with comey and ask for a loyalty pledge. the president had also already called up flynn -- had called up comey basically to ask about being under investigation. >> yeah. i just think pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. we still need to give the president his fair day in court. he needs to be able -- his side needs to be able to present the evidence. nonetheless, the way this is breaking with the selected leaks, paints a very dark picture. i think that it suggests -- i argued here the other night, we're in impeachment territory. we know the white house lawyers are investigating how impeachments take place. it's way down the road. but we're in deep, serious issues now. >> fareed, the fact the white house isn't denying what the president said to the russians now on this latest reporting about the "new york times," they're saying that -- in fact,

what sean spicer said is that, by grandstanding and politicizing this, james comey created unnecessary pressure on our ability to negotiate with russia. do you buy that? >> there's some other administration official who mirrored that language saying you have to understand what the president was doing in that meeting with the russians was he was trying to extract concessions from the russians by saying i'm under pressure, so give me some concessions. >> which jeffrey lord brought up, president obama said to inform putin that after the elections i will have a little bit more freedom. >> here is why that's illogical. think it through. the argument would be that donald trump would say to the russians, i'm under a lot of pressure here. you need to make a concession for me. what he says in the meeting is i was under pressure. i fired comey. now i'm not under any more pressure. he doesn't -- all of a sudden he is saying, i'm now free to do whatever i want.

you would be telling the russians the opposite if the point was i'm under -- i'm in trouble here, help me out by giving me some concessions. that's not what happened. he told the russians, it's over. we don't have to worry. as toobin is saying correctly, the key point is he says, i was under pressure, i fired him, the pressure is now off, what that suggests is i fired him to get the pressure off me. that does sound -- i'm a layman. it sounds like he is saying i had this guy investigating me. it was a problem. i didn't like the pressure. so i fired him. >> david? >> right. to back up what fareed is saying, there's no evidence that went on to ask the russians for anything. he didn't ask them for any concessions in any of the notes we have been shown so far. let the other side produce those notes and show the president did that. otherwise, i don't see how that argument holds up. >> david, fareed, thanks very much. for everyone joining us, the

late news which broke tonight, a cnn exclusive, cnn learned about intercepted russian communications and the degree to which they alarmed the obama administration about michael flynn long before he was fired. pamela brown and gloria borger have the reporting. they join us right now. >> multiple sources say that russian officials bragged in conversations during the presidential campaign that they had cultivated such a strong relationship with michael flynn that they believed they could use him to influence donald trump and his team. those conversations deeply concerned u.s. intelligence officials and impacted what intelligence the incoming administration was privy to according to these sources we were speaking with because some obama intelligence officials acted on their own to limit how much sensitive information they shared with flynn out of concern that flynn or others within the transition would share information with russia. >> anderson, one former official told me that the way the

russians were talking about flynn was regarded as what he called a five alarm fire from early on. the russians' conversations indicated they regarded flynn as their ally. officials cautioned us that the russians might have exaggerated their sway with trump's teams during those conversations. we all know flynn's relationship is a long one and it developed with russia throughout 2016. months before flynn was caught on an intercepted call in december speaking with russia's ambassador. that ultimately led to flynn's firing as trump's first national security adviser. we have reached out to flynn's lawyer, who declined to comment, and the white house which said this. we are confident when these inquiries are complete there will be no evidence to support any collusion between the campaign and russia. top former obama intelligence officials and members of congress briefed on the matter have all said the same thing. >> pamela, we're learning for

first time details about flynn's conversations with the russians. >> that's right. one major concern was the subject of conversations between flynn and the ambassador that took place shortly after president obama slapped sanctions on russia for meddling in the election. sources tell my colleague jim i sciutto that flynn said the trump administration would look favorably on a decision to hold off on retaliating with sanctions. the next day putined is he wouldn'said he wouldn't retaliate. the incoming trump administration would re-visit u.s. sanctions once in office. trump denied any collusion with russia this week, denounced the newest investigation that's in the hands of robert mueller as you know, he called that a witch hunt. >> despite this, president-elect trump has remained steadfast. >> he is loyal. the most obvious example of his loyalty came out during this memo that we just heard about this week from james comey in

