the same night the president decides to ask for a dinner with comey about a loyalty play. and also the president had already called up flynn -- had already called up comey basically to ask about being under investigation. >> so i just think the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. we still need to give the president his fair day in court. his side needs tee be able to present the evidence. but nonetheless the way this is breaking with the selected leaks paints a very dark picture. and i already heard the other night we're in itch peachmentatory tear and now we know the white house lawyerers are invesgating h impeachment takes place. itch peachment is way down the road, but we're in deep, serious issues now. >> the fact that the white house really isn't denying what the president said to the russians annoy in this latest reportin "

reporting -- do you buy that the. >> there's some other official thatimators thalanguage that says you have to understand what the president was saying was he was trying to extract concessions by the russians by saying i'm under pressure so give me some sun session. >> which, by the way, jeffrey lord had brought up president obama had said to inform putin after the elections are over, i'll have a bit more freedom. >> so 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. but what he actually says to the meeting accord to "the times" is

he says i fired comey and now i'm not under pressure. if the point was 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. and as toobin is saying correctly, the key point is he says i was under pressure, i fired him, the pressure is now off. well, what that suggests is i fired him to get the pressure off me. that does sound like -- i'm a layman. it sounds like he's saying i had this guy investigating me. it was a problem, i didn't like the pressure, so i fired. >> david? >> right, also to back up what fareed is saying, there's no evidence he went onto ask the russians for gg. he didn't ask them for conassociations in any of e tes we've been shown so far. i don't see how that argumt holds up. >> david gergen, fareed sacchar

yeah, thank you very much. for everyone joining us a quick reminder, cnn has learned about intercepted russian communications and they warned up russian security advisor michael flynn long before he was fired. pamela. >> we can tell you, anderson, multiple sources say that russian officials bragged during the presidential campaign they had cultivated such a strong relationship with former advisor michael flynn that they could use him to influence donald trump and his team. and those conversations deeply concern u.s. intelligence officials. it even impacted what intelligence the incoming administration was privy to according to these sources we were speaking with because some obama officials acted on their own to limit how much information thal shared with flynn out of concern that flynn and others in transition would share information with russia. >> and anderson, one former

official told me the way the russians were talking about flynn was regarded as what he called a five alarm fire from early on. the russian's conversations indicated they regarded flynn as their ally, sources told us. now, we all know that flynn's relationship is a long one, and it developed with russia throughout 2016, months before flynn was caught on an intercepted collin december speaking with russian sergey kislyak. that ultimately led to flynn's firing at trump's security advisor. anderson, we reached out to flynn's lawyer who declined to chent and the white house, which said this. we are confident when these inquiries are complete, there will be no evidence to support anculugzetween the trump campaign and russia. top officials and members of

congress briefed on the matter are all saying the same thing. >> we also learned about the conversation with the russians. >> that's right. and one major concern was the conversation between sergey kislyak. now sources tell my colleague jim sciutto that flynn told kislyak to hold off on retaliating with its own sanctions and then the next day putin said he wouldn't retaliate. sources say the -- trump angrily denied any collusion with russia this week. as you know he called the special investigation a witch-hunt. >> despite all this, gloria, president trump has obviously remained steadfast in his support. >> yes, he's a loyal guy as you know. and the most obvious example

came out in this memole in which we learned of james comey in which the president reportedly asked the director of the fbi to let the flynn investigation go. >> appreciate the story tonight. and thortly before that story broke, this one. namely would this mean that fired fbi director james comey would no longer testify before congressional committees. tonight we know he will and it's going to be open session. so what have you learned the. >> well, anderson, james comey will appear before the senate intelligence commity. that's the committee chaired by richard bur and ranking member mark warner. like you said, it will be an open hearing committee, which is significant, the fact that jamds comey will be testifying in public, in front of cameras, not in any closed door setting. the date has not been set on testimony yet, but committee is releasing information this evening indicating they will put

it on the books for after memorial day. so potentially indicating their exctation is this will happen very say. so it's a significant development the fact comey is testifying at all. there had been concern up here in the halls of capitol hill just this week that potentially would not happen in the wake of this special counsel being chosen. >> and some centers i understand are upset he declined other appearances. >> that's right, he was actually invited to three hearings up here on capitol hill in addition to the senate intelligence -- the senate judiciary wasted no time tonight coming out with a joint statement basically registering their displeasure that he has turned down their invitation. in that statement say they're extremely disappointed and they believe there's no reason he can't testify. >> thanks very much for that. so we've got a lot of breaking

stories tonight. there was the story about michael flynn, conversations with the russians, and conversations the obama administration had about it. before all that happened, this happened. the headline they write president trump told russian officials in the oval office this month that firing the fbi director james comey had relieved great pressure on him according to a document summarizing the meeting. the piece telling the russians, quote, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was craze a, a nut job. the president also saying i faced great pressure because of russia. that's taken off. maggy maberman, one of the reporters who broke that story joins us again.

