wolf? >> good report, barbara starr at the pentagon. thank you very much. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "out front" starts right now. >> next, breaking news. white house leaving the door open to blocking james comey's testimony. this, as we're learning more about what comey will say. plus donald trump's endless tweets about russia. are they a treasure trove for special counsel robert mueller? and does donald trump still think that climate change is a hoax? sean spicer doesn't know. good evening i'm kate baldwin "out front" tonight. the white house is leaving open the possibility of the president invoking executive privilege to block fired fbi director james comey from testifying. his testimony is clearly shaping up to be the most highly

anticipated hearing before congress in decades. his account could blow the entire russia investigation wide open. of course, that's if president trump decides -- doesn't try to comey first. es here's what white house man is sean spicer today? >> is the white house going to invoke executive privilege to prevent comey from testifying? >> that was just noticed and i think obviously it's got to be reviewed. >> clearly leaving their options open. seems like it would be a very rare move. only invoked one other time by richard nixon. this as more is learned about what comey may say. a source says comey was quote unquote disturbed by the meetings. begin with our breaking news coverage with michelle ka zen i can. michelle, it would be a big deem. >> right.

and this is not the white house saying we welcome comey's testimony, have at it. it's them saying that executive privilege is something that will be looked at. here we are days away from the world expecting to hear from the fired fbi director. what he plans to say about his meetings with president trump. now we're also waiting to hear if the president can or will try to stop him from talking. the white house today, not ruling out that president trump could invoke executive privilege and try to stop james comey, the fbi director he fired, from telling his side of the story. >> the president will make that decision. >> comey now scheduled to appear thursday morning before the kmejs committee is expected to talk about one-on-one cnversations we had -- he had with president trump. conversations that comey kept notes on and in which sources tell cnn trump asked him for his

loyalty and may have tried to persuade him to drop the investigation against fired national security voifr michael flynn. all of which the white house has denied. a claim of executive privilege could be undermined by the president's own words. >> i said if it's possible, would you let me know, am i under investigation? he said you are not under investigation. >> those public comments could be enough to tank any climb that the content of the talks should be kept private. today a source close to comey tells cnn he was disturbed by what the president said to him and felt trump didn't understand it was inappropriate. put all together with trump's later firing of comey, many believe it could amount to obstruction of juflt. >> when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and raerk is a made-up story. >> reporter: questions remain over why trump advisor and son-in-law jared kushner

secretly met with a russian banker and former spy at an undisclosed location reportedly to try to establish a secret channel of communication with the kremlin before the inauguration. the bank maintains that sergei was meeting on behalf of the transition. it has emerged that kushner has had moring meetings. sources now explained they were discussing possible collaboration between the u.s. and russia in syria. former senior state department official dan farireed. sanctions were imposed for taking over cry me as well as hacking the u.s. election which disturbed him enough to reach identity to lawmakers and try to stop. >> lifting sanctions without the russians doing anything as a

free gift strikes me now as a bad, bad idea. my colleagues were concerned about this. and so was i at the time. >> reporter: the white house said that at the time the administration was looking at all sanctions, including against russia. if there was going to be any lifting russia would have to take action and that never happened. on executive privilege, a senate source tonight tells cnn that they don't think it would work. first of all, you have a former official. he wants to talk. the president has spoken publicly at least about part of these conversations and even if the white house wanted to pursue this in federal court, this source doesn't think it would be successful. erin? >> thanks. appreciate it. athena jones is outside the courthouse. press secretary sean spicer was asked repeatedly today about

this question. where's the white house stand on this? >> hi, kate. there's. sean spicer was asked this question and he didn't really have much of an answer. watch. >> that committee hearing was just noticed and i think obviously it's got to be reviewed. >> so that's not a no? >> i'm just saying i don't -- literally -- my understanding of the date for that hearing has just been set. i have not spoken to counsel yet. i don't know what that -- how they're going to respond. >> we're standing by for a decision on that. there are two big questions that go with it. one is does the white house want to run the risk of looking like they're trying to hide something about these conversations. the other big question, of course, is what michelle touched on which is would the bpt successful in asserting privilege in that he's tweeted and spoken about his conversations with the former

