welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thanks for sharing your day with us. big questions and fresh accusations. a very busy day in politics. democrats democrats accusing jeff sessions of giving false testimony about his contacts with the russian ambassador. they asked the now fired fbi director james comey to investigate these contacts. start with jim sciutto who has the breaking news. exactly what are the democrats saying? >> john, it's a series of three letters. one in march, then in april, then in may all addressed to james comey, well, the first two to james comey, then the final one of course after he was fired. and senators franken and leahy, both members of the judiciary committee asking for the fbi to investigate whether sessions had

concealed other meetings with russian officials including the russian ambassador. i'll quote from the letter on march 20th. we are concerned by attorney general sessions lack of candor and his failure thus far to accept responsibility for testimony that could be construed as perjury. we are also disturbed that the attorney general has not been forthcoming about his contacts with the russian ambassador. we ask you that investigate all contacts the russia ambassador or any other russian officials may have had with attorney general sessions or with his staff and whether any laws were broken. keep in mind the timing of this. because by march 20th we already knew that in the confirmation hearings in january that he had not disclosed two meetings with the russian ambassador. only in march after those meetings were reported did attorney general sessions then concede that those meetings happened. he submitted corrected testimony to the judiciary committee. this followed that admission by some two weeks.

the implication it would seem here was a question to the fbi, were there other meetings. and in that original testimony, did he break any laws by perjuring himself. the subsequent letters in april were asking for an update and then on may 12th following comey's dismissal saying listen, we know comey's gone now, but we senators franken and leahy still want you to investigate this. >> jim, as we get these letters and look at these serious questions raised by democrats, it connects cnn reporting from last night on this very question, how many contacts about jeff sessions have with the russian ambassador. >> that's right. that was a cnn exclusive with my colleagues. we reported last night that the hill is investigating a third possible meeting between sessions and ambassador kislyak. they're folksed cused on a date 2016 where then the russian ambassador and senator sessions were at a larger event here in

washington, d.c. the question is before or after that larger event was there a smaller private meeting between sessions and kislyak. not established yet whether that is true but we do know that the hill, the senate judiciary committee is investigating. they have asked sessions for more information, documents including schedules and we also know that the fbi is looking into this as well as part of their broader counter intelligence investigation regarding russian meddling in the election. and we should note that the senators, though these letters were of course sent before last night's report, they it seem decided to release these letters after cnn reported this ongoing investigation. >> important new kwedevelopment with the breaking news. with me to share their reporting on this story and others, julie pace, natalie, karen of the "washington post" and jackie kucinich. if we go back a couple months we remember when the democrats were

pressing jeff sessions saying you have not been honest to us about these meetings. now we learn about these letters to the now fired fbi director and, number one, the questions are serious. were there more meetings. did jeff sessions not -- was he not totally honest with the united states congress. but then we know jeff sessions had a central role in the firing of james comey after saying he would recuse himself from all things russia. so the pot, if you will, is getting swirling some more. >> it is and the reports about these meetings have been swirling privately for a while. the possibility that there was an extra sessions meeting on the sidelines of trump's foreign policy speech during the campaign. the problem for jeff sessions and pretty much everyone else who was caught up in the trump campaign and white house is that they just don't get the benefit of the doubt anymore on these meetings because they haven't been up front. they have been misleading. they have kept quiet about meetings until they've been reported in the press. so that's how you end up in a situation like this where you have the justice department saying they don't have any

record of a meeting and senators are asking real questions and a date on the calendar where we know they were in a room with kislyak, whether that was just the big room for the speech or the smaller room is yet to be determined. it remains an open question. the fact that they haven't been up front on other meetings is what adds to the controversy. >> vhaven't been up front knowig this is the all consuming issue in washington . if you're attorney general, you're extra special. is that a foolish standard to hold the attorney general to? >> i don't think so . it raises questions about the justice department in general. we don't have an fbi director. they have not named a candidate. that candidate has to be through confirmation. the attorney general has recused himself from probably the highest profile investigation in washington. special counsel working on that. he may be distracted by some of the questions coming up. so the department itself is in a little bit of turmoil or some

