there getting briefings. i was trying to figure out, do you know this. >> right. we put up the return receipt requesting there, the e-mail the showed you got confirmation that the letter was received. whether it was read, whether it was believed, those are the questions that would have to come from the vp and his staff. but the idea they never heard about flynn is somewhat refuted by your letter of november 18th. another question, is it true the white house is still saying they're not going to turn over documents that are relevant to the flynn assignment process as nsa to your committee? >> we haven't gotten the documents yet. we haven't gotten the documents we want. and it is very important right now, chris, particularly after these allegations that flynn informed the white house he was under investigation before he got his assignment. and by the way, going back to the receipt you have. >> yes.

>> you've got to remember, there were months between november and when he got appointed. >> right. >> you understand that? >> yes. >> and somebody seemed like they should have said, wait a minute, this needs to be a part of the vetting process. my belief is they really wanted this guy to be a part of their operation, period. and but we're a better country than that. that's why we have a vetting process. and so we are going to have to look at vetting no matter what. >> well, you've got a lot of things to look at, congressman. thank you for coming on today. you are always welcome here, sir, as you know. >> thank you. >> all right. there is a lot of news. what do you say, let's get after it. >> believe me, there is no collusion. the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> it is now considered a criminal investigation. >> deputy attorney general learned comey would be removed prior to him writing his memos. >> there is mounting evidence of

obstruction. >> director comey was very unpopular with most people. >> i fire e find -- >> we're going to have a director that's going to be outstanding. >> the only person who could get 100 votes in the senate. >> i think it's a mistake to nominate anyone that's ever run for office. >> this is new day with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> brooke baldwin joins me. trump denies he asked comey to drop the fbi's investigation into michael flynn. declaring once again that he is the victim of a witch hunt and blasting the appointment of a special counsel. he says no one cares about these issues. >> meantime, the fired fbi director is breaking his silence.

he said james comey was uncomfortable with interacting with the president and disgusted by that infamous hug in the oval office there. we have it all covered for you this morning there. joe john, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, brooke. it has been a week of serious developments. and the president for the first time actually answering questions about his interactions with the fired fbi director and also talking just a little bit about how he feels about the russia investigation. >> i think it divides the country. i think we have a very divided country because of that and many other things. >> reporter: president trump slamming the appointment of special country as bad for the country. >> i respect the move but the entire thing has been a witch hunt and there has been no collusion between myself and my campaign. but i can only speak for myself

and the russians zero. >> reporter: denies reports he tried to interfere into the russia investigation and michael flynn. >> did you urge james comey in any way, shape or form to close or back down the investigation into michael flynn? >> no, no. next question? >> reporter: but after days of conflicting accounts about why he fired comey -- >> i was going to fire comey, my decision. >> reporter: -- the president is now putting the blame back on the memo written by the deputy attorney general calling for comey's dismissal. >> director comey was very unpopular with most people and i also got a strong recommendation from the deputy attorney general. >> but rosenstein gave a different story when briefed. >> he did acknowledge comey would be removed prior to him

writing his memo. >> reporter: this as comey is breaking his silence about his conversations with the now fired fbi director. >> trump fired jim comey because the most dangerous thing in the world if you are donald trump is a person who tells the truth, is dogged, you can't control. >> benjamin recounting the day of that now famous public embrace between comey and the president at a white house reception shortly after the inauguration. >> comey did not want to go to that meeting. he doesn't believe that the president and the fbi director should, you know, have any kind of social relationship or shows of warmth. >> he describes in detail why comey was reluctant to attend and though 6'86'8", he tried to blend in with the curtains in the back of the room. >> trump singled him out in a fashion he regarded as