fbi on twitter, alluding to the fact that some of those conversations may have been recorded. he can't use privilege as a sneeld one hand and a sword in the other. >> kellyanne conway wouldn't even speak about that this morning. great to see, athena. senator, thanks for the time. >> you're welcome. great to be with you. >> thank you. a lot of big questions. here's the singular big question at the moment. will the president try to stop comey from tlifg this executive privilege? do you think he will? do you think he has a case? >> well, i don't think he will. it will be simply more coverup and more obstruction and i don't think he has a strong legal foundation to succeed. we have seen him do so many things already. he's gone to at least four major officials to try to white wash this and have them testify in

public that there was nothing to be seen. he was turned down. we saw him both protect flynn and then pressure flynn. we saw him pressure comey and then fire koechl. it's been one thing after another where they've been trying to create this screen to prevent the public from getting to the bottom of both what the russians did but also how the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian operation. >> but on this question, it's not like the white house says we've got nothing to hide, let's hear what comey has to say. sean spicer once again said they're still looking into it. if the white house does go to court and try to stop him, what do you say? >> well, we must expedite that court proceeding? hopefully it will be a minimal delay and hopefully the courts will -- the white house has talked about this. it's essential that the access occur through the senate intelligence committee. >> let's talk about comey for a

second. republican senator lindsay graham called comey's credibility into question basically painting him as a disgruntled employee and then he said this. >> he'll just focus on his conversation with the president and not answer any other questions because of the investigation. that would be a hit job on president trump and i hope this hearing doesn't become a hit job on president trump rchlts. >> do you think this hearing is going to be a hit job on the president? >> well, no, i don't think so. it's been widely reported that he made memos of his conversations with the president. he's obviously got to be in sync with what he himself wrote. the committee should subpoena, should obtain those memos as well. in an investigation, you can't be afraid to go forward because any one witness pat any one moment may not give you the complete source. you have to pursue every source,

follow the leads given by those sources. it's so important that both the senate sbrejs committee pushed forward and the special prosecutor pushed forward expeditiously. this is potentially treasonous action against the united states if there was -- if there was coordination or conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the presidential election. >> quite a few steps before we get there. with comey there's not a lot of love lost between democrats and the former fbi director. we don't need to go back into everything democrats didn't like about what comey did. do you think he has a credibility problem? >> i think an fbi director who has been trained through years of service is considered a very credible witness, even if they didn't have written records, even if they hadn't had conversations with some key colleagues about those talks with the president. so i think that he probably is

going to be considered an extremely credible witness. >> we will see. everyone's take on that one. on the election harks hacks, vladimir putin has had a lot to say. he seemed to suggest it could have come from russia but the russian government didn't have a hand in it. listen to this. >> translator: hackers are free people just like artists. they wake knupp a good mood and paint. same with hackers. they woke up today, read something about the state-to-state relations, that they are patriotic, they contribute in a way they think is right. the fight against them saying bad things about russia. >> do you think he's admitting something new here? how do you intercept this? >> well, putin's trying to put the best face on his operation. we already know and it's in the public realm that the russian operation included add thousand trolls who weighed in on social media as if they were americans.