sort of struggle and it's something that the administration and certainly the department would want to correct. >> take the republican perspective or the trump perspective. let's say they say jeff sessions didn't think this meeting was a big deal so he didn't disclose it. now the trump perspective, they would say democrats are asking partisan questions. okay. accept that for the sake of argument. what could jeff sessions do, if anything, in the middle of an investigation to come out? he could ask congress call me back up, i'd like to answer your questions, i'd like to get this cloud out from over me. why hasn't he done that? >> if he does that i don't think it makes the cloud go away. this all started because of testimony he gave to congress which people are saying which does not seem to have been completely on the up and up. that's what started this backlash from members of the committee. there's always the risk if you go in front of congress again, a new pandora's box opens again

and lawmakers leap on that. if there's really nothing else to it, it may not be something that actually seal its all up with a nice bow because there's still so much suspicion around capitol hill. >> there's also another layer. this isn't someone they just met in front of their committee. they've known jeff sessions for quite a while. you saw in the letter sessions himself wouldn't tolerate this sort of answer and this sort of behavior. there might be a personal aspect of this as well. they're angry that this guy who worked beside them for years and years in a bipartisan fashion because this is a committee after all in the senate lied to them essentially or seems to be that he wasn't telling the tr . truth. >> his testimony was not accurate. you get into motives. the easy way to clear it up, he forgot or he misspoke is to put yourself back in the chair and answer the questions. the attorney general has refused to do that.

this will be a question for the justice department. i suspect this question will also come up at the white house. what does the president know about this or how does the president want to push another piece of cloud away. something changed in the last 24 hours. when you ask a question at the white house now about all things russia, this is the answer you get from the press secretary. >> testified that the president's pressured him to drop the michael flynn investigation. did the president engage in obstruction of justice in repeated meetings with james comey? >> our job, we are focused on the president's agenda and going forward all questions on these matters will be referred to outside counsel mark kasowitz. >> mark kasowitz is going to have to hire a call center, but in the sense that's the lead outside private attorney, someone who's worked with donald trump back to his real estate days, but he's the lead outside private attorney who's building a team of other lawyers to help the president through this

investigation. began, toii want to say this ev time it comes up, just because you hire an attorney doesn't mean you did anything wrong. but if the white house is going to say don't ask the government, ask mark, is that it? is that the new world order? >> that's the new policy that the staff at the white house has tried to implement, but i would note two things. one, outside counsel did not answer any questions yesterday and i think that we're going to probably be stone walled there for a while. number two, it doesn't appear as though that policy is going to apply to the president of the united states himself. so what effect does it have if sean spicer and other advisers are saying we can't answer any questions, but the president is tweeting about the investigation, tweeting about russia, taking questions on the matter? his word matters more than what we would get from the press secretary anyway. >> little disconnect from saying i can't answer your questions. to that question, about james comey who has now agreed and permission from bob mueller to go up to counsel next week and ask questions.

we presume he's going to be walked through the memos he wrote after his meeting with the president where he was uncomfortable. is there any chance the president of the united states would try to exert executive privilege and say he cannot testify publicly because he's a political appointee? these are private conversations between a president and somebody and presidents do have the right, do have the privilege to shut down those conversations sometimes? would this president roll that dice? >> he could try, but i think one of the problems to julie's point about the twitter feed is that the president himself has discussed these meetings. >> so has he waived it. >> that is the question skpch. and we'll know the answer if he does that. >> sometimes just asserting it can delay things. we've seen this from presidents. little bit of a difference. jif first of all, jim comey is no longer an official. often times he wants to talk.

when you see it exerted -- so this is a little different. the risk for this zraadministran is that they become engulfed. the clinton administration a a lot of the time was just responding to multiple demands from various investigators i think that's the risk they're running. >> that testimony will be next thursday. fix your calendar. if you have any appointments next thursday, must see tv. hope you do that with us. let's go to the global part of this story. we have a kremlinolo girgist. vladimir putin met with reporters. regarding our friendship with trump, how can i be friends with someone i've never met. i think mr. trump can't call me a friend either. we don't know each other. mr. putin also changed his story about russian election meddling. for months the russian president

