet, don't keep talking. >> he clearly sees a double standard. i see a double standard. >> who would agree it's not wise for him to tweet and talk about this. he can talk about his agenda moving forward. >> he should do that, you're correct. he should move the agenda forward. >> you can look at it as an opportunity to the president to say, there's a special counsel, investigation, we give it our blessing, we're moving for ward and be done with it. >> absolutely. in the long term, bob mueller will investigate this aggressively. if there's any wrongdoing he will find it and will be uncomfortable for a lot of aides who have to obtain private counsel and answer questions. in the short term it is a blessing in disguise for this trump white house. bob mueller does his work methodically and quietly which means this investigation will probably take a long time and

there won't be leaks. that's not the way bob mueller operates. that gives the trump white house the space to duck questions and say there's a process afoot and it will play out. the second is i think it actually might quiet james comey. james comey is a long-time friend and views bob mueller as a mentor figure. he will be loathe to start leaking out these memos and perhaps not want to testify on capitol hill anymore knowing it would undercut bob mueller's investigation. >> it could be a blessing for the president if mueller finds no illegal behavior, poor judgment or collusion, no illegality, he may not make a report about it, saying there is nothing to prosecute here and the full story may not be known. >> if. the president seems to be his own worst enemy. he can't help himself. he's the one that fired comey and invited the russians into the oval office without the american press and the one that said in an interview i fired him

over the russians. the big if, if the president can control himself. we know these investigations can take months if not years. >> fascinating this president believes he's able to talk his way out of stuff. in fact the administrator he talks the deeper he gets in. today, he reversed himself again going back to rod rosenstein's memo, days ago he said, oh, no, i knew what i was going to do before that. >> he talked himself into the presidency before that. he's looking back, this has worked so far and i don't think it will work on this occasion. he can't see where he has an opportunity to say, there's an investigation going on, we give that investigation our blessing, this guy is well respected and we can't comment. that's a great way to move forward. he's on safe ground to say i have political adversaries that want to take me out for any reason. that's true as any president and

media versus real america would be politically useful to him and he can speak about his agenda that way. once you go beyond that and start talking about the investigation and contradicting all your aides along the way, it just makes things more complicated and messy for you and you're already a complicated and messy person. >> the white house has also -- i say this with no glee at all, the white house makes an official statement you want to believe it is real. they're making a statement this conversation between then director comey and the president it didn't happen the way it's being reported. the only two people who know are the two people in the room at the time. the president has a history of saying things to his aides which turn out not to be true or not telling his aides what actually were said. we saw this when he was briefed on that two page summary of that 35 page dossier, he didn't tell his aides and his aides went out there, came on cnn and attacked cnn saying your reporting was

wrong. we were right, he was briefed and later came out. >> that causes further problems with him. the roesgenstein thing, roesgenstein picks this special counsel i think in part because he was undermined a week earlier. in the trump orbit two weeks and undermined largely by the president. you get this situation he's built a reputation for many many many years and needs to make sure he is pro-serving it as an honest broker. rosenstein. and art of that is bringing an independent guy to look into this. >> and you see time and time again his aides trying to defend him and he throws them under the bus. what we're seeing in the "new york times" article backing up, a lot of comey's aides are coming to his defense. you're not going to see that much coming from the president's aides, because time and time again they seem to be undermined by their boss. >> there is a question here, i'm sure the trump white house heard this, i heard it.

you go back to the obama interview with chris wallace on fox sunday back in april of last year he says uses the language hillary clinton didn't intentionally have her e-mail problem and wasn't intended, a couple months later, director comey uses almost exactly that same language. the question was raised was president obama sending a visual signal to director comey this is where i want you to go because that is in fact where he went. >> i remember a lot of questions being asked about the president saying that, how can he say that. >> i'm saying the feeling is out there. the media firestorm, i've seen this in print from national review from andy mccarthy the former prosecutor the firestorm following this for president trump wasn't there for president obama. that isn't true. i remember reporting. >> weeks on end? >> i do remember raising that issue when the president of the united states said that. it raises all sorts of questions. >> then, so correspondingly, should there be a special counsel to go back and look?