they set up botnets around the world to repeat that. ice ample fight through their botnet and through their trolls. for funtd say, hey, there's one component of this, maybe we weren't involved, maybe just a group of volunteers happened to have done something is extraordinarily disingenuous. >> patriotic hackers, does that have a nice ring to you? >> rights, right. well -- >> i'm only playing. >> certainly he was -- he's not ready to take responsibility for what went on. but we know so much about the russian operation. what we really don't know, though, is the degree to which it was coordinated with the trump campaign. and that's what we have to get to the bottom of. by the way, so much of what we're talking about has to do with the president teams efforts to try to eliminate sanctions on russia. they were very eager to do so. a lot of these meetings have to do with that. right now in the foreign

relations committee in the senate, democrats are pushing to have the sanctions codified by the u.s. senate and house. we need to get that bill to the floor of the senate. >> and there are quite flew republicans right there with you. will it get to the forum, will it get to the president. what he does about that, it's yet to be seen. >> it's a bipartisan push. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> coming up next, new information on what comey can and cannot say about his meetings with president trump. john dean, former white house counsel, is "out front." plus banding together to buck the president on his decision to pull out of the climate deal. can they do it? >> today happens to be national leave work early day. rings) with my moderate to severe crohn's disease,... ...i kept looking for ways to manage my symptoms. i thought i was doing okay...

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>> reporter: extremely. there's an reason why jim comey and bob mueller have been speaking in advance of this testimony. they want to ensure that nothing jim comey says runs afoul or cross wise with the ongoing investigation. 2 investigation that everybody is really focused on right now is the federal investigation. that has the potential to be a criminal investigation. anything that skbrim comey says that could undercut that investigation or cause problems for bob mueller is something neither man, both of whom have a good relationship with one another over years of government service, wants to have on their record going forward. those who are close to comey's testimony say he will be willing to talk about the one-on-one conversations with the president but when it comes to the russia investigation, when it comes to specifics not just in the public hearing but also in the closed session to follow, jim comey is going to steer clear. >> that will be fascinating to see no matter what he can or cannot say. for republicans it's going to be

t -- democrats it's going to be the greatest show on earth. but how do republicans look at it? >> they were just as intrigued as anybody else regardless of political party. if you watch these hearings throughout history, big-time hearings that perhaps target or have the potential to target a white house, the political party that's sharld with that white house, oftentimes those members will go out of their way to protect that white house. it's a bipartisan committee. their russia investigation has been bipartisan as the investigation on the other side of the capitol hill building has fallen apart over the last couple of weeks. however, keep an eye on certain members of this committee, how they frame questions. there are a lot of questions about what james comey is bringing to the table, why this

has come up and why so many leaks have happened. all this will be fair game. i'm pretty sure everybody will be watching on thursday. >> who takes on what role. we're going to be watching closely. great to see you, phil. thank you. "out front," john dean and cnn's political analyst mark preston. john, james comey and robert mueller, they go way back. we know that they've talked or been in almost constant contact and have talked about what comey can and can't say during testimony. could there be any kind of a conflict of interest problem here because of this relationship? >> i don't think so. they're both professionals, they're both provider prosecutors, they're both drofrs the fbi. if anybody can walk the fine line and say what should be said and refrain from saying what should not, it's jim comey. he's a professional. i think we'll see in it action in these hearings. >> mark, i think it's pretty

easy for people to guests what the worst case scenario would be for the president coming out of this hearing. what's the best case scenario? >> the best case scenario is that jim comey goes to capitol hill and disputes everything we've been reporting up to this point that he was pressured by president trump to drop the investigation. more likely, i think, what the white house is realistically hoping for is that he soft peddles it so it doesn't seem as though trump was pressuring him. perhaps he was asking him. he did it in a way that didn't appear as if he was trying to obstruct justice. that realistically could be the best scenario for donald trump come out of this. >> isn't this interesting. john, former house intelligence chair pete hoakster was on cnn today and seems to be a man on an island concerning what everybody thinks but he thinks the president would be well within his rights to block comey

from testifying. listen. >> it sets a dangerous precedent that the president's conversations, private conversations can be revealed. it will be a he said-he said type of thing. it is one side of the story. i don't think that helps the process. >> ok. >> move forward. >> congressman -- >> -- so in that case the president can and i think rightfully would assert executive privilege. >> john, you've been there. is he right? >> i don't think there's a executive privilege to be invoked. if a president wants a executive privilege it's typically noted with the kmeerkts not with the witness. but in this situation there's no leverage over comey should he decide he wants to testify about his conversations with the president, and these are not the kind of conversations that have ever fallen within the scope of squif privilege, particularly since they have shades of potential obstruction of justice or showing a pattern of obstruction. >> you say he's lost his