calculated. >> he's become more famous than me. >> he told me it was bad enough that he was there, it was bad enough that there was going to be a handshake, but there really wasn't going to be a hug. so if you watch the video, he extends his hand and comey's arms are really long. he extends his hands preuptively and trump pulls him into a hug. but the hug is entirely one sided. comey was completely disgusted by the episode. he thought it was an intentional attempt to compromise him in public. >> reporter: he said comey tried to establish boundaries with the president. >> he saw his role as protecting the fbi from the white house. >> reporter: he says president trump called comey once while he was about to board a helicopter. >> there is no urgent matter. the putt just wants to chitchat

and he was bewilders by it and again thought it was very inappropriate that he doesn't think that the president and the fbi director should be chitchatting. he interpreted it as an effort to kind of be chummy and kind of bring comey into the fold. >> reporter: pam brown has reported that comey was so uncomfortable with these interactions that he rehearsed what he was going to say with he is team before meeting the president. sources say his allies are trying to convince him that he should stop complaining about the russia investigation while his advisors are looking for an outside team to represent the president through the special counsel's investigation. president trump likely very close to naming a new fbi director and the front runner is former united states senator joe liebermann. though, there is still potential for democratic opposition to

that. the president sets out this afternoon for his long trip abroad. first stop saudi arabia. >> when it comes down to comey versus the president, it is a credibility contest. how do we know who to believe? we need proof. joining us is william. he did the interview with james comey's friend, who also wrote an article about his feelings on this situation. thank you for joining us, friend. what was your take-away, starting with do you believe that james comey is well aware that he is out there and well aware that somebody leaked what these memos were about. >> he was very clear with me to say i'm not speaking at jim comey's representative. i'm not speaking as his surrogate. i'm trying to recount the interactions he had with james comey during this period of

time. the whole time this investigation is swirling, that the accusations from the trump administration are coming down on the intelligence and he is talking with comey on the phone. he is having lunch with him. so he simply said everyone has been leaking information and going off the record and giving this information on background. i, as a friend, want to come out publically and say here is what he told me when all this was going down. >> so he gives you a couple of different examples, whether it's on the phone. he hops on the phone with the president and the president just wants to chitchat, which he couldn't believe. the other example is when he tells you about this moment in the evaloffice, two days after the inauguration when jim comey decides to go. he's trying to stay away from the president. here's the clip. >> this was somebody under intense pressure. and, look, jim is a trooper. he handles pressure very well.

he's not a whiner. but the color of the wallpaper was that these were not honorable people and that protecting the fbi from them was his day job. if you watch the video, he extends his hand. and comey's arms are really long. he extends his hand kind of preemptively. and trump grabs the hand and pulls him into a hug. the hug is completely one sided. comey was completely disgusted. >> disgust sed. >> by the episode. he thought it was an intentional attempt to criticize him in public. >> i heard the word disgusted. if he wanted to keep arm's length between comey and the president, why go to this ceremony in the first place?

>> we should preface this by saying that this is not some animosity he has for trump. he feels this is a red rock principle, that they should not be chummy. they should not be seen shaking hands and having chitchaty phone calls. comey didn't want to play basketball with president obama. comey is apparently a basketball player and we know president obama was. this is not a partisan issue. comey's point this is just not what an fbi director and president do, especially in the middle of this investigation. >> it does seem there is a need for comey to testify because it strains credibility that a friend goes out and talks about this situation without approval, that this information comes out without about the moment mows without knowledge and approval by comey. will he testify now and he may ask the congressional efforts to

stand down. what is your sense of what that means for comey testifying? >> obviously i think comey wants to come out and put this record forward. my sense and again this comes from no particular extra intel is that comey wants the record out there. that's partly why we believe he put these memos down, which was to document in realtime what he felt according to whittis was aggressive interference by the trump administration towards him and trying to block the investigation. but it is up to the fbi director when and how he testifies. >> william stay with us. let me bring in our cnn politics reporter chris cillizza and april ryan. and, so i still have more questions for you, william. just as far as we played the clip where he talks about -- when it talks about the color of the wallpaper were that these were not honorable people. just one more quickly to you. did he feel that the president

