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 -- or we

and others haven't been asking about it. for three-quarters of an hour today, his spokesman and epa administrator dodged the central issue. does president trump believe that climate change is a hoax. sean spicer was asked about it on tuesday. >> can you say whether or not the president believes that human activity is contributing to the warmings of the climate. >> honestly, i haven't asked him. i'll get back to you. >> he said he could get back but apparently he didn't ask. and then something happened. >> the united states will withdraw from the paris climate accord. >> so, that's why we're asking. it seems self-evidence that on the verge of ditching the climate change accord, whether the president thought the whole thing was a hoax. even after the president announced his decision. >> does the president believe

climate change is a hoax? >> this is not about whether climate change is occurring or not. >> does president trump still believe climate change is a hoax? >> what president trump believes is he was elected to grow the u.s. economy. >> but with all due respect, gary, you're not answering the question. >> i'm answering what the president's committed to. you're going to have to ask him. you're going to actually have to ask him. >> does he believe global warming is a hoax? >> he believes in clean air and clean water. >> i'll ask you again. >> you can ask him that. >> and then that brings us today's white house briefing. >> now it's been 48, 72 hours. what does the president actually believe climate change is a hoax? can you clarify that because apparently no one else in the white house can. >> i have not had an opportunity to have that discussion. >> you're the epa administrator. shouldn't you be able to tell the american people whether or not the president still believes that climate change is a hoax?

where does he stand? >> as i indicated several times in the process, there's enough to deal with with respect to the paris agreement and making an informed decision about this important issue. that's where our focus has been over the last several weeks. i've answered the question a couple of times. >> keeping them honest. neither he nor sean spicer nor kelly kellyanne conway have not answered the question. the idea that we need to ask the president ourselves, we'd love to. we'd ask him about his views on global warming and the russian investigation because on the latter sean spicer has a new tactic, referring all questions to that subject to the president's outside counsel. so, now on two of the most pressing issues facing the administration, the new line is basically, don't ask us. jim acosta was involved in one of those questions and nonanswer exchanges. he's joining us now. it seems like no one in the white house wants to answer whether the president believes in climate change. >> reporter: that's right.

you'd think we were asking for the nuclear codes today in the briefing room. we were trying to ask if the president believes that climate change is a hoax. we've seen this pattern before. when the president clings to a false belief that, for example, president obama was not born in the united states or that president obama wire-tapped him at trump tower or climate change is a hoax, it takes, weeks, months, even years for the president to back off of that position. we saw it happen with the birth certificate and the whole birther issue during the campaign. that took years. so, yes, today we tried once again to ask epa administrator scott pruitt, the latest administration official to get inside the president's head, whether or not the president believes that climate change is real. when that question was asked several times, i tried a different approach and simply asked the epa administrator, after all, he's in charge of the environmental protection agency, about the overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is happening around the world and here's what he had to

say. >> why are the hottest temperatures in the last decade essentially the hottest temperatures that we've seen on record -- >> we've actually been in hiatus since the late 1990s. >> but sir, when nasa says that 95% of the experts in this area around the world believe that the earth is warming and you are up there throwing out information that says, well, maybe this is being exaggerated, it seems like to a lot of people around the world that you and the president are just denying the reality and the reality of the situation is that climate change is happening and it is a significant threat to the planet. >> let me say this, and i've said it in the confirmation process and i said it yesterday and -- there is -- there is -- we have done a tremendous amount as a country to achieve reductions in co2 and we have done that through technology and innovation. we will continue to do that. we're not going to agree to

frameworks that puts us at a disadvantage that hurts citizens across this country. yes, sir? >> you're putting your head in the sand. >> there's no evidence of that. >> now, speaking of heads in the sand, white house press secretary sean spicer came out after that, anderson, and as you mentioned, we reminded him that earlier in the week he was asked whether he could ask the president whether he still believes climate change is happening. he did not have an answer to that question. he was even asked, well, can you go and try to do that? and we did not get a firm commitment that that would happen. >> the white house is being pressed on several counts regarding the russia investigation. were they able to pry any information on that at all? >> no. the press secretary did say that the president has confidence in jared kushner. that much he did say during the briefing today. but asked whether or not the president is going to invoke executive privilege and try to block the former fbi director james comey who the president fired a few weeks ago from testifying on capitol hill next week, he only said that they are reviewing that.