which trump reportedly asked the director of the fbi to let the flynn investigation go. >> pam brown, gloria borger, appreciate the breaking story. a big question we had in the wake of robert mueller being named special counsel, namely would this mean that fired fbi director james comey would no longer testify before a congressional committee? tonight, we know he will and it's an open session. we have the latest on that. what have you learned? >> reporter: james comey will appear before the senate intelligence committee. that's the committee chaired by richard burr and mark warner. as you said, it will be an open hearing, which is significant the fact that james comey will be testifying in public in front of cameras, not in any closed door setting. the date has not been set on his testimony yet. the committee in releasing this information this evening indicating that they will put it on the books for after memorial day. potentially indicating it is

their expectation that this will happen very soon. it's a significant development, the fact that comey testifying at all. of course, he was called on by both democrats and republicans to do so. there had been concern up here in the halls of capitol hill this week that potentially would not happen in the wake of the special counsel being chosen. >> some senators are upset he declined other appearances. >> reporter: he was invited to three committees up here on capitol hill. he was invited on a house oversight committee and a senate judiciary. the senate judiciary wasted no time coming out with a statement from their ranking member and from their chairman, a joint statement basically registering their displeasure that he has turned down their invitation. the chairman and feinstein say they are disappointed and they believe there's no reason he can't testify at both. >> thanks very much for that. we have a lot of breaking

stories tonight. the story about michael flynn, conversations with the russians and concerns the administration had about it. the story about comey will testify. before all that happened, this happened. a piece hitting "the new york times" home page with seismic impact. the headline is, trump told russians that firing nut job comey eased pressure from investigation. they write, president trump told russian officials in the oval office this month that firing the fbi director james comey had relieved pressure on him according to a document summarizing the meeting. the piece quotes the president as telling the russians, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy, a real nut job. the president reported as saying, i face great pressure because of russia. that's taken off. remember, that meeting featured the president sharing code word classified information on isis gathered by israel that must have put lives at risk. maggie haberman joins us. explain what we know about this meeting, what you have learned.

>> this meeting had already raised eyebrows because the president had had this indiscreet slip about intelligence and a laptop that was secured and upsetting to allies. he also talked about the russia investigation as we know, this president has a habit of talking about what's on his mind. we know this investigation wrangles him a great deal. he had just fired james comey and he talked about it. he described him as a quote unquote real nut job. that's a phrase this president uses frequently. he said that the investigation had put pressure on him, that pressure is now off. he was adamant that he was not under investigation. my sense of that was that he was actually referring to what he has been referring to this whole time which is that he has been adamant that he is not under investigation. comey has not said that publically. he then made chitchat about policy and ukraine and looking

for russia intervention. he talked about his crowd size at the inauguration. he made a joke about how the russian ambassador had met with almost every other official on his campaign. why didn't he ask trump for a meeting. this is the donald trump that we have come to know, the donald trump who talks in circles and doesn't always have a point. who often says the same thing privately that he says publically. he was saying this to russian officials while there is not just one investigation going on but several going on. the day after he fired the director of the fbi and with people suggesting he may have obstructed justice. the things that he said are going to appear to reaffirm that for people that fear did he. the defense given about him was that he was essentially using what had happened and russian meddling in the election and to be clear he has been iffy on that publically whether he accepts russian was behind the

hacking. he said it in this meeting supposedly he was using that as a leverage point, almost trying to make the russians feel guilty for casting a cloud over him. he was using it to extract concessions in the future. this is unusual diplomacy to say the least and unwise at best when you are under investigation. >> i think it was fareed or jeff earlier who pointed out -- jeff toobin that by saying he was -- the pressure had been relieved by or eased by the firing director comey, it undercuts the argument he was trying to use this as a leverage point like i'm under a lot of pressure, you gotta give me a concession. >> the argument -- the push back we got was that essentially what he meant when he was saying that is i was under political pressure, undue political pressure because comey had been a grandstander as the president said. therefore, investigation is still going on. i'm not -- there's no connection to it involving comey and there's no cloud. that way, i'm free to negotiate