said any allegations of any russian involvement were nonsense. but today while insisting the russian government had no direct role in hacking, mr. putin shared this. >>. >> translator: hackers are free people just like artists. they wake up in a good mood and paint things. same with hackers. they woke up today. read something about this about the state relations. they contribute in a way they think is right. the fight against those who say bad things about russia. >> you were in moscow before you came back here to washington. this is a shift in his story. significantly he said go away, nonsense, this is all crazy, his version of fake news if you. . now he's saying it could well have happened but it wasn't the government. these are just artists. translate that for us. >> this is classic putin. if you take as an example what happened with ukraine where he was saying we weren't involved, nothing happened that can be

traced back to russians. wait a little bit longer. he starts talking about the polite little green men that were clearly russian patriots that were going to ukraine. then a few months later he says we might have had something to do with it. he operates in this realm of when he feels comfortable, like it's done and his goals were achieved or things are set and he's not going to be challenged, he'll let a little bit more information out like that. we've seen him do it before in other contexts. this may be -- this actually may not even be the final chapter of what he says if there's more to say or if more happeneds. he does what's politically convenient for him and the press doesn't question him severely in russia and we hear it as he uses to let out in. >> maybe he'll have an artist reception at the kremlin. >> the other thing to keep in mind is the relationship between the trump and putin was never pure. you have all these allegations of collusion and other forms of

coordination but you also have pretty bold steps being taken by people like nikki haley that are trying to make the point of we're not in russia's back pocket, we will uphold sanctions, things like that. there was joy about trump's election and then there was discontent in russia about actually what it was going to mean. so it's also a mixed bag. >> as we go to break i want to say matthew chance in moscow had a run in with sergei gorkov who is the russian banker. why did jared kushner have a meeting with the russian banker under sanctions close to putin. matthew tried a half dozen questions thrown at mr. gorkov and he got no comment, no comment, thank you, sorry, no comment. but he tried. up next joe biden reenters the fray. as hillary clinton seems you might say stuck in the past. r that protects as it colors. excellence haircolor by l'oréal. with pro-keratine complex rich, radiant color and it cares for my hair. no color protects better. or covers gray better. so much care in one little box. excellence crème from l'oréal paris.

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joe biden is launching a new political group today. it's called american possibilities. one is to help him keep open the possibility of a 2020 presidential run felt helping democrats in 2018 comes first. the former vice president says it is negativity, pettiness, the small mindedness of our politics drives me crazy. it's not who we are. negativity, pettiness. you mean like this? crooked hillary now blames everybody but herself. refuses to say she was a terrible candidate. hits facebook and even demes and dnc. yes, he has a day job but somehow the president was keeping track and tweeting after this 2016 post mortem. >> i set up my own campaign. i get the nomination. i'm now the nominee of the

democratic party. i inherit nothing from the democratic party. >> what do you mean nothing? >> i mean it was bankrupt. it was on the verge of insolvency. its data was mediocre to poor, nonexistence. i to inject money into it. >> one more before i bring the group in. >> she said yes, she has flaws, but as she works on a book, she said her flaws, and she'll make this clear in the book, are not why she lost. >> in the book i'm just using everything that anybody else said about it besides me to basically say this was the biggest nothing burger ever. i know you had dean here from "the new york times" yesterday and they covered it like it was pearl harbor. comey was more than happy to talk about my e-mails but he wouldn't talk about investigation into the russians.

>> what do we make of this? besides the fact that the 2016 campaign apparently will never end. what do -- look, it hurts and we can be snarky about this sometimes. running for president is quite a personal ordeal for anyone who gets in the arena and it hurts and she thought up until the last hour she was going to win. however, what purpose does it serve to trash the dnc, to -- and so on and so forth at this point? >> there was an interesting turn from her yesterday because we've heard the rational about comey and we've heard russia, this is the first we've heard from her blaming the party. in one sense she's not wrong. barack obama ran his own data operations. he kept things close to his own political operations and that hurt the dnc. that is true to some extent. she didn't inherit nothing and you're hearing pushback who work for the committee. yes, i think there is a desire that's perhaps more intense when it comes to her to see her take