i talked to a separate white house official within the last hour who said that's basically where they stand right now. they are reviewing this issue. and of course, there's a huge question as to whether the president could legally block james comey from testifying. so this may be, you know, really sort of trying to distract folks with something that they really can't do in the long run. but anderson, time and again we are getting fewer and fewer questions answered by this white house and it's a pattern that i don't think we're going to see an end to any time soon. they are really acting as if they're just in the bunker on almost every single big issue these days. >> jim acosta, appreciate the update. on climate change, the president cited plenty of facts and figures and all have been called into question, including this. >> even if the paris agreement were implemented in full, with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce a .02 of 1 degree. think of that.

this much celsius reduction in global temperature by the year 2100. tiny, tiny amount. >> which is true, but only as far as it goes. john riley is co-director of the program on the science and policy of global change and co-author of the very study that the president cited. he said if not for the paris accord, this tiny reduction that the president mentioned would be a large increase. i spoke to him earlier tonight. did anyone in the white house reach out to you or any of your colleagues at m.i.t. before citing the study yesterday? >> no. we were, of course, completely surprised. it was hard for us to imagine how that study could be used to support withdrawal of the u.s. from the agreement. if anything, it would seem to suggest that the u.s. should engage even more with the paris accord and the paris accord, of course, includes a schedule for

reviewing progress and making new commitments so it's part of the negotiation process that president trump suggested he wanted to re-engage so there's no -- it doesn't make any sense to me that one would withdraw. >> if the white house had reached out to you, you would have told them, what, continue with the accord and try to do more? >> yes. in fact, i and my colleagues here at m.i.t. have something we call a policy plan accelerator which we're trying to bring the tools that we have to help different countries meet their agreements because people still don't have a really firm idea of exactly how they are going to meet them but accelerate beyond that. >> were you completely -- you were completely surprised when your study was cited. i'm just wondering, personally, what is it like to be sitting there and suddenly hear the white house, the president, using your study in a way that is not correct?

>> well, i mean, unfortunately, in this business, it's not the first time that people have taken our work and twisted it out of shape. so it goes with the territory. frankly, my concern is just much, much more, not what it means for me personally but what it means for the planet. >> john, i appreciate your work and appreciate you talking to us. john riley, thank you. >> thank you. plenty to talk about with the panel. paul begala, jason miller, jennifer granholm and maggie haberman. why would the president not just say that he believes that climate change is a hoax as he did when he was a civilian? >> because if he says yes, they are probably not prepared to what all goes along with that and explaining away a tweet that having been said a couple years ago, this is perfectly fair game, something he said as a candidate, something he put out

there in the media and continues to use and it's his favorite way of communicating with people. i think it's a problem on it's not going to go away on its own but the fact that the white house has hunkered down on almost everything these days. and to be fair to the president early on in the administration -- well, we're still early on. earlier on in the administration, he was much more accessible than, say, president obama was. reporters were able to talk to him much more easily. his people were, while sean spicer was aggressive, to put it mildly, others were responsive. i think it has changed in the last couple of weeks. i think the post james comey firing period has really, really altered the balance here and what you saw with the epa and with whether he still thinks climate change is a hoax is part of that. >> steven, shouldn't the american people be able to know whether or not the president

believes climate change is a hoax or not? >> well, i j uft want to clarify something for you because i think that what conservatives believe -- i've never talked to donald trump directly about climate change. but i know how conservatives feel about this. >> right. but you know how he's tweeted. don't the american people have a right to believe whether it's a hoax or not? >> i get it. i believe what he meant to say, when he said this is a hoax, is not that the climate change is a hoax but that this climate change deal is a hoax. >> he said it was a hoax created by the chinese, if memory serves me right. >> yeah, that the idea -- conservatives don't believe that the united nations can do anything right and -- >> don't the american people have a right to know what the president actually believes? >> probably, they do. but again, there's a cultural divide here. i think most conservatives are not saying that climate change isn't happening. it's the idea that government

can change the weather. >> he won't answer the question. >> look, i never asked him about it, so we'll see what happens in the weeks ahead. but this is a high hurdle. >> paul, does it seem odd to you that the president won't answer this question and no one around him seems willing to ask him and relay that answer? >> well, as always, maggie has it exactly right. they don't answer it because they can't answer it but the president has answered it. five times, at least that i found on the snoeps website, the debunking website that checks if myths are true. five times they've published tweets from donald trump, beginning with the one in 2012, where he said, and i quote, the concept of global warming was created by and for the chinese in order to make u.s. manufacturing noncompetitive. he's called it a very expensive hoax and a global warming hoax, b.s., which he wrote out the whole world there and nonsense. people like me need to give him credit.