and try to establish a better relationship. that's a hard place to get to, to understand the logic there. it is the kind of logic that i could see him actually thinking. but i think people are going to have to decide which version of events they believe. >> it's interesting about the personality of president trump. i interviewed him a little bit. you have more than i have. he does seem to try to -- there's a charm inesingness to . >> he wants to win you over. >> he wants you to like him. and to you be fair to him. he wants you to like him. i wonder when i was reading this about this meeting, i could sort of -- one way to look at it is him basically trying to establish some sort of rapport. >> right. i think that is a potential read of this. i had a tweet about this the other day when we learned about the laptop and the intelligence that he talked about. i have interviewed him in his office in trump tower. i believe you have as well.

he has the collection of souvenirs. so upstairs by the window, he has this collection of almost toys. one of them is a signed shoe by shaquille o'neal. and he likes to brag when he meets people. he likes to show off. it's about winning them over. i don't know how much is about being liked. some people say that is what it is. a lot is that he is always selling. i think this was the intelligence version of shaquille o'neal's shoe. this may have been the investigation version of shaquille o'neal's shoe. this is where he is not adapted to the legal circumstances that are in front of him to the realities and constraints of the oval office and the presidency. one of the characteristics of donald trump is he gets people around him to sort of bend to his view of events and his view of reality. there's a whole other view of reality out there that does not comport with this. i think there is increasingly a divergence based on these currents of these investigations

crossing. >> great reporting. thanks very much. maggie will be back with the panel later tonight. this broke just as the president was leaving for the first overseas trip of his presidency. athena jones is here with the latest on that. the president several hours into his trip to the middle east, have they reacted to any of tonight's braini ingbreaking ne? >> they are still flying. usa mention as you mentioned, this broke as they were flying. we did get a statement from sean spicer and what is notable about that statement is that he doesn't deny "the new york times" report and said he focused on this idea of director -- former director comey having been a showboater, his word was grandstanding. which created unnecessary pressure on the white house's ability to engage and negotiate with russia. he brings up a couple of deals

that he says the president was hoping to reach with russia on syria, ukraine, defeating isis. then he ends his statement by saying that the real story is the threat to national security from the leaking of private and highly classified conversations. it's clear in the white house is not happy about this latest headline as they head off on this high stakes trip that they're hoping will be something of a reset. they're hoping to have a successful trip would mean a shift in the narrative around the president. with these constant breaking headlines, that's going to be difficult. >> again, it's headlines based on things the president himself has said. there have been a number of developments since the president has been in the air. is it going to affect the international trip? it's going to impact it in some way. could they ignore the stuff and just focus on what they went over there for in the first place? >> my guess is they're not going to be ignoring this. they're going to try to respond as best they can to any new news

that comes out. of course, they have an agenda for the president. his first stop, saudi arabia. he is set to deliver a speech on islam. which is interesting. it's a potential high reward speech giving to 50 muslim leaders, the hope is to show the muslim leaders they should encourage their people to promote islam as a religion of peace. this is a president who said to you during the campaign that islam hates us and had harsh rhetoric for muslims. the chief architect of the travel ban, the now blocked travel bant, steven miller is te chief writer of the speech. steven miller has a long history of anti-muslim rhetoric. it's going to be very interesting to see what's in this speech, how it's received in saudi arabia. we have an early draft that

shows that the words radical islamic terrorism are not part of the speech. that's interesting because that's a word -- a phrase we heard the president use a great deal on the campaign trail. he criticized others for not using it. a lot of eyes will be on that speech. >> athena jones, we will explore that later tonight. thanks for the reporting. the avalanche of news keeping rolling. how white house lawyers are preparing in the event the president has to deal with some sort of impeachment proceedings. we'll talk about that ahead. life. intelligent technology can help protect it. the all-new audi q5 is here. ayou don't have to choose just one thing. choose your trio with any 3 of 9 selections for $15.99. like new creamy lobster pasta toasted parmesan shrimp and southern-style crab cakes. come create your trio before it ends.