just explain what you've learned. >> sure. this story had already raised eyebrows because the president had this indiscreet slip about intelligence and a laptop that was secured and was upsetting to allies. he also talked about the russian investigation. as we know this president has a hab utof talking about what's on his meend. and we know this investigation wrangles him a great deal understandably so. but he had just fired james comey and he talked about it. and described him quote, unquote, as a nut job. he said the investigation had put some pressure on him, that pressure is now off. my sense of that is that he was actually referring to what he's been referring to this whole time, which he has always been adamant he's not under investigation. comey, i think, actually said that publicly. he then made other chitchat

about policy such as ukraine and looking for intervention there. high talked about his crowd size. he made a joke about how the russian ambassador sergei dislack had met with almost every other official on the campaign. why did want he ask trump for a meeting? this is the donald trump we have come to know, one who talks encircles and doesn't always have a point, and who often says the same thing he says privately as he says publicly. but he was saying this to russian officials while there is not just one investigation going on but several investigations going on. the day after he had fired the director of the fbi and with things like he may have obstructed just mchs and things he may have said are going to continue to reaffirm that. the defense that was given about him is he was essentially using what had happened and russian meddling into the election. and to be clear, he's been sort of iffy on that publicly.

but he said it outright in this meeting supposedly, that he was using that as a leverage point, lmts trying to make the russians feel guilty for casting a cloud over him. because of course that wouldn't be the case and was using that to contract conassociations in the future. this is unwise at best when you're under investigation. >> ihink it was jeffarlier who pointed out by saying the pressure had been relieved somewhat or eased by the firing of director comey, it undercuts the argument he was trying to use this as a leverage point like, look, i'm under a lot of pressure. you've got to give me concession. >> what he was really saying, according to this push back, is i was under a lot of pressure. therefore the investigation is still going on, there's no connection to it involving comey. and there's no cloud.

and that way i'm free to, you know, negotiate and try to establish a better relationship. you know, that's a hard plates to get to, to understand the logic there. it is the kind of logic i could see him actually thinking. but i think people are goteeg to have decide the version they believe. >> it's also interesting the personality of donald trump, and i know you know far more, but he does seem to try to -- he tries to reach out to somebody and he wants to win you over. and he often does it by he wants you to like him and for you to be fair to him. but he wants you to like him, and i wonder when i was reading this about this meeting, i guess sort of one way to look at it is him basically trying to establish some sort of rapport. >> right. i had a tweet about this the other day when we talked about the disclosure of the laptop.

and he's got that collection of souvenirs in the window. so up stairs by the window in the trump tower he's got this collection of almost toys, and one of them is a signed shoe, a giant shoe. and he likes to brag when he meet people, he likes to sort of show-off. and it is about winning them over. i don't know how much of it is about being liked. i think a lot of it is he's always is selling. but i think this was the intelligence version of shaquille o'neal's shoe. this may have been just the investigation version of shaquille o'neal's shoe. but this is where he hasn't adapted to the allegations of him. one of the characteristics of donald trump is he gets people around him to bend to his views of events and view of reality. there's a whole north view of reality out there, and i think there's increasingly a divrjs

based oen these current investigations. >> maggy will be back with the panel. and then this news broke just as the president was leaving for the first overseas trip of his presidency. so the president several hours into his trip to the middle east, have they reacted to any of tonight's breaking news? obviously, they're still flying there. >> hi, anderson, that's right. they are still flying. but this broke just as they were leaving. we did get statement from white house press secretary sean spicer. and what's noticeable about that statement is he doesn't deny "the new york times" post. he says comeyy was grandstanding and politicizing russia's activities 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, on crew crane, on defeating isis. but then he ends his statement by saying the threat to national security by this leaking of private and lily classified conversations. so it's clear the white house is not happy of this latest headline as they head off on this high stakes trip, that their hoping will be a reset. but with these constant breaking headlines, that's going do be difficult. >> again, it's headlines based on things the president himself has said. and there's been a number of developments just since the president has been in the air. is it going to affect the international trip? i mean it's obviously going to impact him in some way. but could they maybe ignore this stuff and just focus on what they went over there for in the first place? >> my gisz is they're not going

to be ignoring this. they're going to be trying to respond the best they can to any new news that comes out. but his first stop, saudi arabia. he's set to deliver a major speech on islam, which is interesting itself. it's a potentially high risk speech he's giving to some 50 muslim leaders. his hope is to give them the message they should promote peace. the chief architect of the travel ban, the now blocked travel ban that targeted six pluz lm countries, steven miller is the chief writer on this spee, steven miller himself has a long history of anti-muslim rhetoric. so 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 radical islamic terrorism is not in this speech. that's also interesting because it's a phrase we heard the president using a great deal on the campaign trail. so a lot of eyes will be on that speech. >> thanks for reporting. meantime, the news just keeps rolling. coming up next how the white house lawyers are preparing in the event the president has to deal with some sort of impeachment proceeding. briathe customer app willw if be live monday. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it,