this guy's a genius. let's face it. he's a long line. he clearly knows more than all scientists. the guy's a genius. people like me need to accept that. that he's smarter than everyone in the whole wide world and he's the only one that figured out the hoax and we need to thank god that we're led by this genius. >> the idea whether it's a hoax or not is one that one can go on for hours about but the basic question of what the president actually believes and why won't anybody in the white house admit what he actually believes, you worked with him on the campaign during the transition. does he still believe it's a hoax? >> i can tell you some of the conversations that i've had with the president. this is a factor in the campaign when we had a number of conversations about the environment and he's passionate about the environment and he's built resorts and golf courses and loves the outdoors. on a number of issues, the president actually has,

surprisingly, left of center views, beach nourishment and things that some republicans don't support. if the question is, does the president support the environment, does he want to have clean air and water? the answer is yes. >> why is it fair to ask whether it's a hoax as he used to? >> because the question that many in the media and on the left are trying to get to is if he says it's a hoaxed, he'll be attacked and if he says it's not a hoax, he'll be attacked for being a flip-flopper and he took a major step yesterday to protect american jobs and we start going into the rabbit hole as far as who is right and who is wrong on some of the environmental issues and he's smartly keeping the focus on where it should be right now, which is jobs and the economy, which was his central argument for withdrawing from the paris accord. >> isn't the rabbit hole just fact, what the president

actually believes? i wouldn't characterize what the president believes as a rabbit hole. i don't know. to me it seems like a basic question and a fair one. no? >> well, again, i think it's a fair question to ask does he support the environment and support efforts to go and clean up the environment and continue improving the situation that we're facing right now. but when we start getting into specific studies, and there have been a lot of junk studies that have been put out there and reasonable people can have difference of opinions with this. what the media and the left are trying to do is unfairly put the president in one of these boxes when the fact of the matter is he does support the environment. >> he has tweeted about this and he's said in the past, to me it seems reasonable that you can ask him. we're going to take a break. when we come back, the down and upside for the president and can the president stop the fbi director he fired from testifying next week? we'll talk about whether he might invoke executive privilege, what that means and

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hansel and gretel came upon a houseime made out of gingerbread. being quite hungry, they started eating the roof. the homeowner was outraged. luckily the geico insurance agency had helped her with homeowners insurance. she got all her shingles replaced. hansel and gretel were last seen eating their way through the candy cane forest. call geico and see how easy it is to switch and save on homeowners insurance. a famous and influential billionaire has weighed in on global warming. michael bloomberg telling christiane amanpour that he'll help the country meet its commitments under the paris accord. >> you are the businessman's

businessman. you are putting your money where the mouth is. people may get confused by all of the stuff coming out of the white house now, out of the epa administrator that the climate deal is bad for american businesses, for jobs, for american economy. he said it over and again today. he said the reason that the president has pulled out is because this deal has come at the expense of the american economy. >> there's absolutely no evidence of that. in fact, the reverse is really true. there's been probably ten times the number of jobs. i think the number is eight times in renewables compared to what has been loss in the fossil fuels industry. >> governor granholm, to you, is it reasonable to ask the president about whether climate change is a hoax? >> of course. you started out the show with the guy who could authored the

m.i.t. study which president trump recited incorrectly. if you go to the doctor and you're diagnosed with a cancerous tumor and you actually see 100 doctors and 97 tell you you have a cancerous tumor, you have three choices, either to get it out surgically, contain it or let it fester and it can take you away. paris is the second option. paris is containing this tumor. it's not perfect but it certainly stops us from disintegrating. he should tell us whether or not he thinks this is a hoax and whether the economy, like you put bloomberg on -- he doesn't need to tell us about the economy. the economy will benefit when we focus on clean energy and not take away the opportunity for the thousands of businesses all across america to interact globally with other countries, send the products that we make in america overseas to reduce