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the rest. word that white house lawyers have begun early preparation for likely or not possible impeachment proceedings. evan perez joins us with details on that. >> white house lawyers have begun researching impeachment procedures. this is an effort for what officials believe is a distant and unlikely possibility that we will have to fend off attempts to remove him from office. the research efforts are informal and being done out of an abundance of caution. white house officials believe the president has the backing of republican allies in congress and that impeachment is not in the cards, according to the people briefed on these legal discussions. we should note even democrats have tried to calm some of the impeachment talk out of concern that it is premature. lawyers in the white house counsel's office have consulted experts in impeachment and have begun collecting information on

how such proceedings could work. we talked to the white house earlier today and after our story published they said the lawyers are not actually doing any of this. >> does this mean that the president needs to hire an outside lawyer? has he, do we know? >> we don't know if he has. that's certainly a discussion that's being had in the white house at this moment. there's a broader internal effort to bolster the president's legal defense which has become more complicated with the justice department's appointment of a special counsel to pursue this investigation into the russian meddling of the 2016 election. earlier this week, close advisors to the president, including two lawyers who have served as surrogates for the president, mieshg visited the w house to discuss his need to hire personal attorneys for the president. >> evan perez, thanks very much. let's bring in the panel.

professor, you have been saying for days he should hire lawyers. it seems prudent for them to at least be reer frfreshing themse on impeachment proceedings even though that's not in the cards. >> i think if he is thinking about how to deal with the special counsel, he has to get a private lawyer outside of the white house. >> that's crucial? >> who represents mr. donald trump, not president trump. on impeachment, i think he can use white house counsel. that is a kind of political attack on the presidency itself. what concerns me a little bit is we're now getting leaks of lawyer/client privileged information. if i were preparing for a client and somebody leaked it to the press, i would be outraged. where are the civil libertarians? the first casualty of partisan politics is that civil liberties takes a back seat. i will focus on these issues wherever the chips may fall. sometimes it will hurt trump.

sometimes it will help trump. the aclu has neglected their role. civil libertarians have to speak up. there are concerns here about what's going on. there are legitimate areas to investigate. we have to distinguish between bad conduct politically and what is impeachable conduct, what is criminal conduct. >> what about that, charles? >> there are different kinds of leaks happening here. there's this client/attorney privilege stuff that i think -- that should not be leaked. i think that you could -- people inside the white house are people with knowledge of things that they consider to be bad and feel they have no recourse. you can't necessarily report it to the justice department, because the head of the justice department is appointed by trump. where would you take the issue if you felt like legitimately there's a problem here, i see something that worries me, i do not have a recourse to give it

to anybody or report it up the chain, who do i give it to? >> it's an act of civil disobedience because some of the leaks are felonies, leaks by the intel people of what went on in that conversation in the oval office. that's a felony and a serious felony. others are not. i wrote an early on in the trump administration talking about a new form of checks and balances. i said leaks with one of the new forms of checks and balances, when you have all the branchs of the government in the hands of one party, the media is an important check of balance and leaks are an important check and balance. you have to distinguish between leaks. people should not be able to take the law into their hands and violate the law without being willing to pay the consequences. >> senator santorium, i want your reaction that russians bragged about their relationship with general flynn. we don't know if the russians were overstating what -- if there was a relationship. if they were bragging to each other and making themselves seem more problem. how big a problem is this for the trump administration or for

michael flynn? >> i don't really take that seriously what russians say to each other and what's leaked from those conversations. if you are in that business, you are going to probably try to make yourself look good that you have all sorts of connections and -- again, i don't give much credence to that. i done thi't think it's a story people will pay attention to. back in the cold war when we got a democrat in office that -- after george bush and ronald reagan, they were saying, we got friends there, too. i don't athink that's important. i want to get back to the leakers. i hear the reporters say all the time, these are people who have no recourse and they're patriots and they care about the country. if you think what's happened over past ten days is really been good for the country -- do you think this type of indiscriminal leaking of classified effort, other types

