steps to keep his promise to rebuild america. [ applause ] promising to replace our crumbling infrastructure with new roads, brims, tunnels and airport, the action the president announces will encourage investment, commerce, and most importantly will enhance the safety and precision of our air travel in the united states. as i can attest from firsthand experience, having more precise landings in america is a good thing. [ applause ] so with gratitude for his leadership and vision and his unwavering determination to rebuild america and restore america, it is my high honor and

privilege to introduce to you the president of the united states of america, president donald trump. [ applause ] >> thank you, very much. thank you, mike. i really appreciate everything and i appreciate you being here. i especially want to thank

secretary elaine chow, leader kevin mccarthy, chairman bill schuster, and all the members of congress, many of them here today, for joining us as we prepare to enter a great new era in american aviation. [ applause ] it's about time, too, i can tell you. but before discussing our plans to modernize air travel, i want to provide an update on our efforts to fix and modernize vital services for our veterans, our great, great veterans who we all love. for decades the federal government has struggled to accomplish something that should be very, very simple. seemlessly transferring a veterans medical records from

the defense department to the veterans groups and to the v.a. in recent years it has taken not just days or weeks, but many months for the records to follow the veteran. this has caused massive problems for our veterans. i'm very proud to say that we are finally taking steps to solve the situation once and for all. the secretary announced this morning that the v.a. will announce and modernize its medical records to use the same system as the department of defense. no more complications. the records will now be able to follow the veteran when they leave service meaning faster, better, and far better quality

care. [ applause ] this is one of the biggest wins for our veterans in decades and i congratulate the secretary for making this very, very important decision. thank you, secretary, i appreciate it. he's done a great job. stand up, secretary. what a great job. thank you. [ applause ] >> of course, there is still much work to do, but for today's action, it shows the determined leadership and what it can accomplish. great, great reform. so again, to david, thank you. to all of our veterans who have served this nation, a very, very special thank you. this is truly wonderful. really monumental reform. so important for our veterans. but it's just the beginning.

we're here today to discuss another issue that has gone unsolved for far too long. for too many years our country has tolerated unacceptable delays at the airport. long wait times on the tarmac and a slowing of commerce and travel that costs us billions and billions of dollars in lost hours and lost dollars themselves. today we're prosecuposing to ta american air travel into the future finally. finally. [ applause ] . >> it's been a long time. we're prosecute posing reduced wait times, increased route efficiency, and far fewer delays. hour plan will get you where you need to go more quickly, more reliably, more affordable, and yes, for the ffirst time in a

long time, on time. we will launch this air travel revolution by modernizing the outdated system of air traffic control. it's about time. [ applause ] >> since the early days of commercial air service, the federal government has owned and operated the united states air traffic control system. yet more than half a century later the government is still using much of the exact same outdated technology. at a time when every passenger has gps technology in their pockets, our air traffic control system still runs on radar and ground based radio systems that they don't even make anymore. they can't even fix anymore. and many controllers must use

slips of paper to track our thousands and thousands of planes that are up in the air. our air traffic control system was designed when roughly 100,000 flew in our airports each year. we are now approaching nearly 1 billion passengers annually. the current system cannot keep up. hasn't been able to keep up for many years. it causes flight delays and crippling inefficiencies. costing our economy as much as $25 billion a year in economic outcome. we live in a modern age, yet our air traffic control system is stuck painfully in the past. the faa has been trying to upgrade our nation's air traffic control system for a long period of years. but after billions and billions

of tax dollars spent and the many years of delays, we're still stuck with an ancient broken horrible system that doesn't work. other than that it's quite good. the previous administration spent over $7 billion trying to upgrade the system and totally failed. honestly, they didn't know what the hell they were doing. a total waste of money. $7 billion plus plus. it's time to join the future. that is why i'm proposing new principles to congress for air traffic control reform, making flights quicker, safer and more reliable. crucially these reforms are supported by air traffic controllers themselves. they're the ones that know the systems that they want. they know it better than

anybody. and we have people that don't even call them in the past. but now we call them. i'm also proud to be joined today by passenger advocates, pilot unions, and leaders of airlines and cargo companies who strongly support our new framework and our bidding process and we're bidding ideally to one great company. there'll be many bids. but one great company that can piece it all together. not many companies all over the united states like in the past. when they came time to piece it together, it didn't work. there were all different systems. we threw away billions and billions of dollars. i am very grateful that every former faa chief and chief operating officers and three former transportation secretaries, jim burnley, elizabeth dole and mary peters,