wasn't honorable? >> he did. and i specifically said that. comey felt that all the way up to the president that there was a not honorable way of approaching their interactions. one of the questions that i asked him was, if comey felt this was so bad, if this was so egregious, if he was asking you for a loyalty oath, why not quit? why not blow the whistle or go public with all of this? and he said his sense that comey felt he could manage it, that it didn't rise to the level of needing to quit and he used a phrase saying i think comey could throw enough brushback pitches at the president to keep him at bay and manage the relationship. of course, we know several weeks after that last meeting between comey and whitis comey was fired. >> there are open questions about how comey really felt and what he was willing to do with

it. there was a window of opportunity when he testified. he was asked in context about whether the doj had done anything to impede him. and he said, no, there's been nothing like that. mccabe said the same thing. they were talking about the doj, not the white house. but it was an opportunity if he wanted to troe a brushback pitch. he could have done it. he didn't. >> he could have. i guess i would dispute the brushback pitch, though, if he had done that, chris. i think that would be throwing at donald trump's head because i don't think you can say, well, no, i haven't gotten any push back from the deputy attorney general, but the president did say to me. that would not be something that you could subtly insert. if donald trump, as according to

the memo reported from james comey, asked the fbi director to either curb or end an investigation into his fired national security advisor, that's an odd thing to say like, oh, i could just keep that under control. that would seem to be obstruction of justice or at least an attempted obstruction of justice and you would think comey would seek someone out there. that to me, if you are donald trump and his legal team and you are looking for ways to either poke holes in comey's story or simply raise questions about it, that feels like the strongest argument they can make. >> april, what did you think, though, taking it back two steps to the moment in the oval office. comey feels the need, obviously, to show up and it is the long walk across the oval where he extends his long arm of this 6'8" figure to shake the president's hand and, you know, chris cillizza was saying

earlier today, this is the president who was a former reality tv star, astutely aware of the cameras on him and wanting to make this scene or this moment. how do you read this? >> well, it was in the blue room. >> blue room, forgive me. >> blue room, yeah. either way it was very uncomfortable looking. it looked like the president did not understand the separation of powers, and they weren't supposed to look chummy. what i'm thinking is that what's happening is that many of these officials, these high ranking officials in intelligence and the fbi at that time was giving the president the benefit of the doubt because he still has a learning curve. recently was president trump talking about the issues with the russian leaders in the oval office, the fact they did not give him source and methods because there is a thought that this president is not able to handle it.

and at this piece with comey, i'm wondering if the president just did not understand yet the significance between the separation of two organizations not to look chummy. so i'm wondering if that's what comey was trying to do by giving him the benefit of the doubt and not pushing forward saying, yes, he tried to obstruct justice. there is a lot into this whole situation. >> let's not make too much of a moment either. it is interesting to diagnose. from a creditability standpoint, he makes a good point to you about what this was and wasn't. but at the end of the day, the president may have been just trying to make a flies gesture and it moves on to another thing. here is something that's been underneath a headlines and maybe wrongly so. the vice president says i didn't know about this flynn stuff until it came out in the news reports. elij elijah cummings has a letter he sent on november 18th clearly

outlining concerns about flynn's relationships to turkey. that's november 18th. what does that do in terms of the vice president's suggestion he didn't know anything about this. cummings says either he's lying or he's sloppy. >> that's the right answer to this. until we hear testimony from the vice president we don't really know. memos and letters get sent all the time. i get sent things all the time. it is not a guarantee i read it. you would assume if the man is running the transition, if he is as organized as we believe. >> but cummings says he knows the office got the letter and the vp said he didn't know anything about it. >> i can't speak to what the vice president did or didn't know, but that certainly is the question. it seems like the evidence was there before him. whether he looked at it or took it on board, we don't know yet. >> april, you say sloppy? >> i would say this, i think that interview was strong and