climate change. >> stephen, you disagree with it even on that economic argument? >> i think most economists agree that a tax on an american economy is going to be bad for economic growth. jason will acknowledge this. we want to reduce regulations and taxes on the american economy, not grow them. so it's hard to see how -- >> it's not a tax on regulation. >> it is. it regulates the energy industry and basically says, governor, that we have to switch towards more expensive energy from less expensive energy. >> solar is less expensive. google it. google it. solar and wind is less expensive than coal. >> governor -- >> oh, my god. >> jason, go ahead. >> but i want to make another point, though. >> okay. >> about your interview with the m.i.t. professor because i have to say, i was a little confused about that. i have read that study. i've read excerpts from it. it's been widely quoted in "the

wall street journal" and other places. it's not just donald trump that quoted that. what it seems to me that he was saying is that this is just the first step. if this whole climate change deal and the massive costs and all of that is just the first step, then this really is about -- >> you are making up this massive cost thing. this is what is driving everybody crazy who believes in clean energy. stephen, you come from the state of illinois. illinois has 114,000 people that are working in the clean energy industry and only a small number, i think it's 7,000, working in the oil and natural gas and coal. i mean, the point is, if you want to create jobs, anderson and maggie, you both come from new york. new york has 7,500 businesses in the sector. paul, you come from texas. texas is the number one state for wind, not just wind production of energy but manufacturing of wind turbines.

jason, you're from washington. 90,000 people are working in bark ton sta washington state. this is why there are 150 governors and mayors who have signed a letter to trump to say we're going our way because we're creating jobs in our state. >> jason, i want -- >> there are ten times as many people who work in the oil and gas industry than work in the wind and solar. ten times more. >> that is not true. google it, people. >> paul, go ahead. >> let me talk about texas. texas is the home of exxonmobil, the biggest, baddest oil company in the whole wide world. they support the paris agreement. in fact, their former ceo, our current secretary of state, supported it, even within the administration. exxonmobil supports paris. shell oil company supports paris. this president is just, you know, and i was being sar kas

particul sarcastic. he's nuts and he has seized on to this theory that global warming is a hoax when the whole wide world, business, government, labor, everybody understands that -- >> jason, to say that this was more about appealing to president trump's base than it was based on policy, what do you say to that? >> this is about protecting our economy. i mean, the fact of the matter is, we don't need met faphors here. china wouldn't have had to do anything with their emissions until 2030 and the u.s. would have had to reduce theirs by 26 to 28% over the next eight years. this is completely unfair. we're a nation of laws. we would have to enforce it. you know that china and russia and india and other countries would just laugh at us. >> there are so many things being stated by the right -- china has goals like the u.s. has goals.

china has stopped 103 coal plants just this year. renewables is larger than -- >> governor, doesn't -- jason, doesn't each country under this accord set its own goals? >> well, there are a number of -- again, it's a nonbinding, different country -- >> in fact, they can change their goals. >> that's part of the reason why -- >> so what's the point of the whole thing? >> to negotiate a better deal. don't go and hamstring us while other countries can go and do whatever they want. that's completely unfair. >> we've got to go. we're over the time. breaking news about who the senate intel committee will grill the day before james comey testifies. plus, will president trump try to block comey's highly anticipated testimony by invoking executive privilege? can he do that now that comey is a private citizen? details ahead. kind of looks like a monster coming to eat ya. holy smokes. that is awesome. strong. you got the basic, and you got the beefy.

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cnn has confirmed that rod rosenstein will testify on wednesday before the senate intelligence committee, just one day before james comey testified. rosenstein, as you may recall, wrote the memo that the white house initially cited as the reason for director comey's firing. president trump later said he had already decided to ask comey before the memo was written. mr. rosenstein then appointed robert mueller as special counsel to take over the russia investigation. the deputy attorney general will testify along other top intelligence officials about surveillance powers. that's going to tee up comey's appearan appearance unless trump tries to block it.

jessi jessica schneider has more. >> literally, my understanding is that the date for that hearing was just set. i have not spoken to counsel yet. i don't know what they're going to -- how they're going to respond. >> reporter: counselor to the president, kellyanne conway, expects comey to talk but sent mixed messages when asked. >> we'll be watching with the rest of the world when director comey testifies. >> so he's not going to invoke executive privilege? >> the president will make that decision. >> reporter: comey no longer works for the white house, so the white house would have to take comey to court if they wanted to prevent him from talking and some say trump's tweets about comey and declarations like this -- >> we had a very nice dinner and at that time he said i am not under investigation, which i knew anyway. >> it sets a dangerous precedent that the president's conversations, you know, 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. >> reporter: and there's new