stand with us today. thank you. [ applause ] >> this is an incredible coalition for change all over the room. it's a coalition for change. the leaders of the industry. and it's clear a new plan will improve america's air traffic control system by turning it over to a self-financing nonprofit organization. this new entity will not need taxpayer money. which is very shocking when people hear that. they don't hear that too often. under this new plan, the federal aviation administration will focus firmly on what it does best. safety. a separate nonprofit entity would be charged with ensuring route efficiency, timely service, and a long awaited reduction in delays. our plan will also maintain support for rural communities

and small airports, including airfields used by our air national guard units. great people. and very importantly, air traffic controllers will highly, and this will be highly valued, these are highly valued people. these are amazing people that know the system so well and under our plan they will have more financial security, professional opportunity, and far superior equipment. the best equipment anywhere in the world. there will never be anything like what we're doing. other systems are very good. i won't tell you the names of the country, but we have studied numerous countries, one in particular. they have a very, very good system. ours is going to top it by a lot. our incredible air traffic controllers keep us safe every day, even though they are forced to use this badly outdated system. that is why we want to give them

access to capital markets and investors so they can obtain the best, newest and safest technology available. the new technology, and i've seen it, is incredible. if we adopt these changes, americans can look forward to cheaper, faster, and safer travel. a future where 20% of a ticket price doesn't go to the government and where you don't have to sit on a tarmac or circle for hours and hours over an airport. which is very dangerous also before you land. dozens of countries have already made similar changes with terrific results. and we're going to top them actually by a long shot. canada is an example modernized their air traffic control through a nongovernment organization about 20 years ago and they have cut costs significantly, adopted cutting edge technology, and handled 50%

more traffic and actually far more than that on a relative basis compared to us. a modern air traffic control system will make life better for all americans who travel, ship, or fly. it will reduce costs and increase convenience for every american consumer. and these new efficiencies will produce a huge economic boost for the country and for the one in 14 american jobs that aviation supports. today we are taking the first important step to clearing the runway for more jobs, lower prices, and much, much, much better transportation. america is the nation that pioneered air travel. and with these reforms, we can once again lead the way far into the future. our nation will move faster, fly

higher, and soar proudly toward the next great chapter of american aviation. thank you, god bless you, and god bless the united states of america. thank you. thank you very much. [ applause ] . >> thank you. [ applause ]

>> you're watching the president of the united states announcing his administration will send -- talked about pushing the united states into a new era of air safety and air security. you see the president there in the east room. this part of his infrastructure agenda. let's talk about it in the room.

sarah is in the east room. here with us to share the reporting and insights on "inside politics," molly ball, dan of the "washington post," manu raju, and shannon. this part of the president's infrastructure agenda, but it's a tad odd i guess to see the president in the east room asking congress to do something. they need legislative approval to do this. it's something we were talking before the show this actually is something the president cares passionately about. during the campaign he talked about his own pilot on his trump organization plane talking about how outdated the system is. why is this important? >> it's important to try to get this domestic agenda back on track. health care stalled in congress. tax reform they can't come to an agreement on. infrastructure which, you know, is behind those other two because to do anything substantial on infrastructure as you said, you have to get congress's approval on this and you need their money. but it's some attempt to put a show that we're trying to do something, we're trying to get some points on the board. to the public they don't

necessarily realize that this is going to take congressional approval and it's down the road t shows they're doing something. >> and the idea of selling the public, your flights will be on time, you'll sit on tarmacs less. that's certainly at least on the surface something that would have broad a appeal. the question is you also lose 30,000 federal jobs. and now that you have a republican president and a republican congress, the president is hoping he can get this through. but the republicans had this stall on number four when they tried. >> and they need democratic support. this is one of the things, infrastructure largely, at the beginning of this administration, they thought they could get democratic support. but this is so far you're seeing a fair amount of resistance from democrats. chuck schumer, the top democratic leader has been criticizing this proposal today because it does not do what the democrats want which is to spend a lot more money on infrastructure programs, a lot like the stimulus from 2009. this talks about public/private

partnerships, things that are not built around federal spending. that may make it harder to get it approved through congress. >> the president is going to go on the road this week as well. he's going to go to the cincinnati area to talk infrastructure. where rivers come together at key points in the united states. decaying roads, decaying bridges. the parent making the case, $25 billion cost to the economy. he'll make the same case on the road. but we're also told the actual details of the bigger infrastructure plan are weeks if not months away. so what is the president doing here? >> that's the thing. it's a frestretch to call it an infrastructure plan. it's more to call it a privatization plan. when the president spoke about infrastructure on the campaign tail, he did talk about the crumbling roads and bridges and airports. this doesn't build those things. now, it may be a net benefit for travelers. it may be an improvement to the air traffic infrastructure. but it's not building things. you had the vice president introduce the president as a