powerful. it could be sloppy or he could be lying because not only the congressman say that, but you also flynn running around with the transition officials telling him, yeah, i'm being investigated. so they knew something was going on and not to check -- i mean, i think the congressman is absolutely right. if they're not lying it is very, very sloppy. >> can i make one argument in favor of sloppy, which is -- remember, this is of donald trump's doing again. but remember that chris cristie and former congressman mike rogers were replaced in the middle of the transition, early on in the transition by pence. so you had a lot of chaos, not only the kind caused by donald trump, but a lot of chaos internally as well. there is a full turnover staff-wise in the middle of this thing. that doesn't excuse it. >> but, kri, flynn was running around talking about he was being investigated. that raises a lot of questions right there. something is not right. >> all right. we're working on getting the

questions answered. we know there are multiple investigations into this. we want the facts. i want to thank all of you this morning here. there is also another conflicting message for president trump about whether or not he fired comey based upon the recommendation from rod rosenstein. we have a senator coming up who heard that directly from the deputy ag in that closed door meeting. his take away next. america's beverage companies have come together to

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mixed messages from president trump about why he fired fbi director james comey. first it was based on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. >> director comey was very unpopular with most people. i actually thought when i made that decision and i also got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. >> i was going to fire comey. there is no good time to do it, by the way. >> because in your letter you said i accepted their recommendations. you had already made the decision. >> i was going to fire regardless of recommendation. >> so there is two different versions of it, right? what does rosenstein say? now we know. he talked to senators directly and he told them that comey was going to be fired before he wrote the memo. democratic senator was there and

he's a member of the senate judiciary committee. senator, thanks for being with us. so you are there face to face with rosenstein. what does he say? >> he said that he knew that trump was going to fire comey when he wrote that memo, which is very significant because it raises all kinds of questions about who helped him write the memo, maybe who edited it, what was the purpose of it, why did he bother writing it if he knew that the president already planned to fire him. >> good question. would he say why he wrote it? >> he basically left a lot of questions unanswered. in fact, a lot of missing pieces that need to be filled in by the special prosecutor. and that's why this appointment is so enormously significant. and one thing he did say, chris, which was also significant, this special prosecutor will have latitude and the scope of his investigation will include obstruction of justice, which there is mounting evidence is occurring and unfolding right

before our eyes in realtime with many of the comments made and some of the other evidence that's coming out, really, day-to-day as a result of the reporting we're seeing from the press. >> don't you think that or do you think that talking about obstruction of justice is one thing to look at it, right? certainly rosenstein's order cites this as a criminal investigation and there is wide latitude for the special counsel. all true. but obstruction of justice, do you believe there's real proof of that or there is just questions that should be purs d pursued? >> there is mounting evidence of it. to be careful, we don't want to say there is proof. we don't want to say there are criminal charges because there are none. >> make the case. what's the best evidence of obstruction of justice. >> the pressure of the president to shut down the investigation. if you believe the reporting of the memos that comey wrote very

meticulously. >> the first one, you haven't even seen the memo. you haven't heard from jim comey. i'm not saying that the reporting is wrong, but it is just reporting. may too premature to even call it evidence at this point. >> that's why i say it is evidence, not proof. second, the request for pledge for a loyalty. >> again, something we don't know for sure yet. >> again, there has been very credible reporting of it, and it's been corroborated. when we talk about these memos, hopefully we will see these memos. >> why haven't you yet? >> because we're just learning of them and also they may be evidence in a criminal investigation. we need to be respectful of the special prosecutor now. i think we have a continuing oversight responsibility. rosenstein should come to tell the american people everything he said in that meeting yesterday and there is virtually