ownership. people want to see her be humble. i think it is more intense when it comes to her. but if you are going to be out there, if you did just lose this election, you are going to be out there discussing this, that is the expectation. i don't know what she thinks people will want to talk to her about other than what led wrong and led to this pretty unbelievable defeat. >> and saying i was flawed, it was my fault, but it was also all these other entities fault. it kind of dilutes the buck stops here and it seems like she's burning bridges in her own party. >> she kind of took the oh, well, i had problems but the big problems were in the party. if she did it the opposite way to say there are problems and we should think about fixing them. >> you don't understand the russians cloaked wisconsin so she couldn't find it on a map to

get there and campaign there. >> i fthink if you're a democra a lot of them would like to have her fade-away. a lot of them would say they lost the election, people turned on hillary clinton, republicans were able to make are be a villain. i think the advantage is they don't have someone easy to villainize. the more their last standard bearer continues to be present, continues to speak out, i feel like they think that's not going to be good. >> when trump came up, one of the questions is yes, there's no doubt in the intelligence community, but no doubt russia actively meddled in the election. the question is was there collusion between trump associates and the kremlin, what was leaked. hillary clinton says she has zero doubt. >> the russians in my opinion and based on the intel and

counter intel, people i've talked to, could not have known how best to weaponize that information unless they had been guid guided. >> and guided by americans? >> guided by americans. >> i don't think we can get into that right now. >> i thought it was a midden message to the russians. >> a little humor at the end there about the president's late night tweet, whatever he meant by. that but to the other point, the grievance, gene, in her case, we don't know the answer to that question. we don't have the facts yet. but she has a conclusion in her head. >> a lot of what she said, maybe there was something to it, but she stated in a very exaggerated fashion. for example, the e-mails, you could make the case they were overcovered, they were given too much importance. but i would think most people would see it as a pretty serious ma mistake. she may have some points, but to state them in such an

exaggerated fashion i don't think will res natonate on. >> when she said there would be no way for some foreign entity to do with without american guidance, when you live overseas, it is understanding how the people know how important iowa and how they don't match-up. people pay attention to the united states. yes, there might have been a lot of things that would kind of raise eyebrows and cause suspicion. the idea that people overseas have no idea how american politics worse is just false. >> you can't have a nothing burger if you don't set up a private e-mail server in your home. just a thought. the president announcing a big decision on the paris climate deal. he's expected to abandon the deal. now the source tells cnn maybe some language in the withdrawal to satisfy a key white house adviser. that would be the president's daughter. and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country,

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. welcome back. it's a big day in washington in the rose garden in just two and a half hours the president of the united states will deliver his final answer on whether he is withdrawing the united states from the paris climb change accords.

last minute advise is dizzying from within a fiercely divided west wing and from all corners of the globe. >> we care as much about the climb as we do about jobs. there's a way to balance it. you don't have to have one or the other. i think that's what everyone internationally needs to know. we're not going to start po looting and creating problems. we're going to balance it out. >> translator: that's not how it works. the americans can't just leave the climat protection agreement. mr. trump believes that because he doesn't get close enough to the dossiers to fully understand them. >> at the not the economy that comes from acting. instead it is to risk one's economy by failing to act. the message is simple. the sustain ability train has left the station. get on board or get left behind. >> up to the last minute you hear yesterday the president was withdrawing. today you hear well, he's

withdrawing, but what is he going to do when he walks into the rose garden? is there any chance that he walks in the rose garden and says i'm staying? >> sure. i think there's -- i thaink tha this is going to be a -- >> at 12:31 p.m. -- >> when i left the white house about an hour ago the word from advisers that he is still leaning toward withdrawing with some caveats on the language. they're particularly concerned about blow back from the business community which has really come out in force for the paris agreement. every adviser i've talked to said they won't know until he walks into the rose garden and says this. that's how fierce the divisions are internally. that's the pressure he's getting. >> i assume there's a pe teleprofiter. i assume someone has to write them. but this is new. let's put it that way to be polite in the sense that yesterday, senior administration officials, people who work about

as close to the president of the united states as the people in this room, say he is withdrawing. then you get e-mails from other administration officials saying be careful about that. what is it about this white house that they think this is okay? >> i think there's not much question that the president himself operates on sort of an emotional, visceral, sometimes impu impulsive way of doing things. and where he -- where he was pulling out of nafta, now they think there will adjustments. this one seem to include his daughter, his son-in-law and the business community. this is unusual. the trump administration has been pretty much in favor of deregulation and have the business community on its side. here you have a large side of the business community urging him not to do this. >> the people that are pulling him back are people like steve bannon, more populist parts of the parts of the white house and pruitt at the epa and his base. his base who he promised he would throw this out.