no, no, i'm asking rhetorically. >> there seems to be a lot more evidence here. look, rod rosenstein looked at the evidence and he's the one that appointed the special counsel. the white house last week was singing his praises to how credible he is to now suddenly be questioning whether he should have done this. >> when it comes to the firestorm, the smoke gets billowing and billowing sometimes with help and you're not really seeing the facts that clearly. i think mueller being quiet and having not so many leaks and having a clear plan here, a very methodical guy actually could help some of the distinguishing between what is smoke and fire. >> jeff, do you have the sense the white house sees a problem? do they think they have a credibility problem? >> sure. most advisors who worked in washington any time at all know they have a credibility problem. they can tell it in the

questions asked of them at briefings and read newspapers. this is not a one-sided song here they are hearing they have a credibility problem, this is coming from surround sound across washington from friendlier place, conservative voices and other things. saying they have a credibility problem. they hear it from capitol hill. it manifests in the legislative agenda. you talk to people in speaker ryan's office and leader mcconnell's office and they have reminded the white house credibility is essential so they're trying to get on the same page and get the agenda here. what the white house is trying to do -- i noticed a couple changes in the last week or 10 days or so in this firestorm of whiplash of stories, they are saying more and more, sean spicer and other aides are saying, i don't know, let me ask about this, i don't know the answer to that. the reality is because the president changes his mind, gives a different thing. they know they have a

credibility problem. the question is how to fix it. probably, it's going to be a change at that press podium at some point and they're hoping this foreign trip starting tomorrow changes the subject. it's certainly a high wire act. >> thanks. just ahead, president trump said flat out he didn't collude with the russians but can only speak for himself, not his campaign. should campaign and staffers be worried? i've been blind since birth. i go through periods where it's hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. learn about non-24 by calling 844-844-2424.

or visit my24info.com.

as we said today, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein gave -- before the senate one day after he appointed mr. mueller. >> it was a good decision to appoint a special counsel. i think the shot to the bod dits now considered a criminal investigation and congress's

ability to investigate all things. russia has been severely limited probably in an appropriate fashion. it was a counter-intelligence investigation before now. it seems to me now to be considered a criminal investigation. >> senator graham was referring to four congressional investigations currently looking into the trump campaigns ties to russia and the special prosecutor has implications how they will proceed. lots to discuss, joining me. professor dershowitz the last few days you've been saying the president should lawyer up and be silent and here he is saying this is a witch hunt. >> how many of us as lawyers had clients that didn't do what we advised them to do. what he said was so foolish anybody who lived through the age of mccarthyism or witch hunts that occurred where the president of the united states

has access to so much information, basically fox news on his side and other media on his side, i just don't feel sorry for him saying this is the subject of a witch hunt. i think he will be the beneficiary of the appointment of an inspector. why? the prosecute prosecutor is supposed to investigate crime. most of the things leveled at the trump administration are not criminal acts, collaborating with the russians to get yourself elected, not a criminal act. terrible. >> morally wrong. not illegal. >> but not criminal. the same thing is true with leaking information to the russians. >> isn't it also true that advice is the advice you would give. do you think bob mueller will judge him more harshly because he said a nasty thing. he's a politician, mobilizing his base, attacking the opposition and how he got elected president. i don't think it will hurt him at all.

>> it did hurt him when he tried to put the blame on rod rosenstein. people are heroes but want to emerge well. >> one of the things mueller did the stupid thing -- >> comey. >> comey. he put his own dignity in front of the interests of the country. i think rod rosenstein was thinking what his reputation will be. people care deeply about their reputation. >> calling the witch-hunt, consistent how the blasted the russian investigation in the past. the irony the decision was made by his own deputy attorney general rod rosenstein somebody when himself appointed and his administration has been praising in the days after comey was fired. >> let's cut to the chase. rod rosenstein threw a monkey wrench into a cover-up the white house has been engaged in. exactly what the cover-up has been about, what it is the president of the united states does not want us to know, what

it is the president of the united states thought that he needed to impede an investigation to undermine it, to dismiss it, treat it with disdain. we don't know yet the specifics. what we know he feels very threatened by this investigation. what rod rosenstein did was said enough already we're going to have a special prosecutor. this president tried to use me and manipulate me. i have no choice now but to make sure the rule of law prevails. trump is threatened by this. that's where we are. the idea of self-pity is part of his mo. it has been part of his mo throughout his adult life, throughout his campaign. it worked for him in the campaign. what we are seeing in the trump presidency is that all the things that worked so brilliantly in the campaign are working to undermine him as president of the united states. >> i'm not prepared to agree