of information that undermines this president is good for the country, then you probably are not in my mind a patriotic american. this is not -- bringing this administration under a complete diversion away from his first foreign trip, a lot of other things that immediate to be done, is not in the public interest. don't play this waving american card that i'm doing my patriotic duty is you are trying to undermine someone you don't agree with. >> charles? >> if trump is in a hell, he built that. he is the architect of his own demise. the things that we are learning about what trump -- that are creating problems for trump are things that he himself has said. he built the hell he is suffering in. if you look at that and say, people are not -- people are unpatriotic because they are

revealing that america that the leader of this country, the person who has their finger on the button, is a person who is intemperate, who talks to russians who presumably he is meeting for the first time and telling them all sorts of things about civil servants in our government and what he has done to help the relationship between these people he has never met before, how is that not an act of patriotism? how is it not an act of patriotism to say america, we have a problem? it's incumbent upon me or somebody -- >> america voted for this problem. you may not have voted for this person, but -- >> i did not interrupt you. that is an act of patriotism. >> maggie, you talked to people who leak information. i don't know if you can say. what do you find to be people's

motivation. >> i try not to talk about source in any direction. i don't want to give people a thread to pull on here in that regard. i do think that it is difficult for this president to talk about -- president obama -- i don't like when people do, but president obama but i think it's worth remembering that president obama did criminalize leaks. it's not like this is a new thing. the way this president has talked about it is very different in that respect. including supposedly having discussed it with comey, the head of the fbi, whether this was doable to jail reporters. i think this president got elected in part because of the revelations from wikileaks which were someone's personal stolen property. he would read them aloud at rallies. he would say, i love wikileaks. it's i think very hard to then -- wick i can leaks ki wi revealing secrets about the cia. i don't know how -- i don't think the president has commented on that at all.

he has talked about everything about himself. >> steve, you know how the russians work. this is what they want. they train spies to build relationships like this. does it surprise you the russ n russians were bragging about a relationship with general flynn? to senator santorum's point, it's easy to look at this and say, these are -- maybe these rush slanz lsians are lying to other. >> for the record, i consider myself a patriotic american. i think the president brought this on himself. the leaks have always been here. the russians have always talked about it. i think this is a win, win, win situation for the russians. the more we talk about impeachment, the russians view that as essentially maybe there's something they can do to help that version of regime change, which is something that they accuse us of all the time. if the president never gets as far as impeachment because the investigation doesn't bear it out, that's perhaps a win for them.

then we can get back to the trump they knew during the campaign who was talking about the lifting sanctions and who was talking about -- it doesn't matter about cry mere imea. this is the last big win for them. how our allies and nato and western allies see this. they see us talking about impeachment. they see us wrapped around the axle about leaks which frankly had been around in this town for god knows how long. the russians see this as a wedge. they're all about dividing and concurring. there's very few scenarios that the russians don't get something out of this, whether it's talking about leaks, impeachment or the discomfort our western allies have to feel. imagine you are angela merkel looking at the picture book that the white house gave you of your visit with the president and then imagine the old boys back slapping in the oval office, except this time it's with the russians. it's a win, win, win for the russians. >> we have to take a break. we will continue the conversation after this. what's with him?

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hours before landing ing iing arabia. the whole story has changed in several dramatic ways from the time the president got on the plane. back with the panel. you have written about the relationship between former fbi director comey and robert mueller. how do you see comey's testimony playing out now that we know he is going to testify in an open senate intelligence committee hearing after memorial day? >> this is going to be a very big deal, because we are only just now beginning to learn the full scope of comey's interactions with president trump. what was said and what was documented. we know that jim comey has many of these memos documenting these conversations. we don't know what exists in the other memos and where we have seen this conversation unfold. i think your reporting tonight about the russian conversations around michael flynn also begins to fill in some of the information that we don't know. because we know there was deep

concern within the obama administration last fall and last winter as this investigation was beginning to unfold. but we haven't really seen clear evidence yet of what the evidence was that was causing that deep concern. we know these telephone conversations between kislyak and michael flynn happened. we don't know the content of the conversations that was actually the cause for concern. >> where do you think -- where does the administration go from here in the next couple days? they are on this important foreign trip. >> i think the foreign trip as with most things trump, there's chances for pleasant surprise by him being disciplined. there's the chance for unpleasant surprises. he is reaching a point of hitting the mrpleasant surprise doesn't help with this. he will not address this because of his own ten didn't stendenci.