builder. you're not building roads and bridges. you're not creating blue collar jobs that make an infrastructure appealing and popular to a lot of people. i think the reason is that you've got to get this plan through congress. republicans in congress are more likely to be on board with something that essentially constitutes deregulation, has been sought by a major industry rather than a big building project. >> but if you're the president of the united states, you're talking about something you think would benefit the economy, something that is personal to you as opposed to other things that we're going to talk about later in the program that many around the president think they would prefer the president to stop talking about those things and actually get out in the country and get -- even washington and talk about things that would contribute to the economy. not russia. not twitter. >> we know he's always cared about infrastructure issues. it's one of the few things he volunteered. i believe as i recall, even on election night, he mentioned infrastructure projects. so it's been kind of a core

principle of donald trump that -- to want to be a biller which he is. this is something that is -- has been going on for some time. i mean, it's not as though this is a brand new idea. the government has been trying to modernize the system. it's been very slow and very cumbersome. it may be in donald trump's mind the best way to jump start it or to get it finish ed is to take t out of the hand of the government. >> when we come back, before he came out in public, the president in private back, yes, twitter including again attacking the mayor of london has his city tries to recover from a deadly terrorist attack. we'll be right back. [ snoring ] [ deep sleep snoring ] the all-new volkswagen atlas.

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welcome back. just moments ago you saw the president in the east room reading from a teleprompter. earlier today before he was out in public, an angry and frustrated president ignoring facts for context to laufnch ne attacks against the democrats, the courts, and the mayor of london even as the mayor deals with the aftermath of the terror attack in his city. these are the words of the president of the united states. you'll be able to find them some day at a trump presidential library. they are archived. official government records. his staff thinks you and we are sill toe pay attention to them. >> this obsession to covering everything he says on twitter and very -- >> that's his preferred method of communication. >> that's not true. >> it happens to be true. let's start with the twitter attack on the london mayor.

at least seven dead and agre48 wound. pathetic excuse by london mayer sadiq khan who had to think fast on no reason to be alarmed. here's what the mayor actually said. again, listen closely for the context of no reason to be alarmed. >> london we'll see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days no. reason to be alarmed. one of the things that police and all of us need to do is make sure you're as safe as you possibly can be. >> the mayor was not saying there's no reason to be alarmed that there has been a terrorist attack. he was telling the people when you see more machine guns, when you see more alarmed police in your streets, don't, alarmed they're out in response to the terrorist attack no. question the president took him out of context but he's not going to concede that point. >> probably not.

he doesn't back down from these kind of statements. this is a grieving city. this is a mayor who's been dealing with multiple terror attacks. this is a tough time for the people of london. and to start a feud with the man who's trying to manage that situation is an unusual thing to do to say the least. >> but not necessarily unusual for donald trump. yesterday i was going back through some of his past tweets and he does have a history and a pattern of using death and tragedy to push his own agenda and to say i'm right, i told you so, and to use the controversy to elevate his message despite how tone deaf or, you know, insensitive is might seem. >> to go back to what kellyanne conway said, that we should not take his tweets seriously, that is shocking for her to say that. the president not only has boosted about how he tweets and that's how he can communicate with the public, these are his words. on top of that he doesn't answer questions. he doesn't have press

conferences. they limit what they say at the daily press briefings. when the president tweets something, it's his statement. >> a different and new way of communication if we went back to the reagan administration or bush administration, but it is an official government record when the president says that. it's the president of the united states. his staff, because they koecan' control him is telling us to pay no attention to the president of the united states. that's not the way it works. >> what they're really saying is pay no attention to the tweets that concern us. as opposed to the tweets that actually deliver the messages that they want delivered. but the tweets are the true and unscripted donald trump. when we saw the president in the white house today speaking as you said, he was tightly scripted. he was on a teleprompter. those words had all been prepared in advance and he stuck to them. that doesn't mean that isn't what he really thinks about it. but what we see in those tweets

is the kind of visceral reaction to donald trump to events as they are unfolding. they are real time. when he was asked right up through the election whether heeche was going to give up twitter he said it was a modern form of communication. >> and he picks a fight with the london mayor. raise the class argument where the president is just wrong on the facts and context of what the mayor said. is that when you get in the fight with a mayor in a grieving city. also undermining his own case at home. he's asked the supreme court to expedite its review of his so-called travel ban. now administration officials don't call it that. but the president tweeting people, the lawyers and the court courts can call it whatever they want but i am calling it what we need and what it is. travel ban. all capitals, exclamation point.