with that. he is still the president, he is supported by his party. all this talk of republicans abandoning him is -- just a couple of politicians saying they're concerned. >> let me play something he said at the news conference today. the president gave a blanket denial on behalf of his campaign and then suggested he was more comfortable speaking only for himself. let me play that. >> there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign but i can always speak for myself and the russians, zero. >> how significant do you think that was? >> if i were paul manafort or carter page or michael flynn or even his son-in-law, jared kushner, i would be uncomfortable listening to that. he seems to be setting up, well, these other people were talking to the russians, i don't know what they were doing. >> let's assume that's true. show me the criminal statute. i still sit here as a civil libertarian. i don't want us to become what

stalinist russia was saying, show me the man i'll find you the crime. what is the crime? >> professor. what the president said is there was no collusion period. >> i understand that. >> there's a difference between there was no illegal collusion and there was collusion. >> i agree with you. that's a political issue. that doesn't give mueller jurisdiction. mueller has no jurisdiction to explore whether he made political mistakes, did terrible things, engaged in wrongdoing, only criminal conduct. >> aiding and abetting the hacking of telephones. >> aiding and abetting requires more than knowledge. >> this is an extraordinary situation we need to know about. for the first threshold to cross, you seem so convinced that there has been no criminal violation. let this investigation proceed, professor, and then we'll find -- can i finish. >> we will never find it out. it will always be done in secret. it should be a special

investigative committee in which everything is done in the open. even nancy pelosi called for that today and i'm calling for that again. there, we have both sides presented, we have it out in the open, don't have it in the black box of grand jury we will never know, only hear selective leaks not hear the whole truth. allen, you don't like grand jurys, they've been there since the 18th century. in the bill of rights. >> they've been in the bill of rights as a good reason and prosecutors abused that. if you put 100 criminal lawyers in front of you now, how many of you would abolish the grand jury, 101 would abolish the grand jury. we don't want the grand jury the way prosecutors have abused it. >> we will leave it there. a master class. thank you all. coming up, multiple red flags about former national security advisor michael flynn come back to haunt the vice president. now a report trump told the transition team headed by pence that he was under investigation

for his ties to turkey. what the white house is now saying next. [woman] we want to be that house. [team member] i love that. and now, with my credit options guide, we can help you find which type of credit might be right for you. ready to get started? [woman] okay. [man] definitely. will you be ready when the moment turns romantic? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis. some build walls to keep people out. but these are walls that welcome you in.

within these walls, california's educators create safe places for every student to learn and grow. where teachers open minds to history... unleash creativity... and show our kids the future. some build walls to divide us. but the california teachers association knows these are walls that bring us together. because quality public schools build a better california for all of us.

questions tonight not only the president but role the vice president, mike pence, plays in the ever changing narrative. vice president pence came out with talking points the president contradicted two days later. it could be happening again. as the head of the transition team, he is facing new scrutiny as timelines of warning about michael flynn snaps into focus. this is all taking toll on the vice president saying he looks tired and will continue to be in this advisor's opinion, a soldier because he is relentlessly positive. >> reporter: denying a "new york times" report that former national security advisor michael flynn told the trump transition team weeks before the inauguration he was under investigation. the report puts renewed focus on vice president mike pence who

led the trump transition effort. pence maintained the first time he learned of any investigation was months later in march when the retired general registered with the department of justice as a foreign agent, a move that seemed to surprise the vice president at the time. >> well, let me say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. i fully support the decision president trump made to ask for general flynn's resignation. >> reporter: a pence aide telling "cnn today" the vice president stands by his comments when first hearing the news about the ties to turkey and fully supports the president's decision to ask for general flynn's resignation. that despite the vice president also receiving a warning about flynn's foreign ties in a letter last november from democratic congressman, elijah cummings. >> i sent him a lengthy letter warning him. >> reporter: for the lobbying effort and payment he received for a speech in moscow that was

quote highly critical of the united states. during the height of the presidential campaign, flynn's consulting firm was paid more than a half a million dollars by the consulting company. he later said he had no recollection receiving the document. >> when i asked him about it later on, he said he doesn't remember getting it. >> reporter: pence, who has often acted as a trump translator dating back to the campaign is facing a growing credibility problem. just last week, when he was dispatched to capitol hill after the sudden firing of fbi director james comey, pens repeated the white house line seven times, stating that the decision to fire comey was based on a recommendation from the deputy attorney general, rod