and that's a very strong pull for a president who gets a lot of his energy from those folks who voted for him and who believed him. >> you make a key point. as the lobbying pays out, yes there are people who can walk in the president's office who disagree about this. scott pruitt went on television a couple months ago saying i think we should get out because a lot of administration officials know that the way to get his attention is be on television. the chair woman was on tv this morning. >> i think they're going to want him to pull out. i think they want america first. they want him to -- i don't want to step on the president's toes, but i'm all over the country. i think they're looking at every deal and saying this is the president who's going to put america's interests first and that's what they're going to expect for him to do with the paris agreement. >> i think another aspect of that is there's several promises he does not appear that he's going to be able to keep. he couldn't get rid of obamacare on day one. he's not going to move the

embassy in isreal to jerusalem. there's a few things like that. there won't be a muslim ban. he's not going to build a wall and have mexico pay for it. this is a thing he can do. i think he's under pressure from the base, from the people we heard from to come out and say something like this. >> if you listen, i saw your face in the president of the european union says he doesn't get it. listen to this from china. one of the big conversations is if america steps back whor, whos up? china will say in. russia will stay in. if the united states steps back -- listen to this, the china global daily, a reckless withdrawal from the climate deal will waste diplomatic resources and the u.s. selfishness and irresponsibility will be made clear to the world. crippling the country's world leadership. trump and his team should know this. hopefully the reported withdrawal is a false alarm and trump's decision on thursday will be one acceptable to the

world. >> part of this harkens back to things we were talking about last week which is that trump in many ways is learning on the job when it comes to these sorts of international things. two things at play. one is what he wants to be able to do domestically to keep a promise to his base, to have a win in places where he's had to as he learned on the job decides not to do things he promised to do because it would be too dangerous or too risky. on the other side there's the question of is this something that he's learned that maybe would be too risky to rip up and walk a away or the fact that people are insulting him and will trump, sorry for using that word, but he doesn't like being insulted. he likes being appealed to. that's not happening. the diplomacy has shifted in a way where it may not mirror where he's learning on the job and has changed his decision making promise from things he promised on the campaign trail because of things he's come to find out are more risky.

>> when we were on the international trip, the european leaders were appealing to trump to say in the paris accord not because of the environment, not because of the impacts of climate change. they were talking about u.s. leadership and they were saying the u.s. is the most important country in the world. appealing to this part of trump that while he does focus on this idea of america first and wants to focus on u.s. jobs, he does not want to lead a weakened america. so they were appealing to the ego of trump and saying you are the most important leader in the world. if you are not at the table, then this is ineffective. that was said to have some impact on him. whether that carries him through in this decision and he does decide to stay in or stay in with some modifications i don't think we know, but that was a fas nighti fascinating dynamic. >> that's why it's so interesting which why scott pruitt wants him to pull out. you see these other foreign leaders say the president of the

united states isn't that smart and doesn't get it. you have people who work for the cabinet secretaries saying as long as i'm the person who talks to them, that's what he will do. these people work for the president. up next, the president has had a lot of problems about reversing obama's initiatives. the paris accord just one item on a long list of trump promises he said he would wipe away from his predecessor's legacy. photographic evidence of a trump agenda item. justice gorsuch. the supreme court's new class photo. nine justices. it's all full. we'll be right back. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me,