here's his homeland security secretary. >> this is not, i repeat, not a ban on muslims. the homeland security mission is to safeguard the american people, our homeland, our values and religious liberty is one of our most fundamental and treasured values. >> despite what kellyanne conway says at the supreme court, the justices are going to put more weight on what the president says as opposed to what anybody who works for the president says including secretary kelly who's trying to be a good soldier and spin this in a way favorable to the president. if they say don't -- george conway, these tweets may make some people better but they won't help get five votes in the supreme court of the united states which is what actually matters. selli kellyanne conway's husband, an attorney here in washington. >> and someone who was up for and almost took a job in that

office in fact. so he knows -- he he's a very well reported litigate or. what the president is doing is making life more difficult for his own administration on multiple levels. this is only one of the issues where he's doing that. all of the courts that have considered the, to use the president's word, travel ban so far have taken into account the president's campaign rhetoric. what jeff sessions said on the campaign trail, intent matters when the court looks at how to define this action and the courts are going to take into account the president's intent. he's in a lot of ways digging himself deeper when he goes off like this. >> it wasn't just his homeland security secretary. sean spicer from the white house podium said don't call it a travel been repeatedly. as you know from being there. but trump's krcriticizing basically his own staff. >> i thought the most striking

thing was the divide it showed between him and his staff saying that the justice department should have done this. they shouldn't have introduced this watered down thing and we should go to the supreme court and do this. >> he signed it. >> you can tell them what to do in the travel ban. you tell the solicitor general what to do. but it's just this pushes this perception of, you know, the staff trying to protect him and keep the president away from himself. >> to your point, another one of the president's tweet this is morning was the justice department should have fought and should continue to fight for the original. the original travel ban which was later watered down. the original one is what was called clearly by the courts an unconstitutional religious test. again, the president said that days before the supreme court will consider this case. if you are arguing against the administration, yes, you use your law school argumens, but you also just holdup the president tweet and the president himself says he wants this, right? >> this series of tweets today make one think of a government organizational chart in which you have the president and then everything else in the

government and no line connecting up to the president or the president in a sense isolating himself from everything that's being done in his government on his behalf which he's been complicit in. as you said, he signed the watered down version of the travel ban. >> it becomes comic sometimes to see people who work with the president who are loyal to the president who are paid by the taxpayers go on twuelevision wi the white house and say pay no attention to the words of the president of the united states. it's easy to laugh about it. it's easy to make plig holitica. but there's something seriously wrong within this white house when they're saying listen -- or are they saying listen to the president when we're able to coach him torque le, to lead hi protect him with the teleprompter? don't listen to what the president really thinks. >> the problem is when you are president what you say is what you do. words are policy. words are law. words have weight.

this seems to be like trump the businessman, trump the negotiator, trump the deal maker who thinks if you take an extreme position and you come some way in the other person's direction, that should count as a compromise. so he's saying to the court look, i started out over here. i've already come your way. of course, that's not how constitutional law works. it doesn't become more constitutional just because you feel like you made some concessions. the most of the litigation he's been insofar has been business litigation where you are making a deal with the other party and what you say matters less than what ends up in the deal sheet. again, that's not how it works when you're talking about presidential edicts. >> a lot thought the president was getting to where he might have a better chance. i want you to listen. this is another one of the president's aides on television this morning. my colleague trying to ask him pretty clearly the president call its a travel ban. the people pressing the case in court say it's not a travel ban. why the discrepancy.

>> i'm not going to fall into the trap of us being the spinmeister when cnn is one of the greater purveyors of fake news t.'s been the same since the beginning. it's one thing, chris. it's about protecting americans. if anybody out there has a problem with us trying to keep americans safe, then they need to look in the mirror and they need to ask themself whether they are the purveyors of fake news. >> so if you don't agree with the president of the united states or you raise lemgitimate questions about the homeland security system and the lawyers say this and the president says 180 degrees difference, you're purr veying fake news. you're not asking questions in a democracy about your leadership. >> the question was what about the president said on twitter. it was nothing beyond that. it was an effort to side step and runaway what the president is tweeting about. it goes back to your underlying point. what should we listen to coming out of just not the president

but also the white house. if they constantly runaway from what the president is saying and at times sean spicer even said i can't guarantee that everything that i'm saying out of the white house podium is going to be 100% accurate because sometimes i even talk to the president of the united states. so he doesn't know what is true. >> the american people elected donald trump, president of the united states, not kellyanne conway. president's words matter. up next in just days the fbi director may provide an answer to this question. did the president of the united states try to stop or slow the investigation into russian election meddling? ready or not, here i come. ♪ anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part.