everything computes. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet? dearthere's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say: if you love something... set it free. see you around, giulia ♪

more breaking news on top of 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. even, what are you learning? >> 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 laare wyers t actually doing any of this. >> does this mean that the president needs to hire an outside lawyer? has he, do we know? >> well, we don't know if he has yet. 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, michael coen, and jay visited the white house to discuss his need to hire personal attorneys for the president, anderson. >> evan perez, thanks very much. let's bring in the panel. rack santorum with us, also gary

graph. professor, you have been saying for days he should hire lawyers. it seems prudent for them to at least be refreshing themselves 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 continue to focusn

these civil liberties 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 ovetating 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 don't think it's a story much people will pay attention to. what russians say about us -- i'm sure back in the cold war when we got a democrat in office after george w. bush and ronald reagan, they were probably say we've got some friends there, too. i don't think 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 the past ten days has

really been good for country -- do you think this type of inchris criminate 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

vealing to 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 tells 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 -- wikileaks has been revealing secrets about the cia. so i don't know how you can

say -- and i don't think the president has commented on that at all. but 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 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 russians are lying to each other and building themselves up by saying they have more of a relationship than they did. >> 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 crimea. that's a win for them, too. and here's the last big win for them, which is something we forget sometimes, which is 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.

david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ ♪

♪ i'm dr. kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. ♪ energy lives here. it's just a burst pipe, i co(laugh) it. no. with claim rateguard your rates won't go up just because of a claim. i totally could've - no! switching to allstate is worth it.

bounty is more absorbent,mom" per roll so the roll can last 50% longer than the leading ordinary brand. so you get more "life" per roll. bounty, the quicker picker upper no need with thending thcars.com app when on the lot, scan a vin to pull up all the info you need to help get the price you want. start scanning today.

a tough ride on air force 1 right now. be in the air for another five

hours before landing in saudi arabia. it's a sign of the kind of week it's been. 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 sergey 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 and going to different places. >> 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 pleasant surprise doesn't help with the rest of this. i thinkwill not address this because of his own tendencies.

but he is an environment where he can divert to other things more easily than if he would at home. 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. and that ends up tripping him up. >> professor, you were saying if 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 soddy plan in relation to relationship 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. we'll have director telephone lines. we'll have the beginning of what likes 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. >> laura, one of the things that former official told gloria borger was the flynn/russia relationship was viewed as a five alarm fire early on. i assume that factors into mueller's investigation. his investigation is far reaching. that would be something he would focus on. >> absolutely, the drag net is quite large. that's the directive of the nature of his work. although it's true that the international trip may do a lot will dnothing curtail the g, it fbi investigation or mueller's overl achievements or overall goals in investigation. there's a very big reason for that. they have to have a simultaneous parallel investigation going on. for every accomplishment thl still be this cloud of

suspicion. in order to alleviate that, you have to complete the investigation. it's true there may be some short gains 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 the confluence of all these other factors to say there is some 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'd 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 egyptians and jordanians and israelis, beginning to develop a bit more relationship and trump can help weave that together. 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 cycle. and so far he hasn't been able to do that. >> 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, we've got a lot of information stuff to get

to. >> 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. >> to say we can't comment on this. we would like to talk 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. >> i want to thank everybody on the panel. as we said the president is on his way to saudi arabia. coming up next, two people who have been on the plane at such crucial moments. [fbi agent] you're a brave man, mr. stevens. your testimony will save lives.

mr. stevens? this is your new name. this is your new house. and a perfectly inconspicuous suv. you must become invisible. [hero] i'll take my chances. 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. radio: scorching heat today folks[ barks ]ol out there! walter! stop suffering with hot ac. cool it yourself with a/c pro. just connect the hose, squeeze the trigger and check the gauge.

with 2 times the cooling boosters enjoy the comfort of the #1 selling coldest air. nothing cools like a/c pro. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected. that's the power of and. sorry, just getting a quote on motorcycle insurance from progressive. yeah? yeah, they have safe rider discounts, and with total loss coverage, i get a new bike if mine's totaled. but how's their customer service? great. 24/7. just like here. meat loaf! [dings bell]

just like here. anybody got a pack... that needs leadin'? serving all your motorcycle insurance needs. now, that's progressive.