nothing he told us that he couldn't tell the american people. nothing classified, nothing that couldn't be made public. and second i want to see jim comey testify before the judiciary committee. while i think he is a man of principal and conviction with a fidelity to the truth that so far as been lacking in the white house. >> now two questions. first one is let's see what mueller says because you guys all want to respect his jurisdiction here and he may say, no, i don't want rosenstein with a bunch of politicians peppering him with questions that may be self-serving. let's preserve them. >> i certainly respect that request as a member of the ju dish ya -- judiciary committee. i think they should have the same respect as a matter of timing. and i believe very strongly,

chris, that we need an independent commission. >> on top of this? >> even more than the committees at some point to produce a report with findings and recommendations and here's why. what we saw in the russian interference in our election is an attack on our democracy. and interference with the bedrock principal of our democratic institutions, our elections. everybody has accepted in the intelligence community, as well as bipartisan membership of congress, everybody who knows about it said it occurred. the questions now are there was there trump campaign collusion with it and then an attempt to cover up or obstruct. >> really two of those three questions you can make a good argument should be left alone. leave that to mueller. deal with the interference and the hacking. figure out recommendations going forward. we'll see if mueller draws those

lines. now, the political question. the fbi needs a head. one of the names that's being floated is a former senate democrat liebermann, your state. democrats coming out rather quickly and saying, no, no, no, should not be liebermann. what do you say? >> there is a strong feeling among many of my colleagues, and i share it, that the director of the fbi should be someone with a real strong background and expertise and experience in criminal justice, rather than partisan politics. >> is it just he was an elected official or a little that you feel he's differential to trump. he works at a firm that trump used. he's too friendly to trump and you don't like it? >> i respect him, but there is a strong feeling that the fbi director, now more than ever, has to be above politics with unquestionable credibility in

the law enforcement community, rather than involvement in politics. and that goes back to the questions you were raising. he is a prosecutor's prosecutor, just as jim comey in many ways is. they both share that ethos that they will pursue wrongdoing wherever it goes and the congress and independent commission have a responsibility to produce a report that will enable us to deter and defend our nation against these kinds of russian attacks. but at the same time, an oversight responsibility to ensure the fbi is above politics. >> that would require a vote. that would require cooperation by the stwo sides in d.c. we'll see if that could come. senator, thank you for joining us here on "new day". >> trump's team advising him to cooperate with the special counsel into this russia potential collusion. we'll talk about it with former

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president trump insisting on weighing in on what's going on

with the russia investigation. once again calling the appointment of a special counsel a witch hunt, a waste, that the american people don't care about it and insisting there is no collusion but then adding he can only speak for himself. cnn is learning that trump's allies are pushing him to cooperate with the special counsel and say less about its existence. joining us now, former u.s. attorney general alberto gonzalez. he is currently the dean at belmont university college of law and the author of true faith and allegiance, a story of service and sacrifice in war and peace. always good to have you on the show, sir. >> it's always good to be on your show, chris. >> special counsel, right move? mueller, good choice? >> i think so. i have total confidence in the fbi doing this investigation and i would have expected him to continue and get to the bottom of all this. but given the swirl about the firings and about these recent conversations between the president and the fbi director,

i think there is so much out there that perhaps this was probably the right and inevitable outcome, quite frankly. in terms of the right person, i have confidence in bob mueller. it appears that he has broad support on both sides of the aisle, so that's being viewed as a very good choice by many people. >> so we had a moment of apparent clarity and unusual cooperation between left and right when it came to the counsel and the choice of counsel. and then the president trashed it and trashed those who believed in the decision. what's your take on the president's insistence on commenting? >> i think, you know, we've got now this special counsel appointed, i think if i were advising the president i would advice the president the less said the better, quite frankly. and moving forward my advice would be something like, you know, if asked a question i would probably say something like, my feelings about this are on the record. this is now in the hands of the