rosr rose rosenstein. >> reporter: only to be contradicted later. cnn, white house. >> lets start with you, on your reporting that the trump transition team knew general flynn was under investigation before he came to the white house and the white house denying it. if that is true would vice president pence have known he was under investigation since he was overseeing the transition team? >> it's a good question. the white house is welcome to deny this. they had the opportunity to do that yesterday hours before the story was published and they chose not to comment. today, decided they will comment. i don't know what went on inside that transition. if the warnings they were given were not communicated to vice president pence running that transition, that's another story and a significant problem, too. at what point does this become, you know, a story about an

organization that failed to vet properly, didn't take years of investigation to figure out. people were already talking about it in november, that flynn was representing turkey. did nobody do any due diligence here? i think there are serious questions both about the vetting done by the trump transition and why they went forward knowing what they did about general flynn. >> also fascinating, the sheer volume of people around the president or candidate trump who end up getting tarnished in some way or thrown under the bus or misled and they go out and put their reputations as spokespeople on the line only to be undercut hours later by the president in the early morning tweet storm. >> i know. mike pence is perhaps the best example because he looks like he was either out of the loop or he was lied to or he was

dissemabling. none of those choices are pretty good. i spoke to a senior advisor tonight particularly about mike pence and said he has enormous peace about his role in this administration. it kind of washes off his back, in a way, and that he also believes next week, you're going to see pence while the president is abroad, you're going to see pence take a big role in the budget rollout and will be up on capitol hill talking about tax reform and healthcare. you have to think, although pence is so stone-faced about it, you have to think this is a man who has to be worrying about his reputation. >> this is a guy who was -- the white house has informed flynn not only under investigation but lied to the vice president about of what the vice president then went out and told the public and wasn't let go for 18 days and

not clear when the vice president was told he had been lied to. >> this is the challenge with trump. many of these folks are people with good reputations, good actors went into this situation thinking, i will do my best for my country. that doesn't mean they're not ambitious people but you end up in a situation where you're having to serve somebody who requires a lot of loyalty, but doesn't really give you a lot of loyalty and consistency in return. that can put you in a really really bad position. i think pence is a guy who wants to do the best for his country and think he should be there. i'm not sure how much influence he's had. that transition was incredibly chaotic and important to keep in mind and hard to know what any one person knew at any time. >> they're polar opposites. who was close was the president and michael flynn, always there at his side. the president really does seem to have a dependence on michael

flynn for many reasons, economic support, foreign policy support. i remember reading that op-ed he wrote in november strongly supporting erdogan. why would he write this. now we know he was paid by the turkish government. when it comes down to the president about what he said today of erdogan's bodyguards really attacking the kurdish protesters and if the president wanted to bring the president together, remind the country of what this country really is about. the freedom of protest. he should have said something about that today. >> not overseas protests -- >> here in the united states. >> his guards are beating people up on the streets of washington, d.c. >> you see video of erdogan watching this, some reports he actually ordered this to take place. yet the president rewards him by bringing him to the oval austs. >> i think this is an opportunity the trump white house does not see to have a really good moment in a really natural trump moment of strength to say you don't do this on our

soil. contrast a bit with obama, something similar happened under his administration, there was no strong response. but he has a tendency to like -- >> hold that thought, gloria, we'll come right back to you. we're going to continue the conversation. after a quick break, we're going to hear what sally yates told me about her warning to the white house about michael flynn, next. he's a nascar champion who's she's a world-class swimmer who's stared down the best in her sport. but for both of them, the most challenging opponent was... pe blood clots in my lung. it was really scary.

a dvt in my leg. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. my doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®... to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner... ...that's proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. here's how xarelto works. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least six blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective... ...targeting just one critical factor, interacting with less of your body's natural blood-clotting function. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor as this may increase risk of blood clots. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. if you've had spinal anesthesia, watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle-related signs or symptoms. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial

heart valve or abnormal bleeding. tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures and before starting xarelto® about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. you've got to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from dvt and pe blood clots. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know. the white house says the vice president is standing by his comments in march he didn't know about fired national security adviser michael flynn's ties to turkey despite a "new york times" report he told him he was undercretly working as a lobbyist. that's the turkey side. of course, it's the russia side. acting attorney general sally yates warned the white house about before she was fired. she warned that flynn could be open to blackmail by russia. here's what sally yates told me this week. was the conduct illegal? was it illegality involved? >> there's certainly a criminal statute that was implicated by his conduct.