he can divert to other things. if he did get protocol right, if he did have good moments on the road, things could look up. he can never seem to keep a lid on his id for more than a short while. >> professor urn, you were sayif he comes away with a few accomplishments, that's something -- >> the accomplishments have occurred. normally when you go to a place like saudi arabia and israel, you have been told that certain considerations will be given. the saudi plan in relation sho in relation to israel is a promising plan. not building new settlements, which netanyahu was essentially said he might be willing to try to do, the saudis will allow israeli planes to fly over saudi territory. direct telephone lines. the beginning of what looks like a relationship. if he can come back with that deal from saudi arabia and israel in his pocket, wow.

that's more than bush and obama accomplished in 16 years. >> one of the things that former official told gloria borger was the flynn/russia relationship was viewed as a fire lave alarm. i assume that factors into mueller's investigation. his investigation is far reaching. that would be something he would focus on. >> the dragnet is large. that's the directive of the nature of his work. although it's true that the international trip may do a lot of good politically speaking, it will do nothing to curtail the fbi investigation or mueller's overall achievements or overall goals in investigation. there's a very big reason for that. they have to have a simultaneous parallel investigation going on. there's still this cloud of suspicion. in order to alleviate that, you have to complete the investigation. it's true there may be some short gains mrit s politically

speaking. you will always have the fbi never curtails its investigations. robert mueller's appointment will only betrest. it is continued now that you have other factors to say, there is smoke and a five alarm fire coming from that. >> senator santorum, how far do you think mueller will go in the open testimony given the fact that there's this criminal investigation that -- not mueller, comey will go given there is this criminal investigation by his friend and former colleague robert mueller? >> you would have to ask the person who writes more about comey than i do. i don't know. what i do believe is that if the president goes to the middle east and he does what the professor talked about, put some tangible agreements on the table as to show that he is working on

a relationship that's already been worked on, which is the saudis and egygyptians and israelis beginning to develop more relationship and trump can help weave that together, this investigation, minus whatever other revelations that i be leaked out, is going to get to work. that's not going to be a headline every day. these investigations don't produce headlines. they produce work and they take a long period of time. that eventually is going to subside. it's not going to subside unless the president comes forward with something that's going to replace it in the news psy s cy. >> that's a huge potential opportunity for the administration if they don't -- >> undercut themselves. >> to say there's an ongoing investigation, we're not going to talk about it. >> that's the question. i think it would be better for them and for many consuming news if they would say, there's an

investigation ongoing because people are getting -- >> we can't comment. >> we would like to talk about this that we're doing. >> they do say it. it's the president who doesn't say it. >> as a whole. >> i think the special counsel is a gift to trump. it allows him to basically say, everything is secret for the next year. >> if he is able to say that. >> hasn't done that. >> but there's -- there's counsel but there's also other human beings who know things. there's no muzzle on these other people who know things. there's nothing preventing other people from divulging what they know. nothing guarantees the headlines will go away. >> the president is on his way to saudi arabia. coming up next, two people who have been on the plane at such crucial moments. at red lobster's seafood trios

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it's been quite a night from the flynn intelligence reporting, from the president reportedly boasting about firing comey. this is all happening with the president on air force 1. joining us is two people who know thwhat that is like.