insight into how james comey may recount his conversations with the president. a source with knowledge of comey's thinking says that while comey was, quote, disturbed by his interactions with president trump, comey believed he had the situation under control. the source says, if comey believed at the time that any specific encounter constituted obstruction of justice, comey would have done more than just write a memo. but the source says when comey testifies next week, he may tell congress that when all the comments the president made to him are taken together, along with his firing, they could suggest a more serious pattern. and there are continuing questions about jared kushner's mid-december meeting with russian bank chairman sergey gorkov, a man who has close ties to vladimir putin. the white house insists kushner conducted the meeting in his capacity during the transition. the bank maintains it was part of its, quote, business road show. the meeting was arranged after kushner met with sergey kislyak in early december at trump

tower. >> and jessica joins us now. can president trump stop him from testifying. >> reporter: he can try but it would be a very hard fight. he would have to seek a restraining order and it's something that's never been done in a case like this. suffice it to say, a combination of comey's private citizen status coupled with president trump's statements of late that really could give the green light for comey to testify come thursday. anderson? >> jessica, thank you. joining me is jonathan turley, professor of law, also, cnn legal analyst and criminal defense attorney mark geragos. professor turley, we heard that the president has not decided whether he will invoke legal privilege. would he be on firm legal footing if he chose to do so? >> it's covered by executive privilege and that this is not an arbitrary orca preesh shous -- >> can you explain executive privilege, what the whole concept is?

>> it doesn't appear in the constitution. it's an implied power under article 2 that defines the president's authority. its high point came in the nixon case where the supreme court said, yes, a president can invoke an executive privilege to protect the communications he needs to remain private to be president. the problem is, it's not what is called an absolute privilege. it's a qualified privilege. both mark and i do defense work and we often get our clients not to discuss things to waive privilege. to go on twitter is discussing it a lot. it's like playing poker with your cards facing the other players and saying, no one look at my hand. that's not a very convincing case for privilege. >> when sally yates testified, some of the conversations she had with white house officials were covered under executive privilege but that was a different situation because she

was acting as a lawyer for the government and former fbi director james comey was not, right? >> right. except, the thing is, remember, james comey is still a lawyer even though he was serving in a law enforcement capacity. and in the case of sally yates, they surgery asserted the executive privilege and she complied with it. so it's not a situation where they would need to go in and get a restraining order in some district court. i think it's highly unlikely that would ever happen. i think what is more likely that they would telegraph or be explicit as to what areas they believe are executive privilege, either by letter or in a phone call. my guess is by letter. and then the question becomes whether or not somebody wants to force the issue if they don't want to observe. remember, from comey's standpoint, he still has to worry about his ethical obligation. there's not only privilege but as a lawyer, he does not want to run afoul of ethics rules by

violating a privilege that's been asserted. not unlike an attorney-client privilege. the holder of the privilege in an attorney-client situation is the client. the attorney can't just willy-nilly waive it and that's basically the same kind of situation you have here. client meaning trump and as the executive and he's asserting the privilege. >> professor turley, the fact that the president has already tweeted and given interviews talking about his conversations with comey, from his perspective, does that play into this at all? >> well, it plays in a great deal. because this is a qualified privilege, the president has to stay usually in the form of a memo to the committee the basis for the executive privilege which becomes part of the evidence given to the federal court. but you're supposed to make a case as to why it is so necessary to withhold this information. the committee has a clear jurisdictional basis to ask for this testimony. while i don't believe there's

prima facie evidence of obstruction of justice yet, they are investigating the possibility of that crime. so i think a court would find his public statements to be worrisome. now, in fairness to the white house, there's obviously more to these conversations that occur between a president and a person that was then the fbi director. that does happen to fall in an area of executive privilege. but i've never seen a privilege argument succeed on this type of record. and i have to also say, presidents are usually very reluctant to have court challenges over privilege because they try not to lose ground for future presidents. >> mark, i mean, as the great defense attorney that you are, you would probably advise clients not just based on the law but on how things appear. in the world of politics, obviously there's the optics of how this would appear if the white house requested that comey not testify because of executive privilege it would also probably look like the president was trying to hide something.