leverage. is that just simply for the simple fact he's fired james comey? >> that's exactly why he has no leverage on him. >> pretty straightforward over that one, i guess. so mark, press secretary sean spicer and kellyanne conway today tried their best to skirt around the question of this question of executive privilege. just listen. >> not going to invoke president shall privilege. >> the president will make that decision. >> is the white house going to invoke executive privilege to prevent james comey from testifying next week? >> that meeting hearing was just noticed. i think obviously, it's got to be reviewed. i've not spoken to counsel yet. >> mark, what is your take on this? why is the white house seeming to dance around this issue? are they trying to build up more spence or something? >> a couple of things. they may very well have no idea where the 79 is on this issue and his lawyers are trying to figure it out. the facts, no matter what they

say, the president could turn around and change his mind, you know, within five seconds, five minutes, five hoirgs, five days, but let me get a little more strategic about it. the idea that coming out and saying yes or no to executive privilege might be a way of them floating a trial balloon to see how the general puck would accept the idea if the president tried to do so. we're going to hear about this all weekend. if there is no blowback to it, maybe they -- >> the old trial balloon strategy it's used like every day with every administration. >> right. >> great too see you both. i appreciate it. "out front" next. why isn't sean spicer answering many questions right now. simple ones like does the president believe climate change is a hoax. and president trump under fire for his america first strategy, but how is it playing with his supporters?

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. and breaking news teentd, a stunning lack of answers from the white house on a key and fundamental question. does president trump believe climate change is a hoax? >> yes or no. does the president believe that climate change is real and a threat to the united states? >> you know what's interesting about all the discussions we had, the focus remained on whether paris put us as a disadvantage and in fact it did. >> does the president believe today that climate change is a hoax? >> is paris good or bad for this country? the president and i focused our attentions there. >> should you be able to tell the american people whether or not the president still believes cliemsz change is a hoax? >> i'm not able to answer the question at this time i have not had that conversation. >> is it possible to have that conversation and report back to us at the next briefing? >> if i can, i will. >> across the country more than 150 governors and mayors are

vowing to ignore the president's decision to pull out. cunning len is out front. >> the reaction across the country swift and no more so than in california from the state's top lawmakers to the governor. >> we are forming the world against this deviant move on the part of president trump. >> also working around the white house, former new york mayor michael bloomberg standing steadfast with the president of another country, france. while defying the u.s. president's decision to withdraw from the paris accord. >> americans don't need washington to meet our paris commitment. americans are not going to let washington stand in the way of fulfilling it. >> bloomberg, the u.n. envoy for

climate change says his charity will foot the $15 million bill. a coalition of governors and businesses will meet the environmental standards instead of washington. they're joined by more than 150 mayers pledging to uphold the paris agreement. local leaders say states and cities set emissions standards and environmental protection can lead to growth. a belief not shared by the white house. >> it is time to put young town, ohio, detroit michigan, and pittsburgh, pennsylvania along with many, many other locations within our great country before paris, france. it is time to make america great again. >> the mayors of two of those cities firing back. >> we are little bit confused how we got thrown into the discussion about the paris accords. and the u.s. withdrawal away

from the agreement is not going to create more jobs in the youngstown area. >> this city does not support the initiatives that he is doing. this city is adamantly opposed to him. for him to then use this city as his example of who he is elected to represent, he's not representing us at all. >> multiple ceos from wall street to silicon valley also responding, loudly. many saying if the white house won't act, corporations will. >> all of us, we know we have a problem. we know we've got to do something about it. >> reporter: so if industry, if the states and if all of these mayors do something about it, environmental experts say yes, something actually will be done that will be in line with the paris accord. when mayor bloomberg says the united states is actually still a part of the paris accord with or without the president, that's not technically true. the united states is indeed out