this new reporting that the russians were bragging about the influence they had on michael flynn, they could have been bragging and may not have had the influence they were claiming they did. they thought they could use him to influence. >> daymeon: donald trump. does that matter? what does that matter? >> well, it will matter to some people and not to others. i note that during all of the wild events this week, and with the trump administration on its back legs fighting off all of these things, his poll numbers have eroded. but they have levelled off in the high 30s. his base is his base. they're not much connected to this story. it does hurt him dramatically in terms of his ability to persuade others and it could limit his ability to ever grow. but i think there's some comfort for him in that.

you know, it's just the cascading of these things that is making it very lard for hhar to get out. it would be good for the president to think about how much jet fuel he has added to turn this into a runaway rocket. there's so much instances in the last one that we though about is this strange conversation with the russians. kislyak, who was in the room, is a russian spy master at the center of this whole story. he was the guy who flynn was con sorting with according to some. trump is bragging to him or unloading in front of him about how he fired this nut job comey to get the russian -- take the heat off of the russia investigation. unthinkable. the first rule of politics is if you want to get out of a hole, stop digging. the president has been digging

furiously for some time. >> admiral, as someone who worked inne ed administrations, do you do to turn the corner on something like this? as senator santorum and others say, this could be an opportunity. this special counsel could be an opportunity for the president to say, look, that conversation is done. we support the investigation. it's ongoing. i'm talking about jobs. i'm talking about illegal immigration, whatever it is. >> yeah. i think that's right. i wish he would take that opportunity. this is the time to stop talking about this stuff. you have the special counsel, which we wouldn't have had had he not fired james comey. remember that. now we are where we are. that's a good excuse now for them to say, look, we're going to let the special counsel h handle this. we want the facts to go where they lead us. he has a big trip right now with lots of important visits and lots of opportunities here to try to change a little bit of narrative. i don't know that he will. he ought to take advantage of

that. now is the time to use this to his advantage. he keeps -- as mrhe points out >> the other big story was attorneys in the legal counsel's office in the white house -- the office of legal counsel have been researching the impeachment proceeding out of aof an abunda of caution. does that make sense to you? lawyers are paid to be cautious. >> yes. that makes sense to me. i'm wondering where the abundance of caution was before the president had multiple conversations with the fbi director and talked to him about an ongoing investigation in which he himself might be involved. you would think they would have briefed him on that. that seems like an abundance of caution there. >> to your point, what's fascinating is he had dinner

with comey -- if memory serves me correct -- the night that -- the day that sally yates info informed the white house legal counsel office about michael flynn and that he had lied and been interviewed by the fbi and done badly in the interview and the legal counsel informed the president and he had dinner with comey. >> the white house counsel apparently -- we're told never informed the vice-president who was head of the transition committee that general flynn was under investigation as they were about to appoint him national security adviser, who didn't inform the vice-president that he had been lied to. yes, havei have no problem withm thinking about impeachment. they should be prepared for that. this president -- either he has ignored advice or he has been poorly advised throughout this whole episode.

>> admiral, what would you advise them to do? is there a right way to navigate through this? >> first of all, take away his iphone or whatever to get onto twitter. he needs to again refer to the special counsel. you have three now investigations going on. one of them headed by a special counsel. use that that. number three, this is really important. he needs to start thinking about the larger communications aspect as he is making decisions. i was a spokesman for 11 years. i can count on one hand the number of times i wasn't in the room when he made a major decision or when reporters asked, what's the boss think about this, i had to ask him. it's important that he keeps communications staff close. he listens to them. back to advice, he has to listen to advisors and slow down a little bit before he moves out on making statements and going off script.

>> admiral, david, thanks very much. so much has happened today. it could be easy to forget what's going on in the background. president trump is about to make a speech. he will talk about islam. that has been more than a year talking about banning muslims, saying other potential inflammatory things about the religion. he railed against hillary clinton and president obama. that could change. brianna keilar has more. >> reporter: as a candidate, donald trump drew wide criticism when he claimed muslims had cheered the collapse of the world trade center on 9/11. >> i watched in jersey city, new jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. thousands of people were cheering. >> reporter: just weeks later in december 2015, trump first announced his proposal to ban muslims. it came in the wake of the isis inspired attack in san