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there's nothing traditional about my small business. i count on my dell small business advisor for tech advice. with one phone call, i get products that suit my needs, and i get back to business. ♪ welcome back. make america great again of course was president trump's signature campaign slogan. reverse just about every big thing president obama did would have worked too but that's harder to fit on a hat or bumper sticker. >> we're going to cancel the paris climate agreement. i'm going to rip up those trade deals and we're going to make

really good ones. we will cancel obama's one sided cuban deal made by executive order. >> as far as iran is concerned, i would have never made that deal. that is one of the worst deals ever, ever made by this country. it is a disaster. >> but my first day in office i am going to ask congress to send me a bill to immediately repeal and replace, i just said it, obamacare. >> so as we await today's big climate change announcement, let's give a report card on some of those other big reversing obama promises. well, obamacare the president promised you heard there on day one it introduced the bill, obamacare still the law of the land. the president hasn't kept that promise. at least not yet. rip up the iran deal? no. this administration is certified. iran is in compliance. that's a promise want kept. deport the dreamers. the president has walked away from his promise to reverse the obama's administration policy, so called dreamers. that one is not kept. undo regulations.

congress has not as the president wants reversed dodd-frank. that one is a promise at least not kept yet. the administration promises to do some of that through regulation. that grade could change. yes, the president did pull out of the trans pacific partnership. they are easing energy regulations big time in the trump administration. that's a promise kept. we are told soon that the president will reverse president obama's opening to cuba. we'll see how this goes. as president he hasn't been able to keep all of these promises. at least not yet. remember as a candidate, one of donald trump's signature proposals to voters was look at me, i'm the anti-obama. >> have you seen what's been happening in our country in the last two or three days? we have a president, we have a president that doesn't even want to talk about what's really happening. >> i never thought he would be a good president. i thought he would be a great really heeler. i thought it would bring the

country together. i thought he was going to be a good cheerleader. he's been a disaster cheerleader. he's divided the country, wealthy, less than wealthy, white, black. he's absolutely been the great divider. >> i'm nothing like obama and i will change just about everything he did. was a big part of his appeal. especially in that crowded republican primary where he broke through talking like this. as natalie noted, as president, he's at a minimum been slow to keep those promises and in several of them it looks like they'll never be kept. >> that's because when you actually start, you know, assuming the offense and you start being briefed on the implications of some of these actions you realize they're a lot more complicated. earlier today he signed the waiver that they will keep the u.s. embassy in tel aviv. that's because they talk about the regional impact of that, what that could mean for the

safety of the people in that area. you saw that with the iran deal. they are secertifying that irans continuing to meet the standard of the nuclear agreement. when you come to trump's base and you get into the midterm elections and a lot of the boxes stay as they are, what do they do? he's just another politician who made promises and can't fulfill them but give him the benefit of the doubt and say he continues to make decisions in their best interest. >> or they blame, especially trump voters, much more likely to blame paul ryan, mitch mcconnell and the congress rather than the president of the united states. the president tweeting this week hopefully republican senators, good people all, can quickly get together and pass a new repeal and replace health care bill and save dollars. that's what the president says he wants to happen, but there's been pretty much zero progress. they are meeting in private, but there's been zero public progress sense the house passed its bill a long time ago.

>> republicans don't like that bill. there's too many problems with it. when you're a senator from a swing state, they have a lot of people to represent that are not going to fall right in line with how you vote as compared to when you're a congressman from a district that doesn't challenge you that m. . this health care bill will take money or coverage away from people who need it. there was a real reticence to pick up on the support line for that house bill. even before it passed. so we always knew that was going to be dead at the door of the senate. they want to do it their way. they have little help coming from the white house on how to craft it their way. they're going to take their time and do it their way which is slow. >> while you don't get three wishes when you go into the white house, dyou do have clout with congress. this white house has kind of squandered that very early on by how they've worked with congress. they tried to bully them. they tried to sweet talk them.

they haven't done the work on the road that you saw president obama do with his health care bill. he was out there all the time. trump gets out there and says one word about and t and then he starts talking about how he won the election. s so the fact that he hasn't really worked with congress, he hasn't tried to work with congress in the way they're used to be worked with. you can't just break the system. there are other people involved in this government that will help you with your goals if you go through the process. >> you mentioned win the election. one of the things people say has the president inclined to walk away from paris as opposed to some other obama things he's left in place is because he looks at the map of how he won the election. he looks at central pennsylvania and southern ohio and remembers winning huge in west virginia and he thinks somehow coal jobs are part of his political strain. this is corey lewandowski. some talk he may come back to the white house as part of the russia investigation war room. this is corey lewandowski not working with republicans but