>> that's exactly right, anderson, and it's one of the reasons that i made the argument that the particular selection of the lawyer, marc kasowitz from new york, who is not a criminal defense lawyer, is why the white house did that, because of the open picks of it and i don't think there's any chance whatsoever that they are going to go and try to seek to prevent him wholesale from testifying. what they are going to do is try to surgically with laser-like precision, if i understand what they are going to do, tell him this area you can and this area you can't. the one thing we haven't discussed is the one area of this privilege where there's an argument that it gives sway is in a criminal context and criminal context has been expanded to mean a grand jury investigation. we don't have that here. so where they may prevail on an executive privilege with telling comey we don't want you to talk about a, b or consider and then

telling the committee, also, we've put him on notice and we can't talk about a, b, or c and that may involve areas that they want to get into. if there's a grand jury convened at some point, or a grand jury subpoena issued, executive privilege could give sway. a judge could rule, sorry, it's not going to happen. >> interesting. mark geragos, thank you. jonathan turley as well. ahead, vladimir putin ramping up his rhetoric. he's back to an all-out denial of interference by russia and also says blaming russia for meddling is like blaming jews. we'll explain that ahead.

y286ny ywty in the mirror everyday. when i look when i look in the mirror everyday. everyday, i think how fortunate i am. i think is today going to be the day, that we find a cure? i think how much i can do to help change people's lives. that helps me to keep going to cure this. my great great grandfather lived to be 118 years old. i've heard many stories from patients and their physicians about what they are going through. i often told people "oh i'm going to easily live to be 100" and, uh, it looks like i might not make it to retirement age. we are continually learning and unraveling what is behind this disease. i may not benefit from those breakthroughs, but i'm sure going to... i'm bringing forward a treatment for alzheimer's disease, yes,

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pg&e learned a tragic lesson we can never forget. this gas pipeline ruptured in san bruno. the explosion and fire killed eight people. pg&e was convicted of six felony charges including five violations of the u.s. pipeline safety act and obstructing an ntsb investigation. pg&e was fined, placed under an outside monitor, given five years of probation, and required to perform 10,000 hours of community service. we are deeply sorry. we failed our customers in san bruno. while an apology alone will never be enough, actions can make pg&e safer. and that's why we've replaced hundreds of miles of gas pipeline, adopted new leak detection technology that is one-thousand times more sensitive, and built a state-of-the-art gas operations center. we can never forget what happened in san bruno.

that's why we're working every day to make pg&e the safest energy company in the nation. more breaking news tonight. russian president vladimir putin seems to be doing another 180 backing off his comment that the patriots may have hacked and now he's back to denying that russia interfered in any way with the election. he asked executives from major u.s. companies to help restore normal political dialogue between the two countries. i want to discuss this now with a pro-democracy leader and author and chairman of the human rights foundation. you may know him as former world chess champion. what do you make of putin's latest comments, his comments just the other day?

>> the same modus operandi with crimea. how dare you accuse me? i'm a man of peace. later, a denial. they are russians but maybe patriots. a few months later, how could we let these people fight alone. and eventually, full recognition, bragging and pinning it on the russian invasion. >> do people believe what he is saying or -- >> it's a tricky game. because putin has to send two messages. one is to the world and he doesn't care if people -- if he's caught lying because, as he said after he recognize the invasion, that fooling the world was part of the game but he also has to send a message to russian people that while he denies it, he demonstrates by just twisting words that he was part of an

operation because he has to show that he's so powerful that he can interfere with relations, defy the united states and that protects him in russia against any kind of attempt to overthrow him. >> he also said that there's no way that hackers or anybody could interfere or influence another country's election, which is bizarre coming from a guy who clearly wants to control information or believes that information has power. otherwise, he wouldn't care about what the press is doing in russia. >> look, we know that negative companion works and now there are these multiple channels through social media. you can multiple the effect and putin as a kgb guy, he learned how to use more than technology invented in the free world and free speech to undermine the free world. he didn't deny the united states and i think we should stop saying, oh, probably he did it.

we have doubts. no, we don't have doubts. don't ask people if you are doing it or not. because it is even if they don't. >> although there are folks in the white house who were saying -- >> but folks in the white house and look at the u.s. intelligence agencies and i would say the folks in the white house very often repeat what kremlin has been saying and while america remains target number one, number one enemy, kee donald trump is excluded from these broad criticism. somehow he's being seen as a man who has been trying -- desperately trying to have relations but the deep state prevents him from doing it. >> what avladimir putin said ths like anti-semitism, that it's like blaming jews. do you have any idea what he's talking about? >> oh, it's the same story. it's a witch hunt. if they're caught doing something illegal, it's a witch hunt. it's like anti-semitism.