but unofficially, the work can keep going because all of the levers are pulled at the local level. >> thanks. great to see you. >> you bet. >> brian, as she lays out now you have layers from smithville, texas, to ypsilanti, michigan and a lot in between and beyond vowing to up hold the goals of the agreement. this a repudation of his decision? >> no. i think that's good 40s country. i think more people who get engaged. the more people who work with the white house -- >> they're not working with the white house! >> the president said there was a chance for a revisit, that to me is a signal from a president saying i sat down with my advisors, a pros and cons, they've come one the position that maybe a new type of

agreement needs to step forward and let's work with the community as a whole, whether it's local, state, or state? >> you can't negotiate with yourself. trump has said basically it took 25 years for nations to come together and now he wants to start something on his own. nobody wouldn't to do that. in fact, he has created the biggest power vacuum on the planet by calling that press conference and now you see china rushing forward, california rushing forward, and what he's actually done is give a tremendous gift to his opponents. you see the emerge engs of what you can call a green growth alliance where cities and states and businesses and tribes and governments are coming together, going around the president of the united states. he gave away power. the one thing nobody's talked about is that he also threw his own base under the bus.

his rust belt ways needs jobs. had he doubled down, they could be building wind turbines, smart cars. instead he gave all that away to germany. he not only gave his opponents a huge opportunity he gave his base a big nothing. it was one of the dumbest moves in politics. not just bad for the country, bad for donald trump. le. >> your face tells me you disagree. we talked about the administration and most notably sean spicer still not answering the question of the the president still thinks climate change is a hoax. it's not just the climate. the question after question today the press secretary seemed unable to anxious. here's just a few examples. >> can you clarify the nature of the conversations that jared kushner had with russian officials?

>> i cannot answer this. >> how can you not answer questions when the president himself tweets about it? >> this will be referred to outside counsel. >> do you have -- >> when we have an update on that, we'll let you know. i don't know at this point. >> is the white house going to invoke executive privilege to prevent james comey from defg next week? >> i don't know. >> nobody's responding to those questions. i don't know where you guys are. if somebody responded to those, that would be helpful. >> ouk. >> brian is the i don't know strategy from the briefing room, is this useful or helpful at all? >> listen, here's what i know. i have think you guys are looking at the quick sound bite with sean b and on camera interviews. that's fine, but he answers a lot of interviews in the print media every day. i think the white house is providing responses to tons of stories on hundreds of outlets. >> but some of those weren't tough ones, brian. that was a -- that was kind of

the prevailing theme throughout this briefing. >> he didn't provide a sound bite but he's answering questions to print journalists all the time. >> he didn't answer any of those questions to print reporters, podcasters, tv reporters what you're seeing is sean spicer as the incredible shrinkings man. when he first came out he was full of bluster and energy. he looked like a depressed little kid standing up there. ordinarily he's like a dead man walking in d.c. it looks like he's going to be a zombie character. just going to be there. they won't let him do his job. he has to be out there and be a pinata for the press. it's sad, because the questions he's being asked, if he wants to answer those questions to third graders, he can't answer thaem them because he apparently doesn't know or hasn't been given authority to speak. >> brian, you know sean spicer.

>> yes. >> answer what van said. >> he is doing a best job he can with the information he has. sometimes things move fast and he's not able to get back to those questions. i know sean to be a hard worker, a pro 23irk9d worker. he's always gone back to campaign workers in the campaign. cable outlets is only focused on distractions. >> oh, come on. >> i thought he handled it very well. >> oh, come on. it's not about that. it's so easy to answer one question, does the president think climate change is a hoax. >> let me say this. >> all he said was if i can, i will, if i can ask him about it i will get back to you. he's not taking to president trump anymore? >> no. when i heard the question about global warming, i heard sean answer in the way that the president would speak up soon.