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publicly zm publicly dismiss siuggestions - is talk of such collusion just talk or is there proof? this is a big week in washington if you're looking for the big answers james comey testifying before the senate intelligence committee on thursday. >> i want to know what kind of pressure, appropriate, inappropriate, how many conversations he had with the president about this topic. did some of these conversations take place even before the president was sworn in? and i think jim comey deserves to have his in effect day in court since the president has disparaged him so much. >> a day before that on wednesday the same committee will hear from the director of national intelligence and the head of the national security agency. >> there is a lot of smoke. we have no smoking gun at this point, but there is a lot of smoke. but the president also talked about them in terms of asking them to downplay the russian investigation. that would be very concerning to me. >> it is interesting, we're three days away from the comey

testimony, but the town is on edge and there are huge stakes for the president. if the fbi director sits there and goes through his memos and said the president said pledge your loyalty, and yes he asked me if i could drop the investigation into national security adviser michael flynn, if those are the answers we get from director comey, which is what his associates say is the truth, what happens? >> it's an explosive moment, john. we have to go back a long time to think about a moment of testimony in which somebody was going directly against and after the president of the united states on a matter as significant as we're going to have this week with director comey. everybody seems to know what he's going to say, because so much has been leaked already about what he has and what he wants to say. but we haven't heard from him directly. and that moment elevates it well beyond all the stories that have happened so far. i don't know whether there will be any ultimate conclusion from an event like this. there often isn't. but it is going to be very, very

worrisome for the white house almost no matter what he says. >> one of the questions is how much can he say and will it undercut bob mueller, the special counsel's own investigation which presumably is looking into the circumstances around james comey firing. we know that comey and mueller have discussed this. has he set any limits about what he can say? question questions about what the white house may try to do by exerting his executive privilege, questions about whether they can do that. today kellyanne conway would not rule that out. >> let's listen to that. administration officials are careful when they talk about anything. s you ask them just about question and they say they'll talk to the president. here's kellyanne conway. would the president try to say i have executive privilege? because james comey worked for the executive branch, this is a private conversation, i don't

want him to btestify about it i public. >> does the white house plan to assert executive privilege? >> the president will make that decision, but if mr. comey does testify we'll be watching with everyone else. >> i think a lot of people will be watching. a lot of people think there's no way on legal grounds, because the has has talked about it, because he's tweeted about it, because he has publicly had conversations about this, it would be pretty hard to say only i can talk about it, comey can't. >> i'm not a lawyer and i don't understand the workings of executive privilege, so i would not presume to make that judgment. the bigger issue as manu was saying is going to be what director comey feels at liberty to say based on his conversations with bob mueller who presumably in the course of his own investigation wants to keep certain things as part of that. so i think there's -- it's also going to turn into a larger referendum on james comey and his tenure. there are so many questions,

because one thing the president has said that is true is comey was widely disliked by democrats and republicans for different actions he has taken. you can say that's because he proved his independence. but there's going to be a lot of questions about a lot of different things from jim comey's tenure that are going to come up. >> there's some people in the white house who think this might not be catastrophic for them. this may be an opportunity for republicans to try and poke holes in comey's statements, to stay well, if you felt the investigation was being interfered with, why didn't you do something, why didn't you resign, why didn't you say something. this could give the president's defenders in congress a moment to go after comey. so friday the official word was they were reviewing whether or not to use the executive privilege. reviewing it seriously. but -- so legally but also politically. >> my understanding is he is prepared to say i told the president i can't do that. i told the president i would not shut down the investigation. i knew the president was new to washington. i thought he was just getting up to speed on how this works. he's strong willed because of his private business experience.