bernardino, california, by a u.s. born pakistani american and his wife. >> donald trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> reporter: as trump surged in the primaries, he said the religion as a whole was anti-american. >> do you think islam is at war with the west? >> i think islam hates us. there's something there that is a tremendous hate there. >> reporter: a message heard loud and clear in saudi arabia, the birthplace of islam. trump is headed there to give a speech intended, his top aides say, to unite the muslim world against terrorism. >> it is there that we will begin to construct a new foundation of cooperation and support with our muslim allies. to combat extremism, terrorism

and violence and to embrace a more just and hopeful future for young muslims in their countries. >> reporter: he will have a lot of explaining to do, particularly on his travel ban of several muslim majority countries now tied up in the court system. >> it's not a travel ban. he has been very clear that it is extreme vetting. >> reporter: also clear, that it was indeed a ban. >> we will have a very, very strict ban and we're going to have extreme vetting which we should have had in this country for many years. >> reporter: that ban authored with significant input from steven miller. as a college student, miller worked with a terrorism awareness project considered an anti-muslim hate group. anderson? >> brianna keilar, thanks. at the beginning of this week, which feels like a thousand years ago, i spoke with sally yates. in an exclusive interview.

stay tuned for that interview tonight at 11:00 eastern tonight. up next, third graders too young to vote but they have a lot to say about the president and politics. nies have come together to bring you more ways to help reduce calories from sugar. with more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all, smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels, and signs reminding everyone to think balance before choosing their beverages. we know you care about reducing the sugar in your family's diet, and we're working to support your efforts. more beverage choices. smaller portions. less sugar. balanceus.org. stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker.

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do they make of all of this? gary tuckman went to one of the closest races to find out. >> this is the swift water elementary school in monroe county, pennsylvania in the heart of the pocano mountains on election day. trump and hillary clinton finished within 1 percentage point of each other in this county. >> we are sitting here with some of the third graders at swift water elementary. are you ready to talk about president trump? >> yes! >> what do you think donald trump and his campaign are being investigated about? >> i think he is being investigated about, like, how he got elected as president. a little bit. and then if he is working with the russians or not. they are investigating him to see if russia hacked into the campaign to give him more votes. >> they maybe just don't like him so they are trying to make it up?

>> i feel like it would be good to know if something like that would be real or not. if they are investigating him like if he ate a sandwich. >> that would be a waste of taxpayer money. >> yes, it would be. >> what do you think the best thing he has done. >> lower taxes. >> he has been talking about it, but hasn't done it yet. >> i think the best thing he has done is promising to lower taxes. i don't want to be 80 and pay$8 paying a million for taxes. >> how much do you want to pay when you are 80? >> not much. >> give me an amount. >> maybe like $100. >> what don't you like? >> building the wall is a bad idea. what if someone is in mexico and stayed for a couple of years and when the wall was built they won't be able to get back home. >> building the wall because people from mexico might want to go back to the united states.

>> donald trump gave a graduation speech. i want you to watch this and we will talk about it. >> no politician in history, and i say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. >> it's not true because he said mean stuff about barack obama that he was born in africa and that wasn't true because he was born in the united states. >> maybe donald trump is hurting deep down inside and needs to get it out. do any of you think that's true? >> no. >> do you feel sorry for him? >> yes. >> no. >> if donald trump walked into your class and said ike, me what you want to tell me. >> how much money do you make per day? >> he's a financially minded guy. he would probably answer it. what would you ask? >> what is your favorite part about being president? >> what do you think his answer

would be? >> playing golf. >> it has been a pleasure talking with you and thank you for inviting us. >> you're welcome! >> time to hand it over and the special report white house in crisis starts right now. >> this is a cnn special report, white house in crisis. after a devastating week for the trump administration, tonight a new borage of breaking news in the russia investigation unfolding within the last few hours. >> as the president begins his first overseas trip, cnn is learning his legal team is starting to prepare for the possibility of impeachment. >> here's what we know. breaking just a short while ago, exclusive new cnn reporting on security adviser mike flynn and his russia kegzs. officials bragged in the campaign t