essentially saying get in line or else. >> it's very simple. president trump was elected to change the country. you can get on board that train or you can lose your next election. because i can promise you this. the democrats have a different agenda. they have forgotten about the middle class and infrastructure and about the people who voted for donald trump for change f. you don't want to provide that change, in 18 months we're going to have another election. what that means is if the democrats take control of the house, the agenda that this president has outlined and continues to try to implement will be gone. >> so if you're ted cruz or rand paul or susan collins or lisa mer cow s and you are concerned about how you get a senate bill to the floor, when you see that, essentially hey, idiots, do what the president wants -- >> great audition. >> is it? to the president, maybe, but is that the way to coalition build,

which is necessary to pass hard legislation? >> i think it's really not. it also really depends on what state these folks come from. a lot of them do come from swing states. i think the other thing the president is learning is it's unfortuna not just about congress. these things take years. there's the courts. the courts have also presented an ok stabstacle. it's also that regulation and the courts have to be dealt with and we've seen those be obstacles very much as well. >> the government is not a small family health business. up next candidate trump promised to drain the swamp. now we find out the administration isn't exactly delivering on that pledge. -where? -san francisco. -when? -friday. we gotta go. [ tires screech ] any airline. any hotel. any time. go where you want, when you want with no blackout dates. [ muffled music coming from club. "blue monday" by new order. cheers. ]

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that's what it is. >> it's hard to forget that trump campaign promise. also harder it appears to keep it. 17 trump appointees have been granted waivers from conflict of interest rules in the first four months of the administration. that 17 equal to the numbers granted in the entire eight years of the obama administration. those include four former lobbyists now doing government work related to their former clients. the list includes the chief of staff reince priebus and the counselor kellyanne conway. it's hard to drain the swamp. the swamp fights back. part of this is they're having trouble hiring people. so when you need somebody to do puerto rico policy, you end up hiring a lobbyist who had a policy, someone who's willing to come in. you talked earlier about the trump base being largely supportive even as he veers from the campaign and in cases abandons campaign promises. this one the change washington, drain the swamp, shake things up, this is sort of the core of the foundation.

>> this will be interesting to see how his supporters react to it. trump represented more than anything just a shakeup to washington. someone who was going to go in and waupt goisn't going to play old rules and wouldn't get caught up in these dilemmas and now we examples of exactly that. the problem will only get bigger for trump if he does decide to follow through with some of these promises of a staff shakeup because the pool of people he would be drawing from are the people who would be making a lot of money off their connections to him. the base has been loyal to trump. they really have. it will be up to democrats to try to hammer this point. they want to try to breakthrough to make this clear that trump promised to drain the swamp and it has been a failed promise. >> so much of his persona has been about calling people crooked or lying or fake or honest the implication being he's a guy who's straight and this raises a lot of questions for a lot of people. his strongest supporters seem to

believe he's on their side. he has the right ideas. he's with me. i think he may be able to withstand some of this, especially with his base. >> it's a lot harder to explain why he hasn't drained the swamp. it takes too long than saying drain the swamp . it's already shown that his base z doesn't care about the people that are rich. it's the ties and that takes long to longer to explain. >> reince priebus allows him to do business with the democratic national committee. kellyanne alous her to do businesses with political groups she used to work for. on the surface nothing wrong with that unless somebody gets involved in some shady business. >> exactly. it runs counter, he kind of b boxed himself in. he said i'll drain the wachl swt

i'm going to hire the best people. those people have their own shop and are making a lot of money and that will be a huge blow to them financially to go into the white house. it's a tough promise. >> thanks for joining us "inside politics." remember the president's announcement, 3:00 p.m. in the rose garden. wolf blitzer in the chair, among his guests, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee, adam schiff. have a great day. builds 5 times the volume the soft-bristle brush separates every lash it's america's #1 mascara for a reason the one and only voluminous original mascara from l'oréal paris

hello, i'm wolf blitzer. from wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we're following two major stories right now on the russia investigation. we now know the date that the fired fbi director james comey will testify publicly in front of congress. that will be next thursday, june 8th. and investigators are also looking to another possible meeting between the attorney general jeff sessions and the russian ambassador to the united states during the presidential campaign. cnn has obtained copies of letter from two u.s. senators calling for an investigation of