>> 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 one from my discussion with them. >> back now with the panel. matt, do we know how vice president pence factored into that warning from yates on flynn? because we know the white house counsel informed the president the day of their first meeting with sally yates right away. was the vice president in the loop as well that he'd been lied to? >> i don't believe he was. i'm not entirely clear on the timeline here, but i don't believe he was, and i mean, this is -- at what point do we kind of just say, okay, what is it? are you just complete out of the loop and you are have have no r this or do you know and you're not being straightguard with fo the american public? the vice president can't have it both ways. this is a whus white house that wants to continually do that and the case with flynn where the president is going on and still

has praised him recently, yet even kind of they whisper and they talk, oh, you know, he really betrayed us, lied to us. it's all done under the cloak of anonymity and have to wonder what's going on here. it goes to your point earlier about, you know, the president expects a tremendous amount of loyalty from people around him, but he doesn't offer much in return. >> gloria, i mean, sally yates said very likely there was a case to be made that there was illegally there. >> sure. >> that's what she informed the white house of. the white house even after flynn was let go said he was let go because he lied, not that there was anything inherently illegal about what he had done. clearly sally yates disagrees. >> she does disagree. she went over there with her hair on fire and said i can't talk to you, don mcgahn, white house counsel, about this, over the phone, it's so important that i have to go over to the white house and i have to let you know and she let him know and then we don't know what happened after that. and so i would -- i would argue that there is no loop in the white house to be out of.

i think there's only one person in the white house. and that's donald trump. and he has, i've been told by sources close to him, that he's been complaining an awful lot about his white house counsel, don mcgahn. i don't know what the reason is, maybe it's because he -- the president felt he was out of this loop. i just, you know, i don't have any idea, but it's hard for me to think of any other white house in which, you know, she would go down to the white house, tell the white house counsel these issues that she had with the national security adviser, you know, being subject potentially to blackmail and that a white house wouldn't act on that very, very quickly. it's stunning. >> it is incredible, though, to have the president of the united states, you know, basically seeming to blame all the people around him constantly without any self-realization that at a certain point, it's not everybody around you who is making errors.

>> is the president also -- i mean, when it comes to flynn, i think gloria's right, he might have been the loop. he likes this guy, he seemed invested in protecting him even when he was firing him, he was effusive in his praise of him and i think when donald trump likes you, even if it's for a brief period of time, that's the force that -- >> there's another view of it, which is whether he likes him or not, he knows something that flynn knows and wants to keep him close for that reason. keep him loyal. >> they're in it for the long run mind colleagu run. my colleague mike i cough sasik they found out they're still exchanging text messages. is it because he's attached to him personally or something that's a bit more nefarious? >> i always go with incompetence than nefarious with donald trump. that doesn't mean there isn't nefariousness. >> i do think there's another

issue with this white house which is, like, their blacklist is so large of people they don't trust that it includes so many republicans and conservatives that they're having trouble staffing so a yates or an elijah cummings coming to them, i can imagine they're immediately discarded and sometimes there might be some reasons for being suspicious about information brought to you but not all the time. >> sorry, go ahead, gloria. >> no, i was going to say, look, this is all about loyalty with donald trump. he was warned about flynn by his first transition team. he saw flynn misbehave at their original briefing when they got their first briefing, and he said, yeah, i know, but i'm told he said, yeah, i know, but, you know, he was loyal to me and he was the first person with brass on his shoulders that came out and supported me. >> everyone, thank you. coming up, the latest from a white house under scrutiny. the president calls it a witch hunt. the latest on what he and lawmakers on capitol hill are saying about the russia investigation just today. next. ♪ with this level of intelligence...

it's a supercomputer. with this grade of protection... it's a fortress. and with this standard of luxury... it's an oasis. the 2017 e-class. it's everything you need it to be... and more. lease the e300 for $569 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. that $100k is not exactly a fortune. well, a 103 how long did it take you two to save that? a long time. then it's a fortune. i told you we had a fortune. get closer to your investment goals with a conversation. some build walls to keep people out. but these are walls that welcome you in. within these walls, california's educators create safe places for every student to learn and grow.

where teachers open minds to history... unleash creativity... and show our kids the future. some build walls to divide us. but the california teachers association knows these are walls that bring us together. because quality public schools build a better california for all of us.