you wouldn't to hear from the president, not from the communications director or the press secretary. when i heard sean say he wasn't going to answer the question, that's the president, i'm looking forward to people asking the question. >> me, too. >> is this going to be a policy shift? >> me, too. >> hold on a minute. >> if the president -- >> you just said that if you're going to talk about global warming and climate change you should hear it from the president. the president just made the biggest announcement on earth about climate change yesterday and didn't answer the question. that's why he's being asked. you can't point to a whoopt literally just had a speech about this and ducked the issue. the incredible shrinking sean spicer. i hope they put him out of his misery. >> i'd love to speak to sean spicer on any show. it's great to see you both. thank you very much. "out front," breaking news, the white house finding new ways

from blocking departments from getting answers from the administration. we'll explain. and america first. do trump supporters think he's gone too far? >> i think he can make it a little divisive. there's nothing traditional about my small business. so when it comes to technology,

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. new tonight president trump has a new mechanical. the world is no longer laughing at the u.s. but what do the president's supporters think now? ryan nobody elebels is out fron. >> reporter: the first campaign promise on full display. >> we don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore and they won't be. they won't be. >> here in greenfield, iowa, that message is hitting home. >> i think people are sick and tired of the federal government and in some instances, the state governments not working for their own people. why shouldn't the american citizen be first in the eyes of the american government. >> barack obama carried the state in 2012. just four years later donald trump won iowa by nearly ten points. many voters here embraced his campaign promise that he would stand up to the rest of the

world. >> why should we want to at the very least treat ourselves fairly first? i think that was the message of donald trump's campaign. >> for small business owners like teresa condray, setting up a farmers market, the local economy feels strong. she voted for donald trump and thinks he has her best interest in mind. >> i'm going to be fair but i think he's trying but it's the way he knows how. i think he's just got a different way of going about it. >> it is a way that sometimes may make her feel uncomfortable. >> it might appear it's coming off strong or whatever, but this is actually what he's trying to do and it makes sense. instead of taking everything he says literally, which i know you should be careful on that. >> but to trump supporters here, it is still a better way. >> i think every day that he wakes up and gets, you know, taken on by the rachel maddows

of the world and the cathy griffins of the world, he becomes more popular with that group. >> one of the main reasons president trump continues to stick closer to those issues and the message that initially got him elected. >> we will make america great again! >> reporter: one thing we found when talking to iowa republicans is that they're not all that interested in talking about the controversy over russia. it's not that they don't think it's important but they don't see it as impacting their day-to-day lives. one woman said it was white noise. >> that's exactly what did white house wants to hear right now. thank you. up next, has the white house found a new way to block democrats demanding answers, including answers on just that, russia. and jeanne moos on a white house disappearing act. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve.

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you all the time.ories am i going to pass away like my mom did? and so you know this is something that's important. losing my mom to heart disease and then being diagnosed myself. it's like a war we're trying to fight against these diseases. resilience is in my dna. i won't die like my mom. it's a big challenge, but the challenge in it of itself is really what keeps me going. i could really make a difference in these people's lives. that would be my dream. breaking news, the trump administration tonight opening the door for the executive branch to ignore requests from democratic lawmakers. the justice department says that the executive branch is not legally required to respond to information requests from individual members of congress. legally, they only have to respond to committees. all chaired, of course, by republicans. democrats say it's a gag order.

"outfront" now, democratic congressman jerry sadler. thank you for being here. >> you're welcome. >> what do you think is going on here? >> i think it's a further example of the policy of the trump administration to shut down avenues that they don't want, from firing comey to investigating flynn -- flynn's firing and flynn's meetings with russians to many other things by saying, in effect, if they are going to deny answering questions -- and they haven't. they have been doing this. we have sent hundreds of letters collectively asking for information and this has been ignored. it's always been true that the legal obligations are only triggered by a subpoena.