special counsel, and i've got nothing else to say about it. that would be my advice to the president of the united states. can i comment a little bit about some of the statements by ben whittis because i have some serious issues as the former attorney general about this. if it is true there is not a strong relationship between the president and the fbi director and for good reasons, quite frankly, if jim comey felt so strongly about the pressure he was feeling from the white house, he had an obligation, in my judgment, i don't think any former attorney general would disagree with this, he had an obligation to notify jeff sessions, rosenstein, someone because it is a job of the attorney general and the deputy attorney general to protect all of the services within the department of justice. it may very well be that donald trump not having served in office might not know that these conversations are inappropriate. particularly when there is an investigation that might touch

upon the white house. someone who has this relationship with donald trump could be very effective in pushing back the president and making him understand that these kind of comments, relationships with the fbi director in the face of this ongoing investigation is improper and is dangerous. so i really have a serious issue. if in fact jim comey did not notify his superiors, that is his job. that is the best thing he could do to protect the bureau. if he didn't do that, then he failed in his job. >> strong words. what do you make of these two defenses of the decision not to do it? one offered by his friend in that pbs interview, which was he thought he could handle it. he thought he would keep notes on it and protect the bureau himself. the other argument was there was a power vacuum. there was no ag. there was heavy political influence in the doj from the white house and comey didn't feel it was a safe harbor for these concerns. >> not good enough as far as i'm concerned. it very well may be he may have

communicated his concerns to superiors. other individuals within the department of justice. and then if they failed to do their job, jim has done his job. all i'm saying is i can't imagine any former attorney general being comfortable with a scenario where someone who is leading the fbi is feeling undue pressure and really and believes he could handle it and says nothing about it. i just believe that that was a failure on his part. >> and to be fair, we do not know what jim comey did or did not do. it is one of the reasons that people want him to testify. now, critics will say gonzalez, he's still bitter at comey about what happened back in thor 2000s with andy card and ashcrcfo. what do you say about that? >> i say james comey is very talented. but these are difficult positions and you often find yours in difficult positions,

but you have to do your job, quite frankly. i don't believe this is just my opinion. i would be very surprised if any former attorney general said differently. jim had to protect the bureau. one of the ways you do that is notify your superiors you are feeling pressure from the white house. >> thank you for perspective. please come back on new day as this conversation continues. >> coming up next, we will show you this new chilling surveillance video which shows you the moment this car plowed into pedestrians walking through a busy time square in the middle of the afternoon. we have more on the terrifying incident next. you make it detect what they don't. stop, stop, stop! sorry. you make it sense what's coming. watch, watch, watch! mom. relax! i'm relaxed. you make it for 16-year olds... whoa-whoa-whoa!!! and the parents who worry about them. you saw him, right? going further to help make drivers, better drivers.

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house. >> u.s. officials confirming an american air strike on pro-syrian forces on the southern part of that country. the strike targeted a convoy advancing on a coalition base. russia calls the strike totally unacceptable. >> terrifying video. you can see the moment this driver of this car just plows into people on a beautiful afternoon in new york's times square. an 18-year-old tourist died and 20 others were hurt. a suspect was in custody and police say this was not a terror attack. >> look at this painting. what would you pay for it? it is called untitled. $111 million almost. a japanese billionaire paid the highest price ever for work at auction. >> do you at least get free champagne with that?

what does the frame look like? >> i don't think you would frame something like that, do you? >> i wouldn't know. very funny. some more of the five things you need to do today. go to newdaycnn.com. >> how about this story, a marine medic who put his life on the line in vietnam is healing his fellow veterans here at home. this week cnn hero is bob adams. he overcame a struggle with alcohol. he then decided to open a shelter to help war vets fighting intense personal battles after their return. >> i began to see veterans on the street. marines do not believe anyone behind. we take our dead and our wounded with us, or we don't go. and that pledge means the world to any one of us. and so to see that code being broken shocked me into action.