he can say whatever he wants. he doesn't care. as long as he sees that his tactic works, he can go with it even being blamed and then he will deny. he tried to do it in france. he failed, by the way. he tried to do it in other european countries. so since he believes that these operations could help him to influence if not the result of the elections but the policies of the free countries. >> how important is it for vladimir putin to get sanctions lifted? >> it's paramount. for him, it's -- it's a matter of political life and death. maybe not just political. he knows that if he cannot leave sanctions right now, at least he has to pretend that he's working and the next day and as long as they see him as a man who can protect their interests worldwide and also could defy the united states and could play this game of equals, they will

not go off and the moment -- putin knows well what happens with dictators. >> garry, thank you. appreciate it. coming up, in withdrawing from the paris climate accord, the president says he represents the citizens of pittsburgh, not paris. what do the citizens of pittsburgh think? we'll take you there next. you might not ever just stand there, looking at it. you may never even sit in the back seat. yeah, but maybe you should. ♪ (laughter) ♪ working on my feet all day gave me pain here. in my knees. so i stepped on this machine and got my number, which matched my dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic inserts. so i get immediate relief from my foot pain.

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as we reported, the white house won't say if the president believes the climate change is a hoax as he said in the past. we know the president seeing pulling out of the paris climate accord as fulfilling his america first promise. here he is yesterday during his speech announcing the withdrawal. >> we don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore. and they won't be. they won't be. i was elected to represent the citizens of pittsburgh, not paris. >> he won the state of pennsylvania. did not win in pittsburgh. hillary clinton carries pittsburgh. we spoke to people in pittsburgh and other pennsylvania towns about what the president said. >> i think he might not have done his math on that. >> despite being in the rust

belt, allegheny county voted blue in 2016. pittsburgh, once the heart of the steel industry, has worked to reinvent itself over the last few decades, trying to shed its smoggy past, opting for a more sustainable future. >> that's the filtration unit. >> they aim at helping the city do that. the small business retrofits trucks to be more fuel efficient. the city of pittsburgh is its biggest client. >> seeing that smog and all of the harmful emissions go away is just really beneficial for everybody around. the coal industry is a failing industry. it's probably not going to come back. instead of looking to the past, it's always good to look to the future. >> each truck have a gentleman that operates that has a family. >> to some outside pittsburgh like doug miller, that coal industry isn't failing. it's poised for a comeback. he runs a different trucking company, transporting coal across the state.

>> since we got president trump in, hopefully, they are talking up more mines in the areas, more employees added. we have something to look forward to. >> he says he is seeing the change. trump plans to open this coal mine located a few miles from miller's office. he says it means more jobs for this area and that's why he applauded the president's decision to leave the climate pact. >> he is not a world leader. he is the president of the united states. this is what he has to do to provide for us here. if you don't have hands on people going out there and doing everyday jobs, this country is not going to go anywhere. >> for you, that takes more of a -- it's more important -- >> right now. >> than the climate? >> yes. >> the new coal mine opening, how many jobs will that create? >> anderson, the estimate is about 70 to 100 jobs for that coal mine. if you talk to people like

miller, they say you need to quadruple that. because you are going to experience more restaurants, more shops. however, if you look at the other side, they are worried they will lose jobs because of the trickle down affect with people leaving the green movement because of the president's decision to leave that climate pact. >> thanks very much. digging deeper into the president's alleged attempts at obstruction of justice with his dinner with james comey to asking him to drop the investigation to michael flynn's contacts with russia. was he trying to obstruct justice? we will look at that ahead. thanks for the ride around norfolk! and i just wanted to say, geico is proud to have served the military for over 75 years! roger that. captain's waiting to give you a tour of the wisconsin now. could've parked a little bit closer... it's gonna be dark by the time i get there.

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we're ending this week on a cliffhanger. will the president try to block james comey's testimony next week? there's breaking news on what director comey was thinking when the president was pushing him to end the investigation into michael flynn. phil mattingly has more on both. will the president try to block comey's testimony? >> reporter: the bigger question is, even if he wanted to, could he. if you look at what it takes to invoke executive privilege, james comey no longer a government employee. the president talked about the conversations publically on twitter and in a letter that he and james comey had. basically, as it stands, there's a lot of question whether he could or not. the white house is reviewing this