as long as he didn't go ashd ro me, i was sort of willing to take the hit. that's what i'm told comey is going to say. on the big question, on the advice of his lawyers, he's saying less and less. back on may 18th the president of directly asked the big question. >> did you at any time urge former fib dre former director james comey to back down the investigation -- >> no. no. next question. >> not a lot of wiggle room. no. no. next question. if he is allowed to summarize his memos and his answer is yes to that question, we have a problem in town, don't we? >> we have a big problem. the other aspect of this is not simply what might have been said in those conversations but then the decision to fire james comey and what president trump said after firing to lester holt on nbc when he said he had russia and the russia investigation, he was thinking about that when he

fired comey. so that's what bob mueller is going to have to try to resolve as he waives these issues. >> watch the politics of this. a republican from a district in california that can swing back and forth. listen to his take. right after that we'll get you a democrat from a red state. >> i support the fact that former director comey is coming before the select intelligence committee. whatever direction that director mueller goes, that we just respect the fact that he's a career professional trying to find it. he may go toward trump. he may go forward flynn. we can predict he will. >> what's the big question that you have for the fbi director? >> the question is being asked by west virginia is if you knew or if you thought there was obstruction of justice, why didn't you act on it? >> it's interesting to see the politics.

joe the democrat being cautious saying mr. comey why weren't you more forthcoming. the republican in a swing district sounding much more like a democrat saying hey, if comey s and mueller are on to something follow the facts. >> comey is going to be asked did the president try to obstruct justice. what is his response? does he give wiggle room? does he give the white house cover by saying i don't think so? or does he say up to the investigators. that's going to be a key moment of the hearing and both sides will be talking about that aefdaefd afterwards. >> i suspect we will get a fair amount of that. president trump is a tough talker especially regarding terrorism, but what's he really getting done?

welcome back. one more from the tweet storm. dems are taking forever to include my people. they are nothing but obstructionists. that is misleading. yes, democrats are using stalling tactics. but the biggest reason so many big government jobs are vacant is because the president and his team, some 150 days in, have been so slow to fill them. there are 442 senior government positions for which this administration has not named a candidate including a big position including terrorism and homeland security. the fbi director is a vacancy now. the ts achieve and the national counter terrorism center director. when this one came thup this morning, the president has a point, when he nominates people, the democrats use everything at their disposal to slow walk it,

but on some of the big jobs, it's not the democrats. it's the personnel apparatus that the white house has not named people. this has been a problem from day one. why isn't it getting better? >> the democrats can't stall something if they can't get a name to stall. a few things have been going on internally. there's been a lot of vetting, maybe you can call it extreme vetting to try and really make sure they're getting people who will be loyal to the president and his agenda. that's disqualified a few people who they thought were not in line approximate the president's ideology. you mentioned an fbi director. tha that's walking into a difficult job. so that and the lack of people. and then the people he nominated, a lot of them have big conflicts. they come from the business world. their finances are tied up and they can't get them through the ethics review. >> this is a significant impact. especially if he wants to get

legislation through congress. he needs people to inplement them, to draft the stuff and to push it internally. he does not have those positions filled, he can undercut what they can do without congress. >> right. because you have the big high profile jobs, the director level jobs. a lot of what's miss suggest that second tier that do require confirmation but who run the agency on the day-to-day basis. the deputy secretaries, the assistants, all of the people. in a lot of cases this has also been a result of clashes between the president's cabinet and the president himself where someone like, say, jim mattis at the pentagon wants a certain assistant secretary and it's nixed by the white house and that affects the functioning of the entire administration. >> secretary of state tillerson is traveling. he's in asia. you had the president lecture nato and then pull out of the

paris climate according. listen to rexton when asked is the united states running away from its traditional alliances. >> in terms of addressing those concerns is to travel to the region, to meet with our counter parts and talk about all the issues that are important to them. so i think, i hope, the fact that we are here demonstrates that that is certainly not this administration's view or intention to somehow put an arm -- put it at arm's length the other important allies. >> he used his arms and said that's not our intent, but that's how if you talk to nato allies, if you see the condemnation of the paris agreement, that's how a lot of them feel. >> absolutely. secretary tillerson and secretary mattis can travel the world and make reassuring statements as they do wherever they go and the president of the united states has the ability to undercut that in one tweet or in one speech at nato where he didn't mention article five.

there are any number of examples in which he has in one way or another contradicted what his people are saying. >> another case in which yet the secretary of state is saying listen to me, not my boss. we'll see how that plays out. thanks for joining us. just minutes away from the white house briefing. the deputy white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders will take the podium. wolf blitzer will be in the chair to take you there when it happens.

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hello, i'm wolf blitzer t.'s 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. right now you're looking at live pictures of potters field park in london. a vigile is being held there from the terror attack that claimed seven lives. the police look for possible accomplices to the attack. we're get the latest on the investigation in a moment. we're getting live pictures from inside the white house briefing room. sarah huckabee sanders, the