but to say you're not going to answer any questions that are not backed up by the subpoena, when you say you're not going to answer questions, the executive branch is supreme and doesn't have to account for itself? >> this gets to the question of transparency and it's something that donald trump hammered about and it's not like the obama administration was a picture of transparency. but isn't this just a fact of being in a minority party? >> no. they normally answer all kinds of letters from congress members. >> so you think this is more so? >> this is totally new and obnoxious and not serving the

american people at all and a new low in transparency. and what do they have to hide? >> they will answer those questions. maybe or maybe not, depending on if you're asking for the chairman is asking. >> that's right. you cannot function if you can't get a response from the executive branch. >> you have called for attorney general jeff sessions to resign previously because of his undisclosed meetings with russian officials. this week, more of your democratic colleagues have jumped on board calling for his resignation with more undisclosed meetings coming out. i don't recall democrats calling for loretta lynch to resign, then attorney general, for meeting with bill clinton during the campaign. how is this different? >> there was nothing shown to be improper about that meeting. it was politically -- well, to forget once, twice, and there's

a pattern. whether it was sessions or jared kushner or page, the first thing is, we never met with any russians. oh, yeah, we did, but not during the campaign. yeah, during the campaign. and, yeah, we never met with anybody except the ambassador. actually, we talked to some intelligence officials, at least page did and some others. we talked to guccifer, too, the hacker. there's a pattern of being dishonest. >> do you think you can get traction from jeff sessions to resign? he's recused. >> but he's still participated in the decision on comey. >> so you think he's still involved? >> he's abused his recusal. let's put it that way. he should not have been involved in that if he was truly recused. we've demanded jared kushner's security clearance be lifted because he lied on his applications and we know he

doubled down on his lie. >> thank you, congressman. have a great weekend. "outfront" next, jeanne moos on sean spicer's disappearing act. with artificial intelligence. and pretty soon ai is going to help executives like her see trends to stay ahead of her competition. no more sleepless nights. - we're going to be friends! - i'm sorry about this. don't be embarrassed of me, jim. i'm getting excited about this! we know the future. we're going to be friends! because we're building it.

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where's sean spicer? here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: now you see him -- >> it's true. you did it. >> reporter: now you don't. >> you're free to use the audio. >> reporter: sean spicer is a little bit like the incredible shrinking man in the 1957 movie. >> you'll come right back? >> of course i will. >> reporter: not in a dollhouse but in the white house playing cat and mouse with the press. televised briefings have been rare lately. on friday, spicer resurfaced but wasn't able to give the president's views on climate change an exited asap. >> today happens to be national leave work early day. >> reporter: on wednesday, spicer ditched cameras holding an audio-only gaggle with that eyebrow raising answer to a question about president trump's jibberish tweet. >> the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant. >> reporter: leaving reporters

scoffing in disbelief. hey, turn that off. no cameras. audio only. we, too can pull a spicer. his briefings have been getting shorter. >> thank you, guys. >> reporter: one online commenter begged, please tell me that news outlets will play the audio-briefings over gifs of melissa mccarthy-as-spicer, be still my heart. >> no one will never see me again. >> yes. >> reporter: it's as if spicer is a hostage at his own briefings, as one poster noted, with a thousand-yard stare. and he got more grief. >> he wasn't hiding in the bushes, okay? he was hiding among the bushes. okay? >> reporter: reporters get treated like misbehaving kitties. >> one at a time. cecelia. >> hey, major, major, cecelia is

asking a question. that doesn't mean you get to jump in. i'm answering cecelia's question. >> reporter: it's enough to leave reporters -- >> please, stop shaking your head again. >> reporter: -- shaking their heads. >> stop shaking your head again. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. "ac 360" starts right now. >> good evening. we begin with keeping them honest with the white house saying that the public doesn't deserve to know the thinking behind one of the biggest decisions he's made so far which, frankly, is a bit strange. we know in great detail why the president decided to pull this country out of the paris accord. he said so on no uncertain terms. you can agree or disagree with his reasoning. the issue is we do not know what the president actually believes about global warming, which, as i said, is a bit odd, because it's a simple yes or no and it's not as if he and others