>> adams saying that code being broken, many veterans as we both know say, yes, it is hard war. it is equally hard or harder at home. for more on bob's story, go to c cnnheroes.com. you can nominate your own hero there if you would like. >> one of the president's answers getting a heck of a lot of attention. why saying he could speak for himself is raising a lot of eyebrows. the bottom line next. >> brought to you by geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. and by serve pro. helping make fire and water damage like it never happened. i should take a closer look at geico... geico can help with way more than car insurance. boats, homes, motorcycles... even umbrella coverage. this guy's gonna wish he brought his umbrella.

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in just a couple of hours, president trump takes off for his first foreign trip and this comes after quite a tumultuous week for his presidency.

is he ready? >> let's get to the bottom line with david singer. good to see you, sir. listen as a correspondent to many presidents and leaders overseas, we're talking nine days for the president, five cities. certainly this cloud of controversy will follow him as he leaves the white house. what will you be watching for the most? >> a few things, brooke. first of all, this is a president that does not like traveling and being away from his own bed and fine days a long trip and he told his aids he was eager to shorten it. they couldn't figure out a way to do that. second, he's got to look weak abroad to many of the leaders he's seeing who thought they were getting a new american president who was going to be able to shape america foreign policy in a very different way. they now have to wonder given what they've seen in the past few weeks. the most interesting stop on

this trip is saudi arabia. it is the most interesting because he decided to go there ahead of israel. and it is interesting because that is the lynch pin to his design of a mini strategy built counter to iran. you saw in the times today a fascinating story of how they're getting ready to put together a hundred million dollar arms deal that appears to have no human rights restrictions on it at all, which is a significant difference. >> i want your take, david, on the notion of the special counsel and its impact on the existing congressional hearings. created air being on the same page with left and right that the special counsel, moouler, great choices. is there a chance he turns around now and says you guys need to stand down so i can have full access and integrity? >> for the democrats, this is a really interesting example of be

careful what you wish for because i think it is very possible that mr. mueller will say these things and these witnesses are off limits. and that's a problem because these investigations have very different objectives. mueller is looking at criminal issues and trying to decide if anybody here gets indicted, any of the president's aids, campaign aids and figure out how far up within the white house chain this goes. the congressional investigation is supposed to look at the question of russian interference in the election. what lessons we're supposed to learn from it and now we get ready before the 2018 but particularly before the 2020 election. and if they are impeded in doing that because they can't get other witnesses, it could certainly alter our ability to understand the fundamental issue here, which is what did the russians do, how did they pierce our cyber defenses so easily and what's vulnerable in going

forward? >> the president speaking alongside the columbian president. took two questions yesterday and flat-out reiterated there is no collusion. here is the sound. >> i respect the move, but the spire thing has been a witch hunt and there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign. but i can only speak for myself and the russians zero. >> contradictions there, right? he respects the move but he calls it a witch hunt. he says there is no collusion but i can only speak for myself. that part we haven't heard. >> we haven't. we have always heard there was no collusion. if i was paul manafort or michael flynn, i suspect i'd be calling my lawyer and asking is this the beginning of a white house effort to throw us under the bus to say whatever connections there were were through us. i don't know the answer to that. i don't know how he intended it. but certainly that was the first

thing you thought when you heard him utter those words. >> our job is to ask the right questions. thank you very much, david. have a great weekend. >> you too. >> all right. there is a lot of news this morning. there is developments and advancements in our understanding after what the special counsel is about. cnn news room is going to pick that up for you right after the break. have a great weekend. >> see you at 2:00. >> good luck on the races. new neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair with the proven power of retinol. reduces wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena® ...doesn't happen by accident.

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good friday morning, everyone. i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm john berman. if a 6'8" guy can't hide in the curtains, where can he side. how far james comey went to avoid contact with the president. this comes as deputy attorney general rod rosenstein heads to capitol hill very shortly to brief house members behind closed doors on the russia investigation. >> as for the president, he departs on his first trip overseas hours from now and he is carrying heavy baggage. and this new account emerging truly from the drapery. a friend of james comey describing this encounter between the president and

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