it's been quite a night from the flynn intelligence to the "new york time"

bombshell. reporting, from the president reportedly boasting about firing comey. this is all happening with the president on air force one. joining us is two people who know what 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 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 sort of leveled 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. so, you know, i think the's some cfort for him in that. but it is just the cashcading of these things that is making it very hard for them to get out. as he makes his way over to saudi arabia, it would be good for the president to think about how much jet fuel he has added to turn this into a run away 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. and trump was 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 here. >> admiral, as someone who worked in administrations, what 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. let's 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 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 as much as he can. he keeps -- as david axle rod pointed out, he keeps digging himself in with a shovel again. >> 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 an abundance of caution. not that there's any there, not that where it's going to go. 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 to me 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 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 then the president went right out and had the dinner with comey. >> yes, and it's also the white house counsel who 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, i have no problem with them thinking about impeachment. i think we're a long way from that, but they should be

prepared for that. but, boy, this president, either he has ignored advice or what would you advise them to do? is there a right way to na gate throu navigate through this? >> take away hi iphone or whatever hes to get to twitter. you have three investigations going on. one had to be a special counsel. use that as a way to stop getting mired in all this. and number three, and he needs to start thinking about the larger communications aspect as he's making decisions. i was admiral mullen's spokesman for 11 years. i can count on one hand the number of times i wasn't there when he made a decision. if the reporters asked, what does the boss think about this? i had the ask him. it's important that he keeps the communications staff close. he also listens to them.

back to advice. he's got to listen to advisers and slow down before he moves out on making statements and going offscript. >> admiral kirby, david axelrod, thank you very much. so much has happened. president trump is about to make a speech in saudi arabia. he's going to talk about islam. that he spent more than a year talking about banning muslims, saying other potentially inflammatory things against the religion. now, u.s. officials say those words are not in the current draft of the president's upcoming speech. that could change. brianna keilar has more. >> reporter: as a candidate, donald trump claimed that -- >> i watched in jersey city, new jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. ousands of people were

cheering. >> reporter: just weeks late in december 2015, trump first announced his proposal to ban muslims. it came in the wake of the isis-inspire aid tack in san bernadino, by a pakistani-american and his wife. >> donald j. trump is causing 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 pry marimaries, he said the religious was anti-american. >> do you think islam is in a war with the west? >> i think islam hates us. there's a tremendous hatred there. >> reporter: a measure heard loud and clear in saudi arabia. trump is there to unite the muslim world against terrorism. >> it is there that we will

begin to construct a newfou 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'll 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's been clear it is extreme vetting. >> reporter: and also clear it was, indeed, a ban. >> we're going to have a strict ban. and we're going to have extreme ve vetting, which we should have in this country for many years. >> reporter: that ban, with input from steven miller. as a college student, miller worked with the terrorism awareness project, that is a group that's considered an anuslim hate group.

>> brianna keilar, thanks. programming note at the beginning of this week, i spoke with sally yates in an exclusive interview. stay tuned for that interview tonight. up next, a fresh take on the bombshells exmroeding in washington, from third graders, two young to vote, who had a lot to say about the president and politics. save you hundreds. get two lines for a hundred dollars. that's right. two lines of unlimited data. a hundred bucks. all in. and right now, we're giving you even more. for a limited time, get a free samsung galaxy s8 when you buy one. that's two galaxy s8s for the price one! plus, two lines of unlimited data for a hundred bucks. taxes and fees included. only at t-mobile. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on

all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet? mr. brady, we've been expecting you. will you be needing anything else? no. not a thing. beautyrest black. get your beautyrest. beautyrest black. dearthere's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced,

our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say: if you love something... set it free. see you around, giulia ♪ albreakthrough withyou back. non-drowsy allegra® for fast 5-in-1 multi-symptom relief. breakthrough allergies with allegra®. we are kind of running out of words to describe the avalanche of news. so, we thought it would be enlightening to hear from voices that are often not heard in all of this, kids. what do they make of all of this? gary tuckman went to one of the

closest races to find out. >> reporter: 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! >> reporter: 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 up a case? >> i feel like it would be goodo now if sething like that would be real or not. if they are investigating him

like if he ate a sandwich. >> reporter: the sandwich investigation would not be popular. that would be a waste of taxpayer money. >> yes, it would be. >> reporter: what do you think is the best thing donald trump has done? >> lower taxes. >> reporter: 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 paying a million for taxes. >> reporter: how much do you want to pay when you are 80? >> not much. >> reporter: give me an amount. >> maybe like $100. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: maybe donald trump is hurting deep down inside and needs to get it out. do any of you think that's true? >> no. >> reporter: do you feel sorry for him? >> yes. >> no. >> reporter: 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? >> reporter: good question. he's a financially minded guy. he would probably answer it. what would you ask? >> what is your favorite part about being president? >> reporter: what do you think his answer would be? playing golf.

>> reporter: 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 barrage of breaking news in the russia investigation unfolding within the last few hours. i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm pamela brown. 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 connections. >> our sources say that officials bragged in the campaign that they cultivated such a strong relationship with flynn, they could use him to influence mr. trump and his team.